Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College Macalester Today Communications and Public Relations 5-1-1997 Macalester Today May 1997 Macalester College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/macalestertoday Recommended Citation Macalester College, "Macalester Today May 1997" (1997). Macalester Today. Paper 42. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/macalestertoday/42 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communications and Public Relations at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Macalester Today by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Grand Occasion: The Inauguration of Macalester President Michael S. McPherson , • LETTERS A.CALESTER TODAY Dial's hog heaven. Books. Piles of them. I'm so proud to have attended Mac. welcomes letters from alumni, the Heaps of student papers. Works of his in I have found the diversity and quality of M primary audience of this magazine, progress: some written. Music composi- the education that I received there to be as well as other members of the Macalester tions. Paintings. He always had classical profoundly valuable in my daily life. community, Exceptions ore letters that music playing and would hum along — Stephanie Reuer '82 personally malign an individual or are not "Dum, dum, de dum!" Washington, D.C. related to issues at Macalester or contents While he grew delicious parsnips and of the magazine. gooseberries in his backyard, be couldn't Please send letters intended for publication cook worth a darn. He looked forward to to Letters to the Editor, Macalester Today, the Monday night meals he ate at our Kofi Annan College Relations} Macalester College, place when he taught evening classes at THE FEBRUARY ARTICLE on Kofi 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN Mac. So did I. First I got to listen to him Annan '61 ("Small world: Mac graduate 55IO5"l^99- }'ou can a^so send your ktter complain about his lousy teeth and of his leads United Nations") brought tears to by fax: {612) 696-6192. Or by e-mail: dentist who did the drill thing without my eyes. [email protected]. We reserve the Novocain. Then I'd get the latest on his Kofi practically lived with my wife, right to edit letters for conciseness and clarity. Catharine, and me from the day we arrived at Mac, one week after our marriage. I had chosen Kofi as an Ambassador for Correction Friendship earlier in the year, along with Remembering Roger A PHOTOGRAPH on the back cover three other foreign students, to accompany As THE SON of a Macalester professor, xV of February's Mac Today misiden* us on an eight-week summer tour of I had the privilege of Roger Blakely's tified one of the three people pictured. America. It was our first tour for Mac. company every single Friday as he stopped The photo, taken at Macalester's What an incredible journey it was. by our house for "Wine Hour." opening convocation in 1994, shows Later, upon our return to Mac in late If this sounds to you like a gathering of Kofi Annan '61 with students Alain August I960, Kofi did much of his "career snooty English Department intellectuals Nzigamasabo '97 (Bujumbura, Burundi) dreaming" with us. Talk about focusing eating smelly cheese, getting loose on and Emily Anderson '98 (Bloomington, one's energies and vision of the future: Kofi sherry and discussing the week's political, Ind.). Anderson was incorrectly shared with us his absolute conviction and artistic, sporting and Macalester news, identified. As it turns out, Anderson, determination to follow his "dreams" all you're mostly right. But they weren't who is spending this spring semester the way to the UN. snooty. If Roger did the majority of the abroad in Botswana, Africa, shares a Harry W. Morgan talking, no one UN connection Timisoara, Romania seemed to mind as with Annan. his depth of knowl- In high school, The writer established Ambassadors for edge concerning she participated Friendship at Macalester, founded the World most any subject in a seminar Press Institute and also served as foreign was superior. People at the UN student adviser and director of International weren't put off by it as part of a House. He is now in his third year as a and he wasn't Quaker student Senior Fulbright Professor of Journalism tooting his own delegation. • in Romania. intellectual horn. Simply, there was never a conver- sour stomach. Mary Gwen Owen sation when he Then he'd was at a loss for a launch into the I WANTED TO add a note to your article thought that added to the subject. I can- usual discourse on whatever was on his on Mary Gwen Owen which appeared in celed out playmates on Fridays. Had to go mind at the time — another free lecture. the February issue. listen to Roger. I figure 1 owe Macalester I feel gypped that the Macalester com- There, and in other accounts I've seen several semesters of tuition for all the free munity didn't get to have Roger around recently, the indication is that MGO left lectures 1 received. another 10 or more years. But I take com- Macalester in 1968. In fact, she remained In the winter these gatherings often fort knowing that his work will be carried until 1972, as a part-time faculty member, included supper at our house followed by a on by the many people he influenced. to direct the Drama Choros. During those slide show. As is widely known, the North As Roger would say, "Cheers, old man." final years, there was another entire gener- Shore of Lake Superior was one of his Ross Huelster '79 ation of Macites (myself included) who loves. Another was photography, and he St. Paul had the privilege of traveling with her and treated us to his achingly beautiful the Choros on trips from the Canadian pictures of the Shore and neighboring border to the Mexican border, from New back country. Roots York City to San Diego, and in January Occasionally 1 would accompany my THANKS FOR THE superb work you do 1972, to England for an international father on visits to his house — a Fibber to keep in touch with my Macalester roots. student drama festival. McGee of a place that was an intellec- I hate to admit this, but when Mac Today continued on page 48 is delivered to my office I immediately put everything else aside and read every word. MACALESTER TODAY ABOUT THIS ISSUE Macalester Today 2 At Macalester MATH TEAMS shine; five faculty members receive tenure; two students win Truman Director of College Relations Scholarships; review ot winter sports; and more. Doug Stone Executive Editor Nancy A. Peterson 9 Macalester Yesterday Managing Editor Jon Halvorsen REMEMBERING President Charles Turck Art Director Elizabeth Edwards 10 Alumni & Faculty Books Class Notes Editor Robert Kerr '92 12 Giving Back Macalester College page 9 DAVE '53 AND NANCY KACHEL '55 Chair, Board of Trustees enjoy service, travel and each other. Timothy A. Hultquist '72 President Michael S. McPherson 13 Alumni News Vice President for Development GREAT SCOTS; calendar of events; and more Richard Allen Ammons Alumni Director page 17 Karen McConkey 17 The Presbyterian Paradox Associate Alumni Director WHY DID a 'secular' campus recently graduate a record number of religious studies majors? Jennifer Patti '91 Alumni Director Emeritus A. Phillips Beedon '28 22 Advocate for the Accused Macalester Today (Volume S5, Number 3) ATTORNEY CEAN SHANDS '89 makes a difference. is published by Macalester College. It is mailed free of charge to alumni and friends of the college four times a year. Circulation is 25,000. 23 Grand Occasion For change of address, please write; A PHOTO ESSAY of Mike McPherson's inauguration, Alumni Office, Macalester College, with an excerpt from his address 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105-1899. Or call (612) 696-6295. page 23 To submit comments or ideas, write: 31 Unraveling Medical Mysteries Kiacalester Today, College Relations, at the above address. Phone: LOUISA CHAPMAN '75 AND W. GARY TARPLEY '74 grapple daily with some (612) 696-6452. Fax: (612) 696-6192. of the most urgent medical issues of our time. E-mail: [email protected] On the cover 34 Life Lessons on the Mississippi Greg Helgeson took the cover Two '96 GRADS take a 2,301-mile canoe trip. photograph of Mike McPherson in Macalester's Field House. For a report 35 Class Notes on the inauguration, see pages 23-30. 49 Macrocosm IN CHINA, pragmatism overcomes ideology. by William H. Sun MAY 1997 I AT MACALESTER Math triumphs bAacalester teams shine in major competitions ACALESTER'S TEAM finished I lth — the highest M ranking oi any liberal arts col- lege — in the prestigious Putnam Mathematics Competition for undergradu- ates in the United States and Canada. In addition, another Macalester team turned in one of nine winning entries in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling, an international competition. And a third Macalester team tied tor 16th place in the International Collegiate Programming Contest. "Our teams were outstanding in all three of the major competitions that we participate in each year," said David Bressoud, chair of Macalester's Mathematics and Computer Science Department. uWe are competing against From Minnesota with warmth large universities and technical universi- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan '61, left, and his wife, Nane, enjoy their gifts of ties as well as smaller colleges. In all of earmuffs from Macalester's Board of Trustees. Board Chair Timothy Hultquist '72, these competitions, we came out as either center, was among those sharing the Annans' amusement at a Jan.