COA Volume 3 I Number 2 SUMMER/FALL 2007 The College of the Atlantic Magazine COA VISION LETTER FROM THE EDITOR The faculty, students, trustees, staff and alumni of College of the Atlantic envision a world The transition from summer to autumn at where people value creativity, College of the Atlantic is a passage from glory intellectual achievement and to promise. The flowers in our seaside gar- diversity of nature and human dens fade away, but we who work here all cultures. With respect and summer don't even notice. For in the place of compassion, individuals blossoms come such an array of students- construct meaningful lives sporting bright, clean faces and scruffy for themselves, gain appreciation beards, coifed hair and black nail polish-shy of the relationships among all and bold and confused and confident, some- forms of life, and safeguard the times all at the same time. heritage of future generations. There's an eagerness and an intensity that COA's first year students all COVER: share. Having entered a new world, they are ready to make it theirs. Great Duck Island They are ready to grapple with this thing we call human ecology; to By Virve Hirsmaki '09 make sense of it - and ultimately, somehow, to make a life in it. Mixing untreated and dyed wool with found objects, Virve Hirsmaki In four short years-sometimes less-these students will be creating spent the summer creating a 6-by-8-foot mural illustrating the work that will be comparable to the work that is in this student- ecology of Great Duck Island. centered issue of COA. The cover and story are by undergraduates; Says Hirsmaki, "I have a long- the art spread features a senior project, several students are featured lived interest in the visual arts; at COA I have broadened my hori- in the news section. But can you even tell? zons to include the sciences. The constant search for phenomena Whether it is a passion for economic justice fueling an independent and names by the scientific community furthers the aesthetic study that becomes ground-breaking legislation such as LD 1810, or appreciation of life in all its forms, whether it is a more personal quest for understanding the impact of giving me the inspiration to con- ceptualize the world in greater distorted vision that becomes a gallery-full of poetry, theory, painting depth and dimension. Art has and sculpture combined into a mixed media installation, our students shown me how to see these take their work seriously. Very seriously. phenomena with the appreciation they deserve. The interdisciplinary nature of COA's education allows Thirty-five years ago, the glory of the summer of 1972 turned into the me to combine different, comple- promise of the first term of a brand-new college. It seems that the mentary visions for a fuller and more complex view of the world." idea of basing a college education on democracy and freedom that Hirsmaki created this mural with seemed so radical back then - that still seems radical-really does the help of a Rothschild Grant work. Students step up to the responsibility. They take charge of their given to faculty-student collabo- rative projects at COA. She education, they take charge of their educational institution, and truly, worked with Dru Colbert and they fly. John Anderson. BACK COVER: Donna Gold Katrina Zarate '07 from her senior editor, COA project, "En-Visioning Art, Theory, and Literature." For her project, Katrina Zarate created a multimedia installation of distorted imagery within the Ethel H. Blum Gallery that trans- ported the reader into the dark mysteries of dysfunctional vision and brought us through eye damage to new levels of sight and insight. features COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Volume 3 I Number 2 SUMMER/FALL 2007 EDITOR Donna Gold Greenest College ~ p. 3 EDITORIAL BOARD John Anderson COA Students Create Groundbreaking Legislation ~ p. 4 Sarah Barrett '08 Richard J. Borden Milja Brecher-DeMuro Notes from a Watson year ~ p. 6 Dru Colbert Naveed Davoodian '10 Nikhit D'Sa returns from seeing life through the eyes of street children Noreen Hogan '91 Jennifer Hughes The Dreier Scholarship: A Legacy of Spirit ~ p. 12 Linda Mejia '09 Emma Rearick '08 A donor profile of John and Isa Dreier EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Bill Carpenter COA Alumna Heads for the National Stage ~ p. 14 ALUMNI CONSULTANTS Chellie Pingree '79 vies for First District House seat Jill Barlow-Kelley Milja Brecher-DeMuro Sea Urchins: DESIGN from Gilded Age to COA Campus Center ~ p. 22 Mahan Graphics, Bath, Maine PRINTING In saving an historic building, COA preserves novelist's memory JS McCarthy Printers, Augusta, Maine Katrina Zarate "En-visioning Art, Theory and Literature" ~ p. 30 COA ADMINISTRATION TRUSTEES David Hales Edward McC. Blair, Sr. President Life Trustee Catching the Wind ~ p. 32 David H. Fischer Kenneth Hill Memoir excerpt by Scott Beebe '09 Academic Dean William G. Foulke, Jr. John Anderson Timothy Fuller '03 Associate Dean James M. Gower, for Advanced Studies Life Trustee Sarah Baker George B. E. Hambleton departments Dean of Admission Charles E. Hewett Lynn Boulger Sherry F. Huber Dean of Development John N. Kelly, Trustee Emeritus COA Beat p. 3 Andrew Griffiths Administrative Dean Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 Class Notes p. 42 Susan Storey Lyman, Sarah Luke Life Trustee Associate Dean Faculty & Community Notes p. 47 for Student Life Suzanne Folds McCullagh Sarah A. McDaniel '93 Karen Waldron Annual Report p. 51 Associate Dean Stephen G. Milliken for Faculty Philip S. J. Moriarty In Memoriam p. 63 Phillis Anina Moriarty BOARD OF TRUSTEES Elizabeth Nitze Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. Helen Porter Chairman Cathy L. Ramsdell '78, Elizabeth D. Hodder Trustee Emeritus Vice Chair Hamilton Robinson, Jr. We Started from Square One ~ p. 38 Casey Mallinckrodt Henry D. Sharpe, Jr., Excerpts from an oral history interview with founding faculty member Vice Chair Life Trustee Bill Carpenter Ronald E. Beard Clyde E. Shorey, Jr., Secretary Life Trustee Leslie C. Brewer William N. Thorndike, Jr. Poetry by Craig Kesselheim '76 ~ p. 40 Treasurer Cody van Heerden Rebecca Hancock '97 ~ p. 64 Merchant mariner COA is published twice each year for the College of the Atlantic community. Please direct correspondence to: Honoring Ed Kaelber ~ p. 65 COA Magazine College of the Atlantic 105 Eden Street Bar Harbor, Maine 04609 Phone: (207) 288-5015 email: dgold@coa.edu www.coa.edu + This publication is printed on recycled paper. Chlorine free, acid free manufacturing process.