Letters to the Editor

Summer 2018

“The Boys”

Fred Little headshotThe “In Memoriam” section of the Spring 2018 edition has a too-small, too-chilly entry about my cherished friend and Grinnell life trustee and luminary, Fred Little [“In Memoriam, Spring 2018,” Page 46]. “Fritz” was as loving as he was accomplished, and just before he died we spoke wet-eyed about the losses of our classmates of  ’53. He and I were particularly fond of the Oliver Wendell Holmes poem, “The Boys,” written for the poet’s Harvard reunion. In the soft-edged memory of our college classmates, we’ll always be boys.

“HAS there any old fellow got mixed with the boys?

If there has, take him out, without making a noise.

Hang the Almanac’s cheat and the Catalogue’s spite!

Old Time is a liar! We’re twenty to-night!”

 
- Harvey Golden ’53

Spring 2018

Power of an Image

The “That’s So Grinnellian” photo at the end of the Winter 2017 issue of The Grinnell Magazine brought unexpected tears to my eyes. How could a simple picture of leaves and grass glistening with frost by a quiet campus walkway be “so Grinnellian”? However, the image did indeed transport me back to Grinnell and the glorious and sometimes shocking transition from warm weather to cold. I remember stepping out of my dorm one morning on my way to an early class and being stunned by the suddenly sparkling world that greeted me. The following poem was written that day:

The wave of summer

Holds November

Crested in the sun.

And curls and falls with night —

Crashes; Crystals in the grass. 

- Donna Dewsnap McGurk ’81
Sam Baron

Reading your article on Sam Baron brought back memories of my mother Charlotte Pursell, wife of Lyle Pursell, professor of mathematics 1955–1965. My mother was the typist for Professor Baron’s book Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism. She bought an electric typewriter to prepare his manuscript for publication. I remember her spending many hours deciphering his handwritten pages.

- John Pursell ’74
1967 and 2017 Campus Map

Thank you for Kevin Cannon [’02]’s fold-out spread showing the campus in 1967 and today. It was informative and whimsical.

The train engine in the 1967 view is an amusing anachronism. It is an “American” model, which were in use from about 1850–1900, and could well have run on those tracks. But any model steam engine running in 1967 would have been a recreation, not a daily occurrence. In the 15 years or so after World War II, U.S. railroads retired virtually their entire fleets of steam engines, replacing them with more efficient diesels.

While diesel locomotives have, in my opinion, no charm, they allow rail to move a ton of freight more than 400 miles on a gallon of fuel. Perhaps we will see the day (led by Tesla’s current efforts?) when semi trucks will have the efficiency (and safety) rail freight has provided for over 50 years.

- David Ellin ’87
1967 and 2017 Campus Map Pt. 2

It was a special treat to “study” the 1967/2017 Grinnell College map! How do you avoid getting lost in the new HSSC? I assume that this new facility will replace the old “heart” of Grinnell, the ARH? I think it’s smart to keep the M&StL tracks as they are, assuming that they are still in place. Certainly, a key landmark for letting you know where you are versus where you should be. There was a side-track beside the old heating plaw occasion would provide “sport” for male students to “reposition” a tank car waiting there.

Again, congratulations on your 50 years presentation of Grinnell!

- Bernie Oakes ’52
1967 and 2017 Campus Map Pt. 3

I loved the magazine insert with the map of the campus. I was only at Grinnell for two years, leaving in 1967, and haven’t been back since, so this is really appreciated. Kudos to the staff for producing this for us.

- Marsha Drake Johnson ’69
Fossil Fuels

Taking umbrage with [“Q&A with the Fossil Fuels and Climate Impact Task Force,” Winter 2017, Page 4], which obviously was predetermined as to its outcome.

“We believe our process has been as important as the serious questions we are seeking to address.” What EXACTLY were the “serious questions” Grinnell was “seeking to address”?

“This has been a completely open, inclusive, and transparent process.” How so?

WHERE are the excerpts from the “open, inclusive, and transparent” discussions?

Exactly HOW has this been open and transparent when the PURPOSE of the “process” has been to discuss how to divest Grinnell of investment in energy companies that sustained it for over a century?

If I had submitted this article to my Modern Philosophy professor in 1970, I’d have been graded a 2- (D+) or an F for the effort.

Editor’s note: As mentioned in the original article, more information on this issue — including recordings of a series of dialogue sessions in the fall of 2017 — is available through the task force website.

- Jim Greaves ’71

Winter 2017

Studying Classical Greek

The article in the Spring 2017 Grinnell Magazine, “Studying Arabic for Fun” [Page 32], took me back to my four years of taking classical Greek “for fun” with [Bill] McKibben. (It’s hard to know how you could take classical Greek for anything but fun.) 

In the third year, studying Plato, McKibben found out I was also taking German. He gave me an assignment: read a German philosopher’s take on Plato and present it to the class. I didn’t really have enough German to understand the philosopher. Comparing his work with Plato seemed insurmountable. 

I wandered the library looking for higher-level German students or philosophers or both. When I presented my findings to the class, they exploded with outrage and/or puzzlement and argued among themselves about the topic. 

Afterwards I went to visit McKibben to apologize for my failure. He looked at me for some minutes and then said, “It’s good to have something impossible to do once in a while.” Plato’s philosophy passed by me, but those words have come to mind a number of times in my life. Thank you, Grinnell, for continuing to hire teachers who have a great sense of humanity.  

- Linda Fiene Wagner ’64
Bidets Aren’t Silly

I read with interest the feature “Chemistry in Copenhagen” in the Fall 2017 edition [Page 33], but was disappointed that the article dismissed bidets as a “silly topic.” When my wife returned from a trip to Japan two years ago extolling the virtues of the bidet, we quickly bought one (on Amazon!) and it has become one of our favored appliances. 

The bidet is often a source of discussion at parties, but it has also contributed to improved hygiene and a reduction in toilet paper consumption. Several friends and family members have purchased bidets after visiting our house! 

I recommend Grinnell College purchase bidets for all of their toilets for sustainability reasons: you will be amazed in the reduction in toilet paper, at a cost of slightly increased water use! Your students will thank you too.

- Emily Resseger ’02
Michael Cavanagh

I was saddened to learn of the death of Michael Cavanagh in August 2017. The English department at Grinnell holds a special place in my heart as an English major and 1974 graduate — Michael Cavanagh, Edward Moore, James Kissane ’52, Peter Connelly, among others at the time. 

I am grateful to Grinnell for the education that I received, for the opportunities afforded me, and for the socially and politically charged debates to be had and lessons to be learned. The times were tumultuous, but I have fond memories of studying Joyce, Woolf, Auden, Yeats, Keats, Shelley, Milton, and Shakespeare in hallowed halls. 

I still have my notebook on modern British literature from Cavanagh’s class. And evidently through the years, more offerings followed: A Joycean walk through Dublin, poetry-writing classes, a book on Seamus Heaney. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Thank you.

- Anne Barriault ’74