BRINGING OUT THE DEAD THIS 1880S ANATOMY LECTURE AT BELLEVUE HOSPITAL WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE BEFORE THE “BONE BILL” CLASS OF 1854 LEGALIZED AUTOPSIES IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. “[T]HERE IS BUT ONE MEANS BY WHICH KNOWLEDGE CAN BE PERFECTLY OBTAINED—IT IS BY THE DISSECTION OF THE DEAD,” ARGUED JOHN W. DRAPER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE FACULTY, IN AN 1853 SPEECH. DRAPER AND OTHER NYU PROFESSORS WERE AMONG THE REFORMERS INSTRUMENTAL IN LIFTING THE BAN. NOTES 1930s SHIRLEY KAUFMAN WOLFORD / WSC ’35 / is proud to be “going on strong” after publishing her 20th book, The Voice of the Turtledove (Wings ePress). ROBERT SCHULMAN / ARTS ’36 / has been a reporter and feature writer in St. Louis, a staff correspondent in Chicago for Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated magazines, and director of a prize-winning TV documentary. 1940s RALPH BRANCA / STEINHARDT ’44, ’48 /, the former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher, was fea- tured in Joshua Prager’s book The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bob- by Thomson, Ralph Bran- ca and the Shot Heard Round the World (Pan- theon), which relates how New York Giants batter Thomson stole the signs for Branca’s fastball, con- sequently winning the 1951 National League pennant. HARRIET KUPFERBERG / STEINHARDT ’45 / recently made a gift to name the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holo- caust Resource Center and Archives at Queensbor- ough Community College. MYRON GABLE / STERN ’47, STEINHARDT ’70 / delivered the plenary ad- (CONTINUED ON PAGE 63) NYU / FALL 2007 / 61 alumni profile JAKE BURTON CARPENTER / WSUC ’77 KING OF THE MOUNTAIN by Christian DeBenedetti f any doubts lin- the finish line to relish it which controls an esti- fore transferring to study ry, Vermont, after gradua- gered that snow- all was Jake Burton Car- mated 40 to 50 percent economics at NYU. While tion and started experi- boarding had penter, one of the sport’s of the $400 million snow- there, he interned for a menting in the back of progressed from progenitors. He had good boarding industry. New York hedge fund man- a barn with a Snurfer, a Ifringe sport to reason to smile: The en- It’s been a wild ride ager who spurred him to snowboard-like toy with center stage, they were tire U.S. team—including steering such an iconic think about launching a a rope attached to the erased during last year’s then-19-year-old gold brand, but Burton still op- snowboard business—and nose for maneuvering. “I XX Olympic Winter Games medalist Shaun White— erates with the laid-back even threw in some early jigsawed it, I urethaned it,” in Torino, Italy. There, was outfitted head to toe attitude considered typical financial assistance. Bur- says Burton of his pointy, before crowds of 10,000 in white pin-striped uni- of the sport. A former ton moved to Londonder- bindingless fiberglass 1977 per day, American snow- forms made by his Ver- competitive skier, he start- SNOWBOARD MOGUL BURTON, WHO’S BOARDED ON EVERY boarders dominated the mont-based company, ed out at the University of CONTINENT BUT ANTARCTICA, LITERALLY SITS ON TOP OF THE events, and standing at Burton Snowboards, Colorado at Boulder be- WORLD DURING A RECENT TRIP TO THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. PHOTO © JEFF CURTES PHOTO © 2007 BURTON SNOWBOARDS (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 61) PAUL CLASS AFTER PLAYING WITH KELLER / A SNURFER IN COLLEGE, dress at the meeting of BURTON ADAPTED THE EARLY the Academy of Market- WSC ’48 / SNOWBOARD-LIKE TOY FOR ing Science and the was included HIS FIRST PROTOTYPE. American Collegiate in the Marquis Retailing Association in 2006 edition 2006. He is one of eight of Who’s Who NOTES members of the ACRA in the World. Hall of Fame. NICHOLAS A. THELMA LEVY HENNER CLEMENTE / / WSC ’47 / is now a WSC ’49, LAW ’56 / was member of the Harvard a justice of the New York Institute for Learning in State Supreme Court for Retirement. She lives more than 25 years, as in Cambridge, MA, and is well as a senior partner at writing her memoirs, titled law firms in Brooklyn. He From Jewish American lives in upstate New York. Princess to Cambridge Bag Lady. SIROON SHAHINIAN / GSAS ’49, ’57 / is the ROBERT F. BRODSKY / chairperson of the NGO ENG ’48 / has published Health Committee, design- his first nontechnical ing revolutionary programs book, On the Cutting on health at the United Edge: Tales of a Cold Nations. War Engineer at the Dawn of the Nuclear, HELEN TORRES / STERN Guided Missile, ’49 / has been a successful prototype. “The quality sport exploded in popu- ed States—continues to Computer and Space business owner and real es- was good.” And despite larity around the country, surprise the Long Island Ages (Gordian Knot tate broker for more than not selling any in the rankling the ski world. native. “I never saw it Books), which 22 years. She is a strong first year, he had moved “The people who had hitting the mainstream,” describes his 60-year supporter of the arts in the more than 700 by 1979, been ski bums when they he admits. “It was always career in engineering, Tampa Bay area and is when one of his boards were kids wouldn’t ac- an alternative.” spacecraft design, sponsoring a free opera was used to win the cept it, didn’t want this Today, Burton snow- and astronautics concert at Vinoy Park in St. World Snurfing Champi- youth culture back on boards a dependable education. Petersburg, FL, this fall. onship, bringing instant their mountains,” Burton 100 days a year and exposure and credibility. explains. “The process of shares this love with his employees, giving them CELEBRATE THE REUNION season passes to the re- 1950s CLASSES OF 1953 AND 1958! Burton Snowboards sort at Stowe Mountain. controls an estimated He constantly tests new LENA GIBBONS / WSC of Wisconsin-River Falls. gear, and recently man- ’50, GSAS ’52 / was rec- He recently completed his 40 to 50 percent of aged to take off an en- ognized for her noble mil- 15th book on literary cen- the $400 million tire year with his wife itary service during World sorship. For more infor- and three boys to travel War II by Congresswoman mation, visit www.uwrf snowboarding industry. the globe, snowboarding DIANA DEGETTE / LAW .edu/pa/2006/0610/ and surfing. “I was just ’82 /. A psychiatric social 1009065.htm. By the mid-1980s, getting snowboarding up in the Canadian worker, Gibbons attended snowboarding had be- into resorts was really Rockies with friends,” he to the emotional wounds JESSIE COLSON / come a bona fide coun- tough, and there’s still recalls, “and I was think- of military personnel. STEINHARDT ’53, ’62 / tercultural phenomenon, four that don’t even al- ing, ‘It just doesn’t get wants his fellow alumni to fueled by the bad-boy low it.” Still, the eventual any better.’ But none of NICHOLAS KAROLIDES / know that he is currently image of many early rid- success—by 2002, there this would have hap- STEINHARDT ’50, ’51, happy and in a rewarding ers. But Burton still were more than seven pened if I wasn’t really ’63 / is a professor of period in his life. faced obstacles as the million riders in the Unit- in love with the sport.” English at the University (CONTINUED ON PAGE 65) NYU / FALL 2007 / 63 CLASS NOTES alumni profile RUTH BARCAN MARCUS / WSC ’41 Champion Logician by Nicole Pezold / GSAS ’04 UTH BARCAN MARCUS HAS NEVER PAID the field of quantified man,” while modal logic MUCH ATTENTION TO THE CONFINES OF GEN- modal logic.” deals with propositions For those in need of a that ascribe possibility or DER—NOT AS A STICKBALL-PLAYING TOMBOY R primer, nonmodal logic is necessity: “It is possible during the Depression in Rather, the quick- all,” notes Don Garrett, limited to propositions that Socrates is human.” the Bronx, nor as a cham- witted 86-year-old scaled NYU professor of philoso- concerning what is actual, “It was generally believed pion fencer who might life’s hurdles with disci- phy and Marcus’s former such as “Socrates is hu- that if you extended modal have competed in the 1940 plined reasoning and, student. Her many honors Olympics had it not been through her work in along the way have in- canceled because of war, modal logic and moral cluded head of the Ameri- “Not only did Marcus and certainly not as a rare dilemmas, among other can Philosophical break into philosophy, revered woman philoso- areas, extended the Association Board of Offi- pher. “I never worried bounds of analytical phi- cers, fellowship in the which was then a nearly about making my way,” losophy—and the place of American Academy of all-male preserve, but into Marcus muses one after- women in that field. “Not Arts & Sciences, and re- noon in her New Haven, only did she break into cently recipient of the logic, which was perhaps Connecticut, home. “And I philosophy, which was prestigious 2008 Lauener the most male-dominated think that’s what made it then a nearly all-male Prize for an Outstanding easy for me. That started preserve, but into logic, Oeuvre in Analytical Phi- of all,” notes philosopher when I was playing stick- which was perhaps the losophy. Garrett says: Don Garrett. ball and never changed.” most male-dominated of “She basically invented 64 / FALL 2007 / NYU PHOTO © JOHN MADERE (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 63) chairman of the Physi- CECILY BARTH cian Consortium for FIRESTEIN / STEIN- Performance Improve- HARDT ’55 / recently ment in the North Shore- showed her artwork at the Long Island Jewish Joseph Wahl Arts Gallery Health System in New in Woodland Hills, CA, and York.