Reed College Magazine September 2014

‰ September 2014

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AFR STEERING COMMITTEE 2013–14 Keith D. Allen ’83 Konrad Stephen Alt ’81 Deborah Kalahan Altschul ’75 Jessica Leigh Stern Benjamin ’93 David R. Buckler ’85 Richard W. Cuthbert ’73 Glenn C. Davis ’68 Maya Claire Edelstein ’12

W. Doug Evans ’84 Amy Ulrich Geary ’97 Jay M. Hubert ’66 Noah P. Iliinsky ’95 Christine Elisabeth Lewis ’07 Jan R. Liss ’74 Linda Hammill Matthews ’67 Christopher Moses ’02

Sara A. Rasmussen ’05 Phillip Schwartz ’10 Mark Srere ’81 Michael Bradley Stapleton ’10 Daniel Krantz Toffey ’07 Gina Nicole Vorderstrasse ’10

Gloria Drenguis Johnson ’79 Majda Sajovic Jones ’64 Matthew Koren ’07 Keith L. Kutler ’80 Kim D. Lambert ’80 Arthur D. Levy ’73 Jeffrey M. Mason ’79 Lynn Mayer ’58 Nora Rose McConnell-Johnson ’12 Robert A. Morris ’65 Mark Lewis Mosley ’81 Riteshwar Nath ’04 William C. Nicholson ’78 Heather Jeanne Rode Niemi ’00 Joshua Oppenheim-Rothschild ’11 Susan C. Orlansky ’75 Puon Alexander Penn ’92 Karl M. Peters ’83 Lawrence O. Picus ’77 Lucille Harris Pierce ’43

Lee Matthew Pollack ’02 Ethan Rafal ’07 Ali Raza ’84 Rachel Sona Reed ’07 Richard C. Roistacher ’65 A. Richard Ross ’72 David R. Roth ’64 Kenneth Edward Schriver ’85 Susan Beth Poltun Share ’86 Swati Shrestha ’10 Clara Hart Siegel ’09 Susan Brophy Spilka ’77 William B. Swarts, IV ’92 Dedie Uunila Taylor ’69 Allen T. Unsworth ’60 James C. Waggoner ’68 Stephany Adriene Watson ’82 John S. Weber ’78 Rachel Lynn Wolcott ’93 Winifred Jaeger Wood ’55

AFR VOLUNTEERS 2013–14 Susan Elizabeth Arney ’81 Rachel Ruth Arnold ’91 Steven P. Auerbach ’66 Peter Gordon Barr-Gillespie ’81 Rory Bowman ’90 Lauren Mary Brackenbury ’11 Richard M. Burian ’63 Terrill H. Burnett ’74 Caroll McCall Casbeer ’10 Suzanne Bletterman Cassidy ’65 Jonathan C. Creedon ’77 Caitlin M. Croughan ’67 Bonnie Joann Cuthbert ’10 Anne E. Schmitt Gendler ’81 Margaret Goldwater ’71 Brian Clay Graham-Jones ’81 David Hardy ’71 Jacob Reynolds Harmon ’04 Michael L. Jacobs ’04 Jeri S. Janowsky ’78

To learn more about the AFR, call 877/865-1469.

REED SEPTEMBER 2014

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FEATURES

p h o t o s b y m at t d ’a n n u n z i o

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28

Last Lectures

Saluting three retiring (and not-so-retiring) professors

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Kicking Student Research into High Gear

Three gifts help students make the most of their summer.

By Randall S. Barton 14

Marshmallow Noir

Jen Graham ’01 pens the further adventures of Veronica Mars.

By Robyn Ross 16

Prime Exponent

Iconic math professor Joe Roberts retires.

By Bill Donahue 20

The Sound of the Spirit

Prof. Mark Burford explores one of America’s most distinctive—and powerful—musical traditions.

By Bill Donahue

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What is a Reedie, Anyway?

Twelve proud members of the class of ’14 shed light on the elusive species.

Departments 4 Eliot Circular Graduates Unleashed Prof. Rock wins Guggenheim Musical Staircase Reed Won’t Divest

By Randall S. Barton

Quadrivial Pursuit

How well do you know Reed? Take our fiendish quiz!

9 Empire of the Griffin Reunions 2014: Reedfayre

By Marty Smith ’88

40 Reediana

24 cover illustration by hawk krall

Books by Reedies

44 Class Notes 54 In Memoriam 64 Apocrypha Flesh and Bone: the story of Meat Smoke

september 2014 Reed magazine

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‰

Letter from the editor

A Salute to the Graduates

september 2014

leah nash

www.reed.edu/reed_magazine 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202 503/777-7591 Volume 93, No. 3 MAGAZINE editor Chris Lydgate ’90 503/777-7596 chris.lydgate@reed.edu class notes editor Laurie Lindquist 503/777-7591 reed.magazine@reed.edu art director Tom Humphrey 503/459-4632 tom.humphrey@reed.edu ALUMNI NEWS EDITOR Robin Tovey ’97 Valiant Interns Sandesh Adhikary ’15, Lauren Cooper ’16 ADVISORY BOARD Diane Morgan ’77, Matt Giraud ’85, Naomi McCoy ’94, Caitlin Baggott ’99 REED COLLEGE RELATIONS vice president, college relations Hugh Porter Executive director, Communications & public affairs Mandy Heaton

There’s a gleam in their eye, a bounce to their step. With their mortars perched at jaunty angles, their robes billowing in the breeze, they march in the grand procession from the big top on the Great Lawn, their hard-won diplomas finally in hand.

As they strode into the Quad to hug their families and friends, I felt a sense of wonder. I remembered their first, hesitant days on campus, when they didn’t know where the Psych Building was or how pronounce timê. Watched them sitting in Commons, turning the pages of the Republic, and searching for the meaning of justice. Caught them thumbing through dog-eared books by Beauvoir and Rilke on the SU porch. Saw them grow their hair, dye their hair, cut their hair, and let it grow out again. Heard them debate transfinite induction, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and the biomechanics of wasp venom. Read their articles in the Quest and their blog posts from Kathmandu. Beheld them immersing

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themselves in their disciplines like pearl divers plunging into the deep.

Sat through their oral exams as they defined their terms and defended their conclusions.

I watched them grow—which is a privilege in itself. But I also witnessed something more profound. I saw how the pursuit of knowledge is itself a transformative experience, changing the mind that seeks it, opening the door to new ideas, new possibilities, new adventures.

By the time you read this, the class of ’14 will be scattered to the corners of the earth, and a new crop of freshlings will have arrived on campus. The cycle will begin anew. I look forward to showing them where the Psych Building is.

director, alumni & parent relations Mike Teskey director, development Jan Kurtz Reed College is a private, independent, non-sectarian four-year college of liberal arts and sciences. Reed provides news of interest to alumni, parents, and friends.

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 (ISSN 0895-8564) is published quarterly, in March, June, September, and December, by the Office of Public Affairs at Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202.

Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Oregon.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland OR 97202-8138.

—CHRIS LYDGATE ’90

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.

Safe but Not Sound

The March issue of Reed offered an interesting juxtaposition of statements.

In the feature on Emilio Pucci ’37, “Thinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” we read how 78 years ago President Dexter Keezer accepted Pucci as a student in return for his coaching the ski team and other duties, despite Pucci’s espousal of Italian fascism, which he defended in his thesis.

In Keezer’s view, however, an outspoken fascist woud “enliven our campus in an intellectually stimulating way.”

Meanwhile, an editorial response to letters in the same issue proclaimed Reed’s new commitment to “a safe and supportive educational environment.” But anyone who has worked in academia, as I have, knows that the word “safe” today does not mean just physically safe but increasingly means “safe from provocative and challenging ideas.”

Poor naive President Keezer! In today’s academic world he would be ground down like hamburger. This is the world in which a respected liberal arts school such as Brandeis can invite as commencement speaker the activist for Muslim women Ayaan Hirsi Ali, only to disinvite her after a few students protested that she was “offensive.”

Let’s imagine a reborn Emilio Pucci, stranded in Portland and approaching Reed College for admission. Imagine him as an enthusiastic member of the Northern League (Lega Nord), a controversial Italian political party often accused of fascist leanings.

Would his presence be seen as “intellectually stimulating” in 2014? Or would the admission door be slammed in his face?

—Chas S. Clifton ’73 Wetmore, Colorado You raise a vital point that is the subject of much debate on campuses nationwide:

Editor’s Note:

what kinds of statements cross the line from offensive to unacceptable? I will not venture an answer, except to say that in this particular case I used the word “safe” in its boring, conventional sense. Based on the conversations I overhear in the Quad, Reed students still encounter (and generate) provocative and challenging ideas by the barrel. As to Pucci, I think the answer would depend more on his essay than his dossier.

Kingdom for a Hearse

Nisma Elias’ article “Looking Back at Freedom Summer” in June describes the small cadre of idealistic Reed students who went to the Deep South to register black voters during the Freedom Summer of 1964, including Ray Raphael ’65. There is one small and enjoyable error in Nisma’s story, when she quotes Ray as saying, “I drove around in a very noticeable black Pontiac Hurst...”

Ray, in fact, did not drive a “hurst,” but rather, a hearse. Talk about noticeable! It was a huge, heavy, and supremely improbable thing, quite well known on the Reed campus. His car just exuded contempt for middle-class propriety: instead of the dignified carriage of the deceased, Ray transported, in high style, many very-muchalive Reedies on their way to one political confrontation or another.

I know that Ray went on to become a successful writer about American politics and history, but I also wonder what became of his famous hearse, one of the most notable symbols of Reed’s endearing weirdness during the ’60s.

—Gray Pedersen ’68 Seattle, Washington

In response to Gray’s inquiry about the fate of my ’54 Pontiac hearse, here is its saga.

I purchased it for only $300, quite a steal for a car with only 3,000 miles on it—not just little-old-ladies-going-to-church miles, but deadladies-and-gents-inching-slowly-from-church-tocemetery miles. Perhaps the most notable adventure during its tenure at Reed was being turned back at the Canadian border by guards who just didn’t like the feel of black and white teenagers entering their country, sprawled in the back of a hearse. I told them we were sponsored by the US government, which was true—we were on a field trip from Reed’s pioneering Upward Bound program—but that made no difference. They would have none of our strange crew in Canada.

In 1968 my hearse carried me to San Francisco for my first teaching job. The hearse did not appreciate the steep hills, and it could

find no rest unless we found adjacent parking spaces. The following spring we ventured to the woods of California’s “Lost Coast,” 200 miles to the north. Those dirt roads were no more to the hearse’s liking than were the streets of San Francisco, so we made a deal: I would park her in a nice, comfortable spot—put her to pasture, as it were—and she would be “home” to myself and my partner at the time, Sandy Clark Goodrick ’66. The spacious rear compartment, lined with blue velvet and accustomed to prone bodies in deep sleep, made a luxurious bedroom, and the front seat served as a kitchen of sorts.

So there she sat, at rest. Over the next few years she offered herself as home to various young folks in need of cover. She befriended a neighbor, the volunteer fire department’s truck that moved in across her dirt driveway. A few tenants later, vacant, she grew a garden of berry bushes around her. Only later, a decade or so, did she give up the ghost, hauled away to a junkyard.

What I like about her story is how she meshes with the history of the times, from political activist in the ’60s to back-to-the-land hippie in the ’70s. She was very tuned in, as we said in the day.

—Ray Raphael ’65 Redway, California

Etched into the Rocks

I am the parent of a Reed student and was born and raised in Portland. In reading the article on Thomas Lamb Eliot in the June issue, I learned a couple of details about Mr. Eliot that indicate a solution to a mystery that has puzzled me for many years. My family has owned a cabin in Rockaway on the Oregon coast since the ’50s. I have hiked the trail to the top of Mount Neahkahnie countless times over the years. On one of those hikes, probably in the ’70s, at the top of the mountain I discovered, etched deeply into the rocks, this inscription: “T.S.+ M.E. Eliot, 1925.” I at first thought it might have been the poet himself, but since he was, as far as I know, nowhere near the Oregon coast in 1925 and did not have a wife with initials “M.E.,” I remained baffled by the inscription. Two items in Mr. Hernandez’s article point toward an answer to this little mystery: 1) that there were eight children in the Eliot family and 2) that they had a home or cabin at Neahkahnie around 1925. The final link will be to find out the names of Eliot’s children, which I’m sure I can accomplish with a little research. Please pass on my gratitude to Mr. Hernandez.

—Vince Kelly Valdez, Alaska september 2014 Reed magazine

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Eliot Circular

Grads Unleashed, Yes-Man Pulls Prank The skirl of the bagpipe heralded the arrival of the graduates at Reed’s 100th annual commencement ceremony in May. The proud seniors were applauded by the faculty and cheered by family and friends as they processed to the tent on the Great Lawn.

This year, the college granted the Bachelor of Arts to 321 students and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies to five students.

Biology was the most popular major, boasting 36 grads, followed by anthro (21), English (21), math (20) and psych (20). Eight seniors earned interdisciplinary degrees in environmental studies.

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The commencement address was delivered by performance artist Igor Vamos ’90 of the media-jamming troupe the Yes Men, who seized the opportunity to pull a classic prank. He proclaimed from the podium that Reed had divested its endowment from fossil fuels. (Not so—see page 8).

The Yes Men are renowned for sophisticated political satire in which they impersonate corporate or government officials and make spectacular declarations, which the real officials must then deny. Even so, Igor’s brazen hoax—accompanied by phony press releases and a counterfeit

photos by leah nash

Prof. Rock Wins Guggenheim Prof. Peter Rock [creative writing 2001–] won a Guggenheim fellowship to support work on Spells, a “fragmentary novel” that will be completed in collaboration with five photographers.

Prof. Rock got the idea for Spells years ago, while he was a security guard in an art museum. To pass the time, he would invent stories inspired by works in the museum’s collection.

The final project will take the form of a book and a show at Portland’s Blue Sky Gallery in September 2015.

Rock has written six novels, most

recently The Shelter Cycle, and a collection of stories, The Unsettling. “Rock is an exemplary professor, an innovative and dedicated teacher, and an innovative and dedicated novelist,” says Nigel Nicholson, dean of the faculty and Walter Mintz Professor ofClassics [1995–].

Since 1947, 20 Reed professors and 82 alumni have earned Guggenheim fellowships, which are granted upon the basis of impressive achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

Two for Tenure website—fooled several reporters.

After the ceremony, President John Kroger said: “Vamos is a great guerrilla artist and we were proud to have him return to Reed. We appreciate the robust and far-ranging debate that this prank will continue to spur.”

Igor executed the stunt with the help of Fossil Free Reed, a student group which has been pushing the college to get rid of its fossilfuel investments. When he’s not stirring up trouble, he’s an associate professor of media arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He was invited to speak at Reed by the graduating class.

Juliane Fry, associate professor of chemistry & environmental studies [2008–] and Mary Ashburn Miller, associate professor of history & humanities [2008–] were granted tenure effective August 2014.

Fry earned a BS in chemistry, with minors in physics, German, and women’s studies, from the University of Rochester, and a PhD in chemistry from the California Institute of Technolo g y. S he has been a climate fellow at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, D.C., and did postdoctoral research at UC

Berkeley, studying mechanisms of atmospheric aerosol formation. Her research is focused on atmospheric and environmental chemistry, specifically on interaction between humanproduced nitrogen oxides (NOx) and climate-relevant atmospheric aerosol particles.

Miller’s interests are in revolutionary-era France and Europe and modern European cultural and intellectual history. She earned a BA in 2001 from the University of Virginia and an MA and PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and is the author of A Natural History of Revolution.

september 2014 Reed magazine

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m at t d ’a n n u n z i o

Eliot Circular Our Brilliant Students Taylor Stinchcomb ’14 won the Class of ’21 Award for her thesis “Effects of the Herbicide Diuron on Multiple Life Stages of Bombina orientalis: Implications for Pesticide Use and Amphibian Conservation,” with adviser Prof.

Robert Kaplan [biology 1983–]. The award, endowed by gifts from Reed’s class of 1921, recognizes “creative work of a notable character, involving an unusual degree of initiative and spontaneity.”

Taylor found that diuron, one of the most commonly used weed killers in the Willamette Valley, poses serious danger to frogs and other amphibians, even at very low concentrations. “Continued unabated and indiscriminant application of diuron poses a risk to amphibian life and may threaten human health,” she concluded.

Kaplan described her research as “outstanding.” Scientists have long suspected that diuron might be an endocrine disruptor, but surprisingly little research has been conducted on its effects.

“I am humbled and honored, as you can imagine,” she wrote after learning she had won the award.

Mackenzie Sullivan ’14 won the Edwin N. Garlan Memorial Prize in Philosophy for his thesis, “An Essay on Metaphysical Grounding,” completed with advisers Prof. Troy Cross [philosophy 2010–] and Prof. Paul Hovda [philosophy 2002–]. The award honors iconic professor Edwin Garlan [philosophy 1946– 73] and recognizes outstanding scholarship in philosophy.

The William T. Lankford III Memorial Humanities Award, established as a tribute to the accomplished scholarship and teaching of Prof. Bill Lankford [English 1977– 83], is given to students who demonstrate an interest in the relationship between history and English literature. Two seniors won the award this year.

Claire Berkowitz ’14 wrote an English thesis on Yiddish writer I.B. Singer’s two novels, Satan in Goray and Enemies: A Love Story, with adviser Prof. Marat Grinberg [Russian 2006–]. “Her thesis combines a sophisticated and detailed literary analysis with engagement

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Bio major Taylor Stinchcomb ’14 won the prestigious Class of ’21 Award for her thesis on the harmful effects of the weedkiller diuron on frogs and other amphibians, written under the guidance of her adviser, Prof. Robert Kaplan.

with Holocaust historiography and the broader paradigms of Jewish historical responses to violence and internal upheavals. It makes an important contribution to the vast field of I.B. Singer studies,” says Prof. Laura Arnold Leibman [English 1995–].

Kelly Holob ’14 wrote her classics–religion thesis on the Hymns of Synesius of Cyrene with adviser Prof. Michael Foat ’86 [religion 1996–]. Kelly translated nine extremely complex hymns and masterfully placed them in the broader historical, religious, and philosophical contexts. “The translations were accurate, fluid, and beautiful, and the whole thesis was well researched and elegantly written,” notes Leibman. “It is the equivalent of a strong MA thesis.”

The Gerald M. Meier Award for Distinction in Economics was awarded to John Iselin ’14 for his thesis “Renewable Portfolio Standards: Examining the Effect of State Policy on Renewable Electrical Capacity” with adviser Prof. Noelwah Netusil [econ 1990–]. Gerald Meier ’47, a leading economist and professor

of business and economics at Stanford, established the award in 1998.

Three freshly minted seniors won Fulbright awards. Russian major Madeline Kinkel ’14 will teach English in Azerbaijan; German major Christopher Muñoz-Calene ’14 will teach in Germany; and French major Lukas Ovrom ’14 will conduct medieval research in France.

First prize for the 2014 Mary Barnard Academy of American Poets Prize Contest was awarded to English major Hannah FungWiener ’16 for her poem “Pact.” Honorable mention went to Timmy Straw ’17 for “Tundra Cinema.” The contest, sponsored by the Reed English department, was judged

by Paulann Petersen, former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and Oregon’s current poet laureate. The college has endowed a $100 prize in honor of renowned poet Mary Barnard ’32 (1909–2001) for the best poem or group of poems submitted by a Reed undergrad.

leah nash

Reed Profs Ranked #1 Reed College has the best professors in the nation, according to the Princeton Review, based on a survey of more than 130,000 undergrads. The education-services company published its 2015 college guide, The Best 378 Colleges, in August and ranked Reed first for professors held in high esteem by their students.

In addition to “Professors Get High Marks,” Reed ranked at #3 for “Best Classroom Experience,” #4 for “Students Study the Most,” #4 for “There’s a Game?” and #14 for “Great Financial Aid,” among others.

The Princeton Review guide is based on feedback from 130,000 students nationwide.

“I think at Reed College, first and foremost, it’s about the classroom experience and all the things go with the classroom experience,” Prof. Mary James [physics 1988–], dean of institutional diversity, told KXL after the guide was published. “It would be the wrong place to come if your heart’s desire is to root for a football team for four years.”

Reed students gave their professors, such as Prof. Hyong Rhew [Chinese 1988–], top marks in a national survey.

The Princeton Review guide is based on surveys of 130,000 students (an average of 343 per campus) taken over the past three school years. The survey asks students 80 questions about academics, administration, the student body, and themselves. The ranking methodology uses a five-point Likert scale to convert qualitative assessments into quantitative data for school-to-school comparisons.

It’s no secret that Reed has long been critical of college rankings, particularly the

influential guide published by U.S. News and World Report. These lists need to be looked at with an exacting eye, since they often rely on questionable methodology.

Nonetheless, since the Princeton Review is based on feedback from real students who actually took classes from Reed professors, we are proud to celebrate this intellectual synergy. (See our website for more on the Princeton Review guide’s methodology and on Reed’s tumultuous relationship with U.S. News.) —ROBIN TOVEY ’97

Reedies Press for Marriage Equality Representing same-sex couples, Misha had filed suit, arguing that Oregon’s ban on gay and lesbian weddings was unfair and unconstitutional. The judge agreed and struck the ban. Weddings took place that afternoon. By that evening, hundreds were dancing in the streets of southeast Portland, joined by a marching band named LoveBomb Go-Go. Among the first couples to be wed in Multnomah County were Prof. Ken Brashier [religion 1998–] and his partner Andrew Wallace, who were married by Portland mayor Charlie Hales.

G o s i a W o z n i a c k a /A P

Some cheered. Others howled.

A few were wearing go-go boots.

A crowd of 200 people gathered at the Oregon United for Marriage campaign headquarters in Portland in May, smashed inside a conference room too small to fit everyone, to listen to attorney Misha Isaak ’04, who stood behind a podium, speaking to a swirl of television cameras, tape recorders, microphones, and notepads.

Misha was reading from a federal judge’s decision, handed down moments before, on same-sex marriage in Oregon.

Misha Isaak ’04 reads from a federal judge’s decision striking down Oregon’s ban on same-sex marriage at the headquarters of Oregon United for Marriage.

(This article was adapted from a longer piece published on our website by author and journalist Peter Zuckerman ’03, who served as press secretary for the Oregon United campaign.)

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Eliot Circular Reed Won’t Divest In July, Roger Perlmutter ’73, chairman of the board of trustees, announced that Reed would not divest its $500-million endowment from fossil fuels, as the student group Fossil Free Reed had requested.

Writing on behalf of the board, Perlmutter cited Reed’s 1978 Investment Responsibility Policy, which states that the board’s primary investment objective is to safeguard the value of the endowment so that it can support the mission of the college. He also called attention to Reed’s “intense commitment” to academic freedom, which requires, he said, that Reed as an institution maintain political neutrality in order to protect freedom of inquiry and expression. The college should only depart from institutional neutrality “where the action taken reflects widely-held, perhaps almost universally held, social, or moral positions.” He continued: Balancing our social concern, our institutional financial concern, and our concern for keeping the college institutionally dissociated from particular political positions, the board did not agree that divestment of Reed’s endowment from fossil-fuel investments meets the high standards of our policy. The balancing was not easy, it was intensely discussed, and the weighting of these variables was no doubt different for different members. Some think that divesting Reed’s endowment from fossil-fuel investments would not have significant impact on actual CO₂ emissions.

Others stressed that in light of the college’s continued use of fossil fuels, and similar reliance on fossil fuels by nearly all of the members of our community, to the degree such a gesture would purport to contribute to a solution, it would lack the integrity we all expect from the Reed community. Some were animated principally by concern that the requested action would have a significant negative impact on the endowment. They stressed that Reed’s endowment is largely invested in funds whose strategies permit quick and untrammeled decision-making by fund managers. To these members, divesting from funds with carbon exposure would mean dissociating from managers carefully selected for the likelihood of high performance. Finally, many were concerned that a decision for divestiture would open other discussions about other causes in ways that would ultimately divide the community and force it to make official decisions about matters of reasonable academic and political debate.

Perlmutter emphasized the trustees’ view that the most effective way for Reed to combat global warming lies in its educational mission, and pointed to the college’s new environmental studies program as an example. He also cited Reed’s direct efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, including a $5.4 million investment in energy efficiency that will reduce CO₂ emissions by 2.65 million pounds per year.

Find the full statement at www.reed.edu.

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Reed magazine september 2014

Allie Morgan ’14 and Anya Demko ’14 installed a series of lasers and phototransistors on the spiral staircase in Vollum, turning the steps into a giant, twisting keyboard.

Physics Majors Build Musical Helix Pythagoras proposed the harmony of the spheres; Anya Demko ’14 and Allie Morgan ’14 built the harmony of the stairs.

In April, the two physics majors installed a series of lasers and phototransistors on the spiral staircase in Vollum, turning the steps into a giant, twisting keyboard spanning two octaves on a C major scale.

Each time your foot lands on a tread, it interrupts a laser beam, triggering a musical tone. Step nimbly down the staircase and its sounds like an ice cream truck.

Charge back up and it sounds like JS Bach being chased by a stampeding herd of wildebeest.

The two seniors spent many hours designing the circuitry, constructing the hardware, and installing the lasers. “It was really a great experience,” says Anya.

“This was the first time we really got to design our own circuits.”

They got special permission from Vollum Czar Lois Hobbs [administrative assistant to the faculty] to work on the project after hours, when the building was closed. Machinist Greg Eibel and instructional technologist Joe Janiga provided technical assistance.

Anya wrote her thesis on the dynamics of an inverted pendulum with Prof. Lucas Illing [physics 2007–]. Allie wrote her thesis on relativistic strings and Ehrenfest’s Paradox with Prof.

Joel Franklin ’97 [physics 2005– ]. Both are interested in teaching.

Sadly, the musical staircase was dismantled as Reed went to press.

We hope to play it again next year.

Watch Anya play “Mary Had a Little Lamb” at www.reed.edu/reed_magazine.

Reunions ’14 Reedfayre

Better than Ever Droves of alumni descended on campus in June for a delirious Reunions ’14. Highlights included parties on the rooftop patio of the new Performing Arts Building, balloon magic, late-afternoon bliss, folk dancing, petting llamas, catching up with honorary alumnus Robert Palladino, celebrating newly retired professors, and propelling the griffin-cycle.

Check out photos and read the column by alumni board prez Scott Foster ’77 at reunions.reed.edu

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Last Lectures

Saluting our retiring (and not-so-retiring) professors

Kathleen Worley [theatre 1985–2014] Prof. Kathleen Worley might never have come to Reed were it not for an incident that was both comic and tragic.

In 1977, she was an actor living in Portland and busy rehearsing a major role in Ben Jonson’s Volpone, directed by Prof. Roger Porter [English 1961–], to be put on by the Portland Conservatory Theatre. A few days before the show was due to open, however, the cast members discovered that the theatre had been padlocked— the company had run into trouble with the IRS. The show was canceled and Worley was out of a job. She got a one-year, quarter-time gig at Reed teaching an acting class, then moved to Seattle to be a professional actor. In 1985, she applied for a full-time position at Reed and found her true role in life.

Originally hailing from Reno, Nevada, Worley earned a BA from Pomona in 1969 and an MFA at UC Riverside, both in theatre. She acted at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, ACT, Seattle Rep, Artists’ Rep, and Profile Theatre. As an actor, she is probably best known for her original one-woman show, Virginia Woolf: A Spark of Fire, which she performed around the country.

At Reed, she joined a department that managed to put on amazing shows despite conditions that sometimes verged on the Kafkaesque. No one could ever find the light switch in the theatre. At one point, the fire marshall declared that no more than 40 people could occupy the studio theatre—including the cast. There was no soundproofing. ”You could hear everything, including people dragging cords on the floor above you. You had to work together to get anything done.”

And she did. Worley taught

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acting, directing, intercultural theatre, and 20th-century experimental theatre, supervised 80 theses, and directed hundreds of students in productions such as On the Verge, Crimes of the Heart, Our Country’s Good, Arcadia, The Beggar’s Opera, Measure for Measure, A Bright Room Called Day, and Julius Caesar. She also directed the premier of the WPA play Timber!. In gratitude, the cast gave her a cedar seedling which is now 25 feet tall and stands in her back yard.

She witnessed many breathtaking moments on stage, but some of the most remarkable came during rehearsals. In 1990, she directed Twelfth Night. One student auditioned for the part of Feste, the fool, but Worley cast him instead as the lovesick Duke Orsino.

Unfortunately, the student who had won the part of Feste found it difficult to learn the music. Orsino cast off his resentment, rode to the rescue, and taught Feste his songs.

“Those are the moments you live for,” Worley says.

“Kathleen is a source of inspiration for me, both as an actress and educator,” says Clara-Liis Hillier ’09. “She demonstrated how to remain a strong, powerful woman on stage and to prepare intellectually and emotionally for your roles onstage. I cherish the time I spent at Reed with her.”

Worley’s sense of humor comes through in a Gary Larson cartoon on her window sill depicting an elephant seated onstage at a piano.

“What am I doing here?” the elephant thinks to himself. “I can’t play this thing! I’m a flutist for crying out loud!”

A somewhat more profound maxim is rendered in a graceful script above her desk: “Life is not a rehearsal.”

—CHRIS LYDGATE ’90

Ron McClard [chemistry 1984–2014] Thirty years is a long time in professor years.

When Arthur F. Scott Professor of Chemistry Ron McClard joined the Reed faculty in 1984, chemistry was being taught in the old chemistry building, a leaky, cold structure with broken plumbing, inadequate office space, and poorly equipped labs. But Ron seized the opportunity he was given, and began doing and publishing research with his students. Before long he had attracted a cohort of younger faculty united by the same vision: that Reed students were capable of rising to the challenge of doing publication-worthy research.

Now, as Ron retires from teaching, we celebrate his contributions to the college. Among them: obtaining NSF funding for major instruments including two FT-NMR spectrophotometers, publishing 50 papers (at least 15 with Reed

student coauthors), teaching in nearly every departmental specialty, and supervising 50 senior theses spread over five different majors, including what might be the only Reed thesis for interdisciplinary work in biochemistry and mathe-

model,” in Biochemistry with a bright young chemistry grad named Kevan Shokat ’86, who went on to become a pioneer in the field of kinases.

Ron’s favorite paper was published in 2006: “Half-of-Sites Binding of Orotidine 5′-Phosphate

Thirty years is a long time in professor years. matics. (Lindsay Nicole Deis ’09, “Application of Numerical Simulation to the Determination of Half-of-Sites Reactivity: A Case Study in Biotin Carboxylase.”)

As I retraced Ron’s teaching and research, I made several intriguing discoveries. In 1987 he published the paper “Does the bifunctional uridylate synthase channel orotidine 5′-phosphate? Kinetics of orotate phosphoribosyltransferase and orotidylate decarboxylase activities fit a noninteracting sites

and α-D-5-Phosphorylribose 1-Diphosphate to Orotate Phosphoribosyltransferase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae Supports a Novel Variant of the Theorell− Chance Mechanism with Alternating Site Catalysis,” in Biochemistry (all four authors on this paper were affiliated with Reed; Ned Holets ’05 and Andy MacKinnon ’05 were thesis students of Ron’s).

Soon Ron will sail away to new adventures. Bon voyage, mon ami.

—PROF. ALAN SHUSTERMAN

V. Rao Potluri [math 1973–2014] “It is amazing how much influence a teacher has on students,” says Prof. V. Rao Potluri. “Somebody takes one or two classes from a good teacher, and that defines his career. That’s what happened to me.”

Potluri grew up poor in a small village on the coast of Andhra Pradesh in India without electricity or plumbing. As a boy, he used a yoke to fetch water from the well. “It was a happy existence,” he says. “We didn’t know how to be sad.”

Under the tutelage of two professors at Andhra University, Potluri thrilled to the rigorous logic of mathematics, and decided that one day he would teach it himself.

After he earned an MS from Banaras Hindu University in 1968, Potluri was invited to do

graduate work with Charles Curtis, a renowned algebraist teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

He later transferred to the University of Oregon, earning a PhD in abstract algebra in 1973.

Potluri was initially invited to fill a one-year vacancy in Reed’s mathematics department, and wound up staying for 41 years. He considers it a privilege to teach at Reed. “Reed students come to learn,” he says. “They don’t come to play football. They’re very motivated and teaching motivated kids is a wonderful experience.

I don’t think of them as students so much as friends.”

For the past 10 years, he has driven a Honda 750 motorcycle to work, and he describes himself as a “simpleliving” guy. The only extravagance to

interest him has been good private schools for his children.

Potluri becomes circumspect when asked if math, a field of definite results, can be used to prove the existence of God. Allowing that mathematical laws are often followed in nature, he mentions Snell’s law, which deals with the velocity of light.

“When light travels through two different media, the velocity changes”, Potluri explains. “It bends and chooses a different path and that angle of refraction is governed by the fastest way for the light to travel. So, light is smart, it always chooses the fastest way to reach from here to there. When you think about things like that you might think, ‘God is a mathematician.’”

—RANDALL S. BARTON

september 2014 Reed magazine 11

Physics major Jay Collins ’15 sketches his findings on auditory perception with visiting Prof. Owen Gross ’04.

Amping Up Student Research

BY RANDALL S. BARTON

Independent research—the opportunity for students to delve deep into an unresolved problem in their discipline—has always been a hallmark of Reed. The most obvious example, of course, is the senior thesis.

But what happens when students want to pursue research before their senior year?

Christian Graulty ’15 has long been fascinated by the workings of the brain.

As a freshman, he begged his professors to let him get involved in neuropsychological research at Reed.

Prof. Enriqueta Canseco-Gonzalez [psychology 1992–] was happy to hook

12 Reed magazine september 2014

him up with someone doing research over the summer so he could learn how to use the brain-recording equipment. But there was a hitch—she had no funds available to pay him. So Christian, an interdisciplinary biology–psychology major, worked in the library that summer and volunteered his free time in the psych lab learning to do electroencephalography.

Christian’s story—and those of Reedies like him—underscores the growing importance of helping underclassmen pursue summer research on campus.

“Participating in summer research is a tremendous experience of autonomy, independence, and responsibility for students,” says

dean of the faculty Prof. Nigel Nicholson [classics 1995–].

Summer research can give students a competitive edge in the job market regardless of whether they intend to go to grad school. “Few professional opportunities do not benefit from an ability to think carefully about difficult problems for long periods of time, apply different tools, and come at it from different angles,” says Prof. Joel Franklin ’97 [physics 2005–].

While some students can afford to do unpaid research, many others need a paycheck. Three new gifts will help Reed support students who want to get vital experience in the lab over the summer.

m at t d ’a n n u n z i o

and Mark rectified that with the department’s first endowed research fund.

“My experiences with Tom Dunne and Marsh Cronyn were critical to stripping the bark off an aggressive young man and teaching him the discipline of rigorous thought and academic pursuit,” Mark says. “They had two very different approaches to teaching, but between the yin of one and the yang of the other, it showed me what I was capable of doing. And the ability to do independent research, which was critical to my senior thesis, was a big part of that education.”

The James Borders Physics Student Fellowship

The Marshall W. Cronyn Student Research Fund

This recently-established fund, named for the legendary Prof. Marsh Cronyn [chemistry 1952–89], provides annual grants for one or more students undertaking special work in chemistry.

The endowment is a gift from Mark Petrinovic ’83, managing director and head of Latin American portfolio management at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York City.

Mark majored in chemistry with Prof.

Tom Dunne [chemistry 1963–95] as his thesis adviser, and a lecture series, to which Mark contributed, already existed in Dunne’s name.

No endowment honored Cronyn, however,

This new fellowship helps physics majors intending to go to graduate school.

As a student at Reed, James Borders ’63 worked during the summer turning stainless steel flanges for an electron-scattering table Prof. John Shonle [physics 1960–66] was building in the physics department, then housed in the basement of Eliot Hall.

“I certainly wasn’t the number one student in our physics class, but Shonle knew I could run a lathe,” says James, who holds graduate degrees from the University of Illinois. “It was a good experience. He’d come in every day or so to find out how I was doing and suggest changes.”

The first recipient of the fellowship, Jay Collins ’15, collaborated with Prof. Owen Gross ’04 examining neural information coding in the earliest stages of auditory perception.

The two met when Owen was a visiting assistant professor at Reed in the spring. Having discovered his own field of interest while doing student research, Owen was enthusiastic about collaborating with a Reedie. (He has since resumed his position as a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon Health & Science University.)

“I could give direction to Jay a couple of hours each week, and in a few weeks he made more progress than I was able to in a few months,” Owen says.

The fellowship requires students to write up the results of their research—honing their presentation skills.

The Esther Hyatt Wender Psychology Fund

The ability to think critically and ask the right questions—skills she learned at

Reed—served Esther Hyatt Wender ’58 well in a career of developmental and behavioral pediatrics.

As a resident at the Johns Hopkins Medical Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Esther did an additional year of research on a condition called minimal brain dysfunction—now known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She became an expert on it. A career in academic medicine included teaching and research positions at Georgetown University, the University of Utah, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

“When I had a little extra money to give to Reed, it seemed appropriate that I should investigate the psychology department, since it’s close to my heart,” Esther says.

The new Esther Hyatt Wender Psychology Fund furthers study in the broad field of human development, including stipends for summer research.

Bang for the Buck

Summer research is particularly helpful to students interested in pursuing graduate study in science and medicine.

“When a student knows how to think critically, read primary sources, design and carry out an experiment, and then publish a paper, the person running the lab doesn’t have to start from scratch,” says Prof. Paul Currie [psychology 2007–], who chairs the undergraduate research committee. “Half of the job is already done.”

Christian Graulty , the book-shelving psychologist we met at the beginning of this article, is a good example. After his cashstrapped freshman summer, he wrote a proposal with Canseco-Gonzalez and won a grant from the Murdock Charitable Trust to do paid research during the next two summers. He has already presented research findings at three conferences—a rare opportunity for an undergraduate.

“Ultimately the value of summer research at Reed is to get one of those coveted MD-PhD positions,” he says. “To get into med school or grad school you need to have publications that show you’re serious about research, that you have questions in a field that you want to answer, and that you’re driven enough to find an answer to those questions.”

september 2014 Reed magazine 13

Marshmallow Noir Jen Graham ’01 pens the further adventures of Veronica Mars

BY ROBYN ROSS

Veronica Mars inched stealthily back from the doorway where she’d been eavesdropping.

Downstairs, the raucous spring break party raged on. Upstairs, in the mansion owned by heirs to a Mexican drug cartel, she strained to listen to the men she suspected were behind the disappearances of two college girls. But now the men were standing, about to walk into the hallway. Trying to stay out of sight, she slipped into the next room—right into the grip of Eduardo, the smooth-talking MBA student she’d met the night before, who just happened to be the kingpin’s nephew.

The Veronica Mars in The ThousandDollar Tan Line, the first novel spun off from the popular television series, is the

14 Reed magazine september 2014

same fearless, snarky character fans loved onscreen. Her transition to print was made

by Jen Graham ’01, who collaborated with series creator Rob Thomas on the book.

Cancelled in 2007 after three seasons, Veronica Mars inspired a cult following that rejoiced when, six years later, Thomas announced plans to make a movie. He opted to raise the money through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and more than 91,000 fans (including Graham) opened their wallets. The campaign raised more than $2 million in its first 11 hours and once boasted the largest number of backers in Kickstarter history. Less than a year later, in March 2014, the movie premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where both Thomas and

Graham live. Tan Line came out right after the movie, sweeping onto the New York Times bestseller list. A second book is slated for an October release.

Played by the actress Kristen Bell, Veronica is sassy, fierce, quick on her feet, deadpan, and unyielding. In the television show, she attends high school in Neptune, a moneyed Southern California beach town that’s equal parts glitter and grit. Viewers learn at the beginning of the series that her father, private investigator Keith Mars, used to be the town sheriff but was forced out of office after pursuing what may have been a mistaken case against a prominent citizen. In the wake of this scandal, Veronica becomes an outcast at school, and her alcoholic mother abandons the family. Neptune’s

ben sklar

ends. After college and law school, Veronica is back in Neptune, having returned to her life as a private investigator to solve a case clearing the name of her high school boyfriend. Spring break is under way, bringing thousands of college students, drugs, alcohol, and tourist dollars to town. When a young woman disappears from a party, Veronica is hired by the chamber of commerce to find her and restore Neptune’s reputation as a safe destination.

The opportunity to write the book came through Graham’s editor at the publishing company that produced the Mars novels.

Graham had done previous ghostwriting work on young adult thrillers, and her editor—“a crazy Veronica Mars fan”—knew

Twitter gives them such access to creators,” Graham says, diplomatically.

While she had to research Southern California geography, guns, and private investigation, Graham could draw on her longstanding interest in true crime to imagine some of the grittier details. She grew up in Anchorage, which she describes as having “a severe seedy underbelly” and outlaw culture that made her curious about trauma, recovery, and the roots of violence.

Graham found Reed as she sifted through the pile of college brochures that arrived after she took the SAT. Reed’s materials included haiku from Nitrogen Day and trading cards of the campus dogs, and they were “just bonkers” enough to convince her to visit. An English

The Locher Scholarship was a life changer. “I understood so much more about how to put a story together, and about my voice, after that.”

leadership, including the replacement sheriff, is corrupt, and Veronica and her father have to step in and solve the cases that law enforcement won’t.

“It’s got this broody, noir sense to it, modified for adolescent contexts,” Graham explains. In the first episode, viewers learn that Veronica’s best friend has been murdered, and that Veronica was drugged and raped at a party by an unknown assailant. “You get access to really genuine, if melodramatic, adolescent traumas that you explore through this postmodern Nancy Drew character who is really sassy and spiky and doesn’t let anything keep her down,” Graham says. “But she has genuine vulnerability and genuine feelings. She’s a character I’ve never seen on TV before.”

Tan Line picks up shortly after the movie

of Graham’s own affinity for the series and offered her the job.

Unlike the prior ghostwriting, Tan Line is a true collaboration between Thomas and Graham. The two met, along with a few other contributors, to “break the story”—a television term for mapping out the plot—in a series of intense five-hour meetings. Graham then took the outline of the mystery and hung suspense, introspection, “feelings, and sass” on that scaffolding.

But while Graham worked from the outline, that didn’t mean the job was easy. She wrote and revised the manuscript in a breakneck four months. And writing a book for fans who were deeply invested in the characters and had strong expectations for the story presented its own set of challenges.

Graham describes them as primarily young women, many of them self-identified feminists, whose devotion is similar to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Firefly, “or maybe Trekkies, in a different way.”

Through Twitter, the fans—known as “Marshmallows,” after a line in the first episode—voiced their preferences for the second book, such as more page time for Veronica’s love interest.

“Fandom allows people to engage with their media in a way they never used to, and

major, she opted to write a critical rather than a creative thesis, but other programs like Reed Arts Weekend and the Kaspar T. Locher Summer Creative Scholarship helped her focus on developing her voice.

The Locher scholarship “was a big life changer for me,” she says. She stayed in Portland that summer and finished four complete stories, the first serious fiction she’d written. “It was the first time I understood what it meant to live that life, and the kind of sacrifices you make, and also the boundaries you have to put up. I understood so much more about how to put a story together, and about my voice, after that.”

After Reed, she earned her MFA at the University of Texas’ Michener Center for Writers in Austin and has had two stories published in literary magazines. What Graham calls her “own work” is on hold. Two hundred pages of her novel, a literary mystery, disappeared in a computer crash a couple of years ago. “I don’t know what my own work will look like, but I have faith that it’s still there,” she says. For now, “I’m so lucky to have been paid to make things up for a franchise that I like with people who support me.” Among legions of Marshmallows, the feeling appears mutual.

september 2014 Reed magazine 15

daniel cronin

THE SOUND OF THE SPIRIT Prof. Mark Burford explores one of America’s most distinctive—and powerful—musical traditions

BY BILL DONAHUE

It may have been the most politically incorrect nightclub of all time.

Situated in Times Square, among Manhattan’s swankiest theatre houses and restaurants, the Sweet Chariot opened in April 1963 to deliver white patrons the rousing spectacle of African American gospel choirs belting out spirituals with histrionic flourish. The singers were told to “act just like we were in church,” one vocalist remembers, with “all the shouting and the praising and the ‘Hallelujahs’.” The doormen wore choir robes and the waitresses, called Angels, were dressed up like Playboy bunnies in fetching white stockings, racy tunics, sequined wings, and wired halos. The drinks bore names like “Deacon’s Punch” and “Dastardly Demon” and the club attracted celebrity customers such as Frank Sinatra

20 Reed magazine september 2014

and Barbra Streisand, while the hoi polloi waited hours for admission, and then shelled out five dollars apiece to rent tambourines for the evening.

The New York Times cringed at the Chariot, intoning, “It is difficult to avoid a holierthan-thou attitude toward this anomalous mixture of the spiritual and the tawdry.”

Meanwhile, singer Mahalia Jackson, the grande dame of postwar gospel music, was so disgusted that she joined black preachers on a picket line outside the club, carrying enough clout to shut the place down after only six months in business. “They’re making a mockery of the most precious thing in the world—the salvation of God,” Jackson told reporters.

After all the hue and cry, the Chariot became a sad asterisk of history. Its brief, wild ride signaled nothing more than pure blaxploitation. Except to Prof. Mark Burford

[music 2007–]. Burford wondered what it was about the Chariot that enchanted white America at a time when Bull Connor was using fire hoses and police dogs against child protestors in Birmingham and Martin Luther King Jr. sat in jail.

On sabbatical this year, Burford is writing a book, Receiving the Spirit: Doing Black Gospel in Postwar America, about the “mainstreaming” of black gospel singing in the U.S. between 1945 and 1963, when an ancient musical form, which began with Negro spirituals, blossomed and became a galvanizing force in the civil rights movement. In addition to focusing on the Chariot, Receiving the Spirit will linger on the career of Mahalia Jackson. It will look at singer Sam Cooke, who began his career as the front man for a rollicking gospel band, the Soul Stirrers, before becoming a velvety-smooth top-selling balladeer, and it will also consider a Chicago-area gospel TV program, Jubilee Showcase.

The research will not be easy, for gospel may be the least documented form of

© Bettmann/CORBIS

American music. During the golden age of gospel, roughly the two decades after World War II, major newspapers almost never wrote about gospel. Reviews and previews scarcely existed. “If you wanted to know what was going on in gospel music,” says Burford, “you’d have to go the barbershop and say, ‘Hey, Ed, any good shows coming up?’”

To research Receiving the Spirit, Burford will travel to Chicago, to rewatch Jubilee tapes he studied in 2012, and to the Historic New Orleans Collection, where he will look through 100 crates of documents and recordings compiled by Mahalia Jackson’s personal assistant, Bill Russell. He may also make a side trip to Alabama, to sing with a gospel quartet there, the Birmingham Sunlights. “I’ve been in touch with those guys,” Burford says. “I’ve been threatening to come down for a visit.”

Burford—who focuses on music history at Reed—has never sung gospel. As he grew up in San Francisco, his parents were Seventh-Day Adventists. They went to church, but, he says, “The worship was pretty staid. People said ‘Amen’ at the end of a song and moved on. If anyone ever clapped to the beat of a hymn, everyone would give them a look.” Burford learned his singing outside church, by joining the San Francisco Boys Chorus and traveling with that ensemble to England and Israel. In time, he joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and also helped start the Goleta Waters Blues Quartet. “Some nights,” he remembers, “I’d perform a Mahler symphony in a tux, and then race to the club and change backstage to play blues.”

Burford arrived at gospel quite circuitously, moving backwards through time.

“In high school,” he says, “I listened to a lot of reggae, and I wanted to know where that music came from.” He began listening to rocksteady artists like Alton Ellis. This led him back to soul performers such as Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, and soon, as a college student, he was collecting gospel LPs.

The powerful contralto Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) was a civil-rights icon and a key figure in the history of gospel.

“It was the singing that drew me in,” he says.

I was struck by how, with very subtle nuances in phrasing, each singer could make himself immediately identifiable.”

Eventually, Burford honed a taste for “going to small black churches in the middle of nowhere. The program would start two hours late,” he remembers, “and it would go to God knows when. I didn’t feel like a

someone passed out.”

In the late ’90s, Burford wrote a PhD dissertation on the classical composer Johannes Brahms. He didn’t turn his scholarly sights on gospel until one evening in 2005. While record shopping online, he discovered an album, BB King Sings Spirituals, and then another, Nat King Cole Sings Spirituals. Why, he wondered, were these secular stars dab-

“IT WAS THE SINGING THAT DREW ME IN.” voyeur and I didn’t feel like I had a special privilege to be there because I’m black. I just listened.” He was stirred most at the United House of Prayer, in Washington, D.C., where two bands, each composed of 15 trombones, alternated during the service. “Their playing was no-holds-barred, and yet they had incredible mastery,” he says. “It was not an ephemeral experience. It wasn’t casual.

That music really mattered to the people in that room—so much that there were nurses on hand, dressed in white, ready in case

bling in gospel? By the time he arrived at Reed in 2007, he had a host of questions about gospel’s intersection with popular culture. And also a sense of how little research has been done on gospel.

Robert Darden, an associate professor of journalism at Baylor University and the director of Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, is being optimistic when he guesses that there are a couple dozen U.S. scholars focused on gospel music. “There just isn’t much material to work with,” he says,

september 2014 Reed magazine 21

leah nash

“The record tends to skip when we write the history of American music,” says Prof. Burford. “We tell the same stories over and over.”

THE SOUND OF THE SPIRIT noting that during gospel’s heyday, “very few African Americans went to college, so there were few people writing things down. There were no black TV stations, and blacks hardly even appeared on TV.” What’s more, he says, gospel music is evangelical. “Some people don’t like that,” Darden says, “so while there is an Institute of Jazz Studies, and a national institute for blues and for country, there isn’t one for gospel. And there’s no academic journal either.”

Numerous histories of gospel exist— Darden’s People Get Ready, for instance. But as Burford sees it, these books have aimed mainly to “show that gospel is a unique cultural product created by African Americans.”

They’ve presented an argument for black citizenship in American culture. They’ve made clear that gospel gave gravitas to the civil rights movement, and they’ve proved convincing. “They’ve freed me up to take a ‘postsoul’ approach in my writing,” Burford says, “and to be critical, rather than just celebratory, and broader in what I consider political.”

Burford encourages his students to invoke the same critical take. Last year, when he taught Music 364, “The Blues:

20 Reed magazine september 2014

Forms, Styles, Meanings,” he told students, “The record tends to skip when we write the history of American music. We tell the same stories over and over.” He challenged his class to “see things from oblique angles” and then asked students to comb through old newspaper stories and advertisements to recreate the most pivotal year in blues singer Bessie Smith’s career—1923, when she began recording.

Zuben Scott ’16 pored over stories from papers like the Baltimore Afro-American and

white students can feel implicated when you talk about blacks—they feel guilty. At first, I just ask them to listen to the music. The music is a way into the labyrinth. Critical thinking is a way out.”

Many gospel historians don’t seem to think that the Sweet Chariot deserves much attention. In Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia, historian Bill Carpenter dismisses the Chariot’s “antics” and “buffoon-

GOSPEL MUSIC IS A WAY INTO THE LABYRINTH OF RACE. the Chicago Defender. He traced Smith’s rise from a nobody to (as Scott puts it) “a symbol of the South due to her southern, vaudeville roots.” He enjoyed “discovering what seemed like unimportant advertisements and realizing their greater significance. I learned exactly what it takes to be a music historian,” he says.

Burford says that teaching about black music at Reed is at once challenging and rewarding. “Questions of race are very difficult to grapple with—more so than gender or even class,” he argues. “Sometimes

ery” before extensively quoting Mahalia Jackson’s diatribe against the singers. (“What’s wrong with these Negroes?” she asked.) In a draft chapter of Receiving the Spirit, Burford takes a different tack, delivering the Chariot’s employees as complex characters, at once jubilant and pained in their reminiscing. Kenneth Corprew, a Chariot singer, tells Burford that he left a $75 a week job as a court typist in Philadelphia for a $200 paycheck and the “glitz and glamour” of life at the Chariot. Speaking of the club’s managers, Corprew laments, “They did not

want us to sing anything that had to do with the blood of Jesus.”

In his book, Burford restrains judgment—and also takes on accepted wisdom, such as the notion that, in becoming a pop star, Sam Cooke sold out. In a recent article, Burford casts Cooke as an agent, not a pawn, and he brings us into Cooke’s mind, quoting the singer as he revels (in 1960) over how his shrewd entrepreneurialism has opened doors for him: “My goal is to someday be in the same singing league with Harry Belafonte, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra. But whether I achieve my goal or not, I have organized my career on a business-like basis and I know there will be wellpaying jobs waiting for me even if my records stop selling.”

It’s not yet clear how Burford will bring out the complexities in Mahalia Jackson, a steadfastly devout woman who refused to sing secular tunes, even as she deftly reached out to white audiences by adding what she called “bounce”—“a little pep,” “a little joyfulness”— to her spirituals. The scholar still has months of research to do on Jackson, for Jackson’s aide, Bill Russell, was the oddest and most obsessive of chroniclers—an accomplished violinist, a composer admired by John Cage, and a man so gospel obsessed that in middle age he spent five years as Jackson’s volunteer errand boy. “He documented everything,” says Burford, who traveled to New Orleans for a preview look at Russell’s archives in 2012.

“The entries will say, ‘Today I fixed her pipes.

Here’s what she ate for lunch.’” Mixed in are rehearsal recordings and notes documenting Jackson’s unvarnished remarks on her musical colleagues as well her dealing with Columbia Records.

Most likely, a controversial figure will emerge from the archives. “As Jackson became more and more famous,” says Burford, “she became less connected with the church. She sang on the Ed Sullivan Show and on European tours and at Kennedy’s inauguration. She sang for predominately white audiences—and in the minds of many critics she became less legit. I don’t like that assessment. That’s what I’m pushing back against in the book—that orthodoxy. I think that gospel voices were everywhere in the ’50s and ’60s, and if you leave those voices out—if you don’t regard them as ‘real gospel’—well, then, you’re not telling the whole story of gospel music.”

REED COLLEGE COMMUNITY DAY & 5K Saturday, September 20, 2014 9 a.m.–3 p.m.

Enjoy a day of family fun on the glorious Reed College campus.

5K run/walk to benefit local schools Nonprofit fair • Food carts Johnson Creek nature crafts & games Reed canyon showcase Juggling • Live music • Dog show and more!

For a complete schedule, visit reed.edu/communityday.

To register for the 5K, visit reasontorun/races/reed.html.

What is a Reedie, Anyway?

BY RANDALL S. BARTON | PHOTOS BY MATT D’ANNUNZIO

How do you define Reed? Generations of Reedies have pondered this problem. Borrowing from Wittgenstein, we decided to employ the technique of ostensive definition. We interviewed 12 good-natured members of the Class of ’14 and asked them about themselves, their theses, and what they learned at Reed. You might be surprised by what they have to say.

Daniel Dashevsky B I O L O G Y Hometown: Fairbanks, Alaska Adviser: Prof. Todd Schlenke [biology 2013–] Thesis: “Virus-Like Particles in the Venom of Parasitoid Wasps” What it’s about: I’m looking at the venom of parasitoid wasps, which lay their eggs in fly larvae. They’re called parasitoids rather than parasites, because they actually kill their host.

Protein structures called viruslike particles inhibit the host’s immune response by killing certain blood cells. I am using high-throughput transcriptomics and proteomics to analyze the composition and function of the virus-like particles. After the wasp egg hatches out into a larva, it eats the pupating fly larva, uses the pupa to metamorphose into an adult wasp, and the cycle continues.

It’s like the movie Alien.

What my thesis is really about: Parasites are really good at being awful to their hosts.

28 Reed magazine september 2014

Who I was when I got to Reed: In high school I was a gamer and a nerd. Reinventing myself when I got here was one of the parts of college I was most excited about.

I realized I could go to the gym and enjoy playing sports without losing my nerd cred or whatever I had been afraid of before.

How Reed changed me: Aside from the obvious academic skills, I’m far more empathetic than I was before I got here and also more socially and culturally aware.

Influential professor: I got summer research grants to go to Baja and Arizona with Prof. Sarah Schaack [biology 2011–] to catch rattlesnakes from which she extracts DNA. You grab the snakes with long tongs. It depends on the snake as to whether they’re angry as hell; they have different personalities. More than just a mentor, Sarah’s become a colleague and a great friend.

Favorite spot: The spot with the best memories for me is the Great Lawn where the Frisbee teams goof around together on sunny Friday afternoons.

Cool stuff I did: Going to Nationals with the Ultimate [Frisbee] team, leading Orientation Odysseys to Mount Adams, being a senior operator at the nuclear reactor, participating in great traditions like Renn Fayre, and fighting over the Doyle Owl. What’s next: Probably grad school, but I want some perspective to make sure that’s what I want to do. I really enjoyed rattlesnake research with Sarah and am looking into options. First off, however, a motorcycle ride across the country.

Something I would tell prospies: You’re smart, you got into Reed, you can handle more than three classes your first semester. But don’t do it.

That is when you make friends, figure out what you like, and get settled into Portland. There’s plenty of time to push yourself academically.

Tally Levitz B I O C H E M I S T R Y Hometown: Wayland, Massachusetts Adviser: Prof. Arthur Glasfeld [chemistry 1989–] Thesis: “A Biochemical Characterization of BosR, the Borrelia burgdorferi Oxidative Stress Sensor” What it’s about: BosR is a protein found in Borrelia burgdorferi (the bacterium that causes Lyme disease) that is thought to protect the bacteria from the mammalian immune system. I’m trying to figure out how this happens by looking at the way BosR interacts with DNA and various metals.

What it’s really about: Finding ways to measure things that we can’t see. (Or: How many treats it takes to befriend my thesis adviser’s dog.)

Who I was when I got to Reed: I had lots of intellectual energy and passion but little direction on how and where to apply that energy. I was excited about doing science and attending Reed.

Influential book: While leading my first orientation trip at Reed I received The Earth Speaks, a collection of quotes, poems and tales. It’s accompanied me on every backpacking trip and outdoor adventure since then.

Favorite spot: There is a waterfall in the canyon that is the perfect place to sit and collect your thoughts. You can watch crayfish in the pools, and in the mornings the light is almost magical.

Random thoughts: I’m kind of a regular at professors’ offices.

You can ask, “How am I doing?” or say, “I’m really struggling with this.” And they’ll say, “Yeah, I can tell,” or “Yes, and everyone else is struggling too. This class is hard.” Feedback from professors is more valuable than getting a grade. I know what I’ve gained from a class personally and academically.

Cool stuff I did: I learned to juggle, became a wilderness first responder, camped and skied on the rim of Crater Lake with the Gray Fund, and won an award from the School for Field Studies for research I did on a stream ecosystem while studying abroad in Kenya.

How Reed changed me: Reed challenged my beliefs but simultaneously taught me ways of thinking that allowed me to come to my own conclusions.

Doing anything in academics or science is a collaborative process. Excelling is useful, but on your own it is not possible because everything you’re doing is because of other people’s research or work.

What I would tell prospies: Go on as many Gray Fund trips as possible, and if you are committed to an idea, approach people at Reed and ask, “How can I make this happen?” until it does. Few things at Reed are impossible if you are committed to doing the work required to make it happen.

What’s next: Tutoring at Reed impacted both my sense of identity and my future plans.

After teaching science in Malawi with the Peace Corps for two years, I’ll either go to veterinary school or pursue a PhD in biochemistry.

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John Iselin E C O N O M I C S Hometown: Brooklyn, New York Adviser: Prof. Noelwah Netusil [economics 1990–] Thesis: “Renewable Portfolio Standards: Examining the Effect of State Policy on Renewable Electrical Capacity” What it’s about: A renewable portfolio standard is a policy that requires that a state produce a specific percentage of its electrical generation from renewable sources. Using data from all 50 states over the course of 22 years, I’m looking at whether the policy actually changed the amount of renewable generation in a state.

What it’s really about: Are states using the right policy to encourage renewable energy generation?

Who I was when I got to Reed: I was an exceedingly energetic policy geek and my freshman year was full of discovery. I came out as gay, jumped into a lot of organizations, went to a lot of the senate meetings, helped run the Queer Alliance, and took a lot of really wonderful classes.

Favorite class: In Theory and Practice of Econometrics, Prof.

Jeff Parker [economics 1988–] taught me an invaluable part of economics that I used to write my thesis, and we got cinnamon rolls with every exam.

Favorite spot: I spent many great and stressful hours talking to fellow students and econ professors in the lounge on the second floor of Vollum.

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Random thoughts: I loved having a voice and being involved with my community. I served on the appeals board, where students appeal decisions made by the judicial board. The cases were extraordinarily serious, but I got to work with some of the best students and faculty at the school, discussing, deliberating and logically thinking through different arguments. In some ways, it was the best conference I had at Reed.

Cool stuff I did: I represented Reed at a conference on international affairs at West Point, tutored budding economists, and worked in Washington, D.C., during a summer with three other Reed students. I also served on the student senate, and was a part of strageic planning and Queer Alliance.

How Reed changed me: I started to understand what types of problems I was interested in, and how to actually approach these problems.

What’s next: I will be working as a research assistant at the Urban–Brookings Tax Policy Center with some truly phenomenal economists.

What I would tell prospies: I wanted a challenging education, which that started off very structured and ended with a large degree of autonomy to pursue questions I thought were interesting, and that is what I got! Just remember, don't be afraid to talk to professors at all.

There is a reason we go by first names at Reed.

Heather Hambley C L A S S I C S Hometown: Albany, Oregon Adviser: Prof. Jessica Seidman [classics 2013–] Thesis: “Gender- and GenreBending in Ovid’s Heroides 16 and 17” What it’s about: Ovid experiments in the margins of traditional, male-dominated epic mythology, and crafts a fictional epistolary exchange between the lovers Paris and Helen of Troy to subvert stereotypical gender norms.

What it's really about: Ovid writes fan fiction.

Favorite class: In Gender and Theatre, we studied Takarazuka (the all-female Japanese musical troupe) one day and RuPaul’s Drag Race another. Prof. Kate Bredeson [theatre 2009–] has done an amazing job of facilitating an experience that is inclusive.

Favorite spot: I love how I can just walk by the classics professors’ offices, stick my head in the door, and chat. The professors here are so accessible.

Cool stuff I did: Developed a data management system for community safety, backpacked in the Olympic Peninsula, taught a summer art class to ninth graders, tutored writing for Humanities in Perspective (a collaboration between Oregon Humanities and Reed that holds a free humanities class for adults living on low incomes), started attending Quaker meetings.

Who I was when I got to Reed: I came from a small, evangelical high school that praised people for being bubbly, outgoing, and sweet. I internalized this model, making small the parts of me that craved quiet and reflection, things that I needed to honestly connect with those around me. Coming to Reed, I looked forward to freely exploring these parts I found most meaningful: silence and resting and listening.

How Reed changed me: I used to either completely reject other people’s ideas or completely conform to them. Reed has taught me to negotiate these extremes, and how to collaborate and to trust myself.

Financial aid: I had tons of financial aid, including workstudy, a Pell grant, a Reed grant, an Oregon Opportunity grant, etc. I would not be here without the generosity of Reed.

What I would tell prospies: You actually begin learning when you become practiced in saying, “I don’t know” without fear. At Reed we say, “I don’t know, but I want to,” which takes it to the next step.

What’s next: Teaching Latin at a local high school.

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Emma Mclean-Riggs S O C I O L O G Y Hometown: Seattle, Washington Adviser: Prof. Alexandra Hrycak [sociology 1998–] Thesis: “Just a Piece of Paper?

An Examination of Restraining Order Hearings in Multnomah County, Oregon” What it’s about: An ethnographic study of Multnomah County Domestic Violence Court’s FAPA [Family Abuse Prevention Act] order hearings (more commonly known as restraining orders). I examine how judges respond to the court’s expectation that they combine their legal work with other kinds of intervention and how those responses affect their treatment of petitioners.

What it’s really about: For marginalized women, the feminist legal revolution has been partial, at best.

Who I was when I got to Reed: I held my high school’s official record for most absences while still receiving a diploma. A strident, pierced, self-identified loser with an infamously big mouth, I made out like I never read for class, but really would if it was interesting.

Influential professor: Prof.

Kjersten Whittington [sociology 2007–] has completely changed the way I think. She was the first person to tell me that my fear of numbers was ridiculous and backed that up by throwing them at me (not literally).

Favorite spot: The new pit in the library feels like the center of the academic energy on campus.

Cool stuff I did: I volunteered as a rape victim advocate for the county DA’s office, mentored a nine-year-old girl experiencing mental illness, started a LBTQ women’s discussion group, served on search committees and the sexual misconduct board, and cochaired the judicial board.

Random thoughts: Hum 110 totally transformed the way I write. I have a big vocabulary, but my writing was lazy, flowery. Prof. Nigel Nicholson [classics 1995-] was not having it. He returned a paper to me with every single adjective crossed out in red pen. “Don’t write like that,” he said. “Just say what you mean.”

How Reed changed me: All of a sudden it wasn’t dorky to care anymore; it didn’t make you a loser. I become less defensive, less afraid, less closeted, and braver— willing to take risks intellectually and personally. Reed transformed me from a troublemaker to a critical thinker.

Scholarships and awards: The financial aid office was great about saying, “Breathe, everything will be fine.” I received Reed grants, the Forrest and Patricia McGrath Scholarship, the Betty Gray Memorial Scholarship, the Edward H. Cooley Scholarship, and the McGill Lawrence Internship Award, which paid me to work at a domestic violence shelter.

What I would tell prospies: The ideal Reedie is uninterested in conventional metrics of success.

If having a perfect GPA and a sense that you are confident, smart, and together all the time is important to you, Reed is not going to be that. But if you want to work hard, make change, and raise hell, Reed is the best training ground I can imagine.

You will find your people, surround yourself with them, and it will be worth it.

What’s next: I’m going to law school at UC Berkeley to become a domestic violence attorney.

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Wendell Britt C H I N E S E Hometown: Wichita, Kansas Adviser: Prof. Alexei Ditter [Chinese 2006–] Thesis: “The Dystopian Present: Recontextualizing Yu Hua’s 1980s Fiction” What it’s about: I focused on the works of Yu Hua, a writer from the Chinese avantgarde literary movement. By looking through a dystopian lens at four of Yu Hua’s short stories from the late 1980s, I hypothesized that it is possible to read decidedly more political critique/commentary into what was otherwise considered to be merely literary experimentation.

The Communist Party had banned the speculative fiction genre as a societal pollutant, but it was never a hard and fast law.

What it’s really about: Writing a sci-fi thesis on works from a culture where sci-fi is banned.

Who I was when I got to Reed: Introverted and interested in doing only my own thing, I wasn’t motivated to learn things I hadn’t already decided were worthwhile. But the thing that jumped out at me about Reed was that it was fulfilling the promise of intellectual engagement on one’s own terms.

Favorite class: Post-Mao Literature and Film not only solidified my decision to be a Chinese major, but also inspired my thesis.

Cool stuff I did: I studied in China for six months, learned how to blues dance, led the Picters at Renn Fayre, and taught a class on Star Wars three years in a row at Paideia. I also led the Herodotones a cappella group, and was an admission tour guide.

Favorite spot: The canyon underneath the (former) Theatre Building, and the Performing Arts Building terrace.

Random thoughts: Due to a registration error I signed up for a 300-level Chinese literature class the second quarter of my freshman year. It was one of the hardest classes I took. There are those moments where people say, “Why are you doing that major? It seems really hard.” You answer, “Yeah, it’s really hard, but I love it.”

How Reed changed me: Some days, when I ran the numbers, it seemed impossible to finish the amount of work I had in the available time. I always finished, though, and learned that a little bit of hustle goes a long way in getting stuff done. Reed pushed me beyond what I ever thought possible of achieving.

What I would tell prospies: This place literally throws experiences (and the funding to seek out those experiences) at you if you lift your head up from a book long enough to take advantage of them.

What’s next: I’m currently working as a customer experience specialist at Airbnb in downtown Portland.

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Audrey Augenbraum I N T E R N AT I O N A L C O M PA R AT I V E P O L I C Y S T U D I E S Hometown: New York City Adviser: Prof. Douglas Fix [history 1990–] Thesis: “Strait to Hell, Boys: Obstacles to Cooperation in Combating Maritime Piracy in Indonesian Waters, 1945–2009” What it’s about: Statistically Indonesia has had the world’s most pirate-prone waters, but refused to engage in cooperative policies with other countries that border the Malacca Strait, where half the supply of the world’s energy passes. Many of these pirates distribute their booty to coastal villages to help build things like mosques and footbridges. Piracy is a challenge to globalization in the area, which has been happening since the 5th century, depending on how you look at it.

What it’s really about: A lot of pirates are probably naval officers.

Influential music: Somebody played Debussy’s La Mer at a master class a few years ago, and I fell in love with it.

Favorite spot: There are two benches in the canyon. One by the orchard overlooks this cool little ravine, and the other, adjacent to the amphitheatre, looks out over the blue bridge.

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Random Thoughts: As a prospie, I sat in on four Reed classes and realized, “What goes on in the classroom here is clearly very different from what goes on in the classroom elsewhere.” At Reed—within reason—the students lead the discussion, talk about the material, and learn to form opinions about it.

Cool stuff I did: I studied abroad in Spain and it made me realize how unique Reed is. You forget that outside, everybody isn’t this interesting and motivated. I also sang with a country band called Thousand Dollar Bill.

How Reed changed me: As a history major I learned not to make judgments about what happened in the past. Instead you ask, “Why did that happen when it did?” It’s a Zen way to look backward. Things happen because of the context of a particular time period.

Scholarships, awards: I won a McGill Lawrence Internship Award to work for a public health organization in Katmandu, and a Reed grant to do research for my thesis at the International Maritime Organization in London.

Favorite class and why: In Music Theory III, Prof. David Schiff [music 1980–] divided the evolution of harmony up into jazz, the style of Debussy, Ravel, and the French impressionists, and on from there. We analyzed why favorite harmonic moments sounded so cool, and composed short pieces based upon the revelations.

What I would tell prospies: Reed attracts adventurous people. It’s invigorating to be here. Take advantage of all the work that surrounds you.

Experience the things your peers make, play with, and write about. This is some of the best stuff going on anywhere, and if you’re doing it right, you’re always wrestling with huge ideas, theories, and questions that have no answers.

What’s next: Making use of my history major by compiling oral histories for a center called INCITE at Columbia University.

Esmeralda Herrera L I N G U I S T I C S Hometown: The Bronx, New York Adviser: Prof. Lal Zimman [linguistics 2013–14] Thesis: “Racializing Gay Speech, Sexualizing African American English: Style and /t/ Release among Black Gay Men” What it’s about: My thesis investigates how gay speech and African American English may be used together or separately with other linguistic resources in the production of gay black male speech. By examining sexual ideologies, stylistic practices, and identities as interconnected without losing sight of identity’s complexity, I research how young black gay men negotiate the association between blackness and heterosexuality on the one hand and whiteness and homosexuality on the other.

What it’s really about: Not all black folks sound “black”; not all gay folks sound “gay.”

Who I was when I got to Reed: I was a dancer, an actor; a sassy, blunt Latina ready to tackle the injustices of the world. My high school didn’t have computers, a library, or classrooms for every teacher. Only 30 students graduated out of a class of 100. The education gap is also psychological; it stays with you, because you’re always going to be catching up.

Influential professor: Prof.

Kara Becker [linguistics 2010–] was able to meet me where I was and helped me become the student I am today. Her support was strict but warm, seeing potential in me especially when I didn’t have the energy to see it myself.

Favorite works of art: African American artist Kara Walker’s pieces are beautiful, exploring topics of race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity.

Favorite spot: One couch in the student activities office overlooks the canyon. You can open the window, look at the water, and hear nothing but the birds, the heater, and your thoughts.

Random thoughts: Before coming to Reed, I’d never heard the expression “students of color.” Where I came from, we were all people of color.

Sometimes you come upon a person who really needs to learn more. It can be frustrating.

“I shouldn’t be the only one teaching them.” But in this moment, you might be the only person who can.

Cool stuff I did: I studied in China for a year on the Gilman International Scholarship, worked in the costume shop, and went to New Orleans with Reedies to build a house. I volunteered with an organization for homeless youth, stage-managed a production, and began a student group called Latinas De Hoy. How Reed changed me: Reed changed the way I view intelligence. What is it to be educated? What is it to be intelligent? They’re completely different things. And if you’re intelligent, what is it you’re bringing to the table?

Financial aid: Reed gets a lot of love because it makes sure that people who qualify, but need money, are able to get it.

What’s next: I may work for a while and then go to graduate school or the Peace Corps.

What I would tell prospies: Reed has a countless number of resources and opportunities. I’m glad I took advantage of them.

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Torrey Payne M AT H E M AT I C S – E C O N O M I C S Hometown: Charlottesville, Virginia

Favorite class: Econometrics showed me the light.

Advisers: Prof. Jeffrey Parker [economics 1988–] and Prof.

Albert Kim [statistics 2013–]

Favorite spot on campus and why: There’s a workroom in the ETC building where I sit near the window for hours, doing homework and watching basketball on my laptop.

Thesis: “The Economics of New Technology and Wages: Marginal Effects of Two-Point and ThreePoint Shooting in the National Basketball Association” What it’s about: The goal of my thesis was to determine whether three-point shooting was valued in the NBA labor market, and if so, whether it was valued more than two-point shooting. The answer to the first question is “yes,” three-point shooting is positively valued. But, a one-point increase in two-point scoring per game is valued way more than an increase in three-point scoring. I figured they would pay more to players who make three-point shots, because they’re harder. I got NBA salary data per player, per year, and player performance data from Basketball Reference. I took all of the players who signed in a given year, merged that data with their previous season’s performance, and attached advanced statistics to that data set. I realized I could answer a lot of the questions that I’d asked myself when I watched basketball as a kid.

What it’s really about: Shaq or Kobe?!

Who I was when I got to Reed: In high school I went to Brazil for what was supposed to be four weeks, and ended up staying eight weeks. By extending my stay, I had to give up football, which up to that point had been plan A: play college football and go to the NFL. I was this big kid, six foot four, and it made sense for me to play football. But when it came right down to it I didn’t like it at all. I wanted to be smart, educated, an academic.

By staying on in Brazil I was defying expectations and doing what I wanted to do.

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Cool stuff I did or learned at Reed: I learned to play piano, performed stand-up with Reed College Comedy Club, and helped start Men of Color, where those so inclined can get together and hang out.

Obstacles I have overcome: I came in as an ICPS major and didn’t do any math the first year.

After changing to a math–econ major I had to do a lot of catchup with my math course work.

The math department is a very inviting and fun community, which made the work easier.

How Reed changed me: Reed taught me the value of hard work.

Financial aid: Getting financial aid was a critical part of my decision to come to Reed.

What I would tell prospies: People here aren’t afraid to say what’s on their mind and are willing to hear what you have to say in response. By the time you graduate from here you’ll be rewarded for every bit of hard work, every relationship you build, for all the energy and hard work you’ve put into it.

What’s next: Working in Portland at a law firm and saving for a coding bootcamp.

Hoyoung “Jodie” Moon A N T H R O P O L O G Y Hometown: Seoul, Korea Adviser: Prof. Courtney Handman [anthropology 2009-] Thesis: “‘Here, One More Ingyŏ ’: Being a Surplus Human in Contemporary South Korea” What it’s about: Certain young South Koreans have internalized neoliberal notions of productivity and personhood and call themselves useless, failed humans who are mainly just interested in having fun.

What it’s really about: Hesitation as work and desire for recognition of one’s present incoherent presence.

Who I was when I got to Reed: I had a lot of self-doubt stemming from seeing myself through the imagined eyes of others. After years of hopping from school to school, I was hungry to finally find a place where I belonged.

Influential professor: Prof.

Paul Silverstein [anthropology 2000–] taught me there are always multiple realities lived and operating at once.

Favorite spot: I’ve overheard some of the best conversations working behind the circulation desk at the library. The Reed librarians really take care of us and are not recognized enough for that.

Cool stuff: I helped build two new student publications, Homer’s Roamers, a magazine that focuses on Reed students' experiences abroad, and Rogue, a monthly creative arts zine. I tutored for intro anthropology, was twice an InterConnect Mentor, and participated in LASER (Lane After School Education with Reed).

How Reed changed me: It is comfortable to think that I am exceptional and thus my voice can be valued, but I learned that I am not exceptional in any sense. Despite and because of that my voice is valuable.

Financial aid: The ivory tower is not separate from the rest of the world. It would have been impossible for me to attend Reed without the generous financial aid I received. At every crisis I had, Reed came through, and I am grateful to be able to graduate from this school.

What I would tell prospies: My peers’ ability to respectfully engage and confront each other, inside and outside the classroom, was inspiring. Really paying attention to what the other person is saying can be the difference of a second or two, but means you don’t jump to a conclusion about what you think the other person is saying.

What’s next: Doing some translating (literally and metaphorically) in Korea.

Thesis expanded: Young Koreans began calling themselves “surplus humans” after a movie clip showing a father chastising his son went viral. Seething about his son's bad grades, the father tells him if he doesn’t go to college, he’ll be unable to find a job and become “a surplus human.”

Once simply a self-deprecating name for an unemployed person, the term is now also used to claim membership to a numerical majority in a neoliberal, capitalist society. At a personal level, neoliberalism works to make you responsible for your own development as a marketable subject. All your time should be spent in a way that is deemed productive. When my friends and I have leisure time, we say, “I’m being ingyŏ right now,” meaning spending time in a nonproductive or wasteful way.

At the same time, my generation is using “surplus human” as a serious way of saying, “We are losers in this society, where wealth and opportunity only goes to an elite minority. But, at least we are average in our loserdom, so we are going to play."

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Kate Morics M U S I C Hometown: Redlands, California Adviser: Prof. Morgan Luker [music 2010–] Thesis: “An Ethnographic Examination of Ideology in a Nonprofit Music Education Program” What it’s about: I did fieldwork with a new nonprofit that brings music education to underserved schools to close the opportunity gap. My thesis outlines how the program, and specifically the students’ engagement with the music, achieves these goals and proposes new ways of conceptualizing the value and function of music.

Thesis expanded: The debate about music education’s place in the public school curriculum centers on the divide between the vocational and the liberal.

But music straddles both worlds.

It has the intellectual stimulus of a liberal education and the spatial reasoning and technical effects of the vocational.

Nonprofit organizations that transcend the divide focus on using music to teach teamwork, self-respect and self-motivation.

What it’s really about: Why teaching third graders how to play Jingle Bells is a good thing to do.

Who I was when I got to Reed: I was going to be an anthropologist who played violin on the side. I took a music theory class because I thought it would help with my violin playing. The next semester I switched majors.

Influential professor: Prof.

Mark Burford [music 2007–] expects so much of his students, but gives just as much back.

The papers you get back from him are covered in blue ink, and they are always constructive comments. It must take him as long to edit it as it took me to write it.

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Favorite spot on campus: The collective mood on campus changes drastically when the sun comes out. Everyone heads to the Great Lawn with a book and a blanket. It’s just the best.

Cool stuff I did: I had nearly every library job a student can have. I played violin in the Reed Orchestra and in chamber ensembles, and my string trio would occasionally play Beethoven in the middle of commons during lunch.

How Reed changed me: I realized what I actually love doing, and had the freedom to work on projects that actively interested me. I have become a more confident, articulate person.

Financial aid: Reed was pretty generous. It gave me more aid than any other school I applied to.

What I would tell prospies: Reedies are enthusiastic about learning. Most of us were among the smartest in our high schools and then we get here and everybody is brilliant. Your professors are going to expect more out of you and let you know if you’re not giving all that you can. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It took me a while to realize just how many support systems are in place just waiting for us to use.

What’s next: Serving in Houston as an AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools, a nonprofit that works with underserved middle schools.

Jacob Canter P O L I T I C A L S C I E N C E Hometown: San Francisco, California Advisers: Prof. Tamara Metz [poli sci 2006–] and Prof. Darius Rejali [poli sci 1989–] Thesis: “Two Critiques of Standing Doctrine” What it’s about: In federal court, every plaintiff must establish that she has standing to sue. This, however, is a prelegal injury requirement, and thus offers an unconventional framework to consider different methods of judicial review. The thesis evaluates four Supreme Court standing opinions through four general theories of judicial review, and then critiques two of those theories, formalism and Bickelean judicial restraint.

What it’s really about: Why do the judges make the decisions that they do? Why do those decisions sometimes feel really weird?

Who I was when I got to Reed: I was more concerned with appearance than reality. I wanted to be liked and to impress people. I’d like to think that has changed since I’ve come to Reed.

Influential book: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The book forces me to engage with important issues—about responsibility, power, fear, friendship. It's a fantastic journey across continents and one man's great, tumultuous life. It demands respect and awe because it deals with the topics that give life purpose, and could not be written better.

Cool stuff I did: I worked with Prof. Paul Gronke [political science 2001–] on his research about early and absentee voting.

I also did research for Prof.

Darius Rejali on a project called “Changes in Torture Subcultures in Iraq from 1970–2010,” developing a rubric by which we could evaluate government reports about torture. Reed is one of the few places in the country where you can seriously engage with smart, nice people who really want to work with you to do research.

How Reed changed me: Reed forced me to become intellectually serious, to care less about how I appear and more about how I act. I took my academics very seriously. The grade was not the point; it was about doing something I was proud of.

Something I would tell prospies: If you take the Reed education seriously, you’re going to take your life seriously. That doesn’t mean you’re going to find the way to make the most money, but you will be a person who makes decisions that are grounded in thought.

Random thoughts: The Hum 220 texts give you a sense of the way issues came up and why certain ideas matter. Going from Rousseau to Kant to Nietzsche, you see the trajectory, where Freud fits in. These guys are all presenting concepts and their concepts are individually interesting, but it’s cool to see how they change.

What’s next: I’d like to do some more research in political science and apply for law school.

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Reediana Books by Reedies

susan biddle

In Search of the Perfect Loaf: A Home Baker’s Odyssey Samuel Fromartz ’80

viking adult, 2014

Sam Fromartz never planned to write a book about bread. A freelance business writer, he enjoyed baking because it seemed like “the antithesis of writing—my version of chopping wood, crucial to maintaining my sanity amid the daily pressures of work.”

But in 2008, with the economy tanking and the freelance market in freefall, he landed an assignment too tempting to refuse: 10 days apprenticing with a professional Parisian baguette baker.

On returning to his own kitchen in Washington, DC, he was consumed by the desire to replicate those Parisian baguettes. Tinkering with every variable, he made batch after batch until his baguettes were so good that, in a blind tasting judged by professionals, they beat the city’s best artisan bakeries. They also drew the attention of food maven Alice Waters, who recruited him to bake the breads for a $500-a-plate charity dinner.

Sam had long since turned in his profile of the Parisian baguette baker, but his quest for the ideal alchemy of yeast, flour, salt, and water had just begun. He made sourdough starters from figs, wheat bran, 40 Reed magazine september 2014

and sprouted barley. He experimented with whole wheat and rye flours and ground his own buckwheat, barley, and spelt. He visited American wheat farmers who are reviving heritage varieties such as Turkey Red, and went to Berlin to grapple with the intricacies of rye dough. He spent days baking with a French paysanne boulanger (peasant baker) who grows and mills his own organic wheat, in defiance of rules that require farmers to plant only seed sold by agricultural companies.

His curiosity is wide-ranging, ensuring that even non-bakers will learn something of interest as he toggles effortlessly between the behavior of protein molecules and Pliny the Elder’s discourses on fermentation. Primarily, however, he is deeply invested in helping bakers make that perfect, Platonic loaf. He offers nine recipes, from an easy emmer flatbread to a challenging Roggenweizenbrot (ryewheat bread). Nine recipes may not sound like many, but baking can be a multi-day process, and even experienced home bakers will benefit from his stepby-step instructions and hard-won trouble-shooting tips. —ANGIE JABINE ’79

Reaching for the Moon: More Diaries of a Roaring Twenties Teen, by Doris Bailey Murphy ’38 (iUniverse, 2013). Volume two of the Doris Diaries, edited by Doris’ great-niece Julia Park Tracey, covers the years 1927–29. Now 16, Doris is hospitalized, along with her brother Joe, for scarlet fever. She then catches diphtheria and remains in a vulnerable state, without the benefit of antibiotics, during a long and painful recovery. The Bailey family lives briefly in Los Angeles; pursues opportunities in Phoenix, Arizona; and is squarely hit by the Great Depression. Two years behind her friends, due to illness and family transitions, Doris later returns to Portland to complete her education at St. Helens Hall and embraces life on all levels, while forming a path for her future.

Scheherazade: Confessions of a Romance Addict, by Dorothy Nehm Larco ’56 (CreateSpace, 2013).

Dorothy’s second cruise ship romance involves Annette and Drew, who are together aboard ship and in travels in the Mediterranean, but part, unable to settle on a life together. Both have life-changing experiences in the year that follows, but readers will have to discover if the experiences lead them back to one another or keep them apart. Dorothy has also penned three other books, Poems for My Love, Fresh Horizons: A Love Story, and Becoming Cecily: A Cruise, A Romance . . . A Transformation. Her books examine the challenges of personal growth and the realization of one’s dreams. (See Class Notes.)

Degree Mills: The Billion-Dollar Industry That Has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas, by John Bear ’59 (Prometheus, 2014). Every year in the United States, 50,000 fake PhDs are purchased, while only 40,000 PhDs are earned, and now the problem has moved onto the international stage. This updated edition of the book that John coauthored with Allen Ezell, founder and head of the FBI’s “DipScam” diploma mill task force, may serve as a reference book for personnel departments, reporters and investigators, or anyone concerned about the authenticity of a provider’s education. (See Class Notes.)

David Casseres ’65 published his poem “Athena” in Arion magazine (issue 21.3, Winter 2014).

The Hollywood Suites, by Steve Kahn ’66 (Nazraeli Press, 2014). Forty years after photographing the images of rundown Los Angeles apartments while teaching at the California Institute of the Arts, Steve has produced a limited artist book of this

series. Alternately provocative and haunting, the images were featured in solo exhibitions on the West Coast and in Europe during and included in group exhibitions such as Exposing: Photographic Definitions at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art in 1976 and The Altered Photograph at P.S. 1 in New York in 1979. More about his work and book is at www.stevekahn.com.

Deborah Ross Wheeler ’68, who publishes some work under the name Deborah Ross, has served as editor and coeditor of the anthologies Mad Science Café and Across the Spectrum (Book View Café Publishing Cooperative, 2013). Recent books include Collaborators (Dragon Moon Press, 2013). Finalist for the 2014 Lambda Literary Award, Deborah’s story takes place in an alien world, the scene of a cultural clash between those arriving on a spaceship in need of repair and the inhabitants who dwell there. The travelers’ advanced technology upsets the fragile power balance of the culture, which leads to violence and destruction. Those who suffer the deepest loss forge a path to reconciliation. Deborah worked with Marion Zimmer Bradley on several books in the Darkover series, and The Children of Kings: A Darkover Novel (DAW Hardcover, 2013), an action adventure, is part of the modern Darkover series. The Seven-Petaled Shield and Shannivar (DAW, 2013) are book one and two of the Seven-Petaled Shield trilogy, Deborah’s original epic fantasy series. Elemental magic existed before mankind was born, and some of this magic seeped into the world, eventually coalescing into a monstrous entity of Fire and Ice, a threat to all humanity. A legendary king finds the means to stand against this incarnation of chaos: the Seven-Petaled Shield. In book two, readers meet Shannivar, a young warrior woman who dreams of glory and Zevaron, heir to the Seven-Petaled Shield.

An outtake from the book An Insider’s Guide To Publishing, by David Comfort ’71, ran in the Johns Hopkins literary magazine, the Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, June to July 2014 (thedoctortjeckleburgreview.com). “Save a Tree, Burn an Author: A Green History of Writer Recycling” appeared in six weekly installments. “This is a Hum 110/210-inspired account of the exiles, bannings, burnings, and decapitations of great subversives and rabblerousers—Socrates and Cicero through Salman Rushdie,” says David. “Reedies, even math majors, should get a kick out of it.”

Every Night Our Devils Come: Darker Tales, by Thomas Owen ’73 (CreateSpace, 2014). Thomas and fellow writers James Gitschlag and James Sarjent venture into a darker genre with four tales of monsters, heroines, things that go bump in the night, and their victims.

Inspired by Dracula, The Haunting of Hill House, and

Mice take wing in I Wish I Had a Pet by Maggie Rudy ’80.

the Brothers Grimm, the authors asked “what if?” and then conjured up answers that have the potential to entertain, amuse, and even terrify readers of all ages. Books are available from Thomas (writethomas49@gmail.com) or Amazon.

(See Class Notes.)

Happy Hour: Stories, by Alison Baker (Rilling) ’75 (Tickenoak Publications, 2014). Alison’s third collection of stories—“quirky and heart-breaking”—encompass individuals in midlife, in search for connection “in a world they never expected to inhabit.” The stories are told with her trademark humor and compassion “for the eccentric ways of the human heart” as they examine timeless issues of love and death, inevitable loss, and unexpected joy. Alison is the author of Loving Wanda Beaver and How I Came West, and Why I Stayed, both New York Times notable books of the year.

I Wish I Had a Pet, by Maggie Rudy ’80 (Beach Lane Books, 2014). An original story, accompanied by delightfully detailed scenes created by Maggie in her Mouseland studio, I Wish I Had a Pet is

designed for children 4–8 but will please all readers with its warm humor, elegant layout, and clear typography. “An extraordinary picture book that’s truly like no other!” says one reviewer. Maggie’s handmade mice consider the issues involved in choosing and caring for a pet in light of the creatures they yearn to own. Animation has made its way into Mouseland, and a trailer for the book, narrated by Maggie’s nephew, along with her beautiful and charming posts—some also animated—are at MousesHouses (mouseshouses. blogspot.com). Maggie’s work was recently featured in a U.K. publication, the Dolls’ House Magazine, issue 187.

The Complete Guide to Writing Questionnaires: How to Get Better Information for Better Decisions, by David Harris ’84 (I&M Press, 2014). Writing questionnaires is arguably one of the most challenging forms of writing. It is, in a sense, a conversation between you and hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of diverse respondents.

The conversation may take 15, 30, or even 45 minutes. Every single question has to be written so that each of these diverse respondents understands each question exactly the same way, can recall the information you are asking about, will answer without bias, and is willing to answer each question accurately. Unlike a live conversation, however, you are not there to clarify ambiguities. The challenge is daunting! David decided to write this book because until now there has been no comprehensive, userfriendly guide on how to write questionnaires— essential work, because survey research shapes our understanding of the world and is used to guide key decisions for organizations and society. The Complete Guide begins with a discussion of how most applied research is conducted with some larger purpose in mind. Defining the decisions that september 2014 Reed magazine 41

Reediana the study will support is critical. The book then offers a discussion of the importance of doing qualitative research before writing the questionnaire.

Quite simply, you don’t know what to ask or how to ask it until you have talked to people. On a deeper level, to develop a thorough understanding of a topic, you need the insights that only qualitative research can provide. The book also outlines the importance of planning the questionnaire before writing questions. This includes determining the information needed before actually writing questions.

Additionally, there is a framework of guidelines on how to write questions—more specifically, guidelines on how to make questions clear, answerable, easy, and unbiased. There are also guidelines on how to ask respondents to select items from a list, rate things on a scale, and answer open-ended questions. Finally, this book offers a thorough review of how to properly pre-test a questionnaire—what academics call cognitive interviewing.

This book is, in a sense, pulling the fire alarm on questionnaire design. Slight changes in how questions are worded have a significant impact on the results. If the questionnaire is too long, is too difficult, or asks questions that do not make sense to respondents, they drop out or just make up answers without much effort. The vast majority of questionnaires the author has seen over the years have questions that are biased, scales that are unbalanced, concepts that are unclear, questions that are double barreled, words and phrases that respondents don’t use, and the list goes on and on.

How good is the data, really? To what extent are we forming inaccurate views of the subject matter and making unwise decisions? Although he wrote the book to help people write better questionnaires, David’s ultimate purpose is the same as the underlying purpose of most questionnaires: to help people get better information for better decision making.

From the Bottom Up: How Small Power Producers and Mini-Grids Can Deliver Electricity and Renewable Energy in Africa, by Chris Greacen ’91, coauthor (World Bank, Directions in Development Series, 2014).

Most sub-Saharan African countries try to promote rural electrification through both centralized and decentralized approaches. This guide focuses on the decentralized approach, providing practical guidance on how small power producers and minigrid operators can deliver both electrification and renewable energy in rural areas. It describes four basic types of on- and off-grid small power producers, as well as several hybrid combinations that are emerging in Africa and elsewhere. The guide highlights the ground-level regulatory and policy questions that must be answered by electricity regulators, rural energy agencies, and ministries to promote commercially sustainable investments by private operators and community organizations.

Chris also cowrote a publication of Lawrence

42 Reed magazine september 2014

Berkeley Laboratories, A Guidebook on Grid Interconnection and Islanded Operation of Mini-Grid Power Systems Up to 200 kW, in 2013. “The context was helping the Bhutan Power Corporation figure out how to interconnect a couple formerly isolated community-scale hydropower projects that were now within striking distance of the Bhutanese grid.

Unfortunately I did not manage to get a trip to Bhutan out of the gig.” (See Class Notes.)

Prague: ARTEˇL Style, by Karen Feldman with Scott Ross ’93 (Artel Press, 2013). Named “Best Travel Guidebook” by the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards, the newly updated and expanded edition of Prague: ARTEˇL Style fills an important niche in the tour book market by focusing on the kind of local insider information that adventurous travelers seek. American author Karen Feldman moved to Prague in 1994 and launched ARTĚL, the globally renowned producer of luxury crystal couture, in 1998. In nearly two decades, she has sought out the city’s best hotels, spas, shops, restaurants, bars, and theatres, as well as other fun spots that are typically overlooked in other guidebooks. The new edition has improved maps, a new guide to Czech beer and local pubs (researched and written by Scott), and lots of cross-referenced information to make the book as practical and user-friendly as possible.

(See Class Notes.)

Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea,

by Alex Golub ’95 (Duke University Press, 2014). Hailed as a “breakthrough book, a tour de force of the sort that comes along only rarely,” Leviathans at the Gold Mine is an ethnographic account of the relationship between the Ipili, an indigenous group in Papua New Guinea, and the large international gold mine operating on their land. Alex examines how the mine and the Ipili were brought into being in relation to one another, and how certain individuals were authorized to speak for the mine and others to speak for the Ipili. A unique conjuncture of personal relationships and political circumstances created a propitious moment during which the dynamic and fluid nature of Ipili culture could be used to full advantage. The Ipili now struggle with the extreme social dislocation brought about by the massive influx of migrants and money into their valley. Alex is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa and cofounder of the anthropology blog Savage Minds (savageminds.org).

The short story “God,” by Ben Nugent ’99, which appeared in the Paris Review issue 206, was selected for inclusion in the Best American Short Stories of 2014, set to publish in October.

Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction: Environment and Affect, by Heather Houser ’01 (Columbia University Press, 2014). In this work of environmental literary criticism, Heather demonstrates that a new literature of sickness has emerged since the ’70s.

“Ecosickness fiction,” she argues, uses emotions like wonder and disgust to bring audiences to environmental consciousness through the ill and medicalized body. The book examines U.S. novels and memoirs by Jan Zita Grover, Marge Piercy, Richard Powers, Leslie Marmon Silko, David Foster Wallace, and David Wojnarowicz. (See Class Notes.)

Split, by Cathy Linh Che ’02 (Alice James Books, 2014).

Winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, Split is Cathy’s first publication.

The poetry in this collection follows her personal account of sexual violence against the backdrop of cultural conflict, deftly illustrated through her parents’ experiences of the Vietnam War, immigration, and its aftermath. “By looking closely at landscape and psyche, Split explores what happens when deep trauma occurs and seeks to understand what it means to finally become whole.” Her poetry is described as heartbreaking and stunning, expressed through an exquisite voice. Cathy earned an MFA in creative writing from New York University and is founding editor of the online literary arts journal Paperbag.

The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Presentations and Perceptions of Information Work, by Miriam Rigby ’02 and Nicole Pagowsky, coeditors (Association of College & Research Libraries Press, June 2014). Miriam’s new book addresses librarian stereotypes and the identity politics of the profession. Miriam and Nicole coauthored the first chapter, which is available, open access, via ACRL Press (pdf: bit.ly/libstereo). Erin Pappas ’02 authored a chapter in the volume, “Between Barbarism and Civilization: Librarians, Tattoos, and Social

Imaginaries.” The Librarian Stereotype serves as a response to passionate discussions regarding how librarians are perceived. The book reignites an examination of librarian presentation within the field and in the public eye, employing theories and methodologies from throughout the social sciences.

Miriam states, “The ultimate goal of this volume is to launch productive discourse and inspire action in order to further the positive impact of the information professions. Through deconstructing the perceived truths of our profession and employing a critical eye, we can work towards improved status, increased diversity, and greater acceptance of each other.” The book may be ordered through the ACRL Press and at the American Library Association bookstore, www.alastore.ala.org. (See Class Notes.)

Unruly Women: Performance, Penitence, and Punishment in Early Modern Spain, by Margaret E. Boyle ’05 (University of Toronto Press, 2014). In the first in-depth study of the interconnected relationships among public theatre, custodial institutions, and women in early modern Spain, Margaret explores the contradictory practices of rehabilitation enacted by women both on and off stage. Pairing historical narratives and archival records with canonical and noncanonical theatrical representations of women’s deviance and rehabilitation, Unruly Women argues that women’s performances of penitence and punishment should be considered a significant factor in early modern Spanish life. In “Behind the Book with Margaret E. Boyle,” an interview published in the Toronto Press site at utpblog.utpress .utoronto.ca, Margaret says she became engaged with early modern Spanish literature at Reed, in “close-knit and engaging seminar classes,” which allowed her to deeply explore the period’s culture and theatre. Margaret is a big believer in the transformative experience of the small liberal arts college, she says, and brings that experience into focus in the personalized learning opportunities she provides her students at Bowdoin College.

Criptiques, by Caitlin Wood ’05, editor (May Day, 2014).

Criptiques is a groundbreaking book of essays by authors exploring the often overlooked, provocative sides of disability. While there’s a dynamic and thriving disability arts culture, there remains a lack of literature devoted to spotlighting the many voices of the disabled community. The anthology seeks to help rectify this problem by providing the much needed space for compelling, thought-provoking discourse on disability. The book explores provocative ideas around culture, identity, and marginalization in essays by 25 authors, including Robin Tovey ’97. (See Class Notes.)

D E E R

ith w l e v Tr a

4 and beyond in 201

"The tour was like a rolling Hum conference by day, a late night bull session at the Lutz by night. In other words, just the perfect Reedie outing." ―John Sheehy ’82

D C ∙ New Orleans Curaçao ∙ Normandy ∙ Greece ∙ P uerto Rico Check out our alumni travel opportunities at www.reed.edu/alumni/travel

In Memoriam The Abominable “No” Man Emeritus trustee Richard P. “Dick” Wollenberg died at his home in Longview, Washington on July 2. He was 98.

“The Reed College community lost a great friend and benefactor,” said President John Kroger.

“Through his generosity and leadership, he helped build the college into what it is today.”

Wollenberg served four decades on the Reed College board of trustees (1962–2005), including nine years as board chairman (1982–91).

He also chaired the board’s budget policy committee from its inception in 1992 until 2004.

Projects launched with his support include the establishment of the president’s discretionary fund, the endowment of a professorship in economics in honor of Prof. George Hay [economics 1956–83], and the completion of several major science facilities projects.

Wollenberg’s influence ran deeper than any particular project, however. When he joined the board in 1962 the endowment was practically nonexistent. By 1972, it had reached $3 million, and by the time he left the board in 2005, the endowment was valued at $350 million. Today it is $538 million.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that without his involvement, leadership, and generosity, Reed College might not have survived,” says former President Steven Koblik [1992–2001].

“Dick Wollenberg deserves to stand in the first rank of individuals whom the College honors.”

Born in 1915 in Juneau, Alaska, Wollenberg studied engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and received an MBA from Harvard in 1938. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force as a lieutenant colonel during World War II. His name became synonymous with Longview Fibre, the company his father H.L. Wollenberg cofounded in 1926. Dick took the reins nearly 40 years after he began working at the company, becoming CEO and chairman of the board.

Emeritus trustee Stephen McCarthy ’66, founder of Clear Creek Distillery, recalls traveling to the facility in Longview to get advice from Wollenberg when they were on the board together.

“It was like driving into industrial Liège, Belgium, in 1930,” McCarthy says. “It was a huge factory; Dick said it was the largest pulp mill in the world under one roof. We ate lunch in the cafeteria with the people who worked at the mill.

When you went to lunch with Dick Wollenberg you got in line at the cafeteria, went through the line, paid $1.15 for your lunch, and sat down with him at a table to have your conversation.

He was a very real guy, very smart and charming 54 Reed magazine september 2014

personally. But if you had some topic to discuss with him, you’d better have done your homework.”

Wollenberg was one of a handful of successful young businessmen and entrepreneurs whom President Richard Sullivan [1956–67] selected to serve on the board because they understood how to make decisions and strategize.

“Reed got the best years of an unusually talented group of people like Dick Wollenberg, Ed Cooley, and John Gray,” McCarthy says. “Sullivan had a magic touch in picking people who would grow to dominate the state economically.”

For his first trustee meeting, Wollenberg came to campus a day early, attending classes in economics, science, and math—all areas he knew something about. “I wanted to get a feel for the place,” Wollenberg said of the institution he would come to call “one of the premiere intellectual institutions in the United States.”

“He was a terrific force for long-run financial stability at a time when Reed didn’t have much to work with,” McCarthy says of the man who often referred to himself as “the abominable ‘no’ man.” He was the one who often said, “No, we can’t do this. We can’t afford it. How are you going to pay for it?’” McCarthy remembers.

Politically conservative, Wollenberg liked to quote Disraeli: “If a young man isn’t a liberal, I’d have his heart examined, and if after he matured he still was a liberal, I’d have his head examined.”

He described himself as a fiscal conservative, but

still very much a libertarian with a strong belief in freedom of choice, and saw no contradiction in his support for Reed.

“Academically Reed is very conservative,” says his son, Rick Wollenberg ’75, former president, CEO, and chairman of the board of Longview Fibre, and a Reed trustee since 1997. “He believed in people learning to think critically, which is what Reed is all about.”

Trustee Peggy Hill Noto ’75, whose term on the board overlapped with Wollenberg’s, singles out his determination that the board maintain its oversight role without getting involved in the day-to-day business of the college, leaving the president and other administrators to do their job.

“He was a big-picture guy,” she says, “and a true believer in the liberal arts, educating people to be creative thinkers and analysts, which he saw as valuable in the business world.”

A strong supporter of Reed’s mission, Wollenberg felt it was important that the Pacific Northwest have an institution of Reed’s caliber.

“Dick believed in higher education, and the higher quality the better,” says McCarthy. “He liked Reed’s independence, the freedom to make inquiry, but he also liked its rigor. Whether it was history or physics, it was extremely rigorous, very demanding, and rather classical. He saw that it represented excellence.”

Reed has welcomed opportunities to celebrate Wollenberg and his wife Lee. In 1998, Reed

recognized Wollenberg’s long service and generous support for the college and lifelong love for music by establishing the R.P. Wollenberg Chair in Music, a position now occupied by the prominent composer and professor David Schiff [music 1980–].

“You think of the conservative businessman,” says Noto, “yet Dick played musical instruments and his whole family played in the Longview orchestra. There was a side of him that really appreciated culture, and particularly music.”

A resolution in 2005 honored Wollenberg’s extraordinary generosity and service to Reed’s board of trustees, noting: “It is difficult to overstate the importance of Dick’s role in Reed’s

accomplishments over the last four decades.

Certainly, the college’s current financial stability grew from his fiscal leadership and his and his wife Lee’s magnanimous philanthropy.” In 2006, the board approved a recommendation from the faculty for conferral of an honorary degree from Reed, a rare occurrence.

One of the most influential area business leaders and philanthropists of his generation, along with his late wife, Lee, Wollenberg donated generously to local nonprofit and public service groups and to local schools.

Over the years the Wollenbergs gave nearly $22 million to Reed, most of it without

designation in keeping with his philosophy against “micromanagement.”

“When you’re giving your time or your money you say, ‘What’s the best thing I can do for society?’” Wollenberg said. “The future of America is dependent on getting the best people to contribute to society, and Reed has a tremendous reputation for preparing individuals who go on to make notable contributions in many fields.

Reed College is important, and so I give it a lot of time and attention and support.”

Survivors include his daughter Carol and sons Rick, David, and Keith. His son Ken passed away in 2005. —RANDALL S. BARTON

Poet of Ordinary Mysteries robert miller

Vern Rutsala ’56, a major, if underrecognized, American poet, died in Portland on April 2, at the age of 80. His books were widely praised, and his penultimate collection The Moment’s Equation was a finalist for the National Book Award, but his many honors were ultimately unequal to his accomplishments.

Having lived all his life in the Pacific Northwest—far from the publishing centers and reputation mills of the East Coast—Vern made a virtue of obscurity. Working at a constant rate, and opening veins of rich, dark ore, his subjects were the daily weather of our lives, the small victories and defeats of mislabeled “common folk.”

Born in Idaho in 1934, he moved with his family to Oregon when his father lost his farm to the Great Depression. After a brief time in California, they lived in Vanport, among other places, before settling in Milwaukie, where Vern was quarterback and captain of the football team . . . an experience, he held, more instructive for a poet learning his craft than literary theory. Upon graduating, he spent a year at Portland State University before transferring to Reed, where he met Joan Colby ’55, his future wife from whom he was inseparable for half a century. They raised three children: Matthew ’83; David, a writer and cinematographer; and Kirsten, a professor of Russian literature.

At Reed, he was taught and encouraged by poet Prof. Kenneth Hanson [English 1954–86], with whom he wrote a creative thesis. After serving in the army, he did an MFA in the glory days of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where among his contemporaries were Lawson Inada and Michael Harper and where he was taught by, among others, Donald Justice, who said of his work: “There is one way in particular in which Vern Rutsala could and in my view should be an example to us all, an example of how to put to maximum use the simplest things in our lives.”

He then taught at the University of Minnesota in the company of John Berryman.

After short stints at Bowling Green State

Vern Rutsala - Poet, 1986

University and the University of Redlands, he returned to Portland to join the English department at Lewis & Clark College, where he remained for the rest of his career. He served as a visiting writer at Reed in 1992–93, 1999– 2000, and 2006–07, and retired in 2004 after 45 years of teaching.

From his first book, The Window (Wesleyan University Press, 1964), he established his voice and subject matter as in these two stanzas, the first and last of “Sunday”:

Up early while everyone sleeps I wander through the house, pondering the eloquence of vacant furniture, listening to birdsong peeling the cover off the day. ....................

O fat god of Sunday and chocolate bars, watcher over picnics and visits to the zoo, will anyone wake up today?

september 2014 Reed magazine 55

The lines combine the sublime and the ridiculous of the midcentury American quotidian with a kind of slapstick wisdom, taking things as they come, not too seriously, but in dead earnest.

A man with great heart and great compassion, Vern also knew the bitterness of disappointment at the seemingly endless follies of our government’s foreign and domestic policies. Whenever there was a reading or a benefit for some good cause, Vern could always be counted on. Having come from a working class Finnish/Irish background, he never forgot that marginalization was his native ground, and he stood with and for anyone who shared it.

I had the honor of reading with Vern many times, including his last reading on the occasion of a celebration of his 80th year sponsored by the Mountain Writers Series at the 2014 conference of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs in Seattle. He was well and glowing in his new prophet’s beard, and read with the strength and conviction that he always brought to the most elevated or the humblest audience.

A mere two weeks later I got the call from Joan that he had died. It still seems impossible that so vital a voice will not be heard again outside the pages of his books.

As R.D. Spector wrote of his work in Saturday Review: “For all the casual language, there is a precision of metaphor; for all the quietness, a moving force, and for all the commonplace experiences, a genuine significance . . . Rutsala is a poet of the very real world . . . It is not merely authenticity but understanding and wisdom that speak out.”

I am obviously a fan, not to say a fanatic.

We were old friends; the Rutsalas stood up for me and my wife, Prof. Lisa Steinman [English 1976–], at our wedding. We met frequently for dinner, drinks, and conversation at some of the dingier watering holes in southeast Portland. I believe I can say with some objectivity that Vern’s posthumous reputation will grow, just as his talent and craft grew from book to book, culminating in The Long Haul, due to be published by the excellent Carnegie Mellon University Press in 2015, from which the following poem is taken: “Sorry Roads” Their sorrow is something like buyer’s remorse. They chose their paths but now regret it, realizing—too late—they could have gone to the seashore or forests of sweet pines.

But there is one I like, ignored by engineers, looking like the sorriest of them all. It’s off the map in Idaho and rises and falls, goes over rickety bridges, seems almost to lose its way completely but finally staggers into the yard of the old farm one sepia evening, the years peeling back like stripping bark

56 Reed magazine september 2014

from a willow. It’s the time the old man cleared the land for the homestead and hammered the old house together with his bare fists.

Tonight I catch the scent of sawdust, the new siding still white as a stripped willow.

Judge for yourself. —JIM SHUGRUE

Share your memories.

Do you have stories, memories, or photos of departed classmates, professors, or staff that you wish to share? Send ’em along to us at reed.magazine@reed.edu or Reed magazine, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland OR 97202. “In Memoriam” is now online at www.reed.edu/reed_magazine.

Jim is the editor of the literary magazine Hubbub. He was a visiting writer at Reed (1993–94, 1998–99) and was the book buyer at the Reed bookstore.

Harold Alfred Wyatt ’38

March 31, 2014, in Forest Grove, Oregon. He was 101.

Founder and principal owner of Flavorland Foods and a fourthgeneration Oregonian, Harold came to Reed from the east Oregon town of Halfway, where his parents ran the Gray Gables Hotel.

Always industrious and self-reliant, Harold worked at a co-op, at a sawmill, and in a mine to pay his way through Reed. He earned a BA in political science, writing a thesis on the city manager form of government in Hillsboro, Oregon. After graduation, he worked for the Bureau of Municipal Research & Service at the University of Oregon and the League of Oregon Cities, and was acting head for both organizations. He supervised the codification of Portland’s ordinances and was hailed by a city council resolution for “a very beneficial service of lasting benefit to the city of Portland.”

In 1940, Harold married Julia E. Blake, who was a cataloger for the Hauser Library in 1938–40. Two years later, he was drafted into the army and went to Europe, working in the displaced person unit in Germany. He served as a military government commander for several city and county units in Germany, eventually becoming chief of the civil affairs branch for the Office of Military Government WüerttembergBaden, in Stuttgart.

After the war, he remained in Stuttgart, where he was joined by Julia and their daughter, Linda; their son Douglas was born there.

During this time, he traveled extensively, reporting on national and international conferences on military government.

Returning to Oregon in 1951, Harold formed a partnership with Gribner Bros. in Banks to process frozen fruits. He incorporated Banks Frozen Foods, and with local growers purchased the Gribner Bros. operation, Sunset Packing Company in Banks, the Chandler Co. in Tigard, and Pacific Packers in Salem. After building new facilities in Forest Grove, he changed the name of his company to

Flavorland Foods. During the ’70s, Flavorland Foods was the largest employer in Forest Grove and the number one processor of frozen strawberries in the country.

Harold was a prolific author whose books included The DP Question; An Experiment in Reorientation by Military Government in Wüerttemberg-Baden, Germany; Experiences of a Frozen Food Processor OR: Some Agricultural Issues in Washington County 1952–1980; and an autobiography, More than Halfway: A Life Story.

Harold contributed his time to the community as president of the Sunset Chamber of Commerce, director of the Forest Grove Chamber of Commerce, and director and officer of the Oregon Strawberry Council. Governor Tom McCall appointed him to serve two terms on the Oregon Strawberry Commission. Harold also was a director of the Northwest Food Processors Association and a member of the Washington County Planning Commission.

Ever mindful of his roots, Harold established the Harold Alfred Wyatt Scholarship Fund for Baker County high school graduates interested in further education and funded a similar program for Washington County students interested in agriculture. In 2008, in gratitude for the community that supported his career endeavors, he created a scholarship to help first-generation college-bound students continue their education after Forest Grove High School.

Harold enjoyed hunting, fishing, and drifting the wild rivers of Oregon in his drift boat.

He also raised registered quarter horses on his farm for riding and packing in the Wallowa Mountains. Other interests included rock hunting and genealogy. In recent years he spent the winters fishing in Cabo San Lucas in Baja California. He regarded his most important contribution to be the employment of a multitude of young people during summer vacations, providing them an opportunity to work and to earn money for college. His personal philosophy was one of optimism, and he achieved his objectives with confidence and direction. “For him, the glass was always half full, not half empty.” Survivors include his children. Julia, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, died in 2004.

Robert Bailey Scharf ’40 June 25, 2013, at the Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Colorado.

Dusty came to Reed from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He was a member of the Outdoor Club and was elected president of the student body. Among his memories of Reed w a s ro o m i n g w i t h Emilio Pucci MA ’37, we learned from his granddaughter. “He loved to tell the story that, one night, Emilio came back to their room, looked out the window at a full moon, and proclaimed, ‘On nights like tonight, Italians make love.’” (Emilio promptly left the room.) Dusty earned his BA in political science, joined the U.S. Army Flying Cadet Program in 1941, and served with the 232nd Squadron as a fighter pilot in the South Pacific. After the war, he went to Las Animas, Colorado, and opened the Walters and Scharf Motor Company, which later became Scharf’s Auto Body Shop. He was also an air force reservist. Dusty owed his chance meeting of Alma Backum to serving with her brother during the war. Dusty and Alma were married in 1947. Dusty taught mathematics and was a school principal before becoming superintendent of the Las Animas School District. He completed an MA in education administration from Adams State College in Colorado. He also was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and was active in many community organizations. Survivors include his daughter Susie, son Donald, and a granddaughter and grandson. Alma died one month after Dusty’s death.

Millard W. Hastay ’41

March 28, 2014, in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Millard was born in Montana, and, following the untimely death of his mother, he lived in Portland with his father and fraternal grandparents.

Summers, he worked on wheat ranches run by his Montana family. Money was tight, but Millard was offered a scholarship at Reed in return for working as a janitor in the library. Though he was interested in physics, and adept in mathematics, he was unable to pay for lab fees, and turned instead to the social sciences. (Having conversed often with his grandfather about the politics and economics of the time, he had confidence in

pursuing a degree in this field.) After the fall semester of his junior year, Millard withdrew from Reed and got a job as a bridge carpenter on the Southern Pacific Railroad. That fall, he married Helen F. Wheeler ’39, whom he had met in the contemporary society class taught by Prof. George Noble [political science 1922–48]. Assisted by Prof. Blair Stewart [economics 1925–49] and his good friend Don Sutherland ’37, he then found work as a research assistant in the Oregon State Highway Department. He shared an apartment in Salem with Don while Helen lived off campus and continued her studies at Reed. They spent time together on weekends. After Helen got her degree in general literature at Reed, she began teaching English and PE in Halfway, Oregon, while Millard worked with Noble to earn his BA in political science.

Millard’s poor eyesight kept him from military service. Prof. Robert Terrill [economics 1937–44] and Prof. Victor Chittick [English 1921–48] supported his application for a Stanford fellowship in economics in 1941.

Before long, he was teaching statistics to econ majors there. In 1944, he was invited to join the Statistical Research Group at Columbia University—a contract agency engaged in classified research related to the war effort. For 12 years, he worked as a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York, and with Helen’s encouragement, he studied for a PhD in economics at Columbia.

During this time he taught at the Baruch School of the City College of New York. In 1958, he joined the School of Economics and Business at Washington State College (University), where he taught until he retired as professor emeritus in 1981. He also was a fellow of the American Statistical Association. In retirement, the couple lived for a time on Case Inlet of Puget Sound, near Helen’s family—three of whom had attended Reed (Margaret ’26, George ’29, and Donald ’35). Dancing had been a major social activity for them from the time they were at Reed, and they continued to do square and round dancing into their 70s. They also traveled with family, including sons Laird and Drew.

Helen died in 2009. Survivors include their sons and four granddaughters. “No college can train a student for his lifetime career,” Millard wrote.

“All it can do is give him a foundation in knowledge and thought processes that will permit him to grow and adjust. Reed does that job very well.”

Donald Riley Kalkwarf ’47 March 22, 2014, in Richland, Washington.

Donald interrupted his studies at Reed to serve as a combat infantryman in the U.S. Army’s 44th Division in Europe. He returned to the college and earned a BA in chemistry. He also met Carol L. Rider ’46, whom he married in 1949. They went to Illinois, where Donald earned a PhD in physical chemistry from Northwestern University, and then moved to Richland, Washington, where

Donald was a staff scientist for General Electric’s Hanford operation and for Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Laboratory.

His keen enjoyment for the outdoors and mountain climbing cinched the decision to move west. Donald enjoyed photography and played the accordion. He was chairman of the board of trustees for Central United Protestant Church, and president of the Tri-Cities chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Sigma Xi Research Society.

He also was chairman of the fluorescence section of the American Standards and Materials Society. Carol died in 1994. Donald later married her sister Elizabeth, who survives him. He is also survived by his three daughters, one son, and two grandchildren.

Herman Andrew Johansen ’48 September 30, 2013, at home in McMinnville, Oregon.

Andrew grew up in Astoria, Oregon, and came to Reed, where he met Margaret H. K ilb uc k ’44, who became a lithograph and textile artist and a weaver of distinction; they married in 1939.

Andrew left Reed to ser ve with the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Italy during World War II, and returned after the war to complete a BA in chemistry and physics. He then worked at the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Albany, Oregon, and earned an MA in chemistry and a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Oregon. For more than 20 years, he was a research scientist in metallurgy at the Westinghouse Research facilities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, doing groundbreaking work on the isolation of titanium. He retired in 1975 to do farming in McMinnville. Andrew and Marg raised organic blueberries and reforested sections of their farm, which was enrolled in the federal wetlands program for the South Yamhill River. Andrew was politically active until middle age, and maintained interests in mountaine e r i n g , n a t u re c o n s e r v a n c y, b i k i n g , woodworking, and gardening. He also sang and performed in local choirs and theatres. He reported that his education at Reed had been of great importance to his life and career. “The technical competence obtained in the field of chemistry enabled me to follow a lifelong interest in the nature of materials, particularly inorganic chemistry and rare metal metallurgy, and to follow my natural bent for inquiry into all matters of intellectual curiosity.” Survivors september 2014 Reed magazine 57

In Memoriam include three sons and two daughters, including Marta J. Johansen ’78; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. Marg died in 2004. In accordance with Andrew’s lifelong regard for libraries, donations may be offered in his name to the Friends of the McMinnville Public Library.

Lydge Amer Vann ’49

June 9, 2014, in Portland, following a short illness.

Lydge studied at Reed for two years Reed, and earned a degree in business from Lewis & Clark College. He worked for PacifiCorp for 35 years.

He enjoyed fishing, hunting, gardening, and other outdoor activities, and was an adult leader in the Boy Scouts for 20 years. Lydge was born at home in Eastmoreland, and, following his marriage to Jean, he returned to the neighborhood to build a home on the same block; this was his home until his death. Survivors include Jean; their daughters Irene and Carol Sue Vann Harris ’85, who provided this memorial; a son, David; 11 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. His son Brian predeceased him.

Choong Yun Cho ’50

March 16, 2014, in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Choong Yun was born in Seoul, Korea, and came to the U.S. in 1948 to study at Reed with the help of Dr. Owen G. Miller, who was a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps stationed in Seoul at the end of World War II. Choong Yun and Owen met and became friends when Choong Yun interpreted for his village people.

Their friendship grew, especially thanks to Choong Yun’s mother’s superb cooking when Owen visited the Chos. Choong Yun earned a BS degree in chemistry at Seoul National University in 1948 and a BA in chemistry at Reed in 1950. He went on to earn master’s degrees in physics and mathematics and a PhD in mathematics in 1970 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He worked at the U.S. Army Mathematical Research Center, Argonne National Laboratory, Maggs Research Center, the U.S. Army Advanced Materiel Concepts Agency, and the USDA. Survivors include his wife, Nancy, who wrote this memorial; son Eugene; daughter-inlaw Marta; and grandson Matthew.

Stephen Goltra Gilbert ’52 February 21, 2014, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Steve was an art major at Reed, completing his degree in the combined program with the Museum Art School (PNCA) and writing a thesis on woodcarving. His parents, Malcolm Gilbert ’17 and Inez J. Goltra, recognized 58 Reed magazine september 2014

and supported Steve’s innate love of the natural world and his artistic instincts, we read in the obituary prepared

by Dave Mazierski for the University of Toronto, where Steve later taught. During his precollege years, Steve made a happy acquaintance with musical theatre and opera, and many years past that time performed on stage with the Tycho Brahe Players in Albany, Oregon. Following his graduation from Reed, Steve served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and studied medical illustration at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was employed as an illustrator for the University of Washington, but grew frustrated with institutional illustration, we learned, which led to his returning to his family’s farm in Oregon. During the 12 years that followed, he did research, dissection, and illustration for his highly acclaimed laboratory manuals on mammalian anatomy. In 1973, he joined the faculty at the University of Toronto to teach in the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine, remaining at the university for 23 years, and retiring as a full professor. In the early ’70s, Steve studied Japanese tebori, a method of tattooing by hand, and in retirement, he worked as a tattoo artist at Abstract Arts Tattoo in Toronto. His history with the art stretched back to his early years in Portland and a view into a waterfront tattoo parlor. “Tattooing is a kick-ass business,” he reported. “It’s exciting—it gets your adrenaline going, like performing onstage.” His work had a “subtle and dynamic aesthetic vision,” wrote Penny Hummel ’83 in a 2002 feature for Reed, which reviewed his book Tattoo History: A Source Book. Mazierski wrote, “His beautiful tone and pen & ink illustrations, his gentle and caring nature, and his great passion for art, science, and truth will always inspire us to be better illustrators, teachers, and human beings. There will never be another man like him.” Steve is survived by his wife, Cheralea; their children Emily, Genevieve, and Scott; and his children, Ann, David, and Tom.

Seymour Gassner, special postbaccalaureate student in 1952–53

March 26, 2014, following a prolonged illness.

Seymour came to Reed in preparation for medical school, which he attended at Washington University in St. Louis. Completing an MD in 1957, he served for two years in the air force as a general medical officer. He obtained the rank of captain, and then completed an orthopedic residency at UCLA in 1964. Seymour practiced orthopedic surgery in the San Fernando Valley for more than 40 years, and was founding partner of the San Fernando Valley Orthopedic Medical

Group. He enjoyed golf, skiing, travel, and playing bridge. “Seymour leaves a legacy of loving friends and family members who will always remember his kind and gentle spirit, his talent and compassion as a surgeon, his expertise at being a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and as a friend to the many who knew him.” Survivors include his wife, Charmalee, to whom he was married for 59 years; a daughter and two sons, including Gordon ’77; and six grandchildren.

Richard H. Muller ’56

April 20, 2014, in Portland.

Rich came to Reed from Marin County, California, although his family emigrated from Germany. He chose Reed because it offered excellence in education, he told Rory Bowman ’90 in an interview in 2008. “About that time, Reed made the magazines as being the best small liberal arts college in the country, and that did have an impact.” On a freshman orientation trip, he met Mertie Mae Hansen ’56; they were married four months later.

Rich had a longstanding interest in judo and started a judo program at Reed. “We were a powerhouse on the West Coast in competitive judo in the early ’50s.” Teammates included Jack Sadler ’56, Paul Burgess ’56, and Leroy Larson ’55.

Rich taught judo three times a week, ran the summer swim program during summers he was not in military training, and he was appointed a student athletic director, along with Glen Wilcox ’56, in the absence of a college athletic director. Rich earned a BA from Reed in political science, writing on the property tax exemption in Multnomah County. “My thesis professor was a guy named Charles McKinley [political science 1918–60], who was the holy terror of the poli sci department, and it taught me a great deal of humility.” Rich served in the U.S. Marine Corps and earned a JD from the University of Washington.

He clerked for Gus Solomon ’26—“that was real education”—and practiced in small firms until he established his own private practice, specializing in civil rights law. Throughout his career, he maintained a judo practice, and became a sixth degree black belt and counsel for the U.S. Judo Federation. Rich and Mertie had three daughters, including Karla Muller Verbeck ’78, and a son. Karla’s husband, Richard Verbeck ’81, and son, Alex Verbeck ’05, were also Reed graduates. “Whether or not Reed was worth the time and the money spent for the rest of your life?

The answer is, absolutely. Absolutely,” Rich said.

“I know more about what’s going on in the world around me than contemporaries who have gone to other schools. I don’t think I’m any smarter than they are. I just got a better education. And I think I’m a better human being because of that.

To this day, I still want to learn. I still question.

I still like to jab people with ideas to see what happens. And, I don’t know if that makes you socially a nice person, but it’s darned interesting.” Survivors include Mertie, their children, and eight grandchildren.

Richard Muller ’56 and Mertie Hansen Muller ’56

Jeanne Savery Casstevens ’60

L. Arthur Warmoth ’59

April 4, 2014, at home in Rohnert Park, California, from a heart attack.

eric harbeson

Art earned a BA from Reed in theatre and literature, and then went to Brandeis University for graduate work to study with psychologist Abraham Maslow. “This was the period just following the publication of Maslow’s groundbreaking Motivation and Personality,” Art stated. “At that time the use of the terms ‘humanistic’ and ‘existential’ were still being debated, and the idea of the ‘Third Force,’ which Maslow introduced in his 1962 book, Toward a Psychology of Being, was still being formed.” Art also studied with humanistic psychologists James Klee and Ulric Neisser and was named a NIMH predoctoral fellow. He completed a PhD in 1967, writing the dissertation “An Existential-Humanistic Study of Psychological Theories of Myth,” and then joined the psychology department at Sonoma State College, maintaining a focus on humanities and humanistic psychology and serving three times as department chair. He was staff psychologist at Mendocino State Hospital, president and board member of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and cofounder of the Humanistic Psychology Institute (Saybrook University). He also was a visiting professor at Universidad AutÓnoma de la Laguna.

In the memorial for Art in the Press Democrat, we read that he was devoted to his family, a champion for social justice, and was always willing to help others. A colleague at Sonoma State, David Van Nuys, reported that Art possessed an ability to see people and issues within a larger context.

“He championed, supported, mentored people that others wouldn’t, trusting a potential in them that

may not have yet been evident to others.” An advocate for the rights of immigrants, Art served on the boards of the Family Connection (a transition services agency for volunteers mentoring homeless families), the Latino Commission on Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services of Sonoma County, and the Latino Democratic Club. From 2009 until the time of his death, he served as commissioner on the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights. Art and his wife, Georgina A. Emery Gonzalez Warmoth, who married in 1970, raised three children, and journeyed by train throughout the United States. Art also collected and built model trains. He enjoyed theatre and musical performances, including broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. Survivors include Georgina, daughters Monica and Tonantzin, and son Art; grandchildren Liam, Isabel, and Alma; and a sister, Ann, and brother, Edward.

Jeanne Isabel Savery Casstevens ’60 February 21, 2014, in hospice care in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from cancer.

Jeanne was a remarkably successful and prolific author who wrote more than 40 novels and novellas, populated by a dizzying array of pretty widows, brooding marquesses, witty rakes, scheming schoolboys, mischievous noblewomen, blind lords, cross-dressing twins, and the occasional vampire—all published after she turned 50.

Jeanne came to Reed from Iowa, and met her future husband, Thomas W. Casstevens ’59, her freshman year. (Tom confesses to wanting to meet Jeanne after seeing her picture among the incoming freshman photos at the college switchboard.

That they both hailed from Iowa cinched the deal.)

They married after Jeanne’s sophomore year and she left the college with Tom a year later to go to Michigan State University, where she completed a BA in psychology and he earned a doctorate in political science. Tom’s subsequent career was largely at Oakland University in Michigan.

In Jeanne’s words, “Hubby had itchy feet, so the family traveled whenever he found funding.” Jeanne lived across the United States, and in England, Australia, Germany, and India. She traveled about Britain and Europe accumulating material for rigorously researched and historically

Diskin Clay ’60

informed writing. In more recent years, she invariably took her laptop with her.

Jeanne and Tom, who was, as she said, a “wonderfully supportive husband,” had two daughters, Willa J. Casstevens ’82, and Margot L. Casstevens. Both are successful academics. Jeanne took particular joy in nurturing Margot’s professional career as an artist. Jeanne was devoted to her family, and choreographed its travels over the years.

Jeanne said that she began writing in the ’70s, when she stopped being a perpetual student. But it was the work of Georgette Heyer, who defined the genre of the Regency romance, that proved to be the inspiration for her vocation as a writer, Tom recalls.

Jeanne’s first book, The Last of the Winter Roses, was published in 1991 under the name Jeanne Savery and launched an impressive career.

Three of her books, My Lady Housekeeper, The Family Matchmaker, and Taming Lord Renwick, were rated as RT Book Review Top Picks. She won the Reader’s Choice Award and the HOLT Medallion. Several of her novels were translated into other languages, including Portuguese, German, Hebrew, and Korean.

When oral cancer led to a tracheotomy in 2013, Jeanne continued to jot down ideas and scenes in the notebooks she used to communicate with her nurses.

Jeanne’s complete works in English (and some translations) are now part of the Reediana collection in the Hauser Library. These books were gifts made by Jeanne and Tom over several years.

Jeanne and Tom loved to travel. Most memorable of their many travels together was their “Hum 11 cruise,” as they dubbed it, which they took in October 2012 after Jeanne had recovered from an initial round of treatment for cancer. They traveled to Venice, and as far east as Odessa via Istanbul, before concluding the trip in Athens at the foot of the Parthenon.

Survivors include Tom, Willa, Margot, and three grandsons.

Diskin William Thomas Clay ’60 June 9, 2014, at home in Durham, North Carolina.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Reed with a BA in literature, Diskin went on to the University of Montpellier in France on a Fulbright grant, september 2014 Reed magazine 59

In Memoriam and then to the American School of Classical Studies in Greece. He earned a PhD in classics from the University of Washington in 1967 and taught classics and humanities at Reed in 1966– 69. His career included positions at Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Vassar, and CUNY, and in France, Greece, and Italy. In 1990, he joined the faculty at Duke, and became R.J.R. Nabisco Distinguished Professor of Classical Studies.

“Diskin was one of the most prolific and wideranging scholars of his generation,” wrote Prof.

Walter Englert [classics 1981–]. “His primary research and publication interests were in ancient philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Epicurus, and Lucretius) and poetry (Greek lyric poetry and Greek tragedy), but his scholarly interests extended far beyond those topics. He had significant archaeological and epigraphical experience in Athens, Cyprus, Paros, Thasos, and Turkey, and was a distinguished translator of works by Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, Lucian, and others.

His intellectual interests were not confined to the ancient world. He also published on Dante, the reception of Plato in Renaissance Italy, Francis Bacon, John Locke, C.P. Cavafy, and George Seferis. Diskin’s greatest strength as a scholar was his ability to combine superb close readings of texts with a deep knowledge of the cultural contexts in which those texts were written.”

Diskin is survived by his wife, Andrea Purvis; daughters Andreia, Hilary, and Christine; five grandchildren; a sister and brother; and former spouses Jenny Strauss Clay ’62 and Sarah Clark Clay. A memorial symposium is planned at Duke in November 2014.

Carol Margaret Burns ’62

April 22, 2014, in Olympia, Washington.

A resident of Olympia who longed for an academic challenge equivalent to her abilities, Carol entered Reed in 1956 and was well rewarded for her college choice. During the winter break of her junior year, however, she was severely injured in an auto accident. Recovery slowed her progress at Reed in time only; she remained involved in the campus community and in Portland, and completed a degree in history, writing the thesis “The Polish Conflict and the Origins of the Second World War,” with Prof. Frank Fussner [history 1950–75]. Two faculty members stood out in her experience, she said in an interview with Joan Soderland ’70 in 2009: Vera Krivoshein [Russian 1949–72] and Dorothy Johansen ’33 [history 1934–84]. Carol was editor of the Quest and a resident adviser in Westport. “My most interesting activities were in association with [the student group] FOCUS,” she wrote. “We sponsored speakers from different socialist parties and progressive movements. We showed films.

We presented performers, including Pete Seeger, Miriam Makeba, Brownie McGhee, and Paul Robeson. We joined the Portland organizations 60 Reed magazine september 2014

Carol Burns ’62

in demonstrating support of civil rights activities in the South and ‘Ban the Bomb’ against nuclear testing in the atmosphere.” She and others went to jail for demonstrating on behalf of striking newspaper guild workers at the Oregonian.

“Most important of all,” she noted, “is the Reed education. I remember that our first reading assignment for humanities was from two sources describing how the transition occurred from tribal culture to what we call ‘civilization.’

It was not until the instructor began the discussion that I realized these were two different theories about the origin of civilization. There was not just one right answer. I can’t tell you how exciting this was to me!”

Carol did psychedelic light shows in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York in 1966–68 as part of the group the Union Light Company, earned an MA in communications from Stanford in 1970, and became a filmmaker. Her work includes the acclaimed documentary As Long as the Rivers Run, as well as Crimes of Imagination, PeaceTrees Vietnam, and Know Our People. She was a founding member of the organization that successfully advocated for public-access television in Olympia.

In 1986–94, she worked for Thurston Community Television, and then returned to production work and to collaborate on a number of other projects.

“I feel I have a fair amount to be proud of. I have in fact, in small ways, locally, fulfilled my original dream of enlarging people’s understanding,” Carol said. “The study of history is still a great background for any kind of journalism. It has to do with the experience of looking at conflicting sources of information and sorting out what makes sense, what doesn’t make sense, how you evaluate information, and how you then put it all together in a way that seems coherent.” Carol was passionate about the Russian language and its people, her flower garden, Green Cove Creek, and reading. Survivors include her daughter Lucia and son-in-law, David Bouffard; two grandsons, Cole and Adrian; and her brother, Roger.

Michael Gordon Owen ’62 January 29, 2014.

Shortly after completing a BA in anthropology from Reed and graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Gordon (or Mike, as he was known) and five Reed friends were involved in an automobile

Bruce Saunders ’63

accident, which caused permanent damage to Gordon’s spine.

C lassmates, including organizers Dave Ragozin, Paul Siegel, and Don Treiman, established the Gordon Owen Fund to assist with his overwhelming medical expenses. The fund grew with contributions from classmates, faculty, and staff, revenue from the sale of coffee and fruit, and proceeds from a bazaar, a hootenanny, a rummage sale, and a dance. Gordon later converted the funds into the Michael Gordon Owen Book Fund, which today is supports the purchase of anthropology periodicals for the Hauser Library. Gordon earned a PhD in anthropology from Yale, and did fieldwork in Mexico in Quintana Roo and in Yucatan, where he married Constance Fries, a graduate student at the University of Chicago. In 1966, he was named Honorary Sterling Fellow at Yale. He taught at the University of Washington until 1978, when he resolved the politics of academia by leaving the university and becoming a partner with Connie in a successful Copy Mart quick print business in Seattle. He retired from the business in 1994 and planned to devote time to the study of the history of Indo-European languages. Gordon served as director of the Washington Wheelchair Athletic Association. The couple lived in a home overlooking Puget Sound and also had a home at Cannon Beach. Gordon’s brother, William S. Owen ’68, died in 1965.

Bruce Saunders ’63

February 26, 2014, after a yearlong battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), in Seattle, Washington.

Bruce was a philosophy major at Reed, and went on to earn a master’s degree in journalism from UCLA and a PhD in sociology and education from UC Berkeley in 1975. He spent several years on the faculty at Pennsylvania State and the University of Washington before working as an independent scholar to advance educational reform in religious schools in rural areas of developing countries as an offsetting influence to urbanization. In addition to scholarly

Jim Compton ’64

publications, he completed two books of fiction. His novel The Mexican Cowboy, the Coyote and the Thing in the Sky combines New Mexico folk tales, science fiction, theology, and philosophy. The book had its origin in tales told to Kaiti, daughter of Bruce and Laura Stanley Saunders ’63, when she was four. The stories focus on the value of connection between humans and among humans and animals, as well as the protection of wild animals, bioengineering, the conflict among animals’ gods, and war and peace. Set in the Rio Grande valley and Manzano Mountains south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bruce’s second book, Bruce’s Fables, which he wrote following the ALS diagnosis, is a collection of short pieces that examine our need to take care of one another. Bruce is survived by Laura, Kaiti, and son-inlaw Rob Colenso.

James Neville Compton ’64 March 17, 2014, in Seattle, from a heart attack.

Respected journalist, documentarian, politician, historian, and teacher, Jim’s career spanned many fields. He came to Reed from Klamath Falls.

(His father, Art M. Compton, studied at Reed in 1937). After earning his BA in history, Jim worked for King Broadcasting in Seattle, became an NBC News Fellow in journalism at Columbia University, won a Fulbright to study in Romania, and completed an MS in journalism with honors in 1969. Jim went to Italy, working for several years as assistant managing editor for the Rome Daily American. He also worked as a stringer for NBC Radio, Westinghouse, and Voice of America.

In 1974, he returned to Portland to work for KGW, then opened KING’s first bureau in Washington, D.C. From there, he joined NBC as the Mideast and European correspondent, based in Cairo and London. He covered Africa, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union, and wars in Lebanon and the Persian Gulf. He interviewed political figures and celebrities alike, including Moammar Gadhafi, Orson Welles, and Jimmy Carter.

“Hard to forget being arrested and held in Tehran, interviewing Anwar Sadat (six of those), and doing a live commentary from Leonid Brezhnev’s funeral,” he later told Reed. “As a reporter, the high points were probably being inside West Beirut during the Israeli siege of the city and doing the NBC flash from Cairo (26

The kitchen of (and by) Sue Singer Burnett ’66

Tim Patterson ’68

minutes ahead of the next news organization) saying, ‘The Shah of Iran is dead.’”

In 1984, he joined KING-TV and produced a dozen award-winning prime-time documentaries, garnering the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton and the National Janus Award. In 1987, he hosted The Compton Report, originating from KINGTV with regional broadcasts—the program ran 10 years. He also was a correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

After a distinguished career as a journalist, Jim entered politics, and served six years on the Seattle City Council, where he focused on police accountability and reform of the electrical utility.

He retired in 2006 to pursue teaching opportunities as a senior Fulbright Specialist in Romania and Egypt, lecturing and writing about Romanian political dissidents and teaching investigative journalism to young Romanian journalists.

Over the years, Jim volunteered with the Reed alumni association, the alumni board, and the board of trustees. As a U.S. merchant seaman and devoted student of maritime history, he restored an 80-year-old wooden boat, Ranger 7, which was often on display at historic boat shows. He was a fly fisherman and a mountain climber. A student of Oregon’s Modoc Indian War (1872– 73), Jim was intent on creating a new history of the conflict. He worked more than 20 years on what he called “the last great yarn of western history.” His manuscript “Kill the Chief” was complete at the time of his death. Jim also pursued an interest in the Romany people of Eastern Europe and elucidated his research in the documentary Voyage of the Gypsies, which traced the roots of Europe’s Roma peoples to India 10 centuries previous.

Jim was a “bigger thinker” than many journalists of his time—a historian with a broader view of news. “If broadcasters give viewers something healthy to watch,” he told the Oregonian in 1988, “they will develop a taste for it. I’m convinced there is an appetite for serious television that examines the issues facing the country in an interesting and in an intelligent way.”

“Of course Jim was incisive,” wrote Abe Bergman ’54, reporting Jim’s death to the college. “He was a Reed College graduate. Seriously, what’s to be done with the (small) band of us who wallow in nostalgia for how television news

reporting used to be?”

Jim was married to Seattle attorney Carol Arnold, who survives him. “He had a real zest for life,” said Carol. He is also survived by three grandchildren and stepdaughters Rachel Arnold ’91 and Sarah Arnold.

Susan Singer Burnett ’66

Sue died in 2012. This memorial was composed by Lucinda Parker McCarthy ’66 and Sue’s sister Linny Stovall.

Sue was born in Torrington, Connecticut, to Harold and Laverne Singer, the middle of three daughters. Her father was a dentist, and her mother was a nurse.

Coming west to Reed as a freshman in 1960 was the beginning of a joyful exploration of the world, geographically and artistically. Her roommates at the college that first year were Lynn Bowers ’65, Lucinda, and Leslie Mueller Stewart ’64. Three went on to study in Reed’s five-year combined program with the Museum Art School (PNCA). “Our parents were not quite thrilled, but we were. Two years of serious academics, and then three years of hands-on, six-hour days of studio work knit together our left and right brains. Reed at that time cost $1900 per semester and the museum school was $200 a semester. What a deal.” Sue did her senior thesis project in sculpture with Prof. Manuel Izquierdo [art 1953–56]. With her friend, who had been wounded in the Vietnam War, she homesteaded on an isolated island in British Columbia in 1971. Everything had to be built from scratch, so they learned carpentry, house raising, furniture making, water diversion, and gardening. All the while Sue was painting and working on a children’s book, based on the skills of living in deep nature. After several years, the friends returned to Portland: he went to medical school, and Sue went to dental school. Subsequently Sue practiced dentistry in northern California, in Kenya, and back in Portland. “Teeth are teeth worldwide.” Later she sailed to Hawaii on a ferro-cement sailboat; lived in Ireland, helping friends with a new baby; traveled to Sicily; and for over a decade spent september 2014 Reed magazine 61

In Memoriam winters in Baja, where she and husband Jim Hall, a retired fire captain, built a straw bale house.

(Sue was married twice: first to John Burnett, a doctor in Hawaii, and for 20 years to Jim.) Sue and Jim made their main residence in Portland in an old house surrounded by woods and beautiful gardens. Sue excelled in every creative project she pursued, and was especially attracted to bold color in watercolor, painting, tiles, sewing, and gardening. “A restless, curious, coordinated, highly energetic soul, she changed the world for the better everywhere she went. We miss her very much.” Sue is survived by two sisters, Linny of Portland and Jean Singer of Whidbey Island, plus two dear nieces, Zoe and Shawn.

Timothy Alan Patterson ’68

May 18, 2014, in Berkeley, California, from brain cancer.

“I started thinking of myself as a writer in the 9th grade,” Tim wrote, “when my buddy Bill Sprague and I talked Mr. Russel, our English teacher, into letting us drop out of class, sit in the back, and work on a novel. No trace of that early work remains . . .”

Tim came to Reed from Los Angeles, and earned a BA from Reed and an MA from Stanford in history. He did graduate work on the history of country music at SUNY-Stony Brook, and returned to the Bay Area in 1984. He wrote professionally about music, television, and political campaigns, as well as computer programming and software, for more than three decades. Tim and Nancy Freeman, who married in 1987, were business partners for Culinary Communications & Consulting, doing writing for clients in the food and wine industry. Tim wrote about wine, publishing his work in Wines & Vines, Wine Enthusiast, Diablo, Central Coast Adventures, and the Vine.

As a writer, he was witty and “irrepressibly curious,” noted editor Jim Gordon of Wines & Vines.

He combined “liberal arts erudition,” expertise in wine production, and wry humor, creating pieces that were “light, while firmly educational.” In 1997, Tim ventured into winemaking in his garage and cellar, dubbing the business Subterranean Cellars, and going on to earn gold medals in state and regional competitions for the wines he produced. “At first, it was just so amazing that I could make something drinkable in my garage,” he said in an interview. But he also was intrigued with the technical requirements of the hobby and the way in which it drew on his senses and stamina. He continued to write, publishing Home Winemaking for Dummies in 2010. “Though I am not the first Reedie to publish a Dummies book, it’s still far from the standard universitypress literary trajectory commonly found among alums,” he told Reed. “For that matter, although there are a handful of Reedies in the wine business, that’s not a core Reed career track, either.

Perhaps it was my year of classical Greek with Prof. Fred Peachy [classics, 1956–82] that got 62 Reed magazine september 2014

Seth Roberts ’74

Michelle Gaudreau ’85

me interested in Dionysus and his fellow revelers; perhaps it was my stint as student body president that got me used to embarrassing myself in public; or perhaps it was the knowledge that a world-famous wine region sprang up in the Willamette Valley starting the year I left Portland, making me forever play catch-up.”

Tim was coauthor of Concannon: The First 125 Years and a contributor to Adventures in Wine and Opus Vino. He also wrote a blog, Blind Muscat’s Cellarbook. He was diagnosed with cancer in February. He is remembered for his sense of humor, his cooking, and “an ability to throw one heck of a party.” His family reports that Tim revealed his personal complexity “through the passion with which he took on all comers in debate and a delightful silliness that permeated his interactions with almost everyone and was captured in many a family picture.” Survivors include Nancy, stepson Diego Rocamora, three grandchildren, and two brothers.

college of Seth’s death, Prof. Allen Neuringer [psychology 1970–2008] stated, “Seth and I coauthored a chapter on self-experimentation. He’s had a major impact on the developing fields of self-experimentation and quantified self. He was brilliant and deeply committed to helping people better their lives. He’ll be missed by many throughout the world.” Survivors include his mother, Justine Roberts, and sister Amy Rogers.

Seth Douglass Roberts ’74

April 26, 2014, in Berkeley, California, from heart failure.

Seth earned a BA from Reed in psychology and a PhD in experimental psychology from Brown.

He was a tenured professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, served on the editorial advisory board of the scientific journal Nutrition, and published dozens of articles on topics such as health, nutrition, and weight control. Articles about his work appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, and major scientific journals, including Science and Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He was well known for his book The Shangri-La Diet: The No Hunger Eat Anything Weight-Loss Plan (2006), but better known for his work in self-experimentation and as a pioneer in the Quantified Self movement, which he shared at Seth’s Blog: Personal Science, Self-Experimentation, Scientific Method (blog.sethroberts.net). He also published an additional book, The Science of One. In 2008, he retired from Berkeley as an emeritus professor and joined the faculty in psychology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Seth collapsed while hiking near his home in Berkeley. Informing the

Michelle Gaudreau ’85

April 13, 2014, in Portland. This memorial was composed by her brother, Andy Gaudreau ’86, and her family.

Michelle addressed everything that she came to head-on, with creative, determined energy. It was no different for the cancer that she escorted out of the world with her, after living with it frankly (and coaching others to do the same) for a year and a half. For everyone who encountered her, Michelle was a generous, energetic, wide-openminded extrovert with high ambitions to live a creative life to the fullest. By every account, she succeeded in doing just that in more ways than a few. She grew up the child of an air force sergeant father and a mother raised in Mexico, and by the time she was 11 had lived in Mississippi, Japan, Florida, Greece, and upstate New York. She went to high school in Alaska, where she bloomed as an art, English, theatre, and classical guitar student under a few devoted teachers. After Reed (and a thesis on Wallace Stevens, her bright muse of light and artistic artifice), she moved for a few years to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting and writing. Mixed success brought her back to Portland, which led to a life first of exotic dancing, wine selling, more travel—to Europe (where she taught English for a time in Germany), the Middle East, and Africa—and finally, to a copyediting gig, for which she would daily leave her little southeast Portland apartment on Belmont Street, for 11 hours at a time, to work on her laptop in the nearby Common Grounds coffee shop.

She became a local fixture, and got to know every denizen of this Hawthorne-neighborhood world: from the business people, academics, and scientists, whose textbooks she wrangled into shape,

to the bartenders, artists, and street folk who lived and worked nearby. In this setting, she met her close companion and spouse of the last six years, composer and voice teacher Nevada Jones, who survives her. She is survived also by her father, Robert Gaudreau; sister Christine Kesler; brothers Andy and Robert Gaudreau Jr.; and her beloved nieces and nephew, Meret, Jane, Kate, and Rene. “Refer to anyone’s inevitably bursting, saturated memories of her for more stories of her full, full life.”

Finnian Farrar Burn ’00

April 9, 2014, in Washington.

Finnian spent three semester at Reed, mainly focused on chemistry. He went on to study computer science and engineering at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and finance and business economics at Western Washington University. He worked as a software programmer, an IT director, a tutor, and a volunteer at an animal shelter. He was a musician, a poet, and a conversant on many topics.

Finnian is remembered as delightfully curious and intensely interested in the world around him, and sensitive and empathetic to the people he met and knew. He was challenged by Crohn’s disease, a leg injury sustained in the hospital, and an addiction to prescription medicine. “Brilliant Finn always soared and sometimes flew too close to the flame.” Survivors include his mother and her partner, his father and stepmother, and two brothers and a sister.

Alice Carey Alsup ’13 June 1, 2014, in Houston, Texas.

Alice attended Reed for a little more than two years, then transferred to the University of Houston majoring in media production with a minor in creative writing. She wrote poetry and feature articles—most recently at Houstonia Magazine—and performed her own compositions on the stage. She competed in poetry slams and was cofounder of Write About Now, a Houston poetry group. A number of her poems were posted on YouTube. She is remembered for having a quirky sense of humor, emotional openness, and a spirit of freewheeling independence. She was treasured by her family, friends, and colleagues.

Survivors include her parents and sister.

Pending

As Reed went to press, we learned of the deaths of the following people: Gale Dick ’50, James MacQueen ’52, Miles Weber ’56, and friend Susan Fillin-Yeh. Share your memories of classmates with us via email (reed.magazine@reed.edu) or post them online at www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/in-memoriam. You can still send them the old fashioned way to Reed magazine, 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland OR 97202.

Answers from Quadrivial Pursuit, page 24: 1 B . 2 A . 3 B . 4 C . 5 D. 6 B . 7 E . 8 C . 9A. 10E. 11E. 12D. 13B. 14C. 15A. 16D. 17D. 18B. 19A. 20C. 21B. 22D. 23D. 24B. 25Q.

Alumni, parents, and friends: Join us for

Leadership Summit September 19 & 20, 2014 You are invited to • get the latest news and participate in the discussion around strategic planning; • analyze the results of the alumni survey; • lead the way by volunteering in career, alumni, and fundraising programs; • dive back into the classroom experience with an alumni/parent conference session; • advise students on career networking; • explore the new alumni house and the Center for Life Beyond Reed.

To register and view the full schedule, visit reed.edu/leadership_summit or contact alumni & parent relations at 503/777-7589 or alumni@reed.edu.

Please register by September 12 to ensure a seat at the table.

apocrypha t r a d i t i o n • m y t h • l e g e n d

Flesh and Bone Saturday night of Reunions after the fireworks lit up the sky, Reed alumni and friends left the lingering whiff of sulphur only to be greeted by a scent of a different kind— the sumptuous aroma of smoked and seasoned meat.

Under the cover of darkness, Reed’s venerable Meat Smoke Crew had prepared a feast for the unsuspecting revelers: open-faced, slow-smoked brisket sandwiches. Around their grill, Reedies gathered together in fellowship across the class years. For visitors and guests new to Reed, this communal meal was a happy surprise, but for Reed regulars it was a familiar comfort and reminder of the endurance of the legendary Meat Smoke Crew.

Reed’s Meat Smoke tradition dates back to 1985, when several students, including George Wehn ’84, Mike Magrath ’84, and Lawrence Miller ’87, fed up with the unappetizing pig burials of Renn Fayres past, offered to take over the operation. In true Reed spirit, they dove into the task armed only with their intellectual curiosity and determination. That Renn Fayre, they managed to cook 1,000 pounds of meat—two hindquarters of beef and 25 turkeys—in an experimental smoker they built themselves from scrap lumber and sheet metal. The job required a crew that could stay up throughout the night in what was then called the Feast Glade, tending the fire, enjoying one another’s company, and welcoming any weary partier who happened to stumble upon their camp.

Thus began the time-honored Meat Smoke tradition of the all-night watch. “Almost unintentionally, we ended up creating a kind of safe haven, a place to go at night that was warm, where there was a fire and people hanging out,” says Mike. “It was a place where you could come to ground after the craziness of Renn Fayre. It became our hearth.”

After several years, Bear Wilner-Nugent ’95 took the reins as leader, later recruiting Andy McLain ’92 and Jeffrey “Moose” Price ’03. The three now shoulder the main logistical responsibilities of the operation.

Today, the crew and their headquarters, Pirate Camp, are permanent fixtures at Renn Fayre and Reunions, and at Paideia, where

64 Reed magazine september 2014

Will Morgan ’88

BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT ’12

Meat Smoke Crew, 2001. Left to right (full faces only): Van Havig ’92 (in black and yellow windbreaker), Jim Quinn ’83, Allison Wibby ’93, Bear Wilner-Nugent ‘95

“ Reedies experiment with dangerous substances like love and sex, loyalty and freedom, philosophy and religion” —Andy McLain ’92

they teach a meat-smoking class. Their status as a Reed institution was made official at the Reunions ’14 Fanfayre event, when the alumni board bestowed the crew with the Babson Award, given to members of the Reed community who go above and beyond in volunteer service to the college, and appropriately designed this year as a large clay platter.

Accepting the award, and backed by compatriots decked in pirate bandanas and vintage jumpsuits, Andy explained what Meat Smoke is all about. “Reedies want to stretch the boundaries, test the rules, experiment with dangerous substances like love and sex, loyalty and freedom, philosophy and religion,” he said with a wink. “To be young, and smart, and existing in a tumult of other young smart people! It’s a heady mixture, and sometimes

people get hurt or harmed. Meat Smoke isn’t like that. It’s the comfort of a warm fire, and the likelihood of a hot morsel even in the middle of the night. . . . Meat Smoke Crew has a central mission that has nothing to do with meat. It’s about unmediated contact between students and alumni.” And indeed this bonding through the years is what continues to draw new members such as Melissa Lewis ’13, who joined the crew both for its strong sense of Reed kinship and her interest in food justice.

The Babson Award confirms what the crew has known all along: Reed needs alumni to nourish the community and traditions that make the college distinctive. But, like the hard workers they are, the crew didn’t spend too much time patting themselves on the back.

Not less than 20 minutes later, they were back at Pirate Camp to prepare the brisket that would go into the smoker (nicknamed “the cathedral”) to be served the next night.

Camaraderie was as tangy as ever as crew members passed around chunks of pork shoulder, fresh out of the smoker and piled high on the gargantuan award platter. The savory delights disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a swirl of sauce on the etched image of Old Dorm Block.

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Composer and violinist Ramiro Gallo leads a class at Reed’s Tango Music Institute, which draws students and teachers from around the world to study the Argentine art form.