AUSTIN COLLEGE Magazine July 2017 THE MOMENTUM FEATURE STORY OF DISCOVERY PAGE24 FIFTY YEARS THE ADVENTURE AU REVOIR TO OF JANTERM OF A LIFETIME A PRESIDENT PAGE4 & PAGE18 &• PAGE20 JULY 2017 AUSTINCOLLEGEMAGAZINE INTHISISSUE Margaret Jonsson 6 Fountain Restored IN THIS ISSUE JULY2017 Another Class departments 11 Crosses the Stage 1 Snapshot 3 From the Interim President 4 Roots 6 Along Grand Avenue 14 Home Team The Adventure 34 ’Roo Notes 18 of a Lifetime 48 In Other Words Au Revoir to Austin College20 Dr. Marjorie Hass STAFF PUBLISHER © 2017 Austin College Magazine Office of Institutional Advancement/ ISSN 1949-2405 Advancement Communications July 2017 The Momentum Cary S. Wacker Volume 57, No. 1 24 of Discovery Sr. Associate Vice President EDITOR Michael Imhoff Interim President Vickie S. Kirby STAFF WRITER Nan Davis Vice President for Institutional Enrollment Leigh-Ellen Romm MAGAZINE DESIGNER/ART DIRECTOR Allison McBee Dawson ’03 Vice President for Institutional Advancement Melanie Fountaine GRAPHIC DESIGNER Heidi Ellis Vice President for Business Affairs Christopher Maniet John Hitt ’62: Year 26 PHOTOGRAPHY Tim Millerick Vice President for Student Affairs and Athletics 46 as College President Vickie S. Kirby, Christopher Maniet, Katie Barber ’17, Eden Llamas ’18, Erin Laine ’19, Jazmen Marquez ’18, Sheila Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres Vice President for Academic Affairs Priya Chary ’19, Mitzi Briseno ’17 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS PREFER TO READ ONLINE? Jeff Kelly & Mitzi Briseno ’17 See http://acmagazine.austincollege.edu Some extended content available. PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER AUSTINCOLLEGEMAGAZINE • JULY 2017 SNAPSHOT 01 SNAPSHOT A Stellar View Austin College’s 24- inch research telescope, housed in the IDEA Center’s Adams Observatory, takes on a sculptural quality when photographed with a long exposure that captures the soft red glow of the dome’s nighttime infrared light. This image was captured during one of three “Star Parties” hosted by the Physics Department this past year. Visitors were treated to spectacular night sky viewing as explained by Dr. David Baker, director of Adams Observatory, and his physics faculty colleague Dr. David Whelan. Students in astronomy courses co-hosted the public events, pointing out additional features of the vast universe visible through smaller viewing telescopes set up on the IDEA Center roof and nearby College Green. Physics students also shared progress on current areas of research, including planetary sciences, astronomical imaging and photometry, and stellar spectroscopy. Stellar research, indeed! PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER MANIET JULY 2017 • AUSTINCOLLEGEMAGAZINE Leading the Way “Austin College is doing the essential work of producing the enlightened, responsible, Our graduates are critical thinkers and innovators. Throughout the decades and across all disciplines, creative people with moral Austin College alumni excel in purposeful careers compasses who make and influence their communities and the world. And, the newest generation of talented graduates has just democracy work.” begun the journey to leadership in a global society. – Loren Pope, Author Your gift to this college that changes lives could, in fact, change the world. Sustain the impact by making Colleges That Change Lives your gift to Austin College today. www.austincollege.edu/giving See alumni stories at www.austincollege.edu/support/impact/alumni-profiles AUSTINCOLLEGEMAGAZINE • JULY 2017 FROMTHEINTERIMPRESIDENT 03 FROM THE INTERIM PRESIDENT Selected by the Board of Trustees to serve as interim president as of July 1, Dr. Michael Imhoff knows the College well. He joined the Chemistry Department faculty in 1970 and was named the Rupert B. Lowe Chair in Chemistry in 1995. The professor left the classroom in 2000 to serve as vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of the faculty, working alongside presidents Oscar C. Page and Marjorie Hass, until his retirement in 2013. As I write this letter, Austin College is actively engaged in a I have no completed projects to show them. presidential search. Dr. Marjorie Hass, after completing eight years of inspired leadership, has moved on to serve as the 20th president No articles for them to read. of Rhodes College. For the faculty and staff of Austin College, this is a time of excitement and some concern. Every day is enjoyable. Every day is unique. It doesn’t matter whether it is Monday or Friday. I am never bored. I read lots of During my years at Austin College, I served under four presidents: books, some asking the Big Questions and others simply for John D. Moseley, Harry Smith, Oscar Page, and Marjorie Hass. escape. I re-read Catcher in the Rye thinking about my teenage Each president brought unique talents that enhanced life at the grandsons, and I read Lonesome Dove for the first time as I College, but more importantly reinforced the College’s mission and embrace the Texas mystique after nearly 50 years of living here. commitment to the liberal arts. Janet and I travel to places on our “bucket list” and to other places on a whim and at short notice. I exercise, but not as much Although about a quarter of today’s faculty and staff go back as I should. I tried to lower my golf handicap only to find out to the “Harry Smith days” and others are fairly new, we all share that aging and limited skill were working against me. I am taking a sense of anticipation as we await the announcement of a new Spanish, knowing I have little chance of becoming conversant, but president. In the meantime, I am honored to serve as interim nevertheless loving the challenge. I tell my friends, “I was born for president as we begin the fall semester. I have been asked to “do retirement.” no harm” as I assume temporarily the role of president, and I look forward to spending time with Austin College’s students, faculty, But … I miss Austin College and the fun of sharing ideas with staff, alumni, and friends. In the meantime, a search committee colleagues and students. It is an environment I enjoyed and led by trustee Scott Austin ’83 is hard at work to find the best perhaps took for granted during my 40-plus years here. It was individual to serve as the 16th president of Austin College. fulfilling, and now I sorely miss it in the outside world of retirement. Well, I am back for a few months; I will savor this time and try not As I write, I am aware that I am making a strange journey. Few to bore students and colleagues with my enthusiasm. people return from retirement to go back to work for their old employer. I have been retired for four years and feel a little like I am Sincerely, returning from the other side of the curtain. I have this recurring conversation: “Well, tell me about retirement. What have you been doing? How has it been?” They wait as I think. Michael Imhoff JULY 2017 • AUSTINCOLLEGEMAGAZINE ROOTS 04 50 YEARS OF ADVENTURE AUSTIN COLLEGE JANTERM By Leigh-Ellen Romm “I won’t say JanTerm was the best part of my Austin College experience, but it was close. Trips to Appalachia, the uring spring 1967, the Austin Soviet Union, and London expanded through generous scholarships College Board of Trustees my horizons in ways I never could designated for January Term. Read Dratified the new academic have imagined. I began to learn how about the new Harris JanTerm calendar that would fling open Scholarship on page 13. to be a citizen of the world. The the doors to career exploration, Those who participate in the world travel, and in-depth study. experiences totally shaped my life.” Career Study Off Campus (CSOC) By allowing students to focus on Sallie Sampsell Watson ’78 program during JanTerm are able a single subject for three weeks in to apply theories and classwork in January, all are refreshed and challenged while earning real-life situations. A popular CSOC choice is to shadow a full course credit. professionals in medicine, teaching, and other fields. JanTerm courses are designed to depart from the Samuel Weir ’19 shadowed at Cook Children’s Hospital usual coursework and to vary from year to year. Just a few in Fort Worth, Texas, under the supervision of Dr. Todd courses from the first lineup in 1968 were “Stock Market World, an emergency department physician. Bulls and Bears,” “Gymnastics: Tumbling and Trampoline,” “I learned so many things, from as simple as doing and “Super Materials in the Modern World.” graphs and charts to as complex as intubation, diagnosis, The 2017 on-campus, wide-ranging class options varied and life-saving procedures,” Weir said. “After this from “Child Labor in America” to the very retro class “Star experience, I am 100 percent sure I will one day become Trek and Ethics.” Back in 1968, Star Trek was cutting-edge a doctor. I saw so many interesting cases and received so TV programming—50 years later it’s philosophical. much important and educational knowledge that couldn’t From its beginning, the one-course nature of January have been taught in a classroom.” Term allowed study to go beyond campus, including Clint Montgomery ’19 focused on business applications trips to the Texas State House in Austin; museums in and forklift skills while working for Montgomery Masonry, Washington, D.C.; theatres in New York a multi-million dollar masonry company. “I met with City—or adventures around the globe. business owners to discuss plans for jobs, as well as Austin College students and faculty have homeowners to discuss their thoughts to ensure everyone explored cultures, art, science, theatre, was on the same page,” he said. “I learned things from religion, economics, music, politics, how to bid proposals to how to run a JCB (an all-terrain languages, literature, history, and more forklift) and move pallets of stone.