spring 2011
| 2011 ALUMNAE ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS | A LAST GOOD-BYE | A PASSION FOR DANCE
WHITIN OBSERVATORY RECONCEIVED FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
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Students at Whitin Observatory have always peered at the heavens, but now, thanks to a renovation, they can also study the Earth. Geoscience and environmental science have joined astronomy in the beloved building.
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RICHARD HOWARD
RCHARD HOWARD
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PETER VANDERWARKER
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Features 20 A STAR IS REBORN By Lisa Scanlon ’99 A recent renovation and expansion of the 111-year-old Whitin Observatory seamlessly melds the historic and the cutting edge, bringing together the study of astronomy, geosciences, and environmental science.
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Departments 2
From the Editor
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Letters to the Editor
4
From the President
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Window on Wellesley by Alice Hummer, Lisa Scanlon ’99, Jennifer Flint, Jennifer E. Garrett ’98, Amy Mayer ’94, Susan Elia MacNeal ’91, Ruth Walker, Jennie Gottschalk, and Sidrah Baloch ’14
2011 Alumnae Achievement Awards 30 SARAH MILLEDGE NELSON ’53 Bringing Gender to Archaeology By Susan Elia MacNeal ’91
32 SUSAN WUNSCH RICE ’67
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Shelf Life
42
WCAA—Your Alumnae Association
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Class Notes
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Endnote—A Last Good-Bye by Lynn Sternberger ’07
Banking on Social Responsibility By Emily Laurence Baker ’84
34 MARILYN CRANDALL JONES ’70 Putting Patients First By Amy Mayer ’94
36 REENA RAGGI ’73 Laying Down the Law By Jennifer McFarland Flint
Cover photo by Peter Vanderwarker Painting of Whitin Observatory, opposite, by Richmond K. Fletcher (1885–1965)
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spring 2011
volume 93
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Editor Alice M. Hummer Associate Editor Lisa Scanlon ’99 Student Assistant Sidrah Baloch ’14
Wellesley (USPS 673-900). Published fall, winter, spring, and summer by the Wellesley College Alumnae Association. Editorial and Business Office: Alumnae Association, Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8203. Phone 781-283-2342. Fax 781-283-3638. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, Mass., and other mailing offices. Postmaster: Send Form 3579 to Wellesley magazine, Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8203. Wellesley Policy: One of the objectives of Wellesley, in the best College tradition, is to present interesting, thought-provoking material, even though it may be controversial. Publication of material does not necessarily indicate endorsement of the author’s viewpoint by the magazine, the Alumnae Association, or Wellesley College. Wellesley magazine reserves the right to edit and, when necessary, revise all material that it accepts for publication. Unsolicited photographs will be published at the discretion of the editor. KEEP WELLESLEY UP-TO-DATE!
The Alumnae Office has a voice mailbox to be used by alumnae for updating their computer records. The number is 1-800-339-5233. You can also update your information online when you visit the Alumnae Association website at www.wellesley. edu/Alum/. DIRECT LINE PHONE NUMBERS
College Switchboard Alumnae Office Magazine Office Admission Office Center for Work and Service Resources Office
781-283-1000 781-283-2331 781-283-2344 781-283-2270 781-283-2352 781-283-2217
INTERNET ADDRESS
www.wellesley.edu/Alum/
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From the Editor
S
EVERAL YEARS AGO,
in a celebration of institutional pride and the power of a Wellesley education, banners went up on lampposts all over campus. Their bright colors invited attention, and you caught their message by walking past three in succession: “Women who will” . . . “make a difference” ff . . .“in the world.” At the bottom of each banner was printed the name and profession of an Alumnae Achievement Award winner: the civil-rights pioneer, the groundbreaking geneticist, the PulitzerPrize-winning journalist. The life stories attached to the names on the banners were inspiring to many students, but I also heard more than one say that she found the pantheon of Wellesley luminaries a little intimidating. Would she do as well and make as much of a difference ff as the women who went before her? Plenty of alumnae also worry how their achievements stack up—something that was very clear from the response to the article written by Karen Grigsby Bates ’73 in the last magazine, “When Life Doesn’t Measure Up.” In fact, that issue generated more letters to the editor than any other in the last 15 years. We heard from our senior alums, our youngest graduates, and everyone in between. Even husbands weighed in. Almost to a person, you welcomed the discussion about success and failure and urged us to continue it. Many of the letters brought to mind that old adage, “Comparisons are odious” (or odorous, if you’re Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing). g A number of alumnae, with a good dose of courage, shared their feelings of inadequacy. One wrote, “Th The magazine is a quarterly reminder that I haven’t cured cancer, climbed to the top of any corporate ladder, or started a fabulous fi fill-in-the-blank. . . . Most days, I’m too busy to remember that this makes me, relatively speaking, a failure.” But in the colloquy that these letters carry on, another alumna responds, “Too many of us (myself included) underestimate the accomplishments inherent in our own life stories.” And the wisdom of a Wellesley woman from the 1950s adds to the conversation: “I always ask . . . , ‘After you die, will the world be a better place for your having lived in it?’ . . . [I]f you’re doing something—anything— as well as you can do it, the chances are that the world will benefit.” fi You can read a selection of the letters starting on the opposite page; there will also be numerous others in the summer issue. Elsewhere in this magazine are profiles fi of the four Alumnae Achievement Award winners for 2011. They are, by any measure, stars in the Wellesley universe (and the wider universe, for that matter). But they are also women of great humanity, and it was clear from their campus visits in February that they have faced struggles, tragedy, and unexpected life decisions along the way—just like everybody else. Th They present one model of success, but far from the only one. There are Wellesley women around the globe who are making an impact—whether by serving on community boards, nurturing the next generation in the classroom or at home, or just setting an example for others by the way they face illness and adversity. We can’t put you all on banners, but we can get more of you into the magazinee iff you let us or your class secretaries know what’s happening in your lives. Your stories do deserve to be told. Please continue to write. Alice M. Hummer, Editor
RICHARD HOWARD
Design Friskey Design, Sherborn, Mass.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Wellesley welcomes short letters (a maximum length of 300 words) relating to articles or items that have appeared in recent issues of the magazine. Send your remarks to the Editor, Wellesley magazine, 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8203, or e-mail comments to magazine@alum.wellesley.edu.
pictures, we are offered ff a variety. Then when we have more time, we can read the longer articles and class notes. Thank you for your eff fforts! Peggy Bowers Allison ’50 Hamden, Conn.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This quarter was
The alumnae magazine and the New Yorkerr arrived in the same mail. I read Wellesley first (of course) before turning to the New Yorker, where almost immediately I came across a WHY THE COMPARISONS? cartoon picturing a woman reading her Alumni News. In the background Thank you for the thought-provoking her husband says to her, “If you didn’t article, “When Life Doesn’t Measure want to feel inferior to your classmates, Up.” As I read the various thoughts you shouldn’t have gone to such a and feelings conveyed, a common good school.” Putting aside the notion theme emerged to me. As Wellesley that in a following frame, the cartoonalumnae, don’t we need to redefine fi ist might picture her throwing somesuccess? It reminds me of the everthing at him, there’s a great deal of truth changing prize for Hooprolling. in his words. Not that When the practice W most of us would have ffirst started, it was thought about it this ssaid that the winner way, but we all didd want would be the fi first to w to go to a good school, a bbe married. During very good school. my time, the winner m When Life This said, the was supposed to be the w Doesn’t Measure thoughtful article by first CEO of a ForUp Karen Grigsby Bates ’73 ttune 500 company. (“When Life Doesn’t SShouldn’t each of us Measure Up”) raises a determine our own d number of questions about judging successes? Why are we relentlessly ourselves. We need to continue the comparing ourselves to the achieveconversation. I do think that one of ments of others? Others’ successes the reasons you won’t fi find statements should in no way diminish our own. I of failure in the class notes is that we celebrate each alumna’s achievement keep these diffi fficulties private, sharing because each of us, in her own way, them only with our closest friends, in is making a difference ff in this world. my case, my Wellesley friends. For some, it’s within our own famiI’d like to suggest that when lies. For others, it might be making a we nominate for the Alumnae diff fference in education, government,
to the editor than any time in the last 15 years. Our winter ’11 cover story, “When Life Doesn’t Measure Up,” brought many thoughtful responses. Because we received far more letters than we have space for, the discussion will continue in the summer issue. COVER TO COVER
I read the winter ’11 issue from cover to cover. While I always enjoy Wellesley magazine (particularly the photography and updates on the school and class notes), the topical personal essay by Beth Coye ’59 (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: A Personal Journey to Activism”), the feature on lessons learned from perceived failure (“When Life Doesn’t Measure Up”), and the look at multigenerational Wellesley experiences (“The Th More Things Change”) all evoked the spirit of the school for me. Thanks so much. Lydia Chan ’01 San Francisco GOOD FOR THE BUSY READER
I’m writing to congratulate you on the layout of the magazine. I like the short, one-page articles in the front of the magazine. We are all busy and value our time. With this layout of brief articles often accompanied by
HOW WE JUDGE OURSELVES
winter 2011
Winter 11 Covers pg1 bcg.indd 3
CONTRIBUTORS Emily Laurence Baker ’84 (“Banking on Social Responsibility,” p. 32) has lived in London since 1991. Meeting the incredibly energetic Susan Wunsch Rice ’67 has prompted her to get going on that long unwritten book.
CLARIFICATION
In the winter ’11 President’s Letter, I included a comparison of the distribution of majors in 1968 and 2009. To clarify, I reported the percentage of total majors. Had I used the number of total studentss majoring in any particular discipline, the sum would be much greater than 100 percent, due to double majors. For example, I noted that science represented 16 percent of the total majorss in 2009. The percentage of studentss majoring in science was 21.5 percent (many of those students also major in something else). Regardless of the method used, the data support my main point about the enduring value of Wellesley’s liberal-arts education. H. Kim Bottomly Wellesley College President
| A DARK STUDY COMES TO LIGHT | “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL” | THE MORE THINGS CHANGE
BRIAN CRONIN
a record-setter for mail—more letters
Achievement Award we start to consider broader criteria—women who have overcome problems with substance or other kinds of abuse, or have quietly fi filled needs in their communities, within their families, or other less public triumphs. Non Ministrari sed Ministrare doesn’t mean anything without the individual who is acting it out on any stage, large or small. Katherine Page ’69 Lincoln, Mass.
2/3/11 12:09 PM
and/or business. My time at Wellesley made me a better woman because it made me realize we all give in our own way. Non Ministrari i sed Ministraree . . . isn’t that true success? Stacy Sutton Hutcheson ’92 West Chester, Pa. TEACHABLE MOMENTS
I would like to say failure can produce positive results, in that you learn from past mistakes. Forbes published an article that many successful millionaires had been broke—and more than once. They came up a second or third time smarter. I personally have known such people. Larisa Vanov ’82 Houston (Continued on page 76)
Wellesley magazine is available online at www.wellesley.edu/magazine.
Jennifer McFarland Flint (“Laying Down the Law,” p. 36), a former associate editor of the magazine, writes freelance from Somerville, Mass.
Susan Elia MacNeal ’91 (“Bringing Gender to Archaeology,” p. 30) is still awed, amazed, and inspired by Sarah Milledge Nelson ’53 and the other Alumnae Achievement Award winners. Her first novel, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, will be published by Bantam Dell/ Random House in the fall.
Amy Mayer ’94 (“Putting Patients First,” p. 34) enjoys writing about Wellesley women; her current project is a radio documentary about the Peace Corps.
Lisa Scanlon ’99 (“A Star Is Reborn,” p. 20) is an associate editor at Wellesley magazine. She can’t wait to introduce her daughter to the cosmos at an observatory community night.
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From the President
The Science Tradition
I
Producing doctors and scientists may be one of Wellesley’s quieter traditions, but it is a long-standing one, and it is one we must maintain. of Wellesley College, the very first wave of congratulatory notes It is undoubtedly good for our students, who have the benefit fi of an exceland e-mails I received came from science colleagues across the lent science education in tandem with a rigorous and inspiring liberal-arts country and around the globe. I was surprised to learn how curriculum. It is undoubtedly good for society, which needs these liberalmany of these contacts had connections to Wellesley; I was even arts-educated minds, and needs more women in these fi fields. more surprised at the additional number that had connections It is also undoubtedly more complicated these days. to other small liberal-arts colleges. The number of U.S.-trained scientists and engineers is in decline, and What I quickly came to realize, of course, is that liberal-arts colleges so we must feed the pipeline. While like Wellesley are the quiet foundational we can’t control the early pipeline that underpinnings of our society’s successful encourages middle-school girls toward science enterprise. STEM fields (science, technology, engiIn the last 20 years, more than one neering, and mathematics), we must in five American Nobel laureates in ensure that our science-inclined underchemistry, physics, and medicine attended graduates (especially first-year fi students) liberal-arts colleges. Such statistics lead remain excited about the discipline. To us to believe that liberal-arts graduates do this, our country’s science pedagogy are disproportionately represented in needs to change. I would argue that the the leadership of the nation’s scientific fi larger research universities could learn community. a great deal from us. Small liberal-arts Having spent my own undercolleges thoughtfully engage students in graduate and graduate years, as well as the research enterprise. Certainly, this is my entire pre-Wellesley academic career, true for Wellesley, where faculty provide at large research universities, I remain myriad opportunities, early on, for stuintrigued by the fact that liberal-arts coldents to do important research alongside leges yield a disproportionate number of them. Oberlin College conducted an students who pursue advanced degrees eight-year study of 50 liberal-arts colleges in science and engineering. In fact, the and found that of the 7,000 articles published by faculty, National Science Foundation places Wellesley on its list ‘We need practicing 30 percent were co-authored by undergraduate students. of the top 50 schools in the United States producing the scientists, but we also At research universities, that number is less than 1 percent. highest proportion of students who go on to earn doctoral need science majors Yes, we need practicing scientists, but we also need degrees in these fi fields. From 1997 to 2006, 381 Wellesley populating all careers; science majors populating all careers; science needs to be alumnae—or 6 percent of our graduates—earned doctoral science needs to be a more integral part of the liberal-arts experience. After degrees in science and engineering. all, many of the greatest challenges we face in this century Over the last 10 years, more than 470 Wellesley stua more integral part will require science expertise and the ability to link that dents or young alumnae pursued medicine, dentistry, or of the liberal-arts expertise to expertise in other fields. Imagine a world in veterinary medicine, and there has also been an increasing experience.’ which science majors from liberal-arts colleges become interest in public-health careers. Among our alumnae, 16 —President H. Kim Bottomly attorneys and accountants, businessmen and bankers, percent work in science-related fields, including medicine. politicians and poets, journalists and judges. I guarantee Indeed, Wellesley has a President Bottomly has it would be a smoother-running world. long tradition of serving as a kind launched a new blog— Actually, that world may be closer than we think. At the Alumnae “The HKBlog”—which can be of secret foundation for budding scientists. From found at blogs.wellesley.edu/ the beginning, College founder Henry Durant Achievement Awards dinner in February, I had the pleasure of talking to a president/. Wellesley student, a neuroscience major, who was seated at my table. Over insisted that a Wellesley education include chemdinner, she told me about her plans for a future career in marketing. istry and physics requirements—this at a time when science was not a major A neuroscience major who wants to work in marketing? Th This time, I part of most undergraduate colleges. Today, Wellesley College is home to the wasn’t the least bit surprised. second oldest physics lab in the country. H. Kim Bottomly
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RICHARD HOWARD
N 2007, after it was announced that I was to be the next president
WINDOW ON
WoW
WELLESLEY A NOTEBOOK OF NEWS AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE CAMPUS. BY ALICE HUMMER, LISA SCANLON ’99, JENNIFER FLINT, JENNIFER E. GARRETT ’99, AMY MAYER ’94, SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL ’91, RUTH WALKER, JENNIE GOTTSCHALK, AND SIDRAH BALOCH ’14.
Support And Cranes For Japan THE WELLESLEY COMMUNITY’S response to
the crises in Japan was immediate, strong, and heartfelt. The day after the March 11 earthquake, members of the Wellesley College Japan Club created the Wellesley for Japan Coalition, a cross-Wellesley alliance united to help Japan in the aftermath of the disasters. “Everyone can play a part in this. You do not need to be Japanese. You do not need to be a member of Japan Club. All you need to have is a heart that cares,” the students wrote on the coalition’s website. Since then, students have raised money for relief efforts in creative ways, from holding crane-making gatherings ($1 per crane) to hosting “Hot & Spicy,” a party sponsored by the Wellesley College Asian Student Union. The administration has also worked to raise awareness and show its support for Japan. On March 16, the College held a vigil for Japan in Houghton Chapel, with reflections from faculty, students, staff, and members of the For more on how students are supporting Japan, visit wellesleycollegeforjapan. blogspot.com.
religious and spiritual life team. (See page 8 for a quote from Professor T. James
Kodera.) During a “teach-in” on March 27, Jim Besancon, associate professor of geosciences, and Katharine Moon, the Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies, spoke about the causes, effects, and potential outcomes of the RICHARD HOWARD
Tiffany Chan ’12, copresident of the Wellesley College Asian Student Union, and Connie Shen ’14 at a crane-folding fund-raiser for Japan at the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center.
recent events in Japan. —LS
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inPerson
MELISSA HALEY ’11, Campus Tour Guide for the Office of Admission
MELISSA HALEY ’11 WILL GRADUATE from Wellesley with a skill that most of her classmates have not perfected: the fine art of walking backward. A campus tour guide for the Office ffi of Admission since her first semester, Haley has logged hundreds of miles striding backward, with a group of tour-goers to help her navigate. (Th They grimace when she’s about to back into something.) Haley can also rattle off ff College facts and trivia that most students wouldn’t have a clue about, and she says working as a tour guide has only deepened her appreciation of the College. Giving tours as a fi first-year, she remembers, “I was excited every time, never failed.” Introducing Wellesley to newcomers reinforced all the reasons she’d chosen to attend and provided “a really great way to get acclimated.” In particular, she says, as a first-generation college student she might not have realized certain campus resources existed, such as the multimedia equipment in the Knapp Media and Technology Center and the wide variety of services off ffered at the Center for Work and Service. Haley has done tours every year she has been at Wellesley, including three Wintersessions. Now a senior, she admits to occasionally being less than enthusiastic at the prosTo read the thoughts of pect of giving a tour. students blogging for the Office of Admission, visit “But then I go out, web.wellesley.edu/web/ and I always have Admission/GetToKnowUs/ a great time,” she studentblogs.psml. says. And her tours are diff fferent now—better, she figures— because her Wellesley story has deepened. In addition to learning to walk backward, Haley says the job has given her useful life skills. “One of the best things about being a tour guide is that I’m just much more comfortable speaking publicly, and I can project my voice much farther than most people.” She’s also figured out how to engage her audience by tailoring content to the visitors’ particular interests. Sometimes students appear distracted or uninterested, which, she says, “becomes very apparent when you’re giving somebody a tour who’s had like 20 tours.” She’ll figure
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‘One of the best things about being a tour guide is that I’m just much more comfortable speaking publicly, and I can project my voice much farther than most people.’ —Melissa Haley ’11
they know about dorm life, for example, so rather than boring them with the number of residence halls, she picks out things that distinguish Wellesley’s. “I tell them that we have weekly teas, and that’s something that is more unique,” she says, “or the fact that we have grand pianos in every res hall.” The student tour guides enjoy sharing the volumes of Wellesley minutia they’ve committed to memory, Haley says. That makes it disappointing if they can’t answer a question. “Someone once asked me who the architects were for our campus center, and I knew they were a husband and a wife, and I knew they were from a warmer place than New England. I gave it my best guess,” she says, and when she returned with them to the Admission Offi ffice, she looked it up. “We try to answer all their questions [before they leave]—that’s important.” Unfortunately, in that case, she was wrong. “So that was kind of a bummer.” (Correct answer: Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam.) Haley also gets questions about herself. What’s her major? Art history and psychology. What are her plans for after graduation? Nothing fi firm yet, so when someone on a tour asks her about that, she rotates through a few answers. “It’s never the students who ask me,” she says, only the parents. “And what they’re really asking is, ‘Is the school going to help my daughter get a job if she goes here?’” Being a tour guide isn’t on Haley’s short list of dream jobs for after graduation, but she knows a tour guide can have a great impact. She credits her own tour of the campus with convincing her to attend Wellesley. And she learned this spring that some prospective students last fall told an alumnae interviewer that they had arrived for a tour ambivalent about the College. Their guide’s enthusiasm and passion totally overtook them and convinced them to apply. “Th That actually really warms my heart,” Haley says. “Th That’s really cool.” —AM
RICHARD HOWARD
Tour de Force
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9
PLAYS YOU SHOULDN’T MISS
‘SISTERS’ TO PARTNER WITH U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
ACCORDING TO WELLESLEY THEATRE PROFESSORS
IN MARCH,
NORA HUSSEY, the director of theatre and theatre
6. A Long Day’s Journey Into Night,
studies, and Melinda Lopez, who teaches theatre
by Eugene O’Neill
and performance, offer nine plays they think are
O’Neill’s repetitive plot, which takes place
worth putting on your “bucket list.”
exclusively in the family living room, examines one day in the life of the Tyrone family. The
1. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, by August Wilson
repetition makes the day seem like any other
Wilson examines the African-American search for
for the family, filled with frustration, argument,
cultural identity after slavery and the migration of
and an underlying love.
African Americans to Pittsburgh in the 1910s.
7. Blood Wedding,
2. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
by Federico García Lorca
The melancholy Dane and his travails.
A tragedy of missed love, this play examines the conflict between individuals’ wishes and the laws of the societies in which they exist. 8. The Clearing, by Helen Edmundson While dealing with Ireland’s ethnic cleansing during Cromwell’s 17th-century reign, this play examines the crisis
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ’69 announced the Women and Public Service Initiative, a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and five women’s colleges: Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and “of course, my alma mater, Wellesley.” Th The collaboration is designed to increase the participation of women around the globe in public service and political leadership, and to work to expand civil rights, improve governance, and combat corruption. As a first step, the State Department and the five colleges will host a colloquium in the fall of 2011 at Bryn Mawr College that will bring together policymakers, public officials, academic experts, and others. The Th intent is also to develop an annual summer institute on public service and political leadership for young women from around the world. Clinton said, “Together we will seek to promote the next generation of women leaders who will invest in their countries and communities, provide leadership for their governments and societies, and help change the way global solutions are developed.”
of English landowner Robert Preston, who is forced to choose between his Irish wife and the estate he has worked so hard to build. 9. Medea, by Euripides,
A scene from Sonia Flew, presented at Wellesley in fall 2010
Robinson Jeffers’ version
3. Topdog/Underdog, by Suzan-Lori Parks
A powerful story of emotion, conflict, strength,
Two brothers struggle against each other and
and dignity, Euripides’ Medea tells the story
the chaotic world in which they live. After being
of the title character’s revenge after her
abandoned as children, the brothers attempt
husband’s betrayal.
and the other as an impersonator. 4. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, by Rajiv Joseph Set during the American invasion of Iraq, the play is a set of metaphorical musings on life’s purpose in a godless universe. It is narrated by the tiger, who is shot in the play’s opening scene.
And a bonus selection, from Professor Hussey: Sonia Flew, by Melinda Lopez Set in 1960s Cuba and post-9/11 America, the play examines how historical moments impact the intimate lives of individuals. The characters grapple with questions like: What do we owe our parents or children? Can we forgive the
5. Our Town, by Thorton Wilder
past? And if we can, at what cost? “It is an
Set in a 1930s theater, the show follows the
amazing and very important piece of dramatic
inhabitants of Grover’s Corner, as narrated by
literature,” says Hussey.
the stage manager.
RICHARD HOWARD
to start anew as adults, one as a petty criminal
‘Together we will seek to promote the next generation of women leaders who will invest in their countries and communities, provide leadership for their governments and societies, and help change the way global solutions are developed.’ —Hillary Rodham Clinton ’69
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RICHARD HOWARD
OVERHEARDO ONLINE The following are posts and snippets from discussions on the College’s electronic bulletin boards. Truly, you never quite know what is going to show up.
DEAR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ON MY MATH P-SET,
OBJECT OF OUR ATTENTION
ART, ILLUMINATED
Lantern slide and iPad image of the Crystal
Please stop yielding a solution with a limit
Palace in London’s Hyde Park, built in
of 0 as t approaches infinity. Also, please
1850-51, and torn down in 1936; far left,
start yielding more logical solutions.
the Daniel Parker House in Boston.
Love, Allison Dear Allison,
GENERATIONS OF WELLESLEY WOMEN have shared
were 35 mm color slides, there were
the experience: sitting in a darkened Art 101
lantern slides—3¼ by 4 inch glass slides, most
classroom as image after image flashes by. The
with black-and-white images, shown through
Birth of Venus. Click. French palaces. Click.
a projector. Wellesley faculty began teaching
Guernica. Today’s art-history lectures mostly
from lantern slides sometime prior to 1903 and
draw from a digital-image database maintained
continued using them well into the mid-20th
To view images from the lantern-slide collection, visit tinyurl.com/4nue8dg.
by the art department’s Visual
Love, Your Differential Equation FOR SALE, YOUR CHOICE My 13-year-old son’s clothes have finally gotten too big for the dresser we got him
century. (The last lantern slide was accessioned
Resource Collection (formerly
in 1978.) Architectural images predominate
the slide library). To study the
among the VRC’s 16,000 lantern slides,
images after class, students
capturing buildings—and scenes of everyday
can use digital flflashcards on computers or iPads.
Please improve your math skills.
when he was 3. At least that’s what he claims is the reason his clothes are strewn all over the floor. So we got him a bigger dresser, and we’ll see what happens.
life—from eras long past.
But before there were databases, before there
In the meantime, we have his old
—AH
dresser for sale. It is 51 inches wide, 18.5 inches deep, and 29.25 inches high. Six drawers. Some finish damage on the top. For sale for $75 or best offer.
«
We thought about just selling the
QUOTABLES
13-year-old son, but we think we’ll get a better price for the dresser. It doesn’t
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at a vigil for Japan held in Houghton Chapel
grunt at you or smell like a gym locker or lie on the sofa watching Myth Busters. Ann Velenchik, writing program BOSTON-SPECIFIC SNACKS? I need to provide Boston-specific fi snacks for an event—and won’t have access to a refrigerator, so they can’t be things that need to be kept cold. Any and all suggestions about what is specific fi to Boston that would be doable without refrigeration appreciated! Beth DeSombre, environmental studies LISA SCANLON ’99
Natural disasters bring out the best and the worst in human nature. What is particularly moving is that the people of Korea and China, who have legitimate gripes against Japan for its war-time atrocities, were among the first to arrive to help. Endless television coverage has also shown Candles lit by students, faculty, and staff at the vigil the orderly behavior of the Japanese, even after their loved ones have been washed to the sea or buried in the mud under the rubble, and their houses gone. So far, there has been no instance of looting or fighting. Professor T. James Kodera,
Necco Wafers, salt cod, and hardtack biscuits. Flick Coleman, chemistry Perhaps I should have specified Bostonspecific snacks that would actually entice people to come to an event, rather than cause them to back away quickly. . . . Beth
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MUSIC
A GREAT SET OF PIPES MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS don’t usually get birthday celebrations. But the Fisk organ in Houghton Chapel is 30 years old this spring, and College Organist James David Christie’s May 7 recital there defi finitely counted as a celebration. The music of the great Dutch composer Jan Th Pieterszoon Sweelinck soared through the chapel earlier this month as Christie put Opus 72, built by the late Charles Brenton Fisk, through its paces. Played at weddings and memorials, recitals, vespers, Christmas carol sings, and worship services, the organ has a secure place in the life of a 21st-century college but is particularly well suited to performing the rich repertoire of north German music from the 1500s to about 1690. It’s used for teaching as well, Christie says, and even beginners are able to adapt to its distinctive features. Opus 72 is an organ of not just national but worldwide significance. fi It was the first 20th-century American organ with what is known as meantone tuning, which was often used in earlier centuries. This tuning, Christie explains, gives each key “its own personality”—and some keys, such as C major and E minor, sound much better than others. Contemporary organs and pianos usually are tuned in more standardized ways. Tuning is not the only aspect of the organ for which Fisk made old things new. Opus 72 features To learn how a C.B. Fisk tracker action. This organ is built, watch a video means that the organist’s at www.cbfisk.com/do/ pressure on the keys is DisplayProcess. translated into sound by mechanical action rather than electricity. And although Opus 72 has an electric-powered “wind” supply, it also can get its air the old-fashioned way: from bellows operated by pedals. (On occasion, a student with strength and heft has operated the bellows for Christie.) Opus 72 was the last organ Fisk built, and he was seriously ill as he was working on it. Christie remembers sitting in the chapel one day just watching Fisk at work, “voicing” pipes—performing the minor adjustments to produce the desired tone. “He took two hours to voice three pipes. I’ve played a lot of Fisk instruments around the world, and none of them had more of him in them than that organ. Fisk put his heart and soul into that organ.”
‘I’ve played a lot of Fisk instruments around the world, and none of them had more of him in them than that organ. Fisk put his heart and soul into that organ.’ —James David Christie
RICHARD HOWARD
—RW
This spring also marks the 50th anniversary of C.B. Fisk, Inc., of Gloucester, Mass.; Virginia Lee Crist Stone ’55 serves as chairman of the company her late husband, Charles, founded. Linda Cook ’74 works as an organ builder there.
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EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
A Passion for Dance “THERE IS A BIT OF INSANITY
in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good,” wrote dance critic Edwin Denby. For those looking for that “bit of insanity” on campus, Wellesley College has varied opportunities. While there may not be an academic dance program in place (dance classes are taught through the Department of Physical Education, Recreation, and Athletics), the College boasts a multitude of student-run extracurricular dance groups. Students organize and run the groups, as well as choreograph, rehearse, and perform. Wellesley’s formally organized dance groups are ascenDance (ballet), the Belly Dancing Society, Dance Collective (modern), FreeStyle (hip-hop), Gumboot (South African dance), the Wellesley College Ballroom Dance Team, the Wellesley College Dancers (jazz, lyrical, and ballet), and Yanvalou (Afro-Haitian dance). And some students travel to Cambridge to dance with the MIT Ballroom Club. Others aren’t organized into formal groups. “There Th are Indian ethnic dancers who are not that involved in campus performances,” says Elaine Wong ’11, an architecture major who dances with the Wellesley College Dancers. “[And] we had a group perform a form of Irish dance.” Wong herself started with Chinese ethnic dance at age 4 and continued for years. “Dance has basically
PHOTOS BY RICHARD HOWARD
been my stress reliever ever since I can remember. You step on the dance fl floor, competition floor, performance space, and for that moment of time, you can just dance your heart out.” In addition to exploring lyrical, ballet, and modern on campus, she danced for two years with the MIT Ballroom Club. However, in her senior year, Wong decided to concentrate solely on the Wellesley College Dancers. “We’ve [had great] student choreographers. And I feel like the stress that Wellesley induces makes for really good dances [and] choreographers [who] get really into it”—resulting in expressive pieces. Rebecca Graber ’11, a double major in math and computer science, is the copresident of the Wellesley College Ballroom Dance Team and is also writing a computer-science honors thesis on computer-aided choreography. She’s a dedicated ballroom dancer who doesn’t mind taking the bus to Cambridge multiple times each week for the MIT Ballroom Dance Club. Before Wellesley, she’d dabbled in diff fferent styles of dance, but when she arrived on campus, “ballroom sort of came in and took over my life.” During orientation week, she says, “I ended up in the ballroom dance team camp introduction [at MIT]—and the rest is history!” Graber has learned to deal with the bus commute by doing problem sets on the bus. Still, she Elaine Wong ’11 and Anna Zhang ’11 of the Wellesley College Dancers
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‘I’ve been a choreographer the whole time I’ve been here. And it’s also just a really good stress relief. When I dance, I can forget about everything else that’s going on in my life.’ —Claire McRee ’12 Top photos: students from ascenDance, including Claire McRee ’12 in green
appreciates her time away. “Getting off ff campus is valuable,” she says. “And I always have something non-academic to work for. Th There’s always another ballroom competition. Even if it’s months away, it’s something to look forward to, and it’s something to work for besides . . . projects and papers. And it’s made me some of my best friends, both at Wellesley and at MIT.” Graber merges her passions for dance and computer science in her senior thesis, a choreography computer program. “I started thinking about doing something related to dance, because the time when I’m not thinking about my computer programming, I’m thinking about dance. I might as well combine them. So the idea for my thesis was to create a program that speaks the language of choreography.” Yet another dancer, Claire McRee ’12, is a history major. A musician (she plays the fl flute with the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra), she’s taken ballet lessons since she was 4 and now dances with ascenDance, Wellesley’s ballet-fusion group. In addition to dancing with the group, she’s also the publicity chair and a choreographer. “It gives me a creative outlet, because I’ve been a choreographer the whole time I’ve been here. And it’s also just a really good stress relief. When I dance, I can forget about everything else that’s going on in my life.”
For the spring semester, McRee choreographed a piece for ascenDance to Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” She draws on her musical background when she choreographs. “Being a musician, I really want to know the piece of music and choose steps that articulate what I hear in the music. So, I’ll listen to the music carefully and do some improv. And then I go through, phrase by phrase, and edit it.” Even though dancing in a group counts toward Wellesley’s physicaleducation requirements, most of the students also take classes at the sports center. “Rehearsals are diff fferent from class,” McRee says. “I took Ballet II, the upper-level ballet class, my fi first year. And then I took the intermediate modern class last year. I really liked the teacher, so this year I took that class again, and now I’m taking jazz this semester.” Will Wellesley’s various groups ever come together for a performance en masse? McRee thinks so. “With our [ascenDance] shows recently, we’ve been trying to incorporate more diverse groups from on campus. Th The past two semesters, we’ve had Wellesley College Dancers and Dance Collective guest perform in our shows, and we’ll guest perform in their shows. And then we’ve had Blue Jazz, the jazz group [play for us]. We’re trying to bring it all together.” —SM
Rebecca Graber ’11 Wellesley College Ballroom Dance Team FreeStyle
‘I started thinking about doing something [for my thesis] related to dance, because the time when I’m not thinking about my computer programming, I’m thinking about dance. I might as well combine them.’ —Rebecca Graber ’11
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wellesley 11
ART
OF WELLESLEY
Behold the Beauty Plaster of Aphrodite de Milos/Venus de Milo Original attributed to Alexandros of Antioch/Plaster cast by the Caproni Gallery, Boston Plaster Collection of the Department of Art, Wellesley College
“Venus de Milo was noted for her charms/Strictly between us, you’re cuter than Venus/And what’s more you have arms.” THE ART DEPARTMENT’S PLASTER of the Venus de Milo closely
RICHARD HOWARD
resembles the original ancient Greek statue of the graceful goddess of love, famous for representing the ideal of classical beauty. The original resides in the collection of the Louvre—and she is, indeed, also lacking arms. However, the Venus de Milo plaster was, and is, an important pedagogical tool for art-history students. “Many schools like Wellesley used plaster casts as a way to teach art and art history. Before photographs and originals were affordable ff and widespread, [casts were] how people learned about art,” explains Associate Professor of Art Jacki Musacchio ’89. According to Musacchio, Wellesley’s cast of the Venus de Milo was most likely made sometime during the early 20th century and acquired by Wellesley after College Hall burned in 1914. “Caproni was the premiere castmaker in the U.S. during the early 1890s to late 1920s,” Musacchio says. “If you look on the base of our cast, you’ll see a little metal plaque, identifying it as a Caproni.” For Wellesley students and art afi ficionados, studying the plaster cast of the draped Venus de Milo, located in the stairwell of Jewett, is the next best thing to viewing the original in Paris—and much, much easier to reach. —SM
FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE IN MARCH, JEWETT AUDITORIUM was packed with students, faculty, and off-campus guests, celebrating the Russian holiday Maslenitsa. The Barynya folk ensemble performed Russian, Cossack, Ukrainian, Jewish, and Gypsy dances and Russian folksongs. Margarita Rabinovich ’13, who has a Russian background, reflected that the event reminded her of the songs and dances from her childhood. Lena Mironciuc ’13 said, “As audience was not breathing when the women danced with burning candles placed on their heads during the Jewish dance. Barynya did a wonderful job at representing all the ethnicities of former USSR.”
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spring 2011
—JG
WWW.BARYNYA.COM
a dancer myself, I appreciated their skill. I think the whole
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MEDIA ARTS/HISTORY
MULTICULTURALISM
MAPPING REVOLUTIONARY BOSTON
DIVERSITY MATTERS
THINK OF IT as “beyond the Freedom Trail”—way
Mapping Revolutionary Boston began in
THIS SPRING,
beyond. A new website, “Mapping Revolutionary
2008 as the fruit of an independent-study team
Boston,” is meant to give visitors a much fuller
consisting of Rebecca Spitzer ’10 and Kelley
picture of Boston “on the eve of rebellion”
Tialiou ’10, media-arts students, and history stu-
than they can get following that red line on the
dents Caroline Royer ’09 and Kaylan Stevenson ’09.
sidewalk.
Martha McNamara, director of the art depart-
A joint venture of Wellesley’s New England
ment’s New England Arts and Architecture
Arts and Architecture Program and the Boston-
Program, has been part of the project, along
ian Society (which oversees Boston’s Old State
with David Teng Olsen of the art department and
House), Mapping Revolutionary Boston is
Nathaniel Sheidley, formerly of history. Other
based on a 1769 map by cartographer William
Wellesley students majoring in architecture, history,
Price.
and art contributed to the site, as did students
Visitors see a digitized version of Price’s
from other Boston-area universities.
map, marked with virtual “push pins.” Each pin,
McNamara observes that in the modern
when clicked on, brings up a different vignette
city of skyscrapers, it’s all too easy to lose sight
of life in this period—many researched and writ-
of the water. Yet so much revolutionary history
ten by Wellesley students. The main story line is
happened on the waterfront, she says, or
clearly the coming revolution. But the pins also
involved people in the shipping and maritime
celebrate ordinary folk, such as Lydia Gregory,
industries. She hopes that the website will
a poor girl released from an almshouse on June 3,
provide a better sense of that: “I hope that peo-
1767, to be “bound
ple take away what an intensely maritime city
out” as a domestic
Boston was.”
Visit 17th-century Boston: www.bostonhistory.org/sub/ mappingrevolutionaryboston/.
servant.
—RW
President H. Kim Bottomly announced three changes within the structure of the College designed to promote diversity and inclusiveness, which she called “core institutional commitments and important components of the educational mission, intellectual community, and workplace environment at Wellesley.” ffice of the Provost and Dean of the >> The Offi College is being restructured to create the position of associate provost and academic director of diversity and inclusion. A signifi ficant component of the associate provost’s portfolio will be responsibility for defi fining the College’s diversity goals in the academic area, working with academic departments and programs to ensure that Wellesley recruits and retains a diverse faculty, and better enabling faculty members from under-represented groups to thrive and succeed. A search has been launched to fill this position.
>> In the Division of Student Life, the College created the Offi ffice of Intercultural Education to focus eff fforts on “student success, leadership development, affirmation ffi and collaboration, and diversity and inclusion.” The offi ffice will be led by Victor Kazanjian, longtime dean of religious and spiritual life, who is also assuming the role of dean of intercultural education. The College’s cultural advisors will continue to support particular student social-identity groups; they will also have key leadership roles as members of the new offi ffice in coordinating and implementing campus efforts ff to educate students to be more multiculturally competent and in facilitating a more inclusive campus.
>> The president has also named a director of employment, diversity, and inclusion, a position that will be held by Carolyn Slaboden in the College’s Human Resources Office. ffi This is an enhancement of Slaboden’s current role as associate director of human resources and equal opportunity, which has focused on administrative and faculty recruitment and affi ffirmative action.
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WELLESLEY ATHLETICS
Boots Made for Running track team was determined to “show up with a bang” this year, its first fi as a varsity sport at Wellesley. And show up with a bang they did—especially Boots, who won the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship in the mile this March with a time of 4:57:46, a second faster than her nearest competitor. Teammate Leah Clement ’12 also attended the event, finishing sixth in the 800-meter race and earning All-American honors. Th The team itself finished the indoor season ranked 11th in the nation, missing a top-10 ranking by just a few points. Competition in outdoor track began in April, and the team was hoping to continue to build on their strong start. Not bad for the new kids on the varsity block. And defi finitely not bad for Boots, who didn’t even start running track until she came to Wellesley. In high school, she competed in cross country, basketball, and lacrosse. When she started at the College, she focused on the cross-country team, and her coach, John Babington, suggested she run track to improve her speed. “He thought I could be a really good mile runner, and it turns out that he was right,” she laughs. Boots ran track in 2010 when the team was a club sport. She fi finished third in the mile at the national indoor championships and earned All-American honors, becoming Wellesley’s first track All-American. This year, Boots To track the track team (above), visit www.wellesleyblue.com/sports/wtrack/index. is improving her times, and the track team added sprinters and relay teams. “I’m thrilled,” Boots says. “There’s Th always a ton of energy at practice, and everyone’s really excited.” Plus, the team is reaping the benefi fits of varsity status: preferred times on the College’s track, time with the trainers, and an additional coach to work with the sprinters. “The Th other sports are starting to recognize us as the track team now,” Boots says. While she is still a cross-country runner, Boots is defi finitely relishing her time on the track. She runs both indoor and outdoor events, primarily the milee aand d tthee 1500-meter 500 ete race. ace. SShe’s e s aalso so p participated on the Blue’s 4x400
SPORTS SCOREBOARD Blue BASKETBALL finished the season with a 12–13 record, bowing out in the NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinals. Earlier in the year, Wellesley was the only team to go undefeated at the Seven Sisters Championships. Closing out the season, Malia Maier ’13 earned All-NEWMAC and Academic All-NEWMAC honors. The FENCING team ended its year with one of the best seasons in program history, with a 22–5 overall record. Ten individuals qualified for the NCAA Regional tournament, the most in team history. Earlier in the season, the Blue took fourth overall at the New England Championships, where they also won the foil title.
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RICHARD HOWARD
ACCORDING TO RANDELLE BOOTS ’13, the
relay team. “I’ve defi finitely been growing individually as a runner,” Boots says. “I have a lot of support from the athletic department, from the College in general, and particularly from my teammates and SPORTS TRIVIA coaches. That’s really brought me a long way.” Karyn Cooper ’92, who won The discipline required to be an elite runthe 1991 NCAA Division III ner carries over into the rest of her life, as well. Tennis Singles Championship, “Knowing that you’re going through so much is Wellesley’s only other physical pain during the race but you can mennational title winner. So far. tally push through it—it’s a unique kind of strength,” Boots says. The mental toughness required for racing, she says, has parallels to the rigors of academics at Wellesley. “You have to work ridiculously hard, but it pays off.” ff
SWIMMING & DIVING ended the season with a stellar performance at the NEWMAC Championships, finishing fifth and setting nine school records. Leading the way for the Blue, Keelin Nave ’14 earned All-NEWMAC honors in the 500-free, while Allison Yee ’12, Kathryn Goffin ’13, Ashley Knight ’13, and Virginia Hung ’13 were all named to the Academic All-Conference squad. Wellesley also won its 14th-straight Seven Sisters Championship, taking first place at the Betty Spears Relays. They finished their dual-meet season 5-4.
Closing out their season with a fourth-place fi nish in the Epps Cup (“D” Division) at the NEWMAC Championships, the SQUASH team opened the
—JEG
tournament with an 8–1 win over Colgate. Other season highlights included a four-match win streak and a 5–4 win over Boston College to close out the regular season. In their inaugural season as a varsity program, Wellesley’s TRACK team fi nished 11th out of 57 at the NCAA National Indoor Championships. Randelle Boots ’13 took home the championship in the mile run, while teammate Leah Clement ’12 earned All-America honors in the 800-meter run (see profile above). Also, at the NE Intercollegiate Championships, Margaret Wehner ’14, Cristina Lucas ’13, Adiba Manning ’13, and Leah Clement ’12 broke a new 4x400-meter record.
WINDOW ON WELLESLEY
FROM WELLESLEY TO MILLS
CollegeRoad
ALECIA DECOUDREAUX ’76, chair of the
Wellesley College Board of Trustees and a senior executive at Eli
REPORTS FROM AROUND CAMPUS
Lilly and Company, has been named the 13th president of Mills OVERHEARD
College in California.
‘We always y read about revolutions in historyy . . . but I was right g there, livingg a 10-minute walkingg distance ffrom the center off it all. It was extraordinary, frightening, moving, and historical all at once.’
She will complete her term as board chair in June but will remain on the board of trustees.
—Sana Saiyed ’12, who was evacuated from her junior year abroad at the University of Cairo during the Egyptian uprising To view a video Saiyed made during the protests, visit tinyurl.com/5t7mc3s.
NABOKOV BUTTERFLY THEORIES VINDICATED WHILE VLADIMIR NABOKOV, an amateur
lepidopterist, was teaching Russian at Wellesley College in 1945, he developed theories about
WELLESLEY COLLEGE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
the evolution of the butterflies that he studied, BY THE NUMBERS: WELLESLEY’S TIES TO THE MIDDLE EAST
11
NUMBER OF STUDENTS STUDYING IN THE MIDDLE EAST OR NORTH AFRICA THIS YEAR
2
hypothesizing that a group called the Polyommatus blues arrived in the New World from Asia in a series of waves. The New York Times reported in January that a group of scientists have now proven Nabokov’s hypothesis using gene-sequencing technology and presented their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.
NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO CAME HOME OR CHANGED LOCATIONS DUE TO POLITICAL UNREST
TENURE RECIPIENTS PETER VANDERWARKER
9
COURSES TAUGHT THIS YEAR WITHIN THE
WITH MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, FROM RELIGION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
29
NUMBER OF CURRENT STUDENTS FROM COUNTRIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
tom row) Robin McKnight, economics; Sealing
THE RENOVATION of the Diana Chapman Walsh
Cheng, women’s and gender studies; and
Alumnae Hall was granted gold LEED certification
Ismar Volic, mathematics.
from the U.S. Green Building Council. This rating reflected the reuse of the building’s existing materials, which diverted about 92 percent of construction debris from landfills (for example, repurposing marble from restrooms for a new staircase); a green roof that minimizes heating and cooling needs; and the
PHOTOS BY RICHARD HOWARD
COURSES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM ASSOCIATED
GREEN—AND GOLD
purchase of renewable-energy credits to offset the building’s electricity usage for the first two years. (For more on the Alumnae Hall renovation, see the summer ’10 issue.)
LISA SCANLON ’99
35
Board of Trustees granted tenure to: (top row) Rebecca Bedell ’80, art; Donald Elmore, chemistry; Bryan Burns, classical studies; (bot-
MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES PROGRAM, INCLUDING ARABIC AND ARABIC LITERATURE
AT ITS JANUARY MEETING, the Wellesley College
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FocusonFaculty
LANGUAGES
Not Lost in Translation ASSISTANT PROFESSOR KOICHI HAGIMOTO
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‘I always tell my students, the most important thing in language learning is confidence and patience.’ —Koichi Hagimoto
was “always interested in the Asian aspect of Latin America.” The links weren’t often discussed, so he began to explore them. “Eventually what I thought was my weakness became my strength.” His dissertation work looked at writers in Spanish colonies on the brink of independence: José Martí in Cuba and José Rizal in the Philippines. His work has taken him to both of those countries, and he’s also spent time in Mexico and Puerto Rico. He now refers to his subfi field of Latin America studies as “trans-Pacifi fic studies,” and he plans to continue pursuing it. Specifically, fi he’s developed two lines of interest: 19th- and 20th-century writers, such as José Juan Tablada of Mexico and Guatemala’s Enrique Gómez Carrillo, whose perception of “the Orient” as exotic led them to “incorporate some Asian elements (culture, tradition, religion, etc.) into their own vision of modernity,” and the contemporary writings of Asians in Latin America. The latter includes first- or second-generation
Latin Americans, such as José Watanabe of Peru. “Th This is my first year [at Wellesley] so I’m just trying to establish myself, but eventually I’d like to get more involved in faculty research collaborations, perhaps with [the] East Asian studies program here,” Hagimoto says. This year, he taught an intermediate Spanish language class and two higher-level language and literature courses, one of them focused on the Caribbean. Next semester, he’s excited to offer ff a seminar called Asia in Latin America: Literary and Cultural Connections. As a native Japanese speaker and such a seasoned language learner, he’s also lent his voice occasionally to Japanese language students on campus. At a Japanese conversation table last fall, he says, “I actually met a Puerto Rican girl studying Japanese.” They laughed when he observed, “Whoa, we just switched our roles.” —AM
RICHARD HOWARD
has plenty of empathy with the students in his Spanish classes. A new language, he says, presents a completely unknown terrain to the learner—one that can be frustrating and confusing. “I always tell my students, the most important thing in language learning is confidence and patience,” he says. He ought to know. Hagimoto trekked across the challenging landscapes of two different ff languages on his way to Wellesley. A native of Japan, he worked hard to bring his English skills to a level that would allow him to study in the United States as an undergraduate. Once he arrived, he applied his language-learning skills to Spanish. He discovered, to his delight, that his native language off ffered him an advantage. Japanese, like Spanish, is phonetic, and each letter (or character) reliably makes the same sound. Quickly, Hagimoto could read Spanish aloud. “In terms of pronunciation, right from the beginning I was speaking just like a native, without really understanding what I was staying,” he says. The language captured his fancy. “Spanish, from the beginning, was really, really interesting to me. I got really into the whole culture aspect.” During his undergraduate years at Soka University of America in Southern California, he spent one semester in Mendoza, Argentina. His next step, graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, posed some challenges, he says. Many of the students in his program were native Spanish speakers; none were Asian. He remembers thinking, “I have to work really, really hard because I have to read everything in Spanish—especially at the graduate level [with] the intensity and the level of critical thinking and knowledge that the professors required of the students. . . . I was really overwhelmed.” But, he says, being Japanese provided both the discipline he needed and, ultimately, a unique field for scholarly research. Hagimoto says he realized that “because I had that whole Japanese work ethic,” he was able to apply himself diligently to his studies. And, coming from Asia, he says he
WINDOW ON WELLESLEY SOCIOLOGY
FOR ASSISTANT PROFESSOR of
her dissertation, focusing on these wom-
S o ciology Smitha Radhakrishnan,
en’s roles in redefining what India means
hanging out is, well, work.
for the rest of the world. She broad-
Field work, that is. “That’s the
ened her research, then turned it into a
cool thing about being a sociologist,”
book after arriving at Wellesley in 2007.
she says. “Hanging out, getting to
“If you look at India as a country,”
know a context, understanding how
Radhakrishnan says, “people have lots
they see the world—[that] is all field
of different identifications, linguistic
work. It’s all part of understanding the
affiliations, caste affiliations, religious
thing you’re studying.” Hanging out
affiliations.” This complicated culture
with Indian information-technology (IT)
makes it difficult to boil down what it
professionals in India, South Africa,
means to be Indian. The new trans-
and the Silicon Valley was part of the
national class of Indian IT workers,
research behind Radhakrishnan’s new
however, have created a homogeneous
book, Appropriately Indian: Gender and
identity, what Radhakrishnan calls an
Culture in a New Transnational Class.
“appropriate” difference: “Not too com-
RICHARD HOWARD
A NEW INDIAN IDENTITY
Radhakrishnan’s father
p plicated, different enough
seem threatened if you, for example,
worked in the IT industry for
tto be distinctive in a multi-
go and live in the United States.”
Her next research project is going
many years, and he shared
c cultural global landscape,
In fact, she argues, it is this new
to the other end of the fiscal spectrum:
some of his workplace sto-
b but not so different as to be
generic identity that the country itself
microfinance. Radhakrishnan teaches
ries with his daughter. The
o off-putting to Westerners.”
wants to take on. “In India, it’s now not
a course on gender and international
stories, particularly of U.S.-
This generic Indianness,
about being Western, but about being
development that includes a weeklong
trained Indian women adapt-
R Radhakrishnan asserts, is
global,” Radhakrishnan says. “There’s
look at microfinance and whether or
ing to work back in India,
n not thrust on them by the
enormous pressure to let go of things
not it empowers women or helps them
intrigued her. “They kind of
W Western world. “These work-
that are seen as regressive . . . but what
out of poverty. “I’ve been very hard-
went against expectations,”
e ers are actively asserting it,
[all that] conceals is how exclusive
pressed to find good readings for my
Radhakrishnan says. “I felt that this was
because itit’s very empowering,” she
it is.” IT workers make up only
class,” she says. “It made me think . . .
a story that needed to be told.”
says. “[It’s] a powerful type of identity
0.2 percent of the Indian workforce,
maybe I should do something.”
that can travel easily and that doesn’t
according to Radhakrishnan. “This is
She began researching the topic for
PROFILE OF A MAJOR
not just a minority. It’s an elite,” she says.
—JEG
RELIGION
IKHLAS SALEEM ’11 came to Wellesley expecting to become a lawyer.
felt uncomfortable at times, but by the end the students
Having come up through Muslim private schools, she decided to take
realized, “this cannot be answered in a one-semester
Hebrew Bible and New Testament classes her first year. Those led
course.” She adds, “But now I know the issues that are
her to Issues in Comparative Religion, a course taught by T. James
being raised, and I know how to talk about these issues.”
Kodera, chair of the religion department. After that, she changed her
Alumnae of a certain age will remember the sopho-
major from political science to religion.
T. James Kodera
more Bible requirement, which was dropped in 1966. Before that, from
“There was just so much that I could do within the department,” she
the founding of the College until the 1930s, four years of religion were
says, to pursue her interests in social justice, political structures, women’s
required. Kodera says other changes include the separation of the aca-
studies, and the roots of violence.
demic department from the chaplaincy, which was later reorganized again
“It’s a field that encompasses multiple disciplines,” says Kodera, about the academic study of religion. Last year, Saleem took a seminar with Stephen Marini called Religion
into the Offifice of Religious and Spiritual Life. And faculty areas of expertise have diversified—today including Buddhism and East Asian religions, Catholicism, Hebrew Bible, Islam, Judaism, and New Testament.
and Violence, which drew students from many different majors. “Every time
To study religion in an academic context, Kodera says, is “to study
we met there was some time of, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe you said that.’ It
the best and the worst of human potential.” Although many scourges of
really got under a lot of people’s skin,” says Saleem. “It also gave the students
society—racism, sexism, war—have deep religious roots, he says, religion
a greater perspective on the complexity of the issues—such as, What is a ter-
also can exemplify the “best of what human nature can do.”
rorist? Does the Bible justify violence? Does the Koran?” Saleem says everyone
—AM
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ShelfLife REVIEWS OF BOOKS BY WELLESLEY AUTHORS
Dishing on Legendary Dishes GAIL MARCUS MONAGHAN ’69
The Entrées: Remembered Favorites From the Past Rizzoli International Publications, New York 191 pages, $45
Favorites From the Past takes the reader to a more glamorous, elegant time, when one donned formalwear and enjoyed beautifully presented meals at restaurants like the Brown Derby in Los Angeles or Le Grand Véfour in Paris. In her latest cookbook, Gail Marcus Monaghan ’69 adapts classic recipes from these restaurants, and many others, for the home cook. “Make them to indulge and pamper family and special friends. What could be more welcome in winter than piping hot chicken à la king or a seafood pot pie?” Monaghan asks in the introduction. What indeed? Monaghan’s vivid language and Eric Boman’s gorgeous photography make all of the meals seem as though they’d be welcome during any season. Monaghan’s recipes, culled from newspaper and magazine archives and old cookbooks, have been modifi fied so that they’re manageable for today’s home cook. For a mini-reunion with several classmates that happened to take place on Oscar night, I made the Brown Derby’s Cobb The salad Salad, which just smacks of Hollywood. Th
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ERIC BOMAN/THE ENTRÉES
THE ENTRÉES: Remembered
included four diff fferent types of greens, poached chicken, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, blue cheese, and tomatoes, all in a tangy dressing. It was a hit with my friends—rich, satisfying, and just plain special. Monaghan’s meticulously researched introductions are a crucial part of book. She tells the quirky histories of the chefs who conceived the recipes, the restaurants where they were served, and the famous patrons who ate them. However, my favorite stories are about Monaghan’s personal history with food—about the restaurant meals she shared with her grandparents as a little girl in ff Los Angeles, for example, or the beef stroganoff she and her young family ate on an ill-advised train trip in Eastern Europe. You get the feeling that you’re sitting with Monaghan in her dining room, laughing and lingering over a delicious meal made just for you. —Lisa Scanlon ’99 Scanlon is associate editor of Wellesley magazine.
Leaders and Followers NANNERL OVERHOLSER KEOHANE ’61
Thinking About Leadership Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 312 pages, $27.95 AS BOTH A POLITICAL THEORIST and a former college and university president, Nannerl Overholser Keohane ’61 has not only studied leadership and power but also exercised them. This puts her, she suggests in her new book, Thinking About Leadership, in a relatively small group—one that includes Marcus Tullius Cicero, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Max Weber. Leadership, Keohane says, means “providing solutions to common problems or off ffering ideas about how to accomplish collective purposes,
Bibliofiles
THROUGH A CHILD’S EYES
Last year, historian Ellen Fitzpatrick
that the letters would show future
published Letters to Jackie, a
generations how much we thought
collection of 250 condolence
of him. I don’t believe I told anyone
letters sent to the White House
about my letter. Unlike many children who
after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Included was
wrote to Mrs. Kennedy, I didn’t tell
a typewritten letter from Lisa
her my age or grade. Perhaps I
Blumberg ’74, then a sixth grader
felt more comfortable writing in the abstract because of my unusual
in Montclair, N.J. Here Blumberg describes the circumstances that
on the bus. I began to notice an
led her to write to the first lady.
increasing flurry of activity. Adults
Lincoln but James Garfield and
ordinary interests, trying to lead
were running in and out. Someone
William McKinley had been “as-
an ordinary life, while sidestepping
The Kennedy administration
cried, “The governor was shot,
sassinated.” It had never crossed
other people’s preoccupation with
formed the backdrop for much
too.” I was momentarily scared. I
my mind that this would happen to
my neuromuscular disability. How-
of my elementary-school years.
thought the governor of New Jer-
any president I knew.
ever, since I didn’t give my age,
Always in the newspaper and often
sey had been shot, and we were all
on television, the president had
in danger. A man said something
age 11 was letter writing. I wrote
an adult. It was Ellen Fitzpatrick who
such flair and conveyed such aspi-
to my teacher, and she threw up
to friends, to favorite authors, and
determined that I had been one of
ration. Most schoolchildren knew
her hands. Then, suddenly every-
sometimes to prominent people.
the many, many kids who wrote of
several presidential quotes. One of
one knew. President Kennedy,
That was why I had personalized
their own volition and on their own
my favorites was, “We choose to
along with Governor Connally of
stationery. Due to a physical dis-
time because they wanted to.
go to the moon in this decade and
Texas, had been shot in Dallas.
ability, I typed my letters, as well
do the other things not because
The ride to Montclair took
I knew not only Abraham
One of my avocations at
circumstances. I was a girl with
archivists classifified it as a letter from
I do wish I had retyped the
as my homework, on my IBM
letter, especially since I crossed
electric typewriter.
out a whole word. I was too frugal
they are easy but because they are
over an hour. The bus driver had
hard.” He made us believe any-
the radio on. We learned President
thing was possible.
Kennedy was dead. Governor
undated, but I think I wrote it shortly
I didn’t know that almost 50 years
Connally was expected to survive.
after I watched her brief speech on
later, my note would be in a book,
Everyone was quiet.
Jan. 14, 1964, in which she thanked
in the New York Times, on NBC
people for the letters of sympathy
Nightly News, on something called
On Nov. 22, 1963, my sixthgrade class from Montclair, N.J.,
My letter to Mrs. Kennedy is
with my stationery, but then again,
was on a field trip to the state
President Kennedy was
capitol in Trenton. It was after
dead, “all his bright light gone from
she was receiving. I also think
the internet, and in my college’s
lunch, and we were in the capitol
the world,” as Jacqueline Kennedy
that she gave me the idea for the
alumnae magazine.
museum, just about to get back
later said.
content of my letter since she said
and mobilizing the energies of others to follow. . . .” Followers matter, too, she insists. She off ffers a very nuanced discussion of gender and leadership, explains how leadership is essential in a democracy, and she considers how wielding power affects ff character ch over time. Keohane off ffers this book “as a contribution to the centuries-long conversation about human life in social groups that began before Plato and Aristotle and continues vigorously into the present day.” —Ruth Walker Walker is a freelance journalist.
—Lisa Blumberg ’74
FreshInk Michelle Au ’99—This Won’t Hurt a Bit (and Other
Carolyn Evans ’56—Faith: A Disciple’s Journey,
White Lies), Grand Central Publishing, New York
The Peppertree Press, Sarasota, Fla.
Alice Bradley ’91 and Eden M. Kennedy—Let’s
Darien Hsu Gee ’91—Friendship Bread, Ballentine
Panic About Babies!, St. Martin’s Griffin, New York
Books, New York
Mary Carpenter ’72 and Katie Carpenter—Lost
Mary Gottschalk Godwyn ’83 and Donna
and Found in the Mississippi Sound, Tenley Circle
Stoddard—Minority Women Entrepreneurs: How
Press, Washington, D.C.
Outsider Status Can Lead to Better Business Practices,
Nancy Gardner Cassels ’57—Social Legislation
Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, Calif.
of the East India Company: Public Justice Versus
Helen Runyeon Hills ’50—Still Riding at 80, Haleys
Public Instruction, Sage Publications, Thousand
Publishing, Athol, Mass.
Oaks, Calif.
Michael P. Jeffries, faculty—Thug Life: Race,
Ann Sloan Devlin ’71—What Americans Build and
Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop, The University
Why: Psychological Perspectives, Cambridge
of Chicago Press, Chicago
University Press, Cambridge, England
(Continued on page 45)
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A campus showcase when it was built in 1900, WHITIN OBSERVATORY
had become overcrowded and in need of repair. A recent renovation and expansion seamlessly melds the historic and the cutting edge, bringing together the study of astronomy, geosciences, and environmental science. By Lisa Scanlon ’99
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER VANDERWARKER
PORTRAITS BY RICHARD HOWARD
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T
he dedication of the Whitin Observatory on Oct. 8, 1900, was one for the history books. The Boston Symphony Orchestra played. Wellesley’s President Caroline Hazard used a torch she made from various symbolic flowers and herbs—rosemary for remembrance, pine and hemlock for the life of the mind and eternity of thought—to light a fire on the observatory’s hearth. The College Choir performed a hymn that Hazard wrote for the occasion. Then, hundreds of eager faculty, students, alumnae, and guests toured the building.
The observatory included a library with beautiful mahogany furniture and a luxurious “India rug” (which donor Sarah Elizabeth Whitin insisted upon); a “transit room” where students could observe the heavens on the exact North-South line; and the pièce de résistance, a 12-inch telescope, housed in the “dome room.” Here, students would learn by doing, not by listening. “So ended a day the like of which will not be seen again at Wellesley until her next scientifi fic building ceases to be a castle in the air and is brought down to earth,” Professor of Mathematics Ellen Hayes wrote in Wellesley Magazine. Another such day has arrived. In January, after a year of renovation and new construction, a revamped and rethought Whitin Observatory opened. The expanded building welcomes geoscience and environmental-studies students in
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addition to astronomy students, encouraging the cross-pollination of ideas and making the building “alive with diff fferent kinds of science,” says Richard French, the Louise Sherwood McDowell and Sarah Frances Whiting Professor of Astrophysics, professor of astronomy, and dean of academic affairs. ff A modern, light-filled fi addition now houses a forward-looking “specialty classroom,” which has easy access to the outdoors, where students can take observations of the sky at night or collect samples from Paramecium Pond during the day. Th The airy 1,800-square-foot addition also includes new faculty offices, ffi accessible bathrooms, and a kitchen. The library was restored to its original, elegant glory (complete with a beautiful rug), and a “research project room” lined with new computers was created out of a formerly awkward thoroughfare. Th The
renovation “preserves and restores the 19th-century character of the building, the historical core of the building, while turning this into a real 21st-century place to do science,” French says. THE RENOVATION ODYS SEY In 2001, as the observatory b celebrated l b its 100th anniversary, French began his quest to have the observatory renovated. v While the telescopes and equipment were—and continue to be—unusually fi fine, the building itself was no longer meeting the needs of the faculty and students. “We didn’t have offi ffice space for our faculty. We didn’t have research space. We didn’t have teaching space for labs. We didn’t have simple things like bathrooms on the fi first floor. We were
really bulging at the seams,” French says. Th The roof leaked and needed to be replaced. The originally gracious library had essentially become a hallway and was crowded with green metal shelves that jutted into the middle of the room. “Th This is a building that’s had additions upon additions, and not every addition has fit very gracefully into the other one,” French explains. As the years went by, various architectural studies were done, and French and the College began to look for ways to fund the renovation. It was “an odyssey,” French says. A budget was proposed and then cut, and French began to fear that his dreams for the space wouldn’t be realized. One dispiriting proposal for the observatory “was effectively ff one slightly enlarged room,” French says. Finally, in 2009, after the College issued bonds to fund major construction and modernization projects across campus, proposals for the renovation were solicited. Th The one
‘What we want is for people 50 years from now to say, “They really got it right, and they thought of us then.”’ —Professor Richard French, Louise Sherwood McDowell and Sarah Frances Whiting Professor of Astrophysics
Professor Richard French (top); the addition to the observatory designed by Boston-based designLAB.
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Below, left to right: the Whitin Observatory as seen from Paramecium Pond; students working in groups in the specialty classroom; a new hallway showcases a stained-glass window by British astronomer Lady Margaret Huggins.
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from Boston-based designLAB architects stood out. “Th They put together a prospectus which paid attention to what really mattered to us,” says French. “The Th architects saw what we saw, that there were wonderful opportunities for making this a beautiful space again.” French and Daniel Brabander, associate professor of geosciences, began collaborating with the architects to figure out how geosciences and environmental studies could share the space with astronomy. It could have been an awkward relationship—after all, the observatory has been the cherished home of the astronomy department for more than 100 years. However, Brabander and French found that their interests and approaches aligned very well. “It was really very easy for us to say, let’s find a way to make this work for not only astronomy lab at night but for geoscience and environmental-sciences labs during the day,” French says. “We want this to be a busy, y hopping place, not just for astronomy but for other sciences.”
And beyond that, the faculty hopes that the shared space will encourage collaborations across disciplines. In fact, the astronomy department’s newest hire is Wesley Andrés Watters, a researcher from Cornell who specializes in the geology of planets in our solar system and is currently a member of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Project. “We think that Wes is the perfect person to help us build connections between the geologists and environmental scientists who will share teaching spaces in the renovated observatory, and we anticipate that he will work with faculty from those programs to design curricular off fferings that cut across our disciplines,” says Kim McLeod, professor of astronomy and chair of the department. Now that the renovation has been completed, the observatory has become everything French dreamed about for 10 years. “I couldn’t be happier with how things worked out,” he says.
MODERN AND AIRY One of the most striking iki new spaces in the observatory is the specialty classroom. Part of the airy, modern addition, the room was designed with pedagogy in mind. “Many spaces in the Science Center . . . have an obvious front of the room and fixed seating,” says Brabander. “Th The mode of learning is the formal lecture. We didn’t want to reproduce that space in the new observatory.” Instead, the specialty classroom is designed for students to interact with each other and with the professor. Students sit in small groups at tables scattered around the room. There are whiteboards and spaces for images to be projected on multiple walls in the room. There is no clear front of the classroom where the professor would stand behind a lectern; instead, the space encourages professors to walk among the students. “I think it makes for more engaged learning,” says
‘[The observatory is] a poster child for how you can redesign space in a cost-effective, historically relevant, and sustainable way.’ —Associate Professor of Geosciences Daniel Brabander
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Brabander. “You can’t really turn yourself off ff when you’re in that setting.” The classroom’s direct access to the outdoors comes through a mud room. It’s perfect for geoscience, environmental studies, and astronomy classes. “Th There’s this launching pad where you can . . . go out and make some observations,” Brabander says. There are aesthetic advantages to being so close to the outdoors, too. A wall of windows faces the arboretum, and the pine trees are so close, they feel as though they are part of the classroom. “One of the things that the architects really played with is bringing the experience of the surroundings inside the building,” Brabander says. “Almost anywhere you stand in the building, there’s a line of sight to the outside.” PRESERVING HISTORY Below, left to right: A drop-ceiling was removed to expose the rafters in the research project room; the original entrance to the observatory, now part of the specialty classroom; Associate Professor Daniel Brabander teaches in the specialty classroom.
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The addition also celebrates lb the h hi historic aspects of the observatory. It is wrapped around the facade of the original building, leaving old architectural details intact. For example, the original entrance to the observatory, which faces the arboretum, is used as a doorway to the specialty classroom. Made of
intricately carved marble, it was “one of the prettiest doors on campus,” says French, but it was hidden from view in recent decades. It was “a quirky artifact” that the architects incorporated into the addition, says French. “Students can see the history of the building every day. . . . We want you to notice what this place used to look like.” The room that harkens back most to the observatory’s past is the library. The Th architects looked at old photos of the room and aimed to recreate the warm and welcoming feeling of the space from the early 1900s. The metal shelves and old computers that had previously crowded the room were removed. The original claw-footed table now anchors the room, and it sits on a rug reminiscent of the one originally donated by Whitin. Low, wooden bookshelves were installed around the perimeter of the room, and many of the antique astronomical devices that had been in storage were put on display. Pocket doors similar to the original doors serve doubleduty as chalkboards. (See pictures on page 28.) Among the most beautiful additions to the observatory are the stained-glass windows designed by Lady Margaret Huggins, a British astronomer and ardent supporter of the observatory in the
early 1900s. For years, the windows languished in storage, slowly falling apart. As part of the renovation, Serpentino Stained Glass in Needham, Mass., restored the stained glass to its original glory. Two are displayed in the library: One depicts the appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1066; the other includes the sun, a galaxy, a comet, and a spectrum, representing Huggins’ scientific fi work with her husband, the astronomer Sir William Huggins. A third window, depicting a scene from The Pilgrim’s Progress, is on display in the research project room. Like the library, the research project room had its original charm restored. Over the years, the room had been partitioned, its original fi fireplace sealed up, and a drop-ceiling installed. The architects brought the room back to its original footprint, exposed the rafters and the fireplace, and installed bookshelves reminiscent of the original style. Th The room is lined with new computers, where students can collaborate on projects with each other or with faculty. “It’s an example of a thought that didn’t occur to any of the rest of us, to turn this space into a beautiful place to work, but also a place where we can really do our 21st-century science,” French says. The fact that much of the original building
was kept in place and repaired is one reason that the College is optimistic that the building will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifi fied. “It’s so much more sustainable to renovate than tear down,” says Brabander. “[Th The observatory is] a poster child for how you can redesign space in a cost-eff ffective, historically relevant, and sustainable way.” Energy-saving changes to the building’s utilities were made, and materials were reused during construction. For example, marble that would have been covered up in one part of the building was instead removed and used in windows in the library. “It’s like a skin graft, taking marble from one part of the building and putting it somewhere else where people can see the beauty of it,” says Laura Tenny, a project manager at Wellesley who helped the architects through the renovation. AN OB SERVATORY FOR EVERYONE For the past 110 years, one off the h observatory’s b most important roles has been to serve as a gateway to the sciences for those who otherwise might have stayed
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Th lil bra The ra ary ry iin n the he Whiti W Whitittiin Obse bserva serva va ator orry in th in th the he e ea early rly rl ly 20th 20th 20 th ce cen c en e ntur ttu ury (top op p); ); th the he lliib bra br rra ary ry to tod tod oday ay, yy,, re resto sto orred ed d to to iitts ori riigi rig giin nal al e ellle ele ega gan g anc ce e (be be below ello low ow o w). ).
WHITIN, WHITING, WHITE, AND WHATNOT Anyone delving into the Whitin Observatory’s history might be confused at first by the abundance of whitish names. To clarify: Sarah Frances Whiting was a beloved professor of physics and astronomy at Wellesley, and the driving force behind the construction of the observatory. Sarah Elizabeth Whitin was a trustee of the College who donated the funds for the observatory and was very involved in the design of the building. Stephen Van Cullen White was a Brooklyn, N.Y., lawyer from whom Whitin purchased the 12-inch telescope that precipitated the construction of the observatory. In an article about Whiting that appeared in Popular Science in 1927, the astronomer Annie Jump Cannon 1884 recalled this about the construction of the observatory: “It must be of white marble, said the donor, for White is symbolic of this project: White, Whitin, Whiting, owner, donor, professor. And it may be added —LS that the first assistant happened to be named Whiteside.”
away. “We often have students who come in thinking that they’re not scientists and they don’t like science, or they’re not good at it, or they’re not good at math,” says astronomy department chair Kim McLeod. “And they get into our classes, and they find out they’re actually not that bad at it. About a month into the course, they realize the truth of an old adage I stole from a Cornell professor, that astronomy’s just physics in disguise, and they’ve been actually doing physics and liking it.” Sometimes these formerly science-phobic students get hooked and wind up being astronomy majors. French hopes to share the introductory powers of the observatory with the wider community. “I was looking over some of the old books and journals from 100 years ago, and [the observatory] used to have 40 open houses a year,” French says. Forty open houses may not be realistic any more, but French hopes that the observatory will be more open to the community. “I’d be disappointed if in the next few years we didn’t have a really wonderful program for educating either kids or senior citizens or townspeople or just curious teenagers, feeling that this is a place that has something to off ffer them,” he says. “I think we need to be broader stewards for the College community and share the beauty of this place.” In 1900, Professor of Mathematics Ellen Hayes wrote of the observatory, “One’s imagination is taxed in trying to picture the long procession of young women whose lives are going to be made richer and nobler by this far-reaching benefaction. . . . We shall one by one close our eyes on the stars; but the beautiful observatory will remain. Th Those who come after us will take up the work, watch the skies, and go on with the records in our stead; for ‘the astronomer never dies.’” French says that he thinks of the founders of the observatory every day that he is in the building, and of the responsibility he and his colleagues have in teaching women science for our century. And like Hayes, he contemplates the long line of scholars and students who will follow in his stead. “What we want is for people 50 years from now to say, ‘Th They really got it right, and they thought of us then,’” French says.
Lisa Scanlon ’99 is an associate editor of Wellesley magazine.
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2011
ALUMNAE
ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS These awards, Wellesley’s highest honor, are presented annually by the Alumnae Association to graduates of distinction who, through their achievements, have brought honor to themselves and to the College. The 2011 recipients are:
SARAH MILLEDGE NELSON ’53 SUSAN WUNSCH RICE ’67 M A R I LY N C R A N D A L L J O N E S ’ 7 0 REENA RAGGI ’73
The oak leaf pin presented to all Achievement Award winners.
PORTRAITS BY RICHARD HOWARD
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29
SARAH MILLEDGE NELSON ’53
BRINGING GENDER TO ARCHAEOLOGY
By Susan Elia MacNeal ’91
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2011
ALUMNAE
ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
‘‘Y
OU CAN HAVE IT ALL,” Sarah Milledge Nelson ’53
told a rapt audience at the 2011 Alumnae Awards, “especially you students. You don’t have to choose between family and career, no matter how the press loves to tell you that.” And she would know. Nelson is a professor emerita and John Evans Disttinguished Professor at the University of Den nver, where she taught for 30 years. She was chaiir of the department of anthropology there, as w well as vice provost for research, interim vice provvost for graduate studies and research, and director of women’s studies. She is an esteemed schoolar who has written seven academic books, edited 13 others, and written three novels. She conttributed chapters for numerous other academ mic books, as well as a multitude of scholarly articcles, adding up to more than 130 publication ns in total. She headed archaeological digs in C China and Korea, as well as in the United States. She was president of the Society of East Asiaan Archaeology. In addition, she received overr $1 million in grants and contracts. Nelson’s work marries archaeology and femiinism, perhaps most importantly in Gender in A Archaeology: Analyzing Power and Prestige, whicch was selected as the Outstanding Academ mic Book by Choice Magazine and is in its ssecond printing. According to a review in L Library Journal, the text “presents a lucid, schoolarly demonstration of the importance of an aarchaeological approach to the past that focu uses on the evidence for the roles of women and men, freed from the androcentric assumption ns that have shaped our thinking. . . . [Nelson] draw ws on case studies from diverse cultures in the prehistoric past as she explores issues and topiics such as division of labor, women within social systems and in the public sphere, and
women and ideology, including a fascinating review of the interpretations of so-called ‘mother goddess’ figures from the Upper Paleolithic.” The book led the way for the creation of the first texts on gender theory as it is applied to archaeology. It is currently used by Wellesley’s anthropology department. But for Nelson, marriage and family came first chronologically. After graduating from Wellesley with a degree in biblical history in 1953, she returned to her hometown of Miami and married her college sweetheart, Harold Stanley Nelson. She taught second grade to help him through medical school. When Harold Nelson was shipped overseas with the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Nelson accompanied him; they adopted two sons and had a third together. While in Germany, she wrote a book on castles. She thought she was doing well—until another Wellesley alumna told her otherwise. “I wrote to a Wellesley graduate, who had taught me 10th-grade biology,” she recounts. “I told her all the fun things we were doing, how cute the little boys looked in their lederhosen. And she wrote back and said, ‘Why are you wasting your talents?’” She can smile at the memory now. “That Th was the push that got me to grad school—some, well, elderly Wellesley woman saying, ‘Well, you think you’re having quite a life, but let me tell you, you should be doing something else!’” Still, transitioning to working wife and mother wasn’t easy. “When I was at the
University of Michigan,” she recollects, “a neighbor told me that if I continued going to graduate school, my children would end up either in mental hospitals or in jail. And I’m very happy to say they didn’t!” When pressed about the experience of getting her Ph.D., Nelson recounts, “Oh, grad school was horrible. It was the days of the Vietnam War, and there were a lot of protests. And I think that was part of what pushed the women graduate students to say, ‘Hey, you know, you’re also treating us badly.’ Th The male faculty would do things like, if somebody famous would come to town, they would have a party and invite the male students only.” When Nelson got her Ph.D. and began
The Archaeology of Korea ‘is the major work on the prehistory/history of a region that is inclusive of a mindboggling array of cultures from early times. . . . [S]he brings forth a vision in which all social ranks are brought into the picture, drawing us away from the great men of the past to the wider society.’ —Associate Professor Rita Wright CE/DS ’74, New York University teaching at the University of Denver, her battles were just beginning. Not only were most of the women professors on staff ff working without tenure, but they were working for lower salaries and vulnerable to sexual harassment. In fact, just as Nelson herself came up for tenure,
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SUSAN WUNSCH RICE ’67
BANKING ON SOCIAL RESPONSBILITY By Emily Laurence Baker ’84
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ALUMNAE
ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
S
weighs heavily in my bag—if not literally, then by its overflowing array of accomplishments. Not only is she one of the highest ranked banking executives in the United Kingdom as managing director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland, she also is a director of the Bank of England and Scottish and Southern Energy, a major UK energy company. She has served as the Prince of Wales’ ambassador for corporate responsibility; is USAN WUNSCH RICE’S CV
a meember of the Scottish 2020 Climate Change Lead dership Group; holds seven honorary university v degrees; and is widely published in jourrnals and British newspapers. She even has receiived a C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) award from Queen Elizabeth II, makking her offi fficially “Lady Rice”—a particularly imp pressive distinction for an American. As I walk to meet her in the heart of Lon ndon’s financial district, I can only assume she w will be cool and abrupt and that I will be distincttly aware that she wants to be somewhere else. So I am a bit surprised when Rice comes down to th he lobby of the Lloyds Banking Group headquarrters to escort me upstairs. I remain awed by this warm, gracious person who sits across the tablee from me in a stark conference room. Her soft speech and undivided attention make me feel we ccould be sitting in overstuff ffed armchairs by a roarring fire as we sip mugs of tea. Rice travels to London regularly, but her home is in Aberdeen in north Scotland. During the week, she llives in Edinburgh, where she is currently overseein ng the merger of Lloyds and Bank of Scotland, the largest integration in banking history. Rice is dediicated to restoring public confi fidence in the Bank of Sccotland name, which, like most UK banks, has suffered ffe in the wake of the financial crisis. She providess personal service to major corporate customers and helps to steer Scottish businesses away from difficullties. At the same time, she oversees the internal staffing ffi issues involved with a major integration. It is a jobb she performs with pride for her adopted homeland d, as well as for the banking industry.
As we talk, she defi fies every stereotype I’ve had about iron-armed female bankers. She is not the hyper, type-A person I expected, but instead someone who exudes complete calm. Within minutes, I am wowed by her brain power. “You only get tired when you stop,” Rice tells me when I ask how she has managed to raise three children, hold senior banking jobs, serve on numerous boards, promote the arts, and still fi find time to read widely. “Continually learning new things gives me energy.” After our conversation, one of her colleagues tells me a story that illustrates how she never wastes a moment. Malcolm Hayday, whom Rice helped to establish Charity Bank, a not-for-profi fit agency that funds charities and community organizations, recalls when Rice was chairing a meeting in which members of a committee were preparing a critical document. “She couldn’t be present, so she led from her BlackBerry,” Hayday explains. “Halfway through the conversation Susan said, ‘Hang on a moment. I’ve just got to clear security.’ So she’d been chairing the entire meeting while negotiating an airport. Not many people could do that.” Yet Rice is so modest and unassuming that she speaks of her accomplishments as random happenings, as if she collected them like shells during a beach walk. While she admits that she works hard, she attributes her success mostly to taking advantage of every chance that comes her way and being open-minded about “less obvious” opportunities. “I’ve taken some opportunities that weren’t so obvious and thought, ‘Where can I take this?’ rather than having a clear career path in mind,” she says.
“I don’t ever want to look back and wonder why I didn’t try something.” Which might explain why this biology major at Wellesley took a circuitous route to banking. Her career began in academia, fi first as a research assistant in a Yale Medical School laboratory and then moving into administration with posts as dean of Saybrook College at Yale and dean of students at Colgate University. Although she was on a promising career trajectory, when her Scottish husband, Duncan (whom she met in her junior year at Wellesley), took a job as dean of the faculty of arts and science at New York University, they jointly decided it might be easier if she worked in a different ff field. She explored both publishing and banking, thinking that publishing might be a more natural course with her good communication skills and
‘Unlike many people in such a prestigious position, Susan has never forgotten that we are all human beings. She engages all people and has time for everyone.’ —Helen Bogan, Rice’s external-affairs manager deep love of literature. But when she was offered ff a job at the now defunct National Westminster Bancorp, her love of a new challenge proved irresistible. “At the time I felt as if I were jumping off ff a bungee cord. The experience of going from a job I knew well to one where I didn’t speak the language was hugely humbling.” Rice thrived on the challenge and made a name for herself working to provide banking to disadvantaged communities and establishing financial vehicles to support economic development, which is known as fi financial inclusion. Her subsequent work in this area has become a cornerstone of her career in the UK, which she began at Bank of Scotland in 1997, shortly after Duncan became principal and vice chancellor at Aberdeen Continued on page 39
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M A R I LY N C R A N D A L L J O N E S ’ 7 0
PUTTING PATIENTS FIRST By Amy Mayer ’94
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AKE TWO PARTS DOCTOR’S DAUGHTER (BOTH
parents), add two parts Wellesley legacy (mother, Elizabeth Jones Crandall ’45, and aunt, Rosemary Crandall Warter ’45). Couple a fun-loving spirit with a cerebral disposition. Raise this child with three brothers, one with severe developmental disabilities. Educate (Wellesley, art history; Columbia, M.D.). Mix thoroughly. Send to California. Watch as smiles develop on the faces of children in her care. Even fresh out of medical school, Marilyn Cran ndall Jones ’70 was obviously much more than the sum of these parts. But one of the endearing thin ngs about her—which is not on her long list of accoomplishments as a medical geneticist and clinician— —is the way she’s embraced her family history. y. She grew up in her mother’s childhood home and attended all the same schools as her mother. She doesn’t remember specifi fic pressure to choose Welllesley; it’s just where she wanted to go. And she knew w she’d become a doctor. “I really didn’t know that there was anything else that you could do,” Jones says, and she was adamaant that she wanted to support herself. “I knew you could do that with medicine. You could always get a job as a doctor somewhere.” Despite this commitment to following her motther’s lead, she developed an interest in art historyy and realized that in her science classes “I wasn’t haviing nearly as much fun as I was in art history,” Jonees says. She switched majors to art history, a movve that prompted a dean to call Jones’ mother, “which I don’t remember at all, but it left a mark on her.”” Still, upon graduation, Jones chose Columbia U University College of Physicians and Surgeons, wheere both of her parents had studied. But—you knew this was coming—“then I had to get out of Dodge, big time.” Jones left the East Coast for a pediatrics resid dency in San Diego, and there she found her own n place. “Th The field of genetics really was an embryonal field d,” she recalls. “I really didn’t know anything abou ut it as it could be put into practice.” At
Columbia, she says, genetics existed only in the lab. But another recent arrival in San Diego, Kenneth Jones, had come from Seattle, where he’d worked under the founder of dysmorphology (the study of birth defects). He introduced Jones to the study of why birth defects happen from the perspective of what goes wrong in development. Th The research goal was to help doctors develop tools for treating or, eventually, preventing birth defects. “And it was just about the coolest thing that I could conceive of,” Jones recalls. Witnessing the challenges that her disabled younger brother faced helped motivate her pursuit of medical genetics. She fell in love with dysmorphology—and Kenneth Jones. Th They married, and both have dedicated their careers to the field. Jones wears many professional hats. She is professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), medical director of the Helen Bernardy Center for Medically Fragile Children at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, and director of the Cleft and Craniofacial Treatment Programs, also at Rady. In this last role, she oversees the multidisciplinary team that provides care for babies and children with birth defects, such as cleft lip or palate. She also runs one of the prenatal diagnostic teams that makes referrals to the Rady program. As director, she brings together the necessary experts in order to create a coordinated treatment plan for each patient. “Pediatricians are very effective ff in that role,” she says, “because they tend to look at the whole child. That’s what they’re trained to do.” Jones’ publication list includes over 200
research articles, and she has served her fi field in a number of leadership roles, including the presidency of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. She has also been president of the American College of Medical Genetics and the Western Society for Pediatric Research. Judith Goslin Hall ’61, a retired pediatrician and medical geneticist who nominated Jones for the Achievement Award, says Jones is unique among doctors for having led all three of these groups: “She is clearly considered a leader among her peers and has made huge contributions within the academic community.” Professional leadership in medicine began for Jones when she served as chief resident in pediatrics at UCSD and went on to direct the university’s fellowship in medical genetics. Her impact as an instructor and role model has been long-lasting. “Marilyn was one of my mentors, and over the past 30 years she has continued to guide and inspire me and all of us whom she so ably trained,” wrote Eugene Hoyme, in a supporting letter for Jones’ nomination. Now a professor and chair of the department of pediatrics at Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota, Hoyme described Jones as a “superb” pediatrician. “She exemplifies fi those characteristics that
‘[Jones] is clearly considered a leader among her peers and has made huge contributions within the academic community.’ —Judith Goslin Hall ’61, retired pediatrician and medical geneticist pediatricians most admire in one another (gentleness, kindness, respect for children and families, decisiveness in emergencies, high intelligence, and an outstanding sense of humor). I can think of no other physician so talented and caring in dealing with families after the birth of a child with congenital anomalies.” Continued on page 40
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REENA RAGGI ’73
LAYING DOWN THE LAW By Jennifer McFarland Flint
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Reena Raggi ’73 is one of those people. She is brilliant. Meticulous. Loyal. Thoughtful. Generous. And yes, modest. Beyond the many accomplishments of her legal career, she’s a two-time Jeopardy! champion who could top-chef Martha Stewart. EDERAL APPEALS COURT JUDGE
“Everything she does, she does well,” peop ple invariably say, including Judge Carol Amoon, who first met Raggi when interviewing her for an assistant U.S. attorney position in 11979 and later was a colleague on the U.S. Disttrict Court for the Eastern District of New Yorkk. Amon remembers their early days as assistaant U.S. attorneys, when they would go to partties, and someone would pull out a game of Trivvial Pursuit. When Raggi’s turn came around, “peoople would get up from the table, wander awayy, and come back a half-hour later to see if therre was any chance she may have gotten one wron ng,” says Amon. “I was personally annoyed wheen she even got the sports questions correct.” Raggi’s legal career has unfolded like one of thosse Trivial Pursuit games: While the rest of us weree milling about, munching on chips and dips, Ragggi has been politely but assiduously filling her pie w with colorful wedges. She was the first woman in her family to attend college; she followed it up with h a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard in 1976. As an aassistant U.S. attorney in New York’s Eastern Disttrict from 1979 to 1986, she served terms as chieef of the narcotics unit and the division that hand dled offi fficial corruption investigations. In 19866, at the tender age of 34, she was appointed by u unanimous vote by the district’s judges to interrim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District (whiich includes Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Nassau and Suff ffolk counties). Raggi calls thatt vote of confi fidence “a tremendous honor,” and says it played a part in her appointment to tthe U.S. District Court bench the following year, by President R Ronald Reagan. She was both h the youngest appointee and the first fi woman
to serve on that court. After 15 years, she was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President George W. Bush. She breezed through the confirmation fi hearings, receiving praise from Democrats and Republicans alike, and in 2002 was sworn in. For a federal judge, the Court of Appeals represents just about the pinnacle of a career, the only summit higher being the U.S. Supreme Court. She has earned a reputation as a justice who is tough on criminals, exacting of counsel, and one of the sharpest thinkers and writers on the bench. On the District Court, Raggi doled out justice to murderers and the mafi fia, drug cartels, and human traffi ffickers; she presided over New York’s first federal death-penalty case in 20 years; she sent a would-be terrorist who plotted to bomb a Brooklyn subway train to prison; and she presided over the retrial of one of the former police offi fficers accused of beating and sexually assaulting the Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in a precinct bathroom in 1997. For her work on the Court of Appeals, Raggi is “extremely well respected among colleagues,” says Amon. Her written opinions have covered criminal and immigration issues, holiday displays at schools, habeas corpus, personal injury, and commercial disputes, among other areas. “When she writes an opinion, everyone pays special attention to it,” says Amon. “I always tell my clerks if they’re looking for a statement of the law in a given area to see if she’s written an opinion on the subject, because she lays out the law so clearly.” In recognition of her many contributions, Raggi received the Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence in
2007, the Federal Bar Council’s highest honor. About all of this success, Raggi says that there’s some truth in the old phrase, “The Th harder you work, the luckier you get.” Perhaps. But former law clerks report clocking the same long hours she does: 8 to 8. When her son, David Denton, Jr., was a child, she was disciplined about leaving her chambers by 6:30 to cook dinner for the family and be available for homework. “I used to joke that was so he could get his full share of nagging,” says Raggi. “I didn’t want him to be deprived of that.” Denton, who is finishing his last year at Harvard Law, says with utmost respect that his mother “is not some particular genius. She is incredibly smart. But mostly she just works incredibly hard. When she writes opinions for the court, she’ll have our kitchen table covered in drafts; she has them completely marked up in pencil. I know how much she frets over them. Everything she does involves a lot of thought and a lot of effort.” ff The pace of work for a federal Court of
‘When [Raggi] writes an opinion, everyone pays special attention to it. I always tell my clerks if they’re looking for a statement of the law in a given area to see if she’s written an opinion on the subject, because she lays out the law so clearly.’ —Judge Carol Amon Appeals judge on the Second Circuit, which covers New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, is unrelenting: Every month, Raggi has three weeks to prepare for one week in court, when she typically hears about 30 cases. She studies each one at length in advance and is prepared to ask a few key Continued on page 41
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SARAH MILLEDGE NELSON ’53 Continued from page 31
she championed a sexual-harassment case that 23 female students brought against members of the faculty—a move that “didn’t endear me to the dean,” Nelson recounts. “He kind of laughed it off ff. So we went over his head.” The women won their case, but Nelson Th was denied tenure. She recounts how she got through it: “Always smile at all your enemies. Be polite at all times. Never let them know if they’ve gotten to you. Don’t show it.” And she never gave up. “You’re supposed to be so embarrassed that somebody has thought you’re not worth tenuring that you’ll slink away. And I knew w I was worth tenuring, and I wasn’tt going to slink away. So, ‘shout it from the rooftops’ was my strategy. I said to everybody I saw, ‘Can you believe that they’re not awarding me tenure?’ Everybody was appalled. So when the protest went through, the people on the committee were on my side, and in the long run, I was awarded tenure.” But her battles still weren’t over. She garnered a prestigious contract for the university to do an archaeological survey for the U.S. Army, but she was still “treated very badly.” National Park Service personnel who were involved in the survey “did everything they could do to undermine me, nasty, sneaky things,” Nelson says. “It sounds very silly, but they would have meetings in the men’s room so I couldn’t be there. . . . [Th They] put every possible barrier in the way. And in spite of that, we were doing well, and it made them madder and madder and madder, because they couldn’t get rid of
ONOREES
O NLINE
When the Alumnae Achievement Awards were bestowed upon these four women at the College in February, they gave eloquent, moving, and often funny speeches about their lives and careers. But don’t take our word for it: to listen for yourself, visit http://bitly.com/gIZvcc. 38 wellesleyy
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me, and I wouldn’t stomp off ff mad, because I had already learned . . . that’s not a good way to behave.” She received no support from the chair of her department and says he told other faculty and students not to speak to her. “It was psychological torture,” Nelson adds. In the end, Nelson won an apology, which was published in the local Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists newsletter. And,
on digs and books and articles. According to Professor Katheryn Lindhuff ff from the University of Pittsburgh, Nelson’s “work in Korea is legendary, and she is still one of a very few non-Koreans, and the very first, to really tackle this region and publish about it in English. She literally put Korea on the map for the others of us who are still now trying to learn and incorporate Korea into the picture of East Asian prehistory and early history.” Rita Corsi Wright ‘[Nelson’s] work in Korea is legendary, and CE/DS ’74, an associate proshe is still one of a very few non-Koreans, fessor of anthropology at New and the very first, to really tackle this region York University, asserts that and publish about it in English. She literally Nelson’s The Archaeology of put Korea on the map for the others of us Korea “is the major work on the prehistory/history of who are still now trying to learn and a region that is inclusive of incorporate Korea into the picture of a mind-boggling array of East Asian prehistory and early history.’ cultures from early times. . . . —Professor Katheryn Lindhuff, University of Pittsburgh [S]he brings forth a vision in which all social ranks are brought into the picture, drawing us away from the great men of the past not surprisingly, gender then became a focal to the wider society.” point in her work. She began reading the Nelson is proud to be called a “feminist feminist literature of the time, and she and archaeologist” by the Alumnae Achievement her group of female archaeologists “began to Awards Committee. “My friends at the univerthink archaeology was not ungendered. It was sity were thrilled that I was called a ‘feminist’ gendered male in terms of who was an archaein the citation that came out,” she relates. “‘We ologist, say, Indiana Jones—but also in terms didn’t know you could say that out loud!’ And of how we understand the past, it is all seen so I said, well, Wellesley is that kind of a place. through a very masculinist perspective. And so, And indeed, it is. So I’m very happy of the we began to question, what were some other feminist things I have done, and proud to call ways to think about the past? It started with them that.” people wanting to just make women visible. And this is still needed. But it cut deeper than And she adds, “I’m also incredibly proud that. The historical archaeologist Suzanne of how well my children turned out. I think though, maybe they are indeed very successSpencer-Wood calls it ‘peeling the androcentric ful becausee of an academic mother, and not in onion.’” spite of me.” Nelson’s career continued to examine issues of gender, including the different ff roles of women in ancient times in Asia in positions SSusan Elia l MacNeall ’’91 is a writer andd editor d of power, as queens and shamans. And she was based in New York City. Her first novel, often able to travel with her husband, working on various digs in places he was stationed, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, whose heroine such as China and Korea, bringing her sons is a Wellesley class of ’38 graduate, will be with them, often for extended periods of time. published by Bantam Dell/Random House Time in these countries led to significant fi time in the fall of 2011.
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University. (His position was akin to a university president’s in the United States.) When she was appointed chief executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland three years later, she became the first woman to head a UK clearing bank, a commercial bank that has broader check-clearing powers than other banks. Under her watch, the bank doubled in size, and Rice successfully built the brand of Lloyds TSB Scotland. In January 2009, Lloyds TSB Group acquired HBOS, creating Lloyds Banking Group, the largest bank in the UK. Rice was appointed managing director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland, which saw her increase her role. She is the senior executive in Scotland for this huge institution, but she’s more likely to be proud of her extensive contribution to creating investment in businesses that bring jobs to deprived areas and helping to wean charities from grant dependency. “There Th is a sense of social justice that drives through everything Susan does,” says Hayday, the chief executive of Charity Bank. “To be the fi first woman to head a UK clearing bank is a formidable enough achievement, but what’s really significant fi is that she used that position to speak out and take action on behalf of the excluded. She has been a leader in using the tools of banking to benefit fi society.” Those benefi fits extend well beyond banking to the arts, sports, and community development. “Susan works very hard on the public agenda,” says Helen Bogan, Rice’s external-aff ffairs manager. Rice sponsors art exhibitions, budding artists, and emerging sports teams and talents, as well as designing initiatives to encourage the public to visit art galleries, by guiding the sponsorship program at Lloyds Banking Group Scotland. “Both my upbringing and Wellesley instilled values to think beyond myself, and I’m privileged to be in a position where I can make a difference,” ff she says. One of her greatest joys is chairing the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Overseeing the world’s largest book festival feeds her passion for literature, which has been a grounding force throughout her life. “Literature helps us understand civilization and humanity and also enables us to imagine both backward and looking into the future. That gives us a context for what we are doing today,” she says. Her husband shares her love for books, and she confesses that their Aberdeen home is packed with
‘There is a sense of social justice that drives through everything Susan does. To be the first woman to head a UK clearing bank is a formidable enough achievement, but what’s really significant is that she used that position to speak out and take action on behalf of the excluded. She has been a leader in using the tools of banking to benefit society.’
“It’s been an interesting few years,” she says with a slight smile, particularly in Scotland, where what Rice terms the “banks with headline-inducing problems” are located. While many bankers have opted for a low profile, fi Rice thinks it’s an ideal time to be more visible and present the positive face of the —Malcom Hayday, chief executive of Charity Bank industry. Recently, she has used her many speaking platforms to explain the origins of the fi financial crisis and how thousands of them. That her taste is wide and eclecthe world can collectively move forward. “There’s Th tic but doesn’t include supermarket fi fiction is no been a lot of misunderstanding and individual surprise. She cites Salmon Rushdie, David Malouf, blame, which is not helpful,” she says. “It’s far Haruki Murakami, Orhan Pamuk, and the Albanian better to find how we can change things to make writer Ismail Kadare as favorites. “I tend to discover the future better.” an author and then read a lot of his or her work,” To that end, Rice is serving as chair of the she says. “Th That reading then undoubtedly leads to Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board, another new discovery which I then explore.” which is working to develop, for the fi first time, That voracious intellectual curiosity and a professional body of standards for bankers that desire to push herself to her limits is something her encompasses both behavior and ethics. “It’s about Wellesley classmates remember well. “She often set creating value against a set of values that honor a high bar for herself in selecting topics for papers banks’ relationships with customers and commuand then worked late into the night to achieve her nities,” she explains earnestly. goals,” recalls Rhoda Morss Trooboff ff ’67, who It’s hard to imagine that someone with this roomed with Rice all four years at Wellesley. many balls in the air could ever fi find time to relax, Trooboff ff also recollects that Rice had a “complibut Rice escapes the daily juggling act for vacacated approach to thinking,” one that very likely has tions at her hideaway on the island of Harris in contributed to her success today. “Rather than solving the Outer Hebrides. “It’s where I go to shed all problems straightforwardly, she’d try to see how many my woes and concerns,” she says. diff fferent ways she could think about a problem.” Although she describes the landscape as one Colleagues cite that ability to see things “you have to know to love,” it’s clear that this refrom all angles as one of her greatest strengths, mote island is Rice’s sanctuary, where she recuperalong with her loyalty and willingness to listen. ates and regenerates. She and Duncan relax by “I can honestly say that anyone who has worked walking in the hills comprised of Lewisian gneiss, for her adores her,” says Bogan. “She’s not just the the oldest rock in Britain and possibly the world. leader of our team—she’s part of it. When people “Looking at these hills and knowing they’ve been visit the offi ffice, Susan makes the tea. Unlike many here for about as long as the universe and will be people in such a prestigious position, Susan has there for as much time going forward, puts me in never forgotten that we are all human beings. She my place as a tiny speck in the great scheme of engages all people and has time for everyone.” things,” she says, somewhat wistfully. “I love that Rice has a high profile fi in Scotland, thanks feeling of just understanding this rather than to her willingness to go beyond what she being focused on the issue of the day.” casually terms her “day job.” She regularly hosts events and delivers speeches. Such a friendly face Emily Laurence Baker ’84 is a freelance of banking is especially welcome now, after pubwriter based in London. lic confi fidence in the industry has taken a hit.
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Indeed, even with her myriad administrative, academic, and service responsibilities, Jones reserves 50 percent of her professional time for seeing patients. Once a month, she does that in Mexico. She travels to Tijuana with a team of four or five other doctors and genetic counselors. They spend the afternoon seeing patients with any sort of genetic disorder and attempting to connect those children and their families with appropriate treatment and services in Mexico. Jones says she practices differently ff there because she tries to off ffer realistic options to families who lack resources in a country where there’s little, if any, safety net. “I’d rather have a family spend $400 on therapy than on a test that isn’t going to make a difference ff for them,” she says. The same test might be routine in the United States, but here insurance would likely pay for it. Treating patients south of the border has also brought her valuable cross-cultural knowledge, Jones says. When she arrived in San Diego all those years ago, “I was a clueless resident.” The patient population, which included recently arrived refugees, indigent locals, and affluent ffl families flying in from far-off ff places, educated her about diff fferent cultural perspectives. She learned, for example, that when one mother was refusing treatment for her child, it wasn’t because that woman needed her husband’s consent. In that family’s community, it was the tribal leader who had to be consulted. Mexico only deepened her sensibility to cultural diff fferences.“You approach things from your own perspective, thinking that your perspective is the right way to view the world,” she says, but when you “recognize that to help somebody you have to meet them where they are, it makes you a better doctor. And I think I learned that in Mexico. . . . I have gotten far more out of it than I have given in terms of my growth as a person and my growth as a physician—in terms of understanding cross-cultural issues.” Humility and dedication to serving others are both traits Jones’ Wellesley friends say have long been a part of her personality. Jones credits Wellesley with introducing her to leadership and giving her space to hone those skills.
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“It was very liberating to get to Wellesley where it was very, very clear that we were supposed to be leaders,” she says. As a girl, she hadn’t gotten that from her large public high school. “I gained a tremendous amount of confidence fi from my experience at Wellesley.” “She took Wellesley’s motto very seriously and lived that,” says Linda Kilburn ’70, who’s been friends with Jones since ninth grade. Another longtime friend, Ann Reaney Hoff ffman ’70, remembers meeting Jones upon transferring to Wellesley her junior year. “I admired her energy. I admired her determination. I admired her intelligence. I admired, really, everything about her. She just always wowed me in so many ways,” she says. Years later, Hoffman ff moved to California and worked as the executive director of California Children’s Hospital Association, trying to help hospitals secure the funding they needed. During this time, Hoffman ff says she
On campus she danced and sang, was house president of Davis, and served as vice president of the art club. She choreographed much of her class’s Junior Show. For two years, she also cheered for the then-Boston Patriots as part of the Th team didn’t Wellesley cheerleading squad. (The have professional cheerleaders, the New Jersey native explains, so it recruited volunteer squads from various Boston-area colleges for home games and off ffered the students free tickets. “Very disappointed that we didn’t get the Jets game, because I so wanted to see Joe Namath play,” Jones wrote in an e-mail recently. “The Th whole scene was ridiculous.”) “Crandall has been an enthusiastic participant in anything she has ever done the entire time I’ve known her,” Kilburn says. “I think she’s just a natural leader.” Her outside interests nurture her and renew her energy for professional tasks, Kilburn adds. Her colleagues and friends say Jones off ffers a good example of how to balance personal ‘[Jones] exemplifies those characteristics that and professional demands. pediatricians most admire in one another “I just try to be more (gentleness, kindness, respect for children eff ffective so that I can squeeze and families, decisiveness in emergencies, high more things in,” Jones says. intelligence, and an outstanding sense of humor). “Maybe it looks better from the outside,” she adds, jokI can think of no other physician so talented ing that her husband might and caring in dealing with families after the disagree. birth of a child with congenital anomalies.’ Nearly four decades —Eugene Hoyme, chair, department of pediatrics, into her career, this doctor Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota is unquestionably a professional success. She remains gained a greater appreciation for the challenges a dedicated daughter, sister, and friend. Add to Jones encountered professionally. “She really had that list wife, mother, and stepmother. The Th to fight many battles to get the resources that she family commitment at her core has never waned. needed.” Instead, she’s woven it into her professional life. And yet, Hoff ffman says, Jones never sought Although her disabled younger brother has passed personal recognition, instead focusing on her away, “He goes to work with me every day.” clinical work. “For Crandall, it’s always about doing And every day she enjoys the most fundathe right thing for the patient and the family,” mental part of her job: “I still love getting in the she says. (Hoff ffman and Kilburn remain part of a room with a patient. I absolutely love it.” tight-knit group of a dozen Wellesley friends who call Jones by her maiden name.) Amy Ma Mayer ’94 iis a ffreelance A la writer it aandd radio adi In addition to teaching her leadership, producer based in Greenfield, Mass. Her work can Wellesley also helped Jones learn the delicate act be found at www.amymayerwrites.com. of juggling myriad responsibilities and interests.
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ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
Continued from page 37
questions of the attorneys in court before making a decision. It’s quite a load. It’s a sense of responsibility that drives her: to her colleagues on the bench, the legal community at large, to the public in general, but fi first and foremost to the parties having their day in court. In a federal appellate court, which reviews how laws were applied in a lower court, the actual parties themselves may not even be present. Unlike a trial court, there are no witnesses, no testimony given—no “fl flesh and blood,” Raggi says. Instead, the proceedings are more removed from the public, formal and brief in nature. Th The judge “runs a very tight courtroom,” according to Amon, and former law clerks agree that Raggi expects counsel to know their facts and present them fairly and in a straightforward, professional manner. The exception to this buttoned-up formality occurs when pro-see litigants, who can’t aff fford to hire an attorney, represent themselves. “These Th individuals are often not well prepared, and they’re certainly not trained, and sometimes they’re just not very good at representing themselves,” says John Coyle, a former clerk who now teaches law at the University of North Carolina. Nevertheless, Raggi is “unfailingly courteous, kind, and respectful of every pro-se litigant who goes up to argue their case. She is especially solicitous of these people, saying they have a right to be heard.” Beyond just being heard, Raggi wants these individuals to believe in the system, even if it doesn’t ultimately fi find in their favor. When Raggi speaks about her tenure on the bench, it is clear that she believes her work should encourage the public’s faith in the U.S. system. During her 15 years as a trial judge, she says she “spent many a Monday morning staring out at a courtroom of people not very happy to have received jury notices. But it was my job, and that of every other person working in the courthouse, to make sure jurors understood how essential they were to the administration of justice,” she says. “Because the only source of our authority, really, is public confidence.” fi Assistant U.S. Attorney Bonnie Jonas says she draws on lessons learned as a clerk at Raggi’s elbow every time she tries a case before a jury. “Judge Raggi was incredibly respectful of the
‘Judge Raggi was incredibly respectful of the function that jurors serve, and she was absolutely loathe to make them wait even an extra minute. She would always speak to them afterward, showing her respect for their function as jurors—and as human beings.’
professional accomplishment trumps the importance of family: “It’s with our families that we often attain our most important achievements and render our greatest service,” she says. Her husband, David Denton, also a federal pros—Assistant U.S. Attorney Bonnie Jonas ecutor and attorney, died in 2007, at the much-too-young age of 57. Throughout her husband’s short battle function that jurors serve, and she was absolutely with cancer and her mother’s fi final illness earlier loathe to make them wait even an extra minute. this year, Raggi “was the person who was there for She would always speak to them afterward, showeveryone else, regardless of the cost to her own ing her respect for their function as jurors—and life. She is rarely someone to put her own needs as human beings. Th That doesn’t happen in every first,” says son David Denton. “Her faith is also courtroom,” she says, “and it has definitely fi stuck with me.” a pretty important thing to her,” he says, “and During her tenure on the bench, Raggi has there’s a whole parcel of things that go alongworked with more than 50 such law clerks, who side that. Once I started working and making are all “frighteningly smart” when they enter her a little money, she was very quick to remind me chambers, “but they haven’t practiced law yet,” she to make charitable donations to places that are says. Mentoring them gives her the chance “to share important to me. She is a big believer in giving with these very bright young lawyers your view of back in all respects.” what the profession ought to be aspiring to.” She As a high-school student, her son comlikes to tell a story about a former colleague, the peted on his school’s debate team, and Raggi late Frank Altimari, “who seemed to always have launched a tradition of shuttling the team to this stream of young people going in and out of his its annual tournament at Princeton University. chambers,” she says. “I once talked to him about “So my mother, who’s obviously a real judge, will spend hours chauff ffeuring kids back and it, and he said, ‘When you’re young, people help forth from the hotel to the tournament, and you. And when you’re older, you help others.’ I aljudging high-school debate rounds in between. ways thought that was fairly apt,” Raggi says. She I think it comes from this strong sense of wantconsiders herself the benefi ficiary of much support ing to give back,” Denton says. He graduated along the way: from Wellesley’s American-history from high school eight years ago, but Raggi scholar Kathryn Preyer, who taught her to aim for still chauff ffeurs kids to the Princeton Classic excellence, and Judge Edward Korman, who “beevery December. It’s likely not how you imaglieved in me before I believed in myself,” she says. ine a federal judge spending her leisure time, “And now it’s my turn.” but on the other hand, maybe it’s exactly what Raggi shares lunch with her clerks in her chambers every day: It’s a chance for them to you’d expect of Judge Raggi: While the rest of discuss anything, from the minutiae of case law us are milling about on the weekends, she’s to career advice. “She always made time for us, still tirelessly filling her metaphorical pie with and it was intimate,” recalls Jonas. “You got to wedges from every category, including sports see how her mind worked and get to know her and leisure. on an interpersonal level, too. She’s been an incredibly generous mentor, but she’s also a friend. J if McFarland M F l d Fli i Jennifer Flint, a fformer associate Now she’s a part of the fabric of my life and my editor of Wellesley magazine, is a freelance writer family.” based in Somerville, Mass. For Raggi, a career public servant, no
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YOUR ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION
NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THE WORLDWIDE NETWORK OF THE WELLESLEY COLLEGE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION
ALUMNAE DATA
Survey y Says. . . .
What Alumnae Do Now: We’re Busy! It’s not a big surprise that Wellesley alumnae are busy women. A majority are currently employed (62 percent), as well as involved in some type of volunteerism (63 percent), and actively pursuing one or more hobbies (70 percent). Almost half are caring for someone, either a child or adult (47 percent). What we are doing varies greatly by age, however. As the chart at right shows, graduate school occupies a large part of the lives of younger alumnae. (The Th five main activities included in the survey are “stacked” to add up to 100 percent for each decade of alumnae.) Answering a separate question, an impressive
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RICHARD HOWARD
THE MISSION of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association is to connect our 37,000 alumnae to each other and to the College. The WCAA board decided in 2010 that in Th order to fulfi fill this mission, we needed to learn more about what alumnae are doing now in their lives, and the ways in which they have already or might like to connect to each other and to the College. An e-mail was sent in August of 2010 to the 22,500 alumnae for whom the WCAA has an e-mail address, and an impressive 25 percent of those completed the survey (5,664). Alumnae from classes from the 1940s up through our youngest graduates from the class of ’10 participated in this survey.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES OF ALUMNAE BY DECADE OF GRADUATION 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 1940
HOBBY O
1950
1960
CAREGIVING C G G
1970
VOLUNTEERISM O U S
1980
1990
EDUCATION UC O
2000
EMPLOYMENT
RICHARD HOWARD
82 percent of all alumnae said they had at some time in their lives received further education beyond their Wellesley degree.
How We’d Like to Connect With Wellesley In the survey, alumnae were given 28 possible ways they might connect with other alumnae or with the College, broken down into three different ff types of activities: those off ffered oncampus, those offered ff in local clubs, and those off ffered online. Survey participants were asked three questions about each of these 28 possible connections: Were they aware of it, had they participated in it, and how likely were they to participate in it in the future? The good news is that a majority of alumnae are aware of 23 of these activities, and a majority also say that they are likely to participate in more than half of them in the future.
To learn more about the activities of the WCAA, visit web.wellesley.edu/web/ Alumnae.
Their greatest awareness and usage has been of reunion and club social gatherings, as shown in the chart below. There is also strong awareness and usage of the online directory to look up information about other alumnae, and strong future interest in looking at class notes electronically. The even better news is that alumnae Th express strong interest in online connections with which they may be less familiar now but would like to use in the future. These include listening online to lectures such as those from the Albright Institute (68 percent future interest), having a Wellesley e-mail address (65 percent), listening online to faculty lectures (63 percent), or participating in a special-interest group such as the Wellesley Lawyers Network (60 percent). The Alumnae Association board is actively pursuing how we can make such online options more known and more used by alumnae. Karen Gentleman ’77, WCAA president
This magazine is published quarterly by the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, an autonomous corporate body, independent of the College. The Association is dedicated to connecting alumnae to the College and to each other. WCAA BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
President Karen Gentleman ’77 Treasurer/Secretary Debra Drew DeVaughn ’74 Martha Goldberg Aronson ’89 Anne Crary Berger ’91, chair of alumnae admissions representatives Katherine Collins ’90 Aniella Gonzalez ’93 Karen Capriles Hodges ’62 Georgia Murphy Johnson ’75 Suzanne Lebold ’85 Willajeanne McLean ’77 Inyeai Ororokuma ’79 Paulina Ponce de Le´ on Barid´ o ’05 Shelley Sweet ’67 Mei-Mei Tuan ’88 Sandra Yeager ’86, chair of annual giving Ex officiis: Susan Challenger ’76 Alice M. Hummer Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Alumnae Trustees: Linda Cozby Wertheimer ’65 Nami Park ’85 Ruth Chang ’81 Sandra Polk Guthman ’65 Shelly Anand ’08
ALUMNAE CONNECTIONS THAT ARE MOST KNOWN AND USED
ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION SENIOR STAFF:
Executive Director Susan Challenger ’76
100%
Director of Alumnae Events Heather Tromblee Director of Alumnae Groups Susan Lohin
50%
Director of Alumnae Technology and Communications Michelle Gillett ’95 Alumnae Office Financial Administrator Greg Jong
0% REUNION
CLUB SOCIAL GATHERING AWARE
ONLINE ALUMNAE DIRECTORY HAVE DONE
CLUB FACULTY LECTURE MIGHT DO
CLASS E-NOTES To read Wellesley magazine online, visit http://wellesley.edu/magazine.
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YOUR ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION
CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE IN THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION To be elected by the alumnae body at the annual meeting of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association on June 5 at 11:30 a.m. in Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall: President-Elect 2011–2012 Karen E. Williamson ’69 Washington, D.C.
President 2012–2015
Secretary/Treasurer 2011–2012 Debra Drew DeVaughn ’74 Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Respectfully submitted, 2010–11 Nominating Committee Karen Capriles Hodges ’62, chair Sandy Yeager ’86 Aniella Gonzalez ’93 Paulina Ponce de Léon Baridó ’05 Mei-Mei Tuan ’88 Anne Crary Berger ’91 ffi Susan Challenger ’76, ex officio
PROPOSED BYLAW CHANGE, JUNE 2011
Director/Chair, Alumnae Admissions Representatives 2011–2013 Patience Singleton Roach ’92 Washington, D.C.
In accord with Article XIV (“Amendments”) of the bylaws of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, the Governance Committee of the WCAA board of directors proposes the following change to the WCAA bylaws, to be voted at the Annual Meeting on June 5. Th This is an addition to Article IV (“Board of Directors”), Section 3 (“Meetings”), and proposes allowing board members unable to attend a meeting in person to participate electronically:
Young Alumnae Director 2011–2014 Y. Sophia Qiu ’08 Cambridge, Mass.
e. Any or all directors may participate in a meeting of the board of directors, or a committee of the board, by means of a telephone or video conference or by any means of communication by which all persons participating in the meeting are able to communicate with one another, and such participation shall constitute presence at the meeting.
Term Renewal, Directors 2011–2013 Aniella Gonzalez ’93 Mei-Mei Tuan ’88 Georgia Murphy Johnson ’75
PINNED FOR EXCELLENCE since the WCAA established the Alumnae Achievement Award in 1970, the recipients have received a distinctive gold oak-leaf pin at the awards ceremony. Currently made by A.M. DePrisco in Wellesley, Mass., the pins are inscribed with the alumna’s name, her class year, and the year she received the award. “Th The oak tree was selected as the symbol of the Achievement Awards because it represents the strength, quality, and durability of the College and her alumnae,” President H. Kim Bottomly said before giving the pins to the awardees in February. “Th The acorn, also represented on the pin, reminds us of our own potential to turn the personal privilege of our time at Wellesley into a catalyst for a life of purpose, meaning, and positive difference ff in the lives of others.” For profi files of this year’s Achievement Award winners, see page 20.
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RICHARD HOWARD
EVERY YEAR
ALUMNAE CALENDAR The Alumnae Association announces the following events for 2011. Unless otherwise noted, events take place at the College. For more information, call the Alumnae Office at 781-283-2331. 2011 MAY
25
Senior lunch and induction into the
Alumnae Association JUNE
2–3
WCAA board of directors meetings
3–5
Reunion for classes ending in 1s and 6s,
and CE/DS SEPTEMBER
10–11 Day to Make a Difference, Wellesley’s worldwide community-service event
CLUB NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
ON THE ROAD AGAIN The Wellesley College Club of San Diego hosted President H. Kim Bottomly at the San Diego Yacht Club on Feb. 11. Bottomly has visited eight Wellesley clubs this year, meeting over 600 alumnae, current and prospective students, and guests.
30 through Oct. 3 Class of ’55 mini-reunion in the historic Hudson Valley. For more information, contact Marilyn Horlick Fishel ’55, mjfishel@ optonline.net, 914-937-7024 OCTOBER
14–15 WCAA board of directors meeting 16–17 Alumnae Leadership Council
FRESH INK (Continued from page 15)
Phyllis Beck Katz ’58—All Roads Go Where They Will, Antrim House Books, Simsbury, Conn. Margaret Fleischer Kaufman ’63 and Susan Dubinsky Terris ’59, contributors—Chapter & Verse: Poems of Jewish Identity, Conflux Press, Prescott, Ariz. Nina Kaufman ’87—The Entrepreneur’s Prenup: How to Choose a Business Partner Who Won’t [Bleep] You, Vervante, Huntington Beach, Calif. Malinda Lo ’96—Huntress, Little, Brown and Company, New York Anne Sinnott Moore ’56—Houseplants Are Houseguests, Wheatmark, Tucson, Ariz. Camille Cozzone Rankin ’76—Aimer Paris: To Love Paris, Photo Accents, New York Holly Goldberg Sloan ’80—I’ll Be There, Little, Brown and Company, New York
CONNECTING IN JAPAN
In January, more than 60 alumnae turned out in Tokyo to
greet T. James Kodera, professor of religion, and a group of students traveling for a Wintersession course. The gathering included a lecture demonstration by a young kabuki actor (center).
Marilyn Wedge (Marilyn Weltz Wedge ’67)— Suffer the Children: The Case Against Labeling and Medicating and an Effective Alternative, Norton, New York
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I
first became acquainted with the Wellesley planned giving program 40 years ago through an alumna in my local Wellesley club who provided for a much younger sister with a deferred annuity gift. Prior to my 35th reunion, I made my first planned gift into a pooled income fund. Later, on the advice of my fi financial advisor, I established a charitable remainder trust with appreciated stock. Since then, I have made two annuity gifts, one of which is deferred. In today’s investment climate, Wellesley annuities have very favorable rates. By making life income gifts to Wellesley, I am providing income for myself during my lifetime and giving to Wellesley in the future. It’s a win-win situation. I know that Wellesley will use my legacy to further the education of women for many years to come. Laura E. McLeod ’63 Mattapoisett, Mass.
Laura McLeod was a psychology major at Wellesley and later earned a master’s in education. She became an elementary teacher, reading specialist, and supervisor in the New Bedford Public School System. An avid volunteer for the class of ’63 and planned giving chair since 1988, Laura has also been a board member of the College Club of New Bedford for over 40 years and an enthusiastic volunteer for the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Laura, pictured here in her home in Mattapoisett, also enjoys gardening, playing tennis, and bridge. For a financial proposal tailored to your circumstances, please contact Patricia Galindo, Offi ffice of Planned Giving, 800.253.8916 or pg@wellesley.edu.
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Office ffor Offi or R Res esources es
PARTICIPATION DRIVE 2011
ARE WE
UP
TO THE CHALLENGE? COU ME NT NOWIN ! HURRY! TIME IS RUNNING OUT. JUMP UP AND BE COUNTED TODAY AT www.wellesley.edu/CountMeIn spring 2011
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END NOTE
A Last Good-Bye By Lynn Sternberger ’07
D
AD WAS IN THE 20TH-ANNIVERSARY commem-
orative Oreo tin on the counter, swaddled in plastic wrap and weighing a good deal more than the snack foods Mom had unloaded in the kitchen of our beach rental. I mistook him for cookies, amazed at their heft and just a little hungry. “Are these double-stuffed?” ff I wondered, studying the print on the tin until the truth dawned on me, and I laughed loud and hard. Mom later told me she had purchased the tin on eBay for 25 cents. My mother and sister had driven in from Pennsylvania to meet me and my aunt, uncle, and cousins at the southern tip of Ocean City, N.J., in April—the off ff-season, just a week or so after the anniversary of my father’s heart attack. We had assembled for a long weekend of kite flying, beach strolling, acoustic-guitar singalongs, and the crowning activity, a guerrilla ash-dropping ceremony. “Guerrilla” because it’s illegal to spread ashes in most public parks or on public beaches. In fact, Mom had only brought some of Dad in the tin. Dad would also be going to Jamaica later that year (smuggled in a travel-size shampoo bottle) and to the green at his beloved alma mater. This Th news made me wonder how many people I had studied on top of, while spread out with my lit books on the quad lawn each spring semester. The trip to Ocean City was meant as a sort of extended memorial serTh vice, nearly a year after Dad’s death in Panama. Mom, my sister, Anne, and I had returned unplanned from our vacation there dressed in tropical clothes to a Midwestern winter, with only a vague plan for how we would deliver the news of Dad’s death at 55 to my grandmother, without even his body as testament. The ashes only arrived months later. We had nothing to show as evidence of our loss, and nothing to offer ff the hundreds of friends and family members who turned up at our home to grieve. Even Dad’s packed suitcase had made its way back entirely intact, sand still clinging to the treads of his sandals. The only measure of our loss was the breadth of his absence. In those first few days of household visitations, somebody circulated the most basic of accounts. We had taken a boat to an island to go snorkeling. Dad
F.CO
Lynn Sternberger ’07 is a Boston-based editor and entertainment blogger.
had a heart attack in the water. Some vacationers had pulled him ashore, where they attempted CPR until I took over. We moved him to a boat, where I continued CPR while we sped to the mainland, a solid 15 minutes away at full tilt. The CPR hadn’t revived him. He was pronounced dead and taken away the next morning, our last full day in Panama. And then we had flown home. What none of us were ready to share were the details that gave those events form and meaning and even an undeniable, solipsistic beauty. Th The visitors didn’t know about the dimly lit dinner we attended the night Dad died, where the French hosts plied Mom with liquor until she was so drunk on her grief she could barely walk with us back to the hostel. Th They didn’t know that when Mom and my sister arrived at the pier after Dad had been declared dead, we got down into the boat to mourn over his body, his head resting on an orange life jacket, sandlike confetti in his eyelashes. Th They didn’t know that I had chipped my tooth performing CPR, that my knees were eaten raw by the sandy bottom of the boat as we bounced through waves on our breakneck race. They didn’t know the tang of bile on his mouth that somehow telegraphed to my autopiloted brain that the body was just a body and no longer my father. When my mother and sister went in to view Dad’s body before his autopsy, I stayed in the SUV. In a way, my failed CPR had granted me a last intimacy with him, and a reconciliation of his death that they couldn’t have. Back in New Jersey, on a quiet stretch of beach near the lighthouse at Cape May’s Point State Park, my cousin poured fine champagne into plastic cups while my aunt held a Macbook in front of her, the Beatles’ “Imagine” streaming through tinny speakers. It was Dad’s favorite song. We toasted him and drank, taking turns to grab a handful of ash from the cookie tin and walk it out to the tide. Once everyone had gone and a fair amount of ash remained, my uncle picked up the tin and walked, barefoot and khakiclad, into the frigid April waters. I took his picture on the 35 mm Nikon my father had passed to me years before. There is one photograph my father loved most from my childhood, taken by my mother, likely with that very same camera. It shows Dad sleeping upright on our ugly brown couch, his head dropped back against the cushions, an infant me snoozing in the crook of his arm. A new father, he had fallen asleep while studying for his night-school law classes. An Oreo package lays open within arm’s reach.
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The 30th anniversary of the Fisk Organ in Houghton Chapel was marked with a celebratory concert on May 7. For more on the instrument, see page 9. Photo by Richard Howard
KEEP IN TOUCH
KEEP INFORMED
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RIC CH C HAR RD HOWA H WA HO HOW WAR AR RD D
WWW.WELLESLEY.EDU/ALUM