Fifties

Clifford Geertz ’50 recently received an honorary doctoral degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Colby President William D. Adams presented the degree to Geertz, who is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

Geertz has conducted extensive ethnographic research in Southeast Asia and North Africa as well as, early in his career, in the American Southwest. He has been highly influential in turning anthropology toward a concern with the frames of meaning within which various peoples live. His scholarly interests within anthropology have included religion, especially Islam, Bazaar trade, economic development, traditional political structures, and village and family life. His current research involves ethnic diversity and its implication in the modern world. Geertz is the recipient of 14 honorary degrees and of several major prizes, including the Talcott Parsons Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Huxley Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize and the National Books Critics Circle Prize in Criticism.

The Antioch College Alumni Association presented Geertz with the Horace Mann Award in 1992.

Betty (Corcoran) Fuchs ’53 recently received an Honorary Degree from Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts. All seven of her children plus eight grandchildren were on hand to help her celebrate. As a member of the class of ’53, Betty has been instrumental in raising funds for the new signs and maps that have recently appeared on Antioch’s campus.

Cynthia Riggs ’53 received her M.F.A. in creative writing from Vermont College in 2000. Since then, four of her murder mysteries have been accepted by St. Martin’s Minotaur. All are set on Martha’s Vineyard, where she runs a B&B that caters to poets and writers, and feature 92-year-old poet Victoria Trumbull as sleuth. The three published so far are Deadly Nightshade, 2001; The Cranefly Orchid Murders, 2002; and The Cemetery Yew, 2003. A fourth, Jack in the Pulpit, is scheduled for Spring 2004.

Robert H. Somers, Ph.D ’53 e-mails: “I have done a terrible job of keeping in touch with Antioch over the years. A lot of water under the many bridges in the past 50 years. My first wife (Flo Baker ’53) met a sad and tragic death at the age of 38 due to serious mental illness, but we raised two delightful sons, Steven (Steve Somers Band, Ypsilanti) who now has three beautiful daughters whose mother is of African-Detroit origin and an outstanding singer in his band (great for weddings in Ann Arbor area). My second wife, Jackie Bandel, raised four kids so for a time she shepherded six kids through Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement and its less welcome aftermaths.

“With a Ph.D in sociology and a minor in statistics from Columbia 1961, I taught at University of Michigan then University of California at Berkeley for 10 years. Then I did a decade of nonprofit drug abuse work, then 15 years as statistician for local telephone company, retiring in 1994 to become Boy Friday for wife’s poetry program involving a book In and Out the Window: Childhood in Verse. I then freelanced, teaching poetry through costumes and acting bits and pieces from her book: Dickinson, Herrick, Frost, Shakespeare, and many others. Traveling to some 300 elementary schools in the Bay Area and even at PS 75, the Emily Dickinson School in NY upper Westside. She is a genius. Further, I just sent this to the American Statistical Association. It covers other interesting bits: I believe I joined the ASA about 1960 while still a graduate student at Columbia University.

“Among many publications in sociological and statistical journals, one of them introduced the rank correlation measure known as ‘Somers-d’ now widely used in SAS Proc Logistic, SPSS and various other places. One of my favorite articles was in the JASA about 1960, another in Biometrika about the same time and a third in the J Royal Statistical Society Series B about 1962.” Friends write: 63 Oakvale Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705-2403.

Lita Kobalkin Hofberg ’55 writes: “I was astonished to discover that my former employer matches contributions to the College 3-to-1, after one short phone call. Please stress this information – it made my meager ability to ‘pay back’ significantly greater. I would love to connect with classmates from 1954-55. Denver is gorgeous, but dull in retirement for New Yorkers who no longer ski.”

Phoebe Katz Phillips ’55 e-mails: “… I have wondered if I am an official alumnus or not, as I only went to Antioch for the first year of college in 1950-51. I certainly regard myself as one, and it remains an undying part of my life and experience. But this also means that my memory of friends and professors is narrower and perhaps less interesting than it would be if I had been there longer. Marriage and moving to the UK in 1954 kept me from keeping in touch with the friends I made. In any case, I am very happy to have my name and address posted for those who might remember me. phphlips@aol.com.”

Adrienne Messner Levin ’56 writes: “I would like to reconnect with Antioch friends of years ago! I’ve been working in a preschool in rural Pennsylvania, where we had a farm, raising blueberries. I’ve retired and am living by the Susquehanna River while trying to develop and keep the land as an organic, nature preserve. All are welcome to a lovely part of the world.” Friends write: 10 Saint George, Lewisburg, PA 17837.

Richard B. Wilks ’56 writes: “Sandra and I have recently moved to Corrales, New Mexico. We have ‘semi’ retired. I am still representing my Indian tribal clients from my law firm’s Phoenix office by e-mail and the other modern wonders, including infrequent flights to Phoenix. Sandra (Wexler) ’56 is still advising the inner-city school district for which she developed programs for minority children and secured grant funds to operate the programs. Corrales is a small village west of the Rio Grande on the Northern border of Albuquerque. It has some of the flavor of Yellow Springs, although without a college and with a highly diverse population for a village founded by Hispanic settlers about 300 years ago.”

Fredda Blechman Meisel ’57 writes: “When visiting Santa Barbara, CA, come by to say ‘Hello’ at the Harris & Fredda Meisel Gallery of Art, located in the Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara (founded by Dr. Meisel in 1965)… just a few blocks away from Antioch University – Santa Barbara.” Friends write: RISB, 2415 De La Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93110 or e-mail: fbmeisel@aol.com.

NEXT >>

[ Top of Page ] [ Top Stories ] [ University News ] [ Campus News ]
[ Alumni News ] [ Book Notes ] [ Class Notes ] [ Obituaries ] [ Antiochian Home ]
[ Fall 2003 Site Map ] [ Send Us Your News ]