THE PENNSYLVANIA MAR|APR21 GAZETTE

American Histories Jason Karlawish and The Problem of Alzheimer’s Andrew Feiler W’84’s Photos of Rosenwald Schools Decision Desk Jockey John Lapinski The Triangle, NC The Penn Alumni Club of the Triangle, North Carolina relaunched in 2016 after several years of dormancy. By hosting events for alumni in Raleigh-Durham and Chapel Hill, we aim to create a link back to our beloved Penn, give back to the greater Trian- gle community, and provide opportunities for network- ing, personal enrichment, and education. Since 2016, we’ve maintained a program of roughly 3-4 events per “semester.” The Club has hosted a fami- ly-friendly tour at the Duke Lemur Center, as well as a hiking event at William Umstead Park. To welcome in- coming Freshman and their parents to the Penn Family, we’ve hosted Student Send-Offs each summer. Our club also set up a Community Service Day at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina located in Raleigh, where we sorted and salvaged food. When the COVID pandemic broke out, the Club pivoted quickly to online events. We were proud to host two events on coping with lockdown, focusing on personal resilience and mindfulness. We hosted two other Zoom webinars geared toward small businesses and parents (How to Speak to Kids About Money), respectively. Now, we look forward to better times for our club, the Triangle, and the world. We will have online events in the Spring of 2021, and we’re planning to host more in-person events when it is safe to do so. If you’re an alum in the Triangle or surrounding cities and you’d like to either participate in events or get involved with the club, we would love to connect. Email us at [email protected].

Photos:Triangle Club; Dennis Ludlow, CC BY-SA 4.0; Smithfl, CC BY-SA 3.0

AD_PARC Raleigh Durham.indd 68 2/8/21 10:34 AM THE PENNSYLVANIA Features GAZETTE MAR|APR21 The History Wars The Humanist Is In Education scholar Jonathan In a new book, Jason Karlawish Zimmerman on how the GM’99, codirector of the Penn 24 US republic lost the ability to 34 Memory Center, unravels the understand itself—and how we can tapestry of Alzheimer’s science and help our children recover it. history, and outlines the medical, social, By Trey Popp and ethical challenges that lie ahead. By Julia M. Klein

Black Education Before Brown Andrew Feiler W’84 documents the Rosenwald schools, which 42 educated hundreds of thousands of African Americans in the Jim Crow South. By JoAnn Greco

Calling It How John Lapinski and a squad of Penn faculty and students 46 backing him up on the NBC News Decision Desk navigated an election season that was unprecedented—and could set a pattern for the future. By Alyson Krueger

COVER Illustration by David Hollenbach

Vol.119, No.4 ©2021 The Pennsylvania Gazette Published by Benjamin Franklin from 1729 to 1748.

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The insurrection temporar- Feiler W’84’s new book of ily interrupted the certifi ca- photographs documenting Who We Are tion of the Electoral College the Jim Crow–era Rosenwald vote by Congress and also di- schools, a selection of which verted media attention from we off er in “Black Education arly in “The History Wars,” In Zimmerman’s view, the the runoff election drama in Before Brown,” with text by senior editor Trey Popp’s ways that events in American Georgia that had transfi xed JoAnn Greco. Funded by cover story on Jonathan history have been subject to the nation the night before— Sears Roebuck president EZimmerman, the educa- repeated reinterpretation, as noted in “Calling It,” Alyson Julius Rosenwald, these tion historian and Penn GSE and which groups have gotten Krueger C’07’s article on NBC schools educated hundreds professor points to two signa- to be included in the nation’s News director of elections and of thousands of African ture failures of American edu- narrative and on what terms, Penn political science profes- American students—some of cation “writ large”—too many have shaped—and helped po- sor John Lapinski. (“It was whom Feiler photographed of us have never learned to larize—attitudes about who kind of surreal,” Lapinski says, on site, and others of whom discriminate between informa- and what America is. The ef- of watching the network cut include icons like John Lewis tion and disinformation and fects can be seen in battles away to the Capitol.) and Maya Angelou. too few of us are able to look over Civil War monuments Lapinski cut his teeth as an Finally, the vagaries of his- beyond our own partisan bub- and statues of Christopher election analyst in the presi- tory and questions of identity bles to truly engage with and Columbus, while the inclu- dential election of 2000, and also fi gure in Julia M. Klein’s debate those of diff erent views. sion of previously marginal- has been running the NBC profi le of physician and writer For examples of the former, ized groups in the “pantheon” News Decision Desk since Jason Karlawish GM’99, “The witness anti-vaxxers, climate of heroes has brought with it 2013, where he has also in- Humanist Is In.” Karlawish is change denialists, and fol- a softening of confl icts and volved Penn faculty, staff , and the codirector of the Penn lowers of QAnon, he says; for smoothing over of imperfec- students. One 2020 intern Memory Center and author of the latter, consider the mu- tions, to the detriment of his- compared election night to The Problem of Alzheimer’s: tual incredulity on the part torical understanding. “that feeling in your chest How Science, Culture, and of Trump and Biden support- when you are on a roller Politics Turned a Rare Disease ers that tens of millions of coaster.” As it turned out, the into a Crisis and What We people could possibly have Textbook ride lasted until Saturday, Can Do About It. voted for the other guy. November 7, when Lapinski Karlawish suggests that Zimmerman is the author of battles have called Pennsylvania for Biden. work on Alzheimer’s might eight books on diff erent as- shaped— In 2020, changes to voting have advanced further and pects of American education procedures sparked by the faster if the disease’s identifi - (or, better to say, education and helped pandemic, combined with cation in Germany early in the and America). He is also a President Trump’s refusal to 20th century had not been regular—and sometimes infu- polarize— concede, complicated the succeeded by that country’s riating, to liberal sensibili- attitudes analysis of election returns later history. In the piece, he ties—opinion columnist. His and raised the stakes for also calls for mending the his- newest book is a history of about America. reaching the “99.5 percent” torical split in the Alzheimer’s college teaching, The Amateur confi dence level Lapinski fi eld “pitting care versus cure” Hour (a ninth, Free Speech: The deadly attack on the US says is needed to declare a and shares stories of his And Why You Should Give a Capitol on January 6 may be winner. But while those par- “teachers”—individuals and Damn, is forthcoming this the ultimate demonstration ticular circumstances may their caretakers coping with spring), but he and Trey spent of Zimmerman’s comments change, he and other observ- the stigma, loss of autonomy, most of their time talking about disinformation and a ers speculate that closely di- and other devastating impacts about an earlier book, Whose blinkered world view—with vided, multiday vote count of the condition. America?: Culture Wars in the incomprehension of others’ elections could become the Public Schools, which re- preference, abetted by a cam- pattern in the future. counts a variety of textbook paign of lies about election The power of education in battles throughout the 20th fraud, resulting in a violent the face of oppression comes century and into the present. attempt to “Stop the Steal.” through clearly in Andrew

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 3 LETTERS We Welcome Mental health matters, Letters Please email us at [email protected]. Please note, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, doctor’s advice, Gazette offices are closed until further notice and we cannot retrieve postal mail at this time. Letters should refer to material published in the negative note, and more. magazine and may be edited for clarity, civility, and length.

Something in the Environment? Last year I took a college drawing Do not students attend universities, course at a university near my New Jer- especially leading Ivy League universi- sey home. I was struck by how little the ties, for the opportunities to learn and students spoke to each other or made explore new subjects, the opportunity comments about the work we were do- to understand the life they have before ing. The instructor told me that they just them in the light of the ages and sages, do not know how to talk to each other. the opportunities for advancements in That is not the only time I have heard the arts and sciences that an undergrad- that from colleagues and friends in- uate preparation off ers? Is not college volved in higher education. an enticing opportunity that excites, In my fi eld, I work on pragmatic skills pleases, and satisfi es? with language-impaired students. What I reread Dave Zeitlin’s “Wellness War- is sad is that so many young people with riors” [Jan|Feb 2021] for quotes from normal language skills lack the necessary students concerning how the intellec- ability, self-awareness, and self-permis- tual resources at college were failing sion to express themselves. There are so them and causes of discouragement to many stigmas, still, to break down. their aspirations. Sadly for me I saw no It’s great that Penn is doing so much such expectations that had been “Has the Ivy league for the student body. Hopefully, students thwarted. Problems expressed by stu- turned from offering and staff who need support will take dents were making relationships with advantage of what is available. other students, lack of fun, behavioral an education to some I was struck by the cover photo … such expectations for one at Penn, dealing an upfront image, as well as the photos with frequent suicides, feeling stigma- other task, desired in the story. The students looked so pres- tized, and so forth. ent. Good for them to be photographed! When a behavior or symptom or dis- by the public but Kudos for the article. ease reaches a high prevalence in an Joyce Kaff el, spouse, Short Hills, NJ environment, a fi rst premise of medicine toxic for students?” is that something in the environment Cherish Each Moment could be causal. Has the Ivy League Little did I know when I was a graduate turned from off ering an education to Kudos on Article, and to Students student in Dr. Ian McHarg’s Land Use some other task, desired by the public I am writing to you to tell you how and Environmental Planning Depart- but toxic for students? Must that cause important I think the article “Wellness ment (1981) that I would one day be liv- be addressed so that vulnerable students Warriors” is for students, faculty, and ing on a farm raising sheep and organic or those with intellectual interests in- parents. I’m a speech and language pa- produce just west of Chicago. So many compatible with the society’s priorities thologist married to a Penn graduate events have happened in the past 40 will be able to avoid demoralization, (Dennis Kaff el C’67). I enjoy your maga- years. I was recruited out of Penn to work depressions, and suicides? zine and often peruse it, reading articles on oil spill cleanup and hazardous waste Robert E. Becker GM’63, Park City, UT that interest me. management for ARCO in Long Beach,

4 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 California. After being married and start- ing a family, I worked on a consulting basis. We were transferred to Chicago- land in 1993 for my husband’s job Then everything started to change. He could not keep up with his corporate po- sition, was very depressed and irritable. We moved to the farm after he lost his job. Fast forward 20 years. I became the voice for the small farmer at the Farm Bureau and worked on farmland protec- tion policies. Scott still wasn’t able to hold down a job and was misdiagnosed with sleep apnea and midlife crisis. Finally the correct diagnosis was achieved: early-onset Alzheimer’s. He was only in his mid-50s. My life would now focus on caregiving for his needs. Scott used to love to read the Pennsyl- vania Gazette from cover to cover when it would arrive in the mail. Now he is bedbound and no longer can speak, but I continue to read it to him. This past issue had an excellent article, “Wellness Warriors,” about “a new road for student Choose a Life Beyond Medicine mental health.” Suicide and depression I would like to comment on the in the younger generation is so sad, and thoughts of Mayer L. Horensten regard- I was glad to hear about the support ing Nov|Dec 2020’s “The Museum Pre- groups on campus. scription” [“Letters,” Jan|Feb 2021]. I Since so many alumni read the maga- have been in orthopedic surgery practice zine, I would urge you to consider an for almost 30 years and can “feel his awareness article on early-onset Al- pain.” However, despite the ever-present zheimer’s. I do not wish that anyone has tug of war between current documenta- to go through those years of misdiagno- tion requirements and the desire to bond sis and confusion. It takes a toll on the with our patients, doctors can do both, entire family. and have a life outside of medicine. One People don’t want to see that the “gold- of the best things I have done in recent en years of retirement” may never hap- years to accomplish this is to hire a med- pen. I am thankful that we “front-loaded ical scribe. I can focus all my attention on life” and didn’t wait to travel and do the my patients, and spend the time I need things we enjoy! I leave you with that with them, while the scribe enters the pearl of wisdom … plus cherish each entire encounter in the “dreaded” elec- precious moment we have with each tronic health record (EHR). I now have other. Thank you. the choice of actually treating more pa- Donna Zarutskie Lehrer GRP’81, Big Rock, IL tients than I used to, prior to the scribe, or seeing the same number of patients Coincidentally, we have a related story in and fi nishing my day earlier. this issue. See “The Humanist Is In,” by Julia Our lives and careers are still under our M. Klein, on Penn Memory Center codirector control. I choose to have a life beyond Jason Karlawish and his new book on the medicine, and therefore do have the time history of Alzheimer’s disease.—Ed. to go to art museums, create art, play

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 5 LETTERS

sports, and enjoy friends and family. I decision to publish a politically moti- holdings are untaxed, it is fi tting that know that I do not make as much money vated class update in the fi rst place. It the University would and should give as I could, and I do not come from shows that, much like the personalities fi nancial support to the cash-strapped wealth. I also admit that medicine is not who spend their time in the Twitter fever public schools. Another example of the as enjoyable to practice as it used to be. swamps or watching hopelessly polar- good Penn can do for the city is Phila- However, I have chosen this route, and, ized cable news channels, the editors of delphia’s Jobs with Justice executive therefore, I am not “burned out.” As some the Gazette have no real interest in pro- director Devan Spear C’17, a recent Penn very wise people have noted, “We should moting common bonds amongst Penn grad who has spent the last fi ve years, work to live, not live to work.” alumni, but rather, they seek to highlight along with faculty and alumni, lobbying By the way, I do enjoy the Rx Museum divisions and create rancor. Penn’s administration, trustees, and Initiative each Monday. Alumni of good will and mutual re- alumni to support the public schools. It Steve Meadows C’82, Delray Beach, FL spect will mourn the needless decline looks like she was successful. of this once enjoyable magazine section Hanley Bodek C’77, Philadelphia Disappointing Decline into yet another shrill political forum. I was so disappointed to see that the Aaron Yunis C’02 W’02, Englewood, NJ Design Disapproval editors of the Pennsylvania Gazette chose A caricature on paper can be a humor- to debase a once-venerable publication Fitting Support ous, expressive depiction of a person or a with overtly political messages in the Class What a pleasure it was to read about landscape. However, I was shocked to dis- of 2004 “Alumni Notes” [Jan|Feb 2021]. Penn’s fi nancial support of the Philadel- cover a three-dimensional architectural I do not recall any rapturous class notes phia public schools [“Gazetteer,” caricature in “Vagelos Laboratory to Rise about the results of the 2016 presidential Jan|Feb 2021]. As most of the Univer- on Walnut Street” [“Gazetteer,” Jan|Feb election—nor should there have been any. sity and Health System’s $10 billion in 2021]. There are two hovering, rectangular The real problem, then, is the infantile annual business and their real estate blocks, above their captor base, that seem to be desperately trying to escape their capture, on a site along Walnut Street. Can these poor blocks, and their street side constrainer, have really been approved by Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, the home of Louis I. Kahn? David H. Karp Ar’59, San Mateo, CA

Not Perfect, But No Failure In the essay “Eleven Hours,” Chonni- pha Piriyalertsak compares the response by Thailand to the COVID-19 pandemic to that of the US and claims that Thai- land managed the pandemic a lot better while the “all-powerful United States has failed so miserably” [“Notes From the Undergrad,” Nov|Dec 2020]. The response by the Trump adminis- tration to the pandemic may not have been perfect, but it did result in the in- dustrial scale manufacturing of surgical masks, PPE equipment, ventilators and the development of three COVID vac- cines in less than 10 months when the development of new vaccines usually takes fi ve to 10 years. Gerardo Reyes C’82 M’86, Burr Ridge, IL

6 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 VIEWS P.8 P.10 P.12 Alumni Voices Elsewhere Expert Opinion

Illustration by Martha Rich GFA’11 Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 7 VIEWS Alumni Voices

was the worst of times. Fall had descended on 1985 and there was no Charles Dickens about it: the best of times may have dawned for others, but I was mired in only the Itworst. Four years out of Penn, I was out of work and lacking direction, cluelessly squeaking by with help from my folks. I was living in what New Yorkers called a railroad apartment, where you can stand at one end and see straight through to the other. I shared it with my oldest friend, Mark, and one of his friends, Danny. Danny was in school, Mark was underemployed, and I had nothing going at all. Beyond our cramped quarters the bachelor’s bacchanalia was in full swing. Wall Street was booming and the money seemed to be raining into every pocket but ours. As the daylight shrank and the cold set in, I’d look into Mezzaluna res- taurant on Third Avenue, see all of the people having a great time, and wish them all … well, bad things. Our neigh- borhood commissary was a Chinese take- out place called Wok on Third. We’d order on Sunday night and leave enough to have leftovers on Monday. On lucky weeks, we still had food left for Tuesday night. Let the good times roll. I’d come to New York that summer be- cause some friends had offered to loan me their apartment in Brooklyn for a short spell, which I’d taken as a sign from God that I should leave my full-time radio job down the Jersey Shore. Once you’ve got New York’s real estate figured, I rea- soned, everything else will follow. And it seemed to—at the start. I landed a sum- mertime vacation-relief job writing news at the radio station WMCA. WMCA had My Losing Seasons been big in the 1960s, playing rock-and- roll and calling its deejays “The Good Prelude to a life in sports broadcasting. Guys.” Those glory days were long gone, but still, it was a job. I’d drive into Man- By Budd Mishkin hattan around 3 a.m., park about eight blocks from the station, and walk the remainder with an umbrella. Clear sky overhead? Didn’t matter. Carry an um- brella. I also cultivated the habit of talk- ing to myself. That’s hardly unusual

8 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Illustration by Jonathan Bartlett nowadays, in the era of earbuds and but to my assigned 20 stations, I was a One day my contact at a Pittsburgh Apple watches. But in 1985 it was an ex- ski reporter. Morrie held a conference station asked me to change my name. cellent way to come off as a bit unhinged, call with the announcers at 5:30 a.m. From Mishkin? What, I wondered dark- and therefore best avoided. I doubt that every weekday, updating us on the re- ly, could possibly motivate that request? I ever struck fear into the hearts of my sorts: how much new-packed powder, He even had an alternative name picked fellow night owls. But I didn’t have any how many trails open. Then, for the next out: Eric Carter. issues. Must have been the umbrella. three hours, I called radio stations. I was many things in this world, but I I worked from 4 a.m. until noon writ- There was nothing cool or suave about was not an Eric Carter. But what could ing news copy for the Ralph & Ryan ski reports on the radio. They always went a toilet-mounted ski reporter do? Thus show. Hardly my dream job, but it was to 11. So I came out of the gate hollering at began my brief Pittsburgh radio career New York and I was learning. I was a the top of my lungs. “Good morning Bos- as Eric Carter. The reason turned out to good writer, not a great one, but I got the ton, welcome to the Morning Zoo 105 Ski be benign: my reports were running on copy in on time and managed not to get Zone! It’s a great day for skiing!” For the a competitor station, which made for a the station sued. I thought it was going record, it was always a great day for skiing. branding headache. The only problem well, and was told as much by the sta- Pouring outside? Who cares! “Hey, Har- was that occasionally I would forget, tion’s honchos. The demo tape I made risburg! It’s a great day for skiing!” starting the ski report as Eric Carter and for some on-air work landed with a I set up shop that first day in the kitch- finishing it as Budd Mishkin. Such was thud, but otherwise I was cruising to- en, into which Mark stumbled a few the lot of the semi-professional broad- ward what seemed sure to become a full- minutes after 6 a.m. How was I doing?, caster. Edward R. Murrow, I was not. time position. And so when August he asked. “Good!” What was I doing? A single ray of hope flickered across the ended and the general manager said, “Why, the ski reports!” Well, Mark kind- porcelain that winter. One of my stations “Thanks a lot, good job,” I was surprised. ly informed me, he didn’t need to wake was WNBC in New York, which then As was she when she saw my surprise, up for another three hours. Translation: owned the radio rights to the Knicks and forcing her to once again explain that a I needed to find another location. And the Rangers. It was launching a five-hour summer vacation-relief job was exactly there was only one room available. talk show called Sportsnight, produced what it sounded like. And summer had Which is how it came to pass that, dur- by a young man named Mike Breen—now ended, along with my time at WMCA. ing the winter of 1985–1986, I spent three known to sports fans as the voice of the September bled into October, and then hours every weekday morning reporting NBA. For some reason, WNBC decided to November, which passed in its own turn, ski conditions from our bathroom. I sat include my ski report in the show’s first finding me still out of work. No job, no on the toilet, with a tray table in front of half-hour. So Mike and I talked most days plan, no strategy. me holding my notes and the apartment’s when I called it in, and eventually I Then, in early December, I got a phone phone, at the end of its long cord. If it was pitched his bosses on hiring me to cover call out of the blue from Morrie Trumble, 35 degrees outside, it might reach 45 in- New York baseball. After all, when the an ABC Radio announcer I’d met over the side. The paint peeled, the pipes hissed. basketball and hockey seasons ended, summer. He explained that he had a ser- Occasionally I would flush mid-report for Sportsnight would still have five hours to vice that provided ski reports for radio a laugh. The hilarity had a way of wearing fill. Alas, their answer amounted to: Nice stations around the region. One of his off, though, when between calls I asked try, but no cigar. announcers had just bailed on him. Was myself how I’d ended up here. And then ski season was over. The I interested? If memory serves, I copped Yet I was on the air, including four sta- bathroom reverted to a bathroom, and a bit of an attitude with him. “Thank you tions in New York (one of which was K- as spring sprung I was unemployed. very much, Mr. Trumble, but I’ve done Rock, then the home of Howard Stern, Again. news and sports. Ski reports?” By way of who allegedly made fun of my name one reply, he gently inquired if I was working. day. At the time, it was a career highlight). The next month, Budd Mishkin C’81 got a call “Look,” he said, “it’s 100 bucks a week People started to hear me. Occasionally from WNBC offering him the Yankees beat, which part-time: three hours every morning friends of friends would call seeking my became a springboard to a long career in sports from your apartment. But it will get you recommendation for a weekend of skiing. and news broadcasting. A couple years in, notic- on the air.” I will forever appreciate that Should we go to Gore? Whiteface? Brom- ing a pile of audition tapes that had apparently piece of advice and the kind way Morrie ley? “I can’t even afford to go to one of been passed over in his favor, he asked Mike offered it. “It will get you on the air.” these places for a single day,” I didn’t tell Breen why the job hadn’t gone to one of those So began my career as a ski reporter. I them. “And even if I could, I don’t know hundreds of applicants. “We knew you from the didn’t know Killington from Stratton, how to ski!” I opted to keep that to myself. ski reports,” the future voice of the NBA replied.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 9 VIEWS Elsewhere

We head east towards the Hudson Up the Creek, and Back River. Low tide reveals what’s been un- derwater all along: sunken trees and Plying a quintessential American waterway. moss-covered docks, laden with invasive purple loosestrife’s long fi ngers. A blue By Cynthia McVay heron stalks the shallow water. Cormo- rants cling to buoys. When I glance over my shoulder to see what lies ahead, I can’t tell whether the rippling water sig- nals a fl oating log or a duck until it fl ies away. Osprey nest every year atop the rusty 30-foot arm of an arthritic crane, which reaches towards the heavens in a state of perpetual supplication. I carry a low-grade fear that a town planner will “clean up” this waterfront, mistaking its complex, adaptive ecosystem for unre- deemed industrial wreckage. We row to where the creek spills into the Hudson River. We gauge the river’s hospitality by the Rondout Lighthouse’s American fl ag: if it shivers horizontal- ly—which is often, lately—it’s too windy and we turn around. In this COVID year, we are in singles and doubles, rather than quads or eights, and so row less than we normally do on this regal but intimidating river. The Hudson is a draw for its long vistas, the luxury of taking a dozen strokes without having to turn to see what’s ahead, and the excitement- cum-terror when an immense ship ap- proaches. But what beckons most is its sheer grandeur. “To Eddyville?” “Yep.” We head back up the creek— which, to be clear, is no compromise; it has historical, aesthetic, and natural trea- sures all its own, delivered on a personal scale. Four bridges off er delectable shade and segment the three miles to the water- a serene fall morning in the fall. We pull by the low-slung blue-and- Hudson Valley, my eyes savor white houseboat that a long-haired, bare- the billowing, exuberant or- chested millennial outfi tted as a B&B last ange, yellow, red, and still- year. A vomit-hued hospital ship is ripe green treetops as a friend and for creative repurposing. We pass the OnI set off in two single sculls on the water- sheriff ’s dock, get a whiff of bacon from glass of Rondout Creek. Rowing saved me Ole Savannah’s southern brunch, hear this summer from the pandemic’s isola- woodworkers tapping in the barn. Each tion grip, but the solace it brings comes of several marinas has its own character. tinted with the fractured world beyond. Connelly leans toward sailboats—some

10 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Illustration by Chris Sharp verging on yachts—and sports a huge, like Richter paintings scraped by the I wonder if I should thank them for honking rusty hanger. At the far end, lock walls of the Panama Canal, or the going slowly. My instinct is to reinforce some part of it has been UNDER NEW port of Newark. We’ve watched the prog- good behavior through acknowledge- MANAGEMENT for as long as I can re- ress on PILOT No.1 metamorphosing ment, but I’ve learned it can backfi re if member. On a warm afternoon, small from oil spill response vessel to pilot it rubs up against the wrong sort of mas- children with bubbled arms jump and boat mother ship. Cranes at rakish an- culinity, the kind that rejects masks and shriek in the water I hope they don’t swal- gles hoist American fl ags hundreds of common courtesy as outrageous threats low. There’s a little Mexican restaurant, a feet into the sky. Workers in hardhats against American liberty. I decide to cluster of fuel pumps, waterfront acreage and protective visors scrape and paint; take my chances. for sale. A few trailers create a courtyard even on weekends, sparks fl y. In the “Thank you for going slowly.” around an inviting, smoking barbecue. scrapyard at the far end of Feeney’s, a “Sure,” he says. We head toward the Wilbur train four-taloned claw wrangles a pile of old I smile in relief. Just then, I sense a bridge. If we hear a rumble, we decide cars and lawnmowers. I applaud the ef- fl utter, a shadow. I look up. Flashes of whether we can make it or to wait out the forts to recycle, but I worry the tall stack white pop against the blue sky. locomotive. They seem to go on forever, might topple into the creek. Despite my “Look! A bald eagle,” I exclaim. It lands slowly: oil tanks, MAERSK containers, environmentalist bent, I appreciate the in a nearby, leafl ess tree. multicolored trailers, fl atbeds, and con- shipyard’s industrial beauty, productiv- “Hey, kids. A bald eagle!” They move tainer skeletons, heading in equal mea- ity, and authenticity. to that side of the boat to see. sures north and south. Sometimes we Just beyond the shipyard, two weeks We all watch together, riveted. yield to impatience and take our chances, ago, a 20-foot motorboat revved into When they were named the national pulling quickly, hoping the train won’t high gear—heedless of the NO WAKE bird in 1782, bald eagles soared in the kick a rock as we pass 150 feet beneath. zone—creating a large, threatening hundreds of thousands. By the mid- So far so good. I wave at the older couple wave. After passing me, they bore down 1960s habitat destruction, hunting, and who while away the day on a large sail- directly at my friend as if playing a game pesticides reduced their numbers to 450 boat below the trestle and wonder how of chicken. She shook for 10 minutes. nesting pairs in the continental United they trust the century-old structure. All summer, we’ve dealt with an unar- States. Thanks to environmental protec- I turn to take a good look before navi- ticulated political rift on the Rondout tions, bald eagles came off the endan- gating this next part, through Feeney Creek. Rowers, sailors, and kayakers gered species list in 1995. Every time we Shipyard, where barges and tugboats seem to share a connection: physical see one on our rows, we pause in awe. double- and triple-park and sometimes exertion, poetry of motion, proximity to I nod at the family and carry on. I ex- kick up debris we dodge in our fragile nature. Motorboats tend to gun their hale as I drive—push with my feet and sculls. For over a hundred years, Fee- way down the creek, blasting music and pull with my arms, feeling the resistance ney’s has been fi xing and building ma- heaving blue exhaust mixed with ciga- of the water—and inhale on recovery, as rine vessels. I see a microcosm of Amer- rette smoke, American fl ags on the bow I pull up the slide. That’s what this year ica at work. It’s been busy, almost jubi- and Trump pennants on the stern. Boat has been: constant recovery. lant, the past few years. What does that names may contain whimsy, but many I want to believe the eagle is an omen say about global shipping and America’s are imbued with aggression or hard par- of good news. We are battling for our economy? Are the ships out of commis- tying, like I CAN’T REMEMBER. country and everybody in it, for the sion while we get things straight with This morning, for almost the entire American fl ag and all it represents, for China? Or is there so much commerce row to Eddyville, a motorboat creeps the planet’s future. The fall is progress- that demand for more capacity reaches along behind us, its disconcerting pres- ing. Soon the boats will be put away— all the way back here? STATUE CRUIS- ence hard to read. The boat is not only sailboats, motorboats, our sculls. The ES, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island following us, but the rules—going slow- docks will be up. The days will shorten. I rests here, too, this pandemic summer, ly so as to not create a wake, which can will miss rowing and the profound beau- her windows masked with strand board, easily unsteady a 25-foot-long, slender ty the creek off ers as winter locks up the a metaphor for our fractious and fraying scull. It stops near a wetland inlet just waterways. But I will have something to republic, where New York tourism has short of where we habitually turn look forward to in the spring. been suspended along with the hopes of around. As we pass the boat on our way immigrant children. back, I make out three men and a couple Cynthia McVay G’88 WG’88 is an artist, We row alongside the vast vessels, of children. The morning sun catches a writer, and rower based in the Hudson Valley their sides smeared in orange and green translucent line as one man casts a reel. and St. Croix.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 11 VIEWS Expert Opinion

the AIDS epidemic, leading singles to date fewer people at a time and have ex- clusivity conversations sooner. Government guidelines on sex during lockdown varied by geography. The Dutch were counseled to limit them- selves to one seksbuddy. Single Brits pored over the rules in search of a loop- hole (outdoor orgies?) until “support bubbles” eff ectively lifted the sex ban. Offi cials in New York and LA began by preaching abstinence: “You are your saf- est sex partner,” wrote the New York De- partment of Health, and the “next safest partner” is someone in your household. The guidelines were later updated to ac- knowledge interhousehold activity by recommending wearing face masks and avoiding kissing for safer sex. “Make it a little kinky,” suggested their COVID-19 factsheet. “Be creative with sexual posi- tions and physical barriers, like walls, that allow sexual contact while prevent- ing close face-to-face contact.” For those not busy building state-sanc- tioned glory holes, dating app traffi c soared during lockdown. Tinder had 3 billion Swipes® (yes, it’s actually a regis- tered trademark) on March 29 alone, the highest number recorded in the app’s history. The daily average swipes of fe- male users under 30 were up 37 percent, which got its parent company, Match Group, excited: “Female usage and en- gagement is a key driver for a dating product’s success,” they told sharehold- ers. OkCupid also noted an uptick, with women sending 40 percent more intro Swipeout messages than previously. In light of rules around social distanc- How the pandemic is changing ing, the pandemic ushered in a new era the future of romance. of video dating. Bumble’s in-app video chatting, a feature many users didn’t By Mia Levitin even know existed, increased 93 percent in the two weeks after President Trump life went even more digital dur- world interspersed with screen time to declared a national emergency. Hinge ing lockdown, the inversion we existing almost entirely online, with the also introduced a “date from home” fea- had been heading towards for outside world a place to dip into from ture to indicate if matches were up for over a decade was nearly com- time to time. Seduction took a strange a video chat or phone call. Teams at both plete: many of us in the West twist, as physical intimacy became po- Tinder and Facebook Dating got busy Ashad gone from a life engaged in the tentially perilous for the fi rst time since adding video functionality to their plat-

12 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Illustration by Laura Liedo Alumni in Business Advertise your business or forms to accommodate the surge in in- Even before opportunities for in-per- profession with us and reach terest. By adding the dimensions of son encounters dwindled, dating apps 270,000 fellow alumni voice and mannerisms, video is one step were a booming business. According to closer to sussing out what it’s like to be the analytics fi rm App Annie, dating app ■ Must be a Penn graduate with someone. Provided the apps could spending doubled in the past two years, ■ All ads prepaid screen for safety—i.e., it didn’t devolve to $2.2 billion globally in 2019. Tinder, See the current ALUMNI IN BUSINESS into Chatroulette—some users planned the market leader, is the highest-grossing on page 67. For more information or to to continue using video as a way to non-gaming app, with an impressive $1.4 place an ad, email Linda Caiazzo: screen dates before meeting face to face. billion of revenue expected in 2020. De- [email protected] As physical borders contracted, the spite the seeming sexual smorgasbord digital dating universe expanded: Bum- on off er on apps, however, a 2019 Pew course on campus.” One of the assign- ble let people match with anyone in their survey showed that 67 percent of single- ments? Asking someone out on a date. country and Tinder off ered its premium tons surveyed were dissatisfi ed with As I learned from one of Smith’s “fear- Passport function—traditionally used by their dating lives and 75 percent were less fl irtation” courses, striking up con- people to line up dates before traveling— fi nding it diffi cult to meet people to date. versations IRL can be as simple as asking for free during lockdown. Airbnb and The popularity of apps has posed a a question to establish rapport, e.g., “Can Bumble teamed up to curate virtual fi rst challenge to other dating businesses. A you recommend a beer on tap?” The rev- dates in exotic locales, from a Turkish matchmaker at a high-end agency told elation is that if someone is interested in coff ee-grind reading (hopefully predict- me that her clients, who were always talking to you, the opening gambit does ing a wonderful future together) to demanding given the hefty fee of the not matter a lick. If they’re not interested, “Meet the Woolly Sheep of My New Zea- service, come in with ever-longer laun- you respectfully retreat. A smile is a low- land Farm.” Virtual Reality Looking For dry lists of must-haves and deal-break- cost investment: if it goes unreturned, Partner (VRLFP)—“a community for ers. The shutting down of Guardian what, really, have you lost? Flirtation people interested in dating, hookups, Soulmates, a paid service that had been doesn’t even have to have sexual under- friendship and/or roleplaying in virtual a mainstay of UK dating since 2004, was tones or romantic intent; at its base, it is reality”—left the physical plane behind a direct casualty of free apps. Zoe Strim- nothing more than cultivating a sense of altogether. VR porn also saw increased pel, the author of Seeking Love in Mod- playfulness and openness to the possi- traffi c, off ering experiences in places ern Britain, called the demise of Soul- bilities of conversation. (You might dis- people missed: outdoors, abroad, in res- mates “an epic fi nal nail in the coffi n of cover a new lager!) There are plenty of taurants and, yes, hair salons. the old era of courtship.” people out there in the wild, it turns out, Many commentators highlighted the Habituated to the safety of screens, if we just lift our heads and take out our positive aspects of distance-dating, prais- people are increasingly unpracticed at AirPods long enough to notice. ing the slow burn of delaying physical unmediated seduction. The social an- So what will courtship look like when intimacy, deeper conversations around thropologist Jean Smith told me that singletons emerge from their caves—eyes safety, and longing associated with sepa- some participants in a masterclass she blinking to adjust to the sun—as it be- ration. If one positive thing came out of taught on fl irtation asked her to set up comes safe to go out again? The pandem- lockdown with regard to seduction, peo- an online forum so they could “wink” at ic has given us occasion to pause and ple realized how much they missed hu- those whom they had been too shy to consider how it is we want to live, at a man touch. Some singles complained of approach during the cocktail hour. This, moment when we have reached the apo- increased aggressivity, however, with a having just dedicated hours to develop- theosis of individualism. We can rethink ramp-up in unsolicited nudes and pres- ing that very skill! Despite the preva- our approach to social care, healthcare, sure to break lockdown rules to meet up. lence of dating apps, a full 84 percent of and the environment, or we can revert to Others wondered whether video chatting millennials surveyed said they would the old normal. We can engage in the with people in far-fl ung locations, whom still prefer to meet someone organically. world and the people who populate it, in they had no chance of meeting anytime And yet they fear they are losing the ap- all of their glorious messiness, or spend soon, was yet another way of avoiding titude to do so: a School of Life class I our one wild and precious life swiping intimacy. In its roundup of pandemic dat- attended on the art of conversation was them away. Choose your own adventure. ing alternatives, Time Out London kept fi lled with participants who felt unable it real: “None of them is as good as going to relay their text selves into real life. Mia Levitin W’97 is the author of The Future to the pub for a couple of drinks and then Northwestern University’s class on inti- of Seduction, from which this essay is adapted going back to theirs.” macy is dubbed “the most popular with the permission of Unbound.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 13 GAZETTEER P. 16 P. 18 P.20 P.22 Civil Rights Sites Hillel Head Departs America and Iran Gridiron Groundbreaker

Masked Move-In It was a different kind of college move-in for freshmen like Mehul Suri EAS’24, seen above rolling his belongings into Lauder College House with his father, Ajit Suri, on January 14. Because the pan- demic shut down college housing for the fall semester, most of Penn’s fi rst-year students didn’t make their fi rst trips to campus until this winter. And since safety precautions limited students to only single bedrooms, some were spread out in dorms typically occupied by upperclassmen. No matter where on campus they landed, freshmen quickly needed to get comfortable in their new rooms—since that’s likely where they’ve been taking their (still mostly virtual) classes for the spring semester.

14 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Photo by Tommy Leonardi C’89 Student Honors

from a four-year college. cial worker for the rest of my “The overwhelming majority life,” she says, remembering of foster youth do want to one particular caseworker of complete high school and go hers who never bothered to on to college or trade school learn her name after skipping or vocational school,” Fierce- visits for months. At the time, ton claims. “But then when again from a hospital bed, we get there, we have no sup- Fierceton emailed “every poli- port and the wheels just kind tician [she] could think of” of fall off , in a sense.” about how they must reform Fierceton notes that her ex- child welfare and fi nd her a perience in the foster system, better caseworker. while still diffi cult, was an ex- Now, after working as a ception to the rule. She went caseworker at Penn’s School to a private high school, where of Social Policy & Practice’s the adults looked out for her, Goldring Reentry Initiative, almost approximating a sense which addresses the barriers of family. Teachers showed up incarcerated individuals face at soccer games and theater upon release from Philadel- Fostering Youth Voices performances, while friends’ phia prisons, Fierceton has families invited her over for more compassion for those Penn’s newest Rhodes Scholar plans holidays and ensured she had managing heavy caseloads. to help kids who grew up like her. clothes and “everything she “People go into it with so needed” while she moved in much passion and compas- and out of the system. sion and empathy and a really ackenzie Fierceton safety nets in the United States, “For foster youth, in par- deep desire to support youth,” C’20 SPP’21 wrote United Kingdom, and Norway, ticular, your success is deter- she says. “Then they’re over- her Rhodes Scholar- to determine how welfare mined by your social support worked and underpaid and ship application programs and social assis- and social capital,” she says. have no support in the work- from a hospital bed. tance contribute to the foster “I got where I am today be- place. So burnout is such a AfterM suff ering a seizure that care-to-prison pipeline. cause I don’t face the innu- huge problem.” sent her epilepsy into over- Foster youth “get swept into merable racial, educational, After fi nishing at Oxford, drive nearly two weeks be- incarceration, and a lot of the and sociopolitical marginal- Fierceton hopes to return to fore the deadline—which is, time it’s for survival crimes,” izations that the vast major- Philadelphia to do clinical coincidentally, when she de- Fierceton says. “It’s literally ity of foster youth experi- social work while also craft- cided to apply—Fierceton for stealing money or stealing ence. That’s why I was able to ing child welfare policy. “An had meetings and wrote es- things because you don’t have go to Penn, and why I have issue with a lot of policymak- says while pushing through a shoes for school or enough access to so many spaces.” ing is that the people who are cloud of sedatives. money to pay rent if you’re an Fierceton is currently pur- making policy have no fi rst- Now, Fierceton is Penn’s 18-year-old who just got suing a master’s in social hand experience and have 2021 Rhodes Scholar, beating dropped out of the system.” work at Penn with an eye to- never worked with the popu- out more than 2,300 appli- Fierceton’s research hits ward reforming the system lations they’re writing policy cants nationwide to become close to home. Having grown she grew up in—even if that for, so a lot of it doesn’t have one of 32 Americans to earn up in foster homes in St. Lou- means having a gentler un- the intended eff ect,” she says. a prestigious four-year schol- is and Florida, she under- derstanding of the social “After winning the Rhodes, I arship to study at England’s stands how the system stacks workers who struggled to had this overwhelming sense University of Oxford. odds against children like support her. “When I aged out that people are fi nally listen- While at Oxford, Fierceton her. According to studies, of the foster care system, I ing to foster youth—seeing us, intends to research the child about 50 percent of foster wanted to get as far away hearing us, and believing that welfare system and conduct a youth graduate from high from [it] as possible. I never work needs to be done.” comparative study of social school and only 2.5 percent wanted to talk to another so- —Beatrice Forman C’22

Photo courtesy Mackenzie Fierceton Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 15 The Snow Camp historic site in Alamance GAZETTEER Historic Preservation County, North Carolina, was once home to a Quaker community that was believed to be a stop on the Underground Railroad.

That includes recognizing both iconic sites and ordinary places “where the Black com- munity prevailed and tri- umphed” throughout the 19th and 20th centuries—not just “the era that we refer to with a capital C and capital R” in the 1950s and 1960s. According to a recent New Yorker article, only two per- cent of the nearly 100,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places are associ- ated with the Black experi- ence. Brent Leggs, founding executive director of the Na- tional Trust for Historic Pres- ervation’s new African Amer- ican Cultural Heritage Action Fund, is a leader in rectifying that—and one of the fi rst ex- perts that Mason contacted as he fl eshed out the idea of a center. “Brent’s program has Preserving Civil Rights Heritage had a pretty amazing im- A new center at the Weitzman School commemorates pact,” Mason says. “Beyond raising money to support and aims to understand the African American struggle. these sites, it’s brought many untold stories to the surface.” hen Booker T. Wash- School of Design. “They liter- core partner of the Weitzman During this spring semes- ington was named ally dug the clay so they School’s new Center for the ter, Leggs and Mason have principal of Ala- could make the bricks that Preservation of Civil Rights cotaught a course called bama’s new Tuskegee turned into the buildings.” Sites (CPCRS), which Reckoning with Civil Rights Normal School for In the 1890s, Robert Robin- launched last fall with Mason Sites that includes opportu- ColoredW Teachers in 1881, his son Taylor, the nation’s fi rst serving as faculty director. nities to collaborate with stu- domain encompassed not accredited Black architect, The initiative traces its roots dents at Tuskegee to consider much more than a one-room and David A. Williston, its fi rst to a collaboration between future possibilities for a shanty. After about a year, professionally trained African Penn and Tuskegee that start- school building in rural Ala- the celebrated educator pur- American landscape architect, ed in 2019 with the support of bama, and with local part- chased a former plantation collaborated on a further ex- Amy Freitag GFA’94 GLA’94, ners to search for sustainable and began developing a 100- pansion and later joined the executive director of the phil- strategies for the Marian An- acre campus that formed the faculty. More than a century anthropic organization J. M. derson House in Philadel- nucleus of what blossomed later, Tuskegee remains one of Kaplan Fund, and Kevin Penn phia. Leggs also serves on the into Tuskegee University. just a handful of the nation’s W’83, chair of Weitzman’s advisory board of CPCRS, “The students actually built historically black colleges and board of advisors. along with Freitag; Penn; the early parts of the campus universities (HBCUs) that of- The center’s scope, accord- Monica Rhodes GFA’12, direc- themselves,” says Randall fers an accredited architecture ing to Mason, is to explore tor of resource management Mason, associate professor in degree. In fact, its Robert R. how the pursuit of civil rights for the National Park Founda- historic preservation at Taylor School of Architecture has shaped America’s built tion; Kwesi Daniels, Tuske- Penn’s Stuart Weitzman and Construction Science is a environment and its society. gee’s architecture chair and

16 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Photo courtesy The Center for the Preservation of Civil Right Sites Heard on Campus

assistant professor; and Bill look at the American cultural Adair C’85, an independent landscape and when I think The Radical and arts and culture consultant. of African American history, After more than a decade I see that Philadelphia has Universal King spent chipping away at “el- been home to a most remark- evating the signifi cance of Af- able collection of people [who Cornel West on the misunderstood icon rican America culture” by se- contributed to that history], and “imperfect,” “magnificent” man. curing historic designation for from Marian Anderson to sites like the estate of entre- Dox Thrash to W. E. B. Dubois preneur Madam C. J. Walker to Paul Robeson,” he says. and Penn English professor in Irvington, New York, and “I’ve respected and followed Margo Crawford, the Ed- the Negro League’s Hinchliff e [Mason’s] work for years, and mund J. and Louise W. Kahn Stadium in Paterson, New Jer- in my opinion, Penn’s is the Professor of Faculty Excel- sey, Leggs says he was inspired leading academic preserva- lence, West—a philosophy by the 2017 Charlottesville, tion program in the United professor at Harvard and the Virginia, protests over Civil States. So when this bold vi- author of 20 books, most re- War monuments to consider sion was coalescing, I was cently Black Prophetic Fire— how “historic preservation really interested to be a part touched on King’s place in could have a role in equity and of [it].” the “cacophony of voices” social justice.” Since the Afri- In addition to the course- making up the movement for can American Cultural Heri- work, the center plans to civil rights and social and eco- tage Action Fund was conduct research at several nomic justice. West also launched, it has awarded fi eld sites, organize virtual delved into King’s relationship grants totaling more than $4.3 panels, and feature on its with Malcolm X, and the cen- million for preservation ef- website a crowdsourced digi- think we have to begin trality of Black popular culture forts at some 150 sites. tal exhibition of places that with the notion that as a spiritual and democratic “My fi rst goal is always to commemorate civil rights Martin Luther King Jr. force, among other topics. protect the site in perpetuity stories. More than anything, “I is not an isolated voice, In her last question, Craw- and to buy time for its future,” “we’re taking an open and an icon in a museum; he’s a ford asked West to comment Leggs says. “Ultimately, inquisitive attitude toward wave in an ocean. That he is on King’s 1966 statement though, a site must contrib- understanding what civil part and parcel of the tradi- that “a riot is the language of ute to the cultural vibrancy rights sites are and how we tion of a great people—a the unheard” in the context and life of its communities— preserve their history,” Ma- world-historical people whose of the mass demonstrations it can’t just sit as an artifact son says. “What other means gifts to the world are an unbe- that followed the killing of on the landscape. So for me, besides the current array of lievable ‘caravan of love,’ in the George Floyd last summer. after protection comes plan- preservation tools do we language of the Isley Brothers, “I applaud the marvelous ning, restoration, and fi nally need to acknowledge them in the face of 400 years of militancy of the largest expres- activation for the public use. when, for instance, the sites chronic hatred,” said philoso- sion of protests in the history The big goal is that these as- don’t have the presence of, pher and activist Cornel West of the United States,” which sets are positioned as cultural say, Independence Hall? near the start of the 2021 Rev- then spread around the globe, anchors within their commu- When something like Joe erend Dr. Martin Luther King West said. “But the real chal- nities, and to foster conversa- Frazier’s Gym, for example, is Jr. Lecture in Social Justice. lenge is that we can’t view it in tion about identity and place.” now a furniture store or Cohosted by the Center for an isolated way. There’s a con- Leggs has particular fond- when the physical evidence Africana Studies and the An- nection between police power, ness for Philadelphia’s built of the MOVE tragedy is most- nenberg School for Commu- Pentagon power, Wall Street legacy, and has worked on ly gone? These questions are nication, the lecture was the power,” he continued, drawing historically designated sites part of a conversation about 20th in the annual series at a comparison to King’s cri- in the city like the John Coltrane what’s been purposely forgot- the University—and the fi rst tique of militarism during the House, Joe Frazier’s Gym, ten or erased and how to be- to be held virtually. US war in Vietnam. and Tindley Temple United gin redefi ning heritage.” In a wide-ranging conver- West argued that King was Methodist Church. “When I —JoAnn Greco sation with Center director profoundly misunderstood

Photo courtesy Penn Archives Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 17 GAZETTEER University Life

even during his own lifetime, 2003, where students can fi nd pointing out that people now A Place for Pluralism common ground in person, forget that the majority of whether attending a panel Americans and even almost After 15 years working there—and discussion about Israel or half of Black people disap- 10 in charge—Rabbi Mike Uram eating Shabbat dinner. And proved of him two months Hillel staff members have of- before he died. “Black folk was leaves Penn Hillel as a welcoming ten been the “fi rst line of de- saying, ‘Why you talking space for Jews and non-Jews alike. fense,” he says, for students to about foreign policy? We just talk with about their mental talking about civil rights. Why health or any other concerns. you talking about the poor? The doors are open to ev- We don’t need to talk about his second week work- arrived at Penn. In his estima- erybody, too. Uram notes that white poor, we don’t need to ing at Penn Hillel, Rab- tion, it’s led to less civil dis- in a normal year Penn Hillel talk about brown poor, we’re bi Mike Uram was giv- course between students who engages about 3,500 under- talking about Black people.’ In en a task well-suited for disagree politically, whereas graduates—while there are “And Martin said, ‘Y’all nev- a man in his 20s. Facebook “politics on campus were only about 1,750 Jewish un- er understood me: see, I was had just allowed its users to much more muted” in 2005. dergraduates at Penn. “So a never just a civil rights activ- post photos, and Uram was More positively, he’s also seen huge amount of work in- ist. I was never just a patriot. responsible for teaching older a dramatic shift in “students volves interfaith dialogue, I am a Christian preacher staff members how to navi- becoming much more trans- interfaith community ser- who’s called to follow hesed, gate the new social network. pursue justice, and tell the “And how quickly I became a truth that aff ects every cor- dinosaur in social media use,” ner of the globe, beginning laughs the now 44-year-old, with Black people in the who remained at the Univer- United States. … But that love sity’s center for Jewish life for for Black people didn’t stop more than 15 years, fi rst as me from loving white people, Penn Hillel’s assistant direc- from loving Jewish people, tor and then as its executive from loving Palestinian peo- director, before departing at ple, from loving Arab people, the end of 2020. from loving Asians, indig- “I basically came of age at enous peoples, and so forth.’ Penn,” says Uram, who left to “That’s the Love Supreme take a job as the chief vision that’s always too much for and education offi cer of the ears of the elites—too Pardes North America, under much for them to really lis- the umbrella of the Pardes ten to and understand the Institute of Jewish Studies in challenge, the fundamental Jerusalem. “I moved to Phila- challenge, to the powers that delphia as a newly married be. And that’s why we shall person. I learned how to be- never ever forget our brother come a husband and a father. Martin and all of the others I learned to be a rabbi and a parent and real about their vices, and bridge building who gave so much in their professional at Penn. … It’s struggles and their vulner- work between religious com- own imperfect and fallible really hard to say goodbye to abilities and their challenges munities,” he says. Since but magnifi cent and, I would so many people you love and with mental health.” Uram started as executive say, sublime ways.” —JP to an organization you care To navigate these changes, director in 2010, one of his so much about.” Uram tried to maintain a wel- proudest accomplishments The entire session can be viewed The rise of social media is coming and pluralistic envi- was tripling Penn Hillel’s at the Center for Africana Studies’ one way to chart how things ronment at Steinhardt Hall, budget. And he directed homepage or YouTube channel. have changed since Uram Penn Hillel’s home since those donor-raised funds to

18 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Photo by Tommy Leonardi C’89 LEADERSHIP student programming that Jewish students are more Woods Tapped to Run includes a fellowship in concerned about “justice and Penn Museum which Jews and Muslims equality and inclusivity for learn Hebrew and Arabic to- everyone,” he says, noting The University announced that Christopher Woods gether, social justice initia- there have been more has been named the Williams Director of the tives like a weekly soup kitch- conversations about University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology en inside Steinhardt Hall, “how to be good part- and Anthropology, effective April 1. and yearly interfaith trips to ners and allies to Black Woods arrives at Penn from the University of Chi- mentor orphans at a Rwan- Lives Matter and to LG- dan youth village [“Horror BTQ students than how cago, where he served as director of the Oriental Insti- and Hope,” Sep|Oct 2011]. do we protect the Jews?” And tute, one of the world’s leading centers for interdisciplin- “And people who would go to based on research Penn Hillel ary research on Near East civilizations. Woods, who also Rwanda or on our Israel pro- did a few years ago, although served as editor in chief of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, is grams or Spring Break pro- a majority of Jewish students “an experienced and collaborative leader and award-winning scholar grams would then become have reported hearing classic who believes deeply in the power of museums to connect past to regulars at Hillel, whether or anti-Semitic tropes on cam- present,” Penn President Amy Gutmann said in the announcement. not they were Jewish,” Uram pus, many did not think of it Woods replaces Julian Siggers, whose eight-year tenure was marked says. “To be there during a as anti-Semitism at the time. by what he called a “reimagining and rebranding of the museum” in an weekday dinner or a Friday “We’re often trying to both be interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer last April after he was named night Shabbat dinner, when a good allies,” Uram says, “and head of the Field Museum in Chicago. Efforts he shepherded as direc- huge number of students are in our spare time trying to fi g- tor include recent renovations to the Middle East, Africa, and Mexico of diff erent faiths and colors ure out how to raise a nuanced and socioeconomic back- conversation about ways that and Central America galleries as part of a multiphase building transfor- grounds, that level of inclu- anti-Semitism shows up on a mation project [“Gazetteer,” Jan|Feb 2020]. The renovations also es- sivity really ramped up.” college campus.” tablished a dramatic and airier main entrance in which visitors now Ensuring that everyone in- Through it all, the students immediately greet the 25,000-pound Sphinx of the Pharaoh Ramses II, side Steinhardt Hall was al- were always the most reward- which had been moved, from a different part of the museum, for the ways physically safe as well as ing part of the job, and those fi rst time in almost a century [“Gazetteer,” Sep|Oct 2019]. emotionally safe was a “con- relationships have lasted well Gutmann praised Woods as an ideal choice to continue the mu- stant source of tension” for past graduation. Uram has seum’s “essential missions of research, teaching, and public out- Uram, who recalls instances offi ciated weddings of couples reach and engagement.” She continued, “Chris’s excellent track where individuals not affi li- who met while they were at record at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute is proof posi- ated with Penn “who were Penn. On Alumni Weekend, tive of his ability to provide visionary leadership, and we are most very agitated were trying to he’s bumped into former stu- fortunate to bring him to Penn.” get into the building.” Their dents back on campus with security protocols always their kids in tow. Before his worked, but Penn Hillel lead- fi nal day, his colleagues gave excited for a new opportunity hopes it can be a place of ers have remained vigilant due him a 150-page memory book at Pardes and is comfortable “healing to rebuild campus to what Uram calls a “dramat- fi lled with messages from with where he’s leaving Penn life post-pandemic.” ic rise of the visibility of anti- alumni about the eff ect Penn Hillel. Under his guidance, And Uram, who lives with Semitism in recent years.” Hillel had on them. “It was the organization recently his family just outside the city After a gunman opened fi re everything from, ‘I never completed a $10 million en- in Wynnewood, will be happy on worshipers at the Tree of thought about Judaism in this dowment campaign. Rabbi to keep helping in whatever Life synagogue in Pittsburgh way until we talked about it,’ Gabe Greenberg, the current way he can. “I’ve said to every- in 2018, killing 11 and wound- to ‘I would never have made it interim director and a candi- one I’ve talked to that I’m only ing six, Penn Hillel hosted a through that moment of my date to fi ll the vacancy full- six miles away,” he says. “If you campus vigil with staff ers de- depression without you,’” he time, is an “outstanding” have a cold and you need voting many hours to help says. “We’re there through leader, he says. And Penn Hil- chicken soup, if you need a students cope with the trag- thick and thin with students.” lel’s mission of social justice place to study to get away edy. In many cases, however, It was a diffi cult decision and inclusivity should only from campus, those relation- Uram has noticed that Penn’s for Uram to leave, but he’s continue to grow. Uram ships will transcend.” —DZ

Photo by John Zich courtesy University Communications Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 19 GAZETTEER International Relations

from President Ronald Rea- No Permanent Conflict? gan that “between American and Iranian basic national Before relations between the two interests there need be no per- countries became poisoned, America manent confl ict.” Ghazvinian argues that, US fears notwith- and Iran shared a long history of standing, Iran has no real in- “mutual idealization.” tention of building nuclear weapons, and the two coun- tries could fi nd common cause mages of rioters scaling a very warm and aff ectionate in regional stability and oppo- wall of the US Capitol on towards each other—where sition to the Taliban, ISIS, and January 6 reminded John the history is full of mutual other Sunni jihadist groups. Ghazvinian, executive di- admiration, mutual fascina- Wondering “how things rector of Penn’s Middle tion, even a sort of mutual went so wrong” between the “This is a story IEast Center, of another famous idealization.” US and Iran, Ghazvinian dis- of two countries scene, from his native Iran. In his introduction, he covered “the question we nev- On Twitter he posted a photo- writes: “The Iran hostage er ask, which is ‘How did that, for the graph of the recent incursion crisis of 1979 has become a things go right in the fi rst alongside another of Iranian kind of original sin—the mo- place?’” After all, implicit in overwhelming students breaching the US ment the serpent slipped the assumption that “things majority of their Embassy in Tehran in 1979. into the Garden of Eden and have gone wrong is that things That attack, by supporters brought an end to the com- weren’t always so bad,” he history, have of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, fortable illusion of American says. “There’s a tendency to been very warm inaugurated a 14-month hos- global invincibility. The un- want to use history as a kind tage crisis that likely cost forgivable has become the of blame game. That’s not and affectionate President Jimmy Carter a sec- unforgiven. And nothing has what history should be about.” ond term—and fi xed Iran as a been the same since.” The 46-year-old Ghazvinian towards foe in the American psyche. In 1950s Iran, after the CIA dedicates America and Iran to each other.” Its immediate trigger was helped overthrow Prime Min- his parents, “who lived too Carter’s decision to allow the ister Mohammad Mosaddeq, much of this history.” His fa- from Brown University, he ousted Shah of Iran into the “a generation that had adored ther, a scientist and educator earned his doctorate in Brit- United States for medical America—a generation raised turned businessman, and his ish history at the University treatment. But anti-US senti- on years of John Wayne mov- mother, a secretary and home- of Oxford. In London, he ment also had historical roots, ies and big, stylish Chevro- maker, left Iran in 1975, when worked as a stringer for in the CIA’s role in a 1953 anti- lets— … quickly grew to hate their only child was just one. Newsweek and other publica- democratic coup that deposed it,” Ghazvinian writes. “So it Ghazvinian calls their decision tions, and, in 2007, he pub- a popular prime minister and has remained, for forty years. to emigrate “aspirational” and lished Untapped: The Scram- strengthened the shah. History—like almost every- stresses that they were neither ble for Africa’s Oil (Har- Yet the relationship be- thing else—has become a ca- political nor economic refu- court), which Publishers tween the two countries sualty in the long-running gees. “We had a good life,” he Weekly praised for “bringing hasn’t always been hostile, as war of words between Iran says. But the regime of Mo- perspective to the chaos.” Ghazvinian makes clear in his and the United States.” hammad Reza Shah Pahlavi Ghazvinian says that he new book, America and Iran: Ghazvinian’s book aims to was tightening its repressive had never intended to write A History, 1720 to the Present be a corrective. One of his epi- grip, and his father believed about Iran. But after the 9/11 (Alfred A. Knopf). “This was graphs quotes the 14th-centu- “this was not a country going terrorist attacks, he felt the great surprise for me,” he ry Persian poet Hafez on “the in the right direction.” “called upon,” to explain the says, “to realize that this is a lingering sorrow of separa- The family settled in Lon- Middle East, even though “a story of two countries that, tion,” a theme that infuses his don, then Los Angeles, where lot of us [from the region] for the overwhelming major- narrative. The second epi- Ghazvinian attended high don’t understand the Middle ity of their history, have been graph is a 1986 statement school. After graduating East ourselves either.”

20 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 It was helpful that he spoke manage the decisions of the chronicled in Educational recognize that it did come to Farsi, though not as fl uently Persian government,” Ghaz- Voyaging in Iran (University power on the back of a mas- as his British-accented Eng- vinian writes. To balance out of Pennsylvania Press). In sive popular revolution” nor lish. And as a dual US and those pressures, he says, “suc- 1962, the year Harnwell’s “to recognize that a genera- Iranian citizen, he was able to cessive Iranian governments book appeared, Penn award- tion of young men gave their travel freely to Iran (though, tried to cultivate the US as a ed an honorary doctorate to lives” to defend it in the savage about a year ago, federal cus- sort of third force.” the shah, who arrived for the 1980–88 war against Iraq. toms agents in New York Iran’s Constitutional Revo- ceremony via a helicopter Since the 1990s, the Islamic pulled him aside and interro- lution created an elected par- landing in Franklin Field. Republic has adopted a gated him about his political liament in 1906 to check the Another Penn-Iran connec- “more pragmatic and realis- views). He managed to gain shah’s power. And, in 1911, tion was forged by archaeo- tic foreign policy that has not access to the Iranian Foreign the government invited an logical digs, beginning in the always been met by pragma- Ministry archives, a rare—if American lawyer, William 1930s, which helped the Uni- tism and realism on the not unique—coup for an Morgan Shuster, “every inch versity amass a world-class American side,” he says. “And American scholar, after the can-do American trail- collection of Persian antiqui- you don’t have to like the “hours of pleading phone blazer,” to become treasurer- ties. A 1958 photograph in Islamic Republic to recog- calls,” “political background general and straighten out America and Iran shows nize that this [US] policy of checks,” “sudden rule chang- the country’s tangled fi nanc- Penn anthropologist Robert brutal, extreme sanctions es,” and other impediments. es. Shuster, interpreting his H. Dyson Jr., later dean of and maximum pressure is In US archives, he was sur- mission broadly and taking the Faculty (now School) of simply not going to achieve prised to see how extensively, on British and Russian inter- Arts and Sciences and direc- anything other than the suf- and sympathetically, colonial ference, became an unlikely tor of the Penn Museum, tri- fering of the Iranian people.” newspapers covered Persia, Iranian hero, an embodi- umphantly displaying a gold- Ghazvinian is a proponent as Iran was known until 1935. ment of nationalist aspira- en bowl unearthed at the of the 2015 nuclear agree- “It absolutely blew my mind,” tions and democratic ideals. Iranian site of Hasanlu. ment, which imposed restric- he says, “to discover that the But the political hero who After World War II, US ad- tions on Iran’s development very fi rst newspapers pub- truly bestrides Ghazvinian’s ministrations tended to see of nuclear energy in exchange lished in North America, in narrative is Mosaddeq, an Iran through the scrim of the for sanctions relief. The Boston in 1720, were obsessed aristocrat who led the coun- Cold War. Fearing the shah’s Trump administration with- with the big international try’s liberal reformers. “He demise could lead to Commu- drew from the deal in 2018. news story of the day”—an was as bald as a melon, nist ascendancy, an assump- President Joe Biden faces “a Afghan uprising against the walked with a cane, and suf- tion Ghazvinian disputes, they real challenge” in improving Persian Empire in reaction to fered from a nervous condi- mostly overlooked the regime’s relations, Ghazvinian says, forced conversions from Sun- tion that often manifested abuses. President Carter’s hu- given the limited window be- ni to Shia Islam. American itself in the form of fainting man-rights rhetoric seemed to fore June’s Iranian presiden- newspapers, he says, wrongly spells,” Ghazvinian writes. challenge that posture and tial election. In the wake of the assumed that the Afghans “But he was also one of the emboldened opposition forces. US’s abrogation of the nuclear were colluding with the Otto- most charismatic, free-spirit- But Carter ultimately declined deal, he says, a more hardline man Empire, “the hated evil ed, and uncompromising fi g- to break with longstanding candidate is likely to win. empire of its day.” By contrast, ures of the twentieth century.” American policy and traveled Nevertheless, despite lin- they regarded Persia as an Mosaddeq’s ouster, in 1953, to Tehran in December 1977 to gering distrust on both sides, “idyllic, fairy-tale land,” and consolidated the shah’s rule, toast the shah’s country as “an Ghazvinian remains optimis- the country’s Shia faith as which encompassed both island of stability”—a week tic. The logic supporting a “somehow less Muslim—and secret police terror and mod- before the outbreak of the Is- better relationship between therefore less evil.” ernizing reforms. Gaylord lamic Revolution. the two nations “hasn’t really In the 19th and early 20th Harnwell Hon’53, a physicist Despite having “no special gone away,” he says. “There’s centuries, the imperial powers who was Penn’s president love for the Islamic Republic,” no reason why at some point of Britain and Russia wrestled from 1953 to 1970, helped the Ghazvinian argues that de- these countries couldn’t lay for infl uence over Iran, “using shah establish an American- monizing it is counterproduc- aside their enmity and even bribes, economic leverage, and style university in the city of tive. “You don’t have to like the become friends.” political intrigue to stage- Shiraz, an experience he Islamic Republic,” he says, “to —Julia M. Klein

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 21 GAZETTEER Sports

Breaking Barriers Penn’s fi rst Black starting quarterback reminisces about his trailblazing college football career.

arty Vaughn W’75 when it came to its most im- WG’81 had no idea portant position. why he was being As Vaughn notes, McQuilken summoned to head was exactly the kind of quar- football coach Harry terback fans of that era—or Gamble’sM offi ce a day or two any era—would have expect- before Penn’s October 19, ed to see. And Vaughn, well, 1973 game versus Lehigh. At he was not. Just three weeks fi rst, the Quakers’ freshly earlier, in a 16–14 loss to minted starting quarterback Lafayette, Vaughn became thought he might be in trou- the fi rst Black quarterback to ble. But now, more than 47 ever start a game at Penn. years later, the conversation And the week after that, he remains vivid. participated in the fi rst-ever “They had this quarterback matchup between two start- by the name of Kim ing Black quarterbacks in McQuilken—a big, strapping, more than 100 years of major prototypical quarterback at college football, with Penn the time,” Vaughn says of the defeating Dennis Coleman Lehigh All-American who and Brown, 28–20, in the went on to play in the NFL Quakers’ 1973 home opener. for several seasons. “And I “I didn’t really know the remember Coach Gamble signifi cance of that game until looked me right in the face much later on,” says Vaughn, QB color barrier at USC a few quarterbacks remained a rar- and said, ‘Listen, we know who learned about it when he years before Vaughn got to ity even as Black players who the better quarterback read an article commemorat- Penn, recent Penn track commonly occupied other is—and Friday night you’re ing the Ivy League’s 50-year standout Nia Akins Nu’20, positions. “Part of it was ig- gonna show ’em who it is.’ I anniversary in 2006. “I called and former basketball player norance and racism,” says walked out of there thinking, up Dennis [Coleman] and Stan Greene C’78, who said Vaughn, who claims that he Damn, he thinks I’m better asked, ‘Did you know that?’ the hoops players at Penn in was encouraged to switch to than this guy. I gotta go out He said, ‘No I didn’t.’” the late 1970s were “inspired wide receiver throughout his there and prove him right.” While it may have been by the African American ath- time playing high school Gamble’s pep talk would overlooked for decades, letes leading the football football in McKeesport, prove auspicious as Vaughn Vaughn recently got the op- team and playing an exciting Pennsylvania. “Even in my outplayed McQuilken in a portunity to discuss that form of football” before them. senior year, they kept trying 27–20 Penn win in the sec- game during a Penn Home- These days, exciting Black to bring up guys to take my ond night game ever played coming panel entitled “Race quarterbacks like Patrick position. My mother always under the lights of Franklin and Athletics: Challenging Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, said, ‘You have to be twice as Field. It also refl ected a turn- Deep Rooted Beliefs.” The and Deshaun Watson are good to get an opportunity.’” ing point in a sport that had virtual presentation in No- dominating the NFL and Vaughn learned to have resisted—and would con- vember also included Jimmy revolutionizing the position. thick skin growing up, mov- tinue resisting—change Jones, who helped break the But for a long time, Black ing around the country and

22 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Photo courtesy Penn Athletics Europe because his father Clune, one of the best wide sons in ’73 and ’74, and for was in the US Army. Racism “It was receivers to ever don the red more than 45 years has re- was always lurking beneath encouraging and blue, adds that Vaughn mained close with many of his the surface; sometimes it fi t in seamlessly not only as former teammates and other bubbled up. When he was a to look up and his third quarterback in as members of what he says is a kid, he was in the crowd with many seasons but as the tight-knit Class of 1975. A cor- his parents and brother for see those team’s leader. “He had great porate fi nance executive living Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Black faces in leadership skills,” Clune says, just outside of Philadelphia, he Have a Dream” speech. After as evidenced by the fact that sits on the Penn football board leaving the March on Wash- the crowd Vaughn was named the and returns to campus to ington, they stopped at a team’s sole captain the next watch games when he can roadside store on the way to a back then.” season in 1974. “He was a (when he’s not hitting the road funeral in Georgia, only to be nice guy to begin with— to watch his daughter Mikayla turned away by the shopkeep- wasn’t conceited, not a head- Vaughn, who plays basketball er, who Vaughn recalls telling in-the-clouds kind of guy. for Notre Dame and has been his father, “You can’t bring mates and coaches during That’s why I think he was so to the Final Four twice and these little ‘n-words’ into this halftime of that year’s Penn well-liked by people.” won a national champion- store.” While retreating to Homecoming game [“Gazet- Clune’s one lament is that ship). And he’s off ered advice the car, his father grabbed teer,” Jan|Feb 2012]. Gamble, the players of that decade to players like Ryan Glover Vaughn’s hand so hard that he who attended that ceremony, and the previous one are W’21, who in 2018 was the only dislocated one of his fi ngers. died three years later.) sometimes overlooked in the regular Black starting quarter- After the tumult of the Other teams also crafted 143-year tapestry of Penn back in the Ivy League. 1960s, more African Ameri- defensive game plans to con- football, since the Quakers While he may not have can students were admitted tain Bellizeare’s speed, which didn’t win any Ivy League known the specifi c milestone to universities across the “provided me with a lot of op- championships between 1959 he and longtime friend Den- country, and when Vaughn portunity to do my thing,” and 1982. With Vaughn, nis Coleman reached in 1973, arrived at Penn in 1971, he Vaughn says. He did his thing Bellizeare, Clune, and wide he was aware that they were gravitated to his fellow Black to the tune of 1,926 passing receiver Bob Bucola C’75 two of only a handful of start- classmates. Many sat togeth- yards and 17 touchdowns as a (whose 86-yard touchdown ing Black quarterbacks in all er in a part of Franklin Field junior in 1973—establishing reception from Vaughn in of college football that year. “we called the Black section,” program records that would 1973 is the third longest in And with every fl ing of the Vaughn says. “It was encour- last for 20 years. Though he program history) leading a football, he and his counter- aging to look up and see played only two seasons high-octane off ense, the ’73 part at Brown both did their those Black faces in the (freshmen weren’t eligible to Quakers made a good run at best to try to stomp out preju- crowd back then. They were play varsity back then and he the title, though. In fact, dices, shed stereotypes, and pulling for you—not as you wasn’t called off the bench as Vaughn still thinks about one help pave a road forward for the quarterback or you the a sophomore) and Quaker of the team’s two league loss- those coming behind them. running back. They knew us. quarterbacks of later eras es that season—a narrow 34– “We knew we were in a We ate together. We talked were tasked with more pass- 30 Homecoming setback to unique position,” Vaughn about our families. We shared heavy game plans (in keeping Harvard in which nearly says. “We felt like we had a experiences.” Some, Vaughn with broader trends in foot- 40,000 fans at Franklin Field responsibility to represent adds, even looked to him and ball), Vaughn currently ranks witnessed an off ensive explo- ourselves, our race, our classmate Adolph “Beep Beep” sixth all-time at Penn in career sion from both teams. Yet it schools, our school communi- Bellizeare C’75—a star Black touchdowns (29) and 10th in was a rare incompletion, in ties with the right kind of running back who amassed passing yards (3,429). “We the fi nal minute, that still presentation—how we car- 4,004 all-purpose yards, the became more of a passing haunts Vaughn. “Every now ried ourselves, how we han- second highest total in pro- team than a lot of teams were and then,” he says, “I have dled disappointment, how we gram history—as role models. in those days,” says Don Clune nightmares about that.” dealt with some of the uphill (Bellizeare died in 2011 and C’74, Vaughn’s top receiving Most of his time at Penn, battles we had to climb. was remembered by Vaughn target in 1973, who went on to though, was a dream. He led “We tried to do it with class and many other old team- play three seasons in the NFL. the Quakers to winning sea- and with grace.” —DZ

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 23 Education scholar Jonathan Zimmerman THE on how the US republic lost the ability to understand itself—and how we can help HISTORY our children recover it. By Trey Popp WARS

24 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID HOLLENBACH Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 25 “There’s no other denial, yet who don’t vaccinate their kids? istorians of education are rare way to interpret our A lot, and they’re all Democrats, virtually enough that it would be odd to moment other than every single one,” he says, slipping mo- suggest that anyone might be des- mentarily into hyperbole. (State-level leg- tined to become one, but there’s as an epic failure islation to expand personal exemptions to little doubt that Zimmerman’s aca- childhood vaccinations has been a bipar- Hdemic interest in academics stems from of education.” tisan aff air over the last decade, though a a peculiar fact of his childhood: he at- It’s the middle of November, and edu- 2018 study found that Republican legisla- tended a Catholic school for girls. cation historian Jonathan Zimmerman tors have sponsored more such bills; an- Bishop Cotton Girls’ School was located is not in the mood to steer conversation other study, in California, found signifi - in Bangalore, India, to which Jonathan’s toward his latest book. The Amateur cantly higher rates of non-vaccination in parents had been posted as Peace Corps Hour: A History of College Teaching in heavily Republican neighborhoods than administrators in the late 1960s. It was America (Johns Hopkins University in heavily Democratic ones.) an Anglophone institution in a neighbor- Press, 2020) is his eighth. The title’s fi nal “So there is a war on science, there is hood near their home, and every year it word—America—furnishes the link to all a war on expertise, there is this inability took a handful of boys, so that was that. the others. From a history of one-room to discriminate—but I think it’s a slur to “When you’re that young, you don’t schoolhouses, to separate histories of al- call it Republican,” Zimmerman goes on. know how weird the stuff you’re doing cohol and sex education, to an explora- “It’s true that there are more Republican is. Kids never do—they just do it!” Zim- tion of US campus politics, to a history of climate change denialists than Demo- merman says now. Bishop Cotton’s ped- American teachers abroad, Zimmerman’s crats—but there are sizeable numbers of agogical style was “what you might guess bibliography is above all else an examina- Democrats. And same for the anti-vax of a Catholic school in South India dur- tion of the US republic. And in the bile- thing: there’s a skew, but it’s not one or ing the Cold War,” he says. “There was a spattered, venom-splashed, conspiracy- another. So it’s a failure that we haven’t lot of memorization, a lot of copying. But stained wake of the 2020 election, he la- taught people these basic skills. there was rigor to all that as well, which ments the state of the union. “Obviously there are eff orts to do this— I’m glad I received. Those nuns, when I “It’s not the ‘fault’ of teachers,” he con- it’s not that we don’t teach it,” he allows. goofed off —which I did a lot because I tinues—dispatching with the customary “But we don’t teach it well enough. was getting so much attention—they’d scapegoat of much education-reform There’s no other way to interpret all this. give me a little rap to the knuckles with discourse (and one that has its own If millions of people think that in Con- the ruler. lengthy history). “I’m talking about edu- gress there is a conspiracy of people that “And I’m not saying I support that, or that cation writ large.” Which has failed, he are sexually abusing children and drink- I would do that,” he interjects, “but I am not contends, on two fronts. ing their blood,” he says, referring to QA- the worse for wear. There are so many ways “First of all, we haven’t taught people non adherents, “and if we just elected to skin a cat when it comes to schooling, how to discriminate between informa- somebody to that body who seems to and I think that what my own experience tion and disinformation.” believe that—well, we’ve got a problem did was sensitize me to that variety.” That ability, and the discipline to exer- with our education system.” When the Peace Corps shifted his par- cise it, “is at the heart of all intellectual The second failure clasps hands with ents to Iran, Jonathan got a whole dif- activity—and it’s at the heart of democ- the fi rst: “We haven’t taught people to ferent kind of education, at an interna- racy,” says Zimmerman, who is the Judy engage across their diff erences. And to tional school in Tehran. It was the height and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Edu- me that’s also an educational problem.” of the oil boom, Shah Mohammad Reza cation in Penn’s Graduate School of Edu- To the extent that contemporary Amer- Pahlavi was on a quest for superpower cation. For instance, “You have to be able icans are taught the practice of political status, and petrol money had turned the to discriminate between ‘vaccines keep discourse, they learn it largely from ca- capital into a cosmopolitan crossroads. you safe’ or ‘vaccines give you autism.’ ble news, whose model for debate “The term international school is often “And it’s not just a Democratic/Repub- amounts to four faces appearing on a a misnomer, but in this case it really was lican thing—it really isn’t,” he adds. For screen and yelling at each other. “That’s that: a quarter Persian, a quarter Amer- that’s another Zimmerman hallmark: what we’ve socialized people to think ican, and half everyone else,” Zimmer- yanking the rug out from under self-satis- politics is,” Zimmerman says. man remembers. “I had friends from fi ed liberals. “How many people are there “And the only institution that has even Poland, South Africa, the UK … because in Boulder, Colorado, who scoff —appro- a chance of intervening in that,” he con- Tehran was going to be the Paris of the priately in my view—at climate change tends, “is a school.” Middle East.

26 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Jonathan Zimmerman

“It was an amazing experience,” he says, “We have radically different understandings “and it was a great place to be an Ameri- can.” Not just because of petrodollars and of America right now. But that’s not geopolitics, but because Iranians seemed so fascinated by and favorably disposed the problem. The problem is we don’t toward the United States. Zimmerman actually have venues and institutions to vividly remembers watching the iconic fi rst fi ght between Muhammad Ali and deliberate those differences.” Joe Frazier with his parents’ cook, who was transfi xed by the spectacle of two Black Americans, one bearing an Islamic name, clashing in a bout that guaranteed it made me interested in the way diff er- point of fact, the aftermath of the them equal shares of a $5 million purse. ent communities around the world try 2020 election was rough going “I was also there for the moon land- to reproduce themselves via schools, and for bromide peddlers—about ing,” Zimmerman reminisces, “which try to make citizens. Because that’s what education or any other aspect of was a huge moment of American pride.” schools in every place do. And they do it civic life in America. Indeed, as Zimmerman calls his elementary- in all kinds of diff erent ways. It’s deeply widespreadIn rejection of the election’s school education in Bangalore and Teh- infl ected by culture, religion, and often legitimacy among Republicans bloomed ran the most formative experience of his race. It made me more interested in that into chatter about “secession” in some life (apart from, years later, meeting his variety, and more tolerant of it—and quarters of right-wing media and the wife). “Together with my own Peace more skeptical of whatever bromides Texas GOP (before exploding into the Corps experience as a teacher in Nepal, we’re off ering in the current moment.” deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill on

Photo by Tommy Leonardi C’89 Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 27 January 6), it took considerable gram- plumbed themes that proved resonant in pervasive intolerance, Italian immigrants matical strain to speak of America in the 2020, and not just around the election. set out to elevate a historical fi gure who singular case at all. During a summer when social justice ac- could support their claim to civic belong- “One thing that everyone said, no mat- tivists campaigned to eliminate public ing. “Columbus statues arose during the ter where they were, is, ‘God, I didn’t memorials to fi gures they associated with same years” that Confederate memorials know there were that many people on the white supremacy, Zimmerman repeat- began appearing amidst the reestablish- other side,’” Zimmerman remarks about edly drew from that book in newspaper ment of apartheid regimes in the post- reactions to the presidential vote totals. op-ed columns to push back against at- Reconstruction South, Zimmerman “Wasn’t that remarkable! Myself and my tempts to cashier Christopher Columbus, writes, “but they aimed to rebut white Biden friends are like, ‘Holy shit, 71 mil- for example, or to bury memorials to racism rather than to further it. And the lion people on the other side?! Who are Confederate insurrectionists in deep stor- bigotry they targeted wasn’t against these people?’ But you go to Trump Land, age. (He did so while simultaneously blacks, but against another despised mi- and they say exactly the same thing. They pushing back against the notion that the nority group: Italians.” live in their own bubble, and that bubble latter are anything but the “racist memo- What began with fundraising drives has persuaded them they are in the ma- rials” they have in fact been since their for memorial statues would gradually jority, and they’re like, ‘74 million people installation, by the so-called Redeemers morph into campaigns directed at his- for Biden? Who are these people?’” who restored white supremacy after Re- tory textbooks. The goal was to ensure (When the count was fi nished, those to- construction. Zimmerman, suffi ce it say, that the American story didn’t simply tals would rise to roughly 74 million for does a lot of pushing back.) begin with the Mayfl ower landing in Donald Trump W’68 and 81 million for Statues may be a uniquely reductive 1620, but with Columbus’s trans-Atlantic President Joe Biden Hon’13.) form of commemorating the past, but the voyages more than a century before. And “We have radically diff erent under- history of Columbus busts reveals a deep- the success of that framing eff ort would standings of America right now,” he goes er insight about the way Americans have set an enduring template for the cura- on. “But that’s not the problem. The gone about distilling the vast past into tion of American history. problem is we don’t actually have venues digestible textbook form. As Zimmerman and institutions to deliberate those dif- argued this summer, the key to under- he drive to place the Niña, Pinta, ferences. That’s what this last election standing Columbus statues in the US lies and Santa María on par with the was about. And our educational institu- in the timing of their proliferation. They Mayfl ower was by no means an act tions have not stepped into that chal- did not begin appearing until well after of historical invention. Columbus lenge. They are critical here. They are the Civil War, and the vast majority date had been recognized by earlier gen- our key institutions, and public ones, to to the turn of the 20th century. If there Terations of Americans—otherwise it discuss and deliberate what we want to was a watershed year in Columbus ven- wouldn’t have worked. (In the 18th and communicate to our young—and even eration, it was probably 1892, when the early 19th centuries, however, it was more to discuss and deliberate who we are.” fi rst statues went up in New York and Chi- common to encounter the fi gure of Co- Who Americans are is bound up tight- cago, among other US cities. That year was lumbia, a poetic feminine personifi cation ly in who we have been, how that has the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s fi rst that melded the explorer’s name with a changed, and how each generation has voyage to the Caribbean. (The Genoan Latin suffi x and neoclassical imagery to connected itself to the story of those who explorer never made landfall in North create a broadly symbolic representation came before—shifting the narrative’s America.) But that milestone may well of America.) Elevating the Columbus arcs and emphases with every extension. have gone unmarked if not for a more story was instead an act of historical em- Who we are, in other words, is a matter proximate catalyst: the poor treatment of phasis. And it would be neither the fi rst of our history. Italian immigrants who had arrived in nor the last. The explorer’s legacy had Which is why the book on Zimmer- large numbers over the preceding decades. enjoyed an earlier promotion, so to speak, man’s mind was neither his latest nor his The nadir of anti-Italian discrimination in after the American Revolution—when next (a paean to free speech, largely the US arguably came in 1891, when a citizens of the new republic wanted he- aimed at campus liberals who’ve grown white mob in New Orleans lynched 11 Si- roes who weren’t British. But that pen- skeptical of it), but one of his fi rst: a 2002 cilian immigrants in a vigilante action that dulum would continue to swing. volume examining the history of how future president Theodore Roosevelt In Whose America, Zimmerman docu- American schools have taught US history. deemed “rather a good thing.” ments the striking malleability of the Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Eager to establish themselves as part of Revolution’s portrayal by history text- Public Schools (Harvard University Press) the American community in the face of books in the early 20th century. Even

28 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 successive editions of the same book— Zimmerman depicted it as “patriotic and proper” David S. Muzzey’s An American History— rather than as a “palpable violation of featured remarkable shifts in emphasis; documents the the Constitution.” Yet such objections what in 1911 was presented as a complex were less a last gasp than a template that dispute involving pro- and anti-royalist malleability of would extend well into the second half factions on both sides of the Atlantic, had of the 20th century. by 1925 been revised into “a simplistic the Revolution’s As Zimmerman documents in Whose statement of British malfeasance and America, a powerful campaign helmed by American resistance.” In the middle of portrayal by Mildred Lewis Rutherford, the historian that stretch, other major authors altered early-20th-century general of the United Daughters of the their own texts to reinforce pro-British Confederacy whose textbook activism sentiments—an editorial choice shaped textbooks—even in lasted until her death in 1928, eff ectively by the exigencies of World War I. “There imposed an ultimatum on the fi ve things is nothing I would not do to bring about successive editions American history texts must not do: defi ne the warmest relations between the Eng- the war as a “rebellion”; call any Confeder- lish-speaking peoples,” Zimmerman of the same book. ate soldier a “traitor or rebel”; “say that the quotes the historian Claude Van Tyne South fought to hold her slaves”; “glorify stating in 1918. “To my mind the whole Lincoln”; or impugn a slaveholder as “un- future of the democratic world depends just to his slaves.” (In Rutherford’s stated upon that factor.” That imperative coin- opinion, “slaves were the happiest people cided with a fresh emphasis on socioeco- on the face of the globe, free from care or nomic analysis that served partially to rius and the settlers in Germantown, thought of food, clothes, home.”) highlight British contributions to Amer- Pennsylvania, who produced the fi rst By and large, publishers responded as ica’s development. As a historical meth- anti-slavery petition on American soil. they had to their ethnic critics: by cater- odology, this approach was perfectly American Indians stumped for fi gures ing to their sensitivities—but almost justifi able in purely scholarly terms—but like Pocahontas and Tecumseh. Polish exclusively to the sensitivities of whites. Zimmerman contends that historians of Americans wrangled with Lithuanian “The most common pattern of southern the era were also cognizant of its poten- Americans over who had the rightful textbook development,” Zimmerman tial infl uence on contemporary aff airs. claim to Casimir Pulaski, the Revolution- writes, was that “Confederate groups “By complicating the old story of a ven- ary War hero popularly known as “the complained about a text, then the pub- omous England and a virtuous America, father of the American cavalry.” Norwe- lisher altered it.” scholars believed, the ‘new’ history would gian Americans would soon joust with Some publishers released separate help heal old wounds between them.” their Italian counterparts over who re- Southern or state-specifi c editions. Oth- In due course this ‘new history’ would ally discovered the Americas: Columbus ers bowdlerized texts marketed nation- arouse the ire of right-wing groups who or Leif Erikson. “Even as they condemned wide. Neo-Confederate activists won felt that the trend toward socioeconomic ‘pro-British’ textbooks,” Zimmerman capitulations ranging from soft-pedaled analysis came at the expense of the showed, “ethnic groups often competed depictions of slavery, to the excision of Founding Fathers and other Anglo-Saxon with one another to revise them.” words like “rebellion” to describe the patriots. As such groups lobbied state As such eff orts gained traction, one confl ict, to picayune matters like ex- legislatures to ban “treasonous text- group remained essentially outcaste in punging a mathematics word problem books” in the 1920s, they got a surprising the nation’s history texts: African Amer- asking pupils to calculate Ulysses S. ally. As Zimmerman puts it, hyphenated icans. The simple truth was that neither Grant’s age on the day the Union gen- Americans and “nonwhite activists also the Italians nor the Irish nor any other eral captured Vicksburg. “Other Confed- joined the assault.” Much like the Italian immigrant group confronted bigotry on erate groups,” Zimmerman observed, Americans who wanted to preserve a the scale of that which affl icted Black “bragged that they had successfully pres- place for Columbus, these ethnic groups citizens, especially during Jim Crow. And sured publishers to discard or replace were fi ne with celebrating the Anglo- the sectional battle over Civil War histo- entire chapters, including one textbook’s Saxon pantheon—as long as their own riography posed a towering obstacle. In discussion of the causes of the Civil War.” heroes got at least cameo roles. German 1895, 32 years after the Emancipation In one of the many instances of strange Americans (especially after World War I) Proclamation, veterans in Richmond, bedfellows that have cropped up in Amer- lobbied for the inclusion of Daniel Pasto- Virginia, complained about a text that ica’s history-textbook wars, in the 1920s

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 29 “southern loyalists joined with their erst- great rainbow. If you want something immerman learned just how restric- while Yankee enemies to stop—or at least about Kazakh Americans, there’s a side- tive that can be during an early- slow—the entry of ‘new’ history into bar about the great things they’ve done.” career stint as a sixth-grade social American schools,” fearing that “too As a way for marginalized groups to studies teacher in Baltimore. Dur- much concern with impersonal ‘causes’ gain acceptance in a society that has dis- ing a unit on the civil rights move- and ‘forces’ would sap children’s faith in dained them, this has in some cases been Zment, a student asked him if it was true their forefathers.” phenomenally eff ective. (Just how eff ec- that Martin Luther King, Jr., had en- Yet a decade later, the same critics be- tive is evident in the very fact that stat- gaged in extramarital aff airs. Zimmer- gan invoking the “new” history—em- ues of Christopher Columbus were tar- man did what he thought any good pro- bracing the class-based analysis by geted by opponents of white supremacy gressive educator should do. He planned which historians Charles and Mary this past summer. “Never mind that a lesson around it. Beard reinterpreted the Civil War as an Columbus himself wouldn’t have been “I came in the next day, brought up the essentially economic clash while recognized as fully white if he walked question, and I said, ‘The answer is yes, “minimiz[ing] its moral dimensions, down the streets of New York in 1892, but that’s not exactly what we’re going particular those surrounding slavery.” when the grand monument in Colum- to talk about. We are trying to become As the 1930s gave way to the ’40s and bus Circle went up,” Zimmerman wrote historians here—so what we’re going to ’50s, “anti-black errors and stereotypes in June. “Italians are white now, and so try to fi gure out is: How do we know the continued to mar nearly every American is Columbus.” That’s why in 2020 he answer is yes?” history text,” Zimmerman writes, espe- was regarded not as “the bold discov- And how we know, he went on, is that cially in the form of “exaggerated ac- erer from Genoa,” but instead as a vio- in 1963 US Attorney General Robert F. counts of black violence, incompetence, lent tyrant who enslaved more than a Kennedy authorized the FBI to wiretap and corruption during Reconstruction.” thousand inhabitants of the land he King’s telephones, which it did for the Led by fi gures including W. E. B. DuBois claimed for the Spanish monarchy, and next three years, obtaining recordings and Carter G. Woodson, African American hence is “saddled with the sins of a race with which the Bureau attempted to scholars “struggled valiantly to repel racist that long rejected people like him.”) blackmail the civil rights advocate. “I interpretations, winning special courses But as a way to understand the past, laid this out for my class,” Zimmerman in some schools and slightly revised gen- this “bargain” has considerable down- remembers. “And one of the kids, an Af- eral history textbooks in others. But they sides. For one thing, the focus on inclu- rican American, raises his hand and could not overcome American’s united sion has an unstated corollary that ap- says, ‘So you’re saying he was an enemy front of white opinion, which sought to plies to virtually all hero worship: the of the state!’ And I said, ‘Yes, I think you placate—if not always to satisfy—southern urge to bend their records into align- are right. I think that is what I’m saying. concerns. … Not until the 1960s would ment with one or another set of pres- If the state goes through all that sound black Americans rise up en masse against ent-day ideals, and a bias toward gloss- and fury to try to destroy you, I think racist history, compelling the rest of the ing over anything unsavory. you’re an enemy of the state.’ country to take heed.” “Since the 1920s each group that has “Now it’s all been so sanitized,” Zimmer- By the 1990s, as Zimmerman summa- gained admission to the grand national man says, slipping into a kindergarten rizes, a “classic American bargain” had narrative has received the same fulsome cadence: “Happy Birthday, Martin! Day emerged in history textbooks’ discussions praise as the nation itself,” Zimmerman of Service! I think people have lost sight of of race and religion. Equally amenable to writes. “True, groups that were excluded the history, which is that he was the most the varied groups and the publishers who from this story—especially African Amer- dangerous American—the person who was aimed to please them, it boiled down to: icans—were often horribly denigrated or scariest to the state.” (Two days after King’s You get your heroes, I get mine. stigmatized. Once they earned a place in 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech, the FBI’s “We have radically diversifi ed the sto- the pantheon, however, they became as head of domestic intelligence issued a ry,” Zimmerman says. “Anyone who says, sacrosanct as any other god. For instance, memo declaring, “We must mark him now for example, that high school American today’s texts shy away from discussing as the most dangerous Negro in the future history now is only about white men, the African role in the slave trade or the of this nation.” Despite King’s working they just haven’t looked at a textbook. If human sacrifi ce practiced by some Native relationship with Lyndon Johnson, FBI you looked at a textbook 60 years ago, Americans prior to the European con- Director J. Edgar Hoover led a dogged you would have been right. But you look quest. These facts would temper the texts’ campaign against King, whose public ac- at it now—the 800 pages that middle image of minority groups as uniformly claim gradually shrank to the point that school kids carry around—and it’s a peaceful and morally pristine.” 75 percent of whites and 48 percent of

30 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Blacks disapproved of him in a Harris poll constitutes bias even if the information is The “lazy two months before his death in 1968.) true.” Ditto for the inclusion of informa- When the class period ended, Zimmer- tion that might suggest any unresolved multiculturalism” man walked out thinking, Wow, that disharmony between groups or classes kind of worked! Then the phone calls whose fortunes have diverged in Ameri- of contemporary began coming into the principal. can life. In her book-length examination Those led to a charged meeting be- of US history textbooks, FitzGerald noted textbook history, in tween Zimmerman and some classroom that the portrayal of minorities as con- parents. “Their take was pretty simple,” tented citizens untroubled by societal Zimmerman’s view, he remembers. “They said: ‘Look, you’re problems carried over even to the illustra- sacrifices critical a white guy, you already have heroes. tions. Invariably depicted smiling, it was There are plenty of them. They’re on the as though “all non-white people in the inquiry on the altar fucking money: Washington, Lincoln, United States took happy pills,” she wrote. Hamilton, Jackson, Franklin. We have No wonder, then, that discourse of inclusiveness. this one guy, and you don’t like him. You among today’s American adults is stud- can’t accept him, so you want to degrade ded with such ahistorical howlers as the and diminish him in front of our kids, notion, fashionable among certain con- who have in the pantheon of their heroes servatives, that Martin Luther King only this one guy.’ typifi ed the ideology of the modern Re- “I did my best to respond, but I don’t publican Party—a gambit that can only merman adds an additional charge— think I did it very well,” he says now. “But succeed by pretending away King’s ad- that the bargain in fact violates the cen- refl ecting on that episode, it highlights vocacy of labor unionism and “a radical tral theme that US history textbooks just how diffi cult it is to have a conversa- redistribution of economic and political share: the freedom of the individual. tion about who we are. And I don’t be- power,” in his words. Or, on the fl ip side, “Textbooks depict America as a beacon grudge those parents for objecting. the urge among certain leftists to inter- of personal liberty and opportunity, They’re citizens, they’re taxpayers, they’re pret King through a prism that mini- lighting the way for an often tyrannical parents, and they have every right to ob- mizes his radical commitment to New and barbaric world,” he writes. “Yet by ject. I didn’t agree with the thrust of their Testament theology. And if Americans stressing this sunny story and downplay- objection—and I certainly can confi rm can manage this much misunderstand- ing darker ones—especially poverty, rac- that I was certainly not trying to turn ing about a man who left behind a docu- ism, and imperialism—the texts actu- their kids against Martin Luther King. mentary record as extensive as King’s, ally inhibit the very individualism that “But I can imagine why some of them there may be no limit to how badly we they venerate. If the books took person- might have thought so,” he continues. can misrepresent a fi gure like Robert E. al freedom seriously, they would encour- “And when you blow that out in any direc- Lee, or John Brown, or Sitting Bull. age students to develop their own per- tion, you can just imagine the number of By Zimmerman’s reckoning, the prob- spectives about the nation and about its people who would say, You’re trying to lem goes beyond assessments of this or various races, ethnicities, and religions.” turn my kids against X. ‘You just told my that historical fi gure. America’s textbook After all, over the past half-century kids about Abu Ghraib—how are they bargain serves to short-circuit critical “historians have engaged in a rich de- going to respect the military? Their dad’s inquiry in broader terms. “Each ‘race’ bate about the ‘liberal’ character of a vet; are they going to respect their dad?’ gets to have its heroes sung,” he writes, American society. Were slavery and na- I could give you a hundred examples.” “but no group may question the melody tivism simply bumps in the road toward The upshot is that a “lazy multicultur- of peace, freedom, and economic oppor- America’s democratic destiny, brief in- alism” becomes the path of least resis- tunity that unites them all.” terruptions of the parade of progress? tance for teaching US history: “just add Which is ultimately no less suspect Or did the traditions of liberalism and the Kazakh Americans and it will be all than massaging the story of the Ameri- racism work in tandem, each one defi n- fi ne,” as Zimmerman quips. can Revolution to gel with the US De- ing the content and contours of the This basic critique dates back at least to partment of War’s public-messaging other? Is America a ‘uniquely free’ coun- 1979, when journalist and historian Fran- aims during World War I, or recasting try, as its textbooks proudly proclaim? ces FitzGerald observed that “the princi- the history of the Confederacy to placate What does ‘free’ mean, anyway?” ple that lies behind textbook history is apologists for antebellum and postbel- Elementary school children might not that the inclusion of nasty information lum apartheid regimes. To which Zim- be ready for such discussions—nor, per-

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 31 haps, are sixth-graders like Zimmer- should have been in Vietnam; it’s going ous it is, and they don’t like it—Demo- man’s former pupils. “But these are all to be Who was Ho Chi Minh?’ So the rise crats and Republicans. And that pro- questions that high school students can of this standardized testing accountabil- vides an important wedge and opportu- answer—indeed, that they must answer, ity regime has been a huge inhibitor.” nity: because that suggests to me that if they are to develop the critical capac- It doesn’t help that American educa- there are more Americans who want to ities that democratic citizenship re- tion schools tend to off er a “hollow and see schools actually tackle that, and quires,” he argues. Culture itself is less a decidedly anti-intellectual brand” of demonstrate something that’s better.” monologue than a many-sided debate— teacher training that’s long on “arcane” Doing so, he believes, will require ac- especially in a nation as ethnically, reli- jargon and short on “serious intellec- knowledging and confronting a fear giously, economically, and ideologically tual initiation into the subjects in which that has grown as public discourse has diverse as the United States. “So we teachers will have to instruct students,” atrophied. should teach it as a debate, pressing our as Zimmerman has charged in the New “In both K–12 and higher-ed, one of the students to join America’s arguments York Review of Books. (American univer- key inhibitors is that people are afraid. rather than pretending that we settled sities, he argues in The Amateur Hour, They don’t feel they have either the duty these diff erences long ago. are dogged by the opposite problem: or the right to speak their minds.” A 2020 “You cannot praise America for culti- professors have deep knowledge about survey by the Foundation for Individual vating individual freedom of thought, their subject areas but rarely receive any Rights in Education (FIRE), encompass- then proceed to tell every individual training in how to eff ectively teach it.) ing nearly 20,000 students at 55 colleges what to think,” he concludes. “But that And current K–12 practices further lim- and universities, found that 60 percent is exactly what most of our schoolbooks it the ability of teachers to learn from reported having felt unable to express an continue to do.” one another. “Many other advanced opinion on campus for fear of social or countries have institutionalized critical administrative repercussions. here are signifi cant impediments commentary by peers and also provide “And large numbers of faculty, both to changing that status quo. It’s intellectual support to improve skills Republican and Democrat, say the same hard to generalize about an educa- and learning as part of teachers’ profes- thing,” Zimmerman contends. “That is tional system comprised of 14,000 sional practice. Japanese teachers even an enormous inhibitor. We live in a cul- school districts, several million have a separate word for this process, ju- ture of fear. Political partisans are de- Tteachers, and tens of millions of chil- gyokenkyu, which is built into their monizing one another, and making us dren. “But I think,” Zimmerman says, weekly routines,” Zimmerman observes. fear one another. But at the same time “that especially in history, social studies, “We don’t even have a word for it.” we actually fear speaking, period, be- and English, there are serious inhibitors But in Whose America, he identifi ed cause we don’t know what people on on teaching. A lot of the teaching tends what would seem to be an even larger the other side—or even people in our to be rote-driven, textbook-driven, and obstacle to critical education in US pub- own tribe—are going to say. And I don’t not discussion-based.” lic schools: the American public itself. believe that in higher education, we’ve That has been exacerbated, in his view, “As one of my students once quipped, really acknowledged that. After the by the fact that “in the past 20 years ‘You’ll never see a parents’ group called FIRE survey, how many university pres- we’ve made schools into standardized- Americans in Favor of Debating the idents said, ‘OK, this is bad, we’ve got testing machines.” Zimmerman notes Other Side in Our Schools.’ Citizens enter to change this’? I didn’t really hear it. that whenever he speaks about his ped- the arena of curriculum so that a par- And as per the cliché about Alcoholics agogical ideas with educators, he hears ticular view or attitude will fi nd a place Anonymous, we’re really not going to the same lament. “People will say, ‘This within it. The last thing they want, it change that until we acknowledge that is a very nice idea, and I certainly en- seems, is a multiplicity of perspectives.” we have a problem.” dorse it in principle—but when am I go- But two decades later, Zimmerman ing to have time to have that debate thinks the moment may fi nally have come. ducation is an inescapably political about whether we should have gone to “The only way that changes—and this enterprise, as Aristotle articulated war with Vietnam? I’ve got 15 minutes is going to sound tautological—is if we long ago. “And in America, espe- for the Vietnam War before I have to as citizens decide it needs to,” he says. cially at the K–12 level, schools were move on to Watergate. And by the way, “The polling literature shows that Amer- founded for explicitly civic purpos- there’s going to be a question on the icans are deeply dissatisfi ed with their Ees,” Zimmerman says. What animated standardized exam and it’s not going to political culture right now. Americans the common schools movement of the be Write an essay about whether we acknowledge how polarized and poison- 19th century was the conviction that

32 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 they would function, in the words of one “If the books took Times’ interpretive frame. “Their cri- advocate, as “pillars of the republic.” tique is that they don’t think the project “It wasn’t pillars of higher test scores, personal freedom does justice to all the people who have or pillars of a better job, or pillars of not fought against that, creating diff erent losing out to China,” Zimmerman says. seriously, they ideas and diff erent traditions.” “It was pillars of the republic because This happens to be an issue on which the idea was that we’re making a nation would encourage Zimmerman has chosen a side. and what we need is an institution that “I grew up in a vastly more patriotic will bind us to one another, and teach us students to age. There’s no other way to put it,” he the habits and skills of democratic life.” develop their own refl ects. “One of the things I’ve noticed There is no getting around the fact on this subject—especially with respect that diff erent people want diff erent perspectives to my daughters, who are now 27 and things from our schools, from critical 24—is that we loathe Trump equally, yet inquiry to civic hero worship of widely about the nation.” I’m off ended by him, and they are not. varying forms. This is an experience I’ve had with my “The fact that we have such diff erent students, too. Because they regard him views of America is an incredible chal- as an inevitable product of what’s wrong lenge, because people will object when with America. Whereas I see him as this their view is not affi rmed,” Zimmerman enormous deviation from it. So I’m like, allows. “But it’s also a gift: because we American history through the lens of ‘This is horrible because it runs counter shouldn’t have to pretend that we all slavery’s consequences and the contribu- to everything that America is and should agree about what the nation is when the tions of Black Americans to the nation’s be.’ And their view is: ‘No! It’s the apo- kids are in the room—we should expose development—as an “incredible oppor- theosis of it! This was a place that was them to that little secret. tunity.” But only if it is permitted to func- born in racism and oppression, so of “And in some ways it’s easier to do in tion as one analysis, not the analysis. By course it gave birth to this guy.’ And I’m situations where there’s more pluralism, challenging the “lazy multiculturalism” like, ‘Look, I’m a historian—I’m not go- where there’s more disagreement,” he and thematic sanitization Zimmerman ing to deny the racism and oppression. suggests. “I think we try to pretend that laments in contemporary textbooks, it But there’s a deep tradition of liberty the classroom should somehow be insu- can help us “to do what we haven’t done, and freedom that ran counter to that.’” lated from the rest of society—that some- which is really try to use all this diversity In other words, he relishes the debate. how it ought to be a plane that fl oats to ask ourselves about the larger story. And the present moment, he believes, above it. And I think that’s an enormous “Part of the celebration of American clarifi es the consequences of an educa- mistake. It is hugely challenging to let freedom, to me,” he emphasizes, “should tional regime that shrinks from it. all that stuff into the classroom door. But be teaching people how to arrive at their “I think the biggest poison in our de- I think it’s diverse enough that it gives own conclusion instead of repeating mocracy is to assume that somebody who us as Americans an incredible opportu- what the textbook says. That’s not an act disagrees with you is simply misin- nity to literally and fi guratively school of freedom; that’s its opposite, an act of formed,” Zimmerman says. “Look, some- people in our diff erences.” indoctrination.” times they are—and that’s important. But That is a learned behavior, Zimmerman Which nevertheless always lurks there are plenty of people who are equal- stresses. “People don’t come out of the around the next corner. ly knowledgeable and equally reasonable womb doing it. And if we believe some “One of my concerns is that in some and equally educated as I am, and see the psychologists, it may even be unnatural— instances the 1619 Project is just becom- world diff erently. And the biggest poison we’re just programmed to love our tribe ing a new set of instructions—and that is this idea that somebody who disagrees and hate on the others. And certainly won’t help anybody,” he acknowledges. with us is either cognitively or morally we’ve done plenty of that. But I think the “The people criticizing it have in some warped: either they’re just ill-informed best outcome would be to use these dif- places been unfairly depicted as denial- and believe things that are false, or ferent stories to actually engage each ists. Sean Wilentz and Gordon Wood they’re just awful people. other about what we think America is.” don’t deny the relevance and centrality “The only way we get away from that In that vein, he sees the New York of slavery and racism,” Zimmerman em- is via schools,” he concludes. “I don’t see Times’ 1619 Project—or rather “the debate phasizes, citing two historians who have any other way.” surrounding” that initiative to examine raised objections to elements of the

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 33 The Humanist Is In

In a new book, the codirector of the Penn Memory Center unravels the tapestry of Alzheimer’s science and history, and outlines the medical, social, and ethical challenges that lie ahead.

By Julia M. Klein

hen Jason Karlawish GM’99 opted brary, poring over the geriatric literature medical education. He has always been in 1995 for a geriatric medicine and pondering the blurred boundaries as much humanist as scientist, loving fellowship, his friends and men- between aging and disease. “Where does history and nursing literary ambitions. tors were not just surprised. “They one begin, and the other end?” he won- As a medical student, he was a fi nalist were aghast,” he recalls. Why was dered, asking questions that would help in a national poetry contest for his short Wthis promising young doctor, headed for shape his career. “Is it a category or cat- ode to a moth. a career in critical care, switching to such egories, or a continuum? Is it defi ned by There was a personal reason for the an unsexy specialty? At the time, geriat- biology? Is it defi ned by society? A little switch to geriatrics: the fate of his pater- rics was in such low demand at the Uni- bit of both?” nal grandfather. In Karlawish’s view, versity of Chicago that Karlawish was the This was hardly the fi rst time that Kar- modern medicine, in all its well-inten- only fellow for three years. lawish, codirector of the Penn Memory tioned but misdirected zealousness, had That was fi ne with him. “They left me Center since 2015, had fl outed expecta- killed the man. His 90-year-old grandfa- alone,” he says. “I did whatever I want- tions or challenged conventional wis- ther, who had been suff ering from de- ed”—which meant that, after taking care dom. His fi rst post-residency fellowship mentia, fell and broke his hip. Hospital- of patients, he spent his time in the li- was in bioethics, not yet a touchstone of ized, with little attention paid to his men-

34 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 PHOTO BY CANDACE DICARLO | ILLUSTRATION BY GÉRARD DUBOIS Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 35 tal state, he had spiraled down into de- his colleague “an exquisite scholar,” Primary Care Physician Award—the fi rst lirium and stopped eating and drinking. whose “ability to bring historical per- time, according to Karlawish, that it has Each aggressive medical intervention spective to this disease is really impor- been awarded to a geriatrician. seemed only to worsen his condition. “It tant because there are so many bioethi- Besides codirecting the Memory Cen- was the best of care and the worst of cal and policy implications.” ter, Karlawish is professor of medicine, care,” Karlawish writes in his new book, The leading cause of dementia, affl ict- medical ethics and health policy, and The Problem of Alzheimer’s: How Science, ing an estimated 5.8 million Americans, neurology. He is a widely sought speaker Culture, and Politics Turned a Rare Dis- Alzheimer’s disease—or perhaps, as Kar- on issues such as informed consent, vot- ease into a Crisis and What We Can Do lawish’s book postulates, Alzheimer’s ing rights, and fi nancial protections for About It (St. Martin’s Press). “It was a diseases—remains an illness without a people living with dementia. Among his medical funhouse run by madmen.” cure and with only minimally eff ective titles: senior fellow of the Leonard Davis A nonfi ction narrative fi lled with col- treatments to slow its inexorable, dev- Institute of Health Economics and the orful characters, The Problem of Al- astating progression. “The more we ad- Penn Center for Public Health Initia- zheimer’s refl ects Karlawish’s multidis- vance in our understanding of the dis- tives, fellow of Penn’s Institute on Aging, ciplinary inclinations, ethical concerns, ease,” Karlawish says, “the more we see director of the Penn Program on Preci- and passion for prose. Kirkus Reviews its complexity.” sion Medicine for the Brain, and co-as- praises it as a “lucid, opinionated his- A “weird sort of dichotomy” exists in sociate director of Penn’s Alzheimer’s tory of the science, politics, and care the Alzheimer’s fi eld, he says, between Disease Core Center. involved in the fi ght against this centu- those on the hunt for a cure and those Karlawish describes himself as both a ry’s most problematic disease,” written preoccupied with the economic and so- physician and a writer. There is evidence with a “page-turning style.” cial crisis of caregiving. “What the book of a family literary gene. Or at least “Jason is a really visionary thinker, and tries to do is recognize that the two sim- Gene. Karlawish holds up a 1928 mem- the perspectives he brings to his work are ply have to live together—and do live oir, The Great Horn Spoon, by his mater- non-obvious,” says Paul Root Wolpe C’78, together. The fi eld has been haunted by nal grandfather, Eugene Wright, whom director of the Center for Ethics at Emory pitting care versus cure,” he says. “And he used to call “Daddy Gene.” Wright left University in Atlanta and a former Penn the book asks, ‘Why did that happen, Columbia University his junior year to faculty member in psychology, sociology, and how can we reconcile them?’” become a merchant seaman, traveling and medical ethics. “He’s not just another to Africa and the Far East. “This book is good Alzheimer’s doctor—he’s someone “I’ll show you around,” says his adventures,” Karlawish says. In 2013, who sees a little further and thinks a little Karlawish, volunteering a Zoom tour of an appreciative Amazon reviewer gave more deeply than a lot of his colleagues his home offi ce in the Fairmount section it fi ve stars and praised it as a “compel- about what this disease means, how we of Philadelphia, near the evocative ruins ling autobiographical story.” need to think about it, how we honor the of the Eastern State Penitentiary His- Karlawish was born in Manhattan, the lives of people who have it.” toric Site. He points to “a note wall, with second of two brothers, and raised in the “He is an incredibly intense, brainy guy some new ideas,” a farm-table desk Bergen County town of Ramsey, New who just can always connect the dots,” bought at Freeman’s auction house, and Jersey. His parents divorced when he was says Christine K. Cassel, a past president at his feet, the elder and more sedentary 12. “It was rough,” says Karlawish, who and chief executive offi cer of the Ameri- of his two whippets, Sunny. The other, lived with his mother, Anne Wright, a can Board of Internal Medicine who su- Daisy, with “a lot of the puppy in her,” middle school English teacher and, later, pervised Karlawish’s geriatrics fellowship occasionally joins them. college administrator. His father, John at the University of Chicago. He shares the rowhome with his hus- Karlawish W’58 WG’61, worked on Wall David Wolk, an associate professor of band, John Bruza, a fellow geriatrician Street as a fi nancial analyst and invest- neurology who codirects the Memory whom Karlawish proudly describes as “a ment manager. (Both are now retired.) Center with Karlawish, says their inter- doctor’s doctor.” The two came to Penn In 1984, Karlawish was admitted to the ests are complementary. “Where he together in 1997 and quickly became a Honors Program in Medical Education stops,” Karlawish says, “I pick up.” Wolk’s power geriatrics couple. Bruza is associ- at Northwestern University. The program focus is on the neuroscience—specifi - ate professor of clinical medicine and vice enabled participants to earn a bachelor’s cally, on using cognitive testing and neu- chief for clinical aff airs in the Division of degree in two years before matriculating roimaging to distinguish changes re- Geriatric Medicine at the Perelman at Northwestern’s medical school in Chi- lated to normal aging from those signal- School of Medicine. In 2019, he won cago. “I knew the moment I got there that ing early Alzheimer’s disease. Wolk calls Perelman’s Sylvan Eisman Outstanding two years was not going to be enough,”

36 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 “He just doesn’t Karlawish says. “I remember how excited do anything halfway. ries.” In 1997, he won the Wakley Prize, I was looking at the course catalog at awarded annually by the British medical classes like the intellectual history of He looks down journal The Lancet, for an essay titled, Europe.” With his parents’ support, he “A Personal Choice.” Karlawish contrasts opted for an extra undergraduate year, unconventional being gay, once seen as a disease, with supplementing the required premedical hallways and the “disease” of aging. Even without an courses with a deep dive into history, identifi able illness, he writes, the aging literature, and philosophy. (The North- opens doors that are considered “at risk” and are subject western program now mandates at least to what he calls the risk-benefi t analyses three undergraduate years.) other people of “deskside medicine.” While he loved his liberal arts educa- wouldn’t open.” Asked to refl ect on parallels between tion, Karlawish says, “I had a rough time his sexual orientation and an Alzheim- in medical school because medical school, er’s diagnosis, Karlawish mentions “com- especially then, was a trade school.” When mon themes of stigma and its many suf- he expressed an interest in ethics, he was ferings,” including the experience of told “there was not a career to be had in Then his grandfather fell and entered the being the “other,” “of feeling diff erent that space.” When he submitted an essay hospital and died. “And I just said, ‘I don’t and fearing rejection.” Both also give for his residency application about his want to go into critical care. I just don’t.’ ” rise, he says, to the dilemma of how and desire to combine medicine with writing, “Geriatrics is still, to this day, not a when to “come out” to others. his mentor was “so dismissive I actually highly valued specialty in this country, Another link—issues of autonomy and had to drop him as my mentor.” Kar- much as it should be,” says Cassel, pro- self-determination—is a major theme of lawish was ahead of the curve. Both the fessor of medicine and senior adviser for Karlawish’s research. He has done path- fi eld of bioethics and the phenomenon of strategy and policy at the University of breaking work on caregiving, capacity physician-writers—exemplars include California, San Francisco, and a former assessment, and voting rights for people Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Penn professor of medicine and bioeth- living with dementia. In 2015, he intro- Wife for a Hat), Siddhartha Mukherjee ics. “What stood out to me [about Kar- duced the concept of “whealthcare,” call- (The Emperor of All Maladies), and Atul lawish] was just his intense curiosity— ing for fi nancial institutions to identify Gawande (Being Mortal)—have become and intensity in general. He just doesn’t and protect customers with cognitive integral to contemporary medicine. do anything halfway. He looks down impairment from fraud, missed pay- He completed an internship and resi- unconventional hallways and opens ments, and other potential mishaps. dency in internal medicine—and met his doors that other people wouldn’t open “Several years ago, I realized that I’m future husband—in Baltimore, at the because of that curiosity.” fully alive because of Alzheimer’s disease,” Francis Scott Key Medical Center, now Karlawish says. “The triumph of self-de- part of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical arlawish’s entry in the 1989 Wil- termination for all adults has allowed me Center. Perusing a bulletin board in a liam Carlos Williams Poetry Con- to live as I am. In the case of being gay, it’s hospital lounge, he was enticed by a Uni- test, a national contest for medical about simply living one’s life as one de- versity of Chicago fellowship in clinical students, was titled, To a Moth: termines it. In the case of Alzheimer’s medical ethics. He was accepted to that My room is 17 stories high, disease, we see how painful it is to lose program, and to the university’s presti- KImagine my surprise when you came that self-determination.” In both instanc- gious critical care fellowship as well. into a light es, he says, “caring relationships” are an During the bioethics fellowship, he And died. important part of the equation. moonlighted at a chronic ventilator unit, “That was it,” says Karlawish. “That Karlawish’s interest in bioethics in- which raised ethical conundrums of its was the whole poem. I probably have not formed his somewhat surprising and own. “These people were alive, but written poetry since then.” well-reviewed fi rst book—not a scientifi c chronically ill and dependent on the care He prefers prose, the natural fl ow of treatise, but an historical novel. Based of others, both human care and machine the English language. “There’s nothing closely on primary sources, Open Wound: care,” he recalls. “And I became fasci- more fun than a well-constructed Eng- The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beau- nated with [the question of], ‘Why did lish sentence,” he says. mont (University of Michigan Press, 2011), this happen to them?’” He attempted his fi rst novel when he tells the mostly true story of a talented At that point, he says, “I was interested was about eight and has been writing and hubristic 19th-century US army sur- in aging, and I was immersed in ethics.” ever since, including “piles of short sto- geon who treats a French Canadian fur

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 37 trapper with a near-fatal stomach wound [“Arts,” Mar|Apr 2012]. The wound heals but remains open—an opportunity, as the sur- geon sees it, for the study of digestive processes. With money and other enticements, Beaumont pressures his onetime patient into submitting to sometimes painful experiments, for the advance- ment of both science and his own reputation. The novel’s concerns include “the nature of what it means to be American—namely, to be ambitious, to get ahead,” Karlawish says. Reviewing Open Wound for the New York Times, Abigail Zuger, an infectious-disease specialist, described the book’s protagonist as “a true tragic hero, an unpedigreed nobody de- termined to succeed on his own merits, yet undermined by exactly that determination.” Karlawish regards the novel as “part of the seamless garment of my scholarship”—and also “very much a training ground for how to really write prose.”

“Science is fragile,” says Karlawish, refl ecting on the complex story he tells in The Problem of Alzheimer’s. “It’s pow- erful, but it’s incredibly fragile.” The narrative weaves back and forth in time to describe how Alzheimer’s disease was discovered, forgotten, rediscovered, and elevated to a crisis. Karlawish writes about how politics and his- tory framed, infl uenced, and diverted the scientifi c research agenda. He details recent progress in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, and the diffi culties involved in prevention, treatment, and cure. And he describes moral challenges and innovations in caregiving, including the use of robots and other technology, as well as fanci- ful Disneyfi ed environments that return patients to an idealized past. The book’s recurring theme is the interplay between science and society, involving both resistance and accommodation. Before the early 20th century, Karlawish writes, the medical profession regarded “senile dementia” as an unfortunate con- sequence of normal aging, to be endured rather than cured. But it was also known that middle-aged people, albeit in much smaller numbers, could develop similar symptoms, including progressive memory loss and other markers of cognitive decline. A breakthrough came in 1906, when the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer performed a microscopic examination of the brain of a former patient, Auguste Deter. Diagnosed with de- mentia at 51, she was dead at 55. Alzheimer spotted abnor- malities that came to be known as amyloid plaques (clumps of proteins) and tau tangles (tangles of broken protein). From 1907 to 1911, another German psychiatrist, Oskar Fischer, detected identical plaques in the brains of older dementia patients, sug- gesting that the pathology was the same. These discoveries almost surely would have transformed medicine, Karlawish says, speeding progress toward a cure—had Germany’s dark 20th century history not intervened. “Had Germany not gone to war in the First World War, had there not been the social and economic collapse of the ’20s, had Nazism

38 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Illustration By Gérard Dubois and anti-Semitism not destroyed the country,” he says, “it’s pos- sible by 1940 or 1950 there would be this view that older adults who are forgetful and wandering have a disease in their brain— and we need to fi gure it out. But none of that happened. “And why it didn’t happen is not because science couldn’t do it—it’s because the science was destroyed,” he says, “wrecked by 1945, caught up in the baggage of eugenics.” As Karlawish tells the story, the early 20th-century German advances were largely forgotten. Biological psychiatry beat a retreat, and, in mid-century America, Freudianism became psychiatry’s dominant disease model and reigning ideology. In The Problem of Alzheimer’s, Karlawish recounts with some shame his own attempt, as a medical student, to apply psycho- dynamic theory to the diagnosis of a dementia case. In 1976, the neurologist Robert Katzman wrote a now-legend- ary article that defi ned Alzheimer’s disease as “a major killer” and put it on the public health agenda. “A brief period of re- defi nition, rediscovery, reframing” followed, Karlawish says. In 1979, Katzman and others created an organization that evolved into the Alzheimer’s Association, which off ers support to fami- lies and lobbies for increased federal funding. But the country’s rightward political drift in the 1980s and early 1990s stalled progress. Bipartisan backing for federally funded long-term care insurance, a huge potential boon to Alzheimer’s patients and their families, crumbled. In November 1994, nearly six years after leaving the presidency, Ronald Reagan announced, in somewhat equivocal terms, his own Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Nevertheless, Karlawish writes: “As the twentieth century ended, the disease of the century remained a crisis without a national plan to address it.” One of Karlawish’s arguments in The Problem of Alzheimer’s is that second-wave feminism, by expanding women’s career options, made the problem of Alzheimer’s more visible and more pressing. “One way you could address the Alzheimer’s crisis is if you created a permanent labor class of implicit caregivers whose job is to just take care of these older adults who are for- getful,” he says, referring to the prospect of women leaving the labor market to provide unpaid home care. In that case, he says, dementia would once again disappear from the public sphere, though the suff ering it caused would remain. With medicine still largely helpless, Alzheimer’s care entails an array of social, psychological, and environmental interven- tions that Medicare mostly won’t reimburse and that aren’t routinely available, Karlawish writes. In 2009, a report by a congressional study group estimated the annual cost of caregiv- ing for Alzheimer’s in the United States at $100 billion. That already outdated fi gure will grow with the aging of the long-lived Baby Boomer population, even though healthier lifestyles have decreased the per capita prevalence of dementia. To solve the problem of Alzheimer’s, America needs “to have an honest conversation” and “spend some money,” Karlawish

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 39 says. “Never, ever underestimate how mission—and only after talking to him Karlawish introduced Renee Packel to important it is in America for a disease openly about his diagnosis, which pro- the concept of “loving deceptions.” She to have a business model. And if there’s vides them with “a common language, a recalls: “He said, ‘Always be in their mo- one lesson in the story of Alzheimer’s, common understanding.” ment. If he looks outside, and the sun is it’s that Alzheimer’s has struggled to There are drugs, Karlawish says, that shining, and he says it’s dark, you say it’s have a business model.” can treat the disease’s symptoms, but dark.’” At one point, her husband started none so far able to attack the pathology. hallucinating that there were men in the “In a diff erent life,” says Allison One modest hopeful sign: in January, bathroom. She remembers responding: K. Hoff man, professor of law at Penn Eli Lilly announced positive prelimi- “Oh, yeah—I have them working. They’ll Carey Law School, Karlawish “would have nary results in a small Phase II trial for leave soon.” been a sociologist. He’s really curious donanemab, which targets amyloid Another time, he mistook her for his about what makes people tick and how plaques. The drug cleared the plaques brother Morton. “I said, ‘I’m not societies operate.” She says the opportu- and slowed the rate of cognitive and Mortie—I’m your wife.’ He looked at me nity to collaborate with him on caregiving functional decline by about a third and burst out laughing. You have to issues was one factor that lured her to compared to placebo. laugh along with it. Otherwise, you Penn from UCLA School of Law in 2017. One of the problems in fi nding a cure, would go crazy.” In July, Hoff man and Karlawish teamed Karlawish says, is the “heterogeneity” of Packel’s life was convulsed by her hus- with David C. Grabowski, professor of the disease, which can have diff erent neu- band’s illness. As she recounted in a 2010 healthcare policy at Harvard Medical rological and behavioral manifestations. New York Times article, her husband had School, on a Washington Post opinion It might be helpful, he suggests, to think stopped paying their bills. Worse, even piece urging nursing homes to relax pan- about Alzheimer’s diseases, plural. And, with the aid of a forensic accountant, she demic policies barring visitors. “Many as with diff erent forms of cancer, some was unable to locate their nest egg. The family members are not so much com- types of Alzheimer’s may turn out to be money seemed to be gone. She ended up pany as essential caregivers and care more treatable than others, he says. having to sell their house and take a job, monitors,” they wrote. Meanwhile, supported in part by the at 75, as a receptionist. Karlawish is himself a caregiver. He has National Institute on Aging, facilities such At Karlawish’s suggestion, Packel sent an uncle, he says, with mild cognitive im- as the Memory Center diagnose, monitor her husband to adult day care. But as he pairment (MCI), a condition that can disease progress, and off er activities for grew more ill and experienced falls, the progress to dementia. The cause is Al- both patients and caregivers. The center physical challenges of keeping him at zheimer’s, diagnosed by clinical examina- runs classes, workshops, and support home proved overwhelming. Reluctantly, tion and brain imaging. By revealing the groups for caregivers. It sponsors innova- she institutionalized him. But that, too, disease’s characteristic amyloid plaques, tive events such as Cognitive Comedy, entailed challenges. He became so “ram- tau tangles, and neural atrophy, imaging Creative Expression Through Music, and bunctious” and “disruptive,” she says, that can detect Alzheimer’s even in people a monthly Memory Café, featuring dance, the nursing home sedated him to the whose cognitive functioning is normal. music, talks, zoo animals, and more—all point where he nearly stopped eating and Karlawish’s uncle has had problems with held virtually during the pandemic. drinking. She insisted that the medica- memory and executive function. He has a When Renee Packel fi rst called the tion be halted. In The Problem of Alzheim- harder time now making decisions and Memory Center, more than two decades er’s, Karlawish describes her anguish over performing daily activities, such as man- ago, she was desperate to fi nd a geriatri- that decision, which likely prolonged her aging money. “To keep him in his home cian to see her husband, Arthur, a lawyer husband’s life. “I have no regrets,” she and happy, I have to nudge and integrate in his late 60s who was struggling at says now. “I did what I did, and that was myself into his self. I’m intruding, just a work and having trouble driving familiar it. It was the right thing in the long run.” bit, into his privacy,” Karlawish says. “I routes. “I’ll take anybody,” she said. Many caregivers experience profound attend his physician visits. I watch over his Eight months passed before she could emotional confl ict around such dilem- checking account. I check in with his secure an appointment. It turned out to mas, Karlawish says. Like concentration neighbors. I fi gure out what he likes, does be with Karlawish. “It was the luckiest camp inmates and others who endure not like, put up with his quirks and oddi- break ever,” she says, “because that man “sustained traumas,” they wrestle with ties. I am beholding how the lives of the is something else. He’s so compassion- the cost-benefi t calculus of survival, suf- caregiver and patient become enmeshed.” ate, so caring. He treats his patients with fering, and encroaching mortality. Karlawish stresses that he has as- dignity. He never called Art anything In his acknowledgments, Karlawish sumed these tasks with his uncle’s per- other than Mr. Packel.” credits Packel, who sometimes talks to his

40 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 “The disease is so crushing that Another project studies the impact of the decision to come forth and tell biomarker-based diagnosis. Brain imag- ing can detect signs of Alzheimer’s be- people you have it is truly monumental. fore any disability emerges. But diagno- sis carries ethical risk. “The disease is so Even amongst my patients, they resist crushing that the decision to come forth telling their own family members. and tell people you have it is truly mon- umental,” Karlawish says. “Even They fear being treated differently. amongst my patients, they resist telling their own family members. They fear They fear that any mistake will be being treated diff erently. They fear that any mistake will be exaggerated, that exaggerated, that they’ll be excluded they’ll be excluded from doing things. “I don’t have a fundamental problem from doing things.” with diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease be- fore one has a memory problem,” he class on Alzheimer’s disease, as one of the in shifts to avoid the problem of delirium says. “My objection is the world in which inspirations for his book. Another is Rich- that had affl icted his grandfather. Even as those diagnoses are made. My objection ard W. Bartholomew C’63 GAr’65, a retired the pandemic narrowed their world, Bar- is labeling some with Alzheimer’s, and architect and urban planner who taught tholomew was able to take care of his wife then fi nding they suff er crushing stig- in Penn’s Department of Architecture and at home. And Karlawish helped him fi gure mas and discrimination that make them Urban Design. Bartholomew’s wife, Julia out the right moment to turn to Medicare- feel less than capable and worthy. Moore Converse, who had early-onset Al- fi nanced hospice care to ease her fi nal “Right now,” he says, “the benefi t is zheimer’s and died in May [“Obituaries,” weeks. “At one point,” Bartholomew recalls, purely information,” an aid to planning. Sep|Oct 2020], was founding director of “he said to me, ‘Ms. Converse and you have “For some, that’s very empowering. You Penn’s Architectural Archives and an as- been among my best teachers.’” could make a good case [for early diag- sistant dean for external relations at what nosis] out of respect for their autonomy is now the Stuart A. Weitzman School of rom 2016 to 2018, retired Philadel- and self-determination.” Design. Her father and uncle were both phia Inquirer sports columnist Bill But testing is expensive. “You start to US ambassadors to Ireland. Lyon chronicled his battle with Al- get into some rough economic issues,” Bartholomew, like Packel, has spoken zheimer’s disease in a series of In- questions about resource allocation, he to Karlawish’s students about his strug- quirer articles that candidly says—until the time when those diag- gles as a caregiver, about which he kept a Fmapped both his decline and his deter- nosed have a realistic chance of avoiding meticulous journal. “One of the problems mination to resist it. the disease’s dire consequences. with almost every Alzheimer’s patient is “He’s a hero,” says Karlawish of Lyon, “Once you introduce a treatment that boredom,” Bartholomew says. When Con- who died in 2019, at 81. Karlawish was you think slows the natural history, you verse stopped reading, he found himself his physician and wrote companion change that economic equation substan- “constantly looking for activities to en- pieces to the series. “The inspiration of tially,” Karlawish says, “because you have gage her.” Penn’s Memory Café was one Bill Lyon is that he looked the stigma of a chance of helping not just to predict, solution; another was a Philadelphia art Alzheimer’s in the face and just batted but also to prevent disability or reduce appreciation program for people living it away like a fl y.” the likelihood of it. One of my missions, with dementia called ARTZ at the Muse- Elsewhere, though, the stigma remains. though, is to ensure that the society um, perfect for someone with Converse’s One of Karlawish’s current research within which that happens is culturally curatorial background. projects involves trying “to understand and ethically and socially prepared. And Karlawish urged Bartholomew to fi nd how persons with advanced dementia I don’t think right now we are.” caregiving assistance, which he did, by communicate with their family mem- trial and error and serendipity. The doctor bers.” Among the questions he is asking: Julia M. Klein, a frequent Gazette contributor, also suggested adult day care, but Converse How do other people perceive those with has written for the New York Times, Wall resisted. When she required colon cancer advanced dementia? How do their per- Street Journal, Washington Post, Mother surgery, Karlawish advised Bartholomew ceptions infl uence the decisions they Jones, Slate, and other publications. Follow to enlist family members to stay with her make about their care? her on Twitter @JuliaMKlein.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 41 Black Education Before Brown Andrew Feiler documents the Rosenwald schools, which educated hundreds of thousands of African Americans in the Jim Crow South. By JoAnn Greco | Photography by Andrew Feiler

42 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Emory School, The oldest surviving Rosenwald school. Hale County, Alabama, 1915–1962.

a story that touches every pillar of my An exhibition of selected prints and Congressman John Lewis, whose preface life,” says Andrew Feiler W’84. “I am from the book is due to open touches upon his experience at the Dunn’s Cha- “It’s Jewish, I am Southern, I am progres- this April at the National Center pel School in rural Alabama. “I loved school, sive. So, how could I never have heard of it?” for Civil and Human Rights in loved everything about it, no matter how good The Atlanta-based photographer is referring to Atlanta; plans call for it to travel or bad I was at it,” he writes. “I loved reading … the history he explores in his latest book, A Better to other venues, including the [B]iographies were my favorite, stories that Museum of the Southern Jewish Life for Their Children (University of Georgia opened my eyes to the world beyond.” Experience in New Orleans, Press). The result of a three-and-a-half-year quest the National Civil Rights Lewis remembers his school as a “small wooden that took Feiler to 15 states, the book surveys a Museum in Memphis, and the building, whitewashed and with large windows” small fraction of the 4,977 schools built between Virginia Museum of History and illuminating an interior partitioned into two 1912 and 1932 (one more school was added in 1937) Culture in Richmond. rooms and warmed by cast iron stoves. These ele- for Black students across the South. Known as ments—along with brick chimneys, wide-plank Rosenwald schools, they were the product of a unique partnership heart pine fl oors, and separate cloakrooms—show up again and between Julius Rosenwald, the Jewish president of Sears Roe- again in the pages that follow, beginning with the Emory School. buck, and Booker T. Washington, the prominent Black educator. The oldest surviving Rosenwald school, it served Black students The program’s hundreds of thousands of graduates includ- in Hale County, Alabama, from 1915 through 1962. (School closing ed luminaries like activist Medgar Evers, poet Maya Angelou, dates vary depending on state responses to the 1954 and 1955

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 43 Rosenwald Hall, Seminole County, Jefferson Jacob School, Jefferson County, Oklahoma, 1921–1966. Kentucky, 1917–1957.

residence, thanks to its white clapboard, pitched roof, and the ornamental fl ourish of a bell tower. “Such architectural nice- ties were discouraged by the offi cials over- seeing the program,” Feiler writes. “[It] illustrates the degree to which local com- munities exercised design fl exibility in the early years of the program.” In stark contrast is Rosenwald Hall in Oklahoma: an unadorned brick structure that squats solemnly in a forsaken landscape. Feiler traces its history to the slaves who accom- panied Native Americans westward on forced migrations from the South during the 1830s and 1840s. Once emancipated, these African Americans went on to cre- ate more than 50 all-Black towns in the Sooner State; this school is one of at least 11 that opened in those towns. “In recent years, I’ve been drawn to using my voice as a photographer for a broader understanding of the role that education has played as an on-ramp to the American middle class,” Feiler says. It’s especially apt, then, that photogra- phy played a role in the program’s early development, he adds. “When Washing- ton sent photographs of students and teachers assembled in front of the six pilot schools in Alabama, Rosenwald was so moved by the images that he commit- ted to expanding the program.” Feiler pays homage to those historical photographs in his own visual language, which echoes their black-and-white tones and horizontal orientation. “I started out photographing exteriors, then added interiors, but ultimately I re- Supreme Court decisions requiring desegregation of public alized that it was the people that enlivened the buildings,” Feiler schools.) In his text, Feiler posits that Emory represents a distil- says. “So many of the Rosenwald students went on to become lation of the principles and designs—developed by Robert Rob- educators and then got involved in preserving the schools. They inson Taylor, the nation’s fi rst accredited African American archi- are keepers of a fl ame that testifi es to the importance of educa- tect—that governed the early schools. Drawing from dozens of tion.” Take Sophia and Elroy Williams, whom Feiler photo- books and articles, National Trust applications, and his interviews graphed at the Hopewell School outside of Austin, Texas, hold- with former students, teachers, preservationists, and historians, ing a gilded portrait of Sophia’s grandparents. Feiler’s narrative Feiler expertly enhances each photo with information illustrating unspools the threads of their story. Born into slavery, Sophia’s signifi cant elements in the design, expansion or fi nancing of the grandparents married in 1874; decades later her grandmother program or to place the buildings in a larger context. donated land to the county for a Rosenwald school. Their daugh- “Every school has a story,” he says. ter (Sophia’s mother) was the school’s fi rst teacher, and Sophia, The Jeff erson Jacob School in Kentucky, an early example of a former Hopewell student herself, also became a teacher in the a multilevel school building, has the expansive feel of a gracious county. So did Elroy, who attended a diff erent Rosenwald school

44 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Elroy and Sophia Williams holding a portrait of Chairs with donors’ names, Russell School, Sophia’s grandparents, former slaves who acquired Durham County, North Carolina, 1927–1945. and donated land for a Rosenwald school.

in the region. Over the years, Elroy has dedicated himself to the restoration of Hopewell, putting together grant applica- tions and even personally shoring up the building’s roof at one point. The hope is to one day convert the former school into a community center. As Feiler discovered, every minute counts in eff orts to save the 500 or so extant schools. “I really wanted to visit the W. E. B. Du Bois School in North Caro- lina,” he recalls. “It had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places for years, but when I arrived, I was distraught to fi nd yellow caution tape around a pile of rubble.” The school had been deemed a hazard and demolished a few days be- fore Feiler got there. His documentation of the scene serves as a silent commen- tary, a cautionary tale that tempers the book’s hopeful tone. church halls. “The ultimate story here,” he says, “is that from But, its author insists, the overall narrative remains a positive Rosenwald himself to the people who are part of the momen- one, exemplifi ed by many of the schools’ continued lives as tum, individual action can make a diff erence.” daycare centers and apartments, as small museums and

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 45 How John Lapinski and a squad of Penn faculty and students backing him up on the NBC News Decision Desk navigated an election season that was unprecedented— and could set a pattern for the future. By Alyson Krueger

just needed to hear John’s voice in throughout the process decision desk ently. The political and data scientists my ear,” recalls Rashida Jones, the staff also use exit polls and other data to had to ask themselves endless variations NBC News senior vice president generate graphs, charts, and blog posts of questions like, “If Democrats in Ari- “I in charge of election coverage. to explain what is happening in various zona’s Maricopa County are mostly vot- It was Saturday morning, November 7, contests, such as how votes broke down ing by mail rather in person, what types 2020—four days after the polls closed— by gender or race. of votes are still outstanding?” and the winner had yet to be declared in Based on the states that had already On that Saturday morning, Jones, who the presidential election between Donald been called, NBC’s electoral college count has since been promoted to president of Trump W’68 and Joe Biden Hon’13. stood at 253–214 in Biden’s favor, with MSNBC, had an idea that a vote dump was As it had been since November 4, the Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, coming in from Pennsylvania that might NBC News Decision Desk team—led by and Pennsylvania still undeclared. put the call for that state’s 20 electoral col- director of elections John Lapinski, the While the goal is to project a winner lege votes over the edge, pushing Biden Robert A. Fox Professor of Political Sci- sooner rather than later, based on analysis past the 270 threshold to win. But she ence and director of the Penn Program of votes collected from key counties across needed to hear Lapinski’s voice to make on Opinion Research and Election Stud- the country, the threshold for making a call sure. “He gave us his marching orders,” she ies (PORES)—was gathered in a make- is always high—and never more so than in says. NBC then publicly declared the win shift space inside the Comcast Center in the polarized, pandemic-scrambled elec- for Biden (seconds after CNN at 11:24 a.m.), Philadelphia, analyzing returns to make tion of 2020. “We have to be 99.5 percent and by 11:40 a.m. the Associated Press and projections for the presidential and confi dent to project,” says Lapinski. other networks had followed suit. other still-undecided races to be used by Voting patterns from past elections As images of celebrating Biden support- the network’s various broadcast TV, ca- were of limited help this time around, ers and protesting Trump followers fi lled ble, and streaming platforms. since changes sparked by the pandem- the airwaves, Lapinski and his soldiers At that point, the 44 members of NBC’s ic—in particular, growth in the use of resumed counting. “We still had a bunch election night operation—20 of whom mail-in ballots—combined with Presi- of other races like Nevada to call,” he says. were Penn professors or students—had dent Trump’s attempts to cast doubt on (That happened around 2 p.m.) The last been up nearly 24 hours a day for four those ballots and undermine faith in the calls in the presidential race didn’t come days straight. Besides calling races, election, caused voters to behave diff er- until November 13—North Carolina for

46 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY LINCOLN AGNEW Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 47 Trump, Georgia for Biden—to bring the This year the media’s role became even diff erent analysis tools, to build as we went fi nal electoral vote tally to 306–232. more important, because another po- along” to deal with the fragmentation of There was other news out of Georgia, litical tradition was breached. “There the electorate—into in-person Election too, of course, where both of the state’s used to be this idea that the way we could Day voters; early mail-in voters; and same- Senate elections were headed for runoff s, also know who won the presidency is day mail-in voters or people who dropped after incumbent Republican Senator Da- when the other person conceded,” says off their absentee ballot at polling sites (a vid Perdue fell short of 50 percent of the Conway, which Trump refused to do. category that didn’t really exist before vote versus Democrat Jon Ossoff while That put additional pressure on elec- 2020)—and create responsive forecasting Democrat Raphael Warnock and Kelly tion arbiters like Lapinski and his team. models. “The good news is we had such an Loeffl er, a Republican appointed to the “I don’t want to be melodramatic, but if experienced, talented team that we knew seat in 2019, were the top two vote-getters we screw this up it can be very damaging how to do that. We were rock solid in this.” in a multi-candidate fi eld. Both runoff s for our democracy,” he says. “No one Going forward, Lapinski would like to promised to determine the nation’s trajec- wants to get into a Constitutional crisis.” have better ways to track exactly what type tory for the next four years, with control And not screwing up is getting harder. of vote is coming in and how much is out- of the US Senate hanging in the balance. In order to make a projection the deci- standing, especially in swing states. “You sion desk must collect voting results from have to put a lot of resources into being ne of the more idiosyncratic aspects county offi cials and precincts across the able to do that because it’s a job that takes of the US presidential electoral sys- country. But many of those places have people power,” he said. “But NBC has al- tem is that there is no centralized, proven unwilling or unable to count their ready told me they are investing their re- governmental body that determines votes, especially absentee ballots, as ear- sources in this. They want to get it right.” every county and state’s votes on ly as possible, leading to longer days or Oelection night. Each state certifi es its weeks for those calling the races. hile he was growing up in Seattle, election results on a diff erent timeline “The reason the election wasn’t called Lapinski’s grandmother inspired and their votes are formally cast when on election night 2020 is because the his love of the news. “I would watch the electoral college convenes a month COVID-19 pandemic meant so many bal- television with my grandma,” he or so after the election. The results are lots were mailed in or dropped off , and says. “That was the Tom Brokaw, then sent to Washington and tallied in a many state legislatures’ laws prohibited WDan Rather days. They were big deals.” January 6 joint session of Congress counting those ballots until polls had He was the fi rst in his family to go to (which we learned this year, all too clear- closed. There was a huge backlog that college, completing his undergraduate ly, isn’t always a mere formality.) took time to get through,” says Emily degree at the University of Washington, That leaves a big gap that the media VanDerWerff , a television critic for Vox where he studied political science. He long ago stepped in to fi ll. who wrote a column that advocated get- followed that up with a master’s degree “In the ’50s and ’60s people used to ting rid of election night programming in public policy at the University of Chi- fl ock to their local newspapers to fi nd out because of this reality. cago, with the help of a full scholarship. who won on election night,” says Michael Even without deliberate delays, local “That’s when I realized I had abilities Conway, a television news historian and election offi cials focused on counting the with numbers and when I started getting associate professor of journalism at Indi- vote don’t always provide the most trans- a lot of statistics training,” he says. ana University. “They were the ones who parent or thorough information to jour- He received his PhD in 2000 from Co- got those numbers and counted them nalists, leaving decision desks unclear lumbia University and taught at Yale fi rst.” (Political parties and candidates about which votes are left to count and before coming to Penn in 2006. also do their own counting, but they can what kind of votes they are. MSNBC Lapinski teaches political science class- be biased.) While wire services like the analyst “Steve Kornacki was calling Ful- es, especially those within the depart- Associated Press—which has been calling ton County himself this year while he ment’s data science minor, and is also the elections since 1848—and major newspa- was on air” trying to get some answers, faculty director of the Fox Leadership pers remain sources, eventually the ac- says Stephanie Perry, manager of polling Program and of the Executive Masters of tion moved mostly to TV, fi rst with the for NBC News and a member of the deci- Public Administration program at the broadcast networks’ election night cover- sion desk. “We need to reimagine the way Fels Institute of Government. That’s in age, then the addition of news-focused we get the most up-to-date information.” addition to heading up PORES. The pro- cable channels, and more recently the “This year really did feel super, super gram’s mission is simple, he says: “We plethora of digital properties off ering crazy,” says Lapinski. “On the fl y we had train students how to analyze and think political coverage on the internet. to come up with diff erent types of models, about problems using numbers.”

48 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 John Lapinski

When he’s not pulling all-nighters at the decision desk, Lapinski’s scholarship focuses on using data analysis to under- stand national elections and Congres- sional lawmaking. He is the author of The Substance of Representation: Con- gress, American Political Development, and Lawmaking (Princeton University Press, 2013) and a coauthor of Southern Nation: Congress and White Supremacy After Reconstruction (also from Prince- ton, 2018). Currently, Lapinski is working on a report for the American Association for Public Opinion Research, scheduled for release this spring in time for the group’s annual conference, about how to im- “I got to NBC News by accident,” says Lapinski. “We now run a lot of dif- prove polls. “We need to rethink how it says Lapinski. Just as he was fi nishing up ferent types of models to see if they pro- is done, how to do it better, but also how his PhD at Columbia and starting at Yale, duce the same result. If there is one that the media should be using it,” he says. he aimed to do a big survey studying doesn’t, we don’t call the race. Instead of “People are so obsessed with the num- people’s attitudes about politics. He want- assuming that model is the outlier like bers, who is going to win, but the media ed to conduct the poll on MSNBC.com they might have in the past, we say it can be doing a better job about how we and was put in touch with the director might be the right one.” report out poll numbers.” of elections at NBC. “He told me my proj- Another big change at decision desks is Among the biggest fl aws he identifi es ect was crap, but he grilled me for a long how much data with which they have to is lack of participation among certain time,” Lapinski says. “Two weeks later work. “There have been leaps and bounds populations, which skews the results. he called me and asked me to be an ana- in data science from what we had in 2000 For example, far-right voters, who dis- lyst on the decision desk.” to now,” says Lapinski. “It’s light years. We trust mainstream media and political His fi rst election was the Bush–Gore have so much data, that we have to make organizations, won’t usually answer the race that ended up in the Supreme sure not to get saturated and inundated phone for pollsters. “There are two ways Court. “They sent me home early,” Lap- in it.” For example, decision desks used to to think about this,” says Lapinski. “We inski remembers. “Only when I woke up only get data at the county level. Now it can fi gure out how to get more people in the next day did I realize all the crazy is broken down into precincts, which the polls. Or we can make some improve- stuff that went on.” means it is much more granular, and the ments in how we statistically weigh the NBC, along with other networks, faced forecasting can be more precise. data, but we have to understand these backlash from that election after calling people better and how they behave be- Florida for Gore early in the night, re- By 2013 Lapinski was leading the fore we do that.” tracting the projection, calling the state decision desk, a position that allowed Another issue is predicting the com- for Bush, and taking that back in the him to staff the team with his people. He position of the electorate—how many predawn hours when it became clear turned to Penn. For the 2020 general elec- Democrats and Republicans will vote? there would be a recount. tion, there were nine Penn faculty or staff This has been a problem for pollsters “The 2000 election led to new innova- members working the decision desk. in both 2016 and 2020, with Trump on tions and new approaches in thinking Every election year Lapinski also the ballot, but may well also continue about data,” says Lapinski. “When you brings in undergraduate interns—in in the future. “Probably what we will make a mistake that big, you get a little 2020 there were 11—who work on input- end up doing is to move away from hav- more cautious.” ting exit poll data, building graphs for ing one hard number to having multiple Decision desks run simultaneous mod- use on air, fact-checking numbers, and numbers,” says Lapinski. “We will say els to see what outcome they predict. In getting vote counts from county and if the electorate looks like this, this is 2000, they only ran a few of these. Now, state websites. what will happen. If it looks like B, this they use at least 20, “and we run them College junior Leonard Chen, who is a will happen.” millions and millions of times a night,” philosophy, politics, and economics

Photo by Andrew Arenge Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 49 (PPE) major, “was pretty shocked” when ing at, and what we have and don’t have and know that elections will be called he was asked to join the team, he says. in the moment,” says Perry. “And these over the span of multiple nights.” Election night was a whirlwind. “You tools need to help us make it reportable know that feeling in your chest when to the American public.” January 6, Lapinski was back at you are on a roller coaster?” says Chen. Exit polls have also gotten more com- the Comcast Center collecting “That’s what it felt like.” He was assigned plicated to analyze. In 2020, “there were votes from county precincts in the task of making graphics and then a lot of issues with how people respond- On Georgia, where results of the checking them on air. “There is a lot of ed to polls,” Lapinski says. For example, previous day’s runoff elections were con- scrambling, a lot of yelling, but you get it’s no longer helpful to just poll voters tinuing to be tallied. The Warnock–Loef- used to it.” who show up on Election Day, because fl er race had already been called in War- Besides the adrenaline rush, riding the they act very diff erently than people who nock’s favor in the wee hours, but the roller coaster could also lead to a job in vote early by mail (who act diff erently contest between Perdue and Ossoff was the future. NBC hires many of the interns than people who vote early in person). still offi cially in doubt. that come through the program, Jones “Now you have three electorates,” he says. The night before, it seemed the entire says. “You can teach data analysis in the One thing the 2020 election made country had been glued to their various classroom, but it’s another thing to have clear is that the audience of politics- screens waiting for a winner. But when these students have the live experience consuming Americans has a healthy—or night turned into day, a fresh news of knowing how television works.” maybe not healthy, but voracious—ap- story took center stage: Trump support- According to Tom Jones, a senior writ- petite for watching geeky broadcasters ers had violently stormed the Capitol er for the Poynter Institute for Media operate digital displays and talk num- as Congress was in the process of certi- Studies, decision desks are more impor- bers for days on end. “I was with other fying the election. tant than ever. “They need to stick to the professors who study the media, and The majority of NBC’s team turned its same mission of calling the results and they were yelling at the television attention to that shocking development. making the projections when they are screen: ‘Where are the numbers? Why But as the leader of the decision desk, ready to be called,” he says. “That’s nev- aren’t there more numbers?’” says Indi- Lapinski’s job was to keep counting. er been more important than now, when ana University TV historian and journal- “It was kind of surreal,” he says. “As I’m so many Americans, because of the lies ism professor Conway. looking at votes, out of the corner of my they’ve been told that our elections Witness the reports that The Gap sold eye I see police pulling guns at protest- could be rigged, don’t have 100 percent out of khaki pants—signature attire of ers who have breached the Capitol.” confi dence in election results.” MSNBC’s boyish on-air data analyst “We called the race at 4:06 p.m.,” says The problem is that forecasting re- Steve Kornacki, who was also named one Perry, “but it didn’t even matter—it mat- quires an understanding of how the elec- of the sexiest men alive by People maga- tered ultimately, but not on the day we torate behaves, how certain people in a zine. (“There is now hope for all of us,” called it.” At the time, the projection wasn’t certain place at a certain time will vote. jokes Lapinski.) even announced on live television, only And a lot of that has changed. “If 2020 is More seriously, he has some ideas online through social and digital channels. any indication, elections have entered a about how networks should make use of But once the Capitol was secure and new phase,” says MSNBC’s Jones. that attention, beyond treating the ups Congress resumed its electoral vote Perry agrees: “These races are now go- and downs of election night (or week) count, the results were waiting that the ing to be a lot harder to call.” number-crunching as if it was a football two Democrats had won their Georgia Election analysts need a way to iden- game. “We have to come to a place where elections, creating a Democratic major- tify what kind of votes are coming in at people’s faith in the system is restored ity in the Senate with Vice President any given time and account for those and people start trusting it,” he says. “I Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote. diff erences. “It’s not just that mail-in bal- think there is still a lot to learn, and I am And viewers could rest assured the an- lots are diff erent from in-person ballots,” not sure it’s fully fi xable. But we are at nouncement was accurate. “I wouldn’t Lapinski says. “Diff erent types of mail-in the beginning stages of at least trying.” say that we waited much longer than ballots were diff erent. The ones that More basically, people’s idea of “elec- being 99.5 percent sure Ossoff would were dropped off on Election Day looked tion night” may have to change. “If ev- win, but we pushed it a little beyond so diff erent from the ones that came in ery contest takes three or four days, we that,” says Lapinski. “This call, there was two days earlier.” all can’t physically stay up for that long no way we could get that wrong.” “We have to design and develop tools to cover those,” he said. “We are going to to help us understand what we are look- have to teach people to be more patient Alyson Krueger C’07 writes frequently for the Gazette.

50 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 ARTS P.52 P. 55 P.56 P. 57 Her Architect (and His) Sourdough The Lonely Century Briefly Noted

Red Etchings: Soviet Book ICA Illustrations from the Collection icaphila.org of Monroe Price The Midwest Experience: SCHEDULED VISITS RAW Académie Session 9: Ormandy in Minnesota Infrastructure plus dozens more online Jessica Vaughn: Our Primary Penn Museum Focus Is to Be Successful penn.museum/collections Calendar both through May 9 SCHEDULED VISITS

Annenberg Center Kelly Writers House Living with the Sea: Charting annenbergcenter.org writing.upenn.edu/wh/ the Pacific Invisible Beauty: The Art of LIVESTREAM EVENTS YOUTUBE EVENTS Mar 4: Thomas Kraines, cello & Mar 2: Tyrone Williams, reading Archaeological Science Kinan Abou-afach, cello/oud Mar 15: City Planning Poetics 10: through Jun 6 Mar 11: HopeBoykinDance Urban Futures Slought Apr 1: Rennie Harris Mar 29: Hilton Als, reading slought.org Puremovement Apr 26: Gabrielle Hamilton, reading SCHEDULED VISITS Apr 8: Zakir Hussain, tabla Penn Libraries Atlas of Effects Apr 15: Keyon Harrold, trumpet library.upenn.edu/collections/ Echando Ganas Apr 22: Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers online-exhibits World Café Live Arthur Ross Gallery Remarkable Figures: Women in worldcafelive.com arthurrossgallery.org the Art of Ashley Bryan LIVESTREAM EVENTS SCHEDULED VISITS The Jewish Home: Dwelling on Mar 6: The Besnard Lakes through Mar 28: Many Voices, the Domestic, the Familial, Mar 16: Vieux Farka Toure As seen under a microscope, a basalt Many Visions and the Lived-In Mar 25: Southern Culture on The Skids inclusion in a ceramic tile from the first half of 6th century BCE, from Gordion, Apr 15–Jul 25: An Inner World: In Sight: Seeing the People of Mar 27: Willy Porter in present-day Turkey. 17th century Dutch Genre Painting the Holy Land Apr 30: Sammy Rae & The Friends

Photo by Janelle Sadarananda and Brigitte Keslinke Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 51 ARTS Books

No smoke came out of it or out of his Her Architect mouth. He inhaled it all.” The standard gripes of the creative genius (“All of the Harriet Pattison melds correspondence and memoir ideas I gave them … are on the plan in the wrong place … It’s sickening!”) and to explore her role in the life and work of Louis Kahn. the persistent plaints of delayed fl ights By JoAnn Greco and payments, of lost baggage and com- missions, regularly fi nd Kahn in a blue mood. Yet again and again, with eff er- her new memoir, Our Days Are vescent resilience, he adroitly recovers Like Full Years—a title taken with whimsy or self-deprecation. Poetic from one of many romantic, introspection is a frequent visitor, too: over-promising communiques “Here now almost the whole of me is out that Louis Kahn Ar’24 Hon’71 of me,” he writes. “The tiniest of thread Insent her—Harriet Pattison GLA’67 pres- holds on to me”—catnip for the sensitive, ents a contemporaneous look at the cel- artistically inclined Harriet. ebrated architect’s work during the 1960s Born in Chicago, one of six surviving and ’70s. Kahn scholars and enthusiasts children, Pattison showed an early inter- will lap up the wealth of drawings and est in architecture and music, and the insights, but there’s a lot more here. After book begins with her at Yale, in the grad- living and working almost literally in uate drama program. One snowy day, she Kahn’s shadow for decades—she was his encounters Kahn. To the 25-year-old Har- mistress and muse for the last 15 years of riet, he’s simply an older (by 27 years) his life, as well as an occasional coworker man in need of a hand navigating the who at one point designed major land- slippery sidewalk. When she and her scape projects for him while squirreled friends invite him to join them for coff ee, away in a room that was little more than Our Days Are Like Full Years he holds court but doesn’t disclose his a windowless closet—this is Pattison’s By Harriet Pattison identity. Pattison recalls writing in her Yale University Press, 448 pages, $45 time to make her presence felt. journal: “I met an amazing man.” Speaking by phone from her home in a A few years later it’s 1958 and she’s in converted barn in suburban Philadel- Philadelphia, studying at the Curtis In- phia, Pattison says that when she fi rst stitute of Music and enjoying a “sweet, revisited the correspondence she’d set Of course, there’s a lot of Lou because, courtly romance” with, of all people, the aside for years, her “intention was to well, he was a lot. His letters bristle with soon-to-be-celebrated architect Robert show what was going on with Lou’s work vim and vigor, often fi lling every inch of Venturi Hon’80. At a holiday party, they during this period through his eyes.” And the page. Illustrations abound, as do bump into Kahn. Then he turns up at a this volume off ers a rich trove of letters, photos of Harriet and Lou through the party she herself is hosting, and soon postcards, telegrams, and drawings Kahn years (she favors pageboys and pin- afterward they meet again at an archi- sent her over the years. But as she began afores, he, wilted suits and white shirts). tectural event. At the end of that eve- her research—poring through the Kahn Especially peripatetic during these ning, Bob and Lou and Harriet meander collection at Penn’s Architectural Ar- years, Kahn dispatched many of these through Rittenhouse Square: the two chives and prodding her son with Kahn, notes from abroad. men being geniuses together as she Nathaniel, for his memories—Pattison The man was a great travel writer, his chimes in now and then. When Harriet began to sense that as much as she verbal sketches of the people he encoun- and Lou catch each other’s eye she feels shunned the spotlight, her voice was nec- tered as sharply drawn as any architec- a “rush of excitement”—and we’re off . essary. With no missives of her own to tural elevation. “I went today to a Ye- Harriet sends Kahn an invitation to review—“I’m quite grateful that they’ve menite village,” he writes from Tel Aviv dinner. His response, the fi rst of the let- disappeared,” the 92-year-old says with a in the summer of 1963. “[T]he most ters she reprints here, is brief but lushly chuckle—she decided to add the beauti- ancient looking man I ever saw … sat at romantic. “Dearest Harriet, I received fully written, keenly observed commen- a bench over his work … A pipe, about 8 your note. It is so deeply good. Always it tary that drives this book. feet long, was constantly in his mouth. will be a delight to meet you wherever.”

52 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Architecture

By July, professions of love have been Certainly the idea of bearing a child out exchanged. Letters and postcards pour of wedlock—the news of which elicits a His in, but it isn’t long before Pattison starts murmured “not again” from Kahn—wasn’t questioning the relationship. “What part of her plans. Determined to keep the kind of a future was there in this?” she child, Harriet reaches a turning point and, Architect recalls wondering. “I didn’t want to end it seems, an unspoken understanding: Lou like a character in an Edith Wharton will be around, but not really. “I will try to A project to reissue story, stuck in a tiny apartment, the get the where with all [sic] soon,” he writes Richard Saul Wurman’s lover of a man who showed up at his in a postscript to an October 1962 letter convenience.” Still, she decides to quit that primarily deals with his antics at a classic, long-out-of-print her New York job and relocate to Philly rollicking party. She receives it a month 1962 volume of Louis in the hopes that Lou’s “someday, some- before Nathaniel is born. Riding out her day” talk might be realized. pregnancy at a friend’s house in Connect- Kahn’s art. When Kahn invites her to attend a Mu- icut, Harriet waits for Kahn to send the seum of Modern Art opening in his hon- promised money to help with the baby’s or, she observes that his father, wife, delivery. It never arrives. daughter, and an ex-lover (the architect During the next decade, Kahn’s career here are a lot of wonderful Anne Tyng Gr’75, with whom Kahn also takes off ; he crisscrosses the globe, drop- books on Lou Kahn,” says Rich- had a child) hover around the star of the ping in occasionally with presents and ard Saul Wurman Ar’58 GAr’59, show. In a letter sent a few days after- promises for Harriet and Nathaniel (who referring to the iconic 20th- wards, Lou writes to her: “It was so hard would later explore his own experience century American architect. to feel your disappointment in not being of that relationship in the Oscar-winning “T“And if I was going to have just one able to talk to me freely. The delight of 2003 documentary My Architect [“Arts,” book, it wouldn’t be mine.” the few nights that we had alone before Jan|Feb 2004]). Kahn’s correspondence Wurman’s contribution to the Kahn your leaving lingers … Only prying words bursts with ideas and sketches for his canon was the 1962 volume The Note- make our meeting less.” In her narrative, major commissions, like the Salk Insti- books and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn. Pattison assumes they’ve argued about tute in La Jolla, California, as well as co- Ranging from sketches of ancient ruins her feeling treated as “just another per- pious material detailing his unbuilt work. and European cityscapes, to pencil ren- son, one of many, in his life. His response Looking back at all this, Pattison draws derings of his own buildings (like the felt like a subtle scolding. It was as if the connections and notes possible inspira- Richards Medical Research Laboratories doors and windows to the outer world tions linking the works. “The projects at Penn), to conceptual designs for never- might be shuttered, and that I would be that weren’t built were especially original built proposals (like the architect’s radi- kept in a secret place.” Passages like these and stunning,” she says in conversation. cal plan to remake Center City Philadel- underscore that this is Pattison’s story. “What he was aiming for with them was phia), the book’s eclectic survey of Kahn’s Aspects of Kahn’s other goings-on—his very signifi cant and new.” freehand art won many admirers. And home life with his daughter and wife, for Among those unbuilt works was Four even if Wurman would pack a diff erent example, or his sporadic visits to Tyng Freedoms Park on New York City’s Roo- volume for a proverbial desert island, his and their daughter—remain hidden. sevelt Island. Featuring Pattison’s most own would probably make the cut if he Never bitter or sentimental, always complete landscape contribution to a had a whole shelf to work with. moving and inspiring, Our Lives is ulti- Kahn project, it was fi nally opened in It has been out of print for decades, but mately about the awakening of a reso- 2012 [“Constructing a New Kahn,” this winter the publisher Designers & Books lute and independent woman whose Mar|Apr 2013]. By that point, Pattison, is launching the Louis I. Kahn Facsimile understanding of the tradeoff s she will- who never married, was winding down Project (louisikahn.com), a Kickstarter ingly entered into was, and remains, a 40-year solo practice, and the realiza- campaign to publish an exact replica, aug- clear-eyed and uncompromising. “You tion of this 1973 design triumphantly mented by a reader’s guide to feature ad- can suddenly unlock all kinds of memo- concludes the book. In the end, she has ditional material, including some drawn ries if you take the time to refl ect,” Pat- arrived: a fully-formed pioneer who from Penn Architectural Archives, most tison says over the phone. “But even at knows her value not only in Kahn’s per- of which has not been published before. the time, I felt that what was happening sonal narrative, but in his professional Wurman recalls encountering Kahn was untraveled territory. It was not how oeuvre—and in her own mind. for the fi rst time in 1955 as an architec- I expected my life to go.” ture student at Penn. “I saw this funny

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 53 1962 Graham Foundation studies for Center City ARTS Philadelphia plan diagram, ink. Louis Kahn.

little man with a high-pitched, some- man says now. “I wanted developmental done that were still enormous contribu- what raggedy voice, and an ill-tied bow drawings. I wanted drawings that showed tions to the world of architecture. He tie,” he remembers. “He had this reputa- his process and his mistakes as he drew: never did Mikvah Israel, he never did the tion among students, but I’d never heard the struggle. I’m very interested in failure Meeting House at Salk, he never did the of him.” Wurman was captivated almost and struggle as a way of moving forward.” central synagogue in Jerusalem, he never at once. “When he said something, it was Kahn giggled, as Wurman tells it, and did the Goldenberg House. He got them so simple, and it was the truth. And I let his former student proceed on his up to a certain point, and I think they’re realized I had been brought up with merry way. still valued contributions.” people not telling truth—or not asking Why exactly did Wurman want to The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis questions that elicit the truth.” make precisely this kind of a book, with I. Kahn did not feature those particular Eventually Wurman took a job in Kahn’s its jumble of quick sketches, handwrit- examples but was created in that spirit. private practice, where one day he worked ten notes, draft drawings of projects that “This book should not be in competi- up the nerve to pitch his idea for a book. were later refi ned, and grandiose ideas tion with beautiful books, most of which “He said yes, which shocked me,” Wur- that were never built at all? are really pretty good,” Wurman says. man remembers. “He said, ‘Let’s go pick “So I could have it by my bed,” he says, “There’s no beautiful photographs, or out the pictures,’ and he opened the draw- with a simplicity borne of a deep love anything sexy in that way. But there will ers.” Then Wurman sprung the catch: he for Kahn that has never faded. be the thought in his drawings, the mis- didn’t want Kahn to choose what to in- “Lou said to me once, ‘A good idea that take, the notes he left on them for what clude; that would be Wurman’s job alone. doesn’t happen is no idea at all,’” Wurman to do next. That, to me, is fascinating. “I didn’t want any photographs, and I elaborates. “But I don’t judge it the way It’s much more alive than a photograph didn’t want any beautiful renderings,” Wur- Lou judged it. He had ideas that never got of a fi nished building.”—TP

54 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Drawing courtesy Designers & Books Gastronomy

ly fresh and useful to an overloaded cat- The Discard Pile egory: no other cookbook, in the aware- ness of this sourdough-tending review- You’ve fed your sourdough starter. Now what? er, explicitly focuses on uses for the discard that is part and parcel of starter maintenance. (The yeast in a starter cul- ture require regular feeding, which is done by discarding a portion of the starter and replacing it with fl our and water.) These discard recipes are what distinguish Dela Cruz’s fi rst cookbook. My favorites were for pastas. Sour- dough discard imparts a subtle or dis- tinct tang (depending on how long it rests in the fridge) to fettuccine-cut egg noodles—a fl avor element that proved an especially welcome foil to the slight- ly sweet beet-and-goat-cheese ravioli I make for Christmas dinner. Recipes for ramen noodles, gyoza wrappers, and pierogis apply the same principle. Else- where, Dela Cruz gives the discard treat- ment to recipes running a multiculti gamut from paratha-style scallion pan- cakes to focaccia di Recco, rosewater- cardamom-pistachio biscotti to tradi- tional zucchini bread, and Liège waffl es to Moroccan-infl ected chicken empana- das. There is much to try. The author’s fresh memory of her own amateur days is also apparent in the more traditional sections devoted to ac- tive starter. To take one example, her advice to annah Dela Cruz C’12 fi rst encoun- Traffic to her Saveur rub proofing-basket tered the term sourdough when she Blog Award–winning cloths with rice fl our— was 13, the year her family immi- MakeItDough.com tri- whose lack of gluten grated to the US from the Philip- pled during the spring minimizes sticking— pines. But it wasn’t until 2018, hav- lockdown, setting off a made me wonder why Hing burned out of a job in public relations, chain reaction that led to on earth the New York that she began playing around with a the December publication Times’ otherwise excel- starter of her own. As she ran up against of Sourdough Every Day: lent sourdough bread other unfamiliar terms—autolyse, lame— Your Guide to Using Active and Discard recipe advocates a 50-50 blend of rice she launched a blog to work through her Starter for Artisan Bread, Rolls, Pasta, and wheat fl our. confusion and document her progress. By Sweets, and More (Page Street Publish- So for adventurous beginners looking the time the pandemic emptied baker’s ing, 176 pages, $21.99). for an approachable guide to sourdough yeast from supermarket shelves, she’d The cookbook aisles groan with sour- basics, or home bakers who’ve spent the climbed Mount Mother Culture just as a dough titles—Amazon lists more than pandemic wondering what to do with million suddenly homebound amateurs 700—but Dela Cruz has managed the all that discard, this is a worthy addition started mixing fl our and water. rare feat of adding something genuine- to the kitchen shelf. —TP

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 55 ARTS Sociology Parties of One Loneliness has been the scourge of the 21st century. Could the pandemic be a turning point?

oreena Hertz WG’91 had already aff ectionate towards my Amazon Alexa, rented a friend in New York and which made me interested in the role paid to be cuddled in Los Ange- that technology and AI and social robots les—among other research for her are likely to play in our futures. That latest book, The Lonely Century: alerted me to the rise of what I’ve called NHow to Restore Connection in a World the loneliness economy. That’s Pulling Apart (Currency)—when the pandemic suddenly thrust loneliness You’ve suggested that loneliness is, in into the forefront of everybody’s mind. part, a product of capitalism. But Hertz, a broadcaster, academic, and pub- you’ve also noted that capitalism has lic speaker who holds an honorary pro- produced rental friends, robot com- fessorship at University College Lon- panions, professional cuddling part- don’s Institute for Global Prosperity, ners. Are these solutions—or symp- quickly rewrote, weaving references to toms of the problem? the novel coronavirus’s impact into her I view them as solutions. I think capi- argument. “The pandemic was only am- talism’s greatest strength is its power of plifying and exaggerating the fault lines innovation. In my research, I did explore I’d already identifi ed,” she says. some of the more extreme market solu- Hertz, whose previous books have tions: I rented a friend in New York, and tackled the perils of unregulated capital- I paid to be cuddled in Los Angeles. ism, the problem of international debt, and the art of decision-making, sees ris- “Only a few years You come down hard on our immersion ing loneliness as the product of political, after the 1918 in smartphones and social media—tech- social, and technological forces. “My nologies designed to be connective that defi nition goes beyond craving intimacy Spanish flu, bars you argue are making us lonelier. How or feeling disconnected from your do we balance the perils and pluses? friends and family. It’s also about feeling and nightclubs and There obviously are constituents for disconnected from your employer, from whom social media has provided a life- your government,” she says. cafés were full to line. For instance, the LGBTQ kid in the The Lonely Century, which was pub- the gills.” small town in the Midwest who wouldn’t lished in February, off ers a wide range of have otherwise found her people. But post-pandemic solutions to the loneliness we’ve never had a technology we’ve been crisis, including heightened civic engage- this addicted to, that’s been this omni- ment and the reinvigoration of public present. Social media is playing a role in spaces. Gazette contributor Julia M. Klein they felt. This was a new phenomenon. making us lonely because it’s stealing spoke to Hertz via Zoom. Their conversa- Second, in my academic research I want- our time and attention away from in- tion has been edited for length and clarity. ed to better understand the rise of right- person interactions, which are deeper wing populism, and, hearing testimonies, and of a higher quality. Other problems What was the inspiration for the book? one of the things coming out was how include how polarizing those platforms First, I was really struck by the fact that lonely [these people] had felt until they are, and how excluding. There’s so much I had increasing numbers of students found community in the far right. And bullying on these sites. They are the to- confi ding in me how lonely and isolated third, I found myself feeling increasingly bacco companies of the 21st century and

56 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Briefl y Noted

ADMISSION by Julie should be regulated as such—especially How much hope do you have that we’ll Buxbaum C’99 (Delacorte when it comes to children. be able to have more communal, less Press, 2020, $18.99.) solitary lifestyles post-pandemic? Inspired by the recent col- You advocate building bridges between We can fi nd some succor in the past. lege admissions scandal, people of diff erent socioeconomic Only a few years after the 1918 Spanish Buxbaum’s sixth novel classes and political opinions. That fl u, bars and nightclubs and cafés were follows the story of Chloe seems utopian. full to the gills. We are creatures of to- Wynn Berringer, a teenage girl whose privi- We can bring diff erent types of people getherness. We are hardwired to con- leged world is shattered when her family’s lies together. I’ve drawn ideas from what al- nect. I don’t believe for a minute that are exposed. Chloe must reckon with what ready is happening, whether it’s French this is the new normal and that, moving happened—and her own guilt. President Emmanuel Macron’s pilot forward, we will choose to conduct our GRIDIRON: Stories scheme of civic service for teenagers, or lives on Zoom. Because we’ve all been From 100 Years of the the scheme in Germany by a newspaper through this collective experience of National Football League which brought together people of oppos- isolation, loneliness is now something by Fred Bowen C’75 ing views to converse, or the Rwandan that is being destigmatized. And I think and James E. Ransome example of compulsory service. we appreciate our local communities (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020, more. Some of the values that were sub- $19.99.) Celebrating the 100th anniversary of If you’re not affl icted by personal lone- ordinated in recent years—kindness and the NFL last year, this illustrated book takes liness, what’s the motivation to heal care for each other—have been recog- readers from the league’s scrappy begin- these social and political rifts? nized as important once again. nings in an automobile showroom, through You did end up living in a society where World War II and desegregation, to where it is Trump did win the 2016 election, so if more What are some ideas that will help today—the most popular sports league in the centrist politics is your aspiration, then you moving forward? United States. have a real motivation for bridging these Reinvest in the infrastructure of com- COUNTING KINDNESS: political divides—a self-interested one. munity. What we’ve seen since the 2008 Ten Ways to Welcome There’s an economic and a social cost when fi nancial crisis was a real slashing of Refugee Children by society is fragmented and polarized. funding to public libraries, public Hollis Kurman C’85 parks, youth community centers, el- (Charlesbridge, 2020, Do you see diff erences between Britain derly care centers. People need to have $16.99.) Kurman, a human rights activist, and the United States with regard to physical spaces where they can do offers a warm and welcoming introduction loneliness? things together. We need to nurture our to immigration, refugees, and inclusivity in The United Kingdom has been on a very local communities, pledge to do more this book endorsed by Amnesty International. similar trajectory to the United States for shopping at our local stores, show up Children count from one to ten with one boat, decades now. The loneliness data are at community events. Businesses also two helping hands, and the kindness of many. pretty indistinguishable between the UK have a role to play. One of the things PERSPECTIVES ON and the US: 60 percent of adults consider that came out of my research was the FAIR HOUSING edited themselves lonely. More than one in fi ve incredible eff ect eating together can by edited by Penn faculty American millennials say they have no have. There was a study from the US members Vincent J. Reina, friends. It’s about the same in the UK. where they found that fi refi ghters who Wendell E. Pritchett Gr’97, ate together not only felt much more and Susan M. Wachter These data predate the pandemic? bonded to each other, but also per- Right. And since then what we’ve seen formed twice as well. (University of Pennsylvania is an increase in loneliness across the Press, 2020, $45.00.) Fifty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, the US faces globe. There are certain groups that are What about individuals? disproportionately lonelier: like low- We can think about whether there’s a dire crisis in housing. The essays in this vol- income workers, the young, and women. someone in our own network who might ume provide historical, sociological, economic, They’re having to do more of the child- be feeling lonely and reach out to them. and legal perspectives on the continuing care, more of the housekeeping. We’ve Because just showing someone that they problem of housing discrimination and review seen a rise in domestic abuse during the are visible, that you are thinking about tools that could promote racial and economic pandemic, and there’s nothing lonelier them, can make a huge diff erence. equity in America. than being in an abusive relationship. Visit thepenngazette.com for more Briefl y Noted.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 57 ALUMNI P.60 P.62 P.64 P.72 Magic Man Hotline Help Alumni Notes Obituaries

SKETCH FPO

Hear Them ROAR Decimated by the pandemic, some young restaurant industry leaders are fi ghting back.

58 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Illustration by The Little Friends of Printmaking Camilla Marcus W’07 & Nate Adler C’11 W’11

hen New York City restaurants were or- “Before this, we did not have an dered to shut down at the start of the COV- appropriate seat at the table in politics. ID-19 pandemic a year Wago, Camilla Marcus W’07 Hopefully we can pave the way for a had only one thought: We need to organize. “Everyone I future that is much more collaborative.” knew was fi ring or furlough- ing their teams. I was scared summer reopening—quicker her plan until her senior year donating a percentage of prof- for New York City, and I was than originally planned. They when she made it clear she its to local hospitality training scared for our restaurants,” also blocked smaller but sig- would rather not graduate programs to setting out to be says Marcus, who was then nifi cant proposals like one than register a conventional the fi rst zero-waste restaurant the owner of West~bourne, a forcing restaurants to give major. “I got to hold my own in Manhattan. But it was only vegetable-inspired establish- out hazard pay. “When all of fl ag at graduation because it open for two years before Mar- ment in SoHo. “Anyone in the these businesses are bank- was my own major,” she says. cus had to close permanently industry saw the writing on rupt, and their employees are After college, she attended in the spring of 2020. “Our the wall: we are at the epicen- unemployed, paying some- New York’s French Culinary space turned from a gem to a ter of this crisis.” one 75 dollars an hour will Institute (now the Interna- lemon during the pandemic,” New York restaurant own- put someone out of business tional Culinary Center). She she says. “We were very small, ers and chefs, who employ overnight,” says Marcus, who had always loved cooking in very narrow, an open kitchen, about 315,000 people, are fa- is joined at ROAR by her for- college, making regular meals communal seating, very limit- mously competitive, known mer colleague and fellow for her six housemates and ed outdoor space. more for guarding their turf Quaker Nate Adler C’11 W’11, her boyfriend (now husband “We were set up to have a than coming together. But owner of the quirky Brooklyn Josh Siegel C’07) and his fra- good year until March,” Mar- within days of the initial lock- restaurant Gertie. “We fought ternity brothers. “My Whar- cus adds. She’s since been fo- down, Marcus got 30 of them a number of government pro- ton guidance counselor was cused on catering, as well as on a call to decide what to posals that would have been pretty shocked,” she says. “But looking for her next restau- do—including some of the top a nail in the coffi n.” it was always something I rant, perhaps in Los Angeles, restaurateurs in the city—and The eff orts have been volun- wanted to do.” She then en- where she’s originally from soon cofounded a group tary and ad hoc, but ROAR has rolled at New York University and recently moved. called ROAR (Relief Opportu- been in discussions to fi gure for a four-year JD-MBA pro- It was at Union Square nities for All Restaurants). out how to become a formal gram, explaining, “It was the Hospitality Group that Mar- Working quickly, they put institution with a full-time recession. I thought this was cus met many people who up a petition on Change.org team. “Before this, we did not a great hideout plan.” would later become involved outlining what they wanted have an appropriate seat at Marcus worked in restau- in ROAR—including Adler, from local government, in- the table in politics,” Marcus rants on the side throughout who was a few years behind cluding payroll tax relief and says. “Hopefully we can pave her time at NYU, and after her at Penn. “Danny Meyer ways to incentivize lease re- the way for a future that is graduation, landed a gig run- used to say all the Penn peo- structuring. Ten days later much more collaborative.” ning business development at ple know each other,” Marcus they set up a fund with the Even at Penn, Marcus was Danny Meyer’s Union Square says. “Or if you don’t, you be- Robin Hood Foundation to cutting her own path. She Hospitality Group, which has come instant friends.” provide immediate cash for decided to create her own created some of New York’s Adler had made a name for out-of-work restaurant work- major, one that combined all most popular restaurants. himself on the Penn campus ers, which has so far raised her interests. “I was a paint- After growing frustrated his senior year by opening more than $2.5 million. And er, but I was also very ad- with writing business plans Kitchen@Penn, which pro- with the help of a lobbyist, vanced in accounting,” she for other restaurateurs, Mar- vided healthy, locally they worked to convince the says. “I was into psychology cus left to open her own estab- sourced, home-cooked meals state to allow outdoor dining and economic behavior.” The lishment. West~bourne did for takeout or delivery. “I in the fi rst phase of the city’s University didn’t sign off on many things diff erently, from rented a kitchen on 46th and

Mar|Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 59 ALUMNI Daniel Roy C’20

Baltimore,” he says. “It was more money and become less 12 dollars an hour. I can’t profi table,” says Adler, who even do the math of how studied political science at much I pay in rent per hour Penn and interned for now- in New York City now.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck After graduation, he Schumer. “I was sick of it.” worked his way up to man- One of his biggest accom- agement at Stephen Starr’s plishments has been working Buddakan and Danny Mey- with the state government’s er’s Blue Smoke, before open- economic development team ing Gertie in Williamsburg. to communicate what would The fast-casual restaurant is help restaurants the most. convenient but hip—one of “There was a point in the sum- the few places you can dine mer where they wanted to on matzo ball soup while lis- open inside dining 25 percent, tening to live DJs. “My idea and I told them the consensus was to sort of bring an iden- at ROAR was that it’s not tity to what New York cuisine worth it,” he remembers. “We is,” he says. “It is a very per- would rather continue to have sonal concept for me since I robust outdoor dining and be grew up here. It’s named af- able to sell liquor and wine ter my grandmother.” and have some form of relief.” During the pandemic, Restaurants still have a Gertie has survived with a re- long struggle ahead. Indoor duced staff and a landlord dining in New York City was who has decreased rent by 50 suspended for a couple of percent. Adler has also tried months in mid-December, The Magic of to get more diners there with just as the weather turned pop-up events hosted by guest frigid. The federal stimulus chefs, many of whom have package on December 27 in- Neuroscience lost their own restaurants, cluded no industry-specifi c “The magic isn’t happening in my and community initiatives money for restaurants. Walk- that have included locals writ- ing around the city it can feel hands. It’s happening in your brain.” ing postcards to voters before like new restaurants are clos- the election and fundraisers ing permanently every day. for ROAR’s employee relief “This year has been full of program. “We need to think unimaginable loss, core- here it goes,” Eventually his audience will outside of the box to use these shaking heartache, and con- says Daniel expand to anyone who tunes big, expensive spaces in more stant confusion,” ROAR Roy C’20, in to a recent episode of Penn effi cient ways,” he says. wrote to its 17,000 followers “OK, palming the & Teller: Fool Us, a CW show While Marcus (who cooked on Instagram in December. torn-off corner of a playing that challenges magicians to at Gertie after losing her own “It has also been full of in- card, popping it into his perform tricks that Penn & restaurant) continues to lead spiring camaraderie, deep sol- mouth, and starting to chew. Teller can’t deconstruct. all aspects of ROAR, Adler is idarity and energetic New All eyes are on him. That Which is why Roy is up on focused mostly on political York spirit. 2020 bought us to- includes a packed theater, stage, eating a piece of a play- battles. “Even prior to COVID, gether, as a community, and two audience volunteers on ing card. “You know,” he says, I had seen all these laws get- united us under one goal: sup- stage, a celebrity host, pro- trying to swallow down the ting passed, and all of these porting the New York restau- ducers, directors—and the stiff paper, “no matter how inequitable policies that res- rant community. … At ROAR, keenest observers in the many times I do this, I’ll nev- taurants literally had no say we are just getting started.” room, renowned magicians er forget how much I hate the in and then had to spend —Alyson Krueger C’07 Penn Jillette and Teller. taste of the seven of spades.”

60 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Illustration by Rich Lillash Early Stage Yep. That was it—the card Roy has adapted his usual It isn’t mandatory for magi- Meet Evan Weinstein EAS’19 his volunteer had chosen. sleight-of-hand routines to cians to know neuroscience. GEng’20, who’s turning And Roy, who went by Daniel focus solely on card tricks, “But it’s also very help- chocolate into minia- Fishman-Engel when he was which work well over Zoom. ful,” Roy says. “It can ture works of art at at Penn, identifi ed it solely by Even in video close-ups, his very much inform his chocolate tasting a tiny piece of its cor- hands move so fast that it’s the way you handle printing start-up ner—at least he did if you be- impossible to see how he’s tricks, and help you Cocoa Press. Visit lieve in magic. plucking four aces from the ascertain what might thepenngazette. deck or dealing himself a full be tricky and what com/sweet-success run of same-suit cards. In a might not be. I also think “If I can get you sleight-of-mind trick, he it tells you a lot more about to read his story. reads a couple’s vocal and vi- some of the meaning or phi- to ask the wrong sual tells to deduce a random losophy behind magic.” projects as he could. How question, you’re card they pulled out of their Long before his fi rst neuro- many times did it work? own deck at home. science class at Penn, Roy got “More than anticipated!” he never going to A number of his tricks con- hooked on magic at age 10. He says, recalling a card trick set found even when he’s openly spent hours at a local magic to a Chaucer tale, a slew of arrive at the explaining how they’re done. shop every weekend and even philosophy theories that also right answer.” But unlike some magicians, more time practicing at home. became a card trick, and a Roy says he’s less interested Often he’d work on a trick for scheduled exam that he in having you think he’s a up to 12 hours straight, so ab- helped his whole class stall Almost 10 months later, in wizard (even though people sorbed that he’d forget all out by performing two hours the fi nal days of 2020, Roy is keep telling him he looks like about lunch and dinner. of magic tricks. greeting another audience, Harry Potter) than he is in He alternated nights be- Roy took off for the Chicago this time over Zoom. He was preying on shortcomings of tween his two sets of parents: Magic Lounge and the Magic supposed to be working rooms the human mind—mechanics a lesbian couple and a gay Castle in Los Angeles the sum- as a professional magician by he learned about as a neuro- couple who had been close mer after his junior year at now. Following his television biology major at Penn. friends for years before de- Penn. Between the two, he appearance, he had gigs “The magic isn’t happening ciding to have and coparent a performed 33 shows in 11 days. booked, a move planned. But in my hands. It’s happening child together. “I grew up in “I thought I would hate it, be then came COVID-19, wiping in your brain,” he says in a San Francisco, so I didn’t face totally exhausted,” he says, away live performance, magic separate Zoom interview. real discrimination or push- “and I was exhausted—but I included. So instead he’s hun- “There are these cognitive back in any way,” he says. loved it.” For the fi rst time, he kered down at his two moms’ loopholes that you can’t Still, as the only child of four thought about delaying a ca- house (his two dads live about switch off . It doesn’t matter if parents, “it’s great on holi- reer in science to work as a 10 minutes away), waiting out you know they exist, they’re days and terrible if I get in professional magician instead. the pandemic with a slick DIY still there. I think that’s the trouble,” he laughs. Only a few months after setup for virtual magic shows. more interesting side of how Roy quit doing magic for a that summer tour, he became “It was defi nitely disappoint- magic works—less of the nit- few years in high school, sick one of the youngest magi- ing,” he says of the pivot, “but ty gritty how and more on a of being labeled “The Magic cians ever to win the Mil- such is the nature of an unpre- brain level why does it work.” Kid” and having classmates bourne Christopher Award dictable career track.” “If I can get you to ask the order him to perform tricks for Close-Up Magician of the His sold-out Zoom show— wrong question, you’re nev- on the spot. But by the time Year. By the time Fool Us ticketed through the Smoke er going to arrive at the right he left for Penn, he’d found came along, Roy had decided and Mirrors Magic Theater in answer,” he adds. “And in a his way back. He joined the to follow a magic career as Huntingdon Valley, Pennsyl- sense, that’s so much of Penn Illusionist Club and re- far as it might take him. But vania (where he often per- what we do as magicians: fashioned it into a resource less than a week after he formed in-person as a student getting you to pose the for new and aspiring magi- taped his TV appearance, the at Penn)—marks one of the wrong question to yourself— cians to learn sleight-of-hand. country began to shut down. few performance opportuni- hopefully a question that is He also made a sport of us- With in-person shows off ties he’s had since March. unanswerable.” ing magic in as many fi nal the table, Roy has had plenty

Mar|Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 61 ALUMNI Larry Kahn C’69 GEd’71

of time to beef up his online free advice, support, and ne- presence over the past year. gotiation to individuals in His YouTube channel off ers crisis. “A lot of times what tutorials for tricks and tech- people think is a legal crisis niques. His website (daniel- is actually not,” Kahn says. roymagic.com) highlights a “They just need some practi- quote from Penn & Teller on cal advice getting through the main page: “We loved their situation.” you!” He fi lms bite-sized Since Kahn founded it in tricks for TikTok, including 2004, the organization has grabbing four aces out of a assisted more than 8,600 jumble of cards he throws up people, largely in the south- in the air. He’s also off ering ern Oregon community private virtual magic lessons. where it had been based. But “It’s kind of hard to even con- with most of the work being ceive of what my next move is done over the phone—and going to be, because we don’t with the COVID-19 pandemic know what the state of the amplifying the urgency of his world’s going to be like in three mission—he recently decided months, or even two weeks,” he to launch a nationwide advo- says. But he’s still planning to cacy hotline (855-4-CRISES), get on the road once live per- which he believes to be the formance is possible again. fi rst of its kind in the US. After his Zoom show in late (While there are several ex- December, Roy sticks around isting counseling hotlines for audience questions. “Have and other kinds of employee you been on Penn & Teller?” Crisis Navigators assistance programs, Kahn calls out a woman who must claims that there’s never not follow him online. He says A former attorney is building a been a wide-ranging advoca- that he has. “Did you fool national advocacy hotline for the cy hotline designed to help ’em?” asks another. anyone through life crises “I got very close,” Roy says. country’s “invisible” populations. beyond psychological issues.) “I actually have a funny story “I think the uniqueness of about that.” When he left the what Larry’s doing is that it’s stage shortly after Penn & not focused on one specifi c Teller pinpointed how his various points in his simply by making a few issue; it’s focused more on a trick worked, a stagehand life, Larry Kahn C’69 phone calls. process of negotiation and tapped him on the shoulder. GEd’71’s son has Over the course of his long creating win-win solutions Teller wanted to talk with needed help. career as an attorney and ne- for people,” says Ryan Roth, him. “He said, ‘I just want Once, he was fi red gotiator, Kahn learned that who in October was hired as you to know that you actually Atafter being falsely accused other people with disabili- the organization’s volunteer fooled both of us individual- of taking someone’s lunch ties or facing diff erent chal- executive director. Roth, ly,’” Roy recalls. “‘Part of the out of the group refrigera- lenges need advocates too— who previously founded and trick fooled me, part of the tor at work. Another time, often to fi ll what he calls a sold the medical company trick fooled Penn.’” It took he was about to be evicted “tremendous gap” between MEDVAL, aims to scale up both of the veteran magi- from his apartment when what a lawyer can provide the technology infrastruc- cians to unravel his ruse. he left the oven on and it (for a fee) and what they can ture so they can have the ca- “It would have been cool to started smoking. do for themselves. That’s pacity to take hundreds of fool them,” he adds, “but they In both cases, Kahn helped why he runs a nonprofi t or- daily calls, help Kahn recruit totally got me fair and square.” resolve the situation for his ganization called Help Now! and train an army of volun- —Molly Petrilla C’06 son, who has schizophrenia, Advocacy, which provides teer advocates to take calls

62 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Illustration by Anna Heigh from their own homes or of- the next three years. “By the Kahn initially ran the com- fraud in an alleged scheme fi ces around the country, and time I fi nished teaching at pany out of his home and at too sophisticated for her to raise enough money to build West Philadelphia High hotel conference rooms, but have concocted. out a small full-time staff , in- School in 1974, students was able to move into offi ce The organization doesn’t cluding his paid successor. would refer to me as ‘Brother space in Medford after re- always resolve disputes. “There’s really no organiza- Larry,’” he recalls. “I took stu- ceiving a grant from the “Sometimes we give advice tion doing what we’re able to dents on a camping trip to Jackson County Health and and support, and sometimes do as far as breadth goes,” the Poconos overnight. I Human Services department. we fi nd resources and service adds Roth, who’s pledged to played football with them on Operating on a “shoestring providers,” Kahn says, recall- donate $50,000 himself to- the weekends and basketball budget,” Kahn and a small ing a time when they got a ward a goal of $500,000 by after school hours. It was a team of volunteers welcomed woman into a treatment cen- great experience and some- in clients who found them on ter after they smelled alcohol thing that broadened my per- the internet or were referred on her breath when she came “There’s really spective on things.” by social service agencies like in about a separate driver’s li- Though he enjoyed teach- the American Red Cross. cense issue. “If we spot an- no organization ing, Kahn left for the Univer- Billed by Kahn as a “one-stop other problem, we’ll address doing what sity of Michigan Law School shop, which can be either the that problem,” he adds. and then moved to Washing- fi rst or last resort for people When it’s needed, Kahn will we’re able to ton, DC, where he worked as in crisis,” the nonprofi t has use his connections to fi nd an attorney for the Federal over the years helped clients attorneys for clients who live do as far as Trade Commission and later fi nd urgently needed housing in diff erent locations. “We breadth goes.” a law fi rm in which he “es- and food, recover money lost don’t have the hammer of lit- tablished a reputation as be- in scams, take on unscrupu- igation to resolve disputes,” ing a negotiator.” In 1991 he lous merchants, avert fore- he says. “We appeal to peo- the end of 2021. (For more started his own practice closures and evictions, settle ple’s sense of fairness.” But as information on how to called Negotiated Solutions disputes with neighbors, deal he grows the organization, volunteer or donate, visit with the sole purpose of with creditors, and navigate he’s hoping people with legal helpnowadvocacy.org.) keeping legal disputes out of governmental bureaucracies. and mediation backgrounds Kahn has always tried to court—something he found And they’ve done it all, an or- will join the cause. help others in unique ways. to be unique at the time. ganizational fact sheet states, “It’s really about helping While at Penn’s Graduate Not long after that, Kahn “for the ‘invisible’ portion of the most number of people School of Education in 1970, made a professional sacrifi ce the country’s population he possibly can,” says Roth, he taught at the old West by leaving the DC legal com- who, for reasons of physical pointing to Kahn’s work Philadelphia Community munity to move to San Diego or mental disability, age, in- ethic as the biggest reason Free School for students who with his son, who he thought fi rmity, lack of education, why Help Now! has churned had diffi culty learning in a would be better off on the lack of fi nances, etc., are un- forward for almost two de- traditional classroom envi- West Coast because of his able to speak up or navigate cades ahead of its ambitious ronment. The summer prior, disability. He continued to for themselves when in the national expansion plan. he shared a two-bedroom, operate Negotiated Solutions throes of a crisis.” “His drive is probably one-bathroom house in the for a decade, before a middle- Although Kahn closed the what’s most impressive to Mantua neighborhood of of-the-night epiphany in Oregon offi ce in September me. He had a pretty success- Philly with dozens of GSE 2004 led to him launching to move to an all-virtual for- ful career prior to if you classmates, meant to simu- Help Now! in Medford, Ore- mat, his team has been par- want to call it retiring into late the conditions their stu- gon, where he had since ticularly active over the past Help Now! From age 55 on dents might be in. Embold- moved. “People have said to year through the pandemic roughly, he’s been working ened by the experimental ur- me along the way, ‘If you had and last fall’s Almeda Fire. what I can tell is seven days ban education program, started this in a diff erent city, Kahn was particularly proud a week. He just really puts which also involved working you would have been much to have recently helped a everything he has into the with a youth group that sum- bigger at this point,’” he woman with a developmen- organization and helping mer, Kahn would go on to notes. “Southern Oregon is tal disability from being people. He’s got a huge teach inner-city Philly kids like the corner of the earth.” charged with food stamp heart for this thing.” —DZ

Mar|Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 63 ALUMNI Notes We Want to Hear from You

EMAIL [email protected] “I remain grateful to the Please include your school and year, along with your address and a daytime telephone multidisciplinary education number. We include email addresses only when requested or obviously implied. Please note, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and personal attention I Gazette offices are closed until further notice and we cannot retrieve daily postal mail. Email is preferred. received from many of my ALUMNI NOTE DEADLINES 7/15 for the Sep|Oct issue; 9/15 for Nov|Dec; 11/15 for Jan|Feb; 1/15 for Mar|Apr; 3/15 for teachers at Penn ... who May|Jun; and 5/15 for Jul|Aug. enriched my experience on learning and problem-solving.” 1963 Joel Levinson Ar’63 writes “When I was —Arup Bhattacharyya Gr’66 a student of architecture at Penn, I was struck with the realization that a new geo- metric motif was aff ecting the previously blocky, orthogonal designs of fellow stu- dents and our professors. This realization the sound recordings and ancillary mate- sparked an independent research project 1949 rial, books, sheet music, DVDs, and the that ran parallel with my architecture and Maureen McCauley sent this update like. The collection is housed at the Van interior design practice in Philadelphia. In about her father, Edward S. McCauley Pelt Library [“Alumni Profi les,” May|Jun the fall of 2020, I shifted my attention from G’49: “My father received his master’s in 2018]. I continue to work as curator even writing a book titled The Daring Diagonal: physics from the University of Pennsylva- now, in spite of the pandemic, as I’m able Signature Geometry of the Modern Era and nia. During his career as an electrical en- to access my computer at Penn from began to create a website called the Daring gineer, he worked on the backpack com- home. In other news, New York Yiddish is Diagonal Virtual Museum. The eagle-eyed munications system for the moon landings an annual festival celebrating Yiddish Dr. Kenneth Ford, a physicist, off ered to and radios for fi ghter jets and the Trident language, music, and the arts. I was hon- edit my illustrated essays that appear in submarine. He reads a book a day, is an ored to be asked to serve on the faculty the museum’s 33 galleries. My experience avid and accomplished duplicate bridge for the year 2020 to describe why the ar- as a photographer and published author player, and a master tomato gardener. He chive enjoys the premier reputation that (The Reluctant Hunter—a novel, 2019) has will turn 100 on March 19. He enjoys read- it has. More importantly, it gave me the been of great value in fi lling the museum ing the Gazette.” opportunity to bring the archive to the galleries with engaging stories. Ike Rich- attention of a new audience. Because of a man has been promoting the museum and technical problem with Zoom, I had to hit the jackpot when Architectural Digest 1954 give my presentation by telephone.” picked up the story and promoted the mu- Robert Freedman L’54 writes, “After seum as a ‘must-see experience’ in their retiring in 2008 from the practice of law online journal. That article led to the story for some 60 years, fi rst at the fi rm of Co- 1958 being picked up in South America, the hen Shapiro Polisher Shiekman & Cohen Steve Glickman W’58 writes, “My 1961 Middle East, and India. Happily, another and then at Drinker Biddle & Reath (only Harvard Law School thesis, ‘A Critique of story about the museum is soon to be pub- in America), I and my wife donated our the Law of Marijuana,’ was obviously pre- lished in Germany, a hotbed of diagonality. collection of recorded Jewish music be- scient with the numerous 2020–2021 legal We welcome ideas and comments as we gun in 1963 to Penn after signing a Deed reversals. Since 1948, I’ve been photo- continue to develop new essays about how of Gift to the Robert Freedman and Molly graphing the ethnic/old-fashioned nooks the diagonal motif has transformed art and Freedman Jewish Sound Archive at the and crannies of the world, which can be architecture since the beginning of the University of Pennsylvania vesting title to viewed at www.StilledLife.com.” 20th century. The ‘phenomenon of diago-

64 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Events nality’ remains robust today. Although the draised and recruited Colorado scholars Daring Diagonal Virtual Museum has been and athletes to attend Penn. It is said all a labor of love for 60 years, a trickle of sup- roads from Colorado to West Philly went port has begun to arrive through a Go- through Big Al! One time he invited the FundMe campaign that is available Penn Singers to perform in Denver when a through the museum’s website. For com- sudden snowstorm made it impossible for ALUMNI WEEKEND ments and suggestions, I can be reached them to return to their hotel. ‘No problem! Alumni Weekend 2021 will not be at [email protected]. Dr. Ford and Let’s have a sleepover.’ So he and his wife, I have been working on book proposals to Anna, hosted 20-plus students at their held as an in-person event but will be reach a broader audience. We also look for home. (‘They were everywhere!’ Anna said.) reconceived with virtual programs held ways to have the museum’s essays trans- He volunteered for the Alumni Interview May 14–15, 2021. Please visit: www. lated into other languages. The museum Program for over a decade and founded the alumni.upenn.edu/alumniweekend. can be accessed through www.ddvm.org.” Colorado Ivy+ Career Expo, an innovative Bill Novelli C’63 ASC’64, cofounder of career fair. He not only raised Penn’s profi le VIRTUAL the public relations fi rm Porter Novelli and in Colorado by inviting professors to speak In light of ongoing global health con- a professor at Georgetown University’s and sports teams to play, he often returned cerns, visit www.alumni.upenn.edu/ school of business, has written Good Busi- to campus to sponsor and take part in sem- clubs to find the latest information ness: The Talk, Fight, Win Way to Change the inars at Wharton and other schools. At on Regional Club events in your area. World. From the press materials, “Good Busi- Homecoming, he competed in alumni swim And be sure to check out www.alumni. ness, which is part behind-the-scenes look meets and won in his class. He served as upenn.edu/govirtual for an abundance at crafting social and health policy, part president of the Colorado Alumni Club for of virtual events and digital resources inspirational guide, proves that you can do 17 years and was a member of the fi rst ex- available for alumni. well (creating economic and fi nancial suc- ecutive committee of the Council of Re- cess for yourself and your company or or- gional Alumni Clubs. He was cochair of the ganization) by doing good (helping to solve 25th and 50th Reunion committees for the tries, a manufacturer of framed pictures. the world’s and society’s major problems).” Class of 1964 and served as class copresi- His two sons, Brian Levin W’94 and Ron- dent at the time of his death. Penn seeped ald Levin, and his fi ve grandchildren said into his DNA—and he loved it. He sent this he supported all of them 100 percent with 1964 note to classmates when it was medically anything they ever did or needed. To Brian, Sandra Lotz Fisher CW’64 GEd’67, co- impossible for him to attend our 55th Re- the younger son, he decreed, ‘You have two president of the Class of 1964, and Camille union: ‘I am very disappointed not to be choices. You can go to Penn or go to hell!’ Quarrier Bradford CW’64, class commu- with you. Something magical happens to Wharton ‘94 it was! Alan, a big man with a nications director, write, “Penn lost one of me when I reach the Penn campus. I am 21 big heart, green eyes, and cat-like moves, its greatest promoters when our copresi- again. My green, piercing eyes and quick, was generous to everyone. It will be hard dent of the Class of 1964, Alan Levin C’64 cat-like movements are back. It feels like to fi ll the hole in our hearts.” ASC’65 died on July 26, after a valiant fi ght 1964 again. This feeling sometimes lasts for Dr. Robert Allyn Goldman C’64 has pub- with cancer. ‘Big Al’ was our humorist and as long as three days. Now I can only dream lished a new book, The Slammer: A Critique joker par excellence, class motivator, and a about it. Hoping you all really enjoy your- of Prison Overpopulation, A Menacing Flaw in dear friend to so many of us. Alan always selves and take advantage of everything American Culture. He writes, “It is a critical made you laugh and left you feeling better Penn has to off er.’ As an undergraduate he exposition of America’s decaying prison sys- about life after having spoken with him. Oy! was a champion varsity swimmer, played tem and a wake-up call for urgent reform.” Did we say he liked to talk? The phone and football, was a member of ROTC, Kite and in-person contact were his modus operandi. Key, Beta Sigma Rho fraternity, and the Hey Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! He would dial, schmooze … and make Day Committee; served on the Inter-Frater- things happen, at Penn and in life. Alan was nity Council; wrote the Class Prophecy; and 1966 the recipient of the 2016 Alumni Award of volunteered at the West Philadelphia Tutor- Arup Bhattacharyya Gr’66, CEO of ADI Merit, in recognition of many years of dis- ing Project. After settling in Denver, where Associates, writes, “We’ve been settled in tinguished service to the University. After he lived for 55 years, he launched fi ve com- Vermont since 1968, after spending my ini- his time at Penn, Alan had promised to give panies, including Glamorene Rent-O-Mat, tial professional years in Massachusetts and back to the University that he felt shaped the fi rst rug shampoo machine rental com- Rhode Island, even though the professional him in so many ways. He successfully fun- pany in the country, and Fine Arts Indus- activities took me all over this country, Eu-

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 65 ALUMNI Notes

rope, and Asia. I led many an eff ort to trans- sionals have received this honor, and I am Architecture and Regional Planning at what form the rudimentary silicon-based elec- very honored to be among them.” is now the Weitzman School of Design. In tronics technology from low-level integra- Martin Redish C’67, a law professor at commemoration of McHarg’s birth, I have tion to MSI–>LSI–>VLSI–>ULSI, currently Northwestern University, has been award- written a short biography of his life, in designed and produced in nanometer di- ed the Daniel J. Meltzer Award from the Japanese with English synopsis, entitled mensions. This year, Wikipedia named me Association of American Law Schools for Professor Ian L. McHarg, His Life and His to its list of a couple of hundred prolifi c in- his outstanding scholarship and teaching Quest. It is my way of celebrating his birth- ventors—who have earned 200 or more in the area of federal courts. In addition, day, his long and remarkable life, and in- worldwide utility patents—for my contribu- Martin’s 19th book, Commercial Speech as troducing him to the broader Japanese tions in electronics (bit.ly/3qDbn1t). I re- Free Expression, will be published this public in their language. The book was main grateful to the multidisciplinary edu- spring by Cambridge University Press. published in Kyoto, Japan, exactly on cation and personal attention I received McHarg’s 100th birthday. Naturally, much from many of my teachers at Penn, includ- of the content is based on his autobiogra- ing Robert Maddin and Professor Brown of 1968 phy, A Quest for Life, published in 1995. My the Laboratory for Research on the Struc- Bobbi Penneys Susselman Laufer CW’68 book also includes information about the ture of Matter; Sol Pollack C’55 Gr’61, pro- writes, “I am still selling travel all over the last few years of his life, as well as my more fessor emeritus of bioengineering; J. Robert world (not during COVID) and escorting than three-decade relationship with him as Schrieff er Hon’73 and Professor Callen of very tiny groups to exotic destinations. Re- mentor and friend.” Harvey invites alumni the physics department; Professor Bolton; cent groups have visited Madagascar, Bor- contact at [email protected]. Professor Westdorf; and many others who neo, and Tonga. Groups in 2021 will visit enriched my experience on learning and Uganda, Rwanda, Zanzibar, and the Mar- Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! problem-solving. Lately, my technical con- quesas, Austral, and Gambier Islands.” sultancy is solely dedicated to promoting 1971 and volunteering green science and technol- Marjorie DelBello GEd’71 GEd’02 writes, ogy applications to address global warming 1969 “I’ve published a new book, Echoes of Olde and sustainability solutions for the US and Fred Price WG’69 has written a new Cape May, a history of the historic New Jer- India (my birthplace). I have been involved novel under the pseudonym David Hirsh- sey town from the perspective of my very old and participated in such activities in the US berg. It will be released in May from Fig Tree home (1790) up until modern times. It is for the past three decades. I’ve also success- Books. From the publisher, “Jacobo’s Rainbow available on Amazon, as is my earlier book, fully organized and sponsored internation- is an imaginative work of historical, literary Parents of Happy High Achievers, a compen- al conferences in India, advocating green fi ction ... set primarily in the 1960s during dium of advice shared by parents through energy solutions to replace fossil fuels.” the convulsive period of the student protest 30 years of work in gifted education.” movements and the Vietnam War. It focuses Alima Dolores J. Reardon GEd’71 on the issue of being an outsider, an alto- writes, “My niece Patricia Reardon, the 1967 gether common circumstance that resonates youngest daughter of Francis and Nancy Peter Bonventre C’67 has authored a with readers in today’s America. Written Reardon, married her boyfriend in South new novel, Where Have You Gone Without from a Jewish perspective, it speaks to uni- Carolina on November 13. Two of her sis- Me? Peter is a former editorial director at versal truths that aff ect us all.” ters traveled from Illinois to be at the wed- Entertainment Weekly. He lives in Manhat- ding. Although I could not attend, I con- tan and Bronxville, New York, with his gratulate the couple!” wife, Donna Olshan. 1970 Michael E. Egan C’67 was elected a fel- Mark L. Friedman C’70 L’73 writes, “I low of the Institute of Management Con- was appointed to the board of Polen Capi- 1972 sulting. This fellowship recognizes “a Cer- tal, a Florida-based fi nancial fi rm with Hon. Blaine G. Gibson C’72 writes, “I’ve tifi ed Management Consultant who has over $30 billion under management.” been elected to my fi fth, and last, term as demonstrated outstanding service to cli- Harvey A. Shapiro GCP’70, who has a Superior Court Judge for Yakima County, ents, to the management consulting pro- been living and working in Japan since Washington. This will give me four more fession, to the Institute, and to the com- 1970, writes, “November 20 would have years to fi gure out what I’m going to do munity through service on nonprofit been the 100th birthday of the late Profes- when I retire. In addition, my wife Sandi boards or pro bono work.” Michael writes, sor Ian L. McHarg, founder and longtime and I recently celebrated our 39th wed- “In the past 52 years fewer than 60 profes- chairman of the Department of Landscape ding anniversary.”

66 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 ALUMNI IN BUSINESS A guide for Gazette readers seeking to reach sociation and currently the fi rst vice presi- thethe bbubusinesssiiness serservicesviices off PPenneennn grggraduates.radaduauattees.s 1974 dent of the International Council of Nurses. Susan Dyshel Sommovilla G’74 has pub- Michael P. Malloy L’76 writes, “In Oc- lished a new book, From Hans to Henry: A tober, I virtually attended the 81st Plenary Holocaust Survivor’s Story. She writes, “A Session of the Committee on Urban Devel- brother’s disability, a yellow bicycle, a cam- opment, Housing and Land Management, era, a little black address book, and a pile of UN Economic Commission for Europe. German maps all played a role in the chal- Considerable discussion was focused on lenges faced by a young German Jewish boy proposals for sustainable housing, which named Hans, who survived the Holocaust is the theme of the Policy Framework for to make his mark as Henry Arno Froehlich Sustainable Real Estate Market, revised in in the business world of American photog- 2019, for which I was a contributor.” raphy. Proceeds of the book benefi t the Ho- Rosemarie Scolaro Moser C’76 GEd’77 locaust Awareness Museum and Education Gr’81 was presented with the 2020 Alfred Center in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.” M. Wellner Lifetime Achievement Award for Clinical Excellence from the National Register of Health Service Psychologists. 1975 Rosemarie is director of the RSM Psychol- Steven Harlem Gr’75 has written a sec- ogy Center and the Sports Concussion ond book, Correcting America’s Shame: The Center of New Jersey. Failure of Public Education. He writes, “It details the crass indiff erence to providing educational opportunities to students of 1977 color and the impoverished leading to in- Lu Anne Tracey Stewart C’77 writes, “My creased poverty, despair, helplessness, vio- fi rst novel, Digging, was published in Decem- For advertising information, email Linda Caiazzo lence, and a plethora of social ills. In the ber by the independent press Fat Dog Books. at [email protected] or call 215-898-6811. book, I address infant education through Digging tells the story of an idealistic young an anthropological model, while off ering journalist in the post-Watergate 1970s who additional consequential strategies and risks her life to expose corruption in a small sor of anesthesiology at Tufts University reforms for the middle and high school New England town. Although the novel is School of Medicine and I’ve set up two years. Meeting the present needs of those primarily set in Rhode Island, where I worked companies: HRx Nursing Care Solutions, currently denied equal educational op- as a reporter and editor for seven years, Penn a 20-year-old home health nursing agency portunities in a realistic way will prepare alumni will recognize some familiar locales employing more than 100 people; and students for economic and personal suc- in West Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore as more recently, Aisa Pharma, a biopharma cess in today’s society.” well. I am grateful to my fellow student edi- development company pursuing a new David Teece Gr’75 has been appointed tors and reporters at the Daily Pennsylvanian treatment for patients with a somewhat executive chairman at Berkeley Research in that era for instilling in me a passion for rare disease called scleroderma and a more Group (BRG), a global consulting fi rm the fi eld of journalism that ultimately re- common symptom, Raynaud’s disease, headquartered in Emeryville, California. sulted in this book. More information can be which is an abnormal sensitivity and pain- David cofounded BRG in 2010 and previ- found at luannestewartauthor.com.” ful condition experienced commonly in ously served as chairman and principal the fi ngertips upon exposure to cold or executive offi cer. stress. Raynaud’s is experienced by more 1979 than 25 million Americans, and the FDA Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! M. Kelly Tillery L’79 has written a new has never approved a treatment for the book, Sidebar, Too: More Refl ections of a condition. Aisa is starting a study in sclero- 1976 Philadelphia Lawyer. derma patients in Australia in the fi rst Pam Cipriano HUP’76, dean of the nurs- quarter of 2021 and will go to the FDA ing school at University of Virginia, has been later this year to obtain approval to start honored with a Royal College of Surgeons in 1980 a US multicenter study. Aisa has been ap- Ireland Fellowship. Pam is the immediate Dr. Andrew Sternlicht C’80 G’81 writes, proached about a possible public off ering past president of the American Nurses As- “Living in Boston, I’m an assistant profes- but has no plans to do so at present.”

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 67 ALUMNI Notes

Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! tion of Attorneys General, a nonpartisan 1983 organization of 56 state and territory at- 1981 Robin Cohen C’83 L’86 is chair of the torneys general and their staff . Amy S. Albert C’81 writes, “After de- new law fi rm Cohen Ziff er Frenchman & cades as a magazine writer and editor McKenna LLP, based in New York. Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! covering food and the built world, I re- ceived an MA in clinical psychology, 1986 summa cum laude, from California South- 1984 Howard Givner C’86 see Wendy Ferber ern University. I’m a licensed psychother- Howard Sherman C’84 writes, “My fi rst W’87 L’93. apist in private practice in Los Angeles book, Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wild- Betsy Rubin Glick C’86 writes, “I never and am doing post-graduate training at er’s Our Town in the 21st Century was pub- imagined that my public relations accom- the Colorado Center for Modern Psycho- lished on January 28 by Methuen Drama/ plishments would be recognized interna- analytic Studies. I can be reached via my Bloomsbury Publishing.” tionally, nor that overcoming the challenges website, amysalbert.com.” Kevin Stirling WEv’84 WEv’86 writes, and stigma of my childhood hearing loss Linda A. Shepherd W’81 writes, “After “For the last 10 years or so, I have been would be something that I would receive an 39 years of working in the insurance in- making documentary fi lms and have won award for in hopes of setting an example for dustry as an actuary and insurance execu- numerous awards for diff erent projects. others who struggle with physical impair- tive, I announced my retirement on No- Most recently, I produced Go for Landing, ments of any kind. The year 2020 was full vember 9. I started in the industry before a documentary that recalls the fi nal min- of surprises—and I’m not only talking about I attended Penn, working summers at Buck utes of Apollo 11’s 1969 lunar descent and the pandemic! In December, I was awarded Consultants (formerly George B. Buck Con- landing, starring several of NASA’s legend- the 2020 Joseph Wharton Award from the sulting Actuaries) in New York City as a ary fl ight directors, including Gene Kranz, Wharton Club of DC. I was cited for my retirement calculation clerk. I attended Glynn Lunney, and Milt Windler. The fi lm most visible accomplishment: working be- Wharton and obtained a BS in economics won the 2019 Platinum NASA Remi Award hind the scenes with CBS News on The FBI: with a concentration in actuarial science at the Worldfest-Houston International Declassifi ed, a six-part fall 2020 primetime (I remember the Colonial Penn Center). I Film Festival. I am now producing a new series highlighting some of the FBI’s most was honored to have become the fi rst Af- television pilot and series, Skylines, show- complex and heroic real eff orts to rescue a rican American female to become a fellow casing architecture. You can fi nd out more kidnapped child, disrupt an espionage ring, of the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) in information at www.skylinestvshow.com.” capture a prolifi c scam artist, and stop a 1988. My career included stints at fi ve in- Joseph A. Zygmunt Jr. C’84 writes, “I’m serial bomber. You can view my acceptance surance companies, including chief actu- pleased to share that the second edition of speech on YouTube at bit.ly/39LohUy. I was ary roles at Prudential (Prupac), Safeco my book Venous Duplex on ultrasound tech- also named one of the inaugural recipients (now part of Liberty Mutual), and Fire- niques was published in July. I developed of Ragan Communications/PR Daily’s ‘Top man’s Fund/Allianz. I’m looking forward a specialized interest in diagnostics and Women in Communications,’ in the Leader to continuing volunteer work for the CAS treatment in the fi eld of phlebology (vari- category. I was credited for many acts of and continuing my passion for watching cose veins and venous insuffi ciency) start- service and innovation ... from creating a classic fi lms during my retirement years.” ing in 1988, which developed into co-own- ‘Most Dangerous Accident Corridors’ report ing and operating three vein clinics for at the American Automobile Association; about 20 years. I joined Medtronic in 2008 to encouraging people to create a fi nancial 1982 and have done global education as a subject safety net with the ‘Life Insurance Isn’t for Zenos Frudakis FA’82 GFA’83, a sculp- matter expert since that time, lecturing and the People Who Die—It’s for the People Who tor, was featured in the television show teaching on six of the seven continents. Live’ campaign; to honoring the World War Articulate with Jim Cotter, in an episode Having strong family ties to the Philadel- II generation at the National World War II called “The Monument Man” (season six, phia area, I am a proud Quaker residing in Memorial campaign; to developing informa- episode nine). The video can be viewed at North Carolina for the past 22 years.” tive Hollywood workshops and victim-fo- bit.ly/39KTaIC. cused television public service announce- Beth Kephart C’82 has published a new ments for the FBI with CBS.” book, Wife, Daughter, Self: A Memoir in Es- 1985 Arthur H. Saxon Jr. C’86 has been pro- says, which explores the relationships she Karl Racine C’85, the attorney general moted to fi nancial advisor at the Vanguard has with her Salvadoran-artist husband for the District of Columbia, has been Group in Scottsdale, Arizona. In March of and her widowed father. named president of the National Associa- 2019, he earned the Certifi ed Financial

68 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Planner designation. Arthur invites alum- visit Penn for my son’s and daughter’s col- Erewhon, Bristol Farms, Lassen’s, and ni contact at [email protected]. lege tours. Email me and we can catch up: Clark’s Nutrition. We also sell direct to [email protected].” consumers on our website, www.saliva- tionsnackfoods.com.” 1987 Kasi Gardner Nu’93, a cardiac nurse at Wendy Ferber W’87 L’93 writes, “On 1992 Mercy Health in Springfi eld, Ohio, volun- October 25, I was a guest speaker on Larry Lynn Festa G’92 Gr’00 has received the teered to be one of the fi rst frontline work- Bernstein W’87’s ‘What Happens Next in Modern Language Association’s James Rus- ers vaccinated against COVID-19 in the 6 Minutes’ webcast, along with classmates sell Lowell Prize for her book Fiction Without state of Ohio on December 15. To watch a Mitch Feinman C’87 and Howard Givner Humanity: Person, Animal, Thing in Early news clip, visit bit.ly/38dvBHt. C’86. In addition, I’ve launched Connec- Enlightenment Literature and Culture (Penn Karen Wilcox Gr’93, a professor and tRcentral, a website for corporate virtual Press). The prize is awarded annually for an chair of the department of pharmacology events, to help companies connect with outstanding book written by a member of and toxicology at the University of Utah, remote employees and clients. Virtual the association. Lynn is a professor of Eng- has been granted the Founders Award events include games, magic and mental- lish at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. from the American Epilepsy Society. This ism, mixology, cooking, laughter yoga, and Gary Susswein C’92 writes, “After more award recognizes members who have a wine tasting, with many more to come. than a decade managing communications record of lifetime contributions and ac- Check out www.ConnectRcentral.com. I at the University of Texas at Austin, I complishments related to epilepsy. would love to hear from classmates.” stepped down as UT’s chief communica- tions offi cer at the end of 2020 to become a partner at New West Communications. 1994 1988 New West is an Austin-based public rela- Kimberly Acquaviva C’94 SW’95 Gr’00, Andrew Spielman C’88 G’90 has re- tions and strategy fi rm that serves clients a nursing professor at the University of Vir- joined the law fi rm Brownstein Hyatt Far- in the policy and political space on issues ginia who was featured in our Mar|Apr ber Schreck as a shareholder in its Denver from education and energy to healthcare 2020 issue [“Finding Life in Death”], has offi ce. As a natural resources attorney, and growth. I will also continue as a spe- been named a fellow of the National Acad- Andrew focuses his legal practice primar- cial advisor to the president of UT during emies of Practice for social work. ily on obtaining and defending develop- the state’s 2021 legislative session. My wife Jonathan Barnett C’94 G’94 has pub- ment approvals for the energy, mining, and Melanie Rimler Susswein SW’95 and I lished Innovators, Firms, and Markets: The recreation industries. have now lived in Austin for more than 20 Organizational Logic of Intellectual Prop- years and raised our two native Texan erty (Oxford University Press). teenagers here. You can stay in touch with Daniel Farber Huang WG’94 has au- 1989 me at [email protected].” thored a new book, Practical Cyber Security Timothy Chiu EE’89 W’89 writes, “After for Extremely Busy People: Protect Yourself, almost 13 years working as a product market- Your Family, and Your Career from Online Ex- ing executive at Blue Coat Systems/Symantec 1993 ploitation. He writes, “Written for busy peo- Corporation, I joined K2 Cyber Security as Brad Armistead C’93 W’93 writes, “I’ve ple, this guide is concise and to the point for vice president of marketing in February of cofounded Salivation Snackfoods and anyone who uses a computer, mobile phone, 2019. The company specializes in web ap- launched a line of keto and paleo brownies or tablet. ... Cyber security is not only about plication and application workload security that are gluten-free and have no added protecting governments or companies from and is based in Silicon Valley, California.” sugar. My business partner and I were fi rst spies. It’s so much more, and also so much Dr. Michael S. Hanau C’89 writes, “I am introduced to the keto diet when a friend more personal. ... This step-by-step guide- a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General was using it as part of his treatment of a book is fi lled with helpful screenshots and Hospital and assistant professor of psy- very serious illness. We quickly realized insightful graphics to make the actions you chiatry, part-time, at Harvard Medical just how few keto snacks there were, and can take less intimidating, more transparent, School. In November, I was gratifi ed to be even fewer that tasted delicious, so we set and much faster. Real-life case studies bring designated a Distinguished Fellow of the out to remedy that, and we started with you into the mindset of both cyber criminals American Psychiatric Association. While the almighty brownie. Salivation Snack- and victims to help you protect what’s most my planned trip to Philadelphia for the foods quickly gained traction in the South- important and valuable to you.” APA convention in April was cancelled due ern California market and can now be Brian Levin W’94 see Sandra Lotz to COVID-19, I am hoping to be able to found at health food chains including Fisher CW’64 GEd’67.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 69 John Miao G’94, director of business educators) who are interested in how lan- Three Things, was a New York Times best- development at Brainsy.com, shares that guage development interacts with reading seller. I live in Los Angeles with my husband Brainsy now off ers full data privacy for ability. It is research-based and includes and two children and love to connect with consumers on social platforms with its information on foundational studies in fellow Penn alumni on Twitter (@juliebux).” Data Incognito mode. Read more from the education and linguistics, as well as per- Liz Caskey C’99 is cofounder and CEO company’s press release at bit.ly/37iQHoU. sonal anecdotes and teaching suggestions of Liz Caskey Culinary and Wine Experi- Laura Yehuda C’94 is a partner and for working with students in grades K–6.” ences, which specializes in food- and wine- principal at EY (Ernst & Young), special- focused tours of South America [“Alumni izing in improving employee experiences. Profi les,” Nov|Dec 2007]. Due to the shut- She writes, “I help clients across sectors 1998 down of international travel brought on reimagine their organizations for the fu- Anthonise L. Fields C’98 CGS’04 G’14 by the COVID-19 pandemic, she has ture by leading change, simplifying the LPS’15 writes, “Authority Magazine asked me launched a new endeavor, a podcast titled complex, and breaking down silos. My lat- to participate in an interview alongside C- In Search of Flavor. Find out more about est blog post off ers guidance for business suite leaders and transformative innovators, her and her podcast at lizcaskey.com. leaders to transform workforce communi- and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Telling my Demetrios S. Hadgis C’99 writes, “My cation: bit.ly/35E9bPT.” Laura lives in New story is very important to me, as I want others wife Nancy and I are thrilled to announce Jersey with her husband and son. who are pursuing their education and start- the birth of identical twin boys, William ing out in their careers to see representation and Nicholas, on November 18 at River- of people from various backgrounds and life view Medical Center in Red Bank, New 1995 experiences, and I’m proud to be able to share Jersey.” Demetrios, Nancy, and their four Jon Birger G’95 has written a new book, my journey this way. Penn played a critical sons reside in Rumson, New Jersey. Make Your Move: The New Science of Dating role in my success. My tenure was not tradi- and Why Women Are in Charge. Backed by tional. I grew up in Brooklyn, and family chal- scientifi c research, he explains why wom- lenges resulted in my bringing my two sisters 2000 en should make the fi rst move in fi nding to live with me while I fi nished my under- Matthew Barkan C’00 has been pro- “the one.” graduate degree. The Penn community rallied moted to counsel at the law fi rm Pryor Carole Okun SW’95, a psychotherapist around me and my elementary school sisters, Cashman. Matthew is a member of the in private practice in Albany, New York, and I graduated with a degree in biological litigation, intellectual property, and media has established the Louise Shoemaker En- basis of behavior! If there is an opportunity and entertainment groups. dowed Fellowship, in honor of her mentor, to share my story of turning adversity into Rebecca Bauer-Kahan C’00 has been Louise Proehl Shoemaker GrS’65, to triumph and the enabling power of the Penn elected to a second term as assemblymem- Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice. community, I will jump at it. I currently work ber for California’s 16th Assembly District, Melanie Rimler Susswein SW’95 see at Bristol Myers Squibb and collaborate with which covers parts of the East Bay Area in Gary Susswein C’92. Penn and other leading academic institutions Northern California. In her work in the to accelerate the science that will result in Assembly, Rebecca focuses on climate Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! livesaving solutions.” Anthonise’s interview change, education, women’s reproductive can be read at bit.ly/35Sq60v. health, gun violence prevention, and crim- 1996 inal justice reform. Rebecca lives in Orin- Heike K. Sullivan C’96 CGS’98 has been da, California, with her husband and three elected a fellow of the American College 1999 kids. She invites alumni contact at rebec- of Trust and Estate Counsel. She is a prac- Dr. Evaline Alessandrini GM’99 has [email protected]. tice leader for the law fi rm Ballard Spahr been named executive vice president, chief Kevin V. Dreyer EAS’00 writes, “My in its private client services group. medical offi cer, and interim chief opera- wife Anja and I are overjoyed to announce Marcy Zipke C’96 writes, “I am current- tions offi cer at UC Health, Greater Cincin- the birth of our son, Hugo Vaughn Dreyer, ly a professor in the elementary/special nati’s academic healthcare system. on June 12. Our fi ve-year-old daughter, education department at Providence Col- Julie Buxbaum C’99 writes, “I just pub- Ingrid, couldn’t be more proud to be a big lege, and my fi rst book will be published in lished my sixth novel, Admission, which is a sister.” Kevin is co-chief investment offi cer March by Teachers College Press. Playing fi ctional take on the college admissions at GAMCO Investors in Rye, New York, and with Language: Improving Elementary Read- scandal that rocked the country last year. the family resides in New York City. ing Through Metalinguistic Awareness is writ- The book was recently featured in the Los Jordan Rockwell C’00 writes, “My wife ten for parents and teachers (or teacher Angeles Times, and my earlier novel, Tell Me Julie and I are thrilled to announce the birth

70 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 of our daughter, Raisa ‘Raiya’ Linda Rock- ical malpractice team. In addition, she was ceived positive reviews and is in relatively well, born on December 3, at Cedars-Sinai selected for Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones wide circulation.” in Los Angeles. Her big brother Jack couldn’t to Watch” list for 2021 and was named a be more thrilled, and after this terrible year, “Rising Star” by Maryland Super Lawyers. fi nally some hope. Much love, everyone!” 2013 Matthew Schonholz C’00 L’05 has been Patrick Esmonde GEx’13 is cofounder and elected partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson. 2008 CEO of Vestibular First, which makes Insight He practices in the law fi rm’s Los Angeles Molly E. Crane C’08, an attorney, was Infrared Video Goggles. He writes, “Our offi ce and represents public and private elected partner at Blank Rome. She works company just received FDA clearance this companies, investment funds, founders, out of the fi rm’s Philadelphia offi ce. past November and our patent in April, and C-suite executives, management teams, Dr. Jin Lee C’08 writes, “I founded Flour- we’re now offi cially launching our medical and portfolio managers in tax and com- ishAll.com to help all women fl ourish by device that helps healthcare professionals pensation matters. female coaches. I also founded LittleMeet- to accurately and cost eff ectively diagnose ings.com to help kids in preschool and the underlying cause of balance disorders, elementary school learn Mandarin online. which aff ect more than 30 percent of adults 2002 Please join the Flourish Women’s Online over the age of 60. Existing diagnostic tools Lawrence Hershon C’02, an attorney at Summit on March 4–5 to learn from expert are cumbersome and cost 6–25 times more, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, has coaches and therapists.” which was the driving force behind design- been named to South Carolina Lawyers Sean-Tamba Matthew C’08, an attor- ing an aff ordable and modular platform.” Weekly’s inaugural class of “Go To Lawyers.” ney, has been named a shareholder of the Erica Hildebrand GEd’13 has been se- law fi rm Stevens & Lee. lected by the US Department of State for an English Language Specialist project focus- 2005 ing on remote teacher training in Hondu- Erin Wilson C’05 currently serves the 2010 ras. Prior to this, she served as a US Depart- White House staff as deputy director of Christina Kim Suh C’10 has been pro- ment of State English Language Fellow in political strategy and outreach. Previous- moted to counsel at the law fi rm Tucker Sri Lanka, where she trained local teachers. ly, she was deputy executive director of the Ellis LLP. 2021 Presidential Inaugural Committee and a former national political director for Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! 2018 the Biden–Harris campaign. Jonathan Lazar GL’18, professor of infor- 2011 mation studies at the University of Maryland, Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–15, 2021! Danielle Lemberg L’11 has been pro- has received the 2020 SIGACCESS Award moted to counsel at Seward & Kissel LLP. for Outstanding Contributions. This is the 2006 She is a member of the fi rm’s business highest award given by ACM SIGACCESS Kaveri Arora C’06 has been promoted to transactions group. (Special Interest Group on Accessible Com- counsel at the law fi rm Pryor Cashman. Scott Suozzi GL’11 WEv’11 has been ap- puting), and it recognizes Jonathan’s 20-plus Kaveri is a member of the litigation, intel- pointed president of the nonprofi t Opera- years of advocacy for digital accessibility. lectual property, and media and entertain- tion New Hope. The organization provides ment groups. life and job skills training and support for Jacqueline A. Rogers C’06 LPS’09, an at- people with a history of involvement with 2020 torney specializing in mergers and acquisi- the criminal justice system. Its Ready4Work Terri Broussard Williams SPP’20 has tions litigation, corporate and stockholder program places them in employment that been named senior policy manager of disputes, and commercial litigation, has been off ers a sustainable quality of life. Amazon’s Public Policy–Americas team. elected partner at the law fi rm Potter Ander- As such, Terri is tasked with leading the son & Corroon in Wilmington, Delaware. company’s social justice policy portfolio at 2012 the state and local levels. Since 2003, Ter- Matthew Chiarello C’12 has published ri served as a government relations execu- 2007 Official Inaugural Medals: A Guide. He tive at CGI Technologies and Solutions, Jhanelle A. Graham Caldwell C’07 has writes, “It serves as the defi nitive collec- and as vice president of the American been named partner at the law fi rm Goodell tor’s handbook for presidential inaugural Heart Association’s Southwest affi liate. DeVries. She is a member of the fi rm’s med- commemoratives. The fi rst edition re-

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 71 ALUMNI Obituaries Notifications 1940 World War II. At Penn, he was a member Please send notifications of deaths Edwin B. “Bud” Meissner Jr. W’40, of the basketball team. of alumni directly to: Alumni Records, University of Pennsylvania, Suite 300, Saint Louis, a former executive at a steel 2929 Walnut Street, Phila., PA 19104 company; Oct. 17, at 101. At Penn, he was a 1947 EMAIL [email protected] member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, the Elizabeth Burrows Allyn CW’47, New Newspaper obits are appreciated. Daily Pennsylvanian, and the wrestling London, NC, Nov. 30. At Penn, she was a team. One son is Edwin B. “Peter” Meiss- member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. ner III CGS’72 GEd’73. Phyllis Weissman Haas CW’47, Bala pany; Oct. 29. He served in the US Army Dr. Zvi Rozenn D’40, Evanston, IL, Cynwyd, PA, May 1. At Penn, she was a Air Corps during World War II. Nov. 27, at 105. member of Sigma Delta Tau sorority. Her sons are David I. Haas C’76 L’79 and Ste- 1951 1941 ven N. Haas C’79; and one granddaughter Edith Mitchell Bickley GEd’51, Red- Ashley J. Altman W’41, Wynnewood, PA, is Jacqueline A. Haas C’11. ding, CT, a former secondary school teach- retired owner of a construction business; Garland H. Hoover GEd’47, Honey er; April 8. Dec. 30, at 100. He established the Sandra Brook, PA, a retired high school principal; Gloria Kleinman Brissman CW’51, Altman Brain Tumor Research Fellowship Nov. 7, at 103. He served in the US Army Springfi eld, VA, Dec. 21. She volunteered and Visiting Professorship of Penn Medi- Air Corps during World War II. for the Ravensworth Farm Civic Associa- cine’s Department of Neurosurgery, in mem- tion, as well as for a local Jewish commu- ory of his late wife. He served in the US Army 1948 nity center. At Penn, she was a member of during World War II. One daughter is Mar- Dr. Richard G. Ainley V’48, Santa Maria, Sigma Delta Tau sorority and WXPN. jorie Altman Bershad C’79 GEd’80. CA, a retired veterinarian; Oct. 21. He served Floyd L. Cranmer Jr. Ar’51, Marlton, as a surgical technician in the US Army Med- NJ, a retired architect; April 29, 2019. He 1942 ical Corps during World War II, treating freed served in the US Navy during World War II. Jack Lock C’42, Harrisburg, PA, co-own- Holocaust concentration camp survivors. Dr. Clyde L. Graver Jr. D’51, Lehigh- er of a plumbing and heating supply com- James E. Frick L’48, Ambler, PA, a re- ton, PA, a retired dentist; July 14, 2019. He pany; Nov. 28, at 99. He served in the US tired corporate lawyer for Reading Rail- served in the US Air Force. Navy during World War II and the Korean road; Nov. 18, at 100. He served in the US Robert Hughes C’51, East Greenwich, RI, War. One son is Dr. Dennis R. Lock C’73. Navy during World War II. a retired sales and marketing employee at Daniel F. Healy ME’48, Seattle, a for- Moore Push-Pin Company; Aug. 23. At Penn, 1945 mer mechanical engineer for Boeing who he was a member of the swimming team. Wilhelmina “Winnie” Schaefer later became an engineering consultant; Nancy Horlacher Roberts CW’51, St. Glessner DH’45, Grand Rapids, MI, a Dec. 2. At Penn, he was a member of Lamb- Davids, PA, a homemaker and hospital vol- homemaker; Dec. 6. da Chi Alpha fraternity. unteer; Dec. 20. At Penn, she was a member Marillyn “Dolly” Beechman Schnall of Delta Delta Delta sorority, the Daily CW’45, Abington, PA, an actor, play- 1949 Pennsylvanian, and Sphinx Senior Society. wright, director, teacher, and philanthro- James J. Joyce W’49, Vandalia, OH, Herman P. Weinberg W’51, Philadel- pist; Oct. 29. She taught theater arts at Oct. 30. He served in the US Navy during phia, a lawyer; Nov. 30. Penn State and was director of the Masque World War II. Theater at Rutgers University. Her hus- Dr. Harold Smulyan C’49, Syracuse, 1952 band is Dr. Nathan Schnall GM’50, and one NY, a retired professor of medicine, attend- Victor H. Blank W’52, Warwick, RI, stepdaughter is Ilene S. Schnall C’82. ing physician, and chief of cardiology at former owner of a women’s clothing store SUNY Upstate Medical University, where and a pastry shop; June 18. He served in 1946 he worked for more than 50 years; Dec. 1. the US Army Audit Agency during the Ko- Dorothy Elizabeth “Betty” Greene Robert E. Wachs C’49 L’52, Philadel- rean War. At Penn, he was a member of Pi Mahon OT’46, Little Rock, AR, a retired phia, a senior partner at the law fi rm Wolf, Lambda Phi fraternity. director of occupational therapy and fac- Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen; Dec. 23. George H. Eakins Jr. WG’52, Aurora, ulty member at the University of Cincin- One daughter is Carol Wachs C’78. CO, Dec. 30. nati Medical Center; Oct. 28. Edward T. Kaprowski Ed’52, Stam- Martin Price C’46 L’49, East Palestine, 1950 ford, CT, May 7. OH, owner of a construction company; Irwin L. Oster CE’50, Hollywood, FL, Arnold H. Winicov W’52, Malvern, Sept. 18. He served in the US Navy during president of a structural engineering com- PA, a partner at a law fi rm and a profes-

72 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 sional pianist; July 17. At Penn, he was a John O. Karns C’54 L’57, Pottstown, Joel Lewittes C’56, New York, a retired member of Tau Delta Phi fraternity. One PA, a retired attorney; Nov. 6. He served in judge and attorney; March 26, 2020. He granddaughter is Rachel E. Winicov C’21. the US Army Reserve. served as assistant attorney general of the Dr. A. Ralph Kristeller Jr. M’54, State of New York, and later was a federal 1953 East Hanover, NJ, a physician who later bankruptcy judge in the Southern District Rose Bobbett Ayers WEv’53, Chan- became a hospital administrator; Nov. of New York. Two sons are David I. Lewittes dler, AZ, former head cashier for the ac- 26. He served in the US Army Air Corps. C’84 and Ronald J. Lewittes C’83, who is counting fi rm Ernst & Young; Oct. 30. She He received the Alumni Award of Merit married to Suzanne J. Lewittes C’85 W’85. served in the Women’s Army Corps during in 1983. His children include M. Lee One grandson is Samuel R. Lewittes EAS’23. World War II. At Penn, she was a member Cording C’83 and Deborah Kristeller William T. Link W’56, Los Angeles, CA, of Chi Alpha Phi sorority. Moed C’85, who is married to Michael C. an Emmy Award–winning fi lm and televi- Robert A. Erb Ch’53, Valley Forge, PA, Moed EAS’85. One grandchild is Demi E. sion screenwriter; Dec. 27. His projects in- a scientifi c consultant who fabricated cus- Moed EAS’18. cluded Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, tom silicone prostheses; June 12. James L. McArdle W’54, West Chester, which he cowrote with longtime collaborator Dr. Walter F. Loeb C’53 V’55, Gaith- PA, a retired sales executive in the folding Richard L. Levinson W’56. At Penn, he was ersburg, MD, retired cofounder of a labora- carton industry and contract packing and a member of the Daily Pennsylvanian and tory that developed clinical pathology and manufacturing; Nov. 1. At Penn, he was a cofounded the Highball humor magazine toxicology tests for government research, member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and with Levinson. He served in the US Army. and the chemical and pharmaceutical in- the Navy ROTC. Charles R. Savidge W’56, Longboat dustries; Dec. 24. Dr. Martin L. Spangler Jr. C’54, Key, FL, retired owner of a coal company Robert K. Parmacek W’53, Bryn Mawr, Reading, PA, retired medical director of a and a trucking company; Nov. 19. He PA, former chairman and CEO of Carlisle hospital; Nov. 6. served in the US Army. Foodservice Products; Jan. 2. At Penn, he Lee H. Schick C’56, Laramie, WY, a was a member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity 1955 retired physics professor at the University and the fencing team. His son is Michael S. Robert M. Christiansen Gr’55, Cen- of Wyoming; Oct. 30. One sister is Mariann Parmacek, a professor at Penn’s Perelman tennial, CO, retired manager of the envi- E. Schick CW’71 L’74. School of Medicine; one granddaughter is ronmental sciences division of an engi- Rocco P. Triolo G’56 Gr’59, Newtown Sarah J. Parmacek C’15 W’15; and one broth- neering company; Oct. 16. He served in the Square, PA, a retired executive at a manu- er is Edward I. Parmacek W’60. US Navy during World War II. facturer of polyurethane foam; Nov. 27. One Howard J. Rubenstein C’53, New Anthony J. “Skip” Degeorge Jr. W’55, granddaughter is Regina A. Fairbanks C’21. York, former president of a public relations Stillwater, OK, retired plant manager of fi rm; Dec. 29. His high-profi le clients in- Moore Business Forms; Nov. 28. He served 1957 cluded Donald J. Trump W’68, Rupert in the US Army. Dr. Franklin D. Bell GD’57, Raleigh, NC, Murdoch, and former New York Yankees Sandra Bennett Jones CW’55, Devon, a retired oral surgeon; Oct. 30. He served in owner George M. Steinbrenner III. At PA, Nov. 6. At Penn, she was a member of the US Navy, the US Army Reserve, and was Penn, he was a member of Beta Sigma Rho Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. a member of the National Guard. fraternity and the Daily Pennsylvanian. Ruth Husted Linn Ed’55 GEd’59, Har- Charles M. Meredith III W’57, Quak- One son is Steven Gary Rubenstein C’92. leysville, PA, a retired elementary school ertown, PA, former owner and publisher of teacher and reading specialist; Nov. 5. At the newspaper Quakertown Free Press; Dec. 1954 Penn, she was a member of Alpha Chi 11. He also founded the Emmaus Free Press Edward K. Asplundh W’54, Huntingdon Omega sorority. and the Indian Valley Echo, and he served Valley, PA, retired president of a utility con- Patrick J. Manley WG’55, Scranton, as a Bucks County commissioner. He was a tractor that performs tree pruning and other PA, a retired faculty member at Marywood longtime president of his alumni class. As a line clearance services; Dec. 31. He served in University who taught computer science student at Penn, he was a member of Mask the US Air Force. At Penn, he was a member and business; Oct. 29. He served in the US & Wig and was his class’s Bowl Award win- of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and the ROTC. Army Audit Agency. ner. His son is Charles M. Meredith IV C’83. One brother is Carl H. Asplundh Jr. W’58. Dr. Horace K. Bonsall Jr. D’54, Coates- 1956 1958 ville, PA, a retired dentist; Oct. 31. He served Dr. Gunther B. Goldsmith D’56, Mid- Stanley Burns GM’58 GM’60, Shel- in the US Navy. At Penn, he was a member dletown, NY, a retired dentist; April 7. He burne, VT, professor emeritus of medicine of Delta Upsilon fraternity. served in the US Army. at the University of Vermont; Oct. 21. He

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 73 ALUMNI Obituaries

served as a surgical technician in the US fi rm of electronic systems and compo- pendence movement who later spent near- Army during World War II. nents; Oct. 25. ly two decades working for the United Na- Lawrence Fung WG’58, Honolulu, Sidney R. Hodes W’59, Worcester, MA, tions, most recently as director of General Sept. 18. His wife is Leatrice Lock Fung former president of his family’s supermarket Assembly Aff airs, Decolonization, and the Ed’57, and two sons are Lawrence Y. M. business; Dec. 3. At Penn, he was a member Trusteeship Council; April 16. He was also Fung W’82 and Stephen Yu Chung Fung of Beta Sigma Rho fraternity, the Daily Penn- a member of the old Ukrainian Nationals WG’93. sylvanian, and the fencing team. team in Philadelphia that won the 1960–61 Shirley Morrell Loder CW’58, Shrews- John J. Lombard Jr. L’59, Upper American Soccer League championship. bury, NJ, co-owner of an art gallery; Dec. Gwynedd, PA, a lawyer and longtime ad- One daughter is Leila Abrous Gr’01. 12. At Penn, she was a member of Delta viser for the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Gretchen Rhein Barber CW’61, Plano, Gamma sorority and the fi eld hockey and Nov. 4. TX, Oct. 1. At Penn, she was a member of lacrosse teams. Robert W. Morgan WG’59, Hillsbor- Delta Delta Delta sorority and Penn Players. John F. MacLeod Jr. W’58 WG’62, ough, NC, an entrepreneur who founded David F. Bramhall Gr’61, Denver, a West Chester, PA, a retired attorney; Oct. Morgan Industries and Conversational professor emeritus who taught radical po- 6. At Penn, he was a member of Sigma Nu Voice Technologies, which off ered unique litical economics at the University of Colo- fraternity. means of conversing automatically with rado Denver; Nov. 12, 2019. Dr. Stephen H. Rovno M’58, San Ma- telephone callers; Nov. 9. John D. Cleland WG’61, Topeka, KS, teo, CA, a retired anesthesiologist; Nov. 1. Elisabeth “Bunny” Uhler Neu CW’59, a retired executive at an investment and He served as a lieutenant commander in Lower Gwynedd, PA, a former clerical securities business; Nov. 7. He served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, es- worker in the Hatboro-Horsham School the US Army. tablishing the anesthesia department at District; Oct. 16. Her husband is Charles Dr. Kenneth Drake Gardner Jr. GM’61, the US Naval Hospital in Guam. His broth- Edwin Neu MTE’61 GMT’73. Genoa, NV, a professor emeritus at the er is Dr. David A. Rovno M’63. Johann A. Norstedt C’59 G’61, Blacks- University of New Mexico School of Medi- Franklin B. Thomas III WEv’58, Cen- burg, VA, a professor of English at Vir- cine; Nov. 16. terville, OH, a certifi ed public accountant; ginia Tech; Oct. 28. Victor P. Greene W’61 L’64, New York, Aug. 22. He served in the US Air Force dur- Dr. C. Leighton Philbrick Jr. D’59 an executive at an investment bank; March ing the Korean War. At Penn, he was a GD’63, Cumberland Center, ME, a retired 26. At Penn, he was a member of Beta Sigma member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. orthodontist; Nov. 2. He served in the US Rho fraternity. His sons are Samuel M. Barbara Minnich Zegarski HUP’58 Army as a dentist. One son is Dr. Leighton Greene C’93 and Christopher K. Greene C’96. Nu’58, York, PA, a former nursing teacher; R. Philbrick D’86 GD’87. James D. “JD” Hammond Gr’61, State Nov. 4. Edward A. Richards GAr’59, Phila- College, PA, dean emeritus of the business delphia, a retired architect; May 29. school at Penn State University; Nov. 23. 1959 Dr. David E. Horner D’61, Ambler, PA, Charna Cohen Binder CW’59, Wyn- 1960 a retired orthodontist; Oct. 17. He served cote, PA, a former teacher and guidance David S. Branch WG’60, New Canaan, in the US Navy as a dentist. counselor; Dec. 10. At Penn, she was a CT, retired president and CEO of American Alan Kreditor GCP’61, San Marino, member of Penn Players and WXPN. Banker, a magazine for the fi nancial in- CA, a retired professor, administrator, and Richard C. Csaplar Jr. L’59, Needham, dustry; Dec. 21. fundraiser at the University of Southern MA, a former lawyer who also taught law Frank A. Dunn G’60, Wayne, PA, July California, where he worked for 50 years at Boston College; Oct. 31. He served in the 29, 2019. and helped build the university’s school of US Coast Guard. One grandson is Kenneth David S. Grabel W’60, Warwick, PA, a public policy; Oct. 7. A. Csaplar Jr. C’11. retired certifi ed public accountant; Sept. 22. William E. Krumpe WG’61, Mason, John W. Hill GAr’59, Towson, MD, William A. Segraves ME’60, Sarasota, OH, a retired manager of marketing re- professor emeritus and founding dean of FL, a nuclear engineer for General Elec- search for Kroger; Nov. 2. He later became the architecture school at the University tric; Oct. 5. At Penn, he was a member of president of Krumpe Research Division. of Maryland; July 7. He served in the mili- Delta Tau Delta fraternity and the heavy- Ira S. Rimerman WG’61, Boca Raton, tary during the Korean War. weight rowing team. FL, a former executive of an investment Roy E. Hock GEE’59, Williamsburg, bank; Aug. 31. VA, retired president and CEO of the old 1961 Paul M. Struhl C’61, Teaneck, NJ, Oct. Technitrol Incorporated, a Philadelphia- Abdennour Nory Abrous G’61, New 23. At Penn, he was a member of Kappa Nu based engineering and manufacturing York, a former leader in the Algerian inde- fraternity.

74 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 George L. White Jr. WG’61, Bethesda, He joined the faculty at the Moore School Earl T. Britt L’64, Plymouth Meeting, MD, a retired tax professional; Aug. 28. in 1964 as an assistant professor of electri- PA, a retired attorney; Nov. 2. cal engineering. Soon after joining the R. Thomas Douglass Gr’64, North 1962 school, he was appointed the head of the Liberty, IA, professor emeritus of Spanish Dr. Joseph A. Besecker GM’62, Lan- Electro-Optics and Photonic Neuroengi- at the University of Iowa; Sept. 8. He caster, PA, a retired pediatrician; Aug. 4, 2019. neering Laboratory. He received a Lindback served in the US Army. Frederick B. Chary C’62, Gary, IN, a Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1970. Michael B. Fein C’64, Cherry Hill, NJ, professor emeritus of history at Indiana In 1973, he was appointed the Alfred G. and an attorney specializing in intellectual University Northwest and a scholar of Bul- Meta A. Ennis Associate Professor of Elec- property law at Rohm & Haas; Nov. 10. At garian and Jewish history; Nov. 14. At trical Engineering at the Moore School. In Penn, he was a member of the orchestra Penn, he was a member of Penn Players. 1976, he was promoted to a full professor. and WXPN. George W. Meyers W’62, Cincinnati, He held this position until 2013, when he Josephine G. Fitten SW’64, Camden, president and CEO of Fox Reusch, a fi nan- retired. Most recently, his research focused NJ, a retired supervisor at the Camden cial company; Dec. 1. on the qualitative theory of nonlinear dy- Board of Education and cofounder of a Michael R. Sandler W’62, Dedham, namics, bifurcation and chaos, and its ap- Baptist church; June 7. MA, a former University trustee and an en- plication to the modeling and understand- Lois Foster Hirt DH’64, Los Angeles, trepreneur who built and sold several busi- ing of cortical dynamics in the brain. His a former dental hygienist; Nov. 17. nesses; Dec. 29. His ventures included Auto brother is Amir H. Farhat GEE’68 GrE’77. Joseph J. Seneca C’64 Gr’68, Corne- Parts Distributors, which was sold to Rite- Dr. Herbert Hodess GD’63, West Palm lius, NC, a professor emeritus of economics Aid Corporation; and Eduventures, a re- Beach, FL, a retired periodontist; Oct. 1. and vice president of academic aff airs search and consulting business for the edu- He served in the US Army as a dentist. His emeritus at Rutgers University; Nov. 27. His cation and fi nancial industries [“Profi les,” daughter is Robin B. Hodess C’88. wife is Rosalind Worswick Seneca Gr’71, Jul|Aug 2010]. Most recently, he served as Dr. Philip B. Temple D’63, Pepperell, and his son is Matthew J. Seneca C’99. chairman and CEO of the Education Indus- MA, a retired dentist; Dec. 11. He served try Group, an advisory company supporting in the US Army Dental Corps. 1965 social entrepreneurship in education, and Dr. Joel A. Tobias M’63, Medford, OR, Joseph G. A. Holden SW’65, Harris- as a senior advisor at the Parthenon Group. a physician; Dec. 8. burg, a retired psychotherapist at the Vet- In addition to being a trustee, he was on the Anthony R. Tomazinis Gr’63, professor erans Administration; Dec. 7. He served in board of advisors of the School of Arts and emeritus of city and regional planning in the US Navy and the US Army Reserve. Sciences. In 1964, he founded the Penn Club Penn’s Weitzman School of Design; Dec. 11. Kathryn Klaus HUP’65, Feasterville of Portland (Maine); and in 1987, he orga- While a student at Penn Design, he worked Trevose, PA, a nurse; Nov. 28. nized a fundraiser that led to the installation as a teaching assistant. Joining the faculty Ruth Blumenfeld McKay Gr’65, Rock- of the iconic Ben on the Bench sculpture. He as an assistant professor in 1961, he re- ville, MD, a retired employee at the General also coauthored a manual on Penn reunion mained at Penn until his retirement in 2006. Accounting Offi ce in Washington, DC; Oct. organization. As a student at Penn, he was a He served as chair of the department of city 24. Previously, she taught anthropology and member of Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity. His wife and regional planning, and in 1999 received health education at George Washington Uni- is Ellen Cooper Sandler CW’62, and one the School of Design’s G. Holmes Perkins versity and the University of Maryland. daughter is Susan Sandler Brennan C’88. Award for Distinguished Teaching. Outside Dr. Dennis E. Winn GD’62, Grand of Penn, he was an advisor to the White 1966 Rapids, MI, a retired dentist; Nov. 9. He House during the Carter administration, T. Cartter Frierson Sr. WG’66, Rising served in the US Army Reserve. advised the United Nations on planning is- Fawn, GA, a retired IT developer who Michael N. Wood C’62, East Boston, sues, and from 1991 to 1993 chaired a Penn- later became a consultant; Nov. 26. He MA, a retired airline captain for Delta Air- sylvania commission on increasing effi cien- served in the US Army. lines; Nov. 24. He served in the US Navy. cy and privatization in state government Lynn Auerbach Kaplan GEd’66, Hol- At Penn, he was a member of Delta Psi operations. His children include Christina lidaysburg, PA, a former fourth-grade fraternity and the squash team. R. Tomazinis C’87, Marina L. Tomazinis C’95 teacher; Sept. 17. Her husband is Dr. Ste- LP’S08, and Alexis R. Tomazinis C’04. phen M. Kaplan C’58 M’62, and one daugh- 1963 ter is Dr. Julie K. Borenstein C’91. Nabil H. Farhat GrE’63, Philadelphia, 1964 Robert F. Klausner WG’66, Williams- professor emeritus in Penn’s department of Ethel M. Adams GrEd’64, Sanford, burg, VA, a retired executive at Exxon; electrical and systems engineering; Nov. 3. NC, Nov. 26. Oct. 19.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 75 ALUMNI Obituaries

1967 1969 ratory medicine. In 1998, he won the Marilyn Halperin Bender CW’67, John Chung-Jen Chien GME’69, School of Medicine’s Blockley-Osler Award Dobbs Ferry, NY, a retired special educa- Westminster, CA, July 4. He had a long for excellence in clinical teaching; and in tion secretary to Dobbs Ferry Union Free career in aerospace, including work at Boe- 2009 the Robert Dunning Dripps Memo- School District; Jan. 2. At Penn, she was a ing, the Aerospace Corporation, and Rock- rial Award for Excellence in Graduate member of Penn Players. Her husband is well, where he helped design the B-1B Medical Education. He served in the US David Bender L’68. bomber inlet. Navy as a pediatric cardiologist. His wife Mark E. Lieberman W’69, Brooklyn, is Dr. Linda M. Weinberg GM’72. 1968 NY, a former New York Daily News report- Irene T. Borgogno CW’68 G’71, Bryn er, banker, and senior economist at the Fox 1971 Mawr, PA, a retired clinical researcher in Business Network; Dec. 23. At Penn, he Dr. Robert G. Anusbigian D’71, Shrews- the pharmaceutical industry; Dec. 2. She was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fra- bury, MA, a dentist; April 16. He served in led the team responsible for getting FDA ternity and the Daily Pennsylvanian. the US Navy. approval of Tramadol, a widely used anal- Wei-ping Wu Gr’69, Fairfi eld, CT, a Christine M. Kowalski CW’71, Moore- gesic. Her husband is Frank J. Kampas retired professor of history and economics stown, NJ, a former human resources man- C’68 G’68. at the University of Bridgeport; Nov. 9. ager at the Philadelphia Library Founda- Jonathan Jewett L’68, Vero Beach, FL, tion; Dec. 12. At Penn, she was a member a retired lawyer; July 9. At Penn, he was a 1970 of Kappa Delta sorority and the orchestra. member of the Law Review. David B. Fahnestock WG’70, Palmyra, Alberto Romero G’71, Snellville, GA, Lawrence “Larry” Nussdorf W’68, PA, a retired revenue offi cer for the IRS; a retired instructor and chair of modern Washington, DC, a former University trust- Oct. 19. languages at the Hill School, a boarding ee, and chairman and CEO of Clark Enter- Gloria M. Francis G’70 Gr’72, Allen- school in Pottstown, PA; June 20. prises, a real estate investment fi rm; Nov. town, PA, professor emerita of psychiatric Douglass R. Sawyer WG’71 Brandon, 13. He brought his expertise as an attorney, nursing at Virginia Commonwealth Uni- VT, owner of the Lilac Inn, a Vermont bed certifi ed public accountant, and real estate versity; Nov. 5. Her research focused on and breakfast; March 8, 2020. investor to the trustees’ committees on au- loneliness and the value of using therapeu- Dr. George W. Sheer GM’71, Wilm- dit and compliance, and facilities and cam- tic animals with hospital patients. ington, DE, a retired radiologist; Oct. 25. pus planning. In 2004, he was a founding Maureen McKenna Platt GNu’70, Sky He served in the US Army. His wife is Dr. member of the advisory board of Penn In- Valley, GA, a retired nurse and health ad- Barbara Phelan Sheer Nu’71. stitute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), and ministrator; Aug. 24. Thomas L. Stover GEE’71, Sun City Clark Enterprises endowed a chair at Penn Jean Shepsko Stephenson Nu’70, Center, FL, a computer programmer who IUR in his honor. He was a member and Phoenixville, PA, former director of a nurs- worked on several projects for the US former vice chair of the Graduate School of ing services provider; Dec. 13. Navy; March 4, 2020. Education’s board of advisors. He also Richard H. Stowell WG’70, Weld, ME, served as president of Penn’s Mid-Atlantic former chief fi nancial offi cer of various 1972 Regional Advisory Board and a member of businesses including an art supply store Jonathan Black Gr’72, Lansdale, PA, the Agenda for Excellence Council and the and many Wendy’s franchises; Oct. 27. His former professor of orthopedic research at advisory board of the Wharton Club of wife is Nancy Holt Stowell G’71. Penn’s School of Medicine; Dec. 5. He joined Washington, DC. He and his wife estab- Jeff rey A. Tyler W’70, Haverford, PA, the faculty in 1970 as an associate in ortho- lished the Nussdorf Endowed Scholarship retired founder of a marketing fi rm that pedic surgical research. In 1977, he was one and the Melanie and Lawrence Nussdorf focused on the technology and informa- of fi ve professors named to the faculty of Endowed Scholarship for Students in the tion services industries; May 1. the Hospital of the University of Pennsyl- School of Nursing. They also provided sup- Dr. Paul Morris Weinberg GM’70, vania’s new Center for Sports Medicine, port to numerous other departments at Philadelphia, a professor emeritus CE eventually becoming the chief of biomateri- Penn. He received the Alumni Award of (clinician-educator) of pediatrics at the als in the department of orthopedic surgery. Merit in 2010. As a student at Penn, he was Perelman School of Medicine and the Chil- In the late 1980s, he was part of a team that a member of Pi Lambda Phi. His wife is dren’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Oct. 15. He researched reliable joint implants. He left Melanie Franco Nussdorf CW’71; and his joined the Penn faculty in 1977 and moved Penn to teach at Clemson and Cornell Uni- sons are Jed F. Nussdorf EAS’02 W’02 to CHOP in 1980, becoming a full professor versities and worked as a consultant in WG’03 and Benjamin A. Nussdorf C’04, in 2002. He also held academic appoint- biomaterials science and engineering. One who is married to Inna Dexter C’04. ments in radiology and pathology & labo- son is David L. Black C’83 EE’83 G’83.

76 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 School Abbreviations GEE master’s, Electrical Engineering HUP Nurse training (till 1978) GEng master’s, Engineering and L Law John V. Prostko C’76, Washington, DC, Ar Architecture Applied Science LAr Landscape Architecture Sept. 23. At Penn, he was a member of the ASC Annenberg GEx master’s, Engineering Executive LPS Liberal and Professional Studies Penn Review. C College (bachelor’s) GFA master’s, Fine Arts M Medicine Ilene Zurav Reilly EE’76, Luray, VA, GGS master’s, College of General Studies ME Mechanical Engineering CCC College Collateral Courses an IT consultant who later opened a health CE Civil Engineering GL master’s, Law MT Medical Technology food store; Nov. 18. CGS College of General Studies (till 2008) GLA master’s, Landscape Architecture MtE Metallurgical Engineering Ch Chemistry GME master’s, Mechanical Engineering Mu Music ChE Chemical Engineering GM Medicine, post-degree NEd Certificate in Nursing 1977 CW College for Women (till 1975) GMt master’s, Metallurgical Engineering Nu Nursing (bachelor’s) Ronald C. Cherwinski WEv’77, Haver- D Dental Medicine GNu master’s, Nursing OT Occupational Therapy town, PA, a retired sales manager at Lehigh DH Dental Hygiene GPU master’s, Governmental PSW Pennsylvania School of Social Work Valley Farms, a dairy producer; Dec. 20. EAS Engineering and Applied Administration PT Physical Therapy Ronald W. Shegda W’77, Hellertown, Science (bachelor’s) Gr doctorate SAMP School of Allied Medical PA, an author of many books; Nov. 7. Ed Education GrC doctorate, Civil Engineering Professions EE Electrical Engineering GrE doctorate, Electrical Engineering SPP Social Policy and Practice (master’s) FA Fine Arts GrEd doctorate, Education SW Social Work (master’s) (till 2005) 1978 G master’s, Arts and Sciences GrL doctorate, Law V Veterinary Medicine Judith Etzel King WG’78, Arnold, MO, GAr master’s, Architecture GrN doctorate, Nursing W Wharton (bachelor’s) a retired nursing home administrator; GCE master’s, Civil Engineering GRP master’s, Regional Planning WAM Wharton Advanced Management Sept. 6, 2019. GCh master’s, Chemical Engineering GrS doctorate, Social Work WEF Wharton Extension Finance Gail DeVerna Krieger WEv’78, Paoli, GCP master’s, City Planning GrW doctorate, Wharton WEv Wharton Evening School PA, Aug. 30, 2019. GD Dental, post-degree GV Veterinary, post-degree WG master’s, Wharton GEd master’s, Education Hon Honorary WMP Wharton Management Program 1979 Sr. Susan F. Elwyn G’79 Gr’91, Orem, UT, a member of the Sisterhood of St. John Samuel R. Brown GEd’72, Lansd- 1975 the Divine in Toronto; Sept. 24. Before owne, PA, a vice principal of a middle B. Mitchell Baker Gr’75, Annapolis, joining the Sisterhood, she taught classical school; April 1. MD, a mathematics professor at the US languages and English literature at Barbara A. Munjas Gr’72, Richmond, Naval Academy; Dec. 20. Brigham Young University and West Not- VA, professor emerita of nursing at Vir- tingham Academy in Maryland. ginia Commonwealth University; Oct. 28. 1976 Thomas D. Potter WG’72, Lincoln, NE, Robert J. Astheimer C’76 Gr’84, Al- 1980 retired president of a life insurance company; exandria, VA, a retired senior technical Dr. Bruce E. Courtright D’80, Allen- Nov. 8. He served in the US Marine Corps. advisor in the US Department of Energy’s town, PA, a retired dentist; Nov. 6. He Dr. Carole Bennett Regan Gr’72, Offi ce of Basic Energy Sciences; Aug. 28. served in the US Army as a dental offi cer. Dana Point, CA, a retired director of career Previously, he worked at Colgate-Palmo- Dr. David A. Nusblatt D’80, Dix Hills, services at University of California Hast- live, where he developed a human evalu- NY, a dentist; Sept. 9. His wife is Beth F. ings College of the Law; March 25. Her ation softness test for fabric softeners. At Nusblatt Nu’80. daughters are Dr. Alison E. Regan C’86 Penn, he was a member of the swimming GEd’86 and Amelia C. Regan EAS’87. team. His life partner is Joann W. Mil- 1985 E. Ralph Walker L’72, Reno, NV, a re- liken Gr’80. Mark D. Santoli W’85, Lindenhurst, NY, tired attorney; Nov. 4. Thomas G. Buchler EE’76, New York, a foreman for the highway sanitation depart- July 16, 2019. ment in Lindenhurst; Nov. 11. He was also a 1974 Marc J. Dettmann WG’76, Charlottes- volunteer fi refi ghter for more than 40 years. David L. Greene Gr’74, Cleveland, GA, ville, VA, a healthcare management execu- Dr. Thomas P. Storey M’85, Haver- professor emeritus of English at Piedmont tive who retired as CEO of the University of town, PA, director of ambulatory health University; Nov. 20. Virginia Health Services Foundation (now services for the Philadelphia Department Erica B. Leisenring CW’74, St. Louis, the UVA Physicians Group); Oct. 21. of Public Health; Dec. 31. a former public defender and civic leader; Lee M. Mayweather CE’76, Atlanta, April 7. Her mother is Julia Bissell Lei- former project manager at a construction 1987 senring CW’70, and one son is Edward company; July 18. At Penn, he was a mem- Jason W. Tannenbaum L’87, Chicago, “Ned” Sears C’07. ber of Onyx Senior Society. a real estate appraiser; Oct. 25.

Mar| Apr 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 77 ALUMNI Obituaries

1988 Medicine as an associate professor in com- evidence-based practice at Pennsylvania Dr. Lisa Kristine Cummins D’88, Bala munity medicine and as Penn’s Human Hospital, and she also joined Penn Nurs- Cynwyd, PA, a dentist and former fashion Services Project’s director of delivery. The ing’s faculty as a lecturer in behavioral model; Nov. 30. next year he became an assistant professor. and health science. A year later, she In 1979 he became a lecturer in Penn’s Col- moved to the department of family and 1991 lege of General Studies (now known as the community health as a lecturer and re- William T. Fleming Jr. WG’91, Phila- College of Liberal and Professional Sci- search associate. Later in 2009, she was delphia, a mechanical engineer and entre- ences). He served as editor in chief of The promoted to assistant professor CE (cli- preneur; Oct. 30. He designed a patented Gerontologist journal from 1976 to 1981 nician-educator) in family and commu- radial pump used in medical respirators and retired from Penn in 1996. During his nity health. She held this position until during the COVID-19 pandemic. career, he passionately spoke out to defend 2018, when she became an associate pro- the elderly, such as in a prominent 1979 fessor CE in the same department. In 1999 case when nine elderly people died in a fi re 2016, she also became a senior fellow of Sari Kawana G’99 Gr’03, Brookline, at an unlicensed nursing home in Con- Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Out- MA, a professor of Japanese at the Univer- nellsville, PA. comes and Policy Research. Her research sity of Massachusetts Boston; Oct. 29. Nabil H. Farhat. See Class of 1963. changed scientifi c perceptions about the Trevor R. Hadley, professor emeritus extent to which babies feel pain while 2005 CE (clinician-educator) of psychiatry in they are receiving immunizations. She Theodore Faigle WEv’05 G’09, Jim Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and was awarded Penn Nursing’s inaugural Thorpe, PA, an artist, activist, and retired the founder and founding director of Marilyn Stringer Academic Practice LGBT grants analyst at Drexel University; Penn’s Center for Mental Health; Oct. 29. Award in 2013 and the 2014 Dean’s Award Aug. 21, 2019. Before coming to Penn, he served as men- for Exemplary Professional Practice. Jennifer Emmi Fiorini GEd’05, tal health deputy commissioner for Penn- Dr. Marjorie K. Jeff coat, a professor Wayne, PA, a former director at Agnes Ir- sylvania, then as commissioner of mental emeritus of periodontics and former dean win School, an all-girls college prepara- health for Maryland. In 1986, he joined of Penn’s School of Dental Medicine; Nov. tory school; Dec. 8. Penn’s faculty as a lecturer in the School 21. In 2003, she came to Penn as dean of of Medicine’s department of psychiatry the School of Dental Medicine. That same 2008 and became a full professor in 1997. He year, she also became a professor in the Raymond Burrell Hulse LPS’08, founded the Penn Center for Mental School’s department of periodontics. Dur- Coatesville, PA, a retired high school chem- Health Policy and Services Research, to- ing her time as dean, she brought Penn istry teacher; Aug. 17. day known as the Penn Center for Mental Dental’s graduate scores and ranks on Health, which fostered collaboration be- regional examinations to all-time highs, 2014 tween public mental health systems man- recruited several noteworthy faculty Anne Fleming Gr’14, New York, a law aging mental health services research members, and reversed school debt and professor at Georgetown University; Aug. 25. programs. In 2007, he cofounded Kids broadened the School’s research portfolio Integrated Data System (KIDS), a col- during an economic recession. She laboration between Penn, the City of stepped down as dean in 2008 but con- Faculty & Staff Philadelphia, and the School District of tinued to serve on Penn Dental’s faculty, Jonathan Black. See Class of 1972. Philadelphia that linked data about Phil- until her retirement in 2016. During her Elias S. Cohen, Wynnewood, PA, Penn- adelphia children so that researchers career, she received many awards, includ- sylvania’s fi rst commissioner on aging, a could tailor services to fi t the children’s ing the prestigious Clinical Research lifelong advocate for the elderly and dis- needs. He had a secondary appointment Award and Gies Award from the Ameri- abled, and a former member of the faculty at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Prac- can Academy of Periodontology. of Penn’s College of Medicine and College tice and a senior fellowship at the Leon- Lawrence “Larry” Nussdorf. See Class of General Studies; Nov. 24. He was fi rst ard Davis Institute of Health Economics. of 1968. appointed the state commissioner for ag- He retired in 2014. His daughter is Jen- Michael R. Sandler. See Class of 1962. ing issues in the Department of Public nifer Borck-Hadley GEd’08. Anthony R. Tomazinis. See Class of Welfare in 1959. He held the position until Linda A. Hatfi eld, associate professor 1963. 1968, then served as Pennsylvania’s com- of evidence-based practice in Penn’s Dr. Paul Morris Weinberg. See Class missioner of family services. In 1970, he School of Nursing; Nov. 20. In 2008, she of 1970. joined the faculty of Penn’s College of was named the director of research and

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that the haircut meeting came right be- fore the Quakers were scheduled to play at Ivy League upstart Harvard on January 7, 1971. “Harvard had these guys with long hair and beards and big afros, and it really began to be built up. It wasn’t just a game to see who was better. It was, all of a sudden, if we lose discipline, civilization is going to hell.” Penn beat Harvard, 81–62, in the fi rst matchup, and then followed that up with a 103–72 rout of the Crimson at the Palestra on February 19, with the clean-shaven Wohl logging 12 points and a then-program record 12 assists in the win. (The New York Times recap of that game opened: “Harvard displayed better looking hairdos, but Penn had far superior basketball ability.”) “A lot of the preseason talk was that Harvard would dethrone Penn as Ivy League champion,” recalls Wohl, point- ing to the emergence of the Crimson’s two sophomore stars, James Brown (who went on to become a famous sportscaster) and Floyd Lewis. Yet for Wohl and his teammates, “we were more scared that Dick Harter was going to make practices harder if we lost” than they were of any Harvard player. In his recent book, Mad Hoops, au- thor Bud Withers recounts the “line-in- the-sand intransigence for which Harvard, Hair, and Harter’s Harter became renowned” with a quote in the Philadelphia Inquirer from then- Hunt for Perfection Harvard coach Bob Harrison, who said: “Dick Harter talks about his ‘hair pro- gram.’ I was a Marine, too. What’s he you look up Dave Wohl C’71’s Villanova in the NCAA tournament want, hand-to-hand combat?” trading card from when he [“Almost Perfect,” Mar|Apr 2011]. For Wohl—who went on to a long played for the old Buff alo Braves His coach, the late Dick Harter coaching career in his own right If of the NBA, you’ll see a photo of Ed’53, wouldn’t allow it. [“Alumni Profi les,” Mar|Apr 2007] but a player with a mustache, long side- A former Marine who ran grueling never had a colleague or mentor quite burns, and bushy hair. practices and preached discipline, like Harter—the motivation was sim- He never would have looked that Harter once shocked Wohl and fellow ple 50 years ago. “I think all of us had way a couple of years earlier when he senior guard Steve Bilsky W’71 when he a sigh of relief after [we beat was a senior leader on the famed 1970– told them that their hair had grown a Harvard],” Wohl says. “OK, we don’t 71 Penn basketball team that went quarter of an inch longer than he could have to have any harder practices. 28–1 before its season ended with a permit. “You have to remember this We’ve saved civilization. We’ve kind stunningly lopsided 90–47 loss to was the hippie era,” Wohl says, recalling of done enough for one night.” —DZ

80 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Mar| Apr 2021 Photo courtesy Penn Athletics

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