A P R I L 2 0 0 1 Alumni News
News Associates: Debbie Kennison, Emily Richards
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Patty Krauss, SPSBE '96 (MA)
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."
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
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.
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
Water's Way: Life Along the Chesapeake
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
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
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.
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)
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
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.
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
Chapter Chatter
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.
Distinguished Alumnus Award
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
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.
Woodrow Wilson Award
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. |
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