Tulane Magazine Spring 2012 Issue

TUlane table talk New Orleans food nourishes the soul.

life in print Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson.

THE MAGAZINE OF TULANE UNIVERSITY

spring 2012

Overstuffed!

Lessons learned, one bite at a time.

the once and future stadium A wistful look at Sugar Bowl Stadium.

PA U L A B U R C H - C E L E N TA N O

UNDER THE BIG TOP Candidates for graduation from the School of Law are entertained and amused by the proceedings during Commencement 2012.

Amid the sprawling expanse of the MercedesBenz Superdome and before the prideful eyes of thousands of family members and friends, the university conferred academic degrees on 2,700 graduates on Saturday, May 19.

In his remarks, President Scott Cowen said that the graduates, like the New Orleans musicians who serenaded them throughout the ceremony, would forever be “part of the rhythm of this city.”

Commencement speaker and alumna Lisa Jackson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, lauded the graduates for coming to Tulane only a couple of years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and thanked them for contributing to the rebuilding of New Orleans through their commitment to public service.

“Have no doubt,” said Jackson, “that what you have done means a great deal to this country in a difficult time.

When people see that this city is able to get on its feet again, when they see that it can emerge stronger and with a sense of accomplishment and community and possibility, they see what it takes to rebuild.”

Shrimp po’boy On the cover: Illustration

by Mark Andresen.

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P R E S I D E N T ’ S

L E T T E R

Outside the Bubble

by Scott S. Cowen Following is an excerpt of President Scott Cowen’s 2012 commencement address.

mark andresen

Our college years are remarkable in the explosion of knowledge, insight and experience that together create a coherent sense of self and personhood. When you chose to come to Tulane and to New Orleans you set into motion a distinctive set of forces, adventures and influences that have shaped who you are today—your character, mind, values and beliefs.

Though your origins are far-flung, today we celebrate your common identity as Tulanians and New Orleanians.

In my many travels promoting Tulane, I often find myself using our saying “Only at Tulane, Only in New Orleans” to denote our iconic status.

What makes New Orleans and Tulane iconic? Historically and culturally, New Orleans is like no other city in the country. And in recent years it has become a unique symbol of resiliency, rebirth and hope. And Tulane, its faculty, staff and students play a role at the heart of this great city.

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TOOTING the horn for graduates Thanks to members of the class of 2012 and others, New Orleans has become the city where care lives.

Though Tulane has been a part of New Orleans for nearly 180 years, there was a time when the average Tulane student—regardless whether he or she was an undergraduate, graduate or professional student—would spend his or her university years within the bubble of campus, learning a lot, making friends and having a good time in the city. This was true whether the student was from New York, Mexico, Kenya or Kenner.

This dramatically changed in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed this great city and our great university. Most of you were still in high school and others of you perhaps were pursuing your undergraduate degree when Katrina hit. But you heard the news of its destruction and you also heard the call to become part of something bigger than yourselves: the rebuilding of an iconic American city. In the last five years alone, we estimate you all have spent approximately one million hours rebuilding this city.

Long before you came to Tulane, long before you were even born, New Orleans was the only American city that could lay claim to its own food, its own language, its own music and its own brand of fun. But it did not have you.

You have taken a one-of-a-kind city and made it all the more unique, diverse and beloved. Because of you, the “City That Care Forgot” has become the city where care lives, where it is born anew and administered to others not as charity but as empowerment.

Not in a few volunteer weekend hours but as an everyday way of life.

Before you came to Tulane many of you had never heard the words beignet, muffuletta and étouffée. Now you call them breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Before you came to Tulane many of you thought a horn was something you blew to get someone out of your way. Now that you are part of the rhythm of this city, you know that a horn can stir the soul and touch the heart like nothing else.

For those of you who are sad about leaving Tulane and New Orleans, I have some good news. You can never really leave us. Or I should say the Tulane spirit and story of New Orleans will never leave you.

My dream for you is that wherever you go in this life you always bring a part of New Orleans with you and whatever you do in this life you do it inspired by the values that were at the heart of your Tulane education.

TUlane C O N T E N T S Guide to Dining A thumbed and annotated Zagat is a souvenir from Becky Fromer’s culinary quest.

See page 14.

2 PRESIDENT’S LETTER Tulane spirit and New Orleans story

paula burch-celentano • po’boy courtesy guy's po’boys

6 NEWs Occupy lessons • A fish named Caruso • Louisiana at 200 years of statehood • Who dat? Emily Watts Card • A city by chance • First African American architect • Smaller portions, no problem • Treatment for retired NFL players • Newcomb pottery Kappa Alpha tyg • Perdew’s physics 12 SPORTS • Cycling club • Sand volleyball debut 30 TULANIANS Cookbook Project • Faculty designated honorary alumni • Awards • Augie Diaz • Kristie Kenney

14 Table Talk For every student, the cuisine of New Orleans presents both an opportunity and a challenge to get to know the city better.

By Nick Marinello

32 WHERE Y'AT! Class notes 37 FAREWELL Tribute: Dr. Lillian Robinson

20 Life in Print Steve Jobs’ biographer is New Orleans native and Tulane Board member Walter Isaacson.

By Millie Ball

24 The Once and Future Stadium Nostalgia waxes as the Tulane community anticipates a new football stadium on campus.

By Ryan Rivet

38 TULANE EMPOWERS Paul Tulane Society • Brinton Family Health & Healing Center • KPMG Professorship • Campaign progress 40 NEW ORLEANS Angus Lind takes a spin on the streetcar

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box scores Before the Sugar Bowl Stadium, football was played at a stadium on McAlister Drive from 1917 to 1925. A scorekeeper perched inside the scoreboard updated scores and times by hand.

y e a h,

y o u

Other stadiums?

I saw the article in the recent [winter 2012] Tulane magazine concerning the planned new stadium. It refers to the new stadium as within about 100 yards of the original stadium; a reference I also found in many places on the Internet. While the new stadium will be about that distance from the “Sugar Bowl Stadium” site on Willow, I thought that there was another stadium before that.

Tulane had played football for about 35 years before the “Sugar Bowl Stadium” was built in 1926.

I doubt that these games were all on fields without stands, especially as the years progressed.

There was a building in the 1950s roughly in the area now occupied by Goldring/Woldenberg Hall, which may have been used for the theater department or possibly for maintenance equipment at that time. The facade of that building faced McAlister Drive and the opposite side of the building had outdoor bleachers. I had always thought that this was a stadium that had existed before the “Sugar Bowl Stadium.” It could just been an amphitheater. I searched the Internet and could find no reference to the playing fields before the 1926 “Sugar Bowl Stadium.”

You surely have access to additional information from the Tulane archives. The entire history from the first game (with probably only a few students along the sidelines) to the new proposed stadium would be interesting reading and would clarify past history.

Robert Planchet, E ’54, ’56 Covington, La.

w r i t e me of New Orleans.

I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Greenwood’s opinion that Phnom Penh is a city that should be explored and appreciated. Altogether a great journalistic piece!

Zara Watkins, NC ’99 New York

You are absolutely correct. Green Wave football games were played at two stadiums on the uptown campus before the “Sugar Bowl Stadium” was dedicated on Willow Street in 1926.

The first stadium comprising wooden grandstands was erected on the quadrangle behind Gibson Hall in 1909.

The second Tulane stadium, a more imposing edifice constructed of reinforced concrete with a stucco exterior, was built in 1917 on McAlister Drive.

It was near the original gymnasium, now the Navy ROTC building. The second stadium’s equipment building was later used for Phoenix Playhouse theater productions.

REPLY TO HARRIS-PERRY I am responding to the article [“In the Public Eye,” Tulane, winter 2012] re Melissa Harris-Perry in which you paraphrase a comment from her column in The Nation. Ms. Harris-Perry allegedly argued that, if President Obama loses the 2012 election, “The loss could be linked to white liberal racism.” Not having read the column, I am assuming that the racism referred to is white against black. If that is the premise, how does she explain the fact that President Obama got elected in the first place? It certainly wasn’t without those same “white liberal racists.”

As a liberal Democrat, I have to say that, while I have been largely disappointed with Mr. Obama’s performance thus far, I am not surprised. He had three years in the Senate as a junior Senator and not much more experience than that. Much as we may dislike it, politics and getting your agenda through has everything to do with your connections and longevity in Congress. Mr. Obama had neither.

Couple that with his incessant reaching across the aisle to the “other side,” who had made it clear even before the inauguration that they would not cooperate with him on any issue, and you have a recipe for stalemate.

If liberals are unhappy with the President’s performance, it is not because of his skin color, but because he has been perceived as having compromised too much on issues that matter to us. Add to that his lack of visibility and reluctance to “sell” his programs, and you have mounting frustration.

Ms. Harris-Perry should try and keep an open mind and stop using the race card to explain every criticism of a member of her race.

It does her and the African American community a great disservice and negates the efforts and intentions of us “white liberal racists.”

Antoinette Auger, Parent ’04 Burlington, N.J.

PHNOM PENH APPRECIATED I really enjoyed the article [“Tidings From Cambodia,” Tulane, winter 2012] by Faine Greenwood about life in Phnom Penh. I was in that lovely city over a decade ago and I was struck by how much it reminded

VIEWPOINT As a nurse practitioner, I am reminded every day of the miraculous intricacy and beauty of the human body. However, no offense to sculptor Mia Westerlund Roosen, but the photograph in Tulane magazine’s

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Winter 2012 issue of her large-scale Baritone near Gibson Quad made me cringe. It is unbelievable to me that the powers that be at Tulane would choose, of all things, a 10-foot and 450-pound-plus foam scrotum to share in the ambiance of the majestic trees and enduring stone of Tulane’s campus. I hope that Baritone makes it departure from campus before I arrive for my 10-year reunion in Fall 2013.

Frankly, I don’t want to have to explain to my family, which also represents the Tulane University classes of 1950, 1977, and 1981, why there is a large set of balls obstructing our view.

Jessica Van Meter, NC ’03 Nashville, Tenn.

WHAT HAPPENED? What has happened to Tulane?

Where is the upstanding, moral, contributory teaching institution revered by my father, my grandfather and me?

It is appalling, shameful, disgusting, and indicative of decline that an otherwise great university would have on its campus an enormous sculpture which even its creator contends depicts male genitalia.

Thomas F. Kramer, M ’53 Franklin, La. SMOKE SCREEN I am quite familiar with the artistic smoke that justifies anything that is vulgar. Baritone is only one more among a million travesties.

W.F.T. Lenfestey, A&S ’46 Tampa, Fla. GIANT AVOCADOES Re the Baritone sculpture now on campus, sorry, but there’s nothing at all sensual about two giant avocadoes. Sensual is the avocado whip that was a staple in the cafeteria in the early ’60s. Do they still have that on the menu? I whip up a batch every month.

Carl Catherman, G ’63 Mifflinburg, Pa. CELL PHONE POLL On page 7 of the [fall 2011] Tulane magazine, there is a poll asking if we sleep next to our cell phones?

I may have missed a formal response page but feel the urge to answer for those of us in the “old age” category of respondents. By way of confession, I sleep with my iPhone. Being an alarm and reading display, it can never be too far away, either hanging on a lanyard or resting near a pillow. The phone has infinitely more functions than direct communication.

My husband is so glad that my

reading light is extinguished forever. Failing eyesight is one of the best reasons for keeping a phone reader handy. If I finish a book at 2:30 a.m., another can be immediately summoned. You should expand the survey to include us old folks. Thanks for the compelling question.

Denise Chenel Daughtry, G ’71 Pensacola, Fla. MIKADO MEMORIES Was just reading the Tulane magazine dated Fall 2011. …

Noticed an article “Who Dat?” about Bryan Batt that mentioned his being onstage at Tulane. ...

Took me back to memories.

I spent years in the Glee Club and acted in the choruses of a number of shows put on by the theater division. It so happened that we were in dress rehearsal for The Mikado

by Gilbert and Sullivan on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, when someone came running in to announce that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor. And there we were, dressed as Japanese actors. (I recall looking down on my garb and thinking of the irony of the scene.) All of this attached our class to WWII in a number of odd, fantastic ways, but most of all I have always advertised being on Tulane’s stage at that particular moment. …

The operetta, by the way, went over quite well when it was presented, if memory is correct.

And for me, the final irony is that I graduated from med school on Aug. 14, 1945, the very day that the Japanese nation laid down its arms, and stopped firing.

Dr. Melvin Mandel, A&S ’43, M ’45 Pacific Palisades, Calif.

KEEP PRINT COMING I am reading the winter 2012 issue, the print copy, and really am enjoying and underlining and thinking. Keep the print copy coming! And thank you! I find every article interesting.

Gayle Maxwell Rosenthal, NC ’67 Miami ipad version of tulane magazine available for free download from the app store.

Check it out!

Drop Us a Line

E-mail us at: tulanemag@tulane.edu or U.S. mail: Tulane, University Publications, 200 Broadway, Suite 219, New Orleans, LA 70118

Letter from The Editor

TUlane M

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Editor Mary Ann Travis

Art Director Melinda Whatley Viles Features Editor Nick Marinello “Tulanians” Editor Fran Simon Contributors Keith Brannon Catherine Freshley, ’09 Michaela Gibboni, ’12 Michael Joe Kimberly Krupa Angus Lind, A&S ’66 Mark Miester, A&S ’90, B ’09 Arthur Nead Ryan Rivet, UC ’02

paula burch-celentano

senior University Photographer Paula Burch-Celentano senior Production Coordinator Sharon Freeman Graphic Designer Tracey Bellina

reflections on a return

We love to hear from our readers.

Amanda Leiker Fagan (NC ’01) sent us an essay that she wrote about her return to New Orleans for her 10-year reunion last fall.

Amanda lives in Sacramento, Calif., now. Her visit to New Orleans, accompanied by her husband, Patrick, and 2-year-old daughter, Katy, involved excursions to local parks that she didn’t even know existed while she was a student at Tulane. She discovered: playgrounds have sprung up all over town!

But, of course, it wasn’t the playgrounds that prompted Amanda to write.

Her trip to New Orleans, she said, made her wish she were “a super-creative, quirky chick who chose her art over responsibility.”

New Orleans “makes you want to paint everything that stands still in robin’s egg blue and take photos of random objects, sideways,” she wrote.

New Orleans also makes you want to eat and hang out with friends. Amanda

sent us a list of things she has learned about the town. Among them, mornings in New Orleans are glorious, and muffulettas are yummier when toasted.

Also, “pecan pie tastes better shared with your best friends, preferably the ones who carried you up three flights of stairs to class in Newcomb Hall after a bad sprained ankle, and especially from Camellia Grill, served by Marvin.”

That a reliable source like Amanda confirms that New Orleans is still authentically lovely and the food here is as scrumptious as ever, or more so, bodes well for the future of this city.

Certainly, New Orleans has had its ups and downs during the past seven years. (Google “Katrina” and “BP”!)

But with smarts and hard work, we draw people back to the city. “I miss New Orleans even more,” wrote Amanda after she arrived home. “Counting down the days until I return, and padding my daughter’s college fund, so I’ll have a good excuse to visit more often, someday.…”

—Mary Ann Travis

President of the University Scott S. Cowen Vice President of University Communications Deborah L. Grant, PHTM ’86 Executive Director of Publications Carol J. Schlueter, B ’99 Tulane (USPS 017-145) is a quarterly magazine published by the Tulane Office of University Publications, 31 McAlister Drive, Drawer 1, New Orleans, LA 70118-5624. Periodical postage at New Orleans, LA 70113 and additional mailing offices. Send editorial correspondence to the above address or email tulanemag@tulane.edu.

Opinions expressed in Tulane are not necessarily those of Tulane representatives and do not necessarily reflect university policies. Material may be reprinted only with permission.

Tulane University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Tulane, Tulane Office of University Publications, 31 McAlister Drive, Drawer 1, New Orleans, LA 70118-5624. spring 2012/Vol. 83, No. 4­­­­

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link to autism When Tulane neurobiologist Ben Hall removed the gene GluN2B from young mice and replaced it with GluN2A, he observed that the mice became significantly less interested in social interaction than normal animals.

In infancy, GluN2B usually dominates neurotransmitter receptors at synapses in the cortex of the developing brain, while GluN2A is found in adult brains. Hall’s findings may shed light on the genetic causes of disorders such as autism.

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BastaYA!

Hey, Occupy Wall Street—what happened? Sixty-seven authors, including Tulane professors Nora Lustig and Eduardo Silva, address this question in The Occupy Handbook (Little, Brown), published in April. Edited

by Janet Byrne, the book includes essays by luminaries such as Nobel economics prizewinner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, financial journalist Michael Lewis and economist Nouriel Roubini.

In their article, “¡Basta YA! Chilean Students Say ‘Enough,’” Lustig, Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics, and Silva, Lydian Professor of Political Science, discuss the 2011 Chilean student movement as a point of reference for how the Occupy Wall Street resistance movement could cause fundamental change. Their co-author is Alejandra Mizala, a University of Chile economics professor.

While Lustig and Silva credit Occupy Wall Street with giving the world the “99 percent versus 1 percent” terminology, Lustig deems Occupy Wall Street more of a “dropout” movement than a focused protest. Similarly, Silva calls for more positive, creative thinking about movement structure and strategy in addition to Occupy Wall Street’s innovative “performance art–style” methods.

They point to the Chilean student movement as a good example of democratic organization and a clear-cut mission. While the students in Chile did not ultimately achieve all of their original goals, their occupation of schools, ritualized mass demonstrations and innovative flash-protests succeeded in the creation of more state-funded student loans with lower interest rates and more financial options for low-income students.

Also, the movement was able to engage a wide section of the Chilean population, with a reported 70 percent of Chileans in support of it, whereas the ambiguity of Occupy Wall Street simply left many people confused about the movement’s goals.

Silva and Lustig conclude that the most feasible victories for Occupy Wall Street could be found in calls for healthcare and tax reform, which Lustig points out were largely (and strangely) absent from Occupy Wall Street rhetoric. The protesters “need to articulate a position,” Silva explains. Until then, Occupy Wall Street will remain on the sidelines at best.

—Michaela Gibboni

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Performance or Protest?

Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park in New York City train in civil disobedience techniques in March.

For years, John H. Caruso, a Tulane ichthyologist and professor of practice in ecology and evolutionary biology, has studied anglerfish.

And now, a newly identified genus of fossil anglerfishes has been named after him.

In the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Theodore Pietsch, University of Washington, and Giorgio Carnevale, University of Torino, bestowed Caruso’s name on the fish.

Caruso anglerfishes were identified through a discovery at Monte Bolca in the Italian Alps, a site of fossils in limestone formed from sediments on the ocean floor during the Eocene epoch, 56–34 million years ago.

“It’s a tremendous honor in systematic biology having a taxon named after you, especially a genus,” says Caruso.

The modern-day relative of the Caruso anglerfish lives in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Anglerfish are toothy and fearsome-looking.

Living up to their name, they entice their prey by angling for other fish.

The foremost dorsal fin spine of the anglerfish is like a fishing pole, an angling apparatus.

“The fish wiggles it in the water and attracts other fishes,” says Caruso.

Then the anglerfish’s second amazing adaption comes into play. “Anglerfish have phenomenally hypertrophied jawbones and a greatly enlarged mouth cavity, and they can open and close their mouths very fast, creating tremendous suction,” says Caruso.

“That makes them extremely efficient ambush predators.”—Arthur Nead

fish type John Caruso shows off an illustration of an anglerfish. paula burch-celentano

julie dermansky (nc ’87)

A Fish Called Caruso

In That Number Louisiana Bicentennial On April 30, 1812, the United States admitted Louisiana into the union.

Louisiana had been a territory of the United States since 1803, when it was purchased from France.

18

Louisiana was the 18th state to be admitted into the union.

60,000

10

The 1802 Enabling Act required that any U.S. territory must have a population of 60,000 persons to qualify for statehood.

10,000

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The population of New Orleans at the time of statehood

The number of flags that have flown over Louisiana: Spanish flag of Leone and Castile (1541), French Fleur-de-Lis (1682), British Grand Union (1763), Bourbon Spain (1769), French Tri-Color (1803), U.S. flag (1803), West Florida Lone Star (1810), Independent Louisiana (1861), Confederate flag (1861), Louisiana state flag (1912).

535

New Orleans was the country’s 7th largest municipality at the time of statehood. (It would become the third-largest city by 1840).

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Driskill Mountain in Bienville Parish, Louisiana’s highest natural summit, has an elevation of 535 feet.

infographic by TRACEY BELLINA

Oakland Plantation in Natchitoches, La.

1714

The year Natchitoches, Louisiana’s oldest settlement, was founded.

By the time of statehood, the population of Natchitoches was 2,000 and included one of the largest and wealthiest communities of free persons of color in the United States.

The number of square miles that constitute the area of Louisiana (the 31st largest state in the Union.)

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photo courtesy newcomb archives

Who Dat ? Credit Card

emily watts card Credit Emily Card (NC ’63, G ’66) with creating the idea of equal credit for women and then drafting and managing the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974. Before that, “women had no financial identities of our own,” said Card in a 1986 interview preserved in the Newcomb Archives.

Card was an assistant to Republican Sen. Bill Brock in 1973 when she authored the

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U.S. federal law that prohibits creditor discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, religion, age, sex, marital status or welfare status.

Card began pursuing equal credit for women after she, as a professional working woman, had applied for a credit card in her own name and was told by the bank, “We do not give credit cards to married women.” To obtain a credit card, she was required to have

her husband sign the application for her.

“The assumption being that women were not capable of handling money,” said Card.

Once the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed, everything in the area of credit “literally changed overnight,” said Card. Women became a prime credit market.

Card has continued a career as a financial consultant devoted to furthering equality for women

in the American credit system.

Among the books she has written are Staying Solvent, a credit guide for women, and The Ms. Money Book. She also hosted the Lifetime network show, “It’s Your Money.” Card (left) is pictured here at the Newcomb College Centennial Celebration in 1986 with Carolyn Shaddock Woosley (NC ’71) (center) and the late Harriet Barry Schupp (NC ’59, G ’70), who died in 2007.

—mary ann travis

hands-on Learning Grover Mouton received an award at the Gulf-South Summit on Service Learning and Civic Engagement in March. Mouton is director of the Tulane Regional Urban Center, providing architecture students with training in urban planning by matching them with city leaders.

adapted by mary lee eggart from marcel giraud, histoire de la louisiane francaise, vol. 3: l'epoque de john law, 1717–1720.

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ImprovCity

What is past is prologue. This sentiment underscores nearly every character, anecdote, fact and figure presented in a richly textured history of early New Orleans written by Tulane historian Lawrence Powell.

Though focusing only on the city’s history up until 1812, The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (Harvard University Press, 2012) goes a long way toward understanding its contemporary idiosyncrasies.

From the sly disregard of authority practiced by the city’s founder to the enjoyment culture nurtured by its Creole gentry to the improvisational wit of the slave population, The Accidental City details the complex, fluid interplay of people from all strata of society as they negotiate the difficult, sometimes impossible conditions associated with establishing and growing a city along the soggy banks of the Mississippi River.

“New Orleans is a place where people have built a culture that is unique simply because of the place and because the people had to learn how to get along,” says Powell. “They shared a culture by building one.”

Central to the story Powell tells are the social relationships among different classes and races.

“History is about stories and about people, and sometimes about how people are exploited or thwarted by larger social forces that they have little control over,” says Powell. “And sometimes they can bend those forces to their own needs.”

Powell admits that when he began working on the book six years ago, his intention was to write the entire history of New Orleans—“from the primordial ooze to Katrina sludge.” But following the storm, when so many Americans were asking why New Orleans existed in such an improbable location, Powell found himself asking the same question.

“I had to drill down. I had to get into the weeds of the question. And then the book started building out from there.”—Nick Marinello

Booker T’s Architect

Bend in the River The geography of New Orleans lends itself to people getting along, posits Lawrence Powell in his history of the city.

tuskegee builder Robert R. Taylor, subject of a book by Ellen Weiss, designed and constructed Tuskegee Institute buildings in the early 20th century.

Robert R. Taylor was the first African American graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology—and the first academically trained black architect in the United States.

But Taylor’s place in African American history extends well beyond his early academic success. Taylor designed and supervised the construction by students of most of the buildings on the grounds of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama at the turn of the 20th century.

Tulane architecture professor Ellen Weiss explores Taylor’s life and work in her book, Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington (New South Books, 2012).

Booker T. Washington, the founder and leader of the Tuskegee Institute, hired Taylor to create, in an ambitious way, a place for African Americans to learn the best practices of the day in farming, education and industry.

“It was the biggest, richest and most developed school for African Americans in the country,” says Weiss.

Washington’s ideology of “self-help” and progressive education for blacks was more radical than he is often given credit for, says Weiss.

Tuskegee was located in the rural South—at that time, a hostile environment for black people. Washington and Taylor were always circumspect about their goals for the design for the Tuskegee buildings. But Weiss’ intuition— and her reading between the lines of the two men’s correspondence—tells her that the majestic columns featured on many of the Tuskegee buildings had a “sheer effrontery” to them.

In all of Western tradition, projecting porticos and grand pillars are symbols of authority. The Tuskegee buildings, designed by Taylor and promoted by Washington, were a societal challenge, says Weiss.

They make the statement: We are equal.

—Mary Ann Travis

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Urban Fantasy Suzanne Johnson, former editor of Tulanian magazine, has published Royal Street, a novel about an apprentice wizard named DJ and her adventures “when Hurricane Katrina destroys the barriers between modern New Orleans and the Beyond.”

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paula burch-celentano

Nerves of Steel

Invitation to Downsize Studies have shown fast-food calorie postings do little to deter diners from overeating. A better approach may be for restaurants to simply ask consumers if they’d like smaller portions, according to a Tulane University study led by Janet Schwartz, assistant professor of marketing in the A. B. Freeman School of Business.

The study in the March Health Affairs found that when servers asked customers whether they’d like to “downsize” starchy side dishes at a Chinese fast-food restaurant as many as a third gladly cut back, saving an average of 200 calories each meal.

“Our goal was to test whether the invitation to downsize a meal component would be embraced by consumers and, importantly, whether the approach would be more effective than a purely information-based approach—in this case, calorie labeling,” says Schwartz.

Schwartz and fellow researchers conducted several field experiments at a single Chinese fast-food restaurant. In each case, servers asked customers selecting side dishes, “Would you like to save 200 calories or more by taking a smaller portion?”

In one scenario, customers were offered a 25-cent discount if they took the downsizing offer. In another, menu calorie labels were prominently displayed in front of consumers as they selected their meals, and in another calorie labels were removed. In all, anywhere from 14 percent to 33 percent of customers opted to downsize portions.

Surprisingly, the 25-cent discount had little impact on downsizing choices and the calorie postings didn’t persuade much either. In fact, significantly more customers—21 percent versus 14 percent—accepted the downsizing offer when calorie information was absent.

Schwartz hopes the study helps restaurants understand that assisting diners to exercise portion control won’t alienate customers. “I think the restaurant industry may find this counterintuitive, but it’s an interesting and easy strategy to implement that could help their customers make healthier choices.”—Keith Brannon

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Alternative to Calorie Counts Janet Schwartz proffers a smaller-than-usual portion of fried rice.

Brain scan The NFL is turning to Tulane doctors to find the right treatment for brain injuries, including concussions, suffered by football players.

During their prime playing years, it may appear that National Football League players are invincible. But the NFL is well aware that later in life, former players may experience neurological and other issues.

To ameliorate potential problems, the National Football League has selected Tulane as one of seven institutions in the country to be part of its Neurological Care Program for retired players.

The program gives former players special access to comprehensive evaluation of brain and spinal function along with an individually tailored treatment plan. Dr. Roger Kelley, chair of neurology at Tulane University School of Medicine, and Dr. Gregory Stewart, medical director of Tulane Centers for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, are leading the program.

“Tulane will utilize staff in neurology, sports medicine, psychology and speech therapy to offer a unique, holistic approach in helping patients recover and effectively manage their conditions,” said Stewart, who began enrolling patients in January.

“Brain injuries, whether sport-related or caused by other events, can have a lasting impact on a person’s quality of life, affecting everything from short-term memory and concentration to interpersonal relationships with friends and family,” Kelley said.

Tulane is the only medical institution in the Gulf South selected to participate in the Neurological Care Program. Other institutions include Inova Memory Center in Falls Church, Va., Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, University of California in San Francisco, University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.—K.B.

Gallery Newcomb Pottery says Sally Main (NC ’80, G ’93), senior curator at the Newcomb Art Gallery.

The base is illustrated with a magnolia, a symbol of purity, sculpted in low relief. Interspersed around the flower are Meyer’s and Irvine’s ciphers, the initials EWM, and the familiar Newcomb pottery markings.

Between the three handles are a triad of different motifs: the Kappa Alpha crest with the banner, “Dieu et Les Dames”—God and the Ladies; the Greek letter Psi, representing the Tulane KA chapter; and the interconnected “TU” for Tulane University. The Psi and TU are both on fields of magnolia branches.

Below each shield in sectioned bands is the phrase “Frates Usque Ad Aram”— Brothers Faithful Unto Death—a Kappa Alpha motto.

There is no record of how many Panhellenic tygs were ordered. Recent auctions of Newcomb pottery have featured smaller versions of the tyg for the Phi Mu and Pi Beta Phi sororities, says Main.

From October 2013 to April 2014, approximately 200 objects created at the Newcomb Art School between 1895 and 1940 will be on view at the Newcomb Art Gallery. The exhibition, “Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb

Pottery Enterprise,” will include ceramics, textiles, metalwork, bookbinding and graphics.

After closing at the Newcomb Art Gallery, the show will tour the nation from August 2014 to May 2016 under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services.

A full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Main is the exhibition curator and lead author of the publication that will include essays contributed by Martin Eidelberg, Ellen Denker, Kevin Tucker, David Conradsen and Adrienne Spinozzi.

—mary ann travis

owen murphy

Bottoms up If members of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity in 1910 were looking for a stylish vessel from which to imbibe, they might have stopped by the Newcomb Art School to place an order for a tyg. A tyg is a threehandled drinking mug of English origin. The tyg pictured here was created as a sample to encourage sales of commissioned pieces of Newcomb pottery.

Dated April 9, 1910, the tyg, made in a buff clay body, was turned by potter Joseph Meyer and decorated by Newcomb craftsman Sadie Irvine (NC 1906, G 1908).

“The bottom of the piece is as interesting as its three sides,”

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Interview John Perdew, Professor of Physics In spring 2011, John Perdew was elected a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. He is a leader in the development of density functional theory, which is now widely used in many fields to calculate fundamental properties of materials.

Who were your childhood heroes?

Thomas Jefferson as a historical figure, and later Euclid as a mathematician.

What is your earliest recollection of being interested in science?

My father was a biology teacher.

He used to bring home strange and interesting animals. In high school, I liked geometry, because I could prove the theorem and see it intuitively at the same time.

It wasn’t until college that I learned that I liked physics better.

If you’re at a cocktail party and someone asks about your research, what do you reply?

Saying that I’m a physicist can stop the conversation dead in its tracks. Maybe I should say that I’m an explorer, which is also true in a way. I’m exploring how to use the electron density to predict on the computer what atoms, molecules and solids can exist, and with what properties.

What do you wish you knew, but don’t?

Lots of things, but most specifically I’d like to know how to include nonlocal or long-range effects into density functional approximations, accurately and starting from the principles of quantum mechanics, without fitting parameters to data.

How far can physics take us?

Far, but maybe not all the way.

—nick marinello

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paula burch-celentano

What do physicists know that others don’t?

They know physics—or at least their own patch of it—better than others. And they know what Richard Feynman called “the pleasure of finding things out.”

SPRING PRACTICE After 15 sessions, head football coach Curtis Johnson declared his team in fine shape. “We had a good spring season, and I was pleased with the progress the team made,” he said. The football team’s first 2012 game is on Sept. 1 vs. Rutgers University.

S P O R T S

parker waters

They say that good things come to those who wait. For the Tulane sand volleyball team, the wait may have been a little longer than expected but the Green Wave picked up the first win for the new program with a 3-2 decision in the second half of a double-dual match against Stetson University on March 14 at the Stetson Sand Volleyball Complex in DeLand, Fla. “I couldn’t be more excited for the girls,” said acting head coach Jaye Loyd, after what would prove to be the only win of the team’s inaugural season. “They deserved this win. I am proud of the progress they have made.”

During the 2012 spring season, the Green Wave sand volleyball team faced more experienced opponents from well-established programs, including Florida State University and Jacksonville University.

Most of the Tulane players are accustomed to indoor volleyball courts (and they play for the Green Wave indoor team), so the transition to sand is a challenge. The size of the court, the size of the ball and strategies for scoring and defending are different in sand and indoor volleyball.

But wait until next year, said Loyd. Team members will be ready. “They are an athletic, smart and talented bunch.”—Richie Weaver

Pedal to the Medal

The Tulane University Cycling Association is a mix of experienced racers and newcomers to the sport, both men and women.

Camaraderie is what makes the group fun, says Jordan Lambert ’07, president of the association. Bike racing is “surprisingly team-focused.”

Team members in the club sport bond with each other as they race together. This spring they traveled to participate in races in Louisiana and Texas. The team is a member of USA Cycling and competes in the South Central Collegiate Cycling Conference, ranking fifth among 21 university teams.

Jordan, who is an MBA student at the A. B. Freeman School of Business, says that he joined the association three years ago out of a desire to take part in intense competition. He competes in category A, the highest collegiate level.

“I like the goal-setting,” says Lambert. “And comparing yourself to others.” He also says that the health benefits are terrific. “I enjoy being in shape.”

It takes eight to 12 hours a week (and sometimes more before big races) of training to improve in the sport. “It takes a lot of discipline—and helps people learn how to manage a schedule,” he says.

Races are typically on the weekends. So team members like Stephen Noya, a first-year biomedical engineering major, attend classes, work and train during the week, juggling their time. While he had competed a limited amount before he came to Tulane, Noya says that he has “progressed a great deal this year, due to the sense of team commitment and the training.”—Mary Ann Travis

© 2012 marc pagani photography • marcpagani.com

Sand Power

Winning Ride Stephen Noya takes a tight corner during the Green Wave Cycling Classic at the lakefront in New Orleans on March 18. Noya won the race, a criterium, on a closed short loop of about a mile.

Mvp Grace Weaver reaches to spike the ball.

Weaver was named the Most Valuable Player for the 2012 Sand Volleyball team.

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Table

Talk For every student, the cuisine of N e w O r l e ans p r e s e nts both an opp ortunity and A chall en g e to get to know the city Better.

by Nick Marinello

Here is a question for those who came to Tulane from some far-flung constituent of the civilized world. When did you realize that you were proverbially no longer in Kansas, that somehow the number of miles you traveled to get here were not exactly congruent with the unfamiliarity of your destination, and that by luck, fate or strategy you had somehow sited your education at an institution located in one of the most idiosyncratic outposts in the country?

Becky Fromer (L ’11) can nail down that moment. In town for a weekend to check out Tulane Law School, where she had been recently accepted, Fromer walked through the French Quarter to get a better feel for the city. A devoted “foodie,” Fromer had a hankering to try her first beignet and made her way to Café Du Monde, only to find a long line of similarly minded folks extending down the block.

Fromer took her place at the end of line, expecting to be there for a while.

“I don’t know why or how,” says Fromer, “but I was the last person in line, and a waiter came up to me and said, ‘Hi, can I take your order from here?’”

Nonplussed, Fromer stammered, “Uh, sure?” even as those in front of her turned around, stunned.

“I got my order of beignets and it was like the gastronomic gods were talking to me,” she says. “I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’m going to school here.”

Welcome to New Orleans, where the rules of the larger world do not always apply and where the pursuit of a humble doughnut can lead to an epiphany about an entire culture.

“Food is such a cultural aspect of any city,” Bowl of Soul says Fromer, who hails from Albany, N.Y., and Janelle Driscoll currently resides in New York City. “It makes a takes a bite of New Orleans culture one city so much of what it is.” spoonful at a time.

During her three years at law school, Fromer

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“Some of the most delicious food comes from establishments that you would not expect delicious food to come from.”

—Becky Fromer

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became determined to mine the cultural aspects of New Orleans, one restaurant, one bite at a time.

Having received a copy of the Zagat guide to New Orleans restaurants from the Tulane Law School as part of its admission package (what other school does that?), Fromer was motivated to wage a systematic assault on the city’s culinary institutions. She set her sights on eating at all 398 restaurants listed in the 2009 Zagat guide, using a highlighter to tick each restaurant as she went along.

“I love lists and I love challenges,” says Fromer, who remembers that roommates would often find her sitting on her bed reading the Zagat as if it were a novel.

“I wanted to go to every place,” she says. “I wanted to eat this entire book.”

And she nearly did. According to her own estimations, Fromer vanquished almost 70 percent of the listings. That would be around 280 restaurants and includes joints as unpretentious as, well, The Joint in Bywater (best mac and cheese in town, she says) to establishments as stylish as Clancy’s on Annunciation Street.

Besides learning that being last in line is not necessarily a bad thing, what else did Fromer learn about the city through adventures in dining?

“That some of the most delicious food comes from establishments that you would not expect delicious food to come from,” says Fromer.

“People tell you not to look at the floors when you go to Crabby Jack’s, but it’s the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life.”

Soul and effort Fromer, who applied to law school after working a few years in the real world—if you can call a stint working in programming for the Lifetime Channel in New York City the “real world”—was a bit older and more knowledgeable of the world than the typical undergraduate and thus likely more amenable to learning about and from New Orleans’ distinct cuisine.

For those students arriving fresh out of high school, it can be more challenging to venture beyond the protective sphere of campus life and penetrate the density of local culture. Still, one of the best ways for a newbie to get to know the city is through its food.

“Our students are initially at least curious, and would like to experience New Orleans and its food,” says Amy George-Hirons (NC ’95, G ’04), lecturer of Spanish and the basic language program director in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. “But unless they have a local guiding them through the process, they are overwhelmed by the range of choices and don’t know where to begin.”

For a growing number of students, George-Hirons in a sense became that local. Having arrived at Tulane herself as undergraduate in 1991, she over the years has developed a side interest in the historical, cultural and popular aspects of food and diet. In 2006, she co-created a course to introduce first-year students to New Orleans cuisine. Cocktails, Cayenne & Creoles: The Myths and Realities of New Orleans Food and Drink is among the catalog of Tulane Interdisciplinary Experience Seminars offered every fall to incoming freshmen.

The seminar is structured around demythologizing New Orleans food, says George-Hirons. “We start the class with a discussion of the students’ food traditions in their own families. Then go out from that to the concept of foodways in the South and then in New Orleans.”

Students sample dishes that George-Hirons weekly prepares and brings to class as well as those from several restaurants around town.

They tour a local rum factory and have a master bartender concoct “mocktails” for them (as most freshmen are well under the drinking age). Ultimately, the students are invited to contemplate what it means for a city to have a food-based identity.

“It was cool to learn how much effort is put into gumbo and how you can really mess up if you mess up the roux,” says Janelle Driscoll, a junior who took the course upon arriving at Tulane from Andover, Mass., in 2009. “It taught me about the soul and effort

that New Orleanians put into their food.”

Did you hear that? An undergraduate is talking about finding soul in the bottom of a bowl of soup. That ain’t happening at MIT. “I didn’t even know what okra was when I first came here,” says Hannah Stohler, a junior from West Hartford, Conn., and also an alumna of the Cocktails, Cayenne & Creoles seminar. “Now I take a lot of pride in being able to say, ‘Oh, I found the best po’boy at the smallest place.’ It sounds silly, but discovering little places is also really cool to me.”

Stohler wishes more Tulane students would “find their way out of what we lovingly call the Tulane Bubble” and venture farther afield.

She recalls a particular evening when she celebrated the birthday of a close friend by dressing up (“cocktail dresses, almost,” she says) and going to Frankie and Johnny’s, a cavernous hole-in-the-wall popular among locals.

“We were being totally goofy freshmen,” she says.

Maybe, but most first-year students are more typically like another of Stohler’s friends who counts the Outback Steakhouse as her favorite New Orleans eatery.

“We get very wrapped up in our own community and sometimes it is hard to take the time and appreciate New Orleans,” says Stohler.

“I think over the years as you move off campus, expand your friend group, participate in service learning or take a class that requires an internship you find whole other aspects to the city that you didn’t even realize. But it takes awhile.”

Next best thing Sorting out New Orleans food can get complicated, after all.

Truck Parade “I didn’t know the extent of all the different Todd Price shows off a types of cuisines,” says Suzanne French, who taco purchased from a spent a couple of years at Tulane as an under- food truck—one of an graduate and received her law degree from army of mobile venues Tulane in 2005. “I knew that it was good, but I that have taken to the didn’t know why it was good. I didn’t know the streets across town since difference between Creole and Cajun, and that Hurricane Katrina. it had amazing Italian food.”

That she was able to sort out the intricacies of local dining, French attributes in part to making friends with locals. “If you know someone in the know, then you can find all the great food,” she says. “Everyone went to Jacques-Imo’s and loved it. And then you are kind of looking for the next best thing after that.”

French had another thing going for her: She likes to eat. A lot.

“I don’t think I’ve ever eaten more than a dozen beignets in one sitting,” says French, who is ranked the No. 4 female competitive eater in the world. Going under the name Suzilla, French, who is an attorney in Houston, has eaten competitively since 2009 and has even taped several shows for the Planet Green Network in which she pits her 120-pound frame against fearsome amounts of food.

(Google “Suzilla: The Mouth That Roars” to see her at work. Future

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Eat Dat Hannah Stohler carries out a meal from Dat Dog, an eatery that purveys everything from kielbasa to crawfish sausage and is popular among students.

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shows are currently being negotiated, she says.)

Despite her love for food, French, unlike fellow law alumna Fromer, does not see herself as a foodie.

“I have no standards,” she says, adding that, in fact, she had to go no farther than Bruff Commons to find excellent dining.

“I loved everything at Bruff,” she says. “The salad bar was amazing.

The pizzas were so good. The themed nights were so much fun.”

Shockingly robust Todd Price is a lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese who partnered with George-Hirons to initially design the Cocktails, Cayenne & Creoles seminar and co-teach it for two years. Price says he has noticed that students seem more willing to sample the culture of the city than they did when he arrived at Tulane in 2004. It’s not a scientifically based determination, but Price hears a lot about his students’ daily lives as they make conversation in the entry-level Spanish classes he teaches.

“We sit around speaking in Spanish about what they do over the weekend,” he says. “There’s more interest in trying things, discovering neighborhoods beyond the Bubble. I think it has a lot to do with the service projects that get them into different communities where they might not go otherwise.”

We Call It ‘Mirliton’ Amy George-Hirons picks a mirliton from her backyard vine. Known as chayote in most other places, the squash is an iconic ingredient in New Orleans cooking.

“If you know someone in the know then you can find all the great food.”

—Suzanne French

Like most things around here, the credit/blame can be squarely seated on the shoulders of the Great Storm of 2005, which among countless other things changed not only how students learn at Tulane but how people dine out in the city. Price, who also regularly writes about dining and drinks for The Times-Picayune, has witnessed a number of shifts in the food community.

“Certainly restaurants have been less ambitious,” he says. “Fine dining has taken a back seat to more casual dining. [Witness the recent openings of student favorites such as The Company Burger and Dat Dog on Freret Street]. And we’ve seen more ad hoc situations, where chefs are opening kitchens inside of bars or food trucks.”

While dining appeared fragile in the period immediately following

the storm, it has in recent years become “shockingly robust,” says Price. “I think it shows the city’s enthusiasm for dining. There is something very deep-rooted in the city with the way in which people support these restaurants.”

Fromer, who knows a thing or two about supporting local restaurants, understands the relationship that people have with food and the places that serve it.

“New Orleanians like no other people have so much pride for their city,” she says, recalling that locals were enthusiastic upon learning about her Zagat ambitions.

“They just love it when other people love New Orleans,” she says.

“Their reaction was, ‘That’s great. What a great way to see the city.’”

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patrice gilbert

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A Life in Print S t ev e Job s’ b i o gr aph er is New Orleans native and Tulane Board m e m b e r Wa lt e r Is a a c s o n .

by Millie Ball

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 11, 2011, issue of The Times-Picayune.

It was a homecoming of sorts at the Jewish Community Center. All 430 chairs were filled, and another 75 to 100 people leaned or sat against the white walls of the auditorium at St. Charles and Jefferson avenues.

Irwin Isaacson, E ’47, was beaming, all 5 feet, 5 1/2 inches of him, hugging and shaking hands before the program began. Looking younger than 86, he was as fit as a retired admiral and spiffy in a double-breasted navy blazer with shiny brass buttons.

“This has been most exciting. I think I’ll keep him,” joked Isaacson that chilly November night. He was referring to the evening’s speaker, his son Walter Isaacson, author of the No. 1 best-selling biography Steve Jobs, about the often difficult, always passionate co-founder of Apple.

Walter Isaacson, a member of the Tulane Board, began his journalism career at the New Orleans States-Item and made a reputation nationally at Time magazine, where he was the magazine’s 14th editor, although he typically says and writes that Time is “where I worked,” leaving off titles.

It’s the same with CNN, where he was named CEO in 2001. And for the Aspen Institute, where he became president and CEO in Think different 2003. It’s a nonprofit group that sponsors semiWalter Isaacson’s biogranars, fellowships, nonpartisan policy programs phy of Steve Jobs is the and conferences emphasizing open-minded latest in an impressive dialogue about current issues. collection of books But Isaacson’s topic this season is Jobs, who about American figures who have had the imagi- asked Isaacson to write about him in 2004, before his first cancer surgery. Neither Isaacson nation and creativity to nor almost anyone else outside Jobs’ family see things differently.

knew he was sick, and Isaacson put him off until Jobs’ wife told him in 2009 that he’d better do it “now.” Why Isaacson? “I think you’re good at getting people to talk,” Jobs told him.

At 630 pages—or 2,575 pages on an iPhone—it’s Isaacson’s fourth single-topic biography, after thick tomes on Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.

Steve Jobs has drawn massive attention, especially after Simon & Schuster moved up its publication to Oct. 24, 2011, 19 days after Jobs’ death. The publicity was enormous; “60 Minutes” devoted 40 minutes to Isaacson talking about Jobs.

A precocious young mind But when you appear in front of a hometown crowd, the tenor changes.

A lot of folks at the JCC knew Walter Isaacson, who was born May 20, 1952, at Touro Infirmary, before he became, well, Walter Isaacson. A few even recalled his toddling days at the JCC nursery school.

These are folks who saw early signs of his quick mind. His first cousin Allan Bissinger, who is two months younger, said: “I was told I would bang on an old family typewriter, and then turn to Walter and ask earnestly, ‘What did I say?’ He always had an answer.”

They knew him as the elder son of Irwin and his first wife, Betsy; stepson of Julanne; big brother of Lee, a computer consultant. As the “most likely to succeed” graduate of the Isidore Newman School class of 1970. As a lifelong friend some still call Wally or Waldo.

These friends speak with admiration about his incredible mind and curiosity, his intelligence—and with laughter about good times.

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Measuring a successful life Some longtime friends were among approximately 100 people gathered outside the Garden District Book Shop in the Rink when he arrived for a midday talk and book signing in November. Isaacson, who is 5 feet, 7 inches tall, leaned forward slightly when he walked inside, wearing his usual room-lighting smile, a dark suit, white button-down shirt and a red tie with a gray fleur-de-lis pattern—from Perlis on Magazine Street.

The attire was the same that evening at the JCC, where he leaned comfortably against the side of the podium, hands often in his pockets, speaking extemporaneously about Jobs’ life, a touch of the South evident in his voice. That event was co-sponsored by Octavia Books.

Octavia donated 20 percent of its sales to the JCC, and an audience member asked if Jobs gave much to charity. It wasn’t public if he did, said Isaacson, although Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell, is dedicated to supporting educational causes.

“He was contemptuous of [Microsoft founder] Bill Gates, saying he was now into philanthropy because he couldn’t make good products,” Isaacson said. “I couldn’t get into his head about that. But to have $8 billion and not go somewhere with it. … ” He shrugged.

To other audience questions, Isaacson said Jobs’ passion for perfection “made me really care about him.” But Isaacson, an avid volunteer who is chairman of the boards of Teach for America and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, and who serves on numerous other boards, said he questioned how successful a life can be when the person isn’t so kind and isn’t involved in his community.

“I don’t think it’s a good way to live. But his team was very loyal to him. People can be inspiring even if they have ups and downs.”

Fighting injustice Between the two New Orleans talks, Isaacson led the way in a gray Toyota Camry rental car to the home where he grew up, a white raised West Indies cottage on Napoleon Avenue in Broadmoor. His brother Lee, 55, still lives here.

Isaacson settled back into a white porch rocker to give the first interview that he had agreed could focus on him instead of mainly his work.

That is, the first one since he was 17 and the incoming student body president at Newman, when I wrote the “Terrific Teens” column for The Times-Picayune.

I handed him a copy of that column, which ran on June 21, 1969,

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david grunfeld/ the times picayune

Stephanie Bruno, a journalist who has known him since they were 5 years old, recalls New Year’s Eve bashes at his Pontalba apartment at 911 Decatur St. She said they’d stick raw oysters on fish hooks and cast them across the street, over the heads of tourists in Café du Monde.

Phelps Gay, L ’79, was a roommate in that sparsely furnished apartment—there was a barber chair left by a previous occupant, States-Item city editor Jack Davis. One night in a smoky bar in Plaquemines Parish, Sign of the Times Gay said, “Walter joined a group of old guys Walter Isaacson signs playing poker and won about five hands in a books at the Garden row, walking out with his wallet bulging with District Book Shop about $1,000. in December after a “We were young and had fun, but we all talk on Steve Jobs. knew Walter was not long for this area,” said Gay, a lawyer.

Bruno said Isaacson has always been self-deprecating, and he fit in with the pols in New Orleans, or with anyone he met. He never brags about what he’s done or who he knows, she said. “But he’ll say, ‘Hold on a sec,’ while we’re drinking cocktails. ‘I hate to interrupt, but it’s [Jordan’s] Queen Noor calling.’”

when he was skinny, with ears that poked through his straightcombed auburn hair.

The column was largely about his efforts to unite black and white, Christian and Jewish students to work together tutoring children growing up in poverty. He thought then that his future might be in sociology or political economics.

The story also reported he had worked on a committee to reopen Audubon Park’s swimming pool, after it had been closed for several years. The pool had reopened two weeks before the column ran.

Handing the article back, he said, “You didn’t mention the pool had been closed because of integration.”

Fighting inequality has been a lifelong passion of his. In American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers and Heroes of a Hurricane, which was published in 2009 and includes autobiographical chapters, he wrote that he became aware of race at 6 years old, when he was in Audubon Park with his cousin Allan and a black housekeeper and her son. He saw a “WHITE ONLY” sign on a carousel and realized what it meant. They couldn’t go on that ride.

“We learned to wonder why,” he wrote.

His hair is now gray, inching toward white, but his brown eyes still conveyed the injustice he felt as he spoke about pre-integration times.

Strength of neighbors His father, who ran an engineering firm that helped design the electrical and mechanical systems of what’s now known as the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and his mother, a real estate broker, were among the organizers of the Broadmoor Improvement Association. Among its aims, said Isaacson, were to keep a racial mixture in the neighborhood between South Claiborne and Fontainebleau/South Broad, with Napoleon Avenue its central street.

“When the hurricane [Katrina] hit, I thought there was a chance New Orleans might not come back,” he said. “I wrote a piece three days later for Time, saying the strength of the city is its neighborhoods.”

Then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco appointed him vice chairman, with Xavier University President Norman Francis, of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

Broadmoor’s first post-Katrina meeting was in this yard. Among neighbors attending were former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu and his wife, Verna—parents of Mayor Mitch Landrieu and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

“What’s most amazing to me is that it’s better here than before,” Isaacson said.

In what ways?

“Just look,” he said, stretching his left arm toward the avenue shaded by oak trees and divided by a neutral ground. Cars drove by out front, and an aging man strolled past the house.

“It’s gorgeous,” he said. “We have the best school in Wilson and

green technology.” A community center is being built. A Boston friend who asked Isaacson how he could help designed the logo and banners stating, “Broadmoor is Back.”

In many ways, it’s still home to Isaacson. He and Cathy, his wife of 27 years, live in an 1803 house in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Georgetown. A graduate of Smith College and Boston University Law School, Cathy Isaacson is active in nonprofit groups in D.C. But Walter, often with Cathy, returns to New Orleans every two or three months.

They named their daughter after his mother, who died 25 years ago.

Betsy Isaacson, a senior at Harvard University, “is very much like my mother: pretty and smart and witty,” he said.

‘I learned if you listen, people will talk’ Isaacson didn’t respond to questions about any troublesome times in his life, and indeed, he does seem to have led a charmed one.

He graduated from Harvard, after summer jobs that included working at the States-Item, The Times of London (he sent clips of his stories about sharecroppers on sugar cane plantations in Lafourche Parish) and as a stevedore on the docks in New Orleans, which he thought would be helpful in his efforts to be a “real writer” rather than a journalist. Writer Walker Percy, uncle of his friend Tom Cowan, was a mentor of sorts.

When he was up for a Rhodes Scholarship for post-graduate study at Oxford, England, Isaacson did the interviews at the Royal Orleans hotel on a break from his job shucking oysters at Houlihan’s, a restaurant on Bourbon Street. He admits being daunted by writer Willie Morris, who was on the selection panel, but didn’t pay much attention to another, lesser-known panelist. Years later, Bill Clinton remembered Isaacson’s answers to questions he had asked.

After his Rhodes study, Isaacson returned to the States-Item, for which he mainly covered City Hall and politics from 1977 to 1979.

But he said he learned an important lesson in journalism on his first newspaper story, which was about the death of a child. Assistant City Editor Billy Rainey told him to go back to talk to the parents when he failed to bring in a photo or personal details about the child.

Isaacson said he told them, “‘If I may, I’d like to know more.’ And for a good hour they talked. I learned if you listen, people will talk.”

People who most interest Isaacson, he has written, are those who have imagination and creativity, and the ability to take a mental leap and see things differently. Or, as Apple commercials said, “think different.”

If Ralph Waldo Emerson’s statement that “all biography is autobiography” is true, Isaacson’s daughter figured out relationships in her father’s books, he wrote in Sketches. She told him Benjamin Franklin was an idealized version of himself, while Albert Einstein was his father, “a kindly, Jewish, distracted humanist engineer with a reverence for science.” Isaacson told me his father “is incredibly nice; that’s the most important lesson I learned from him.”

As for Henry Kissinger, Betsy told him, “You were writing about your dark side.”

So who is the Isaacson family version of Steve Jobs? Isaacson leaned forward, and said that Betsy, who’s now 21, told him, “I worry you were writing about me, a bratty kid who likes art and technology.” He looked up and smiled. “Maybe so,” he told her.

‘A totally interesting dude’ While many historians and some journalists direct their students or pay others to do their research, Isaacson scoffs at that idea. “I do all of my own research. That’s the fun part.”

Jobs gave Isaacson full control of the book and did not read it before his death. As for Jobs’ family’s reaction, Isaacson has a stock answer: “I’ll let them speak for themselves.” Which leads to another question asked at the JCC: Does Isaacson have any regrets about what he wrote? “[Jobs] said to be honest, but I tried to be kind, too,” he responded.

“That was one thing I learned from [being around] him. I wrote about his previous girlfriend,” he said, then hesitated, saying maybe he wrote too

much about Tina Redse. “Maybe that was hurtful to some in the family.”

Isaacson wrote that Jobs married the right woman; however, in the book he quoted Jobs as saying about Redse, “I don’t know that anyone will ever understand me better than she did.” He wrote that Jobs cried one day when talking about her, and said he always regretted that they could not make their relationship work.

Overall, Isaacson said, he thinks Jobs was “a totally interesting dude.

His legacy is the iPad, which will change the textbook industry. It will kill the publishing industry, which will be transformed.”

A deep love for New Orleans As for what’s next on his agenda, he said he’s not sure. He had planned to write a book about Louis Armstrong, but said, “I researched all I could, but still couldn’t get inside his head. Like, was the smile real?”

Then there is the movie. Websites report Sony Pictures paid seven figures for the rights to Steve Jobs. Aaron Sorkin, who wrote scripts for The Social Network and Moneyball, said on the record that Sony has asked him to write the Steve Jobs script. Responding to a post-interview email message about the movie, Isaacson wrote, “The movie talk is premature, and I’m not commenting on it. Sorry.”

What he would like to do, he said that November afternoon, is “write a love letter to New Orleans.” He and trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, a fellow native New Orleanian, have talked about writing together, he said.

“I have the deepest, deepest love for New Orleans,” Isaacson said, looking out across the neutral ground again. “I find it to be an incredible, creative place, a wonderful mixture of people. Every sight and sound here makes my heart race.” © 2011 The Times-Picayune Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Used with permission of The Times-Picayune.

T H E WA LT E R I S A AC S O N F I L E Where he ate last trip home: Antoine’s, Galatoire’s, Vincent’s, Martinique, at the home of James Carville and Mary Matalin Other favorite restaurants in New Orleans: Upperline, Clancy’s. And, “My daughter and wife love Mosca’s.”

Places he tends to visit in New Orleans: Frenchmen Street; DBA; Snug Harbor; Preservation Hall; Perlis.

Also, the pool at the New Orleans Athletic Club, “where I went with my grandfather when I was 5.” His daughter, Betsy, loves the French Quarter, and “has taken the voodoo tours.”

Local board service: Tulane University When he’s not staying at his old home, you might find him: At Soniat House in the French Quarter Books by Walter Isaacson, published by Simon & Schuster:

The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made, co-author with Evan Thomas, 1986

Kissinger, A Biography, 1992

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, 2003

A Benjamin Franklin Reader (editor), 2005

Einstein: His Life and Universe, 2007 American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane, 2009

Steve Jobs, 2011

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The Once

and Future

Stadium Nostalgia waxes as the Tulane communit y anticipates a new football stadium on campus.

by Ryan Rivet, UC ’02

Dressed to the Nines Well-dressed fans enter Tulane Stadium, circa 1958.

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Gridiron Action During the 1950s and ’60s the stadium was packed with Green Wave fans cheering on their team.

When people lose a limb, they often say they can still feel sensations— tickles, itches, pain—decades after it’s gone. It’s called phantom limb syndrome. Nostalgia is phantom limb syndrome of the soul. If you close your eyes, you can almost hear the sounds and smell the odors of those days gone by.

It’s a strange thing. Nostalgia casts on the past a rose-colored light that may not have been there originally. The desire to return to a perceived better or simpler time is more a projection of one’s self than it is an accurate memory of the way things were.

That aspect of revisionism makes nostalgia easy to dismiss, especially in a city like New Orleans that trades on the past. No matter where you go, someone will tell you how good things used to be. But here’s the rub: sometimes they’re right. Sometimes it used to be better.

In December, the Tulane administration unveiled plans to build an on-campus football stadium by 2014. [See “Home Field” in the winter 2012 Tulane magazine.] The idea of football back on Tulane’s campus for the first time in more than three decades made some think about what was: Tulane Stadium, the structure that for many New Orleanians was at once a sports arena, a playground, a meeting place and the center of campus life.

“I grew up basically outside the ticket booth,” says Angus Lind,

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(A&S ’66) who has an accent that rules out the possibility that he’s from anywhere but New Orleans. “My dad and a lot of his friends from the bank where he worked volunteered to sell tickets at the stadium. So, from 5 years old on up, all the way through until I graduated from Tulane, it was a big part of my life.”

Like so many others of his generation, Lind didn’t hang out at the stadium only on game days. He jumped the fences to watch the team practice and acted as though the stadium was an 81,000-seat jungle gym. It was a part of the New Orleans culture, more significant than simply an arena.

“Not only did I go to the games with my dad, later on I would sell programs, I sold soft drinks, I was an usher as a Boy Scout. I went to Tulane day camp, so I was a constant visitor to that stadium,” Lind says.

Growing up in the 2400 block of Calhoun Street, three houses away and literally in its shadow, Diane Banfell considered Tulane Stadium her personal playground. “We would run and skate up and down the ramps,” recalls Banfell, who now works at Tulane as a project assistant in the music department.

A hallmark of nostalgia is that it’s a whole-body experience, memories are not only of events but attendant sensations as well.

“One time, when we won a game against LSU, I was in the Alumni

Game Day Habit A section of school children cheers under the watchful eye of a nun, circa 1950.

Sweet View A Sugar Bowl game from the mid-’70s is observed from above.

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A note from the author Being in my mid-30s, I may well be too young to indulge in full-fledged nostalgia. Yet, both of my parents grew up in uptown New Orleans and so did their parents. I’ve heard stories about what it used to be like around the neighborhood since I was little. I remember those stories about a time I didn’t experience, an era that came to an end before I was born. Can you be nostalgic for something you’ve never experienced?

For many students with no familial roots in New Orleans, Tulane Stadium was nothing more than a black-and-white photo on some tavern wall, or a fish story of epic proportions from “old-timers” telling tales. The place where it seems every resident of the city was in attendance when Tulane beat LSU, or when Tom Dempsey kicked his record-setting field goal for the Saints. But for me, it was another example of how the New Orleans of the past was superior to the current iteration, at least according to the older members of my family.

There is very little to complain about regarding my time at Tulane. I made lifelong friends, met my wife, and returned to New Orleans after almost a decade away, rekindling my love for the city. If there is one grumble I have, it’s that my experience didn’t include football games on campus. I tried to fill that hole. I went to the Superdome, but that was certainly not the same. I visited cousins at that state school 75 miles upriver to see what game day could be like, but always felt like an interloper. There was no pride of ownership in the wins, and no similar despair with the losses. I had nothing vested in the outcome.

The commitment to bring football back to campus seems like further affirmation that New Orleans is on the rise. A reassurance that when I hear those stories about how good it used to be, I know we have the opportunity to see how good it can be again. I am envious of the future Tulane students who will get to walk to games from their dorms or apartments or fraternity houses.

Eventually, I’ll end up one of the old-timers, telling them the way it used to be, but instead of telling them how much better it was, I’ll be telling them how lucky they are now.—R. R.

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House, and we could hear the roar of the crowd at the end of the game,” Banfell says.

If you’re looking for nostalgia at Tulane, a First Sugar Bowl good place to start is the campus barbershop. A souvenir program Tom Davis, or “Tom the Barber” as he’s been commemorates the known since arriving on campus 52 years first-ever Sugar Bowl game. Tulane beat ago, is “old school” personified. In this age of Temple, 20-14. stylists, even his profession is a throwback.

He talks about Tulane Stadium and his early years on campus with a palpable excitement that hasn’t been diluted by the decades.

“I remember when I got here in September of ’59 I got all tied into all that hullaballoo,” Davis says. “You could feel the electricity in the air by Thursday, or at least I could anyway. My feet started wanting to get out there. By Friday my motor was running, and by Saturday, I couldn’t wait to close the doors to the shop so I could go to the game.”

All things being relative, people tend to remember things from their youth being bigger than they really were. If you go back to your childhood home, it’s remarkable how small it can seem. People remember Tulane Stadium being big because it was big—plain and simple.

“I thought it was a monster,” Davis says. “It was a hell of a big place for a country boy.”

“It was huge, but it was always huge. It was huge when I was grown up,” Lind says. “The stadium dominated the campus. It went from Willow halfway to Claiborne, from Audubon Boulevard to Calhoun.”

“I had never seen anything that big before,” Banfell says. “It was right in our backyard and we didn’t realize how big it was or how much it meant to Tulane and the city.”

They all lament the closing and demolition of Tulane Stadium in 1979 and talk about it like an old friend who has passed away. Statements such as “they took a piece of my heart when they demolished the stadium,” don’t come across as hyperbole when you hear them:

These folks are mourning a lost piece of their childhood.

As Tulane is planning to bring football games back to campus, no one is expecting the smaller new stadium to fill the shoes of Tulane Stadium. But there is hope that it will kindle on-campus, game-day excitement.

“We saw it when we went to the baseball superregionals in 2005,” says Charlotte Travieso (NC ’64), director of the Office of Alumni Affairs and executive director of the Tulane Alumni Association. “The atmosphere was amazing. We did tailgating at the Alumni House and there was more around Turchin Stadium. To have alums and students and community members and neighbors and friends and family all together and all excited about one cause—it creates memories and the experiences that people hold onto and they’ll remember.”

Perhaps it can help some reconnect to the university as they walk through campus on their way to a game in the fall.

“That is the whole college game-day experience,” Lind says. “That’s what you see on Saturday mornings when you turn on ESPN. It’s on the campus; it’s not a facility four or five miles away the campus. That’s where the spirit is born. It just gives you a sense of being, instead of going to another building.”

While looking back is apparently inevitable, it’s pretty obvious that recreating the atmosphere of the old Tulane Stadium would be catching lightning in a bottle. But that’s not the point. What’s past is past. Looking forward, getting some of that electricity back on Saturdays in the fall will be enough. And it’s already started. Tom the Barber is getting his motor running again and dusting off the sign that will let customers know he’s headed out to the game.

“This is going to be the best thing that ever happened,” Davis says, sitting in one of the vintage barber chairs in his shop. “If Father Time would leave me around, I’ll go to all the games in that new stadium.”

“ You could feel the electricity in the air

by Thursday, or at least I could anyway.

My feet started wanting to get out there.”

—Tom “The Barber” Davis

Tulane Stadium

-Coming Home-

A new era of Green Wave football is set to begin. The new 25,000-seat stadium will bring home games back to campus from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, where they’ve been played since 1975.

Rick Dickson, Tulane athletics director, predicts that the stadium “will be a catalyst for the resurgence of Tulane football in New Orleans.”

Fundraising and design for the new stadium are well under way, with $45 million raised toward the $50 million project. (An additional $10 million is the fundraising goal to support the Tulane Athletics Fund.) For more information, go to www.TulaneStadium.com.

“Our alumni, parents and friends are counting down the days until the opening of the stadium in 2014,” says Dickson. “There has been amazing support for this game-changing project.”

The stadium will be located where the Westfeldt Practice Facility is now on Ben Weiner Drive between the Reily Student Recreation Center and the Wilson Athletics Center, in the midst of other Tulane athletics facilities on the uptown campus.

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JEWISH HISTORY Mitchell A. Levin (A&S ’67) publishes a daily blog called “A Day in Jewish History”—a collection of historical tidbits and current Jewish events each day of the week. To learn what happened on today’s date over the years, visit thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com.

T U L A N I A N S

paula burch-celentano

Status Change

Pumpkin Seed Connection

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Leafy Green

Adam Aronovitz checks out the local produce at a Crescent City Farmers Market in New Orleans in April. He was in town to train local leaders in the Lower 9th Ward as part of The Cookbook Project.

HONORED FACULTY Left to right: Gene Koss, Ronna Burger and John Perdew

Guillermo Cabrera-Rojo

Everywhere he goes in the world, Adam Aronovitz (TC ’03) looks for ways to turn encounters with local food into teachable moments. He and his wife, Alissa Bilfield, co-founded The Cookbook Project (thecookbookproject.org), a nonprofit organization focused on teaching underserved youth and training local leaders to reconnect to food culture, healthy cooking and the benefits of using local and seasonal ingredients.

Haiti is among the places that The Cookbook Project has been active.

There, “the project focused on empowering youth to take a leadership role in preparing local and sustainable Haitian dishes with an emphasis on nutrition concepts,” says Aronovitz. In Haiti, iron deficiency is a common problem, but pumpkins are plentiful. And pumpkin seeds are packed with iron. Aronovitz and other members of The Cookbook Project showed local leaders at an orphanage how to prepare pumpkin seeds, a tasty treat packed with nutrients.

Aronovitz and Bilfield spent two years traveling in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, India and Haiti as well as Boston, Harlem and New Hampshire to develop and pilot The Cookbook Project. Their goal is “to empower kids to face challenges and to take ownership of their health and the health of their community,” Aronovitz says.

Aronovitz’s work as The Cookbook Project education director is in addition to his job as a middle-school math and science teacher in the Boston public school system.—Fran Simon

Collectively, they have more than 100 years of teaching experience at Tulane. They have seen hundreds of students transformed into alumni. And this year, it was their turn.

Ronna Burger, Gene Koss and John Perdew were designated by the Tulane Alumni Association as honorary Tulane alumni during the Alumni Club Awards ceremony on Feb. 3, 2012, in the Bea Field Alumni House.

Burger, a professor of philosophy and Sizeler Professor of Jewish Philosophy, holds the Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Chair in Philosophy. She has taught at Tulane since 1980. She is the author of Aristotle’s Dialogue With Socrates: On the Nicomachean Ethics.

Koss, professor in the Newcomb Art Department, came to Tulane in 1976 to launch the glass program, and under his guidance the Pace-Willson Glass Studio is now a worldclass facility. He uses steel and glass to create monumental works, some weighing as much as 8 tons. His works are exhibited in New Orleans and internationally, including the International Biennale for Contemporary Art in Florence, Italy.

Perdew, professor and graduate adviser in the Department of Physics, joined the Tulane faculty in 1977. He is a leader in the development of density functional theory, which is now widely used in many fields to calculate fundamental properties of materials. Perdew is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and the National Academy of Sciences. (See “Interview” on page 12.)—F.S.

John K. Payne (A ’77)

Dispatch Augie Diaz

SMOOTH SAILING More than 30 years removed from his days as an All-American collegiate sailor, Augie Diaz (E ’77) is still making waves in the sailing world. Pun intended.

But the fact that Diaz is racing internationally at the highest level of competition isn’t all that surprising, especially when you consider that Diaz has been sailing for almost five decades.

At least once a week, he sails in Miami’s Biscayne Bay. Other times, he’s out on international

waters. Just this year, he’s raced in Italy and Denmark.

The countless hours Diaz has spent on the water have paid off. He is a two-time world champion in Snipe, a class of sailing. In fact, Diaz’s prowess on the seas even earned him a nod as Rolex’s Yachtsman of the Year in 2003.

Life as a competitive sailor can get difficult, says Diaz, who balances his day job as a vice president of sales at Miamibased Med-Lab, a medical

equipment supplier. Yet he still makes time for his passion, fully immersing himself in the sport he was raised on.

“Sailing is rather unique, because you are out on the water competing fiercely with your opponents,” says Diaz, who began sailing competitively after moving to the United States from Cuba when he was 8.

To Diaz, sailing is a sport that is equal parts competition and community.

“It’s not like soccer, where

you have your match, shake hands, and then head your separate ways.

“After a race, you’re all friends and you are going over to the same parties with each other.”

In the photo above, Diaz is the one sitting up high. His crew, who is over the side, is Bruno Prada. Prada is the current World Champion crew and was a silver medalist in the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.—Andrew Clark

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BANANA KING The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, a new book by Rich Cohen (A&S ’90), tells the tale of Samuel Zemurray, head of the United Fruit Co. and a major Tulane philanthropist.

W H E R E

Y ’ A T !

1940s GENE G. CARP (A&S ’42, M ’44) celebrated his 90th birthday in February. After serving in the Pacific theater with the 12th fleet during World War II, Carp completed a surgical residency and received a master’s degree. He has worked in private practice and as a faculty member at University of California–Los Angeles. He has taught a fitness class at the YMCA since 1965 and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2010.

This spring, the Jewish Children’s Regional Service of New Orleans honored GERALD BERENSON (A&S ’43, M ’45) and his wife, JOAN SEIDENBACH BERENSON (NC ’53), along with Dr. Berenson’s sisters, for their commitment to the social service agency. Dr. Berenson is the originator of the landmark Bogalusa Heart Study.

1950s ALLAIN C. ANDRY III (A&S ’56, L ’58) is counsel for Chaffe McCall in the firm’s New Orleans office. Andry is a third-generation banker and has served as Fidelity Homestead Savings Bank’s attorney and chief legal counsel for more than 50 years. Andry is involved in a number of community organizations, including the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corp.

DAVID AUSTIN HART (E ’58) has retired from his most recent career as a professor in the systems engineering department of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. Previously, Hart served 31 years in the Navy. He resides in Carmel, Calif.

EUGENIE RICAU ROCHEROLLE (NC ’58) received the Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fellow Award this spring. One of the chamber trios from her most recently published work is named “Crescent City Connection,” after the bridge in New Orleans. The video of the premiere performance can be seen at www.rocherolle.com.

1960s KATHERINE T. “BONNIE” SONIAT (NC ’64, G ’83) received the Oscar Arnold Young Award for the best book of poetry from North Carolina for The Swing Girl, published by Louisiana State University Press. Poems from her book are featured in the Poetry Council of North Carolina’s annual awards anthology, Bay Leaves. Soniat teaches in the Great Smokies Writing Program of the University of North Carolina–Asheville.

JOHN E. KOERNER III (UC ’65, L ’69, B ’70) is managing member of Koerner Capital, a private investment company, and is an IBERIABANK Corp. board member. In March, Koerner served as chair of the local organizing committee for the 2012 NCAA Final Four in New Orleans.

EDWARD GINGOLD (A&S ’66) was named “Hero of the Year” by the Combined Federal Campaign for the National Capital Area for being the best civilian campaign manager in the area. Gingold has been an attorney for 33 years with the Federal Energy Regulation Commission.

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ALAN H. GOODMAN (A&S ’67) is a partner in the New Orleans office of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, where he practices all types of business litigation.

1970s CHARLES L. O’BRIEN (A&S ’73, M ’77) was one of 12 pediatricians listed in Chicago Magazine’s “Top Docs in 2012.” He also was honored in 2008 and 2010.

HARDY FOWLER (B ’75) reigned as Rex, King of Carnival, this Mardi Gras. Fowler recently retired as managing partner of KPMG’s New Orleans office.

This spring, the Indiana Commission for Women recognized LISA G. JEFF (E ’77), CEO of Indianapolis-based L’Acquis Consulting Engineers, with a Torchbearer Award for her ability to overcome obstacles. After Hurricane Katrina, Jeff left New Orleans and rebuilt her multimillion-dollar company, which now provides mechanical, electrical and civil engineering services to clients in more than 20 states. In 2011, Inc. magazine listed L’Acquis as one of the top 5,000 growing companies in the U.S. Labor and employment attorney MOREY RAISKIN (A&S ’79, L ’82) joined the Orlando, Fla., office of Burr and Forman as a partner. Raiskin has nearly 30 years of experience in labor and employment law, with extensive experience litigating before administrative agencies and in state and federal courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

1980s ERIC H. WEIMERS (E ’80, L ’85) is on the Illinois “Super Lawyers” list as one of the top intellectual property lawyers for 2012. He is a partner with Ryndak & Suri of Chicago.

TOM DESAULNIERS (A&S ’81) writes to say that his boat is named Green Wave in honor of Tulane.

ANDY MILLS (B ’83) is president of Medline Industries, a global medical and surgical manufacturer and distributor based in the Chicago area. Under Mills’ leadership, the company has grown from $1 billion in sales in 2000 to almost $5 billion today, with a global workforce of more than 8,700.

ANDREW McCRAY (E ’84) joined the Utica National Insurance Group of New Hartford, N.Y., as vice president and director of regional underwriting operations. McCray has more than 25 years experience in the property-casualty insurance industry. He resides in Matthews, N.C., with his wife, Elisabeth, and their two children.

JAMES M. SPIRO (B ’84) is managing director, wealth management, in the New Orleans office of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

GIBBY ANDRY (A&S ’86, L ’89) announces the relocation of Andry Law Firm to 828 Baronne St.,

New Orleans. Andry’s practice focuses on clients with crippling injuries and he has practiced before district, appellate and federal courts, and before the Louisiana Supreme Court. Andry has been an adjunct professor of law at Tulane University for the past 12 years. He is the father of four children, all of whom are student-athletes at Isidore Newman School.

ANNA MOD (NC ’86) announces the publication of a new book, Building Modern Houston, part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.

Among other appointments, Mod is a historic preservation specialist at SWCA Environmental Consultants in Houston. She is also a U.S. Masters swimmer and scuba diver.

BRENDA PROFFITT (PHTM ’86) won a 2011 Apex Award for Publications Excellence for Healing Hands, a newsletter for healthcare professionals who work with people experiencing homelessness. After leaving her position as communications director for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council in 2010, Proffitt launched her own freelance writing/editing business, Clarity Communications. She lives with her husband in New Mexico.

THOMAS M. BENJAMIN (L ’87) is with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, where his focus includes business litigation, class actions and complex litigation and gaming law. Benjamin has represented clients in regulatory, permitting and licensing matters before local and state governments.

NANNETTE JOLIVETTE-BROWN (L ’88, ’98) has been invested as the first African American woman appointed to the U. S. District Court in Louisiana.

The development and nonprofit consulting firm of MARY M. GILLIAM (B ’89) has raised more than $50 million for New Orleans–area nonprofits since 2001. For more information, visit www. marygilliamllc.com.

1990s HEATHER GALLAGHER NELSON (NC ’90) joined PeopleResults, a human capital consultancy that helps align people with business objectives. She is based in Dallas, where she lives with her husband, Andrew, and children Juliet, 13, and Santiago, 10. Prior to starting in her new position, the family took a 10-week, 8,000-mile road trip.

Connecticut Law Tribune named LEE HOFFMAN (A&S ’91) one of the “Dozen Who Made a Difference” in the Connecticut legal community in 2011. The publication noted Hoffman’s energy policy recommendations and disaster preparedness work with the governor’s office. Hoffman lives in Windsor, Conn.

BERNADETTE GOMES D’SOUZA (L ’92) became New Orleans’ first permanent family court judge this March. D’Souza has been an adjunct professor of law at Tulane University and a legal consultant in the Tulane Domestic Violence

Dispatch Kristie Kenney Clinic. She is married to Terence D’Souza, a neurologist. The couple has three children.

CHARLES S. BLATTEIS (L ’93), managing member of the Memphis-based Blatteis Law Firm, was named chair of the board of directors of the Memphis branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Among other community involvements, Blatteis serves on the board of directors of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce.

ELLEN WASSERSTROM GILMORE (B ’93) became a shareholder of Greenspoon Marder, a law firm with offices throughout the state of Florida.

JASON TAYLOR WRIGHT (A&S ’93) is U.S. director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, a global partnership of organizations working to fight HIV and build healthier communities. Wright lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Susan Longo Wright, and daughters, Quinn and Avery.

VENESSA FUNCHES (B ’95) was promoted to associate professor with tenure and named head of the Department of Marketing at Auburn University–Montgomery. Funches participated in The PhD Project, an organization that recruits minority business professionals into doctoral business programs. Funches is one of only 164 African American marketing business school professors in the U.S.—most of whom have become professors since The PhD Project started in 1994.

AMANDA GORDON (NC ’97) and BEN KORNBLET (TC ’97) announce the birth of Lily Gene on Aug. 7, 2011. The family, including Chase, 2, lives in the Washington, D.C., area.

ALICE LEVANDOVSKAIA FISHER (NC ’98) and Robert Fisher welcomed twins, Ellen Claire and Andrew Malcolm, on Jan. 12, 2012. Their big brother is Alex, 2. Alice Fisher is a radiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and Robert Fisher is a partner in the labor and employment department of Foley Hoag.

VINCENT ILUSTRE (TC ’98, B ’04) received the 2012 Yvette Milner Jones Award from Tulane University this April. The award, which goes to an outstanding Tulane staff member or administrator, is named in honor of YVETTE MILNER JONES (UC ’92, B ’95), executive vice president for university relations and development. Ilustre is executive director of the Center for Public Service.

TIMOTHY J. SMITH (TC ’98) has received a visiting research fellowship from the Program in Latin American Studies at Princeton University for the fall 2012 semester. While in residence, Smith will work on his fifth book and teach

U.S. Embassy Bangkok, Thailand

PAVEL JANECEK (TC ’94) lives in Prague, where he is co-owner and director of strategy for VVS Czech Elevators, co-owner and head of franchising of My Companion and co-owner and CEO of AGENA Reality.

THAI RELATIONS While preparing for her appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, Kristie Kenney (G ’79) was fascinated to learn some of the history of Thai-American relations.

“It turns out that U.S. President Andrew Jackson presented a sword featuring the symbols of both [countries] to the king of Thailand,” she says. Later, another Thai king offered President James Buchanan elephants to be used for heavy labor in the United States.

Kenney is now working daily to maintain and grow the relationship—a relationship that is not just about being amicable, but about a strong economic partnership as well.

In addition to promoting goods that U.S. companies are manufacturing in Thailand, Kenney says, “I’m also excited about improving business links between the U.S. and Thailand through a program called the Thai-U.S. Creative Partnership.”

The initiative, which was announced in 2010, is designed to identify and connect members of growing Thai industries—like communications technology, photography and film, and clean energy—with corresponding businesses, university programs and resources in the United States.

“My role is simple,” Kenney says. “I bring people together.” Noting one of the more interesting projects she has been involved in, Kenney says, “I participated in a competition that brought together Thai designers with U.S. cotton exporters to promote premium pima cotton materials from the United States.”

Kenney is the first female American ambassador to Thailand. She previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador and to the Philippines, where she also was the first woman to hold that position.—Catherine Freshley

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Recognition Awards W H E R E

Y ’ A T !

a seminar on ethnicity and politics in Latin America. He also is the book review editor for American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association.

STEPHANIE REED TRABAND (L ’98) joined Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman, a Miami litigation boutique, as a partner, where she continues her practice in complex commercial litigation and enforcing creditors’ rights.

JOY WAGMAN KROHN (B ’99) and her husband, Nic, welcomed their first child, Evelyn June, on Dec. 29, 2011. The family lives in Houston.

RHONDA GAGNARD LEOPOLD (NC ’99, G ’00) and her husband, Regan, announce the birth of their son, Rollins, on Feb. 26, 2012. The baby was welcomed home by his sister, Parker Ann. KERRY FOLEY-KESSLER (B ’99) joined Federated Sample in New Orleans as finance manager.

Folley-Kessler was previously district council coordinator at the Urban Land Institute Louisiana.

2000s DENISE LEITNER HANKIN (NC ’00) and her husband, Jonathan, welcomed a son, Ari Jacob, on Feb. 7, 2011. They also are the parents of a daughter, Leslie Jenna.

RYAN LOSKARN (TC ’00) was named chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in late 2011.

TIMOTHY S. MEHOK (L ’01) is a partner at Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in New Orleans.

Mehok’s practice focuses on corporate restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy and related litigation and transactional matters.

ANDY VANDER VELDE (E ’01) and KATIE LEE VANDER VELDE (NC ’02, PHTM ’04) announce the birth of Oliver Andrew on Dec. 17, 2011. The couple also has a 3-year-old son, Samuel. The family lives in Atlanta, where Andy Vander Velde is a software engineer for Interface, a sustainable carpet tile manufacturer. Katie Vander Velde resigned from the Foreign Service with USAID to be a full-time mom.

CHRISTINE TURENIUS-BELL (NC ’02) and Lucas Bell welcomed a daughter, Anja, on Sept. 7, 2011, in California. She joins her brother, Nikko, and two dogs. The family has since relocated to San Antonio and is looking forward to weekend trips to New Orleans.

MICHAEL S. HORN (UC ’02) joined Archer and Greiner as an associate in the law firm’s Hackensack, N.J., office, where he focuses on commercial litigation. Horn is president of the Tulane Alumni Association’s New Jersey Club and resides in Springfield, N.J. TRAN CASSANDRA HUYNH (NC ’02) will complete a geriatric medicine fellowship at Harvard University in June. She plans to move to

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The Tulane Alumni Association celebrated the accomplishments of alumni at the annual awards celebration on April 15, 2012, at the Audubon Tea Room in New Orleans.

The surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Regina M. Benjamin (B ’91) received the Distinguished Alumna Award.

As surgeon general, she provides the public with scientific information to improve health and oversees 6,500 public health officers serving around the world. Earlier in her career, she operated a rural health clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala., a small shrimping village. She had to rebuild the clinic twice after it was destroyed by fire and a hurricane. She has received a MacArthur “genius grant,” the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Benedict XVI, and an honorary doctorate from Tulane.

Dr. Julius L. Levy Jr. (A&S ’54, M ’57), a retired surgeon, received a Volunteer Award. Levy is a clinical professor of surgery and adjunct professor of cell and molecular biology at Tulane.

He is a captain in the reserve division of the New Orleans Police Department and command physician for the National Disaster Medical System. He has served on the governing boards of Tulane School of Medicine, Tulane Medical Alumni Association and the Tulane President’s Council. Levy endowed a scholarship in memory of his father and has supported the medical school’s chancellor’s fund, the Green Wave Club and Summer Lyric Theatre.

Helen L. Schneidau (NC ’67), a marine insurance broker, risk manager and marine insurance underwriter, received a Volunteer Award. She has provided support for more than 20 years to the Middle American Research Institute, Newcomb Women’s Center Library, student scholarships, the Center for Public Service and the Newcomb College Institute. She has served on the Newcomb Alumnae Association board of directors and, with the Newcomb Archives, established a volunteer program to collect oral histories. She received the Newcomb Award for Service and Loyalty in 2001.

Lisa M. Laws (E ’06) received the Young Alumna Volunteer Award. She is a structural engineer at URS, where she has designed bridges for the Illinois Department of Transportation, Union Pacific Railroad and O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Laws is national chapter representative for Women in Science and Engineering of the National Society of Black Engineers. In Chicago, she helped coach the High School Try Math-a-Lon team in physics. She also volunteered with Sisters 4 Science, an afterschool program for middle-school girls, to inspire them to pursue careers in science and engineering.

Temple, Texas, to join the faculty at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, the academic center for the Texas A&M University School of Medicine.

KELLY KENNINGTON (NC ’02) and her husband, Kevin Brandewie, welcomed their first child, Olivia Clarice, in August 2011.

MATTHEW C. CARDINALE (TC ’03) received a master’s degree in sociology from the University of California–Irvine in 2005 and a master of public administration from the University of New Orleans in 2007. He writes, “My dear, missed friend, Dean Jean Danielson,

encouraged me to go into law 10 years ago and she was right.” Cardinale is now applying to law school. Recently, he won a Supreme Court case, as a pro se litigant (with no attorney). Secret votes are now banned across the state of Georgia as a result of Cardinale v. City of Atlanta.

PAUL PITTS (L ’03) is a partner with the international law firm Reed Smith. Pitts counsels clients on healthcare regulatory law and is located in the firm’s San Francisco office.

ANNE ELIZABETH MORGAN (NC ’05) married Christopher Rodrigue on Dec. 30, 2011, in New

HEALTHY PICKING Megan Nuismer (PHTM ’10) leads the New Orleans Fruit Tree Project, which identifies trees in the community and deploys volunteers to pick excess fruit from the trees. Satsumas and other locally grown fruit are donated to needy families.

F A R E W E L L Orleans. The wedding party included MAURA ROSENBLIT (B ’05), SARAH RUGGERIO DRENNAN (NC ’05), SOFIA CURDUMI PENDLY (NC ’05, PHTM ’08), DANIELLE HORSTMAN CAPILLA (NC ’05) and KATHLEEN SPARKS (NC ’05). The couple lives in New Orleans where they are completing residency training in obstetrics and gynecology in the Ochsner Health System.

AIMEE HAYES (G ’06) starred as Blanche DuBois in Southern Rep’s staging of A Streetcar Named Desire this spring. As artistic director of Southern Rep in its 25th season, Hayes is focusing on a number of projects, including new play development and the Ruby Prize, an annual $10,000 new-play award for a female playwright of color.

Meredith beers (NC ’07) is a Congressional Fellow on Women and Public Policy at the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C. She is working in the office of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) on issues of chemical plant security. In internships, she prepared the emergency response guide at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and fitted respirators on first responders.

JOSEPH R. HUGG (L ’07) is an associate in the New Orleans office of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, where he practices in the labor and employment section.

Mariana zanotti (’07) and adam martinez (E ’03) were married on May 21, 2011, in New Orleans. In the wedding party were Audrey Meyn Smolik (’07), Beth Bender (’07), Kady Van Hook (NC ’06), Marianne Cain Franz (NC ’06), Gerardo Galdamez (E ’06), Craig Guitreau (B ’03), Mark Jaeger (E ’03), and mihnea dobre (A ’09). Zanotti Martinez is a program coordinator for the University of New Orleans Innsbruck International Summer School, and Martinez is a project engineer at Tidewater Marine.

2010s KELSEY MEEKS DUNCAN (L ’10) joined Flanagan Partners as an associate in the New Orleans– based law firm, where she practices in the areas of commercial litigation and appeals. Among her community activities, Duncan is working with Louisiana Appleseed to ensure that homeless children have access to public education.

RACHAEL JEANFREAU (L ’11) is an associate in the New Orleans office of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, practicing in the areas of commercial litigation and labor and employment law.

KEVIN MORGAN-ROTHSCHILD (’11) is chief financial officer of the New Orleans–based urban agriculture development company Aquaponic Modular Production Systems, which debuted the first aeroponic farm in the city. melissa hew (’11) is also on the AMPS team. The company’s pilot program of recirculating farming is at Hollygrove Farm and Market. Recirculating farms use clean, recycled water, instead of soil, to grow food.

GILBERTO PAOLINI, professor emeritus of Spanish, of Easton, Conn., on March 3, 2012.

V. FRANK CAREY JR. (M ’46) of Hernando, Miss., on Dec. 16, 2011.

KEARNY Q. ROBERT SR. (E ’34) of Daphne, Ala., on Feb. 19, 2012.

ALBERT T. FECHTEL (M ’46) of Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 27, 2012.

GLADYS HUEY DROUILHET (NC ’35) of Baytown, Texas, on Jan. 23, 2012.

LOIS CHALONA HAWKINS (NC ’46) of Metairie, La., on Dec. 20, 2011.

NITA DALY BORDELON (NC ’36) of Opelousas, La., on March 9, 2012.

RAY HIMEL (A&S ’46) of New Iberia, La., on Jan. 31, 2012.

KATHERINE DONNEL BUCHANAN (NC ’36) of Prescott, Ariz., on Oct. 27, 2011.

JOHN B. RICE (M ’46) of Florence, Ala., on Dec. 25, 2011.

W. WALLER YOUNG JR. (A&S ’37, L ’39) of Pass Christian, Miss., on Jan. 24, 2012.

SARA CAMPBELL WEST (SW ’46) of Huntsville, Ala., on Dec. 27, 2011.

CAROLINE COATES SPILLER (NC ’38) of Greenbrae, Calif., on June 26, 2011.

JAMES H. WETZEL (B ’46) of Baton Rouge, La., on Feb. 19, 2012.

MAUNSEL W. HICKEY (B ’39, L ’42) of New Orleans on Jan. 30, 2012.

EMMETT C. WROTEN (B ’46) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 7, 2012.

H. ANNE PLETTINGER (NC ’39) of Baton Rouge, La., on Feb. 9, 2012.

STANLEY M. BRESSLER (B ’47) of Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2012.

GERARD M. DILLON SR. (L ’41) of Covington, La., on March 11, 2012.

RALPH W. JUNIUS SR. (A ’47) of New Orleans on Dec. 23, 2011.

HELEN ROBBERT KLOOR (UC ’41) of Franklinton, La., on Jan. 13, 2012.

KENNETH G. NIX SR. (M ’47) of New Orleans on March 17, 2012.

HARRIET WHITE ARCHBOLD (NC ’42) of Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, on Feb. 12, 2012.

ROSEMARY CARRERE PALFREY (NC ’47) of Baton Rouge, La., on March 21, 2012.

MARY HACKETT CUMMINS (NC ’42) of New Orleans on Jan. 3, 2012.

JOYCE HUFF WATTS (NC ’47) of White Plains, N.Y., on Jan. 25, 2012.

MICHAEL H. BAGOT (A&S ’43, L ’48) of New Orleans on Feb. 25, 2012.

HARRIET LANDRY DOLAN (NC ’48) of Ponchatoula, La., on March 22, 2012.

CHARLES W. FRANK JR. (E ’43) of New Orleans on Dec. 27, 2011.

BENNIE ELLENDER JR. (A&S ’48) of Metairie, La., on Dec. 23, 2011.

MARIA-LUISA AJUBITA FRANKLIN (G ’43) of New Orleans on March 17, 2012.

CHARLES A. KOEHLER JR. (L ’48) of Raleigh, N.C., on Jan. 11, 2012.

FRANCES CONNELY SOUTH (NC ’43) of Houma, La., on Sept. 4, 2011.

ROBERT M. MOORE (B ’48) of Washington, D.C., on Jan. 17, 2012.

ELKANAH G. BURSON JR. (M ’44) of Dothan, Ala., on Jan. 22, 2012.

LUTHER HILL WALLER JR. (E ’48) of Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 12, 2012.

THOMAS A. FROMHERZ (E ’44) of New Orleans on March 12, 2012.

HAROLD J. DALIO (E ’49) of Metairie, La., on Jan. 21, 2012.

KATHLEEN D. MIZE (NC ’44) of Chula Vista, Calif., on Oct. 26, 2011.

ORLANDO A. EASTERLING JR. (A&S ’49, L ’51) of Benicia, Calif., on Aug. 8, 2011.

O. M. OTTS JR. (M ’44) of Mobile, Ala., on March 13, 2012.

STUART D. FARBER (A&S ’49, M ’53) of Atlanta on Feb. 25, 2012.

LOUIS J. ROSENBOHM JR. (E ’44) of Slidell, La., on Feb. 8, 2012.

LYLE J. GARITTY JR. (A&S ’49) of Joppa, Md., on Dec. 11, 2011.

CHARLES F. WASSERMAN (A&S ’44, M ’46) of Metairie, La., on March 17, 2012.

THOMAS Z. GREEN (E ’49) of Lafayette, La., on Dec. 4, 2011.

F. LEE BEETS (B ’45) of Shawnee Mission, Kan., on March 18, 2012.

FREDERICK MILLER GUICE (A&S ’49) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 25, 2012.

RALPH E. COMPAGNO (E ’45) of Mobile, Ala., on March 13, 2012.

RICHARD H. HAASE (B ’49) of Port Saint Lucie, Fla., on Feb. 5, 2012.

VAL C. MOGENSEN (A&S ’45) of Newbury Park, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2012.

ALTON A. LANDRY (E ’49) of Metairie, La., on Dec. 12, 2011.

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FOOTBALL COACH Vince Gibson, who led the Green Wave football team for three seasons, from 1980–82, died in New Orleans on Jan. 10, 2012. Gibson had a 17-17 record at Tulane. “The best victory I ever had,” he said, was the 31-28 Green Wave defeat of Louisiana State University in 1982. Gibson’s Tulane team also beat LSU in 1981, 48-7.

F A R E W E L L

CHARLES J. LUGENBUHL JR. (A&S ’49) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 6, 2012.

GEORGE T. SWAIM JR. (L ’53) of Manteno, Ill., on March 16, 2012.

ROLAND A. STURDIVANT JR. (E ’59) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 20, 2012.

BILLY J. McEVER (A&S ’49) of Oklahoma City on Feb. 16, 2012.

JERRY R. BAILES (M ’54, PHTM ’62) of Texarkana, Texas, on Feb. 27, 2012.

A. WALLACE CONERLY (M ’60) of Terry, Miss., on Jan. 10, 2012.

HERBERT R. MELCH JR. (A&S ’49) of Fort Myers, Fla., on Dec. 10, 2011.

RICHARD JOHN BATT JR. (L ’54, G ’71, ’75) of St. Louis on Feb. 3, 2012.

BARRIE C. HIERN SR. (A&S ’60, M ’63) of Rome, Ga., on Feb. 15, 2012.

CLAY J. PINNER (E ’49) of Pearl River, La., on Dec. 28, 2011.

NATHANIEL J. CHESNUT JR. (B ’55) of New Orleans on Feb. 1, 2012.

JOSEPH J. LAFRANCA JR. (E ’60, ’62) of Metairie, La., on March 8, 2012.

SAMUEL SANDERS III (A&S ’49) of New Orleans on Nov. 7, 2011.

ANN LINGAN DISSEN (NC ’55) of Houston on Feb. 26, 2012.

ANGELIN KIKAS LATOUR (NC ’60, G ’66) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 21, 2012.

EDWARD M. SIMMONS (A&S ’49) of Avery Island, La., on Jan. 28, 2012.

E. THOMAS FORD (B ’55) of Port St. Joe, Fla., on March 13, 2012.

JUDY SHARP COBB (NC ’61) of Metairie, La., on Dec. 18, 2011.

MARTHA CHANDLER TOMLIN (SW ’49) of Milledgeville, Ga., on Jan. 23, 2012.

RAYMOND J. MAYERHAFER (B ’55) of Abita Springs, La., on Feb. 22, 2012.

THOMAS K. KIM (G ’61) of Abilene, Texas, on March 12, 2012.

EMILE T. VACANT JR. (B ’49) of Metairie, La., on March 25, 2012.

JOHN C. MCDONALD (M ’55) of Shreveport, La., on Dec. 31, 2011.

STANLEY N. ROSENBAUM (A&S ’61) of Boston, Ky., on Nov. 29, 2011.

EDGAR A. WHITFIELD (A&S ’49) of Milton, Fla., on Feb. 20, 2012.

JOHN L. NIKLAUS (E ’55, G ’61) of New Orleans on Jan. 18, 2012.

LYNN E. HICKMAN SR. (M ’62) of New Orleans on Feb. 19, 2012.

EDWARD A. CHMIELINSKI (E ’50) of Midlothian, Va., on Oct. 17, 2011.

BENJAMIN J. ERICKSEN (B ’56) of New Orleans on Feb. 2, 2012.

GEORGE C. STOHLMAN (M ’62) of Tampa, Fla., on April 23, 2011.

THOMAS R. DRUHAN JR. (E ’50) of New Orleans on Feb. 10, 2012.

JOHN B. FLOOD (M ’56) of Flowood, Miss., on Jan. 29, 2012.

J. ANTHONY WEIR (L ’62) of Cambridge, England, on Dec. 13, 2011.

RICHARD B. FOX (E ’50) of Metairie, La., on Nov. 20, 2011.

JOHN J. WEIGEL (L ’56) of New Orleans on Jan. 29, 2012.

WILLIAM J. CARR JR. (M ’63) of Gulfport, Miss., on Dec. 22, 2011.

JOYCE HARPER MEARNS (NC ’50) of Pass Christian, Miss., on Jan. 26, 2012.

LESTER G. BRIWA JR. (A&S ’57) of Metairie, La., on Dec. 30, 2011.

JOHN B. EDERINGTON (M ’63) of Vicksburg, Miss., on Dec. 10, 2011.

MARGARET CRAIG SANDERS (NC ’50) of New Orleans on March 24, 2012.

ERNEST D. CORTE JR. (A&S ’57) of Fairhope, Ala., on Jan. 19, 2012.

FRANK L. FAUST III (A&S ’63) of Metairie, La., on Dec. 15, 2011.

EMASUE SNOW (M ’50) of Springfield, Mo., on Jan. 3, 2012.

JOHN S. MATHERNE (E ’57) of Crawfordville, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2012.

JAY H. HARTMAN (G ’63) of Allentown, Pa., on Dec. 18, 2011.

HENRY D. WATKINS (A&S ’50) of San Marcos, Texas, on Feb. 13, 2012.

CORNELIA CABRAL QUINN (UC ’57) of Lafayette, La., on Feb. 28, 2012.

FATMA M. HELMY (G ’63) of New Orleans on Feb. 13, 2012.

RUTH-ELLEN NOETZEL HOFFMAN (NC ’51) of Waynesville, N.C., on Jan. 5, 2012.

GRACE MERRITT TALBOT (NC ’57) of New Orleans on March 26, 2012.

GEORGE D. OECHSNER III (A&S ’63) of New Orleans on March 12, 2012.

DONALD G. JOYCE SR. (A&S ’51) of St. Paul, Minn., on Feb. 26, 2012.

CLINTON C. AUBERT (A&S ’58) of Baton Rouge, La., on Feb. 8, 2012.

JAMES A. BARTON III (L ’64) of Covington, La., on Feb. 19, 2012.

WILLIAM A. BOX (M ’52) of Satsuma, Ala., on Jan. 28, 2012.

FRED BATEMAN (A&S ’58, G ’65) of Athens, Ga., on Jan. 10, 2012.

MYRA I. GULLEY (SW ’64) of San Antonio on March 22, 2012.

HASKELL COHEN (G ’52) of Belchertown, Mass., on Jan. 19, 2012.

WILLIAM R. CORBIDGE (B ’58) of Mandeville, La., on March 22, 2012.

CLIFFORD J. HOUSER JR. (M ’64) of Pearl River, La., on Jan. 7, 2012.

LAURA MATHIS STRAHORN (SW ’52) of Baton Rouge, La., on Jan. 22, 2012.

WILLIAM D. KING (A&S ’58) of The Sea Ranch, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2011.

JOHN E. MCKENZIE JR. (A&S ’64) of Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2011.

FRANK P. TAGLIARINI (A&S ’52, M ’55) of Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 19, 2011.

CHARLES K. NULSEN JR. (G ’58) of Springfield, N.H., on Dec. 10, 2011.

JOHN T. PARKER (L ’65) of New Orleans on March 19, 2012.

ROBERT A. TREMANT (A&S ’52) of Houston on Dec. 9, 2011.

SEYMOUR P. BLANK (G ’59) of Miami on Feb. 6, 2012.

CERES BOEIRA BIRKHEAD (NC ’66) of Yukon, Okla., on Dec. 30, 2011.

ROBERT ADER (A&S ’53) of Pittsford, N.Y., on Dec. 20, 2011.

TYLER E. COOMER (M ’59) of Pittsburg, Kan., on Feb. 3, 2012.

JOSEPH W. DAVENPORT JR. (UC ’66) of Theodore, Ala., on Jan. 29, 2012.

ANTHONY J. DILEO (UC ’53) of Baton Rouge, La., on Dec. 19, 2011.

WALTER T. MIYAMASU (A&S ’59) of Huntington Beach, Calif., on July 12, 2011.

RONALD F. HANN (PHTM ’66) of Washougal, Wash., on Oct. 21, 2011.

ARTHUR S. SAMUELS (M ’53) of New Orleans on Feb. 27, 2012.

LEOPOLDO M. SEMBRANO (L ’59) of Port Orchard, Wash., on Jan. 8, 2012.

ELLEN MAYO HARBERT (G ’66, SW ’71) of Big Pine, Calif., on March 8, 2012.

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Tribute Dr. Lillian Robinson

STACY ARI ROBACK (M ’66) of Minneapolis on Jan. 20, 2012.

W. WOODROW STEWART (L’ 66) of Gainesville, Ga., on Jan. 9, 2012.

RONALD M. LABBE (G ’67, ’74) of Lafayette, La., on Nov. 9, 2011.

DAVIS P. RICHARME III (UC ’67) of New Orleans on Feb. 14, 2012.

LEONARD N. BOUZON (A&S ’68, L ’71) of New Orleans on March 6, 2012.

LARRY L. NAGY (UC ’68) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 28, 2012.

GENE MARCO OWENS (G ’68) of Bethesda, Md., on Dec. 25, 2011.

ELLEN L. CRAIG (G ’69) of Wells, N.Y., on Dec. 18, 2011.

MARIETTA DEL FAVERO (NC ’69) of New Orleans on Dec. 13, 2011.

NELSON C. LONGNECKER (A ’69) of Hunt, Texas, on Dec. 6, 2011.

SANDRA HOLMAN MCFARLING (UC ’69) of Corpus Christi, Texas, on Feb. 2, 2012.

GEORGE P. PLAKOTOS (E ’71) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 10, 2012.

TOM L. TRUMBLE III (B ’71) of New Orleans on Feb. 28, 2012.

DENIS M. GUILLOT (A&S ’72) of Goose Creek, S.C., on Dec. 24, 2011.

JANET MALLORY HARDER (G ’73) of Raleigh, N.C., on Jan. 5, 2012.

OLIVIA PALAFOX KEETH (G ’73) of Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 11, 2011.

LOURDES BLANCO ARMBRUSTER (G ’74) of Metairie, La., on Feb. 13, 2012.

MARY T. BURNS (G ’74) of Grand Coteau, La., on Dec. 14, 2011.

DIANA CALHOUN CARROLL (SW ’74) of Covington, La., on Feb. 14, 2012.

AUGUST J. FLEURY III (G ’74) of New Orleans on Jan. 17, 2012.

MARVIN G. MINER (G ’74) of Zillah, Wash., on Nov. 6, 2011.

JAMES M. McCARVER (B ’74) of Harrisburg, Pa., on Oct. 11, 2011.

ANTHONY A. MALIZIA JR. (A&S ’75) of Riverdale, Ga., on Aug. 11, 2011.

MICHAEL F. KORF (UC ’76) of Mount Prospect, Ill., on Jan. 5, 2012.

DONALD A. SCHEXNAYDER (M ’76) of New Orleans on Dec. 28, 2011.

tulane university archives

EUGENE H. LILLIS JR. (E ’69) of New Orleans on Jan. 7, 2012.

CHILD-CENTERED PHYSICIAN In the fall of 1973, I was a first-year medical student at Tulane taking an elective in Children With Chronic Medical Illnesses.

The faculty member in charge was Dr. Lillian Robinson (M ’42). She was the first child psychiatrist I had ever met.

Most of the course consisted of making visits to Children’s Hospital, which was in those days a rehab hospital for children with orthopedic, neurologic and other chronic conditions. On Wednesday afternoons, the students taking this elective interviewed a child assigned to us and later “presented them” to Dr. Robinson. This was heady stuff for those of us buried in Gross Anatomy, memorizing the origin, insertion, innervation and action of the muscles of the back.

In those days, I was interested in pediatrics, but her inspiring introduction to understanding the child as a person and the disease state as an experience had a powerful effect on me.

Lillian Robinson died on March 19, 2012, at the age of 93. She had moved to Seattle more than a decade ago to be close to her family. She was a faculty member at Tulane from 1967 to 1988, and she served as chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from 1981 to 1985.

Trained as a psychoanalyst, Dr. Robinson was active for many years in the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, serving as president from 1983 to 1984. Throughout her years at Tulane, Dr. Robinson consulted to a number of community agencies, and she served as president of the Louisiana Council of Child Psychiatry and the New Orleans Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, as well as secretary of the Louisiana Psychiatric Association. She is remembered by her colleagues and trainees as a caring and dedicated physician.

—Dr. Charles H. Zeanah Jr. (A&S ’73, M ’77). Zeanah is Sellars-Polchow Professor of Psychiatry and director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tulane School of Medicine.

ARTHUR W. BOHMFALK III (A&S ’79) of Key West, Fla., on Nov. 10, 2011.

MARIE GIRLING LECKERT (G ’80) of McComb, Miss., on March 6, 2012.

ELIZABETH HEWLETT HAHN (NC ’83) of Richmond, Va., on Aug. 31, 2011.

DAVID A. KLINE (M ’83) of Studio City, Calif., on Feb. 6, 2012.

LEONARD K. NICHOLSON (E ’85) of Metairie, La., on Jan. 19, 2012.

STEVEN M. BELL (L ’88) of Kissimmee, Fla., on Feb. 23, 2012.

LISA J. BERTMAN (NC ’89) of Owings Mills, Md., on Jan. 24, 2012.

ROBERTA DAVIS DIKEMAN (NC ’89) of Dublin, Calif., on Feb. 15, 2012.

NAOMI SCHAUB BARENBERG (PHTM ’90) of

Paradise Valley, Ariz., on Feb. 17, 2012.

ANDREW J. BREITBART (A&S ’91) of Los Angeles on March 1, 2012.

CHRISTINE GIUSIO CHADWICK (NC ’92) of Charlottesville, Va., on Jan. 29, 2012.

SIDNEY A. MILLS III (UC ’92) of New Orleans on March 4, 2012.

KARI NOEL EGGE (PHTM ’93, G ’00) of Stillwater, Minn., on Jan. 28, 2012.

MARGARET SCHOEN GRACE (UC ’96) of New Orleans on Jan. 31, 2012.

MORGAN B. HAYES (B ’96) of Charleston, W.V., on Dec. 22, 2011.

JENNIFER BRIGHTWELL (G ’05) of Fort Collins, Colo., on March 18, 2012.

CRAIG GREBE (’07) of Bay City, Texas, on March 22, 2011.

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football at home Tulane has raised $45 million toward the Home Field Advantage campaign to build an on-campus football stadium and increase support for the Tulane Athletics Fund. The first home game in the new 25,000-seat Tulane Stadium is scheduled in fall 2014.

T U L A N E

E M P O W E R S

After Hurricane Katrina, Sherry and Alan Leventhal said they knew the recovery of Tulane University would be essential to the survival of New Orleans. “We realized that if Tulane went down, so would New Orleans,” said Sherry Leventhal (L ’77), who was honored March 15, along with her husband, at the 2012 Paul Tulane Society ceremony.

The Leventhals were among 31 individuals and organizations inducted into the society in recognition of their total gifts of at least $1 million to the university. A distinguishing feature of the 2012 inductees is that many have given to support Tulane’s efforts to engage in the social and economic welfare of New Orleans, including in the areas of health care and public education.

For example, after the storm, the ExxonMobil Foundation partnered with the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives to create AdvanceNOLA, which is preparing 300 high school students for advanced placement courses.

Also, the Libby-Dufour Fund made its largest gift to support the new Ruth U. Fertel/ Tulane Community Health Center and Brinton Family Health & Healing Center. (See “Wholly Healthy,” this page.)

Cleland Powell (A&S ’70), treasurer of the Libby-Dufour Fund, said that donors are not the only ones excited about what Tulane is doing in New Orleans. “Students want to come here because they believe in community service,” he said.—Michael Joe

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Wholly Healthy The Brinton Family Health & Healing Center is the perfect capstone to the late Mary Jane Deere Wiman Brinton’s lifelong commitment to supporting health and education, said her son and daughter-in-law, Bill and Gerry Brinton. They spoke during a recent tour of the facility, which is located on the second floor of the Ruth U. Fertel/Tulane Community Health Center on Broad Street in the Mid City neighborhood of New Orleans.

Bill Brinton said of Tulane, “You have taken the vision and made it happen. I can see this center serving the community’s needs in a variety of ways, and we are as excited as you are about that.”

The center offers comprehensive medical and behavioral health care to children and adults in one setting, regardless of their ability to pay, fulfilling Mary Brinton’s desire to empower, through holistic treatment, the well-being of the New Orleans region.

Mary Jane Brinton, a great-great-granddaughter of steel plow inventor John Deere, was drawn to help the New Orleans region after watching news coverage about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effects. She asked Bill and Gerry Brinton to investigate on her behalf the most effective way to help the people of the Gulf Coast. In October 2010, shortly before her death, she established the Brinton Family Health & Healing Center The Brinton Center includes a legal clinic for people suffering from medical-related issues and spacious community meeting areas for activities ranging from diabetes education to yoga classes. The center’s outreach programs are focused on strengthening the workforce by creating a pipeline for future healthcare professionals and educating students from local high schools, community colleges and Tulane.

That mission distinguishes the center as a neighborhood and regional resource for training community health workers who are passionate, thoughtful and culturally sensitive, said Dr. Eboni Price-Haywood, coexecutive director of Tulane Community Health Centers. “If we don’t teach the next generation of community health workers, there won’t be one,” she said.—Kimberly Krupa

Healing Center The Brinton Family Health & Healing Center opened to the public in April. It offers medical, legal and alternative health services as well as community health job training.

recognition and thanks President Scott Cowen addresses the Paul Tulane Society on March 15.

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Community Investors

The Ledger

On the Books While at Tulane to talk to students this spring as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series, John Veihmeyer, chairman and CEO of KPMG, announced plans to establish the KPMG LLP Professorship in Accounting at the A. B. Freeman School of Business.

Veihmeyer said, “Professorships like this allow universities to attract and retain outstanding faculty who understand deeply the needs of the public accounting profession.

“Likewise, maintaining strong relationships with accounting professors and faculty at ‘schools of choice’ is critical to our mission.”

KPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors.

KPMG partners, retired partners and employees, supported by matching gifts from the KPMG Foundation, together have pledged $150,000 over five years to support the teaching and research of an accounting professor at the business school.

Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School, said, “We are delighted to receive this generous investment in the future of accountancy education at the Freeman School. KPMG has always had a strong orientation toward scholarship.

“This gift will enable us to continue to produce top-quality accounting research as well as prepare an increasing number of students for careers with KPMG and other prestigious accounting firms.”

Accounting is a growth area for Freeman.

The school has plans to hire three new tenured or tenure-track accounting professors and has signed agreements with Xiamen and Zhejiang universities in China to offer master of accounting programs for Chinese graduate students.—Keith Brannon

82% THE GOAL $100 million is the total goal for the Tulane Empowers campaign.

THE TALLY As of March 31, 2012, the campaign had received $81.9 million toward the total goal.

81.9

of Goal

$

MILLION

raised, to date

money raised

Overheard “My family and I have long recognized and appreciated the vital role that Tulane University has played and continues to play not only in this city, state and country, but in our lives and in any successes that we might have achieved.”

—Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr., A&S ’56, L ’61 Wiener, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge, and his family have pledged $2 million for Tulane Law School. He was among the latest Paul Tulane Society inductees on March 15.

“Tulane is doing things that can have great impact beyond this community here. I think that is what is so exciting about what is taking place.”

—Alan Leventhal Leventhal and his wife, Sherry Leventhal, L ’77, have helped support the Tulane Community Health Centers. They were inducted into the Paul Tulane Society.

“It’s the little things you do eight times a day that I think define your reputation as an individual and how trustworthy you are.”

—John Veihmeyer Veihmeyer, chair and CEO of the global accounting firm KPMG, shared his views on principles for success and the global business environment in a talk on campus on Feb. 13. He also announced a pledge of $150,000 to establish the KPMG LLP Professorship in Accounting at the Freeman School.

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ANGUS LIND A 1966 graduate of Tulane, Angus Lind spent more than three decades as a columnist for The Times-Picayune.

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N E W

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21 Tons of History

by Angus Lind My wife and I hopped on a “Red Lady,” one of the red, riverfront streetcars, in front of the Hilton Riverside Hotel. We were barely able to get on— it was packed with a crowd of boisterous tourists wearing shorts, hats and sunglasses—standing room only—headed to the French Quarter Festival to party.

The Red Ladies run from the Morial Convention Center to Esplanade Avenue, providing convenient and cheap travel along the Mississippi River from the Warehouse District to the back of the French Quarter.

Before we hit Canal Street, one of the passengers up front near the conductor asked, “Could you let us off at Bourbon Street?” I gave my wife the “Can’t wait to hear this answer” look. But the conductor had been down this road before.

“Sir, this train doesn’t make left turns. We’re kinda stuck on these tracks, and they don’t exactly let us hang a left to Bourbon. But we’ll get you as close as we can to where you’re going.”

The locals on board couldn’t help but chuckle; you just don’t see a lot of streetcars making 90-degree turns.

It turned out that that particular group was meeting friends at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop for Bloody Marys, so the conductor let them off at Dumaine Street.

Full disclosure: We were headed to the Dumaine stop for exactly the same reason, only a different destination—Tujaque’s on Decatur Street.

About an hour later, we were strolling to Woldenberg Park to hear some music, and as we approached, another Red Lady rumbled by. They are the

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DESIRE-ABLE RIDE

There are currently three active streetcar lines in the city.

(Two will get you to Bourbon Street.)

nouveau streetcars. (Never, ever call them trolleys in this city.) They began service in 1988, and three of them are the vintage 1923 Perley Thomas streetcars—the same type that are used on the historic olive green St. Charles Avenue line, which began operation in 1834 and is the oldest continuously operating street railway in the world.

At their peak, as many as a dozen streetcar lines crisscrossed the city. In the 20th century, however, the city slowly— and misguidedly—converted most of those lines to bus routes. Nevertheless, the city’s romance with streetcars has never ceased. You see them during the Christmas holiday season wearing their greenery and bows. You see them (well, at least one) at the start of the Carnival season jammed with the costumed and masked members of the Phunny Phorty Phellows Carnival organization. This zany group climbs on a St. Charles streetcar at the Willow Street car barn and takes a ride downtown on Twelfth Night (Jan. 6) to celebrate the start of the Carnival season. You also regularly can see streetcars loaded with kiddies for a birthday party, balloons flying from open windows.

What is charming about the St. Charles line is that it takes you past everything from Tulane University, antebellum homes and a seemingly never-ending canopy of live oaks to watering holes like The Irish House and The Avenue Pub to Lee Circle, the skyscrapers of the CBD and, eventually, Canal Street—once the main shopping area for the entire area and still the gateway to the French Quarter.

Waiting at a streetcar stop, you not only hear the electric motor and the clanging of the bell of an approaching streetcar, you can feel it as it draws near. These cars weigh about 42,000 pounds, not including the passengers, so they move the earth.

As kids, my pals and I would occasionally put a penny or two on the streetcar tracks, then step back across the avenue from the stop and wait for the streetcar to flatten the pennies. Flatten them they did.

Soon there will be a new streetcar line along Loyola Avenue, where the newly renovated Mercedes-Benz Superdome will host the 2013 Super Bowl. And one day that line will be connected to the St. Charles line and possibly extended along the North Rampart and St. Claude Avenue corridor to Elysian Fields Avenue.

A city that once forsook streetcars in favor of buses is in the process of coming full circle.

Back to the future.

homecoming 2012 Helluva Hullabaloo premier auction and party supporting tulane student-athletes Friday, november 2 6–8:30 P.M. Lavin-Bernick Center, First Floor

november 2–3 WAVE ’12

Homecoming Game

All-Alumni Reunion Party Friday, november 2

tulane vs rice Saturday, november 3

6–9 P.M. Lavin-Bernick Center, Second Floor Great food, music, fireworks and pep rally Concert on the Quad Celebrating reunions of the Classes of ’62, ’67, ’72, ’77, ’82, ’87, ’92, ’97, ’02, ’07, ’12

Mercedes-Benz Superdome Kickoff at 2:30 P.M. Tailgating begins at 11 A.M.

Updates and more events: http://tulane.edu/homecoming

TUlane M A G A Z I N E

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