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SEPTEMBER 2 0 0 1 Alumni News
News Associates: Debbie Kennison, Emily Richards
Send email to
Mary Frances Repko, A&S '89
Mary Frances Repko has a mathematically precise way of defining
what she does for a living. "My job is helping one one-hundredth
of the United States Senate to do the right things on the
environment," says the 34-year-old. She's doing an excellent job,
according to the League of Conservation Voters, a non-partisan
environmental watchdog. Her boss, Democratic Senator Russ
Feingold of Wisconsin, has a 100 percent LCV voting record. "John
Kerry and Joe Lieberman come close in their lifetime records,"
Repko says proudly, "but Senator Feingold's record is without
parallel."
Her talents are well-matched to the needs of her boss, who holds
the Senate seat formerly occupied by Gaylord Nelson, the founder
of Earth Day. A Midwestern progressive, probably best known for
the campaign finance reform legislation he co-sponsored with
Republican Senator John McCain, Feingold is a leading advocate
for tougher environmental regulations, and he depends on Repko
for the scientific facts and policy analysis that can help win
undecided votes on the Senate floor.
"Mary Frances is simply one of the most knowledgeable persons in
general, and especially in environmental issues," says the
senator. "She is widely regarded as the top environmental aide in
the Congress."
No small praise for a woman who admits: "People who knew me at
Hopkins would never describe me as outdoorsy." Repko's particular
specialty, and what makes her so invaluable as a Congressional
aide, Feingold says, is her ability to make sense of the numbers.
"I technically translate," is how she describes it. "My
responsibility is to know if the five-parts-per-billion of PCBs
in the fish in the Fox River is a good or bad thing. That's my
job, to give numbers context. It's sort of like, 'How clean is
clean, Senator?'"
But it's not all about numbers. In the past several years, often
at Repko's recommendation, the senator has made a point of
visiting many of the places he'll vote about. Says Repko, "Now
the Senator understands that wilderness exists in the tiny
glaciated lakes of Minnesota, in the vastness of southern Utah,
in the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, in the mountains of
Colorado."
While thousands of hours of research and work often go into a
piece of legislation, there are times when Repko and the rest of
the senator's staff must rush to keep up with the unpredictable
pace of the Senate floor. "You might have 15 minutes," she says,
"and there are certain things he always wants to know before he
votes: How much will it cost? Are we talking about something that
exists, or a new program? Have constituents called us on the
matter? Then he'll say, 'What do you think and why?'"
The recent shift in the Senate to Democratic control means that
environmental protection issues have gained new momentum. "What's
changed is how we think about some of the bills the senator has
introduced," says Repko. "We know they'll get a hearing now. That
changes our broader strategic thinking." She was instrumental in
helping her boss create a bipartisan Wilderness Caucus aimed at
developing consensus in the Senate over the thorny issue of
federal wilderness designation for public lands. On the horizon
is a proposal to introduce mandatory civilian review of proposed
Army Corps of Engineers projects.
"In a way it's like being a physician--I'm a Senate staffer all
the time," says Repko of her 60-plus hour work weeks. "But I'm
still in the 'Pinch me!' stage of working here. I walk on to the
Senate floor with the senator and right next to me may be John
McCain or Ted Kennedy. It's incredible."
"A lot of other staffers turn to Mary Frances for her grasp of
the issues," says Senator Feingold. "She's a star." --Mike
Field
Clifton R. Wharton Jr., SAIS '48
Occasionally, a life will reflect and influence contemporary
events so completely that it becomes nearly impossible to
separate societal achievements from individual actions. Each one
becomes woven within the other, helping to create the tapestry of
the times.
Such has been the life of Clifton Wharton, whose career in higher
education and business, foreign economic development, and
philanthropy has included so many firsts--often without much
fanfare--that he is sometimes called "the quiet pioneer." As he
eases into retirement now, at age 75, Wharton is currently
working on his autobiography, to be published by Harcourt later
this year.
In the half century that followed Wharton's graduation from SAIS,
he became the first African American in many important positions.
He was the first to lead a major, predominantly white university
when he served as president of Michigan State University from
1970 to 1978; the first appointed chancellor of an entire system
when he headed the State University of New York System (the
nation's largest) from 1978 to 1987; the first to lead a major
foundation, as chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation beginning
in 1982; and the first to be chairman and CEO of a Fortune 500
company, when he performed those duties at TIAA-CREF from 1987 to
1993. He went on to serve as President Bill Clinton's deputy
secretary of state. These days Wharton is devoting
considerable energy to his autobiography. "I've been working on
the book for quite some time," he says. "At issue is factual
memory; you find that your memory and everyone else's don't
always agree." Luckily, Wharton has a 650-cubic-foot archive of
the documents and memorabilia of his career on which to draw--and
a lifetime of stories that illustrate the tremendous changes in
American society during the past half century.
Like the time when he was a SAIS student and a friend from his
Harvard days asked to meet in the lobby of Washington's Willard
Hotel. In 1948 the nation's capital was still a Jim Crow
segregated city, a fact in stark contrast to Wharton's
international upbringing and Harvard education. He strolled into
the Willard and took a seat in the lobby. His friend came in just
in time to find Wharton being unceremoniously escorted out.
"Years later, the Willard closed, and wanted to refurbish itself
and reopen," says Wharton with a chuckle. "So they came to
TIAA-CREF for a loan. We approved it." --MF
"Have you ever gone home to an old house?" asks Lisa Kuhar,
sitting near Shriver Hall with fellow A&S '76 friends ( l to r):
Virginia Donovan, (also Med '81), Kuhar, Carol Smith, and April
Moreno. "You have a memory of what it was like. To me, my memory
of Hopkins is the Lower Quad, the six buildings that frame it,
and the magnolias in bloom." A quarter century after she and her
buddies graduated, she says, "the two quads have maintained that
same ambience."
"I spent four years going to games like this," says Mark
Salevitz A&S '86, as his family cheers for the home team. (The
Blue Jays wound up beating Navy, 13-11, Hopkins' 27th consecutive
win against the Annapolis team.) "It's nice to come back and
relive it without the pressure of studying and passing!" His
10-year-old son was so impressed by the day's events he plans to
apply to Hopkins for admission.
Amy Reiter, A&S '88
"Delicious" is how Amy Reiter describes a job that allows her to
work from home...and chat with starlets, schmooze at celebrity
parties, attend high-profile trials, and be read by millions of
Web-users each week. She is, suddenly, one of America's most
popular gossip columnists.
As a senior writer at the online magazine Salon, Reiter
produces a five-days-per-week column called Nothing Personal, in
which she merrily dishes the dirt on the quality of Brad Pitt's
kisses (low, due to chapped lips), the contents of Madonna's
letter to a 12-year-old Gwyneth Paltrow ("Don't smoke, I don't
smoke"), and the loves, divorces, marriages, and ill-advised
utterances of the rich and infamous.
When Reiter first started publishing her column in the People
section of Salon in 1999, the section recorded 360,000 hits per
month. Today it records over 3 million hits per month and
Reiter's editor doesn't hesitate to give her significant credit
for this increased popularity.
To find the juicy material for Nothing Personal, Reiter scans
dozens of print and web publications daily, listens to the radio,
reads the wires, attends celebrity parties, and talks on the
phone to famous people and their publicists.
One of her favorites is Shirley MacLaine, whom she "got an
amazing charge out of interviewing." Says Reiter of the New Age
icon: "She gets it and she's in on the joke. The fact that people
don't take her seriously is a big hoo-haa to her."
The path Reiter took to her current glamorous job started at
Hopkins, where one of her favorite classes was taught by eminent
literary scholar Hugh Kenner. ("His class was so crowded and I
was so habitually late that I had to sit on the floor.") For the
News-Letter, she critiqued plays at Center Stage and the
Mechanic Theater--an experience that steered her toward graduate
school at Columbia, where she earned an MFA in dramaturgy and
theater criticism. "It was great fun--all the theater you can
eat. A smorgasbord," she says. After Columbia, she spent five
years living in New York writing about theater, opera, and dance
for magazines like Entertainment Design, American Theatre,
Back Stage, and Theater Week.
Sometimes, Reiter says, "I wrote about the sets, costumes, and
lighting, and it was fascinating because that was what I had
been taught not to pay any attention to in grad school. But the
set really tells the story. Set designers are really poets, using
images instead of words."
In 1995, when she moved from New York to Columbus, Ohio, her
friends thought she had gone mad. But it was there, in an office
"plunked down in the middle of farmland," that she joined the
Internet revolution as an online editor for CompuServe's
short-lived, family-oriented online service, WOW! "It was
supposed to knock AOL on its booty, but as we all know, that
never happened," Reiter says. Nevertheless, her time with the
company and at subsequent positions, including as VP of content
at enews.com, gave Reiter valuable experience in the business.
The exposure Reiter gets on the Web these days also serves to
keep her connected to old friends from Johns Hopkins. "I got
this e-mail from Professor Kenner, pointing out a mistake I had
made in my column with a Shakespearean allusion. I thought, God,
what is this great scholar doing reading my column! I wrote him
back and told him that I had been in his class at Hopkins but
that I didn't in any way hold him responsible for my mistake."
Professor Kenner--author of more than 30 books and considered the
foremost scholar on the Modernists--admits to being a fan: "I
read Amy's column because it's witty, in its way..."
When asked if she sees a book in her own future, Reiter replies,
"It's certainly possible. I love a new challenge. But right now,
I'm just having a whole lot of fun." --Emily Richards
Christina Mattin, A&S '75
"I loved my time at Johns Hopkins," Christina Mattin, A&S 1975,
says without a second's hesitation.
The first member of the Mattin family in several generations to
turn down an invitation to enroll at Cornell, the New York
native was attracted to Hopkins by the prospect of small classes,
close interaction with faculty, and the possibility of an
internship in a Congressional office.
With a major in social sciences, she landed that hoped-for
Congressional internship, spending a semester in the offices of
U.S. Senator James L. Buckley of New York. Academics at Hopkins
more than met her expectations, as well.
But there was not a great deal of emphasis on the arts at
Homewood during her student years--a situation she has helped to
change dramatically through her leadership support for a new
student arts center named in honor of her family. "I wanted Johns
Hopkins to have an arts center," she says. "With all the other
strengths at Hopkins, it seemed to me a real void on the
campus."
After graduation, Mattin joined Mearl, a manufacturer of
synthetic pigments used in products such as paints and cosmetics
that had been founded by her grandfather, Harry E. Mattin. During
two decades in sales and marketing at the company, she served as
vice president and led the development of a successful new
division that specialized in iridescent films.
Christina Mattin's exceptional commitment for the student arts
center, initially made anonymously, was made in memory of her
grandparents, Harry and Edith Mattin and Mauricio and Josefa
Heusch, and her parents, Henry and Sylvia Mattin, and in honor of
her children, Edward and Sandra Fischetti. Mattin also has
endowed the Sylvia Mattin Heusch Scholarship Fund at the Krieger
School in memory of her mother.
At the Mattin Center dedication ceremony, Trustee Chairman
Michael R. Bloomberg said, "Christina Mattin has set an
impressive example for other alumni of her generation with her
generosity. Recognizing that most institutions the caliber of
Hopkins have arts activities facilities for their students, she
saw the need and she stepped up and made it happen."
University President William R. Brody commended Mattin's vision,
adding, "This is a transforming gift. It will make an enormous
difference in student lives."
In her own remarks at the dedication, Mattin told the more than
100 students assembled on the upper balconies, "Enjoy yourselves,
express your creativity, plan great things, and most of all, have
fun while you're at Hopkins!"
Where There's a Will, There's
Crabs
From Atlanta to Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins alumni chapters are
crazy for Maryland hard crabs. Each summer, chapters across the
U.S. invite local alumni to roll up their sleeves, grab a mallet,
and get down and dirty in Old Bay and crab claws.
With the help of the Alumni Relations Office and Federal Express,
bushels of authentic Maryland blue crabs get shipped from a
Baltimore restaurant straight to the feast's location. Sounds
simple, but there's plenty of room for hitches.
One year, the crabs never made it to a feast in San Francisco.
"The Fed-Ex employee smelled something 'rancid' and destroyed all
the crabs," says the alumni office's India Lowres.
And things can go wrong even after the crabs arrive. Fran Levy,
SPSBE '74, who started the alumni crab feasts in St. Louis 16
years ago, recalls the first one hosted at a local restaurant.
"Saturday morning, after the crabs arrived, the chef came to me
and said, 'The crabs were filthy, so I washed them for you.'"
Says Levy, "I just about died." Even worse, the restaurant had
set the tables with white linen tablecloths. "I told them, 'You
gotta' put the newspapers down.'" The next year, and every year
after, the chastened restaurant threw a crab feast in true
Baltimore style.
Alumni hosts say all the trouble is worth it. "When I first
tasted steamed crabs, they were so delicious," says Levy, who now
calls herself a "crab snob." In fact, she's even made a provision
in her will for a memorial crab feast: "Raise a claw--remember
me!" --Emily Carlson
Chapter Chatter
Alumni in the San Diego area certainly get their fill of sea
life. At a recent lunch and tour of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, 43 Hopkins alumni and guests enjoyed presentations
from two Scripps experts, Wolf Berger and Ralph Keeling, on the
latest science about global warming and its effect on the ocean
and climate. Afterward, the group sat down to a Mediterranean
buffet lunch served on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Later that day, alumni were treated to an insider's look at
Scripps's Birch Aquarium, thanks to chapter member Kirk Gardner,
A&S '65, a Scripps fundraiser. The aquarium features among its
many conservation efforts and exhibits the world's most
successful sea horse and jellyfish propagation programs. It also
offers a host of events and classes to help the public better
appreciate and understand animals of the ocean.
San Diego, it seems, is becoming a fantastic place to stay in
touch with fellow alumni. "We've been having more events than
usual," reports longtime chapter president Jim Zevely, A&S '66.
"And we're going to begin inviting alumni from Orange County,
which doesn't have its own chapter." --ER
Quick Facts about the Sand Diego Chapter
Of the 609 Johns Hopkins alumni in San Diego, there are...
Recognizes personal, professional, or humanitarian
achievement
Recognizes outstanding service to the Johns Hopkins
University
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As legislative assistant to Feingold, Repko advises the senator
and his colleagues on issues ranging from the proposed oil
drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the fate
of the Rio Grande River's silvery minnow. After seven years in a
job with a notoriously high burn-out rate--many Senate staffers
last only two or three years before throwing in the towel--Repko
has achieved a reputation as one of the Hill's most knowledgeable
insiders in the realm of the environment and energy policy. She
is a voracious reader and the kind of person who can answer
questions about, say, Minnesotan geography, in the most explicit
terms: the soil deposits in the eastern third, boundary water
acreage, indigenous animals and their habitats.
Born in 1926, he is the son of the first African American named a
career ambassador in the U.S. Foreign Service. Wharton entered
Harvard at age 16. Four years later he graduated cum laude with a
degree in history and became the first African American admitted
to Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. Wharton
went to SAIS thinking to emulate his father's Foreign Service
career. Instead, SAIS professors like Latin American Studies
specialist Simon Hansen turned his talents to the study of a new
interest: economics. In 1958 he would become the first African
American to earn a PhD in economics from the University of
Chicago.
Tattoo Girl by Brooke Stevens, A&S '91, St. Martin's
Griffin (2001)
The House of Gucci< by Sara Gay Forden, SAIS '88,
William Morrow (2000)
Dinosaur Field Guide, by Thomas R. Holtz Jr., A&S '87,
and Michael Brett-Surman, Random House (2001)
No class seemed tighter than the one from '56--most in attendance
proudly sported Hopkins tattoos. "We got really carried away last
night," explained ringleader Joel Fine (A&S), "and wound up at
this tattoo parlor." Really? Fine laughed. "No, I'm just kidding.
They're temporary!"
This reunion was the first that alumni could register for online.
And physicist Louis Witten, Engr '41, was the very first to log
on and register for the big event. "Everybody was expecting
someone from the class of '97 or '98," said Witten. Said his
wife, Frances, "I told my husband that physicists are really
clever people."
"That's me!" Elizabeth Stehly Cantrell, Nurs '51, tells everyone
at the Nursing reunion lunch table, as she points to a photo in
Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World, the book that
commemorates the University's 125th anniversary. "I had forgotten
about this picture. I was very, very fond of Anna Wolf [School
of Nursing Director, 1940-55], so this picture is really
special." 
A children's program debuted this year at the School of Medicine
reunion, with face painters, cotton candy, and balloon artists on
hand to make the event more festive for all. "It's a lot of fun,"
said Tony Ho, Med '91, as he poses with his daughter, in their
"Bear" balloon hats. Ho adds, "I hope they become the latest
Baltimore fashion!" (Though he kept the hat on all afternoon, the
trend didn't catch on.)
Reiter also writes book reviews, profiles, and opinion pieces for
Salon and has written for a variety of other online sites,
including MTV.com. She spent many years, in fact, as a theater
critic and can switch, it seems with ease, from lightheartedly
cataloging gossip tidbits (in a voice her editor calls "offhand,
witty, and naughty") to composing rich, intelligent lines of
commentary on theater, literature, or politics. 
After attending an all-female prep school, the idea of being a
member of the first coed class of undergraduates at Hopkins held
a kind of pioneering challenge, Mattin admits. But she claims
that the small pool of women students was an advantage in
athletics. Although "a complete novice at lacrosse," she made the
women's varsity team and also played varsity tennis. 
All who attended the Scripps event deemed it informative and
entertaining (reported one alum, "They really rolled out the red
carpet for us!"). 
Richard Axel, Med '71, a world-renowned neuroscientist and
professor at Columbia, is an expert on genes affecting the human
sense of smell, and was one of the first scientists to discover
the links between viruses and certain forms of cancer.
David C. Cordish, A&S '60, '69 (MLA), founder of the
Cordish development company, has been honored for his
contributions to urban landscape. He has chaired the Baltimore
Housing Authority and been a director of a citizens planning
group and of HUD.
Lawrence R. Goldfarb, a longtime friend of Hopkins
athletics, received his award in March, shortly before his
death. An all-around athlete and a Homewood neighbor, he inspired
many students with his advocacy and generous support for varsity
and recreational athletics.
Hilda Perl Goodwin, Peab '54, '67 (MM) , a member of the
Peabody Advisory Council, has long served the Institute as a
dedicated advocate and generous donor. With her contagious
enthusiasm, she has helped recruit many important new donors to
Peabody.
Shale Stiller, A&S '77 (MLA), has devoted exceptional
amounts of time, resources, and talents to Hopkins, serving as
trustee of both the University and Medicine and as chair of the
advisory councils for Public Health and the MSE Library.
Charles Roger Westgate, highly respected Engineering
faculty member from 1966 to 2001, enriched the University by his
dedicated service as associate dean for academic affairs,
chairman of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and dean of
part-time programs at the Whiting School.
Paul Wolfowitz, dean of the Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies from 1994 to 2001, significantly
strengthened academic programs and repositioned SAIS from a Cold
War orientation to one focusing on the impact and challenges of
21st-century globalization.