Posted on Jun 2, 2000

Seyffie Maleki of physics got an e-mail earlier this
year from Charlotte Reischer Clark, mother of Blair Reischer '77, who
one day was amazed to see in the physics department a portrait of Albert
Einstein done by his late grandmother, Alice K. Reischer.

It seems that the portrait had been given to the
department by a Union professor of biology who as a high school boy did
odd jobs for the Reischers, his neighbors in Ann Arbor, Mich. Mrs.
Reischer encouraged the boy to pursue the sciences, and the portrait was
presented to him as part of that encouragement, writes Mrs. Clark, who was
writing to Maleki to ask for a reproduction of the work.

The picture may be rare, Mrs. Clark says, because
Einstein was not willing to let people make his likeness. Mrs. Reischer,
her mother-in-law, sketched it when Einstein was giving a lecture at
Princeton, Mrs. Clark says.

And the Union professor who got the portrait as payment
for cutting grass? None other than Carl George, professor emeritus of
biology, who thought the best home for the work would be in the physics
department. “I'm tickled pink that the Einstein portrait is
receiving a bit of attention,” he says.

– 

We reported last week that President Roger Hull is to
appear on Carmine's Table, a cooking show hosted by chef Carmine
Spiro.

The show is set to air Wednesday, June 14, at 11 a.m. on
Channel 13, WNYT.

Hull and Kevin O'Connor, president of Albany's
Center for Economic Growth, joined Spiro to prepare — and eat — food,
all the while discussing community revitalization programs.