Reinventing the Wheel
After perusing the latest issue of Denison Magazine, I’m wondering if our ancestors could possibly understand higher education in this day and age.
While they labored long and hard for a subsistence standard of living, we have people willing to pay to learn 100-year-old technology that our ancestors made every effort to improve. My grandparents were ecstatic when they could get rid of their batteries and kerosene lamps and get on the grid and merely flick a switch for light. Cutting and hauling wood and coal for winter heat were quickly discarded when central heating was developed from fuel oil. But this is what higher education is teaching all under the guise of being environmentally responsible.
Our environment is cleaner now with more people than in the past due to advances in technology. And it is also less expensive and involves a lot less manual labor.
Why doesn’t Denison offer course work on the fallacies of the politically correct environmental movement??? I remember learning about Thomas Malthus and how population was growing exponentially and food supplies only arithematically. He was the first of the doomsayers that felt the environment would implode due to human existence. He was wrong just like the current environmental movement but it is politically incorrect to discredit it.
The wheel has been invented. Denison should devote resources to productive course work rather than meaningless drivel. For example, you should be using up to date technology(such as aerated concrete block for buildings).
Thomas C Howenstine ’66 Hicksville, Ohio
Mystery Solved
I just pulled out the spring edition of the Denison Magazine to see another, smaller, version of the now infamous D-Day picture from 1958. I should confess we in the Halliday family forgot to inform you of our discovery a few months ago, when the original picture was offered up for comment [on the back cover of the autumn issue]. The guy on the right in the army shirt with a pair of women’s undergarments on his head is none-other than Peter B. Halliday ’59. When thumbing through the previous edition, I, like many, promply chuckled and thought of warm spring days on campus when I saw the picture. Unlike others, however, a chill of “oh no, I know that guy” came over me which rapidly continued to shock when I realized he was my father. After a phone call, it was confirmed with big laughs. In fact, the picture has prompted a number of phone calls and a visit from an ex-faculty member. You can get that story from Dad.
Scott B. Halliday ’87 New Albany, Ohio
Sea Here
I read with interest the Spring 2006 Denison Magazine articles related to the environment. My days at Denison included contacts with botany, biology, and geology as a prelude to the 3-2 forestry program with Duke University. I considered Bob Alrutz a friend as well as a professor. What this note is really about, however, is a reminder. My adventures at Denison and Duke University pointed out that Denison students, many of whom are Midwesterners, might really benefit from exposure to the biology of the sea. In an attempt to tie marine biology opportunities at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., to the Denison experience, Linda and I established a summer scholarship program at the Duke Marine Lab with a preference given to Denison applicants. Many Denison students have partaken of this program over the years, but advocates come and go. So this note is just to be sure the Duke Marine Lab Summer Scholarship opportunity is still on the radar for some Denison faculty member or student. I have no reason to fear it is not, but the magazine’s theme just jogged my mind.
Richard Seale ’63 Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina
Alrutz Remembered
I am so pleased to see Dr. Robert Alrutz being remembered and honored in the spring issue. He was my favorite professor! I met Dr. Alrutz my freshman year as he taught my beginning biology class, and I was so fascinated by his teaching, I enrolled in every one of his classes that I could fit in my schedule. I also baby-sat his daughter, so I became quite close to his family. You wrote in the second paragraph in the article on page 12 that Bob Alrutz “began teaching courses with an environmental focus in the 1970s….” I just thought you might like to know that he offered a course called Ecology – I think it was in my junior year. The word was rarely heard back then, and even the explanation that it had something to do with the environment was not very enlightening, as the subject was not on anyone’s “what I want to learn in college” list. But I knew that if Dr. Alrutz was teaching it, that was the course for me. I’m forever thankful that he pioneered this topic during my Denison experience, as his knowledge and vision triggered my curiosity, awareness and plea-sure in the natural environment. He inspired me to excellence and joy in learning, not just in college, but for my lifetime.
Kate Gilbert Phifer ’59 Tampa, Florida
It warmed my heart to see a picture of my father and read the tribute to him, as well as the articles on the Environmental Studies program and the Homestead. He would have enjoyed this issue and would have remarked on how much he appreciated all the folks who have helped sustain and enrich these programs through the years. I can still remember the beginnings of his raising the new concept of “ecology” to the DU community—and now look! It’s hard to tell when the photo of my dad was taken. He looks pretty old, but the shape of the shirt pocket hints that it was in his smoking years—a terrible wartime habit that left him bed-ridden for years, fighting for his life. But looking at that picture, I can smell the bio equipment behind him and the sweat on my father, having been in the field. You can see the exhaustion in his muscle, and yet, I bet he still had arrangements to handle for an environmental speaker that night, or some other meeting. He never slowed down, ’til his kidneys failed. The Homestead article was particularly touching. I think it’s the best I’ve seen—most others only describe the lifestyle and fail to capture the emotional aspects—the residents’ dedication, sensitivity, and care for each other and their objective. I also really enjoyed the article on [the recently deceased theatre professor William Brasmer]. Connie and Bras lived across the street from my parents and believe me, he didn’t coddle his neighbors either—making fun of my short skirts as a teenager. But when my father passed away, he gave me the warmest of hugs; he had a heart of gold. The pic of Bras is really good, too. It’s that look that preceded a stinging, but thought-pro-voking jab that he would next utter!
Gloria (Alrutz) Calhoun Dayton, Ohio
We Stand Corrected
May Day!!! May Day!!! You need help in your office! Dismay, chagrin, and shame came over me when I read glaring errors on pages 42 and 49 of the Spring Denison Magazine. Common usage has crept into a publication of a highly respected university, and I deplore it. On page 42, the fifth line of the sidebar has the word “laying” in place of the correct “lying.” Just because this mistake is becoming more common in everyday usage is no excuse for using it here. On page 49, near the bottom of the first column, is the misspelling of the past tense of “lead.” This error is also made quite often in written English. The correct spelling is “led.” These errors were not typos since they appear so often outside of scholarly speech and publications. Let’s try to keep the English language as pure as possible.
Ray Giffin ’38 Quincy, Pennsylvania
The spring issue had an excel-lent tribute to [former theatre professor] Bill Brasmer by [playwright/screenwriter] Jonathan Reynolds ’64. However, in order to avoid the wrath and indignation of both Braz and George Bernard Shaw, I feel it necessary to correct the title of the play that Jonathan was first cast in. It was and is Too True to be Good.
Martha Knight Clements ’61 Cheverly, Maryland
Perhaps it is needless to say, but the sharp Mr. Reynolds is well above such a gaffe. The error occurred in editing. And while we’re at it, we should also confess misidentification of one of the photographers who contributed to “The Living Experiment,” Evelyn Frolking’s feature about the Homestead. Beth Rooney (not Reynolds) captured many brilliant images of Homestead life while pursuing a degree at Ohio University. Once again, the editor is to blame, which lends all the more surprise to this next item.
…and Humbled
In June, we received some exciting news from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). As judged by a panel of our peers, Denison Magazine was named the 2006 Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year, which means it is the best magazine—for the time being, at least—produced by any college or university in any of the 55 nations where CASE is represented. The award is sponsored by Newsweek and was presented to Denison at the CASE Summit for Advancement Leaders in New York City on July 9. The editors extend deepest gratitude to Newsweek, CASE, and the judges, to Denison’s administration for their support of our rather unconventional approach, and of course to the Denison community for giving us such wonderfully rich material.