Io Triumphe! Spring-Summer 2011

Vol. LXXVI, No. 1

A Civil War Soldier’s Letters Home 14

Cynthia Falardeau, ’87: Redefining Success 18

Natalie Taylor, ’04: Beginning Anew 20

IoTriumphe!

spring - summer

2011

T he M agazine

for

A lumni

and

F riends

of

A lbion C ollege

Artistic Vision Ken Shenstone, ’84, melds ancient forms and modern ideas.

A Recipe for Success Your gifts to the Albion College Fund help to provide opportunities for future scientists, researchers, artists, authors, teachers, and entrepreneurs like Pat and Matt.

Pat and Matt opened “Makin’ Crêpes” on campus this year after developing a business plan prompted by their student entrepreneurial exchange in France through Albion’s Gerstacker Institute. The late-night crêperie was an immediate hit, and the May 2011 grads look forward to expanding to campuses throughout the state and around the country.

They also look forward to giving back to their alma mater.

When you give to the Albion College Fund, you are not only investing in talented, hardworking students like Pat and Matt.

You are also inspiring and motivating them to do the same. And that’s a recipe for success that is worth sharing.

Give online at www.albion.edu/givenow/ or call 517/629-0448 for more information.

office of institutional advancement 611 e. porter st. albion, mi 49224 517/629-0448 giving@albion.edu www.albion.edu/giving/

Susan Sadler is a partner in the law firm of Dawda, Mann, Mulcahy, The Lux Fiat Society ($50,000 and above) Albion College Io Triumphe!

Society ($25,000-$49,999) and Sadler,The PLC, in Bloomfield Giving Societies The Trustees’ Society ($10,000-$24,999) Hills, Mich. She is currently a President’s ($5,000-$9,999) member of The Albion College’sSociety Alumni Purple & Gold Society ($2,500-$4,999) AssociationThe Board of Directors.

The 1835 Society ($1,835) The Briton Round Table Society ($1,000-$2,499) The Crest Society ($500-$999) The Shield Society ($100-$499) The Stockwell Society (Deferred gifts and bequests)

IoTriumphe! Staff Editor: Sarah Briggs Contributing Writers: Bobby Lee, Jake Weber Class Notes Writer: Luann Shepherd Design: Susan Carol Rowe

IoTriumphe!

Io Triumphe! is published twice annually by the Office of Communications, Albion College, 611 E. Porter St., Albion, MI 49224.

It is distributed free to alumni and friends of the College. The paper for this magazine contains 10% postconsumer fiber.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Office of Communications, Albion College, 611 E. Porter St., Albion, MI 49224.

World Wide Web: www.albion.edu Albion College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability, as protected by law, in all educational programs and activities, admission of students, and conditions of employment.

About Our Name The unusual name for this publication comes from a yell written by members of the Class of 1900. The beginning words of the yell, “Io Triumphe!,” were probably borrowed from the poems of the Roman writer, Horace. Some phrases were taken from other college yells and others from a Greek play presented on campus during the period.

In 1936, the alumni of Albion College voted to name their magazine after the yell which by then had become a College tradition. For years, Albion’s incoming students have learned these lines by heart: Io Triumphe! Io Triumphe!

Haben swaben rebecca le animor Whoop te whoop te sheller de-vere De-boom de ral de-i de-pa— Hooneka henaka whack a whack A-hob dob balde bora bolde bara Con slomade hob dob rah!

Al-bi-on Rah! Cover photo by Dave Trumpie.

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Web Communications: John Perney

spring-summer 2011 The Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Albion College

Features

20

10

Finding Peace

Chance Encounters

Natalie Taylor’s Story of Loss and Beginning Anew

Ken Shenstone’s Artistic Journey

14 All for the Union Newton Bibbins’ Civil War Letters

Departments

2 3 22

18

24 28

Presidential Ponderings Briton Bits Giving to Albion Jack Ludington’s Legacy

Alumni Association News Albionotes

Sweet Success Cynthia Falardeau’s Different Path to Achievement

(Top) The second annual Young Alumni Awards ceremony was held April 15, 2011 (see page 24).

Spring-Summer 2011 | 1

Pres!dent!al ponder!ngs

Inspiration to Serve Amid the gloomy news reports about our nation’s struggle to come out of the current economic recession, it was truly heartening for our campus community to celebrate the accomplishments of some of our youngest graduates during this April’s Young Alumni Awards ceremony. Each graduate returned to campus to be recognized in front of family, friends, and faculty in a moving ceremony held in the science complex atrium. These young men and women continue the long legacy of achievement by Albion alumni and remind us once again why it is that we have committed ourselves to educating the next generation of our nation’s leaders.

Consider just two of the ten exceptional honorees this year: Debora Makuei, ’08, a Sudanese refugee, came to this country as a teenager. Instead of closing the door on her past, Debora has continued to work for positive change in Sudan. Since her graduation from Albion, she has become an advocate for the people of Southern Sudan, serving on a board overseeing the construction plans for a school and hospital in that region’s Duk County.

In November 2010, Debora was one of three representatives from the United States

2 | Io Triumphe!

invited to attend a Sudanese Summit where fifteen young Sudanese leaders from around the world discussed the country’s future.

She recently completed a master’s degree and continues to support and counsel other Sudanese refugees here in Michigan.

Mike Kopec, ’05, put together an impressive resumé as a medical student at Wayne State University, conducting research that won two prestigious awards and resulted in an article published in Family Medicine. He went on to graduate with high distinction in 2009. Despite the demands of his medical studies, he still put in hundreds of volunteer hours at Detroit-area health clinics and with senior citizen and violence awareness programs. He was honored as the Volunteer of the Year at Karmanos Hospice.

Now in his residency at the University of Michigan, he was recently elected chief resident in family medicine for 2011-12.

This year’s award winners, each in their own way, have made the most of their abilities—building on their achievements at Albion by continuing their education at some of the nation’s premier graduate and professional schools and pursuing careers as entrepreneurs, scientific researchers, health care professionals, and public servants.

However, what was most striking as I read the biographies of this year’s award winners was their constant desire to use their talents to make an impact on society, to better the lives of those around them. While these young people undoubtedly brought their passion for service with them to

college, Albion nurtured that commitment and expanded the opportunities for its expression.

Even as we celebrate their accomplishments, we are also challenged by these remarkable young people to do more for society. As a campus community, we must continually dedicate ourselves to achieving the ideal expressed in our current strategic plan: our graduates will become “engaged, courageous, and responsible citizens prepared to lead in a diverse and global society.” This ethic of leadership and service has long been a part of the College’s heritage, and it continues to play out in many ways: among the recent notable examples are our emerging partnerships with Detroitarea organizations to aid in that city’s revitalization and our involvement in our local Albion community to help it overcome its current economic and social challenges.

As individuals—faculty, staff, students, and alumni—we too should find in the lives of these young women and men inspiration to serve others in our own ways, utilizing whatever knowledge and skills we have to offer. Margaret Mead said it best: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Donna Randall President drandall@albion.edu.

T he latest news around campus

Top Accounting Executives Bring Expertise to Albion

By Jake Weber The dry stuff of accounting was nowhere to be found as southern Michigan professionals joined Albion students and faculty April 5 for a fascinating and frank discussion of accounting standards issues. Two former chairmen of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) plus a current senior FASB adviser presented a panel discussion as part of a daylong program for accounting students and members of the Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management.

Albion College has a unique affiliation with the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Ed Jenkins, ’57, was FASB chair from 1997 to 2002, while Jim Leisenring, ’62, is a current senior adviser to the organization. Immediate past FASB chair Bob Herz rounded out the panel, moderated by retired PricewaterhouseCoopers executive Rich Baird, ’78.

A point repeatedly stressed by the panelists was the critical function of accounting standards in ensuring that companies, stockholders, and the general public have accurate information, even when the information isn’t popular. Recent crises in the housing market and with corporate

Wellness Rules in 2011-12 Albion College will kick off the 2011-12 theme year devoted to wellness with a health and fitness fair for the campus community Aug. 25 during the first week of fall classes. Opening Convocation, slated for late August as well, will also reflect this year’s theme. Subsequent months during

and government pension plans resulted from “kicking the can down the street,” said Jenkins, explaining that companies didn’t “face up to the legacy of their decisions. . . . Standard-setters are unfairly blamed for trying to ruin the economy, when we were trying . . . to keep people informed.”

Leisenring added to this point, citing recent banking crises in Europe. “People say, ‘You should have told us this bank is at risk,’” Leisenring explained. “Well, my job is to report the financial statement. Your job is to understand the amount of risk. Too many things are called audit failures that are something else.

“One of the things we need to do is separate politics from regulation, and regulation from accounting information,” said Leisenring, noting that he and Herz worked extensively on this point during the past decade. “I told the Senate banking committee that if they want to let banks carry a $100-million deficit, that’s their business.

Just don’t ask us to redefine accounting to hide the fact that [a bank] has a $100-million deficit. There’s no public policy question that [can’t be answered] in the public interest with clear and accurate accounting information,” Leisenring concluded.

Another worldwide concern, said Herz, is financial sustainability. “From governments to personal households, we’re living beyond our means. . . . We’re not on a sustainable path,” he said.

the academic year will feature events on a particular aspect of wellness including: physical/nutritional, psychological, occupational, cultural, spiritual, and environmental.

The Calvaruso Keynote Address, scheduled for April 19 as part of the 2012 Isaac Student Research Symposium, will be offered

by Laurie Garrett, an expert on global health care, infectious disease, and disease prevention. A Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Garrett

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B r ! ton B ! ts

Jim Leisenring, ’62, (right) and Ed Jenkins, ’57, (next to Leisenring) spoke on current and future challenges in financial regulation and reporting during a campus panel discussion, moderated by Rich Baird, ’78, in April. Both Leisenring and Jenkins have had key roles with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). They were joined by immediate past FASB chair Bob Herz.

Jenkins noted that the current nature of international business calls for international accounting standards, something the FASB is interested in helping develop. “You can’t pick up the Wall Street Journal without seeing an American company has bought a German company, or a German company has bought a French company,” he said.

“Investors need to have a common set of standards to make good judgments.”

is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Garrett

For more information on the Year of Wellness, go to: www.albion.edu/ wellness/.

Spring-Summer 2011 | 3

Br!ton B!ts

New Look Coming for Albion’s Library

mcf illustrations

The interior of Stockwell Library will have a dramatic new look following renovations that began in May. The building’s redesigned first floor, to be named the Cutler Commons, will include group study areas (at right), a one-stop service desk (at left), and a spacious café.

Renovations are now under way to transform the first floor of the Stockwell Library building and the bridge connecting Stockwell to the Mudd Learning Center into Cutler Commons, an active learning space wired for the latest technology and featuring a new café and other casual meeting areas.

The improvements, slated for completion by mid-August, have been made possible by a leadership gift from Sally Stark Cutler, ’75, and her husband, Sandy Cutler. In making the gift, Sally Cutler noted that “libraries are changing, with constantly advancing technology for locating and presenting information.

If Albion is to remain competitive, the library needs to keep up with these trends. Sandy and I are pleased that we can help make this possible at Albion.” Members of the College’s Board of Trustees have also made gifts to the project.

“This leadership gift from Sally and Sandy Cutler and the support from our trustees allow us to move forward quickly on library improvements that have been in the planning stages for many months,” said President Donna Randall. “We are literally redefining what our library should be and how it can better serve the entire campus community, and it’s most gratifying to be taking this next step.”

Technology is just one of the factors prompting libraries to change today. They are also adapting to new, more interactive approaches to teaching and learning.

“In the new Cutler Commons,” explained Provost Susan Conner, “students will find an environment that will be bright, welcoming, vibrant. While there will continue to be quiet 4 | Io Triumphe!

Cutler Commons will be a “busy, active space,” according to Mike Van Houten, library co-director. Modular furnishings, portable white boards, and readily accessible data and power sources will mean that the work areas can be easily reconfigured to support different needs.

Stockwell’s redesigned front entrance, which will become the library’s main entryway, will lead directly into the Cutler Commons. This summer’s improvements are the first phase of a long-term renovation plan. space in the library for individual research, reflection, and writing, the Commons will provide social space, creative space, and work areas for groups.”

Traffic patterns within Albion’s library will also change following the renovations.

The Stockwell building’s front door will once again become the main entrance to the library complex and will lead directly into the Cutler Commons, underscoring the central role of this space.

Also coming thanks to the renovation is a College-run café, with a full-service coffee bar and delicatessen-style offerings.

“With these renovations, I think students will be much more likely to use the library as a resource,” said student library employee Audrey Huggett. “Better support for our laptops, the new, comfortable furniture, and the café all mean the library will be a more relaxed and inviting place to study.”

To see the Cutler Commons take shape this summer, go to: www.albion.edu/library/ cutler-commons/.

Campus Rallies to Fight Hunger

Work has begun on the installation of new football and track surfaces and other improvements in Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium. The $1.1-million project will be completed before fall sports practices start in mid-August. At Morley Fraser Field, the grass football field will be replaced with state-of-theart artificial turf. Elkin Isaac Track will get a new base and all-weather running surface. In addition, new cages for the discus and hammer and a launch area for javelin throwing events will be installed. “The renovations will add to the beauty of our campus and make SprankleSprandel Stadium and Elkin Isaac Track a superb venue for Division III competition,” noted head football coach Craig Rundle, ’74.

Every six seconds, a child dies from hungerrelated causes. On March 26, nearly 175 volunteers came together with one mission: to stop that cycle. The Albion College chapters of Circle K International (CKI), Peace Action, and Mortar Board sponsored a 10,000-meal packaging session with the Kids Against Hunger Coalition of Oak Park, Mich. Kids Against Hunger ships nutritious meals to malnourished children in developing countries and around the United States.

The sponsoring clubs’ members were joined by other university CKI chapters and many members of Albion’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, as well as other student volunteers.

Participants exceeded the 10,000-meal goal, packaging a total of 10,368 meals, which will feed 124,416 children. One-third of those meals were sent to the Food Bank of South Central Michigan, which serves the needs of Calhoun County. The remaining two-thirds of the meals were sent to Kenya and Haiti.

A seasoned athletic administrator with PAC-10 and Big Ten experience has been named director of athletics at Albion College, effective July 1. President Donna Randall announced the appointment of Matthew Arend, senior associate athletic director for external operations at Oregon State University, to the College’s top athletic post.

In this role, Arend will oversee Albion’s 22 varsity sports, intramural and recreational activities, and athletic facilities.

“Matt Arend comes to us with broad experience in athletic administration, including marketing and fundraising,” President Randall said. “Through his leadership and his collegial style, he has dramatically increased Oregon State’s fan base and ticket sales, and he has been instrumental in raising funds for annual operations and new facilities.

B. LEE PHOTO

Arend Named Albion’s Athletic Director

FORESITE ILLUSTRATION

Athletic Facilities Upgrades Under Way

By Courtney Meyer, ’11

“The improvements in Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium will allow us to continue our fine Briton sports tradition, by providing the outstanding facilities that will permit our students to excel,” President Donna Randall said. This architect’s rendering depicts the new artificial turf field and resurfaced track. The stadium’s main seating area appears at bottom.

To watch the progress of the work at Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium this summer, go to: www.albion.edu/sports/ football-field-upgrade/.

We welcome his enthusiasm and creative ideas for further developing Briton athletics.”

A native of Bridgman, Mich., Arend has been on staff at Oregon State since 2002, when he joined Arend the athletic department as director of ticket operations.

Since then, he has moved through increasingly responsible roles in external operations, overseeing marketing and promotion, video operations, sports information, and merchandising. Arend has assisted in the development of a donor membership drive and in multimillion-dollar fundraising projects including several new indoor and outdoor athletic facilities.

Before moving to Oregon State, Arend served as assistant ticket manager at the University of Iowa for two years and as a graduate assistant at Western Michigan University, where he received a master’s degree. He also earned his bachelor’s degree at Western Michigan.

Arend’s appointment begins as Albion undertakes improvements this summer in its Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium. (See story above.) These renovations are part of a multiyear effort to upgrade the College’s indoor and outdoor athletic facilities.

“Throughout the interview process,” Arend said, “it was clear that the Albion College coaches, staff, students, and alumni are committed to making Briton athletics the best the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association has to offer. This commitment will be crucial as we move to complete all phases of the capital campaign for athletics.

I am very excited to become a part of the rich tradition that is Briton athletics.”

Spring-Summer 2011 | 5

Br!ton B!ts

Albion students have once again captured some top honors in national competitions. n Chelsea Denault, ’12, was one of 30 students in the nation to be selected for the 2011 Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Program this spring. The Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Program identifies and supports the top undergraduate majors in American history across the country.

“Chelsea brings to any discussion a strong analytical mind,” said Al Pheley, director of the Ford Institute for Leadership in Public Policy and Service. “She has the ability to look at today’s most pressing issues and determine their historical roots as well as their future relevance. All of this stems from her love of American history which has developed since she was a young child.”

Under the program, Denault participated in a one-week intensive history program in New York City in June, visiting museums and historical sites in New York City and meeting with distinguished historians, writers, editors, museum curators, and other professionals to participate in discussions about major issues in American history and careers in the field. n Pryce Hadley, ’12, is the third Albion student in five years to be named a Udall Scholar by the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation.

Hadley is majoring in environmental science and Spanish, with a concentration in environmental studies and membership in the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program. Along with receiving a $5,000 Udall scholarship, Hadley will attend a program this summer in Tucson, Ariz., which will feature numerous policymakers and community leaders in environmental fields.

“Pryce is an outstanding student, who somehow has time to perform an impressive amount as an environmental activist,” observed Tim Lincoln, director of Albion’s Center for Sustainability and the Environment (CSE). “To me, he’s what the CSE and Albion College are all about—an outstanding student who does not ‘leave it in the classroom,’ but rather applies his 6 | Io Triumphe!

Denault

B. LEE PHOTO

PHOTO COURTESY OF P. HADLEY

Juniors Win National Awards

Hadley

knowledge and energies to helping solve real, pressing problems.”

Hadley is a co-founder of the Albion College Student Farm and the organizer of the semiannual campus Green Day environmental fair.

The 80 Udall Scholars were selected from among 510 candidates nominated by 231 —Jake Weber colleges and universities. n When Nick Herrman, ’12, began work as a first-year research assistant for chemistry professor Vanessa McCaffrey, little did he know where that might lead.

His research with McCaffrey on molecules with magnetic properties opened the door to a summer 2011 internship at the University of Tübingen in Germany sponsored by the Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) program.

Herrman “Nick has been a tremendous asset,” McCaffrey said. “I was sad to lose him over the summer, but participation in the RISE program will be an outstanding experience for him, both scientifically and personally.”

RISE, sponsored by the German government, funds approximately 200 Englishspeaking undergraduate students working as paid interns for German doctoral degree candidates. Herrman said the project he’ll be working on is related to how plants react to a bacterial attack.

In addition to applying to medical schools upon returning to campus for his senior year—he lists Mayo Medical School and the University of Michigan as his top choices— Herrman plans to continue his work in McCaffrey’s lab as well as playing the trombone in the symphonic and marching bands.

Herrman is Albion’s second RISE student —Bobby Lee in the past five years.

Commencement 2011 A gorgeous spring day opened Albion’s 2011 commencement exercises on May 7. Rain clouds helped speed the end of the ceremony, but not before some 380 graduates received their diplomas in front of a crowd of family, faculty, staff, and alumni gathered on the Quadrangle. (Middle right) President Randall presented commencement speaker and trustee Richard Smith, ’68, with the Briton Medallion. Smith, former editor-in-chief of Newsweek, has endowed both the College’s Common Reading Experience and a student scholarship. He urged the graduates to consider deeper meanings in familiar aphorisms. Sometimes the things that are the easiest to say are the hardest to do, he remarked, encouraging the class to hold fast to values of honesty, hard work, and openness to new ideas, and to become agents of change.

For more photos and a short video of the 2011 commencement ceremony, go to: www.albion.edu/commencement/.

By Jake Weber

B. LEE PHOTO

Despite struggling to understand the conversation, French exchange student Jennifer Perenchio learned a lot from her first class at Albion. While she appreciated the course content, even more impressive to her was the honest give-and-take between the professor and the students. “That would not happen in France,” she noted.

An English major at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin (UVSQ), Perenchio was the first UVSQ student to attend Albion as part of an exchange agreement made between the two schools in 2009. The agreement gives students from both schools a “typical” student experience in regular college classes rather than a separate track designed just for international students.

“I went to UVSQ as a sort of scout for Albion, to see how Albion students might do there,” said Merrill Howland, ’09, who

Professors Emmanuel Yewah, left, and ‘Dimeji Togunde examine recent African immigration in their new book.

Professors in Print

By Bobby Lee Albion College professors Emmanuel Yewah and ’Dimeji Togunde have added a new perspective to the intellectual discourse on African immigration to the United States in their edited book, Across the Atlantic: African Immigrants in the United States Diaspora, published in December 2010 by Common Ground at the University of Illinois.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 led to a substantial increase in the number of immigrants from Africa. The

spent the fall 2010 semester at UVSQ taking undergraduate courses. Howland, who studied in Paris in 2008, found many opportunities at UVSQ for Albion students to extend their educational experience. “It’s a taste of what a European education is actually like,” she said.

In their exchange observations, Howland and Perenchio agreed that both educational systems—and campuses—have a lot to offer.

“The classes were interesting and good, but all I had to do was go to the lectures—there weren’t any tests except for one big test at the end,” Howland remarked. For her part, Perenchio marveled at the amount of studying her American peers did throughout the term.

Both women also agreed that UVSQ’s location outside Paris provided wide-ranging opportunities for travel, and both appreciated Albion’s ethos of serving the individual student. This student-centered attitude led in part to Perenchio’s decision to extend her stay to a full year in Albion. “Albion’s Center for International Education helps you with

legislation, a product of the 1960s civil rights movement, abolished the system of nationalorigin quotas and enabled immigrants to enter the U.S. on the basis of their skills.

Other immigration acts have also created a significant African presence in the U.S. An estimated 1.5-million African immigrants now reside in America.

Togunde, chair of the Anthropology and Sociology Department and the John S. Ludington Professor of the Social Sciences, noted that “unlike previous studies of African immigration, this book is the first to document how media and African literary texts create images [of the U.S.] in the minds of Africans living in Africa.”

In the chapter he wrote for the book, Togunde examines Nigerian university students’ attitudes toward the U.S. and assesses their interest in coming to the U.S. In his research, he found that almost 90 percent of survey respondents wanted to come to America, and that while the media convey both positive and negative messages about the U.S., the respondents tended to remember only positive information.

Yewah, the Howard L. McGregor Endowed Professor of Humanities and professor of French, added that “given the strong

everything,” she noted. “And all the time you make friends and meet new people.”

Last but not least, Howland and Perenchio agreed that the most difficult part of the experience was the leaving. “In the beginning you might be homesick, but you get over that,” Howland said. “I’ve been back four months now, and I still miss UVSQ.”

J. WEBER PHOTO

Foreign Exchange

Jennifer Perenchio (left) and Merrill Howland, ’09, were the first participants in Albion’s student exchange program with the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin in France.

focus on Africans already in the United States in the existing literature, we wanted to look back to Africa not only to capture the fact that Africans do, indeed, have an existence prior to coming here but, more importantly, to explore the many factors that might have created certain perceptions of the United States—perceptions that ultimately ‘triggered’ the desire in some Africans to want to emigrate.”

Yewah’s piece draws from a wide range of literary and cultural texts dealing with African writers’ imaginative responses to their real or imagined encounter with America and Americans. He contends that these responses have the ability to “seduce” their readers into wanting to share in the writers’ experiences by performing the act of emigration.

Their chapters set the foundation for the book, which also includes essays by accomplished Africanist scholars from both the U.S. and Africa who examine how Africans draw from their spiritual experiences, nutritional habits, ethnic background, and cultural practices in their countries of origin as mechanisms for adaptation in America.

In August, ’Dimeji Togunde will become the dean of the Center for Global Education at Spelman College.

Spring-Summer 2011 | 7

Br!ton B!ts

short takes

Two Minutes with . . . Ken Kolmodin

By Sarah Briggs

Io Triumphe!: Looking back over your career, did you ever imagine you’d remain at Albion College for almost 30 years?

Kolmodin: Before I came to Albion College, I was in the foundry business in plant engineering and also in management. I was offered the job at the College, but assumed it would be for a pretty short term. I have stayed on because I liked the work. The Albion community was a great place for our kids as they were growing up. I liked the atmosphere, the people.

Of the many construction projects you have overseen, what ones have been the most challenging?

One of the most challenging projects we undertook was the renovation of Wesley Hall in the early ’80s. We tried to do it in phases and move the students from one section to another as the work progressed. I learned in a hurry that you don’t ever do that. Another challenging project was the science complex renovation, partly because of the scale of it but also because we had to preserve a good educational program for the students while we were renovating the existing buildings.

While it’s less obvious, we also did a huge amount of infrastructure work as part of the 1990s master plan—installing a new boiler plant, adding a chilled water plant, improving the phone system, upgrading the electrical and data network infrastructure—all during the same period that we were renovating Vulgamore and Robinson halls and building the Kellogg Center.

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You have made “green” initiatives a priority for Albion. What are some of the most important steps we’ve taken in greening our facilities?

We have had a very active energy conservation program extending back to the 1980s. In fact, in the ’80s, we got an award from the state of Michigan for some of the innovative things we were doing in conservation.

The science complex, of course, is LEEDcertified. One of the most noteworthy features in the new Kresge laboratory building there is the energy recovery program, through which heat reclaimed from the exhaust air is used to preheat intake air, making the building as energy efficient as possible. We are currently implementing leading edge technology allowing us to reduce air-changes based upon real-time air sampling.

One of the areas in which we have made huge advances is in building management technology.

We now have all of our buildings on a central backbone for systems control and can monitor all building performance from the Facilities Operations office, which in turn allows us to run our buildings as efficiently as we can. We also have sensor technology in place in many of our buildings to reduce energy use when people are not present. We are ahead of most institutions our size in using these technologies.

In your role, you often have worked closely with Albion city officials. How have you developed that relationship?

It’s important to recognize that the future of the College and the future of the city are linked. My involvement with the city goes way back—when we were working on our 1990s master plan at the College, the city was also developing a master plan, and I was chairman of the Planning Commission at the time. That put me in a good position to coordinate some of the plans and make sure the communication was good. Some of that planning in the 1990s has continued to this day—our concept of corridors connecting the campus and downtown actually began with

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Ken Kolmodin, associate vice president for facilities operations, retired in May after nearly 30 years at Albion College. He was awarded emeritus status for his many contributions to improving our campus facilities.

Ken Kolmodin’s knowledge and expertise in energy management have made Albion College a regional leader in this area.

that plan, and we are now working on implementation of that.

And after hours you have run the clock for Briton football and basketball games.

I took over the job of running the game clock from chemistry professor Paul Cook. When I started running the clock for football, we had a pretty antiquated scoreboard, and it was tricky to make sure the clock was right. The 1990s and the national championship year in football were really exciting times for all of us working behind the scenes during the games.

So where are we likely to find you in the coming months?

My wife, Linda, and I are both retiring this year, and we have two new grandsons, so that figures prominently in what we are doing, and we will spend a lot more time on our sailboat on Lake Michigan. We also will do some traveling, particularly out West.

Go Br!ts!

Jake Rinkinen hits his target on and off the mound.

By Zach Dirlam, ’13 It’s hard to believe four years ago Jake Rinkinen, ’11, wasn’t even thinking about coming to Albion. Rinkinen had his sights set on attending a much larger school in the fall of 2007, at least until he met Briton baseball coach Scott Carden.

“I had always attended smaller schools growing up so Albion’s size was a good fit,” Rinkinen says. “Coach Carden also convinced me that at Albion I could focus on my academic goals and still have a chance to compete in the sport I love.”

With majors in anthropology/sociology and chemistry, the May graduate has put together a full resumé as a starting pitcher on the varsity baseball team, as a former member of the junior varsity golf team—and as a published writer in some leading scholarly journals.

He has worked as a research assistant for Albion sociology professor ‘Dimeji Togunde, and to date Rinkinen has been listed as a co-author on three published papers. The scholarly work has given Rinkinen greater insight into the meaning of diversity in the 21st century while also building an impressive body of work that helped him attract the attention of medical schools.

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In the Zone

May graduate Jake Rinkinen was the recipient of Albion College’s Randall Award for the Outstanding Senior Chemistry Major and the Notestein Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anthropology and Sociology this spring. He also stood out as a starting pitcher for the Briton baseball team this season, his fourth on the squad.

“Dr. Togunde has done a great job of being my mentor and has helped teach me the way to look empirically at different research subjects,” Rinkinen says.

Their first joint effort, “Agents of Change: Gender Differences in Migration Intentions among University Undergraduates in Nigeria,” was published in August 2009 in the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Two subsequent articles also dealt with their attitudinal studies of young adults in Nigeria and were published in international journals.

“It was pretty cool to see that first article published,” Rinkinen says modestly. “It’s still pretty rare for undergraduates to get published as much as I have.”

Togunde notes that Rinkinen has the ability to work intensely and successfully under pressure.

“Jake is a conscientious student, focused, and determined to succeed,” Togunde says. “In October 2007, he asked if he could join my research team when I took his firstyear seminar class on a field trip to Texas and Mexico. I gladly accepted him as my research assistant because of his outstanding performance in that class, ‘Issues in U.S.

Briton Sports on the Web Did you know that you can find all of the following on the Albion College sports Web site?

• Sports news and results

• SportsNet broadcast schedules

• Schedules and rosters

• Sports archives

Follow the Britons at: www.albion.edu/sports/.

It’s the next best thing to being here!

View the installation of artificial turf at SprankleSprandel Stadium at: www.albion.edu/sports/ football-field-upgrade/.

Immigration.’ Jake has a tremendous ability to synthesize the literature in a clear fashion.

I have also found him to be very insightful during data analysis, interpretation, and discussion of results.”

In addition to his work with Togunde at Albion, Rinkinen spent last summer in Louisville, Ky., doing research at the Owensboro Cancer Research Program where he studied a new therapy to combat breast and non-small cell lung cancers, and this spring he presented his findings at the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting in Washington, D.C. Despite the commitment he made to his research and writing, he found time to play the game he cherishes.

“Baseball has been one of those things that helped me get away from the school work for a little while,” Rinkinen says.

Baseball played an important part in Rinkinen’s life before he arrived on Albion’s campus—he served as a batboy for the Detroit Tigers for three years—and in May he closed out a career in which he racked up nine complete games on the mound while wearing the purple and gold jersey.

Rinkinen has earned his teammates’ respect on and off the diamond. “Everybody has a lot of respect for what he has been able to accomplish and what he is going to accomplish in his life,” Carden says.

In August, Rinkinen heads to medical school at the University of Michigan, and he eventually plans to become an orthopedic surgeon.

“Jake has done a lot for our program, and hopefully we have done a lot for him too,” Carden says. “He’ll always be a part of something special being a student and an Albion baseball player.”

Spring-Summer 2011 | 9

PHOTO COURTESY OF K. SHENSTONE

Ken Shenstone, ’84, creates most of his one-of-a-kind pottery using a wood-fired kiln. “The qualities I search for with this process,” he says, “are the same as those I seek in people and the world at large. [The pieces] should show transformation, intuition, and clarity.”

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CHANCE ENCOUNTERS Ken Shenstone’s Artistic Journey Ken Shenstone, ’84, took his first ceramics class at Albion College in 1982, and what began as a hobby soon turned into a career. Dick Leach, the ceramics professor at the time, was known nationally for his knowledge and practice of wood- and salt-firing techniques. Shenstone became one of Leach’s most dedicated students and learned kiln-building by working alongside Leach on many kiln construction projects. Shenstone says he’s just one of many Albion alumni, including his friend David Smith, ’81, in Stoughton, Wisconsin, who are now involved with large-scale wood-fired kilns across the country.

“I think that’s really a testament to Dick Leach’s influence on us,” he

D. TRUMPIE PHOTO

reflects, “that so many of us are part of this field.”

Ken Shenstone’s studio is a timber-frame building constructed largely from reclaimed materials. He views it as a communal space, opening it to many artistic collaborators.

Spring-Summer 2011 | 11

After Shenstone graduated, he put down roots in Albion and began work on a small wood kiln with fellow artist David “Buck” Habicht, ’80. That first kiln proved to be too small, so Shenstone decided to create an industrial-size wood kiln to accommodate the large quantity of pieces he and his fellow ceramists were making.

Shenstone acquired discarded fireproof brick from a local foundry to build what would become, at the time, the largest wood kiln in North America. He combined the original design of the foundry’s steel furnace with the ancient design of Japanese anagama kilns to create a 1,000-cubic-foot structure that can hold some 3,000 pieces of pottery.

The aesthetic of this type of kiln is to create a temperature and environment in which wood ash reacts with the clay to form a natural glaze on the ceramic art.

This kiln sits on the six-acre property that Shenstone owns just down the road from Albion College’s Bellemont Manor and remains one of the largest wood-fired kilns in North America.

The kiln is usually fired once a year.

The loading process lasts about a month and requires careful consideration of the position of each piece to create interesting and unusual patterns from the ash flowing through the kiln. Many people are needed to help control the temperature and the amount of wood coals in the kiln. This is accomplished by maintaining the right amount of wood in each of the eleven stoke holes and monitoring the kiln around the clock. The firing process, which can burn

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through as many as fourteen full cords of wood, takes from nine to eleven days followed by another fourteen days for cooling.

“Firing with wood creates surfaces like no other method of firing,” Shenstone explains. Much is left to chance with this method, and each piece is unique.

The kiln itself is a sort of “collaborator” in the firing, he adds, and contributes to the success of the pieces.

Much of the joy of creating a kiln of this magnitude comes from the fact that so many people are needed for the firing, Shenstone says. “Making art on this scale encourages people to be creative and become collaborators with each other,” he continues. “It takes them out of their daily routine, and at the end of the day everyone feels like they helped to accomplish something really beautiful.”

Several years ago, Shenstone built a 4,000-squarefoot studio with Habicht to enable more artists to join them on projects. The studio was hand-built based on a design by architect Craig Hoernschemeyer, ’71, a former sculpture professor at Albion College. Like the anagama kiln, the studio was made from recycled materials. The timber-frame building was constructed from local ash trees killed by the emerald ash borer, and the siding was milled from recycled telephone poles. “The result,” Shenstone says, “is a beautiful, eccentric, highly functional building.”

His years of experience have given Shenstone an encyclopedic knowledge of glazing and firing techniques, which he shares with artists throughout the Great Lakes region. He also is frequently asked to consult on and build kilns for other ceramic artists.

Shenstone continues to push the boundaries of his kiln-building and has recently added a noborigama wood-fired kiln and a gas-fired kiln to his collection of on-site studio kilns. The gas kiln, completed this past winter, was recreated from a kiln Leach had on campus.

PHOTO COURTESY OF K. SHENSTONE

that his current assistant, Anne Beyer, ’10, showed him how to create more extreme angles in wheel-thrown pottery by using sewing techniques.

In addition to doing his pottery, he devotes his days to engineering and construction projects and to fine woodworking, interests he attributes to “family traditions of engineering and artistry.” Recently, he built a print display table for the newly restored Albion print collection.

Working with clay, Shenstone says, still keeps him enthralled. Creation is about responding to the clay, physically feeling it take shape. “I’m imbuing that object with a sense of place, maybe. . . . I don’t care to imbue the object with a sense of myself,” he muses.

“That’s why my art isn’t so personal—it’s supposed to be more universal.”

Ken Shenstone welcomes visitors to come and enjoy tours of the kilns and the facilities. The anagama kiln will fire October 14-23, 2011, and guests are encouraged to watch or participate in the firing. For more information about upcoming events at Shenstone’s studio, please visit www.kenshenstone.com.

Jake Weber was a contributing writer for this article.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF K. SHENSTONE

“Every kiln is different, and that will always be reflected through the final art piece,” he says.

Shenstone takes pride in his practice of making clay objects. His organic wheel-thrown objects are the perfect receptacles for the unpredictable ash pattern only found in the wood-firing process.

Many ceramic artists tend to focus on one or two types of work. However, Shenstone’s pottery is eclectic.

“I make whatever needs making—bottles and sushi ware and sculpture,” he says. His sources of inspiration are equally diverse, and can range from everyday household objects to an ocean dive through a school of squid.

“Ken is a voracious reader,” notes Hoernschemeyer, a longtime friend. “He is always turning up new ideas that he’s come across either in literature or music and doesn’t hesitate to let that filter into the way he thinks about art. These other art forms are not only entertaining, but he looks to them for inspiration.”

Not surprisingly, given his proximity to campus, Shenstone’s association with Albion College has remained strong. Shenstone has taught classes for the Art Department over the years, and most of his studio assistants have been Albion alumni from the surrounding area. His Albion studio assistants have always been valuable sources for new ideas in the studio. He notes

Spring-Summer 2011 | 13

All for Newton Bibbins’ Letters

By Sarah Briggs As we recognize the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War this year, it seems an appropriate time to also commemorate the men with connections to Albion College who fought in that war. Some 90,000 Michigan soldiers and sailors served during the Civil War. According to historian Willis Dunbar, “The Union cause was strongly and enthusiastically supported in all of [Michigan’s higher education institutions], and . . . each one contributed students and alumni to the Union armies. . . . But college life went on very much as usual during the war. There were no training units on campuses . . . nor were there food shortages or rationing.

At times it must have seemed that the war was far away from Michigan, but its hard reality was brought home frequently by news of death by enemy action or disease of a former student or alumnus.”

Albion had been established by the Michigan Territorial Legislature in 1835 as the Wesleyan Seminary, and the institution’s name was changed to Albion College on February 25, 1861 when the legislature conferred the full authority to award four-year college degrees on both men and women. We are fortunate to have a detailed account, through letters preserved by his family, of the Civil War service of one young Wesleyan Seminary alumnus, Newton Bibbins. A native of Hanover, Michigan, Bibbins attended the Wesleyan Seminary during the two years preceding the outbreak of the conflict and withdrew from classes to join the Union army. He served with the 1st Regiment of the Michigan Infantry. His sister, Emma, later attended Albion College, as did her husband, Walter Dean. The Dean family now counts dozens of members who are Albion College alumni, and later descendants built what is now Bellemont Manor, the College’s conference center.

Newton Bibbins’ story of his service with the Army of the Potomac is a moving portrayal of the sacrifices made by ordinary soldiers for the Union cause.

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Wesleyan Seminary alumnus Newton Bibbins enlisted with the Union army in the summer of 1861. He saw action in some of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. In a letter home he proudly writes: “The Michigan boys are recommended highly by [the] generals, commending . . . [them] as being the best lot of men in the service.”

the Union from the Battlegrounds I hope that there will [be] force enough to wipe the rebellion out & that it may never be known again upon the face of the earth. May the blood of secessionism & slavery run like a river from every secessionist state until all has disappeared from our view.

When Newton Bibbins wrote those words in spring 1862, he had been serving in the Union army for seven months, and still had all of the fervor of a newly enlisted soldier. As a member of Company D of the 1st Regiment of the Michigan Infantry attached to the Army of the Potomac, he would eventually witness some of the bloodiest action of the war in southern Maryland and northern Virginia.

However, he spent the first months of his enlistment in and around Baltimore with the troops guarding the Washington & Baltimore railroad line. He writes of camp life in late 1861: “Our tent is floored with cedar bough[s] which makes it very good sleeping. Upon this we place our oil cloths & overcoats which construct our bedstead. For a covering we have our blankets to put over us. . . .

For breakfast we most generally have potatoes, fried pork, sometimes soft & hard bread, beef also. For dinner bean or beef soup with a little meat, for supper rice & hominy sweetened with sugar or molasses, with bread.”

By the spring of 1862, the Army of the Potomac was on the move in northern Virginia, and from Bibbins’ outpost near Hampton Roads he watched the naval encounters involving the ironclad warships, the Monitor and the Merrimac. “Last Sunday the rebel steamer Merrimac came out & attacked our vessels,” he recounts. “She sank 2 of our[s] and disabled 2 more.”

As the campaign in northern Virginia got under way that spring, Bibbins notes, “We all stand ready to take [the] field at any hour of the day or night and fight for our lives. . . . This Reg[iment] has just commenced what they call a soldier’s life & before this war is through with I expect to see some pretty hard times both in battle & out . . . but let it come. I’m determined to stand up to my post come what will.” The realities of ‘a soldier’s life’ were setting in, as is evident in his description of an 80-mile march during this campaign: “[It] took us 4 days of hard marching with a load of a gun & equipment—40 rounds of cartridges, haversack of rations, canteen of water & tent. [T]he weather was very warm. Never do I want to make another such march as long as I am in the army but I presume that I shall. . . .”

Spring-Summer 2011 | 15

Bibbins was soon to be tested in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Following the Second Battle of Bull Run, Aug. 28-30, 1862, he writes to his family: We are completely demoralized since the battle of Aug. 30th which was fought at Manassas in part of the old Bull Run ground. I will give you a short sketch of the battle. . . .

[W]e marched right through an open field of 40 rods right up under a perfect shower of bullets. . . . Oh, my dear parents, how my heart did ache to see so many of my fellow soldiers fall right by my side. . . . We marched up within 8 rods of the rebels & there we halted & commenced firing. The boys fired their 40 rounds & the reserves that started to reinforce us came into [the] open field at the distance of about 4 rods & the fire was so hot that they had to turn back.

Well, at that we received orders to retreat which we did at our own risk of being shot. Well, you may judge for yourself—out of 277 men only 50 were present at roll call on the same evening. . . .

We lost our colonel and all the rest of the officers except 2 captains and 3 lieutenants. . . . It was a wonder that I didn’t get hit because I was one that helped support the colors. They were cut down twice & then came my turn to support them.

I carried the state banner half way through the field up to the scene of action & also brought it off of the field without getting a scratch. I know that God protected me & my dear parents your prayers I know have been answered. . . .

The 90,000 Michigan soldiers and sailors who served during the Civil War are commemorated at locations across the state.

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Just a few weeks later, during the Maryland Campaign, he would see action at Antietam. He again describes the carnage he has witnessed: “The severest fighting of the war was followed by the most appalling sight upon the battlefield. Never I believe was the ground strewn with the bodies of the dead, wounded & the dying in a greater number . . . as upon that little piece of ground where the battle was fought that morning.”

Events took a dramatic turn for Bibbins during the final battle of the Maryland Campaign Sept. 20, 1862. He was captured at Shepherdstown and held as a prisoner of war at Annapolis for several months until released again to his unit. Of that battle, he writes a few weeks later, “[I]f you could have been where I was after I was taken [prisoner] your hearts would have ceased to beat. I got in such a position as to see the whole movement. As the boys were fording the stream there was such a shower of bullets poured into them as to make the river look black in places. . . .” A subsequent letter suggests the heartache that his parents must have endured waiting for news of their son: “I hope you didn’t put yourselves to any great trouble when you were looking over the list of killed, wounded & missing in the papers when you found my name there. . . .”

Thoughts of home were never far away. In a letter to his sister, Emma, during this time he writes: “Many a night have I dreamed of being with you. . . .

Keep up good courage. That day is coming where we shall all meet where parting will never be known.”

He rejoined his regiment Dec. 15, only “to find that my dear old friend, Capt. J.B. Kennedy, lay a corpse before me killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg Dec. 14 while leading his men on a charge in the face of the enemy’s cannon through an open field.”

From the earliest days of his enlistment, disease, especially dysentery, remained a constant concern.

Among Bibbins’ personal effects is a journal containing several home remedies for curing this ailment.

By the spring of 1863, Bibbins was suffering from “chronic diarrhea,” and he was eventually hospitalized. While he recovered sufficiently to rejoin his unit that summer, he would continue to be plagued by this malady.

By May 1864, the Union army was once again on the road to Richmond. As the war stretches on, Bibbins’ letters from that period reflect his fuller understanding of the costs of the conflict for all of those involved. “The country we are passing through has never before been visited by our army,” he says, “& the farmer’s crops look well, wheat in the head & crops in general are good. But what is left after we have passed through will do no good. Destruction follows in our path. . . .”

In that same letter he writes, “Mother, I think this thing will soon be decided for better, or for worse. If we gain the day, oh what a happy day that first day of peace will be . . . when we poor soldiers can return to our loved ones at home & again enjoy the blessings of a free life. . . . If God lets me live I expect . . . to have good times on my return. . . . Remember me ever in your family circle for you know my situation & the straits by which I’m surrounded.”

Ill health strikes Bibbins again in the fall of 1864, and he is allowed to return home on furlough to regain his strength. Unfortunately, recovery never comes. A local physician notifies the army of Bibbins’ condition: “I have carefully examined this soldier, and find that he has chronic diarrhea . . . and in consequence thereof he is, in my opinion, unfit for duty and not able to travel or be moved. Recovery is doubtful in this case.” Newton Bibbins did not live long enough to see the Civil War’s successful end. He died Jan. 13, 1865.

Editor’s note: We are grateful to the entire Dean family for contributing memorabilia from Newton Bibbins to the Albion College Archives. A special thanks also goes to Dean family member Rick Lange, ’70, for providing access to Bibbins’ Civil War letters.

Other Alumni Who Served in the Civil War In the years shortly after its founding, the Wesleyan Seminary, the forerunner of Albion College, offered both high school and college-level preparation in the literary and fine arts and the natural sciences for the children of white settlers and of nearby Indian tribes.

Among these students were a number who went on to serve in the Union army including: Clinton Bowen Fisk. A student at the Wesleyan Seminary’s Preparatory Department in the mid-1840s, Fisk was appointed colonel of the 33rd Missouri Infantry in 1862. He was later commissioned as a brigadier general and defended against Confederate raids into Missouri. During Reconstruction, Fisk was assistant commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau for Kentucky and Tennessee and helped establish what would become Fisk University.

Israel Canton Smith. A Wesleyan Seminary student in 1853-1854, Smith joined the 3rd Michigan Infantry. After defending Washington, D.C. at the beginning of the war, he was wounded in action at Gettysburg July 2, 1863. In March 1865, he was made a brevet brigadier general “for gallant and meritorious service” during the war.

Harrison Soule. Another Wesleyan Seminary student, Soule enlisted in the 6th Michigan Infantry in 1861 and was severely wounded in action at Baton Rouge, Louisiana a year later. After serving in Mississippi and Alabama, in 1865, he was commissioned as a major. He later became treasurer of the University of Michigan.

David Wakazoo. A young student in the Wesleyan Seminary’s Indian Department in the mid1840s, Wakazoo was descended from a line of Odawa chiefs. When the Civil War began in 1861, he enlisted in a Michigan infantry unit and later arranged a transfer to the 1st Regiment of the Michigan Sharpshooters, Company K (a unit comprised of Native Americans). He served from 1863 to 1865. After the war, Wakazoo became an ordained Episcopal minister and served the Minnesota Chippewa.

Spring-Summer 2011 | 17

Sweet Success Cynthia Falardeau’s Different Path to Achievement

By Cynthia Carr Falardeau, ’87

D. RITCHIE PHOTO

Jim and Cynthia Carr Falardeau, ’87, pictured with their son, Wyatt, recently created a short video recounting their story as parents of a child with special needs.

The video was named a finalist in the 2010 CNN iReports Awards. Cynthia has become a constant advocate for her son and other special-needs families.

My tale is not about pity. It’s about having your life transformed through adversity. The result is something I would have never anticipated.

Let me start by telling you my story. I once believed that bad things happened to people who did not know how to plan. I tried with all my heart to do all things “just right” to ensure a path to success. My mantra was, “Just stay organized, and the path will follow.” You never plan for the unexpected. You just believe that it will never happen to you.

I have discovered that life has a way of defying even the best of planners. My husband, Jim, and I had tried unsuccessfully for 11 years to have a child.

And then I found out I was pregnant. As with any dream, reality set in soon after the realization of achieving the goal. Now what?

The “what” soon became the “why.” Why were there so many roadblocks to bringing our son into this world? How could this happen to someone so organized?

I will never forget seeing our son’s tiny foot during a 3-D ultrasound. The doctors sounded like Charlie Brown’s parents. As they produced those “wah-wah” sounds, I was transfixed by the curling of those tiny and sweet little toes. For an instant it was as if they were waving to me. I was falling in love. Not with an appendage but with a microscopic life I had created.

That evening as my husband recounted the doctors’ predictions of preterm labor and the reality that our son might not be born full-term, much less have the cognitive abilities I had expected, my definitions of success began to change.

I had always chased what I thought I should be and who I needed to become. Suddenly, I cared less

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about my Franklin Planner and achieving material success. I was all about bringing a child into this world and becoming the most fearless Mommy to rule the earth. Step aside, Mother Nature, hell hath no fury like the mother of a child with special needs!

As much as I fought and advocated for our son, preterm labor began at 24 weeks. I hung on for nine weeks in the hospital, some 150 miles from home. In the spirit of sisterhood, I worked with the hospital chaplain to start a program called “Mothers in Waiting” for those on the “antepartum” floor. My days as a Kappa Delta rush chair at Albion served me well. I tried hard to bring this diverse group of women together in fellowship for the sole purpose of encouraging others. I learned more from them than I gave during the process.

Looking back, I thought those were the hardest days. When our son, Wyatt, was born, I remember breathing a sigh of relief as I woke from the anesthesia. Then just as I released that breath, the doctor launched the words that knocked me flat: “Your son’s right hand and forearm are dead due to amniotic banding. We have specialists coming in to see his limb.”

For an instant I thought, “Is this really a bad dream?” As it turned out, it was the reality I was living. A week later my son’s hand and forearm were amputated. The real test of my talents had only just begun.

You see, there was yet another challenge facing us: my son’s autism. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)— and how those are perceived—were a much more formidable roadblock to our son’s success.

This story is less about those struggles and more about what I did to overcome them and become the most aggressive “Tiger Mom” the planet had ever seen. The fact is that I believed with all my heart that this child, our son Wyatt, had a place in this world. I began to draw upon my Albion experience to be his advocate and to step out to encourage other parents.

When you are in a crisis mode, you turn to what you know best.

I could envision Char Duff, a Briton coach and director of women’s athletics during my days at Albion. Her wise and matter-of-fact ways reminded me of how a run could clear your head and give you perspective. I returned to exercising. It was less about the achievement of a toned body and more about positioning me for the acceptance of my son’s differences. It was also about making peace with the situation I had been dealt.

Writing was my solace. On my shoulder was Bruce Weaver, with whom I studied communications. He was always trying to prepare us for the “real world.” I often thought how ironic it was that I would find peace through the one skill he had drilled me on the most—my writing.

So what have I learned? As much as you plan, you really can’t control your future. Life happens. You have to call upon those skills that you hone along the way to serve you well on the path of life.

I never wanted to join the club of parents with special-needs children. But everything changed when Wyatt was born. It’s true nothing has turned out as I had planned. Actually, it is better than I could have ever imagined.

My husband and I were married on a foggy night at Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. As we exited the church, the bell tolled and the fog rolled in. I felt secure and looked to a future with a man who made me laugh and challenged me to be all that I dreamed of.

Eleven years would zoom by. On January 9, 2003, our lives were profoundly enriched by the gift of our son. It has not always been an easy road. However, Wyatt brings joy to our lives. He is the light of our existence.

The struggles have brought us the ability to find joy in the simple things. I advocated for Wyatt’s first prosthetic arm. The doctors told me he would adapt and eventually want not to wear it. I was determined to prove them wrong, but Wyatt showed me that he was just fine without it. Early on he gained great satisfaction from watching the reaction of others when he pulled off his false limb. That spark was a constant reminder that although he was non-verbal for almost seven years, I knew he was intelligent and understood everything.

We would go on to spend an average of $24,000 out-of-pocket for several years as we sought help for Wyatt’s needs. I reinvented myself from a retail executive to a director of an education foundation. It was a transformation driven by campaigning in my community and a redefinition of the skills that I had developed at Albion.

Eventually, after the purchase of an augmentative device and loads of private therapy, we reached a breakthrough in 2009. That Christmas, I heard the bells that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described.

Just as life seemed the darkest, we heard the most

amazing words for the first time: “Mama, Daddy, Santa was here!” It was the beginning of many milestones, and the road from self-contained classrooms to general education settings.

I would begin to write about our journey for parenting magazines and CNN iReports. The culmination of these successes was a video we created that was named a finalist in the inaugural CNN iReport Awards—Best of 2010. No one was more stunned or surprised than my husband and I. We were in the top five out of 150,000 interview submissions.

It was a victory that was not about us. It was all about sharing our story to encourage others and to raise awareness that sometimes the sweetest joys come from a journey that is not so anticipated. I know I will never make the top list of America’s leading entrepreneurs. However, I have achieved something greater. I have given my once non-verbal child a voice and advocated for his right to learn and succeed.

There is something dear about learning to appreciate the life you have and the simple joys that are a result of just living. I believe it is in that same spirit that I often yell “Io Triumphe!” when I feel the blessings from my life merging with the gifts from my past years at Albion College.

“Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. . . .” Each day with our son is a gift.

I wouldn’t trade them for the world!

—Cynthia Falardeau

A self-described child’s advocate, Cynthia Carr Falardeau is the executive director of the Education Foundation of Indian River County (Florida). She is a regular contributor to Scripps Newspapers, Parenting Special Needs, and Florida Family News. In addition, she has had 15 stories published by CNN.com.

Falardeau also participated on the Team Up! with Autism Speaks Disney World Half-Marathon Team in January 2011. The team raised over $33,000. She and her family live in Vero Beach. Past president of the Junior League of Indian River County, Falardeau also serves on advisory committees for the local schools. She can be reached at cynthiafalardeau@msn.com.

Spring-Summer 2011 | 19

Finding Natalie Taylor tells her poignant story of loss and beginning anew.

By Natalie Sztykiel Taylor, ’04 In the spring of 2003, when I was a junior at Albion College, I took a literacy pedagogy class with Professor Judy Lockyer. As the overzealous student that I was, I arrived on the first day of class, with my books neatly stacked and an assortment of pens, ready to learn how to teach novels to secondary students. Dr. Lockyer, however, didn’t start with how to teach novels. She started with why to teach novels. “Why should To Kill a Mockingbird be taught?” was specifically the question. The answer wasn’t in my pedagogy books nor was she going to lecture on it. So, under the direction of Dr. Lockyer, we set out on the quest of why books are important to our students. In the summer of 2007— four years, a job, a marriage, and a pregnancy later—I returned to this question in the most unexpected way imaginable.

On June 17, 2007, my husband, Josh Taylor, also an Albion graduate, died tragically in a sporting accident. He was 27 years old. I was 24 years old. We had been married for exactly one year and six months. Our first baby, a boy, was due in October. Everything I knew about life changed in one moment. I had come from a world where if you worked hard and made smart decisions, things went your way. I had done just that: Earned a degree, got a job, got married, bought a house, and was ready for a child. And then, within seconds, I realized the world was actually this very unfair place where even with careful planning and all the right choices, things fell out from under you with absolutely no regard to how you felt about it.

All of the things you’d imagine a 24-year-old pregnant widow experiencing are pretty much what happened to me. I’ll spare you the details but I was devastated. I cried all the time. I sat on the floor of the shower starring hopelessly at my growing belly. I got mad at people for absolutely no reason at all. I hated when people came over, and I hated when they left. I hated talking about it, and I hated when no one asked me about it. Sadness took up permanent residence 20 | Io Triumphe!

in my brain and was occasionally swapped out for anger and resentment.

There were two things that brought me relief: reading and writing. Relief is even a strange word to use. At the time, nothing brought relief at all, but reading and writing came close. I read because I wanted to be alone a lot, but tried to concern myself with someone else’s story other than my own. I wrote because there was an overwhelming amount of stuff in my head, and it had to get out. The only way I can describe it is that, when you need to vomit, you run to a toilet and you puke and it hurts like hell at the time, but when you lean back against the bathtub, you know you will feel better eventually. With the same primal drive, I ran to the computer and spilled my guts until there was nothing left.

In the fall of 2007 I began my third year of teaching English at Berkley High School (thank you, Dr. Lockyer). Once I returned to teaching, three months after losing Josh and one month away from my due date, I realized I had a profound new connection with the books I taught. Gatsby longs to reinvent the past.

Celie from The Color Purple has to rediscover who she is after a life of tragic and painful events. Holden Caulfield’s brother died of leukemia, and one night Holden gets so mad he goes into his parents’ garage and breaks all of the glass with his bare hands. I lived in that mindset, in all of those mindsets to some degree— somehow it helped to know that even a fictional character understood the depth of my pain.

Once my son was born and I became a single mom, the same connection continued. Lady Macbeth loses her mind because she can’t sleep. Check. Gregor from The Metamorphosis lives to serve the needs of others and ends up turning into a bug. Check. Check. It was as if I was reading all of these books for the first time. Books had always been hugely important to me, but now in a world where no one could give me an answer, literature became the closest thing I could find.

Sharing pain, even if it is with people who aren’t real, is a strange and wonderful thing, but it wasn’t exactly the rope I needed to get me out of the trenches.

At some point, reflecting and thinking just weren’t enough to move me forward, so I eventually looked to my books not just for empathy, but for motivation. You see, there is one essential quality to all memorable protagonists—they change. Every teacher of books, from first grade to graduate school, always asks the basic question of storytelling: How does the main character change? This fact became hugely important to me.

People can change. We are not stuck in the same place forever, or at least we don’t have to be. Again,

Peace working on a really great answer. I still have the journal she made us keep during that pedagogy class. She wrote in the margins of one of my entries from 2003, “Never throw this away,” so I didn’t. (When Dr. Lockyer tells you to do something, you do it.) Through my books, raising my son, and living without Josh, I’ve learned that happily ever after, although it sounds nice, leaves out the most important part of the journey. Atticus doesn’t win his case, Tom Robinson dies, Scout realizes that her father cannot protect her from all dangers, no matter how hard he tries. So what do they do, despite these cold truths? What do I do? Cower and hide? Stay in bed? Harper Lee says no. We try our cases despite the imminent loss, and we press on despite the dangers that surround us. If I have learned anything from Dr. Lockyer, from my academic experience, from the last three and a half years of life, it is to listen to Harper Lee and Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston and a host of others. They know things that I will spend a lifetime trying to figure out. Through them I have started to heal and grow, and most importantly, I have found some peace.

Natalie Taylor’s first book, Signs of Life, was released in the U.S. in April 2011, in Australia in May, and will be out in the United Kingdom in July. The book has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Shape, Elle, and Working Mother. Learn more about Taylor and Signs of Life at www.AuthorNatalieTaylor.com. She and her son, Kai, currently live in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Reading and writing became the tools Natalie Taylor used to rebuild her life following the loss of her husband, Josh. She now shares her love of books— and the life lessons she has found in them—with her son, Kai.

B. MOUNTAIN PHOTO

I validated this claim with books. Harry Potter, Odysseus, Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God— they all grow and change. I realized that all of us can grow from a seed to a towering oak provided we are given the right caring environment, and, most importantly, time. At first, books were the things that lay next to me in bed, saying, “We know how you feel . . . it’ll be all right.” And then, I became obsessed with characters who emerged victoriously from monstrous challenges, and suddenly books became the voice that said, “Get up and start moving.”

My son, Kai, is now three, and my house is awash in an entirely new assortment of books and stories. Kai recently discovered my brother’s old Star Wars figures in my parents’ basement, and we talk about Luke Skywalker and Han Solo all the time. We just checked out the illustrated storybook of The Wizard of Oz from the library. These stories entertain us, but they also help me frame answers to tough questions. Kai asks a lot about his dad, and I always try to answer honestly.

We talk about how his dad is not here, but we have all sorts of other people to help, grandmas and aunties and uncles galore. Then we talk about how all families look different. Han Solo doesn’t have a mom or a dad.

Luke Skywalker was raised by a family who loved him like real parents. Dorothy and Toto live with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. The world can be a confusing place, whether you’re three or nearly 30, and books have helped us sort some things out.

So, to Dr. Lockyer’s question of why we read To Kill a Mockingbird or why to read at all, I am

Spring-Summer 2011 | 21

G ! V ! N G TO A L B ! ON

Securing the Future Jack Ludington’s Legacy for Albion The late John S. “Jack” Ludington, ’51, had a long history of giving back to Albion College. From serving on the Alumni Association Board of Directors to chairing the Albion College Board of Trustees to acting as an Albion ambassador in his hometown of Midland, he was all that you could ask for in an alumnus. Not only was he a devoted volunteer for Albion, but he was a generous donor, supporting numerous building campaigns and establishing an endowed professorship that now bears his name.

It’s not surprising, then, that in the last days of his life Ludington, who was chairman emeritus of Dow Corning Corporation, chose to make one final gift to Albion, this time an undesignated gift to the College’s endowment. As such, his gift will be invested as part of the endowment, and a portion of the income generated will be used in support of the teaching and learning that are at the heart of the Albion experience.

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Laura Ludington Hollenbeck, ’78, and Annie Ludington Sullivan, ’82, note that their father believed this gift was the best way for him to help secure Albion’s future.

“My dad always spoke so affectionately of Albion,” Laura says. “He valued the professors he had there and felt his Albion education made possible much of what he achieved in his career. He just knew that he wanted to make one last gift that would make possible those same kinds of experiences for other young people in the years ahead.”

Because endowment funds are invested in perpetuity, they provide a constant, dependable source of income for an institution. At Albion, endowment income helps bridge the gap between what students pay in tuition and the actual cost of their education. No student pays the full cost of his or her education.

Albion’s endowment income currently represents 14 percent of the annual operating budget. These funds support students, directly through scholarships and indirectly through the support of programs, both

academic and co-curricular. They support faculty research and professional development, our Institutes and athletic programs, and every activity on campus at some level.

According to Mike Frandsen, vice president for finance and administration, “Without the endowment, Albion would not be the institution we know today, and it would not be as well positioned to provide opportunities for future generations.”

Albion’s endowment is currently a healthy $168-million, making it the second largest among private colleges and universities in Michigan, according to figures from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO).

However, among the members of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, Albion’s endowment is relatively small, with Oberlin College having the largest in that group at nearly five times the value of Albion’s endowment. The College ranks 177th nationally among the 508 private institutions that participated in the NACUBO survey.

The College’s endowment has been built over time through careful stewardship and through charitable gifts. A key goal for the future is to continue this pattern of growth.

“A strong endowment enables an institution to change with the times,” notes President Donna Randall, “and to capitalize on emerging trends. By increasing Albion’s endowment through gifts such as this one from Jack Ludington, we can give the College this much-needed flexibility.”

Jack’s son, Tom Ludington, ’76, is now himself a College trustee and chairs the board’s Finance Committee.

“Dad was able to foresee many of the headwinds that private liberal arts colleges like Albion College would face,” Tom says, “particularly institutions that have traditionally served students from Michigan families.

He believed that building Albion’s endowment would be critical to the College’s success in moderating tuition demands on students but also maintaining competitive faculty and staff compensation, a belief shared by the current Board of Trustees. We will put his gift to good use.”

Endowment 101 Endowments are funds in which the original principal is invested and only a portion of the earnings are available to be spent. The available percentage of the endowment earnings is determined by a spending policy established by the Board of Trustees. The Board also sets the policy for the investment of endowment assets. The spending and investment policies are designed to support current needs and also to maintain the purchasing power of the endowment assets. While Albion College’s endowment suffered a loss in market value during the early months of the recession, as was the case with nearly all institutional endowments, it has rebounded with above-average returns as the markets have recovered.

Endowed funds exist in perpetuity. Translated, this means that the endowment exists

not only to keep Albion strong today but for many decades to come. More importantly, a healthy—and growing—endowment will be there to assist future generations of students.

For more information on making an endowment gift, please contact Shannon Duvall,

associate vice president for development (sduvall@albion.edu), Albion College, 611 E. Porter St., Albion, MI 49224, 517/629-0446.

Spring-Summer 2011 | 23

A l u m n ! A s s o c ! at ! o n N e w s ‘Top 10 in 10’ for 2011

Service was a strong theme among this year’s Young Alumni Award recipients, as Jeremy Gouldey, ’05, noted in his acceptance speech: “It is the strong foundation that Albion College provides all of its students that gives [us] the multitude of opportunities before us, and the tools to become whatever we want, to contribute to bettering our world.”

A Sudanese refugee, 2011 award winner Debora Makuei, ’08, was one of three representatives from the U.S. invited to a summit last year where 15 young Sudanese leaders discussed the country’s future.

Faculty, staff, family, and friends gathered in the science complex atrium for the second annual Young Alumni Awards ceremony April 15.

This year’s “Top 10 in 10” Young Alumni Award recipients included: (front row, from left) Kurt Medland, ’02, Jeremy Gouldey, ’05; (second row) Sarah Heddon, ’07, Mallory Brown, ’07, Debora Makuei, ’08, Kelly Kobus, ’07; (back row) Moose Scheib, ’02, Justin Newingham, ’01, Dan Westerhof, ’04, Mike Kopec, ’05.

2011 Young Alumni Awards Mallory E. Brown, ’07 Founder/Owner, World Clothes Line Farmington Hills, Michigan Jeremy C. Gouldey, ’05 Ph.D. Candidate, Northwestern University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Chicago, Illinois

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Sarah L. Heddon, ’07 Development Associate, Former ESL Instructor, International Rescue Committee Oakland, California Kelly D. Kobus, ’07 Owner, A Piece O’ Cake!

Lansing, Michigan Michael T. Kopec, ’05 Resident Physician, University of Michigan, Department of Family Medicine Ann Arbor, Michigan

Debora Y. Makuei, ’08 Case Worker Intern, Bethany Christian Services Grand Rapids, Michigan Kurt A. Medland, ’02 Political Officer, U.S. Department of State Alexandria, Virginia

Justin C. Newingham, ’01 Dentist/Owner, The Beautiful Smile Rochester Hills, Michigan Moose M. Scheib, ’02 Chairman and CEO, LoanMod.com Dearborn, Michigan Daniel L. Westerhof, ’04 Special Assistant to the Deputy Director, Peace Corps Washington, D.C.

To learn more about the Top 10 in 10 or submit a nomination for the 2012 Young Alumni Awards, go to: www.albion.edu/alumni/.

U P C O M I N G E V ENTS Please join other Albion alumni and friends at the following activities: Grand Slam Summer Bring family and friends for a great night with Albion alumni as we put Albion College on scoreboards in your area! Admission includes an Albion baseball hat, door prizes, and fun! Purchase tickets online at: www.albion.edu/alumni/grandslam/. For additional information, call 517/629-0448.

Note: Home team is listed first. All times local.

July July July July

20 21 25 29

August August August August August

3 9 10 11 17

West Michigan Whitecaps vs. Kane County Cougars, 7:00 p.m. ($27 per person) Great Lakes Loons vs. Beloit Snappers, 7:05 p.m. ($30 per person) Lansing Lugnuts vs. Beloit Snappers, 7:05 p.m. ($16 per person) Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks, 7:10 p.m. ($20 per person) Detroit Tigers vs. Texas Rangers, 7:05 p.m. ($26 per person) Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals, 7:05 p.m. ($25 per person) Cleveland Indians vs. Detroit Tigers, 7:05 p.m. ($22 per person) Battle Creek Bombers vs. Green Bay Bullfrogs, 7:05 p.m. ($14 per person) Traverse City Beach Bums vs. Lake Erie Crushers, 7:05 p.m. ($15 per person)

On-Campus Events Watch www.albion.edu/alumni/ for full details on the following weekend activities for the whole family.

September 23-25 Homecoming, Football: Albion vs. University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point November 12

Briton Spirit Day, Football: Albion vs. Trine

Want to know what Albion alumni are up to in your area?

The list of regional chapters is growing! We welcome your involvement.

Southern California Chair: Melissa Peterson Roudabush, ’00 E-mail: mroudabush@gmail.com

Detroit Chair: Eric Backman, ’08 E-mail: eric.backman@nmfn.com

Chicago Chair: Herb Lentz, ’00 E-mail: herb.lentz@gmail.com

New England Chair: Jon Smith, ’08 E-mail: jsmith1812@gmail.com

Great Lakes Bay Chair: Patrick Schefsky, ’06 E-mail: schefsky@curriekendall.com

Washington, D.C. Chair: Kristen Neller Verderame, ’90 E-mail: kmverderame@yahoo.com

Traverse City Chair: Adam Whitson, ’06 E-mail: adam.whitson@plantemoran.com

Southwest Michigan Chair: Olivia Gardner, ’09 E-mail: olivia.gardner1@gmail.com

West Michigan Co-chairs: Pete, ’06, and Katie Tornga Grostic, ’06 E-mail: pmg11@albion.edu, kat10@albion.edu Go to www.albion.edu/alumnichapters/ for details on chapter events and for the links to their Facebook pages.

If there is not already a chapter in your area, e-mail alumniengagement@albion.edu or call 517/629-0247 to discuss opportunities to network with fellow alumni.

Spring-Summer 2011 | 25

A L u m n ! a s s o c ! at ! o n n e w s

2011

Homecoming Help us welcome Albion’s new mascot during Homecoming Weekend! Join in the fun as we show off what it means to be a “fighting Briton.” (For more information on the mascot, see page 41) You won’t want to miss the Homecoming football game vs. the University of WisconsinStevens Point, which will be played on the new artificial turf at Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium.

And you can enjoy the many other traditional Albion Homecoming events such as the Distinguished Alumni Awards luncheon, the parade through the heart of campus, the Alumni Association Family Tent with activities for all ages, and class reunions.

Friday, September 23 2011 Homecoming Award Recipients Albion College will honor the following individuals during Homecoming Weekend for their contributions to and passion for Albion College, their communities, and their professions.

Distinguished Alumni Award William H. Dobbins, ’74 Debra Wyatt Fellows, ’78 John C. Koegel, ’85, and Kathryn Koegel, ’78

Joel K. Manby, ’81 David C. Sennema, ’56

Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees Individuals Bradley W. Brown, ’96 (Baseball, Football) James H. Davis, ’95 (Football) Ronald L. Face, ’90 (Swimming/Diving) Dennis R. Frost, ’77 (Baseball, Basketball) Keith S. King, ’87 (Tennis) Coach David G. Egnatuk, ’71

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Todd A. Morris, ’95 (Baseball, Football) Melissa Hall Palmer, ’01 (Women’s Golf, Women’s Tennis) Tony M. Pokorzynski, ’85 (Track and Field) Erik L. Scollon, ’94 (Swimming) Mark A. Smith, ’91 (Baseball) Teams 1951-1955 Men’s Cross Country 1957 Men’s Cross Country 1999 Women’s Golf 2000 Women’s Golf

10 a.m. Fifteenth Annual Briton Classic Golf Tournament The Medalist Golf Club, Marshall Start off Homecoming Weekend with a great day of competition and camaraderie on the beautiful Medalist course. All alumni, parents, and friends are welcome. You can line up your own foursome or join with other players on the day of the event. More information is at: www.albion.edu/sports/ britonclassic/.

12 noon Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony Science Complex Atrium A luncheon and awards ceremony will honor this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.

3-5 p.m. Celebration of Life for Dr. John E. Hart Wendell Will Room, Stockwell Library Alumni and friends are invited to a celebration-of-life gathering in honor of John Hart, professor emeritus of English, who passed away April 10.

6 p.m. Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony Baldwin Hall Help us recognize this year’s Athletic Hall of Fame inductees for their contributions to athletics as students or alumni.

Saturday Class Reunions For classes ending in “1” or “6,” 1951-2011. Reunion information will be posted on the Web as details become available: www.albion.edu/homecoming/.

7:30 p.m. Music Department Collage Concert Goodrich Chapel Enjoy selections by large and small ensembles, as well as soloists. A special alumni and guest reception will be offered immediately following the performance. The concert is free and open to the public.

Saturday, September 24

Sunday, September 25

8 a.m. Golden Years Breakfast Upper Baldwin Dining Room All alumni who graduated in 1961 or before are invited to this complimentary breakfast.

11 a.m. Worship and Praise Service Wesley Chapel Sunday worship services at First United Methodist Church of Albion.

9 a.m., Contemporary. 11 a.m., Traditional. All are welcome. For more information, contact the church at 517/629-9425 or the Office of the Chaplain at 517/629-0492.

8:30 a.m. Alumni Band Rehearsal Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium (west end zone) Join the British Eighth as an alumni band guest. For more information, please contact Sam McIlhagga, band director, at smcilhagga@albion.edu.

11 a.m. Homecoming Parade Join us for a parade through the heart of campus on Hannah Street. The parade will feature the British Eighth, classic cars, the Homecoming Court, previous Homecoming queens, student organizations, and the College cheer team.

12 noon All-Class Picnic Luncheon for Alumni, Faculty, and Students Lomas Fieldhouse, Dow Recreation and Wellness Center All alumni are invited to a pre-game Motown luncheon, sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Leadership in Public Policy and Service. There will be reserved seating for reunion-year classes.

12-3 p.m. Family Tent Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium Stop by the Family Tent, which will be hosted by the Alumni Association Board of Directors again this year. Your entire family is invited to enjoy free Albion goodies, snacks, a bounce house, sand art, tattoos, photo opportunities, and lots more!

1 p.m. Football vs. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium Help our new mascot cheer on the Britons! The halftime program will feature the Homecoming Court, the British Eighth, and the Alumni Band.

Open Houses/Receptions Please go to www.albion.edu/homecoming/ for more information about open houses and receptions. Academic departments, Institutes, the Athletic Department, fraternities, and sororities will be hosting Homecoming events during the day on Saturday.

Art Exhibit Bobbitt Visual Arts Center The exhibit features newly restored prints from Albion’s extraordinary collection, 16th-20th centuries. Open during posted hours.

2011 Class Reunions Class reunions are located in Albion, Battle Creek, Marshall, and Jackson this year.

Class of 1951

Class of 1986

Baldwin Hall, Albion College Coordinated by Albion College

Cascarelli’s, Albion Chairs: Carolyn Curtis Gessner, Eileen Smith Hamm, and Laura Gononian Mayer

Class of 1956 Schuler’s Restaurant, Marshall Chairs: Connie Blessing Burt, Richard Fluke, and Barbara Guy Hanson

Class of 1961 Science Complex Atrium, Albion College Chairs: Bob Andrews and Bruce Fitch

Class of 1966

Class of 1991 Wendell Will Faculty Room, Stockwell Mudd Library, Albion College Chairs: Cheryl Henderson Almeda and Heramil Almeda

Class of 1996 The Medalist Golf Club, Marshall Chair: Jason Tague

Daryl’s Downtown Restaurant, Jackson Chairs: Ginny Amrein Fergueson and Sheran Payne Wallis

Class of 2001

Class of 1971

Class of 2006

Schuler’s Restaurant, Marshall Chairs: Dave Egnatuk and Mark Garrison

Country Lanes Bowling Alley, Albion Chairs: Katie Tornga Grostic and Peter Grostic

Class of 1976 Hampton Inn, Marshall Chair: Alby Zatkoff

Class of 1981 Location TBD For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Engagement at alumniengagement@albion.edu.

Cereal City Grill, Holiday Inn, Battle Creek Chair: Nate Rohde

Class of 2011 Pre-game Tailgate, Ferguson Building Parking Lot, Albion Chairs: Sumedha Makker and Libby Schulte

Spring-Summer 2011 | 27

What’s a Briton?

Find out this fall as we introduce

Albion’s new mascot!

After polling students on several mascot designs this spring, we have a winner. Check out www.albion.edu/mascot/ to see what’s in store.

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID RAVENNA, MI PERMIT NO. 320

Communications Office 611 E. Porter Street Albion, MI 49224-1831

Stadium Upgrade Kicked Off in May Installation of new synthetic turf at Albion’s Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium will be completed this summer. Preparatory work on Morley Fraser Field (pictured) began in May. Not only does the state-of-the-art turf provide a superior playing surface, but it reduces maintenance costs by eliminating the need for mowing, watering, and pest and weed control. Also coming this summer is a new running surface for Elkin R. Isaac Track, as well as newly designed areas for field events. Watch the work as it progresses at: www.albion.edu/sports/ football-field-upgrade/.

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