Class of 1972

I majored in …

Want to share your own story or feedback? Email us at: Classof1972@colby.edu

I majored in … sociology. In high school I studied Latin, French and Russian and developed a strong interest in becoming an interpreter for the UN. I was able to get an interview with the UN head of that division to find out what academic preparation I needed. I especially loved the Russian language, was fascinated by the culture, literature and history and so I came away with a plan to major in Russian, which I did for my first two years at Colby. It was a small department, with only two professors - John Kempers and Tatiana Mursin. The academics were going along just fine, but I was also taking sociology classes, which opened my eyes to new perspectives on life. As this was 1970, my awakening political awareness reinforced my interest in sociology - what drives cultural development, human behavior and choices, and how we end up with the worlds we live in. Fortunately, I had taken enough sociology courses so switching my major in the fall of 1970 was easy. I never entirely left the Russian behind. For about 10 years after Colby I lived in Richmond, ME, a small town with a sizable Russian emigre population and three Russian churches (Russian, Ukrainian, and White Russian). I became friendly with several of the Russian emigres, and even had a stint teaching Russian in an adult education class at the high school. And as it turns out, some of the Russian emigres were notable. I’ll share details on our next Spa Break. The change of major turned out very well professionally, providing a base for teaching high school history and social studies, developing civic engagement and curriculum for non-profits, and co-founding a non-profit based on community-connected, arts-integrated instruction. And, of course, it is invaluable in trying to understand and assess the upheaval in today’s world and to work locally and effectively on an equitable, sustainable and productive post-Covid world.

DONNA POWER STOWE

I majored in … English because I didn’t major in history. I loved history through high school, but after a course with a tenured eccentric professor whose expertise was American history, I realized I could not endure another three years. So, I switched to English. I enjoyed classes with Ed Kenney because he smoked a pipe; Ed Witham for the lessons he taught about public speaking; Don Norford for giving me until the absolute last minute to complete my incomplete in his course on Milton and Paradise Lost; Pat Brancaccio for his teaching Hawthorne and Poe with a twinkle in his eye; Mark Twain look-alike John Sweeney for bringing Horatio Alger to life at You Know Whose Pub, and, of course, the incomparable Charlie Bassett, whose flat South Dakota twang and wry sense of humor made Faulkner tolerable. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, for the longest time thought George Eliot was a guy, and couldn’t understand half of what Shakespeare wrote. But I could describe so well what The Bard wrote about that Mary Marshall, who taught the obligatory Shakespeare course my junior year, scribbled in the margin of a dismal paper or exam, “Don’t tell me what happened!” She knew what happened and wanted to know why. Neither Professor Marshall, nor I for that matter, realized in 1971 that I would spend my entire newspaper career, four decades of it as a sports writer and columnist, telling people what happened -- and why. And in a way, I wrote history. Sports history.

MIKE SZOSTAK

I majored in … English and have found countless uses for my learnings! I remember first year survey/composition course with Jay Meek and a story he assigned, The Use of Force, by William Carlos Williams. The doctor in the story needed to obtain a throat culture from a child and was reduced to using force, which the author vividly described, to meet the necessary end. A heated class discussion followed (I think Anne O’Hanian Szostak must recall this!). I decided that majoring in English could be exciting! I remember classes with Ed Kenney, who seemed to be a stand in for Mr. Darcy; Shakespeare in that big auditorium with Mark Benbow (I sat next to Nipper Harding -- I guess we had assigned seats?); a Jan Plan spent reading the works of Dylan Thomas, and of course sharing classes with our own future Colby author, Don Snyder. An unforgettable moment was discovering, in the stacks, the section on literary criticism. Who knew that others had written about the same works I was reading? I must confess, in looking back, that I was a little shaky on citing my sources! I have since learned how to correctly apply MLA or APA style, but I really do not remember doing this 50 years ago!

CHRISTINE HANLEY PIKE