Class of 1969 Authors and Books
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Class of 1969 Authors and Books 50th Reunion Exhibit Bryant Center April 12-14, 2019 Sponsored by the Duke Alumni Association Duke University ii Class of 1969 Authors and Books Table of Contents Preface . 1 Summary . 2 Part I: Authors and Books . 7 General . 7 Charles Clotfelter . 7 Vince Staten . 7 William Stadiem . 8 Ross Spears . 9 Sally Avery Bermanzohn . 9 Mark I. Pinsky . 10 William (Bill) Finger . 10 Cheryl (Oetter) Jarvis . 11 Kathy Cunning Shearer . 12 Sheila Fabricant Linn . 12 The Arts . 13 D. Kern Holoman . 13 Walter Chapin . 13 Janis Johnson . 14 Fiction and Poetry . 15 Charlie Smith . 15 Charles Dowling Williams . 15 John Vick Mickey . 16 Robert Herrin . 17 Sally Whitney . 17 Science . 18 David Schneider . 18 Steve Lindberg . 18 Health and Education . 19 Mort Orman . 19 Henry Perry . 20 Leonard Zwelling . 20 Margarete Lieb Zalon . 21 Abigail Norfleet James . 21 Edyth James Wheeler . 22 Part 2: Bibliography . 23 iii iv Preface Twenty-six authors from the Duke Class of 1969 participated in a book exhibit Reunion Weekend, April 12 to 14. The exhibit in the Bryan Center, sponsored by the Duke Alumni Association, displayed up to four titles for each author plus Personal Statements on their motivation in writing their books. The exhibit included prolific and prize-winning authors, as well as some who began writing after another career. This is the third time the DAA has sponsored book exhibit for the 50th reunion. The Class of 1969 joins the classes of 1964 and 1968. This report presents these 26 mini-essays, along with the titles from the exhibit. We are also reproducing a bibliography of all books by the class authors, a number of whom have more than ten titles. We hope you enjoy these first-person stories of the authors and that you decide to read some of the many books they wrote. Enjoy! Sharon Elliott Gary Nelson, T’ 1964 and P’ 1995 Assistant Director, Reunions & Special Exhibit Coordinator Events Duke Alumni Board of Directors Duke Alumni Association September 6, 2019 1 2 Summary We begin with excerpts from the Personal Statements to give you an overview of the works and lives of members of the Class of 1969. You will find many of the quotes to be powerful and moving. Some of our authors, of course, referenced their time at Duke as a source of inspiration: • The germ of becoming a writer landed in my head from my freshman history textbook, A History of the Modern World, by R.R. Palmer of Princeton and Joel Colton of Duke, who, despite his Olympian stature, could often be seen walking the quads. – William Stadiem, best-selling author • Being at Duke, majoring in French (and Messiah in the Chapel Choir), during those socially awakening and tumultuous years, has been part of my journey into working with young children and their families, and with graduate students in Early Childhood Education…. – Edyth James Wheeler, professor and expert on early childhood conflict • My commitment and passion for advocacy and social justice was sparked by two summers in Nicaragua, as part of a Duke project providing basic health care in a community with no running water or electricity. – Margarete Lieb Zalon, national leader in nursing • I applied early to Duke to study oceanography, and I was surprised not only to be accepted but also to learn there was no undergraduate program in oceanography. Two Duke professors were important mentors. Terry Johnson (Botany) helped create the first- ever (ad hoc) undergraduate science interdisciplinary program at Duke, which allowed me to take grad courses and courses at the Marine Lab. Orrin Pilkey (Geology) introduced me to my future major prof. at FSU, where I earned an MS in oceanography and a PhD in geochemistry. – Steve Lindberg, prize-winning geoscientist • Being at Duke has been a dream job, combining the freedom to do research on a wide variety of topics with the stimulation of being around great colleagues and stimulating students. – Charles Clotfelter, widely published Duke professor Writers, photographers and film-makers talk about their art: • While sitting around after graduation, waiting to be drafted, I applied in the news department of a Tennessee TV station. They hired me on the spot. Mainly because the guy who had had the job quit that morning without giving notice. I’ve been a writer ever since. I’ve written all sorts of stuff over the years… [and] I’ve published 15 books since I graduated from Duke. – Vince Staten, widely published writer of humor and history • After moving to St. Louis, where we raised two boys, I worked as a magazine editor, newspaper editor and TV producer before finding the best fit: freelance journalist and essayist …. My first book, The Marriage Sabbatical: The Journey that Brings You Home, sparked controversy. It was featured on “Oprah…” – Cheryl (Oetter) Jarvis, also author of The Necklace • Photography is my golf and fishing, but it has not been my livelihood. – Walter Chapin, school teacher and waiter with numerous books of photography. 3 • ,,, I have had a delightful life making independent documentaries about subjects always dear to my heart. – Ross Spears, film documentarian, Academy Award nominee, and author • I knew that only the choir reads temperately argued policy analyses, so I chose the save- the-world genre; all the better to propagandize innocent seekers of pool-side distraction. – John Vick Mickey, physician and novelist • As a hobby, I wrote screenplays, short stories, and novels, and I was even invited to pitch scripts at Paramount Studios for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but compared to practicing medicine, writing was a distant third interest (my family forgives me for putting them second to patients). – Robert Herrin, oral surgeon and novelist • I went on to study religion and psychology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Later, I met my husband, Dennis Linn, and his brother Matt, both Jesuit priests at the time. Together we've written 23 books that integrate spirituality with psychology, medicine, and science. – Sheila Fabricant Linn, widely published author on pastoral ministry Not all writings are pleasant – some record pure horror: • As we gathered, the KKK and Nazis drove up and opened fire on us, killing five activists, three of whom were Duke people –including my first husband, Michael Nathan MD (Duke 1969 and Duke Med 1973). Paul Bermanzohn (Duke MD 1974), my husband then and today, survived a bullet wound to the brain that permanently partially paralyzed him. – Sally Avery Bermanzohn, professor and novelist • Worst reporting day of my life was 1979's Greensboro Massacre, where we lost Mike Nathan. Several foreign reporting forays, including Northern Ireland, 1973. Spent 15 months in 1982-83 as an editorial advisor for the Xinhua (New China) News Agency in Beijing. – Mark Pinsky, reporter and widely published author of The Gospel According to Disney and many other books Many of our writers are experts in their fields: • Shortly after beginning my medical career, I began to seriously question almost everything that experts were teaching about stress and happiness. In particular, I began to question the wisdom of teaching people to manage their stress, as if this is the best possible way to deal with it (it’s not). – Mort Orman, physician and best-selling author on stress • I had gained a front row seat for the debate over ObamaCare. I took notes all day and wrote at night. This book, Congressional Malpractice, is the result. It’s the view of a lifelong academic physician of the sausage-making process of federal legislation on the subject I care most about, health care. – Leonard Zwelling, physician, researcher and health care expert • The trajectory of my writings goes from Berlioz…, through chronicles of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra … and Charles Munch, the … conductor, and The Orchestra: A Very Short Introduction, on the symphony orchestra of the present. – D. Kern Holoman, music professor and expert on 19th century music 4 • I was teaching at a boys’ school and realized that education was not meeting their needs, so I went back to graduate school, getting a PhD in educational psychology from UVA in 2001 – OK, that makes March complicated, but at least I stuck with an ACC school. – Abigail Norfleet James, award-winning author on youth education Many writers are motivated by the experience or memory of place: • After my father’s death, I discovered more of his paintings and writings and, in parallel, my own history through his view of our hometown in Ohio. – Janis Johnson, educational consultant • For many years I worked for a non-profit agency that sent me into the coalfields, a place that felt like a world apart for the city girl, but it was here that I fell in love with hard- working people whose lives were so totally different from mine. – Kathy Cunning Shearer, widely published author on Appalachia • “His poetry—candid, lush, lyrical—is informed by the Southern landscape and voices of his youth, and his style is reminiscent of John Ashbery and Charles Wright. – From the Poetry Foundation on the prize-winning novelist and poet, Charlie Smith • “The farm” is where I have lived and worked and played for most of my adult life. It is part of a much larger tract that was purchased in 1796 by an ancient English grandfather through Virginia Treasury Warrants signed by Patrick Henry. – Charles Dowling Williams, tree farmer and poet • Whenever I dream of a story, I feel the magic of southern mysteries, legends, and jokes handed down through generations of storytellers, people like me. – Sally Whitney, journalist and writer • In 1969, I joined the Peace Corps and flew to India.... When I visited the India family where I had lived 33 years earlier, the structure became clear for The Crane Dance.