B o WD OIN M a g a z i n e v ol. 82 V o l . 8 2 ­ n o . 1 ­ ­ W i n T e r ­ 2 0 1 1­ ­ n o. 1 W Bowdoi­n INTER 2011 Africana­ Studies A World diAlogue, A CAmpus ConversAtion nCaa MoMents: Field­Hockey­Wins­THird­ naTional­cHampionsHip,­ men’s­soccer­aT­Final­Four Was­HaWTHorne’s­FirsT­ diary­a­Hoax? Winter 2011­ Contents 20 Africana Studies A World Dialogue, A Campus Conversation By selBy FrAme • photogrAphs By BriAn Wedge ’97 Bowdoin’s Africana Studies program is fast becoming a major crossroads for some of the most innovative inter- discipinary teaching and research at the College. Selby Frame talks to faculty and students about the program, its history, and its influences. 30 A Downeast­Huck­Finn? By proFessor WilliAm WAtterson And devon shApiro ’13 illustrAtions By Chelée ross ’12 Professor Watterson and student Devon Shapiro debate the veracity of a purported early first diary of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s. 38 Moments­in­the­Game photogrAphs By BriAn Wedge ’97 A photographic look back at the third national championship for field hockey and the first appearance in the Final Four for men’s soccer. BowdoinM a g a z i n e deparTmenTs mailbox 2 Bookshelf 8 Bowdoinsider 10 Alumnotes 42 Class news 43 Weddings 68 obituaries 75 | l e t t e r | Bowdoin From the­ediTor mAgAZine volume 82, number 1 A thousand Words Winter, 2011 y daughter turned twenty-two a couple of months ago. Her birthday is Magazine staFF mjust after the holidays, so every year when I ask her what is on her birth- editor day wish list, I do so with a little bit of trepidation at the idea of more spending. Alison m. Bennie And she still doesn’t have an iPhone… associate Editor matthew J. o’donnell But, although I suspect she would still happily take a fancy new phone, what design she actually asked for this year was unexpected. She asked for family photos. Charles pollock Specifically, she wanted a particular photo of me with my father, a particular Jim lucas pennisi & lamare photo of her father with his father, and a particular photo of my parents in their portland, maine twenties – all printed and framed similarly. A set of black and white, gallery- contributors framed family pictures, none of them including her. douglas Boxer-Cook James Caton Maybe, on the cusp of college graduation, about to move on into the world in John r. Cross ’76 travis dagenais ’08 so many different ways, it was a way to carry her history with her as she goes, to susan danforth provide a sense of identity the way that surrounding herself with artifacts from selby Frame Cecelia greenleaf Maine, her favorite books, and the baby pictures of herself and her brother have scott W. hood since she left for college. Maybe the watchful eyes of parents and grandparents Cal pershan ’12 Chelée ross ’12 move from annoying to comforting when you get beyond a certain age or life- Alix roy ’07 stage. Maybe it was just that she could envision them as a nice, graphic state- photographs by dean Abramson, ment on one of the walls of her apartment. dennis griggs, Brian Wedge ’00, and Bowdoin College Archives. Whatever the reason, it was a request that made me smile. I spend a lot of time BoWdoin (issn, 0895-2604) in my work on the magazine arranging, editing, and thinking about photo- is published four times a year by graphs. They can be powerful and convey so much so simply when done right Bowdoin College, 4104 College station, Brunswick, maine 04011. printed by and, when not, can dilute or confuse what we want to say. Sometimes we owe J.s. mcCarthy, Augusta, maine. third- the success to sheer serendipity, sometimes to good planning – always to talent class postage paid at Augusta, maine. sent free of charge to all Bowdoin in our photographers. In the portraits that Brian Wedge ’97 did of our faculty alumni/ae, parents of current and members, I think you can see the passion for their subject, the intensity of their recent undergraduates, faculty and staff, seniors, and selected members of the teaching, their wisdom. In this world of multi-media, we could give it to you Association of Bowdoin Friends. with motion, with audio. But it’s there, too, in just two dimensions. opinions expressed in this magazine And I was hesitant in some ways to use the fall sports photos in this issue. Again, are those of the authors. in a digital age, anything that happened longer ago than last week is old news. send class news to classnews@ bowdoin.edu or mail to the address But the moments are so strong and full of heart, so plainly depict the excite- above. Advertising inquiries? please ment and achievement of the players, that sharing them is a must. And, although e-mail [email protected] or fax 207-725-3003. please send we love it when we can be timely, the magazine is not so much a document of address changes to the mailing now, I think. It goes on the shelf, it slips into the archives, and it says – like the address above. send letters to the editor to that address or by e-mail to pictures I framed for my daughter – “this was.” [email protected]. AMB [email protected] 1 mailboxBoWdoin Kudos to Career Counseling Radio silence Dear Editor, Dear Editor, I was very pleased to read, in the Summer Reading Dave Wilkinson’s ’67 2010 issue of Bowdoin, the article on note about WBOR and NASB Bowdoin’s Career Planning Center. (“Mailbox,” Bowdoin, Summer 2010) This very crucial activity has brought to mind my experience. certainly come a long way since my In 1954 I was station manager of experience in the fall of 1963. At WBOA enjoying broadcasting from that time, I had started my first year excellent facilities on the second at Boston College Law School and floor of the Moulton Union. realized after two months that law Unfortunately, our weak signal didn’t was not for me. Somehow the idea reach across the street to Hyde, of a career in the stock brokerage Winthrop, and points beyond. Clark Lawrence Hall’s Bird about Highway Beautification industry appealed to me. Neill ’56 was chief engineer and had I placed a call to Sam Ladd ’29, friends at BNAS. Their technical help Dear Editor, who was functioning as a one-man resulted in a tall whip antenna being The Provincetown Banner, an Outer de facto career counseling operation, installed on the top of the building. Cape Cod newspaper, sometimes and explained my situation. He got Neill also hooked up as an antenna runs articles from the past of current back to me within a day, told me the wire that stretched between the interest, and [a recent] one includes of a unique Merrill Lynch training union and the field house and which an article about Lady Bird Johnson’s program, and suggested I contact we used to broadcast basketball highway beautification program of them. He also offered to write a letter games. We then entered into a 1967, and an associated quotation: of recommendation. golden age where our broadcasts “Professor Lawrence S. Hall of I was fortunate enough to be were being picked up all over the Bowdoin College says [Truro’s accepted, and this started me on a career surrounding areas, including Topsham unspoiled highway] is as urgently in path that has been more than rewarding. and Harpswell. We sold advertising to need of ‘beautification’ as da Vinci’s I credit Bowdoin and Sam Ladd for the local merchants and were much Mona Lisa is in need of a ‘home giving me direction, and hope this complimented by all and sundry on permanent.’” activity will continue to guide future the campus. In the spring of ’55, I Before beginning my freshman generations of Bowdoin students. I was walking by Mass Hall when Dean English class with Professor Hall, I encourage all alums to participate in Nate Kendrick spotted me and said heard two things about him. First, the career counseling program. that President Coles wished to see “do not miss class, even in severe me immediately. I hustled in and was Sincerely, weather.” The story was that several informed in no uncertain terms to Barry N. Wish ’63 years earlier, he has skied to class in close the radio station down. Seems deep snow from his house many miles thai Connections the FCC had sent a telegram that away, excoriating and down-grading morning threatening a fine of $25,000 those who claimed they couldn’t get Dear Editor, and jail time as our signal had been to class from their dorms because I read the alumni magazine article on picked up in Boston. This only of the drifts. Second, one of the Bennett Haynes, Class of ’08, with happened occasionally, mind you, freshman trials that year was knowing much interest. It seems we travelled “when the clouds were right or stars the profane answer to the question, similar paths. In 1983 I arrived at aligned—whatever.” Radio silence “Where is Lawrence Hall?”—which Bowdoin from Bangkok, Thailand. I was observed from that point on. was not a request for directions went back to Thailand in 1989 after Sincerely, to a building of that name. This obtaining a master’s in environmental Paul DuBrule ’56 question is, what was Professor Hall’s studies from Yale University connection to a section of Route 6 in and worked in conservation and Paying it Forward, Truro [Mass.], and/or to Lady Bird reforestation in the province of Chiang Bowdoin style Johnson? Perhaps your readers can Mai.