Summer 2013

By Kathy Whitney From Africa to Asia to South America, Vanderbilt is represented by hundreds of School of Medicine faculty members, medical students and alumni who leave the comforts of home to endure danger, political strife, homesickness, language barriers, and substandard living and working conditions for the greater good. Some… Read More

By Jennifer Johnston Although Crystal Finley, BS’13, entered Vanderbilt with a clear plan for success, her life mission would soon change when she became a volunteer mentor with Next Steps at Vanderbilt, a postsecondary program for students with intellectual or other disabilities. As a freshman at Vanderbilt four years ago,… Read More

By Brier Dudley Illustration above by Otto Steininger Credit: Tristan Elwell Forty years after Atari’s digital table tennis game Pong bleeped onto the scene and made video games mainstream entertainment, we’ve become a nation of video gamers. We’re playing games on phones, tablets, computers, game consoles, social networks, and even… Read More

Photo essay by Daniel Dubois, Joe Howell and John Russell Long ago in the Land of Commodores, the taking down of Commencement tents ushered in three long and languid months. Professors abandoned their neckties and headed to the cooler elevations of places like Beersheba Springs. Nashville children spent their days… Read More

Ella and Ed J. Albrecht live it up on their 35th anniversary—just past the midway point in their 66-year marriage. My Grandma Albrecht was an indefatigable snoop. Born in 1901, she married my grandfather when she was 18, and in 11 years they produced seven children—who in… Read More

Credit: Daniel Dubois By Michael Pollack, Class of 2016 I had a recurring dream when I was a child. I would sit at my piano, close my eyes, and my living room would transform into a stadium or concert hall. One of my favorite artists would be… Read More

Credit: Daniel Dubois Divinity students, faculty and staff will welcome new leadership when the Rev. Emilie M. Townes is installed in August as the school’s 16th dean. She is also the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair and professor of womanist ethics and society. Read More

Credit: U.S. NAVAL HISTORICAL FOUNDATION By Brenda Ellis On April 10, 1963, the nuclear submarine USS Thresher departed Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, headed for a rendezvous with the submarine rescue ship USS Skylark, which would accompany it during deep-dive tests. Designed to hunt and destroy… Read More

Attorney Chris Frohlich, BS’06, has parlayed a lifelong love of fishing into a thriving charter company based in Punta Gorda, Fla. When he’s not catch-and-release tarpon fishing for his own pleasure, he’s taking others out on the water or overseeing his staff of eight fishing guides. Photo by Perry James… Read More

Tiffiny Tung, associate professor of anthropology, is on familiar terms with the dead. She may not know their names, but she can tell you a surprising amount of information about how they lived—and even, on occasion, how they died. That they drew their last breaths more… Read More

Hyman’s burial urn, by Susan DeMay (Credit: Steve Green) When Sylvia Hyman died Dec. 23, 2012, at age 95, the visual artist renowned for her strikingly realistic ceramic pieces realized her last request. She became a physical part of the medium she had practiced for more than… Read More

Kristen Findley (JOHN RUSSELL)   If Kristen Findley had gotten her wish, she might never have set foot on a track, or at least not to compete. Growing up near the snow-capped mountains of Boise, Idaho, she dreamt of becoming a downhill skier one day. She was so taken… Read More

Helen Tuel and Sgt. Dan Stein with “Imp,” Dan’s four-legged therapist. Dan, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the Army, now volunteers two days a week at TRRC helping children with physical and mental disabilities as part of his own recovery. (Credit: James Ferry) For millennia… Read More

Credit: SIMON PEMBERTON By Will Tarnell, Class of 2015 Let me tell you what happened to all the other pigs, how I became the last pig. It is true, the other pigs were mostly all eaten. But before the last pigs, the very last group to be… Read More

PHOTO BY STEVE YOUNG   During our Vanderbilt Alumni Association-sponsored  “Cuba Libre” trip in March, we visited an organic farm—they even cultivate their own worms—in the  Alamar district on the outskirts of Havana. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans live there in a huge housing project of prefabricated concrete… Read More

Credit: John Russell Eagle-eyed observers and Luddites accustomed to marking time by a campus landmark were the first to notice something amiss in early June. The clock atop Kirkland Hall’s tower had stopped keeping time. Until then, the clock’s motor, installed in 1966, had run continuously for… Read More

Three of Vanderbilt’s graduate and professional schools have new deans. M. Eric Johnson rejoins Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, while Linda Norman takes the top job at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and the Rev. Emilie Townes leads… Read More

The old coal smokestack will be dismantled as Vanderbilt moves to a natural-gas power plant. (Credit: Joe Howell) Vanderbilt will replace its coal-fired cogeneration facility, converting to natural gas to meet power needs of the university and medical center. The university’s Board of Trust approved… Read More

Pastor Rob Taylor, center, poses with Mark Schoenfield, chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of English, right, and his son, Michael. The Schoenfields performed CPR on Taylor after he collapsed near his home. (Credit: Steve Green) Mark Schoenfield, chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of English, and his family… Read More

Credit: DOUG ROSS John Lutz began work at Vanderbilt April 15 and hasn’t come up for air since. Lutz, an information technology and financial management expert who most recently served as president of IBM Canada, is Vanderbilt’s first vice chancellor for information technology. Lutz’s areas of responsibility… Read More