COA THE COLLEGE OF HE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Volume 8. Number 1. Spring 2012 COA'S TIES TO MDI It Takes an Island to Nurture a College & a College to Nurture an Island The forty-year dance between island and college COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Letter from the President 3 COA News 4 A Modest Proposal . The Watson Journey of Blake Davis '11 5 The Alumnus and the Whale . Dan Dendanto '91 and Stumpy 8 The Kingfisher Short Fiction by Lucy Atkins '12 12 Poetry Katharine Macko 14 Family Involvement Roc and Helen '80 Caivano 15 Feature Story COA & MDI 16 It Takes an Island to Nurture a College and a College to Nurture an Island A glimpse into the many aspects of the connection between COA and Mount Desert Island Alumni Notes 41 Faculty & Community Notes 44 In Memoriam 47 Ever Wonder ? 48 What Human Ecology Means to Me 49 Willowind Therapeutic Riding Center Story and photograph by Julia De Santis '12 Thirteen years ago, David Folger '81 helped start Willowind Therapeutic Riding Center, Inc., a non- profit dedicated to helping the disabled community through equestrian therapy. While at COA, David was a bird and plant ecologist, a student of Bill Drury, faculty member in biology. With Bill he helped establish COA's island research station on Great Duck Island (as well as an earlier one on Petit Manan). "Willowind evolved through a marriage," says David. "She was an equestrian familiar with therapy; I was a jack-of-all-trades, by then a part-time gymnastics instructor as well - and a full-time human ecologist. It all just came together. Now we have eight horses and an indoor riding arena." Continued on page 16. COA t takes an island to nurture a college, a college to nurture an island, and a designer to nurture a magazine. To celebrate College of the Atlantic's fortieth year, COA's The College of the Atlantic Magazine first alumnus president, and the fifteenth issue (has it really been that many?) of Volume 8 Number 1 Spring 2012 COA, the magazine, we are introducing a new design. Speaking personally, as editor, EDITORIAL | have been gratified by the appreciation with which COA is always greeted - and Editor Donna Gold Editorial Guidance Heather Albert-Knopp '99 frustrated with my inability to get critical feedback. Turns out, | should have been John Anderson Rich Borden asking designers. Since January, designers Rebecca Hope Woods and Danielle Meier Darron Collins '92 Julia De Santis '12 '08, with the help of Darron Collins '92, our president, have come up with numerous Michael Griffith '09 Jennifer Hughes Chris Petersen ideas for enhancing what you are now holding in your hands. Rebecca and Dani have Matt Shaw '11 Scott Swann '86, MPhil '93 the kind of eyes that see beyond what is, to what could be. Bonnie Tai Editorial Consultant Bill Carpenter Alumni Consultants Jill Barlow-Kelley Dianne Clendaniel Of course, this penetrating vision is what launched College of the Atlantic decades DESIGN ago. The vision of our founding trustees, Leslie C. Brewer and Father James Gower, Art Director Rebecca Hope Woods Designer Danielle Meier '08 and the subsequent trustees, presidents, faculty, staff, alumni, and students, is COA ADMINISTRATION celebrated every day at COA. President Darron Collins '92 Dean of Admission Sarah Baker Dean of Development Lynn Boulger Associate Dean for Faculty Ken Cline This issue honors the very real impact that this vision has Administrative Dean Andrew Griffiths Academic Dean Kenneth Hill had on Mount Desert Island - and the nurturing that Dean of Student Life Sarah Luke Associate Dean Sean Todd MDI has in turn given to our students, offering them a for Advanced Studies COA BOARD OF TRUSTEES whole island as a campus, teaching all of us the meaning Ronald E. Beard Jay McNally '84 of community, and making it possible for COA to welcome Leslie C. Brewer Philip S.J. Moriarty Nikhit D'Sa '06 Phyllis Anina Moriarty Hamilton Robinson, Jr. so many passionate, smart, creative students, and then William G. Foulke, Jr. Amy Yeager Geier Walter Robinson to send them off into the world - some to start theaters George B.E. Hambleton Nadia Rosenthal Elizabeth D. Hodder Marthann Lauver Samek Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 Henry L.P. Schmelzer and theater companies on MDI, and some to save whales Anthony Mazlish William N. Thorndike, Jr. Suzanne Folds McCullagh Joan Van der Grift and oceans halfway around the globe. Sarah A. McDaniel '93 Paul Van der Grift Linda McGillicuddy Cody van Heerden Life Trustees Trustee Emeriti Thank you all. James M. Gower David Hackett Fischer Samuel M. Hamill, Sherry F. Huber John N. Kelly Daniel Pierce Susan Storey Lyman Helen Porter William V.P. Newlin Cathy L. Ramsdell '78 John Reeves John Wilmerding Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. Donna Gold, COA editor Clyde E. Shorey, Jr. The faculty, students, trustees, staff, and alumni of College of the Atlantic envision a world where people value creativity, intellectual achievement, and diversity of nature and human cultures. With respect and compassion, individuals construct meaningful lives for themselves, gain appreciation of the relationships among all forms of life, and safeguard the heritage of future generations. COA is published biannually for the College of the Front and back cover: Atlantic community. Please send ideas, letters, and The cover photographs are the work of Ben Macko '01, submissions (short stories, poetry, and revisits to human ecology essays) to: who also teaches eighth-grade math at Conners Emerson Elementary School. Ben makes small sculptures out of wire COA Magazine, College of the Atlantic 105 Eden St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 and granite. These photographs that Ben took of one of dgold@coa.edu his sculptures reflect much of what COA inspires: campus and island, local and global, artist and educator, heart and WWW.COA.EDU mind, but most of all, the immediacy of the present and the hope of the future. -DG PRINTED WITH MIX CERTIFIED Paper from WIND responsible sources FSC POWER www.fsc.org FSC® C021556