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M AG A Z I N E

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Weathering the rankings storm

p.24

How Duke learned to be a better neighbor p.30

Where do you want to go in 2015?

www.dukealumnitravel.com Wai-O-Tapu geothermal pool, NZ Australia & New Zealand Oct. 28-Nov. 18 Paris Immersion, Oct. 11-22

Photos courtesy of iStock

Columbia & Snake Rivers Journey Oct. 27-Nov. 2

Coastal Iberia Oct. 23-31

Chasing the next autism breakthroughs p.42

They made their gifts independently, but are united in purpose. Two Fuqua Deans—one past, one present— have included the business school in their estate plans to continue its trajectory of growth and success. “I truly hope that Fuqua continues to grow and that the faculty, students, and staff will all be leaders in their chosen paths,” said Dean Emeritus Thomas Keller. “Team Fuqua, a concept that Tom began, is the philosophy that we can do more together than we can individually,” said Dean William Boulding. “The same is true through the impact of philanthropy.” YOUR INSPIRATION IS JUST THE STARTING POINT. No matter what inspires you to give back, our expert team can help you honor the memories, people, and places that matter to you. Smart charitable planning—at any giving level—may enable you to do more than you thought possible while propelling Duke forward. Contact us today to unleash your inner philanthropist.

OFFICE OF GIFT PLANNING (919) 681-0464 | giftplanning@duke.edu dukeforward.duke.edu/inspiration

inside

SPRING 2015 | VOL. 101 | NO. 1

FORUM

F E AT U R E S :

THE QUAD A new health-system leader, Bostock gets edgier, poems and protest

SPORTS

COVER:

A Numerical Storm

The university has to both embrace rankings and be clear about their limitations.

A three-sport athlete

FOREVER DUKE DAA activities and connections

30 A Better Neighbor

Twenty years ago, Duke began bridging the gap between the wealthy university and struggling Walltown.

Code Dependent

A Spectrum of Possibilities

CLASS NOTES

RETRO Pages from a spirited life

DEVIL’S OWN The university’s many paths forward

COVER: Illustration by Lacey Chylack

Meet some of Duke’s student programmers.

Researcher Geri Dawson is chasing the next autism breakthroughs.

50 My Simian, My Self

Aaron Sandel ’10 studies young chimps while pondering his road to adulthood.

Coder Ivonna Dumanyan p.41

FULLFRAME Dirt devils: Daniel Richter, a professor of soils and forest ecology, teaches his Nicholas School students about Calhoun soil in Duke Forest. Photo by Jared Lazarus

Forum

UNDERTHEGARGOYLES

19 5

36 4

8 2

itting down with Ted Fiske is bound to be an education, which is fitting, since the founder and editor of the Fiske Guide to Colleges is a former education editor of The New York Times. Fiske’s wife, Helen “Sunny” Ladd, is a Sanford professor, and they’ve embarked together on education-related research. If you talk to Fiske about this issue’s cover-story theme, college rankings, you’ll hear about a trend that’s as unfortunate as it is unstoppable. Writing for an education blog a few years ago, he noted that there are good reasons for college officials to take rankings seriously, particularly those published annually by U.S. News & World Report: A supposedly significant number gives something to brag about for schools that move up a notch or two. Enjoying his own effort at list-making, he went on to itemize the weaknesses behind the rankings. For example: They ignore the reality that the “best” place by some abstract standard isn’t the best for every college-goer; they rely heavily on inputs (the resources available to a college), but pay no attention to results—the quality of the education received; they don’t probe areas that defy measurement, such as whether professors actually care about teaching; and they assign arbitrary weights to the factors they do measure (say, SAT ranges). Fiske added that there’s a lot of gaming of the system—on the part of the schools and also on the part of the magazine, since a yearly “churning” of the rankings provides a big newsstand boost. And to what end? Rankings make a big deal of statistical differences that are in fact trivial, creating “an illusion of precision,” he said. The original Fiske Guide appeared in 1982. Fiske’s aim was, and remains, to craft narratives around what students say it’s like to be at a particular college. But even that first effort, the product of a non-rankings-crazed age, aroused the ire of educators. Fiske mentions speaking, just after the inaugural edition had come out, at a convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. They seemed “ready to chop me up and eat me for lunch.” U.S. News released its first college rankings a year later. The magazine was tweaking an earlier publishing success, a list it had published of the most influential Americans. And so a trend was born. Fiske says global rankings are spreading, as countries look to invest in their higher-education infrastructures, and as college-bound students break free of national boundaries. At the same time, U.S. colleges, in the endless effort to attract more and more applicants, are being forced to travel outside their familiar demographic zones—meaning they need to appear instantly and authoritatively attractive. As he observes, we find rankings irresistible. That’s the case even when some aspect of ourselves—our deep-thinking aspect—wants them to go away.

—Robert J. Bliwise, editor

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DUKE MAGAZINE SPRING 2015 | Vol. 101 | No. 1 EDITOR: Robert J. Bliwise A.M. ’88 MANAGING EDITOR: Adrienne Johnson Martin CLAY FELKER MAGAZINE FELLOW: Elizabeth Van Brocklin ’11 STAFF ASSISTANT: Delecia Hatcher PUBLISHER: Sterly L. Wilder ’83, associate vice president, Alumni Affairs INTERNS: Ryan Hoerger ’16, Tim Lerow ’15, Madeline Taylor ’18 SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR: Louise Flynn DESIGN CONSULTANT: Lacey Chylack, phase5creative, inc. PRINTER: Progress Printing OFFICERS, DUKE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: N. Shepard Moyle ’84, president, Sterly L. Wilder ’83, secretary-treasurer EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Lesley Jane Seymour ’78, chair, Peter Applebome ’71, Sarah Ball ’08, James Cannon Boyce ’87, Sarah Hardesty Bray ’72, James Burnett ’98, Jerrold K. Footlick, Robbyn Footlick ’85, Devin Gordon ’98, Kerry E. Hannon ’82, John Harwood ’78, Mangesh Hattikudur ’01, Sara Lipka ’01, Valerie A. May ’77, Michael Moore ’08, Will Pearson ’01, Steven Petrow ’78, Shaun Raviv ’01, Dan Riley ’08, Jim Rosenfield ’81, Jon Scher ’84, John Seigenthaler ’78, Elizabeth Spiers ’99, Fiona Spruill ’99, Greg Veis ’03, James O. Wilson ’74, Robert J. Bliwise A.M. ’88, secretary, Clay Felker ’51, founding chair DUKE MAGAZINE Box 90572, Durham, N.C. 27708 PHONE: (919) 684-5114 FAX: (919) 681-1659 E-MAIL: dukemag@duke.edu ADDRESS CHANGES: Alumni Records, Box 90581, Durham, N.C. 27708 or bluedevil@duke.edu • © 2015 Duke University, Published five times a year by the Duke Alumni Association 4 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

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LETTERS & COMMENTS Stopping sexual assault As I read Bridget Booher’s article [“No More Bystanders”] on how Duke is handling campus sexual-assault cases, I searched in vain for the words “lacrosse” and “due process.” Duke, perhaps more than any university in the country, should understand the importance of implementing fair procedures that will protect the rights of both the survivors and the accused in these cases. As someone who has defended dozens of accused students in campus sexualassault cases nationwide, I have had a front-row seat at far too many kangaroo courts. Yet the article said nothing about Duke’s efforts to implement a fair process for both sides, or even the fact that new federal guidance gives students the right to an attorney during any hearing. I certainly hope Duke has learned from the terrible errors of the lacrosse case. You know what they say about those who do not learn from history. Justin Dillon ’96 Washington, D.C. We need to remember that men are also victims of sexual assault, both at the hands of women as well as other men. Current data suggest that one in seven boys are sexually abused by the age of eighteen and one in four girls. Young men who purposefully ignore clearly communicated sexual boundaries have learned this behavior somewhere. The current conversation is so heavily slanted toward the idea of victims are women and perpetrators are men that there is no place for men to feel safe going for help, healing, and prevention of a perpetuating problem. Helping men and acknowledging male victimization ultimately most helps women. Mary Woodward-Kreitz Rosemount, Minnesota Documenting pain Now and then I read something that makes me see the world anew and think differently. The recent piece on scars [“Evidence of Things Unseen”]—and the young woman, Lauren Henschel, who does the photography—reminded me of the value of careful looking. It was not maudlin, nor did it seem to argue for a

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simple-minded view of difficult realities as challenges imposed to make us better people. There was nothing sentimental nor self-help guru-ish about the piece; nor is that the case of the photography itself. Nor did the article’s author use rhetoric to avoid the ways the social is always as important as the individual. While I carry few literal scars and have led a very lucky life, I watch those around me with visible and not-sovisible scars, literal and figurative, and now think differently about them. In the wake of Ferguson and the current discussion of sexual assault (including in the same issue of Duke Magazine), Henschel’s is a perspective we might all bring to thinking about social justice— and about the educational mission of places like Duke and Shimer College, where I lead. Though not myself Jewish, I like the notion of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and think that all of this is about just that: healing ourselves and

What can you do in one day at Duke? p.36

Administrators and students confront sexual assault p.20 Sean Lilly Wilson ’00 and his search for a Southern brew p.26 Fighting corruption with Zephyr Teachout ’99 p.42

supremely corrupt “Boss” Tweed, head of Tammany Hall. The cartoons eventually worked, far better than investigative reports that had attempted to target the New York City political machine. Tweed went to jail, and even when he escaped, he was captured in Spain, because even a customs official there recognized him due to the illustrations. Tweed himself had dismissed New York Times reporting about him, crassly claiming that his supporters couldn’t read, but raged against Nast, demanding

The recent piece on scars [“Evidence of Things Unseen”]—and the young woman, Lauren Henschel, who does the photography— reminded me of the value of careful looking. —Susan E. Henking

others, and more important, returning again and again to the commitment to remaking the world and society. While sometimes such views can seem to be Band-Aids in the face of profound need for change, both social and personal, the juxtapositions in the Winter 2014 issue of Duke Magazine help it be more. Susan E. Henking ’78 Chicago

that Harper’s “stop the damned pictures,” knowing that the simplicity of the argument and power of the images made his transgressions so clear. This was in

Corruption in history I enjoyed your note at the beginning of the winter issue [“Under the Gargoyles”] and was particularly pleased with your choice for the illustration. That cartoon was by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly, as part of his aggressive campaign to educate people about the actions of the

“Boss Tweed, Thomas Nast” by Thomas Nast. Licensed under public domain via Wikimedia Commons

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

the late nineteenth century, but I think it’s one of many examples of how the people, in concert with the press, have always been responsible for keeping politicians from corrupting themselves with financial influence. At the risk of being cynical, this has been an issue in American governance since the founding of our country, and only when we motivate the vast masses are we able to sway the ever-forward-charging political money machine. Nast’s work helped prove this on a small scale in New York City but is certainly a model for how people could be educated and motivated to help enact change in the future, by simply finding a way to get as many

people aware of the issue as possible. Seth Weitberg ’03 Los Angeles The writer is co-executive producer of Drunk History on Comedy Central. Quad dogs Regarding your little item on dogs at Duke [Retro, Winter 2014], I was pleased to see a photo of Boswell, but I’m afraid you omitted an important item of information. Boswell was not only a quad dog, he was Dean of Quad Dogs, as any alert alumni from the period of his tenure will attest. Dan Pitt ’71 Palo Alto, California

Entrepreneurial spirit I think [Sean Lilly] Wilson is a farmer in the best sense of the profession [“Home Brew”]. His enthusiasm and willingness to take risks is a great example of the great thinking that comes out of Duke these days. Tom Redmon ’69 Atlanta A good sport Laken Tomlinson [“Lineman + Scholar”] is the kind of scholar-athlete who makes me proud to be a Blue Devil! Thanks for the story. Tricia Moser ’78 Valley Cottage, New York

OF INTEREST

A global footprint What a surprise to find this tent in the Almaty, Kazakhstan (Central Asia) zoo! Duke does get around! I was visiting my daughter and family there.

In December, Dukies were all over Capitol Hill SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

Drew Shindell, professor of climate sciences at the Nicholas School, testified about the environmental, economic, and health benefits of reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants. “It is the leading environmental cause of premature death, leading to more than 7 million premature deaths per year globally,” he told the committee. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

Law professor and former Justice Department official Christopher H. Schroeder testified regarding President Obama’s executive action on immigration. Schroeder said, “Deferred action is not amnesty, it does not confer legal status, it does not remove these individuals’ eligibility

to deportation, it only defers it. The deferral can be revoked. Adjusting the immigration laws to provide legal status for these individuals is indeed something only the Congress can do.” CAPITOL VISITORS CENTER

Helen Egger, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences; Guillermo Sapiro, the Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School Professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Robert Calderbank, the Charles S. Sydnor Professor of computer science, briefed an audience of Congressional staff members, agency representatives, and child mental-health advocates on the Duke Information and Child Mental Health Initiative and its efforts to overcome barriers to effective diagnoses and treatment. istockphoto

6 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Shirley Davis Martin R.N. ’56, B.S.N.’58, M.S.N. ’60 Altamonte Springs, Florida CORRECTION:

In “Of Interest,” a graphic map in the Winter 2014 issue, we noted there were six Duke graduates serving in the 114th Congress. There are seven. We missed Dave Trott J.D. ’85 (R-Michigan). SEND LETTERS TO: Box 90572, Durham, N.C. 27708 or e-mail dukemag@duke.edu. Please limit letters to 300 words and include your full name, address, and class year or Duke affiliation. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. Owing to space constraints, we are unable to print all letters received. Published letters represent the range of responses received. For additional letters: www.dukemagazine. duke.edu.

Furry friend: Students pet Thor, a Great Pyrenees therapy dog, as part of Puppies at Perkins, a stress-relief event held during exam week. Photo by Les Todd

Quad

THE

NOTEWORTHY FROM AROUND CAMPUS

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

THEQuad

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Health system gets new leader Les Todd

A. Eugene Washington’s track record includes experience in research, education, and patient care.

Laurie Patton,

dean of Trinity College, has been named the first female president of Middlebury College in Vermont. She’ll step into the role on July 1.

Bernadette Brown became the director of the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity in January. She came to the university from the Californiabased National Council on Crime and Delinquency, where she focused on LGBT youth within the juvenile justice system. Howard Kallem was named director of Title IX compliance, a position that includes developing training, overseeing the process of how Duke handles complaints, and reviewing policies and practices. Kallem was previously Title IX compliance coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Stephanie Diani

Huntington Willard, professor of biology and genome sciences, began an appointment as the president and director of the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in January. He was the founding director of the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.

With an annual operating revenue of $2.6 billion, more than 16,000 employees, and a medical-center campus that includes ninety-eight buildings on 201 acres with more than 9,000 employees, the Duke University Health System is the biggest part of Duke, by far. Beginning April 1, A. Eugene Washington will lead the vast enterprise, when he steps in as chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of the health system. Washington will succeed Victor J. Dzau, now president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He comes to Duke from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he was vice chancellor for health sciences, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine, and CEO of the UCLA Health System, as well as a Distinguished Professor of gynecology and health policy, with an endowed chair. The Houston native has been a leader in assessing medical technologies, translating research into health policy, and shaping healthcare practice. He helped spearhead efforts to change clinical practice and policy guidelines for prenatal genetics, cervical-cancer screenChange at the top: ing and prevention, and reproduction-related Washington infections. Earlier in his career, as executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California at San Francisco, he cofounded a research center that studied medical effectiveness for diverse populations. A graduate of the medical school at UC-San Francisco, Washington did his undergraduate work at Howard University, completed graduate studies at both the UC-Berkeley and Harvard schools of public health, and did his residency training at Stanford University. In November, Washington received the David E. Rogers Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for his “major contributions to improving the health and health care of the American people.” Duke President Richard H. Brodhead, in announcing the appointment, cited Washington’s “track record of outstanding leadership in every aspect of the work of an academic medical center—research, education, and patient care.”

THEQuad

Debate follows Muslim call to prayer

Up for discussion: the role of the chapel and religion on campus

2008, and has an active Center for Muslim Life on campus. Reaction from people and groups connected to the university and not was vitriolic and thoughtful, supportive and dismayed. In reconsidering the decision, administrators cited a concern that “what began as something that was meant to be unifying was turning into something that was the opposite,” as Michael Schoenfeld ’84, vice president for

want Duke to ring a bell for a Muslim call to prayer, just like I don’t find it necessary for Duke to have a public call to Hindu worship, or gongs to publicly sound meditation time for Buddhists. The church bells that ring from Duke Chapel are not a call to worship. They ring the hour like a clock, or a concert from the clarion,” posted Tula Holmes ’73. From a different perspective, David Graham ’09, a former editor of The Chronicle and a staff writer at The Atlantic, wrote about the incident for the magazine’s website. “Now, one might argue that while Duke’s gesture was well-intentioned, the timing was wrong—why rile people up at a moment when nerves are already on edge about Islam? But I think it’s the other way around. There’s no time when it is as essential to stand on the side of a minority as when that group is under fire.” The university admitted it could have done things differently. “In the process that led to the initial announcement, we should have engaged more broadly with interested stakeholders within the university and beyond,” Schoenfeld told The Chronicle. Indeed, in a letter to the Duke Divinity School community, Dean Richard Hays acknowledged he was not consulted about the original decision and did not agree with it. In an open letter, Luke Powery, the chapel’s dean, said the controversy reaffirmed the chapel’s role as a place of hospitality toward the diverse religions and cultures on campus. “Thoughtful, faithful people have agreed and disagreed with the various decisions made this week,” he wrote. “In the coming weeks, the chapel will seek opportunities for constructive dialogue about these complex and important subjects as we all strive for deeper understanding and greater faithfulness to God.” Megan Morr

n less than a week, Duke made decisions that were criticized and praised and launched a national and campus discussion about religious pluralism and the chapel’s role. After an announcement that the traditional Muslim call to prayer would be broadcast weekly from the top of the chapel, the university reconsidered the decision and moved to an alternative approach.

Open dialogue: Luke A. Powery, left, dean of the chapel, and Imam Adeel Zeb, the new Muslim chaplain, speak to the press and onlookers gathered outside the chapel.

The incident began quietly enough, when in mid-January Duke announced that members of the Muslim Student Association would chant the adhan from the top of the chapel, amplified to be heard in the quad in front of the landmark building. Weekly jummah, or congregational prayers, have taken place in the basement of Duke Chapel for many years; several hundred of the university’s 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students identify as Muslim. Duke was one of the first research universities to appoint a Muslim student chaplain, in

public affairs and government relations, put it. Schoenfeld also cited “serious and credible concerns about safety and security.” A compromise was crafted. On a sunny Friday afternoon, the Chapel Quad was packed with supporters and worshippers while the adnan was delivered—in English, then Arabic—over a small speaker on the chapel steps. Hundreds of alumni expressed their opinion on social media, including the university Facebook page. “My feeling is that religion should be personal. I don’t

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

BOOKBAG REL 213S/CULANTH 214S HIST 215S: Shamanism & Spirit Possession

Courtesy Rich Freeman

THE GIST: Per the course syllabus, “shamanism usually refers to individuals who claim to exit their bodies and venture into other realms of reality or consciousness, while spirit possession

In the spirit: A dancer-priest as warrior deity. 10

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charts the opposite movement, where other selves or beings take over or are invited into a human host.” Both religious phenomena are thriving in many parts of the world today, and students will examine case studies from countries including Haiti, Ecuador, Indonesia, and the U.S. They’ll also study the social, political, and economic implications of various rituals.

ASSIGNMENT LIST: The class will begin surveying shamanism and spirit possession and then discuss themes such as sociocultural interpretation, the role of psychotropic plants, language and performance, and shamanism and politics. Later, students will watch films about spirit possession and ultimately write a research paper on some regional or topical theme of their choice. The course includes a text on West African voodoo, which, contrary to popular belief, is not merely “sticking pins in dolls,” says Freeman, but rather “an elaborate cosmology.” THE TWIST: Shamanism and spirit possession blur the mind-body boundary and “trouble the notion of what it means to be a person, in terms of mind, body, spirit, and society,” says Freeman. College also marks a rite of passage, an initiation of selfhood. “Students are figuring out what they’re doing in life,” says Freeman. “They’re deciding what kind of person they want to become and the limits of that. Part of the anthropological mission is to open people to different ways of thinking.” Students will learn that in certain countries no longer under Soviet influence (Mongolia, for instance), shamanism is making a comeback. Freeman adds that because shamanism questions the limits of cognitive activity, the class attracts a number of neuroscience students.

Corbis Kathy Willens

THE CATALYST: After nearly thirty years in the field, cultural anthropologist Rich Freeman has observed more than a hundred rites of spirit possession, especially in his field study area in southwest India. Now students can catch a glimpse of these elaborate initiations in this course, an interdisciplinary brew of religion, cultural anthropology, and history. A visiting professor of history and religious studies, Freeman first launched the seminar at the University of Michigan and brought it to Duke in 2009. He notes that the course is “obviously an outlier from the usual run of Duke offerings, but that seems to make it attractive to a self-selected and interestingly varied group of students.”

1,000

THEQuad

Conversation sparker: When Coach Mike Krzyzewski earned his 1,000th win in January, the social-media world went wild. Four hundred tweets per minute using either #Coach1K or #TheresOnly1K trended nationally; those hashtags were seen 93.3 million times; related Facebook posts reached 1.9 million people.

A new graduation venue

Renovations at Wallace Wade cause a shift in location. Since Wallace Wade Stadium is in the midst of renovations, university officials have announced that the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in downtown Durham will be the site of graduation on May 10. The graduation speaker will be Paul Farmer ’82, best known for his work in providing health care to rural areas and developing nations, particularly Haiti. The founder of the international nonprofit Partners In Health, he is a professor at Harvard University, where he received his medical degree and Ph.D. He is also a Duke trustee.

FROMTHEPRESIDENT

| Richard H. THE Brodhead Quad

BOOKBAG ROOMMATES

Getting college sports right

SPORTS

I’M WRITING THIS COLUMN the day after a remarkable event. Each winter, the National Football Foundation holds a banquet to honor outstanding achievement associated with that sport—and this year, Duke claimed three honorees. Vice president and director of athletics Kevin White received the John L. Toner Award for excellence in athletics administration. An alumnus of the School of Megan Morr Joining in a milestone: President Brodhead meets with Medicine, Tom Catena M.D. ’92, was one of two recipients of the Gold Medal for his extraordinary humanitarian the Blue Devils after Coach K’s 1,000th victory. work as the sole doctor at the Mother of Mercy Hospital, support each other in powerful ways. At its best, athletics the only surgical hospital in central Sudan. (Before medical school, Catena was an All-American football player at is a form of education. Brown University.) And David Helton, a senior who led Sports can teach things every successful adult needs to the ACC with 10.4 tackles per game while maintaining know. How to visualize high performance and embrace the a 3.64 GPA as a psychology major, was singled out from discipline needed to reach it. How to try your best, fail, seventeen finalists to be awarded the 2014 William V. get up, and try again with renewed determination. How Campbell Trophy as the nation’s top scholar-athlete. to work in teams to do things that no individual could While this celebration began with football, it gives us a accomplish alone. How to devise a strategy—and how to chance to think more broadly about the purpose of college revise that strategy on the fly. When we cheer on our Blue sports. Devils as a campus community, we absorb these values In the last few years, intercollegiate athletics has been in spirit. And at Duke, our students’ lives are enriched a subject of growing controversy. by sports not only at the varsity The influx of money through melevel but also through club and Sports can teach things every dia contracts has assumed an inintramural competition. successful adult needs to know. fluence in profound tension with Undeniably, there is a version the amateur ideal encoded in curof college sports that is deeply rent NCAA regulations. In the last year, we’ve seen courts antithetical to academics. But our pride is that Duke make surprising and provocative rulings that have weakhas always striven for the version in which athletics are a ened the NCAA’s limits on preventing remuneration of complement to education. Duke has a graduation success student-athletes and opened the door to unionization. At rate of 97 percent for varsity athletes, with fifteen teams the same time, the so-called “power conferences” have been achieving a 100 percent success rate. This year 495, or 77 allowed to create some of their own rules. percent, of Duke’s student-athletes made the ACC Honor Through this series of events, the entire system Roll for academics; this record number placed Duke at the threatens to tip toward a version of college athletics that top of the conference for the twenty-sixth time out of the would be very different from anything we ever had in last twenty-seven years. David Helton is not an outlier but mind. It could lead to an unhealthy imbalance between Duke’s third National Scholar-Athlete finalist in a row. universities’ investments in sports, especially revenue At a time when the landscape is in upheaval and athletics sports, and other priorities. It could lead to treating sometimes seems to be on trial, we’re proud of the Duke student athletic achievement principally as an economic tradition of creating the conditions for our student-athletes commodity. It could drive a deep wedge between athletes to compete at a high level on the field (or on the court, or and the rest of the student body, in which athletes are on the track, or in the pool) and thrive in the classroom. treated as high-paid elites—that is to say, professionals. We see this as a time for Duke to renew our commitment to In the face of it all, some might be tempted to ask: Why a model of athletic competition that does not detract from don’t we just pull out of this business altogether? our academic mission but rather underscores and enhances To answer, I would present another side of the picture. its core values. Furthermore, Duke has a responsibility to In America, athletics and higher education have been take the lead in articulating this model and helping to linked since the mid-nineteenth century. Sports are part move the national debate in a positive direction. There’s of the special character of American universities in which a way to get college sports wrong—but there’s also a way academic work and meaningful extracurricular activities to get it right. DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

THEQuad

The risks and rewards of hiring millennials

changes to adapt to younger workers. The most common adaptions are flexible hours, allowing work from home, increasing training and mentoring programs, and changing corporate culture.

Survey reveals firms’ views of young workers.

Young workers bring technical savvy and creativity to the workplace, but they may not be that easy to manage. At least that’s what senior finance executives believe, according to the findings of the latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. Nearly half of surveyed CFOs say that millennials are less expensive to employ. More than 70 percent say another advantage of hiring them is the savvy about technology they bring to the job, while 21 percent of CFOs say they are more creative and innovative than other workers. But the CFOs seem less impressed with millennial attitudes. About 53 percent say they are less loyal to the company, 46 percent say the group acts entitled, 31 percent believe millennials require more intense management, and 27 percent of firms say younger workers are more interested in their own development than they are in the company. The survey also found that only 41 percent of U.S. companies have made

Is redistricting a numbers game?

Duke mathematicians investigate 2012 N.C. election results. In 2012, more North Carolinians voted for Democrats than Republicans in the state’s Congressional elections, but Republicans won nine out of the state’s thirteen seats anyway. Intrigued by those results, Jonathan Mattingly, a math and statistical science professor, sought an explanation for the discrepancy, which was most often attributed to gerrymandering at the General Assembly. Mattingly pulled in one of his students, senior Christy Vaughn, and together they created a series of district maps using the same vote totals for 2012, but with different borders. Their study found that in 100 redrawn

maps, between six and nine Democrats were elected 95 percent of the time, an outcome that suggests the GOP-drawn redistricting maps are weighted in favor of Republicans. Using two principles of redistricting—a federal rule requiring each district to have roughly the same population, and a state rule requiring Congressional districts to be compact—the pair created an algorithm to randomly redraw the boundaries of the state’s thirteen Congressional districts. In four weeks, a computer drew a series of 100 different maps or 100 different possibilities of drawing Congressional lines. While praising the study, observers say the work didn’t allow for other factors that go into drawing district lines, such as minority representation and geography. Mattingly says it’s possible to design the program to account for minority representation, but he and Vaughn chose to keep it as simple and as transparent as possible for now. They hope their study might serves as a diagnostic tool that can help determine whether districts are fairly drawn or not. And Mattingly hopes it might encourage state lawmakers to think about how best to shape district lines. “It wasn’t representative of the will of the people, and you ask yourself, is this democratic? I mean, if we really want to be in a democracy, we should put in safeguards like we do for other things. We should put in safeguards to protect against gerrymandering in either direction.”

WHO’S COUNTING?

The Fuqua School ranking in Bloomberg Businessweek’s review of full-time M.B.A. programs 12

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815 Commitment made by Fay and Karl Leo ’83 to endow a faculty chair in business law and entrepreneurship

Early Decision applicants admitted to the Class of 2019

Contracting human muscle grown in a lab

The first-time advance would allow researchers to test new drugs and study diseases outside of the body.

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For the first time, lab-grown muscle tissue contracted in response to electrical stimuli, and it happened in a Duke lab. Nenad Bursac, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, worked with Lauran Madden, a postdoctoral researcher, to grow the human skeletal muscle and then show that it could respond like native tissue to electrical pulses, biochemical signals, and pharmaceuticals. According to a report in Science Daily, the two researchers started with a small sample of human cells that had already progressed beyond stem cells but hadn’t yet become muscle tissue. They expanded the “myogenic precursors” by more than a thousand-fold, and then put them into a supportive, 3D scaffolding filled with a gel that allowed them to form aligned and functioning muscle fibers. Madden then subjected the new muscle to a barrage of tests to determine how closely it resembled native tissue inside a human body. “The beauty of this work is that it can serve as a test bed for clinical trial in a dish,” says Bursac. “We are Lab work: Below, a microscopic view of working to test drugs’ efficalab-grown human muscle bundles stained cy and safety without jeopto show patterns made by basic muscle ardizing a patient’s health units and their associated proteins (in red), and also to reproduce the which are a hallmark of human muscle. functional and biochemical signals of diseases—especially rare ones and those that make taking muscle biopsies difficult.” Other investigators involved in the study include George Truskey, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of biomedical engineering and senior associate dean for research for the Pratt School, and William Kraus, professor of biomedical engineering, medicine, and nursing.

Jonathan Lee

Philosophy for the people

Paul Henne transforms daunting topics into animated videos. What makes a flower grow? And why does it grow to begin with? These kinds of questions intrigued Paul Henne when he was a kid growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut. He later discovered that philosophy could help him critically explore his endless queries. Now, as he pursues a Ph.D. in philosophy at Duke, Henne wants to make critical-thinking tools available to philosophers and non-philosophers alike. He’s associate director and chief animator for Wireless Philosophy (Wi-Phi for short), a collection of videos that make philosophy topics easy to understand. He culls professors’ philosophy talks from around the country and uses computer software to animate them. Through Wi-Phi, Henne hopes to show people that the ancient analytical discipline is alive and well and always changing. “Studying philosophy isn’t [always] studying the history of philosophy,” he writes. “Living philosophers are doing really radical work all of the time. Philosophers aren’t all dead white men.” A Yale Ph.D. student launched WiPhi in 2013. It now hosts more than fifty videos on subjects from metaphysics and ethics to political philosophy and linguistics. The videos explore questions such as: What is the purpose of life? What qualifies as a valid argument? What did Descartes mean when he said, “I think, therefore I am”? After publishing a series on bioethics this past winter, Henne is working on videos about feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, and neurophilosophy. Check them out at www.wi-phi.com.

Courtesy Nenad Bursac, Duke University

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

THEQuad

CHATTER “The more we assume that the problem of racism is limited to the Klan, the birthers, the tea party, or to the Republican Party, the less we understand that racial domination is a collective process and we are all in this game.” –EDUARDO BONILLA-SILVA, sociologist, on how whites and racial minorities speak a different language when discussing race (CNN.com)

“There’s no doubt that having a college education improves the relative situation of any black American compared with any other black American. But it does not significantly reduce racial disparity. We’ve got to do something else to really have an effect on that.” –WILLIAM A. DARITY JR., economist, discussing how black college graduates are suffering from higher unemployment rates than their white counterparts (The New York Times)

“This is one of the first times we’ve been able to demonstrate that, here, you have a spill in the environment, and yes, this is from fracking fluid and not from other sources of contamination. It’s a pretty cool way to overcome the issue of trade secrets.” –AVNER VENGOSH, geochemist, on a new tool that can tell where environmental contamination comes from (thinkprogress.org)

“The West views this primarily as a debate fought with the weapons of rhetoric. The terrorists view this as a war fought with bullets and bombs. It is hard to debate someone who thinks they’re at war with you.” –PETER FEAVER, political science and public policy professor, on how the terrorist attacks in Paris affect the political conversation (CNBC.com)

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Giving guidance

Recent graduates serve as college advisers in seven N.C. high schools. The White House has emphasized look beyond what’s comfortable, and strengthening high-school counseling he tries to emotionally prepare them in its campaign to expand college ac- to make the transition to college life cess. Duke answered that call to action better. Petty cites the near-peer feature last spring, becoming the twenty-fourth of the CAC program as important to higher-education institution to estab- having these conversations. “Having lish a chapter of the College Advising those experiences fresh in mind and to Corps (CAC), a nonprofit organization be able to open up honestly and discuss that aims to increase post-secondary them—it’s not something that perhaps enrollment among low-income and one of their teachers or other guidance minority students by placing recent counselors could do.” college graduates at underserved high Although the advisers attend a summer training program prior to arriving schools to serve as full-time advisers. The Duke CAC is made up of seven at their placement high schools, all already possess the foundaalumni, with placements at tional knowledge necessary two partner high schools “Our advisers to step into their roles. in Durham County and For KellyNoel Waldorf five high schools in rural never tell ’14, working as an adviser communities in central students where at Bartlett-Yancey High and northern North Car- to go—they olina. During individual School (Caswell County) appointments and class- inform and has meant entering a familroom visits, the advisers connect them iar landscape. She grew up guide students through all with resources.” in a small town in North aspects of the college appliCarolina, and was the first cation process, from filling in her family to attend out a financial-aid form to writing an college, and like many of the students admissions essay. More broadly, they she advises, comes from a low-income work to foster a college-going culture background. She knows the difficulties by promoting scholarship opportuni- of navigating the college search in an ties, arranging visits with admissions under-resourced high school. Still, she representatives, and holding practice is a firm believer that the process can be standardized tests. demystified somewhat through early-in“The goal is to help these students tervention programs. “Getting to the understand that this is a process and students earlier and filling that deficit of that you can prepare for it,” says Giri- knowledge is really important,” she says. ja Mahajan, director of the Duke CAC Supported by the John M. Belk program. “Our advisers never tell stu- Foundation, the chapter is one of the dents where to go—they inform and university’s latest efforts to close gaps connect them with resources. Ultimate- in college attainment. Duke unveiled ly, we want to get [the students] to un- plans last year to increase minority repderstand that there are more opportuni- resentation and degree completion in ties out there than less.” science, technology, engineering, and For adviser Adam Petty ’14, commu- math (STEM) programs, in part by nicating the range of these opportunities enhancing teaching methods in introis a core responsibility. At Northamp- ductory classes. That initiative, called ton High School (Northampton Coun- the Collaboratory on Mentoring, Perty), he has noticed that many of the sistence, Assessment, and Student Sucstudents matriculate at one of a handful cess (COMPASS), was made possible of local colleges after graduating, only by a $1.5 million grant from the Howto drop out after one semester. So, he ard Hughes Medical Institute. -Tim Lerow emphasizes to his advisees the need to

ROOMMATES Messy or clean?

Moving to K-ville

In their room, they play basketball. The hoop is also in the tent, along with a scoreboard. Hunter currently holds the record for most consecutive baskets made. See other K-Ville tents in this video: kvillekribs.tumblr.com

“We’re messy, but we do clean regularly.” -Hunter “When we clean, we clean. We disinfect.” -Alex

Get along?

“We fight a lot. We have these epic fights and go a day or two without talking and then everything will be fine. The first time it happened, it was resolved because we were both sitting in the room, and I started whistling Lord of the Rings.” -Hunter

Music

Hunterloves The Who Alexloves Pink Floyd

“I mean, he’s an average whistler, but that song holds a lot of meaning.” -Alex

Area of study:

AlexEnvironmental science HunterBiology with an undetermined future

Quirks

Hunter about Alex: “He meditates in the mornings. He gets really into it.” “I build stuff!” -Alex “The other day, he turned our room into a workshop for a week.” -Hunter

FRESHMEN IN ALSPAUGH 201

Alex Bressler + Hunter Stark Dallas, Texas

Tiffin, Ohio

Fast friends Before freshman year began, the duo met on a Duke Talent Identification Program studying tropical medicine and ethnobiology in Costa Rica. “The bromance started pretty quickly.” -Hunter Interview by Madeline Taylor/ Photo by Megan Morr DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

THEQuad

Reimagining the Library The glass cubbies mean a student can still study solo, but the first floor of Bostock Library, reborn in January as The Edge, is a space tailored for collaboration. The $3.5 million project features whiteboard-like covered walls for information-sharing and rollaway furniture to ensure easy reconfiguration for groups. The Edge also has a digital studio, where students can test software, and a kitchen area to host catered events.

THEN

Jim Wallace 16

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NOW

Photos by Les Todd DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

THEQuad

Poems and Protests

Last year, social-justice advocates leapt into action following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and later Eric Garner in New York. Here’s how Duke responded: In December, students and faculty members joined more than 200 demonstrators in a peaceful protest in Durham. Several were arrested and spent part of the night in jail.

High cholesterol may endanger the young

Raised levels at thirty-five could mean a heart attack later, researchers say. In 2013, heart experts expanded criteria for who, over the age of the sixty, should consider taking cholesterol-lowering statins. That got Michael Pencina, a Duke professor of biostatistics, thinking: How long should younger people wait before taking the drugs? His study, published in the journal Circulation, suggests an answer. The report shows that, in healthy people who were followed for about fifteen years on average, having even mildly elevated cholesterol levels can increase the risk of having later heart problems by as much as 40 percent. Thus, the researchers argue, having high cholesterol for many years—even if it starts when you’re young—should be a risk factor doctors and patients consider when discussing their risk of heart disease. Even people with moderately high levels of lipids, who might not qualify for treatment of high cholesterol levels, could be at higher risk of

heart attacks later in life because they have those elevated levels for a long time. The researchers found that among a group of 1,478 people fifty-five years old, those who had higher cholesterol levels for eleven to twenty years had a 16.5 percent higher risk of having a heart attack about fifteen years later, compared to a 4.4 percent risk for those whose cholesterol levels never went beyond the normal range during middle age. That nearly fourfold greater risk, say Pencina and his fellow researchers, might be reason enough to be more aggressive in discussing ways to lower cholesterol with these patients when they’re thirty-five to reduce their risk of heart trouble later on. “We identified a patient population whom the guidelines might miss,” Pencina says. “It’s another dimension of cardiovascular health that needs to be looked at, and yes, I would say that it should be considered a risk factor.”

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Les Todd

More than 100 students held a die-in by lying on the ground of the Chapel Quad in protest of the grand jury’s ruling. A few days later, die-ins occurred at the School of Law and the medical school.

Jason Fotso, a Duke freshman, tweeted poems about social justice from the handle @voice. He rearranged Garner’s last words to compose “Last Words.” Here’s an excerpt:

I – I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t be. You see me. You see thug. You see sin. I see the letters of “hate” alive in your “heart.” Can’t I breathe? Can’t I breathe? Can’t I be?

THE RESONANCE OF HISTORY | With the release of the Senate Intelligence

Committee’s report on the CIA detention and interrogation program this past December, John Martin, a professor and chair of Duke’s history department, wrote a widely reprinted essay putting torture in a historical context. How did you become interested in the history of torture?

As a graduate student, I worked on the history of the Inquisition in Venice. The Inquisition did not use torture frequently, but when it did put someone to torture, it recorded the entire event— including the screams. And that always haunted me, that there was this record of suffering.

How long is the history of torture?

The ancient Greeks practiced torture, but it was formalized by the Romans, as so many things were. It became part of Roman law. In theory, only slaves and noncitizens could be subjected to torture. Over time, that distinction began to break down. Throughout the Middle Ages, justice was highly privatized. But in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with the emergence of quite sophisticated political and judicial systems, city-states began to use torture.

In that early modern period, were there limits to torture?

Absolutely. The crimes that were primarily of concern to criminal courts were premeditated homicide, rape, theft, counterfeiting, and treason. But some individuals were exempt from torture—the clergy, persons of high professional status like lawyers. And if the person died while being tortured, the judge could be held for homicide. People knew torture was highly unreliable as a method for getting information. But they continued to use it, because

they were in a system that valued a direct confession.

What constituted torture in that time?

One object of torture was extracting information from the individual in the course of a trial. Torture also involved bodily abuse prior to execution. The most common judicial torture was the strappado, where the person’s hands were tied behind his back. He was tied to a rope, which was on a pulley, and then pulled up into the air. Probably his shoulders would be dislocated, but there was an effort made not to inflict immediate damage to the head or the chest, since many judges were anxious about unduly harming or even killing a potentially innocent suspect.

What explains the dropping off of officially sanctioned torture?

In early modern justice, judges believed that if the persons they put under torture could withstand the torture, they would prove their innocence— almost by magic—and, on that basis alone, be exonerated. Over time judicial elites came to see this practice as completely irrational. Circumstantial evidence began to be taken much more seriously. So one argument about the demise of torture is that it’s not so much moralists saying this is an inhumane activity; it’s judges saying that it no longer really works.

of St. Augustine’s City of God. Augustine didn’t see an alternative to torture. But Vives, in his commentary, said Augustine was writing about a pagan society, and Christians, at least in Vives’ view, should reject such a cruel practice. In the late sixteenth century, Michel de Montaigne, the French nobleman, was horrified by the religious warfare; massacres were routine. At the same time, reports were coming back about presumed barbaric acts—cannibalism, for example—in the New World. Perhaps, he said, his own society was more barbarous than the pagan world his contemporaries were encountering in the Americas. Then, in 1764, the Milanese philosopher Cesare Beccaria published Of Crimes and Punishments. The city of Milan was haunted by the memory of the torture and execution of two innocent men on the allegation that they were spreading plague.

Q&A Beccaria said the infamy was not that they had spread the plague; they were innocent, and the infamy was that they had been illegally tortured, illegally convicted. The book was translated widely, and regime after regime would go on to abolish torture.

What’s the focus of your current work?

I’m writing a book about an obscure sixteenth-century Italian jurist, Francesco Casoni. In his treatise he uses arguments from law, from rhetoric, from Scripture, to develop a case against torture. Curiously, he never calls for its absolute abolition, but he came close. And I think his ideas enable us to see a far more complex set of beliefs about torture and the integrity of the individual than we have assumed were present prior to the Enlightenment. —Robert J. Bliwise

Were there thinkers who were making the case against torture?

A key figure was a Spanish humanist, Juan Luis Vives, who, in 1522, edited an edition Jared Lazarus

PLANETDUKE

INDIA AT A GLANCE

4 million + Premature deaths per year from illness attributed to household air pollution

67 Percent of households in India that use traditional biomass fuels

10 Number of organizations that Duke collaborates with in India

90 Percent decrease in firewood use for households with the improved cookstove Source: W.H.O., dukeenergyhealth.org

20 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

India

a biomass-burning stove. Then, in 2013, they offered around 775 households the improved cookstoves, along with a government-subsidized rebate if they actually used the new stove. They also led an educational campaign about the health Jessica Lewis Hot meal: An Indian woman shows off her new electric cookstove. impacts of different types of cookstoves. The first part of the pilot project was successful: About household air pollution. High in the foothills of the half the families in UttaraSince 2011, the Duke Himalayas, after an hourskhand adopted a new stove. Household Energy and Health long trek up the hillside, Lisa The typical adoption rate of Initiative has been surveying Philippone and her fellow reenvironmental health techand introducing improved searchers finally reached the nologies, such as bed nets, cookstoves to rural villages village. “It was just so crazy toilets, and other cookstoves, in India. The project is an atbecause you’re hiking, it’s so is usually between 5 and 8 tempt to discourage chopping steep, it’s pouring rain all over percent. trees for firewood and to reus, and we get to the top and Now that families in Uttaraduce black carbon emissions this little old lady is there, and khand are using the improved harmful to both the environshe’s cooking on her stove,” cookstoves, Duke will do ment and human health. remembers Philippone, a more research on how these In 2011, Subhrendu Pattanmaster’s student in the Duke new stoves will affect the ayak, a professor in the NichoGlobal Health Institute. She reduction of household air las School of the Environment spent five months in Uttarapollution. Lewis returned to and the Sanford School of khand, India, last summer India in January to continue Public Policy, created an interbringing new cookstoves to her research and involvement departmental team, pooling households. with the initiative. “Looking researchers from the Duke Around 40 percent of at a blank drawing board and Medical Center, the Duke households globally depend thinking [about] how we can Global Health Institute, and on traditional cookstoves to design something that has the the Nicholas School. “Probheat their homes and cook greatest potential for change lems like this, I don’t think, their meals. Smoke from is really why I’m here.” can actually be solved unless traditional wood, coal, and Philippone remembers the groups are willing to work dung-burning cookstoves can little old lady she encountogether across disciplines affect the health of the entire tered and how the new stove and across boundaries,” says household negatively. Cooks, changed her life. “She was so Jessica Lewis, the project typically women and children, thankful to see us, and she coordinator and a Nicholas breathe in the harmful fumes, cooked tea on the stove and School Ph.D. student. acquiring respiratory illness talked about it,” she says. “EvIn 2012, the team surveyed that can lead to death. Each ery single household we went 1,000 households in Uttarayear, more than 4 million to offered to make us tea on khand and came up with two people throughout the the stove.” —Madeline Taylor options: an electric stove and world die because of

Cooking up a change

PAGETURNERS

n America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation, Grant Wacker paints a rich portrait of the Reverend Billy Graham’s multifaceted career. An authority on American Evangelicalism, Wacker is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Christian history at the divinity school. Here’s what Wacker says about what drew him to his subject.

I wrote America’s Pastor for two reasons. First, I was increasingly finding that I had to explain to my students at Duke and elsewhere who Billy Graham is. Clearly, a figure that served as a household name throughout the long second half of the twentieth century is now rapidly fading into obscurity. Second, none of the “standard” biographies of Graham—and some are excellent—seemed adequately to capture and analyze the intersection between him and trends in public life. My research led me to argue that Graham’s success grew, at least in part, from his uncanny ability to discern trends in the wider culture and then apply them to his evangelistic and moral-reform purposes. He was both a creation and a creator of his times. My four personal visits with Graham (between 2007 and 2013, when he was in his late eighties and early nineties) revealed a man of extraordinary personal charisma. Except for nurses, he lived alone in his comfortable but unpretentious mountaintop home near Asheville, North Carolina. Each time my wife went with me, and each time he proved more interested in talking with her about her life, retirement plans, and our grandchildren than in talking with me about his ministry or friendships with ten U.S. presidents and countless world leaders. We found that he loved dogs and liked to chat with us about our beloved bulldog. We also found ourselves charmed by his wit, humility, and utterly down-home manner. In a very real sense, Graham seemed to have no idea that for six decades he had been Billy Graham, a “farm kid from North Carolina,” who grew up to be one of the most influential preachers in America and in many other parts of the world. JUST PUBLISHED

Calming Your Angry Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You From Anger and Bring Peace to Your Life is Jeffrey Brantley’s map to helping people better handle anger, fear, and hostile emotions. Brantley is the founder and director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at Duke’s Center for Integrative Medicine. The Last Beach by Orrin Pilkey and J. Andrew Cooper is an urgent call to save the world’s beaches from development, mining, and pollution. Pilkey is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of geology at the Nicholas School of the Environment. A Path in the Mighty Waters: Shipboard Life & Atlantic Crossings to the New World by Stephen R. Berry Ph.D. ’05 chronicles

the Atlantic crossing Europeans made to the New World in the eighteenth century. Power Forward: My Presidential Education by Reggie Love ’05. Mentored by both Coach Krzyzewski and President Obama, Love shares his education in how sports, politics, and life can define who you are, what you believe in, and what it takes to make a difference. Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman A.M. ’07 is a collection of short stories based on women who have had tangled relationships to fame and greatness. Among them are Allegra Byron, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Byron; Lucia Joyce, James Joyce’s daughter; and conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton.

Recommended Reading The Sanford School’s David Schanzer recommends books that illuminate the theme of terrorism.

Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower: “The best book that has been written about the origins of al Qaeda, how its members executed the 9/11 attacks, and how the American nationalsecurity apparatus failed to stop them.” Peter Bergen’s The Longest War: “Charts how the U.S. counterterrorism strategy, as well as al Qaeda’s self-inflicted wounds, dramatically weakened the organization post9/11, but also how a series of U.S. blunders—the war in Iraq, the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the use of torture against detainees—ratified the al Qaeda narrative.” Marc Sageman’s Understanding Terror Networks and Leaderless Jihad: “What drives individuals to join terrorist movements? In the first book, he rebuts the myths surrounding terrorists (they are psychotic, or driven by economic deprivation, or deeply religious). In the second, he looks at homegrown terrorism, and his insights reverberate as violence by such individuals continues to plague the West.”

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

SPORTS

Three the hard way

| By Ryan Hoerger, Photography by Jon Gardiner

Brendan Fowler ’14 has competed in football, lacrosse, and wrestling— but don’t expect him to brag about it.

uke wrestling coach Glen Lanham had a question for his newest wrestler: “Fowler, what do you have in that shoebox?” The shoebox contained all of Brendan Fowler’s wrestling gear. A former Blue Devil lacrosse star, he’d been using it for two weeks during summer training, not wanting to ruffle any of his new teammates’ feathers by taking anybody’s locker. “That was huge to me,” Lanham says. “It wasn’t about, ‘Hey Coach, when am I going to get a locker?’ It was about, ‘I’m going to come in here, I don’t want to offend anybody, I’m going to work hard.’ ” In an era where kids begin to specialize in a single sport at a young age, Fowler has harked back to the days of former multisport Duke stars Ace Parker ’38 and Dick Groat ’53, following competition wherever it takes him—to the football field, the lacrosse field, and now, the wrestling mat. As a high-school student in Wantagh, New York, Fowler excelled in all three sports and came to Duke as a recruited walk-on with the football team. His high-school lacrosse coach knew Duke lacrosse coach John Danowski and alerted him that his star face-off man would be on campus in the fall. “I said, ‘You’re crazy, there’s no way I can do both of those. I’m worried about trying to step on the field in football,’ ” Fowler says, of his reaction after speaking with Danowski. Eventually he agreed to join both teams; head football coach David Cutcliffe and Danowski “were both cool with me playing the other sport.” After sitting out the football season as a redshirt, Fowler got some playing time early in the year for Danowski’s Blue Devils as a freshman. As a sophomore, he played on special teams for Cutcliffe, recovering an onside kick against Florida State. He started to see more action on the lacrosse field, but a broken collarbone in the opening round of the NCAA tournament derailed the rest of his season and cost him the majority of the next year’s 22

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football campaign, which ended with a trip to the Belk Bowl. Healthy by the spring of his junior year, Fowler stepped in to fill a void in the lacrosse face-off X for the Blue Devils, replacing the departed C.J. Costabile ’12 with historic success. By year’s end, Fowler had racked up 339 face-off victories, the most in a single season in NCAA history. Thirteen of those wins came consecutively on the sport’s biggest stage, as the former football walk-on won twenty of twenty-eight face-offs to give the Blue Devils possession after possession, ultimately claiming the 2013 NCAA national championship. “I’d say it was just a good-timing day. You can ask any athlete, there are just days where you’re feeling it and you’re in the zone,” Fowler says. “It was a pretty good day to be in the zone for me. I was lucky that it landed on national championship day.” What happened next was a product of his hard work. Danowski awarded Fowler a scholarship for his senior season, and the face-off specialist was named a team captain. By accepting the scholarship, Fowler, following NCAA rules, became ineligible for his final season with Cutcliffe and the football program, meaning he could only watch as the Blue Devils captured the ACC Coastal Division title and suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. With one season of lacrosse remaining, Fowler again set the tone for the Blue Devils in the face-off X, winning 59 percent of his face-offs and helping Duke reach the Final Four for the eighth straight season. When Notre Dame tried to mount a comeback in the national title game, Fowler won a crucial face-off late in the fourth quarter to preserve an 11-9 win and graduate as a back-to-back national champion. After graduating, Fowler spent half a season with the Charlotte Hounds of Major League Lacrosse. But he still wanted something to do in the offseason. He

found his answer at the Fuqua School of Business, an answer that allowed him to pursue higher education and continue his athletic involvement. He had learned about the Masters of Management Studies program from other former lacrosse players. “Once I got in, I got some scholarship from the business school, which meant I couldn’t play football again [under NCAA rules], which I was hoping to.” Instead, Fowler soon found his way onto the wrestling mat for a final season of NCAA eligibility. (The detailed eligibility rules allowed him to wrestle, even though they kept him off the football team.) Lanham first crossed paths with Fowler during Fowler’s sophomore year, in a place frequented by wrestlers and lacrosse players alike—the weight room —where the face-off man expressed interest in wrestling later. Initially skeptical, Lanham invited him to join the team after he and Fowler reconnected when Fowler returned to campus for his studies at Fuqua. Fowler spent time training with the wrestlers in the summer and has been working with the team all season. Slowed by a knee injury, he made his debut as a college wrestler in January, posting a win in his first match. “Football and lacrosse, you can translate the running and stuff over, but wrestling is very different,” Fowler says. “In high school [wrestling] you can get away with just being a really good athlete and having a little bit of technique and be really successful. In college everyone has really good technique, and everyone in Division I is a pretty awesome athlete.” The learning curve has been steep at times, but Lanham says Fowler is working hard to shake off five years’ worth of rust. Beyond that, he’s brought veteran experience to a program looking to turn the corner. “He can show up and talk about experiences, highs, lows, what it means to be in games,” Lanham says. “A winner’s a winner, no matter what they do.” n

Brendan Fowler FOOTBALL: 3 years of football; 2 games in 2012, 9 games in 2011 LACROSSE: 816 face-off victories (4th in NCAA history), 1,340 face-off attempts (2nd in NCAA history), 474 ground balls (4th in NCAA history), single-season face-off wins record (339) 13 straight face-offs (20/28 overall) in 2013 title game against Syracuse WRESTLING: 1 -2 through February 2; 197-pound class

NOTABLE DUKE STARS TO PLAY MULTIPLE SPORTS: Ace Parker (1934-36) (football, baseball, basketball) Dick Groat (1949-52) baseball and basketball; National League MVP (1960); two-time World Series champion, eighttime All-Star as shortstop Greg Paulus (2005-09) Duke point guard, then Syracuse quarterback Tri-athlete: Fowlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning curve includes wrestling and his M.M.S. studies at Fuqua. DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

N u

i a

c l

In a rankings-crazed world, the university has to both embrace the lists and be clear about their limitations.

By Robert J. Bliwise

Where might you find yourself as the dean of a globally minded business school? If you’re Fuqua’s Bill Boulding, think Dubai. Back in November, he was there for the World Economic Forum and meetings with his regional advisory board. A text message from his office came through—“We’re no. 1”—leading him to assume that Bloomberg Businessweek was about to place Fuqua at the very top of its business-school rankings. He texted back, “Could you please confirm?” Fifteen minutes went by. Was this for real? “They were just so busy celebrating that they couldn’t get back to me right away.” “People have asked me whether I was shocked,” Boulding says. “I think that any business-school dean, unless they’re suffering from hubris, would be surprised.” Over the previous four years, Fuqua had been somewhere in the top 6; given Businessweek’s focus on employer satisfaction with a school’s graduates, the students’ satisfaction with their experience, and the research activity of the faculty, he felt Fuqua was in a good position to move up. As a culture, we’ve become rankings-crazed, and that means Duke plays a delicate balancing act: It celebrates rankings even as it’s alert to their imperfections. And in higher education, you have to be alert to U.S. News & World Report, which began ranking colleges in 1983. Today Duke is number 8; its highest ranking, 3, came in 1999. It’s been up, it’s been down, and it’s been “bunched,” or tied, with other schools in the top tier. Now Duke is ranked by all kinds of self-appointed authorities in all kinds of contexts, from campus appearance to study-abroad opportunities. Fuqua’s across-the-street neighbor, the Sanford School of Public Policy, displays a poster in its café showing an apparently well-fed student and a couple of kitchen workers. The text brags that Duke is number 9 for “Best Colleges for Food in America”; a website called the Daily Meal cooked up that ranking, with metrics ranging from healthy food options to a mysterious “X” factor.

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

“Every time you turn around, there’s a new ranking,” Boulding says. Still, Businessweek is a source that Fuqua pays attention to, along with The Financial Times and U.S. News. Over ten years or so, no single business school showed an upward trajectory in all three rankings; Fuqua, he says, is the only school that moved up in two of the rankings. “When I talk to our alums and our students, I emphasize that there’s going to be volatility to some degree across these rankings. The important thing is to look over a long time horizon.” There’s another important thing: recognizing that what weighs heavily in some rankings may not be what, fundamentally, counts. Since they’ve been in the business-school ranking business, both The Financial Times and U.S. News have seen

starting salaries as an important metric. “If you really wanted to game those rankings, what would you do? You would try to identify the highest-paying jobs that M.B.A. graduates go into, and then build your business school around attracting and placing people in those high-paying jobs. Now, I’m not opposed to our students getting high-paying jobs in really interesting, exciting areas. But there’s also nothing wrong with getting a low-paying job, if you’re really making a difference in the world,” Boulding says. Asked if he would like to see business-school rankings disappear, Boulding pauses. “I don’t think you’d want to get rid of rankings. Well, in some ways, it would make life easier. But there’s information in rankings. And I find it valuable to un-

Numbers-crunching students Are students sensitive to college rankings? Anecdotally, the answer is yes. Here’s how a Duke junior described his college-selection process: “I sat down with my dad, we went down the list of the top 10, and I ruled out the ones that I knew I didn’t want to go to because of location.” A sophomore referred to rankings as “a big metric in seeing what colleges interested me.” For a freshman, a college’s score in the U.S. News hierarchy “is not the only criterion, but it’s a major one. My high school sends a lot of students every year to Duke, and people look to see when schools are going up and down.” And a senior remarked that rankings “told me how prestigious a school is. Everyone is prestigeconscious.” To pursue that question beyond anecdotal insights, Duke Magazine recruited two students to survey undergraduates. Using Duke’s Facebook

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channels, Megan Lax, a senior majoring in psychology, and Sara Pak, a sophomore majoring in computer science,

asked: “How much did the U.S. News college rankings influence your decision to apply to Duke?” The results

Student Responses to Rankings in an Informal Survey

60 55 52

20 18 10

8 4

Little (1) to Strong (5) Influence

are presented below. This wasn’t a scientific survey, but it bolstered the idea that students weigh rankings in their college decisions. As for the students who ran the survey: Both say they were conscious of Duke’s position in U.S. News, but that was only a starting point in the process. They checked out how strongly entrepreneurship is worked into the Duke culture, for example, and how cumbersome it might be to switch majors. In his own smaller, informal survey of the freshman residents in Giles, resident adviser Ben Brissette, a sophomore, concluded: “They were all aware of the rankings while applying to Duke. They were pleased that Duke was wellranked.” They became more Duke-knowledgeable. And Duke’s position on the scale “seemed like added justification”—a factor, but not the ultimate rationale for ending up where they ended up.

5 derstand the rankings and to see how they connect to our core strategy. Are we producing graduates who are strong in the eyes of their employer?” It’s no surprise that rankings have a strong presence in the eyes of the consumer, according to one of Boulding’s colleagues, Fuqua marketing professor Gavan Fitzsimons. “You have a classic difference of philosophy between economists and psychologists about how to solve problems. Economists believe we should provide information on all the options to everybody: People will apply the rule of maximum utility and choose the best option. Psychologists have shown over and over again that people hit information overload very quickly. In fact, we’ll often walk away from the problem of too many choices.” Rankings, then, can provide order (if not logic) in a culture with endless inputs. Think about life in a pre-information age. There were a couple of plumbers who worked your neighborhood. “Now you get your list of plumbers, and 200 names pop up. Well, how are you going to make a choice among 200 plumbers? The easiest way is to outsource our decision-making to some outside agency.” As rankings systems have proliferated, so have efforts to manipulate those systems. It’s not hard to find accounts of schools that entice applicants who have no chance of being accepted, so that they appear more selective; that accept a fair number of weaker students but award them spring-semester admission, a status overlooked as a measure of student quality; that count coaches and librarians as instructors, thereby enhancing their faculty-to-student ratio; and that even hire their own graduates in temporary jobs, which allows them to elevate their employment numbers. And there’s the tale of the flipping dollars: One school reportedly sent a dollar bill to each of its alumni and asked them to send it back, so the school would register a high percentage of alumni support. In the higher-ed arena or beyond, a ranking score is questionable cultural currency, says Fitzsimons. When you visit a car dealership, “every salesperson and every service manager tells you, ‘You’re

going to be receiving a call, and anything other than a ‘5’ on all of the questions means that I could lose my job.’ The system has become completely ridiculous.” Adding to the ridiculous factor: Companies like Uber and Airbnb are now rating their customers, just as their customers rate them. It’s a feedback loop likely to inspire grade inflation, since no one in search of a service provider wants to be tagged as a complainer. For Duke’s law school, the number of the moment, via the rankings wisdom of U.S. News, is 10. Its dean, David Levi, points out that rankings are hardly new in the profession: Law firms routinely get ranked on profits per partner, something that, naturally, puts pressure on associates to bring in money. But it’s also the case that rankings may have new significance for future lawyers. Enrollment numbers at law schools nationally (though not at Duke) have been plunging; most observers attribute that to high tuitions and uncertain job prospects. The result is a “flight to quality”: Students flock to the best schools, at least according to their reading of the best schools. Reputation-oriented rankings are built on the opinions of established legal practitioners. There are obvious drawbacks, according to Levi: low response rates among judges, for example, and the fact that it’s easy to be out of touch with developments at a school you know only vaguely, or knew intimately decades ago, when you were a student there. Other ways of ranking, in places like The American Lawyer and The Princeton Review, ask newly minted lawyers about the quality of their training, or ask about the experience of current students. In such surveys, he says, Duke does “extraordinarily well.” Back in 1998, a faculty member at the Duke law school, Richard Schmalbeck, wrote an article in the Journal of Legal Education that traced the U.S. News phenomenon to a 1974 “reputational” survey, by two sociologists, of professional schools. (The “reputation” component now accounts for 25 percent of a law school’s overall ranking by U.S. News.) He found—and continues to find—that the same schools occupied the top sixteen spots in every reputational survey.

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And, typically, the place occupied by each school in that group varied within just a narrow range. Today, Schmalbeck works in a conversation just before a phone interview with a New York Times reporter on one aspect of his expertise—taxation policies around intercollegiate sports. In the law-journal article he pointed out that most of the schools had, over time, been led by a succession of deans, witnessed considerable faculty turnover, and undergone major changes in buildings, libraries, curricula, and student populations. What explains the reputational stability? As he sees it, law schools may be less influenced by an infusion of resources or by new technology than, say, business schools. So it would take a lot to shake up rankings that hinge, to no small degree, on reputation. Think of the legal principle stari decisis—“stand by that which is decided.” Such stability aside, law schools have responded to the race for good rankings. Schmalbeck offers an example. A metric for U.S. News is resources spent per student. Traditionally public institutions wouldn’t “tax” their divisions, their law schools included, for janitorial, police, parking, and other services provided campus-wide. Private institutions traditionally have levied such a tax. As a result, a group of (public) law schools looked relatively stingy in their spending patterns. So they asked to be billed for the services they were receiving from their central administration—to be spending more per student, according to some accounting system. Their rankings rose accordingly. Schmalbeck has also found that associates and partners at large law firms, those with several hundred lawyers, to a huge extent come out of top-ranked law schools—a phenomenon that speaks to how rankings shape recruiting practices. For his part, Levi says, “You could say in the U.S., we have ten or fifteen of the best law schools in the world. These are just amazing places; they’re uniformly so good. They all are doing many of the same things, they all have terrific faculty, they all have terrific students, and they all have a superb methodology for teaching law.” All of which suggests the question: How much of a campus reality can any

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ranking system capture? Or, as Levi asks, what factors make one of those top law schools different from another? “Well, their size. And they have different cultures. It turns out that the culture of an institution is what really matters. It’s the internal rhythm, the spirit of the place, the values that it imparts. It’s what makes us Duke—a culture that is infused with ideals and goals for public service, with entrepreneurial energy and an interest in trying new things, with an interdisciplinary reach. And it’s a very collegial environment. But all those things really are not measurable.” One quite measurable quality shared by Duke’s professional schools—aside from an array of high rankings—is the growing presence of international students. More organizations outside the U.S., The Financial Times among them, are joining the rush to rank. At the same time, rankings of all kinds may have a particular resonance for non-American students. Duke physics professor Haiyan Gao says Chinese students and their parents, as a notable example, value rankings highly. In large part that reflects cultural conditioning. China has a long history of relying on an examination system at the local, regional, and national levels. From the ranking he achieved, the exam-taker would be placed in a more or less prestigious government position. “This type of examination system started in 605 and ended in 1905. So it had a history of 1,300 years,” says Gao, the newly named vice chancellor for academic affairs at Duke Kunshan University. “In more recent times, junior and high schools publicly announce who is number 1 in each class each year.” Even with more attention to privacy concerns, “Sometimes they announce that to the entire community.” Gao notes that many Chinese, and international students in general, do not have a very good understanding of U.S. higher education. And they probably can’t look to a planning a college tour. With little feel for the character of campus, they consider rankings a factor “that they pay a lot of attention to.” If they’re prospective freshmen, one person paying a lot of attention to them is Duke’s longtime dean of undergrad-

8 uate admissions, Christoph Guttentag. This past winter he’d be greeting visitors in a very cold office—it has its original, non-weather-resistant windows and a non-functioning fireplace. If the world were more rational, U.S. News would give students access to school-specific data, he says, in a form that would allow them to plug everything into, in effect, their personalized rating system. That’s a vision for what might be thought of as an educational analog to personalized medical care. For now Guttentag is musing over a couple of hypothetical scenarios. The first: Duke jumps to number 1 in the U.S. News ranking. How would that change the admissions profile? “Less than people think. Some students would consider us who hadn’t considered us before. And some students who had been considering us would fig-

similarly has skyrocketed. It also has become home to a host of research centers in areas ranging from nanotechnology to metamaterials. U.S. News ranks Pratt a top-20 school for undergraduate engineering. Pratt is number 2 in biomedical engineering. (For some forty years, Duke was almost alone with biomedical engineering, as other schools focused on traditional engineering disciplines. More recently, peer schools have been pouring resources into that area, changing the competitive landscape.) Pratt may have a higher profile, but it’s relatively small within the larger Duke. By contrast, such schools as MIT and Georgia Tech are driven hugely by their engineering divisions. Measuring the total volume of research or the total number of Ph.D.s will put a place like Pratt at an enduring disadvantage. There are

What weighs heavily in some rankings may not be what fundamentally counts. other rankings-related challenges: Pratt’s strategy calls for the school to be equal in academic quality to the very best engineering schools, which may be reflected in rankings. But it also calls for Pratt to become a model for engineering education, and to become what Katsouleas calls “a driver for all of Duke.” Those aims may not make a mark on a ranking system. If you blindly chase a ranking, Katsouleas says, you’ll lose whatever status you were seeking. To build on his point, he reaches for a bit of history with an engineering tie-in. During the Soviet era, Russian factories were given targets involving the production of nails. At one point, the target hinged on the number of nails, and many tiny useless nails were produced. At another point, the target hinged on the combined weight of nails—resulting in a small number of useless giant nails. The historical lesson? Figure out what you need to be doing in the deepest sense, not just what it takes to look good. It’s idealism with a dose of pragmatism. “I truly believe that if we pursue what we value and become unequivocally the school we want to be, the rankings will follow.” n

ure, ‘I’ll never get in.’ ” In the end, though, he adds, most students would continue to choose a place that felt right to them. “When I’ve gone back and looked, there seems to be no correlation between our rankings and the size and quality of the applicant pool.” So, the second hypothetical scenario: Duke drops way out of the top 10. “Well, if we dropped to 30 and stayed there, that would have an effect. But it’s hard to imagine an applicant saying, ‘I was going to go to Duke, but now that they’re 11 instead of 9, I don’t think I will.’ I’ve never heard of a student who said, ‘One of my colleges was inside the top 10 and one was just outside the top 10. And that was the compelling reason for my decision.’ ” No sector of Duke better illustrates the ambiguities around rankings—their limits as well as their uses—than the Pratt School of Engineering. Today Pratt dean Tom Katsouleas can look out on what was, just a decade or so ago, a small footprint on Duke’s campus; it’s now a conspicuous section of the campus, aesthetically and otherwise. In the past decade, the size of the Pratt faculty has grown by 20 percent, and its research productivity

DUKE MAGAZINE

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A Better Neighbor Twenty years ago, Duke set out to bridge the gap between the wealthy university and struggling nearby communities. The effort began with Walltown. By Elizabeth Van Brocklin

Here is the campus. Washington B. Duke, cast in bronze, seated

and gazing into the distance. The green lawn, prim and peaceful, surrounded by stately brick dormitories, a pillared library, and a domed auditorium. There is the neighborhood. Modest bungalows and squat duplexes line the sloping streets, shaded by towering willow oaks with crooked alleyways running between. A brick Baptist church, a littered creek, a basketball hoop, a porch clinking with handmade wind chimes. The space between here and there—between Duke’s Close ties: Audrey Mitchell East Campus and the Walltown neighborhood—is has longstanding roots in Walltown; she was also a Duke a hop, skip, and a jump; less than a quarter mile. employee. Her mother worked Yet sometimes it has seemed much farther. at Duke as a housekeeper. Photo by Jared Lazarus In the early 1990s, the neighborhood was visibly ailing, and a few university leaders decided to reach across the divide. Walltown would become the staging ground for Duke’s first official community-development project. In return, Walltown would teach Duke how to be a better citizen of the town it calls home.

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HE NEIGHBORHOOD was named for a man named George W. Wall. In the early 1900s, Wall built a small shotgun house for his family in the wooded area north of Trinity College, where he worked as a janitor. Other blue-collar, black families soon settled nearby, and by the 1920s, the community was known as Walltown. People born and raised in Walltown in the 1940s and ’50s recall their neighborhood as a vibrant, tight-knit village. Neighbors borrowed cups of sugar, shared produce from their gardens, and disciplined each other’s misbehaving children. Youngsters played football and jump rope, shimmied up backyard fruit trees, and scratched hopscotch grids in the dirt roads. On warm nights, they had sleepovers on front porches. “Everybody looked out for each other. It was like one big family,” says Audrey Mitchell, who has lived in Walltown for all but three of her sixty-nine years. “We were considered poor people. But we didn’t know we were poor, because we had whatever we needed.” Hemmed in on each side by wealthier white neighborhoods, Walltowners founded their own elementary school, grocery store, barbershop, wood yard, juke joint, and several churches. They also established a neighborhood council, the city’s first neighborhood community center, and their own symbolic mayor. While many engaged with the civil rights movement in Durham—participating in sit-ins, integrating white schools, and lobbying policymakers at City Hall—they also felt wary of outsiders. To enter Walltown, “you had to know somebody,” says Mitchell. “If you didn’t, you would get run out of there. And that’s literally.” Likewise, Walltown folk avoided passing through nearby neighborhoods, black and white alike, not to mention the intimidating Georgian campus next door. Annie Vample, born in 1944, remembers childhood walks from her home in Wall-

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Growing pains: A 1913 map depicts a legacy of Walltown’s substandard dwellings. Pink areas denote brick houses; blue areas denote stone; yellow areas denote wood frame. Walltown grew around yellow area 80, top right.

town to Bible school in Brookstown, a black community that was later decimated by construction of the Durham Freeway. East Campus offered a convenient shortcut, but rather than face unwelcome stares on the quad, Vample preferred to walk along the top of the East Campus wall, her small leather sandals snapping across the uneven stones. Despite divisions of race and class, Walltown and Duke have long shared a permeable boundary. While some Walltowners found well-paying jobs in the downtown tobacco factories, many others worked at Duke. These janitors, housekeepers, yardmen, and line cooks labored

behind the scenes at a school they were not allowed to attend—at least until the university began admitting black students in the 1960s. Wall’s descendants would continue cleaning up after Duke—and relying on it for their livelihood—over the next century. The gradual fade of tobacco and textile factories left Duke (both its university and medical center) as the largest employer in Durham County and one of the only corporate powers in the area. Duke had a near-monopoly on jobs: “They had the only horse and show in town,” recalls James Hill, who was born in Walltown in 1939. Hill’s mother worked as a maid in Map courtesy of North Carolina Maps

one of the women’s dormitories on East Campus. Every summer, the students would give her their used clothing, which she would then distribute to the young girls in Walltown. One Christmas, she fell sick and was unable to prepare for the holiday, so the dorm girls took up a collection and bought an electric toy train for her children. “Everybody in the neighborhood played with that train. It was top-of-theline,” says Hill. “That was big stuff. We kept that train for about twenty years.” These gestures, while memorable, were not potent enough to scrub out the resentment experienced by some Walltowners, who felt theirs was a servant

To enter Walltown, “you

occurred in the early 1990s with the Burch Avenue neighborhood, which sits south of East Campus. As then-senior vice president for public affairs John Burness remembers it, Burch residents were exasperated by the nightly rumbling of Duke hospital laundry trucks through their otherwise quiet streets, as well as by ten Duke-owned properties, most of them vacant. Burness met with the neighborhood association over several months and devised a plan to rehab and sell the properties. It was a mutually beneficial proposal: Duke would avoid becoming a slum landlord and protect its public image, while Burch residents would rid themselves of eyesore properties and acquire homes for

had to know somebody.

If you didn’t, you would get run out of there. And that’s community to Big Duke. “People who worked there would call it the Plantation. It reminded them of slaving times,” says Mitchell, who worked at Duke’s Private Diagnostic Clinic for thirty-one years. Other employees were grateful for the income and even felt a sense of kinship with the university. Vample’s father worked as a cook at Duke and later at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon his retirement, he was thrilled when Duke gave him season football tickets. “My daddy loved it,” she recalls. “Although you were just a worker there, not a student, you still loved the school.”

AS DUKE’S FOOTPRINT GREW, some people residing at its edges were pushed aside. In the 1960s, Duke purchased 153 homesteads and evicted swaths of working-class cotton-mill workers in West Durham to build apartments for Central Campus. In the late 1980s, Duke announced plans to expand the medical center, resulting in the eviction of forty-two families and prompting student protests, according to local newspaper articles. Duke made efforts to support some residents with relocation assistance and housing loans, but these attempts were quickly eclipsed by the next expansion project. Another community-relations fumble

hostility” from some Durham residents toward the university. The contrast was tangible: Duke was erecting multimillion-dollar academic and research facilities, while just a stone’s throw away, Durham was dealing with unemployment, floundering public schools, the war on drugs, and crime. In the shadow of East Campus, Walltown in particular was struggling. One resident remembers when her street was infamously dubbed Skid Row. “Gunshots crackled in the night. Drug dealers peddled their wares out of desolate, boarded-up homes. Squatters haunted the old elementary school, where all the windows had been broken out and smashed beer bottles glittered on the ground,” the Durham Herald Sun would later report about Walltown. Longtime local pastor literally.” Robert L. Daniels M.Div. ’84 remembers a shooting outside of Walltown’s Knox Street Grocery, a former mom-andpop shop that had become a den for drug dealers, gangs, and prostitutes. “It was a neighborhood that had become a fearful place to live,” Daniels recalls. Residents were especially troubled by the patches of rundown housing that had cropped up in the past few years. Absentee landlords, transient renters, and the exodus of new generations had left a shortage of invested homeowners. The wood-frame dwellings of George Wall’s era were abandoned and crumbling.

families. But less than a year later, Duke announced plans to erect a 160-foot television tower in the neighborhood. “How is it possible?” Burness responded furiously when he learned about the tower, which had been approved by Duke telecommunications representatives unbeknownst to him. Twenty years after the fact, he’s still miffed by the lack of coordination and empathy Duke showed with that decision. “We weren’t malevolent, we were just incompetent,” he reflects. “If you read back through the [meeting] minutes, the question was asked, ‘How would this look from Duke’s campus?’ It didn’t occur to people to say, ‘How would it look from the community?’ ”

DUKE’S MURKY TOWN-GOWN history was waiting for Nannerl O. Keohane when she became president of the university in 1993. The eldest daughter of a socially conscious preacher, Keohane grew up accompanying her father on visits to poor communities in rural Arkansas and South Carolina. Years later, as a graduate student at Yale, she witnessed the disparity between the sparklingly well-endowed university and crime- and poverty-addled New Haven. Upon taking up her new post at Duke, Keohane noticed “a considerable sense of distance and suspicion, even at some level,

EARLY IN HER PRESIDENCY, Keohane made the decision that East Campus would house all first-year students. If Duke planned to place its youngest, most vulnerable population in the midst of the city, instead of tucked away in the forest, it needed to ensure safety and stability for students on campus as well as residents living nearby. Suddenly, the issues in Walltown seemed much closer. Until this point, individual campus groups, such as the Duke chapel, had tried to reach out to local communities, but Duke’s collective impact in Durham was “a mile wide and an inch deep,” according to Burness. In Duke’s long-range plan, Keohane outlined her vision for more sincere, coordinated investment in Durham communities. The trustees DUKE MAGAZINE

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Residential Security Best Desirable Declining Hazardous Coded messages: Above, a redlining map from 1937 shows the neighborhoods around Duke graded on the basis of demographics and physical characteristics. Walltown, D1, was rated hazardous. Right, another 1937 map shows the streets north of Duke colored-coded by race. Predominantly black Walltown was also the site of a city garbage incinerator.

signed off, and Burness went to work. His team would begin in Walltown, as it was close to East Campus, peopled by many Duke employees, and in need of improved housing. But what did Duke know about residential housing development? In search of an ally with strong local ties, it turned to Self-Help, a local community-development organization focused on helping low-wealth families become homeowners and small-business owners. After many meetings among Self-Help, Duke representatives, and community members, a plan developed. Self-Help would buy, 34 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

gut, and renovate the ramshackle properties, transforming them into spruced-up homes, which would ideally attract new homeowners and other developers. Eventually, in theory, the community would stabilize. In April 1994, Duke loaned Self-Help $2 million. Along with city bond money, Duke’s loan became the primary fuel for Self-Help’s housing revitalization in Walltown. With the funds, Self-Help hired two staff members to research every house in the neighborhood, identify the ones in need of rehab—nearly threefourths of properties—and track down

the landlords. Once renovated, the properties were sold at affordable prices to first-time, low-income homeowners, the majority of them black, with preference given to Duke employees. One of these first-time homeowners was Carolyn Smith. A Durham native, Smith had reared six children in rented apartments in Durham’s West End, where she says she yearned to paint the walls in colors of her choice. “I had always lived in a house, but it wasn’t my house,” she says. “To me that was always the American dream.” In the late 1990s, Smith noticed the houses for sale in Walltown, applied for the loan, and was thrilled when she was approved. She’s been living in the lightbrown bungalow on Berkeley Street ever since. In 2005, Smith retired after working in housekeeping at Duke Medical Center for twenty-two years. She still cleans the homes of several Duke professors who live nearby. She didn’t know about Duke’s hand in her new house, but she commends Martin Eakes Hon. ’06, Self-Help’s founder, for the work of his nonprofit. “It was a good thing he did, especially for black people,” she says. Today, Smith is sixty-eight years old and has an aching knee, but she still cares for her house with visible pride. Every week she dusts the porch, hoses down the vinyl siding, and tends to the pinkand-white four o’clocks in the front yard. When she cuts the grass, she eagerly cuts part of the neighbor’s lawn too. Smith feels comforted because when she dies, she will have something to leave to her children. Her favorite part of owning a home? “You can paint it any color you want.”

HE WALLTOWN HOUSING revitalization would end up spanning more than a decade. But before it even began, Duke had a much deeper, intangible problem to solve. Over the years, trust had eroded between university and neighborhood like the termite-gnawed foundations of Walltown houses. Audrey Mitchell recalls the feelings of certain residents toward Duke in the early years of

Maps courtesy of North Carolina Maps and Duke University Libraries, Open Durham

Porter and pioneer The legacy of George Wall, Duke’s first janitor

Walltown

Jared Lazarus

natives keep their creation story handy of other working black men; for other women to befriend like a lucky old coin, proof of their hard-won fortune his young wife, Hattie; and for other children to play with and untarnished pride. “Old man Wall’s house,” they say his own. knowingly, gesturing toward Onslow Street, formerly Third In 1902, Wall turned north. Just beyond the college Street, and before that Wall Street, to the spot where the grounds, a stretch of woods had been platted into residential blocks, numbered in one direction, lettered in the othfirst house in these parts was built more than a century ago. er, and posted for sale. Slightly sunken, creased by gullies, A census entry in spindly cursive, a black-and-white and vulnerable to flooding, the terrain was not prime for death certificate, and a hand-drawn fire-insurance map are building. In any case, Wall was drawn to this untouched surviving clues to the life of George W. Wall. The exact frontier, and there he bought a plot for $50. Soon after, date is not known, but it seems Wall was born into slavery he built a small wood-frame cottage: one story tall, one around 1854 in the gently rolling foothills of Randolph room wide, and a few rooms deep, with a brick chimney County, North Carolina. He was the son of Irena and the and a little shed-roofed stoop in slave of Solomon Wall, a farmer. front. Soon other black families A few years before, educator and settled nearby, forming a close Methodist minister Braxton Craven became head of the soon-toworking-class community. In the be Trinity College in Randolph. 1920s, Trinity was renamed Duke Wall was an emancipated teenager University, and the industrious when Craven hired him as a serlittle hamlet two blocks north was vant, and he soon began working coined Walltown. for the college as a janitor. Despite his lowly status, Wall Wall may have been the sole became good friends with college employee, apart from faculty president John F. Crowell, who members, to follow Trinity Colwrote in a letter of the janitor’s lege to Durham in 1892. What “fidelity and simple devotion to compelled him to journey seventy duties that were not always the miles away (at that time a long pleasantest and easiest.” One of distance) from his birthplace Wall’s sons appears to be named Landmark: George Wall’s house still stands. and all he knew? Perhaps it was Braxton, likely in honor of the his devotion to the institution, man who employed him for decades. Another son, George-Frank, also worked at Duke as or a need for stable income. Maybe he was hungry for a custodian and bequeathed the university a generous gift adventure or uncharted land—Durham could offer both, of $100 upon his death. as it was quickly sprouting into the vibrant tobacco capital After fifty years of continuous service to Trinity and of the South and the nation. Whatever his reasons, as the Duke, Wall died in the winter of 1930. He left behind a college’s textbooks and bronze bell were shipped over in second wife, Lillie Wall, and several generations of children boxcars, Wall and his family moved as well. and grandchildren (several of his great-grandchildren still During his early years in Durham, Wall’s name appears reside in Walltown today). here and there in local directories. At first he may have One can still leave East Campus, walk north for three lodged on the college campus, a former fairgrounds donated by industrialist and philanthropist Julian S. Carr. A few blocks, and spot Wall’s little wood-frame cottage on Onslow Street. Cobwebs lace the porch, broken bottles litter years later, Wall is listed as a “porter” residing in Trinity the yard, the rooms are cloaked in dust. The house is empPark, the area just east of campus where faculty members ty, weathered, and almost hidden, but it is still there. and administrators lived. A blue-collar minority in a sea of —Elizabeth Van Brocklin lettered whites, Wall may have longed for a kindred circle DUKE MAGAZINE

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towners. For years, Mitchell and others in Walltown had waged slow battles with the City of Durham for smoother sidewalks, working streetlights, and recreational spaces. Then came the threatened expansion of Northgate Mall, whose owner reportedly announced that within ten years, Walltown would cease to exist. With Northgate to the north, Duke to the south, and whiter, richer neighborhoods on either side, Walltown was surrounded. Even today, residents express suspicion that Duke might one day bulldoze their neighborhood to clear space for academic facilities or student housing. “Duke is such a powerful institution. If they want to come in here and buy up this community, they have the potential to do that,” says Pastor Daniels. “But if we don’t have any dialogue and discussions Pre-revitalization: A boarded-up house. working with them, talking with them at the table, then, over the long haul, they will just be like any other university. They will get the property.” (The situapaved the way to tion wasn’t helped by Duke’s purchase of Trinity Heights, the six-block-long strip reserved for university faculty and staff. Two years after launching the housing Some Walltowners still view revitalization in Walltown in 1994, Duke the district as an elite and tellcreated the Duke-Durham Neighborhood ing “buffer zone” between their Partnership to improve the quality of life in neighborhood and the campus.) twelve neighborhoods close to campus. The Early in the process, before any DDNP has since started health initiatives, construction began, Burness’ ofbuilt community centers and playgrounds, fice sent a graduate student to talk and dispatched tutors and mentors to with Walltown residents about Durham public schools. According to Selfthe issues they were dealing with. She was promptly turned away. Help, Duke’s loans have helped transform Apparently, Duke needed a differabout 325 properties to date. ent approach. “We really needed to cease presenting ourselves as UPDATE: Duke recently extended its $8 this sort of paternalistic neighbor million loan to Self-Help through 2021. who brought groups in occasionally and knew what was best,” Keohane recalls, “but instead go and ask them, ‘What do you need that we might be able to help with? We want to sit down with you in your community centers, in your homes, in your churches, and listen to what you say instead of somehow thinking that we have all the answers.’ ” Next, Burness enlisted city Post-revitalization: A renovated home. and county representatives Bill Bell (now in his seventh term

the partnership. “We were skeptical about Duke being the help, because we knew Duke would want to take over,” she says. “They have that takeover mentality. Duke thinks, ‘It’s going to be run the way we want it run.’... No, it’s going to be run the way we want it run. This is our community.” Duke was not the only local force capable of “taking over” in the eyes of Wall-

Walltown

official partnership

36 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

as Durham mayor) and Sandy Ogburn to survey several local neighborhoods about their needs. Burness credits these two well-respected ambassadors as key to establishing lasting trust with Walltown. “Duke can’t go do this stuff without assessing need,” he says. “There needs to be somebody who really knows the neighborhood saying, ‘We need this in our community.’ And if Duke is just doing it without asking what’s needed, then it’s a failure, a total failure.” Bell and Ogburn emerged from the surveys with a list of issues, including affordable housing, health care, education, youth programs, and crime prevention. As housing renovations got under way, Duke and Self-Help joined with Daniels and four other pastors to establish a neighborhood clinic and a children’s theater. The trio also collaborated to transfigure the drug- and gang-infested Knox Grocery into a headquarters for the five-pastor ministry; it will soon be used by a jobs and life skills training nonprofit. Duke continues to have a presence through a number of divinity-school alumni, who run three hospitality houses in Walltown and promote social justice in the Triangle.

HE WALLTOWN HOUSING revitalization marked Duke’s first strategic attempt to connect with a community of regular, working-class people. When the project began, Walltown was plagued by gang activity, gunfire, and blighted properties. These days, Walltown is quiet and relatively peaceful. Kids play ball in the street at night; graduate students rent houses there. Carolyn Smith’s porch, once the site of a gunpoint robbery, is now a haven where she sips coffee most mornings, watching the traffic pass. Audrey Mitchell, along with many other longtime black residents, has stayed in Walltown. Annie Vample coordinates the annual Walltown reunion, which draws former neighbors from as far as Atlanta and Philadelphia. James Hill now lives in another neighborhood, but he visits Walltown every day. The houses Self-Help renovated—about eighty properties over thirteen years—are neat and white-trimmed. “The landscape of the housing is so much better,” affirms Photos courtesy Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership

Duke’s footprint in Durham Along with its neighborhood partnerships, Duke has driven a renaissance in Durham in the areas of arts, technology, health, and science. Notable partnerships include:

Full Frame Film Festival: Sponsored by Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, this internationally acclaimed festival draws attendees from around the world. American Tobacco Historic District: Preserved to honor the legacy of Washington Duke’s American Tobacco Company, the district includes Duke financial services, real estate, and divinity-school offices. Durham Innovation District: New office and lab space in the old Liggett & Myers cigarette factory will support science, technology, and mathematics programs of Durham Tech, Duke’s Talent Identification Program, and the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. West Village: Duke students and Durham residents live in this historic tobacco warehouse-turnedapartment community. Duke Medicine: Duke has several outpatient clinics in Durham, as well as a physician-assistant program. Photo credits: Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Caroline Culler; American Tobacco, Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau; West Village, Joe Wolf; Out Patient Clinic, Duke Medicine

Daniels. “People feel good about being able to purchase a home here.” Other Walltown residents agree that the new houses brightened and beautified the neighborhood. “Duke has done a tremendous service for the Walltown community by investing resources there—a win-win initiative,” commented one pastor. Despite many gains, some residents worry about the loss of affordable housing as the neighborhood becomes nicer. A smattering of shabby and vacant buildings persist; there is still an occasional robbery; and residents are concerned about education, employment, and health care, according to a recent survey conducted by a local nonprofit. White and Latino

families have moved in, creating a more diverse, if somewhat fractured, community makeup. From Walltown, Duke learned the importance of learning a community’s history, listening as residents identify their own self-determined goals, acknowledging power differentials, and striving for genuine, long-term collaboration, not parachute-in paternalism. Duke also learned that it cannot simply replicate and scale the Walltown model in other areas. “You have to recognize that there are these histories, and that each neighborhood has its own culture,” says Burness. “What might work in one neighborhood isn’t necessarily going to work in another.”

According to Burness, Duke did what it set out to do. “The neighbors identified wanting to have more affordable housing; they have more affordable housing. The neighbors wanted better schools for their kids; they got better schools for their kids. The neighbors wanted a safer community; it is a safer community. For me, the biggest piece is when I drive down those streets and I see little kids playing in the front yard; that means we did it right.” Still, some age-old attitudes are not as easily reshaped as eaves and moldings. “The reason that Duke is doing what it’s doing, they feel guilty,” theorizes Hill. “We don’t think they’re doing it out of the kindness of their heart. It’s they look back and they say, ‘We shouldn’t have treated them this way...so let’s throw a couple of dollars at them, and maybe we can pacify them.’ ” Hill admits that such suspicions might be more common among older generations. “My children, they don’t have the same feeling that I have toward Duke,” he says. “They think Duke is peaches and cream.” Duke has “made a lot of progress, and they have reached out,” he adds. “But the scars are deep. Some will never heal. What it would take is time, and time, well, for this generation to die out, because you can’t really just erase something that was done.... It’s okay to forgive, but when you start forgetting, then you’re allowing the situation to go back to the way it was, see, so you’d be doing yourself a great disservice.” The voices of Duke, Walltown, and those in between tell a fraught yet shared story of integration, changing identity, mistrust, negotiation, and loyalty. Just as some Walltown residents continue to question the sincerity of Duke’s community-service projects, some Duke students are still scared to stray too far past the East Campus wall. While Duke alumni claim to be “Forever Duke,” Walltowners also are drawn perpetually back to their home place. “Anybody that talks about Walltown and grew up in Walltown, you would hear the pride in their voices and would see it on their faces,” says Mitchell. “It’s the people that grew up here and who we call Walltownans that have always been connected. And we still feel connected; whether we move away or what, we are still connected. It’s not about geography anymore. I don’t care where you are, you’re a Walltown.” n DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

Code Dependent stories | Elizabeth Van Brocklin photography | Chris Hildreth

It might look like a garble of semicolons, parentheses, and word fragments, yet for Duke’s student programmers, code is a powerful blueprint for solving tough problems. Meet three students fusing code and imagination to catch cancer early, sustain farmers, and boost safety for athletes.

[

]

In middle school, Brittany Wenger became fascinated by artificial intelligence. Using textbooks and online tutorials, she taught herself to code a program that could play soccer. On a gray screen, x’s and y’s symbolizing players scrabbled for an “o” representing the ball. After dozens of games, one of the teams started to win. The program was learning. Wenger had created an artificial neural network, an algorithm that mimics the human brain and can process vast amounts of information. Her soccer program was just the beginning. A few years later, Wenger created a computer-

Brittany Wenger

sophomore | Double-major in computer science and biology 38 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

ized “brain” that can detect breast cancer. Detecting cancer early is vital, but it can be tricky: Sometimes healthy cells masquerade as noncancerous cells, and vice versa. Wenger’s app, Cloud4Cancer, can diagnose breast cancer with more than 99 percent accuracy. Doctors can enter information about nine attributes of suspect cells in a breast mass and, with one click, learn whether the mass is malignant or benign. The app is being beta tested in hospitals in the U.S. and abroad; it can test for leukemia as well as breast cancer. Wenger won the Google Science Fair competition for her app in 2012, thrusting her into the national spotlight. She’s given several TEDx talks; met her idol, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf; presented her ideas at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland; and was named to Time magazine’s “30 Under 30.” This past Christmas, she used code to illuminate the White House Christmas tree. As the Google Student Ambassador for Duke, Wenger acts as a liaison between Google and Duke’s campus culture. The sophomore wants to keep fusing computer science with medicine and eventually pursue a joint M.D.-Ph.D.

Genome Sciences and Policy certificate

Josh Miller

junior | Double-major in electrical engineering and computer science

[

What do code and corn crops have in common?

]

More than you’d think, at least for junior Josh Miller, who devised a software system to help farmers increase their yields. Miller runs processing algorithms on satellite images of local farms to find out information, such as the chlorophyll content of plants in a field. He then translates the data into insight farmers can use—for example, they should apply less water here or more fertilizer there. The data also can help farmers pinpoint pests, fungus, or disease. By helping them find these issues on their farm, the data are saving farmers money, he says. To formalize his idea into a business, Miller recruited four other computer-science majors and formed Farmshots, a company that offers tailored solutions for farmers and agronomic consultants. His partners are Yu Zhou Lee, Sai Cheemalapati, Ouwen Huang, and Stanley Yuan. Farmshots is being tested by farmers in North Carolina. Miller hopes to expand to other states in the future. Though Miller describes himself as “just a tech guy from Miami” with no education in agriculture, he worries about an impending crisis of food scarcity. “By 2050, the food production in the entire world is going to have to increase by 70 percent,” he says. “We’re sort of reaching this plateau of how much corn and soybeans we can grow on an acre. The only way to keep pushing that limit of yield per acre is through application of technology.”

[Miller also helped develop a glove that can read sign language out loud using code.]

[ ] A few years ago, Ivonna Dumanyan bought a pair of new running shoes and realized she had a pronation problem.

Ivonna Dumanyan

junior | Major in mechanical engineering

Pronation is the natural inward roll of the foot while running or walking, and too little or too much of it puts an athlete at risk for injury. As a varsity rower, Dumanyan had top-level coaches and fitness specialists who could help her, but she knew that many athletes didn’t. Last summer, she designed SmartStrides, a small device that attaches to the heel and monitors pronation. Dumanyan learned and wrote the code herself, both for the device hardware and data-processing software. She also printed a plastic model of her own foot using a 3D printer in Duke’s new Innovation Co-Lab, which offers grants and tools to student developers. Using the foot model, she can simulate pronation and study the “signature” of her steps, which looks similar to activity on a heart monitor. The device can tell a runner whether he or she is pronating, and if so, how much. “Sixty percent of people pronate without knowing it,” says Dumanyan, a junior. “It’s important to be aware of your body and of your form so you can find the least dangerous and most comfortable form.” At the moment, Dumanyan’s sensor is about the size of a quarter. She’s trying to make it smaller and wireless, and develop a sweat-proof casing. When it’s ready, she plans to have Duke athletes test it. n

DUKE MAGAZINE

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A Spectrum of Possibilities Researcher Geri Dawson is chasing the next breakthroughs. By Catherine Clabby | Photography by Jared Lazarus and Donn Young

hen Geraldine Dawson stepped into a waiting area in her laboratory to greet Joseph Zdrilich and Claire Lim, researcher and parents did not know one another. But already they were allies in a quest at Duke to discover new autism treatments. Andy, the couple’s energetic five-year-old, was diagnosed with autism the year before. Sometimes he tuned into toys more than people. Not all his words were intelligible. Children who met Andy on the playground did not always stick around to play. “It’s heartbreaking to watch,” says Zdrilich. So the parents volunteered their son for an experimental study exploring whether umbilical-cord blood can help heal the brains of people with autism. The study is one of several linked to Duke’s new Center for Autism and Brain Development, which Dawson directs. No one knows if the unique mix of cells in cord blood can treat autism. But Lim and Zdrilich were intrigued by preliminary research at Duke, a worldwide innovator in cord-blood medical therapies, suggesting that the cells might help. For them, a long-shot inquiry with a potentially huge payoff was worth the time and effort. “We want to do everything we can to help him,” Andy’s father says. That same logic appeals to Dawson, who is participating in and championing a wide range of autism research at Duke, including projects with Early intervention: uncertain outcomes. “There is a point At the Duke Child and where you feel it’s worth taking risks. If Family Study Center, you are too safe in what you study, the Dawson turns play into chances of really having a breakthrough therapy with two-yearfall,” Dawson says. old Luke Deis. If anyone understands what it takes Jared Lazarus

to land a breakthrough in the field of autism, Geri Dawson does. Over more than thirty years, she has made several high-profile discoveries, many of them at the University of Washington. As the science officer of the national autism-advocacy group Autism Speaks, she helped funnel tens of millions of dollars to research projects intended to accelerate the translation of scientific insights about autism into treatment useful to people living with the disorder. “Geri’s impact has been both deep and wide,” says Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, who sits with Dawson on a committee that advises the federal government on where to invest autism research dollars. “Deep in the sense that she has done so much to focus the research community on what is most important to families. And wide in the sense that she has brought researchers and clinicians together.” At Duke, where Dawson arrived in 2013, the new center is a response to a public-health enigma. Autism rates in the U.S. have rocketed in recent years. One in sixty-eight children are diagnosed with the lifelong disorder, a 125 percent increase since 2002, a federal survey estimates. Improved diagnosis explains a share of the increase, but not all. At the same time, scientists at Duke and elsewhere understand the biological basis of autism better than ever, progress that could point the way to new treatments. “In five years or less, we’ll be one of the top autism centers, under Geri’s leadership,” predicts Helen Egger, a child psychiatrist who leads Duke’s division of child and adolescent psychiatry and who helped establish the autism center. “She has a very clear vision and is extremely effective in making things happen.” DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

“I’ve always been inherently interested in human behavior. I’ve always wanted to understand what makes us all the same

on one level and then

f you ever want to immerse ford Nuclear Reservation, a one-time what explains yourself in a highly challengManhattan Project facility. While in ing arena, consider autism rejunior high school in the 1960s, Dawall our variation.” son babysat her neighbor’s six-year-old search. To start with, autism is not one thing. It’s a range of twins, boys who could only point and disorders (with mulmake other simple gestures tiple causes) that are aptly to express themselves. Objects, including billiard described as a spectrum. balls, engaged them more Children and adults with than people. Disruptions the diagnosis can look of daily routines, includvastly different from one ing the precise spots where another. Nearly half have their cutlery should be average or higher intelligence. Some are brilliant, placed on the lunch table, prompted meltdowns. with prodigious memories There was no evidence eiand rare talents. Others are ther would ever be able to cognitively impaired, some look after himself. seriously. But appearances Dawson was fascinated can deceive in placing a because the behavior of all person on the spectrum. people interested her, even Computer-generated voices allow some nonverbal as a kid. “In the same way people with autism to type some people are drawn to and then share highly articulate thoughts, increasingly art or are drawn to the forest to study plants, I’ve always been inherently interested in human behavior. in college classrooms. I’ve always wanted to understand what makes us all Despite that diversity, people on the autism spectrum share three traits. They have trouble communithe same on one level and then what explains all our cating, which can include speaking or understanding variation.” language. They struggle with reading and responding While a graduate student studying developmental to social cues—even other people’s facial expressions, and clinical psychology in the late 1970s at the University of Washington, Dawson had as her first clinical pawhich most people translate with lightning speed. tient a boy much like those twins. He spoke just a few And they tend to engage in repetitive behaviors, such words and gave people little notice. Faculty members as talking incessantly about a narrow interest or repeating gestures that to many may appear odd. in her department flew in an expert from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a longtime site of Dawson first encountered autism while growing up innovation for autism treatment, to learn about therain southeastern Washington, the bright daughter of py under development there. “We didn’t have anything a nurse mother and scientist father who researched we could offer this family,” Dawson says. nonmilitary energy uses for plutonium at the Han-

44 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Active participant: Left and above, Dawson engages with Andy Zdrilich, who is enrolled in a study exploring whether umbilical-cord blood can improve the brains of those with autism, as his mother, Claire Lim, watches; below, Lim and her husband, Joseph Zdrilich, listen as Dawson explains that cord blood’s effects are uncertain and only research will clarify its promise.

Dawson and her professors weren’t operating entirely in the dark. By the time she reached graduate school, child-development experts had abandoned the harsh theory that cold-hearted parents, particularly unemotional mothers, caused autism. They recognized that the trouble somehow started in the brain, likely in regions vital to communicating and other social behaviors. But no one knew what brain anatomy was involved, let alone how to try to change it. Dawson’s emotional reaction was sadness for her first patient and his family. But intellectually, the research scientist’s daughter was intrigued. “I wondered what could be different in the brain that could make it that some children form social relationships with parents and other people and others do not,” Dawson says. “I thought if we could answer that, we would not only diagnose and treat autism better, we’d find something really important about human nature.”

hile a clinician-scientist and eventually as an autism center director, Dawson chased answers to those questions, working with children and their parents and with other researchers in Seattle from 1985 to 2008. That’s where she first displayed a knack for selecting research questions that, if cracked, had wide, practical potential. “Geri has always seen the whole chess board very well. She has always had a great passion for research,” says Rob Ring, the chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, the job Dawson held from 2008 until an expanding interdisciplinary research program attracted her to Duke. In the 1990s, autism wasn’t diagnosed until a child was around age four. That was because screenings focused on deficits in language and other behaviors that Photos by Donn Young

appeared in unimpaired children after age three. But Dawson became convinced that autism could be detected earlier. She had noticed that when she walked into treatment rooms to work with preschool-age patients diagnosed with autism, the children did not look up to see who was entering, something unimpaired children did as infants. Dawson suspected infants with autism didn’t look up either. The hunch was important because early diagnosis steers children more quickly to behavioral therapy that by that time was known to improve the speech and behavior of many children diagnosed with autism. To test her hypothesis, Dawson and graduate student Julie Osterling mined the most un-data-like sources: family videos of first birthday parties. Such highly ritualized events, it turns out, efficiently capture variation in behavior among children encountering the same unexpected thing, or social stimuli, in scientist-speak. “How often do you present a flaming object to a baby?” Dawson asks, to explain the singular opportunity. When a father or mother places a cake with a lit candle before a child without autism, the child looks around at family members to make sure all is okay. If a grandmother calls the baby to look her way so she can take a photo, the infant turns her head. Birthday boys and girls later diagnosed with autism frequently do neither. They may cover their ears or stare into space, behavior looked for in screening protocols that achieve earlier diagnosis today. Also in the 1990s, Dawson’s lab devised ways, still used today, to measure electrical activity to eavesdrop on the brains of very young children to hunt for signs of autism before they can speak. Her research team was the first to observe that the brains of children with autism respond in normal ways to a photograph of a familiar toy but respond with lower than normal intensity when shown a photograph of a familiar face, DUKE MAGAZINE

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46 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Donn Young

Jared Lazarus

efore greeting Luke Deis and his mother, Jamie, in a clinic waiting room at Duke last October, Dawson made sure the light switch in her therapy room down the hall was covered with plastic. Luke, just two years old, is intrigued by light and loves to turn light switches on and off again and again, his mother had warned her. Dawson wanted his attention on her. As soon as Luke was in her room, Dawson invited the two-year-old in black sneakers and jeans to play. “Tap, tap, tap,” she said, while striking a sheet of paper with a thick purple felt-tip marker, and then turned to Luke. “It’s your turn,” she said, looking him in the eye and smiling. “Yay, yay, yay!,” she said when he did Model child: Dawson coaches Luke Deis’ mother, Jamie, the same thing. With the ease of a woman who gets on Early Start Denver Model therapy, which Dawson up early enough every workday morning to either lift helped create. weights or work out on a StairMaster, Dawson sat in a tiny kid’s chair, slid around on the floor, moved about on her knees—whatever was needed to keep Luke’s even if that face is the child’s mother. That suggested eyes level with hers. that brain regions that normally motivated children, When Luke noticed a white plastic plate where a including babies, to pay attention to and recognize light switch might be near the door, he moved in its social stimuli, including human faces, do not develop direction, but Dawson put her hand on his shoulder normally in these children. and guided him away. For a time, she followed him These insights helped Dawson and others develaround the room, carrying a copy of a wooden stick op a description of autism that filled in many of the and hand drum he had picked up. Whatever he did blanks she encountered in graduwith it, she did the same, until a boy ate school. Study after study has not always eager to make eye contact shown that what is now known as peeked at her over his shoulder to see “There is a point social-brain circuitry is less well deif she was still following him. veloped among people on the spec“I suggest that you do this, too,” where you feel trum. That circuitry is important to Dawson said to Luke’s mother, who communication and other exchangstudied every move Dawson made it’s worth es among our highly social species. with her son. “Purchase five or six It’s the social brain that motivates sets of identical toys and do sometaking risks. thing together with them for ten very young children to interact with minutes every day. What I predict is family members, communicate with If you are too safe that he’ll start watching you to see if others, and perceive the feelings of you do what he does. See if he impeople around them, the very thing in what you study, itates you. It’s the social imitation that kids with autism are less likely that we want him to learn.” to do. the chances of What looked like play was a Those drives are more important therapy called Early Start Denver than you might think. Every social really having a Model, which Dawson created with interaction is a learning opportunity Sally Rogers, now of the University for a young child. They help them breakthrough fall.” of California at Davis. It uses activmaster massively important things ities children love to motivate them such as how to decipher and speak to interact with other people. The language and how to read facial expressions and other body language. The gains are even treatment, if delivered intensively, has been shown to bigger than that. This learning stimulates literal brain improve the language, behavior, and even IQ scores development, physical changes in the human brain of some children, reducing the need for therapy later in life. Most startling, evidence published in 2012 needed to support social exchanges. This mix of neural software and hardware helps a child secure a seat showed that the sessions change children’s brains. in mainstream kindergarten and, one day, hold a job. After intensive treatment, the children’s brains were This news was not all bad for children diagnosed stimulated more by human faces than by toys. with autism, who are less likely to seek out social inThat finding has won Dawson and Rogers tributes, teractions. Sometimes, Dawson and a prime collabfrom colleagues, the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, even Time magazine, which seorator later learned, you can give children what they lected the finding as one of the top 10 medical breakmissed early on.

Technical tools: Dawson watches video of Andy Zdrilich with Mark Murias, who directs a neurophysiology lab at Duke that tracks differences in the brains of children and adults with autism and other disorders.

throughs of 2012. A book they coauthored on therapy has been published in thirteen languages. Dawson and colleagues have trained people in the techniques as far away as India and China, and she is helping a young Duke faculty member adapt it to the needs of poor families in South Africa. But Dawson is well aware of the barriers to and limitations of behavioral therapy. Intensive treatment from a trained therapist is expensive, $35,000 to $50,000 annually when delivered by a professional. Despite lobbying by Dawson and others, not all states require insurers to cover the early-intervention therapy for autism (though thirty-eight states, with North Carolina not yet among them, now do). Also, despite the rise of the Denver model and other behavior therapies, a good number of people with autism remain significantly disabled. “We used to say 50 percent of individuals with autism never learn to speak. Now it’s like more than 25 to 30

percent,” Dawson says. “But keep in mind that up to 30 percent of individuals with autism still don’t speak. Our work is not done.” Dawson left the University of Washington in 2008 to become the first science officer for Autism Speaks out of a desire to funnel grants to support promising research in laboratories all over the country and to campaign for more support for families contending with autism. The latter mission resulted in her testifying before a U.S. Senate committee and speaking at the United Nations. When she accepted the job, Dawson declined a move from Seattle to New York, where the nonprofit is based. Instead she, her engineer/artist husband, and her youngest child, a daughter who is now an undergraduate at Duke, moved to North Carolina. (Her son, now a vice president at the online real-estate database Zillow, remained in Seattle.) Dawson has deep roots here. Her father grew up on DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

Focusing Attention on Autism

sulting with Joanne Kurtzberg, the pioneering cord-blood researcher at Duke. Kurtzberg’s he Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, which officially laboratory has developed sucopens this spring, is not the start of autism care at Duke. Medical cessful cord-blood treatments center clinicians have experience diagnosing and treating people for cancers, blood disorders, with autism. Campus scientists already explore topics beyond immune deficiencies, and umbilical-cord blood and genetics, including the potential of electrical brain more. Her research shows that stimulation or music therapy to improve spoken language. cord-blood cells can cross the The new center will better integrate and expand all of the above, blood-brain barrier. They can in addition to training more autism experts. As the number of people reduce inflammation, a disdiagnosed with autism rises worldwide, many U.S. universities have made ruptive state observed in the moves to expand autism-related services for people along the spectrum, brains of people with autism. including Harvard, Johns In mouse studies, stem cells Hopkins, Yale, and Emory. All will within the blood specifically compete for the same federal, stimulate repairs to myelin laypharmaceutical industry, and ers on neurons, which increase philanthropic funding. Geri the speed at which impulses Dawson, who joined the Duke move the length of brain cells, faculty in 2013 to lead the center, something that might improve says Duke is in an excellent impaired connectivity in the position to succeed in that brain of a person with autism. climate. “Duke has made a strong Dawson’s expertise is “really incommitment to interdisciplinary forming” both the new cordresearch in a way that goes blood trial and the evaluations beyond most universities. that will follow, Kurtzberg says. Interdisciplinary collaboration is Now that she’s based at essential for tackling autism.” Duke, Dawson is collaboratCoordination between Advocacy: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ing on several more autism reclinical care and science will be (D-N.Y.) confers with Dawson the day she search projects. She and Egger, strengthened. Patients will be testified on Capitol Hill in 2012 opposing the division of child and adoinvited to contribute genetic a Department of Defense position that lescent psychiatry leader, are information, behavioral profiles, behavioral therapy was not medically working with electrical and brain scans, and other data to necessary to treat autism. Legislation computer engineer Guillera patient registry, for instance. pushed by Gillibrand expanded access to mo Sapiro in the Pratt School Medical researchers increasingly treatment for military families. and others to automate early depend on such databases to autism screening. It’s needed. better detect variation and patterns in human illness and disability. Patients The American Academy of also will be invited to join research studies as they develop. Pediatrics recommends that The center’s clinical research laboratories should open in April at Pavilion all toddlers be screened for auEast at Lakeview, a retail and office development a few minutes west of tism. But the checklist used in Duke Hospital. An autism clinic is expected to open in the same building the screenings identifies many by July. In addition to treating autism-specific symptoms, the clinic will link false positives, a move that puts patients to Duke specialists in gastrointestinal ailments, sleep difficulties, parents through unnecessary anxiety, and other serious health issues people with autism contend with. worry and that only lengthens Medical residents, psychology interns, and graduate students will start a waiting list for the next-step rotations through it all this summer. diagnostic assessments. If all goes as planned, Dawson predicts that advances will result. “We are Most pediatricians don’t well-positioned to take the field in entirely new directions, to develop novel have the training or time to treatments that could impact the lives of people with autism.” accurately screen very young —Catherine Clabby children for signs of autism. So the Duke team has created what looks like a video player on a tablet-sized computer. a very modest farm in coastal Pamlico County before The screen displays footage of plush stuffed animals attending North Carolina State University. She set up and people on the screen. But what the children cannot see is that the device also records and characterizes her base of operation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she had been an assistant how they respond to what gets displayed, noting the professor between finishing graduate school and joinpresence or lack of gestures or eye contact typical of ing the faculty in Seattle. the traits Dawson observed in those first-birthday vidWhile based at Chapel Hill, Dawson started coneos back in Seattle. Courtesy Geri Dawson

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The list of Dawson’s collaborations goes on. She is especially excited about studies in zebrafish, a new favorite research animal in genetics labs, and mice that are engineered to carry variations of genes closely resembling some associated with human autism traits. Those studies create changes in an organism that might illuminate how the brains of people with autism behave differently on the molecular scale, potentially clarifying the molecular basis for some types of autism. They also are living laboratory subjects that can be used to screen drugs that might correct those differences. “What we’re working on is to establish a very strong clinical-trials capacity,” Dawson says.

visory board of Autism Speaks after he published the best-selling book Look Me in the Eye: My Life With Asperger’s. Dawson, he says, has always impressed him. “She has a strong commitment to relieving suffering while at the same time respecting us as individuals and [respecting] that neurodiversity is part of this world.” Robison wasn’t diagnosed with autism until he was in his forties. The son of university professors in western Massachusetts, Robison had so much trouble getting along with other kids and teachers in high school that he left, as a sophomore. With so much time alone, he immersed himself in electronics, developing skills to a level where he was in demand among rock ’n’ roll bands. He’s the guy who invented the illuminated, fire-breathing, and rocket-launching special-effects guitar played by members of the arena band KISS. Robison left that industry and later the toy and electronics industries, feeling incapable of fitting in at any organization. Eventually he decided just to fix cars at home, a project that bloomed into one of the largest independent Land Rover, Rolls Royce, and Bentley restoration and service outfits in the country. In the elegant maple-paneled Love Auditorium in the Levine Science Research Center, Robison paced back and forth across the stage during his talk while a loop of his beautiful and disparate photographs flashed by on a screen behind him: a car’s shiny engine, circus dogs, a red barn, gray clouds, and a juggler among them. After detailing the paradox of how autism had granted him sizable gifts and continuously disrupted his life, he had two messages for the medical and scientific listeners in the audience: Help people where they need help, he urged, but also accept, celebrate, even encourage their quirky strengths. “We have to find a way to encourage the talents of people on the spectrum. Don’t Courtesy Geri Dawson Courtesy Geri Dawson always focus on what’s wrong, not normal. You have a duty to look for exceptionalawson regularly brings toPublic face: Dawson ism,” Robison said. gether Duke scientists and has been a nationally Ever adapting to new information, Dawrecognized expert on son is trying to do as Robison says. She and clinicians on the front lines autism for years. In Luke’s mother, for instance, are allowing of autism treatment to discuss the research insights 2005, she appeared the child to use flashlights to play with on the Today show into the disorder. Among light, just not during therapy. “For all I with Katie Couric. them is growing evidence that health know, he’s going to be a physicist. I don’t problems—anxiety, sleep issues, and want to take that away from him,” Dawson seizures—frequently plague people with autism. At says. Duke, Dawson also is doing her best to provide what At the same time, she’s doing anything she can to more and more people with autism now demand: a help with research at Duke that could reduce the pain voice in the discussion about what people like them and deficits that autism can produce. Luke might need need. that, and so might Andy, the five-year-old enrolled in In October, Dawson invited John Elder Robison, the cord-blood trial. Unless something unexpected occurs, so will many more souls. n a neurodiversity activist, to Durham to tutor Duke autism experts about the people with autism they Clabby is a writer, editor, and multimedia storyteller are trying to help. Robison has known Dawson since based in Durham. 2008, when she invited him to join the scientific ad-

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

My Simian, My Self As he researches adolescent chimps, an alumnus ponders his own transition to adulthood.

By Aaron Sandel

orizontal rays of light pierced the canopy, giving the tops of leaves a ruddy shine. I was alone in the forest, and I wanted to return home before dark. But I also wanted to see where Mitchell, an enigmatic adolescent chimpanzee, made his nest for the night. I live in the middle of the Ugandan forest, at Ngogo Research Camp, which is within the territory of the Ngogo chimpanzee community. I’m here to study the transition to adulthood in male chimpanzees. Teenage males, who have spent their entire lives traveling alongside their mother, must forge independent relationships with group mates. How do they fare as they attempt to make friends, mate, and climb the dominance hierarchy? Also, what are the traits that define adulthood? Studying chimpanzees is a defining trait of my own adulthood. When I was five years old, I picked out a stuffed animal gorilla at a children’s clothing store. I named him Chi-chi (pronounced “chee-chee”) and promptly decided to study apes in the wild when I grew up. I spent years toting Chi-chi around, and he and sixty other stuffed animal primates slept on my bed (until I left for college, when my parents moved them to the attic). The summer after I hit puberty, I came face to face with an adolescent gorilla at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, the beginning of the inextricable connection between my coming of age and apes. The lanky, ten-year-old gorilla had tried to find freedom outside the zoo, whereas the zoo is where I found mine. I spent every free moment of high school

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Animal lover: Chi-chi, above, longtime friend and inspiration for a career in primatology; Sandel, right, at around age six, trailing a cormorant on the beach; as a Duke student, below, Sandel worked at the Lemur Center.

volunteering at the zoo, sometimes skipping class to hose away feces, observe the gorillas, and cuddle cockatoos. My work with captive animals strengthened my desire to study apes in the wild. I applied to Duke because of the plethora of primate classes and opportunities for research at the Duke Lemur Center. It lived up to my expectations, as I became immersed in primate evolution, lemur cognition, and ape social behavior. After my junior year, my dream of studying apes in the wild came true. I spent a summer in Uganda’s Kibale National Park, observing play behavior in infants of the Kanyawara chimpanzee community. I had made it to Africa. My childhood dream was becoming ever more tangible, as the precipice of adulthood was becoming ever more imminent. Now, here I am, trying to determine metrics of adulthood for wild chimpanzees. Mitchell, the elusive adolescent whom I followed until sunset, is approaching that phase, but he has work to do. He rarely spends time with other chimps (which is why I have so little data on him). The exception is Mulligan, a silver-haired adult male. They make an odd couple. Large males usually spend their time combing through the fur of other adults and engaging in the never-ending fight for high status. Mulligan does do some strutting around, but it seems that his affinity for Mitchell takes priority. As dusk began to fall, Mulligan appeared ahead on the trail. He soon climbed into a tree and began bending and cracking branches to make a nest. Mitchell followed suit, finding a small tree twenty feet away to make his bed for the night. Friendship, which is a term increasingly used to describe the social relationships

Photos courtesy Aaron Sandel

of primates and other mammals, is exemplified by adult male chimpanzees. Among adults, males have favorite chimpanzees whom they groom and travel with. These preferences are noticeable as chimpanzees live in “fission-fusion” communities, in which subgroups, or cliques, form throughout the day. At any point, one chimpanzee may split off to find others or to be alone. The dynamic nature of chimpanzee life makes collecting data difficult. I follow young males for one hour at a time, recording their every social interaction, and fission and fuse along with them. After one hour, I hope that whoever I’m following has found another subject for me to observe. My goal is to get one thousand hours of observation spread evenly across eighteen young males. But chimps don’t spend equal time with one another, and I am often left with fewer hours on the loners. That is why, on a dry morning in January, I was excited to see the chimpanzee for whom I have the least data. Hawkins is a twenty-yearold momma’s boy who prefers that humans don’t follow him. That day, I was determined to stick to him. I started the morning pacing underneath a fig tree, trying to recognize faces amidst the leaves. Studying nearly 200 chimpanzees requires recognizing each individual, which is no easy task. To aid in memorization, researchers name each chimp. David Watts and John Mitani, who began research on the Ngogo chimpanzees twenty years ago, named many chimpanzees after jazz musicians—Miles, Monk, Ellington, etc. Others are named after opera singers, contemporary actors, peace activists, and a few after pioneers in primatology, such as Struhsaker, who is named after Tom Struhsaker, a scientist at Duke who began research in Kibale Forest in 1970 and established Ngogo Research Camp. Today, whoever is first to see a new infant or immigrant gets naming rights. Looking up into the fig tree, I could make out the silky hair and

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

protruding brow of Hicks, another young adult male. I also saw the sloping face and swollen eyes of Haden, a rotund not-quite adult. Then there were whoops, wheezes, and screams to the east: the â&#x20AC;&#x153;pant hootâ&#x20AC;? calls chimpanzees use to communicate across far distances. Immediately three of the chimps in the tree, including Hicks, slid down trunks like firefighters and headed toward the calls. I followed them, along with Ambrose Twineomujuni, one of the Ugandan chimp trackers who helps collect long-term data on the Ngogo community. Soon we caught up to a group of males, including Hawkins and Mitchell. When Hawkins took off at a trot, I followed. Ambrose stayed behind with the newly formed subgroup. My thighs burned as I tried to keep my eye on the black mass of his body ahead, but soon he was lost in the thick vegetation. I strained my ears for the sound of dead leaves crunching beneath his feet. Silence. I had lost the chimp. It used to be boring watching chimpanzees. So boring, in fact, that it led to an existential crisis in July of 2013. I originally intended to study social relationships in infant chimpanzees, but I was still learning to recognize and follow adults, let alone the nameless, tan-faced, subadults. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a clear project, so it felt like I was just wandering the forest, gazing at chimps. I would count the hours until I could return to camp, crouch under the bag of water heated tepid by the sun, put on clean clothes, eat dinner, and read in my tent. I escaped to books. Reading Crime and Punishment, I began to identify with Raskolnikov, the deranged, youngadult protagonist. I wandered

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Photos courtesy Aaron Sandel

Wait and see: Aaron observing Berg, an adult male chimpanzee, in Ngogo, Uganda.

through the verdure of the forest and felt nothing while Raskolnikov wandered the city streets of Russia feeling the same. Like him, I was without direction. Who was I if not a primatologist? What of my childhood dreams? Dostoevsky’s prose felt familiar: “[…] as though he actually imagined he could think the same thoughts, be interested in the same theories and pictures that had interested him…so short a time ago. He felt it almost amusing, and yet it wrung his heart.” I considered quitting. I brought up my angst about primatology with my adviser, John Mitani. “What about all your stuffed animal primates?” he barked. He was right. I hadn’t blown out two decades’ worth of birthday candles wishing to study apes in the wild for nothing. I decided to study friendship in young males as they become adults. Being twenty-six, I could transition to adulthood alongside them. Here I am, still in the jungle. My childhood dream has survived, as has Chi-chi, save for a violent encounter with my dog in the 2000s in which he lost his nose. In fact, I’ve brought him along with me to Uganda as an additional prophylaxis against existential crises. There are still occasional moments of boredom. After all, chimpanzees spend much of their time in trees feeding or resting, barely in view. While their lives are filled with melodrama— grooming, screaming, slapping, hugging—it’s not every day that something truly dramatic occurs, like a monkey hunt or patrol of the boundaries. But my apathy has been replaced with anxiety. Each successful hour of observation is a source of joy. Each time I lose the chimp is a source of sadness. Which brings me back to losing Hawkins one morning in January. If I hadn’t followed Hawkins, I would have had a very different day. The group Ambrose was following continued north and didn’t stop. They decided to be dramatic.

Who was I if not a primatologist? What of my childhood dreams?

Samples: Collecting chimpanzee urine

They went to the northeast edge of their territory, and began quietly walking single-file in search of their neighbors. Chimpanzees are highly territorial and will make military-like incursions into the homeland of nearby chimpanzee communities. If they find and outnumber the neighbors, they will kill any adult males they can catch, and they will rip any infants they find out of the mother’s arms. On that day, they surprised a small group of chimpanzees and caught an adult male. Ambrose watched as the Ngogo males bit his arms, legs, and face, ripping his lower lip in two, and pounding at his chest. This lasted for thirty minutes, until they left him for dead. Three young adults, including Hicks, were part of the patrol, but they stayed to the side as five older males conducted the attack. Apparently Hicks was not adult enough. The next day we went in search of the corpse. Although an important part of chimpanzee behavior, lethal aggression is rare to observe. It is also rare to find the dead body of a wild chimpanzee. We wanted to assess its injuries, measure its body size, collect skin and hair samples, and move the chimpanzee into a location where we could let it decompose and later collect the bones. We found the body of the chimp at the edge of a brook, where he had died still holding a branch. I donned three pairs of exam gloves, a facemask, and a cheap pair of pajamas over my clothes as scrubs. (HIV came from a chimpanzee

version of the virus, likely jumping to humans when people butchered chimpanzees for food, so disease risk is very high.) The Ugandan staff who usually maintain the forest trails made a “stretcher,” and after covering the body in plastic bags, they tied it up and carried it closer to camp. Lying in bed that night, I couldn’t get the image of the corpse out of my head. I ran my hand against my chest and stomach, the feel of my skin and hair not unlike that of the chimp. The similarities between chimpanzees and humans are striking, from the way they sit with their legs crossed, their heel resting on their knee, to the way they hum to themselves when eating certain foods. It is no surprise they are our closest living relatives. Dissecting a wild chimpanzee was too much of a reminder of this. And it was not part of my childhood dream. Maybe, like Hawkins, who avoided going on patrol, or Hicks, who was not allowed to take part in the fight, I’m not adult enough. After that gory endeavor, I was particularly grateful to sit among living chimpanzees, observe their friendlier side, and remain on the cusp of adulthood a little bit longer. n Since June 2014, Sandel ’10 has been studying adolescent chimpanzee behavior in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. The trip is part of his Ph.D. in biological anthropology at the University of Michigan. He studied evolutionary anthropology at Duke.

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

Brittany Wofford Coordinator for The Edge

CRAZY SMART Here’s a bright idea. What if you take a bunch of people doing interesting research from across campus, put them in an environment where they can interact and inspire each other, throw in some cool technology for them to experiment with, and see what happens? That’s the concept behind The Edge: The Ruppert Commons for Research, Technology, and Collaboration— a new research incubator space on the first floor of Bostock Library designed to support interdisciplinary, team-based, data-driven research at Duke. The Edge is where ideas come to light. That’s not just smart. That’s crazy smart. Do something cutting-edge. Support Duke University Libraries.

library.duke.edu/crazysmart

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Forever

Duke Alumni Around the World

GAME CHANGERS

“No society can achieve its potential with half of its population marginalized and disempowered.” –Melinda Gates ’86, M.B.A. ’87, in an article for the September edition of Science, on putting women and girls at the center of development. Earlier this year, Gates was named, along with fellow Duke alumnae Mayassa al-Thani ’05, head of the Qatar Museums Authority, and Amy Hood ’94, Microsoft’s CFO, to Forbes’ list of the “World’s Most Powerful Women.”

Chris Hildreth

INSIDE

“There was no Internet, no cable TV. So going to the movie theater was a big event.” —Robert Yeoman, p.60 Duke Photography

GO! Come Home!

It’s getting closer! Reunions Weekend is April 17-19, and if you’re in a class ending with 0 or 5, then it’s your turn to return to campus. Go to DukeReunions.com to start making plans.

Serve & Learn in the Big Easy

Duke alumni and friends are traveling to New Orleans April 30-May 3 for a special program on the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Led by Ashley Brown Burns A.M. ’10, Ph.D. ’13, who is an assistant professor of political science at Amherst College and a Katrina survivor, the program will give participants the opportunity to volunteer with St. Bernard Project, an organization that continues to help rebuild homes in New Orleans post-Katrina, and attend the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Learn more by e-mailing Jenn Chambers, director of alumni education, at jennifer.chambers@duke.edu.

Get With the Beat

The Duke Alumni Pep Band plays at select Blue Devil basketball games, and includes members such as biostatistician Carl Pieper ’75, who can play a mean clarinet, and Allison Kenney ’08, a piccolo player who also can fill in as a drum major. In December, they were joined by former Duke basketball star Jay Bilas ’86, J.D. ’92, who stepped in as a guest conductor for the band’s Let the music play: Guest conductor 100th performance when the Blue Devils took Bilas sets the tempo. on the University of Connecticut. Want to join the alumni band? Sign up by e-mailing trombonist Nick Superina ’03 at dukealumniband@gmail.com. Duke Alumni Pep Band

ForeverDuke

DUKE IS HERE:

San Francisco Number of alumni:

7,046

Young alumni (within ten years of graduating): 2,470 (more than a third of the total alumni in the area) Local alumni events: 40+/year Local tradition: Bay-area alumni have been instrumental in the launch of the university’s Duke in Silicon Valley program. Kimberly Jenkins ’76, M.E. ’77 Ph.D. ’80 and Emma Rasiel Ph.D. ’03 founded the initiative, and Blue Devils working at companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn speak to students throughout the course of the four-week summer program.

istockphoto

Good place to find a Blue Devil: Catch

Vijay Brihmadesam ’07, Hasnain Zaidi ’08, and Jason Pate ’09 at Tava Indian Kitchen in Palo Alto, their restaurant. Spot computer scientist Ge Wang ’00 at Stanford.

Notable Dukies: Tim Cook M.B.A. ’88, CEO of Apple; Meg Garlinghouse ’89, head of LinkedIn for Good; Doug Shoemaker ’92, president of Mercy Housing California; Alison Levine M.B.A. ’00, polar explorer and mountaineer; Dylan Smith ’08, Box.com founder; and Aaron Patzer ’02, Mint.com founder.

Showing the flag: Last year, 458 alumni in northern California volunteered to interview prospective Blue Devils.

WHERE ARE YOU? Share a photo from your city using @DukeAlumni on Instagram or Twitter and help us show Duke’s reach around the world.

Board of Directors, 2014-2015 President: N. Shepard Moyle ’84 Immediate past president: Jeffrey C. Howard ’76 Secretary-Treasurer: Sterly L. Wilder ’83

Lamptey Nartey ’02, Judith Wagoner Pahren ’84, Rodney C. Pitts ’68, Eric G. Savage ’92, Aisha J. Taylor ’05, Pamela Stone Schearer ’73, John Tolsma ’95

Mark W. Scroggs M.D. ’84, School of Medicine Joan M. Stanley B.S.N. ’71, School of Nursing Susan Prosnitz J.D. ’89, School of Law

Vice Presidents: Jack W. Boyd ’85, Chris D. Brandt ’00, Palmer Peebles Garson ’79, Nikki Hurst Gibson ’80, Winston E. Henderson ’90, Amy Hepburn ’97, Mary Kristin Klein ’82, Joanne O’Connor ’92, Sara K. Oliver ’06, Lee Harris Roberts ’90, Mark E. Stalnecker ’73, Paul S. Teller ’93

Professional school representatives: Andrea Barnwell Brownlee A.M. ’99, Ph.D. ’01, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Abigail Williford Kocher ’00, M.Div. ’06, Divinity School Robin ten Kate M.B.A. ’03, Fuqua School of Business Courtney Lorenz M.E.M. ’06, Nicholas School of the Environment William Senner B.S.E. ’06, M.E.M. ’06, Pratt School of Engineering Amy Hepburn ’97, M.P.P. ’01, Sanford School of Public Policy Judith Ann Maness M.H.A.’83, Graduate Program in Health Administration Jennifer Moody Skeesick D.P.T. ’06, Graduate Program in Physical Therapy

Young alumni representatives: Andrew L. Hanna ’14, Jin-Soo D. Huh ’09, Lara L. Jones ’08, Margaret L. Skoglund ’10

Duke Magazine Editorial Advisory Board representative: Steven Petrow ’78 Directors-at-large William A. Bermont II ’97, Jonathan P. Cardona M.B.A. ’00, Pola Ayllon Changnon ’85, Mandeep Singh Dillon ’92, Jason Goode ’97, J.D. ’00, Christine Gosnell ’83, Mychal P. Harrison ’01, Ana Homayoun ’01, Edwin Howard Jr. ’63, Naakoshie 56 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Faculty representatives: Michelle Connolly, Associate Professor of the Practice of Economics Frederick W. Mayer, Professor of Public Policy, Political Science and Environment Honorary members: Michael Schoenfeld ’84, Suzanne J. Wasiolek ’76, M.H.A. ’78, LL.M. ’93, Gerald L. Wilson B.D. ’61, A.M. ’68

Presidents, School and College Alumni Associations: Kristin Whitesides M. Div. ’05, Divinity School Lisabeth Brynn Todd Crute M.B.A.’95, Fuqua School of Business Kristen Cappel M.E.M. ’06, Nicholas School of the Environment Jason Piche B.S.M.E. ’97, Pratt School of Engineering David Esquivel J.D. ’97, School of Law Kurt D. Newman M.D. ’78, School of Medicine Joan M. Stanley B.S.N. ’71, School of Nursing Jennifer Moody Skeesick D.P.T. ’06, Graduate Program in Physical Therapy

ALUMNI AND STUDENTS COLLABORATE TO CURB

Duke alumni

involved in global health and social entrepreneurship are guiding students in an ambitious challenge to end the largest Ebola outbreak in history. More than 160 Duke students envisioned innovative ways to curb the spread of the virus in West Africa through the Duke Ebola Innovation Challenge, an on-campus competition held last fall and sponsored by the Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative, along with two Duke social-entrepreneurship programs. The initiative brought together diverse disciplines, including the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, to weigh in on potential solutions to stop Ebola.

Wong Maye-E/AP/Corbis

“We believe strongly that especially when it comes to social issues—the solutions to things like Ebola or inequality or climate change—that these issues are not going to be solved by one particular profession,” says Erin Worsham ’00, the executive director for the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE). “We’re really going to need to bring together as many critical and innovative thinkers as we can.” For a week, undergraduate and graduate students attended seminars by Duke professionals involved in global health and infection control and then formed teams to develop their ideas. The week concluded with a pitch to a panel of alumni and faculty judges. The judges gave feedback on the projects and selected one they believed had the greatest potential for being implemented in West Africa.

Ebola

Among the projects: a cooling system for protective equipment worn by health-care workers, a plan to deploy Ebola survivors with possible immunity as health-care workers in the field, and a cell-phone app that tracks protective equipment to ensure health-care workers have the correct equipment and enough of it. For judge Dennis Clements HS ’76, professor of medicine and a senior adviser at the Duke Global Health Institute, the most scalable project was an Ebola patient toolkit that health-care workers could use when conducting home visits.The toolkits would be designed differently for every place where there is an outbreak, based on the needs of the patients and the resources available in the area, Clements says, and would include materials such as rehydration packets, simple medical supplies, and protective equipment. “When there are no beds and you don’t have the hospital facilities available, that’s the only thing you can do—go to the home and do palliative care,” says Debra Hunt ’73, director of biological safety for the Duke University Health System, who spoke to the teams during the challenge. “That thinking is on the right track. Equip the person.” The result of the Duke Ebola Innovation Challenge was inspiring, Worsham says, because it showed Duke students they needed one another to find a solution to one of the biggest health-care crises of our time. “We had students who were in the nursing program or the medical school who really understood the plight of the health-care worker. And then we had students from the business school who could really think about the product to make it sustainable.” Engaging with students as they imagined ways to fight Ebola also inspired Hunt and Clements, both of whom say they got to see students who were genuinely interested in helping others from across the world. “When there’s no perceived benefit to that person to be involved in the challenge,” Clements says, “it shows a great bit of the human spirit.” The judges encouraged the teams to submit their projects to a national competition held by the U.S. Agency for International Development called the Ebola Grand Challenge. The competition is crowdsourced and allows all participants to build on each other’s ideas. In the coming months USAID will select several projects to help fight the spread of Ebola.

—Christina Holder

Learn more: http://www.ebolagrandchallenge.net

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

How are you ForeverDuke? Chris Hildreth

Sterly Wilder ’83, associate vice president for alumni affairs, in conversation with Stuart Jones ’82 How did you choose Duke?

My grandfather was a Foreign Service officer. My siblings and I went to visit him in Libya in 1963. We were just little kids, but it really did have a profound impact on us. For me, it’s the variety [that keeps me going]—the variety of the jobs, the challenges, and the regions—and the chance to do something new and different every three years.

I was living in Maine, and I wanted to go someplace that would be really different from New England. I went to visit my grandfather down in Sarasota, Florida, for spring break, and I came back on the train. I got off in Raleigh, and I hitchhiked from Raleigh to Durham, and I took the tour. People were just back from spring break, and there was a wonderful vibe and atmosphere on the campus. I just fell in love with the place, so Duke became my first choice.

What is most important to successful diplomacy?

How did Duke prepare you to be a career diplomat?

The most important thing about diplomatic work is to establish relationships of trust. You need to have an understanding of the region.

I took a bunch of great history courses with Peter Wood and William Chafe and Larry Goodwyn, and they were really eye-opening courses. They were champions of social history. It stirred a lot of curiosity in me about how people lived, not just in America but elsewhere. In that era, you didn’t need to be an expert in a language or a region to join the Foreign Service. You could be a generalist. I have valued the education I got at Duke. Also, at that time, the president of Duke was Terry Sanford. I thought the way he had lived his life as a leader was special and admirable and worth emulating. When I was a junior officer in El Salvador, and he was a senator from North Carolina, I was his control officer when he came down to visit [when Military TImes

President Barack Obama nominated Jones as ambassador to Iraq in May 2014. Jones is the former ambassador of Jordan and was the deputy chief of mission in Baghdad from 2010 to 2011. As a career diplomat, he has been stationed all over the world— including in Egypt, Turkey, Colombia, and El Salvador. Jones and his wife, Barbara, are the parents of two Duke students: Thad, a senior, and Dorothy, a sophomore.

Who inspired you to enter the Foreign Service, and what keeps you going in the job?

Service men: Jones, left, greets General Martin Dempsey A.M. ’84, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

58 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

You have to have an understanding of the culture. But fundamentally, you have to make a human connection with the people you are working with so you can have frank conversations that lead to solutions.

the country was in the midst of civil war]. He was so gracious, and it reminded me of what a great inspiration he was—really a made man— and I think so responsible for what Duke has become. What is your advice for Duke students who are considering careers in the Foreign Service?

Don’t be intimidated by the exam or the requirements for security clearances. I think when people start looking at what’s involved in joining the Foreign Service, they get turned off by the amount of bureaucracy that it takes to get in. Also, the Foreign Service really prizes languages. So if you’re planning on spending $60,000 on a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies, it’s better to take the $60,000 and go to Jordan and learn Arabic. What are your hopes for your work in Iraq?

We’ve got three major goals. One is to defeat the terrorist threat posed by Daesh [also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS]. Second, I think we want to help the new government to foster political consensus around the other issues facing Iraq—like how to best use their hydrocarbon resources and how to reconcile the various groups that comprise Iraq. Third, Iraq is facing tremendous economic challenges. We’d like to help the government navigate this difficult economic period. —Edited by Christina Holder

ClassNotes

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50s

Richard E. Dixon ’54 wrote The Virginia Presidents: A Travel and History Guide, a guide to presidential sites and landmarks in Virginia and Washington. Herbert B. Ray ’56 recently returned from a construction mission to Cuba. A retired New York State Family Court judge, he and his wife, Sharyn, have divided their time between international and domestic medical and humanitarian missions.

Gaylord A. Wood Jr. ’59, J.D. ’62 is developing a community center with his wife, Garie. He practices law in Bunnell, Fla., and lives in Fort Lauderdale.

60s

Cynthia A. Stokes Brown ’60 cowrote Big History: Between Nothing and Everything with David Christian and Craig Benjamin. It is the first college-level textbook about the history of the universe.

Richard L. Reece ’56, M.D. ’60 wrote two books, Understanding ObamaCare and Direct Pay Independent Practice: Medicine and Surgery. He lives in Old Saybrook, Conn., with his wife, Loretta.

Gerald E. Blevins M.Div. ’62 published The Whole Life: Healthy Human Living, a book about humans’ relationships with others, themselves, a higher power, and nature.

Edgar B. Fisher Jr. ’57, LL.B. ’61 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the real-estate law and trusts and estates law practice areas. He is a partner in the Greensboro office of Brooks Pierce.

James H. Bundy ’62 was named a university registrar emeritus at N.C. State University, where he worked for 30 years before retiring in 1995. He went on to serve as regional director of the National Student Clearinghouse for 10 years and as interim registrar at Meredith College for one year. He lives in Raleigh with his wife, Faye.

Peter P.D. Olejar ’59 had three premieres of his music for carillon, including at the opening of the Sacred Music Festival in Perpignan, France, last spring. He also composed pieces for the Guild of Carillonneurs and for the Association of Disciple Musicians.

James C. Carpenter ’63 was elected president of the Parapsychological Association. He also published First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in

Let your passion for Duke live on. You can make a lasting impact on the people and places you love at Duke. Including Duke in your estate plans is one of the simplest and most common ways to make a gift beyond writing a check. And, you can still access your assets in case you need them. Explore your options. Duke University Office of Gift Planning

Everyday Life, about a theory of parapsychological functioning. W. Erwin Fuller Jr. LL.B. ’64 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the trusts and estates law practice area. He is a partner in the Greensboro office of Brooks Pierce. ’65 | 50th Reunion April 17-19, 2015 M. Lawrence Hicks Jr. ’67 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the banking and finance law and real-estate law practice areas. He is senior counsel at Thompson & Knight in Dallas. Pamela N. Odell Price ’67 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the tax law and trusts and estates practice areas. She is a shareholder at GrayRobinson in Orlando, Fla. Patrick D. Coleman ’68 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the employment law, management litigation, and labor and employment practice areas. He is a shareholder at GrayRobinson in Jacksonville, Fla. Larry C. Ethridge ’68 received a Jefferson Fordham Lifetime Achievement Award from the

“A strong educational system is critical to growth and prosperity for all in the long term. Duke’s leadership in educating future leaders plays a prominent role in many areas that are extremely important for the needs of our kids and their children.” MARK FLORIAN ’80 Unrestricted bequest designated to Duke University

giftplanning@duke.edu dukeforward.duke.edu/liveon BLOG: dukeforward.duke.edu/blueprints-blog PHONE: (919) 681-0464 EMAIL: WEB:

Celebrating a Duke reunion this year? Your estate gift also counts in your class’s reunion totals.

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

As a child growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Robert

Yeoman ’73 was fascinated by movies.

“There was no Internet, no cable TV. So going to the movie theater was a big event,” said Yeoman, the acclaimed cinematographer who returned to campus as the keynote speaker for Duke Entertainment Media and Arts Network (DEMAN) Weekend last fall. “I loved westerns.

I loved comedies. I got into Alfred Hitchcock...that always stayed with me.” But making a career out of making movies was not in his original plan. Yeoman arrived at Duke thinking he would pursue a premed track to become a doctor, but he ended up becoming a psychology major. Looking back, it was a fitting major, he said. “Studying psychology helped me to understand people and Movie guy: Yeoman says personalities and how things studying psychology at interact...and that’s a very Duke has helped him in strong component, certainly, his film career. in making a film,” he said. Yeoman’s turning point toward the film industry came during his sophomore year when he saw the Raleigh debut of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. “I was just so amazed by this film,” Yeoman said. “I remember driving back to Duke thinking, ‘I really want to get involved in this.’ It kind of was a moment that changed my life.” Yeoman went on to earn an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California, where he pursued his love of cinematography. Throughout his career, he has worked on more than fifty films—including Bridesmaids, Get Him to the Greek, and all of director Wes Anderson’s live-action films.

—Christina Holder

Megan Morr

American Bar Association in the section of state and local government law. He recently retired from Ackerson & Yann in Louisville, Ky., and he is the Kentucky state chair for the Public Contract Law Section’s region division. Jonathan C. Kinney ’68 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the real-estate law practice area. He is a shareholder at Bean Kinney & Korman in Arlington, Va. Joe A. Rudberg ’68 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the tax law practice area. He is a partner in Thompson & Knight in Dallas. Phillip R. Finch ’69 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the real-estate law practice area. He is a shareholder at GrayRobinson in Orlando, Fla. ’70 | 45th Reunion April 17-19, 2015

areas of banking and finance law, business organizations, and corporate law. He is a shareholder at Winderweedle, Haines, Ward & Woodman in Orlando, Fla. Jeffrey B. Golden ’72 was named an honorary fellow of the London School of Economics, the school’s highest honor. He taught as a visiting professor in the LSE department of law for three years and established a scholarship for first-generation female U.K. students. He is chair of the P.R.I.M.E. Finance Foundation in The Hague, a member of chambers at 3 Hare Court, and a director of MFX Solutions Inc. Bruce A. Perler ’72, M.D. ’76 was elected president of the Society for Vascular Surgery, an international medical society. He is director of the vascular noninvasive laboratory at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

70s

Sandra L. Bubas Yarbrough ’72 earned a Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation from the SRES Council for her work with the growing senior market. She is a sales associate with Long & Foster Real Estate’s branch in Richmond, Va.

Jan A. Pechenik ’71 wrote The Readable Darwin, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species edited for contemporary readers.

Charles I. Bunn Jr. ’73 was promoted to professor at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, where he is the department head for the accounting program. He is a member of the N.C. State University Master of Accountancy Alumni Board.

Charles H. Montgomery ’71 received the Citizen Lawyer Award from the N.C. Bar Association for his volunteer work with various community and civic causes.

Joseph P. “Rusty” Carolan III ’72 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the 60 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

’75 | 40th Reunion April 17-19, 2015 James R. Schroll ’75 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law and insolvency and reorganization law practice areas. He is a shareholder at Bean Kinney & Korman in Arlington, Va. David J. Kapnick ’76 became managing director and CFO of Anderson Tax, an international tax-advisory firm in San Francisco. Michael K. Kuhn ’76 was named in 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the real-estate law practice area. He is a lawyer in the Houston branch of Jackson Walker. H. Joseph O’Shields J.D. ’76 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the real-estate law practice area. He is a shareholder at Rogers Towers in Jacksonville, Fla. Charles S. Eby ’77 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College of American Pathologists. He is a professor at Washington University School of Medicine and medical director at Barnes-Jewish Hospital Clinical Laboratories in St. Louis. Mark J. Prak ’77, J.D. ’80 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the First Amendment law and mergers and acquisition law practice areas. He is a partner in the Raleigh office of Brooks Pierce.

BOARD OF T RUST EE S

Oliver V. Rogers M.H.A. ’77 was named executive vice president and COO of TeamHealth, a provider of outsourced physician-staffing solutions for hospitals.

Four alumni have been nominated to Duke’s board of trustees by the executive committee of the board of directors of the Duke Alumni Association. Paul Farmer ’82 is eligible for reelection for a second six-year term. Lisa Borders ’79, Patricia Morton ’77, and Adam Silver ’84 will be new to the board of trustees for six-year terms.

Larry A. Blue B.S.E. ’78, M.S. ’84 was named COO of Bell & Howell, a global provider of customer communications and commerce. He was previously COO of RF Technologies Inc. and president of Kokua LLC. J. Kirby Chritton ’78 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the banking and finance law and mergers and acquisitions law practice areas. He is a shareholder at Rogers Towers in Jacksonville, Fla. James E. Hardin Jr. ’79, LL.M. ’14, a North Carolina Superior Court judge, was selected as the chief trial judge for the Army Reserve. He holds the rank of colonel. J. Edwin Turlington Sr. ’79 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the commercial litigation, corporate law, and government relations practice areas. He is a partner in the Raleigh office of Brooks Pierce. ’80 | 35th Reunion April 17-19, 2015

80s

Jane Roycroft Brasier ’80 was named director of business development in the Durham office of LeChase Construction Services, which is headquartered in New York. Theodore R. Hainline Jr. ’80, J.D. ’83 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the land-use and zoning law and real-estate law practice areas. He is a shareholder at Rogers Towers in Jacksonville, Fla. John H. Hickey J.D. ’80 was appointed vice chair of the certification plan of appeals committee of the Florida Bar Board of Governors. He represents personal-injury and wrongful-death cases, as well as complex commercial litigation, with Hickey Law Firm in Miami. Richard Liebeskind Jr. ’80 retired from the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice. He lives in Washington. Bruce J. Ruzinsky ’80, J.D. ’83 was named a 2014 Texas Super Lawyer. He also was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law, insolvency and reorganization law, and litigation-bankruptcy practice areas. He is a partner in the Houston office of Jackson Walker. Paul W. Sperduto ’80, M.D. ’84, A.M. ’87 received the Fellow of ASTRO designation from the American Society for Radiation Oncology. He is codirector of the Gamma Knife Center at the

ELECT ION S

Nominees: Farmer, top, Borders, Morton, and Silver would serve six-year terms.

Farmer is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international charity organization that provides direct health-care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He’s also the Presley Professor of medical anthropology in the social medicine department at Harvard Medical School, as well as an attending physician in infectious diseases and chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now the chair of the Coca-Cola Foundation and vice president of Global Community Connections at the Coca-Cola Company, Borders previously served as president of the Grady Health Foundation, the fundraising arm of Georgia’s largest public hospital. She served as president of the city council and vice mayor of Atlanta. Her community initiatives have included increasing the availability of affordable housing, uncovering transportation solutions to address the region’s traffic challenges, and promoting neighborhood safety and preservation. Morton is a founder of PRM Advisors in Charlotte and has worked in the financial services industry for more than thirty years. She spent most of her career at JP Morgan, and has worked at Alex Brown and Deutsche Bank, living in New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, and London. Her husband, Thruston Morton, a cofounder and CEO/ CIO of Global Endowment Management, retired as president of DUMAC in 2007. Their daughter Elizabeth is in the Class of 2006. Silver was appointed commissioner of the National Basketball Association on February 1, 2014. Before that, he held five positions at the NBA, including deputy commissioner and COO. In December of 2014, Silver was named Sports Illustrated’s Executive of the Year, and the Sports Business Journal named him the Most Influential Person in the Sports Business. He has been recognized by Time magazine and CNN on their lists of Global Business Influentials, which features twenty of the world’s leading corporate executives. Silver received his J.D. in 1988 from the University of Chicago Law School.

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

University of Minnesota and director of radiation oncology at Ridgeview Medical Center. Robin Snowden ’81 and her husband, Saul, relocated to Monmouth County, N.J., but still maintain a presence in Brooklyn, N.Y. She sings with the Monmouth Civic Chorus and Makhelat Hamercaz. Michael E. Silverman ’82 completed his second Ironman Triathlon. He is the managing partner of his cardiology group and the chair of medicine at Howard County General Hospital, part of the Johns Hopkins health system. He is on the board of directors of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. Matt G. Firestone J.D. ’83 became a partner at ShuffieldLowman. He is a commercial-litigation lawyer in central Florida, specializing in real-estate, contract, and business-related cases. Carolyn J. Kates Brown ’84 published Song of My Life, a biography of African-American writer, educator, and activist Margaret Walker. She is a writer, editor, and independent scholar. R. Kirk Thompson III ’84 joined IHOP, part of DineEquity, as vice president of marketing and advertising, as well as interim senior vice president of marketing. He lives in Manhattan Beach, Calif. ’85 | 30th Reunion April 17-19, 2015 Paul S. Quinn Jr. ’85 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the real-estate law practice area. He is a shareholder at GrayRobinson in Orlando, Fla. Robert W. Thielhelm Jr. ’86 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers of America in the commercial-litigation practice area. He is a partner in the Orlando office of BakerHostetler. Marc H. Klein ’88 was named a 2014 Texas Super Lawyer in the employment and labor practice area. He is a partner at Thompson & Knight in Dallas. Cherie D. Morris ’88 published Desperate in D.C., a novel about motherhood, marriage, and manners in Washington. Ann Marie Cowdrey ’89 was named a 2014 Texas Super Lawyer in the securities and corporate-finance practice area. She also was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the corporate-law practice area. She is a partner at Thompson & Knight in Dallas. Robert E. Kohn ’89, J.D. ’92 accepted the Federal Bar Association’s Sections and Divisions Award for 2013-14 on behalf of the FBA’s Federal Litigation Section. As the section chair, he has pioneered regional working groups to expand FBA support for federal judges and lawyers. He is the founder of Kohn Law Group Inc. in Santa Monica, Calif. 62 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Duke Photography

Chris Sussingham ’83 and seventeen other

True bleu: The Blue

Duke alumni lacrosse players are behind a historic Devil says “bonjour” visit by the “Original Blue Devil” to campus earlier to Lakomy. this year. Major Jean-François Lakomy, representing the French Army’s 27th Brigade—nicknamed “Diables Bleus” or “Blue Devils” during World War I and later adopted as Duke University’s mascot—spoke to the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams, attended the men’s lacrosse national championship ring ceremony, and met with President Richard Brodhead at the dedication of the new Kennedy Tower. In 2013, John Danowski, head coach of the men’s lacrosse team, presented each graduating senior with an original beret from the famous French brigade. The brigade, known for its unique training to survive the rigors of the French Alps, wore a blue cape and beret as its signature uniform. Lakomy continued the tradition, delivering new berets for the lacrosse team’s senior class.

Suzanne C. Unsicker McCormick ’89 became president and CEO of United Way Suncoast, an organization focused on breaking the poverty cycle in Sarasota and Tampa Bay, Fla. She previously worked with United Way of Greater Portland in Maine for 13 years, most recently as the organization’s CEO.

MARRIAGES & COMMITMENTS Jeff M. Novatt ’80 to Irina Godbey on July 18, 2014. Residence: Naples, Fla.…Marianne G. Shivanandan ’85 to Kevin Rhatigan on May 11, 2013. Residence: Alpharetta, Ga.

Maura Connor Murcar ’89 became vice president of digital publishing and editor-in-chief at Hayes Inc. in Lansdale, Pa. She was previously director of digital products and strategy at Pearson Education.

Jennifer K. Van Zant Cross ’91 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the commercial, antitrust, and securities litigation practice areas. She is a partner in the Greensboro office of Brooks Pierce.

William R. Mureiko J.D. ’89, A.M. ’89 was named a 2014 Texas Super Lawyer in the estate planning and probate practice area. He also was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the trusts and estates practice area. He is a partner at Thompson & Knight in Dallas.

’90 | 25th Reunion April 17-19, 2015

90s

Nathan C. Whitaker ’91 published Snap Decision, the first book in a sports-themed series for kids called Game Face. He previously wrote biographies of football personalities Tony Dungy, James Brown, and Tim Tebow, two of which

reached the top of The New York Times best-seller list. Monica Mitchell Ulewicz M.E.M. ’92 was named senior development director at HasNa Inc. in Washington. The nonprofit focuses on cross-cultural dialogue and job-embedded training in Turkey, Cyprus, and Armenia to promote peace in the region. Luke M. Babcock ’93 was bowman on the yacht Skoot when it won the J/109 North American Championships contested in the waters off of Newport, R.I., in July. He is an investment manager who lives with his family in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

A. McCarus ’98 to Phineas M. Deford on June 21, 2014. Residence: Hydes, Md.

employment litigation at Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson’s Charlotte office. She also serves as general counsel to the executive committee of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. MARRIAGES & COMMITMENTS Joseph A. Jasper III ’96 to Deneen M. Sarceno on Oct. 12, 2014. Residence: Cary, N.C.…Nicole

BIRTHS & ADOPTIONS Cameron Matthew to Neil D. Falis ’90 and Laurie Frischman on July 2, 2014…Lila Marie to Mark H. Churchill ’93 and Betsy S. Churchill on June 10, 2014…Taylor Bielle to Stephen D. Wil-

Forever Learning. Forever Duke.

R. Scott Collins ’93 founded Fiduciary Wealth Advisors, a boutique wealth-management firm in Sarasota, Fla. He was previously a managing executive at PNC Wealth Management.

ONLINE • Alumni Exclusive Opportunities

Kara D. Reed Waddell ’93 was named president and CEO at Child Care Associates in Fort Worth, Texas. She previously was an executive in early learning with the state of Oregon, where she co-developed a Race to the Top–Early Learning Challenge Grant for Oregon.

• Free Online Courses • Live Chat with Duke Professors

’95 | 20th Reunion April 17-19, 2015 Craig B. Gentry ’95 was named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow. A computer scientist for IBM’s cryptography research group, he was recognized for developing a model that enables the analysis of encrypted data while keeping the data secure. As a recipient of the “genius grant,” he will receive $625,000 over five years. He lives in New York.

ON CAMPUS • Duke Lemur Center Program (May 15-17)

Alexander Elkan M.E.M. ’96 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the environmentallaw practice area. He is a partner in the Greensboro office of Brooks Pierce.

• Duke Marine Lab Alumni Weekend

David S. Kushner J.D. ’96 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the media-law practice area. He is a partner in the Raleigh office of Brooks Pierce.

(February 2016)

(Spring and Fall 2015)

• Women’s Weekend

Elizabeth B. Burke Richardson ’97 was named of counsel at Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte. She will specialize in commercial litigation and business-dispute resolution at the Columbia, S.C., law firm. She currently serves as vice chair of the New Morning Foundation and as officer-at-large to the board of directors of East Point Academy, a public charter Mandarin immersion school. Ginger F. Surratt Shields J.D. ’97 was named in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America in the trusts and estates law practice area. She practices in the Greensboro office of Brooks Pierce. Angelique R. Vincent-Hamacher ’97 was recognized as a 2014 Leader in the Law by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly. She practices

Duke Lemur Center Program

ON THE ROAD • New Orleans: Serve and Learn (April 30 – May 3)

• Regional Faculty Fellows Lectures • Oxford Experience Faculty Fellow: Mark AnthonyNeal

(Sept. 6-19)

Find more opportunities at dukealumni.com/forever-learning DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

co-chair of the council’s legislative affairs committee. He is an associate in the trial group at Duane Morris in Atlanta. Charles R. “Bobby” Zappala Jr. ’04 is CEO of Thrill Mill, a nonprofit that provides business coaching, legal counseling, and initial investment funding to startups. Thrill Mill organized the second Thrival Innovation + Music Festival last September in Pittsburgh. The two-day event highlights the area’s local music scene while raising money to support Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurial development. ’05 | 10th Reunion April 17-19, 2015 Courtesy Jeff Stern

Journalist Jeff Stern ’07, who traveled to Guinea to On the trail: Stern with village elders report on the Ebola outbreak for Vanity Fair, returned to in Meliandou campus last fall to talk to students in the Sanford School of Public Policy about his career journey as a journalist and the lessons he learned while tracking the worst Ebola outbreak in history. In an interview with Ken Rogerson, director of undergraduate studies at Sanford, Stern—a former student contributor to Duke Magazine—talked about how he retraced the outbreak of the Ebola virus to the village of Meliandou, where it is believed the virus was passed from a fruit bat to a toddler. “The underreported part of the story is ecological—the fact that there’s been so much trauma to the land, mining, and deforestation, that you have species coming into contact with people who have never really had to spend much time with them,” Stern told students. “People have to get used to having new neighbors basically, and those neighbors carry pathogens that we’re not used to.” IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Read Stern’s article on the Ebola outbreak, “Hell in the Hot Zone,” in the October 2014 issue of Vanity Fair.

liams B.S.E. ’93 and Kara S. Williams on Aug. 29, 2014…Hunter Dodge to Hoyt D. Morgan ’96 and Elizabeth C. Morgan on Oct. 23, 2014… Anton Edward to Jill L. Arnold ’97 and Jorge S. Wagner on Oct. 9, 2014…Collette Marie to Pamela F. Brown Kournetas ’97 and Nicholas G. Kournetas on Nov. 13, 2013…Keira Kathleen to Shannon E. Roche ’97 and Noah Rosenberg on June 19, 2014…Miriam Ellen to Michael W. Bowling ’98 and Ursula B. Bowling on June 20, 2014…Nora Elizabeth to Timothy P. Fitzgerald ’98 and Nicole E. Ladas Fitzgerald ’99 on June 22, 2014…Thomas Robert to Lauren F. McLoughlin Gallagher ’98 and Robert J. Gallagher Jr. ’98, J.D. ’04 on Oct. 16, 2013… Dylan Reid to Brian D. Igel ’99 and Stacy D. Igel on Oct. 4, 2014…Catherine Elle to Peter J. Klein ’99, M.D. ’04 and Monica E. Klein on Oct. 4, 2014…Sydney Jean to Riley A. Weber Murdock B.S.E. ’99 and Jamie Murdock on April 4, 2014. 64 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

’00 | 15th Reunion April 17-19, 2015

00s

Christopher D. Brandt ’00 was recognized by Ernst & Young as a 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year for Maryland. He is in his 10th year working for Audacious Inquiry, a healthinformation policy and technology company. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Sarah, and son, Alexander. Dana L. Tyree Kopelman ’02 was promoted to director of AP curriculum and content at the College Board. She lives in New York with her husband, Erik. William W. Fagan III ’03 was elected as a Northern District of Georgia representative to the executive council of the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Georgia. He also was named

Stephen R. Berry Ph.D. ’05 published A Path in the Mighty Waters: Shipboard Life and Atlantic Crossings to the New World. He is an associate professor of history at Simmons College, where he teaches courses in early American, Atlantic world, and American religious history. Emily Barrett Brady ’05 was named one of 2014’s Most Influential Women in Business by the Columbia Regional Business Report. She was recognized for her professional work as a senior public affairs specialist for SCANA Corp., as well as for her volunteer efforts with the Columbia Museum of Art, Palmetto Health Foundation, Salvation Army of the Midlands, and Central South Carolina Habitat for Humanity. Matthew J. Tolnick ’05 is the founder and CEO of Lawless Jerky, which produces the nation’s only 100 percent grass-fed and dry-aged beef jerky. Lawless Jerky is the first jerky company to be endorsed by the Humane Society for its all-natural production model. David K. Barker ’06 received a Ph.D. in forestry and environmental science from N.C. State University. The title of his dissertation is “Potential of Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda L.) as a Biofuel Feedstock.” Steven M. Frenk A.M ’07, Ph.D. ’11 was promoted to senior service fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, located in Hyattsville, Md. He works on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and conducts research on prescription medication use and veterans’ health. Kristeena L. Ray B.S.E. ’09 was appointed West Virginia State University’s director of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. She was a member of the Nu Omicron chapter of Zeta Phi Beta while at Duke. MARRIAGES & COMMITMENTS Patrick J. Rosenthal ’02 to Sarah Rizzo on May 17, 2014. Residence: New York…Dana Lea Tyree ’02 to Erik J. Kopelman on May 10, 2014. Residence: New York…William W. Fagan III ’03 to Jessica Reece on March 29, 2014. Residence: Atlanta…Benjamin J. Moore ’04

BIRTHS & ADOPTIONS Ingrid Alexandra to Alexandra Floyd Bentley ’00 and Andrew J.H. Bentley ’00, M.B.A. ’08 on June 18, 2014…Leni Grace to Dhamian A. Blue ’00, J.D. ’03 and Jenna M. Turner Blue ’03 on Aug. 13, 2014…Peter Wesley Dutton to Taylor C. Smith Day ’00 and John N. Day B.S.E. ’01 on Sept. 14, 2014…Josephine Elise to Julia E. Mitchell Elam ’00 and Rodney J. Elam on March 24, 2014…Elisabeth Dale to Nancy P. Kennedy Major ’00 and Samuel M. Major on Sept. 19, 2014…John Cameron to Catherine R. Saleeby McDowell ’00 and John N. McDowell on June 19, 2014…Jack Spear to Benjamin N. Sands ’00 and Sarah S. Sands on Sept. 3, 2014… Kyli Nevis to Jana L. Gasn Beauchamp ’01 and Kyle T. Beauchamp ’02 on Sept. 21, 2014…Micah London to Mai Diggs Maye ’01 and Sheldon S. Maye ’03 on Oct. 2, 2014…Natalie Harper to J. Douglas Reid ’01 and Pamela Wells Reid ’01 on June 29, 2014…Charles Harker to Amanda Harker Safford ’01 and Roby Safford on May 13, 2014…Carina Serrano to Myrna Serrano-Setty ’01 and Harsha Setty B.S.E. ’01, M.S. ’02 on May 6, 2014… Evan Roman to George K. Spanos ’01 and Brooke H. Spanos on Aug. 2, 2014…Emerson Rae to Lisa Rauenzahn Betz ’02 and Jeremy Betz on Jan. 29, 2014…Raiden to Nipun Chhabra ’02 and Nina V. Chhabra on July 23, 2014…Caroline Elizabeth to Lauren Bowman Llamas ’02 and Jeff Llamas on Sept. 11, 2014…Ainsley Kate and Olivia Quinn to Shaun A. Rogers ’02 and Desiree J. Raidy on Aug. 4, 2014…Sage Marie to Nicole N. Wilson Schlegel ’02 and Michael D. Schlegel on Aug. 2, 2014…Anya Sarina to Neely Manoj Shah ’02 and Aaron K. Chatterji on Aug. 3, 2012…Amelia Yuki Yu Qing to Tomoharu Uchiyama ’02 and Shu Ying Kwan-Uchiyama ’03 on May 8, 2014…Caleb Benjamin to Joshua E. Fein ’03 and Danielle K. Fein on Oct. 8, 2014…Hannah Jo to Raphael J. Louie ’03 and Michele B. Lanham ’04 on July 28, 2014…Julia Alma to Dan P. Rhodes M.Div. ’03, Ph.D. ’13 and Elizabeth H. Rhodes on Aug. 30, 2014…Abigail Ruth, Trox Emmett, and

David Garten

to Kristen L. Teufel on July 12, 2014. Residence: London…Justin P. Sabrsula ’04 to Lindsay Theile on April 12, 2014. Residence: Saratoga Springs, N.Y.…Jeffrey M. Trost B.S.E. ’04 to Julia Walker Hamilton ’05 on Sept. 7, 2013. Residence: San Francisco…Lauren A. Jones ’05 to Marley Watkins on July 26, 2014. Residence: Brooklyn, N.Y.…Aleksandra M. Chmielewski ’06 to Jeffrey K. Lee ’06 on June 7, 2014. Residence: Boston…Holly L. Hackman B.S.E. ’08 to Magnus Ohlsson on June 7, 2014. Residence: Houston…L. Kate Lyden M.B.A. ’08 to Byron Dockstader on April 12, 2014. Residence: New York…Kathleen A. Durkan M.S.N. ’09 to Benjamin Hammond on June 28, 2014. Residence: Warrington, Pa.…Lisa A. Poser M.E.M. ’09 to Abel Valdivia-Acosta on Aug. 18, 2012. Residence: Carrboro, N.C.

Award winner: Oberstein (left), with Arturo O’Farrill at Avatar Studios in New York

Eric Oberstein ’07 won a Grammy

award for producing Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s “The Offense of the Drum,” voted Best Latin Jazz Album. Oberstein’s mother is Cuban, so he grew up listening to Latin jazz, which he describes as jazz with “a different pulse.” In 2005, as a junior studying with Duke in New York, he learned about Arturo and his music. Son of the late What is legendary Cuban composer Chico O’Farrill, Latin jazz? Arturo directed a Latin jazz big-band ensemble It’s a mix of Cuban in honor of his father for years. After graduating from Duke, Oberstein folkloric music with began producing albums with Arturo’s band, African influence. including a live recording of the Chico O’Farrill The rhythm is a clave Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra’s last performance meter instead of a at Birdland, New York’s famous jazz club. swing meter, like that Last November, “Final Night at Birdland” of straightforward won a Latin Grammy in the category of Best jazz. Instrumental Jazz. “Chico O’Farrill was one of the pioneers of Afro-Cuban big-band jazz, and it meant a great deal to see Arturo carry on that legacy and that mission,” says Oberstein. Besides producing albums, Oberstein coordinates a colorful variety of performances as associate director of Duke Performances.

Charles Gregory to Russell M. Richards ’03 and Sara Zielske Richards ’03 on Nov. 10, 2014… George Griffin T. and Anne Francis J. to Shannon Lemrow Silkensen Ph.D. ’03 and Shawn M. Silkensen on Dec. 27, 2013…Jamie McLaughry to Robin Justine McLaughry ’04 and Timothy

J. Mullins J.D. ’09 on May 3, 2014…Eloise Ann to Avery Cregan Newcomb ’04 and T.R. Newcomb on July 25, 2014…Heath Austin to Gail A. Paul ’04 and Jason S. Paul on Sept. 16, 2014…Susie Madden to Russelle Passino Bradbury ’05 and David Bradbury on June 2, DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

WE ARE

DUKE ENVIRONMENT

NICHOLAS.DUKE.EDU/ IAMDUKEENVIRONMENT

2014…Stella Ryan to Lauren Lind Danziger ’05 and Matthew Danziger on April 4, 2014… Lillian Elizabeth to Mary J. Mullinax Samuel ’05 and Robert L. Samuel III ’05 on July 24, 2014…Boden Alexander to Ryan C. Welsh ’05 and Irka Kiel Templeton ’06 on July 10, 2014…Ava Jeanne to Emily Vaughan Yates ’05 and Daniel Yates on Oct. 29, 2014…Juliana Grace to Rachel Winnik Yavinsky ’05 and William Yavinsky ’05 on Sept. 10, 2014… David Chandler to David K. Barker ’06 and Genevieve S. Barker on June 20, 2014…Kimberly W.K.K. to Supattanee Chaiamnuay M.B.A. ’06 and Kelvin Km Inn M.B.A. ’07, M.P.P. ’07 on June 18, 2014…Ibrahim Ali and Zayyan Ali to Ali Nasir Chhotani ’06 and Madiha Chhotani on Aug. 27, 2014…William Hart to Margaret Andrews Dillard ’06 and Hart G. Dillard on Oct. 18, 2014…Robert Lewis III to Christine J. Furmick M.H.S. ’06 and David R. Fussell on Jan. 17, 2014…Natalie Ann to James D. Bragdon ’07 and Carissa Bragdon on Sept. 4, 2014…Jackson Glenn to Drew Stokesbary ’07 and Ashley Stokesbary on May 9, 2014…Eliza June to Max F. Masnick ’09 and Natalie Banet on Sept. 27, 2014…Annabel Alice to Michael R. Vernace J.D. ’09 and Laura Rose Bull J.D. ’10 on Aug. 26, 2014. ’10 | 5th Reunion April 17-19, 2015

10s

Tyler S. Atkinson M.Div. ’10 was named assistant professor of religion at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan. His first book, Singing at the Winepress: Ecclesiastes and the Ethics of Work, will be published by Bloomsbury/T&T Clark in April.

Patrick D. Kielty M.M.S. ’12 was awarded a KPMG Minority Accounting Doctoral Scholarship to pursue his doctorate at the University of Florida for the 2014-15 academic year. Madeleine R. Clark ’14 sailed on the yacht Skoot when it won the J/109 North American Championships contested in the waters near Newport, R.I., in July 2014. MARRIAGES & COMMITMENTS Jerrica J. Becker ’12 to Matt Patterson on June 21, 2014. Residence: Greenwood, Ind.…Katarina Chun ’12 to Andrew Wong B.S.E. ’12 on Aug. 2, 2014. Residence: Charlottesville, Va.…Nina Brooks M.S.N. ’14 to Caleb Hundley on April 12, 2014. Residence: Winston-Salem…Hyatt M. Howard J.D. ’14 to Michelle Wolfe M.Div. ’14 on Aug. 9, 2014. Residence: New York…Alexandra M. Vill ’14 to Jeremy Jackson on Sept. 28, 2013. Residence: Durham. BIRTHS & ADOPTIONS Theodore Smith to Tyler S. Atkinson M.Div. ’10 and Rachel A. Atkinson on Nov. 9, 2013… Annabel Alice to Laura Rose Bull J.D. ’10 66 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Colour Correction British and American Screenprints, 1967-75 On view April 2 - August 30

Admission is free to Duke Alumni Association members. nasher.duke.edu/colour

Richard Anuszkiewicz, Spectral Cadmium from the portfolio Spectral Cadmiums, 1968. Screenprint on paper, edition 118/125, 26 3⁄4 x 26 3⁄4 inches. (67.9 x 67.9 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Gift of Nancy Hanks, 1971.61.3. Art © Richard Anuszkiewicz / Licensed by VAGA, New York, New York. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

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A mother’s legacy lives on A planned gift supports student scholarships; turns a dream into reality for one Duke undergraduate

It was college tour time, and Courtney Crump wasn’t planning on liking Duke. Some in her family even preferred a lighter shade of blue.

But once on campus, she was a convert. “I found myself imagining living in Few Quad, eating at the Bryan Center, and studying in Perkins. I was really interested in DukeEngage and undergraduate research,” said Courtney, now a sophomore. “It felt like I belonged.” From the start, her student experience was everything she envisioned and more. The night of her freshman orientation, she remembers staying up until 4 a.m. discussing the merits of health care reform with her new classmates. “I’ve always wanted to be surrounded by academically minded people, and I found that at Duke. I’m amazed at how much I learn from my peers.” Courtney is studying psychology and neuroscience, and she recently earned a coveted undergraduate position

Courtney Crump

volunteering in professor Staci Bilbo’s brain sciences lab. She’ll assist a postdoc in researching addiction in rodents. As the secretary for Duke University Circle K, a branch of an international service organization, Courtney has helped tutor local Durham students. Courtney is also active in the Chi Omega fraternity, Duke Wesley Fellowship, and she is currently the youngest resident assistant in Keohane Quad. Without financial aid, Courtney’s rich Duke experience would not have become a reality. “If I had to take out student loans for all of my education, I wouldn’t have applied to Duke,” she said. “Access to financial aid meant that I could go to a school that I really loved, rather than one I could afford.” Courtney’s undergraduate scholarship is made possible by the estate of Marie Giddings Parker, a fellow Floridian who loved life and Duke like Courtney does. A 1960 graduate of the Woman’s College, Parker was diagnosed with cancer at 21. “My mom always believed that it was important to give back to the community, both financially and also as a volunteer,” said Parker’s daughter, Jennifer LaVia ’85. “I think she always knew she wouldn’t have long in the world, but it was important to her to make a mark and to leave the world a better place.”

LaVia said her family is happy that the memory of her mother, who passed away in 1990, and grandmother Antoinette Giddings R a lston, for whom the scholarship is named, live on through the students the fund supports. “Duke is so special to our family because that’s where my parents met, where I met my husband, and where we all made friendships that will last a lifetime,” LaVia said. “My mom felt fortunate to go to Duke and to send her children to college. She wanted to make sure that other families have the same opportunity.” After Duke, Courtney hopes to pursue a Ph.D. But before she gets there, she’s just looking forward to her next two years. “Duke has and will continue to shape me, both as a student and as a woman,” she said. “I want to extend my deepest thanks to donors. Without this support, I would be a very different person.” Maximize your impact at Duke. Planned gifts like Parker’s help set Duke’s trajectory for the future. You, too, can leave a legacy that benefits the people, places, and programs you love most. Duke’s Office of Gift Planning can help.

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Frank Stephenson Photograph Collection, Murfreesboro, NC

and Michael R. Vernace J.D. ’09 on Aug. 26, 2014…Solomon Samuel to Kelly Weaver Gilson M.T.S. ’10 and Tom Gilson on Sept. 30, 2014…Marika Violet to Christopher M. Blumhofer M.Div. ’11 and Stephanie Wheatley on Aug. 22, 2014.

INMEMORIAM R. Tazewell Creekmore B.S.E.E. ’32 of Fort Thomas, Ky., on Jan. 6, 2013. A veteran who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he was named a Kentucky colonel. He was president of the Ohio Con Agra Business Council. He is survived by a son, two daughters, four grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Richard E. Swaringen ’32 of Wilmington, N.C., on Jan. 31, 2014. He served as a captain in the Army during World War II. He spent his career as a teacher and principal in North Carolina public schools. He is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, and a great-grandson. Margaret Parsons Apgar ’33 of Grand Rapids, Mich., on Dec. 10, 2012. Elizabeth Thomson Davis ’34 of Lillington, N.C., on Aug. 29, 2012. She was co-owner of Thomson-Davis Insurance Agency & Realty and a member of the North Carolina Association of Realtors. She is survived by a daughter, a son, and a grandson. Bernard Dorfman ’34 of Hillsdale, N.J., on May 7, 2013. He served in the Army and later practiced law in New Jersey. In addition to managing a private practice for more than 50 years, he was a Municipal Court judge for 24 years in Hillsdale. He was president of the Bergen County Municipal Court Judges Association and served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Courts. He is survived by his wife, Cele; two daughters; four grandsons; and a great-grandson.

Last October, a North Carolina Historical Highway Marker was dedicated for F. Roy Johnson ’32 in Murfreesboro, N.C. Johnson, who died Oct. 17, 1988, was an author, newspaper publisher, and folklorist in Murfreesboro for more than 50 years. His books covered a variety of subjects, including the Nat Turner Slave Insurrection, Native Americans, and the Lost Colony. “Johnson researched, wrote, set to type, proofread, designed, printed, hand-bound, marketed, and shipped over 60 different books,” one obituary stated. “It is believed he was the only writer-printer in the United States to handle the entire operation single-handedly and has been described as ‘a national treasure.’ ” A person must be deceased for 25 years before the Marker Commission will consider a nomination. The main criterion is that the work of the nominee has to be considered to be of statewide significance. Johnson’s work extends far beyond the borders of North Carolina. At Duke, he was an English major and assistant editor of The Chronicle.

merce, the Chapel Hill Board of Realtors, and the North Carolina Archaeological Society. He is survived by a son, a daughter, and five grandsons.

George W. Leaf ’34 of New York, on March 26, 2012. He was a World War II veteran. He is survived by a son, a daughter, two grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

Nancy E. Laprade Hamilton ’39 of Meridian, Miss., on Dec. 14, 2013. She is survived by two sons; a daughter; a grandson; a granddaughter; a great-grandson; and several nieces, including Lisa Willis Nichol ’70.

Herbert W. Wentworth ’35 of Chapel Hill, on June 14, 2014. After graduating from Duke, he worked for the National Munitions Corp., a North Carolina plant that assembled shells for the Navy during World War II. After short stints managing jewelry and small insurance businesses, he began a career in real estate, serving as executive vice president of the North Carolina Association of Realtors in 1957. Upon his retirement, he was president and COO of the North Carolina Savings & Loan League. He sat on numerous boards in his community, including the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Merchants Association and Chamber of Com-

Curtis S. Jones ’39 of Vineyard Haven, Mass., on June 22, 2014. At Duke, he played goalie for the soccer team and was a student manager of the basketball team. He served as an officer in the Army during World War II and spent time in a German POW camp in Poland after being captured in North Africa. Upon returning home, he joined the Army Reserve and served during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He then worked for the Homer Laughlin China Co. for 30 years, retiring in 1986. He is survived by his wife, Norma; two daughters; a brother; a sister; three granddaughters; a grandson; and a great-grandson.

John S. Dodd ’40 of Sarasota, Fla., on Sept. 23, 2013. Survivors include a son. Margaret A. “Peg” Raup Frampton ’40 of Urbana, Ill., on June 22, 2014. She worked in military intelligence during World War II as part of a group that analyzed decoded German communications. She later became a librarian at the University of Illinois Library, retiring in 1985. She was a founding member of the Urbana Free Library and served as the president of its board of trustees. She is survived by a son, a daughter, four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Burnett N. Hull Sr. ’40 of Atlanta, on May 11, 2014. He served as a Navy Supply Corps officer during World War II and later was stationed in the Panama Canal. He retired from the Navy as a lieutenant commander and moved to Atlanta, where he served as the general manager of a hotel for 20 years. He became an adjunct faculty member in hospitality at Georgia State University. DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

He is survived by his wife, Betty Yon Hull ’40; a son; a daughter; three granddaughters; and three grandsons. Wade W. Atkins ’41 of Chapel Hill, on May 5, 2014. A Marine Corps veteran, he served in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Bronze Star with Combat V for his role in the Inchon Landing in the Korean War. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1965 and relocated to Chapel Hill, becoming associate director for accounting, endowments, and trust funds at UNC-CH. He is survived by his wife, Margaret E. Starnes Atkins ’41; two sons; and four grandchildren. Barbara P. Sopp Davis ’41 of Colorado Springs, Colo., on March 17, 2014. She is survived by a daughter, Brooke H. Davis Graves ’76, and a son. Jane C. Wagner Dickinson ’41 of Baltimore, on Feb. 13, 2014. She was the executive secretary of Sherwood Feed Mills Inc. for more than 35 years. She served as chair of the Baltimore United Appeal, sat on the board of managers of the Pickersgill retirement home, established three investment clubs for women, and served as presi-

dent of the Three Arts Club. She is survived by two daughters and four grandchildren. Florrie G. Smythe Mercer B.S.N. ’42 of Durham, on May 13, 2014. She volunteered for the United Methodist Church, organizing youth programs and traveling to Bolivia on mission trips. In 1996, she was awarded the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. The next year, the town of Montero, Bolivia, declared May 9 “Florrie S. Mercer” Day in honor of her medical mission work and ministry. She is survived by her husband, Charles H. Mercer B.D. ’43; a son; a daughter; a sister; a brother; and three grandchildren. Ellen W. Rankin Reamer ’43 of Salisbury, N.C., on May 25, 2014. She taught first grade in Cabarrus County, N.C., and later worked as a bank teller for several years in Salisbury. She is survived by two daughters; a son, Richard R. Reamer ’67; a sister; six grandchildren; and three great-granddaughters. Frank Rudnick ’43 of Chestertown, Md., on Feb. 24, 2014. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1942, serving as an instructor at Fort Logan, Colo. Discharged in 1946, he settled in Chestertown

working for his father’s auction house, which later grew into a furniture and antiques business. He was a founding member of both the Kent School, a private K-8 school that his daughters attended, and the Chestertown Havurah. He was also the first Jewish member of the Chester River Yacht & Country Club and the first person to have a bar mitzvah in the town. He is survived by his wife, Anita; five daughters; a brother; seven grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Josephine A. Bierman Simonds A.M. ’43 of Rockville, Md., on April 17, 2013. Margaret Sawyer Dittmar R.N. ’44 of Cincinnati, on March 29, 2014. Survivors include a son, a daughter, and a grandson. Reginald M. Manning ’44 of Fairfax, Va., on April 11, 2014. He worked for the state of North Carolina in the area of social services and vocational rehabilitation. Survivors include two nieces. Rachel G. Cole Mathison ’44 of Durham, on April 10, 2014. A college English teacher, her survivors include two daughters, a son, and two grandchildren.

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Virginia R. Bennett Bryan R.N. ’45, M.D. ’46 of Birmingham, Mich., on Jan. 17, 2013. Edith Ann Caviness R.N. ’45, B.S.N. ’48 of Lillington, N.C., on June 21, 2014. She worked as a nurse and pharmacist for many years. Survivors include a sister, Veve Caviness Moore ’54. Adolphus W. Dunn Jr. M.D. ’45 of Fripp Island, S.C., on June 13, 2014. He served in the Navy Medical Corps for 21 years, retiring in 1965 as a captain. He then joined the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, serving as chair and emeritus chair of the department of orthopaedic surgery at the Ochsner Clinic and Ochsner Foundation Hospital for 23 years. In addition, he was a clinical professor at Tulane University School of Medicine and an official examiner for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He also wrote numerous articles in his specialty. He is survived by two sons; his fiancée, Mary Lou Geros; a sister; and two grandchildren. Richard T. Sanborn ’45 of Sarasota, Fla., on May 23, 2014. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, flying B-17s with the 8th Air Force in Germany. Later, he attended dentistry school and practiced orthodontics in South Orange, N.J., for 40 years. In his free time, he founded a swim team and competed around the country. He is survived by his wife, Grace; three stepchildren; a brother, Charles F. Sanborn ’41, and sisterin-law, Janice A. Cook Sanborn ’42; four grandchildren; and two nephews, including Scott C. Sanborn ’71. Joseph R. Staley ’45 of Hagerstown, Md., on May 17, 2014. He had a 38-year career with Potomac Edison in various management positions, retiring as manager of engineering applications and research in 1984. He also founded the Charles Town Chamber of Commerce and served as its president. He is survived by his wife, Diana; a son; a daughter; and two granddaughters. Betty J. Dick Turner A.M. ’45 of Loveland, Colo., on June 17, 2014. She worked as a waitress, a math teacher, and an employee for the Selective Service during the Vietnam War. An advocate for her children, she started Girl Scouts in Gaylord, Mich., and was active in the Parent Teacher’s Association in both Gaylord and in Boulder, Colo. She was the director of Christian education at her church. She is survived by three daughters, two sons, a stepson, 18 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

University Naval Unit and later served at the Naval Station Great Lakes in Chicago. He spent his civilian career in the surety industry, first with Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland for 21 years and later as founder of Robert C. McCarthy Agency Inc. He is survived by his wife, Lillian; two sons; and two grandchildren. Joan L. Gaudynski Sharpe ’46 of Tampa, Fla., on May 6, 2014. She spent 35 years teaching special education at schools in the Tampa area. She is survived by a son, a daughter, six grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter. Jeremiah M. Allen Jr. ’47 of Providence, R.I., on May 29, 2014. In 1940, he left Duke to become a naval aviation cadet and was commissioned as an ensign and torpedo bomber pilot. He was aboard the U.S.S. Wasp when it sank in 1942, and he concluded his World War II service on other carriers in the Pacific. Discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1945, he returned to Duke to complete his degree before earning a master’s degree from Tufts. He taught in the English department at the University of Colorado-Boulder while completing his doctorate. He later became a full professor, serving as acting dean of the graduate school at CU-Boulder and dean

Jacob B. Huffman M.F. ’47, Ph.D. ’53 of Gainesville, Fla., on June 5, 2014. He served in the Army for five years during World War II before attending Duke. After graduating, he worked for Tidewater Plywood Co. in Brunswick, Ga., and taught for a year at West Virginia University. In 1952, he joined the University of Florida School of Forestry as an assistant professor of forest products utilization, becoming a full professor in 1982. For more than 35 years, he was in charge of the Wood Preservation Test Area at the Austin Cary Memorial Forest. He also managed a wood consulting services business. Survivors include two sons and two grandsons. Florence H. Upshur Mears ’47 of Machipongo, Va., on June 14, 2014. She is survived by three children, a brother, and six grandchildren. Henry R. Nolte Jr. ’47 of Ocean Ridge, Fla., on June 30, 2014. He interrupted his studies at Duke to serve in the Navy during World War II. He later joined Cravath, Swaine & Moore as an

Building Champions The Iron Dukes is known for building champions on and off the courts and fields. To continue our trajectory of excellence in both academics and athletics, Duke must have the resources to drive our future success and enrich the lilives of Duke student-athletes as they strive to be champions in the classroom and at the highest level of athletic competition. Now is the time to make investments that will build champions.

David M. Logan ’46 of Bradenton, Fla., on Jan. 2, 2013. He is survived by his wife, June; two daughters; two sons; a brother; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Robert C. McCarthy ’46 of Winter Park, Fla., on June 22, 2014. He was a member of the Duke

of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is survived by four sons, a daughter, 10 grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

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Amile Jefferson, Men’s Basketball, Junior

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

Lavanya Sunder ’16 on interning in Brazil Duke Student Body President

Phil Reinhart ’16 on following his passion RIPP-Engage Summer Fellow, Tanzania

Sarah Rimawi ’16 on finding her path Braxton Craven Fellow

IDEAS THAT MOVE THE WORLD FORWARD FINANCIAL AID What does a Duke education mean today? It means access to opportunity. Just ask students Lavanya, Phil, Sarah, and Tre’. Download the LAYAR app, scan the photo, and watch their stories come to life.

Without exceptional students like these, Duke just wouldn’t be Duke. That’s why the Duke Forward campaign aims to raise more than $420 million for endowed scholarships and fellowships by June 30, 2017. Because it means continuing to accept the best and brightest students regardless of ability to pay. It means increasing the amount of endowment income that goes to financial aid by $20 million each year. And it means unleashing the potential of thousands of students like these to make a difference in the world.

Download the Layar app to watch the videos and learn more at dukeforward.duke.edu. Tre’ Scott ’15 on doing it all Board of Trustees Student Rep

associate before becoming counsel for Ford Motor Co., first for a Ford subsidiary and later as general counsel for Ford in Europe. After his stint overseas, he was named vice president and general counsel for Ford, retiring in 1989. He served on the board of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Cranbrook Education Community. He is survived by his wife, Frances E. Messner Nolte ’47; three daughters, including Jennifer E. Nolte Stevens ’81 and Suzanne E. Nolte Saunders ’85; a son; and eight grandchildren. O. Robert “Bob” Theurkauf ’47 of Wellington, Fla., on June 16, 2014. He served in the Navy Air Corps and trained as a pilot during World War II. He then began a 50-year career at the investment counselors firm Scudder, Stevens & Clark. He started as an oil analyst before becoming the firm’s head of equity research and later the chair of its investment-policy committee. He eventually served on the company’s board of directors and as its president. He is survived by his wife, Justine; three daughters; a brother; a sister; six grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Joseph M. Ward M.D. ’47 of Swansboro, N.C., on May 26, 2014. After serving as an officer in the Navy during the Korean War, he practiced

family medicine for nearly 50 years in North Carolina. Survivors include a son, a daughter, and a granddaughter. Sarah E. “Betty” Routledge Wollstein ’47 of Rome, Ga., on June 2, 2014. She worked at the Floyd Medical Center for 40 years, retiring as director of nurses in 1988. She is survived by 10 children, a sister, 12 grandchildren, and a great-grandson. John W. Edwards B.S.E.E. ’48 of Marietta, Ga., on May 30, 2012. He is survived by a son, two daughters, and a granddaughter. Jacqueline Hutzler Bello Harper ’48 of Raleigh, on May 4, 2014. She served as the executive secretary of the North Carolina Psychiatric Association and was a business manager for a group of psychiatrists for many years. Later in life, she served as president of the Raleigh Garden Club, a docent at the Raleigh History Museum, and a Global Villages volunteer. Survivors include a son and three stepchildren. Harold H. Hogg ’48 of Naples, Fla., on June 3, 2014. In 1952, he started his own construction company, beginning as a homebuilder and shifting into commercial construction in Pennsylvania and

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Maryland. His son James took over the business in 1995. Beginning in the 1970s, he led investment groups that purchased commercial properties, mostly in Pennsylvania. He was a member of the National Insurance Board of Trustees of Associated Builders & Contractors and established two private family foundations to serve Christian and secular not-for-profit organizations. He endowed the Hogg Family Chair in Engineering Management and Entrepreneurship at Duke. He is survived by his wife, Ruth M. Hogg ’49; two sons, including James W. Hogg ’74; four grandsons, including Andrew J. Hogg B.S.M.E. ’03, M.Eng.M ’04 and Stephen W. Hogg M.Eng.M ’04; and four great-granddaughters. Lowell R. Jackson ’48 of Blaine, Wash., on Dec. 9, 2013. Joanne Rae McGhee ’48 of Darien, Ga., on May 24, 2014. A professional dancer, she cofounded the Atlanta Contemporary Dance Company. She was a guest artist at the Atlanta Ballet and an adjunct professor for the Harrower Opera Workshop at Georgia State University. She received Georgia’s Governor’s Award in the Arts in 1984 and the Lexus Leader of the Arts Award in 2002. She is survived by a daughter, two grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

Malcolm D. Young J.D. ’48 of Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 18, 2012. He is survived by eight children, 30 grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren. James H. Culbreth ’49 of Hillsborough, N.C., on May 2, 2014. He served in the Army in Italy during World War II. He then spent 33 years working as an auditor for Western Electric/AT&T in Burlington, N.C. He is survived by his wife, Peach; two sons; a daughter; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. James H. Groome ’49 of Atlanta, on July 10, 2014. He left Duke during World War II to attend the Merchant Marine Academy, serving on supply ships in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Mediterranean. He returned to his studies and a football scholarship at Duke in 1946. After graduating, he joined Mead Packaging in Atlanta. He retired from the company in 1988 as vice president and national sales manager. He then became a governmental affairs consultant to several corporations. Active in the Atlanta community, he served on the board of directors of the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital for spinal-cord and brain injury and as division chair of the United Way. He is survived by his wife, Mary Ann Duncan Groome ’48; a son; two daughters; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandsons. Thomas H. Matthews ’49 of Rocky Mount, N.C., on June 3, 2014. He played football at Duke before being sidelined with a knee injury. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1946, serving in San Antonio and Denver for a year. He worked briefly for Gulf Oil and DuPont before returning to Rocky Mount to become a court clerk; he later opened his own law practice. In 1968, he was elected District Court judge for Nash, Edgecombe, and Wilson counties before retiring in 1980. He began a second career as a reporter and was elected to represent the 8th District in the N.C. House of Representatives. He was inducted into The Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Jim Hunt, and he served on the board of directors of the Stony Creek Medical Squad and the First Carolina State Bank. At the age of 70, he became a certified EMT. He is survived by his wife, Billie Jo; a daughter; and a granddaughter. Avie M. Sanner Blount ’50 of Westfield, N.J., on March 23, 2014. Survivors include her husband, Gerald R. Blount Jr. ’50, and a daughter. Mary R. Thornton Boynton B.S.N. ’50 of Knoxville, Tenn., on May 14, 2014. She served as a community-health nurse in Wytheville, Va., for homebound TB patients and taught nursing students at Grady Hospital in Atlanta. She was later named the associate dean of nursing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Nursing, retiring in 1991 with emerita status. She sat on the board of visitors for the College of Nursing, served on the University Club Board, and was a past president of the University of Tennessee

Retirees Association. Survivors include a daughter and a granddaughter. Johanna M. Chappell Britt B.S.N. ’50 of Martinsville, Va., on June 19, 2014. She was a registered nurse and the resident weaver at the Piedmont Arts Association. She is survived by a daughter, two sons, and a brother. Mary Josephine “Jo” Gramling ’50 of Gadsden, Ala., on June 27, 2014. She worked at Republic Steel, where she was one of the first two women to serve on the Speaker’s Bureau. Survivors include a goddaughter. Charles F. Griffin J.D. ’50 of Charlotte, on May 12, 2014. He served in the Navy during World War II before attending law school. He practiced law at a firm he cofounded in Monroe, N.C., for 50 years. In addition, he held the position of Union County Attorney for more than 30 years. He served on the boards of many companies and institutions, including the America Bank & Trust Co., Charlotte College, and Union Memorial Hospital. He also served in the N.C. State Senate for two terms and was a delegate to the 1967 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He was named “Man of the Year” by the Monroe-Union County Chamber of Commerce in 1973 and was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Jim Hunt. He is survived by his wife, Betsy; two daughters; a brother, Elbert C. Griffin ’54; four grandchildren; a nephew, Alan L. Griffin ’79; and a niece, Karen A. Griffin Tyrrell ’84. Charles L. Owens Jr. ’50 of Durham, on June 1, 2014. He had a 40-year career as an engineer at GTE. He also served as treasurer, Sunday school superintendent, and Sunday school teacher at Northgate Chapel. He is survived by his wife, Greta; three daughters; and eight grandchildren. Hazel Jansen Wallis ’50 of Hilton Head Island, S.C., on May 12, 2014. She is survived by her husband, Robert; two sons, including Donald W. Wallis ’72, J.D. ’74; three daughters, Judith J. Wallis Morath ’74, Jody J. Wallis Specker ’76, and Mary Jane Wallis Taylor ’81; a daughter-in-law, Kathryn M. Waggoner Wallis ’71; nine grandchildren, including Neill J. Wallis ’00, Winston A. Porter III ’05, and Adam H. Specker ’10; and a great-grandchild.

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Raymond B. Bailey B.S.C.E. ’51 of Bristol, Conn., on June 29, 2014. He worked as an engineer for the city of Bristol and was a 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Mason. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; a son; and two granddaughters. Catherine B. Anderson Clayton ’51 of Wilson, N.C., on May 8, 2014. She was president of the board for Friends of the Wilson County Public Library. She also created the Association for Children With Learning Disabilities in

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William M. Smith ’51 of Manning, S.C., on May 5, 2014. He served in the Army as a sergeant first class during the Korean War. He then joined Freeman Millwork Co., retiring as executive vice president in 1988. The Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce named him Citizen of the Year in 1977. He was a founding member of the Clarendon County Habitat for Humanity. Survivors include a sister.

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Wilson. She is survived by two sons and two grandsons. John T. Colvin ’51 of Rehoboth Beach, Del., on May 7, 2014. An Army veteran, he made a career as a lumber broker at his company, Tower Lumber, in Wilmington. He is survived by a daughter, a sister, two stepchildren, a granddaughter, three step-grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Elizabeth W. “Kitty” Strickland Dick ’51 of Trumbull, Conn., on May 27, 2014. She studied at The Juilliard School and taught piano for many years. She is survived by two sons, a daughter, a brother, seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. 76 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

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Raymond W. Lee Jr. ’51 of Atlanta, on June 25, 2014. He served with the Marine Corps during the Korean War before making a 40-year career at Oxford Industries. There he was president of the men’s slacks division, group vice president for menswear, executive vice president of finance and administration, and a director on the board until his retirement. He was a member of the Textile and Apparel Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Commerce as well as a founding member of the Atlanta Business Roundtable. He also attended the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club for 52 consecutive years. He is survived by his wife, Marianne; three daughters; a son; and eight grandchildren.

Robert C. Thomas ’51 of Brevard, N.C., on April 23, 2014. He served as a captain in the Marine Corps in the Korean War. In 1953, he began working as a CPA for PricewaterhouseCoopers, retiring as a tax partner more than 30 years later. In the 1940s, he played the trumpet in swing bands. He is survived by his wife, Norma; a daughter, Barbara L. Thomas M.Div. ’80, A.H.C. ’83; and two sons, including David P. Thomas ’81. Clifford L. East Jr. B.D. ’52 of Harrisonburg, Va., on July 9, 2014. He was an Army veteran and a pastor in the Methodist Church. He held ministry positions in cities across Virginia, including Alexandria, Roanoke, Richmond, and McLean, where he retired in 1988. Survivors include his wife, Nancy Laughlin; three sons; a sister; and a grandson. L. Russell Gobbel ’52 of Columbia, Md., on May 31, 2014. During his 40-year law career, he worked for the Navy General Counsel’s office for 10 years and spent five years with General Dynamics in Rochester, N.Y. He finished his career after nearly 25 years at Litton Industries in College Park, Md. He is survived by his wife, Jean; a son; and a daughter. Catherine H. Brent Hubbard ’52 of Georgetown, S.C., on May 22, 2014. She taught primary school in Durham and Charlotte for seven years before moving to Lancaster, S.C., where she lived for 30 years. She was a member of the Duke University Founders Society and a founding member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Survivors include a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren. Margaret Flanders Myers ’52 of Bullard, Texas, on June 28, 2014. She worked for both Merck and H.R. Block and traveled extensively both in the U.S. and abroad. She is survived by her husband, William C. Myers ’50; a son; a daughter; four grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Charles S. Spears Jr. ’52 of Paris, Ky., on June 12, 2014. He served in the Air Force and attained the rank of corporal. After his service, he was president of Woodford-Spears & Sons, a farming supplies company. He served on the board of directors for Bourbon Bank for 35 years. He is survived by four sons, a daughter, nine grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. Edward L. Jones Jr. A.M. ’53 of Richmond, Va., on July 7, 2014. He served as an instructor of amphibious warfare in the Navy during World

War II. After the war, he taught history and served as an administrator at several prep schools on the East Coast, including Glenelg Country School in Ellicott City, Md., where he was headmaster. He retired from Collegiate School in Richmond in 1980. He is survived by a son, a daughter, and four grandsons. Donald F. Marsh B.D. ’53 of Lincoln, Neb., on Nov. 13, 2013. He served in the Army Medical Corps in World War II before attending seminary and divinity school. Survivors include his wife, Helen; two sons; and two grandchildren. Mary Williams McConnell M.R.E. ’53 of Llano, Texas, on June 28, 2014. She was a director of Christian education in Odessa and El Paso and later got her teaching certificate in Houston. She is survived by two daughters, a sister, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Max E. Polley B.D. ’53, Ph.D. ’57 of Davidson, N.C., on March 27, 2014. He taught in the religion department at Davidson for 37 years and retired as Cannon Professor of religion emeritus in 1993. He participated in two archaeological digs and performed in 22 theater productions with the Davidson Community Players. He is survived by his wife, Jacquelyn; a son; a daughter; and three grandchildren. Aldath Faye Benton Hudson R.N. ’54 of Goldsboro, N.C., on Feb. 19, 2014. She had a career as a nurse at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Goldsboro. She is survived by two sisters and two brothers. John D. Lagergren G ’54 of Hampton, Tenn., on June 30, 2014. He served with the military police guarding trains during the Korean War. He then worked for the Walter E. Kidde Co. in Passaic, N.J., as an engineer and draftsman for fire protection systems. He traveled extensively for his job, including designing protection systems for oil platforms in the Middle East and South America, as well as for the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet. He is survived by a son, two daughters, and three grandchildren. Mary L. Bridgers Mattox ’54 of Wilson, N.C., on May 13, 2014. She is survived by her husband, Huitt E. Mattox Jr. ’51, M.D. ’54; three sons; a daughter; a brother, Thomas F. Bridgers Jr. ’63; a sister, Anne Bridgers Hackney ’51; four grandsons; and three granddaughters. Elizabeth A. Smith ’54 of Charleston, W.Va., on June 9, 2014. She had a career in social work, first with the state of West Virginia and later as a director with Family Services of Kanawha Valley in Charleston. Survivors include a sister and a brother. Paul W. Baker ’55 of Atlanta, on June 8, 2014. During the 1950s, he served as a pilot in the Air

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Force. He then worked for IBM and in 1970 founded his own company, Graphic Data Systems, which provided specialized software and computer services to publishers in the U.S. and England. He was president of the company until he sold it in the early 1990s. He is survived by his wife, Carolyn Kelly; three sons, including Jeffrey P. Baker ’80, M.D. ’84, A.M. ’91, Ph.D. ’93; two stepdaughters; a sister; a brother-in-law, James F. Girand ’59; five grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and a niece, Lisa Girand Lawson ’89. Robert W. Clark Jr. B.S.E.E. ’56 of Southern Pines, N.C., on July 5, 2014. He served as a pilot in the Navy before working for 32 years as a systems engineer at IBM. He spent 10 years working for Computer Science Corp. before retiring in

1998. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; a son; a daughter; two brothers; four grandchildren; and a great-grandson. Edgardo A. Garcia-Trias ’56, M.D. ’60 of Chelmsford, Mass., on March 3, 2014. He is survived by his wife, Milagros Ortiz Cintron; four daughters; and nine grandchildren. Leroy A. Glasner Jr. A.M. ’56 of Kerrville, Texas, on June 16, 2014. He served as a Chinese intelligence analyst and instructor in the Air Force during the Korean War and later worked for the NSA in Washington. After leaving the Air Force and holding several executive financial positions, he joined the Financial Relations Board in Chicago, where he eventually became managing partner. As a DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

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organization’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. She also created the Arizona School Boards Insurance Trust, which allows school employees and their families to purchase high-quality health insurance at low rates. The trust now covers more than 35,000 members. She was active in the transition of Litchfield Park from a town to a city, eventually becoming mayor. She is survived by her husband, William; a son; a daughter; a sister; and four grandchildren.

financial analyst, he coedited or wrote several financial publications and taught at the Keller Graduate School of Business. He is survived by his wife, Joan; two daughters; a brother; and four grandchildren. Robert K. Myles HS ’56 of Reno, Nev., on May 24, 2014. He taught medicine at Stanford, Duke, the University of Nevada School of Medicine, and the Orvis School of Nursing. Specializing in cardiology, diabetes, and pulmonary medicine, he moved to Reno in 1958 and opened a private practice, which he ran for 20 years. He was one of the first professors of medicine at the Nevada School of Medicine, where he taught clinical diagnosis; he also served as medical director for respiratory care at Washoe Medical Center and St. Mary’s. He and his wife endowed scholarships in nursing and public health at the University of Nevada-Reno. He is survived by his wife, Jean; three sons; a daughter; a sister; and three granddaughters. Charles H. Pingree B.S.M.E. ’56 of Fort Wayne, Ind., on March 1, 2014. He worked as an engineer for most of his life. He finished his career as a sales manager for the European and Asian regions for Textron. An avid sailor since his youth, he won the Canada’s Cup sailing race in 1972. He is survived by his wife, Barbara O’Beirne, and three daughters. Barbara A. Black Robey ’56 of Phoenix, on June 10, 2014. In 1970, she was elected to the Litchfield Elementary School Board, where she served for 20 years. As its president, she led the effort opposing the building of an Arizona state prison next to an elementary school. She was involved in the Arizona School Boards Association, eventually becoming president and earning the 78 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Charles P. Silas ’56 of Shelbyville, Ky., on March 7, 2014. He served in the Marine Corps before graduating from Duke and afterward began a career in education. After a stint as an elementary-school teacher in Michigan, he worked as a consultant in early-childhood education for the Michigan Department of Education. He is survived by four daughters, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Leonard M. Tilley ’56 of Chapel Hill, on Nov. 15, 2012. An Army veteran, he served for two years at Fort Detrick, Md., and as a chemist with the U.S. Biological and Chemical Laboratories during the Korean War. Later, he joined the American Tobacco Co., holding various management positions and retiring as senior vice president of manufacturing and support services. While employed, he attended Harvard Business School’s management development program. Survivors include his wife, Mary Jo; two daughters; a brother; and a granddaughter. Charles G. Dan Jr. B.S.M.E. ’57 of Annapolis, Md., on May 29, 2014. He started his career with Babcock & Wilcox in Alliance, Ohio, and then moved to the Westinghouse Nuclear plant outside of Pittsburgh. In 1961, he joined NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where he worked on the space program (including the Hubble Space Telescope) until his retirement. He is survived by two sons, a daughter, and three grandchildren. Francis S. Massie Sr. ’57, M.D. ’60 of Midlothian, Va., on June 26, 2014. In 1967, he was recruited to teach general pediatrics as a full-time academician at the Virginia Commonwealth University-Medical College of Virginia. Over the next 10 years, he developed the first board-approved training fellowship in pediatric allergy in Virginia. In 1977, he went into private practice in allergy and was a former part-time director of the Newport News Family Practice Clinic. He continued to teach as a clinical professor of pediatrics at VCU Medical Center until joining Richmond Allergy & Asthma Specialists in 2002. He was also a cofounder and twice president of the Virginia Allergy and Asthma Society. Survivors include two sons, a brother, and grandchildren. Donald E. McLeod ’57 of Falls Church, Va., on Nov. 19, 2013. Survivors include his wife, Lorita; a son; a daughter; a sister; and two grandchildren.

James W. Vaughan Jr. B.S.E.E. ’57 of Alexandria, Va., on Dec. 4, 2013. After four years in the Navy, he pursued a master’s program in nuclear engineering. He then served directly under Admiral Hyman G. Rickover in technical and management positions dealing with radiochemistry, nuclear ship propulsion, and submarine and surface ship nuclear safety. He became deputy director of naval reactors—the highest civilian executive—and later acting assistant secretary of the Department of Energy. After leaving government work, he had a career in engineering consulting. He was recognized with the Presidential Rank Award for Senior Executive Service in 1983 and as a Duke Distinguished Engineering Alumnus in 1985. He is survived by his wife, Frances Smith Vaughan ’57; two sons, including Kevin S. Vaughan ’82; a brother; and two grandsons. Serge Gonzales ’58 of Athens, Ga., on Jan. 24, 2012. Survivors include his wife, Dallas. Robert W. Hankins B.S.E.E. ’58 of Charlotte, on May 28, 2014. He ran cross-country at Duke, completed two advanced degrees, and retired from the Air Force in 1979. He then had a 20-year second career as an accounting professor, teaching at Tulane University, Texas State University-San Marcos, and Xavier University. Survivors include three daughters, a sister, and five grandchildren. Frank Kirkland ’58 of Greenville, N.C., on June 27, 2014. He served as a corporal in the Army and later as a civil servant with the Social Security Administration. He is survived by three sons, a daughter, a sister, and six grandchildren. Wayne B. Robinson ’58 of Sacramento, Calif., on April 8, 2014. He was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ in 1961. After serving a year as a chaplain in Germany, he ministered churches in New York, Minnesota, California, and Washington. While in Minnesota, he also taught as an adjunct professor of preaching at United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, Minn. In retirement, he worked as an ombudsman for senior residential care facilities and as a massage therapist. He is survived by his wife, Hannelore; a son; a daughter; a brother; and six grandchildren. John M. Miller ’59, L ’62 of Knoxville, Tenn., on June 12, 2014. A government lawyer for 20 years, he worked for the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, first as commissioned national bank examiner and then in the law department. He completed his tenure as deputy chief counsel and acting chief counsel for the banking agency, which is the primary regulator of national banks. In 1982, he became a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Denver and in Washington, where he helped break down geographical barriers to interstate banking. Later, he represented commercial banks, investment banks, and life-insurance companies. In 1995, he was appointed deputy to the special trustee for American Indians at the U.S. Depart-

ment of the Interior. He retired in 2002. Survivors include a brother. David C. Windley Jr. ’59 of Washington, N.C., on July 1, 2014. He served in the Army at Fort Jackson, S.C., and in Fort Drum, N.Y. While serving in New York, he was part of the 42nd Rainbow Division as an artillery command. He then entered advertising and account management at Olgivy & Mather and later Young & Rubicam, representing companies such as General Foods, Travelers Insurance, Procter & Gamble, and the Kennedy Foundation during John F. Kennedy’s presidency. Later, he worked for a social-service agency, the Seamen’s Institute of New York and New Jersey. Christopher B. Espy B.S.M.E. ’60 of Abbeville, Ala., on May 1, 2014. He worked for IBM, serving as director of marketing and telecommunications for Americas Far East Corp. His job allowed him to travel extensively around Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; a son; and a sister. Mary-Angela Butt Johnson ’60 of Leawood, Kan., on April 11, 2014. She briefly worked for the Social Security Administration before joining the faculty of Children’s House of Columbia (Mo.), becoming director of the school in 1984. She served on the local housing authority board and the Columbia library board, and she founded a scholarship program for Children’s House. She is survived by two sons and five grandchildren. Franklin R. Jones Ed.D. ’60 of Tampa, Fla., on June 29, 2013. A career educator, he held positions as a principal, district superintendent, dean, and professor. After working at high schools and colleges across Virginia and North Carolina, he was appointed dean of the School of Education at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. During his time at Old Dominion, he founded the Child Study Center, hired the first African-American professor of education, helped design the education building, and taught the first television course. He also wrote and cowrote several books on human development. In 1965, he became director of the Praxis Center, retiring in 2005. Between 1972 and 1978, the Virginia Educational Research Association presented him with three Distinguished Research Awards. A charter member of the American Psychological Society, he participated in the South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society, the Southeastern Psychological Association, and the White House Conference on Children and Youth. He is survived by two sons, a daughter, and three grandchildren. Earl C. Koontz B.S.M.E. ’60 of Richmond, Va., on April 15, 2014. He worked as a mechanical engineer for Western Electric for 26 years. He is survived by his wife, Jane; two sons; a daughter; and a sister.

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Charles E. Virgin ’60, M.D. ’64 of Miami, on May 25, 2014. He served in the Air Force for five years. An orthopaedic surgeon, he was a team physician for the Miami Dolphins from 1970 to 1989 and the team’s chief doctor when his father retired from that role in 1983. He later served as team physician for athletic events and teams such as the Lipton International Tennis Tournament and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers soccer team. He was founding medical director of the Orange Bowl Marathon, where he treated participants for 13 years. He is survived by his wife, Connie; five children; and a sister.

Iris Boland Abernathy M.A.T. ’61 of Auburndale, Fla., on May 27, 2014. She taught chemistry and biology at schools in North Carolina and Florida, winning several teaching awards, including Outstanding Biology Teacher Award from a pool of 800 teachers among nine states. She was the head of the science department for 23 years at Auburndale Senior High School, which inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2005. She is survived by a son, two sisters, and two granddaughters.

Robert F. Wayand B.S.M.E. ’60 of North East, Pa., on May 9, 2014. He was a senior vice president of manufacturing at General Electric for 39 years.

Daniel H. Gelbert ’61, M.F. ’62 of Durham, on April 3, 2014. He established a consulting forestry company with his uncle and owned or co-owned

He is survived by four sons, two brothers, 11 grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

ates. He is survived by his wife, Katherine; a son; a daughter; and five grandchildren.

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919.956.9404 • 301 W. Morgan St., Durham DurhamConventionCenter.com two survey companies with forestry offices in Fayetteville and Tarboro, N.C. He was president of the N.C. Forestry Association, the Central Carolina Forestry Club, and the N.C. Society of Consulting Foresters, helping to establish the latter. He also served on the Governor’s Forestry Advisory Council and was an adjunct professor at Duke’s School of Forestry (now the Nicholas School of the Environment). He was awarded the Wildlife Federation Governor’s Award for forest conservation in 1974; the Outstanding Service to Tarheel Forestry Award by the N.C. Tree Farm Committee in 1981; the North Carolina Society of Consulting Forester’s Forester of the Year Award in 1985; and the NCFA’s Outstanding Service to Forestry Award in 2005. He is survived by his wife, Susan Robinhood Gelbert ’62; a son; a daughter; two sisters; four grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Nina Bryce Haynes ’61 of Marysville, Wash., on Feb. 25, 2014. Robert R. Hoopes ’61 of Wilmington, Del., on July 8, 2014. He served as a captain in the Air Force and had a career in dentistry. He owned a private office and was also a staff member at Christiana Hospital. He was a member of the Delaware State Board of Examiners and the Delaware State Dental Society, serving a term as president. He was also elected to the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists. He is survived by his wife, Judith A. Heckroth Hoopes ’61; a daughter; a son; a brother; and five grandchildren. Amanda R. McBath Sprenger B.S.N. ’61 of Berryville, Va., on June 21, 2014. She had a 80 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

career in nursing and national security intelligence, working as an analyst for the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency. She is survived by her husband, Michael; three daughters; a son; two sisters; and seven grandchildren. Gloria Kratzch Young M.Ed. ’61 of Springdale, Ark., on May 14, 2012. Survivors include her husband, David B. Young B.S.E.E. ’55, M.S.E. ’59. Nora Kay Hugh Brown A.M. ’62 of Bethesda, Md., on May 12, 2014. After earning her master’s in economics from Duke, she received the Alexander Loeb Gold Medal for having the highest score in Pennsylvania on the national C.P.A. Exam and the Elijah Watts Sells Award for scoring in the top 10 in the nation. She worked for the Census Bureau, the IRS, and the Small Business Administration. She is survived by three sons, two sisters, a brother, and six grandchildren. John J. Dunn A.M. ’62, Ph.D. ’66 of Savannah, Ga., on June 30, 2012. An English professor, he taught at Armstrong State College in Savannah, the University of Georgia, New York University, and the University of Arizona. He retired from St. John’s University in New York. He also wrote books and poetry and was a member of the Poetry Society of Georgia. Survivors include a daughter and a brother. Frank S. Harris II ’62 of Purcellville, Va., on Nov. 6, 2013. He was president of Harris Goldstein Associates in Washington and later worked for the consulting services firm L.E. Peabody & Associ-

Addison P. Penfield Jr. ’62 of Greenwood, S.C., on June 25, 2014. He was a sports journalist and editor in the Carolinas, eventually becoming the associate managing editor of a newspaper in Greenwood. He is survived by his wife, RoseMarie; a son; a brother, Cameron W. Penfield B.S.C.E. ’66; two sisters; and a cousin, Mary Alice Classen Tinari B.S.N. ’74. Emma R. Snipp Troutman B.S.N. ’62 of Clinton, N.C., on June 21, 2014. She had a career in nursing and nursing instruction. She is survived by her husband, Bruce; three daughters; a sister; nine grandchildren; and a great-grandson. Charles M. Weitzner ’62, G ’05 of Charlestown, R.I., on May 6, 2014. A prosthodontist with practices in both Manhattan and Providence, R.I., he did woodworking and metalworking in his free time. He is survived by his wife, Susan F. McKenna Weitzner G ’09; three stepdaughters; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Clyde “Gene” Brown B.D. ’63 of Greenville, Texas, on June 29, 2014. He enlisted in the Army in 1966 as a military chaplain and retired 30 years later as a colonel. During his military career, he was presented with many awards, including a Legion of Merit Award, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Award, Air Medal, Air Force Good Conduct Medal, and a National Defense Medal with one Bronze Star. Following his military career, he spent almost a decade as chair of the church ministries division at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. He is survived by his wife, Grace; a son; a daughter; a sister; a brother; and four grandchildren. Arnold Cooper A.M. ’63 of Statesboro, Ga., on Dec. 5, 2013. He was an educator for 36 years, serving as dean of the College of Education at Clarion University and dean of Georgia Southern University; associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Fayetteville State University; vice president for academic affairs at West Virginia State University; and department chair at Lincoln University. He is survived by his wife, Lena, and a stepson. T. Edward Jones Jr. ’63 of Mooresville, N.C., on June 21, 2014. He worked as an accountant with a firm in Charlotte before earning a master’s in business from the University of Michigan. He later worked for firms in Chicago and Atlanta and taught as a college professor. He is survived by his wife, Camille; two sons; and a brother. Anne S. Whaley Le Clercq ’63 of Charleston, S.C., on June 19, 2014. A career librarian, she was head of the undergraduate library at the University of Tennessee before becoming a professor emerita and head librarian for The Daniel Library at The Citadel. She also wrote four books and a travel column for a Charleston newspaper. She is survived by

her husband, Frederic S. Le Clercq LL.B. ’63; three sons, including Benjamin S.W. Le Clercq ’87; two sisters; and six grandchildren.

Psychiatric Hospital. An accomplished pianist, he was recognized by the National Guild of Piano Teachers. Survivors include a daughter and a son.

served as a Navy chaplain for 25 years. He is survived by his wife, Jean E. Clark Sharpe ’65; a daughter; a son; two sisters; and four grandchildren.

Helga N. Leftwich M.A.T. ’63 of Chapel Hill, on May 21, 2014. She was a professor of modern languages and literature for 27 years at Lynchburg College, retiring as professor emerita in 1990. She is survived by her daughter, Helga Lura Leftwich ’74.

Jerry B. Wilson B.D. ’64 of Troutman, N.C., on June 25, 2014. He was a professor of ethics and theology at Jacksonville State University for more than 20 years. He is survived by his wife, Clyde; a daughter; a sister; and two grandchildren.

Craig B. Benson ’67 of Thompson’s Station, Tenn., on May 10, 2014. After receiving a law degree from Vanderbilt University, he became an inhouse counselor for Stax Records. He later opened his own entertainment-law practice, specializing in publishing and music contracts. He is survived by his wife, Sarah; two daughters; and a sister.

Lawrence W. Moore Jr. M.D. ’63 of Chapel Hill, on Feb. 21, 2014. He was an ophthalmologist who specialized in corneal transplant surgery. He was also acting chair of ophthalmology at UNC and Duke; chair at the North Carolina Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat practice; and the first chief of staff at North Carolina Specialty Hospital. Survivors include his wife, Minnie; two daughters; a brother; and two grandchildren. Paul H. Ray LL.B. ’63 of Virginia Beach, Va., on April 4, 2013. He served in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps for 23 years and was in the 82nd Airborne Division. He is survived by two daughters, a son, four grandchildren, and a great-grandson. Thomas E. Rohricht J.D. ’63 of St. Paul, Minn., on June 28, 2014. He served aboard an aircraft carrier for three years after graduating from NROTC. He then performed active reserve duty until retiring from the Navy Reserve as a lieutenant. He then became a partner in Doherty Rumble & Butler and occupied leadership positions in both the Minnesota and the American bar associations. He is survived by his wife, Jo Anne Smith Rohricht ’56; a daughter; a son; and two grandchildren. Sylvia A. Holt Cebeci B.S.N. ’64 of Long Beach, Calif., on May 4, 2012. She is survived by her husband, Tuncer Cebeci M.S. ’61, and three children. Lewis D. Dove Ph.D. ’64 of Macomb, Ill., on April 13, 2014. He taught botany and physiology at Tulane University and Western Illinois University, specializing in water relationships within plants. He published several papers and delivered presentations at international conferences. He is survived by his wife, Ruth; a son; and two grandchildren. Edward J. Hash ’64 of Mount Airy, N.C., on Oct. 1, 2013. He spent his career at IBM. He is survived by two daughters, two sons, two sisters, a brother, and two grandchildren. Charles R. Vernon M.D. ’64 of Columbia, S.C., on July 9, 2014. He served in the Marine Corps for two years before obtaining his medical degree from Duke. After completing his residency at Duvall Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla., he moved to South Carolina and began a career at Richland Memorial Hospital and G.W. Bryan

Wayne H. Yarnall B.S.E.E. ’64 of Vancouver, Wash., on April 7, 2014. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in 1970, he was a strong advocate of greater accessibility for disabled persons, and he founded ADA Build-it-Right. He is survived by a daughter, a son, a brother, and four grandchildren. Thomas M. Benton Ed.D. ’65 of Fredericksburg, Va., on May 15, 2014. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II in the Pacific theater. He then began a career in education, teaching in several public schools and serving in administrative roles. He retired as vice president of Lenoir Community College. He was passionate about baseball, playing the sport in college and semi-professionally, in addition to coaching at the schools where he worked. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; a son; a daughter; two sisters; a brother; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Cooper D. Kunkel HS ’65 of New Bern, N.C., on May 3, 2014. He served in the Army, stationed in Okinawa, Japan, as a gunner on a B-29. After attending the Virginia Military Institute on the G.I. Bill, he earned a medical degree from the University of Virginia and moved to Durham to study ophthalmology at Duke. He worked for 20 years at Coastal Eye Clinic in New Bern and served as chief of staff of Craven County Hospital. He is survived by his wife, Joan; two daughters; a son; and six grandchildren. Richard L. Mikesell J.D. ’65 of Los Angeles, on June 17, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Anna M. Cresse Mikesell B.S.M.T. ’53. John A. Kirk M.Div. ’66 of West Chester, Pa., on Dec. 2, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Angela; two sons; a brother; and two granddaughters. Daniel B. McGee Ph.D. ’66 of Waco, Texas, on April 19, 2014. As a doctoral student in theology at Duke, he taught at Meredith College and Southeastern Seminary. He was ordained as a deacon of Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham. In 1966, he began his 40-year career as a professor of theological ethics in the religion department at Baylor University. He received the university’s Herbert H. Reynolds Award for exemplary service in 2005. He is survived by his wife, Merolyn; a son; a daughter; a brother; and five grandchildren. Jack Larry Sharpe M.Div. ’66 of Matthews, N.C., on March 31, 2014. He was an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and

W. Theron Grubb ’67 of Riverside, N.J., on June 24, 2014. He was a chemist and owned his own company, Grubb Filtration Testing Services, whose environmental work helped deliver air-filtration tests. He is survived by his wife, Sharon; a daughter; his mother; and three grandsons. C. Robert Lincoln HS ’67 of Durham, on April 9, 2014. He was an orthopedic surgeon. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; two sons; a daughter; and five grandchildren. William S. Shelfer Jr. LL.B. ’67 of Atlanta, on April 1, 2014. He served in the Army as an intelligence officer for three years before practicing law for 36 years. He is survived by his partner, Bonny Collins; two daughters; a stepdaughter; two sisters; and a brother. Glen H. Stassen Ph.D. ’67 of Pasadena, Calif., on April 26, 2014. He was a Southern Baptist theologian who pioneered the social-justice wing of the evangelical movement in the 1980s and played a role in advancing peacemaking talks toward the end of the Cold War. He taught at Kentucky Southern College and Berea College before joining Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., as a professor of Christian ethics in 1976. He left in 1996 to become a professor of ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., where he taught until the end of his life. At Fuller, he was the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian ethics and the executive director of the Just Peacemaking Initiative. He wrote and cowrote several books and won many awards, including the All Seminary Council Faculty Award for Outstanding Community Service to Students at Fuller in 1999 and the Baptist World Alliance Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights Award in 2013. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; three sons; a sister; and six grandchildren. Clayton W. Davis B.S.M.E. ’68 of Fuquay-Varina, N.C., on April 20, 2014. He served in the Marine Corps and as a civil-service engineer in the Coast Guard. Survivors include two sisters. Billy P. Hunt M.A.T. ’68 of Henderson, N.C., on Jan. 27, 2014. He is survived by his wife, Estrellita, and two daughters. Robert E. Lasky ’68 of Houston, on April 15, 2014. He was a professor in the department DUKE MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

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of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical School. He also served as director of the Design and Analysis Support Services in the university’s Center for Clinical Research & Evidence-Based Medicine. His 35 years of biomedical research involved studying developmental neuroscience and conducting clinical work in field settings like rural Guatemala. He was a multiple-time recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award. Survivors include a daughter. Guy T. Swain Sr. Ed.D. ’68 of Greenville, N.C., on May 16, 2014. He served in the Navy during World War II followed by 20 years in the Navy Reserve. His second career was in education; after serving as principal at several high schools in North Carolina, he became a professor of education at Appalachian State University, where he taught school administration and school law for 17 years. Throughout his tenure, he won several Distinguished Teaching Awards and was named professor emeritus of education. He is survived by his wife, Bobbie; a son; and two sisters. Paul R. Winters ’68 of Tampa, Fla., on May 25, 2014. He practiced neurological medicine in Tampa for more than 43 years. He is survived by his wife, Marian; two daughters, including Lara M. Winters Katzin ’98; a son; a brother; and three grandchildren. Thomas H. Beckett B.S.E. ’69 of Apex, N.C., on April 21, 2014. He was selected for duty at Naval Reactors, a joint program of the Department of the Navy and the Department of Energy with responsibility for the reactors aboard all Navy nuclear-powered warships. After resigning his Navy commission in 1974, he continued to work at 82 www.dukemagazine.duke.edu

Naval Reactors as a civilian until 2006, retiring as deputy director. He is survived by his wife, Linda B. Smith Beckett B.S.N. ’69; three children; two brothers; and six grandchildren. Ruth L. Gilliam Strickland A.M. ’69 of Columbia, S.C., on Nov. 27, 2013. She was a teacher at Lake City Community College and Louisiana State University before spending 30 years as a composition and literature teacher for the Opportunity Scholars Program at the University of South Carolina. Survivors include her mother and two sisters. James R. Tomes ’69 of Mount Prospect, Ill., on May 26, 2014. He had a career as a public accountant in the Northwest suburbs. He is survived by his wife, Ana; two sons; and two sisters. Patsy A. Brown Yaerger A.M. ’69 of Nashville, Tenn., on July 19, 2013. Survivors include a son. William D. Boyer Ph.D. ’70 of Opelika, Ala., on April 13, 2014. He served in the Maritime Service, Navy Reserve, and Coast Guard before working for the U.S. Forest Service for 43 years. He wrote or cowrote more than 100 publications and was named scientist emeritus by the Department of Agriculture. He was presented with a National Honor Award by the Secretary of Agriculture for his research accomplishments. He participated in the Alabama Forestry Council, serving as its secretary, treasurer, and chair. He is survived by his wife, Doris; four daughters; four stepdaughters; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and 11 step great-grandchildren. Roy M. Curlee Jr. ’70 of Atlanta, on June 13, 2014. He taught English in South Korea with the

David A. Boone ’71 of Statesville, N.C., on April 27, 2014. He attended UNC-CH law school, later becoming owner and operator of Boone’s Country Store in Monticello, N.C. Twice named North Carolina Young Republican of the Year, he served on statewide political campaigns and was active in the National College Republican Association. At the time of his death, he was serving his third term as an Iredell County commissioner. He is survived by his parents and four brothers. Thomas D. Benson A.M. ’72 of Spartanburg, S.C., on May 12, 2014. He served in the Navy before enrolling at Duke, after which he moved to San Francisco to work in trust banking for 18 years. He then worked as a fiduciary and conservator in private practice for 22 years. Survivors include a sister. J. Peter Pelkonen Ph.D. ’72 of Jacksonville, Fla., on May 7, 2014. After attending divinity school in Ohio, he was awarded a year’s study at the University of Helsinki, Finland, as a theological exchange scholar of the Lutheran World Federation. Upon returning to the U.S., he was ordained a Lutheran pastor. He later served as pastor at three Lutheran churches in Ohio and spent several years on the faculty of the Hamma Divinity School. Survivors include his wife, Nancy. Linda L. Beauregard ’73 of Greensboro, on Dec. 20, 2013. After careers in finance, accounting, and HR management, she worked in social services. Her foundation, Lindy’s Kids, works closely with the Greensboro Police Department to help child victims of domestic violence. She was given the Chief ’s Award for her contributions to the police department and the community. Survivors include a sister and a brother. Eddie L. Ganaway A.M. ’73 of Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 13, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; a daughter; two sons; a brother; three sisters; and four grandchildren. Linda F. Barber Hawes M.Ed. ’73 of Richlands, N.C., on March 29, 2014. She was an elementary-school teacher and principal for 37 years. She is survived by her husband, Edward; two sons; two sisters; a brother; and two grandchildren. Billye L. Higdon ’73 of Greensboro, on March 10, 2013. She was a self-employed lawyer. Survivors include a brother and a sister. Donald R. Beeman B.H.S. ’74 of Young Harris, Ga., on May 1, 2014. He served as a Navy corpsman in Vietnam before attending Duke’s physician assistant program. He later worked at Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic as a physician assis-

tant for 38 years. He is survived by his wife, Mary Jo; three sons; a daughter; a brother; a sister; and 10 grandchildren.

artificial limbs to give amputees a sense of touch. He is survived by his wife, Jocelyne; two sons; two brothers; and four sisters.

Margaret L. Dickie Cartier B.S.N. ’74 of Charlottesville, Va., on July 20, 2012. She worked at Duke Hospital and UNC Hospitals, including at UNC’s burn unit. Survivors include a stepdaughter.

Lewis H. Stocks III HS ’76 of Raleigh, on May 23, 2014. As a general surgeon in Raleigh for more than 44 years, he was among the first surgeons to perform laparoscopic surgery, stereotactic breast biopsies, and lung-volume reductions in Wake County. He later specialized in age management. At Raleigh Community Hospital, he was chair of the board of trustees. He is survived by his wife, Jackie; two sons; three daughters; his mother; three brothers; two granddaughters; and a grandson.

Ann B. Little Majestic ’74, J.D. ’82 of Durham, on Aug. 16, 2014. She worked at the National Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington before earning a law degree and joining the Raleigh-based firm Tharrington Smith, practicing education law. She served as counsel to the North Carolina School Boards Association and the North Carolina Psychologists’ Association, working to improve special education in the state. In 1998, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the North Carolina Bar Association for outstanding service to the education-law community. She is survived by her husband, Henry W. Majestic ’71; a son; a daughter; a brother-in-law, David E. Majestic ’80, M.H.A. ’83; and a grandson. Herbert P. Massie J.D. ’74 of Columbia, Md., on Dec. 27, 2012. He worked as a police officer in Washington and later as a law clerk for a federal judge in Alabama. Survivors include two brothers. Stephen L. Selby ’74 of Westminster, Md., on Aug. 3, 2013. Survivors include his wife, Kathleen. Anne T. Whitford ’74 of Allentown, Pa., on April 27, 2014. She worked in the insurance industry, including more than 25 years as a senior underwriter for Selective Insurance Co. of America. She is survived by her mother, a brother, and a sister. Ellsworth “Hunter” Augustus III ’75 of Coral Gables, Fla., on April 13, 2014. He worked for the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. In his retirement, he published two World War II historical fiction novels. He is survived by his mother and three sisters, including Wendy A. Augustus ’72. Robert M. Bowker M.B.A. ’75 of Dallas, on April 4, 2014. He worked in information-systems management, financial planning, and corporate strategic planning for United Technologies, Xerox, and several other Fortune 500 companies. He is survived by his wife, Mary; a son; a daughter; two stepdaughters; a sister; and a granddaughter. Steven S. Hsiao B.S.E. ’76, M.S. ’78 of Baltimore, on June 16, 2014. He was a professor at Johns Hopkins University as well as Tsinghua University in Beijing. He was codirector of Hopkins’ neuroscience graduate program as well as the scientific director of the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/ Brain Institute. He studied how the brain interprets three-dimensional objects and sought ways to create

Jud E. McNatt J.D. ’77 of Woodstock, Ga., on May 25, 2014. As senior attorney for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, he practiced law in the areas of government programs, administrative law, litigation, and procurement law for more than 24 years. He also mentored junior lawyers. He is survived by his former wife, Cynthia Woodward; a sister; a brother; two nieces; and three nephews, including Trent N. McNatt ’09. Stefan M. Pugh ’78 of Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 8, 2013. He began his academic career as a linguist at Duke, later working as a reader in Russian at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He returned to the U.S. in 2008 to assume a position as a professor and chair of the modern languages department at Wright State University. He received WSU’s Brage Golding Distinguished Professor of Research Award in 2013. During his career, he wrote eight books and numerous articles. He was fluent in four languages and possessed a working knowledge in 15 more. He is survived by his wife, Linda; a daughter; his father; and two sisters. John S. Baldwin ’79 of Houston, on June 14, 2014. He worked as a geologist for Stone Energy as well as in the oil and gas industries for more than 35 years. He was a member of the Houston Geological Society. He is survived by his wife, Wesley; a brother, Don W. Baldwin B.S.E. ’74; a sister, Sarah J. Baldwin Parry ’76, A.M. ’03; sister-in-law, Janet McHugh Baldwin ’75; and brother-in-law, Louis C. Parry M.A.T. ’79. Patricia A. Wroth McDermott B.S.E. ’79 of St. Michaels, Md., on May 6, 2014. She worked for 18 years as a project manager and consulting engineer for Dewberry & Davis in Fairfax, Va. Survivors include her husband, Brian; two sons; her parents; and a sister. Robert L. Van Buskirk M.Div. ’79 of Forest City, N.C., on May 1, 2014. For his service as a Green Beret in the Army’s Special Forces in Vietnam and around the world, he received five Purple Hearts, the Silver Star, and the Bronze Star. In 1974, he was falsely charged with crimes and incarcerated in a German prison, which led him to pursue prison ministry. After graduating from Duke, he was ordained a priest in the Order of St.

Dismas Prison Ministry of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. For the next three decades, he worked for several prison ministries. He is survived by his wife, Tina, and five sons. Joan K. Glascock Ph.D. ’80 of St. Louis, on April 6, 2014. She worked for 20 years as a research chemist at Monsanto, where she helped to develop multiple patents. Most recently, she worked as a pharmacist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She also volunteered at Siteman Cancer Center and the American Heart Association and tutored at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Survivors include a sister. Patricia Dempsey Hammond ’80 of Summit, N.J., on May 19, 2014. She worked in various executive capacities at J.P. Morgan in New York, rising to the level of vice president. At J.P Morgan she developed initiatives to support working parents, women, and people with special needs. She also developed training programs for the investment bank and introduced one of the first online job posting systems on Wall Street. From 2002 to 2014, she managed her own work-life management consulting firm, coaching individuals on their career choices and work-life balance. She was highly involved with the Arthritis Foundation’s New York chapter, serving on its board of governors from 1988 to 2008. She was a member of the Duke Alumni Association board of directors and the Annual Fund Reunion Committee. In 1990, she was presented with the C.A. Dukes Award for outstanding volunteer service to Duke. She is survived by her husband, William; and daughter, Kathryn F. Hammond ’18. Susan C. Coddon B.S.N. ’81 of West Hollywood, Calif., on April 11, 2013. Guy R. Lambert Jr. ’82 of Durham, on July 15, 2014. Survivors include a sister. Stephen Milliner HS ’82 of Phoenix, on April 20, 2014. Born in South Africa, he immigrated to the U.S. and completed his medical residency at Duke. He had a career as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. He is survived by his wife, Melanie, and three sons. Palmer L. Whisenant ’82 of Moore, S.C., on April 11, 2014. He earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University and was a lawyer at Cryovac for 20 years. He is survived by his wife, Pennie; a son; a daughter; and a brother. Mark J. Reiser M.B.A. ’83 of Cary, N.C., on March 10, 2014. Susan M. Kelly Becker ’85 of Miami, on May 1, 2014. After graduating from Duke, she earned degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Miami. She remained an adjunct faculty member at the University of Miami for 15 years and later opened a private practice in Coral Gables, DUKE MAGAZINE

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Fla. She is survived by her husband, Michael, and two sons. Emma Kay Bender Gresham Ed.D. ’86 of Durham, on Oct. 30, 2013. Her career in the Onslow County school system included roles as a teacher, federal programs administrator, executive director of Head Start, director for Early Childhood Initiatives and Federal Services, and director for the Thompson Early Childhood Center. She was executive director of Sponsors for Academic Talent Inc. and a past chair of the board of governors for the Governor’s School of N.C. She was also an instructor in the graduate school at East Carolina University and Coastal Carolina Community College. She is survived by her husband, John, and a brother. Charles A. Shumate M.Div. ’86 of Windsor, Va., on Dec. 6, 2013. As a pastor for the United Methodist Church for 30 years, he served many churches in the Virginia conference. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; five daughters; a brother; a sister; and five grandchildren. Paul T. Stagliano J.D. ’86 of Atlanta, on May 3, 2014. He was a labor and employment lawyer at

AT&T and a member of the state bar of Georgia and the American Bar Association. He is survived by his wife, Madeleine; three daughters; his mother; two brothers; and a sister. Daniel T. Kuehl A.M. ’88, Ph.D. ’92 of Erie, Pa., on June 28, 2014. His career as an Air Force officer included five years at the Pentagon, where he helped lead the Air Force’s landmark study of airpower for the Gulf War, as well as a stint as missile-launch officer in Grand Forks, N.D. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1994. He also taught information operations at the National Defense University’s iCollege in Washington. At NDU, he helped create the Department of Defense’s first major educational effort on informational warfare. He also taught in the Intelligence Program at Mercyhurst University. In 2012, he was awarded the Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He is survived by his wife, Susan; a daughter; a brother; and a grandson. Michael L. Jones Jr. ’92 of Amityville, N.Y., on April 9, 2014. John C. Fitzpatrick M.E.M. ’95 of New York, on May 7, 2014. He had a 17-year career with the New York State Department of Environmen-

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tal Conservation, serving as a uniformed officer, investigator, uniformed lieutenant, and investigative lieutenant. Considered the department’s foremost expert on the illegal endangered-species trade, he recently finished a successful investigation and prosecution of several prominent retail stores in Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue district. His focus was the illegal elephant-ivory trade—one of his cases involved the seizure of 2,000 pounds of ivory worth $2.4 million—and his testimony spurred the city to consider increasing penalties for violating wildlife crimes and strengthening its ivory sale regulations. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and a daughter. Ann M. Rupple Slager A.H.C. ’95 of Auburndale, Fla., on March 20, 2012. She spent her career as a certified ophthalmic technician, retiring in 2010. She is survived by four sons, two daughters, five brothers, three sisters, and six grandchildren. Warren R. Kadrmas M.D. ’96 of Lackland AFB, Texas, on May 8, 2014. He began his Air Force orthopaedic career at Wilford Hall Medical Center and then worked for the Hospital for Special Surgery, focusing on sports medicine subspecialty training. Later, he served as the ortho-

Duke bids farewell to famous lemur: Jovian of Durham, on Nov. 11, 2014. Known to many by his stage alias, Zoboomafoo—“Zoboo” for short—Jovian was a 20-year-old Coquerel’s sifaka lemur who lived at the Duke Lemur Center. His claim to fame was starring in the PBS television series Zoboomafoo. He is survived by his partner, Pia; three sons; four daughters; a brother; and four grandchildren, with two more on the way.

paedic consultant to the Surgeon General of the Air Force. He is survived by two daughters, two sons, his parents, and a brother. Bradley M. Scace ’97 of Broomall, Pa., on May 5, 2014. An avid sports fan, he volunteered for the Special Olympics. He is survived by his mother and a sister. Michael J. Fasti M.B.A. ’98 of Warrington, Pa., on June 2, 2014. His early career included working for General Electric and operating a deli with his mother. He later worked as an information technology specialist for IBM and David’s Bridal. He is survived by his wife, Julia; three sons; his mother; two brothers; and two sisters. Anthony D. Duke Sr. C. Hon. ’99 of Gainesville, Fla., on April 30, 2014. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, as commanding officer aboard a landing ship, and as a division commander in the Battle of Normandy. A former Duke trustee, he was the founder and president of Boys and Girls Harbor, an education, arts, and social-service agency based in Harlem, N.Y. Under his leadership, the charity began as a small Long Island summer camp in 1937 and evolved into an agency serving thousands of disadvantaged children. He also held executive positions in multiple family-owned ventures, including vice

president of the Duke International Import/Export Co. and president of A.D. Duke Realty. He also served as a member of the New York City Youth Board and eventually became its commissioner. He is survived by a daughter, Lourdes C. Duke Reed ’96; a son, Washington A. Duke ’99; and several grandchildren, including Anthony D. Duke III ’95, Camila Duke ’98, Lucius O. McSherry ’03, and Natalia B. Duke ’04. Paula M. Tipton Takacs M.B.A. ’00 of Charlotte, on April 13, 2014. After attending Duke’s Fuqua School, she became an investment and commercial banker for Bank of America in Charlotte. When she was diagnosed with liposarcoma in 2004, she and her husband started a foundation to help fund research for all types of soft-tissue sarcoma. The Paula Takacs Foundation for Sarcoma Research has donated more than $350,000 to fund clinical trials at leading sarcoma research centers. She is survived by her husband, Geoffrey; a son; her parents; and a sister. Amanda L. Smith Johnston ’04 of Chapel Hill, on April 12, 2014. She served communities throughout the western U.S. as part of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. After working in Greensboro at a rheumatology practice, she joined her father at the Clinton Medical Clinic as a physician assistant. Survivors include

her husband, Thomas; her parents; and three sisters, including Elizabeth Smith Umar R.N. ’08. Fiona Lawrence M.H.S. ’12 of Durham, on June 11, 2012. She was a National Health Service Corps Scholar working toward her physician assistant certificate at Duke. Rebecca A. DeNardis ’14 of Cary, N.C., on March 14, 2014. She was a senior at Duke double-majoring in mathematics and computer science. She was a math mentor and computer science teaching assistant, a Braxton Craven scholar, and an inductee of Phi Beta Kappa. She was also a member of the Round Table selective living group. An intern for two consecutive summers at Google, she planned to move to California and work for the company after graduating. She is survived by her parents, a sister, and two grandparents. Paula D. Poston Meyer B.S.N. ’14 of Sherwood, Ore., on April 22, 2014. She was cofounder and co-owner of Infinity Property Management Inc. and served on the board of directors of the group. She traveled to Africa on several occasions to volunteer her services at local hospitals and clinics. At the time of her death, she was in her last term in Duke’s nurse-practitioner program. She is survived by her husband, John; three children; her mother and stepfather; father and stepmother; a brother; and a sister.

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SPRING 2015

RETRO

Pages from a spirited life

A detailed scrapbook reveals the social life of a young woman in the Class of ’28. | By Valerie Gillispie

n the University Archives, we often get research questions University, which happened during her freshman year. There is, about family members who attended Duke. Using however, plenty of fascinating information about her social life. yearbooks, photographs, and other resources, we can The scrapbook is a testament to Odessa’s popularity with young provide a general sketch of a person—he was a member of men on campus. One poem from a smitten suitor reads: this fraternity, she lived in this dormitory. What’s missing Beautiful Odessa with your dark brown eyes is a rich description of the person herself. Did she enjoy school? You would certainly win a beauty prize. Did he have lots of friends? What was she really like? I have now realized that I love you “Personality” is not information provided by official university And found out what your love can do. records. But occasionally the University Archives holds a diary, It makes me hazy, lazy, wise photograph album, or scrapbook that tells a little bit more. But when I’m with you, That is the case for Clara Odessa Massey, Class of 1928, a young I never close my eyes. woman who kept a detailed scrapbook of her personal life while at Duke. Through the bits of A female friend wrote in the paper, letters, notes, and clippings scrapbook with admiration, “Odessa pasted into her scrapbook, Odessa, you beat it all. 2 doz love affairs in as she was known, becomes as real one year.” Some of her suitors were and lively as if we were back in the less successful but no less ardent. 1920s. A four-page letter from “Duck” to Odessa Massey entered Duke Odessa at the end of her sophomore University in the fall of 1924. She year pleads: “I presume that you had grown up in Wilson’s Mills in already have a date for next Thursday Johnston County, North Carolina, night, or something will happen to the youngest of four, and the keep you from having one, or you only daughter. While at Duke, just won’t give me one; but if you Odessa participated in the Athena haven’t, and nothing happens, and Literary Society and the Glee you will give me one I’m sure nothing Club. Within her scrapbook, there would please me more. Really, you is very little about these activities should sacrifice a little of your time or her academic career—nothing to making someone happy. Even if about the courses she took or the you should be bored to tears for two books she read—and little can be or three hours, think, if you can, how found about the creation of Duke

1930s

THEN&NOW THE BLUE DEVIL Adopted as mascot in 1922, the Duke Blue Devil has taken many forms over the years. Here’s a look back at some of our favorites.

Showing one of the first manifestations of the Blue Devil mascot, this photograph was taken in the then-brand-new football stadium on West Campus.

1929

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The Blue Devil quickly became beloved, as evident in this handmade doll made of wax, felt, straw, and wood, now held in the University Archives.

The Blue Devil always has worked in tandem with the Marching Band and cheerleaders.

1938

Library with boys Wednesday night and being with them long enough to count it as a date and failing to report. It would have been for only a week had you reported it.” It seems Odessa did not feel a sense of shame about these reprimands, or about dating, as she pasted them into the scrapbook with (one suspects) a sense of pride. One envelope pasted into the scrapbook appears to date from October 1925, postmarked from her hometown, but contains Duly noted: Left, an admirer pleads for some of Massey’s time; above, a scrapbook page no letter. In pencil, Odessa filled with love. has written, “Brought very sad news!” It’s impossible to much I would enjoy it and perhaps you will give me the rare know for certain what it contained, but records show that her pleasure.” father, Patrick Massey, died five months later in March 1926. In among the many calling cards from young men, valentines, Odessa left Duke at the end of her junior year, for reasons that and clippings about football games are signs that Odessa was a are unclear. Perhaps after her father’s death the previous year, bit of a rule breaker. One letter from the end of her junior year paying tuition was too difficult. She taught school in Vance informs her that she would be deprived of dates from May 18 County until 1935, when she married Robert Wade Brady, a builder in Raleigh. Odessa Massey Brady died in 1992. However, to 28 for “dating on the ‘gym’ steps at night last week.” Female students at Duke were strictly monitored for their social activities, her spirit and her scrapbook live on in the University Archives, and were punished for lingering too long with a boy or leaving providing a glimpse into the life of one special student in the without official permission. Another letter declares: “The Council 1920s—and the world of Duke at the time. hereby deprives you of all dates (Sunday afternoon dates included) —Gillispie is the university archivist. for two weeks March 21st through April 3rd for walking from the

1976

A new Blue Devil debuted the same year football coach David Cutcliffe took the reins of the Duke football program.

Michael Holyfield ’79 was the first AfricanAmerican student to depict the Blue Devil.

1958 Two iconic mascots meet.

Not restricted to rousing crowds at games alone, here the Blue Devil took part in tailgating before a football march.

1980s

2008 DUKE MAGAZINE

Jon Gardiner SPRING 2015

DEVIL’S OWN These Instagram images, taken by members of the Duke community, appeared on the president’s 2014 holiday card. They’re meant to symbolize the path forward inspired by Duke and at the same time, the way home.

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