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Alumni News

News Associates: Debbie Kennison, Emily Richards
Contributing Writer: Mike Field
 

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Dancing with Grace, Style... and Wheels
A Man of Vision
'Everything That's Right with Sports'
Shelf Life
Blazing with Purple Pride
Johns Hopkins' Desk Comes Home
Rx for a Troubled Healthcare System
A Trip to Treasure Island
Focus: Atlanta Chapter
Hopkins Clubs Launched in Thailand, Singapore
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Heritage Award
Woodrow Wilson Award


Patty Krauss, SPSBE '96 (MA)
Dancing with Grace, Style... and Wheels

It was a Christmas show not soon forgotten. While serving as a substitute teacher in a special education center, Patty Krauss was asked to direct the kids in a holiday production of The Nutcracker. A professional dancer by training, she admits her first reaction was, it can't be done. "Some of the kids were severely disabled with very limited movement," she recalls. "Their contribution was to move their hands, or maybe just their fingers."

Undeterred, she persevered, eventually mounting a production and in the process discovering a whole new realm of dance. In 1994 she founded Seize the Day-Mixed Abilities Performance, one of only a dozen or so dance companies in America featuring performers with physical disabilities. The company, based in Mt. Ranier in Maryland's Prince George's County, employs both able-bodied and disabled dancers in works Ms. Krauss choreographs herself. She calls the work "integrated dance."

For Patty Krauss, center, her teaching is art, not therapy. "I was never a great technician myself," admits Patty Krauss, who trained in the modern style of Graham, Cunningham, and others, and later danced professionally in Pittsburgh and London. "For me it was always a struggle, so I found I could relate to people trying to figure out their bodies." To enhance her skills she enrolled in Hopkins' master's in education program, earning her degree in 1996 with a specialty in severe and profound handicapping conditions.

But she insists her work is art, not therapy. "I don't choreograph using political or social themes. I don't do disability awareness."

In a recent program titled Americana, Seize the Day company members danced to jazz, country, blues, and other American music. Ms. Krauss choreographed a lively bluegrass piece using dancers on roller blades, an office chair, and two wheelchairs. "There's a lot of humor," she says. "It's a matter of finding the character and using each person's strength. Everyone brings something different to the process." -- MF


A Man of Vision

Carl Kupfer, Med '52, who completed his residency and fellowship training at the Wilmer Eye Institute, has stepped down after 30 years as head of the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The federal government's leading vision research agency, NEI was established by Congress in 1968, and Dr. Kupfer was tapped as its first director in 1970. He is nationally acclaimed for shaping the institute into a diversified and flexible agency for top-quality vision research--research that has been translated into sight-saving treatment. Under his tenure, NEI's budget grew from $24 million to more than $500 million. Dr. Kupfer is being honored this spring with the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association's Woodrow Wilson Award for outstanding government service.


Writing in praise of 'the best game there is." Rich Westcott, A&S '71 (MLA)
'Everything That's Right with Sports'

In a Super Bowl-crazed Baltimore, it's hard to remember when baseball ruled Charm City's heart. But a look at the soon-to-be-published Great Home Runs of the 20th Century by Rich Westcott may be just the thing to bring those memories flooding back.

There, among the top 30 home runs of all time, you can find play-by-play descriptions of the slammer hit by iron man Cal Ripken during his record-breaking game; the Bobby Thomson thriller that won the 1951 playoff series for the Giants; Mark McGwire's 70th; Mickey Mantle's record-shattering 565-foot hit in Washington's old Griffith Stadium; and Ted Williams' glorious finale, hit on the last at bat of his career.

Baseball is dead? Not in Mr. Westcott's book. "I think baseball is the best game there is," he declares unapologetically. "It's everything that's right with sports."

This is a love affair with deep roots. A pitcher for his Drexel team in the late '50s when an arm injury sidelined him for the season, Rich Westcott began writing team coverage for the school newspaper as a favor for the paper's student editor.

"I had no inkling whatsoever that life would take me down that path," says Mr. Westcott more than 40 years later. His career in sports writing, focusing on baseball, included brief sojourns into other fields, including a two-year stint as associate editor of the Johns Hopkins Magazine. During that period he found time to earn a master of liberal arts degree at Hopkins, an experience he recalls as "eye-opening."

He is the author of 12 books, including the much-admired Phillies Encyclopedia. Two of his books, Diamond Greats and Splendor on the Diamond, feature interviews with former major league players, including Yankees center fielder Whitey Witt, who used to room with Babe Ruth.

"To ask someone like that, 'What's it like to bat against Walter Johnson? How did you feel playing against Ty Cobb?' is incredible," Mr. Westcott says. "The old timers I talk to all have these marvelous stories. You don't get that in other sports. Football is all rush, rush, rush. The pace of baseball lends itself to stories." --MF


Shelf Life

Water's Way: Life Along the Chesapeake
Essays by Tom Horton, A&S '67, Photography by David W. Harp
(The Johns Hopkins University Press)

Closeups of the Chesapeake's visual joys combine with the preservation-minded text of a ranking Bay watcher to lift this big book off the coffee table. Appearing in hard cover in 1992 and now in paperback, it finds Horton admonishing his fellow dwellers on the watershed: "[There are] millions of us, all fervently wanting the problem to be anything but the simple presence of millions of us."

Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life
by Richard Ben Cramer, A&S '71 (Simon & Schuster)

The Yankee Clipper fended off serious biographers with the same finesse that he brought to playing center field. But Cramer stayed on the story after DiMaggio, too, had left the scene. The result is an unsparing account of the self-centered slugger known as much today for being Mr. Coffee or one-time husband of Marilyn Monroe as he was to his own generation for hitting safely in 56 straight games. --Lew Diuguid, SAIS '63


Blazing with Purple Pride

The Gilman tower was awash in purple light to honor the Baltimore Ravens' drive to the Superbowl championship in January. The Hospital dome was similarly lit, as was most of downtown Baltimore as Ravens fever swept the city.



Johns Hopkins' Desk Comes Home

Johns Hopkins most likely sat at it to write his intentions for the university and hospital he planned to found.

It is a handsome cylinder desk and bookcase, mahogany with maple interior, with one interior drawer fitted with an inkwell and original writing accoutrements. The combination piece is attributed to cabinetmaker John Needles, who plied his craft in Baltimore in the first half of the 19th century. Needles, like Johns Hopkins, was a Quaker, and appears to have made the desk about 1825 for Hopkins' use at either his Saratoga Street home or his country seat at Clifton.

Alumni Wayne and Elaine Schelle bought the historic desk for the University. Now, 128 years after Johns Hopkins' death in 1873, his desk has come 'home' to Nichols House, the president's residence on the Homewood campus. This homecoming of sorts was made possible by the largess of alumni Wayne (A&S '58) and Elaine (Nurs '59) Schelle of Baltimore. Upon learning that it was going up for auction, they sought--successfully--to acquire the desk for the University. Its price at auction was $20,000.

Gracing the entrance hall at Nichols House, the desk presents to visitors a guest registry, lying open where Johns Hopkins would have signed his documents.


Kenneth Ludmerer, Med '71 (MA), '73 (MD)
Rx for a Troubled Healthcare System

I had reason to observe affairs somewhat particularly," wrote the Greek general and historian Thucydides of ancient Athens' disastrous war against her neighbors. His History of the Peloponnesian War charts the consequences of ideals betrayed.

As both practicing physician and Pulitzer-prize nominated historian, Kenneth Ludmerer has cause to observe affairs somewhat particularly as well in his latest book about the art of medicine in 20th-century America.

Published to great acclaim in 1999, Time to Heal: American Medical Education from the Turn of the Century to the Era of Managed Care has been the focus of a cover story of The New Republic, a special issue of Academic Medicine, and countless hours of soul searching at the nation's teaching hospitals.

The first book to document managed care's harmful impact on the education of physicians, Dr. Ludmerer's work charts the evolution, spectacular success, and worrisome decline of America's academic health centers. "If current trends go unchecked, the danger is that tomorrow's physicians will be less well trained than those of today," says the author.

A flood of patients, shorter hospital stays, and a relentless focus on the bottom line have all contributed to an ominous trend: academic physicians are practicing more and teaching less, leaving their students increasingly to fend for themselves. "Physician, teach thyself," is the modern reality of managed care, and in that message lie the seeds of medicine's own destruction, warns Dr. Ludmerer.

"We have deviated from our values and mission," he says of the current crisis. "We are here to serve the patient and society first--not ourselves. Medicine is a public trust and a large part of the solution to our current troubles is internal. It means standing up for the kinds of things I learned when I was in medical school at Hopkins."

Dr. Ludmerer is being honored with JHU's Distinguished Alumnus Award. --MF


A Trip to Treasure Island

The more than 50 islands that make up the Galapagos Archipelago are home to flora and fauna--penguins, giant sea turtles, and other creatures of all types--that can be found nowhere else on the planet. Having no fear of hunters or predators, many of the species are amazingly tame, allowing visitors to study them up close.

This January, 19 Hopkins alumni and friends toured these protected islands for nine days, guided by six young naturalists. On their last day there, an oil tanker ran aground off the coast of one of the islands and spilled nearly 150,000 gallons of toxic fuel into the waters.

Jane Musgrave, who made the Galapagos trip with her husband, Frank Musgrave, A&S '49, ascends one of the many panoramic peaks. The accident seemed only to emphasize to the visitors how precious are the plants and animals and crystal clear waters they had seen during their stay. Asked to fill out evaluations of the trip afterward, alumni beamed that "the tour was extraordinary and the entire operation was flawless!" that it was "the trip of a lifetime," and that the islands were "treasures of conservation."

Charles Darwin said of the islands: "Here, both in space and time, we seem to be brought near to the first appearance of new beings on this earth." --ER

Don't Miss the Fun!
Homecoming and Reunion Dates
April 19-22 Homecoming at Homewood
May 18-20 Bologna Center Reunion
June 7-10 Biennial Meeting
The Johns Hopkins Medical and Surgical Society
June 8-10 School of Nursing Reunion


Chapter Chatter
Focus: Atlanta Chapter

President of the Atlanta Alumni Chapter Geoffrey N. Berlin, A&S '68, Engr '73 (PhD), says the key to drawing people is to "offer an activity that an individual couldn't as easily do on his or her own." In recent years, Atlanta alumni toured an unusual workshop where 30s-style roadsters are built to order; visited the sound stages of a television network; and received a behind-the-scenes look at Turner Stadium, home of the Atlanta Braves. "But the appeal of the event," he adds, "is secondary to the real benefit of participating. The real benefit always turns out to be interaction and networking with other alumni." --ER

Other chapter news...

Metropolitan NY Chapter: April 25 - The Peabody Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center and post-concert reception of the orchestra.

Baltimore Chapter: April 29 - Dinner cruise aboard The Black- Eyed Susan

D.C. Chapter: April 27 - Dinner at Romanian Embassy.

Chicago Chapter: May 2 - Dinner with Professor Stephen David.

Seattle Chapter: May 2 - Mariners vs. Orioles game.

San Diego Chapter: May 12 - Lunch and behind-the-scenes tour of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.


Hopkins Clubs Launched in Thailand, Singapore

Johns Hopkins clubs overseas are bringing together alumni, parents, and friends of Hopkins and creating stronger links between members of the Hopkins family overseas and in the U.S. Last year, two new clubs were launched.

The Johns Hopkins Club of Thailand met in Bangkok at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Thailand, Richard Hecklinger, SAIS '67, who hosted the reception. A message of congratulations from President William Brody was read, and distinguished alumnus General Pow Sarasin, A&S '52, was named the club's honorary president. For further information contact Philip Robertson, SAIS '97, recording secretary, at phone/fax 662-238-5335.

Don Siegel, president of the Hopkins Club of Singapore, is flanked by SAIS Professor Frederick Brown, left, and Steven Green, U.S. ambassador to Singapore. The Johns Hopkins Club of Singapore was launched at the American Club, where the U.S. ambassador to Singapore, Steven Green, was on hand to congratulate club president Donald Siegel, A&S '65, vice president Chan Tat Cheong, and other guests. Representing Hopkins' Nitze School of Advanced International Studies was Frederick Z. Brown, associate director of Southeast Asia studies. Also attending were doctors associated with Johns Hopkins Singapore. For more, write Mr. Siegel at tp_galry@pacific.net.sg.


Distinguished Alumnus Award
Recognizes personal, professional, or humanitarian achievement

Wendell A. Smith, A&S '54, one of the nation's leading authorities on condominium and community association law and considered "the father of New Jersey condominium law," having written the definitive reference book in the field.



Heritage Award
Recognizes outstanding service to the Hopkins University

James K. Archibald, A&S '71, immediate past president of the Alumni Council, prime mover in the creation of the Alumni Student Task Force, and member of the Council's Policy and Long-Range Planning Committee.
 

Purnell W. Choppin, recently retired president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (an important source of funding for Johns Hopkins medical research), where during his 12-year tenure the institute's endowment more than doubled to over $13 billion.


Priscilla Mason, generous donor and former Advisory Council member of the School of Advanced International Studies, a loyal supporter of SAIS since she first came to work there in 1944 as one of the School's founding administrators.


Woodrow Wilson Award
Recognizes distinguished government service

Sir Christopher Meyer, Bologna '66, British ambassador to the United States, past ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, and former press secretary to the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Leo Young, Engr '56 (MSEE), '59 (DrEngr), LHD '89, past president and chairman of the board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, retired director for research in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Alumni awards are presented to alumni and friends at events throughout the year. They are voted on by the Awards Committee twice a year. Deadlines for nominations, in writing or onlin, are July 1 and December 1.

Return to April 2001 Table of Contents

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