Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Colby Alumnus Colby College Archives 1979 Colby Alumnus Vol. 68, No. 4: Summer 1979 Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/alumnus Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Colby College, "Colby Alumnus Vol. 68, No. 4: Summer 1979" (1979). Colby Alumnus. 102. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/alumnus/102 This Other 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 Alumnus by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. The Colby Alumnus (USPS 120-860) Volume 68, Number 4 Summer 1979 Published quarterly fall, winter, spring, summer by Colby College College editor Mark Shankland Editorial associate Richard Nye Dyer Layout and production Martha Freese Shattuck Photography Mark Shankland Letters and inquiries should be sent to the editor, The 158th commencement was still a recent memory as alumni re­ change of address notification turned for reunions with one another and with Maine's favorite to the alumni office crustacean. Second-class postage paid at Waterville, Maine Postmaster send form 3579 to The Colby Alumnus Colby College Waterville, Maine 04901 Cover photo Before the Baccalaureate Service Commencement 1979 The End of An Era HERE ARE THOSE WHO SHUN THE Heavy rains Saturday morning (The text of Dean Marriner's Tuse of the term "Colby family," prevented the annual processional address begins on page 4.) which they feel is a bit too trite, or to the Baccalaureate Service from As the rains continued into late cute, or folksy to use in describing taking place . Instead, raincoats re­ afternoon, President and Mrs. students, faculty, alumni and placed gowns as members of the Strider were hosts at a reception in friends. Perhaps they are right. senior class scurried for the cover of the Museum of Art.Shortly there­ But there are occasions when, Lorimer Chapel for an address by after, the seniors and their families despite one's bias, the flavor of an Dean Ernest C. Marriner '13, Litt.D. headed off for a lobster bake in the event makes it seem that the partici­ '53, college historian. fieldhouse, and the faculty and pants really are part of one family. The 88-year-old dean, whose trustees gathered for the annual This year's commencement was one career at Colby spans more than faculty-trustee dinner. of those times. half a century, urged the class to The event, which President The main reason, one supposes, remember that "knowledge is supe­ Strider called "one of the most pleas­ was the imminent departure of Pres­ rior to material things.. .. The gift ant occasions of the year," was ident and Mrs. Strider from May­ of things makes people subject and made special by the presence of sev­ flower Hill. The 353 graduates were dependent; the gift of knowledge eral guests. Ellerton Jette, an honor­ definitely aware of that fact -after makes them free." ary life trustee who was chairman all, they had broken with tradition He delivered the talk, which re­ of the board from 1965 to 1970, was I and invited the president to give the flected his old-time Yankee values, present, as was President Strider's commencement address. And, cer­ with a vigor and wit that belied old friend, David McCord, tainly, the board and faculty mem­ his years . The seniors responded, L.H.D. '68, who read selections bers felt the significance of Colby's not just with enthusiasm, but sever­ from his poems that morning at the 158th commencement. al times with spontaneous applause. Phi Beta Kappa breakfast. Also 1 there was Dean Marriner, who Pres­ ident Strider said gave "one of the finest baccalaureate addresses that has ever been heard in these parts," and who received a standing ova­ tion at the dinner from the faculty and trustees. The faculty speaker at the dinner was Wilfred Combellack '37, whose teaching career at Colby began on the old campus. He recalled his student days, and talked of recollec­ tions from his early years on the faculty . He also commented on a problem troubling Colby and other colleges-student vandalism­ which he termed "antiacademic, Poet David McCord, L. H. 0. '68, at the head table during the Phi Beta Kappa antisocial behavior." breakfast. Trustee Peter Vlachos '58, who grew up in New York City, spoke commencement to be held on the about "what it is actually like to lawns in front of Miller Library. make the transformation from the Though the skies were blue, a week upper reaches of Harlem in the Big of almost constant rain had turned Apple to Mayflower Hill." He said, the grass into marshland, so the "My Colby experience, among other exercises were moved into Wads­ things, allowed me to realize that worth Gymnasium. relationships need not be based on This year's senior class speaker the thought or feeling that one's was Savas Zembillas (Merrillville, progress or loss necessarily calls for Ind.), an English and philosophy a complimentary loss or gain for major who was active in the theater someone else. It was a great insight, as an undergraduate. He spoke coming from whence I did." about art and the unwillingness of The gathering also honored this many people to respond emotion­ year's only retiring faculty member, ally to it. "Art today has become for Professor Marjorie Bither, who us an exercise in analysis," he said. joined Colby's physical education "If art today has anything to teach department in 1936. us, it is that, to quote Woody Allen, The weekend's downpour ceased The 1979 Condon Medalist-Stacie the brain is the most over-rated Sunday morning, but not in time for Stoddard. organ.. .. Art gives man back to himself. It reconciles him with his estranged feelings. It puts intellect in its place. It pronounces 'rational animal' with equal emphasis on both words. " President Strider presented to Stacie Stoddard (Schenectady, N. Y.) the Condon Medal. It has been awarded annually since 1920 to a senior who has "exhibited the finest qualities of citizenship and has The seniors' choice-Sav Zembillas. 2 made the most significant contribu­ Nine seniors graduated sum ma the first six degrees. Then, board tion to the development of college cum laude, 25 more magna cum chairman Robert Anthony '38, life." laude, and 56 cum laude, a total of L. H.D. '63, read the citations and This year, at the request of the 90 with Latin honors, or 25 percent conferred the degrees on the graduating class, President Strider of the class. Striders. was the commencement speaker. Another surprise took place After a chorus of Hail, Colby, (The full text of his remarks begins during the awarding of honorary Ha il, a benediction by Chaplain on page 6. ) degrees. Eight individuals were Roland Thorwaldsen, and the reces­ "All that I have been saying honored, including each of the sional, the 158th graduation was points to the need for balance, for Striders. The president presented history. meaning in one's life," he said. "As you ask your questions, as you strive to comprehend orde�, as you seek to express these impressions with precision, as you recognize the beauty that surrounds you, as you sift out those elements in your lives that are important, you will know that what you seek is ineffable, ultimately unattainable, but always worth the quest . "We have much in common, you and I. All of you in this class are leaving Colby for a future that is uncertain. Oddly enough, after all these years, I will be joining you . The circumstances are somewhat different because much of my career is behind me, and all of yours, for each of you, is before you. But at whatever age, it is always our mis­ sion to contend with a world that is rarely smooth, indeed often broken Umbrellas : de rigueur at baccalaureate this year. and chaotic .... There is always work of noble note to be done, at whatever age. The world will change but you are resilient and adaptable, and you will change with it. ... " He finished his address to the roar of a standing ovation led by mem­ bers of the Class of '79.It was a touching moment, a beginning and an end. Those on the dais then turned to the business at hand, the conferring of degrees. An unusual departure from ceremony occurred at the beginning, when President Strider left the platform to go to the front row of the seniors' seats, where he presented a bachelor of arts degree to Spinner O'Flaherty (Arlington, Mass .), a young man who had been injured in an automobile accident. Mass confusion, and happiness, and another commencement is over. 3 WHAT HAS A RELIC OF COLBY'S PAST TO SAY TO Baccalaureate graduates of Colby's vibrant present? I admit that I have been around a long time. Queen Elizabeth II has been on the throne of England for more than a quarter Address of a century; yet I was 10 years old when her great­ grandmother, Queen Victoria, died... But don't be alarmed. I am not going to extol the by Ernest C. Marriner '13, past. When people talk about the good old days they had better remember what they really were. They were Litt.D. '53 a time without automobiles or airplanes, without radio or television, a time of smoking kerosene lamps, winter long johns, and freezing outhouses ... We oldtimers need constantly to be reminded of a statement in Franklin's autobiography. Den recorded that, when he decided at the age of 13 to leave his native Boston and seek his fortune elsewhere, he asked his father for a small stake to get started.