Ursinus College Magazine Fall 2019

URSINUS M A G A Z I N E

CELEBRATING

VO LU M E #1 2 7 | FA L L 2 01 9

Ursinus Magazine is published seasonally three times a year.

Copyright © 2019 by Ursinus College Editorial correspondence & submissions: Ursinus Magazine 601 E. Main Street Collegeville, Pa. 19426 610-409-3000 ucmag@ursinus.edu

DEAR READERS,

CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Tom Yencho tyencho@ursinus.edu MAGAZINE EDITOR Ed Moorhouse emoorhouse@ursinus.edu CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dominic Monte dmonte@ursinus.edu GRAPHIC DESIGNER Erica Gramm CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ISSUE Photography: Ben Allwein ’18, Dan Z. Johnson, Nicole Hope Matthews, Dominic Monte, David Morgan and Jim Roese Editorial: Geoff Gehman, Mary Lobo ’15, Steve Neumann and Susan Tuttle MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD Abbie Cichowski ’10, Mary Lobo ’15, Mark Ouellette, Rosemary Pall P’12, Pamela Panarella and Jennifer Meininger Wolfe URSINUS COLLEGE PRESIDENT Brock Blomberg SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT Jill Leauber Marsteller ’78 P’18 ONLINE MAGAZINE (URSINUS.EDU/MAGAZINE) Erin Hovey ’96 CAMPAIGN NEWSLETTER Jacqueline D’Ercole, Kristin Maag The mission of Ursinus College is to enable students to become independent, responsible and thoughtful individuals through a program of liberal education. That education prepares them to live creatively and usefully and to provide leadership for their society in an interdependent world.

Happy birthday, Ursinus! As you know by now, 2019-20 marks the college’s 150th anniversary, an occasion I’ve been looking forward to since my first days as president in 2015. And while we’ll spend a lot of time looking back and reflecting on our history, I want to make sure we’re also looking forward, because this anniversary is as much about our future as it is about our proud past. We’re riding incredible momentum built on the seven goals of our strategic plan; we’re rounding out the largest comprehensive campaign in our history; and we should be proud of what we continue to achieve as an innovative leader in the liberal arts. By staying true to our liberal arts legacy while simultaneously defining our future, we’re earning the recognition among our peers that we have long deserved. And I sincerely thank you for helping to make that happen. I hope you enjoy this anniversary edition of Ursinus Magazine, the first in a series of three issues that will help celebrate our 150 years. I’m looking forward to celebrating with you throughout the year. Here’s to 150 more years!

BROCK BLOMBERG

President

“

This anniversary is as much about our future as it is about our proud past.

”

CONTENTS URSINUS ROOTS

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This fall, the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies in Trappe, Pa., celebrates Ursinus’s history with a special exhibition. Walk through time with alumna Lisa Minardi ’04.

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A COMPLETE HISTORY [ABRIDGED]

Professor of Theater Domenick Scudera’s play casts current Ursinus faculty and staff as key people throughout Ursinus history in a fun, fast-paced look at the college’s founding.

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TWO DECADES OF CIE Ursinus faculty share their favorite texts from the college’s flagship first-year student experience.

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CELEBRATING 150

In the first of a three-part series, Ursinus Magazine looks at some of the more contemporary figures who defined the college, as well as those whose work is reflective of college’s mission.

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ON THE COVER

THE ARTIST’S WAY

THE BERMAN AT 30

Ursinus Magazine is marking the sesquicentennial anniversary of the college with three commemorative issues that showcase the unique ways the community is celebrating its history, while also reflecting on its legacy and the people who have contributed in innumerable ways. This collage represents just some of those people.

Former professor and chair of fine arts Ted Xaras has a unique perspective on Ursinus history, having painted the portraits of many past presidents and leaders.

As Ursinus celebrates its 150th anniversary, the Berman Museum is turning 30. Directors past and present, Lisa Hanover and Charlie Stainback, offer a retrospective.

THE GATEWAY

A Tribute to Athletics Legends

A TOP NATIONAL LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE U.S. News and World Report has again included Ursinus among its top liberal arts colleges in the nation, ranking it 82nd on its annual list, up eight spots from 2018. The publication annually provides numerical rankings and lists to help students narrow their college search. This year, Ursinus was also named a top innovative school and a best value school by U.S. News.

PATH TO A GRADUATE DEGREE Ursinus graduates now have a direct path to pursue a master’s or doctoral degree at University of the Sciences under a new agreement between the two institutions. It allows Ursinus students to enter one of 12 graduate programs at USciences upon successful completion of their bachelor’s degree. “With growing interest in our health and exercise physiology program and in physical therapy and occupational therapy graduate study, this agreement opens up exciting new possibilities for those pursuing careers in the sciences,” Ursinus Dean Mark Schneider said.

THINKING LIKE SCIENTISTS Ursinus is one of eight institutions that have collaborated on an inventive new biochemistry curriculum designed for lab courses at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels. The BASIL (Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Lab) curriculum, developed in part by Rebecca Roberts, an associate professor of biology, has been published and is publicly accessible online for any institution to incorporate into their science lab classrooms. The National Science Foundation-led effort aims to get students to work across disciplines and transition from thinking like students to thinking like scientists, Roberts said.

COMMONS TO PROUDLY SERVE STARBUCKS Our new community gateway, the Commons, will soon be open to members of our campus community, including alumni and their families, and our neighbors in Collegeville and beyond. The new social hub will proudly serve Starbucks coffee and will carry a full line of Starbucks beverages, both hot and cold, in addition to many other amenities. While it will officially open in January, a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place in April. Visit ursinus.edu/commons for updates.

(second from top) Photo courtesy of USciences.

TWO LEGENDARY FIGURES in Ursinus College athletics history—Adele Boyd ’53 and Bill Racich—were honored during special Homecoming and Family Weekend dedication ceremonies on September 21.

Boyd, who passed away last January, made a $1 million gift for the installation of a brand-new AstroTurf 12 field surface at Eleanor Frost Snell Alumnae Field. She also left an additional $150,000 to serve as a keystone to the next phase of capital athletic projects from Ursinus’s campus master planning process.

Boyd coached the Ursinus field hockey team for 17 years, which included 16 winning seasons. She guided the Bears to three consecutive runner-up finishes in the AIAW Tournament during the late 1970s, as well as the Eastern College Athletic Conference title in 1983.

She played on the U.S. national team from 1959-67, serving as captain for the second half of that tenure and traveling to Great Britain, Jamaica and Germany on international tours.

“Adele loved Ursinus,” Director of Athletics Laura Moliken said. “She knew that sports meant opportunity for women. Opportunity for all of us to play, compete, travel and to learn and experience new things. This beautiful facility enables us to continue Ursinus’s fine tradition of winning, competing and having wonderful experiences with our teammates.”

The wrestling room next to Helfferich Gym in the Floy Lewis Bakes Center was dedicated in memory of longtime coach Racich, who passed away last September. It is now named the William Racich Room for Wrestling Excellence. Additionally, Moliken announced that Will Abele ’61 and his wife, Joan Abele, will endow a fund to support a full-time wrestling coach at Ursinus.

Moliken said Racich’s wife, Jules (above right), was his “righthand assistant” and together “they supported every wrestler who came through this program.” The Abeles have named the fund for Jules Racich.

Bill Racich coached the Bears for nearly four decades, ranking first in wins among all men’s single-sport coaches ever to serve at the college, as well as fourth on the NCAA’s all-time list for all divisions. Under his tutelage, Ursinus captured 11 conference championships. He coached 56 conference champions in addition to 17 All-Americans and two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans. Five of his wrestlers won the prestigious Chris Clifford Award, while six others were named Outstanding Wrestler at the conference championship meet.

“Once Bill Racich was your coach, he was your coach for life,” said the Hon. Al Augustine, a longtime friend of Racich. “He was an authoritative person that could show love, and that’s the most important trait a teacher or a coach could have.” (above left) David Morgan/Stylish Images, (above right) Jim Roese

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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THE GATEWAY

Tracing our ROOTS FROM ITS FOUNDING IN 1869 to the present day, Ursinus College has had deep roots in the local Pennsylvania German community.

That history is celebrated in a very special exhibition, “ROOTS: Ursinus College and the Pennsylvania Germans,” on view until Dec. 31 at the new Center for Pennsylvania German Studies at the Dewees Tavern on Main Street in neighboring Trappe.

The exhibition was curated by Lisa Minardi ’04, executive director of The Speaker’s House, home of Frederick Muhlenberg and once used as an Ursinus dormitory. Minardi says, “The seed for this project was planted in 2002, when I was a relatively new Ursinus student and began working at the Berman Museum of Art. I cataloged the museum’s Pennsylvania German collection and studied its 125 or so fraktur for my distinguished honors thesis in museum studies; this was a self-initiated major that Ursinus encouraged me to create, in addition to my history major. It's a dream come true for me to turn this into an exhibition and catalogue in conjunction with the college's 150th anniversary.”

She sat down with Ursinus Magazine to talk more about the historical exhibition.

What makes the centuries-old Dewees Tavern the perfect place to showcase the history of the area?

The oldest part—we think—dates to the 1740s, then it was remodeled around 1800 and expanded again in 1820 or 1830, into its tavern usage.

It was restored for the country’s bicentennial. It’s the longtime headquarters of the local historical society and we were looking for an updated, modernized use. We conceived this idea of creating a Center for Pennsylvania German Studies as a way to put the Trappe area, its history and the Muhlenberg family into a bigger context. The tavern was built as a gathering place, so what better use than to make it a gathering place today?

What inspired you to curate “ROOTS”?

We want to do a changing exhibition here every year. When thinking about what we could do for the inaugural one, I realized it would be perfect to celebrate Ursinus’s 150th anniversary by bringing its Pennsylvania German history to life.

What aspects of that history do you find most interesting?

In reading some of the writings by former Ursinus professor Bill Parsons, he talked about how more than 80 percent of the Ursinus student body was Pennsylvania German well into the 1900s. That really struck me. You think of schools like Haverford or Swarthmore as Quaker schools, but Ursinus really has this Pennsylvania German past that isn’t always talked about. It ties in beautifully with [Ursinus founder John H.A.] Bomberger and the bigger story.

(above) Ursinus College stock certificate, issued 1873. Ursinus College Archives.

What is unique about Pennsylvania German culture?

How does the history of the college tie into the exhibition?

As a historian who looks at material culture and the tangible legacy of a people, I’ve always been fascinated with Pennsylvania German folk art.

These people decorated literally everything. If it held still, they were going to put a tulip or a heart or a parrot or something on it!

The cover of the “ROOTS” catalog has this incredible, mythical seahorse creature; they were so artistic and creative. There are so many that it’s hard to choose a favorite piece. There’s a beautiful redware plate from 1816 and I love that when you turn it over and look at the back, the potter signed it while the clay was still wet.

It’s also important to remember that Pennsylvania German culture is still alive and well today. It’s not like this died out. There are still many artists who work in this tradition.

“ROOTS” is a two-part exhibition with the first half looking at the educational history of the area, Freeland Seminary and the Pennsylvania Female College— forerunners of Ursinus. We have photographs of early buildings; the broadside announcing Ursinus’s founding in 1869; early course catalogs and student portraits; and a collection from Dr. Bomberger, who was also the pastor at St. Luke’s Reformed Church in Trappe. We also have hidden treasures from the Pennsylvania Folklife Society collection, which was donated to Ursinus in the late 1960s and is now split between the Myrin Library and Berman Museum of Art.

(below) Sampler by Charlotte Heyser, Trappe, PA, 1862. Berman Museum of Art. (left) Plate by Solomon Grim, Berks County, PA, 1816. Berman Museum of Art.

What else do you have planned to showcase this rich history?

We’re partnering with Ursinus on a digital fraktur archive on the college’s digital commons platform. I have three Ursinus interns who are helping, and it will go live with the “ROOTS” exhibition. We’ve fully digitized 125 pieces from Ursinus’s fraktur collection—I translated them when I was a student—and we hope that’s the seed of a much bigger archive, which will be a phenomenal resource for the study of folk art, but also the genealogy, which is the no. 2 hobby in the country. I hope people will become obsessed with this database, especially if we can unlock the language and make it accessible to the public.

Exhibition Details “ROOTS: Ursinus College and the Pennsylvania Germans” Through December 31, 2019 Dewees Tavern, 301 W. Main Street, Trappe, PA 19426 Email info@historictrappe.org for information and to buy the “ROOTS” catalog.

(above) Fraktur drawing attributed to Daniel Otto, Northumberland or Centre County, PA, 1800–1820. Berman Museum of Art.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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MEREDITH GOLDSMITH, professor of English and associate dean FAVORITE CIE TEXT: Sappho: A New Translation

CIE

AT 20 Over the last two decades, Ursinus students have shared a Common Intellectual Experience, known simply to generations of Bears as CIE. The flagship academic program—in which students read Plato, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Frederick Douglass, Allison Bechdel and Ta-Nehisi Coates, among a host of other texts—has gained national recognition among higher education experts and other institutions. It challenges first-year students to thoughtfully examine these historical and modern works through discussions now framed by the Ursinus Quest: Open Questions Open Minds core curriculum.

In celebration of 20 years of CIE, some Ursinus faculty shared their favorite CIE texts with Ursinus Magazine.

Sappho’s poems “capture essential human emotions (love, attraction, disappointment), experiences (friendship, celebrations, loss, mourning), and all the senses. You can feel these poems, not simply read and hear them. They're enigmas and puzzles that present questions without answers. They beg us to enter the poet's world.”

REBECCA LYCZAK, professor of biology FAVORITE CIE TEXT: Primo Levi’s The Drowned and the Saved “In the book, Levi talks about his time spent in a concentration camp during World War II. The text challenged students to see beyond black and white. Levi’s writing helped students confront the difficult gray zone in between the heroes and the villains. To grapple with this area of uncertainty is especially important in a world where we like to place people and events into categories.”

NATHAN REIN, associate professor of religious studies, codirector of the Ursinus Institute for Student Success and associate dean FAVORITE CIE TEXT: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel “I’ve probably read [Fun Home] start to finish six or seven times, and every time I find something new. At the same time, the basic story is so simple: a young person growing up, discovering new and scary truths about her family, and loving them anyway.”

STEPHANIE MACKLER, associate professor of education and assistant dean FAVORITE CIE TEXT: Euripides’ Medea “I read [Medea] as a first-year student in college in a class similar to CIE, so it has nostalgic resonance for me.

Even more, though, I love the complexity of the reader’s simultaneous contempt for and empathy with Medea’s actions. One can’t simply celebrate or vilify her, and I think this text challenges students to recognize the

multifaceted nature of human life and human decisions …

I love watching the students argue about Medea and take sides with or against her.”

DOMENICK SCUDERA, professor of theater FAVORITE CIE TEXT: The Epic of Gilgamesh “The Sumerians invented writing and Gilgamesh is the first known story ever written. Although it is from 5,000 years ago, the story still resonates today: Gilgamesh goes through a journey to discover what it means to be human. I was so inspired by this text that I wrote a stage version of The Epic of Gilgamesh and directed an original production of it in the fall of 2007 for Ursinus College Theater. It remains one of my favorite Ursinus theater projects.”

PAUL STERN, professor of politics FAVORITE CIE TEXT: Plato’s Euthyphro “Students meet the strange, exasperating and inspiring character named Socrates, a man who spent his whole life engaged in an inquiry that focused on the most important matters we pursue in CIE. The decisive moment in the drama occurs when Socrates asks Euthyphro, frustrated

by Socrates’ incessant questioning, whether they should ‘just accept what others say’ or ‘ought we to consider what the speaker says?’ In this understated way, Socrates poses for his young interlocutor a monumental choice.

At its best, CIE brings each of our students to stand with Euthyphro at this same crossroads.”

JON VOLKMER, professor of English FAVORITE CIE TEXTS: William Wordsworth “I love teaching the sonnet known by its first line, ‘The world is too much with us.’ Why and how is the world ‘too much with us’? The second line gives the answer, ‘Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.’ In a magnificently condensed single line, Wordsworth sums up the problem of our existence, even more true now than it was when he wrote it in 1807.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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THE WELL

Staging History The Abridged Version of The Complete History of Ursinus College [Abridged]

The story of the talented team that brought to life an original play to celebrate the college’s 150th anniversary.

BY STEVE NEUMANN

THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF URSINUS COLLEGE [ABRIDGED]

by Domenick Scudera, M.F.A., Professor of Theater CHARACTERS RUBY and SAMUEL: students who are disengaged; they have not completed their homework to read about the history of Ursinus College PROFESSOR SCENE a college classroom, present day.

A film about Ursinus College is abruptly ended, cutting short the full story of the college’s history.

PROFESSOR

Well, it looks like we’re out of time.

[PROFESSOR fiddles with the remote and technology unsuccessfully.]

SAMUEL [To RUBY]

That movie was actually pretty interesting, don’t you think?

RUBY [to SAMUEL]

Yeah. [to PROFESSOR] Um, professor? Can we ask you a question?

PROFESSOR

Yes?

RUBY

What happens after that?

SAMUEL

In the story of the college?

PROFESSOR

Did you read your homework?

RUBY, SAMUEL

No.

PROFESSOR

Read it.

RUBY

We know – [rolling her eyes]

SAMUEL

… the Ursinus Quest …

PROFESSOR

Ruby, Samuel, if you applied yourselves, you might discover that education is a conversation, and the best conversations start with real questions. Your friends might try to distract you from your studies—but I expect more from the two of you. I see potential in both of you. Ask some questions and then seek out the answers. It’s worth the effort, I promise.

You can discover the answers for yourselves.

[PROFESSOR exits.]

SAMUEL

Open the book. Let’s take a look.

Inspired and curious, RUBY and SAMUEL crack open the reading about the history of Ursinus that had been assigned for homework. As the book opens, the classroom disappears, and the history of Ursinus College unfolds as RUBY and SAMUEL ask questions to open their minds.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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THE WELL

“

T

he Complete History of Ursinus College [Abridged] is a hilarious but respectful send-up of key events in the history of the college in celebration of its 150th anniversary this year.

The play is the brainchild of Professor of Theater Domenick Scudera, who has experience writing historical plays that are meant to be accessible, creative and, most importantly, entertaining.

The Complete History of Ursinus College [Abridged] even shares a title with a similarly tongue-in-cheek play Scudera directed three times for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre a decade ago: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged.

“That one takes all of Shakespeare's plays and puts them in a blender,” Scudera says. “And even though it's funny, you actually learn a lot about Shakespeare's plays and characters.”

Scudera was inspired by the way the writers of the Shakespeare play were able to have fun with established, historical material, and achieved the same effect with The Complete History of Ursinus College [Abridged]. Among the unique aspects of this play is that it’s infused with Ursinus’s Quest: Open Questions Open Minds Core Curriculum, which consists of four key questions: What should matter to me?

How should we live together? How can we understand the world? What will I do? Scudera used these questions as a guide in choosing which aspects of Ursinus history he thought he should include.

Fittingly, Scudera’s play opens with a classroom scene. Unfortunately, the professor (played by a different Ursinus alum or employee each night)

photo JIM ROESE

is droning on about Ursinus history, which the class finds really boring.

Even after the professor shows them an informative, albeit over-the-top, film about the history of Ursinus (which Tommy Armstrong ’20 actually filmed over the summer with Ursinus faculty and staff), the class is still apathetic—except for two students who become intrigued when the film projector suddenly breaks just as the end-of-class bell rings.

As the professor is walking out, the two students ask her what happens next in the film. The professor tells them that they should do their homework if they want to find out, so they crack open the assigned reading (which they hadn’t done) just as the stage opens up to envelop them in the world of the play. The audience is then treated to a fast-moving and colorful romp through the history of Ursinus College that is cast entirely with Ursinus students, with the exception of the “actor” who stars in the cheesy film: Ursinus College President Brock Blomberg.

I’m not stuck doing every facet of Ursinus history,’ Scudera says. ‘I can just ask questions about things and tell quirky, interesting stories. And by doing that, hopefully you'll start to get a bigger picture of the school. ”

The play also makes use of a chorus of student actors who symbolize the Ursinus Quest, providing the answers to the lead characters’ questions as they morph into various figures of Ursinus College history.

Obviously, a lot happens in 150 years; and while a 90-minute play can’t possibly include everything in the college’s history, Scudera had free reign to pick and choose what would best fit his dramaturgical vision.

“I'm not stuck doing every facet of Ursinus history,” Scudera says. “I can just ask questions about things and tell quirky, interesting stories. And by doing that, hopefully you'll start to get a bigger picture of the school.”

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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THE WELL Bringing 150 years of Ursinus history to the stage was a unique challenge for Megan Jones, a professional scenic designer and Ursinus’s technical director. She and a crew of students built the sets.

“There's a certain expectation of what the audience is going to get when they walk in and sit down,” Jones says.

“For this play, it's going to feel like somewhat of an empty canvas—it’s just going to be a movie screen at the beginning. But it's going to take them in so many different directions, and they're going to feel fulfilled at the end.”

The two lead characters who bring that bigger picture of Ursinus to life—the students who become interested in learning more about the history of the college—are named Samuel and Ruby.

Conveniently, the actor who plays Ruby in the play is named Ruby in real life— Ruby Serafin, a senior double major in theater and media and communication studies who wants to be a screenwriter after graduation.

“The yearbook is named The Ruby,” Serafin says, “and the person who created it was a professor named Samuel Vernon Ruby. So Domenick broke up that name and Isaiah became Samuel, and I'm Ruby.”

Isaiah is Isaiah Braugher, a junior theater major who comes from a family of professional actors. His father, Andre, plays Captain Raymond Holt on the NBC comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and his mother, Ami, has appeared in numerous roles on Law & Order.

Both Braugher and Serafin not only enjoyed their roles in the play but were surprised by what they learned in the process of mastering the script. photos JIM ROESE

“There's a part where they talk about the sycamore tree that used to be by the football field,” Serafin says. “I knew it had been moved, but I didn't know that part of the wood from the tree became the bear that's in the gym.”

Church established Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and the low church group established a school that would eventually become Ursinus College.

“There’s definitely some hidden gems in there,” she says. “And I like that it’s telling the history of Ursinus in an entertaining way.”

“Something that I found interesting,” Braugher says, “was the formal dances they had, like the May Day festival where girls are dancing around a Maypole in the 1950s, and those traditions that somehow died away.”

“So, in the film, I had them all come together with flowers and hearts,” Armstrong says. “It was very sweet.”

“I thought it was interesting how the German Reformed Church split into two factions—the high churchmen and low churchmen—and how the low churchmen broke away,” Armstrong says.

In Ursinus history, the “high church” faction of the German Reformed

So much has happened at Ursinus College since 1869. In fact, much has happened in the past few decades alone. When Scudera first came to Ursinus College, theater and dance weren’t even separate departments: theater was part of the communications department and dance was part of the exercise and sports science department.

The president at the time, John Strassburger, used to say that a liberal arts education is like a stool with three legs: one leg is academics, one is athletics, and the other should be the arts. So, he decided to pull

theater and dance out of their respective departments, and Scudera actually wrote the proposal for the theater department as it stands today.

“Researching the history has been eye-opening because I'm learning all these things about the college.” he says. “I've been here for 22 years, but there are a lot of things I had no idea about, and it's been just fascinating to look through the old stuff.”

Scudera became intimately familiar with Ursinus history during hours of research in the college’s Ursinusiana archives room, where he tapped into the great institutional knowledge of archivist Carolyn Weigel.

“I have a little Rolodex that has questions that come up throughout the year,” Weigel says. “I can go to that and its highlighted as to where something can be found. It's very simple, but it works.”

“To me, the whole history of Ursinus is unique because it's a one-of-akind college,” she says. “It has a lot of wonderful people who've attended and who’ve gone on to achieve great things in the world—the faculty, the staff, the students—everyone contributes.”

“That was part of the film I made for the play,” Armstrong says. “We had to show that the high churchmen were very strict and the low churchmen were more laid back.”

Armstrong initially wanted to have a scene with the low churchman smoking marijuana and getting busted by campus safety, but Scudera thought that might be pushing the envelope a little too far, even for a parody play.

Similarly, Tommy Armstrong, the senior English major who produced the tacky film that breaks down at the beginning of the play, discovered something he didn’t know when he was in the process of putting the film together.

From initial auditions to numerous technical and dress rehearsals leading up to opening night, Jones is there every step of the away, working with her student-run scenery and

deck crews to make sure the production hews as closely as possible to the original vision for the play.

“ There’s definitely some hidden gems in there,’ [Serafin] says. ‘And I like that it’s telling the history of Ursinus in an entertaining way. ” Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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To honor Ursinus College’s 150 years, Ursinus Magazine is paying tribute to just some of the people who have made their mark on the college, as well as those who have carried the college’s mission forward through their work.

These are the names you know—the headline grabbers—and the ones you may not recognize.

This is the first part of a three-part series that offers a snapshot of Bears for Life— people suggested by members of our campus community, by the college’s 150th anniversary committee and by you, our readers.

While there is much to draw upon throughout a century and a half of history, we wanted to keep it contemporary (we’ll leave the narrative of the college’s first hundred years, rightfully and respectfully, to Calvin D. Yost ’30, whose definitive Ursinus College: A History of its First Hundred Years can be found on bookshelves all over campus and beyond).

This series is not definitive. It’s meant to be a living document, one that is sustained throughout our anniversary year; one that grows as new names are suggested and added.

Up first: the pioneers and philanthropists.

The

THE WELL

Pioneers Look closely. It seems that in every corner of the world, an Ursinus College graduate is leading the charge. A bear is making a difference, setting the stage.

We know the story of JOE DESIMONE ’86, P’12—entrepreneur and innovator—a cutting-edge visionary in 3D printing, nanoparticle fabrication and green chemistry. He fondly recalls the chemistry professors who helped set him on his course … thought leaders like RON HESS (see page 35), ROGER STAIGER ’43 and VIC TORTORELLI (more on them next issue).

Innovation, after all, is part of the entrepreneurial spirit that drives liberal learning at Ursinus. How would technology evolve if not for JOHN MAUCHLY, the Ursinus physics professor whose work here led to co-inventing (while at the University of Pennsylvania) what is considered the first all-electronic, digital computer?

The entrepreneurial spirit drives Ursinus graduates to set the bar high and effortlessly clear it. At Purdue University, Ursinus chemistry graduate ELSA JANLE ’63 developed a device used to monitor glucose in diabetics without the removal of blood. She has also investigated the potential of botanicals in the prevention of diseases, including diabetes.

Pioneering orthopedic surgeon RICHARD GUYER ’71—winner of the 2016 Ursinus Alumni Award for Professional Achievement— was one of the first surgeons to perform spinal disc replacement in the U.S. (in 2000), as well as the first to perform one in Chile and Brazil.

MARGARET “PEG” WILLIAMS ’80 embraced mathematics at Ursinus

and became senior vice president of research and development at Cray, which designs and develops industryleading supercomputers. CYNTHIA FISHER ’83 is a founder and board member of Patient Rights Advocate and is best known for her work as founder and CEO of ViaCord, Inc., a leading umbilical cord blood stem cell banking service which she started in 1993. THE REV. DR. PATRICIA (COX) MCGREGOR ’81, P ’12 serves Episcopal missionaries in some of the poorest countries in the world and mentors women, assisting in the development of economic opportunities for them.

PAMELA ODORIZZI ’09 researches the body’s immune responses to HIV, cancers, malaria and other diseases while mentoring scientists in developing countries. AUBREY PARIS ’15 was recently chosen as one of the world’s 118 top young chemists by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

This barely scratches the surface of people who can be considered pioneers. They are also risk-takers, and not coincidentally, championing risktaking is one of the seven objectives of the Ursinus strategic plan, which states that we at Ursinus “strive to be a community unafraid to test boundaries, recognizing that crossing disciplinary, social and cultural frontiers can lead to great achievement.”

The entrepreneurial spirit drives Ursinus graduates to set the bar high and effortlessly clear it.

and AAKASH SHAH’10, Ursinus’s first and only Rhodes Scholar (so far), who was honored by the White House as a “Champion of Change” for the work of his nonprofit, Be Jersey Strong, which helps New Jersey residents understand and access their health-care options.

Where would Ursinus be if not for those who have helped bring the college to the present day by being bold and thinking outside the box? Those such as ROBERT CRIGLER ’56, the college’s first African American graduate and the namesake of our Crigler program, and PAULETTE PATTON, longtime director of that program (who suggested it be named for Crigler), in which students are given the opportunity to participate in a community service project, connect with Ursinus alumni and attend leadership workshops.

Ursinus STEM pioneer BLANCHE SCHULTZ ’41 was also a champion for Ursinus athletics—historically defined by the legacy of those who shaped women’s athletics in Collegeville: the legendary ELEANOR FROST SNELL,

who led the Ursinus field hockey team for nearly 40 years and developed the program into a national powerhouse; ADELE BOYD ’53, a revered coach and mentor who took over for Snell as head field hockey coach, beginning a 17-year career that would include 16 winning seasons; VONNIE GROS ’57 coach of the 1984 U.S. Olympic women’s field hockey team; and JEN SHILLINGFORD ’54, who started an annual symposium to honor Snell and whose own contributions to the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA) are nationally recognized.

research fellowships, study abroad and a nationally hailed Common Intellectual Experience, which became the college’s hallmarks. BOBBY FONG (2011-14) believed that at Ursinus, the “cultivation of personhood” should be taken seriously and that education contributes to the process of “individualization,” so that each student is afforded the opportunity to develop a sense of self in relation to the world—a legacy that continues to this day.

Visionary Ursinus leaders of the past four decades helped shape what Ursinus is today. RICHARD P. RICHTER ’53, P’87 (president from 1976 to 1994) moved toward creating a modern liberal arts college and transforming its physical appearance in the development of the Berman Museum of Art, Olin Hall and the main street residential village. During his 15 years as president, JOHN STRASSBURGER (1995-2010) championed summer

Those well-versed in Ursinus history know of MINERVA WEINBERGER 1884, Ursinus’s first female student, and other pioneering thinkers: MEGHAN BRODIE ’00 and WYNTON RICE ’09, our first theater major and dance major, respectively; AARON RANCK ’02, the college’s first Watson Fellow; Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

21

The

THE WELL

Philanthropists All members of our campus community—and particularly, Ursinus alumni—have a deep connection to the college. And if not for philanthropy, Ursinus would not have been the same (read a history of philanthropy in the Keep the Promise campaign newsletter insert in this magazine).

Members of the Ursinus community give back in more ways than one.

SUSAN CALLAHAN ’85, P’21, chair of the Bear2Bear Benefit & Bash committee, may have said it best: “I’m a big believer in paying it forward and giving back to the college after you graduate, a college that gives so much to its students. Giving even a small amount keeps people engaged long after they’ve graduated and encourages a culture of philanthropy at the college.” She was a founding member and first chair of the Ursinus Young Alumni Programming Board (YAPB), today known as the GOLD Council, which has been integral in keeping alumni engaged with the college.

In addition to raising funds for students in need, the Bear2Bear Benefit & Bash also served to honor the contributions of JOAN AND WILL ABELE ’61. The couple are significant benefactors not only to Ursinus, but also to other causes and organizations throughout the Delaware Valley region—in fact, they were recently recognized with the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The Abeles’ decades of giving have been, in large part, inspired by the legacy of Stephen Girard, the namesake of Girard College, where Will attended. Girard’s model

of philanthropy led the Abeles to seek out and support a variety of highimpact priorities at Ursinus including the Bear2Bear Student Emergency Fund and the Abele Scholars Program— both of which they created—as well as campus safety, the U-Imagine Center, the Abele Science Equipment Challenge, an endowment for the head wrestling coach position and an essay prize in ethics. The latter is in honor of RICHARD T. SCHELLHASE ’45, another key figure in Will’s life, and promotes the discussion of ethics in a variety of settings at the college.

Ethical conversations embolden students to become responsible scientists and citizens though the Parlee Center for Science and the Common Good, named for DON ’55 AND JOAN PARLEE ’57, healthcare advocates who appreciate that the center prepares students with the skills of ethical decision-making and distinguishes Ursinus as a place where students cross academic boundaries to create a culture of interdisciplinary inquiry.

Visionary leader, philanthropist and friend of Ursinus College and the Berman Museum of Art, H.F. “GERRY” LENFEST and his wife, MARGUERITE, selflessly supported Ursinus for many years. Their generosity spanned more than two decades and included support of the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center (the Lenfest Theater bears their name), as well as extensive support for Berman Museum exhibitions and a significant contribution to the Berman Museum expansion project.

At Ursinus, a foundation was laid for a lifetime of service for HAROLD C. SMITH ’55, whose foundation provides significant opportunity for students to engage in vocational and faith discernment through experiential learning. NANCY OPALACK ’71 is a founding corporate member of that foundation and is executive director and founder of Educational Support Systems, Inc., which consults at the federal and state levels on special education issues.

“ I’m a big believer in paying it forward and giving back to the college after you graduate, a college that gives so much to its students. Giving even a small amount keeps people engaged long after they’ve graduated and encourages a culture of philanthropy at the college.

Philanthropy isn’t just monetary. It’s about giving time, too, and community building, both locally and globally. Our BONNER LEADERS, after all, transform our campus and communities through service and leadership.

As the first Charles Rice Post-Graduate Research Fellows, ROSEANGELA HARTFORD ’18 spent a year investigating the intersectionality of religion and the healing process for survivors of domestic and sexual violence of women and children by chance; and DOUG HICKEY ’15 focused on the psychological impact of war and mental health among combat veterans, drawing upon spiritual practices.

The Ursinus spirit of giving is evident in the work of CHARLES ’63 AND CAROL HAEUSSNER ’63, who work with many charities supporting developing countries. SUE (PEIFFER) FERNANDEZ ’64 has devoted personal time to supporting young women from Africa and helping to make it possible for them to come to the U.S. to undergo extreme medical treatments.

SCOTT CLEMENS ’69 works with LifePath, a support group for severely disabled children and their families.

And STEPHANIE (HICKS) KILKENNY ’93 co-founded with her husband, Patrick, the Lucky Duck Foundation, whose mission is to alleviate the suffering of San Diego County’s homeless population. It has directed millions of dollars to fund bridge shelters, employment programs, transportation, community care kits, meals and other critical services for the homeless.

A love of dance at Ursinus led ROGER LEE ’10 to a career as an entrepreneurial arts and education professional. He started his own business, Roger Lee Arts, which produces performing artist resources and dance company concerts. ALEX PEAY ’09 founded the Rising Sons program at Ursinus to build a sense of community among the black male students on campus. That idea transformed into a service organization that has gained global recognition.

Peay and MUBARAK LAWRENCE ’10 are the driving force behind Ones Up,

a Philadelphia community service organization that aims to build young leaders and address issues affecting underprivileged populations.

We’re grateful for these pioneers and philanthropists for helping to shape our history and tell the Ursinus story.

But we’re not done. Is there someone you’d like to see on this list or in an upcoming issue? We’ll include them!

Email us at ucmag@ursinus.edu and visit ursinus.edu/magazine. Let’s “author” our recent history—as well as the next 50 years—together.

UP NEXT: The Mentors and Thought Leaders (Winter 2020).

STILL TO COME: The Unsung Heroes and Helping Hands (Spring/Summer 2020).

”

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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The

Artist’s Way All over the Ursinus campus, luminaries from throughout college’s 150-year history are captured in portraits that hang in hallways and classrooms, each of them painted with exquisite detail by the steady hand of Ted Xaras. Recently, the artist toured campus with Ursinus Magazine to see some of his favorites and provide a glimpse into his creative process.

BY GEOFF GEHMAN

T

ed Xaras is leading a tour of his painted portraits of Ursinus leaders—presidents, deans, trustees, patrons, teachers, librarians—hanging around the campus where he taught art, art history and art as history from 1973 to 2007. In no time flat, he turns a tour into a casual, colorful class in craft and creativity, connections and compromises.

The first tour stop is the Kaleidoscope, home to Xaras’s portrait of the late John Strassburger, whose 1995-2010 presidency included the building of the performingarts center. Standing between three students in the Kaleidoscope lobby in the portrait, Xaras’s Strassburger is a sort of genial pied piper.

“Don’t make me the center of the stage,” he told Xaras, and the artist responded by having him listen rather than be listened to during a play’s intermission. According to Xaras, it was a natural request from someone who “would always listen to anybody about anything.”

The portrait has a slight sleight of hand. Abbie Cichowski ’10 is one of the students in the painting, holding a playbill for The Diary of Anne Frank, but the hand holding the program belongs to Ted's wife, Judy, because Abbie wasn't available to pose at the time he was working on that part of the painting.

Judy, the artist says, was photographed in their backyard in a variety of gestures, “like a slow-motion movie.”

A portrait, it turns out, is a kind of painted jigsaw puzzle.

“Everyone is not in the perfect position simultaneously,” Xaras says, “so you have to cobble” people, places and props. photos NICOLE HOPE MATTHEWS

The next stop is the Innovation and Discovery Center, home to Xaras’s portrait of Bobby Fong, president from 2011 until his death in 2014. An Oscar Wilde scholar and avid fan of all things baseball, Xaras’s Fong stands in the middle distance on the walkway leading to Pfahler Hall, smiling and arrow straight as he holds a Wilde volume. He projects the welcoming nobility of a child of Chinese immigrants who became an ambassador for experiential education.

Making a seamless painting usually requires serious stitching. Xaras only met Fong three times. His only decent photo of the president was a head-and-shoulders shot in three-quarter profile. He compromised by photographing a body double—an Ursinus computer science professor— posing at an angle. It’s another portrait-painter trick.

Van Dyck, he notes, prepared for portraits by clothing mannequins in borrowed royal robes.

Xaras’s portrait of Fong is backed by a pack of students, a suggestion from a group of advisors that included the president’s widow, Suzanne. One student holds a baseball bat, another suggestion from the committee. In front of the students is a wide-open space, a time-honored device to encourage viewers to mentally enter the frame and become characters.

A portrait, it turns out, is also a map of what Xaras calls “selective realism.” He illustrates his point by paraphrasing Nicolas Poussin, a 17th-century French artist, who said, "Paint the subject, not as it actually happened, but as would have happened, if nature were perfect.”

THE WELL A tour becomes a homecoming as Xaras keeps meeting old friends.

Standing by the Fong portrait, chemistry professor Vic Tortorelli tells of voluntarily shaving his considerable mustache while portraying a biochemistry pioneer in Xaras’s epic portrait of scientific titans for a pharmaceutical giant.

Tortorelli accompanies us to Pfahler Hall, home to Xaras’s portrait of the late Roger P. Staiger ’43, chemistry chair and namesake of a chemistry faculty development fund. Xaras admires his classroom blackboard, which indeed resembles chalky slate. But at the time he was busy with teaching while also painting— “tap dancing while carrying plates,” he says—so Judy Xaras painted in great detail the complex periodic table behind Staiger. Her help enabled him to finish the painting in a whitehot 90 days. Remembering the day it was unveiled, Tortorelli joked, “The paint was probably still wet.”

Scores of Ursinus students remember Xaras performing his lessons. He’s a pretty theatrical tour guide, too. He italicizes words, flings arms, bobs and slides and rocks. At times he mimics a movie director setting up shots.

Once asked when is a painting finished, Leonardo da Vinci replied, “Our work is

never finished, it is merely taken away.”

Some versions of that story quote da Vinci as saying that “we run out of time.” Examining the portrait, Xaras laments his lack of detail and depth in Staiger’s tie clasp—that tie clasp hangs in a frame near the portrait in Pfahler.

Myrin Library is home to Xaras’s sideby-side portraits of two late librarians, the Rev. Dr. Calvin Yost Sr. (1891) and Calvin Yost Jr. ’30, author of the definitive Ursinus College: A History of its First Hundred Years. Gene Spencer, the college’s chief information officer for library and information technology, says that some visitors wonder why Calvin Sr.’s tie is slightly askew. Xaras admits he was too detail-oriented in reproducing Yost’s photo, that he should have knotted his tie to the neck.

Xaras enjoyed Calvin Yost Jr.’s rich stories of his native Collegeville. “He spoke about the dark ages, the redlight district,” says the artist about the librarian. “He seemed to know where all the skeletons are buried.” This sunny personality colors Xaras’s portrait of Yost sitting easily in a corner of his home, his body bathed in streaming light. Xaras says the composition is intentionally asymmetrical, the better to make eyes roam all over the librarian’s homey world.

(above) Ted Xaras with Suzanne Fong. Photo: DAN Z. JOHNSON.

We walk to Olin Hall, home to a conference room that doubles as a gallery for Xaras’s portraits of three former deans of the college. The most magnetic subject is the late Richard Groth Bozorth, who looks 19th-century regal in commencement robes in a long side view. Painting a portrait is ultimately a soul pilgrimage. “It’s a journey to discover the psychology of people,” Xaras says, “what they like, what they’re like.”

Xaras views Ursinus history from a unique lens. One could say he has authored an illustrated history, much in the same way Yost captured the college’s early years in written form.

He didn’t retire from Ursinus as much as he retired his career. Shortly after packing up his Collegeville spaces, he began teaching in the continuingeducation division of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, also a teaching home for Thomas Eakins, the legendary portraitist.

Give him two days, he insists, and he’ll turn anyone, even an all-thumbs rookie, into a decent portraitist.

“If somebody is interested in art, and if I have any time at all, I’m going to turn them on.”

(above) Portrait of Judith Levy. Photo: DOMINIC MONTE.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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THE WELL

Ursinus Portraits by Ted Xaras WILLIAM E. AKIN

JUDITH LEVY

MAURICE WHITMAN ARMSTRONG

RICHARD RICHTER

BOMBERGER BELL TOWER

ROGER P. STAIGER

RICHARD GROTH BOZORTH

JOHN STRASSBURGER

JOHN E.F. (JEF) CORSON

JOHN HAINES WARE III

BOBBY FONG

TED XARAS (SELF-PORTRAIT)

SPENCER FOREMAN, M.D.

CALVIN D. YOST

THOMAS P. GLASSMOYER

CALVIN DANIEL YOST JR.

WILLIAM F. HEEFNER

Portraits of Roger Staiger ’43 (top) and John Strassburger (bottom). Photos: DOMINIC MONTE.

(above) Portrait of Bobby Fong. Photo: DOMINIC MONTE.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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by Geoff Gehman

T

his fall, the Berman Museum celebrated the college’s 150th anniversary with a 150-hammer salute. Listeners sat between 150 people pounding nails at 75 sawhorses in a workshop symphony.

At a designated time, every player bit into an apple, producing one of the loudest fruit-based crunches on record.

Douglas Henderson’s Music for 150 Carpenters turned the Berman into an avant-garde concert hall, one of its many vibrant, vital roles since opening in 1989 in a former library. Over 30 years, the museum has been a school, a laboratory, and a center for exploring and experiencing cultures around the world and across the centuries.

It’s charged and changed the campus climate every which way: intellectually, emotionally, socially, visually.

The story of the Berman is best told by its only two directors: Lisa Tremper Hanover, who helped map its operations while putting it on the map, and Charlie Stainback, who has provided more challenging maps—with hammers and homing pigeons carrying Cuban cigars.

Joining this retrospective is Nancy Berman, president and executive director of the Berman Foundation, a major supporter of the museum’s collecting, exhibiting and expanding. The charity was established by her late parents, Philip and Muriel, who endowed their namesake museum with funds, art objects, connections, ideas and truckloads of great good will.

As Ursinus College turns 150 this year, the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art is celebrating its 30th birthday. Home to some of the most captivating art exhibitions in the region, its directors, past and present, offer a retrospective on the impact the museum has had on the college and on the art world.

THE WELL

The Hanover Era: Creating a Global Ecumenical Forum, 1987–2012

The Stainback Era: Growing the Laboratory, 2012–present

Lisa Tremper Hanover helped make the Berman Museum from scratch.

A former registrar for a prominent art collection, she anchored funding, building, staffing and exhibiting, curating more than 200 shows herself. She helped coordinate the construction of a 2010 wing with galleries, a workspace for studying works on paper, and a green-roof sculpture terrace. She supplemented the addition by temporarily displaying over 3,000 pieces from the permanent collection that needed to be assessed.

The former director says she had a remarkably fruitful partnership with Phil and Muriel Berman, who were major collectors, philanthropists, ambassadors and instigators.

Their mutual projects ranged from an exhibit of Rodin bronzes from a vaunted private collection to a bequest of works by and from Francoise Gilot, a Picasso muse who befriended the Bermans.

On Hanover’s watch, the Berman became a global ecumenical forum. She balanced international with regional, traditional with contemporary, timeless with topical.

She showcased women artists, acquiring their works and devoting a show to their self-portraits. She promoted the Berman by lecturing to and serving on committees with museum professionals. She expanded area audiences by talking at retirement homes, sometimes bringing Berman artifacts as show-and-tell. Her museum-studies seminar introduced students to creating virtual exhibits, inspiring graduates to become museum professionals.

Nancy Berman confirms Hanover as an open-minded, open-tuned teammate of her “spark-plug” parents. She praises Hanover for turning an exhibit of biblical archaeological relics from Israel into a traveling show, and for transforming the Ursinus campus into a garden/academy for her parents’ large collection of strikingly diverse sculptures.

Charlie Stainback has made the Berman more engaging by making it more challenging. On his watch, the museum has paired John James Audubon’s classic prints of birds with radical avian images by living artists; and photos of people sleeping in public spaces with Andy Warhol’s five-hour film of a man sleeping.

Stainback’s mission is to convince skeptical viewers that the insignificant is significant, or rather, it may be significant for future generations. He likes to point out that Van Gogh’s profound paintings were dismissed as perverse during his lifetime. He aims to make people “comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he says, to be intrigued enough to ask, “Why am I intrigued?”

“Phil and Muriel trusted me,” Hanover says. “They never intervened or interfered.”

The Bermans rewarded Hanover’s stewardship by creating a $1 million endowment for the museum’s directorship and Nancy Berman added a $1 million Berman Foundation gift to build the museum’s wing.

First Show

Spectrum of Shows

Sixty works from Philip and Muriel Berman’s inaugural donation of 1,200plus pieces. The banquet included an Edward Hopper painting, an Edgar Degas pastel and a sculpture by Henry Moore, one of the Bermans’ many artist friends and partners.

Photographs addressing the impermanence of shelter; revisions of such women’s domestic tools as a washboard and a dressmaker’s figure; portraits of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud owned by George Bause ’77, a geriatric anesthesiologist who owns an anesthesiology museum.

Favorite Memories Hanover enjoyed regular 7 a.m. phone calls from Phil Berman, who always brimmed with ideas and introductions. Opening receptions, she recalls, were splashy affairs, with Muriel Berman wearing jewelry designed by Alexander Calder and Phil wearing a black-and-red cape that could have been worn by Toulouse-Lautrec. The couple helped make an often-demanding job “really fun.” photos NICOLE HOPE MATTHEWS

Stainback came to Ursinus as a veteran art educator; at Skidmore College he helped build a museum learning center, the Tang Teaching Museum. Not surprisingly, he’s expanded the Berman’s role as a behind-the-scenes school. His Museum Studies exhibition featured immaculate copies of the backs of such famous paintings as the “Mona

Lisa.” Viewers became curators as they scanned re-creations of curled labels, rusty screws and stamps of venues visited.

Museum Studies helped launch the college’s minor in museum studies. Stainback consults the core course, MS-200B, in which students co-curate a Berman show. The latest exhibit, Adam DelMarcelle’s Bearing Witness, addressed the opioid epidemic that killed his brother.

Nancy Berman praises Stainback for improving the Ursinus community with innovative, influential programs.

She calls the museum studies course he taught during his first semester in Collegeville a “brilliant” example of pedagogy. A former museum director herself, she rewarded his stewardship by establishing a $1 million Berman Foundation endowment for special exhibitions, a gift that has spurred more college funds.

The money will come in handy next year when Stainback stages Virgil Marti: Title TK, the first solo show to occupy all of the museum’s temporary galleries.

First Show

Spectrum of Shows

An alphabetical sample of studentselected works from the museum’s collection in honor of the Berman Foundation’s donation of 1,300-plus objects. “U” was represented by three portraits of George Washington by unknown artists, “B” by a finger painting

by Betsy the chimp, a 1950s star.

Installations about personal spaces; works by African Americans about protecting and violating civil rights; contemporary interpretations of real estate, including glass jars of paints mapping buildings on the Washington Mall.

Favorite Memories An elderly Ursinus graduate bet Stainback lunch that fellow residents of her retirement home wouldn’t like a mind-bending show. She lost the bet after her comrades endorsed “Trading with the Enemy,” Duke Riley’s installation with videos of camera-carrying pigeons he trained to fly to Key West with Cuban cigars they then flew to Havana.

Editor’s Note: Read more about Douglas Henderson’s Music for 150 Carpenters in the winter 2020 edition of Ursinus Magazine this March.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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CONVERSATIONS

2001: AN URSINUS ODYSSEY

This artist sketch by ROY SCARFO—reminiscent of a place George Jetson might have once flown to in some far-distant future—appeared in the 1969 edition of The Ruby (Ursinus’s yearbook), depicting what our campus might look like in 2001.

While the Collegeville campus saw plenty of changes over those 32 years (and the 18 years since), it didn’t come close to the wildly retrofuturistic vision captured in this illustration, one that evokes sleek and circular designs in a world in which intergalactic travel seems possible.

As we celebrate our 150th anniversary, we at Ursinus Magazine ask our readers to imagine what Ursinus could look like at the turn of the next century. What will it be like to walk down Main Street in the year 2100? What will the buildings look like?

What kinds of classes will students take? Tell us your ideas or send us your own sketches by emailing ucmag@ursinus.edu.

We’ll share your thoughts in an upcoming issue!

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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LIFE IN PIXELS

150 FEST

Ursinus welcomed students, faculty, staff, alumni and families from across the region to help usher in a yearlong 150th birthday celebration during 150 Fest. Ten bands took to the main stage with live music all day and more than 50 craft vendors were on exhibit. A wine and beer garden, food trucks from across Philly, and a family entertainment area added to the celebration.

photos DAN Z. JOHNSON

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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LIFE IN PIXELS

HOMECOMING AND FAMILY WEEKEND In October, alumni from decades past joined friends and family for one big weekend celebrating Ursinus’s 150 years. Homecoming and Family Weekend included a “Cheers to 150 Years” party; the unveiling of the periodic table of elements at the Innovation and Discovery Center; and milestone class and organizational reunions, among other activities.

photos JIM ROESE

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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BEARS’ DEN

CLASS NOTES 1940s

Helen Derewianka Ross ’48 writes that she lives in a retirement community in Illinois, where she met a new resident whose last name is Helfrich. Although the spelling is different, the two women connected over the well-known Ursinus name (Helfferich) and suspected a distant family relation. She said, “That bit of information cheered me up and stirred up a little homesickness for Pennsylvania and my life there.”

1950s

J. Donald Schultz ’50 writes that he is pleased and proud to see all the wonderful changes taking place at Ursinus.

Philip Lewis III ’54 moved from Washington state to be with his daughter in North Hollywood, Calif. He is active in Episcopal church outreach and in rehab projects. He reads three newspapers daily and highly values his Ursinus education.

Bruce Heller ’58 lives in the San Juan Islands of Washington, playing valve trombone with the community band and with the Orcatrazz swing band. Despite being a senior super veteran and lifetime member of the National Sporting Clays Association, he still manages to participate in some registered shooting competitions.

1960s

Laverne Joseph ’60 has been named the Pioneer of Affordable Housing awardee by the Affordable Housing Management Association of Northern California and Hawaii (AHMA-NCH). He has been the president and CEO of Retirement Housing Foundation (RHF), a national nonprofit organization, for more than 30 years.

Robert Dreyling ’65 lives in Cranbury, N.J. After retiring, he and his wife continued their 50/50/50 living list: 50 years of marriage, visiting all 50 states and visiting 50 countries. They are currently at 50/50/54.

Bob Macfarland ’68 retired from public accounting in June 2019 after 41 years in the profession.

1970s

Lorett (Ewaskiewicz) Cramer ’70 reports that she has four grandchildren: Laura (5), Benjamin (3), Ava (18 months) and Sarah, born on July 14, 2019. She says Geoffrey is still practicing law, but she has been retired since 2014. She’s looking forward to seeing friends at her 50th reunion.

Ed Winner ’74 has been inducted into the Navy Submarine Hall of Fame.

George Patrick Kinek ’75 retired in 2015 from PPL Corp. after a 34-year career. He and his wife, Kathleen, have been married for 39 years and have five children. He says he spends retirement time babysitting three grandchildren, volunteering, traveling, reading and participating in fitness and sports activities.

Jae Young Chung ’76, Susan Perron Lyman ’76 and Shirley Trimble Shope ’76 and shared that they all recently enjoyed the mountains outside of San Diego, Calif., together.

Rev. Barbara Ann (Vincent) Ettinger ’78 enjoys her role as a pastoral overseer in the Evangelical Covenant Church denomination, where she has served since 2016 as pastor to the pastors for 105 covenant churches from Maine to Virginia. As the executive associate superintendent in the East Coast Conference, she specializes in leadership development for clergy and laity alike. She is pursuing a doctoral degree at Fuller Seminary.

Charlie Stahl ’79 has completed his 35th year in local government and is assistant city manager for Johnson City, Tenn.

1980s

Lynne (Brumley) Terremonne ’83 and her Hatch-Waxman litigation colleagues have recently joined the firm of Offit Kurman in their Philadelphia and Delaware offices.

Scott H. Wolpert ’88, an attorney at Fort Washingtonbased Timoney Knox, LLP, has been nominated by colleagues and selected for inclusion as a 2019 Pennsylvania Super Lawyer. He has been included in the Super Lawyers list every year since 2015.

Lori Ann LoMonaco ’89 writes that after living, working and raising a family in Italy for 23 years, she has decided to move back to the U.S. She is looking to get established in the San Diego area and hopes to finally make it to her 30th reunion this year.

1990s

Marc Lowenberg ’92 was inducted to John Hancock’s Hall of Fame this year. Since 1956, fewer than 250 financial representatives have joined the elite group. The main criterion for being tapped to enter the hall of fame is earning the company’s ACE (Achieving Client Excellence) Award at least 15 times. Each year, only a select number of representatives receive the ACE award, which highlights client excellence, personal ethics and integrity, and the ability to solve clients’ financial needs.

Harley Rubin ’94 accepted a position as senior copywriter at RealPage, a leading global provider of software and data analytics to the real estate industry.

Carolyn McNamara Barry ’96 is a professor of psychology at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. After serving the last two years as department chair of psychology, she was appointed on July 1 as associate dean for social sciences and graduate programs.

2000s

Colm McCarthy ’07 is completing his orthopedic surgery residency at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

During his residency, Colm participated in the Clinician Educator Program where he received a master’s degree in health science education.

He will finish his residency next year. Colm has also won numerous awards, including the CMA Award for Young Leadership and the Ontario Medical Association’s Resident Achievement Award.

Maureen Terese McCarthy ’07 has been appointed director of the new Center for Research and Scholarship at Quinnipiac University. McCarthy will be responsible for leading the center and developing integrated support services for faculty research, faculty and student research, and scholarship activity across the university.

Katie Mastoris Schoenman ’09 has completed a fellowship in cardiology. She has accepted a position as a noninvasive cardiologist at the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. Katie and her husband, Maj. Erich Schoenman, have a 1-year-old daughter, Julia Lynn.

2010s

Alexandra (Peters) Adams ’11 joined Curley & Rothman, LLC as an associate in April 2019.

She continues to be an adjunct instructor in the politics department at Ursinus and is coach of the award-winning Ursinus mock trial team.

Chelsey Nehila ’12 earned the Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing Medallion for Distinguished Academic Achievement.

Holly Smith ’13 joined Landis Rath & Cobb LLP, a Delawarebased corporate bankruptcy, restructuring and litigation boutique law firm, as an associate.

Molly Serfass ’14 studied coral reef ecology and the conservation of marine systems along the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Molly, an aquarist/naturalist at Cape Henlopen State Park, lives in Selbyville, Del., and is a graduate student in Miami University's Advanced Inquiry Program.

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BEARS’ DEN

DEATHS

IN MEMORIAM

1930s

Norman E. Paetzold ’50 died May 23, 2019.

Victoria E. (Hoffmann) Roser ’61 died May 23, 2019.

Frank L. Miller ’37, a decorated World War II Army surgeon who was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, died August 26, 2019.

Margaret “Peggy” J. (Corliss) Schroeder ’50 died May 28, 2019.

Dalton R. Hunkins, Ph.D. ’62 died August 6, 2019.

S. Keith Taylor, Ph.D. ’50 died April 30, 2019.

Donald H. Stock, M.D. ’64 died May 23, 2019.

1940s

Robert “Bob” C. Herber ’51 died April 23, 2019.

K. Thomas “Tom” Dean Jr. ’68 died May 6, 2019.

Ruth (Ludwig) Eshbach ’41 died July 6, 2019.

Marilyn J. (Miller) Momose ’51 died May 14, 2019.

1970s

Julia (Urich) Witman ’42 died November 14, 2016.

William Beemer, Esq. ’52 died July 28, 2019.

Kenneth A. Hinde ’70 died August 29, 2019.

John B. Buckman ’43 died June 10, 2019.

Eleanore (Dunn) Redway ’52 died May 12, 2019.

Bruce A. Clark ’75 died August 14, 2019

Norma M. (Nebinger) Reynolds ’44 died May 8, 2019.

Joseph F. Martini ’53 died June 1, 2019.

Laurence D. Kauffman ’75 died July 20, 2019.

Earl W. Brunner ’46, V-12 Program, died July 7, 2019.

Gordon W. Mella, M.D. ’53 died August 5, 2019.

Eric G. Jimick ’78 died July 13, 2019.

Mary Jane (Malin) Moulton ’46 died May 12, 2019.

Jacqueline “Jac’y” G. (Priester) Wall ’53 died July 23, 2019.

1980s

Jane (Neff) Spencer ’46, V-12 Program died May 12, 2019.

Todd Addis ’55 died July 24, 2019.

Christopher B. MacMullen ’82 died June 29, 2019.

Robert P. Wendland ’46, M.D., V-12 Program died June 23, 2018.

Walter F. Larkin, D.D.S. ’57 died August 4, 2019.

Geoffrey S. Pinter ’87 died April 23, 2019.

Harry A. Collier ’48, V-12 Program died April 26, 2019.

Joan R. Loftus ’57 died June 10, 2018.

Kathleen M. (McCullough) Akey ’49 died July 12, 2019.

John “Jack” C. Taylor III ’57 died February 8, 2019.

Scott E. Serveiss ’94 died June 26, 2019.

Betty J. (Crouthamel) Coyne ’49 died May 2, 2019.

T. William “Bill” Guttschall ’59 died June 4, 2019.

Christa J. (Riccobono) McGuire ’95 died June 2, 2019.

1950s

1960s

A. George Gazonas ’50 died May 15, 2019.

Mary Jane (MacMullan) Medvetz ’60 died August 13, 2019.

Richard D. Kropp ’50 died April 18, 2019.

David Darley ’61 died April 20, 2019.

George E. Mansur Jr. ’50 died April 20, 2019.

Rev. Irvin S. Moore Jr. ’61 died July 20, 2019.

1990s

Friends of the College Nancy P. (Pearlstine) Conger, Trustee Emeritus, died July 6, 2019.

Michael A. O’Neill P’08, P’09, P’14, spouse of Professor Heather O’Neill and former lecturer of economics, died August 17, 2019.

RON HESS “ Ron taught a difficult subject, and he had high standards for his students, but he always encouraged them and believed in them. He provided gentle encouragement and gave students hope when they were doubting themselves. ”

RONALD HESS, a professor emeritus of chemistry who served the college with distinction for a remarkable 50 years, passed away on Monday, July 1, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease and following surgery for a broken hip.

“Ron touched the lives of thousands of Ursinus students throughout his remarkable 50-year career,” said Mark Ellison, the David Laucks Hain Professor of Chemistry at Ursinus. “In addition to being a passionate teacher of the very difficult subject of organic chemistry, Ron was a down-to-earth person who could easily connect with students.”

“He loved when students visited his office, and he would talk with them at length about organic chemistry, baseball, his beloved dogs, trains (a hobby and passion of his), and anything that was on the student’s

mind,” Ellison said.

“Ron taught a difficult subject, and he had high standards for his students, but he always encouraged them and believed in them. He provided gentle encouragement and gave students hope when they were doubting themselves. For many students, Ron was not just a teacher, he was a life coach.”

Hess arrived at Ursinus in 1966 after earning his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Lock Haven State College. During his time at Ursinus, he served as advisor to the BrownbackAnders Pre-Health Society, Cub & Key Society, and was pre-legal advisor.

Along with serving as chemistry department chair, Hess taught many courses in organic chemistry and general chemistry while advising

numerous students in honors research and directed research.

In 1967, Hess received his doctoral degree from Cornell University. He was honored with the title of David Laucks Hain Professor of Chemistry at Ursinus in 2003. In 2005, Hess was awarded the Freshman Advising Award and in 2008, he received the American Chemical Society Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Chemical Sciences (Philadelphia section). He retired and became professor emeritus in 2016. That April, he delivered his “last lecture” in Olin Auditorium in front of students, alumni and faculty colleagues, and received a standing ovation for a 50-year career.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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BEARS’ DEN

WEDDINGS 1

1

2

2

3

Fall Semester Music for 150 Carpenters On view through March 15, 2020

4

7

5

Ursinus Magazine publishes wedding photos in the magazine as well as online. Please send your favorite wedding memories. Digital photos can be emailed to ucmag@ursinus.edu.

Ursinus College reserves the right to reject publication of photos that are not of publishable quality. We regret that we are not able to return print photographs.

Questions can be addressed to the office of alumni relations, 610-409-3585, or by emailing ucmag@ursinus.edu.

6

1 Kathleen Murley ’11 and Shane Hermann ’14 were married on September 8, 2018. 2 Fallon Szarko ’04 and Joseph Esposito were married on March 17, 2018. 3 Kate Lechleitner ’12 and Chris Whitten were married on September 22, 2018. 4 Alexandra Neal ’12 and Andrew Saa ’13 were married on September 22, 2018. 5 Byron Coleman ’03 and Becky Welde Coleman were married on August 31, 2018. 6 Kristy George ’12 and Michael Bloom ’12 were married on October 6, 2018. 7 Samantha Squires ’14 and Kale Drost ’15 were married on April 27, 2019. 8 Cara Goldberg ’04 and Michael Kirmse were married on June 14, 2019.

8

URSINUS WEDDING PHOTOS

IT’S

In celebration of Ursinus College’s 150th anniversary and the Berman Museum’s 30th anniversary, the museum will present a special performance piece by Douglas Henderson, a sound artist whose work spans media. Henderson composed an immersive sound performance featuring 150 workers, 150 hammers, sawhorses and some 10,000 nails, working in unison to create a unique score.

easy

TO FALL IN

#Giving2UCday

Handel’s Messiah

December 3, 2019

December 8, 2019

Let’s make our annual “Giving Tuesday” historic! Donations for this special dayof-giving go directly to supporting the annual fund and scholarships. We’re seeking 1,869 donors in 24 hours!

One of the most beloved traditions at Ursinus takes on a new look for the 150th anniversary, as audience members are invited to join the college choir and Meistersingers in performing selections from the iconic oratorio.

MLK Week

Founders Day

Week of January 20, 2019

February 5, 2019

The campus hosts a weeklong series of events honoring Dr. King. Among them: a collaboration with Dr. Patricia Lott that includes an immersive historical exhibition of campus.

The community celebrates the birthday of the college. This year, we host a special series of TEDx-style talks about unique campus collaborations among staff.

Commons Grand Opening

Celebration of Student Achievement

Join us as we celebrate the opening of our new community gateway.

Alumni Weekend April 24–25, 2019 Wedding packages are available for 2020!

Alumni receive a 25% discount on space rentals!

Ursinus

Contact case@ursinus.edu or 610-409-3002.

Wear your Ursinus pride with new 150th anniversary apparel and accessories.

Spring Semester

April 2019

AT

We don’t look a day over 150!

Reunite with your friends and classmates, spend time with students, visit classes and grab a new sweatshirt at our new Commons!

April 23, 2019 This tradition of student scholarship is celebrated at venues across campus.

Commencement May 16, 2019 A special send-off to the Class of 2020— our official sesquicentennial class!

Visit our bookstore on campus or call 610-409-3584.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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BEARS’ DEN

LET’S GET SOCIAL! @curranevents_

@UrsinusCollege #Ursinus Nobody: Not a single soul: Me: OMG is that an Ursinus bumper sticker?! I need to speed up so I can see who it is!!!! @harrybambiii

@ursinusgym

Appreciation post for our amazing parents & families that came out to Wisconsin this past weekend for #NCGAgym Nationals!! Your support means SO much! Thank you! #Family #ThisIsUS #Ursinus #upthebears #ncaagym #whyd3 #collegegym

♥

I explored another UC this past year! Living in another country for almost a year has forever changed the way I perceive my surroundings.

My exchange in Chile occurred at a critical point in my life and I want to be truthful, gentle, and fearless in everything I do from now on. @jakelachowicz

Love randomly running into my Ursinus folks while out and about

When it finally hits you that you’ll never have late night pancakes at Wismer ever again.

@humorofphilly

THIS DOG DEFINITELY CONTINUES TO DO TRICKS

And we can show you a sure way to make a tax-wise gift from your IRA assets

ACT NOW! Congress made the IRA charitable rollover provision PERMANENT in 2016!

This Alumni Weekend is a part of a yearlong celebration marking our sesquicentennial—150 years of proud history, academic achievement, transformation and community.

During Alumni Weekend, you will reminisce, explore the Ursinus of today and learn what the next 150 years may bring.

This occasion gives us the opportunity to honor our past and our long commitment to the liberal arts while also celebrating a future that holds so much promise.

Join us as we look back and lean forward during Alumni Weekend 2020 on April 24-25!

Special reunion celebrations for the classes of 1960, 1965 and 1970!

Direct gifts to Ursinus College from your IRA can:

For your gift to qualify for benefits under the now-permanent law:

•

Be an easy and convenient way to make a gift from one of your major assets.

•

You must be 70½ or older at the time of your gift.

•

Be excluded from your gross income in the year of the gift: a tax-free rollover.

•

The transfer must go directly from your IRA to Ursinus College.

•

Count toward your annual required minimum distribution (RMD).

•

Your total IRA charitable gift transfer(s) cannot exceed $100,000 per calendar year.

•

Your gift must be outright—no planned gift arrangements are allowed.

For information on how to structure such a charitable gift, please contact us today or visit our gift planning website at ursinus.giftplans.org and choose How to Give/Gifts from Retirement Plans.

Mark P. Gadson, Executive Director Leadership Giving and Advancement Resources 610-409-3164 | mgadson@ursinus.edu The information contained herein is offered for general informational and educational purposes.

Please consult your advisers for applicability to your personal situation.

Ursinus Magazine • Fall 2019

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601 E. Main St. • Collegeville, PA 19426-1000 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

photo BEN ALLWEIN ’18