Rochester Review

May–June 2014, Volume 76, No. 5

Editor

Scott Hauser

Associate Editors

Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

Kathleen McGarvey

Contributors

Valerie Alhart, Emily Boynton, Adam Fenster, Susan Hagen, Peter Iglinski, Melissa Greco Lopes, Mark Michaud, Sara Miller, Dennis O’Donnell, Leslie Orr, Leonor Sierra, Julia Sklar ’14, and Brandon Vick

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E-mail: rochrev@rochester.edu www.rochester.edu/pr/Review

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Published six times a year for alumni, students, their parents, and other friends of the University, Rochester Review is produced by University Communications.

Opinions expressed are those of the authors, the editors, or their subjects and do not necessarily represent official positions of the University of Rochester.

ISSN: 0035-7421

Copyright © 2014 University of Rochester

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Leadership Transitions

By Joel Seligman

The University has benefited from an unusually stable senior leadership team. For six of the last seven years, we have had very few changes in our senior leadership.

This year, however, we are addressing four important transitions. In September 2013, Chief Advancement Officer Jim Thompson began a medical leave. Subsequently, Jim and I agreed that he would transition to a position as special counsel to the president to focus on strategic Advancement issues.

During the past eight years, Jim achieved virtually everything that we set out to accomplish in Advancement. With 18 months to go, we are on track to reach the $1.2 billion goal of The Meliora Challenge, the largest Campaign in our history, by June 30, 2016. We have strengthened alumni relationships. Jim built an outstanding Advancement program and team. Working particularly with Board Development Committee Chair Larry Bloch ’75, Jim took the initiative in developing an ambitious strategic and implementation plan that today is ahead of schedule for virtually every area, including our Annual Fund, which is among the fastest growing in the country, new volunteer boards such as our National Councils and Regional Cabinets, and the Wilson Society, which will recognize those who make planned gifts to the University. Working with Larry, I am leading the search for a new chief advancement officer. Larry and his wife, Cindy, have generously created an endowed position which will be known as the James D. Thompson Chief Advancement Officer. The Blochs’ significant gift and choice to recognize Jim at the same time will ensure that we continue to build on Jim’s hard work and great success.

In September, Simon Business School Dean Mark Zupan announced that after 10 years he would pass the baton to a new dean on July 1, 2014. Mark also has achieved an exemplary record. During his deanship, nine new tenure-eligible faculty joined the school; supportive alumni, friends, faculty, and staff contributed $67 million of the school’s $85 million Campaign goal. This support has allowed Simon to add 10 new endowed professorships. Curricular innovations such as a master’s program in medical management and an MS in finance have resulted in strong student demand and enabled Simon to achieve the University’s target 5.5 percent endowment draw.

Next academic year, Mark will become the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Policy and be director of the Bradley Policy Research Center when he returns to the faculty. I now also am chairing the Simon School Dean Search Committee.

On September 23, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music Doug Lowry resigned because of deteriorating health. The Board of Trustees earlier had unanimously voted to award Doug an honorary doctor of music degree and later voted to rename the central hallway in Eastman Theatre in Doug’s honor.

Doug led Eastman during its renovation and expansion of Eastman Theatre; he unified the Eastman community and hired outstanding faculty. Doug was, as an associate memorably stated, a polymath with a heart. He personified absolute integrity and creativity in advancing the musical arts. He was the rarest of academic administrators: a great dean who also was a great man.

On October 2, we all lost a dear friend when Doug died. Schubert wrote: “Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.” For me, Doug was such a person. Provost Peter Lennie is leading the search for the next Eastman dean.

In November 2013, after a gala celebration of the Memorial Art Gallery’s centennial, Grant Holcomb, the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the MAG, announced he would retire in July. During Grant’s illustrious 29-year career, the gallery has enhanced its permanent collection, held high-profile exhibitions presenting artists such as Maxfield Parrish, Edgar Degas, Georgia O’Keefe, and Jacob Lawrence, added Vanden Brul Pavilion to link the original 1913 building to Cutler Union, and recently completed the Centennial Sculpture Park. A

mong gallery directors, Grant has been a national leader in reaching out to broader constituencies. He has helped popularize the gallery’s exceptional educational programs, supporting collaborations with, among others, Garth Fagan Dance, George Eastman House, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Eastman School. Former MAG Board President Jim Durfee is leading a search for Grant’s successor.

Jim, Mark, Doug, and Grant each made extraordinary contributions to our University and deserve our warm plaudits, especially for their hard work and inspired leadership. Each leaves an impressive legacy on which we will build.

No leader leads forever, and leadership transitions are inevitable. I am confident that great leaders will succeed Jim, Mark, Doug, and Grant. As we make these transitions, I want to express my personal gratitude again to each for a job well done.

Letters

Support for Success

Congratulations to everyone profiled in the “Center of Success” article in the March-April 2014 issue. I’m happy to read, in this and other articles, of the U of R’s support for students who might otherwise not be able to access quality education because of their racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or cultural backgrounds. The individual stories of students served by the Kearns Center sound remarkably similar to those of students I have known who have participated in the Upward Bound program at the University of Maine, where I am currently a faculty member in education.

I believe that anyone who was impressed by these success stories should also be aware that the continued existence of the Upward Bound and McNair programs cannot be taken for granted. These federally funded TRIO programs are in jeopardy because of efforts to cut the budgets of federal programs that serve low-income Americans. The outstanding work that these programs do, as illustrated by the U of R students featured in the issue, could be reduced or eliminated if the “small government” advocates in Washington, D.C., and around this country get their way. Sadly, two years ago, the federal government stopped funding the University of Maine Upward Bound program, along with many other Upward Bound programs across this country.

I think it’s important to be clear, when speaking of these programs, that they represent our federal tax dollars at work. These programs need and are deserving of our political support.

John Maddaus ’65

Orono, Maine

The writer is an associate professor of education at the University of Maine.

lettersBAND OF MEMORIES: Dave Goldberg ’86 and Alan Sherman ’89 sent a photo of the 1985–86 edition of the pep band, one of many incarnations of the group. (Photo: Courtesy of Dave Goldberg ’86 and Alan Sherman ’89)

A Very Peppy History

I saw with interest the two-page spread about the pep band (“Pep in Their Step,” March-April). However, the comment that Greg Savich ’06 “founded” the band is not quite correct. He may have “re-founded” the band, but there was already a pep band in existence many years before that. When I arrived as a freshman in fall 1959, there was a thriving pep band as an adjunct of the marching and concert bands. We had yellow sweaters with a large “R” on them and, indeed, we had our place in the bleachers of the Palestra to help cheer on our basketball teams as well as provide the national anthem, “The Genesee,” fight songs, and halftime entertainment. We were a small but energetic group and always had fun.

I am proud to say that by the time I was a senior, I had the honor of being the president of the pep band as well as the marching and concert bands. It is one of my most enduring memories of my time at UR.

Allan Carlton ’63

Long Beach, N.Y.

I beg to differ with your caption on the photo of the pep band. It should say that this is the 10th anniversary of this iteration of the pep band. I know there was one from 1959 to 1964 (I played in it for my first three years at school), and I suspect there were other dates your readers can provide. Unfortunately, I found the conflict between being there regularly and getting my labs written up unworkable.

Charles Bash ’64

Midland, Mich.

letters (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

Photographic Memories

Janet Baker Jennison ’63, Steve Rothschild ’63, ’70S (MBA), Chris Wyser-Pratte ’65, and John Cotnam ’69W (EdD) wrote to identify the studious group overlooking Fauver Stadium that we used as the opening photo of Class Notes for the March-April issue. Correspondents were pretty much unanimous that the young man sitting in profile with horn-rims at the right of the photo is Christopher Lindley, then an assistant professor of history who left the University and became a city councilman and later deputy mayor of Rochester. Most agreed that Lindley is with members of the Class of 1963, but the roster of the circle of students was a little fuzzy. Mentioned as possibilities were Ann Holder Howe ’64, Len Strickman ’63, Bob Beardsley ’64, George Wingate ’63, Mike Boland ’63, ’75W (Mas), Ed Friedrich ’63, Fred Suter ’63, Bob Pincus ’63, Mike Boland ’63, ’75W (Mas), Dave Malone ’63, and Peter Cross ’63. As one writer noted in remarking on the lack of definitiveness about some of the IDs, “Honestly, it was 50 years ago.”

—Scott Hauser

While I am happy to see the pep band getting press, I want to correct an error—the pep band is not 10 years old. My father, who graduated in 1970 from UR, played in the pep band and the marching band. I graduated in 2003 and as a freshman joined some fellow classmates to form a pep band, under the leadership of David Morris ’02. We played at football and basketball games, including the sesquicentennial football homecoming game. I have no doubt that between 1970 and 2003, there were other incarnations of the band. We even wore the same shirts that are pictured!

Laura Osborne ’03

Alexandria, Va.

I was very excited to see a picture of the pep band. I noticed in the caption that they mentioned that it was the 10th anniversary. I wanted to comment that I was the president of the pep band from 1988 to 1991. In fact, it was through pep band that I met my future wife, Tracy Donnell ’95N, during my senior year. When I became the president in 1988, I believe that the band had been going on for at least four to five years before that. So I believe that this year is more like the 30th anniversary of the band, albeit not necessarily continuous. It’s great to hear that Mr. Savich resurrected the band from what seems like some time off around the turn of the century. As you can understand, the band was a very enjoyable and important part of my college life and I’m glad to see it continuing on.

Andrew Rocha ’91

Lynwood, Wash.

It was great to see the picture of the pep band featured in the March-April issue. However, we have to point out that the caption, describing the group as having “celebrated its 10th anniversary” was most definitely an error. We don’t know how long the University’s pep band existed before we arrived on campus in 1982 and 1985 respectively, and perhaps it was inactive for some period of time, but we can assure you the group was very much in existence and cheering on the Yellowjackets even back then. And just to prove it, here is a picture of the group from 1985–86 (Dave is the trombonist in the front row directly in the center, and Alan is the trumpet player second from the right). We reconnected 15 years ago, and are both now living in the Boston area. The pep band remains a fun UR memory for both of us.

Dave Goldberg ’86

Belmont, Mass.

Alan Sherman ’89

Lexington, Mass.

Thank you for publishing a great magazine. Being the parents of a current student, we look forward to reading about all the great things happening at the U of R. Thank you for featuring the pep band in the March-April issue. That was a great photo with catchy headlines. I wanted to give a shout out to Greg Savich ’06 who has been the guest conductor of the pep band for many years. Pep band members really are unsung heroes. They play because they love to support the university. Unlike at many universities, they do not get class credit or get paid to play in pep band. My only wish is that you could have listed ALL of the current pep band members even though they may not have been present for the photo. Thanks again for doing a great job!

Tori Myers

Madison Lake, Minn.

The writer is the mother of current student and pep band member Michael Myers ’16.

Editor Scott Hauser writes: We apologize that we didn’t identify all the members of the band and that we weren’t as precise in our description of the band’s history as we should have been. For more about the current incarnation of the band, including its current membership, visit https://ccc.rochester.edu/organization/marchingpepband.

lettersSKI-A-THON: A 1986 photo shows the cross-country ski team during a fundraiser. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

More Skiers

I can identify some of the skiers in the photo from the January-February issue. All are members of the U of R’s first cross-country ski team, founded in the fall of ’85 by John Frittelli, the first (front) skier. The second skier is me, Roger Solin ’86.

John posted a notice in Wilson Commons about wanting to create a cross-country ski team. I was the first to respond. It was started as a recreational club, and we competed with other universities in upstate New York. This particular photo was from a fundraiser we did for the club in early March 1986 (maybe late February). We did a ski-a-thon, doing laps for pledged amounts from our friends and classmates, around the Eastman Quad to raise funds and awareness for the club. Our top skiers were John and Rob Dawson ’88 (I believe that is his last name; he is the skier in the back).

The black-and-white photo does not do justice to the beauty of the day and the scene. It was a warm, sunny day (we were concerned it would be too warm and there would not be enough snow for the event), and we were wearing the club’s first uniforms, lycra ski suits of light blue with golden yellow trim.

Roger Solin ’86

San Francisco

Department of Corrections

Our apologies to Edward Letteron ’55 for our description of the book Developing High Performance Tennis Players (Neuer Sportverlag, 2013) that was included in Books and Recordings in the March-April issue. Letteron edited the book by tennis coach Edgar Giffening, who wrote it to help tennis players of all levels improve their game. We also misstated Letteron’s class year in the description. He’s a member of the Class of 1955.

Review welcomes letters and will print them as space permits. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity. Unsigned letters cannot be used. Send letters to Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, P.O. Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; rochrev@rochester.edu.

MASTER MOMENT

The Galway Gaze

galway (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Phoning It In: Internationally regarded flute player James Galway takes a photo of Jennifer Zhou ’14E during a master class this spring at the Eastman School of Music. Galway visited Eastman as the special guest for a production of From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley, a showcase for young musicians that airs on NPR. Recorded at Kodak Hall, the production was broadcast in April.

WELLNESS

How Green Is Your Atrium?

flaum (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Market place: Flaum Atrium at the School of Medicine and Dentistry became a farmers’ market several times this winter, part of an effort by the University’s wellness programs to help faculty, staff, and students incorporate healthy habits into their lives.

CURTAIN CALL

A Merry Moment

merrymount (Photo: Metropolitan Opera)

Heralding Hanson: Several events marked the 80th anniversary of Howard Hanson’s opera Merry Mount, which had its debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1934 (shown here). The only opera composed by the longtime director of the Eastman School of Music, Merry Mount was performed at Kodak Hall this spring by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, which then took the performance to Carnegie Hall in early May.

CAMPAIGN

Wegman Foundation Gives $17 Million

A historic gift benefits the University’s new data science effort and the new Golisano Children’s Hospital.

By Sara Miller

wegmanALL IN THE FAMILY: Trustee Danny Wegman (foreground) announced a $17 million gift from the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation at a press conference with President Joel Seligman. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

One of the University’s newest buildings will bear the name of one of Rochester’s most notable families.

The new building—a 50,000-square-foot facility that will serve as the home for a new Institute for Data Science—will be named in recognition of the generosity of the Wegman family whose national chain of grocery stores began in Rochester nearly a century ago.

At an April press conference, University Trustee Danny Wegman, CEO of Wegmans Food Markets, announced a $10 million lead gift from the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation to support the new institute, including the new building.

He also announced a $7 million gift for the campaign to build a new Golisano Children’s Hospital, a project that’s currently under way at the Medical Center and expected to be completed in 2015.

“Danny Wegman is the man of the hour,” President Joel Seligman said at the press conference, noting that with the new gifts the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation had given a total of $20 million to the University. “Danny has stepped up at a time when he could really make a difference in the life of our University.”

The two projects—the Institute for Data Science and the Golisano Children’s Hospital—are two of the flagship initiatives of The Meliora Challenge, the University’s $1.2 billion comprehensive campaign. The $17 million gift represents the fourth largest contribution to the Campaign, and the second largest gift to the children’s hospital.

“It is our honor to support the University’s campaign,” said Wegman, the foundation’s president and chairman of its board. “The Institute for Data Science is helping the University and its collaborators become leaders in leveraging information in ways that will transform 21st-century discovery and innovation. “In a similar way, the new children’s hospital will move health care for our region’s children and their families into a whole new environment designed around children’s needs. What could be more important or gratifying than ensuring the health of our children?”

Last fall, Seligman announced that the University was committing $100 million—including $50 million that it has invested in recent years—to expand work in data science, an emerging field focused on how the world understands, organizes, and applies vast quantities of information and data. As a centerpiece of the University’s current five-year strategic plan, the data science initiative includes the creation of a new institute, construction of a new building located near Hopeman Hall, and support for new faculty members with expertise in the field.

The institute will also serve as the home for the recently designated New York State Center of Excellence for Data Science, which, with support from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Rochester-area state delegation, received $872,333 in the 2014–15 state budget.

The new eight-floor children’s hospital features 52 private patient rooms, a greatly expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and spaces designed specifically to meet the needs of children and their families. Enhancements include healing gardens, family lounges, and a hospitality suite where parents can shower, prepare and eat home-cooked meals, or even run a load of laundry.

As of this spring, a total of $45 million of the $60 million needed for the building had been raised. Wegman, honorary chair of the Medical Center campaign, said he hoped the new gift would inspire others to contribute to close the $15 million gap.

Tracing its roots to the opening of its first store in Rochester in 1916, Wegmans Food Markets currently operates 83 stores in six states and employs more than 44,000 people. Wegmans is frequently listed by national publications as one of the best companies to work for in the country.

Through the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation, the Wegman family has long been a supporter of civic, cultural, and educational projects in Rochester and other communities. Created by Robert Wegman in 1991 and funded by assets from his estate, the foundation focuses on health care, education, workforce development, and United Way. In addition to his role as a trustee, Wegman works with Seligman as cochair of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council, part of a task force appointed by Cuomo that recommends state support for economic development projects in a nine-county region.

Wegman also has been a leading supporter of the Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection, a community program that provides education and training to middle and high school students. The University also works closely with the partnership.

In announcing the $17 million gift, Wegman noted that universities like Rochester are key to shaping the success of the communities they call home.

“The most powerful economic driver in the world is a great educational institution”

Sara Miller is University spokesperson.﻿

CAMPUS

Strategic Initiatives

A $17 million gift from the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation is giving a boost to two major projects under way at the University. Both are key aspects of the University’s strategic plan for 2013–18.

wegman_sideNEW LANDMARKS: A proposed home for an Institute for Data Science (above) and the new Golisano Children’s Hospital are key projects in the University’s strategic plan. (Photo: Courtesy of Ayers Saint Gross Architects)

Data Science Initiative

The University has begun a $100 million initiative to greatly expand work in the burgeoning field of data science. Featuring plans for a new 50,000-square-foot building named in honor of the Wegman family, the initiative includes plans for an Institute for Data Science as well as additional faculty members with expertise in the field. Three research domains have been identified as initial areas of focus: predictive health analytics, cognitive systems and artificial intelligence, and analyzing large-scale data as part of an effort known as “analytics on demand.” Plans call for the new building to be located near Hopeman Hall to create a science and engineering quadrangle flanked by Hutchison and Goergen Halls, Carlson Library, and the Computer Studies Building.

wegman_side (Photo: Ballinger Architects)

Golisano Children’s Hospital

The largest single capital project in the University’s history, the new $145 million building, located on Crittenden Boulevard, is attached to the Medical Center and Strong Memorial Hospital. The tower features about 245,000 square feet of space dedicated to children and their families. Construction began in fall 2012, and the building is scheduled to open in 2015. The new hospital is named for B. Thomas Golisano, the founder and chairman of Paychex Inc. He gave $14 million to create the original hospital in 2003, and his $20 million lead gift kicked off the campaign for the new building.﻿

Feeling Frustrated? Don’t Hate the Game

discoverGAME PLAY: Video games induce hostility through frustration, not violent content, a new study says. (Photo: iStockphoto)

The disturbing imagery and violent storylines of videos games are often accused of fostering feelings of aggression in players. But a new Rochester-led study shows hostile behavior is linked to gamers’ experiences of failure and frustration—not to a game’s violent content.

The study, published online in the March edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is the first to look at players’ psychological experiences with video games instead of focusing solely on the games’ content. Researchers found that failure to master a game and its controls led to frustration and aggression, regardless of whether the game was violent or not.

“Any player who has thrown down a remote control after losing an electronic game can relate to the intense feelings of anger failure can cause,” says lead author Andrew Przybylski, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, who says such frustration is commonly known among gamers as “rage quitting.”

That experience is not unique to gaming, says coauthor Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at Rochester. For example, in sports, players may lose a game as a result of a bad call. “When people feel they have no control over the outcome of a game, that leads to aggression,” he says. “We saw that in our experiments. If you press someone’s competencies, they’ll become more aggressive, and our effects held up whether the games were violent or not.”

For the study, researchers manipulated the interface, controls, and degree of difficulty in custom-designed video games across six lab experiments. Nearly 600 college-aged participants were tasked with playing the games—many of which included violent and nonviolent variations—and then were tested for aggressive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.

Across the experiments, researchers found it was not the narrative or imagery, but the lack of mastery of the game’s controls, and the degree of difficulty players had completing the game, that led to frustration.

—Melissa Greco Lopes﻿

‘Game Changer’ for Alzheimer’s

A study involving Rochester researchers has yielded the first accurate blood test that can predict who is at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the study may point to new treatments to head off the disease before neurological damage becomes irreversible.

By focusing on 10 specific lipids found in blood plasma, the team predicted with greater than 90 percent accuracy which individuals in the study group would go on to develop Alzheimer’s or a precursor condition known as amnestic mild cognitive impairment. While the accuracy of the test needs to be verified in a larger population, the cost of the simple blood test required to detect the lipids is a fraction of that for other techniques and, unlike alternatives, it identifies risk before cognitive symptoms appear.

Mark Mapstone, a neuropsychologist at the School of Medicine and Dentistry and lead author of the study, says the ability to identify individuals at risk of developing Alzheimer’s before the clinical signs of impairment appear “has long been a Holy Grail of the neuromedicine community.”

“Biomarkers that can allow us to intervene early in the course of the disease could be a game changer,” he says.

While there are several screening methods to detect Alzheimer’s disease, they require costly procedures that are undertaken only after symptoms appear. If commercialized, a blood test to detect specified blood lipids would likely cost less than $200 and, once the findings have been confirmed in larger studies, would make the test more accessible as a screening tool for clinical trials and potentially help guide treatment.

—Mark Michaud﻿

Judging the ABA’s Ratings

The sometimes controversial ratings of judicial nominees by the American Bar Association may be tilted against minorities and women. A Rochester-led analysis of 1,770 district court nominations from 1960 to 2012 found the ABA systematically awards lower ratings to minorities and women than to white or male candidates. Political ideology and party affiliation had no bearing on the influential seal of approval, the research indicated.

The study found that African Americans were 42 percentage points less likely to receive a high rating from the ABA than were whites trained at similarly ranked law schools, with similar legal experience, and nominated by the same president. Women were 19 percentage points less likely to be highly rated than men with comparable educational and professional qualifications.

“The record numbers of minority and women nominees currently having judicial candidacies derailed by this vetting process makes this a particularly pressing issue,” study author Maya Sen, assistant professor of political science, wrote in a paper published in the Journal of Law and Courts.

Sen examined how often a judge’s rulings were overturned, an indicator many scholars agree is a good measure of judicial performance. Using a variety of statistical controls and comparisons, she found no meaningful difference between judges who were rated highly or poorly by the ABA.

One improvement Sen suggests would be to make the ABA’s confidential vetting process more transparent—a recommendation echoed by critics across the political spectrum.

—Susan Hagen﻿

An ‘App’-titude for Singing

Voice students who want to perfect how they sing their vowels could get help from a free application created by a group of Rochester students. Developed as part of a computer science class, the app, called Vowel Shapes, automatically analyzes vowel sounds produced by a singer and generates a visual representation of the sound in real time. Students can see how slight changes in the shape of their mouths and the position of their tongues lead to changes in their singing.

Team Moose, as the student group named themselves, developed the program in response to challenges described by Katherine Ciesinski, a mezzo-soprano and professor at the Eastman School who was looking for ways to support students as they learn to sing vowels.

The program compares sounds as they are sung to a prerecorded set of vowels. As the sung sound matches the sought-after sound, an oval on a screen changes to green, giving singers feedback on their performance.

Led by Ehsan Hoque, assistant professor of computer science, the team was formed by Veronika Alex ’14, Josh Bronstein ’14, Nathan Buckley ’15, Tait Madsen ’15, and master’s student Cynthia Ryan ’12.

—Leonor Sierra﻿

discoverVOLCANIC PLUME: A satellite image captures steam and ash rising from the Sierra Negra volcano. (Photo: NASA Earth Observatory)

What Lies Beneath the Volcanoes of the Galápagos Islands?

With more than 50 eruptions in the last 200 years, the Galápagos Islands are home to some of the most active volcanoes in the world. Yet until recently, scientists knew far more about the history of finches, tortoises, and iguanas than of the volcanoes on which these unusual fauna had evolved.

Rochester researchers are providing a better picture of the subterranean plumbing system that feeds the Galápagos volcanoes, as well as a major difference with another Pacific Island chain—the Hawaiian Islands. The findings were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

A team led by Cynthia Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences,

measured the velocity and direction of sound waves generated by earthquakes as they traveled under Sierra Negra. The data allowed the researchers to construct the first 3-D image of the plumbing system beneath the volcano, using a technique similar to a CAT scan.

The Galápagos Islands formed from a hotspot of magma located in an oceanic plate—called Nazca—about 600 miles west of Ecuador, in a process very similar to how the Hawaiian Islands were created. Magma rising from the hotspot eventually hardened into an island. Then, as the Nazca plate inched its way westward, new islands formed in the same manner, resulting in the present-day Galápagos Archipelago.

—Peter Iglinski﻿

discoverHEADWAY: Yellowjacket football players took part in a Medical Center study indicating that the effects of head blows sustained over the course of a season can last more than six months. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Study: Off-Season Doesn’t Allow Brains to Recover from Football Hits

Six months off may not be long enough for the brains of football players to completely heal after a single season, putting them at even greater risk of head injury the next season. That’s according to a study led by Jeffrey Bazarian, associate professor of emergency medicine, and published in PLOS ONE.

In a study of the brains of 10 Yellowjacket football players before the start of the 2011 season, at the conclusion of the season, and after six months of no-contact rest, Bazarian’s team found that imaging scans showed changes consistent with mild brain injury in about half of the players six months after the season ended, despite the fact that no one had a concussion. Brain

changes in the football players were compared to a control group of five college students who didn’t play contact sports. The

new data also suggest that inflammation may be a key factor in whether players recovered within six months. Levels of inflammatory markers present in a player’s blood sample correlated with a lack of complete brain recovery.

“At this point we don’t know the implications, but there is a valid concern that six months of no-contact rest may not be enough for some players,” Bazarian says. “And the reality of high school, college, and professional athletics is that most players don’t actually rest during the off-season. They continue to train and push themselves and prepare for the next season.”

Bazarian says the goal of the study is to help make football safer. One idea that has been proposed by organizations such as the Sports Legacy Institute is to implement a system similar to the pitch count used in baseball. In football, that would mean identifying a threshold number of head hits of a certain force, and removing players from a game once they reach that threshold.

The Rochester players who participated in the study wore accelerometers mounted inside their helmets, which were provided by Riddell, a leading manufacturer of football equipment. Researchers were able to track every hit, from seemingly light blows in practice to the most dangerous type of hit. They found that the players sustained between 431 and 1,850 head blows in the single football season, none of which resulted in a concussion.

Investigators observed brain changes with advanced technology similar to an MRI scan. They also measured changes with standard balance and cognitive tests and blood tests.

—Leslie Orr﻿

Device Saves Lives in Heart Failure Patients

A new study shows for the first time that cardiac resynchronization therapy with a defibrillator saves the lives of mild heart failure patients over the long term.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that after seven years, for patients who received the therapy, called CRT-D therapy, the likelihood of death was 18 percent among patients with mild heart failure and a common condition that results in disorganized electrical activity throughout the heart. Among patients with the same condition who received a defibrillator only, the likelihood of death was close to 30 percent.

The finding translates into a 40 percent reduction in the risk of long-term death among patients with the heart condition known as left bundle branch block.

The study is a follow-up to the MADIT-CRT trial, which showed that early intervention in mild heart failure patients with left bundle branch block led to a significant reduction in heart failure.

Arthur Moss, professor of cardiology, has led the MADIT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial) series of studies since 1990.

—Emily Boynton﻿

ACHIEVEMENT

Science Citation

Owen Colegrove ’14 graduates with a diploma and a published paper in the journal Science.

Interview by Julia Sklar ’14

colegroveWORLD VIEW: “Even if we couldn’t get the study to work, it would still be a great learning experience,” says Colegrove, a senior whose research earned him a spot as a coauthor of a paper in Science. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

When senior Owen Colegrove transferred to Rochester for his junior year, he had little research experience under his belt. Two years later, he is one of few undergraduates with published work in a major scientific journal, Science. In the summer of 2013, he conducted solar physics research through a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) alongside David Hathaway, a NASA astrophysicist.

What aspect of solar physics were you studying?

I did a lot of programming and analyzed data from NASA’s Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager to study the existence of giant convection cells. Basically, we were looking at the sun’s magnetic fields.

Did you know this experience would end in a published paper?

Given my level of experience going into my REU, I had no idea. My advisor hinted that it was a possibility, if all went well, but I guess I didn’t really realize that it truly would happen. At first, it was an “I’ll believe it when I see it” thing, but then we wrote the draft and I started thinking, “Maybe this could really happen.”

We had the big breakthrough that resulted in our being able to publish a paper about a week before I left. On my second to last day, we sat down and talked about what to put into the paper, double-checked everything, and then corresponded over email from there. Maybe three or four weeks after I left, we had a draft submitted to Science, so it was a pretty fast turnaround toward the end there.

How did you land this opportunity?

I was a transfer student so I had only been at Rochester for one semester, and on my community college transcript I had no research experience and limited programming skills. Basically I didn’t have anything that made me that desirable for an REU, and I was pretty lucky to get into one. When I applied, I didn’t know specifically what I would be working on, just that it would be in the niche field of solar physics, which I actually didn’t know much about.

What was the most challenging part of conducting this research?

Well, the first thing we tried, which my advisor thought was going to work, just completely didn’t work. This had really been the focus of the first five or six weeks of my REU, and that was a really discouraging feeling because half of my experience, time-wise, had already been used up. My advisor had already been working on this research for 30 years. I guess the biggest challenge was just keeping up my motivation when I felt like nothing was going to work.

How did you maintain motivation?

I just trusted my advisor, and held the mind-set that even if we couldn’t get the study to work, it would still be a great learning experience. My goals weren’t to solve this problem that my advisor had been working on for 30 years and to get published.

How does this experience compare to your coursework?

I hadn’t really taken any programming or astronomy classes, even though we offer them, so the research experience was actually pretty disjointed from my classes. That’s not a bad thing, though; it just means that I’ve now gotten both the classroom and hands-on experiences in physics.

How has this research affected your post-grad plans?

It was actually really interesting because I had never even heard of solar physics before, and now I’m looking at a couple grad schools that specialize in the field, and I might end up studying solar physics full time now.

Do you have any advice for underclassmen interested in research?

Stay open to any opportunity that comes your way. The REU I got into wasn’t necessarily my first choice, and I was a little hesitant to accept, but I couldn’t imagine having had a more productive summer somewhere else. Also, don’t be afraid to try something new in terms of research.

I had never even done anything in astronomy, so solar physics was an even more niche topic, and yet I came away with a new interest. The worst-case scenario is just that it doesn’t work out, but you’re still likely to get something out of the experience anyway.

Julia Sklar ’14 plans to study science journalism in graduate school at Boston University in the fall.﻿

Rettner Gift to Refurbish Eastman Quad Buildings

inbriefMOREY MARVEL: An architect’s conceptual rendering shows plans for some of the spaces in a multifloor renovation of Morey Hall. (Photo: Courtesy of HOLT Architects)

Some of the historic buildings on the Eastman Quadrangle will be revamped to restore some of their luster as learning spaces and to bring them up to date for 21st-century uses, thanks to a program funded by University Trustee Ronald Rettner. The Ronald Rettner Campus Improvement Fund will support the work, which begins this summer with a multifloor renovation of Morey Hall.

Rettner, president of Rettner Management and managing partner of Baron Associates in Yonkers, N.Y., has worked with University architects and designers to create a warm, open design that includes a new multifunctional space for events and meetings. Cosmetic updates are designed to add comfort and vibrancy.

“When I became a University trustee in 2012, the first thing I did was walk through all of the buildings on the Eastman Quad. I walked every floor, every room, every inch,” says Rettner. “They are beautiful buildings with classic character and tremendous potential, but are functionally obsolete. My vision is to facilitate the transformation of the buildings, making them state of the art. We can change the ambience of these spaces, making them attractive, highly functional, bright and stimulating, and do it for a small fraction of the cost of a new building.”

Most recently, Rettner provided the lead gift for Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation, which opened last fall and which connects to Morey. The new fund supports the facilities portion of The Meliora Challenge, the University’s $1.2 billion comprehensive campaign.

—Sara Miller ﻿

NIH Award Extends Flu Research

A nationally recognized center to study influenza has received a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. Awarded to the New York Influenza Center of Excellence, located at the Medical Center, the funding will help the center’s teams explore how human immune systems respond to flu vaccines and seasonal and pandemic flu viruses.

Established in 2007, Rochester’s initiative is a member of the NIH Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance. The center is led by John Treanor, professor of medicine and chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at Strong Memorial Hospital, and David Topham, professor of microbiology and immunology and vice provost and executive director of the Health Science Center for Computational Innovation.

—Emily Boynton﻿

Diversity Leader Urges ‘New Civil Rights Movement’

One of the nation’s leaders in addressing diversity in academia urged a campus audience to continue to fight for inclusion. “Race still matters in America. Our system is unjust to this day. We have not fixed the problems Brown [v. Board of Education] identified,”

said Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, who played a leading role in the two Supreme Court cases that upheld and clarified the importance of diversity as a justification for affirmative action in higher education. The civil rights movement “is not over,” he said. “Indeed, it needs a whole fresh start.”

The March conference, Crossroads: An Opportunity for Progress, brought together more than 400 administrators, trustees, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members to explore race, power, and definitions of diversity in the University community.

Vivian Lewis, vice provost for faculty development and diversity and deputy to the president, organized the conference, which included 18 workshops in three conference tracks: race in our community, power and empowerment, and redefining diversity.

Led by Jean Carroll, president and CEO of the YWCA, and leaders of the Facing Race, Embracing Equity initiative, community workshops explored racial, ethnic, and cultural histories, and how racial disparities influence members of the Rochester community.

Two workshops engaged participants in creating new definitions of diversity, while Rush Rhees Library hosted opportunities for personal conversations with individuals from diverse groups.

—Melissa Greco Lopes﻿

As Lovely as a Tree . . .

For the fourth year in a row, the Arbor Day Foundation has named Rochester to its Tree Campus USA program, a national effort to honor colleges and universities with a commitment to effective urban forest management and to engage staff and students in conservation goals.

The program recognized the work of the University’s horticulture and grounds department to meet the program’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures toward trees, an Arbor Day observance, and student service-learning projects.

Dan Schied, manager of horticulture and grounds, says there are more than 1,400 trees of 116 different species within the mowed areas of the River Campus. To view a River Campus Tree Tour video, as well as additional resources on the University’s arboretum, visit www.facilities.rochester.edu/arboretum.

—Sara Miller﻿

Political Science Fellowship Endowed

Doctoral students in political science have a new fellowship program to support their research and scholarship, thanks to a gift from Douglas ’80 (PhD) and Constance Beck.

Douglas Beck, the senior vice president of ICF International—a publicly traded global consulting firm—credits his successful career in government and business to his Rochester education, which included receiving a fellowship for his own research in political science as a graduate student during the 1970s

The gift supports The Meliora Challenge, the University’s $1.2 billion fundraising initiative. —

Susan Hagen﻿

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP

Celebrating the Spirit of Simon

Simon Business School Dean Mark Zupan prepares to begin a new role at Rochester.

Interview by Scott Hauser

zupanBUSINESS CHALLENGES: “We teach it for businesses, but it’s something we should apply in person—to try new challenges,” says Zupan. A noted business education leader with wide-ranging interests, Zupan was invited in 2011 to fly with the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s elite flight demonstration squadron, before a Rochester air show (below). (Photo: John Smillie)

Mark Zupan has long been a member of the Rochester family. His mother, Maria Zupan ’64 (PhD), was one of the first women to receive a doctorate in chemistry from the University.

Forty years after his mother was awarded her degree, Zupan is getting ready to take on a new role as a member of the University community. At the end of June, he will step down as dean of the Simon Business School and, after a yearlong sabbatical, will return to the Simon faculty as the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Policy and director of Simon’s Bradley Policy Research Center.

“It’s a great chance to reinvent,” Zupan says of shifting career gears after leading the Simon School for the past decade. “We teach it for businesses, but it’s something we should apply in person—to try new challenges.”

An economist who specializes in industrial organization, regulation, and political economy, Zupan began his tenure as dean in January 2004, arriving to lead Simon after a seven-year tenure as dean of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.

How would you describe the Simon School and what you’ve learned about it as dean?

I’m very proud and grateful to all the staff, faculty, students, and alumni. I like to describe business schools and universities in general as being as close to a Fountain of Youth as you can get. We have so many bright, dedicated, and caring people. The thing that probably stands out the most is that the alumni have this wonderful combination of world-class talent and groundedness. Talent goes to people’s heads, but that’s not the case here. And it’s very emblematic of the U of R more broadly. It’s a powerful combination if channeled the right way.

Are those the aspects that are driving “Toughen up,” Simon’s new branding initiative?

The Toughen up campaign is a key element of positioning Simon. It’s very authentic. And we’ve been pleased with how it’s been received by students, recruiters, alumni, faculty, and staff. It reflects our can-do spirit, our willingness to try new things. The defining moment for me was meeting with an alumna from 2004 who’s now the youngest senior manager at ANZ Bank in New York City. When we asked for her feedback, she said, “You’ve nailed it. I’ve been through hell and back, four different firms over the years of the downturn on Wall Street. The Simon education prepared me incredibly well, but it also took great fortitude and resilience.”

zupan (Photo: University Communications)

Does it resonate inside Simon as well?

It’s had the most enthusiastic faculty reception, unanimous approval, of anything I’ve been involved with in my 10 years at Simon. Importantly, it’s a call to action for faculty, staff, and alumni—that all of us need to raise our game.

What does the future hold for Simon?

We have five key goals. One is that because the full-time MBA still gets so much of the ranking spotlight we have to raise our game in terms of scholarship support, branding, curriculum, and program management.

Second is to develop an impactful set of undergraduate business degree offerings in partnership with Arts, Sciences & Engineering. These offerings were launched two years ago as the Barry Florescue Undergraduate Business Program in recognition of the pivotal support that University Trustee Barry Florescue ’66 has provided.

Third is growing and attracting the next generation of faculty. Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends, we’ve raised 10 new professorships since the inception of The Meliora Challenge.

Fourth is finding other programmatic ways to support the educational enterprise. With applications to full-time MBA programs declining since 2007, we have to find other programs that play to our strengths and build distinction. That’s where partnerships with the Medical Center and the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences come in. And that’s where specialized master’s degrees in finance, marketing, medical management, accounting, and pricing come in.

And the fifth leg of this five-legged stool is fundraising. We have nearly 470 George Eastman Circle members. And as of this spring, we are at nearly $67 million committed toward our $85 million target for The Meliora Challenge.

What have been the challenges over the past 10 years?

In a marketplace where many business schools have been losing money, Simon has had an endowment draw of no more than 5.5 percent for four consecutive years.

What have been some of the biggest changes academically or programmatically for Simon?

We’ve become more diversified as an educational institution—in terms of academic programs—and thereby, have achieved record enrollments. We are positioning Simon for growth by playing to our strengths in analytic, economics-based education and the University’s growing emphasis on data science, one-year MS programs in finance, accounting, medical management, technical entrepreneurship—and new in April, a partnership with UBS to provide a wealth management master’s program in Switzerland.

For the past five years, you’ve worked to establish a presence in New York City. What prompted that?

Two MBA students—one from Taiwan and the other from South Africa—suggested it as part of an annual competition we have for the best idea to improve Simon. Their insight was that Simon has had academic programs in Switzerland, Holland, and Australia, but that New York City was much closer and strategically appealing. And so it set in motion a major conference there—our fifth annual conference takes place this May. We’re also offering two programs for working professionals in New York City whereby students come to our Times Square site every other weekend to pursue a one-year MS in either finance or management.

What are you most proud of about your tenure?

I’m a big believer in a Lao-Tzu quote that the mark of effective leadership is when people say, “We did it ourselves.” I think that’s what we have here at Simon. It’s more than just a can-do spirit but a thirst for inventing the future. I’m immensely proud of our alumni, faculty, and students, and their willingness to make a difference embodying that Simon spirit every day in their careers and their lives.

MILESTONE MOMENT

Historic No-Hitters

Two freshman pitchers, two sports, and two no-hitters make for a historic day in Yellowjacket athletics.

By Dennis O’Donnell

sports_mainFRESHMAN PHENOMS: David Strandberg ’17 and Eleni Wechsler ’17 each pitched a no-hitter on the same day in April during separate doubleheaders, one in baseball and one in softball. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

One student is majoring in biology, the other in business. They don’t have any classes together. But freshmen Eleni Wechsler and David Strandberg are linked in Rochester athletic history for their roles in a historic accomplishment.

On a mid-April afternoon, both pitched no-hitters—Wechsler in softball and Strandberg in baseball—as Rochester swept doubleheaders from Skidmore College and Bard College.

Wechsler, from Warwick, N.Y., is the third woman to throw a no-hitter in softball for Rochester. Kathy Gagne ’02 threw the inaugural one in 2002 against D’Youville College. Brittany Grage ’16 pitched a no-hitter against RIT in 2013.

Pitching in the second game of a doubleheader against Skidmore, Wechsler blanked the Thoroughbreds with a 12–0 win that ended in five innings by the mercy rule. She walked three and struck out four. Rochester won the opener 11–3.

At the plate, Wechsler hit an RBI double in a four-run third inning that pushed Rochester up 7–0 in the first game. In game two, she singled home a run in a seven-run second inning that put the Yellowjackets ahead 8–0.

Strandberg, from Weehawken, N.J., joins a legacy of no-hitters in baseball, including one thrown by Bill Standera ’71 in 1971 against St. Bonaventure University. Standera won the Louis Alexander Award as a senior and was inducted into the University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.

With Strandberg on the mound, the Yellowjackets defeated Bard 11–2 in the opener of a two-game stand. Rochester took the nightcap 18–0.

Pitching seven innings of hitless ball, Strandberg allowed two runs in the fifth off three walks and a wild pitch. He ended the day with six walks and four strikeouts, earning his first collegiate victory.

The performances came with suitable awards. Strandberg was named the Liberty League Rookie of the Week. Wechsler was named the Pitcher of the Week by the University Athletic Association, the Liberty League, and the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s Upstate New York region.

Dennis O’Donnell is director of athletic communication for the Department of Athletics and Recreation.﻿

HIGHLIGHTS

Spring Seasons Start Strong

By Dennis O’Donnell

sports_roundupSPRING SEASON: Julian Danko ’15 (above) led the Yellowjackets with singles victories while Emily VanDenburgh ’16 was ranked seventh nationally in the long jump late in the spring. (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

A total of 10 Yellowjackets were named to All-America teams as the sports world moved from indoor to outdoor seasons early this spring.

Squash players Neil Cordell ’16, Mario Yanez Tapia ’17, and Ryosei Kobayashi ’17 were named first team All-Americans by the College Squash Association. The association selects 10 athletes for its first team honors. Last year, Cordell was named second team All-American.

sports_roundup (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

In the pool, diver Danielle Neu ’17 earned honorable mention All-America accolades. Swimmers who also earned the honor were Lauren Bailey ’16 (four events), Vicky Luan ’16 (two events), Khamai Simpson ’17 (one event), Emily Simon ’17 (one event), Karen Meess ’14 (one event), and Alex Veech ’17 (one event). Rochester finished in 20th place at the NCAA Division III national championships with 31 points.

Here’s a rundown of the spring teams heading into late April:

Baseball: The Yellowjackets stood at 15–12 overall, 10–6 in the Liberty League. Seven pitchers combined on a four-hitter as Rochester blanked 25th-ranked Ithaca College. Dan Warren ’16 was 3–0 as a starter and Evan Janifer ’16 was 2–0 with five saves in relief. Warren was named to the UAA all-tournament team.

Golf: The Yellowjackets were second at the UAA championships. In late April, Rochester was set to cohost the 2014 Oak Hill Intercollegiate with the University of Notre Dame (featuring seven Division I teams and Rochester). The Yellowjackets were also set to host the Liberty League match play championships in nearby Mendon with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA championships.

Lacrosse: Rochester opened the season with five wins in the first seven matches. The Yellowjackets were 5–5 by mid-April. Freshmen were key contributors. Jamie Wallisch ’17 was the leading scorer, followed closely by Lauren Basil ’15, and Mara Karpp ’17.

Softball: The Yellowjackets ran off eight straight wins after returning from Florida to stand at 13–7 overall, 6–0 in the Liberty League. Tayler Fravel ’14 was hitting .515 with Nina Korn ’14 at .362 (19 runs scored, 16 RBIs). The RBI leader was Brittany Grage ’15 with 20. Fravel was named to the UAA all-tournament team. Clarkson added softball this year, so the Liberty League playoff champion will earn an automatic bid to the NCAAs.

Rowing: In early season polls, Rochester hovered between No. 11 and No. 12 in the Division III rankings. The Yellowjackets won their opening race against St. Lawrence and RIT, then finished second to Ithaca a week later. Later in the month, they raced against four of the top eight teams in the poll at WPI. The Yellowjackets will defend their Dad Vail championship in early May in Philadelphia.

Tennis: The men’s team rolled to seven straight wins and stood at 13–4 with the UAA championships looming in Florida in late April. The individual leaders in singles wins were Julian Danko ’16 (with 17) and Boris Borovcanin ’14 (with 15). As a doubles pairing, they won 8 of 10 matches. Rochester’s women were 4–4 against regional foes (5–8 overall). Molly Goodman ’16 (12) and Christine Ho ’16 (11) combined for 23 singles victories.

Track and field: Picking up where they left off last season, the Yellowjackets were regularly placing women’s and men’s competitors into the ECAC championships and among the Division III performance leaders. On the women’s team, Emily VanDenburgh ’16 was ranked seventh in the long jump and Lindsay Carbone ’16 broke the outdoor pole vault record after breaking it indoors. For the men, Adam Pacheck ’14 was ranked 10th nationally in the 10,000-meter run by mid-April, and Jeremy Hassett ’16 was ranked 16th in the 800-meter run after the UR Alumni Invitational.

‘We Were Not Afraid’

Fifty years ago, Matthew Zwerling ’64 risked his life during Mississippi Freedom Summer. His friend, Andrew Goodman, gave his. But the biggest heroes of the civil rights movement, Zwerling says, are only starting to be recognized.

By Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

votingON DAY ONE, TRAGEDY: Zwerling writes home (above) as an FBI poster announcing the disappearance of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner receives national media attention. (Photo: Matthew Zwerling Freedom Summer Collection, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi)

Thinking back to his summer 50 years ago in Clarksdale, Miss., Matthew Zwerling ’64 recalls the warmth of the Friday night gatherings in the backyard of the man called “Doc Henry.”

Aaron Henry was a World War II veteran, the president of the Mississippi state chapter of the NAACP, and a pharmacist with a small drugstore in downtown Clarksdale. When Zwerling arrived as part of a group of northern white volunteers to participate in Mississippi Freedom Summer, Henry was there to greet them.

voting (Photo: Courtesy of Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

“He just kind of rallied the troops,” says Zwerling. “He had a great sense of humor, which I admired in particular because he was under so much stress.”

Henry had known danger. Both his home and his pharmacy had been firebombed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. His friend Medgar Evers, an NAACP leader in Jackson, had been shot to death in his own driveway.

“With 50 years of perspective, I’m astounded at the courage of the local people who had been doing civil rights work for years,” Zwerling says.

Freedom Summer was among the most ambitious initiatives of the civil rights movement. Organized by a coalition of civil rights groups including the NAACP, the bulk of the effort came from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, an organization of black college students that had grown out of the Greensboro sit-ins. Led by Robert Moses, a Harlem-born, Harvard-educated SNCC activist, Freedom Summer organizers recruited several hundred northern white college students who would be trained by experienced civil rights workers, grouped with experienced leaders, live in the homes of black Mississippians, and fan across the state to be ground troops in a concerted effort to register black voters in a state in which less than 6 percent of voting-age African Americans were registered, according to data compiled by the United States Commission on Civil Rights during a 1964 investigation.

In late June, to mark the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, many veterans of that summer will gather at a four-day conference in the state capitol of Jackson. The planners of the conference have a single clear message: Freedom Summer “was more than theory and faith. It was more than uplifting rhetoric and freedom songs—It was pragmatic and tedious, dangerous and deadly.”

Zwerling will not be able to attend the event. But his experience of the summer was just as the planners describe. In a series of letters he wrote to his family during that summer, and which he’s donated to the University of Southern Mississippi Archives, Zwerling told of canvassing residents in tiny towns and rural areas in the heat of the Delta summer. Of spending hours in a small office helping to organize meetings that drew many locals in some cases—or in others, none at all. It was a summer filled with heat and boredom, frustration and fear. And exuberance at any progress, large or small.

Like virtually every northern college student who took part in Freedom Summer, Zwerling had participated in civil rights activity, albeit in smaller ways, before. He got his start in high school, traveling to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Youth March for Integrated Schools, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, in the fall of 1958. Zwerling’s parents, Israel and Florence, lent their support to the movement by participating in sympathy pickets, offering financial support to civil rights organizations, and placing pressure on their elected officials through meetings and letters.

votingICONIC IMAGE: One of the last images of Goodman (above) was taken during a training session in Ohio that he and Zwerling attended together. (Photo: Library of Congress)

At Rochester, Zwerling had been one of a small but committed group of students and faculty members who sought to bring attention and support to the southern civil rights movement. During spring break in 1964, Zwerling had been all set to travel with a group of students to Greensboro, N.C., to help register voters. But he came down with mononucleosis just before the trip. “If somebody were to punch you in the stomach,” Zwerling recalls the doctor telling him, “they could rupture your spleen.”

It was a major disappointment. But within weeks, SNCC’s charismatic leader, John Lewis, came to the River Campus where he’d address a crowd of nearly 250 people, according to the Campus Times. Lewis, now a member of Congress from Georgia, had addressed the March on Washington the previous summer, and came to the University as part of a concerted effort among Freedom Summer organizers to recruit volunteers.

As Bob Calhoun ’64 reported in the Campus Times, Lewis “pointed specifically to the summer project that [SNCC activists] are now organizing in an all-out attempt to break the voting barrier in Mississippi.” Zwerling, having missed his chance to go to Greensboro, had his heart and mind set on Freedom Summer.

Mississippi was far more dangerous than North Carolina. As NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins famously said in a press conference following Evers’s murder, “There is no state with a record that approaches that of Mississippi in inhumanity, murder, brutality, and racial hatred. It is absolutely at the bottom of the list.”

Freedom Summer organizers were frank about the dangers faced by civil rights workers in the state. The potential for physical harm and how to respond to threats were major themes of a weeklong training session for volunteers held on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. It wouldn’t be long before Zwerling would be confronted with the depth of the risk he’d taken on.

Zwerling would be driving to Oxford with Andy Goodman, another volunteer whose family lived in the same New York City apartment building as the Zwerlings.

“We were more acquaintances than friends,” Zwerling says, describing the relationship over the years in which they shared a building and their parents, all committed civil rights supporters, shared a circle of friends. Goodman had attended the Walden School on the Upper West Side, while Zwerling had gone to the Bronx High School of Science. Zwerling had left the city, seeking a small liberal arts college, while Goodman was a student at Queens College, part of the City University of New York.

They would spend the entire 10-hour, 600-plus-mile drive to Oxford, Ohio, and much of the next week of training, together. “We were not afraid,” Zwerling says today, thinking back to the ride and to their training. It wasn’t that they weren’t aware of the dangers. “I think we were just kind of blocking that out. There’s a reason governments recruit soldiers at 19 years old. At that age, we think we’re going to live forever.”

After a week of training, Zwerling and Goodman parted ways, Zwerling having been assigned to work in Clarksdale, and Goodman in Meridian. “That was the last I saw of him,” Zwerling says.

Zwerling would drive his car to Mississippi with two other white volunteers and an African-American Mississippian named James Jones.

votingNOW & THEN: Zwerling, a retired public defender, at home in San Francisco (above) and with fellow volunteer Margaret Hazelton at a backyard picnic hosted by Clarksdale NAACP leader Aaron Henry in June 1964 (below). (Photo: Alison Yin/AP Images for Rochester Review)

As they traveled south, Zwerling was struck by the landscape. Entering Mississippi around dawn on June 20, he saw his first cotton fields. As he slowed down to take in the view, Jones grew anxious. Zwerling recalls Jones telling him to speed up. As Jones knew, a car like theirs was sure to attract attention among a police force that, in many counties, had close ties to the Ku Klux Klan. It had New York tags, and blacks and whites traveling together, highly unusual in Mississippi. As Zwerling would learn years later, when he’d exchanged his New York license plates for Mississippi ones, his name, local address, and new Mississippi plate number had been passed promptly on to the Klan.

voting (Photo: Margaret J. Hazelton Freedom Summer Collection, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi)

On June 23, when he wrote his first letter home, all seemed well. “Safe and sound in Clarksdale,” he wrote. “So far community is extremely friendly and no harassment so far.”The letter was unlikely to have reassured his parents. They’d been wary about his going. “Apparently, without telling me, they had very deep questions about whether they’d be willing to let me go to Mississippi, given the level of danger,” Zwerling says. “They spared me that agonizing by just coming to me and saying, ‘If you feel like you want to go, we’re behind you all the way.’ ”

Few veteran activists doubted the fate of the three workers, whose bodies would be discovered, buried in a ditch outside Philadelphia, Miss., in August.

Zwerling was slower to acknowledge their likely fate. “It didn’t register until Andy had been missing for about a week,” he recalls. “Once a week had gone by, it was clear that they had been killed somewhere.”

But like soldiers in battle, they weren’t to dwell. “I did the thing that people from SNCC were trained to do. Just to say, ‘I’m not moving. They can’t scare me out of here. I’m staying and registering voters.’ ”

The disappearance of the three workers quickly became national news. That Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner would become three of the most recognizable faces of the movement is evidence of what African-American veteran civil rights workers knew from long experience. It was far from the first time that ordinary citizens had been murdered in Mississippi for advancing civil rights. Had Chaney, who was black, been the only victim, it’s unlikely anyone outside the activist organizations would ever have known. Among those making that charge was Schwerner’s widow, Rita Schwerner, herself a SNCC activist in Mississippi. In numerous memoirs, veterans including Henry note that the recruitment of white students to Freedom Summer was a deliberate means to place national focus on the violence and lawlessness in Mississippi. When volunteers like Zwerling signed up to go to Mississippi, they were lending more than manpower. They brought power in the form of white skin and connections to elite institutions. In his memoir, The Fire Ever Burning, Henry wrote that Mississippi civil rights workers needed “national publicity and coverage that would reflect the significance of our efforts.” In 1963, when a group of white students from Yale and Stanford came to help with a voting rights project, Henry noticed a curious thing: “They were able to get the news media to almost every mass meeting that we held in the state.”

votingAT WORK: Aaron (Doc) Henry, an NAACP leader and a pharmacist, “rallied the troops” in Clarksdale, Zwerling says. (Photo: Margaret J. Hazelton Freedom Summer Collection, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi)

Moses had worked for three straight years trying to register black voters in Mississippi. But as scholars such as Clayborne Carson, professor of history at Stanford and author of In Struggle, a history of SNCC, explain, Moses found that neither his nor anyone’s efforts had borne much fruit. The dearth of African-American voters demonstrated the effectiveness of the threats against blacks who attempted to vote—from firings, foreclosures, and evictions, to sniper fire, fire bombings, and murders. Indeed, a 1963 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigation found “open and flagrant violation of constitutional rights in Mississippi,” carried out by intimidation and violence.

Despite pleas from civil rights leaders, the federal government under President Kennedy had not intervened to protect voters, leaving the job to local police. Moses calculated that federal intervention was the only way to secure voting rights in Mississippi. And the only way to get federal intervention, he reasoned, was to invite the sons and daughters of elite white Americans to join the struggle in Mississippi.

The Mississippi state legislature responded to Freedom Summer with multiple new laws targeting political activity and a near doubling of the state’s highway patrol. Gov. Paul Johnson told a television news reporter that the police would respond to Freedom Summer with “Mississippi-style” justice. But the influx of northern whites also made the internal politics of the civil rights movement complicated. Many African Americans in the civil rights movement were opposed to recruiting white participants, fearing the implications of dependence on whites.

As a volunteer in Clarksdale, Zwerling would feel that tension more acutely than volunteers in almost any other area of the state. “Freedom Summer was different in Clarksdale because of the very strong NAACP presence in the town and an already vibrant movement taking place,” says Françoise Hamlin, an assistant professor of history and Africana studies at Brown University.

In her 2012 book, Crossroads at Clarksdale: The Black Freedom Struggle in the Mississippi Delta after World War II, Hamlin explores the leadership of Henry, and of another Clarksdale NAACP leader, Vera Mae Pigee, who died in 2007, virtually unknown to the history books.

“There were strong movement leaders in Clarksdale, Pigee among them, who did not necessarily support Freedom Summer as enthusiastically as Aaron Henry, which made for some interesting interactions between the older grassroots leadership and the young volunteers,” Hamlin says.

As it turned out, Zwerling would be among Pigee’s first volunteer houseguests. Through her, he would become acquainted with the complicated internal politics of the civil rights movement.

Pigee owned a hair salon in downtown Clarksdale. As a hairdresser, she knew more than just about anybody about the daily lives, circumstances, and opinions of the black residents of the town. For years, she helped build the NAACP’s membership in the region, helping Clarksdale to become the stronghold of the NAACP in the state. From the back of her salon, she ran Freedom Schools to educate locals on citizenship rights and strategy. “At times,” writes Hamlin, “Pigee could literally hold clients hostage to a continuous barrage of information and persuasion while working on their hair.” Hamlin argues that Pigee saw the northern white volunteers as a potential distraction from work already under way, as well as a competing force on turf she’d staked out for her own efforts.

While Henry saw the potential of SNCC and welcomed the volunteers, Pigee went along only reluctantly, resenting the presence of SNCC.

Writing home, Zwerling noted that Pigee’s circumstances were far better than those of most black Mississippians. She had air-conditioning in her home, for example. But he felt some tension in the air, and got wind that it was in part due to a disagreement between her and Henry.

“There is some conflict here between the NAACP and SNCC which sort of stays a little beneath the surface,” he wrote.

While Zwerling felt Pigee to be less welcoming than Henry, today he sees her as an unsung hero of Freedom Summer, whose bravery, like Henry’s, is astonishing. A bullet had passed through her living room window the same night that Henry’s house had been struck. Yet, like Henry, she continued her work and agreed to host—at least for the first week—the northern volunteers, an act that would place her in even more danger. “Talk about courage,” says Zwerling. “She still agreed to put us up, and she continued to work after we were gone.”

votingSAYING NO TO JIM CROW: Zwerling (right, standing) and fellow Clarksdale Freedom Summer volunteers at work in the Freedom Office. (Photo: Margaret J. Hazelton Freedom Summer Collection, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi)

Over the years, Zwerling has become more impressed with a point driven home to the volunteers during Freedom Summer. During training, they were told their presence might strike great fear among many black locals. Many residents were fearful of all whites, especially if they were approached by more than one. Those who trusted the approaching volunteers would know that fraternizing with Freedom Summer volunteers could place them in danger. While the volunteers would return back home at the end of the summer, the local residents would remain in Mississippi where they would be potential targets for retribution.As Zwerling got to work, he wrote that the residents he canvassed were “very receptive and friendly.” He added, “I found four people willing to go to the courthouse tomorrow and attempt to register. The real test will come tomorrow to see if they’ll actually go; if we workers will be arrested and if they will be registered.”

“I’ve called a meeting at the biggest church in town,” Zwerling wrote home, referring to a Baptist church in the black community of Riverton. “If the meeting works out I’ll feel that I’ve done something direct and important. If not, it means more slow plodding on.”

As it turned out, Zwerling was pleased with the results of the meeting. About 50 people attended. And with the deacon late in arriving, he even led the attendants in a prayer. “I prayed for courage for us all to fight for ourselves—sort of a secular prayer,” he wrote to his family.

“I’ve been working like crazy on the Freedom Dem Party,” he wrote on July 20. He’d since moved from Pigee’s home to more rugged—and typical—accommodations, a home with no refrigerator or stove, and little electric lighting. “Tomorrow is the precinct meeting and I’ll be like a chicken-minus-head.”

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party would hold its convention in Jackson in early August. Zwerling would not be present, however. “The SNCC people who were involved in the Democratic convention politics were mostly just the real top leadership—Bob Moses, Jim Forman, Fannie Lou Hamer. Most of the white students left before the convention, as planned.”

It underscored the role of the northern white volunteers as foot soldiers in a black movement. As Zwerling was leaving Mississippi to head back home to New York, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates, including Henry, were in Atlantic City to challenge the Democratic party to seat them as Mississippi’s only democratically elected delegation. The national party offered the Freedom party a compromise, which the Freedom delegates rejected. But Zwerling says he had no opinion on the events in Atlantic City by that time. “I was exhausted,” he recalls. “I felt I had done my job. It didn’t matter to me what disputes there might still be.” They’d challenged the national party, and forced it to respond. “We had achieved so much.”

Like many Freedom Summer volunteers, Zwerling says the summer changed the course of his life. He passed up an offer from Stanford Medical School and began preparing for a career in law instead. He worked for his home district congressman, Rep. William Fitts Ryan, who gave him a pass to be in the chamber as President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in August 1965.

He went to Yale Law School, overlapping one year with Calhoun, who in addition to covering Lewis’s visit to the University for the Campus Times, participated in the spring 1964 trip to register voters in Greensboro. Zwerling worked as a public defender, and later as executive director of the First District Appellate Project, founded by Calhoun to offer legal services for appellate cases involving indigent clients. Zwerling would serve as the project’s executive director for 26 years before retiring in 2008.

Zwerling maintained contact with the Goodmans over the years, especially Andy’s mother, Carolyn Goodman, who died in 2007. “My parents and [Andy’s] parents worked together as soon as he was missing. They kind of formed their own support group as they went through the horror of finding out what had happened,” he says.

Looking back to Freedom Summer 50 years later, Zwerling echoes the view of most historians today. There was nothing inevitable about the progress made that summer. “In a nutshell, Freedom Summer was absolutely one of the reasons we got the Voting Rights Act,” he says. “It’s too bad it had to be through the mechanism of white kids getting involved. But I don’t see how anybody could look back and not see the impetus that that summer gave.”

Q&A

Civil Rights and Civic Lessons

Maya Sen, assistant professor of political science, explores the legal significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Freedom Summer is considered pivotal in President Lyndon Johnson’s decision to introduce the Voting Rights Act in the spring of 1965. But during that same summer, Congress passed a legal landmark that was arguably even more significant: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in public accommodations.

It wasn’t the first such effort, says Maya Sen, assistant professor of political science at Rochester. The legal twists and technicalities on the road to ending legal segregation began nearly a century earlier. Sen, who joined the faculty in 2012, holds a law degree in addition to a doctorate in political science and teaches courses on law, judicial politics, and the politics of race and ethnicity in the United States.

From a legal standpoint, why was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so significant?

It was significant in two major ways. First, we think of the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 as being that definitive moment when we knew that separate was inherently unequal and that segregation was no longer the law of the land. It galvanized the civil rights movement, starting with the Montgomery bus boycott. Segregation was still the informal law of the land, even if it had been declared unconstitutional. As several political scientists have shown, the percentage of African-American children attending desegregated schools in the South was close to zero for many years after the Brown rulings. It wasn’t until passage of the Civil Rights Act that things changed. The new law called for desegregation of schools and empowered the federal government to sue for enforcement. One could say that the Civil Rights Act really implemented the spirit of the Brown rulings.

Second, it outlawed discrimination in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants.

President Ulysses Grant signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1875, also outlawing discrimination in public accommodations. Why did the 1964 law succeed while this one has been all but forgotten?

The 1875 act was enacted under Congress’s authority under the Enforcement Clause of the 14th Amendment, and the Supreme Court ruled very soon after that Congress had exceeded its authority under that clause. But the 1964 act was not passed under the 14th Amendment. It was actually passed under Congress’s authority to regulate interstate commercial activities, what we would call the Commerce Clause. This is an important distinction, and it led the court to uphold the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. It’s hard to know where we would be today were it not for the 1964 law.

Do you think the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act is secure?

There have been challenges as to whether the law usurps Congress’s authority under the Commerce Clause—i.e., whether this really constitutes interstate commerce as the founders intended it. It appears to be settled that the constitutionality of the law isn’t in question.

Whether there continues to be popular will in support for the Civil Rights Act is a different question. And I think there continues to be. We’ve agreed as a society that it’s wrong for hotels, movie theaters, and restaurants to discriminate against customers solely because of their race or ethnicity.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of that law. What was the significance of that ruling?

In Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down the formula used to determine which jurisdictions were “covered” for purposes of the Voting Rights Act, a designation that triggers additional scrutiny from the Department of Justice. The coverage formula struck down by the Supreme Court is based on historical data. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the opinion, said we can’t rely on a formula that uses 40-year-old data. He argued, quite reasonably to a lot of people, that a lot has changed in the last few decades.

It’s not that the entire act is invalid after Shelby County, or that it can’t be worked through. But it does raise the question of whether Congress will try to rewrite the coverage formula that Shelby County struck down. The Voting Rights Act has in the past enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. For example, the last time it was reauthorized was in 2006, and that was under a Republican president and a Republican Congress. So there is good support for it. In addition, the Voting Rights Act has been by most markers quite successful. In some states, the percentage of eligible black registered voters went from approximately 10 percent to 60 or 70 percent.

Time will tell whether Congress will take up the challenges posed by the Shelby County decision.

—Interview by Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

Liberal Arts & Artisans

Whether it’s their main job or a second vocation, Rochester alumni are masters of their crafts.

By Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

In this commencement season, graduates will hear a lot about following their passions. For some of those graduates, the question will be, which one? For others the question will be, will I be able to make a living? For

the graduates of liberal arts colleges, one of the less trodden paths is artisanship. As traditionally defined, artisans (or craftspeople) make objects by hand that are both useful and beautiful. More recently, that definition has expanded to include culinary artists crafting food and beverages that combine use value and visual aesthetics with the aesthetics of taste.

Rochester’s alumni include craftspeople working with a wide variety of materials. Some have made their craft their living. Others have pursued it as a second vocation. In all cases, they’ve wrestled with how to market and sell their work as changing technology has offered both challenges and opportunities.

artisansGEARED UP: Maxwell, a former art teacher and a retired Naval officer fascinated by mechanics and old navigation tools, taught himself how to make clocks entirely from wood. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Clock Work

Years ago, Charles Maxwell ’06S (MBA) studied fine art and elementary education at a small college in his native New Jersey. Years after that, as executive officer of Rochester’s Naval ROTC, he picked up an MBA at the Simon Business School. In the interim, he earned a master’s degree in quantitative analysis from the University of Wisconsin. He’s earned his share of degrees. But he’s an autodidact at heart, as well as a polymath.

At an early age, he began keeping sketchbooks. He filled them with drawings of things he wanted to build—go-carts, tree forts, a 6-volt battery electric motor he built from scratch in the fifth grade. “My grandfather said, ‘You’re an inventor,’” Maxwell says, sitting in his Pittsford, N.Y., home, full of cabinetry and furniture he designed and built himself.

Now retired from the Navy, Maxwell focuses on building wooden clocks, most of which stand more than five feet tall. His work makes good on a promise he made to his wife, Pat, on a museum visit during their honeymoon in Hyannisport, Mass., more than 30 years ago.

“I saw this big, wooden clock with all wooden gears, and I thought that was the most beautiful piece of kinetic art I’d ever seen,” he recalls. “I looked at Pat, and I said, ‘You know, one day I’ll build you one of them.’”

He didn’t know how a clock worked. But with a lifelong fascination with mechanics, he was undeterred. He searched libraries, museums, and the Internet, and with the sources he compiled, taught himself. He worked out specifications and sketched out designs with pencil and paper. He built mock-ups from spare material.

“The hardest part was to get the escapement to work,” he says, referring to the oscillating weight and rotating gears that allow a clock to keep time. “I went to an MIT website to help me with that.”

Complicating matters considerably was his chosen material, wood, which expands, contracts, cracks, and wears. But he’s developed methods to meet the challenges posed even by his favored ebony and hard maple, which are among the most durable woods.

He’s also designed his super-sized clocks to be easy to move. “These clocks come apart in about five minutes,” he says, unscrewing an ebony cap near the base of one of his clocks. The idea came about as a solution to a problem. “Every time you build one, you end up taking it apart a million times to get the fittings right.”

Maxwell says he hasn’t had to market himself to secure the small number of clients it takes to sustain his time-consuming craft. And as a retired military officer, he doesn’t have to make a living at his art either.

He can focus with singular attention on his goal.

“My goal is to have one of my clocks in the American Arts and Crafts Museum in New York City,” he says. (The museum changed its name to the Museum of Arts and Design in 2002.) “I have a friend who’s a naval officer who has a canoe in there.”

Maxwell has received advice, of course, on how to achieve the ambitious goal. But the key lies in the craft of clock making itself. And it’s fairly simple, in concept at least, if not in practice. “You have to have the best one out there,” he says.﻿

artisansREFLECTIONS ON GLASS: Glasner’s first encounter with a glass studio was like love at first sight. “It’s the connection to the material,” he says, that’s the essence of his work. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

When Glass Was King

If you ask Bill Glasner ’69 what’s most satisfying about being a craftsman—or what, for that matter, makes one—he’ll tell you “it’s the connection with the material.” So it’s not surprising that he abandoned his first stab at craftsmanship—making dulcimers—when he found himself spending more time fiddling with machines than working with wood.

It was the early 1970s. He’d joined the Rochester Folk Art Guild, an artisanal and farming community located just east of Canandaigua Lake. Glasner, who is a board member of the guild, says, “One day I walked out of the woodshop, and it was about nine o’clock at night, and the door to the glass shop was open, and the furnace was glowing. And my name is Glasner. It was fate.”

At the time, glassmaking was on the rise. Although people have made glass since ancient times, for most of its history, glassmaking has been the work of guild members working in factories.

“Up until the 1960s, there was essentially no such thing as a glass studio,” Glasner says from his studio outside Victor, N.Y., in a barn that he converted himself. Glass blowing “wasn’t anything that an individual would do.”

But when the technology was developed in the 1950s by Toledo ceramicist Harvey Littleton, the individual glass artisan came into being.

From the late 1970s until just a few years ago, glass blowing was Glasner’s full-time job. His work has appeared on three continents, at museums such as the Smithsonian, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Musée des Arts Décoratif in Paris. His work is also part of the permanent collection at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Like many of his baby boom peers, he’s scaled back as he nears retirement age. While at the peak of his career, he operated a furnace around the clock, producing vases and other art objects with the help of assistants he was training in the craft, these days he makes glass jewelry. Requiring little overhead, it’s a business decision that makes sense in the changing glass art market.

“There was a period of time, from the early 1970s until around 2005, when handmade American craft was getting a lot of press and a lot of people were getting educated about what it meant,” he says. “And glass was the king of the scene.”

“I never had to actually convince people that I’m this great artist and this is great glass, and you should buy it because it expresses this fantastic idea—whatever people do.”

He says he could market his jewelry more aggressively if he had to. But with most of a successful career behind him, he finds that sales were never an end in themselves.

“Had I not been able to make a living at this, I probably would have ended up as a history teacher,” he says. As a glass artist, his contribution is in what he calls “intangible aspects to people’s lives.”

“I’ve tried to make beautiful things that will add value to people’s lives, that people enjoy having and seeing and using,” he says. “I hope, if we’re still around in 1,000 years and someone sees one of my pieces, they’ll say, ‘Hey, that’s really nice.’ That’s all. That’s fine.”﻿

artisansHAT MAKER: From her home in Fairbanks, Alaska, Krawiec creates hats from fleece, cotton, and an array of batik fabrics. Each hat features a depiction of the Alaska Range. (Photo: Sam Harrel/AP Images for Rochester Review)

Ever-Changing Horizons

To find her inspiration, Heather Krawiec ’92, ’93 (T5) simply looks out from her bedroom window.

The view is magical: the Alaskan Range, about 150 miles south of her home in Fairbanks. In the winter, when the sun makes only a brief appearance in late morning, the mountains form a dark silhouette against the low-rising sun, which casts a pink and orange glow, before dipping down in early afternoon. As spring comes, the sun remains long enough for that fluorescent glow to turn yellow, then dissipate, revealing a bright blue sky.

“It’s so hard to capture in a photograph,” she says.

She captures the view instead in fabrics.

As a child, she played with fabrics, mixing and matching, mimicking her mother, a quilter. Today, Krawiec makes fabric hats as the sole proprietor of the business she’s called Mountain Heather Creations, playing on her name and one of her favorite Alaskan wildflowers.

She makes the hats out of fleece or cotton. Wrapped around each hat is a band—a patchwork of printed and batik fabrics representing an imaginative recreation of the ever-changing Fairbanks skyline.

Krawiec moved to Alaska shortly after graduating from Rochester, where she completed a degree in geological sciences and a Take Five Scholars program based in studio art. She entered graduate school for marine biology at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. She wanted to find a way to combine science and art, and sought to carve a niche for herself designing museum displays. “There was an Alaskan sea life center that was being built,” she says. She made a proposal to the museum, but it was unsuccessful. “I knew I didn’t really want a fish and game job, which is where I was headed, so I just quit.”

Hat making, which had been a hobby, became her full-time job. It was possible to pull off in Alaska.

Fairbanks is home to a robust craft market, and Krawiec attracted buyers almost immediately when she began selling her hats at local craft bazaars. It didn’t amount to a lot of money, but it didn’t have to.

“My life had been super simple, and that’s why making hats was a viable source of income to keep me going. Life was just a one-room cabin with a couple of dogs,” she says, describing a pared down way of life that’s fairly common in Alaska.

Now married, she spends much of her time helping her husband run his business, Dreamworks Cabinetry. But she continues to make hats, taking orders through her Mountain Heather Creations website and Facebook page, and filling a standing order from the museum store at the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North. She makes about 200 hats per year for the museum.

“I have these 50 or so fabrics in my studio and I just lay them out and put them together,” she says. “Just putting all those colors together is the joy for me.”﻿

artisansINDIE ARTIST: Preske, who makes jewelry from computer circuit boards, revels in art objects made from unconventional materials. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

A New Kind of Computer Art

Amanda Preske ’12 (MS) started making jewelry before she was 10, and went into business by the time she was 15. But it wasn’t until she embarked on a whimsical experiment with resin and computer circuit boards that she found her niche in the crowded handmade jewelry market.

Today, the PhD student in materials chemistry is noted for turning scraps of computer innards into bright and enticing jewelry. Her work is distinct, unmistakably hers, and garnering attention at arts festivals as well as through online venues such as Etsy.com.

Preske discovered the untapped potential of circuit boards when she was learning to use resin. “Anything that was floating around got cast in resin,” she says. Among the items floating around her family’s home in Syracuse, N.Y., were computer components scattered by her brother, who was dismantling a home computer.

“I thought, ‘Oh, a circuit board. That could be cool.’” She cast some circuit board parts in resin, turned them into jewelry, and displayed them at craft shows. “They received a lot more attention than I thought they would,” she says. “So I continued to develop them into the much better product that I have now.”

One facet of developing a finer product was developing a keen eye for a striking board.

“I find that there’s a lot of really interesting things right under the processor,” she says. “If I remove that carefully, I have some really neat things to work with under there.”

With the array of chisels, saws, and rotary blades in her Cobbs Hill apartment, she slices out the most visually appealing portions of her sizeable collection of discarded circuit boards. Then she grinds them to the shape she wants.

“Boards are mostly fiberglass and metal, so it’s messy,” she says, noting her need for protective equipment and methods to contain dust. To ensure the safety of the material for wearers, she chooses boards certain or unlikely to contain heavy metals. “But that’s also why I coat everything in resin,” she adds.

Preske attended college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. At the school, which is noted for both the sciences and the School for American Crafts, she supplemented her chemistry courses with courses in drawing, collage, and metalwork. It was an entrée into the local crafts scene, in which Preske has become a leader.

A regular exhibitor at some of Rochester’s major shows—the City of Rochester’s Lilac Festival and the Memorial Art Gallery’s Clothesline Festival, for example—she’s also spearheaded a new juried show: the Mayday Underground, which she founded with fellow artist Casey Wright in 2010. Held twice a year at Rochester’s Village Gate, it’s for what she calls “indie” artists and craftspeople—people who use materials in unconventional ways.

“Nationwide,” she says, “there are all kinds of weird, different, new approaches to art and craft. We wanted to bring that kind of aesthetic and appeal to Rochester.”﻿

artisansFINELY TUNED: The wood, the varnish, the shape, the placement of the bridge right down to a hair’s width—all have a discernible impact on the sound of the instrument, says Chrapkiewicz, who both makes and repairs violins and violas. (Photo: Nick Wass/Ap Images for Rochester Review)

Crafting Sound

“Violins are very sensitive and finicky things,” says David Chrapkiewicz ’70, ’72W (MA), explaining the complexity of making one.

The type of wood, its width, the shape and placement of parts such as the bass bar, in the violin’s interior, and the bridge, a thin wooden slab on which the strings rest—all have a striking impact on the character of each instrument’s sound. Chrapkiewicz’s violins are tailor made for his clients, and he makes, at most, four per year.

“Usually the fancier the soloist, the fussier they are,” he says. They’ll notice the effect of, for example, moving the bridge a human hair’s width. “It’s only like seven-hundredths of a millimeter. But it can brighten or make the violin sound harsh.”

Chrapkiewicz is not a violinist himself, but rather, a craftsman with a very keen ear. His grandfather made violins, and inspired by that example, Chrapkiewicz made his first string instrument—a balalaika—in 1969, while still a student at Rochester.

Intending to go to medical school, he loaded up on math, chemistry, and physics. It gave him a base of knowledge that he says “I apply to what I’m doing all the time.”

Chrapkiewicz is regularly invited to violinists’ and violin makers’ conferences to lecture on acoustics. He’s also engineered his own varnish, and unlike many makers, seals the interior of the instrument. The sealed interior “doesn’t make the violin immune to changes in humidity, but it makes it more resistant, so the changes don’t happen quite so fast.”

After graduation, Chrapkiewicz abandoned plans for medical school. He attended the Warner School of Education and taught middle school science just outside Rochester. But in 1975, he decided to devote himself fully to violin making. He moved to Montreal to study with two masters, Alois Vogl and Raymond Forget. In 1979, he set up his own shop.

Today that shop is the basement of his home in Washington Grove, Md., near Washington, D.C. It’s a fairly messy place, with wood scraps, shavings, and “tools thrown all over the place,” Chrapkiewicz says. He’s won multiple awards for his work, including a silver medal for tone at the 2002 Violin Society of America’s international competition. Most violins are made from maple and spruce. Spruce, used for the face, “is lightweight and relatively strong, and it transmits vibrations very well,” he says. Maple, used for the back and ribs, combines durability and beauty. “Maple is a very beautiful wood, especially when it has curl,” he says, referring to the fibers visible in some cuts of maple.

But Chrapkiewicz has also made violins from osage orange, and before its exportation was banned, Hawaiian Koa. “Violinists are very traditional. Most people, if they heard you’d used Hawaiian Koa, they’d say, ‘Nice knowing you,’ ” he says. “But even Stradivarius himself experimented with pear woods, willow, and cherry. He used other woods besides maple and spruce.”﻿

Building Instagram

Tyler Kieft ’09, ’10 (T5) helps develop some of the photo-sharing app’s latest features.

By Caitlin Mack ’12, ’13 (T5)

kieftPICTURE THIS: Kieft is an avid user of the photo-sharing application that he has helped develop as an early member of the San Francisco–based company. (Photo: University Advancement)

When Tyler Kieft ’09, ’10 (T5) shares striking landscape photos of the San Francisco Bay, scenes of New Zealand, and shots of picturesque forests on his Instagram feed, he receives hundreds of likes from almost 6,000 followers. You would expect nothing less from Kieft, an Instagram engineer who has helped design several of the photo- and video-sharing application’s flagship features.

Instagram, a massively popular application among smartphone owners, each month allows over 200 million iPhone, Android, and online users to edit photos and videos and share them with followers.

“When I started at Instagram, the entire staff could fit around a single table,” says Kieft. “It’s exciting to work on something that touches the lives of so many people.”

In the last year, Kieft has been integral in the design of several Instagram features, including “Photos of You,” which enables users to tag friends; the app’s video-sharing feature, which allows users to create and share videos up to 15 seconds long; and Instagram Direct, which lets users send photos and videos to specific followers.

Kieft joined Facebook in June 2012, two months after the social media giant acquired Instagram for what was then a headline-grabbing $1 billion. In November 2012, he was one of the first engineers hired from Facebook to work on Instagram and the second person to work on the application specifically for Android smartphone users.

Most recently, he was the sole engineer on a project to update Instagram for Android, working with a designer to update the app’s look while also reducing its size and making the application run faster.

“I take great pride in the quality of Instagram for Android,” says Kieft. “My aim is to make the app feel great and add features that enhance every user’s experience.”

Kieft says the appeal of working for Instagram lies in the small-time feel of a start-up with the perks of a big company. “Instagram is sectioned off from Facebook,” he says. “In some ways I feel like I’ve found the perfect space for myself.”

During his final year at Rochester, Kieft hit it off with a Columbia University student at a career fair and began collaborating on an online video transcription service. After graduating in 2010 with a degree in electrical and computer engineering and a minor in computer science, Kieft and two cofounders launched the service as SpeakerText.

Though Kieft and his cofounders raised $1 million through Silicon Valley investors and garnered five-digit monthly revenues, they failed to agree on a cohesive business model, resulting in Kieft’s departure from the company in 2012.

The decision to choose an entrepreneurial experience right out of college prepared Kieft for the job at Instagram. “The business impact it had made me a stronger engineer,” he says. “You need to think about more than the product itself. What is the biggest reason that people use your product? What kinds of features are customers calling for? Sometimes you need to gauge these questions yourself.”

For Kieft and the Instagram for Android team, the mobile platform poses challenges associated with the scope of Android- powered hardware, which ranges from inexpensive small phones to high-definition fast phones with large screens.

Philip McAllister, engineering manager for the Instagram for Android team, says Kieft has “made a huge impact on millions of people by making Instagram look beautiful and feel great on the thousands of different Android phones.” According to McAllister, Kieft has led Android engineering efforts on video playback, sponsored posts (which most users know as advertising), and client performance.

The success of tech start-ups like Instagram has led to an increase in demand for software engineers, with many software companies vying for the same people.

“You don’t see how software is ruling the world until you come out here,” says Kieft. “There is a mind-set of dreaming big and the most important thing is ability. You’re judged less on formal qualifications.”

Kieft says his alma mater’s open curriculum prepared him for the entrepreneurial mind-set of the tech industry. “At Rochester, you get to craft your education and make your own decisions. That affects your confidence and your career,” he says. “It’s important to choose what you’re passionate about rather than choose the ‘right career.’ ”

For Kieft, his passion follows him wherever he goes. “When I see people using Instagram on a train or at the airport, I think, ‘Wow, I helped make that,’ ” he says. “There is such a huge positive association with the app.”

Caitlin Mack ’12, ’13 (T5) is a Rochester-based freelance writer.﻿

The Future of Broadcasting

Broadcast talent agent Richard Leibner ’59 pays close attention to the evolution of the industry he helped pioneer 50 years ago.

By Caitlin Mack ’12, ’13 (T5)

leibnerINDUSTRY GIANTS: Spouses and business partners, Leibner and Cooper were honored at last fall’s 11th annual Giants of Broadcasting ceremony, sponsored by the Library of American Broadcasting. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)

Long recognized as a respected predictor of cultural shifts in the news industry, Richard Leibner ’59 is used to adapting to the constantly changing national media landscape. In response to the growth of online news and competitive cable channels in the past decade, Leibner predicts that competition among broadcast news outlets will only increase in years to come.

“There will be a shakeout of a lot of small start-ups and newer media outlets like The Huffington Post, which get a tremendous amount of traffic,” says Leibner, the founder and president of the talent agency N. S. Bienstock. “Local television and regional television news will also gain importance as people age and the demographic changes.”

Leibner, who represents over 600 broadcast professionals, including stars like Anderson Cooper, Bill O’Reilly, and Robin Roberts, says that audiences for network broadcast news have declined, particularly after the 2008 recession.

“Shows used to reach audiences between 20 and 28 million people a night; now it’s closer to 6 or 7 million,” he says. “In the last 10 years, cable news channels like MSNBC, Al-Jazeera America, and Fox have grown—they command smaller audiences but are still huge drivers of news.”

N. S. Bienstock, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, has also had to adapt to changes in the news industry. In January, the company became a unit of major Hollywood firm United Talent Agency, a shift that Leibner says will give his clients “more reach and access into the ever-changing media and entertainment landscape.”

In recognition of their own talent for staying ahead of that changing landscape, Leibner and his wife and business partner, Carole Cooper, were among 11 industry leaders honored last fall at the 11th annual Giants of Broadcasting ceremony at New York City’s Gotham Hall. Other nominees at the yearly event, sponsored by the Library of American Broadcasting, included Disney/ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney, television personality and Jeopardy! game-show host Alex Trebek, 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer, and Black Entertainment Television (BET) founder Robert Johnson, and others.

According to Leibner, the intersection of media, entertainment, and news has shifted over the years. Satirical news shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report air in prime time and ABC’s Good Morning, America is a “lighter broadcast that focuses more on pop culture, not hard news.”

“The success of 60 Minutes as a cash cow changed attitudes toward news as something you do for prestige and public spirit,” he says. “Dick Salant (former president of CBS News) used to ask at the morning meeting, ‘What does the public need to know?’ Now it’s become more ‘What does the public want to know?’ ”

Leibner questions the quality of online news, which, while providing the world with instantly available information, generally doesn’t adhere to the editorial codes that traditionally existed in television and print. “The Internet has no standards,” he says. “I don’t think this is healthy unless they find a way to monetize it so they can pay for serious investigative journalism.”

Equipped with a degree from Rochester, followed by a master’s degree and a CPA license, Leibner went into business in 1964 with his father, Sol Leibner, and insurance agent Nate Bienstock, whose clients included legendary CBS correspondent Eric Sevareid and several other broadcast journalists.

“At that time, news was beginning to reach more people in a vivid way,” says Leibner. “You could watch developments in the civil rights movement, the race to the moon, and the Vietnam War at dinnertime. The day Kennedy was shot, the country just stopped and watched the news.”

Leibner has garnered respect for his command of the broadcast industry and for his attention to his clients’ interests. Known for working hard for his clients, he negotiated a then unprecedented 10-year, $22 million contract for Dan Rather to replace retiring CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite in 1980. He also helped win a $6-million-a-year deal for ABC’s Diane Sawyer in 1994. CBS News special correspondent Bernard Goldberg once said that Leibner was “like a spouse, except he knows some clients better than a spouse.”

Despite a long career and extensive industry accomplishments, Leibner still finds wonder in the evolving world of media. “From the very beginning this industry has fascinated me, and there’s so much more knowledge now,” he says.

Caitlin Mack ’12, ’13 (T5) is a Rochester-based freelance writer.﻿

Shark Bites

in_newsPRIME TIME: Talley, a Hajim School graduate and entrepreneur, made a successful pitch for his company U-Laces to celebrity investors on the ABC television reality series Shark Tank. (Photo: ABC)

Entrepreneur Tim Talley ’88 has reeled in a prominent venture capitalist. Appearing on the ABC television series Shark Tank, in which entrepreneurs present their business plans to celebrity investors, Talley pitched his product, customized shoelaces called U-Laces. One of the sharks, billionaire Mark Cuban, bit.

A graduate of the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Talley has been producing and selling his colorful, self-styled laces since 2009. He auditioned for Shark Tank in spring 2013, and beat the roughly 1-in-200 odds to win a spot on the show.

Cuban’s agreement to invest $200,000 in return for a stake in U-Laces offers Talley the opportunity to tap into a major target market: basketball fans. As owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks, Cuban offered to sell U-Laces in Mavericks team shops.

Chances are those U-Laces will be blue, black, gray, and white. But U-Laces are available in all kinds of colors and designed to encourage endless combinations.

Talley shared some lessons from his entrepreneurial journey in a public talk at the Center for Entrepreneurship in April.﻿

Guiding the MoMA

Darby English ’02 (PhD) has been named a consulting curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A leading scholar of American and European art with a specialization in work by black artists, he joins MoMA to help the museum in its strategic goal to strengthen its collections of work by black artists. A graduate of Rochester’s program in visual and cultural studies, English began his career teaching modern and contemporary art and cultural studies at the University of Chicago. In 2013, he became director of research and academic program at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. He’ll maintain that role.﻿

A U.S. Military First

Miyako Newell Schanely ’95S (MBA) is making military history with her promotion to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserves. She’s the first Japanese-American woman and the first female engineer to reach the rank, and the second-ranking Japanese-American woman in the entire U.S. military, following Air Force Major General Susan Mashiko.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Schanely served in Germany and Panama before becoming part of the Army Reserves. She’s the deputy commander of the 412th Theater Engineer Command in Vicksburg, Miss., and as a civilian, serves as executive director of the State University of New York North Country Consortium, a collaboration to bring undergraduate and graduate programs to Fort Drum and northern New York.

Schanely is the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants. Her mother, father, and stepfather served in the U.S. military.﻿

ALUMNI COMMITMENT

Special Summer Session

Looking for ways to help students near his home, an alumnus turns to a campus summer program.

backussummerCOLLEGE INTRO: Lee Backus ’62 (right) greets Leana Gomes, one of nine Bridgeport, Conn., high school students he helped attend a Rochester precollege program last year. (Photo: Michelle McLoughlin/AP Images for Rochester Review)

As a high school junior, Saul Almazan wanted to be a psychiatrist but knew little about how to start his educational journey until attending the Pre-College Summer Program at Rochester last year.

Almazan is from Bridgeport, Conn., where one quarter of the population falls under the poverty line. He was one of nine students from the area to participate in the summer program, designed to introduce students to college life, thanks to an unusual commitment from Lee Backus ’62.

Backus, who lives in the nearby town of Westport, collaborated with Yale-Bridgeport GEAR UP Partnership, a community organization that helps students gain the skills necessary to graduate from high school and succeed in colleges and universities.

“It was a partnership that we were thrilled to forge,” says Nadia Ward, the organization’s director of urban education and prevention research. “The experience was transformative for our students. It enabled them to experience firsthand how exciting college can be . . . [and] gave them confidence and hope.”

Backus initially found it difficult to reach students. Although he interviewed and provided application information to 15 candidates from three high schools, no one followed up.

“It was totally frustrating,” says Backus, a newly retired hedge fund portfolio manager and a member of the University’s Westchester/Fairfield Regional Cabinet.

It was a testament to the challenges faced by the students. They have high ambitions, but find the cost of higher education to “be an overwhelming obstacle” for them and their families, says Backus, who met the inaugural group last fall.

GEAR UP hopes to send 15 high school juniors to this summer’s program, which starts in July.

Backus keeps a copy of a letter one program graduate wrote to the University, explaining that the program helped her “navigate the real world” and announcing her early admission to the University of Pennsylvania.

“These were kids who, for the most part, would be the first person in their family to go to college,” says Backus, who also started an endowed scholarship for undergraduates at the University. “For them, this was an eye-opening experience. The response I received was heartwarming.”

For his part, Almazan took something else away from the experience: the confidence to go after his dreams. “I definitely have more persistence and determination,” he says. “I’m just going to keep doing what I have to do to get what I want.”

For more information about Rochester’s precollege programs for high school students, visit https://enrollment.rochester.edu/precollege.

—Robin L. Flanigan

Flanigan is a Rochester-based freelance writer.﻿

ALUMNI HONORS

Eastman School Honors Noted Trumpeter, Composer

alumnihonorsEASTMAN SCHOOL: Musician and entrepreneur Allen Vizzutti ’74E, ’76E (MM) was recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award. (Photo: University Communications)

A trumpeter whose playing can be heard on more than 150 motion picture soundtracks, including Back to the Future, Star Trek, and The Black Stallion, was recognized by the Eastman School of Music during a concert in March for his achievements as a musician, composer, and music educator.

Allen Vizzutti ’74E, ’76E (MM), a classical and jazz performer, recording artist, composer, teacher, and entrepreneur, received the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

As a student at Eastman, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as a performer’s certificate. He held a chair in the Eastman Brass Quintet faculty ensemble and received the first artist’s diploma ever awarded to a wind player.

Vizzutti has performed in concert with notable jazz artists, including Chick Corea, Chuck Mangione, Woody Herman, and Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band, as well as classical orchestras such as the U.S. Army Symphony Orchestra, Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the New Tokyo Philharmonic. His solo jazz recordings include Ritzville, Trumpet Summit, and Skyrocket, and his classical recordings include Emerald Concerto and Other Gems, Vizzutti Plays Vizzutti, and The Carnival of Venus, featuring his wife, pianist Laura Vincent-Vizzutti ’74E.

He has taught at the Eastman School, the Banff Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas State University, Ohio State University, West Texas State University, the Skidmore Jazz Institute, the University of South Carolina, and the Trompeten Akademie in Bremen, Germany.

He is the author of the Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method book series and New Concepts for Trumpet: Innovative Etudes, Duets and Studies (Alfred Music).﻿

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS

No Retirement from Music

encounters(RE)CONNECTED: Fuyuume (back), Apgar, and Kujala listen and perform together as residents of the Shannondell retirement community in Valley Forge, Pa. (Photo: Courtesy of Alice Pillischer Kujala ’48E)

After reading “Musical Meet-Up,” (January-February), Alice Pillischer Kujala ’48E wrote to share her own chance encounter:

I was inspired to send this picture of three Eastman graduates from the years 1949–50. We are living in a retirement community called Shannondell at Valley Forge with 1,200 other talented, interesting senior citizens.

Horace (Hap) Apgar ’49E is sitting on the piano bench. A string bassist, he left Eastman after his freshman year to volunteer in the service and received the Bronze and Silver Stars for combat duty. After the war ended, he was transferred to the military government in Frankfurt, Germany. From there, he was placed in the monuments section, which was charged with finding and returning stolen art and artifacts. He was discharged in 1946 and returned to the Eastman School.

During his senior year, he played in the Rochester Philharmonic. In 1950, he joined the Houston Symphony. The following year, he went to the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and soon after became principal bass. Hap retired from the Oklahoma City Philharmonic 56 years later. He had a brother who lived in Valley Forge, and he moved to Shannondell in 2011.

John Fuyuume ’48E, ’50E (MM) studied piano. Although we were at Eastman at the same time, we never met until he moved to Shannondell in 2008. He’d been retired vice president and corporate secretary of Gotan and Larson Shipping Corp. in Hamilton, Bermuda, until 1990, when he cofounded the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center in New Jersey. In 2011, the government of Japan recognized him with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, for his work preserving the history and culture of the Seabrook Japanese-American community.

John was also an honorary member of the board of managers of the Eastman School. After many years away from the piano, he is once again enjoying playing and performs frequently at Shannondell.

I studied violin. After graduation, I taught string instruments in Philadelphia public schools for two years. I returned to Rochester and taught classroom music and started an orchestra in the then Churchville-Chili Central School for three years. From there I went to the Chicago area and began teaching using the Suzuki method in the Winnetka public schools for 20-plus years. I returned to the Philadelphia area and taught private students until I moved to Shannondell in 2004 and now enjoy playing quartets with friends. John and I have also played together at Shannondell on several occasions.

Here we are after 60-plus years, having wonderful memories, enjoying our retirement, and being spoiled by beautiful surroundings. Who can ask for anything more?﻿

TRIBUTE

John Huizenga: A Remarkable Life

huizengaNUCLEAR CHEMIST: Huizenga made waves with his book Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

They say you should go to seminars because you can always learn something. Well, sometimes the effect can be profound, as it was in my case, when John Huizenga’s seminar at the new German heavy-ion research laboratory, GSI, in the summer of 1974 changed the direction of my career as a nuclear scientist. Fascinated by the new reaction phenomena John had described in his typically lucid and compelling fashion, it only took me a year before I had joined his team at Rochester.

At the time, the University’s Nuclear Structure Research Lab was bustling with students and researchers from various parts of the world performing experiments at the local accelerator and at the Berkeley, Los Alamos, and Argonne national labs. As an influential leader in a new field, John attracted an international cohort of young scientists. His enthusiasm and deep scientific insights, matched with caring mentorship, were the reasons why everyone in his group maxed out their initial appointment—or exceeded it by a large factor.

We learned a lot in these years about nucleus and nuclear interactions, leading to a number of seminal publications. When someone marked one of Huizenga’s electronic modules with a repair note reading “Huizenga—No Output,” everybody burst out laughing at this contradiction.

John’s contributions included the codiscovery of elements 99 (einsteinium) and 100 (fermium), kept secret for 50 years for reasons of national security, and the still popular book Nuclear Fission, which he coauthored with Bob Vandenbosch. He received numerous honors and fellowships and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1976. In the late 1980s, John achieved international attention as cochair of a Department of Energy panel investigating scientific claims that cold fusion was the route to cheap, safe, and abundant energy. The panel concluded that the research was flawed. In 1994, John detailed the controversy and the lessons learned in Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century (Oxford).

John first learned about fission at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a recruit to the wartime Manhattan Project. For years, he had stories to tell about the scientists and engineers sequestered at the uranium enrichment plant Y12, where they lived isolated in hastily constructed barracks, working around the clock for an ambitious goal that would change the world.

John’s time at Oak Ridge naturally sparked a lifelong fascination with nuclear reactions involving uranium and transuranic nuclei, first as nuclear chemist at Argonne National Laboratory from 1955 to 1967, and from 1967 to 1991 at Rochester, where he would become the Tracy H. Harris Professor of Chemistry, and from 1983 to 1988, chair the department.

John, who died in January at the age of 92, managed to be a family man who appreciated the important role his wife, Dolly, played in supporting him in his professional life and running a family of six. John’s own former students and associates join his “kids” in celebrating his remarkable life, and acknowledging his influence on their lives and personal development.

—Wolf-Udo Schröder

Schröder is a professor of chemistry and physics at Rochester.﻿

TRIBUTE

Charles Bishop ’46M (PhD): Biochemist, Inventor

bishopA MARRIAGE IN SCIENCE: Bishop (left) poses with his wife, the late Beverly Petterson Bishop, and Michael Tanenhaus, who holds the professorship the couple endowed. (Photo: University Communications)

I met Charles Bishop ’46M (PhD) and his wife, Beverly ’46 (MA), when they invited me to visit them in Buffalo in the spring of 2008 after they learned of my appointment as the first Bishop Professor.

They welcomed me warmly, served a lunch that Charles prepared, and then gave me a tour of their house. I was awestruck to learn that they had built the house, primarily with their own labor, from plans that Charles drew up in consultation with Beverly. I later had the privilege of entertaining Charles and Beverly at my house in Rochester. Over risotto and wine, they regaled me with stories about their remarkable adventures as scientists and as a couple.

Charles loved science and medicine and dedicated much of his professional life to making organized sense of knowledge. He enjoyed a career in medicine that spanned more than 60 years.

His earliest success was the creation of Coden, an alphanumeric bibliographic code designed as a standard citation system to make all references and bibliographies interchangeable. As Charles recalled, the idea for his system came about because he had written a paper and sent it to a journal. In order to submit the paper to another journal, he had to completely change the format of all the references because the two journals used different citation formats.

Charles envisioned a universal system. He created his system of abbreviations and in 1953 published his proposal in a paper entitled “An Integrated Approach to the Documentation Problem.” His system was subsequently adapted and expanded by the American Society for Testing and Materials and later by the American Chemical Society. Charles was born in Elmira, N.Y., on June 30, 1920. As a young boy, he enjoyed scouting and music. He sang in an a cappella group and played saxophone and oboe, in his words, “not very well.” Given his exacting standards, I suspect that Charles was actually quite a talented musician. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Syracuse University and earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in chemistry.

He and his beloved wife, the late Beverly Petterson Bishop, first met in a comparative anatomy class. When they announced their intention to marry, Beverly’s parents warned that if she married, they would stop paying tuition. On May 2, 1944, they graduated in the morning and were married in the afternoon.

Charles was accepted at the School of Medicine and Dentistry to conduct research related to the Manhattan Project. Charles finished his PhD in biochemistry in 1946. He joined the Department of Medicine at the University of Buffalo in 1947, where his research focused on the etiology of gout and the metabolism of red cells. These studies resulted in over 65 publications, including a pioneering book which he coedited entitled The Red Blood Cell. Charles served as chief of the chemistry lab at Buffalo General Hospital from 1967 to 1980. By 1981 he had returned to the University of Buffalo, where he taught in the biochemistry and medicine departments and retired as associate professor of medicine.

As computer technology evolved, his earlier work in documentation sparked a new interest in designing systems that could organize all medical knowledge and make it readily accessible to physicians. His notion that “computers and medicine were made for each other” led him to become a passionate advocate for “a single comprehensive patient medical record from birth to death.” He created a computer-based system that he called Framemed.

Charles and Beverly loved to travel and enjoyed piloting their single-engine plane on many adventures. Many at the University got to know Charles when he and Beverly gave generous funding to undergraduates to pursue research opportunities in brain and cognitive sciences.

Later, they established a remarkable personal legacy by endowing a professorship in brain and cognitive sciences in appreciation of Beverly’s master’s degree in psychology. The Bishop Professorship was celebrated in 2008.

Their complete devotion to one another was evident when, during the ceremony, Beverly lost her voice. Charles stepped up to the microphone and to the delight of everyone delivered Beverly’s remarks in the first-person narrative, recalling “because of the strong and enduring influences the University has had on our scientific lives, Charles and I feel it is payback time.”

When Charles later hesitated, Beverly immediately surmised that he had lost his place. As she stood to help him, he gave her a slight smile, signaling that he “had this,” and then proceeded smoothly to finish the remarks.

Charles was a teacher, a researcher, and a scholar whose impact, influence, and generosity enriched the lives of his students, colleagues, and friends. Charles died in his sleep last January at his Amherst, N.Y., home. He was 93.

—Michael Tanenhaus

Tanenhaus holds the Beverly Petterson Bishop M ’46 and Charles W. Bishop PhD ’46 Endowed Professorship in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Linguistics

TRIBUTE

Alejandro Zaffaroni ’49M (PhD): Biotechnology Pioneer

zaffaroni'ZAFFARONI TECHNIQUE': Zaffaroni, a life trustee of the University, became renowned for his process for isolating steroids. (Photo: Medical Center PUblic Relations)

In the 1940s there were no PhD programs in biochemistry in his native Uruguay, so Alejandro Zaffaroni ’49M (PhD) looked to the United States, where he was accepted into two programs: Harvard’s and Rochester’s. According to a 2004 interview with Rochester Medicine, the alumni magazine for the School of Medicine and Dentistry, he chose Rochester because of a promise of a small lab and control over his own research.

His research in that lab eventually led to the “Zaffaroni Technique” for isolating steroids, a process that gained international attention and launched Zaffaroni’s pioneering career as a renowned biotechnology entrepreneur and innovator of drug delivery systems. The holder of 130 patented processes and founder of several companies, he had a hand in the development of the birth control pill, therapeutic corticosteroids, transdermal patches for nicotine and nitroglycerin, and controlled-release systems for various drugs.

Zaffaroni, who received an honorary degree from the University in 1972 and served as a life trustee, died in March at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 91.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1923, Zaffaroni suffered from asthma as a boy and couldn’t join his friends in fútbol games—a favorite activity in his hometown. So he became an avid reader, particularly of science fiction. He also received an early introduction to medicine from a relative who founded a hospital in Montevideo and allowed him, as a teenager, to watch medical procedures.

After earning his PhD, he stayed in Rochester to complete an NIH fellowship. In 1968 he founded ALZA Corp. to focus on his ideas for revolutionizing the way drugs were delivered in the body. ALZA was the first of nine companies that Zaffaroni built. In 1980 he cofounded DNAX with Arthur Kornberg ’41M (MD), who received the 1959 Nobel Prize for his research to isolate an enzyme that’s a key to synthesizing DNA.

Zaffaroni and his wife, Lida, also established the Zaffaroni Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports humanitarian causes, medical research, higher education, and scholarships.

—Leslie Orr

Orr is a senior science editor for Medical Center Public Relations.﻿

TRIBUTE

Robert Larson ’39: ‘Quintessential Good Citizen’

larson‘ALWAYS ON THE GO’: Larson excelled in banking, languages—and building tree forts. (Photo: Courtesy of the Larson family)

On March 25, the campus flag flew at half-staff in honor of my grandfather, Trustee Robert Larson, Class of 1939. He would have been really touched by this simple gesture.

Generations of our family were affiliated with the University. My great-grandfather, Arthur Larson, was the registrar of the Eastman School; my great-aunt, Elizabeth Larson Tellier ’47, and both of my parents, Barbara Larson Stoner ’68 and Max Stoner ’65, are graduates. So, too, am I.

My grandfather studied languages in college and his fluency served him well in French Indochina during World War II. Afterward, he lived in Puerto Rico and then Colombia as he started his banking career with the First National City Bank of New York.

He returned to Rochester and worked for the Security Trust Company before moving to Glens Falls, N.Y., where he became a director, chairman, president, and CEO of the Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Company. Among the first to be certified as a chartered financial analyst, he was active in the New York State Bankers Association and as a director of the New York Business Development Corporation and the Empire State Chamber of Commerce. Especially committed to higher education, he was a trustee of Skidmore College, and he helped establish the Adirondack Community College Foundation and the SUNY Adirondack Foundation. He was active in Rotary, the United Way, the Chamber of Commerce, and the YMCA.

He was a competitive golfer, an avid handball player, and even took up skiing in his 50s. He was always on the go. He built his children tree forts and skating rinks, taught them golf, tobogganing, fishing, and bowling. I cherished his dry sense of humor.

He achieved many things in his long life but never called attention to himself. Instead, he would describe the good intentions of those who prompted him to get involved. Through it all, he maintained his ties to the University. He was proud to receive the University’s Citation to Alumni and to be named a life trustee. He died in February at his home in Yarmouth Port, Mass. He was 96 years old.

His legacy lives in his efforts to make his community a better place. His hours of volunteering for educational and not-for-profit organizations prompted the Glens Falls Post-Star to describe him in a 1982 editorial as “the quintessential good citizen,” an irreplaceable asset to his community. My grandfather’s life was a wonderful example of what the University of Rochester prepares its graduates to achieve. And it’s to the University that my grandfather would have given the credit.

—Megan Stoner ’98

Stoner is a tax attorney and lives with her family in Washington, D.C.﻿

Books & Recordings

Books

Walking in on People

By Melissa Balmain

Able Muse Press, 2013

Balmain, an instructor in the English department at Rochester and editor of Light, a journal of light verse, presents a collection of humorous verse on topics ranging from marriage and child rearing to online dating and Facebook posts. The book is the winner of the 2013 Able Muse Book Award.

How the Ray Gun Got Its Zap

By Stephen Wilk ’84 (MS)

Oxford University Press, 2013

Drawing from pop culture and history as well as science, Wilk, a contributing editor for the Optical Society of America, offers a series of essays on “odd and unusual” topics in optics.

Religion, Food, and Eating in North America E

dited by Nora Rubel et al

Columbia University Press, 2014

Rubel, associate professor of religion at Rochester, coedits an anthology exploring culinary cultures throughout North America among Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists, as well as within Afro-Caribbean religions and new religious movements.

Education Law (Fifth Edition)

By Michael Imber ’69, ’73W (Mas), Tyll van Geel, J. C. Blokhuis ’09W (PhD), and Jonathan Feldman

Routledge, 2013

The authors offer an updated survey of legal issues confronting school administrators and policymakers. Imber is a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Kansas, van Geel is a professor emeritus at the Warner School of Education, Blokhuis is an assistant professor of social development studies at the University of Waterloo, and Feldman is an attorney and an adjunct faculty member at Warner.

The Whole Field Still Moving Inside It

By Molly Bashaw ’00, ’00E

Word Works, 2014

Bashaw, the 2013 winner of the Washington Prize for poetry, presents her first poetry collection.

Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism

By Aaron Hughes

Oxford University Press, 2014

Hughes, the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in Judaic Studies at Rochester, contests traditional notions of Jewish philosophy that have rested on the extremes of universalism and particularism.

Willpower: The Owner’s Manual

By Frank Martela

Publishing for Bios Biotos, 2014

Martela, a visiting pro- fessor in the Human Moti- vation Research Group in Rochester’s Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, explores willpower and how it works.

Otherwise Unseeable

By Betsy Sholl ’69 (MA)

University of Wisconsin Press, 2014

Sholl explores the concept of ruin in her eighth collection of poetry. She teaches at the University of Southern Maine.

The Principles of Sufism

By ‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah

Edited and translated by Th. Emil Homerin

NYU Press, 2014

Homerin, professor of religion at Rochester, offers the first English translation of the guide to spiritual illumination by one of the Arab world’s most prolific female scholars and mystics prior to the modern era.

Geriatric Trauma and Critical Care

Edited by Jay Yelon ’96M (Flw) and Frederick Luchette

Springer, 2014

Yelon, chair of the surgery department at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx, coedits a multidisciplinary overview of the assessment and management of elderly patients with surgical pathologies.

Robustness Development and Reliability Growth: Value-Adding Strategies for New Products and Processes

By John King and William Jewett ’80S (MBA)

Prentice Hall, 2010

Business consultant Jewitt coauthors a guide to technology-based product development throughout a product’s life-cycle—from design that’s based on customers’ needs through manufacturing and postlaunch support.

Still at Aulis: Essays on Crisis and Revolution in Greece and the Eurozone

By David Wisner ’93 (PhD)

David Wisner, 2014

Wisner offers a series of essays on the economic crisis in Greece in Amazon’s Kindle e-book format. A longtime resident of the Northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, Wisner is the executive director of the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service and the chair of the humanities and social sciences division at the American College of Thessaloniki.

Race and Identity in D. H. Lawrence: Indians, Gypsies, and Jews

By Judith Ruderman ’64, ’66W (MA)

Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Through the lens of D. H. Lawrence, Ruderman explores the ways in which ideas about race are created, transmitted, appropriated, and sometimes transformed. Ruderman is a visiting professor of English at Duke University.

Writing the Cozy Mystery

By Nancy Cohen ’70, ’70N

Orange Grove Press, 2014

Mystery writer Cohen presents a guide to writing the traditional “whodunit,” covering character development, setting, plotting, and other elements. Cohen has also published the 12th book in her comedic Bad Hair Day Mystery Series, Hanging by a Hair (Five Star Press).

Recordings

Schubert: Winterreise

By Thomas Meglioranza ’95E (MM)

Thomas Meglioranza, 2013

The baritone Meglioranza performs Schubert’s song cycle with pianist Reiko Uchida. Meglioranza also self-released, with Uchida, The Good Song, a collection of songs by French composers.

American Visions

By Garth Simmons ’93E (MM)

Garth Simmons, 2013

Simmons, principal trombonist of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, performs his debut solo recording, accompanied by pianist Michael Boyd ’85E (MM), ’93E (DMA). The recording includes sonatas by Robert Sanders, George Frederick McKay, and Richard Monaco, and a work for solo trombone by Michael Johanson ’91E.

September

By the Claudia Quintet

Cuneiform Records, 2013

The Claudia Quintet, led by composer and drummer John Hollenbeck ’90E, ’91E (MM), performs 10 compositions by Hollenbeck. The recording commemorates the quintet’s 15 years of work together.

Guilty Pleasures

By Renée Fleming ’83E (MM)

Decca, 2013

The soprano Fleming performs arias and songs she’s chosen for their beauty. Fleming sings in eight languages on the recording of works by Berlioz, Duparc, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Dvorák, Wagner, and others.

Iseline Aerial

By Ethan Borshansky ’06E

Thema, 2013

Electronic music composer Borshansky presents six new electro-acoustic tracks.

On Light Wings

By the Kandinsky Trio

OmniTone, 2013

The Kandinsky Trio, including cellist Alan Weinstein ’86E (MM) and pianist Elizabeth Bachelder ’69E, ’71E (MM), ’81E (DMA), performs a mix of American works, including premiere recordings of works by Gunther Schuller and John D’earth.

Sounds of the Heart

By Ron Gidrón ’71S (MBA)

Ron Gidrón, 2014

Madrid singer and songwriter Gidrón offers a double CD of original songs, both instrumental and sung. Gidrón sings in Spanish, English, and Hebrew.

In the Wee Small Hours of the Night

By Marc Schwartz ’13E (MM)

Marc Schwartz, 2014

New York saxophonist, composer, and arranger Schwartz performs a mix of standards and lesser-known jazz titles in his debut recording. Joining him on the recording are trumpeter Adam Horowitz ’09E, ’12, guitarist Ben Bishop ’10E (MM), drummer Jeff Krol ’13E, and bassist Fumi Tomita ’14E.

Late Night Thoughts

By Ann Ellsworth ’87E

Ann Ellsworth, 2013

Hornist Ellsworth, artist-in-residence at Stony Brook University, performs chamber music selections.

Even the Light Itself Falls

By Scott Worthington ’09E

Populist Records, 2013

Composer and double bassist Worthington performs an 86-minute original composition, with his trio, Ensemble et Cetera.

Orchestral Masters, Vol. 1

By Lance Hulme ’89E (MM) et al

Ablaze Records, 2013

The Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mikel Toms, performs eight contemporary symphonic works, including Hulme’s Sirens’ Song. Ablaze Records chose the eight selections for the first volume of its Orchestral Masters series from more than 60 submissions from composers in 18 nations. Hulme teaches at North Carolina Central University.

Books & Recordings is a compilation of recent work by University alumni, faculty, and staff. For inclusion in an upcoming issue, send the work’s title, publisher, author or performer, a brief description, and a high-resolution cover image, to Books & Recordings, Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, P. O. Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; or by e-mail to rochrev@rochester.edu.

En Jugar Balencesto Pro

Or, playing pro basketball—in Spain—according to John DiBartolomeo ’13, point guard for Majorca’s Palma Air Europa.

Interview by Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

dibartolomeo (Illustration: David Cowles for Rochester Review)

When I graduated from Rochester, I knew I wanted to play pro basketball abroad, or at least give it a shot. I heard that Spain had the highest level of play in Europe, and I’d always wanted to go to Spain. I’d never really been to Europe except when I was in college, with the team, going into my senior year.

I got an agent, and last summer, I participated in the Eurobasket Summer League in Madrid. I played six games or so. I made a decent showing, and that’s when I got some interest from coaches. After that, my agent got me signed.

Spain’s number one sport has always been soccer, and I don’t think anything’s ever going to change that. But I was pleasantly surprised by turnouts at games. There are fans who bring drums and horns to the games, so it’s deafening inside the gym. On the court, you can kind of communicate. We use a lot of hand signals.

The biggest difference from college is the speed of the game. In college, we have a 35-second shot clock, which means the offense has to shoot the ball within 35 seconds of gaining possession. Here it’s 24 seconds. It obviously goes a lot faster. You get a lot more possessions in.

John DiBartolomeo ’13

Hometown: Westport, Conn.

Living in: Palma de Majorca, Spain

Major: Financial economics

Occupation: Point guard, Palma Air Europa

Quick facts: First Team All-American, Division III, and Player of the Year (D3Hoops.com and DIII News) for 2012–13; in Rochester men’s basketball, third all-time top scorer and second in assists and steals.

The speed makes the game much more tiring for the point guard. Just about every guard in the league is told to press full court. That means that when you start defense, you guard the entire length of the floor, rather than letting the team sprint with the ball to half court. If you can slow them down for three or four seconds, it takes them that much longer to get the ball over half court and start their play.

As a spectator, at first I didn’t like the speed. But now that I’m used to it, I definitely like it more. I find myself watching American college games and feeling like the game’s going pretty slowly. Teams can run two to three plays in one possession and then start over and do one more thing.

There are multiple leagues in every country. Right now, I don’t play at the highest level in Spain, and my goal is to do as well as I can and play at the highest level I can. Each year a team can move up or down a league. The top team in each league after the regular season moves up a league automatically. Teams two through nine play in the playoffs. The playoffs winner also ascends to the next league. The bottom two teams in any league go a league lower.

My other goal is to learn Spanish. I took a little in high school. When I found out I was coming here, my grandmother bought me a Rosetta Stone program. Between that and talking with the players, I’ve learned a little bit more. I can understand a little more than I can speak. My head coach speaks little to no English, but I have an assistant, and two of the other coaches speak pretty good English. They’ve been very accommodating.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Fermenting Arts

backcover (Photo: Adam Fenster)

CABBAGE CRUSHERS: Sarah Kirschenheiter ’13 (left), Stacy Miller ’15 (second from right), and Julia Evans ’13 make vegetable ferments during a workshop organized by Leila Nadir, a lecturer in sustainability (center), and Cary Peppermint, assistant professor of art and art history (not pictured). Part of Edible Ecologies, an initiative of Nadir and Peppermint’s collaborative EcoArtTech, the workshop explored historical food practices.