Colby Magazine Volume 84 Issue 3 August 1995 Article 1 August 1995 Colby Magazine Vol. 84, No. 3: August 1995 Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Colby College (1995) "Colby Magazine Vol. 84, No. 3: August 1995," Colby Magazine: Vol. 84 : Iss. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine/vol84/iss3/1 This Download Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Colby College Archives at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Magazine by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. Things you can't get along without Your gift to the Alumni Fund makes a big difference to Colby. We couldn't get along without it. Unrestricted annual gifts provide the College THE CAMPAIGN with critical flexibility to allocate funds where they're needed mo t, from faculty support to enhanced library resources. Join the thousands of alumni, parents and friends who are shaping the future of Colby 1996 Alumni Fund with their support of the Alumni Fund. IN SIDE C 0 LB Y COVER STORY STARTlNG GATES Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. says personal succe s hinge on "inventing" oneself. 12 FEATURES THE IVORY TOWER RECONSlDERED ALTERNATE ROUTES Robert Weisbrot, this year' Senior Teaching Up mountains, across oceans, through Award winner, reflects on the value and deserts: Colbians take the path of values of higher education. most resistance. 8 16 DEPARTMENTS 4TH FLOOR EUSTIS GIFTS & GRANTS ALUMNl PROF ILES 2 30 Ed Waller '49 PERISCOPE PAGING PARENTS 42 3 32 Myron "Pinky" Thompson '50 MULES ON THE MOVE FROM THE HILL 34 47 4 ALUMNI AT LARGE Linda Pushee Mercer '69 FACULTY FILE 36 52 22 OBITUARIES BOOKS & AUTHORS 72 Charles Terrell '70 26 60 READERS WRITE STUDENT LIFE 75 Katherine Cowperthwait '91 28 69 FINAL PERIOD 76 Colby Volume 84 Number 3 Colby Staff: Sally Baker cxenaive editor J. Kcv111 Cool manaKinK ediwr Just Did It Brian� rccr lffl direcror/de;iK1ter The he�t part ;-1hout thi� jnh is also the wor�t: while interviewing anJ telling the tories of fo�cinating people who have h en to exotic place-, you mu;t enJure the fact that they've Karen Oh '93 de:,igner heen place;, and -ecn thing that you haven't anJ prohahly never will. That' why, after completing an article like thi:- i:-.suc' wry ahout adventurou- alumni, [go home and R,,berr Gilksric Alt1mni ar LarKe ediwr complain to my wife that I'm almu�t 40 anJ �till haven't een Tanzania. Which mi es the point, really. The pt)int is not how many place you've heen but th richne of the experi­ 'tcphcn Cnll1m '74 ence;, you have had. In a way, ·wric like chi� one <lre therapeutic and vicariously enriching. Lynn Sullivan '89 swff 1.M·i1cn What makes the story about Colhy alumni', aJvcnture particularly intere ting i that so many of them go heynnJ the trnJitional. These experience aren't po tgraduate fling Anc>tc' Fnnadc,' 9 Jennifer Aeng'r '95 acros Europe, cutting a ·wath through toney di cothe4ues, or elf-initiated exile on the Alicia NcmiccolP '97 French Riviera whsidi:cd hy an au pair placement. t), the e excur ion are aJventure Alex Howard '98 with a capital A. Climhing mountains in epal. Traver ing the lndian de ert on camel­ editorial assistanl.5 hack. Riding a mntorcycle through Vietnam. Thi- i the kind of tuff we read al: out in Contributing Photographers: National Geogrnphic. Sccltr Perry (cover); con Davi:, The alumni featureJ in rhi- tory arc repre entative of the be t liberal learner . They (reunion photo,, tn>iclc frnnt o.Jver) are master::. at aJjusting to their environment, experts at i:ing up ituation and figuring out olution-. They're competent, confident anJ committed. Their challenges aren't all Administration: W1ll1am R. Cutter, J>rc>idenr; that much different from those faced in everyJay life, hut the stakes are higher. Me sup Peyron R. Helm, vice /Jresidem for and you could die. de1do/nnenr and al11mni relarions; And there's another quality that set apart the people who get off the well-marked trails Earl H. mi th, dean of the College; Susan Conant Cook '7 5, director of in the mo-t remote parts of the world. They alway strike me a calmer, more compo ed, alumni relarions more humble. I hope the experiences the·e alumni have enjoyed invoke in you, a they do in me, a Alumni Council Executive Committee: sense of wonder and reverence for the breadth of human experience. But don't be alarmed if Ron Lupton ' 7 1 , chair; Joanne they also make you want to chuck what you're doing and pack your crampons. Weddell Magyar '7 l. vice chair; Libby Corydon-Apicella '74; John Devine '78; Su an Jacobson Ne>ter '88; David White '75; Anne Hussey '80; Lou Richardson McGinity '67; Diana Herrmann '80; Thomas Dailey '80; Arthur Brennan '68; Patricia Valavanis Smith '80; Leslie Mitchell '80 J. Kevin Cool Colby i published four times yearly Managing editor, Colby for the alumni, friends, parents of students, seniors, faculty and staff of Colby College. Address correspondence to: Managing Editor, Colby 4181 Mayflower Hill Waterville, ME 04901-8841 or e-mail to: [email protected] COLBY AUGUST 1995 2 Periscope Gleaned by Dean Earl H. Smith from his weekly Still Harping Rock Stars campu newsletter, FYl Moosecellaneous Remember James "Bo" Justus Two geology majors, Matthew Lest we im·ite future capers, we '96 ( a hville, Tenn.), who O'Connell '96 (Brookfield, probably shouldn't mention escaped a peeding ticket on 1-95 Mass.) and John Baptiste '97 that the mule tatue was given by showing a state trooper a harp (Mendon, Mass.), were selected rekindle national pride for the zebra stripes one night during in his trunk1 The officer, who as summer research interns at Columbian Exposition that enior Week. Moose antlers sarcastically alleged that Colby the Lamont-Doherty Earth would commemorate the 400th would have been easier to students thought they were "a Observatory at Columbia anniversary of Columbus' voy­ remove ....Th is year's bunch of angel ,"didn't believe niversity, one of the world's age to the Americas. Upham Commencement class marshal Bo when he said he had a harp premier geologic research and fe llow editor Francis Bel­ was James Porter of Waten·ille. and offeredto let him go if it was institution-. Only one other lamy lobbied Pre ident Benja­ Jim is the ninth \·aledictorian true. It was. Well, Bo was in olby student, Heather Hall min Harrison and the Congress from the state of Maine in the London on the Colby program '90, ha ever been chosen. for the national Columbus Day past 11 years ....Stu-A this pa t spring. He got to Another geo major, Chris holiday and were put in charge Pre ident Bryan Raffetto '95 missing his harp and went to a Dawkins '97 (Murfree boro, of Jeveloping a special program (Hingham, Mass.) and Devin London music tore to rent one. Tenn.), was awarded an for schoolchildren. At Upham's Colman '98 ( orth Oaks, While he wa there he ran into intern hip at the Center for behest, Bellamy wrote the Minn.) won a special pri:e the organizers of the Interna­ High Pressure Research at "Pledge of Allegiance" for offered by trustee Alida Camp tional Folk Harp Festival, being Stony Brook, another nationally the children to read on the by giving a new name to held in Edinburgh, Scotland. He competitive program. first Columbus Day, October Colby's student non-alcoholic accepted their invitation to 12, 1 92. programs-MOOSE CAFE participate and fini hed eighth of Colby Pride (More Opportunities of Superior 125 in the competition. Holistic Belief and Aristotelian Hi Ho Silver Entertainment with Colb)' Alcohol Akrasia ( ic), a paper by Senior The Council for the Advance­ Free Environment). ever mind Director Ben cho ar Caleb Mason (Bethe da, ment and upport of Education that the "of' should be "for". Ben Jorgensen '92, who rook Md.), was one of rwo sharing the (CA E) has notified Colby Alida <lid not like the non­ the temporary a ignment this first prize at the recent New Managing Editor Kevin Cool alcoholic label; it wa too year as director of student England Undergraduate that Colby has won a Silver negative, she said, and activities, has been given the Philo ophy Conference held at Medal for periodical staff writ­ altogether boring ....Colby's job on a continuing ba i . Tufts University. Michael ing. Magazine pieces by Cool, dining service, Sodexho, has Credited with bringing Colby's Doogue '97 (Braintree, Mass. ), a Sally Baker and Steve Collins made a $175,000 contribution COOT program up to snuff, Ben phy ics major, has been selected '74 were judged among entrie to the College for kitchen ha tackled the job thi year a a ew England Colleges Fund from 43 other colleges nation­ improv�ments and the purchase vigorously, bringing high prai e ( ECF) Scholar ....Pre ident wide. One gold, two silvers and of new dining hall furni hings. from both tudents and peer . Bill Cotter received an honorary a bronze medal were awarded. Trustees ha e set a goal of doctor of laws degree at having all of the residence hall World View We tbrook College during the To Name a Few hard wired for computers by Colby this year received 474 commencement eason. Miriam Bennett, William R.