Comments

Ed and Tiauna

What a beautiful story, and great to hear candor about how Bates had and has room to grow (“Like Father, Like Daughter,” Spring 2021). And it’s so inspiring to hear of Ed’s and Tiauna’s stories.

Ed was a JA in Hedge my freshman year, and I remember seeing Tiauna visit one time. I and so many others looked up to him so much. To have this additional story context is amazing. Cricket Alioto Fuller ’05 Hope, Maine

The piece on Ed Walker and his daughter was moving. The quality of writing and photography are a credit to Bates College. The entire magazine makes me proud to identify with Bates. Your staff brings an alumnus back to the values we share. Richard Gurney ’61 Amagansett, N.Y.

SHRED VIDEO

Gene Clough, a beloved retired lecturer in geology and physics, did a tandem skydive at SkyDive New England in Lebanon, Maine, on Oct. 11, 2021.

Peter Goodrich ’89 walks in front of Pettigrew Hall in 1988. This past year, Goodrich, who died 20 years ago on 9/11 aboard hijacked United Flight 175, was honored with the funding, by his wife, Rachel Carr Goodrich ’90, and Bates friends, of the Peter M. Goodrich ’89 Memorial Scholarship Fund. Oh, Ed Walker, I remember you! What a beautiful life and family. Many smiles to you and for seeing part of your journey. Sarah Hannigen Laughlin ’03 Cheswick, Pa. There are so many heroes in this story, not least of which was Ed, who knew exactly what he needed to do to give his daughter a great chance in life! Susan Somer Futter P’21 Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y

Gene Goes Skydiving

What a gem of a man (“Gene Clough goes skydiving,” BatesNews, Oct. 14, 2021). I’ll never forget his course, “Anatomy of a Few Small Machines.”

‘A Giver’

The loss of Peter is still unfathomable. I had the honor of babysitting Peter and his brother Foster for years, as we lived in the same neighborhood in Williamstown, Mass. He and Foss were like little brothers to me. His parents, Don and the late Sally Goodrich, were the most generous people I had ever known. They brought me on my college tours from Connecticut to Maine as my parents had no experience with such a daunting task. Peter inherited that generous soul.

Peter, I hope heaven is treating you well and that you are there with your mother. The spirit of the Goodriches’ goodwill lives on in many. Cricket Alioto Fuller ’05 Hope, Maine As someone who knew Peter Goodrich first as a competitor and later as a friend, this was a good memory (“Love persevering,” BatesNews, Sept. 9, 2021, and “Remembering Peter Goodrich,” the Bates Bobcast). Peter was a great athlete, a smart and tough competitor, and the kind of person who made everyone else around him up their game. Even more than that, he was a giver, and I think it was typical of Peter that later in his life he actually helped to coach teams he used to compete against in the hammer

COURTESY RACHEL CARR GOODRICH ’90 throw. He was a great man and is greatly missed. Scott Deering Raleigh, N.C.

The two Bates stories noted here reflect on the life of Peter Goodrich ’89, who was killed on 9/11, and the recent funding of a memorial scholarship fund in his name. During their time in college, Deering, a 1989 MIT graduate, and Peter Goodrich were the top two weight throwers in NCAA Division III. As Deering notes, competition and friendship were complementary, not contradictory. “I like him a lot,” Goodrich told a newspaper reporter in March 1989. “I think we’re both pretty good.” Following Goodrich’s death, Deering wrote a condolence letter to his wife, Rachel Carr Goodrich ’90. He said, “When it was not necessarily convenient or comfortable, Peter offered his friendship to me, and I have never forgotten it. I remember the competitive side of Peter who, while intense and focused, was also fair, honorable, and sportsmanly, win or lose.” — Editor

To this day, I credit Gene with my ability to turn an average Weber charcoal grill into a raging blast furnace (which cooks amazing rib- eyes, by the way) courtesy of a field trip to Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site and a subsequent working model of a blast furnace behind Hathorn Hall, consisting of fire bricks and a shop vac. Tim Bettencourt ’00 Stowe, Vt.

Air Bates

I enjoyed the piece about Northeast Airlines (“Recalling 1941, When Bates Touted ‘Up-to-the-Minute’ Airline Service,” BatesNews, April 16, 2021).

I, too, went to Bates via Northeast in September 1948 from Nantucket. I was all by myself with probably just one suitcase and a trunk waiting for me in the basement of Milliken House sent ahead by Railway Express. Thanks for the memories — hope to be on campus next year for my 70th Reunion. Marilyn Brown ’52 Chatham, Mass.

Transforming and Terrific

This is terrific news (“Bates announces $100 million initiative,” BatesNews, Sept. 28, 2021). I was Pell eligible and a first generation college graduate. Bates changed my life. I’m happy to see the door will be open for so many more to make that transformation. Ryan Neville-Shepard ’04 Fayetteville, Ark. For more about the $100 million financial aid initiative, see the story on page 12. — Editor

There’s a simple pleasure that I’ve really missed during

the pandemic: opening the door of a campus building to find out what’s going on inside.

It came to me as I walked to Coram Library for what would’ve been, in pre-pandemic days, a run-of-the-mill gathering. In this case, it was a dozen or so Bates professors, stationed in both Coram and Ladd Library, demonstrating how they use technology in their classrooms.

Like many places, Bates didn’t allow indoor campus events during the pandemic, only recently relaxing that prohibition. Perhaps that’s why I felt such anticipation (or nerves?) as I flashed my ID card to unlock the Coram door, pushed it open, and headed inside.

When I pass through a campus doorway, it feels like a fresh start, like a curtain rising to start a play. Maybe it’s a version of what psychologists call the “doorway effect,” how going through a doorway can actually make us forget things. Maybe, for me, going through a doorway resets my brain. Or maybe the anticipation dates to being a big fan of Let’s Make a Deal back in the day: “Let’s see what’s behind door No. 3!”

Passing through the doorway into Coram, I found Assistant Professor of Biology Andrew Mountcastle standing next to a recirculating water flow tank, built by Peter Beach, the longtime machinist based in Carnegie Science Hall. Mountcastle was showing colleagues what his students are up to this fall: researching the flow of water through freshwater sponges.

He had added microscopic tracer particles to the tank water, which became bright specks as they passed by a sheet of green laser light, sort of the way you can see dust motes move in the air when the late-afternoon sunlight hits them just right.

Mountcastle pointed to how the specks flowed into, out of, and around a “sponge” in the tank, actually a 3-D printed model of a sponge.

Sponges are filter feeders, explained Mountcastle, that work to pull nutrients from water that flows through their bodies. I asked, “Do sponges have to orient themselves in a certain way in a river to maximize their feeding?” To which he replied, “That’s a great question!”

I must say, it feels pretty, pretty, pretty good when an expert responds to a question with, “That’s a great question!” (So much better than, “You have great Zoom lighting.”)

To be sure, there’s some cynicism about the “great question” reply, since you hear it a lot in media interviews. It’s a way for interviewees to avoid directly answering a question.

But Mountcastle wasn’t avoiding my question with a dodge, duck, dip, dive, or dodge. Fully animated, he explained how he and his students have found sponge specimens in a nearby river that tilt with the flow of the water.

They’ve used their lab sponge model to see if tilting makes the flow of nutrients more efficient. That doesn’t seem to be the case, so something else must be afoot. As they say, more research is necessary.

When I left Coram, the sun had set. As the door fell into place behind me, I thought about how, someday soon, a gathering of Bates folks might once again feel routine. I hope it always feels as remarkable.

H. Jay Burns, Editor jburns@bates.edu

Comments are selected from Bates social media platforms, online Bates News stories, and email and postal submissions, based on relevance to college issues and topics discussed in Bates Magazine. Comments may be edited for length and clarity. Email: magazine@bates.edu

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