Macalester Today November 1998 Macalester College

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11-1-1998 Macalester Today November 1998 Macalester College

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year ot college. Others, surprisingly, come Muslim alums who believe and practice Ted Mitau to a very orthodox faith in Jesus Christ dur- everything of the faiths that have been REBECCA GONZALEZ-CAMPOY'S arti- ing their stay on Grand Avenue. Each handed down to them. cle, "The Lasting Legacy of Ted Mitau" week they quietly leave campus to attend Jay Cline '92 (May Macalester Today), was just excellent. garden-variety Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Washington, D.C. I am one o\ the multitude of his students Covenant, Evangelical Free and Assembly who is still inspired by his words and deeds. of God churches in the surrounding com- Regarding his futile attempt to rescue munity. They read their Bibles in their Fulfilling lives his mother from Nazi Germany, I have dormitory rooms, pray regularly and meet in UPON READING the August issue of President Charles Turck's recollection of small groups for Christian fellowship. After Macalester Today, I felt somewhat that on a cassette: "Ted came to see me. four years they graduate, join neighborhood depressed at learning of the wonderful and He had received a communication from a congregations in cities across the country fulfilling lives led by so many Macites. group in Cuba. They could gee his mother and continue their spiritual journeys. My thoughts turned to my own life now out of Germany and to St. Paul for $500. It is thus discouraging to be reminded that I am "in the autumn of my years," and I thought it sounded suspicious but I didn't quarterly by Macalester Today that tradi- compared it to those described in the mag- say that to Ted. I said we would give him tional Christianity continues to be azine. How come I have not lived such a the $500 hut he insisted it be a loan. Well, he never did see his mother. Ted paid every dime of that $500 back and he did that on a meager salary! Very few people know that story." Cindy and Tim Hultquist '72 deserve a thank you from all ot us who were inspired and challenged by Dr. Mitau. The G. Theodore Mitau Distinguished Professor- ship in the Social Sciences which they endowed is a fitting tribute to this great teacher and distinguished citizen. Don I. Wortman '51 Albuquerque, N.M.

Editors' note: The writer, who was named a Macalester Distinguished Citizen in 1970, is retired after a long and notable career with the federal government. Professors G. Theodore Mitau, right, and J. Huntley Dupre, left, share a joke in this 1949 photo. Between them are Professors Yahya Armajani and Dorothy Jacobson.

Religion marginalized and ridiculed at my alma fulfilling life as David Kachel '53 and his JAN SHAW-FLAMM'S two pieces in the mater. I have frequently found this a wife, Nancy '55? Did I squander the many August issue of Macalester Today [personal strange, yet tragic, irony for a college opportunities available to me not only essay on "Why I go to church" and profile whose mantra is tolerance and diversity. while on campus, but over the past 40-odd of Presbyterian minister Sally Abrahams David A. Frenz '92 years? What contributions have I made to Hill '51] exemplify an approach to Chris- Duluth, MN 55812-2315 society as a whole? tianity that is fashionable on many liberal e-mail: [email protected] Based on the many successful lives of arts campuses and in certain denomi- the described alumni, it would seem that nations. THANK YOU for covering religious my adult life has had little in it to rave Predictably, traditionalists are carica- themes in not one but two articles in the about, but on further reflection I realized tured as intellectual gimps who are hateful, August issue. Religion doesn't usually get that the vast majority of Macalester gradu- intolerant and fundamentally out o\ touch this much press at Macalester. ates could ask themselves the same with truths that modern biblical scholars I would like to challenge Macalester question. Many of us have wasted opportu- are apparently uncovering. In these tales of Today to go outside the comfort zone and nities and failed to exploit our real progress, Macalester faculty and alumni press a little deeper than it has in these two capabilities throughout our lives. How- represent the vanguard of religious enlight- articles and in the May 1997 feature on ever, the very act of reading about the enment in a Christian culture that is Macalester's Presbyterianism. The standard exploits of fellow Macites, some graduates, hopelessly backward and mired in the past. has become to highlight folks who have some not, encouraged me to review my Although this is the official face of many complaints with the religion of their connections to the college and its influ- Macalester, the campus has always been upbringing, and who bring their political ence on my life. Rather than dwell on home to Christians of traditional persua- activism into the place of worship. Cer- what 1 had not accomplished, 1 focused on sions. Some students bring these beliefs tainly Macalester is more diverse than this the kind of person I became, and how the with them when they arrive for their first one point of view. four undergraduate years at Macalester It would be very intriguing, for example, influenced that. to see a feature on Jewish, Christian and continued on page 4S MACALESTER TODAY ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Macalester Today 2 At Macalester Director of College THE CAMPAIGN begins; two biology majors shine; a salute to Bruce Dayton; Doug Stone and other campus news. Executive Editor Nancy A. Peterson 10 Mike Today Managing Editor Jon Halvorsen PRESIDENT McPherson listens to the news from Lake Wobegon. Art Director Elizabeth Edwards page 5 Class, Notes Editor 11 Alumni & Faculty Books Robert Kerr '92

Macalester College 15 Alumni News Chair, Board of Trustees MOLLY McGinnis Stine '87 makes connections with the Alumni Board. Timothy A. Hultquist 72 Plus: Alumni trip to Russia. President Michael S. McPherson Vice President for College Advancement 21 Jury Duty Richard Allen Ammons 'IT'S NOT enough to care. You also have to be able to accomplish things,' Alumni Director says the State Department's Allan Jury 75. Elizabeth Rammer Associate Alumni Director Jennifer Patti '91 22 Ssons and Dottirs Alumni Director Emeritus ICELANDIC alumni have warm feelings fo>rr their homeland. A. Phillips Beedon '28 Macalester Today (Volume 87, Number 1) 26 Rave Reviews is published by Macalester College. It is mailed free of charge to alumni and ROY Gabay '85 is Macaiester's first Tony Award winner. friends of the college tour times a year. Circulation is 25,000. For change of address, please write: 31 Common Ground Alumni Office, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN THREE generations, two disciplines, one city 55105-1899. Or call (651) 696-6295. Toll-free: 1-888-242-9351. To submit comments or ideas, write: 33 Harry s Excellent Adventure Macalester Today, College Relations, THE FOUNDER of the World Press Institute at the above address. Phone: (651) 696-6452. Fax: (651) 696-6192. enjoys another career. E-mail: [email protected] page 26

On the cover 34 Macalester Yesterday Steve Woit TEACHER and preacher Edwin Kagin photographed three Macites on the steps of a college- owned house near 36 Class Notes campus. The house and others are rented to new faculty, introducing 49 Macrocosm them to the positive aspects of ANDY Sullivan '92 was struck by a wave of weddings. living close to Mac. The properties are administered by Macaiester's High Winds Fund, which seeks to maintain and enhance the surrounding community. See page 31. NOVEMBER 1998 I AT MACALESTER

"Let the campaign begin!" declared President McPherson, center, ringing a handbell — shaped like the bell in Macalester's Bell Tower — to officially begin Touch the Future, The Campaign for Macalester College. Joining him on stage Oct. 2 at the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center Concert Hall were (from left) recent grads Luis Saenz '98 and Aukse Jurkute '98; Tim Hultquist '72, chair of Macalester's Board of Trustees; current student R.T. Luczak '99; and classics Professor Andy Overman. See back cover photo. Macalester announces $50 million campaign Largest campaign in the college's history seeks to 'Touch the Future' ACALESTER has publicly business and social issues, presentations Commons into a student-services center, announced a $50 million com- by Macalester President Michael S. the recent completion of the new George M prehensive campaign — the McPherson and several faculty members, Draper Dayton Residence Hall, which largest in the college's history. as well as musical per- includes a wellness Touch the Future, The Campaign for formances by some of center and seminar Macalester College will help support stu- Macalester's favorite 'We have to rely rooms for classes, and dent financial aid, collaborative research groups. renovation of the between faculty and students, construction The $50 million on alumni and friends Olin-Rice Science of a new Campus Center and other pro- campaign will raise: of the college to carry forward Center. grams that help prepare students to • $24 million to Macalester's mission • $10 million become tomorrow's citizen-leaders. for current giving, The college has raised $31.7 million endow faculty and academic programs of providing an outstanding including the Annual during the quiet phase of the campaign, Fund. which began in 1995. and student financial liberal arts education To help officially kick off the campaign, aid and student pro- for students/ Richard Eichhorn Macalester sponsored a "Spirit of grams. They include: '51 and Mardene scholarship funds, Engagement" celebration on campus — Richard Eichhorn '51 Asbury Eichhorn '53 Oct. 2-3. The weekend festivities summer research of Champlin, Minn., included a multimedia presentation, gala stipend funds, faculty are serving as co- celebration dinner, poster sessions with professional development programs and chairs for the campaign. "In the past, faculty, staff and students, panel discus- faculty chairs. Macalester has been blessed with two sions featuring alumni who are leaders on • $16 million for capital gifts, including wonderful benefactors, Lila and DeWitt a new Campus Center that will become Wallace of Reader's Digest fame," Richard the focal point of community activities, said. "However, that is the past. Today, renovations to convert Kagin Dining

MACALESTER TODAY AT MACALESTER

we have to rely on alumni and friends of the college to carry forward Macalester's Touch the Future, It's biological mission of providing an outstanding Two recent grads make a mark liberal arts education [or students." The Campaign for early in their medical careers In 1981, Macalester College Macalester Two recent Macalester graduates, both 'Approximately received a Goal: $50 million biology majors, have distinguished themselves at the outset of their professional 11 other colleges large gift from DeWitt and Allocation: careers. have now surpassed Lila Wallace, Abbie Collins '95 recently won a presti- co-founders of — $24 million to endow faculty and gious Howard Hughes Medical Research Macalester in the Reader's Digest, academic programs and student Fellowship, one of just 58 awarded to med- size of endowment, establishing financial aid and student programs ical students nationally in 1998. A the DeWitt medical student the past three years at the through both — $16 million for capital gifts, including Wallace Fund new Campus Center that will become University of California, San Francisco, investments and for Macalester, focal point of community activities she is considering a career in neurology or which helped pediatrics or possibly a combination ot new gifts/ generate the — $10 million tor current giving, the two. college's including the Annual Fund — President McPherson The $26,000 current $460 Hughes fellowship million endow- Raised so far: $31.7 million, during is designed for med- ment. Wallace, "quiet" phase that began in 1995 ical students with an a member of the Class of 1911, was the interest in funda- son of Macalester President James Campaign ends: May 31, 2000 mental research to Wallace. spend a year doing President McPherson noted that while intensive work in a Macalester's endowment is substantial, it and new gifts," said McPherson. "To real- research lab. Collins is not large enough to generate income to ize Macalester's enormous potential, we is currently con- support all of the college's needs. need to increase our endowment and aug- ducting research on "Approximately 11 other colleges have ment it with current and capital gifts." epilepsy. She is now surpassed Macalester in the size of The five-year campaign will end on studying how the Abbie Collins '95 endowment, through both investments May 31, 2000. development of an area of the brain called the hippocampus is controlled. The hip- — _—...... ,. pocampus is involved in learning and —^— . • \ ; ; 1 memory, and is injured in particular types ' 1 t ot seizures. Prior research in the lab in • which she is working found that the hip- 1 pocampus of adult rats has the amazing property of being able to regenerate new I neurons following seizure-induced injury. 1 Understanding how the hippocampus develops in immature rats should give insight into how the newly born neurons : develop in the adult rats following IT" $ seizures. The ultimate hope is to be able to i * ' prevent epilepsy by controlling the devel- 1 opment of these neurons. Collins expressed her appreciation to E. . , ' is, "the fabulous Biology Department at Macalester, especially Jan Serie, Steve Sundby and Lin Aanonsen, the three professors with whom I worked most closely while at Macalester. They were extremely supportive and encouraging throughout my tour years, and beyond being great professors, they are also terrific people." Another recent grad, Jennelle Durnett 1. \ Richardson '92, is the co-author — with

L_ Mardene Asbury Eichhorn '53 and Richard Eichhorn '51 of Champlin, Minn., are co-chairs of the Macalester campaign. Mardene is a current trustee and Dick served as a trustee from 1984 to 1995. They're shown speaking at the Alumni Leadership Conference last year. NOVEMBER 1998 AT MACALESTER

Professor Aanonsen and a University of Now a Lefler Fellow in the Department The Beinecke program is designed for Minnesota researcher — of two scientific of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical college juniors who represent "superior papers published this year, in the Journal of School, Richardson is considering a career standards of intellectual ability, scholastic Neuroscience and the European journal of at either a research university or a pharma- achievement and personal promise." Pharmacology. ceutical company. Richardson began working with "Working with Lin has been an incredi- Aanonsen the sum- ble experience," Richardson said. "Lin is Stewardship mer after her both a gifted scientist and a wonderful 3ruce Dayton, community leader, sophomore year, teacher Lin has remained a great patron of the arts and philanthropist, doing research on resource for me and continues to give receives Macalester trustees award certain glutamate encouragement as I progress through the BRUCE B. DAYTON received the sev- receptors which are different stages of science." enth annual Macalester Trustees Award for involved in transmit- Meritorious and Distinguished Service. ting information The retired Dayton Hudson Corp. execu- about painful stimuli Special scholarship tive received the award Sept. 10, after to the brain. She CHRISTINA SZITTA '99 (Bryant, Wis.) attending the dedication of the new George won a prestigious was awarded a prestigious Beinecke Broth- Draper Dayton Hall, which is named after Howard Hughes Pre- ers Memorial Scholarship. The $32,000 his grandfather. The residence hall was Doctoral Fellowship scholarship will support two years of grad- built with the help of a major gift from and in 1997 received uate study at a university or professional Bruce Dayton and his wife, Ruth Strieker- her Ph.D. in phar- school of her choice. Dayton '57, a Macalester trustee. A wellness macology at the University of Minnesota. She was one of only 18 students across center in the hall is named after her. Her research at the University focused on the country to receive the honor. The trustees saluted Bruce Dayton "for understanding the biochemical mecha- Szitta is majoring in economics and your dedicated service to the College and nisms underlying pain. Because of their political science. your enduring contributions to the entire mutual interests, she and her University colleague began a collaboration with Aanonsen that led to the two major findings in the medical journals.

Bold dreamer Johnnetta Cole, a well-known anthropologist, educator and author, spoke about community service Sept. 16 at the opening convocation of Macalester's academic year. She also took time to talk with students and to meet with Professor Anne Sutherland's anthropology class. Cole's latest book, Dream the Boldest Dreams: And Other Lessons of Life, is a collection of her thoughts on life, women, education, work and other issues. See Quotable Quotes on pages 6-7.

MACALESTER TODAY AT MACALESTER jrEORGF National award JOAN HUTCHINSON, professor of mathematics and computer science at Macalester, has been selected as one of three national recipients of this year's Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. She will receive the award, which is sponsored by the Mathematical Asso- ciation of America, at the January meeting of the MAA in San Antonio, Texas. The Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award was established in 1991 "in order to honor college or university teachers who have been widely recognized as extra- ordinarily successful and whose teaching effective- Bruce Dayton, right, Ruth Strieker-Dayton '57 and Ruth's daughter Kimberly Strieker '87 were ness has been shown to special guests at the Sept. 10 dedication of George Draper Dayton Hall. The residence hall have had influence beyond opened in 1997 with the help of a major gift from Bruce and Ruth. It is named after Bruce's grandfather (inset), the their own institutions." largest Macalester donor of his day. Hutchinson is also fea- tured in a new hook, Notable Twin Cities community. You have made Summit avenues which served as the Women in Mathematics: A Biographical your impact in many ways: as a corporate home of Macalester presidents from 1927 Dictionary — see page 12. leader, a philanthropist, a lover and bene- until 1984, when it was designated the factor oi the arts, and a man of vision." Hugh S. Alexander Alumni House. He The Dayton family has been synony- also served as a trustee of the college for Moving up mous with Macalester for more than a more than 40 years. Macalester now ranks 24th century. George Draper Dayton, the Bruce Dayton is a life trustee of the in latest U.S. News poll largest giver to Macalester in his lifetime, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He and his of national liberal arts colleges made his first gift to the college in 1893. wife have become the most generous bene- MACALESTER moved up to 24th place He gave money for the construction of a factors in its long history. Their many among the 162 national liberal arts colleges new colonial home at Macalester and other contributions to Minnesota include in the latest rankings by U.S. News & the 1996 donation o( a World Report. rare, 150-acre remnant of Macalester, which was ranked 25th last Profile of the Class of 2002 the Big Woods hardwood year and 32nd in 1996, is tied for 24th in forest, which will be pre- the new rankings with Barnard, Colorado National Merit Scholars: 34 served permanently for College, Connecticut College, Oberlin and public use. Valedictorians/'salntatorians: 63 University of the South. Previous recipients o{ In its 12th annual "America's Best Top 10 percent of high school class: 59% the Trustees Award have Colleges" guidebook, which arrived at From public schools: 69% included Kofi Annan '61, newsstands and bookstores in August, U.S. Walter Mondale '50, for- News ranks colleges by seven broad cate- From independent schools: 31% mer Macalester President gories: academic reputation, retention, Regional distribution b>' high school: John B. Davis, Jr., and faculty resources, student selectivity, finan- former Macalester Trustees — Upper Midwest: 36%) —New England: 7% Carl B. Drake, Jr., — Central Midwest: 15%) -Mid-Atlantic: 9% Mary Lee Dayton and — Overseas: 15% — Southwest/Rockies: 7% Marguerite Weyerhaeuser -Far West: 7% -South: 4% Harmon.

NOVEMBER I 9 9 8 AT MACALESTER

Quotable Quotes case against the president rests more on the United Nations was established, Macalester image of'Slick Willy,' produced and nurtured hoisted the blue flag in its main quad, despite ERE ARE SOME of the noteworthy through years of political partisanship, than opposition from within and without. The flag H comments made recently on and around on a legal process and an evidentiary basis was still flying when the future secretary- the campus: that would satisfy the demands of general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, constitutional government and graduated in 1961. The school ranks seventh "DATE Someone Who Knows Kofi sustain a charge of 'high crimes among U.S. liberal arts colleges in the Annan Is Not Decaffeinated Brew." and misdemeanors.' " percentage of foreign students enrolled 1 Headline of dating-service ad in Norm Rosenberg, professor [the college now ranks second]. ' July!August issue of Brown Alumni Monthly. of history at Macalester, in a Kaplan Newsiveek College The ad explicitly addresses itself to "Graduates Sept. 2/ Minneapolis Star Guide, 1999 edition. The guide and Faculty of the Ivies, Seven Sisters, Tribune article. The newspaper also quoted Erin Kimball '00 MIT, Duke, Northwestern, University of asked Rosenberg and several other of Ashland, Ore., who was accepted Chicago, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Accredited constitutional scholars whether at several other colleges, as saying Medical Schools." Clinton should be impeached. of her decision to attend Macalester: "It was the absolute best for inter- "ALTHOUGH President Clinton is hardly "MACALESTER is hardly a national studies. It's this amazing 7 'innocent,' the evidence produced thus far recent convert to internationalism. Midwestern secret. ' seems insufficient to support a case for When Japanese Americans were impeachment. More important, much of this interned in U.S. detention camps "I'VE DONE research on evidence appears tainted by the process during World War II, Macalester declared the problems of boys, and one thing a boy employed to gather it.... At this point, the itself a refuge for Asian students. When the needs most, beyond a strong parental unit, is cial resources, graduation rate performance • graduation rate performance: This higher than predicted, the college is and alumni giving rate. measures the difference between a college's enhancing the students' achievement. Here are Macalester's rankings in spe- six-year graduation rate for the class that Macalester's predicted rate of graduation cific categories: entered in 1991 and the predicted rate for was 82 percent; actual graduation rate was • academic reputation: Macalester the class. If the actual graduation rate is 79 percent (5 percent). received a rating of 4-0 out of a possible 5.0. Only 21 colleges scored higher. A schools reputation is determined by sur- veying the presidents, provosts and deans l- of admission at other institutions in the same category. (This counts for 25 percent ot the overall score.) • 37th in graduation rate and and freshman retention (20 percent). • 17th in faculty resources, which measures class size, salaries, student-to-faculty ratio, faculty degrees and the percentage of full-time faculty (20 percent). • 20th in student selectivity, which measures student test scores, high school class standing and acceptance rate in the fall 1997 entering class (15 percent). • 31st in financial resources, which measures the average spending per student on instruction, Examining ethics research, student services Macalester Trustee Ted Weyerhaeuser was among the guest speakers this fall at a course on and related educational expenditures "Contemporary Ethical Issues and Jewish Values," taught by Rabbi Bernard Raskas, a visiting during the 1996 and 1997 fiscal years professor of religious studies and associate chaplain at Macalester Weyerhaeuser, retired (10 percent). chairman of the board of Clearwater Management Co. in St. Paul, discussed business ethics. "I'm bringing in people from a variety of backgrounds to discuss real-life issues/' Raskas explained. The subjects have included prayer in public schools, genetic testing, the ethics of journalism and end-of-life issues.

MACALESTER TODAY AT MACALESTER

a 'community of tribal elders1 — coaches, is now in his third season as head coach of the banking/food retailing department; Aukse pastors, Scout leaders — to help him women's soccer team at MJAC-rival Jurkute '98, equity capital markets, London negotiate adolescence. Girls need this, too, St. Benedict* office; and Omer Tore '98, corporate hut the difference is that they internalize banking/healthcare, Palo Alto, Calif., ofjice. their pain; they don't lash out as a boy does. "THIS YEAR we hired the most from A boy in pain is more dangerous." Harvard — 14 — followed by Yale and Penn. "IF THOSE OF US engaged in working Michael Obsatz, professor of sociology at We also hired quite a few students from some in our neighbors' places, in communities of Macalester and a family counselor, in an major international schools.... There is also others, are not learning and gaining and interview in the September/October issue oj an interesting school from which we always growing from the experience, then it isn't Christian Parenting Today on the subject of hire one student a year, but this year we 'happening,' community building isn't going school violence. Obsatzs new book is entitled hired three — it must have been a great on. Indeed, I'm convinced that those of us Raising Nonviolent Children in a Violent class. It's a school in Minnesota called engaging in community service and building, World (see page 12). Macalester. Will the three students from when we have the right attitude, and put out Macalester raise their hands so we all know the right kind of work, end up learning and "HE'S VERY GIFTED, no doubt about who you are?" profiting far more than the very community it— I'm up to my eyeballs doing all I can to Head of Analyst Training Program at we set out 'to help.' " handle 22 [soccer players] and he's got 44- Merrill Lynch, Inc., speaking in New York Johnnetta Cole, anthropologist, author and He's superhuman." City at an orientation session in July for the former president of Spelman College, speaking Bill Kelly '81, speaking about Macalester company's 400 newly hired analysts. The at Macalester's opening convocation Sept. 16. men's and women's soccer Coach John Leaney recent Macalester graduates she referred to are She spoke on "The Rent You Must Pay: in the Sept. ly St. Cloud Times. A former Altay Israfil '98, who works in Merrill Lynch's Responsibilities and Rewards in Community Macalester assistant coach under Leaney, Kelly San Francisco office in the corporate Service." See photos on page 4. •

• 71st in alumni giving, which mea- In a category which did not affect ranked No. 1, followed by Swarthmore, sures the average percentage of alumni the rankings, Macalester moved up to a Williams and Wellesley. who gave to their school during the 1996 tie for second place with Bennington and 1997 academic years (for Macalester, College in the proportion of international the figure was 38 percent). It is regarded students (11 percent). Eckerd College Ray Suarez to speak as a measure of alumni satisfaction with in Florida has the highest proportion JOURNALIST Ray Suarez, host of a college (counts tor 5 percent of over- (13 percent). Macalester was ranked sev- National Public Radio's nationwide call-in all score). enth in this category last year. news program "Talk of the Nation," will In the overall rankings speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, in oi national liberal arts Macalester's Weyerhaeuser Chapel. colleges, Amherst again The talk is free and open to the public, but tickets are required; call (651) 696-6203 for more information. His appearance is part of the Broadcast Macalester's Journalist Series, designed to bring nation- 14th president ally and internationally known broadcast journalists to Minnesota to discuss issues Former President Bob of global and national importance. The Gavin, shown with Trustee Warren Bateman series is supported in part by Macalester '44, returned to campus and Minnesota Public Radio. Oct. 3 for the dedication When a peace agreement was reached of the Robert M. Gavin, in Northern Ireland earlier this year, Jr., Atrium in the Suarez made "Talk of the Nation" the first renovated Olin-Rice news program to broadcast live to the Science Center. The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland dedication was especially and the United States, presenting a series fitting since Gavin is a of unprecedented interviews from all sides former chemistry professor and Macalester in the simmering Ulster conflict. took major steps during A 20-year news veteran, Suarez has his presidency to written essays and criticism for the enhance its commitment Washington Post, New York Times, Chicago to the sciences and Tribune and many other publications, and scientific education. is a contributing editor for Si Magazine, a He is now president of national magazine for Latinos. the Cranbrook Educa- tional Community in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

NOVEMBER 1998 AT MACALESTER

Flying into the past Ryan Murphy's prize-winning essay reflects his love of both aviation and history by Jan Shaxv-Flamm '76

N SELECTING a topic for his senior honors thesis, Ryan Murphy '98 drew Ion an unusual amalgam of experiences. A pilot at 17, son and grandson of transportation industry entrepreneurs, activist and history major, Murphy was remarkably well-qualified to research and write about the deregulation of the airline industry. The New York Labor History Asso- ciation declared Murphy's essay winner of the 1998 Wertheimer Prize tor labor history. His 175-page, heavily footnoted essay, which refers to Eastern's symbolic bird, is entitled "Farewell to the Falcon: the Demise of Eastern Airlines as a Parable of Post-Industrial American Capitalism." "It was so great to do oral history where 1 had a lot of connection to the subject matter," says Murphy. "I'm passionate about flying When you can relate to people from [your] own experience, a pro- "I'm passionate about flying," says Ryan Murphy '98, a history major whose senior honors thesis ject can be so much more powerful focused on the demise of Eastern Airlines. because people are willing to tell you so much more." This study fed Murphy's curiosity about ing race, economic status, gender and For his history senior seminar, Murphy transportation industry changes resulting sexual orientation to the fundamental had written what turned out to be a "dry from deregulation, and led to his study of struggles in the community. "We can talk run" for his thesis. He studied Murphy Eastern Airlines. According to Murphy, about multiculturalism, and we can talk Motor Freight Lines, the 75-year-old when Eastern was purchased, substantial about diversity," says Murphy, "but we wage reductions were proposed and the have to talk about them in terms of power workers resisted, then struck. The com- relationships." 'It was so great to do oral history pany went out of business, and 40,000 "Ryan combines a commitment to people lost their jobs. serious scholarship with a commitment where I had a lot of connection uThe heart and soul of my project is to social activism, and it's a very delight- to the subject matter/ that this is so much bigger than Eastern, so ful and valuable combination," says much bigger than the chairman of Eastern Rachleff. or the union presidents,11 says Murphy. The Wertheimer Prize, which includes trucking business run by his grandfather "What my project tries to do is step back a a $100 award, will be presented at a and father until 1987, when deregulation bit, and [realize] no, it wasn't just this per- December reception in New York. Mean- led to its demise. "I went up to my grand- sonal vendetta between a few union while, Murphy has moved to Chicago father's attic and took out all the old leaders and a few guys in management. and hopes to work in the airline industry. corporate records and pictures corre- This is a broader trend.1' On the combining of his academic and hands-on involvement, Murphy says, "I spondence between my dad and the URPHY attributes much of his inspi- president of the Teamsters, or between my M ration and understanding of the think that an education like I've had is grandpa and Jimmy Hoffa, all these differ- issues to his adviser, history Professor Peter essential to being strategic in whatever ent figures in my life and in the life of Rachleff, and "his unique ability to teach field you're in." • the country." the history of the labor movement." Rachleff was also adviser to the previous Macalester Wertheimer winner, Alex Jan Shaw-Flamm 'y6, a St. Paid free-lance Hortis '95, who is now studying law and writer, is a frequent contributor to business at NYU School of Law. Macalester Today. Murphy credits Rachleff and others, such as Professor Duchess Harris in Women's and Gender Studies, with link-

MACALESTER TODAY Reunion Weekend and Commencement May 21-23, 1999

OIN MACALESTER'S NEW TRADITION. Reunion and Commencement are now combined in a single, college-wide celebration.

The tradition continues Friday through Sunday, May 21-23, 1999.

Reunion

Alumni will enjoy traditional Reunion activities — class parties, alumni college programs and more — as well as activities bringing alumni and students together.

Commencement

Commencement will take place at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 23, on the lawn in front of Old Main. Special festivities follow to welcome Macalester's newest alumni into the fold.

Reunion classes

Alumni whose classes end in "4" Photos: Moments from or "9" will receive information the 1994 Reunion through their classes; others should watch Macalester Today.

Questions?

For more information, please call the Alumni Office: (651) 696-6295, or toll-free: 1-888-242-9351

NOVEMBER 1998 9 MIKE TODAY

For the whole idea to work, each of us must act by Michael S. McP/ierson Macalester students — more than halt — We truly understand ourselves as indi- make the choice to participate in com- viduals when we see how our actions N LAKE WOBEGON, Garrison Keillor munity service at some point during every connect up with other people and with tells us, the townspeople used co turn year. our future selves; we are most truly our- Iout on the Fourth of July to become the We encourage and expect our students, selves when we live out those multiple American flag. Wearing red, white or blue after they graduate, to become and remain connections — to family and friends, to hats, they assembled on the street accord- engaged with their communities, whether our town, our union, our company, our ing to an elaborate plan as a kind of it's tackling the problems of their local nation, the world. human tapestry which let anyone looking schools, joining the Peace Corps or So, too, with our campaign. It's easy down from nearby buildings see the flag upholding high ethical standards in run- enough to see that individual contribution formed below. ning a business. The students who as just a drop in the bucket — not many of One small prob- come to Macalester are not typically us can contemplate donating a large frac- lem was that the those who want to sit in the stands tion of a $50 million campaign. What are townspeople, and watch the parade go by. They're the odds that my little contribution will be being part of che folks who want to make a difference. critical to putting the campaign over the tlag, never got to r PHERE is, as we all know, a top? Either we'll make it or we won't, and see it. Of course, A powerful logic that works against I can just sit back and watch. But, like the it one or two this willingness to act. It's the logic flag in Garrison Keillor's story, the tapestry slipped out to get that says that my effort, viewed in iso- of our campaign is made up of a large a look at the flag, lation, won't amount to beans. The number of individual efforts. We will need it didn't make vote I cast won't determine the elec- to get a handful of multi-million dollar any difference. tion, the aluminum can I leave contributions in this campaign (and But it everybody behind won't wreck the beach, the happily we already have some), but a rushed oft to hours I spend at a food shelter won't successful campaign is sure to require tens become a specta- feed all the hungry. The rest oi the of thousands of smaller contributions, tor at this great town can form the flag even if I sleep many of them to the Annual Fund. And event, the event in. It's the same logic that in a dif- to make that happen, we need to have itself ceased to ferent context says this one jelly folks think of themselves as part of this exist — all those doughnut won't make me fat or skip- larger whole that is Macalester, and colored hats were up in the buildings, and ping my run this morning won't harm my together we can make a difference. there was nobody on the street to form fitness. Each oi these things is perfectly That in fact is the only kind of cam- the flag. true — pro- paign that is worthy oi This lovely story comes to mind as I vided that we Macalester. Besides the think about the ambitions we have for our view each of funds we intend to students, and about the ambitions we have them as an Like the American flag in raise — funding that will for our comprehensive campaign, Touch support critically impor- isolated act. Garrison Keillor's story, tant needs — we expect the Future, just announced (see page 2). But if we It's easy and tempting to opt for the role of the tapestry of our campaign is this campaign to docu- think of these ment and to reinforce spectator, and choose not to be part of the individual made up of a large number action. At the start of every Macalester that sense among our acts as fitting of individual efforts. alumni that we are student's first year, we invite him or her to into a larger join with others in a morning or afternoon indeed part of a larger whole, the We need to have folks think Macalester community. oi' community service. It's easy enough for logic is any one student to say that her decision to of themselves as part of this Together, those oi us reversed. who care for and work pass up a few hours of service won't make Our votes do larger whole that is Macalester. any difference: what do one person's on behalf of Macalester determine make up something more efforts on one day amount to among the elections; our millions of people and thousands of chal- than we can be as isolated individuals; cans wreck beaches; together we can feed together we create Macalester's future. • lenging problems in the Twin Cities metro all the hungry people. And of course, all area? Yet over 330 of our 5Q0 entering those jelly doughnuts will make me fat, students this September made the choice and if I stop running I'll get out of shape. to go "into the streets" for this day during It's only when we understand our individ- Mike McPherson, the president of first-year orientation, and over 900 ual acts as part of some larger pattern that Macalester, writes a regular column for it makes sense to act; indeed, it's perhaps Macalester Today. not too much to say that it's only when we see our acts as fitting into larger patterns, within our own lives and within the lives of communities we value, that our actions and our lives themselves come to have meaning at all. i o MACALESTER TODAY ALUMNI & FACULTY BOOKS

Student aid; women in mathematics; the Bible Belt Tomcat in Love McPherson and Schapiro offer a world into a few winners and many losers. by Tim O'Brien '68 (Broadway Books, detailed look at how undergraduate edu" Her book suggests that the very margins of 1998. 347 pages, $26 cloth) cation is financed in the United States, the global world system may become the In a radical departure from his previous highlighting differences across sectors and areas of the most creative cultural activity. work, Tim O'Brien takes a comic turn with for students of differing family back- Sutherland examines Belize, a diverse, his new novel. grounds. They review the implications of multicultural society that is both cos- The protagonist and narrator of Tomcat recent financing trends for access to and mopolitan and deterritorialized. The in Love is a professor of linguistics, Thomas choice of undergraduate college and gauge difficulties facing those who are globaliz- Chippering, whose the implications ing in the margins, she argues, come from wife has left him for a of these national powerful transnational movements such as Tampa tycoon. A trends for the the environmental movement, the inter- 6-root-6 Vietnam vet- future of college national drug trade and migrations of eran, Chippering is opportunity. They people, including international tourists. torn hetween his des- examine how stu- Ironically, she says, instant contact with perate need to win dent aid fits into the rest of the world has created a sense of hack his faithless wife college budgets, local identity that transcends the local and his craving to test how aid and pric- and is truly multicultural. his erotic charms on ing decisions are Sutherland's previous books include every woman he shaped by govern- Caye Caulker: Economic Success in a meets. He is also seri- ment education Belizean Fishing Village and Gypsies, ously deluded about policies and how The Hidden Americans. his ability to win the competition has hearts of women with radically reshaped Varieties of African American his erudition and the way colleges Religious Experience physical appeal. think about the by Anthony B. Finn (Fortress Press, The book is set strategic role of 1998. 256 pages, $20 paperback) partly in Owago, student aid. Anthony Pinn's survey highlights the Minn., "the Rock The Student Aid rich diversity of black religious life in Cornish Hen Capital Game concludes America. Going o\ the World," which with an examina- beyond traditional will invite comparison tion of policy black Christian to O'Brien's home- options for both denominational his- town of Worthington. government and tory, his book reveals O'Brien received Tim O'Brien individual institu- manifestations of an the 1979 National tions. McPherson ever-changing reli- Book Award for Going After Cacciato. and Schapiro argue that the federal gov' gious quest in four His most recent novel, In the Lake oj the eminent needs to keep its attention non-Christian, Woods, received the James Fenimore focused on providing access to college for indigenous move- Cooper Prize from the Society of Ameri- needy students, while colleges themselves ments. can Historians and was selected as the best need to constrain their search for strategic A professor of work oi fiction of 1994 by Time magazine. advantage by sticking to aid and admission religious studies at policies they are willing to articulate and Macalester, Pinn did The Student Aid Game defend publicly. extensive interviews and traveled widely by Michael S. McPherson and Morton to offer an insider look at voodoo, Orisha Owen Schapiro (Princeton University Press, The Making of Belize: devotion, Santeria, the Nation of Islam 1998. 161 pages) Globalization in the Margins and black humanism in the United States. In their latest book, Macalester by Anne Sutherland (Bergin & Garvey, He focuses less on institutional and doctri- President Mike McPherson and his long- 1998. 224 pages, nal history and more on the varied popular time collaborator, USC Dean Morton $59.95 cloth, $19.95 religious practices and sites. His book Owen Schapiro, explain how both colleges paperback) highlights the influence of Caribbean reli- and governments are struggling to cope Anne Sutherland, gions in the U.S., practices of divination with a rapidly changing marketplace. a professor of and healing, the surge of black Muslim Subtitled Meeting Need and Rewarding anthropology at religion, the emergence of black human- Talent in American Higher Education, their Macalester, ism, religious influences on the ethical book seeks to show how sound policies can challenges the pre- practices of black women and the import help preserve the strengths and remedy dictions of some of previously overlooked religious settings, some emerging weaknesses of higher theorists that the education. forces of globalization will divide the countries of the Anne Sutherland NOVEMBER 1998 II ALUMNI & FACULTY BOOKS such as church women's clubs and Pente- friends; venting anger nonviolently; and costal religion, disarming the bully. Each short chapter Susan Allen Toth: Pinn, who earned his Ph.D. at Harvard includes advice for parents, a word to chil- Divinity School, is the author of Why dren and a variety of interactive activities Farewell to Mac Lord! Suffering and Evil in Black Theology. by which families can practice these skills Professor Susan Allen Toth xvrites: and learn to live as peacemakers. Shooting in the Dark: A father of three, Obsatz is also the HEN I ARRIVED at Macalester as a Tales of Coaching and Leadership author of From Stalemate to Soulmate: W part-time faculty member, teaching by Jim Thompson 71 (Warde Publishers, A Guide to Mature, Committed, Loving just one class in that first spring of 1969, I 1998. 191 pages, $18.95 paperback) Relatioivships. thought I would undoubtedly stay at Mac Shooting in the Dark is a philosophi- forever. I imagined I would keep my messy, cal and motivational account of Jim The Interfacers book-lined nook in the English Depart- Thompsons two-year tenure as coach of by David C. Su>emon '70 (Eastern ment until I a high school girls basketball team, the Dakota Publishers, 1997. 226 pages) doddered off in Fremont Women Warriors, in northern This is the first novel by David old age. I loved California. The book also draws upon Swenson, who is retired from a 25-year teaching, and I topics in leadership theory and a course career in industry and banking and lives in was constantly called "Learning to Lead,1' co-taught by Baudette, Minn. Described as a medical intrigued, chal- Thompson at the Stanford University and spiritual thriller, The Interfacers is lenged, sometimes Business School, where he is director of about a trauma surgeon, Dr. Ben Bradley, amused and more public and global management. and a small research team who have than occasionally Thompson discusses such practical developed a new machine which could startled by my coaching issues as establishing credibility, help diagnose and treat patients in life- unpredictable Mac sharing power with players, managing los- threatening situations. Bradley is ill- students. ing streaks and recovering from his own prepared to accept the haunting images But as I eventu- coaching blunders. Each chapter ends with he observes on the monitoring equipment, ally began to write a summary of key points. The book, which despite suppressed memories of his own and publish non-academic prose, beginning includes a foreword by former Chicago childhood near-death experience. He is with Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood, Bulls Coach Phil lackson, is especially pushed into the breach between science in 1981, and (seven books later) most intended for coaches who want to push and spiritualism, between his education recently England for All Seasons, I was their own limits and learn new strategies and his own experiences. increasingly pulled in two directions. I for leading athletes. The novel is available from Eastern eventually decided — with a certain sad- Thompson is a member of the board Dakota Publishers, P.O. Box 334, Fishers, ness and reluctance — to give up my of directors of Special Olympics Inter- IN 46038; phone/fax: (317) 578-5001 professorship and tenure, release a position national and the founder of the Positive for a new faculty member and then try Coaching Alliance, an organization dedi- Health Is Academic: A Guide to cated to improving the quality of the Coordinated School Health Programs sports experience for young athletes. edited by Eva Marx and Susan Frelick butions to mathematics from antiquity to Wooley with Daphne Northrop '79 (Teachers the present. One of them is Macalester Raising Nonviolent Children College Press, 1998. 368 pages, $55 cloth, Professor Joan Hutchinson, who came in a Violent World $24.95 paperback) to Macalester in 1990 after teaching at by Michael Obsatz (Augsburg Books, This book makes the case that children Smith, her alma mater, as well as Dart- 1998.126 pages,$11.99 paperback) can't learn if they have pressing physical mouth, Tufts, Carleton and the University Michael Obsatz, a or emotional health problems. The more of Colorado. Writer Laura Coffin Koch, an professor of sociol- than 70 expert contributors urge schools associate professor at the University of ogy at Macalester to do more to address health issues, point- Minnesota, includes many personal details and a family coun- ing out that even the best educational about Hutchinson, including the influence selor, has led reform measures will fail if kids are ill, of Hutchinson's parents and the well- parenting workshops depressed or hungry. "If schools do not known mathematician Julia Robinson on across the country. deal with children's health by design, they Hutchinsons career and her love of col- In this book, he has deal with it by default," the book says. lecting books, novels and stories that identified 20 skills Daphne Northrop is senior research portray mathematicians — especially that parents and female mathematicians. children can learn associate and co-editor of School Health together for self- Program News for Education Develop- Hutchinson has focused her research on protection and for ment Center in Newton, Mass. graphs and graph theory. She received the t . . Michael Obsatz distinguished Carl B. Allendoerfer Award relating to others in Notable Women in Mathematics: from the Mathematical Association of loving ways. Among them are coping with A Biographical Dictionary America in recognition of an article she losses and disappointments; choosing good edited by Charlene Morrow and Teri Perl wrote for Mathematics Magazine in 1993 (Greenwood Press, 1998. 302 pages) entitled "Coloring Ordinary Maps, Maps This volume features substantive bio- of Empires and Maps of Moons." The work graphical essays on 59 women around the world who have made significant contri- 12 MACALESTER TODAY ALUMNI & FACULTY BOOKS

instance, gender and class relations and (not always successfully) to rind enough time home — 4820 Penn Ave. S., Minneapolis identity politics. She also analyzes the for writing. 55409, where students and old friends can struggle between the traditional holiday For the pasr several years, 1 have remained usually rind me, unless I am lugging a suit- and Halloween. on the faculty as an "adjunct professor," case through a distant airporr. So 1 hope Examining differences in attitudes which kept my ties to Macalester alive, but to he writing, traveling, reading, gardening toward death in Mexico and the United my term appointment has now ended. So, and staving off the doddering for quite a States, Garciagodoy shows that celebrants atter almost 50 years, 1 have just my desk at while yet. o of Dias de Muertos treat death as an inti- mate life companion and fear it less than their neighbors to the north. The book is illustrated with a 16-page color insert, black and white photographs, and repro- ductions of Posada's engravings.

How the Dead Live by Alvin Greenberg (Graywolf Press, 1998. 229 pages, $14 paperback) In his fourth collection of short stories, Macalester English Professor Alvin Greenberg creates characters whose lives are rendered — sometimes dramatically, sometimes obscurely — out of their control by the random impact of the quotidian: by accident and disease, by urban chaos, by the lost and found. In the press material accompanying the book, novelist and short-story writer Charles Baxter }69, a former student of Greenberg's who teaches at the University of Michigan, writes: "Death, disguised as a rabbi, gets stuck in traffic in one of Alvin Greenberg's The Macalester professor, author and inspired traveler autographs books at the conclusion of a 1995 remarkable stories. event for Twin Cities alumni, "An English Morning with Susan Allen Toth," held in Cochran Lounge. Eerie, wry and humane, these tales are both comforting is an expansion of the famous Four Color Digging the Days of the Dead, and unsettling, Theorem. She has won both the MAA's a Reading of Mexico's Dias de Muertos because they bring North Central Section Award for Distin- by Juanita Garciagodoy '74 (University us the darkest news guished College or University Teaching Press of Colorado, 1998. 352 pages, with great equanim- (see August Mac Today) and a national $34.95 cloth) ity. There is another teaching award (see page 5 of this issue). side to everything, Dias de Muertos — "Days of the Al Hutchinson "has learned that she Dead" — is celebrated in Mexico each including mortality, Greenberg most enjoys combining abstract work year in late October and early November. and Alvin Greenberg seems to have been with personal interactions," Koch writes. It is a family reunion in which the dead there and brought these stories back." "Although much oi~ it is grounded in real- are the guests ot honor, welcomed with Greenberg's previous collection, Delta q, ity, mathematics is in fact very abstract. their favorite foods, carefully chosen gifts won the Associated Writing Programs' The teaching and coauthoring aspects of and ritual paraphernalia such as candles Short Fiction Prize, and his work has twice doing mathematics and incense. The objects show tenderness, been included in Best American Short provide connec- a sense of perspective about life and death, Stories. tions with other and sometimes a frank sense ot humor. people and reduce In her comprehensive interpretive Falling Toward Grace: Images of the isolation of account of Mexico's most captivating holi- Religion and Culture from the Heartland solitary mathemati- day, Juanita Garciagodoy '74, who was edited by Susan Neville and]. Kent Calder cal research. For born in Mexico and teaches in Macal- (Indiana University Press, 1998. $24.95) Hutchinson, work- ester's Spanish Department, depicts David Hoppe '77, a writer, editor and ing as a college various aspects of the celebration and critic who lives in Indianapolis, con- professor combines describes its changing place in contempo- tributed the essay, "Souls in Solitary the best of both rary Mexico. She devotes two chapters Communion," in this anthology. Other worlds." to close readings of calaveras, figures and scenes of "lively" skeletons that reveal Joan Hutchinson details of popular philosophy about, for NOVEMBER 1998 13 ALUMNI & FACULTY BOOKS contributors include Scott Russell Contemporary Rhetorical Theory: Sanders, Pan Waketield, Alice Friman, A Reader Christine Heyrman Yusef (\omunvakaa, Patricia Henley and edited by Sally CaudilL John Louis Michael Martone. Lucaites and Celeste Michelle Condit Carter '71 wins Bancroft {Cuilford Publications, 1998. 613 pages, Prize for Southern Cross Entertaining Tsarist Russia: $40 paperback) Tales, Songs, Plays, Movies, Jokes, Ads Sally Caudill, a faculty member in HRISTINE LEIGH HEYRMAN and Images from Russian Urban Lite, Macalester's Communication Studies C CARTER '71 won a 199S 1779-1917 Department, and scholars from Indiana Bancroft Prize for Southern Cross: The edited by James von Qeldern and Louise University and the University of Georgia Beginnings of the Bible Belt, published last KicReynolds (Indiana University Press, are the editors of this book. It brings year by Alfred A. Knopf. 1998. 464 pages, $35 paperback) together important essays on the themes, The prestigious Bancroft Prizes, Jim von Geldern, associate professor issues and controversies that have shaped awarded annually, were established at of Russian at Macalester, and Louise the development of rhetorical theory since Columbia University in 1948 with a McReynolds, associate professor of history the late 1960s. Topics addressed include bequest from historian Frederic Bancroft at the University of Hawaii, have pub- problems of defining rhetoric, the relation- to recognize books of exceptional merit lished an anthology which introduces ship between rhetoric and epistemology, in history, biography or diplomacy. Two readers to tsarist Russia's popular and com- the rhetorical situation, reason and public other historians, Walter LaFeber and mercial urban culture and the individuals morality, the nature of the audience, the Thomas Sugrue, also won 1998 prizes. and groups that produced and consumed role of discourse in social change, rhetoric In Southern Cross, Heyrman, who uses it. The selections translated here illustrate in the mass media and challenges to her maiden name professionally, tells in detail how the experiences and the rhetorical theory from the margins. the story of how evangelicals came to composition of Russian society and culture An extensive introduction and epilogue command the loyalties of white evolved from the by the editors examine the current state ot Southerners. Throughout the 18th cen- late 18th century the field and its future directions, focusing tury, she argues, Baptists and Methodists through the Bolshe- in particular on how theorists are negotiat- met with sharp opposition from a vik Revolution. ing the tensions between modernist and majority of the South's ordinary people. Among the genres postmodernist considerations. What spurred their resistance were not represented are The book is part of a series edited by only the anti-slavery views of some etiquette manuals, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell '58 of the evangelicals, but also practices that thieves' tales, chil- University of Minnesota and Celeste accorded influence in the churches to dren's literature, Condit o( the University of Georgia. young clergymen, women and African popular songs, Americans, while challenging the women's novels Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature authority of mature white men. and satires of life edited by Karen]. Warren (Indiana Only in the middle of the 19th cen- in America. A com- University Press, 1997. 454 pages) tury did evangelical churches begin to panion audio CD During the past decade, several journals, win greater popular acceptance, she features 30 popular songs and vaudeville anthologies and books have been published notes, chiefly by altering their teachings skits, many of which are included in on ecological feminism, or "ecofeminism": in ways that affirmed the superiority of the book. the position that there are important con- whites over blacks, men over women The first scholar to look extensively at nections between how one treats women, and age over youth. "low" Russian culture, Von Geldern is also people of color and the underclass, and Heyrman is a professor of history at the co-editor of Mass Culture in Soviet how one treats the the University of Delaware, where she Russia, an anthology of popular culture natural environment. has taught since 1990. • covering the era from 1917 to 1953. This volume, edited by Macalester philos- Songs without Melodies ophy Professor Karen appropriateness of ecofeminism to their by James Wood '42 (Minerva Press, 1998. Warren, provides research and to the peoples whose lives are 63 pages, paperback) the first multidisci- touched by it. "Philosophical Perspectives" These are the first published poems by plinary perspective offers a critical examination of ecofemi- James Wood, who is now retired in his on topics in ecofeminism from professional philosophers. native Minnesota after holding a variety nist scholarship. Among the contributors to the book are of faculty positions at colleges throughout The book is Macalester faculty members Adrienne the U.S. He has an M.A. from the Univer- divided into three Christiansen, Communication Studies; sity of Iowa and an S.M.D. from Union parts. "Taking Leland Guyer, Spanish and Portuguese; Theological Seminary in New York. He Empirical Data Karen J. Warren and Ruthanne Kurth-Schai, Education; as has been a conductor and a composer, and Seriously" explores real-life concerns well as Gretchen T. Legler '84, who has published 14 choral and vocal compo- which have motivated ecofeminism as a teaches creative writing, English and sitions. He began writing verse in the early grassroots, women-initiated movement women's studies at the University of 1970s. around the globe. "Interdisciplinary Alaska-Anchorage. • Perspectives" presents the work of scholars in a variety of academic disciplines and vocational fields on the application or MACALESTER TODAY ALUMNI NEWS

Macalester and the magic of connections by Molfo McGinnis Stine V We have keyed in on some issues that ulty and staff, we plan to develop addi- cut across all of our work and all of our tional programming to enhance the Y FIRST Macalester experience constituencies: multiculturalism, the use of student experience. was one 1 don't remember. My evolving communication technologies, Today's students are deeply involved in M mother graduated from Macal- and the drive to engage alumni and cur- academics, the arts, athletics, volunteer ester in 1965 and was almost seven rent students in their own lives, the lives work and numerous other endeavors. months pregnant with me at the Macalester graduates don't seem to slow time. Hubert Humphrey was hand- down. The Board therefore works to har- ing out the diplomas and remarked Alumni Association President ness some oi that energy by identifying that he should give my mother two and assisting alumni who volunteer for the diplomas. Does Molly McGinnis Stine '87 college — for the Admissions Office, for that mean I've Residence: Chicago fund-raising work, as mentors, as alumni graduated twice? event planners, at Reunions and in innu- Majors at Mac: political science, 1 have two very merable other ways. The Board also helps distinct sets of economics and business to prepare alumni events and programs, memories from Occupation: attorney, Lord, Bissell & usually involving Macalester faculty, that college. One Brook, Chicago address the interests and needs of busy comes from the Husband: Bob alumni. The alumni travel program many, many continues to grow (see page 19 about a hours with the forthcoming trip to Russia), and the debate team. The of their communities, and the life of combined Reunion/Commencement four years of com- the college. At their heart, these weekends are wonderful. petition brought issues are not new but rather the Of course, it is true that the more things me some of my hallmarks of a long-active Alumni change, the more they stay the same. One best friends, not Association. Although the tech- touching task I have as president of the to mention some niques or the technologies of the Alumni Association is to induct the 50th eventful long- 21st century might be different, their Reunion Class into the Golden Scots distance road purposes are the same: to assist in Society. Although the members of the trips in college preparing students to Classes of 1947 vans to campuses across the country. be citizens of and for the and 1948 are Much as I enjoyed the time away from world, to involve alumni in Although the members of the 40 years my campus, 1 also really liked my time on a lifelong relationship with senior, the stories campus. In looking back, I wish I had Macalester, and to support Classes of 1947 and 1948 are of those I have taken advantage of even more of what was and educate others about 40 years my senior, the stories met were, in offered — classes, speakers, groups, the the mission of Macalester. large measure, surrounding community. I recall fondly The student members of of those I have met were, the stories of my professors in the Political Science, the Board provide good in large measure, the stories contemporaries: Economics and Speech Communications insight, valuable skills and Will I be able to departments. I even remember with great enthusiastic participation. of my contemporaries. handle the affection living in the dorms. I still marvel They have been helpful in ; classes? What do at the bunk beds my roommate and I educating other Board mem- I want to be designed and built one year. They bers about the current state of the campus "when I grow up"? Why do poverty, war remained standing all year, thanks to and in developing programs for students. and illiteracy exist and what I can do plenty of shots from a hot-glue gun. They are a visible reminder that the stu- about them? Why aren't there instructions In 1994, seven years after graduating, dents of today are, of course, the alumni of on the washing machine? Will the snow I joined the Alumni Association s Board of tomorrow. Consequently, the Board ever melt? Directors. It has been a delightful experi- remains committed to participating in the That's the magic of connections. We ence. I have met dozens of active alumni experience of students. want to find ways for alumni and the whom I would likely never have met but OR EXAMPLE, we sponsor first-year sem- worldwide Macalester community to share for the Board. They all have full and busy F inar dinners at the homes of alumni, a their stories and experiences, their joys lives but make time for a place special to "mystery bus tour" for sophomores, and a and losses, their contacts and impacts. In a them. They come to campus at least three dance and reception for seniors. We pro- fractured world, it's nice to know you're far weekends a year, roll up their sleeves and vide postcards, stamps and addresses for from alone. O work. In our on-campus meetings and by students on campus to send a note to telephone or e-mail in between, the juniors who are studying away. We helped Alumni Board strives to serve alumni, cur- create a mentoring program in which rent students and the college. seniors are paired with Twin Cities alumni in various fields during their final year at Mac, a program run by the Career Development Center. Working with fac- NOVEMBER 1998 15 ALUMNI NEWS

Who's who on the Alumni Board: Classmates and friends

HE 3 2 MEMBERS of the Alumni Association's Board of T Directors: Alumni Board officers • come from all over the country; • represent every generation, from the Class of 1944 to the Class of 2001; • spend three weekends on campus each academic year; • serve three-year terms, and may be asked to serve a second three-year term; terms are staggered so that one-third of the hoard members are new each year; • serve as ambassadors for Macalester and offer their own ideas about how to improve and strengthen the college as well President: Vice President: Secretary-Treasurer: as its ties to alumni; Molly McGinnis Stine David C. Hodge 70 Edward Sivanson '64 selected by nominations of other alumni; '87 * Acting Dean, Principal Cataloguer are Attorney U of Washington Minnesota Historical • carry out the Alumni Board's mission "to engage alumni in Lord, Bissell & Brook College of Arts & Society Chicago Sciences St. Paul a lifelong relationship with Macalester College, its students and Seattle all alumni."

Nancy Schatz Alton '92 Louisa Chapman '75 Jeffrey Conrod '92 Juan Figueroa '77 Kimberly Gehmian- Caryn Davis Hanson Associate Editor Medical Epidemiologist Programmer/Analyst President and General Wlute '86 71 Adventure Media Centers for Disease Minnesota Public Radio Counsel Marketing Consultant/ Volunteer Seattle Control St. Paul Puerto Rican Legal Defense Volunteer Aurora, Colo. Atlanta and Education Fund Tigard, Ore. New York

Michael Hecht '93 Nikki Heidepriem '72 Chad Jones '00 Phyllis Bamhusch Grant Killoran '86 Jennifer Lnndblad 'SS Housing Programs Attorney/Political Macalester Student Jones '44 Partner/Attorney Manager, Education & Manager Consultant Denver Retired District Court Michael Best & Communication North End Area Foreman, Heidepriem Judge Friedrich LLP Stratis Health Revitalization and Mager, Inc. St. Paul Park, Minn. Milwaukee, Wis. Bloomington, Minn. St. Paul Washington, D.C.

16 MACALESTER TODAY ALUMNI NEWS

Thomas Moberg 'St Carlo. Morris 'S5 Carrie Norbin '94 Hamwny O'Rourke '01 Allen Parchem '67 Niloy Ray '99 Systems Analyst Senior Manager Graduate Student Macalester Student Chairman/CEO Macalester Student Minnesota Institute Change Management Harvard Law School Fergus Falls, Minn. RHR International Co. New Delhi, India of Public Health Practice Cambridge, Mass. Wood Dale, III. Anoka, Minn. Andersen Consulting Washington, D.C.

John Ring '51 Robert Ringold '52 Kenneth Schwartz 'SO Linda Karrer Trout '69 Dale Turnharn '58 Kathleen Osborne Educational Consultant Sales Consultant/ Program Director Director of Career Commercial Account Vellenga '59 J's Consultant Service Volunteer United Hebrew Services, Law School Executive Director St. Paul Minnetonka, Minn. Congregation University of Missouri- Sedgwick of Minnesota, The Children's Initiative St. Louis Kansas City Inc. St. Paul Kansas City, Mo. Eden Prairie, Minn.

Not pictured:

Celine Clark '99 Virginia McElfish Damberg '53 Macalester Student Volunteer Greenfield, WIs. Eveleth, Minn.

Margaret Westin '74 Heiga Ying '87 Marie Zemler '99 Lawyer/Government Program Manager Macalester Student Dakota County Business for Social Sauk Centre, Minn. Attorney's Office Responsibility Hastings, Minn. San Francisco 62

544 129 81 8,454 687 807 306 262 Active Alumni 40 112 255 43 234 272 by State 94 803 118 17 in the 50 States andD.C. 62 40 63 402 81 199 July 1998 1,489 82 35 51 29 152 64 335 103 21 28 53 412 356 HI = 85

Total count: 19,400 for 50 states and D.C. (Does not include U.S. territories or foreign countries) See page 25: Mac alums living abroad NOVEMBER 1998 17 ALUMNI NEWS

Calendar of alumni events ERE are some of the events sched- Jan. 21: Happy hour for recent grads in March 20-21: "Touch the Future" uled for alumni, parents, family Washington, D.C., 6-8 p.m., Brickskeller, regional campaign events for Macalester, H and friends. More events are being 1523 22nd St., Dupont Circle Metro (Red both west coast and east coast of Florida; added all the time. For more information Line); (questions? call Marin Hagen '91 at details TBA on any of the following, call the Alumni 202-328-7558) April 15: "Touch the Future" regional Office, (651) 696-6295, except where Jan. 28: Alumni event in London; campaign event for Macalester, San noted. The toll-free number is 1-888- details TBA Francisco; details TBA 242-9351. You may also call the campus early February: "Touch the Future11 April 17: "Touch the Future" regional events line, (651) 696-6900. regional campaign event for Macalester, campaign event for Macalester, Los Please note: The Fall Arts & Events Washington, D.C.; date and details TBA Angeles; details TBA Calendar was mailed to all Twin Cities Feb. 13: "The Last Dance in Cochran," May 21-23: Reunion and Commence- area alumni in August. It lists music, Valentine's Day dance with Vic Volare and ment. See Class Notes for Class Reunion theater, dance, visual arts events and lec- the Fabulous Volare Lounge Orchestra. Contacts. Commencement will take place tures on campus through December. If Doors open at 6:45 p.m.; swing lessons at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 23. you would like a copy, please call the 7-8 p.m.; band begins playing at 8:15. May 24-June 7: Alumni trip to Russia Alumni Office: (651) 696-6295. Enjoy Cochran Lounge one last time and with history Professor Peter Weisensel (see take a final swing through the Student page 19) • Smail Natural History and Science Union before construction PHOTOS BY LIZ RAMMER Gallery, Olin-Rice Science Center: begins on new Campus Inaugural exhibit Nov. 16-May 15. Center. Information: (651) Entitled "Images of the Sea: Art and Tech- 696-6295. nology of Underwater Photography,11 the exhibit features photographs and original equipment developed by Flip Schulke '54, Alumni in Alaska / a renowned photographer and pioneer of Geology Professor Jerry Webers led an alumni trip to Alaska. The Aug. 8-15 / cruise on the Yorktown Clipper traveled through the fjords and glaciers of Alaska's Inside Passage."The Mac trip to Alaska was a daily delight," wrote Phyllis Gieseler Young '43. "So many creative ideas to keep us enter- tained and amused, besides our education enhanced by Professor Webers and two underwater photography. Information: enthusiastic and very knowl- (651)696-6100 edgeable naturalists on Nov. 19: Happy hour for recent grads board the ship." in Washington, D.C., 6-8 p.m., Buffalo Right: The Yorktown Clipper Billiards, 1330 19th St., Dupont Circle pulls up close to a waterfall in Metro (Red Line); (questions? call Marin order to give passengers a good Hagen'91 at 202-328-7558) view. That's Professor Jerry Webers and his wife, Kay, at Dec. 6: Class of'65 Holiday Tea, bottom right. 2-4 p.m. at home of Ken and Ruth Milanese Lippin '65, 209 Valley View Above left: Lllliana Montero '86 Place, Minneapolis, MN 55419; RSVP by and Brian Smart, who live in Nov. 25 to Ruth at (612) 827-1485 or Chicago, made the trip part of e-mail: [email protected] their honeymoon. See group photo on facing page.

MACALESTER TODAY ALUMNI NEWS

May 24-June 7, 1999 Peter the Great to Doc Martens: Preview of alumni trip to Russia

by Peter Weisensel

HE UPCOMING alumni crip Co Russia — from May 24 to June 7, T1999 — will he the first Macalester alumni excursion there in 15 years, and the first since the collapse of communism. Particularly relevant to us, foreigners are now able to visit places which they never would have been permitted to see before. I have tried to include some o( them in the itinerary, along with the magnificent sights Meet the press oi Moscow and St. Petersburg. Katrina Strickland, right, senior arts writer for The Australian in Melbourne, was one of the 10 The news media are full of stories of World Press Institute Fellows who met Macalester alumni Sept. 10 in Washington, D.C. Donna political crises, government insolvency and Cowan Kreisberg '51, left, and Chuck Szymanski '91 were among the alumni who attended the the falling rouble. This will affect us only social gathering and informal discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. indirectly: our dollars will go further when buying goods priced in roubles. Crime happens, but keep in mind that V the group will be accompanied at all times, and that, when out on a free afternoon, you need use no more precaution than you would in a large American city. I was in Moscow and St. Petersburg in June and July; bus- loads of European and American tourists were every- where enjoying themselves and taking in the sights. You can enjoy the same things. In all, 30 folks made the trip to Alaska (see photos on facing page); 24 gathered for this photo. We will stay in upper-tier hotels in Kneeling (from left): Elisabeth Challman Robertson '51 (Hopkins, Minn.); Jeanette Dunnette Moscow and St. Petersburg (in the smaller (Roseville, Minn.); Cookie Larson Pedersen '56 (Gilbert, Ariz.); Carol Woods '65 (Stillwater, Minn.), towns, the best European hotels available). in back; Phyllis Gieseler Young '43 (Ashton, Md.), in front; Nancy Cataldo (Oceanside, Calif.); and Our main criteria are quality of service and Diane St. John '65 (Farmingdale, N.Y.)- Standing (from left): Hotch Young (Ashton, Md.); Don location; we want to be close enough to Robertson (Hopkins, Minn.); Professor Jerry Webers and Kay Webers; Bill Spencer '50 and Carolyn Giffei Spencer '49 (Galesville, Wis.); Roger Dunnette '56 (Roseville, Minn.); Bill Sevetson '51 and Diane Sevetson (Western Springs, III.); Brian Smart (Chicago); Mark Leonard '65, Candy Hewitt Leonard '67 and Jim Leonard (Los Altos, Calif.); Alumni Director Liz Rammer; Coy Replogle (Woodbury, Minn.); John Rammer; and Jeanne Gibbs '67 (Woodbury, Minn.)

NOVEMBER I 998 ALUMNI NEWS walk to the major sights (though NOLI will also visit them in group excursions). In Moscow, the hotel will be the Savoy at the Belorossiiskii railway station, close to the Kremlin. In St. Petersburg, it will he the famous Astoria, a 10-minute walk from the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Art Museum. In the other cities we visit, Rostov the Great, Yaroslavl, Suzdal, Vladimir and Novgorod the Great, the towns are small enough that most of the sights will he a stone s throw from our hotels. AM DRAWN hack to Russia I (I've heen there about 20 times since 1969) by many things. Naturally, my continuing work in Russian history makes it essential to visit the libraries and archives. But there is a more personal side. Old triends are still there, or in some cases now, the sons and daugh- ters of old friends. Their apartments are veritable miniature research libraries, with books lining the walls of every room (in some cases even the bathroom and the kitchen) from Peter the Great's Summer Palace, called Pertrodvorets, on the Gulf of Finland near St. Petersburg floor to ceiling. I see the book on "Baron tos of New York at the turn of the century. on nice days. The monument once was a Brambeus" I once borrowed; on another Near a favorite evening walking route on rendezvous point where I gave a Russian shelf, gift copies of the books I've the Griboedov Canal is the house in friend a book I had written because he was authored; and many old ones from the which Nina Perlina lived with her family. afraid to meet me at his apartment, then Soviet past with the price stamped on the Nina taught at Macalester in the 1980s being watched by the police. How things back cover, U35 roubles and 20 kopeks," or and is now at Indiana University. I still have changed! "40 roubles and 50 kopeks." Roubles these love to walk in the park on the Neva The new things take some getting used days aren't worth very much, and to be so River, near the Historical Archive, with to. Political touts, including a group which precise about the completely insignificant the Rastrelli monument to Peter I, where praises Hitler, pass out leaflets in the center kopeks seems ludicrous under the present I used to take my bag lunch of town. Can you imagine such a thing in circumstances. Then, there is the center a city which suffered so much in World of every Russian home, the kitchen table War II? Men dressed in o.d. jodhpurs where 10 or 12 people would cram them- Join alumni trip to Russia, and tall black boots stroll around on a selves in for an impromptu party. May 24-June 7,1999 Saturday afternoon in twos and threes, Passing through the streets of St. Peters- always in groups, never alone. They look burg, I remember addresses and houses ACALESTER ALUMNI are invited just like Cossacks from the old days; they where I was a guest. I often pass the apart- to join Professor Peter Weisensel are Cossacks and they want publicity for M their claim to be recognized as a national ment house where the poet Alexander on a guided trip May 24-June 7- Bitaki (now in Israel) once lived. Bitaki The two-week adventure will ocus on group. German and British chain stores gave me a number of exquisite black-and- the arts, architecture, history and culture now rent space in the D.L.T. (a Soviet- white photographs of old country of old Russia. Alumni will see ancient era department store), where you can get churches, now hanging in my study, which monasteries, tour art museums, learn Doc Martens "waffle stompers11 and are every bit as striking as Steichen's pho- lout the epic struggle of the tsars to gain skimpy bathing suits. On the streets peo- acceptance among Western nations and ple dress like other Europeans; one can't see the palaces created by the crown to tell from the clothes anymore where Peter Weisensel specializes in Russian house its great collections. you're from and who you are. Amusingly imperial history, from the iSth century to The itinerary begins in Moscow'before but somewhat nostalgically, the black marketeers have disappeared. When igiy. He has been a member of continuing to the ancient 'Golden Ring" Macalester's history faculty since 1973. cities of Sergiev Possad, Rostov, Suzdal, everything is available in the stores tor Yaroslavl, Vladimir and Novgorod. The money, who needs the black market? trip concludes in St. Petersburg. Not everything new you see pleases For more information on the: trip, call the eye, hut it surely is interesting to the Alumm Office at (651) 696-6295 or see a society remaking itself. • toll-free at 1-888-242-9351. o 2 o MACALESTER TODAY itself. "Allan Jury was the brains and the heart behind the CPA," said Grace. Jury himself says no individual can claim credit. "My work was Important as part of a team that met URY the challenges of the refugee crisis in Indochina," says the Foreign Service veteran, who began his career 23 years ago, soon after graduating from DUTY Macalester with a degree in Asian studies. During his hrst Foreign Service assignment, in the Philippines, he acquired a thorough knowledge Praised for his mind and heart, the of U.S. immi- State Department's Allan Jury Jy$ gration law. As a political officer has helped refugees around the world in Thailand in the late 1970s, he analyzed byPaulaM.Hvrschoff'66 human rights issues and Cam- WASHINGTON, D.C. — bodian border The Indochinese refugee developments problem was escalating into after the Viet- a world crisis in 1987-88. namese invasion Thailand and Malaysia, of Cambodia. By the time he transferred to the V U.S. Mission to weary of granting asylum, were turning refugee the United boats out to sea. Thousands of boat people were Nations in clinging to rocks on islands in Thailand. Many Geneva in 1990, were drowning. he was acclaimed At this critical juncture, Allan jury '75 arrived in for his diplomatic Bangkok as the U.S. State Department's point man skills and knowl- for refugee affairs. "We thought he couldn't know edge throughout much about the situation," recalls Dennis Grace, the international vice president of Refugees International and Jury's refugee network. counterpart at the time in the nongovernmental His Foreign sector. "He seemed easygoing, modest." Service work is They soon reevaluated the new U.S. embassy emotionally and deputy refugee coordinator'It'. Jursy wanos without enougt peer h intellectually in his ability to read a exciting, he crisis and make practi- to care. says, because it cal suggestions on how requires him to to respond, according You also have combine hard- to Grace. And, Grace nosed analysis with his desire to do good in the Allan Jury in the State adds, he was better at to be able world. "Its not enough to care. You also have to be Department's lobby, where diplomacy than most able to accomplish things, to constantly seek to visitors are greeted by the ambassadors. to accomplish resolve moral and practical imperatives." The down flags of all the countries Jury became chief side is that the potential for affecting life and death with which the United negotiator and 9 States has diplomatic things. issues creates heavy pressures. "It gets to a point relations. The department co-author of the where it's difficult to achieve a balance with your "Comprehensive Plan gave Jury the 1998 Warren non-work life." Christopher Award for of Action" (CPA) Marguerite Houze, deputy assistant secretary for Outstanding Achievement for Vietnamese refugees, signed by some 50 the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refu- in Global Affairs. foreign ministers. The plan set the terms for reset gees and Migration, describes Jury listening for tlement of tens of thousands of refugees in the hours to multiple viewpoints, summarizing them on U.S. and Southeast Asia, resolving the plight o( the spot and presenting a compromise. "His brain the boat people and eventually the refugee crisis works like a computer," she says. "Give him a Paula Hirschofj '66 is a writer/anthropologist, based couple of key words and he draws on his mental in Washington, D.C, who focuses on international database for the connections. He's the most development issues. At present she is studying an creative thinker I've ever met. Yet for all that bril- indigenous social movement among the Tharu people continued on page 48 of Nepal's Terai region.

NOVEMBER 1998 21 ,4 SONS DoTTiII V\ > • 1 AND Macalester's Icelandic alumni

show a warm regard for their homeland

by Josh Schowwald 93 Leif Ericsson, the Viking explorer. "We're the descendants of the Vikings. It's in our genes. We EYKJAV1K, ICELAND —One is the ambas- live to travel," explains Magnusson, one of the first sador to Sweden. Another helped start the Icelanders to make the 3,000-mile journey to hrst political science program in his country. St. Paul. A third managed press operations at a summit meeting of the world's superpowers. The three — Hordur Bjamason 70, A small school in Minnesota H Svanur Kristjansson '70 and Jon IN 1961, Magnusson, a cub reporter at a Rey- Hakon Magnusson '64 — are all Macalester alumni kjavik newspaper, had never been outside his native who returned home to their native Iceland. "There land. "1 had to go out and see the world." Viking could be as many as 20 Icelanders who attended genes may have sparked his wanderlust, but it was Macalester," estimates Magnusson. The figure is actually a Minnesota Republican who steered supported by the college's records of alumni. him to Macalester. After applying to five or six While that number may not sound like much, it's schools, someone suggested he write Val Bjornson. a lot in Iceland, an Ohio-si:ed island nation in the Bjornson, an Icelander who emigrated to Minne- northernmost reaches of the Atlantic, nearest to sota, was Minnesota's longtime state treasurer and a Greenland, the Arctic Circle and Faeroe Islands. well-known, respected figure in Iceland. uGo to Best known for its volcanic eruptions, glaciers and Macalester," Bjornson wrote back. "You're from a lately its Miss Universes and the pop singer Bjork, small country; go to a small school." Iceland has just 270,000 people — the same num- The young Icelander, who wanted to learn about ber as St. Paul. A single phone book serves the the world, came to the right place. "Ethiopia, entire country. Lebanon, Ghana, Germany, Iran, Egypt," says From business to academe to media, Macalester Magnusson, describing the group of Macalester alums have made an impact on Iceland. Why have friends — including Kofi Annan '61 — who gath- so many people from this small nation attended a ered in his Kirk Hall room. "It was right in the small college in the Upper Midwest? middle of the Midwest. But Macalester was a very Part of the answer may be just three blocks from Magnusson's downtown Reykjavik office. There, on a knoll overlooking the capital city, sits a statue of Josh Schomvald '93 is a New York-based frcc-lancc writer. Ajter graduating from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism last May, he traveled in Iceland for a month and climbed several volcanoes.

2 2 MACALESTER TODAY Magnusson returned home after graduation. Formerly a province of Denmark, Iceland had only been independent since 1944- "I wanted to con- tribute to my own country. To build a modern, independent nation,'1 he says. Magnusson resumed his career as a journalist, first working in print, and eventually becoming foreign news editor of the state-run TV channel. In 1986, he started KOM, Iceland's first and now largest public relations firm, where he managed press relations for the Reagan- Gorbachev summit in Reykjavik that same year. The news media converged on the country for Macalester was a very 10 days, and the world turned its cosmopolitan place in the '60s. attention to Ice- land. "It put us on I wouldn't have traded those the map,11 he says, smiling. years for anything.5 Across town from Magnusson's — Jon Hakon Magnusson '64 downtown Rey- kjavik office, Svanur Kristjansson walks slowly between buildings on a green, Macalester-sized campus. It is 70 degrees and sunny, a scorching day by Icelandic standards, even in late June. Classes recently ended here at the University of Iceland and the campus is virtually empty. Over coffee and danish at the campus diner, Kristjansson chooses his words carefully when he talks about his passion — political science. A Mac mentor BUT WHEN he talks about his mentor, Macalester political science Professor Chuck Green, he chooses his words with special care. "He's the best teacher I ever had in my lite. He's my model." For the past 25 years, here at Iceland's flag- ship university, Kristjansson has tried to emulate Green. "I still try to teach my students what he teaches. You have to emphasize theory and meth- ods and basics If you got the tools of the trade, Top: Svanur Kristjansson '70 on the campus you've got it." of the University of Iceland. A quarter-century ago, there were no degrees in Bottom: Jon Hakon Magnusson '64 at the downtown political science in Iceland, because there were no Reykjavik offices of his company, KOM. political science professors in Iceland. Today, Kristjansson is part oi a department that has six cosmopolitan place in the '60s. I loved Macalester. instructors and offers a wide range of classes. It was I wouldn't have traded those years for anything." Kristjansson's years at Macalester —• in particular, The word spread home. Aslaug Hardardottir his exposure to Green — that ultimately made him and her brother, Hordur Bjarnason, followed him the University of Iceland's second full-time politi- to Macalester. In fact, Aslaug and Jon, who had cal scientist. dated in Iceland, were married at Macalester's As a high school student, active in Iceland's International House on Summit Avenue, where National Party, Kristjansson planned to pursue Aslaug had worked tor three years as assistant to a career in politics. But like Magnusson, an Harry Morgan, founder of the World Press Institute Icelandic-American influenced his plans. A retired (see page 33). Bjarnason is currently Iceland's ambassador to Sweden.

NOVEMBER 1998 23 soldier who taught English at his high school Right: U.N. Secretary- in 1996, lie spent his summer sparked Kristjansson's interest in America and General Kofi Annan '61, vacation in Iceland and found encouraged him to apply for a scholarship with a center, was the guest the job that would hrinu, him Scandinavian-American foundation. Kristjansson of honor at a state home. Like Kristjansson, learned chat Macalester was awarding him a year- dinner in Iceland in Bjornsson says his new job long scholarship. He planned to return to Iceland 1997. With him are k'ives him an opportunity to atter a year and enter law school. But "I loved it two friends from his "pioneer." As the University of Macalester years, Akure-yri's first director of inter- and 1 wanted to stay." Thorkell "Kelly" With another, partial scholarship from Macal- Valdimarrson '64, left, national programs, ester and a part-time job in the political science a self-employed Bjornsson is building department, Kristjansson continued at the school. investor, and Jon Hakon student and faculty Mac alums And in his second year, he took the memorable Magnusson '64, who exchange programs living abroad class with Green. Inspired to pursue a career as a runs Iceland's largest between his university political scientist, Kristjansson entered a doctoral public relations firm. and other universities AC ALUMS live all over program at the University of Illinois. In 1974, after Left: "These are some throughout the world. M the world, of course. of the most fertile Bjornsson has also Besides Iceland, here are the fishing waters in the done his part in building countries which are the current world," says Thorleifur homes, though not necessarily Stefan Bjornsson '94, the Macalester-Iceland fishing for cod in the connection. In the spring country of origin, of 10 or fjord near his Akureyri of his first year, he called more alumni: home. the Reykjavik home of Solveig Kristbjorg, who 90 Japan eventually enrolled at 80 Canada Icelanders didn't Macalester and gradu- 54 Malaysia stop coming to ated in 1996. An 52 United Kingdom anthropology major, she Macalester after the 39 Germany '60s. Among those returned home two years who made the jour- ago and now works as 25 France ney to Mac are an assistant producer for 23 Turkey Hreggvidur Jonsson the Icelandic National 20 Greece '87, now president of the Icelandic Broadcasting in the world, the cleanest air in the world." Broadcasting Service while pursuing a 20 Australia graduate degree in journalism at the Uni- Corp.; Hlin Sverrisdottir '88, a landscape architect; Akureyri's streets are filled with colorful, well-kept 19 Switzerland and Olov Stefansdottir '89, a pharmacist. houses with gardens. versity of Iceland. Two other alumnae 16 Sweden And Thorleifur Stefan Bjornsson '94- And, let's not forget, "Pizza in Akureyri is as enrolled at Macalester during this decade: good as anywhere." Sigridur Stefansdottir '97 attended Mac for a 15 Pakistan Volcanoes and pizza Bjornsson applied to Mac partly because his year and is now a nurse in Reykjavik; Arndis 14 Cyprus mother, who received her Ph.D. from the Univer- Jonsdottir '97, who majored in psychology 13 Spain with a core in women's and gender studies, DRIVE NORTHEAST from Reykjavik sity of Minnesota, had heard "Macalester was good 12 Bolivia returning home to work on his through five hours of magical Icelandic landscape. for international students." "I'm very glad I did," he enrolled this fall in a masters program in It SOUnded Crazy tO them dissertation, he was contacted You'll pass ice-capped mountains, fields of calcified says. At Macalester, he developed an interest in organizational psychology at the University 12 Netherlands by a professor at the University black lava and hills steaming with volcanic heat. international politics, which led to a master's of Manchester Institute of Science and 12 Norway that I'd return to a place ot Iceland — now the presi- And then, along a fjord that leads into the Arctic degree in international relations from Syracuse Technology in England. 12 Saudi Arabia dent of Iceland — who had Ocean, you'll reach Iceland's second-largest city, University. While working in Washington, D.C., Back in Akureyri, Bjornsson, once 11 Brazil 60 miles south of the learned that a political Akureyri, and the home of Bjornsson. unaware of the number of Ice- H Hong Kong scientist was in the country. "Friends in America were shocked when I landers who went to his alma Arctic Circle.... How Kristjansson was invited to lec- returned home," he says. "It sounded crazy to them mater, now wants to starts an 11 Kenya ture on a temporary basis. that I'd return to a place 60 miles south of the alumni group. He invites all 11 Thailand could you leave America, He's been at the University Arctic Circle. Friends in Iceland were surprised, Mac alums to contact him at 11 South Africa too. How could you leave America, the land ot the University of Akureyri. His 9 oi Iceland ever since, teaching 10 United Arab Emirates the land of opportunity? political theory, Icelandic opportunity?" e-mail address: [email protected] 10 Denmark politics and comparative poli- True, Bjornsson admits, the long winters are dif- A Mac happy hour in — Thorleifur Stefan Bjornsson '94 tics — and the lessons he's ficult, it never gets truly warm and the spicy ethnic Akureyri? Bjornsson smiles, learned from Chuck Green. foods he grew to love in America are virtually recalling gatherings during his D.C. "I had a choice. I could either teach political unavailable. But, for Bjornsson, Iceland is home days. It will almost certainly be the science in the U.S., probably getting a job at a and family. Like many other Icelanders, he can northernmost Mac happy hour in community college. Or I could help build an inter- trace his lineage back hundreds of years. There is history. I nationally recognized political science program something, he adds, that's hard to explain without here.... I have a lot ot satisfaction about what seeing it. "It's the Icelandic quality of life." Solveig Kristbjorg '96 outside we've done," he says, proudly. Iceland has one of the highest per-capita her home in Reykjavik's old city. incomes in the world. There's virtually no crime She now works for the Icelandic and no poverty in Akureyri. Bjornsson leaves his National Broadcasting Service. front door unlocked. "We have the cleanest water

24 MACALESTER TODAY NOVEMBER 1998 by Karen Lundegaard '89 A Tony Award adorns Roy Gabay's desk, which E\v YORK — It's been a bad start to overflows with a busy weekend for theater producer scripts writers are Roy Gabay. A former TV star, out- trying to get him raged that Gabay won't give him to stage. certain guarantees for a show, has called him unprintable names and hung up on him. An actress Gabay sought for another show has become what he tells the third to reject the lead role. Meanwhile, you is the truth, Pera Pelas, a surprise sellout, closes Sunday, which isn't always and Gabay, the show's pro bono general the case on manager, still hasn't found another theater Broadway," says for the original drama about three genera- John Clark, tions of Turks. producer and And the pinnacle work of Gabay's still-young director of Lynn Redgrave's one-woman show, career, the Tony Award-winning revival of Arthur Shakespeare jar My Father. Miller's A View from the Bridge, will turn an uneasy corner as its star leaves the show. But what's a bad week in a great year? In June, Playbills and Pulitzers Gabay, now 35, became one of the youngest BUT WHILE Gabay wouldn't pass muster Tony-winning producers in the 52-year history of at a casting call, he is living the role. The maitre dJ Broadway's top award. The Tony has raised his at Joe Allen's, a theater crowd haunt near Broad- profile, he admits. "Everybody knows." Since gradu- way, knows him by name. His desk at his Times ating from Macalester in 1985 with a double major Square office overflows with scripts writers are in theater and pre-law, Gabay has gone from trying trying to get him to stage. Bookcases in his two- to make ends meet between shows by typing bedroom apartment are tight with Playbills of shows 95 words per minute at temporary word-processing that he's seen. The walls of the living room chroni- gigs, to becoming one of New York's hottest young cle his career with framed posters of shows he's producers. worked on: the Royal Shakespeare Company's He doesn't look the role. An on-again, off-again A Midsummer Night's Dream, Edward Albee's Three goatee is gone in the July heat, leaving a decidedly Tall Women — which won the Pulitzer Prize in baby face. Nor does he dress the part, preferring 1994 — and Redgrave's acclaimed show. He ran out khakis and linen shirts to clashing stripes and plaids of room at home and began to use the posters to And, with his distinctively high-pitched voice, he decorate his office. There he's got Paula Vogel's How certainly doesn't sound like a tough negotiator. I Learned to Drive, this year's Pulitzer winner, and According to those he's worked with, he's unusually View, Miller's lesser-known work about a Brooklyn nice and down to earth in the world of theater egos. longshoreman's fatal attraction to his niece, which "He's straightforward and landed Gabay his first Tony on his first try. honest and you feel that Without Gabay, View's general manager and one of its six producers, the show would have ended after its seven-week run at the Roundabout Theater, the nonprofit company that first staged it. "Other producers wouldn't touch it," says Michael Mayer, the Tony-nominated director of the show. "It couldn't have happened without him, that's for

"l Roy Gabay '8$

* is winning kudos —

including a Tony Award —

as a Broadway producer

MACALESTER TODAY sure." Gabay says he felt Miller's play deserved the Gentleman of Verona, with Raul Julia, when he proper Broadway staging. "People needed to see was 11. From then on theater tickets became his this — this great, amazing story. It goes back to why birthday and Hanukkah gifts. For his 14th birthday you do theater," he says. it was Eviui with Patti LuPone and Mandy Gabay does theater because it combines all of bis Patinkin. His 16th: Ani't Misbehavin1 with Nell talents. "1 really connect with it, as tar back as I can Carter. He saw A Chorus Line every few years dur- remember." Ironically, the native New Yorker ing its 15-year run. wasn't drawn to the stage until he moved to Con- necticut. He was about 10, and the family bad just relocated from a New York suburb to Greenwich The Mac connection when his parents split up. His mother, a Brooklyn THOUGH HE acted a little in high school, it native and former actress, joined a local theater wasn't until Macalester — to which be trans- troupe. She dragged Roy and bis younger brother, ferred after two unhappy years elsewhere — that Joey, to rehearsals. "I felt comfortable," Gabay says. his theater focus became clear. "They gave you the "That became our surrogate family for a long time." chance to do things on your own," he says of the His mother, Marcia Roney, also began taking theater program. He acted, stage managed, handled him to Broadway shows. His first was Two lights, directed. He interned the summer after his junior year with Elizabeth McCann, a noted New York producer, and went back the following Karen Lundegaard '89 is a reporter for the Wall January Interim term. "He grew into himself and Street Journal's southeast section, based in Atlanta. who he wanted to be and who he really was,"

SARA BARRETT PHOTOS

"I really connect with it, as far back as I can remember," Gabay says of theater. A native New Yorker, he's pictured near his Times Square office.

NOVEMBER 1998 27 Roney says. "It was a great school for him." Even compelling and affecting staging." The four-week today his closest friends arc from Macalester, run sold out, and Gabay exrended the show for as A year after he graduated, Gabay produced his long as he could get the theater — another three first play. He was 22. Getting rights to Larry weeks. Also of note: His backers earned a 33 per- Kramer's The Normal Heart, an angry indictment of cent return on their investment. New York's handling of the first AIDS cases, was It was a turning point. Even Gabay's mother, surprisingly easy, but putting it on was another who had still harbored hopes that he would turn to story. It would be a for-profit production — a rarity a more secure side of show business, perhaps enter- in the Twin Cities. "Coming from New York, that tainment law, knew it was the beginning of the was all 1 knew," he explains. He told the Minne- end. "It all came into focus for me as far as his abil- apolis Star Tribune, in a story on his venture in ity was concerned," she said. He produced a couple 1986: "My biggest problem is credibility. When I go more shows in the Twin Cities before packing up out asking for for New York in 1988. investors, what do I say when people ask, 'Who are you?1 Redgrave and company 'What have you INITIALLY, the Big Apple proved less easy. done?' 'Why should Work was hard to come by. He co-managed some we give you shows that "opened and closed very quickly." He money?1 Eventually temped in between. And he refused his father I would like people Edward's occasional pleas to join him and Joey in to say, 'Roy Gabay the family business: Gabay's, a discount clothing is a good invest- store that grew from his grandfather's business sell- ment. He'll do a ing clothing scraps from a pushcart in the early good show.' " 1900s. He recruited his Finally, in 1993, he got his big break: company Macalester theater manager of Lynn Redgrave's one-woman show. friends to help him. Richard Levine '84 directed. Grace Fauver '87 did cos- tumes. Eric Muschler '87 handled advertising sales. In the middle of rehearsals, Gabay remembers hitting a brick wall. He was sure the show would fail, it it ever even made it to an audience. "I wasn't sure I was going to be able to carry out everything that I had set up." He did. The Star Tribune hailed the production as "a

Top: Gabay with actress Molly Ringwald, left, and Paula Vogel, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive, which Gabay produced. Above; When playwright Edward Albee received a Kennedy Center Honors award, he invited Gabay to be one of his guests at the festivities in Washington. Right: "Very, very quickly we became friends," Lynn Redgrave says of Gabay. He got his big break in 1993 when he became company manager of her one-woman show, Shakespeare for My Father.

28 MACALESTER TODAY Hillary Clinton greets Gabay at the Kennedy Center Honors gathering in Washington, D.C.

Scheduled to run just six weeks, Shakespeare for My man, autobiographical show by Colin Martin '85, a Father lasted 10 months before touring 11 cities in friend of Gabay's at Macalester. three countries. "Very, very quickly we became Some he imported to New York from other parts friends," Redgrave recalls. "I liked his mind He of the country. Martin's came from Los Angeles. has a really good eye and a good ear and a way of Others, such as View, he took from limited runs at assessing theater. It's a mixture of nonprofit theaters to longer, commercial produc- business sense and artistic quality." tions. Gabay rarely puts up money. He pulls the By that point, Gabay had shows together, from helping to cast them to locat- become a fixture in the office of ing a theater to paying all the bills. He is always McCann, the show's general man- general manager of shows he works on. It he finds ager and the producer he had interned with ^Eventually I would like people to say "Koy Gabay while at Macal- J ester. The job is a ^ood investment. He'll do a s;ood show." segued into others tor her, including — Roy Gabay in 1986 interview general manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company's investors, he's a producer as well. His favorite part A Midsummer Night's Dream and of a show? "Seeing all the pieces that look like they Alhee's Three Tall Women, another have no cohesive tie come together in front of a hit that toured nationally and group of people who've never seen it before." His abroad. "Once I was there I never least favorite? "Asking people for money." left her office," he notes. That issue was especially touchy with View. The All the while he was making 33-member cast made it unlikely the show would more connections, and friends. ever make money in a commercial run. Indeed, When Albee received a prestigious Gabay's pitch to investors was less than appealing. Kennedy Center Honors award "You probably won't get rich off this show," he ,yiven to entertainment luminaries, would tell them. "But it's important. It needs to Gabay was one of his invited guests be done." at the festivities in Washington. "He's the kind of producer, general manager who Soon Gabay was producing his own believes that everything is possible," says Mayer, shows as well. Among them: How I View's director. Where other producers were telling Learned to Drive; Honour, a new him, " 'You can't do it,' Roy would say, 'Sure you play by Joanna Murray-Smith can. We'll figure out a way.' " about marriage and infidelity, star- And it paid off. Gabay and the other producers ring Jane Alexander; Eugene have picked up all the major awards, including the O'Neill's rarely produced drama Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk. For the Tony The Hairy Ape, with Willem Dafoe; and Virgins and Other Myths, a one-

NOVEMBER 1998 29 Awards, his mother An epilogue: The shows go on was his date for the OY GABAY is still friends with the three Macalester classmates who helped evening, "Who else:11 R. him with his first show 12 years ago in Minneapolis. Richard Levine owns he says. a theater bookstore in Chicago and publishes a uniform catalogue; Grace Fauver Velardi works for a medical supply company in Boston; and Eric Muschler is director of community economic development for United Way of Metropolitan An end and Atlanta. a beginning Gabay finalized the deal to bring Beautiful Thing to New York. The show opens on Valentine's Day. NOW, a month The Primary English Class will star Didi Conn, who played Frenchy in the movie after the ceremony, Grease. An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf, with Fred Tessler as assistant on a muggy July week- director — courtesy of a recommendation by Gabay — received great reviews at end, Gabay is sad to the Berkshire Theater Festival. Gabay will open it in New York in the spring. see the show as he And with Tony Danza strong enough in View, Gabay arranged for the show to knows it come to go on tour. Currently it's slated for 18 weeks in nine cities, beginning in the fall an end. Anthony of 1999. Because of LaPaglia, who won a the tour, investors Tony tor his portrayal will likely earn of longshoreman money. Eddie Carbone, gives — K.L his final performance : Sunday afternoon. Tony Danza takes over I liked his the role Tuesday. "It's tourist season," Gabay notes. mind.... And while he's still working hard on the show, in many respects Gabay's life has It's a mixture moved on as well. He's set new career goals, having well surpassed his longtime dream of ofbusiness producing a Broadway show. Next up: Hollywood. He'd like to produce both televi- sense and sion and movies. Meanwhile, he's doing more theater, and lots ot it. He's just come back Tony Danza replaced Anthony LaPaglia in the lead role in Arthur artistic quality. from an overnight trip to Chicago to see Miller's A View from the Bridge. The production earned Gabay a Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing, a love Tony Award as one of the show's six producers. — actress Lynn Redgrave story about two working-class teen-age boys. After LaPaglia's Saturday night performance is a wrap, years of wanting to produce the show, the rights for with just one more show to go. Gabay, waiting for a which weren't available, he likes the Famous Door's cast member, stands on the quiet Broadway stage. version enough to try to move it. He's hopeful. And The single backdrop for the show, a screened silhou- despite the week's hassles that got his big weekend ette of a shipyard, looms behind him. Dimmed aisle off to a lousy start, he's confident he can cast leads lights reveal rows of empty red velvet seats in the for two other shows: a revival of Israel Horovitz's otherwise darkened Neil Simon Theatre. Though The Primary English Class and An Empty Plate in the he spends much of his life in theaters, Gabay is Cafe du Grand Boeuf, a show about a lovelorn expa- rarely on this side of the curtain. Does he have any triate's attempt to starve himself to death in a Paris desire to be the actor absorbing the applause? He cafe, which he was introduced to by his best friend, doesn't hesitate: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Fred Tessler '84. Minutes later, now backstage, he continues his He continues to tell friends that he needs to stop thought. uThis is where it is so cool." He points to working so much, although he doesn't know how the infrared monitor which lets technicians see not to work, he says. Theater is his only hobby. during blackouts on the set. And the computer Most of his friends are in theater. There is no divide lightboard, and the hotplate where the prop man- between personal and professional. Most mornings ager cooks up pasta tor the first scene in Act One. he takes Luke, a slobbery mutt he adopted from a "I'm not one of those people who is caught up in the pound five years ago, on a long walk before watch- magic as much as I like to know how the magic is ing Rosie O'Donnell's talk show — a must among made," he says. the New York theater crowd — while calling the The next afternoon he watches from the ninth office to find out receipts from shows the previous row as LaPaglia takes his final bow. The actor will night. "I love what I do," Gabay says. "It's what I've hide his tearing eyes in the dozen roses he's just always wanted to do. It combines all my skills. If I been handed. The cast will also be mostly in tears, had to write my perfect job description, this would as will the audience, on their feet, cheering wildly be it, which is pretty lucky." for LaPaglia's stunning portrayal. It is one of those magical theater moments. Roy Gabay knows inti- mately how it happened.

MACALESTER TODAY OMMON GROUND Three generations ofhiacites, from two disciplines, came together on a research project close to home: St. Paul's neighborhoods by Kate hlavelin '83

LACID Carnegie Hall looks much as it always has, but inside, the Geography Department has disman- tled invisible walls to construct a bridge con- Pnecting disciplines across campus, extending through St. Paul all the way to City Hall. The bridge-building began quietly on campus last spring with a trio of geographers: Professor David Lanegran, Instructor Carol Gersmehl and student Claudia Fonkert, now a senior. Together, they plotted an ambitious blueprint: a summer

'The idea is to get faculty members to work with community members on more global issues... then we can bring little pieces into our classes.9

— Professor Karla Ballman '83

research project to map investment patterns for more than 60,000 residential properties — all the homes in the city of St. Paul. "We're really doing things that no one in the lab has done before," Fonkert said. Back in 1969, Lanegran attempted a similar project, but without high-tech computers, it was impossible. Gersmehl, who runs the cartography lab Professors Karla Ballman '83, left, and David Lanegran '63 with Claudia Fonkert '99 noted, "The only reason Claudia is able to literally outside a house near the campus. Their research shows that racism affects which be working at this place is because we have a power- St. Paul neighborhoods draw investment capital and which do not. ful enough computer. It provides the essential tools. The cartography lab's computer is the result of a $20,000 National Science Foundation grant. Another grant, from the W.M. Keck Foundation,

NOVEMBER 1998 31 enabled Fonkert to work hill time all summer por- ing when she was in eighth grade and came in ing over the data. second in the Minnesota State Geography Bee. Lanegran, who co-chaired the faculty-staff seg- "I knew she was going to be a super student," ment of the college's new fund-raising campaign, Lanegran said. "Frankly, I don't have the skill to do emphasized the importance of foundation grants what Claudia did with the GIS [geographic infor- and alumni donations. "We have to have this kind mation systems] research." of funding. We don't have graduate students. We Last spring, Fonkert took the "Action Research" need to have some way to pay students so they can class taught by Visiting Professor George Latimer do research to help themselves." Lanegran said that Fonkert "is constantly offered jobs" and would have worked for the state last summer, but since 'It's very significant research Macalester had money to pay her, she opted to stay on campus. and because it's so well- Fonkert 's research afforded her a rare view of St. Paul, where she's lived for all but one of her constructed, it has policy 21 years. Although the project is a collaborative 5 effort, Fonkert did most of the intensive data shap- implications [for St. Paul]. ing. Each key variable demanded patience and persistence. "1 spent about two weeks at the Minne- — Professor David Lanegran '63 sota History Center copying by hand 11,000 building permits," she —- a former mayor of St. Paul — which encourages recalled. students and faculty to seek out research projects To make sense of the on issues and problems that concern the commu- Keck grant funds stacks of information, the nity. Ballman is among a small group of faculty, led student-faculty teams geographers turned to math by Karin Trail-Johnson of Mac's Community Ser- and computer science vice Office, working to foster Action Research. pE STUDENT-FACULTY research team of Professor Karla Ballman — "The idea," Ballman explained, "is to get faculty A. Claudia Fonkert '99 and Professors David like Lanegran, a Macalester members to work with community members on Lanegran '63 alum — who sorted more global issues... then we can bring little pieces and Karla dozens of variables, into our classes." While Ballman and the geogra- Ballman 'S3 is such as census phers are still analyzing their findings, all agree the one oi 11 such demographics, loca- map project exemplifies Action Research — infor- collaborations tion, Lot and house mation valuable to academics as well as other funded by the size, and household members of the community. W.M. Keck income. "We could "What we have is a kind of atomic bomb," Foundation of not do this without Lanegran said. "It's very significant research and Los Angeles. Karla," Lanegran because its so well-constructed, it has policy impli- Kecks said. "The statistical cations." This fall, the team will meet with local $500,000 analysis is the miss- development agencies and foundations to present challenge ing piece." their findings — maps that show vivid and some- grant, awarded Yet each team times disturbing patterns of neighborhoods in December 1997, builds on Macalester's member contributed valuable preserved or ignored. "We're seeing pretty clearly tradition of close student-faculty interaction. skills. Lanegran, who also the effects of racism, much greater than I thought it When matched by other donors, the grant will coordinates Macalester's would be," Lanegran said, adding that he knows establish permanent endowed funds to allow Urban Studies Program, this report has "the potential to scare people" by student-faculty teams to conduct research in jokingly called himself the clearly showing areas where people won't invest. the humanities, tine arts, social sciences, natural project's "godfather," the per- The team members believe their maps can help sciences and mathematics. '"• son who understands the influence future policy for the city. It's certain the research questions and has a project will influence the future of Fonkert, who wealth of information about plans to go to graduate school next year so she can St. Paul. Gersmehl described her role as "the keeper teach geography. "Claudia is going to get into any oi the crime data and the census data," adding, graduate school she applies to because clearly she "One of my major functions is to keep track of what can do first-class research," Lanegran says proudly. information we have." Gersmehl also deserves For her part, Fonkert is grateful for the opportu- credit for getting the data to Macalester. She got nity to do serious research while still an undergrad. the information from a former student, who now "It's really opened my eyes to what goes on in works at Wilder Research Foundation. continued on page 35 But Lanegran says the linchpin of the project is Fonkert, whose progress the professor began track- Kate Havelin '83, a St. Paul writer, wrote about the Chiareli family of Macalester graduates in August's Mac Today.

3 2 MACALESTER TODAY journalism in Romania. Ho earns only $100 a month, but his medical care and housing are free. Romania is not necessarily his last stop. "I tell my children one of my fantasies is to get on an airplane, with a parachute, fly for 10 or 12 hours and drop in some country — it could he anywhere,11 Morgan says. "I'm convinced that, even not speaking the language or anything, 1 could have an adventure." A loquacious man of anecdotes and aphorisms, Harry Morgan was a well-known figure at Macal- ester during the 1960s. DeWitt Wallace sent him to campus to be a special assistant to President Harvey Rice and director of the college's international programs. Among the many friend- ships Morgan made was one with the young Kofi Annan. The two traveled the U.S. together with other international students one Left: Harry Morgan outside the World Press Institute, which he summer as founded, and the International Center, which he ran when it was Ambassadors for called International House. Above: Morgan and Kofi Annan Friendship, a renewed their nearly 40-year friendship last summer at the program Morgan United Nations. had created. And Annan often came by to see Morgan and his wife at their campus apartment. Their friendship still Tm hustling endures. So does WPI, which has brought 432 journalists from 92 countries to Macalester since for ideas and Morgan created it in 1961. He credits Ed Sullivan, HARRY'S who was a news dreams — paper columnist as well as TV show- I'm a chaser EXCELLENT ADVENTURE man, for "planting the idea" of invit- of dreams, The founder of the World Press Institute ing foreign journalists to the U.S. Morgan remains a member of WPI's board of my own and fiinds a new career in Romania directors. 9 In an interview at Macalester last summer others. when he visited WPI, Morgan spoke of "the privi- by Jon Halvorsen lege I had as a journalist... to become friends with those with whom I had no right to be friends. Alex "E WAS A messenger hoy for Haley and I used to sit over at the International Eleanor Roosevelt, a friend of Center and talk, and we agreed on that. He said, Mother Teresa, nearly a son to 'Just think, Harry, of all those poor bastards who are DeWitt Wallace and an adviser to doing what we're doing and earning less and not a Macalester student named Kofi continued on page 45 Annan. He knew Ed Sullivan, Alex Haley and the queen of the Netherlands. Six degrees of separation? Harry Morgan has cut ]on Halvorsen is the managing editor of that number to two or three. Macalester Today. Although Morgan turns 65 in January, the former Reader's Digest editor, founder of the World Press Institute and ordained minister is well into yet another career. He's in his fifth year oi teaching

NOVEMBER 1998 33 MACALESTER YESTERDAY

Teacher and preacher: Edwin Kagin's legacy by Rebecca Gonzalez-Campoy '83 In 1926, Kagin interrupted his studies to 1950. He also served as secretary of toward a doctorate at Boston University the faculty and chaplain and performed ISSIONARY, preacher, teacher, to join the Macalester faculty as associate 66 marriages for college couples. Kagin scholar and author, Edwin Kagin professor of religion. James Wallace, was involved with the St. Paul Council of M strived to help others grow in Macalester president-emeritus, was chair- Christian Education for several years and their spirituality and education. However, man of the department at the time and the served as moderator of the Presbyterian quite accidentally, it was his role as biogra- two became close friends. Synod of Minnesota in 1945. He led the pher that may have made the biggest Kagin became full professor in 1937 and Board of Trustees of Presbyterian Homes difference to Macalester. served as department chairman from 1937 ot Minnesota, was editor of the Protestant Born in Germany, Kagin came to the Calendar and was a supply minis- United States with his family when he was ter at many local churches. 16 months old. The youngest of eight sur- Edwin Kagin, 1879-1975 Brian Cleworth '49 recalls viving children, he spent most of his Kagin's impact on him as a stu- childhood in Frankfort, Ky., where his Bom: Feb. 16, 1S79, dent. "I had just returned after father, Urban, ran a grocery business and, Baden, Germany the war. I found Dr. Kagin to be later, a restaurant. He died when Kagin welcoming and warm. He was was 7. The older boys carried on the Education: B.A., Centre College, Kentucky, 1904; quiet and soft-spoken. I had business. bachelor of divinity degree, Louisville Presbyterian already made a commitment to Theological Kagin's road to Macalester was long, with many detours. He originally had Seminary, 1907; planned to become a dentist, but his older master of theology, brother, Carl, needed help with his dry Princeton Seminary, goods business. A prominent lawyer in 1922; master in Frankfort thought Kagin could do better philosophy, Princeton than "slicing calico" and suggested he go University, 1923; into the ministry if he wouldn't consider doctor of religious law. "And from that time on, Mr. Chinn education, Boston would have me come to his office and he University, 1940; would spend 15 minutes to half an hour honorary doctor calking to me about religious matters," of divinity degree, Kagin once recalled. Kagin made a moving Centre College, speech on behalf oi the YMCA that 1937; honorary prompted others to encourage him to doctor of humanities become a minister as well. He sold his por- degree, Macalester, tion of the business to another brother and 1972; posthumous went off to Centre College and then Alumni Recognition Louisville Presbyterian Theological Semi- award from Centre nary. He was ordained in 1907- College, 1975 From 1907 to 1921, Kagin served as a Macalester career; Presbyterian missionary in Korea, assigned associate professor, to Chungju, about 90 miles south of Seoul. professor and chair of He worked with Syngman Rhee, then a religion, 1926-52 student secretary of the YMCA, who went on to become president of South Korea. He Family: married N'lary also met Mary Frances Johnstone, a Frances Johnstone, Methodist missionary. In 1913, they 1913; daughter Julia returned to the United States on furlough Elizabeth Kagin and were married in Georgia by her father, (1914-1997) a Methodist minister. Their daughter, Died: July 29, 1975, Julia — known as Julee — was born the St. Paul following year. The Kagins returned from the mission field for good in 1921 because of Marys poor health. "It seemed wise for Edwin Kagin in 1957 with me to prepare myself for teaching in a a copy of his biography 11 church-related college, Kagin recalled. of James Wallace, DeWitt's father.

34 MACALESTER TODAY MACALESTER YESTERDAY go into the ministry- He gave me all presented him with a Macalester the support he possibly could. Charter Centennial Medallion for "He was very open to ideas,11 says distinguished service to the college. Cleworth, now a retired accountant A small, silver-haired man with in Seattle. "We were tree to express great physical stamina, Kagin was views that maybe opposed Dr. the primary reason Mary Kagin Kagin's — he'd readily accept that, Kramer '69 came to Macalester. encouraging us to go ahead and "He's the most remarkable man I develop our ideas." ever met," she says of her great- Cleworth and other alumni recall uncle. "He was a revered member Kagin getting them to read more oi of the family for his personality, the Bible by assigning only certain keen wit, education and parts, skipping the more lurid pas- achievement." sages. When the students figured out The twinkle in his eyes behind what they were missing, they read Kagin was 90 when he rode a camel on a trip to the Mideast. the steel-rimmed glasses revealed a more than what was required. man with a sense of adventure. Young Pai '51, one of the first Koreans to contributions to Macalester. The biography Kramer recalls the story of "Uncle Edwin's" attend Macalester, also describes Kagin as a revealed to DeWitt just how much hard- trip to the Middle East at age 90 with his "gentle soul. Except tor his exams!" Pai's ship and poverty his father endured to build daughter, Julee. In Cairo, Kagin had his father had been a student in the elemen- Macalester. DeWitt wrote the introduction, first camel ride. "They call the camel the tary school in Korea where Kagin had been saying he was "profoundly shocked" to read ship of the desert," Kagin said. "I felt like principal, and he contacted Kagin before of his father and mothers suffering. "Macal- saying stop the ship and let me walk!" sending his son to Macalester. "I visited his ester College must and will continue to Kagin worked on Macalester projects office often. He made me feel at home," grow in importance and in strength, fulfill- right up until his death. He chronicled the says Pai, now a retired dean of the School ing its destiny of Christian leadership oi papers of Macalester founder Edward of Education at the University of Missouri which my father dreamed," DeWitt wrote. Duffield Neill for the college. At age 95, he at Kansas City. "My first "We should erect a bronze started work on the Wallace papers. year at Mac, my English statue of Dr. Kagin as the best "I am not a prophet, nor the son of a was terrible. I was so frus- development officer of the prophet, only a humble teacher come from trated because I was college," says Paul Aslanian, the land oi Paul Bunyan, the Olsons, the studying the language day Andersons, and the Johnsons, and night. I'd stop by his with a sprinkling of Schmidts, office and he'd encourage 'If the food isn't good, O'Learys, and MacGregors me to stick with it." I hope the students thrown in for good measure," Kagin retired in 1952, writes Kagin in a paper on only to be asked at his won't take it out on me!' the "Outlook of Religion on retirement party by the College Campus." "I Macalester President — Edwin Kagin on the naming know wisdom will not die Charles Turck to write of the dining hail with me. ..." the biography of James To paraphrase Kagin's bib- Wallace, who served the lical quote of a great hero of college for more than vice president of finance for faith: Through his faith and good works, he 50 years as a professor, Macalester from 1967 to is still speaking. O dean, president and 1995, now at Swarthmore fundraiser. Kagin pub- College. lished James Wallace of Macalester in 1957. When Macalester named its dining hall This is the seventh in a series of profiles of The book is believed to have inspired after Kagin in 1974, Kagin joked: "If the gi'eat figures in Macalester's history by Wallace's son DeWitt, editor and owner of food isn't good, I hope the students won't Rebecca Gonzalez-Campoy '83, a writer who Reader's Digest, to increase dramatically his take it out on me!" That same year, it also lives in Sunfish Lake, Minn.

COMMON GROUND continued from page 3 2 it's really exciting," Ballman said, "espe- And although the Geography Depart- research," she said. Ballman said allowing cially since I live in this area, to see the ment is settled in Carnegie while Statistics students like Fonkert to participate in such interplay between what they can do and is across campus in the Olin-Rice Science research "makes a huge difference [to stu- what stats can do." Lanegran noted that Center, Lanegran, Gersmehl, Fonkert and dents]. This is what we need to do to give it's rare for science and social science fac- Ballman know there's a bridge linking students this kind of opportunity." ulty to work together. Now both professors their disciplines. Their collaboration is a The student and her teachers seem look forward to more collaborations. bridge made of maps that may help shape energized by their collaboration. "I think "I'm hoping for Karla this will open up a the future of a city. • whole new field of geographic stats," Lanegran said. NOVEMBER 1998 35 LETTERS

LETTERS continued from inside from cover spent on campus. So I have no reason to One impeccably dressed woman came I concluded that overall, I developed be depressed. I would venture to guess that up to Erma and greeted her. "I don't think into a fairly worthwhile individual, most of the many Macalester graduates I recognize you," she remarked to Erma. Although my personality was developed whose lives are and have been fairly rou- "What do you do?" before the years spent at Macalester, I am tine, would feel the same way. Well, ole Erma looked this woman who I am today, in terms ot how 1 look at Thank you for a most interesting issue square in the eye and stated, "I am Erma, the world and those with whom I come ot Macalester Today. and I am raising two Future Citizens of the into contact, to a great degree hecause of David Coulson '54 United States of America. And what did the colleges influence. I became a friend Irvine, Calif. you say you did?" of the Dupres because I installed their Please pass this story along to the Moms screens in the summer and their storm With Degrees who may feel their contribu- windows in the tall, and I learned from Parenthood tions at home are less than noteworthy. them. I was influenced by Mitau, Holt:, YEARS AGO, famed columnist and Jane Lichty Pearson '68 White, Spangler, Warner, Johnson, Berg, humorist Erma Bombeck was also a "Stay- Another Educated Stay-At-Home Mom Primrose and many ot their colleagues At-Home Mom," burping babies and Durango, Colo. because they were unique scholars who putting one-dish dinners on the table for were able to stimulate a need to know. hubby businessman Bill. 1 have never forgotten many of their One day, Bill came home and told Erma August issue lessons, and because of them I have that they were invited to a cocktail party I WANT to congratulate you on the out- been influenced positively throughout that would have every "Who's Who" in standing issue (August 1998) of Macalester my lite and, in turn, have tried to Phoenix attending. Erma went to her Today. Every article held my interest and, influence others in a positive and pro- closet and pulled out the best dress she most of all, your photography is fabulous. gressive way. had, slid on her black pumps and told Bill I've seen many college alumni publica- Macalester expanded my self-esteem, she was ready to go. tions but without doubt this issue LS in a my concern for others and for the planet In they went, and Erma was met with class by itself. on which we live, and I have lived and lots of very successful businesswomen as Eileen Berger continued to live (in spite of my aches and well as men. Her "Plain jane" attire looked (a host family at Macalester pains forecast by Dr. Watson) a generally rather drab with all the Gucci pumps and for many years) happy life because ot those critical years handbags she saw around the room. White Bear Lake, Minn.

JURY DUTY continued from page 21 strong influence in helping to integrate the Philippines, where he met his wife, liance, he's an unassuming, likable guy refugee issues with mainstream foreign pol- Miercolita. His favorite assignment was with a sense of humor." icy objectives." The Hague because he and his family had Jury's skills served him well at the URY IS NOW at a point where he can the opportunity to know the Dutch as United Nations office in Geneva, where pause to reflect on his career. He traces neighbors in a residential community. he headed U.S. efforts to build an emer- Jhis decision to join the Foreign Service to (American diplomats often live in Ameri- gency refugee response system in Macalester, of course, which he attended can compounds set apart from the local coordination with international refugee on a National Merit Scholarship. His people.) And he enthusiastically recalled organizations. He oversaw the U.S. coursework in Japanese and Chinese his- activities that have kept him busy outside response to crises, including the exodus ot tory with Professor Jerry Fisher was a work, including coaching Little League 2 million Kurdish refugees from Iraq fol- strong influence. The decisive point came teams of expatriate children and leading a lowing the 1991 Gulf War, and the during his junior year of study in Tokyo Cub Scout troop on a ski holiday in the organization of relief lines to more than when he heard a U.S. embassy representa- Swiss Alps. Having lived the past four 1 million Bosnians following the outbreak tive speak about diplomatic careers. He years in the Washington, D.C., area, he of civil war in the former Yugoslavia in decided to take the Foreign Service exam plans to remain in the U.S. for at least a 1992. He strengthened international the following year and was called to Wash- few years while his sons, Alexander, 14, emergency operations, establishing part- ington, D.C., shortly after graduation. and Victor, 19, finish school. nerships with non-governmental Jury recalls the shock of the transition Summarizing the status oi today's world organizations and government agencies to from college student to diplomat. "As a refugee problem, Jury finds "positive as facilitate future crisis response. student, you have friends because people well as negative signs. Until relatively After honoring Jury for his work in like you. As a diplomat, you can't be sure recently, our own hemisphere was plagued 1991 and 1994, the State Department of people's motives for associating with by strife that produced waves of refugees. recently gave him its top agency-wide you. You're representing the most powerful Now there are no refugees in the Ameri- award for global issues — the 1998 Warren country in the world. That's heavy bag- cas. East Asia has fewer and fewer refugees. Christopher Award for Outstanding gage. You have to work to avoid becoming uBut the situation is bleak in the former Achievement in Global Affairs. Jury was cocky and arrogant." Yugoslavia and parts oi Africa, which are cited for "his many impressive accomplish- Despite high-level responsibilities and wracked by ethnic violence," he says. ments in creatively and aggressively assignments in exotic locales, many oi "More democracy and more pluralism are addressing refugee issues ... and for his Jury's warmest memories relate to family the keys to solving the refugee crises in life, such as his first overseas assignment in these regions." • 48 MACALESTER TODAY MACROCOSM

"It's easy to see the beginnings of things, Mass for those unfamiliar with its symbols. A member and hard to see the ends," said Joan Didion It was a spectacular fusion of two disparate in an essay entitled "Good Bye to All traditions, an embodiment of all that of the wedding That." Didion knew that "It is distinctly global-diversity stuff they beat us over the possible to stay too long at the fair"; knew head with at Mac. And as a Catholic, I by Andy Sullivan '92 that the period of vague, undefined pos- learned more about my particular religion sibility, the last gasp of the dreams of in the ptocess. 'VE BEEN TO one or two weddings a childhood, needs to be put to sleep eventu- On top of all this, there's also always a year since graduating from Mac, but ally. Of course, that wasn't easy to pinpoint subtle undercurrent of terror for those of us I last summer things got way out of hand: at the time: "All 1 know is that it was very attending stag. They've got it figured out, At least 10 couples 1 know took the bad when I was 28," she said, not coinci- those friends of yours. They're getting mar- plunge. Most are around my age, in their dentally my age and the age of many of ried, buying houses, graduating from law late 20s. After years of rolling our eyes at these couples tying the knot. The doctor school, probably flossing regularly. And Martha Stewart, it said she should see a "specialist"; you? Still hitting the bars? Stopped laugh- seems she's starting instead, she found a husband. ing yet at those personal ads in the back of to wear us down. Most of my friends weren't weekly papers? There I am again, raised in any particular faith, and It's a good idea to have a three-sentence clueless in Dayton's, religion doesn't loom large in summary of the last five years of your life clutching a bridal their lives until wedding plans are worked out in advance. This comes in registry sheet. announced. What to do? Some fall handy not only with the bride and groom, Six bath towels? back into the arms of tradition, but their parents and all your other old Chrome German calling up their grandparents to see friends. "What have I been up to? Oh, you toaster? A salad if they were baptized, ever, and in know, same old same old. Trying to wake spinner, for Pete's which flavor. (One classmate, mar- up before noon. My probation officer says sake? I think of the rying Jewish, even looked into I'm showing promise." It's important to groom, who slept ritual circumcision. Eventually, _ keep smiling. on the same well- he opted out.) I suppose our In truth, how- seasoned Return oj Others couples hire a justice ever, this is a the Jedi bedsheets all of the peace and flesh out the generation is no more good thing. The through his Mac ceremony with poetry readings long hard look in years. When did he and music of their choosing. immune to growing the mirror is what Sullivan develop an interest ^ Both models can work, and up than any other, makes these in Ralph Lauren linen bedding, one set both have their shortcomings. I often events relevant, each in moss, plum and sea mist? leave secular services feeling a bit unful- and marriage is just not just for the And then a few weeks later I'm in the filled, as though I just ate a big meal of the most visible sign bride and groom grapes and angel food cake. Rilke, but for everyone Minneapolis Sculpture Garden or a syna- of full-on adulthood. gogue in suburban Philadelphia or the Emerson and Cat Stevens are nice, but else attending as courtyard of a Vermont country inn, stand- they don't always provide a grounding, a But still, till death do well, and who ing at attention as a string quartet saws frame of reference, a larger context in ever suffered from away at Pachelbel's Canon. It rains or it which to place the event. them part? Wow. a little personal doesn't, cake is cut, champagne corks pop. But to continue the metaphor, meat inventory-taking? There are toasts, dancing, flashbulbs going and potatoes can give you indigestion as Notice how Shakespeare ended all his off. With all the distractions, it's easy to well. I once sang at a Catholic wedding big sloppy comedies with a wedding or two? forget those are your friends up there, peo- where the priest forgot the couple's names, Matrimony is not only a tidy narrative ple your age really growing up, for certain. and the big stone chapel echoed back his device to tie up loose ends, but a glorious, It seems remarkable to me, this collec- monotone as he rattled through Mass. The life-affirming event, a pure blast of joy. So tive rush down the aisle. I suppose our bride's tears seemed despairing, not joyful. bring on the triple-decker cake, the long- generation is no more immune to growing LSO, in an era where religious affilia- lost friends and total strangers. I'll dance the up than any other, and marriage is just the Ation is as fluid as any other aspect of chicken dance, go back for seconds at the most visible sign of full-on adulthood. one's identity, and interreligious marriages buffet, check to see if that cute bridesmaid Many of these same peers are probably are more common than not, the question has a ring on her finger. There's definitely doing things like contributing to 401 (k) sometimes becomes which tradition to something in the air these days. Or maybe plans and going home before the bar closes. choose. Sean Brennan '96 and Aditi Kapil it's something in the champagne. • But still, till death do them part? Wow. '94 had an interesting solution. They Marriage is optional these days; maybe planned a Catholic ceremony, in keeping that's why it's so remarkable. It's not a pre- with the wishes of Sean's Irish American A?id;v Sullivan 'g2 is a musician and requisite for sharing an apartment or parents. Aditi, whose ethnic and cultural associate editor at CityBusiness newspaper. having a baby, as it was for our parents. heritage can be described as Bulgarian- He lives in Minneapolis. We can draw out adolescence as long as we Indian-Swedish, processed down the aisle choose, but eventually, inevitably, we quit in a dazzling sari and jeweled headdress, goofing around at the edge of the dance every inch the regal Indian bride. Her floor, find a partner and pair off. father read from the Vedic hymns, and the priest took pains to explain the Catholic

NOVEMBER 1998 49 A nice ring to it Macalester alumni and friends ring handbells, made in the shape of the bell in the campus Bell Tower, to begin Touch the Future, The Campaign for Macalester College. The $50 million comprehensive campaign is the largest in the college's history. See page 2.

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