Cover Note

The flame atop Kay Spiritual Life Center is a campus landmark and a symbol of the power of knowledge. This issue's lead fea­ture (page 3) describes how some AU fac­ulty members are using their intellectual power to shed light in some of the darkest corners of the world. Cover design by Alayne Trachewsky

Vol. 41 No. l

American is the official alumni magazine of The American University. It is written and designed by the University Publications and Printing Office, Office of University Rela­tions. Personal views on subjects of public interest expressed in the magazine do nm necessarily reflect official policies of the uni­versity. Suggesdons and comments concern­ing American should be scm w American Magazine, University Publications and Print­ing Office, The American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC20016.

Anita F. Gonlieb, Assistant Vice President for University Relations

Karen Sloan Lebovich, Direcwr, University Publications and Priming

Managing Editor: Anne Kelleher Editorial Staff: Jacalyn Bartow, Mary Jo

Binker, Colleen Mahoney, judy Miller, Karen Way

Photographer: Hilary Schwab Designer: Alayne Trachewsky

Ameriron is published quarterly by The American University. With a circulation of about 55,000, American is sent to alumni and other consti[Uents of the university commu­nity. Copyright 1990, The American Univer­sity, an equal opportunity/affirmative action university.

TABLE OF CONT.ENTS

Features

ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS ............ . ..... . ... 3 Accounts of AU faculty members on the frontlines of the worldwide struggle to protect human rights

CELEBRATING BLACK AMERICANS' RIGHT TO VOTE ..... 7 AU and the Smithsonian celebrate the twenty-fifth

anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

LONG DISTANCE LIFE . .. ......................... 8 An excerpt from the acclai111ed new novel by Marita Golden '72-both an intimate family portrait and a chronicle of twentieth-century black history

VIEWPOINT: Why I Write and What Horses Taught Me ... 31 By Pulitzer Prize- winning poet and AU professor

Henry Taylor

pageS

Departments

President's Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Campus News .. . . . ..... . ... . . . .. 13

Centennial News . . ... ... .. .. . .. . 16

Sports . . . .. . .. .... . . . . ... . . . .. . 19

Class Notes & Alumni News . .. ... .. 22

PRE'SIDE'NJ'S MESSAGE '·'

2 AMERICAN

T his issue's lead feature shows the remarkable breadth and depth of AU faculty members' involvement in human rights, but it by no means tells the whole story. The

article easily could have been twice or three times as long, because our full roster of faculty members involved in such endeavors numbers more than two dozen. And since we have limited the discussion here to human rights in the traditional sense-norms established by international agreement to regulate governments' actions toward individuals-even that number does not include those in the AU community who are active in domestic civil rights and other legal and social concerns.

This level of involvement in protecting human freedom indicates a great deal about the calibre of our faculty. Also, it reminds us of the advantages of our location in Washington, D.C.-where the major industry is making public policy. With easy access to the State Department, embassies, the Organization of American States, and other international institutions, AU faculty members and their students can keep in direct touch with real-world events long before ripples are felt in more remote reaches of academia.

Human freedom and life in Washington are themes that resonate through the new novel by alum Mar ita Golden, excerpted in this issue. The Washington portrayed here is not the one usually found in fiction. Instead of the halls-or backstairs-of power, Long Distance Life is about Washington as a hometown. As AU literature professor Charles Larson wrote in his review of the novel, "At last, someone has written a book about the people who live here."

If this magazine were a meal, Henry Taylor's "Viewpoint" (beginning on page 31) would be dessert. If you have never considered parallels between horseback riding and writing, do not miss it.

J{:.Q.._JJ ~~ Richard Berendzen

By Joseph D. Younger

In December 1988, on the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, John Healey of Amnesty International USA likened the international human rights movement to "a wide, shallow river spreading slowly across a dry plain." Even countries once thought to be wastelands of individual rights-from totalitarian governments of Eastern Europe, to emerg­ing nations of Africa, to military regimes in Latin America-seem to

have been touched by the waters of reform. The American University has been one of the wellsprings of

this human rights movement around the world. "AU probably has more faculty members working in the field of human rights than any other campus in the country," says AU law professor Robert Gold­man. "I don't say that as a boast-

senting Helsinki Watch. Their mission was to examine the progress of legal reforms in the Soviet Union.

Shelley and her colleagues focused on five areas of Soviet law ripe for change: the criminal code, freedom of movement, involun­tary psychiatric commitment, appeals procedures, and regulations governing voluntary societies and informal groups.

Their findings, presented in a report issued last fall, show a legal system caught in a tug-of-war between reform-minded disciples of Mikhail Gorbachev and more conservative, old-line party leaders. The "liberalization" of the criminal code, for example, illustrates the pulling and pushing at work within Soviet society. "There has been substantial change in the whole area of criminal law [such as

the release of certain political pris­just as a fact."

There are several reasons for AU's high concentration of human rights experts and activists. One of them is tradition. When Thomas Buergenthal, a judge on the Inter­American Court of Human Rights, was dean of AU's Washington Col­lege of Law, his prominence at­tracted scholars with similar inter­ests. "Dean Buergenthal got the ball rolling," says Goldman, "and it's been going ever since."

Advancing Human Rights

oners) and the decriminalization of certain areas of conduct," says Shelley. "But last April, Soviet au­thorities issued even harsher ver­sions of those laws. Then they seemed to rescind those harsher versions in response to internal and foreign pressure."

Similar inconsistencies ex­tended even to the Soviets' treat­ment of the Helsinki Watch delega­tion. Shelley and the other legal scholars-who were visiting at the

Furthermore, through the years, the university's curriculum and location have provided an environment in which faculty mem­bers concerned with human rights can thrive. "We have a multidis­ciplinary School of International Service, a multidisciplinary School of Public Affairs, plus a law school," notes Louis Goodman, dean of AU's School of International Service (SIS). "That allows faculty members here to start with an issue and then relate it to their academic disciplines, rather than starting with a discipline and searching out an issue. With the tremendous interest in human rights as an issue around the world, the university's expertise has grown in a natural, unplanned way."

American asked six current AU faculty members to discuss their work and research interest in human rights. The interests and activi­ties are wide-ranging: from investigating conditions in dank, insect­infested, Latin American prisons, to meeting with Soviet dissidents under the watchful eye of the KGB, to arguing landmark human rights cases before international tribunals. All the work has been performed pro bono under the auspices of U.S. or international organizations or in the interest of academic inquiry. And all has reinforced the real-world expertise that AU faculty members bring to their classrooms.

A "Watch" on Soviet Law Like most aspects of life under glasnost and perestroika, Soviet

law is "very much in flux," says Louise Shelley. A professor in the School of Public Affairs and chair of the Department of Justice, Law, and Society, Shelley was part of a delegation of legal scholars who traveled to Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev in early 1988, repre-

official invitation of the Soviet government-were warmly received in Moscow and Leningrad. They met with members of the procu­racy, particularly those involved in KGB cases, members of the Presidium of the Bar, and leading law professors.

But in Kiev- where Gorbachev's ideas have yet to take root and hard-line party bosses are still in control - "the situation was very unpleasant," says Shelley." KGB personnel followed us everywhere we went. In the restaurants, they were at the tables around us. Their cars accompanied ours down the street. Our phones went dead suddenly in our hotel when certain people tried to call. In the Ukraine, the party chief runs a pretty tight ship."

For the future, Shelley expects the conservative-liberal tug-of­war to continue. "The human rights movement in the Soviet Union isn't a movement per se, in the sense of the social activism of the past," she explains." Some rights will be granted, then some will be taken away. It's a slow, incremental process-and a very conten-tious situation."

Building Bridges "The growth of the whole human rights movement in Latin

America has to be viewed in the context of the political system," says SIS dean Louis Goodman. "In Latin America, that includes two institutions in particular: the military and the political parties."

To better understand these institutions, Goodman and his col­leagues launched two far-reaching academic projects. In 1987, he and Juan Rial, a renowned Uruguayan political scientist, began the civil-military relations project, directed by Johanna Mendelson of SIS. The project brought together, for a conference in Guatemala

WINTER 1990 3

''T he growth of the whole human

rights movement in Latin America has to be viewed in the con­

text of the political system."

- Louis Goodman

''T he human rights movement in the

Soviet Union is . .. a slow, incremental

process-and a very contentious situation."

-Louise Shelley

4 AMERICAN

City, more than twenty scholars from sev­eral countries and high-ranking Latin American officials. The results of their work- a collection of essays entitled The Military and Democracy-was published in

1989. "The project was aimed at building

bridges between active military officers, leading civilians involved in national secu­rity, and scholars, and at developing new knowledge through research," explains Goodman. "We focused on countries in transition from military to civilian rule." A similar conference is being planned for February 1991 in Uruguay.

Using the civil-military relations project as a paradigm, SIS then examined political parties in Central America. At a conference in Washington, D.C., in 1989, political leaders from both the United States and Central America met with aca­demics to share views and ideas. Men­delson, Goodman, and William LeoGrande, associate professor of government and public administration, are preparing for publication the collection of essays commissioned for the conference.

Funded by grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, such pioneering work keeps faculty members and students up-to-date on the rapidly changing political climate in contemporary Latin America, explains Goodman. Furthermore, exposure to dif­ferent scholars and different ideas opens fresh avenues of research for students.

"In the last five years, the transition from military to civilian rule has been a process of gradual power sharing," says Goodman. "Along with that change, the types of human rights concerns have changed. Of course, there are still disap­pearances, torture, and murder, and the human rights movement is still protesting these abuses. But among many scholars and activists, the movement has evolved toward constructing new institutions that will guarantee protection of human rights in the future."

Policing the Prisons Over the past three decades, law pro­

fessor Herman Schwartz has merged his career as a legal scholar with his work as a social activist. In the sixties, he spent his

summers in Louisiana as a civil rights worker. In the seventies , he became a leader in the penal reform movement, pro­viding legal representation to inmates in the bloody Attica prison uprising in New York. In the eighties, in response to are­quest from the executive director of the Human Rights Watch Committee, Schwartz investigated prison conditions in several countries worldwide.

As chair of the International Human Rights Watch Prison Advisory Commit­tee, Schwartz leads a group of more than a dozen experts who investigate reports of abuse in countries around the world, in­cluding Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, In­donesia, Mexico, Poland, and Turkey.

"Five or ten years ago," says Schwartz, "human rights in general-and prisoners' rights in particular-were seen as trivial issues that people like Ronald Reagan dismissed as foolish sentimental­ity. Despite that, real progress has been made around the world in the last decade."

Although overcrowding and lack of medical care, food, and religious services still exist, conditions have improved, notes Schwartz. In Poland, a country Schwartz visited last july, progress is due partly to the new reform-minded ness of the Polish government, partly to the penal system's new director, who is a judge, and partly to pressure from international organizations.

Foreign pressure-such as that ex­erted by the investigations Schwartz con­ducts-cannot be overestimated as an agent for change. Czechoslovakia, for in­stance, to avoid international embarrass­ment, released many of its political pris­oners only a month before a scheduled inspection. "And Turkey wants desper­ately to get into the European Commu­nity," explains Schwartz, who visited that country's prisons last March. " One of the things preventing that is their reputation on human rights."

An Accounting in History "No one is after revenge," says Rob­

ert Goldman, professor of international law, of his work in Uruguay on behalf of Americas Watch." What we really want is an accounting-an acknowledgement of these incidents as true in the historical record of the country."

''T he transition to limited democ­

racy-the military giv­ing up power-is the

biggest issue facing this hemisphere."

-Robert Goldman

' 'Five or ten years ago, human rights in general-

and prisoners' rights in particular-were

seen as trivial issues."

- Herman Schwartz

The "incidents" to which Goldman is referring are summary trials, detentions, and "disappearances" of thousands of Uru­guayans as part of the military's purge of so-called subversives in the 1970s.

In 1973, after a bloody campaign against the insurgent Tupamaros (National Liberation Movement), the Uruguayan military asked President juan Maria Bordaberry to dissolve Congress and then began systematic attacks on all who opposed their authority. Banning all political and trade union activity, the mili­tary closed newspapers and tried and jailed thousands of political opponents. By 1979, in fact, one in every five hundred Uruguayan citizens had been imprisoned purely for political reasons." Most tragic," says Goldman, "[was the fact that] Uru­guayan security forces 'disappeared' hundreds of refugees who had fled to

Argentina." In 1978, Goldman led a delegation of

international observers to investigate al­leged human rights abuses. Their findings were so damning to the military that Gold­man was officially declared persona non

grata by the regime. When Uruguay reestablished a civil­

ian government in the early eighties, legal proceedings were begun against many mil­itary officers. In response, President Julio Maria Sanguinetti, who had been elected while his most popular opponent was still in jail, engineered a blanket amnesty for military personnel-even though polls in­dicated that 70 percent of Uruguayans op­

posed it. "The Uruguayan people reacted

badly to the amnesty," says Goldman, "and a spontaneous movement formed to force a direct referendum that would re­peal the law." Late last year, Goldman re­turned to the country, under the auspices of Americas Watch, to investigate.

"We were particularly concerned be­cause amnesty, in effect, abolished the of­fenses," says Goldman, "whereas a pardon would have abolished only the punish­ment . A pardon after due process would have recognized that crimes had been committed, excused the offenders, and provided for some form of reconciliation."

Although the referendum in April 1989 upheld the amnesty law by a narrow margin, Goldman and his colleagues raised

several questions about the vote-includ­ing possible intimidation of some citizens by the Sanguinetti government-and are continuing their fight to set the record straight. Goldman himself has argued the case before the Inter-American Commis­sion on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS); last September he engaged the Uruguayan ambassador in a three-hour legal debate before the Commission.

For Goldman, "the transition to lim­ited democracy-the military giving up power-is the biggest issue facing this hemisphere." He is confident that, in the case of Uruguay, the truth will finally triumph.

Examining the Free Press "Too often, American foreign policy

doesn't take into account the role of a free press in other countries," says Sanford Un­gar, dean of AU's School of Communica­tions (SOC)." We usually pay more attention to whether the country has a free-market economy than to whether it has a free press."

As a scholar, Ungar has long been in­terested in the role of the press in human rights issues. He is an active member of the International Human Rights Law Group, Helsinki Watch, and Asia Watch and has investigated press freedoms in many countries, including Chile, Czecho­slovakia, Korea, and Senegal. As dean, he is leading the development of a new SOC program in international journalism and public policy, which the university has designated a Center of Excellence. Next spring, the school plans to hold a confer­ence that will bring together international scholars and experts in the field to discuss freedom of the press and human rights.

Most recently, Ungar traveled to South Korea as part of an Asia Watch mis­sion to investigate press conditions just be­fore that country's elections. His findings, detailed in a subsequent article for U.S. News & World Report, were not heartening. In addition to repressive tactics by the in­cumbents, "opposition politicians had no more understanding of the functioning of a free press than the party in power did." Conditions have improved slightly since the elections-or at least, says Ungar, "the government has become more subtle in its

WINTER 1990 5

''T here are some who would close an

eye-or both eyes- to human rights viola­tions by their allies."

- Claudio Grossman

''W e usually pay more attention to

whether the country has a free-market economy than to whether it has a

free press." -Sanford Ungar

6 AMERICAN

attempts to watch over the press." Despite the efforts of so many gov­

ernments to "manage" the news, Ungar continually marvels at the press's irrepressibility." In a lot of places, the press has proved to be a lot smarter than those trying to prevent it from function­ing," he says. In Panama, for instance, the leading opposition newspaper is compiled and written in Miami, then faxed to offices in Panama, where it is Xeroxed and dis­tributed on the street. "The only way to shut it down would be to shut down every fax machine and every Xerox machine in the country," says Ungar. He also notes the growing importance of underground networks to circulate surreptitious, home­made news videos as alternatives to state­controlled media in countries like South Africa and Czechoslovakia.

New methods of state control-and new ways to circumvent them -provide a constant supply of up-to-date material for Ungar's course in the news media." I feel very strongly that we shouldn't be self­satisfied with our situation in the United States," says Ungar, "and that we should be very concerned with the condition of freedom of the press throughout the world."

Justice in Central America Law professor Claudio Grossman viv­

idly remembers the day in June 1986 when seven men in black robes silently walked into a courtroom in San Jose, Costa Rica. Judges, they were about to hear a land­mark case that would decide the fate of Honduran military officers accused in the "disappearance" of four Central Ameri­cans. Grossman, a lawyer for the prosecu­tion, recalls looking into the faces of the victims' friends and family members who packed the courtroom that day and being surprised that, for the first time, he saw no one crying. The men and women who had suffered the loss of their loved ones re­mained dry-eyed before the overwhelming dignity of the court and the momentous­ness of the occasion. For the first time since its creation in 1979, the OAS's Inter­American Court of Human Rights would exercise its jurisdiction in a contested case.

Grossman notes that the case was also important as a serious attempt to depoliti-

cize human rights issues by making them a matter of law, not of foreign policy. "I be­lieve that we must not accept a political analysis of human rights issues," he says. "There are some who would close an eye-or both eyes-to human rights viola­tions by their allies. I believe that the ulti­mate goal of the human rights movement is to create a worldwide consensus-to form international norms to which all na­tions must be held accountable. Any at­tempt to accept violations of those norms by our friends is outrageous-and the ulti­mate hypocrisy."

In 1988, the Inter-American Court delivered its sentence: It condemned the government of Honduras for violations of the right to life and ordered it to pay, from a trust fund to be established by the gov­ernment in the Central Bank of Honduras, $700,000 in reparations to the victims' survivors. Grossman is still involved in liti­gation on behalf of the survivors over the disposition of those funds.

Last September, Grossman argued two more cases before the Commission, one involving Panama's closing of the op­position newspaper, La Prensa, and the other involving the suspected murder of eight bushmen by Suriname.

Grossman sees these cases as indi­cating the evolution of a new, worldwide consciousness of human rights. " Tremen­dous progress has been made in advancing human rights in the last few years," he says." It is truly a transnational move­ment. There is a grass-roots aspiration for human rights that doesn't depend on gov­ernments." Grossman points to the fer­ment not only in this hemisphere but also in the Eastern Bloc as an unmistakable sign of a drive toward self-determination and a recognition of the basic rights of the individual.

"It is a slow process that proceeds step-by-step, but each step makes a differ­ence. When someone claims to have a sin­gle, drastic solution that will solve all our problems, I get scared," says Grossman. "We are never going to achieve a perfect world. We might solve the problem of the disappearances. Those who come after us will find other things to improve- social and economic conditions, for example. Al­though we cannot solve all the problems of the world at once, we can play our small role in making it better."•

By Jacalyn Bartow

c ,n;ng ;, "the mo.r powertul ;n,.u­ment ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men," President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965.

The measure was designed to end barri­ers to black voter participation. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was quoted in news reports of the day as saying the act would "go a long way toward removing all the obstacles to the right to vote."

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniver­sary of this significant victory in the civil rights struggle, AU's history department and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will cosponsor this spring the Landmarks Conference, "The Voting Rights Act: Then and Now." Part of the history department's Center of Ex­cellence program, the Landmarks Confer­ence is held biennially and revolves around the anniversary of a major event in Ameri­can history. At the April S- 7 conference,

former civil rights activists and scholars will discuss the history and future of the civil rights struggle in America.

John Hope Franklin, professor of legal history and James B. Duke professor emeritus of history at Duke University, will be the keynote speaker at the confer­ence. Robert Beisner, chair of AU's history department, describes Franklin as "the most senior and best-known scholar of American black history."

Franklin says the act, which he calls "the culmination of a long, dreary fight that be­gan a century ago," has moved African­Americans closer to the fulfillment of the Fifteenth Amendment which, when rati­fied in 1870, guaranteed the right of all U.S. citizens to vote regardless of"race, color, or previous condition of servitude" and which has increased the number of black voters and elected officials. But the longtime civil rights activist says ~hat th,e battle is not over. Some blacks sull don t vote because "they're intimidated by em­ployers. There has to be better monitoring of the voting process." .

Clayborne Carson, a Stan~ord Umver~ sity history professor and e~ttor of Martm Luther King, Jr.'s papers, wtll be the 1990 Landmarks Scholar of History. Carson will teach an undergraduate course on the civil rights movement called the Modern

Black Freedom Struggle, participate in the Landmarks conference, and give public lectures and seminars.

In addition to the April conference, AU students' knowledge of black American history will get a boost from Jacqueline Rouse, who last September started a two­year appointment as Landmarks associate professor. This position is half-time at AU and half-time at the Smithsonian. At AU, Rouse will teach courses-this year's offer­ings include Issues in African-American History, the Black Protest Tradition, and Black Women in America- and participate in the conference. At the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History she is helping plan a conference on black women's history for March 1991.

An associate professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta since 1983, Rouse was assistant editor of the Journal of Negro His­tory from 1983-89. Her latest work is Lu­genia Bums Hope, Black Southern Reformer, published in 1989 by the University of Georgia Press.

Rouse plans to use the resources avail­able in D.C. to continue her research on southern black women. And AU students, whom Rouse finds "eager to learn their black history," will undoubtedly benefit when she brings those resources into the classroom.•

CELEBRATING BLACK AMERICANS'

--- © 1978Mott Herron

WINTER 1990 7

Marita Golden in front of her childhood home on Harvard Street in northwest Washington. Photo by Hilary Schwab

8 AMERICAN

Long Distance

ow, once I become Mrs. Rayford Johnson, I was happy as a fox in a henhouse. I turned over the running of my two houses to Rayford, let him collect all the rents, cut him in on everything. I've heard women talk about Never let the left hand know what the right hand is doing and you know

who the left hand is. But you can't keep secrets in a marriage. Not a real marriage anyway. And I'd waited too long to share my blessings with a man to play hide-and-seek once I got him.

I was twenty-four when me and Rayford got married. And I felt like I had already lived a lifetime. In those days wasn't no such thing as waiting till you grew up, life just come along and dragged you into it. Yeah, I was young, but had already had one husband, lost a child, been divorced, been dirt-poor, left home, worked like a dog, cleaned up other folks' homes, played the numbers, got a house and decided I could have the kind of life I wanted. I was young, but only -in age. And where I had come from, age didn't mean nothing no way.

When I got pregnant, then I had everything I'd always wanted. I went back home to Spring Hope to have my baby. Back then, no matter where you lived-in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, wherever- homewas where you come from, and it was just natural to go home to do something as important as having your child.

Mama and Daddy was still inching along on the farm, but the money I was sending made a difference. They'd bought some new furniture and Daddy'd bought a car, but it sat in the yard half the time, 'cause he ran out of money for tags or repairs. I went home in April to have Esther and maybe 'cause I was gonna give birth, or 'cause I was so happy- whatever- seemed like home was the most beautiful place. I just took it easy till my time come, sitting on the porch in the day,

Reprinted, with permission, from Long Distance Life, by Mar ita Golden, Doubleday, 1989.

GOING THE DISTANCE

Marila Golden and the quintessential Washington novel

' ' I wanted to write a book that I'd wantto read," says Marita Golden '72 of her latest novel, Long Distance Life (Doubleday). In the process, she's written a book a lot of other people apparently want to read too. Long Distance Life spent three weeks on the washington Post's best-seller list and was reviewed in the Post, Newsweek, and the New York Times. It's also a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

" Long Distance Life is the quintessential Washington novel," says AU literature professor Charles Larson, a specialist in black literature, who reviewed the novel last fall for the Detroit News. " At last someone has written a book about the people who live here."

Professionally, Larson describes Long Distance Life as " a breakthrough novel" for Golden. " Marita has made a quantum leap with this novel, which is an important piece of contemporary

WINTER 1990 9

fiction by any standard. Now she will be compared favorably with other black writers, such as Alice Walker and Gloria Naylor."

Long Distance Life is both an intimate family portrait and a chronicle of twentieth-century black history. In 1926 Naomi Reeves, daughter of a North Carolina sharecropper, comes to Washington, where she acquires a boardinghouse and marries a Dunbar High School teacher who cares deeply about the advancement of black people. After his death, she raises their daughter, Esther, who becomes involved with a married man and has a child after dropping out of Howard University. Esther later goes south to work in the civil rights movement, leaving her son, Logan , to be raised by Naomi and his lather, Randolph.

Esther comes back to Washington, is reunited with Logan and his lather, and conceives a second child, whom she raises alone after Randolph dies. Logan goes on to become a successful physician. Nathaniel , the second son , turns to drug dealing.

As a second-generation Washingtonian, Golden came by much of her material about District life naturally. However, she sti ll had to do a great deal of research, especially lor the first part of the novel , which deals with Naomi's departure from North Carolina. She talked to AU anthropology professor Brett Williams, whose book Upscaling Downtown: Stalled Gentrification in Washington, D.C. first documented the cultural links between Washington , D.C., and the Carolinas. Williams also put Golden in touch with other scholars who have studied the northward migration of rural southern blacks. According to Williams, " all the 'right' details are there-the ambivalence black emigrants felt about their lives in the South, the close links they maintained with the people back home, even the food and gardening traditions they brought with them to Washington."

Although Golden maintains that Long Distance Life is not autobiographical, Naomi is modeled on Golden's mother, and Esther graduates from AU after entering the university via a program lor returning adult students that sounds very similar to AU 's APEL program.

10 AMERICAN

doing little chores around the house, going for a walk with Mama sometimes in the afternoon, staring at the stars at night. o place else smells like the South in springtime-the azaleas, the flowering dogwood just bust out and you can't hardly smell nothing else. And waiting for Esther to come, I realized that it was the beauty and the feel of the South that I missed, living in the orth.

T

ell, Esther start coming about two o'clock one morning. They say a child that comes early in the morning won't have trouble finding their way through life. Mama told Daddy to go on over and get the midwife, Aunt Gin, but when he went out to start that old car, the engine was dead. So Jesse got on the old mule, at Turner, to ride the two miles to Aunt Gin's. Daddy's out in the yard in his long johns, cussing at the car and kicking it. And my water's broke and the pains are coming so fast I can't hardly breathe. Well, don't you know, Mama's just holding my hand and praying real hard, trying to drown out Daddy's cussing and telling me to push, to push real hard, and I'm moaning and screaming for God and Rayford and by the time Aunt Gin gets there Esther's come on out.

About the only thing Aunt Gin was good for by the time she got there was to give me some of that special root tea they give to women after they give birth. I'd lost one baby in Spring Hope and now I had come home and had another one and I'd decided that this child was gonna live.

About a week after Esther was born, I'm still taking it easy and waiting for Rayford to come and drive us back to Washington and Mama comes in the bedroom while I'm nursing Esther and tells me Isaiah had come to see me. Now, you know how it is when some­body is on your mind and you just can't shake them and next thing you know, there they are, well, there was Isaiah.

I finished nursing Esther and put her down to sleep and I combed my hair and put on a pretty dress Rayford had bought me and then Isaiah comes in the room.

"Howdy, Naomi," he says, fumbling with his hat. He's dressed in a suit and I could smell he'd just shaved before he come.

"Howdy, Isaiah." He'd filled out some and looked like a man, not the boy I married. He sits down in a chair beside the bed and says, "I see the North's been good to you."

"You could say that."

"That's a pretty little baby you got there. What you name her?"

"Esther."

"I got two boys, Gregory and William," he says. Then he takes out a picture of them and shows me. And they look just like him.

"Mama told me you and Vera Robinson had got married. She's a good woman," I said.

"Sure is. Don't take a lot to satisfy her."

"You satisfied me, Isaiah, as far as you could. I was just s'posed to leave, that's all."

"And I was s'posed to stay."

We sat there talking a pretty good time, about crops and the land, some of the things we used to talk about and about some new things. I told him about Rayford and then he told me all about Vera. just felt like I was talking to a friend, not somebody who I'd hurt real bad one time. Then Mama comes in and invites Isaiah to stay to dinner, but he says no, he's late getting home already. And then he tells me to bring Rayford to the house when he comes and not to be a stranger. And I feel real good when he leaves 'cause I know Isaiah just like I'd never left him and I know he meant every word he said.

eing a daddy don't change Rayford much, except he spoiled Esther and got even more serious than ever, worried about the world and the Negro's place in it. Then those nine boys down in Scotts­boro got accused of raping two white women on a train and the white folks tried them in lickety-split time and wanted to send them to the electric chair. I felt pretty bad about those boys. All you had to do was read the story and know the women made the whole thing up. And one of the boys wasn't but twelve years old, still a child. Rayford got involved with a bunch of folks raising money for the defense of the boys. Although he didn't cotton much to the NAACP, he at­tended their rallies and even wrote a couple of articles for the Chicago Defender about the case. Then in '33, he took me and Esther down to a big protest in front of the White House to try to get Roosevelt to get those boys out of jail. Now, I've never been one for raising Cain in the streets and I'll tell you I didn't want to go, but Rayford said I had to bear witness, had to put myself on the line. Said if all those white folks, the Communists and the socialists, if they could come from all over and march for nine Negro men, why couldn't I? Well, I did and carried Esther too, although Mama woulda had a fit if she bad known that. Roosevelt not in office a good three months and us knocking on his door about the Scottsboro Boys.

That demonstration didn't set them free, but I did feel good being part of it. And to this day, one of my favorite pictures is one Rayford took of me standing in front of the White House gate, holding Esther, and she's got a sign in her hand that reads:

ROOSEVELT ENFORCE FULL RIGHTS FOR NEGROES.

When it come to Esther, Rayford told her everything he knew, and I give her everything I never had. She had her daddy's walk, come into a room just like a queen coming into a court, and she had my spirit. I wanted her to have everything I never did, so I gave her tap

In real life, Golden came to AU as a seventeen-year-old Frederick Douglass Scholarship student in the late sixties. She majored in literature and American Studies, wrote for the Eagle, and was active in the Black Student Union.

" Being at AU was a wonderful experience for me," she says. " I had very good professors, like [literature professors] Frank Turaj and Charles Larson, who really enjoyed teaching and had a real commitment to the process."

They, in turn, recall her as a very bright student who, as Turaj says, "was avid for a lithe good artistic tricks the writers were up to, the tricks of rhetoric, double-meaning, tension between the lines, the symbolic suggestions, all the ambiguities of both meaning and feeling that existed in whatever text we were studying."

After graduating from AU Golden earned a master's degree from the Columbia School of Journalism in New York. There she met and fell in love with an architecture student from Africa, whom she subsequently married. Her life with him in his native Nigeria formed the basis for her autobiography, Migrations of the Heart (Doubleday).

When her marriage ended, Golden returned briefly to Washington, then settled in Boston. She left Boston for Europe and came home again five years ago " after my luck and my money ran out."

After her return to her native city, Golden completed two novels, A Woman 's Place (Doubleday) and Long Distance Life. She also taught at AU as a part-time instructor in the college writing program in 1987 and 1989, where she earned rave reviews from her students. "The students found her very challenging," says Judith Lee, director of AU's writing program. " They praised her for her ability to raise challenging issues, to be open to various points of view, and to lead a stimulating discussion. They also found her very accessible outside the classroom."

While Golden enjoys teaching (last fall she became a professor in George Mason University's creative writing program), her first love is still writing. This spring she'll start her third novel, a story set in the sixties and the eighties.

- MARY JO BINKER

WINTER 1990 11

dance and piano lessons. And Esther had the prettiest room in the house. But she was my daughter so I couldn't raise her to be useless. I trained her to help me around the house and in the summertime she'd go to Spring Hope for a few weeks and help Mama and Daddy on the farm, same way I did.

Rayford was all the time reading to her. He didn't believe in fairy tales and such and at bedtime he'd tell Esther stories about folks like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. I asked him once why he was always pounding all that stuff in Esther's head all the time, why he couldn't just let her be a little girl. "She'll find out she's a Negro soon enough," I told him. And he just said, "But we got to let her know what it means."

Those were good years. Roosevelt had set up a whole bunch of agencies-the NRA, the "ABC" and the this-that-and-the-other­to turn the Depression around and we were doing OK. I felt like my life was set-you know how it is when you finally get everything in place, just the way you want it and everything you touch, near 'bout, turns to gold. Well, we had a coupla years like that. Then, the same year that fool Hitler got the white folks to killing themselves in every country they lived in, my world turned upside down too.

Rayford had been feeling poorly for some time, had been coughing a lot and having trouble breathing. Finally he got to feeling so bad he went to the doctor. Turned out he had a cancer of the lungs. Now, back then, if you had cancer they just wrote you off and started digging your grave. Folks didn't even like to say the word in public, that's how much it scared them. The doctor gave Rayford stx months to live, but he held on for two years.

ayford fought that cancer the way he fought everything, like he couldn't think of not winning. Mostly, he just decided not to give up, and he threw away those Chesterfields and never smoked an­other one. We found a doctor that put him on a special diet and we thought we had it licked, but it come back and come back strong. He started losing weight and got so sick he had to be put in Freed­men's Hospital. The doctors there said it'd be a waste of time to operate. Well, I just about moved in the hospital with him. Slept on the floor beside him every night and I'd hear him wheezing and rasping and his breath coming so hard and slow it sounded like every breath was his last one. He couldn't breathe good and he couldn't sleep. He was too proud to let them shoot him full of morphine, so the pain was always there. He'd lost so much weight he was down to damn near nothing, cheeks all sunk, and his hair had got gray.

And I'd get up from the pallet on the floor and let him know I was there for him. Help him struggle to get a sip of water and just hold his hand. And he'd whisper sometimes, when he could muster a breath, "Tell me a story, Naomi. Tell me a story." And I'd tell him about Spring Hope or the time I ran away to the carnival or how Blue shamed me into playing the numbers. I'd tell him, real slow like, to make the time last and it wouldn't be until I was finished with the story that I'd feel the tears on my face.

12 AMERICAN

One night Rayford opened his eyes while I was talking to him and he saw me crying and he says, "Dying is the most frightening thing I ever had to do and, Naomi, I'm so scared." And then we both started crying and somehow us crying together like that gave me strength.

Rayford died in his sleep one night with my laying there on the floor beside his bed. I woke up the next morning and loved Rayford Johnson so much I was glad his misery was finally over. Then I saw a piece of paper on the bedstand next to his medicine. He'd scribbled on the paper in a handwriting that looked like something Esther would write: "I had all the time that belonged to me and I found you."

Esther didn't speak a word for a year after Rayford died. And I wore black so long my friends had to talk me out of it. I wish'd I'd been a child so I could've just shut out everybody and closed in on myself. I birthed Esther, so I knew she hadn't gone crazy or got retarded like folks was saying, telling me to take her to the doctors. Hell, my baby missed her daddy and she just didn't have the words to say how bad she felt. And when she did start talking, the first thing Esther says over dinner one night is, "Mama, he's coming back. He told me." And I said to her, "Baby, he didn't go nowhere. I got him right here in my heart."•

PhotO by llilary Schwab

Milstein named law school dean

Elliott Milstein, interim dean of the Washington College of Law since June 1988, was named dean in November.

"President Berendzen and I were delighted with the law school's recommendation," says Provost Milton Green­berg. "Dean Milstein's strong interpersonal skills, his popular­ity with current students and alumni, and his successful fund­raising efforts for the law school make him the ideal person to lead WCL at this time."

Milstein, a nationally recog­nized figure in clinical legal edu-

cation, was director of WCL's clinical education program for sixteen years before becoming interim dean. He has a bache­lor's degree from the University of Hartford and a law degree from the University of Con­necticut. He also holds an LL.M. from Yale.

Among his top priorities as dean will be construction of a new law school building and continued development of academic programs.

Basel Dalloul

~ ... :;ff?r:~~;{t~~·=;cA MfP~U18iNI&~WiS~~ ~~ 1 ,- I ' >.. • >

Joseph Yeakel

- - . ~ . - .

coholic beverage containers in November. The grant is one of the largest in the history of the Kogod College of Business Ad­ministration (KCBA) and a first for the marketing department's Center of Excellence, the Center for Marketing Policy Research.

Four new trustees elected to board

Beginning in January, Mazis and Swasy will conduct two separate studies. The first will involve a series of laboratory experiments comparing the effectiveness of the federally mandated labels with that of al­ternative labels designed by the research team. The second study will examine the advisa­bility of requiring the makers of alcoholic beverages to add health warning messages to their print and broadcast ads,

An alum, a Methodist bishop, and two international business­men were elected to the board of trustees in October. Basel R. Dalloul '85, Bishop Joseph H. Yeakel, Yasuma Sugihara, and John Tugwell will assume their duties at the February board

meeting. Dalloul, a graduate of the Ko­

god College of Business Admin­istration, is involved with sev­eral family-owned businesses, most directly with a furniture design and manufacturing busi­ness based in Paris, France. He is also a student at the George­town University Law Center.

Yeakel is the United Method­ist Church bishop for the Wash­ington area. His previous post was in western New York. He attended Lebanon Valley Col­lege and the United Theologi­cal Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

Sugihara is president and CEO of Mobil Sekiyu K.K., Tokyo. He is a graduate of Keio

University in Tokyo and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Tugwell is general manager of the business development divi­sion of National Westminster Bank in London, a position he has held since 198 7. He was ap­pointed director of International Westminster Bank last year.

The board also accepted the resignations of two trustees: Ramzi Dalloul, Basel Dalloul's father, and Nabil Koudjeti '88.

Marketing professors get $700,000 grant

Two AU business professors, Michael Mazis and Jack Swasy, received a $700,000 grant from the National Institute of Alco­hol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) in September to eval­uate the effectiveness of the federally mandated warning la­bels that began appearing on al-

as cigarette manufacturers currently do.

Two AU students named Women of Color scholars

Two AU doctoral students, Linda Thomas and Youtha Hardman-Cromwell, were among the first five scholarship winners selected nationwide in the Women of Color Scholar­ship Program last fall.

The program, established in 1989 by the United Methodist Church, provides financial sup­port and encouragement to women of color seeking careers in theological education.

Thomas is pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology; Hardman­Cromwell, a Ph.D. in educa­tional administration. Both are ordained ministers, serving as elders in the United Methodist Church.

WINTER 1990 13

Letts Hall Gets Facelift

Students enjoy newly refurbished rooms and lounges in Letts Hall. The up· grades, including hallways, laundry rooms, and bathrooms, are part of a two· year, $6.5 million summer renovation program for the six-hundred-bed resi· dence hall. This summer the building's lobby, elevators, and windows will be renovated and upgraded.

14 AMERICAN

Dorothy Height Timothy Healy

H ealy, Height to be honored at winter commencement

Timothy S. Healy, S.J., former president of George­town University, and Dorothy I. Height, president of the Na­tional Council of Negro Women (NCNW), will be honored at AU's ninetieth commencement on Sunday, January 28, in AU's Bender Arena.

Healy, who will give the prin­cipal address, will receive an honorary doctor of humane let­ters degree. Height also will re­ceive an honorary doctor of hu­mane letters degree and will make brief remarks.

Healy, a leading figure in American education, was presi­dent of Georgetown University and a professor of literature therefrom 1976 to 1989. He left the university last summer to become president of the New York Public Library.

He has served as director and chair of the American Council on Education and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and has chaired the National Advi­sory Committee on Accredita­tion. In addition he has served as a member of the Folger Li­brary Committee, the Presi­dent's Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies, the Middle States

Commission on Higher Educa­tion, and the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on South Africa.

He currently serves as a member of the National Com­mission for the Study of Migra­tion and Cooperative Economic Development and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Presidents Commission.

The recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, Healy was educated at Wood­stock College, the Facultes Saint Albert in Louvain, Bel­gium, Fordham University, and Oxford University, Oxford, En­gland. He is the author of two books and numerous articles.

Height, a longtime civil rights activist, has been with the NCNW since 193 7 and has been its president since 1958. From 1944 to 1977 she served on the national staff of the YWCA, where she directed the District Action Program on In­tegration. In 1962 President Kennedy appointed her to the President's Commission on the Status of Women. She was a delegate to the 1974 UNESCO and the 1980 United Nations conferences on women.

Height has been instrumental in the initiation of NCNW-

sponsored food, child care, housing, and career develop­ment programs. Recently she has shifted the group's focus to fighting economic inequality and developing initiatives to deal with AIDS. She has also initiated a program called the Black Family Reunion Celebra­tions that accentuates the posi­tive aspects of black family life. Height earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from New York University.

University press established

AU has joined an elite group of fewer than two hundred U.S. universities-those whose com­mitment to scholarly research and its dissemination has led them to establish their own presses. Created in 198 7, the

press expects to publish its first book this academic year, ac­cording to Richard Rowson, di­rector. It will emphasize works in international affairs, public policy, and communications.

Books published by AUPress will be produced, marketed, and distributed by University Publishing Associates (UPA), a consortium of university presses and scholarly societies located in Lanham, Md. UPA will market AU Press titles glob­ally by placing them in special­ized and general bookstores in all major U.S. cities and in im­portant intellectual centers here

and abroad. Rowson has been director of

the Duke University Press since 1981. His affiliation with Duke will continue while he di­rects the establishment of the AU press.

BZA approves campus plan; WCL gets go-ahead for new building

On Dec. 6 the District of Columbia's Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) unani­mously approved AU's cam­pus plan for the years 1989-2000.

As part of its decision, the BZA also approved AU's ap­plications to

• build a new facility for the Washington College of Law at the intersection of Ne­braska and Massachusetts avenues at Ward Circle;

• erect temporary trailers for university offices that will be displaced during con­struction of the law school facility;

• enlarge the Eagle's Nest and enclose the outdoor eat­ing area at Mary Graydon Center; and

• use the Metropolitan Me­morial United Methodist Church parking lot to pro­vide additional campus parking.

Once the university re­ceives the final written or­der- sometime within the next few months- work will begin on detailed designs and construction planning for the law school building. Based on this timetable, uni­versity administrators hope construction will begin early

in 1991.

''Heard On Campus'' "M_any people, if not most Americans, were dealing with an 11luswn. They were dealing with what they wanted to see. I doubt that very many truly understood what was going on in China at the Eime. They allowed themselves to get caught up in phrases which we, in part, manufac­tured for them, such as the prodemocratic movement. They allowed themselve~ to belie~e that what we were talking about was some kind of Asian form of jeffersonian de­mocracy, which in point of fact it was not."

TED KOPPEL, ABC "Nightline" anchor, at a forum on the China story, September 11.

"[Tia~anmen S9uar~J has had a lasting impact . .. [on) Amencans. I thmk It has stripped away some of the ro­mantic illusions that many have had about China .. . . We tended to forget the fact that the Chinese state was ulti­mately based on a foundation of repression. The brutal crackdown in Tiananmen Square has reminded the American people of the truth of something Mao once said -that power does indeed come out of the barrel of a gun."

REPRESENTATIVE STEPHEN SOLARZ (D·N.Y.) at a forum on the China story, September 11.

"The Corcoran made a mistake. If we scheduled (the Mapplethorpe exhibit) based on its merits, then we should have been willing to carry it through. There clearly was an audience. This controversy has made us look more closely at how we make decisions. This was just an accident waiting to happen."

Bruce Yenawine, dean of the Corcoran School of Art at a forum on government funding of the arts, October 2.

"I think there will be a change in the debates. I think there should be a moderator and that the candidates should question each other. ... I strongly support having one debate on domestic issues and one on foreign, or dividing the issues so that it's not quite so scattered. journalists don't belong as panelists in a debate. I didn't turn down the opportunity when it was offered to me, but that's not our role."

Andrea Mitchell, NBC News congressional correspondent, at a lecture sponsored by the Kennedy Political Union, October 16.

"You [don't) show me your individuality by making . .. a crescendo where you're fairly certain no one else has ever made one before. This only lets me know that you're possibly clever, possibly devious, possibly a little bit un­principled, and have a good eye for your career and less of an eye, ear, and heart for music."

Andre watts, concert pianist, at a campus lecture, October 25.

WINTER 1990 15

CENTENN,IAl NEWS

Leadership profile: ABBEY JOEL BUTLER '58 Giving out of gratitude

Abbey joel Butie< w" all set to follow the call of the wild blue yonder when he finished high school. "I wanted to be a navy pilot," Butler recalls, "but three of my friends were going to AU and they talked me into com­ing along. And I've never re­gretted that decision."

His AU experience proved to be a turning point intellec­tually and socially. "In high school I was too busy playing sports to do much studying, but at AU, I found a com­pletely different environ­ment," he says. As a student in the Kogod College of Business Administration (KCBA), he made the dean's list and was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society.

Equally important, he made lifelong friends through his fraternity, Phi Epsilon Pi. "My fraternity brothers and our faculty advi­sor, SIS professor Abdul Aziz Said, really had a profound influence on me," he says. "We're still very close. A group of us from New York and Washington still get to­gether several times a year and if one of us has a prob­lem, we all pitch in."

That willingness to help has also characterized But-

16 AMERICAN

ler's relationship with AU. He and his wife, Ilene, re­cently gave the university their second leadership gift, to name the main entrance plaza, the garden next to the spqrts center, and the in­structional complex in New Lecture Hall. Their first gift, given in 1986, was for the Butler Pavilion, adjacent to the sports center.

Less visible, but equally important, are the scholar­ship funds Butler provides each year for financially needy and worthy KCBA students. Currently he's sup­porting four. It's more than a checkbook commitment, however. He calls often and sees the students whenever he comes to campus. He also tries to nurture a sense of phi­lanthropy in them. "The only thing I ask is that someday, when they're able, they help someone else attend The American University."

These days Butler's work for AU brings him from his home in New York to campus frequently. He's a university trustee, a member of the en­dowment committee, and a gold honor-level member of the President's Circle. He's also chair of the Centennial Fund for Excellence and a member of the Centennial

Campaign cabinet. As chair of the Centennial

Fund for Excellence, which supports the Centers of Ex­cellence, student scholar­ships, faculty support andre­search, improved equipment and facilities, and other aca­demic needs, Butler works with alumni across the coun­try, enlisting their help-fi­nancial and otherwise- in the cause of the university's academic programs.

"I think there's an untap­ped pool of alumni out there who want-and need-to hear the AU story," he says. "Our progress in the last few years has been remarkable. I know from my own experi­ence choosing recipients for the Butler scholarship that AU is attracting increasingly higher calibre students. The university's facilities have im­proved tremendously, too. But we've really just begun. To help the university be-

/

-

come the institution it wants and needs to be, we all have to do our part."

Why did Butler, who is president of his own portfolio management company, C.B. Equities, and a board mem­ber for other companies choose to support AU so generously?

"Gratitude," he says. "So much of what I have-my success in business, my friends, and my values, came out of my AU experience. I just wanted to pay back a small portion of what the uni­versity has given to me."

"Beyond the pleasure I get from giving of myself, the love and support I've re­ceived in return have been wonderful," Butler says. "I feel good about it. My family feels good about it, and we hope to continue to do even more for the university in the future." -MaryloBinker

GATHERING HONORS ANSARY

From left, incoming AU board of trustees chair Edward Carr '62, outgoing chair Cyrus Ansary '55, and AU president Richard Berendzen at a gathering in Ansary's honor on October 27 at the Washington, O.C., home of AU trustee Stuart Bernstein '60, and Wilma Bernstein '60. Ansary was presented with a framed resolution designating him "chairman emeritus," and he and his wife, Jan, received an inscribed silver bowl to recognize "their tireless and gracious efforts on behalf of The American University."

/ /

/

-

~ ~ ------RECENT MAJOR GIFTS*-----------

GOAL $100million

8 0

STATUS 60 $65.15 million

40·-+-----+--

20-+-----+--

0 --L.. _ __ _J__

An anonymous donor, for the new arts facilities

Stanley and Sandra Bobb, for an undergraduate scholarship in KCBA

Warren J. Bronsnick, '69, '72, for the new law school building

AU trustee Abbey Joel Butler '58 and Ilene Zatkin-Butler, unre­stricted support for the Cen­tennial Fund for Excellence

The Cora and John H. Davis Foundation, for the Cora and john H. Davis Scholarship

The estate of Dr.

Kathryn G. Heath '31, '51 for a women's scholar­ship in honor of Mary Louise Brown, the first dean of women at The American University

The Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, for the new law school building

AU trustee Wanda Pedas '70, '72, and James Pedas, for the new arts facilities

•Gijtsoj$25, 000andabovecom­mitted between August / , 1989, and September 30, 1989.

WINTER 1990 17

President's Circle Council Meeting

On October 17, President and Mrs. Berendzen hosted a meeting of The Presi­dent's Circle Council, the volunteer leadership of the university's highest-level gift society. Chair Herb Veder­man congratulated council members on fund-raising progress to date-over $200,000, double the amount raised by the same time last year - and encour­aged them to keep up the momentum. In their recruit­ing efforts this year, The President's Circle is concen­trating on attracting recent graduates.

President's Circle mem­bers enjoy a yearly black-tie dinner (this year on May 4), on-campus parking privi­leges, and an array of educa­tional , cultural , and athletic activities. Their gifts provide core support to the univer­sity's academic programs, student services, financial aid, and campus renewal.

18 AMERICAN

AN AU ARTS SAMPLER

Dance professor Naima Prevots, left, and Gail Jacobs '63 watch a student performance at a November 2 campus tour for members of the Centennial Campaign Committee for the Arts. To inspire them in their task of raising funds for the new arts facilities, the volunteer committee members were treated to a sample of the work of students and faculty in the fine and performing arts.

MYERS SOCIETY FIFTH ANNUAL DINNER

From left, Betty Southard Murphy '58, John Green, and the Honorable June Lazenby Green '41, at this year's annual dinner for the John Sherman Myers Society, the honor society for those who contribute $1 ,000 or more a year to AU 's Washington College of Law. A highlight of the October 18 event was the announcement of a new scholarship endowed with funds raised by society members to be given annually in honor of a society member. The first John Sherman Myers Society Scholarship will honor Judge Green.

Fall Sports Notes

RUNNERS FINISH OUT FRONT: AU's cross-country teams finished the season with a combined 15-Z-1 record. For the first time in AU's history, the women's team was unde­feated (9-0-1). The men com­piled a 6-Z record.

SETTING THE COURTS ON FIRE: Eagle volleyball players Beth Walrath, right, and

Karin Churchfield, left, both juniors, exhibit the

skills that helped lead the AU squad to a Z3- 8 over­all record and a first-

round bye in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)

Championship Tournament November 10-11 in Harrison­burg, Va. The Eagles lost to James Madison University in the semifinals. During the championship, Tricia Gilbert, a junior, was named to the CAA All-Conference First Team. Junior Jami Versteegen won CAA second team honors.

SERVING UP WINS TO THE HOME CROWD: Af­ter 143 away matches (while

1 AU's tennis courts were being resurfaced), the tennis teams had a full slate of home contests this fall. Both teams finished S-4. The women were unde­feated in matches played on the AU courts.

Photo by Alex Tchram

. ~., . -~~ - ~ - -

SPORTS · ,

Olympic medalist leads swimmers to victory

Although he's been at the uni­versity just a few months, swim­mer Sergio Lopez, a junior, has already made his mark. After the first four swim meets, Lo­pez has set four school records (ZOO-yard individual medley, ZOO-yard breaststroke, ZOO­yard freestyle, and 1 00-yard breaststroke), won every indi­vidual race he's competed in, and helped the team stay unde­feated.

A bronze medalist in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Ko­rea, Lopez transferred to AU this year from Indiana Univer­sity (IU) after training last sum­mer with Joseph Nagy, now an

Sergio Lopez

AU assistant swim coach. Nagy, considered by many to be the world's best breaststroke coach, trained three of the first four finishers in the 1988 Olym­pics ZOO- yard breaststroke-all except Lopez.

A native of Spain, Lopez isn't sure how old he was when he started swimming, but here­members winning his first award at age three. Now twenty-one, he intends to par­ticipate in the 199Z Olympics, which his hometown of Barce­lona is hosting.

At AU, Lopez is majoring in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis on kinesiology. When his swimming career is over, he hopes his degree will help him attain his long-term goal - to be a national swim coach.

WINTER 1990 19

Barbara Reimann, standing center, works closely with the Student Athlete Academic Advisory Board, which consists of one representative from each of the university's thirteen varsity sports. Selected by either the coach or the team, these students are the liaison between Reimann and their sport. They also serve as mentors to freshman athletes.

Helping student athletes make the grade New student athletes can ex- average (GPA) or return to the

pect to spend countless hours structured study sessions. practicing their sport. At AU, Athletes in the program gen-they must put equal emphasis erally have a good attendance on their academic work. The record, says coordinator Bar-Academic Support Program is bara Reimann, a twenty-three-designed to help these students year member of AU's athletics handle the demands of intercol- faculty. Poor attendance results legiate sports without jeopardiz- first in a meeting with her and ing their academic careers. the respective coach; repeated

All new AU athletes-fresh- absences can result in being benched for practices and men and transfers-must par­

ticipate in the intensive pro­gram for one semester. Requirements include a mini­mum of ten hours per week in a proctored study session in the library and attendance at a se­ries of mandatory workshops designed to help meet the ath­lete's academic goals. T utors­most of whom are also athletes -are available to help students having difficulty in a particular course.

T hroughout their varsity ca­reers, AU athletes are required to maintain a 2.30 grade point

20 AMERICAN

games. Reimann has tracked the stu­

dent athletes' academic progress since the program's debut in fall1987 . At the end of that semester, the 185 student athletes' average GPA was 2. 73-14 athletes had a GPA lower than 2.00 and 60 had a GPA higher than 3.00. Since then the statistics have risen steadily. At the end of the spring 1989 semester, the 199 athletes' average GPA was 2.87. Only 4 athletes had a GPA lower than 2.00; 81 had a GPA higher than 3.00.

In addition to helping de­velop better study skills, Reimann says, the program has helped build an esprit de corps among the new student ath­letes. "In the past athletes from different teams might have met

only by chance-in the whirl­pool or weight room-but now all the new athletes meet in the study sessions. This has led to more camaraderie and alle­giance to the overall athletic program."

Alive again in Bender Arena: AU men's and women's basketba ll

It's time to start lining up for the best seat in Bender Arena. Basketball is back in town!

The men's team inaugurated the new season on November 27. The Eagles delighted 1,900 fans with a 69-65 victory over Eastern Kentucky University. Freshman guard Brian Gilgeous scored a game-high 17 points. And senior Ron Draper, a 6'9" forward and the third leading rebounder in the nation, had 15 points and nine rebounds.

The rest of the season prom­ises to be equally exciting. The schedule includes competition from tough Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) rivals­James Madison, Richmond, and George Mason-as well as from nonconference opponents Wichita State, Ohio State, and UCLA.

With Ed Tapscott now in his eighth year as head coach, the

Eagles have set out to improve last year's 17-11 record. With twelve home games, they hope to keep alive the "Bender Magic"-the men have lost only three of the eighteen games played in the facility.

Jeff Thatcher begins his first year as women's head coach. To prepare for the tough com­petition ahead that includes nine home and fifteen away games, the women played in the Florida International Uni­versity Tournament in Miami, November 24-26. Although they dropped games to Youngs­town State [84-77] and Man­hattan College [67-57], the Eagles outscored Florida Inter­nationa\69- 65. Sophomore guard Felicia Young racked up 31 points and senior forward Kathy Walker had 17 points. Both were named to the all­tournament team.

DON'T MISS the exciting Colonial Athletic Association Tour­nament in Richmond, Virginia, March 3-5. Games will be played in the Richmond Coliseum. Call (202) 885- SEAT for more information and ticket prices.

AU ALUMNI 1990 TRAVEL PROGRAM

Alaskan Coastal Wilderness Voyage ten days/August 17-27 from $2,600, not including airfare

Ex~lore the natural beauty of southeastern Alaska on the M. V. Sea Lion, which navi­gates a maze of fjords, channels, rivers, and glaciers that large cruise ships can't reach. Leave from Seattle for ten days of coastal cruising and on-land exploration. See Admiralty Island, one of only three islands in southeastern Alaska where the grizzly bear is found; Seymour Canal, where whales, dolphins, and Steller's sea lions may be seen; and Glacier Bay ational Park, a haunt of humpback whales. Visit Sitka, the historic Russian-American capital, and Petersburg, a small fishing settle­ment of Norwegian origin. The trip is enhanced by the accompanying staff of natural historians.

Vadim Medish

Please note: Prices are approximate.

For more information send coupon to: Office of Alumni Relations The American University Sutton Center, Suite 260 4400 Massachusetts Ave., N W Washington, DC 20016 (202) 885-1300

The Alps and the William Tell Express twelve days/June from$3,550

Experience the majestic and scenic Alps. Visit beautiful Lake Lugano in the Swiss Alps, historic Lucerne, Liechtenstein's Vaduz, and the spectacular countryside sur­rounding lnnsbruck. Traverse the Bavarian Alps via Oberammergau and Garmisch to Munich. Enjoy a breathtaking train ride on the William Tell Express. Sail Lake Lucerne on a historic paddle-wheel steamer and travel by motor coach through countries noted for unsurpassed Alpine beauty.

Russia: Golden Pathways of the Czars sixteen days/September from$3,495

Historical presence. Pervasive power. World influence. Join us as we explore Russia, land of contrast, on a fascinating, first-time-ever excursion. Following in the foot­steps of Russia's once powerful Czars to towns rarely seen by non-Russian visitors, you'lllearn about Russia's history and culture from Vadim Medish, AU professor of Russian studies. Born in the USSR, Medish served in the Red Army during World War ([and later in U.S. Army Intelligence. He is the author of The Soviet Union and has written numerous articles on Soviet culture and contemporary political issues.

With Medish as tour lecturer, be among the first Westerners to cruise the Volga River between Moscow and Kazan. Visit ancient Yaroslavl, Uglich, Kostroma, and, politics permitting, Gorky. You'll also spend time in Moscow and Leningrad before finishing your journey in Berlin.

Please send me more information about

0 Alaskan Coastal Wilderness Voyage 0 The Alps/William Tell Express 0 Russia: Golden Pathways of the Czars

NAME ________________________________________ _

ADDRESS ____________________________________ __

CITY, STATE, ZIP __________________________ _

WINTER 1990 21

CLASS NOTES & ALUMNI NEWS

1920s & 30s

Golden Eagles '39 and earlier Apri120-22, 1990

Come back and visit with friends from all the classes that make up this special group. Welcome to the Classes of '30 and '35 as they mark their 60th and 55th anniversaries and to the members of the Class of' 40 as they "soar" into our ranks!

'28

Arthur Flemming, CAS/MA, Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Eisenhower adminis­tration, was presented the first Pepper Distinguished Service Award last September. The award was named in honor of the late Congressman Claude Pepper. Flemming lives m Alexandria, Va.

'29

John W. Boatwright, CAS/ MA, former chief economist of Standard Oil, is retired and lives with his wife in Williamsburg, Va.

22 AMERICAN

'32

Brooke Bright, CAS/BA, was awarded the honor of"Civitan of the Year." He and his wife, Ruth, live in Baltimore.

1940s

'40

50th Reunion April10-22, 1990

Don't miss this landmark cele­bration of our golden anniver­sary and our initiation into the Golden Eagles! Remember to return your questionnaire for our 50th anntversary reunion booklet.

'41

Jerry W. Housel, CAS/PhD, is a member of the American Bar Association Board of Gover­nors. He represents the AB~s Tenth District, which includes lawyers in Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Da­kota. He lives in Cody, Wyo.

'45

45th Reunion April20-22, 1990

Who would miss the chance to visit AU, attend parties, be en­tertained by alumni performers, go to a barbecue and a gala, all highlighted by nostalgic re­unions with friends? Plan on at­tending our 45th reunion!

'47

Rose Crenca, CAS/BA, is a member of the Montgomery County Council, serving on its planning committee. She lives in Silver Spring, Md.

'50

40th Reunion April20-22, 1990

It was a fabulous era! WWII was finally over, and we enjoyed in­tramural sports, Bart Gephart's piano, Song Fest, fraternity ri­valries .... Our lasting friend­ships are nothing short of phe­nomenal. Come renew the memories.

Martin Ries, CAS/BA, exhib­ited silk-screen prints in Mel­bourne and Baurnsdale, and paintings in Adelaide, Australia. He also delivered a slide lecture, "The New York Art Scene," at Flinders University, Adelaide University, the Gippsland Insti­tute, and the Victoria Art Cen­ter. He lives in Scarsdale, N.Y.

'51

Roy R. Mullen, CAS/BA, as­sociate chief, National Map­ping Division, U.S. Geologi­cal Survey, was among the top

federal executives who received 1989 Meritorious Presidential Rank Awards last September. He lives in Oakton, Va.

'52

Henry 0. Lampe, KCBA/BS, wa s named vice president for invest­ments by Pru­dential-Bache Securities. He

lives in Arlington, Va.

'55

35th Reunion April20-22, 1990

Dig out the college yearbook and begin boning up for our 35th reunion! Don't miss this oppor­tunity to rekindle friendships, visit campus, and enjoy reunion festivities.

'58

John E. Walters, CAS/BA, wrote A Guide to Conjugating En­glish Irregular Verbs. He lives in Hillsboro, Md.

1960s

'60

30th Reunion Aprll20-22, 1990

Can it really be five years since our 25th reunion? You won't be­lieve the changes on campus since our last gathering. Come back and meet again with friends on the quad. Enjoy a weekend of "mirth and merri­ment." Don't miss out on the fun!

Genevieve Roberts, CAS/ MA, exhibited etchings, aqua­tints, and monotypes at the Washington Printmakers Gal­lery last September. She and her husband, Thomas Roberts KCBA/MS, live in Ashton, Md_'

Donald Stanton, CAS/MA, president of Oglethorpe Univer-

sity, announced the opening of the Seigakuin International School in Atlanta, the first ele­mentary school established in the U.S. under private Japanese sponsorship. He lives in At­lanta.

'62 Lloyd B. Dennis, SIS/MA, executive director of public af­fairs for the Los Angeles De­partment of Water and Power, was named the 1989 Outstand­ing Professional by the Los Angeles chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. He lives in Redondo Beach,

Calif.

'64

Cecile Caroline Huff, CAS/ MA, whose work has been ex­hibited in the Baltimore Mu­seum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery, had a solo exhibit of her paintings in the Plum Gallery in

Kensington, Md., in October 1989, and will exhibit in another solo show at the Studio Gallery in Washington, D.C., in May 1990. She lives in Dunkirk, Md.

'65

25th Reunion April20-22, 1990

A 25th college reunion is one of life's milestones-a wonderful opportunity to rekindle past friendships. Help us make this a memorable weekend. Plan ahead. You should be there!

Patrick Clary, SGPA/BA, WCLIJD'6 7, is chair of Clary Broadcasting Group, a partner­ship of investors that buys radio stations in high-growth areas of the southwestern United States. He also practices law. He lives with his wife, Diana, in Las Vegas, Nev.

COMMUNICATION CHAPTER REAC­TIVATED: Bill Regardie '67, '68, left, autographs a copy of his magazine for Kevin Bohn '87, Communication Chapter president; Charlie Bragale '87, chapter secretary; and Chris­tine Nyirjesy. Regardie, president and editor in chief of Regardie 's, was the guest speaker at an October 3 Communication Chapter event.

Herman S. Frey, CAS/BA, owner a nd president of Frey Enter ­prises , is listed in the current edition of the

International Authors and Writers Who's Who. He lives in Arlington, Va.

Joan C. Topalian, CAS/BA, was promoted to executive offi­cer for the Office of Research Services, the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. She lives in Washington, D.C.

'66

Ron Walters, SIS/MA, SIS/ PhD'71, is president of the Na­tional Congress of Black Fac­ulty. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

'67

Earl M. Baker, SGPA/MA, SGPA/PhD'71, is a Pennsylva­nia state senator. He is vice chair of the urban affairs and housing committee and serves on the committees on aging and youth , community and economic de­velopment, law and justice, and public health and welfare. He lives with his wife and their two children in Malvern, Pa.

WINTER 1990 23

PROVIDE FOR THEIR FUTURE

.. . ANDYOURS

You know the importance of individual gifts and bequests to the success of AU's Centennial Campaign and future AU students. But do you know the many ways in which a gift to AU can produce benefits for you and your family?

Some ways of giving can help you

• Reduce your income tax

• Reduce, or eliminate, tax on capital gains

• Increase the income from your assets • Set aside income for your retirement

• Finance your child's or grandchild's education • Help support an elderly parent

To learn more about putting your assets to work for you and for AU. please call or write;

AnnaB. Tate Director of Gift Planning Office of University Development The American University Sutton Center, Suite 260 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20016 (202) 885-2800

24 AMERICAN

'68

Elizabeth L. Young, CAS/ 1970s MA, was named vice

president of '70 the aeronauti-cal services group of

COMSATs mobile communi­cations unit. She lives in Alexan­dria, Va.

'69

Jeffrey M. Frost, WCLIJO, was named general counsel for the Driggs Corp. and its affili­ates. He lives with his wife and child in Potomac, Md.

Andrew B. Hahn, SIS/BA, was promoted to associate dean for exter­nal affairs , Florence Hel­ler Graduate

School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare, Brandeis Uni­versity. He lives in Belmont, Mass.

T. Sum ner R obinson. A I MA, is assoei:~.te publisher :~.nd editor in chief of th e Los Angele Daily Journal.

Thom as Shumaker, WCLI JO, is a probate court judge for St. Josc:ph uumy, Mich . !-ll;l

lives with his wife, judy, in Sturgis, Mich.

Trudi B. Unger, CAS/BA, a corporate advertising photogra­pher, completed an interna­tional advertising campaign for Qantas Airlines . She lives in Mill Valley, Calif.

20th Reunion Aori120-22, 1990

Now's the time to dust off your yearbook and talk to your friends about attending what promises to be ~ very special re­union weekend. Twenty years-can you believe it? Start planning now-we wouldn't want you to miss it!

Edward G. Boehm, Jr., CAS / MEd, CAS/Ed0'78, was appointed vice president for institutional advancement

at Marshall University. He lives with his wife, Regina, and their sons, Evan and Andrew, in Fort Worth, Tex.

Michael Codori, CAS/MST, was appointed assistant princi­p<tl at D amascus aigh School.

He lives in Rockville, Md. Norman D r eyfu:-;s, WCL/ JD, and his wife, Phylli , have established the jewish Under­graduate Scholarship fund, which will grant $3,500 per year to students pursuing associate or undergraduate de rees . The

Dreyfusses live in Potomac, Md.

'72

Neale Godfrey, SIS/BA, launched the First Children's Bank in the Manhattan branch of F.A.O. Schwarz. She lives in New York City with her two children .

Harold L. Hirsh, WCLIJD, past president of the American College of Legal Medicine , serves on the board of trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine. He lives in Washing­to,n, D .C.

Mark F. Leopold, SGPA/BA, joined the legal department of G. D. Searle & Co. of Skokie, III. , as assistant general counsel. He lives in Highland Park, III.

'73

Reginald L. Babcock, SGPA/ BA, WCLIJD'77, was elected general counsel and secretary of Connecticut Natural Gas. He lives in Glastonburg, Conn.

Steve Leeds, CAS/BA, was named director, Talent/ Artist Re lations Spec ial Projec ts , M'J' . He lives in New York City.

Ann G. Schwartz-Bcigar­ten, CAS/BS, i~ a rc,;spiratory therapist. She live with her husband. Edward . in unr i ~ , Fla.

'74

Ronald L. Gabriel, KC BA/ PhD, was elected national vice President of the 7,000-member Society for Amer ican Baseball Research. He lives in C hevy Chase, Md.

Brian McMahon, CAS/BA, was elected to the board of di­rectors of Northwestern Memo­rial Corp. He lives in Winnetka,

III.

Stuart D. Schwartz, KCBA/ BS, was promoted to vice presi­dent of finance for First World Cheese. He lives with his wife, Ilene, and their two children in

Rockaway, N.J.

'75

5th Reunion pri120 22. 1990

Mark your calendar now-don't miss our last chance to gather while we're still "thirty-some­thing." Come back and see the new sports center, the Tenley Campus, and the dorms, to name just a few additions. You won't recognize the place! But don't worry-we'll still recog­

nize you.

Charles Blum, SGPA/BA, as­sumed leadership of the enter­tainment division of Whiteco Hospitality. He lives in Atlantic

ity. ..J . Karen S. BDrger, CAS/BA,

was promoted to marketing co mmuni ca ­tions manager of All icJ-S ig·

nal Aftermar­ket Filter Division in Provi­dence, R.I., last September.

he lives in Providence.

Cecil D. Bradfield, C AS / PhD, was elected speaker pro tempore of the faculty senate at James M adi on Un iver s ity

where he is a professor of sociol­ogy and coordinator of the Cen­ter for Service Learning. He lives with his wife, Nancy, and daughter, Anne Cecilia, in Bridgewater, Va.

Joseph W. Pastori, SOJ/BS, was appointed development di­rector for Montana Public Tele­vision. He lives in Bozeman, Mont., with.his wife, Marla, and their two-year-old daughter, Re­becca Kathryn.

'76 Lesley S . Halpern, CAS/BA, was named manager of advertis­ing and publicity for the ABC Radio Networks last October. She lives in New York City.

Robert Senseney, SIS/BA, is a senior technical advisor for the Office of Nuclear Export Con­trol, Bureau of Oceans and In­ternational Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Depart­ment of State . He lives in Gaithersburg, Md.

'11 Louis C lark, WCLIJD, is ex­ecut ive di rector of the Govern­ment Accountability Projec t where he represents gove rn­ment and corporate workers who want tO blow the whisLie on waste and corruption by their employers . He lives in Washing­

ton, D.C .

Donald Pretz er, SIS/BA , was appointed by the city of Alexan­dria to a two-year term as a citi­zen representative on the Alex­andria Waterfront Committee. A landscape architect, he works for the Maryland National Park

and Planning Commission and lives in Alexandria, Va.

Arthur Dennis Watson, KCBA/MS, CAS/MA'79, was appointed deputy director for public affairs of the U.S. Inter­state Commerce Commission in Washington, D .C . He and his wife, Kathleen Frances Zac­cardo, KCBA/MS'88, live in Springfield, Va.

'78

Mar la Chanin, CAS/BA, is di­rector of operations at Meridian House International. She lives with her husband, Jorge Tobar, in Washington, D.C.

Edwin L. Ford, WCLIJD, is a partner in the firm of Dart, Ford, Strelec & Spivey, P.A . He lives in Sarasota, Fla.

John Liebermann, J r. , CAS/ MS, CAS/PhD, was awarded the James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching. He lives in Fairfax, Va. Michael D. Schneider, SIS/ PhD , was among the top federal executives who received 19!:!')

Meritorious Presidential Rank Awurd~ . lie is deputy ussoc,; iucc

director for the Bureau of Pro­grams at the United States In­

formation Agency. He lives with hi wife , Mica!, and their three children in Washington, D .C.

Marty M. Tapscott, SOj/B , was selected last August as the new chief of police in Rich­mond, Va.

WINTER 1990 25

'79

Arnold Cohen, KCBA/BS, is president and chief operating of­ficer of the J. Crew Group. He lives with his wife, Gail, and their children, Zachary and Alex, in Westport, Conn.

Patricia Newton Roman, SON/BSN, is a nursing admin­istrator for special projects at the New York Infirmary, Beekman Downtown Hospital, in New York City.

Melissa Owen, CAS/BA, re­ceived an MA in psychology from the Wichita State Univer­sity in July 1988. She lives in Wichita, Kans.

Darlein Stein, CAS/BFA, ex­hibited her paintings as part of the Washington Art Dealer As­sociation's Washington Art Week last June. She lives in Be­thesda, Md.

'80 10th Reunion Apri120-22, 1990

Can you believe its been ten years since we graduated? Come to Reunion '90 to visit fa­vorite haunts, see the changes on campus, and enjoy dozens of memorable events with the col­

lege gang.

Andrew Albert, CAS/BA , formed his own newsletter pub-

26 AMERICAN

lishing company, Harrison Scott Publications of New York, which recently launched "Thrift Liquidation Alert," a weekly on the savings and loan bailout. He lives with his wife, Liz, and their two-year-old daughter, Sarah, in West Or­ange, N.J.

E. Randall Clouser, SOJ/BS, joined Alexan­der & Alexan­der of Missouri as senior vice president and director of

business development. He lives with his wife, April, and their children, Ashley and Corbin, in Chesterfield, Mo.

Michelle Easton, WCL!JD, was sworn in last September as deputy under secretary for inter­governmental and interagency affairs, U.S. Department of Ed­ucation. She lives with her hus­band and three sons in Reston, Va.

Donald V. Feliciano, CTA/ MTM , joined the hazardous waste division of Versar, Envi­ronmental Risk Management, as a senior policy analyst. He lives in Herndon, Va.

AnneN. Foreman, WCL/ JD, was named under secre­tary of the Air Force and, as such, is the second ranking

civilian in the Air Force. She lives with her husband, Dennis, and their children, Victoria and Thomas, in Potomac, Md.

Robert Kantor, KCBA/BS, was named senior vice president and group director of Griffin Ba-

cal last July. He lives in New York City.

Antone Razzouk, KCBA/ BS, became a partner in Wat­son, Rice and Company, a CPA and consulting firm, last August. He lives in Alexandria, Va.

'81

Paul Bird, SGPA/MPA, direc­tor of the personnel office of the Nuclear Regulatory Commis­sion, was among the top federal managers who received 1989 Meritorious Presidential Rank Awards. He lives in Arlington, Va., with his wife, Patricia, and their three children.

Karen Chizeck, SIS/BA, is executive director of the "Rocks for Controller Campaign." She lives in Philadelphia.

Melissa M. Howard, SGPA/ MPA, chief of the planning division of the Federal Emer­gency Manage­ment Agency,

was awarded the 1989 Career Service Award by the Section on National Security and Defense Administration of the American Society for Public Administra­tion last August. She lives in Be­thesda, Md.

Stuart Miller, SGPA/BS, was appointed branch manager for Eureka Vacuum Cleaners in Boston. He and his wife, Carole, live in Boston.

Kent Roman, KCBA/BA, is an account manager at Messner, Vetere, Berger, Carey and Sch­meiterer, an advertising agency

in New York City. He lives in Brooklyn.

Patrick M. Ryan, SGPA/BA, received his JD from the Uni­versity of Honolulu Law School and plans to take the California Bar exam in March. He lives in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

'82

Christopher S. Alexander, KCBA/MBA,_ is assistant pro­fessor of marketing at King's College, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

James Terry Lockhart, SGPA/MA, SIS/MA'87, was named senior research officer for the Price Waterhouse Cran­field Project on International Strategic Human Resource Management. He lives with his wife, Jane Birdsong Lock­hart, CAS/BS'87, in London.

JohnJ. Rooney, SOJ/BS, spe­cial agent with the U.S. Secret Service, was promoted to the San Juan Field Office in Puerto Rico. He lives in San Juan.

David J. Smith, SGPA/BA, was appointed lecturer and as­sistant professor of law at Villa Julie College in Stevenson, Md. He lives in Baltimore.

'83

Jill Bernstein, CAS/BA, was promoted to assistant market­ing director at the Brookings In­stitution. She lives in Washing­ton, D.C.

Matthew J. Jacobs, SGPA/ BA, left the Shreveport Journal as editorial page editor to attend Stanford Law School. He lives

with his wife, Ann Younker, in Palo Alto, Calif.

Jonathan Richard, CAS/BA, received his PhD in clinical psy­chology from the University of Denver last August. He is a staff psychologist at the Fort Logan Mental Health Center. He lives in Denver.

Peter Scher, SGPA/BA, WCL!JD'87, joined the law firm of Keck, Mahin & Cace. He lives in Chevy Chase, Md.

Nathan B. Smith, CAS/BS, was promoted to lieutenant while serving aboard USS Barnstable County. He will serve as staff communications officer for the commander, Amphibi­ous Squadron Four in Norfolk, Ya. He lives in Virginia Beach.

'84

Jack Amick, SIS/BA, was commissioned lase August as a Habitat International Partner with Habitat for Humanity In­ternational, a Christian housing ministry committed to eliminat­ing poverty housing in the world. He works as a facilitator and advisor in Bombay, India.

Susan Fern Evashavik, SIS/ BA, received a J D from the Dickinson School of Law last June. She lives in Pittsburgh.

Lane Steven H urewitz, SGPA/BA, is an attorney spe­cializing in international trade and international corporate law With Stewart & Stewart. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Carlos Peiia, CAS/BA, was named creative coordinator in the public affairs department of Kaiser Permanence's Mid-A clan-

tic States Region. He lives in Annapolis, Md.

Todd Rudner, SGPA/BA, was appointed on-site leasing direc­tor at the Office Center at Mon­tebello, N.Y. He lives in North Bergan, N.j.

'85

th Reunion pri120-22, 1990

Can you believe it's been five years since we graduated? Some fabulous plans are in the works for Reunion '90. Come back and see for yourself what the legacy of AU85 has wrought. We promise- you won't be disap­pointed.

Douglas A . B lank, KCBA/ BBA, was appointed investment property sales associate for Ca­rey Winston. He lives in Gaithersburg, Md.

Konrad Kircher, SIS/MA, re­ceived an L. M. Berry Scholar­ship from the University of Day­ton School of Law. He lives in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Deborah I. Kuba, KCBA/ MBA, is vice president for sales and marketing for Centel Corp. in Reston, Va. She lives in An­napolis, Md.

Karen R o binson , SOj/BA, was selected to the U.S. Na­tional Reserve Field Hockey Team, was on the Silver Medal winning team at the 1989 Olym­pic Festival, and toured the So­viet Union as part of the JFK Touring Team. She lives in Be­thesda, Md.

Steven R oss, KCBA/BBA, does advance work for Presi-

dent Bush as a special assistant in the Department of justice. He lives in Washington, D .C.

John K . Summers, CTA/MS, was promoted to the position of technical di­rector of infor­macion sys ­tems and tech­

nology in the Washington C31 Division of the MITRE Corp. He lives in Vienna, Va.

Kurt Vorndr an, SGPA/BA, joined the National Council of Senior Citizens as a legislative representative. He previously served as the Midwest political director for the Dukakis/Bent­sen campaign. He lives in Wash­ington, D.C.

Benet J . Wilson, CAS/BA, is the publications manager for the Association of Farm worker Op­portunity Programs, a nonprofit association on Capitol Hill. She is co-chairing the AU Class of '85 reunion committee. She lives in Crystal City, Va.

'86 Glen Buchanan, KCBA/BS, is a staff accountant with Smith, Batchelder and Rugg, a CPA and management consultant firm. He and his wife, julie, live in Lebanon, N.H. J im Carman, CAS/MS, is di­rector of the Healchspan and Rehabili tation Department at Tompkins Community Hospi­tal. He lives wi th his wife, Dianne, and their children, Me­lissa and Colin, in Newfield, N.Y.

ALUMNI SKI WEEKEND IN PENNSYLVANIA SKI AREAS

Join AU alumni for an

exciting ski weekend

Feb. 9-11. Buses will

leave from D. C.,

Philadelphia, and New

York City for Camelback

and Blue mountains in

Pennsylvania. Trip price

of $ 165 per person,

double occupancy

(triple and quad rates

also available) covers

transportation, lodging

for two nights, buffet

breakfast and dinner on

Saturday and Sunday,

apres-ski parties (with

open bar), and plenty of

skiing. Optional

activities include

snowmobiling, roller

skating, horseback

riding, shopping, and

movies. For more

information, call the

alumni office,

(202) 885-ALUM.

WINTER 1990 2 7

Richard Kaufmann '61, '65: "Catering to the creative cook"

E AU's public radio station, WAMU 88.5 FM, was in on

rom AU psychology rna- some of the excitement last jor to almost-professional August, when the station folk singer, to lawyer and law cosponsored Kitchen Sa-firm partner, to chair and zaar's first annual Great Fam-chief executive officer of ily Traditions Contest. Kitchen Bazaar, one thing is Kitchen Bazaar has be-certain about Richard Kauf- come something of a family mann: he's always had the business. Kaufmann's wife, courage to explore every Barbara, works part-time in option. one of the stores, and their

After nearly twenty years college-age children work in of practicing law in Washing- the stores during school va-ton, D.C., Kaufmann felt he cations. needed a change. In October Kaufmann took Kitchen 1987, when an investment Bazaar public in October group he headed acquired 1988 to generate capital for Washington-based Kitchen expansion. By the end of Bazaar, a specialty retailer of last year, the company had fine quality kitchenware, he opened five new stores in the found his niche. Washington-Baltimore area.

"Whenidecidedtogetout Kaufmann is currently of law, I explored everything looking further afield for mar-I'd ever wanted to do in my kets with similar demograph-life," he says, "no matter how ics. "We need to find major 'Walter Mitty-ish.'"

An avid scuba diver and underwater photographer, Kaufmann's list of options included moving to the Caribbean, working in the corporate world as in-house counsel-even going into show business.

The last of these interests can be traced to Kaufmann's days at AU, when he was in a folk-singing group, the Deauville Trio, with one of his Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity brothers, Donald Mensh '60, and another friend.

metropolitan areas where we can be fairly certain that our concept will be accepted quickly," he says. By the end of 1992, he hopes to have opened at least twenty stores in new markets.

Looking back at the "cir­cuitous route" he took to get into retailing, Kaufmann has no regrets. "I certainly don't begrudge myself the legal ex­perience; I couldn't have been doing the sorts of things I'm doing today without that background.

"AU gave me the tools to go forward," he adds. "It gave me a base of friends who have always been there, and I hope I give them the same kind of support and friend­ship in return. AU was a very powerful force in my life."

- Karen Way

Ironically, there's a fair amount of "show business" to Kitchen Bazaar. "We're al­ways having national food ce­lebrities in our stores, as well as local chefs and caterers and product demonstrations. That creates some glamour and excitement," says Kauf-

Richard Kaufmann with Julia Child, who autographed her new cookbook at a pre-Christmas promotion for patrons of the Kitchen Bazaar in Tysons 11 in Vienna, Virginia.

mann.

28 AMERICAN

Jill S. Christianson, SIS/MA, is an educational equity special­ist for Multicultural Education and Race Equity with the Mary­land State Department of Edu­cation. She lives in Crownsville, Md.

Todd Hansen, SGPA/BA, SGPA/MA'88, is attending George Mason School of Law. He is a real-estate agent with Arlington Realty. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Anthony Pinto, SOJ/BA, is a claims representative for State Farm Insurance. He is engaged to Cecilia Connolly, KCBA/ BS'88. A May 1991 wedding is planned. He lives in Oradell, N.j.

John Quale, SIS/ BA , left Washingtonian magazine after three years as assistant photog­raphy editor to join the D.C. ar­chitecture firm of Keyes Con­don Florance . He lives in Arlington, Va.

Linda Sherman, CAS/BA, is an account manager, booking na­tional meet­ings and con­ventions at the

Sheraton Washington hotel. She lives in Washington, D.C.

'87

Mafalda Arena, CAS/BA, is an account executive in the health care division of Ma­kovsky & Company. She lives in Rochelle Park, N.Y.

Rebecca E. Peek, KCBA/BS, is IRA-Regula­tory Compli­ance Officer with Barnett Bank. She lives with her hus­

band, Alan, in Jacksonville, Fla.

Susan Stern, CAS/BA, works at the Navy Research Personnel and Development Center in Point Lorna, Calif., and is earn­ing her PhD in industrial and or­ganizational psychology at the California School of Profes­sional Psychology. She lives in Sa~ Diego.

'88

Cecilia Connolly, KCBA/BA, is a financial cost analyst forM u­tual of New York. She is en­gaged to Anthony Pinto, SOj/ BA'86 . She lives Cresskill, N .J.

Doris B. Johnson, CPIA/MS . ' IS assistant executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Ad­missions Officers. She lives in Falls Church, Va.

Mark Edward Peters, CAS/ BA, is assistant editor of New Re­alities Magazine. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Maria T. Sella, SIS/BA, is a financial /credit analyst for Wilmington Savings Fund Soci­ety in the Commercial Loan ~epartment , servicing interna­~lonal and domestic clients. She 15 engaged to Tom Giorgi. A September 1990 wedding is Planned. She lives in Wilmington, Del.

'89

AdamS. Bush, SIS/BA, is ad­ministrative assistant to L.A. Mart president Henry Brandler. He lives in Los Angeles.

MILESTONES

Marriages

Evelyn Petros, CAS/BA'68, and Peter E. Gum pel. They live in Boston.

Gwen Pritchard, CAS / BA'71, and Jim Lindquist, CAS/BA'76, October 7, 1989. They live in Brookline, Mass.

Ann G. Schwartz, CAS / BS'73, and Edward Beigarten, June 17, 1988. They live in Sunrise, Fla.

Deborah D. Burch, CAS/ BA'77, and Thomas Crossley, AprilS , 1989. They live in Hy­attsville, Md.

Arthur Dennis Watson CAS /MA'77, KCBA /MS'79: and Kathleen Frances Zac­cardo, KCBA/MS'88 . They live in Springfield, Va.

Pamela Kim Phillips, SIS/ BA'78 , and R. Richard Zanghetti, September 16, 1989. They live in New York City.

Ronald William Chadwell, SGPA/BA'79, and Ann Jessica Grossman, June 11, 1989. They live in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Herbert Leslie Taylor, SGPA /MA'79, and Diana Marie Mederos. They live in Bakersfield, Calif.

John T. Connors, SGPA/ BA'80, and Lynette G. Haass, November 8, 1988. They live in Potomac, Md .

Donna Lee Shira, SIS / BA'80, and Roy Smith. They live in New York City.

Jeffrey L. Snyder, SGPA/ BA;80, WCLIJD'83, and Bobbi Jo Newton, June 10, 1989. They live in Washington, D.C.

Roger Jack Meredith, KCBA/MPFM'81, and Deanna Lynn Tarum, August 12, 1989. They live in Bozeman, Mont.

James T. Bacon, WCLI JD'82 , and Julie R. Graham, September 2, 1989. They live in Chantilly, Va.

Cathleen Mary Campbell, SGPA / BA'82, and Charles Ferns,.June 24, 1989. They live in Cranford, N.J .

Beth Ellen Kesselman, SIS/ BA'82, and Leo William New­mark, May 29, 1988. They live in Lynn, Mass. Eric Brian Yarvin, SOJ/ BA'82, WCLIJD'86, and Nancy Heller, March 25, 1989. They live in Rockville, Md. Lori Ellen Balsam, CAS/ BA'83, and Donald Frumkin, June 17,1989. Jill Bernstein, CAS/BA'83, and Lane Steven Hurewitz, SGPA/BA'84, November 4, 1989. They live in Washington,

D.C. Karla L. Marcello, KCBA/ BS'83, and PeterJ. Daronco, CAS/BA'83, September 16,

1989. They live in Washington, D.C.

Marcese Elline Oakley, SGPA/BS'83, and Kevin Pa­trick Moran, July 15, 1989. They live in Walville, Md.

Carolyn Fox, WCLIJD'84, and Phillip Mead, July 8, 1989. They live in Armonk, N.Y.

Jean Marie Kinnahan, SOJ/ MS'84, and Sonny Werner McGee, July 1, 1989. They live in Charleston, S.C.

Alexandra Hodge Scott, SIS/MA'85, and Gordon Scott Christenson, April 29, 1989. They live in Palo Alto, Calif.

Michael Richman Belfer, KCBA/BS'86, and Randy El­len Panster, KCBA/BBA'87, April 29, 1989. They live in Springfield, N.J.

Richard Alan Lehner, KCBA/MS'86, and Jodi Wanda May, June 10, 1989. They live in Arlington, Va. Kent Hawxhurst, CAS/ BGS'87, and AndreaS. Levine, July 15 , 1989. They live in Ro­binsville, N.J. Jamie Brooke Hern, SGPA/ BA'87, and Stephanie Lynne Arnold, July 29, 1989. They live in Somerville, N.J.

Barrie L. Joseph, SOC/ MA'87, and Robert E. Henken, SOC/MA'87, June 3, 1989. They live in Washington, D.C. Eugene Anthony LaCroce, Jr., WCL!JD'87, and Kimberly Ball, July 8, 1989. They live in Wallingford, Conn.

Tammy Darlene Miller, KCBA/BBA'87, and Matthew Brevard Monk, June 24, 1989. They live in Washington, D.C.

WINTER 1990 29

Carlos M. Naida, SIS/BA'87, and Maia Johanna Wordan. They live in Cincinnati.

Julie Alisa Novick, WCL/ JD'87, and Rabbi Michael Lee Feshbach,June 11,1989.

Jodi Abrams, KCBA/BS'88, and John Perry Miller, SPA/ BA'88, August 26, 1989. They live in Owings Mills, Md.

Julie Anne Cook, SIS / MA'88, and Matthew R. Kil­bourne, August 19, 1989. They live in Washington, D.C.

Phillip Jeffrey Greenberg, KCBA/MBA'88, and Jada Mandy Ma, June 4, 1989. They live in Glendale, Calif.

William Louis Hurlick, SPA/BS'88, and Alison Robin Paul. They live in Falls Church, Va. Sarah Elizabeth Rahr, CAS/ MEd'88, and Benjamin Carr Fortna, July 1989.

Julia Elizabeth Sullivan, WCL!JD'88, and William W. Johnson. They live in Crofton, Md. Scott Letson Browning, CAS/MS'89, and Valerie Mi­chele LeTourneau, May 20, 1989. They live in Alexandria, Va. Elizabeth Ann Fallon, CAS/ BA'89, and Geoffrey Peter Ny­harr,July 22, 1989. They live in Washington, D.C.

30 AMERICAN

Ingrid Imelio Houlihan, KCBA/BBA'89, and Miguel An­gel Balea, June 3, 1989. They live in Falls Church, Va.

Tamara Beth Oxman, CAS/ MEd'89, and Christopher Flanagan, June 4, 1989. They live in Leesburg, Va.

Lynn Karen Tiedge, WCL/ JD'89, and William Docalovich, May 20, 1989. They live in Vir­ginia Beach, Va.

Births

Janet Blaustein Kublin, CAS/BA'70, and Michael, have adopted a girl, Heather Ilene, born March 7, 1989. They live in Hamden, Conn.

Lawrence Pauker, SGPA/ BA'71, WCLIJD'76, and Berna, a girl, Amanda Erica, May 16, 1989. They live in Dresher, Pa.

Deborah Diller Grabfield, KCBA/BBA'76, and Philip, their first child, a girl, Alyssa Wells, August 12, 1989. They live in Glenview, Ill.

Mark Solomon, SOJ/BA'78, and Gayle Brown Soloman CAS/BA'79, their second child' , a girl, Hayley Rose, February 23 , 1989. They live in Silver Spring, Md.

Patricia Newton Roman, SON/BSN'79, and B. Kent Roman, KCBA/BA'81 , a girl , Kerry Elizabeth, November 26 , 1987. They live in Brooklyn.

Peter Barrett, KCBA/BS'80, and Amanda Spivak Barrett, SIS/BA'83, their second son, Peter Kevin, July 25, 1989. They live in Gaithersburg, Md.

Diane Perez Guiliani, KCBA/BS'80, and Nicholas, a boy, Matthew Daniel, June 20, 1989. They live Burtonsville, Md.

Susan G. Rubinstein, CAS/ MA'81 and Michael, their first child, a girl, Rachel Ann, July 13, 1989. They live in Roches­ter, N.Y.

Lewis Zwick, KCBA / MBA'81, and Suzanne, their third child, a boy, Dillon Peter, September 10, 1989. They live in Gaithersburg, Md.

Melanie Reid Soles, SGPA/ BS'82, and William, a boy, Wil­liam Roger, March 25, 1989. They live in Charlotte, N.C.

Susan Conover Mayman, KCBA /BBA'83, and Larry Mayman, KCBA/BBA'85 , a boy, Michael, September 10, 1989. They live in Centreville, Va.

Laurie Holmes McDowell, SGPA/BA'83, and Larry, a boy, Paul Edward, March 28, 1989. They live in Atlanta.

Deaths

Kathryn G. Heath, CAS / BA'31 , SGPA/PhD'51 , in Flor­ida.

John Henry Williams, CAS/ BA'33, August 27 , 1989, Boca Raton , Florida.

Grover L. Hartman, CAS/ MA'36, CAS/PhD'46, Novem­ber 13, 1988, Indianapolis.

Lowell Harold Hattery, SGPA/PhD'51 , former AU pro­fessor, July 28, 1989, Mr. Airy, Md.

Arthur W. (Bill) Sherrick, CAS/BA'56 , June 22 , 1989, Ol­ney, Md.

Dollie C. Ham, CAS/BA'61, in Florida.

Leslie Morris Samuel Grif­fiths, CAS/BA'62, CAS/MA'64, September 12, 1989 , Little Rock, Ark.

Philip A. Hinkle, KCBA/ BS'66,July 8, 1989, Lorton, Va.

James N. Dulcan, SGPA/ BA'67, June 2, 1989, Washing­ton, D.C.

William Kermit Barclift, CAS/BA'68, CAS/MA'69, guest lecturer at AU, June 28 , 1989, Washington, D .C.

James Clay Thompson, SIS/ MA'69 , January 1989, Greens­boro, N.C.

James L. Kerr III, CAS / BS'71 , July 1989, Dallas .

Clark S. Morris, KCBA/ MBA'71 , September 28 , 1988, Fairfax, Va.

Robert J. Mathias, SIS / MA'74, September 23 , 1989, Ocala, Fla. Patrick D. Dant, CAS/BA'80, Jun e 9 , 1989, Washington, D.C.

By Henry Taylor

I have misgivings about any writer's ability to speak with real conviction or use­fulness to the question, Why do you write? A short answer is easy: I write because When I'm writing, I'm happier than when I'm doing anything else. The following re­marks, most of them shamelessly autobio-

~ graphical, are something of an attempt to

say why this could be.

My own experience of horses, starting When I was a boy, and the ways my writing has benefited from my association with them, is literal and factual, but I hope that it may also be taken as figurative and fanciful. I Wouldn't presume to tell anyone the way to good writing is through the stable; but one of the ways to good writing is to grow more deeply into more connections with the world, connections beyond the verbal, let alone the literary.

My work with horses brought me in

touch with abstractions and character traits which most writers have to learn some­where or be born with. Among these are patience, discipline, healthy pessimism, cooperation, and technique. And the great­est of these is patience.

It is simply impossible to get along with horses if you can't be patient with them. They seem not to be piercingly intel­ligent by our standards. Patience and firm­ness are essential in training a young horse; there are days when progress is nothing more than the absence of regression. It fol­lows that the discipline of a regular work schedule is the surest way of making some progress now and then. But as valuable as that lesson is, there's another kind of pa­tience that comes all too rarely to teenage boys. A young horse, say, a four-year-old, may appear to be brimful of potential, and you may soon develop daydreams about what this horse will be at the age of, let us say, eight. All of a sudden, right there in front of you, is an inescapable fact: if you're

seventeen years old at that point, when the horse is eight you will be twenty-one. I feel lucky to have learned at seventeen that there are things you just have to wait for, because you can't ask a four-year-old horse to be eight.

Furthermore, a lot can happen in those four years-not all of it good. Some­times, in those four years, the horse may be sold, disabled, or dead, and you have to start over again. So my early experience with those kinds of rewards and frustra­tions prepared me in a way that seems to me amazingly well-suited to the business of sending poems off into what appears to be a silent vacuum, and waiting for a response from an editor.

There's a hideous temptation when you're schooling a young horse to work at the things the horse does well, because it's so pleasurable. Then you get in the ring, and are suddenly asked to do some of those things that the horse doesn't do so well and that you have not practiced. With writers I

WINTER 1990 31

think the situation is even worse. Very few writers of my acquaintance practice in the same way in which performing artists prac­tice. Writers sit down with a piece of paper and a writing implement, whatever it may be-chisel, computer, anything in be­tween-and immediately start thinking in terms of a finished product, a thing they are going to do and finish and get out some­where.

Pianists fortunately do not do this. If they did we wouldn't be able to stand listen­ing to them.

In the business of writing poems, for example, it seems fairly obvious to me that fiftieth sonnets are likely, on the whole, to be better than first sonnets. I remember my first sonnet- not well enough to recite it, but well enough to know that it isn't very good. I wouldn't want to be showing it around to folks much. And yet, people sit down and people say, ''I'm going to write poetry now," and off they go. It seems to me that my having actually enjoyed the process of riding a horse in circles, some­where beyond the eyes of others, until those circles were really round, has some­thing to do with my willingness to stick with a very short poem for months, or even years if necessary, until it gets to that place, not where I say, "That's finished. Boy is that really terrific," but where I finally wind up saying, "Well, that's the best I can do with that one-unfortunately."

Every piece of writing gets to a place where any further changes you make will be mere changes-like lateral promotions. They won't be improvements. When the poem gets to that stage, it's time to quit fiddling with it.

Healthy pessimism. I don't know whether the word healthy in that phrase is wish fulfillment or not, but I mean a kind of stoicism, and even a kind of superstition.

When I say superstition I don't mean any sort of huge system of belief or any­thing like that. It's just those little games that we play to protect ourselves from dis­appointment. Like trying not to look for a

32 AMERICAN

specific piece of mail when we open the mailbox or submitting to a magazine we'd kill to be in a piece we know they'll reject.

I'm accustomed to the idea that I might use up my talent on any major undertaking and might have to rest and grow a new one before I can write something significant again. Less drastically, but more often, I've abandoned pages of work toward some­thing I thought was a sonnet because it turned out to be something else-twenty lines of quatrains or something like that.

I don't see how you can force a poem to come any more than you can force a horse to do certain things. You can make a horse do a lot of things, but you can't force a horse to rise to an occasion, so to speak, to put forth maximum effort in a situation which

Photo by Hilary Schwab

Taylor today at his Loudoun County, Virginia, home.

requires it in a way that maybe the rider hasn't foreseen. I don't understand this en­tirely. The fact is that a horse will do that; you will occasionally get into a situation which you know is urgent, and somehow the horse learns it's urgent and gives you more than you could ever make the horse give you. Maybe that's where horseman­ship as a metaphorical school for writers is more useful than some other endeavors.

Competitive horsemanship is a matter of trying to make two consciousnesses­the rider's and the horse's-work together so that they seem almost inseparable.

A poem, of course, is not another con­sciousness. But many poets have acted as if it were. Frost liked to say things like "You have to sort of sneak up on it. You circle all around it, looking at it out of the corner of your eye. If you watch it too closely, it'll get away."

That's the way it is when you're writing almost anything. When you feel yourself on the edge of some little burst of excel­lence, whatever it may be-phrasing, im­agery, timing, any of the things that go into prose or verse writing- and you sense that you're almost at it and you know after awhile that if you go for it too quickly, if you spring up out of the grass before you're close enough to actually land on the thing, it'll skitter off into the bushes, and you'll be left with the hollow sound of feet landing on empty earth. •

AU literature professor Henry Taylor re­ceived the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his col­lection of poetry The Flying Change. These remarks are adapted from a talk he gave last July at the annual conference of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

ALUMNI REUNION '90 A CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS-April 20-22

When you arrive at American for this weekend­long gathering, you can look forward to many all-alumni events in addition to activities

planned for the five-year reunion classes. You'll also be invited to participate in special events produced by AU arts alums-a reunion within a reunion. Over 30 different events in all to choose from, open to all AU alumni and their families and guests.

Here are some highlights of this very special weekend:

p • A • s s • p • 0

• Alumni Art Exhibit Opening Reception, Friday, 5-7 The work of AU alumni featured in the Watkins Gallery.

• R

• Anniversary Class Receptions (classes ending in 5 or 0), Friday, 6:30-8

T

You and your classmates kick off the weekend. All those old memories come rushing back. • AII·Aiumni Barbecue, Friday, 8-10 Good food and good music. There's nothing like a little dancing to bring out the spirit of reunion . Join in the weekend's first all-alumni event.

• The Great American Fair, Saturday, 11:30-4 A carnival atmosphere featuring 80 student groups hosting a wide va­riety of exhibits and games. Ongoing entertainment by performing arts alumni and demonstrations by visual arts faculty and students round out the afternoon. • Performing and Visual Arts Workshops, Saturday, 12:30-2 and2:30-4 Be an artist. be an actor. be a musician. A taste of the arts experience led by AU faculty. • Gala and Dinner Dance, Saturday, 6:30-midnight, The National Press Club Put on the glitz for "The Night of American Stars" -from cocktails to din­ner to entertainment to dancing-the perfect evening in honor of Re­union '90 . Performances by alumni from stage, screen, concert hall. TV, and radio will be featured. followed by the big band sounds of the Tom Cunningham Orchestra. • AII·Aiumni Brunch, Sunday, 10-noon Spend the morning relaxing with friends . Reunion '90 comes to a close . -L __________________________________________ ~

Mark your calendar. if you haven't yet. for April20-22. 1990. And keep your eye on the mail-your Reunion '90 invitation will be arriving by March 10. Pick your events and return the response form. The alumni office will assemble a uniquely designed passport to carry you through what promises to be a reunion weekend long remembered by all.

Discount airfare-Call (or have your travel agent call) the Pan Am Convention Desk at (800) 635-8470 and give them our code number: CVN20010. Just remember to book your reservation on Pan AM through the Convention Desk. Each reservation you make supports the AU giving effort.

Discount room rates-For information on hotel rooms reserved for Reunion Weekend at reduced rates. call the Alumni Office (202) 885-1300.

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