ALASKA AS CLASSROOM
The article “Alaska as classroom” (p. 4, Winter 2008) caught my attention. While a psychology major at Union many years ago, I took an elective course in mineralogy. I was pleased that Dr. Edward S.C. Smith, the department head, encouraged me to change my major to geology, but I did not.
I do not recall geology field trips being as lavish or adventurous in those days. We mostly traveled to the Adirondacks; trips to Batchellerville and Olmstedville. Our young instructor knew the locations of mother lodes of quartz, biotite, muscovite, tourmaline, chrysoberyl, etc. Students who did not own a car, such as myself, would ride with him in his vintage vehicle. I remember well how he carried one or two gallons of used crank hose oil in the trunk to add, as needed, on our trips—most of which was generally used.
I am writing mainly to say that I missed any mention of a classmate, Crawford E. “Jim” Fritts ’48, who became a geologist. Years ago I read an article about Fritts. The article reported that he was working for the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska when he drowned. An Alaskan mountain was subsequently named Fritts Mountain in his honor. Although we were no more than classmates, I still remember our banter in the mineralogy lab and his lighthearted, friendly manner. News of his untimely death especially saddened me.
Gilbert Holtz ’49
Gil lives in Fishers, N.Y.
Editor’s note: Crawford E. “Jim” Fritts ’48 drowned on July 4, 1972 after his canoe was overturned in Alaska’s Kogolutuk River during a mapping expedition in the Brooks Range near the Arctic Circle. In 1975 a mountain in the Angayucham Mountain Range was named Fritts Mountain in honor of the pioneering geologist.
GENETIC COUNSELING
I read with interest the Winter 2008 edition of the magazine and was surprised to see the article (p. 37) about cancer “previvor” Elizabeth Marcotte ’89, who carries a BRCA gene mutation for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
I am the director of Cancer Genetic Counseling at the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Conn. Elizabeth’s story is quite typical of the challenges, choices and struggles our patients face on a daily basis. Genetic counseling and testing allows patients to learn which cancers they are at greatest risk to develop, and to drastically reduce their risks of developing and dying of these cancers, a fate so many of their relatives were not able to escape.
As you can imagine, this is an active area of research and clinical practice, and we are always looking for young, talented students who are gifted in both biology and psychology to enter the field.
Thank you for bringing Elizabeth’s story to light.
Ellen Matloff ’91
REMEBERING HENRY SWANKER ’31
In the Winter 2008 issue of Union College magazine it was noted that Henry Swanker ’31 (p. 44) had passed away. My recollection of Mr. Swanker goes back to 1943, when I was a senior in Nott Terrace High School.
At that time, I took a pre-flight aviation course with him. It was the most interesting course I ever took in high school. We learned principles of flight, calculations of lift, drag, wing design and spherical trigonometry. The last was for purposes of navigation. I was fairly good at math but envisioning myself flying, perhaps hundreds of miles from an aircraft carrier, tumbling around in some melee and then finding my way back to the carrier sans radio guidance, sort of cooled my ardor for naval aviation.
Swanker was a cool guy and always was a sharp dresser.
Don Boink ’50
Don is a retired optometrist who lives in Cape Cod.
TEACHING ETHICS COVER IMAGE
As I understand ethics, good is derived from knowledge and evil is the child of ignorance. This presumption caused me to pause a moment when I looked at the artwork chosen for the cover of the Spring 2008 alumni magazine captioned “Teaching ethics.”
My interpretation of the art suggests a person faced with a choice and no information on which to base their decision. Doors and a wall block all knowledge of the roads ahead. On Page 5 in the subsequent depiction, where the subject has chosen a path, we are to assume the left was the ethical path as it did not take our subject off the cliff.
What is truly frightening is the likelihood that what may well be chosen out of our subject’s ignorance is the evil path. The path on the left may ultimately lead to uncertain truth and that on the right, just over the hill once thought to be a cliff, to enlightenment.
Although a poor rendering of ethics, I fear this depiction is perhaps something worse. It may in fact be an accurate representation of the external forces that work in concert with self-interest, relief of guilt and a desire to be accepted to produce rationalized, rather than ethical, action.
My experience at Union taught me to see truth from objective observation through the limitations of my own subjective lens. I am very pleased to read about the efforts to bring ethics to bear in all areas of study as now, more than ever, collectively we need to choose the path away from that cliff.
Michael Palmer ’86
Michael is systems engineer for IBM’s executive computing organization.
A PROFESSOR’S LASTING IMPACT
I was delighted to read the piece in the Spring 2008 magazine about Professor William Murphy (“A lasting friendship,” p. 12) and his political activities. Professor Murphy inspired in me a lifelong devotion to English. I well remember his introduction to our study of Gulliver’s Travels, to wit, “Gentlemen (we were all men then), we will now read the greatest novel ever written.”
My most cherished memory is how Bill introduced us to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. He maintained that poetry should be read aloud, especially when written in a strange language, in this case, Old English. So, in his beautifully modulated voice, he delivered:
“Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote / The droughte of March hath perced to the roote…”
Without any class requirements to do so, I committed the first 18 lines of the prologue to memory, complete with Old English pronunciations, a commitment which remains with me to this day.
Eliot Loshak ’53
Eliot is a U.S. Navy veteran and lawyer based in New York City.
My wife and I had brunch with Bill Murphy and his wife, Tottie, in December 2006. And just last month, Bill sent me the text of a 1902 ad offering an original Gulliver’s Travels for 10 pounds and 10 shillings. My original copy of the book is now in the Union College library and I feel very fortunate to have donated it in Bill’s honor while he was present at a small ceremony.
In my freshman year (the year Bill ran for Congress), he did his best to flunk me out and after he was unsuccessful, I think I took every course he taught. As you no doubt can tell, Bill has had a significant influence on me throughout my life.
I once interviewed former U.S. Rep. Sam Stratton for the Schenectady Bureau of Municipal Research in the City Council’s chambers while his kids (one of whom I assume is the current mayor) ran around playing. I guess if you live long enough, you will pick up something like Union College magazine and have a Forrest Gump-like experience.
Fred Emery ’54
Fred is the founder of The Regulatory Group, Inc., a Washington, D.C. consulting firm specializing in federal regulations.
REMEMBERING GAIL GEORGE
I was saddened to see the notice of Gail George’s death in the Spring ’08 alumni magazine (In Memoriam, p. 47). I was sadder still that so little was said about her involvement in campus life in the early days of co-education and her rightful place as founder of Union’s dance program.
I arrived as a freshman at Union College in the fall of 1972—the third class of women ever to be admitted. Union was a much different place back then. At the height of the women’s movement, Union had little understanding of why we were there. (I remember a classic recruiting poster that read something like, “women are cute, funny and now, admitted to Union College!”)
The gym was off limits and there was no locker room for women because the planners didn’t think we would use it. Having been an activist and feminist in high school, I felt strangely out of place on the ivy–covered campus.
There was one exception, located on the second floor of the Arts Building, Gail George, an arty, beautiful woman who lived in a geodesic dome and held improvisational movement classes. The floor was bare plywood and tough on the feet but the classes were pure joy. Gail had a small but dedicated following and as the classes grew, so did our interest in mastering technique. New dance teachers were recruited, but we continued to dance on that bare plywood for my four years.
I understand that Union today has a well-developed dance program and that the plywood floor has long since been replaced. Gail George is to be remembered as the free spirit whose love of movement brought dance to Union College.
Claudia Schlosberg ’76
Claudia is a lawyer, consultant and the director of policy and advocacy for the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists in Washington, D.C. She is still dancing.
REV. SHELDON JACKSON
I was pleased to read the article on the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, class of 1855 (Spring 2008, “Our (other) man in Alaska,” p. 48).
I was years ago a student pastor at a small church in Lake City, Colo., one of many churches Sheldon Jackson and his associates organized throughout the Southwest. It is estimated that he helped organize hundreds of congregations before beginning his ministry in Alaska.
It was his desire to become a minster serving as a missionary in other lands, but his health prevented him from serving abroad. He was sent to Minnesota and expanded his ministry into the Rocky Mountain territories, eventually becoming responsible for missions of the Presbyterian Church from Canada to the border of Mexico during the years 1869 to 1880. Jackson’s letters offer a wealth of information regarding the expansion of our nation into the Rocky Mountain territories.
Rev. Jackson deserves far more recognition, particularly when it relates to his ministry in the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain territories. The magazine article touches on part of his accomplishments, but more could be written. Sadly, there is little or nothing about Sheldon Jackson to be found in books on the history of the United States.
Rev. Delbert Wemple ’53
Rev. Wemple retired in June after 26 years as pastor of the Center Lisle (N.Y.) Congregational Church