Contact by email:
Director (or send email to emeriti@emory.edu) Letters to the Editor Click on the above link to let us know what you think (or send email to emeriti@emory.edu)! |
Upcoming Events--
All on Zoom
Lunch Colloquium
Gary Hauk
May 11, 2020
Afternoon Seminar
Carol Hogue
May 13, 2020
Lunch Colloquium Brenda Bynum May 18, 2020
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This issue of our newsletter is sent to members and friends of the Emory University Emeritus College (EUEC). I hope the newsletter will help keep you informed about our activities and help you feel connected with our members throughout the U.S. On the left are links to our website and links to contact either me or the EUEC office.
With best wishes,
Gray
Gray F. Crouse Director, EUEC
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 Message from the Director
This newsletter is huge, primarily because we have had so much activity in the Emeritus College. Beginning the week of April 13 and continuing for five weeks, we will have had an average of two programs per week. It is an exhausting time, but also satisfying to have such great programs and to have so many members participating. Those of us who could come to the Luce Center of course miss our in-person meetings, but Zoom has expanded our reach to those who could not attend or attend only with difficulty. We are now routinely having members who live out of state participate in the meetings, and they are as "present" as any of us who live near Emory. There is no better marker of the possibilities we have with Zoom than our speaker yesterday, Kay Holmes, who spoke to us from her home in Seattle. We will have another out-of-state speaker next week, Carol Hogue, who now lives in North Carolina.
There is plenty of room for others to join us and I hope even more of you will take advantage. I am happy to help any of you get set up with Zoom. Once you have it set up, it opens up an interactive world not only with us, but also with other colleagues and family, as many of our members have discovered.
Thanks to many of you for help in making all of this possible: Gretchen Schulz and her committee for arranging our programs, writers who are willing to provide articles to let everyone know about our Lunch Colloquiums and seminars, and Don O'Shea, who helps get our videos ready for our web person, Stacey Jones, to put on our website.
There is much to celebrate below. In addition to our talks, there is a great group of new members, and a report on our Awards and New Members reception. If you missed it, you can see the recording on our videos page under Activities, and below you can read synopses of the letters nominating each person for an award and find a link to the original nomination letters, as well as links to the complete program and lists of our many new members and donors. There is also information on faculty activities and there will be more of that in future issues.
I am very grateful to Gretchen Schulz, Ann Hartle, and Marge Crouse for help with editing and proofing.
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Lunch Colloquium--Monday, May 11
"The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul"--A History of Emory Commencement
Location: Wherever you are
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Afternoon Seminar--Wednesday, May 13, 4:00 pm
The Corona Inequity: Why COVID-19 Disproportionately Affects African Americans
Location: Wherever you are
4:00-5:30
Carol Hogue, Jules & Uldeen Terry Professor Emerita of Maternal and Child Health, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
Click here to read more below about this seminar
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Lunch Colloquium--Monday, May 18
An Introduction to the Epistolary Friendship of Flannery O'Connor with Betty Hester
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Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, April 20
Howard Thurman: "Tutor to the World"
Kipton Jensen, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Leadership Studies Program in the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership, Morehouse College
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Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, April 27
Can US Healthcare Be Made Affordable?
Henry Kahn, Professor Emeritus of Family and Preventive Medicine
Click here to read more about this Lunch Colloquium below
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New Members
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Awards and New Members Reception Report--Thursday, April 16
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Faculty Activities
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We note the death of member Dan Caplan.
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Walking the Campus with Dianne
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Lunch Colloquium--Monday, May 11
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| | President Bill Chace and Board of Trustees Chair Ben Johnson pose with honorary degree recipients Seamus Heaney, Anthony Fauci, David Levering Lewis and Carlton "Sam" Young. |
"The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul"--A History of Emory Commencement
Gary Hauk, Former Emory Vice President, Deputy to the President, University Historian
Since COVID-19 has forced cancellation of the 2020 Emory Commencement, come join a virtual Commencement on the day that would have witnessed Emory's 175th graduation exercises, Monday, May 11. Gary Hauk, who retired as the Emory University Historian in January, will tell how the university has celebrated the achievements of its students and faculty members through the generations. Where did the bagpipes come in? When did regalia become part of the scene? Who was the most celebrated Commencement speaker? And what about those honorary degrees? (Three cheers for Anthony Fauci, DSc, 2003!) A nineteenth-century newspaper article called the Emory College Commencement of the day "the feast of reason and the flow of soul," borrowing a line from Alexander Pope. The phrase seems apt even now to describe the celebratory end of the academic year. Come prepared to share your own Commencement memories as we observe the day that would have been.
About Gary Hauk
Few of us have an Emory webpage devoted to our career at Emory. Gary Hauk does!
If one were to accept his modest view, in the course of a 34-year career, Gary Hauk 91PhD has merely been opening doors - in his words, "smoothing the way and shepherding good ideas" through Emory.
To the rest of us, he has been a key figure in many major chapters in Emory's evolution. Working closely with five presidents, his positions have included assistant secretary of the university, secretary of the university, vice president, deputy to the president, senior adviser to the president, and university historian. He retires on Jan. 1, 2020.
From his first annual report prepared for Laney, Hauk not only has been sure-footed in describing Emory and its arc over the years; he also has been inspirational, solidifying community. In Hauk's latest book, "Emory as Place," President Sterk contributes a foreword in which she writes, "Gary knew the story behind the story of Emory." He has authored or edited four books on the history of Emory, including his most recent, "Emory as Place." Asked how he describes his voice as a writer, Hauk says, "I have aimed always for a kind of understated elegance. I have wanted to be motivating, to communicate that everything we are doing at the university has a moral purpose. There is something above us, calling us."
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Afternoon Seminar--Wednesday, May 13, 4:00 pm
The Corona Inequity: Why COVID-19 Disproportionately Affects African Americans
Carol Hogue, Jules & Uldeen Terry Professor Emerita of Maternal and Child Health, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
Nationwide, alarming statistics reveal that African Americans are at greater risk than others for both infection with the coronavirus and death from COVID-19. While some express surprise at this phenomenon, public health scientists point to specific, embedded, and continuing racialized inequality as the unsurprising root cause. Structural racism exacerbates transmission through poverty, residential crowding, and higher numbers among "essential" workers. Structural and interpersonal racism increases individual susceptibility and reduces access to quality health care. Flattening the racial curve can be achieved through immediate and long-term local, regional, and national action. For example, "inequity curve flattening" actions that began in Minneapolis in 2018 may help account for the observed lower COVID-19 impact among African Americans in Minnesota compared with bordering states. The COVID-19 pandemic may trigger other structural actions that will result in positive, long-lasting health outcomes.
About Carol Hogue
The following was in the RSPH Dean's message in the fall of last year:
Carol Rowland Hogue retired earlier this year. She received the school's first endowed professorship, the Jules and Uldeen Terry Professor of Maternal and Child Health. Carol established and led the Women's and Children's Center for the past 25 years. Holding joint appointments in the School of Medicine, Emory College, and Rollins, Carol has served on Emory's Faculty Council, the provost's Faculty Advisory Committee, and the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Laney Graduate School.
Among many honors, she served as president of both the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the American College of Epidemiology, and in 2016 she received the MCH Epidemiology Coalition's Greg Alexander Award for Advancing Knowledge-Advancing Public Health through Epidemiology and Applied Research. In 2017, she won Emory's Jefferson Award.
Carol and her husband, Lynn, have established the Carol J. R. Hogue Endowment to support outstanding students with a demonstrated interest in maternal and child health to enable the pursuit of internships in maternal and child health.
Before coming to Emory, Carol was a Director of the federal Centers for Disease Control, Division of Reproductive Health (1988-92) and on faculties in Biometry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science (1977-82) and the UNC School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics (1974-77), Dr. Hogue initiated many of the current CDC reproductive health programs, including the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), the National Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System, and the National Infant Mortality Surveillance (NIMS) project that launched the national and state-level development and use of linked birth and death records. In addition, Dr. Hogue led the first research on maternal morbidities that was the precursor to the current safe motherhood initiative, and the initial innovative research on racial disparities in preterm delivery that found that college-educated African American women have a three-fold risk of very preterm delivery, when compared to college-educated White women. This discovery has triggered further research into biological, biosocial, and environmental causes of this as-yet unexplained excess risk.
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Lunch Colloquium--Monday, May 18
An Introduction to the Epistolary Friendship of Flannery O'Connor with Betty Hester
Brenda Bynum, Senior Lecturer Emerita, Department of Theater Studies
In 1955, Flannery O'Connor received a letter from a woman who had just read her book "A Good Man is Hard to Find," and she replied by writing back, "I want to know who this is who understands my stories." What followed was a remarkable correspondence between the two that lasted and thrived until O'Connor's death nine years later. Though most of the letters that Hester sent to O'Connor have not been found, O'Connor's to Hester were saved by the recipient, donated to Emory University in 1987, and opened to the public 20 years later. They are candid, perceptive, and honest and reveal the development of a deep and satisfying friendship for both of them. They are also a pleasure to read as O'Connor brought all of her literary brilliance to bear in writing them. Brenda has developed a program on these letters that she will share with us today. About Brenda Bynum For most of us, Brenda truly needs no introduction. For those new to EUEC, here is just a brief synopsis of her career. From 1983 until 2000 Brenda Bynum was a Resident Artist and member of the faculty here at Emory in the Department of Theater Studies, where, after her retirement, her colleagues honored her with the establishment of The Brenda Bynum Award, which is presented each year to an outstanding theater student. In 2004 she was named a Heilbrun Distinguished Emeritus Research Fellow and later received the 2013 Distinguished Emerita Award. She has been an active member of the Emory University Emeritus College since 2001 and continues to pursue her primary academic interest in the work of Samuel Beckett. Brenda was the Sheth Distinguished Lecturer in 2015, and her lecture can be seen by clicking here. She has been an actor and director in Atlanta since 1973, working primarily at the Alliance Theater where she was also the Acting Teacher for the nationally-known Professional Intern Program, a two-year post-graduate residency. She was named by WABE as a Lexus Leader of the Arts in Atlanta, and, in the late 'seventies, she was a co-founder of the first theater in Atlanta run exclusively by women, T.H.E. Theatre, Ltd. Since that time she has participated in the development of over a dozen original performance pieces based on the lives and works of real women. The latest in that line is "Jordan Is So Chilly: An Encounter with Lillian Smith," about the remarkable Georgia author and human rights activist, which has toured the Southeast over the past two years under the auspices of the Georgia Humanities Council. In 2016 she was presented the 2015 Governor's Award for the Arts and Humanities by Governor Deal, in a ceremony at the State Capitol. In 2017 she was named the Center for Creativity & Arts 2017 Atlanta Community Impact Artist. That award recognizes significant contributions in creativity and the arts by members of the Emory community as well as by individuals or groups from Fulton or Dekalb counties. In 2018 she was featured in an exhibit at the Woodruff Library 2 titled "Education at Emory in a Changing World." "Unsung Players: Augusta Skeen Cooper and Brenda Bynum," curated by Kate Battaglia and John Gulledge, stated that both of the women "significantly impacted the Emory community. While Augusta Skeen Cooper and Brenda Bynum worked within different departments and are decades apart, they illustrate a larger pattern of female figures making strides for gender equality at Emory." In 2019, Brenda received an Award from the Georgia Center for the Book for a decade of promoting the life and literary legacy of Lillian Smith throughout the south. Her professional papers are collected in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia. An article in the Druid Hills Magazine describes her as the "First Lady of Atlanta Theatre." |
Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, April 20
Howard Thurman, "A Tutor for the World"
Kipton Jensen, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Leadership Studies Program in the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership, Morehouse College
Kipton Jensen is associate professor of philosophy at Morehouse College,
director of the leadership studies program in the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership there, and, in the words of Gretchen Schulz in her introduction, a "peripatetic philosopher." During his travels he spent time in the Kalahari, where he first became interested in philosopher-theologian-teacher Howard Thurman. Dr. Thurman's intellectual and spiritual passions lined up so well with his own that Kipton has devoted much of his scholarly life for the ten years since he settled at Morehouse to shining a light on his work. In 2018, in collaboration with David Gowler, Pierce Professor of Religion on the Oxford campus of Emory, he published a collection of Howard Thurman's Sermons on the Parables. And December of 2019 saw the publication of his most recent book, Howard Thurman: Philosophy, Civil Rights, and the Search for Common Ground.
There is a rich audio archive of Dr. Thurman's speeches and sermons, and at the beginning of Kipton's talk he treated us to a recorded passage from "Deep is the Hunger," where Dr. Thurman speaks of the human need for a refreshment of spirit, for quiet. We should sit still, he says, and engage in nothing: a "creative lassitude." This is difficult for humans, as we are wired for a "fetish of fevered action," and need to cultivate stillness to be "free from churning."
Best remembered for his work with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Howard Thurman had a distinguished spiritual and academic career in his own right. Valedictorian at Morehouse in 1923 and ordained as a Baptist minister in 1925, he held positions in teaching and religious leadership at Morehouse, Spelman, and Howard University. In 1935-1936 he traveled to South Asia, where he met with Gandhi. Important among the topics they discussed were the concepts of Ahimsa, a version of love "in the Pauline sense, only more," and Satyagrapha, the introduction of truth and gentleness into national life. In 1944, he founded the San Francisco Church for the Fellowship of All People. And in 1953, he began to serve as Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University.
Beyond infusing the notion of nonviolence into the civil rights movement, Dr. Thurman contributed seminal insights into a myriad of subjects, among them, theories of mind, identity, religion, sociopolitical philosophy, and philosophy of freedom. While he didn't think of himself as a leader or a "movement person," he and Dr. King shared Thomas Merton's belief that true social change must be grounded in spiritual experience and personal transformation.
In Dr. Thurman's 1949 book Jesus and the Disinherited, he makes the distinction between the person Jesus and the institution of Christianity. In a particularly memorable passage he says:
The basic fact is that Christianity as it was born in the mind of this Jewish teacher and thinker appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed. That it became, through the intervening years, a religion of the powerful and the dominant, used sometimes as an instrument of oppression, must not tempt us into believing that it was thus in the mind and life of Jesus.
And he explains, "The religion of Jesus makes the love-ethic central. This is no ordinary achievement."
He lists the human defense mechanisms that lead to violence and oppression: fear, deception, and hate. And he argues that these defenses can be resolved only through love. Dr. Thurman arrives at Dr. King's vision of the "Beloved Community" by his own route: He sees it as involving a dynamic integration and wholeness that can be achieved only through meaningful experiences of togetherness over time. While this wholeness may be facilitated by policies and institutions, it must emerge as an experience after the fact of coming together.
Along with Drs. Martin Luther King and Benjamin Mays, Dr. Thurman expressed a "theistic personalism." Dr. King wrote in "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," "Injustice inheres in whatever distorts the soul and damages the personality." In his eulogy for Dr. King, Dr. Thurman said: "Ask not what the world needs. Ask rather what it is that makes you come alive, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
In the Thurman Obelisk at Morehouse College is a plaque with a quote from Howard Thurman's wife Sue Bailey Thurman, where she describes him as a "seeker and finder of genuine existence-a tutor for the world." Kipton's presentation certainly helped us all to understand this remarkable man and his extensive influence on the civil rights movement-and beyond.
Here are some suggestions for further reading and listening:
--Holly York
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Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, April 27
Can US Healthcare Be Made Affordable?
Henry Kahn, Professor Emeritus of Family and Preventive Medicine
On April 27, Dr. Henry Kahn, an Emeritus Professor at Emory's School of Medicine, gave a comprehensive and sobering talk on America's healthcare system and how we can make it more affordable and effective. He was able to trace its development and changes over the past 50-60 years that have brought us to where we are today and to address many of the challenges facing us in the future. This was especially interesting to me as it covered my entire career as a primary-care physician starting in 1965 after completing my medical residency at Grady until my retirement in 2009 as well as the years since then. Dr. Kahn was able to show the increasing control exercised by for-profit, large insurance and pharmaceutical companies, often promoting policy contrary to clinical evidence and the public interest. This corporate dominance has had a negative influence on programs designed to help underserved populations like Medicare and Medicaid. U.S. healthcare had costs and outcomes similar to those of many other developed countries until about 1970 when it began to become more expensive and less beneficial, with us experiencing less improvement in our life expectancy. Compared to many western countries we spend several thousands of dollars more per capita each year for our healthcare now, yet the outcomes associated with our care are relatively inferior. Our uninsured and underinsured populations suffer, as does our society in general, facts Dr. Kahn established with a wonderful (and really depressing) collection of graphs and charts. Among other disheartening things, he pointed out that the growth of numbers of physicians in the U.S. has been much less than the growth of medical managers and lobbyists for large insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Indeed, insurance overhead has increased 21% this past year, much of which may be due to lobbying expenditures in the current election cycle. Healthcare costs have increased steadily since 1970 in the U.S., reaching about 19% of GDP versus, as an example, only 10% in Canada. Having disclosed his long-time membership in Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Kahn began to describe the kind of single-payer program he and they would recommend, an Improved Medicare for All solution to the problems he had been identifying. First and foremost, we need to rid ourselves of our current medical-care financing system, unique in that for-profit corporations not only dominate private health coverage but also play an increasing role in public coverage. Drug prices are also very high. He pointed out that the Medicare for All solution must be a purely public program and should cover a comprehensive package of service benefits. A future, affordable plan should exclude investor-owned, for-profit plans, while emphasizing improved health planning, public accountability, and cost controls on prescription drugs. He noted that the American College of Physicians and other medical organizations, while in the past opposed to single-payer programs, are now beginning to readdress this possibility. Obviously lower costs and better healthcare outcomes will be important factors. Finally, Dr. Kahn showed a very interesting slide of Harry Truman's personal application for Medicare insurance in 1966-all on one small postcard. Would that applying for healthcare coverage could be that simple again! The audience raised several interesting questions regarding problems related to cost, accessibility, and individual choices. It's obvious that this is a very difficult set of issues to solve and one that's not going away anytime soon. Luckily, those who might want to give Dr. Kahn's presentation some more thought as they further consider these issues will soon be able to access the whole of his illuminating presentation on the Emeritus College website. --Jim Van Buren
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New Members
New members are the lifeblood of any organization. Please make a special effort to welcome them to EUEC!
Peter C. Block, MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine
I have had three lives in Cardiology - the first at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where I ran the Cardiac Catheterization Lab for 15 years; the second in Portland, Oregon, where I was Associate Director of the St. Vincent Heart Institute; and the third at Emory University Hospital to which I was recruited in 2000 (after my first "retirement") to help establish the Structural Heart Program. I owe Emory a great deal for the experience of helping develop the concept of a "Heart Team" and being part of the multiple clinical trials needed to establish and verify the concept of this sub/sub specialty in Cardiology. Thus, my third life in Cardiology consisted of opening holes in the heart where they were lacking, closing holes that were causing problems, and replacing/repairing heart valves - all through trans-catheter techniques, thereby avoiding heart surgery. It was a fascinating and exciting finale. Having been "Emeritized," I kept busy. I meet with the research fellows weekly to help them write academic papers from the Emory Structural Heart Database and join the Thursday cardiac cath conference at the VA. But mostly I turn wooden hollow forms and more recently am painting with watercolors (the former more successful than the latter). Nonetheless I love doing both. The annual Artist's Market at the Trinity School and the MacDonald Marketplace in Beaufort, SC, keep my inventory moving, for which my wife is forever grateful.
William R. Elsea, MD, MPH, Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology, part-time professor, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, retired
I grew up in Kirksville, MO, got a BS from Westminster College in Fulton, MO, and an MD from Washington University, St. Louis. There I met my wife, Nancy, who was studying physical therapy. I had a rotating internship in Bangor, Maine, where 3 classmates and I comprised 3/5 of the house staff. We made $90 per month. Then we moved to Atlanta where I joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service, and traveled around doing epidemiological investigations. Very interesting and life changing.
Partly to decide what kind of medicine to do, I became a Peace Corps doc. My wife and I and our 6-month-old daughter were stationed in Sierra Leone, W. Africa (once referred to as "the white man's grave"). I decided to pursue public health and returned to the University of Michigan for a masters in public health.
Following that, I became epidemiologist and Deputy Health Commissioner for Erie County, Buffalo, NY (1963-67), Health Commissioner for Lexington, Fayette County KY (1967-71), Health Commissioner for Cincinnati, Ohio (1971-74), and Commissioner of Health for Fulton County, Atlanta (1974-1993). I enjoyed teaching in medical schools in each of those cities. I was a part time Professor in the Emory Dept. of Preventive Medicine for about 30 years and a Clinical Professor at Morehouse Medical School and the Emory School of Public Health.
My wife has stuck with me more than 60 years. We have 3 children and 4 wonderful grandchildren. These days I especially enjoy my family, my labradoodle, nature, tennis, walking, traveling, reading, and catfish.
Members in Transition
Patricia Dinkins-Matthews, DMA, Lecturer in Piano, Vocal Coaching, Piano Skills, and Collaborative Piano, Department of Music
Ruth Parker, MD, Professor of Medicine
William G Woods, MD, Professor and Director Emeritus Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Affiliate Member
Lerita Coleman Brown, PhD, Ayse I. Carden Distinguished Professor Emerita of Psychology, Agnes Scott College
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Faculty Activities
Morton Waitzman Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology and Physiology
Mort Waitzman was interviewed for a National Geographic special on the end of World War II. This show has been rescheduled to be shown on May 21. The viewing would be on the National Geographic TV channel (839) at 8 PM. This will be shown world-wide in multiple languages.
Nanette Wenger, MD, MACC, MACP, FAHA Professor Emerita of Medicine
This announcement was made to Nanette on April 28: On behalf of the Association of University Cardiologists Leadership Council, we are delighted to inform you that the "Featured Lecture" held at the annual scientific sessions of the Association has been renamed as the "Nanette K. Wenger Honorary Lecture". Proposed by the Council, this change was approved by a unanimous vote of the membership at the annual meeting held in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2020, and the inaugural Wenger lecture will be scheduled in January 2021. It is indeed a privilege for us to acknowledge the remarkable clinical and academic contributions you continue to make in the field of cardiology and the most special way in which you continue to support the Association of University Cardiologists.
Ron Gould
Goodrich C. White Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
Ron gave a talk at the 51st Southeastern Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing (above) entitled "Spanning bipartite graphs with high degree sum in graphs," March 9-13, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL. He also published "Spanning bipartite graphs with high degree sum in graphs," with G. Chen, S. Chiba, X. Gu, A. Saito, M. Tsugaki, and Tomoki Tamashita. Discrete Math. 343 (2020). (on-line now).
Perry Sprawls, PhD, FACR, FAAPM, FIOMP Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Emory University
This time of limited activities and social contacts provides a special opportunity for families to think about more pleasant and productive things. One of these is focusing on the preservation and sharing of their personal Family Heritage. A project consisting of four specific family activities along with links to resources that can be used as a guide is provided in the website: http://www.sprawls.org/heritage/.
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Awards and New Members Reception Report--Thursday, April 16
Although we couldn't meet in person, we had a great celebration with our award winners and had an opportunity to recognize our many new members who joined during the year and to thank those members who have supported us financially. You can see the program for the reception by clicking on the link above.
The entire reception was recorded, and you can see the video by linking from our videos page and finding it under the Activities tab, or go directly to the video by clicking here.
Opening greetings were given by Tim Holbrook, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, and the Heilbrun Fellowships were presented by Michael Elliott, Dean of Emory College, to Oded Borowski and Kristin Mann. A description of their Fellowship projects may be found in Issue 5 of this year's newsletter by clicking here.
This year we had three Distinguished Faculty Award recipients and one Distinguished Service Award recipient.
The first Faculty Award was to David Eltis, nominated and presented by John Juricek:
 
When David Eltis in 2002 joined Emory as the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of History he was already a renowned scholar, notably for The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas (2000). Greater acclaim was to come to him as a compiler and editor. Down to the 1990s what could be said about that trade depended mainly on episodic summaries in official documents. It was well known that records of particular voyages existed, but no one knew how plentiful or informative they were. David decided to find out. He became the driving force behind a great international investigation. In 1992 David began to assemble documentary evidence on slave voyages. As word of his enormous project spread, other scholars contributed much additional evidence. With NEH support the first compilation, containing data on 27,000 voyages, was published as a CD-ROM in 1999. With further collaborations and grants, in 2008 the project became an online data base (www.slavevoyages.org) maintained by Emory. After retirement in 2012 David continued this work with a new emphasis. David explained that "Our aim is to extend the primary function of the website from a ship-based to a people-based record" including both enslaved and enslavers. No one has benefited more from David's work than African-Americans. Before 1999 the vast majority of them had little or no information about their ancestors before the Civil War. African-American genealogy scarcely existed. Henry Lewis Gates, Harvard professor and PBS host of "Finding Your Roots," contributed an introductory video to www.slavevoyages.org. He concludes that "The contribution of this website to the self-knowledge of African-Americans, not just in the U.S., but throughout the New World, cannot be overestimated." Emory University has been honored to have David Eltis - this great scholar and visionary - at work among us. --John T. Juricek
Here is an excerpt of Mike's nomination:
The professional activities and accomplishments of Dr. Joseph E. Hardison (Dr. Joe) starting after he was granted Emeritus status (August 8, 2001) are substantial and impressive. From 2001 through 2014, Dr. Joe rounded with medical students, PA students, and medical house-staff. He mentored Medical Residents and rounded with Emergency Room staff at their weekly conferences. And for 2005-06, Dr. Joe was awarded the Best Overall Teaching Attending by the Medical Residents. In late 2008, Dr. Willis Hurst, former Chair of Medicine and Lyndon B. Johnson's personal physician, wrote two personal letters to Dr. Joe saying in one, "You have achieved the ultimate in my book. A great teacher and a caring physician. The students and house-staff have made you a legend. We need many more like you" and in the other. "You continue to be the best. Students and house-staff love you, respect you and are better because of you. Please stay on."
At the Sixth Annual Hurst Internal Medicine Reunion in 2009, Dr. Joe was an Honoree for his teaching and dedication to the Residency Program. Dr. Joe officially retired on March 4, 2014, for the second and last time. The main Conference Room for Internal Medicine at the VA has been named in his honor with a plaque that states, "His encyclopedic knowledge, sharp wit and gentle but forceful guidance have made him a legend throughout the region and one that is fostered by his former students. Their respect and appreciation for his contribution to their professional development is heartfelt." During the past few years Dr. Joe did eight mock interviews with Emory students applying to medical schools. One student really liked his advice to "be yourself." On a personal note, Dr. Joe is my best golfing buddy and my "go to doctor" on an as needed basis.
Here is an excerpt of their nomination:
In the last several years, Holly has ventured well beyond the boundaries of her familiar role as teacher/scholar and embraced a role quite new to her, at this time in her life, at least, that of student/poet. Inspired by a Massive Open Online Course on the future of higher education offered by Duke, she enrolled in many further MOOCs, just for fun. And then, as she puts it herself, "things got serious." Since she'd always been interested in doing some writing, she signed on for a course in "How Writers Write Poetry" offered by the University of Iowa's International Writers Program. And she began to combine courses on writing poetry with courses on poets, including the one from Penn that's meant the most to her (and to which she herself has contributed the most, as student, re-enrolling many times, and as teacher, invited by THE teacher to serve as a "community mentor').
As for her own poetry, a variety of workshop experiences, often open only to those whose work has been judged worthy, have helped her the most with that. She's done some workshops right here in Atlanta. But the one most memorable thus far has been the one run by much-lauded contemporary American poet Kim Addonizio--in the form of a two-week "retreat" in Umbria in the summer of 2018 (acceptance being as competitive as you might imagine). And in the very week in which we're writing this letter, Holly is attending the by-invitation-only Palm Beach Poetry Festival.
Gretchen and Marilynne ended their letter thus:
In our view, Holly's differently "professional" work as student and poet is at least as worthy of recognition from the EUEC Awards Committee as her continuing work in the more familiar modes of academic professionalism described in the first part of our letter. We admire her willingness to venture far from the same old same old into the new new new. We hope you will admire it, too. Thank you.
The Service Award was to Helen O'Shea, nominated and presented by Marianne Scharbo-DeHaan.
 
Here is an excerpt of Marianne's nomination:
Since retirement Dr. O'Shea has contributed to the Emeritus College by serving on the EUEC executive committee for two terms, by serving as chair of the Mentoring Committee of the EUEC, and by co-chairing the Women's Conversations program. In addition she has been an active volunteer for the EUEC Med Share Initiative for the past 8 years. In addition to EUEC contributions she is an active volunteer in the community. She was recently appointed to the Board of the DeKalb Master Gardeners where in addition to the Board activities she contributes 100 hours/year working on community gardening projects and coordinating intern food sales. Her other service activity centers around her activity with her Church. She serves as a Lector and Eucharistic Minister for the Emory Catholic Center, and she coordinates and is one of the cooks for the monthly dinners provided for families of hospitalized Emory patients at Hope Lodge where out of town families can stay during the hospitalization of a family member. It was my pleasure to nominate Dr. O'Shea and I was pleased that she was awarded the Distinguished Award for Service for 2020. Dr. O'Shea is an exemplar of retirement service at the EUEC.
We next recognized three groups of our members. All are listed in the insert contained in the program that can be read by clicking here.
It was a particular joy to celebrate our 61 new members and to note that 23 of those members are not yet retired. The fact that we have faculty joining before retirement is a huge tribute to our retired members!
It was also a great pleasure to recognize the nearly 120 of our members who have made financial contributions to EUEC in the current year. There is no way to express adequate thanks for those important contributions.
At the end we remembered the 26 members who have died since our last reception.
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In Memoriam
Daniel B. Caplan, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics
Daniel Caplan died March 14, 2020, after a short battle with mesothelioma (don't smoke!). He was a pioneer in pediatric gastroenterology, specializing in the study and treatment of patients with hepatic dysfunction, cystic fibrosis, and other GI disorders for fifty years. Dan was born in Winthrop, MA, on September 14, 1937; he attended Brandeis University and earned his MD with honors from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1962. He held residencies at Boston City Hospital, Boston Floating Hospital, and Yale University School of Medicine. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Ft. McPherson during the Vietnam War.
He joined the Emory University School of Medicine faculty in 1968 as Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center and the Therapeutic Nutrition Center, Director of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology in Emory School of Medicine and Chief of Gastroenterology at Egleston Children's Hospital. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Gastroenterology, and the American College of Nutrition. He served in many positions within the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and was a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the Medical Advisory Board for the Georgia Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He also served as camp pediatrician at the Cystic Fibrosis Camp of Georgia and Camp Barney Medintz and also on the board of the Community Advanced Practice Nurses, which provides health care to homeless women and children.
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Walking the Campus with Dianne
Our last walk took us to a lovely outdoor fireplace (something we do not need on these warm days, but might be cozy for one of the cooler evenings). The fireplace can be found at the Emory Conference Center Hotel. It is part of the Silverbell Pavilion which is near Houston Mill Road on the pool-side of the conference center.
The hotel is one of my favorites in Atlanta. The building and interior has a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired design, lots of conference/meeting space, a small bowling alley for guests and special events, a ballroom, and comfy rooms which also include the Frank Lloyd theme all the way down to the lamps!
I've attended many conferences and meetings at the Emory Conference Center Hotel, including the AROHE Conference the Emeritus College hosted a couple of years ago.
For our next walk, let's look at a building that recently got a bit of a facelift. I know it looks like a small hotel, but it's not.
Where will you find this on the Emory Campus?
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Emory University Emeritus College The Luce Center
825 Houston Mill Road NE #206 Atlanta, GA 30329 |
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