English Retirees Newsletter

24th Edition, September 2014

Chair’s Message

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Walking across campus yesterday with George Kennedy, I happened upon Stanton Linden, my direct predecessor as our department’s specialist in seventeenth-century English literature. To Stan’s question about what brought a chair and former chair together, George simply replied, accurately, “shop talk.” Stan then looked straight at us and said something along the lines of “I am glad I do not have to do shop talk anymore.”

There are, of course, moments in this my second year as chair when Stan’s words are one I would very much like to utter (usually those moments are occupied by lengthy memos). But what I do always like talking about, and via this newsletter hearing about, are the people and the work that make up our community of scholars and teachers.

Indeed, as this academic year begins, I am confident that these people—you included—are the key to advancing our department through the challenges that face Washington State and the academy at large. There are positive signs on the horizon, including the first general pay raise for faculty in more than five years, itself a sign that the economic challenges that had so constricted us might finally have abated. I am also happy to report generally strong enrollments across our courses, and in particular in our first-year writing and introductory humanities and literature courses. There another entering class of nearly 4,000 first-year students will find in our classrooms the personal and intellectual engagement that makes our work distinctively different than the large lecture courses that otherwise populate their schedules. We also admitted another strong group of graduate students, including the first PhD cohort to be granted five rather than four years of guaranteed funding. This commitment represents our recognition not only of the continuing challenges of the academic job market but also of the need to support the kind of time-consuming, sophisticated research and writing that makes for the best scholarly projects.

To teach all these students we welcomed two new members to our faculty, as well as said good-bye to another. Crag Hill, a fifth-year assistant professor in specializing in English Education, departed for a position with the University of Oklahoma’s College of Education, seeking a more direct connection to training the next generation of public school teachers and administrators. To ensure our own English Education program did not falter we brought in James “Bucky” Carter, a former assistant professor at the University of Texas-El Paso, to serve as a two-year visiting assistant professor while we finalized our own permanent hiring plans. Also joining our ranks, in this instance as part of a hire elsewhere in the university, is Donna Potts, formerly a professor of English at Kansas State University, where she specialized in twentieth-century British and Irish literature and ecological criticism. At our campus in Tri-Cities we also welcomed Michelle Balaev, previously a visiting assistant professor at Wake Forest University, as a new assistant professor of twentieth-century American literature and ecocriticism.

As the latter two hires suggest, the department is developing a particular strength in eco-criticism, broadly conceived as not just “nature writing” but how language—and the human beings that use it—not only exist within but influence their environments. In moving forward with our own five-year plan, we have also tentatively identified two additional areas of potential or emerging strength. In studying “Manuscript, Print, and Digital Cultures” we seek to understand how historical and contemporary uses of language are shaped by the very forms in which they are expressed, and how processes of reading and writing considered fundamental to our field undergo change and development across history. Similarly, we are also paying renewed attention to what some might term “Global English,” recognizing growing worldwide interconnectedness of cultures, politics, and economics requires an increased consideration of the myriad ways in which English is used as a local, national, and global resource.

Identifying these and other areas remains a developing conversation in our department, but I offer it to you here to demonstrate (I hope) that we are not simply resting on our laurels. Rather, we hope to continue developing as a community, remaining constant to our core values and long history of scholarship while simultaneously reinforcing the centrality of our work, and the humanities in general, to our university and the citizenry it serves.

These are, of course, lofty goals, ones more easily advanced in the beauty of the Palouse fall than in the more cloud-shrouded darkness of the later parts of the semester. Even so, I would welcome hearing from you on any of these matters, as well as on what you’re doing and how we might stay better connected with you. A house is only as good as its foundation, and I thank you for the study one that you helped build for all of us.

Best,

Todd Butler

Editor’s Note

Greetings to alI. I always enjoy hearing from contributors to this newsletter and wonder about the rest, but I know some folks prefer to check in only occasionally. That is fine. This project is for you and we will be happy to hear from you when you do feel like getting in touch.

Sadly, we must once again begin with obituaries, this time for John Wasson and Linda Kittell. Thanks to Alex Hammond and Nick Kiessling for sending me these notices.

On a more cheerful note: I chatted at length this week with former English undergrad and MA student Bill Flowers as we were both returning to Bainbridge Island on the ferry from Seattle. Bill shifted back and forth in his interests between computing and English, and has made his career in the former. He now works as head of technical support at a Seattle hospital, but spends much of his free time writing a science fiction novel. He mentioned with special affection his work with Barbara Sitko and Alex Kuo. He has a son now attending WSU.

As always, you can click on blue links in the newsletter to take you to various related Web sites. Some may not work if you’re not a Facebook member.

Garrison Keillor ends each broadcast of “Poetry Corner” by saying “Keep in touch.” I think he means this metaphorically because I know from personal experience it’s almost impossible to penetrate the barriers erected by his staff and communicate directly with him. Me—not so much. Keep in touch.

Really.

Paul Brians

Obituaries

Linda Kittell

There’s no warning,
no sign from the dugout: You’re just finished. And there’s no one to tell you how to do it, what pitch
you ought to go out on.

From “Final Pitch” in Love Reports to Spring Training

Linda Ann Kittell, 61, died Jan. 29 where she wanted, at her home on Moscow Mountain in Troy, Idaho. She was born December 2, 1952, in Troy, New York, to Dr. Willis and Ruth Doud Kittell, the second of three children in that marriage.

She attended schools in Troy and spent her summers on Lake Champlain at Isle La Motte, Vermont. She graduated from Emma Willard in 1970 and from the University of Vermont in 1974 with a BA in creative writing and classical Greek. At UVM, she played field hockey and basketball but, as she reminded everyone: “That was before Title IX.” In 1976, she earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana in Missoula working with Richard Hugo, Bill Kittredge and Madeline DeFrees. She then taught Poetry in the schools in Montana as well as a creative writing in a private school in Missoula.

While in Missoula, Linda met her future husband, Ron, and together they moved to Vermont where Linda was the sports and society page editor for a small New England newspaper. Later, she wrote grants for the early “Let’s Talk About It” reading series, became an instructor at the Community College of Vermont, and an employee at Maple Grove Rest Home. Enjoying teaching at the college level, Linda ventured to Idaho where she first taught at the University of Idaho, and then for the last 27 years at Washington State University.

Kittell had many loves in her life—the most important was family. She spoke often of the desire for family after her parent’s divorce, and her daughter, Jessi Linder, became her greatest joy. She told Jessi nightly she she loved her “up to the sky and back and forth.” Her younger brother through her father’s second marriage, Dan, his wife, Jen, and their two children, Abby and Alex, were additional delights. Linda’s family included Ron’s brothers, Dale and George. She also spoke of her many friends as family.

It was writing and the craft that brought the greatest satisfaction. Linda had two collections of poetry—”The Helga Pictures” (2008) and “Love Reports to Spring Training” (2013). An earlier manuscript, “Island Poems,” which was set on Isle La Motte, was not published in a collected form, but the poems all “found a home” as she would say. There were many other poems that were not part of a series that were also published. One, a contest-winning poem, is part of the permanent collection in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Kittell wrote more than poems; she also wrote short stories, letters, essays and critical pieces. Her correspondences with Roger Angell were published in The New Yorker. A letter in support of Planned Parenthood potentially placed her on the docket to speak before Congress but became unnecessary when funding was restored. Among her numerous critical works was the analysis of the influence of baseball on American culture, which she delivered at the Cooperstown Symposium presenting evidence that baseball was second to only the Norman Conquest for the number of words or expressions introduced to American English.

This dedication to the craft of writing led to twenty-seven years at WSU where she taught creative writing, research writing, humanities, and literature classes. She was a tough but fair teacher who gave tirelessly to those who desired. She read constantly and occasionally repetitively—she would become so involved with the crafting of a piece that she would often forget that she had read something previously, simply saying upon completion, “I think I have read this before.”

Kittell enjoyed good conversation and displayed a quick wit. Her laughter could fill a room. She was honest and trusting to a fault, loved to cook, and was infatuated by prawns and macaroons.

John Wasson

John Marvin Wasson, 85, beloved father and renowned medieval scholar, died peacefully at Greenfield Assisted Living on Sunday, October 20, 2013, surrounded by family and friends.  

John served in the U.S. Army during both the occupation of Japan and the Korean Conflict. He was awarded a Purple Heart in Korea, breaking his back on his 23rd parachute jump as an Army paratrooper.

Wasson used the G.I. Bill to further his education, earning a PhD in English literature from Stanford University in 1957. Soon after, he became a professor of English at Washington State University, where he taught medieval and Renaissance literature until retirement.

John’s career highlights include authoring Subject and Structure, a college writing textbook that went through a then-record eight editions. He wrote a manual on paleography, published many articles on medieval and Renaissance literature, and, along with his wife, Barbara Palmer, authored several volumes of the Records of Early English Drama.

He is survived by his four loving children, Jody Galt (George) of Boulder Creek, Calif., David Wasson of Davao del Norte, Philippines, Adam Wasson of Los Angeles, Calif., and Matthew Wasson of Todd, N.C.; two sisters, Grace Cogswell of Ormond Beach, Fla., and Mary Jane Archer (James) of Apple Valley, Calif.; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

Paul Brians (WSU 1968–2008)

We have had a busy year. Immediately after sending off last year’s newsletter Paula and I headed to New York to visit with daughter Megan. The highlight of our trip was the Mark Rylance production of Twelfth Night which originated at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. It featured a hugely talented all-male cast, musicians using period instruments on stage, and authentic costumes and sets. We all pronounced it the best theatrical experience we’d ever had. I think John Wasson would have loved it.

Megan now visits us on Bainbridge Island in late August and at Christmastime. This fall we began her visit with two days of hiking in Mount Rainier National Park, where were able to explore much more widely than Paula and I had on our first visit years ago.

In August we enjoyed trips to Long Beach, Washington and Neah Bay.

We have enjoyed hosting a number of other visitors this year, including Alice Spitzer, Jana Argersinger, and Birgitta Ingemanson.

Besides a couple of great performances by the Seattle Symphony under Ludovic Morlot, we enjoyed three wonderful theatrical events in the city: Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich’s Radiolab, an excellent local production of Spamalot, and Book-It Theatre’s five-hour adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

We also thoroughly enjoyed the annual Fremont Solstice Parade, including the enormous throng of bicycle riders clad in little more than ingeniously applied body paint. The slideshow of my photos of that event has so far received almost 6,000 views on YouTube.

Paula continues to sing with her choral groups, but she has also been pursuing her theatrical interests in a number of acting workshops. In February she flew to Texas for a reunion of “The Knitters” hosted by Bonnie Frederick and Susanna Finnell.

I also contributed many pictures for articles in Inside Bainbridge, including this amusing shot of a girl and her mom consulting respectively their analog and digital devices.

I continued my volunteer work with the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, having my photos appear in all three of the local papers plus a local slick quarterly and hung from banners at the ferry terminal as part of the celebration of BILT’s 25th anniversary. I offered my services as a garden photographer in the organization’s annual fundraising auction. The winning bid of one thousand dollars led to several shoots over five months in a lovely shoreline garden, culminating in a handsome illustrated hardbound book which just arrived in the mail.

I gave a well-attended illustrated talk on “The Wildflowers of Bainbridge Island” at the community center, and also presented my Roots of Star Wars talk twice: at the public library, and for staff at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

I was asked to document the annual local garden tour for the Arts & Humanities organization that sponsors it, and had fun photographing volunteers and visitors in some lovely settings.

A sad event this year was the sudden death of Jim Leisy, the publisher of my Common Errors in English Usage. We attended a wonderful memorial event for him in the Portland Art Museum. His colleague Tom Sumner continues to run William, James & Co. and support my work. Ten years ago NBC news paid them a considerable sum for the right to reproduce my book on their Web site. This year they renewed the license with a smaller check which was still sufficient to help finance our upcoming trip to Europe.

A Canadian press remarkably paid me to tell them that the new edition of Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground they were publishing was terrible. I was supposed to write a blurb, but wound up doing a critique instead.

I continue to post pictures frequently on Facebook and post new entries on my Common Errors in English Usage blog.

I have become an enthusiastic Doctor Who fan and am greatly enjoying the turn toward comedy marked by the casting of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor.

Favorite movie seen recently: Boyhood.

Favorite novel read this year: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. I devoured it and immediately started reading it aloud to Paula and recommending to anyone who would listen.

Diane Gillespie (WSU 1957-2001)

Life in retirement begins to follow a pattern: travel, research and publication, concerts, plays, volunteer activities and related meetings. Adding more medical appointments and memorial services to these, we know we are getting older.

Last fall Dick and I went, with Road Scholar, to Bar Harbor, Maine, to hike in Acadia National Park. Unfortunately, due to a major attack of legislative paralysis, national parks closed the day after we got there. Our Road Scholar leaders were pretty good at finding places to hike outside the park, however, and the educational commentaries were enlightening (on, for example, the competitive world of lobster fishing and the lavish “cottages” built by wealthy people who wanted to vacation “down” in Maine). After that tour, we met friends for a week in a rustic cabin right on the coast. Dick’s brother and wife from Rotterdam then joined us in New Hampshire for several days with Domey relatives.

Other travel included my trip to present a paper at the 24th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, this past June at Loyola University in Chicago. I continue to explore unusual publications by the Woolf’s Hogarth Press. This time I related a 1938 novel entitled The Refugees by a little-known Jewish- American woman writer, Libby Benedict, to Virginia Woolf’s 1938 anti-fascist book, Three Guineas.

Not long ago, we took a short car trip into British Columbia—Castlegar, Naskup, Tasloe, Creston—all of which were having art walks and floral competitions. We had just finished working on the Gladish Community and Cultural Center’s contribution to Pullman’s Art Walk, so we enjoyed seeing what some Canadian communities are doing. Much more, on the whole.

Our more recent trip to Duluth MN/SuperiorWI was to attend a memorial service for my only, and younger, sister Carole, at rest after eight years of medical ordeals. It was a sad time for me, but worthwhile to reconnect with her three grown sons and their families, cousins with whom we grew up, and a friend from high school days. Carole’s sons have started an art scholarship fund in the southern Wisconsin school system where she taught art for so many years, a fitting memorial to her and a reminder, as she always said, that “Art is basic.”

Travel in the immediate future will include a trip to eastern OR to see Dick’s son and family and possibly another trip out east to visit with Dick’s brother, sister, and nephews. Beyond that, we are finding it increasingly difficult to decide among travel options and to get out of our comfort zone. Long-distance plane travel is no pleasure, and the world as a whole is such a chaotic and violent place.

Greetings to former colleagues and thanks to Paul for again keeping us in touch.

Diane Gillespie

945 SE Glen Echo Rd.
Pullman, WA 99163
Email: gillespie@pullman.com

Rich Haswell (WSU 1967–1980)

A year ago last fall I found myself creeping around the house with a cane, sometimes two canes. Had one hip replaced in November, the other in December. Recovery was quick and I was climbing Lookout Mountain, right behind the house, before the snow had completely melted. I spent all this summer hiking the high trails here in SW Colorado, up to and above the timber line. My hips are about age 35. Too bad the rest of me is still 74.

Other news? Daughter Elizabeth made tenure at Washington University in St. Louis, biology department. She is a researcher, teaches one course a year. Daughter Christine is now an executive with Chevron, currently at a refinery in Vancouver, B. C. This summer Jan and I got the second volume of our authoring series accepted, by Colorado University Press. It is called Authoring and Hospitality: An Essay for the English Profession. Due out next spring.

Rich Haswell

Bill Hirschfeld (WSU 1978–1988)

Thank you, Paul, for keeping this noble tradition going. I was saddened to learn of the loss of Bruce Anawalt, Bob Johnson and Ron Meldrum. I remember fondly their warm welcome and encouragement when I joined the department. Hard to believe that was 35 years ago.

Between volunteer work and a host of activities at my retirement community just southwest of St. James Cathedral, I am keeping as busy as ever.

In July and August I took a seven-week “vacation” to visit our daughter, Mary (BA in Econ WSU; PhD Harvard) in Pennsylvania where she is now in her third year at Villanova as a Professor of Economics and Theology in the Humanities Department. She is enjoying teaching humanities and inter-disciplinary courses in humanities and economics. I accompanied her to Notre Dame to sit in with a couple of dozen others on the successful defense of her dissertation: “Virtuous Consumption in a Dynamic Economy: A Thomistic Engagement with Neoclassical Economics.” The premise is that the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas can help overcome the impasse between economists who set aside ethical questions raised by the market economy such as materialism or economic injustice, and theologians who tend to dismiss economists for doing so.

I spent the next six weeks helping her move from an apartment which was a 45 minutes to 1 hour drive (depending on traffic) from her office, to a townhouse she purchased on Rebel Hill above Gulph Mills—just a five-minute drive from Villanova. I learned that this is the site of a brief December 1777 encampment of Washington and the Continental Army on retreat from Germantown to Valley Forge. She has a lovely view from this hilltop to nearby heavily wooded hills. I helped ready the new place for occupancy, doing some home improvement work myself and helping engage tradesmen to do things I had neither tools nor stamina to undertake. And we moved a lot of small stuff (including many boxes of books) to the new place. It was a very welcome change of pace for me and the weather was relatively cool for part of the visit!

Bill Hirschfeld

725 Ninth Ave., Apt. 1305
Seattle 98104

Virginia Hyde (WSU 1970–2004)

I can write only a short letter this time because of having had a bad accident: I stumbled and fell down a staircase at home, breaking my collar bone and sustaining a number of injuries. Don not worry: I am doing fine now but can use only one hand to type because the other arm is still in a sling! Interestingly enough, the doctor who has helped me with the broken bone turned out to be my former student in the Honors Program. Some of you may remember Edwin Tingstad, now Dr. Tingstad, Orthodic Surgeon. Doesn’t this speak well of our program?

Dave says that, since I cannot write much, I should send a recent photo to show that I have been staying active this year. Who can tell where it was taken?

Dave and I have continued to write in our fields. Two of my books, The Risen Adam and the Cambridge edition of Lawrence’s Mornings in Mexico and Other Essays (with all the essays Lawrence wrote in America about Southwestern and Mexican Indians), went into paperback. I also wrote poetry, reviews, essays, and introductions and guest-edited a journal about some early twentieth-century British literature, published at Seoul University. I am trying to get together a small book of my poetry, too. I am going through many versions of manuscript and old publications.

All summer long we have had beautiful flowers in the yard—red roses in front and mauve, purple, and white petunias in the back—along with flowering (now fruitful) orchard trees and a splendid, spreading tomato plant where the fruits are growing ruddy and ripe for future salads.

I often think of you all and hope you are enjoying retirement to the full! Much applause to Paul Brians for putting together the Newsletter so beautifully!

Virginia Hyde

Nick Kiessling (WSU 1967–2000)

Dear Fellow Retirees,

Just a second please, I have to get my 2013 and 2014 diaries to see what I did after the last Newsletter. Yes, the years are beginning to merge for me, but I now see that 2013-4 was eventful. The diaries are full of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) appointments, racketball games, seminar meetings twice a week at Rico’s. There are also records of a biking escapade with reprobates from the seminars to Oregon, a dozen Priest Lake breaks (our last year there, I am afraid, so we are using the cabin a lot; and, sadly, I sold my Sunfish sailboat), three trips to New York and Swarthmore to record some 1441 early modern printed items on Excel for an auction sale next month at Swann’s in New York, week-long vacations in Florida and Seattle, attendance at a birthday party for William Shakespeare’s 450th at the William Andrews Clark Library, the purchase of our first new car since we bought new VWs in graduate school, and trips with sons Mark or Dan to New York, Vancouver, B.C., Montana, and Priest Lake. Yes, the year was busy and, for us at least, exciting.

Karen is busier than ever with League of Women Voter duties, and I have had accepted my final scholarly article. It focusses on a former priest with a checkered background who acquired, in one way or another from various monasteries and nunneries in the British Isles, some 20,000 Catholic printed items, among which are 7,500 recusant publications, and sold them to American libraries from 1968 to the year of his death, 1984. Our kids also did well. Dan had his first exhibition of his art, and Mark earned his R.N. Will jobs with retirement packages and medical insurance follow?

We remain in touch with several colleagues here in Pullman. Stan and Lucy are our neighbors, Al von Frank organizes golfing excursions which I join once in awhile, and Alex Hammond came to Priest Lake to show off his expertise in the Sunfish (he is a better sailor than I). On rare occasions I have beer sessions with Will Hamlin and Michael Hanly. Though entertaining, these in no way make me wish I were still teaching and participating in committee meetings. The English Department is going on its merry way without the help of any retirees, and new ideas that excite current members of the department seem more or less recasting of old, but that is an elder’s view. What is prompting new directions of research is the use of computer technology for studies of style. One failure of the department is to find funding for the continuation at WSU of ESQ and Poe Studies. If the two go, despite the efforts of Al von Frank and Alex Hammond, they will be a huge loss.

All the best to all of you.

Nick Kiessling

Howard McCord (WSU 1960–1971)

I have had a most interesting year. On April 20, I flew to Paris with my eldest daughter Susannah. During our nine-day stay, I met with the producer who has taken an option on my novel, The Man Who Walked to the Moon. He took us to the Musée d’Orsay after lunch to see the wonderful Gustave Doré exhibit. He wants to use the palette of his Inferno illustrations in the movie, somber grays.

The next day we met Thierry Gillyboeuf, who has translated two hundred of my poems for a diplomatic edition which is now at Isolato Press. He is an extraordinary translator who has done all of Emerson as well as The Journals of Thoreau, and many other volumes. I walked from our hotel near the Luxembourg Gardens to RING publishers, which produced my En marchant vers l’extrême.

I did a video interview with them which is on their website with French subtitles.

Then we met Pierre Cendors and his wife, Eva. He is a novelist and critic who has done two fine interviews with me in the past as well as dedicating his latest novel to me for stimulating his travels into the interior of Iceland where the novel takes place. Eva is a singer and writer who sang a song about Cerridwen. She brought her violinist to accompany her as she sang in my hotel room. She has a concert coming in October and will sing it there as well.

On April 30, Susannah and I took the night train from Paris to Venice, where I was to spend the next two months with a residency from the Emily Harvey Foundation. My apartment was in San Polo on the western bank of the Grand Canal, close to the Rialto Bridge, and the fish and vegetable markets, on an alley called Calle dei Cinque, is a spacious one bedroom apartment with a large

living room, kitchen, and bath. It was newly renovated with all new appliances. I particularly loved the timbered twelve-foot ceilings.

Over the next two months I walked the streets and lanes of Venice and particularly enjoyed not seeing an automobile for the entire period.

Susannah returned home after a week, but she was followed by a visit from Eva, youngest daughter, and youngest son, Wyatt Asher and his bride, Jessi, on their European honeymoon. Finally on June 10, Jennifer arrived as her semester was over. She stayed until we flew home on July 5.

The wonders of Venice are many, and it is a city which excites the imagination. I took in all that I could, and I will be vain enough to expect some book to emerge from this experience. Always, of course, God willing and the creeks do not rise.

Susan H. McLeod (WSU 1986-2001)

Dear WSU friends,

First, many thanks to Paul for doing this; I always enjoy hearing how everyone is doing.

We are well and continue to enjoy San Diego and retirement, in that order. We do travel, though. This year we were in Carmel to spend some time with old friends from graduate school days, in Redondo Beach for a family wedding, in Santa Barbara to see friends from my UCSB days, in LA and environs several times for concerts and the wonderful Byzantium exhibit at the Getty Villa, and of course in Portland to be with our little granddaughter Paityn.

But there is much here in San Diego to keep us busy, especially great theater and music. We particularly enjoy productions at the Old Globe (“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” was a standout) and chamber music at the La Jolla Summerfest. This year we also took part in the second annual San Diego Choral Festival, and although the schedule was exhausting (rehearsals all day, concerts at night), it was great fun. It was nice to know we still have some vocal chops left after all these years.

We did take an international trip this year, one organized by the Semester at Sea folks (they use the ship in between semesters for what they call Enrichment Voyages). It was a Baltic cruise, and although we learned more about the Hanseatic League than one probably needs to know, I must admit the lectures were superb. Our main reason for going was that St. Petersburg has been on our bucket list for a long time, and we are happy to have seen it (the picture below is of the spectacular Spilled Blood church).

But in fact our favorite stop was Tallinn, Estonia, which has a lovely medieval town at its center. On our first day there we were treated to an extraordinary concert in an ancient monastery (used as a car repair shop during the Soviet occupation); we were fascinated to learn about the role of music in preserving a sense of Estonian nationality. I was also quite taken by the Estonian language, one that is not part of the Indo-European language group but is related to Finnish and (distantly) to Hungarian and to the Sami languages. How the various people speaking these related languages settled where they did is an interesting puzzle.

Here at home both of us keep busy with volunteer work here (I tutor international students and Doug is a tax volunteer with AARP). I am still the editor for two book series in rhetoric and composition, a position that involves a lot of coaching; I enjoy working with young faculty authors who are trying to get their first book published. Recently I have been getting to know the faculty in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies at San Diego State, and have enjoyed giving guest lectures for them.

Susan H. McLeod

Fred Schwarzbach (WSU 1987–1992)

I am not retired yet, though I did pass 65 this year. As I write, I am just back from a whirlwind three-city European tour—Florence, Paris, London—visiting new students in our Liberal Studies international freshmen programs. I never expected to be doing so much travel at NYU, but this year I will likely be in London and Paris three times each, and, though plans are in flux, Abu Dhabi, Berlin, and Shanghai may be added to the list of places I visit.

I spent the summer writing an article (my first in quite some time) and preparing to teach my first class in a few years. It has been both challenging and rewarding to recover (at least for a few months) the rhythm and substance of faculty life and to think about what role I would like to play here after I am done deaning.

Some of you may remember my daughter, Betsy, who was all of eight years old when we left the Palouse. She lives in NY these days, and is running the supply chain for an international restaurant company that is expanding into the U.S. market. I have actually very little sense of what “supply chain” means, but it appears to involve a lot of IT work and a lot of travel. She is also become an avid marathoner, with four to her credit so far and a 30-mile race coming up in October.

Regards to all,

Fred

Barbara Sitko (WSU 1989–2005)

Greetings from western PA, where we survived one of the coldest winters on record as well as the 7th coldest July, with predictions from such sources as the Farmers’ Almanacs, the size of local acorns, and squirrel activity indicating that we have another blast coming soon. It was a good growing season for our patio tomatoes, peas and beans, though, so we are ready for winter soups.

Jeannette and I plan a little travel to Florida in October—joining the traditional fall stream of Ohioans down the I-95 corridor. Mid-summer, we joined a bus tour in the other direction, led by the Post-Gazette theatre critic, taking in seven plays in four days at two festivals, Shakespeare at Stratford and Shaw at Niagara- on-the-Lake.

Marcellus Shale and fracking issues have grown close to home. A neighbor has authorized drilling on the southern border of our community center property, so a spire is rising in the middle of a football-field size clearing next to the large cornfield that is part of our original land grant from the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Luckily, tracts of trees frame the area of our conference and retreat centers, as well as our residential buildings, so we do not anticipate a great disturbance. But we continue to seek legal advice and host informational meetings for the surrounding community, some of whom are regretting decisions to sell land close to their homes. New lawsuits seem to be reported daily in the press, including one against our county commissioners for allowing the peace of a rural area to be disturbed! Statistics on environmental damage are updated regularly, usually adding more instances of early and unreported damage in nearby counties. One hopeful sign is that newer procedures and stronger drilling materials appear to be reducing environmental damage.

I still play keyboard for our congregational liturgies and hope to do so for as long as arthritic fingers allow. We continue a subscription to the Pittsburgh Symphony, enjoy the Met in HD in Youngstown, and catch community theatre often. With theatre companies populated by students and alumni of our local universities, we are treated to all the good drama and good music we can fit into our schedules.

And finally, this year marks the 150th anniversary of our congregation’s arrival in America. If you are interested, celebrations and records of those early days are detailed on our website.

Barbara Sitko

238 Meadowbrook Dr.
New Wilmington, PA 16142
Email: sitko@wsu.edu

Nelly C. Zamora (WSU 1976-2003)

We are still blessed with relatively good health and we continue to travel whenever we can. In my 2013 letter, I mentioned that Cesar and I would be visiting families in the Philippines in October–November. During this trip, we went to visit Visayas State University in Leyte two weeks before typhoon Haiyan wreaked havoc to the province. Such a beautiful place to visit, and it was in ruins 2 weeks later. While in the Philippines, we went on a 10-day tour of Vietnam. Typhoon Haiyan followed us in Hue (a UNESCO world heritage site) and one of our trips was cancelled due to rain and wind. The group stayed in the hotel, however, together with our tour guide, we were able to go to mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. Overall, we had a good trip as we saw several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We came home to Pullman in time for Thanksgiving and we celebrated Christmas with families and friends in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We were back in the Philippines in February-March, 2014, and during that time, we made a side trip to South Korea. We joined tours that took us to different places of interest in Seoul to explore the local history, customs, and culture. An interesting tour took us to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. The DMZ is a short (approximately 1 hour) trip from Seoul. It is about 4 km wide (2 km north and 2 km south of the demarcation line) that winds its way for 250 km (150 mi) across the waist of the Korean peninsula. It is a heavily mined, barricaded, and patrolled “no-man’s land.” Across the dividing line in the North Korean side of the DMZ, we saw mainly farmland, a tall flagpole with the North Korean flag, and a village where no one appears to live there; Americans called this “propaganda village.” We also went into one of the tunnels that the North Koreans dug under the DMZ in an attempt to sneak troops into the south.

In April, we booked ourselves to visit Valencia and Barcelona in Spain during Holy Week. The highlight of this trip was seeing the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona. It is awesome. It has a magnificently elaborate design inside and out.

Inside, the roof is held by pillars which soar toward the ceiling and sprout a web of supporting branches, creating the effect of a forest canopy.

The windows are covered by variously stained glasses that give various colors as sunlight passes through them. (Please see attached photo to view the exterior design). The basilica was designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. Construction started in 1882, and even though incomplete, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The anticipated completion is 2026, the centennial of Gaudi’s death.

In July, we visited friends that we have not seen for years in Philadelphia, PA. They took us to several points of interest but the memorable part of this trip is visiting the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City; very touching, indeed. In September, we joined our friends in a tour of the BENELUX countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg). We had wonderful weather throughout the tour and thoroughly enjoyed everything we saw in these three countries.

In late October, we will again be on our way to visit families and friends in the Philippines.

I retired in 2003 and can say that the retirement years have been very good to us. Here is hoping for another good year. I hope you are all doing well. I will look forward to read your contributions to the newsletter. Thanks Paul for continuing this newsletter.

Best wishes to all of you.

Nelly Zamora

1710 NW Deane Street
Pullman, WA 99163-3508
Email: nellyczamora@hotmail.com