Prelude: The Chipmunk Connection - Moravian College

SUMMER 2010 

Moravian 

Words Count 

Moravian writers 

imagine, interpret, 

make meaning of our world

Moravian

summer 

2 Prelude: The Chipmunk Connection 

By Lois Brunner Bastian ’60 

10 Of People and Places 

Joyce Hinnefeld, associate professor of 

English, speaks the language of landscape in 

her stories, poems, and essays. 

14 Not Your Mother’s Freshman Comp 

Effective writing requires more process, less 

rhetoric, says English professor Joel Wingard. 

16 Writers at the Center 

By nurturing ideas, the Moravian Writing 

Center develops better writers and thinkers. 

18 Brave New Words 

2010 

Sandra Novack-Gottshall ’98, whose first 

novel was published by Random House last 

year, is forging life as a writer of fiction. 

04 Out & About 

20 Alumni News 

22 Greyhound Sports 

23 Transitions 

24 Orbis Pictus: “Translation,” 

poem and artwork by Alexis Vergalla ’06 

See www.moravian.edu/magazine/extra for more from 

this issue. 

Moravian College Magazine : editor, Victoria Bingham; 

sports editor, Mark J. Fleming; web manager, Christie Jacobsen ’00; 

director of publications, Susan Overath Woolley; 

director of public relations and marketing, Michael P. Wilson. 

Creative Direction: Jane Firor & Associates. 

Alumni Relations: director, Marsha Stiles, M.B.A. ’99; 

assistant director, Patricia Murray Hanna ’82. 

Copyright 2010 by Moravian College. Photographs and artwork copyright 

by their respective creators or by Moravian College. All rights reserved. 

No portion of this publication may be reused or republished in any form 

without express written permission. 

Cover: Joyce Hinnefeld, associate professor of English and Cohen 

Chair in English and Literature, plans lessons, meets students, grades 

papers, and shapes language into stories in her Zinzendorf office. 

photo by John Kish IV 

Cover and Contents photos by John Kish IV.

p r e l u d e Stories from the Moravian community 

> 

Courtesy of Nancy and Ben Evans 

2 MORAVIAN COLLEGE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2010

The Chipmunk Connection 

By Lois Brunner Bastian ’50 

How could the lives of two Moravian College alumni—strangers 

who graduated more than fifty years apart—be linked by chipmunks? 

It sounds improbable, even impossible. But “uncanny” is a 

far better word to describe this story. 

It began many years after I graduated from Moravian College 

for Women as an English major. In time, I became a freelance 

writer/photographer, publishing newspaper and magazine articles 

on travel and any other subject that piqued my curiosity. 

That’s when chipmunks bounded into my New Jersey backwoods 

and became an obsession. Appealing and unapproachable, 

they presented a challenge. I wanted to know more about their 

secret lives. 

When one of them took refuge in a downspout, I saw an opportunity 

to get closer. Holding out sunflower seeds in the palm of my 

hand, I would wait and wait by the mouth of the spout. One day, 

the animal snatched the food and bolted back into the spout. After 

that breakthrough, the spout became unnecessary. The chipmunk 

would come to me as I sat outside, cautiously climbing my leg, into 

my lap or onto my shoulder, wherever the food was. 

So began thirty seasons of observing, hand feeding, watching 

courtship and mating, as well as photographing a series of mothers 

together with their litters. Because the mother trusted me, so did her 

young ones, as I sat beside their burrow. 

Before the young left to make burrows of their own, I often 

spent eight hours a day watching their behavior. They examined 

every leaf, blade of grass, and twig nearby. Trying to stand on their 

hind legs, they lost their balance at first and toppled over. That 

would take practice. They teetered on twigs too slender to support 

them. Fluttering leaves and the shadow of a flying 

bird sent them fleeing underground. 

Books about the life cycle of Tamias 

striatus are plentiful, but I’d never found one 

describing a mother with her offspring. Hmmm 

. . . was there a market for such a book? In 

2000, Chipmunk Family, my nonfiction book 

for young people, was published. 

That seemed to culminate my wildlife 

experience. Until eight years later, when I 

received a poignant letter. It came from Nancy 

Evans, a stranger who lived in Lansdale, Pa. 

She explained that she and her husband, Ben, 

were the parents of David Evans, who was 

killed twenty-three days 

before his twenty-third 

birthday—and two weeks 

before he was to graduate 

from Moravian. Dave, a 

computer art and graphic 

design major, was awarded 

his diploma posthumously 

in May 2004. 

Nancy wrote to tell me 

how my story was woven 

together with Dave’s story. “He was very enamored of chipmunks,” 

she wrote. “When Dave went hiking with his older brothers, he 

wished he could catch one for a pet.” 

As a bereaved mother, she was trying to “stay connected to her 

son in any way and every way” she could. She and her husband 

spent time at a local arboretum, hoping chipmunks would appear, 

as if they represented a message from their son. 

For Christmas 2007, Ben ordered several chipmunk books for 

her. “He ran into months-long difficulty trying to purchase your 

book,” she wrote. “First they backordered it and he waited. Then he 

got notice that it was out of print. He gave up.” 

In April 2008, Nancy received a package in the mail. It was her 

husband’s Christmas gift to her: my book. “I opened it and read 

about you in the Meet the Author section. Well, I stopped in my 

tracks when I read, ‘Ms. Bastian was born in Bethlehem, Pa., and 

graduated from Moravian College.’” 

Dave’s classmates planted a tree on the Church Street campus in 

his memory. The Evans family comes to Bethlehem 

regularly to place a wreath beneath it. On 

one of their visits, we met, after I had moved 

back to Bethlehem. 

Nancy ended her letter with these words. 

“You, your background, and your book are to 

me another connection with my dear Dave, and 

I find joy in it! Thank you for the delightful 

look at these oh-so-charming animals. We are 

not strangers, but friends who met through a 

young man and a book.” 

That alone makes writing the book worth 

the effort. W 

Photo by Lois Brunner Bastian 

A book by Lois Brunner Bastian ’50 (above) 

was the basis for a healing friendship with 

the family of David Evans ’04 (page 2). 

SUMMER 2010 MORAVIAN COLLEGE MAGAZINE 3

out&a b o u t 

A Graduation Story 

David Fisher ’10, who graduated from Moravian with 

Honors in May, overcame a traumatic childhood to 

succeed academically. 

photo by grad images 

David Fisher ’10 could write a book about persistence in the 

face of adversity. The May 2010 Moravian graduate overcame 

a traumatic childhood that included homelessness to finish his 

Moravian years with dual degrees in psychology and sociology 

with Honors. He will enter grad school at Lehigh University this 

fall on a full scholarship, on his way to fulfilling his dream of 

becoming a professor. 

At Moravian, Fisher worked hard and rarely spoke of his 

past. For Professor Robert Brill’s psychology class, Fisher wrote 

a prize-winning research paper that suggested how Wegmans 

food markets could prevent the annual loss of $4 million in 

unscanned items beneath shopping carts. Psychology professor 

Dana S. Dunn was so impressed with Fisher that he invited him 

to co-author a research study and book review. Another Moravian 

mentor, sociology chair Debra Wetcher-Hendricks, helped 

open the door for Fisher at Lehigh, where he will begin graduate 

study with a teaching assistantship in August. 

“I’m not genius smart,” said Fisher. “I study hard. I work 

hard. I do homework. I didn’t want to become a statistic.” 

Fisher’s story was featured in local and regional media, including 

ABC-TV Philadelphia. Read the Morning Call story 

at http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_mc-bethlehemdavid.7265780may16,0,1893721.story. 

HAPPENING . . . 

August 30 

First day of classes 

Students and professors get down 

to business (and biology, English, 

music, and other academic matters) 

in classrooms on both ends of the 

Moravian Mile. 

for more details, see www.moravian.edu/news, or call 610 861-1300 

September 25 

Family Day 

9:00 A.M.–7:00 p.m. • Something fun for 

everyone! Hockey, football, tailgating, 

Celtic Celebration party, and special 

interest sessions. Watch our website 

for online registration and more 

information. 


June Guitar Classic 

Classical guitarists Duo Mellis (husband and wife 

Susana Prieto and Alexis Muzurakis, above) instruct 

and encourage a young student (right) at a master 

class given at the Bethlehem Guitar Festival. Festival 

founder and director John Arnold, Moravian artistlecturer, 

highlighted “Married Couples” for the 

event’s 10th anniversary. 

photos by john kish iv 

“Married Couples” filled Peter Hall with 

the sweet sounds of classical and steel string 

guitars paired with lute, piano, and voice 

in early June, marking the 10th anniversary 

of the Bethlehem Guitar Festival. Presented 

by the Moravian College Department of 

Music and C. F. Martin Guitar Co., the 

festival featured concert performances by 

multi-award-winning Duo Mellis (husband 

and wife Susana Prieto and Alexis Muzurakis) 

and Thom Bresh, son of the legendary 

Merle Travis. Four other duos also 

performed, and Martin Guitar’s Dick Boak 

spoke about Martin Signature Editions. 

Duo Mellis, which closed the festival 

with a Saturday evening concert, drew rave 

reviews for their “astounding sense of intimate 

communication.” Prieto of Spain and 

Muzurakis of Greece have been performing 

internationally together since 1999, and 

have been married since 1996. The couple 

performed a Spanish-flavored repertoire that 

included “Sonatina Canonica” by Mario 

Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Manuel de Falla’s flamenco-inspired 

“The Short Life,” and three 

dances by the Argentine composer Alberto 

Ginastera—all beautifully synchronized. 

Festival founder John Arnold, Moravian 

artist-lecturer in classical guitar, directs 

the annual event, which includes a guitar 

expo, workshops, master classes, recitals, 

and concerts. Aspiring musicians—as young 

as elementary school age—have a rare 

opportunity to learn from the pros at the 

festival. This year, Duo Mellis conducted 

private master classes with young local musicians, 

while Moravian’s Arnold offered a 

workshop. Arnold is a member of the flute 

and guitar duo Two Part Invention, which 

records for Bummer Tent Records. 

Vist Our New Website 

October 27 

2010 Janet A. Sipple Lecture 

Foy Hall 

5:30 P.M. • “Globalization and Urbanization 

and the Risks to Women,” a lecture by 

Dr. Afaf I. Meleis, Margaret Bond Simon 

Dean of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania 

School of Nursing. 

Come home to Moravian online! Our newly redesigned website at http://www. 

moravian.edu will take you to all of your favorite campus places and keep you 

current with fresh news and information about faculty members and students. 

Through a comprehensive planning, design, and development process, we’ve 

created a site that features an attractive design, easily accessible information, and 

timely, relevant content. Our new site offers a vastly improved browsing experience for prospective and 

current students, parents, alumni, faculty members, staff, and friends of the College. Through clear entry points 

on the home page, you can reach information, forms, and other interactive content in a quick click or two. 

Rotating features designed to highlight the achievements of students and faculty provide a window into the 

vibrant life of Moravian College. Webmaster Christie Jacobsen ’00 developed the site after gathering input and 

feedback from the entire College community. 


out&about 

Celebrating 50 Years of 

Moravian Honors 

A Moravian scholars’ Hall of Fame gathered on campus 

this spring, as dozens of Honors alumni returned to 

celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the Moravian 

Honors Program. Honors alumni, their guests, 2010 

Honors candidates, and faculty members paid tribute to 

the academic research program that launched more than 

750 alumni on rewarding paths of professional success 

and personal fulfillment. In Reeves Library, alumni 

signed bound copies of their Honors theses, spoke with 

students, and reconnected with faculty friends. The 

informal signing ceremony was followed by an address 

in Prosser Auditorium given by Judith Share Yaphe ’66, 

whose Honors history research on American policy 

toward Palestine (advised by Daniel Gilbert, professor 

emeritus of history) became the foundation of her career 

as a top CIA analyst and university professor. Dinner in Peter 

Hall was followed by a music performance in Foy Hall. 

Judith Share Yaphe ’66 (right) signs her Honors thesis at the 

program’s 50-year anniversary celebration last spring. Upper 

right: John ’65 and Jan Whitfield Landis ’64 reminisce about Jan’s 

Honors history project and Moravian College days. 

Photos by john kish iv 

GUESTSPEAKING 

Photo by john kish iv 

James Lyon ’76: 

Clean Energy Now? 

“We are addicted to oil. We spend $1 billion per day to purchase oil overseas, 

money that many of our veterans say is being diverted to terrorist organizations. Yet 

even if we sunk a well in every square mile of our coastline, we still would not have 

enough oil to meet our demand. Clinging to relics of the industrial revolution weakens 

us in the 21st century. 

“We need to embrace a new era driven by clean energy, which will create jobs 

here and beat China to the economic punch. It is the right path. As conservationist 

Aldo Leopold said, ’a thing is right, when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, 

and beauty of the biotic community.’ Our self interest is not enough at this point. What 

in God’s name are we leaving to our children? Are we so certain that the status quo is 

right, that we are willing to roll the dice?” 

—Jim Lyon ’76, National Wildlife Federation vice president for conservation policy, 

from his lecture “Beyond 40 Earth Days,” given at Moravian College on April 20, 2010. 


Transformation of Collier Hall Begins 

The architectural firm Einhorn Yaffee 

Prescott (EYP) of New York has been 

selected by Moravian’s project leadership 

team to provide professional architectural 

and engineering services for the renovation 

and expansion of Collier Hall of Science. 

The Hall of Science houses the departments 

of biological sciences, chemistry, 

nursing, and physics and earth science. 

EYP was selected for its outstanding 

track record of success, including recent 

projects for Assumption College, Boston 

College, Boston University, and Cabrini 

College. “EYP exhibited a real 

excitement about working with 

us,” noted Kim Sherr, 

Moravian’s assistant 

director of planning 

and project management, 

and a member of 

the project leadership 

team. “Their creative 

ideas and focus on 

academics and community, 

thoughts on the 

continuity of our academic program during 

construction, and commitment to designing 

a facility that reflects the new, but remains 

consistent with the old, won the day.” 

The preliminary work, over the next 

seven months, will include all pre-design 

activities such as confirming the academic 

program and project budget, preparation 

of civil drawings, providing various testing 

requirements, and developing fundraising 

materials. The next milestone will come in 

April 2011, when the pre-design will be 

complete. If funding is secured, the College 

will move forward with a full design and 

anticipate completion by October 2014. 

“We have worked many years in 

preparation and are excited to move 

forward with this very important project,” 

noted President Christopher Thomforde. 

“Modernizing the Collier Hall of Science is 

the greatest priority for our facilities if we 

are to maintain and build on our new and 

successful curricular programs.” 

MORAVIANBOOKSHELF 

n Brand It Like Barack by Gary Kaskowitz, associate 

professor of economics and business, analyzes the success 

of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign from a 

marketing perspective. The campaign stands as a shining 

example of effective marketing strategies that can be 

employed by students, small businesses, and politicians of 

all affiliations to achieve their goals. Professor Kaskowitz 

offers actionable advice but reminds readers that delivery 

must follow promises. Otherwise, even the most effective 

marketer will fail to sustain the brand. 

n A new book in a series on the role of sports and athletes 

in American culture will be published this summer. 

Co-edited by Joel Nathan Rosen, associate professor of 

sociology, and David C. Ogden, associate professor of 

communication at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, 

Fame to Infamy: Race, Sport, and the Fall 

from Grace, is a compilation of essays about 

the public slide of once-cherished male sport 

icons. Professor Rosen and C. Oren Renick 

co-authored the essay “Inextricably Linked: 

Joe Louis and Max Schmeling Revisited.” 

n Heikki Lempa, associate professor and 

chair of history, and Paul Peucker, faculty 

associate and director of the Moravian Archives, have 

edited and contributed to a new book, Self, Community, 

World: Moravian Education in a Transatlantic World. The 

anthology, published January 2010 by Lehigh University 

Press, includes contributions on the history of Moravian 

education in the 18th and 19th centuries. 


out&about 

Lasting Legacy 

The revered old elm that once grew near Main Hall has 

returned to its Church Street roots. But instead of beautifying 

the street before Main Hall, as it did for more than 200 

years, the legendary tree now graces Main Hall’s parlor in 

the form of a one-of-a-kind table. Local woodworker Michael 

Kane contacted the College in 2007, after the tree was 

taken down because disease had made it a hazard. 

“I admired that tree for years,” Kane said. “The day it 

was cut down, I offered to make a table from some of the 

wood.” Kane smoothed the surface of the rough-cut slabs 

with a series of sandings, then applied seven coats of tung 

oil and two coats of wax. With its gnarly perimeter 

and distinctive knots, the finished 4-by-7- 

foot table captures much of the character of 

the original. It promises to be at the center of 

many gatherings of good cheer and warm fellowship 

for years to come. 

photo by michael wilson 

Henry Elms 

I was pleased to learn that the wood from the famous Church Street 

elm is being preserved (“From Tree to Table,” Summer 2009). This 

tree was not an American elm but an English elm—a rare species 

in this area. English elms have become associated with the Henry 

family, who, for five generations, operated the Henry Gun Factory 

at Boulton, just north of Nazareth, Pa. There were two large 

English elms at the Henry homestead (in Jacobsburg, Pa.), which 

fell to Dutch elm disease some time ago. Across the road, there once 

were two ancient English elms at the John Joseph Henry house; 

these were more recently destroyed by the same disease. Moravian’s 

Church Street elm bears witness to the fact that Henry daughters 

attended the old Female Seminary. 

To my knowledge, the last standing Henry elm is on the grounds 

of the church in the village of Belfast, Pa. The Henrys helped to build 

this church and established a Moravian congregation there to serve 

workers at the nearby Henry Gun Factory. It is curious that there is 

no record of an English elm at Nazareth Hall, a Moravian school for 

boys that was attended by Henry sons. 

—Robert P. L. Frick ’49, Bethlehem, Pa. 


LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 

Warm greetings to you from campus! 

Great energy and expectation filled 

Prosser Hall during Blue & Grey Days, 

when students of the Class of 2014 

came to campus to begin their journey 

into the future as members of the 

Moravian community. 

We have a strong cohort of new 

students. About 380 graduated from 

high school this past spring, roughly 

100 are transferring to Moravian from 

other institutions, and about 15 will 

re-enter after having taken a leave of 

absence to work, serve in the armed 

forces, or study elsewhere. 

New Greyhounds join our community 

just as 417 young men and women of 

the Class of 2010 have gone on to begin 

careers, graduate studies, and professional 

school. What a fine record of accomplishment 

they established in the classroom, on 

the athletic field, and in the concert hall! 

The Class of 2010 also made a mark in 

terms of giving. Fifty-six percent contributed 

to the Senior Class Scholarship, which 

is awarded to senior students who face 

a financial hardship that may preclude 

them from completing their studies. I hope 

you will follow the example of the Class 

of 2010 by making a contribution to the 

Moravian Scholarship Fund, if you have 

not already done so. Your annual contributions 

help keep the door of opportunity 

open for students of ability, promise, and 

achievement, through the awarding of 

scholarships and financial aid. 

In response to the challenges of the 

Great Recession, Moravian increased its 

financial aid budget by about 20%. This 

required us to make several difficult and 

painful decisions that affected some of our 

faculty and staff positions and programs. 

We have responded to the current financial 

uncertainties with prudence while exercising 

good stewardship of the Moravian 

mission for the future. 

Over the past year, a group of faculty 

and senior administrators met weekly to 

consider the best ways to make the College 

sustainable now and in the future. We 

asked the campus community to help us 

think through questions like, “What are 

our strongest programs, and how can we 

strengthen them for the future?” “What 

new programs might we offer?” “How 

can we communicate our rich educational 

experience more effectively to high school 

students and their parents?” 

Many wonderful and vibrant answers 

have arisen from asking these questions. As 

our answers become more clearly defined, I 

will keep you informed. 

In the meantime, we all agree that the 

Moravian educational experience builds 

> 

a strong foundation for a student’s future. 

Students are challenged to grow intellectually. 

Students are prepared for the world of 

work through hands-on learning. Students 

develop personally to realize a deeper enjoyment 

of life. 

The life and mission of Moravian 

continue to move forward, despite the real 

economic challenges that bear down upon 

all colleges and universities throughout our 

country. The radiant faces of our graduates, 

crossing the platform to receive their diplomas, 

and the hopeful faces of our incoming 

Class of 2014 remind us of what is most 

important. Moravian is on a mission that 

really matters! 

Thank you for your support! 

Christopher M. Thomforde, President 


Of People& Places 

Joyce Hinnefeld speaks the language of landscape 

through her stories, poems, and essays. 

PHOTOs BY john kish iv

oyce Hinnefeld, associate professor of English, 

Cohen Chair in English and Literature, and director 

of the Moravian College Writing Center, began writing 

as an undergraduate student at Hanover College in 

Indiana: “I took a creative writing class taught by Margie 

Stewart and got hooked.” She went on to receive graduate degrees 

in English from Northwestern University and the State University 

of New York at Albany, and began teaching at Moravian College 

in 1997. She is the author of Tell Me Everything and Other Stories, 

a collection of short stories that won the 1997 Breadloaf Writer’s 

Conference Bakeless Prize, as well as the novel In Hovering Flight 

(Unbridled Books), which received wide critical acclaim. Her second 

novel, Stranger Here Below, will be published by Unbridled Books 

in October. Her short story “Benedicta, or a Guide to the Artist’s 

Resume” was recently accepted for publication by the literary journal 

The Literary Review. 

Dr. Hinnefeld’s ongoing interest in the relationship between 

people and their landscapes is the basis for her current project, an 

essay on land ownership issues in Pennsylvania and their impact on 

the Delaware River. She is collaborating with student Michael Watson 

’11 on the summer SOAR project “Knowing Our Place: Writing 

to Uncover, and Reconnect with, Community and Landscape.” 

Tell us about your new novel, Stranger Here Below. It’s basically the 

stories of three generations of women connected through two very 

interesting communities in Kentucky. One is a Shaker site, Pleasant 

Hill. The other is Berea College. The core of the story is the friendship 

between two girls—one white, one black—who are roommates 

at Berea College in 1961, a time of upheaval. 

Where did you get the idea for this story? My husband was interested 

in photographing Shaker sites and artifacts when we lived in 

upstate New York, near the Hancock Shaker village. So the summer 

we were married,1994, we traveled to Kentucky to check out the 

Shaker site, Pleasant Hill, and Berea College, which is famous for its 

crafts. I became intrigued with the idea of bringing together the two 

places in a novel. I was interested in what they would have been 

like in the ’50s and ’60s. In fiction, you can make connections that 

might not be there otherwise. 

Places inspire much of Hinnefeld’s writing. Above: walking on Bethlehem’s Sand 

Island with Lily, an American Eskimo Dog, sparks ideas for an essay about the 

Delaware River. 

How did you link them in your novel? I created a character, Georgia, 

who was born in late 19th-century Ohio and was the daughter 

of an abolitionist. As a student at Oberlin College, she falls in love 

with a black man, but her father forbids her to marry him. He 

sends her to teach at Berea, a new school founded on principles of 

racial equality. Georgia is an ardent believer in equality, so when 

the school backtracks on integration [due to a Kentucky law that 


Of People and Places 

From Stranger 

Here Below: 

“Pilgrim and 

Stranger, 1962” 

They trotted her out like a show pony. A 

circus act. When they asked her to play, she 

played—the waltzes, Debussy, the Chopin 

Etude she’d mastered. 

They reported on her perfect grade 

average before she began, every time. She 

was exceptional! A remarkable exception! 

Proof of something surely, of the school’s 

right mission. Virginal and pure to boot. 

Studious. Accomplished on the piano, on 

which she did not play race music, but the 

classics. 

Mary Elizabeth kept picturing that young 

man’s hands floating over the keys, from 

such a distance, from the faraway seats 

where she and Aunt Paulie were sitting. And 

yet she felt like she was right there, beside 

him, or somehow inside him, her hands 

his hands, glazing the keys like rainwater. 

Fingers like the legs of racehorses. 

She thought that if she could play the 

French composers and also, now, Stravinsky, 

the pieces Aunt Paulie regretted never 

learning, the music might somehow still be 

hers. Hers, and Aunt Paulie’s. Those years in 

Paris, that longing in Paulie’s chest, in both 

their chests, when they played. Sometimes, 

when she finished playing Chopin, Mary 

Elizabeth sat at the piano and wept. 

But a funny thing: She couldn’t play the 

Stravinksy. She knew now that she never 

would. 

prohibited integrated 

education], she defies 

the rules and continues 

to invite black 

students into her 

classroom. Eventually 

she is fired and ends 

up becoming a Shaker 

at the age of 40, when 

Pleasant Hill has only 

two other people in 

the community. 

Berea comes back 

into the story through 

the character of Vista, 

a single woman from 

the mountains, who becomes Georgia’s 

caretaker in her later years. Vista’s daughter, 

Maze, is a student at Berea College in 1961. 

I wanted to explore issues of race, 

women’s relationships, and spirituality and 

sexuality—because to become a Shaker, 

as Georgia does, is to forgo a sexual life. 

Georgia’s one great love has been forbidden, 

and she must try to make sense of this 

in spiritual terms. 

What is your research process? It’s fairly 

indiscriminate—you read and absorb and 

note anything that seems quirky or interesting. 

Then something gives you an idea 

and you pursue it. For this novel, I received 

an FDRC summer stipend my first year at 

Moravian, 1998. I went to both Berea and 

Pleasant Hill and read everything I could 

find in their archives—old newspapers, 

journals, log books. Pleasant Hill had this 

funny photo album that belonged to a family 

that had run an inn on the property. A 

lot of that material ended up in the novel. 

As I read and learned about Kentucky, 

I became so fascinated with the historical 

background that early versions of the 

novel included too much of it. My editor 

graciously pointed that out, and finally I 

could hear it from him. [She laughs.] But I 

feel that if you’re going to write historical 

fiction, you need to try to learn as much 

as possible about the place and time that 

you’re writing about. The peril is that you 

then want to teach everybody. 

I’m in that mode now—reading and 

researching, getting ready to write a per- 

sonal essay. It can be uncomfortable—you 

often feel like you’re spinning your wheels 

because you’re not writing. But ultimately, 

it’s what I have to do to feel like I’m ready 

to begin writing. 

How do you integrate all of the pieces into 

a single structure? This was a long, tortured 

process. I’ve been working on this novel for 

over 10 years, and it’s gone through many, 

many versions. It isn’t always like this. The 

structure for In Hovering Flight became apparent 

to me fairly early, and it just worked. 

In the first version of this novel, I was 

using first person to tell the story of Mary 

Elizabeth, an African-American girl, and 

my agent at the time cautioned me about 

it. It’s a source of some concern to me— 

that I will be seen as co-opting her story. 

And I understand that. So, very early on, I 

changed to third person, and I think that 

was for the good. 

But I think that early uncertainty 

created a rocky path for deciding how to 

structure the book. When I rewrote it for 

the last time last summer, I cut some, and 

added new material about the friends and 

about Mary Elizabeth’s mother, Sarah. Then 

I just laid it out on the floor and thought, 

well, this ought to come before that. And I 

just took chunks and wove them together. I 

tweaked it some more, and I thought that’s 

it. It’s not a chronological order at all. 

What inspires your writing? Places. That’s 

where my novels seem to come from. I’m 

very interested in exploring topography and 

trying to capture the beauty of the languages 

of different places. I have another novel 

in mind, very unformed so far, but I know 

it will involve the city of Prague. 

Places, and events—historical moments. 

In In Hovering Flight, it was the resurgence 

of the environmental movement in the ’60s, 

and ’70s. Also, social justice issues. That’s a 

tricky one for a novelist. There’s always the 

risk of being heavy-handed. 

Favorite authors? Alice Munro, who writes 

short stories almost exclusively—I think 

she’s brilliant. Marilynne Robinson, author 

of the novels Housekeeping, Gilead, and 

Home. Nicholson Baker, who wrote A Box 


of Matches and The Anthologist, which I 

just read. It’s just lovely. 

I’m also a fan of the German writer 

W.G. Sebald, who blurs the lines between 

fiction and nonfiction genres. His Emigrants 

is a novel that reads like a memoir. I seem 

to be drawn to many of the post-war German 

writers. 

And I should mention C. E. Morgan, a 

great young writer who went to Berea College, 

author of All the Living. 

I always have a stack of things going— 

right now, I’m reading about efforts to 

dam the Delaware River for the essay I’m 

working on; poetry by Robert Frost, John 

Clare, William Carlos Williams; and Eric 

Freyfogle on law and property ownership 

in relation to environmental issues. And 

always the latest New Yorker magazine. 

What do you feel is most important to convey 

to students who desire to write? Seize 

every opportunity to fill your time with 

writing. Yes, you are busy now, but not like 

you will be later. Savor having the time to 

write—and, no matter how busy you become, 

reserve a block of time for writing. 

I also tell my creative writing students 

about the value of graduate school—it can 

give you that time to write, along with a 

community of people devoted to writing. It 

can be affirming. 

> 

Is it difficult to transition from writing to the 

classroom to being at home as a mother and 

wife? Oh yeah, it’s just a crazy struggle and I 

don’t do it very well. [She laughs.] 

Almost everybody has that quandary. 

I wrote this piece called “The Paradoxes 

of Caring,” which is on my blog [http:// 

inhoveringflight.blogspot.com/2009/01/ 

paradoxes-of-caring.html]. It talks about 

the current tendency to over-parent. So 

many readers of In Hovering Flight are angry 

with Addie—they see her as a neglectful 

mother—and that always shocks me. I 

didn’t intend for her to be a bad mother. 

Maybe parents need to back off a little—let 

kids play in the creek. 

People often ask me, “How much of 

your writing is about you?” I always say, 

“none of it really.” But of course some 

things are. For Addie, the question is, how 

does she combine making her art with being 

a mother and being concerned about 

the planet? 

In my blog piece, I included a quote 

by Scott Russell Sanders that originally 

appeared in the Writer’s Chronicle. Essentially, 

he says that it’s a struggle—but also a 

gift—to balance all of these things: writing, 

parenting, teaching. And when I read that, I 

only felt a little bit like, “yeah, but you’re a 

man.” [She laughs.] It’s artfully put—and I 

feel that’s what I aspire to. 

I recently did a reading at the Northshire 

Books bookstore in Manchester, 

Vermont, and a former student gave me a 

lovely introduction. The woman was Tina 

Mabey [Weikart ’98]—she had an independent 

study in poetry with me. I remember 

that she was so in love with language—she 

devoured William Carlos Williams. That 

kind of exuberance is what you’re looking 

for in students who will go on to become 

writers—they love reading as much as 

they do writing. Because what you love, 

as a writer, is not the sound of your own 

voice—it’s bigger than that. A love of language 

. . . that’s what you’re looking for. W 

Joyce Hinnefeld discusses her short stories with 

Advanced Placement students at Easton High School. 


Photo by John Kish IV 


Not Your Mother’s Freshman Comp 

Moder n English101 is more process, less rhetoric. 

By Joel Wingard 

First-year writing—or freshman composition as it used to be 

called—is the most widely required course in American higher 

education. Since a course of this type was first taught at Harvard 

in the 1870s, its main purpose has been to introduce students to 

the practice of academic writing—the kinds of writing students are 

likely to encounter throughout their college careers. Some 135 years 

later, the methods of teaching this course have changed considerably. 

A major force in making first-year writing what it is today was 

the process movement, which recognizes that most good writing, 

especially good academic writing, follows a process that involves inventing 

ideas, arranging them for expression, trying out that expression 

in an early draft, and then revising and editing until a paper is 

“finished.” Older models of instruction in first-year writing assigned 

students regular “themes” in which apprentice writers were expected 

to demonstrate competence in “rhetorical modes” such as narration, 

description, comparison, and argumentation. These papers 

were typically due, in finished fashion, one week after an assignment 

was given or even at the next class meeting. And the evaluation of 

student writing most often focused on its correctness in terms of 

grammar, spelling, and writing mechanics, such as punctuation. 

But in the 1970s and ’80s that method began to change as 

teachers and composition scholars realized that rhetorical modes 

were artificial and that no one—other than a first-year writing 

student—ever purposely wrote to demonstrate competency in 

comparison-and-contrast, for instance. 

Studies in the writing practices of professional writers have 

shown that written prose is driven by the purposes of the writer 

and the needs of the audience, and that it often takes several drafts 

of an essay with the attendant revision to each draft—to make it 

what the writer wants and what the reader needs. 

An influential book by composition scholar Peter Elbow, Writing 

Without Teachers, in the early 1970s contributed to a shift in 

writing teachers’ roles from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the 

side.” Instead of being a classroom figure who tells students what to 

do and how well they have done, the writing teacher now facilitates 

student development by coaching the writing process. 

This involves providing feedback—not just grades—to student 

writers as they work on an essay: talking over a student’s ideas for 

an essay before she ever sits down at her keyboard; commenting on 

a preliminary draft so that the student can make revisions herself; 

creating writing groups in a class and guiding them in “writerly” 

ways of reading each other’s work; and perhaps most especially, attending 

to deeper matters of a piece of writing—structure, development, 

consistency—and leaving attention to correctness until the 

piece is nearly finished. 

It follows that the students’ writing is the central text in the 

class: student writing is what is primarily practiced, produced, and 

studied. Any other writing, such as essays by professional writers, is 

secondary and used only to exemplify writing strategies or provide 

intellectual context for the students’ work. First-year writing 

courses are writing courses, not literature or history or political 

science courses in disguise. 

Traditionally, first-year writing was taught by English faculty 

members, based on the premise that their training in the belletristic 

canon gave them responsibility for student literacy. In recent years, 

however, many small liberal arts colleges “decentralized” first-year 

writing beyond the English Department. At Moravian, this occurred 

with the institution of the Learning in Common (LinC) curriculum 

in 2001. A typical semester at Moravian would have sections of 

Writing 100 (the required course) taught by biologists, psychologists, 

musicians, political scientists, economists, mathematicians— 

in short, faculty from a variety of disciplines other than English. 

Now, first-year students can see that writing is an important way of 

knowing in every academic field, not just in English. 

The teaching of first-year writing continues to evolve. Starting 

in fall 2011, the course will be called First-Year Seminar. The crossdisciplinary 

model will continue, but the faculty members who 

teach the class also will serve as academic advisors to the students 

enrolled in their sections. 

This makes sense because the approach to teaching this course 

encourages close student-faculty interaction anyway, and a first-year 

writing student often gets closer to his instructor than a student in 

a lecture or lab course might. And the notion of “writing” itself is 

broadening and changing to include digital media and genres, so 

one would expect to see not just print essays developed in first-year 

writing, but audio essays and video mash-ups as well. 

Even with these anticipated changes, the process approach 

continues to be well suited to helping students develop the clear 

thinking and clear writing they will need throughout their college 

years and beyond. W 

Joel Wingard is professor of English and director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program. 

Taught by faculty members of all disciplines, Moravian’s Writing 100 develops 

writing skills that students will use througout college and beyond. Shown: 

Jennifer Gillard ’07 


Writers at the Center 

Focusing on ideas, not punctuation, develops better thinkers and writers. 

By Meg Mikovits ’03 

Photos by John Kish IV 

Many students who visit the Writing Center for the first 

time enter the room with one of two misconceptions: 

either they expect to drop off essay drafts and later 

pick up revised, edited copies ready to be submitted to the 

professor; or they steel themselves to face tutors who will 

barely be able to conceal their disdain for unsophisticated 

first-year writers, all while fixating on draconian grammar 

and mechanics rules. 

Neither of these beliefs is true, of course, and both actually 

run counter to the goal—shared by Moravian’s Writing 

Center and hundreds of others—espoused by Stephen North 

in his landmark 1984 essay, “The Idea of a Writing Center.” 

“In a writing center,” asserts North, “the object is to make 

sure that writers, and not necessarily their texts, are what 

get changed by the instruction.” 

Writing tutors aim to help writers become more comfortable 

with their own writing process and style—not to 

impart the tutor’s own preferences on a paper or to provide 

judgmental commentary about a writer’s shortcomings. 

Writing Center visits generally are relaxed and informal. 

Tutor and writer sit side-by-side, and the writer retains 

control of the paper and pencil (or computer) throughout 

the session. The writer explains the assignment, shares any 

areas of concern, and then reads the paper aloud. The tutor 

will take notes or sometimes interject to ask questions as 

the paper is read. The real work happens throughout the 

remainder of the session, when the tutor and writer discuss 

the paper. Talking about the ideas contained in a paper, 

rather than focusing on the specific words written, is a 

highly effective way to make sure a paper’s content is logical, 

organized, and appropriate for the assignment. Usually, 

the writer leaves with copious notes and a solid plan for 

further revisions; ideally, the writer and tutor meet again to 

review the revised draft before the paper is due. 

Writing Center tutors are an integral part of this system. 

All of our tutors, predictably, are strong writers. Beyond 

Get it in writing: at the Writing Center, tutors and writers discuss ideas first. 


that, though, they are friendly, assertive, 

and creative. Tutoring demands the 

ability to work with writers of differing 

abilities, assignments from every academic 

department, and papers in varying 

stages of development—often in back-toback-to-back 

tutoring sessions over the 

span of a few hours. Tutors are also relentless 

supporters of the writing process, 

and will help writers understand how 

time spent brainstorming and prewriting 

can greatly impact the effectiveness of a 

paper. They often use creative revision 

strategies to appeal to a writer’s interests 

and learning style. It’s not unusual to 

see tutoring sessions where papers are 

colored with highlighters or crayons, or 

literally cut apart and shuffled around. 

Writing centers teach writers how to 

be resourceful, interactive, and critical 

thinkers. We tell writers that what they 

do in the Writing Center can and should 

be applied to any writing task, in class and at home. 

A student in my Writing 100 class last semester showed the impact 

the Writing Center can have, beyond the grade on a given paper. 

This student had visited the Writing Center many times of her 

own volition, and she was a good writer—not exceptional, though 

certainly not weak. What made her stand out among the rest of the 

class was her performance during our in-class peer workshop sessions. 

Rather than offering bland advice about comma placement 

and word choice, she dove into the content of her peers’ papers and 

offered helpful and insightful feedback about content and organization. 

She asked probing questions and was able to elicit thoughtful 

responses; she and her peer workshop group consistently made 

great strides from their drafts to their formal essay submissions. 

As someone who tutored for many years before teaching composition, 

I am especially aware of the potential synergy between the 

writing classroom and the Writing Center. I encourage my students 

to visit the Writing Center at various stages of the writing process, 

and I try to give my composition students a crash course in writing 

center pedagogy. This, I hope, lets students know why the act of giving 

and receiving feedback is valuable, especially in a writing class 

that emphasizes a process-based approach to writing. Though many 

> 

students at first find it easy to fall back on the easier and safer tactic 

of proofreading each others’ papers for punctuation and spelling, 

it is clear that the students who do utilize the Writing Center find 

themselves involved in a far more engaging learning experience. W 

Meg Mikovits ’03 earned her M.A. in English from West Chester University in 2006. Next year, she will 

serve as director of the Moravian Writing Center. 


Brave New Words 

Sandra Novack-Gottshall ’98 forges life as a successful fiction writer. 

By Kate Helm ‘05 

> 

S 

andra Novack-Gottshall ’98 doesn’t want to write—she needs 

to. She compares her devotion to writing to that of a friend for 

her son who is going through the “terrible two” stage. 

“Once something is yours, and you love it, and it’s in your 

bones and blood and heart and head, you can’t just give it up when 

things become rough,” she says. “I wouldn’t stop focusing on writing 

or fiction any more than she’d give up her son. It doesn’t work 

like that.” 

Indeed, the fiction industry can be unpredictable. Random 

House published her first novel, Precious, last year. Despite the 

struggling economy and shake-ups at the publishing house, Precious 

was hailed as a top ten debut novel of the year. With a collection 

of short stories set to be published next year and work 

underway on a new novel, Resurrection Fern, Novack-Gottshall 

is quick to point out that accolades are not necessarily a reliable 

forecast of future success. 

“I’m harder on myself than anyone else is or ever could be, 

and whatever successes I have never seem to be good enough,” 

she says. “Not everything in a writer’s life comes down to one 

book or even two, but rather the entirety of the career. Writers 

are built over lifetimes, not a single book or event. Again, 

you go back to basics after everything is said and done: you 

get up, you write.” 

Although she writes predominantly in the morning, 

inspiration keeps her on-call, often striking in the middle of 

the night. She also gets new ideas from her reading; other 

writers are the best mentors, she says. A self-described 

recluse, she believes that tendency is an integral part of 

her life as a fiction writer. In order to breathe life into another 

world, she has to disengage from her own reality. 

“[Writing] takes time, physical time, during which 

you are away from other people and other things,” she 

explains. “With a short story, you might go a week or more before 

your mother calls and asks why she hasn’t heard from you. When 

writing a novel, you might go months ignoring friends, more or 

less, and cutting your social engagements down to practically nonexistent 

status. And then there is the psychological aspect of it: the 

deeper you are into a novel, the more ‘there’ rather than ‘here’ you 

are. Writers get called anti-social a lot, but really I think it’s necessary 

to the craft.” 

The trade-off for those sacrifices comes in the cathartic release 

of thoughts and emotions the page provides. Novack-Gottshall 


dedicated Precious to her sister Carole, who left home 

when the writer was seven. At first, she thought she 

was writing to organize her fuzzy memories of her 

sister, but in the end realized the book was a chance to 

say goodbye. But the book was not directed at Carole; 

rather, it had a broader scope. 

“Fundamentally, I write because I have something 

I want to say, something I’m trying to get at, some 

truth about what it means to live in this world and 

be human,” she says. “Then I always hope what I’ve 

said finds an audience. I think books are radical. They 

recreate the world and, in the process, they recreate us 

as well. Through the power of words, worlds are destroyed, 

created, re-envisioned; characters come to life, 

and they love and hate and learn things and live and 

die. It’s necessary to encounter and to try and understand 

all different types of people, situations, and lives. 

Fiction is one of the best ways we can do that.” 

As a psychology major at Moravian, Novack-Gottshall unknowingly 

began honing her insights into the human experience, 

which would serve as a springboard for the characters and worlds 

she creates. Robert Brill, associate professor of psychology, and 

Joseph Gerencher, emeritus professor of earth science, had a special 

impact on her undergraduate years. 

“Dr. Brill was always a great guy, supportive, helpful. And Dr. 

Gerencher was so dedicated and took time with all his students, not 

just science majors,” she says. “I always appreciated that. He was 

probably my favorite teacher at Moravian, even though I couldn’t, 

and still can’t, calculate the elliptical orbit of planets to save my life.” 

Although Novack-Gottshall took a winding path to becoming a 

writer, every choice she made always brought her back to the page. 

“At some point, I thought, ‘I am a writer.’ It’s me, it’s what I do,” 

she says. “And once that’s in you—really in you—discouragement 

about the industry or a difficult writing day aren’t enough to sway 

you. I’ve made a choice to write; we’re defined by our choices. And 

when I commit to something, I focus on it.” 

Precious will be released in paperback August 31. For more on 

Novack-Gottshall, visit her website at www.sandranovack.com or 

her blog at www.blahblahblahwriter.blogspot.com. W 

Kate Helm ’05 is a freelance writer and admissions officer at Northampton Community College. She 

lives in Easton, Pa. 

Born in Bethlehem, Pa., Sandra Novack-Gottshall ’98 now lives and 

writes in Chicago. Her acclaimed novel, Precious, will be released in 

paperback Aug. 31. 

Storied Alumni 

Many authors of published fiction honed their writing skills at 

Moravian College (or an earlier version of it); they include: 

Laura Benet (1884-1979), newspaper editor, poet, novelist; 

sister of Stephen Vincent Benet and William Rose Benet 

Nancy J. Jones ’77, fiction writer and women’s studies instructor 

Scott Morro ’95, children’s book author 

Scott Heydt ’02, author of novels for children 

This is only a partial list of our alumni authors. If you have a 

recently published book (fiction or non-fiction), please share the 

news with fellow alumni: write to vbingham@Moravian.edu. 

Photo © Sandra Novack 


alumnin e w s TO REACH THE ALUMNI HOUSE: 610 861-1366 OR WWW.MORAVIAN.EDU/ALUMNI 

Photos BY john kish iv 

Brian Corvino '02 discusses goals and 

new initiatives with other alumni at 

the May meeting of the Alumni Board. 

ALUMNIBOOKSHELF 

New Initiatives Outlined by 

Board President Corvino 

Alumni will play a vital role in the future of 

Moravian College, and your participation is 

needed. “As a community, we are currently 

experiencing a period in which transformational 

change surrounds us,” said Brian 

Corvino ’02, elected Alumni Board president 

in May. “Now, more than at any other 

time in our history, Moravian College needs 

your time, talents, and financial resources.” 

Corvino outlined the Alumni Association’s 

mission, goals, and new initiatives in a letter 

posted on the Alumni Association pages of 

the College website at www.moravian.edu. 

In the year ahead, the Association will 

build upon the alumni traditions supported 

over the past few years and will develop 

new initiatives identified through strategic 

planning. The new initiatives call for alumni 

In Racing Odysseus, a College President Becomes a Freshman Again 

(University of California Press), former Moravian College president 

(1986-1997) Roger “Rusty” Martin shares the story of his six-month 

experience as a 61-year-old freshman at St. John’s College. Defying 

a 2000 diagnosis of terminal cancer, Martin took a 2004 sabbatical 

from Randolph-Macon College, where he was president, to enroll in 

St. John’s, the Great Books school in Maryland. Reading Homer and 

other classical authors, rowing on the college crew team, and living 

life as a freshman provided Martin with new insight regarding his personal 

journey and the value of the liberal arts in America today. Alumni of all eras 

will appreciate the book’s life lessons. Called “an extraordinary memoir” by the 

Times Literary Supplement. 

involvement in three key areas: 1) admissions 

(attracting the next generation of 

alumni); 2) career preparation (helping new 

alumni prepare for a meaningful career); 

and 3) development (ensuring that the College 

has the resources to continue to offer 

students access to the highest educational 

experience possible). 

“I encourage you to please reach out to 

any member of the Alumni Relations Office 

or Alumni Board, as we all look forward to 

discussing with you how you can become 

engaged in ways that are meaningful to you 

and to our shared Moravian community,” 

said Corvino in his letter to alumni. 

Other newly elected Alumni Executive 

Board members are Alyson L. Remsing 

’03, secretary; Richard Subber ’69, ’95, 

treasurer; and Kelly McLean Rindock ’03, 

president elect. Read their bios and those 

of the entire Board on the Alumni Association 

pages of the College website, www. 

moravian.edu. 

Snyder '80 

Honored for 

Physics 

John Snyder ’80, 

senior lecturer in 

the School of Engineering 

at Cardiff 

University, Wales, has been named a Fellow 

of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics 

Engineers for his “contributions to synthesis 

and characterization of magnetic bulk 

and thin film materials.” According to IEEE, 

the grade of Fellow is “conferred upon a 

person with an extraordinary record of 

accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields 

of interest.” The number of fellows selected 

each year is less than 1/10 of 1% of the 

Institute’s total membership. “I got my start 

in magnetic materials research through the 

Moravian College Honors Program and my 

advisor, professor Joseph Powlette ’60 of 

the Physics Department,” said Dr. Snyder. 


Alumni Weekend 

Where were you Alumni Weekend, May 21-22? 

If you were one of the hundreds of alumni who 

returned to campus, you joined us at the Hotel 

Bethlehem for dining and dancing to the alumni 

jazz band and a champagne toast with classmates. 

Saturday, we gathered in the HUB, had breakfast 

with old friends, then toured the new HILL. We 

took the party outdoors for a picnic lunch, then 

renewed wedding vows, before saying farewell after 

a reception at Payne Gallery. Can’t wait to see you 

at Homecoming, October 16! 

Happenings... 

Founder's Day 

April 24 

Photo By john kish iv 

Graduates of the Women's College 

returned to Hurd Campus to share 

memories, songs, and a delightful lunch. 

Alumni, including Professor Joe Powlette'60 (top right), 

kicked off Alumni Weekend with dining and dancing at the 

Hotel Bethlehem. President and Dr. Kathy Thomforde led 

the way onto the dance floor (above). 

Hound Hour New Jersey 

April 23 

In Morristown, N.J., young alumni met at Sona 

Thirteen for an evening of friendship and fun. 

Photos By john kish iv 

SAVE THE DATE! 

for details or registration, 

CONTACT the ALUMNI house: 

610 861-1366 OR 

WWW.MORAVIAN.EDU/ALUMNI. 

August 29 

Freshmen Houndfest 

September 17 

Omicron Gamma Omega 

Gus Rampone Memorial Golf Outing 

October 5 

Coffee & Connections 

Student Alumni Career Networking Event 

October 9 

L.V. Home Club Bus Trip to Gettysburg 

(Moravian Football vs. Gettysburg College) 

October 15 

Calvo Golf Outing 

Bethlehem Golf Club 

October 16 

Homecoming 

Hound Hour New York 

July 8 

Pat Murray Hanna '82, Kara Mergl '05, Ken Hanna 

’81, Rusty Trump ’05, and Vincent Byrne ’02 partied at 

Lucy's Cantina Royale in New York, N.Y. 


greyhoundsports 

for up-to-the-minute sports news: www.moravian.edu/athletics or 610 625-7865. 

the top ten times in the 200-meter dash in 

Moravian history. 

Amos is 

FAMOUS 

Every dog has its day. Amos the Greyhound 

mascot faced down thirty-one opponents in April 

to win the 2010 national title in SportsTalkNY’s 

Mascot Madness contest! Amos received more 

than 94 percent of the 8,000-plus votes in the 

final round to win the championship. Earlier in the 

online competition, Amos defeated Goldy the Gopher 

(University of Minnesota), Timeout (Fresno 

State University), Iggy (Loyola Marymount University), 

and Ozzie the Osprey (University of North 

Florida). Amos also received a total makeover, 

morphing from a pajama-clad fuzzy-wuzzy into a 

buff, high-performing hound. Look for the spiffedup 

Amos and a new student group—the “Dawg 

Pack” Performers—at games this fall. 

The Greyhound softball team’s winning season 

helped Moravian finish in the Directors’ Cup top 50. 

Moravian Ranked in Top 

50 for Directors’ Cup 

The Greyhound athletic teams’ successful 

spring season helped Moravian attain 

a 48th-place finish (314.25 points) in the 

2009-10 NCAA Division III Learfield Sports 

Directors’ Cup Final Standings. Moravian 

was the only Landmark Conference school 

to finish in the top 50, and it was the 

Greyhounds’ best finish in the cup’s fifteenyear 

history. To receive points, teams must 

compete in the NCAA National Championships 

(for individual sports) and the NCAA 

Tournament (for team sports). A total of 

311 of the 420 NCAA Division III institutions 

earned points in this year’s standings. 

Spring Spotlight 

photo by mark Fleming 

Greyhounds Set the Pace 

for Charitable Teamwork 

For Moravian athletes, fighting the good 

fight means more than finishing strong on 

the field, court, or track. When an important 

cause is involved—like battling breast 

cancer or leukemia—the Greyhounds 

always rise to the challenge. 

In April, the Greyhound football team 

registered more than 450 new, potential 

donors for the Be the Match® bone marrow 

campaign—far more than schools with 

much larger student bodies. All day long, 

registrants lined up inside the Moravian 

field house to offer cell samples for the national 

bone marrow registry, which is used 

to find matches for patients with leukemia 

and other life-threatening diseases. 

Earlier this year, the women’s basketball 

team, led by coach Mary Beth Spirk, helped 

strike a blow against breast cancer by raising 

the most funds of any Division III team 

in the nation on behalf of the Pink Zone® 

initiative. The Greyhounds rallied to support 

player Amy Heffner ’11, whose mother 

lost her life to cancer earlier in the season. 

The team was honored at a national event 

held in April. 

Anna Heim ’10 won the 2010 NCAA Division 

III Indoor National Championship in 

the pole vault with an NCAA Division III 

all-time indoor record height of 4.16 meters 

(13 feet, 7¾ inches). In June, Eric Woodruff 

’11 competed in the 200-meter dash at the 

2010 United States Outdoor Track & Field 

Championships, after winning the NCAA 

Division III National Championship title 

on May 29 with a time of 21.04 seconds. In 

just three seasons, Woodruff has run nine of 

Greyhound football players led the April bone 

marrow drive, which registered 457 new donors. 

photo by Marty moyle 


transitions 

Look for Class Notes Online 

For complete Class Notes, please go to www.moravian.edu/classnotes. Our online Class Notes are updated 

monthly, so information is current and space is unlimited. If you do not have access to a computer 

and would like to receive a printed version of your class’s notes, please call the Public Relations Office 

at 610 625-7880 to request a computer printout, which we will mail to you. If you have news or updates 

for Class Notes, please contact your class correspondent or the Alumni House. Thank you. 

Marriages 

2009 Jenna Famularo and Ryan Sokolowski, 

August 1, 2009. 

2008 Andy Goodbred and Marcey Muffley 

’10, May 29, 2010. 

2007 Tim Guider and Jill Woodbury, 

June 5, 2010. 

2005 Todd James and Charlsie Keefe, 

May 22, 2010. 

2005 Joseph Holmes and Gena Gallo, 

December 19, 2009. 

2003 Justin Arnold and Lori Christensen, 

July 24, 2009. 

Births 

2000 Christine Roye Henry, and Nathan, 

a son, Mathew Porter (“Porter”), 

April 7, 2010. 

1997 Heather Whary Turner and Marion, 

a daughter, Baxter Peach Turner, 

March 11, 2010. 

Deaths 

1997 Ryan P. Sporka, March 22, 2010. 

1983 Nancy Thomas-Roman, March 17, 2010. 

1974 Barbara Davidson, February 21, 2010. 

1972 Greg Tropea, April 23, 2010. 

1968 Larry H. Haftle, May 8, 2010. 

1963 Barbara A. Johnson Keller, April 25, 2010. 

Kathleen C. Klammer Spear, 

April 24, 2010. 

1960 Gene Salay, June 24, 2010. 

1959 James Yasenchok, April 20, 2010. 

1956 Robert Gray, June 12, 2010. 

1951 Reverend Milton E. Detterline, 

April 6, 2010. 

1949 George Svadeba, June 26, 2010. 

Gloria K. Roth, June 24, 2010. 

1943 Grace Shaner Schuchardt, March 19, 2010. 

1942 Margaret Lutz Gray, March 11, 2010. 

1941 Marian Carty Durkee, March 2, 2010. 

1937 Mary Erhardt, April 21, 2010. 

1926 Anna Feldman Toye, March 9, 2010. 

Faculty & Friends 

Eloise Bassett Miller, adjunct faculty 

member, April 15, 2010. 

Otis H. Shao, former professor of 

political science, April 16, 2010. 

Faculty Retirement 

Dennis Glew, professor of classics and history, 

retired last spring after forty years as 

a Moravian College teacher, mentor, leader, 

and friend. Dr. Glew served for many years 

as chair of both the Honors committee and 

History Department. 

From his earliest days at Moravian, he 

impressed colleagues and students with his 

intelligence, wit, and collegiality. 

“Of all my professors at Moravian, Dr. 

Glew probably had the biggest influence 

on me, not only guiding me through my 

academics, but also shaping my future career 

decisions,” said Judy Stevenson ’06, a former 

Honors advisee, now archivist at the Hagley 

Museum and Library in Wilmington, Del. 

“One of my most memorable moments was 

when the Classics Society put on a production 

of Minotaurus, an original play written 

in Latin by Moravian’s own Dr. Jim Tyler. 

After much coercion, Dr. Glew agreed to play 

a small role that had a grand speech. I still 

can picture him in his toga as he delivered his 

lines in a manner befitting a Roman god!” 

One of Glew’s first post-Moravian projects 

will be to complete a study of the coins of 

the eight kings of Bithynia. He also looks 

forward to traveling with his wife, Dorothy 

Glew, former information literacy and reference 

librarian, who also retired in spring. 

State Rep. Robert Freeman ’78 presented Professor 

Dennis Glew (center) with a citation to honor his long 

service to the College and students. Heikki Lempa, 

chair of the History Department, and other faculty 

members were on hand for the occasion. 

Have you heard? 

Here are just a few of the latest updates 

from your classmates. Read more online 

at www.moravian.edu/classnotes. While 

you’re there, share your news. 

2008 Yi Li is enrolled in graduate school 

(biochemistry) at Purdue University. She 

recently shared the following news: “We 

were at the Banff conference on plant metabolism 

and Nick proposed to me on Lake 

Louise! Also, I won the best poster award 

at the conference. What a conference!” 

2006 Casey Jackson, working toward his 

Ph.D. at Wayne State University, recently 

published his first scientific paper. “Ironbinding 

and mobilization from ferritin by 

polypyridyl ligands,” co-authored by Jackson 

and Jeremy J. Kodanko, appeared in the 

journal Metallomics. 

1975 Susan Bacci Adams reports that Gail 

Warren and her husband, King Au, have 

relocated to Gaithersburg, Md. If any 

classmates find themselves in the area, Gail 

would love to have you visit so that she can 

show you around D.C. 

1969 Rick Subber is having a great time 

working on an oral history project for the 

College. He has interviewed about fifty 

alumni, retired faculty members, students, 

and others. If you would like to participate 

and talk with Rick about your experiences 

at Moravian, please e-mail him at the College 

at rsubber@moravian.edu, or call him 

at 610 865-5644. 

1959 Neil Boyer and his wife, Johanna, 

rented a house in Venice, Italy, for two 

weeks this past December. Because they 

were there at the time of high water, they 

had to buy knee-high boots to wear outdoors. 

New Year’s Eve at the Piazza San 

Marco wasn’t very romantic in 18 inches 

of water—but, it was fun. Johanna, who is 

switching careers, is studying for a Master’s 

degree in social work at the University of 

Maryland in Baltimore. 


orbispictus 

translation 

Alexis Vergalla ’06 

Some people say dand-e-lion, others 

dan-da-lion. It’s a subtle difference, 

like the way two people 

will angle their bodies towards 

each other or not. The conversation 

the same—it was a busy day at work. 

I am hungry. The weather is clearing, 

they say it will be warm soon.—I notice 

hands and forearms. Other people 

like knees. And sometimes 

I speak entirely with my fingertips. 

I am uncomfortable. Tap. Tap. please. 

A flat open gesture. My tongue says 

the warmth will be nice, and I can 

never remember the difference 

between cumulous and nimbus either. 

listen. I don’t care. just come closer. 

Artwork and poem by Alexis Vergalla ’06. Vergalla received 

her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, 

Riverside, in 2008. Her first chapbook, Letters Through Glass 

(Finishing Line Press) was published in 2009; her new 

chapbook, Experiments in Light and Ether (Dancing Girl Press) 

will be published this summer. Vergalla’s work has appeared 

in Diode, elimae, and other journals. She lives in Seattle and is on the staff of Poetry 

Northwest; visit her blog at www.alexisv.wordpress.com. 

Orbis Pictus (The World Illustrated), written by Moravian bishop and educator John Amos Comenius and published in 1658, was the first 

illustrated book specifically for children. (This Orbis Pictus image, from“The Master and the Boy,” is courtesy of Reeves Library.) On this 

page we celebrate the ways that members of the Moravian College community illuminate our world. 


Our greatest need 

The 

Moravian 

Scholarship 

Fund 

Moravian College has a long tradition of helping students and their families. In recognition 

of this commitment, we’ve renamed the Moravian Fund to reflect our priority. All dollars 

raised for the Moravian Scholarship Fund will go to unrestricted financial aid to 

academically qualified students. 

A Commitment to Aid 

• During the 2009-10 school year, the College provided students with $8,590,843 in 

need-based aid and $10,328,789 in merit-based aid. 

• The College provides an average aid package of $12,455 per student (this is aid from 

Moravian only—not loans, outside grants, or scholarships). 

• Over 90% of Moravian students received aid from the College in 2009-10. 

Give to the Moravian Scholarship Fund today. 

It’s easy on our secure web site www.moravian.edu— just click on “Giving to Moravian.” 

Or call 800 429-9437 to give by credit card.

1200 Main Street 

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018 

Non-Profit 

Organization 

U.S. Postage 

PAID 

Bethlehem, Pa. 

Permit No. 301 

Postcard from… 

Cusco, Peru 

Tara Latteman ’11 and Jennifer Mead ’11 made 

new friends with local women and their llamas 

during a May trip to southeastern Peru, where 

the students participated in Moravian’s SOAR 

(Student Opportunities for Academic Research) 

program. Working with John Bevington, 

professor of biology, Latteman and Mead 

researched Cecropia tree species in the Andes. 

“Besides being educational, the experience 

broadened our view of the world and exposed us 

to a different and exciting culture,” wrote Mead.

Prelude: The Chipmunk Connection - Moravian College

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