FALL–WINTER 2008–09 magazineFOR QUEENS COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS From India to the Bronx and Back A Tale of Two Cultures Told in Needlework Q MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 1 Vol. XIV, No. 1, Fall–Winter 2008–09magazine www.qc.cuny.edu FOR QUEENS COLLEGE ALUMNI & FRIENDS FEATURES grey dawn, trying Mailbag to pin us down 8 Telling Stories wth Quilts and then plaster Bob Suter The Death of a Queens College us with mortars Student and artillery. But 10 Brain Man everybody kept go- Leslie Jay We recently received the following letter ing. Within 15 from Stephen B. McFarland: minutes we were in 12 Mind Games “My father passed away in 2005,” he the woods and then Leslie Jay notes. “A WWII veteran, platoon leader came the dirty and and subsequent Foreign Service Officer dangerous job of Norman Jay Siegel 13 Age-old Mystery in the Department of State. As a life- clearing pill boxes Leslie Jay long civil servant and in the days before with grenades and guts. faxes and emails, it was his habit to “We cleared the first woods by noon 14 Making Progress make carbon copies of even his personal and the first of the tanks broke through Anne Seltzer correspondence. from behind and moved with us toward “Several letters from his World War II the main fortifications. The 76 and 90mm Dramatic Developments 17 experience have been passed down to me shells just bounced off the reinforced Jennie Mindlin in this way. The ones I copy to you regard concrete and steel and we wondered how Norman Jay Siegel who attended QC and is we’d ever take the place. But they must 191 Years of Teaching 31 listed in your Spring 2007 issue as an alumni Leslie Jay have given the Krauts a headache because lost in the war. Both the letter from Mrs. Sie- they came pouring out shouting Kamerad. gel and my father’s reply are very poignant.” By 5 pm it was all over. We had taken Artist’s rendering of common area at The Summit. DEPARTMENTS another objective. One officer and several After her son’s death, Mrs. Siegel wrote enlisted men killed—one of them your In the News 4 to the 318th Infantry Division asking son—a larger number wounded—most Building The Summit at QueensCUNY -College QUEENS COLLEGE 6 Athletics that if anyone had more information of us terribly tired but ready to go again about Norman’s time with the division to when we had to. A Home Away from Home for Students 18 Portraits contact her. Lt. James McFarland wrote COMMON AREA PERSPECTIVE - VIEW AT 2 STORY SPACE 11.28.07 “Please accept the deep sympathy of back on August 20, 1945. He said he did the officers and men of Co. ‘E’ over your It had been the dream of Queens College presidents for decades: a financed by $72 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the NYC Calendar of Events 20 not know her son well as Norman had not residence hall to attract bright local students whose hearts are set Housing Development Corporation; no public funds are support- very great personal loss.” been with the division long, so instead he on living away from home during their college years. Next August ing the project. 26 Alumni Notes Lt. McFarland kept a copy of the letter described the battle her son died in. the dream comes true when the college opens The Summit, a 506- In keeping with the college’s commitment to sustainability, the he sent to Mrs. Siegel, and at the bottom 30 Annual Fund Donor Honor Roll The men got up at 4 am and waited bed residence hall located in the heart of the campus on the old residence hall design is expected to meet LEED requirements for he wrote an anguished note to himself: while U.S. artillery shelled their objective, tennis courts between FitzGerald Gymnasium and the Rosenthal Silver certification. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Assistant VP for Communications “I couldn’t tell her what happened to her Fort Bambiderstroff, a strategic fort the Library (new courts have been built elsewhere to replace the old Design (LEED) rating system is overseen by the U.S. Green Build- Maria Terrone son. He was blown apart by a direct hit Germans were holding. “It was time now. ones). ing Council, which awards certification to structures that prevent Editor from a German bazooka shell.” Everyone got slowly, reluctantly to his feet. What are the advantages to living on campus? “Research indi- waste and conserve energy. John Cassidy No one said ‘This is it!’ No one who didn’t cates that students living on campus have a higher retention rate QC alums have already left their mark on The Summit. Its top Creative Director The originals of this correspondence have to said anything. It was lighter now— and are 20 percent more likely to graduate from college than stu- floor holds a spacious lounge offering a magnificent view of the Dyanne Maue will soon be found at a Web site set up by we could see the open ground we had to dents who live off campus,” notes President James Muyskens. “And Manhattan skyline. Intended as a Writers the college in memory of Queens College Leslie Jay, Bob Suter cross before reaching the edge of the woods residential students also tend to have higher grade-point averages, place where students can study and students who died during World War II where the outer defenses of the main fort are more satisfied with their college, and have more contact with relax, the space will be called the Car- Design Manager (www.qc.cuny.edu/history/wwiiveterans/). Georgine Ingber were located. More important—we could faculty and other students.” ole A. and Norman Barham Study be seen coming across by the now alerted The college signed a contract last April with Capstone Devel- Lounge in honor of two alums (’66 Copyright © 2009 by Queens College. enemy. And it wasn’t long until he started opment Corporation, a company that specializes in developing and ’68) whose generous gift to the Send your letters to Q Magazine, Queens to work us over. Wicked looking streaks and managing student housing. Capstone has worked with more Queens College Foundation has made College, Kiely Hall 1307, Flushing, NY 11367 of green tracer fire stabbed at us out of the than 55 colleges and universities—including City College—and possible a scholarship fund to benefit or [email protected]. Design Collective Inc, Baltimore, MD. Inc, Collective Design Baltimore, manages over 15,000 beds on 19 campuses. The project is being future students. Cover: Students at the Pardada Pardadi 2 Q MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE To learn more about the Summit, visit www.qc.cuny.edu/the summit. School working on a Peace Story Quilt. Q MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 3 Photo by Rikki Asher. See story page 8. In the News ’86 Alums Travel the Globe: From Antarctica to South Pacific Stephen Pekar and Danny Burstein, two 1986 graduates of Muyskens Praises College’s Momentum at Assembly Queens College, have found different ways to see the world. Last fall Pekar, a member of the college’s earth & environmental Momentum was the theme of President James Muyskens’ address a brief reference in the comic explaining how Superman came to sciences faculty, led a National Science Foundation-funded expedi- to the audience at the annual Faculty and Staff Assembly on Octo- earth, which would usually include a picture of baby Superman in tion to Antarctica. The team included three QC students and a ber 16 in LeFrak Concert Hall. a spaceship, escaping from Krypton just as that planet explodes. science teacher from a Harlem middle school. Pekar installed a After praising the most recent faculty hires—“They have an And that’s how I feel. I am so grateful that we had this momentum research weather station on one of Antarctica’s active ice shelves extraordinary range of interests, from autism to Arabic literature before the crisis to put some distance between as part of a science education initiative called the Con Edison/ to Andy Warhol, and that’s just the A’s”—Muyskens said, “It may disaster and ourselves. Queens College GLOBE-NY Metro program. Each day the station sound as if I am daring the gods to strike me down by saying this, “But make no mistake about it: There is plenty of danger and monitors ands feeds data on air and ice temperature, relative but I believe Queens College has great momentum. And I believe adventure ahead of us, there will be kryptonite everywhere before humidity, and other research into the international GLOBE that this momentum will set us apart from other colleges in the we make a soft landing in a better economy. databank for use by students, teachers, and scientists. years to come.” “But just because times are hard it does not mean we must put No amount of makeup can disguise the talent of Danny He then noted a number of recent accomplishments that gave our dreams on hold. Why should we? After all, surviving Burstein, seen here with Kelli O’Hara and members of the cast the college its momentum, including hiring almost half of the hard times is in this col- of the widely praised Broadway revival of Rodgers and current faculty in the last six years; reversing the trend of falling lege’s DNA. We opened Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Burstein was hailed by the New enrollment and increasing the student retention rate; approving our doors in the middle York Times for being “exuberant and infectious as the wily a new undergraduate curriculum; and completing a $100 million of the Great Depression Luther Billis,” a performance that earned him his second Tony fund-raising campaign.