BOWDOINBOWDOINSpring • Summer 2006 Volume 77, Number 3 Bowdoin in the Changing Brunswick contentsspringsummer2006 Photo: Bob Handleman Bowdoin in a Changing Brunswick 12 Crew Team 24 DEPARTMENTS Community Relations Become More Intimate as Brunswick Photographs by Hannah Dawes College & Maine 2 Faces Major Changes By Edgar Allen Beem Bowdoin’s Crew Team has completed another year filled with Bookshelf 36 A dynamic community, Brunswick has experienced significant intense training and exciting competitions while developing Weddings 37 transformations throughout its recent history, and Bowdoin has held friendships that mark the team as one of Bowdoin’s most tightly a major role in these changes. As Brunswick faces a new and knit athletic groups. A collection of photographs from assistant Class News 44 challenging set of obstacles, the connections between the town, its coach Hannah Dawes illuminates some of the team’s inner Obituaries 72 residents, and the College become increasingly vital. Ed Beem workings, revealing what the athletes endure–and enjoy–when explores the complexity of town relations and the issues that face spectators aren’t watching. the community during this period of change and uncertainty. Branching Out 28 An Education in the Common Good 18 By Mark Kendall Photographs by By Lisa Wesel Photographs by Michele Stapleton Having lived together their entire lives, twins Jazmin and Lizbeth Bowdoin students regularly expand upon their classroom learning Lopez '09 could easily have opted to attend college together, a by involving themselves in the local community, an integral part of common choice for twins. Yet, after overcoming challenges pursuing the Common Good. Lisa Wesel provides a window onto throughout their lives, the sisters embraced a new one: attending the ideas and actions of the Common Good Grant Committee, a colleges on opposite sides of the country. Pomona Magazine staff powerful campus organization that exemplifies Bowdoin’s time- writer Mark Kendall shares the story of the Lopez sisters and how honored interest in the betterment of society. they fared in their first year apart. Reunion and Commencement 2006 34 Commencement photographs by Michele Stapleton and Hannah Dawes. Reunion photographs by Bob Handelman. BOWDOINeditor’s note staff I read a lot of magazines. Part of that is professional interest, of course, but mostly it is that I Volume 77, Number 3 Spring/Summer, 2006 am partial to the medium — I like the combination of visuals and words that magazines provide, and the variety and depth of information that can be contained in a single issue. MAGAZINE STAFF Editor I have thought about what makes different magazines work since my first post-college job, as Alison M. Bennie an intern at Yankee Magazine. The space in which I worked, kind of a loose cubicle along a Associate Editor Matthew J. O’Donnell long hallway, sat just outside the main meeting room, and I frequently overheard snippets of conversation from the meetings as I did my work to assist the editors. (One of the reasons Design & Production Pennisi & Lamare, Falmouth, Maine that I learned so much there was that Yankee is not a closed-door sort of operation, either Charles Pollock metaphorically or literally.) In one of those meetings, several editors and others were James Lucas discussing the start up of a new magazine. They ultimately decided not to pursue the one Obituary Editor John R. Cross ’76 they were talking about that day, but I frequently think of something I heard one of them say. Contributors James Caton He said, “A magazine has to have heart.” I wrote it down. Susan Danforth Selby Frame Scott W. Hood In the months ahead, we are going to be working on some changes here at Bowdoin Travis Dagenais ’08 Alix Roy ’07 Magazine, and I plan to keep that in mind. I have thought a lot about what it is that we provide to our readers that other magazines they might receive do not, and what elements Advertisement Manager Laura Belden ’08 give heart to Bowdoin Magazine. So many magazines now seem to be little more than how- to’s and shopping guides. Look at the newsstand, and you can find any number of ways in Research Assistant Laura Doore ’07 which you might improve yourself every month. Flip through the pages of most of those Photographs by Dean Abramson, Brian magazines, and you can see that your life would be better today if only you owned Beard, Hannah Dawes, Dennis Griggs, something from the “what’s new” page or the “gear and gadgets” page. Once you are Justin Knight, James Marshall, Barry Myers, Michele Stapleton, Holger Thoss, Gordon convinced, you can use the url or phone number given to buy it right away. Chibroski and Zhu Fan ’01, and Bowdoin College Archives. I’m not opposed to those features, and I actually enjoy them most of the time. There is, let’s BOWDOIN (ISSN, 0895-2604) is published face it, lots of demand for “news you can use.” I have even done my share of shopping after four times a year by Bowdoin College, 4104 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011. reading about a particular gadget or gift idea. Printed by Dartmouth Printing, Hanover, New Hampshire. Third-class postage paid at Hanover, New Hampshire. Sent free of But I think that one of the things that Bowdoin magazine provides is a kind of respite from all charge to all Bowdoin alumni, parents of current and recent undergraduates, faculty that. Instead, picking up this magazine means, I hope, that the reader can learn something and staff, seniors, and selected members of new about the College or a fellow alum, can be reminded of an experience they had at the Association of Bowdoin Friends. Bowdoin, and can be proud of their association with the College. I hope it both builds and Opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors. reflects the sense of community for which Bowdoin is known. Send class news to [email protected] or mail to the address above. Advertising As we freshen and modernize and enliven, I will not forget that those things are what give inquiries? Please e-mail magazineads@bow- the magazine its heart. When you begin to see those changes next fall, I hope you will agree. doin.edu or fax 207-725-3003. Please send address changes to the mailing address above. Send ideas or letters to the editor to that address or by e-mail to bowdoinedi- AMB [email protected]. Cover: Aerial view of campus looking south across the quad towardHubbard Hall. Photograph by Michele Stapleton. Back cover: Photograph by James Marshall BOWDOIN SPRING/SUMMER 2006 1 college&maine campus Poetry In Motion Bowdoin editorial assistant Travis Dagenais ’08 recently caught up with Professor of Philosophy Denis Corish, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Professor Corish is an omnipresent sight walking across campus or downtown Brunswick, logging several miles each day, no matter the weather. Bowdoin: How long have you been teaching at Bowdoin? won’t keep me young, but it will keep me healthy. My favorite Professor Corish: Since 1973. I taught for three years at Villanova part is just moving, and trying to do it as efficiently as possible. before getting a PhD, and then four years at Holy Cross. I came to On my morning walks, I aim for speed, but otherwise I care more Bowdoin immediately after I received my PhD. about distance. It’s a bit like dancing. It’s about the right move- ments. I try to walk five miles before breakfast, and I try to do B: What have been your principal courses at Bowdoin? that fairly fast, perhaps a twelve minute mile. If I’m doing that, I C: Greek Philosophy and the Philosophy of Religion. When I was really don’t focus on much else than walking. studying the philosophy of time, in college, I decided I had to start by learning the Greek language. This led me to focus on Greek phi- B: Does your interest in poetry ever intersect with your love for walking? losophy. C: I have composed poetry while walking, but only when I’m walk- ing slowly. I also think through logic and philosophy problems. I B: How did you go about learning Greek? can only write my poetry down after composing it in my head. The C: It was mostly a self-taught process. After several years of teaching process of composition isn’t writing, it’s much more oral – and aural at Bowdoin, I studied at the Center for Hellenic Studies in – than that, although it can also often be done in silence, without Washington, D.C., which is a research institute where you conduct speaking aloud. research for nine months at a time alongside small groups of fellow researchers. When I studied, there were only eight other people. B: What else consumes your thoughts while walking? C: I’m interested in singing, and have done some from time to time B: What are your main activities beyond teaching? around the College. Sometimes when I’m walking around, I’ll take a C: Definitely poetry. I’ve published poetry in various journals, and bit of music, whether it’s a Beethoven Symphony or a Gregorian continue to do so. I have some coming up in The Sewanee Review, Chant or an Irish Folk Tune, and try to translate the notes into and have solfege. done some in the past B: You described how you compose poetry in your head before writ- with The ing it down. Do you do this with very long poems too? New Yorker. C: Yes, I wrote a 500-line poem once, titled “An Essay on Modern I’m interest- Man,” a take-off on “An Essay on Man” by Pope.