letters
A REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE
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RE-CONSIDERING URANIA NOTT
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rania Nott’s career certainly deserves praise, but I hope most of your readers got enough practice in critical reading while at Union to take pause at the statement that, after her husband’s stroke, she relayed to the College the “decisions” of a man whose mind was, by her own description, “calm as a summer sea.” She was in a very difficult position, but it seems fair to suggest that, for the good of the College and of her husband’s reputation, after Nott’s first stroke she should—instead of maintaining the fiction that he was still in charge—have guided his fingers in signing one more document: his resignation. Like others who have studied that dark period of Union’s history, I am convinced that Nott’s continuance in office during the six years of his increasing incompetence was among the factors precipitating Union’s long decline in the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s. One can sympathize with Urania’s role but we should not, I think, celebrate it. It is incidentally not true that Urania “established the Nott Trust Fund.” That was done, reluctantly, by the Notts together, several years before his first stroke. It had to be done because Nott was indeed guilty of co-mingling his personal assets with those of the College. Wayne Somers ’61, editor of Encyclopedia of Union College History
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read with interest the story on Herbert Gilder ’56 in the fall Union College magazine. But my eye moved immediately to the map Mr. Gilder was holding. Could this Union College grad be holding a map that another Union College grad made? Well, yes! I made this map in 1995 as part of an exhibit at the ESRI International GIS User Conference in 1995. It was selected and published in the ESRI Map Book, Volume 11, 1996. How it ended up in the Library of Congress, I have no idea. I became interested in environmental issues and the issues of man and nature in Prof. Carl George’s classes and carried the love for environment and mapping to a 32-yearcareer at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as a photo interpreter, map maker and later as GIS manager. I am struck by the fact that, of all the maps Mr. Gilder could have chosen to hold, he chose one made by a fellow graduate! Remarkable. Lawrence L. Thornton, M.S. ’72
A new online community for U Be on the lookout for a new online alumni community designed just for U. Launching soon, UConnect offers: • Enhanced login features for event registration and donations • Easy ways to update your information and mailing preferences • Simple ways to find your friends • Great tools to stay connected to Union’s social media outlets • And much more To take advantage of these free services, make sure we have your email on file. Email: alumnionline@union.edu or call (518) 388-6168 for more information.
CORRECTION Dick Tito ’69 was misidentified in the story, “Retirement reinvented” in the fall 2014 issue.
Winter 2015 UNION COLLEGE
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