President-Setting
Charles Fountain's story on Northeastern's presidents [March] was a refreshingly candid, true-to-life protrayal of the successes, failures, and controversies of the five leaders who navigated the university through its first century. As a journalism student and Northeastern News reporter in the 1970s, I was fortunate to know Asa Knowles and Kenneth Ryder, and to a much lesser extent, John Curry. Fountain's description of these presidents hit the nail squarely on the head. All of them were very fine men-though, like all of us humans, they had their unique traits, habits, and foibles.
Paul Cioto, LA'77
Nashua, New Hampshire
Cover Girl
I am the young lady on the cover and page twenty-seven of your January issue. I would like to thank my alma mater for making me both a cover girl a
nd a centerfold at the age of fifty-three. The only thing that is slightly distressing is that (from the photo credits) I notice that I am also "archived" in a "special collection." My grandchildren might agree with you on that one. The young man next to me with the Ping-Pong paddle is Frank McCabe. I have been told that he took a year off to work and then graduated a year after me. He then went on to get a law degree. The blurred figure in the front of the picture with the plaid shirt is probably Paul Scherck. Paul is retired from the Air Force and living with his wife in California. They have three sons. I moved to Pensacola in 1968. For most of the time since, I have worked with my present employer, the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory. I am now the head of their computer department.
Katherine Vogel, LA'66
Pensacola, Florida
Rage Review
As a conservative and a Christian, I found the illustration accompanying the March book review to be about as distasteful as one could be. At the same time, I am not surprised that Northeastern would publish such an illustration in its magazine. The editors must have felt it was OK to take a southern preacher and stick him inside a heart with blood dripping out of it. It must be OK to take a Christian cross, write the word "hate" across it, and then have a swastika, machine gun, and desecrated flag of our republic behind it.
As for the review itself, I found many quantum jumps of logic in Jack Levin's appraisal of the book [Millennium Rage: Survivalists, White Supremacists, and the Doomsday Prophecy]. Professor Levin talks about a "counterculture" that is dangerous to American society. What's so dangerous about a different point of view? It seems to me that the people who in the 1960s said the government was fascist are the same ones who today say, "If you don't follow the program that has been devised for you, then it is you who is the 'hateful' one." The difference between then and now is that people like Bill Clinton have gone from saying they hate America to running it. Professor Levin states that the Oklahoma City bombing, the Ruby Ridge shootings, and the tragedy at Waco might have a connection. Indeed they do have a common link-our government. Another link could be the Clinton administration; after all, these things happened on his watch.
Is it "crazy" or "paranoid" to be concerned about our government when we have seen them burn and knowingly kill members of a Christian sect in Waco, Texas? Should I, as a free resident of the United States, not ask questions about why my government framed a decorated Vietnam vet for selling a shotgun that had one inch cut off the end, and then killed his son, his wife, and the family dog? Should I not have doubts about what the government is telling us when one of its own Air Force generals, who is a world expert in explosives, writes a report that states there is no way that the federal building in Oklahoma was brought down by a truck bomb?
When I read books that try to convince me that a group of survivalists and militia members are a real threat to America's shrinking freedom, I must ask myself: who has killed more Americans through acts of domestic terror, people who support God, country, and the Constitution or the U.S. government? The answer, by the hundreds, is the government. So who is the "hateful" one?
Eric Belanger, AS'96
Lincoln, Massachusetts
More Memories
Compliments to the staff for a very good photo essay, "Husky Hangouts," in the January edition. Allow me to add three hangouts that were part of the lives of some N.U. students in the 1940s: (1) The on-campus "Husky Hut" (194344) was at the lower level of Richards Hall, adjacent to the bookstore. Seating and standing capacity was one-fourth of the in-school enrollment in the early '40s. For 200 skinny, poor, commuting-by-the-El young people, the Hut was a fun place. Low prices and good snacks. No beer or booze. (2) The Putnam Hotel, Bar and Grill Room (194649), at the corner of Gainsborough Street and Huntington Avenue, three or four stores up from the Lobster Claw, toward the "Y." The clubhouse for many returning World War II vets, it was a men's pub, semiclean, dark, smoky, ten cents a brew, twenty cents for top shelf, no food, and just enough light to study. We ran a "cuff" for beer and squared away our monthly tab on vets' checkday, the first of the month. I never heard a cross word, cuss word, or a serious disagreement at the Putnam. We were all happy to be back home with our pals, relaxing over a few frosty beers and able to get on with our education and lives. "Slim" and "Shorty" were the bartenders. (3) Alfred's Restaurant and Grill (194649) was located across Huntington Avenue from the Lobster Claw, just above the bowling alleys. The varsity basketball team would tip a few mugs of beer after victories only. Jim Douglas was our MC and we packed the joint every Saturday from 10 p.m. until midnight. We had many victories in basketball and many beers and laughs. Al and Tom were the bartenders. All of these hangouts, and others, were part of the campus life of N.U. students in the 1940s. We survived, studied, worked, worked, worked some more, and had many laughs.
Francis Xavier "Inga" Walsh, BA'53
Naples, Florida
Inferiority Complex
I was surprised to see the self-deprecating tone that seemed to lurk among the pages of the March issue. The cover promised an uplifting issue about Northeastern's new president and the exciting future ahead, but the lead article ["Talk of the Gown"] slammed the N.U. administration. I am not suggesting any censure of opinion about where Northeastern could improve, but does it have to be the lead article? Not only did the placement of that article seem inappropriate, but the very next page was an appeal to contribute $100 to the Centennial Campaign. After reading that negative article, who would want to have their name immortalized in brick on a campus that "would be a great place without the students"? The following E Line section seemed much more upbeat and positive, as did the article concerning the inauguration. But just when I was feeling good again about my old school, I read the title page of the "Quadruple Huskies" article that stated: "It's not done much, but these Huntington Avenue habitués saw something in N.U. that made them want to stick around." In an article that highlights the intense pride and loyalty some students have demonstrated over the years, is it necessary to begin on so negative a tone as "it's not done much"!
I received my master's in social anthropology at Northeastern just last year, and though my time at N.U. lasted only one and a half years, I grew to appreciate how well it held its own in a city of such academic giants as Harvard, MIT, and Boston College. The professors in my department were tirelessly committed not only to excellent instruction but also to quality research (two, Alan Klein and Jack Levin, contributed to the March issue). I came to N.U. knowing almost nothing about my subject, and in one and a half years I was confident in my field and headed to Oxford University for a doctorate. That was in no small part due to the faculty and staff at Northeastern. Just reading through the Classes section will speak to the hundreds of alumni who went on from Northeastern to excellence in their chosen fields. Perhaps Northeastern would cease to be "a place where students too often wear a hair shirt about where it is they go to school" (see the article "Building a Foundation") if more of those associated with the school would drop the self-deprecation and laud the quality and achievements of their university.
Russell Leigh Sharman, MA'96
Oxford, England
Musical Interlude
Being an avid, indisciplined history reader, I read with interest the article regarding Armenian folk music [November 1996, "From the Field"]. I am surprised that no mention is made of Dr. James Kay Sutherland (née Hagop Sarkisian), one of the most renowned oud players who also was famous for his academic accomplishments after his arrival in the Boston area in 1920. (He also spent time at the Hood rubber factory, where he stated that the work was "too fast for the body and too slow for the mind.") In 1921 he matriculated to the University of Iowa and emerged in 1926 with B.S. and M.D. degrees.
His book, Adventures of an Armenian Boy (Michigan Press, 1964), is rich in the history of the Armenian massacres as well as the music of Asia Minor. Analysis of the music, as well as illustrations of the scores, indicate a complete mastery of the nuances of the different forms of music that existed in the area. Songs such as "Song of the Orphans" and "Mentivar" literally leap from the pages in depicting the pain endured by the deported Armenians who perished in the desert beyond Aleppo. His depth of knowledge in describing the ghazel as similiar to the tocsin, as an extempore composition limited strictly to a selected mode, was made apparent to a laymen like myself. They differ in that while the tocsin is played on an instrument and has no words, the ghazel is sung to a one-stanza, four-line verse. It is the ghazel that the Mohammedan muezzins sing four times a day from the top of the minarets, improvising in the chosen mode and using prayer instead of poetry. The other riveting sections of the book deal with life in the Ottoman Empire as experienced by Sutherland from 1900 to 1920.
John Olivieri, UC'64, UC'66, MBA'69
Norfolk, Massachusetts
Hats Off
Hats off to Northeastern University Alumni Magazine for its excellent coverage of President Freeland's inauguration. On behalf of other alumni, I'd like to give a special thanks to those administrators, like Robert Culver and others, who have chosen to depart at this changing of the guard [March, "E Line"]. I have always been impressed at Northeastern's ability to both chart and implement its long-range plan. The physical transformation of the campus over the past ten years has irreversibly improved the institution. This success, and others, are due in part to the vision and skill of those who are now leaving. Best wishes to all those who are departing for new challenges.
Steven Bushnell, PHD'92
Medfield, Massachusetts
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