Brenda Wineapple, the Washington Irving Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies, has received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies for support of research on her biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, which has been contracted by
publisher Alfred A. Knopf.
Wineapple last year published Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein about the
brother-sister team that collaborated on many of the great art and literary adventures of
the early 20th century. In 1989, she wrote an acclaimed biography, Genêt: A Biography
of Janet Flanner about the Paris correspondent to the New Yorker.
A member of the College's faculty since 1976, she earned her B.A. from Brandeis
University, and her master's and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has
authored a number of articles on 19th- and 20th- century American and British literature
and authors. She has received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and a
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The College has donated $15,000 to the City of Schenectady to offset the cost of installing an automatic sprinkler system at Central Park's Buck Ewing Field. In return,
the College's baseball team will have use of the field for all home games and practices.
Union President Roger Hull and Schenectady Mayor Albert Jurczynski held a press conference at the field on Tuesday afternoon to announce the joint venture.
“I think it is important that Union College, under President Hull's leadership, has made great contributions such as this to the community,” said Jurczynski. “I look forward to helping that relationship continue.”
The ballfield arrangement is the latest in a series of cooperative ventures between the College and the city. Last fall, members of the freshman class painted railroad bridges as
part of Schenectady 2000. The College is planning the construction of a boathouse for the
crew teams in the Stockade.
Ewing Field, also known as the “A” diamond, has been the site of Union's home
games for the past 20 years, but during that time the team has had no daily practice
facility. The team has had to practice on fields at Niskayuna High School, Schenectady
Babe Ruth, and Schenectady County Community College, Coach Gary Reynolds said.
Under the arrangement, the Dutchmen will enjoy a “home field advantage”
during their five-week spring season, as well as during an abbreviated three-week fall
campaign. Buck Ewing Field — widely regarded as one of the best in the region — will
have an “unbelievable” impact on the program, especially in recruiting, Reynolds
said.
Grounds crews in Central Park have had to water the field by carrying fire hoses and
sprinkler heads out on the diamond. The new automatic sprinkler system has “pop
up” sprinkler heads that will water the field at night.
Welcome to the Union Bookshelf, which calls special attention to alumni authors.
If you're an author, send us a copy of your book (or the dustjacket) as well as your publisher's news release. Our address is Public Relations Office, Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. 12308-3169.
John Claibourne Davis '37
In each of the eight stories in Demon-Queller's Journey, the author argues that we are all possessed by demons in one form or another. He differentiates between cultural demons, such as leprechauns, and the demons of driving ambition and enthusiasm, which inspire us to greatness. The author believes that these demons are an integral part of our psyche and, although we might try to control (or quell) them, they can never be fully exorcised.
Davis's first book of essays, The Ordered Web, was published in 1986. Demon-Queller's Journey is available thru Chapters Literary Bookstore in Washington, D.C.
Richard Bode '51
Beachcombing at Miramar: The Quest for an Authentic Life. Richard Bode pared his worldly possessions to a van, some books, a typewriter, and a record player, gave most of his money away, and became the resident of a California beach shack. He quickly learned that his new life was richer than he ever thought possible. Like Thoreau at Walden Pond, Bode discovers a new version of himself and passes along the lessons he learned.
His previous book, First You Have To Row A Little Boat (Warner, 1993), was a Book of the Month Club selection and a national bestseller. He is also the author of Blue Sloop at Dawn, which is now out of print.
Robert C. Smith '52
The Wounded Jung shows how Carl Jung's interest in the healing of the psyche was rooted in the conflicts of his own childhood. The author connects Jung's relationships with his parents to his thinking and writing interpretations of evil, psychology as myth, the inner process of religion, and the realization of selfhood. The book was named an Outstanding Academic Book of 1996 by Choice, the review source for library and bookstore buyers. It is published by Northwestern University Press.
Kate White '72
Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do is a “how-to” on getting ahead in the business world as White tells us the “nine secrets every working woman needs to know.” Editor-in-chief of Redbook magazine, White shares anecdotes from her own career as she realized her “people-pleasing, paper-pushing, good girl habits” were holding her back from realizing her goals. The book offers tips for getting promoted and getting the recognition you want as well as handling difficult bosses and co-workers. The book is available in paperback from Warner Books.
Russell Winer '73 and Donald Lehmann '66
Product Management is a textbook to be used in MBA or advanced undergraduate courses by students who want to understand the product manager's job and how it is rapidly changing in today's global economy. The book is designed to address the
“middle ground” of marketing the day-to-day responsibilities for managing either a single product or service or a
closely related product line.
Winer is the J. Gary Shansby Professor of Marketing Strategy at Berkeley and Lehmann is professor of business at Columbia University. The book is published by the Times Mirror Higher Education Group.
Daniel G. Payne '80
Voices in the Wilderness shows how the evolution of nature writing by such significant authors as Thoreau, John Burroughs, John Muir, Rachel Carson, and Aldo Leopold raised public consciousness about issues such as wilderness preservation, responsible land use, acid rain, and nuclear waste. He observes that the political contributions made by these writers have often been more influential than the work of professional lobbyists and lawyers. The author, who is a lawyer as well as a writer, is at Union as a visiting assistant professor of English this year. Voices in the Wilderness is available through University Press of New England.
A dream came true for Alexandra Verner Roalsvig '90 when, four years ago, a friend told her about an opportunity to join the production staff of the soap opera “As the World Turns.”
Having watched the show since she was eight years old, Roalsvig was “salivating” when she heard about the internship.
She landed the internship, which lasted three months. As with many who enter show business, she held a number of different jobs-working at a camp for
the performing arts, at a dubbing house, and even as a nanny-before she became part of the permanent staff in 1994; today, she is a production assistant and a new member of the Director's Guild of America.
Roalsvig admits that at first she was nervous and intimidated by the actors. She then realized that they were normal people, she says, and
that now they are “one big happy family.” She even impressed old friends when a couple of actors from the show attended her wedding in 1995.
Today, her job doesn't allow her the time to be intimidated. Always busy, she alternates between days on the set (which begin at 6:30 a.m. and end by about 8 p.m.) and days in the office. On the set, she is responsible for
the timing of the show, making sure that it fits the allotted forty minutes. She works closely with the director and the actors, “basically coordinating all aspects of the production on production day.”
It is clear that Roalsvig loves what she does. “It's a blast. It's a lot of hard work with long hours, but I'm really happy with what I'm doing now.”
Roalsvig has always had an interest in television and entertainment, even during her Union days, when she showed videos in the Reamer Campus Center. She began her career working in Lake Placid, doing sports television, which she didn't find satisfying. She decided to move to New York City and try her luck; happily, her sister-then in New
York wanted to move north. “So I got her apartment and she got my car.”
Roalsvig admits that moving to a new city without a job probably wouldn't be the right decision for everyone, but she thinks that her experience is not unusual. “If you really set your mind to it, you'll find a way to get what you want,” she says.
Today, she is happy in her work, but “it's still show business, and things can change at any moment,” she says with a laugh.
The career of Jennifer Sconyers Lawton '85 offers a textbook example of entrepreneurship in the computer age.
A math major at Union, Jennifer couldn't find a job in her field when she graduated, so she became an administrative assistant in an engineering firm. Today, she runs Net Daemons Associates, Inc. (NDA), a successful computer consulting business in Boston.
“When I was an administrative assistant, I had a catch-all job, and one of my responsibilities was keeping track of
information,” she explains.
She started out managing company information on an old personal computer and soon learned CAD (Computer Aided Design) because she used it to write the company newsletter (before the days of ~. desktop publishing). Lawton then joined an environmental engineering company to man age its CAD program, became a systems administrator at
the MIT Lincoln Lab, and moved on to Stardent Computer, which went out of business in 1991.
When Stardent went under, Lawton thought that she could start a new kind of company. “I thought I could work with all of the companies who wanted me to work for
them but in a different way,” she says. She and a colleague founded NDA, which provides service and support of computer networks to several companies. Instead of running one computer system for one firm, Lawton runs a variety of systems.
Lawton's company, now nearly five years old, has been highly successful, providing support to clients such as Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems, and Kubota Graphic Computer, Inc. Lawton attributes the success to being in the right place at the right time-and to her talented employees. “Good employees are hard to find and keep in this industry,” she says. “But we work to treat our employees well. We give them secure jobs and provide them with the challenge and change that they like.”
Lawton stresses teamwork and looks to her employees for project ideas. “If an employee comes up with something that fits with our business plan, we'll do it,” she says. So when an employee came forward with a project to help bring technology into Boston's public schools and community centers, Net Daemons became involved.
A group of NDA employees participated in MassNet Day '96, a volunteer and nonpartisan effort of educators, business people, government, and labor working to bring the Internet into Massachusetts schools.
Lawton was involved in the planning of MassNet Day '96 and also worked with a blue ribbon commission to write a policy paper on the need for a technology plan for Boston public schools. “There is so
little money and support in the public education system that everyone is highly receptive to any help we can offer,” she says.
Lawton believes that as a business leader she has a responsibility to help educate the work force, and she has done this by not only helping to improve Boston's schools but by welcoming student interns from Union into her business. In addition, there are number of Union graduates on her staff.
As a student at Union, Lawton had planned to become a doctor, but she isn't surprised to find herself running a company. “I think I always envisioned that I would do something challenging and fast-paced. It doesn't surprise me that I'm in a position where I have a lot of autonomy,” she says.
Looking to the future, Lawton says, “The business market is hot in what we're doing, and it's just heating up.” She predicts that if Net Daemons continues to treat its employees and clients well while maintaining competitive rates, her business will continue to thrive.
