The F a l l 2 0 1 1

CollegeSt. John’s College • Annapolis • Santa Fe

Chopin Music’s Mysteries On Chopin

ranz Liszt, Chopin’s friend and fellow composer, noted of Chopin: “Music was his language, the divine tongue . . . . [T]he anguished cries of Poland lend to his art a mysterious, indefinable poetry which, for all those who have truly experienced it, cannot be compared to anything else.” When paying tribute to Chopin for this issue of The College, Elliott Zuckerman references the human voice—and instruments that sing: “[E]ven in his non-vocal works the The College playerF has to ‘sing.’ ” And “it is since Chopin that great pianists have been noted for their is published three times a year by singing touch.” St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD, Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849) was a child prodigy in Warsaw; he wrote his first and Santa Fe, NM polonaise at age seven and by age eleven he performed in the presence of Alexander I, Tsar Known office of publication: of Russia. Chopin moved to Paris in 1831, spending his short life as a brilliant innovator in Communications Office many forms, from prelude to nocturne. His nuanced, deeply felt compositions are written St. John’s College primarily for the piano. “For Chopin to be engraved upon your soul,” writes Zuckerman, Box 2800 “it is perhaps necessary to feel him in your fingers, to respond to music not only as motion Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 and sound, but texture and touch.” St. John’s sophomores in Annapolis are introduced to Chopin through examples, in Periodicals postage paid particular a mazurka (Polish dance) for piano, in The Sense of Music, a book by Viktor at Annapolis, MD Zuckerkandl, a tutor at St. John’s from 1948 to 1964. This mazurka is “an example for postmaster Zuckerkandl of the lively interplay between rhythm and meter in music,” says Eric : Send address changes to The College Stoltzfus, who teaches the sophomore music tutorial in Annapolis. In this issue, Stoltzfus Magazine, Communications tells us how it feels to play Chopin on the cello—with Elliott Zuckerman on piano. Office, St. John’s College, In Santa Fe, musician-in-residence Peter Pesic prefers to perform Chopin’s works in Box 2800, Annapolis, MD intimate settings. “I don’t think Chopin ever imagined his mazurkas being played in a big 21404-2800. hall,” he says. Pesic describes how in Santa Fe he introduces several preludes by Chopin in sophomore music: “We study the first, his homage to Bach’s first prelude, in detail, and Patricia Dempsey, Editor the fourth, a miniature masterpiece of chromaticism that helps us approach the musical [email protected] language of Wagner and the twentieth century.” For some alumni, encounters with music at St. John’s have been life changing. Samantha Jennifer Behrens Art Director Buker (A05) lyrically describes how she “came away from my time at St. John’s convinced that music is the purest form of beauty present in the world.” Music connects us all; the The College welcomes letters on deep listening that moved Buker is similar, perhaps, to the “deep reading” that “brings issues of interest to readers. peace,” as novelist Salvatore Scibona (SF97), a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, Letters can be sent via e-mail to says in his interview. As much as music at St. John’s transformed Buker’s life, learning to the editor or mailed to the read the St. John’s way transformed Scibona’s life. “When a book and a reader are one, the address above. right fit,” says Scibona, “it’s a deeply mind-melded focus.” Similarly, Buker describes a perfect concert in which “music, performer, and listener are as much a unity as can be.” Annapolis Part of the magic of music is that it moves us. As Eric Stoltzfus says, “music is part of 410-626-2539 what makes us human, including me.” Deep listening, deep reading—these are among the wonders that The College explores. Santa Fe But something more makes listening to music or reading great works at St. John’s 505-984-6104 powerful: sharing the experience with others. What Buker calls “the phenomenon of a Contributors perfect concert,” Pesic calls “music as conversation.” Scibona simply notes that to have read and discussed the Program books with others is “such a gift.” Samantha Buker (A05) The fact that individual experience is transformed by collective energy and exchange is Michael Comenetz not lost on other alumni featured in this issue. Glenda Eoyang (SF76), an entrepreneur Paul Hamilton who studied the “butterfly effect”—the wind from the flapping of its wings can be felt on Laurent Merceron (A08) the other side of the earth—explores how ripples between and among us become the power Anna Perleberg (SF02) of “many.” Entrepreneurs like Eoyang and strategic coach Dan Sullivan (A71) tap into the Deborah Spiegelman force and mystery of connections among us. James Williams Finally, thank you to Barbara Goyette (A73) for her inspired ideas, and farewell and Babak Zarin (A11) Elliott Zuckerman thank you to the previous editor of The College, Rosemary Harty (AGI09). I am honored to carry the torch and celebrate all things St. John’s. Magazine design by —P.D. Claude Skelton Design Fall 2011 The Volume 36, Issue 1

The MagazineCollege for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe

{Contents}

page 12 departments Connected by Chopin 2 from the bell towers Alumna Samantha Buker (A05) and • Santa Fe welcomes a new dean tutors ruminate on musical • A graduating senior on “learning to live” conversations and phenomena, • Chris Nelson’s 20th year as president including the perfect concert. • Au revoir, John Christensen (HA99) • Cheers for the orchestra! page 20 • Dr. Norman Levan’s (SFGI74) generous bequest Commencement • Alumni reflect on Reality page 12 • Summer Academy debut Leo Pickens (A78) reflects on the art of • Readers share music stories contemplation; Victoria Mora celebrates imagination. 30 bibliofile • Peter Eichstaedt (SF92) explores the page 24 ravages of Eastern Africa • White Asparagus serves up eclectic delights Reading to Write • Valéry’s Graveyard: Le Cimetière marin Translated, Described, and Peopled Acclaimed novelist Salvatore Scibona (SF97) felt unqualified to write until he 32 alumni learned to read—the St. John’s way. PROFILES 32 Laura Strache (A02) hedges her bets on page 26 Wall Street The Power of Many page 32 35 Bruce Sanborn’s (SFGI09) mid-life journey to St. John’s Glenda Eoyang (SF76) and Dan Sullivan 42 Algebra is a “Faustian bargain” (A71) harness the dynamics of human for Steve Morse (A68) interactions to transform lives. 44 alumni voices A Joyce ride to Piraeus with Gregory Rhoades (SFGI89)

45 obituaries

48 croquet

page 38 50 association news

52 st. john’s forever

on the cover

Chopin Illustration by David Johnson 2 {From the Bell Towers}

St. John’s Welcomes a New Dean in Santa Fe

Incoming Dean J. Walter Sterling earned his bachelor’s degree in 1993 from St. John’s in Annapolis, and a master’s degree in philosophy in 1997 from Emory University. He held academic positions at Loyola College, Gwynedd-Mercy College, and Temple University, and worked with Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia, before joining the faculty in Santa Fe in 2003. He succeeds Victoria Mora, who has been Santa Fe dean since 2006. Sterling’s tenure began on July 1.

You discovered a community through Project H.O.M.E. Can you describe this experience? After teaching philosophy here and there, I spent several years working for Project H.O.M.E., a nonprofit that principally works to transition folks out of homelessness but is also involved in broader urban revitalization efforts. I developed and taught in a whole range of adult education classes—basic literacy, GED, college and vocational prep—working primarily with people in mental health and substance- teri randall abuse recovery programs. It was a wonderful Santa Fe’s new dean, J. Walter Sterling (A93) experience. I could go on and on about all the good things that I found there. I maintain a strong connection with that community and try to support the organization as much as I can from this distance. I Day to day, I hope to be an advocate and a support for the real turned to that work out of some ambivalence regarding life in work of our learning community. As far as I’m concerned, “academia.” But after a few years, I realized that I wanted to St. John’s stands for the greatest aspiration of education: the return to my vocation as a student and teacher of philosophy. possibility that the human soul can be illuminated and ennobled by inquiry into the whole of things. That we are acutely aware that What brought you to Santa Fe? we fall short in many ways is further evidence of how persistently I have strong ties to Annapolis. Quite strong. In addition to my high we aim. It’s an honor to serve that end, be it in the classroom being an alum, my father is also an alum and a member of the or the Dean’s Office. faculty there. Born and bred in that briar patch! I wanted to come to Santa Fe because it represented the education that I love and to What about when you’re not in the classroom or the Dean’s Office? which I am indebted, but with a new setting, fresh faces, and the My wife, Meghan, and I are driven to delightful distraction these adventure of this beautiful city and days by our two little boys, Will landscape. It has been the right blend [2 years of age], and Luke [3 months]. of same and other, the familiar and “St. John’s stands for the As seriously as I have tried to take the surprising. education throughout my life, being a greatest aspiration of father does seem to raise the stakes. I Do you have particular goals for your try to maintain a bit of proverbial deanship? education: the possibility balance by running and cycling; I love Not yet. We all recognize that we that the human soul can be to run our mountain trails here. This are in a challenging moment for year, on my sabbatical and in my effort St. John’s, for liberal education, for illuminated and ennobled to “grow old learning many things,” higher education, at the very least a I have been attending classes at the challenging economic environment. by inquiry into the whole University of New Mexico School of Much of the strategic work of the Law. I’ve worked with great folks Dean’s Office in the coming few of things.” down there and have enjoyed “just” years will involve navigating this being a student again. x J. Walter Sterling environment. —Deborah Spiegelman

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {From the Bell Towers} 3

Learning how to live

Kaura Mackey (A11) has deep to become a doctor. My uncle is roots at St. John’s College: she is a diver, and he repairs boats the ninth person in her family to while they are still in the water. be a student at St. John’s; her Another aunt left St. John’s and cousin is a sophomore. The became an artist. Another uncle Caritas Society asked Mackey to became a chemical engineer. speak at the annual April My dad is a mechanical luncheon, a gathering in the engineer. My cousin is a Annapolis boathouse of the computer programmer. Another volunteer members who host cousin works for a nonprofit fundraisers and other events to think tank in D.C.” assist students who have unex- The most valuable thing that pected financial emergencies. Mackey will take with her from Mackey spoke of her belief in St. John’s is “not that all careers the “value” of a St. John’s are open to me.” Rather, she education: “What I do treasure said, it “is put very concisely by President Chris Nelson (SF70), Kaura Mackey (A11), and her most is something that unfortu- my father. If asked why he went mother, Surinder Mackey. nately is lost on a lot of people. to St. John’s, he answers, ‘I went St. John’s gives a liberal educa- to St. John’s to learn how to tion that is ‘education’ in the live.’ He does not mean that Mackey, who volunteered at a teacher, because in learning to truest sense of the word. One St. John’s teaches people what local Annapolis elementary teach ourselves, we discover criticism of St. John’s is that the right way to live is, but school while attending how to teach others.” x what we learn here does not rather it gives students the tools St. John’s, headed to Phoenix, have a practical application, but to be able to examine our lives Arizona, in July to begin her To read Mackey’s speech visit the this is false, and I will tell you and decide for ourselves how we teacher training at Great Hearts Caritas Society’s website: why....I have my family as proof. should live.” Academy. “St. John’s is the www.stjohnscollege.edu/friends. My aunt went on from St. John’s perfect foundation to become a

to clarify their opinions, and “Kovacs signed up to be an Alumni Mentoring discussing among themselves to alumni mentor earlier this find an answer to the societal semester and visited the on the Docket question that needs judgment,” campus in April to talk about says Chang Liu (A14). Chang, her experiences post-SJC in When Talley Kovacs (A04) Maryland v. Kenneth Deibler. named a Davis World Scholar applying and going to law invited Jaime Dunn, Annapolis “The Court of Appeals of this past winter, aspires to work school,” says Dunn. director of Career Services, to Maryland is like the kind of in international law and found Word of the Court of Appeals bring students to the Maryland discussion you get in a seminar the trip to be a good first step trip spread quickly. Several Court of Appeals to hear oral as the panel of judges dives into toward that goal. “Seeing the Johnnies, hearing about it from arguments and meet with the the details of the cases, asking real courtroom inspired me to their friends, have already judge for whom she was questions to prompt the lawyers compare the legal systems in begun asking for similar oppor- clerking, Dunn gladly accepted. the United tunities in other fields, which On Tuesday, May 10, nine States. and Dunn welcomes. “It’s so impor- students from St. John’s—four China. I am tant to me to be able to expose freshmen, two juniors, two going home to students to the possibilities that seniors, and a sophomore—sat China this await them after graduation, in on a session at the Maryland summer to especially if they involve Court of Appeals. Arriving explore the connecting with alumni. I hope before the session began, the difference.” to do more of these site visits students were briefed on the Alumni with alumni mentors, and I cases they would be witnessing mentoring is encourage alumni to contact my and visited with Judge Clayton not new at office if they’d like to be a Greene Jr. before entering the St. John’s, but mentor and/or have students courtroom. They witnessed two this spring visit them at their organiza- cases that were on the docket: Dunn has tions.” For more information Ford Motor Credit Company infused it with contact Jaime Dunn: 410-626- Jaime Dunn, director of Career Services, LLC v. Maureen P. Roberson new energy and 2500 or [email protected]. connects students with alumni. and Montgomery County, opportunities. —Babak Zarin (A11)

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 4 {From the Bell Towers}

Celebrating Two Decades of Leadership Chris Nelson champions the liberal arts

When Chris Nelson arrived in Annapolis as the new president of St. John’s 20 years ago, the college’s academic program was its greatest strength. That hasn’t changed. What has changed are the support structures for the Program: the college endowment went from $27 million to $135 million; new dorms were built and a new library renovated; the student body increased from 417 to 485 students; two capital campaigns were conducted, one for $35 million, the second for $134 million; improvements to health and counseling services, career services, and athletics were identified and funded; staff professionalism increased; the college’s investments were real- located; and the Management Committee was established to better coordinate administra- Mike Uremovich (SFGI05), Dr. Stephen Forman (A70), President Chris Nelson (SF70), Ron Fielding (A70). tive matters between the campuses. For someone with no unusual liberal arts college. love of St. John’s and his clear- academic leadership back- Indeed, over time, Nelson has eyed understanding of the ground, this is a remarkable become one of the most active importance of liberal education achievement. While Nelson is and influential liberal arts has made him a sought-after an alumnus (Santa Fe, class of college leaders. His back- spokesperson. Such themes as 1970) and has served on the ground as a labor lawyer helped “We don’t live in order to get a Board of Visitors and Gover- prepare him to read political job. But we work in order to nors, he brought fresh eyes to situations accurately and to make it possible for us to live a the job of running a small, react positively. And his true good life” eloquently address today’s issues and make great media quotes. The Wash- ington Post featured a profile of Nelson this spring, citing him as one of the most and Governors honored him at influential college presidents a dinner on June 18, attended in the country. by 160 of the college presi- In celebration of Nelson’s dent’s closest friends: alumni, 20 years, the Board of Visitors Annapolis residents, parents, fellow college presidents, and Maryland education leaders. From left, Jay Schwarz, Following is one in a series of Santa Fe Dean J. Walter tributes offered. Eva Brann, Sterling (A93), Camilla who served as dean with Chris Schwarz (A84), and Bud Nelson during the early 1990s, Billups, former Annapolis x treasurer. describes his contributions.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {From the Bell Towers} 5

Chris Nelson’s 20th Year as Our President by Eva Brann, dean emerita

This is an occasion, the strained, for they are meant to hold onto one of our wicked 20th anniversary of Chris as have somewhat conflicting kids, when in my disgusted His capacity for our president, that I am truly agendas. I soon formed for deanishness, my hasty sorry to miss. But I’m off to myself a far more friendly prescription would be a listening, his Tbilisi, the capital of the notion of my relation to this brusque “Out!” His capacity memory that Republic of Georgia, to lead president. By our Polity, which for listening, his memory that some demonstration classes at has protected our stable keeps him on top of details, keeps him on a small independent liberal integrity so well, the Dean, the his patience in massaging arts college—the only such, I Instruction Committee, and, problems—are, in one of our top of details, believe, in Georgia, which had of course, the Faculty as a students’ favorite terms, in the middle ages a glorious whole are responsible for “awesome.” his patience in Platonic Academy—a school maintaining the Program’s But my real point is not that with a program largely essence—that is to say, its heart Chris has been, throughout massaging modeled on our college of and soul—while the president this score of years, within and St. John’s. A number of tutors looks after the school’s without, an effective president, problems— and alumni are seriously existence, its survival, and canny in keeping us alive and are, in one of engaged there, and Chris well-being. Knowing well that untiring in bringing us before himself has helped this coura- you can’t live well unless you’re the public. It is that in him, our students’ geous undertaking, just as he alive, I never had any problem care for the existence of the has assiduously spread our in thinking of myself as serving concrete community and favorite terms, gospel in America. under Chris. Someone has to regard for its ideal program My most detailed experi- have the last word and that had have been blended. He is well “awesome.” ence, however, of our presi- better be the one who protects versed in both the conditions dent’s devotion to the college our very place in the world. of our survival and the enthusiasm for Virgil’s Aeneas, comes from the days in the But the real reason that was preservation of our substance. a taste pretty much confined to nineties when I was an admin- an easy submission was that Consequently, he really men, I think. He actually istratively clueless dean and he Chris was never a “normal” understands our greatest admires this stuffy hero, who a deft new president. Along president, even in a good challenge—that the exigencies probably goes to bed in his with Bud Billups and Jeff sense. He was a Johnnie of St. John’s as an institution breastplate, so driven that he Bishop, Chris and I met through and through. He was, might squash the soul of our spurns Dido, the passionate regularly to deal with college to be sure, the son and father college as a school, as a African queen who dies for issues. We all helped each of Johnnies in lineage, but community of learning. He him. For myself, I love other, but it was Chris who what counts more, he was in knows intimately, from within, Homer’s Odysseus for longing presided, and I want to tell you soul an alumnus, a nursling of how to value and defend this to return home to Penelope, in what manner. the college. school and its Program, which his queenly Ithacan wife who At other institutions of He had one of the gifts of a he loves. lives for him. This unstuffy higher education—I’ve visited leader for us: an acute and And this Program, now hero does take his time getting scores of them and I think of focused ingenuity in unscram- nearly three quarters of a there and is ardently welcomed most of them as “institutions,” bling difficulties. How often century old, is lovable, and our and reluctantly released by a while our college is a “school” did he pull my chestnuts out of common attachment for it has number of lushly magical to me, a student-friendly place the fire when I got terminally a very precise cause: Under it, women on the way. But once of learning—the relation of confused by numbers, for and the pedagogy that goes Odysseus gets home, he stays deans to presidents is profes- which he has a genius! How with it, we infuse thinking with home, and, like Chris, governs sionally if not personally cleverly he would find a way to passion and inform passion his austere little kingdom, the with reason. That is what best place on earth. That’s a makes this tiny place a giant in serious difference between us, the educational landscape—but to be sure—but what an occa- He had one of the gifts also, on occasion, a giant- sion for great conversations! slayer, for, small as we are, we And so, even in this lapse, of a leader for us: an acute have fought and won quite a Chris proves a true Johnnie, an few battles—Chris in the lead. engaged lover of our books. and focused ingenuity in Of course, I have my For all these reasons I have— reservations about some of I can say confidently, we all unscrambling difficulties. his proclivities. He has an have—this hopeful wish: 20 more years! x

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 6 {From the Bell Towers}

John Christensen Retires and college admissions officers alike—knows that the atmos- “Friends urged me phere is tense and that college- When John Christensen interest from students in the bound students today face even to consider (HA99) arrived at St. John’s former Eastern block, where greater pressure and anxiety College 33 years ago as director there is a real appreciation of about choosing a college. I will whether I wanted of admissions, he embraced the our Program, as these students depart St. John’s College college community and the seldom had the opportunity to feeling good about our efforts to embark on a Program. “I had to learn as study Western philosophy, to keep our application process much as I could to explain the literature, and history,” as simple and straightforward career that Program to others and make he says. as possible—no early decision, sure of the right fit for a Christensen says he early action, regular decision, depended upon prospective student,” he especially found rewarding or wait lists—so that prospec- the ability of recalls. “Friends urged me to his international admissions tive students can focus on what consider whether I wanted to work with the United World our academic program has to 18-year-olds to embark on a career that Colleges, whose mission is to offer them. Our model of depended upon the ability of bring students from around the education and smaller size have make rational 18-year-olds to make rational world to each of their small allowed us to operate this way, decisions about their futures.” campuses to promote mutual and I realize how fortunate I decisions...” But Christensen knew that in understanding and world have been.” John Christensen St. John’s he had found the peace. “The diversity on these Many at the college feel right fit. campuses is amazing, and you fortunate to have worked with “John Christensen has been end up at lunch in the dining Christensen. As Nelson said, an incredibly rich, detailed an impressive builder of hall with Israelis and Pales- “John has been the indispen- understanding of the community,” Christopher tinians, for example, sitting sable man, utterly reliable, admissions office and of Nelson told the tutors, staff, side-by-side talking calmly and dedicated to the college that he St. John’s College—both its family, and friends that gath- thoughtfully about things they loves, meticulous in his work, history and its purposes—and a ered in June to commemorate have in common and about careful, thoughtful and faithful generous, cooperative spirit.” John’s retirement. “When John their cultural differences. Once in communicating the nature of John retired on July 30, 2011. arrived at the college in 1978, I talked to a Bosnian, whose the Program to generations of “After 33 years in admissions,” he undertook with simple roommate was Croatian, and he potential students.” Annapolis he says, “I still find great directness an education about was telling me what good Dean Pamela Kraus says, “John satisfaction in hearing about the college….He engaged with friends they had become and has shown immense dedication ‘an ideal match.’” x us by taking the full four years how they hoped to attend and capacity for work; he has, —P.D. of seminar, first as a participant college together. ‘Just and then as a third tutor at the think,’ he said, ‘A few table. He developed an under- years ago our parents standing of the books so that he were trying to kill could talk about them with each other.’” prospective students and also Despite the dramatic with his fellow members of the technological shifts in faculty. He is in every sense one how liberal arts of us.” colleges approach In a sweep of three decades, prospective students, Christensen has seen innumer- there is one aspect of able changes, among them a college admissions heightened interest from work that Christensen international students. believes will not He attributes the uptick to the change: the importance reach of the web, scholarships of helping a prospective such as the Ahmet Ertegun student find the right Fund, and his travels overseas, fit in a college. “That’s especially to the United World especially important Colleges (high schools) in now because everyone countries such as Bosnia, who works in the Wales, Norway, and Italy. admissions process— “We also saw an increase in high-school counselors

John Christensen (HA99) reflects on his three decades in Admissions at St. John’s. jen behrens

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {From the Bell Towers} 7

revitalized with spruced-up input from the Campus Planning Shaded conversation benches and walkways. Two tall Committee. In addition, and slender “Valley Forge” the Historic Preservation courtyard beckons American Elm trees replace the Commission of Annapolis bushy, low-growing dogwood approved the college’s proposal A conversation courtyard, with a warm day. The new conver- shrubs by the rear steps—broad- after the city’s arborist and its closely planted groupings of sation courtyard is in front ening the sloping view of back archaeologist lent their oversight Allegheny Serviceberry trees and of Humphreys Hall, near the campus and College Creek. to the project during a public stone benches, is the perfect entrance to the Annapolis Tutor Jeffrey Black, head of meeting. shady spot for Johnnies to kick campus bookstore. In addition, the Campus Planning “Special challenges arise off their shoes, read, and talk on the adjacent quad has been Committee, says that folks on every time you dig in campus are delighted with the Annapolis,” says Black. “For changes: “All of the reactions I example, how to match the have heard so far have been College’s many preexisting brick uniformly positive. Community patterns, or how to keep squir- members like the look of the rels (and community members) quad and the Humphreys court- out of freshly-planted yard, and have started to use the flowerbeds.” The trees, shrubs, seat walls now that the weather flowers, and grasses chosen are has gotten warmer.” native species, in keeping with The refurbishment of the quad the college’s commitment to and the new courtyard were environmentally conscious funded by a gift from Erwin landscaping. Greenberg, a member of the “Our chief consideration was college’s Board of Visitors and to make the Humphreys court- Governors, and his wife yard a welcoming space—without Stephanie Cooper. They wanted detracting from the centrality of to enhance the campus by the quad,” says Black. bringing more life to the These new features already Humphreys yard and by sprucing seem well-established; on a up the well-worn quad. recent sunny day, numerous Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape students were reading in the Architecture of Charlottesville, conversation courtyard, tucked Virginia, designed the projects, among the trees. x which are part of the college’s —Laurent Merceron (A08) comprehensive master plan, with Cheers for Orchestra!

Do you have a musical instrument in your permanently to the college. The music home that is gathering dust? The music library is also accepting donations to library in Annapolis is looking to add to purchase or rent sheet music for the few instruments currently on hand. Of performing ensembles, to purchase a set of particular need are violin, cello, string timpani, and for instrument maintenance. bass, bassoon, English horn, brass instru- Tutor David Stephenson has directed ments (trumpet, trombone, French horn), the St. John’s College Orchestra in and timpani. Annapolis for 20 years. In recent years the “We would love to have a standing orchestra has performed symphonies by collection of musical instruments that we Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert, can make available to students in need,” concertos by Vivaldi and Mozart, Bach says Eric Stoltzfus, Annapolis music Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral librarian. “In the past we have helped Suites, and even excerpts from Don students locate violins, French horns, a Giovanni and The Magic Flute. x string bass, and even timpani to use with the orchestra.” For more information, please contact If you own an instrument in good repair, Eric Stoltzfus in the Music Library: please consider loaning it or donating it 410-295-6904 or [email protected]. 8 {From the Bell Towers}

Reality 2011, held on the handler maintaining constant field,” and has evolved over Revisiting Annapolis campus, was a party supervision, co-archon Michelle nearly 50 years of its existence. worth attending. Weinmann (A12) says, “We The general form of Spartan Reality In keeping with this year’s wanted to make sure that the Madball has remained the same. theme of childhood, the weekend animals felt comfortable, so we In a reference to Euclid’s As an alumnus thinking back on included a petting zoo, a scav- chose only larger animals for this Elements, students are divided my own St. John’s experience, enger hunt, and a messy game of event.” into two teams: the “Means,” the event that always strikes me paint-Twister. As usual, the In keeping with this year’s consisting of sophomores and as the most amusing and improb- weekend kicked off with the theme, Michael Janakis (A12) put juniors, and the “Extremes,” able is “Reality Weekend,” in annual marathon relay race, smiles on the faces of his fellow made up of the freshmen and which our tiny Republic of followed by the junior-class skit students by dressing up as a seniors. Placed on opposite Letters casts aside its books and (in which lampooning students, clown—something with which he sides of the campus soccer field, balances and transforms itself faculty, and Program authors are is quite familiar. “My dad’s a the two teams struggle to take into a miniature Bacchanalian the order of the day), and a dance clown. He went to Ringling Bros. hold of a large medicine ball festival. But for all the revelry and party in the Great Hall. Clown College, so I was exposed and carry it through to the calculated chaos, a strong group By the following morning, to clowning growing up.” opposing team’s goal. of organizers (four reality chiefs students had been transported to Donning his father’s red clown What has changed are the and a planning committee) and a a magical land where colorful nose and makeup, Janakis says, rules. While tradition holds that lot of time and energy (one streams of crepe paper hung from “They get a bad reputation, but “there are only three rules,” the month of organizing and a school the trees, and a nine a.m. wake- clowns are supposed to make actual list of rules of Spartan year of fundraising) ensured that up call consisted of orange juice people happy!” Madball is far longer and and thumping rock ’n’ roll. Chalk The weekend concluded with a reflects the history of the game. drawings covered the brick bonfire, and, of course, a game of Some of the rules include no ...Our tiny surfaces of buildings, grills were Spartan Madball, a Johnnie motorized vehicles (added after being lit, and student bands were invention as bizarre and beautiful an attempt to win by using a Republic of setting up for outdoor perform- as it is difficult to describe. x Jeep, which was toppled over) ances. (Oh, and I heard that a few —Laurent Merceron (A08) and no livestock (added after a Letters casts aside weeks earlier, students recorded student tried to herd some Chris Nelson reading bedtime A Mad, Mad sheep onto the field as an its books and stories—his voice was auctioned obstacle). Most famously, the balances and to raise money for the weekend’s game lasts three hours, or until festivities.) Game of three goals, three major transforms itself The petting zoo (comprised of injuries, or one death occur. a pony, a donkey, a lamb, and two Ball (To date, there have been no into a miniature goats) was an especially big hit deaths.) among students, though animal For this year’s main attraction Many popular legends and Bacchanalian safety was an important concern of Reality Weekend, students stories arise over this event, for the organizers. In addition to ringed the hills of back campus which in 1999 was described by festival. a Reality archon and an animal to watch their more courageous then-Reality coordinator Tim (or foolhardy) Carney (A00) as a “completely colleagues partici- primal” chance to “gain glory pating in one of the and valor.” One of the most college’s most recent is if a freshman team beloved events: wins, they are likely to go on to Spartan Madball. win all four years. The oldest event of Among the changes made to Reality Weekend, the game’s rules in response to an end-of-year last year’s match—one of the celebration that most violent in recent memory— began in 1955, was the addition of “violence Spartan Madball referees,” who halted game play appears in records whenever it appeared action on dating as early as the field was escalating too far. 1962 as “an unref- This year the Extremes, made ereed volleyball up of the three-time winner game on a football class of 2011 and the class of 2014, were defeated 3-0 by the In 1980 Johnnies other classes. So much for the march on Main legend. x Street to celebrate Reality. —Babak Zarin (A11) {From the Bell Towers} 9

High school students discover St. John’s

This summer the first director of admissions now that the standards St. John’s College Summer on the Annapolis are above my head, it’s a Academy attracted 32 mostly- campus. nice change to try and high-school students from In Santa Fe, not all reach for something.” around the country to the students were from Grace Obregon, a Santa Fe campus from June 26 high school. Alexandra rising senior at Robert to July 2. On the Annapolis Forman is currently E. Lee High School in campus, 35 high school enrolled at Santa San Antonio, Texas, students enrolled for a similar Monica College in enjoyed the discussions week-long immersion in the California. A family of Plato and the conse- college from July 10 to 16. friend recommended quence of choice during Participants lived on campus that she try the her week on the Santa and explored seminars, math Academy. “I love to Fe campus. “The and language tutorials, and learn,” she says, “and questions are the basis science labs, interspersed with to question what I’m of who we are,” she field trips, presentations, and told, not just accept says, adding that performances. On both facts as facts, but to Summer Academy is campuses, St. John’s under- know why.” Forman about “just being graduates and tutors joined says she “loves the comfortable with ques- participants in and out of the great books tioning.” She was also classroom. curriculum, the fact encouraged by the “Summer Academy serves that I’m not studying breadth of the lessons in as a means of bringing the type textbooks that the Academy’s someone else has curriculum: “It allows of education found at Ground, Washington, enrolled written and then told me what you to be interested in many St. John’s to another group of in the Santa Fe Academy they’re about; but I get to read different things, so you’re not students, and gives students because he hasn’t been the works and decide for just on this one path with a interested in learning more challenged at his high school. myself what they’re about.” limited number of professions about the college a week-long “It’s just so much under- Others seek “something you can go into.” submersion into Johnnie life,” achievement, and everybody more” than high school can says Amy Sandefur, assistant lowers the standards so that —James Williams offer. Connor Groat of Battle people can trip over them; Levan Makes $12 Million Bequest

This spring Dr. Norman Levan endowment of $2 million for the including the battle of Okinawa, the Humanities. A strong (SFGI74), a generous and dedi- Norman Levan Faculty Chair, and then embarked on a long advocate of examining societal cated friend of St. John’s held by the current dean. and distinguished career in issues, Dr. Levan envisioned the College, made a bequest to the “We are exceedingly grateful medicine. Among his important Center as a way to involve the college’s Santa Fe campus of for Dr. Levan’s continuing achievements is the establish- Bakersfield community in one third of his estate, valued in generosity,” says Michael P. ment—at the request of state and exploring the importance of the excess of $12 million. Peters, president of the Santa Fe federal health officials—of the humanities in people’s lives. The bequest is Dr. Levan’s campus. “He is a constant Hansen’s Disease Clinic at the “In all his endeavors, third gift to St. John’s College. friend and supporter of the Los Angeles County/USC Dr. Levan demonstrates his In 2006, he donated $5 million, mission of St. John’s College Medical Center in 1962, one of commitment to knowledge, which funded the construction and liberal education more only three such clinics in to an informed and educated of the Betty and Norman broadly.” California. citizenry, and to our collective Levan Hall, the home of the Dr. Norman Levan is A long-time resident of responsibility to make a better Graduate Institute. Dedicated professor emeritus and former Bakersfield, California, future,” says Peters. “He is an September, 25, 2010, Levan chief of dermatology at the Dr. Levan supports the Norman inspiration to all of us.” x Hall houses administrative and University of Southern Levan Faculty Seminar Series at —Deborah Spiegelman faculty offices, seminar rooms, California School of Medicine Bakersfield College, where he a graduate lounge, and an (class of 1939). He served in the also made a bequest as well as a exhibition space. In 2010, United States Army Medical generous gift for the creation of Dr. Levan also provided an Corps during World War II, the Norman Levan Center for

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 10 {From the Bell Towers}

position, she was visiting assis- as the Washington Post. She has News and Announcements tant professor of political an MA in Writing from Johns science at Southern Methodist Hopkins University and is the University in Dallas, Texas. parent of a Johnnie, ALEXANDER RIKA ROSETH ARTINEZ RIZ St. John’s Hosts SHARON HENSLEY retired on E T M , who K (SF09). Community Seminars September 2 from the Annapolis was initially hired for a special In Annapolis, Director of on “Pilgrimage to Graduate Institute after 30 years one-year appointment last fall, Major Gifts RUTH ANDERSON Nonviolence” with the college. also joins the college as a tutor COGGESHALL retired on June 30, Four new tutors have joined on the Santa Fe campus. after more than 6 years with the St. John’s College, Annapolis the faculty—two each in On both campuses, the college, contributing to a welcomed the wider community Annapolis and Santa Fe. In directors of communications successful capital campaign. for a weekend of events in honor NNA Annapolis, SARAH BENSON previ- have left the college. A St. John’s in the News of the life and legacy of the Rev. ously taught part-time in the SOCHOCKY, director of Martin Luther King Jr. The Graduate Institute. After communications in Santa Fe, In recent months St. John’s has weekend opened on Saturday, receiving her PhD from Cornell left in August 2011 to pursue been in the national public eye. January 9 with community semi- University in the History of Art, her writing and equine interests. The New Yorker (June 13, 2011) nars, co-led by St. John’s College she was a visiting fellow in the ROSEMARY HARTY, Annapolis summer fiction issue includes tutors and faculty from Southeast Asia Program at director, departed in February Salvatore Scibona’s (SF97) Sojourner-Douglass College. Cornell University. New 2011 to teach developmental essay, “Where I Learned to More than 150 members of the ATRICIA EMPSEY Read,” an account of his years Annapolis tutor HANNAH HINTZE English. P D , community gathered in small received her PhD from the formerly associate director of on the Santa Fe campus. The seminars to discuss “Pilgrimage University of Chicago, communications in Annapolis, Washington Post (May 14, 2011) to Nonviolence,” an essay by Committee on Social Thought, became director of communica- features a profile of president Dr. King. The next day approxi- in 2009. Santa Fe welcomes tions in Annapolis on July 1. Chris Nelson, a national mately 500 members of the spokesperson for the liberal NATALIE J. ELLIOT, who received She brings more than a decade community attended the fourth her PhD in political science with of experience in journalism, arts, and St. John’s, where “a annual “Lift Every Voice” specializations in political editorial management, and passion for liberal arts with- concert. The fifth annual theory and comparative politics, higher education media rela- stands an adversarial economy.” concert will be held on January from the University of North tions to her new role, and has A related Washington Post blog 8; the seminars will be held on Texas in 2009. In her previous contributed to publications such includes Nelson among the January 7, 2012. country’s most influential Staff Announcements presidents; some of the others Aeschylus’ Furious Thespians are from Harvard and Cornell The college welcomes SARAH universities, and Earlham MORSE, who joined the College. Annapolis campus as the new The Chronicle of Higher director of admissions on July Education (May 29, 2011) 11. She replaces John Chris- captures the pulse of campus life tensen, who retired on July 30. in a story on a “sartorial Morse has served as Eastern marvel”—the annual croquet regional director and national match in Annapolis; in a related director of special projects for blog on how “bookworms find AFS Intercultural Programs. their inner athletes” at More recently she was dean of St. John’s, Annapolis Athletic students and director of admis- Director Leo Pickens describes sions and financial aid at St. the college’s intramural sports Timothy’s School in Stevenson, program. The Huffington Post Maryland, and subsequently (May 20, 2011) included director of admissions for the Pickens’ address at Annapolis Lower and Middle School and commencement in a roundup of director of financial aid at fine speeches. And John Jemicy School in Owings Mills, Christensen, now retired, Maryland. describes a “sea change” in MARILYN HIGUERA completed admissions for The Chronicle of her service as director of the Higher Education (June 29, Graduate Institute in Annapolis. This spring, The King William Players—student thespians in 2011). To read these and She is succeeded by tutor JEFF Annapolis—performed two 20-minute segments of Aeschylus’ other stories on St. John’s, BLACK, who begins his four-year Eumenides and Molière’s Tartuffe in their original Attic Greek visit: www.stjohnscollege.edu/ and French. Pictured above are students performing Eumenides, term of office this summer. news. x Higuera returns to full-time as Clytemnestra and the Furies react to Apollo’s command to get out of his temple. teaching on the faculty. {From the Bell Towers} 11

Finding Her Voice moment. Not to mention hearing Readers the Countess’s words of pardon My life was transformed through and forgiveness, which he was the musical experience at SJC. I Share Music quick to point out. had always been “musical,” but it Another moment: Elliott was really at St. John’s that I Zuckerman, whose Freshman Stories discovered my voice, and my love Chorus I tried always to attend, for the history in music. I even though I was no longer a starting singing in Anne Berven’s A Place of Honor freshman, rehearsing the Chamber Choir at Santa Fe early glorious Haydn Creation and a Music at St. John’s? There’s so on in the second semester of my bit of Fauré’s Requiem and much to love! I still sing songs I junior year. Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, learned in Freshmen Chorus. I was 20 years old and all of a which we had also sung under “By the Waters of Babylon” sudden I had an immediate sense Tom May leads freshman Mr. Zuckerkandl, and which was makes for good singing to a fussy that I wanted to be a singer. I chorus in Annapolis. both the same and not. baby, I’ve found. I love that the began to study music seriously at Incommensurate magnitudes, whole school can sing all four that point. After graduation I as Douglas Allanbrook once said. parts of “Sicut Cervus” at a went to Italy and studied voice patio in front of Chase-Stone, in Another kind of music: John moment’s notice at Collegium. I for two years in Florence. Last his black dress shorts, knee Kieffer reading Sophocles. What am thankful that Mr. Stephenson spring I completed a Master of socks, black shirt, and white a revelation! introduced us to the St. Matthew Fine Arts degree in Music Episcopal collar, bobbing to the In my girlhood, I learned a Passion in sophomore music. I Performance and Literature from rhythm of Earl Scruggs’ banjo round: “All things shall perish try to listen to it every year Mills College in Oakland, Cali- breaks. from under the sky. Music alone during Holy Week. Learning fornia. This spring I sang the alto Mark Middlebrook (A83) shall live, never to die!” Perhaps rhythms by dancing down the soloist in a performance of the it’s truer than I knew. halls in music tutorial; the sweet St. John Passion in New London, Formal Training Can Wait Constance (Connie) Bell sounds of “Primum Mobile” New Hampshire. I’ve returned to Lindgreen (A66) When I entered St. John’s in echoing through the Pendulum the Bay Area where this summer 1951, it was already fairly clear to Pit; Mrs. Seeger leading us I am working with the San Fran- Swim before singing me that I would “go into” music, through “Green Grow the cisco Boys Chorus. Isn’t it but that formal training could Rushes, O” at Christmas time. I amazing what unexpected paths A great music experience for me wait. Wait? The exposure to spent many an hour in the prac- we find through the Program? was the class chorus, part of our music I received at St. John’s tice rooms in the basement of Alexis Segel (SF05) music curriculum, under the Mellon Hall composing songs; to leadership of Viktor Zuck- could not have been more valu- my great surprise and honor, I Musical moments erkandl, in which he patiently able or preparatory. Viktor Zuck- even won the Best Original drilled us through Bach’s “Break erkandl had studied and worked Composition prize in my sopho- There are so many musical Forth, O Beauteous Morning with the leading musical figures more year. St. John’s gives music moments. There’s a memory of Light” from the Christmas in Vienna. I learned so much its place of honor among the Viktor Zuckerkandl conducting Oratorio. The four voices were from him, and he pointed me liberal arts, and I’m the richer for Freshman Chorus in—no, not somewhat tricky, but with repeti- toward Mannes College in New having experienced it. McDowell—but in the Question tion we actually became pretty York, where I studied with Felix Jenny Lowe Cook (A06) Period room in Key Auditorium. good at it. Zuckerkandl’s stamina Salzer, the great proponent of I can’t imagine why, nor can I for this arduous job stemmed, I Schenkerian theory—then revolu- Still Rocking remember why, but what I do would guess, from his habit of tionary, now standard. In quite a remember vividly was emerging different way, Douglas Allan- I will never forget when Marshall swimming every morning in from the relative darkness of the College Creek in December. brook became an inspiring McMillan (A90) and Jeff mentor, and in later years I room to find that it was snowing. Temple Porter (A62) Schwartz played “Ripple” by the The magically light, mica-like conducted five of his wonderful Grateful Dead at the Collegium snow, the beginning of a long Rock ’n’ Religion orchestra scores. Ralph Kirk- Musicum evening in the Great storm, drifting down...and my patrick playing Bach on the Hall in Annapolis. Those years head filled with “Lo, How a Rose During the Febbie summer of clavichord in a McDowell Hall also saw the birth of the eclectic E’er Blooming....” 1980, we made a habit of inviting classroom; the Juilliard Quartet and world-famous Philly band, And another time: a different tutor each week to our rehearsing and performing— EDO, with Eliot Duhan (A90), Mr. Castillejo, little remembered, Wednesday night parties. One St. John’s was the perfect place to Yanni Papadopoulos (SF91), and I dare say, who taught us to listen week, we invited (The Reverend “major” in music. And I like to managed by the talented Joe profoundly to Lisa della Casa’s J.) Winfree Smith, and to our think that I learned a few other Boucher (A89)—all of whom are Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. delight, he showed up. I things as well…. still rocking 25 years later. “Oh,” he said, “Listen to welcomed him, thanked him for Harold Bauer (class of 1955) Beth Heinberg (A89) Susanna, and how she soars coming, and then ran back to the Thank you for your letters! above the rest!” His delight was turntable to put on Flatt and so palpable that I imagine none Scruggs’ “Let the Church Roll Look for more letters from of us have forgotten that On.” He was without a doubt the readers of The College in the most stylish partygoer out on the next issue.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 12 {Music}

MUSIC’S MYSTERY

Reflections on the power of music to change audience stood and joined in perfect harmony. our lives and shape our psyches Other music-related observations: 1. Many St. John’s students and faculty are preternaturally talented musi- egend has it that in the early days of the cally—a higher proportion than might be expected at a New Program (1937 plus a few years), school with no music major offered. 2. Tutors who take the books on music were shelved in the the “teach across the curriculum” mantra seriously library’s stacks along with the books sometimes have great difficulty bringing themselves to on mathematics. Music has been try the music tutorial. The college sought and was included in the Quadrivium of the granted funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation liberalL arts for more than 1,500 years, grouped with so that more faculty could become better prepared to Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy, and with the teach the tutorial. 3. Many Johnnies know Shake- Trivium of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic. The math- speare’s Sonnet 73 (“That time of year thou mayst in ematics of music consists most basically in the magical me behold…”) through the study of rhythm in the ratios that characterize the scale. In the sense of music music tutorial, not through the language tutorial. 4. as a liberal art, it was sometimes called “harmonics” It’s difficult to have a seminar on an opera, but we keep or “measurement.” In the 1937 St. John’s catalogue, trying. Sometimes it works really well. 5. Music is a music was described as “the Pythagorean name for mystery. No matter how well we might know all the mathematical physics.” components, no matter how unsure we might be about The study of music at St. John’s has taken a variety our own singing abilities, no matter how sensitive and of forms. Viktor Zuckerkandl, a tutor who joined the astute we are about various musical forms—we still college in the 1940s, at the dusk of the Barr and can’t explain why it makes us cry or laugh, feel content Buchanan era, devised the first music tutorials for or revved up, why we want to dance or are lulled to sophomore year and later wrote a book called The sleep by it. Sense of Music, which is often used in those tutorials Everyone at St. John’s studies music; there’s no in Annapolis. Freshman chorus differs according to escape from its power. As with other subjects like campus, and often according to the tutor who leads physics or Greek, sometimes those who least expect it it. That Johnnies can sing “Sicut Cervus” from the become enamored and find their life’s work. Here are middle of freshman year on is a given; there’s a reflections on the power of music to change our lives famous story that when the Palestrina Choir and shape our psyches. performed in Annapolis in the early 1990s, the entire {Music} 13 dimitri fotos Playing Chopin together at St. John’s: “I finally got to study, along with Eric, the dark and elusive Sonata for Piano and Cello.” —Elliott Zuckerman, Tutor Emeritus, on piano. “For me to play Chopin with Elliott—this is a treasure.” —Eric Stoltzfus, Tutor, on cello.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 14 {Music}

The Centrality of Chopin by Elliott Zuckerman

hen I was seven, my musical life— and much of the rest of my life—was turned over to a Wbeautiful and imperious Russian woman, who had been a star graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and later a student of the great pianist Ferruccio Busoni. One reward for what some- times seemed my martyrdom was that the works of Chopin became central in my world. My lessons started with Bach, and in the course of years I studied many of the sonatas of Beethoven, a proper amount of Mozart, Brahms, and Debussy, and a great deal of Liszt and dimitri fotos Schumann. I learned pieces by Elliott Zuckerman explores “infinite gradations of the palette” on the piano. Medtner, who had been one of my teacher’s professors, and Scriabin, whom she knew, and Tchaikovsky, couldn’t play decently, I would get the urge to resume whose only trio she (with her husband and his brother on lecturing, and then return to the music somewhere beyond the strings) had played for the Queen of Romania. And I the difficulties. It was a technique I continued in Annapolis, learned music that no one else had played for decades, by when, in the early years of the Caritas Society, I gave yearly composers such as Joachim Raff and Xaver Scharwenka. talks at the piano, this time on Chopin alone. But the daily sustenance was the Chopin Études, and It was here, too, that I finally got to study, along with our when I had to play over the radio, it was the Fantasy in F colleague Eric Stoltzfus, the one great work that Chopin Minor, and when big works were needed for recitals, the wrote for more than one solo instrument, the very beautiful Ballades and the Scherzos, and when I played at parties, the but dark and elusive Sonata for Piano and Cello. It is signifi- Mazurkas and the Waltzes, and of course the Nocturnes, cant that when Chopin chose to write for a second instru- even though I was probably too pudgy to look properly ment, it was the cello. For he seemed to write only for consumptive. I even had to play the very few works of instruments that sing. We should remember that he wrote Chopin that no one else was playing, a prime showpiece quite a few songs. But even in his non-vocal works, the being the Allegro de Concert, the abandoned sketch for a player has to “sing.” Some of the passages that are most third Concerto. Chopinesque are marked sfogato—let loose, a vocal term; In college, my first published essay was a review of André and the famous rubato, a sort of rhythmic borrowing of one Gide’s Notes on Chopin. In it I naively announced that beat from another that is now indelibly associated with playing Chopin had been Gide’s most private pleasure. Chopin, is also most naturally carried out by singers. To Just before I came to St. John’s, I gave the last course of Sing is an injunction that is heard most often from good my life (for at this college we don’t have courses). It was teachers, and it is since Chopin that great pianists have called “Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt”; in it I played what I been noted for their singing touch. In much of his music, knew of the complete works, and when I got to a passage I his inspiration was Italian opera, and (apart from Bach and

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Music} 15

Mozart) the composer he seems to have most imitated was not only motion and sound, but texture and touch. Bellini. In some of my talks I have composed my own Chopin learned from Bach and like other so-called “Chopin Nocturne” simply by taking an aria from Norma Romantic composers, studied his counterpoint. But or I Puritani, and, with a few adjustments, playing it as a Mozart spanned Chopin’s career, which began with the piece for piano. variations on “La ci darem la mano.” And at Chopin’s All this on a percussion instrument where the strings are death, along with an orchestration of his own Funeral struck by hammers! And the vocal breathing, I should add, March, they played and sang sections of the Mozart is required not simply when the right hand is engaged in an Requiem. x obvious soprano solo, but even, somehow, when the texture Tracing the Phenomenon of the of the music is that of quick scales or complex arpeggios, Perfect Concert even when the piano is tinkling and when it is thundering (for Chopin can thunder!). Those textures are manifold, for by Samantha Buker (A05) there is scarcely a figuration that Chopin did not adapt or invent. From time to time, my more prosaic friends would riday, April 5, 2002. Alban Gerhardt’s evening send me scientific articles in which it is proved that the of cello stormed my soul in my freshman year sound of the piano is merely the result of how hard you and sealed my fate as a future music writer. That strike the key and how long you hold it, with some help night proved to me that the seduction of music from the pedal. Meanwhile my teacher (supported by the far surpasses the charms of painting because great tradition) was showing me, sometimes by the pres- Fmusic invades the whole body—the virtue of vibration. sure of her fingers on my back, an almost infinite gradation Zoltan Kodaly’s Sonata for Cello Solo worked me over. A of colors in the palette of this piano that is merely a pluck made my left shoulder flinch. Certain phrasings sent machine. a flock of sparks coursing the length of my spine. His three Most musical people can remember the principal motions had all the dynamics of an first time they heard, or noticed, a bit of Expressionist painting, so I sketched him. music that was to become, say, a leitmotiv in The drawing, which he autographed as I their lives. It may be a tune—such as, for me, blushed, remains for me a Veronica’s veil, a Handel’s “V’adoro, pupille”—or a remark- There is very faded impress of a moment rich for its able harmonic turn—as in the Andante of passing. Schubert’s last sonata. In Chopin such little in Chopin Music librarian Mr. Stoltzfus is most defining moments are likely to be a bout of that is not responsible for my awakening to music—as he passage-work, often of his own invention, is for others—by finding superb concert artists that may otherwise be melodically or intimately whose lecture-spot performances rouse new harmonically unremarkable. I can connected with passions. The splendor of the moment, the remember the first time I heard someone sense of occasion in the concert hall—these play the cascades that accompany the positions of things I strive to bring alive to readers of my chorale in the Third Scherzo and, at another the hand. music criticism. And I first experienced them recital, the sweeping ascending scales that at St. John’s. underpin the return of the second theme in For me, the greatest moments musicaux the Fourth Ballade. I later realized that both happened outside the Program, but without are in the key of D-flat major, and suit the the sweet salve of Freshman Chorus with positions of the hand that feel most natural in that key. Mr. May, I’d never have stayed beyond the first year. There There is very little in Chopin that is not intimately is joy in a place where one can take Palestrina for granted. connected with positions of the hand—which may account So I stayed, and reaped rich rewards. Music tutorial’s for why the dance music that has been orchestrated for grunt-work backed pleasure and trained the ear. ballets like Les Sylphides seems to have lost its sparkle. For Mr. Smith welcomed our every class with a snippet from Chopin to be engraved upon your soul it is perhaps neces- the Goldberg Variations, but his curious experiment with sary to feel him in your fingers, to respond to the music as modern music made me the advocate for new composers I

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 16 {Music}

am today. One day, he ditched Die Zauberflöte and cued up done on the dynamics and mechanics of the phenomena Arnold Schoenberg’s dissonance over the speakers. He that take up so much of my present life. mocked Schoenberg and moaned. In short, he asked us to In the summer of 2004, I found myself a “post-tutorial” defend Schoenberg as music—based on all we’d absorbed so summer camp: the three days of Baltimore’s New Chamber far. Only Erica Naone and I leapt to this composer’s Festival. Classmate Jacob Thomas (A05) came along. We defense. Next year, in the coffee shop, I overheard Mr. never shared a music class beyond chorus, but our conver- Smith confess that he was an atheist who adored 12-tone sation over Indian food after the first concert rolled along music. the back of our common language for hours. On Sunday, For who among us will not declaim the glory of Bach’s June 27, the Leipzig String Quartet played Shostakovich’s Matthäus Passion? I wrote my final paper in a flush—a String Quartet No. 8. The unshakable magnitude of their flirtation with Orthodox Christianity that to this day performance bid me to write my first music review, remains unconsummated. As I typed, the tones of the all- although it would be four more years until I found editor night Pascha Vigil were still chanting in my head. Incense Greg Szeto and his blog, “Aural States.” I’ll never forget clung to my hair. I had 10 more pages to go, but I needed a the long holy silence after the final note crept away. For break. My roommate Dillon (Wright-Fitzgerald) Naylor that second, all clocks held their breath. Ivo Bauer put the (A05) and I strolled the harbor’s edge at dawn. A majestic scroll of his viola to his lips, resting its body on his knee, to ridge of purple clouds hung over the water’s distant shore, drink in the communion of quietude that hushed his ever changing as they rolled away. In that vision, I heard listeners. He closed his eyes and smiled gently. Applause the earthy viola de gamba, a weeping Peter. We made our erupted only as they shut their scores. way back to Paca through a court of blossom-laden cher- I came away from that Leipzig concert—and my time at ries. We buried our noses deep in the branches. The scent St. John’s—convinced that music is the purest form of conjured ethereal oboes and the chorus of flutes. We took beauty present in the world. I’ll risk a fistfight with a turns shaking petals upon each other in the breeze. geometer for this: Ptolemy’s sentiment, in his preface to Refreshed, I finished my essay, the first writing I’d ever the Almagest, that the study of divine planetary motions creates like conditions of soul in those who study them, describes the phenomenon of the perfect concert. That perfection comes into being when music, performer, and listener are as much a unity as can be. Of course, such a condition is often sensuous, even dangerous. St. John’s is prob- ably the only school where you could be walking to the symphony and be stopped by a classmate, who asks what you’ll hear and warns you to watch out for your soul if the composer is anything but Bach. My advice to Johnnies embarking on Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is not to study the libretto laboriously. Don’t see how many times you can listen to the whole thing. Instead, listen to the two preludes and the final aria in a constant loop, until you are steeped in the sea

Samantha Buker (A05) is a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Journalism Institute Fellow concentrating in opera and classical music. samantha buker {Music} 17

The spirit of the cello suits Eric Stoltzfus.

Leipzig String Quartet for Balti- more’s City Paper this week. The reverberating acoustics of the hall cried out for their Bach, which sent me craving the Passion like an old friend. How familiar and beautiful it becomes. x Samantha Buker (A05) was chief classical critic for the blog “Aural States” before moving on to be a free- lance critic for Baltimore’s City Paper. If someone has an unwanted cello, she’d consider it a dare to learn to play the instrument. The Sound of Music

ric Stoltzfus grew up in a family that sang and played music together. As a young teenager in Iowa who was one of four jen behrens children,E he recalls his family of Wagner’s colors. The experience roiled over my head in embarking on a “summer singing waves, in the last hour before seminar. My being could not road trip” with another family of four children. They drove separate itself from the music. The resulting flush of anger, from Iowa to Virginia and performed from a new passion, and dread infused me. I tore posters off my walls Mennonite Hymnal that his father had helped edit—Bach and drapes off my windows before collapsing. Then I chorales, folk hymns, and instrumental classical works. walked to seminar. Mr. Comenetz opened with the ques- “Those songs, when you sing them over and over at age 13, tion, “What is Liebestod?” No takers. Many thumbed the really stay with you,” says Stoltzfus. To St. John’s he brings pages of the score helplessly. I began to answer…. his love of choral singing—today his own family sings The circle of fifths was hardly the only circle of my music together around the dinner table—and disciplined study of experience. In the last days of senior year, cellist James the cello. For the past 15 years as Annapolis music Pearson and I dined out in town with friends and alumni. librarian, Stoltzfus has taught sophomore music tutorial; Coming back to campus, I said, “I want to dance!” We were he sings and plays throughout the community and organ- merry with the spell of Dionysus, and James offered to play. izes the acclaimed St. John’s College Concert Series. He “I always wanted to have someone dance to my playing reflects on the music he discovered and the rituals he treas- Bach cello suites,” he said. And so, taking the stage in the ures, such as playing Chopin with Elliott Zuckerman. Great Hall, James in the same spot where Alban Gerhardt had played, James took up his bow and I turned his motions What inspired you to play the cello? into my motions. I danced the skin clean off my pinky toes “I was horrified when as a fifth grader my mother and didn’t even notice. suggested the violin—I knew then I wanted to play the cello. Life comes full circle all the time. I’m reviewing the It was the right choice. The spirit of the cello is in tune with my own spirit. There’s a certain melancholy, a darker color

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 18 {Music}

to the tone. The art of drawing a deep sound with the bow feeds the soul. Our students become really interested in from the cello is very satisfying, especially as compared to music they didn’t know they liked. I feed on their enthu- striking piano keys or blowing a tuba. I studied in Marburg, siasm.Their eyes are bright with discovery. They listen to Germany, for a year. From my dorm room, I would haul my Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in sophomore music and come cello down 450 steps—and back up—and take a train to to the music library wanting to know more. They learn to private lessons in Frankfurt. It was a real devotion.” sing in freshman chorus, or they become curious about how different performers might characterize Don Giovanni. At When did you begin playing with Elliott Zuckerman? other music libraries where I’ve worked, students would “I have had the pleasure of 20 years of playing cello and walk in with clouds over their heads—research papers due, singing with Elliott. We have performed and recorded 15 requirements. There is such a difference here—it’s all about songs that he has composed over decades. He translated La discovery.” Fontaine Fables into a clever ‘Zuckerman’ English transla- tion. Then he wrote the music for Have you made any musical them, for tenor and piano. I’m the discoveries at St. John’s? tenor singer. (We recently recorded “The cello plays a high “There are many things here I have Five Fables of La Fontaine—available discovered and learned to treasure. I in the Bookstore). Elliott and I have melody, then a low bass am thankful to St. John’s for intro- given more than a dozen perform- line while the piano sings ducing me to the music of Palestrina, ances together of music for piano and which I didn’t know when I came here, cello or tenor. For instance at Gisela the melody. . . .This is and the operas of Mozart, which I have Berns’ retirement party, we played a especially wonderful to grown to love. I was an instrumen- Rondo by Beethoven.” talist and thought opera was some- play with Elliott.” thing Mozart did to make money. How Is it true, as Elliott notes, “Chopin Eric Stoltzfus wrong I was! But mostly I discovered seemed to write only for instruments 16th-century polyphony. About 12 that sing”? years ago, the students wanted to form “Chopin didn’t write any choral music. He wrote music a small group of eight to sing more of it. I joined in with for the piano: what could be a voice is really the piano them, and we became Primum Mobile. Of course there is singing. Together Elliott and I play Chopin’s Sonata for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. I was already in awe of it, but Cello and Piano. Chopin didn’t write for the cello until the working with sophomores, studying it over the years, I have end of his life. He wrote this cello sonata with very lyrical, come to understand that Bach has a deep respect for human singing melodies. It is immensely satisfying to play. In the beings, including their shortcomings. Here I have devel- slow movement, the cello and the piano take turns. The oped an appreciation of music as part of what makes us cello plays a high melody, then a low bass line while the human, including me.” piano sings the melody. It goes back and forth in equal parts, with total cooperation. This is especially wonderful Is there a higher form of musical expression? to play with Elliott. He knows what he wants to do and is There is always that tension between instrumental music always making music. Where some may spin it out techni- and the purely vocal for me. Which is the higher form of cally, not Elliott. He delves into how phrases work, not just expression? Difficult to say. All my life, I have been involved the technical. It is a joy to play with him. Besides, he is a in both strands, playing cello with orchestras and chamber delightful conversationalist.” ensembles, traveling to the Shenandoah Bach Festival every summer, singing at home with my family, with the Frankfurt Any awakenings as a music librarian? Choir, the Washington Bach Consort. I sing here with “It is wonderful on so many levels. The material is so Primum Mobile, direct the Madrigal Choir (an informal generous. For me, a law library saps one’s soul, with all lunchtime group of staff, faculty, and students), perform at those old cases lining the shelves. But the music library is Collegium, and of course sing with sophomores in the full of life. Particularly here at St. John’s, the music library Music Tutorial. Over the years I have joined the student

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Music} 19

Peter Pesic helps the audience “into the music” when he performs.

ence the music more intensely. You experience this more when you’re playing for other people than when you’re playing for yourself,” he says. “The audi- ence’s attention and different way of listening gives me a different awareness, in the same way that talking about a book with students changes my view in almost every case.” Pesic pursues his piano playing with something of a collector’s mania. “I wonder, for example, what would it be like to play all of Schubert’s sonatas,” he says. This approach he compares to the christopher quinn Program in that it gives one a view of the whole. “It’s as if orchestra or accompanied the St. John’s Chorus on cello. you’re getting to know a person—for instance, meeting But my work here at St. John’s is largely vocal. So for me to Chopin or Beethoven at different points in their lives.” play Chopin with Elliott—this is a treasure.” x Growing up in California, Pesic’s first instrument was the —Patricia Dempsey violin, but while studying physics at Harvard University, he became fascinated with the piano and tried to teach Music as Conversation himself. By the time he was a graduate student at Stanford University, he was playing the piano seriously. istening through the audience is how Peter His pianistic explorations over the years have been Pesic describes playing Chopin and other clas- numerous, from the complete keyboard works of Bach sical works during his lunchtime concert performed over four years (“that was a crazy project”) to a series, held in the Peterson Student Center. traversal of Chopin’s piano works, from preludes to Since 1984, Pesic, tutor and musician-in-resi- mazurkas. On the St. John’s faculty since 1980, Pesic has Ldence, has performed on the piano for students, tutors, received a number of honors, including the Peano Prize in staff, and the wider Santa Fe community. Pesic briefly 2005 for his book Abel’s Proof, as well as being named a introduces the work and the historical or biographical Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of context in which it originated. “I want find a way to help Science and of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial people into the music,” he says. Then he plays. Foundation (2006 and 2007, respectively). “I don’t think Chopin ever imagined his mazurkas being “Being here has been a liberation,” Pesic says, crediting played in a big hall,” he adds. “An intimate setting seems the college with enabling him to think about things freely— right. Somehow the audience senses that its presence is a “to wonder and ask questions with a kind of honesty that I part of the whole experience.” wasn’t capable of before.” x For Pesic, music is conversation, especially when he —Deborah Spiegelman plays for an audience. “Performance is a chance to experi-

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 20 {Commencement}

A SOCRATIC PAUSE Commencement 2011 speakers embrace contemplation and intellectual curiosity.

uring the 2011 commencement ceremonies in Annapolis and Santa Fe, the speakers urged graduates to embrace theD art of contemplation and the gift of imagination. Grey skies and light sprinkles may have moved the 219th Annapolis commencement ceremony indoors, but as President Chris Nelson (SF70) remarked to those graduating—88 seniors and 36 graduate students—who gathered with family, friends, and faculty members in the Francis Scott Key auditorium, “Fortune may have soaked our grounds, but we will not let it dampen our spirits.” The mood during the May 15 ceremony was celebratory and reflective as Leo Pickens (A78), Annapolis athletic director, delivered a much lauded commencement address. “Who are you under that cap and gown?” asked Pickens, who was chosen by the 2011 class to deliver this year’s address. Pickens, who has served as athletic director for 23 years, developed a close rapport with members of this year’s class, many of whom have been “Who are you under that cap and gown?” asked Annapolis commencement speaker Leo Pickens (A78). leaders in intramural sports and crew. The question revisited a similar one posed during Convocation 2007 by President Nelson. In his out of the contemplative tradition of the [Quaker] Friends, and speech, Pickens also described at length the “arts of freedom” part of that tradition is that I often sit in silent worship. It’s some- cultivated at St. John’s—another revisiting of President Nelson’s thing that has become a very important practice in my own life. earlier speech. “Moving out into the world of trying to make a living, you often Though his speech was primarily an opportunity for the gradu- get wrapped up in the press of business and can lose the connec- ating class to reflect on its achievements over the past four years, tion with what is important to you. Practicing how to pause it also sounded a caveat on life ahead: “In our efficiency-obsessed, certainly makes my life much more rich in the moment.” continuously accelerating world, the pressure upon you to It snowed two days before commencement in Santa Fe, and yet produce may knock you off center.” He called upon the newly May 21 hinted at the promise of summer, with bright sunshine. graduated students to regain balance by taking a “Socratic pause,” More than 700 parents, guests, faculty, and staff assembled on the so named for the description in Plato’s Symposium of Socrates’ upper placita outside Weigle Hall to honor more than 90 under- habit of standing in place for hours. graduate and nearly 30 graduate students as they received their Asked if he partakes in this practice, Pickens says, “Yes, I come degrees.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Commencement} 21

Outgoing Dean Victoria Mora’s commencement address was met with enthusiasm as she asked, “What does one do with a St. John’s education?” The answer she initially offered is that graduates have the potential to do anything they want: “All you have to supply is a little imagination—and the willingness to be the author of your own story.” Acknowledging that “imagination doesn’t enjoy unqualified esteem, especially among philosophers,” Mora suggested that “at moments like you are facing now, transitions into the still unknown and the yet undone, you might even want to get friendly with your imagination.” While this means taking risks, she noted that it was precisely this kind of intellectual courage that drew students to St. John’s. The first step is “to recognize that when it comes to living your life, you have to be the author.” Mora then delivered the good news by way of a question: “What have you learned if not...to transcend time and place, to transcend the divide between self and other, to bring together the known and the unknown in your own narrative?” Returning to the question that launched her observations, she asked: “What will Babak Zarin (A11), a member of the Senior Gift Committee. you do with this education? Anything you want.” Mora, who joined the faculty in 1992, began her tenure as dean in 2006 and as of July 1 has rejoined the faculty. x Senior Gift —Laurent Merceron (A08) and Deborah Spiegelman “For this year’s senior class gift we wanted to buck the To read the 2011 Commencement addresses, visit: tradition,” says 2011 senior gift committee member Joshua Paul www.stjohnscollege.edu/events. (A11), whose class has decided to present the college with three senior gifts instead of one. After an initial callout to the senior class for gift proposals, the committee was showered with so many good ideas that the process of narrowing them down proved to be a challenge. The committee ultimately decided on three gifts, which would allow them to “cover both academic and social elements of the college,” says committee member Babak Zarin (A11). For the latter, the class has proposed to improve the Wi-Fi access in the Coffee Shop in McDowell Hall. “The Coffee Shop is a major social center, and improving Internet access there would be a huge service for students socializing and doing research,” says Zarin. The 2011 class will also be contributing financially to the Greenfield Library’s effort to increase the number of Program titles available for students. Over the years, an increasing shortage of these books has affected those students who are unwilling or unable to purchase them. Perhaps the most exciting of the three gifts will be the repairing of the Foucault Pendulum, which has been out of operation for most of its existence. Annapolis tutor James Beall, a longtime champion of restoring the pendulum, will be over- seeing the repair arrangements. Awakened from decades of dormancy, the sight of the pendulum in action will be a welcome gift indeed. For more information contact Jennifer Petricig at: 410-626-5557 or [email protected]. —Laurent Merceron (A08) Mirielle Clifford (SF11)

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 22 {Commencement}

Junia Cho (A11) (below, right) is spending two months this summer in South Korea as part of the Critical Language Scholarship Program of the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Her award is a prestigious one, and the intensive language program is part of a government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical-need foreign languages. For Cho, it is a chance to explore more fully her Korean back- ground: “I was born here but my parents are Korean, so I’m curious about their culture.” She is considering Clockwise (l to r): James Russell (A11), the fourth son of tutor attending graduate George Russell to attend St. John’s, and Anna Sitzmann (A11). school in Korean Annapolis and Santa Fe graduates celebrate with their families; studies, with the possi- Commencement at the upper placita outside Weigle Hall, bility of working in the Santa Fe; Andrew Peak (A11) captures the moment during the political arena. x reception inside Iglehart Hall, Annapolis.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Commencement} 23

Reading Across Generations

By the end of the ceremony in Annapolis the sky cleared, matching the bright spirits of the crowd, which gathered outside of Mellon Hall for congratulatory hugs and photos. Among those celebrating were Daniel (A11) and Jerome Dausman (AGI11), a graduating father-and-son duo from Brookville, Maryland. “I never thought I would go back to college,” says Jerome, who enrolled in the Graduate Institute one year after his son began his undergraduate studies, “but Daniel kind of pulled me into the Program.” Hooked on following along with Daniel’s freshman reading list at home, Jerome figured that a St. John’s education would complement his new occupation as a volunteer science teacher at Alexandria Academy in Alexandria, Virginia. Do they ever discuss their readings together? “Not really,” says Jerome, “ but we did attend ‘Open-Mic Night’ poetry slams at Galway Bay together.” x Daniel (A11) and Jerome Dausman (AGI11)

Counterclockwise (R): Santa Fe graduates celebrate; Mike Peters, Santa Fe president; Commencement speakers Victoria Mora, Santa Fe dean; and Leo Pickens (A78), director of Athletics, Annapolis; Annapolis President Chris Nelson (SF70). 24 {Apprentice Reader}

AN APPRENTICE READER When it comes to reading and writing, novelist Salvatore Scibona (SF97) is a beginner at heart.

by Patricia Dempsey alvatore Scibona (SF97) has been typing for a long time. In fifth grade, his grandmother taught him on an electric Royal during his weekend visits, a few miles from his childhood home in the suburbs of Cleveland. “I decided then that I wanted to write novels and got a typewriter of my own. I went halves Swith my mom—it cost $60—and I put down $30 of my savings.” Decades later Scibona’s debut novel, The End, was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award; its language was celebrated for its elegant richness and Scibona was compared to Virginia Woolf, Saul Bellow, and Graham Greene. But Scibona still prefers low-tech simplicity. Although he owns a computer, he writes his first drafts longhand with pen and paper, then rewrites on a manual typewriter. “I’m not wedded to this, but right now this is how I work. I’m trying to stay close to the words themselves,” he says. “We think of words on the computer as a file, a digital assemblage of information. The words written by hand with a pen—there are no codes, no hard returns, just words, language. I believe in words.” Scibona carefully chooses the technology that works for him. “I don’t do Facebook. I don’t have a TV,” he says. “I’m not a Luddite, but I just don’t want to risk distraction. I find it very difficult to concentrate.” Sophisticated technologies, he says, “are drawing my attention away from doing certain things—like writing.” Scibona lives simply on the Outer Cape in Provincetown, Massachusetts, an old whaling port that became a mecca for Acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Salvatore Scibona (SF97) artists in the early 1900s, nurturing many iconic American writers and painters. He spends most days writing, typing, and looking out his small apartment’s window at Provincetown’s seafaring harbor. For eight months each year, Scibona works half- Santa Fe. “As a kid growing up I wasn’t watching TV, but it was time at the Provincetown Fine Arts Center, administering fellow- always on. It was an opiate.” ships for a residency program for emerging artists. During the “TV is like a martini,” he says. “You do not have to think about summers, he usually teaches at Harvard, but this summer, as a meddlesome things. It induces a ‘TV state of mind,’ a bogus Guggenheim Fellow, he has been working on another novel— sense of peace. The experience of deep reading brings the oppo- “about what, I’m not supposed to say.” site kind of peace. At St. John’s, I discovered a ‘reading state of His is the writing life described by one of his favorite authors: mind.’ ” “To quote Annie Dillard,” says Scibona, “ ‘I’m a gregarious Scibona reads widely—“a lot of books at one time, “ he says. recluse.’ ” He watches occasional TV shows on his computer— “Right now I’m reading a novel by Sarah Braunstein, The Sweet “The language is awesome,” he says, referring to “Friday Night Relief of Missing Children.” Stacked on his coffee table are the Lights,” “In Treatment,” and “Deadwood.” Yet in “Where I books he’s been reading, captured in a photo in the New Yorker’s Learned to Read,” his New Yorker essay of June 13, 2011, Scibona blog, “The Book Bench” (www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/ describes a childhood in which he could not escape the babbling books/2011/06/what-im-reading-this-summer-salvatore- clamor of the TV—until he attended St. John’s College in scibona-1.html), linked to the 2011 summer fiction issue that {Apprentice Reader} 25

features Scibona’s essay about St. John’s. One blog reader posted an admiring comment regarding Scibona’s “perfect” reading “When I am reading, list. “It’s so elegant—fiction, nonfiction, poems, new things, old things, friend-recommended things, lover-recommended things, I decompose—I read for pleasure rabbit holes of taste.” Says Scibona, “A favorite author of mine, Donald Woods and for joy—and the [thoughts] Winnicott, makes the analogy that reading is like breastfeeding— come out when I’m writing.” there is an intimacy there, a real experience of being fed. If the book is not for you—it’s obscure, poorly written, you’re not Salvatore Scibona hungry for it—your mind wanders. But when a book and a reader are one, the right fit—it’s a deeply mind-melded focus.” Scibona’s conversation lilts with vivid metaphors, many drawn Scibona discovered “deep reading” at St. John’s with tutors from another of his passions—gardening. When Scibona wasn’t such as Phil LeCuyer, whom he describes in “Where I Learned to typing on his grandmother’s electric Royal during his weekend Read.” Says Scibona, “He is a deep, deep, deep reader, devoted visits, he was outside with his grandfather, who taught him to to reading closely, and is an extraordinary humane person—a garden. Scibona later took to worm farming, a form of genius.” Scibona says that by the time he graduated from composting. Reading, he observes, feeds his writing in much the St. John’s, he was “a garden well fertilized but not planted.” same way that composting does a garden. “I am an apprentice reader. I learned that I am going to be an “It’s more a metaphor for the way you grow a garden by apprentice reader for the rest of my life. I did not want to be a compost,” he says. “Vegetable peelings go into the compost and master reader when I attended graduate school.” He received his are similar to what comes out of the garden; the peelings feed the MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop. Instead Scibona savors new plants. When I am reading, I decompose—I read for pleasure “the somewhat childlike experience of being naked before a and for joy—and the [thoughts] come out when I’m writing. What book—being unqualified. The book will push you as far as you can you write is not defined by what you read, but it is dependent on go. It is toxic to be ‘above it.’ I want to stay a beginner at what you read. If I’m reading an intensely theological work, for reading—and writing.” example, it flavors my writing, carries into the stories.” Scibona began writing his first novel the year he learned to At St. John’s, Scibona realized he needed to learn to read in type. He worked on it for about 4 years and then gave up. order to learn to write. “I really wanted to write fiction. I really “It was too jejune,” he says. “I kept rewriting the first couple of wanted to read. It was clear to me that I was somehow unqual- chapters. By tenth and eleventh grade, I started another novel ified to write because I had read so little.” St. John’s gave “an and brought it with me to St. John’s.” Again he got 20 pages into exceptional education for a creative writer, even though the it and kept rewriting the first few chapters. During the summer Program is not heavy in contemporary literature,” he says. “All between junior and senior year, Scibona started another novel. the creative writers I know wish they had read these books when Twelve years later it became his acclaimed novel, The End. they were younger, with other people. I have always been really “The first seven years of writing, you cannot see in the book,” grateful for that. It shaped my head. I had no experience being he says. “I was inspired during junior seminar with Mr. Katzen, able to talk about books casually with other students with a vast when he presented this paradox: ‘If you have a boat and you common frame of reference. Being part of that conversation all replace every piece of the boat over 100 years, in the end is it the the time—that’s a gift.” same boat?’ That is how it was with my first novel.” In his recent New Yorker essay, Scibona describes the delight of finding “his tribe” at the college, a place where he belonged. “Before going to St. John’s, I was under the impression that I was One Writer’s Roots an introvert. I wasn’t hanging out with the right people. Readers of the Johnnie stripe read with their whole heart and mind. It Scibona’s debut novel, The End, is a gripping and intricate was a culture shock to leave and be in this other world where saga that unfolds across generations of Italian immigrants reading wasn’t what everyone was doing.” in Cleveland through 1953. It is in no way autobiographical, On the Outer Cape, Scibona says there are many with a similar he says, even though his great-grandparents immigrated sensibility, especially artists and writers. “Once again, I’m with from Italy and Poland and he grew up in a cocoon of family. my tribe.” A “gregarious recluse,” he guards his writing The End is dedicated to his grandparents. “I didn’t realize solitude, even eliminating a few low-tech distractions. This until I came to St. John’s just how much other families move summer he even decided not to garden. “Gardening is in around,” he says. “I was close to all my grandparents.” complete competition with writing,” he says. “It consumes the The End was a finalist for the 2008 National Book part of my mind that is obsessive, that keeps tabs on the tiny Award. Scibona has also received a Fulbright Fellowship changes in the plants. I get emotionally attached to the plants— (2000), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2010), and the like characters [in fiction].” Instead this summer, “I spend the Whiting Writers' Award (2009). In 2010, the New Yorker day alone typing and looking out the window,” he says. “Around featured Scibona as one of its “20 under 40” notable 3 or 4 p.m., I go outside, sit on a bench, and read among other fiction writers and published his short story, “The Kid.” people. It’s like St. John’s. I spend a lot of time reading.” x “Where I Learned to Read” is linked at: http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/news/SJCnews.shtml x 26 {Entrepeneurs}

How To Succeed In Business And Life: The St. John’s Way Two entrepreneurs illuminate change and progress.

hat happens in each in a different way—one observed chaos a St. John’s class theory and the other studied human is mysterious— nature—to create businesses that improve and powerful. A how organizations and individuals function. challenging text. Ideas. Questions. Harnessing Butterflies The individuals who’ve read and studied the W by Anna Perleberg (SF02) text. More ideas. The thoughts in the minds ven though Glenda Eoyang (SF76) has helmed of those individuals and the Logos that three companies, she says “It’s very strange to expresses those thoughts. The receptive be thought of as an entrepreneur—it’s not a path that I planned or even imagined. But minds of others at the table that process the looking back, I can see it’s in my nature.” In text, the nuances of language, the words of fact, her current work at the Human Systems EDynamics Institute (HSDI)—named for a field of research she the other participants. Insights. The founded—seeks to understand the conditions that form just such obvious-in-retrospect paths, and apply their lessons to dialectic or interplay between the thoughts, an uncertain future. At first, Eoyang thought her own post-graduation future words, and understanding of those at the lay in education, and she spent five years teaching physics, table. Fusion. Occasionally, something chemistry, and math at the high school level. But she found herself interested in the then-burgeoning computer whole emerges, either for an individual or industry—so new, she says, “There were no regular jobs. So I started my own business.” Called Eidos, the firm helped for the group. Awareness, recognition, light develop computer-based training. bulbs. Ideas flash. At some point during the late 1980s, she started reading about complexity science and chaos theory and was surprised Here are the stories of two alumni who to discover that many of the same concepts with which have harnessed that power and mystery, so-called “hard” scientists were working seemed equally {Entrepeneurs} 27

Glenda Eoyang (SF76) uses seminar as an example of non-linear dynamics.

or control the future? How do you equip yourself to do that with grace and accountability?” In her subsequent chaos theory research, she realized that “sometimes that process [of creating meaning and taking action] is very quick and coherent and clean, sometimes messy and wandering. Sometimes it just dissipates”—again, familiar experiences to anyone who has sat through a seminar. She became fascinated with what it is that allows for a speedy, lucid, successful process, and boiled it down to three main factors: “There has to be a container, something that pulls the agents together. There must be differences that make a difference—if everyone just nods and agrees, nothing will move forward. Finally, there must be exchange, whether of money, energy, or ideas.” relevant to human interaction. Her next entrepreneurial It’s these three principles that form the cornerstone of venture, called Chaos Limited, strove to integrate these HSDI’s work in training, consulting, research, and support. difficult theories with leadership in management. Founded in 2003, the Institute now has 152 trained associates “Over time, complexity work drew me more and more into worldwide, all applying HSD to the varied work they do, in it,” recalls Eoyang, “and in 1996 I decided to get my fields like education reform, conflict resolution, health care doctorate.” For the next five years, at Union Institute and service delivery, leadership, and process improvement. University, Eoyang carved out her own, fiercely multidiscipli- This characterization of the dynamics of human interaction nary degree, studying computer science, political science, is especially useful in what Eoyang calls “evaluating systemic mechanical engineering, and management theory—a blend interventions.” She offers the example of a foundation that her doctoral committee would help her to dub “human starting an agricultural research program in Africa, and systems dynamics.” This at-first opaque term describes a field wanting to gauge its success several years along. “Tradition- based on non-linear dynamics, “which is to traditional ally, the way these judgments were made was by setting dynamics what non-Euclidean geometry is to Euclidean goals—‘in two years we will do X, Y, and Z.’” If in two years X, geometry: a formal discipline of describing the world and Y, and Z were not done, the project would be considered a relationships that has different fundamental assumptions,” failure. But human systems dynamics acknowledges that with Eoyang explains. so many small and even hidden influences at play, the One metaphor for this system of thinking about the world definition of “success” fluctuates over time. HSDI attempts is the oft-cited “butterfly effect,” first formulated by Edward to keep track of the influences; making people aware of the Lorenz, in which a butterfly’s flapping of its wings on one side patterns they create gives them ways to achieve desired of the world generates a tiny breeze that eventually causes a outcomes. hurricane oceans away. In this way, says Eoyang, “a small Paradoxically, the current economy has been good for the cause can be amplified by the relationships in the system to company: “Because we’re combining models and methods for create a huge effect,” rather than a Newtonian scheme in thriving in uncertainty, our business has really blossomed in which you can’t get a large effect without a large cause, since these current crises.” Eoyang also cites HSDI’s very low any reaction must have a equal and opposite action. overhead and flexible workforce, with few regular employees Eoyang also likes to use seminar as an example of and most work done by associates under contract, as creating non-linear dynamics: “We have agents relating to each other a resilient business model that can weather financial storms. who create system-wide patterns over time. You know how There’s no doubt that business is booming: Eoyang’s sometimes, when the conversation is beginning to stall, current clients include the United States Children’s Bureau, someone will say something that seems off the wall—but the the Office of Child Abuse & Neglect (OCAN), the state of group shifts its pattern of discourse in response to that one Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, the McKnight little comment.” The seminar experience strongly influenced Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the both her dissertation and her work at HSDI. “Those four Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the years watching groups of people making meaning together Authentic Leadership in Action Institute. Last year, Eoyang has become a model of self-organizing systems for me, like a taught in London, Ottawa, Tel Aviv, New Orleans, and laboratory. Conditions are set so that a group of individuals Vancouver. It’s the kind of exhausting schedule that only pays can interact and create meaning that belongs to all of them.” off for those who genuinely love their work and have made Her senior essay at St. John’s dealt with Galileo’s argument their own niche in the world: in short, entrepreneurs. x about infinity, trying to answer the questions, “How do you know and how do you take action if you are not able to predict Find further patterns at www.hsdinstitute.org.

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The Multiplier Effect says. “Low point of my life: a single day, two failing grades.” As for the business, Sullivan stuck it out, in part because by Paul Hamilton he recognized that he didn’t belong in a corporate culture. “In spite of the bankruptcy, I was more determined than an Sullivan (A71) helps business owners ever to be a successful entrepreneur,” he says. “Besides, become millionaires. “I’m a natural there was no alternative. My personality and approach to coach,” Sullivan explains. “That’s been work make me totally unfit to be working for someone else.” true all through my life. Ever since I was a In the early 1980s, Sullivan’s fortunes dramatically child, I had the ability to sit down with improved. He met Babs Smith, who at the time owned a people and help them think clearly about holistic health practice in Toronto. She came on board to Dwhat it is they want to do.” help him develop and market a coaching strategy based on There is one question he has been asking individuals for his techniques, which could be applied on a large scale. more than 36 years, a question that has transformed their “We called it The Strategy Circle,” says Sullivan. “I can businesses and their personal lives: “If you were looking teach anybody how to do it in half an hour, and it works for back three years from now, what has to have happened in the rest of their lives. It’s a very simple process: You pick a your life, both personally and professionally, for you to be date in the future and ask the question: What results do you happy with your progress?” want to see on that day? You let them talk about it, and That question lies at the heart of Strategic Coach, a numbers have to be involved. Once they’re really happy company Sullivan started with his wife, with that, I say, ‘Tell me every reason that Babs, in 1987. The company operates in can’t happen.’ The obstacles tell you what seven cities in the United States, Canada, “One of the first you have to do. You identify actions, deci- and the United Kingdom; generates more sions, and communications, and you stay than $20 million in revenue annually; and questions I ask is... with that plan until all the results are has 100 employees. ‘What would you there.” “My basic belief is that people have an Sullivan launched The Strategy Circle in enormous amount of crucial experience do if you had 15 1982. Within seven years, the business and aspiration that they can’t see or use multiplied ten times and filled up all of his until someone asks them the right extra years?’ ” time. He saw that he needed to bring more people into his organization, and in 1989, questions,” says Sullivan. Dan Sullivan After graduating from St. John’s, he and Babs (now his wife) launched Sullivan moved to Toronto and found a job Strategic Coach, with the idea of having as a copywriter for BBDO, a large international ad agency. successful entrepreneurs—schooled in Sullivan’s strategies— Their clients included Kraft and Chrysler and other large coach other business owners. corporations. Through his creative work, Sullivan got to “I’ve carried the great ideas, great questions, great know the owners of small businesses, and he learned that discussions of St. John’s to Strategic Coach,” says Sullivan. many had trouble articulating their long-term goals. At his “I’ve also created a single, integrated program that clients’ request, continually evolves and strengthens—not unlike the he began leading weekend retreats on strategic planning. academic program at the college. At St. John’s, the process “This opportunity developed because of my continual is facilitated by dedicated tutors. In our approach, there habit of asking questions that went way beyond the scope of are 16 coaches, all entrepreneurs who have been in the advertising,” says Sullivan. “St. John’s strengthened my program, who run their own businesses, and who can coach ability to ask penetrating questions—but I’ve been doing from experience.” that since I was five or six years old. I chose St. John’s Sullivan explores the success of many of his clients- because it was based on strengthening a capability that I was turned-coaches in his book, Industry Transformers: How already good at.” Unique Process Entrepreneurs Create New Markets. One Sullivan saw that he could do more than help business such client is John Ferrell, an intellectual property lawyer in owners sell their products or services; he could also help Silicon Valley who saw other law firms going out of business them improve their business practices. At the same time, he during the dot-com bust in 2002. Ferrell rebuilt his practice also discovered his passion and skill for strategic planning. by pursuing a new niche: Instead of only helping inventors After just three years at BBDO, Sullivan quit his job and write patents, he guides them in “Strategic IP,” helping started his own firm, Dan Sullivan Communications. Thus entrepreneurs guard their intellectual property by began eight tough years, with the stagnant economy of the protecting the unique customer experience their product mid-1970s proving to be a formidable obstacle. He had been provides. married for about a year when he went out on his own, and Another client, David Allen, started out washing cars before long, both the marriage and business faltered. “On a when he was 15 years old and later developed it into a single day in 1978, I was both divorced and bankrupt,” he valet-parking business for Class-A buildings and

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Entrepeneurs} 29

restaurants. He then added a detailing service. When one of don’t put in 65-hour workweeks anymore. “One of the first his car detailing clients asked if he would be willing to clean questions I ask is ‘At what age are you going to die?’ ” What his airplane, Allen learned everything he could about the would you do, Sullivan asks next, if you had 15 extra years? process. Within a few years, he had a thriving international “The clients tell me ‘I’d educate people, I’d travel, I’d enterprise, with Warren Buffett’s NetJets and Delta among write’—all these things that are in the back of their minds as his clients. they’re becoming successful. Their businesses are what they While Sullivan is proud that his work creates jobs and do, not who they are.” grows businesses, he also strives to help business owners One of the Katz brothers now spends more time with his improve their own lives. Brothers Noah and Dan Katz run a family; the other recently married, takes more time off, and third-generation family business: a chain of 11 small grocery climbs mountains. “He’s also giving back to his community, stores in New York City. They signed up for the Strategic and that makes him happy,” says Sullivan. “It’s a pleasure Coach program about ten years ago. “Since joining for me to see it, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile.” Strategic Coach,” Sullivan says, ”they now have 14 stores, Though the recent recession was declared officially over, and their profit margins have increased significantly.” some jobs have disappeared forever and businesses must Sullivan helped the brothers adopt cutting-edge adapt to changing times, Sullivan says. To meet this technology, but he also emphasized customer loyalty. challenge, he recently launched Stage 2 of Strategic Coach, “Technology frees us up from repetitive things so we can which he calls “You x 10.” Sullivan’s new structure takes humanize all the other experiences,” explains Sullivan. advantage of Moore’s Law, a prediction made by Gordon More importantly, Sullivan adds, the two entrepreneurs Moore (co-inventor of the microchip) that the power and speed of microchips will double every 18 months, while the cost of computing will be halved during the same period. Today’s economic upheavals are due mainly to technological breakthroughs created by entrepreneurs; entrenched bureaucratic struc- tures become obsolete when they cannot adapt to the change. Countless new inventions using the microchip—the iPad being just one example—are giving rise to thousands of new kinds of entrepreneurial businesses. Sullivan’s firm offers entrepreneurs in the “You x 10” program a framework that enables them and their companies to achieve a “multiplier effect” of ten-times greater performance and results by taking advantage of microtechnology. There are already highly successful business owners who can now multiply their success in extraordinary ways. Sullivan strives to show entreprenuers how they can make a good living— while pursuing a life worth living. As for his personal life, Sullivan travels the world with Babs, finding great cities, hotels, and restau- rants, and he’s passionate about jazz, history, and politics. Sullivan says, “Entreprenuership is the driving force of society. I believe the United States, especially, was established by the Founders to be an entrepreneurial nation. But we can take any successful entrepreneur and, if they’re willing, help them to continually multiply the performance and results of every part of their business. It’s a marvelous way to spend my life.” x

Paul Hamilton is director of marketing for Strategic Coach.

Dan Sullivan (A71) asks great questions to transform businesses. margaux yiu margaux

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 30 {Bibliofile}

A Journalist’s Searing Accounts of Piracy and Child Conscription

Pirate State: Inside Somalia’s poverty and the high-stakes risks Terrorism at Sea of survival. The personal stories he recounts by Peter Eichstaedt have an added dimension; multiple Lawrence Hill Books, 2010 viewpoints reveal the complicated efforts and motives of all parties First Kill Your Family: Child involved. Interviews with the Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord’s families of hostages, for instance, Resistance Army depict brutal captivity conditions, by Peter Eichstaedt widespread government failures, Lawrence Hill Books, 2009 and the desperation in the everyday lives of the pirates. Peter Eichstaedt (SF92) has spent recent Reaching beyond a mere years as a journalist covering the bleak reporting of events, Eichstaedt conditions in much of Eastern Africa. The leaves readers with his own pace of his output—two books published in recommendations for ending the the last two years—suggests just how current pattern of Somali piracy; quickly events have unfolded in this these include everything from unstable region. working with Somali clan leaders In Pirate State: Inside Somalia’s to rebuilding the nation’s once- Terrorism at Sea, Eichstaedt asks what thriving fishing industry. drives a person to hijack ships and hold Equally as riveting is First Kill their crews hostage. Beginning with the Your Family: Child Soldiers of capture of the United States-flagged ship Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Maersk Alabama in April 2009, Eich- Army, which chronicles the last staedt takes readers on a tour of Somalia, 20 years of conflict between as well as neighboring Kenya and Sudan, Ugandan government and rebel through a series of reports and interviews forces, leading up to the stalled with the friends, families, and victims of peace talks of 2008. pirates—and in a few notable cases, the The title refers to the LRA’s practice of pirates themselves. He reveals a world of forcing children to execute their parents before being conscripted into their ranks. Interviews...depict Escaped ex-child soldiers and female child brutal captivity “brides” recount their ordeals. (Some are reluctant to do so because of the subse- conditions...and the quent ostracizing they endure from their families and desperation in the communities when they return home.) Eichstaedt presents these searing stories everyday lives of the of kidnapping, physical and emotional abuse, murder, trauma, and the religious pirates. confusion of the LRA against the larger backdrop of a society desperate to find peace again. Yet Eichstaedt is careful to give context Both titles offer readers compelling and to the actions of the LRA by tracing the unforgiving accounts of current hostilities precursor religious and political move- in Eastern Africa. Those looking for more ments in Uganda in the 20 years prior to of Eichstaedt’s astute and sometimes raw, the LRA’s formation. Whenever possible, hair-raising journalism can watch for his he provides the explanations LRA leaders upcoming book, Consuming the Congo: themselves give for their actions. War and Conflict Minerals in the World’s Deadliest Place (Lawrence Hill Books, July 2011). x Peter Eichstaedt (SF92) —Babak Zarin (A11) and Laurent Merceron (A08)

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Bibliofile} 31

White Asparagus is divided into and his performances on the stage. three sections: essays, poetry, and In 1978 he delivered a lecture titled stories. While there is one short “Translation and Description: Paul story that prominently references Valéry’s ‘Le Cimetière marin,’” calling it Program works (“There Angels “a labor of love and a work of propa- Dance”), to read the anthology ganda.” Its subject was one of the most for that story alone would be to celebrated works of poetry of the last miss the wealth of writing the hundred years, widely recognized as book contains. “Essays” offers distinguished for beauty of form and multiple works that reflect and wealth of meaning. This he translated as satirize familiar cultural traits, “The Graveyard by the Sea,” producing such as a drive for commercialism an English version at once faithful and (“ValuesRUs.com,” “The Great- poetic, and went on to provide an elegant Ideas-That-Never-Got-Off-the- “description” which set out the main Ground Catalogue”), a sense of structural and dynamic features of the vanity (“Your Astrological poem and traced its narrative. Forecast,” “The Caveman Diet”), Valéry’s Graveyard is in two parts. or stereotypes (“The Joy of The first presents the French text of Cooking Internationally,” “Hand “Le Cimetière marin” with McGrath’s Jive,” “The Million Monkey translation on facing pages, followed by Room”). “Poetry” showcases the descriptive account given in his Belz’s serious side as he ponders lecture. The second part, by the second the stages of life, from childhood author (also a St. John’s tutor), consists (“September’s Child”) to death of nine chapters on selected themes (“Suicides in Heaven,” “Plato’s awakened by McGrath’s work, with refer- Tree”). “Stories” merges the best ence to other writings of Valéry, Greek of the two prior sections, and other poetry, and some of the poet’s portraying realistic characters in scientific concerns. The whole affords an extraordinary situations of love introduction to the complex intellectual White Asparagus (“Tidings,” “The Perfect Pancake”) and world of Valéry as well as to his splendid death (“The Fabulist,” “The Green poem. D. R. Belz (AGI03) Bacon Boy”). —Michael Comenetz Apprentice House, 2010 Belz, who has been writing professionally for more than 30 years and “Now that there’s a well-established has contributed to publications such as European Union, you can bet that sooner The Baltimore Sun, The Southern Literary or later the specter of the United States Messenger, and The Oregon Review, lists converting to the metric system will Swift, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, rise again. James Thurber, H. L. Mencken, and Kurt But I don’t care what they say. I don’t Vonnegut as being among his heroes. care how many public service commercials White Asparagus is eclectic, a delight to they produce. They might be able to tax read, and offers a little bit of something my income, regulate my driving, stan- for everyone. dardize my deductions, approximate my —Babak Zarin (A11) demographic make-up, optimize my consumer-producer potential, as well as Valéry’s Graveyard: Le Cimetière take all of the hormones out of my beef marin Translated, Described, and jerky, but no government in the world is Peopled going to make me ‘think metric.’ ” With these words, satirist D. R. Belz Hugh P. McGrath and Michael Comenetz begins White Asparagus, a humorous and Peter Lang Publishing, 2011 often insightful collection of his essays, poetry, and short stories across the years. Hugh McGrath (1914–1995), for many He covers a wide array of topics and quirky years a tutor at St. John’s, had a profound incidents, ranging from the world of understanding of language in general, and family and the workplace to small of the English and French languages, with moments of everyday life, such as their literatures, in particular. An shopping at the mall or encountering inspiring presence in the classroom and a and early-morning car accident in the champion of liberal education, he was also Baltimore-Washington region. known for his public readings of poetry

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 32 {Alumni}

Finance, Risk, Diligence, and Kant Laura Strache (A02), once a high-flying rocker, lands on Wall Street.

by Anna Perleberg (SF02)

ince Laura Strache (A02) came to St. John’s eight years after finishing high school, her path before college is diverse. She spent five years in an “automotive industrial” band calledS the Motor Morons, who make music with car parts and power tools. She learned to fly small planes—despite not yet having a driver’s license at the time. It was her last job before matriculating, however, that focused her future energies; she worked in a unique form of insurance called surety, in which, rather than paying premiums and receiving a payout when needed, a client receives a sum from an insurance company contingent on completing a task—the most well-known form of surety being bail bonds. Strache’s work in surety claims sealed the deal. She was determined to build a career in finance. Her determination and guts—useful as a punk rocker, pilot, and Johnnie—led to her current position as managing director of operations at a midtown Manhattan hedge fund. First, a detour and a stroke of luck. Graduating in 2002 as the dot-com bubble burst, Strache struggled to break into finance; at the suggestion of her sister Vivian (A88), a lawyer, she became a paralegal. The hours were grueling and the work less than dynamic, but Strache’s Johnnie-bred curiosity and knack for plowing through dense philosophical texts paid off.

During the closing stages of a large anne-marie howard merger, she found herself at a gigantic Laura Strache (A02) has determination and guts in spades. conference table covered with manila files. Strache’s only task was to check off docu- ments as they arrived, labeling folders and did you know what you were reading?” where she now works. Starting as a senior making sure all the necessary information Strache’s response? “Look, I’ve read paralegal, she was responsible for keeping was complete. “It was tedious. So one night, Kant!” In other words, she knew that fully corporate books in order, and created a waiting for documents to come in at three understanding a reading wasn’t required to system of records to document compliance. a.m., I started reading them.” Though she glean knowledge from it. And she’d As Strache started doing “a little bit of didn’t have all the nuances of the legalese, impressed the right person: “Over time, everything,” she enrolled in an executive Strache did notice that certain changes to I would work on every project this lawyer MBA program, offered jointly by Columbia the language occurred in some texts but not had. I was told by partners when I left the Business School and London Business in others. She attempted to bring it to the firm that I was doing the work of a fifth-year School. For four days every month over two attention of her supervisor, who dismissed lawyer.” years, she studied intensively in a very her concerns. Further down the table, a She left with this mentor when he was different learning environment than more senior lawyer overheard, asking “How appointed general counsel of the hedge fund St. John’s, but one she was pleased to

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to work as a civilian for the Navy, Unspoken Praise as a desire for recognition. writing and directing training A thousand doors will open and To speak requiring no reply, 1946 films and videos and retiring in close, lest tomorrow I must go 1997 to continue full-time as a my years have taught me this, and bear the burden of praises PETER WEISS was one of the landscape designer and water- each one can change or end your felt organizers of a conference of garden installer. After more life, for those who will not know. legal experts held in Vancouver, education in landscape architec- bring agony or bliss. Canada, February 9-11, 2011, ture at the University of So I step from the path to smell a which produced a declaration Maryland, he followed the rose, affirming the incompatibility of designer track with clients in the am hushed by the song of birds, 1958 nuclear weapons with interna- Maryland-D.C.-Virginia zone, and will yield those praises that I tional humanitarian law. See and is now writing a murder feel, MARY BITTNER GOLDSTEIN has www.lcnp.org/wcourt/Feb2011 mystery set in Annapolis and, freeing the captive words. co-edited a collection of essays VancouverConference/vancou- yes, the victim is a student at on contemporary Chinese Art, verdeclaration.pdf or contact SJC. Write-What-You-Know! For a common crime, not named titled Subversive Strategies in him at [email protected]. www.tudor-roses.vpweb.com. by laws Contemporary Chinese Art, nor punished for its which was published by Brill RICHARD LEVERING writes, “I commission, Academy Press in March 2011. need to pay my gratitude to the not carved in stone by God’s own 1955 classmates of 1955, to the upper hand, classmen of 1952, 1953, 1954, the not a deed, but an omission, After a short stint as copyboy at class of 1956, and all the remark- is that of a compliment unsaid, 1959 the Washington Post, and able tutors and ancillary staff that small but valued token, on-stage Navy experience at that kept the dorms, grounds, for those to whom our debt ROBERTO (ROBBY) SALINAS Franklin and Marshall College, Liberty Tree, and rooms of unpaid PRICE, is currently working on JOHN M. GORDON joined the learning in functioning order. is the gratitude unspoken. his Elements of Homeric Navy as an Air Intelligence My need to pay tribute to those Geography, A Treatise on the Officer. Following another short deserving souls is summed up in So I will seek that special time Geographical Grammar and career as a freelance motion this attempt at verse: when, free from obligation, Syntax of the Iliad and Odyssey, picture writer-producer, he went my motive cannot be construed which he hopes to finish by

discover wasn’t boring. “At times I hit up the commonalities. An aptitude for non- into play. And her encyclopedic awareness of against a different pedagogical approach— verbal communication learned from her how the business worked, its rights and I would find an inconsistency, or something bandmates has also served her well. responsibilities, came to the fore: “My role I didn’t understand, and question it. Some Yet another aspect of Strache’s work was not as interesting to people when the professors didn’t like that at all!” Other involves relationships with brokers and markets were good—it seemed to them like I students, too, believed that the only reason banks doing due diligence on the hedge was keeping things from going as fast as they to ask a question was to show off or to get fund, and trying to feel out risk. “I need to wanted.” But her risk-averse nature when it a better grade for class participation. understand how my business does things, comes to financials and insistence on Persevering with her inquisitive nature what a bank might be nervous about, and preparing for the worst-case scenario was intact, she graduated in spring of 2008, and explain why or why not they should be. If essential when the market faltered. assumed the position she now holds as they should be nervous, then of course I go Risk-averse? A punk rocker and a pilot? managing director of operations. back and look at what we can do differently.” Of course, says Strache: “Sure, flying is It’s a job with many responsibilities, in It’s this role that has changed most in light risky, but what I enjoyed about it so much number and in kind. Essentially, Strache of the recent financial crisis. “Investors used was the habits learned to manage the risk.” “supervises the processes by which we settle to take a cursory look at operations. But In fact, the dominant theme in her life and our trades, confirm our assets, make sure now, a lot of them have a knee-jerk reaction work seems to be learning to handle securities are paid for.” This entails the to certain practices. I need to understand uncertainty with aplomb. She loves “plan- logistics of managing what as well as what their concerns are and address things ning, preparing checklists, imagining examining how business is conducted. “Is it they may think are problematic that we possible scenarios and leaving myself an out most efficient? Are there appropriate checks believe are not.” wherever possible.” and controls in place to prevent fraud and Her MBA couldn’t have come at a better The potential for and rapidity of change in catch people’s mistakes?” time: “Had I been in school in fall 2008, the finance world is one reason Strache likes Special projects such as preparing annual I would have had to drop out.” She estimates her work. “Even though hedge funds have financial statements and helping with the that between Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy been around for decades, it’s still a maturing firm’s taxes also fall within Strache’s in September of that year and January 2009, industry. There’s lots to learn all the time.” bailiwick. Much of her work involves she had not a single day off, including She finds the constant problem-solving of translating between departments; lawyers, Christmas. The firm lost large numbers of operations—shifting between “the five-mile- traders, and marketing professionals all employees, and unfortunately, as director of high picture and the details”—exciting and speak different jargons, and she must use operations, handling layoffs was also in her fulfilling. And it’s in demand. “There’s more the “very St. John’s skill” of being able to purview. Her business school skills in the career security in breadth.” x listen to the ways diverse people talk and see best ways of communicating bad news came

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year’s end. “The thesis rests Psychoanalyst at the Boston Minsk (Belarus) the second CRAIG FREEDMAN (A) says, squarely on the premise of my Psychoanalytic Society and Insti- week. Then he and his son “After six academic books, my earlier work that, if Homer’s tute. I am in private practice in Hendrik (almost 17) spent the first novel, The Last Time I Saw Troy corresponds with Croatia’s Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. I summer in Alaska. Richard, has been published. Dalmatian Coast, then the have been married for 48 years It is available via Amazon.” entire body of geographical to Judith Bernstein, and have information found in the Iliad one married son and two grand- and Odyssey must likewise be children. My son is an Associate 1970 reviewed. The work calls for a Professor of Philosophy at the 1975 revisionist understanding of the College of Holy Cross in LES MARGULIS (A) is back in so-called ‘Heroic Age,’ prior to Worcester, Massachusetts. Sydney for a year now after 18 HOWARD MEISTER (A), is the acquisition by a nascent months running an ad agency in delighted to announce that one Greek cultural identity of Mumbai, India. After publishing of his pieces, a chair called Homeric toponyms and magazines and websites for Nothing Continues To Happen ethnonyms (the ‘elements’ or 1964 adults 50-plus (although barely (1980), has been purchased by building-blocks of geographical 39), Margulis now works for an The Victoria and Albert information).” ERIC LUTKER (A) has retired and ad agency called Naked Museum in London for their is enjoying life in Florida— (www.nakedcommunications. permanent collection. The piece walking, shooting in the 70s, com.au), and is not ready yet for will be included in a group reading, and in his spare time retirement or the glue factory. exhibition, “Postmodernism: 1961 running a local learning insti- Style and Subversion 1970- tute and writing a health care 1990,” opening at the museum DR. R. DOUGLAS BENDALL is blog, healthdiscussions.net. in September 2011 and sched- the founder and president of The 1971 uled to travel to museums across Newark School of Theology, Europe. Another chair (from the Newark, New Jersey. NST offers JOHN STARK BELLAMY II (A), edition of three), in the collec- seminary level theological 1966 steadfast chronicler of scan- tion of the Metropolitan education to inner-city minis- dalous tales, has a new book Museum of Art in New York City ters, lay persons, and others JUDY ANDERSON (A) did two available as a Kindle download since 1992, has been on exhibit unlikely to matriculate at a memorable things on January 1 at Amazon.com. “A Woman there for the past year as part of seminary designed to prepare this year: retired and became a Scorned,” he says, “is the a group show, “Highlights from students for the professional vegan. Planning to move to greatest story I have discovered the Modern Design Collection: degree (M.Div) in theology. South Carolina, which was during my two decades of total 1900 to the Present.” “We teach theology as a liberal supposed to happen in February, immersion in northeast Ohio art,” Bendall says. “Our philos- but turned out to be a slower woe.” Bellamy is also expecting K.C. VICTOR (A) and ED ophy and teaching methods are process than anticipated, a print edition to be available BRONFIN (SF78) spent May Day grounded in the educational Anderson celebrated the 5-year this spring. weekend together in Denver and model found at St. John’s anniversary of her cancer Boulder. Ed lives in Denver, and College in Annapolis and Santa surgery, and was officially now uses some of the justice Fe.” Married with five children, declared a survivor and dispensing skills he learned at daughter Lisa Bendall is the discharged from oncology; she 1972 the college on the job. Since Sinclair and Rachel Hood plans to keep everyone posted 2008 he has been a Colorado lecturer in Aegean Prehistory, on both developments. JIM CARLYLE (A) retired April 1 State Judge, and is currently Institute of Archeology, and after 34 years as an Episcopal serving in criminal court. K.C. Tutorial Fellow for Arch & Anth JULIE BUSSER DU PREY (A) is priest at St. Paul’s Episcopal (in Los Angeles since 1998) at Keble College, Oxford, now a grandmother of a six- Church, Columbus, Ohio, and is continues her work as a business England, while son David month-old and her daughter is contemplating his next career. advisor and executive recruiter Bendall is a mathematician who expecting her first child, too. ELIZABETH (A73) continues to for lawyers. K.C. and Ed met in works as a software engineer in practice law, concentrating on Annapolis when Ed was a Southern California. criminal post-conviction work. freshman there, and have main- Earlier this year, she was a tained a friendship ever since. DR. STEPHEN B. BERNSTEIN 1968 member of a legal team that writes: “After graduating from persuaded the governor of Franklin & Marshall College I RICK WICKS (SF) and his Missouri to commute a client’s attended and graduated from daughter Linnéa (who just death sentence to life imprison- 1976 New York Medical College. completed her first semester of ment two days before the client’s I did a Psychiatric Residency at medical school) spent two weeks scheduled execution. With Jim’s In 2009, after working in McLean Hospital in Belmont, in Eastern Europe, where he retirement, they have returned marketing consulting for years, Massachusetts, and am currently drove through Poland (to to Kansas City, Missouri, and ELIZABETH COCHRAN (SF) got a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Auschwitz and Krakow), would be pleased to introduce her masters in social work and at Tufts Medical School, a Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia their St. John’s friends to the has been working with family Lecturer in Psychiatry at the first week, and then took neighborhood. caregivers, most of whom care Harvard Medical School, and a night trains to St. Petersburg, for someone with a diagnosis of Training and Supervising Moscow, Kiev (Ukraine), and dementia. She is also doing

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A Mid-life Master’s After teaching high school, attending law school, and running the family insurance business, Bruce Sanborn (SFGI09) found his way to St. John’s.

By Deborah Spiegelman ressing on Bruce Sanborn (SFGI09) is a Bruce Sanborn member of the St. John’s (SFGI09) in 1970 Board of Visitors and Governors. when he left Minnesota was the desire to Pprove his uncle wrong. “Uncle he read Locke and Rousseau, Malcolm’s opinions were then War and Peace and Don [that] our family went to Quixote. In 2006, he applied to church because society St. John’s Graduate Institute, expected us to, and humans was accepted, and found a invented God,” says Sanborn, place in Santa Fe for himself who headed off to Dartmouth and Thea to live, their children College to study religion. having grown up. At Dartmouth, he enjoyed Sanborn’s mid-life advice: the smorgasbord of the liberal “For anyone on a quest to find arts: Russian literature, art, the good life or anyone going a biology, astronomy, Latin. bit wobbly sensing the wood is “I liked college lectures. The darkening, go to St. John’s for good professors showed me five days, five semesters, or things I missed reading on my however long you can, and own. Then, in my senior year, meditate on God, the human I fell in love with “The Faerie mind, and the summum bonum Queene”—Edmund Spenser’s [the highest good]. These poem,” Sanborn says. “In borrowed words from Bishop order to get more time with Berkeley could just as well have the poem, I enlisted my Aunt come from Kant; I discovered Polly, who lived in town and them while meditating on the knew my professor, to sign a note urging “For anyone on a quest human mind, God, and the summum bonum him to extend the deadline for my term in an eight-week preceptorial on Kant’s paper, which he did. On my own—without a to find the good life, . . . Critique of Practical Reason and Meta- lecture as intermediary—I approached the physics of Morals.” The Program, he adds, beauty of this poem.” go to St. John’s.” “has an attractive fullness, immediacy, and After graduation, Sanborn imagined elevation to it.” himself “a Queene’s knight ‘pricking on the Bruce Sanborn Now on the College’s Board of Visitors plaine,/Y cladd in mightie armes and silver and Governors, Sanborn has expanded his shielde’ and heading into the world to make and at Trinity Episcopal School for circle to include tutors, students, and other my way and do good.” He landed a job back Ministry.” friends on both the Santa Fe and the in St. Paul’s teaching high-school English Eventually, Sanborn determined that Annapolis campuses. and Latin. Two years later it was on to the whatever his future held, it no longer “While I was at St. John’s, my thinking University of Virginia Law School. When involved running an insurance company. got better the more I was part of the conver- Sanborn decided to return to Minnesota, With the endorsement of Thea and his sation,” he notes. “My mind’s eye was joining the insurance company that had siblings, he sold the family company. “Not excited to see things—things I had been been in his family since the 1950s, he and long after the sale, I read the opening lines really sure of—in different lights and his wife Thea and their three children made in Dante’s Inferno—‘In the middle of the shadows and better. The opinions I held a life there. Sanborn served on community journey of our life I came to myself within a dear often proved murky, but got clearer in and business boards, helped with some dark wood where the straight way was lost.’ conversation, moving me closer to what is political campaigns, and chaired a That fit,” he says. true and what is the good life. All of which California think-tank. All the while, he kept The straight way turned out to involve helps me in my mission to answer Uncle studying. “I admired Abraham Lincoln and more studying—a path Sanborn had followed Malcolm.” x read a lot about him,” Sanborn says. “I took throughout his life. Starting with the short classes at Stanford Business School Summer Classics program in Santa Fe,

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some in-home therapy with of friends and is fun to be http://writingismydrink. seniors, from a narrative around!” Cochran hopes to get com/we-came-to-say or by perspective. “This represents a back to Santa Fe some day soon, 1977 e-mailing Banta at significant shift from my read- maybe with classmate and long- [email protected]. D AITZ ings at St. John’s,” Cochran time friend, JUDY KISTLER- E J. K (A) organized the says, “but without them, I doubt ROBINSON (SF77). April 2011 art exhibition, “Local I’d appreciate this approach as Art Influenced by Great Books,” much.” Finally, she is the LORIS NEBBIA (A) has published at 49 West Coffeehouse & 1982 project coordinator for the Elder her first novel, Solomon’s Puzzle Winebar in Annapolis. The show Justice Network of the Greater (Blessing House Press, 2010), featured Maryland, Virginia, and LESLIE SMITH ROSEN HYDER (A) North Shore (of Boston), whose which reflects her love for Washington, D.C. artists married JAMES HYDER (A84) mission is to educate profes- Annapolis. The Maryland offering representations of before a small gathering of sionals and the public about Writer’s Association honored works by authors such as Ovid, family and closest friends on elder abuse and the services Nebbia with its top prize for Nietzsche, and Mark Twain. Sunday, April 17, 2011. It was a available to reduce and elimi- short fiction for the novel. Other “surprise” wedding for almost nate it. “We’ve put on three publications credits include an everyone—guests were invited productions of an original play entry on “The Great Awak- for an engagement party and a incorporating real stories of ening” in the Dictionary of 1978 half an hour later, a huppah was abuse, poetry, and songs in Women’s Education published brought out! TOM WISE (SF) writes, “I am three different senior centers. by Greenwood Press. Her still at UCSB doing the More than 400 people have seen essays appear online at: computer thing (and I thought it, many more than would ever eighthandsaround.blogspot.com the Internet was just a fad), but attend a presentation on elder and christianityisjewish.org. 1983 as of June 30, 2011, my wife abuse.” Beyond this, Cochran Learn more about Nebbia’s Kathleen will have retired from has a 16-year-old son who will be novel at solomonspuzzle.com. BARBARA M. MEDINA (SFGI) is the Child Development Program a senior in high school next year, currently assistant commis- with the Santa Barbara School with all the accompanying joys sioner in the Colorado Depart- District. Our home is on the and stresses. “He has a good ment of Education, where she market (www.716cathedral- sense of where he’s headed, lots oversees an Office of Language, pointe.com) and we are looking Culture, and Equity that over- for our retirement home in sees Title III education for the Santa Fe. I have been in Santa linguistically diverse, as well as Barbara for 30 years and I always migrant education. She also North to Alaska said if I weren’t living here, I oversees the offices of Choice or would go back to Santa Fe in a Charter Schools and online heartbeat. So with Kathleen’s learning. AUL KNEISL (A77) left for Alaska on his motorcycle daughter studying for her June 18th. If you would like to be added to the masters in psychology at Buck- DESIREE ZAMORANO’s (SF) first list of people receiving pictures, send an e-mail to nell and her son Ken entering mystery novel has been [email protected]. He and Maureen have been pharmacy school at Thomas published as an e-book by Lucky married 31 years and have two children, Megan and Jefferson in Philly, our time has Bat Books. Find Human Cargo Jeffrey. Megan is about to start work for the ACLU come! Cheers to all and a shout on Amazon, Smashwords, or her as a lawyer. Jeffrey is a mental health counselor. Kneisl has out to STEVE (SF) and Surinder website. P Mackey and JIM (SF77) and 32 years at L-3 Communications making electronic gadgets for Andrea Ham.” military and space applications. He knows that “you are all on an island somewhere just like I last saw you. While I have grown old, it is a comfort to know you, my friends, have not aged a day.” x 1984 1980 MARK NIEDERMIER (A) is leaving Anchorage’s Pacific CHRIS BANTA (A) had her short Northern Academy after five piece, “Wallflowers Don’t years experiencing the joys and Always Triumph at the High challenges of subarctic living in School Reunion,” published in Alaska. In the fall he begins as We Came to Say: A Collection of Head of School for the Logan Memoir, edited by Theo Pauline School for Creative Learning in Nestor. “I’ve been writing Denver, Colorado, a progressive fiction and memoir for several kindergarten-through-eighth- years,” says Banta, “and have grade school for gifted students. won a couple of writing He can be reached at contests, but this is my first [email protected]. publication.” Those interested in getting a copy of the book can find ordering information at {Alumni} 37

On the Campaign Trail 1985 1986 ACK DOBBYN (A02) is running for state Delegate in the MAGGIE HOHLE (A) reports: GWENDOLYN CHEATHAM (A) has 42nd District of Virginia, a race that Washington Post “We moved to Northern Cali- the published two exciting books fornia in 2007. My mom passed has called one of the “most competitive House races in the which can be found at Amazon, away suddenly from lung cancer state.” He is married to fellow alum Kathryn (Bush) Barnes and Noble, and Borders in 2008, just as the financial Dobbyn (A03), with whom he has two daughters, Victoria bookstores. Their titles are: markets were beginning to melt and Marie. The Vice President of Operations at his family’s Give Your Teacher this Note: down. Now it’s 2011, and I feel Jreal estate business, Dobbyn became highly involved with Parents Say the Funniest Things like our family is finally stabi- the Fairfax County Democratic Committee in the late 2000s and and Big Mama: The World is a lizing, at least internally! Our served as treasurer of the Lee District Democrats. Currently he Playground—Enjoy it! oldest daughter, Hannah, is a serves as the chairman of the Fairfax County Young Democrats. In proud freshman at UC Berkeley, his spare time, he is an active member of the Mount Vernon ELISABETH LONG (A) is still and Tom and Molly are both in Kiwanis Club and enjoys coaching youth sports teams for Wood- enjoying running the Digital high school, while Billy is just a lawn Little League and Gunston Soccer Club. Library Development Center at the University of Chicago first grader. As for Brad, he’s Dobbyn’s top priority is improving transportation in south- Library. In her ‘spare’ time, she still at Dolby Laboratories eastern Fairfax County. He wants to partner with Delegate Scott (20 years!) and I’m still free- is the editor of a new journal for Surovell (D-44th) and Senator Linda “Toddy” Puller (D-36th) to lancing as a writer and trans- the College Book Art Associa- improve traffic on Route One, and also wants to alleviate the lator (Japanese to English). tion and is trying to sell her In fact, a new website is what influx of traffic expected from the completion of the Base Realign- second-floor condo in order to prompted this update: takumi- ment and Closure process at Fort Belvoir. Education is another buy a house with a basement to translate.com. Check it out! priority for him, as he wants to see more of an investment in trade hold her very heavy, old-fash- Turns out that my partner in schools and smaller class sizes. ioned printing press. Long Japan and I have been trans- “When I get down to Richmond, I want to get all the decision- writes, “I was visiting my family lating for a decade, including makers around the table and find out what’s possible and what’s in Baltimore at the end of April the recent book, MUJI. Thought not,” said Dobbyn. “If I were going to say I wasn’t going to work and arranged to meet TIA we’d finally publicize the fact a with people to solve problems, I’d have a tough time in Richmond PAUSIC (A86) at croquet and little wider than our circle of and not be able to solve our problems.” x can’t believe what an event it usual clients, which include has become. Ran into lots of old Kenya Hara at the Nippon friends from ’84 and ’85 and had Design Center, and Lars Mueller a wonderful time.” Publishers, as well as the Inter- national Design Center Nagoya advocates of free markets—which Seminars to Socratic Practice. STEPHANIE RICO (A) writes on (IdcN) and Idea Magazine now seemed self-evidently harmful. While at his last school, he met behalf of herself and her and then. And our latest project They gradually developed John Mackey, the CEO and co- husband, TODD PETERSON that will be out soon is a book on respect for free-market founder of Whole Foods Market. (A87): “After many years of plot- the Japan-based lifestyle brand economics. He began a disserta- Together they created Freedom ting and planning and wishing, Mina Perhonen. If anyone knows tion under Nobel laureate econ- Lights Our World (FLOW), a we are moving to Spain on an of someone who would like to omist Gary Becker on “Ideas nonprofit dedicated to “Liber- all-expense-paid vacation cour- avail themselves of our services, and Culture as Human Capital” ating the entrepreneurial spirit tesy of the American taxpayer! send them along, please. Our while training Chicago public for good,” leading to programs (At least being in the Navy has hope is to assist non-Japanese school teachers in how to lead promoting peace through had some perks, to make up for speakers/readers with research, Socratic seminars. Before commerce, accelerating women the free trips to Afghanistan and communication, or translating finishing it, he was hired as a entrepreneurs, and conscious Iraq.) We’ll be in Spain for at entire websites if necessary, in full-time Socratic teacher capitalism. Most recently he has least two years, maybe three. the creative fields, since that’s trainer in Homer, Alaska. That begun an exploration of legal Our daughters, Tia (9) and where our experience lies. led to a 5-year year career in techniques that will allow for the Sasha (7), will go to Spanish Design, art, architecture, that education, starting as a public entrepreneurial creation of legal public school in between kind of thing! Anyone planning school reformer and leading to systems and the creation of Free education-travel trips. ¡Estan on visiting the Bay Area, come the creation of innovative Cities. He blogs on these topics invitados avisitarnos!” on by! We’ve got a great little private schools and programs in at “Let a Thousand Nations town here, a couple hours from Alaska, Texas, Florida, Cali- Bloom” and is working on the snow, 40 minutes from the fornia, and a charter school in creating Free Cities at various Pacific, and in the heart of wine New Mexico that was ranked the sites around the world. Michael 1988 country. Can’t beat it!” 36th best public high school in has two grown children and is the United States on the Wash- married to Magatte Wade, the EDWARD KOMARA (A) received MICHAEL STRONG (SF) attended ington Post Challenge Index. Senegalese serial entrepreneur the State University of New York the University of Chicago, Meanwhile he acted as a who founded Adina World (SUNY) Chancellor’s Award for studying why the Chicago consultant for hundreds of Beverages and the Tiossano Excellence in Scholarship and economists, who considered schools, writing The Habit of Tribe. Creative Activities last May, a themselves scientists, were Thought: From Socratic statewide recognition for his

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Finding Flamenco Chana Goodman (SF94) unveils her inner Gypsy. by Anna Perleberg (SF02) s it turns out, Chana While not an ethnic Gypsy herself, Goodman (SF94) and I have …[Goodman] found that Goodman finds connections to the dance in met before—not at St. John’s, her own family history: Her Romanian but at WORD, the bookstore the exaggerated gestures grandfather hailed from Soroca, a city in in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, modern-day Moldova with a large Gypsy where I used to work. (I tried she picked up from her enclave, and he was also a child dancer, who toA sell her Bridget Jones’s Diary as an Italian stepfather have came to the United States to sing and dance antidote to Proust.) in vaudeville. He continued to dance as long For each of us, finding out the other was a served her well in as he could walk, she says. “I’m intrigued by Johnnie explained a lot about our mutual the connection–he had a very Gitano style in bookishness. We each also studied dance flamenco. his dance.” As she speaks, Goodman strikes while at St. John’s, in classes taught by fellow a dynamic attitude with her arms: elbows, students. Alas, my contact improv has grown wrists, and fingers angled, yet regal and rusty–apologies to Alana Chernila (SF02). start clapping. Whatever one’s technical alluring. She’s also found that the But Goodman has remained active with few proficiency, stepping into the circle to exaggerated gestures she picked up from her lacunae, through cross-country moves and express the dance in one’s own way is a Italian stepfather have served her well in the birth of her son, in her dance of choice: natural part of the culture. For audiences, flamenco. the wildly expressive, proudly rhythmic though, jangly guitar music and extrava- While it has taken years to acquire the flamenco. gantly ruffled dresses are also par for the skill to perform regularly, she considers the In recent months, Goodman has been course. training as time well spent. “Because it’s dancing flamenco more than ever. She gave After her initial exposure in a beginner’s taken me so long,” she says, and “I’ve been up her day job, determined to have more class at college, Goodman continued to an observer instead of a producer, I have a control over her time and creative passions. dabble in flamenco, first while working in sense of the deeper significance of it. It’s not She is putting the finishing touches on an art Seattle as a digital illustrator for a gaming that it’s just cute, or pretty, or beautiful.” studio—when not dancing, she paints. She firm. She studied with the acclaimed Like so many Johnnies (myself included), practices flamenco six days a week, Carmona family and Ana Montes. While she Goodman found inspiration for her unusual performing about once a week in local and her husband, Roderick Gilman (SF93), career path in her untraditional education. restaurants, bars, and other venues in New lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he went In addition to her fledgling steps in York City. Goodman traveled to Seville, to law school, she found herself driving long flamenco, she took a life drawing class one Spain, in July for three months; there she distances twice a week to attend the only semester that got her started in illustration plans to study flamenco with her mentor, nearby flamenco classes. Then the couple and graphic design. “One thing that’s Yasaray Rodrigues, and other masters, moved to New York City, “and I have just not amazing about St. John’s is that it teaches including Andres Peña, Pastora Galván, and stopped dancing.” people to make choices in their lives, and to Adela Campallo. carry through – that what- Flamenco has roots in ever it is you want to do, Gypsy culture; it moved there’s a way to achieve it, with its people across and it’s up to you. It asks India, Turkey, and people to question the idea Romania, and came to its of happiness and fulfillment, full flowering in fifteenth- and to seek it out.” century Spain, mixing After that, our conversa- Jewish and Moorish tion devolved into a influences with those of the discussion of books, and Andalusian gypsies, the we ambled over to WORD Gitanos. For them, says to pick up the Pevear/ Goodman, “dancing and Volokhonsky translation of singing is like a religion. Anna Karenina. Happy Kids do it from the time families and Johnnies— they walk—they’re expected we’re all more alike than to. And it’s not just moving we realize. x your feet; it’s reaching into the other world constantly through dance.” At parties Chana Goodman’s (SF94) and community celebra- hands are elegantly tions, it’s traditional to expressive when she dances simply form a circle and flamenco. tania trelles tania {Alumni} 39

achievements to date. He is the DOUGLAS ALLANBROOK (HA85), Pender County, North Carolina. Rebecca was born April 8 to author of four books on blues with whom he worked for 14 The film premiered at UNC birth parents who chose the and jazz (including the editing of years. Wilmington in April 2011. Stack Brocks to raise their daughter in the two-volume Encyclopedia of received the David Brinkley part because of their adopted the Blues (Routledge Press, KIM PAFFENROTH (A) just had Preservationist of the Year son, Christopher. While waiting 2005), and of numerous articles his fourth zombie novel Award from Historic Wilm- for a second child, Khin Khin and reviews for music journals. published, Dying to Live: Last ington Foundation for the film ran a marathon. They continue Since 2001 he has been the Rites (Permuted Press, 2011). and for her work to help restore to work, garden and read in Crane Librarian of Music at His second novel was just the Canetuck Rosenwald School Santa Clara, California. SUNY Potsdam; previously, he released in a German edition, (featured in the film) this past served as music librarian/blues Die Traurigkeit der Zombies May. “To learn more about archivist at the University of (Festa Verlag, 2011). When not Rosenwald schools, please see Mississippi. “Potsdam is a small writing about the undead, he my website www.under- 1991 village near the Canadian continues to teach religious thekudzu.org; my e-mail is on border,” he writes. “The Victo- studies at Iona College. He and the website and I would love to LAKE JAMES PERRIGUEY (SF), rian-era buildings and the cold his wife, MARLIS (A86), are also hear from Johnnies!” who founded the queer student winters lend themselves to some celebrating their son Charles’ groups at St. John’s College and very intense creative activities winning the West Point Bridge DAVID BLANKENBAKER (SF) was among the first to press the for the music students and Design Contest. quips that “on May 31st, College to adopt a non-discrimi- faculty.” His next project is between 2:05 and 2:15 p.m., nation policy to include gay and contributing entries for the CLAUDIA (PROBST) STACK (A) David Blankenbaker ate an lesbian students, recently repre- prestigious New Grove has finished her documentary apple and thought about his sented a student teacher who Dictionary of American Music, film, Under the Kudzu, which undergraduate experience.” was banned from the Beaverton including one for tutor traces the history of two historic School District when he African American schools in answered a fourth grade student’s question about his 1989 marital status by saying that Oregon would not allow him to Passage Around the World SARITA CARGAS (A) has just marry a man. The School changed jobs and will be District ultimately settled for teaching human rights at the $105,000 and achieved district- YNNE HEDLESKY (A09) and boyfriend University of New Mexico in wide change. (More details Kristian have begun a bold plan. Starting the Albuquerque. She is excited to regarding the case can be found first leg of their journey, from San Diego to be near a St. John’s campus, and at http://abcnews.go.com the island of Nuku Hiva in French Polynesia looks forward to catching up /US/student-teacher-fired-gay- on June 4, 2011, they are attempting to sail with her dear alma mater. job-back/story?id=11957152.) around the world. “Crossing from the West Coast of North America to islands in the South Pacific is by no ANNE LEONARD (A) graduated W law school, passed the California means unprecedented,” writes Wynne. “What makes our trip bar, and is now busy getting paid unique is that we do not own our own boat, and we aren’t taking a 1993 to win arguments (or at least to lot of fancy equipment. We are traveling as crew on vessels owned by make them). Still happily settled MARY “KAYT” CONRAD (AGI) others, earning passage in exchange for our hard work and sailing in Cotati, about 50 miles north and KAREN WACHSMUTH (A79) experience. We plan, when possible (and legal), to camp and live off of San Francisco, she can be hold sporadic alumni meetings of local resources, such as fish and fruit. We hope that by living reached at [email protected]. in Iowa City restaurants where simply and courageously, pushing ourselves outside of comfortable they share their passion for beets borders and modes of transportation, we can gain valuable and books. Both work at the perspective on our land-based life. University of Iowa, and would Nuku Hiva is located in the Marquesas, one of the most remote 1990 love to know of any other John- island groups in the world. We will make the 3,000-mile journey nies in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa across the Pacific Ocean on a 50-foot sailboat owned by a French GRAHAM HARMAN (A) has been City corridor. family that we discovered on the Internet, and met in person in San promoted to full professor of Diego. Using resources on the Internet, connections in the sailing philosophy at the American University in Cairo. He was world, and on-the-ground networking, we intend to find other recently named editor of the vessels to carry us further west, to other islands in the South Pacific, 1994 Speculative Realism book series to Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and beyond. If our at Edinburgh University Press, PAUL BARKER (AGI) received his strategy is successful, we will find ourselves back in the United which will launch July 2011 with doctorate in Educational States, having circumnavigated the globe under sail. his own book, Quentin Meillas- Leadership in May from the Here’s an update: We left on the first leg of our journey on June 4. soux: Philosophy in the Making. University of Pennsylvania. Melville readers may be familiar with Nuku Hiva from the novel His dissertation focused on the Typee. We are traveling on a sailboat with a French family. After KEVIN (SF96) and KHIN KHIN classroom experience of high Nuku Hiva, we plan to go to Tahiti, Fiji, Australia, and wherever (SF88) BROCK are overjoyed to school seniors perceived by their else the wind whisks us. Follow our progress on our blog: welcome bright-eyed Rebecca teachers as being quiet. After www.crossingtheline2011.blogspot.com.” x Wren Brock into their family.

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serving ten years as principal of Writing Contest, a novel on based on Michael Ruhlman’s happiest and most contented the John Carroll School in Bel dragons in the San Gabriel Charcuterie cookbook. disposition with a great love of Air, Maryland, Paul starts the Valley of Southern California. They can be followed at smiling at his parents. He was 2011-2012 school year as http://meatandday. present at Georgetown Univer- president of Our Lady of Good SHANI N. WARNER (SFGI) blogspot.com. sity on ‘Match Day’ when his Counsel High School in Olney, married Dave Horlick last daddy learned he got his top Maryland. November, and is expecting a PAIGE MAGUIRE (A) is living in choice of post-graduate medical little girl this August. Warner Austin, Texas, with her son, programs: he will be training in was also elected Ward 2 Repre- Daschel Auden, and several internal medicine at George- sentative to the City Council of animals. She works at Dell in the town University Hospital. 1995 Hyattsville, Maryland. Global Marketing department as Finally, May 22 came and an online strategist and project Martin Gaudinski BA became BENJAMIN FRIEDMAN (SF) manager. Previously she held a Martin Gaudinski MD. In this married Rocio Alvarez on similar role in a much different spirit of change and tumult we May 29, 2011, in Los Angeles. 1999 environment—the Austin NPR moved from one end of Silver affiliate public radio station. Spring, Maryland, to the other RACHEL (VEDAA) PENDLETON and are now apartment dwellers (SF) and WALKER PENDLETON, once again, after three 1996 (A) welcomed son James Pascal delightful years filled with on May 8, 2011. Enjoying the 2004 conversation and laughter while CHRIS ANDERSON (A) was fun of watching how much he’s living with the SULLIVAN (A02) recently named a Cardozo changed in such a short time, MELISSA and MARTIN family. We feel very blessed.” Scholar and will begin attending they are reading to him and ANDERSON (both A) have Cardozo Law School this preparing him for the Great relocated to Eugene, Oregon, CHRISTOPHER HENDERSON (A) August. Books when he’s ready. so that Melissa can start her married GENEVA HINKLE (A06) graduate architecture program on May 29, 2011, in upstate New at the University of Oregon. York. Their guests dined on They’re missing their friends in cupcakes and barbecue. Mr. and 1997 2000 New York and those scattered Mrs. Henderson look forward to along the East Coast, but are many happy years of fighting BENJAMIN BLOOM (A) is happy BUCK COOPER (A) is now already enjoying the trees and evil together. Mr. Henderson is to announce the birth of his working as Program Coordi- mountains and looking forward not yet Batman, but he’s getting second daughter, Olivia Quinn nator at the Mississippi to at least three years in the there. Mrs. Henderson is Bloom. She was born on May 15, Academy for Science Teaching Pacific Northwest. They can be working on her Alfred voice. 2011. Mother, sister, and baby at Jackson State University, found at 854 Pool St., Apt. 54, are all doing fine. Daddy is still supporting secondary science Eugene, OR 97401. catching up on his sleep! teachers from around the state and preparing undergraduates MARTIN and KIMBERLY 2005 JENN COONCE (A) recently to teach science. He is settled in GAUDINSKI (both A) write: completed a Masters in Psycho- Jackson and awaiting the arrival “2011 has been an eventful year SAMANTHA BUKER (A) just took analysis at the New York Grad- of a second child in August. for the Gaudinski family. With a seat on the board of directors uate School of Psychoanalysis, much happiness, on Valentine’s of the Post-Classical Ensemble. and now sees patients as a part DEBERNIERE TORREY (AGI) and Day we welcomed our son This Washington, D.C.-based of certificate candidacy at the her husband Nathan Devir Benjamin David Gaudinski. He orchestra will put on three Center for Modern Psychoana- completed their degrees in has been growing by leaps and collaborative festivals this year: lytic Studies. Coonce is also Comparative Literature last bounds. Although we hesitate to Jeremy Denk playing Charles continuing freelance work as a year. This summer they move tempt our fate by writing such Ives, Igor Stravinsky/Manuel de user experience designer and from Middlebury, Vermont, to words, he seems to have the Falla’s El Amor Brujo, and Schu- researcher. Salt Lake City to teach in the Department of Languages and CHRIS ENGLISH (SFGI) and Literature at the University of DIANE SHIRES (SFGI98) are Utah. Nuptials in New Mexico pleased to introduce their latest addition to the family: Kayleigh Noel English, born June 12, OHN TRAVIS PITTMAN 2009. Baby Noel joins her 2001 and ALLISON 7-year-old-brother, Max, in HAUSPURG (both A08), general mischief and mayhem. TALLEY (A) and LOUIS (A) were married just a few Chris continues working as an KOVACS are participating in miles from where they art director in Los Angeles, and Charcutepalooza, a year-long met at St. John’s Santa Diane is teaching high school blog collaboration with approxi- Fe in the historic English at her alma mater in mately 200 other food bloggers J chapel at Our Lady of South Pasadena, California. around the world. They are Guadalupe off the Santa Fe Chris and Diane’s latest creation working their way through basic plaza. Eleanor Mathis (SF07) is an entry in the 3-Day Novel and master meat preparations was in attendance. x

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bert (Uncorked). “I invite any Bar, which she takes in July. curious D.C.-Baltimore area Annapolis Freedom Cup Kennedy says, “Life is Johnnies to go to a concert with wonderful: I got to see Melody me personally. Each perform- UGENE SAMARIN (A10) has started a tradition of and EVERETT REED (AGI07) in ance recasts everything you having a trophy for the last soccer game of the May, and we’re all looking thought you knew about a spring season. He wants to call it the Freedom forward to CAMILLE STALLINGS’ composer and his work.” She is Cup in honor of his mother, who brought him (AGI07) wedding in August in proud to support P-CE’s to this country from Russia. After becoming a Oregon. I also just discovered partnerships with Georgetown, United States citizen last spring, Samarin is another Johnnie, BENJAMIN Strathmore, the National now living in Annapolis, working for a local law firm, and is BARRIENTES (AGI88) at law Gallery of Art, and E x school and am glad to have a planning on going to law school in the next few years. choreographer Igal Perry that compatriot so nearby. If anyone take classical music way beyond is in the Southwest Florida area, the concert hall. She’s always please look me up at eager to hear from folks at [email protected]. [email protected], It would be great to catch up whether you want to talk with old friends.” finance, fine art, or fugues.

TOM JACOBS (A) and BRIANNE JACOBs (née BELL; A06) are 2007 married and living in the East Village in New York City. CLARE DAVITT (SFGI) moved to Brianne is pursuing a PhD in Boston after five years in Santa Theology at Fordham Univer- Fe, and has begun the Masters sity, while Tom is earning his of Science in Library and doctorate in Education Policy at Information Science program at the New School University. They jen behrens Simmons College. She was also send their best wishes to all awarded a position as the Fellow their classmates and friends. for Dean’s Initiatives, which will send her to Korea for a few bridging the gap between the NIC STRAHL (A) has had the ALEXIS SEGEL (SF) went to Italy weeks this summer as a liaison sciences and the humanities, distinct pleasure of marrying after graduation and studied for the students and faculty. She and a 25-percent appointment in Rajneesh Sudhakar, whom she voice for two years in Florence, already misses the skies and the Philosophy Department. met in 2009 through mutual completing a Master of mountains of Santa Fe, but is Specializing in the philosophy of Johnnie friends. Their June 24 Fine Arts degree in Music very excited and grateful to be in medicine, especially evidentiary wedding ceremony and Performance and Literature Boston doing such interesting problems in medical genetics. reception took place in New from Mills College in Oakland, work. California, last spring. This His dissertation, “Explaining York City, surrounded by family, the Evolution of Common friends, and Johnnies. Johnnies spring, she sang the alto soloist LAUREN ROBBINS (AGI) is in a performance of the St. John Genetic Disease,” is a philo- were in the wedding party, getting married in Charlotte on Passion in New London, sophical analysis of the (failed) curated the music, and assisted September 3, 2011, and starting New Hampshire, and has scientific attempts to explain in appropriating and misquoting classes at General Theological returned to the Bay Area, why certain genetic diseases excerpts from Mark Twain Seminary four days later in New where this summer she will be have evolved to be more (among other great book York City. She and her fiancé Jay working with the San Francisco common than others. He began authors) to compose the secular (and their dog!) are very excited Boys Chorus. adapting it into a book manu- wedding vows. The ceremony about the move. script this past summer. was emceed by a member of the SEAN VALLES (A) married United States Navy. MARGOT BEHREND (A06) in 2007, and received his PhD from TESS GILMAN (SF) and JESSE 2008 the History and Philosophy of 2006 POSNER (SF05) are getting married in September 2011 and Science department at Indiana MARGARET HENNESSEY (A) is University, Bloomington in May EMILY NISCH (A) married Jeff are currently loving their new the recipient of the 2011 Mathe- of 2010. Sean began a position Terrell on May 7; Jeff recently home and jobs in the Bay Area. matics Teaching Fellowship by at Michigan State University received his PhD in computer the Knowles Science Teaching ALI BASTIAN (AGI) is beginning that following August, and is science from the University of Foundation. This prestigious, the third year of medical school currently a tenure-track assis- North Carolina, where he and a five-year fellowship will prepare at the University of North tant professor with a dual few Johnnies are starting a her for a career in teaching Dakota. appointment. He has a business based on his research. mathematics, and comes with a 75-percent appointment in the “More broadly, we’re settling JACQUELINE KENNEDY (AGI) two-year teaching commitment Lyman Briggs College of MSU, a into our new home in Durham, to the Durham Public Schools in North Carolina, and loving life.” graduated from law school in residential college within the May and is now fully immersed North Carolina. university with the mission of in preparation for the Florida

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 42 {Alumni}

A Johnnie’s Geometry Business Takes Shape Mathematician Steve Morse’s (A68) intuitive models delight educators. by Laurent Merceron (A08)

he Platonic solids just got a past two years has taught as an adjunct It wasn’t until arriving as a freshman in colorful, 3-D revamp. professor at George Mason University in Annapolis that his impression of mathe- Attendees of the mid-Atlantic Virginia, eagerly describes abstruse matics was turned on its head. “Studying chapter meetings of the geometric concepts in a passionate, almost Euclid was an ideal experience for me, Mathematical Association of giddy manner. He chose the name playing to my geometric sensibilities. It America this past year caught “Dominion Polytopes” both as a reference wasn’t computational; it was reasoning Ta glimpse of the latest build-it-yourself to his home state of Virginia—its nickname is without computation.” geometric models by Dominion Polytopes. Old Dominion—and as a doffing of his hat to It wasn’t long before Morse was engaged The five Platonic solids, along with 13 other renowned 20th-century geometer, H. M. S. in his own mathematical explorations 3-D models for sale at a display table, Coxeter, author of Regular Polytopes and an outside of class. In what he calls “a very delighted and intrigued students and outspoken proponent of the classical satisfying obsession,” he spent hours each professors with their vivid colors and approach to geometry. “I’m part of a small night working on Apollonius’ famous three- intricate designs. The company’s founder, community in mathematics-land that values circle problem, using only a ruler and Steve Morse (A68), is hoping that his 3-D visualization and intuition over algebraic compass for the constructions. By senior kits will make Euclidian geometry more computation,” he says. year, he was proficiently demonstrating intuitive and visually appealing to children, Morse, who has a doctorate in proofs in non-Euclidian geometry, and educators, and the public at large. mathematics, is in many ways a surprising decided that a career in mathematics—as Dominion Polytopes is the result of candidate for such a venture: “I disliked unlikely as that once seemed—was indeed Morse’s decades-long fascination with mathematics when I began at St. John’s. possible. “I found I had a talent for it. I building geometric models, coupled with a The mathematics classes I took in high found confidence in doing it, and decided it desire to promote a more visual approach to school involved banal formulations and was something I could do.” the field of mathematics. Morse, who for the computations, not reasoning,” he recalls. After graduating from St. John’s in 1968, Morse rapidly immersed himself in his newly chosen field; the following year he took a position teaching high-school geometry at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., and in the evenings pursued a master’s degree in numerical science from John Hopkins University. In 1978, he earned his doctorate in mathematics from the Univer- sity of Maryland, College Park, and a year later established himself as a consultant to the defense and intelligence community centered in the Washington, D.C. region. One occupation, however, remained fixed in his mind—building geometric models. “I’ve been building models ever since I finished St. John’s,” he says. “I even had my high school students design and build models for class.” (One notable instance involved Morse and six students building a 14-foot-high walk-in geodesic dome on the exterior grounds of the campus.) The initial models that he began building in the 1970s, constructed from archival-quality matte board that he cut and glued by hand, were mostly simple convex figures. But by 1980, Morse’s command of 3-D modeling had grown to the point where his models had become, “pretty doggone complex.” Each

Steve Morse (A68) encountered Euclid as a math-resistant freshman.

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JOHN NEWTON (A) is nearing PAUL WASSERMAN (AGI) MCGEE, ABIGAIL DANCEY, completion of his JD degree at recently published a volume of JACOB DINK, JESSE KING (SF), U.C. Hastings College of the 2009 poetry, Say Again All, sourced CHASE MCPEAK (A09), DREW Law, after transferring from in his experiences as a soldier in SIZEMORE, EILEEN CHANTI, and LAIRE RIFFIN RIS Indiana University, Bloom- C G and K Iraq. It was primarily written CAROLYN STRIPLING (SF07). ington’s Maurer School of Law. KLOTZ (both A) will celebrate while at the University of The Striplings now reside in He is studying for a tax concen- their second anniversary in London (U.K.), where he went Chicago. tration in addition to the regular August. Nearly two dozen to study comparative literature law degree, and plans to take the Johnnies made the trek out to after completing the program at California Bar in the summer of central Minnesota to see them St. John’s College. 2012. “I am living happily with tie the knot. Kris completed his 2011 my partner, Madeline, and our Master’s at Claremont School of son, Alec, who just turned one Theology this spring and now JUNIA CHO (A) has been in April.” Elected to be the they’re off to Happy Valley, 2010 awarded the 2011 Critical editor-in-chief of the Hastings where Claire will be entering a Language Scholarship by the Constitutional Law Quarterly’s PhD program in philosophy at DONALD GEORGETTE (A) United States Department of 39th Volume for 2011-2012, he Penn State. recently got a job at Sheppard State’s Bureau of Educational is soliciting article submissions and Enoch Pratt Hospital in and Cultural Affairs. She will NATHAN KROSS (A) recently from JD-holding St. John’s Baltimore, as a mental health spend two months this summer published a book of humorous alumni, which can be sent to worker on its Addictions and in South Korea as part of this poetry called The Supervillain him at newtonj@ Mental Illness ward, and will intensive language program. x Sonnets, which can be found at uchastings.edu. begin working on a Masters in www.amazon.com/The- Social Work at the University of CARTER YOUNG (SFGI) writes, Supervillain-Sonnets- Maryland-Baltimore in the fall “I am looking to connect with ebook/dp/B0053NZD4C/. of this year. He invites any other alumni in Toronto, SJC students needing/wanting DALTON LOBO DIAS (A) has Ontario, and hoping to work in any advice on how to get into completed his research year at a school with other Johnnies. the field of Mental Health/ DR. STEVEN HOLLAND’s (A79) I can work as a primary teacher Addictions Treatment/ Laboratory of Clinical Infectious What’s Up? at the secondary level or an Counseling/Psychiatry/ Diseases at NIH and will be instructor at the college level. Psychology to contact him. The College wants to hear from attending The University of I would also love to meet some you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Maryland School of Medicine more Johnnies in Colorado MATTHEW STRIPLING and Let your classmates know what this coming fall. Springs while I am still here.” MALLORY HEPBURN (both SF) you’re doing. were married at St. Stephen’s MARIA LUNSFORD (A) married The College Orthodox Church in fiancé JAMES FULMER (A) on St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800 Crawfordsville, Indiana, on June 11, 2011, in Annapolis, Annapolis, MD 21404 January 9, 2011. Johnnies in Maryland. [email protected] attendance included SKIP

(continued from page 42) of time once required to build one complex out of two very different materials—acrylic model by hand. He begins by making and wood—and is excited by the results: new model required between 80 to 100 calculations in Excel, then drafts each ring “Acrylic sheets are more widely available hours to construct. template using CorelDRAW graphic design than polypropylene, and they leave a nicer, In 2009, Morse bought a compact laser software. “The greatest learning curve polished edge when cut with the laser. And cutter and began experimenting with initially came from trying to figure out how using wood has allowed me to completely cutting thin sheets of polypropylene, the to say what I wanted to say in Corel.” Once redesign my approach; I’m hoping to build same material used for food-storage the model is complete, he types up a set of wooden models that are about twice the size containers, into precisely described rings. user-friendly assembly instructions, and the of my current ones.” He returned to the He fashioned a way to interlock the rings by kit is ready for production. Mathematics Association convention this cutting slots at given lines of intersection. After formulating his business concept, summer to unveil these latest models. The rings could then lock into place—much Morse hired a local web designer to boost his Morse hopes that his kits will make a like a cardboard partition in a case of wine— online presence with a website and online particular impression on professionals to form a 3-D model. store (DomPoly.com), and started taking his working in the mathematics community. It was a clever display of mathematical kits to mathematics conventions. The public “Algebra is in many ways a Faustian bargain. engineering, and meant that his models response has been overwhelmingly positive, I want these models to remind my colleagues could now be easily reproduced and assem- with customers applauding the fact that the of a happier, more fun way, one that recovers bled. “Each model now takes about 30 to 3-D models can both educate and decorate. the use of their intuitive faculties.” 45 minutes to make, depending on the Says Morse, “One customer even happily As the freshman-at-heart says, “I delight number of rings.” told me the model makes a great dog toy.” in these things, and I want to share my With his new laser cutter, Morse designs Recently Morse has been using his laser delight!” x entire kits in about 100 hours—the amount cutter to experiment with building models

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 44 {Alumni Voices}

A Joyce Ride Gregory Rhoades (SFGI89) motorcycles through great American landscapes to reach Piraeus.

by Gregory Rhoades (SFGI89) ike Odysseus, it has taken me 20 years to achieve a home- coming. In my case, it was getting back to St. John’s in Santa Fe, where I had graduated from the LGraduate Institute in 1989. My alumni participation in the Seattle/Puget Sound Chapter lagged after my wife and I moved more than 30 miles north of the city in 2000. In June 2009, resolving to change my habits, I made my first visit back to the Santa Fe campus in 20 years, to participate in the Piraeus contin- uing education program on Stendhal’s The Red and the Black. A round-trip motorcycle tour of 4,500 miles sweetened the deal, taking me through national parks at Arches, Canyonlands, and Mesa Verde on the way. My return route wound through Great Sand Dunes National Park to the top of Pikes Gregory Rhoades (SFGI89) atop Colorado’s Pikes Peak in June 2009—the day after leaving Piraeus in Santa Fe. Peak, and then Badlands National Park, Wounded Knee, and Little Bighorn Battlefield. Naval Academy and historic downtown, and Like reading and discussing great books, Buoyed by my Stendhal experience and a seeing the sights on the Annapolis campus, motorcycle riding involves skill and taking wonderful February 2010 discussion of of which I had only seen pictures. As a long- risks—not unlike the experience of the Plato’s Phaedrus joined by President and time sculler, I especially enjoyed my tour of rowers and sailors on the Annapolis campus. Eleanor Peters in our Seattle/Puget Sound the St. John’s College boathouse. One reaps rewards for exercising those skills: Chapter, I made my first trip to the I returned to Seattle with a rekindled As a solo rider, I find that I’m more Annapolis campus in June 2010 for the desire to participate in the monthly book approachable by other travelers. Without the Piraeus offering of Dostoevsky’s The discussions of the Seattle/Puget Sound cocoon of a car around me, I experience the Brothers Karamazov. This time the discus- Chapter—which has proven to be worth my landscape in a more Joycean way. And it’s sion was sweetened by walking around the more than 70-mile roundtrip ride into the just plain more fun. city each time. The act of shared inquiry in a I’m in my late 50s, but only started riding liberal arts light is sublime. my motorcycle 10 years ago. It took about 5 A round-trip motorcycle In June 2011, I jumped at the chance to years of local and regional trips before I was participate in both the Piraeus offering of up to riding long distances. Now I usually tour of 4,500 miles Joyce’s Ulysses and the Alumni Leadership take one long ride of 3,000 to 6,000 miles sweetened the deal, Forum (ALF) in Santa Fe. I took a “Joyce across the West and Canada each summer. ride” on my motorcycle from my home north As I get older, time has become more taking me through of Seattle down to eastern Oregon and the precious to me. Therefore, I do the Piraeus eastern edge of California, with first-time trips in part to honor friends, classmates, national parks at visits to Yosemite and Death Valley. From and others who have passed away. x Las Vegas, I rode through three national Arches, Canyonlands, parks in Utah: Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, You can reach Greg when he’s not trekking on and Zion. On from the North Rim of the his motorcycle at gregory.rhoades@ and Mesa Verde Grand Canyon to Canyon de Chelly National frontier.com. Monument in Arizona, I arrived in Santa Fe on the way. after riding for more than 3,600 miles.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Obituaries} 45

LAURENCE BERNS (HA00), Laurence Berns leads a ANNAPOLIS TUTOR commencement procession. The college community mourns the sudden death of Laurence Berns (1928-2011) civility of his heart, the life who died of a heart attack on lessons he imparted, the diver- March 3. The community sity and intelligence of his expresses its gratitude for his thoughts, and the twinkle in nearly 40 years of devoted his eyes. service as a member of the The Board of Advisors of the faculty. There will be a memo- Mitchell Gallery of St. John’s rial for him on Saturday, College, the patrons of and September 24 at Homecoming visitors to the Mitchell in Annapolis. Gallery—past, present and Born in Newark, New Jersey, future—are grateful for the Berns graduated from the gentle and wise leadership of University of Chicago with a John Buell Moore Jr. that PhD in International Relations. resulted in the founding of the The great loves of his life were Mitchell Gallery and securing philosophy, political philos- its permanence. ophy, and politics. He taught at JAMES W. CONRAD (CLASS OF St. John’s in Annapolis from 1949) 1960 to 1999 and stayed an A character, pleasant and active member of the college jovial, and active with his class community during his especially during Home- retirement. coming, James W. Conrad Berns never stopped being a donated the American flag used full-time student, in all areas at the All Alumni meetings at of human knowledge. His Homecoming. The son of a enthusiasm and curiosity about banker, Francis and his wife learning, his openness to the Frances (Watson), he grew up world and its joys and prob- in thrall to his grandfather, lems, was unbounded. His Frank Conrad, the Westing- sunny, warmhearted nature was house inventor who pioneered a blessing for all those around early radio. They would tinker him. Above and beyond his together late into the night in being a serious scholar, Berns Kneseth Israel Cemetery in “He understood that a college Frank’s lab, the teenager and was a great storyteller, to his Annapolis on March 7. gallery could be a bridge to the the veteran engineer, and the own as much as his listeners’ Predeceased by two of his surrounding Annapolis joy of that time never left the delight. Not the least of his brothers, he is survived by his community with exhibitions boy. Neither, sadly, did the charms was a beautiful musical wife of 45 years, Gisela, of and opportunities for arts need to measure up to a bril- voice—he just loved to sing! Annapolis, and his daughter education and collaboration liant forefather. His first love Immediately after graduating Anna, son-in-law Joel, and with artists and other arts was anything that flew or from high school in 1946, he grandson Rory of Palo Alto, disciplines,” says Hydee anything that sailed on the sea. enlisted in the military, and California. Schaller, director of the His tragedy was being born too was a photographer at Kimpo Mitchell Gallery. “When the JOHN BUELL MOORE JR., late and with the polio that Army Air Base in Korea. He college decided to establish a (HA01) kept him out of the great was a member of Congregation gallery, John served on an advi- crucibles of his time: World Kneseth Israel in Annapolis. John Buell Moore Jr. (1916- sory board along with directors War II and the Korean conflict. A graveside service was held at 2011) was a dedicated friend of of major art museums to help He loved children, and any St. John’s College, and widely with planning and designing, animal his sons might bring appreciated for the founding meeting frequently with college home was welcome: cats, dogs, and development of the officers and staff.” Moore was a gerbils, snakes, even once a Mitchell Gallery. leader in the local, state, and baby raccoon that would perch There will be a Always curious, he was inter- regional arts community as on his shoulder. He liked memorial for ested in the life of the mind and well. For Moore it was always a fireworks, golf, bagpipes, and Mr. Berns on Saturday, deeply engaged with the arts. matter of seeing the myriad the occasional cigar. If you September 24, at 1 p.m. Moore agreed with others that possibilities in things, large liked to listen, he was a remark- at Homecoming in an intimate environment to and small. Moore will be keenly able conversationalist. His Annapolis. contemplate and study works of missed by his friends and memory was extraordinary— art could enhance the college. colleagues because of the 46 {Obituaries}

Remembering Charles G. Bell, Tutor

It was clear from remarks given during the memorial service for Charles G. Bell (1916-2010) that he made time to listen to those who needed him. It was also clear that he could almost always be found in the upper branches of a tall tree. Colleagues, friends, and family gathered on the Santa Fe campus to honor Bell on May 22, 2011. The service was a tribute from both the college and his family. Arriving guests listened to St. John’s tutor David Bolotin perform works for the piano by Bach and Beethoven and watched a slideshow: family pictures, images from his travels, photos of Bell in his cap and gown at various graduation ceremonies, even Bell in the high branches of an enormous tree. As the images progressed, guests heard a recording of Bell’s “matchless voice” reading his own poetry. Following the memorial, guests sampled one of his favorite Charles Bell in his study. drinks, Pickwick punch, a concoction of boxed burgundy wine, grape juice, and a splash of rum. St. John’s President Michael Peters and then-Dean Victoria Mora gave tribute to Bell’s dedication to the college. Bell’s Bell is survived by his five daughters: Nona Estrin and Delia daughter Sandra Colt recalled how her father opened the family Robinson of Montpelier, Vermont; Carola Bell of Santa Fe; home over the years to people in need of support. “Real acts of Charlotte Samuels of Fairfax, California; and Sandra Colt (SF75) generosity involve risk,” she said. “By stretching the limits of of Belgrade, Maine; and by many grandchildren and great- our comfort, our lives in turn are enriched.” grandchildren. After his memorial celebration in May, Bell’s Dustin Gish, who as a student at the University of Oklahoma, ashes were scattered privately in the mountain stream above met Bell when he came to teach a course at the college, said Bell Santa Fe where in 2004 he scattered Danny’s ashes. was, “of course, high up in a tree behind his motel,” and “surveying the mundane realm with a keen, penetrating eye.” Curtis Wilson, tutor emeritus in Annapolis, pays tribute to Another of Bell’s daughters, Carola Middlemore Bell, shared Bell and a life that he writes, “had a singular unity of purpose.” her father’s love of books and poetry. At home in his study, she It was, he said, “a fond attempt to bring all realms of knowledge would point out to him a poem like “Kubla Khan” by Coleridge. into creative cognizance.” He would adjust his spectacles, then “smile again with To read Wilson’s tribute to Bell visit: recognition” before sharing the words once again with his www.stjohnscollege.edu/news. x daughter. She closed with a poem her father loved, “Lines —James Williams Above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth: GNOMIC “…And I have felt The night each plows A presence that disturbs me with the joy A furrow of death Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime In the field of stars Of something far more deeply interfused, Who calls? Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, I am nothing And the round ocean and the living air, But one with the one And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: That makes the nothing A motion and a spirit, that impels All. All thinking things, all objects of all thought, —Charles G. Bell And rolls through all things.”

tossed back into a city he after his home—the fast attack the Connecticut Sound like a Virginia, Philip of San Diego hadn’t visited in 25 years, he USS Pittsburgh and the boomer muscle car built by the gods. and David in Pittsburgh; could navigate you out of boat USS Pennsylvania. One of His brother Harry died in four grandchildren: Elizabeth, trouble in a jiffy. his sons took a ride on the 1991. He is survived by his Caroline, Bennett, and Olivia; He was a member of the former, and never forgot the younger brother David of Los and his beautiful and tolerant Pittsburgh Aero club for more experience of standing up in Altos Hills, California and his wife of 56 years, Margaret than 50 years. Late in his the sail with his father, as the sister Susan of Pittsburgh, (Clement). He was 83. career, he helped raise money massive thing roared through Pennsylvania; three sons: to have two submarines named James Jr. of Alexandria,

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Obituaries} 47

SYDNEY WAYNE PORTER JR., ZACHARY TODD JEMISON Zack is survived by his loving NICOLAS H. EKSTROM, CLASS (CLASS OF 1954), APRIL 23, (SF97), JUNE 25, 2011 wife, Anne Jemison, of George- OF 1961, MAY 16, 2011 2011 Zachary Todd Jemison of town; parents, Dave and Kelley WILLIAM ENGELHARD, CLASS He was involved in radiation Jemison of Austin; sister, Emily Georgetown, Texas, died after a OF 1952, OCTOBER 2, 2005 safety with both the Navy courageous battle with cancer. Francis and many other loving nuclear submarines and also Husband, son, brother, uncle, friends and extended family. A ARMANDO GUADIANA, SF81, with nuclear power plants. friend—he was a true giver. service celebrating Zack’s life MAY 13, 2011 When Three Mile Island Jemison was born October 7, was held on July 6, 2011, in JAENET N. GUGGENHEIM, SF88, occurred, Porter was one of first 1975, in Seattle, Washington. Austin. In lieu of flowers, APRIL 5, 2011 radiation safety experts at the His childhood took him to live memorial contributions can be scene. He and his team worked in Bloomington, Indiana; Palo made to Williamson County EDWARD JACOBS, CLASS OF 1954, NOVEMBER 4, 2010 18-hour days for months, Alto, California; EMS (c/o Joe Granberry), assessing the damage from a Fontainebleau, France; and 303 Martin Luther King Street, JOHN J. LAMBROS, CLASS OF core meltdown in one of the finally Austin, Texas. He then Georgetown, TX 78626. 1938, FEBRUARY 21, 2011 reactors and supervising the headed to St. John’s College, Personal words of comfort may SAMUEL LARCOMBE, SF68, response. Porter also worked Santa Fe. Austin eventually be sent to the family online at NOVEMBER 5, 2010 with the Mutter Museum in drew him back, and he became www.gabrielsfuneral.com. He Philadelphia to preserve and something of a Zack-of-all- was 35. JEAN LAWSON, SFGI79, restore a piezoelectric sensor trades, working in sales at Dell MARCH 2, 2011 donated by radiation pioneer ALSO DECEASED: and as a liquor store lackey, KATHLEEN A. LEAR, SF72, Marie Curie, whose husband standardized-test grader, TUTOR MOLLY GUSTIN, JUNE 3, 2011 invented it in 1880. This device organic farmhand and more. JUNE 10, 2011 measures pressure acceleration His fave four sang “money RICHARD O. MILLS, AGI82, GERALD ATTERBURY, CLASS OF and other forces. can’t buy me love,” but Cash DECEMBER 21, 2010 1946, MARCH 24, 2011 ended up getting him that. (If LATON ILLEY RR STEVEN T. BRENNER (SFGI83), S T O , SF09, you don’t know the story, CHARLES C. BALDWIN, CLASS UNE JANUARY 16, 2011 J 4, 2011 search for “Jemison” on OF 1946, MAY 27, 2011 A native of Colorado, Brenner kut.org.) After meeting in ADAM A. PINSKER, CLASS OF WILLIAM BANKS, A64, 1952, OCTOBER 29, 2010 graduated from Colorado State Waterloo Records the day after College, now the University of APRIL 25, 2011 Thanksgiving and a swift CLAYTON T. ROWLEY, SFGI87, Northern Colorado, in 1968 courtship (just old-fashioned EARL BAUDER, CLASS OF 1944, DECEMBER 27, 2010 with a degree in English and enough for both of them) and DECEMBER 2, 2010 then served as an officer in the GEORGE E. SAUER, CLASS OF engagement, Zack and Anne ALLAN R. BECKANSTIN, AGI93, Navy from 1969 until 1973. He 1956, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 were married in 2004. They MARCH 6, 2011 received his Graduate Institute counted among their travels a WILLIAM J. SCHWEIDEL, CLASS SALLY R. BELL, SF74, degree in 1983. Steve cherished honeymoon in Belize; holidays OF 1963, NOVEMBER 12, 2010 NOVEMBER 17, 2010 the experience of his studies at in Paris; heading west to Santa St. John’s, beginning with his FREDERICK P. S EELIG, CLASS Fe and Telluride; a recent jaunt W. JAMES BIENEMANN, A66, graduate work, and continuing OF 1956 to New York City; and too darn APRIL 21, 2011 through active participation in many to Houston. BARBARA W. SILLS, CLASS OF FRANCIS E. BURROUGHS, CLASS many community seminars Zack’s desire to give led him 1960, OCTOBER 19, 2010 over the years. He especially OF 1942, NOVEMBER 29, 2010 to return to school and pursue THEODORE B. STINCHECUM, valued a two-year study of a career as a paramedic, WILLIAM A. CARTER, CLASS OF CLASS OF 1961, MARCH 24, Marcel Proust in 2004 to 2006, somehow a perfect use for that 1940, SEPTEMBER 11, 2010 2011 with tutor Jim Cohn. Steve’s encyclopedic mind of his. CH’AO-LI CHI, CLASS OF 1947, JOSEPH SWEENEY, AGI86, career as a court reporter Stationed at Williamson OCTOBER 16, 2010 SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 allowed him to pursue his County EMS in Taylor (Medic deeper interests: a wide- 42), though his time there was ELOISE COLLINGWOOD, A79, JAMES SYKES, CLASS OF 1951, ranging passion for music, too short, he found a calling as APRIL 17, 2011 DECEMBER 29, 2008 including his 30-year study of a public servant. Life in Austin GIRARD COSTELLO, CLASS OF the guitar, and a carefully culti- CHRISTOPHER A. THOMAS, and later Georgetown consisted 1960, SEPTEMBER 5, 2010 A10, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010 vated ability to read the world’s of him cooking many a holiday WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, CLASS great literature closely and meal, following an intensive LESTER A. WALL, CLASS OF OF 1953, OCTOBER 3, 2010 with insight. In recent years, he regimen of quality TV shows 1937, JANUARY 18, 2011 had been delving deeply into a and movies, caring for a cat and JOHN M. CUDDIHY, CLASS OF study of his favorite book, MARILYN S. WILLIAMSON, then her kittens, and 1946, APRIL 18, 2011 AGI81, APRIL 15, 2011 Hermann Broch’s The Death of remaining a music aficionado GEORGE DEPUE, CLASS OF Virgil. Steve is missed by his (country, western, rock and/or J. RODNEY WHETSTONE, CLASS 1961, MAY 16, 2011 OF 1944, MARCH 4, 2011 family and his many friends in roll—live and otherwise) of the the Santa Fe St. John’s commu- highest order. JAMES F. DUGAN, A93, MARCH nity. He was 65. 22, 2011

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 48 {Croquet}

A HIGH FORM OF FLATTERY

by Laurent Merceron (A08)

nlookers gathered Class Dan Abney, would be a around the steps tough one to beat. “They’ve of the Barr- definitely been getting better and Buchanan Center more serious, “says St. John’s for the most antic- Imperial Wicket Blake Myers. ipated moment of After a close first couple of Othe 29th St. John’s-United States matches, the Johnnie team pulled Naval Academy Croquet Match— ahead to win, three games to two. the unveiling of the Johnnie’s The crowd stayed on for a few themed uniforms. The crowd more hours. erupted in cheers and surprised laughter when the team Match opener triumphantly strode down the front Celebrating his 70th reunion, steps wearing near-replicas of the alumnus Henry Robert (class of Navy team’s traditional all-white 1941) hit the first ball, a ceremo- uniforms. nial match opener. Robert, who Throughout the day, spectators was invited by the Annapolis had to observe closely the details of Imperial Wicket Blake Meyers (A11) shows off his shaved head and nostalgic croquet mallet. Alumni Office to be an honorary players’ uniforms, as competitors guest at this year’s event, from each team orbited around proclaimed to the crowd before each other on the courts while A tremendous turnout his shot, “I’m now a St. John’s man taking their shots. Scruffy, white sneakers The 2011 match for the Annapolis Cup through-and-through!” Robert is the helped distinguish the Johnnies from their Croquet Match boasted everything that grandson of General Henry M. Robert, military rivals, but it was an even smaller fans of this annual 29-year tradition have author of the preeminent guide to detail that revealed their guise: the Navy come to expect—vintage fashions, cham- parliamentary procedure, Robert’s Rules team had playing-card emblems on their x pagne picnics, lawn-game heroics—though of Order. cardigans, but the Johnnies’ cardigans this year’s event will undoubtedly be featured veggies circled by a Mark Twain remembered for something else: drawing a quote: “Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage crowd. “I’m not an official crowd esti- with a college education.” mator,” says Annapolis tutor Thomas May, St. John’s Imperial Wicket Blake Myers “but this is the largest crowd I’ve ever seen (A11) says his team’s white cardigans with at this event.” More than 3,000 attended. matching gold-letter “N’s” were “the real Beneath clear, sunny skies, spectators thing: they were ordered from the same near the croquet courts watched the company that the Navy team orders theirs. competition unfold, while others sipped That company actually just went out of champagne or started swing dancing. business. While every Johnnie got a Mostly, people came to show off the latest sweater, a couple of the Midshipmen in garden-party fashions, as bow ties and didn’t.” parasols, starch-white Navy uniforms, and The Navy team was clearly impressed cloche hats blended into a stylish, colorful and flattered by their competitors’ springtime panorama. creativity and attention to detail. The Johnnies entered the competition “I thought it was great! It was the best knowing that this year’s Navy team, led by Henry Robert (class of 1941) and theme they’ve ever done!” declared Navy’s their Imperial Wicket, Midshipman First President Chris Nelson (SF70). Imperial Wicket Dan Abney.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Croquet} 49

Sing, Heavenly Muse

During the opening ceremony for croquet, two members of the original St. John’s croquet team, Adrian Trevisan (A84) and Claiborne Booker (A84) announced a contest for the composition of a new St. John’s College school anthem. The Trevisan-Booker Prize aims to find new lyrics for the college’s official—and little- heard—song, the “St. John’s College March” (known colloquially as “St. John’s Forever”). Fittingly the duo announced the competition on the centenary of the date when the older song was composed—1911. Dismayed by the lack of a unifying song for the college and by the current song’s reputation as an archaic curiosity, the two alums had a brainstorm: a contest to find a song that speaks more directly to the St. John’s community. “The current ‘St. John’s College March’ song has fallen into disuse, and we thought this would be something fun to do,” says Trevisan. According to the contest’s written announcement, a cash prize of $1,696 will be awarded “to whomever updates [the March’s] lyrics to make our school song more relevant to the Program.” In addition, the two men are hoping to find someone interested in composing a new musical arrangement for the prize-winning lyrics. The winner of the contest will be announced on January 31, 2012, with the new lyrics being performed for the first time at the 2012 Croquet Match. Says Booker, “We want to find something that Johnnies would be happy to sing.” x

For more information on the contest, visit: www.stjohnscollege.edu/resources/an/1112_sjcforever_lyric_contest.pdf.

Counterclockwise (from top): “Beat Navy!” buttons; Adrian Trevisan (A84) and Claiborne Booker (A84); St. John’s team on the left (Navy on the right); John Dusenbury (A11) takes a shot; Members of the class of ’84; waltzing on the lawn.

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 50 {Alumni Association}

ALUMNI LEADERSHIP FORUM 2011 Initiatives to involve Johnnies in recruiting, mentoring, fundraising

he Alumni Leadership Forum 2011 convened with about Among the Alumni Association’s accomplishments is the restructuring of its 60 participants in Santa Fe leadership into a small governing board. The result is a structure in which alumni on June 10-12. This second volunteerism can make an impact, while the board concentrates on strategy and gathering of alumni leaders policy governance. Welcome to a new slate of leaders: Matt Calise (A00), John focused on starting up Clasby (A95), Bill Gregoricus (SFGI01), Erin Hanlon (SF03), Katie Heines (SF82), several new programs, designed to bring and Adrian Trevisan (A84) joined the board; Lee Katherine Goldstein (SFGI90) and T Phelosha Collaros (SF00) became Alumni Association president and president-elect, more alumni into action as volunteers and involved members of the college respectively. They join Patricia Sollars, (A80), past president; Dick Cowles, community. (SFGI95), treasurer; and Liz Travis, (SF83), secretary. ALF, as the forum is known, serves to inform alumni about college priorities and issues. This year, campus presidents Mike Peters and Chris Nelson provided a summary of the college’s financial picture, which they outlined as depending on two main factors: a strong admissions program, and a need-based financial aid program. The difficult economy is putting pressure on families, who then require greater finan- cial assistance to meet tuition and other college costs, explained Nelson. Mike Peters noted the importance of alumni support for many initiatives at the college: making gifts to The Fund for St. John’s, which provides 6% of the college’s substantial financial aid budget; working with the Career Services offices to provide mentoring for current students and young alumni; and serving as advocates for the admissions efforts. Identifying and recruiting Class Agents was a major initiative of the weekend. Class Agents will work with college staff to Presidents Mike Peters and Chris Nelson (SF70) (l. to r.) called on alumni encourage giving to the college and atten- throughout the weekend, inspiring them to step forward in support of St. John’s. dance at Homecoming, as well as providing news and updates between alumni and the college through the college website, and included a focus on chapter activities in the on the alumni website: Facebook, and The College magazine. many cities with St. John’s Alumni Associa- www.stjohnscollge.edu/alumni and Face- Alumni from 17 states and all eras— tion chapters. book page, “St. John’s College Alumni.” undergraduate and graduate—participated Look for more on the Class Agent ALF 2012 will be held on June 8-10, in in the weekend’s events, which also program and other volunteer opportunities Annapolis. x

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Alumni Association} 51

Clockwise : Liz Travis ( SF84) and Sanjay Poovadan (SF83); (l. to r.) Tamaki Ishii (SF12), Jim Williams, senior writer, communications, Barbara Lucero-Sand, career services; (l. to r.) Lee Katherine Goldstein (SFGI90), AAB President, Patty Sollars (A80), past president, and Phelosha Collaros (SF00), president elect. Homecoming 2011 Annapolis Santa Fe

Friday, September 23, 2011 Friday, September 16, 2011 4-8 p.m. Registration, Coffee Shop 4-8 p.m. Registration, Thorpe Room 5 p.m. Alumni/Student Networking Reception 4:30-6 p.m. Alumni/Student Networking Reception 8:15 p.m. Concert, Bill Charlap Jazz Trio 6-8 p.m. Welcome Home Reception After Concert Reception with current seniors 8 p.m. Lecture, Janet Dougherty, Plato’s Statesman Saturday, September 24, 2011 9 p.m. Post-Lecture Question Period 8:30-11:30 a.m. Registration, the Coffee Shop Saturday, September 17, 2011 9:30-10:15 a.m. State of the College, Honorary Alumni 8:30 a.m.-noon. Registration, Thorpe Room Celebration 10 a.m.-noon. Seminars/Story Hours 10:30 a.m. Seminars/Story Hours 12:15-1:30 p.m. State of the College Luncheon, Noon. Lunch on the Lawn Alumni Awards, Honorary and Merit 1-3:30 p.m. Class Photos, Children’s Carnival 1:30-2:30 p.m. Book Signing, Class Photos 2-3 p.m. Planetarium Demonstration led by Jim Beall 2:30-4:30 p.m. Bocce Ball Tournament and Kids’ Lawn Games 3 p.m. Freshman Chorus Revisited, Mitchell Gallery Tour on the Soccer Field 4 p.m. Soccer Classic, Book Signing. 5-7 p.m. Art Show Opening and Reception A conversation and presentation, “So Reason Can Rule: 6:30-8 p.m. Waltz /Swing Party The Necessity for Racial Integration at St. John’s College” 8 p.m. Down thru the Decades Dance Party 6 p.m. Cocktail Party Sunday, September 18, 2011 7:30 p.m. Banquet 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. President’s Brunch 9:30 p.m. Reception, Rock Party, Waltz/Swing Party Sunday, September 25, 2011 For the full schedule of events and to register please visit: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. President’s Brunch www.stjohnscollege.edu/alumni

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } 52 {St. John’s Forever} hans marx An Illustrated Conversation

hat’s he saying? In this strike a dramatic pose and share a somewhat photo, circa 1954, three fantastical reptilian drawing. We invite you, dear years after the college readers, to tell us about Dvorak and Jacobs’ conver- admitted women for the first sation. Please send to The College (TheCollege@ time in its 254-year history, sjca.edu or Communications Office, St. John’s Barbara (Dvorak) Winiarski College, PO Box 2800, Annapolis, MD W(class of 1955) and Bernard E. Jacob (class of 1954) 21404-2800). x

{ The College• St. John’s College • Fall 2011 } {Eidos}

Lens on the Land of Enchantment

Deborah Moll (A69)

eborah Moll (A69) began taking photographs as a youth in Oxford, Maryland, a small town on the Eastern Shore. Although both of her parentsD had attended art school, she was encouraged to go to college. She has always been grateful for discovering St. John’s. She arrived in Annapolis shortly after the founding of the Santa Fe campus and heard intriguing tales about New Mexico. After graduating, Moll moved to Austin, Texas, where she received her MA in English and a JD degree from the University of Texas. She relocated to Santa Fe. When not working as an attorney for various New Mexico state agencies and as general counsel for the New Mexico General Services Department, Moll photographed New Mexico places. Now retired, Moll continues this exploration. “In many ways New Mexico is like a foreign country,” she says. “It is not difficult to find interesting and striking subjects, and with the advent of digital [cameras], photography has become more approachable and versatile.” Moll primarily works in color. Her subjects include landscapes, historic and other structures, botanicals and wildlife. She has exhibited her work in Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Silver City, and at the Northern New Mexico Regional Art Center. She can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected]. shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. It is Clockwise (top, l. to r.): thought to be the oldest such shrine in the Santa Cruz Church, Ojo Caliente. One of country and is still in use. New Mexico’s oldest churches, Santa Cruz “Sprite” Parjarito Plateau. The “little Catholic Church was built sometime bird” plateau was formed from volcanic between 1793 and 1811 when it was eruptions in and around the Valles Caldera licensed. Ojo Caliente is situated beneath a of the Jemez Mountains. The plateau mesa where ruins of the Tewa people’s stretches from the Valles Caldera to the pueblo (1300s to 1500s) have been found. White Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande Today Ojo Caliente is known for its hot River. This photograph was taken on springs and mineral baths. New Mexico Route 4 between Bandelier Santuario de Nuestra Señora de National Monument and the town of great houses built in Chaco Canyon by the Guadalupe, Santa Fe. Franciscan mission- White Rock. Chacoan people between the mid-to-late aries built the Santuario of Our Lady of Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon National 800s. The park was designated a World Guadalupe between 1776 and 1796 as a Historical Park. Pueblo Bonito is one of the Heritage Site in 1987. x

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