Class of ’59 – March/April 2010

Remembering the good old days: “One of the highlights of reading each issue of the Cornell Alumni Magazine for me is the recollections of alumni of their student life on the ‘Hill,’” writes Andy Jamison. Among his favorite memories: (1) “The supremely delicious breakfast waffle served in the Ivy Room, a reward for attending an 8 o’clock class on a cold Saturday morning in January,” and (2) “being a bench-warmer on the freshman basketball team and then watching the varsity game, dazzled by the shots of Chuck Rolles ’56.”

More recollections: making flying angels in the snow and working of costumes for the Dramatic Club (Joan Travis Pittel); triple- or quadruple-flicking (Larry Schnadig); late- night cherry and apple turnovers at Obie’s Diner (Phyllis Corwin Rogers); Sunday services at Sage Chapel (Jean Finerty Wandel); hanging out with the smart, arty crowd in the music room (Carol Lipis); the very invigorating dorm in winter, with windows open and no heat (John Kriendler); the snow finally melting, Peter Yarrow’s singing and Vladimir Nabokov’s course (Richard Horwich).

Several issues back I posted a question from John Fickling: Does anyone recall the names of the books read in Nabokov’s course? Joan Reinberg MacMillan ’58 says that in the spring of 1958 the class read Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson), The Greatcoat (Gogol), Metamorphosis (Kafka), Swann’s Way (Proust) and Ulysses (Joyce). “I found it very strange,” Joan says, “that after reading Ulysses with nary a mention of Mollie’s monologue, Nabokov published Lolita that summer. Was he basically a dirty old man?” Joan reminds us how Nabokov’s wife, Vera, was a constant presence during class and used to write on the chalkboard for him. “As a matter of fact,” says Joan, “when Stacy Schiff was writing Vera: A Portrait of a Marriage (Random House, 2000) she interviewed me for information about Vera’s role in his classes.”

When Jane Taubert Wiegand took Nabokov’s course the books were Mansfield Park (Austen), Bleak House (Dickens), Madame Bovary (Flaubert), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Swann’s Way, Metamorphosis and Ulysses. Writes Jane: “About twenty years ago I was browsing through a bin of remaindered books and discovered Lectures on Literature by Nabokov. It was a compendium of his lectures including reproductions of some of his lecture notes. I bought it immediately and proceeded to ‘retake the course,’ having kept the original books. It was wonderful! I read Vera about five years ago; I’ll never forget Vera sitting on the stage, the perfect lady, during his lectures, keeping his records and smiling at his jokes, which you knew she had heard many times.”

Thanks to a significant anonymous bequest the Class of 1959 Scholarship Fund is now valued at approximately $300,000. Our VP for Class Scholarships, Marian Fay Levitt, received a lovely note from the current recipient of our scholarship, Evan Antoine, a junior in the Ag School majoring in communications. He writes: “the fulfillment that I have received from attending Cornell would not have been made possible without the kindness and generosity that I have been provided through this scholarship. I want my donors to know that I will not let them down and I will give my all to achieve my goals so that one day I too can help fulfill the dreams of an aspiring college student.”

Recent travels and gatherings: Post-reunion get-togethers of Kappa (in New Hampshire) and Chi Psi (in Maine) classmates. A voyage on the Danube by John and Norma Perkins Thomas. A riverboat cruise on the Seine by Chuck and Nancy Sterling Brown. A month in New Zealand by Carole Parnes. Charleston and Pawleys Island, SC by Jane Wiegand.

At a ceremony in London last October The Economist presented its annual Innovation Awards. The winner of the business process award was Ratan Tata, for pioneering the globalization of corporate India. Noted the Economist: “In 1991 Mr. Tata assumed the reins of his family-run company. He has since been the architect of a series of bold foreign acquisitions and is the man behind the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano, which costs $2,200.” In December, the Tata Group unveiled a new low-cost water purifier named the Tata Swach (after the Hindi for “clean”). The device, which sells for less than $22, is designed to be used in poor rural households that have no electricity or running water. It uses ash from rice milling to filter out bacteria and tiny silver particles to kill germs that can cause diarrhea, cholera and other deadly waterborne diseases. The company aims to sell 3 million units in the next 5 years. • Jenny Tesar, 97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801; tel., (203) 792-8237; e-mail, jet24@cornell.edu.