C LBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE INSIDE: No Boundaries Handicapped Skiers Conquer the Slopes First Lady of New Mexico Barbara Flavin Richardson ’69 Campaign Exceeds Goals Initiative Transforms College S PRING/SUMMER 2005 EDITOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES David R. Morcom Anne Winton Black ’73, ’75 CLASS NOTES EDITORS Chairman Tracey Austin Gaye LaCasce Philip H. Jordan Jr. Vice-Chair CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tracey Austin Robin L. Mead ’72 Cathy DeShano Executive Secretary Donald A. Hasseltine Gaye LaCasce William S. Berger David R. Morcom Pamela Stanley Bright ’61 Kimberly Swick Slover Alice W. Brown Kevin Zeise Lo-Yi Chan Timothy C. Coughlin P’00 VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT Peter D. Danforth P’83, ’84, GP’02 Donald A. Hasseltine Leslie Wright Dow ’57 Stephen W. Ensign DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Eleanor Morrison Goldthwait ’51 Beth Cahill Suzanne Simons Hammond ’66 Patricia Driggs Kelsey DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Joyce Juskalian Kolligian ’55 Gaye LaCasce Susan Morrison Mayer ’50, P’75 Richard C. Munn DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Jean Harding Pierce ’47 Kimberly Swick Slover Mel A. Shaftel Sinclair Smith Siragusa ’53 COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Richard N. Thielen John Quackenbos Patricia A. Thornton ’56 Daniel H. Wolf DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Paxton Communications Concord, NH PRINTING Penmor Lithographers Lewiston, ME ADDRESS LETTERS AND SUBMIT ARTICLE IDEAS TO: David R. Morcom Editor Publications Office Colby-Sawyer College 541 Main Street New London, NH 03257 Phone: (603) 526-3730 E-mail: [email protected] © Copyright 2005 Colby-Sawyer College C LBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE FEATURES COVER STORY No Boundaries . 10 Amanda Rucci ’01, with an army of volunteers, including CSC alumnae, opens the door to sports for disabled skiers. ALUMNI PROFILE A First Lady for the People . 12 Barbara Flavin Richardson ’69: The wife of New Mexico On the Cover: Colby-Sawyer alumna Amanda Rucci ’01, director of the Governor Bill Richardson has an important agenda. New England Handicapped Sports Association’s (NEHSA) adaptive ski program, guides the bi-ski sled of one of the disabled skiers in her program down Mt. Sunapee in Newbury, N.H. Since 1972, NEHSA has been committed to providing recreational ON CAMPUS opportunities for people of all disabil- ities, and Amanda has had great Always Something success in recruiting and training Community Service Club volunteers for the organization. to Do ! . 14 PHOTO: JOHN QUACKENBOS The Colby-Sawyer club scene: Learning together outside the classroom DEPARTMENTS Colby-Sawyer Matters . 2 SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Confidently Colby-Sawyer: A CONVERSATION The President and Succeeding Together . 21 a Friend . 8 Campaign exceeds goal of $40 million Sports Round-up . 18 Alumni Notes. 31 Class Notes . 33 SPRING/SUMMER 2005 1 C LBY-SAWYER MATTERS Star Light: A Labor of Love While an art major at Colby Junior College in the 1970s, Bruce Parsons ’77 began photographing Star Island, part of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. Nearly 30 years later he’s created a book that shows off the island’s transformations and beauty through the decades. Star Light: Photographs by Bruce J. Parsons (Peter E. Randall Publisher) is his first book. ’77 PHOTO: BRUCE PARSONS “I didn’t know I was going to create a book when I started photographing the island. I was just a lowly little art student in college,” Bruce says. “But the thought of doing a book is at least 20 years old and Star Island is where I’ve focused so much of my photography.” Bruce’s relationship with the island fascinates Bruce, the photos he’s collect- through the landscapes to choose per- is strong, as he spent much time there ed in the book are absent of people. sonal favorites. “I got too close to it at even before his days as an art student. “But the influence of people is there,” times and had to have other people He is a former staffer on the island who he says, “from the buildings and towers come in and give me their opinion. worked during summer conferences. that people created to their impact on My publisher would say ‘This looks He is the current vice president of the the natural environment.” great on the slide, but it won’t look Board of Directors for the Star Island Star Island’s rocky landscape can be great digitized,’” he says. Corporation. traced to the ice Surprisingly, for Bruce the hard part “Star Island is a magical age 10,000 years began once the book was published. place,” Bruce says. Two ago. From the When he was considering publishing features about the island island, visitors the book, he knew he wanted to create in particular have captivat- can see the an art book that was somewhat market- ed him. “From a photo- shores of New able. Now he finds himself juggling his graphic point of view, it’s a England to the career as an architect for Yankee Barn relatively confined place west and north, Homes with book readings to promote with phenomenal light,” with vast sky and Star Light. For someone as intimate with he explains. He often sea to the east his subject as Bruce is, it truly can be focuses his photos on one and south. Bruce considered a labor of love. small geographic area and estimates he has Bruce Parsons’ photographs will be on looks for different oppor- taken between display at the Marian Graves Mugar Art tunities—such as changes 5,000 and 8,000 Gallery in June, 2005. To learn more about in weather or light—to create unique pictures of Star Island through the years, Bruce’s photography and book, visit images. He’s also enthralled with the old so he found it challenging to pare those www.brucejparsonsdesign.com. buildings that dot the island and inter- down to the 70 or so images that appear ested in maintaining the sense of history. in his book. He first eliminated those — Cathy DeShano Because it’s the island itself that most with people in them, then he sorted 2 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE Music as Medicine is deaf, I can notice a change,” she says. “We can hear with our skin and bones, too. Think of when a car pulls up next As Anne Bewley’s fingers flow across to you and its bass is loud. You can feel a Celtic harp on her “Gifts of Music” the vibrations.” Humans are complex CD, one can imagine young lasses rest- beings with many ways to communi- ing serenely in fields as described by cate, and Anne feels it only makes sense Robert Louis Stevenson in “In the that music can be and should be used Highlands.” Anne composed a musical to soothe and heal those in need. version of the poem that appears on her “We’re using music as if it were CD, which was released in 2000. The medicine,” she says. gentle sounds of Anne’s piece calm the — Cathy DeShano mind and body, as do many of the arrangements she performs. Anne is a Colby-Sawyer associate Faculty Members Present professor in the Social Sciences and Education Department, and she has Sabbatical Research taken her music to groups of people DOW ’90 PHOTO: KATIE who may be most in need of serenity— At a dinner hosted by the college and individuals facing death or overcoming attended by faculty, staff and friends of severe illnesses or injuries. She practices Colby-Sawyer, three professors who therapeutic harp by playing for people recently completed sabbaticals offered in the intensive care unit at Concord presentations regarding their current Hospital in Concord, N.H., and the Professor Anne Bewley research. Professor Amy Knisley, chair of Hospice House, located on the hospital’s and associate professor in the Human- campus. want those who wish to use music as ities Department, shared information Anne began playing the harp about therapy to have a degree or certification, about her investigation into organic nine years ago. “It felt like coming and Anne says one or the other is essen- agriculture and the issues facing farm- home,” she recalls of her first plucks at tial to understanding both music’s thera- ing, as well as the management and the instrument’s strings. She believes peutic effects and health-care settings. conservation of wilderness. During her people choose instruments that suit She completed the harp therapy pro- sabbatical, Professor Knisley comple- their personalities, and the harp fit with gram and is now at work to become a mented her research by enrolling in the her love of Celtic music and her Scottish certified therapeutic music practitioner Master of Studies in Environmental Law background. through the Music for Healing and program at the Vermont Law School, With a Ph.D. in psychology and a Transition Program, a national certificate and by working at the Kearsarge-Gore background in counseling, it seemed program that attracts students from a Organic Farm in Warner, N.H. natural to Anne to transform her love variety of musical backgrounds. Professor Beth Crockford, an associate for harp playing into a way to ease peo- Before she earned certification in the professor in the Business Administration ple’s suffering. During her sabbatical for therapeutic harp program, Anne needed Department, talked about her research the 2003-2004 school year, she enrolled to complete 80 practicum hours, so she into the psyche of mid-life men who are in the International Harp Therapy began playing at Concord Hospital’s ICU faced with career instability. Professor program. The program leads to certifica- and Hospice House. During her early Crockford’s dissertation work, during tion in therapeutic harp and offers visits to the ICU, nurses looked at her which she surveyed 80 men, led her to workshops on such topics as music quizzically when she asked if there was begin exploring people’s locus of control development, psychology and anyone who would benefit from her and whether they believe their fate counseling, living anatomy, resonance, harp music.