Intriguing changes
The cover story in the winter issue is intriguing even to one who, like me, has lived in the Schenectady area and witnessed the changes to the campus. I was a Union student in the 1960s and therefore on the cusp between two cultural eras of college life and of society. Architecture was only part of the change.
The College I entered was still a male place, steeped in the tradition of old campus songs, rites of passage, tweedy professors, and the aroma of pipe tobacco everywhere. The one I left was on its way toward coeducation and a much more cosmopolitan self-image.
Washburn Hall was a perfect metaphor for the bygone epoch: too small, lacking in breadth, unadaptable in form. While it had to give way, the College did not. It grew, changed, and adapted.
I still sing the old College songs, and I hate artificial turf. But I am as proud of Union today as I was when I first arrived.
Harry Willis '67
Scotia, N.Y.
Wrong year
I enjoyed “How we got …”, but the photo which forms the backdrop of the first page is clearly not circa 1950. Looking between the lower legs of the capital “H” where the Psi U house should be is a building which appears to have a turret and a conical roof. I know that the current Psi U abode dates from about 1939, so what might be the date on this photo?
Bill Allen '59
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
In the winter issue you label the first photograph of the campus as “1950.” It is at least a dozen years older than that. The old Psi U house, shown next door to the chapel, was torn down in the mid-thirties. The first class in the new house was 1942, entering in the fall of 1938.
Excellent issue. Interesting to see how the campus has changed since I entered in 1942.
Craig Mitchell '46
New Milford, N.J.
Tanks, not cars
On page four of the winter issue you mentioned that the Pasture was used by American Locomotive during World War II as a parking lot. It was not cars or locomotives that were parked there. It was tanks by the hundreds. I noticed the lot quickly emptying and not long thereafter the American army invaded North Africa. The lot then filled up again.
Howard S. Halpern '47
Stamford, Conn.
P.S. I actually graduated in February 1946 after two years and eight months of the then-standard accelerated program. We had classes/labs five and a half days a week, three terms a year, with a week off between terms while the profs were busy grading finals. The Navy V-12 students were on this same schedule and in the same classes plus having to rise early for marching around on frigid mornings.
I stayed on for the spring term as a teaching assistant in chemistry working for Charlie Hurd, then the department head. I thought highly enough of Union to recommend it to my daughter, Nina (Class of 1975, graduating a year early with advanced placement credits and extra courses). She started with the first group of females living on campus. She is now a lawyer and accountant overseas; I retired after working on projects for our national defense from 1947 to 1990.
All we like sheep
That was one terrific Union College. Really enjoyed it. What changes!
I related closely to your remarks about the Pasture. Too bad these photos (from 1939) are a little late, but here they are, positive proof that sheep used to graze there. The houses in the background are on Seward Place. Believe it or not, I used to study my chemistry and physics on a balmy spring day under those trees.
Rennie Pomatti '39
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
The tough choices in bioethics
Just read the blurb on Dr. Baker's career (“Giving patients a voice” in the winter issue).
I found the opening interesting from a more personal point of view. I've been an ER doc for almost twenty years. Every day, we have patients in the ER who've been stabilized and are ready for the ICU, but there are no beds for them. The most common result of this dilemma, at our institution as well as those across the country, parallels that of similar tough decisions in other disciplines … defer the decision, or, translated, “do nothing.” In our case, the patient goes nowhere, the other patients in the ICU go nowhere until they're ready, and thus, “everyone's happy and no one gets cheated” (out of medical care).
Unfortunately, no one looks at the patient still sitting in the waiting room with his chest pain (asthma, what-have-you). He's not really a “patient” yet, it seems, since no one acknowledges the fact that he is the least stable and the most in need of medical care; by keeping the “admitted but no bed” patient in the ER, the bed that is designated to take an unstable patient and make him stable is instead being occupied by a patient who is now stable.
We need more Dr. Bakers to help implement the “tough decisions” process nationwide, so that the untreated patients get their fair consideration in the process.
Paul Mele '76, M.D., M.S., M.P.H.
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Clank
I felt compelled to write after reading Jan De Deka's recollections of Prof. Freund. I too remember the professor's stories vividly, but De Deka misquotes the good professor.
Hans Freund was an actor in his youth, and he often spoke about it. It was in describing the effeminate way that the famous actor Maurice Evans played Shakespeare that prompted the professor to say, “When MacBeth walks on stage, you know, his balls should clank!” It was MacBeth, not Hamlet. (I don't think Prof. Freund thought Hamlet had any balls).
This forever stuck in my mind, too, and now, as a stage and opera director, I have often quoted Professor Freund in my own work. He taught me about
theatricality, sometimes without even knowing it.
Helena Binder '76
Washington, D.C.
Logically speaking
I'm enclosing an account of an encounter I had with Dr. [Harold] Larrabee while I was at Union in 1938. Some of his students might get a kick out of the story about this bright, human man.
I was a so-so student in Dr. Larrabee's logic class which was, by all odds, my favorite college course.
I ran into him on campus one time and remarked that I had given up football so I could devote more time to my studies and that “I guess it has paid off because you gave me a B+ this semester.”
Quick as a flash, Dr. Larrabee replied, “Mr. Farr, have you eliminated all the other variables besides football which might have a bearing on your better score?” Be careful what you say to a logician.
Sam Farr '38
Portsmouth, Va.
Playing or praying?
The delightful letters in the latest issue of the magazine on readers' reminiscences of chapel services, along with the recent broadcast of Ken Burns' jazz anthology, triggered a very fond remembrance.
In 1964 or 1865, Dizzy Gillespie and his group traveled to Union to play a gig at the chapel. I had invited a friend from Bolton Landing (where I grew up) to attend the concert with me. We were both on campus on the Saturday when the group (minus Gillespie) arrived — lucky we ran into them, since there was not another soul in sight. We directed them to the chapel, indicating that this was the site of the concert, and helped them get settled. As they entered, one of the members of the group remarked, “Are we playing or are we praying?” — a great quote I'll never forget.
James Moody, Gillespie's flutist (and still an active musician) was extremely gracious; following the concert that night, be brought us backstage, telling Gillespie how we had helped the group. Cool as the beebop he pioneered, Gillespie dispassionately remarked, “That's nice” — nothing more. Of course, a great concert, but an unforgettable personal experience.
Richard Krapf '67
Herndon, Va.
Wandering Chet
At one time in the late forties the statue of Chester Arthur was located to the rear of the Nott Memorial. My recollection is that some clever student painted footsteps indicating Chester had hopped off to relieve himself. The steps were in the direction of a nearby tree about ten feet from the sidewalk; steps were also painted showing that he returned to the pedestal. Maybe some others can verify my recollection.
Sig Giambruno '51
Lake Placid, N.Y.
As always, we welcome Union stories from alumni. If you have a favorite anecdote and would like to share it, please send it to:
Mail: Office of Communications
Union College
Schenectady, N.Y. 12308
Fax: 518-388-7092
E-mail: blankmap@union.edu