Posted on Jan 12, 2006

Stacie Raucci, assistant professor of classics, and Channette Romero, assistant professor of English, have been named John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Assistant Professors, a fellowship that supports new and promising faculty members.

Raucci came to Union in 2004. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago with a dissertation titled “Gazing ames: Propertius and the Dynamics of Vision.” Her fields include Latin literature of the Augustian Age; gender and sexuality; and culture and society of the late Republic. Her offerings include courses in Greek and Latin language and literature as well as sex and gender in antiquity.

Romero holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Her dissertation was titled “Spiritual Resistance: Religion, Race and Nation in Ethnic American Women's Fiction.” Interests include African American literature, ethnic American literature, twentieth-century literature, and gender and feminist theory.

The College has recognized 30 MacArthur Assistant Professors since 1982, after receiving a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Last year's recipients were Jennifer Matsue of performing arts and East Asian Studies, and Andrew Morris of history.

Posted on Jan 12, 2006

Inducted were Bruce Allison (athletic director and men's lacrosse head coach), Gary Brown '65 (baseball, basketball and soccer; soccer, basketball and lacrosse coach), Priscilla (Francis) Nellissen '77, (field hockey and softball), George Haas '47 (baseball and basketball), Wayne McDougall '86 (ice hockey), Alex Rita '87 (baseball and football), and Dick Sakala (athletic director).

Allison served the College from 1957 through 1976. He started at Union as a coach of varsity wrestling, varsity men's lacrosse and freshman football, becoming director of athletics and chairman of physical education in 1971. He coached men's lacrosse for 19 seasons (1958-1976), and had many memorable victories including wins over Syracuse in 1966 and 1974. The 1966 team was 10-1 and ended the season with nine straight victories. The 1974 team set a school record, with 11 wins, and reached the ECAC finals. As the director of athletics, he established six intercollegiate women's programs. He lives in Golden, Colo.

Brown was the first three-sport captain in Union history. He received the then-maximum nine varsity letters-three each in soccer, basketball and baseball. (Freshmen were not eligible for varsity.) In his junior year, Brown was awarded the William A. Pike Trophy for athletic excellence and leadership. His senior season featured Knickerbocker News College First Team All-Star honors in basketball and baseball. His career ended in a flourish on the baseball diamond as the Dutchmen posted a 15-2 record in the 1965 season. He helped lead the squad to the NCAA College Division Atlantic Coast Championship in Yankee Stadium with a three-hit pitching victory over Old Dominion. He later coached varsity soccer, freshman basketball and freshman lacrosse at Union. He is a Pittsford, N.Y., resident.

(Francis) Nellissen, known as “Perky” during her career, is considered one of the pioneers of women's sports at Union. A star for both the new field hockey and softball programs, she was a two-year starter during the first two seasons of varsity field hockey (1975-76), and a star center-halfback and midfielder. As reported in the school newspaper, the Concordiensis, “Perky is easily one of the Players of the Year. Her superiority on the field has clearly won this honor. Many goal (attempts) were stopped by Perky's amazing defensive play in front of the net.” She also started in each of her three seasons on the softball diamond, (1975-77). The Dutchwomen won 73 percent of their games during her softball career, and in 1976 she capped off her collegiate sports career with a 49-7 softball triumph. She lives in Norwood, Mass.

Haas continued a stellar family baseball tradition begun by his father, George W. Haas, Sr., who played for the legendary Connie Mack during the American League pennant-winning seasons of 1929-31. George, Jr., attended Union as a Navy V-12 student, and was an outstanding first baseman with the 1944 Dutchmen. After serving in World War II, he had a spectacular season in 1947, batting nearly .500 for the spring. He also played basketball for Union. His baseball exploits, featuring a .465 career average, did not go unnoticed. In a game witnessed by many Major League baseball scouts, he went 5 for 5 and soon thereafter signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In his second minor league season, the first baseman suffered a career-ending injury. He is a resident of LaPlace, La.

McDougall is one of the greatest goaltenders in men's ice hockey history. He played in 86 career games from 1983 to 1986, and still holds the career victories total for a goaltender, with 47. His record of 2,296 career saves still stands. He was the team's Most Valuable Player in his sophomore season, and Junior Athlete of the Year the next. In 1984, he made a career-best 61 saves in a four-overtime win over RIT that put Union in the program's first-ever NCAA final. He played the entire game-93 minutes, 26 seconds-in the longest NCAA Division III men's ice hockey game in history. McDougall finished his career with a 3.14 goals against average and a save percentage of .900. After his Union career, he was invited to the Montreal Canadiens mini-camp. He lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Rita was a four-year starter in both football and baseball. His 16 career interceptions and his eight from the 1983 season still both rank second all-time in Dutchmen football annals. In 1984 he earned Pizza Hut All-American and Associated Press Little All-American Honorable Mention honors. The defensive back was an ECAC All-Star in his 1985 junior season, and the senior year featured Pizza Hut and AP Honorable Mention All-American honors. Rita struck out just five times in his four-year baseball career, and the starting centerfielder batted .422 for his career. He hit .426 to lead the team in his 1984 freshman campaign, and batted .463 in his senior season. He started in the New York State Div. II-III All-Star Game at Shea Stadium in 1985, and was selected to the game in 1987. He won the Jaffe Award as the outstanding senior male athlete in 1987. He is a resident of Eden Prairie, Minn.

Sakala was Union's athletic director from 1977 until his retirement in 2000, but returned to lead the department during a transition earlier this year. He was the architect of one of the most successful NCAA Division III programs in the East. Union's football and swimming and diving teams were national contenders, while the field hockey, women's volleyball, men's lacrosse, baseball, softball and women's lacrosse teams enjoyed postseason success in the ECAC and NYSWCAA. Union's men's ice hockey team was considered one of the finest in the ECAC and the nation at the Division III level before moving into Division I in 1991. A former president of the ECAC, Sakala served on the ECAC Executive Council and also was a member of the NCAA Division III Football Committee. Sakala was a driving force behind the formation of the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (now Liberty League) in 1995. He oversaw the renovation of numerous Union athletic facilities, and was presented with the Alumni Association's Faculty Meritorious Service Award in 1984. Sakala, a 1962 Columbia graduate and former star quarterback for the Lions, lives in Saratoga Springs.

The Union Athletics Hall of Fame, which began in 2002, has 24 members.

Posted on Jan 12, 2006

About 100 members of the Union community joined Karl’s family and friends in Old Chapel to recall the young man who hurdled a pile of burning pizza boxes at Outdoor Orientation, who proudly taught a professor how to make better fried chicken, and who would place a pinky finger at the corner of his mouth (a la Austin Powers) to show a professor that he had understood an important point.

Viki Brooks-McDonald, campus interfaith chaplain, collected remembrances from Karl’s friends. She said he was universally described as brilliant, funny, friendly and fun-loving. The man who became known as “Crazy Karl” for his antics during freshman orientation went on to add personality to the “Davidson Dungeon,” where he often led conversations that ranged from deep to absurd, she said.

Bonney MacDonald, who advised Karl and taught his preceptorial and American literature classes, recalled the time he advised her to grill chicken and then fry it. The recipe, which her daughter dubbed Karl’s Chicken, has become a household favorite. Karl often made comical (though late) entrances to class, and he exchanged high fives with MacDonald after delivering an eloquent thought on Hawthorne. His papers (sometimes also late) were works of brilliance that wove together his readings from other courses.

“Karl was the face in the audience I used as a barometer to know if I had made a point,” McDonald said.

Donald Kessler described his son as “a supernova who lived life at warp speed. Everything he did was full throttle.” He and Karl’s uncle, Stephen Karotkin ’73, both spoke of how proud Karl was to be at Union. “Union is a big part of our family life,” his father said.

A 2004 graduate of Milburn High School, Karl was active in the United Way Club, Mock Trial team and a singing group, the Millburnaires. He also volunteered with New Eyes for the Needy and helped rebuild adobe homes at an Indian reservation in Taos, N.M.

Survivors, in addition to his parents (Donald and Betsy) and uncle (Stephen), include his sister, Jillian; aunt, Nancy Kessler Karotkin ’74; and cousin, Joshua Karotkin ’02. Other members of the Kessler-Karotkin families are Ed ’68 and his children, Hallie ’92 and Jesse ’97.

Memorial donations may be made to the United Way of Milburn-Short Hills, P.O. Box 546, Milburn, N.J. 07041.

Posted on Jan 12, 2006

It's time to dig out that old prom dress and dust off the tux. More importantly, strap on your dancing shoes because Saturday, Jan. 14, the Minerva Houses will sponsor their first Winter Ball at College Park Hall. 

The dance begins at 9 p.m. — and not to worry, all of you who've been saddled with mor etha one left foot. There are free dance lessons at 8. 

All students, faculty and staff who are members of a Minerva are welcome to attend.  Attire can be anything from jacket to tuxedo, skirt to ball gown.

The Minerva Ball Committee, an energetic bunch of students, faculty and Director of Student Activities Matt Milless, has created an event with a little something for everyone. 

The ball will feature music that spans generations and cultures, played by student disc jockeys; performances by student dance groups; and refreshments.

Door prizes include an iPod Nano and gift certificates to Proctor's Theater and local restaurants.

“The Winter Ball will be a great way for faculty, students and staff members to come together and have some fun,” said Carol Weisse, professor of psychology and a committee member representing Wold House, who was instrumental in planning the event.   

“It's also a good way to spark some excitement among those who have been working hard to build the college's new house system,” she said.   

Posted on Jan 12, 2006

Gould, the laser pioneer who established a professorship to honor the physics professor who sparked his interest in the physics of light, died Sept. 16 at 85.

Gould, who coined the ubiquitous term “laser” (for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”), fought a three-decade battle to secure patent rights for the invention he began in 1957 as a graduate student at Columbia University.

After a weekend of filling his notebook with ideas to amplify light, he went to an attorney and came away believing-erroneously-that he needed a working model before he could get a patent. He did not submit a patent application until April, 1959-after two others had filed an application.

Finally, in 1987, the patent office awarded Gould a patent on optically pumped laser amplifiers. “If I had any idea when I started how long it would take to win, I would have quit a long time ago,” he once said. “But throughout the whole fight it always seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel was just around the corner.”

Gould, who as a child idolized Thomas A. Edison and always wanted to be an inventor, was a physics major and member of Sigma Chi fraternity at Union. He did graduate research in optics at Yale, where he taught physics to premed students, and was a doctoral student and research assistant at Columbia. He worked on the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945.

Acknowledged as the pioneer of the laser, he was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991. Union recognized his achievements by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1978 and the Eliphalet Nott Medal in 1995.

In 1995, he established the R. Gordon Gould Professorship of Physics, held by Jay E. Newman, to honor Frank Studer, Gould's former Union professor of physics.

Survivors include his wife, Marilyn Appel and several nieces and nephews.

John Ostrom, a distinguished paleontologist recently hailed by Discover magazine for one of the greatest discoveries of the last quarter century-that birds evolved from dinosaurs-died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Litchfield, Conn., on July 16.

Ostrom was professor emeritus of geology and geophysics at Yale University and curator emeritus of vertebrate paleontology at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History.

“The discovery nearly a decade ago of feathers and hairlike plumes on the little Chinese dinosaurs that clearly weren't birds and couldn't fly was just another detailed confirmation of John's work,” says Kevin Padian in Discover's survey.

Ostrom also is noted for discovering Deinonychus, a two-legged dinosaur, in Montana, and for his theory, published in 1969, that it may have been warm-blooded. This contradicted an earlier belief that dinosaur species were cold-blooded.

Born in 1928 in New York City and raised in Schenectady, Ostrom first became interested in paleontology at Union, where he began as a pre-med student. He earned his B.S. in geology and biology. In 1999, he was the honored speaker at Founder's Day and received an honorary doctor of science degree from Union.

He held a Ph.D. in vertebrate paleontology from Columbia University.

Ostrom was married to the late Nancy Ostrom. Survivors include two daughters and three grandchildren.

Mike Yulman, a long-time trustee, died Aug. 28 at the age of 91.

Yulman and his wife, Helen, were longtime benefactors of the College, perhaps most visibly in the theater that bears their name. The Morton H. and Helen Yulman Theater was dedicated as part of the College's Bicentennial celebration in 1995-the first facility at the College dedicated solely to theater and performing arts.

“The building-host to hundreds of performances, rehearsals and classes-has done nothing but transform our theater program into one of recognized excellence,” Underwood said.

Among the many gifts to the College from Yulman and his family, the Morton H. Yulman Annual Scholarship, established by his children Richard and Nedra, has provided support to Capital Region students for more than a decade.

The retired president and chairman of Sealy Mattress Company, Yulman earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Union in 1936. He served many years as a trustee and trustee emeritus. He received the Alumni Council's Gold Medal for distinguished service in 1980, and one of the College's highest honors-the Founders Medal-in 1988.

He also served on a number of national and local boards, was a charter member of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and sponsored the “I Have a Dream” college scholarship program in his native Albany.