Reclaiming history

Only a few statues celebrate American presidents on foreign soil. But now, one U.S. president has been memorialized twice in the same spot — and Tom Dine ’62 was part of making that happen the second time around. The story involves a nation’s struggle for independence, Nazi and communist plunder, and the reclaiming of a symbol celebrating the triumph of democracy.

(photos by Lillis Photography)
    The president: Woodrow Wilson. The country: Czechoslovakia. Wilson is widely credited there as a driving force behind the independent state’s creation in 1918. As Dine put it, “Wilson was part of the new reforms before and after World War I.” Prague’s train station was named for him in 1919, and in 1928, the first Czech president, Tomáš Masaryk, dedicated an 11-foot-tall statue of Wilson near the station’s entrance. But a mere 13 years later, the Nazis renamed the station and melted down the statue for ammunition. Then, in the late 1940s, the communists destroyed its 14-foot pedestal. The symbol of U.S. support for Czech freedom became largely forgotten.
    During his own years of living and working in Prague as the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from 1997 to 2005, the story of the statue never came up, said Dine, “even though I had frequently traveled down Wilsonova, a major thoroughfare, and worked in a building near the station.”
    Dine’s Czech connections trace back to his Colgate years. In 1961, he said, “I led a delegation to a Model UN conclave in Montreal — we represented Czechoslovakia!” And he credits his research papers on Wilson’s foreign policy for “leading me to a career of trying to repair and shape a better world community.” Prior to his post at RFE/RL, Dine engaged in democracy building and development econom-
ics as a Peace Corps volunteer, and with the American Embassy in New Delhi, India; U.S. Senate; U.S. Agency for International Development; and other organizations.
    It wasn’t until Dine moved back to Washington, D.C., that he learned the story of the statue. In 2007, he joined the board of a nonprofit called American Friends of the Czech Republic (AFCR), which had just dedicated a statue to Masaryk in Washington, D.C. “People started saying, we need his ‘twin,’ which, of course, is Wilson,” he said, “so, we began planning. Then, the research started coming in about what had happened to the statue. It was a surprise to me.” Fortunately, the Czech national museum had a model of the head, which was used to design a replica. Along the way, the AFCR raised $850,000 to support the project.
    “For me, history is about the recovery of the past,” said Dine. “In my career, I have done a lot of exploration and studying — what is it I’m involved with, and where did it come from?” Since President Barack Obama’s announcement that engagement would be a keystone of his foreign policy, Dine has been heading a group of 16 prominent Syrians and Americans working together to resolve conflict between America and Syria, through the nongovernmental organization Search for Common Ground. Their work, unfortunately, has been stalled due to the recent violence in Syria. “I was there in March when the killings began in Dara’a. I left on that Friday,” he said. “There has been no return. It’s just not safe for our Syrian counterparts.”
    Whatever part of the world he’s working with, Dine finds himself referring to Wilson’s moral approach to foreign policy: “democratic governance, procedures, and values; a multilateral approach; and trying to stop genocide and prevent war.” The new Wilson statue was unveiled last October, in a ceremony involving Czech President Vaclav Klaus, former President Vaclav Havel, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and other dignitaries. To the former history major’s delight, the occasion was also marked with a symposium on the legacy of Wilson and Masaryk. With the words “The world must be made safe for democracy” inscribed beneath the statue, Dine said, history comes full circle.

— Rebecca Costello


A bicycle trip built for two


Melody and Joe Brennan ’67 riding through the Rocky Mountains on their cross-country bicycle trip.

It took 79 days for two 66-year-olds, Melody and Joe Brennan ’67, to bike 3,687 miles from San Diego, Calif., to Narragansett, R.I., last summer. Their story adds up to much more than just numbers, but the digits involved provide glimpses into what it took to complete this cross-country expedition.
    It all started with an idea that Melody had proposed in 2007. Could they spend their 40th anniversary bicycling the Erie Canal Trail from Buffalo to Albany? While Joe was a triathlete, she had not spent much time on the bike in recent years. But, you “don’t pull the mask off an old Lone Ranger, and never doubt Melody,” Joe wrote in the introduction to their trip blog, Brennans’ Magical Mystery Tour. They purchased a bike for Melody, completed the Erie Canal Trail with ease, and continued to log thousands of miles on their Trek hybrid bicycles. “From that grew, ‘What are we going to do next?’” Joe recalled. The couple decided to take on the whole country.
    Having pieced together a route from Adventure Cycling Association maps, the Brennans departed San Diego on June 11, 2011, after the ceremonial dipping of their rear tires in the Pacific Ocean. Their son and his girlfriend agreed to drive a support vehicle for them. That support would soon come in handy, especially as the couple faced their first challenge: the heat. On 31 of the first 35 days, temperatures soared above 100° — on those days, having more water on hand than they could carry themselves was essential.
    Armed with smartphones, an iPad, and a laptop, the Brennans also relied on technology. An attorney for the Albany Housing Authority, Joe regularly checked e-mail on the laptop, and held weekly conference calls with his office via Skype. He also posted daily to their blog, which got approximately 20,000 hits while they were on the road.
    Although they didn’t find the excursion physically demanding, there were days when it did wear on them emotionally. The traffic — especially the many trucks and RVs traveling the roads out West — took its toll. “You’ve got all these vehicles going at high speeds coming really close to you,” Joe said. At one point, Melody was blown off the road by wind from a passing truck. “She was fine, but it shook her for the day,” he said.
    Despite the challenges, there were magical moments, too. Riding on a back road in Indiana, heading east, they saw a lone bicyclist coming toward them. When they stopped to talk to him, the Brennans learned that he was a computer-engineering student at Renssel-aer Polytechnic Institute in Albany who was transferring to the University of Southern California — and was riding his bike there. “So here we were, from the same place, doing the same route in opposite directions, and we happened to meet,” Joe marveled.
    In the northeast, navigating became more difficult, so the Brennans lost their way a few times. And, in the final days, Hurricane Irene was bearing down on them. But, they still rode into Narragansett several days ahead of schedule for a planned vacation with their family. Although the beach was closed because of the weather conditions, officials allowed the cyclists to bookend their journey by dipping their front wheels into the Atlantic Ocean. After 14 states, 1,400 pictures, and countless ice cream cones, they “would have kept riding for another three months, if we could have,” Joe said.
    At the end of the journey, the Brennans dedicated their ride to Emma Kelly (daughter of Joe’s Colgate classmate and Kappa Delta Rho fraternity brother Bob Kelly ’67), who is battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma. On his last blog post, Joe wrote, “We drew inspiration from her and we did the best we could to send her positive energy and support.”

— Aleta Mayne


Owning the pen
As a freelance writer and blogger for the New York Times’ Small Business section, Adriana Gardella ’86 has been covering entrepreneurs who have professional issues and deconstructs them in order to provide applicable knowledge to other business owners. Gardella herself is no stranger to career issues. It took several occupation changes for her to realize that being a writer was what she wanted to do, and could do, professionally.

(photo by Mary McIlvaine)
    Before finding the pen, Gardella worked in several fields, from advertising to public relations to acting/modeling to practicing law. The desire to write was always present — like when she attended American University’s Washington Semester in Journalism as a Colgate junior — but it never clicked that she could support herself that way. “I’d always thought that if you were a writer, it meant that you were starving in a garret,” she said.
    While working as an associate in a law firm’s litigation department, Gardella started to explore career options in journalism. Through research and a recommendation from a colleague who was a lawyer-turned-journalist, Gardella decided to take a class called Writing for New York’s Newspapers and Magazines. Gradually, the pieces began to fall into place. The class, which met once a week, brought in editors from newspapers and magazines, giving her “an example of people living in New York and functioning [in this field].”
    She left her job at the law firm in 2001 and struck out on her own as a freelance writer, supplementing her income with temporary legal work. Still unsure of how to turn her talent into a full-time career, Gardella sought out a publication staff position. She was hired as an editor at a startup called Justice that covered celebrities’ legal affairs. After that magazine went under (as so many new publications do in their first year), she landed a senior editor position at Fortune Small Business in 2007. That publication also folded, which was when Gardella started thinking about the benefits of specializing in a niche. Business, she decided, was a solid beat.
    Now, in addition to writing articles for the Thursday Times Small Business Section, Gardella is a contributor to the news blog series You’re the Boss: The Art of Running a Small Business. Her blog, called She Owns It, focuses on female entrepreneurs, and it has recently changed paths as well. Gardella was having difficulty finding people who were willing to be candid enough about their business problems to make her articles helpful to other businesspeople. So, in mid-September, she took it in a different direction. She has brought together a group of four female entrepreneurs whom she will report on as they meet regularly to discuss their business issues — “whether it’s hiring, growth, or just comparing notes,” Gardella explained.
    In an ideal world, she said, female business owners wouldn’t be considered a separate entity — “women who own businesses would be covered simply as human beings who own businesses.” But, with that in mind, she takes a straightforward approach with her articles. “What I try to do is write about nuts and bolts business issues and the way people address them,” she said.

— Aleta Mayne


Prosecuting greed on Wall Street
The morning of October 4, 2011, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter ’90 was in a Manhattan courtroom with his fellow prosecutors, who were arguing whether certain sentencing guidelines applied in the biggest insider trading case in American history: USA v Raj Rajaratnam et al. Afterward, Streeter jumped in his car and raced up to Hamilton to talk to Colgate’s Finance Club and Pre-law Society.

(photo by Jenny Strasburg/ Wall Street Journal)
    Working on the Rajaratnam case was a “dream come true,” Streeter told the students. The case garnered a lot of attention, not only because of the $74 million that Rajaratnam profited from the scandal, but also because it was the first time that the U.S. government secured evidence in an insider trading case using wiretaps — a tool previously reserved for prosecuting the mafia and drug lords. Nine days following Streeter’s campus visit, the case again made history when Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the strictest punishment ever for insider trading.
    As the lead prosecutor, Streeter found himself in the headlines. Newspapers from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Post splashed his picture on their pages and described his “laid-back, nice-guy style.”
    It wasn’t the first time Streeter had been involved in a case of this magnitude. Even as the Rajaratnam litigation was unfolding, Streeter was busy trying a case against Anthony Cuti, the former chief executive of Duane Reade, for conspiracy and securities fraud. A little more than a year before that, Streeter led the prosecution of Marc Dreier, a prominent New York lawyer who was called “the Houdini of impersonation and false documents” for his fraudulent activities.
    “I always wanted to work on white-collar crime,” said Streeter, who has been with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York since 2000 and was recently promoted to deputy chief of the criminal division. The law is in his blood: Streeter’s dad was a lawyer; and decades earlier, his uncle, Michael Armstrong, was a federal prosecutor in the same office that Streeter now serves. (Armstrong was actually the lead prosecutor in the corruption investigation upon which the movie Serpico was based.)
    Of Streeter’s motivation for pursuing this line of work, he said: “You can be in this public service role, but you can also be doing important, cutting-edge, really challenging work. They’re exciting cases, and you get to go up against the best lawyers, appear in the federal courthouse, and be before the best judges.”
    In the press, Streeter’s colleagues have described him as “not your typical, buttoned-down prosecutor” and an “unflappable” person who develops a “good rapport with the jury.” Watching Streeter explain complicated legal matters to Colgate students, those characteristics became apparent. “I think a trial lawyer needs to be good at teaching — at understanding what people aren’t going to understand, and breaking it down for them. And make it interesting, if you can,” he said. “I want the jurors to know they can trust us to always be truthful about the evidence, and I want the judge to know that when we say something, it has a lot of credibility. That, to me, is a recipe for success in the courtroom.”
    Despite Streeter’s calm demeanor, the work, of course, is not without effort or stress. At periods of time like last January to May, when he was in the thick of preparing for and then trying the Rajaratnam case, Streeter worked every single day, putting in 15-plus-hour days. “All I did was work, eat, and sleep,” he said. To maintain his sanity, he vacations with his wife, Lisa, before and after those strenuous stretches.
    Not one to take sole credit for his successes, Streeter emphasized that, “This office is filled with hard-working, dedicated people. We’re all really committed and we work together to do the right thing.”

— Aleta Mayne


Semper Fidelis


Jason Woodworth ’93 and his uncle Doug Campbell ’50

Shortly after September 11, 2001, Jason ‘Woody’ Woodworth ’93, today a lieutenant colonel in the Marines, was piloting an F-18 fighter over Afghanistan. He was carrying precious cargo: American flags in memory of three Colgate classmates and soccer teammates who had been killed in the attack on the World Trade Center. Their names — Todd Pelino ’89, David Retik ’90, and Scott Coleman ’94 — were painted in small lettering on the aircraft itself. Pelino and Coleman had both been working at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center when it was attacked, while Retik was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the North Tower.
    Since his missions over Afghanistan, Woodworth has served the Marines in almost every manner imaginable. He was an instructor for young officers at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz., and also flew missions in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. In 2008, he was sent to Germany as part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to promote arms reduction and treaty enforcement with former Soviet republics.
    Then, this past September, 10 years after the 9/11 terror attacks, Woodworth became commanding officer of the Marine F-18 squadron VMFA-323, better known as the Death Rattlers or the Snakes — one of the highest posts of any Colgate alumnus currently in the Marines. Woodworth is tasked with the training and management of approximately 225 Marines and their equipment at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif. He is currently working to ensure that the squadron is prepared for its next deployment.
    For Woodworth, the most striking part of his new post is the courage of the young Marines in the squadron. The first time he addressed them as their commanding officer, he asked who had enlisted after September 10, 2001. “About 90 percent of [them] raised their hands,” he remembered. “That said something to me.” Woodworth put it in the context of his own experience: “I joined a peacetime military. These kids knew people in high school who had been hurt, or wounded, or killed, and they still had the courage to stand up and defend their country. They’re a lot braver than I was.”
    Woodworth recalled how, back in 2001, just three months after the attacks, he unexpectedly found himself halfway around the world, flying missions into Afghanistan from the USS Stennis. He found a way to express his appreciation for the sacrifice of so many when his fiancée (now wife), Renee, sent him a package containing an American flag. “She said, ‘Here’s something to keep with you, and remember where you’re from,’” Woodworth explained. Whenever he flew, he took the flag with him. “Then it kind of trickled down,” he reflected. Remembering his teammates, he sent Renee a request. “Send me more of those. It’s not often that we’re going to have a chance to do this.” Woodworth flew several missions with the three additional flags before returning them to Renee. With the assistance of Tom Murphy ’90, she distributed them to the families of Pelino, Retik, and Coleman.
    Woodworth was careful to point out that his gesture was only one of many made by thousands of servicemen in honor of the victims of 9/11. “In the end,” he recalled, “almost every plane on our flight deck had [victims’] names painted on them. We all had the same idea: to honor those folks.”

— Jason Kammerdiener ’10


Derby dame


Pippy Longstalker (#36) works her way through the pack as her team, the Monterey Bay Derby Dames, takes on the Mendo Mayhem. (Photo by Mark Nockleby)

Q & A with Laura Chaussee ’03, a.k.a. Pippy Longstalker (#36), the Monterey Bay Derby Dames director of training and captain of the all-star team

By night, you’re a Roller Derby queen. Where can you be found from 9 to 5? I’m a veterinary nurse at Aguajito Veterinary Hospital in Monterey, Calif.

How did you get involved in Roller Derby? My sister got involved first and loved it. My husband, Cass, was deployed on the USS Stout in 2008, so I needed something to occupy my time. Having been a former athlete, I knew that a team camaraderie would be a second family. I found a local derby league, got all the gear, and went out there and fell many, many times. Cass equates it to Bambi on ice; that was me for the first six months, but then I just started getting better and better.

Did you know how to rollerskate going into this? The last time I had rollerskated was in third grade. I had ice skated a couple of times in high school, but it didn’t come naturally.

Did they let you participate right away? No; they call it a ‘fresh meat’ process. There’s a governing body called the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, and they have a minimum standard of skills. You go through all of the basic skills required: they teach you how to fall forward, use the pads and the gear, cross over, and be agile. It’s a progression that culminates in a final assessment.

Tell us about the Monterey Bay Derby Dames. I’m skating on two teams: Babes of Wrath [home team] and the Beasts of Eden [all-star team]. We’re going with a Steinbeck theme.

How did you choose your alter ego? I put ‘redhead’ into Urban Dictionary, and Pippy Longstocking came up. I thought, ‘I could do that.’ I have a very friendly attitude out on the track. I’m not one of the big, mean girls who just hits people, so I wanted something friendly and smiley. And with my long legs [she’s 5'9"], it fit that I could ‘stalk’ somebody in the pack.

What’s your strength in the sport? I don’t fall down a lot. I’ll get in the pack and bounce around like a ping-pong ball, working my way through. I also have explosive speed. When an opening happens in the pack, I can get through it before somebody is able to hit me.

How violent does it get? It is a full-contact sport, so there are injuries. In the 2009 season, I frequently dislocated my shoulder. I have bruises all over my shins from people’s skates. The referees are there to keep the hitting within the boundaries of the rules, but it’s not uncommon for somebody to take an elbow in the face, get a black eye, or fall. We take the rules seriously because that’s what allows us to go to our day jobs the next day.

Do you have followers in the crowd? As I’m speeding around, I hear people yelling, ‘Go, Pippy!’ They come up to us afterward and ask for autographs. A lot of young girls come up after the bouts and say, ‘I want to be a jammer like you.’ That’s inspiring. It’s nice to see these girls who want to follow in the footsteps of strong women.

— Aleta Mayne


Thinking inside the box
A conversation with molecular biologist Kyle Dolan ’06, whose crossword puzzles have appeared in Tribune Company newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and Syracuse Post-Standard — and, now, the Colgate Scene (download the Scene PDF to find his "See You Inside!" puzzle on the Salmagundi page).
How did you get into creating crosswords? At Colgate, we would do the New York Times puzzle at lunch. When I saw the documentary Wordplay, I learned that anybody can submit a puzzle to Will Shortz at the Times. I set about trying to learn crossword construction. The first puzzle I sent got a resounding “go back to the drawing board.” There must have been 10 or 15 words that they called “Too obscure,” or “Not a phrase.” I continued to look at other people’s work to figure out the technical and stylistic sides to getting puzzles right.

What appeals to you about doing crossword puzzles? It’s really a test of language. The most exciting thing is when you make the connection between a tough clue and something that’s not meant to be read literally.

Describe the process of creating a puzzle. If it’s a themed puzzle, I try to think of a funny phrase, a pun, or something I haven’t heard before. For a themeless puzzle, I start with some piece of language that’s a big topic in the news. You want to break the grid down into smaller areas. I usually start in a top corner. The software I use has word lists and pattern-matching algorithms, so if I have a space with a couple of words filled in and don’t know how to complete it, it will give me choices. The hardest thing is to make sure everything is clean. At the end, if ugly or stodgy language is there just because you wanted to make four other entries look cute, people will call you out on that.

Do you have a personal puzzle style? I like to give a nod to William Shakespeare because of his fame as a wordsmith. I refer to music from time to time. People who like to solve crosswords all have different tastes in music, so I’ve used Led Zeppelin, I’ve used Chopin.

Any new puzzles coming out soon? I’ve got work under review by both the New York Times and Tribune Company editors. One puzzle has been accepted by the New York Times. Will Shortz’s waiting list can be somewhat long, so keep an eye out for it!

Tell us about your “day job.” Since I studied molecular biology at Colgate, I’ve been very interested in how nature comes up with strategies to control the expression of genes. I’m nearly finished with my PhD at the University of Chicago. You’ve probably heard about antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is a big public health problem. Scientists are interested in finding out, how do bacteria go from being relatively harmless to infecting a human host and causing disease? I’ve been studying the atomic structure of the protein in certain bacteria that controls the genes that make them virulent. We published our findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in June; if someone were looking for a new target for an antimicrobial drug, this work could help guide them in their design.

Any parallels between your science and creating crossword puzzles? I use the technique of x-ray crystallography (I’m pictured in my lab). In the main step of the process, having accumulated your data, you have a map that looks, on a computer screen, like a 3D grid. Your job is to fill the grid with atoms. The atoms correspond in the protein to amino acids, which each have their own one-letter code. In essence, you’re filling a 3D grid with letters, and the letters spell out the functional protein. I would love to be able to tell that to the crossword editors some day!

Tell us about the puzzle you created for our Salmagundi page. All I can say is, there is a little bit of a Colgate twist to solving it.

— Rebecca Costello


Schechner’s scholars



At Harlem Success Academy in New York City, all of the teachers name their classrooms after their alma maters. But Brooke Schechner ’09 has taken her Raider pride to the next level. The sign outside Schechner’s fourth-grade classroom reads: Class of 2024, Colgate University. Inside, there is a bulletin board adorned with a Colgate banner, bumper stickers, pictures, and Schechner’s college ID — which the students pass around as their “talking stick.” Even the students’ group tables are named with Colgate themes, like Taylor Lake, Adam and Eve, Gate House, and Frank (Dining Hall).
    For Schechner, it’s about more than school pride. It’s this teacher’s way of encouraging her students — all of whose families are below the poverty line — to be their families’ first college-bound generation. Although she said she’d love for them to further their education in Hamilton, N.Y., “I don’t care where they go, as long as it’s college.”

    In fact, that’s the Success Academy’s mission, according to its website: “We serve our scholars by preparing them to succeed at a selective college and in life. We strive to reform the public school system in ways that will help every child access a world-class education.”
    The extended school day (7:15 a.m.–5 p.m) is designed to teach students discipline and provide extra time for their studies. “The whole mentality is that the longer kids are in school, the longer they’re off the streets or off the television,” Schechner explained.
    Many of these hours are devoted to reading, to help the students build their writing skills. As a teacher, Schechner believes her strength is her capacity to deconstruct and comprehend literature — something for which she credits Colgate.
    It was in English professor Jane Pinchin’s fiction class that Schechner became inspired to become a teacher. “She taught me to read more deeply and connect with characters in a way I never had before,” Schechner recalled. “I thought, if I could help kids do that, too, it would be wonderful.” And she has. Delving into books in reading workshops, her students discuss characters and underlying themes. “These are all things that people say 10-year-olds can’t understand, but they have proven the naysayers wrong,” she said.
    Currently, Schechner’s students are writing personal narratives, “about their first birthday party, growing up in Harlem, their parents getting divorced — they have free range to brainstorm topics personal to their lives.”
    Even though several years remain before these fourth-graders will be looking more seriously at college brochures, Schechner will continue motivating them by telling them about all that she learned and gained from her own “dream school.”
    Walking by her classroom, other teachers and students might hear Schechner pumping up her students before a test. “Hey, Raiders!” she says. “What, what!” they respond. “Hey, Raiders!” she shouts again, louder. They respond, “What, what!” and she cheers, “Slam that exam!”

— Aleta Mayne




Road taken

Roy Plaut ’52
Co-founder, Atlanta International School
Atlanta, Ga.



After graduation, I served in the Air Force during the Korean War. Upon discharge, I began working for a paper company, which in 1957, became part of Kimberly- Clark (K-C).

Of all the roads I have taken, the one that took me to Medellin, Colombia, to start up a business for K-C in 1970 was the most fortunate of all: there, I met Olga, whom I married in 1972.

In 1978, we moved from New York to France to head up K-C’s companies there. Our headquarters were relocated to Roswell, Ga., in 1982. Olga and I moved to Atlanta with our young daughters, Victoria and Veronica.

We spoke English and Spanish at home, but for both girls, French was their first language because they had attended French schools during our years in Paris. We found, to our surprise, that there were no international schools in Atlanta — which at the time was billing itself as “The Next International City” — thus, no opportunities for the children to maintain and grow their language skills. Partly for that reason, in 1983 Olga conceived the idea of starting a bilingual school culminating in the International Baccalaureate Diploma and she enlisted my help. K-C contributed seed money, we hired a headmaster, rented space in a deserted Quonset Hut behind a church, hired six teachers, and began classes with 51 kindergarteners and first-graders on Sept. 3, 1985. I served as chairman for the first nine years — the most interesting, creative, and rewarding job I have held.

After working for K-C in various capacities for most of 41 years, I retired in 1995 as president of its specialty product business.

Last year, Atlanta International School (AIS) celebrated its 25th anniversary. It now has more than 1,000 students, occupies a 10-acre campus in Atlanta, and is known as one of the most innovative international schools in the world. I serve as chairman emeritus and Olga is trustee emerita; we both still work on behalf of the school. Fortunately, there’s time for other civic activities and lots of golf, often with Colgate classmates.

I have seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. At age 80, I look back on the “Road Taken,” and I am grateful every single day.

Colgate seen

The spirit of alumni sporting their Colgate gear is seen here, there, and everywhere around the globe. Where was your latest spotting? On a Machu Picchu trek? At a mini-reunion in Pocatello? An election polling site in Houston? We’re collecting photos of Colgate sightings around the world. Send them to scene@colgate.edu.



Elizabeth Armstrong ’81 and her daughter joined up with Ken Sands ’81 and his extended family on a trek to Machu Picchu. During the trip, Sands celebrated his 52nd birthday, on August 20, 2011. Said Armstrong, “It was a fantastic experience made all the more fun by doing it with great friends!”
 


On August 13, 2011, alumni of the Colgate Commons Club held a mini-reunion at the home of Donna and Julian Padowicz ’54 in Stamford, Conn. Top (L to R): Jerry Berkson ’58, Bill Chamberlain ’51, Norm Newman ’53, Bud Freeman ’55; bottom (L to R): Bruce Smith ’58, Julian Padowicz ’54. The three men in the back row are wearing white shirts with the Commons Club logo.

My picture of Colgate





In 1971, the student campus tour guide, walking backward in front of our group, waxed enthusiastic as he described the five-year-old Dana Arts Center building as “like exploring a cave!” I loved its angled walls and corridors that twisted and turned. Climbing the main stairway, we played hide-and-seek with the soaring atrium, its huge clerestory pouring light over us from high above. We could look down and see others walking eagerly to their rehearsal, gallery, or studio.
    As a music major, I was in Dana nearly every day of my college career, and came to love its uniqueness and bold architectural statement. So, I was thrilled when I recently learned that Professor Bob McVaugh had found early presentation sketches by the building’s architect, Paul Rudolph, and he wanted me to create a computer model from the sketches. The model became part of the exhibition, An Architect’s Vision: Paul Rudolph and Colgate’s Creative Arts Center in the Picker Art Gallery, which McVaugh curated this past fall. In the model, I was able to bring to life the spectacular facility that could have been, with its dedicated concert hall, theater with full flyspace, galleries, and art studios.

— architect Bruce Ward ’75

Share your own favorite verbal “picture” of Colgate: scene@colgate.edu or Colgate Scene, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346.