Mills Quarterly winter 2005

Mills Quarterly Winter 2005 Alumnae Magazine

Berkeley’s Poetry Walk Honors Mills Poets Crafting Community Reunion 2004

COURTESY OF THE SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

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DONNA CASTRO

DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

PEG SKORPINSKI

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Mills Quarterly

CONTENTS WINTER 2005 10

A Walk on the Creative Side: Berkeley’s Poetry Walk Honors Mills Poets by Dorothy Bevard, MFA ’05 Berkeley’s Addison Street sets in stone a trail of poems that invoke the idiosyncratic spirit of the city. Three of the poets have contributed a total of more than 80 years of inspired teaching at Mills.

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Reunion 2004 Reunion 2004 attracted more than 250 alumnae from around the United States. Alumnae enjoyed a variety of events that brought friends together.

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Bookshelf Read about books on painter Jay DeFeo, cutting-edge photography, a blacklisted diplomat, forming stepfamilies, and a missing Stradivarius.

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Crafting Community: An Age-old Pastime Reappears with a Modern Twist

by Moya Stone, MFA ’03 A new craze that is captivating Mills women today is also an age-old pastime.

D E PA R T M E N T S 3

Calendar

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Inside Mills

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Alumnae Action

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Mills Matters

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Profiles

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Passages

FACING PAGE, AND ON THE COVER: Chana Bloch, Diana O’Hehir, and Stephen Ratcliffe stand at Diana O’Hehir’s poem on Berkeley’s Poetry Walk. Photos by Peg Skorpinski.

Mills Quarterly Volume XCIII Number 3 (USPS 349-900) Winter 2005 Alumnae Director Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68 Editor David M. Brin, MA ’75 <dbrin@mills.edu> (510) 430-3312 Design and Art Direction Benjamin Piekut, MA ’01 Associate Editor Pat Soberanis Editorial Assistance Katrina Wardell, ’07 Quarterly Advisory Board Marian Hirsch, ’75, April Ninomiya Hopkins, MA ’03 Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Jane Redmond Mueller, ’68 Cathy Chew Smith, ’84, Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA, ’02 Sharon K. Tatai, ’80, Heidi Wachter, ’01 Lynette Williams Williamson, ’72, MA ’74 Class Notes Writers Barb Barry, ’94, Julia Bourland Chambers, 93 Laura Compton, ’93, Barbara Bennion Friedlich, ’49 Heather Hanley, ’00, Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48 Marian Hirsch, ’75, Cathy Chew Smith, ’84 Special Thanks to David M. Hedden Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Cecily Peterson, ’88 Board of Governors President Thomasina S. Woida, ’80 Vice Presidents Anita Aragon Bowers, ’63 Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Treasurer Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA ’02 Alumnae Trustees Leone La Duke Evans, MA ’45 Sara Ellen McClure, ’81 Sharon K. Tatai, ’80 Governors Micheline A. Beam, ’72, Cecille Caterson, MA ’90 Harriet Fong Chan, ’98, Connie Swan Davidson, ’73 Lynn Eve Fortin, ’87, Amy Franklin-Willis, ’94 Krishen Laetsch, MA ’01, Mary Liu, ’71 Leah Hardcastle Mac Neil, MA ’51 Rachael E. Meny, ’92, Nangee Warner Morrison, ’63 Diana Birtwistle Odermatt, ’60, Ruth O. Saxton, MA ’72 Lynette Williams Williamson, ’72, MA ’74 Karilee Wirthlin, ’92, Sheryl Y. Wooldridge, ’77 Regional Governors Joyce Menter Wallace, ’50, Eastern Great Lakes Joan Alper, ’62, Middle Atlantic Albertina Padilla, ’78, Middle California Adrienne Bronstein Becker, ’86, Middle California Judith Smrha, ’87, Midwest Linda Cohen Turner, ’68, North Central Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91, Northern California Gayle Rothrock, ’68, Northwest Louise Hurlbut, ’75, Rocky Mountains Colleen Almeida Smith, ’92, South Central Dr. Candace Brand Kaspers, ’70, Southeast Julia Almazan, ’92, Southern California Elaine Chew, ’68, 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 worldwide-ranging interests, occupations, and achievements of alumnae.

On This Issue The Sesquicentennial Campaign officially ended on December 31, 2004. Although I am writing in early January, the dollars are still being counted. Expectations have been exceeded; remarkably, we are more than $30 million above the $100 million goal.

I wish to thank every alumna and alumnus who gave to the campaign. Your gifts demonstrate your loyalty to and confidence in Mills College and reaffirm your commitment to the College community. You can read more about the campaign in this issue, and the Spring Quarterly will detail campaign highlights and report the final results.

Attending Reunion gatherings is another way alumnae express delight in being part of the Mills family. It’s always a treat to see alumnae enjoying each other’s company and relishing being back at Mills. You will find photos of Reunion 2004 in this issue, but nothing replaces the actual experience of being here at a Reunion. Think about coming back to Mills for your next Reunion! I hear time and again from alumnae that there is nothing like the gratification they get from the connections and reconnections they make at Reunion.

I suspect that I’m not the only one who can thank my college education for teaching me to appreciate poetry. When I was forced to study William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience during my first year of college, my indifference to poems eventually disappeared, and I discovered one of life’s lasting pleasures. I still reread my favorite poems often, a tribute to how important poetry is to me.

In our cover story on Berkeley’s Poetry Walk, Dorothy Bevard, MFA ’05, highlights three Mills poets whose work is “written in stone” on the sidewalk of Addison Street in downtown Berkeley. Strolling down this street and stopping to read the poems is a unique way to read poetry. I heartily recommend it if you live near enough to get there. Poetry becomes a part of ordinary life—what could be more ordinary than walking down the street? But this ordinary experience becomes enriched by the insights of the poets, along with a feeling for the literary history of Berkeley.

I enjoyed reading and rereading the poems of Stephen Ratcliffe, Diana O’Hehir, and Chana Bloch while getting the article ready for the magazine. I gained a little insight into the creative process when I learned that there are three versions of Bloch’s poem—the one on the street, a later version, which appears in The Addison Street Anthology, and a third version, the latest, which Bloch emailed to me for use in the article. Nothing is written in stone! (I found each version an improvement over the last—not always my experience with writing.)

You’ll also find book reviews in this issue and a fun article by Moya Stone, MFA ’03, about the revival of a craft that many of us associate with our grandmothers. I hope you’ll enjoy our regular departments as well and that you’ll feel that you know a little more about what’s going on at Mills when you finish reading this issue.

Best wishes,

THURSDAY, JANUARY 20– SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 8:00 PM Sundays, 3:00 PM TheatreFIRST Presents Fronteras Americanas, a play by Guillermo Verdecchia Lisser Hall (510) 436-5085 JANUARY 31, 7:00 PM Lunafest: films by, for, and about women.

Sponsored by Mills College APER, proceeds to benefit the Breast Cancer Fund

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16 3:00 PM Mills College Tennis Team Match against Santa Rosa Junior College Meyer Tennis Courts, Mills College (510) 430-2172 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18 8:00 PM Concert Series: James Tenney, piano Music by John Cage and Charles Ives Concert Hall (510) 430-2296

Lecture hall, Lucie Stern (510) 430-2164

Mills College (510) 430-2172

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28 8:00 PM Concert Series: Mills Performing Group Music by John Bischoff, Fred Frith, Chris Brown, and Luciano Berio Concert Hall (510) 430-2296

FRIDAY, APRIL 8 8:00 PM Concert Series: Music by Dave Brubeck Concert Hall (510) 430-2296

SATURDAY, MARCH 5 Mills College Crew Team Lake Merrit Rowing Club Jack London Aquatic Center, Oakland, CA (510) 430-2172

THURSDAY, APRIL 14 5:30–9:30 PM Alumnae Pearl M Dinner, Lantern Procession, and Reception Orchard Meadow Dining Room (510) 430-2110

C A L E N D A R Junior Melody Ferris and freshwoman Marika Cifor embrace to celebrate their strong finishes in cross-country at the Cal Pac Conference Championships.

Haas Pavilion (510) 430-2395 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10 2:00 PM Mills College Tennis Team Match against Diablo Valley College Meyer Tennis Courts, Mills College (510) 430-2172 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10 5:00–7:00 PM dinner, 7:15– 8:00 PM performance Lunar New Year Celebration Founders Commons (510) 420-2110 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11 8:00 PM Concert Series: Anne Queffelec, piano Music by Scarlatti, Mozart, Satie, and Ravel Concert Hall (510) 430-2296

Photo: Themy Adachi

TUESDAY, APRIL 19 11:00 AM–12:15 PM Golden Girls Luncheon Faculty Dining Room (510) 430-2110 SATURDAY, MAY 14 117th Commencement Toyon Meadow (510) 430-3230 SATURDAY, MAY 14 AAMC Annual Meeting Reinhardt Alumnae House (510) 430-2110

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19 8:00 PM Concert Series: Compositions by James Tenney, Jean Macduff Vaux Composer-in-Residence Concert Hall (510) 430-2296 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 7:30-9:00 PM Lecture by Art Critic Peter Schjeldahl

SATURDAY, MARCH 26 Mills College Crew Team California Invitational Jack London Aquatic Center, Oakland (510) 430-2172 FRIDAY, APRIL 1 2:00 PM Mills College Tennis Team Match against Dominican College Meyer Tennis Courts,

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29– SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2 Reunion 2005 (510) 430-2110 You can find fine arts events on the Mills College website by going to <www.mills.edu> and choosing “Fine Arts Events Calendar” under “General Information.”

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inside mills MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT As 2004 comes to a close, I am pleased to report on the outstanding success of our Sesquicentennial Campaign. As of press time, we have raised more than $130 million, which is 30 percent more than our $100 million goal. This is a stunning achievement for Mills College. Already our students are benefiting from this generous support in the form of scholarships, innovative academic programs, and new and improved facilities.

Our campaign success is a direct result of the outstanding efforts and commitment of dedicated alumnae, faculty, staff, and friends of the College. Throughout the campaign, I had the opportunity to share my excitement about the future of Mills with many of you at campaign events in art museums and cultural landmarks across the country.

I look forward to sharing news about the initiatives made possible by the campaign in a full report to appear in the next issue of the Quarterly.

Our MBA program is continuing to grow, with the generous support of a lead gift of $10 million from Lorry I. Lokey, father of Ann Lokey, â&#x20AC;&#x2122;85. Enrollment this year is 42 students, and plans are in place to expand the MBA program to 100 students or more by 2008â&#x20AC;&#x201C;09. Work has already begun on the development of a plan for a permanent home for the business school at Mills.

Last year, we retained a research firm to identify the most compelling marketing position to effectively promote Mills to potential students. One of the key findings that emerged from several months of student surveys was the importance of alumnae in modeling the successful outcome of a Mills education. As our new marketing department designs a dynamic new website for the College, we will be asking our alumnae to share personal histories that demonstrate the impact of a Mills education. We will also ask you to participate in events designed to allow students to engage with alumnae as an integral part of their educational experience.

This semester I have been visiting classes across divisions, from math to philosophy, to witness firsthand classroom teaching and learning at Mills. I am pleased to report that the teaching skills and passion for the intellectual development of our students that many of you recall from your experiences here continue to be the hallmarks of a Mills education. We are truly blessed with a remarkable faculty of distinguished scholars who are eager to share their excitement about ideas and knowledge through interactive teaching, shared research projects, and encouragement of student ambitions for the future.

As we look ahead in 2005, we are in a position of positive growth, ready to embark on numerous exciting initiatives in marketing, fundraising, academic development, and student services. We are poised to take the College to higher levels of achievement and to continue the incredible momentum of our Sesquicentennial Campaign. Thank you for your support of Mills, our strategic goals, and our educational mission.

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JENNIFER SAUER

In this new year, Mills is moving forward to fulfill key objectives of our strategic plan. Thanks to all who are managing our finances prudently, we have achieved a budget surplus while increasing the value of our assets for two consecutive years. Initiatives such as our Curricular Development Plan are underway to support faculty ideas for our impressive academic programs, which enable our students to realize their potential and become strong leaders in a multicultural world.

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

PLANNED GIVING PROFILE: GENE AND MARTHA CRITTENDEN, ’44

GIVING THROUGH GIFT ANNUITIES “There is great satisfaction in doing something that brings good to future generations—this is the greatest gift of all.”

This is the response Martha Crittenden, ’44, gave recently when asked to describe her motivation for supporting the College with planned gifts. Martha and her husband, Gene, have established five gift annuities with Mills College—gifts that have increased their personal income, given them substantial tax deductions, and provided them with the satisfaction of knowing that they are investing in the future of Mills.

What is a gift annuity?

A charitable gift annuity is a contract between you and Mills College that will provide you with a guaranteed fixed income for life. You can fund a gift annuity with cash or appreciated securities. A portion of a gift annuity qualifies for an income tax deduction that can sometimes be spread over several years. The remainder of your gift benefits Mills in the form of a meaningful legacy.

CURRENT AGE

ANNUITY RATE

70 75 80 85

6.5% 7.1% 8.0% 9.5%

with their experience with planned giving at Mills. Their gift annuities have enabled them to include Mills among their philanthropic priorities without risking their financial security. “This has been a good financial decision, and it doesn’t require any attention from us to manage,” says Gene. “I feel good about supporting Mills.”

The income generated from a gift annuity depends on each donor’s situation How can you learn more?

Mills College offers a variety of opportuand needs. A $30,000 gift annuity nities for supporting the College established by a 75 year-old woman, for through instance, planned gifts, would result Gift annuity rates typically including gift in a $2,130produce higher income than annuities. For per-year more informaannuity, or those from investments in the tion, please $532.50 per stock and bond markets. contact Carolyn quarter for Otis Catanzaro, the remaindirector of planned giving, at (510) 430der of the beneficiary’s life.

2311, or email <ccatanza@mills.edu>.

The Crittendens have been pleased Gene and Martha Crittenden, ’44. “Mills has been a careful steward of our gifts,” says Martha.

CAROLYN OTIS CATANZARO

How is the income from an annuity calculated?

Gift annuity income rates are based upon the age of the beneficiary when she begins receiving payments. Rates typically produce higher income than those from investments in the stock and bond markets. These payments can supplement your own income now, build future retirement funds, or provide income to a loved one.

Mills College uses annuity income rates approved by the American Council on Gift Annuities. The following table

shows the approximate current rates for a single life annuity at Mills:

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inside mills MUSEUM EXPANSION TO BE DESIGNED

BY PREMIER ARCHITECTS

by Moya Stone, MFA ’03

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xciting plans are afoot at the Mills College Art Museum. Last May, the Board of Trustees approved a proposal for a major expansion that will double the building’s gallery space. The addition will enable the museum to exhibit more of its collection of 6,000 works of art, improve disabled access, and better address students’ needs.

Mills College Art Museum Director Stephan Jost says of the project, “It’s important for us to take the next step in offering the best educational opportunities for our students. With the additional space, better use can be made of student talent and the museum collection as an important part of a Mills education.”

Illustrious architects Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani, principals of Office dA architectural firm in Boston, have been chosen for the project. “We’re pleased to be supporting major women architects,” says Jost.

“Monica and Nader are young, talented, and smart. They have designed simple galleries that will showcase the works of art and not upstage the existing building.”

The two awardwinning architects are known for their diverse scope and their ability to merge contemporary concerns with the particular needs of their clients. Considered among the leading designers in the country, and gaining notice worldwide, Ponce de Leon and Tehrani’s projects include the new

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library at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Intergenerational Housing Center for the City of Chicago, the Interfaith Spiritual Center at Northwestern University, and the Tongxian Arts Center in Beijing. Tehrani also teaches at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and Ponce de Leon is the newest endowed faculty member at Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture, while maintaining her position on the faculty of Harvard.

The plan encompasses a three-story addition to the current museum that will house new galleries on each floor. Each gallery will vary slightly to accommodate different exhibition needs. For example, one space will have a special sound installation to allow for new media exhibits. Other spaces will use lighting in such a way as to protect

The new galleries, designed by innovative Harvard architects Monica Ponce De Leon and Nadar Tehrani, are elegant spaces with lots of wall space to feature the Mills College Art Museum’s outstanding collection of 6,000 objects. These spaces will provide new opportunities for students to curate exhibitions from the collection and to present their own work in the annual Senior and MFA shows. The galleries are designed to meet contemporary museum standards and will have the flexibility to showcase new technology that many students are eager to use, such as video and sound installations.

light-sensitive works of art such as textiles and works on paper. All galleries will have disability access, and an added elevator will make the second floor of the existing museum building accessible. Plans also include a reading room, an outdoor sculpture court, and a bridge that will lead through the tree canopy to the back of the museum and more galleries. There will be 11 additional galleries in all.

Dr. Mary-Ann Milford, provost and dean of the faculty and Carver Professor of East Asian Studies and Art History, believes the museum expansion will be a great asset. “The Mills College Art Museum’s permanent collection has grown from 400 works when it first opened to over 6,000 works today, yet there has never been an increase in gallery space,” says Dr. Milford. “This planned expansion will allow for more of the permanent collection to be on display, in addition to increasing studentcurated shows.”

The expansion is just the latest in a series of advancements for the College Art Museum. Over the past two years, under the direction of Stephan Jost, the galleries have been reconfigured and renovated, underutilized space has been transformed into a new multimedia gallery, open museum hours have increased, and the museum now hosts a performance series. These efforts have resulted in doubling the number of museum attendees per year. It is estimated that the additional galleries will increase attendance to more than 15,000 visitors a year, as well as encourage collectors in supporting the College museum.

To date the College has raised more than $734,000 in gifts and pledges for the $3.8 million expansion. Major contributors include Joan Danforth, ’53; Nancy de l’Arbre, ’46; Sara Swift, ’52, and the Ruth

and Vernon Taylor Foundation; J.S. Lee; and Ann Folz, ’50. In 1999 the Class of 1949 gave the museum renovation efforts a big boost with a donation of $348,996.

“The Mills College Art Museum expansion is attracting donors who appreciate

and want to support the legacy and future of fine arts at Mills,” says Dr. Milford. “We are delighted with the enthusiasm of our alumnae and friends of the museum who have already made generous gifts, and we encourage others to join them in support-

ing this exciting project.”

To find out more about supporting the museum expansion project, please contact Adam Blum, associate vice president for institutional advancement, at (510) 430-2364 or <adam@mills.edu>.

NINE NEW TRUSTEES APPOINTED TO BOARD

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he Mills College Board of Trustees appointed nine new members to three-year terms, effective July 1, 2004.

The new trustees represent a wide range of professional expertise in international women’s rights, finance, and government affairs. Their backgrounds are briefly described below.

James S. Andrasick is executive vice president of Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) and president and CEO of Matson Navigation Company, the A&B ocean transportation subsidiary. He earned a BA in engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and an MA in management science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Katherine August-deWilde is chief operating officer, executive vice president, and a director of First Republic Bank. She received an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Goucher College. She is currently vice chair of Town School for Boys in San Francisco. Her board service includes the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the advisory board of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Lois De Domenico has a record of extensive community service and philanthropy, particularly in the East Bay. She has been board president of the East Bay Community Foundation, the Oakland Ballet, and the Easter Seal Society, and a

board member of KQED and Chabot Space and Science Center. In recognition of her community leadership, she received an honorary degree from Mills at convocation in September 2003.

Former Oakland mayor (1991–99) Elihu Harris is the chancellor of Peralta Community College District. As mayor, he oversaw a budget of $600 million and the restructuring of numerous city departments and agencies. Harris earned a JD from the University of California, Davis, and an MA in public policy from UC Berkeley.

Sabrina Hellman is active in local community and philanthropic organizations including the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and the San Francisco Public Library. Ten members of her extended family have attended Mills; five have served as trustees including the late lifetime Trustee Elinor Raas Heller, ’25, and former chair of the Board of Trustees Warren Hellman.

Stephanie Levin, ’00, served as president of the Associated Students of Mills College and the Jewish Students Association while a student at Mills. Levin is currently engaged in camp directing at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and has taught and developed programs for students with special needs at many local synagogues.

The founder, chairman, and CEO of

Business Wire, Lorry I. Lokey, father of Ann Lokey, ’85, is a Bay Area business leader and philanthropist. A graduate of Stanford University, he has been honored by the Association for Women in Communications (1994 and 2003) for his commitment to women in the workplace. He received an honorary degree from Mills in May 2004 for his exceptional commitment to higher education and the advancement of women.

A major advocate for women’s rights worldwide, Thoraya Obaid, ’66, is executive director of the United Nations Population Fund. The first Saudi Arabian woman to receive a government scholarship to study in the United States, Obaid earned a BA in English from Mills. She holds a PhD and an MA in English from Wayne State University.

In May 2002 Obaid received an honorary degree from Mills and delivered the College’s Degree Day address.

An expert on gender in the workplace, Myra Strober is a professor of education and economics at Stanford University. She was a founding director of the Center for Research on Women, president of the International Association for Feminist Economics, and chair of the board of the National Council for Research on Women.

Strober has a PhD in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MA from Tufts University, and a BS from Cornell University.

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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

The Future of the Alumnae Association

by Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, Executive Director, Alumnae Association of Mills College

In the Fall Quarterly, Jane Cudlip King, ’42, reported on the results of the AAMC’s Task Force on Fundraising, which recently reviewed the AAMC’s fundraising efforts, structure, and relationship to the College. The report concluded that the AAMC needed to increase giving, either by allocating additional resources to improve our results, or by turning over our fundraising activities to the College’s Office of Institutional Advancement. If the Annual Fund were administered by the College, the AAMC’s independence would effectively end since we would no longer control our own financial interests.

This would remove our collective voice, which we need in support of student interests, among other things.

Since the article was written, members of the Board of Governors have met separately and with representatives of the College several times to consider the question of the AAMC’s future. In September, President Janet Holmgren addressed the Governors, stating that she was in favor of the AAMC moving forward by agreeing to have the College take over the Annual Fund. She also said the College’s Board of Trustees was being pressed by its auditors to discontinue writing off the maintenance of the AAMC’s facility, and management of payments for employee medical and other benefits, because the AAMC is a separate organization. She noted that if the Annual Fund did not come under the jurisdiction of the College, then the College would be forced to charge the AAMC fees for services that the College provide. (Maintenance of Reinhardt House by the College was part of the original agreement with the College when the building request was approved by the Trustees in 1948.)

In November, at a meeting of representatives of the AAMC and a subcommittee of the College’s Board of

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Trustees, President Holmgren described terms for the future of the AAMC. She said that there are two primary goals: to raise the maximum support for the College, and to provide quality support and programs for alumnae. She said she had concluded that our current model of an independent alumnae association is unusual and awkward, and that she had concerns about the legal, practical, and business constraints of the AAMC as its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. (Note: this concern has not been raised by any of the Association’s lawyers or auditors—or the IRS—over the past 64 years.) In the president’s opinion, the best way for the Annual Fund to move in a forward trajectory would be for the AAMC to dissolve as a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and merge with the College. The College would be responsible for fundraising and for supporting the alumnae relations work of the AAMC, and all staff and programs would be a part of the College. Current AAMC staff would be guaranteed jobs for six months.

There would be an agreement from the College to support alumnae programming, and the Association, which in this model would operate alumnae programs and possibly communications, would still have a board which would be advisory to the president of the College. The Association’s executive director would be hired by and report to the president of the College.

The College then moved ahead with its newly finalized plans to directly solicit alumnae for additional support for the Sesquicentennial Campaign, even though all gifts to the AAMC over the last seven years of the Campaign have counted toward the campaign totals.

These mailings were sent out during the same time as the regular AAMC Fall direct mail appeal.

In the meantime, the AAMC Board

of Governors established a Core Committee in October. At its December 1 meeting, the Governors defined the scope of the committee’s charge to “research, find, . . . and analyze facts, including, but not limited to, financial, structural, and legal; make recommendations no earlier than February 1, 2005, to the Governors in executive session concerning the scope and the outcome of negotiations with the College that the Core Committee proposes to conduct on the Governors’ behalf; conduct negotiations with the College or its designee on behalf of AAMC up to and including recommending that the Governors adopt a negotiated outcome as presented by the Core Committee.”

In addition, the Core Committee “shall have full authority to negotiate with the College, but any agreements so negotiated shall be finalized only upon the approval of the Governors and/or the membership, as may be required by bylaws or statute.” The intent of the Core Committee is to determine a structure which is in the best interests of the AAMC. Members of the AAMC’s Board of Governors recently received a petition signed by 12 members of the College’s Board of Trustees who are also alumnae.

This petition urged a favorable response to the College’s merger proposal. In a straw vote, however, taken at an earlier meeting, the majority of the Governors agreed that the AAMC should “keep its independence in the best fashion that we possibly can.” This was similar to 58 percent of the responses the AAMC received in the request for alumnae feedback (17 percent wrote in favor of having the Annual Fund operated by the College, while 25 percent did not register a preference.) Discussions and meetings will continue; we will continue to keep you advised.

MILLS MATTERS

NEWS OF THE COLLEGE

Mills Offers Innovative Nursing Program nursing profession.”

The novel program addresses the nationwide nursing shortage and helps students prepare for a career in a profession high in demand. In February 2004 the U.S. Department of Labor ranked registered nursing number one in terms of job growth.

The two schools share a rich educational heritage.

Mills College, founded in 1852, continues to educate and empower women today.

Established in 1909 as a nursing school, Samuel Merritt College now offers degree programs in five health care fields: nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant, and podiatric medicine. Its reputation for delivering quality education is well established. Housed on

the Oakland campus of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Samuel Merritt is the largest source of nurses in the greater East Bay, and its graduates are in high demand.

Students in the joint BSN program will enjoy the best

of both worlds: two years of liberal arts foundations in a supportive, bucolic environment, followed by two years of professional training in a diverse, urban setting. It doesn’t get much better than this.

received a $500,000, four-year research grant from the National Science Foundation to study the role of educational leadership in implementing science technology curricula at the junior and senior high school level.

Darius Milhaud Professor of Music Alvin Curran received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition. He plans to work on The Alvin Curran Fakebook, which he says will be available “to all musicians (including nonprofessionals) and students of every level

and musical interest.”

Distinguished Visiting Writer Victor LaValle was among ten authors recently named winners of the Whiting Writers’ Award, a $35,000 prize given annually to “emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.”

Assistant Professor of English Kathryn Reiss’ 12th children’s novel, Sweet Miss Honeywell’s Revenge: A Ghost Story, was published by Harcourt this past June. Her 13th novel, Blackthorn Winter, a murder mystery, has been accepted

for publication, also by Harcourt. A new work by Professor of Art Catherine Wagner was commissioned for the inaugural exhibition at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. She will also have a solo show in one of the galleries when the new museum opens in October 2005.

Associate Professor of History Andrew Workman was honored as a Partner in Preservation by the Oakland Heritage Alliance for his work with the Oakland Living History Program.

COURTESY OF SAMUEL MERRITT COLLEGE

Beginning fall 2005, Mills College introduces a unique Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, offered in cooperation with Samuel Merritt College, a 95-year-old educational institution for the health care professions.

Students who complete the two-year prenursing program at Mills with a 3.0 grade point average will be guaranteed admission to a two-year nursing theory and clinical program at Samuel Merritt College.

Mills Professor of Chemistry John Brabson, who helped get the program off the ground, says, “The Mills prenursing program will provide nursing students with a rigorous educational foundation in the liberal arts in preparation for assuming leadership positions in the

Faculty News Professor of English Elmaz Abinader was the first American representative to the Arab Writers Union Conference in Algeria.

Professor Emerita of English Chana Bloch was awarded a fellowship at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, to work on her new poetry manuscript, The Dark of the Day, which won the 2004 Alice Fay di Castagnola Award (for a manuscript-inprogress) from the Poetry Society of America. Professor of Education Jane Bowyer

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A Walk on the Berkeley’s Poetry Walk Honors Mills Poets

by Dorothy Bevard, MFA ’05

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and distinguished academic he City of Berkeley career with the singular vision wears its identity as the and commitment of the poet. center of creative thinkIt is only fitting that their ing and progressive vision work is now presented in such with pride. Its main streets— an enduring way. many named after esteemed At first glance, Addison thinkers from Euclid to Martin Street between Shattuck and Luther King, Jr.— are hung Milvia looks like many another with banners honoring the in the arts district; the block is more than 100 Nobel laurehome to two renowned theaters ates the city has produced. as well as several dance, exerAlong with its scholarly cise, and music studios. But renown, the community has a where throngs of students and highly literate and effusively commuters wait for the light at vocal citizenry; the Free the corner crosswalk, an inlaid Speech Movement, which native Ohlone song proclaims, ushered in the sweeping “See! I am dancing. On the rim social changes of the ’60s, of the world I am dancing!” The began at UC Berkeley. inscription marks the beginning Progressive politics and art of a trail of poems that invoke have long been embedded in the idiosyncratic spirit of the Berkeley’s cultural identity, city, inviting the curious to turn and the city’s admiration for down Addison Street, away its innovative creative artists from the crowd, and perhaps is now literally cemented into exchange the pedestrian view the sidewalks. Three distinfor an artist’s eye on this canvas guished Mills professors— of street.

Chana Bloch, Diana O’Hehir, The eye is drawn to the and Stephen Ratcliffe—are poems themselves, cast in iron among those honored by and porcelain and set into the having their poems permaChana Bloch, Diana O’Hehir, and Stephen Ratcliffe stroll along sidewalk, more than a hundred nently etched in the paveBerkeley’s Poetry Walk on Addison Street. in all. The Poetry Walk was ment of the Addison Street conceived by architect John Poetry Walk.

Roberts as a way to trace the city’s literary history while honAt Mills, Ratcliffe, O’Hehir, and Bloch have each headed oring its poets. Robert Hass, UC Berkeley professor and forthe English Department and the creative writing program. mer U.S. Poet Laureate, headed the committee that selected Together they have contributed more than 80 years of inspired teaching to the College. Each has infused a long the poems, many of which were written in Berkeley, and all of

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feeding of the discipline of writing. At Mills, I’m always reading for classes, talking to students about poems, thinking about poetry. And there’s the professional expectation that you’ll produce work. It has been fundamentally important and motivating.” He is a committed and prolific author, writing a poem a day in series that often span years without interruption.

There has been some attempt to place the Addison Street poems in context with their surroundings (Berkeley High graduate Thornton Wilder’s work is outside one of the theaters; music poems are anchored by the concert venues), so perhaps a wag thoughtfully placed the poems of Chana Bloch and Diana O’Hehir side by side in front of a gym near the Raw Energy Juice Cafe. Both poems are muscular, sensuous, and embodied perspectives, and the two colleagues are longtime supporters of each other’s work. O’Hehir, who began her Mills teaching career in 1961, initiated the first creative writing classes at the College. A veteran social activist, she started writing poetry as a young union organizer whose husband was head of the Communist Party in Cumberland, Maryland. As McCarthyism spread, and the couple began to be persecuted for their politics, she wrote poetry.

“At first I just wrote to get the feelings out, which indirectly is a political act, but my work is now directly political,” the poet and fiction writer said of Witnesses, her latest volume of poems, which she describes as “first-person accounts by victims of society.” She also has a book contract to write three mystery novels and has finished the first of the series.

Themes of death and resurrection are skillfully woven in her work with reverence and wry wit.

Creative Side

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which express some aspect of the city’s unique character.

There is a wide variety in tone. Shakespeare’s “Tempest” swirls outside the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, while Leonard Lipton’s “Puff the Magic Dragon” frolics in the autumn mist across the street. Woven between the panels of poetry are animal pawprints, vines, colored tiles, and stones. Bricks imprinted with messages in dozens of languages exhort the reader to make art. Diverse cultural perspectives are represented in the poems, ranging from the anonymous writings of a Chinese immigrant found on the walls of Angel Island’s detention center to those of former UC Berkeley professors June Jordan and Seamus Heaney. Women are also well represented on the Poetry Walk, among them former Mills instructors Ntozake Shange and Lyn Hejinian.

Berkeley’s political activism speaks out from the street, where Joe McDonald’s antiwar anthem “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-ToDie Rag” and poems such as Leonard Nathan’s “The Election” reflect the perspectives on display in the adjoining garage’s gallery windows, which recently housed an exhibit called In the Shadow: A Culture of Fear and Violence. On the street below, an untitled Chana Bloch poem from Stephen Ratcliffe’s Cloud/Ridge Diana O’Hehir series floats, its crisp visual images seeming more painted than penned, a reminder of the sustaining natural beauty of the Bay Area (see photo on page 12).

Ratcliffe described the relationship between writing poetry and his 20 years of teaching at Mills. “There has been an immensely rich PEG SKORPINSKI

Home Free Inch by inch along the bed Growing more compact, his arms pulled up like bird’s wings (My father is almost ninety), I love you, I say, over and over, Until I read in Time Magazine that saying this holds the dying back.

They get polite; they hang around to thank you.

I love you, I say, Under my breath.

In Bangkok you can buy a bird in front of the temple For twenty cents. It’s not to eat Nor to listen to nor to admire but to Set Free.

Spring the door with your plastic Diner’s Card, wait for the scrabble, the Head poked out the door, air by your face, And up he goes.

—Diana O’Hehir

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Stephen Ratcliffe has taught at Mills since 1984. His poem, from the Cloud/Ridge series, seems more painted than penned.

The Mills professor emerita gives much of the credit for her success to her colleague Chana Bloch. The two have been supporting each other’s work since O’Hehir heard Bloch at a reading and, “with Josephine Miles’ help, recruited her” to leave UC Berkeley and teach at Mills, which she did in 1973.

“Without Chana, I probably wouldn’t have written at all,” she said recently. “She was enormously generous, enthusiastic, and perceptive, and I was hungry for the intellectual, creative conversations she brought to Mills.”

Though O’Hehir left Mills in 1992 after 31 years of teaching, the two still meet regularly to exchange and critique each other’s poems.

Bloch is an acclaimed translator, as are several of the poets honored on Addison Street, evidence of the rich academic tradition of the city’s artists. In addition to her three books of poetry, Bloch is an eminent Hebrew scholar and cotranslator of the biblical Song of Songs as well as works by contemporary artists. The earnest strength and musicality of her poetic voice is evident in her teaching as well; she is a beloved figure on the Mills campus and in Berkeley, where she has lived since 1967.

Her “Natural History” was selected for the Poetry Walk, its images evoking the physical origin of feeling that is characteristic of her work, though a slightly different version appears in the The Addison Street Anthology: Berkeley’s Poetry Walk (Heyday Books, 2004). “I revised the poem after I submitted it for the plaque,” she explained. “A different version appears in the anthology. Then I revised it some more. So even when something is cast in bronze, it’s not final for a poet who can’t help tinkering.”

Natural History It takes a long time to make a meadow.

First you need glaciers to gouge out a lake.

Then reeds grow, the lake fills with silt and mud and finally grass.

It takes a long time to have a feeling, even the ones that spring up unwanted like weeds.

Such a deep gouging out.

So many dead trees with their litter of fallen leaves to beget a single joy that turns to the light. Look at the broken hopes up and down the trunk.

Each one could have been a branch.

What a terrible gulf between heart and mouth.

And the words fall like belated raindrops the day after a storm when you shake the tree, if you happen to shake it.

—Chana Bloch “This is what makes Berkeley special,” Bloch said of the Poetry Walk. “What other city would honor poets?”

Dorothy Bevard, MFA ’05, is a graduate of UC Berkeley and is studying creative writing at Mills. A teacher and community activist, she is currently at work on her first novel.

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Mills Sesquicentennial Campaign Concludes in December 2004

Over $130 Million Raised!

Historic Campaign Surpasses $100 million goal by 30% Mills College extends deep appreciation to more than 10,000 donors including nearly 9,000 alumnae and alumni (60% of all living alumnae/i) Exceeding the goal by this impressive margin reflects your enduring commitment to the lasting value of a Mills education.

Thank you.

A full report will come to you in the next Quarterly.

MILLS COLLEGE MUSIC DEPARTMENT CONCERT SERIES

Music by Dave Brubeck Friday, April 8, 2004, 8 p.m.

Mills College Concert Hall $12 general admission $6 seniors and non-Mills students Tickets may be purchased at the door For information, call the Mills Concert Line: (510) 430-2296 The Program: Quartet San Francisco, 2004–05 Performing Artists-in-Residence at Mills, performs music by Dave Brubeck and Mills College student composers.

Plus Brubeck at Mills, a recreation of the Dave Brubeck Octet by the Brubeck Institute Young Artists from the University of the Pacific, with guest performer William O. Smith.

Special cameo appearance by Dave Brubeck.

Mills President Janet L. Holmgren will present Dave Brubeck, ’46, and Iola Brubeck, ’47, with the Presidential Award of Excellence.

The Quartet San Francisco Residency is made possible by a grant from elfenworks—proudly supporting the arts.

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DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

PEG SKORPINSKI SHARON K. TATAI, ’80

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DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

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Clockwise from top left: Cynthia Guevara, ’04, takes a photo during Reunion 2004. • Janet L. Holmgren, president of Mills College, and Thomasina Woida, ’80, president of the Alumnae Association of Mills College, at one of the many gatherings during Reunion. • Kimberley Stanley, ’99, at the president’s garden reception. • Liz Wills, Elli Armstrong Gray, Aletha Waite Silcox, and Marilyn Morris Campbell, all members of the Class of 1954, prepare to march from Reinhardt Alumnae House to the Music Building for Convocation. • The Janus Duo, Barbara Rowan Whang, ’54, and Francis Whang, performed a concert for two pianos, one of the highlights of Reuion. • Jane Cudlip King, ’42, pointing, leading Jane’s Stroll, a historic tour of the campus.

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Clockwise from top left: Maurine Martin Harkness, ’71, and her mother, Geraldine Stevens Toms, ’44, attended Reunion together. • Liz Wills, ’54, and Aletha Waite Silcox, ’54. • Ariani Richards Szykier, ’99, Sara Stewart, ’99, Maria Peinado, ’99, and Kimberly Stanley, ’99, at the president’s garden reception. • Daljit Bains, ’99, and Lisa Swanson, ’99, enjoy a moment with Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45.

• Nangee Warner Morrison, ’63, and Peggy Weber, ’65, have been friends since their years at Mills. • During Reunion, the East Bay Regional Park District held a picnic and ceremony to name a 735acre redwood forest for Aurelia Henry Reinhardt. On hand to celebrate were Dr. Reinhardt’s grandson, Dr. George Reinhardt, shown with Flora Lynn Kirschner Isaacson, Sondra Williams, and Jane Boardman Mowry, all members of the Class of 1954.

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BOOK SHELF Jay DeFeo and The Rose Edited by Jane Green, ’93, and Leah Levy The University of California Press <www.ucpress.edu> DeFeo’s mammoth painting The Rose, a masterpiece in the art world, remained hidden behind a wall in the San Francisco Art Institute for two decades. This book examines how such a fascinating and disturbing paradox came to pass and documents the restorative process that unearthed The Rose and placed it in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Amid full-page photographs of DeFeo’s paintings and scenes from her life, 11 essays by various authors discuss everything you would want to know about DeFeo’s career as an artist, from what transpired during the eight years she spent on The Rose to the feminist and formalist themes represented in her painting.

Born in 1929 in New Hampshire, DeFeo lived most of her life in the Bay Area and began painting prolifically in the 1950s as part of the Beat community in San Francisco. Toward the end of the decade, her art was innovative enough to attract the attention of New York museum curators. Most famously, DeFeo refused to include The Rose in Dorothy Miller’s noteworthy 1959 exhibition Sixteen Americans, because DeFeo was reluctant to submit a painting she considered unfinished. It would take six more years and being evicted from her San Francisco apartment before she deemed The Rose—now weighing nearly two tons—complete. Due to DeFeo’s inability to renew interest in her seemingly forgotten painting and its immense size, The Rose languished at the site of its last exhibition—the San Francisco Art Institute—from 1969 up through DeFeo’s teaching career at Mills in the 1980s and her death in 1989. But in 1995 and also in 2003, the American public could finally see The Rose on display at the Whitney Museum.

The book illustrates how this seemingly magical reappearance of DeFeo’s painting took more than two years of painstaking restoration before it could even be transported from San Francisco to the Whitney in New York. The book also explores and questions the myth of DeFeo being dangerously obsessed with The Rose to the point where her artistic career stagnated after its completion.

After reading this intensive study about DeFeo’s life, it’s clear, as suggested by the title, that DeFeo and The Rose are inseparable.

—Ajay Rao, MFA ’05

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From Vietnam to Hollywood: Dinh Q. Lê Christopher Miles and Moira Roth Marquand Books, Inc. <www.marquand.com>; <http://store.yahoo.com/artbook/0970639457.html> Dinh Q. Lê singlemindedly collects photographs in a never-ending search to find the photos that his family lost in its flight from the Khmer Rouge when they invaded Vietnam in 1977. He haunts second-hand stores in Ho Chi Minh City, ever watchful for an image that bears a resemblance to one of his family members. Mills Professor of Art History Moira Roth interviews Lê and uncovers a painful dream that could be a shared memory with other Cambodians forced to flee the Khmer Rouge. Rushed from his house as a young boy, Lê forgets to pack the camera he owns and laments his inability to record the unfolding tragedy around him as millions of people are forced to migrate or face the likelihood of death. Lê’s anecdote is only a dream, but a dream too credible to dismiss as fiction. It’s also the dream that embodies Lê’s drive as a photographer and an artist: to record memories that have gone unrecognized in descriptions of the Vietnam War in American history courses.

The book describes how Lê’s photography brings to the surface Vietnamese and Cambodian recollections of that war and its aftermath. An extended interview between Roth and Lê reveals the photographer to be extremely aware of how his art retells the suffering of the 1970s from a Southeast Asian perspective. As Lê literally weaves together on fabric the photographic mosaics that compose his pieces, he illustrates how the traumatic memories of Vietnamese and Cambodian individuals piece together a collective untold history of the Vietnam War. Lê is also conscious of his American audience; he spent his adolescence growing up in Los Angeles, so the mentality of an American who views his work isn’t foreign to him. Reproduced in full-page color throughout the book, Lê’s photographic mosaics juxtapose images of Vietnamese and Cambodian victims and heartbroken American soldiers alongside images of Martin Sheen and Robert DeNiro from Hollywood films about the Vietnam War. Lê’s art ignores the distinctions between fact and memory and between film and history to honor all the victims of the Vietnam War. If the purpose of art is to examine the most difficult subjects courageously, then such art resides in this book.

—Ajay Rao, MFA ’05

Memoir of a Trustbuster: A Lifelong Adventure with Japan

by Eleanor Hadley University of Hawai‘i Press <www.uhpress.hawaii.edu> Eleanor Hadley, ’38, has written a personal odyssey of her involvement with Japan from the time she participated in three American-Japan student conferences, once as the Mills College delegate and once as chair between 1935 and 1937.

After graduating in 1938 with a major in politics, economics, and philosophy, she spent two formative years in Japan, studying the language and traveling, including side trips to Shanghai and Nanking. In 1944, having completed the course work for a doctorate in economics at Radcliffe, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she was instrumental in drafting the Basic Directive to General MacArthur to implement measures intended to increase economic competition as a prerequisite to political democracy.

Eleanor’s special contribution was in the break-up of the Zaibatsu (the four large, dominant industrial and banking combinations).

After a year and a half in Japan, Eleanor returned to Radcliffe to finish her doctorate in September 1947. Then followed 17 years in the wilderness, as far a she was concerned. Her highest security clearance was cancelled without an explanation (and later demonstrated to be without reason). It is a haunting reminder of the fear of Washington bureaucrats and others of anyone with liberal views and social contacts with dubious friends. Again and again potential jobs failed to materialize as bureau chiefs feared losing a slot while waiting for a security clearance for her. Finally in 1996, thanks to an ingenious scheme

by Senator Scoop Jackson of Washington, she took an unpaid consultancy at the State Department while the FBI and the CIA undertook a lengthy investigation, and her name was cleared.

Her story is one of energy, high intelligence, optimism, and the conviction that one person can make a difference. Her book is a testament to that philosophy. I recommend it.

—Professor Emerita Marion Ross, ’44 Stepcoupling: Creating and Sustaining a Strong Marriage in Today’s Blended Family

by Susan Wisdom, ’64, LPC, and Jennifer Green; Three Rivers Press <http://www.randomhouse.com/ crown/trp.html> With the divorce rate stuck at 50 percent for two decades or more, nearly everyone has at least been exposed to the trials and tribulations of forming a stepfamily: the sabotaging ex-spouses, the clashes over parenting styles, the competition between her kids and his. In Stepcoupling, with writer Jennifer Green, Susan Hutchens Wisdom, ’64, has a unique and illuminating take on how to survive such traumas and even thrive. A therapist with 18 years of counseling divorcing adults and stepfamilies—and a successful stepmom of 28 years—Wisdom focuses not on the family but on the couple. When the union is strong, she maintains, it can withstand these challenges and strengthen the blended family. When

the stepcouple neglects their bond, however, the stresses of combining two families can weaken and crumble the most well-intentioned, loving marriage.

With chapters on expectations, setting boundaries, role revisions, parenting styles, and values, Wisdom offers expert, concrete advice for common scenarios such as a teen rejecting a stepparent’s authority, constant fighting among stepsiblings, and one spouse simply not liking the other’s child. The scenarios are presented in the anonymous voices of real stepcouples, alongside Wisdom’s well-organized, clearly written responses. Throughout, her touchstone is always, Remember why you married each other.

If stepcouples make that their touchstone, they will work harder to avoid emotional traps and to endure tough situations.

And some situations, she is quick to acknowledge, are very tough. It takes time, for instance, for a child to come to terms with a parent’s remarriage; meanwhile, the stepparent is asked not to take hurtful treatment personally, to ride it out and avoid lashing back. Stepparenting is often a thankless job, with sacrifices not always acknowledged or rewarded. On the other hand, when the stepparent feels real resentment of a sullen, resistant stepchild, Wisdom provides ways to reduce that resentment so it doesn’t taint the family blending or, most importantly, the stepcouple itself.

Wisdom’s book covers just about every issue likely to come up. The chapters on blending styles and embracing values could be a blueprint for not just for remarriages but for first marriages as well. And the title of the penultimate chapter— “Empowering Everyone”—encapsulates her inspiring, practical approach to making stepfamilies work.

—Pat Soberanis What Ever Happened to My Aunt Erica’s Fabulous Stradivarius? The Morini Family and Other Musical Mysteries

by Helga Dudman (Helga Wolski Dudman, ’42) Carta, Jerusalem. Distributed in the United States by Eisenbrauns, <www.eisenbrauns.com>.

Helga Dudman’s aunt, Erica Morini, was one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. Her death, and the theft of her Stradivarius, were announced on November 3, 1995. This charming book covers a variety of subjects, including the history of the violin making, profiles of virtuosos of the instrument, the interesting story of Dudman’s family, and what is known about the disappearance of “Aunt Erica’s Fabulous Stradivarius.”

“Was the thief a desolate pseudo-violinist who, if nothing else, longed to hold under his chin the very instrument created by the ‘Great Luthier of Cremona,’ with which Erica dazzled audiences in the great concert halls of four continents?”

Dudman wonders. “The speculations are endless,” she continues, and notes that the mystery may never be solved.

Following Dudman’s interesting family around the world is part of the fun of this book. Her parents were both musicians; her father was a violinist in the San Francisco Symphony, and her mother, Erica’s sister, a pianist. If you like a good mystery and have an ear for classical music, this book is for you.

—David M. Brin, MA ’75 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY W I N T E R 2 0 0 5

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Crafting Community An Age-old Pastime Reappears with a Modern Twist

by Moya Stone, MFA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;03

DONNA CASTRO

Marty Quimby and Georgian Bahlke did it in the 1950s. Nangee Warner Morison did it in the 1960s.

Clara Parkes and Katherine Duran are doing it now. What is this craze that has captivated the Mills woman through the decades?

Why, knitting, of course!

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was knitting with bone needles that I Although knitting on campus is visThe women of Mills College have been got from my mother and that she got ible and organized now, in the past it stitching away in the background for from her mother. I was gripping the was just something you did on your generations, but the latest trend to needles so tightly that when I stood own, because there weren’t any knittake up the needles has pushed the up, they snapped, leaving stitches on ting groups. Most knitting was done in knitter into plain view. Knitters are and off four pieces of needles.” dorm rooms and at meetings. Some everywhere on campus—in the Tea While President Aurelia Henry devoted knitters stitched while at Shop, on the plaza, even in classes.

Reinhardt would never have allowed campus assemblies, though not withOnce a week you can find a gathering knitting at assemblies or in classrooms out the occasional mishap, as Bronnie of Mills Stitch ’n’ Bitch, a catchphrase during her tenure (from 1916 to 1943), Tuchman Blaugrund, ’64, remembers. that originated in the 1950s and is now Professor of English Imogene Walker, at “During one assembly,” she says, “I widespread among knitting groups.

Mills from 1952 to 1972, not only Started in spring 2004 by Mills approved of knitting in classes, she staff member and graduate stuTODAY, YOUNG WOMEN encouraged it. Janine Volkmar, ’70, dent Kiem Sie Skelton, Mills ARE BLATANTLY RECLAIMING remembers, “Professor Walker Stitch ’n’ Bitch attracts both stuWHAT THEIR MOTHERS wanted all the members of her dents and staff.

“It’s been great,” says ONCE REBUFFED BY TAKING modern drama seminar to knit, crochet, or embroider while we Skelton. “I knew there were quite UP KNITTING AGAIN. met. Her feeling was that keeping a few knitters here at Mills, and I the hands busy freed the mind.” wanted to tap into that commuKnitting in class today is a more nity.” As many as 12 women Marin Camille Hood, ’05 (left), is pleased with her progress, while common sight, and many faculty meet every week in the Mills Hall Katrina Wardell, ’07, focuses on her handiwork. members seem accepting of the living room to stitch and chat. practice. Professor of English “My hope was to open it up to Cynthia Scheinberg says, “I don’t all of Mills,” says Skelton. mind knitting, unless it inhibits a “Mostly it’s been students and student’s engagement with the staff, but I hope some faculty will texts and class participation.” join us in the future.”

Many young knitters are new Katherine Duran, ’06, is a reguto the craft, but in the 1950s lar attendee of Mills Stitch ’n’ women usually came to Mills well Bitch. A junior majoring in math, versed in the art of stitching.

Duran has been knitting for a couGeorgian Bahlke, ’51, started knitple of months. “It’s relaxing and ting when she was in sixth grade. something to do besides study“That was when World War II was ing,” says Duran. “It’s hours of fun getting going, and lots of people for the cost.” were knitting for the troops overThe current gathering of Mills seas and for the people getting knitters isn’t the first. Back in bombed in Britain,” says Bahlke.

1997, Caitlin Youngquist, ’97, “Our sixth-grade teacher thought started a Mills knitting club. “I we should learn to knit, so the started the club my senior year, whole class, including the boys, mostly because I loved working learned.” with my hands and wanted to Most new knitters work on share with others,” she says. Every scarves or maybe sweaters, but in Thursday at noon, several Mills the 1950s the project of choice stitchers would convene in the was argyle socks for boyfriends.

Mary Atkins Lounge or on the Tea Alice London Bishop, ’58, and her Shop steps. Youngquist’s club husband still have the argyles she included crocheters, quilters, and knitted for him when they were embroiderers as well as knitters. engaged. “It took me two years “If someone wanted to learn some and the help of two patient roomtype of handwork,” she says, “we mates to finish them,” she says, were there to teach them.”

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CLARE POTTER

founder and publisher of the “and when they were finished, online knitting magazine Knitter’s one had a foot that was noticeably shorter than the other. When Review <knittersreview.com>.

I gave them to my fiancé, with During a prosperous career in deep apologies, he told me that high-tech publishing, Parkes felt he had one foot that was shorter she was becoming too disconthan the other and that these nected from what she really would be perfect socks!” loved. “The more successful I By the 1960s, boyfriends became,” Parkes says, “the hardwere out of luck, because er it seemed to bridge the gap women were knitting for thembetween what I did for a living selves. Nangee Warner Morison, and what I loved, and this was ’63, knitted a mohair skirt and deeply troubling.” sweater, although not as a set. “I An active knitter, Parkes disstill have the skirt,” she says. “I covered a void in reviews on used bright colors, which was yarn products. “I wasn’t getting very California at the time.” any help from the knitting magMorison continues to knit— azines,” she says. “Whenever mostly scarves now, but she still they mentioned a yarn, it was has an eye for bright colors. always in glowing, press-release, “The yarns now are so fabulous please-the-advertisers terms. and colorful, and there’s so There were no other sources of much variety,” she says. information.” With that in mind, At least two Mills knitters have Parkes decided an online alterused their stitching to make a gift native was in order, and in to the College. Georgian September 2000 the first Knitter’s Review was launched.

Simmonds Bahlke, ’51, and Marty Today it has 18,000 readers and McMaster Quimby, ’51, collaborat26,000 forum members, and the ed on a handknit sweater for the site receives 2.5 million hits a College Reunion auction in 2001. month.

Bahlke remembers, “When we “Our goal is to provide qualidecided to have an art and craft ty product information,” Parkes auction, Marty and I agreed that says, “to help serious enthusishe would spin and dye the yarn Top: Dot-com refugee Clara Parkes, ’91, now publishes the online asts—regardless of skill or expeand I would make the sweater.” knitting magazine Knitter’s Review. rience level—make informed That collaboration resulted in a Knitting group coordinator Kiem Sie Skelton (left) and Marin Camille decisions and, ultimately, have a beautiful aboriginal-design Hood, ’05, wear hand-knit scarves as they work on new projects. more fulfilling lifelong knitting sweater snapped up by Mills staff experience.” member Mary Ann Wight. knitters in the United States—4 million A fulfilling lifelong experience is The fashion for knitting at Mills new to the craft in the last few years. what binds knitters through the years. reflects the trend off campus as well.

The percentage of knitters under the Knitting is gaining popularity among Whether in plain view or in the backage of 45 has doubled to 17.2 million young women because it’s a way to ground, Mills women have continued since 1996, and among this new group redefine feminism for themselves. the age-old craft of knitting, and in the are students, professionals, artists, Women of the 1970s and ’80s felt they process have stitched together a sense mothers, grandmothers, and every had to reject all things traditionally of community. other type of woman you can think of. done by women if they were to be It’s all part of a swing back to simplicity Moya Stone, MFA ’03, is a writer and taken seriously in a man’s world. and a desire to get away from modern knitter based in Moraga, California.

Today, young women are blatantly Knitting is creative, technology. reclaiming what their mothers once Among her writing projects is a chilportable, and comforting in these anxrebuffed by taking up knitting again. dren’s book about a little girl obsessed ious times.

According to the best-selling book, with knitting. Moya thanks all the Mills At least one alumna is making a livalumnae who responded to her call for Stitch ’N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook ing from knitting, having been an avid knitting stories.

by Debbie Stoller (Workman Publishing, knitter at Mills. Clara Parkes, ’91, is the 2003), there are more than 38 million DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

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Profiles

I NTREPID TR AV ELER: L E A H H A R D C A S T L E M A C N E I L , M A ’ 5 1

by Pat Soberanis that the GI Bill didn’t quite cover her expenses, so she approached the AAMC. Director Peg Deane, ’41, arranged for Leah to work her first year as a kind of nanny for the College president at the time, Lynn T. White, jr. His wife “just needed help getting her four kids to bed,” Leah says. Room and board included, she lived in the guest room of the President’s House and ate with Orchard House residents. During her second year, Leah served as teaching assistant for Margaret Prall, who taught music history and music appreciation. She wrote her thesis under the guidance of Dr. Margaret Lyon, the influential and beloved head of the music department.

“I loved graduate school,” Leah says. “It was the first time I had experienced a real education.” With Darius Milhaud, Egon Petri, and the Budapest String Quartet in residence, “I had a wonderful time.” Her experience explains her supreme commitment to Mills: “I appreciated getting the scholarship, appreciated my education,” Leah says.

After Mills, Leah worked briefly as a music therapist at the Sonoma State Home, the state-run residential facility for the developmentally disabled.

She met Neil in San Francisco while taking a folk dancing class at University of California Extension for her job. They married in 1952, and she soon became a full-time wife and mother. The two still pitch in at the San Francisco business Neil started in 1950, Spiral Binding, which is now under their son Doug’s leadership.

Of their travels, Neil says, “Nothing revolutionary happened” on their trips. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t had unscheduled adventures. “I broke my wrist in a 30,000year-old cave on the north coast of Spain four years ago,” Leah says. “It was very wet, very sandy, so even though I did have adequate shoes, boom, I went down.” Her wrist had to be set—and later reset—at local hospitals.

She finished the last two weeks of the trip, traveling to many cities, without the benefit of prescription pain killers. “It was painful, but I didn’t want to go home early.”

The intrepid explorers have yet to visit Alaska, though. “We’ll go to Alaska when we’re old, quips Leah, a sprightly 79. Neil is 84. At this rate, they’ll be cruising the Aleutians at 100.

DONNO CASTRO

Mills alumnae are known for their propensity to travel, but few could beat the record of Leah Hardcastle Mac Neil, MA ’51, and her husband, Neil.

“We’ve probably taken three or four trips a year, for 20 or 25 years now,” Leah says. “All but the first three or four were Mills trips.”

That’s probably more than 60 trips altogether—to Africa, Russia, Cuba, China (three times), the Middle East, and all around the United States. They’ve been to every continent but Antarctica and every region of the United States.

Leah is also an exemplary volunteer for Mills, starting with the Oakland AAMC branch’s Bargain Box thrift shop on Fruitvale Avenue in the late 1960s. Since then she has served on the Board of Governors three times, as treasurer, and, beginning in 1990, on the finance committee.

Before Mills she was just as involved in the local council of the Campfire Girls while her daughter and two sons were growing up.

Volunteering is “just a way of life,” Leah says. “You can go through life and eat three meals a day and sleep eight hours. But meanwhile, if you can make a difference, you should do it.”

Between Leah’s volunteer spirit and her travel bug, who better to lead the AAMC Travel Committee?

She has done so with untiring devotion since the committee’s inception in 1992.

Whereas professionals run most College travel programs, the AAMC program is exceptional in that it is run completely by volunteers.

“We had so much to learn,” Leah says. “We started with one trip.” Now they’re up to a dozen a year.

She makes a point of involving the Mills community in any way she can. On domestic trips, Leah arranges for a local alumna to host a gathering for the travelers. On special trips, she’ll have a Mills faculty or staff member serve as host. “Travel is such a delight,” she says. “It’s important, and not only to be able to make money for the Alumnae Association.

The issue is to bring people together. People feel comfortable on a Mills trip, where they share an identity.”

Born and raised in San Jose, Leah came to Mills in a roundabout way. After earning a degree in sociology and psychology at San Jose State College, she was accepted into a Master Class with Egon Petri, the renowned pianist who was on the Mills faculty, in summer 1948. That experience, coupled with the GI Bill (she was a Navy WAVE), inspired her to apply for the master’s program in music. When she arrived, she found

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Profiles

A PA S S ION F O R LIB RA RIES: D E B O R A H J A C O B S , ’ 7 4

by David M. Brin, MA ’75 With a dream to change the world, Deborah Jacobs, ’74, had originally planned to become a lawyer. One day during her junior year at Mills, a revelation struck her: she could more effectively change the world by becoming a librarian than a lawyer. Jacobs has implemented her vision to use libraries to improve the “social fabric of our cities and our neighborhoods,” and along the way has touched the lives of countless people.

Coming from the relatively small Corvallis– Benton County Public Library in Oregon, Deborah Jacobs might not have seemed like a logical choice for the high-profile job of Seattle city librarian when she was hired in 1997. But her record in Oregon was impressive: she rebuilt the library ahead of schedule and under budget and led the successful fight against a state ballot measure to ban library books that “promote or endorse homosexuality.” (She was rewarded with hate mail for that effort.)

One of those making the decision to hire

Deborah was the president of the library board, Betty Jane Narver, ’56, known to many of her friends at Mills as “B.J.” Betty Jane, who died in 2001, became a mentor to Deborah. In a speech given at the dedication of the Betty Jane Narver Reading Room, Deborah praised Betty Jane. “A passion for libraries and a commitment to what they symbolize in society forged a special bond between Betty Jane and me,” she said. “We shared a vision of the public library as a government agency essential to our democratic way of life and as a community gathering place for us to share our views, our wisdom, and our dreams.”

Deborah arrived in Seattle shortly after the city’s voters had narrowly defeated a $155 million library bond issue. She went to work with energy and perseverance, attending more than 100 community meetings in three months, and she helped convince voters to approve a larger

Below: The Betty Jane Narver Reading Room on Level 10 seats 400 and has vignette views of Elliott Bay. The highest point of the ceiling reaches 40 feet. Right: Deborah Jacobs, ’74

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

bond issue than the one they had rejected earlier. In fact, the $196.4 million measure was the single largest bond issue for libraries in U.S. history. It was part of a $267 million plan to replace the downtown library, renovate 22 neighborhood libraries, and build five new branch libraries, with the additional money coming from private funds, the sale of surplus library property, and other city government sources.

The decision to hire architect Rem Koolhaas to design the new central library was controversial, but ultimately it paid off. The innovative new building has drawn accolades from patrons and visitors since it opened in 2004. Writing in the New York Times, Herbert Muschamp stated: “In more than 30 years of writing about architecture, this is the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review.”

Deborah was involved with all the details of design and monitored the construction in a hard hat after work. “There’s never been a great building without a strong client in the history of the world,” Muschamp wrote, “and Jacobs is now up there with popes and princes as an instigator of fabulous cities.”

Deborah proudly points out that in the new building there are 1,000 public computers that get constant use, and that the number of books being checked out has gone up dramatically since the new building opened. “It’s beautiful, it’s amazing, and it works,” she says of the new library.

One of her current projects is to reach out to the immigrant community by offering library services that will help them become successful members of society. Whatever she does, Deborah Jacobs addresses the task with enthusiasm, and she continues to show that librarians can indeed change the world.

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PASSAGES Gifts in Honor of

Gifts in Memory of

Ruth Blandford, ’25, 1902–2004

Richard and Nancy Sirmay Banker, ’67, by Shawn Chapler, Bonnie Church, Cathy Danielson, Heather Dunmire, Nancy Anne Freedell, Susan Naset, Dan Peterson, Belinda Steyer, Kristine Strong, Mark Tancil, Amelia Williams, Anita Yue, and several anonymous alumnae donors Class of 1952, by Darlene Mahnke Simpson-Brown, ’52 The women of the Class of 1957 who have made it this far! by Deborah Beck Rosenberg, ’57 Elizabeth Peck Hutchins, ’47,

by Emmie Peck White, ’35 Margaret Freedman Lemucchi, ’62,

by Harold Freedman Marcia McElvain, ’61 and Margaret Stine,

by Mary Doerfler Luhring, ’61, Betsy Frederick, ’61 and Donna Riback, ’61 Jennifer Moxley, ’93,

by Michelle Balovich, ’03 Eleanore Lundegaard Nissen, ’42,

by Laura Lundegaard Anderson, ’45 My Reunion,

by Deborah Feldman, ’89 Kathleen Schwartz, ’69, in celebration of her marriage,

by Dr. Marion Ross, ’44 Shirley Weishaar,

by Michelle Balovich, ’03 Muriel Whitcomb,

by Michelle Balovich, ’03 Emmie Peck White, ’35—Happy 90th Birthday! by Phyllis Cole Bader, ’35, and Elise Feldman Rosenfeld, ’47

John Arabian, son of Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45, by Katharine Mulky Warne, ’45, and Emmie Peck White, ’35 Marsha De Pue Arnold, ’55,

by Terry Findley Ruth Blandford, ’25,

by Harriet Bradley Tegart, ’42 Marjorie “Midge” McLaren Bolton, ’35,

by Melody Fujimori, ’69, and Anne Marie Kodama, ’91 Janet Cutler Buchanan, ’38,

by Phyllis Cole Bader, ’35, Elise Feldman Rosenfeld, ’47, Harriet Bradley Tegart, ’42, and Emmie Peck White, ’35 Beverley Nielsen Canterbury, ’50,

by Barbara Shaw Barck, ’50 Deceased members of the Class of 1952, by Darlene Mahnke Simpson-Brown, ’52 Dr. Rona Murray Dexter, ’45, by Katharine Mulky Warne, ’45 Elsie Finch, mother of Christine Finch Clancy, ’71, MA ’72,

by Beverly Curwen, ’71 Julia McBride Frantz, ’46, by Lucile Pedler Griffiths, ’46, MA ’47, Meta Anderson Stanley, ’35, and Betsy Taves Whitman, ’46 Bernice Corvello Goethals, ’47,

by Betsy Becker Epperson, ’49 Mary Compton Goni, ’22, by Mary Johnson Foraker, ’55 Patricia Green Herbert, ’39, by Doris Mount, ’40 Mrs. Constance J. Holm, mother of Molly C. Holm, ’79, and Christine Holm Kline, ’67, by Carl Holm Mary Bell Woodall Hughes, ’43,

by Margery Foote Meyer, ’45 The anniversary of Norman Jensen’s death,

The defining aspect of Ruth Blandford’s life and poetry was the mysterious neuromuscular disorder she contracted just after her father died, when she was two years old.

“This illness left me with poor coordination,” she wrote in a 1989 bio for longtime Quarterly editor Marge Miskelly Thomas, MA ’67. Eventually she gained strength enough to hike glacial mountains, but she could never manage finer movements such as writing with a pencil, and relied instead on the typewriter. “When I decided upon Mills,” Ruth wrote, “Mother wrote Dr. [Aurelia] Reinhardt to tell her about my handicap. She replied that there was only one real requirement—the ability to do the work.” After a difficult first year, Ruth went on to graduate with her class, after which she returned to her native Portland, Oregon. Dean Hettie Belle Ege made note of her accomplishment: “You have shown fine courage and determination, and I congratulate you most heartily on your success.” In 1930, on a trip with her mother to Europe, Ruth discovered she wanted to write. “In poetry I found a form of writing which required only a minimum use of the pencil,” she wrote. “Writing these poems has given me great happiness unlike any other happiness.” Indeed, her writing cemented a long correspondence with Professor of English E. O. James, who once said of her poetry, “I have never heard one false or empty syllable from you yet.” The working world was not so kind to Ruth; after 20 years of discrimination, she finally found a good job as a caseworker for the Multnomah County, Oregon, welfare department. She spent ten years there, studying social work at the University of Washington along the way. In 1975, when Ruth was in her 70s, she published Hewn Like Stone: Poems; many of these poems articulated the difficulties of her illness.

Yet they were always without self-pity. In her bio, Ruth included a poem: I am an Old Woman with bony hands.

I must prepare my body to return it to God. I only borrowed it to receive his beautiful gift of life.

MILLS

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Passages

by Judith Hill Jensen, ’54 Sheila Morrow Joost, ’48,

by Carol Fleming Kunstman, ’48, and Phyllis Carman Marling, ’41 Rocelia Bordeaux Kellogg, ’45,

by Shirley Schweers Goers, ’45, and Margery Foote Meyer, ’45 Caroline Kelly, by Cesar and Jan Goldbaum Hernandez, ’67 Eva Koulis, by Louis Papan Esther Blum La Fargue, ’31, by Emmie Peck White, ’35 Dr. Charles E. Larsen, by Deborah Feldman,’89, Susan Schumacher Morris, ’70, Laurie-Sue Ptak Retts, ’69, Linda Kay Schultz, ’69, and Karen Wiley, ’64 Nancy Lin Li, MA ’48, by Tewen Chang, Sylvia Chen, Tung Chen, Nei Jia Chin, Jeffrey Chu, Catherine Doyle, Lia HsuPieper, I. Chuang Lee, Da Ke Li, Kenneth Li, Margaret Lin, Pokung Lin, Poping Lin, Robert Lin, T. H. Lin, Tongqi Lin, Amy Sun Shen, MA ’51, Elaine Shiang, Lihe Su, Elizabeth Sullivan, Melba Taylor Tau-Yi Toong, Yi Tsien,

Barbara Wand, Brian Wood, Ann Wu, Wen-hsien Wu, Wei Xu, Wendy Yang, Henry Yeh, and Hsiao Yeh Margaret Lyon, ’35, by Lois Mitchell Blackmarr, ’40, Louise Errol, MA ’47, Alice Van Eaton Lanning, MA ’64, and Katharine Mulky Warne, ’45 Jenny Makofsky, ’91,

by Sally Collins, ’91, and Michele Murphy, ’89 Mrs. Sachi Masuyama,

by Tomoye Tatai Hugh McLinden,

by Phyllis Cole Bader, ’32 Bette Lou Todresic Miller, ’47, by Alice Goodwin Lenz, ’52 Helen Maxwell Miller, mother of Christina Miller, ’71 and Kathy Miller Janes, ’69, by Leah Hardcastle Mac Neil, MA ’51, and Kathy Miller Janes, ’69 Helen Ackerly Peterson, ’40, by Jacquelyn Jagger Parsons, ’52 Laurel Rasmussen, by Cheryl Fuller and Nancy Templeton Denise Williams Robinson, ’73, by Wynetta Spencer Kollman, ’73 C. Easton and Virginia Sterling

Rothwell, by Barbara Bundschu, ’38 Virginia Sterling Rothwell, by Dr. Marion Ross, ’44, and Muffy McKinstry Thorne, ’48 Letitia Alessio Scott, ’37,

by Ellen Locke Crumb, ’59 Louise Kerr Sherman, ’37, by the Dorfman-Pacific Company Georgia Gertmenian Smith, ’58,

by Mary Stuart McCullough, ’58 Florence Sollom, mother of Sandra Sollom Kretchmer, ’56,

by Barbara Parsons Sheldon, ’56 Mrs. Betty Stroup,

by Ruth Stroup, ’91 Margaret Thompson Stryble, ’35,

by Emmie Peck White, ’35 Ruth Sheller Stuckey, ’31

by Margery Foote Meyer, ’45 Weld Wilkie, husband of Marian McCormack Wilkie, ’45, by Katharine Mulky Warne, ’45 Dr. Richard Wistar,

by Alice Wistar Herbert, ’67 Phyllis Settelmeyer Wright, ’49,

by Sally Diekman Ryan, ’51, and Imogene Fluno Whipple, ’43

Camilla Austin Andrews, ’43, 1921–2004 Camilla Austin Andrews, a descendent of prominent families, grew up in Long Beach, California. Her father was rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, and her faith remained important to her throughout her life.

She studied music and child development at Mills and returned to Long Beach to run a nursery school after graduation. The friendships she made at Mills lasted her entire life. For 23 years she and her husband, William S. Andrews, Jr., lived in Berkeley, where they raised four children. She was a founding member of the original Black & White Ball, a benefit for the San Francisco Symphony, volunteered for Junior League, and served on the boards of the Children’s Hospital Branches, the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, the Junior Center for Arts and Science, and St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley. In 1969 she and her family moved to Sacramento, where she continued her volunteer activities until she moved back to the Bay Area in 1993, after the death of her husband. At Mills she served as president of her senior class, as Class Secretary for ten years, as Class Agent, and on the Board of Governors of the AAMC, where she was active with fundraising. She also organized visiting days on campus for prospective students. In promoting Mills, she said, “Our universities have become so large that many of our children are not geared to cope with their complexities. They need a more individualized experience from which to benefit.” According to her friend Helen Metz Lore, ’43, “Camilla always took responsibility for people and things. Her antenna was always tuned in to what was needed—and then she did it! She was efficient, well organized, and very loving, open, and nonjudgmental.”

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NEW YORK NEW YORK J O I N S T E P H A N J O S T, D I R E C T O R OF THE MILLS COLLEGE ART M U S E U M , A LU M N A E A N D F R I E N DS, O N A T R I P TO E X P LO R E T H E A RT WORLD IN AND AROUND NEW Y O R K C I T Y. $ 2 6 7 5 . 0 0 P L U S A I R .

MAY 16-23, 2005 For more information contact Laurie Krane at Reinhardt Alumnae House (510) 430-2110

AAMC Trips 2005 Morocco March 12–20 This trip begins in the capital of Rabat, proceeds to Marrakech, and ends in Casablanca. $1,995 plus air.

Colonial Mexico March 19–27 Visit two historic regions in the heartland of Mexico, Michoacan and Guanajuato, home of traditional craftproducing villages. $2,595 plus air.

Sorrento, Italy April 18–26 Learn about the history and agriculture of the province of Campania, and take excursions to Naples, Pompeii, and Capri. All meals and excursions are included. $1,797 plus air.

The Baltic States June 15–27 Beginning in Vilnius, Lithuania, the tour heads to Riga, Latvia, and then to Tallinn, Estonia’s seacoast capital. The final stop of Helsinki, Finland, will be reached by jetfoil. $2,395 plus air.

Tuscany, Italy: A Family Learning Adventure July 17–24 Starting in the Chianti Valley, where a 13th century villa features modern facilities, the trip includes Florence,

San Gimignano, Siena, and Cortona. $3,295 plus air per child; $4,395 plus air per adult.

Alumni College in Yorkshire, England July 24–31 Tour Harrogate, where literary greats such as the Brontë sisters and James Herriot spun their tales amid spectacular gardens. $1,995 plus air.

Alumni College in Greece September 23–October 3 The tour focus is the island of Poros, home of artists and writers; the itinerary also includes Hydra, Mycenae, and Epidauros. $1,895 plus air.

Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast October 18–26 Sail down the Croatian coast and through the Mediterranean to Venice, stopping to see Roman ruins and medieval towns along the way. $2,897 plus air.

If you would like additional information on any of these trips, please call the AAMC at (510) 430-2110; email us at <aamc@mills.edu>; or write us at Reinhardt Alumnae House, PO Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613.

ARIEL EATON THOMAS, ’63

Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68, executive director of the Alumnae Association of Mills College, and Patsy Chen Peng, ’51, MA ’53, lead the procession of alumnae at Convocation.

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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