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Rochester Review/Spring-Summer 1993

m

m
TO THE

Editor
The Review welcomes letters from readers
and will print as many o f them as space
permits. Letters m aybe edited fo r brevity
and clarity. Unsigned letters cannot be used,
but names o f the writers may be withheld
on request.

Cosmic Comics

The article “Bug Eyes and the Cosmic
View” (Winter ’92-93) concerning Dr.
Duncan Moore’s tracing down the cause
of the troubles of the Hubble telescope
must have been written to support my view
that much of what happens is really very
humorous,
To think that all that high-priced scien­
tific talent in NASA and Perkin Elmer and
the launch team managed to screw up the
project so completely by being so unscien­
tific. They ignored what they saw and meas­
ured because they did not want to believe a
mistake could have been made. They forgot
the most basic rule that all things mjist be
measured against a base line.
In the interest of saving a few thousands
of dollars in a project that totaled hun­
dreds of millions, they ruined something
that had been anticipated for many years.
What is most amazing is that they were
hardly even censured because NASA is so
worried about appearing to have made a
mistake.

It would make the most comic television
show of the decade to get all the persons
involved together to give their versions of
what went wrong—a very large group of .
people all standing in a circle with fingers
pointed to the person next to them.
Ellis Glazier’57'
LaPaz, Mexico >:

: Perhaps this gaffe will engender better
internal controls at the magazine. If not, it
Wilt continue to permit older grads the joys
of being petulant and malcontented.

Erwin:Cherovsky ’55^:■,>

;' ::Englewood.New Jersey *.
■ H ey^qn we hire you gentlemen as a :'
volunteer advisory board to whom we can
submit our copy before: we embarrass our­
selves in public? (We have to say, however,
Notes from the Language Brigade that we might hot always heedyoitr aThe Spring-Summerissue of Rochester
in some instances :we will go along.with
Review contains the following awkward
:éiu:vht:(qld3^
sentence: “Spending your time with the
structionist” alternative does not fit the
context—or, as in the case o f emeritus/
media that’s been designed to scramble the
emerita. University custom decrees other­
senses can have that effect, she tells you.”
The problem is that in this sentence, the
wise.}
' in any case, we appreciate the close at? \
word “media” is nsed as if it were a singu­
lar noun; it is actually a plural noun.
tention to the magazine indicated by your
Radio is a medium. Television is a
letters+ and, ;Mn Cherpysky, y mi can look
medium. The daily press is a medium.
fo r a corrected iteration o f y o u t book title
in the "Books and Recordings”department,
And the weekly news magazines constitute
another medium. Together, they are consid­ presented with our apologies. Meliora!—
Editor.
ered “the media.” One cannot properly say
that “the media is biased. ” One needs To say
that “the media are biased.” The sentence
Limited Diversity?
quoted above should have said: “Spending;
your time with media that are designed tofl
A sa recent graduate of Rochester, I can
scramble the senses can ha\e that effect,
remember the presenceofdiversityat the
she tells you.”
iUniversity clearly. Thé ’m inority jbôpula&
tions were abundant, visible,and vocal.
And on page 64, an obituary notice
Whether or not hallmates, faculty, or ad­
refers to Jessie Hoskam Kneisel, a woman,
visors listened to thçir voices,- la m sûre: ‘
as “professor emeritus of modern Ian- ;
guages.” Only a male professor can be
they were heard. But once again, in an
referred to as “emeritus.” A female needs
effort by the.LfiIversity-.to ehibràcëthe: oppressed and “affirmatively activate” for
to be referred to as “emerita. ”
Donald Banzhaf, M.D.; *67M
those once neglected, a large and powerful
Rochester
jhstittition has forgotten—or simply ‘
Member of SPELL
ignored -fthe
tnirtcirjty which is Still: ::
(Society for the Preservation of
socially and politically acceptable to forget:
-; English Language & Literature) : i' ‘
thegây,;lesbian,: ahdîbisexuai ¿ommtmity(|||
:While reading The ¿Etiele entitled. “The •:
•Opening' of the American Caa^ü||;Diyers| )
Page 12 of your Springe-Summer issue
contains the illiteracy “predominately”
sity at Rochester” (Spring-Summer ’93) I
(“Life at a predominately white univer- ,
searched, with a glimmer of hope, that our
sity . ..). “Predominate” is a verb, and one
presence on campus, and a s ;a h in in ii1 ^ ^ |
does not convert a verb into an adverb by.
finally be recognized a«;,a ?sjgnifidant:part : ; ■
adding “lyi” The form wanted is spelled
of the Rochester: cpjhfùiùjîtyr Bût âlasj:it:>:
“predoniinantly*” the adjective “predonn- ^i was not. The article:contained: the u s u a l ■
nant” being converted into an adverb by
retroactive statements about Africanthe addition of the proper suffix.Surely a
Americans, international students, and the
copy reader or editor shbuld have caught
like, working hard to achieve: their goals h | | :
this misspelling. The author of the article
one of the best kept secrets among higher
should not have misspelled the word.
institutions of learning. I can remember
John S. Phillipson ’47
the racism: on campus; and" the antiCuyahoga Fails, Ohio
Semitism, and the sexism—tart most of
:aU the homophobia'and the Hatred. I L i s :«
Competent Counselis NOT Competent :i ;not to say that the African-American or ‘
Council (Books & Recordings, Rochester
women’snrgàfii^ü^
not overtly ; :
Review, Spring-Summer 1993), Since
’present—if :wa‘s a pfeashfe ;to seeTheffi'itt||:
“counsel” signifies a lawyer and “council”
great numbers and in the cycle of my everya deliberative assembly, the Review’s proof­
reading error undoubtedly will confuse ■
: (continued on page 3)
readers, notwithstanding that the descrip­
tion of the book suggests that it relates to
lawyers.

University o f Rochester

Fall 1993

Review
Departments
From the President
Rochester in Review
Rochester Gazette
Books & Recordings
Alumni Review
Class Notes
After/Words

Features
2
4
40
44
47
54
68

Joanne Doroshow ’76
Lawyer, political activist,
and Oscar winner.

Rochester Review
Editor: Margaret Bond
Assistant editor: Denise Bolger Kovnat
Class Notes editor: Wendy Levin
Design manager: Stephen Reynolds
Graphic artist: Jeannine Papelino
Staff photographer: James Montanus
Copy coordinator: Joyce Farrell
Editorial office, 108 Administration
Building, University o f Rochester,
Rochester, NY 14627-0033, (716) 275-4117.
Fax: (716) 275-0359.
Published for alumni, students, their par­
ents, and other friends o f the University,
Rochester Review is produced by the Office
o f University Public Relations, Robert
Kraus, executive director.
Opinions expressed are those o f the
authors, the editors, or their subjects and
do not necessarily represent official posi­
tions o f the University o f Rochester.

Postmaster ;
Send address changes to Rochester Review,
108 Administration Building, University o f
Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0033.

Asking the Damnedest Questions

16

by Denise Bolger Kovnat
Not only do Rochester students tend to ask diabolical
questions-but more and more in recent years, faculty
are encouraging them to do so in formalized, for-credit
research projects.

Professor Wow-Neato-Cool

22

by Tom Rickey
What can you say about someone who can lay claim
to a heap of prestigious honors but whose favorite is
the “Wow-Neato-Cool” Award of the Undergraduate
Chemistry Society, specially invented to recognize his
unique teaching style?

Is Ethics Dead?

28

by Kathy Quinn Thomas
Some faculty members say ethics is alive and taking
nourishment through active public discussion on such
moral issues as abortion, racism, sexism, and medical
ethics. Others are not so sure.

My How You’ve Changed!

34

by Wendy Levin
Have you changed a lot since you were a college
sophomore? Or are you still, inside that mellowing
bod, the same person you were then?

Credits:
Cover: Photo by James Montanus; design,
Stephen Reynolds. Illustration on p. 28,
James Clarke. Photos: p. 4, Darcy Chang,
Gannett Rochester Newspapers; p. 36,
Lloyd De Grane; p. 39, David Joel; p. 43,
top right, James J. Molloy, Providence
Journal-Bulletin; alumni photos, courtesy
o f the subjects. All others, Rochester
Review photos.

An Attraction to the Properly Complicated
by Jeremy Schlosberg
An internationally eminent economics scholar turned
senior administrator, the University of Chicago’s new
president must rank among the most cheerfully hard­
working academics in the land.

36

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

From the

PRESIDENT
The Warner School
University Trustee Bernie Gifford
’68G, ’72G once commented that
schools o f education suffer from “con­
genital prestige deprivation.” Presum­
ably he knew whereof he spoke, since
he was at that time dean o f the Uni­
versity o f California (Berkeley) School
o f Education. (Dr. Gifford has since
moved on to even wider worlds as head
o f his own educational software com­
pany.)
Whatever the truth o f the prestige
quotient, the University o f Rochester’s
efforts in this area will not be “congen­
ital” —at least in the sense that the
school now has a prestigious “parent. ”
In October o f this year, the school
will be officially named the Margaret
Warner Graduate School o f Education
and Human Development (see the an­
nouncement on page 6 o f this issue).
Margaret Warner was a member o f
the Class o f 1944. She served on the
University’s Trustees’ Council and
later, from 1985 to 1987, on the Board
o f Trustees. Her special interest was in
the school o f education, serving on its
Visiting Committee. She and her hus­
band, William Scandling, created a
professorship in education honoring
an aunt, Frederica Warner ’09, herself
a schoolteacher. Earlier they had es­
tablished the Scandling Scholars Pro­
gram for first-year doctoral students.
After Margaret’s death in 1990, Bill
Scandling continued her interest in the
University’s school o f education. This
year his generous gift o f $5.7 million
caused the University to name the
school in Margaret’s honor.
The Warner/Scandling gift certainly
comes from a prestigious source. In
1948, while still students at Hobart
College, Bill Scandling and two o f his

2

friends requested permission to take
over operation o f the dining room,
which the school had found reason to
close. To their continuing amazement,
permission was granted, and thus was
born a whole new idea in college food
service: Saga Corporation.
The Warner School will be notable
as one o f the very few named schools
o f education (and, perhaps, the only
one named for a woman), but it will
take more than the Warner and
Scandling heritage to improve the
standing o f “Education” as a disci­
pline at prestige universities.
There are various external reasons
for the lesser regard paid to schools of
education. Many commentators have
noted that adults who devote their lives
to children are not taken as seriously
as those who battle it out in the “real”
world o f adulthood. Since school­
teachers were traditionally women, this
was a double blow to prestige in a cul­
ture where men seemed to play the
ascendent role.
Internally, education schools have
been ideological battlefields. Critics
have charged that the curriculum is
trivia tricked out in technicalities. But
one critic’s trivia often seems to be
another’s profound ideology. Ever
since Plato, each generation has ar­
gued about the proper acculturation o f
the young. And if arguing about what
sort o f school o f education we need
fails, one can always fall back on the
notion that teachers are born, not
made—so who needs a school for
teachers!
Whatever truth there may be to such
comments, I believe that the root cause
of prestige deprivation is the disinter­
est o f higher education in education.
We may do it, but we don’t believe in
thinking about it too much. That dis­

interest could, I believe, prove fatal for
higher education in the decade ahead.
Professors in colleges and universi­
ties are very smart people; otherwise
they wouldn’t be on the faculty at all.
At Rochester and the other leading
universities o f the land, professors are
very, very, smart. When university
teaching goes wrong, it is usually be­
cause the faculty member comes to be­
lieve that displaying intelligence is the
essence o f pedagogy. That may work
well enough with colleagues and most
graduate students; however, it is not
clear that it washes well with 18-yearold freshmen.
I recently had breakfast with seven
colleagues from the Warner School
who are working in the Rochester city
schools. One could not help but be im­
pressed with the dedication o f their ef­
forts and the insightful approach which
they bring to the vexing issues o f pub­
lic schooling. Their research efforts on
model curricula are particularly sensi­
tive to the complex psychological and
social interchange within the local
school cultures. Our colleagues in the
Warner School are acutely aware that
displaying intelligence works not at all
with third graders—especially if they
haven’t had any breakfast. If schools
o f education did no more than remind
us o f the truth of pedagogy—response
to the individual student at hand—
they would earn a right to respect.
At the college level, educating fresh­
men may have been a perennial prob­
lem; it is likely to become a crisis in
the decade ahead. We already know
that the freshmen of the future will be
ethnically more diverse, economically
and socially less advantaged, and—
unless our brethren in the Warner
School cause a revolution in the urban
schools—less well prepared for college-

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
level work. Henry Rosovsky tells a story
about a faculty member at Harvard
who refused to meet his classes. As
dean o f the faculty, Rosovsky called
him in and questioned him about this
aberrancy. He replied that he “did not
go to class because the students are
not authentic. ” My view is that any
student is “authentic.” It is our task
to discover the pathway to that
authenticity.
It is our hope—no, our belief—that
present and future graduates o f the
Margaret Warner Graduate School of
Education and Human Development
will be among those who will find so­
lutions to the crisis o f American edu­
cation, so that primary and secondary
education in the United States will
again become the best in the world. In
addition, the University should fully
exploit the scholarship o f those faculty
who examine higher education lest we
be ignorant o f our own history and the
pedagogical problems o f the present
day.
Bill Scandling prospered in “service
delivery” —a most appropriate prove­
nance for the Warner School o f Educa­
tion and the University that supports it.
Dennis O’Brien

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LETTERS

Robert Marshak

(continued from inside front cover)

day experience. But when talking of diver­
sity, most people at Rochester would rather
force us back into closets, and associate
with those populations they cannot ridicule
anymore. Diversity is essential on today’s
campuses but limited diversity is still
prejudice.
Joseph R. Swider ’91
Washington, D.C.

Notes on a Hundred-Year-Old
Yearbook
The following may be of interest to
Rochester Review readers:
My copy of the Interpres, published by
the Class of 1896, contains 208 pages of
editorial matter and forty-four pages of
advertisements: an ambitious undertaking
produced 100 years ago by a staff of seven
(my father, Thurlow Weed Buxton, was its
editor) for a very small student body.
Twenty-five graduated in the class.
That year, 1896, was David J. Hill’s last
as president of the University. He had
come to Rochester in 1888 from the presi­
dency of Bucknell. I presume President
O’Brien, who also came from Bucknell,
knows of his predecessor of 100 years ago.
Since there were no co-eds in 1896,1
think the Charles F. Witter & Co. adver­
tisement for mortuary services misdirected
their message when they stated “Lady embalmer when desired.”
William P. Buxton ’38
Fairfield, Connecticut

Telephonic Invasion
The Winter 1992-93 Rochester Review
has a four-age article praising MaryFrances Winters for her successful develop­
ment of a marketing research business.
I wonder if she has considered what a
nuisance and invasion of privacy that ran­
dom dialing of telephone numbers is to
those contacted. When the telephone rings,
especially in the evening, one drops every­
thing to answer lest one miss an important
call. Even if one refuses to answer, one’s
privacy has been invaded for the financial
benefit of someone else.
A letter can be opened at leisure instead
of demanding instant attention.
Dorothy Wellington Mcllroy ’29
Ithaca, New York

Those of us who knew Robert Marshak
[professor of physics at Rochester and later
president of City College of New York,
who died last December] can fairly say that
his many fine contributions to physics, and
to the careers of his students, seldom gained
appropriate recognition outside the bounds
of the discipline.
My debt to him is enormous. He was
quick to recognize whatever talent I had, to
encourage it, and to mesh it effectively with
the work of his people. He was as ambi­
tious for all those around him as he was
for himself. I have no doubt that all of the
lives he touched were enhanced, ennobled,
and educated.
I lived with the Marshaks as a student
for a few months, and grew to know and
to appreciate them. Ruth was a dedicated
schoolteacher, a talented and generous
hostess, and possessed of intuitive wisdom.
A loyal and loving wife, she was not above
putting Bob in his place. He was once
caught speeding through a small town in
upstate New York and pleaded not guilty,
assuming that Ruth would back him up as
witness in court. Instead she spoke up:
“Your honor, my husband drives too fast.
Give him a stiff fine!”
Marshak’s administrative pace was as
fast as his driving, leaving him considerable
time for research and professional travel.
He was one of the first to attract young
Japanese and Indian physicists to Ameri­
can campuses, and his first-hand familiarity
with Russian physics brought its best people
to our annual Rochester Conference, which
he initiated in the 1950s. Thus he became
in many ways an international statesman of
science, struggling to build strong relation­
ships in a period of intense cold war.
Everett Hafner ’48G
Williamsburg, Massachusetts

3

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Rochester

H IR E V E W

Composer Rouse
Wins Pulitzer
“All hell is breaking out here right
now,” Christopher Rouse told a re­
porter the day after his Pulitzer was
announced. “But after a couple days
o f chaos, then it’s back to taking out
the garbage. ”
The Eastman School composition
professor could perhaps afford to be
a little blasé about the Pulitzer Prize
for music awarded him late last spring
for his Trombone Concerto: This
year’s was his eighth nomination for
the award. (“It’s good not to expect to
win,” he says matter o f factly. “The
competition is too fierce. ”)
Premiered on December 30 in New
York City, the three-movement concerto
was commissioned by the New York
Philharmonic in commemoration of
its 150th anniversary. Rouse dedicated
it to the memory o f Leonard Bernstein
and in its final movement quotes the
late composer’s Kaddish symphony,
a work partly based on the Hebrew
lament for the dead.
Rouse is the seventh Eastman com­
poser to win the prestigious Pulitzer,
presented to him at a luncheon at
Columbia University on May 24.
A member o f the school’s faculty
since 1981, he has written music for
a number o f acclaimed artists and
ensembles, including Yo-Yo Ma, Jan
DeGaetani, the New York and Los
Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, the
Houston Symphony, and the Philadel­
phia Orchestra. His work is also recog­
nized abroad and has been performed
by the Berlin, Stockholm, and Nippon
Tokyo Radio orchestras, among others.
Just weeks before the announcement
o f the Pulitzer, the 44-year-old com­
poser was named winner o f the Ameri­
can Academy o f Arts and Letters Award
in Music. Previously he had received
major awards from the League of
Composers/ISCM, the NEA, the
Guggenheim Foundation, and the
American Music Center. His Sym­
phony No. 1 won the Kennedy Center
Friedham Award in 1988.
Known for the dark tone o f his
music (New York Times music critic
Edward Rothstein has called it “expressionistic soul-baring” and others have
referred to him as “the Stephen King
o f American music”), Rouse says, “I
think o f composing as the setting down
o f hot passions in cold blood.

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

CAMPAIGN fS ’90S
Campaign Total
Hits $264,543,000

Rouse

“A piece o f music may be inspired
by an event in your life, but once you
sit down to write it, you’re soon locked
into what the piece is about. The
music becomes what it has to be.”

McNair Program to Help
Disadvantaged Students
Pursue Doctorates
“African Americans are not entering
doctoral programs in sufficient num­
bers—which is a prime reason they are
so poorly represented on the faculties
o f our colleges and universities,” says
Jesse Moore, University associate dean
o f graduate studies. Further, he notes,
other minority groups are equally
underrepresented.
Graduate programs nationwide
struggle to recruit talented minority
students, Moore says. In 1990, only
one African American in the United
States earned a doctorate in computer
science; a mere four—nationwide —
earned the degree in physics and as­
tronomy. As a result, there exists only
a small pool o f minority candidates
for postsecondary teaching posts.
To begin to address this gap, the
University has initiated the Ronald E.
McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achieve-

The Campaign for the '90s reached
new heights in early July. The total
raised, as Rochester Review went to
press: $264,543,000, which is 71 percent
of the campaign goal of $375,000,000.
"The campaign continues to run
ahead of schedule—just far enough
ahead to position us well for the hard
work of the National Phase,” said Cam­
paign Chair Edwin Colodny ’48. “In the
months ahead, we’ll rel> heavily on our
250-some \olunteer leaders across the
counLry, hoping they’ll use their persua­
sive powers to bring in more gifts, and
larger gifts, than ever before in the
University’s history.”
Here’s a look at some recent majorcG
gifts to the campaign.
• Nearly $55,000 in pledges for the
Koller-Dicy Centennial Scholarship
1'und, a fund created by the Class of
1950 to support undergraduates on
the River Campus.
§|§
• A deferred gift of SI25.000 from
Walton Howes '48 in honor of his
• A contribution of sheet music for
Sibley Music Library from Dr. Harry
• A gift of $50,000 from Elizabeth
Hove, widow of Dr. William Stiles

• A bequest from the late Marjorie
Hope Robbins, sister of the late Rossell
Hope Robbins, to the Rossell Hope
Robbins Medieval Library on the
River Campus.
• A commitment of SI50,000 from
on the River Campus, in honor of his
’ late brother, Richard N i c o ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ S
• A gift from Samuel Adler, who relircs
department at the Eastman School of
Music, in support of the Samuel
Lund for 1992-93 —which includes annual gifts from alumni, parents of stu­
dents. and other friends of the Univer1992-93, which closed June 30. Reunion
gifts contribute substantially to the Annual Fund. The Class of 1943, with a
soundly beat previous records for reunion
According to the 1992-93 chair of the
“The Annual Lund is the most impor­
tant fundraising tool we have to contrib­
ute to the University’s yearly operating
budget —providing general support lor
grams, and other vital p r o g r i^ ^ ^ K ^ ^ S

port the Immunology Research Labflfl

ment Program, assisted by a first-year
grant o f $130,000 from the U.S. De­
partment o f Education.
Named for an astronaut aboard the
Challenger space shuttle, the McNair
Program will help prepare promising
juniors and seniors to compete in the
graduate school admissions process.
Eligible to participate as McNair
Scholars are low-income, first-genera­
tion college students, and those o f
Native American, Hispanic, or African
American heritage, who have achieved
a 2.8 GPA.
The program will continue for three
years, along two study tracks. In the
first phase, the Rochester McNair Aca­
demic Year, twenty-five University un­
dergraduates will be assigned a mentor
and will receive a variety of special
counseling.

Seven o f the twenty-five will then be
selected to go on to the second phase
—eight weeks o f pre-graduate school
summer research —for which they will
be joined by eight students selected
from among applicants at Smith, Mt.
Holyoke, Amherst, Wellesley, More­
house, and Spelman colleges, North
Carolina A&T University, and Hamp­
ton University. Under the guidance of
a faculty mentor, participants will
spend the summer working alongside
Rochester graduate students and post­
doctoral fellows.
Cultural integration and cultural
diversity in academe are goals o f this
University, Moore concludes. “Increas­
ing the numbers o f African Americans,
Hispanics, and Native Americans in
the pipeline to graduate schools should
promote both. ”

5

SPECIAL REPORT

GSEHD to Become the Warner School
W illiam F.
Scandling $seviG5 . 7 Million to Education School
in Honor of M argaret Warner Scandling ’44
Honoring his late wife, Margaret
Warner Scandling ’44, California
businessman William F. Scandling has
made a $5.7 million gift to the Univer­
sity’s Graduate School of E d u ca ti^ ^ p
and Human Development. The gift
brings the Scandlings’ support of the §
school over past years to more than
$7 million and is one of the la rg e s^ H
to date in the University’s $375 million
Campaign for the ’90s. •
In a ceremony late in October Of; ;
this year, the school will be renamed
the Margaret Warner Graduate School
of Education and Human Develop­
ment in honor of Mrs. Scandling’s life­
long interest in education in general
and in the school in particular.
Scandling has said that he made the
gift based “on the undeniable premise
that education is the key to the success

Margaret Warner Scandling

6

“ Margaret Scandling
thought and reflected
deeply about the
importance of teaching
in our society, and
She was an advocate
for education long
before it became a
ipopular cause.”
of individuals, as well as to the ec££& |
nomic vitality of our couri^^^ ^ ^ ^ f l
He added that he and his wife firmly
believed that one o f ihe school’s m ost!
important working relationships is the
interaction o f its graduate students
ionorhd gQiMlïScândiihf at Commencement
and faculty with teachers and students
in the primary and secondary schools;!
Among them:
“Rochester’s Graduate School o f
• Expansion o f the Scandling Scholars
Education and Human Development
Program* established in 1988 and
is an outstanding example o f a school )
currently awarded competitively each
that strives for close collaboration
year to one or two first-year doctoral
with the local educational community
students from around the country.
and with other academic disciplines
It’s anticipated that an additional
that can help to explain the educative
five students will be recruited annuprocess,” he said. “Integrating research
:■:■'ally as Scandling Sehcdars. f:
with practice is clearly the right path,
• Creation o f a chair to be filled by a
and it is being pursued with top-flight
nationally recognized senior faculty
faculty.”
member. This is the second such
“Mr. Scandling has chosen to honor
chair to be established by the
his wife in a way that will make a mo­
Scandlings; the first, the Frederica
mentous difference in the future o f this
Warner Chair in Education, was ini­
school, and, we believe, in its contribu­
tiated several years ago in honor o f
tion to the national effort to change
Mrs. Scandling’s aunt, an alumna o f
education,” said educationdean Philip
the Class of 1909.
Wexler, in indicating ways in which the
• Establishment o f a “special projects’*
school will use the gift.
endowment to provide start-up funds
for research-related initiatives —for
example, testing new approaches in

_ — —
■

HI

IS®
II

using the latest technology to help
low-achieving students, or applying
scholarly research to the design o f
. :j ^ jio 61icurricura^
Margaret Warner Scandling, a Roch­
ester native, was a lifelong supporter
o f the University. She was a member
o f the Trustees’ Council before serving
on the Board o f Trustees, from 1985 to
1987, and also was a member o f the
education school’s Visiting Committee.
She and her husband also have sup­
ported Hobart and William Smith
Colleges in Geneva, New York, and
Deep Springs College in Bishop, Cali­
fornia. In addition, Mrs. Scandling
was involved with the East Valley Edu­
cation Foundation, based in San Jose,
and was a member o f the Save the
Children Fund. She died in 1990 at
the age o f 68.
“As I have frequently noted to
others, Margaret Scandling thought
and reflected deeply about the impor­
tance o f teaching in our society, and
she was an advocate for education
long before it became a popular
cause,” Wexler said.
William F. Scandling is the co­
founder and retired president o f Saga
Corporation, which grew from a tiny
institutional food-services business
into a major national corporation. It
began in 1948, when Scandling formed
a partnership with two classmates at
Hobart College to provide food serv­
ices to their fellow students. Their
venture was successful, and they in­
corporated in 1949.
Saga Corporation expanded to
provide similar services to colleges,
hospitals, and other businesses and
industries, and, in the early 1970s,
the firm acquired a number of familyrestaurant chains. The corporation was
purchased by Marriott in 1986.

Combining education research with practice: Assistant professor Sharon Carver (third from
right) conducts her research in the inner-city Charlotte Middle School, studying how com­
puters can help improve academic-performance among eighth graders. Here with Carver
are Charlotte students Israel Cuevas, Brandy Brumfield, Kris Amos, Latova Edwards, Sara
Leavitt, and Richard Dumbieton and Rochester graduate students Stanley Swiercz, Myung
Hee Ryu, and Pamela Asquith.

Producing Loaders for Change in Our Nation’s Schools
Underthe leadership
of Philip Wexler, dean
since 1989, the Grad­
uate School of Edu­
cation and Human
Development is com­
mitted to creating an
interaction among
Wexler
those who study edu­
cation, those who practice it, and those
who prepare the nation’s teachers. The
school thus intends to bridge the gap
between educational research and what
occurs in the real world of principals,
teachers; and children.
Since its founding in 1958 during a
period of national educational reform,
Rochester’s education school has pro- ,
duced leaders for change in educational
research, practice, and administration.
Today, the school serves as a “bridge”
between the University and educators in
the field, facilitating, motivating, lead­
ing, and serving as a resource to the local
and national educational community.
With a full-time faculty of twentyseven, the school confers some ninety
graduate degrees each year, including
a Ph.D. in education and master’s and
Ed.D. degrees in higher education,
counseling and human development,
teaching and curriculum, and admin­
istration.

Among ongoing research programs
at the school are studies on:
\ The importance of reading compe- *
fence to mastering mathematics at the
secondary level;
' How computers in the classroom can
improve fhc educational perforrhahee of
low-achieving students; f
Impact of state fiscal policy on New
York State districts;
Impact of families and neighbor­
hoods on individual students’ achieve­
ment;
Causes and prevention of violence
in schools;
Achievement among minority stu­
dents;
Development of new teacher educa­
tion models;
Development of children’s sense of
moral values;
Effects of race, gender, and poverty
on school performance;
More effective ways to teach science;
. ■Getting more Iow-income,minority
students to enter college;
Role of education in effecting social
change.
Dean Wexler, a sociologist of educa­
tion and author of numerous articles
and books (most recently, Becoming
Somebody: Toward a Social Psychology ;
o f School), has been a Rochester pro­
fessor since 1979.

7

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

1993 Commencement Address:
Having Faith
“When you come
^ J f i g á l A n to the edge o f all the
light you know, and
you are about to step
off into the darkness
o f the unknown —
having faith is know­
ing that one of two
things will happen:
Cardinal
There will be something solid to stand
on, or you will be taught how to fly.”
Tantoo Cardinal, one of Canada’s
most accomplished actresses and a
longtime advocate o f Native American
rights, delivered this message to the
over 2,500 graduates who received
degrees at the University’s 143rd Com­
mencement on May 23 —a blessedly
warm and sunny Sunday (and an
enormous improvement over last year’s
frostily memorable “Chilblain Com­
mencement”).
“We have something in common,”
Cardinal told the students, “your
school flower.” She spoke o f the affinity
she feels for the tenacious dandelion
she remembers poking up through
sidewalk cracks in the cities o f her
childhood. “War has been raged upon
her . . . and yet she survives,” Cardinal
said.

8

Likening herself and her native
brothers and sisters to the University
emblem, Cardinal spoke o f how they
left their homes and came to the city
feeling disenfranchised, but like the
dandelion, took root in the concrete
gardens of the city. They found together,
even in the city, “that the earth is alive.
That we are part o f her. That you can­
not buy and sell her. That life is sacred.”
Cardinal received an honorary doc­
torate at the ceremony, as did newly re­
tired U.S. Representative Frank Horton
and legendary jazzman and Rochester
native Cab Calloway (who as his Com­
mencement address led the crowd in a
rafters-rattling rendition o f “Minnie
the Moocher”). Richard Ryan, profes­
sor o f psychology, and James Chen
Min Li, Albert A. Hopeman Professor
of Engineering, received University
teaching awards. Adam Urbanski
’69, ’75G, president o f the Rochester
Teachers Union, received the Hutchison
Medal (see page 47).
In all, degrees awarded that day
totaled 1,189 bachelor’s degrees, 1,085
master’s, and 314 doctorates.
The 143rd Commencement season
ended with a second ceremony, for
graduates o f the Simon School, on
June 13, too late for reporting in this
issue o f Rochester Review.

Heart Tests Flunk
Silent ischemia—essentially angina
without the pain—is thought to be a
precursor o f future heart attacks in
heart patients. But the tests that doc­
tors use on as many as a million peo­
ple annually to detect evidence o f silent
ischemia, and thereby predict future
heart attacks, are useless, says Dr.
Arthur J. Moss, a Medical Center
cardiologist.
“In essence, we have been using
the tests widely, thinking they were of
benefit in identifying patients at risk
o f another heart attack—when in fact
they are not,” says Moss.
“Hillary Clinton would be very
pleased with the results o f this study,”
he says, suggesting that eliminating the
unnecessary tests could save the nation
an estimated half a billion to a billion
dollars a year.
Moss recently completed a threeand-one-half year study o f the tests
as part o f the Multicenter Myocardial
Ischemia Research Group. According
to the study’s results, published in the
May 12 issue o f the Journal o f the
American Medical Association, the
conventional non-invasive tests that
doctors use to detect silent ischemia—
the standard electrocardiogram (EKG),
exercise EKG, ambulatory EKG
(Holter monitoring), and stress thal­
lium studies —are of little predictive
value.
In the study of 936 patients, the
tests failed to pinpoint those most at
risk o f repeat heart attacks. In fact,
says Moss, patients who were told they
were not at risk o f a recurrence often
had another heart attack, and those
told they were at risk often had no
attack.
Only the standard EKG provided
information that yielded a statistical
association with future heart events,
yet even this test was not particularly
useful in identifying patients at risk
for subsequent cardiac events.
Moss notes that the tests are, how­
ever, useful for other clinical functions.
“What we need are better tests,” he
says.

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
Before this art form’s birth in the
1600s, he writes, the only narratives
lining library shelves were histories and
epics. (In fact, the French have only
one word, “histoire,” for both “his­
tory” and “story. ”) Novels turned this
fact-based world upside down, pattern­
ing their fictional style after the docu­
mentary narratives, DiPiero says. And
the notion that one could simply dream
up a story—or recount a real-life tale
but fictionalize the characters—was
enough to raise many a Gallic eyebrow.
Those first novels were of the latter
form: thinly disguised true stories by
and about aristocrats and their ances­
tors, he notes. As entertainment, the
aristocracy would gather in the fashion­
able salon o f the day, dressed as char­
acters in the novel du jour and read
aloud the parts —as some moviegoers
today ritually participate in The Rocky

Wu and his bioreactor

Bone-Marrow Device
Generates More Blood Cells
A new kind o f artificial bone mar­
row developed by Rochester engineers
is generating more kinds o f blood cells
than conventional bone-marrow cul­
ture systems.
David Wu, assistant professor of
chemical engineering and also of
microbiology and immunology, pre­
sented the results o f his bioreactor
research last spring at an American
Chemical Society meeting in Denver.
Though bioreactors such as Wu’s are
still in the experimental stages o f de­
velopment, they are expected to prove
valuable eventually in treating patients
with many kinds o f blood disorders,
including leukemia.
Over the past decade, scientists have
learned that the body’s many kinds o f
blood cells —including red blood cells,
platelets, and disease-fighting white
cells —all originate from “progenitor”
cells known as stem cells. Wu’s bio­
reactor has produced red blood cells,
which carry oxygen; megakaryocytes
(precursors to platelets, which clot the
blood); and a variety o f white blood
cells, including B-cells (which make
antibodies), neutrophils, eosinophils,
basophils, and macrophages.
The bioreactor sustains blood-cell
formation for about two months for
human cells and four months for
mouse cells. Wu’s group is actively
looking for evidence o f an expansion
o f the numbers o f stem cells, another
important step in stem-cell technology.

“This work is very promising,” says
James Brennan, associate professor of
medicine (hematology) and Wu’s co­
author on two abstracts published by
the American Hematology Society.
“This system allows scientists to study
the development o f stem cells into
mature cells under conditions more
closely resembling bone marrow than
other methods.”

TV Movies, Tabloids
Mirror Earliest Novels
If you hunger on occasion for steamy
stories o f sex and crime —even if their
veracity is doubtful—then you have
lots in common with the seventeenthcentury Europeans who were the earliest
readers o f novels.
So says Rochester professor Thomas
DiPiero, author o f Dangerous Truths
and Criminal Passions, an exploration
o f the origins o f the novel recently
published by Stanford University
Press.
The first novels, he says, were a
bastard form o f narrative literature
that, leaders o f the time worried,
could cause readers to confuse fact
and fiction. That concern continues
today in another medium, DiPiero
adds; witness what critics have to say
about docudramas like JFK and
Malcolm X, and “Movie o f the Week”
offerings about the happenings in
Waco.
His research shows the novel suf­
fered a rocky beginning.

Horror Picture Show.
Gradually, however, hard times be­
fell the nobles, and the power o f the
novel slipped to France’s bourgeoisie.
The battle not only for political and
financial power but also for the control
o f culture had begun, and it amounted
to class war.
“The novel had always had a bad
reputation because o f the fear it would
confuse fiction with fact,” DiPiero
says. “But the debate really blew up
when the novel crossed class lines. ”
That’s because a multitude of
middle-class concerns and attitudes —
far different from those o f the aristoc­
racy-found expression through the
novel after the middle class started
producing its own cultural forms. By
the eighteenth century, the bourgeoisie
had brought culture to the masses, and
the novel had become an instrument
for shaping society, DiPiero says.
For instance, writers (most were
male) frequently portrayed their
female characters as promiscuous
married women whose adulterous
ways threatened family life and, in the
case o f illegitimate children, property
ownership —a big issue with the rising
middle class. The stories, DiPiero says,
began to alter their readers’ percep­
tions o f reality.
“The standard view o f the function
o f the novel is that it reflects society.
But I think it also had a profound
effect on the culture, much as TV
docudramas do today,” DiPiero says.

9

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Asia bound: Hallie Stosur, one of eighteen American winners of the Luce Foundation Scholarship

Med Student Wins
Luce Fellowship
Southeast Asia will be the port
o f call late this summer for Hallie
S to su r-a third-year Rochester medical
student with an eye toward a life in
public health and disease prevention.
Stosur is interrupting her formal
studies to take advantage o f a yearlong
Henry Luce Foundation scholarship
that offers a select group of eighteen
American students the chance to
broaden their perceptions o f Asia and
to deepen their knowledge of America
and of themselves.
During her Asian year (either in
Indonesia or Thailand—when the
Review caught up with her, she hadn’t
yet made up her mind), Stosur plans
to focus her attention on population
studies, family planning, and HIV
education and prevention. “Profes­
sionals in Asia have invented creative
approaches to these very personally
and culturally sensitive issues,” she
says. The experience will help her
“fine-tune” her career goals, she adds.
A Bethesda, Maryland, native,
Stosur earned her undergraduate de­
gree at Brown, taking time off to work
in rural Ecuador in a rabies-eradica­
tion project and, at a clinic in the coal­
10

mining community of Lookout, West
Virginia, as a member of the Appala­
chian Student Health Coalition. She
then spent a year as co-director of the
program at Vanderbilt University and
has also worked in a public family­
planning clinic in Atlanta.
Obviously never one to stand still,
the peripatetic Stosur has —since she
enrolled in medical school —spent a
summer with the Public Health Serv­
ice’s Indian Health Service and an­
other summer working in a pediatric
hospital in Poland.
The Luce Scholars Program selects
the winners annually from among a
variety o f professional fields in a pool
of sixty colleges and universities.
Rochester has had three previous win­
ners: John Kaskow ’60; Cynthia Ford
’81G; and Wayne Aponte ’90.

‘Looking Beyond the Pond’:
Student Nabs Top Honors
in Japanese Speech Contest
A Rochester student full o f ideas
about the potentials o f teamwork be­
tween U.S. and Japanese corporations
has earned himself a free round-trip
plane ticket to Tokyo, plus $800 in
spending money.

How’d Collin Benson do that? By
copping first place in a national con­
test that required non-native Japanese
speakers to prepare and deliver an
original speech in the Japanese lan­
guage. The Rochester sophomore’s
topic: “The Eyes Looking Beyond the
Pond,” an examination o f how cor­
porations in the two countries can
overcome differences and establish
long-term relations.
Benson, who competed in Level 1,
wasn’t in fact the only Rochester stu­
dent to walk away with a prize. Sopho­
more David Horowitz was right behind
him, winning second place in Level 1,
and junior William Oliver was a final­
ist in Level 2.
Sponsored annually in Washington
by the U.S.-Japan Culture Center, an
organization o f the Japanese Embassy
there, the competition was televised
nationally in Japan.
Contestants are chosen on the basis
of the speeches they submit. Rochester
students, who have been selected to
participate for the last five years, con­
sistently come away winners. This
year’s finalists competed against stu­
dents from larger Japanese programs
at eleven other schools, including Har­
vard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia.

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

The New Wallis Institute ?

Studying 'The Great Natural Experiment'
The winds of. change that blew down
the Berlin Wall and ripped apart the
Soviet Union in the fall of 1989 also
flattened some contour^ in the groves of
academe
Ifextbooks on the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe became obsolete over­
night. Carefully crafted syllabi had to
be tossed out, like yesterday’s news­
paper. Professor^ were stripped of their
“expertise” as swiftly as apparatchiks
were divested of dachas, Change, the
Great Leveler, had put students and pro­
fessors of international relations at the
same starting line: Everyone was a nov­
ice when it came to figuring out this
new world order, and graduate students
could have as much clout as their advi­
sors.
The eight graduate fellows studying
the evolution of these countries as one
of the first projects of the University’s
new W. Allen Wiallis Institute of Political
Economy brighten visibly at the memory
of how it was in the fall of 1989.
Í V*It was a great semester,” grad fIn­
dent Tim Frye says with a grin, when he
recalls, the classes he was in that fall at
Columbia University. Frye unexpectedly
found himself an overnight “expert” be­
cause he had worked and traveled exten­
sively in the Soviet Union.
/ The crime rate in Moscow went down,
recalls Lyudmila Kareva, a young Rus­
sian lawyer who was working for the
First Congress of Deputies in the Soviet
Union at the time, Why? Even the
criminals, she says, were busy watching
television trying to keep up with the
changes rippling through the Soviet
Bloc.
Ever since those heady months, uni­
versity campuses all over the world,
Rochester included, have been studying
the dramatic changes that swept over
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union. The Wallis Institute project that
brought these graduate fellows to the
River Campus last fall was a year-long
seminar that sought to shed light on the
“great natural experiment” that is unfold­
ing as former socialist regimes struggle
to maintain democratic governments
and transform barren economies into
free-market geysers that shower material
abundance upon the citizens at home.
But converting managed economies
) into a venture capitalist’s dream, replete
with a McDonald’s, a muffler,shop, and

a mortgage company in every city, turns
out to be more difficult than anyone ever
imagined, in part because traditional
economic road maps have been of little
use.
“Many Western economists have
jnmped on airplanes with transition
plans in hand,” says David Weimer, pro­
fessor of political science, “only to dis­
cover that neoclassical economics the­
ory takes for granted the existence of
private mid secure property rights in
market economies.” When they arrive in
the country, these economists may find
the government has yet to deal success­
fully with these issues. It’s as if the
country has the engine parts, but lacks
some of the lubricants that keep freemarket economies well oiled and run­
ning efficiently.
Yet the very obstacles that frustrate
economists and venture capitalists are
proving to be perfect fodder for theore­
ticians. Case in point: Lithuania, whose
citizens, after declaring full independ­
ence from the Soviet Union in August
1991, found they couldn’t buy enough
heating oil at open-market prices to
keep themselves warm, and brought
back the Communist Party when elec­
tions were held in November 1992,
“Social science,” says Weimer, “offers
little theory to help us understand the
radical transitions from one set of polit­
ical and economic institutions to an­
other that we are seeing played out in
Russia and Eastern Europe.” And like
Nature herself; academe too seems to
abhor a vacuum, so Weimer and col­
league William Riker, Wilson Professor
of Political Science, set about filling the
theoretical void. They recruited eight of
the nation’s brightest young scholars,
irtviting them to participate in a gradu­
ate-level seminar on the evolution of
property rights, to follow that with field
work in their country of interest, and
then to return to Rochester to contrib­
ute a chapter to a forthcoming book
describing the lessons of political econ­
omy to be learned from this natural ex­
periment.
A glow of fellowship seems to per­
vade the conversations in the seminar,
held twice a week since last September
in a cramped and windowless room in
Harkness Hall, so drab that it makes
you wonder if you haven’t wandered by

mistake into some building utility room
in a formerly socialist country.
This seminar, listed as Political Sci­
ence 501 and entitled the “Political
Economy of Property Rights,” has a
decidedly international makeup. Some
participants are academics who hail
from abroad, such as Mariusz Dobek
from Poland and Tamas Fellegi from
Hungary, both of whom earned doc­
torates from American graduate schools.
A couple of lawyers also fill seats around
the table: Thomas Kruessmann, from
Germany, and the Russian lawyer Lyud­
mila Kareva. Then there’s Brendan Kicrnan, a Ph.D. from Indiana University
whose specialty is Russian politics.
Kiernan, by the way, is married to
Kareva, whom he met when he worked
in her Moscow office. Rounding out
places at the table are the four other
American doctoral candidates, Lorene
Allio from Emory University, who is
studying Poland; Steve Lewis of Washington Umvei siry, a China specialist;
and two more Russia specialists, Joel
Ericson of the University of Toronto
and Tim Frye of Columbia University.
During the fall and early spring
terms, members of the seminar have
been learning about each other’s coun­
tries of particular interest. Each mem­
ber of the seminar has been asked to
make a presentation about the country
he or she knows most about. Members
have also been learning how to use
some of today’s preferred tools of the
intellectual trade, such as microeconomic
theory, game theory, and social-choice
theory, in anticipation of bringing a
new kind of rigor to their study of these
countries.
“There’s so much more information
available about these countries than
ever before,” says Ericson. “It was only
a lew years ago that most of our infor­
mation about the Soviet Union came
from ‘Kremlinologists’ who told us what
was going on by analyzing who was
standing where in photographs and who
was missing from them. Now, we can
study these countries the way we study
Western countries, using parallel meth­
ods of analysis.”

11

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

ROCHESTER
QUOTES

examines such mind-body factors as
how patients’ family relationships
influence their symptoms.

W 'U ntil recently, the average retiree got
more than he or she paid in, but in the
not-too-distant future, the opposite will
be true” —Edward Bird, assistant pro­
fessor of political science, in an op-ed
piece, “Let’s Make Social Security honest
■ “There seems to be an obsessive need
to take our pulse all the time, as though, at last,” in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“It’s time for Washington’s policy­
if we don% we’ll disappear”—Daniel
makers to stop being twofaced, defend­
Borus, assistant professor of history,
speaking in the Hartford Courant o f the ing Social Security in public as a big
current fascination of Washington gurus i bank account, while in private treating
it as a big redistribution program,” Bird
with “the national mood.”
writes. “The smartest political strategy,
“Public pulse-taking is not new,”
in the long run, is to make Social Secur­
writes the Courant reporter. “As Borus
ity honest, Uhm it into a real social in­
observes, Alexis de Tocqueville, visiting
surance plan',”
' ■ ■’ ' ■V
\ ■the United States in 1831, concluded
that the greatest authority in America
is ‘they,’ as in ‘they say.’ ” What is new, ' ■ ‘7/ was like an afternoon o f painting
in the air. Then I went home, and /
notes the article, is the extent to which
totally recolored the piece” —composer
“conventional wisdom” is being taken
Libby Larsen, talking, in a New York
seriously —and the flimsy evidence on
Times piece, about a collaborative finewhich it rests. When the national press
cites a trend, “It turns out, on closer in­ tuning of a new work commissioned
from her by the Eastman School’s
spection, there is no trend. There’s only
■
a trend of the media saying it’s a trend.” Cleveland Quartet. : y . , ! '
The Cleveland', “famous for its imM “We should be giving empicyerXihfyl passioned performances of 18th- and
centives, not punishing them”—Walter^ ?; 19th-century repertory,” according to
the Times, has lately stepped up its inOi, Elmer B. Milliman Professor of
volvcment with living composers —
Economics, in a Forbes magazine
which the Cleveland’s James Dunham
examination of the Americans with
says, “gives us a different attitude when
Disabilities Act.
we work withcomposers we can’t speak
An opponent of the ADA who hap­
pens to be blind, Oi was among the ex- j to. Composers encourage us to be ex­
pressive with their music. And so it
perts quoted in the article, which points
makes us feel better about decisions we
out that the ADA, well-intentioned as it
make in earlier pieces. . . . It has taught
was, is “proving handy for people with
grudges and ingenious attorneys,” while uS that the two-dimensional score needs
to .be fleshed Out into a three-dimensional
making “employers think twice before
object.”
hiring a retarded person or someone in
a wheelchair for fear they won’t be able
to get rid of them if they fail to perform.” M“Some o f the work is so poor thai if
it were declassified, it would be laughed
o ff the face o f the Earth”—Robert
M"Not another psychosocialthing!
MeCrory, director of the Laboratory
I have to learn to save someone from
for Laser Engineering, quoted in a US.
a heart attack!”—Susan McDaniel,
News & World Report story on “the
associate professor of psychiatry, quot­
accumulation of secrecy rules that has
ing, in a Newsweek article, the reaction
only grown thicker with the end of the
of busy medical students to the ad d iti
of new courses on unconventional thera­ cold war.”
One reason for continuing the restric­
pies to their required curricula.
tions, MeCrory notes, is that secrecy is
Although Americans have been
a way to evade public or professional
“clamoring for alternatives to drugs,
scrutiny. “Even basically sound research
surgery, and doctors who treat them as
nothing but a bag of symptoms,” medi­ can head down blind alleys when it is
not open to the scrutiny and criticism
cal schools have been slow to adopt
of the entire scientific community,” the
courses on the connection between the
article suggests.
mind and the body, notes Newsweek.
Rochester, however, has been a pioneer
m
in the field. Among its “alternative”
courses is one McDaniel has developed
—a family-medicine curncufum that

12

Study of Black Achievers
Yields Some Surprises

. ■...
*r

■

Fisher

Why do some black teenagers get
good grades, while others don’t?
A new study o f hundreds o f black
adolescents enrolled in urban public
high schools has made some eye­
opening discoveries.
Among the findings o f the study
conducted by Teresa Fisher, assistant
professor o f education in the Graduate
School o f Education and Human De­
velopment, were these:
Students from lower-income families
on average actually got better grades
than students from upper-income
homes.
Girls tended to have higher marks
than boys, and appeared to get more
encouragement to excel academically—
both at home and in the classroom.
Black males often feel uncomfort­
able in the classroom, which can ham­
per their academic performance. And
their teachers appear uneasy around
them, in the words o f one student
“acting like we want to hurt them
physically.”
The participants, 368 black adoles­
cents taking a college-prep curriculum
at three Illinois high schools, answered
a ten-page questionnaire. Fisher bompared results with the students’ gradepoint averages, and in addition inter­
viewed some students and teachers.
The most reliable predictor o f high
grades was a student’s belief in his or
her own academic ability, she found.
The more confidence students had in
their competence to handle school as­
signments, the better their grades.
“Conventional wisdom tells us to
work on improving youngsters’ self­
esteem,” Fisher says. “But if we want

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
minority children to be academic
achievers, it is more important for
teachers and parents to work at help­
ing youngsters form a positive view
o f their academic potential.”
Speaking o f her surprising finding
that lower-income students did better
than high- or middle-income students,
Fisher notes that other studies have
shown that many black parents with
high and middle incomes have trouble
transmitting academic motivation to
their children. It could also be that
lower-income families believed more
strongly that academic success was the
means to social and economic mobility,
she says.

Van Horn to Head
NSF Division of Astronomy
Astronomy’s new chief national ad­
vocate is Hugh Van Horn, professor o f
physics and astronomy and senior sci­
entist at the University’s Laboratory
for Laser Energetics. In his new role,
Van Horn heads the National Science
Foundation’s Division of Astronomy.
He began his two-year term in Wash­
ington on July 1.
In the NSF post, Van Horn will
work with astronomers nationwide to
set and achieve policy goals. He will
also be competing with other disci­
plines for research dollars and deciding
how to distribute funding to astrono­
mers. The division’s budget is currently
more than $100 million per year.
A theoretical astrophysicist, Van
Horn is internationally known as an
expert on highly dense objects such as
white dwarf stars (astral bodies that
have burned their nuclear fuel and
shrunk to a small fraction o f their
previous size, yet have kept most o f
their mass). These studies o f white
dwarfs can help scientists understand
how galaxies and stars were formed.
“Just about any piece o f physics can
be applied somewhere in astronomy,”
says Van Horn, who credits the launch­
ing o f Sputnik as the spark that ignited
his career as a sophomore at Case
Western University. “It gives physicists
like myself the opportunity to work on
a very broad range of problems.” He
finds that the stars offer an opportunity
“to push the theory of dense matter
well beyond the bounds o f anything
accessible in a terrestrial laboratory. ”

U.S. News Ranks
Top Graduate Programs
In its latest rankings, U.S. News and
World Report has included University
graduate programs in business, engi­
neering, medicine, and nursing among
its lists o f “America’s Best Graduate
Schools.”
The William E. Simon Graduate
School o f Business Administration
was ranked among the top twenty-five
graduate schools o f business in the
country. Scores were calculated based
on student selectivity, placement suc­
cess, graduation rate, and reputation.
The Simon School, in twenty-fourth
place, has been listed among the top
twenty-five by US. News since the pub­
lication began its survey in 1990.
The College o f Engineering and Ap­
plied Science’s graduate programs were
ranked among the top fifty. U.S. News
considered student selectivity, research
activity, reputation, and the size and
quality o f the faculty in rating schools.
Though the magazine ranked the top
twenty-five schools individually, it did
not rank the “second tier” of twentyfive schools, listing them alphabetically
instead.
The School o f Nursing’s graduate
programs ranked eleventh in the coun­
try. Scores were based on evaluations
by administrators and deans o f nurs­
ing schools that offer master’s degrees.
Finally, the “community care” spe­
cialty within the School o f Medicine
and Dentistry was named third-best
program of its kind in the country,
based on surveys o f medical school
deans.

Endowed Professorships:
One New Chair Created;
Two Others Filled
Newest among the University’s en­
dowed professorships is the William G.
Allyn Chair in Medical Optics, estab­
lished through a gift to the University
from Welch Allyn, Inc., the world’s
largest manufacturer o f hand-held
medical diagnostic instruments.
The gift honors the eighty-fifth
birthday of William G. Allyn ’34, son
o f the company’s founder and father
o f its current president, William F.

Allyn, who notes that the endowment
“recognizes the strong relationship”
between the company and the Univer­
sity.
Also in recent months two previously
established chairs have acquired new
incumbents:
Duncan T. Moore,
director o f the Insti­
tute o f Optics, has
been appointed
Rudolf and Hilda
Kingslake Professor
o f Optical Engineer­
ing. Recognized in­
ternationally for his research in lens
design, Moore has helped modernize
lens design and manufacturing, using
computers to design them more quickly
and precisely. Most recently he has at­
tracted wide attention through a rev­
olutionary innovation that could dra­
matically reduce to a tiny fraction the
current price o f endoscopes —slender
instruments physicians use to peer into
the human body—through the use o f
gradient-index (GRIN) lenses. It is es­
timated that potential savings to the
U.S. health-care system are upwards
o f $25 million a year.
The Kingslake professorship honors
two internationally known optical sci­
entists who have played key roles in the
optics institute since its founding in
1929.
In another recent
appointment, Alan
C. Stockman, a
member o f the
Rochester faculty
since 1979, has been
named Marie Curran
Wilson and Joseph
Chamberlain Wilson Professor o f Eco­
nomics. His pioneering work on ex­
change rates inaugurated the modern,
microeconomic-based analysis o f inter­
national macroeconomic issues. It has
since become standard in economic
analysis. He serves on the editorial
boards o f three economics journals
and has written numerous books and
journal articles.
The Wilson Professorships were es­
tablished in 1967 in recognition o f the
generosity o f the late Joseph C. Wilson
’31, Xerox founder and former Univer­
sity board president, and Mrs. Wilson.

13

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

SPORTS
The 4-40 Relay:
Football’s Dynamic Duo
Trouncing one opponent after
another is becoming something o f
a Yellowjacket football habit.
The squad was unstoppable as it
swept through most o f the 1992 sea­
son, outmaneuvering eight consecutive
competitors, sweeping the University
Athletic Association title, and earning
a place among the elite teams o f the
East Region. Only a heartbreaking loss
to Union in the season-ender prevented
the Jackets from becoming the first
unbeaten Rochester football team in
a span o f 34 years.
“The guys played spectacularly on
both sides o f the ball,” declares head
coach Rich Parrinello ’72. A strong
cadre o f defensive starters, nine o f
whom were named to the UAA AllAssociation team, kept the Yellowjackets from conceding a single point
in either the first or third quarters of
any game played.
The Jackets were also fortified by
the athletic prowess o f tailbacks Isaac

Collins

14

Collins ’94 and Jeremy Hurd ’94, who
formed a powerful rushing backfield
that kept the opposition scrambling.
The UAA coaches were so impressed
by the pair’s performance that they
named them jointly Offensive Player
o f the Year. On campus and in the
press, Collins, who wears number 4,
and Hurd, who sports a 40 on his jer­
sey, are being hailed as Division I ll’s
“4-40 Relay.”
Given that Collins stands four
inches shorter and is 40 pounds lighter
than Hurd, it’s hard to imagine that
both men play the same position effec­
tively. In fact, Parrinello explains, their
physical differences form their greatest
strength. “Isaac has great speed. He’s
tremendously quick, whereas Jeremy
is an elusive runner who plows right
through people. By alternating them
on the field we give the defense a lot
to deal with.”
“On our team, tailback is an ex­
tremely important position. It’s easy
to envision how two players sharing
the spotlight might become jealous of
one another,” says the coach. But Col­
lins and Hurd, he notes, get along as
athletes and off-gridiron pals as well.
In addition to sharing their field
position, the duo, as it happens, shares
academic interests: They’re both ardent
political science majors. Last season
Hurd was named a First Team GTE
Academic All-American, the first
Rochester football player to earn this
kind o f academic recognition in the
last six years. (He also holds the dis­
tinction of being only the second Yel­
lowjacket ever to earn First Team
honors.)
“We push each other to do better
both in school and on the field,” says
Hurd. Adds teammate Collins, “It’s an
anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better
attitude that keeps us going.”
This outlook has served the 4-40
Relay well. Together last fall they
rushed for 2,022 yards and 22 touch­
downs. For most o f the season it
looked as if both athletes would break
the 1,000-yard mark. Hurd managed to
set a single-season record o f 1,210 yards
and 15 touchdowns in nine games.
Collins came close, rushing for 809
yards and 7 touchdowns in 7 games —
until an untimely turn o f the ankle ran
interference with his progress during
the second-to-last game o f the season.

Hurd
In the first carry o f that contest,
Collins was hit hard by two defenders
from Rensselaer. “I was sweeping to
the left when they caught me. My ankle
just rolled over with the crowd,” he
says. Once the heap o f helmets and
shoulder pads was cleared off his in­
jured limb, it was clear that Collins’s
season was over, no thanks to torn
ligaments.
Number 4’s sudden incapacity left
Number 40, Hurd, to finish the job all
on his own. And for the rest o f the
game, his performance was nothing
short of, well, stupefying. He carried
the ball 52 times that day for a total
o f 264 yards, setting not one but two
single-game Rochester records. Late in
the second quarter he turned a screen
pass from Gregg Eisenberg into a 67yard victory dash. By game’s end Hurd
had scored four touchdowns, leading
the Yellowjackets to a 38-21 win.
One week later, with the season’s
biggest crowd packed into Fauver
Stadium, the sidelined Collins watched
from the press box as the Yellowjackets
squared off against the Union Dutch­
men. An enormous cast kept the ath­
lete planted in his chair, but in spirit
he was right down there on the field.
When in the second quarter Hurd
zoomed past the opposition for a 28yard touchdown, Collins was “on the

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
edge o f my seat shouting myself
hoarse.” By halftime, Hurd had gained
95 o f Rochester’s 104 yards rushing,
and Collins’s voice was about as blown
away as his injured ankle.
Union was not about to take all this
lying down, and, in an effort to stop
the unstoppable, returned to the field
with an overloaded defense. “They’re
putting all eleven guys on the line.
Keep your head at it,” Collins coun­
seled his partner over the box-to-bench
phone. But the Union ploy worked,
and the Jackets were able to rush for
only 30 more yards by the game’s end.
In the final quarter, Union pounced
on a Yellowjacket fumble and turned it
into the winning touchdown for a final
score o f 14-10. With that, the Yellowjackets’ perfect performance record
slipped from their hands along with
the hope o f securing their first NCAA
Division III playoff berth since 1987.
The loss came hard. “It was heart­
breaking, ” Collins admits. “It hurt me
a whole lot more than any injury I’ve
ever had.”
Coach Parrinello hardily takes the
long view.
He says he calculates success not as
a sum o f wins and losses, but rather as
a measure o f how much his players im­
prove each season. “I challenge our stuents to make themselves better, to con­
duct themselves in a way that makes
them feel good about their accom­
plishments. That’s what makes them
winners. ”
What’s ahead for the ’93 season?
The 4-40 Relay is intent upon making
its final season an undefeated outing
for the Yellowjackets. “If we can just
stay healthy, without any injuries to
our key players, we have what it takes
to win every game,” says Collins, who
has made a complete recovery since
last fall’s mishap.
Declares Hurd, “The 4-40 Relay has
never been better. ”

Men’s Swimming & Diving: UAA
Champion Jon-Eric Andersson ’95
took the gold in the 50-Yard Freestyle
and the bronze in the 100-Yard Free­
style at the UAA Champs. In the 200Yard Medley Relay he swam the an­
chor leg, helping the Yellowjackets
to score important points. The team
finished fourth overall.
Women’s Basketball: For the first time
in six years, the squad reached the
New York State Women’s Collegiate
Athletic Association playoffs. Seeded
seventh out o f eight teams, the Jackets
thrashed second-seeded Albany State,
61-51, in the quarterfinals before los­
ing to the eventual champion, Ithaca,
in the semifinals.
Men’s Basketball: Late-season wins at
Carnegie Mellon and Brandeis helped
the team wrap up third place in the
UAA, using a patient offense and pre­
cise foul-shooting to claim the wins.
Women’s Track & Field: The team
took fourth place at the UAA Cham­
pionships, with Linda Park ’94 scoring
in four events while Molly Boucher ’95
and Jacqueline Healy ’96 scored in two
events each.

Season Records

Winter-Spring Wrap-Ups
Women’s Swimming and Diving: At the
UAA Championships, Julianna Myers
’94 placed 9-0 in the 50-Yard Freestyle.
After winning the trials on the first day
with a provisional NCAA qualifying
time o f :24.93 seconds, she swam the
course in :24.67 seconds in the final to
win the event.

Men’s Track & Field: Spurred by
record-setting performances from Luis
Alejandro ’95, the squad posted two
second-place team finishes, won their
own invitational, and finished a strong
third at the UAAs.
Squash: The Jackets came on strongly
in the second half o f the season, de­
feating three teams that had beaten
them earlier. Rochester’s late-season
rush put the Yellowjackets 15th in the
National Intercollegiate Squash Rac­
quets Association national poll.
Golf: Yellowjacket golfers earned
their 13th consecutive NCAA post­
season invitation, placing sixth out of
22 schools, their best finish ever at the
NCAAs.
Men’s Tennis: The Jackets earned
an NCAA team bid this year (the first
such invitation since 1990), finishing
eighth in the field o f 12. Three athletes
competed individually: David Wesley
’93 reached the quarter finals, Chris
O’Brien ’93 reached the second round,
and Ken Schultz ’94 competed in the
first round.
Women’s Tennis: The team enjoyed
an exemplary season, finishing 15-4—
making it one o f the finest seasons in
the history o f the sport at Rochester.
Men’s Outdoor Track and Field: The
squad sent five runners to the NCAA
championships. Graduate student
Christian Reed and Marcus Gage ’94
ran in the 10,000-Meter Run, Anthony
Kerr ’93 and Chris Rizzo ’93 competed
in the 3,000-Meter Steeplechase, and
Bryan Goettsch ’93 competed in the
1,500-Meter Run.
Baseball: Just missing an ECAC
playoff bid, the Jackets finished their
season 21-16 while winning 9 o f their
last 10 games. Their only loss: a 2-1
squeaker to SUNY Binghamton.

Park

Men’s Basketball: 11-14
Women’s Basketball: 11-15
Men’s Swimming & Diving: 3-4
Women’s Swimming & Diving: 4-3
Men’s Indoor Track & Field: 1-1
Women’s Indoor Track & Field: 1-1
Squash: 9-12
Baseball: 21-16
Men’s Outdoor Track & Field: 4-0
Women’s Outdoor Track & Field: 2-2
Golf: 0-0
Men’s Tennis: 14-12
Women’s Tennis: 15-4
15

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Asking the

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Undergraduates
today are engaged
in original research
to a greater degree
than ever before—
and on projects
far more challenging
than your standard
term paper.

1. Jeff Daoust ’93: When athletes retire from
competition, what are the stages of withdrawal
they go through?
2. Michael Zaccagnino ’93: How does physi­
cian income in the United States rate with that
of other developed nations?
3. Marcy Braverman ’93 (with advisor Douglas
Brooks): If women symbolize power in the Hindu
religion, why are they so oppressed in Hindu
society?
4. Kelly Shambaugh ’93: What is the future for
portfolio-management techniques in the bank­
ing business?
5. Andrew Grace ’92: Why does the male finch
sing and the female doesn’t?

By Denise Bolger Kovnat
Overheard on the Caltech campus,
during a recent national gathering of
undergraduate researchers:
“Have you seen that Rochester
group?” says one professor to an­
other. “There’s a lot o f them. They go
around in a pack, like Mafiosi. They
give really good papers, and they ask
the damnedest questions!”
Not only do Rochester students tend
to ask diabolical questions—but, more
and more in recent years, faculty are
encouraging them to do so in formal­
ized, for-credit research projects. While
undergraduate research at Rochester
has probably existed, in some form or
other, since Chester Dewey first took
students trudging through Genesee
country in search o f sedge grasses —
still, it’s safe to say that undergradu­
ates today are engaged in original re­
search to a greater degree than ever
before in the University’s history.
Of some 4,500 undergraduates in the
College o f Arts and Science, the Col­
lege o f Engineering and Applied Sci­
ence, and the School o f Nursing, more
than 500 were involved over the past
academic year in independent study or
senior research projects. (That’s not
counting the 300 others doing intern­
ships or supervised teaching for their
courses, work which can be broadly
defined as independent study.)
Leon Bramson —program officer in
charge o f the Younger Scholars pro­
gram for the National Endowment for
the Humanities in Washington, D.C. —
says that the University has an “out­
standing record” o f applicants who
win NEH Younger Scholar Awards.
“In this area,” he notes, “Rochester

ranks among the top half-dozen
schools in the whole United States.”
Bramson sees an upsurge in under­
graduate research across the country.
“On the campuses o f the larger institu­
tions—where it’s harder to spread the
word through the grapevine—they’re
formalizing it, they’re institutionalizing
it,” he says. Many colleges and univer­
sities now have a director o f under­
graduate research, whereas a decade
ago such positions didn’t exist.
At Rochester, that post is held by
Jarold Ramsey, professor o f English,
who confirms the upsurge in indepen­
dent inquiry among his charges. Ram­
sey has been working to foster it with
projects such as the dissertation-length
“Directory o f Undergraduate Research
Opportunities” he compiled last year.
(It’s also available on the University’s
computerized information system.)
The directory, which Ramsey empha­
sizes is not comprehensive, lists about
a hundred professors who have ex­
pressed willingness to sponsor student
research, along with their specialties
and requirements (in some cases bliss­
fully unrestrictive, as with the anthro­
pologist who notes simply that “com­
puter skills would be nice”). And last
April, Ramsey and colleagues initiated
an afternoon-long Undergraduate Re­
search Colloquium, showcasing the
work o f seven student scholars.
Recent studies have ranged from the
immediately accessible (“Energy Devel­
opment in Africa”) to the postdoc-level
abstruse (“Turning Toward Silence and
the End o f Art: The Production of
Meaning in J. M. Coetzee’s Foe”),
drawing on disciplines extending from
neuroscience to nautical archeology.

17

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Kuzel: 17th-century eulogies

Were They Really/
‘Good Women’ or Just Goody-Goodies?
“Who was the ‘good woman’ of
seventeenth-century England?
really exist or was she a man-made
myth, constructed (or the purpose of .
providing other women with a p ic tu re ^
perfect model to base their lives on?”
“Who were these esteemed Women
really?”
“What roles did they play in society?”
Questions pervade Irene Kuzel’s | | |
writing —urging, prodding, provoking.^
the reader. The words “who,” “what,”
“when,” “where,” “why,” and “how” t
appear often, almost as frequently as ■
the word “love” in Shakespeare’s son­
nets, it seems.
• -<
Kuzel has found her “good women”
in the eulogies of upper-class women
that were published and widely read in
England during the years between 1640
and 1720. A surprisingly popular form
of literature (not only considered in­
structive, they also served as a form of
celebrity biography), most of these
funeral sermons expound lengthily on
their subjects’ saintly virtues and othe^/i
admirable qualities —“almost,” writesgjjj
Kuzel, “without earthly parallel.”
These can’t be real women, s h e ^ ^ ^ ^
remembers thinking as she began her
work. “I came to this project with a
great deal of cynicism, but
ized the extent to which religion gov­
erned their lives and what was at jraem j
for those who chose not to conform.

18

Those who fell away were labeled as
“scolds' or ‘unchaste,’ and any woman
with that label was, at least to some
degree, ostracized.”
Beyond that, she adds, “religion put
meaning into their lives. There was so
much uncertainty and death and disease
during that period—one out of five
women, for example, died in child­
birth.”
In a summary of her work written
for the undergraduate literary magazine
Logos, Kuzel concludes, “We can never
know how far theory diverged from
practice, how closely description fol­
lowed prescription. Yet, given the con­
st taints and contexts of seventeenthcentury women’s lives, it is far more
conceivable that they aspired to such
ideals than we should ever have
thought.”
With a G.P.A. of 3.96 (but who’s
counting?), Kuzel is one of three Senior '
Scholars in the Class of ’93—an honor
that frees her to spend her entire senior.
year immersed in research.
She transferred to Rochester from
Monroe Community College in the
spring of 1991, having spent six years
after high school working at an insur­
ance agency. Now she can’t imagine riot
being “driven to do research.” Says she,
“I was more or less a confused teen, and
this work has made me grow in ways I
never imagined.”
Her research on the “good women”
began during a semester abroad in
Bath, England. Her tutor suggested the
funeral sermons as a potential subject
foi an honois paper, and Kuzel began
scouring primary sources at Oxford
University’s august Bodleian Library.
“It was difficult to get used to the
antique typeface at first, but I can read
it quite quickly now. And I understand
the material in a way that I would not
have imagined, with a certain intuition.
When I look at a problem now—for
example, where would I find out more
about the Duchess of Newcastle—I
know which way to go.” ; ,
~ ,
Her intuition extends beyond know­
ing where to look, to knowing the peo­
ple she’s researching, in a sense. She
remembers passing one of the Bod­
leian’s famous libraries, die Radclifife / /
Camera, one day and “realizing that the- ' ■
people I was studying used to walk the
same streets, that these were actual
people I was reading about hundreds
of years later.”
If, magically, she did meet up with
one of them, it’s certam that she’d have
lots of questions.

Outcomes, as researchers like to say,
have varied from the spectacularly
fruitful —publication in a heavy-duty
professional journal, as when Andy
Grace’s work with zebra finches was
written up last year in the Journal of
Neurobiology’, to the solidly produc­
tive —for example, future sportspsychologist Jeff Daoust’s study on
what happens to athletes after they’ve
withdrawn from competition, presented
last spring at a national student con­
ference; to (occasionally) the mori­
bund —as in the bird that died before
Sara Michelucci’s study on “Human
Speech and Bird Mimicry” was even
under way. (Undaunted, she plans to
take up the project again this fall part­
nered by a research subject with a more
pronounced will to live.) All o f which
provides budding investigators with a
healthy glimpse o f the hazards and
satisfactions of scholarly inquiry.
In any event, student researchers
share a general and genuine enthusi­
asm for their work, a sense that the
turf o f knowledge they’ve freshly
plowed is theirs and theirs alone.
“I’m working on something that’s
completely my own, taking it in direc­
tions no one else ever has before. And
I think anyone who can say that is
very, very fortunate,” declares English
major Irene Kuzel, who studied “Im­
ages of ‘The Good Woman’ in Later
Seventeenth-Century England” as a
Senior Scholar project.
“It may be a completely sappy thing
to say, ” reflects one undergraduate re­
searcher whose work has taken him in­
tellectually to unexpected places, “but
there’s only one way these ideas come
together, and that’s through me. ”
Aviva Sussman, a double major in
geology and photography, is another
such student who has been able to
make disparate ideas come uniquely
together. As a fifth-year, “Take 5” sen­
ior, Sussman spent much o f last fall
synthesizing her two academic special­
ties by analyzing the aesthetic and
documentary values in field photo­
graphs taken by nineteenth-century
geologists. In March, she was one of
the “Rochester Mafiosi” at the National
Conference on Undergraduate Re­
search, presenting a paper on what she
refers to as “the point o f intersection”
between her two disciplines.
Call it independent study, original
research, primary research, whatever—
such projects are far more challenging

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
than your standard term paper, says
director o f undergraduate research
Jarold Ramsey.
“Research is inherently risky. If
someone carries out a pre-packaged
experiment, that isn’t original research.
There’s no uncertainty to it. And you
can’t just pick up a copy of, say, Holinshed’s Chronicles that’s been excerpted
and highly edited. You’ve got to go
back to the source—difficult as that
task may be.”
Last spring —nearing completion of
her honors project on the banking sys­
tem and portfolio management, a
study she’s been working on with her
advisor, Stanley Engerman, the distin­
guished John Munro Professor o f Eco­
nomics —senior Kelly Shambaugh was
all too aware o f the uncertainty in­
volved.
“What if I’m wrong? What if I infer
something that’s not there? I’m just an

“I’m working on some­
thing thaft completely
my own, taking it in
directions that no one
else ever has before.
And anyone who can
say that is very, very
fortunate.”
undergraduate,” confessed the eco­
nomics major whose G.P.A. hovers
around 3.8.
Says Ramsey, “Our undergraduates
who are involved in this kind o f re­
search are doing something that’s more
extensive, more based on primary
sources, more ambitious, more inde­
pendent than anything they’d find in a
regular course. They are being held to
very high standards.”
Thomas Hahn, professor o f English
and advisor to Irene Kuzel, says he
originally felt “some skepticism” about
how well an undertaking such as
Kuzel’s would serve a college senior.
“My worry was that this was peril­
ously close to writing a doctoral dis­
sertation—or to parodying the experi-

How Come Ha Sings and She Doesn’t?
There it is on page 671 o f the Journal
o f Neurobiology, Volume 23, No. 6:
i “Sex-Dependent Loss o f Projection
Neurons Involved in Avian Song Learn­
ing.” Authors: E, J. Nordeen, A. Grace,
M. J. Burek, and K. W. Nordeen.
All normal enough in the academic
world. Except for one thing: Co-author
A. Grace, who carried out the study,
had not yet graduated from college
when the paper was published last year.
While it is not at all unusual to find
scores of research projects by Rochester
undergraduates that are as thoughtprovoking as Andrew Grace’s, it is un­
usual for such a paper to appear in a
top academic journal, right along with
the work of professors, grad students,
and other hard-core scientific investiga­
tors.
The key to Andy Grace’s work is the
zebra finch, a bird commonly seen in
pet stores, the males readily recogniz­
able by iheir chesiiuii check patches and
[he zebra ¡striping on ilicir chests. In this
species, males arc differentiated f r o m |^
males by another characteristic: It is only
the males that sing, a sex difference tlg l||
has been explained by reference to cells
known as projection neurons, whose
presence in ceitain areas of Lhe finch
brain governs its ability to sing. One

Grace: Sex and songmakers

W mm

“The project made me think about
Lhe subject harder, and bet
granted. And in class, you’re kind of ex­
pected lo take things at face v a lu ^ ^ ® ^
questioning things. It really r e lin ^ p j^ ^
Lhinking, and in a very theoretical and
precise manner."

lure, both sexes begin to lose t h e i ^ ^ ^ S
eial cells —but the male retains his musi­ Grace something else, that a career in
cal potential because he sheds fewer iP |§ the lab was not for him. “I
them than the female.
Grace’s experiment, as it was hoped,
enough for me. The word ‘withdrawn
confirmed the existence of sex differenti­ comes to mind. And 1 need more than
ation in cell loss, but ii also turned up a
that. J think medicine is more s u M i^ f e
hit of a surprise - while the study s h o v e l
that females do indeed lose the song­
with people all the time.”
enabling projection neurons, males, ¿mg
Still, concludes ihis first-year m cdisS j
contrary to previous assumptions, do
not lose any at all. “ It was a good solid
Philadelphia, research is “really the best
piece of work.” says his faculty advis^M way to learn. Sometimes, even in failt^ p
psychologist Ernest Nordeen. “Andy
you learn the way things should work.”
was involved with the project all the way
from the beginning right up to the end,
including preparation of the manu-

pP|f

included summer work funded by a
Kiewiet Research Fellowship and inde­
pendent study in his senior year. And it
taught him a lot, he s a y # |? ^ ^ M S is » ^

19

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

How Cad You Hear a Hurdle?
“My laundry takes fifty-two
—it’ll be done in about three more. Can
you wait?” asks Dexter Hodge
standing next to a dryer in Valentine pm
Hall. “My plane takes off at 6:45 a.r&.ffi
tomorrow morning and I need some
clean clothes.”
*
Hodge is headed for an interview at
North Carolina State, where he’s ap­
plied to the Ph.D. program in electrical
engineering. An E.E. major, he is also a
first-rate hurdler on the intercoUe|i|M@f
track-and-field team (he reports his pe||§
sonal best as “14.80 seconds in 110 meters
in the 400 intermediate hurdles”). And
clearly, he likes to quantify things. S o f l
isn’t surprising that, for a research proj­
ect during his senior year, he created an
electronic device to help hurdlers m e a l
sure their performance. . ; •
The unit looks innocent enough: a
dark-blue plastic box, about four inches
by two inches by one inch, weighing •
eight ounces. But when Hodge straps
it around his waist, turns and puts the
headphones on your ears, and then flips
it on for a demonstration, your auditory
nerve is stimulated, to say the least, by a
steady BEEEEEEEP followed, as he
lakes four running steps, by a wild
WACO WAOO VVAOO WAOO. One can
only speculate what it would sound like
if Edwin Moses took it for a test r u h .ill

ence o f writing on e—when the goal of
the undergraduate experience is a more
generalized understanding of the world
and o f ideas that will equip one for
life after college. ”
In Kuzel’s case, he happily admits,
his worries were unfounded. “She’s
done very well in conducting a general
survey—an anthropological, religious,
historical, and cultural analysis. But
she has in addition produced a re­
search essay that will indeed be an
original scholarly contribution. It’s a
kind o f gravy: Out o f this educational
experience for Irene, others will profit
in their understanding of seventeenthcentury culture and literature. ”
After all, this is a research univer­
sity, says Ramsey. “And research is, in­
creasingly, what the University stands
for in undergraduate education—the
ideal o f investigative study, o f delving
into issues and questions that have to
be addressed immediately and directly
rather than through a textbook and
some professor’s views on the subject.

20

The aim is to give hurdlers “audio | | |
feedback on their vertical position.” so
they can better gauge their technique,
says Hodge. “In the same way a person
remembers a song, the hurdler will
remember what a good performance
sounds like,” he explains. Or, in the § §
written language of electrical engineers,
“ Real-time analog integration2 is real­
ized with Op-Amps designed to roll-ofT
the frequency response at 20 dB/decade
both above and below a given cutoff fre­
quency.”
0
he spotted an article in Physics Today
publicizing a design contest for sports
equipment, sponsored by the U.S. Olym­
pic Committee. "Later on, when 1 was
in the shower,” he recalls, “I thought,
Why not create som ethi^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
bines track and field with electrical e n g l
gineering? Those are two things that I
Hodge: A better track record
He approached Professor M ic lf f l^ i|
Wengler with his idea, pioposingilii l i l l
known as an “accelerometer” as the ba­
sis lor the deuce. While the two worked
out the electronics togethei, the conccj§H
and the execution were Hodge’s alone,
and, incidentally, earned him an honor­
able mention from the Olympic compe-

“Research like this is a reward in it­
self,” he says. “Students learn about
themselves; they test their instincts and

“Research is inherently
risky. If someone carries
out a pre-packaged
experiment, that isn’t
original research.
There’s no uncertainty
to it.”
their writing abilities. Hopefully, those
tests are met positively. And when they
are, there’s a great deal o f satisfaction
involved. ”
And the satisfaction is not the stu­
dent’s alone. Aviva Sussman’s faculty
advisor, Grace Seiberling, adds that
“one o f the things that’s rewarding

What did he learn? Says Wengler, “I
think he found out a loi about electron­
ics, and what it takes to start with an ||J
idea and complete a project. That's a lot
trickier than most people think. Ideas
arc cheap. Actually pulling something
together and testing it —now. that's the
hard part.”

about dealing with these students is
the experience of watching them begin
to integrate their academic goals with
their personal goals —helping them to
see how the different parts of their
lives fit together. That is exciting.”
Sussman, already seeing her own
future fitting together, insists that her
research on the aesthetics o f documen­
tary photos won’t be finished until af­
ter she’s written a book on the subject.
And likely even then, those infernal
questions will continue. In the words
of Senior Scholar Michael Zaccagnino
’93, taken from his newly completed,
eighty-six-page examination of the U.S.
health-care system, “The statistics are
endless, but the questions remain” —
and they, he adds, “are also endless. ”
Denise Bolger Kovnat reported on diversity
on the campus in the Spring-Summer issue
o f the Review.

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Lending a Hand to
Hands-on Research
While undergraduate research at Roch­
ester is, by definition, free-spirited, it is
definitely not free-wheeling. Among the
growing number of programs and awards
that support student researchers on the
River Campus:
Senior Scholars

This program allows selected undergrad­
uates to devote their entire senior year to a
creative project—whether it’s scholarly re­
search, a scientific experiment, or a work
of art or literature. “The aim is to acknowl­
edge the role of creativity, independence,
and unusual skill in a liberal education,”
says Richard Aslin, dean of the College
of Arts and Science.
Barth-Crapsey Research Awards

Each semester, this endowment—the
University’s first ever in support of under­
graduate research—provides for students
to receive up to $1,000 each in support of
their independent research projects. The
money goes toward books and documents,
research-related travel, and other expenses.
Hetty Jean Barth Crapsey ’41 and her hus­
band, Arthur Crapsey, established the en­
dowment two years ago in honor of Mrs.
Crapsey’s fiftieth reunion.
National Endowment for the Humanities Younger
Scholars Awards

Rochester ranks among the top halfdozen schools nationwide in the number
of students who have won these coveted
summer-research fellowships. The award
carries a stipend of $2,400 supporting each
student’s independent, noncredit research
and writing project, which is supervised by
a faculty advisor.
At the Frederick Douglass Institute

Since 1990, students of the Frederick
Douglass Institute of African and AfricanAmerican Studies have traveled overseas to
Trinidad and Nigeria—and to the Library
of Congress and Howard University—seek­
ing answers to their research questions.
Their sojourns are sponsored by the in­
stitute’s Summer Honors Fellowship Pro­
gram, part of an ambitious effort to foster
undergraduate research in African and
African-American studies. To that end, the
institute also publishes an annual research
journal, Undergraduate Perspectives in
African and African-American Studies.
Among the more visible research efforts
sponsored by the institute is the AHEAD
Project (Access to Hydrocarbon Energy for
African Development), exploring the feasi­
bility of small-scale gas supplies in Mozam­
bique.

Is There Art in Them Thar Hills?
Scattered among the topographic
j
maps, notes, and other paraphernali%f§|ti
lhal make up Asiva Su.ssman’s wot king
environment are suitable-for-framing
landscape photos —dramatic, full-color
images of mountains, hills, lakes, and
j
valleys.
§ ltt
They hint at her goal: to be a geolo­
gist and a photographer.
"P hotograph)\ order comes from the
human need to understand the world
through expression of the self. Gcol;
ogy’s order comes from the human need i
to understand the world by deciphering
the earth’s physical mechanisms.” she
writes in hei leseaich papei, “Photogra­
phy and Geology: Aesthetic Value and
Documentary Irnportance. ”
Sussman is a geology/studio art ma­
jor who as a fifth-year, “Take 5” student :
spent much of last fall studying the aes- I
thetic value of ninetecn
logical photographs - images normally
Sussman: Personalizing reality
viewed as bas ing only documentary
l
value. She saw the photos dtfleientlv.
partmeni of Art and Ail History whose
as works of art.
specialty is early British photography.
She talks about one of her favorites:
an 1891 photograph by geologist G. K.
nccting two fields that were severed by
Gilbert, a grab-you-by-the-collar view of modern science:
|g f
dozens of sculptured cones —known |||J §
"The earls photographers were natu­
whimsically as "hoodoos” —rising out
. ral scientists, men and women of letters
of the face of Red Mountain in Arizona. who didn’t see a division between sei‘This is Gilbert’s personalization of
ence and art. They were educated ama­
the space, similar to what the photogra­
teurs. Now, professionalization has taken
pher Edward Weston has done in cer­
us away from the understanding that we
tain of his works.” she says, echoing the
are studying the world in many ways —
words used for her slide presentation.
i science in one way, art in another. 1
“Each cone has a full range from black
think that Aviva is trying to make that
to while, so that the unique qualities of
connection again.”
photography are realized. And you
Others, too, have reacted favorably j v
know the scale as well, with the figuic
to her work—as shown at the National
of the man on the left of the image.”
Conference on Undergraduate Research
Gilbert, she concludes,
last March at the University of Utah in
mense space and made it his own, so
Salt Lake City. When Sussman finished
lhal the geologic feature takes on a sur­
her talk (still wearing her old jeans, she
real quality.”
?
A work b> Edward Weston, in con­
because her plane had been late), the
trast. is a "beautiful, completely
audience of half a hundred students
stract image of sand dunes. The viewer
and professors surrounded her, asking
has no idea of the scale. The point is
questions, responding enthusiastically
that Weston, who was such a gifted
photographer, used the image to con­
Seiberling says that Sussman phoned
centrate on tones and on the difference
her that night “and she was thrilled. 1
between light and dark. The photo­
thought. This is what undergraduate re­
graph became his own personal reality.”
search should be. Ideally, there is some
sort of interchange, so that sour work
Grace Seiberling, a professor in the D § ||p is richer and their work is richer by the

21

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

PROFESSOR

l\l63to—Cool

By Tom Rickey

This fourth-generation
Texan may have
garnered a bunch o f
serious, high-powered
professional accolades,
but taking chemistry
from him, his students
say, is— well— fun.
A gang o f hurrying freshmen
bounds down the stairs in Wilson
Commons and glances over toward
The Clock, toward the spot where
an agitated knot o f people is already
collecting.
“Is he here yet?”
“Can’t see—is that him?”
“Hey, it’s too crowded. Let’s come
back later. ”
“Nah, let’s try to get to him before it
gets any worse.”
Sting? Peter Jennings? Spike Lee?
Nope. It’s George McLendon, the
“Wow-Neato-Cool” professor (he has
the plaque to prove it), coolly unravel­
ing in his soft Texas twang the secrets
o f half life, diffusion rates, and other
complexities o f Chem 104.

It’s finals week, and McLendon is
operating his annual three-day, pre­
exam “chemistry crisis center. ” With
a characteristic urge toward maximum
accessibility, he has plunked it right in­
to the middle o f student territory—the
Commons.
Okay, so it’s hot and sunny out on
the Quad, already filling up with young
bodies whose owners seem to be test­
ing the theory that sunshine activates
some form o f intellectual photosynthe­
sis. But inside, where the sunlight filters
through the Commons glass atrium,
McLendon’s freshmen are onto a more
direct means o f chemical interaction.
As more students gather, the “crisis
center” corner is beginning to resemble
a crowded New York deli, the kind
where customers pick numbers for a
turn. Backpacks are scattered about
the floor; periodic tables cover the
round yellow dining tables. Students
crowd around the prof; some stand on
chairs to get a better view. Some pep­
per him with questions; some just lis­
ten hard, taking it all in.
“Where do all these electrons go?”
“Where did you get that equilibrium
constant?”
“Can you just use that number as
your T Vi?”
“You’re not going to ask us to do
that, are you?”
McLendon, unruffled, runs through
it all. Answers the questions. Untan­
gles the problems. Reminds them that
“there is no magic formula. If you’ll
just look at the data. . . . ”

What we have here, it would seem,
is a guy who is dedicated to taking the
fear out o f chemistry.
In a field that to a lot o f people is
by definition intimidating, Professor
McLendon softens up the material
with lectures blithely labeled with titles
like “Designer Genes,” “Yeast as Pets,”
and “Birds Do It, Bees Do It: The
Chemistry o f Biological Redox Re­
actions.” He compares the structure
o f proteins to the structure o f cartooncharacter Marge Simpson’s hairdo
(“both a mess”), and is known among
colleagues around the country as much
for his racy jokes and ribald pranks as
for his (admittedly brilliant) chemistry.
This professor, students say, is way
awesome and way cool.
Maybe even way out.
What else can you say about some­
one who had his Ph.D. at age 23, a full
professorship at 32, and that ultimate
of professorial credentials, an endowed
chair (the Tracy Hyde Harris Profes­
sorship) at 39? About someone who
can lay claim to a heap o f prestigious
honors, but whose favorite is the
“Wow-Neato-Cool” Award o f the
Rochester Undergraduate Chemistry
Society, an accolade invented to recog­
nize his unique teaching style? (And,
not to come off as overly sycophantic,
about someone whose handwriting has
been declared legally impenetrable and
whose disorganized approach to paper­
work has been decried by all who know
him?)

23

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Proof that not every professor hides behind closed office doors: McLendon, a believer in maximum
accessibility, holds his pre-exam “Chemistry Crisis Center” right in the middle of student territory,
on the main floor of Wilson Commons.

Well, one thing you can say is that
his students certainly turn on to that
teaching style. Among undergraduate
comments submitted in evaluation of
Chem 104 last spring:
“I did not think it was possible for
an instructor to be so intelligent and
witty at the same time.”
“This is what all the courses here
at the U of R should be like! All my
teachers should be this good.”
“I used to hate chemistry, but this
course has changed my opinion. Now
I understand it and sometimes even
enjoy it.”
Words from the heart, you can tell.
Lynn Richard, who this year earned
her Ph.D. in a collaborative project
with McLendon, puts it another way:
“He has a very easy way with people.
He doesn’t treat students like,
well, students. He’s not ‘Professor
McLendon’ to them —and he speaks
their own language. ”
Good teaching, one suspects, comes
naturally to this fourth-generation
Texan, whose down-to-earth manner

24

and unbuttoned wit seem to provide
the right mix to ease students through
a tough science program at a seriousminded research university.
Ask his colleagues about him
and you get responses like, “George’s
enthusiasm about science can’t be
contained. You can’t keep him from
teaching people.” This from Jack
Kampmeier, who was head o f the
chemistry department when he hired
McLendon back in 1976. (One factor
in the decision: At a particularly crack­
ling moment during the professorial
candidate’s first guest lecture, his stu­
dent audience spontaneously com­
busted into applause. Now how often
does that happen?)
“I call him fearless George —George
the intrepid,” says Kampmeier. “No
barrier can stand between him and a
new experiment.”
Or between him and an electrifying
laboratory demonstration, guaranteed
to add life to the most soporific mate­
rial. Stories about those demonstra­
tions abound:
There was the time in a freshman
chemistry class when he (unintention­

ally, one assumes) added to the drama
by setting his notes on fire, spectacu­
larly melting his view graphs and
burning a hole through a desk. “It was
an easy way to talk about energy and
oxidation reduction reactions —and
how to burn your class notes,” he
allows.
Then there was the time he was
demonstrating the effect o f different
ratios o f elements, and a mixture of
hydrogen and oxygen flared up his arm
and singed his hair. Recalls the profes­
sor about that one: “There’s a wellknown theory that the impact o f a
demonstration is proportional to the
chance that the demonstrator may die
in the process.” A pause. “That one
was very effective.”
Says graduate student Mitchell
Mutz: “The best thing about that
demo was the reaction o f his students.
One o f them said, ‘Do it again; that
was great. ’ With George, the more
dangerous the demonstration, the
better.”
In fact, McLendon says now, the
lure o f danger and challenge is what
first led him to a life in the chemistry

well-known theory that the
impact of a demonstration is
proportional to the chance
that the demonstrator may
die in the process.”
lab. Up until the end o f his sophomore
year at the University o f Texas at El
Paso, he was all set as a political science/economics major. It was a vol­
ume he idly picked up in the library,
Isaac Asimov’s Asimov on Chemistry,
that inspired the conversion.
“It had stories about several chem­
ists who died while trying to make var­
ious compounds,” he recalls. “The
field sounded challenging.” Adds
McLendon, trying to look serious, “I
knew o f no one who had ever died try­
ing to make a theory o f political eco­
nomics.”

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
Dropping the banter for the mo­
ment, he admits that the book ad­
dressed a deep desire within him.
“Asimov stressed the wonder o f
discovery—that chemists are people
who find things that are truly new—
and that it is very difficult and very
challenging. This book convinced me
that the chance o f finding something
nobody had ever seen before was a real
possibility. ”
McLendon—the facile learner who
had had only a few weeks o f an infor­
mal chemistry course back in high
school —spent a weekend with a basic
chemistry text, made only one mistake
on the freshman exam (“Well, it was a
very good book”), and, given credit
for the course, got permission to be­
come a late-entry chem major.
After graduating from college simul­
taneously with his twentieth birthday,
the budding chemist zipped, in just
two-and-a-half years, through gradu­
ate school at Texas A&M University.
(He is remembered vividly by his ad­
visor, Keith Panned, for his enlarged
micrographs o f bacteria in the act of
reproducing, to which he added racy
captions and pinned them up around
the lab for the enlightenment o f his
colleagues.)
Freshly minted Ph.D. in hand, he re­
ceived and accepted Kampmeier’s invi­
tation to join the Rochester faculty,
where he has since been indulging his
passion for basic research (“fun, neat,
and exciting”).
“I get incredible emotional satisfac­
tion from uncovering something that’s
truly new,” he says, going back to the
theme o f discovery. “It’s sort o f like
being an explorer on uncharted seas.
Maybe you can observe a chemical
reaction in real time that no one has
ever viewed before, or you get to see a
relationship that no one has ever rec­
ognized before. ”
Kampmeier notes that McLendon
today is involved in research ranging
from his home base o f inorganic
chemistry to genetic engineering, bio­
chemistry, and semiconductors.
“George is really brilliant,” adds
an admiring David G. Whitten, C. E.
Kenneth Mees Professor o f Chemistry.
“He is an outstanding and innovative
chemist who comes up with great ideas
and is willing to go into new areas.”

At its most basic level, McLendon’s
research has to do with the exchange
o f electrons between molecules —an

I■ get incredible
emotional satisfaction from
uncovering something that’s
truly new. \Y$ sort of like
being an explorer on
uncharted seas.”
exchange that is key to life’s most fun­
damental processes. A cascade of elec­
tric energy produced by electrons mov­
ing from one molecule to another is
what green plants use in photosynthe­
sis to turn sunlight into the chemical
energy they need to survive. Electron
transfer underlies the way photographs
are formed, how solar batteries store
energy, even how the photocopy ma­
chine spits out your copies.
It’s hard to get people to understand
just how basic such chemical processes
are, McLendon says, digressing to
mount a favorite hobby horse. “Society
is becoming ‘chemophobic.’ People are
really scared o f chemicals. We worry
about the chemicals in our food. Well,
food itself is a chemical. Sugar is a
chemical. Everything is a chemical.
When you’re sick, the physician may
prescribe medicine. And what are
medicines? They’re drugs invented and
designed by chemists. Too often, we
just don’t make that intrinsic chemical
connection.”
For his fellow scientists, McLendon’s
major contribution to understanding
chemicals is the discovery of long­
distance electron transfer, a phenom­
enon in which there’s an exchange of
electrons between non-adjoining pro­
tein molecules —molecules that are, so
to speak, beyond nudging distance of
each other. Until recently, investigators
believed that two molecules had to be
actually touching before they could re­
act with one another. He has shown
that the interaction can take place over
(relatively, to proteins) long distances.
This work has forced scientists to re­
think their ideas about how proteins
recognize and bind to one another.

“George is known as the person who
pioneered the study of protein-protein
electron transfer reactions,” says Pro­
fessor Harry Gray, Beckmann Profes­
sor at the California Institute of Tech­
nology. “People knew it was a very
important area, but George is the one
who introduced new ways to study it.”
McLendon, characteristically, comes
back with one of his jokey put-downs.
“The field was ripe. A theory was in
place, and experiments were feasible
because o f technical advances. Plus,”
he adds, beginning to smile, “there
were a bunch o f people in the field
who told good jokes. That makes for
popular symposia on the subject.”
This Rochester researcher has re­
ceived a string o f awards for his con­
tributions to such popular symposia.
The American Chemical Society has
given him two of its top honors: the
Eli Lilly Award (whose first winner in
1931 was the future double Nobelist
Linus Pauling) and the Award in Pure
Chemistry—both of them recognizing
outstanding work by young chemists.
(He is only the second such to have
garnered both awards.) In his relatively
short career, the 41-year-old chemist
has also won a Sloan Research Fellow­
ship, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus

RI Research is
to teaching as sin is to
confession: The more
experience you have with
the first, the more interest­
ing the second becomes.”
Teacher-Scholar Award, a Guggenheim
Fellowship, a University Bridging Fel­
lowship —and of course the cherished
undergraduate Wow-Neato-Cool
Award.
McLendon says it was the oppor­
tunity to combine advanced research
with undergraduate teaching that
brought him to Rochester in the first
place. To him the two activities are in­
separable, and he expresses some sur­
prise when it is suggested that teaching

25

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Understanding How Nature Does It
As a scientist, George McLendon has
taken on a tall order.
McLendon, Rochester’s Tracy Hyde
Harris Professor of Chemistry, is trying
to understand the process re s p o n ^ ^ ^ ffi
either directly or indirectly, for
life on E arth—the swapping of electro®®
between molecules.
This interchange underlies photosyn- . |
thesis, the chemical process en a b m B B S
our world to convert the sun’s rays into
energy and food for all the living orga- '
nisms that populate it: No e le c tr< » ^ S p
transfer, no photosynthesis; no p ^ ^ ^ S
synthesis, no life.
In the biological realm, McLerËm lK fi
work focuses on proteins, the or s m i l S
molecules that make up much o f« ^ B|É
mass of all life forms. The shapes they
take, he explains, control everything - •
from passing the genetic code from
generation to generation, to m oviwÊÈËmi
“docking sites” for h o rm o n e w ® ^ ^ ^ S
and other chemicals. The tiniest changé
in shape is enough to turn a “good”
protein bad and cause cancers or other
diseases. Electron transfer is the
way in which proteins change th^ ^ ^ ^ P
shapes and thereby their functions.
“Proteins are the only way nature has
of getting energy to move around inside
a living system,” he says. “Indeed, the
way proteins fold gives us our human '
shape by determining how everything
works in the body, including how we
grow.
.I
“We tend to think of structure as
wholly static—we might picture a b ri( ||j|
when we think of structure. But in most
bio-molecules, that’s just not the way it
works. We’re talking here about highly
dynamic molecules that alter th e jy w P |||
shapes continuously. Even the slightest
change turns out to be very, very impor­
tant.” „ ' '■
In one of his lines of research, ; ‘ g ia
McLendon, together with colleague •. Fred Sherman, Wilson Professor of
Biochemistry, and several students, is =
studying cytochrome c, an indispensable
protein found in all living organisms.
Cytochrome c resides in the mitochon­
dria, or “power packs,” of all cells and
acts much like a biological battery that

might detract from research time, or
vice versa.
“You learn by teaching,” he insists.
“Teaching something at a very basic
level forces you to clarify what the hell
you’re talking about. It puzzles me

26

keeps our cells ticking. By changing just
one tiny amino acid in ihe prolein, the
Rochester team has genetically engi­
neered a new version of the protein that
holds together and keeps its shape un­
der higher temperatures than the natui * .■*
. ral p r o t e i n : . _> ‘ ; .
“Work of this type points towarefahr* I f
era when scientists may be able to pre­
dict and precisely design proteins with
specific properties,” says McLendon.
Chemists could then, for instance, de- ■
sign proteins that could deliver drugs in ■
■
more precise concentrations and with
fewer side effects, and industrial com■panties mighi be able to design products
more cheaply and with less haim to the ■
;,eiMrphmentr “
• g '*-S | j | p ¡-HI
Electron! transfer* McLendon tells 1! ; > Vyou, is vital to many natural as well as
artificial processes. In a project at the
Naiional Science 1oundationS C entei
for Photo-Induced Charge Transfer at
the University, he is working closely
with scientists from Eastman Kodak!
and Xerox lo ti\ to understand and
control a process known a s charge sepa­
ration, where negative charge is stored
in one location and positive charge in
another.. | ' v
1
Charge separation allows scientists to V
store one type of energy (such as light)
and to convert it to another type of
energy (such as chemical or electrical) ■
which can then be used for a variety of ■
purposes. The process underlies 'such *1
technologies as photography, photo­
I
copying, xerography, solar energy con­
version, even photosynthesis.
Charge separation happens naturally
in photosynthesis, where molecules' •
are arranged so that electrons flow in
^ g ^ d n .T W e ^ e a ^ s .h f l)” * I
a cascade of charge in the laboratory,
McLendon’s team is trying to position
billions and billions of molecules very
precisely on a substrate measuring in
total just one square inch.
\ ‘rfhis^moleculax ^chiiecture’.would
mm
give chemists a level of control they
■
have ne\er hud in the past,” Says
■
l
McLendon, who likens the new mate­ ■
■■
rials to “fancy electrochemical sand­
mm
wiches.” '
. * : ! , . 8 3 1• ; S eb

that research and teaching should be
seen as opposites. ” A grin begins to
unfold —a sign that one o f those
quotable quotes is coming. “Research
is to teaching as sin is to confession:
The more experience you have with the

first, the more interesting the second
becomes. ”
Adds Kampmeier: “Sure, George’s
research produces new knowledge —
but it also produces new researchers.
Students are an important part o f re­
search activity here. George is not just
doing research himself, he’s showing
others, from undergraduates all the
way to postdocs, how to do research,
too. ”
McLendon may be the guiding force,
but he is quick to credit students and
postdocs for what his lab has pro­
duced. That laboratory currently in­
cludes seven graduate students, two
undergraduates and four postdocs,
supported by five separate grants (he
has enjoyed steady funding, from at
least two concurrent sources, since
1977).
“Advanced students have to learn
to develop independence,” he says.
“When they’re at that level, I just
cheerlead and say things like, ‘I wish
Fd thought of that.’ I’m someone for
them to bounce ideas off. I also help
make resources available —running a
lab is really a lot like being a repair­
man for fancy TVs.”
On the undergraduate level, he has a
reputation as a very fair professor who
goes out o f his way to get the job done.
This includes holding very visible of­
fice hours over in Wilson Commons,
running his “chemistry crisis center”
before freshman finals, even adopting
a new grading scheme that gives stu­
dents the flexibility to learn material
at their own pace.
It all takes time, and the indefatiga­
ble prof usually finds himself working
sixty-hour weeks taken up with teach­
ing, research, and committee work,
not to mention family life with his
wife, Donna, a biochemist, and their
two young daughters.
He gets through it all, grad student
Mitchell Mutz is convinced, by virtue
of having a parallel processor in his
brain. (Others have noted that at times
he can seem inattentive, almost to the
point o f rudeness, until you discover
that he hasn’t missed a word while
attending to about six other mental
tasks.)
At bottom, “George is always
there,” says Mutz. “You have constant
contact. He never sends you away. And
you don’t have to go through a senior
postdoc to get to talk to him.”

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
Adds former graduate student Katy
Johansson ’88, ’92G, now a research
scientist at Eastman Kodak: “He lets
you make your own mistakes. He gives
you enough rope to hang yourself—
but he’s always there to save you at the
end. ”
Johansson started out as an under­
graduate working in McLendon’s lab,

thing serious going on. Besides trying
to turn out scientifically literate citi­
zens, he aims, he says, to impart no
less than a new outlook on life:
“Thinking about the world in a
scientific way, and particularly in a
molecular way, is an extremely power­
ful and beautiful way o f seeing things.
“In the same way that a good phi­
losophy course gives a new perspective
on the world, I try to give some appre­
P «B —

ciation for the incredible molecular ar­
chitecture that makes it up. It’s always
nice to see things from a different per­
spective” —or, as Johansson puts it,
“with a sense o f amazement about it
all.”
Senior science writer fo r the Office o f Uni­
versity Public Relations, Tom Rickey last
wrote about quarks and leptons fo r the
Review.

I

the structure of proteins
to the structure of Marge
Simpson’s hairdo (“both
a mess” ) and is known
among colleagues around
the country as much for
his ribald pranks as for his
(admittedly brilliant)
chemistry.
one o f more than thirty undergrads
McLendon has successively kept busy
for a semester or more as research as­
sistants. Part o f that job, she says, was
to assist in “conveying the excitement
o f chemistry” to visiting classes o f
elementary and high school students
(McLendon believes in grabbing them
early).
One time —
t in the spirit of conveying
the excitement —McLendon and his
undergraduate partners decided to
make some harmless contact explosives
that would blow up with a pop upon
impact. But, as Johansson tells it, it
was excitement that just wouldn’t quit.
When they left their compound to dry
in the lab, it developed that every time
you slammed a door some o f it would
explode and splatter itself across the
room. For the next two weeks the
specks decorating the floor would pop
every time you walked through.
“George thinks it’s a big lark to go
and do things like that. He still has
that sense o f childlike wonder about
chemistry and has retained a sense o f
amazement about it all.”
But don’t be fooled. McLendon isn’t
out just to put on a good show. Under­
neath the pyrotechnics there’s some­

“ My editor wanted me to get you in your lab looking relaxed and normal,” the photographer told
the professor. “Okay,” replied the professor, “how about this?” (McLendon’s co-conspirators
here, clockwise from the top, are graduate student Julie Rehm, undergraduates Jane Gaudioso
and Dee Horn, and grad students Mitchell Mutz and Suong Tran.)

27

It depends on how you check its vital signs.
Rochester faculty offer a variety o f verdicts.
By Kathy Quinn Thomas

28

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
ow many o f the Ten
Commandments can
you name?” the writer
asked the spouse one
Sunday morning, after
too many cups o f coffee.
“Let’s see—there’s Stealing, Bearing
False Witness, Coveting Wives,” he an­
swered, counting on his fingers.
“False Gods, don’t forget having
False Gods,” the writer added. “How
many is that —four? Not enough. Oh
wait, God’s Name in Vain, that’s five.”
Silence ensued. The writer looked at
the spouse, the spouse looked back at
the writer. “Five more, we need five
more,” the writer said, her mouth a
tense line, shocked at the difficulty of
remembering the ten laws.
“I have something to do in the
basement, ” the spouse grumbled,
remembering other such compulsive
conversations. “Let me know when
you’re done. ”
Half an hour later, stumped, the
writer looked up Moses and his stone
tablets in a Bible. “But how could we
have forgotten?” the writer asked.
“What would Moses say about us?”
According to some sociological
pundits, the couple’s moral amnesia,
along with scads o f other markers,
says plenty. American society is de­
caying, the observers say, rotting on
a compost heap o f discarded family
values, organized religion, and respect
for hard work.
William J. Bennett, the former sec­
retary o f education and onetime drug
czar, says the latest data point to a
sociological decline in morals. Writes
Bennett in his recently released Index
o f Leading Cultural Indicators, “The
social regression o f the last thirty years
is due in large part to the enfeebled
state o f our social institutions.” Vio­
lent crime, the Index reports, has risen
560 percent. Divorce rates have quad­
rupled. Illegitimate births are up 400
percent, teen suicides by 200 percent.
There seems evidence enough that
American society is hurtling head first
down a moral slide. We’re blasted daily
with news about crimes that would
have grayed our great-grandparents
hair: clean-cut young men from a
“solid” California neighborhood
molesting young women in an ongoing
testosterone contest; corporations hid­
ing chemical spills that poison resi­
dential neighborhoods; elected officials
caught with their hands in various
financial cookie jars.

H

But would Great-Grandpa really
have been so shocked?
“Every generation has a sense of its
own moral decline,” says Rochester’s
Robert Holmes, professor o f philoso­
phy and author o f a newly published
textbook on basic ethics. Ever since
Washington’s Farewell Address, he
points out, Americans have been will­
ing to believe their country has been
going to hell in a handbasket.
Holmes sits in his small office in
Dewey Hall, the spring morning sun
streaming in through windows still
waiting a seasonal cleaning. In his
brown herringbone jacket and softly

Holmes: “Part of being
ethical is thinking things
through for yourself.
The Sunday morning
pieties don’t always
trickle down to Monday
morning at the office.’’
worn cords, cocooned in a surround of
books and papers, he looks the part of
the reflective scholar. He has a habit of
quietly stopping and looking away be­
fore answering a question —lending
weight to his careful answers.
“It’s probably true that certain kinds
of sociological changes have worsened
problems over the generations, ” he

says. “Overpopulation, an increase in
broken homes, deterioration in our in­
ner cities. All o f these things generate
problems o f a very different scale from
what we’ve seen before. If these are a
measure, then one can make a case for
moral decline.”
However, he adds: “Just talking
about ethical questions is to begin to
be ethical. Over the last ten or fifteen
years there has been a growing interest
in discussing concrete moral issues. A
serious interest in the study o f ethics is
alive. ”
thics, he points out, goes
far beyond reciting the Ten
Commandments. (Whew,
the writer thought.) Reli­
gious rules may help people
maintain some order and coherence in
their lives, but that doesn’t absolve them
from personally reflecting on the pur­
pose o f humanity and their role in it.
“Part o f being ethical is thinking
things through for yourself, ” Holmes
says. “The Sunday morning pieties
don’t always trickle down to Monday
morning at the office. ”
Fellow philosopher Jeffrey Spike
notes that workplace ethics themselves
have changed over the last five decades
—and by no means all for the bad. A
medical ethicist with a Ph.D. in philos­
ophy, Spike is an assistant professor in
the University Medical Center’s Divi­
sion o f Medical Humanities. His job is
to lend a humanities perspective to the
deliberations over medicine and ethics
that crop up daily at a busy hospitalcum-medical school and research insti­
tution.
In the 1950s, Spike reminds us, it
was considered all part o f a nurse’s job
to tolerate “a little friendly fanny pinch­
ing” by “playful” doctors. Now, of
course, this type of behavior is held to
be sexual harassment and intolerable
in the workplace —and national televi­
sion (witness the Hill-Thomas hear­
ings) has brought it vehemently into
the open.
“We’re having the most lively ethics
discussions right now since ancient
Greece,” Spike says. “It’s a hot topic.
People might think we have no values,
but it seems that every day there’s an­
other newspaper article about ethics
committees investigating everything

E

29

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
from the financial dealings o f Michael
Milken to the shenanigans o f our illus­
trious lawmakers. If Nixon were presi­
dent now, an ethics committee would
have been investigating him from the
day o f his Inauguration.”
thics in medicine —al­
though a pioneer in the
field o f workplace ethics —
is a relatively new but fast
burgeoning issue. “It’s a
widely stated belief that many o f the
problems in medical ethics are the re­
sult of dealing with technology that
simply did not exist before,” Spike
says.
He is a member o f a panel, the Ethics
Consultation Service, that addresses
moral dilemmas for the hospital’s phy­
sicians, patients, family members, and
chaplains. Along with fellow panel
members Jane Greenlaw, who is a law­
yer and a nurse, and David Goldblatt,
a physician and a professor o f neurol­
ogy (“Medical ethics is an interdisci­
plinary study,” Spike says), the panel
deals with the tough calls: whether to
withdraw life-support systems from the
irreversibly brain-damaged accident
victim, when to cease aggressive resus­
citation with the frail heart patient,
whether to allow the elderly asthmatic
to return to her own apartment or send
her away to a nursing home.
What keeps medical ethicists on
their toes is that every case is different;
there are no classic, “textbook” cases,
Spike says. “Different patients, differ­
ent families, different doctors. Iranians,
Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roman
Catholics. People with different back­
grounds bring different beliefs and
values to each ethical question. Find­
ing the answer even to the most com­
mon o f them is a different process
every time someone poses it.”
Spike points out that hospitals do
not make the types o f life-and-death
decisions —physician-assisted suicide
for example —that many doctors are
wrestling with on their own. “That is
sort of an ethical-boundary decision
and is not something that is sanc­
tioned by the hospital,” he says.
Dr. Timothy Quill ’76GM, ’79R is
just such a doctor who is pushing at
the boundaries o f medical ethics. A
Medical Center faculty member, Quill
made national news when The New
England Journal o f Medicine pub­
lished his story o f Diane, an acutely ill

E

Smith: “ Hundreds of
millions of business
transactions take place
daily, and the majority
are scrupulously ethical.
While the horror stories
of the 1980s are trendy,
they are not a picture of
a typical business trans­
action. In business,
ethics is profitable.”

leukemia patient who elected to com­
mit suicide and asked Quill, her doc­
tor, for his help. After extensive coun­
seling with Diane and members o f her
family, Quill prescribed the barbitu­
rates that she subsequently used to end
her life. In an attempt to bring discus­
sion on such matters into the open,
Quill wrote an account o f Diane’s case
and submitted it to the prestigious
journal, which published it in March
of 1991.
Allowing each individual to die with
personal dignity is not easy in our so­
ciety, Quill says. Adding to the mix of
personal values that each patient brings
to bear on the issue, he says, “there are
some complex questions to work out.
How do we legally allow terminally ill
patients to have options? How do we
care for and comfort the dying?
“I wrote the story about Diane to
challenge people to think about the is­
sue o f dying. Many doctors will admit
—in private—to having had experi­
ences similar to mine with Diane.
Open discussion about this issue
should be coming from the medical
profession and from medical ethicists.
Instead it is being driven by the pa­
tients themselves who are demanding
what they need.”
Quill and others like him have been
bringing all kinds o f ethical questions
into the legal arena. “We haven’t al­
ways been given the luxury o f having
ethics as part o f the public dialogue,”
says Jane Greenlaw, the lawyer and
nurse who works with Spike in teach­
ing ethics at the Medical Center.
“There are obvious overlaps and
conflicts between the law and ethics,”
Greenlaw says. And a major conflict
arises because we have become an ag­
gressively litigious society.
“Law has become much too impor­
tant to people. We tend to think only
in terms o f legal rights —I blame law­
yers for that, for not doing enough
explaining about the function o f law.
Law is spelled out by consensus in
society: It is a minimum standard o f
conduct. But ethics is not a result of
consensus, not something discerned by
taking a poll. Ethics is the ideal; law is
the minimum.”
The legal system has begun to offer
an ethical alternative —mediation
services—which can provide lawyers
and counselors to help people solve

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
disputes before they resort to the court
system. “Mediation services are a good
trend. We’re seeing the light and find­
ing ways to move away from litigation
and toward critical thinking,” she says.
The unwritten laws o f economics
drive business ethics, says Clifford W.
Smith, Jr. But not, the Simon School
economist is quick to point out, exclu­
sively: As in other fields, business peo­
ple base much o f their actions on a set
o f moral and philosophical beliefs they
have learned from family and commu­
nity.
“Hundreds o f millions o f business
transactions take place daily, and the
majority are scrupulously ethical,”
says Smith, who is Simon’s Clarey Pro­
fessor o f Finance. “While the horror
stories o f the 1980s are trendy, they are
not a picture o f a typical business trans­
action. In business, ethics is profitable. ”
Smith explains that there are private
incentives to doing ethical business —
hard-headed considerations like repeat
customers and word-of-mouth adver­
tising. When a company earns a repu­
tation for playing fast and loose with
its customers, it must offer expensive,
profit-lowering inducements to keep
them coming back.
Questionable business practices can
often have direct and unfortunate con­
sequences for the offender, Smith
points out. Take Sears, the department
store giant that incurred stiff penalties
from the California Attorney General’s
office in a widely publicized action last
summer.
It seems that in an effort to make
the company more service oriented (in
the way that a customer-cosseting store
like Nordstroms is), Sears initiated an
across-the-board policy of commission
sales, including its busy auto-repair de­
partments. But what works in housewares and clothing may not always
work the same way out in the repair
shop. “It’s one thing for a customer
to buy a suit from a commissioned
salesperson,” Smith points out. “There
isn’t that much about a suit that the
customer doesn’t already know or
can’t see for himself. But a large frac­
tion o f auto-repair customers know lit­
tle about the inner workings o f a car,
and therefore are more likely to rely on
the experts to tell them if they need to
get something fixed. ”
The result: Pretty soon Sears cus­
tomers were being charged for a variety
o f repairs o f questionable necessity

recommended by overzealous, com­
mission-hungry mechanics.
ears officials made a bad
set o f decisions, Smith says.
What happened was not a
deliberate attempt to take
the customer but “an un­
intended consequence o f trying to de­
velop a more effective sales force” —for
which the company was caught and
paid the penalty.
“Places like Sears, and Salomon
Brothers when it was involved in a
Treasury bond scandal, wind up on the
front page o f The New York Times
precisely because such occasions of
unethical behavior are so rare,” Smith
says.
If, as Holmes says, thinking about
ethics (as in front-page placement in
the Times) is a first step toward creat­
ing an ethical society—what then can
be done to promote such critical think­
ing? In his Index, Bennett says: “We
desperately need to recover a sense of
fundamental purpose of education,
which is to engage in the architecture
o f souls.”
Spike replies: “We like to think that
in the good old days everyone was ethi­
cal, because the family taught ethics.
But the good old days were not neces­
sarily the good old days.”
Example: A couple o f years ago a
reporter for People magazine asked the
French actor Gerard Depardieu to re­
veal to its waiting public at what age
he had lost his virginity. When he was
10, Depardieu replied—when he raped
a peasant girl. “That was accepted
practice in rural France at the time,
that young men could rape young
women,” Spike says. “Mores, or social
consensus, differ from ethics. Conser­
vatives like William Bennett who look
back fondly on the past when social
consensus was stronger mistake con­
sensus for ethical behavior. There’s
been a need to teach ethics all along. ”
And he makes sure his med students
get a good dose of it, in a number of
different ways: First-year students take
a required course in Ethics and Law
and are offered an elective Medical
Humanities Seminar in Ethics, which
about 40 percent o f the class opts for.
Advanced students meet regularly with
the medical-ethics faculty to discuss
the patients they encounter during
their different rotations in psychiatry,

S

Quill: “I wrote the story
about Diane to challenge
people to think about
the issue of allowing
individuals to die with
personal dignity. Open
discussion about this
issue should be coming
from the medical profes­
sion and from medical
ethicists. Instead it is
being driven by the
patients themselves who
are demanding what
they need.”

31

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
—

I'

*

-

*

Ethics for Engineers
“Integrity is one of those words
which many people keep in that desk
drawer labeled ‘too h a rd / It’s not a
topic for the dinner table or the cocktail
party. You can’t buy it or sell it. When
supported with education, a person’s . *
integrity can give him something to rely
on when his perspective seems to blur,
when rules and principles seem to . Wm
waver, and when he’s faced with hard
choices of right or wrong. It’s some­
thing to keep him on the right track,
something to keep him afloat w h y ^ M
drowning. If only for practical reasons,
it is an attribute that should be kept at
ihe very top of a young person’s con­
sciousness.”
From “The World of Epictetus,”
by Vice Admiral James Bond
• ^ . Stockdale, USN, The A tlantic
Magazine, April 1978." ’
About three dozen electrical engineer­
ing students file into Room 209 in the t
Computer Studies Building on this spring
afternoon. Most are men; all expect to
be seniors in the fall. They sling their
books and backpacks onto the long
blue tables in the room and pick up the
red binders handed out to each. This M&
the introductory class to Sidney Shapiro’s
Electrical Engineering Senior Seminar
that will begin formally in the fall. Strap
dents meet for a preliminary session in
the spring to get a feel for the course
and pick up a summer assignment. .
A cartoon drawing on the overhead§l|
projector shows a management type
talking to a chemical engineer. The # /
manager commends the engineer on his
technical expertise but warns him; “You
can’t expect to make more money unless
you have management potential.”
“How many of you believe this?”
Shapiro asks. About 90 percent raise ‘
their hands. “See, already you are being
influenced by society’s view of your role
as an engineer.” The course will help'..
the students examine their most basic
assumptions about their work, Shapiro
explains, by looking at some of the ethi­
cal, social, economic, and safety con- "
siderations that arise in engineering
practice.
The coursework for the seminar is
less technically oriented than E.E. stu­
dents arc used to. They will read works j
as varied as the Stockdale piece quoted

above, John Hersey’s A Single Pebble,
and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s Player Piano.
They will listen as interviewees on Bill- Moyers’ The Truth About Lies talk
about the mistakes made on the
Challenger project, and will test their
ethical mettle on a hypothetical engi­
neering issue posed in a film, made by
engineers, called Gilbane Gold.
“You will not be compared to one an­
other in this class,’’ Shapiro announces. 1
“You will be compared to yourself.”
Shapiro’s goal is to provide the means
for each student to develop an ethical
awareness of workplace issues, he says.
Mosl have never thought of ethics at
all when considering their careers,
Shapiro remarks later. “But these stu­
dents are extraordinary,” he says. “Some ;
get so excited they jump up and harangue ,
in class. Some are better at letting lo o ^ jiL
in their weekly written commentary. But
they do bring a lot to class —the values f •'
they have enliven the classroom discus­
sion. Every year a fundamentalist Chris- •
tian brings that viewpoint to the class,- *. -.
and each year there is a group of cynics who talk about how it all comes down
to whom \ou know."
In the classroom, students watch,
absorbed, as Colonel b£icholsori»-fe.X :
scene from The Bridge on the River
Kwai, orders his men —prisoners of the
Japanese in World War II —to build the r:
best bridge it is in their power to build
—despite the fact that it is for the
enemy. The video screen turns fuzzy: | •
“Is there an engineer in the house?” ■f
Shapiro calls out, as he tries to a d ju st..
the machine. The class laughs, then sits#
back to finish watching the scene. Shapiro | .
tells them that they should be ready to '
discuss the ethics of this situation when
they return in the fall.;' W - Panels of four or five students w illA
lead each week’s discussion, Shapiro
tells the class. Students must also hand •
in a weekly commentary. “You must putyourself in the work,” he says^/It-s.* * |*’i '
okay to do an analysis, but put>youi^e|^;^;|
your opinions, into the analysis. There . .
are no right or wrong answers here.”
“I’m not a practitioner, not a philoso- | ‘
pher of ethics,” Shapiro says after the . . *
class has left. “I’m not trying to change
their points of view. I just want to let
them know there are issues they need;to *
be sensitive to.” ' :
* ■*

Greenlaw: “We tend to
think only in terms
of legal rights. Law is
spelled out by consen­
sus. It is a minimum
standard of conduct.
But ethics is not some­
thing discerned by taking
a poll. Ethics is the ideal;
law is the minimum.”
internal medicine, ob/gyn, and pediat­
rics.
Over on the River Campus, “we have
a whole slew o f ethics courses for un­
dergraduates,” philosophy professor
Holmes says. Courses range from of­
ferings such as Ethics (Philosophy 102)
and Contemporary Moral Problems
(103) to Recent Ethical Theory (220)
and Ethical Decisions in Medicine
(Religion 225). Enrollments for some
o f these classes can reach a couple of
hundred students, he says, although
ethics courses are not required in most
majors. “I think there’s a lot o f interest
in ethics among undergraduates —
things are in the air.”
In Contemporary Moral Problems,
for example, students bring to the class­
room their personal questions on to­
day’s big ones: abortion, sexism, and
racism. Discussions are lively and wide

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
ranging, he says. “If we had the fac­
ulty, we could have large numbers of
students in a wider variety of under­
graduate classes —courses, for in­
stance, on environmental and business
ethics.”
Holmes says that although he sees a
“heightened sense o f ethical issues” in
the academic and business world, he
doesn’t believe that teaching ethical
reasoning to college-age and graduate
students gives them an early enough
start. “Young people are growing up
with a mixed message,” he says. “Why
not start in the public schools to teach
them to reason out moral problems?”
Encouragingly, he says, some ele­
mentary schools are teaching tech­
niques in nonviolent conflict-resolution
to first-grade pupils —a healthy anti­
dote to the TV message that the best
way to end every argument is with a
weapon. (“Every time our kids flick on
the TV, what they see is violence,” says
this scholar who has adopted as his
area o f expertise the moral issues of
war, peace, and nonviolence.) “We can
and should teach common values to
young children —respect for each
other, and for the environment. We
shouldn’t try to inculcate more specific
values, but we should try to teach
them how to think for themselves. ”
Greenlaw sees teaching ethical
thinking to school-age children as
important —but adds a caution. “If
you look at the public-school curricu­
lum, you’ll see there’s a trend to get
middle-school students to thinking
about ethical issues —about how ethi­
cal values influence decisions that are
being made. My concern is with who
might be teaching these things. Could
it become an opportunity for individ­
ual teachers to put forth their own
political agenda?”
“Ethics is such a personal thing,”
says electrical engineering professor
Sidney Shapiro, reflecting that “grow­
ing up in the Jewish tradition, ethics
was just there. For example, every year
at the Passover seder it is reinforced
that slavery is wrong and that freedom
is right.”
Shapiro teaches a senior seminar for
undergraduate electrical engineers on
ethical and social issues they may en­
counter in their professional lives. It’s
a required course for all fourth-year
students. And by the time they get to
it, Shapiro notes, they are already

adults with fully developed values.
“They learn from each other in this
course, from discussion. I don’t try to
teach them a code o f ethics. I’m just
there to stir up the pot” —which he
does by throwing out for consideration
such engineers’ nightmares as Three
Mile Island and the Challenger disaster.
Often, he says, his students are sur­
prised that their future jobs might en­
tail any moral considerations. “It can
be tough to be faced with the ethical
decisions you have to make after you’ve
graduated and gone to work,” he says.
“But it’s even tougher if you’ve never
thought about such things at all.”
“Ethical practices are teachable,”
affirms the Simon School’s Clifford
Smith. “Some wags have told me that
if I were dealing with, six-year-olds, I
would spend a lot o f my time trying to
craft a moral code to teach them. With
our M.B.A. students, it’s a little late

Spike: “We like to think
that in the good old days
everyone was ethical,
because ethics was
taught in the family. But
the good old days were
not necessarily the good
old days.”

for that. But what we can and do
teach here is that there are conse­
quences visited on people making
unethical decisions. ”
“One o f the best things that could
happen,” says Timothy Quill, “will be
when we can take ethics out o f the
classrooms and out of the churches
and into people’s lives. ”
So, what would Moses say about us?
Is ethics dead?
As with most thorny subjects, it de­
pends on how you look at it. Should
we start writing its obituary?
Shapiro passes. “I leave that to the
experts, ” he says.
The answer is no, say experts Spike
and Greenlaw. Ethics is alive and tak­
ing nourishment from active public
discussion on such moral issues as
abortion, racism, sexism, and medical
ethics.
Quill is not so sure. “I think we get
mixed reviews in this area,” he says.
“Parts o f our society are struggling
with ethics; but others aren’t.” A small
but significant group is trying to ad­
dress neglected ethical issues, such as
what is best to do with, about, or for
the homeless, he says. “But it is diffi­
cult for our society to do any longrange ethical planning. We’re not
equipped for it.”
Holmes, the philosopher-pacifist,
says emphatically that, while we may
be seeing a strong interest in some spe­
cific ethical issues, “we are not an ethi­
cal society” —and can’t be as long as
we remain a nation o f violence.
“Although people express a concern
about violence,” he says, “we as a na­
tion rely on violence not only as a last
resort but sometimes as a first and only
resort. It is the human condition, for
the moment. ”
After a long, thoughtful Holmesian
pause, he adds: “It is possible though,
for people to change. But if you con­
tinue to believe that that’s just the way
people are —then it becomes selffulfilling.”

Author of such recent Rochester Review
features as “Psamtik’s Children” on lan­
guage development in youngsters and
“How Old Is Elderly?” on contemporary
attitudes toward aging, Kathy Quinn
Thomas keeps up on campus developments
as editor of the University’s Currents
newspaper.

33

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

You ve

"w ■ j r

CH A NG ED!

By Wendy Levin

Or

have

you?A long-term psychological study o f Rochester grads
over the last two decades offers some surprises.

Have you changed a lot since you
were a college sophomore? Or are you
still, inside that mellowing bod, the
same person that you were then?
Psychologist Susan Krauss Whitbourne says you’ve probably changed a
lot more than you think you have, and
more than other psychologists prob­
ably would have predicted.
And she has the stats to prove it —
wrapped up in an extensive, twentytwo-year study o f former Rochester
undergrads as they have evolved from
Jane and Joe College into Jane and
Joe Mature Adult.
Published last year in the Journal

o f Personality and Social Psychology,
Whitbourne’s study asks and answers
the question, Is your personality for­
ever formed by the time you’ve earned
your sheepskin and entered the world
o f adult responsibility—or does a
“new you” keep evolving?
“Well that’s obvious,” you say. “I
don’t smoke anymore and I stay home
Saturday nights. I’m not at all the
same person I was twenty years ago.”
But we’re talking basic personality
here. And, as notes Rochester psychol­
ogy instructor Tina Frederick ’91G,
“in our society, when we talk about a
healthy personality we think in terms
o f stability.” On the whole, we expect
our friends and acquaintances to look
and act pretty much the same every
time we see them. “Otherwise,” says
Frederick, “we think they’re flighty or
out o f touch. This work is exciting be­
cause it uncovers something other than
what we might predict.”

34

%

Experts in the field have long dif­
fered about whether or not personality
continues to evolve in adulthood.
(Freud was no help; his approach to
understanding the unfolding ego went
only as far as puberty.) Some research­
ers who have looked into the question
have come up with evidence that says
we’re pretty static after age 30: once an
extrovert, always an extrovert; once a
string-saver, always a string-saver. The
neo-Freudian Erik Erikson, on the
other hand, looked at the problem and
saw a lifelong process that moves
through various stages as we hit one
developmental crisis after another.
“Erikson’s theories have significantly
influenced our knowledge o f human
development,” says Whitbourne. “But
there hasn’t been a lot o f research to
justify them. What this study does is
to lend empirical weight to his ideas.”
On the way to amassing their empir­
ical ballast, Whitbourne and her col­
leagues have collected a storehouse of
information about Rochester’s student
body, then and now. At various stages
in their lives since 1966, more than 900
former River Campus students have
(anonymously) shared their feelings
about such Eriksonian concerns as in­
timacy and identity, attitudes toward
work, and satisfaction with life in
general.
Today Whitbourne is on the faculty
at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst campus, but from 1976 to
1984 she taught at Rochester in the
Graduate School o f Education and
Human Development. There she came
across what was to become the basis

for her research: a questionnaire
created by a former grad student,
Anne Constantinople ’66G, designed
to reveal attitudes and feelings indica­
tive o f personality. Before she left
Rochester (she’s now at Vassar),
Constantinople administered her
questionnaire to 300 River Campus
undergraduates.
In Constantinople’s work,
Whitbourne saw the opportunity to
test out Erikson’s theories. What if she
were to use the questionnaire to track
personality development over the long
term? What could she find out?
Since then, Whitbourne has collected
data from two more batches o f stu­
dents, one cohort in 1977 and another
in 1988. Members of each sample have
been asked to complete follow-up
questionnaires every eleven years. (The
original test-takers have been heard
from twice—at the age o f 31 and then
again at 42 —since they first partici­
pated in their 20s. Subjects from the
1970s have checked in once, at the age
of 31. In 1999 —eleven years from 1988
—all three groups will be surveyed
again, with a fourth River Campus
cohort beginning the process anew.)
It’s a matter o f sound experimental
design that Whitbourne has continued
to draw her subjects from the River
Campus even though she no longer
teaches here. By sticking with the ‘blue
and gold’ she can rest assured that her
results won’t be confounded by ex­
traneous factors (Sunshine State’s at­
traction for party people, Overzealous
U ’s for throats) that tend to particular­
ize students at different schools.

Rochester Reviéw/Fall 1993
“It means that there’s one less varia­
ble to account for,” explains Lisa Elliot
’89G, one o f the study’s coauthors and
Whitbourne’s former research assistant.
What it also means is that Whitbourne and her colleagues know as
much about the psyches o f these Roch­
ester alumni groups as anyone else
now knows, or probably ever will
know. But don’t expect them to di­
vulge the juicy tidbits. Psychologists’
studies, as we all know, aren’t con­
structed that way. (For the general
reader, statistics on “industry vs. in­
feriority” and “identity vs. identity
diffusion” tend not to titillate.)
On a demographic note, the study
does offer a broad-brush profile of
alumni from the decades of the sixties
and seventies, confirming the long-held
belief that Rochester’s graduates are
an ambitious band o f achievers.
(Whitbourne refers to them as “the
leaders o f society—physicians, lawyers,
teachers, social workers, engineers,
businesspeople. ”)
A sampling o f the stats:
In 1988, twenty-two years after
answering their first questionnaires as
undergrads, 61 percent o f the men and
16 percent o f the women had attained
what Whitbourne refers to as “the
highest professional and managerial
level” in their flourishing careers.
(These figures seem to affirm the value
o f an advanced degree: Closely com­
parable percentages —63 percent o f the
men and 13 percent o f the women —
had earned graduate or professional
degrees. Eleven years previously, in
1977, when the group was in its early
30s, the figures for advanced-degree
holders were 54 percent for men and
7 percent for women.)
On the domestic scene in 1988, three
fourths o f the subjects from the first
cohort were married and had produced
at least one child. Thirteen percent of
the women listed themselves as full­
time homemakers, down from 30 per­
cent in 1977.
Then there’s the second cohort —
those who were undergraduates while
Jimmy Carter was in the White House
(and Rinky the dog kept running for
student president on the River Cam­
pus). In 1988, as this group entered
their 30s, some 40 percent o f the men
and 25 percent o f the women were pur­
suing high-level professional or mana­
gerial careers.

Thirty-seven percent o f the men and
23 percent o f the women were holders
of graduate or professional degrees.
More than two thirds o f the respond
dents were married, and a little over
one third had at least one child. Fif­
teen percent o f the women reported
being full-time homemakers.
Given the above, it’s probably no
surprise that these folks have since col­
lege days shown a dramatic increase in
what the study categorizes as “indus­
try,” a personality trait that Whit­
bourne says signifies “an identification
with the work ethic, or what I call the
yuppy mentality.”
But (nothing personal, you sixties
and seventies grads), she wonders if
the study doesn’t also “verify some
disheartening news about our society.”
“People seem to be working harder,
but finding less meaning in their lives.
They lack a sense that they’re going to
contribute something in their lifetime

Whitbourne knows as
much about the psyches
of these Rochester alumni
groups as anyone else
now knows, or probably
ever will know.
that will amount to more than feather­
ing their own nests.”
Successful careers and strong family
ties —items that are plentiful among
this crowd —are not enough to give
satisfaction, Whitbourne suggests. She
believes the data confirm her suspicion
that an erosion o f values regarding
social welfare and helping the less for­
tunate has penetrated their view of
themselves. People haven’t been as
active in aiding social causes, and that
seems to have led to a feeling of empti­
ness. “This is one sign that the Reagan
era has seeped into people’s psyches,”
she says.
Although she admits to being fasci­
nated (if also somewhat disheartened)
by these findings, Whitbourne empha­
sizes that they are but a byproduct of
her true aim —tracing psychosocial de­
velopment.
And that —considering how it means
keeping up with many hundreds of
people scattered worldwide —is a tall

order, even under the best of circum­
stances. “There’s no way to prepare for
every eventuality,” says Whitbourne
about the ins and outs o f longitudinal
research.
She could not, for instance, have
foreseen that, well into the study, the
University’s computer records o f stu­
dent I.D. numbers would be totally re­
vised, inadvertently wiping out hun­
dreds o f mailing addresses for people
identifiable to the researchers only un­
der the old codes. “Luckily for us, the
Alumni Office stepped in and helped
us piece together what we could,” says
Whitbourne. “With their help we were
able to discover the whereabouts o f a
good share o f our lost subjects.”
Losing subjects after you’ve already
nabbed them is one thing. But how do
you get them to sign on in the first
place? How do you persuade hundreds
of busy undergraduates to sit down
and spend twenty precious minutes
filling out your questionnaire —espe­
cially when you can’t relate it to a class
assignment?
To entice subjects in the spring of
1977, Whitbourne erected a lemonade
stand on the sun-soaked Eastman
Quadrangle. Students readily lined up
to sip some citrus in exchange for a
spell of psychological introspection.
By 1988 lemonade was out. “Stu­
dents told us it wasn’t worth it just for
juice and cookies,” recalls coauthor
Lisa Elliot. Desperate for subjects, the
research team decided to up the offer.
Five-dollar gift certificates for offcampus pizza and chicken wings did
the trick.
By the year 2000 (when, by the way,
the University will be graduating its
sesquicentennial class), Whitbourne
and crew will have resurfaced to take
the psychic temperature o f a new batch
o f undergraduates and check out pre­
vious participants.
Will wings and pizza still suffice?
Will the malaise of the nineties have
lifted?
Will Rochester grads still be society’s
leaders?
Stay tuned. One thing about longi­
tudinal researchers: Like the Capis­
trano swallows, they always come
back.

Wendy Levin ’87 is engaged in her own
personal longitudinal study of Rochester
alums as editor of Class Notes.

35

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

An Attraction to the
m

o

r

a

i

i

y

COMPLICATED'
By Jeremy Schlosberg

Hugo Sonnenschein
’61: This internationally
eminent economist has
ju st ascended to the
presidency o f the
University o f Chicago,
a job that suits his
gourmet taste fo r
complexity.

If economics is the “dismal sci­
ence, ” you’d never know it by Hugo
Sonnenschein ’61.
An internationally eminent eco­
nomics scholar turned senior adminis­
trator, Sonnenschein must rank among
the most cheerily hardworking aca­
demics in the land. (Is it coincidence
that his name translates into English
as “sunshine”?) He is a relentless op­
timist who views problems to solve as
excitement, whose instinctive response
to daunting challenge is to call it
“wonderful, ” and whose unabashed
affection for university life impresses
and influences all around him.
“Hugo is a person who understands
and loves and cares for institutions
of higher education,” says Aaron
Lemonick, professor o f physics and
dean o f the faculty emeritus at Prince­
ton University, the last institution to
employ Sonnenschein as a professor
before he branched into administration
in 1988 at the University o f Pennsylva­
nia. “In some sense, he considers it holy
work.”

Rochester Reviéw/Fall 1993
Was it obvious to those around him
that Sonnenschein would be a univer­
sity president some day? “To me it
was,” says Lemonick. “Absolutely.”
This would be news to the man him­
self, however. Making the switch from
professor to administrator he consid­
ered a “very bold step” in the context
o f his career up to that point. “There
were parts o f me that I knew I would
have to rely on, and that I hadn’t really
seen or couldn’t imagine. I had no idea
what would become o f this. I didn’t
think I would be a president someday.”
But Hugo Sonnenschein has been
since July 1 the newly sitting president
o f the University of Chicago, the elev­
enth in that esteemed institution’s 100year history. He is, moreover, a Roch­
ester trustee serving on the committee
that, in the wake of Dennis O’Brien’s
announcement that he will be retiring
next year, is now seeking his own alma
mater’s ninth chief executive.
Sonnenschein knows what it’s like to
be both the searcher and the searchee;
his thoughts on the goals and responsi­
bilities o f a university president, and
the sort o f person who can best do the
job, are especially revealing. Almost
every characteristic he describes as im­
portant in a president is a characteris­
tic those who know him would readily
ascribe to Sonnenschein.
The first important element in the
presidential makeup, he says, is “an
understanding and a deep appreciation
o f what goes on at a great university.”
Go right back to Professor Lemonick’s
observation if you want to see where
friends feel Sonnenschein stands on
this issue.
But understanding and appreciation
are just a start, as Sonnenschein knows.
After that, “you have to be able to —
and the word choice is difficult here,”
he interrupts himself. “ ‘Lead’ never
seems like quite the right word. ‘Man­
age’ never seems like quite the right
word. But what the president must do
is to assume responsibility for bringing
together a highly complex commu­
nity.” If you’re the sort o f person who
likes to go to work every day and deal
with just one particular kind o f prob­
lem, forget about this job. “You have
to have a taste for complexity,” he says.
Complexity is an understatement,
considering the groups o f people —
“constituencies” is the oft-used word —
the president must serve and represent

and form consensus between and
among: from faculty to students to
administrators to trustees to alumni
to the community in which it operates.
Most assume the politics (another
oft-used word) o f the situation to be
formidable at best. On this subject,
Sonnenschein proves his own “taste
for complexity” to be o f the gourmet
variety.
“When I speak o f ‘politics,’ I speak
o f it in the positive sense,” he says.
True to his nature, he finds it “quite
wonderful” to serve different groups o f

“quite wonderful” to serve
different groups of people
with different goals.
“Sure, it’s complicated,”
he says. “But it’s properly
complicated.”

people with different goals, to bring to­
gether people with a variety o f perspec­
tives. Sure, it’s complicated, he says.
“But it’s properly complicated.”
Who better than an economist is
likely to talk about social systems be­
ing “properly” complicated? As a mat­
ter of fact, in interesting ways, what
attracted Sonnenschein to economics
in the first place sounds a whole lot
like what so intrigues and challenges
him as a university president.
He did not begin his academic ca­
reer as an economist. The Brooklynborn Sonnenschein was, in fact, a
mathematics major at Rochester, and
did not study a jot o f economics until
his senior year, when, seeking to com­
plete a distribution requirement in the
social sciences, he found himself in a
statistics course for which, he quickly
discerned, he was “substantially over­
prepared.” The professor, hoping to
keep him challenged, sent him to
Econometrica, the journal o f the
Econometric Society. His assignment:

Write critical reviews o f the papers
therein that were using mathematical
methods to do economics. An article
he read about something called general
possibility theorem was a virtual epiph­
any. “I tore up my acceptances to
mathematics graduate schools and set
off for graduate school in economics
instead,” Sonnenschein later recalled,
as recounted in Economics, a 1990 col­
lege textbook published by AddisonWesley.
The thing that hooked him, as he
described it in the same book, was
“the combination o f formal analysis
with thinking about how people think,
how societies function.” It was a syn­
thesis, he felt, that suited him. An­
other compelling feature was —here’s
that word again —complexity. “Eco­
nomics is not for those who are at­
tracted to real-world problems that
have simple and clear solutions,” he
is quoted as saying. “For these individ­
uals, I recommend astrology. ”
Sonnenschein received his master’s
degree and doctorate in economics
at Purdue University. From there he
headed north to his first teaching post,
at the University o f Minnesota, where
he proceeded from assistant to associ­
ate to full professor between 1964 and
1970. Next came a pair o f three-year
stints, at Amherst and at Northwest­
ern, before his landing at Princeton in
1976.
Wife Elizabeth Gunn Sonnenschein
’61 was at his side for each o f these
moves. The two had met during their
senior year and married in August
1962. Elizabeth’s degree was in nurs­
ing, and she worked as a pediatric
nurse through her husband’s graduate
school years. They started a family
once Hugo began teaching in Minne­
sota; Beth remained at home until
their third and youngest daughter was
4. By then, dad the economist was at
Amherst, and Beth returned to school
for a master’s in epidemiology at the
University o f Massachusetts School
o f Public Health. When Hugo got to
Princeton, Beth commuted to the Uni­
versity o f Pennsylvania for her doc­
toral work. She received her Ph.D. in
1988.
Doing acclaimed research at a pres­
tigious institution, working with highly
talented graduate students, Hugo
Sonnenschein enjoyed great profes­
sional fulfillment during his Princeton

37

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Singing the Same Tune
The ascension of Rochester alumnus
Hugo Sonnenschein '61 as the Univer­
sity of Chicago’s eleventh president is
; merely the latest in a series of connec­
tions between the two institutions. To
begin with, two earlier Rochester alumni,
Frederick T. Gates, Class of 1877, and
Thomas Wakeiield Goodspeed, Class of
1863, each had a hand in the founding
of the U of C —which may or may not
explain why the new school stole the
tune to “The Genesee” and adopted it
for its own alma mater. ' Next, ¡t look back at Rochester’s
presidential roster reveals that president
number six, W. Allen Wallis, was previ­
ously a University of Chicago dean.
|
Another link: It turns out that
Rochester president Dennis O’Brien re­
ceived his Ph.D. at the University of
Chicago in 1961 —the same year Hugo
Sonnenschein got his bachelor’s at
■I
Rochester. Two years earlier, the l8-g ^ B
year-old Sonnenschein, seeking some
summer-school enrichment, to d fcv p 8 B l
courses in mathematics and poetry at ■|
where else but the University of Chicago.
It doesn’t quite make him an alum, but
he’ll sure be able to hum along with the
* school song when he hears it.
■ ' .... - - , u

years. His specialty was equilibrium
and game theory—the mathematical
study o f strategic behavior in social
situations. A year after arriving at
Princeton, he became editor of
Econometrica, the very journal
responsible for turning him into
an economist in the first place. He
humbly allows that he became “a
reasonably well-known economist”
during this time.
“He lent luster to the department,”
says Professor Lemonick, with less re­
straint. “He was not only a great econ­
omist, he was a great teacher.”
Sometime in the mid-eighties,
Sonnenschein’s telephone rang once
or twice regarding administrative posi­
tions at other institutions. “I don’t be­
lieve I ever considered administration
in any serious way until I started get­
ting those calls,” he says. “I really
did my teaching and scholarship flat
out through age 45 or so.” One o f
those calls was from the University of
Rochester, in fact, which talked to its
alum about the deanship o f the Col­
lege o f Arts and Science, says Lionel
McKenzie, Wilson Professor Emeritus
38

o f Economics. “We tried our best to
hire him,” recalls McKenzie, who grew
to know and respect Sonnenschein’s
talents through their mutual member­
ship in the Econometric Society. But
Sonnenschein wasn’t quite yet ready
to leave his teaching behind.
“When these inquiries came,” he
says, “I found them a little bit surpris­
ing, but also kind o f interesting.” Be­
ing approached for administrative
work set him wondering a little. “I was
very interested in universities, and I
had admiration for people whom I was
watching in administrative positions.
And I think there were parts o f me I

E

E conomics

is not for those who are
attracted to real-world
problems that have simple
and clear solutions. For
these individuals I recom­
mend astrology.”
wanted to try out that were ripe for the
trying. I wanted to see how I could do
other things. ”
As he began to get more involved
with administrative committees at
Princeton, he began to contemplate
the offers more seriously. He changed
from telling callers flatly No to pon­
dering each offer with increasing seri­
ousness.
When the University o f Pennsylva­
nia called in 1988, he was ready to be
very interested indeed. Penn was after
Sonnenschein for a high-level, highvisibility position: dean o f the School
o f Arts and Sciences. The position is
widely considered a launching pad for
university administrators; Brown Uni­
versity president Vartan Gregorian, for
example, was, for a time, Penn’s Arts
and Sciences dean.
“It was a large and important posi­
tion,” Sonnenschein says. “And it was
an important decision for m e—whether
I wanted to make that sort o f change
in my life.” It would mean an effectual
end to his career as a teacher and

scholar. Still, in retrospect, the deci­
sion came with relative ease.
“There wasn’t a lot o f agonizing,”
says wife Elizabeth. “He made the
transition easily.”
Walter Wales remembers
Sonnenschein’s early days at Penn
clearly. Wales is now deputy provost at
Penn; when Sonnenschein arrived, he
was associate dean, and not uninterested
himself in the job Sonnenschein ar­
rived to fill. “My feathers were a little
ruffled in the dean search,” Wales says
today. “Hugo sensed that right away,
and immediately saw to putting the sit­
uation right.” One o f Sonnenschein’s
great strengths, says Wales, is his pow­
erfully analytical mind, on display
right away by “how quickly he was
able to size up our school.” Wales grew
to view his boss with great “respect,
admiration, and affection. ”
Sonnenschein stayed at Penn for
three years, during which time he
plunged into development (as part of
a larger, university-wide campaign dur­
ing his tenure, the school’s endowment
increased from $35 million to $103 mil­
lion), and oversaw a major renovation
o f curriculum basics. The job that
lured him away was a provost position
that was opening up back at Prince­
ton. “It’s a shame he couldn’t have
stayed and finished the job he started
at Penn, ” says Princeton’s Aaron
Lemonick. “But, it was very good for
us that he earnedback.”
As provost, Sonnenschein was
Princeton’s second in command, and
its chief academic officer. He enjoyed
showing up at undergraduate parties in
jeans and a sweater, and extended that
sense o f easygoing informality into his
office as well. Being a relaxed adminis­
trator who was fun to work for, how­
ever, did not mean Sonnenschein was
a softie. “Hugo is courageous,” says
Lemonick, “and these senior jobs take
some courage. Because you have to say
No to a lot of people. You’re bound
to. ” And yet, Lemonick stresses,
Sonnenschein also displayed enough
wisdom and creativity to know when
and where to say Yes, to encourage
initiative around him rather than to
promote a stultifying status quo.
As it turns out, Princeton couldn’t
hold Sonnenschein for very long, either.
His administrative fame was spreading
even more rapidly than had his schol­
arly renown —fanned, no doubt, in
part by the ongoing turnover experi­
enced at the presidential position in

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

At the press conference announcing his election as the University of Chicago’s eleventh president,
Hugo and Elizabeth Gunn Sonnenschein (an epidemiologist, also Class of ’61) chat with Chicago’s
Edward Levi.

highly regarded universities through­
out the country. At one point toward
the end of last year, in fact, there were
four prestigious presidencies in need of
incumbents at the same time: at Yale,
Duke, Columbia, and Chicago. There
seemed little question that at least
some o f the candidates —Sonnenschein
included—were being courted by more
than one o f the needy schools.
Sonnenschein was the U o f C’s first
choice. The outgoing president, Hanna
H. Gray, retired in June after fifteen
years in the position. While he would
be Chicago’s first president since 1961
without a solid connection to the
school, the search committee there
seemed relatively eager to bring in an
outside perspective at this juncture.
The decision was relatively easy for
the Sonnenscheins as well. The Univer­
sity o f Chicago is a school o f 11,000
students —nearly twice the size o f
Princeton, with six professional
schools and a teaching hospital. It is
an institution known for its rigorous
academic standards, and, not inciden­
tally, for its luminous economics de­
partment, which has produced three

Nobel prizewinners in economics in
the last three years. Not only will
Hugo find an appropriately complex
home there, but Beth is looking for­
ward to abandoning her four-hour
round-trip commute (Princeton to
New York City, where she has been an
epidemiologist at NYU). She will work
part time at least for the first year,
finishing up, long distance, a current
project o f hers at NYU. The rest of her
time she will devote to the occupation
o f being the president’s wife, for the
time being, although she anticipates
finding work eventually at one of sev­
eral nearby medical schools. For his
part, Sonnenschein fully appreciates
his wife’s professional flexibility. “I’m
very grateful that my wife has been
willing to make this move,” he told
University o f Chicago Magazine last
winter.
Sonnenschein knows that the deci­
sion to take the job will far and away
be the easiest thing about it. This is
not an easy time in the life o f either
the University o f Chicago or of most
institutions o f higher education
around the country. “At the moment,

many universities face great financial
challenges,” says Sonnenschein.
“They’re pressing, and they can lead,
if not handled well, to divisiveness.”
“But not necessarily,” he adds. One
o f the foremost jobs o f the president
in such an environment, he says, is to
help people “see that there are com­
mon values throughout the university.
Then,” he asserts, “one can make good
progress even in financially difficult
times. ”
Sonnenschein is neither cowed nor
discouraged by how concurrently im­
portant the fundraising element o f the
president’s job has become over the
last ten years or so. “It’s true that the
expectations with respect to fundrais­
ing are substantial,” he says. As a mat­
ter o f fact, a leading factor in con­
sidering a presidential candidate these
days is how well he or she will be able
to represent the university to constitu­
encies that are in a position to, as the
phrase goes, “provide resources.”
Sonnenschein sees fundraising organi­
cally, as “part o f the whole,” he says.
“The president who doesn’t immerse
himself or herself in the university,
who doesn’t understand programs or
needs, is most unlikely to be successful
helping people to understand the won­
ders that they can do” —i.e., by con­
tributing money to the cause.
“I believe in the scholarship; I know
the value of the education,” he says.
“To go out and ask for support o f it is
a natural extension.”
The many and varied pressures on
the modern college or university presi­
dent have created a phenomenon that
might be known as the Amazing
Shrinking College-President’s Term.
Once upon a time, a president at a
prestigious institution might sit in
office fifteen or twenty years or more;
today, as Sonnenschein notes, “ten
years seems to be a long run.” Many
burn out in five or even less, even
though he believes it takes at least
three to five years “to start defining a
presidency.”
“These are extraordinarily demand­
ing jobs,” he adds. “I don’t know if
there’s a ‘right’ number o f years a
president should serve. It takes resilient
long-distance runners to stay at them
for a long time. ”

Jeremy Schlosberg writes about alumni for
Rochester Review.
39

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Of Jesup, and the Naumburg

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The Yings on the way up

40

“Everyone’s been so glad to have us that
we’ve decided to stay on here for another
year,” says David Ying ’92GE, on the tele­
phone from a remote corner of rural Iowa.
The “we” is the Ying Quartet: four sib­
lings from Winnetka, Illinois —David, who
plays the cello; Timothy ’91GE, first violin;
Janet ’92E, second violin; and Phillip ’92GE,
viola. The “here” is the tiny town of Jesup,
2,000 pop., tucked among the corn fields in
the northeastern edge of the state.
So what’s an up-and-coming, prize­
winning string quartet (among its honors:
the Eastman School’s 1989 International
Cleveland Quartet Competition, plus, just
last spring, the prestigious 1993 Naumburg
Chamber Music Award) doing in residence
in wee Jesup?
Well, Ying explains, the quartet is taking
advantage of a new National Endowment
for the Arts program that places chamber
groups in rural communities, where they
perform regularly and frequently (like once
or twice a day). Keeping up that pace, with
an active national concert schedule on the
side, is the best way to better performance
skills, he says.
And besides, it is clear, the ensemble
likes it there.
Until the Yings arrived, Jesup audiences
had never been exposed to live classical
music, David notes. Bearing the responsi­
bility of introducing their art to an entire
community has changed the siblings’ ap­
proach to playing.
“When you play Beethoven at the East­
man Theatre, people know before you start
that it’s going to be a good piece. You do
your best, and then you go home. Here
when you play Beethoven, first you have
to tell the audience that it’s an important
piece, because they don’t know Beethoven.
And then you have to prove that it’s impor­
tant. You have to be sure it comes off, be­
cause that’s how they will come to love
Beethoven.
“That kind of interpretation adds a new
dimension to our playing —it just has to be
more personal.”
The quartet plays in schools, senior citi­
zens’ clubs, women’s clubs, church base­
ments, wherever, he says. “The style is very
informal. We usually wear our blue jeans.”
And the audiences have been warmly ap­
preciative. “In the wintertime, when chores
are not so plentiful, 600 people can turn
out for a concert. That’s more than a quar­
ter of the town’s population.”
The Yings also give lessons. They’ve taken
under their wing about twenty Jesup chil­
dren (all of them strangers to music-mak­
ing) who have formed a string orchestra.
“The trick has been to teach them music
and to teach them how to be an orchestra
at the same time,” says David. “It gets a lit­
tle crazy, but they’re shaping up. ”

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
About the Naumburg: The Yings didn’t
believe at first that they had actually won
this coveted award. The competition was
held at Columbia University on April 1,
and “when we heard that we’d won, we
thought it might be an April Fool joke,”
David says.
“We’ve been so busy between our work
in Jesup and our concert schedule that
when it came time to play for the competi­
tion we didn’t have time to worry—we just
went and played.”
As the result of their win, the Yings will
be playing at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln
Center during the 1994-95 season and will
get to commission a work by a composer
of their choice.
This summer they’re spending time at
Tanglewood, the Banff Centre for the Arts,
the Vermont Mozart Festival, and, of
course, Jesup. They always enjoy going,
back after every trip away, says Ying.
“People have made us feel so welcome.
We feel useful here.”

Fuzzy Logic Made Clear
“We will have a robot astronaut before
long,” predicts Francois Pin ’78G, ’82G.
No, it won’t wear a space suit and drink
powdered orange juice, but this rocketeer
will pilot an expedition to another planet.
It will collect samples, take snapshots,
make maps, and return home, all with very
little earthly communication.
“People say this is science fiction, but
when I look at the tremendous jump in
computer technology in the last two dec­
ades, I believe it will all take place within
my lifetime,” says Pin.
He should know. He heads the Autono­
mous Robotics Systems group at the
Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Labo­
ratory in Tennessee. Together with a team
of a dozen psychologists, neurologists,
mathematicians, computer scientists, and
engineers, Pin is pioneering research in the
area of fuzzy logic, a new approach to the
field of artificial intelligence.
“For decades we’ve been trying to make
robots function by using computers. We
wanted them to operate like humans but we

only gave them computer-like reasoning,”
Pin explains.
Humans rarely need precise information
in order to accomplish basic tasks, says the
Oak Ridge scientist. For example, when
you pad from the breakfast table to the
front stoop to pick up the morning news,
you don’t need to know exactly how many
feet away you are from everything in the
room in order for you to get there. Making
our way from point A to point B we think
in terms of imprecise —or fuzzy—variables,
says Pin. “Walk forward, jag left around
the table, slow down, reach for the door
knob.”
Unlike people, most computers have
trouble making sense out of instructions
that lack exact measurements. Since they
are dependent upon specifics, they’re good
at maneuvering only in spaces where the
position of every obstacle is known exactly
—something that seldom happens in the
dynamics of the real world.
For years American scientists believed
that by creating longer and longer strings
of code —up to 50,000 lines for a simple
task like finding the door—they’d come up
with a way to satisfy the computer’s limita­
tions. But, says Pin, the work was labori­
ous and yielded little success.
“When we finally accepted that we could
improve our research by abandoning our
quest for precision,” he says, “everything
fell into place, and our robots started to do
the things we wanted them to.”
The new fuzzy logic technology enables
one of his robots to find its way through an
unmapped space just by using a mere fif­
teen rules of thumb that closely resemble
human decision making.
So proficient are the new computer’s
navigational skills that when the scientists
fastened it to a car, it steered a perfect
course through their test site, one of the
laboratory’s (very full) parking lots (they
didn’t tell the car owners). Next they plan
to try out their mechanical motorist on
back country dirt roads and, eventually,
highways. They’re also planning to have it
do inspection and repair jobs.
In exploring artificial intelligence, “We’re
also interested in deepening our understand­
ing of the complexities of human function­
ing,” says Pin, who was recently named to
the board of editors of the Intelligent and
Fuzzy Systems Journal, a brand-new inter­
national publication.
“Our recent breakthroughs are just the
very beginning of the field of machine in­
telligence, or rather, intelligent machines.
We haven’t got the slightest idea how to
approximate human feelings or intuition.
In that department we’re like the ancient
Greeks watching birds in the sky. Full of
wonder, but a long way off from flying.”

Patterning Oneself
Has the little frock stitched up on
Mom’s Singer sewing machine gone the
way of the sit-down family breakfast, the
three-layer chocolate cake “from scratch,”
and other endangered domestic species?
Not at all, says Louis Morris ’68 cheer­
fully. Home sewing isn’t what it used to be,
admits the president of Simplicity Pattern
Company, but it’s still out there, and he
has the sales records to prove it.
In spite of the heavy outflow from home
life to office life in the last few decades, the
home-sewing business still owns a big cor­
ner of the specialty retail market—it’s a $2
to $3 billion retail industry, says Morris.
“People may not be sewing as much as
before —but there are certainly more of
them doing it than is commonly realized.”
Until Simplicity found Morris in 1990
(at Springs Industries, where he had been
for last nineteen years), the company was
floundering in a changing market. In fact,
not only had what was once the world’s
largest pattern company failed to adapt to
its customers’ changing lifestyles, it had in
addition been battered by six corporate
raider runs during the 1980s.
Simplicity’s sales had dropped from a
high of $112 million in 1975 to $67 million
and loans in default by 1989, when it was
restructured by majority owner Wesray
Capital Corporation. The restructuring,
according to The New York Times, left
Morris able to focus on company service.
What Morris did, says the Times, was to
make “the customer queen again.”
“Simplicity is an instructional com­
pany,” he says. Although there are still cus­
tomers out there looking for the traditional
tissue-paper patterns for summer frocks
and children’s pajamas, many of the new
Simplicity customers want a broader range
of “do it yourself” information.
Accordingly, the Simplicity line now
carries patterns and instruction books for
home decorating, crafts, and flower arrang­
ing, among others, accounting for some 25
percent of its resurging sales.
A typical Simplicity customer, Morris
says, is a middle-income woman, between
40 and 50, “who tends to be more rural
than urban.” She might live in Florida,
Texas, California, or the midwest.

41

Rochester Review/Fall 1993
Did he ever expect to be catering to the
home-sewing crowd when he was a busi­
ness administration student at Rochester?
He lets out a chuckle, and then he says,
“No. Absolutely not—I thought I’d be at
Procter and Gamble or doing something in
the television business.
“But this,” he says thoughtfully, “has
turned out to be a very interesting business
right here.”

The Big Chili
Of the 955 chili recipes in CHILIMANIA!—a. new book by Christine Slocum
Geltner ’49 and her husband, Herb —one
recipe is conspicuously absent: her own.
It’s not that she won’t share it, Geltner
insists. It’s just that her chili changes with
each creation and, as with most good
cooks, she never measures ingredients.
So here in print for the first time are the
ingredients —more or less —for the chili of
choice of the world’s foremost chili experts.
The fiery formula had no name, of course,
so we went ahead and named it. One note:
Geltner’s husband has to watch his choles­
terol and salt intake, so she avoids using
fats and salt as much as possible.
Christine Geltner’s “Meliora” Chili:
Sauté one chopped onion in Pam and set
aside. Brown more than one pound of
ground turkey in the same pan and pour
off the grease. Add one can of tomatoes
(unsalted), two cans of tomato sauce (un­
salted), and lots of chili powder and garlic
powder. Season to taste with black pepper.
Add one square of Baker’s unsweetened
chocolate and let it melt down. Sprinkle
over this a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon
and let it sink in (if you can taste the
flavors, you’ve put in too much). Simmer
for a couple of hours. Optional: a bit of
cumin and about half a can of beer, if the
chili is too thick. Red kidney beans can be
served on the side, hot, and added if de­
sired.
They began collecting recipes about six
years ago, when she got the idea of gather­
ing a few and publishing them. The couple
ran a classified ad requesting submissions
—and received so many that they decided
to create a pamphlet.
After that, the project grew and grew,
like one great communal vat of chili. “Our
kids heard about it and said, ‘Let’s write a
little book.’ Then the Cincinnati Inquirer

42

picked it up, and then the Associated
Press.” The Geltners began to get recipes
by the potful.
The result: 668 pages of chili, with and
without carne. There’s “Sheriff Smoot
Smith’s Jailhouse Chili” (it’s said that fel­
ons tried to break into his Dallas jail to
steal a sample) and a “Walk Through the
Garden Chili” that uses no meat. The
American Chemical Society has supplied a
number of recipes (including one that calls
for safety glasses and gloves, a reaction
shield, and a fire extinguisher).
The Geltners say they have learned “selfpublishing from A to Z,” with a few snags
in between. At one point, all their books
were stored in a warehouse that burned to
the ground. (Was it the chili powder?)
They’re also handling all their own pro­
motion—to the extent that Herb Geltner
recently managed to sell four books while
lying on the operating table awaiting openheart surgery.
Of the 4,700 copies of CHILIMANIA!
published in fall 1992, a couple of thou­
sand have been sold to date. To order your
copy, send a check for $17.95 to: GSC
Books, P.O. Box 2333, Merritt Island, FL
32954-2333.
And make sure you have a fire extin­
guisher, just in case.

The Green Team
Even if you are an up-to-your-elbowsin-compost gardener, you might not know
that. . .
When you place cut flowers in 7-Up, they
last longer.
Poinsettias are not poisonous.
Blueberry bushes serve as great orna­
mental shrubs as well as fruit-bearing
plants.
Bryant Gumbel is really a nice guy.
That’s the sort of facts you pick up when
you talk with Jeff Bail ’61 and Liz (Linda
Geigle) Ball ’62—gardening experts, writing
partners, and co-owners of a business
known as “New Response,” most appro­
priately located on Green Hill Road in
Springfield, Pennsylvania.
In books, videotapes, newspaper col­
umns, and television appearances, the two
address themselves to America’s 30 to 40
million “yardeners” —folks who do a fair
amount of yard work but do not call their

plants by their Latin names (except in the
case of rhododendron and a few others
they didn’t even know were Latin in the
first place). Their latest book, Yardening
(Macmillan), is tailored —or rather, pruned
—for that audience.
Jeff Ball is familiar to “Today” show
fans through his monthly appearances at
the close of the program, chatting with
Bryant Gumbel (himself a yardener) about
how to choose the right lawn mower or the
best time to plant spring bulbs. As for
Gumbel, says Ball, “He’s been terrific with
me. He’s helped me, given me advice, made
me feel comfortable. I consider him sort of
a professional friend and in some ways a
mentor. He has suffered from the media as
most people do when they’re on top.”
Liz Ball does much of the team’s writing
and editing and has established her own
horticultural photography business, Gar­
den Portraits. Jeff credits her with being
“by far the better gardener” of the two,
who knows “far more about plants than I’ll
ever know.”
So now for some serious yardening ques­
tions. First: Given that you’re supposed to
water a lawn deeply, with at least one inch
of water a week on average—how in the
heck do you know how much is an inch?
“You put out your sprinkler and an empty
cat-food or tuna-fish can,” she explains pa­
tiently, most likely for the thousandth time.
“When you’ve seen how long it takes to fill
up the can, then you know how long to run
your sprinkler.”
“Americans are hung up on lawns,” she
adds. “It never ceases to amaze us.” Her
advice for maintaining a healthy lawn is
simple: Aerate it once or twice a year to
reduce thatch, water it regularly, leave the
grass clippings on the lawn, and don’t cut
it too short.
Among the Balls’ six books for Rodale
Press are three gardening best-sellers
(500,000 copies sold altogether): The

Flower Garden Problem Solver, The Land­
scape Problem Solver, and The Garden
Problem Solver.
All in all, they enjoy being in the
“growth industry,” so to speak. “While it
can be difficult—you can get fairly broke
once in a while and you can also do fairly
well at other times —the most important
thing is the growth. Liz and I have been in
a Ph.D. program of sorts for the past ten
years and we love every minute of it,” says
Jeff.
Besides, he adds, he’s never met a nasty
gardener. “Our experience has been that it’s
real tough to find someone who’s both pas­
sionate about gardening and a son of a
bitch. If you take care of plants, that
probably means you’re a nice person.”
Which tells you a lot about Bryant
Gumbel.

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

Violetta in Moscow
“It was the kind of lucky break that you
always wish for but never expect. I was flat­
tered, amazed, and very excited,” recalls
Eileen Strempel ’88E about her debut at the
Bolshoi Opera last February. Dressed in the
same glittering costume worn by Galina
Vishnevskaya decades ago, Strempel sang
the lead in Moscow’s first-ever Italianlanguage production of La Traviata.
Traditionally the Bolshoi has performed
almost all foreign operas in Russian. But,
says the company’s artistic director, Yevgeny
Raikov, “The musical taste of the Russian
people has changed,” so the opera house
has started to expand its repertoire.
Strempel was on a two-month program
studying Russian opera at the Bolshoi last
Dr. DeBuono in Rhode Island’s kitchen
fall when Raikov first heard her singing the
role —and invited her to return as Verdi’s
Doctoring Rhode Island
Violetta in the upcoming production.
The singer says she knew enough about
Barbara DeBuono ’76, ’80M is a physician
Moscow audiences —audiences raised, so to with a declared interest in “the big picture”
speak, on a diet of Boris Godunov and A
in health —that is, public health. And to
Life for the Czar—to expect their hearty
that end she has taken on as her patient the
response to operatic performances in their
entire State of Rhode Island and Provi­
native tongue. But she hadn’t anticipated
dence Plantations, to give her domain its
the extent to which enthusiasm would bub­
full and euphonious designation.
ble over for an Italian opera in its native
The director, since 1991, of the Rhode
tongue. “The house actually exploded into
Island Department of Health (the first
an ovation in the middle of the first-act
woman and youngest person to hold that
aria,” says the coloratura, sounding still a
job), DeBuono is the Brooklyn-raised
little surprised by the whole thing.
daughter of two school principals, who
A guest appearance with the Bolshoi
decided on a career in medicine and public
Opera Sextet elicited the same xenophilic
health after a brief fling with the publish­
response—this time to excerpts from
ing industry.
Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe,
Armed with her Rochester M.D. and a
all about the Colorado silver mines. “After
Master’s of Public Health from Harvard,
every song people would come up and
she got to Rhode Island via a fellowship in
bring me flowers,” says Strempel.
infectious diseases at Brown. She then put
To date, Strempel’s career has been a
in a five-year stint as state epidemiologist
succession of high notes. Among the pres­
and medical director of its Office of Dis­
tigious competitions at which she has come ease Control before assuming her current
out a winner: the Sullivan Foundation, the
office—which she did semi-simultaneously
Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, the
with the birth of her second child. (For­
Liederkranz Society, and the Enrico Caruso tunately, she says, both children are “very
Vocal Competition.
adaptable. They’re happy kids; they travel
Presently she holds a three-year Career
well, they adapt to the changing schedules
Development Grant for Outstanding Young of both their parents, and they’re able to
Artists from the New Jersey-based Opera
entertain themselves.”)
Music Theater International.
As state health director DeBuono has
With international competitions to pre­
had to deal with budget cuts (state funding
pare for, lessons to teach (at the Brooklyn
was so low when she took over that the
Conservatory of Music), and performances
federal government was spending more on
that take her around the globe, Strempel
Rhode Islanders’ health than Rhode Island
says she’s never been happier. “I decided a
was), demoralizing staff layoffs, and, among
few years ago that I didn’t want to turn 40
other worries, the threat of a major food­
and think I’d never tried my best to sing
poisoning outbreak after Hurricane Bob
professionally—so I’m giving it my all.”
sent back to the Stone Age the refrigera­

tion units in about a thousand restaurants
and food stores up and down the coast.
All that, however, hasn’t kept her from
thinking, a lot, about the bigger picture.
And along those lines she is happy to add
her voice to the current clamor for health­
care reform. “It is sorely needed in this
country,” she declares, “especially for the
poor. ”
The momentum for change on a national
level, however, she notes, is coming from
middle and upper middle class people who
are “feeling the impact of rising costs of
health insurance. They’re unhappy with the
system.”
In her own state, 21 percent of its resi­
dents live below the poverty line, and
whatever care many of them get tends to
be delivered in hospital emergency rooms.
A universal health-care program would en­
courage people to visit doctors for preven­
tive care, she points out, saving money
down the line in emergency costs.
Keeping young children in good health is
a good beginning toward a healthy Rhode
Island, DeBuono says. A bill before the
state legislature this summer would provide
for universal health care for all children up
to age six—a $7.5 million package encom­
passing preventive care, emergency room
visits, in-patient care, and enhanced serv­
ices.
“We are aware that the federal govern­
ment is also heading in this direction,”
DeBuono says. “But we don’t want Rhode
Islanders to wait.”
Contributed by Denise Bolger Kovnat, Wendy
Levin, and Kathy Quinn Thomas

43

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

/BOOKS
£ / Recordings
Recent publications from alumni,
faculty, and staff

reprinted Loft’s standard guide to the
repertoire, Violin and Keyboard, Volumes I
(early 17th century through Bach, Vivaldi,
and Mozart) and II (Beethoven through the
1960s)-$34 each.
Falling in Love with Wisdom: American
Philosophers Talk About Their Calling edited

by David Karnos and Robert Shoemaker.
Oxford University Press. $23.
Contributed by thinkers young and old,
male and female, famous and obscure,
these pieces reveal the rewards and hazards
of a life dedicated to the pursuit of wis­
dom. Includes essays by Lewis Beck, Bur­
bank Professor Emeritus of Philosophy,
and Henry Kyburg, Jr., current incumbent
of the chair.
The Footprints of God: Divine Accommodation
in Jewish and Christian Relations by Stephen

°

BOOKS

>T

The American Enlightenment edited by Frank

Shuffelton, professor of English. University
of Rochester Press. $65.
These essays from the Journal of the
History of Ideas represent more than five
decades of scholarship that has enlarged
our understanding of the Enlightenment
in America.

B
F O U R

R

I

R U S S I A N S

B U D A P E S T

O
C A L L E D

S T R 1 M C

THE

Benin ’69. State University of New York
Press. $19.95 paper; $59.50 hardcover.
The first systematic study of the concept
of accommodation, the idea that divine
revelation had to be attuned to the human
condition.

Q U A R T E T

Gastrointestinal Regulatory Peptides (Handbook
of Experimental Pharmacology, Vol. 106) edited

by David Brown ’76. Springer-Verlag,
Heidelberg, 1993. $352.

Approaches to the Future by Erwin Fellows

’41, ’42G. Wilcox Press, 28042 Lindehurst
Dr., Zephyrhills, FL 33544-2705. $16.95.
A series of essays on scientific and tech­
nological trends in contemporary society.
Basic Moral Philosophy by Robert Holmes,
professor of philosophy. Wadsworth Pub­
lishing.
An introduction to the main issues of
Western moral philosophy, suitable as a
handbook for upper-level students. Holmes
writes and teaches on issues of peace and
nonviolence.
A Case For Legal Ethics by Vincent Luizzi

’70. SUNY Series in Ethical Theory, 1993.
$14.95, paper; $44.50, hardcover.
Competent Counsel by Erwin Cherovsky ’55.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
How to receive better, more cost-effective
legal services, especially for owners or man­
agers of small-to-medium-sized companies.
Pointers on selecting, retaining, and moni­
toring lawyers in a variety of business con­
texts.
Con Brio: Four Russians Called the Budapest
String Quartet by Nat Brandt ’51. Oxford

University Press, 1993. $25.
Recounts the story of the four Russian
refugees who formed the most influential
string quartet of the 20th century and re­
veals how they created an audience for
chamber music in America.
44

NAT

B RANDT

Holy Women of Russia by Brenda Meehan,
professor of history. HarperCollins, 1993.
A look at the spiritual paths of five
women who formed religious communities
after the government closed official mon­
asteries in the late 18th century.
Jazz Theory and Practice by Richard Lawn

The Counter-Arts Conspiracy, Arts and
Industry in the Age of Blake by Morris Eaves,

’71, ’76G and Jeff Hellmer ’83E. Wads­
worth Publishing Company.

professor of English. Cornell University
Press. $37.95.
A fresh look at Blake’s significance as a
poet, artist, and theorist that casts light on
the English art scene of his day.

Living in the State of Stuck: How Technology
Impacts the Lives of People with Disabilities by

Dangerous Truths and Criminal Passions: The
Evolution of the French Novel, 1569-1791 by

Thomas DiPiero, assistant professor of
French. Stanford University Press.
A look at how the novel turned a factbased world upside down. (See page 9.)
Ensemble! A Rehearsal Guide to Thirty Great
Works of Chamber Music by Abram Loft,

professor emeritus of strings. Amadeus
Press. $34.95.
An exploration of 30 compositions, from
piano trio to string sextet, from Haydn to
Britten: bowings, fingerings, tone color,
dynamics, tempo, balance, rubato, phras­
ing, repeats. Amadeus has also recently

Marcia Joslyn Scherer ’86G, ’87G. Brook­
line Books. $32.95.
Based upon the accounts of people with
cerebral palsy and spinal cord injuries, who
tell what it’s like to be paralyzed from the
neck down.
Marketing Communications: How to Avoid
Myopia and Add Marketing Power to Your
Publications by Robert Topor ’71G. Edu­

cational Catalyst Publications, 280 Easy
Street, Suite 114, Mountain View, CA
94043-3736. $33.95.
A hands-on user’s guide that describes
how marketing research can be employed
to drive communications that are cost
effective and results oriented.
The Matter of Scotland: Historical Narrative
in Medieval Scotland by R. James Goldstein

’77. University of Nebraska Press.

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

RECOMMENDED
READING
selected by faculty

account of the life of a Vodou commu­
nity and its leader, Mama Lola,
The Body and Society. Men, Women and
Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity

by Peter Brown. Columbia University
Press, 1988.
Intellectual and social history at its
best. An immensely learned, gracefully
written exploration of the meaning of
sexuality and renunciation in late antiq­
uity. b;
Behind toe Urals. An American Worker in
Russia’s City of Steel by John Scott.

Brenda Meehan* professor of history and
religion, and director of the University’s
Russian Studies Program.

A specialist in Russian history from
Peter the Great to President Yeltsin,„
Meehan is the author of the newly pub­
lished H oly Women o f Russia (see page
44), and an earlier book, Autocracy and
Aristocracy: The Russian Service Elite
o f 1730, which earned a National En­
dowment for the Humanities award for
“outstanding books in the humanities.”
As for her reading habits, author
Meehan says that although she enjoys ,
books on a diversity of topics, she iaiel\.
reads; things unrelated in one way or
another to her work*
SSHB
“Most of what I read has to do with
the question of how human beings can
lead decent lives. I’m drawn to books
that suggest that there are reasonable
ways of handling complicated societal
issues.*’ ¡ ¡ ¡ |||l I j j I - .v I •■§V. 1’■I •
Asked about her most recent favorite,
reads, Meehan offers the following titles,
all available in paperback, that touch
upon her many areas of interest:
Mama Lola/ A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn

by Karen McCarthy Brown. University'
of California Press, 1991.
%:
A landmark book iri anthropology,
combining fictional, biographical, and
ethnological narratives into a stunning
Medieval Drama oh the Continent of Europe

edited by John Stroupe ’62G and Clifford
Davidson. Medieval Institute Publications.

Indiana University Press, 1989,
. A new edition of John Scott’s classic
account of his five years as a worker in
the new industrial city of Magnitogorsk
in the 1930s, The best firsthand account
of the daily life of Stalinism, it is im­
portant, absorbing reading as Russia
attempts to come to terms with its past.

’71GE. SIMA Publishers, P.O. Box 25423,
Tamarac, FL 33320-5423. $18.
An epistolary narrative of a first-genera­
tion American Jewish woman born of im­
migrant parents.

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham ’84G. Har­
vard University Press. $34.95.
Focusing on the National Baptist Con­
vention, the largest religious movement
among black Americans, Higginbotham
shows how women were largely responsible
for making the church a force for self-help
in the black community.
Talk Your Way to the Top: Communication
Secrets of the CEOs by Stephen Maloney

’67G, ’71G. Prentice Hall.
Tips on becoming a confident public
speaker.
The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Volume 2, co-authored by Ralph Orth ’60G

and Ronald Bosco. University of Missouri
Press. $44.95.
The second in a three-volume edition
that brings twelve of Emerson’s topical
notebooks into print for the first time.

Cries of the Spirit edited by Marilyn

20th Century Music for Young String Players

Sewell. Beacon Press, 1991.
The best anthology of women’s
poetry I know of. More than 300 poems
and a few prose pieces by modem writers
such as Maya Angelou, Annie Dillard,
Denise Levertov, Marge Piercy, and
Alice Walker, as well as earlier writers
like Hildegard o f Bingen and Margaret
Fuller., *

by Margaret Farish ’39E, ’46GE. Plandaco,
P.O. Box 6177, Evanston, IL 60204. $15.
Includes works by 69 composers. Indexed
by composer, grade, and instrumentation.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1884-1933 by
Blanche Wiesen Cook. Penguin, 1992.
The passionate woman and the brave
political leader come together in this
first-rate biography.

#313102). A recent release by Sandra Gold­
berg ’77GE.

Oyer Her Dead Body. Death, Femininity and
the Aesthetic by Elizabeth Bronfen.

Routledge, 1992.
Throws light on the disturbing con­
junction of beauty, morbidity, and the
feminine that pervades our culture. A
powerful integration of literary criti­
cism, art history, and psychoanalysis.
Evocatively illustrated.

Politics in Chile: Democracy, Authoritarianism,
and the Search for Development by Lois Hecht

Oppenheim ’69. Westview Press.

$ 12.

The Olive Tree by Arlene Cohen Stein ’57,

Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement
in the Black Baptist Church 1880-1920 by

Reason and Argument by Richard Feldman,
professor of philosophy. Prentice-Hall.
A textbook designed to make students
more intelligent consumers of what they
read and hear. It dispenses with the tradi­
tional mathematical view of logic and with
the standard list of informal fallacies,
covering instead the nature of reasoning,
rationality, and truth.

RECORDINGS
Chamber Music for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano
by Darius Milhaud. On CD (Koch-Schwann

It Is All Music composed by Frederick Koch
’70GE, on Truemedia Records LTD. Seven
songs to the poetry of Barbara Angell,
sung by Andrew White, baritone, and Ruth
Bent, soprano. On CD.
Music of Sydney Hodkinson (’57, ’58G). In­
cluding “Threnody,” “Epitaphion,” and
“Trauermusik.” On CD. Novisse Label.
Fall 1993. He is professor of conducting
and ensembles at Eastman.
Objects in the Mirror by Jeff Beal ’85. Triloka
Records, the trumpeter/composer’s third
solo jazz release on Triloka Records. Other
Beal releases include Concerto for Jazz Bass
and Orchestra, on John Patitucci’s album
Heart of the Bass, the first release on
Chick Corea’s new label, Stretch Records,
a division of GRP; and Three Graces, Beal’s
fourth solo jazz release on Triloka Records.
Recruit To Win . . . How to Build a Quality
Sales Organization in the Financial Services
Industry by Ira Gedan ’63. On cassette.

Gedan has worked with numerous For­
tune 500 Companies applying the princi­
ples of motivation and winner behavior
to the problems of management and sales
success.

Rochester Review/Fall 1993

oin nationally and internationally renowned opera stars
and rising stars of the future, currently performing with
the Eastman Opera Theatre, for a spectacular 7-night cruise of
the Western Caribbean on one of Holland America Line’s finest
ships, the Niew Amsterdam. In addition to tempting ports of call—
Mexico, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Key West—you will enjoy
sparkling shipboard concerts drawn from a wide repertoire, ranging
from opera to Broadway. Host Richard Pearlman, director of the Eastman
Opera Theatre and Eastman School of Music professor of opera, will be on
board to tell you everything you always wanted to know about opera but
were afraid to ask!

J

This is no ordinary cruise! Aboard this exquisite ship, you will enjoy legendary
service, incredible dining, balmy Caribbean breezes, and opportunities to socialize
with and be entertained by the opera stars of today and tomorrow.

OPERA
CRUISE
January 8 -1 5 , 1994

For more information, or a brochure, or to register,
simply call or write:
University of Rochester Alumni Association
Fairbank Alumni House
685 Mt. Hope Avenue
Rochester, NY 14627-8993
(800) 333-0175 or (716) 275-3684

REDUCE TAXES
Increase Incom e!
SUPPORTING the U NIVERSITY through a Gift Annuity will reduce your taxes (charitable
deduction) AND provide income to you fo r life. If funded with appreciated stock, there are
additional tax savings (avoiding capital gains), AN D the income may exceed current dividend
income earned from the donated stock.
Th e f o l l o w in g c h a r t s h o w s s o m e o f t h e f in a n c ia l b e n e f it s t h a t a d o n o r

u n i v e r s i t y

ENJOYS FR O M A N A N N U IT Y F U N D E D W I T H A $ 1 0 , 0 0 0 G IFT OF C A SH .

ROCHESTER

A ge of Income
Beneficiary

*C haritable
D eduction

A nnual Income
G uaranteed for L ife

Tax F ree Portion
of A nnual Income

55
60
65
70
75
80
85

$2,485
$2,811
$3,263
$3,688
$4,134
$5,188
$6,167

$670
$700
$730
$780
$850
$850
$850

$264
$298
$339
$397
$473
$512
$564

*D eductions shown are based on the range of monthly discount rates at the time of
PUBLICATION.

46

o f

F o r m o r e in f o r m a t io n pl e a se
WRITE OR c a l l :
Ja c k K r e c k e l
O f f ic e o f P l a n n e d G iv in g

685 Mt. H o p e A v e n u e
R o c h e s t e r , NY 14627-8993

1-800-635-4672 or
716-275-5171

Alumni Review

Fall 1993

Review
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
NEW YORK CITY
CAMPAIGN HEATS UP

ADAM URBANSKI ’69,
75G WINS 1993
HUTCHISON AWARD

Major activity starts in the fall

This fall, the University
officially launches its New York
City regional campaign —part
of the “National Phase” of the
Campaign for the ’90s. (The
National Phase supports the
“Rochester Experience,” which
is the portion of the campaign
that aids River Campus pro­
grams. The goal for the Roches­
ter Experience is $175 million.)
This campaign —slated to
reach alumni, parents of stu­
dents, and other friends of the
University in a 12-county area
surrounding New York City—
has a goal of $10 million.
Outside of the Rochester
area, the New York City region
has the greatest concentration
of alumni in the country—
roughly 7,000, amounting to
some 10 percent of all Roches­
ter alumni.
To date, Peter Standish ’64,
chair of the New York City
Campaign, has assembled a
strong committee of 23 volun­
teers, whose names are listed on
page 48. This fall, they will be­
gin contacting individuals in
the New York area for gifts.
“We’re going to use all the
resources we can muster—the
skills and strengths that come,
in part, from our Rochester
education—to further the goals
of the campaign,” says Standish.
“Our primary goal, of course, is
to enrich the heart and soul of
our University: undergraduate
education.”

Kenneth Shepsle ’70G,
D. Allan Bromley ’52G
become first
Distinguished Rochester Scholars

Peter Standish ’64, chair of the New York City campaign, and Edwin Colodny ’48,
chair of the Campaign for the ’90s.

MEET PETER
STANDISH ’64
Head of the New York City
Campaign

Why is attorney Peter
Standish giving his time to
the New York City Campaign?
“When you sort through the
sources of enrichment in your
life, your college normally
places high on the list. It does
in mine,” he says.
“Rochester provided me with
intellectual, cultural, and social
growth as well as financial and
personal assistance. It’s time for
me to give back in return.”

Standish is a senior partner
in the Trade Practices and Reg­
ulatory Law Department of
Weil, Gotshal, & Manges, a
650-person law firm in New
York City. His practice includes
all areas of domestic and inter­
national antitrust and trade
regulation work, ranging from
criminal grand juries to
distribution and marketing,
with a focus on merger and
acquisitions.
For the campaign, he has
made a generous pledge of
$125,000.

Being a
good teacher
isn’t easy, says
Adam Urbanski, president
of the Roches­
ter Teachers
Association
Urbanski
and winner
of this year’s Hutchison Award,
presented at Commencement in
May.
“Saying that all you have to
do to be a good teacher is love
kids is like saying that all you
have to do to be a good surgeon
is love patients,” he says, dem­
onstrating his gift for the quot­
able quote.
Urbanski has earned a name
for himself both nationally and
locally as an outspoken cham­
pion of school reform. Since re­
ceiving a B.A. in political sci­
ence in 1969 and a Ph.D. in
history in 1975, he has focused
his entire career on education.
He worked for 12 years as a
teacher—teaching in every
school he has attended, he likes
to remind people, from Frank­
lin High to Monroe Commu­
nity College to the University—
before becoming president in

(continued on page 48)

47

ALUM NI REVIEW

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

From
HAL JOHNSON ’52
President, Alumni Association
m

Looking ahead to the
1993-94 academic year

As the incoming president
of the Trustees’ Council—
the senior governing board
of your Alumni Assbriafion
—I’d like to introduce my­
self and give you a look at
our priorities for the coming
year.
First, I want to welcome
our newest Alumni Associa­
tion members, the Class of
1993. We’ll be looking to
you for new leadership,
energy, and ideas. You’re i:
part of a vital University
community—including some
70,000 alumni, nearly 10,000
full-time and part-time stu­
dents and their parents,
1,200 full-time faculty, and7,600 full-time staff. The in-

fluence of this group extends
across the country and
.around theJwnHd. -.
What’s on the agenda for
the AlummAssociationfor
the coming year? As you’ll: ; ;
notice in this issue of Alumni
Review, we’re hard at work
on the New York City re­
gional campaign, part of the
National Phase of the Uni­
versity’s Campaign for the
’90s. (The National Phase,
in general, supports River
Campus programs.) In an­
other arena, the Strategic
Planning process continues,
with the aim of creating a
stronger, more responsive
Alumni Association. And
on page 53, we’re extending ' /
you a warm invitation to at­
tend Regatta on October 17
and Homecoming, set for
October 22 and 23:;/
I look forward to working
with many of you as we con­
tinue to serve the University,
its alumni, its students, and
their families. Meiiora!

u

AW ARDS
(continued from page 47)
U N I V E R S I T Y

OF

ROCHESTER

A LU M N I
A S S O C I A T I O N
685 Mt. Hope Ave.
University o f Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627-8993
Phone: (800) 333-0175 or
(716) 275-3684
Fax: (716) 473-5739

ALUMNI REVIEW
Editorial Office, 107 Administration
Building, University o f Rochester,
Rochester, NY 14627-0033, (716)
275-4117. Fax: (716) 275-0359

48

1981 of the 3,500-member
teachers’ union of the Rochester
City School District.
The Hutchison Medal, first
awarded in 1977, is the highest
honor the University gives to its
alumni.
Also at Commencement, two
Ph.D. graduates of the Univer­
sity were named the first Distin­
guished Rochester Scholars.
Kenneth Shepsle, a political
science professor at Harvard’s
Kennedy School of Govern­
ment, and D. Allan Bromley,
science advisor for former
President George Bush, re­
ceived medals during the Ph.D.
investiture ceremonies for the
College of Arts and Science.

CLASS OF ’50 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS AND ALUMNI met last spring at the Fac­
ulty Club: (bottom left) scholarship winners Travis Mastroddi ’94 and Linnette
Aponte ’94 and (top right) Class of ’50 members William Gamble and Doris Waring
Luckey. The endowed scholarship fund, which currently stands at $54,626, sup­
ports River Campus undergraduates. Gamble is a member of the Trustees’ Council,
the governing board of the Alumni Association.

VOLUNTEERS FOR THE
NEW YORK CAMPAIGN
These are the co-chairs of the
New York City Campaign Com­
mittee, which we hope will grow
to 100 members strong. These
individuals will carry the cam­
paign’s message to alumni,
parents of students, and other
friends of the University.
Peter Standish ’64, chair
Joel Beckman ’76
Daniel Drake ’64
Peter Furth ’76
Neil Gold ’69
Neal Jewell ’57
Dennis Karr ’67
Jack Keil ’44
Jeanine Khoury ’82
Nancy Lieberman ’77
Donald Liebers ’54
John Lyddane ’69
Joseph Mack ’55
Daniel McCarthy ’75
Martin Messinger ’49
H. Robert Miller ’77
Andrew Neilly ’47
Robert Osieski ’77, ’78G
Brian Peoples ’55
Raymond Stark ’67
John Tanenbaum ’85
Nathaniel Wisch ’55
Mitchell Zuckerman ’68

If you’d like to volunteer for
the New York City Campaign,
call Kate Zaenglein at (212) 6927615 or write her at the Univer­
sity of Rochester, New York City
Campaign Office, 230 Park
Ave., Suite 1245, New York,
NY 10169.

Attention, alumni
in Rochester: a
seven-part lecture
series for you
Don’t miss “Interpreta­
tions of Excellence: A Series
on Prizewinners,” a lecture
series featuring Rochester
faculty, beginning this fall
at Cutler Union! The series
is sponsored by the Meiiora
Club of Greater Rochester.
• Sept. 22: Medical school
dean Dr. Marshall Lichtman
’66R speaks on the Nobel
Prize in medicine.
• Oct. 20: Pulitzer Prize­
winning composer
Christopher Rouse looks
at the Pulitzer and modern
music.
• Nov. 17: Philosopher
Robert Holmes speaks on
the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Jan. 19: MacArthur grant
winner and novelist Joanna
Scott talks about literary
prizes.
Evenings begin with a
wine-and-cheese reception
followed by the lecture at
7 p.m. (Speakers TBA for
Feb. 16, March 16, and
April 20.)
Watch for your brochure
in the mail!

A SCRAPBOOK OF REUNION ’93
June 3-6 on the River Campus

The Alumni Chorale-back by popular demand after its first appearance at Reunion
’92-performed Friday night for the All-Alumni Dinner on the Eastman Quadrangle.

Members of the Class of ’43 presented the University with a check for more than
$1.2 million-setting an all-time record for a reunion-class gift to the University.
Pictured above (left to right): President O’Brien, Esther Cohen Germanow ’43, and
Richard Kramer ’43.

On the steps of Rush Rhees Library, graduates of the Class of ’88 paused for a photo with President O’Brien.

Professor of Political Science David
Weimer, among a number of faculty
speakers, gave a talk on “ Real World
Political Economy: Understanding Eco­
nomic Transitions.”

ALUM NI REVIEW

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

CALENDAR
For details, call the Alumni
Association at (800) 333- 0175
or (716) 275-3684.
September

8 —Rochester: Convocation
11 —Cleveland: Football at
Case Western Reserve
12 —Rochester: Yellowjacket
Day
18 —Rochester: Football v.
Carnegie Mellon
19 —Rochester: Men’s and
women’s soccer v. Emory
22 —Rochester: “Prize­
winners” lecture
23 —Rochester: Alumni
mixer
25 —St. Louis: Football at
Washington University
25-27—Pittsburgh: UAA
women’s volleyball round
robin at Carnegie Mellon
October

1—Rochester: Men’s and
women’s soccer v. Wash­
ington University
1-2 —Rochester: Medical
reunion
2 —Rochester: Football v.
Chicago
3 —Rochester: Men’s and
women’s soccer v. Chicago
8-9 —Rochester: Nursing
reunion
9 —Boston: Men’s and
women’s soccer at Brandeis
15-17 —Rochester: Simon
School reunion
17—Rochester: Bausch &
Lomb Regatta
20 —Rochester: “Prize­
winners” lecture
22 —Pittsburgh: Men’s and
women’s soccer v. Carnegie
Mellon
22 —Rochester: Alumni
mixer
22-23 —Rochester: Home­
coming (football v. St.
Lawrence)
23 —Atlanta: UAA men’s
and women’s cross country
championships at Emory

24 —Boston: Head of the
Charles Regatta
24 —Cleveland: Men’s and
women’s soccer at Case
Western Reserve
29-30—Rochester: UAA
women’s volleyball cham­
pionships
November

4- 14 —New York: Brothers
Karamazov performance
5 —Chicago: Lyric Opera
performance
5- 7—Rochester: Parents’
Weekend
17 —Rochester: “Prize­
winners” lecture
December

3 —Cleveland: Men’s and
women’s basketball at Case
Western Reserve
3-4 —Cleveland: UAA men’s
and women’s swimming in­
vitational at Case Western
Reserve
5 —Rochester: Men’s
and women’s basketball
v. Brandeis
10 —Rochester: Men’s and
women’s basketball v. Johns
Hopkins
12 —Rochester: Men’s and
women’s basketball v. NYU
19 —Boston: Holiday party
January

7 —Pittsburgh: Men’s and
women’s basketball at Car­
negie Mellon
9 —Atlanta: Men’s and
women’s basketball at
Emory
19 —Rochester: “Prize­
winners” lecture
21 —Rochester: Men’s and
women’s basketball v. Wash­
ington University
23 —Rochester: Men’s and
women’s basketball v.
Chicago
28 —Boston: Men’s
and women’s basketball
v. Brandeis
30 —New York: Men’s and
women’s basketball v. NYU

AT A SIMON SCHOOL GATHERING IN TOKYO LAST MARCH, alumna Chise Koyama
’93G (second from right) talked with three prospective students. The event included
Japanese alumni of the school and individuals who had recently been admitted.

CLUB LIST
For further details or to help
plan alumni programs in the
following areas, call your
Alumni Association at (800)
333-0175 or (716) 275-3684.

LOS ANG ELES
N EW YORK C ITY
PHILADELPHIA

A LB A N Y

PHOENIX

A TLA N TA

PITTSBURGH

BOSTON

ROCHESTER

BUFFALO

SAN DIEGO

CHICAGO

SAN FRANCISCO

D ALLAS/FT. W ORTH

TU C SON

DENVER

W ASHINGTON, D.C.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY,
CONN.

International Activities

FT. M YERS, FLA.

TAIPEI, TAIW AN

HARTFORD

TOKYO, JAPAN

HERE’S A SAMPLER
OF ROCHESTER CLUB
ACTIVITIES
What’s on the agenda for
Rochester Clubs around the
nation? Here’s a look at some
club activities past, present, and
future.
ALBANY

Past events: In May the
group attended the Albany
tulip festival. . . . Also in May,
a trip to hear the Albany Sym­
phony. . . . A reception to wel­
come incoming freshmen took
place on June 17.
Coming up: The club spon­
sors “Happy Hours” each
month and is planning its
second-annual Boar’s Head
Dinner.
BOSTON

Past events: A Dandelion
Day celebration in April. . . . A
talk by Professor John Mueller,
who spoke on President Clin­
ton’s first 100 days, at the annual
reception on May 13. The event,
attended by more than 80 alum­
ni, also served to welcome
members of the Class of 1997.
. . . A trip to the Boston Beer
Works and to a Red Sox game
on June 26.
Coming up: The Head of the
Charles Regatta on October 24,
one of the biggest annual events
for the club. . . . A holiday
party on December 19 spon­
sored by George Mullen ’41
and wife Mary, an “honorary
alumna.”
CHICAGO

Coming up: Tickets are avail­
able for the Chicago Lyric
Opera’s November 5 perform­
ance of Susannah by Carlisle
Floyd—featuring René Fleming
’83GE in the lead. Tickets are
limited; call (800) 333-0175 if
you’re interested.
NEW YORK

Past events: In the spring,
Professor John Mueller pre­
sented an “Evening with Fred
Astaire” at the offices of
Saatchi and Saatchi, hosted by
Joseph Mack ’55. . . . More than
150 alumni showed up with
friends and family for a Dan­
delion Day picnic in Central
Park on April 24. . . . On July
8, the club watched the Mets
play the L.A. Dodgers. . . .
Alumni enjoyed a softball game
in Central Park (August 7).

Coming up: At press time,
tickets were available for the
U.S. Open (August 30). . . . An
economic summit in the fall
will look at President Clinton
and the U.S. economy. . . . In
October, alumni will gather for
the New York City regional
campaign kickoff. . . . In
November, the club hosts a
reception following the Uni­
versity’s production of The
Brothers Karamazov at La
Mama theater.
ROCHESTER

Past events: In the spring,
a faculty speaker and brunch
featuring Professor Stephen
Hutchings, who spoke on his
experiences in eastern and west­
ern Europe. . . . In April, a
concert featuring the everpopular Yellowjackets a capella
group. . . . On May 6, the an­
nual dinner, featuring Provost
Brian Thompson. This year’s
Rochester Meliora Club
scholarships went to Heidi Witmer
’94 and Omar Qureshi ’9 7 . . . . A
picnic on June 9 welcoming
members of the Class of 1997.
Coming up: Alumni mixers —
on September 23 at the Pittsford Pub and on October 22
at the Elmwood Inn. . . . A
brunch in the fall kicking off
the ’93-’94 year. . . . Beginning
in September, “Interpretations
of Excellence: A Series on
Prizewinners,” a seven-part lec­
ture series featuring Rochester
professors, at Cutler Union.

AT THE ANNUAL ‘GARDEN PARTY’ IN JUNE, major donors to the Campaign for the
’90s gathered to learn about the success of the campaign to date. Among those in
attendance were Jack ’44 and Pauline (Diddy) Faulkner Handy ’48.

SAN FRANCISCO

Coming up: The annual fall
dinner at the California Culi­
nary Academy, always a soldout event!
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Past events: In the spring, the
Trinity Players of Georgetown
presented Once on This Island,
a play co-produced by Allison
Bauer ’88. . . . A faculty speaker
forum with Professor William
Green, dean of undergraduate
studies, speaking on “Getting
to Know You: Religion, Educa­
tion, and American Pluralism.”
. . . The 11th annual picnic to
welcome incoming freshmen,
held June 13. . . . July 10, a
special White House tour.
Coming up: Tentatively
scheduled for the ’93-’94 year,
a tour of the Canadian em­
bassy. . . . More faculty speaker
forums (one dealing with health
policy). . . . Monthly alumni
mixers.

VISITING THE WHITE HOUSE-and posing before a famous portrait of George
Washington-are some of the leaders of the Rochester Club of Greater Washing­
ton, D.C. (left to right): Gerry Smith ’83G, chair; Neil Ende ’77, steering commit­
tee member; Andrea Bourquin Ryan ’77N, steering committee member, alumni
program committee chair, and Trustees’ Council member; and Marc Hoberman
’70, steering committee member.

ALUM NI REVIEW

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

ALUM NI REVIEW

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

ANNUAL FUND
HITS ANOTHER
RECORD HIGH
Robert Klimasewski ’66, ’67GE
to head up ’9 3-’94 fund drive

On June
30— the close
of the Univer­
sity’s fiscal
year and the
close of the
’92-’93 Annual
Fund camKlimasews ki
paign —annual
giving at Rochester had reached
a new high for the fifth year in a
row. This year’s total: $2,550,000.
“In a year of economic trouble
across the country, Rochester’s
Annual Fund has seen remark­
able growth,” says Hal Johnson
’52, chair of the ’92-’93 fund
drive and the new president of
the Alumni Association.
“Our success demonstrates
that Rochester alumni are truly
committed to this University.
It’s a terrific show of support
—one which greatly benefits
our students, who rely on the
Annual Fund for scholarship
support.” The Annual Fund
is central to the success of the
National Phase of the Cam­
paign for the ’90s, which focuses
on the Rochester Experience.
Robert Klimasewski, a mem­
ber of the Trustees’ Council,
chairs the Annual Fund cam­
paign for 1993-94. He’s highly
optimistic about surpassing this
year’s record for giving, point­
ing out that the ’93-’94 goal has
been tentatively set at $3.2 mil­
lion.
“I’m very impressed with the
records set by the Annual Fund
in recent years,” he says. “And
I’m happy to take on a project
with such a history of success.
My goal is to increase the in­
volvement of alumni —in fact,
I’d like to see a 100 percent par­
ticipation rate—and build on
their already high level of con­
fidence in their alma mater.”
For details about Annual
Giving at the University—or to
make a gift—please call Mary
Jo Ferr, director of the Annual
Fund, at the Alumni Associa­
tion at (800) 333-0175 or (716)
275-8908.

MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF ’93 GIFT COMMITTEE raised $3,000 for their class gift this year. Pictured above in Wilson
Commons are committee members (left to right) Suchitra Kavety, Kim O’Brien, Dwayne Samuels, Steve Moskowitz, and Kiri
Tannenbaum. The gift supports the Hyman J. V. Goldberg Career Library in the Center for Work and Career Development.

‘STRATEGIC PLAN’
FOR THE ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION MOVES
TOWARD COMPLETION
In April, the first draft of a
strategic plan for the Alumni
Association —a document es­
tablishing clear objectives for
the association and its future
activities—was submitted to
alumni leaders.
The plan, slated to be com­
pleted by spring 1994, repre­
sents nearly two years of work
thus far by alumni leaders and
Alumni Association staff. The
process includes an extensive re­
view of Alumni Association
programs and detailed polling
of alumni, students, faculty,
and staff.
“The preliminary plan is
based on three survey instru­
ments that we sent out: an anal­
ysis of the Alumni Association’s
strengths, weaknesses, opportu­
nities, and threats by alumni,
students, faculty, and staff; a

postcard survey of 50,000 alum­
ni; and a questionnaire sent to
400 ‘influence leaders,’ ” says
Jerry Gardner ’58, ’65G, chair of
the Strategic Planning Commit­
tee. Gardner is a member of the
Trustees’ Council and president
of C. A. Gardner and Associ­
ates, an Atlanta-based manage­
ment-consulting firm special­
izing in organizational
development.
A second draft of the plan
was completed this summer,
based on the comments of
some 400 influence leaders —
alumni, students, and faculty.
“This fall, we want to begin
working intensively with stu­
dents and faculty to get their
input on the second draft and
to learn how alumni can be in­
volved meaningfully in the life
of the University,” Gardner
says. He expects the third draft
to be completed this winter,
with final approval by the
Board of Trustees next spring.

The Trustees’ Council,
the governing board of the
Alumni Association, is seek­
ing nominations for its or­
ganization. To nominate an
individual, please submit the
individual’s name and a
brief profile to Hal Johnson
’52, c/o the Alumni Asso­
ciation, Fairbank Alumni
House, University of Roch­
ester, Rochester, NY 146278993. We appreciate your
help!

COME HOME FOR
HOMECOMING ’93!
Friday and Saturday, October 2 2 -2 3
Each fall, hundreds of nostalgic alumni return to
the River Campus for Homecoming Weekend. Just a
few of the activities planned for your enjoyment:
alumni mixers, faculty lectures, an Eastman concert,
stand-up comedy, performances by the Yellowjackets
singing group, and the traditional pep rally, Home­
coming parade, and Saturday-afternoon football game.
Friday, October 22

• Student-organization exhibits in Wilson
Commons
• Faculty lectures
• Shabbat dinner at Hillel
• T.G.I.F. alumni mixer at the Elmwood Inn
• Musica Nova concert at the Eastman
Theatre
• Punch Line Comedy Club performance
• Pep rally and bonfire
• “Pit Party” in Wilson Commons (with a D. J.)
Saturday, October 23

• Homecoming parade
• Football game v. St. Lawrence University
• Class of ’93 “153 Days Since Graduation”
party and young-alumni reception
• Post-game tailgate party and dinner
• Yellowjackets concert
For more information and to receive a brochure
for Homecoming ’93, call the Alumni Association at
(800) 333-0175 or (716) 275-3684. (You will not be re­
ceiving registration materials in the mail, so please
call!) The Alumni Association will be happy to pro­
vide you with information on local hotels.
U N I V E R S I T Y

OF

ROCHESTER

ON OCTOBER 17:
THE BAUSCH & L0MB
REGATTA
Some 30 rowing teams —
including powerhouses like
Dartmouth, Harvard, and the
University of Pennsylvania—
will return to Rochester again
this fall for the fifth annual
Bausch & Lomb Invitational
Regatta. The event takes place
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sun-

day, October 17, in Genesee
Valley Park.
This is the only event on the
rowing calendar to feature a
combination of three-mile head
(distance) races and sprint
(1500-meter) races. With each
passing year, more collegiate
teams want to compete. Part
of the growing interest can be
ascribed to the impressive per­
formances of Yellowjacket
crews at recent major com­
petitions.
Most of the Ivy League
schools are expected to send
crews, and the regatta will prob­
ably draw an additional 20 or
so schools from the Northeast,
the Midwest, and Canada. Past
regattas have attracted as many
as 15,000 viewers to the banks
of the Genesee River to watch
the races, listen to music, sam­
ple food, and enjoy the colorful
autumn scenery.

53

ALUM NI REVIEW

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

Key

“Ed Hall usually attends but could
not make it this year. Hopefully in
’94. If Chuck and I have overlooked
any o f our 1930 classmates, we
would like you to get in touch with
us before next spring.”

RC —River Campus colleges
G —Graduate degree, River
Campus colleges
M —M.D. degree
GM —Graduate degree, Medicine
and Dentistry
R —Medical residency
F —Fellowship, Medicine and
Dentistry
E —Eastman School o f Music
GE —Graduate degree, Eastman
N —School o f Nursing
GN —Graduate degree, Nursing
FN —Fellowship, School o f
Nursing

Harold Ketchum, CEO o f
Thomas Electronics, Inc., in Wayne,
N.J., won the National Small Busi­
ness Subcontractor o f the Year
Award, which recognizes outstand­
ing small businesses that have sup­
plied the federal government with
goods and services. His company
was judged to be the most out­
standing o f 232 companies nomi­
nated for the award.

RIVER CAMPUS

60TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994

SLATER SOCIETY

55TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994

POST 50th REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994

’30 Milton Jacobstein reports,
“On Friday, April 23, we had the
almost-annual luncheon o f the
group I call ‘The Survivors o f the
Class o f 1930 Who Live in the
Rochester Area.’ We usually meet
at the Country Club o f Rochester.
Chuck Resler is always our good
host.
“The following names are those
who were able to come this year,
together with a brief summary of
what they did before they retired:
Sam Grossfield, personnel-training
coordinator for the New York State
Department o f Labor, western New
York; Herbert Lauterbach, still going
strong, runs the family hardware
business; Gifford Orwen ’30, ’31G,
U.S. State Department and later
head o f the language department at
SUNY Geneseo; Fred Randall, public
accountant, then a banker and later
an accountant for the Farm Credit
Administration (each job for about
12 years); Charles Resler, vice presi­
dent, general manager, Consumer
Markets Division, Eastman Kodak
Company; George Ulp, minister o f
the Brighton Presbyterian Church
for 41 years; and myself, owner o f a
company in wholesale foods, a sup­
plier to hospitals, nursing homes,
schools, industry, etc.

54

’34

’39

’41

Dr. Thomas Frawley, chairman
o f graduate medical education at
St. John’s Mercy
Medical Center
and Emeritus
Professor of
Medicine at St.
Louis University
School o f Medi­
cine, has received
the American
Frawley
College o f Physi­
cians’ 1993 Alfred Stengel Memo­
rial Award. . . . Douglas Sinclair re­
ceived the Golden Apple Award o f
the Western New York Apple Grow­
ers Association and the New York
Cherry Growers Association. He
served as executive secretary for
both organizations.

’44

50TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994

’46

Louise Kepner Yates writes,
“After two years in a retirement
home for the ‘chronologically gift­
ed’ I am moving out to freedom
and independence in my own townhouse.” . . . Edwin Savlov (see ’48M).

’49

45TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-4, 1994
Richard Dales has been appointed to

the John R.
Hubbard Chair
in History at the
University o f
Southern Cali­
fornia. Recently
he’s been on sab­
batical working
on his 11th book,
D3les
a treatise on 13thcentury concepts o f the soul.

u u Barbara Dinse Ryan has earned
certification as a licensed chemicaldependency counselor from the
Texas Commission on Alcohol and
Drug Abuse. She is a counselor in
private practice in the Bay City area.

’52

Robert Frankenthal has been
elected president o f the Electro­
chemical Society. He served as the
organization’s treasurer from 1986
to 1990 and as vice president from
1990 to 1993.

’53

Arnold Berleant ’55GE writes
that he’s recently published Aes­
thetics o f Environment with Temple
University Press and that his A rt o f
Engagement has been released in
paperback. His Duo for Violin and
Viola will be performed in Bethpage, N.Y., on Nov. 1 4 . . . . D. Richard
Neill writes that he’s left the Univer­
sity o f Hawaii after 13 years at the
Hawaii National Energy Institute.
He is now the president and C.E.O.
o f GN-International, a company
that’s working in China to manu­
facture advanced rechargeable bat­
teries. He reports that he’s traveled
widely in recent years, sharing his
expertise on non-conventional
energy at conferences in the Philip­
pines, India, Thailand, Switzerland,
Indonesia, and Nepal.

’54

40TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994

’55

Nancy William Godfrey G
writes that last January, on her 58th
birthday, she “finally” got her pri­
vate pilot’s license. She and hus­
band John Godfrey ’54G fly to Roch­
ester on occasion, to visit their
daughter who’s an OR-charge
nurse at Rochester General Hospi­
tal. Their controlled clinical study
on the use o f zinc gluconate to treat

Announcing the
Kappelman-Pritchard
Library at Alpha
Delta Phi
Last December, Alpha
Delta Phi fraternity ushered
its literary program into the
1990s with the dedication of
the Kappelman-Pritchard
Library of Video Classics,
located in the fiaternitv.
The library, named in
memory of Allan Kappelman
’33 and Charles Pritchard ’31,
holds 100 videotapes of clas­
sic and contemporary films,
all selected by Rochester fac­
ulty for use by the Univer­
sity community.
Funds for the projeci
came from family and
friends of Kappelman and
Pritchard. “Iloth were ardent
praclitioners of precision
and an fulness in spoken and
written expression,” in the
words of Alpha Della Phi
alumnus John Braund ’53,
Kappelman was a stock­
broker and financial analyst
who first worked in the trea­
surer’s office at the Univer­
sity and later served as presi­
dent of the River Campus
Alumni Association’s board
of directors.
Pritchard served for
26 years with Stromberg- §§§
Carlson in Rochester, work­
ing successively as treasurer,
founder and president of the
Stromberg-Carlson Credit Jgs
Corp., and vice president for
sales and finance.
Those who spoke at Lhe
gathering were Peter Heinrich
*60, president of the Genesee
Graduate Chapter; Jeremy
Glick ’94, president of the
undergraduate chapter; am M
Professor of English Russell

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

u u At the annual meeting o f
the American Physical Society’s
Division o f Plasma Physics, John
Greene G was presented with the
James Clerk Maxwell Prize for out­
standing contributions to the field.
Since 1982 he has been a senior
technical advisor in the core physics
division at General Atomics Co. in
San Diego.

U I Morton Bittker has been named
“o f counsel” to the Rochester law
firm o f Woods, Oviatt, Gilman,
Struman & Clarke. His practice
concentrates in estate planning and
administration, real estate, and
small business matters. . . . John
LeBrun, associate professor o f his­
tory at Kent State University, writes
that he spent the 1991-92 academic
year on a faculty exchange at the
University o f Warsaw in Poland.
There he taught at the Institute for
American Studies and the Institute
o f English. He also gave lectures on
the nature o f non-violence and on
current American politics at col­
leges in Pulawy and in Crackow.

’58

Richard Thalacker has been
appointed vice president o f the
equipment group at Detrex Corp. in
Southfield, Mich. . . . Dayton Vincent
reports that he and his wife spent
time in Germany last winter. There
he taught a course and conducted
research at the Institute for Geo­
physics and Meteorology at the
University o f Cologne. They also
visited with his wife’s family in
Nürnberg. In March they went to
Australia, where he chaired a ses­
sion and presented a paper at the
Southern Hemisphere Conference
on Meteorology and Oceanography
at Hobart, Tasmania.

Deadline for
Class Notes

j

The deadline for Lhis issue
was May 14. News items re­
ceived between that dale and
September 14 will appear in
the Winter 1993-94 issue of
Alumni Review.

Class ACTS

CLASS NOTES

the common cold was published in
the Journal o f International Medi­
cal Research. The research was con­
ducted at Dartmouth College using
a formulation, developed by John,
that releases free zinc in the mouth.
Experimental design and analysis
was Nancy’s domain. In October,
Jane Brody reported on the re­
search in The New York Times.

47 Loises-or, what’s
in a name?

IN THE 100s
George Abbott ’ll, at 106 the University’s oldest living

graduate (we’re willing to bet), was a guest on the syn­
dicated PBS show, “Dennis Wholey’s America,” in April.
The legendary Broadway producer, playwright, and direc­
tor recalled that as a Rochester undergraduate he wrote
his first play, Perfectly Harmless, about one of his profes­
sors. Currently, he reports, he is rewriting his hit musical
Damn Yankees, “to take advantage of the special effects
they have now.” . . . Among the 100 best school managers
in North America—according to The Executive Educator,
a magazine for school professionals—is John Eckhardt ’65,
’67G, ’73G, superintendent of Brighton (N.Y.) Central
Schools. Eckhardt was chosen for the honor by an inde­
pendent panel of nationally recognized experts on school
administration.

SOUNDS OF MUSIC
“There doesn’t seem to be anything the five players in
NEXUS can’t do, and they are terrific showmen, too,”
writes the Boston Globe of the percussion group that
counts Bob Becker ’69E, ’71GE, Bill Cahn ’68E, and John
Wyre ’63E among its members. The group performs in
August at the Royal Albert Hall with the B.B.C. Sym­
phony, Andrew Davis conducting. . . . Also in London:
Peter Sulski ’90E reports that he’s currently playing viola
with the London Symphony Orchestra, having become a
full member last March . . . John Hastrom ’87E has been
promoted to principal trumpet of “the President’s own”
United States Marine Band. Among his recent memorable
performances: playing the processional and recessional
music at the wedding of President Bush’s daughter last
summer. . . . In April, Lee Gannon ’88E was one of 16
composers nationwide to receive an Ives Scholarship from
the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

STELLAR FEATS
Fite, that is, as in Chris Fite ’92, who played last season
for the Oldham Celtics in England’s Carlsberg Basketball
League. Not surprisingly, Rochester’s career scoring leader
finished the season averaging 25 points and 9.5 rebounds
per game and was selected to the league all-star squad.
Fite hopes that his performance will attract attention
from other, more competitive, leagues in Europe. . . .
Another high scorer, Helen “Jinx” Baker Crouch ’50, has
been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a member of the
board of the National Institute for Literacy, a position
she was originally appointed to by President Bush. She
was sworn in last November by Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia at a White House ceremony. . . . After
earning a master’s degree in international communication
from American University, Lani Horowitz ’89 is now a
Presidential Management Intern at the Department of
Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., where
she’s working for Vice President Gore’s Commission on
Reinventing Government.

To quiet a spirited group
at Rochester’s Spring House
restaurant a few months
back, the waiter simply
shouted “Lois!” —and the
room fell silent.
With 47 Loises in attend­
ance, that’s to be expected.
The occasion was the firstever meeting of the Lois
Club of Rochester, founded
by Lois lngersolf Watts ’51,
’73G. About 10 such clubs
exist throughout the coun-> J
try, based on an idea th a t'
was born when one Lois in
St. Paul, Minn., sold an in­
surance policy to another
Lois. (Marios and Bobs also
have “name clubs” through­
out the country—but Watte
is convinced that these are
just husbands of Loises try­
ing to get even.)
“No dues, no bylaws.
Just fun,” says Watts of the
Rochester organization.
“We’re a dying breed and
we want to promote the
name—which we think is
a lovely name.”
Some interesting Loisisms: There’s a man named

J^Wts,Whd.h6iohgslXtit'
a club in the Midwest. v§§|||
The Wisconsin club offers
a “Lois Club Cookbook,” ,
which happens to be sold
out. $ ||. A World War II
fighter plane was named
“Lois Honey” —by a fighterpilot husband of a Rochester
Lois—and its portrait now
hangs in the Smithsonian.
. . . The name itself means
“battle maiden,” “kitchen
helper,” and “desirable” —
this last being the favored
definition among Rochester
Loises.
For details on the Lois
Club, call Watts at (716)
244-8589.

55

CLASS NOTES

River Campus, cont.

’59

35TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994

dandelion Days

After 27 years o f federal-govern­
ment service, Gary Quigley has re­
tired as deputy general counsel
from the Defense Logistics Agency.
He has joined the Washington,
D.C., office o f the Chicago-based
law firm Sidley and Austin. He is
counsel in the firm’s Government
Contracts/Litigation Group.

’60

James Doebler ’60 has been
named chairman o f the international
engineering and planning firm, Par­
sons Brinckerhoff Construction
Services. . . . Karin Hirsch is the
branch manager o f Euro Lloyds
Travel in the greater Philadelphia
region. . . . John Milliman has been
named dean o f graduate studies o f
the School o f Marine Science/Virginia Institute o f Marine Science at
the College o f William and Mary.
Formerly he was senior scientist
with the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution in Massachusetts. . . .
Anne Loveland has been named the
T. Harry Williams Professor o f
American History at Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge.
She’s been a member o f the de­
partment since 1964. . . . Barbara
Thompson Slater writes, “I decided I
wanted to move someplace warmer
than Philadelphia so I bought a
wonderful house near Lake Austin
in Texas. I’d welcome an update
from anyone from Hollister Six.”

’61

Peter Kirby authored an ar­
ticle titled “An Aberration: Super­
visors Who Like Performance A p­
praisals?” in the October 1992 issue
o f Supervision.
O O The National Music Teachers
Association has recognized Judith
Kish as a nationally certified piano
teacher. . . . Last November Arthur
Silvergleid, medical and executive
director o f the Blood Bank o f San
Bernardino and Riverside Counties
(Calif.), was installed as president
o f the American Association of
Blood Banks at the organization’s
annual conference in San Francisco.

’64

30TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994
Mark Hampton o f Lakewood, N.Y.,
has been named a trustee with the
Peterson Institute. . . . Bette Hirsch
reports that her biography was
selected for the February 1993 vol­
ume o f Who’s Who in American
Women. She chairs the foreign lan­
guages and communications divi­
sion at Cabrillo College in Aptos,
Calif. . . . John Seinfeld has received
the American Chemical Society’s

56

The tug-of-war in Genesee Valley Park, from the 1959 Interpres.

Memories of a freshman prank
By Brett Hawkins ’59, professor of political science,
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
I was a dorm advisor my senior year at Rochester—a
year that marked some of my fondest memories, like the
one that began the warm night when I heard a ruckus
outside my door. Stepping into the hall, I saw a freshman
walking toward me followed by a dozen others, all of
them laughing. The boy in front was wearing only a pair
of sneakers.
It seems the group had collected enough money to
make a dare worthwhile. He-who-would-be-paid was to
run over to Morey as he was, across the path of the women
who would be hurrying to Susan B. Anthony Halls to
make their midnight curfew.
I was amused, but I had my duty. “You can’t do this.
It’s dumb,” I said. “It will reflect badly on Crosby, its resi­
dents, and on me for that matter.” Actually, I thought it
was funny and I started to laugh, which the boys took as
a signal to get on with it.
The line of women went from near Todd Union to the
other side of the men’s dining center (now the Frederick
Douglass Building). But as our hero ran past them —
adroitly shielding his face with a shirt he was carrying —
the women showed no reaction at all. (Were they refusing
to notice? Or simply bored in a worldly way? Or so in­
volved in intellectual conversation that they truly did not
notice? I chose the first explanation.) He soon emerged
from the shadows near Morey to cross the line again.
When he got to us, he smilingly collected his reward and,
in no time at all, the first floor of Crosby returned to
normal.
It was a long time ago, of course. Sophisticated opin­
ion has come to scorn college antics of that sort. But Chi
Rho, beanies, our class cheer, the flag rush that was really
a free-for-all, the tug-of-war in Genesee Valley Park, the
silly signs (“Grass,” “Tree,” “Sign”) appearing along with
the legitimate ones on Dandelion Day, the capture of the
president of the sophomore class and his unloading from
a rolled-up carpet on the 50-yard line at halftime-I warm
at the memories.

Business advice
from a pro
“Lots of politicians and
. economists are talking about
the economic recovery of
our nation. Short term vs.
long term. The needs of cor­
porate America. And on and
on. But seldom are mid­
sized companies—America’s
corporate ‘middle class’—
addressed,” begins an article
that appeared a few months
back in the Washington
Business Journal,
The author; Robert Varney
’66, chief executive officer of
International Telesystems
Corp., a manufacturer of '
call-management systems
based in Herndon, Va.
Varney continues, “Twothirds of the jobs in the
United States V;jj§. are pro­
vided by small and mid­
sized companies. When it
comes to growth, mid-sized
companies are leading the
way. . . .
“To remain competitive in
the 21st century, the United
States must return to a long­
term investment strategy
that includes such incentives
as a 50 percent exclusion for
long-term investments in
new business and Financial
Accounting Standards Board
(FASB) changes that encour­
age stock options. With in­
centives, the small and mid­
sized businesses will add
jobs and put our country
back on the road to
recovery.”
Founded in 1985, Inter­
national Telesystems has
regional sales offices through­
out the United States. Its
clients include Citibank,
Gannett, NationsBank, Sallie
Mae Loan Servicing, and ;v:
Ameritech Mobile Com­
munications.

(continued from column 1)
Award for Creative Advances in
Environmental Science and Tech­
nology. For more than 20 years he’s
researched the chemistry and physics
o f air pollution. Among his accom­
plishments are mathematical models
o f urban air pollution. . . . Donna
Lake Wright has been elected sus­
taining director o f the Association

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

u u Harold Schneider, an assistant
actuary with Columbus Life Insur­
ance Company in Columbus, Ohio,
has been named a Fellow o f the
Society o f Actuaries. He lives in
Bexley, Ohio, with his wife, Ellyn.
. . . Karen Spencer Brunschwig has
been appointed an instructor o f
Spanish at St. Joseph’s College in
Patchogue, N.Y. . . . In February
Richard Hull, an associate professor
o f computing sciences at LenoirRhyne College in Hickory, N.C.,
attended the annual National Asso­
ciation o f Computing Machinery
Conference on computer science
education.. . . Rev. Gail Houseman
Zackrison writes that she’s moved to
Edinboro, Pa., where she’s pastor
o f the First Evangelical Lutheran
Church. Her daughter Rebecca was
invited to join Rochester’s incoming
freshman class under the earlydecision program. . . . Yale Tauber
has been named head o f human re­
sources at William M. Mercer, Inc.

’66

John Hubbard has been
promoted to professor o f mathe­
matics and computer science at the
University o f Richmond. . . . Debra
Newmark is a clinical social worker
specializing in mind-body heeding,
hypnosis, and sex therapy. In 1969
she married Rob Chwast. They
travelled to East Africa, Greenland,
Turkey, Scandinavia, and Iceland.
In 1983 they had son Seth. Now she
gardens and practices Tai Chi and
yoga. She says that she’d love to
hear from Rochester friends. Write
to her at 2507 Guilford Road,
Cleveland, Ohio 44118.

’67

James Eden G, ’70G has been
elected to the board o f trustees of
Muhlenberg College for the 199394 academic year.

’68

Richard Hanft ’69G coor­
dinates the history program at
Sacred Heart University in Con­
necticut. . . . Robin Ross-Quetin
and her husband Langdon are co­
managers o f a long-term ecological
research project in Antarctica.

’69

25TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994
Dennis Beer has been appointed
chief o f pulmonary medicine and
medical director o f the intensive
care unit at Newton-Wellesley
H ospital.. . . Bruce Browner has
been named Gray Gossling Profes­
sor and chairman in the Depart­

ment o f Orthopaedic Surgery at the
University o f Connecticut School
o f Medicine. He’s also been named
the director o f the Department o f
Orthopaedics at Hartford Hospital.
. . . Judith Golden Luck has been
named to the board o f trustees of
Little Falls (N.Y.) Hospital. She and
her husband Andrew work together
in the practice o f optometry. . . .
A. Robert Maurice G has published
a 219-page book, Bringing It A ll
Together, which “defines the Chris­
tian message with the context of
what science now understands to
be the relative nature o f space and
time.” He writes that the book may
be purchased for $12 (his replace­
ment cost, plus $2 for postage and
handling) by writing Maurice at
2108 Spanish Oaks Drive, Harvey,
LA 70058. . . . Lois Hecht Oppenheim
reports that she’s been appointed
professor and chair o f the political
science department at Lee College,
University o f Judaism, in Los An­
geles. She has resigned her position
as professor at Whittier College.
She has also written a book which
will be published in the spring (see
“Books and Recordings”). . . . Col.
Bennie Wilson III G has been named
dean o f civilian institution pro­
grams at the Air Force Institute o f
Technology.

’70

Gary Goodman and Susan
Schachter Goodman ’72 announce the
birth o f their fifth son, Holdan
Reid, on Sept. 4,1992. Gary recently
co-authored a paper on shopping
centers and bankruptcy, which was
published by the International
Council o f Shopping Centers. . . .
Robert Kirschbaum has been named
chairman o f the Trinity College
Fine Arts Department and has been
awarded tenure by the college’s
board o f trustees.. . . Donald Levy
writes that he received a master’s
degree in religious studies from Yale
University in 1992. He has started a
new business, Millennium Books,
which issues catalogs and sells
books by mail order. “I’d be glad to
send a catalog to any alum upon re­
quest,” he writes. . . . Joseph Patton,
Jr. G is president o f Patton Consul­
tants, Inc.

’71

Robert Dollinger G is a sales
manager with Pressure Chemical
Co. in Pittsburgh, Pa. . . . Larry
Kobrin G has been elected to the
board o f education in Pittsford,
N .Y .. . . Harriet Rifkin has been
appointed director o f human re­
sources at Einhorn Yaffee Prescott,
an architecture and engineering
firm. She lives in Albany. . . . After
serving as director o f the Prince
William County (Va.) Housing and
Community Development Agency
for the past two years, Warren Smith
recently received an Outstanding

Service Award from the northern
Virginia chapter o f the National
Forum o f Black Public Administra­
tors. . . . Kay Robinson ’88G, associate

Robinson
ment. She is also
an adjunct faculty member o f the
industrial and labor relations exten­
sion program at Cornell University.

’72

Christina Bethin has been
awarded a National Endowment for
the Humanities Senior Fellowship
for 1993-94. . . . Paul Macielak,
counsel to New York State Senate
Majority Leader Ralph Marino and
a health-care negotiator in the State
Senate, has been appointed to over­
see the departments o f community
and public affairs at the New York
Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
. . . Last September Daniel O’Meara,
Jr. was named director o f the Cen­
ter for Reservoir Characterization
at the University o f Oklahoma
Energy Center. . . . Linda Horvitz
Post and Geoffrey Post ’73 live in
Northamton, Mass., where they
own a business designing and mak­
ing hats, vests, handbags, luggage,
suits, evening wear, and coats from
imported tapestries, silk, and cashmere. . . . June Waldman, former
president o f the Berkshire County
National Organization for Women,
received the group’s 1993 recogni­
tion award.
f O Rhea Epstein has been named
grant specialist in the Office o f
Sponsored Programs at Radford
(Va.) University.. . . Jay Goldstein
’74G and his wife Bari announce
the birth o f their daughter, Brooke
Alyssa, on May 7, 1992. Jay writes,
“Our family is now complete as
Brooke joins her older brother
Joshua who is very attentive and
loving towards her—for now.” . . .
Patricia Hastings writes that she has
moved to Santa Fe, N.M., after 17
years o f living in the San Fransisco
Bay area, where she managed Kaiser
Medical Center’s employee-assist­
ance program.

’74

20TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994
In March Kevin Feeney and Carol
Buttenschon Feeney ’76N spent a
week touring Italy with Lt. Col.
John Storz. John is an army dentist
stationed at Camp Darby outside
o f Pisa. . . . Robert Harris, associate
professor o f biochemistry at Vir­
ginia Commonwealth University,

Entrepreneur
of the year
Last May at his under­
graduate alma mater,
Médaillé College in Buffalo,
N.Y., Nicholas Trbovich ’69G,
’81G received the “Entrepre­
neur of the Year” award.
Trbovich—a member of
Rochester’s Trustees’ Council
—is founder, chairman of
the board, and president of
Servotronics, Inc., of Buf­
falo. He holds more than 30
US. and foreign patents and
has received many awards in
the fields of aerospace and
engineering. (Servotronics
designs, develops, and man­
ufacturers servo-control
components for missiles, jet
engines, aircraft, and other
governmental and commer­
cial aplications.)
In 1989, Rochester hon-Jj
ored him with a Distinguished Alumni Award for
his longstanding service. The
family ties extend to son
Michael Trbovich, who grad­
uated from the University
in the Class of 1986 and re­
ceived an M.S. in engineer­
ing in 1988. .
Also honored by Médaillé:
Nicholas Trbovich, Jr., direc­
tor and vice president o f
Servotronics, who accepted
the college’s Distinguished
Alumni Award.

reports that along with two col­
leagues he has formed Common­
wealth Biotechnologies, Inc., in
Richmond, Va. He says that the
company offers research-and-development support services in all areas
o f peptide and oligo nucleotide syn­
thesis and analysis. . . . Alan Heuer
G has joined the Bank o f New York
as executive vice president. He
heads the retail-banking division
which comprises the six community­
banking units in suburban New York.
. . . Kevin Murray G is a mayoral
candidate in the City o f Rochester.

’75

Mark Kaback writes that he
has left the Department o f Defense
and joined the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency as a senior ana­
lyst in New York City. . . . David
Pfeiffer G, a professor o f public
management at Suffolk University,
is head o f the master’s-level dis­
ability-studies concentration at the
Boston-based school. He reports
that two June graduates o f the pro-

57

CLASS NOTES

o f Junior Leagues International
Inc., the international women’s
voluntary organization representing
282 Junior Leagues in the United
States. Currently she works part
time for an importer o f gifts and
housewares.

CLASS NOTES

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

RIVER CAMPUS, cont.
Creating a
“ parent-friendly”
corporation
Thanks in large part to
the work of Karen Geiger 76,
NationsBank of Charlotte,
N. C,, has been hailed as a
pioneer in changing policies
to accommodate growing
numbers of women in the
work force.
Numerous national pub­
lications—including The

Wall Street Journal, Work­
ing Mother, Fortune, and
Cosmopolitan—have praised
the bank for adopting flexi­
ble policies for dual-career
families.
Geiger reached the peak
of her 11-year career at the
bank with the position of
director of work/family pro­
grams. The most visible sign
of her success: the newly
opened $2 million-plus
NationsBank Child Care
Center. Employees at the
bank—75 percent of whom
are female—enjoy a child­
care resource and referral
program, child-care subsi­
dies for employees making
less than $24,000, an adop­
tion service, a school service»
and a reduced-schedule op­
tion for employees with de­
pendents. Also, Nations­
Bank offers parental leave,
adoption leave, and a maxi­
mum of two hours of paid
time per week to volunteer
in schools.
Early this year, Geiger an­
nounced she was leaving the
bank to start a company
that will provide manage-; ;
ment training, development,
and work/family consultingftl
Her thoughts on promot­
ing and retaining women:
“Men and women do con­
tinue to be socialized differ­
ently so that when women
join a management culture
populated predominantly by
men, they must adapt in
ways that are' often alien to
them. The new twist is that
just as women are newly ac­
cepted into these ranks, they
are raising families and ask­
ing for flexibility,”

i

58

gram were chosen to be Presidential
Management Interns. For further
information about his program
contact, him at Suffolk University,
Boston, Mass., 02108-2770. . . .
Prudence Goodman Simson will be
moving to Oxford, Ohio, in Sep­
tember. Her husband Peter will be­
gin a faculty appointment in the
psychology department at Miami
University. She writes that she’s
been enjoying staying at home with
their daughters, Laura, 6 Vi, and
Georgina, 3. She also serves on the
board o f directors o f My Morning
Out preschool.. . . Andrew Scala G,
’77G has been named head o f the
department o f allied health and
biology at Dutchess Community
College.

7 6 Theresa Canada ’89G has
been appointed associate professor
o f education and educational psy­
chology at Western Connecticut
State University.. . . Richard Leftwich
’76G, ’80G has been named the Fuji
Bank/Heller Professor at the Uni­
versity o f Chicago Graduate School
o f Business. His research focuses
on audit qualifications, bond ratings,
corporate-charter changes, and
block trades. He has authored
numerous articles on large-block
transactions and the effects o f audit
opinions. . . . Bruce Markowitz is a
partner in the Washington, D.C.,
law firm o f Swidler & Berlin. He
specializes in financial-institution
representation and bankruptcy law.
He and his wife Margaret are the
proud parents o f two sons, Brian
Lawrence, 10, and Eric Robert, 2.
They live in Potomac, Md.

77

Jim Lavin and his wife Susan
announce the birth o f their daugh­
ter D ’Arcy Ruth on Jan. 7. He
writes, “D ’Arcy was some big baby
and one quick study: 11 lbs. 2 oz.
and two hours o f labor! I never re­
ceived better ‘grades’ than these on
any final I took while on the River
Campus. I guess I’m still getting
better! Or is that Meliora ?” . . .
Eric Sanders writes that he’s living
in San Francisco, where he owns
and operates Direct Effect Market­
ing. The agency specializes in con­
sumer and business-to-business
direct-marketing campaigns. His
current clients include Esprit, Bennetton, and several technology com­
panies.

I o Glenn Boreman is an associate
professor o f electrical engineering
at the University o f Central Florida.
. . . James Goodman has been pro­
moted to general counsel and secre­
tary for Days and Zimmerman,
Inc., in Philadelphia. . . . Thomas
Maloney writes that he spent the
winter in Belfast on a British Coun­
cil Research Grant, having spent the

previous year in Dublin where he
was collecting data for his disserta­
tion in modern European history
at the University o f WisconsinMadison. He says, “I hope to
donate some o f the rather rare
pamphlets I’ve acquired for my re­
search to Rush Rhees Library in the
not too distant future.” . . . Nancy
Morosohk writes that she married
Peter Dmytryk on Oct. 11, 1992.
She works as a clinical social worker
for Jewish Family Children’s Serv­
ices in Belmont, Calif. They live in
Oakland. . . . Comdr. Steven
Rowland writes that he returned
from deployment as a lieutenant
commander and as executive officer
o f U.S.S. Shreveport. Presently he
is an operations-research analyst in
the Office o f the Assistant Secretary
o f Defense. He and Ellen Phelps
Rowland ’79 and their three children
live in Annapolis, Md.

79

15TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994
In March, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Cun­
ningham returned from a six-month
deployment to the western Pacific
and Indian Ocean aboard the re­
plenishment oiler U.S.S. Wabash.
The ship was deployed to the Per­
sian Gulf to enforce the United
Nations “no-fly zone” over south­
ern Iraq and was also deployed to
Somalia in support o f Operation
Restore H o p e . . . . Michael Doherty
has been promoted to administra­
tive vice president at Marine Mid­
land B a n k . . . . Timothy Peters re­
ports that he received an MBA
from the University o f St. Thomas
in 1985, he got married in Novem­
ber 1992, and he’s currently with
Coopers & Lybrand’s energy
mergers-and-acquisitions group
in Houston, Tex. . . . Paul Prabhaker
’84G is an associate professor o f
marketing in the Stuart School o f
Business at the Illinois Institute o f
Technology in Chicago.

’80

Helena Brykarz writes that for
the last few years she’s been work­
ing as a program officer for the
Goldman Environmental Founda­
tion in San Francisco.. . . Marianne
Eggler-Gerozissis is the head o f
Thmpa’s “Art in Public Places”
program. . . . David Huff and his
wife Nancy announce the birth o f
their first child, Dennis Earl Huff,
on Nov. 23, 1992____ Alex Kutyreff
’87G left Eastman Kodak and is liv­
ing in Lausanne, Switzerland, with
his wife Debbi Dolcetti Kutyreff ’88G
and daughters Elisabeth and Mag­
gie. He’s working for Philip-Morris
on projects in Russia and Eastern
Europe.

’81

Cynthia Anastas ’86M and Jon
King are pleased to report the birth
o f their son, Grant Whitman

Anastas-King, on July 14, 1991.
Cynthia has completed her cardiol­
ogy fellowship at UNC/Chapel Hill
and has accepted a faculty position
at Darmouth University Medical
Center, where she will spend a year
sub-specializing in interventional
cardiology. Jon is a senior engineer­
ing consultant for L.W.G. Corp. o f
Chicago and was recently promoted
to lieutenant commander in the
Naval Reserve and appointed safety
department head o f Patrol Squad­
ron 6 0 . . . . Barbara Barasky Birnbaum
and Scott Birnbaum write that they
had their second child, Steven Ezra,
on Dec. 20, 1992. Steven was born
exactly four years to the day after
his brother Eric. She writes, “It cer­
tainly wasn’t planned that way—
Steven was 3
weeks early! ” . . .

Sanjay Bhandari
has been
promoted to as­
sociate director
o f analytical
services for
SIGMA Market­
Bhandari
ing Group in
Leon Clary G has
Rochester.
been named C.E.O. o f the Sear
Brown Group, a Rochester-based
engineering firm. . . . John Doyle is
a real-estate consultant based in
Princeton, N.J. He reports that he’s
been attending college fairs as a
Rochester representative and that
he’s interested in organizing an
Omega reunion sometime in 1993—
94. Also, he’s adopted a German
shepherd and joined his local
neighborhood watch in Camden,
where he lives. He dined with JeanPaul Maman not long ago, and re­
ports that J.P. is running his own
construction company. . . . Gary
Goldman announces the birth o f his
third daughter, Carly Lauren, on
Apr. 22, 1993. He says that Carly’s
sisters, Lindsay, 4, and Allison, 2 X
A,
are thrilled with her. He was recently
board-certified and continues to
practice at New York HospitalCornell Medical College. . . . Dennis
Kraus (see ’8 5 M ) . . . . Carrie Hentz
and her husband Joseph Ronga
announce the birth o f their son,
Austin William, on February 20,
1993. Carrie is the senior vice presi­
dent o f Human Concepts, Inc., a
behavioral health-care corporation
in Union, N.J. She writes, “I’d love
to hear from people.” . . . Jay
Higham has been promoted to vice
president for medical-staff develop­
ment and managed care for South
Shore Hospital in Rhode Island.
. . . Jacqueline Meyer and her hus­
band Marty Gold announce the
birth o f their daughter, Allison
Casey, on Jan. 11, 1993.

’82

Paula Liguori Centurelli and
her husband Gary proudly an­
nounce the birth o f their second

Alumni Review/Fall 1993

What does Shira Schwarz
Weinstein ’79, gift committee
co-chair for her 15th re­
union, remember most
about her years at Roch­
ester?; r ;:
“I remember Professor
John Mueller dancing across
the room, pretending to do
ballet,” she says. (Mueller
later published a popular
book on Fred Astaire.) “And
.'Professor Regenstreif, i’ll
never forget him—he’s still a
:friend of minc.. I■see .him ocM
caslohally.
“And then there’s the time
Eugene Genovese lit his lec­
ture notes. I’ll never forget
that cither. He used to chain
smoke cigars—and he’d
slartd1there and lecture and S
light up without missing a
beat.
,■j “fie; hada great "sense o f . •)
humor. The class was at nine
o’clock in the morning and
it was die
class I’d get' I
up that early for.”
Weinstein adds that she
has fond memories of the
old Smitty’s and the new
Wilson Commons—along
with “the Rat” (the bar
known as the Rathskeller).
Nowadays she’s a lawyer
by training but has reduced
her wopk Schedule to raise;ii]
her two daughters—Hannah,
6, and ^Gra&ei 3..She1and her
husband live in Mamaroneck,

child, Joseph, on October 6, 1992.
She writes, “Within a three-week
time-frame I delivered an appendix
and a baby. We didn’t name the ap­
pendix.” . . . From his home in
Chapel Hill, N.C., Gene Galin proudly
announces the birth o f his first
child, Michael Prescott, on April
22, 1993. . . . Kim Kerr and her hus­
band Paul Peosigen announce the
birth o f their daughter Jessica Maria
on August 19, 1992. . . . Jeff Knakal
and his wife Theresa announce the
birth o f their second child
Christopher Adam on May 6, 1992.
. . . Darren Shapiro and his wife
Stephanie proudly announce the
birth o f their first child, Jacob
(“Jake”) on January 24, 1993. In
May they moved to Baltimore,
where Darren is the local sales man­
ager for the FOX-TV affiliate. . . .

Victoria Sweeney Stanton has been
promoted to senior vice president
and general counsel at the Glenmont, N.Y., headquarters o f Farm
Family Insurance Companies. . . .
Last November Barbara Coiffi Tommasulo became the associate direc­
tor o f medical services at United
Presbyterian Residence. Her “mis­
sion,” as she describes it, is to turn
the 700-bed facility into a teaching
nursing-home for its SUNY Stony
Brook affiliate. She received her cer­
tificate o f added qualification in
geriatrics last spring.

’83 Victor Brower has been pro­
moted to supervisory special agent
for immigration and nationaliza­
tion service in Portland, Oreg. . . .
Capt. Robert Gallasch married Gail
Morse on July 25, 1992. . . . Carolyn
Duff Gibbs and Robert Gibbs ’81 were
married on October 7, 1990. At last
word they were expecting a baby in
the middle o f Ma y . . . . Arvind Kumar
G is the founder and editor o f India
Currents, a magazine for and about
California’s East Indians. . . . Texas
Commissioner o f Education Lionel
“Skip” Meno G heads the Texas
Education Agency and the state’s
public sc h o o ls.. . . Robert Swartout
has been appointed assistant vice
president o f the Canandaigua (N.Y.)
National Bank.

’84

10TH REUNION,
JUNE 2-5, 1994
David Abbey writes that he received
the 1993 Outstanding Clinical Fac­
ulty Award from the Department o f
Medicine at the University o f Colo­
rado School o f Medicine. . . . Scott
Cameron G, former manager o f trea­
sury operations at Blue Cross/Blue
Shield o f the Rochester Area, has
been appointed assistant treasurer
and bursar at the University. . . .
Ann Elias Dreiker and Scott Dreiker
’83,”86G announce the birth of
their first child, Robert Alexander,
on December 7, 1992. Ann is an
ophthalmic photographer at Massa­
chusetts Eye and Ear and Scott is
an OB/GYN resident at Boston
University Medical Center. They
live in Stoughton. . . . Ani Nazerian
Gabrellian and Mark Gabrellian ’79 an­
nounce the birth o f their daughter,
Christine Lucia, on November 20,
1992, in Washington, D.C. . . . Jim
Greene and Karen Kuritzkes Greene
’85 write that they welcomed their
son Zachary Eric to the world on
November 11, 1992. Jim is a senior
financial analyst for Rhone-Poulenc
Rorer Pharmaceutical and Karen is
an assistant director o f financial
planning for CIGNA Corp. They
live in Jenkintown, Pa. . . . Thomas
Rufalis married Judith Constantine
on February 20, 1993. He’s an engi­
neer for Eastman Kodak in Roches­
ter. . . . Debbie Lipkin Seresky and