Mills Quarterly spring 2002

Mills Quarterly Spring 2002 Alumnae Magazine

Women Reading as a Necessity of Life New MBA Program Elect Your Alumna Trustee

Reunion 2002 Homecoming! The word conjures up the Big Game with pompoms in the stadium as traditional rivals take the field, the homecoming dance later that evening, possibly with the crowning of a king and queen, and all manner of other things.

But we don’t have a stadium to rally in, much less a football team. No, at Mills we do things our own way, and we hold a “Homecoming without Football” every September. Historically, it wasn’t always September, either. Earlier it was October, and before that it was June; but at Mills we know how and when to change.

So—if your class year ends in a 2 or a 7, come home to our beautiful campus September 19 through 22, and let us entertain you. You should find the newly designed brochure in your mailbox in June.

On Reunion Friday we’re again invited to lead the parade into the Greek Theatre for Convocation—and what fun it is to hear the senior class cheer our arrival!—and there’ll be a symposium that afternoon for the something-serious part of the weekend. Friday night all visiting alumnae—and you alumni are also on the Reunion Committee’s invitation list—will have dinner together before going on to the traditional Milhaud Concert, the ever-exciting gift of the Class of 1945, and to the Jazz Café. Saturday you’ll have a chance to review campus scenes, both old and new, with commentary on all the campus changes, before going to hear President Janet Holmgren give the annual State of the College talk. The President of the Alumnae Association and the Executive Director will also speak, and classes will announce their reunion gifts to the College. After a picnic lunch and the taking of class pictures, we’ll have the wonderful Celebration of the Arts at various venues on campus, where you’ll be able to see the work of Reunioning artists and watch our dancers, both alumnae and students. Saturday evening the classes hold their individual, private get-togethers while the Centennial Class, the Class of 1952, is the guest of the Association at an on-campus dinner.

The weekend closes with a chapel service and the President’s Brunch. You’ll go home with a nice, rosy glow. Speaking of rosy glows, don’t forget the sunscreen and dark glasses. Remember September isn’t September in Oakland without a heat wave.

We don’t know when it will come, but be prepared. Layered clothing does the job.

The events of September 11 last year made it impossible for a third of those who had signed up for Reunion to get to campus. If you couldn’t make it then, you are doubly welcome to make it this year. So come back home, especially if your class year ends in a 1, 2, 6, or 7. We’re here waiting to welcome you.

—Jane Cudlip King, ’42

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Mills Quarterly

CONTENTS SPRING 2002 10

What Were They Reading?

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Student Connects with Mills Women of the Past

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Elect Your Alumna Trustee

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Alison Nowak, ’02

Moya Stone, MFA ’03

Mills Inaugurates Master’s of Business Administration Program Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA, ’02

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Remembering George Hedley

D E PA R T M E N T S 2

Letters

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Inside Mills

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Mills Matters

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Alumnae Action

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Calendar

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Passages

ABOUT THE COVER: Christine Young, ’02, taking notes in a carrel in the F. W. Olin Library. From left to right, the books shown are Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins), The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), Women, Culture & Politics by Angela Y. Davis (Random House), Lectures in America by Gertrude Stein (Random House), The Legs of Sister Ursula by Rudyard Kipling (open) (Windsor Press), and the constitution and membership rosters of the Bryant Literary Society, begun in 1876 (Mills College archives, F.W. Olin Library).

Cover photo by Bruce Cook. All rights reserved.

Mills Quarterly Volume XC Number 4 (USPS 349-900) Spring 2002 Alumnae Director Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68 Editor David M. Brin, MA ’75 dbrin@mills.edu Design and Art Direction Benjamin Piekut, MA ’01 Quarterly Board Marian Hirsch, ’75 Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Sharon Kei Tatai, ’80 Ariel Eaton Thomas, ’63 Class Notes Writers Barb Barry, ’94 Laura Compton, ’93 Barbara Bennion Friedlich, ’49 Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48 Heather Hanley, ’00 Cathy Chew Smith, ’84 Special Thanks to Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Board of Governors President Karen May, ’86 Vice Presidents Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60 Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Treasurer Bevo Zellick, ’49 Alumnae Trustees Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60 Sara Ellen McClure, ’81 Estrellita Hudson Redus, ’65, MFA ’75 Governors Lynne Bantle, ’74, Laura Compton, ’93 Leone Evans, MA ’45, Robyn Fisher, ’90 Lynn Eve Fortin, ’87, Linda Jaquez-Fissori, ’92 Christina Littlefield, ’74, Emily MacDonald, ’03 Leah MacNeil, MA ’51, Patricia Lee Mok, ’81 Jennifer E. Moxley, ’93, Sharon Kei Tatai, ’80 Sarah Washington-Robinson, ’72 Peggy Woodruff, ’58, Sheryl Wooldridge, ’77 Regional Governors Joyce Mentor Wallace, ’50, Eastern Great Lakes Susan Shapiro Taylor, ’63, Middle Atlantic Albertina Padilla, ’78, Middle California Adrienne Bronstein, ’86, Middle California Katie Dudley Chase, ’61, Northeast Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91, Northern California Louise Hurlbut, ’75, Rocky Mountains Sally Matthews Buchanan, ’64, South Central Candace Brand Kaspers, ’70, Southeast Carole Joseph Silva, ’54, Southern California Ann Markewitz, ’60, Southwest The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly in April, July, October, and January by the Alumnae Association of Mills College, Reinhardt Alumnae House, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94613.

Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, CA and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to the Mills Quarterly, Alumnae Association of Mills College, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998.

Statement of Purpose The purpose of the Mills Quarterly is to report the activities of the Alumnae Association and its branches; to reflect the quality, dignity, and academic achievement of the College family; to communicate the exuberance and vitality of student life; and to demonstrate the world-wide-ranging interests, occupations, and achievements of alumnae.

Letters to the Editor On page 20 of the winter, 2002 Mills Quarterly, I read Jane Redmond Mueller’s article on Mills pre-history.

Kudos! This is the first information I have seen on the land and people that set the context for Mills. It is good to hear of the Ohlones and the rancheros. This should be in every Mills publication—giving credit to those who went before us—way before us! I was delighted with the photograph of Prospect Hill. If I were attending Mills now, I would definitely do an independent study on the history of the region. Although the Ohlone people are said to be gone, I bet with a little research, one could find descendants who have carried the traditions and wisdom of the land and that area. Was there ever any oral history done on the area we call Mills?

I wish both Jane and the Mills Quarterly the best.

Tita Wernimont, ’71 I’m writing this as a belated footnote to the article on the Milhauds in the fall magazine. I enjoyed it very much, for several reasons. And here’s the footnote: It was my uncle, Albert Morini, who brought the couple to Mills after the fall of France.

Did anyone wonder why, out of all the possibilities, they should come to “my” small college? Well, my uncle, who was an artist’s manager, had known the Milhauds in Europe, as had my (then) famous violinist aunt, Erica Morini. And he knew about Mills because of me—a very young (and self-satisfied) little student, who received from him my post-Lowell typewriter!

So they arrived, and my musician parents in San Francisco told me to visit them at their campus home and tell them about the wonders of California, which I dutifully did. But I was not at all into French literature,

only German. I visited Dr. Blume’s home much more often.

I well remember Darius Milhaud in his chair, and wheel chair, which of course leads us to the article on accessibility, and… But no, I want to keep this short.

Helga Wolski Dudman, ’42 I think I can help zero in on when Dr. Pillans began teaching computing at Mills.

Ronnie Gay Bernkrant‘s FORTRAN class may have been the first FORTRAN class; however, Dr. Pillans began teaching computing, also as an independent study, when I was there (1959–’63). We learned to code in the actual machine language (biquinary) and then ran our programs at night on the IBM650 computer at the Lawrence Radiation Lab in the hills overlooking Berkeley. Dr. Pillans drove us eager students to and from.

That class became invaluable to me. I have used those concepts many times since beginning my career at IBM. Over the years, I have taught new analysts and management on the relevancy of computer architecture today compared with the past, as well as trained new programmers how to write efficient code.

The IBM650 was a drum computer, which is equivalent to three generations back. While Dr. Pillans gave us specifications on what to program, we students were not content just to solve the problem at hand. After getting our programs to run correctly, we then rewrote the programs to get optimum performance out of the drum memory in order to have each program execute the instructions as fast as it could. I do wish Microsoft and other software houses would code programs as efficiently as we did! Efficient code is just as important today with the large number of users

on a network with each expecting an instantaneous response.

While it has been so many years, I cannot put a date on this first class we took, but it definitely was no later than the early 1960s. My guess was this class was given during my sophomore or junior year (I graduated in ’63). Perhaps Dr. Pillans did indeed teach a class earlier, but in those days we were dependent on going off campus to get computer time. I believe that we were the first class to go off campus for computer time.

Hope this bit of history helps or is at least interesting to your readers.

Perhaps another alum from the 50s can let us know if any classes were taught prior to ours.

Barbara Goldblatt Becker, ‘63 In the winter, 2002, Quarterly, I read a letter from Ronnie Gay Bernkrant, class of 1967, who is taking you to task over the Quarterly’s comment in a previous issue that Helen Pillans introduced computing to Mills in the 1950s. Yes, Dr. Pillans did introduce computing to Mills in the 1950s. Actually, it was computer theory, as she had no means at the time of teaching computer languages. Those of us who were math majors and planning to go into the field of computers took several classes from Dr. Pillans in the four years we attended Mills.

Mary Haynes Brent, ’60 I received my Mills Quarterly yesterday afternoon. As I glanced through it I saw the picture of Dr. Hedley, which brought back memories. But when I got to Passages, which as I get older I tend to peruse more thoroughly, my heart fell as I saw listed the death of Susan Long, class of ’56. We had kept in touch for over 40 years, but I hadn’t heard from her recently. For many years Susan had been actively involved with her art in Carmel,

California. She was a bright and talented woman.

As a freshman, I was assigned to Olney Hall and, for whatever reason, placed on sophomore corridor. Susan was one of the first who welcomed me.

(The sophomores couldn’t figure out what I was doing there either, but adopted me without hesitation.) Susan was from Kansas but as much of a free spirit as anyone could be in the ’50s. She was a history and government major, turning to art later in her life—although she always had the creative bug.

I would like to share my favorite story about Susan. Each year the senior class put on a skit. The Olney seniors put together a skit that took place in a western saloon setting.

Susan, of course, was in the midst of putting it together. However, she felt there was one thing missing—a painting—a life size painting of a reclining nude woman to hang over the bar. So after much cajoling, she talked me into going down into the rec room and

posing—lying on some tables we had put together—while she sketched me in the “altogether.” (I couldn’t believe I was doing this!) She was good—in fact so good that the powers that be (Dean Fisher?) would not permit the painting in the skit unless it was draped! And so it was that the nude painting had all the parts considered too inappropriate for viewing draped.

After a number of years we wondered whatever happened to this masterpiece. Rumor had it that it showed up at one of the U.C. fraternities. We never knew.

A very small piece of Mills history, but you can’t imagine the stir it created unless you were part of the ’50s.

Deborah Beck Rosenberg, ’57 Correction: The photo on page 10 of the winter Quarterly showing the Class of 1951 at Convocation misidentified Joan Gilbert Bailin. The photo caption identified her as Claudia Sklueff Lamp.

On this Issue I am gratified that so many of the Quarterly’s readers chose to contribute to this issue. Nine alumnae, a faculty member, and the husband of an alum responded to Professor Emerita Roussel Sargent’s request for personal memories and anecdotes of Dr. George Hedley (see pages 23–26.) Five alumnae wrote letters to the editor.

In addition, 11 alumnae contributed photos to this issue, three students and eight alumnae and staff contributed articles, and 198 alumnae and alumni wrote in with class notes. This is truly your magazine! I hope you will continue to contribute letters, photos, articles, and class notes as well as to write or email me your thoughts and ideas for the Quarterly. Our goal is to represent Mills in all its many facets. Write me at P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613; call me at (510) 430-3312, or email me at <dbrin@mills.edu>. Your contributions are what give breadth and depth to the Quarterly.

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inside mills MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

In response to the Board’s requests, a campus Strategic Planning Steering Committee has been established comprised of college officers, academic deans, the associate provost, and members of the Faculty Executive Committee. Five working groups have been identified: academic development, finance and physical facility development, student and community life development, recruitment and enrollment development, and technology and information development. Working group membership includes faculty and administration representatives from the Steering Committee, undergraduate students, graduate students, and additional campus staff as appropriate. While the Steering Committee has been charged with producing the first draft of a strategic plan by May, 2002, we expect that Board and campus discussion and revision of the plan will continue through the 2002–2003 academic year.

Our intention is for the strategic planning discussions to create a framework for achieving competitive advantage by thoroughly analyzing the College—its internal and external environment and its potential. Our one-hundred-fifty-year history as an institution proudly serving the educational needs of women is an essential element of the discussions. With the Board’s reaffirmation of the College’s dedication to this mission as a strategic direction, we can look forward to a strong and proud future.

This year’s commencement will be a special and historic event. Put the date on your calendar: Saturday, May 11, 2002. We will celebrate our sesquicentennial and honor the City of Oakland, also founded in 1852. We expect to award our first MBA and EdD degrees. Our featured speaker will be Thoraya Obaid, ’66, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund.

It would be wonderful to see an especially large group of alumnae marching in the procession this year. You are invited, and I hope you will come!

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JENNIFER LEIGH SAUER

Spring semester is always an active time on the Mills campus. This year, in addition to the normally busy schedule of lectures, concerts, and other events, we are developing a new strategic plan for the College. Among the motions approved by the Board of Trustees at its October, 2001, meeting were three that related to strategic planning. The first motion reaffirmed the Board’s and the College’s dedication to undergraduate education for women and graduate programs for women and men as a strategic direction for the College.

This motion also endorsed the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Strategic Planning to strengthen current graduate programs and to explore additional graduate programs designed for the advancement of women in leadership in the community and in the professions. The second motion requested that the College administration conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the institutional structure in consultation with faculty, students, and staff as appropriate. The third motion requested that the College administration develop a plan with options for action to pursue the strategic direction recommended by the Ad Hoc Committee, using a process that provides for consultation with College constituents, including alumnae.

S E S Q U I C E N T E N N I A L C A M PA I G N N E W S

Trustee Profile: Kathleen Burke

by April Ninomiya Hopkins, Director of Systems and Services, Office of Institutional Advancement

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planning document entitled Moving Mills to 2002. Its vision was a recommitment to educating undergraduate women and graduate women and men. Four College goals were enumerated which focused on valuing and strengthening cultural diversity at Mills. In Kathi’s words, “Moving Mills to 2002 will sunset during Mills’ Sesquicentennial year. The Board created the ad hoc committee to frame and research the long-term issues confronting the College over the next multiyear period.”

At its October 2001 meeting, the Board considered the results of the ad hoc committee’s work of the previous 15 months.

The Board in turn presented its findings to the Administration and “now wants to engage the entire Mills community [students, alumnae, faculty, and staff] in a discussion of the College’s future,” Kathi said.

When the College embarked on the development of a strategic plan in 1989, the process culminated in the famous vote by the Trustees in May of 1990 to go

coeducational. This is not an issue in 2002. “The Board is completely committed to a firstclass women’s undergraduate liberal arts institution at the core of the College. There is absolutely no question about that,” Kathi says. While relying on the faculty to shape the curriculum, “the Board looks at the strategic ways in which Mills can meet the educational needs of women in the new millennium,” she explains.

Kathi earned her JD at Georgetown University, and although she is not a Mills alumna, she is impressed with the alumnae and students she has met. Of the Mills alumnae with whom she serves, she says they are “dynamic and represent a wide range of ages and backgrounds. They are wonderful role models for our students and other alumnae.”

Kathi expressed her personal commitment to Mills by saying, “I think there is a role for single-sex education at some point in every girl’s or woman’s development, in crafting how she thinks and expresses herself, and the goals she sets for the future.”

PAM MONTAGANI

ills Trustee Kathleen Burke projects an elegant authority sitting in the new headquarters of the Stupski Family Foundation in Mill Valley, California.

Through her position as executive director of the foundation, Kathi is able to advance an issue that is a passion of hers: access to quality public education for all children.

Prior to joining the Stupski Foundation, Kathi was vice chairman of Bank of America, where she was the highest ranking woman in banking in the country.

She described her departure from the bank as “a delightful change. I was hoping to become more involved in the local community.”

Kathi’s experience as a lawyer and banking executive has been put to good use at Mills, as well, in her position as chair of the ad hoc Committee on Strategic Planning.

“Kathi Burke is providing outstanding leadership in the strategic planning process. She keeps the Board focused on and energized about the opportunities ahead for Mills in the 21st century,” President Holmgren says.

In 1993, under President Holmgren’s leadership, the College developed a

S E S Q U I C E N T E N N I A L C A M PA I G N R O U N D U P Good News! By early March, 2002, the Sesquicentennial Campaign total had surpassed $70 million! This is a remarkable accomplishment!

We have received $47 million for endowment and current use—91 percent of our $52 million goal for this category.

We have received $19 million for technology and buildings—40 percent of our $48 million goal. About $4 million has been received but not yet designated to a specific purpose.

We already have received: More than $11 million to endow

scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students More than $6.5 million to endow faculty positions Nearly $5 million to endow library and academic programs About $8 million to construct the Education Center, completed in 2000 and lots more.

We still need: Alumnae Fund gift every year — a high percentage of participation is important!

More scholarships for our students More funds supporting faculty positions Unrestricted gifts for support of the College’s operations $16 million to complete the $18 million goal for renovating the Music Building $12 million to achieve the $15 million goal for a new Science Building Only $1.7 million to begin the $3.3 million renovation of the old Children’s School for the Social Sciences

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inside mills MILLS PRESENTS DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARDS TO F. WARREN HELLMAN AND JOAN L. DANFORTH, ’53

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n October 31, 2001, Mills “Friends of Warren” gathered at a luncheon in San Francisco to celebrate the awarding of the Mills College Distinguished Service Award to former chair of the Board of Trustees, F. Warren Hellman.

President Janet L. Holmgren acted as emcee. In addition to the award, a glass sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro, many gifts and mementos were presented.

Among them were books written and signed by Mills faculty members and Cyclone soccer team jackets for Warren and Chris Hellman. Mills trustee Earl Cheit, dean emeritus of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, gave a warm tribute to Hellman’s love of learning and leadership.

Marina Li, a Mills senior and captain of the cross country team, gave Hellman a hand-made book of meditations on running by members of the cross country team. She thanked him on behalf of the students for his generosity in funding the campus cross-country trail as well as the endowment for the cross-country program. Current Board chair Suzanne Adams, ’48, presented a framed citation written in fine calligraphy which reads:

The Board of Trustees of Mills College presents the Distinguished Service Award to F. Warren Hellman in appreciation for his outstanding leadership as Chair of the Board of Trustees from 1985 to 1992, exceptional commitment to the advancement and education of women, generous philanthropic support and clear vision for its use, dedicated engagement with the core values of higher education, and lifelong engagement with the Bay Area Community.

In recognition of her service to Mills as the first woman and first alumna to chair the Board of Trustees, Joan L. Danforth, ’53, was presented with the Mills College Distinguished Service Award on January 31, 2002. In attendance at the San Francisco luncheon were friends, faculty, fellow alumnae, and other College leaders. President Janet L. Holmgren, acting as emcee, commended Danforth for her steady hand in guiding the Board. Former Mills Trustee Toni Rembe, who also serves with Danforth on the board of the American Conservatory Theater, acknowledged

PEG SKORPINSKI

Marina Li, ’02, presenting the cross-country team’s tribute to Warren Hellman

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PEG SKORPINSKI

Joan L. Danforth, ’53

Danforth’s practical approach as Mills Board chair. On behalf of the faculty of the art department, Mary-Ann MilfordLutzker, dean of fine arts, thanked Danforth for her interest in and support of their work. In particular, she noted that the Danforth Lecture Hall has been an invaluable resource as a wellequipped location for classes and talks by faculty and visiting lecturers. Suzanne Adams, ’48, current Mills Board chair read the citation: The Board of Trustees of Mills College presents the Distinguished Service Award to Joan L. Danforth in appreciation for her outstanding leadership as the first alumna to chair the Board of Trustees, exceptional commitment to the advancement and education of women, generous philanthropic support for the arts at Mills College and throughout the Bay Area, and dedicated engagement with the Mills College community of New York and California.

PEG SKORPINSKI

Mills College Board chairs, 1985 to present.

Left to right: F. Warren Hellman (chair 1985–1992), Joan L. Danforth, ’53 (chair 1992–1996), Clare H. Springs, ’66 (chair 1996–2001), Suzanne Adams, ’48 (chair 2001–present).

BE A PART OF THE MILLS SESQUICENTENNIAL VIRTUAL QUILT!

by Sally Randel, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

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n the last Quarterly, I mentioned that one of our ideas for the Sesquicentennial is to create a “video quilt.”

We now call it a “virtual quilt” since we want it to contain more than video clips.

We hope our electronic version will have the essential elements of traditional story quilting: individual pieces contributed by members of the community, elegantly pieced together to make an artistic whole. Certainly, it will continue a long history of women building communities through quilting. The virtual quilt will be a celebration of Mills in the life of its alumnae, faculty, staff, and friends. We want to hear your comments on how your Mills education has affected your life. Perhaps you have a recollection of a favorite Mills faculty member, academic course, lecture, concert, performance, or learning experience. Perhaps you could incorporate a film clip, photograph, or tape of a meaningful event at Mills.

Deadline: Please send your quilt piece by June 15, 2002. We plan to have the first sections available for viewing on the Mills website by Reunion Weekend in September. A small editorial committee will review your submissions before sending them on to the technical staff.

We hope many of you will take the time to create pieces individually or in groups.

If you submit an audio cassette, remember it is not to exceed one minute long.

If you are using an analog camcorder, send us VHS cassette (no PAL) or Hi8mm.

If you are using a digital camcorder, send us 8mm digital tape.

If you are using a digital camera, send us a 3.5" or zip disc or submit by email. Please provide high quality jpeg or tif files. No gif files can be accepted.

How to submit your quilt piece: By email to <sesqui@mills.edu>

By U.S. mail to Virtual Quilt Office of Institutional Advancement Mills College 5000 MacArthur Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94613

Please remember: Include your name, address, and class year.

By sending us your quilt piece you are giving Mills permission to publish it in electronic or print form.

We may not be able to include all submissions. If your submission is more than one minute long, the review committee may reject or edit it.

Though we will try to return submissions we receive by U.S. mail, it will be several months before we have completed processing the images.

Take no chances: have anything rare or non-replaceable copied first.

This should be fun!

JEREMY SAMUELSON COURTESY OF OLD HOUSE INTERIORS

Technical requirements for your quilt piece: If you submit a photograph, don’t forget to identify all the people shown as well as the event depicted and its date.

If you submit written text, please be sure it is typed or in legible handwriting. You may also submit text by email.

You may submit moving images or still images with sound recording or text. Individual pieces must be one minute or less in duration.

When Emma Bray, who graduated from the Mills Seminary in 1876, married Alfred Cohen in 1884, the Bray family built a 17-room mansion for the newlyweds.

The Cohen family furnished it, and Emma’s friends from Mills made this memory quilt for her.

Each friend made one square. The Cohen-Bray house, located in Oakland’s Fruitvale district, is owned by the nonprofit Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland and is open to the public one day per month.

For more information, call (510) 8432906.

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MILLS MATTERS

NEWS OF THE COLLEGE

Sports News Swimming The Mills swimmers broke all of the College records this year. The team traveled to Hawaii during winter break to train at the University of Hawaii.

MARY JONES

Claire Norton-Cruz swimming the butterfly in competition.

She is the first swimmer in Mills history to qualify for a national championship. This year she competed in the NAIA National Swimming Championships.

Diversity The athletics, physical education, and recreation department received a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Initiatives Grant for diversity development. Paul Wesselmann of Stone Soup Seminars and the Ripples Project gave a workshop for student athletes called “Higher Bridges, Lower Walls: Creating a Culture of Civility and Respect.” The workshop explored ways to create opportunities to strengthen individual and team potential by acknowledging the challenges of living in a diverse environment.

Wesselmann was described as “the warmest, wackiest trainer we could find to help us explore these issues with stories, activities, discussion, and lots of humor.”

Mills Community Helps Rehabilitate Student In February, Elizabeth Kathleen Baker, who earned a teaching credential from Mills in 1999 and a master’s degree in 2001, gave a presentation to the Board of Trustees telling the story of how the Mills athletics, physical education, and recreation department helped in her healing process. In June of 1999, Elizabeth suffered a cerebral hemorrhage during a job interview. She experienced excruciating pain, disorientation, and neuropathy in her legs. “I feel like I am walking through concrete. My legs are so heavy and I’m never sure where my feet are,” she wrote in her diary seven months after her health crisis. “Without my cane, I keep falling down.”

She told the Board of Trustees, “I have some advice for you: if you are going to have a cerebral hemorrhage, like I did, I recommend that you be connected to Mills. . . . In the spring semester of 2000, with encouragement from the Mills Disabled Services Office, I contacted Themy Adachi in the athletics department and asked her if she knew of any way that I could be

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accommodated given my recent disability. Rehabilitation was over and the physical therapist said I was as good as I was going to get. Physical therapy was indicated but insurance would not cover it because the prognosis was poor. I was very despondent about my future. Ms. Adachi suggested swimming.

“Ms. Adachi, Carol Berendsen and Clare Donaldson, the instructor for the swimming fitness class, and my young classmates gave me the warmest welcome and with thoughtful, patient, and expert guidance I managed to complete the semester and relearn the crawl.

(Aptly named, considering how long it takes me to get across the pool.)

“I also noticed my handwriting improved. The following year, I took two PE classes each semester, swimming fitness and water exercise. My balance improved.

In May, 2001, I completed my master’s in education and walked, without my cane, at graduation.

In the fall of 2001 I entered the doctoral program in educational leadership. I still take two PE

classes each semester. . . .

“It is clear to me from my own experience and from my work teaching children math that exercise is critical to brain functioning. I do believe if I hadn’t taken the PE classes, I wouldn’t have been able to advance as much as I have cognitively.

Without that pool, I would never have made it to the doctoral program. . . . Some days, for reasons unclear to my neurologist, I still have significant pain, and on those days I still use a cane.

Sometimes I cannot exercise. I have significant limits to what is possible. On the other hand, I am alive and I can move, and that is a tremendous gift. But I have also learned still to have hope given my limitations. Mills gave me that hope.

“In many ways I have improved beyond the expectations of my medical team. Here at Mills, I was welcomed, encouraged, and provided with thoughtful support by the athletic faculty to work my body and my remaining neurons in a safe and inclusive atmosphere. I am really lucky and profoundly grateful.”

Mills President to Head Carnegie Foundation Board President Janet Holmgren has been named president of the board of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a nonprofit policy center founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905. The foundation is a major center for research and policy studies on teaching. President Holmgren has served on the board for the last four years. She also serves as chair of the executive committee of the Women’s College Coalition.

John Barcroft, the Carnegie Foundation’s executive vice president and treasurer, said Holmgren’s appointment would be a tremendous benefit to the foundation. “She’s very good at building consensus, and she’s very good at helping us make the right decisions when it comes time to do so,” he said.

Professor Receives Grant Assistant Professor of Chemistry Elisabeth Wade has received a grant from the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Wade will use the grant to study the reactions of pesticides that are widely used in agriculture. They evaporate quickly, ending up in the atmosphere where they can undergo further reactions.

Fiscal Year Change Mills College and the AAMC are changing their fiscal year to July 1–June 30 starting in fiscal year 2002. This is a more traditional non-profit year and will help Mills to compare financial information with other colleges and universities more easily.

ALUMNAE ACTION

N E W S O F T H E A L U M N A E A S S O C I AT I O N

Reunion Giving: A Reason to Celebrate

by Donna Nishiyama Chan, ’90, Associate Director of Reunion Giving

On September 15, 2001, classes were honored for their efforts and achievements in support of the Alumnae Fund at the State of the College held during Reunion. The Class of 1961 had the greatest increase in participation by a reunioning class. They increased their participation 14 percent last year to 60 percent. The Class of 1956 had the greatest increase in The Alumnae Association crowned the Classes of 1956 giving by a reunioning class with a and 1961 with tiaras during the announcement of their gift of $54,236 in fiscal year 2001… gifts. Pictured here is the Class of 1961 cheering proudly a 57 percent increase over last year, as their reunion gift was announced. They celebrated with noisemakers and class-inspired costumes. and a 160 percent increase since their 40th reunion in 1996.

The Class of 1951 celebrated its percent participation rate.

50th reunion with 99 percent participation Interested in finding out more about and a gift of $407,576.71. It took a very how you can get involved? Call or email organized and determined team to reach Donna Chan at (510) 430-3331 or out to everybody in the class, including <dchan@mills.edu>. Joining your class people who hadn’t been back to Mills for Reunion giving effort is a great way to 50 years . . . and they came back! Joan reconnect with classmates and Mills Thomas Armstrong, Mary Lou Smith Riley, College. Now is the time for classes and Jeanne Thomas are Mills women ending in 3 and 8, and members of the extraordinaire who helped inspire the classes of 1953, 1954, and 1955 to get entire Class of 1951 with the passion and involved. It’s informative and fun! commitment necessary to achieve the 99

Make a Gift of Stock

Reunion for Education Department Graduates

Many of our alumnae make generous donations of stock that greatly help support our efforts to give a $1 million gift to the College each year. It is a wonderful way to make a significant donation to the AAMC without having to have the cash on hand. For all alumnae who make donations of stock to the AAMC, or those who are interested in doing so, please note: AAMC’s broker, Sutro & Co., has been bought out by RBC Dain Rauscher. The new account number is now #710-03665 and the DTC# is 0235.

Please call or email Suzanne Tye, Director of Annual Giving, at (510) 4303383 or <stye@mills.edu> with any questions, or to notify the AAMC of a stock transfer. And thank you, in advance, for your generosity!

On January 25, 2002, the AAMC and the department of education teamed up to hold the first Reunion for graduates of the education department. After touring the Education Center, the graduates were welcomed by Professor Jane Bowyer, head of the education department. They heard Richard P. Mesa, distinguished visiting professor in education, introduce Dennis K. Chaconas, the superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District and visiting professor in education. Graduates packed the Lanigar Room to hear Professor Chaconas and indicated their interest by asking many questions after his remarks.

The speeches were followed by mingling and eating. The Graduate Committee, staffed by Gail Indvik and chaired by Leone Evans, MA ’45, deserves credit for initiating the event.

SUZANNE TYE

We can’t say thank you enough to all the Strong Women, Proud Women, Mills Women who have been supporting the Alumnae Fund for years and to those who just joined us recently. Giving annually is essential to the future of the College.

Giving the most you can once every five years in honor of your Reunion, whether it is your 5th or 50th, is equally essential.

Reunion Giving makes it possible for alumnae to commemorate these special landmark years with a major gift from their class to the Alumnae Fund and to strengthen the bridges that lead to campus for present and future alumnae.

Two alumnae who stretched their giving substantially to honor their class reunion were Nikki Tenneson King, ’56, and Betty Pease Krahmer, ’51. “I like the direction the College is taking now and the leadership of President Janet Holmgren, treating students as adults and giving them more freedom. This is why I support Mills,” says Nikki Tenneson King.

“Mills did a great deal for me. I was an awkward girl. Mills brought me out of myself, and so I’ve gone through life saying ‘Yes, I can,’” says Betty Pease Krahmer.

Dennis K. Chaconas, the superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District, speaking at the Reunion for graduates of the education department.

DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

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What Were They Reading?

Mills Students Search Library Archives for Hints of the Past

by Alison Nowak, ’02

A student at Book Day. If you can identify this student, please write the Quarterly.

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COURTESY OF MILLS COLLEGE ARCHIVE, F.W. OLIN LIBRARY

W

W H E N I F I R S T S A W Women Reading as a Necessity of Life in the course catalog I was intrigued. It was rare that a course title disclosed so much about its intentions. It was also rare that a class so closely reflected my two areas of study, women’s studies and English. It was even being taught by one of my favorite professors, Kathy Walkup. The topic and the opportunity to do original research were too much to resist.

The class examined the reading habits of women, tracing patterns from hundreds of years ago and connecting them to how and why women read as they do today. In addition to reading about and discussing past patterns of women’s reading, we also interviewed women in our lives to find out what kind of materials they were reading currently. Our final project involved the Mills College Collection, archival materials housed in the Heller Rare Book Room. Our assignment was to look for evidence of what and how past Mills women read.

As the four students in the class began to scour the archive for evidence, we came across photographs, journals, essays, and letters. Our search in the greater library turned up numerous articles and publications that reflected the reading interests of Mills women in the past. After our initial excitement over the fascinating contents of the archive in general, we calmed down and chose a focus for our research. Each of us took a time period and had a general interest within that period. We considered questions such as these: Were women reading for pleasure, or primarily academic purposes? How much did reading habits differ over time? What sorts of encouragement were there for reading? Our interactions with the archive were wonderful. The four of us swapped information constantly and read aloud to each other when we found something particularly interesting.

Our focuses took us to different places within the Mills archive. Hannah Cox, ’01, looked for photographic evidence of women reading and kept pulling great photos out of the “indoor activity” file. (The Mills Collection includes more than 10,000 photos.) The pictures gave a sense of reading life that ranged from formal to social and relaxed.

The rest of us stuck to the texts within the archive, reading through publications and endless files of letters and memorabilia. The files were both exciting and maddening, because

greater than reading in bed.” She then describes how there were more than we could ever get through in a she is lured toward reading for pleasure: “There is anothsemester; and although they are organized, they are er kind of a night on which you may be reading in bed, certainly not organized around the topic of reading. We the night when you ought to study some subject that you were all hoping to find gems of information about past just detest but take because it is required. You know Mills reading habits, and to some extent we did. quite well that the work is important and that later you Margaret Howland, ’01, went back the furthest in time, will undoubtedly wish you had studied. But if you have locating information about Mills women from 1870 to 1911.

Conrad’s latest novel to begin or a recent issue of The She found course catalogs that listed the requirements for Yale Review, it is not humanly possible to study.” Simler’s English as Beowulf to Milton followed by Milton to favorite poets were Masefield, Noyes, and Kipling.

Tennyson for freshwomen, later 19th century literature for I also found mention of the tradition of Book Day, sophomores, and Shakespeare for juniors. There were no which originated in 1930 and honored Carlyle who set requirements for seniors. She also found evidence of wrote, “The true university of these days is a collection student reading outside the classroom. There was a literary of books.” Book Day was the day when gifts of money society devoted to William Cullen Bryant, and they resolved for books and books themselves were given to the that “more benefit is derived from literary societies, than library by students, faculty, and alumnae. There was also from the required work.” The Bryant literary society also a contest to determine which student had the best published a newsletter to keep its members updated. personal library.

My research picked up a litWe also studied what women tle after where Margaret’s left off.

“There are few joys which were reading at the end of the I was looking at the time period 20th century. Rae Tabbert, ’02, from the 1920s up to World War we indulge in that are greater chose to focus on multicultural II. I initially wanted this section of than reading in bed.” awareness in the Mills curriculum, history because I discovered that and looked for reading patterns Gertrude Stein had come to Virginia Simler, ’23 of women of color at Mills. campus in 1935, and I was hopAlthough Rae found some ing to find some student evidence of women of color at Mills in the earlier half of response to the famous expatriate. One of the research the 20th century, multicultural literature did not become librarians presented me with a letter from Alice B. a focus for Mills until the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. During Toklas to the President of the College. Toklas was this time Mills began to bring a more ethnically diverse responding to a dinner invitation and stated that “Miss group of speakers to campus including Lucha Corpi, Stein . . . reminds me that it has been her habit at colJoyce Carol Thomas, Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, Alice leges and universities to meet a group of the students Walker, Angela Davis, and Chief Wilma Mankiller, as well specializing in English and students particularly interestas others. ed in her work after the lecture for discussion.”

In the 1990s, a publication by and for women of After I read this letter I became absolutely sure that color was produced at Mills College. The Womanist there had to have been some commentary about it. reflected voices and issues of women of color on the Although I found nothing in the Weekly, Georgiana Mills campus during that time period. Some women Melvin wrote an article in the Quarterly about Stein’s lecwho wrote in The Womanist found it difficult to find ture on “Poetry and Grammar.” According to Melvin, good books that represented their culture, while other over five hundred students and faculty gathered to hear women found courses at Mills that allowed them to see her words. Additionally, the editor remarked that Stein’s lecthemselves in the literature. ture created such a flurry that the editor felt “it is possible When we began our journey into the archive, none that her statements which caused hot discussion in April of us knew what we would find. As I looked at the letwill still have significance for readers in November.” ters, documents, and other memorabilia from the Mills women in this time period were very involved archive, I became increasingly aware of how fortunate I with literature. Many lists of “good reading” were prowas to have the opportunity to sift through such a large duced by community members. Flora Belle Ludington, a number of primary sources. The information left behind Mills librarian, frequently published a column in the

by Mills women allowed me to gain a greater underQuarterly entitled “Worth While Books.” In 1936, Professor standing of how, why, and what Mills women read in the Willard Smith’s summer reading lists were so popular that past. I left Women Reading As a Necessity of Life with a they were sold in the bookstore. President Aurelia greater sense of history and tradition behind my educaReinhardt presented a lecture on “Books of Today and tion, and especially my reading, at Mills.

Tomorrow” accompanied by a list of recommended texts.

Students also gave their opinions of the great books Alison Nowak is a senior at Mills, majoring in women’s of the day. Virginia Simler, ’23, wrote an article for the studies and creative writing. She hopes to become a Weekly in 1920 entitled “Reading in Bed.” Simler states gainfully employed, Bay Area resident upon graduation. that “there are few joys which we indulge in that are

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Student Connects with Mills Women of the Past

“ . . . year by year companies of girls have entered this beautiful college home and have taken possession, for it is and ever shall be theirs.”

—Susan Tolman Mills

F

rom its Victorian beginnings, Mills College has opened doors for women: doors of education, exploration, and opportunity. When the traditional role for women was that of wife and mother, Mills taught its students there are choices in life. When the world changed and women were actively pursuing careers in male-dominated professions, Mills was still teaching choices, encouraging women to be whomever and whatever they wanted—a lawyer, a homemaker, an artist. The important lessons were that they could do anything and the choice was theirs. Generations of Mills women have crossed the campus threshold ripe for inspiration, some thinking they know what they want, others not having a clue, but all soon to discover the truth of who they really are.

One such recent Mills woman is Angie Alvarez, ’01.

Angie discovered her true ambitions while at Mills; and what has ensued is her video, Bound but Not Tied, which was her senior thesis project. Bound but

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Angie Alvarez, ’01, created the video Bound but Not Tied.

Not Tied is a glimpse into the world of Mills women in the late Victorian period. The use of still photos, narration, and an original piano composition makes up this journey into the past. As a woman who arrived at Mills with an idea of becoming a doctor, Angie’s venture here has resulted in a change of direction and the fulfillment of a desire.

In the fall of 1998 Angie transferred to Mills as a sophomore. As part of orientation she watched the 1990 Strike video, a documentation of the student strike against the College’s going coeducational. Little did she know that would be a turning point. “I had an emotional response to that video,” says the spunky woman with long dark hair. “And I was inspired by the thought of being able to tap into people’s emotions through images.” That experience stuck with her, and she chose to take Professor Ken Burke’s Film and American Society class. It was then that Angie really began to change.

“Dr. Burke taught me that film is a great form of media.

He deconstructed it so it made sense, and I realized I am a visual thinker,” says Angie. After Dr. Burke’s class Angie immersed herself in video production classes and declared her new major, media studies. She also explored other artistic areas in the drama department such as costume design and make-up. “It was a time of

DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

by Moya Stone, MFA ’03

Franc Horton, Helen Wells, and Lizzie Wildman, Class of 1890.

Courtesy of Mills College Archive, F.W. Olin Library

exploration for me. After all those science classes I was finally having fun, but I still wanted to figure out what I could do that is artistic, makes money, and is fulfilling. My career has to be emotionally and spiritually satisfying for me, but at the same time it has to be financially sound,” Angie says. Angie was looking for a way to combine her interest in sewing, old books, and all things Victorian.

To supplement her income, Angie found a job as a student worker at the Mills College Library, which fed her love of books, especially old books. “While I worked with the old books, I wondered who touched them in the past. What were these women like? What were their lives like? I’d picture Mills students sitting in their dorm rooms dressed in hoop skirts and wished I could somehow sit there with them.”

Angie’s explorations into video production, costuming, and working in the library were creating the foundation for her senior thesis. In the media studies major, students have the choice of producing a magazine, paper, web page, CD-ROM, or a video for their senior thesis. By her junior year Angie knew she wanted to take what she’d learned in her video production classes and put it to work.

Angie’s job in the library put her in contact with the collection and every time she came across a Victorian-

related book, she stopped to take a glance. She had always been drawn to the 19th century because of the clothes and the quieter, charming life-style. It occurred to her that not only was the Victorian period an interesting time historically, it was also an era when Mills College blossomed. “One day at work it just clicked. I knew I was going to produce a video about Mills in the Victorian era. I wanted it to be about Mills women, their lives and thoughts, not about what talking-heads thought about them,” says Angie. After talking with friends and other students at Mills, Angie’s video began to take shape in her mind. She saw it as a visual scrapbook reflecting the lives of Mills women from the 1850s to 1900.

Over the summer before her senior year, Angie researched the Mills Collection, as the library archives are called, and compiled a list of photos, diaries, and letters. She also researched Victorian women in general to acquire a better understanding of their lives. At the start of the fall semester the Heller Rare Book Room, where the archives are kept, was Angie’s second home.

“I think I spent 80 to 100 hours in the Heller Room,” Angie says, rolling her eyes as if she couldn’t believe it herself. She videotaped 400 photographs and poured through dozens of written pages. As Angie spent time

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Elinore Leubeck, Class of 1897.

Photo: Talber, Courtesy of Mills College Archive, F.W. Olin Library

Hattie Kimble, Class of 1890.

Photo: Talber, Courtesy of Mills College Archive, F.W. Olin Library

with the images and read the thoughts and feelings of Mills women, she began to feel a connection with them.

“It was as if they were directing me,” she says. The title Bound but Not Tied came from Angie’s interest in costume construction and the idea of wearing corsets.

Angie says of the title, “While Mills women were physically bound into corsets and bound by gender restraints, they were still able to break the mold and have careers—they were bound but not tied.”

Angie’s video is 19 minutes of still photographs, one fading into another, while a haunting original piano composition by Mills student Rebekah Barnett, ’02, plays in the background. There are photos of Mills Hall when it stood alone, some very Victorian dorm rooms, and class portraits of Mills women. Spirit and individuality radiate in the young, chubby-cheeked faces of Mills women from long ago. Some of the women sport wirerim glasses, some smile gently, and many have wispy hair pinned at the back. Various voices of narration bring to life the anticipated arrival at the Mills campus gate in 1871 and a basketball game during which, “ . . . always, always our own players were to be calm, poised.” Student Lizzy Dorman speaks from the early 1860s about Mary Atkins, “ . . . from whom I received that which money could not buy, namely inspiration,

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Flora May Stone, Class of 1883.

Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of the San Ramon Valley

also a knowledge of what constitutes education.”

Angie asked current Mills students to narrate the journal entries and poetry of their Mills sisters. Her grandmother read excerpts from Susan Mills’ journal and her grandfather wrote the music to some lyrics Angie found in the archives. “It was a collaborative effort. I needed the cooperation of lots of people to make this work,” Angie comments. Bound but Not Tied is a peek into Mills College history. (If you want to peek yourself, the video is available for viewing at the Mills College library.) On a more personal level, it’s a realization of Angie’s dream to cross over into another time and get to know some of the women of that time. It’s also the result of what happens when one learns there are choices in life, a lesson Mills College continues to teach.

Angie has graduated from Mills and hopes to find a job soon in advertising. Her dream is to make car commercials, so if you see a car commercial with a Victorian woman behind the wheel, that’s probably Angie’s work!

Moya Stone works full time in the Mills College Library and will complete her MFA in creative writing at Mills in January, 2003. As well as articles, she writes spooky short stories and young adult novels.

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 8:00 PM Dance department presents Sara Hook Dances.

Haas Pavilion (510) 430-3258 SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2:00 PM Mills Repertory Dance Company, Yerba Buena Gardens Theater, San Francisco (510) 4303258 SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 10:00 AM–9:30 PM Native American Pow Wow. Toyon Meadow /

SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 8:30–4:00 PM Advancing Women’s Leadership in Human Rights for Education, Advocacy, Policy, and Action. Concert Hall, Music Building (510) 430-2019 WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 8:00–9:15 AM Women of Courage Breakfast Series featuring Krishanti Dharmaraj, executive director and co-founder, Women’s Institute for Leadership and Development, an

FRIDAY, MAY 3– MONDAY, MAY 27 Exhibition of Works by MFA Candidates in Art. Mills College Art Museum.

(510) 430-2164 FRIDAY, MAY 10, 5:30 PM Baccalaureate Ceremony.

Chapel (510) 430-3123 SATURDAY, MAY 11, 9:45 AM 114th Commencement.

Speaker: Thoraya Obaid, ’66, executive director, United Nations Population Fund. Toyon Meadow

Lucie Stern, Room 100 (510) 430-2019 THURSDAY, AUGUST 1– WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16 California Paintings 1910– 1940: Selections from the Mills College Art Museum.

Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield CA (510) 430-2164 THURSDAY, SEPT. 19– SUNDAY, SEPT. 22 Reunion 2002, celebrating the classes ending in 2 and 7; classes ending in 1 and 6 are also invited.

(510) 430-3363

CALENDAR Adams Plaza (510) 430-2130

Lauren Speeth, ’81, violin, will perform

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 7:30–8:30 PM Marriage of True Minds: The Literary Partnership of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Speaker: Diane Middlebrook, professor of English literature at Stanford University.

Concert Hall, Music Building (510) 430-2019

with Tammy Hall, ’83,

SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 8:00 PM The Child God (Shadow Opera), Like Water for violin, piano, and percussion featuring Jean Macduff Vaux Composer-inResidence Bun Ching Lam and the Abel-SteinbergWinant Trio. Concert Hall (510) 430-2296

430-2110.

piano, Jeremy Cohen, Larry Dunlap, and

Mills College Alumnae Association Trips Europe’s Favorite Cities: London, Paris, Rome, Athens May 15–31, 2002

Yoshi Akiba, MA ’76 at Yoshi’s on April 20 from 2:00–4:00 PM.

Paris: A Family Learning Adventure July 6–14, 2002

510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. For information call (510)

organization focusing on promoting human rights change in the United States. Faculty Dining Room (510) 430-2019

Sailing the Great Lakes August 16–24, 2002 Alumni College in Provence September 23–30, 2002 Art and Architecture in Las Vegas December 3–7, 2002

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 7:30–8:30 PM The Women’s Leadership Institute hosts The Secret Language of Eating Disorders with author Peggy Claude-Pierre.

For information on AAMC trips, please call (510) 430-2110.

Events are subject to change.

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ELECT YOUR ALUMNA TRUSTEE KRISTA GULBRANSEN, ’94

SUSAN BROWN PENROD, ’71

SHARON K. TATAI, ’80

Current Residence: Oakland, CA Mills Major: Communications Student Activities: ASMC Treasurer, Ethel Moore Hall President, Ethel Moore Hall Secretary, MEO Secretary, member of numerous student committees.

Current Residence: Piedmont, CA Mills Major: Sociology Student Activities: During my four years at Mills, I worked as a waitress on campus: in Mills Hall dining room, the Tea Shop, and the Founders Common. I participated in student events responsive to the changing times of the Vietnam era: teach-ins to discuss racial tensions, discussions of needed curricular changes, including the creation of ethnic studies programs, and drastic restructuring of rules governing dorm life.

Current Residence: Oakland, CA Mills Major: Administration and Legal Processes, with emphasis on Legal Processes Student Activities: Academic Board Chair, Finance Committee Chair, Society and Cancer Course Coordinator, Non-Resident Hall Board Member.

Employment/Volunteer Experience: 2001—Owner, Market Insite Consulting; 2000–01—Director, Global Marketing, Commerce One; 1999–2000—Senior Marketing Manager, Deloitte & Touche LLP; 1997–99—Senior Marketing Manager, Ernst & Young LLP; 1996–97— Marketing & Web Design Manager, E-fax Communications; 1996–97—Marketing Manager, Infocom Group, 1992–94— Account Executive, Fortune PR, 1993.

Volunteer: Valle Verde Nursing Facility, Child Abuse Listening Mediation (CALM), American Red Cross, Transition House, Council of Christmas Cheer, St. Clement’s Church, Intergroup Clearing House.

AAMC Involvement: Class Secretary ’94; Editorial Board Member of Mills Quarterly; Speaker, Mills College MBA Program; Alumni Student Relations Committee Member; Class of ’94 Reunion Committee Member; Speaker, Career Management Seminar Series; Marketing Speaker, Career Night; Santa Barbara Alumni Chapter Speaker/ Member, Mills Quarterly writer.

How My Mills Education Has Affected My Life: I found my voice at Mills. I learned to

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Employment/Volunteer Experience: After I graduated from Mills my first priority was to establish financial independence. I went to work in retail in San Francisco, and after a few years, went back to school in general science and chemistry. As my three sons were born I became immersed in their school and sports lives, and worked for several years as a K-2 teacher’s aide. In my “free time” I enjoyed volunteering at AAMC; I always found friends, fellowship, and female energy.

AAMC Involvement: Beginning with my return to the East Bay in 1976, my involvement with the Alumnae Association has been extensive. I became a member of the Alumnae Fund Committee, first recruiting volunteers for branch and national telethons, and later moving on to Class Agent and

Employment/Volunteer Experience: I have been involved in various levels of energy industry, electric and natural gas deregulation. This includes: Training Specialist, Computer Analyst, Gas Contracts Supervisor, Quality Assurance Specialist, and Senior Rates Analyst.

Departments have included marketing, customer service, regulatory relations, and rates. Board Member, PG&E Women’s Network (helped implement Scholarship program); Member, Coordinators of Data Processing Education, (included planning events, and helped developed Business Consortium for participating organizations).

AAMC Involvement: AAMC President; Vice President; Board of Governors Member (committees include: Branch and Regional, Reunion, Finance Committee, and Human Resources, Alumnae Fund, and Diversity Committee); Alumnae Admissions Representative, branch member: Palo Alto, TriState, Oakland; Class Agent and Secretary.

Gulbransen, continued

Brown Penrod, continued

Tatai, continued

listen to my inner voice, examine it, create opinions, and articulate my thoughts.

Since graduating, I have used that voice to speak up, support women’s efforts, help those in need, become active through community efforts, and to express my opinions. Fortunately, I have built my career around what I love—marketing and communications. The key to my success was being “given” a voice at Mills. I’ve also learned to support women in the workforce by creating taskforces focusing on the strengths and talents of women executives. It is my goal to become head of a company, perhaps even one I’ve started! By allowing me to test the power of my voice, Mills gave me the confidence to use my voice effectively.

Personal Solicitation programs. I was Alumnae Fund Chair from 1986–89 and served on the Board of Governors, Finance, and Personnel committees. From 1995–98, I served as President of the AAMC. Currently, I am co-chair of the CSMS Society, a member of the Alumnae Fund Committee and a participant in the Campaign Network.

How My Mills Education Has Affected My Life: Mills focused me on how to learn, not just learning. My career has taken me in directions I would not have anticipated 20 years ago. As I went through this energy deregulation learning process, I incorporated the learning process I did at Mills— developing your own curriculum.

Knowing how to learn has provided me the ability to explore new ideas and build life-long friendships.

On The Future of the AAMC: The future of the Alumnae Association is to assure the future of Mills College. It must draw upon the vast talents and abilities of its members. The goal is to foster those talents and parlay them into increased gifts to the college. By extension, these gifts will ensure and enrich the future of Mills students. The Alumnae Association needs to make alumnae aware that donations by alums are critical to the continued survival of Mills. We must direct an appeal to younger alums to ensure continued social and financial support. The pipeline of support must be kept open and full. This will happen if the Association actively works at recruiting younger members of alumnae.

On the Significance of our Alumnae Association’s Independence from the College: This is critical to the growth of the Alumnae Association. In times of conflict and uncertainty, alumnae need a place to go to convene and discuss decisions independent of the Administration.

The Alumnae Association provides a place of guidance for alums. Without it, we cannot feel confident of our role in the future of the college. This could eventually weaken the influence and importance of alums in Mills support.

When they give (whether financial or otherwise) they want to know that they have the opportunity to have their gift be

How My Mills Education Has Affected My Life: I attended Mills in the late Sixties and early Seventies, a tumultuous time of student unrest, political upheaval, and social change.

It was exciting and challenging, both for Mills’ students and Mills as a college. Significantly, I learned invaluable life lessons from the way my sister students and the College handled these changes. I learned the need for independent thinking and problem solving; the power of the collective voice; the strength of self esteem and personal integrity; and the respect for diversity and mutual tolerance. These lessons have served me well throughout my life in a very fulfilling way.

On the Future of the AAMC: The AAMC must continue to connect alumnae with the College and provide annual support. But we must improve our efforts in both areas by increasing communication and participation. We must ensure that all alumnae have a voice and a forum to share their tremendous life experiences, ethnic diversity, and broad range of interests and expertise, thereby enriching the entire Mills community.

On the Significance of our Alumnae Association’s independence from the College: I think the independence of the Alumnae Association is a valuable legacy which reflects the degree of importance that leadership and self determination hold for our alumnae.

The fact that we support the College as an independent entity is compatible with the values we share as Mills alum-

On The Future of the AAMC: The future is strong with our focus and mission. This mission is embracing all forms of our diversity; raising funds to sustain us and make a gift to the College; recruiting students; and keeping alumnae in-touch with each other, the College and the Association. The key is how we will accomplish the above and keep the Association relevant to 17,000. We all have a common bond, it is our strength, and we should use it! AAMC and Mills College are my passions because these institutions can make a difference in educating women as contributors in society at all levels.

The uniqueness of the AAMC and Mills is that you meet women who do many things at different stages in their lives and take risks.

On the Significance of our Alumnae Association’s independence from the College: At Mills, we were taught (and still are) to be independent and take responsibility for our governance. An independent alumnae association is an extension of that learning philosophy. It provides us with a greater vested interest in the College as we contribute our donations and time. It also provides another independent voice to the texture of the College (and its programs). We know that if we participate, we can make things happen. It is another way to effect change, within the structure provided.

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Gulbransen, continued

Brown Penrod, continued

Tatai, continued

independent from the governance, yet still be of benefit to the college.

nae. We support the College with love and loyalty while valuing our independent voice.

My Hopes and Expectations for the Future of Mills College: This future focus shows that Mills continues to ask, “What will the future be and how can we, as a higher educational institution contribute to it?” My hope is that Mills always is asking how it can contribute to the future, as it remains a strong women’s, liberal arts college that embraces all aspects of diversity.

In addition, with this attitude, I expect to see an increase of enrollment, student retention, and the all-important, fund-raising. It is only through growth, that we will be a model as a first-rate institution.

My Hopes and Expectations for the Future of Mills College: I expect Mills to be all-inclusive. Mills needs to increase the quality and quantity of its students. I support an increase in the diversity of the student body both ethnically and physically. My hope is that Mills would continue as a haven where women develop their voice. I expect the makeup of the undergraduate population will incorporate increased commuter and resumer totals. A greater mix of women and a stronger focus on the importance of a woman’s education will help secure this future.

On the Role of Women’s Colleges in Higher Education: Women’s colleges are a critical part (if not a necessity!) of a woman’s education. I strongly believe that women’s colleges create a place in which women are nurtured to develop their thinking and find their voice. A women’s college allows a woman to test and experiment these discoveries in an environment supportive of HER needs.

A top priority for Mills is to provide an academic environment to meet the needs and interests of women. By drawing upon its myriad of resources, Mills can continue to be an integral part of women’s higher education.

My Hopes and Expectations for the Future of Mills College: I hope Mills will continue to attract and educate strong students who will find their way in the world and choose to be leaders. As Mills celebrates 150 years of educating women and positions herself for the future, she must have solid institutional underpinnings. The Sesquicentennial Campaign has set goals to ensure that it is so. I hope the energy of this campaign will propel the College to new levels of educational achievement for both the institution and the next generations of students.

On the Role of Women’s Colleges in Higher Education: Women’s colleges continue to provide a distinctive type of education which can be extraordinarily successful. The community life of a women’s college provides unique opportunities both to find one’s voice and to fulfill personal aspirations. The liberty in the classrooms and studios invigorates and refreshes, encouraging students to experience higher education in an especially meaningful way.

BALLOT for Alumna Trustee for 2002–2005

Please indicate your first, second, and third choice for alumna trustee: FIRST CHOICE

SECOND CHOICE

THIRD CHOICE

On the Role of Women’s Colleges in Higher Education: The role is to provide a clear alternative for women.

Women can grow in a women’s college environment since the focus is on educating women and developing all the attributes women can contribute to society and to her community in whatever capacity she chooses. Today’s answers will not be found with yesterday’s solutions. Women’s colleges are always looking for new ways for leadership and for problem solving, and for improving higher education, rather than maintaining the status-quo.

Women’s colleges push the envelope about educating, not just teaching ALL individuals.

Ballots must be received at Reinhardt Alumnae House by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 7, 2002, to be counted. You may use the Alumnae Fund envelope enclosed to mail in your ballot. Only ballots cut from the Quarterly will be counted. Faxed ballots and call-in votes cannot be counted.

Upon request, the AAMC will send a spring Quarterly to replace the one from which you have cut this ballot.

Happy 150th Birthday, Mills College!

MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF 1943, COURTESY OF MILLS COLLEGE ARCHIVE, F.W. OLIN LIBRARY

Mills has been educating women from before the age of the telegraph through the era of email.

This year, as Mills turns 150, there are more challenges and opportunities than ever. Women are coming to Mills to actively pursue degrees in the sciences, technology, public policy, civic leadership, business, and the arts. Over the past 150 years, Mills College has continued to evolve as the needs of women have changed. Whether women studied home economics or are now earning MBA degrees, Mills is ready and eager to make their dreams a reality.

This year, in 2002, the AAMC hopes to add one more item to Mills’ list of stellar accomplishments.

In this year, the AAMC is working to accomplish 42% alumnae participation in giving.

To accomplish this, 2019 more alumnae need to make a gift to the AAMC’s Alumnae Fund before the end of this fiscal year. In addition, all the generous alumnae who helped us reach the goal of 39% participation last year need to contribute again this year.

Please make a special Sesquicentennial Gift to the AAMC this year to say, “Happy 150th Birthday, Mills College. We are proud of you!”

Mills Inaugurates Master’s of Business Administration Program

by Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA, ’02

The new MBA program is nestled snuggly in the old Children’s School, originally the infirmary. Although the space is comfortably furnished and known as the “MBA Lounge,” lounging is hardly what you’ll find the current 12 MBA students doing there. With five classes to complete each semester, we are busy developing marketing plans, analyzing a job process, learning how to motivate employees, negotiating a simulated deal, questioning the ethics of business, writing a business plan, or studying a case from the Harvard Business Review.

Not only is the program well underway, it’s hard to believe that the first class of Mills MBA candidates is almost ready to graduate!

“The program is going very well,” says Nancy Thornborrow, professor of economics and the director of the new BA/ MBA program. “We received faculty approval for the program in May, 2001, and began the program in August of 2001.

That means that between May and August we recruited students, hired faculty, refurbished a space for the program to be housed, purchased equipment, and were ready to welcome students at the Graduate Student Orientation Day in the fall semester.”

The Master’s of Business Administration program at Mills offers highly motivated individuals a unique opportunity to develop their leadership potential for the 21st century. In recognition of the profound changes that have taken place in the business world, the program offers an innovative approach to management education based on mastery in the subjects of commerce, society, and technology.

Thornborrow says that while conventional business curricula incorporate

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elements of these topics in their required and elective course offerings, Mills believes their inter-relatedness in today’s world are so important that each should be a component of basic business training.

Thornborrow goes on to say that while all graduate programs at Mills are coeducational, the MBA program is designed to help women achieve greater parity in the workplace and more continuity in career development by awarding students an MBA degree in as little as one year after obtaining their BA degree.

Nancy Williams, who teaches two courses, said she thinks there is a great educational benefit to hammering through an entire master’s program in one year. The students stay immersed in the course of study and probably learn more overall than if they were to glide through classes over several years, as in most MBA programs.

April Gilbert, who is teaching Negotiations this spring, comments that most MBA programs require

candidates to have spent several years in the work force before applying for an MBA degree. This often means that a post-graduate business degree is an option at approximately the same time many women would like to start families.

Gilbert says that this conflict is one explanation for the continued low percentage of women in top U. S. business programs.

“We undertook this initiative as a response to chronic under-enrollment of women in traditional MBA programs,” says Thornborrow. “Women make up less than 30% of MBA students nationwide, compared to more than 50% in medicine and law.”

Thornborrow says underenrollment for women in MBA programs can be attributed to the following three factors: work experience requirements that compel women to contemplate multiple departures from the labor force; an environment that mirrors traditional corporate America, i.e. dominated by male leadership; and lack of emphasis on recruiting female students. In a recent nationwide survey, only 1.7 percent of business school deans indicated increasing female enrollment was a priority for them. Women faculty representation is less than half that of students.

“We believe these factors are denying equal opportunity to many talented women. Our program seeks to rectify that,” says Thornborrow. “We began the program with 12 enthusiastic recent graduates of Mills who were majors in economics, business economics, or political, legal and economic analysis,” she says.

As a student in the MBA program,

use education to break down barriers, and to give women access to jobs, independence, and equality in society.”

While sitting in front of her laptop in one of the three classrooms occupied by the MBA program, working diligently on her macroeconomic homework, Hoa Tu, ‘01, looks up for a moment and says to me, “Since this is the first year of the program, all 12 of us have the opportunity to help shape it.”

Although Tu is interested in finance, she says that her inspiration to study business stems from her experience exploring economics as an undergraduate at Mills. “Economics gave me an understanding of how the world works, how businesses function,

and how the economy functions as a whole,” she says.

Cindy Yan, ‘01, is auditing two classes in addition to the required five. She still has two prerequisites to complete before receiving her MBA, but in an effort to broaden her experience she decided to audit Negotiations and Global Management, two graduate-level courses that are specific to the MBA program.

Yan says she wanted to go to law school when she entered Mills as a freshwoman; however, after taking an introductory economics class, she fell in love with the subject.

When asked to assess her choice to pursue her MBA at Mills she says, from an economist’s perspective

“Although it has been challenging, I have been fortunate to gain valuable work experience while pursuing my education at Mills, and I have managed to continue working while taking advantage of the one-year MBA program. It has been hard to give up the opportunity to earn a full-time salary, but in the long run, I know it is the better choice.”

Ramona Lisa Smith, ‘01, MBA ‘02

SUZANNE HUANG, ‘98, MBA ‘02

and a Mills graduate, I recognize and appreciate the opportunity and experience that the Mills MBA program provides for women who want to study business.

Even though we all have similar backgrounds in economics, we bring different levels of work experience to the program; some of us have little or no work experience, while some of us have managed to keep our jobs while completing the program. Together we are changing the face of the typical MBA program.

With 13 years between high school and my undergraduate education, at 36 years old I can attest to the conflict that many women my age experience when trying to decide whether or not to pursue further education, and if so, when? As the mother of a six-year-old, the one-year MBA program was perfect for me. My daughter was two years old when I started my education at Mills four years ago, and after studying economics, particularly labor economics, I quickly realized that it would be in my best interests to pursue an advanced degree, and to do it as soon as I received my BA. The one-year MBA program at Mills is an economical choice for me in terms of both time and money.

Although it has been challenging, I have been fortunate to gain valuable work experience while pursuing my education at Mills, and I have managed to continue working while taking advantage of the oneyear MBA program. It has been hard to give up the opportunity to earn a full-time salary, but in the long run, I know it is the better choice.

My classmates made the same choice, each for her own reason. MBA candidate Kelly McCormack, ‘01, tells me, “This program is unique. Mills has the same spirit it had 100 years ago, to give women a platform from which to rise. Since Mills started, it has been on a mission to help women

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that “the benefits outweigh the costs,” and one of the benefits is an environment in which women are encouraged to excel.

Tina Lee, ‘01, one of the very proactive MBA students, arranged “Buddy Week,” a time during which students outside the program could visit MBA classes and chat with MBA students and professors about the program in an effort to spark their interest. She says that she’s happy with the program, but there are some issues that need to be ironed out. “Since it is the inaugural year,” she says, “we of course have

to the program. Marketing for the MBA program thus far has taken the form of mailing a brochure to the last six years of Mills graduates with majors that would qualify them for the program; the brochure was also sent to 300 junior college counselors in California to encourage transfers to come to Mills; and emails were sent to all the economics undergraduate majors at U. C. Berkeley. The program also has a website: <www.mills.edu/mba>.

“As with all Mills programs, our students are our best form of advertising,” says Thornborrow.

“At Mills, horizontal (student to student) learning is just as important as vertical learning. Our class and group size foster this much more effectively than larger institutions.”

— Professor David Roland-Holst

to work out some kinks that the next class won’t have to deal with.”

Some of the “kinks” in the program this year are the lack of classroom space, lack of equipment and supplies, and the lack of scholarship money. Since there are no Mills scholarships available to MBA students this year, we are all paying for the tuition by some other means.

Because the program was approved late last spring, there was not a lot of time to take advantage of outside resources. Thornborrow says there are at least two individuals who have earmarked their capital campaign gifts for scholarships for MBA candidates.

“I know our program has generated lots of verbal support from the College’s Trustees,” says Thornborrow.

“Hopefully that will translate into additional financial support.”

Lee says that there is also a need for more marketing and public relations to attract more students

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“They have designed t-shirts, given presentations to the Board of Trustees, recruited students from the Mills undergraduate student body, and appeared on KQED as part of the fundraising efforts for educational television.

They also got the program’s name out in the process.”

Thornborrow says a strategic plan for the program is being developed; Mills is interested in growing the program but is currently focused on maintaining the quality of the students and the curriculum along with the small class atmosphere, which is essential for the faculty-student interaction that is one of the strengths of a Mills education. Professor of Economics David Roland-Holst comments, “The hallmarks of a Mills education are a rigorous liberal education and intensive emphasis on individual intellectual development. Neither of these important aspects of personal

development is readily available at large institutions. The class sizes in the Mills MBA program are also much more representative of the realities of the workplace. People do not spend their careers working in teams of 50–100 people, but in smaller, more intimate, focused teams, just like a Mills classroom.

“At Mills, horizontal (student to student) learning is just as important as vertical learning. Our class and group size foster this much more effectively than larger institutions,” Dr. Roland-Holst concludes.

Lionel Chan, who teaches Management Information Systems, says the Mills MBA program could serve as a model for business programs that are targeting ethnic minorities. According to a recent report in the Chronicle of Higher Education, ethnic minorities have largely avoided business degree programs.

“Mills is a very special place, and the women who are lucky enough to come here are a totally different breed,” says Tina Lee. “Mills women are often sassier, more confident, more assertive, more analytical, more well rounded, more comfortable with their voice, and feel more compelled to use their talents in a meaningful way to contribute positively to society.

The Mills MBA program is truly an extension of this.”

The program is currently looking for alumnae who can volunteer to be mentors to the MBA students.

For more information about the MBA program please visit the website at: <www.mills.edu/mba> or call (510) 430-2113.

Ramona Lisa Smith, a California native, is currently in the MBA program. She received her BA from Mills in business economics with a minor in ethnic studies last spring.

She was on the Mills Weekly staff for two years and continues to write in her free time.

Remembering George Hedley In her article on George Hedley in the last Quarterly, Professor Emerita Roussel Sargent asked readers to write in with their own memories of the Mills College chaplain and professor of economics and sociology. And write you did. Here is a sampling of your letters.

DON W. JONES, COURTESY OF THE MILLS COLLEGE ARCHIVES, F. W. OLIN LIBRARY

>> I just read your article about Dr. George Hedley in the Mills Quarterly for winter, which arrived today. I am writing to relate my memories of Dr. Hedley.

I am a member of the class of 1946 and then attended Mills through two graduate years, obtaining my master’s degree. I met my husband when he was a medical intern at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland. We planned to be married February 28, 1947. Earlier, his name came up for dependents’ housing for married personnel at the naval facility at Hunters Point, across the Bay from Oakland. But we had to have a marriage certificate to ensure this reservation. Our wedding planned for the 28th was a large affair with invitations in the mail and our wedding attendants arranged. This housing notice came up in early February. We explained our dilemma to Dr. Hedley, who was going to perform our wedding ceremony. He was very helpful, and said if we came to his home with our maid of honor and

best man he would perform the ceremony that gave us the wedding certificate enabling us to have housing. I wore a simple blouse and skirt and we picked flowers from the campus for our bouquet. Following this simple ceremony I returned to graduate house and my husband returned to his duty at the hospital.

Fifteen days later we had a beautiful ceremony at the Little Chapel of the Flowers in Berkeley. Dr. Hedley officiated. I wore my long ivory and my husband wore his dress blues. Both ceremonies were beautiful and meaningful, but the first one is our legal date, which we still honor. My husband practiced internal medicine at the Grants Pass Medical Clinic in Grants Pass, Oregon, and the VA Domiciliary at White City, Oregon, for 36 years and retired in 1990. During this time I taught piano. We celebrated our 55th anniversary in February. We credit Dr. Hedley for making all this possible.

— Julia McBride Frantz, ’46, MA ’48 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY S P R I N G 2 0 0 2

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of a dad who devoutly mistrusted organized religion and a mother who was a child of a mixed marriage) and my fiancé’s (consisting of a mother who belonged to two Jewish congregations) could arrive at a satisfactory cleric to officiate. Dr. Hedley arranged for us to have one of his very close friends, a rabbi who was president of the Southern California Conference of Christians and Jews, do the honors in Beverly Hills.

It must have been the right choice. This June 25th we will celebrate our 52nd wedding anniversary.

— Manya Shayon Ungar, ’50

DON W. JONES, COURTESY OF THE MILLS COLLEGE ARCHIVES, F. W. OLIN LIBRARY

>> During my years as an undergraduate at Mills (1946–50) I would sometimes help Dr. Hedley by typing his sermons. Since I was not a Christian, indeed was, if not a heretic, at best a nonpracticing Jew, I’d ask him questions about various religions.

On one occasion I recall, in answer to my query, “What’s the difference between an Episcopalian and a Methodist?” he responded, “Well, I guess you might say an Episcopalian is a Methodist with $10,000 in the bank.”

He was a delightful, funny, generous, empathetic, hospitable, and utterly charming person who, with Mrs. Hedley, made students always feel welcome in their presence and home.

It was thanks to him that when the time came for me to marry, only three weeks after graduation, my family (comprised

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>> Besides having passed the Swimming Test, the Speech Test, and having all your ducks in a row, so to speak, as far as credits (including P.E.) and grades were concerned, one was obliged to make an appointment with the College Chaplain. I suppose, to make sure, whether we were chapel-goers or not, that Mills was not unloosing a sinner on the streets of Oakland or farther afield.

Naturally, one saved up all this stuff till The End, which found me all but in the middle of Senior Comprehensives, still with my chaplain appointment to do. I duly made the appointment with dear, dear Dr. George Hedley, who was filling in for Dr. Diller, the College chaplain at the time.

I was not a chapel-goer, or “any churchgoer.” We’ll slide over that. However, each fall at registration, there was always a teeny tiny space marked RELIG____ in which one could, with squeezing, insert, I suppose: CATH, METH, EPISC, PRESB—I don’t recall what was used for the Jewish faith or the Mormon faith. Anyway, one year, I think our sophomore year, several of us got giddy and put in DRUID. As we figured, nothing came of it, and my fellow Druids left Mills or changed sects.

When I walked in to the chapel office, there was George Hedley, in his usual, sort of fetal position on a table or desk, smoking, and with arms wound about knees. He had the most wonderful hands—long, long fingers, very expressive and used with great gestures.

“Ah, Miss Carman,” he said, “come in and we’ll talk. I am most interested to learn about your religion. I believe you are a Druid. Do tell me how and when you became one and all about your rites and beliefs.” And he settled back with a very sweet receptive look on his face, as if he had been waiting all these years to hear about my Druidism.

I stumbled along, madly searching my brain for what I could remember from the early part of Dr. Herrick’s English history course, not doing too well. I did remember Druids painted themselves blue for some obscure—to me—reason, and held rituals at various solstices. Stonehenge was a biggy to them as were other large circular piles of stones, mostly in the British Isles.

Lame is putting it mildly, for my discourse.

Dr. Hedley smiled benignly and unclasping his fingers from around his knees, took himself off the table/desk and said, “I think you’d better find out a little more about your religion and come back to tell me in depth—how about—(looking in his

COLBOURN STUDIO

appointment book) next Thursday?” I assured him I would do as bidden, left in embarrassment and confusion, on a dead run for the library up the road a piece, where I was to be found for several days delving into “my religion.”

I did return and indeed delivered a fairly—I thought—scholarly, if not religiously dedicated, lucid, report on Druids and their doings. I did get a “Thank you, thank you. Miss Carman, now I am up to snuff on Druidism.” I presume he bade me a kind farewell and admonished me not to do any evil to the world I was about to enter. I don’t remember, alas.

— Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41

have taken root. I went on to research and write three books and several articles on the Indians of Baja California, Mexico, and founded and for one year directed the Centro Coordinator Indigenista of Baja California.

I returned to the Mills College chapel to be married by Dr. Hedley to Charles Williams in 1953—and it’s lasted. And a few years later Helen and Dr. Hedley met us in San Diego where he baptized our daughters, Ila, Lisa, and Sybil, and they’ve turned out well.

Thank you, George and Helen Hedley, wherever you are.

— Anita Alvarez Williams, ’53

>> My favorite memory of Dr. Hedley was his saying “Girls, I have one advantage over you [in doing research]: I can put on my old gardening clothes, take out my teeth, and hop a freight train!”

— Jeannie Meyer, ’63

>> My wife and I met in George’s kitchen in 1952. The occasion was a Sunday morning coffee hour following chapel service. I happened to notice an attractive young lady, Shirley Pederson, ’53, washing dishes. I introduced myself and offered to dry.

It’s now fifty years later and we’re still washing and drying together. Thanks, George!

— The Rev. Dr. Glendon C. Coppick, Rector Emeritus, Trinity Episcopal Church, Owensboro, Kentucky

>> Ruddigore’s welcoming red door came to mind as I read Roussel Sargent’s Quarterly article on George Hedley. He and Helen gathered us All, the righteous and the unrighteous, with indiscriminate love—a celebratory after-chapel tribe on Sundays, or individually as needed. You could tell George anything, and he wouldn’t get excited, he’d just listen calmly, maybe make a few practical suggestions, and you knew he still liked you.

Along with his beautiful Christmas Sonnet sequence, and his Easter poem “From Jericho to Jerusalem,” I still have copies of 70 of Hedley’s sermons. They are just as interesting and applicable today as they were when he twanged them out 50 years ago, with titles such as: Why we Pray; Science, Atheism, and Faith; Economics and Ethics; Music and Moods; Grading and Degrading; The Virgin Mary; Wormwood Us and God; The Seven Deadly Sins; The Seven Deadly Virtues; Are We Free to Will; Daring to Differ; How to Stay Married 39 Years; The Credulous Catholics; The Shouting Methodists.

No wonder we trudged up to Chapel on Sunday mornings.

And showed up on time for Dr. Hedley’s sociology class. By telling us stories, by his own example, and by encouraging us to think, Dr. Hedley taught us to respect and attempt to understand others and their differences.

I loved Hedley’s telling about his summer jobs. He said he’d take off his clergyman’s collar, remove his teeth, put on his oldest clothes, take a bus to the San Joaquin Valley, and take jobs working in the fields. He made friends with his fellow workers, listened, learned what was going on. Of course, none of his companions had any idea about his “winter job” at Mills. However, Hedley said one of the fieldworkers told him that he had possibilities, and encouraged him to try to “make something of himself.”

Although I never took another sociology or anthropology course, and graduated from another college with a degree in art history, something about those courses of Dr. Hedley’s must

>> What a delightful surprise to open the Quarterly and see Dr. Sargent’s homage to George Hedley. As an economics and sociology major in 1939–43, I had the joy of being one of his students. Since Dr. Diller was chaplain at that time, I did not get to know him as the College chaplain.

One vivid recollection was the day he spent the entire class hour giving us a minute-byminute description of the San Francisco Longshoremen’s strike of 1934, which turned into a general strike and closed down the city. As an on-thespot observer of this historic event, he had an astonishing tale to tell. At the time, I was especially impressed that such a scholarly college professor would have chosen to be down on the waterfront in the midst of the fray.

Helen Hedley was indeed part of the team. Beautiful, always gracious, she was much loved, as was he. Setting up a fund in their names is a brilliant idea.

—Helen Metz Lore, ’43 >> I would like to add some details to Roussel Sargent’s short article “Remembering George,” since I had known him long before she came to Mills in 1958. Aurelia Henry Reinhardt had given me a part-time position in the then economics-sociology department for the academic year 1940–41. The President appointed George Hedley for labor economics and religion, also in a part-time status if memory serves. In the latter, he was an excellent counter-part to Van Diller. His sermon-lectures (for such they were) were most enjoyable and taught me much about the history of religion.

I taught the first course at Mills in principles of sociology in

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my first year. A year later, the academic year 1942–43, George asked to “sit in” on the principles course in order to learn the formal structure and field of the subject. This led to a delightful collaboration and friendship with both George and Helen Hedley in whose home I was a regular visitor.

George’s activities on the campus were College-wide. He was not just a professor and a minister but an active member of the community.

He was a man to whom students could turn, whether for friendship or personal or student government matters. He was also a person to whom the administration could turn for advice.

Not only was his counsel sought by the dean of students, but also his direct involvement in many cases. He was sensitive, understanding, and wise. His counsel almost always led to the feeling that the best decision would be made.

One note about George’s personal religious choice. He once gave some thought to becoming a Catholic. I was touched that he discussed this with me for he had close ties throughout the religious bodies. Although he remained a Methodist, he decided the Episcopal High Church was his calling, and he became an ordained Episcopal priest. He was, of course, thoroughly ecumenical in his relation to other religions.

I remained in touch with George and Helen for the three decades I spent in the East. Family vacations gave me time to visit the Hedleys and all the other colleagues on the campus.

George Hedley was indeed a unique man.

— Ruth Gillard ’36 >> What a wonderful article about Dr. Hedley and one that brought back so many memories. The first one is the time he had to sign some request—I can’t remember what—and I had the form all filled out. As he signed it, he looked at me in the eye and said, “I will sign it, but do not make me into a part of speech.” I had written “Dr. Headly.”

This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. He often came to Seattle and several times he stayed with my family. Once he was speaking at a church near our house and I picked him up and brought him to the house. My father, a surgeon, had no interest in the Episcopal Church, but my mother was a pillar of the Cathedral. She told my father that she had asked some people in after dinner and that was fine with him. After dinner the bell rang and it was the Dean of the Cathedral, John Leffler. He had known Dr. Hedley some place and the three men settled down for a chat by the fire—drinks in hand. Pretty soon the bell rang again. Daddy went to it and opened the door. There stood the bishop! My startled father exclaimed, “Jesus Christ, it’s the bishop!” This sent Hedley and the dean into peals of laughter. A little later in time and whiskey, I went into the living room to see if they needed anything. What a sight! Dr. Hedley, the dean, the bishop, and my father, the prominent surgeon, all “squatting on their haunches” and arguing

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about the origin of this position—Dr. Hedley saying it was the Chinese and my father saying that the cowboys around the campfire had started the whole idea.

He was a wonderful man and taught us all so much.

— Betsy Pelly ’51 >> Roussel Sargent’s warm-hearted tribute to George Hedley brought back many memories of him and I am eager to respond to her invitation to reminisce.

The Pearl M on Dr. Hedley’s lapel may well be the one the class of 1950 gave him when we elected him an honorary member of our class.

Although I never took a class from him, I enjoyed several times the open houses he and Mrs. Hedley gave at their house in Faculty Village. They were both extremely hospitable and quick to learn our names. Dr. Hedley complimented us by using our first names. The custom then was to call students “Miss Soand-So,” and Dr. Hedley’s immediate informality made us feel genuinely “in.” Through clouds of pipe smoke he engaged us in learned conversation.

Bishop Pike ordained Dr. Hedley an Episcopal priest. He must have been one of the first to have simultaneous priesthood in two denominations. As Mills chaplain, he encouraged the students to submit topics for his sermons. My choice was “The Doctrine of Forgiveness.” Alas, I could not concentrate on his response in chapel because, as was his habit, he addressed me by name throughout the sermon, as if we were having a private conversation.

In my junior year, he invited me to preach in the chapel.

My theme was “Sweet Frustration,” an attempt to show that positive results can eventually come from doubting or being thwarted in life. Afterward, I was summoned to the office of my revered professor of philosophy, Dr. Georgiana Melvin.

She had been affronted by my remarks! I was so intimidated that her words blurred, and I never knew the basis of her objections.

Being so in awe of our professors was quite normal in the ’40s. Looking back, I can see that this respect drove us to strenuous study in order to meet the expectations of our memorable teachers.

— Sally McKinstry Hall, ’50 >> During his many years as chaplain at Mills, Dr. Hedley was frequently asked to perform weddings as well as other sacraments such as baptisms and funerals. The honoraria he received for those services always went into a special account that he reserved for a project dear to his heart. He wanted Mills to have a beautiful new chapel. At the end of his career he saw his dream achieved, paid for in part from that account. Our beautiful chapel is a monument to his remarkable selflessness and generosity.

— Professor of Anthropology Robert Anderson, M.D.

Passages

PASSAGES Gifts in Honor of Suzanne Adams, ’48,

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Elizabeth Ambuhl, ’70,

by Amy Klein, ’75 Carol Berendsen

by Kathryn Swartout Wong, ’75 Class of 1936

by Ruth Gillard, ’36 Class of 1947

by Marie Pettibone McKeown, ’47 Class of 1962

by Meg Patten Eaton, ’62 Class of 1971

by Rosalie Calhoun, ’71 Sheila Powers Converse, ’57,

by Barbara Hunter, ‘57 Sandra McDonald Cuza, ’57,

by Katheryn Gallant, ’90 Maurie Davidson, ’63, by Nangee Warner Morrison, ’63 Doris Dennison

by Rebecca Fuller, ’54 Carol Meyer Doyle, ’81,

by Barbara Hunter, ’57 Lawrence Gelb

by Lucy Gelb, ’77 Gloria Gobler, ’99,

by Sara Stewart, ’99 Claire Hafner, ’99, by Sara Stewart, ’99 Gail Indvik

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Jane Cudlip King, ’42,

by Sue Bengston Steele, ’42 Mary Ann Kinkead

by Rebecca Fuller, ’54

Benjamin Kirz

by Donna Kirz, ’72 Pauline Royal Langsley, ’49,

by Margaret Clarke Umbreit, ’49 Barbara Tutt Lee, ’73,

by L. Ann Ward Kane, ’77 Margaret Lyon, ’35,

by David Brin, MA ’75 Jennifer Matheson, ’99,

by Sara Stewart, ’99 Karen May, ’86,

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Margaret Manin McAuliffe, ’58,

by Barbara Hunter, ’57 Kathleen McClintock

by Rebecca Fuller, ’54 Ann Metcalf

by Kathleen Davis, ’87 Mary and Gene Metz

by Ruth Gillard, ’36 Madeleine Milhaud

by Jane Van Rysselberghe Bernasconi, ’53, and Rebecca Fuller, ’54 Mills Swim Team

by Kathryn Swartout Wong, ’75 Emi and Mas Miyamura

by Sharon Tatai, ’80, and Tomoye Tatai Mas Miyamura

by Sharon Tatai, ’80, and Tomoye Tatai Cheryl Murray

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Lynn Dean Newhall, ’57,

by Barbara Hunter, ’57 Eleanore Lundegaard Nissen, ’42,

by Erwin and Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 Thoraya Obaid, ’66,

by Marilyn Schuster, ’65 Elizabeth Parker, ’85 and Keith Crow by Sarah Lehman, ’86 Jocelyn Lloyd Parker

by Joseph Parker, Jr. Maria Peinado, ’99,

by Sara Stewart, ’99 Juanita del Regato Peters, ’65,

by Nathanial Peters Cecily Peterson, ’88,

by David Brin, MA ’75 Lawrence Lowell Putnam, ’57,

by Barbara Hunter, ’57 RAH staff

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Sally Millet Rau, ’51,

by Jane Rule, ’52 Reunion 2001 Committee,

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Ariani Richards, ’99,

by Sara Stewart, ’99 LeRoy and Cindy Savoie

by Sharon Tatai, ’80, and Tomoye Tatai Sarah Soong

by Ji Soong Kimberly Stanley, ’99,

by Sara Stewart, ’99 Meta Anderson Stanley, ’35,

by Erwin and Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 Marion Stebbins

by Alice Gonnerman Mueller, ’42 Sue Bengston Steele, ’42,

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Sara Taylor Swift, ’52,

by Nancy Parker, ’52 Sharon Tatai, ’80,

by Beverly Johnson Zellick, ’49 Megan Thomas, ’93,

by Katherine Thomas, ’88 Trefethen Aquatic Center Staff

by Kathryn Swartout Wong, ’75 Peggy Weber, ’65,

by Heidi Wachter, ’01 Reynold Wik

by Nan Wright Winn, ’57 Thomasina Woida, ’80,

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Edith Mori Young, ’51,

by Jane Rule, ’52

Gifts in Memory of Leo Anderson

by Aimee Wolff Minkin, ’43 Harry Anker

by Judith Anker Wrigley, ’67 Ellen Bader

by Phyllis Cole Bader, ’35 Marillyn Harris Baker, ’47,

by Doris Norman Bertram, ’47 Laura Lang Balas

by Spencer and Mary Everett Robert Bekeart

by Laura Bekeart Dietz, ’67 Marilyn Frye Bettendorf

by Marilyn Barrett, ’75 Alice Vidoroni Bevan, ’45,

by George Bevan Donald Blackmarr

Helen Bailey Thirion, ’28

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HELEN BAILEY THIRION, ’28, died on December 12, 2001. She was an expert on Mrs. Mills’ teapot collection, now owned by the Alumnae Association, and was responsible for organizing “Telethons” in the 1970s. Now called phonathons, Mrs. Thirion described them as “a great means of raising the percentage of alumnae givers.”

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Passages

by Gail Blackmarr, ’79, Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Barbara Hunter, ’57, and Marion Ross, ’44 Anne Hillman Burton, ’42,

by Doris Hillman Blackwell, ’41, Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Aimee Wolff Minkin, ’43, MaryLee Lipscomb Reade, ’41, and Arnie and Ann Sulzberger Wolff, ’42 Byron Brown

by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, Rosalie Calhoun, ’71, and Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60 Nancy Roberts Collins, ’32,

by Mary Avary Whittier, ’61 Rita McKay

by MaryTherese Curley, ’92 Dorie de Vries Curtiss, ’43,

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41, Marion Ross, ’44, Paula Merrix Sporck, ’46, and Ruth Reddick Teague, ’43 Evelyn Deane, ’41,

by Mary Hart Clark, ’42, Alice Gonnerman Mueller, ’42, Loadel Harter Piner, ’50 Aldo DeBenedictis

by Angela Schmick Ruttle, ’41 Dr. and Mrs. Juan del Regato

Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41, Margaret Kellam Person, ’45, Janet Poulos, and Irving Stein George Goers

by Mary Jean Rosenberry Ferris, ’45, and Dorothy Jane McVeigh Raney, ’45 James Goldsmith

by Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41 Jane Erickson Goul, ’50,

by Loadel Harter Piner, ’50 Felecia Anhalt Graham, ’49,

by Donald Graham Quentin Griffiths

by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, Audrey Ditmer Gibney, ’46, Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60, Anne McMillin Lightbody, ’46, Marion Ross, ’44, Paula Merrix Sporck, ’46, Imogene Fluno Whipple, ’43, and Betsy Taves Whitman, ’46 Sara Amodei Grosskettler, ’58,

by Les and Janice Lederer Ruth Hall

by Alice Hall Phillips, ’58 Leo Hasse

by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, and Ruth Gillard, ’36 William Hein

by Marion Ross, ’44

Rebecca Sheldon Whitemarsh Herbert, ’47

by G. Arthur Herbert Henry Hirsch

by Marian Hirsch, ’75 H. Howard Holmes

by Constance Irvine McVey, ’43 Marion Rowcliffe Howard, ’44,

by Cynthia Goddard Penland, ’50 Eileen Forsythe Jenkel, ’51,

by Jeanne Aurel-Schneider, ’51, Barbara Fairfax Phinney, ’40, and Nancy Kenealy Soper, ’51 Clyde Kay

by Yuri Chiamori Mok, ’60 Helen O’Conner Keegan, ’54,

by Sally Whitmer Thompson, ’56 Hugh Kennedy

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Hazel Kraemer

by Dorothy Cole, ’50 Clabe Long by Marion Ross, ’44 Sandra Cowan Long, ’61,

by Ellen Locke Crumb, ’59 Susan Pauline Long, ’56,

by Lillian Taylor Long, and Deborah Beck Rosenberg, ’57 Nancy Griffitts Mason, ’47,

by Mary Elizabeth Milloy, ’47, Ruth Erb Peterson, ’47, Polly Bloom Scheuch, ’47, and

Emiko Hinoki Shimizu, ’41

VIRGINIA PETERSON DUMONT, ’38, died on December 20, 2001. In a recent letter to President Holmgren, Mrs. DuMont wrote of her “love and devotion to a place which offered me a scholarship during the Great Depression, a liberal education of superior quality because of its remarkable president and small but distinguished faculty, and a beautiful academic home for all the years of my life. I am most grateful.” At her memorial service, her children shared a letter written to them when they were small, in which she asked them to consider, before proceeding with anything, “Is it wise – not is it fun? Will it hurt anyone else?” That she was the consummate role model for younger women almost goes without saying.

EMIKO HINOKI SHIMIZU, ’41, served on the Board of Governors of the AAMC from 1968–71 and was an Alumna Trustee from 1972–77. She was a leader and once president of the Santa Clara Valley Mills Club.

A home economics major at Mills, Mrs. Shimizu was interned during World War II and was released from the camp to go to school in Rochester, Minnesota, where she became a dietician. She worked in the office of her brother-in-law, Norman Mineta, who was elected mayor of San Jose in 1971 and is currently the U. S. Secretary of Transportation. Mrs. Shimizu was also a leader in the Japanese-American League.

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YOUNGS’ PHOTOGRAPHY

Virginia Peterson DuMont, ’38

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by Jill Gaylor, ’62 Jane Dornacker

by Shannon Batson, ’81 Joyce Davies Dresia, ’37,

by Ruth Gillard, ’36 Virginia Peterson DuMont, ’38,

by Elizabeth Lane Baker, ’38, Barbara Bundschu, ’38, Eleanor Hadley, ’38, Tamra Cummings Hege, ’97, Edward and Karen Jepsen, Mary Lanigar, ’38, Leah Hardcastle MacNeil, MA ’51, Lucy Cowdin Maisel, ’38, the Predicted Log Racing Association of Northern California, Frieda and Art Rivin, Shelley Stanton, ’79, and Michael Nelson Marie Fabre-Rajotte Edwards, ’22,

by Jane Edwards Kenyon, ’47 Undine Ellis

by Gordon Ellis Alfred Evans

by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, and Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Dorothy Stauffer Fahlen, ’32,

by Eleanor Stauffer Neely, ’38 Dr. Barbara Garcia by Janis Goldbaum Hernandez, ’67 Ann Kellam Godfrey

by Mary Donnelly, Jane Foster,

Passages

Connie Young Yu, ’63 Eloise Randleman McCain, ’57,

by Leonard McCain Velma McCosh McCluggage

by Denise McCluggage, ’47 Rita McKay by Mary Curley, ’92 Mary Compton Mitchell, ’35,

by Jean Bayne Collinsworth, ’70 Elizabeth Schohr Morton, ’50,

by Louis Morton William Mussman

by Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41, and Angela Schmick Ruttle, ’41 Elizabeth Jane Logan Narver, ’56,

by Julia Swope Child, ’56, Mills College Alumnae of Puget Sound, Jane Worthington Nelson, ’56, Suzanne Munk Ragen, ’58, and Madeline Merrill Schalk, ’56 Howard Neill

by John and Joanna Shelton von Behringer, ’51 Elise Chapin Nelson, ’82,

by Helene Joyce Erwin Copperman, ’82 Erica Dowie Noceti, ’42,

by Nancy Whyte Work, ’52 Judge Allen Norris by Leah Hardcastle MacNeil, MA ’51 Robbyn Panitch, ’79,

by Betsey Shack Goodwin, ’76 Beatrice Gauntt Parker

by Nancy Parker, ’52 Marjorie Philips Noble

by Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41 Ross Phinney

by Barbara Fairfax Phinney, ’40 Lenard Pitts

by Vera Johnson Pitts, ’52 Gina Pizzine by Jacquelyn Jagger Parsons, ’52 Jean MacKenzie Pool, ’43,

by Cornelia Dodge Fraley, ’44, and Dorothy Jane McVeigh Raney, ’45 Elizabeth Marie Pope

by Jane Vance Rule, ’52 Vin Prothro

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Margaret Quigley, ’63,

by Marilyn Schuster, ’65 June Conant Rae, ’40,

by Rosemary Roberts Baum, ’40 Scott Ramsden

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Mel Riccardi

by Louis John Papan Lloyd Roe

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 John Rosekrans

by Helen Drake Muirhead, ’58

Dora Gurevitch Ruvkin, ’69,

by Sam Ruvkun Dorothy Green Sciaroni, ’34,

by Jean Logan Henderson, ’34 Emiko Hinoki Shimizu, ’41,

by Rosemary Roberts Baum, ’40, and Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Janet Elizabeth Siebert, ’39,

by E. Ellsworth Seibert Elizabeth George Sisney

by Pamela Sisney, ’79 Irma Tam Soong, ’35,

by Cordelia Chang, ’65 Marion Stebbins

by Alice Gonnerman Mueller, ’42 Dora Comer Strickler

by Carol Bourgeis Schwartz, ’67 Francis Stryble

by Ruth Gillard, ’36, Margaret Thompson Stryble, ’35, and Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 Koh Tatai by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, Kay Miller Browne, ’53, Valora Hunnicutt, Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60, Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Karen May, ’86, Sara McClure, ’81, Mills College Tri-State Alumnae, Yoneko Mochizuki, Nangee Warner Morrison, ’63, Arlene Rose, Marion Ross, ’44,

Tomoye Tatai, Harry and Muffy McKinstry Thorne, ’48, and Beverly Johnson Zellick, ’49 Jean Thomas Taylor, ’25,

by Jae Giddings Carmichael, ’46, and John Taylor Helen Bailey Thirion, ’28,

by Leah Hardcastle MacNeil, MA ’51 Joyce Haworth Trytten

by J. Perry Trytten Sophia Vlamis, ’49,

by Cordelia Chang, ’65 Dorothy Watson

by Phyllis Cole Bader, ’35 Jane Starbuck Wheatley, ’47,

by Betty Stine Eckerson, ’47 Walter Whipple

by Audrey Ditmer Gibney, ’46 Donald White

by Anne Morris Stratford, ’58 Helen Wik

by Susan Miles Gulbransen, ’63, and Darlene Holbrook, ’64 Evaline Wright

by Alice Gonnerman Mueller, ’42 Mary Lee Young

by Connie Young Yu, ’63

Elizabeth Jane Logan Narver, ’56 ELIZABETH JANE LOGAN NARVER, ’56, was a public policy expert who was known for building coalitions and brokering relationships across political lines. From 1975 to 2000, she was director of the Institute for Public Policy and Management at the University of Washington. According to an obituary in the Seattle Times, “her energy and ability to engage the public on issues ranging from school funding to libraries to health care made her one of the most admired and productive figures in recent Seattle civic life.”

According to Hubert Locke, who appointed her to the post at the University of Washington, “She turned the Institute into a publicpolicy think tank that served the needs of the state Legislature at one level and the needs of a small community group at another.”

Her flair for cooking and hospitality were well known, and her home was virtually a community center.

The extent of her energy is captured in a class note in the winter, 1993 Quarterly, which stated, “While running the University of Washington’s Institute for Public Policy and Management, Betty Jane Logan Narver also almost single-handedly saved a public affairs league from certain death, co-authored a landmark series about growth that appeared in the Seattle Times, and spent four months in an Ethiopian village teaching agricultural practices to subsistence farmers.” She received many awards, including the University of Washington’s Outstanding Public Service Award in 1991 and the Museum of History and Industry Historymaker Award for community service in 2000.

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The well-known photographer Eadweard Muybridge took this photo of the Mills Hall dining room when Mills Hall was still a new building.

Photo: Courtesy of Mills College Archives, F. W. Olin Library

Mills Quarterly Alumnae Association of Mills College Reinhardt Alumnae House Mills College PO Box 9998 Oakland, CA 94613-0998 510 430-2110 aamc@mills.edu www.mills.edu

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