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Alumni News

Editors: Emily Richards, MA '97, Jeanne Johnson
News Associates: Mike Field, Eileen Murphy, Lew Diuguid, SAIS '63
 

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June's Alumni Notes

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Eric Noji, SPH '87: Defending Against Bioterrorism
"Strong" Response to Debut CD
Melvin Rosenwasser, A&S '72: Dr. Baseball
Kevin Kaliher, A&S '90: The Multifaceted World of Professional Cartooning
A Bold Exec at IBM
Holding Things Together
Beware the Beholden
Walking to Pay Tribute
Alumni Honored at Rec Center Dedication: A Great Place to "Clear Your Mind"
Memories: Remembering Life at "Hernia Bay"
Homecoming 2002
Alumni Around the World
Sowing Seeds of Artistic Expression
Shelf Life
Sculpture Course
Woodrow Wilson Award
Heritage Award
Distinguished Alumni Award


Eric Noji, SPH '87
Defending Against Bioterrorism

As a disaster medicine specialist, Eric Noji has helped victims of wars, hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes from Kosovo, to East Timor, and in 17 African countries. A former ER physician, he's guided mass casualty preparations in the United States. He's studied injuries from building collapses, written a book on toxicology, and steeped himself in bioterrorism preparedness.

President George W. Bush thanks Noji after a White House briefing But until last fall, he never expected to have a single job that would demand every facet of his education and professional experience. That challenge came September 12 when he was called to Washington from his post as associate director of Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson needed him for an HHS command center set up following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Since then Noji has worked seven-day weeks, briefed President George W. Bush and other government officials, consulted on medical and bioterrorism response efforts, and lived in 13 hotels. (He's working his way through the Virginia suburbs and has now moved on to Maryland's, he reports.)

"I've had to draw on every aspect of my emergency medicine and public health knowledge," says Noji, who in November was named director of medical research and development in the Office of Homeland Security, Executive Office of the President.

Immediately after the September 11 attacks, Noji spent three weeks focusing on World Trade Center emergency medical response and recovery. The day he planned to return home to his wife, Pamela, in Atlanta, word arrived about the first anthrax victim in Florida. He canceled his reservation.

In his work with the Office of Homeland Security, Noji translated CDC and other medical reports on anthrax for the administration. Then colleagues drew on his refugee health experience to help prepare for Afghan refugees fleeing their country to Iran and Pakistan in anticipation of the U.S. offensive. Once the U.S. troops were in Afghanistan, his toxicology knowledge was tapped after the discovery of Al Qaeda labs suspected of making chemical and biological weapons.

"My major focus right now is trying to develop the national biodefense system," says Noji, a former emergency physician at Hopkins Hospital and faculty member in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health. "That would encompass everything from training doctors to recognize early signs of infection by potential biological agents, to electronically connecting hospitals with health departments and the CDC."

Other priorities include improving national pharmaceutical stockpiles to better prepare for biological weapons, increasing the number of sophisticated labs that can identify biological agents like anthrax, and advising on fundamental research for a new generation of drugs and vaccines.

Noji, president of the Society of Alumni at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, meets daily with medical officials from the military, as well as representatives from national health agencies.

While the pace has been relentless and the "temporary" assignment is now a permanent post, Noji shrugs off the disruption to his personal life. "We're in a war," he says. "I'm certainly not in the situation that our troops in Afghanistan are in."

To keep the stress of his current work in perspective, Noji just has to remember his life in the ER. "Nothing compares with simultaneous arrivals of a gunshot victim, an overdose victim, a patient with asthma, and a patient having a heart attack, which is not unusual at all in an emergency room," Noji says. "That's stress." --Brian Simpson


Photo by Richard Anderson/RNA Photo "Strong" Response to Debut CD

Angela Revis Taylor (Peab '94) had a good year. Her 2001 debut album, Songs for Strong Girls, was named one of the year's best albums by the editor of Music Monthly and the magazine's readers named her best regional vocalist. In addition, Baltimore's City Paper awarded her a spot in their annual Best of Baltimore issue. She was also a finalist in both the Lilith Fair Talent Search and an IMX Discovery Contest.

Taylor earned all this acclaim for a CD published under her own label, with help from Peabody in the form of a small grant. Taylor, who double-majored in flute and recording engineering at Peabody, with a minor in voice, composed all the tracks on the "alternapop" album herself. "My biggest influences are probably Sheryl Crow and Fiona Apple," she says.

After spending four intense months in production, Taylor is now learning that the really steep part of the road to success comes after the album is released. "I'm on the phone and the computer 12 hours a day," she says, of her efforts to get her music played on the radio and elsewhere. In recent months she's aimed at getting exposure for her music on television and in films. So far, all of the tracks from Songs for Strong Girls have been featured on cable TV's Food Network. --Emily Richards


Rosenwasser with former Yankee great Reggie Jackson Melvin Rosenwasser, A&S '72
Dr. Baseball

In 1996, in his second season with the New York Yankees, Cy Young pitcher David Cone was bothered by a strange numbness in his fingers. Orthopedist Melvin Rosenwasser was called in to take a look.

By day, Rosenwasser is professor of hand surgery at Columbia University and chief of the hand and orthopedic trauma service at New York Presbyterian Hospital. But any time of the night he can be called upon to fulfill his role as hand consultant to the Yankees.

A long-time baseball fan, Rosenwasser now holds the hands of some of the best baseball players in the world, on one of the most beloved teams in the world. His purview--from the elbow to the fingertips--makes him particularly essential to the Yankees' pitching staff. "There aren't many humans who can do what they do," he says of the team's players. "They just have this special skill."

So is he in baseball heaven? Actually, Rosenwasser believes it's important not to become starstruck. "We try not to fraternize with the players," he says. "You've got to keep a professional distance."

In that sense, athletes are like any other patients. But there are some ways in which professional athletes are different, primarily because their bodies become commodities and team owners have a vested interest. "If you or I sprained an ankle, we wouldn't have a million tests run right away," says Rosenwasser. But in the Major Leagues, "everybody wants the worst-case scenario right away. Nobody wants to be surprised. So we run a battery of tests immediately. Just on the off-chance it's a zebra and not a horse."

In David Cone's case, it was a zebra: an aneurysm in his axillae (under the shoulder) was sending blood clots down to his hand and fingers, restricting blood flow. This rare condition can lead to loss of arm and hand function, and even prove fatal. A vascular surgeon, assisted by a team including Rosenwasser, removed the damaged arteries and replaced them with a vein graft from Cone's leg. Immediately following the operation, New York newspapers were filled with dire predictions of Cone's retirement. Would he ever pitch again? Even if he did, would he be any good?

Four months after his surgery, Cone was back on the mound. In the third game of the 1996 World Series, with the Yanks down by two games against Atlanta, Cone pitched six innings of a 1-run victory that marked the beginning of the Yankees' first Series win since 1978. Three years later and still a Yankee, Cone pitched baseball history's 14th perfect game.

Under the leadership of team physician Stuart Hershon, Rosenwasser and his colleagues are charged with evaluating all Yankees players and potential players, even those in the franchise's minor leagues. "They don't want to pay $100 million for someone with significant elbow problems," Rosenwasser explains.

That said, Rosenwasser notes, "Even though we're working for the owners, we're the advocate for the patients. Our responsibility is to the patient, not the team or the standings. That has to be jealously guarded." --ER


Kevin Kaliher, A&S '90
The Multifaceted World of Professional Cartooning

It's not easy being a "child genius" and 14-year-old freshman on the campus of Johns Hopkins, but it sure makes for some great story-telling material, says Kevin Kaliher (pictured at right).

Kaliher, who graduated from Hopkins at the age of 16, is now an animator and storyboard artist for the Cartoon Network, where he works on such shows as The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, and the forthcoming Robot Jones. It's all part of what he jokingly refers to as "the dangerous and often fast-paced world of professional cartooning."

For story ideas, Kaliher draws upon a combination of his own experience and observation of human interaction, distilling the universal into stylized cartoon behavior. "It's a window into the way we behave and the things we do that are funny," says Kaliher. "Formulas of human behavior, twisted the right way, can be elegantly funny. But sometimes," he admits, "I'm just going for the belly laugh."

Kaliher has worked on Cartoon Network favorites including The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory. He recently completed the pilot for a new show starring a lanky feline. Kaliher particularly drew from his Hopkins experience for an episode of Dexter's Laboratory in which child genius Dexter goes to a university to feed his "over-engorged brain." Earnest and dedicated, Dexter wants to "study, study, study." But unable to manage his priorities, he finds himself in out-of-synch situations that are both bizarre and disastrously funny, including the transformation of an Australian musical instrument, a didgeridoo, into a giant hot tub.

Kaliher majored in humanistic studies at Hopkins and studied art with Craig Hankin and Tom Chalkley in the Homewood Art Workshops. Of his education, he quips, "I use my humanities foundation again and again. And it's always good for impressing the executives."

In 1994, he created and directed Home, Honey, I'm High, a three-minute animated film that became an instant cult hit. During 1995-96, he was a technical director at DreamWorks Interactive where he directed production of all the artwork for "Someone's in the Kitchen," a CD-ROM game. And in 2001, the Entertainment Industries Council presented Kaliher with a PRISM award for "Mojo Jonesin'," a Powerpuff Girls episode that addressed substance abuse.

For each show, Kaliher takes a brief plot outline and creatively spins a full-fledged story, step-by-step adding visual composition, dialogue, and humor. "That's mostly the job, to do the jokes," he says. Storyboarding is one of the more creative jobs in cartooning, but Kaliher's next goal is to be a creator/producer. Working with his wife, Meaghan Dunn, he created a pilot for The Kitty Bobo Show.

The show's main character is a young cat adopted by a dog family. (Not so coincidentally, Kaliher was born in Korea and adopted at the age of 10 months by an American family living in the Midwest.) The lanky young cat desperately wants to impress his friends with his use of the latest, full-feature cell phone, but the whole scheme ultimately backfires.

Is Kitty Bobo just a simple story that resonates with anyone who has ever attempted to adjust behavior in order to win favor? Or could it be a morality tale about the futility of using material things to win love? Or both?

As Kaliher sees it, cartoons can be appreciated on many levels. Children enjoy their simplicity, but since the Cartoon Network also attracts viewers who are college students and parents, Kaliher thinks it's appropriate to throw in "obscure references that don't detract from the overall story." For humor, Kaliher's cartoons usually rely on bizarre situations or unexpected juxtapositions rather than violence.

If cartoons seem simple, they are deceptively so, says Kaliher. "Cartooning is satisfying because it allows me to combine interests like music, math, drawing, storytelling, collaboration and communication," he says. "Plus, it allows me to contribute something to the culture. The deeper I get into cartooning, the deeper it is." --Jeanne Johnson


A Bold Exec at IBM

In March, Hopkins alumnus and trustee Samuel Palmisano, A&S '73, became the new CEO of IBM, the nation's eighth-largest corporation. The 50-year-old Palmisano joined IBM as a sales representative in 1973 and went on to head several of its divisions. In 2000, he was promoted to president.

IBM, the world's largest computer consulting company and preeminent patent holder, has become in recent years a leading provider of computer chips to companies like Apple and Dell. While IBM still loses money on its sales of PCs, it has become an aggressive and successful competitor with its servers and corporate machines.

In a February cover story, Business Week noted that Palmisano is "not the typical Big Blue exec. Instead of making safe bets, he has repeatedly challenged old thinking and taken risks. That brash style could be key when the upturn begins."


Holding Things Together

Georgette Gaskin, Engr '90, helps the aircraft division of the U.S. Navy hold things together--literally. Gaskin, who double-majored in biomedical engineering and materials science at Hopkins, has served as the Navy's adhesives and sealants team leader since 1996.

At this year's Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference, she was presented with the award for Outstanding Technical Contribution in Government. Gaskin, who has been a leader in the development of water-based, environment-friendly adhesive systems, says, "My job is to make certain that whenever pilots fly, I have done my best to make sure they return home safely."



Beware the Beholden

Political candidates "should have enough money to run credible campaigns, but not enough to make them beholden," says Deborah Goldberg, A&S '80 (PhD). It's a viewpoint she successfully argued before the Supreme Court in 1998, as counsel of record on a case that ultimately upheld the constitutionality of limiting campaign contributions.

A Harvard-trained lawyer and former Columbia University philosophy professor, Goldberg now works for the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. She describes the center, which has won both of the two cases it has taken to the Supreme Court, as "a mixture of think tank and public interest law firm, designed to bridge the expertise of the academy and the practical experience of the bar." As deputy director of the center's Democracy Program, Goldberg also advocates on issues of the judiciary, voting rights, and election laws. --ER



Walking to Pay Tribute

Former Hopkins roommates Bill Faria, A&S '01, and Josh Kampf, A&S '01, were both living in Colorado on September 11. Like many Americans, they wanted to do something to help. So both men quit their jobs, packed their backpacks, and on New Year's Day set off on a nearly 3,500-mile walk across the U.S., from California through 15 states. Their goal: to reach Ground Zero by September 11, 2002.

"Others have walked across the continental U.S. before and many will do it after us, but we believe that our journey will be a unique experience, for those we encounter and ourselves," they write on their Web site, www.walk-for-america.org.

Along with their tent and sleeping bags, the men carry 4,000 miniature American flags, one for each of the September 11 dead. Money donated will purchase frames for each flag, which they'll present to each victim's family, and fund scholarships for children of the victims. --ER


Alumni Honored at Rec Center Dedication
A Great Place to "Clear Your Mind"

At the dedication of Johns Hopkins University's new recreation center at Homewood on April 12, the facility was named for Ralph S. O'Connor (A&S '51) of Houston, who provided exceptional support for the building. "Hopkins does so many things so well that I'm just delighted to play a part," said O'Connor.

A young Ralph O'Connor with visiting celebrity Esther Williams, whom he escorted to a Hopkins frat party. The 63,000-square-foot center includes a weight room, fitness center (a PepsiCo Foundation gift to the students), 33-foot climbing wall, locker rooms, racquetball/squash courts and an 18,000-square-foot gymnasium that can be set up as three basketball courts, five volleyball courts or three badminton courts.

Alumnus Bob Scott spent nearly a half century with Hopkins athletics. The center was entirely donor-funded. Thanks to a generous bequest from the late Larry Goldfarb of Baltimore, the center's gymnasium will be named for his longtime friend Robert H. Scott (A&S '52), legendary Blue Jays lacrosse coach (1955-1974) and athletic director (1973-1995). In addition, the third-floor multipurpose room was named in honor of donors Robert M. (A&S '54) and Anne Evans, and a racquetball court for the family of donors Thomas W. (A&S '75) and Linda Davis, parents of Krieger School junior Christin Lynne Davis.

Alumni are encouraged to use the new facility. For pricing information, call (410) 516-5229.

"The new rec center is a great place
to clear your mind and take a break
from studying by refocusing."
--Christopher Brown, Engr '05

Recreation center photos by Dave Harp.


Memories
Remembering Life at "Hernia Bay"

It all started with invitations that piqued their curiosity, patriotism, and sense of adventure.

As Virginia Thompson MacMillan, Nurs '40, explains it, "Someone came up to me while I was still a nursing student in 1940 and asked, 'If there is a war, would you join a Hopkins unit and go overseas?' And I said yes."

As William Grose, Med '39, recalls, "I was passed in the hall by one of our older surgeons, and he said, 'Hey Bill, how about joining the 18th General Hospital?' I said, 'I don't know,' and he said, 'Okay, I'll sign you up.'"

So began an intense experience for both that would test their medical skills, strength, and endurance. Both MacMillan and Grose became part of the Army's 118th General Hospital, one of two overseas Hopkins-staffed hospitals during World War II. The 18th General Hospital, formed before the war, would go on to serve in Fiji and the India-Burma theater. MacMillan and Grose joined approximately 90 Johns Hopkins medical personnel as part of the 118th, stationed first in Sydney, Australia, and then on the island of Leyte in the Philippines, by way of New Guinea.

"Sometimes cases would be lined up in the hall and we would operate all day and all night," says MacMillan. The 118th General Hospital would be in service 41 months, treating more that 41,000 patients in the Pacific, and having more days of actual operation than any other United States General Hospital in World War II, according to the new book Hernia Bay, Sydney's Wartime Hospitals at Riverwood, by Brian Madden, of Australia.

Grose, a surgeon, and MacMillan, a nurse who headed the surgical unit in the Philippines, remember that their journey began in 1942, with a crowded and dusty train trip to California. There, they were packed onto the former cruise ship S.S. America with about 6,000 others, mostly medical personnel. "We were told we were going to have a convoy to fight off any submarines that would attack us," says Grose. "We kept looking for that convoy all the way across the Pacific and it never turned up. There was so little left of the Navy after Pearl Harbor that there weren't enough ships left to escort us."

They arrived in Sydney by way of Melbourne, and helped set up a hospital at Herne Bay--jokingly referred to as "Hernia Bay."

Grose says his taste of war was "terrible." For Grose, the most vivid reminder of war at Hernia Bay was a boat load of soldiers brought in from New Guinea. "Seeing those farm boys, so haggard, nothing but skin and bone, sick with every disease known to man, was the most shocking moment of my life. Jungle rot, blood-sucking leeches, pus in their wounds, five-day-old blood clinging to their bodies, sick from diseases we had never heard of--it was terrible. I got a taste of war up close for the first time."

The 118th worked hard but also had time for an active social life. Once in the Philippines, however, work was all-consuming. Torrential rains during the wet season meant dealing with mud and muck. The heat and insects were so oppressive that sweat and bugs would drop into open wounds during surgery. The workload was often non-stop, says MacMillan. "Sometimes cases would be lined up in the hall and we would operate all day and all night, taking Benzedrine to stay awake."

MacArthur's invasions continued and "soon casualties were coming from all directions," says MacMillan. In January and February of 1945, 5,800 patients were admitted, many severely wounded. In 1945, everyone was preparing for an invasion of Japan when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

MacMillan returned to the States, married a Navy man she met while stationed at Herne Bay, and raised four children.

Grose was reunited with his wife and son and became chief resident surgeon at Hopkins Hospital.

Today, both widowed, they happen to live in the same Baltimore retirement home. Though confined to a wheelchair as the result of hip fractures, MacMillan has the same quickness and organizational ability that no doubt served her well in the operating room. Grose still exhibits a keen intelligence and gentle sense of humor that must have helped him cope with the misery of wartime.

For the sick and wounded who came through Herne Bay or Leyte, it was the skillful care of MacMillan, Grose, and their colleagues that made the difference between sickness and health, life or death. --JJ


Homecoming 2002


Homewood: April 12-14 | Peabody: April 19-21
SAIS, Bologna: April 26-28

Homecoming photos by
Mike Ciesielski

Back in his Hopkins days, Ric Francke, A&S '69 (not pictured), played alto sax with the pep band. "We stopped marching when I was a freshman. We were tired of marching, I guess. Marching had gone out of style," he recalls. At Homewood Homecoming, JHU band members through the ages attended a Band Reunion Cookout, then accompanied current pep band members at the Homecoming lacrosse game (Blue Jays, 12; U of Maryland, 11).


Nearly 100 Peabody alumni and their guests (including the Classes of '52 and '53, above) attended Peabody Homecoming events that included, on Saturday evening, an all-classes dinner at the Mount Vernon Club, followed by a piano master class.


Standing along the fence with her back to the field, Jodi Jones, A&S '97, (right) was overheard to say, "I never watched the game when I was here, so why start now?"
   Was it lack of school spirit?
   "No," she explained, "I was a cheerleader." No longer charged with duties that require her to face the crowd, Jones enjoyed her first full lacrosse game with friend and classmate Ben Lee, A&S '97.
   "The cheerleader's uniforms are different," Jones said. "We used to have black, frilly skirts."


Class of 2001 alumna Annie Hoffman first met Franz Hartig, Engr '29, in 1998 when she was a freshman, cheerleading her first lacrosse game. "He walked all the way down from the top of the bleachers just to tell us what a good job we were doing cheering the game," she remembers. Hartig has attended nearly every home lacrosse game for the past 30 years.


At halftime, Marcus Leung-Shea, A&S '02, and Charlotte Roh, A&S '02, were crowned Homecoming King and Queen in the fifth annual coronation. The undergraduate student body voted for their favorites, and President Bill and Wendy Brody placed the crowns (in his case velvet, in her case rhinestone) atop their heads.

 


 
Seniors (like those at right) and other upperclassmen contributed to Homecoming's success by staffing the registration tables, chauffeuring alumni, and updating oldtimers on the latest campus news. Hundreds of students also attended the Saturday night Dance Through the Decades, where alumni of all ages cut a rug.


Twenty men from the Class of 1937, including two deep in conversation above, gathered for lunch at the Johns Hopkins Club, where Roy Galloway, Engr '37, made a champagne toast: "Gentlemen, and Ladies! Lift your glasses to us being here, and to those no longer with us."



Alumni Around the World

United States

Atlanta Chapter
Sunday, July 14: Annual Maryland Crab Feast Party

Baltimore Chapter
Sunday, June 9: Day Trip to Tangier Island
Thursday, June 20: Dance the night away to Latin music with the Babalu dancers at Power Plant Live. Cash bar, plentiful munchies.
Saturday, July 13: Hopkins Night at the Shakespeare Festival. Wine tasting followed by outdoor performance of Cyrano de Bergerac.
Thursday, August 8: Luncheon Lecture at the Centre Club: "Stem Cell Research at the Edge of a Cure"
Thursday, August 29: Traditional Maryland Crab Feast at Captain James Landing

Boston Chapter
Sunday, July 14: Alumni lend a hand to Habitat for Humanity
Sunday, July 28: Alumni ballpark outing--Orioles vs. Red Sox

Chicago Chapter
Monday, June 24: Alumni ballpark outing--Cubs vs. Cincinnati

Los Angeles Chapter
Sunday, September 1: Alumni ballpark outing--Orioles vs. Angels

On the January alumni trip to Belize, Carey Bligard, Med '83, explored the underwater world of a coral reef. For a schedule of this year's remaining trips, call 800-JHU- JHU1. New York Chapter
Thursday, June 6: Alumni ballpark outing--Orioles vs. Yankees
Thursday, June 11: "How to Buy an Apartment in NYC"
Saturday, July 13: Tour and lunch on board the U.S.S. Intrepid

Philadelphia Chapter
Friday, June 14: Alumni ballpark outing--Orioles vs. Phillies

Pittsburgh Chapter
Friday, July 19: Annual Crab Feast Party

San Francisco Chapter
Sunday, June 23: Alumni ballpark outing--Orioles vs. Giants

St. Louis Chapter

Saturday, August 10: 17th Annual Maryland Crab Feast

Washington D.C. Chapter
Thursday, June 27: An Evening of Excellence, featuring psychiatry professor Paul R. McHugh
Saturday, August 24: Family Picnic at Rock Creek Park
Sunday, September 8: Kalorama House & Embassy Tour/Brunch

London, England

Nearly 100 alumni attended a reception at the Royal Automobile Club on March 4. Iredell Iglehart III, Med '83, president of the JHU Alumni Association, hosted the event.

On Saturday, December 7, 2002, alumni are invited to attend the world premier of Peabody professor and acclaimed composer Nicholas Maw's opera, Sophie's Choice, at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The performance will be followed by a private reception for Hopkins alumni and friends with Maw. Call for more about the trip.

Florence, Italy

On March 19, alumni and their guests enjoyed an idyllic luncheon at Villa Spelman, home of Johns Hopkins' Charles S. Singleton Center for Italian Studies. Walter Melion, professor in residence at the Villa and chairman of the Hopkins Department of the History of Art, talked about his recent research and the history of the Villa.

Paris, France

On March 21, 30 SAIS students and faculty and 20 SAIS alumni gathered at the Swedish Circle in Paris for a lecture and Q&A on war and terrorism with Professor Eliot Cohen.

More than 9,000 Johns Hopkins alumni live somewhere other than the United States. Some numbers:
Brunei 1
Fiji Islands 3
St. Lucia 3
Zambia 13
Iraq 17
Iran 51
Chile 70
Egypt 86
Switzerland 243
Taiwan 444
Japan 512
Germany 554
United Kingdom 689
Canada 883


Artist Bryant Smith introduces children to the art of mosaics at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Sowing Seeds of Artistic Expression

A little bit of money can go a long way, as Denise Graves learned last summer when she organized a program that exposes children from Baltimore City to art and the joy of artistic expression.

Thanks in part to a $1,000 grant from the Hopkins Alumni Association's Community Service Grants Program, Graves created a one-month "Arts and Culture Mini-Summer Program" that allowed nearly 30 children, ages 7 to 12, to dabble in collage, clayworks, painting, paper sculpture, and beadwork under the guidance of visiting artists at a local community center, the Milton/Montford Improvement Association. In addition to trying their hands in various media, the children--some for the first times in their lives--visited the Visionary Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA).

"The children were excited to work with a professional artist," says Graves, "and more excited about their pieces being displayed at the museum." The field trip to the BMA served as the program's finale. There, BMA artist-in-residence Bryant Smith guided the children in the creation of their own stone mosaics, which later were displayed at the museum in conjunction with the exhibit entitled Antioch, The Lost Ancient City.

"The children were excited to work with a professional artist," says Graves, an MBA student at the Hopkins School of Professional Studies in Business and Education, "and more excited about their pieces being displayed at the museum."

The Alumni Association hopes that start-up funding for projects like this will lead to ongoing community programs that can attract funding from additional sources and keep participants involved long after the Hopkins funding ends. In Graves' case, initial support from the Alumni Association helped attract additional dollars from other sponsors, including the Johns Hopkins Health System, the East Baltimore Community Corporation, and Casey Family Services. The Milton/Montford Improvement Association has been able to continue the arts program into 2002, thanks to such city and foundation funding. "What the Alumni Association offers is seed money," explains Alumni Association President Idy Iglehart, Med '83. "And if you plant a seed, something should grow." --ER


Shelf Life

Deep Souths, by J. William Harris, A&S '76 (MA), '82 ( PhD), Johns Hopkins University Press (2001)

One of three finalists for this year's Pulitzer Prize in history, Deep Souths masterfully explores changes in three distinct locales between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War II. The narrative of life in these regions emerges through the voices of individuals: planters, educators, sharecroppers, businessmen, and artists. --SD


Beethoven's Anvil, by William L. Benzon, A&S '69, Basic Books (2001)

The trumpet player/author takes a virtuoso run through the literature on music's place in the brain and argues that crude rhythmic beginnings indeed caused human intelligence. Then it's on to how we react to sounds. Benzon eventually finds musicking (his word) progressive in its changes from blues to jazz and even on to rap. --Lew Diuguid (SAIS '63)


Purse Universe, by Barbara G.S. Hagerty, A&S '72, Crane Hill (2001)

Hagerty offers a mini-collection of photos and reflections about the baggage that women carry when they tuck their favorite bag beneath their arms. It turns out that these toters, once properly pursed, have the world on a drawstring. --LD



Sculpture Course

Larcia Premo, A&S '88, returned to Homewood this spring to teach Hopkins' first course in sculpture. "Hopkins students take a different approach than art students do. They think it all out. They engineer it," she says.



Woodrow Wilson Award

Recognizes distinguished government or public service

Zeid Raad al Hussein, A&S '87, Jordan's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, has dedicated his career to his country and to international peace and justice. As chair of the UN's Informal Working Group on Elements of War Crimes, he has been instrumental in establishing the International Criminal Court in The Hague.


Heritage Award

Recognizes outstanding service to Johns Hopkins University

Robert S. Buxbaum, Engr '51, '53 (M.S.), retired from Teledyne Energy Systems near Baltimore. He has actively served the Whiting School as a member of the Alumni Council and charter member of the Society of Engineering Alumni. He helped organize his 50th class reunion and has endowed a fund in Materials Science and Engineering.

Alumni awards are presented to alumni and friends at events throughout the year. Deadline for nominations: December 1.


Distinguished Alumni Award

Recognize personal, professional, or humanitarian achievement

Aristides Melissaratos, Engr '66, has used his vision and leadership in key defense and commercial industrial activities to help raise the level of importance of manufacturing in national science and technology policy. Previously the chief technology officer at Westinghouse Corporation, he is now chairman, president, and CEO of ArMel Scientifics, LLC, with offices near Baltimore.

Return to June 2002 Table of Contents

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