Gilmore Stott
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SWARTHMORE College Bulletin March 1998 Gilmore Stott An Appreciation Gamelan premieres The inaugural concert of the College’s new gamelan—an Indonesian percussion orchestra—was held in December, featuring guest dancer I Wayan Dedik Rahman in a program of music and dance from Bali. See page 6 for more on the gamelan. SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN MARCH 1998 Editor: Jeffrey Lott Associate Editor: Nancy Lehman ’87 10 Off the Grid News Editor: Kate Downing During January, when many New Englanders found themselves Class Notes Editor: Andrea Hammer without power following massive ice storms, Raymond ’70 and Desktop Publishing: Audree Penner Intern: Jim Harker ’99 Madelon Toll Kelly ’72 were able to offer neighbors hot showers. Designer: Bob Wood Their salvation? A self-reliant, photovoltaic solar power system. Editor Emerita: Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 By Tom Krattenmaker Associate Vice President for External Affairs: Barbara Haddad Ryan ’59 16 His Feet Are in the Real World Cover: Associate Provost Emeritus and Associate Dean of the College Gil Stott gave the phrase “in loco parentis” a new meaning, says Gilmore Stott still comes to work in David Wright ’69. In talking with other alumni, he found that their Parrish Hall. Photograph by George stories of Stott’s fundamental decency and quiet spirit all lead back Widman. Story on page 16. to his caring home, with its bread, concertos, and conversation. Changes of Address: By David Wright ’69 Send address label along with new address to: Alumni Records, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore PA 19081-1397. Phone: (610) 328-8435. Or e-mail 20 Network News [email protected]. Learning the ropes at Women Work! Sending out electronic Contacting Swarthmore College: news. Studying migrant workers’ rights at the U.N. In January College Operator: (610) 328-8000 75 students took advantage of the College’s externship program, http://www.swarthmore.edu with alumni in a variety of professions serving as mentors. Admissions: (610) 328-8300 [email protected] By Barbara Haddad Ryan ’59 and Jeffrey Lott Alumni Relations: (610) 328-8402 [email protected] Publications: (610) 328-8568 [email protected] 64 I Can Do It http://www.swarthmore.edu/ Admin/publications/bulletin/ In the 1950s as well as today, Swarthmore was a place where Registrar: (610) 328-8297 women could get an extraordinary start in science. Maxine [email protected] Frank Singer ’52 talks about the atmosphere of freedom and ©1998 Swarthmore College optimism that nurtured her development as a young scientist. Printed in U.S.A. on recycled paper By Maxine Frank Singer ’52 The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is vol- ume XCV, number 4, is published in August, September, December, March, 2 Letters and June by Swarthmore College, 500 4 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA Collection 19081-1397. Periodical postage paid 28 Alumni Digest at Swarthmore PA and additional 32 Class Notes mailing offices. Permit No. 0530-620. 37 Postmaster: Send address changes to Deaths Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 Col- 58 Recent Books by Alumni lege Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081- 1397. ast fall when we asked the College’s records office for the L E T names of alumni who count Gilmore Stott as a “Swarth- more influence,” we got a long list. Despite the fact that College promotes “mental his 48-year career here has been spent largely as an apartheid” with support groups L To the Editor: administrator, the list confirmed that for generations of Swarth- In a day when most Americans want more students, Stott has been a teacher and mentor of the first to end barriers based on race and order. ethnicity, Swarthmore seems to be going in the opposite direction. Most of us have encountered a teacher who transcended the That’s the message I get from the ordinary business of schooling. Some taught invaluable skills or piece “Faces Like Mine” (December showed us new ways to think. Others took a contrary approach, 1997) and subsequent e-mail corre- challenging us to define ourselves in opposition. Still others— spondence with certain administra- tors and students. and these, I think, are the most influential—saw and affirmed in It makes me sad. us qualities we had not yet seen in ourselves. One of the wonderful aspects of I’ve been lucky enough to have encountered all three. Swarthmore I remember was that More than any other person, Richard Gregory taught me how race, place of origin, and the like didn’t constitute an “identity” giving to write. In his 10th-grade English class, we diagrammed sen- rise to specific expectations or enti- tences as though they were tlements. It would have been outra- astrophysical equations. We geous to suggest they did. The atmosphere encouraged stu- took daily quizzes (made up of dents to develop their own identi- poor writing culled from our ties, based not only on skin color PARLOR TALK own sophomoric papers) in and antecedents but, more signifi- Our most influential mentors see which we not only had to cor- cantly, on interests, skills, values, aspirations, and indefinable quali- and affirm in us qualities rect the grammar but improve we have not yet seen in ourselves. ties such as personality. the style as well. “How could By contrast today the College you say this more clearly?” he seems preoccupied with putting would ask, waving The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and labels on students according to their “cultures.” making us rewrite again and again. The largest division is between On the contrary side, there was Hal Lewis, creative director of “whites” (essentially students with the magazine where I worked before coming to Swarthmore. Hal European forebears) and “people of color” (everyone else). Beyond that was a design genius, a brilliant polymath who was also capri- the gross cultural subcategories cious beyond all reason. He yelled a lot, driving the staff to do its into which Swarthmore seems to best work; in a perverse way, he brought us together as a cre- divide its students include “Asians” ative team. I was a much better editor (and, I hope, person) after (whose culture comprises more than a thousand languages, reli- those two hellish years with Hal. gions, and sects); “Hispanics” (vir- Finally there was my printmaking teacher, David Bumbeck of tually anyone from a family that Middlebury College. As a senior art major, I applied to some of speaks or has at some time spoken Spanish); and “blacks” (who include the best graduate schools of the fine arts—and was rejected at not only descendants of American every one. In truth my portfolio was weak. I had good technical slaves but also Ethiopian Jews, skills but struggled with drawing. But Dave Bumbeck, a great Haitian voodoo practitioners, and draughtsman himself, never discouraged me. Instead, he gently West African farmers). In turn the College sponsors steered me into a master’s in teaching program at the Rhode “exclusive” organizations, also Island School of Design, his alma mater. He saw something in me called “support groups,” for mem- that I had not yet seen in myself—that I might make a better art bers of the various cultures. These teacher than artist. He was right, and I went on to spend 12 groups are permitted to bar partici- pation by students who don’t happy years in the classroom. belong to their race, ethnicity, or What about your mentors? Because of his wide following and culture. For example, if my daugh- his longevity at the College, Gil Stott is a shining example of the ter who sings well and speaks fluent Spanish had chosen to attend mentoring that happens to almost every student here. I know Swarthmore, she would have been that our article about him will prompt Bulletin readers to think of prohibited from singing in the many other “Swarthmore influences,” and I’d be interested to gospel choir or participating in the hear about them. —J.L. Hispanic student group for a single 2 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN T E R S P O S T I N G S reason—her grandparents came from Eastern Europe. n January I decided to stop playing time to study every day, I know that I In short, enlightened Swarth- varsity basketball. I love the game, would not be successful in my political more is participating in that most I but I just felt it was time to make a science and economic courses. I just unenlightened of activities: racial choice. Perhaps I should explain. had to choose. and ethnic segregation. With all of the academic rigors of Although academics played a sub- I realize that Swarthmore’s Swarthmore, it might seem unlikely stantial role in my decision, I suppose impulse is benign. Its administra- that many would have time to partici- that another factor was also involved. tors understand, as do most of us, pate in intercollegiate sports. But this It’s clear that the level of competition that despite all of the good will and is not the case. Athletics is a major in Division III basketball is not as high progress, there remains in our part of life at Swarthmore College. Last as what I had become used to in high country much racial and ethnic year more than a third of all students school, and even though I am a highly prejudice as well as the residue of participated in varsity sports ranging motivated athlete, I could not maintain past racism and prejudice. from field hockey and lacrosse to bas- the same level of intensity—and there- But the question is: What do we ketball and baseball. The fore the desire to play— as Americans of different back- College’s intramural and that I once felt.