December 13, 2009
Professor Pritchard on Teachout's Armstrong bio
William H. Pritchard ‘53, Henry Clay Folger Professor of English at the College, reviews Terry Teachout’s new biography of Louis Armstrong, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, in The Boston Globe today.
In his commentary on some of these sides…Teachout shows himself to be gifted with not only a trained ear but prose adequate to expressing what he hears… The master at this sort of on-the-spot jazz description was the New Yorker’s Whitney Balliett; Teachout is equally good at it, and this reader could only wish there were time for similar accounts of all the great Armstrong solos.
Brian Meacham '97 | 06:42 PM | Faculty | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 15, 2009
Amherst wins "The Biggest Little Game in America"
Congratulations to the Amherst College Lord Jeffs football team for their 26-21 victory over Williams at the Ephs’ Weston Field yesterday, capping off an undefeated 8-0 season with a Little Three Championship, a NESCAC championship, and their first victory over Williams since 2004.
Read coverage from the College website, from The Boston Globe, and the Albany Times Union.
Also, check out photos from the game.
Brian Meacham '97 | 01:35 PM | Athletics | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 10, 2009
$125 million in anonymous gifts announced
Two anonymous gifts, one of $100 million and the other of $25 million, were announced by President Marx last week. A Boston Globe piece reports:
“In a difficult economic moment, when institutions and individuals have fewer resources, these unrestricted gifts to the endowment represent extraordinary votes of support for Amherst College, and the mission of educational quality and access at liberal arts colleges in general,” said Anthony W. Marx, the college’s president.
The money will be allocated as needed, Marx said, including enhanced financial aid, hiring more faculty and building new facilities or renovating existing ones.
The college launched a $425 million fundraising campaign in October 2008.
The school’s statement included comments attributed to both anonymous donors, including one from the $100 million donor who called Amherst, “a jewel of enlightenment, social mobility based on talent and preparation for leadership that we must all maintain.”
Peter Rooney, a spokesman for Amherst, said the school is confident based on research it did that the $100 million gift was the largest ever given for unrestricted purposes to a liberal arts college.
Brian Meacham '97 | 10:56 AM | Administration | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 29, 2009
CNN profiles Paul Rieckhoff '98
On CNN.com today, Ed Hornick profiles Paul Rieckhoff ‘98, executive director of IAVA, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association, in light of the passage for the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act.
Standing behind the president during a bill signing is a shining moment for any policy activist. For Paul Rieckhoff, it came last week when President Obama signed the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act into law.
Having served in the Army for six years and as an infantry platoon leader in Iraq, Rieckhoff knows something about the challenges active-duty soldiers face overseas and later when they come home.
Rieckhoff’s experience inspired the 30-something executive director and founding member of the nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America to challenge the way the country supports veterans.
Brian Meacham '97 | 01:39 PM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 28, 2009
Jim Warren '74, new publisher of the Chicago Reader
Jim Warren ‘74, who formerly served as managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, was named the publisher of Chicago Reader on Tuesday.
Warren’s appointment is noted in a post on the Reader’s blog titled “The Reader’s New Publisher Is an Edit Guy”:
Warren has been a newspaperman since he graduated from Amherst in the mid-70s; he moved to the Tribune from the Sun-Times in 1984, covered labor, law, and media, and was a surprise choice to edit the old Tempo feature section, where writers told me he was the best editor they’d ever had. In 1993 editor Howard Tyner sent him to Washington to work the same magic there. Warren quickly made a name for himself in the capital by writing a Sunday column in which he mocked the city’s media stars by name for their preoccupation with self-promotion and fat personal-appearance fees.
Brian Meacham '97 | 11:38 AM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 26, 2009
Jeffrey Wright '87 on Obama, race, and his arrest
Actor Jeffrey Wright ‘87 is the author of a new opinion piece on CNN.com entitled “Obama, race and my arrest.” In it, he discusses his arrest in Shreveport, Louisiana last year, as well as larger issues related to race and the police.
These are messy, even bloody issues, but the cost of not addressing them is too draining of our societal health. Among other things it fosters a society in which too many young Americans internalize the aura of criminality that’s projected onto them and handcuff themselves to self-imposed limitations that stifle us all.
Brian Meacham '97 | 10:21 AM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 23, 2009
John Burt '40, eighth Bishop of Ohio
John Harris Burt ‘40, the retired Bishop of Ohio, died October 20 at the age of 91.
Episcopal Life Online has a detailed obituary that tells the story of his life, from his early days in Michigan to Amherst and beyond, including his work in the Navy during World War II and with civil rights rallies in Southern California in the early 1960s.
Burt was born in Marquette, Michigan, the older son of the Rev. Bates Burt, first rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Marquette, Michigan and then rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pontiac, Michigan. He attended Amherst College where he was the managing editor of the college newspaper, president of his fraternity and vice president of his senior class. He graduated cum laude in 1940. After a post-graduate year in New York City where he studied at Columbia University and worked as a social worker at Christadora House on the Lower East Side, Burt entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, graduating cum laude in 1943. Following ordination, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri to serve on the staff of Christ Church Cathedral in downtown St. Louis and as director of St. Paul’s Parrish. It was in that year that he met his future wife, Martha May Miller.
Burt served as a chaplain in the United States Navy during World War II in the Pacific theater. After the war, he became the Episcopal chaplain of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, followed by a seven-year tenure at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Youngstown, Ohio, where he received the Arvona Lynch Human Relations Award and became the founding president of the ACLU, playing a leadership role in the racial integration of community housing and swimming pools.
Brian Meacham '97 | 12:28 AM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 03, 2009
College days with Wallace '85 and Brown '86
This has been all over the web lately, with the first anniversary of the death of David Foster Wallace ‘85 and the latest book from Dan Brown ‘86: Boston Magazine has published an article which mentions the writing seminar the two took together at Amherst:
WITH THE TRAIL GROWING COLD AT EXETER, Storrs wondered what he could uncover from Brown’s days at Amherst College. He reached Alan Lelchuk, who taught the creative-writing seminar that Brown later credited with helping him become a novelist. Brown’s writing from the class left little impression on Lelchuk. Of course, it would have been easy for anyone to be eclipsed by the enormous talent of fellow student David Foster Wallace, the heady prose stylist now regarded as one of the most gifted writers of his generation. “With Dan, he was not the star of the class, as David was, as were one or two others who were really quite good,” Lelchuk told Storrs.
“Dan was good,” he finally admitted, as if for the sake of politeness. “But in a much quieter way.”
Brian Meacham '97 | 02:42 PM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 24, 2009
Joseph Chow '07
Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams announced the death of volunteer Joseph Chow ‘07, who died as a result of a rock climbing accident near the village of Mbuji, Tanzania.
Chow began work with the Peace Corps the fall after his graduation, in Kenya. He transferred to Tanzania in 2008.
From the Peace Corps press release:
“Joseph was active, creative and charming. He was always ready to lend a helping hand, to work and play, and to contribute to his community. His sudden passing is terribly painful for the entire Peace Corps family, including Joseph’s students, whose lives were changed by Joseph’s passion for teaching,” said Director Williams. “Our thoughts go out to his family and friends around the world.”
We here at Am’erst.com join with Mr. Williams in expressing our condolences for this terrible loss.
Brian Meacham '97 | 12:13 AM | Alumni | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 16, 2009
Jon Landman '74 named NYT culture editor
The New York Times has named deputy managing editor Jon Landman ‘74 the new culture editor of the paper.
For the last four years, Mr. Landman has headed the effort to unite the printed Times and nytimes.com into a single, seamless operation, giving him a powerful hand in the Web site’s operation at a time when it was rapidly expanding and adding new features.
A Gawker report reprints Executive Editor Bill Keller’s memo to staff regarding the appointment:
I doubt anyone will question that Jon brings to the Culture Department a strenuous intelligence, an inspiring vision, a gift for getting the very best from people and — no small thing as our competitive landscape shifts — a keen appreciation of what culture journalism can be on the Web.
Brian Meacham '97 | 11:32 AM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 07, 2009
Pirates GM Neal Huntington '91 on the streak
The Pittsburgh Pirates have just guaranteed themselves a seventeenth consecutive losing season. The New York Times interviews general manager Neal Huntington ‘91 about the team’s long-term plans.
We feel the impact of the streak. It’s a reality of us doing business. We see it, we feel it, we hear it. But our evaluators and instructors should be insulated from the 17 years. Hopefully, we’re able to continue moving forward to put this team in a position to win for many years, and not try to break the streak one year and then figure something out after that.
Brian Meacham '97 | 10:55 PM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 25, 2009
Emanuel '79 at center of health care debate
In a front pageNew York Times article today, Jim Rutenberg takes a look at the role of Ezekiel Emanuel ‘79 in the current health care debate.
Few people hold a more uncomfortable place at the health care debate’s intersection between nuanced policy and cable-ready political rhetoric than President Obama’s special health care adviser, Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel.
Brian Meacham '97 | 01:22 PM | Alumni | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
August 22, 2009
Richard Poirier '49, founder of Library of America
A Washington Post obituary remembers Richard Poirier, a professor of English and founder of the Library of America, who passed away in New York on August 15. After graduating from Amherst, he received degrees from Yale and Harvard, and taught at Williams, Harvard, and Rutgers, where he taught for 40 years.
In “Learning From the Beatles,” an essay originally published in Partisan Review in 1967, Dr. Poirier was one of the first commentators to argue that the album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” represented an intermingling of pop and “serious” cultures that deserved close critical attention.
He also wrote about the impact of Vietnam on the culture and the significance of the 1960s revolution, and he once compared Bette Midler’s command of parody to that of the writers Mailer, Ralph Ginzburg and Thomas Pynchon.
Brian Meacham '97 | 12:44 PM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 21, 2009
Kenneth Bacon '66, reporter, refugee advocate
Kenneth Bacon ‘66, whose career included work as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, as a spokesman for the Pentagon during the Clinton White House, and as president of Refugees International, has died of cancer at the age of 64.
“Most Americans remember Ken as the unflappable civilian voice of the Department of Defense,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement. “But for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people - refugees and other victims of conflict - Ken was an invaluable source of hope, inspiration and support.”
Brian Meacham '97 | 10:39 AM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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