Author: Jim Patterson
Seasons Greetings: Polly Cook’s mural attests to the rhythms of campus
Sep. 6, 2018—Come sun, rain or snow, one of the best places on Vanderbilt’s campus to find shelter is under Calhoun Hall’s stone portico, facing out toward the law and business schools. This refuge is also home to a mural of campus life, Seasonal Cycles, created in ceramic tiles by Nashville native Polly Cook. Installed in 1993,...
Paths to Storytelling: The new chairman of the NEH discovered a love for words at Vanderbilt
Sep. 6, 2018—Jon Parrish Peede, BS’91, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has taken several paths in government service, all of them paved with words. “I discovered during my student days that what I loved were words on paper,” says Peede, whose career in Washington...
Alumnus Raviv in Tony-winning musical
Sep. 6, 2018—The Band’s Visit, a musical about an Egyptian orchestra stuck for a night in a remote Israeli town, swept the Tony Awards on June 10, winning 10 awards, including Best Musical. Katrina Lenk and Tony Shalhoub (above, seated) both won Tony Awards for their performances in the lead roles. The show’s small cast also features...
Blair MTNA national competition winners
Sep. 6, 2018—For the second year in a row, Blair undergraduates won national honors competing against both undergraduate and graduate students at the 2017–18 Music Teachers National Association annual competition March 17–21 in Orlando, Florida. To compete at nationals, musicians have already won their state and regional divisions. Lauren Urquhart, BMus’18, took first place in the voice...
Hamblet award recipients
Sep. 6, 2018—The Vanderbilt University Department of Art awarded its prestigious Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award for 2018 to Joshua Austin Forges, BA’18, from Davie, Florida. He received a $25,000 prize that provides for a year of art research and travel, culminating with a solo exhibition in Space 204, the main gallery space of the Department of...
M. Carr Payne Jr., BA’49, Growing Up Peabody
Sep. 6, 2018—Maxwell Carr Payne Jr. of Franklin, Tenn., grandson of Bruce Ryburn Payne, the first president of George Peabody College for Teachers, died Nov. 19, 2017. The son of Mary Evans Tarpley Payne and Maxwell Carr Payne Sr., Carr, as he was known, attended Peabody Demonstration School from nursery school through high school. He attended Vanderbilt...
Students Lead Way in Giving Back to Vanderbilt
Sep. 6, 2018—Senior Class Fund Chair Claire Fogarty, BS’18, presented the Class of 2018’s gift to Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos as part of Senior Day activities before Commencement. “I offer my deepest gratitude to Claire and to all the Senior Class Fund officers for inspiring their fellow students to give back to Vanderbilt,” Zeppos said. “Your philanthropic...
New Record Set on Third Annual Giving Day
Sep. 6, 2018—More than 7,000 members of the Vanderbilt community came together to raise nearly $6 million for the university and its students on the third annual Vanderbilt Giving Day, setting a new record for giving participation in 24 hours. The Giving Day totals include an $800,000 challenge gift that was unlocked when the goal of 6,300...
Dominic McCarthy, BA’90, Bonded Spirits
Sep. 6, 2018—From a 65-acre dairy farm in Cooraclare, Ireland, Dominic McCarthy is courting clover. He’s the newest player in the booming international market for Irish whiskey, helping to found the Chapel Gate Irish Whiskey Co. in 2015 with wife Louise McGuane, the company’s CEO, and a group of Vanderbilt alumni. The couple’s first release, J.J. Corry...
Sarah Byrn Evans Rickman, BA’58, Ferrying History
Sep. 6, 2018—During World War II the Women Airforce Service Pilots—known as the WASP—flew and delivered aircraft across the U.S. to docks for shipment to the war zone. Sarah Byrn Evans Rickman is making sure these flyers’ contributions aren’t forgotten. She’s written eight books about them, most recently BJ Erickson: WASP Pilot (2018, Filter Press), a young...
Mimi Franke Marziani, BA’04, Serving the Vulnerable
Sep. 6, 2018—It was mid-May when Mimi Franke Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, noticed a troubling trend along the Texas–Mexico border: Central American migrants seeking asylum were being separated from their children and subsequently charged with illegal entry into the country. “We sprang into action,” says Marziani, who has led the Austin-based organization since...
Camilla Dietz Bergeron, BA’64, ‘From Stocks to Rocks’
Sep. 6, 2018—Camilla Dietz Bergeron, an emerita trustee whose passion for collecting jewelry led to her founding a noted estate jewelry firm, died May 20 after a long illness. She was 76. Bergeron was president of Camilla Dietz Bergeron Ltd., a New York–based purveyor of fine antique, period and estate jewelry. She also was a longtime Vanderbilt...