Pioneering Paths

Marc: Pioneering Paths • By David Marc roles in history few who created ....-.~-!'.•nni~/CII and talents racuse graduates have been making significant contributions to S:ociety since long before there was a media spotlight to capture. You may not know it, but one alumna ran for president in 1884 and was the first woman to receive votes in the Electoral College. A Maxwell School graduate fought in the French Resistance and coined the term "weapons of mass destruction." A student-athlete, who had to be benched when the Orange played in segregation states, was a member of the prestigious Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. An international literacy advocate, who counted Mahatma Gandhi among her friends, was honored by the Indian government with a postage stamp featuring her portrait. In these sto ries and others, you will meet a handful of outstanding people who studied on the Hill and did some dazzling things. Published by SURFACE, 2005 1 Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 22, Iss. 1 [2005], Art. 10 BELVA ANN BENNETT MCNALL LOCK Columbia Bar Association. She won WOOD 1857, G 1872, H'09 (1830- cases leading to equal pay for women 1917) was a 22-year-old widowed in the D.C. civil service, divorce law single mother when she enrolled in reform, recognition of paranoia as a dis Genesee College (SU's first campus) ease, and restitution for the Cherokee to become a teacher. An advocate Nation. The first woman ever to argue of sexual equality, she introduced a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, public speaking and gymnastics she successfully defended the right of courses for women in a Lockport, Samuel R. Lowry, an African American New York, public school and attorney, to argue before the court. In founded a coeducational school 1884, as presidential nominee of the in Washington, D.C. In 1871, she suffragist Equal Rights Party, Lockwood enrolled in law school at National captured the votes of the Indiana del (now American) University, but egation to the Electoral College. Her officials informed her she could not international reputation won her a seat graduate because she made male on the Nobel Prize for Peace nomi students uncomfortable. Outraged, nating committee. "Fight, fight, fight, Lockwood enlisted the aid of U.S. everlastingly-not with your claws and President Ulysses S. Grant (ex officio fists, but with your wits," she told the president of the law school) . Grant New York World in 1912. In 1986, a U.S. secured Lockwood's diploma and spon commemorative postage stamp was Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs sored her admission to the District of issued in her honor. Division LC·BH834·SS WILMETH SIDAT-SINGH '39 (191 7-43) wing halfback, a position rough stands among the greatest athletes ever ly equivalent to today's quarter to wear the Orange and as an indi back. With only nine minutes vidual of extraordinary courage whose left in the 1938 Cornell game, example transcends the playing field . he engineered three touchdown Born Wilmeth Webb, he took the name drives, completing six passes of his adoptive father, Dr. Samuel Sidat for 150 yards, to pull out a wild Singh, a Harlem physician who married 19-17 victory over the number his widowed mother. Attending DeWitt one-ranked Big Red. Although Clinton High School in the Bronx, he a hero and leader on campus, led the Governors to a city basketball Sidat-Singh was subject to the championship in 1934. Despite those indignities plaguing all African credentials, he received just one schol Americans. When the Orange arship offer-from Syracuse University. ventured south of the Mason In an article for The Syracusan maga Dixon line, local college offi zine, Don Kallock '38 described the pre cials prevented him from play med zoology major as "an omnivorous ing, citing segregation laws. reader ... more interested in a sheepskin Banned from the 1937 game at than a pigskin." Even so, Sidat-Singh Maryland (which the Orange did not disappoint SU sports fans. The lost, 13-0), he remained silent until the African Americans in the segregated 6-foot, 190-pound guard led the bas Terrapins visited Archbold Stadium the armed forces. Shortly after gaining his ketball team to four straight winning following autumn. His response- to pilot's wings, Sidat-Singh went down seasons. He joined the football team as Maryland and Jim Crow- was to lead in Lake Huron due to the engine failure a sophomore after assistant coach Roy Syracuse to a 53 -0 rout. During World of his P-40. He is buried in Arlington Simmons Sr. spotted him completing a War II, Sidat-Singh was selected as a National Cemetery. His basketball jer 55-yard pass, flat-footed, in an intramu member of the elite Tuskegee Airmen, sey was unveiled at a halftime Carrier ral game. Sidat-Singh started at single- the only pilot training unit open to Dome ceremony on February 26. SP RI NG 2005 41 https://surface.syr.edu/sumagazine/vol22/iss1/10 2 Marc: Pioneering Paths VINCENT E. MCKELVEY '37, H'75 (1916-87), a geologist, served as ninth director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) . Originally planning to become a Methodist minister, McKelvey trans ferred to Syracuse after a year in semi nary. He was introduced to the sciences by geology professor Louis W. Ploger, whom McKelvey accompanied on field trips into the Salt Springs Road peri- CORNELIA MARIA CLAPP G 1889 (1849-1934) was a pioneer DWIGHT JAMES BAUM '09 (1886- ing research zoologist who inspired women to seek careers in the 1939), an award-winning architect and natural sciences. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in critic, was a descendant of Dutch pa 1871, Clapp followed a conventional path for educated women of her troons from the Mohawk Valley. The time, teaching Latin at a boys' school. But a college lecturer, recog clients of his New York City prac nizing Clapp's potential as a scientist, kept in touch, inviting her to tice included Broadway mogul Arthur professional meetings and field trips. "I had an opening of doors," Hammerstein and Florida circus impre Clapp said. "I felt my mind going in every direction. " Clapp returned sario John Ringling. Baum incorpo to Mount Holyoke to become a biology lecturer. But to engage in rated early Dutch colonial-era building complex research, she needed a full faculty appointment, requiring a details, such as rustic gambrel roofs, in doctorate. She turned to Syracuse, one of the few universities admit many of the homes he built along the ting women to graduate programs in the sciences. With a Ph.D., Hudson in the Riverdale section of the Clapp returned to Mount Holyoke and emerged as a leading scholar in Bronx. His most acclaimed building marine zoology, publishing her work in top journals and developing is probably the Italian-Romanesque new teaching facilities, including a laboratory fish tank that allowed West Side YMCA (1930) at 63rd Street students to better observe animal behaviors. She later earned a sec near Central Park. It contains a variety ond doctorate at the University of Chicago. Spending summers at the of vertically arranged athletic spaces Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory on Cape Cod, Clapp was the and lodging for 900. Baum designed first woman elected to its board of trustees. After 15 years of faculty two prominent campus buildings: Hen debate, she was promoted to professor in 1904. Former students dricks Chapel (a collaboration with established a faculty research fellowship in her honor and Clapp Hall, John Russell Pope, 1930) and Maxwell home of the college's biology department, is named in her honor. "I Hall (1937). He was serving on the have always had an idea that if you want to do a thing, there is no New York World's Fair design commit particular reason why you shouldn't do it," she said. tee when he died of a heart attack at age 53. 42 S Y R A C U S E U N I V E R S I T Y M A G A Z I N E Published by SURFACE, 2005 3 Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 22, Iss. 1 [2005], Art. 10 dotite dike, a geological formation be states, including uranium deposits in a Syracuse student-made him reluc lieved to be the western terminus of the Utah, and analyzed Pacific islands tant to accept administrative positions. world's largest system of continuous for Allied landings. His research on But he did not refuse the nation's top caves, stretching from a mile east of phosphorites is credited with leading geological office. Among his achieve campus to the British isles. McKelvey to undersea discoveries of gas and oil ments during a six-year tenure as USGS joined the USGS's metalliferous depos around the world. McKelvey helped director, two stand out: creation of a its section, a back office thrust center write the United Nations Law of the reliable system for estimating gas and stage in World War II by the demands Sea Treaty and was a regular figure at oil deposits (still in use); and estab for resources. McKelvey made crucial international forums. His love of field lishment of an ethics counsel to over mineral discoveries in the Western based research-a passion acquired as see annual employee reviews. MARK OAKLAND FAX '33 (1911- 74) was a composer and a professor of music. A child prodigy, he played silent film scores at a Baltimore movie palace on Saturdays and gospel music at an African American church on Sundays. Fax enrolled at Syracuse on the advice of his brother Elton '31, a writer, who believed Syracuse faculty would take his aspirations as a clas sical composer seriously.

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