In Memoriam

Spouses and Family

Karl Au, parent of Linda Au ’87, January 22, in Walnut Creek, California.

William Campfield; parent of Lynda Campfield ’00, SES ’01, MA ’02; November 11, 2020; in Sacramento.

Herbert Chew, parent of Catherine Chew Smith ’84, August 7, 2020, in Albany, California.

Edwin Crocker, parent of Fiona Crocker Golden ’90 and former Mills treasurer, August 25, 2020, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Ronald Foster, spouse of Adrienne McMichael Foster ’74, May 4, in Los Angeles.

Robert Hale, spouse of Mary Schratter Hale ’82, April 12, 2019, in Oakland.

Jeremiah Hallisey; spouse of Alison Warriner ’74, MA ’75; March 6; in Oakland.

Ofelia Lujan, parent of Elizabeth Gomez ’03, December 12, 2019, in Inglewood, California.

Leonard McCain, spouse of the late Eloise Randleman McCain ’57, October 12, 2020, in Brighton, Colorado.

Richard Newman, parent of Anna Newman ’89, January 18, in Reno, Nevada.

Robert Peng, son of Patsy Chen Peng ’51, November 16, 2020, in San Francisco.

George Sorter, spouse of Dorienne Lachman Sorter ’54, May 23, 2019, in New York City.

Charles Tateosian, parent of Lisa Tateosian ’89, March 31, 2020, in Walnut Creek.

Ravenna Helson

Ravenna Helson, pioneering research psychologist at UC Berkeley’s Institute for Personality and Social Research, died this past spring. She studied the Mills classes of 1958 and 1960 for more than 50 years, with her resulting study yielding more than 100 research articles about women’s personality, creativity, and development. It culminated in a book, Women on the River of Life: A Fifty-Year Study of Adult Development, published by UC Press in 2020.

In the early years, the study was conceptualized as about women’s creativity and leadership potential. In 1980, it shifted to an adult developmental perspective, contacting the participants about every 10 years into their 70s. Research focused on personality change, work, marriage, parenting, wisdom, creativity, and purpose in life.

Ravenna thoroughly knew the stories and the personalities of all 142 Mills participants—she was even made an honorary member of the Class of 1960! Her soft Southern style combined with rigorous scholarly standards and a great enthusiasm for exploring what it meant to be a woman at this time in history.

She is survived by three children.

Sister Mary Joseph of the Trinity/ Mary “Ann” Russell Miller ’50

On the weekend of June 6-7, the Twittersphere erupted with the news of the death of an unusual woman: Sister Mary Joseph of the Trinity. As related by her son, Mark Miller, Sister Mary Joseph said goodbye to her life as a San Francisco socialite at the age of 61 and entered a Carmelite monastery in Illinois in 1989, living the remainder of her life behind the stone walls and never touching her family members again.

Missing in the ensuing coverage was that Sister Mary Joseph was a Mills woman. Mary “Ann” Russell Miller was a member of the Class of 1950, though she left the College early to marry her late husband, Richard. Her post-Mills, pre-convent life saw her give birth to 10 children and raise them in Pacific Heights, where her husband was chair of the San Francisco Opera Foundation and she rubbed elbows with the glitterati.

She was also a dedicated volunteer and fundraiser, founding the Northern California chapter of the organization Achievement Rewards for College Students, and unsurprisingly, she was a devout Catholic. A 2005 article in the San Francisco Chronicle reported that she once gave up the phone for Lent, a tough choice for someone as social as she.

Before leaving for the monastery, Sister Mary Joseph threw a farewell bash for 800 guests at the San Francisco Hilton and distributed her jewels among her daughters. She spent the rest of her life in near silence, sleeping on a thin mat and asking forgiveness for her habitual lateness. She could only visit with family and friends from behind metal bars, never holding many of the 28 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren who also survive her.

Mary Tateosian, parent of Lisa Tateosian ’89, December 7, 2020, in Walnut Creek.

Amy Tokioka, parent of Pamela Tokioka Carlson ’74, May 7, in Honolulu.

Rita Weber, mother of Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Renée Jadushlever, January 22, in Morristown, New Jersey.

Faculty and Staff

Yvette Fallandy, former assistant professor of French literature, January 15, in Santa Rosa, California.

Margarethe Kulke, former professor of biology, January 24, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Friends

Lucy Campbell, former Associate Council member, January 22, in Berkeley.

Guyla Cashel, former Associate Council member, June 3, 2020, in Lafayette.

Edwin Strader, January 14, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.

Lighting the Way to a Kinder World

A+P+I Artist-in-Residence Christy Chan had something to say about the other pandemic brought on by COVID-19: rising anti-Asian racism and hate crimes. She turned to her filmmaking toolbox and set out to create the Dear America project, a series of works by herself and five other AAPI artists—including Professor of Studio Art Cathy Lu—that were projected guerrilla-style on buildings around the Bay Area. (Several installations were unsanctioned, and fans had to answer questions about Asian history on the project’s Instagram page to learn their exact locations.) Locales included high rises around Lake Merritt, Grace Cathedral, and Mills Hall. The finale was held at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga on August 12.

One of the projections on Mills Hall, by artist Christine Wong Yap (below left), reads “Less discrimination, more understanding” in Chinese, one of eight Asian languages used in the project. “In a time when the right to belong of Asian Americans is being questioned, taking up space matters,” Chan says. “This project is about Asian Americans unapologetically taking up space, celebrating each other’s presence, and not asking permission to do so.”

The project was supported by the Mills College Art Museum and Stand With Asian Americans. See more at dearamericaprojections.com. Images by Christy Chan.