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In Your Words

Another time, another world

By Pat Holweger Glynn '60

I wonder if today's students and faculty even look twice at the old red-brick building at College and High streets. The brick is faded and the wood trim needs a coat of paint. Sort of like me.

But 53 years ago, both of us were beautiful—I was a Miami freshman in the blush of youth and that building was my dorm. It was known then as Oxford College. Today it's the Oxford Community Arts Center. At one time it housed a separate school for women, but by my time, it was a Miami dormitory for freshman women. And it was gorgeous.

On the ground level were our foyer, living room, several sitting rooms for receiving visitors, living quarters for our housemother and student adviser, and, best of all, a ballroom. Yes, a ballroom. Floor-to-ceiling windows, parquet floors, chandeliers—a room out of the 19th century, a room for romantic waltzes and satin ball gowns and orchestras playing Strauss. A room used by my fellow freshmen and me for dorm meetings and freshman mixers.

Second floor was the living floor where things were decidedly 1956. We're talking radios and hi-fi here, folks. Two ladies per room, two beds, two desks, two single closets, and 12-foot ceilings.     Full story

 

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Outstanding professor, exceptional mentor, wonderful man

By Sandy Siegel '73

Editor's note: Dr. George H. Fathauer '40 taught at Miami for 34 years, retiring in 1982. He died in 2007, only a few months after his wife, Johanne Wainwright Fathauer '42, passed away.

I graduated from Miami in 1973 with a major in cultural anthropology; Dr. Fathauer was my professor and my mentor. When I characterize Dr. Fathauer as my professor in anthropology, I mean that quite literally. The anthropology-sociology department in those days was quite small, and I took more than three-quarters of my major credit hours from Dr. Fathauer. The breadth and depth of his knowledge and experience in anthropology was quite remarkable. It is more than unusual to have so many courses taken from one professor at a major university. In our case in anthropology, I can say, unequivocally, that our educations and our careers were only significantly enhanced by this circumstance.

Dr. Fathauer represented everything good about the academic experience at Miami University. Dr. Fathauer was a graduate of Miami in 1940; he loved Miami. Dr. Fathauer was an excellent and well-respected anthropologist. He received his doctorate from one of the premier anthropology programs at the University of Chicago, and he studied under Robert Redfield, one of the most prominent anthropologists of the 20th century. Dr. Fathauer was an anthropologist at a time when people in the discipline knew each other on a first-name basis. He could have taken a position at a large university with a prestigious graduate program and where the focus would have been on the doctorate programs and research. Dr. Fathauer chose to teach at his beloved Miami University and devoted a career to undergraduate education.     Full story

 

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Forging a new friendship

By Angie Spicer '08

"I'm more nervous about this than I was about graduation," I comment.

Everyone laughs and David Keitges, director of International Education at Miami, smiles and says, "Rightly so."

If you had told my mom that she would be mailing me a box of Esther Price chocolates for His Holiness the Dalai Lama just seven months after my graduation, she would have laughed—just like she did the first time I told her I was going to India.

I was honored to have been invited to the private audience held for the Miami delegate sent to Dharamsala, India, to sign the official study abroad agreement between Miami and Sarah College for Higher Tibetan Studies. This is where I first visited through the summer study abroad program "Peoples and Cultures of Tibet" and now teach English.

In what would have been my senior year had I not done the fifth final lap, I noticed the poster for the Peoples and Cultures of Tibet study abroad opportunity and signed up for it. My passport arrived the week before our flight, and my troubles didn't end there. Once in Dharamsala, I contracted amoebic dysentery and was laid up in bed for a week.     Full story

 

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End of an era

By Dave Gibson

It was sad to read about the end of an era with regards to the transfer of programming authority from Miami's WMUB-FM to Cincinnati Public Radio. Congratulations are due to all of the present and past staff members at WMUB radio for their hard work and service to the greater Butler County community over the years. The recently announced transition at WMUB radio completes a 50-year tradition at Miami University in the field of educational radio, television, and technology. It is a part of Miami's history that the university can be especially proud of.

In 1959, Miami was a major player in an innovative program titled MPATI that provided instructional television programs to area schools through a collaboration with Purdue University. The K-12 video programs were "delivered" daily to schools by TV broadcasts from a Douglas DC-6 (known as The Flying Classroom) that flew out of the Purdue University airport. Thanks to the efforts of dedicated Miami staff members Dr. Jack Neill and Robert Wood, thousands of Ohio children were exposed to foreign language, advanced math, and science courses previously available only to the wealthiest school districts. This was one of the first examples of distance learning that have transitioned to 21st century, commonplace models such as student courses over the Internet and interactive videoconferences. Those of you who are Baby Boomers may remember watching the MPATI airborne courses on state-of-the-art, 21-inch black and white TVs in your elementary school's classroom!     Full essay

 

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How do you spell that?

By David Houghtaling '63, MA '64

Fifty years ago this past September I walked the obliquely configured walk (aka Slant Walk) at Miami for the first time. A presumed coed actually asked to take my picture on that first venture. Thus had I entered Candide's best of all possible worlds.

From 1958 until 1964, I ... 1.) studied mathematics to earn a BA ('63), and 2.) studied philosophy to earn an MA ('64). A difficult test question—for me—on parabolas early on should have convinced me that philosophically I was not going to be a mathematician: I drew a picture of a country bridge with a parabolic arch in my blue book to answer the aforementioned test question on parabolas. The professor was amused, but made it clear that the subject matter of the course was mathematics and not art.

So when Dr. Robert T. Harris, chairman of the philosophy department, offered me an assistantship to do a master's in philosophy, like Candide, I chose what was best in this the best of all possible worlds and became a philosophy student.     Full story

 

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Miami merger still possible long after graduation

By Victoria Sheridan Hart '83

Getting the mail each day isn't the exciting ritual I remember as a child. As a youngster, there was always the anticipation of a letter from Grandma or a cousin. Perhaps there was a note from a summer camp friend or a pen pal arranged through a school project. Now, it's mostly bills and junk mail. Communication from friends comes in the form of e-mail or phone calls.

But every February our mail carrier puts a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye when she delivers our Miami Merger Valentine card.

I have always been a goal-oriented individual. I credit my Miami education to helping me set my goals high and showing me how to build my skills in the classroom and beyond. Becoming a Miami Merger was never my goal. I heard about those girls who went to college for their "MRS" degree. That was not me.

In fact, I didn't meet many of them at Miami. I listened to the romantic stories told on campus by tour guides and representatives from the Alumni Relations office about the number of Miami Mergers—when two Miami grads fall in love and marry. I could envision the notion, but I was not the lead actress.     Full story

 

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Career builders

By Tom Thrailkill '52

A recent Miamian had an article about favorite professors that triggered my Miami recollections. I actually had two favorites who had an immediate and long-lasting effect on my Miami years ('48–'52) as well as my career in physical education.

During my freshman week, the university doctors were doing their job and doing it well. I had a serious leg and hip problem brought on by osteomyelitis at age 5 that was easily visible by the naked eye. The doctors agreed that I was not fit for normal physical activity, much less the rigors of being a physical education major. I was advised that I could enroll in the university, participate in "restrictive gym," but in no way be a major in physical education. This decision appeared to destroy a dream I had had since seventh grade. I called home, of course, to enlist the aid of my parents and anyone else they could recruit to speak for me.

During this process, my father discovered that Professor Tommy Van Voorhis of the physical education department had been a schoolmate in high school. Immediately a phone call was made. Professor Van Voorhis listened and agreed to help—thus I had a friend at the university.     Full story

 

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It's a small world

By Dale Claypoole '65, MS '72

Here's a small-world story that you likely get a lot of. My wife, Jeannie, and I spent a couple of weeks driving through the Carolinas and Georgia in October.

We were staying in Charleston, and I took the boat out to historic Fort Sumter while Jeannie visited yet another lovely mansion. On the boat, I vaguely heard two guys a few seats away talking about their Navy days. One asked the other where he was from, and he said he was raised on a dairy farm in southern Ohio.

"Where in southern Ohio?" "Oh, a place you likely never heard of," responded the other—Oxford, Ohio." "No kidding," said the first. "I went to Miami University." The dairy farmer commented that he did as well.

Of course, I had to wander down and comment on the irony of having three of us on the same boat. As it turned out, the first guy and I were in the same class although we didn't know one another.

I returned to the inn we were staying at in downtown Charleston and was telling Jeannie the story when the woman at the next table broke in to tell me she had graduated from Miami in the '70s.

 

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Ties that bind

By Lou Pumphrey '64

So, there I am plying my trade as operator of the Gift Shop at Funny Times Inc. (I tell folks I am the company's Chief Shoperating Officer) when I get a call from a man who wants to make an address change on one of his gift subscriptions. He said the name of the subscription recipient is Doug Millett in Armonk, N.Y.

When I finish writing down Doug's new address, I mention to the caller that Millett is a very famous name in Oxford, Ohio.

The caller said, "Doug's and his brother Mike's grandfather was the president of Miami University there.

I had a nice little chat with the caller, mentioning that Dr. Millett served as Miami president from 1953 until my graduation in 1964. I ended by asking the caller to please tell Doug of my high regard for his grandfather and my fond memories of him.

I'm looking forward to Alumni Weekend as it will be 45 years for me since graduation. Hard to believe. It would be a real kick if I could stay in my freshman dorm room, 303 Collins Hall.

 

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Love, honor, and Abe

By Steve Morrison '85

Wow, Mr. Lincoln and Miami University. Ten score. 200 years. Congrats, really. Not a lot of birthday cards out there for that occasion. Hope you like these homemade ones:

Cover: So you're turning 200 ...
Inside: Honestly, I had you pegged as 135.

Cover: We'd have made a cake for your 200th birthday ...
Inside: But we didn't want to be blamed later for a wax and wick shortage.

Cover: I don't want to say 200 is old, but ...
Inside: MAN! You're like three of my grandpa!

Cover: Happy Birthday! Please be green and put this card to good use.
Inside: Like using it and all the other cards you've received over 200 years to wallpaper Madison Square Garden.

No? I'll keep working.     Full essay

 

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You've come a long way, baby

Virgina (Ginny) Garfield Hanson '58

Many, many years ago (1957) while a student at Miami, I went to a party at an apartment of "Miami men." Someone notified the Dean of Men, who subsequently ruled that girls (yes, we were considered "girls") would be "Placed on social restrictions from Dec. 17-Jan. 13 and probation for the second semester for participating in a beer party in an apartment of some Miami men." The guys were "men" but the girls were still "girls" and faced probation. Nothing happened to the "men." That speaks volumes about how far women have come since the '50s.

Also during my time at Miami, all students were forbidden to ride in cars! I assume that was to keep down the traffic in Oxford. Only when our parents visited were we permitted to ride in their car.

Oh my, how times have changed!

 

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