ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE FALL 2017 VOLUME 42, ISSUE 2
Confucius A Foundation of Eastern Thought OPENING NOTE
During these past 12 months, you may have read articles in The College and on our website highlighting the 50th anniversary celebration of the Gradu- ate Institute—stories about such alumni as Ariel Winnick (SF11, EC12), who is studying medicine at Ben- Gurion University’s Medical School for International Health in Israel; Mary-Charlotte Domandi (SFGI91), an award-winning broadcast journal- ist; and David Hysong (AGI11), whose success in cancer therapy development landed him in Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30.” You may have also recon- nected with fellow alumni at Home- coming this fall in Annapolis or Santa Fe, where special seminars, dinners, and other events took place to mark the milestone anniversary.
In this issue of The College, we continue to recognize GI alumni accomplishments. We also shine light on a key enterprise in the history of the Graduate Institute: the Eastern Classics program. Founded more than 20 years ago on the Santa Fe campus, David McDonald (SF95) describes the EC program as “a way of seeing how the human mind responds to universal problems and universal questions.” Sound familiar? Like Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, and Woolf, the Eastern Classics authors—Confucius, Lao Tzu, Kālidāsa, and Sei Shōnagon, among others—beckon us to exam- ine human nature through a fresh lens that is both timeless and timely, unique and universal.
Gregory Shook, editor
ii THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 1 FALL 2017 VOLUME 42, ISSUE 2
“ Would there be questions for thinkers in India, thinkers in China, that we never considered in the West?”— James Carey, tutor
FEATURES DEPARTMENTS
PAGE 16 PAGE 20 PAGE 26 FROM THE BELL TOWERS BIBLIOFILE FOR & ABOUT ALUMNI 4 Testament to a Legacy 32 Simba Sana’s (AGI13) new memoir 34 SJCAA News Curtis Wilson (1921–2012) Never Stop is a brutally honest WHY WE READ THE EXPLORING THE ST. JOHN'S: 35 A Message from the Presidents look at a life of struggle, success, 6 An Eclipse for the Ages EASTERN CLASSICS JOHNNIE WAY THE NEXT CHAPTER and hard-won knowledge. 36 Profile:David Diggs (AGI91) 7 Greek on Steroids addresses social and educational For more than two decades Alumni across the country The college’s new president 33 Laura Sook Duncombe (SF08) issues in Haiti. the Eastern Classics program share stories about life after in Annapolis hits the ground 8 Experimenting in France excavates history to give real and 38 Alumni Notes has explored some of the St. John’s during a two-week running—and dives headfirst 10 Tutors Talk Books legendary female swashbucklers their due in Pirate Women. 43 First Person: Jonathan Barone (A13) greatest thinkers in India, road trip from Annapolis to into the Program, starting 11 Sharing from Experience Gillian Tan (SF97) joins the nomads 44 In Memoriam China, and Japan. Santa Fe and back. with the Iliad. 12 GI Commencement: of Eastern Tibet and details the Openness for Other People’s 46 Philanthropy lifestyle changes facing them in her Experiences book In the Circle of White Stones. 13 Friends and Arrows Ben Sasse (AGI98) takes aim at JOHNNIE TRADITIONS 14 A Man for All Seasons our nation’s youth—and offers 48 St. John’s Forever a prescription—in his new book The Vanishing American Adult. EIDOS 49 Peter McClard (SF83)
ON THE COVER: Confucius illustration ABOVE: The village of Lourmarin in the by Harriet Lee-Merrion region of Vaucluse, France, photographed during a semester abroad. PHOTO: ALAIN ANTOINE
2 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 3 From the BELL TOWERS
fore recognized the dangers that accumulate “ This display of collective A Testament to a Legacy from the proud phrasing of preferred ideas. But shall I attempt to demonstrate, in not self-understanding and and a Life Well Lived many sentences, what I do mean to say here purpose, without any false without fondness of prejudice? by Louis Petrich The first and oldest piece in this book is his notes, I have not witnessed dean’s lecture from 1958: “The Archimedean He taught me a lot, simply by letting me know him a little in his good last years. Point and the Liberal Arts.” This lecture asks an here or abroad.” I am referring to Curtis Wilson (1921-2012), who taught on both St. John’s campuses ancient question: can we find a standing point and twice served as dean, whose dean’s lectures and other writings for the college have of epistemological leverage, analogous to the just been published in a single volume of 400 pages.1 The book, Curtis Wilson Selected Archimedean fulcrum, from where we can apply our senses and intellects to know ourselves and and bees make limited use of, and he proves Writings: Dean’s Lectures and Other Writings for St. John’s College (St. John’s College the world in unity? This is no idle question, as by their essentially triadic nature (sign, object, Press, 2017), is the result of a five-year project led by tutors and the book’s editors Curtis points out at once, since wars are fought interpreter) that no dyadic system of relations Chaninah Maschler (1931-2014) and Nicholas Maistrellis, along with instrumental over its rival answers, and even those who have (Lucretian atomism, for example) can give us support provided by tutor Bill Pastille and Robin Dunn, manager of St. John’s Annapolis no answers, only the net of irony to catch mod- this world. (That proof he entertains in passing, bookstore. I would say the writings in this book are for anyone who can be taught the estly and critically at learning them, have been but I think it is pretty indicative of the man.) unexpected by the reading of a thoughtful, articulate man of science and the arts. put to death for no more than that. Now considered as namer of the oneness of Curtis reviews the attempts of the early things (note how Euclid’s geometry appears The first thing Curtis Wilson taught me people on their own irregular paths of knowing modern philosopher-scientists and mathemati- essentially linguistic at this point), Curtis was how to carry the years well that carry all the world, not insisting on any sun-center, least cians to find this point of leverage. He begins, reminds us of this wonderful image of the things away. I called him on the phone out of of all his own. And yet he was quick to defend of course, with Copernicus, who put it in the soul in Aristotle: naming things in sentences the blue one day because I had some questions Copernicus from the charges that lesser lights sun; then considers Giordano Bruno, who shifts according to regularities of oneness is like the about Kepler’s long battle with the motions of seem frequently to levy against the greater for attention to the infinitude of the universe and stopping of a rout in battle: first one man stops Mars. Curtis, much esteemed for his work in some deficiency or other. There was tenacity the human mind (he paid for infinity with his to make a stand, then another, and so on, until the history of astronomy, listened quietly to the underneath the calm surface, strong currents life); Einstein next appears, who lets us freely the formation has been restored. That is what particulars (on which everything depends with of affection that carried family and friendship stand wherever we choose in that infinity; we do in speech when faced with the diversity Kepler) before saying that he did not remember alongside scholarly work and liberal study for Kepler and Galileo invite men and women to of things in and outside of us and we try to put enough about his studies long past to address many years of goodness to all. calculate their travels through space and time proper form to their impending chaos. Naming my precise questions properly. He invited us to Something particular that he taught us and take the satisfaction that belongs to gods becomes liberal artistry (here he draws upon return to them upon better preparation. Then about liberal studies: they cross-fertilize each by knowing these things certainly; Pascal Kant) when men and women make signs of he asked what my studies had chiefly been. other, as if in imitation of nature, whose inhab- insists that the esprit de finesse give subtle signs and thereby become conscious of what “Literature,” I said. This led to an invitation to itants depend on this process for better fitness voice to spirit to make those infinite spaces of they do in speech. This verbal self-reflection join a play reading group that he and his wife, to survive in this tough world. We have heard travel not so certainly silent; Descartes stands causes them to invent grammars to preserve Becky, were hosting that month. much about this benefit of liberal education for himself certain on his own reflective mind— meanings, logic to maintain consistency of Thus Kepler took a seat next to the great many years, and there is some danger that by until Nietzsche makes obvious that Descartes’s truth, and rhetoric to persuade embodied souls playwrights during our conversations about how over-rehearsal we make even the truths that mind is pure reflection, still unsure of each and to practice the formations of true meanings as to give form to irregular motions. “The dra- most matter sound tedious and stale to taste. every thing; but this does not prevent Marx moral beings responsible for the world. matic art takes on human motions that make But even a freshman dull to truth will perceive and Freud from standing proudly on theories of And that is where his lecture ends, after the battle with Mars look almost like child’s that Curtis Wilson’s lectures as dean elevate man in terms of forces at war with each other. nearly the entire program of learning at St. play.” This he once confided as we imagined how common speech and hearing above the surviv- Here, on the verge of dissipation or fanati- John’s College has been tasted and justified in thought and action. This display of collective Kepler might answer to certain cosmic ques- ing habits of high school and save taste in the cism, Curtis gives up the Archimedean point 1 Curtis Wilson Selected Writings: tions of hope and despair present everywhere high from extinction in the vast technologies of as sought by these philosophers and begins his self-understanding and purpose, without any Dean’s Lectures and Other Writings in the plays of Shakespeare. He spoke softly vulgarity and boredom. Curtis probably would inquiry anew into who the human being is and false notes, I have not witnessed here or abroad. for St. John’s College, Eds., Chaninah to questions of all kinds, as if not to disturb not like how I said that sentence—too much may yet become. Homer points him the way It is given first place in this collection of his Maschler and Nicholas Maistrellis, St. an equilibrium that he maintained alongside assertion by one who cannot know that much with his epithet for men and women as those writings so that we may remember, with deter- John’s College Press, 2017. Curtis was dean from 1958-1962 and 1973-1978. a capacity for surprise to the end. That was about causes and effects. He respected the who articulate their voices. This leads Curtis to mination and gratitude, who we are, and who we one way, too, that he made himself present to hard, technical discipline of science, and there- introduce a theory of signs, which even birds may yet become, as artists of liberal learning.
4 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 5 FROM THE BELL TOWERS
ASTRONOMY HIDDEN TALENT This past summer, Greer participated in a summer classics study of the Upanishads, An Eclipse Greek on Steroids with David Townsend, as well as a study of Zen works, with Krishnan Venkatesh. In San- for the Ages by Robin Weiss (SFGI90) skrit, Upanishads means “sitting down near”, referring to the spiritual practice of sitting Santa Fe tutor, Patricia Greer, developed a As the moon crossed slowly into the rays of the down with the teacher. In the past, Greer has passion for Sanskrit vocabulary “ages and sun, a crowd congregated in the plaza of St. studied Arabic with Ken Wolfe, “our resident ages ago,” born of her interest in Indian texts. John’s, Santa Fe. Students. Tutors. Staff. Commu- expert in Arabic,” she says. In the early 1970s, while studying linguistics nity members. All gathered to witness history. “I’m not one of these people who simply and literature at the University of Southern A similar scene played out a short time later inhale languages. It’s something I have to California, she thought she would take a year in the observatory at the college’s Annapolis work at,” she insists. During this year’s sab- off in India. In Auroville, or the City of Dawn, campus, their gazes aimed skyward, their eyes batical, she and her husband, whom she met an experimental township in Southern India covered by protective glasses. A solar eclipse, in India, will live in Southern France for six (founded in 1968), Greer felt so at home that the first total eclipse in the contiguous United months. Along with Sanskrit she would like to she stayed for 20 years. States in nearly 40 years, was taking place, and learn “a little classical Japanese, my project.” In this international town dedicated to dozens gathered on both campuses to view it. She hopes to write a lecture on The Tale of human unity, Greer felt like a pioneer. “It was “Most scholars think that While many used protective glasses to peer Genji, a mandatory preceptorial in the summer very exciting,” she says, recalling a couple up at the sun, others looked through makeshift two or three thousand years semester for all EC students, which is consid- hundred people trying to plant trees in an projectors: empty cereal boxes, popcorn boxes ered the first novel ever written. The writer, otherwise ecologically devastated landscape. ago, when the great classical and shoe boxes, for example, complete with Murasaki Shikibu, was a noblewoman of the “We started building this town. By the time pinholes, aluminum foil and paper. “It’s nice texts were being written, high court around the year one thousand. I left, I was the administrator of an interna- to get people enthusiastic about it,” said tutor According to Greer, only a handful of scholars tional high school.” probably most folks, who James Beall, who helped organize the event in in the world can read the Japanese in which Greer’s family lived in Annapolis where she Annapolis. “As long as people are careful, it’s a were farmers and normal this book is written. “That’s quite a hurdle. I’m loved visiting the St. John’s campus. “If I had great experience.” trying to screw up my courage to do that.” A total eclipse was visible on a path stretch- PHOTO: AARSTUDIO/GETTY IMAGES gone there as an undergraduate, it would have people, spoke a simplified ing from Salem, Oregon, to Charleston, South changed my life,” she says. During a one-month LEFT: Maddie Nell visit, she discovered the Graduate Institute version of Sanskrit.” Carolina. Many across the country gathered to “ As I’m watching, I’m Jane (A20) watches (GI) and realized, “This is my next adventure, view it in cities along that path. In Annapolis, thinking of perspective and the eclipse from NASA scientists estimated approximately 80 the Annapolis to study the great books of the West.” She The College Editor observatory. earned a master’s in liberal arts in 1995, then Gregory Shook percent of the sun was covered at the peak of of Ptolemy: where we are is published by St. John’s BELOW: Tutor emeritus [email protected] the eclipse. The percentage was about the same headed to the University of Virginia and began In the EC program, students who have College, Annapolis, MD, Bill Donahue sets Contributors in northern New Mexico. Santa Fe junior Lau- in relation to other [things] her formal study of Sanskrit. Pursuing a PhD chosen classical Chinese, which is character and Santa Fe, NM. up telescopes in thecollegemagazine@ Judith Adam in the history of religion, Greer focused on the driven, are translating short Chinese poems ren Max (SF19) said the event made her think and how things happen Santa Fe. sjc.edu Anna Perleberg Andersen of sophomore math and Ptolemy’s first model great Sanskrit epic, the Mahābārata, which within a few weeks of the first semester. (SF02) to line up.” she explains is “ten times the length of the Known office of Samantha Ardoin (SF16) of the universe. “As I’m watching, I’m thinking Those immersed in Sanskrit must wait until publication: Iliad and Odyssey combined.” the second semester to translate anything Jonathan Barone (A13) of perspective and of Ptolemy: where we are in Communications Office Carol Carpenter relation to other [things] and how things happen Greer was drawn to the GI Eastern like literature. According to Greer, that’s quite St. John’s College Charlotte Jusinski 60 College Avenue to line up,” she said. “Perspective affects so Classics (EC) program on the Santa Fe ambitious, compared to other programs. “We Anne Kniggendorf (SF97) Annapolis, MD 21401 David McDonald (SF95) said. “It definitely looked more like the moon campus where students choose classical really do it down and dirty,” she says. “The much. Perspective matters.” Louis Petrich Chinese or Sanskrit, with the hope of teaching students find it very rewarding.” Periodicals postage The event in Santa Fe also attracted mem- than I expected.” The light washing over both paid at Annapolis, MD. Tim Pratt bers of the public, like Jude Redstone, who campuses dimmed as the eclipse progressed. the latter. “The people here call it ‘Greek on “The languages of India are Indo-European, Eve Tolpa heard about the viewing and decided to attend. Temperatures dropped slightly, too. steroids’. It’s really a kind of mother language, influenced by Sanskrit, but nobody speaks it; Postmaster: Send Robin Weiss (SFGI90) address changes to Andrew Wice “This is an opportunity to watch Time with a Annapolis astronomy assistants Anna Hubbell and very beautiful.” Like Greek, Sanskrit is you have to study it,” she says. “Most scholars The College Magazine, capital T,” Redstone said. “I’m seeing a conjunc- (A19) and Xiaotong Jin (A20), who also helped a classical language, she explains, but more think that two or three thousand years ago, Design Communications Office, Skelton Design tion of color and of cosmic change.” The last organize the event, held binoculars, the light complicated. “Sanskrit is a highly inflected when the great classical texts were being St. John’s College, Contributing Designer total eclipse in the contiguous United States from the sun shining through, the outline of language. There are more cases, many more written, probably most folks, who were farm- 60 College Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21401. Jennifer Behrens occurred on February 26, 1979. the sun and moon illuminated below. “It’s really tenses, a gigantic vocabulary. Every word ers and normal people, spoke a simplified Among the students who gathered in cool,” Hubbell said. “It’s always been something permutates as the case, as the verbs change; version of Sanskrit. It would only have been Annapolis was sophomore Maddie Nell Jane that has captured my imagination.” words come out of each other. There are so the Brahmin and the upper caste scholars who (A20), who peered up at the eclipse through a many paradigms that you have to memorize were able to deal with the highly developed —Tim Pratt pair of protective glasses. “It was great,” Jane or at least know how to navigate.” language that the texts were written in.”
6 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 7 FROM THE BELL TOWERS
JOHNNIES ABROAD LEARNING TO LISTEN Many Johnnies have studied at Aix’s Marchutz Experimenting School of Fine Arts. Others have studied the great books at Aix’s IAU College, the host in France campus for St. John’s experimental study by Judith Adam abroad program. These intersections can be traced to a number This spring 18 St. John’s students from Santa of alumni and tutors, but foremost among them Fe and Annapolis, along with myself and three is John Gasparach (SFGI03), who attended IAU other tutors—John Cornell, Patricia Greer, and as a young man, and who now serves as the co- Russell Winslow—embarked on an experiment: dean and co-head instructor at Marchutz. to complete the second semester of the junior Students at the Louvre studying Rembrandt’s year in Aix-en-Provence, France. This was a Born in Seattle just after World War II, Gas- parach spent his junior year studying abroad masterpiece: "Bathsheba at Her Bath." first for the college. We took the Program, or at IAU. Unable to speak French, he learned to part of it, to another continent; our challenge appreciate the universal language of art. While was to see if we could do it justice while open- there, he met German painter Leo Marchutz, a “ In that first seminar, ing up the college to a foreign, yet somehow committed scholar of Cézanne and teacher at familiar, place and language. While we were I realized that the foremost IAU. Under the tutelage of Marchutz, Gasparach not responding to any perceived lack in the began to draw and paint. Haltingly at first, thing I was going to learn Program itself, but to the interest of many of and then with greater confidence and curios- was how to listen.” our students to study abroad, the experience ity, he devoted himself to the pursuit of art at helped us to reflect on the college in surpris- Marchutz’s newly formed Marchutz School of —John Gasparach (SFGI03) ing and revitalizing ways. Fine Arts—a place where students have an Classes were held on the campus of the IAU intensive regimen of drawing and sculpture College (Institute for American Universities), studio art, art history, and a seminar. In 2000, Gasparach finally made the journey to in the heart of the city. There was a certain joy In 1973, Gail Haggard (SF71) made the initial Santa Fe’s Graduate Institute. Over four summer for all of us to be found just in the daily experi- connection between Marchutz and St. John’s. It sessions there, he found that the Socratic meth- ence of inhabiting this strikingly beautiful was a connection that would change the way od of teaching still distinguished its academic place, with its Roman and Medieval roots and CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Students wander in stimulated a new spirit of inventiveness among Gasparach taught, and change the future of system. “What stunned me was that I thought I Lourmarin's streets in search of a food vendor; architecture stretching across the centuries, The everydayness of Aix many Johnnies’ lives. Haggard’s ex-husband the students when it came to constructing Clara Rhoades, Leah Mozzer and Noah Leal had come to St. John’s because I was interested surrounded by Cézanne’s Provencal landscape is a public life. The people their own demonstrations and exploring the on a tour of the neighboring villages; Students was the late Dean Haggard, one of the original in the texts, in the fact that it was all discussion on all sides. There, just living appears to be a phenomena from scratch. A language tutorial walking toward Mount Sainte Victoire, tutors at the Santa Fe campus of St. John’s, in seminars,” he says. “But in that first seminar, goal—and an art. effectively live “outside,” reading Racine and Molière—playwrights that immortalized in many of Cézanne's paintings. who brought his passion to Aix-en-Provence dur- I realized that the foremost thing I was going to The everydayness of Aix is a public life. The every French student reads in high school—had ing a summer session in 1973. learn was how to listen. I hadn’t considered that. people effectively live “outside,” walking every- shopping at the many daily its own parallel resonances with the place. And Gasparach watched Haggard lead a seminar on It’s not just one teacher; it’s fundamental to St. where, shopping at the many daily markets markets, and punctuating the fact that we were combining students from And we were able to tour the Arts and Métiers Plato’s Symposium—and saw firsthand how art John’s College. It’s part of the ethos.” (extraordinary for their number and variety museum—where Lavoisier’s workshop, the first both campuses seemed to spark interesting students were transmuted from disinterested Today, Gasparach’s duties continue to expand even in France), and punctuating their day with their day with coffee at exchanges about how we do things at the col- Leyden jars and voltaic piles were on display. to engaged. It was his first encounter with a with the Marchutz School’s brand-new master coffee at cafes and bars, a habit that we all cafes and bars, a habit lege. Though we arrived with the curriculum Based on this experience the tutors began to purely Socratic method of tutelage. “He asked of fine arts program—to which Johnnies have easily adopted—taking our books with us. The already in hand, our time together in France see the future possibilities for tailoring a number questions and never left a single student out of received scholarships—and he remains involved complex, somewhat formal, system of greeting that we all easily adopted— felt like revisiting the foundations of the col- of our own excursions for St. John’s students the conversation, which developed and took on a with St. John’s initiatives there, such as the one another that we encountered in France— taking our books with us. lege, which was reinvigorating and refreshing. next spring, both in Aix, and farther afield. life of its own,” Gasparach says. “Watching Dean study abroad program and Global Pathways even between storekeepers and waiters and Through IAU there were regular weekend day This year has been a beginning—an unfor- teach, never lecturing or imposing himself—with fellowships. He is confident about entrusting the their customers—struck a contrast with the his vast knowledge—on the conversation, I said trips, led in French, to sites and cities around gettable beginning, with promising future school’s future to the next generation when that warmth of American informality. The students to myself, ‘If that can be learned, I want to learn Provence and the Mediterranean coast, including possibilities. It would be hard to express all of time comes. They have been patiently learning lived with French host families in town—an all of its assembled parts, our engagement how to teach that way.’ And from that moment Avignon, Nice, Arles, and the villages of the the gratitude that is due to the many members and listening under his guidance, perpetuat- adventure in itself. And for some students with the St. John’s curriculum was reassuringly on, I wanted to come to study at St. John’s.” It region. But the highlight was the St. John’s of the college community (and beyond) on both ing a rare and valuable continuity. “Listening is who were temporarily adopted by their host like it is at home: the classes were St. John’s took him almost 30 years to get to St. John’s, as fundamental to teaching, to learning,” he says. excursion in early March to Paris, where the St. campuses who have contributed to the success “parents” this was perhaps the most important classes, and the Program was the Program. his role at Marchutz was a stabilizing force dur- “Listen to the text, listen to the discussion. You’re John’s Alumni Association treated us to dinner of this experiment so far—to just getting it aspect of their immersion experience in France. In fact, despite the distracting wonder of the ing periods of change. The school was brought not imposing yourself on the experience, and the on our first night. It was a thrill the next day to off the ground and landing safely in Marseille. Once we had settled in, cobbled together place, our studies seemed even to be enlivened under the aegis of the IAU, and he ascended to act of painting parallels that. It’s learning how to sit down together quietly in front of Rem- And to the 18 students who took a risk with some tables and blackboards, combined the by our new and challenging circumstances. full-time teacher and administrator. open yourself to nature; it goes back to Socrates. brandt’s “Bathsheba” in the Louvre and hold a us, and to the faculty who pioneered in good students of two campuses, and waited for the As it turned out, doing lab without a labora- You’re a midwife, you’re not there to impose.” seminar, led by Marchutz School professor and spirit, we are immensely grateful. Nous nous college to emerge in this strange place from tory led to a deeper reading of texts, and St. John’s alumnus John Gasparach (SFGI03). souviendrons toujours. —Andrew Wice
8 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 PHOTOGRAPHY: ALAIN ANTOINE THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 9 FROM THE BELL TOWERS
Q&A: MARSAURA SHUKLA Was there anything that pushed you in Krivák leads, a certain way during your time as an and listens undergraduate, that you now feel totally to, the Tutors Talk Books conversation. differently about? by Samantha Ardoin (SF16) In freshman year, there are often Plato people Tutors Talk Books is an online series of and Aristotle people. The Plato people are really interviews with St. John’s College tutors. The moved by Plato, and are really interested in that following in an excerpt from an interview with style of writing philosophy—I was that person. I Marsaura Shukla (A93), a tutor at St. John’s loved Plato. When we moved to Aristotle, I just since 2012. Shukla gave a lecture in Santa Fe, shut down. I did not know what to do with it. I hosted by the Graduate Institute, this summer hated it. And now, actually, I don’t know if I like on Keats’s poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Read Aristotle better, but Aristotle really interests the full interview, as well as others, at sjc.edu. me. I find him fascinating to read, and work through slowly, and there are ways I prefer read- What is your next project? ing Aristotle to Plato. That’s one big switch. I’m hoping to do a preceptorial on Keats’s odes Do you think that’s because of the and letters. I want to follow this idea through literature. After a brief stint at the University shocking shift in style between Plato with Keats himself. Another part of the project Sharing from of Rhode Island, he came to St. John’s and his and Aristotle? is related to the Emily Dickinson and John love of the great books grew. His abilities as Donne preceptorial I did recently. I want to I think it’s partially that Plato is more user- Experience a writer also progressed. Krivák says one of think about Emily Dickinson’s treatment of soul friendly. There’s a narrative there, a smooth- Andrew Krivák (A86) lends his proudest accomplishments as a Johnnie ness there, that’s deceptive. I don’t think I in her poetry; she talks about it a lot, but it guidance to future writers was winning the Baird Award for a short feels a little ironic. I want to understand what was a good reader of Plato, but I was a happy collection of poems he composed. reader of Plato. With Aristotle, I couldn’t she’s doing when she talks that way. She seems Andrew Krivák (A86) has led an interesting see where the readings became complicated to be thinking about the body, the soul, the divi- life since he graduated from St. John’s College. “ I think one of the biggest and interesting. I had begun to see that in sions of the self, and how to understand them. Yacht rigger. Poet. Student. Jesuit. Teacher. Plato—those places that invited thinking. With questions a young writer These days, he is an award-winning author Were you teaching anything this summer? Aristotle I couldn’t do it, but now I can. whose latest novel, The Signal Flame, tells the like me has to struggle I taught a week of Summer Academy, and When you were a student, did you ever story of a family awaiting the return of their enjoyed that. We read Shakespeare, Donne, with is whether the think you would do become a tutor? youngest son from the Vietnam War. Like his and Dickinson in the language tutorial, and the previous books, The Signal Flame has received (high school) students were amazing. It all went No, I thought I would definitely not become a writing life is possible.” critical acclaim. Krivák, who lives in the Boston really well. In relation to the undergraduate pro- tutor! I mean, I really loved being at St. John’s— —Joshua Colon (A18) area with his wife and children, returned to the gram, the readings are shorter, but apart from but that wasn’t part of how I envisioned the Annapolis campus in April to read from and that it was like a St. John’s-style tutorial. There future unfolding. For one thing, I didn’t think I sign copies of his new book. He also met with were moments of silliness, but it was good. wanted to work as hard as tutors work. It struck me as a student that the tutors were really Johnnies who are interested in careers in writ- Joshua Colon (A18) says he was impressed What will you be starting in the laboring at something. It was a very ascetic way ing or publishing to give advice on how to find by Krivák’s experience and the advice he gave. fall semester? of life. I knew I wanted to go to grad school, and success in the industry. “He seemed very earnest, open, articulate, I’m going to try again this year to carve out I thought I really wanted to narrow down the When a student asked how to overcome and enthusiastic about his life and vocation; some time for my own thinking and writing, things I wanted to think about. But the transi- writer’s block, Krivák says he often reads he seemed to be everything I want to be as a but that is one of the challenges to being a tion to grad school was very painful. other writers’ works, listens to music, or writer and a father,” Colon says. “I think one tutor: finding the time for your own writing. I’m Only after St. John’s I realized how much goes fishing. When asked how he knows of the biggest questions a young writer like that has an impact on the seminar. The last also going to be teaching senior seminar with “ I think... that Plato is more I liked our way doing things. I wanted to when a novel is done, Krivák spoke about the me has to struggle with is whether the writing senior seminar I taught was with Walter Ster- John Cornell, and I’m very excited about that. continue doing that in a specialized field—in “arc of the narrative,” and the importance life is possible; meeting a Johnnie writer who ling, with whom I graduated from St. John’s. He I’ve done one all-college seminar with him, but user-friendly. There’s a theology—but it turned out that that’s not of completing a story with a strong final has found success is a real encouragement.” was wonderful to work with, but our seminar otherwise I have not taught with him, and I really possible. Academic grad school is very sentence. When a student asked about how to Stuart Lombard (A19), who has looked into narrative there, a smoothness often seemed a little distracted. I think it’s have not taught this (senior seminar book) list, specialized training, and there is this empha- handle the rejection of a manuscript, Krivák publishing in the past, called Krivák’s experi- important to impress upon seniors that you’re and it looks really great. there, that’s deceptive. sis on productivity which is not ruminative or spoke of the importance of “ego strength.” ences “inspiring.” “I haven’t written for a long going to miss this, you’re not going to have time, but I yearn to return to that magical I think senior year is always good, conversational. I grew to like it, and to think “The rejection is part of your formation With Aristotle, I couldn’t see this thing again, and I get that you’re tired of it time when writing used to consume my life,” no matter the list. of research as a form of conversation—but process as a writer,” Krivák says. “If you after four years, but you should really savor it. Lombard says. “I walked away from the dis- I’m glad you think so! I think senior year is a where the readings became thinking of it that way made me research very have a really good novel, a really good story cussion with a refreshed desire to write—and really fraught year. People are trying to figure slowly, which you can’t do as an academic. So, to tell, it will get out there.” complicated and interesting.” a couple new books to read.” out what they want to do next. They’re afraid of I’m very happy to be back here. I think there Krivák grew up among a family of leaving the structure of St. John’s, and I think are significant ways in which St. John’s is my engineers in rural northeastern Pennsylvania, —Tim Pratt intellectual home. where he developed an interest in books and
10 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 11 FROM THE BELL TOWERS
GI COMMENCEMENT and languages. Abdullah Mirza (SF20), who SANTA FE ARCHERY took first place in the competition, likes that Openness for Other archery is an individual sport that demands Friends and Arrows intense focus. “It also has a rich tradition in People’s Experience my religious background and throughout the The thup, thup, thup of arrows punctuates world,” he says. “Ever since the first days of For William Edelglass (SF93), openness to the spring air on the Santa Fe campus. An Islam, it’s a traditional practice that you learn the experience of others leads to empathy. It’s arrow hits a target, creating a sound similar archery. The three traditional skills are swim- a worldview that springs from his St. John’s to a basketball bouncing on a carpeted floor. ming, horseback riding, and archery. I have education and one that he shared in an address Another misses the target and a puff of dust done the other two in the past, but I am the at the Graduate Institute commencement rises from the earth behind it. The St. John’s most interested in archery.” ceremony held on August 4 at the Santa Fe archery team is competing against the Insti- Other high-scorers, Liam Warren (SF19) campus. When Edelglass completed his under- tute of American Indian Arts, a college on the and Hao Luo (SF20), were pleased with their graduate degree at that same campus in 1993, other side of town. With the iconic Monte del performances on the field. “I did a bit of tra- he was “thinking I’d spend a decade living in Sol standing tall in the distance, the John- ditional archery when I was younger,” Warren different places” exploring different jobs. To nies go on to sweep the individual and overall says. “It’s something I wanted to continue.” that end, he worked with St. John’s Search and team scores. Although the tournament is The team shares his sentiment. After a full day RALLY ROUND THE CHAIR, Rescue team, taught philosophy in a prison in competitive, Ben Kidderman (SFGI18) says the of intense competition, when St. John’s coach JOHNNIES! New York, and spent many years as a wilder- competition in archery is within one’s self. “And Richard Dew asks, “Do you want to do the ness guide, among other things. the rest is friendship.” targets again?” The students respond in unison, When “Johnnie Chair” furniture makers E.A. A path in academia The other students seem to agree. As they “Yes!” They gather their equipment and start Clore Sons, Inc. announced last May that it would be closing after nearly 200 years in wasn’t initially in his move through a series of targets that increase again from the beginning. Thup, thup, thup go business, company officials expected a slight plans, but Edelglass in distance from 20 to 40 to 60 feet away, they the arrows. surge in last-minute orders. Instead, Clore was found himself increas- discuss each other’s studies, families, cultures, —Charlotte Jusinski swamped with orders, says company president ingly drawn to phi- In his commencement speech, Edelglass A multiplicity of perspectives, Troy Coppage, with St. John’s alumni putting losophy and enrolled in referred to an incident from a period he Emory University’s doc- in dozens of requests for Johnnie Chairs. The he finds, is crucial to any spent teaching Western philosophy to Tibetan chairs—listed on the company’s website as toral program, which, monks at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Plain Master Chairs—are a longtime St. John’s at that time, “was intellectual endeavor. “One of in Dharamsala, India. An elderly monk had tradition and part of the college’s identity. deeply committed to the history of philosophy, a confessed that he viewed the study of Western my favorite Tibetan proverbs, The influx of orders, including those by St. commitment I shared coming from St. John’s.” thought as a distraction at best and harmful John’s alumni, has caused the company put its His dissertation focused on the self and the is ‘Where you find agreement, at worst. “I think I laughed out loud, because closing plans on hold, Coppage says. E.A. Clore suffering of the other, drawing on the work of what this monk said was so similar to a view you find fools.’” Sons has a months-long backlog on orders, and modern Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas I had heard from some Western philosophers, ´ —William Edelglass (SF93) is staying open indefinitely. “Orders are coming and eighth-century Buddhist scholar Sāntideva, who believed that philosophy from India and a dual focus that allowed him to situate himself in as fast as we can make them,” Coppage says, Tibet, for example, should be taught in a reli- much to the delight of Johnnies everywhere. St. within both Eastern and Western traditions. gious studies department, or an area studies John’s has been ordering Johnnie Chairs for its Now a professor of philosophy and director of program. Somehow they believed both in the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses for decades. environmental studies at Marlboro College in ness for other people’s experience and other universality of reason, and also seemed to think The Annapolis chairs are typically made of Vermont, as well as a regular faculty member accounts of the world,” he says. As a result, that this universal reason only arises, or is only walnut and cherry while Santa Fe chairs are at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Edel- Edelglass integrates race, gender, post-colonial, accessible, in particular locations, or by particu- typically made of oak. glass co-edits a journal called Environmental and environmental theory into his curricula. lar people. The Graduate Institute is a welcome Since the closing announcement in May, Clore Philosophy. He recently received a National A multiplicity of perspectives, he finds, is alternative to such parochialism.” Endowment for the Humanities grant for his crucial to any intellectual endeavor. “One of my reports that alumni from both campuses have been ordering the chairs individually, in pairs, project Peoples, Places, and the History of the favorite Tibetan proverbs, is ‘Where you find —Eve Tolpa or in sets. The chairs are made in batches and Written Word in Brattleboro, VT. “A lot of my agreement, you find fools.’” He’s currently work- typically take weeks to complete, with the bend- professional career is doing academic work ing on a multi-author book and notes that, from This year in Santa Fe, the Graduate Institute, ing of posts and other handcrafted features. The and teaching that go along with my personal a collaborative writing perspective, “someone which celebrates its 50th anniversary this company is still taking orders for them, Coppage values,” Edelglass says. He also encour- else’s critical mind helps me refine my own year, awarded 17 master’s degrees in Eastern says, and will do so for the foreseeable future. ages students to arrive at their own views, Classics and six in Liberal Arts. In Annapo- view of things. This is why Plato says that “Since we made the announcement last May, lis, the GI awarded 11 Liberal Arts master’s an approach rooted in his experiences at St. courage is one of the most important virtues of the response has been overwhelming,” Coppage degrees. To view the college’s coverage of the John’s. “The practice of reading and exploring philosophy. Without being vulnerable and say- says. “It was crazy here for two to three weeks. through conversation the great books in the ing what we think, we will not be able to find Graduate Institute’s 50th anniversary, visit It’s been a somewhat steady stream ever since.” Western tradition cultivated a sense of open- out where we are making problematic claims.” sjc.edu/graduate/anniversary. —Tim Pratt
12 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 13 FROM THE BELL TOWERS
Follow St. John’s College: Instagram.com/sjcannapolis ART IN SANTA FE oppressed and the oppressor, the educated and ON SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram.com/sjcsantafe the ignorant? We see before us the images of facebook.com/stjohnscollege the liberally educated human being. We see A Man for SUMMER AT ST. JOHN’S... twitter.com/stjohnscollege courage, moderation, justice, and wisdom.” @stjohnscollege All Seasons Roosevelt recalled the story of Douglass’s #sjcsummer attempt to gain access to President Lincoln after Four framed lithographs of Frederick Douglass his second inaugural speech on March 4, 1865. As now grace the first floor of Weigle Hall on the Douglass stood in a crowd of white men, Lincoln Santa Fe campus. The lithographs, by famed called to him: “Here comes my friend Frederick American artist Ben Shahn, are a gift from Douglass.” This simple statement, within the Santa Fe President Mark Roosevelt, a great complexities of the time, was a remarkable admirer of the former slave, abolitionist, author, moment for the abolitionist movement and for and orator. “I love Douglass, and I love Shahn,” America’s expanding definition of justice. Roosevelt says. “And I believe that what you But, Roosevelt said, “I hesitate to make put on your walls is important.” Douglass important to me or to anybody During the small ceremony to recognize because of his relationship to Lincoln, because Roosevelt’s donation, tutor Frank Pagano that minimizes him.” He pointed out that invited the audience of students, staff, and “ We see before us the Douglass was frustrated with Lincoln’s slow tutors to consider Shahn’s strikingly different images of the liberally progress toward allowing African Americans to depictions of Douglass. “We see before us what fight in the war and toward emancipation. “But a free man looks like. But to my eye we see educated human being. eventually Douglass’s own incredible capacity four looks, almost four different men.” After We see courage, moderation, for forgiveness made him continue to grow in considering each image in great detail, Pagano closeness to and admiration for Lincoln, which posed the question, “Do the challenges to our justice, and wisdom.” I think says something about both of them.” freedom and our education require a man for —Charlotte Jusinski all seasons, a man for all humanity, both the
MINDFUL MILESTONES With the publication of his sixth book of poetry, A Bird for Buddha: Voices from Afar (2017), Santa Fe tutor Jorge Aigla recently celebrated another important milestone in his life at the college: the 30th anniversary of his Karate Dōjō on the Santa Fe campus. Aigla sees a natural connection between the art of writing poetry and the mental and physical discipline required to master martial arts. “There is no mind versus body. Everything is a practice—presence, mindfulness,” he says. “The Program is a prac- tice, too, not just here [on campus], but after graduation. Physical activities help students After his first year as a tutor at St. John’s, Istvan But he is quick to point out that “a dōjō is made become more integrated. It’s a process.” Fehervary (1925-2014), who established the by spirit, not numbers.” Aigla first discovered Karate as a teenager grow- Student Activities Organization on the Santa Fe In addition to practicing Karate-Dō and writing campus and served as its director for 20 years, ing up in Mexico. He continued to practice after poetry, he also teaches in the St. John’s Eastern urged Aigla to teach Karate. He agreed under he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to study Classics program. Aigla likens the title and two conditions: “It has to be run like a real d j , medicine at the University of California. After ō ō content of his new book—poetic articulations not a club, and I will do so only on a volunteer earning his MD degree from UCSF, he worked as of living and traveling experiences in Asia—to basis,” said Sensei Aigla—now an 8th Dan and a medical examiner and taught at City College the authors read in the EC curriculum. “They are Shihan—who has been the head Karate-D and St. Mary’s College, California, before joining ō voices from afar,” he says. “The program is wor- instructor ever since. Over the past three the faculty at St. John’s in 1985. Aigla left medi- thy on its own, and also a very good beginning decades, Aigla has taught hundreds of students, cine to dedicate himself to his favorite things: for people to enter Eastern traditions.” Karate, reading, writing, and thinking. several of whom have earned their black belts. —Gregory Shook
14 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 15 TUTOR VIEW
WHY WE READ EASTERN CLASSICS
by David McDonald (SF95) “ How could we not be interested in what the human mind does when it has leisure and letters and it’s free from political persecution— what fundamental questions arise for it?” —JAMES CAREY
“ Fix your mind on truth, hold firm to virtue, rely on loving kindness, and find your recreation in the Arts.” —CONFUCIUS, THE ANALECTS
HE EASTERN CLASSICS MASTER’S PROGRAM of the St. John’s Graduate Institute began in the fall of 1994 on Tthe Santa Fe campus, after several years of preparation. Some of the initial impetus had come from St. John’s alumni who asked the Board of Visitors and Governors that the college make some approach to books of the East. Coinciding with this interest among alumni, the faculty had been engaged in conversation and study of Eastern texts in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Life of Confucius, probably late Qing dynasty (1644–1911), four volumes of woodblock printed books, ink on paper. Metropolitan Museum of Art
16 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 17 TUTOR VIEW
“ ow could we not be interested in what the human mind great books, while others felt that the best way to assay In its primary elements, the program was very much does when it has leisure and letters and it’s free from their depth and greatness was to read them. as it is now. It required three consecutive terms of political persecution—what fundamental questions So the Eastern Classics curriculum began to take study—fall, spring, and summer. In the language tuto- arise for it ... and what form do they take, particularly shape. One prominent aspect of the program is the study rial, there was study of either Sanskrit or classical if they’ve not been touched by Greece, or by Jerusa- of either classical Chinese or Sanskrit. In a 1989 faculty Chinese, and extensive translation work. The seminar lem,” says tutor James Carey (Class of 1965), during seminar on the Bhagavad Gita, the tutors involved dis- covered major works of India, China, and Japan, and whose deanship the early development of the Eastern covered that the same Sanskrit word was being rendered there were preceptorials in every term, for close read- Classics (EC) program occurred. “So the idea of looking as “grace” by one translator, and as “force” by another. ing of selected texts. at the thought of ancient India and ancient China was From this, it became clear that we had to study the lan- At least initially, the summer term was understood as immensely appealing....” guages of these traditions, so as not to rely entirely on a time for comparative study of Eastern and Western The new Eastern Classics program, then, was to be translators. Tutor Bruce Perry joined the faculty in 1990 works; as the program developed in practice, the sum- not only a study of a set of books for their own sake, but and brought knowledge of Sanskrit, while tutor Ralph mer was given over entirely to the study of Japanese also a way of gaining insight into the human mind. “My Swentzell had already been studying Chinese—he would works. The uniting thread of the program, as Venkatesh Hthought was, would we find that the same fundamental go on to teach the very first Chinese class in the new describes it, is the encounter of each tradition with questions arose in the East that arose in the West,” program, and had developed computer software to aid philosophical Buddhism, which arises in India amidst Carey says. “If so, did they get the same answers as in learning Chinese characters. Soon there were faculty the Hindu tradition, then finds its way to China, where those proposed in the West, or did they get different study groups devoted to both of these languages. it encounters Taoist and Confucian traditions, and then answers? Or were there important questions for think- Venkatesh points out that the addition of Chinese is transmitted, by way of China, to Japan, where it ers in India or in China that never arose in the West? to the EC program was very important in that it gave takes new forms. To address this, the summer had to be Getting clarity about these matters struck a number the college a chance to study a non-Indo-European lan- devoted fully to Japanese readings, and the compara- of us on the faculty as a worthy project, and one very guage. Language tutorials in both the undergraduate tive effort was put aside. much in the spirit of St. John’s.” program and the EC program understand themselves Venkatesh points out that our earliest sense of what as not being primarily for the sake of achieving mas- ought to be read in the Eastern Classic was modified Some among the faculty had objected that tery in a particular language, but rather for the sake of over the years, as our characteristic practice of not gaining insight into language itself, and its relation to just reading, but rereading revealed just how produc- these Eastern texts were not great books, thought. On this score, studying classical Chinese is a tive particular books might be for us. For example, in while others felt that the best way to assay their way of deepening the college’s philosophical inquiry into the early years of the Eastern Classics, we read Sun language as such, by working with a language entirely Tzu’s Art of War and Musashi’s Book of Five Rings, but Krishna and depth and greatness was to read them. outside the Indo-European lineage. found with experience that these books did not have by the faculty. So in the following academic year, in Radha with Their In the fall of 1992, a pilot program called the “Institute the same depth for our mode of study as other books, November of 1993, such a proposal was discussed by Confidantes: Page from a Dispersed Tutor and former Graduate Institute (GI) director for the Study of Eastern Classics at St. John’s College” for example the writings of Dogen. One way of seeing the faculty on both campuses, and was approved. In the Gita Govinda, ca. Krishnan Venkatesh explains that we should not expect began in Santa Fe. It was overseen by Carey, who served such changes is that we moved from a popular Western fall of 1994, the first degree students were enrolled in 1655–60, India (Rajasthan, Mewar), “that the East starts from the same philosophical start- as its director, or “archon.” The new institute was hosted understanding of what was essential in these traditions, the EC program. Metropolitan ing points as we do.” To read and discuss texts from at St. John’s, Santa Fe, and operated under the auspices to an understanding grounded in our practice of reading Even when the program was at the pilot stage in 1992, Museum of Art traditions so much different from those we study in the of the Graduate Institute, but was funded by donor gifts and discussion. the Meem Library had begun to expand its collection St. John’s undergraduate program and in the GI Liberal and foundation grants, rather than by the college. At that Other texts have remained more or less constant, to support the new academic effort. Several foundation Arts degree program is to philosophize from a signifi- time, Nancy Buchenauer was the director of the Gradu- because of their foundational importance. The Mahab- gifts supported initial purchasing of the needed texts cantly different set of presuppositions, but still informed ate Institute in Santa Fe, and Stephen Van Luchene was harata and the Upanishads have this place among the for the pilot year, and once Eastern Classics became by the same central aspects of the human experience. dean. John Agresto, the Santa Fe president, was involved Indian texts, while the Analects of Confucius are indis- a full degree program, additional gifts helped fill out Doing so therefore presents an opportunity to cultivate in raising money to start the program, as was Carey. pensable for the Chinese tradition and the Japanese. the collection in the ensuing years. Meem Library deep questioning with regard to first principles. Ven- After recruiting work by Carey and others, a total of “Trying to understand China and Japan without Con- continues to renew the collection as books wear out katesh adds that Eastern texts are an important part 21 students enrolled in the new program. Of those, 14 fucius is simply inconceivable—like understanding the through regular use by students. In other ways, the col- of the Western philosophic conversation: “The assimi- received a certificate of completion in the summer of Hellenic world without Homer,” says Venkatesh, who lege continues to maintain the strengths needed for the lation of Eastern texts into the West, from the 18th 1993. With the writing of a master’s essay and addi- emphasizes that the thought of the Confucian tradition EC program: faculty new to Sanskrit or Chinese audit century on, is part of modernity.” Philosophers Hume, tional papers, students who had received this certifi- is tremendously important intrinsically, even apart from Eastern Classics language classes in order to be ready Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Heidegger were cate were eventually eligible to be granted an MA in its influence in East Asia. Scott Hannan (EC11) adds to teach them, and study groups help acquaint faculty acutely aware of Eastern writings and were in conver- Eastern Classics. Four or five students from the pilot that “Confucius fits into the St. John’s method by insist- with Eastern texts they hadn’t previously encountered. sation with them through their own works. year took this option. Among the students in the pilot ing that asking about the elements and purpose of a The Eastern Classics enterprise is, at least in part, a In considering how to take up Eastern texts in the program was Paul Cooley (SF92, EC96), who recalls, “I ritual is as important as practicing the ritual itself.” way of seeing how the human mind responds to univer- St. John’s classroom, it became clear the Graduate was thrilled when the pilot program in Eastern Classics After the completion of the pilot program in the 1992- sal problems and universal questions. “It’s such a gift Institute was the appropriate avenue for doing so; the was offered. I believe there was some concern before 1993 year, Eastern Classics went on hiatus on account to read these books that contain humanity’s struggles undergraduate program was already very full, and in the pilot program was approved that the Eastern texts of logistical considerations, but the initial experiment to make sense of itself,” says Sara Klingenstein (EC12). any case the addition there of a few texts from the East would simply be too difficult for discussion, but I never seemed a success. It became clear that for Eastern “St. John’s allows these texts to be as challenging and might have seemed mere tokenism. Some among the felt that to be the case before the program began, and Classics to become a degree program, a formal instruc- interesting as they are. I cannot express how much faculty had objected that these Eastern texts were not our discussions proved lively and enjoyable.” tional proposal would need to be made, and be approved that’s done for me.”
18 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 19 ALUMNI STORIES
BY TIM PRATT Exploring the Road Trip!Johnnie Way A two-week summer road trip—from Annapolis to Santa Fe and back— brings together stories from seven Johnnies who reside in cozy towns and bustling cities between the two St. John’s campuses— and who share a love for great books, thoughtful conversation, and the college that changed their lives.
20 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 21 ALUMNI STORIES
Read more alumni stories “ Johnnies are Johnnies, from the road trip at no matter where you are.” sjc.edu/road-trip Clockwise from left: Riverboats on the Mississippi; Cadillac Ranch; Grandfather Mountain; Ruby Falls
As Graham Gordon (AGI13) Similar trips between the campuses have been strolls up the sidewalk in front completed by many Johnnies over the years—on two, three, and four wheels. of a new home in Murfreesboro, Annapolis admissions counselor David Conway Tennessee, he smiles widely (A16) says when he and some classmates made the when a dog begins barking trip from Annapolis to Santa Fe over spring break from behind the front door. in 2014, it was his first time leaving the East Coast. “It was unfamiliar territory for me, but what was Within seconds, Gordon is greeted warmly by really incredible was that when we arrived on the Shari Hinton, who moved into the 1,100-square- Santa Fe campus it felt like we had made it home, Graham Gordon in front of foot, single-story structure two days earlier. The despite having never been there before,” Conway his home in Tennessee. house was built by Habitat for Humanity, an says. “Part of that was that we had friends there, and organization that constructs homes for the another part of it was that St. John’s is St. John’s, less fortunate with the help of volunteers and and Johnnies are Johnnies, no matter where you are.” the new homeowners themselves. Gordon is a Former Annapolis president Chris Nelson (SF70) site supervisor for Habitat’s Rutherford County made the journey from Santa Fe to Annapolis on chapter and oversaw construction of this house bicycles with several colleagues in the early 1990s. from start to finish. Santa Fe tutor Grant Franks (A77) completed the “It feels great,” he says after a few friendly trip from Santa Fe to Annapolis over 30 days on words with Hinton and a quick look around the a trike in 2003. When asked why he did it, Franks property. “It’s fantastic—the physical answers simply: “Why wouldn’t I?” changes and dealing with the future homeowners.” Gordon is one of more than a half-dozen St. John’s College alumni who shared their stories with St. John’s, gathered over the summer on a road trip between the college’s campuses in Annapo- lis and Santa Fe. The goal was to highlight what a few St. John’s graduates who live between the two campuses have been doing since they graduated, and see how their St. John’s education has played into their lives. What transpired was an eight-day, 2,544-mile road trip, including discus- sions with seven Johnnies along the way.
Other alums along the way (from top): Jillian Sico, Tianlu and Patrick Redmon, Daryl Breithaupt. Read their stories at sjc.edu/road-trip.
22 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 23 ALUMNI STORIES
The trip this summer began on a warm and The next stop was Ruby Falls and Lookout With more than half of the trip complete, After a visit to the Oklahoma City National The journey ended in Santa Fe as some The Journey muggy morning in Maryland. After a quick Mountain in Tennessee, with a towering Oklahoma beckoned. More back-road adven- Memorial, which honors the victims of the of the first rains of monsoon season sojourn into Washington, D.C., the journey underground waterfall and mountaintop turing continued through the eastern half of bombing of a federal building there in 1995, rolled into town. continued through the rolling farmland and the state, including a stop in Okemah, the view of several surrounding states, before the journey continued into the plains of The trip passed through nine states and lush green mountains of Virginia. It then pro- Murfreesboro birthplace of folk music icon Woody Guthrie. continuing northwest toward . It western Oklahoma. Washington, D.C., included an elevation ceeded into western North Carolina, where a was in Murfreesboro where Graham Gordon Dinner followed with the family of a St. John’s The last stop on the road to Santa Fe was change of more than 7,000 feet and stop at Grandfather Mountain and Mile High (AGI13) discussed his work as a site supervi- alumna in Oklahoma City, who was following Amarillo, Texas. The visit included a trip to resulted in seven Johnnies sharing their Bridge showed off the sprawling Appalachian sor for Habitat for Humanity. A short trek to the trip on social media. Palo Duro Canyon south of the city—the stories. There were good people, tasty food, landscape from 5,280 feet above sea level. Nashville and an impromptu trip to the U.S. The next day included stops at the National second largest canyon in the United States— beautiful sights, and, most importantly, men’s national soccer team’s game against Then it was on to Asheville and a conversa- Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and Cadillac Ranch, a public art installation great conversations along the way. Panama followed, complete with raucous tion with Quinn Roberts (SF16), who works and Lake Hefner, before meeting Patrick consisting of old, upright, graffiti-covered crowds, new friends and stifling heat. as a mentor at a therapeutic boarding Redmon (AGI13) and wife Tianlu Redmon Cadillacs. The visit also included a school in the area. The trip continued west after the game, with (AGI13). The couple’s relationship blossomed conversation with Liz Bush (SF08), Memphis while translating The Odyssey in the Gradu- After Asheville, the journey continued south— a brief stop in and a crossing of the who is preparing for a career helping ate Institute. Patrick is now a federal law including a stop at Black Rock Mountain, the Mississippi River, before proceeding north- people with communication disorders. clerk, while Tianlu runs her own translation, highest state park in Georgia—and a conver- west through Arkansas. Stops at a natural Pedestal Rocks interpretation, and teaching service. sation near Atlanta with Jillian Sico (A05). bridge and Scenic Area Sico for the last three years has worked with showed the beauty of the Ozarks, and a visit Rogers refugees in the United States, but is now back to downtown included a conversation in school to pursue a career in the book arts. with Daryl Breithaupt (SF13, EC14), who now teaches there in his hometown.
24 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 ILLUSTRATION: ERIC HANSON THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 25 THE NEW ANNAPOLIS PRESIDENT St. John’s: The Next Chapter
BY TIM PRATT As the newest class of St. John’s College students donned their robes and gathered for Convocation in Annapolis, Panayiotis (Peter) Kanelos headed to the back of the line. The new college president wore a smile on his face and a black and orange tie around his neck as the Class of 2021 stretched out ahead of him.
Over the next few minutes, the line moved slowly into Francis Scott Key Auditorium, past a crowd of cheering upperclassmen gathered to greet their new schoolmates. At the end of the line walked Kanelos, the first new president to greet the enthusiastic students in more than two decades. The former dean of Christ College, the Honors College of Valparaiso University in Indiana, began his term July 1. He succeeds Chris Nelson (SF70), who retired in June after 26 years in office. “I’m a freshman, too,” Kanelos said to students earlier in the day. “We’re going to go through this together.”
Kanelos has a number of goals as he begins his first year at St. John’s: Increase enrollment. Preserve the St. John’s Program. Engage with the community. He even wants to follow along with the student reading list over the next four years. Although Kanelos is new on campus, he says he feels like he has entered a world with which he is already familiar. The Chicago native has been reading the great books of Western civilization since he was a child. “It feels new, but in a sense it feels like I’m returning to a home I haven’t yet lived in,” he says. “The ethos, the types of things people read, this has been my world for a very long time. So, in some ways, St. John’s feels less like a destination and more like a homecoming.”
26 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 PHOTOGRAPHY: HOWARD KORN THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 27 THE NEW ANNAPOLIS PRESIDENT
“ To walk around campus and see this storied institution, and know I’ve been asked to play a role in its continued thriving, is really humbling to me.” — Annapolis President Panayiotis (Peter) Kanelos
that you have to expand rather than contract the Kanelos was introduced to the “classics” at an early range of things that human beings encounter in their age, he says. His parents were in the restaurant busi- education.” ness, first in Chicago, then in Arizona, and Kanelos Kanelos says his time as dean of Christ College, often spent time in the kitchen with a stack of books a great books honors college, prepared him for the to keep himself busy. He recalls reading Homer and move to St. John’s. developing an early interest in epic poetry. Christ College has an enrollment about the same “That’s how I spent my time as a child, growing up size as the St. John’s campus in Annapolis. It also in the back of restaurants, reading books,” he says. has a history with the great books movement. Many Nobody in his family had ever gone to college, he of the people involved in its founding were affiliated says, and he assumed he would stay involved in the with the University of Chicago, where the great restaurant business—or become a singing lumber- books movement began in the late 1800s. jack, a goal he laughs about today and attributes to “Coming to St. John’s was pretty much the only a flannel shirt he once owned. thing that would have made me leave Christ Col- Kanelos eventually enrolled in a Jesuit high Above: Students and Welcome to St. John’s and be more familiar with the things the faculty is lege,” Kanelos says. “It’s a wonderful program with school in Arizona. It was there where he decided president dive into a great people and great students. This was just one to go to college. Kanelos began making his rounds on campus well thinking about and feeling.” Kanelos estimates he conversation. opportunity I couldn’t pass up.” When it came time to pick a school, Kanelos chose before he officially moved into the president’s office. has read 60-70 percent of the works on the college’s Kanelos says he is eagerly awaiting the start of the Northwestern University in the Chicago area, where Right: The new With the new school year underway, he has a number reading list already. One of his favorite books is The president is a regular new semester, when students return to the classroom he had spent his early years and family members still of goals, including one to attract more students to Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevski, which at the dining hall. to discuss the works of Homer, Plato and many more lived. Kanelos’s interest in writing emerged at North- the college. “I think St. John’s is undisputedly the is on that list. of the most influential minds in Western civilization. western, specifically poetry and fiction. It also was at finest undergraduate institution in America, but Northwestern where Kanelos met his future wife. not enough people know that,” he says. “How do On Liberal Education “Getting ready for the full blast of fall, the first you increase visibility? How does every person that Looking ahead, Kanelos says he sees “absolutely full day of the semester, I’m really excited,” Kanelos The Next Chapter should be a Johnnie become a Johnnie? In a crowded no changes” coming to the Program or the way St. says. “To walk around campus and see this storied higher education environment, how do we make our John’s educates its students. A liberal education is institution, and know I’ve been asked to play a role Kanelos received his bachelor’s degree in English voices heard?” important to “expand the horizons” of those being in its continued thriving, is really humbling to me.” from Northwestern in 1991. Shortly after he Another goal is to experience the Program in real- educated, he says. graduated, one of his poems was published in the time, completing the same readings as students, in “The thing to remember about liberal education is A Literary Life journal Poetry. sequence, over the next four years. He started with The its end point is the education of a human being,” he Joining Kanelos in Annapolis is wife Christina, “At the time I don’t know if I thought I’d be a writer Iliad this semester, just like the freshman class. says. “The end point is not what we seem to be drift- daughter Emmie, 10, and son Theo, 8. The family has as a profession, but more as an avocation,” he says. “My hope is that will allow me to jump into con- ing toward in higher education as some other instru- a pet goldendoodle, too. With a bachelor’s degree in hand, Kanelos consid- versations and participate in the intellectual life of mental function—a human being as an employee, a Outside of work, Kanelos enjoys cooking for his ered attending graduate school to further pursue his the college,” he says. “I want to feel like I understand human being as this or that. The goal of a liberal family, hosting dinners and dining at restaurants. interests in writing and literature. But first he joined the rhythms of the Program. I want to understand education is to develop the human being as fully as His love of food, like his affinity for great books, Teach for America, a program that sends recent col- the textual encounters the students are having possible, intellectually and soulfully. In order to do dates back to his childhood. lege graduates to low-income schools to teach.
28 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 29 THE NEW ANNAPOLIS PRESIDENT
“ He’s the right man at the right time. He has the focus and the knowledge and the skills to get to the issues we have to face at St. John’s.” — Santa Fe President Mark Roosevelt
Kanelos was a member of the second class of theaters and festivals in the Teach for America, and was sent to the Rio Grande world, from the Chicago Shake- Valley in Texas. Looking back, he calls it a “fascinat- speare Theater and the Blackfri- ing” and “intense” experience. Kanelos taught junior ars Theare to the Globe Theatre high school English to an entirely Latino student in London. population, he says, many of whom were part of His early love for creative migrant farmworker families. He spoke little Span- writing has accompanied him ish and says it was a difficult assignment, not com- on his academic journey, as well. ing from a teaching background. While at the University of San “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and Diego, he founded the Cropper it’s made everything I’ve done since then seem Center for Creative writing. He easy,” he says. continued to publish poetry and In the years since then, Kanelos has lived all over recently completed a novel. In the United States. He received his master’s degree 2013, Kanelos joined the fac- in literature and political philosophy from Boston ulty at Christ College, where he remained until University, where a chance encounter with Nobel he was tapped earlier this year to lead St. John’s and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Saul Bellow put into the future. him on a path to attend the University of Chicago. “We’ve gotten off to a very good start,” says Annap- It was there where he received his PhD in literature olis Dean Joe Macfarland. “He’s eager to meet with and political philosophy. and hear from many people; he listens well; he keeps Kanelos also taught, wrote and got married while calm while appraising what he hears; and he has the in Chicago. He then became a fellow at Stanford energy to make good things happen. I’m encouraged University, worked as an assistant professor and by our conversations and our work together.” associate professor at the University of San Diego, Over the past few months, Kanelos has stayed busy and served as an associate professor at Loyola Uni- running the college, but he’s also made time for his versity of Chicago. Among his areas of expertise, he other interests. He has tried some of the city’s many became an authority on Shakespeare. restaurants; visited Greenfield Library, where he held Kanelos’s career as a Shakespearean has been lively an original copy of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, on and rewarding, he says, from teaching Shakespearean which he wrote his master’s thesis; and even brushed actors in the Old Globe MFA program to founding up on his swing-dancing, another St. John’s tradition. the Interdisciplinary Shakespeare Studies Program Santa Fe President Mark Roosevelt is optimistic at Loyola. In addition to publishing several books on about the future. “He’s the right man at the right time,” Shakespeare and editing a book series, Shakespeare Roosevelt says. “He has the focus and the knowledge and the Stage, he has been called upon to speak or and the skills to get to the issues we have to face at work with many of the most prestigious Shakespeare St. John’s. He’s both willing and eager to do so.”
30 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 31 BIBLIOFILE
SIMBA SANA imba Sana (AGI13) has been many things Hired out of college by global accounting firm Ernst Pirate Women: The Princesses, from cases in which pirates were being tried for their over the course of his life: a diligent & Young, by the early 1990s Sana fled the corporate Prostitutes, and Privateers Who crimes. From the ancient Norse princess Alfhild and (AGI13) student, an amateur boxer, a passion- life to start a book distribution business with a friend. warrior Rusla to Sayyida al-Hurra of the Barbary ate activist, a successful businessman, a The company, named Karibu from the Kiswahili for Ruled the Seven Seas corsairs; from Grace O’Malley, who terrorized Never Stop By Laura Sook Duncombe (SF08) husband and father. But then he lost it all, “welcome,” would eventually open several stores in the shipping operations around the British Isles during Chicago Review Press, 2017 Sand was left fumbling for meaning. Following years of D.C. area, hosting authors such as Toni Morrison and the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, to Cheng I Sao, who struggle, he set out to chronicle his life and hard-won Maya Angelou, and become one of the most successful Female swashbucklers finally get their due in commanded a fleet of 400 ships off China in the knowledge in Never Stop, a thoughtful, brutally honest black-owned bookselling ventures ever. During this Laura Sook Duncombe’s new book Pirate Women: early 19th century, the book explores not only the memoir published in September 2017 by Chicago’s time, Sana also married and had two children. He had The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who lives these women lived as pirates, but also the lives Bolden Books. made it to the top of the heap, able to purchase a Ruled the Seven Seas. This first-ever comprehensive they left behind at home. Duncombe looks beyond Born Bernard Sutton in 1968, Sana’s $3,000 watch on a whim. survey shares the stories of women, both real and the stories to the storytellers and mythmakers, early life in Washington, D.C., was marked It didn’t last. By 2008, Sana’s relationship with his legendary, that history has largely ignored. Utilizing to explore why and how these stories are told and by poverty and upheaval; after reading The business partner had deteriorated, and his marriage her law background, Duncombe conducted exhaustive passed down—and how history changes depending on Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in his was shaky—both would fail in a short period of time. who is recording it. elementary school library, he found a much- At 40 years old, he realized that the tools he’d always research on the subject, including court transcripts needed escape in fantasy novels. Sana’s love used in life—“reason, logic, planning, and determina- of books and his academic talent provided tion”—weren’t enough to bring him inner fulfillment. His stability in his youth as he grew up on the second wife encouraged him to study philosophy, but he in Malaysia and was educated in the United States streets of rough-and-tumble D.C. neighbor- didn’t want to just debate about technicalities, he wanted In the Circle of White Stones: and Australia. She says in the preface to her book hoods, seeing too many of his friends con- to discover a new way of life. A professor at George Moving through Seasons with that she had always felt “simultaneously familiar sumed by gang violence and drug dealing. Washington University suggested he might be a good Nomads of Eastern Tibet and strange” in the country of her birth. She was When Sana was applying to colleges, fit for St. John’s. Impressed by what he learned of the By Gillian Tan (SF97) well-versed in simultaneously observing the “other” his Jesuit mentor suggested he study phi- curriculum, Sana enrolled at the Graduate Institute in University of Washington Press, 2016 losophy, given his interest in life’s big ques- Annapolis in summer 2012, finishing the following year. and being the “other.” In order to write about the nomads, she lived with a family in Dora Karmo— tions. At the time, he scoffed. “Philosophy? “Beyond a doubt, St. John’s was my most rewarding By virtue of living nomadically, it is fitting that the which translates to “the circle of white stones”—for Socrates, Plato and the other philosophers formal educational experience,” writes Sana, whose nomads of Eastern Tibet are facing rapid lifestyle 13 months. As she worked to become a part of the we studied at Gonzaga [a Catholic high favorite authors included Hume, Cervantes, Rousseau, changes—as if they are temporally nomadic as well household by milking yaks, shouldering heavy loads school] were well off, or at least had access and Nietzsche. Already at work on the manuscript as geographically. Gillian Tan captures nomad life to resources. They had leisure time! I’m that would become Never Stop, he feels the school of vegetation, and playing with the children, she also and its changes over a seven-year period; her first too poor to do that,” Sana writes in his “gave me the space I needed to really finish my book,” continued to process what it was to be an outsider, person account is very much at ground level. Tan, book. Instead, he majored in business at reminding him of his boxing days. “I had to go to and what it meant to have a place in a community. a fourth generation Peranakan Chinese, grew up Maryland’s Mount St. Mary’s University, training camp to get ready for the big bout.” He realized that the tools graduating magna cum laude. The resulting book, as much philosophy as memoir, he’d always used in life— While attending “the Mount,” Sana en- brings to mind Augustine’s Confessions: it’s candid, countered the works of Eldridge Cleaver and raw, and vulnerable to a degree unusual in men’s at America’s young generation and the profound “reason, logic, planning, Malcolm X. Inspired, he became an advocate writing. By sharing his journey and reckoning with his The Vanishing American Adult: changes he has seen in today’s college students. for black liberation, earning a master’s flaws, Sana wants to demonstrate that self-knowledge, Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How and determination”— In his book, he argues that well-intentioned but degree in African Studies from Howard Uni- though difficult, is the most worthwhile knowledge of to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance overprotective parenting, flawed government weren’t enough to bring versity and taking a Kiswahili name. Later, all. “My chief concern in telling this story is to focus on By Ben Sasse (AGI98) programs, and an emphasis on the consumption him inner fulfillment. he became disillusioned with radical black my behavior, my actions: the things that were within St. Martin’s Press, 2017 nationalism, saying he’d used race as “a my realm of control. This, I feel, is the only way that of goods have spurred a generation that is ill- barrier or as a false sense of connection. We looking at these experiences can provide some benefit Ben Sasse seems to be everywhere these days, equipped to thrive in our highly-competitive global have so many things that we use to divide to me and, I hope, others.” from national television talk shows to newspaper economy—and play an active role required of ourselves from other human beings.” articles to radio interviews. Widely known for his citizens in our democracy. As a remedy, Sasse, a —Anna Perleberg Andersen (SF02) role in politics, the U.S. senator from Nebraska, father of three, identifies core formative experiences former president of Midland University, and St. he feels that all young people ought to pursue: hard John’s Graduate Institute alumnus has recently work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to garnered attention for his new book, The Vanishing understand deprivation and want, the importance of American Adult, in which he offers a personal look nurturing one’s body, and the power of reading.
32 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 33 For & About ALUMNI Alumni Take the Lead at ALF The Votes Are In! A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENTS On June 4, the SJCAA elected A full slate of workshops, social events, the following alumni to serve volunteer opportunities and seminars were on in these positions: offer at the eighth annual Alumni Leadership College Leaders Forum (ALF), held in June in Santa Fe. Alumni Association Board President Elect: Open the Lines of Organized by the St. John’s College Alumni Briana Saussy (A03) Association with support from college staff, Communication ALF draws alumni from across the country At-Large Directors: Josephine Escalante (A92) for a weekend of activities designed to inspire Elisabeth Long (A86) We prize discourse at St. John’s. In fact, deep and meaningful alumni engagement Merry Peckham (SF07) we pride ourselves on “doing” discourse with the college. Sabina Sulat (A87) like no other college. Given all the intel- A regular feature at ALF is training for alumni Sheila Virgil (A88) lectual simmer and boil that happens on who want to give back to the college. One Katarina Wong (A88) our campuses and in our alumni com- of these sessions was led by the Admissions “Alumni involvement helps us munity—and given the current state of Advisory Group, which taught attendees how understand some of the college’s Representative to national and international discourse— Board of Visitors and Governors: to effectively recruit prospective students for most salient needs, and how the college’s ability to foster reasoned Leslie Kay (SF83) St. John’s at college fairs and through adopt- best to respond to them.” and civil discussion is nothing short of © 2017 INSIGHTFOTO.COM a-school programs. Another session, by the remarkable. And we, as presidents, appre- –Santa Fe President Mark Roosevelt Chair Ron Fielding (A70) and Campaign Is it discordant to both celebrate the wide Career Services Advisory Group, provided Alumni also voted to approve ciate the good fortune of our association Chair Warren Spector (A81); the work to variety of points of view in the community a forum for conversation on how the Office an amendment to the bylaws. with such a place, a college that remains create an innovative Center for Personal (that famous impulse to discourse) and of Career Services can help alumni—and Officers and at-large directors fiercely authentic and true to itself. We raise alumni giving rates. “We need to plan the of the association are elected and Professional Development (we are to ask that we all pull the same oar? We how alumni can help the office. “Our alumni owe you the same candor and forthright- work and work the plan if we hope to raise our to two-year terms, while fully aware that career services is an hope not. There is a great deal of work volunteers are an important ‘force multiplier’ ness that illuminated your lives as stu- giving participation, now less than nineteen representatives to the Board of area of tremendous concern to alumni). yet to be done to put the college on a firm for the association as we work together with dents. And we are trying to deliver. percent,” Piekarski says. “Annual giving Visitors and Governors serve Sometimes, that message from St. John’s and lasting foundation, and as we do that college staff to advance the mission of the should be a year-round effort and alumni three-year terms. Each of the Soon after Mark’s presidency in Santa Fe will carry with it a call to action: please work—perhaps moving in directions that college,” says Tia Pausic (A86), former Alumni can help by encouraging their peers to make newly elected alumni began began, he instituted a series of regular tell us what you think of campus culture; cause some unease—we will count on your Association Board president. “Our workshops a gift each year to support the Program.” In their terms on July 1, 2017. communications with alumni and friends please reply to a survey on alumni atti- good faith as well as your counsel. We will help our volunteers be more effective.” addition, the Office of Communications led a of the college, including e-mail messages tudes; and, of course, please donate to ask what you think, and we know we will ALF also serves as a hub for alumni leaders capital campaign identity focus group, where about the college’s financial challenges, the college as a vote for the value of the hear from you, just as we have heard you to strategize for the year ahead. Alumni campaign themes were both solicited and “JohnnieCasts” (town hall-style meet- Program you love. say that we must envision career services chapter volunteers plan for upcoming regional tested. The focus group was the eighth one ings conducted by telephone), post- anew, honor the Program, and create a St. John’s needs your support, both events and share best practices for engaging undertaken since February, and is part of the JohnnieCast surveys to determine which vibrant and respectful campus culture for moral and financial, to move beyond a alumni while the Alumni Association Board college’s growing efforts to involve alumni in its issues were of most importance to the all students and employees. And when we challenging operating deficit, to invest holds an all-day board meeting. Graduate messaging and identity development. majority of alumni, and post-Board of choose a direction, informed by you and in activities that promote the college to Institute alumni use the weekend to plan as Visitors and Governors meeting sum- others, we will ask you to grasp the oar The weekend culminated in the annual prospective students and their families, well; this year, they met to discuss the GI maries. Pano, whose presidency began in with us. For St. John’s. All-Alumni Meeting, which was attended by and to give current students the best 50th anniversary, including involvement in July, embraces the importance of keeping Santa Fe President Mark Roosevelt, who led a possible St. John’s experience, in and —Mark Roosevelt and Panayiotis Kanelos Homecoming 2017 on both campuses. Over the the college’s key constituencies informed lively discussion about the state of the college, outside of the classroom. The presidents last year, the Office of Alumni Relations has (and of listening) and will be putting his growing alumni involvement, receptivity to Alumni Association Mission are charged, broadly, with earning that supported ALF organizers in turning the event own stamp on these efforts. In short, we alumni concerns, and upcoming initiatives. To strive for the continued support. Our transparency as leaders is into a volunteer-led effort, with appropriate are deeply committed to keeping the lines “Alumni are essential to the future of St. John’s excellence of our college and one way we discharge that responsibility, involvement from staff. fellow alumni by celebrating our of communication open. College,” Roosevelt says. “Alumni involvement and we hope that as our communications distinctive educational experience, Sometimes, the news from our end is continue, you will feel better connected to During the Alumni Association board meeting, helps us understand some of the college’s most connecting our community in Director of Annual Giving Mark Piekarski salient needs, and how best to respond to them. efforts toward shared support and going to be terrifically cheering: the the college and increasingly motivated to listened to alumni ideas about starting donor Together, we are laying a foundation for a new benefit, and fostering a culture of combined $50-million gifts from BVG help St. John’s thrive. recognition societies and shared efforts to and robust era at St. John’s.” intellect, generosity, and service. —Carol Carpenter
34 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 35 ALUMNI PROFILE
A MERITORIOUS LIFE By Tim Pratt
n Haiti, thousands of poor, rural families Within a few months of Diggs’s return to the positive change in the country, Diggs says. each year send their children off to live island nation, he witnessed a violent coup. While other programs or projects introduced with people in distant cities. The goal The country’s democratically-elected govern- to Haitian communities over the years had some is for those children to attend school ment, in power for less than a year, was over- short-term effects, Beyond Borders is looking and live better lives, says David Diggs thrown. “We were traumatized by that, so we for long-term solutions in Haiti—getting at I(AGI91), co-founder and director of the non- decided to engage in advocacy work,” Diggs the complex roots of the country’s problems. profit organization Beyond Borders in Haiti. says. “That pulled us into the struggle for a “Haitians have tremendous capacity and a lot However, many of those children end up in return to democracy and human rights.” of strength,” Diggs says. “We see ourselves as some form of servitude or slavery. Diggs and colleague John Engle formed allies of social movements there and focus on Over the last 24 years, Diggs has made Beyond Borders in 1993 with a focus on social movements that see sustainable change.” it his mission to end child slavery in Haiti education reform, though its mission would In the communities where Beyond Borders and empower Haitians to fix other social and grow quickly. At the time, there was no room has worked, there have been “huge” reductions educational issues in the impoverished Carib- in classrooms for students to ask questions or in child slavery, Diggs says. Many children bean nation. “What we do is invest a lot in be curious, so outcomes were “very poor,” he also have been reunited with their parents and tools and in people, and in doing so build their “ We gave teachers a chance says. The educational approach Diggs wanted returned to school. A network of child slavery capacity to lead these social movements that to spread was similar to the style he experi- survivors now works together to share their will produce lasting change,” Diggs says. to reinterpret their role enced at St. John’s—lots of reading, discussion, experiences and free other children. Still, child For his efforts, the St. John’s College Alum- in the classroom from reflection, and critical thinking. Diggs invited slavery and gender-based violence remain ma- ni Association honored Diggs with an Award one of his old St. John’s tutors to Haiti to jor issues in Haiti, Diggs says, and more work of Merit at Homecoming this fall in Annapolis. authorities who were introduce the Touchstones program, which needs to be done. He travels to the country He is one of four St. John’s graduates who re- tasked with cramming was adapted and used to promote educational four or five times a year, and regularly com- ceived awards this year, along with Huffington reform among teachers. “We gave teachers a municates via telephone or Skype. “I’m always Post Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen (A97) for facts in the heads of kids chance to reinterpret their role in the class- hearing very powerful stories of lives that are outstanding service in the field of journalism; room from authorities who were tasked with transformed through our work,” Diggs says. U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (AGI98) for distinguished to mentors who were cramming facts in the heads of kids to mentors “That’s very meaningful to me.” and meritorious service to the United States helping students learn who were helping students learn from one and to the state of Nebraska; and Jason Visel- another and from the texts, and to think criti- tear (SFGI96) for outstanding achievement in from one another and cally,” Diggs says. “That’s another thing that’s CELEBRATING the field of lutherie. For Diggs, St. John’s still from the texts, and to very rewarding: to see how this experience holds a special place in his heart. “It was the at St. John’s and what we all value from that best educational experience I’ve ever had,” he think critically.” education has taken root in Haiti. Now all over says. “It’s had a big influence on the life we’ve Haiti there are groups that use this approach 50YEARS had here in Haiti.” and methodology.” Originally from a small farm town in south- Along with the new style of teaching, Diggs west Missouri, Diggs completed his undergradu- years earlier when he was looking at colleges and his colleagues at Beyond Borders helped The Graduate Institute ate work at Colorado Christian University. He to complete his undergraduate work. “I was start a movement for native language instruc- students curious about their environment and working on children’s rights issues and gender- ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE also lived and studied in Europe before heading attracted to the idea of being in an environment tion, where Creole was used in the classroom; how to farm their land sustainably and grow based violence. The organization provided off to Haiti in the late 1980s to work with the where you have the freedom to explore and fol- they promoted non-violent classroom manage- more food. Their efforts led them to the work training and funding, and set up the largest In celebration of the Graduate Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Ed- low your own curiosity and questions.” ment; and students began to take responsibil- they continue to focus on to this day—attempt- network of groups in the country to end child Institute’s 50th anniversary, the ucation. Diggs’s time in Haiti was eye-opening, Diggs enrolled in the Graduate Institute ity for their own education and “learned how ing to end child slavery. slavery. An initiative to end violence against college is featuring a series of stories he says, as he saw classrooms that were “violent in the summer of 1990 and began working to learn,” Diggs says. In addition, the group About one-quarter of Haitian children under women and girls also took root. to highlight the history, students— and authoritarian,” with many teachers who again for the Evangelical Association before he wanted to promote a kind of education that the age of 18 live apart from their parents, Beyond Borders continues to work with com- past and present—and other didn’t speak the students’ native language. After completed his master’s, taking trips for a few was inclusive of everyone in the community, Diggs says. About half of those children end up munity and child rights activists, civic leaders contributors who have made it what a couple years, Diggs decided to return to the days at a time to Haiti during breaks between from children to adults. In largely rural areas, in some form of exploitive relationship, includ- and others. The tools and models the organiza- it is today. Read more at sjc.edu/ United States—and visit the St. John’s campus classes. After he graduated from St. John’s in they began promoting education based in “local ing about one in six Haitian girls and one in 10 tion provides can be “scaled up” and used by graduate/anniversary. in Annapolis, where he considered attending 1991, he returned to Haiti to continue his work. reality,” Diggs says, teaching, but also getting Haitian boys, he says. Beyond Borders began the government and other agencies to make a
36 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 37 ALUMNI NOTES
gist and neonatologist at the U.S. Office of Personnel Manage- Rita Collins (A) continues to run 1946 1964 1971 Children’s Hospital Los Angeles ment. Her current plans include her traveling bookstore, which Peter Weiss (A) was honored After 20 years, Jeffrey Escoffier (CHLA). “Over the past 40 years, completing a book about raising went across country to the Brook- on June 8 by the Center for (A) retired two years ago from our program (at CHLA) has estab- her son and traveling with her lyn Book Festival last summer. Constitutional Rights in New the NYC Department of Health lished an international reputa- husband, Chuck, as he performs Plans for next year include York for his half century as board and Mental Hygiene, where he tion in areas of clinical care and jazz music around the country stops in Illinois, North Carolina, member, vice president, and coordinated the production and respiratory physiology, especially and the world. Alabama, and Florida. cooperating attorney. placement of the department’s in respiratory control disorders,” mass media campaigns on Keens says. “We are consulted smoking, obesity, HIV, infant from around the world about the 1977 1979 1949 mortality, Ebola, and West Nile management of children requir- Michael St. James (A) enjoyed Baltimore Johnnies Lisa Simeone With his family, Peter J. Davies disease, among others. He’s now ing home mechanical ventilation, a miniature class reunion at (A), Bill Tripp (A), and Kim Schraf (A) celebrated his 90th birthday a full-time writer working on a diaphragm pacing, children with Summer Classics in Santa Fe, (A), enjoyed an Annapolis Class on June 10 at a luncheon in couple of books about health policy congenital central hypoventilation with Susan Ferron (SF) and tutor of 1979 get-together this summer Chappaqua, N.Y. He and his wife in New York City and about the syndrome, and other disorders.” Grant Franks (A), who co-led the with Bruce Babij (A) at his home. Phyllis continue to lead active and, history of sexuality. He is also the He is grateful to everyone who seminar—one of the best St. most fortunately, healthy lives. co-editor of Q Public, a new series taught him, and who helped him James has attended—on two of The couple got married 68 years 1981 of books on LGBTQ issues from to succeed and help others. Alan Turing’s seminal papers. Robbyn Jackson (A) recently moved ago under the Liberty Tree on the Rutgers University Press. Annapolis campus, just two weeks to Hancock, N.H. after retiring after he graduated from St. John’s. 1978 from a 30-year career as a histori- 1965 After their first engagement ended California School of Professional cal architect for the National Park Jessica (Hoffman) (A) and Will 36 years ago, Elizabeth (Betty) Psychology. Betty, now Liz, has a Service. She spent the last 25 years 1952 Davis (Class of 1964) will celebrate Burch (A) and Rick Allen Stephan JD from George Mason University. in San Francisco, most recently Pierre Grimes (A) published two their 53rd wedding anniversary (A) reconnected and were married Together they founded Mind- as the chief of cultural resources articles in 2016, “The Philosophy this fall. Both are retired (Will in September 2016 on the front Wealth in Boca Raton, Fla., offer- and museum management at San of the Self” and “The Betrayal of from the investment business porch of McDowell Hall. Rick ing comprehensive, innovative, Francisco Maritime National His- Philosophy: Rediscovering the and Jessica from academics), and received his PhD in neuropsychol- and efficacious treatment protocols torical Park. She and her husband, Self in Plato’s Parmenides,” in they divide their time unequally ogy in February 2015 from the for substance abuse facilities. Timothy Przygocki, purchased Philosophical Practice: Journal of between Squam Lake and Boston. the house in Hancock to retire the APPA (American Philosophical Will follows the markets and to several years ago, though he Practitioners Association). savors the opportunity to read and William A. (Gus) Steadman II (SF79) received his doctor of public health passed away in 2014. She welcomes reflect while Jessica has redirected For the past decade, Peter Macdonald Blachly (A) and his degree from New York Medical College on May 24 at Carnegie Hall. He those in the area to look her up. her writing from books on the arts wife, Johannah Harkness, have been living in Maine, near Rick Wicks (SF) and his family received the “Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation” award for his work 1955 After retiring from teaching in in education to plays that she puts live in Sweden. His daughter entitled “Practice Characteristics of New York Medical College School of After a 50-year career that two summer vacation homes that have been in his family for California, Marilynn R. Smith (SFGI) on locally. Linnéa recently graduated from Medicine: Predicting Primary Care Specialty Choice and Likelihood of a included conducting symphonies generations. Peter and Johannah premiered their rock opera, moved to Spring, Texas, in 2005 to medical school and now works on Practice in a Rural or Economically Disadvantaged Area from Medical School and opera, serving as music live near her daughter and family. “One Way Trip to Mars,” at Waterville Opera House, in August. the psychiatric ward of a hospital Applications.” Gus is the nephew of Santa Fe tutor, Jack Steadman, and the director of six orchestras, and Her children were 12, 9, and 4 then, 1966 They hired cast and crew from New York; the show attracted near Göteborg, Sweden. father of alumna Margaret Steadman (SF16). guest conducting in the US and Judy (Millspaugh) Anderson (A) and she has enjoyed her role as Europe, Harold Bauer (A) has enjoyed seeing old friends at the attention of NASA and the space exploration community, babysitter and homework-monitor retired from the field. He now Homecoming last September, for as well as a lot of media coverage in Maine. 1973 while both their parents worked. devotes his time to painting the Class of 1966 50th reunion. Frazier L. O’Leary Jr (SFGI), an Twelve years later, she says, “this and serves on the board of the She is sad to report, though, that English teacher at Washington, ride has just been amazing.” Evanston Art Center, where he is her sister Susan, who lived with D.C.’s Cardozo High School, was the also a student. Bauer’s work will her during her junior and senior his books on car maintenance. As psychotherapy devised by Ron subject of a Washington Post article be on view in a one-man show at 1985 years, passed away on Easter for her, she been writing short Kurtz that incorporates the work that appeared online on June 9. Terri Luckett (SF) and Harry the Rainbow Gallery in Evanston, Sunday this year. stories; two of which, “A Res- of Perls, Reich, and Feldenkreis Hamilton (A86) married on July Ill. on November 3. taurant in Venice” and “Case in and taps into Eastern philosophies Michael Aaron (SF) recently pub- Constance (Bell) Lindgreen (A) lished an Expert Insights white 15 in Afton, Va. The couple dated John M. Gordon (A) announces Point,” have won local prizes in of Buddhism and Taoism. We are shares news about her family of paper through the IBM Institute when she took her “junior year the publication of the first France, where she lives. Later never too old to learn. Johnnies. Her mother Mary Jean of Business Value on “central abroad” in Annapolis. They then Penny Summers mystery novel, this autumn three more stories Bell (SFGI73) published her first banks and digital ledger technol- went their separate ways in life, Katelyn’s Killer. Set in present- will appear in the Blue Fountain: volume of her poems, Tangerine: 1968 ogy governance.” but through the miracle of social day Annapolis, the book’s Crossroads Writers Anthology. Poems at 94. Her sister Alice, a Thomas G. Keens (SFGI) cel- media they reconnected and the 30-something amateur sleuth, composer and musician, wrote a Rebecca Tendler (A) has been prac- ebrates 40 years since he began as magic reignited. They live in Penny Summers, is partly requiem mass, Crux, in memory ticing as a psychologist in Phila- an assistant professor of pediatrics 1976 Seattle, Wash., where Terri is an inspired by Gordon’s experiences of their sister Sarah (Bell) Kitchin delphia for more than 30 years. at the School of Medicine of the With a warm send-off from her executive with Amazon.com. Harry as a St. John’s student, Navy air (Class of 1967), and her brother She is happy to say that she is in University of Southern California; colleagues, Gail Webber Redd (A) is retired from a career of care as a intelligence officer, landscape Sam Bell (A71) has won awards for training, again, in a mind-body and as a pediatric pulmonolo- retired after 34 years with the therapist and social worker. designer, and garden pond builder.
38 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 39 ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI NOTES
Ramona (Denk) Webb (A) currently 1984 1988 lives in Townsville, NE Austra- 1990 1997 2004 Katarina Wong (A) joined Colum- Brian Brock (SF) is making music Conor Heaton (AGI) completed law lia, with her Aussie husband, John Obenauer (A) works as a bioinformatics scientist, spending bia University this year as the Thomas. She is studying for a MS in Laveen, Arizona. school at Loyola University Chicago program manager of the arts most of his time looking for gene mutations or changes in activity School of Law in 2007, and was a in midwifery through a distance Heidi Jacot Hewett (A) released administration graduate program. that contribute to diseases. He lives near Memphis, Tenn., with practicing trial attorney in Chicago program from the Midwives a new book, The Adulteries of Her own artwork will also be until recently when he made a College of Utah, and managing the his wife Michelle and 12-year-old daughter Lily. They had fun Rachel, a philosophical novel included in the Getty-sponsored significant professional pivot and guest rooms that the couple rents visiting Stonehenge last year. about love and marriage with lots Pacific Standard Time exhibition, became the director of school growth out through Airbnb. The couple of Plato references. “Circles & Circuits I: History & recently celebrated the birth of a for the Cristo Rey Network. Art of the Chinese Caribbean Melanie Margarita Kirby (SF) is granddaughter in England, and Lisa Hedley (AGI) started a Diaspora,” on view in Los Angeles taking a sabbatical from her own plan to fly halfway across the personal development business. through February 25, 2018. More queen bee farming to serve as the world to see her. Her website, lisahedley.com, has a info at www.pacificstandardtime. bee lab manager at Washington platform for online seminars. org. In addition, her cross-cultural Julia Goldberg’s (SF) book Inside State University (WSU) and to curatorial project, “Hecho en Story: Everyone’s Guide to Writing work on international bee breed- Tránsito / Made in Transit,” (www. and Reporting Creative Non- ing research. She will be pursu- 2006 madeintransit.com) involving fction was published by Leaf ing a graduate degree at one of Russell Max Simon’s (SFGI) first Cuban and American artists will Storm Press. Her book tackles the nation’s leading bee research feature film, which he wrote be exhibited at Columbia Univer- the myriad approaches to the labs at WSU with esteemed bee and directed, will be released on sity’s Macy Gallery from February burgeoning genre of creative researcher Steve Sheppard, and bee Amazon in November. GLOBAL CALL FOR CLIMATE ACTION/GREG MCNEVIN GLOBAL CALL FOR CLIMATE 5 to March 1, 2018. nonfiction—from memoir to criti- geneticist Susan Cobey. She recently cism to literary journalism—by completed research on medicinal 2008 Jeni Miller (A84) heads the Global Climate and Health Alliance, deeply exploring each stage of the herb and pollinator health trials of Adam Braus (SF) now runs a small an international alliance of health organizations working together 1991 generation, reportage, writing, Monarda fistulosa (var menthifo- Joan Crist (A) still teaches at college called the Product College and editing of stories. Drawing lia), also known as wild mountain to address climate change and its impacts on health. This spring Calumet College of St. Joseph in at Make School, which focuses on and integrating examples and bergamot (oregano de la sierra) the group launched a health sector-led initiative to tackle urban Indiana, where she shares her love on teaching 18- to 28-year-olds advice from diverse practitioners with New Mexico State University. of rowing that she gained while at how to be software engineers. air pollution, Unmask My City, in 11 cities around the world. in the field,Inside Story extends Check out www.herbs4bees.com St. John’s with students there. She He also started a turmeric latte “The cutting-edge visuals for the campaign use personal air beyond idea and inspiration with for more info. She can be reached also assists interfaith community practical advice, examples and mix company called Copper Cup quality monitors connected to innovative light mask technology, at [email protected]. partners with their urban farming exercises geared toward everyone, (drinkcoppercup.com). “Turmeric and helped draw significant media and social media attention and revitalization efforts. She has a from writing students and teach- Jill Nienhiser (SFGI) married Dane is a spice that helps your body reg- to viable, city- and country-level solutions to air pollution,” Miller child in college and is encouraging ers, citizen journalists, bloggers, 1992 1994 Petersen on June 17. Jill is a ulate stress and gives you energy Johann A. Klaassen (SF) and Dan Farley (A) and Elizabeth and helps you regulate your sleep writes. With three million premature deaths annually due to her other two to choose St. John’s. and to working writers. strategist at Mind & Media, Inc. Angela Kelly Klaassen (SF) (Rhodes) Farley (A) recently in Alexandria, Va., and Dane is a and digestion,” says Brau. “I’m outdoor air pollution, more than 80 percent of city dwellers glob- celebrated 25 years of marriage celebrated their 20th wedding marketing and events manager at also engaged to Katherine Koh, ally breathe air that breaches World Health Organization guide- in December 2016. Johann is anniversary. Their daughter The Theatre Lab in D.C. and we will be married October 14 nearing five years as a principal Hannah finished her first year of lines, and with fossil fuels driving both air pollution and climate in Oakland.” The couple lives in of Horizons Sustainable Financial college at Juniata College in Pa., the Mission in San Francisco. change, Miller sees the push for clean air as a major global Services, Inc., which is head- studying biology in their pre-med opportunity to improve both health and climate. quartered in Santa Fe. He and program, and their son Dylan is a his business partner specialize in senior in high school and currently 2009 sustainable, responsible, impact looking at colleges. Their youngest Zach Alarcon (SFGI) was named investing, and serve clients across son, Samuel, started third grade. a Diamond Teacher of the Year by the Colorado Springs Inter- Elaine Pinkerton Coleman (SFGI) the country. The family remains, The family keeps busy with travel, national Rotary Club. “Without 1986 announces two new publications: for the moment, headquartered reading, sports, and outdoor my solicitation, students wrote Keith Rosen (AGI) never married A revision of Santa Fe on Foot: in Colorado. Daughter Gretta activities. Dan also defended his brief essays to nominate me, and or had children, but he’s been busy Exploring the City Different (Ocean Klaassen (SF18) is a senior at dissertation and finally got his I’ve been pretty humbled by the over the past 35 years. He retired Tree Books, 2016) and the debut of St. John’s, Santa Fe, and twin PhD in quantitative research from teaching and keeps active All the Wrong Places (Pocol Press, sons Bram and Ben are sopho- methods from the University of as a tour guide around Houston, 2017), a suspense novel set in the mores in high school. Oregon. The Farley’s pace of life 1999 Texas, and Louisiana. In 2000 he is slowly returning to manageable Southwest. Her website www. Tobin Shulman (SF) was recently started his own company, Houston levels, so they welcome anyone elainepinkerton.wordpress.com promoted at Siemasko + Verbridge, Historical Tours. With his mortgage 1993 visiting the Pacific Northwest to recently won an award for Best where he will help lead the firm’s paid off early, he enjoys collecting In July, Pamela Stark (A) began drop by. Dan can be reached at Adoption Blog. She is currently residential, commercial, insti- a pension and taking annual vaca- a new position as director of The [email protected]. at work on a sequel to her latest tutional, and academic design tions. Alumni visiting Houston are Rockefeller University Child and novel, set in southern India. practice. invited to drop him a line. Family Center.
40 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 41 FIRST PERSON ALUMNI NOTES
2015 serves as senior learner experi- ence designer in the Education 2014 GREENWAVE THROUGH AND THROUGH Research and Development While attending the Graduate By Jonathan Barone (A13) Department, inventing new ways Institute, Aileen Sawabi Coccia to do education, setting up cam- (AGI) began work to open Sedes puses around the world, and doing Sapientiae School. Her school was s the years have passed by, I have incorporated in 2013 and opened empirical research on learning. In found myself reminiscing with his free time, he goes rock climb- in fall 2015 with 12 students and my classmates about our time at ing and kayaking and reads with a four full-time tutors. The school good cup of coffee at his side. begins its third year at a new loca- St. John’s. This is nothing out of tion in Boonton, N.J. Last year the the ordinary; waxing nostalgic on school graduated one student who yourA college years is a nationally time-honored 2010 attends Thomas Aquinas College, tradition. But St. John’s is a unique place Ina Dixon (A) is entering a PhD and two seniors this year both with a singular community, and what makes program in American Studies at attend Christendom College. In this place special often varies from person to the University of North Carolina 2018 five seniors are expected to Chapel Hill this fall. She will be graduate. Nineteen students are person. For some, it’s singing Sicut Cervus in exploring how history and the enrolled for the fall. a packed McDowell Hall. For others, it’s the humanities revitalize Southern intimacy of a cohesive seminar. Personally, I communities in the United States. 2016 always found the greatest sense of community Bineet Ojha (SF) started his MA in the intramural program. 2011 in ancient philosophy at Western When I arrived, I hardly knew the rules to Bingsheng Chen (SFGI) spent this year as a visiting professor Kaura (Mackey) Lavery (A) and University, Ontario. most of the sports we played (though to be Darren Lavery celebrated the of philosophy and ethics at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in fair, no one knew the rules to our Calvinball- birth of their daughter Moira inspired version of flag football). Despite that, Guatemala City for one semester, and then started a journey Quinn Lavery on February 5. 2017 I still felt like I belonged on the field. There Barone (front row, second from right) and his Greenwaves clench the 2016 intramural basketball championship. around South America for six months, including visits to Colom- Since 2009, Kenneth Robert Baumann (SF) has run a small, was always a teammate to look up to or an bia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. 2012 nonprofit publishing company opponent to joke around with. At that time, My purpose was coming from comparing my Barbara Scott (SF) lives in Taos, “ Even though intramurals called Sator Press, which recently winning or losing didn’t hold great concern for success with the success of everyone around N.M., and has been interviewed published its ninth title, A Guide me. Of course, the victories tasted sweeter, but were where I found my about St. John’s Graduate Insti- me. I had to face my ugly self-image and the For the Perplexed, which he I found more joy playing sports with my friends award,” writes Alarcon. “It has University. Over the past year tute on Asheville, N.C.’s WPVM describes as “an epistemological closest community, they were belief that I was a burden on others. within this storied intramural league. I was inspired me to continue striving to he has volunteered heavily for radio station. exercise for the end times.” Though I am by no means rid of all my transcend my previous best. I have the Convention of States Project enthralled by the history and tradition, and I also the place where I felt insecurities, I’m at a much healthier place now recently been doing an in-depth for which he served as Colorado 2013 would sometimes while away spare moments the deepest isolation.” than I was in sophomore year. And strangely study about how to develop critical state director and now serves as a walking the track in the Temple, wondering at enough, as I healed, I started to gain perspec- consciousness and cultural rel- regional captain and state media Anthony Cole (A) and his wife welcomed their son Aiden Patrick the names on the plaques of years gone by. tive. I saw that I wasn’t the only one dealing evancy in my pedagogy. The study liaison. As time permits, he writes But here’s the problem with nostalgia: the has centered around the authors for Lanterns Media on politics Cole into the world on June 30. with the same fears and doubts. Even though I lenses through which you view the past are match, filled with self-loathing. I had made a Paulo Freire, Maxine Greene, L.S. and culture, and plans to start a “Mom and baby are healthy, knew I was not the paragon of emotional well- Vygotsky, and Maria Montessori, podcast for Lanterns in the fall. and 2-year-old Felix is thrilled rose-colored. Even though intramurals were mistake that cost my team the game, and I being, I knew that I could help others with the about having a little brother,” amongst others. Needless to say, where I found my closest community, they were felt it viscerally. I had betrayed the trust of my same struggles that I faced. Matthew Robertson (SFGI) recently my experiences at St. John’s have Cole says. “We’ll be encouraging also the place where I felt the deepest isola- teammates. As I walked, those feelings of guilt completed a PhD through the him to be whatever he wants to Even though I couldn’t find the words then, provided me with many of the tion. When you’re in class, it is very difficult turned to shame. It wasn’t that I had failed—I Religious Studies Department it was the intramural program that sparked skills I now use to continue tran- be as he grows up, but joining at the University of California, to fail at something outright. While you might was a failure. Instead of making a mistake, I was my passion for leadership. As I reflected on scending my previous best.” the Annapolis Class of 2039 will Santa Barbara, and will begin a certainly be suggested.” screw up a proposition or say something inac- the mistake. I continued to repeat and internalize the need for affirmation and belonging that Aaron Dukette (AGI) is living on post-doctoral research position at curate, you aren’t disappointing others. the pernicious lie: “I’m not good enough.” Susan LaRocca (AGI) writes that I sought as a freshman, I realized that I now the northwest slope of Pike’s Peak Florida State University in the fall. Not so on the intramural field. When you But if I’m being honest, it wasn’t intra- had the ability to provide that for others. Since in Divide, Colo., with his wife she and 14 other alumni really With the exception of about a year, make a mistake, it has a direct and immedi- murals that created that cycle of shame and graduating, I’ve found that it was my experi- Michelle and daughter Elizabeth. enjoyed the Piraeus seminar on Austin Volz (SF) has spent his time ate effect on the game. Failure is palpable and self-hatred. My insecurities were with me long He is teaching and serving as a Jane Austen’s Persuasion with ence on the field, not in the classroom, that since graduating living overseas before I came to St. John’s. Rather, it was those dean of Boys with several other tutors Eva Brann and Erica Beall inescapable, and it doesn’t affect just you. It led me to where I am today. The Program will in Germany and China. Last year Johnnies at Thomas MacLaren in June. “So much fun getting lost Do you have news to share affects your entire team. moments of failure that exposed what I truly always serve as the foundation between myself he moved back to the US to work in Austen at St. John’s!” School in Colorado Springs. On with The College? Send your It was in those moments of failure that I believed about myself. I was forced to confront and other Johnnies, but it was the intramural in New York City with Avenues: the side he teaches college phi- note, along with your name, faced my darkest moments at St. John’s. I unpleasant truths. I realized that I was trying The World School. At Avenues he program that helped me discover who I am. losophy courses online for Ashford class year, and photo(s), to: distinctly remember walking back from a soccer to build my self-worth through my performance. [email protected]
42 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 43 IN MEMORIAM
and kindness she exemplified, York City, Hoffman showed im- Errol Pomerance After his discharge at the end her willingness to help anyone, mense promise and aptitude as (AGI72) of the war, Oosterhout used the to work actively with the Caritas a child. He skipped many grades GI Bill to attend St. John’s. He April 15, 2017 Society, for which she served as in school and received his high graduated in 1951 and remained Tutor, Annapolis president. We remember the joy school diploma at age 14. He connected to the college—he was she took in her artwork, all the received a degree from Harvard Errol J. Pomerance (1942-2017) a frequent attendee at lectures fun she had bouncing around in three years and subsequently had a passion for intellectual and community seminars in a basketball in the gym with completed medical school at New pursuits, and for beauty, which Santa Fe—until his death. students, her devotion as mother, York University. led him toward a transcendent In 1991, Oosterhout received wife, and friend.” After serving as a military doc- view of life. An avid learner an Alumni Award of Merit in tor during the Korean War and and teacher, after receiving his gratitude for this service on the Michael Musgrove (A94) attaining the rank of captain, bachelor’s from the Polytechnic Board of Visitors and Governors Hoffman married Maya Bravy, from 1968 to 1974 as well as in March 20, 2017 Institute of Brooklyn in 1962, he a concert pianist. He then estab- joined the faculty at St. John’s admiration for his professional achievements at NASA, where Michael Musgrove (1971-2017) lished what was then the largest in Annapolis, where he taught he had served at various times as is remembered for his gift for cardiology practice on Long for five years and attended a branch head, systems analyst, words, wry sense of humor, and Island. After 30 years, the couple the Graduate Institute. After and electronics engineer. Ooster- fierce determination. After he relocated to Santa Fe, where St. John’s, he went on to earn hout’s daughter, Amy, graduated graduated from St. John’s, he Hoffman continued to treat additional master’s degrees from the Annapolis campus in took a job in the mailroom for the complicated cardiology cases in from Harvard and West Chester 1982. Oosterhout was well-loved Washington Post and worked his New Mexico. He wrote a number State University, and then his by his family and many friends way to staff writer and columnist. of books and scholarly articles doctorate from the Polytechnic and is deeply missed by them. On occasion, he wrote articles about cardiology; his 1974 book, Institute of New York. A lover A memorial contribution can on happenings at the college. XYZ is the ABC of the EKG, is of literature, classical music, away peacefully in Albuquerque, be made to St. John’s College He traveled extensively, wrote a still used in medical schools. He and astronomy, Pomerance’s John Oosterhout New Mexico. either online at sjc.edu/giving or novel, and, in 2013, completed also served as the clinical profes- experience at St. John’s instilled Class of 1951 May 9, 2017 Oosterhout was born and by check to: St. John’s College, Martha (Class of 1961). Wyatt is an Ironman Triathlon. He also sor of cardiology at the Univer- in him a sense of wonder and Malcolm Wyatt (H03) raised in Port Arthur, Texas. P.O. Box 75905, Baltimore, MD survived by his wife of 25 years, loved spending time with his sity of New Mexico’s School of inquiry, and a compassion and April 22, 2017 John D. Oosterhout (1927- After high school, he was drafted 21275-5905. Cecelia; daughters, Rachel and friends and listening to loud, live Medicine for many years. respect for his fellow man, which Tutor and assistant dean, 2017), an alumnus, a former by the U.S. Army for service in Ruth; son Mark; stepchildren, music. But most of all, he loved In addition to his accomplish- he always retained. Annapolis board member, and a longtime WWII, and after basic training, Michelle, Medea, and Bee Elvy; his daughter Zoe and his stepson ments in the medical field, resident of Santa Fe, passed was deployed to northern Italy. In 1958, after he received and numerous grandchildren. Jackson. Fatherhood was, by far, Hoffman was a renaissance undergraduate and graduate his greatest joy. Musgrove was man. He taught himself ancient degrees in mathematics from the Lydia Sparrow the son of Patricia (Burton) and Greek and regularly met with University of Virginia, Edward the late William Musgrove; the other Greek language scholars in April 8, 2017 husband of Kimberly Baer; the Santa Fe. Irwin and Maya Hoff- Natalie R. Chambliss, Class of 1964 Sarah B. Fisher, A68 Deborah Moll, A69 Malcolm Wyatt (1932-2017) came Caritas Society president Also Deceased: to Annapolis, where he was a father of Zoe Musgrove and Jack- man supported many nonprofits, June 1, 2017 May 2, 2017 June 8, 2017 including a number of organi- beloved and dedicated member “It is with regret that we learn son Baer; and the brother of Skip Mark M. Ainsworth, A78 Robert G. Cozzolino, Class of 1963 Jewell Hall, AGI85 Barbara L. Murray, Class of 1963 zations for the arts, through June 5, 2017 of the St. John’s faculty until his of the death of one of St. John’s Musgrove and Cindy Deacon. July 1, 2017 June 1, 2017 May 31, 2017 retirement in 2002. At St. John’s the Hoffman-Bravy Charitable great ladies,” Becky Wilson Alvin Aronson, Class of 1952 Miranda S. Cully, SF97 David W. Herman, A72 Matt Rarey, AGI06 he served as assistant dean from Foundation. He made deep and (H83) shares. “When we think Irwin Hoffman (H85) May 2, 2017 July 24, 2017 June 22, 2017 April 3, 2017 1984 to 1988 and as director of lasting impressions on the hun- of Lydia Sparrow (1932-2017), May 26, 2017 Donald K. Bandler, SFGI98 Christian J. Dallett, SF88 dreds of friends, students, and Robert S. Hill, Class of 1954 Albert Robertson, AGI91 the Graduate Institute from 1989 we remember her graciousness, February 24, 2017 February 23, 2017 Board member colleagues he left behind. Santa March 8, 2017 March 7, 2017 to 1992. He also served as head of the open hearted hospitality she Fe was enriched by his life, pas- Leroy W. Brooks, Class of 1939 Phillip L. Dionne, SF72 the campus’ continuing education extended to hundreds of students Irwin Hoffman (1925-2017), who Patricia G. Loring, Class of 1958 John Sitzmann, A14 sions, and commitment to the May 19, 2017 June 1, 2017 program. Wyatt was an accom- and faculty members while her served as a member of the August 21, 2016 September 20, 2017 community. He is survived by his plished flute player and spent his first husband, the late Edward St. John’s College Board of William Brown, SF11 Judith Dome, SFGI88 wife, Maya; son, John; daughter, Lee M. Mace, Class of 1942 John C. Wallace, III, Class of 1949 last sabbatical studying chamber Sparrow (1929-2015), served as Visitors and Governors for 12 December 10, 2016 July 14, 2015 Annabelle; brother, Allan (Class March 16, 2017 March 22, 2017 music in Vienna, Austria. He St. John’s dean and tutor. One re- years, passed away in Santa Fe George J. Bunting, of 1949); and four grandchildren. Class of 1954 Paul D. Finney, AGI82 was predeceased by his first wife, calls the combination of elegance at the age of 92. Born in New June 20, 2017 June 1, 2017
44 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 45 PHILANTHROPY
INTRODUCING: WE’VE HEARD YOU! Based on your requests for choices, we’ve re-designed our Annual Fund. The Annual Fund represents current-use dollars that A New and address core college needs. Gifts to the Annual Fund keep the Program strong and impact every aspect Improved of the Johnnie experience. A TRIFECTA OF GIVING Any gift, any size, supports the ongoing work of the college, Chris Olson (A78) shows that there are many enabling St. John’s to maintain its place at the vanguard of liberal learning. ways to make a difference for St. John’s Annual Fund
Giving to St. John’s College is personal Johnnies about the current political climate— FUND FOR ST. JOHN’S JOHNNIE SCHOLARSHIP FUND for Chris Olson (A78). He has given to the and fake news. He believes that separating Historically our most popular fund, The transformative power of the Program college for years, mostly modest amounts. fact from fiction is more important than the Fund for St. John’s keeps the lasts a lifetime. Gifts to the Johnnie He points out that it is the number of alumni ever, and more difficult to do with so much Program strong and enables the Scholarship Fund alleviate undergraduate who consistently make annual gifts that information invading our “knowledge space,” college to address priority needs students’ financial burden, enabling matters, not the amount they choose to give. as he puts it. “Education is so important, in any given year. them to immerse themselves in this But recently Olson has gone well beyond and the St. John’s education is by far the powerful educational experience. the occasional gift. In fact, he has created best, I believe, in order to help you sort out what classmate Leo Pickens (A78)—also a very, very complicated world.” the college’s director of Leadership Annual Referencing the school’s logo, which Giving—calls a “trifecta” of giving. reads ‘Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque’ TUTOR FUND GRADUATE INSTITUTE FUND Olson has set up a monthly auto-recurring and translates to ‘I make free adults from Tutors are the beating heart of the St. The Graduate Institute Fund provides gift of cash to support the Fund for St. children by means of books and a balance,’ John’s experience. Gifts to the Tutor Fund graduate students access to financial John’s; he has established a planned gift, Olson views the relationship between ensure that our beloved tutors receive aid, assistantships, academic enrichment also known as a deferred gift annuity, to freedom and knowledge as fundamental respectable compensation as well opportunities, and on-campus housing. It support the college. In addition, he made a to living. “You always return to yourself as opportunities for professional also funds teacher scholarships, lecture “stretch gift” to strengthen the endowment as an individual and your own capacity to development to keep the Program strong. series, and student-run publications. and to join those who are bolstering the understand and adapt to the world. And college’s fundraising efforts as it gears up that’s what you can get from St. John’s more for the public launch of a major campaign. than from anywhere. That first year at St. STUDENT SUCCESS FUND STUDENT LIFE FUND His endowed gift has gone to the Klein John’s is absolutely tremendous. If you have Through internships and fellowships, The Student Life Fund enables Tutorship Endowment Fund. Jacob Klein “ If I’m going to give that in your education at any point in your Johnnies take their Program insights into Johnnies to explore extracurricular was a scholar who came to the Program money, which I don’t life, it’s worth gold.” the world and explore career and post- and athletic interests and engage as a tutor in 1938, and whom Olson met Today, Olson is an independent financial graduate interests. Gifts to this fund in activities that enrich their years ago. He is also author of Greek have a great deal of, consultant for the World Bank and is enable St. John’s to keep internship and personal health and happiness. Mathematical Thought and the Origin of completing a 10-year program that will fellowship programs vital and strong. Algebra, which many tutors have excerpted I’m going to give it to license him as an analytical psychologist over the decades. “That’s cool to be linked— St. John’s...” in the Jungian tradition. To write his to be helping—something named after Jacob psychology thesis, he is rereading many Klein,” Olson says. “I like that a lot.” of his Program books—in some cases he’s LIBRARY FUND STAFF EXCELLENCE FUND What makes giving personal for Olson even translating from the Greek again. He Libraries are sacred spaces. St. John’s staff strive to ensure that is, in part, his continued closeness to Although Olson earned a master’s in considers himself to have come full-circle. Gifts to the Library Fund help students and tutors have the resources the college throughout the years via his international relations from the University “It’s a very exciting world at the moment to address ongoing needs and they need to experience the power friendship with Pickens and the college’s of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the for me,” he says by phone from London. fund special projects including of the Program. Gifts to this fund long-time vice president of Advancement, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, “I’m 62 years old and it’s shaped up into an acquisitions, renovations, and enable the college to address staff the late Jeff Bishop. Olson says that the he says the specialized knowledge he gained interesting situation. I’m very happy about technology upgrades. professional development needs. power of such personal relationships should there was not transformative in the way it, and very grateful to St. John’s for the not be underestimated. “If I’m going to give his education at St. John’s was. In fact, St. education and the other opportunities it money, which I don’t have a great deal of, John’s continues to both transform and gave me over the years.” I’m going to give it to St. John’s as a priority inform his thoughts. On a recent visit to And so he gives back. GIVE ONLINE Select GIVE VIA MAIL Please Gifts for either or both QUESTIONS? Please over anybody else.” Annapolis he chatted with Pickens and other -Anne Kniggendorf (SF97) and donate to your remember to write the name campuses can be mailed to: contact Mark Piekarski, preferred fund online of your chosen fund in the St. John’s College director of Annual Giving, at sjc.edu/giving. “memo” line of your check, P.O. Box 75905 at 505-984-6104 or made out to St. John’s College. Baltimore, MD 21275-5905 [email protected].
46 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 47 ST. JOHN’S FOREVER EIDOS
“Since the 1980s, I have been working on a proprietary art system I refer to as the Art Fountain, comprised of a large set of mathematical paint brushes. The subjects and compositions I choose vary extensively from photographs or existing artworks to original compositions, but I tend to like simple subjects that explore the beauty or facets of ordinary things which I then abstract. I have little interest in standard computer graphics or filter effects but am more about the colors and interesting tex- tures created from geometrical primitives that subtly reflect the subject in a unique way. Because its roots are mathematical, the size of my art is independent of the ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE GREENFIELD LIBRARY ST. final form it takes. I seek to combine the While the St. John’s football team closed 1902 A group portrait of the St. John’s College 1903 power and infinitude of mathematics with football team on the steps of McDowell Hall VINTAGE with a modest 3-6 record, the 1903 yearbook, the aesthetics of color, composition and VICTORY the Rat Tat, highlights a special victory texture in an organic, ‘non-computery’ way. that season: “The week following was one of beginning of the second half Western My art is conceptual and not so much excitement and was trying on the nerves, for Maryland soon scored six more points, but about creating beautiful things as it is Saturday brought on the game with our old DuVall (E. P. DuVall, Class of 1905), our about beautiful ideas for things. My main rival, Western Maryland. The day dawned clear star full-back, soon raised them six by his medium is not pigment suspended in oil, and cool and at twelve o’clock, amid the cheers magnificent run of ninety yards. He received but ‘artful algorithms,’ liberally redirected of the rooters and the waving of flags, the two View more of McClard’s work at vectorartlabs.com. Robert’s punt on our twenty-yard line and by chance. I create by exploring a realm teams trotted upon the field. After the usual with the ball tucked neatly under his arm, he that lies beyond my imagination and my preliminaries the teams lined up and Beatty wriggled, dodged, blocked off tackles and soon physical skills, using random numbers, (D. H. Beatty, Class of 1903), kicked off to planted the ball behind the goal posts. Never mathematics, and computers as tools. Western Maryland. The contest had begun and has there been exhibited in the football history Each subject I explore produces dozens of for St. John’s it was do or die.” of St. John’s, brighter examples of noble variations coaxed out of fiddling with many “In the first half St. John’s scored twelve daring, grit, courage, and determination than parameters. The works are best viewed points to Western Maryland’s five. At the was shown by our team on that day.” quite large because of the small details that get lost on reduction.”
Peter McClard (SF83)
48 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 THE COLLEGE | ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE | FALL 2017 iii Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Annapolis, MD Permit N0. 120
Communications Office 60 College Avenue Annapolis, MD 21401
Address Service Requested