John Gray funds challenge for alumni

Trustee John Gray has established a $4 million challenge grant to alumni for the Campaign for Reed College. The Gray Challenge will match new gifts from alumni to the campaign between $10,000 and $1 million, dollar for dollar. The challenge contains a provision that the match will only occur if the college raises at least $100 million during the campaign. Gray's gift will be the last $4 million between $96 and $100 million. The Gray Challenge matching gift will go toward the area of interest of the donor, within the priorities of the Campaign for Reed College, which include scientific and computing equipment and technology, the annual fund and other unrestricted uses, paid leaves and sabbaticals and other professional enrichment programs including the dean's discretionary fund, endowed chairs and other faculty salary programs, the general endowment, scholarships and student research, and library resources including books, print media, electronic resources, and the integration and application of library technology.



Basketball tounament: life in a microcosm

On Friday, March 12, the 11th annual Reed College basketball tournament had another close final as the Griffys (team of current students) edged out the House Husbands (team of alumni) 28 to 21.

The House Husbands had an easy time with their first two opponents. In the second round, the Elder Griffs (team of profs and staff) had a good chance to upset the House Husbands, except one of their "big men" did not show. After some conversation, I was told that the missing big man, a bio prof, had to go to the ballet. Yeah, right. Pirouette, dude!

The Griffys, on the other hand, first had to struggle against a madcap-overloaded team called Chunk 666-Y2K. That name alone should have indicated trouble. One guy with long braids had tiny weights tied at the ends, so that when he whipped his head around he could knock out his opponents. Fortunately the referee saw this and stopped it on the spot. I have not seen chaos, mayhem, and terror like that since that '60s hit show The Man From U.N.C.L.E.! Right on!

So it was on to the final. The House Husbands started out quick and took the early lead. But the Griffys came right back and after some great steals had the crowd roaring! Actually, the crowd was roaring at me after I caught three people with beer and asked them to take it outside; they complied with no problem. The House Husbands had a slight chance to win at the end but could not convert their free throws. The Griffys made two quick three-pointers and sealed their opponents' doom. The Griffys strutted off the court and called the House Husbands "couch potatoes." But the Griffys ran as the House Husbands threatened them with their spatulas. See you next year.

Frank Zornado Supervisor, Sports Center


In memory


Marianne Gold Littman, 1907-99
Figurative sculptor Marianne Gold Littman died March 23 at age 91. Littman was resident artist at Reed from 1943 to 1954, during which time she exhibited work at the Portland Art Museum, the University of Oregon, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Seattle Art Museum.

Littman was born in 1907 in Berlin, Germany. She studied art with Aristide Maillol and Charles Malfrey at the Acad‚mie Ranson in Paris in the 1930s. She also met and married fellow sculptor Frederic Littman there. In 1940 they moved to New York, where she had her first one-artist show of sculpture. The next year they moved to Portland, Oregon, where they both accepted teaching positions. Though they were divorced soon after, they remained lifelong friends and colleagues. They both received public commissions for large sculpted works that are still on view in Portland parks and buildings.

In the 1960s Littman was politically galvanized by the Vietnam War and worked tirelessly in the antiwar movement. Her later life was devoted to the pursuit of world peace, and she was very involved in politics and fundraising, most notably with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

A review of her work in Art News said "there is no violence in any of her pieces in line, gesture, or expression. Rather one feels her equilibrium and calm." This could be said of the artist as well as the art.


Isabelle Cranor, 1919-99
Isabelle Grogan Cranor died March 24 at age 79. She worked as a custodian at Reed from 1979 until her retirement in 1984.

Cranor was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, and was raised in Portland. She married Earl M. Cranor in 1936. During World War II she was a riveter in the Portland shipyards. She then worked as a custodian for the downtown branch of U.S. Bank for 15 years before taking a job at Reed.

Survivors include daughters Earlene Cox, of Nehalem, Judy Pumphrey, of Clackamas, and Lil Harness, of Gresham; 15 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.



Corey Landstrom named student activities director

Corey Landstrom, former program coordinator of student activities at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, has joined Reed College as director of student activities. He succeeds Gina Longo, who has resigned from the position.

Landstrom's responsibilities at Reed will include advising the student senate and student organizations, overseeing the Gray Fund and multicultural programs, sponsoring campuswide events, and directing new student orientation.

Landstrom worked for four years in the student activities office at Hamilton College. Before he came to Hamilton, Landstrom worked for two years at Grinnell College in Iowa as assistant director of student activities, and before that as program coordinator at Minnesota State University in Mankato. He received an M.S. in counseling and student personnel, with an emphasis on college student development, from Minnesota State University in 1993; he earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota in urban and regional studies in 1990.



Reed inaugurates ROMP!

This spring the college held the first annual ROMP! (Reediana Omnibus Musica Philosopha), a conference and festival devoted to the interdisciplinary study of music. The inaugural program, "American Voices: the Music of Billie Holiday, Featuring Dawn Upshaw and Ernestine Anderson," featured distinguished, internationally renowned scholars-including Francis Davis, music critic for the Atlantic Monthly-discussing the politics and the music of the great Billie Holiday, along with concerts by jazz singer Ernestine Anderson and world-renowned operatic singer Dawn Upshaw. "American Voices" was sponsored by the Roth Family Foundation.



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