Reed College Magazine December 2020

‰ December 2020

The Catalyst in the Chemistry Department Prof. Kelly Chacón on life, death, and heavy metal.

BY BRANDON ZERO ’11

At a time when both the campus and the world have been transformed by the coronavirus pandemic, Reed needs your help.

Our community rallied in response to the crisis this past spring. Now we face new challenges, which bring both a shift in pressing needs and opportunities for innovation and adaptability.

Your gift supports the rigorous education and close-knit community Reed has provided for more than 110 years.

SUPPORT FINANCIAL AID.

Financial aid expenditures have increased significantly this year. Your gift to financial aid helps Reed meet 100% of demonstrated need, even when a student’s economic circumstances change.

HELP REED REMAIN STEADFAST AND ADAPTABLE.

From enhanced loaner laptop programs to residence hall and classroom retrofits to pedagogical support

for faculty who are modifying both curricula and how they deliver instruction, your unrestricted gift helps the college respond nimbly to changing circumstances.

SUPPORT REED STUDENTS DIRECTLY.

The Student Emergency Fund offers direct financial support to students experiencing a wide range of unanticipated costs, including medical expenses, food and supplies, and rent to maintain housing security during the pandemic.

Help us rise to the challenge and ensure that every Reed student thrives this year.

Make your gift today at giving.reed.edu.

rugile kaladyte

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Features 7

8

Departments

The Artist With the Invisible Hand

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Teaching Smarter

John Laursen ’67 wins Governor’s Arts Award

Reed’s Center for Teaching and Learning helps professors stay on top of their game.

By Brittney Corrigan-McElroy ’94

By Romel Hernandez

Prof. Franklin Named To Borders Chair

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Chair in physics department honors James Borders ’63.

By Randall S. Barton celeste noche

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Alaska Calling

Folk singer Mossy Kilcher ’66 has her regrets. Her life-changing time at Reed is not among them.

By Casey Jarman

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The Catalyst in the Chemistry Department Prof. Kelly Chacón on life, death, and heavy metal.

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By Brandon Zero ’11 cover photo by celeste noche

News from Campus

Outside In Reed Welcomes New Faculty Kudos for Mahalia Stepping Up For Social Justice Courses We’d Love To Take Some Things We Learned From This Issue of Reed Magazine

Fear and Freedom in the Land of AIDS

Target of censors, Robert Chesley ’65 celebrated sexuality amid a landscape of repression.

By Randall S. Barton

4 Eliot Circular

12 Advocates of the Griffin

All Things Alumni

26 Reediana

Books, Films, and Music by Reedies

The Great Offshore Grounds

by Vanessa Veselka ’10

30 Class Notes

News from our classmates.

38 In Memoriam

Honoring classmates, professors, and friends who have died.

48 Object of Study

What Reed students are looking at in class

Prof Derek Applewhite and his students study morphogenesis.

Reed Magazine december 2020

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This Must Be The Place lauren labarre

‰ December 2020

www.reed.edu/reed-magazine 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202 503/777-7591 Volume 99, No.4 REED MAGAZINE editor

Chris Lydgate ’90 503/777-7596 chris.lydgate@reed.edu writer/In Memoriam editor

Randall S. Barton 503/517-5544 bartonr@reed.edu writer/reediana editor

Katie Pelletier ’03 503/777-7727 pelletic@reed.edu class notes editor

Joanne Hossack ’82 joanne@reed.edu art director

Tom Humphrey tom.humphrey@reed.edu grammatical kapeLlmeister

Virginia O. Hancock ’62

Reason to Believe At the conclusion of any calendar year, we typically reflect on ups and downs experienced and anticipate new possibilities ahead. 2020 defies easy measurements and description.

We have counted success and failure one day at a time. The fall semester here at Reed has been no simple matter. Opening residence halls, holding in-person classes, and rethinking campus for COVID-19 has required the collective effort of every single one of us. I am enormously proud of the college and those who have stood with us and continue to stand with us during these challenging days.

Because of COVID-19, we have developed new habits and have changed our behavior to keep one another safe. When I walk around campus, I now wear my Reed ID on a lanyard and check to make sure that my face covering is secure. I pay attention to what I have touched and count to 20 as I wash my hands.

In performing these pandemic rituals, I know that I am in good company in a community where we care about each other, and for this I am boundlessly grateful.

Our commitment to the common good also means that we have been active in responding to the racial reckoning of 2020, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and fortified by our determination to take 2

Reed Magazine december 2020

REED COLLEGE RELATIONS

action and bring about long-overdue changes. We have been working hard to assess and rethink teaching, learning, hiring, and communicating for greater inclusivity and understanding.

Seeing one another in person is a precious privilege. We physically distance while we come together as a community. The steps we have taken this year to make it possible for faculty, staff, and students to be on campus have required time, resources, and imagination.

Being together makes the work worthwhile.

Although the need to de-densify campus has meant that not all community members are able to walk our beautiful grounds each day, we are still deeply connected because we all play our part in sustaining Reed—in the moment and for future generations.

Reedies are resilient. Just as I have confidence that we will get past this time of coronavirus, I have an abiding faith in the power of the Reed community to unite in the face of adversity and to overcome hardships. In 2020, we have acted with courage and purpose. All we have accomplished together should give us every reason to believe that the coming years will be brighter.

Audrey Bilger President of Reed

vice president, college relations

Hugh Porter director, communications & public affairs

Mandy Heaton Reed College is an institution of higher education in the liberal arts and sciences devoted to the intrinsic value of intellectual pursuit and governed by the highest standards of scholarly practice, critical thought, and creativity.

Reed Magazine provides news of interest to the Reed community. Views expressed in the magazine belong to their authors and do not necessarily represent officers, trustees, faculty, alumni, students, administrators, or anyone else at Reed, all of whom are eminently capable of articulating their own beliefs.

Reed Magazine (ISSN 0895-8564) is published quarterly by the Office of Public Affairs at Reed College.

Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Oregon.

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

Mailbox Write to us! We love getting mail from readers. Letters should be about Reed (and its alumni) or Reed Magazine (and its contents) and run no more than 300 words; subsequent replies may run only 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.

Beyond the Grave

A teacher friend called me out of the blue the other day and said that all her friends were filling out their wills. So that rumor is true. She asked me if I would be willing to be her medical decision maker, because her children were too young and she didn’t trust her ex-husband to make the tough decision according to her instructions. I said, “Yes.” But this brought up for me something I’ve been thinking about.

Some years ago, I spent an evening drinking and philosophizing with the King County Coroner (Seattle). It was a delightful evening of stories of unanticipated demise and spectacular accident. “The point is, Don,” he said, “we can all die at any moment.” Which brings up what happens after we die. This has long been a source of dispute, and I’m not talking about the afterlife.

Cain and Abel invented fratricide in a dispute over inheritance. Think about your own family.

Is there not a history of dispute over inheritance?

It doesn’t matter the size of the estate. In my family I’ve seen shirttail relatives show up at a funeral with a horse trailer, to collect their “due.”

I checked my own demographic against COVID-19. Not very encouraging. My demographic goes from just fine to dead in 10 days.

Just a thought. So I am encouraging all Reedies and Reed allies to get their wills in order. Every financial advisor in the country will tell you the same thing. And I’m going to encourage you all to put Reed in your will. If you want to do it yourself, you can get guidance from LegalZoom or similar. My son-in-law helped me. And when you put Reed in your will, you become a member of the Eliot Society. So after you say who gets the clock and the family crest, or whatever, put Reed in for a lump sum or a percentage. I went for a percentage, after the clock, etc.

I have four degrees. Three of them are “practical.” People always ask me, “How often do you use that philosophy-religion degree?” and my answer is, “All day, every day.” So I am expressing

my appreciation to the source of that education.

Fix up your will, friends, and consider your old alma mater, however large or small an amount or percentage suits you. And stay safe.

Don Asher ’83 Editor’s Note: Thank you, Don, for this thoughtful and generous note. Reed’s development office has put together a website with useful information about bequests and other ways to give back to Reed.

Reed.edu/givingtoreed/ways-to-give/bequests.html

The Final Draft

Thank you for including thesis titles in obituaries, no matter what else the alum has gone on to do or lost the chance to do. It feels both distinctive and democratic.

Julie Dugger ’91 Bellingham, Washington

Saluting Tom Dunne

I initially reacted with sadness to hear of Prof. Tom Dunne’s [chemistry 1963–95] passing. But reading comments by others in his obituary, I realized that there was so much to celebrate about his long life that I could not help but smile. To know that such a genuine, decent, intelligent human being could touch so many lives (including my own) and leave fingerprints of happiness and wonder is an affirmation of the human potential. I feel incredibly fortunate to have encountered him, and celebrate his truly joyful legacy.

Timothy Gotsick ’87 Düsseldorf, Germany

Mind over Matter

I thought the obituary of Prof. Bill Wiest [chemistry 1963–95] (“Explored the Mechanisms of the Mind,” June 2020) was very good. I was a student of his in the late ’60s and early ’70s and a research assistant, and visited him and his wife Thelma from time to time over the years after graduation, yet I still learned things I did not know about him.

However, Bill would not have used the word “mind” in the title. He and Prof. Leslie Squier [chemistry 1963–95] (who was also my professor) were behaviorists. Behaviorists pointed out that they had no access to what was going on between the ears of other people or animals—all we could see was behavior. Instead of speculating about what was happening in the “mind,” we studied behavior. “Mind” is a popular part of culture, and most people do not know what psychologists study, in my experience. The point is not whether “mind” or “behavior” or “brain” are

correct; the point is that the reporting should accurately reflect the intellectual pursuits of a professor, as the title was about him, not about beliefs common among the public.

Douglas Fenner ’71 Pago Pago, American Somoa Editor’s Note: Good point. As a former student of Bill’s myself, I should have known behaved better.

What’s Your Agenda in Obituaries?

I submitted an obituary and photo for Dave Coury ’78. It’s unfortunate that you chose to use the photo but none of the text (which Dave wrote himself). It’s a bit strange that you opted not to contact me for any information—but you don’t know me—and you didn’t know Dave.

No need for a reply. What’s done is done.

Jack Masters ’77 Sacramento, California

Editor’s Note: Sorry for your loss. There was a communication breakdown here and I offer my apology (more below). But first I want to say that I’m proud of our obits, edited by Randall Barton. Every issue, we run 30–40 obits totalling 10,000+ words about our beloved professors and classmates. Sometimes they are written from scratch; sometimes we work with their survivors. But either way, each one requires hours of painstaking research.

Reed grads lead rich and complex lives that are exceedingly difficult to compress into the space of 200–300 words. Naturally we focus on the stuff that is most relevant to the Reed community. For example, we might skip over genealogical details that are of scant interest beyond the family. If we dig up two great anecdotes, but only have room for one, we’ll probably include the one that has Reed connections. If they wrote us a letter about their time at Reed, we might quote from it. That is our “agenda”—we are an alumni magazine, so our obits are tailored for a Reed audience.

In this case, due to the displacement of COVID19, your note didn’t reach Randall until after he had already written Dave’s obit. Nor did we realize that your version was composed by Dave. My fault.

Obits are not for the faint of heart. Sometimes we land smack in the middle of personal tragedy or family drama that would confound a phalanx of philosophers. We strive to respect the wishes of the family and serve the Reed community as best we can. Randall does an amazing job on this titanic project, and I’ll stack our obits against any alumni magazine in the nation.

Thanks for raising this issue, and my condolences for your loss.

Reed Magazine december 2020

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Eliot Circular news from campus

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Reed Magazine  december 2020

OUTSIDE IN They said it couldn’t be done. But thanks to careful preparation and amazing response from the student body, Reed held in-person classes this fall—and kept a lid on COVID-19, with only 14 cases reported among students, faculty, and staff from June 1 to November 7. Despite the masks and social distancing, students and professors have found ways to do what Reedies do best: learn together. Here math major Kiki McBride ’21 and Prof.

Gerri Ondrizek [art] discuss ways to construct a Henneberg surface out of soap bubbles as part of Art 181, Architectonic Structures.

Mathematically, a Henneberg surface is described as nonorientable, meaning that it possesses the rather unusual property of having only one side. Professors and staff in the art department have gone to great effort to maintain student access to the studio this year, including innovations such as using outdoor space for classes and redesigning workspaces to accommodate social distancing.

photos by laurne labarre and others

Eliot Circular

Reed Welcomes New Faculty

We’re delighted to welcome this impressive group of professors to Reed. Learn more about their teaching and research online.

Glenn Baker

Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Assistant Professor of of Psychology of Psychology Economics

Crystal Carr

Felipe Carrera

Visiting Assistant Professor Associate Professor of of History and Humanities Psychology

Sabrina Datoo

Kevin Holmes

Assistant Professor of Classics and Humanities

Zhe (Jasmine) Jiang

Shohei Kobayashi

Yun Lee

Paul Manson ’01

Julia Michaels

Yalçin Özkan

Alice Shen

Monica VanBladel

Simone Waller

Assistant Professor of Economics

Assistant Professor of Music

David Ramirez

Marcus Robinson ’13 Katherine Rush

Alice Hu

Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese and Humanities of Political Science of Biology of Sociology

Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Assistant Professor of of Computer Science of Mathematics of Chemistry of Linguistics of Spanish and Humanities English and Humanities

Prof. Mark Burford has won a slew of prestigious awards for his recent book, Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field. Burford, the R.P. Wollenberg Professor of Music. was honored with the Woody Guthrie Award for the most outstanding book on popular music from the U.S. branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music; the Award for Excellence for the best history book in the category of historical research in blues, soul, gospel, or R&B from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections; and the Otto Kinkeldey Award for outstanding book by a senior scholar in the field of musicology from the American Musicological Society.

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Reed Magazine december 2020

nina johnson ’99

KUDOS FOR MAHALIA

The Artist With the Invisible Hand photos by aaron johanson

The Oregon Holocaust Memorial is just one of dozens of immersive projects designed by John Laursen ’67.

If you’ve visited the Oregon Holocaust Memorial, navigated the halls of the Oregon Convention Center, or hopscotched around the whimsical phrases set in the sidewalk in downtown Portland, you’ve seen the work of John Laursen ’67. For the past five decades, he’s enriched the art and literature of his adopted state. But because he’s so skilled at what he does, you likely never realized you were in the hands of a single, masterful designer. He is truly the invisible artist.

In October, John was honored with the Governor’s Arts Award from the Oregon Arts Commission, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the cultural life of Oregon.

As a student at Reed, John had no inkling that he would become a typographer, designer, writer, and editor. He majored in political science and had

his sights set on teaching.

Then came a coincidence that changed his life. One day in 1970, he bought an old, broken-down printing press. Later that day, he picked up a hitchhiker—Reed classmate Michael McPherson ’68, a calligrapher who had just written out Cold Mountain Poems by Gary Snyder ’51 and was looking for someone to print them. Thus began a long career designing and printing books by nationally renowned poets, writers, and artists (including Mary Barnard ’32).

“I came to realize that where my talent lay—and what I found most satisfying—was using typography and design in a way that enhances the power of language but doesn’t call attention to itself,” he says.

While he regrets never taking an art class, John says Reed made him a better researcher and writer. “Reed helped me enormously in forming an

understanding of the world,” he says. “The study of political science—and in particular of political theory—certainly had a profound impact on the way I approach my work.”

That work demonstrates an extraordinary range. He’s done public art installations such as the Holocaust Memorial, the Walk of the Heroines at Portland State University, and the Streetwise sidewalk installation (written by Katherine Dunn ’69). He designed and published Wild Beauty: Photography of the Columbia River Gorge,1867– 1957, a monumental collaboration with Portland Art Museum’s Terry Toedtemeier. He designed several catalogues for the Cooley Gallery, collaborated on the creation of Comrades of the Quest, and designed the bronze medallion of a griffin that graces the annual Eliot Award. Most recently, he created a memorial that will be displayed at the Hollywood

TriMet Station to honor Ricky Best and Taliesin NamkaiMeche ’16, who were killed defending two teenage girls from a racist on a MAX train in 2017.

John prides himself on being “deliberately invisible” in the execution of his projects, creating a subliminal effect of appreciation of a well-made book or piece of art that doesn’t distract from the content of the work itself.

As his classmate, author John Daniel ’70, describes, “Laursen recognized early that his passion was not strictly typography, but design in all its dimensions. He learned by doing and developed his personal style. Understated.

Uncrowded. Elegantly simple. His highest aim, he came to realize, is to succeed so well that his craft disappears. More than anyone else, he has defined the public face of literature for Oregonians now alive and those to come. He practices his deliberately disappearing art, he says, ‘for the person I will never get to meet, who is willing to read.’ He does it, in other words, for you.

If you have spent even a month in this state, you have very likely laid eyes on his work, and almost none of it bears his name.”

—BRITTNEY CORRIGANMCELROY ’94

Reed Magazine december 2020

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Eliot Circular

PROF. FRANKLIN NAMED TO BORDERS CHAIR Chair in physics department honors James Borders ’63. m at t d ’a n n u n z i o

BY RANDALL S. BARTON

Prof. Joel Franklin ’97 [physics 2005–] has been appointed the James A. Borders Chair in Physics. The Borders chair—established thanks to a generous gift from Deborah Borders memorializing her husband—recognizes the achievements as a physicist of Jim Borders ’63 and the role Reed played in his intellectual life.

“My husband had a lifetime love of learning, and he always liked to share his knowledge,” says Deborah. “Jim went to Reed College and thought they had done an excellent job for him and wanted to share that with the world. He started making donations, and back in 1975 decided that when he died, he wanted a legacy at Reed to continue.” Together, Jim and Deborah made gifts totalling $1.5 million to establish the chair.

Hailing from Akron, Ohio, Jim blossomed at Reed. He savored both campus life and engaging with Reed professors.

He wrote his thesis, “Certain Aspects of the Photoconductivity of Pure Single Zinc Oxide Crystals,” with Prof. Ken Davis [physics 1948–80]. Years later, Jim and Deborah honored Prof. Davis by establishing a scholarship in his name.

It was Davis who convinced Jim that he should consider pursuing the sciences—specifically physics—rather than the humanities.

“Jim enjoyed the humanities program and thought that would be kind of fun,” Deborah says. “His father had a PhD in chemistry and had always pushed science. Then Ken Davis got hold of Jim, and between his father and Ken, he became a physicist.”

Jim went on to earn a doctorate in physics at the University of Illinois and began his career at Sandia National Laboratory, one of three research and development laboratories run by the National Nuclear Security Administration. During World War II, Sandia worked with Los Alamos National Laboratory to create the atomic warhead. “After the war,” Deborah explains, “they continued to work on it and try to keep the Cold War cold.”

At Sandia, Jim was a pioneer in developing energetic ion analysis of materials and in the applications of ion implantation to

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Reed Magazine december 2020

Prof. Joel Franklin

non-semiconductor materials. His research group developed a noninvasive blood glucose monitor for diabetes using technology originally developed to measure the aging of explosives in nuclear weapons.

He was in charge of one of three teams who reinvestigated the explosion in a gun room of the U.S.S. Iowa in 1989 that killed 47 sailors. The navy had originally concluded that the explosion was deliberately set off by a member of the crew. Jim and three other scientists from Sandia were asked to take another look.

“The navy had done an investigation and had come to the conclusion that the only way the gun would have exploded was if someone had used a detonator to set it off,” Deborah explains. “They were blaming one of the sailors. The family of that sailor was adamant that he hadn’t done it and contacted their congressperson. She, in turn, forced Congress to hire Sandia Labs to review and investigate the explosion.

“Jim’s group was responsible for analyzing what was in the rotating band of the shell.

On the morning when the investigators were scheduled to testify before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and a House subcommittee, the people in charge of the

explosion were able to determine that not necessarily was there a detonation device.

They could replicate the explosion without it.”

The investigation resulted in an apology from the navy to the family of the sailor accused of setting off the blast.

Prof. Franklin is the first to hold the Borders chair of physics. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Reed, a master’s degree from Brandeis University, and a PhD in computational mathematics from Stanford University. He was also a visiting researcher in structural biology and chemistry at the Pasteur Institute and did postdoc work at MIT. At Reed, Prof. Franklin has taught general physics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, computational methods, and general relativity. His research is focused on extensions of general relativity and their observational implications. In addition to numerous papers, he has written four books: Advanced Mechanics and General Relativity, Computational Methods for Physics, Classical Field Theory, and Mathematical Methods for Oscillations and Waves.

In 2015, Jim and Deborah established the James Borders Physics Student Fellowship, designed to help physics majors planning to go

COURSES WE’D LOVE TO TAKE nina johnson ’99

on to graduate school. Summer research allows students to ponder difficult problems for long periods of time, apply various tools, and come at them again from a different angle. Even if grad school is not in their sights, participating in research can provide a competitive edge in the job market. The fellowship requires students to write up the results of their research— honing their presentation skills.

Prof. Franklin chaired the department when the summer fellowship was set up and interacted with Jim in that capacity.

“One thing I thought was admirable was his insistence that the summer student write up a short report to be delivered to him,” Franklin said. “One of the very first summer students wrote on a topic from neuroscience, well outside Jim’s own areas of expertise, but I know he read the report carefully and enjoyed it.”

That report was “Effect of Voltage Dependent Vesicle Release on the Information Capacity of Auditory Neurons” by Jay Collins ’15.

Other recipients of the Borders Fellowship include Thomas Malthouse ’20, who spent a summer working with Prof. Lucas Illing [physics 2007–] on amplitude death, a fascinating emergent dynamic phenomenon in which identical nonlinear oscillators, if coupled together in a network, will cease to oscillate under certain conditions.

Ella Banyas ’17 worked with Prof. Illing developing a model to describe the dynamics of an optoelectronic oscillator with nonlinear time-delayed feedback. All physical systems, from electronic circuits to traffic flow, are inherently subject to finite time delays. Many systems exhibit nonlinear responses to stimuli, further complicating the task of describing these systems analytically or numerically.

In a continuation of the work of Cristian Panda ’12 and Lindsay Sonderhouse ’13, Ella and Prof. Illing constructed an optoelectronic oscillator with nonlinear time-delayed self-feedback.

Beckett Cummings ’20 was part of a team that successfully ran a ChaNGa simulation to show that, assuming certain initial conditions, the force of gravity can produce a barred-spiral structure—like the luminous whirlpool of the Milky Way—from a galaxy consisting of nothing but gas.

In the last few decades, Haiti has come to be known for repeated calamities: earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts followed by floods and vice versa, dictatorships, cholera, etc. These catastrophes, says Prof. Corine Stofle 1867–1957, tend to overshadow thriving avant-garde movements and a truly unique history— Haiti’s was the only successful slave revolution in the Caribbean.

We’re fascinated. Prof. Stofle’s fall literature course, French 366: Introduction to Haitian Culture and Literature, makes us want to dust off our French and take a deep dive into Haitian history and literary art.

In this course, students explore the relationship between historical conditions and literary form, beginning with Haiti’s 1804 declaration of independence from France. Reading a selection of poetry, novels, and recent short stories with noir leanings, the course asks students to think through how, in time, Haitian authors reinvented their literature in the wake of the revolution, and later negotiated the dangerous necessity of

Prof. Corine Stofle

writing under the brutal Duvalier dictatorships. Through texts by women authors, students explore what it means to write at the intersection of race and gender.

Finally, the prolific Haitian diaspora helps students consider the poetics of exile.

Prof. Stofle is a visiting assistant professor of French and a native Guadeloupean who visits the Caribbean as often as possible. Her research and teaching focus on Caribbean, sub-Saharan, and urban literatures of French expression; postcolonial critique and decolonial critique; utopia/ dystopia studies; and theories of humor.

IN TIMES OF CRISIS, DONORS STEP UP To help Reed provide a transformative liberal arts education, more than 5,000 ALUMNI, PARENTS, AND FRIENDS came together to commit over $30 MILLION in fiscal year 2019–20, a level of support that hasn’t been seen since 2012, which marked the end of the Centennial Campaign.

These figures include $4.6 MILLION in gifts to the Annual Fund, which is one of the critical elements that has allowed Reed to respond forcefully to COVID-19.

With your help, we have found ways to remain steadfast in our dedication to our highest ideals while adapting to meet goals and care for one another along the way. THANK YOU. Reed Magazine december 2020

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STEPPING UP FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Fifty years ago, when Alex Martinez ’73 was a student at Reed, the struggle for peace, civil rights, and social justice transformed his generation.

Today, at another pivotal moment in history, he and his wife Kathy are helping current and future generations of Reedies change the world.

The Martinezes have committed a total of $500,000 to support social justice and financial aid. The lion’s share of this gift, $300,000, will endow Reed’s Social Justice Research and Education Fund (SJREF), which started as a pilot program under the auspices of the Office of Institutional Diversity, supporting students working on civic engagement and equity beyond the classroom. Based on the fund’s track record of success, Reed has sought to endow it in perpetuity.

While the endowment is growing over the next three years, Alex and Kathy will continue to support the fund with $25,000 annually, as they’ve been doing since it was started in 2017. They have also committed $125,000 to their ongoing support of financial aid.

“We’re creating opportunities for students to explore causes they’re passionate about while connecting them with Reed,” Alex says. “When brilliant students get a chance to engage the world in new and different ways, lives change.”

For Reedies like Alyse Cronk ’20, the SJREF initiative provided a jump-start in social activism. She spent a summer as an intern with Students for Education, Equity, and Direct Service (SEEDS). She staffed the Reed Community Pantry, which provides free food and other necessities to community members as part of the college’s Food Security Initiative. She oversaw pantry operations, from scheduling and training volunteers to coordinating with partner organizations to stocking supplies.

“The experience was transformational,” she says. “Reed is a progressive place, but getting a chance to get out there and learn about food justice taught me so much about the ways

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pa n t r y p h o t o b y l a u r e n l a b a r r e

Alex Martinez ’73 and his wife Kathy endow Reed’s Social Justice Research and Education Fund.

The gift from Kathy and Alex Martinez ’73 (left) will allow students to engage in many forms of collaborative social justice, including the Reed Community Pantry, which provides free food and other necessities to community members as part of the college’s Basic Need Initiative. Anthony Hill ’22 (right) works on restocking the shelves in the pantry.

food intersects with so many other issues.”

One reason that the initiative has been so successful is that it encourages students to partner with professors and staff. “We wanted to give students a chance to work with faculty and staff on social justice in a way that was collaborative,” says Assistant Dean for Institutional Diversity Jessika Chi, who oversees the program.

SJREF has helped more than 30 students pursue projects such as improving support for nontraditional students; promoting diversity of underrepresented students in computer science; and developing an inclusive new curriculum for Reed’s science outreach program in elementary school.

For Alex, the gift caps a lifetime dedicated to social justice—starting as a public defender, and leading to the Colorado Supreme Court.

“The gift brings it all back home for me because it touches on issues I’ve been engaged with my entire life,” he says.

He grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Denver and was drawn to Reed by its academic excellence and reputation for welcoming free thinkers and free spirits. He got what he was looking for. “Reed definitely affected my way of thinking about and engaging with the world,” he says.

He attended Reed for three years before transferring to the University of Colorado to be closer to home. He earned a law degree at the University of Colorado and went to work as a public defender. From there he was

named a county and district court judge. In 1996 he became the first Hispanic appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court, where he served for 15 years.

After that, he became the public safety manager for Denver, overseeing reforms of the city’s police and fire departments, and later served as general counsel for the Denver Public Schools before retiring in 2016. Alex reconnected with Reed when he met former President Colin Diver, who persuaded him to join Reed’s board of trustees.

Married to Kathy for nearly 40 years, Alex credits her for encouraging him to serve as a trustee. She helped him recognize how much Reed means to him, even if he got his degree from another school. “She said to me, ‘Ever since we’ve been together, you’ve talked about Reed. It’s obviously very important to you.’”

With this gift, the Martinezes are helping a new generation of students continue the fight.

“I’m profoundly grateful for Alex and Kathy’s leadership on social justice,” says President Audrey Bilger. “I came to Reed because the college is committed to becoming an ever more inclusive community, including putting into practice the goals and aspirations reflected in our diversity and anti-racism statements. Alex and Kathy’s gift is a wonderful example of one of Reed’s defining characteristics—a commitment to the community.” —ROMEL HERNANDEZ

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THIS ISSUE The geometric construct known as the Henneberg surface is often described as nonorientable, meaning that it possesses the rather unusual property of having only one side. Henneberg surfaces can be formed from soap bubbles and have architectural applications. PAGE 5 Night Sweat, the first play dealing with AIDS ever staged in New York, was written by Robert Chesley ’65.

PAGE 16 Hans Linde ’47 was the intellectual architect of the legal strategy of using state constitutions to protect individual rights. PAGE 38 Tellurium is an increasingly important component in electronic equipment.

Unfortunately, it’s also toxic. PAGE 24 To research her novel The Great Offshore Grounds, author Vanessa Veselka ’10 spent time aboard an 1812 replica warship, where—in one unsettling episode—she swung from the ship’s crosstrees. PAGE 28 During the Algerian War of Independence, journalist Thomas Bransten ’58 narrowly escaped being killed by a bomb planted outside the Paris offices of the newspaper Le Monde. PAGE 43

Morphogenesis, the process by which cells grow into a particular shape, is fundamental to the formation of the tubular structures that make up our spines, guts, ducts, and practically every other organ worth having.

PAGE 48

Visit us for a great selection of holiday gifts, including these hand-thrown mugs from Deneen Pottery—available in the store and online.

bookstore.reed.edu To receive your mug in time for the holidays, please order online by December 13 (ground shipping), December 17 (3-day shipping), or December 21 (next-day shipping). Note: these dates are subject to change; please visit our website for the the most up-to-date information.

Reed Magazine december 2020 11

Advocates of the Griffin

News of the Alumni Association • Connecting Reed Alumni Around the Globe

EDITED BY KATIE RAMSEY ’04

Hello, fellow Reedies!

Recently we’ve added an alumni volunteer organization to focus on alumni chapters, called the Chapter Leadership Committee (CLC). As chair of the CLC, I wanted to introduce myself—Andrei Stephens, economics ’08—and highlight the chapters and how to get involved. I’m of the opinion that a group of Reed alumni can almost always get along, and that there’s a lot of value in providing each other that camaraderie, connection, and support.

The current chapters of the alumni association are in Austin, the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Europe, New York, Portland, Seattle, Southern California, and Washington, D.C. If you’re lucky enough to be in one of these places, I encourage you to reach out to your chapter. If you’re not, reach out to the alumni office anyway, as we now have remote events that you can join from anywhere!

In a world without in-person gatherings, alumni chapters require adaptations to continue supporting and connecting Reed alumni. We’ve taken

12 Reed Magazine december 2020

our TTTs and book clubs and so forth to Zoom, and the experience has been positive. One of the advantages of this approach is interaction between alumni from different chapter cities. A recent TTT organized to support Black-owned businesses in our areas had alumni from New York, D.C., Oregon, and Washington all online at the same time.

It was a great chance to connect with alumni who I’d normally have trouble getting to join me at a bar in New York.

I know alumni chapters might not be top-of-mind at the moment, but I hope you consider joining an event or reaching out to connect to your chapter. You can find contact information for each chapter at alumni.reed.edu, and if you don’t live in a chapter city or region, let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you feel more connected to Reed and other alumni.

We’re all in this together, and we’re going to keep working to bring Reedies together, in whatever ways we can!

Andrei Stephens ’08 Chair, Chapter Leadership Committee andrei@alumni.reed.edu

NOMINATION NATION The nominating committee of the board of directors of the alumni association proposes the following nominees to serve terms on the alumni board beginning July 1, 2021: Nominee for Alumni Trustee: Michael Axley ’89 Nominee for President: alea adigweme ’06 Nominee for Vice President: Dave Baxter ’87 Nominee for Secretary: Dylan Rivera ’95 Nominees for At-Large Director:

Carmen García Durazo ’11, Ian Fisher ’07, Katie Halloran ’15, Ashlin Hatch ’17, and Marjorie Skinner ’01 Nominees for Chapter Leadership Council:

Eve Lyons ’95 and Andrei Stephens ’08 Nominees for Nominating Committee for 2020–21: Melissa Osborne ’13 (past president,

chair), alea adigweme ’06 (president), Kate Niedermeyer ’01, Katie Rempe ’05, and Carlie Stolz ’13 Please find additional details on the nominees and petition process on alumni.reed.edu.

photo by lauren labarre

Connect with Your Chapters!

Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives The Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the alumni board has taken on several exciting new projects over the past several months, including the adoption of the following new formal mission statement: The Diversity and Inclusion Committee (DIC) of the Reed College Alumni Board works in partnership with Alumni Programs to reach, engage, and support Reed’s diverse alumni. Our mission is to center anti-oppressive, intersectional, and liberatory practices: to create alumni spaces that recognize past harm and encourage healing and uplift; to promote college programming with an emphasis on equity and justice; and, to build a strong sense of community and (re)connection among alumni and students from historically marginalized and minoritized backgrounds.

In addition to expanding its mission statement, the DIC has built a robust presence on the Alumni Programs web page to

encourage broader awareness of the committee’s work, provide racial justice resources, and identify how alumni can get involved.

Visit alumni@reed.edu to learn more.

Finally, a cornerstone project of the DIC this year has been founding three identity-based affinity groups: the Alumni of Color Network, the LGBTQIA2S+ Alumni Network, and the First-Gen Alumni Network. The networks seek to make space for connection, visibility, information sharing, networking, and education among and between alumni from diverse backgrounds, as well as to build mentorship pipelines with current students and work with Alumni Programs and the DIC to develop relevant programming and events for their members.

If you’re interested in getting involved with the DIC and/or joining an affinity network, please email alumni@reed.edu.

Legal Network Update The Legal Network sponsored two alumni events this past March around the Oregon Supreme Court oral argument by Bear Wilner-Nugent ’95 made on behalf of his client in State of Oregon v. Micus Ward. This case involved questions of Miranda rights waiver and the constitutionality of sentencing an intellectually disabled defendant for life without the possibility of parole.

Several days before the case, Bear, Darlene Pasieczny ’01, and Laura Graser ’73 met with current students to talk about the case, and then a group of students and alumni attended Bear’s oral argument at Lewis & Clark Law School. Bear made a strong case before the seven justices (including Chris Garrett ’96 and Trustee Adrienne Nelson) and afterwards hosted a Q&A. At Virtual Reunions in June, the Legal Network hosted a meet and greet event.

Andrew Schpak ’01 and Darlene Pasieczny provided an overview of the group’s activities and introduced the alumni speakers.

Avy Mallik ’07 talked about his experiences as a law student and public-interest attorney working on the foreclosure crisis during the Great Recession. In addition, David Gossett ’91 shared stories of working as a Supreme Court litigator in private practice, as a lawyer at the FCC and the CFPB, and in his current private practice focusing on the regulation of the tech industry.

The Legal Network launched the Legal Education Access Fund (LEAF) in 2019, which supports students interested in the law with financial assistance to defray the cost of LSAT test fees and preparation courses, as well as law school application fees. To make a gift to the fund, simply note LEAF in the Reasons for Giving section of your donation.

Want to get involved with the Legal Network? Visit our page on alumni.reed. edu for more information or email alumni@reed.edu to get connected.

REED CAREER ALLIANCE The Reed Career Alliance (RCA) committee of the Alumni Board is here to help you with all things careerrelated. The RCA recently began tapping the wealth of alumni professional experience across different careers through a new series of structured Zoom panel dialogues for the alumni community. The series began with a Reedpreneurs event over the summer, and also hosted a Reed in the World panel featuring alumni working internationally this past October. If you missed these panels, check out Reed Remote on alumni.reed.edu for the recordings.

Stay tuned for more coming your way over the course of the year.

The RCA’s Alumni Career Coaches offer flexible coaching to any alumni who would like career help. Coaches can help with questions about Reed resources, provide a welcoming introduction to the professional networks that our great Reed community offers, review resumes, or brainstorm career questions. More information on how to get help (as well as additional resources) can be found on the career resources page of alumni.reed.edu.

Don’t forget to connect with other Reedies in your career field through our professional networks! The Reed Legal Network is very active through events and also recently launched a referral database in the Alumni Directory for anyone needing to find a lawyer. Not a member of the Reed College Alumni Professional Network on LinkedIn yet? Find more than 3,000 alumni there. We’re also launching two new networks in the fields of journalism and publishing. Want to get involved? Email alumni@reed.edu and help build them.

The RCA is always looking for more alumni volunteers to help us with these initiatives. Email alumni@reed.edu to get connected.

Michael McGreevey ’03 and Govind Nair ’83 Cochairs, Reed Career Alliance

Reed Magazine december 2020 13

TEACHING SMARTER

Reed’s conference method is a transformative experience for students—but requires painstaking preparation by professors.

Reed’s Center for Teaching and Learning helps professors stay on top of their game.

BY ROMEL HERNANDEZ

When Prof. Charlene Makley joined the Reed anthropology faculty 20 years ago, she knew she was taking a job at a college that prided itself on a rigorous undergraduate education. When she arrived, however, she was shocked to discover a dearth of campus resources to promote teaching excellence.

“Despite Reed’s reputation, there was almost no support—junior faculty were pretty much on their own,” Prof. Makley recalls.

“It was sink or swim. You were told that the students would teach you how to teach.”

Today Reed’s Center for Teaching and Learning is in its seventh year of helping professors become outstanding teachers. The center serves as the campus hub for faculty seeking guidance, support, and resources to get the most from themselves and their students.

Since the pandemic, the center has proven invaluable in helping professors adjust to virtual instruction.

“The center has become an essential part of the college,” says Makley, who participated

14 Reed Magazine december 2020

in early campus discussions that culminated in its creation. “It’s a place for faculty to build community.”

As Reed’s student body grows increasingly diverse by almost every definition, the center plays a critical role ensuring that pedagogical practices reflect the college’s commitment to inclusivity. If professors are going to be prepared to engage today’s students, they need to understand them.

“From the very beginning the center has focused on pedagogy and inclusivity as a single concept,” says Prof. Kathy Oleson, the inaugural director of the CTL and now the dean of the faculty. “To me that means faculty should always be thinking about how to make sure their students are thriving in their classrooms. My hope is that faculty who may not have been involved with the center’s programming until the pandemic will now see that it is an essential, everyday part of the world at Reed.”

In recent years the center has offered workshops such as “Fostering a Sense of Belonging for Students,” “Power and

Engagement in Classroom Dynamics,” and a three-session offering of “Campus Climate: Inclusion without Coddling.” Roughly half of faculty participate in CTL workshops in any given year.

“The center brings together faculty and coordinates conversations where they can share ideas and strategies about what makes great teaching,” says Prof. Tamara Metz, the center’s director and an associate professor of political science. “The work we had to do over the past spring and summer was based on that same approach, even as we made an incredibly dramatic shift in how we were teaching.”

When on-campus instruction shut down abruptly in March due to the pandemic, the center shifted into overdrive to train faculty in online instruction. Over the summer the center continued its efforts, so that Reed could offer a hybrid model of in-person and online classes in the fall.

So far 80% of Reed’s professors have participated in the center’s workshops on online instruction. The sessions focus less on

p h o t o b y a n n a h a r r i s , p r e pa n d e m i c

the nuts and bolts of technology like Zoom or Moodle (that’s the job of Computing & Information Services), and more on strategies for fostering student engagement in the vast, sometimes cold, reaches of cyberspace.

Workshops cover subjects such as redesigning courses for online delivery; managing asynchronous teaching for students in farflung time zones; accommodating students with disabilities; and supervising remote exams and projects, including the daunting senior thesis.

“I doubt anyone at Reed ever imagined we’d be doing online education,” says Prof. Kyle Ormsby, associate professor of mathematics. “The center has been amazing for crowdsourcing information and ideas.”

Reed’s culture revolves around the dynamic between faculty and students. That’s in sharp contrast to the prevailing trend in American higher education, which typically isn’t geared to reinforce or reward excellence in teaching. PhD programs tend to focus on developing scholars and researchers, not educators. Many institutions make tenure decisions based on junior faculty’s record in securing grants and publishing scholarly work,

and give short shrift to teaching. As a result, professors are obliged to “learn on the job” how to teach. The results are painfully predictable—while some shine from the start, many struggle.

“I don’t believe in natural-born teachers— you have to work at being a good teacher,” Prof. Metz says. “You always want to improve your craft, whether it’s your first year teaching or you’ve been doing it 20 years.”

After earning her doctorate in political philosophy, Metz spent a postdoc year at Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, one of the country’s leading proponents of excellence and innovation in higher education. She’s directed the CTL at Reed center for three years, focusing on pedagogy while expanding collaborations with the offices of the dean of the faculty, institutional diversity, and disability services.

Reed launched the CTL in September 2014 thanks to a generous gift from the late Dan Kemp ’58, a legendary chemist at MIT who won several awards for undergraduate teaching and who never forgot the inspirational teaching he received at Reed from Prof.

Arthur Scott [chemistry 1923–79].

Workshops at the CTL are designed to support faculty members at all levels of experience. Participation is voluntary; some professors take part as a way to stay fresh, while others may attend a session to fine-tune or update their skills in a particular area.

The center offers a range of brainstorming sessions, seminars, symposia, and one-onone consultations. Professors can ask colleagues or students to observe their classes to provide feedback.

Prof. Ormsby credits a workshop in “transparent course design” for getting him to rethink how math, a subject with a reputation for being scary and intense, could be made more student-centered and accessible.

“The traditional approach was always, ‘I’m the professor, here’s the lecture, here’s the homework, here’s the test—good luck,’” he says. “Now I’m better able to create a learning community around the student perspective, so they clearly understand the syllabus and assignments and how everything fits together.”

History professor Margot Minardi was an early adopter of the CTL. She has participated in the center’s Student Teaching Consultant program, which enlists students to sit in on classes to observe and offer input to professors, as well as the newer Faculty Peer Observation and Feedback program.

While Prof. Minardi is widely regarded on campus as a stellar teacher, she doesn’t take anything for granted.

“Knowing that there is going to be another set of eyes in your classroom—someone asking you, ‘Why did you do that?’—forces you to be more rigorous and intentional about the choices you’re making,” she says.

“Overall, the center brings a different dimension to the culture at Reed, where you get faculty as well as students thinking critically and collaboratively about teaching and learning.”

GO DEEPER Find out more about the Center for Teaching and Learning at www.reed.edu/ctl.

Learn about the remarkable life and career of Dan Kemp ’58 at bit.ly/dankemp58

Reed Magazine december 2020 15

FEAR AND FREEDOM IN THE LAND OF AIDS Target of censors, Robert Chesley ’65 celebrated sexuality amid a landscape of repression.

BY RANDALL S. BARTON

A passionate advocate for gay rights, Robert and counseling. The work with Prof. Seth Chesley wrote plays that celebrated sexual lib- Ulman [theatre and literature 1959–73] was eration and dramatized the physical, emotion- the best part of my education—for no acaal, and spiritual toll AIDS wreaked on the gay demic credit, of course.” community in the 1980s. Fear, he said—and The expectations of family and society had not AIDS—was his subject. pushed him deeply into the closet. When he He was born in 1943 in Jersey City, New graduated from Reed, he married his first cousJersey, to a family of privilege. His father was in, Jean Rusch, and they settled in upstate New a physician, and his mother was a socialite York, where Robert taught at a private school. and a socialist who taught Robert that the The couple was emotionally close, but quickly rights of one are the rights of all. When they settled into a sexless marriage. divorced in 1948, Robert moved “In some ways,” he said, “I had with his mother and sister to always been aware of being homoPasadena, California. He knew he sexual, and I had been unable to was gay by the time he was four, face this . . . getting married made though he didn’t have the the lanit the more difficult to face, as I guage skills to identify as such. had then involved another per“My first memories were sissy,” son—who was and is very dear he said, “wanting to play with the to me—in my self-deception. I girls and with the girls’ things. Of went through a stage in which I course you don’t get any support planned to remain sexually inacfor being sissy in our culture.” tive as, after all, I was married and Bullied throughout his youth, Robert Chesley wrote 10 very much in love with my wife.” he took solace in playing and com- full-length plays, 21 one-act During the years he was plays, and more than 60 posing music, and through music pieces of music. married to Jean and taught at made friends. At Reed, he became the school, Robert composed an enthusiastic and serious memmore than 60 pieces of music, ber of the folk dancing group as both a per- including songs for solo voices and choral former and a choreographer. “He was the only works. He frequently set music to texts member of the group who helped me with by poets such as Emily Dickinson, Willa the choreographies, which I especially appre- Cather, James Agee, Walter de la Mare, ciated,” says Jim Kahan ’64. “He was a kind, Gertrude Stein, and Walt Whitman. His gentle soul.” instrumental works include the score to Robert majored in music and wrote his a film by Erich Kollmar. thesis, “A Study of Tonal Structure and Form In 1975, at the age of 32, Robert had sex in Three Works of Prokofiev,” advised by Prof. with a man. He ended his marriage and came Mark DeVoto [music 1964–68]. out at the private school where he had been “Reed (in my time) was certainly for the teaching for nine years. Though he had been extraordinarily self-motivated kid,” he wrote a valued member of the community, many later. “I probably should have been in a college now saw him not as “Robert” but as “the which offered one helluva lot more guidance homosexual.” But he found it liberating to

16 Reed Magazine december 2020

Rick Gerharte

be open. “It is more than enjoyable,” he said, “It is also healthy to be openly what one is.”

Resigning from his position at the school, he moved to New York City and immersed himself in the gay rights movement.

That movement had been catalyzed six years before by the Stonewall riots—six days of rioting that followed a police raid on a gay dive bar called the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street. After Stonewall, the movement changed course; instead of trying to gain civil rights without upsetting the larger culture, groups such as the Gay Liberation Front adopted in-your-face tactics. Coming out became more than a personal decision; it was a revolutionary political act.

Robert abandoned himself to the pleasures of sex and embraced kinks and fetishes—like an obsession with spandex and tights. Gay sex, he believed, was a language gay men used to develop their identities and form community. He began writing essays and criticism for the Gay Community News, the Advocate, Gaysweek, the San Francisco Review of Books, the Bay Guardian, and the New York Native. “Gay pride is self acceptance,” he wrote, “without shame of one’s sexuality—a willingness to be as open about one’s sexuality, life, and loves as heterosexuals are about theirs.”

Robert believed in the political power of theatre. He founded the 3-Dollar Bill Theater in New York City and began writing plays.

In 1976, he moved to San Francisco and became theatre critic at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. As he roamed the city, he was often seen wearing a pink triangle on a black background pinned to his shirt or jacket— a defiant reproduction of the symbol that gays were forced to wear in Nazi Germany.

His first play to be produced was a oneact titled Hell, I Love You, which played at San Francisco’s 112-seat Theatre Rhinoceros in 1980. Robert’s plays were performed by gay theatre companies across the country and overseas. Night Sweat, produced in 1984,

Reed Magazine december 2020 17

was the first play dealing with AIDS to be staged in New York. At once tragic, funny, and erotic, it spoke to the reactions of fear, isolation, and self-hatred elicited by the AIDS crisis and had extended runs in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Stray Dog Story was published that same year. Robert sent a copy to Reed, writing: “The play had a four-month run last year at New York’s (off-Off Broadway) Meridian Gay Theatre. A production of it opens this week in, of all places, Portland, Oregon; but no one involved with that production has had the courtesy (or, perhaps, the time) to contact me with any details as to where and when—my impression is that it will be staged at the local leather bar, where there have been productions of other gay plays which, I hear, have been pretty good.”

His work struck a deep chord with his audience. “It is our lives that Chesley takes as his subject, our pain that he articulates, our joy that he articulates, our pride that he makes palpable, our joy that he crystallizes, our guilt that he exorcises, our devastation that he makes us face all over again . . .” wrote David Stein, in GMSMA NewsLink.

His commitment to staging graphic gay sex scenes prevented Robert’s works from

Rick Gerharte

ROBERT CHESLEY CONT.

NO TIME FOR HINDSIGHT. Robert’s work struck a deep chord with his audience.

lished—as well as erotic short stories, editorial essays, news articles, and two novels.

Robert formed a relationship with Gene Weber, a gay financial advisor/stockbroker in the Castro District. They traveled together to see Robert’s plays performed in London; New York; Chicago; Alberta, Canada; Portland; and Columbus, Ohio. Both were devoted to the hypermasculine, role-playing leather scene and the hardcore sex reflect-

“I DON’T BELIEVE IN CREEDS. I’M A HUMANIST RENEGADE.” crossing over into the commercial mainstream—and shocked censors. In 1986, the Federal Communications Commission asked that the Justice Department prosecute Los Angeles radio station KPFK for broadcasting Robert’s play Jerker, in which two men fall in love after having phone sex and live happily until one of them dies of AIDS. The Justice Department ultimately dropped the charges, and the play was was performed in Los Angeles, London, Toronto, and other cities throughout the United States.

Weighing in on the controversy, Robert sent Reed a copy of Jerker. “In my opinion,” he wrote, “and in the opinion of others, this idiocy of the FCC is disastrous and arguably lethal in a time when frank discussion of sexual matters can save lives. Anyway, if you’d like to be offended in the privacy of your own home, the play is now available.”

In his relatively short career, he created 10 full-length plays and 21 one-act plays— most of which were never produced or pub-

18 Reed Magazine december 2020

ed in his sexually explicit plays.

“My self-esteem comes from my dedication to the gay community and to erotic liberation—a more basic issue,” Robert said. “I don’t believe in creeds. I’m a humanist renegade. What is important to me is figuring things out for myself: acting properly, ethically; offering good to the world.”

In 1982, scientists identified the virus that caused the disease hitherto referred to as “gay cancer,” which had begun affecting San Francisco’s gay community in the late 1970s.

With the discovery of the HTLV-III virus (now known as HIV) in 1984, it became clear that AIDS was caused by a retrovirus—not sexual preference.

Robert used theatre to convey his view that sexual behavior was self-destructive only when driven by impulses such as self-hatred. The gay rights movement had been spurred by the sexual liberation of gay men in the 1970s.

The days of unprotected, anonymous encounters might be over, but that did not mean that

the ways men had established intimacy during the ’70s should be viewed with disdain.

“The basic issue is erotic rights,” says a character in his play Come Again. “We’ve gotta be up front about that, no matter how unpopular the issue is now. There’s no point in trying to get our other rights while ignoring the basic reason we’re denied them!”

University of Maryland scholar Rebecca Gavrila analyzed Robert’s work for her PhD dissertation in 2014. “Chesley was writing his histories of San Francisco, and his memories of people lost, as it was happening,” she wrote. “He was not given the time, literally, for hindsight.”

Robert was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988.

He bore his status proudly, often wearing as little clothing as possible, so his lesions and gaunt appearance were unavoidable. After a battle of almost three years, the lesions reached his lungs. He died in 1990 at the age of 47.

AIDS may have killed Robert, but it did not silence him. The Robert Chesley Award for Lesbian and Gay Playwriting, given annually

by Publishing Triangle, is named in his honor.

Last year, the New York Philharmonic presented a three-week festival, “Music of Conscience,” that included a concert focusing on young composers who had died of AIDS. One of the works performed was Robert’s song “Autumn.”

GO FURTHER Listen to a recording of “Autumn” at https://bit.ly/ autumn-chesley

Alumni support has a direct and profound impact on Reed students—especially during this time of global uncertainty. The consistency of that support matters.

The Loyal Owl Society recognizes the steadfast support of alumni who give to Reed every year for three or more consecutive years.

Confirm your membership in the 2021 Loyal Owl Society by renewing your gift today. Reed students need the support of Loyal Owls every year, but you are especially vital to the college right now.

GI V I NG.R E E D.E DU

ALASKA CALLING Recently rediscovered Alaskan folk singer Mairiis “Mossy” Kilcher ’66 has her regrets. Her life-changing time at Reed is not among them.

BY CASEY JARMAN

photo by rugile Kaladyte

Mossy Kilcher is yelling at her dog, who has run under the porch. “I’m sorry about this,” she says into the speakerphone from her home on an organic farm she runs just outside of Homer, Alaska. “She went under my deck and now I don’t know what she’s gonna do.”

Alaskan farm life is not always glamorous, but it’s the life she loves, and the one she keeps coming home to. This despite her famous niece (Jewel Kilcher; yes, that Jewel) regularly pleading with her to come record her songs in a Nashville studio. Despite recently being profiled in the New York Times and featured on the influential Aquarium Drunkard music blog. Despite her sole album, 1977’s Northwind Calling, being prized by outsider folk aficionados and then digitally reissued this summer by the acclaimed Tompkins Square label. Despite the fact that she has more to say and, at 78 years old, she feels she is running out of time.

Alaska, though, has always held her heart.

From a young age, she felt as though she belonged to the land there, that it was in her. She would take notes on local wildlife, record bird songs, climb trees. She was feral in a way that confounded even her settler father, who came to the Alaskan frontier from Switzerland during World War II, years before Alaska achieved statehood. The Kilchers came to Alaska with the dream of building a utopian commune, but to a young Mossy, it

Mossy runs an organic farm just outside of Homer, Alaska.

Reed Magazine december 2020 21

Mossy in 1962 taking a break from canning king crab in Kodiak, Alaska. She enrolled at Reed later that year, paying her way with money she saved from cannery jobs.

ALASKA CALLING CONT. was still a dream built on taming the land— of “bending it to your will,” as she says. She wanted the wilderness to stay untamed. “I would’ve been an ecoterrorist, had they been around in those days,” she says. “I would have lived in a tree for 40 years.”

Her nature-child disposition earned her the lifelong nickname “Mossy,” but it was tempered by her parents’ insistence that their children become world citizens. Her father spoke seven languages; her mother was an opera singer. Their house was full of books and music. Even before electricity came to their cabin, the family had a handcranked record player they’d gather around to hear 78 rpm LPs of Mozart and international folk songs. When she was 14, the family took a two-year journey to Switzerland that would broaden both her educational and cultural horizons. This was where she saw her first real concert, which featured the famed Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia.

His playing blew her away, convincing her to take classical guitar lessons that she would make use of 20 years later, while recording her album. Though she didn’t often perform publicly, songwriting became a lifelong practice for her. She taught her younger brother

22 Reed Magazine december 2020

Atz to play guitar, as well. He would later teach his daughter, Jewel.

Returning to rural Alaska from Switzerland was a new sort of culture shock. All the girls with collegiate ambitions seemed to dream of becoming secretaries or typists. Mossy was having none of it. She let her grades falter before dropping out entirely, later piecing together her GED. She “drifted,” a word she often uses when describing her life, down to Anchorage, where she took waitressing jobs.

Then, when she was 20, a stranger namedropped Reed in casual conversation, as a place she might fit in. The conversation moved her to apply to a handful of schools, including Reed, but the only letters that came back were rejections. Mossy drifted again, taking seasonal jobs at canneries along the Alaskan coast. That blue-collar life suited her just fine.

“Canning was the perfect job for me, because I didn’t have to dress up,” she says. “I made three bucks an hour and I could save up my money to be a traveling bum.”

One afternoon, while she was canning king crab in Kodiak, her work day was interrupted. “The boss comes in and says ‘There was a call for you, from Reed College. They want you to come up to the high school and write an essay,’” she remembers. “So I go up there with my cannery boots on. I smell like crab. And I write this random essay from

the top of my head—I just figured, ‘What can I lose?’ And sure enough, I got an acceptance letter from Reed: based on the essay, not my grades.”

She came to Reed and got exactly what she needed: an influential professor whom she connected with and who shaped the way she thinks about the world, her place in it, and the contributions she might make.

In typical Reedie fashion, that life wasn’t a common one—she blazed her own trail as an artist, activist, writer, and thinker.

Paying for her first year with money she’d saved from cannery jobs, she enrolled as a 21-year-old freshman in 1962. From the start, she felt “like an odd duck.” It wasn’t the school’s progressive reputation (“I grew up in a very radical household”) that gave her pause—she just didn’t feel comfortable around her younger classmates, many of whom she found both more privileged and less worldly than she was.

Most of all, she was homesick. If hiking trips on the Oregon coast reminded her of Alaska, they only made the longing worse.

She might not have made it a full year at Reed, but for one teacher—Prof. Lloyd Reynolds [English and art 1929–69]. She remembers him as a philosopher whose class was well worth all of her savings. “He took me under his wing,” she says of the beloved

Mossy in 1977, the year her album was released.

professor and world-renowned calligrapher. raising a family. She continued to docuThey talked about art and about Carl Jung, ment bird migrations and songs in recordbut Reynolds also showed a deep interest ings (that now take up terabytes of hard in her stories of growing up on the edge of drive space, a practice that has led her to the Alaskan wilderness. That participate in conferences interest, she says, “helped and earned her an invite to me stay true to myself.” speak at the Smithsonian “I shared with him that I Institution). All the while, was very depressed a couple inspired by her connection of times,” says Mossy, who to the land and wild spacfelt unsure of her future. es, she was writing songs— Reynolds’s response would a relatively private practice change the way she looked that had been important to at her life. “You’re not a sumher since her teenage years. mer squash,” he told her.

At 35 years old, she “You’re a tree, and a tree takes recorded Northwind Calling a long time to grow.” under her then married It was advice that would name, Mossy Davidson. The shape the course of her life, album, a double LP, is a loveand help her find her unique ly and unguarded collection interests and influence in of love songs that are more the world. Her Reed experioften about places and anience “was liberating for me mals in her home state than in many ways,” she says. “It they are about people. Sparse was a great place to spread Mossy (then Davidson) Kilcher’s but warm, often overdubbed double LP, Northwind Calling was my wings of independence released in 1977 (top). It has recently with her own field recordand try on a different, new been rereleased by the Tompkins ings, they still sound wholly Square label. hat. For example, I came back unique. The New York Times wearing a serape as a headnotes that the album, “writband. My dad accused me of being a beatnik!” ten in part before Alaska became a state, [is] She decided to leave Reed in 1963, at a striking reminder of the primitive function the end of her first year. “Back to cold, hard of folk music . . . informed by Swiss standards reality” at Alaskan canneries, she recalls. and the Alan Lomax field recordings.” “Little “And I loved every minute of it.” She might Brown Violins,” a particularly loving tribute describe some of the ensuing years as drift- to the hermit thrush, sounds almost patriotic. ing—she frequently went up and down the Her classical guitar chops on the baroque “Fox West Coast on hitchhiking trips—but they Sparrow,” another bird song, imbue it with a also included environmental activism and deep sadness as her lyrics wonder whether

the titular bird will be around for future generations to hear.

Northwind Calling was not a commercial success, nor was it ever intended to be.

It did, however, add to the Kilcher family’s mythical reputation in her home state and later became a hard-to-find cult favorite among folk music aficionados. Jewel recorded Mossy’s “Day Dream Land,” one of the first songs the star ever learned, for her children’s album Lullaby in 2009.

It remains a mystery—even to Mossy herself—why she never went back into the studio.

“I went to counseling about it,” she admits.

“At my age, can you believe it?”

“I think I’m overwhelmed at the thought that I’ll disappoint myself. That I’ll fall short,” she says. Like many artists, she talks about feeling like the music is coming through her rather than from her. She likens it to soapstone carving, which was her favorite creative practice and a successful side job for years until carpal tunnel in her hands made her stop. “You put all your energy into it, and you kind of go into a different realm.

Then when somebody walks in the door it jerks you back out, like through a wormhole, and you have to go back to this other world.

It’s all discombobulating, and it takes a lot of energy going back and forth.”

At 78, Mossy is now a year older than her mother was when she died. Mortality has been on her mind. Still fiercely independent, still powerfully attached to the land, she admits that she often chooses comfort over adventure these days. Still, she yearns for something—or someone—to take her out of that comfort zone and stick her back in a recording studio. “If you came to Alaska right now and said, ‘Mossy, I just paid for a studio session, you come on tomorrow ready or not, bring your guitar, we’re going to record,’” she says, before rattling off a checklist of the kinds of session players who might show up to this imaginary studio date. Then she snaps into a more determined tone. “You know, that’s what I’ve got to do. I just gotta do that.”

It’s heartening, in a way, to hear an artist at Mossy’s age still fighting with procrastination and self-doubt. It makes a little more sense of Northwind Calling, an album that seems both wise beyond its years and utterly childlike.

Mossy Kilcher is no summer squash.

Mossy Kilcher is a tree, and trees take a long time to grow.

Reed Magazine december 2020 23

The Catalyst in the Chemistry Department Prof. Kelly Chacón on life, death, and heavy metal.

BY BRANDON ZERO ’11

It could have turned out very differently for Prof. Kelly Chacón.

At 23, she was working at Hoda’s Middle Eastern Cuisine on SE Belmont Street while finishing up general education prereqs at Mount Hood Community College: basic math, English, biology. The plan? Leverage her recently earned GED towards an associate’s degree and become a nurse.

She still remembers the fateful day she pivoted toward the path to become a fastrising scientist scoring awards worth nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. She was sitting in a lecture hall when a professor (who also happened to work for Beaver Mustard) took the floor to discuss the famous 1952 Miller-Urey experiment, where investigators attempted to recreate the chemical origins of life on earth. It blew her mind.

“I thought, ‘Are you serious? This is something people can study?’”

Chacón transferred to Portland State University before finishing her associate’s degree, taking classes in chemistry that prodded her to lobby professors for desks in their research labs. Work as a lab tech led her to graduate school and a passion for discovering the unknown.

“It felt strange that that could be accessible to a person like me. My grandmother

24 Reed Magazine december 2020

celeste noche

Reed Magazine  december 2020 25

The Catalyst in the Chemistry Department cont. couldn’t read,” she said. “I wanted to figure out how far I could get before it got too hard, and it just didn’t.”

Now an assistant professor of chemistry at Reed, Chacón earned national recognition this year by winning a prestigious $650,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The grant targets early-career scientists with a special talent for research and education.

“The NSF CAREER award is immensely prestigious, says her colleague in the department, Prof. Miriam Bowring. “Kelly runs an incredibly impressive undergraduate research program, working at the cutting edge of bioinorganic spectroscopy to

code for tellurium-detoxifying proteins into bacteria. After the bacteria reproduced, the Reedies extracted these proteins in order to begin to figure out which proteins and amino acids, exactly, may be responsible for the feat.

Tellurium is often mined as a byproduct of copper, creating further applications for the research. If the Te-drinking bacteria can render the metal inert and therefore nontoxic at the site of production, could miners extract it more safely? More efficiently?

And as products containing tellurium near the end of their usefulness, might the bacteria naturally recycle the stuff?

The biochemistry of tellurium represents

Prof. Chacón dropped out of high school. Then a lecture at community college changed her life. identify and answer fundamental scientific questions. She’s an accomplished researcher, mentor, colleague, and teacher who brings to all those roles an especially important perspective as a queer Latinx first-gen lowSES scientist.”

Prof. Arthur Glasfeld agrees. “Within the sciences this is the highest award standardly given to pretenure faculty,” he says.

“This is a big deal. You’re only going to get it if you’ve been rocking on research and teaching commitment.”

Drinking Te

The grant centers on tellurium, a heavy metal increasingly used in the backbone of our technological infrastructure. The fiber cables delivering signals to your internet router, the memory chips powering your laptop, and the solar panels coming to a green roof near you all contain the big “Te,” thanks to its conductive properties. Unfortunately, tellurium ions are highly toxic, and tellurium contamination is becoming more widespread as demand for the element increases.

Chacón’s research focuses on the biochemical mechanisms that allow certain kinds of bacteria to digest toxic forms of tellurium ions and render them chemically inert. Students in her Biochemical Methods course inserted circular strands of DNA that

26 Reed Magazine december 2020

a frontier science. A search on PubMed (a database that contains more than 30 million citations) returns a whopping 178 articles. But the field’s relative greenness is an attraction for Chacón, who was drawn to chemistry by the possibility of making an original contribution.

In the lab and in the classroom, she is a proponent of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE)—an educational strategy that demands that students build everything from the ground up. Their own lines of inquiry, their own solutions, and their own titrates. That means no premeasured solvents come lab time. And an iterative approach to problem-solving that advocates say is better at inspiring scientific intuition than traditional approaches to chemistry.

Prof. Chacón is proud that her students laid the groundwork for her NSF grant. Last year Segovia Garcia ’21, who is majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, did an independent study contributing to Chacón’s proposal. Working with bacterial proteins? Doable. With fatty bacterial proteins? Here’s where it gets messy: the fat makes expressed proteins difficult to handle and test using typical methods derived for water-based environments. So difficult, in fact, that Garcia scored the critical protein

expression only just in time for Chacón to submit the proposal two days later.

When the comments from her grant proposal came back, reviewers made pointed references to the uneven quality of some student-prepared gels. The criticism didn’t bother her at all. Having undergrads build and run a lab from its inventory to final results pays off in ways that are far more profound.

“It’s as if they’re starting their first day as grad students,” she says. “They start realizing that it’s in them, and become empowered to come up with imaginative ideas because they’re not waiting on me.”

celeste noche

This approach certainly worked for Garcia.

“Kelly is in large part the reason why I consider myself a competent and relatively independent scientist,” she says. “She gave me a spot in her lab when I had almost no prior experience and let me run free. Instead of monitoring my every move like most professors would with a sophomore student, she taught me how to RTFM (read the f***ing manual), troubleshoot effectively, and get creative with my knowledge and resources in order to answer scientific questions.”

Prof. Chacón also mentors historically underserved students in North Portland

and is a vocal advocate for inclusion, both in the field of chemistry and in higher education. “Kelly is an incredibly caring and knowledgeable person,” says Garcia. “She always showed immense concern and interest in the wellbeing of her students. She is a holistic mentor in that I know I can come to her with almost any problem (personal, academic, social, etc) and receive an honest answer devoid of judgement with my best interests in mind.”

Last year, Chacón sent out a call for proposals for LGBTQ and minority graduate students to come to Reed to give a talk on

their research. Floored by the response—she received nearly a thousand expressions of interest—she decided to create a two-day conference as part of the NSF grant. This time, instead of inviting a single graduate student, Reed will have funds to invite several young scholars. And the focus will shift as well. Alongside talks on their research projects that showcase their work as scholars, the grad students will share coping strategies for thriving in higher ed—another demonstration, if you will, of creative synthesis in science.

Reed Magazine december 2020 27

Reediana Books. Music. Film. Send us your work!

EDITED BY KATIE PELLETIER Email reed.magazine@reed.edu

The Great Offshore Grounds

By Vanessa Veselka ’10

28 Reed Magazine december 2020

At first the story looks like a simple quest. Cheyenne and Livy’s wealthy father, Cyril, invites them to his wedding, promising a gift. They’re hoping for money or real estate, but the gift turns out to be the name and last known address of their other mother, at a monastery in Montana. A road trip ensues.

But the path never leads where you think it will. The trip is a bust; Livy and Cheyenne part ways.

They roam far and wide, miserably, both feeling trapped in the story they were born into, that inherited myth of the North Star. Essex, meanwhile, has the opposite problem: kicked out of his own story early, he’s so desperate to be part of something that he joins the marines. He also has the minor problem of being in love with Cheyenne.

Veselka’s most remarkable feat here is painting a gorgeous, expansive backdrop of endless land and open water, then making her characters feel claustrophobic in it. As Cheyenne and Livy wander, searching and chafing, we see that the world they’re wandering in was shaped almost entirely by people who did escape their history, who jumped into a different story and made it their own: immigrants, explorers, soldiers, sailors. The sisters encounter several examples, both living and ghostly. But will they be able to break themselves free and do the same?

Livy, a fisherwoman, finds work as a sailor on a tall ship replica. (The author’s research involved training on an 1812 replica warship called the Niagara—including a terrifyingsounding episode of swinging from

marne lucas

How are you supposed to find your way in the world if you have no idea where you came from? And does it even matter, if circumstances dictate your fate? These are the central questions in The Great Offshore Grounds, the enormous, wide-ranging new novel by Vanessa Veselka ’10.

Veselka’s first novel, Zazen (2011), won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction; her new one was longlisted for the National Book Award. It’s both a fastmoving adventure story (tornadoes, shipwrecks, and cross-country road trips) and a thought-provoking treatise on the tyranny of history and the difficulty of finding your own path when your story seems prewritten.

“The problem of location has never been simple,” Veselka muses, late in the book. “Do you fix a point and aim at wherever you want to go? Or do you locate yourself in relation to the shore, memory, and landmarks?”

Pondering the question, Veselka’s characters cover some serious miles.

Livy and Cheyenne are sisters, both 33, who have the same birthday and absentee father but different mothers: Kirsten, who raised them, and a nameless, free-spirited woman who left them behind, they’re told, to chase the North Star. Laden since childhood with the myth of the runaway mother, they’ve always wondered which of them was hers; Kirsten wouldn’t say. Their adopted brother, Essex, sweet but unformed at 27, joined the family as a kid when Cheyenne found him on the streets and brought him home.

the ship’s crosstrees for several minutes. It’s no wonder these scenes ring true.) Cheyenne, armed with a stack of letters, tracks the mystery mother, now calling herself Justine, to a North Carolina swamp outside a monastery. Justine teaches meditation, harbors zero guilt, and embodies perfect freedom. “I want who I am to have nothing to do with anyone else,” one of her letters says. She tells Cheyenne, “None of us have to carry on a story we don’t want.”

It’s a delight to watch the sisters figure out whether that’s true and, if so, how to write their own story—as Livy says, “charting by history and hearsay.” —BECKY OHLSEN

Memoir of a German Army Officer

Indulgence by Atlantic Union

Being Home: A Southwestern Almanac

Vince Panny [German 1963– 84], an actor on the verge of a successful artistic career when WWII broke out, grapples with the situations he faced, how close he was to significant events, and how he struggled to put his life back together after the war. (BookBaby, 2020)

A blend of folk and Celtic roots, with rich acoustic instrumentation and vocals, the 12th album of original pieces by Dan Rubin ’68, Indulgence, was recorded in collaboration with his partners in the trio Atlantic Union.

See atlanticunion.ca.

The latest book

by Catalina Claussen ’93 is a laugh-outloud story collection made for radio featuring quirky characters shaped by the desert landscape and small-town living in Mimbres Valley, New Mexico.

Claussen captures moments and people that are sure to surprise and entertain. See catalinaclaussenbooks.wordpress.com

Sufism Is Christianized Islam: A Study of Sufism through the Works of Ibn ‘Arabi of Murcia This translation by Wahhab Baldwin ’65 includes a biography of Ibn ‘Arabi (the 13th century Sufi known as “the Greatest Sheikh”), extracts from several of his shorter works, and the author’s argument that Sufism largely emerged through the impact of Christian monasteries in the Islamic world. (CreateSpace, 2017)

Algorithms Are Not Enough Herb Roitblat ’74 explains how artificial general intelligence may be possible and why a robopocalypse is not likely. Since the inception of artificial intelligence, we have been warned about the imminent arrival of computational systems that can replicate human thought processes. Although artificial intelligence has become increasingly sophisticated, computer science has not yet created general artificial intelligence. (MIT Press, 2020)

What’s All the Commotion?

The virus pandemic has brought startling and stressful changes in many children’s lives. When her twin five-yearolds begged her for a book about other children who also had to stay home and miss their friends, essayist Jessie Glenn ’96 couldn’t say no. Her book addresses these changes and answers questions simply and directly with an optimistic outlook. (Eldredge Books, 2020)

Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World Day by day, step by step, in this first book of poetry by Eve Lyons ’95, the poems journey toward what is essential and enduring, to what can be of use. Eve’s work has appeared in Lilith, Literary Mama, Hip Mama, Word Riot, and others.

(WordTech Communications, 2020)

The State of Superior Breesa Culver ’01 and Jason Powers have made an eight-episode storytelling podcast about life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. For Yoopers (residents of the Upper Peninsula), the project is a love letter and a story map. For everyone else, it’s a glimpse into an obscure corner of America. You can find all eight episodes at thestateofsuperior.com, iTunes, and Stitcher.

Infowhelm: Environmental Art and Literature in an Age of Data Heather Houser ’01 studies what happens to scientific information when it enters environmental literature and visual culture. She studies poems, novels, and data visualizations that wrestle with and manage infowhelm, which refers to both the abundance of information available today and the contested and evolving nature of that data when the stakes of acting are enormous.

(Columbia University Press, 2020)

The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer What if everything we think we know about cancer is wrong? Athena Aktipis ’02 argues that the “war on cancer” is ultimately unwinnable. Exploring the latest research into evolution and multicellular cooperation, she proposes an alternative approach to controlling rather than curing cancer and provides a blueprint for how humans can learn to coexist with cancer. (Princeton University Press, 2020)

The Gentle Tarot Mariza Aparicio-Tovar ’09 has illustrated a new tarot deck with hand-drawn art inspired by the natural envrionment, her life in remote areas of Alaska, and her indigenous spiritual background. The deck can be preordered at etsy.com/shop/mariinthesky.

Reed Magazine december 2020 29

Class Notes

These Class Notes reflect information we received by September 15.

The Class Notes deadline for the next issue is December 15.

Class Notes are the lifeblood of Reed Magazine.

While a Reed education confers many special powers, omniscience is unfortunately not among them; your classmates rely on you to tell us what’s going on. So share your news! Tell us about births, deaths, weddings, voyages, adventures, transformations, astonishment, woe, delight, fellowship, discovery, and mischief.

Email us at reed.magazine@reed.edu. Post a note online at iris.reed.edu.

Find us on Facebook via “ReediEnews.” Scribble something in the enclosed return envelope. Or mail us at Reed magazine, Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland OR 97202. Photos are welcome, as are digital images at 300 dpi. And don’t forget the pertinent details: name, class year, and your current address!

left: David Cherry ’62 has some reading recommendations.

EDITED BY JOANNE HOSSACK ’82

1951 70th reunion

The Free Online Robert Richter Film Festival was on Vimeo from May through October of this year. The festival presented 11 programs (16 films) from Bob’s 60-plus-year career as a documentary producer, including the Oscar-nominated The Gifts (1970; about water pollution in the United States, produced for the just-established EPA); Linus Pauling, Crusading Scientist (1977; a biography of the Nobel winner, two of whose children were Reedies); Gods of Metal (1981; about anti–nuclear war activism); and School of the Americas Assassins (1994 about human rights abuses by the U.S. Army School of the Americas). If you’re sorry you missed out, search for “Robert Richter” on Amazon Prime Video or Amazon Movies and TV.

1954

We were pleased to hear from the inimitable Don Green, who (as readers may recall) finally truly earned his Reed BA in 2004, which must be some kind of record.

He was telling us about some of the joys and tribulations of being an arbitrator for FINRA, the Financial Industries Regulatory Authority. Good on you, Don!

30 Reed Magazine december 2020

1956

Mike Munk is still keeping us up to date on the Reedie population at Rose Villa, which now includes resident Steve Morris ’77 as well as personal assistant Kimberly Walch ’90.

1961 60th reunion

Back in 1961, inspired by Father Ed Catich and Prof. Lloyd Reynolds, Bob Ross visited Trajan’s Column in Rome and made rubbings of its famous inscription.

A couple years ago, Bob started work on several projects based on the inscription (see caption). Check out Alphabet, the quarterly of the Friends of Calligraphy, for a fuller description of his adventures.

1962

David Cherry continues his work as an editor and writer for the late Lyndon LaRouche’s Executive Intelligence Review.

He collaborated with Ramasimong Tsokolibane on an article on financing African high-speed rail, reprinted in the Nigerian journal Railway Business, and on another about the ongoing struggle for more nuclear power in South Africa. Rather than sleep at night, he reads world history. Currently it’s the astonishing works of two amazing people—our

contemporary, Yu Qiuyu (especially his Chinese Literary Canon: read the last page first), and the late Shelomo Dov Goitein (especially his work on the Jews of the medieval Mediterranean, A Mediterranean Society: read the volume 5 preface first). The character of these two writers, he says, reminds us that Yes! There is great love in the world! David notes that he soon will be joining his surviving classmates in saying, “. . . of years, fourscore,” insha’allah.

1963

A recent Washington Post article about Portland protest history sent Robbin Henderson to her photo file, where she found two snapshots of an integration march she and other Reedies participated in 60 years ago! “We were encouraged to look neat and serious. A lot of the guys wore suits and ties. I carried a thick book to look ‘scholarly,’” Robbin recalls. “This march was wonderful for me coming from an anti-racist family, and reaffirmed my choice to attend Reed. I rarely saw a Black person in Portland, and I think we

top: TRAIANO is a monumental panel, fully nine feet long, on which Bob Ross ’61 mounted rubbings he made from a replica of the Trajan inscription in Rome.

For three solid years, he practiced letters on sheets of butcher paper until he felt comfortable writing the letters freehand with a brush. In 2019 he painted some of the letters on the panel white. This project has given rise to some marvellous works of calligraphy.

We wish we had room to print them all!

top: Goodbold Building, Marfa, Texas, from the digital project Steve Wax ’65 is working on, Postcards From Pandemic. left: An integration march in Portland in the early 1960s. Left photo, right to left: Colin Frank ’63, Robbin Henderson ’63, and Leann Hinton. On the right, upperclassmen on the courthouse steps include Dave Ragozin ’62 (in the forefront, well supplied with documentation), Steve Lamm ’63 (the shorter flag bearer), Don Engelman ’62 (the taller flag bearer) and possibly Phil Mendershausen ’63. (Let us know if you recognize anyone!)

Sufi and 15 years as an ordained Christian minister, so he decided to make it available in English. (See Reediana.)

Stephen Wax is continuing with digital projects, currently including Postcards From Pandemic. This is a multimedia project featuring dispatches from Stephen P. Williams, an NYC-based writer, as he drives around the United States in the midst of the pandemic and depression.

Williams is interviewing people, talking with them about their feelings and their expectations for the future in relation to the pandemic. He’s also telling his own stories about the places he’s lived along the way, musing on the meaning of his past experiences. Take a look: facebook.com/PostcardsFromPandemic/.

1966 55th reunion

Twelve-year-old Beatles superfan Carol Dryden tries to mail self to Beatles, gets only as far as railway station.

1967

only had one, maybe two, Black students while I was at Reed, so it was surprising that we could mount a protest against discrimination.”

In 1961–62, Bill Pryor and Jim Kahan ’64 lived off campus in a threebedroom attic suite at the east end of the canyon, where they spent many hours talking about psychology, listening to Sibelius, and playing cribbage. They are back together, now playing duplicate bridge at the Portland Bridge Club, where their motto is “55% or bust!”

1964

Demonstrating that old dogs can still learn new tricks, Jim Kahan has an article appearing in fall 2020 in the journal Foresight, “Educating Researchers in the

Metadiscipline of Foresight.” The article, Jim believes, has strong implications for how Reed can maintain its leadership in educational innovation into the 21st century, and is available if you ask him (jimkahan@alumni.reed.edu). He gives a special shoutout to fellow Holiday Party kilt wearer Richard Cellarius ’58, who had the foresight to do many decades ago what Jim recommends in the article.

1965

Wahhab Baldwin has translated into English Sufism Is Christianized Islam, a study of the 13th-century Sufi mystic Ibn ‘Arabi. He found that this book by the Spanish Catholic priest and Islamic scholar Miguel Asín Palacios spoke perfectly to his almost 50 years of being a

David Zeiss spent most of his working life as a member of White Bird Clinic, a human services collective in Eugene, Oregon. In 1989 he helped found (along with Bob Dritz ’67) an innovative 9-1-1-dispatched crisis intervention program called CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), which he managed for 25 years, until his retirement in 2014. He’s still an active member of White Bird’s board of directors.

Because CAHOOTS provides a successful model for a humanistic alternative to police intervention, it has been attracting increasing attention in the news media, both local and national. Coverage has ranged from the Wall Street Journal to Mother Jones, from CNN to CBS, from the New York Times to the LA Times, from the Atlantic to NPR’s All Things Considered. For a listing of recent articles, see “CAHOOTS in the News” on White Bird’s website.

Reed Magazine december 2020 31

Class Notes

1968

After graduating with a major in biology and a minor in music, Dan Rubin moved to Canada and worked as a consulting ecologist, a publisher, and then a teacher. Dan taught in rural schools in Canada, completed a master’s degree in curriculum, and became a school principal in British Columbia; he retired in 2002 after receiving an award for teaching excellence from the prime minister of Canada for his work in rural education and development of programs in support of indigenous language renewal.

Since moving to Newfoundland almost 20 years ago, he has been increasingly involved in gardening, garden design, and food security issues. He is currently project facilitator for the Earth Sheltered Greenhouse Project (funded by Memorial University), a team building an innovative earth-sheltered greenhouse structure that will demonstrate the potential for year-round food production in northern climates. He is also chairperson of the Food Producers Forum, a nonprofit group convened to boost and diversify community-based food production in his adopted province. In addition, Dan has maintained a 50-year career as an author, performer, and recording artist; he has four books in print (www.danrubin.ca) and released his 12th album of original music in March. (See Reediana.)

1969

Glenn Littenberg, MD, is still in fulltime practice of gastroenterology in Pasadena, California, COVID notwithstanding. He notes that 90% of visits are via telehealth and he has a fine collection of masks. Glenn’s practice, originally solo in 1978, now includes 5 in his office, and 60

32 Reed Magazine december 2020

in his group in 20 offices around California—the largest independent gastroenterology group in the state! “I’m honored to be the group’s chief medical officer. I work a lot on health care policy, Medicare policy with my GI medical specialty societies and state medical association, seeking progressive changes in health care. Photography is my passionate avocation. Travels now include Antarctica to Iceland to Sri Lanka; now, just walking around my neighborhood with my iPhone. Maybe next year: New Zealand, Madagascar? Hope so.”

Terri Pease Bentley has retired!

Whee!

1970

Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow.

1971 50th reunion

Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains. And I wonder, still I wonder:

1972

Who’ll stop the rain and send in a class note?

1973

2020 was to have been a year of travel for David Perry. It started with Christmas in Los Angeles to see his brother and middle son; a trip to Natal, Brazil, to visit Glenn W. Erickson ’72 and his family; then to Maryland to see his oldest son and his family; a trip to Park City, Utah, to ski; and then a week in the Galapagos Islands with his wife and youngest son. “Once we got home, the world shut down (which means I probably won’t be going to Morocco in October on a trip

sponsored by Claudia Royston ’89 that I saw on Reed Switchboard). As pandemics go, this one isn’t bad—people aren’t dying in the streets here, and we have here dozens of unread books on the shelves and hundreds of movies and TV shows to watch. One thing I didn’t mention is that my son is supposed to start a master’s program at OHSU, but they are virtual the first semester so he’ll be stuck here. I was looking to heading west next month, but . . .”

Ken Singleton shifted to emeritus status at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business last fall. He is currently serving as president of the American Finance Association.

1974

Mary Ondrechen and her research group are super busy! In May, they added a new project on SARS-CoV-2 on top of all their other projects. They are seeking vulnerabilities and possible inhibitors of the proteins of the virus that causes COVID-19. (Search for Ondrechen at news.northeastern.edu to find out more about this and their

clockwise from top-left: Election day 2016: one of these gentlemen is a hero of the Cuban Revolution; the other is Glenn Littenberg ’69.

Sara Nichols ’83 poses with her new Tesla (one week before she dented it!).

Dave Gallison ’78 is turning over his business to Aaron Good ’01.

other projects.) Mary’s group consists of 7 PhD candidates, a master’s student, and an undergraduate, all of whom are awesome. Their various projects are funded by the National Science Foundation, the ALS Association, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “While some of my classmates have retired, I am having too much fun with work.”

Herb Roitblat has a book coming out in October on natural and artificial intelligence. He’s still living with his wife, Debra, in Ventura, California, working from home for Mimecast. (See Reediana.)

We were delighted to run across an in-depth profile of Monique Siu in the South China Morning Post. In 1990, Monique forever rewired the Portland restaurant scene with Zefiro, the gamechanging restaurant that helped propel Portland to the forefront of the culinary world. She followed it up with Castagna and OK Omens. Cheers, Monique!

1975

Dr. Richard Cimbalo of Rosary Hill College holds exhibition of “rat art” in order to raise money for the school’s psychology department. “The rats painted by grabbing with their front paws a brush extended into their cages, and Cimbalo said each of the artists had its own style.”

1976 45th reunion Send us your rat art!

1977

Kathy Pearson writes that her biggest accomplishment of 2020 (as of July 30) was to author the bumpersticker “Don’t Fuck with Portland” in response to the federal troops that the U.S. president sent to Portland in July.

1978

Chris Hauty’s thriller Deep State, published this year, was selected by the New York Times Book Review as an Editors’ Choice. The follow-up, Savage Road, will

be published on January 5, 2021. Additionally, Chris has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster for books three and four in the series. Thrilling news indeed!

Amy Kurland retired as the longestserving inspector general for the City of Philadelphia and began a new job as a consultant for Bloomberg Associates, a nonprofit that advises mayors and their staff to help cities become stronger, safer, and healthier. Amy will be consulting for the municipal integrity division. Husband Bob Drake ’79 left a large labor and employment law firm and opened his own practice, Drake Speciale LLC, representing individuals and businesses in labor, employment, and business matters. Their oldest daughter, Samantha Drake ’08, recently left the Federal Public Defender’s office in Puerto Rico after 5 years and will begin work in Philadelphia with the Federal Community Defender, Appellate Division. She and Dusty Stokes ’09 are getting married in August 2021 (postponed from this year due to COVID-19).

In September we shared that Dave Gallison was turning over his business to Aaron Good ’01. For the full scoop check out “Reedie Succeeds Reedie” on the magazine’s website.

Kim Lambert retired from Utica College with emeritus status at the end of December 2019. Having begun her career at Utica College in 1999 as director of public relations, Kim was promoted a number of times, and her final position was vice president for institutional planning. Kim and her husband, Bill Wheatley, have purchased and are renovating a home in the Adirondacks.

1979

Job Rabinowitz and Anita Osterhaug ’80 moved from Portland to outside of Yakima, Washington, in June 2019.

After 22 and a half years at Multnomah County Library, Dana Scott retired on June 30, 2020. “Among the

many good things about working for the library, getting to know my fellow alumnus Jan Celt ’76 better was one of the best,” Dana says. “I hope to spend more time reading, playing sax, and driving my Studebaker. I also hope the nice people at Immigration Canada will let me cross the border soon (without the long quarantine now required) so that I might visit my aged mother (who attended Reed briefly; my late father also went to Reed) in Saskatoon and be of some use to her. I plan on staying in Portland for the time being and being active in alumni functions as circumstances permit.”

1980

Charles Goodmacher is still working for educational equity for New Mexico’s schoolchildren, who have started the school year online, with hybrid learning potentially starting for some in the fall.

A research study on teacher recruitment and the teacher shortage, Recommendations for Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Northern New Mexico: Listening to the Voices of Teachers and Students, for which Charles did some of the original research and writing of recommendations, has been published by the LANL foundation (lanlfoundation.org).

Granddad Govind Nair ’83 is breathing easy.

Mt. Adams in the evening, as seen from the deck of Job Rabinowitz ’79 and Anita Osterhaug ’80.

Dana Scott ’79 has retired from the Multnomah County Library.

1981 40th reunion

After 30+ years of life elsewhere, Melissa Brown and Kevin Robbins have returned to the Pacific Northwest. Retirement is a few years away. Kevin teaches online history classes for Indiana University, and Melissa continues her consulting business related to charities and philanthropy in the United States and elsewhere. For 2019–21, she has been elected chair of the Association of Philanthropic Counsel. Their three fledglings all fly independently, as do three other young adults whom they fed and housed and coached through college and early employment.

Reed Magazine december 2020 33

Class Notes 1982

Joanne Hossack wishes she had done her psych thesis on rat art.

1983

As of 2020, Govind Nair is a granddad, trying in this Pandemic Age to safely travel and divide his time across both sides of the Atlantic.

“We are happy and healthy and very blessed in the shutdown,” reports Sara Nichols. “I had great fun in the Zoom talent show emceed by Mateo Burtch ’82.

Although I continue to be a new thought minister, I seem to be in a cottage industry where people pay me to facilitate the translation of their in-person events and conventions onto Zoom.” Sara spent a weekend in late summer social distancing in the Santa Cruz Mountains with Sandra Childs and Russ Haan—just before lightning and wildfire struck. “How does it get even better than this?”

1984

Welcome, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

1985

Diana (Held) Bolsinger has accepted an appointment as director of the Intelligence and National Security Studies graduate programs at the University of Texas at El Paso. Diana’s research focuses on the impact of U.S. clandestine equities on presidential foreign policy decision-making. Six years after retiring from federal service, Diana and her husband Dan continue to enjoy their escape from the city in the glorious southwest borderlands.

Monta Hayner has been fly fishing in the Minnesota Driftless region for over 20 years. Last year she started her next life career, joining the guiding team at the Orvis-endorsed Driftless Fly Fishing Company in Preston, Minnesota.

Her focus is guiding women and families fly fishing for trout. As a member of Fly Fishing Women of Minnesota, serving on the board (including as chair) for over five years, Monta has been introducing women to fly fishing and has seen and helped women’s participation in the sport grow considerably over the years. “The coronavirus pandemic has had many effects on this adventure. The Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo, where we kick-start the season and sign up clients, was cancelled this year. The scheduled women’s classes were cancelled or postponed because gatherings were not allowed. Initially we could not guide or

34 Reed Magazine december 2020

Joey Lebow ’99 is (almost?) ready to launch! “There is time for one last check of the GPS telemetry downlink.

Say your goodbyes and light this candle.

let people into the shop. We are now guiding and the shop is open. Luckily the fish are not affected by the virus.”

1986 35th reunion

Steve Luck’s biggest news is that his son, Carter Luck, is starting his first year at Reed! “He’s a true intellectual, and Reed seems like the perfect place for him (as it was for me). He’ll be majoring in computer science. He loves programming, but for years I’ve been telling him, ‘You won’t be happy spending your life as someone else’s code monkey,’ and I’m hoping he’ll enjoy the deeper theoretical approach of the Reed CS program.” Last summer, Steve stepped down as director of the UC Davis Center for Mind & Brain after 10 years in that position; he can now focus all his time on teaching and research. His research has continued to make use of the event-related potential technique, which he first learned working with Prof.

Dell Rhodes [psychology 1975–2006].

This technique involves recording the EEG from electrodes on the scalp and extracting the brain’s response to specific events. Over the past several years, Steve’s lab has worked on developing a new approach, using machine-learning algorithms to “decode” the information that the subject is perceiving or holding active in memory. Find out more at lucklab.ucdavis.edu.

1987–90

Welcome, Prozac!

1991 30th reunion Welcome, Linux!

1992

Dr. Katrina Parrish just moved to Virginia. She had a baby last year!

Katherine Radeka just launched a podcast called Accelerate Net Zero to explore ways to accelerate the technology development we need to meet the IPCC’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C. She’s interested in connecting with anyone working on sustainable technology development.

1993

Catalina Claussen has published a stor y collection, Being Home: A Southwestern Almanac. Her Being Home podcast is available at catalinaclaussenbooks.wordpress.com.

(See Reediana.)

George Sexton helped evacuate Talent, Oregon, during the Almeda fire and is now working with the KlamathSiskiyou Wildlands Center to rebuild

communities, forests, and watersheds around the Rogue Valley.

As well as activism (see September Class Notes), Vijay Shah has been developing books in Asian American studies.

At the University of Illinois Press, he has truly enjoyed his work. “As the son of immigrants from India, it has been magnificent to collaborate with dynamic home-grown scholars.”

1994

RIP John Candy.

1995

Eve Lyons has published her first book of poetry, Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World. Being unable to do in-person readings because of COVID, she’s shipping books directly to people. Send $25 (includes shipping) and your address to @eve-lyons-2 on Venmo. (See Reediana.)

1996 25th reunion

When her twin five-year-olds begged her for a book about other children who also had to stay home and miss their friends, essayist Jessie Glenn couldn’t say no.

She joined with Alabama muralist and illustrator Kevin King and wrote What’s All the Commotion: A Book about Social Distancing. (See Reediana.)

1997–98

Commissioners of Kleberg County, Texas, vote unanimously to adopt “Heaven-O” as the county’s official greeting. Meanwhile, the Thomas Guide to Los Angeles and Orange Counties boasts 666 new streets. Coincidence or conspiracy?

1999

Congratulations to Oregon Rocketry member Joey Lebow! Joey completed his

Clockwise from top left: Amy Subach ’03, Melissa (Feineman) Suzuno ’02, Shannon Taylor ’02, Katy Davis ’02, Marian Macindoe ’02, Amanda Macindoe ’00 (pictured as emoji), Claire McCabe ’02, and Patrick Cunningham celebrate the solstice virtually.

level 3 rocketry certification at a socially distanced launch in Brothers, Oregon, on July 19, 2020 with Rocket Ship 27, a 7.5-fttall, scratch-built fiberglass and carbonfiber rocket. Apogee occurred at 13,500 ft, reaching maximum velocity in excess of 1,000 mph under the thrust of an M-class solid-fuel motor. The rocket landed half a mile from the launch pad under the canopy of a 65-inch parachute.

The pensive Cleothera is the daughter of Peter Koo ’02 and Cheyenne Brindle ’02.

2000

“Continue to ask the tough and often unpopular questions. But remember to have fun along the way.” —Steven Koblik, Commencement 2000.

“And let us know how it works out.” — your class notes editor.

Six-month-old Sophia Enelow Klain, daughter of Sarah Klain ’03, models the latest and smallest in Reedie fashion.

2001 20th reunion

“After nearly 13 years of fighting the border wars as a trial attorney at the Federal Defenders of San Diego, I burnt out,” writes James Chavez. “Representing folks during the reign of Trump, including migrants who were separated from their young children, was more than I could bear. Proudly, I have joined the Vosseller Law Firm, a plaintiffs’ personal injury law firm. I am excited to continue to take on large institutions in the courtroom.”

Breesa Culver has made a storytelling podcast about life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with her boyfriend, Jason Powers (an audio engineer and Yooper). It’s called The State of Superior.

(See Reediana.)

Heather Houser published a scholarly book, Infowhelm, in June 2020. (See Reediana.)

2002

Athena Aktipis outlines a novel evolutionary framework for understanding cancer in her new book, The Cheating Cell. (See Reediana.)

Cleothera was born to Peter Koo and Cheyenne Brindle on April 27th. She is their first child.

Marian Macindoe, Melissa (Feineman) Suzuno, Shannon Taylor, Katy Davis, Amanda Macindoe ’00, Amy Subach ’03, Claire McCabe, and Patrick Cunningham gathered, virtually, to celebrate the solstice by partaking in a viewing of a mid-’90s reimagining of Emma or The Baby-Sitters Club or Tremors. “We also may have watched Dating Around. It all runs together these days,” says Melissa.

“We would have preferred to gather in person, but we didn’t.”

Miriam Rigby was promoted to senior librarian after nearly 12 years

at the University of Oregon Libraries.

She was simultaneously reduced to a .55 FTE contract, but her union is working on that! She’s working from home, isolating with Fritz, who turned 4 in July, Robin Loehrke, and their cat Murray.

2003

Sarah Klain, who was a visiting assistant professor in economics at Reed in spring 2018, is now an assistant professor in environment & society at Quinney College of Natural Resources, Utah State University. She and Will Munger ’11 are doing research in collaboration with the Northwest Band of Shoshone to weave traditional ecological, local, and Western scientific knowledge to inform a land stewardship plan on the site of a Shoshone massacre in 1863. “Our liberal arts backgrounds shine through in this interdisciplinary project

that’s part of Will’s dissertation and part of research that I’m launching as a new assistant professor.” Sarah also has a daughter, Sophia Enelow Klain.

2004

Anees Ahmed writes, “After graduating from medical school in 2011 (Charles University in Prague), I had a long struggle before I got into residency in 2017. Sadly, I faced emotional and verbal abuse by the director, which resulted in losing my position. Thankfully, when things were investigated, I was given a second chance. I faced the outbreak of COVID-19 as an intern in a family medicine program in Southern California.

Some unforgettable and of course sad and heavy-hearted days came and went.

I’m now a second-year family medicine resident and doing well.”

Reed Magazine december 2020 35

Class Notes

clockwise from top left: Anees Ahmed ’04 (center) and colleagues during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic at Montclair Hospital Medical Center, Montclair, California.

Mariza Ryce Aparicio-Tovar ’09 with tundra.

Jessa Vossen ’08, Michael Vossen ’07, and new arrival Estelle Sophia Vossen enjoy the outdoors.

Kasia Bartoszyńska is super excited to be starting a new job as an assistant professor of English and women’s & gender studies at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, even though moving during a pandemic seems slightly daunting.

family—their first child! “He’s already quite accustomed to Zoom calls as we’ve introduced him to friends near and far, but a few Portland-area Reedies have managed a distanced hello to the little guy.”

2010

2005

2008

2011 10th reunion

Merriam-Webster word of the year: integrity.

2006 15th reunion

After three years as assistant professor of economics at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, Kirstin Munro accepted a faculty position in feminist political economy as assistant professor of politics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. For the time being, Kirstin is living in the northern Catskills in upstate New York; she hopes to relocate to the Texas-Mexico border soon.

2007

On June 26, Christine Lewis and husband Michael Selvaggio welcomed Carrick Ellis Lewis-Selvaggio into their

36 Reed Magazine december 2020

Natalie Vizcarra, Jade Bryant, Danielle Aquino Roithmayr, Kostadin Kushlev, and Gina Gotthilf played dress-up in medieval Sicily last October.

Jessa Vossen and Michael Vossen ’07 welcomed their first child, Estelle Sophia Vossen, on June 17, 2020. They live in Boulder, Colorado.

2009

For the past seven years Mariza Ryce Aparicio-Tovar has lived and worked in remote areas of Alaska, collecting data on wild salmon and enjoying time living off-grid. Since 2018, she has permanently settled in a very remote community, Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, on the Aleutian island chain. Mariza, an artist, recently created a 78-card, hand-illustrated tarot

deck heavily inspired by life in the middle of the Bering Sea. (See Reediana.)

American Dialect Society word of the year: app.

Dictionary.com word of the year: tergiversate.

2012

In May, Sean O’Grady graduated from Fordham University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Fordham Law Review. He will work as an associate at a large New York law firm in the fall and plans to clerk for a judge. Special thanks to fellow Reedie Ian Weinstein ’81, Sean’s first-year criminal law professor and law review note advisor.

2013

Some eagle-eyed correspondents spotted Willa Bauman in the Eugene Weekly, where she was profiled as one of its “Happening People.” There, we learned that

Carrick Ellis Lewis-Selvaggio enjoys the fresh air at Champoeg State Park with parents Christine Lewis ’07 and Michael Selvaggio.

A gaggle of class of 2008 Reedies play dress-up in medieval Sicily, October 2019.

In the middle picture, left to right: Natalie Vizcarra ’08, Jade Bryant ’08, Danielle Aquino Roithmayr ’08, Kostadin Kushlev ’08, and Gina Gotthilf ’08.

G N O M O LO G I A : A D A G I E S AND PROVERBS, COLLECTED BY THOMAS FULLER, 1732

—

“He that plants trees loves others besides himself.”

Willa is operations manager of the Eugene ToolBox Project, a community tool library, and that she received her master’s degree in nonprofit management from the University of Oregon this June. Go, Willa!

R e e d matte rs.

2014–15

When you make a gift in your will or trust, you influence the future of Reed.

2016 5th reunion

Contact Kathy Saitas in the office of gift planning to discuss creative and mutually beneficial ways to make a difference at Reed: 503-777-7573, giftplanning@reed.edu, reed.edu/legacyplanning.

More words of the year(s): #blacklivesmatter, culture, exposure, identity, -ism, singular they . . .

. . . dumpster fire, surreal, xenophobia . . .

2017–19

. . . complicit, fake news, feminism, justice, misinformation, existential. . . .

2020

Congratulations to Lara Simonetti, whose article “Nunca Más: The Evolution of Memory Narratives in Post-Dictatorship Argentina and Uruguay” was accepted into The Macksey Journal, the proceedings of the Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium—and whose class note is the first from the indomitable Class of 2020!

In Memoriam EDITED BY RANDALL BARTON Email bartonr@reed.edu

Jurist Found Freedom in State Constitutions Hans A. Linde ’47

August 31, 2020, in Portland, Oregon, of natural causes.

Recognized as one of the greatest jurists of the 20th century, Hans gained a national reputation during his tenure at the Oregon Supreme Court for advancing a radical intellectual argument—that fundamental civil liberties, particularly the right of free speech, could be grounded in state constitutions, as well as the federal constitution.

This insight had a profound influence not only in the state of Oregon, but throughout the nation. Lawrence H. Tribe, a leading constitutional scholar and emeritus professor of constitutional law at Harvard University, called Hans 38 Reed Magazine december 2020

a giant of the American judiciary, adding that “His brilliant work both as a law professor and, for a little over a dozen years as a justice on Oregon’s highest court, addressed not just important issues of state law but also unsettled questions of federal constitutional law in a series of opinions, articles, and books that have been justly influential throughout the nation and ultimately the world, both because of the depth and originality of his thought and the resourcefulness of his historical research.”

Hans was born to a Jewish family in Germany. His father, Bruno Linde (pronounced “lindy”), was a Berlin lawyer; the family had a summer home in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Following Hitler’s appointment as chancellor of Germany in 1933, Bruno instructed his wife, Luise, and his two sons, Hans and Peter Linde ’46, to remain in Denmark. In 1938, as tension in Europe continued to escalate, the Lindes boarded a Finnish freighter for New York. In New York, Bruno lashed the family’s belongings to the back of a Buick he purchased for $65, and the family headed out on a 19-day crosscountry trip, searching for a home along the way. They ended up in Portland, where Luise found work in a department store while Bruno worked during the day and attended law school at night to earn his U.S. degree.

When he arrived in Portland, the 16-year-old

Hans was taken aback by how little most people in Oregon seemed to know or care about what was going on in the world. His earliest memories included news accounts of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the Spanish Civil War. His classmates at Lincoln High School shrugged at the battles between the fascists and the communists in Europe.

“For most Americans, World War II is something that began at Pearl Harbor,” he recalled.

“But for me, it was pretty clear early one of the important things in the 20th century was going to be international relations and civil liberties.”

Hans served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Following his service, he went to Reed as a “day dodger,” along with his brother Peter and his future wife, Helen Tucker ’46, whom he married in 1945.

At Reed, they joined a tight-knit community of students from Germany and Austria, including Ernie Bonyhadi ’48, John Shipley ’49, Fred Rosenbaum ’50, and Frank Wesley ’50. Hans, Helen, Peter, and Ernie would commute from Northwest Portland to Reed in an old Plymouth.

Majoring in political science, he wrote his thesis, “State, Sovereignty, and International Law: A Study of Three German Legal Theories,” advised by Prof. Maure Goldschmidt [political science 1935–81], who served as a mentor to many students.

After graduating from Reed, he moved on to law school at UC Berkeley, where he became editor of the law review and was awarded the Order of the Coif, an honor to law students similar to that of election to Phi Beta Kappa.

His outstanding performance earned him a clerkship with Justice William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Hans took a job as an attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser to the Department of State, which advised the U.S. delegation to the United Nations. He returned to Portland and was asked to help in the U.S. Senate campaign of Richard L. Neuberger. When Neuberger was elected, Hans became his legal assistant and administrative aide in Washington, D.C. In 1959, he began teaching constitutional law at the University of Oregon and authored a widely used textbook. During his 17 years at the U of O, Hans was twice named a Fulbright professor, lecturing at universities in Germany.

He was a visiting professor at Stanford and UC Berkeley, where students found him brilliant and challenging. “His has been a very original mind,” said David Frohnmayer, one

of his students at UC Berkeley, who went on to become Oregon attorney general and president of the University of Oregon.

In 1977, Governor Robert Straub appointed Hans to the Supreme Court of Oregon. A passionate intellectual, he took an analytic, professorial, and sometimes relentless approach to the job of being a justice. His years on the court were marked by the preference he gave to state law over federal law, and he gained a national reputation as a champion of civil liberties. His opinions consistently sought to hold police powers in check, and during his 13-year tenure on the court, he was the state’s most controversial justice.

“Hans was, by far, the most nationally prominent Oregon law professor or judge ever,” said Tom Balmer, former chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. “Hans thought broadly and creatively. He looked at things from different perspectives.”

Even as a law professor, Hans had advocated using state constitutions as protectors of liberty. “State constitutions allow the people of each state to choose their own theory of government and way of law, within what the nation requires, to take responsibility for their own liberties, not only in courts but in the daily practice of government,” he wrote in 1984.

In 1978, Dwight Robertson, a University of Oregon football player, and three other teammates were accused of a shocking act of cruelty: they pressured a female student into performing sexual favors by claiming to have compromising photos of her (photos which did not actually exist). Robertson was charged with coercion, but he challenged the charge, claiming that Oregon’s statute against coercion was invalid because it violated Oregon’s constitution. That claim made its way to the Oregon Supreme Court, where it was up to the justices to determine whether Robertson was right about the law—not whether his behavior was acceptable.

In deciding such matters, lawyers and judges routinely turned to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” But Hans had long realized that while the federal constitution acts as a kind of “floor” that sets the rights of all citizens, state constitutions often provide stronger rights.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Oregon Constitution states: “No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print freely on any

subject whatever; but every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right.”

The answer in the Robertson case was clear to Hans and his colleagues. The coercion statute clearly was aimed at speech, prohibiting threatening people in certain ways, and thus was vulnerable to being found unconstitutional. The statute could pass muster only if it met one of the two tests: it prohibited acts considered crimes when the Oregon Constitution was written or if the statute was written in terms solely addressing the ill effects of coercion. Neither was the case. Thus, Hans reasoned in his unanimous opinion, the statute amounted to government censorship and was unconstitutional.

The Robertson case laid out a new framework for deciding free-speech cases. Until then, few lawyers or judges had grasped that state constitutions could provide extra breathing room for citizens. Hans was catapulted into the national spotlight. His insight led other state courts to adopt a similar methodology and was used to secure Oregonians more protection from police searches, force businesses to provide the same benefits to gay couples as they do to married ones, and win gun owners more freedom from government regulation.

His judicial opinions and scholarly writings profoundly shaped Oregon law. Governor Kate Brown called him “the ‘intellectual godfather’ of the revival of state constitutional law, a pioneer of Oregon’s constitutional doctrines governing the rights of prisoners, search and seizure, equality of treatment, and free expression, to name just a few.”

Rex Armstrong, an appellate judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals who once clerked for Hans said that his “ability to have looked at something in a different way led to the insight that he had.”

After retiring from the court in 1990, Hans taught at Willamette University. He was a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1997, Reed awarded him the Foster-Scholz Distinguished Service Award, given to Reed alumni who have made major contributions to the community. He also was awarded the E.B. MacNaughton Award by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. The award is named for MacNaughton, a longtime trustee and former president of Reed.

Hans is survived by his wife, Helen, his son, David, and his daughter, Lisa.

Reed Magazine december 2020 39

In Memoriam

Saw Land as a Resource, Not a Commodity kendrick brinson

Merrill Mason Gaffney ’48

July 16, 2020, in Loma Linda, California, at the age of 96.

An influential economist, Mason was a trenchant critic of conventional neoclassical economics—the focus on goods, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand—arguing that the emphasis on capital and commerce was a tragic mistake. Like his intellectual forebear, Henry George, he argued that the solution to our problems has always been there—in the earth beneath our feet.

Born in White Plains, New York, Mason absorbed his parents’ social concerns and Christian values. His father was superintendent of the New Trier Township Schools and a Harvard professor. His mother worked for the United States Children’s Bureau in Washington, D.C., and was active in the League of Women Voters.

In high school, Mason was clipped by a car while riding his bicycle and remained bedridden for months. Among the reading material his mother provided during his convalescence was Henry George’s 1879 book Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy. The 19th-century best seller proposed that a single tax on the land would close the wage gap and eradicate patterns of poverty resulting from a wealth disparity created by land monopolies and private interest.

As an economist, Mason maintained that taxing land, but not buildings, would force property owners to get the most out of the land by building on it. As the old saw goes, what is a skyscraper but a machine for getting cash out of the ground?

He pointed to the example of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. The city had been razed by fire, and the mayor—who had helped George write Progress and Poverty—had nothing to tax but land value. The mayor raised the assessment on land to replace the part of the tax base that had been lost in the fire, the city’s credit was restored, and it began borrowing to restore infrastructure. This resulted in tightly packed residential housing and taller buildings, with the proceeds plowed into public works for the city. In little more than two decades, San Francisco grew to be the 10th largest city in America without any state or federal help to speak of, and without expanding its land base.

As a Christian, Mason saw ethical value in George’s framework; as a product of the Great Depression, he recognized historical significance in George’s movement; as a student, he imagined a future education steeped in Georgist ideology.

As Mason told the story, the land and its 40 Reed Magazine december 2020

resources are the central protagonists, the landowner plays a naive villain, and the sales tax hangs around like a hungry wolf. Armed with this perspective and a journalist’s way with words, he wrote more than 150 articles on subjects from market crashes to the future of cities to the perils of military spending— marked by analysis that was often decades ahead of his contemporaries.

After graduating as valedictorian from New Trier High School, Mason enrolled at Harvard. But he was disappointed by Harvard’s economics department. Few of his professors were familiar with Progress and Poverty, and he found little support for his Georgist analyses.

Then came WWII; he was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving as a communications officer in Manila.

“I spent a lot of time in the Philippines and New Guinea, and got to observe the social and economic conditions close at hand,” he said. “It confirmed my suspicion that land tenure was unequally distributed and made me suspicious about American imperialism.”

When he returned to civilian life, he transferred to Reed and wrote his thesis, “A Study of the Causes of Unemployment,” with Prof.

Arthur Leigh [economics 1945–88]. It was a formative experience. Prof. Leigh fired his intellectual curiosity, encouraging him to refer to the great thinkers of the past while simultaneously breaking the mold and applying Georgist frameworks to contemporary problems. “He was the spirit of Reed,” Mason said.

“Reed was a wonderful mid-passage in my growth,” he said. “It gave me some quality conventional training, accompanied by freedom to feel my own way. Moving from Reed to grad school at Berkeley was like going backwards, from high school to primary school. Art Leigh, my primary mentor, was an optimal combo of conventional trainee from Chicago with the Reed spirit of free adventure.”

At the time, economists tended to overlook the role of land in the broader scheme of the capitalist system. Mason argued that unemployment was due in part to credit rationing, the process of limiting otherwise available credit to borrowers despite demand and a willingness to pay interest. With credit dispensed at the often senseless discretion of lenders, land ownership and monopoly create a hierarchy of access, ultimately resulting in wealth disparities and a grave misuse of the land and its resources.

The issue of land misuse continued to gnaw at Mason long after Reed. He went to UC Berkeley to study agricultural economics and developed his own ideas, which centered around the inherent value of socializing the land within a free enterprise system.

“If anyone had ever read the Bible,” he said, “they would pick these ideas up.”

At Berkeley, he was attacked by students who held his religious views in contempt and by McCarthyites who sought to have him expelled after he wrote an article arguing for more equitable redistribution of the land.

After receiving his PhD in 1955, Mason was hired as an enumerator for the U.S. Census of Irrigation. During this time, his Georgist underpinnings moved from the abstract to the applied.

He studied forest management, the timber industry, and water laws, producing incisive analysis that elevated him “from just another nice boy with good grades to someone serious.”

In 1969, he became an economics researcher for Resources for the Future, an environmental organization in Washington, D.C. Four years later, he helped found the British Columbia Institute for Economic Policy Analysis in Vancouver, where he worked on sustainable logging.

He climbed the ivory tower, first as a professor at various universities, then as a research associate and director of think tanks.

In 1976, he took a teaching position at UC Riverside, where he served on the economics faculty for 39 years and earned the reputation of being the foremost Georgist of our time.

Through a Georgist lens, he interpreted some of the major economic dilemmas of our time, such as the market crash of 2008, American dependence on foreign oil, and tax reform.

His articles demonstrated shrewd historical insight peppered with a cheeky panache, with titles like “Sleeping with the Enemy” and “The Sales Tax: History of a Dumb Idea.”

“Every time you read one of Mason’s articles,” said economist James Galbraith, “you come up with something that places in a very crisp and clear light some important issue, and he has thoroughly persuaded me over the years on the centrality of the question of land rent to our understanding of economics.”

Mason authored or coauthored a number of books, including New Life in Old Cities: Georgist Policies and Population Growth; Beyond Brexit: The Blueprint; After the Crash: Designing a DepressionFree Economy; and The Mason Gaffney Reader: Essays on Solving the “Unsolvable.”

“The impossible dream is not for the young alone,” he said. “Perhaps it’s what keeps one young.”

His marriage to Estelle Lau in 1952 ended in divorce. In 1973, he married Ruth Letitia Atwood, known as Tish, who died in 2017. He

is survived by three daughters, Ann Gaffney Shores, Laura Atwood Gaffney, and Patricia Mason Gaffney; and three sons, Bradford, Stuart, and Matthew.

Prof. David Elson Sheppard July 28, 2020, in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, from complications due to pancreatic cancer.

Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, David attended public schools through ninth grade and graduated from the Mount Hermon School for Boys.

He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Amherst College and a PhD in biologygenetics from Johns Hopkins in 1964.

Sheppard taught biology at Reed from 1963 to 65, and then held a NSF postdoctoral fellowship in biology sciences at the UC Santa Barbara. He taught courses in genetics and biochemistry and performed research in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware until he retired in 2005.

His research interests were in the area of the control of gene expression in bacteria.

David married Gayle Lea Drummey in 1960.

She survives him as do their children, Rebecca, Paul, and Marc.

Reed Magazine december 2020 41

In Memoriam

Lee Q. Charette ’39

January 31, 2020, in San Francisco, California, at the age of 102.

Lee was born in Portland in 1917, four months after the U.S. entered WWI and shortly before the flu pandemic of 1918–19. He attended public school in Portland and entered Reed in the midst of the Great Depression. Reed sharpened his alert and flexible intellect and provided him with the foundation for a lifelong love of literature, the arts, and playing bridge. He wrote this thesis, “Poetry of Gloom: The Novels of William Faulkner,” advised by Prof. Victor L. O. Chittick [literature 1921–48].

After graduating from Reed, he pursued his study of literature at the University of the Pacific (at the time called College of the Pacific) in Stockton, California, where he earned a master’s degree. In Stockton. Lee met and formed a lifelong friendship with my parents.

In a conversation we had in 2016, he remembered pacing the hospital lobby with my father, and listening to my mother’s birthing cries, the night I was delivered. When we moved to different parts of California in the early 1940s, visits between Lee and our family continued.

He was one of those adults who seemed interested in what kids thought and even laughed at our jokes. My brother, Dal, called him “Buzzer,” referring to a risqué joke we shared and thought was hilarious. Lee humored us without condescending. Sixty years later, when I mentioned the old joke to Lee, he still remembered it.

When I was trying to decide where to apply to college Lee suggested Reed. I had been pretty unhappy in high school, believed I had not gotten a very good education in Fresno, and felt a social misfit. He convinced me the intellectual rigor and unconventional social atmosphere at his alma mater might suit me. I don’t think I would have been accepted 42 Reed Magazine december 2020

without his glowing letter of recommendation, as, although my high school grades were good, my SAT scores were not the highest. I entered Reed 20 years after Lee graduated, grateful for his support.

After completing his MA, Lee worked briefly for the federal government, then enlisted in the Army Air Corps for service during World War II. He served on Oahu but did not see combat. After the war, his degrees and administrative experience landed him a position with the State of California, where he rose to become the manager of the San Rafael employment office.

Subsequently he joined the University of California, where he became the head of human resources at UCSF. He married late. As a teenager, I remember attending his wedding to Bonnie Boyd. Together they raised their family in Mill Valley in a hillside home filled with books and their friends’ art. They loved bridge games, hosted lively, convivial cocktail parties, and engaged in witty, wide-ranging conversation with a diverse group of friends.

Lee retired in 1979 at the age of 62. During his 40 years of retirement, he enjoyed traveling in the U.S. and Europe and did volunteer work at the Mill Valley Library and for other organizations. He took pleasure in playing the piano, playing bridge, and reading. On our last visit, he said he had been rereading À la recherche du temps perdu (I found Proust challenging even in translation). We both recalled his Reed French professor, Cecilia Tenney [French & music 1921–53], who was still on the faculty at the time I studied French there.

His family organized a gala celebration for Lee’s 100th birthday in 2017. It was delightful to watch him wheel from table to table greeting every guest, warmly engaging each of us, obviously happy to see so many friends and family.

He leaves two children, Boyd and Mimi, a grandson, Kevin, and many friends who loved his company and admired his honesty, his quiet, wry, intellectual capacity—his wit and his kindness. Although we were not connected through DNA, he was as close as an uncle would have been, and I felt a special connection to him, through our shared status as Reed alumni.

Contributed by Robbin Légère Henderson ’63

Adrienne Levy ’46

June 23, 2017, in Sacramento, California.

Following in the footsteps of her aunt, Edith M. Sobeloff ’23, Adrienne came to Reed. She left Reed, married, and had three children, David, Michael, and Richard Jacobsen. Years later, she completed her bachelor’s degree in history and then earned a master’s degree in social work from California State University, Fresno. She worked as a clinical social worker with Fresno Community Hospital and was married to Dr. Paul Levy, who predeceased her.

Richard Grillo ’54

May 21, 2020, in Puyallup, Washington.

Richard grew up in Cle E lum, Washing ton, where he played sports a n d m a d e l i fe l o n g friends. He was proud of his Italian heritage, and as a boy traveled with his father to visit his many relatives in Massachusetts and shared his parents’ passion for fishing for salmon in the coastal waters and lakes of Washington State.

After high school, he attended Reed for two years, playing football and basketball both years.

Coming from a small town where few people went on to college, he discovered that “Reed was really the ‘fast lane,’” He remembered the antiquated physics lab in the basement of Eliot and “the super gentleman” Charles Botsford [physical education 1912–52]. Richard had planned to continue his studies in mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but in the summer of 1952, the Army called, and he was drafted. He attended officer candidate school and held leadership roles in the Army Reserve, holding the rank of colonel when he retired in 1983. While in the reserve, he completed his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington, and got a job with the Boeing Aerospace Company in Seattle. He later transferred to the Space Center in Kent, where he was a senior specialist engineer. Richard was proud of his involvement in NASA and Apollo projects, including the Lunar Orbiter satellite program, the Lunar Roving Vehicle program, and the Inertial Upper Stage, a space launch system used for raising payloads from low Earth orbit to high orbits or trajectories following launch aboard a Titan rocket or the payload bay of the space shuttle.

Richard married his high school sweetheart, Florence Mae Woodward, in 1954. They lived in Tukwila, where they raised their children; upon retiring, moved to Allyn, Washington, where they enjoyed life on the golf course. Richard is survived by his daughter, Portia Smith; his sons, Richard Grillo Jr. and Kevin Grillo; and his brothers, Joseph Grillo Jr. and Robert Grillo.

Kathryn Juel Weibel Brookins ’57

July 25, 2020, in Boston, Massachusetts, from complications induced by Alzheimer’s dementia.

The only child born to Frank and Irene Weibel, Kathryn started out in North Platte, Nebraska.

The family moved frequently, as her father was an engineering mechanic who worked on large infrastructure

projects then being constructed in the Pacific Northwest. Frank died when Kathryn was 20 years old, and from then on, she and her mother were seldom apart.

After graduating from Gresham High School, Kathryn attended Reed for one year before marrying her first husband, Cliff Lloyd ’57, with whom she had four children. With keen intellectual curiosity and considerable personal courage, she overcame the disadvantages of an uneven academic background to earn a degree in social anthropology through Nuffield College at Oxford University, studying with such luminaries as English anthropologist E.E. EvansPritchard. Kathryn went on to teach sociology at Purdue University and Buffalo State College.

In 1973, she married Oscar Brookins in Ghana, forming an exemplary, 47-year partnership. Initially they lived in Buffalo, New York, and then moved to South Bend, Indiana, where Oscar was on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame. Ten years later, they moved to Massachusetts, where Oscar taught at Northeastern University. Their two daughters were born overseas during short-term academic appointments in Ghana and Tanzania.

Kathryn liked to say she was a student of politics, and as a Boston resident she was deeply engaged with both local and national issues. Known in local circles as fearless and vocal, she never backed down from a battle when she felt fairness and the law were on her side—no matter how prominent or deep-pocketed the adversary. In her Mission Hill neighborhood, she worked to bring about fair laws for small property owners and the consistent enforcement of zoning regulations to protect green space and livable housing from overzealous developers.

She was passionate about the enforcement of anti-bias in housing laws and opposing racial discrimination in education. Long before the term “white privilege” became current, Kathryn was acutely aware of her advantages as a middle-class, highly educated white woman and fiercely advocated for the fair treatment of all. She fought for Black and otherwise disadvantaged family members, friends, and neighbors across the legal, political, and educational systems she knew were inherently stacked against them.

For many years, her self-published newspaper, Mission Hill News, was a political newspaper that documented the predatory policies of Harvard University and the City of Boston in their fragile urban neighborhood. She and Oscar scrambled late into the night to meet their printing deadline and Kathryn proudly distributed the final product directly to prominent elected officials all over Boston City Hall.

Outside the political arena, Kathryn loved her dogs, gardening, foreign travel with her husband and children, and her lifelong connections to family and friends around the globe.

She teared up when she watched the Kentucky Derby, as it reminded her of the horses that had populated her childhood, and she loved to celebrate her birthday by handing out Halloween candy to neighborhood children. She often said hers had been a charmed life, full of lucky breaks and exceptional opportunities to which she always said “yes.”

Kathryn is survived by her husband, Oscar T. Brookins, and her six children: Anamaria Lloyd, Clifford Lloyd, Elisabeth Fulton, Ariana Packard, Mary Laura Brookins, and Julia Brookins.

Thomas Bransten ’58

December 19, 2019, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Tom was raised in San Francisco; his father was the scion of the MJB Coffee company and his mother’s family ran a dried fruit processing company. He studied at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London, and at Peterhouse, a constituent college of Cambridge University in England, before coming to Reed. Initially interested in premedical courses, he switched to literature. He wrote his thesis, “The Alien Vision: A Study of Bertolt Brecht’s Epic Drama,” advised by Prof. Kaspar T. Locher [German 1950–88].

The next year he moved to France and married a French woman, Jeanne Hirtz.

Deciding that he would need to make a decent living as they started a family, Tom decided to try journalism. After striking out numerous times, he was eventually given an unpaid internship with the International Herald Tribune and then got a job on the graveyard shift, working from 11 p.m. to 10 a.m. six days a week. Finally he graduated to the day desk and went on to write many important stories.

Bilingual in French, he covered the Algerian War of independence from France. The Algerian rebels not only committed terrorist acts in Algeria, they also bombed cafés and buildings in Paris. Tom narrowly escaped being killed by a bomb planted outside the offices of the newspaper Le Monde.

As a freelance journalist covering Western Europe and French-speaking Africa, he also wrote for United Press International, as a European correspondent for Fortune magazine, and for Mademoiselle, Time, Ramparts, and the London Observer.

Tom covered two kidnappings: that of fouryear-old Eric Peugeot, heir to the automobile fortune, and the shocking kidnap-murder of seven-year-old Philippe Bertrand. He wrote a novel, A Slight Case of Guilt, loosely based on the kidnappings.

He had two children with Jeanne, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1965. Around this

time, Tom established a restricted fund at Reed to fund scholarships for minority students and to provide psychiatric counseling for students at Reed.

After moving from San Francisco to Massachusetts so his wife could pursue her PhD at Harvard, Tom began selling real estate. In his 10 years in the real estate industry, he won awards for his service, and many clients became friends.

“What I enjoy about real estate,” he said, “is working with people and satisfying their needs in one of the most important transactions of their lives—finding or selling a home.”

He is survived by his daughter, Katherine.

J. Victor Samuels ’64 June 14, 2020, in Houston, Texas.

A seventh-generation Jewish Texan, Vic was born in Corsicana and moved to his lifelong home of Houston when he was only six months old. He famously got his first job at age six and worked continuously for the following 69 years.

He was a star athlete at Lanier Junior High and Bellaire High School, and was always proud of his accomplishments on the football field and baseball diamond.

He went to college at Brandeis University, where he loved his study of history (including a class taught by Eleanor Roosevelt), served as senior class president, and met his life partner, Barbara (Bobbi) Greenfield Samuels ’64, whom he married a week after their graduation from Brandeis. The couple then headed to Portland where both Vic and Bobbi earned Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. Bobbie eventually became a university professor. But after a frustrating year of teaching history on Long Island, Vic decided to enter the world of business, and the couple moved to Houston, which was booming.

Beginning his business career at Houston Corrugated Box, Vic spent the next 50 years creating, building, and managing four substantial businesses that employed thousands of employees: Houston Terminal Warehouse, Leedo Manufacturing, Leedo Furniture, and Victory Packaging. He was a risk taker, willing to bet it all. But Vic was also a strategic thinker, operator, and negotiator who led his businesses to tremendous success and took pride in his role as mentor to many young professionals.

But Vic spent only about a third of his time building companies. Devoted to a true work/ life balance, he divided his time evenly between business, community, and family. Repairing the world was a cornerstone of his Judaism, learned from his parents. Upon accepting one of the dozens of awards he received in his life, Vic explained, “Those of us fortunate to have excess energy and time after taking care of life’s essentials, define our lives by what we choose to do with our ‘nonwork’ time—the rest of our lives. What do we dedicate ourselves to? Are Reed Magazine december 2020 43

In Memoriam

Jill Showalter, Julie DeVore, Nathan Skidmore, and Sarah Sell; his stepdaughter, Kim Wong; and his stepson, Michael Schmunk.

Ann Faricy Graham ’68 June 6, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.

we self-indulgent or do we define ourselves by repairing the world and completing creation?

We are what we commit ourselves to. We have a responsibility to make the world a better place.”

Among his many community involvements, Vic was a leader in Citizens for Good Schools, a diverse group of young leaders that took over the Houston Independent School District Board to effect peaceful, productive, and thoughtful desegregation of area schools.

He was also engaged with the Leo Baeck Education Center, Houston Achievement Place, the Jewish Community Center, and the School of Social Work at the University of Houston. His legacy continues with the Samuels Family Foundation, which he and Bobbi created in 2015. The Samuels were also generous supporters of Reed.

Vic always found time for his family among his other endeavors, coaching Little League teams, attending performances, and always making it home for family dinners. Home was centered on the children’s activities. In addition to Bobbi, Vic is survived by his three sons, Ben, Josh, and Jeremy

Lawrence Marvin Skidmore ’64 July 4, 2020, in Clackamas, Oregon, from brain cancer.

Bor n and raised in Portland, Larry graduated from Franklin High School and then attended Reed. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Puget Sound and worked most of his career in marketing. But his real passion was building a better society through politics. Larry was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party and served in multiple volunteer and leadership roles, including as chair of the Democratic Party of Clackamas County. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Donovan; his siblings, Steve Skidmore and Darlene Weisen; his children, Jeffrey Skidmore, 44 Reed Magazine december 2020

B or n in S t . Paul, Minnesota, Ann attended Catholic schools and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in humanities. She earned her Master of Arts in Teaching at Reed, and taught art and English in Portland high schools.

Ann also codirected an alternative high school and trained minority teachers through the University of Oregon. She became assistant principal at Parkrose High School and principal at Shaver Elementary School. She worked as district curriculum director before retiring in 1998. She viewed her work as her ministry; as an educator, she was creative, enthusiastic, professional, and popular.

After retiring, she had time to dance, socialize, swim, write, and paint. She and her partner, Lil Hosman, often attended local theatre, opera, dance, and symphony, and traveled to Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Australia.

Ann completed a two-year program to become an ecumenical spiritual mentor and joined the First Unitarian Church as a lay minister. She owned a houseboat for her painting studio, where she also entertained and kayaked the river.

She is survived by her partner, Lillian Hosman, her sister, Kit Faricy, and her brother, Bill Faricy.

Fred Alan Rigby ’70

April 17, 2020, in Clancy, Montana.

Fred was the son of two Reed alumni, Fred D. Rigby ’35, who was a professor at Texas Tech University, and Vera Lenon Rigby ’37. He wrote his thesis, “Distribution Theory and the Laplace Transform,” with Prof. Edward Packel [mathematics 1967–71] advising. He was roommates for a year and a half with Maarten Ultee ’70, who recalled that “Fred was part of that remarkable cluster of geniuses and personalities in the class of 1970 that included Joseph Alex, Paul Jackson, Jeff Nakamura, Chris Price, Tom Findley, David Raich, Tracy Steelhammer, Steve Robinson, Linda Howard, Pat Mapps, Martha Downs, Loie Drew, Taz Wilson, and more that deserve mention.

“The science majors spent their evenings slaving over spreadsheets and slide rules. Pocket calculators and personal computers had not yet come into general use. Humanities majors read, read, and read some more, hoping that Reed

would prepare them for graduate studies in history, law, medicine, and literature. I would return to our room after 1 a.m., past the witching hour of intervisitation, to find Fred and the gang hard at work with bright lights on and papers strewn everywhere. I had to ask: ‘What’s the matter, Fred? Did Dr. [Ken] Davis pile on the homework?’ ‘No,’ he groaned. ‘We’re just doing this for fun.’

“When we returned from a break, there was a mixup in the housing office. Suddenly there was no room for Fred on campus. What a disaster! Fred had carefully measured the distances between the dorm and each of his classes. What could he do now? The housing office had a listing for a job as a night watchman at the veterinary hospital. All Fred had to do was promise to come home to the dogs every night. No problem, but the hospital was more than a mile from campus. Fred found a solution. He bought a motorcycle and a thick leather jacket and roared into campus just in time for classes.

“Fred was a hard-working genius. He was the only person I knew who wrote two senior theses, albeit not by design. He had finished his first one before the deadline. Unfortunately he then discovered that a German researcher had already published a paper on the same topic!

Fred would have to do something else, on short notice. He did it.”

Fred was a graduate student at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and did a graduate student residence assistantship in atmospheric science at the University of Washington. He worked as a research scientist with Science Applications Corp. in Golden, Colorado, and in research and development at SRI International in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He taught for a year at the National University of Natural Medicine.

When his wife, Susan Lupton, got a job at the Montana Supreme Court library, he retired.

She survives him, as do his daughters, Diane, Elizabeth, and Catherine.

Eric Bruce Henderson ’72

March 31, 2020, in Tucson, Arizona, from cancer.

A dedicated scholar of his beloved Southwest, Eric began his ethnographic fieldwork in 1972, working with the Navajo on the Lake Powell Project, a trailblazing environmental impact study.

Born in Los Angeles, Eric followed in the footsteps of his sister, Robbin Henderson ’63, and came to Reed. After one year, he transferred to Portland State College (now Portland State University).

“Eric thought that Reed was an excellent college and offered a good foundation for a scholar’s life,” Robbin remembered. “At the time he attended, the social milieu at the college was not congenial to him, and he transferred to Portland State, where he was mentored by the esteemed anthropologist, Jerrold Levy.”

“Eric’s intelligence and kindness inspired deep friendships,” said Robbin. “His integrity inspired respect, even among those whose views differed from his, and his lasting gift was his dedication to his students, whom he challenged to think critically and reflect deeply.”

John D. Hewitt ’73

June 29, 2020, in Gilroy, California.

Eric Henderson ’72

During his college years Eric was extremely active in the antiwar movement in Portland. He graduated with a double major in anthropology and history. He finished his PhD in anthropology at the University of Arizona, having taken time off to earn his JD with Highest Distinction from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1982.

He clerked for Justice Stanley Feldman on the Arizona Supreme Court and for Judge Joseph Livermore on the Arizona Court of Appeals.

For six years, he was counsel to the minority leader in the Arizona state house, where he was instrumental in establishing procedures for the impeachment proceedings and trial of Governor Mecham. It was the first time since 1929 that a U.S. governor had been impeached, and resulted in the conviction of Mecham by the state senate.

But Eric’s true passion was anthropology.

His major research contributions were centered on the Navajo Nation. In the 1970s, he was a contributor to a trailblazing environmental research study, the Lake Powell Research Project, which brought a consortium of university groups together to study the biological and social effects and ramifications of water resource management in the region following the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam across the Colorado River.

His dissertation, “Wealth, Status and Change among the Kaibeto Plateau Navajo,” examined the transformations of Navajo social structures and lifeways on the western reservation from the 1920s through the devastating stock reduction programs of the 1930s and into the 1970s.

In the 1980s, he worked on the Navajo Aging Project, another multiyear study. His last fieldwork was in the 1990s as coinvestigator for the Case Control Studies of Alcohol Abuse on the Navajo Reservation.

Giving up law, he then took a 50% pay cut to become a full time college teacher. He taught

criminology and anthropology at the University of Northern Iowa before moving to Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada, where he spearheaded the development of a bachelor’s degree in integrative studies and co-directed a widely popular archaeological field school with his wife, the anthropologist Amy Henderson.

Eventually Eric returned to the Southwest at Northland Pioneer College, in extremely rural, impoverished northeast Arizona, landing in Holbrook, just three miles from the Navajo Nation. He served as dean of arts and sciences, and briefly as vice president for learning, always seeking ways to design curricula to enlarge opportunities and to mentor students from this vast area. He also taught at Diné College on the Navajo Nation, UA College of Law, and Arizona State University. In his last four years, he retired from administration to teach full time again. His classes ranged from social anthropology to archaeology to physical anthropology to sociology to criminology to political science and government.

Eric was an extraordinarily generous mentor and colleague with boundless intellectual curiosity and a deep passion for scholarly argument as well as collaboration. He blended intellectual rigor, political passion, empathy, good humor, and brutally honest and practical feedback in equal measure. In January, he was hiking in the Petrified Forest National Park, his “neighborhood” park. In February, he was diagnosed with metastasized cancer, and he died in March.

He is survived by his wife, and collaborator, anthropologist and illustrator Amy Henderson; his children Xander, Tanya, Kai, Colin, and Elinor; his sister Robbin; and his brothers, Dal and Mark Henderson. Robbin’s son, Daromir Rudnyckyj, followed in his uncle’s footsteps as a cultural anthropologist.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, John came to Reed, where he wrote his thesis, “Electrophoretic Analysis of Rhythmic Mor pholo g ical Mutants of Neurospora Crassa,” advised by Prof.

Peter Russell [biology 1972–2011]. Jeff McMeekin ’73 met John at freshman orientation at Westwind on the Oregon coast. The two men formed a friendship that included Wayne Marks ’73.

“The three of us became friends for life,” Jeff said. “Dorm life had its ups and downs, so second year we took the next big step after going off to college—moving off campus. Three lads who grew up in environments where Mom did all the shopping and cooking faced new challenges in the mundane. But those shopping trips, as we walked together down the aisles with our shopping cart, negotiating over this and that, were another important facet of coming of age. John had what I thought was a propensity for snacks while Wayne might have felt ‘it takes one to know one,’ we did end up using the nickname ‘Chewy’ for John. Chewy Hewitt had a nice ring to it—like some old-time baseball player—and coming from Boston, John had a love for baseball deep in his DNA. “We meal-planned our way to survival, and the camaraderie blossomed as we moved through our studies and a succession of girlfriends and rental houses. We also gained a keen interest in the outdoor life from day hiking and backpacking in Oregon. Eventually career aspirations intruded, so a couple of years after graduation one by one we launched our postcollege lives outside of Portland. John’s next step was on to UC Davis to pursue a PhD in plant genetics (and where he met his wonderful wife, Nancy).

“Although we came from different parts of the world, John from the Boston area, Wayne from exotic Zelienople, Pennsylvania, and I from San Francisco, we all spent most of our professional lives in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Over the years we did a few joint family backpacking trips and wonderful day hikes with John and Nancy, and after retirement we often traveled together.”

After earning a PhD in genetics from UC Davis, John worked as a plant breeder at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; UC Reed Magazine december 2020 45

In Memoriam Davis; Novartis Seeds; and Northrup King Seeds, now Syngenta Seeds, in Gilroy.

An avid hiker, environmentalist, and lifelong learner, he was a loyal fan of Bay Area and Boston sports teams, especially the Red Sox. John traveled extensively for business and pleasure and spent most summers in the Hewitt cabin in Montana. In retirement, he enjoyed traveling with his family and friends and volunteering in the literacy program at the Gilroy Library.

“Wayne and I got one last chance to talk to John a few days before he died,” Jeff said. “We of course teased him with stories from the old days in the good-natured way we did all our lives.

John was just such a wonderful, sweet guy.”

John is survived by his wife, Nancy, of 41 years, sons Tom and Ted, daughter Lisa, and his sister, Nancy Swanson.

Carol Lynn Brassey ’74 June 1, 2020, in Boise, Idaho.

Born in Boise, Carol spent her summers in Placerville, Idaho, where her father owned a logging operation. She was student body president of her junior high school and graduated from Capital High School, where she edited the yearbook, was student body treasurer, and honed her skills on the debate team, which was her true love.

At Reed, she wrote her thesis, “An Evaluation of Pupil Characteristics and Their Implications for Learning in an Alternative School,” with Prof. Carol Creedon [psychology 1957– 91]. She also studied calligraphy and was known for her beautiful calligraphic handwriting. After earning a JD from the University of Oregon, she passed the Idaho and Oregon bar examinations, and clerked for Justice Joseph McFadden of the Idaho Supreme Court.

Carol started her legal career with the Idaho Department of Employment (now the Department of Labor) as a deputy attorney general in 1979. Three years later, she was named chief counsel for the department, which she held until her retirement in 2008. She made many good friends while working at the department.

Honored at both the state and national levels for her work in labor law, Carol drafted several pieces of legislation that are in the U.S. Code.

She also provided pro bono counsel to the Idaho Assistance League.

Through her work at the Department of Employment, she met her husband, Steve Parry, and they married in 1987 at St. John’s Cathedral in Boise. They loved to play cribbage, and Carol chronicled all the game results in her notebook.

She often said that she learned to count by playing 46 Reed Magazine december 2020

cribbage and credited her success at the game to the many hours she played it in Placerville.

Carol and Steve purchased a summer cabin in McCall, Idaho—which she referred to as “Parrydise”—and made many close friends at KP Cove. They had several different boats over the years, beginning with a sailboat and advancing to a pontoon boat for their retirement years, which was perfect for the two-hour tours of Payette Lake that Carol hosted, providing a running narrative of the history of the lake and its surroundings.

One of her favorite activities at the cabin was picking huckleberries in late July and early August with her younger sister Eve and her nieces. Carol made her grandmother’s huckleberry sauce recipe that she would serve for special dinners.

In 1990, Carol and Steve moved into their Boise home, sitting at the top of a hill. They obtained the lot next door and created Birdseed Park; Carol made sure the bird feeders were always full. In the spring and summer, she deadheaded the irises and trimmed the bitterbrush.

The mayor presented a neighborhood award to Carol for her work in Birdseed Park.

After retiring, Carol volunteered for the Idaho Democratic Party and was a generous supporter of the Women’s and Children’s Alliance, Interfaith Sanctuary, and Land Trust of the Treasure Valley.

She is survived by her husband, Steve Parry; her sisters, Ann Norris and Eve Chandler; and her brother, Vern Brassey II.

Lorne W. Craner ’82 July 2, 2020, in Washington, D.C.

Dedicating his life to the pursuit of liberty and the fight for human rights around the world, Lorne ser ved as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rig hts and Labor; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs; and Director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, and was the longest-serving president of the International Republican Institute.

Lorne spent his early years living on air bases in the United States and Europe. His father, Robert, was a F-100 fighter pilot and a POW in the “Hanoi Hilton” for five years.

After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy, Lorne came to Reed, where he wrote his thesis, “Politics and the People’s Liberation Army, 1950-1971,” advised by Prof. Kalesh Dudharkar [political science 1959–88]. He went on to earn a master’s degree from the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service and began his career advising Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Arizona).

“When I first came to Washington as a

freshman congressman, Lorne Craner served as my foreign affairs adviser,” said Kolbe. “He helped guide me through the thickets of international politics and his advice was always sound and measured. It was a precursor to a distinguished career spanning several decades and six presidents. He leaves an indelible mark on our country’s long-standing support for democracy and freedom around the world.”

He then worked for Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) on foreign policy. In 1989, Lorne was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs under Secretary of State James Baker. He later moved to the National Security Council to work for Brent Scowcroft as Director of Asian Affairs. Lorne was the longest-serving president of the International Republican Institute. In 2001, he was confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. When he retired, he was awarded the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award by Secretary Colin Powell.

Lorne served as president and CEO of American Councils for International Education from 2017–19, and served on several boards, including that of the Millennium Challenge Corp. He was a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Council on Foreign Relations.

He is survived by his wife, Anne; his children, Isabelle, Alexander (Ricky), and Charles; and his sister, Charys.

John Franklin Doyle ’90

August 13, 2019, in Nome, Alaska, from cancer.

Born in Nome, Alaska, John was the seventh child and third son born to Al and Betty Doyle.

He was at home in the out-of-doors, loved fishing, and in the early morning could often be found on the banks of the Nome or Snake River. An active Boy Scout, he participated in high school sports and music. His love of nature continued throughout his life.

After graduating from Nome-Beltz High School, he attended the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, where he studied music and engineering. With his strong and mellow baritone voice, John was the vocalist in a band, The 64th Parallel, which performed in Fairbanks for several years. He also sang in the Choir of the North and the Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre, and studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in New York.

He majored in history at Reed, writing his thesis, “Twelve Thousand Miles of Misplaced Motivations: Commercial Management of the Russian-American Company in Alaska and Siberia,” with Prof. Ed Segel [1973–2011].

He won a Fulbright Scholarship and studied

at the University of Helsinki before earning a law degree from Tufts University.

In a varied career, John did construction jobs and worked as a surveyor in Alaska and Russia. He worked at the World Bank in London for several years and traveled extensively. He was the director of the Alaska office of the Northern Forum, an international consortium dedicated to improving conditions for the Arctic and Northern peoples.

John married Betsy Walatka of Anchorage.

Although they divorced, they remained good friends throughout his life. During the last several years of his life, John and his wife, Sara Wilson-Doyle, were deeply involved in the Resilience Movement, an international program of like-minded individuals who sought to protect the environment.

John is survived by his wife, Sara; his daughter, Freya Doyle ’24; his sisters, Carole Parrish, Linda Comley, Bunny Heiner, and Sharon Wheat; and his brother Doug.

Benjamin Franklin Martin III ’99

March 16, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona, as a result of a traffic accident.

Ben graduated from Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and earned an MS in telecommunications with a certificate in advanced networking protocols from George Mason University. He earned a bachelor ’s degree in history at Reed, where he wrote his thesis with Prof. Leslie Butler [history 1997–98].

He went on to get a JD from Lewis and Clark College and was licensed to practice law in Oregon.

A gentle giant, steadfast and true, Ben enjoyed powerlifting, riding his Triumph motorcycle, target shooting, reading, and messing around with computers and computer networks. He was living in Surprise, Arizona, and was planning to return to Tulsa, which he considered home. He is survived by his mother, Anna Martin.

Jay Collins ’15

April 4, 2020, in Olympia, Washington.

Physics scholar and artist, Jay was born in Seattle and moved to Olympia, Washington, with his family in 2001. He attended Lincoln Elementary, Marshall Alternative Program, and Avanti High School.

A physics major at Reed, he wrote his thesis, “Using the Photon Wave Function to Compute Behavior of Single Photon Wave Packets Traveling through Linear Material Interfaces,” with Prof. Joel Franklin ’97 [physics 2005–] advising. He enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Oregon to study quantum optics in the fall of 2015, but had to drop out for medical reasons.

Thoughtful, with a quick wit, Jay cared about the world and social justice. He loved physics, philosophy, math, history, painting, cooking, and hiking. He is survived by his parents, Mark Collins and Kathy Pruitt.

Ciara Collins ’17

April 24, 2020, in Vancouver, Washington, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

Ciara was born in New Haven and spent her childhood in Madison, Connecticut, where she graduated from Daniel Hand High School. She wrote her thesis, “Get Ready with Me,” with Prof. Akihiko Miyoshi [art 2005–] advising. A warm and spirited young woman, she expressed herself through her writing, photography, art, music, and dance.

“Of the many losses Ciara’s death brings, I mourn her unique and beautiful mind the most,” wrote her friend Toby Alden. “Ciara found connections and meaning where others saw nothing. She loved movies and we often watched them together. Once I watched over her shoulder as she searched for a movie to watch. Seeing her pick and choose movies that seemed totally unrelated, I got confused and asked how she was selecting them. She told me she was looking for movies that contained words or phrases she’d heard earlier that day— movies that held coincidences. What a beautiful way to see yourself and the world! A. I’m forever grateful to have been able to share her life, to love her, and to have caught glimpses of the world she saw—one full of meaning, intent, and purpose.”

Ciara is survived by her parents, Shari and John Collins, and her brother, Sean.

HONOR THEIR

Memory IN THE SPIRIT OF REED

Pending Mildred Fahlen Taxer ’42, John Yngve ’44, Elmo Ellingson Fadling ’48, Katherine Ferguson Abel ’48, Carol Tonkyn ’50, James Rogers ’51, William Shieve ’51, Paul Choban ’54, Richard Blanchard ’56, Graham Sawtell ’57, Nancy Standhardt Seifer ’58, Mary Jones Flores ’59, Yvonne Altmann ’60, Ragan Lewis Cary ’60, Elizabeth Coates ’66, Peter Rubstein ’61, David Dressler ’63, James Fryer ’63, Marilyn Morgan Olmstead ’65, Florance Osborne-Snow ’65, Laurie Appel ’70, Diane Shamash ’77, Elliot Sturman ’80, Devon Belcher ’89, Lainye Reich Heiles ’91, Joshua Bell ’99

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What we’re looking at in class

The Shape of Things to Come This image shows three Drosophila S2R+ cells (cells cultured from fruit fly embryos) stained with actin in cyan and phosphorylated non-muscle myosin II in red. Actin and non-muscle myosin II are proteins that work together to generate cellular contractility, which is critical to morphogenesis—the process by which cells change shape.

Morphogenesis is the driving force behind the formation of our gut, the tube that eventually becomes our spine, and the folding of tissue that

48 Reed Magazine december 2020

creates our organs and ducts. It is essential to all multicellular life forms; without it we would never have evolved from one-cell organisms.

Non-muscle myosin II (which is closely related to skeletal and cardiac myosin and more than likely came before these specialized types of muscle myosins) is regulated by phosphorylation, a post-translation modification that in this case turns it “on.” Furthermore, non-muscle myosin II is also a motor protein, which means it “walks”

along actin filaments, and, in doing so, causes these filaments to slide past one another. This sliding leads to contractility. Students in my Biology 372: Cell Biology course, as a part of the lab portion of the class, participate in a National Science Foundation funded project initiated by Prof. Anna Ritz and myself where they are using both computational and wet lab methods to identify novel regulators of this cellular contractility.

—PROF. DEREK APPLEWHITE

p h o t o b y A m y P l at e n k a m p ’ 1 6 a n d P r o f. D e r e k A p p l e w h i t e

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SKATE IT OUT: Students rollicked over the PAB parking lot when the Rose City Rollers, Portland’s Legendary roller derby league, brought their skatemobile to Reed, thanks to the Gray Fund.