THANK YOU,
SHERRI KIMMEL.

You enriched many people’s lives via the award-winning Bucknell Magazine.

Your piece in the Spring 2022 Bucknell Magazine about John McKeegan ’84 [P. 31] brought back memories of his father, Hugh McKeegan P’81, P’83, P’84, P’86, G’10, who was a professor of education at Bucknell in my days there in the late ’60s. Hugh and another education professor, William Goodwin, were instrumental in my career development in many ways.

Both were involved in field research in school districts surrounding Lewisburg, and allowed me to apply research methods that I was learning in the classroom in their projects. In 1975, Dr. McKeegan joined me in Portland, Ore., on a federally funded project directed at advancing the practice of testing students’ ability to apply what they have learned in real-world settings. Later he invited me to speak at Bucknell on this topic.

Dr. Goodwin lit a fire in me through our research projects and steered me to enter the Ph.D. program in educational research at the University of Colorado. Faculty interest in their students’ futures and co-authoring applied papers with them were two aspects of my Bucknell education that I will always value. And, in addition, the liberal arts curriculum at Bucknell has influenced my lifelong interest in developing interdisciplinary graduate education and research. I have learned that most research requires applied knowledge and methods from multiple disciplines.

Thank you, Bucknell.

Amos lived with the Fitzgerald family, blessed us really, for 14 years, and made a huge difference in how we lived as a family. Amos taught us humor, patience, the need to slow down, the need to be a peacekeeper. It looks like Mort exudes those same qualities, and I’ll bet he is a de facto “therapy dog” whom students seek out, while they also come for the company and counsel of the McKinneys.

One other thing that needs to be told is that my name is Mort! When I was very young, my sister and two brothers reduced the formality of Margaret to … Mort. And it stuck.

When I arrived at Bucknell in 1973, I introduced myself as Margaret, no family nicknames attached. But a chance letter from my sister at Trinity College was addressed to Mort Boles. My roommate announced it at a hall meeting with our RA, and it was greeted with enthusiasm. From there, I decided to keep it going (or my hallmates would not let it go), and within quick order, it became a “point of differentiation” and really — in some ways — served me quite well: Young lotharios thought it quite sexy (go figure), general folks thought it quite “cool,” it helped me stand out in the vigorous tide of young women swimming like salmon through the streams of sorority rush (one rarely forgets meeting a woman named Mort), and I was going to start a trend that Madonna, Rihanna, The Weeknd and others would emulate: a one-name phenom.

I loved the McKinneys’ story and their brave and beautiful decision to join the Bucknell family, and my entire family’s collective heart melted at the sight of all those photos of Mort. For so many reasons, this story resonated with me and my family.

Your story [Spring 2022, Editor’s Letter] is amazing and motivating, even to this elder octogenarian. I was moved by your commitment to your next quest, Sherri, and commend your focus and spirit. So many today lack both. Continue to make a difference.

I am writing to thank [former editor Sherri Kimmel] for your brilliant leadership during your seven years at Bucknell. You and your staff have transformed the publication dedicated to meaningful stories and updates about the University. You have a brilliant ability to select germane topics that resonate with the alumni, as well as the University and local Lewisburg communities.

Positive energy is an invaluable component of success. You epitomize this trait, both in your personal writing and in the format and “feel” of Bucknell Magazine. I am certain that you will bring your infectious positive energy to your endeavors in public service.

Brad Putman Named New Garman Dean of the College of Engineering

More Than Medicine

Humanities grant funds new health minor with a liberal arts focus

The headlines are everywhere: hospital admission rates, infection spikes and projections about a years-long pandemic keep health at the forefront of our everyday concerns.

But the health landscape isn’t cleanly delineated by diagnoses, pharmaceutical treatments and advancements in biomedical interventions. For many Bucknell professors in the humanities, health is a complex field of understanding rooted in people — their histories, environments and experiences.

The Freeman College turns 5

But Raquel Alexander, the Kenneth W. Freeman Professor and dean of the Freeman College of Management, emphasizes that this is just the latest in a series of achievements since the college’s founding.

Photo: Emily Paine

In the Scrum

“It’s constant, there’s no stopping,” says Tiernan, co-captain of Bucknell’s club team, “meaning it’s exhausting with the constant running and hitting.”

At 6 feet, 2 inches and 225 pounds, Tiernan is one of the bigger athletes on the pitch. He plays a position called No. 8, a catch-all role responsible for tackling, setting rucks (in which players compete for the ball on the ground), running with the ball and passing it — always backward, per game rules — to teammates scrambling for the end zone (or “try zone,” in rugby parlance).

Class of 2020

Photos: Emily Paine and April Bartholomew

Class of 2022

Going After Good

t started with rats, exhausted from psychology lab experiments. Hovering over them, a young biology major — Bartley Griffith ’70 — waited for the effects of his carefully dosed chlorohydrate to take over.

“The first human heart transplant had just been performed in South Africa. I couldn’t get that out of my head,” says Griffith. “That somebody can live with somebody else’s heart. It’s unbelievable.”

Griffith knows the limits of belief. On Jan. 7, he completed the first successful full organ xenotransplant in history, placing a genetically modified pig’s heart into his human patient. Xenotransplantation is any procedure that replaces tissue, live cells or organs in a human with those from an animal source. His research is a significant step in the medical community’s quest to help thousands awaiting transplants across the world.

New faith-focused fellowship program brings Bucknellians of varied beliefs together

“It’s no secret that religion can often be a difficult subject to converse around, but we also know that Bucknell students are immensely curious about other people,” says Director of Religious & Spiritual Life Kurt Nelson, who worked with Bucknell’s Muslim and Jewish chaplains to launch the program in fall 2021. “Students come in expecting to learn about a range of nationalities, racial and cultural identities, and religions. We want to create healthy, meaningful opportunities to do that.”

n March 22, a small crowd of journalists and government officials from multiple countries gathered in New York City to admire a display of 28 antiquities from the ancient Middle East. The most precious of the items included two gold masks from around 5000 B.C., and three death masks from the neolithic era, between 6000 and 7000 B.C. But this ceremony, punctuated by speeches and the flashing of cameras, was not happening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Natural History or other cultural institution. It took place at the offices of the Manhattan district attorney, where the items had been temporarily removed from an evidence locker.

Valued at more than $5 million combined, the pieces on display were looted antiquities from Israel acquired by the hedge-fund billionaire and prominent art collector Michael Steinhardt. (Through lawyers, Steinhardt has said in the past that dealers had told him the items he purchased were lawfully acquired.) Now, they were being repatriated to Israel, due to the work of Assistant DA Matthew Bogdanos ’80, senior trial counsel and chief of the world’s first Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

Setting Trends in Higher Ed

Comprising 10 interactive exhibits, the virtual experience features audio, photos and 360-degree videos woven into beautifully rendered environments that incorporate details from Bucknell’s real-life campus. Using Oculus headsets and controllers, visitors can gaze up at the iconic Bertrand Library bell tower, bask in the neon glow of the Campus Theatre marquee and even stand center court at Sojka Pavilion during a Bison basketball game.

Produced in collaboration with the digital agency Next/Now, the Bucknell Virtual Experience is one of the first of its kind in higher education.

A Nation on the Cusp?

That unprecedented event was one of several in the last six years that prompted Walter to turn her gaze toward the possibility of civil war in her own country after a three-decade career spent studying internal conflicts in Syria, Zimbabwe, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka and other nations.

IN MEMORIAM

Joann Golightly Brown ’48, P’79, P’82, G’21

Photo: Gordon R. Wenzel

That energetic epigraph begins the first Class Reports column authored by Joann Golightly Brown ’48, published in the March 1950 issue of The Bucknell Alumnus, a forerunner to this publication. For the next 72 years, readers of this magazine would encounter that same boundless energy, upbeat irreverence and, above all, unwavering passion for Bucknell between the margins of the Class of 1948 column.

“Do you remember trudging through the snow to get to an early morning class like World Lit?” she asked readers in her Spring 2022 column. “Do students still ‘trudge’ like we did to an 8 a.m. class, or do they just Zoom in? Oh well, I digress …”

With deep regret, the staff of Bucknell Magazine reports that Brown’s last column is printed on P. 39 of this issue. She died on May 24 in Summit, N.J.

“Foot transportation has long been a concern in certain areas of the University, whether it’s sports teams running near Route 15 or staff members walking to work from nearby neighborhoods,” Campbell says. “The walkability and safety of this campus is a high priority for students, faculty and staff.”