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c1-c1CAMJF07 12/22/06 1:58 PM Page c1 January/February 2007 $6.00 alumni magazine c2-c4CAMJF07 12/21/06 2:50 PM Page c2 001-001CAMJF07toc 12/21/06 1:39 PM Page 1 Contents JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2007 VOLUME 109 NUMBER 4 alumni magazine Features 52 2 From David Skorton Residence life 4 Correspondence Under the hood 8 From the Hill Remembering “Superman.” Plus: Peres lectures, seven figures for Lehman, a time capsule discovered, and a piece of Poe’s coffin. 12 Sports Small players, big win 16 Authors 40 Pynchon goes Against the Day 40 Going the Distance 35 Camps DAVID DUDLEY For three years, Cornell astronomers have been overseeing Spirit 38 Wines of the Finger Lakes and Opportunity,the plucky pair of Mars rovers that have far out- 2005 Atwater Estate Vineyards lived their expected lifespans.As the mission goes on (and on), Vidal Blanc Associate Professor Jim Bell has published Postcards from Mars,a striking collection of snapshots from the Red Planet. 58 Classifieds & Cornellians in Business 112 46 Happy Birthday, Ezra 61 Alma Matters BETH SAULNIER As the University celebrates the 200th birthday of its founder on 64 Class Notes January 11, we ask: who was Ezra Cornell? A look at the humble Quaker farm boy who suffered countless financial reversals before 104 Alumni Deaths he made his fortune in the telegraph industry—and promptly gave it away. 112 Cornelliana What’s your Ezra I.Q.? 52 Ultra Man BRAD HERZOG ’90 18 Currents Every morning at 3:30, Mike Trevino ’95 ANATOMY OF A CAMPAIGN | Aiming for $4 billion cycles a fifty-mile loop—just for practice. JUST PLAIN FOLK | Forty years of “Bound for Glory” He’s biked in 3,000-mile races and run brutal ultramarathons in extreme heat CRIME PAYS | Our man on “Law & Order” and at high elevations.Trevino wants to be THE LOST COLONY | A facelift for an Israeli enclave the world’s best endurance athlete. So is he crazy,or what? AGAINST THE GRAIN |The debate over ethanol Plus |Tree art and some tasty bugs Cornell Alumni Magazine (ISSN 1070-2733; USPS 006-902) is published six times a year, in January, March, May, July, September, and November, by the Cornell Alumni Federation, 401 East State Street, Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. Subscriptions cost $30 a year. Periodical postage paid at Ithaca, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMAS- TER: Send address changes to Cornell Alumni Magazine, c/o Public Affairs Records, 130 East Seneca St., Suite 400, Ithaca, NY 14850-4353. JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2007 1 002-003CAMJF07skorton 12/21/06 1:42 PM Page 2 From David Skorton The Living-Learning Experience ELCOME TO MY FIRST munities. The idea for faculty partic- column in Cornell Alumni ipation in residential life began dur- w Magazine. I look forward to ing the administration of Frank sharing my thoughts and observations Rhodes. It grew and matured under about the University, and to getting your the leadership of Hunter Rawlings feedback about the issues raised. and is now a thriving part of the Cor- One of the most difficult aspects of nell culture. Some 720 undergradu- the presidency in a large research uni- ates live in the residential houses on versity is getting personally engaged West Campus; 1,800 will live there with the students and understanding when all five houses are completed. their experience within the broader uni- Not only does our system permit stu- versity context. For that reason, my wife, dents to experience Cornell within Professor Robin Davisson, and I have communities of manageable size and focused during our first few months on scope, it also permits undergraduates getting to know students on their own to become closer to graduate stu- ROBERT BARKER / UP turf. In addition, we hoped to gain an dents, faculty fellows, and faculty-in- understanding of the role the living-learning communities on residence. The system encourages mentoring in curricular and North Campus and West Campus play in the undergraduate many other areas, a chance to meet role models, and an oppor- experience. I am convinced that the living-learning concept is a tunity to challenge and be challenged on the entire gamut of aca- robust one and is important for the quality of the student expe- demic and worldly issues. It also provides meaningful opportu- rience—and that we should continue to strengthen it. nities to be involved in house governance. Robin and I moved into Mary Donlon Hall on North Cam- Many of our fraternities and sororities are also engaging fac- pus for a week at the beginning of the fall semester to meet our ulty fellows as well as recent graduates and graduate students to fellow first-year students, and we’ve experienced the living-learn- serve as mentors within the houses and work closely with chap- ing environment for sophomores and upper-level students as ter and Greek council leaders. I hope the interest in faculty house fellows at the Carl Becker House on West Campus. I’ve also involvement and in the integration of living and learning will visited some of the program houses, where students explore a par- come more fully to characterize Greek life on campus. ticular intellectual, cultural, or creative interest. Recently, as you may be aware, there has been quite a discus- Recognizing Cornell’s long-standing tradition of including sion about housing for transfer students. Each year about 500 stu- students in university governance, I’ve asked Vice President Susan dents transfer to Cornell. I was a transfer student myself as an Murphy to arrange periodic meetings with student leaders as well undergraduate, beginning my studies at UCLA and finishing my as open sessions to which all students are invited. We had our first baccalaureate degree at Northwestern, so I am sympathetic to the open session recently, hosted by the Student Assembly, with excel- special interests and concerns of these students. About 200 stu- lent give and take. Finally, the editors of the Daily Sun invited me dents currently live in the Transfer Center on West Campus, which to write a monthly column, which I have used to explore what I will be relocated temporarily to the Hasbrouck Apartments next hope are thought-provoking topics. year because of West Campus construction. As we move forward From these undertakings, I have formed some early conclu- with the West Campus Residential Initiative, I will continue to lis- sions about the student experience at Cornell. First, the bright, ten closely as staff and students work together to integrate trans- highly motivated students here expect to receive not only a superb fers into the West Campus houses while continuing to provide the pedagogical experience but also to participate in real research, cre- support and services the current Transfer Center provides. ative work, and public service directed by faculty mentors. Second, I welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions about first-year students greatly appreciate the opportunity to enter our the living-learning communities and other aspects of the student large community within smaller groupings. Third, Cornell stu- experience at Cornell. Please contact me through CAM or by dents are hungry to be involved in shared governance of the Uni- sending a note or e-mail to me at 300 Day Hall. versity and have a clear expectation of meaningful interchange. — David Skorton All these student appetites are fed by our living-learning com- [email protected] 2 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE 002-003CAMJF07skorton 12/21/06 1:42 PM Page 3 CLASS NOTES 004-007CAMJF07corr 12/21/06 1:44 PM Page 4 Correspondence A Hood of Many Colors INAUGURAL PHOTO EVOKES THOUGHTS ON DIVERSITY I ENJOYED YOUR COVER PHOTO OF ral coverage] is one of the most bril- President David Skorton at his inaugura- liant, thoughtful, gracious, and inno- tion (November/December 2006), as vative addresses I have ever read. much for its focus on his academic hood The Very Rev. John Bartholomew ’53 as for its perspective of his looking toward Lake City, Minnesota Cornell’s future. On the occasion of my October 27, 2006, remarks to the joint Arecibo Alert annual meeting of the members of the CORNELL BUILT ARECIBO OBSER- Board of Trustees and the University vatory in the early 1960s and has Council, I commented that David’s hood operated it ever since—but this of purple, yellow, green, and black over tenure may be coming to an end. The that red gown “represents, in a sense, the National Science Foundation’s fabric of David’s new campus, a ‘rich tap- astronomy division commissioned a estry’—to borrow from the poet Maya “Senior Review” of their facilities, Angelou—that is more diverse today than with the goal of freeing $30 million even a handful of years ago.”Your photo (from a facilities budget of roughly of David’s colorful hood, an apt symbol of $130 million) for the operation of a the richness and diversity of today’s Cor- new millimeter-wave telescope. This nell, serves as a poignant reminder of the review has resulted in cuts to the need for all alumni to broaden our out- observatory’s budget of 25 percent reach efforts in pursuing younger alumni, until 2011, after which Cornell will alumni of color, and international alumni have to obtain operating funds from to participate in leadership roles, as well as new sources or perhaps close the facility. ment that has led science in areas such as the importance of diversifying further the Added to this is the requirement that Cor- tests of general relativity, measuring the membership of the University Council.