‰ december 2017
INTO OBLIVION
The untold story of a Reed student and World War I. BY IAN BUC K MAN ’1 8
Sometimes blunt but always sharp, Reedies make the world a better place. Reed graduates tackle challenges head-on with critical theory, scientific methodology, and academic discipline. Your gift to the Annual Fund supports the deep conversation, complex problem solving, and keen intellect that Reed College nurtures in all Reedies.
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nina johnson ’99
‰ december 2017
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DEPARTMENTS
PURE AT HEART
alejandro chávez ’17
Features
4 Eliot Circular News from Campus
Indie rocker Kip Berman ’02 releases fourth album with the Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
By Isabel Lyndon ’17 Ebru Yildiz
Welcome to the Class of ’21 Looking at Gene Role in Cleft Palate Statisticians Nab Top Honors New Faces in the Physics Stairwell Race and Ethnicity Major Clears Hurdle Runners Storm Portland Marathon Scrounge Commandments Unpredictable Statistician
14 Advocates of the Griffin News of the Alumni Association
Discover Your Chapters Alumni Board Launches Coaching Initiative Earl Takes Babson Award
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THE ACCENT AUTHORITY
Prof. Kara Becker examines how we convey power, class, race, and identity through the mechanics of our speech.
By Marty Smith ’88
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INTO OBLIVION
The untold story of the Reed freshman who fought in the last major offensive of World War I.
By Ian Buckman ’18
30 Reediana
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Books, music, and films by Reedies
Beyond Surgery by Anita Hannig ’04 A Good Country by Laleh Khadivi ’98
32 Class Notes News from our classmates
38 In Memoriam Honoring our classmates, professors, and friends who have died
High Flyer Joann Osterud ’68 Broke Records—and Barriers Tai Chi Master David Barrett ’79 Went with the Flow Prof. Art Leigh [economics 1945-88] Prof. Lawrence Germain [physics 1949-54]
48 Object of Study What we’re looking at in class
The Narmer Palette
cover illustration by samantha wall
december 2017 Reed Magazine
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Letter from the editor
december 2017
www.reed.edu/reed-magazine 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202 503/777-7591
Lend Me Your Ears We live in the age of the digital cocoon. At the bus stop, in the gym, in the café, at the bar, we occupy the same space, but we do not talk to each other— often we do not even seem to see each other. We are too busy being absorbed. We have to monitor our Twitter feeds, keep up with the clickbait, and find out what’s blowing up on Instagram. Anthropologists of the future will no doubt have their hands full examining how information technology is changing our human interaction in public. But what I’m really worried about is how it’s changing our political discourse. We are less and less a nation bound by common ideals and more and more an anarchy of identity groups smirking at internet memes. Given the polarization in this country—now more extreme than ever, according to the Pew Research Center—it’s no surprise that most of our political exchanges are (to borrow a phrase from Thomas Hobbes) nasty, brutish, and short. But as journalist Bret Stephens recently wrote in the New York Times, we are in danger of losing the art of disagreement. Rather than listening to others and seeking to understand them, we either screen them out or drown them out. Venting in the echo chamber may feel good, but it comes at a cost. More than 150 years ago, the British philosopher John Stuart Mill zoomed in on the fundamental importance of debating our most cherished ideas—even when we’re certain that we’re right. “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by 2
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what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them... he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.” Mill argued that fearless discussion makes our ideas stronger, not weaker. In a genuine debate, we can’t just parrot the party line—we have to figure out why we believe as we do. Our beliefs escape the paralysis of dogma and gain the force of reason. One of the great things about working at Reed is that I get to witness this evolution up close. The starry-eyed freshman who raved about the gonzo
MAGAZINE
In a genuine debate, we can’t just parrot the party line—we have to figure out why we believe as we do. Our beliefs escape the paralysis of dogma and gain the force of reason.
vice president, college relations
antics of Hunter S. Thompson? By his senior year, he was an expert on new journalism and its impact on American fiction. The sophomore obsessed with video games? She’s writing a psychology thesis on games as a teaching tool. The economist besotted with microfinance? She’s in Tanzania with the World Bank. That sort of transformation is what college is all about. But let’s not just push this project off on millennials. Fresh ideas are just as important for older people. The world is changing. Let’s take off our earbuds, step out of the cocoon, and listen to it.
—CHRIS LYDGATE ’90 EDITOR
editor
Chris Lydgate ’90 503/777-7596 chris.lydgate@reed.edu class notes editor
Katie Pelletier ’03 503/517-7727 pelletic@reed.edu In Memoriam editor
Randall S. Barton 503/517-5544 bartonr@reed.edu art director
Tom Humphrey 503/459-4632 tom.humphrey@reed.edu REED COLLEGE RELATIONS Hugh Porter director, communications & public affairs
Mandy Heaton Reed College is an institution of higher education in the liberal arts and sciences devoted to the intrinsic value of intellectual pursuit and governed by the highest standards of scholarly practice, critical thought, and creativity. Reed Magazine provides news of interest to the Reed community. Views expressed in the magazine belong to their authors and do not necessarily represent officers, trustees, faculty, alumni, students, administrators, or anyone else at Reed, all of whom are eminently capable of articulating their own beliefs. Reed Magazine (ISSN 0895-8564) is published quarterly by the Office of Public Affairs at Reed College. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to Reed Magazine, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland OR 97202-8138.
Letters to Reed Write to us! We love getting mail from readers. Letters should be about Reed (and its alumni) or Reed (and its contents) and run no more than 300 words; subsequent replies may only run half the length of their predecessors. Our decision to print a letter does not imply any endorsement. Letters are subject to editing. (Beware the editor’s hatchet.) For contact information, look to your left. Read more letters and commentary at www.reed.edu/reed-magazine.
Some Reed Moments
On May 28th there was a mellow moment at the midwest Sufi camp, an hour south of Columbia, Missouri. Finally a moment to sit down with Carolyn Mathews and hear about the beautiful family that produced her brother Dan Mathews ’70, clearly a wonderful person. Both parents were teachers and two of the three kids went to Reed: Eleanor Mathews ’67, was the eldest. The camp spiritual director Richard Conviser ’65 came to the table and I hopped up to tell him about Carolyn. Soon he laid his smart phone on the table and I saw the first news about the grisly stabbings on the Portland MAX train. I was struck at once by the name of Taliesin Namkai-Meche ’16, and a few days later I called Janet McMahon ’70, managing editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and asked her what she knew. She called back and only deepened the mystery: Taliesin went to Reed! So finally the Reed Magazine has come to clarify it all. And when I read that a Rinpoche gave him the name ‘flame from the sky,’ I felt that clearly his epitaph should read, “ainsi marcheronnous éclairés” (Thus, we will walk, lit up) from the poet Yves Bonnefoy. Teresa Cronin ’70 Kingston, Arizona
Good Humor
LIFE IS GOOD, thanks to simple pleasures. It’s Sunday Morning, October 1st, 14 days before the start of my 70th year, and I still retain the ability to be highly amused by trivial discoveries. Specifically, these two headlines, right next to each other on my phone’s Google News this morning (the world’s morning paper these days?): “Revised methane emissions factors and spatially distributed annual carbon fluxes for global livestock.” and “Researchers Underestimated How Bad Cow Farts Are.” Only Monty Python, or a
Reedie plotting a clever senior thesis title, could have otherwise come up with that. Then I read this gem in your latest issue: “[Owen’s ship] was lightly damaged by a kamikazi plane that hit the foredeck before returning to the states in 1945.” Still light of heart and not too light-headed. Bob Querry ’88 Nipimo, California Ed. Note:
Talk about a flight of fancy!
Remembering Prof. Wend
I remember Dave Wend [math 1949–51] with affection. I walked up Mt St Helens with him that day. There was another student, maybe it was Doug Verdery. Reed was much smaller in the ’50s. There were only two fulltime math faculty, and then Dave and F.L. Griffin parttime. None of them were paid very much. There were a handful of math majors, most of them outstanding including two Rhodes scholars in the 42 months I attended. Robert Leonard ’52 Tucson, Arizona
Remembering Prof. Schlotthaus
It goes without saying that many (not all!) of the professors from whom I took one or more courses at Reed had a considerable influence on my career as a student. A smaller number became good friends and influenced me in important ways well past my student years. Chief among these was the late Prof. Hugo Bedau [philosophy 1962–66], my thesis advisor, whom I married 25 years after graduating. But Prof. Werner Schlotthaus [German 1960–67] was another strong influence. I took German 110 from Prof. Kaspar Locher [German 1950–88] who okayed my signing up for German 310 (not generally open to those with just a single year of German). The instructor, I learned, was to be a returning faculty member named Werner Schlotthaus; I also learned that he was not amused when Locher told him he had to allowed me to take his upper-division course (Composition and Conversation). At the first class meeting, I knew I was in trouble; all the others in the class had far more German than I. Undaunted, I was determined to prove Locher right—but doing so was not easy. Certainly Schlotthaus cut me no slack. Years later, when he had moved back to Germany and I was visiting, I made some comment about how I had, after all, not let Locher down. “You certainly were stubborn,” Schlotthaus said. I took that
as a compliment. But there is much more to the story. I took three subsequent courses from Schlotthaus, in all of which I found I continued to be challenged— and I continued to be stubborn. I did well enough so that he and his wife Gea hired me as a babysitter and allowed me to talk German with the children even though they were learning English and could have used the practice; I won that one, pointing out that I needed German practice more than they needed English practice. Schlotthaus was clearly at least as interested in pedagogy (witness his subsequent career, when he left Reed to join the faculty of the Pädagoische Hochschule in Lüneburg) as he was in literary scholarship. When I expressed an interest in applying to the M.A.T. program as a presumptive German teacher, his encouragement was just the push I needed. By that time he had gained some confidence in my abilities, apparently. Fast forward: M.A.T. added to my name and five years of teaching under my belt, I wrote to Schlotthaus and sought his advice on finding a teaching job. With his encouragement, I got a job teaching English in an Altsprachliches Gymnasium für Jungen. The next year, again with help from Schlotthaus, I got a more stimulating and challenging job as Lektorin für Englisch at the Pädagoische Hochschule in Hildesheim. We were at last colleagues, since both his institution and mine were part of the Lower Saxony education system; I was also, to my great pleasure, finally becoming friends with him and his wife. Even so, he never stopped teaching me. During one visit I expressed some boredom with a course I had been assigned to teach and said something to the effect that I could do a better job with the course if I put more time into it. He fixed me with a steely look and said “Then why don’t you?” Embarrassed (as I should have been), I went back to Hildesheim and made a renewed effort to be an educator—like him. I visited the family with some frequency; they provided a kind of home away from home. When I was admitted to the hospital in Hildesheim needing surgery, Werner and Gea drove the roughly 80 miles each way to visit me. How many visits there were over the years I can no longer calculate. But when I received word of his death earlier this year, I was more glad than ever that I had managed to visit them in 2014. Constance E. Putnam ’65, M.A.T. ‘66 Concord, Massachusetts
december 2017 Reed Magazine
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Eliot Circular news from campus
Reed Welcomes the Class of ’21 The 414 first year students boast some formidable statistics. Welcome to Reed College, Benjamin and Isabel. Just two days after earthlings watched the moon obscure the sun, Reed seated its class of 2021—a collection of stars not likely to be eclipsed any time soon—at convocation. With 414 students, it is the second-largest class in Reed’s history, and 12% of these students were valedictorians of their high school
classes. They hail from 19 countries, including the United States, with California leading the states in student representation with 95 students, followed by Oregon (34), Washington (32), New York (23), and Texas (16). Among the many nations represented are Armenia, Georgia, India, Kuwait, Nepal, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe. Eleven
percent are the first in their family to attend a four-year college. The most popular names in the class are Benjamin and Isabel, with six of each. The class was drawn from a pool of 5,652 applicants, with an admittance rate of 35%, and another 17 students entered as transfers. Fifty-nine percent of the students ranked in
photo by leah nash
the top 10% of their high school class, and the median scores on their SAT tests place them at the 96th percentile nationally, with scores of 694 for reading, 694 for writing, and 707 for math. It is also a diverse group, with 30% coming from multicultural families in the U.S. and another 15% arriving as international
students. While the national average of the number of colleges students apply to is seven, the average for the discriminating Reed student to is 11. A number of students in the class of ’21 are following in the footsteps of Mom and Dad, with 18 having parents who also attended Reed, qualifying them for membership in Offspring of Reed
Generations of Yesteryear. The class also includes a blacksmith, a raiser of alpacas, a four-time national qualifier in Olympic weightlifting, and a woman who started her own produce company at the age of 9, calling it Spider-Girl’s Produce. Look out, Whole Foods! —RANDALL S. BARTON
leah nash
Eliot Circular
Professor Will Look at Gene Role in Cleft Palate Prof. Derek Applewhite wins $400K from NIH to investigate genetic mutations linked to orofacial disorders. BY GABRIEL ZINN ’15
What do fruit flies and the musculature of your face have in common? More than you might think, argues Prof. Derek Applewhite [biology], who has just been awarded a $399,824 grant by the National Institutes of Health to investigate a gene linked to cleft palate and other craniofacial disorders. The grant, par t of the NIH R15 Academic Research Enhancement Award, will go towards understanding the gene SPECCL1, mutations of which are thought to play a role in a spectrum of disorders, most prevalently orofacial clefts, which affect 1.2 to 1.7 of every thousand births. “SPECC1L has been identified in a number cranial-facial disorders resulting in a type of
cleft palate in people who inherit these mutations,” says Prof. Applewhite. “Understanding SPECC1L’s role in regulating cellular contractility may someday help people who inherit these mutations.” The theory is that the gene affects a protein called nonmuscle myosin II (NMII), which generates cellular contractility, and influences, as a result, how
species with a shared ancestry) of SPECC1L that appears in the humble fruit fly. Applewhite says he was “extremely excited” when he got
The project will investigate the role of a mutant gene in regulating how cells interact. cells interact with their environment and with another. The project will pair quantitative imaging approaches with biochemical, proteomic, and genetic approaches to explore the ortholog (genes in different
the news. However, he was quick to turn attention away from himself and point out the benefits to Reed and to medical research. “This grant will offer Reed students an opportunity to learn a whole host of techniques I use in
my lab as well as help to uncover how nonmuscle myosin II regulates cell migration and adhesion in the context of disease.” A key collaborator on the project is Peter Barr-Gillespie ’81, associate vice president for basic research at Oregon Health and Science University, who will lend his expertise in biochemistry, proteomics, and mass spectrometry to the experiments. Prof. Applewhite and Prof. Anna Ritz [biology] also recently won a $589K NSF grant to investigate the role of NMII in determining how a cell takes its shape.
Statisticians Nab Top Honors American Statistical Association honors two Reed math seniors for theses on networks and bicycle routes. Two Reed math majors have won top prizes in a prestigious national competition sponsored by the American Statistical Association for their senior theses. Nick Solomon ’17 won the top honor in the applied research category in 2017 for his thesis, titled “Local Dependence in Exponential Random Network Models.” His adviser was Prof. Albyn Jones. Will Jones ’16 also won first place in the applied research
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category in 2016 for his thesis, “Multilevel Models and Missing Data Models for Crowd-Sourced Bicycle Route Ratings.” His adviser was Prof. Andrew Bray. The competition’s full title is the Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition (known as USPROC) and is sponsored by the American Statistical Association and the Consortium for the A dvancement o f Undergraduate Statistics Education.
A simulated network with 100 vertices, colored according to neighborhood. From “Local Dependence in Exponential Random Network Models,” by Nick Solomon ’17.
New Faces in the Physics Stairwell alejandro chávez ’17
A new mural features prominent women in STEM fields. BY ALEJANDRO CHÁVEZ ’17
Students arriving in the physics building were greeted by some new faces this semester. The stairwell to the second floor now boasts a mural of five female scientists: Emmy Noether, Chien-Shiung Wu, Katherine Johnson, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell. The idea for the mural first took shape in the spring of 2017, when the Feminist Student Union put up posters in the science buildings with images of women of color in STEM fields, in an effort to raise the visibility of their presence in the field. Ella Banyas ’17 (physics), Ira Globus-Harris ’18 (CS-math), and Aja Procita ’18 (mathphysics) were inspired. The trio had noticed a mostly blank stairwell in the physics building that just seemed to be waiting for artistic inspiration. Their discussions about this project were overheard by a professor, who offered to pay for the project with department funds. The trio tracked down high-quality blackand-white photos of the scientists, and projected them onto the wall. After tracing the
Aja Procita ’18 (left) and Ira Globus-Harris ’18 (right) paint the faces of important female physicists.
scientists’ faces on a white background, they filled in their tracings with gray and black paint to finish the drawings. Aja said that although the task might seem hard, she noticed that your brain has a tendency to fill faces in. The physics stairwells are no strangers to artwork. Currently you’ll find images of Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, copious equations, and the Cat in the Hat.
Ella, Ira and Aja are all members of STEM GeMs (STEM Gender Minorities) and they plan to do more projects focusing on women of color and LGBT scientists. In the past 36 years, only 106 Hispanic women, 66 black women and 6 Native American women have earned PhDs in physics in the United States. Ella, Ira and Aja hope these projects will increase the visibility of underrepresented groups in physics.
Scientists Of The Mural
Emmy Noether [1882-1935] Influential German mathematician known for major contributions to the fields of abstract algebra and theoretical physics.
Chien-Shiung Wu [1912-1997] Chinese American nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, conducted the Wu experiment which resulted in two of her colleagues, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, winning the Nobel Prize in physics.
Katherine Johnson [1918–] African American mathematician for NASA and recipient of the Medal of Freedom. Portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. Graduated high school at 14 and college at 18.
Maria Goeppert-Mayer [1906–1972] German American theoretical physicist. Proposed the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus. One of two women to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell [1943–] Northern Irish astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars under the advisement of her thesis adviser Antony Hewish. Hewish won the Nobel Prize in Physics with Martin Ryle for the discovery.
december 2017 Reed Magazine
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Eliot Circular
Race & Ethnicity Major Clears Hurdle A key faculty committee has identified Comparative Race and Ethnicity Studies (CRES) as a top academic priority, paving the way for Reed to launch an interdisciplinary program in fall 2018, pending approval by the full faculty. Declaring the field to be a “fundamental area of inquiry in contemporary academics,” the Committee on Academic Policy and Planning has proposed hiring a new professor in sociology to join current faculty in teaching courses and supervis-
DRAWING BY WINOLD REISS
First majors may graduate as soon as Spring 2020. additional units in their home departments. They will also need to meet standard Reed requirements, such as passing a junior qualifying exam and writing a senior thesis. The faculty intends to establish a junior seminar by spring 2019, with the first set of majors graduating in spring 2020. Reed students have demonstrated a longstanding interest in the field. Less than a decade after the college was founded, Herbert Swett ’20 wrote a sociology thesis on African
“This is an exciting and overdue addition to the Reed curriculum.” —Prof. Nigel Nicholson ing theses in the new program. Fundraising to endow this position has begun, and interim funding will allow the search for the new professor to commence immediately. “This is an exciting and overdue addition to the Reed curriculum,” says Prof. Nigel Nicholson, dean of the faculty. “A new position will provide new offerings and create a stronger structure for organizing existing offerings, so that we can better nurture the work on race and ethnicity that many Reed students are keen to pursue.” The faculty is also creating a junior seminar to equip students with the conceptual and methodological tools to pursue the subject. Students majoring in CRES will be required to complete six units across three fields; a foundational course; the junior seminar; and four
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American migration during WWI. Kichitaro Umemura ’33 wrote an education thesis on Japanese language schools in the Pacific Northwest. Ron Herndon ’70 wrote a history thesis on racism in Portland public schools and went on to become a prominent civil rights leader. Kathleen Saadat ’74 wrote a psychology thesis on social services in Portland and later led the fight against Oregon’s infamous Ballot Measure 9. Reed professors have also integrated race and ethnicity into the curriculum. Reed currently offers more than three dozen courses that touch on the subject, ranging from History and Memory in African American Music to Economics of Population, Gender, and Race. At the same time, many faculty and students have long
Reed students have demonstrated strong interest in race and ethnicity, writing theses on subjects such as language and identity in the poems of Langston Hughes.
called for race and ethnicity to be better represented in the curriculum. In 1969, student protests and lobbying successfully convinced the faculty to start a black studies center, but the program was never fully woven into the curriculum; it lost momentum after the college failed to establish a permanent source of funding. P l a n n i n g fo r t h e n e w CRES program began in 2011, responding to strong and sustained interest on the part of students. In recent years, scores of seniors have written theses on topics such as language and identity in the poetry of Langston Hughes, discourse and disruption in the novels
of Sherman Alexie, African immigration and assimilation in Portland, the economics of Native American reservations, the experience of Muslim Turks in Germany, the politics of affirmative action, and the debate over “veiling.” The Student Committee on Academic Policy and Planning canvassed student opinion and submitted a report to the faculty in May 2017 identifying CRES as its top priority. In addition, student protesters have lent their voices and added a sense of urgency to the proposal. The faculty is expected to schedule a full vote on the proposal in spring 2018. —CHRIS LYDGATE ’90
Scrappy Runners Storm Portland Marathon PHOTO BY VARIK HARRIS ’19
STEELY DETERMINATION. The Running Jokes hang tough before the Portland Marathon.
Hearts thumping, arms pumping, and legs jumping, a scrappy crew of Reed runners stormed the Portland Marathon and HalfMarathon in November, marking the fifth year in a row that a Reed team has participated in the landmark event. Reed’s fastest runner in the marathon was biochem major Trevor Soucy ’18, who crossed the finish line in a scorching 3:00:36, a result that was all the more impressive since it was his first-ever marathon. “Those extra 36 seconds it would take for me to drop below 3 hours may haunt me a little, but for my first marathon, I really am proud of myself,” says Trevor, who is writing his thesis on the role of the protein PerC in pathogenic bacteria. “Crossing that line and seeing the clock below the 3:05 mark (the Boston qualifying standard for my age group) was just such a relief to see all my training pay off. My legs are very upset with me and I’m definitely waddling around campus, but I am very proud.” Reed’s fastest runner in the half-marathon was English major Jacey de la Torre ’20, who clocked 1:45:47. “This year felt so
much faster than last year,” she told us. “My strategy was to start strong and stay strong, but I definitely sped up at the end. I think there was so much adrenaline in my system... So going forward, I’m going to have to tell myself that I’m stronger than I think.” Jacey also gave a shout-out to her running partner, econ major Ryan Kobler ’20, who followed her by a scant two minutes. Another pair of training partners who posted competitive times were Prof. Jim Fix [math] at 1:46:17 and Prof. Jamie Pommersheim [math] at 1:48:56. Other members of the Reed team (aka the Running Jokes) included John Cushing ’67, Sebastian Pastore ’88, Chris Lydgate ’90, Lucas Fagen ’19, Robert Irvin ’19, Gabriel Yeung ’19, Isadora De Castro ’21, Prof. Johnny Powell [physics], Prof. Michael Pitts [psychology], Tony Palomino, Dayna Lamb, Donovan Mattole, Tess White, Debby Bridges (who placed first in the women’s half race walk), and doubtless more. Turnout for the marathon was lower than in some previous years, due in part to some unfortunate controversies that dogged the
RISE OVER RUN. Prof. Jamie Pommersheim [math] comes out swinging in the final stretch.
event this summer. But the Reed runners prevailed, thanks to stalwart support from President John Kroger, sterling logistical backup from Todd Pangilinan in conference and events planning, and organic guidance from Michael Lombardo in the sports center. —ANNA MANN
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Eliot Circular chris lydgate ’90
COMMONS SENSE. Reed’s peculiar tradition of scrounging, which dates back to 1966, appears to be as healthy as ever—thanks in part to the immortal Scrounge Commandments.
Brinkmanship and North Korea Brad Glosserman ’82 explains the carnival of contradictions haunting US policy. A nuclear power led by an unpredictable ruler with a chip on his shoulder. Not an ideal negotiating partner—but that may be as true of President Donald Trump as it is of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. The Korean conflict has stumped world leaders for decades. Analyst Brad Glosserman has been following North Korea for decades, first at the Japan Times and
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now at the thinktank Pacific Forum CSIS. We asked him what’s different about the Korean dynamic today, what’s unchanged, and where to find insight. (Read the full interview at reed.edu.) “Fire and fury.” “Totally destroy.” Does this rhetoric have any precedent? There is no precedent for a U.S. president using the language that Mr. Trump has used. Though if you close one eye and squint and turn the paper sideways, you’ll find equivalences. President Obama
certainly referred to the fact that we could do exceptional damage to that country, that we were not deterred or scared by North Korean military capability. Which remains
an accurate assessment, by the way. Trump has also said repeatedly that he’s ready to talk and negotiate... (More at reed.edu.)
LAST LECTURE Saluting our retiring (and not-so-retiring) professors
The Unpredictable Statistician Prof. Albyn Jones [math 1986–2017] retires after 30 years at Reed BY KATELYN BEST ’13
Albyn Jones is one of those people who demonstrates what Reed is by the very fact of his existence. Get him talking about any of his interests—in research or in life—and the newly retired math professor lights up. The thing is, he’s interested in just about everything. The afternoon we met, Prof. Jones had just been quizzing himself on French verbs, which he’s been working on so he can chat with his petanque buddies in their native language. That morning, he’d done a 30-mile bike ride up the Springwater Corridor. On the desk in his office, nestled among an assortment of pens and pencils, were a set of juggling bean bags. All this follows a 30-year career at Reed where he was less a math professor than a stats wizard for hire. “When I came to Reed, the ad I responded to was asking for somebody who could consult with people in other departments,” he remembers. “I interviewed all over the place: psychology, sociology, economics, math. So when I came to Reed, I became a complete generalist. I started getting statistics questions from people and trying to answer them.” Over the years, the projects Jones worked on included a study of killer whale calls by Monika Wieland ’07 and her thesis advisor, Prof. Suzy Renn [biology 2006–], as well as a psycholinguistics paper by Prof. Enriqueta Canseco-Gonzales [psychology 1992–] and Prof. Michael Pitts [psychology 2001–]analyzing word recognition in Spanish-English bilinguals. His thesis students have applied their statistics knowledge to everything from recreational fishing to cancer survival rates. That’s not to say Jones doesn’t have his own research questions, though. One longstanding interest has been ratings systems— both for chess players and for soccer teams. A competitive chess player in his youth and a recreational footballer in college, Jones first got into rating soccer teams with a thesis
STATISTICIAN on A MISSION: Prof. Jones (purple wizard hat) ponders probabilities as he directs human chess game at Renn Fayre in 1997. On the left, Prof. Bill Peck [philosophy 1961–2002] clutches curtain-rod of doom.
student, Marcin Stawarz ’98. The rating model he developed correctly predicted much of the 1999 Women’s World Cup. “I was I think the only person rating women’s soccer at the time,” he says. “There were teams, like Russia, for instance, that I knew were good that nobody else knew were good.” The professor eventually became a respected voice in the NCAA soccer world, where fans on message boards would wait with bated breath each year for his ratings. In 2006, geologist Jim Jackson ’70 hooked him up with some colleagues at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington, sparking an interest in applying statistics to seismology. “I spent that year hanging out at the volcano observatory,” Jones recalls. He worked on several projects, including the history of seismic activity at Mount Saint Helens and Mount Rainier. Eruptions at Mount Rainier tend to be clumpy, alternating between periods of activity and dormancy. “In the space of a few hundred years,” Jones says, “you might see five or six eruptions. Then a few hundred or thousand will go by with no eruptions.” To try to predict future eruptions, statisticians like Jones might use the hidden Markov model, which takes into account whether a
volcano is active or not—with the catch that we don’t actually know whether it’s in an active or dormant state. Another of his interests is that bogeyman of the Pacific Northwest, the Cascadia Subduction Zone, an offshore fault that’s been predicted to cause a 9.0 earthquake sometime in the coming decades. He says the science on the Big One is fraught with uncertainty—and we should be wary of attempts at giving a hard number on the probability of a major earthquake. “The probability in, say, the next 50 years might be 5%, or it might be 50%. We just don’t know.” Jones lives in the Woodstock neighborhood, where he and his wife, Heidi Alford, raised their two kids, Eli and Kelsey. When he’s not crunching numbers, he juggles, a hobby he first acquired after picking up a thin volume called How to Juggle in a west LA bookstore as a teenager, then maintained at Reed. In fact, he has played a pivotal role in the growth of the sport in Portland and is one of the kingpins behind the annual balancing act known as the Portland Juggling Festival. For a guy who’s spent his career making predictions, you could say that Jones has a knack for the unexpected.
december 2017 Reed Magazine 11
Advocates of the Griffin
News of the Alumni Association • Connecting Reed alumni across the globe
DISCOVER YOUR CHAPTERS You went to Reed. You graduated. Now you miss Reed—in particular, you miss hanging out with Reedies. What’s the answer? Chapters! The Alumni Association maintains nine local chapters around the nation. Our goal is to reach and serve any and all Reedies who want to nourish or create valuable Reed relationships. Dedicated chapter volunteers organize social events designed to entertain, engage, and support you. These range from “Thirsty Third Thursdays” to book clubs,
picnics, and days of service. Beyond the fun of hanging out with your fellow classmates, chapters also need your volunteer energy. Event planning, outreach, social media, networking—we need your skills. Each chapter also has a voting representative on the Alumni Board and collectively offer essential insight into alumni interests. Here are profiles of our active chapters. Don’t see one near you? Start your own! Find out more at alumni.reed.edu/chapters.
The Golden Gate Bridge. Also, a rainbow.
A recent gathering of the Washington D.C. chapter over pizza.
The setting sun. Or is it the Hatch Shell? It’s the Hatch Shell.
Gigantic silver bean materializes in downtown Chicago.
BAY AREA
BOSTON
CHICAGO
CHAIR: Connie Brand ’78 conniebrand@gmail.com
CHAIR: Eve Lyons ’95 evelyons@yahoo.com
CHAIRS: Gwyn Troyer ’01 and Sara Frank ’96 chicagoreedies@gmail.com
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR: Winter solstice parties @ the Alt residence! (New venue for 2017.)
in the Park.
Mark Twain actually didn’t say, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” FUN FACT:
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR:
Shakespeare
FUN FACT: We have 68 different colleges and universities here. BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE:
On the toilet.
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE: City Lights Bookstore (two Reedies were beat poets).
Bova’s Bakery has the best cannolis in town.
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
BEST THING ABOUT REED:
The Camera Obscura and the old Sutro Baths at Lands End. BEST THING ABOUT REED:
Reedies.
12 Reed Magazine december 2017
Reedies!
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR: Dim sum because it’s always a craving, or Midwestwind because it’s coming up! FUN FACT:
We are Gotham.
By the lake, Chicago Cultural Center, or one of our amazing libraries. BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE:
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT: Art Institute member lounge or Chicago Water Taxi. BEST THING ABOUT REED:
We’re still deciding.
The crown of the General Electric Building, formerly known as the RCA Victor Building.
St. John’s Bridge. Not pictured: St. Peter’s Gate.
The Museum of Pop Culture, aka MoPOP (as in, “I’d like some MoPOP!”)
NEW YORK
PORTLAND
RAINIER (Seattle-area)
Brian Graham-Jones ’81 bgraham.jones@gmail.com
STAFF CONTACT: Wendell Britt ’13 alumni@reed.edu
CHAIR:
CHAIR:
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR:
Gramercy Park. FUN FACT:
Tour of
We never sleep!
BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE: Sitting on top of one of the Chrysler Building’s eagle chevrons.
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR:
Reedie Wine for Reed.
Bram Wessel ’90 bram@alumni.reed.edu
Reedies Drink
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR:
FUN FACT:
Only major US city to boast a dormant volcano within city limits.
FUN FACT: The Seattle Public Library system has the highest percentage of library card-holders per capita in the country.
BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE: Lan Su Chinese Garden or the top of Mt. Tabor.
Public Library, of course!
BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE:
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
The Reed Canyon ;-)
Bakeman’s Deli.
BEST THING ABOUT REED: Intellectually stimulating conversation with open-minded weirdos.
community.
BEST THING ABOUT REED:
Students, present
Griffith Observatory... with no smog?!
The historic Yates Mill. It looks kind of haunted, but surprisingly, it’s not!
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
TRIANGLE (Raleigh, Durham, & Chapel Hill, NC)
Elizabeth Jerison Terry ’82 efjt@alumni.reed.edu and Wayne Clayton ’82, wdclayton2@aol.com CHAIRS:
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR:
BOOK CLUB!!!!! FUN FACT:
same day.
Kayaking,
You can ski and go to the beach on the On the beach.
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
Griffith Park Observatory. Easy—Reedies!
BEST THING ABOUT REED:
The ongoing
The Dupont Circle Fountain. Sea, Stars, and Wind.
WASHINGTON, D.C. CHAIR: Dave Baxter ’87 davesmaint@mac.com
westsail374@gmail.com
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR:
Reedies Support Trans Rights (In the Home of the Bathroom Bill).
FUN FACT: We are MORE than just DC! We include Baltimore and Virginia, too!
FAVORITE CHAPTER EVENT SO FAR:
FUN FACT:
Home of the Durham Bulls.
BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE: On the campus-
BEST PLACE TO READ REED MAGAZINE:
BEST THING ABOUT REED:
CHAIR: Bill Nicholson ’78
The Seattle
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
Max Neuhaus’s Times Square sound installation. and past!
They’re all fun.
BEST PLACE TO READ THE REED MAGAZINE:
are you now? That’s it!
Where
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
es of UNC Chapel Hill or Duke.
The Boundary Stones.
BELOVED LANDMARK ONLY LOCALS KNOW ABOUT:
BEST THING ABOUT REED:
Bennett Place, in Durham, was the site of the largest Confederate surrender of the Civil War.
The annual picnic.
Can’t pick just one.
BEST THING ABOUT REED: Reedies—far and wide, they recognize and support one another.
december 2017 Reed Magazine 13
Advocates of the Griffin
Alumni Board Launches Coaching Initiative Professional networking includes mindfulness and lightning strikes. Mindfulness, in that every social interaction can plant a seed for a future job connection, or spark an entire career change. Sooner or later, the resulting opportunities will strike like lightning. When you connect with your local Chapter and attend Chapter events, you also place lightning rods that attract career endeavors and build your referral connections in your city. . . and beyond. If you’re looking for a more direct networking avenue, Alumni Career Coaches are available to help you develop your professional
self. Through this program, alumni of all ages directly connect with alumni volunteers who can help you explore Reed-based resources, tap into the collective alumni brain for industry referrals, or be an empathetic ear if you’re changing careers or seeking new opportunities. The Alumni Career Coach initiative is part of a larger mission to advance career support for all alumni, headed by the Reed Career Alliance (RCA) Committee of the Reed Alumni Board and Reed Alumni Programs staff. These efforts are in tandem with the career assistance available to current students
and recent graduates at the Center for Life Beyond Reed. The RCA welcomes your comments, questions, and, hopefully, your participation as a volunteer, to help us strengthen a powerful career resource for Reed alumni—each other. To connect with an Alumni Career Coach, or to learn how to get involved, please email AlumniCoaches@reed.edu. —DARLENE PASIECZNY ’01 Darlene Pasieczny is a member of the Alumni Board and chair of the RCA Committee. She majored in art history and is an attorney with Samuels Yoelin Kantor LLP in Portland.
Earl Takes Babson Award Members of the Alumni Board and the Alumni Fundraising for Reed Committee honored Kristen M. Earl ’05 with the Babson Society Outstanding Volunteer Award in September. This award, in honor of Jean McCall Babson ’42, recognizes outstanding volunteer efforts by Reed alumni.
Lisa Saldana ’94, president of the Alumni Board, introduced Kristen saying that “she has had an amazing and lasting impact. Kristen’s tireless efforts to advance the mission of the college and serve the
14 Reed Magazine december 2017
alumni community make her a perfect candidate for this honor.” President Kroger presented the Babson Award to Kristen as well as the very first Baby Babson Award to her daughter, Martha Earl. Kristen has worked as a volunteer on Reed’s behalf for the last ten years in a variety of roles including as a member, secretary, vice president, and president of the Alumni Board, as a career network and admission volunteer, as the Portland chapter coordinator, and as an interviewer for the Oral History Project. She has also volunteered at the City Club of Portland, secretary of the board of Willamette Valley Development Officers, and was the recipient of their Starbright Award. Currently, Kristen is working as a fulltime mother to Martha, organizing the Oregon Health & Science University’s support systems for parents whose children are in the neonatal intensive care unit, and pursuing studies in computer information systems at Portland Community College.
She has worked in fundraising for social service and educational nonprofits, including as a development and communications manager for Bradley Angle and a membership manager for Portland Children’s Museum. Kristen’s family also joined in the celebration: husband, Eric Earl; daughter, Martha Earl; sister, Lyndsey Earl ’07; and
brother-in-law, Thom Draine ’08. “Kristen Earl loves Reed,” said Mela Kunitz ’87, associate director of alumni programs. “She has been a dedicated volunteer, giving above and beyond in every role that she has played for us . . . Not only does Kristen love Reed, but Reed truly loves Kristen.”—ANNA MANN
CONNECT WITH REED COME TO AN EVENT.
Check out the alumni section at events.reed.edu VOLUNTEER.
Mentor a student. Organize an event. Share your wisdom. Check out alumni.reed.edu/volunteer. GIVE BACK.
Make a gift at giving.reed.edu. STAY IN TOUCH.
Let us know what you’ve been up to. Update your profile in the alumni directory or send us a class note. alumni.reed.edu 503/777-7589
TRAVEL WITH REED COLLEGE
ABOUT TRAVEL STUDY WITH REED Our programs are designed by and for members of the Reed community—alumni, parents, and friends. These small-group adventures work as mobile classrooms, offering you the chance to learn about places and cultures alongside curious and interesting companions.
See the full list and get more information at: reed.edu/alumni/travel.
MALHEUR: MIGRATORY BIRDS, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND PUBLIC LANDS May 3–6, 2018 Starting at $400 This long weekend at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge offers the chance to observe the migratory birds passing through this time of year and learn more about America’s public lands. The weekend features, • bird identification practice; • exploring the ethics of photographing wildlife; • gourmet meals made from alumni cookbook authors’ recipes; • discussions with local residents about the refuge takeover.
IMMIGRATION STORIES: SOUTHAMPTON TO NEW YORK ON THE QUEEN MARY 2 June 22–July 2, 2018 Starting at $2990 We’ll use this fabled crossing as the vehicle to explore the complicated aspects of immigration. The push. The pull. The journeys. The settling in. The program includes, • two nights in Southampton; • transatlantic journey on the luxurious QM2; • all meals from beginning to end; • a floating book club rich with discussions; • arrival into NYC with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: CITIES AND SAFARIS August 28–September 12 Starting at $7000
Enrichment and discovery awaits! We’ll explore Cape Town and Johannesburg as well as three national parks and three UNESCO World Heritage Sites. During this trip you will, • walk in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela on Robben Island; • experience the beauty of Victoria Falls; • enjoy three days on the famous Rovos Rail; • photograph big game in their native habitats.
Ebru Yildiz
PURE AT HEART
Indie Rocker Kip Berman ’02 Releases Fourth Album with the Pains of Being Pure at Heart
BY ISABEL LYNDON ’17
Something was wrong with the drums. The indie rock band the Pains of Being Pure at Heart was 10 minutes into its set at the Doug Fir, a venue in Southeast Portland, this September. “Does anybody have an extra bass drum?” Kip Berman ’02, the band’s guitarist and lead singer, asked the crowd. After some confused muttering, a drummer from one of the opening bands made her way backstage to hand over her drum kit. The crowd cheered. In September, the Pains released their fourth album, The Echo of Pleasure, the band’s most danceable, pop-oriented release yet. To promote the album, the band ventured on a tour starting in the United Kingdom, meandering through the United States, and ending up, eventually, in Spain. Kip appeared on stage, backed by Jess Rojas on keyboards, Christoph Hochheim on guitar, bassist Jacob Danish Sloan, and drummer Chris Schackerman. The band tore into “Anymore,” a searing, guitar-driven track off the new album. Kip wore jeans and a matching denim jacket, a sort of rock ’n’ roll uniform.
16 Reed Magazine december 2017
Though he’s in his 30s, he looked younger, youth, longing, and love. There’s even a rumor that one song is about the Reed library. The with his moptop and earnest expression. I band released two well-received follow-up elbowed my way through the crowd until I LPs, Belong and Days of Abandon. stood next to the stage, where a pink-haired The Echo of Pleasure is different from fan danced alone, feverishly, next to me. the Pains’ other work. Mike Katzif of NPR The Pains’ self-titled 2009 debut evoked described it as the band’s most mature effort shoegaze bands like My Bloody Valentine yet. Crisp tracks like “When I and the Jesus and Mary Chain, Dance with You” encourage liswith plenty of twee influteners to groove along. ence and some shimmering “You get so down / I try to Johnny Marr–ish riffs thrown comfort / Sometimes words, in for good measure. The music they don’t do anything much magazine Pitchfork gave Pains at all,” Kip sings, adding a layer an 8.4 rating and deemed it a of complexity to an otherwise “Best New Album,” while NME’s straightforward pop tune. He Nathaniel Cramp called the The Echo of Pleasure, by the wrote these songs after marryalbum “pure indie-pop to hold Pains of Being Pure at Heart ing his wife, and recorded them close to your heart.” while she was pregnant with their daughter. I bought the album in 2009, when I was a high school freshman. Usually, I down- The Echo of Pleasure’s lyrics address relationloaded songs one MP3 at a time, but I liked ships that continue and grow past the point Pains enough to get the vinyl LP, which I of infatuation. listened to while sitting on my windowsill, Kip grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, thinking about crushes and other teenage where he attended a conservative, all-boys concerns. The album was nostalgic, both son- Catholic high school. At Reed, he was a DJ at ically and lyrically, filled with tracks about KRRC, served as vice president of the student
alejandro chávez ’17
body, and booked performers to play on campus. And he played in bands—lots of them. The first, the Sporting Life, consisted of Kip, Kyle Johnson ’02, Constance Chang ’01, and Nicole Wiswell ’02. Portland wasn’t—and still isn’t—an especially hospitable city for underage music lovers, in part because of strict Oregon liquor license laws. DIY bands and house shows provide an alternative music scene for the under-21 crowd, and the early 2000s were an especially fruitful time for basement recordings and indie bands, some of whom would go on to be fairly popular. DIY bands like Dear Nora, All Girl Summer Fun Band, and twee legends the Softies played and recorded at the Magic Marker House, a Southeast Portland venue and independent label. The Sporting Life played a few shows in Reed’s Ping-Pong room, “and then had a show off campus at the Magic Marker House, which was basically our only dream—so, soon after, we broke up,” he says. As the signator of the on-campus booking organization Rock Kidz Rawk, he brought plenty of bands to campus, too, including Kissing Book, the Makers, the Prids, and the Gossip. After the Sporting Life split, Kip played in a garage/glam-rock band called the Starve. “We always demanded our own encores,” he says. “I know it sounds silly, but that band was super fun.” After the Starve came the band Jackie, which “sounded like the Strokes if the Strokes weren’t very good.” He majored in religion, but, like most Reed students, he took classes across the disciplines. One was a “fantastic” Henry James course from Prof. Elizabeth Duquette [English 1998-2002]. Another was a literary theory class taught by Prof. Nigel Nicholson [classics 1995–]. “I don’t know if I deserved a good grade,” Kip says, “but I did play a capable third base for the classics department softball team at Renn Fayre and I can’t help but feel that the friendly nature of my final oral exam was somewhat informed by Nigel’s mild awe at my unlikely prowess on the diamond.” He also admired the “inimitable cool,” “sheer brilliance,” and “impeccable style” of Prof. Lena Lencek [Russian 1977–]. For his senior year, he looked for a thesis topic that would combine music, his passion,
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart performed in Portland at the Doug Fir Lounge in September, 2017.
with religion, his discipline, and decided to write about the criticism contemporary Christian musicians face when attempting the crossover to secular audiences. He remembers his advisor, Prof. Steve Wasserstrom [religion 1987–], “almost like a family member—a deeply warm and thoughtful person.”
BERMAN LOOKED AROUND FOR A THESIS TOPIC THAT WOULD COMBINE MUSIC, HIS PASSION, WITH RELIGION, HIS DISCIPLINE. Prof. Wasserstrom remembers Kip, too. Once, Kip arrived to a thesis meeting with bandages around his head. It turned out that he had been watching some friends play a show in Reed’s Ping-Pong room and decided to stage dive. “‘I jumped up on the speakers,’” he told his advisor, “‘and my head went through the roof.’” It also went through a fluorescent light fixture. He still has a scar. “That’s some serious music there,” Wasserstrom says. Kip met his wife, Cecily Swanson ’05, at an off-campus party. “This sounds corny, but I still remember it this way—this overwhelming sense of awe when I saw her,” he told me. “I instantly thought she was the most stunning person I’d ever seen.” They live with their daughter, Viola SwansonBerman, in Princeton, New Jersey, where Cecily is director of studies at Princeton University’s Mathey College.
After Reed, Kip played music, worked at a call center, and wrote about bands for the Portland Mercury. Later he moved to New York and formed the Pains. “I used to live here,” he told the crowd at Doug Fir. “This city means so much to me.” Then Rojas played the opening chords of “My Only,” a subdued love song from the new album. “See you like sea blue from a desert shore,” he sang, crouched over his guitar, “How much I need you, I just want you more.” After the set, I wandered over to the merch table, where Kip was selling T-shirts. A long line of impatient fans formed behind me. Quickly, I introduced myself and asked the question that hounded me as I researched his history and relistened to his albums. “Is the song ‘Young Adult Friction’ about Reed?” I asked. He seemed surprised. But yes, the song was, in fact, about the Hauser Library: Between the stacks in the library Not like anyone stopped to see We came, they went, our bodies spent Among the dust and the microfiche.
Perhaps Kip was taken aback because his music has changed. He no longer writes songs about college romance. Or, if he does, they’re about what happens when a college romance transforms into something more complex and longer lasting. His early lyrics indulged in youthful yearning, and his 1980s sound reflected that nostalgia. This latest album digs deeper, into the complexities of ongoing, evolving love.
december 2017 Reed Magazine 17
THE ACCENT AUTHORITY
Prof. Kara Becker examines how we convey power, class, race, and identity through the mechanics of our speech. BY MARTY SMITH ’88
In 1937, Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, launched a brutal program of ethnic cleansing to rid his nation of unauthorized immigrants crossing the border from neighboring Haiti. To pick out the Haitian immigrants, so the story goes, Dominican soldiers held up a sprig of parsley—in Spanish, perejil—and asked the captive to identify it. Speakers who pronounced their “r” in the Spanish fashion—trilling the tongue just behind the teeth—were judged to be native Dominican. Those who pronounced their “r” with the soft palate, as do speakers of French or Haitian Creole, were executed. Thankfully, it’s rare for an accent to have such gruesome consequences as the voiced velar fricative in what came to be known as the Parsley Massacre. Still, we pass judgment on others—and are ourselves judged—based upon tiny quirks all the time. A flat “a” here or a dropped “r” there may be all it takes for someone to label you as a sophisticate or a bumpkin, a superior or an underling, a comrade or an outsider. Take the controversy over “vocal fry,” also known to linguists as “creaky voice,” a phenomenon where the vocals folds slow to produce a gravelly sound, especially when ending a sentence. (Check out NPR’s Sarah Vowell or the MTV sitcom Daria.) This habit is perceived by some listeners as representing the end of civilization. NPR commentator Bob Garfield spent an entire episode of his Lexicon Valley podcast condemning creaky voice as “vulgar,” “mindless,” and “really annoying”—particularly when it is used by younger women. A Duke University study found that women who spoke with creaky voice were judged “less educated, less
18 Reed Magazine december 2017
attractive, and less hirable.” Enter Prof. Kara Becker [linguistics 2010–], who specializes in the social meaning of dialects and the rules that govern them. She has been studying creaky voice (with her colleague Prof. Sameer ud Dowla Khan) since 2014 and earned tenure at Reed earlier this year. “It’s not the case that [creaky voice] is used only by young women,” says Prof. Becker. “Many people do it all the time. All young people do it. There may be reasons why it’s more noticeable when young women do it . . . . We police women’s language in lots of ways, and this is just the du jour way of letting young women know that we don’t value the way that they talk. As I tell my students: linguistic discrimination is the last socially acceptable form of discrimination.” As a sociolinguist and dialectologist, Becker studies how elements of speech change from one social group to another, region to region, and era to era. After becoming passionate about linguistics as an undergrad at Stanford, Becker made her first mark on the field with her NYU doctoral dissertation on the evolution of New York City’s distinctive accent. Dialects and accents just seem to fascinate people. “Everyone has a grandmother who came from somewhere and learned English,” she says. “I feel like what I study is central to the human experience, because I can talk to anybody about it.” Her work on accents has drawn considerable attention from the media—often with bizarre results. “My research was about classic features of the New York City accent that are in withdrawal—young people are doing them less,” she says. Horrified magazine writers interpreted this as meaning that New Yorkers were beginning to sound like everyone else.
“[They] call me and ask, ‘Is New York City losing its accent?’ and I say”—here she adopts a soothing tone—“‘No, no, no; it’s just changing. Let me tell you how.’ Then I’ll spend 20 minutes explaining. But the next day the headline is ‘Linguist Says New York City Accent Disappearing!’” she sighs. Reporters also seek her out to comment on subjects such as Natalie Portman’s rendition of Jackie Kennedy’s distinctive way of speaking in the biopic Jackie, or to speculate on whether Hillary Clinton faked her dropped g’s when addressing Southern audiences. Away from the media spotlight, the actual work of dialectology is as rigorous—and
nina johnson ’99
YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY TOM-AH-TO. Prof. Kara Becker [linguistics 2010–] is an expert on the social meaning of linguistic phenomena.
labor-intensive—as that of any other science. At Reed’s Lab of Linguistics (LoL), for example, you’ll find students electronically synthesizing pronunciations of words to be played for test subjects. This project is part of a multiyear inquiry into characteristics of “Oregon English,” an emerging regional accent that may possibly be related to the influx of Californians into Oregon. “The normal model is you’ve got a lab, and graduate students, and a very active research life,” says Becker. At Reed, with no graduate students to draw from, she’s created a comparable research environment for undergraduates. “Kara’s overall enthusiasm about the field
of sociolinguistics and her ability to explain concepts ignited a fire in me like no subject ever has before,” says Caroline Wright ’18. “She is such an inspiration and I am very glad to be on my linguistics journey with her.” In recent years, Becker’s students have designed questionnaires, conducted interviews, and extracted audio samples for acoustic analysis, eventually presenting work at several conferences. “I think students should be doing research,” she says. “This work is hard and technical, but you can also jump right in.” At one conference, which took place shortly after she had given birth to one of her sons, she decided to let her students
run the show. “I just sent my three undergrads up there,” she says. “And they did an amazing job.” When the time came to publish their results, Becker offered her students the opportunity to join her as coauthors. The article, “Variation in West Coast English: The Case of Oregon,” was just published by the American Dialect Society. “I know how big of a deal that was for them, because I was them once,” she says. “I see the model of the teacher/scholar as the right way to do things. It’s not that your scholarship takes you away from your teaching—it makes you a better teacher, and vice versa.”
december 2017 Reed Magazine 19
INTO OBLIVION
The untold story of the Reed freshman who fought in the last major offensive of World War I. BY IAN BUCKMAN ’18
illustration by samantha wall
For the men of the 361st Regiment, the morning of October 9, 1918, dawned soggy and solemn. The sun crept above the horizon at 7:50, but was obscured behind the thick layers of mist and clouds that shrouded the French countryside. Few of them had gotten any sleep. It wasn’t the dull crash of artillery that kept them awake, nor was it the sudden bursts of tracer shells or flares which lit up the nighttime sky, announcing the intrusion of a German patrol. Even the dysentery which had been wracking them for weeks was by now just a routine misery. What haunted their thoughts that night was zero hour. The regiment had seen near constant combat for almost a month, but nothing like the orders they were expected to execute come morning. As the minutes ticked away, the men exchanged tired jokes and damp cigarettes. Some looked out across no man’s land, a sea of grassy mud. They could almost feel the gaze of German soldiers, watching them from the hills several hundred yards to their front. Everyone understood that before the sun went down, this pockmarked sliver of land could well become their grave. The moments slipped away, slowly, but not slowly enough. At exactly 9:40 a.m., the shrill blasts of whistles sounded across the American lines, and the 361st began their march into oblivion. Whether we know it or not, we all leave
behind a trail of clues for future historians. Americans at the dawn of the 20th century left birth certificates, census documents, photographs in someone else’s scrapbook. The longer they lived, the longer the trail: diaries, letters, newspaper clippings, court records, land deeds, and tax records. Sometimes, however, history has other plans. Between 1914 and 1918, World War I claimed the lives of over 18 million people, of whom almost 120,000 were Americans. Most of the slain died before reaching their mid-20s. Some left behind diaries. Some left behind children. But most went to the front childless, and their diaries were churned into the mud of the battlefield. As a result, the war not only annihilated them from the earth, but also obliterated their historical footprint, like a wave sweeping over the sand at low tide, leaving behind only vague indentations. Their stories may be difficult to reconstruct, but that is all the more reason to try. To forget them would be to forget the human cost of one of the greatest cataclysms of world history. Of the millions who died, 12 were Reedies. Of these 12, one was Pvt. George Henry Otte ’20. Otte hailed from Falls City, Oregon, a small town close to Salem. The first mention of him at Reed is in the catalog for the 1916–17 school year. We know from an issue
december 2017 Reed Magazine 21
INTO OBLIVION CONTINUED of the Quest that he liked to play basketball. We also know that he lived in Quincy 246, then referred to as “Room 7.” At the time, Reed had only existed for eight years, and had only offered classes for five. Campus consisted of little more than Eliot Hall and what we now call the Old Dorm Block. On April 6, 1917, Congress voted to declare war on Germany. From then until November 11, 1918, the war would dominate American life. Newspapers were splattered with stories of enemy atrocities and tales of daring heroism on the front, prowar posters plastered buildings, and the Committee on Public Information, a government agency, both bombarded Americans with pro-war propaganda and rigorously censored information coming back from Europe, keeping public enthusiasm at astronomic highs. Like the rest of the country, Reed was quickly caught up in a flurry of activity. No one was more passionate about service than President William T. Foster [1910–1919]. Though a vehement pacifist beforehand, Foster became a loyal supporter of the war effort once he realized that America’s entry was inevitable. In addition to helping found the Student Army Training Corps, a precursor to the ROTC, Foster traveled to France to work for the Red Cross, and returned to give a lecture, displaying pictures he took in France in order to “secure… willing cooperation in the nation’s great task.” Foster would even sometimes be seen strutting around campus in a military uniform. Duty through military service was presented as a necessary facet of manhood, and this message was beaten into the minds of young men in many ways. Popular songs called on men to honor their duty and fall into the ranks. Recruitment posters equated manhood and duty, and often depicted a burly soldier beckoning with open arms, telling men to stand up for their country. Others relied on the persuasiveness of shame. If intense social pressure failed to entice your enlistment, there was always the draft. The Selective Service Act of 1917 required all men between the ages of 21 and 30 (later expanded to 18-45) to register for service. The draft would thrust 2.8 million men, a majority of Americans who served in the war, into the military. Draftees were from all parts of the country and all walks of life, men whom the historian Joanna Bourke
22 Reed Magazine december 2017
C O U R T E S Y O F S P E C I A L C O L L E C T I O N S , E R I C V. H A U S E R M E M O R I A L L I B R A R Y, R E E D C O L L E G E .
Reed cadets of the Student Army Training Corps (SATC) muster on the Great Lawn after Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917.
december 2017 Reed Magazine 23
Soldiers of the 91st Infantry Division, the “Wild West” Division, line up for breakfast near Verdun after 12 days of fighting in the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
INTO OBLIVION CONTINUED describes as largely “civilians first, and soldiers by historical mishap.” Otte doesn’t seem to have been in a hurry to sign up. It wasn’t until April 20, 1918, that the Oregonian proclaimed him as one of Polk County’s 23 newest draftees. A few days later he was spirited away to Camp Lewis near Tacoma, where he became part of the 361st Regiment in the 91st Division. This division was composed of men from western states, earning it the nickname “the Wild West Division.” Despite its aggressive moniker, much of the outfit was composed of inexperienced draftees. They weren’t given much of an introduction to military life either. Training at Camp Lewis was a whirlwind, and within a couple of months, they were already shipping out to France. On September 7th, the 91st Division marched toward the Western Front. Not only were the troops green, they were also woefully
24 Reed Magazine december 2017
underequipped. The division suffered from a shortage of radios, flares, telephones, and other vital gear. Allied Command knew that the result of these shortages would probably be high casualties, but decided that the manpower of the 91st was needed on the front—ready or not. On September 24, the division was ordered to the Argonne Forest. Soon they would be participating in a massive operation to smash through the German lines and drive north towards the city of Sedan—a key military objective. Sedan was a rail hub that allowed the Germans to keep resupplying their forces throughout France and Belgium with troops and equipment. Allied generals hoped that the capture of Sedan would strike a decisive blow against the German army and end the bloody stalemate. This battle would become known as the Meuse-Argonne offensive, and would be the largest in American military history, with more than one million American soldiers taking part, but all
Otte and his comrades would have known is that their time to go “over the top” would be September 26 at 5:30 am. One of the common explanations for the unprecedented carnage of the Great War is the imbalance between tactics and technology. Generals who had earned their commissions back when soldiers could only fire off a few bullets in a minute, now faced weapons which could mow down companies in seconds. Of these weapons, perhaps none was more transformative than long-range artillery. Advances in metallurgy and ballistic science had lengthened the range of shells and mortars. In Napoleon’s time, cannonballs could be shot a maximum distance of around a mile. By 1918, standard heavy artillery could be fired with deadly accuracy over 15 miles. With long-range artillery, mortal danger was no longer confined to the front lines. The risk of being blown to pieces was now shared by their reserves, as well as any officers, nurses, engineers, drivers, or civilians within a 15
harry a. williams / los angeles times
•Brussels
THE MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE BELGIUM GERMANY •Sedan
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•Sedan
BELGIUM
ARGO N N E FO R EST
FRANCE •Paris
FRANCE
WESTERN FRONT, SEPTEMBER, 1918
The Meuse-Argonne offensive was the final, decisive operation of WWI. Starting in September, 1918, Allied forces pushed North through the Argonne Forest toward the rail hub of Sedan, threatening to cut off German troops on the Western Front. The 91st Division [INSET] captured the towns of Very and Épinonville, but suffered massive casualties from German artillery, whose lethal accuracy depended on an observation post atop Hill 255. Otte’s regiment was ordered to storm the hill.
mile radius. Anyone was a potential target. A week into the offensive, German artillery was pounding American troops. The entire area occupied by the 91st was subjected to a brutal daily bombardment. Most concerning was the fact that the enemy seemed to know exactly where to hit. On October 2, German artillery shelled division headquarters in the French town of Épinonville, reducing much of what was left of the town to rubble. In a single hour, 35 Americans were killed and 115 more wounded. Worse, German shells had begun to crater the narrow road connecting Épinonville with the larger Allied staging base of Very. The shelling prevented key supplies from reaching troops at the front, and severely hampered the ability of the Americans to evacuate their wounded. This bombardment made the position of the 91st unstable, and the generals uneasy. Command knew that although the shells themselves were coming from over the horizon, their deadly accuracy indicated that
the Germans had established an observation post on a small ridge overlooking the town, labeled on the map as Hill 255. Hill 255 had already proven an immense headache. On September 29, the 362nd Infantry had attacked the area around the hill. Over 100 Americans were helplessly gunned down in the first 200 yards of the advance. High Command’s frantic attempts to order a retreat were confounded by a lack of communications equipment. When the smoke cleared, the 362nd was missing over 500 men, including several high-ranking officers. The traumatized survivors were grumbling that their lives had been “thrown away in a new charge of the light brigade.” The 362nd was so thoroughly brutalized that it was immediately sent to the rear for reorganization, forcing the horrified 361st, with Otte among them, to spread out and plug the gaps left in the line. The 361st was already battle-hardened. They had “jumped off” with the rest of the Division in the first wave of the offensive, and had seized Épinonville from the Germans, allowing American generals to set up command there. Battered by weeks of near-constant battle, the 361st had lost over 800 men from its original strength of 3700. However, High Command, panicked by the German shelling, was not yet ready to grant the weary men a rest. Sudden orders reversed the direction of the march, and the 361st struggled back to the front lines, slogging through eightmiles of driving rain before finally digging in, under
The Meuse-Argonne offensive • HILL 255 • Epinonville • Very
ARGONNE FOR EST
fire, in preparation for an assault. As they surveyed the muddy, shell-beaten landscape which stretched out before them, they could not help but think about the slaughter which had occurred here a mere week before. Despite their experience, the men of the 361st knew they were about to face their most challenging encounter yet. With the ability to fire up to 10 bullets a second, even a single German machine gun was a force to be reckoned with; Hill 255 was bristling with them. To make matters worse, more machine guns were concealed on the neighboring hill, commanding the terrain the 361st would need to cross. In the event of an attack, these guns were ready to turn this open space into a maelstrom of bullets, cutting down anything and anyone in their path. This space had also been thoroughly presighted for artillery. Against this fearsome arsenal, the Americans had barely more than their bayonets. Regardless, at 9:40 a.m. on a waterlogged October morning, George Otte and his companions rose to their feet and crossed the line of departure. The assault became a bloodbath almost immediately. Gunfire swept the open space and the men crossing it. One man, Corporal Carl Larson, was hit and flopped down in the open. His sergeant, thinking he was taking cover, screamed at him three times to keep advancing before finally running over to discover that he was dead. As the advance stalled, some men tried to hide themselves by lying still in the grass while the bullets whistled over their heads. One
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INTO OBLIVION CONTINUED tom humphrey
The 1918 Griffin featured this illustrated tribute. “May we honor these dead who were once students as we.”
solider, Elmer Van Lew, was hiding behind a bank when an American close to him was raked by a machine gun burst. Van Lew cautiously disturbed his stillness to help his comrade, but as soon as he moved his arm he was shot in the forehead and killed instantly, apparently having revealed himself to a sniper. Another man, John E. Boche, struggled to find his commanding officer in the chaos of the attack. Staying as low to the ground as he could, Boche rolled over and over along the wet and muddy grass like a child playing a game until he finally came across his sergeant’s prone corpse. In order to confound the deadly accuracy of the machine guns, the Americans tried deploying a smoke screen—this, however, was no use against the German shells which now began to scream overhead and smash into the pinned American ranks. Often jagged bits of shrapnel would slash into a body but leave only a small entry wound, concealing the true gravity of the
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This bronze tablet honors the students who died in the line of duty during and after WWI. It stands sentinel at the south entrance to Eliot Hall.
injury. Frank May was shot in the arm and was dragged, screaming, along by his friends, who thought his wound wasn’t serious. Finally his cries of agony prompted his friends to take off his shirt and examine him more closely, upon which they found a small hole in his side. May died later that night on the operating table. The weight of so many deaths must have piled steadily upon the American command until it finally broke their resolve to continue. In the end the 361st retreated and Hill 255 was pummeled with artillery until any German defenders had been blown beyond the point of resistance. By the next day it was safe to advance once more. The assault was significant enough to merit a mention in the memoirs of General George Pershing, the supreme commander of American forces. On the massacre, Pershing simply recollected: “The 91st Division… fought all day on the 9th for possession of Hill 255, suffering heavy casualties, and on the following day occupied the position.”
From atop the freshly captured hill, the 361st’s survivors began to realize how deadly the assault had been. Roll calls were taken as officers quickly tried to determine who was present and who had been left on the shellcontorted field below. Otte was found to be unaccounted for. It wasn’t until December, after the end of the war, that his name made it into an official list of casualties, where he was listed as “killed in action.” The Meuse-Argonne offensive, and the broader “hundred days offensive” of which it was a part, turned out to be the crushing blow that the Allies had hoped for. By October 31, the Americans had advanced almost 10 miles. To their north, the French had advanced 19 miles—magnificent gains in a war which, until then, had mostly been measured in yards. As the Allies descended on Sedan, the German army was thrown into full retreat. Less than two weeks later, the war was over. Final victory, however, came at a terrible toll: the cost for each foot
Ian Buckman is a history major who is writing his senior thesis on World War II. This is his first article for the magazine.
C O U R T E S Y O F S P E C I A L C O L L E C T I O N S , E R I C V. H A U S E R M E M O R I A L L I B R A R Y, R E E D C O L L E G E .
gained in the American advance was about two and a half American lives. My attempt to tell Otte’s story is far from holistic, and hardly complete. Given what we know, it’s possible to say where he was, but it’s hard to say what he did. Given information about his brothers-in-arms, I’m able to provide context to his death, but I don’t know how he died. With documents and records I can say that he was a soldier and a Reedie, but I can’t say who he was: what his aspirations were, what hobbies he enjoyed, how he liked it at Reed. These details are elusive, and they may even be lost forever to history, but despite that hole in our understanding, we can still remember him. Three years later, in 1921, Reed unveiled a tablet commemorating the students who died in the war. At the unveiling, Norman F. Coleman, an English professor who would go on to become president of the college, remarked on the seven million young men slain on the battlefield and reflected that “millions are weak and hungry for lack of those young men.” Prof. Coleman urged the gathered mourners to “give effect to our resolution made in the presence of these dead, it must not be again.” Now, a hundred years after 1917, it’s easy to feel like things have changed. The campus has grown, and new buildings have sprung up. However, the core of the campus remains the tall stone hallways and expansive classrooms of Eliot Hall. The Old Dorm Block, where I lived my freshman year, remains a place that many Reedies call home. The serene greenness of the canyon remains the natural heart of the campus. All of these spaces, taken for granted as we muddle through our daily lives, have been shared by a community that spans a century. These spaces were once inhabited by Otte and the other Reedies killed in the Great War. They kicked back in common rooms, hurried to class through the hallways of Eliot, and admired the colors of a Portland sunset above the canyon lake. When we remember that these fallen once, too, shared the timeless experience of being at Reed, the magnitude of their loss becomes more immediate. The tablet that bears their names still guards the entrance to Eliot, next to the list of Reedies killed in World War II, a reminder that this time, for certain—it must not be again.
President William T. Foster established a program at Reed in 1918 to train reconstruction aides, young women who would provide physical therapy and occupational therapy for injured veterans of the war.
AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED At least 93 Reed students, professors, and alumni served in WWI. Twelve students died in the line of duty; many more were wounded. Among them: Anna Haight Ames ’18 hailed from Los Angeles and graduated from Reed’s reconstruction aide program, which trained women to provide phys-ical therapy and occupational therapy to wounded war veterans. She died of influenza. Jeanette Barrows ’18 hailed from Seattle and graduated from Reed’s reconstruction aide program. She died of pneumonia in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in 1919. Howard Hopkirk ’20 served as a first lieutenant and returned to write his thesis on press associations and newspaper reporters. He became an influential figure in social work, authoring the book Institutions Serving Children and becoming executive director of the Child Welfare League of America. Neil Malarkey ’19 joined the troops going to France and was badly burned when a large timber fell on a tank of ammonia, causing it to rupture. He returned to Reed, graduated in English, and went on to became a district attorney and serve in the Oregon legislature.
Glenn Quiett ’20 served on the front lines in France, where he was exposed to poison gas and lost a lung. He returned to Reed and graduated in English, writing his thesis on the play-wright Eugène Scribe. He went on to write the seminal history of 19th-century American expansion, They Built the West: An Epic of Rails and Cities. He died of tuberculosis in 1936; his friends and family raised money to build the Quiett Infirmary (now the Student Center), which stands north of Eliot Hall. When the building was dedicated, his aunt brought a bouquet of red carnations—Glenn’s favorite flowers—to adorn the entrance. Esther Zimmerman ’18 hailed from Portland and graduated from Reed’s reconstruction aide program. She died of pneumonia in Camp Custer, Michigan, in 1919. Influenza was so rampant that the board of health forbade a public funeral. She was buried in Riverview Cemetery in Portland.
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Reediana Books. Music. Film. Send us your work!
EDITED BY KATIE PELLETIER Email reed.magazine@reed.edu
Beyond Surgery
by Anita Hannig ’04 (University of Chicago Press, 2017)
Perhaps you have heard about the horrific plight of women in Ethiopia and other African countries who developed tears in their bladder or rectum after prolonged labor. You may hear that these women, child brides who were too small to give birth, are ejected from their homes as pariahs, lonely in their huts at the edges of their villages, leaking urine or feces, shunned by their communities. You’ll hear this story from NGOs working to raise money and save these women from their plight. This story is what drove Anita Hannig ’03, an anthropologist at Brandeis University, to investigate the phenomenon. She bought into this tragic narrative—until she discovered how wrong it is. It took time to build trust, but when she did, she was able to speak with many fistula sufferers in rural Ethiopia and spend time
A Good Country
in their communities and the hospitals and institutions designed to save them. Hannig uncovered an even more insidious truth. In her book Beyond Surgery: Injury, Healing, and Religion at an Ethiopian Hospital, Hannig details how the prevailing narrative gives no agency to these women, misrepresents the strength and caring of their culture, mixes in irrelevant tropes of child marriages and genital mutilation, and feeds into damaging notions of cultural primitivism. In this beautifully written, careful, and evocative book, Hannig relates how the Protestant underpinnings of the first fistula hospitals led to notions of uncleanliness and ungodliness, and how this religious view resulted in the belief that fistula surgery would save obstetric fistula sufferers. In fact, many surgeries are often needed to cure the
injuries, and sometimes surgery is not at all effective. In addition, although living with fistula is difficult, these women take part in the religious life of their communities and are not shunned; Hannig writes about how they are “remade in the face of misfortune.” In the final part of her book about the mission of those who treat fistula sufferers, Hannig speaks about how the helpers try to “civilize” these women, believing that lack of education creates the problem. Hannig makes a powerful case that the problem lies in the helpers’ biases, and that the most critical issues at hand—poverty and lack of access to health care—remain unaddressed. After reading this book, I am left hoping that Hannig’s powerful work will serve to illuminate this situation in a more public way, further respect for the women and their culture, and help usher in necessary change. — NADINE FIEDLER ’89
by Laleh Khadivi ’98 (Bloomsbury, 2017)
In 2009 Laleh Khadivi published The Age of Orphans, the first volume of her trilogy about a Kurdish man named Reza Khourdi and his American descendants. In 2013 she followed up with The Walking, about Reza’s son Saladin, who struggles to find his footing in Los Angeles in the wake of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. When these two books first appeared, most American readers were well acquainted with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but we had only inklings of a violent new Islamist group (variously called ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, or the Islamic State) that was recruiting Western youths into its fold. A group much like ISIS plays a suspenseful role in 2017’s A Good Country, the third volume of Khadivi’s trilogy. The “good country” is the United States, and the locale is contemporary Orange County. Saladin is married and living 28 Reed Magazine december 2017
comfortably in Laguna Beach. Saladin’s son Reza—“Rez” to his friends—is the very definition of callow. A straight-A student with little sense of his parents’ heritage or struggles, he blends in with his affluent Anglo peers who share his passion for surfing, drugfueled raves, and hot teenage sex. But after a disastrous surfing trip to Mexico, his buddies become more standoffish, and he gravitates to another classmate, Arash, whom he sees as someone “not at all in the process of becoming, but who already and completely just was.” Through Arash he meets Fatima, whose sheltered upbringing puts her in daily conflict with her burgeoning sexuality and Americanized friends. As Islamist terror attacks and the American backlash further isolate the three outsiders, they become ever more susceptible to Islamist recruitment. The effect is of a sickening nightmare, of a car stalled on the
railroad tracks in front of an oncoming train. Rez and Fatima argue: “. . . I’ve heard all about that group in Raqqah. It’s not the Islam I know...It is an interpretation, an old Islam and it can be very violent.” “You know all this is bloody and violent too?” She looked up at the beach. “All what?” “These kids, all these families, having fun, driving cars, living in big houses, watching stupid sports games, voting for war in the Middle East every chance they get? How much violence do you think it takes to keep this all so pretty?”
Khadivi, who was Reed’s commencement speaker in 2016, meets the millennials on their own turf. Where The Age of Orphans took a self-consciously poetic approach to a time and place she never experienced, A Good Country is plainspoken, almost documentary. What all three books share is an unflinching glimpse of cultures in conflict. —ANGIE JABINE ’79
A Bungalow of Surprises
Barclay Henderson ’62 (CreateSpace, 2017)
Barclay, a retired entrepreneur, real-estate and restaurant chain operator, has a new book, A Bungalow of Surprises. Drawing from the “surprises that have filled his own bungalow of stories,” this is a treasury of colorful personalities: old and young, rich and poor, domestic and foreign, with lessons of audacity and living life on their own terms. The reader will enter the desert tent and the mind of a nomadic Bedouin woman, spend a year with a geisha, and learn the power of risk from a third-degree black belt whose secret teaching weapon is strudel. Along the way are enchanting ideas and insights from animals, microorganisms, sperm cells, and sphincters. This is a life’s voyage without a dress rehearsal. Barclay notes, “Most experience is new to us, an adventure in surprise and irony. The secret is to embrace those surprises as our most powerful teachers.”
Beyond the Battle of Naupaktos Lin Sten ’67 (CreateSpace, 2017)
The third volume in Lin’s tetralogy, Arion’s Odyssey, is set in 430 BC. Thanks to Arion’s courageous response to the pirate attack north of the Kaphereos promontory, he earns back some of the trust and goodwill that he lost when he tried to escape his servitude. Then come two naval battles between Athens’s Delian League and Sparta’s Peloponnesian League, and the plague descends on Athens. These are dangerous times that call for a man of courage. If Arion has learned enough of patience and subservience, can he hope for a generous manumission by his owner? The revolt of Lesbos in 428 BC tests Arion’s patience and that of Athens. Maybe Arion has waited too long.
Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past
Paul Shaw ’76 (Yale University Press, 2017)
Paul, an award-winning designer, typographer, and design historian, has released a new book sure to delight anyone fascinated by typography. A fascinating tour through typographic history, Revival Type provides a visually rich exploration of digital type revival. Many typefaces from the predigital past have been reinvented for use on computers
“Women Kissing” from here / still / now, a new book of photogaphs by Paul D’Amato ’80.
and mobile devices, while other new font designs are revivals of letterforms, drawn from inscriptions, calligraphic manuals, posters, and book jackets. Paul introduces these fonts, many of which are widely used, and engagingly tells their stories. Examples include translations of letterforms not previously used as type, direct revivals of metal and wood typefaces, and looser interpretations of older fonts. Among these are variations on classic designs by John Baskerville, Giambattista Bodoni, William Caslon, Firmin Didot, Claude Garamont, and Nicolas Jenson, as well as typefaces inspired by less familiar designers, including Richard Austin, Philippe Grandjean, and Eudald Pradell. Handsomely illustrated with annotated examples, archival material depicting classic designs, and full character sets of modern typefaces, Revival Type is an essential introduction for designers and design enthusiasts into the process of reinterpreting historical type.
AQA GCSE Drama
(Illuminate Publishing)
Oxford Literature Companions: A Streetcar Named Desire (Oxford University Press 2017)
Annie Fox ’77 Annie has two new books out this year: a new drama textbook and a literature companion text. Her drama textbook, AQA GCSE Drama, has been approved by the testing agency AQA and
is a colorful and accessible presentation with a visual approach throughout to engage students of all abilities. It contains a detailed description and analysis of six set plays, and practical suggestions for drama activities and tasks. The book also features contemporary examples of drama writing, staging, performance, and interpretation throughout. Oxford Literature Companions: A Streetcar Named Desire provides study support for students age 16 and up. The companion features an analysis of the text, including context, theme, genre, and critical views, as well as detailed sections focusing on the writer’s use of language, structure, and dramatic techniques. The book includes activities, practice exam questions, and a glossary.
The Promise of a New America
William Paul Wanker ’79 (Lulu.com, 2017)
The Promise of a New America identifies the philosophical, historical, political, economic, social, and cultural causes underpinning the increasing dysfunction of the American republic and the subsequent disenfranchisement of its peoples. William uses these findings to identify a solution to remedy American ills. He argues for building a new form of governance around the concept of human dignity and living a dignified human existence. He proposes an ecocultural community defined both by its naturally occurring biosystem and by the economic and cultural identity of the people involved therein. He december 2017 Reed Magazine 29
Reediana
challenges all Americans to overthrow their republican form of government by engaging in a campaign for human dignity, supported through the Human Dignity Project,™ which would ensure increasing enfranchisement and not segregation. William has worked for many policy organizations and elected officials in the country: the Oregon Legislature research office, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Education Commission of the States, the US Department of Education, the Center for Public Policy & Contemporary Issues, and the Center for the American West. He holds five ecommerce patents, and has founded and advised technology companies.
here / still / now
Paul D’Amato ’80 (KEHRER VERLAG, 2017)
The west side of Chicago is not the poorest, the oldest, the largest, or the most African American of African American communities. It is just like every other swath of poverty in and around every single city in the U.S. We are led to believe that the only time these communities are in crisis is when something occurs that lands on a front page. But the real crisis is ongoing and it’s one of acceptance—acceptance of the conditions, day in, day out. Yet when Paul is there, visiting someone he knows, or simply stopping someone he has never met, something besides a concern for poverty takes shape. This is what he photographs. When these subjects agree to be photographed, they stand for the best and only example of who they are. The photographs won’t change these neighborhoods—but they remind us that the individuals in the images are as important as any one of us. Paul is a professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago. His work is in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.
City Mouse, Country Mouse Maggie Rudy ’81 (HENRY HOLT, 2017)
Maggie’s third children’s book is a retelling of the Aesop’s fable and features characters and environments that she built and photographed. The book received a starred review from Kirkus, who raved about the illustration:
30 Reed Magazine december 2017
An image from City Mouse, Country Mouse, by Maggie Rudy ’81
“Rudy’s intricately constructed miniature tableaux of found materials and felted characters, photographed by her, offer much to pore over . . . Even the gestures of the two mice are carefully orchestrated to show emotion.” The reviewer adds, “There’s always room for another take on a classic, especially when done so well.”
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Bill Morrison ’87 (HYPNOTIC PICTURES AND PICTURE PALACE PICTURES, 2016) Dawson City: Frozen Time pieces together the bizarre true history of a collection of some 500 films dating from the 1910s–1920s, which were lost for over 50 years until being discovered buried in a subarctic swimming pool deep in the Yukon, in Dawson City, located about 350 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Using these permafrost-protected, rare silent films and newsreels, archival footage, interviews, and historical photographs to tell the story, and
accompanied by an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers (Captain Fantastic), Dawson City: Frozen Time depicts a unique history of a Canadian gold rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation—and through that collection, how a First Nation hunting camp was transformed and displaced.
Sun Moon Earth
Tyler Nordgren ’91 (Basic Books, 2016) On April 8, 2024, millions of Americans will experience an awe-inspiring phenomenon: a total eclipse of the sun. In Sun Moon Earth, astronomer Tyler Nordgren illustrates how this most seemingly unnatural of natural phenomena was
transformed from a fearsome omen to a tourist attraction. From the astrologers of ancient China and Babylon to the high priests of the Maya, Tyler takes us around the world to show how different cultures interpreted these dramatic events. Greek philosophers discovered eclipses’ cause and used them to measure their world and the cosmos beyond. Victorian-era scientists mounted eclipse expeditions during the age of globe-spanning empires. And modern-day physicists continue to use eclipses to confirm Einstein’s theory of relativity. Tyler is a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Redlands and a former board member of the International Dark Sky Association. Sun Moon Earth was named one of Amazon’s Best Science Books of 2016.
GIFTS FOR ALL OCCASIONS
Boston Podcast Players Greg Lam ’96
Boston Podcast Players is a new monthly podcast started by Greg and fellow playwright Mara Palma that features Boston area playwrights in interviews as well as excerpts from full-length plays. Featured in the first season are Mimi Augustin, Mary McCullough, Greg Lam, Mara Elissa Palma, Ken Green, Jecenia Isis Figueroa, Rosa Nagle, and Colleen M. Hughes. These playwrights met in 2016 at Company One Theatre’s PlayLab program, where they made up the PlayLab Unit for that year. They represent a diverse cross section of playwriting styles, ethnicities, experiences, and points of view that are explored during the first season. The podcast is available for free subscription on iTunes and other popular podcast platforms. See bostonpodcastplayers.com.
Who Lives/ Wer lebt By Elisabeth Borchers
Translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul [Library] Caroline, one of Reed’s intrepid library staff, has translated from German the work of the esteemed 20th-century poet and editor, Elisabeth Borchers. In this bilingual edition of Borchers’s book, six sections highlight Borchers’s stylistic experimentation, “which ranges from sophisticated, subtle political commentary to inventive rhyme and playful personal narratives.” Caroline is a freelance lexicographer and translator.
Get your hoodies and t-shirts at Reed’s nonprofit bookstore this winter:
bookstore.reed.edu.
In Memoriam EDITED BY RANDALL S. BARTON
High Flyer Broke Records—and Barriers Joann Osterud ’68
March 12, 2017, in Oxnard, California, of natural causes.
She flew high and low over adoring crowds, but she was just warming up. After deciding the sky wasn’t the limit, Joann Osterud turned her plane upside down and began flying with the earth above her head. A magnificent woman in a flying machine, she broke world records and pushed many boundaries. In 1975, she became the first female pilot employed by Alaska Airlines, and the sixth female commercial pilot in the country. But in addition to flying commercial airlines, Joann became a record-breaking stunt pilot. At an air show in North Bend, Oregon, she broke the record for flying outside loops. The previous record of 62 loops, flown by Dorothy Stenzel, had held since 1931. Joann chalked up 208 outside loops in in her Sorrell biplane Supernova. After seeing Joann perform at an air show, Dorothy had encouraged her to break the record. Joanne was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where her father taught biology at the University of Minnesota. When she was three years old, the family, which included an older brother and younger sister, moved to Seattle, where Kenneth Osterud taught at the University of Washington. At Reed, Joann majored in political science and wrote her thesis, “Science Policy: The National Institutes of Health” with Prof. Carl Stevens ’42 [economics 1954–90] advising. “I couldn’t be more positive about my time at Reed,” she said, “I went there to become educated, not trained.” She spent her summers working for future Washington governor Dixy Lee Ray at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. In 1968, she began taking flying lessons from a female instructor at Hillsboro Airport. After college, Joann continued taking flying lessons at Boeing Field to fulfill her
childhood dream of flying. She briefly attended graduate school at MIT, but found it was a disappointment after Reed. “There were big-name professors with their nameplates on the door, but did but did you ever see one of them?” she said. “At Reed you could go talk to them.” In lieu of completing a degree in public policy, she received her pilot’s license in 1969. Soon after, she began aerobatic flying, and after a short stint as a flight instructor for Bell Air Service in Seattle she was hired as both a secretary and a pilot for Lynden Transport in Seattle. She became the first female pilot employed by Alaska Airlines, and flew for them for three years. The fourth woman to graduate from United Airlines’ training school, in 1978 Joann became the sixth female pilot to fly for United Airlines. But it was her acrobatic maneuvers as a stunt pilot that had crowds staring gape-jawed at the sky. In air shows across the U.S. and Canada she would take her plane straight up into the sky, and then plummet and spiral as if out of control. One crowd-pleasing spectacle was the Ring of Fire, in which she flew through a flaming circle and on her last pass cut a ribbon stretched over the runway while flying upside down. In 1991, Joann set two records at once: for the longest flight upside down and the longest flight upside down in one stretch—4 hours and 38 minutes over 658 miles up the Fraser River between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Vanderhoof, British Columbia. To train for the inversions, Joann attached a pilot’s seat to the ceiling of her garage and practiced hanging for 20 minutes at a time. Her plane was modified with straps to hold her feet to the pedals and a special harness that allowed her to hang upside down. She stood 5 feet 3 inches and weighed 100 pounds—an advantage in coping with
g-forces that are six or more times the force of gravity. “Your hand weighs six time what it weighs normally,” she explained. “It’s very physical.” Being inverted caused charley horses in her legs, swelling of her eyeballs resulting in blurred vision, and a runny nose. She once walked away from a crash landing with only a scar on the bridge of her nose. “Stunt pilots don’t pick their line of work to get rich,” she said. “We do it because we love it and because we like to enrich other people’s lives. I really enjoy flying the airplane, but I also like making people happy and maybe forget all their problems for just a little while.” Joann would work three days a week as a Boeing 727 flight engineer for United Airlines in Los Angeles, and put the rest of her time into Osterud Aviation Airshows, based in Oxnard where she lived. She was married and divorced twice, and concluded that she was too busy for romance. Her siblings, Allan Osterud and Grey Osterud, survive her.
He Went with the Flow David Slack Barrett ’79
July 26, 2017, in Vermont, of a heart attack. A beloved tai chi instructor, David could often be spotted on Reed’s great lawn, guiding students through the slow, hypnotic movements of Yang style tai chi. “Some of my favorite memories of Reed are doing tai chi wordlessly in the spring among the falling cherry blossoms,” Eliot Sitt ’07 remembered. “Dave was both boisterous and serene—very animated with a sense of humor explaining the motions, more meditative 38 Reed Magazine december 2017
during the run-throughs.” Dave began teaching at Reed in 1981 and was an adjunct professor with the exercise science department of Pacific University. In addition, he taught at a variety of senior centers, including a regular tai chi class at the Hillsboro Senior Center. “Dave taught at so many levels,” said Prof. Alan Shusterman [chemistry 1989–], who began taking tai chi with Dave in 2003. “He addressed our physical and mental health,
trained us in an ancient martial arts tradition, and shared Chinese culture and history. He was opening so many doors, telling me which Chinese music to listen to, which restaurants to eat at, and which scholars did the best job of translating Chinese
into English. Dave never said to me, ‘Try meditation,’ but after studying tai chi, meditation seemed like an obvious step for me to take.” Eliot, who is a licensed acupuncturist and tai chi instructor with a practice in Milwaukie, Oregon, and also teaches tai chi, studied with Dave all four of his years at Reed. “It was one of the more significant of my Reed classes, since it inspired me to pursue a career in Chinese medicine,” Eliot said. “When I first decided to try teaching Tai Chi in my hometown of Roseburg in Southern Oregon after graduating, Dave was very supportive and encouraging. I traveled up to go to a few more of Dave’s classes for a refresher and for some teaching tips, and I don’t know if I could have done it without his blessings and support. I also began learning the tai chi sword form from him during my first year of Chinese medicine school, and I still have a sword he gave me in exchange for substitute teaching a few classes at Reed.” The eldest of three children born to Joyce and Richard Barrett, Dave grew up in Washington, D.C., Manhattan, and Long Island. He moved to Portland to study at Reed College in 1975, majoring in theatre, and wrote his thesis, “Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights!: The Vital Necessities of Renewing Oral Traditions,” with Prof. Craig Clinton [theatre 1978–2010] advising. Having fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest, David remained in Oregon the rest of his life. He began his study of tai chi at the Washington Park Rose Garden in 1977, and in 1980 he received a grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to spend a year studying in Hong Kong. Upon his return in 1981, he began teaching tai chi at Reed College. He was the director of the Yang Cheng Fu Tai Chi Center in Forest Grove and was certified as an instructor by the International Yang Family Style Tai Chi Chuan Association, having trained directly with senior members of the Yang Family in China. “Dave taught tai chi like you might expect a Reedie to do it, by including all the information he could and teaching with passion,” remembers Toria Ellis ’19. “He didn’t overwhelm us with information, but he made sure we knew more than just the motions. Every time I came to class, I would learn something new about tai chi other than the motions. He really wanted to teach tai chi they way you would teach another more ‘academic’ subject, and did his best within the 50 minutes he had each class.” Dave was married for 25 years to Monica Barrett, and the couple had two children, Moses and Ella. In 2009, he returned to Portland to be with his soul mate, Molly, whom he married in 2014. Until the end, he remained a nurturing family man, whose dearest wish was that the people he loved be happy.
Betty Brockman Martin ’41
April 24, 2016, in Bellevue, Washington.
Betty wrote her thesis, “ The Geodesics on a To r u s a n d T h e i r Isogonal Projections,” with Prof. Frank Griffin [math 1911–56]. S he and her sister, Wanda Brockman ’40, were proud to be Reed graduates. After college Betty began working at NASA, leading a group of women doing work with the slide rule that is now done by computer. She quit in 1945 to marry Andrew Martin, and they moved to Bellevue, Washington, where Andy took a job with Boeing. When Andy was transferred, the family, which included three daughters and a son, moved to Huntsville, Alabama. They returned to Bellevue in 1966, but with the Boeing cutback in 1972 (which led to the billboard reading “Would the last person leaving Seattle turn off the lights?”), Andy found civil service work at the Justice Department. A series of transfers moved them to Atlanta, Tallahassee, Raleigh, and Lexington. Betty returned to civil service as well, this time as an IRS auditor. She enjoyed being back at work, developing rapport with workers, and meeting the “amusing” public. Her innate leadership skills became evident and she ended up as lead in her office. With all the moves around the South, Betty discovered a hobby in Civil War history. The couple retired to Bellevue, and following Andy’s death, Betty became very involved with her church, especially with missions work. She remained a voracious reader, particularly of American history, with a partiality to anything related to Abraham Lincoln. One day she said, “I wish someone would give me a bust of Lincoln.” She remained cognizant to the end and passed away in her home, as she had requested. She is survived by three of her four children.
William Dichtel ’42
July 13, 2017, in Stanardsville, Virginia.
As a captain in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Bill served in the Pacific theater as an expert in mine warfare and guided missile systems. After watching Aand H-bomb tests from the bow of a ship, he went on to see many antimissiles that he had developed launched at sea. Following his service, he worked as the top civilian in the Washington Navy Yard, and at the Maryland Proving Grounds became the chief architect and developer of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, still used in the United States as the first line of defense against war-
The Spirit of Reed READ about classmates and professors who have died at www.reed. edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam. SHARE your memories on our website or via email at reed.magazine@reed.edu HONOR them with a gift in their name at reed.edu/givingtoreed.
head missile strikes. Bill was born in Portland, and during the Great Depression moved with his family to a farm in the Oregon countryside, where he developed a lifelong interest in farming. With his brothers and father, he built a large barn and developed a penchant for becoming a Rube Goldberg–style fix-it man. At Reed, he studied physics and wrote his thesis on the physical properties of electrets with Prof. A. A. Knowlton [physics 1915–48]. He went on to get joint MBA degrees from George Washington University and the United States Army War College. Bill was a voracious reader, excited by new scientific advancements and discoveries. A true renaissance man, he enjoyed opera, theater, art, calligraphy, sailing, and hiking, and was a member of MENSA. He was awarded the navy’s highest civilian honor, as well as numerous commendations. In 1979, he returned to his farming roots, moving to Farmcolony, Virginia, a subdivision nestled on the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains that contains 150 acres of working farm, 95 acres of home sites, and 40 acres of open space. He worked to restore the ancient land grant farm buildings, and helped with developing the cattle herd, haying, and planting the orchard, vineyard, and garden. Bill loved this farm deeply and left his imprint on it. He is survived by his wife, Malou Stark Dichtel, and his son, William Jr., daughter, Anne Dwiggins, and stepdaughters, Stormy and Courtney Stark. His first wife, Ruth, predeceased him.
Judith Ware Dodson ’42 June 24, 2017, in Deming, New Mexico.
Judith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Harold Ware and Clarissa Smith. At Reed, she wrote her thesis, “William Carlos Williams— An American Prose Writer” with Prof. Lloyd Reynolds [English and art 1929–69] advising. Judith often said that her Reed years were among the happiest of her life. She made three trips to the Galapagos Islands in the 1970s, and in 2000 her novel, The Exotics: Galapagos Revisited, was published. On the back cover she had written, “This is a story about grown men and women, how they deal with their humanity—or cannot deal with it. The setting is the december 2017 Reed Magazine 39
In Memoriam Galapagos Islands, six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador. You may have been there.” She later commented, “I regret that Professors Barry Cerf [English 1921–48] and Lloyd Reynolds will not read my book.” She was married to Daniel Dodson ’41. Florence Lehman ’41, whose long service to Reed included 23 years as director of alumni relations, once said, “I still remember Judy and Daniel at Reed . . . he with a green book bag over his shoulder and with curly brown hair . . . and Judy with a single long brown braid down her back.” The couple, who later divorced, had two daughters, Dorian and Elizabeth.
Alfred Eipper ’43
April 17, 2017, in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Al was born in Massachusetts, and went to school in Deerfield, where he met M o l l y, w h o w o u l d become his wife. After studying at Harvard University, he transferred to Reed, where he earned a bachelor ’s degree in psychology. During World War II, he served in the Coast Guard, stationed in Astoria, Oregon; Ketchikan, Alaska; and Staten Island, New York. In 1945, he was ordered to leave the Brooklyn Navy Yard on a destroyer escort, destined for Pearl Harbor. In the Pacific, they learned that they were to be the “antennae” of a naval invasion of Japan, radioing back information to the fleet until they were sunk. This plan was aborted because of Japan’s surrender following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After World War II, Al got a master’s in wildlife conservation from the University of Maine. In 1953, he was awarded a PhD in fishery biology from Cornell University, where for 23 years he was a professor of biology, teaching graduate students and conducting research on trout pond and warm-water fisheries management. He authored 25 technical papers and was a contributing author of 4 books on fisheries, environmental problems, and natural resources polity. In the mid-60s, a nuclear power plant, which would use cold lake water for cooling its reactors, was proposed on Cayuga Lake near Ithaca. Al was a leader in assessing and educating the public about the potential harmful effects on the lake of this planned warm-water discharge. Due in large part to his work, the plant’s operating license was ultimately denied. In 1975, Al, Molly, and their three children moved to Harvard, Massachusetts, where he was the power plant activities leader of the northeast region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 40 Reed Magazine december 2017
service, coordinating impact assessments and recommendations for power plant operations in the mid-Atlantic and northeast region. When he retired in 1980, he and Molly built a home on the Damariscotta River in Maine. Their life there included a love of the outdoors, camping, and cross-country skiing. Al lectured extensively on the dangers of unchecked population growth, resource depletion, and environmental degradation. They were active in founding CONA (Citizens Opposed to Nuclear Arms). In 2000, they moved to the Easthampton Lathrop Community in Massachusetts, where Al continued to be involved in the interrelated problems of population growth and climate change. He was active in forming the Green Committee to educate Lathrop residents about climate change and facilitate their adoption of energy conservation measures. Following a long illness, Molly died in 2006. During his last 10 years, Al developed progressive orthopedic problems, causing decreased mobility. He was remarkable in his grace, equanimity, and consistently positive outlook as he adapted resourcefully to increasing physical limitations. Al is survived by his daughter, Margo Guertin, and sons, Steve Eipper and Eric Eipper.
Rosemary Eliot Brodie ’48
March 7, 2017, in Portland, after an extended illness.
Rosemary Greenleaf Eliot was born in Evanston, Illinois, to Sigrid Wijnbladh Eliot and Thomas Dawes Eliot, son of Thomas Lamb Eliot—the pastor who urged Amanda Reed to found the college. As a biology major at Reed, Rosemary wrote her thesis, “Gregarinid Parasites in the Seminal Vesicles of Earthworms,” with Prof. R alph Mac y [biolo g y 1942–55] advising. She went on to the Northwestern University Medical School, and interned at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. After a threeyear neurology residency at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, she practiced neurology until 1976. She then did a residency in rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington, and from 1978 to 1989 worked at the Department of Labor and Industries in Seattle. Rosemary was married to Laird Brodie ’44 from 1948 to 1973, and they had three children. In 1979, she married Abe Keller, and they were very active in the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation, Seattle Women Act for Peace, the Seattle Draft and Military Counseling Center, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Northwest Disarmament Coalition. She was arrested twice while protesting the arming and deployment of Trident submarines at the Bangor submarine
base. After Abe died in 1997, she continued to work for peace through the Abe Keller Peace Education Fund. Rosemary married Abe’s best friend, Robert Fleagle, in 2001. She is survived by her three children, Ann Brodie-Knope, Walter Eliot Brodie, and Carol Brodie Davis.
John L. Phillips Jr. ’48 June 16, 2017, in Boise, Idaho.
John grew up in Milwaukie, Oregon, where he was active in sports and music. Through high school, he performed on his cornet/trumpet and sang with dance bands in the Portland area. He entered Reed in the fall of 1941, continuing his musical and sporting activities as he studied in earnest. In the spring of 1943, his Enlisted Reserve Corps unit was called to active duty in World War II. After extensive training as a bombardier-navigator—but no combat— he returned to civilian life. He married Elaine Conrad and they built a small house in Portland, where they raised their twin sons, Greg and Jeff. John finished his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Reed, and continued his semi-pro musical career as a trumpet player and vocalist with the Bill Becker dance band. He also taught seventh grade for three years. He accepted a research fellowship at the University of Utah, and in 1953 was awarded a PhD degree. In 1955, John was appointed director of testing and counseling at the department of psychology of what was then Boise Junior College (now Boise State University). He was later appointed dean of students and chaired the division of social sciences. When that institution was reorganized for its imminent transformation into a university, John was chosen as the chairman of its psychology department, a position he would occupy until his retirement from Boise State University 20 years later. While at Boise State, John published nine books. His wife, Elaine, died in 1998, and John is survived by his two sons.
Lucien Smartt ’48
May 8, 2017, in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
For his thesis, Lucien wrote about the great Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto, who established the Pareto principle, also known as the 80–20 law, which holds that a small proportion of the cause accounts for the bulk of the effect. In other words, 20% of the customers generate 80% of the business, 20% of the students ask 80% of the questions, and so on, you listen to 20% of your records 80% of the time, and so on. During his years at Reed, Lucien confessed to being “mightily influenced by Sandy MacDonald ’46 and his infectious enthusiasm for the 18th century.” Lucien became wild about baroque music. After earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Reed, he went on to get an LLB degree from the University of North
color and sparse details. When viewers use their imagination to fill in the details, he said, they participate in the creative process. Arne taught art classes around the world, and his art is featured in public galleries, art museums, colleges including Reed College, and private collections. He authored two art books: Paint Watercolors Filled with Light and Energy and How to Become an Artist Through Pain and Suffering. In addition to being an artist, Arne was a trumpeter and Royal Rosarian, known for his wonderful sense of humor, helping the homeless, charitable giving, and art philanthropy. He is survived by his wife, Claire, and three children, Martin Westerman, Alan Westerman, and Judy Gehman.
Geotta Whitney ’48 June 30, 2016, in Salem, Oregon.
“Waiting” by Arnold Westerman ’48
Carolina–Chapel Hill. He served in the United States Army from 1950 to 1953, mostly with the 45th Division Artillery in Korea. Lucien joined Public Utilities Reports, Inc., in Washington, D.C., in 1963, and retired as the editorin-chief in 1990. He is survived by his sister, Joyce Ray.
Arnold Westerman ’48 April 17, 2017, in Portland.
When he was a kid, Arne loved to draw. He devoured the colorful illustrations in books like Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Robin Hood, and hoped to one day be a famous illustrator, such as Howard Pyle or N.C. Wyeth, or to create cartoons for the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and the New Yorker. He grew up during the Depression in old South Portland, then largely a Jewish and Italian immigrant neighborhood, and attended Shattuck Elementary School and Lincoln High School. But in addition wanting to be an artist, Arne dreamed of becoming a doctor and attended Reed for premed studies. World War II intervened, and after serving as a medical corpsman in the U.S. Army, he soured on medicine. Returning to school on the GI Bill, he got his bachelor’s in journalism at the University of Oregon. In 1948, Arne married his wife, Claire, and a few years later opened his own advertising agency. Thirty years later, he was ready for a change. “What can I possibly do that young people can’t do better?” he asked himself. Arne was already selling his art in California and Portland. He decided to bet on his experience as an artist, and in 1980 sold his agency. Arne had studied with master watercolorist Charles Reid, and had developed a style that was more suggestive than realistic, capturing emotion with strong
Born in St. Ignatius, Montana, to George and Henrietta Stendal, Geotta was raised in Portland, where her mother was a seamstress at Jantzen and her father worked as a paymaster at a logging camp. She graduated from Grant High School during World War II and stayed in touch with her grammar school friends for the rest of her life. She attended Reed before moving to San Francisco in the 1950s, where she met and married William Whitney. They later moved to Oregon and raised four sons. After a divorce in 1965, Geotta moved to Medford, Oregon, and raised her boys as a single parent working in a bookstore. She often said, “I did not raise four boys, they raised me.” Eventually, she moved to Salem to be closer to family and friends, working for the City of Salem Community Development Office until she retired. Geotta’s passions included cooking, canning, gardening, and reading. Predeceased by her son George, she is survived by her sons Doug, Fred, and Beau.
Waldo Brighton Jones ’50 May 18, 2017, in Pass-a-Grille, Florida.
Waldo was born in New York City and grew up in the Greenhaven neighborhood of Rye, New York. She attended the Rye Country Day School and then the Putney School in Vermont. An adventurous spirit led her to Reed, where she was as enthusiastic instructing skiers and hiking on Mt. Hood as she was in the classroom. Waldo graduated from Bennington College with a bachelor’s degree in literature. Immediately following graduation, she married the love of her life, James E. Jones ’47, whom she met at Reed. She started out in the executive training program at Bonwit Teller in New York, doing copywriting until she welcomed a first child in
1952. The couple embraced parenthood and moved to Mt. Kisco, New York, to raise their three children. Waldo had an uncanny ability to teach, and under her tutelage, countless kids learned to read, ride a bike, swim, recite a poem, and, most importantly, to value and respect others. She began working as an assistant teacher, and retired in 1991 as the head of the lower school at Rippowam Cisqua School. Nothing made her happier than greeting hundreds of children by name and with a firm handshake. After retiring she shared pleasurable years with family and friends, alternating between summers in Whitingham, Vermont, and winters in Pass-a-Grille, Florida. At her hospital bedside a week after a devastating fall, her doctor astutely commented, “She had 88 wonderful years and one really bad week.” Her children, Kinnon Williamson, Hutton Cole, and Britton Jones, survive her.
Thomas O. Williams ’50 June 4, 2015, in Portland.
Bor n in Spooner, Wisconsin, to Edith Davies and John A . Williams, Tom was the third of four sons. He graduated from Oregon City High School and attended Reed before transfer ring to the University of Oregon. He was very proud of his service as a naval radar instructor during WWII and enjoyed more than 30 years at Tektronix as the community relations manager and the director of the Tektronix Foundation. He represented Tektronix by visiting many schools, universities, and organizations, facilitating Tektronix grants and scholarships. He served his community on the boards of United Way, Junior Achievement, and the Washington County Fire District. Tom and his wife of 65 years, Doris (Schell), settled in Milwaukie and then Garden Home. In later years, they moved to Claremont, and finally to Laurel Parc, a senior living facility, where Doris died in 2011. Tom’s three children, Susan Mihelich, Thomas Williams, and Sharon Williams, survive him.
Rosalie Libbey Swanson ’51 July 5, 2017, in Richland, Washington.
Adopted as an infant by Fay and Rose Libbey, Rosalie lived in and around Phoenix, Arizona, until the family moved to Portland in 1936. She graduated from Catlin Gabel School and then attended Reed. At Reed, she met John Swanson ’51, who became both her husband and her best friend for 67 years. After he graduated in 1951, they moved to Richland, Washington, where they raised three children. Being a stay-at-home wife and mother gave Rosalie time to enjoy her family and friends, and to pursue her various december 2017 Reed Magazine 41
In Memoriam
Thomas Livingston Hall ’53
interests as a volunteer. She is survived by her husband, John; her daughters, Libbey Brunette and Susan Swanson; and her son, Jack Swanson.
Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Tom was the first of four children of Livingston Hall and Elizabeth Blodgett Hall. Livingston was the vice-dean at Harvard Law School, and Elizabeth was the only child of the president of the American Chicle [chewing gum] Company. When she became the headmistress of Concord Academy. She later gave 200 acres of family land and a $3 million grant to found Simon’s Rock College (now Bard College at Simon’s Rock), serving as its first president. Tom spent two years at Reed, where he was president of his sophomore class. He missed the small classes when he transferred to Harvard, where he received a BA in history, and later returned to receive both an MD and MPH. He subsequently received a Doctor of Public Health in International Health degree from Johns Hopkins University, where he was on the faculty until 1971. He lived eight years in Puerto Rico and South America, and was on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his health-related career involved providing clinical services in rural Puerto Rico, national health workforce planning studies via the World Health Organization, directing a population studies center at UNC, directing a health care planning office in Seattle, and several years of health planning in New Zealand. In 1986, he came to San Francisco, and from 1988 to 1996 he directed a postdoctoral training program in HIV/AIDS prevention research at UC San Francisco. After retirement, he volunteered to teach and mentor in global health, and until his death, he worked with the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. Tom married a medical school classmate, Francoise Puvrez Hall, and they raised their three children during their stays in Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile, and the U.S. He was divorced in 1976, and afterwards was married for several years to Mary Moore. In 1983, he met Elizabeth McLoughlin and they sailed for 131 days to New Zealand in a 38-foot cutter. After many adventures and a thorough checkout, they married in 1990. Tom was adventurous—a member of the Explorers Club and the Cruising Club of America—endlessly curious, and an avid reader. He loved whitewater canoeing with his sons, hiking with his daughter and friends, longdistance biking with his wife, and sailing with family and friends. He also enjoyed smallairplane exploring and camping. In his last two years, while coping with acute myeloid leukemia, he became a junior philanthropist focused on four areas of special interest: peace
Byron Bair ’52
February 3, 2017, while wintering in Mazatlán, Mexico.
Born in Steilacoom, Washington, Byron lived a hardscrabble childhood that witnessed the entirety of the Great Depression. He enlisted in the navy after graduating from high school, and after World War II came to Portland, where he attended Reed for two years before moving back to Washington. He took a job as a fry cook at Mt. Rainier’s Paradise Inn, where he met the love of his life, Patricia Arnett. They married in 1954, and would be together until Pat’s passing 60 years later. They raised their family in Portland, where Byron enjoyed a long and successful career in the food industry. A generous and caring man, Byron was known for his signature “point of information” comments when he happened on something interesting he thought all should know. He enjoyed sharing facts, reading the newspaper aloud, and listing the ingredients in food products. He is survived by three sons, Gregory, Thomas, and Daniel.
Kent Delano Kitts ’52 May 26, 2017, in McMinnville, Oregon, following a brief illness.
Born in Hot Springs, Montana, Kent attended Reed before transferring to the University of Oregon, where he earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. Kent quickly took an interest in computers, which at the time needed to be stored in large buildings. While working for IBM, he wired the switchboard for the city of McMinnville. He was the Clackamas County data processing director and was instrumental in implementing an IBM data-reading computer for payroll, school achievement testing, cost accounting, and even dog licensing. He assured county employees that no one would lose their job to the computer and helped train new and current employees to use the computer. Kent had a passion for music, playing clarinet and saxophone, and loved to sing, both formally as a member of various choirs and informally while listening to favorite music with his wife, Darlene Keller Kitts, whom he met at the McMinnville United Methodist Church, where they shared an appreciation for the music program. In addition to Darlene, he is survived by his children David Kitts, Dan Keller, Debbie Gamble, and David Keller.
42 Reed Magazine december 2017
May 2017, in San Francisco, from acute myeloid leukemia.
and security, the environment, social justice, and global health and population. Tom died the way he lived—with exquisite timing, with care for the feelings of others, bold in the face of adversity, with his mind and heart squarely on things that mattered most. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth McLoughlin; his siblings, Margaret Whitfield, Elizabeth Richardson, and John Hall; and his children, Eric, Tefel, and Rachel Ames.
Kent R. Smith ’53 May 21, 2017, in Bend, Oregon.
Kent was an early proponent of looking at the effects the environment has on one’s health. In the ’60s, he worked with Tektronix to identify environmental hazards in the workplace, and in par ticular par ticles inhaled that one has no idea are being inhaled. In his practice, he insisted that an annual physical include a pulmonary exam to determine the effects of smoking or smog, for example, on health. Born in San Francisco, he spent his early years in Spokane, Washington, and Portland. He finished his senior year at Reed while also completing a first year in medical school at the University of Oregon School of Medicine. His residency in internal medicine was followed by public health service doing research in heart and lung disease through a program at the University of Southern California and performed at Los Angeles County General Hospital. The study included the effects of smog on the heart and lungs, as well as clinical studies for measles, mumps, and rubella. With his wife, Ann, and children, he returned to Oregon to practice internal medicine in the Beaverton Medical Clinic for many years. Kent served on the staffs of St. Vincent Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, and Tuality, was a member of the Oregon Medical Association and past president of the Washington County Medical Society. In the early ’60s, he volunteered for Outside In, helping people deal with addiction. Kent began a second career as an artist working in wood, and his wood carvings, sculptures, and furniture were shown in galleries in Oregon; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. A past member of the Contemporary Arts Council, after retirement he worked for the Columbia Art Gallery in Hood River, Oregon, the Independent Gallery in Santa Fe, and the Bookmark bookstore in Bend, Oregon. He is survived by his second wife of 45 years, Janice Bartlow Smith; daughters, Kathi Smith-Bolle, Sherri Smith, and Audrey Smith; and brother, David Smith of Portland. His first wife, Ann McClaren Smith, daughter, Marti McClaren, and son, Kent, predeceased him.
John Dewey Godfrey ’55 March 31, 2017, in Portland.
Born in Morgantown, West Virginia, John completed high school in Akron, Ohio, and moved to the Portland area with his family in 1945, where he lived the rest of his life. He met his wife, Margaret “Rotli” Pellischek, while serving in the U.S. Army in Salzburg, Austria, where they married in 1953, two days before returning to the States. John then attended Reed College and Portland State University, and graduated from OHSU School of Dentistry (then the University of Oregon Dental School) in 1961. He ran a dental practice in Tigard, Oregon, until he retired in 1991. John is survived by his daughter, Elizabeth, and his sisters, Mary and Jean.
“Growth Rates of Interacting Color Variants of Serratia Marcescens.” After serving in the medical corps of the U.S. Army, he received his MS ad PhD in microbiology from the University of Maryland. Dan’s passions included playing the cello and singing in the choir for community and church events. He was an avid golfer and served as a deacon and elder of the Laramie Presbyterian Church. He is survived by his wife, Wanda Beckett Caldwell; a sister, Sara Caldwell; and two daughters, Lisa Caldwell and Joan Caldwell Smith.
Barry Spector ’59
May 22, 2017, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Robert J. Hardy ’56
June 20, 2017, in Lincoln, Nebraska, from complications after surgery.
Born in Port Angeles, Washington, Robert earned his BA in physics, writing his thesis on equilibrium distributions with Prof. Jean Delord [physics 1950–88]. He married Bonnie Rae Reinhardt in 1970 and they had a daughter. He was a member of the physics department at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln from 1967 to 2006, committed to his students and to the art of teaching. Robert published a textbook, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, and enjoyed the Pacific Northwest, steam trains, classic cars, wooden boats, and history—from Rome to World War II. His wife, Bonnie, daughter, Elizabeth, and brother, Gordon, survive him.
Daniel Caldwell ’58
June 26, 2017, in Hoover, Alabama, of complications due to Parkinson’s disease.
Dan worked as a professor of microbiology at the University of Wyoming for 28 years, serving as president of the Rocky Mountain Branch of the American Society for Microbiology. Throughout his career, he published numerous scientific articles and edited science journals, including serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. In 1999, he authored a textbook, Microbial Physiology and Metabolism. He was born in Berkeley, California, and studied biology at Reed, writing his thesis on
A lifelong Minneapolitan and travel professional, Barry was fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian, with a smattering of Russian and Japanese. He was a world traveler who also loved his hometown, and passed away in the home he had lived in for almost 70 years. Barry adored his Lake Calhoun neighborhood, and was a dedicated gardener who posted a sign in his front yard encouraging passersby to “please stop and smell the roses.” He took great pleasure in preparing gourmet meals for friends and family, choosing recipes from the more than 50 countries he had visited. He graduated from Southwest High School and attended Reed before transferring to the University of Minnesota, where he received a master’s degree in French. A lover of all things French, Barry also studied at the Sorbonne. One of his first jobs was as the Paris representative of a student travel company, organizing summer tours. He also taught English to native French speakers. In the ’70s he owned two retail stores in downtown Minneapolis, the Buckskin Leather Shop and Street Wear, but travel was his passion. One day in 1985, he was paging through the want ads and saw an ad for trip directors at BI Worldwide, a company that arranges incentive trips for corporate clients. He worked for BI for 28 years, leading approximately 500 trips to all corners of the world for groups as large as 3,500. One of his coworkers remembered that a frequently used Barryism was, “Take your time but make it snappy!” His last job was teaching English as a second language to professionals over the internet, which he loved. He is survived by his sister, Jill Evan Spector, and his longtime partner, Sara Ann Fagin.
Gerald Suttles ’59
May 11, 2017, in Bloomington, Indiana.
Gerald was a pioneer in the study of disadvantaged neighborhoods, gangs, and ethnic conflict—shaping the discipline of urban sociology. He mentored a new generation of scholars in the field, and though the cities he studied may have changed, his insights will endure. In 1963, as a young sociology graduate student pursuing his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he moved to the rough-and-tumble Addams neighborhood on Chicago’s west side (now part of the Tri-Taylor area), not because the rent was affordable, but because he wanted to study it. The neighborhood was a mix of races and ethnicities, both migrants and native born. By the end of his three-year stay, Gerald had become a local fixture, adopted by an Italian family and talking his way out of a proposed marriage. His study detailed a highly neighborhood-specific code that trumped accepted moral standards of broader society. Five years later, he published The Social Order of the Slum: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner City, a definitive work on the rules of conduct of the residents. Gerald believed that one of the tasks of urban sociology was to explore how and why slum communities provide their inhabitants with local norms. Gerry was raised as an only child in the mountains of western North Carolina. During the Korean War, he served in the U.S. Navy, and after the war, at the advice of a navy buddy, he came to Reed. Being in Prof. John Pock’s [sociology 1955–98] classes was not for the faint of heart, but sociology became Gerald’s lifelong passion. He wrote his thesis on “Group Membership and Cognitive Organization: A Study of Interpersonal Influence in Small Groups.” After completing his graduate studies at the University of Illinois, he became a renowned urban sociologist, holding faculty positions in sociology at the University of Michigan, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. But he spent the bulk of his career at the University of Chicago, where he helped revitalize the Chicago School of Sociology through his ethnographic research on urban communities, and carved out a reputation with his studies of slums in major U.S. cities. His subsequent books include The Social Construction of Communities and Poverty and Social Change (coauthored with his wife, Kirsten december 2017 Reed Magazine 43
In Memoriam Grønbjerg, and David P. Street). In 1990, he published The Man-Made City: The Land-Use Confidence Game in Chicago, which cast a critical light on the poor design of Chicago’s public and private projects and received extensive media coverage for its harsh assessment of the driving forces behind the city’s urban planning. In 2010, Suttles published Front Page Economics in which he analyzed press coverage of the economic crashes of 1929 and 1987 to understand how the media normalizes crises. In retirement, Gerald served as an adjunct professor of sociology at Indiana University, spending the last 20 years of his life working with students. He also devoted quite a bit of time to gardening, and with his wife shared a love of Denmark, nature, music, ballet, and delicious nosh. He retired to Bloomington, Indiana, in 1997, and leaves behind his wife of almost 47 years, Kirsten Grønbjerg.
Elizabeth Ann Thomas ’61 May 21, 2017, in Portland.
Born in Roundup, Montana, Elizabeth joined the English department of Portland’s Franklin High School, where she taught 11th-grade English from 1945 to 1982. She earned her BA degree and teaching certificate from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, and her MA from Reed. Elizabeth was a strong supporter of her church, where she played piano and organ in her later years.
Alexis B. Long ’65 June 2, 2017, in Australia.
A weather modification scientist and educator, Alex was the valedictorian of his high school class in El Cajon, California. At Reed, he majored in physics and wrote his thesis, “Fluid Flow over a Ridge,” with Prof. William Parker [physics 1948–79] advising. He went on to get a master’s from Syracuse University and a PhD in atmospheric sciences from the University of Arizona. He then had a postdoctorate fellowship with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia. Alex worked as a research associate at the University of Colorado, and was the design and evaluation group head at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, both in Boulder. He returned to Australia, where he was the principal research scientist in the division of atmospheric research at CSIRO. He was then an associate professor at the Atmospheric Science in Reno, Nevada. He and his wife, Loretto, had three children, Leonora, Andrew, and Louisa, and had lived in Australia for the last 30 years.
44 Reed Magazine december 2017
Marie Rering Witt ’69 June 5, 2017, in Brookings, Oregon.
Marie was born in The Hague, Netherlands, to Dr. Clifford Rering and his wife, Marie, a registered nurse who graduated from Stanford University. After World War II, the family moved to California, where Marie’s sister, Charlotte, and brother, Johan, were born. Marie completed grade school in Ukiah, where she was also a helper in her father’s radiology practice. When she was 12, she was sent to a Dutch/ English boarding school. By the time she was 16 years old, the whole family had moved to Zeist, Netherlands, and Marie attended the International High School in The Hague. She studied mathematics for a year at Utrecht University, and then without ever visiting the campus beforehand, transferred to Reed. Although she had funds, Marie worked as a secretary for the chemistry department and as a babysitter for her psychology adviser. She wrote her thesis, “Behavior Modification of a Disruptive Five-YearOld in a Head Start Program,” with her advisor, Prof. Carol Creedon [psychology 1957–91]. Marie met her future husband, Lawrence Witt ’70, when he became a single parent and enlisted her family to babysit his son, Larry Jr. After graduation,Marie finished her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Oregon, and Lawrence completed a master’s degree in counseling psychology. In August 1972, they married at the stone lookout atop Cape Perpetua, south of Yachats. The next 10 years were spent traveling to more centers of learning. Marie spent a year completing an internship in Houston, and Larry went to medical school in San Antonio, followed by a residency in San Joaquin County, California. After his residency, they spent three months traveling around the country in a motorhome to decide where they wanted to settle and set up their respective practices. They settled in Brookings, approximately six miles north of the California border. Marie spent the next 35 years raising their two boys and working in her private practice. The family traveled often, guided by a philosophy that money would be spent on travel and educational experiences for the children—living in the moment rather than saving for retirement. She and Larry practiced together, collaborating and consulting daily for 25 years. In her last years she was devastated with limited systemic sclerosis, and admitted to the hospital 14 times for seven major surgeries. Through it all, she was tough and resilient. She passed away peacefully with her family at her side. Lawrence survives her, as do her sons, Christopher and Matthew, stepson, Larry Jr., and stepdaughter, Pamela.
John Pokorny ’71
July 29, 2017, in Dodge, Nebraska.
B or n in Schuyler, Nebraska, Jack earned a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Nebraska, and later earned a teaching certificate at Humboldt State College in Arcata, California. He got a master of science in liberal studies at Reed, and taught in Merced and Coverdale, California, Corvallis, Oregon, and at the Nebraska Penitentiary in Lincoln. He was also a writer for station NETV in Lincoln, and later worked for the family business, Pokorny Oil in Schuler. In midlife, Jack started making willow baskets and became a fulltime artist. He loved the Pawnee Indian heritage around the Schuyler area and collected the materials for his baskets— river willow, wild plum, dogwood, and various grasses—from the Platte River valley. For more than 30 years he sold his baskets all over the country and enjoyed meeting and forming relationships with people who purchased them. An Eagle Scout and nature lover, he knew the names of every tree, shrub, flower, bird, or animal. Storms excited him and he would stand in the front yard during tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms. His heroes were Gary Snyder ’51, Martin Luther King, Peter Matthiessen, and Allen Ginsberg. He was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee advocating nonviolence, and of Nebraskans for Peace. He is survived by his two daughters, Frances Pokorny and Holly Pokorny Johnson; his siblings, Jeff Pokorny, Judy Pokorny Hoppe, and Jay Pokorny; and his ex-wife, Barbara Dudek Pokorny.
Roger Kautz ’80
May 27, 2017, in Nahant, Massachusetts, of brain cancer.
B o r n i n Pa l o A l t o , California, Roger wrote his thesis on Projecting Laser Oscilloscope with Prof. Richard Crandall [physics 1978–2012] advising. He received his PhD from Stanford University and completed two postdoctoral p o s i t i o n s a t Ya l e University, followed by two postdoctoral research positions at MIT. He was hired as a full time principal research scientist at Northeastern University and became director of the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) facility in the department of chemistry and chemical biology, where he worked for 20 years. In his honor, the College
of Science at Northeastern University established a Roger Kautz Prize in the department of chemistry, an award given annually to an undergraduate student who exhibits talent and shares Roger’s passion for NMR spectroscopy. Roger enjoyed vintage dancing—dances from the 1860s through the Jazz Age—and mentoring the robotics team at Swampscott High School. He volunteered annually at the Ig Nobel awards at Harvard, and was active in numerous NMR and spectroscopy groups in Boston. He is survived by his wife, Karen; two children, Arthur and Julia; and two brothers, Steve and Brian. Roger donated his body to science through the Anatomical Gift Program at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Jonathan S. Austin ’82 July 17, 2017, in Oakland, California.
Becky Brewster ’03
Nico Villarreal ’17
had begun paralegal work in New Orleans. She is survived by her parents, Christopher and Nancy Brewster, and her brother, Benjamin.
Noe Nicolas Villarreal ’17
Kevin D. Hodges ’03
June 14, 2017, in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
Jonathan built a career as an affordable housing developer. He was born in New York City and attended the Bronx High School of Science. At the age of nine, he got his first job on the second season of Sesame Street, where he did a scene with Mr. Hooper. At Reed, he fell in love with Hegel and vegetarianism, and became passionate about combining sustainability with social justice. “Philosophy gave me a perspective that few urban planners have,” he said. After graduating in political science from Reed, he earned a master’s in urban planning from San Jose State University, worked for the City of Oakland, and joined a number of nonprofit housing developers in the East Bay. As principal of his own business, JSA Consulting Services, he helped develop Crossroads, a 125-bed homeless shelter in Oakland that featured green construction and was profiled in the New York Times. He is survived by his mother, Louise Austin; his wife, Mary Mazzocco; his daughter, Alleana; and his brother, Benjamin.
Rebecca Marshall Brewster ’03 March 24, 2017, in New Orleans, Louisiana, succumbed to addiction.
Becky, 35, succumbed to an addiction at her home in New Orleans. She was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in Plymouth, where she attended Wayzata High School. She started at Reed before transferring to the University of Oregon, where she earned a BA in journalism in 2015. She worked for the Portland Tribune and
Along with Elliot Sharron ’04, Kevin was the founder of the Reed improv group Fellatio Rodriguez. His boundless energy made him a go-to guy in the theatre department. He played James Joyce in Jesse Baldwin ’00’s directing thesis production of Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and was a deliciously slithery gang kingpin in Prof. Kathleen Worley’s [theatre 1985–2014] production of Brecht/Weill’s Happy End. Raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kevin was a literature/theatre major at Reed, writing his thesis, “Rehearsing Liberation in Paloma Pedrero’s The Color of August” with Professors Craig Clinton [theatre 1978–2010] and Elizabeth Drumm [Spanish 1995–] advising. “He built sets, leaped into class discussions, stirred enthusiasm, and transformed the downstairs space for his own thesis show,” Prof. Worley remembered. “He was ready to go out and change the world, and it’s very sad he’s no longer with us.” Kevin went on to earn a master’s in theatre from the University of Texas at Austin. For the past 10 years, he had been a resident of New Hampshire, where he originally moved to work on a campaign. Kevin served a two-year term as a member of the New Hampshire State Legislature, the first Democrat to be elected to the position from that district. Kevin lit up a room with his wit, charm, and smile. He loved traveling and being with friends and family. He leaves behind his wife, Elizabeth Mitchell; his father, James Hodges; stepmother, Jane Wiseman; his mother, Janis Owen; his brother, Clayton Hodges; and stepbrothers, John and James Wiseman.
May 4, 2017, in Portland.
Noe, known by family and friends as Nico, is survived by his father, Noe Villarreal, and three brothers, Julian Munoz Villarreal, Roman Villarreal, and Mateo Gil Villarreal. Nico’s mother passed away on December 22, 2005. This day was very dear to Nico, as family and friends knew very well. He was blessed with many little cousins who adored him because he always played games with them and tossed them up to the ceiling. Nico enjoyed traveling, which tapped into his love for meeting people. He was fascinated with his friends’ personal lives, and before they knew it, he would visit them. One thing about Nico, you were a friend for life. His elementary, middle, and high school friends knew of his whereabouts through Facebook. Nico found out about Reed from his art teacher at North Mesquite High School, who was an alumna. He told me after he was accepted that there would be no substitute for Reed as his continuing education destination. He struggled with his grades, but his social life, which was his first love, opened a world beyond the borders of Texas. He wished to visit all his Reedie friends, but there were financial constraints and in the end time did not allow. I and (I am sure) you have been blessed with coming across a person who loved you for who you are. “May the smiles, shared laughs, kind words and hugs which may seem only from yesterday’s memories warm your heart.” May Nico continue to live in your memory a long time. He was our firecracker! —NOE VILLARREAL
Anne Whitacre ’18
June 6, 2017, in Mountain View, California, of natural causes.
A beloved Reed student, Anne was on leave from the college when she died of natural causes at her family home in California. Her mother said that Reed was one of the best experiences of Anne’s life. Her passion for music flourished at Reed, december 2017 Reed Magazine 45
In Memoriam and she was hard at work back in California paving the way for a bright future when a previously undetected medical condition tragically ended her life.
Friends of Reed
Prof. Lawrence Germain [physics 1949–54]
June 22, 2017, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When Prof. Lawrence Germain taught at Reed, he spent his summers working with pioneering nuclear scientist and Nob el P r iz e w inner Ernest Orlando Lawrence at UC Berkeley. In the fall of 1952, this research group moved to Livermore, California, to form what is now the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). At LLNL, Germain designed fission weapons and took an active role in their testing in the Pacific Proving Grounds and later at the Nevada Test Site, when underground testing was required by the Limited Test Ban Treaty. In 1971, he supported the U.S. delegation in Geneva, Switzerland, engaging in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). He also led the lab’s efforts to contain all nuclear radiation underground, and in 1975 became the division leader of the Earth Sciences Division. Germain was born in Fresno, California, to educators John and Frances Germain, and attended local schools in Stockton. He earned a doctorate in physics at the UC Berkeley, with a thesis related to cosmic ray mesotrons. In 1949, he moved to Portland with his new wife, Sally Layport, and joined the Reed faculty. In 1953, he joined the LLNL group full time, moving to Danville, California, with his wife and son, Keith. While in Danville he became the senior warden at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church and assumed responsibility for church finances, selecting rectors, and teaching the high school Sunday school class. In 1975, Germain married his “soulmate,” Barbara Killian, who was originally from San Diego, California, and also worked at the lab. The following year, the couple moved to New Mexico, transferring to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where Germain’s extensive knowledge and experience were leveraged in supporting a broad range of issues ranging from nuclear testing to geothermal energy and special projects for the laboratory director. Upon retiring in 1985, he continued for several years as a consultant for the Defense Nuclear Agency. In 1984, Germain published A Diary of the Falklands Conflict, which was included in the 46 Reed Magazine december 2017
book Military Lessons of the Falkland Islands War: Views from the United States. Germain’s involvement in this project was driven by his lifelong interest in history. He was also known for his many mountain adventures, and was an avid backpacker, an activity he took up at the recommendation of his doctor as a therapy for polio, which he had contracted in high school. Strongly attracted to geology, geography, and maps, he was considered a state-of-the-art human GPS system by his family. He and Barbara became avid art collectors and loved to visit exotic locations. In 2000, Germain experienced a serious stroke that caused paralysis on the right side of his body and outgoing aphasia. With his can-do approach and Barbara’s loving care, he embraced life, continuing to travel and enjoy his friends, family, and varied interests. Throughout all of his challenges, he retained the sharp wit and sense of humor for which he was famous. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Germain Killian; former wife, Sally Germain Goldner’ son, Keith Germain; and daughter, Nancy Germain.
Prof. Scott Baldwin Smith [Russian 1997–2002] July 22, 2017, in Portland, of lung cancer.
An electrifying and devoted teacher, Prof. Scott Baldwin Smith was committed to shaping the lives and minds of students to do vital work outside of the academy. As a visiting assistant professor of Russian, history, and humanities, he was a historian of the highest rank, and trained a cadre of Reed students who became professional historians and Slavists. He succumbed to lung cancer at his home in Southeast Portland, surrounded by family and close friends. In his final days from his hospice bed, he gave a riveting lecture on sexual politics in Gogol’s “The Nose” to several former students, and described the thrill of revisiting his most beloved texts and seeing them with fresh eyes. Pedagogy was in Smith’s DNA. He was born in Massachusetts and attended Phillips Academy Andover, where his father taught mathematics. After earning his BA at Yale in 1986, he attended Harvard University, where he was awarded an AM in 1991 and a PhD in 1995, both in history. For several years he served as a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard, before taking up a position as visiting assistant professor of history and humanities at Reed. An extraordinary researcher and elegant writer, Smith produced scholarship that left an indelible mark on his field. His 2011 book, Captives of Revolution: The Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolshevik Dictatorship, 1918–1923,
was the result of years of archival research abroad and was hailed as a major achievement. Smith’s innovative work was supported by competitive grants and fellowships from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the International Institute for Social History, and the Mellon Foundation. Yet it was in the lecture hall and seminar room where he heard and answered his true calling. Students will never forget the courses he taught on the Russian Revolution, Soviet history, Russian literature, political violence, and modern European humanities. Close readings and intense discussions of dense texts were leavened by his humor, wit, and incomparable skills as a raconteur. He astonished and delighted students with tales of a night spent in a Moscow cage for the inebriated, confrontations with surly Soviet archivists, and muggings suffered at the hands of Petersburg ruffians. No one who heard them can forget his tri- or quadrilingual jokes from eastern Europe that he would patiently and humorously explain to his largely monoglot audience. In the best spirit of a Reed professor, and in a way few others could, he had an uncanny ability to make the past live and breathe. He performed such resuscitations on books, films, art, and ideas whose provenance lay far beyond his own specialty. From humanities papers to thesis chapters, he used his sharp eye and mordant wit to mold his students into better writers, clearer thinkers, and kinder and more curious people. His generosity of time and spirit with students was unparalleled: he would routinely meet with them for hours on end and share his erudition and insight. For this reason, students embarked on a heartfelt and multi-year campaign to retain him. But in 2002 he took a job at Linfield College, where he finished his career as professor of history and touched countless more lives. The Russian writer Alexander Herzen, one of Smith’s heroes, observed: “Life has taught me to think, but thinking has not taught me to live.” Smith embodied this maxim: he loved life as much as he loved learning and teaching. An avid squash player, his skills and sportsmanship still enchant Portland’s squash community. He was also a cook, cyclist, mountaineer, traveler, and supporter of criminal justice initiatives in Multnomah County. Though his collegiality, intellectual ferocity, and personal integrity endure in the hearts and minds of those whom he touched, he will be deeply missed and mourned by family, colleagues, friends, students, and former students like us, who only wish he could have been granted more time in his beloved city, and on this earth. Smith is survived by his wife, Lisa Hay, and their daughters Hannah, 22, and Sarah, 24. The family has created an award in his name at Linfield College.—ANDREW BERNS ’02 AND MARA ZEPEDA ’02
Prof. Arthur Leigh [economics 1945–88] July 1, 2017, in Portland.
“Arthur Leigh was one of the nicest men I ever k n e w ,” s a i d P r o f . Laurens Ruben [biology 1955–92]. “He was gentle, a gentleman. If he ever had harsh words for anyone or anything, he never used them in my presence. Despite a severe visual deficit, Art built his own home, made beautiful, functional furniture, and in general was able to accomplish things that were in his bucket list. With the help of others, he was able to serve his students, his department, and his college well.” Born in Niagara Falls, Leigh lost most of his eyesight at the age of 10. His parents read to him and helped him through school. He got a scholarship to Colgate University, graduating in history and economics in 1941. He then got a scholarship at the University of Chicago, where he earned a PhD in economics and wrote a thesis having to do with capital and interest theory from the 18th century to about 1870. There he met his first wife, Dorothy Eaton. He applied for an opening at Reed, and was interviewed in Chicago by Prof. Maure Goldschmidt ’30 [political science 1935–81]. “That was the only interview,” Leigh remembered. “The rest was by correspondence. I must say, I was very grateful to Reed for hiring a handicapped person, before it was fashionable.” When he arrived at Reed in 1945, the campus retained its prewar character. There were roughly 500 students, and most classes were in Eliot Hall. Leigh was one of two professors in the economics department. Many of the “old masters” were still teaching, such as A. A. Knowlton [physics 1915–48], Victor Chittick [English 1921–48] Edward Sisson [philosophy 1911–43], Frank Griffin [mathematics 1911– 56], and Rex Arragon [history 1923–62]. But beginning in 1946, an influx of veterans changed the character of the student body. A faculty office building was constructed, followed by the chemistry building and then the biology building. Reed was growing. The low point of Leigh’s years at Reed was when the college was investigated by the Velde Committee (the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities), causing a rift in the faculty in the early ’50s. Leigh was one of the faculty members who voted 38 to 9 to express their “grave weakening of confidence” in President Duncan Ballantine [1952-54], who capitulated to HUAC and suspended Prof. Lloyd Reynolds [English and art 1929–69] from teaching his course in art history. Leigh took leave to be a visiting professor at the University College of North Staffordshire in England in 1958–59, and again in 1961–62 at UC Berkeley. It was while he was in Berkeley that he and Dorothy began taking lessons in folk
dancing, an interest they brought back to Reed, organizing a dance night for faculty couples. Dorothy died in 1985 and Leigh married Ruth Newbury in 1987. He retired in 1988, living in the home he built in 1956 on Southeast Ninth Avenue, which Reed later purchased. Prof. Jeff Parker [econ 1988–] took over Leigh’s office and courses and remained in touch with Leigh. “The discipline of macroeconomics, in which he and I specialized, underwent a revolution over the last decade of Art’s teaching career,” Parker said. “The theories that his generation of macroeconomists had developed in the 1950s and 1960s proved inadequate for understanding the complex phenomena of oil crises and increased global trade that emerged in the 1970s. The next generation of theories was mathematically complex beyond the level of earlier models. In frequent conversations with Art, I found him to be remarkably current in modern macroeconomics. He understood the new generation of theories even though he often did not fully agree with them. It is truly impressive that he was able to learn these models aurally through his readers, without being fully able to see the mathematical equations. I can’t imagine doing math without being able to constantly look back at the sequence of equations leading to a result; Art had an amazing mind!” When Ruth died, Leigh moved to the Rose
Villa retirement community. In his last weeks, friends and neighbors, such as Barbara Adams Bernhardt ’58 and Mike Munk ’56 sat with him. His son, Dr. John Leigh, a botany professor at the University of Washington, said, “My father cherished many strong friendships throughout his career at Reed. He was a true scholar and teacher. Reed was the perfect environment for him, and was one of the reasons he felt he had led a good life. Perhaps this little anecdote is a good illustration of him as a professor and economist right to the end: When the hospice doctor learned that Art had been a professor of economics as Reed, he asked his opinion of Milton Friedman. Art responded with an eloquent minilecture on the pros and cons of the free market, from his hospital bed!” Leigh passed away shortly after his 99th birthday, surrounded by family including his daughter, Barbara Strunk, and his son, John, who survive him.
Pending Hope Duveneck Williams ’38, Rolla Vollstedt ’40, Virginia Johnson Havel ’47, Marcia Grein Pennington ’49, Albert Chong Lee ’53, Robert Wayne Ditzler ’54, Michael Meriwether ’55, Betty Brown Bruner ’56, Alvin F. Oien ’57, Patricia Heil ’58, Karie Lazarus Friedman ’61, Larry Shaw ’61, Jacob Kind ’62, Laurin Johnson ’66, Jon Rowley ’69, Jeffrey Bernard ’71, Tamar Monhait ’98, Prof. James Wallace [Education (MAT) 1966–72]
Good Move. Reed played an important role in your life. Now you can play an important role for Reed by supporting the college with a gift in your will or trust. Your gift ensures future generations of students will have access to the same creative, deliberate, and enriching education you experienced. Great move! Call Kathy Saitas to learn more about including Reed in your will or estate plan.
503/777-7759 giftplanning@reed.edu reed.edu/legacyplanning
december 2017 Reed Magazine 47
Object of Study
What we’re looking at in class
Pharaoh Triumphant The Narmer Palette, dating ca. 3000 BCE, is one of the masterpieces of early Egyptian art. The palette was ostensibly meant for cosmetics—the other side includes a depression for the grinding of makeup—but it was never used for that; rather it was a votive offering to the gods. The palette depicts a military campaign by King Narmer, who hailed from the Nile valley, against the peoples of the delta. The central figure is Narmer himself, wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt. In his hand he holds a mace, poised to smite an enemy, whom he grasps by the hair. Before Narmer, the god Horus uses a hook to subdue a representation of the delta with a human head. Behind him stands his sandal-bearer. Beneath him lie the bodies of the defeated. Egyptian art is remarkable in its consistency over time, and this object employs motifs that persisted for more than three millennia. This scene, of pharaoh triumphant poised to smash the heads of his enemies, is repeated over and over until the very end of ancient Egyptian culture, long after maces were no longer used in combat. Even in the palette we do not see a specific historical event but a stock scene representing the victory of the state over its enemies, of order (ma’at) over chaos (isfet). Pharaoh is shown defeating the enemies of Egypt because that is simply what pharaohs must do, whatever the reality of the situation.
—PROF. THOMAS LANDVATTER [CLASSICS]
Prof. Landvatter and his students examine the Narmer Palette in Ancient Egyptian History and Civilization, cross-listed as Classics 375 and History 395.
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nina johnson ’99
BURST OF SUNSHINE. Returning alumna Kirsten Collins ’14 shares a laugh with Prof. Kambiz GhaneaBassiri [religion 2002–] outside the Hauser Library.