Sufiday
inside:
contributing editors:
howie brick, chris parks,
laura berman
magazine
page four-books
page five-violinist
page six-looking back
Number 17 Page Three
February 17, 1974
U
alumni:
The
rich,
powerful,
and
notorious
Remember these Beach Boy lines? "Be true to your school just like you would to your gal or guy." In the midst of the
whole nostalgia trip we're living through, we're doing our part by revving up waning school spirit. The University's alumni,
we recently discovered, is both the largest in the world and includes some real heavies. With a little luck (misfortune?) we
may soon have our first U.S. President. In the meantime, we've got to make due with presidents of big companies; men who,
for better or for worse, control a huge hunk of the nation's economy. And with flashy jocks, two Pulitzer Prize winners, a
celebrated murderer and his even more celebrated lawyer; with astronauts and politicians and actors.
Our list is totally and unabashedly arbitrary. Limited by time, space, imagination, objectivity and memory, the names
and faces which follow are no more than a titillating sample. But next time someone puts down Michigan, just whip out a
copy of this page, and presto, you can start namedropping, with class. You've prob-ibly outgrown the stage where you win
arguments with retorts like "My daddy's better than yours." It's high time you moved on to a more sophisticated level of
discourse.
Herewith the ammunition, replete with selected campus memories.
GERALD FORD (LSA 1935), Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States:
"One of my deepest memories is also
one of my most painful. I was center on
the football team for three years and for
the first two, 1932 and 1933, we were na-
tional champions. But in 1934, the team lost
seven out of eight games..It was one of the
most painful years of my life-one of my
biggest disappointments."
COMMANDER CODY (George Frayne),
(Architecture and Design 1966), recording
artist.
GAEL GREENE (LSA 1956), freelance
writer and food columnist for New York
magazine:
"The most memorable event was an
erotic tangle with a persuasive and force-
ful young man. First, he gave me Bertrand
Russell's Marriage and, Morals. A few
days later in a forest during a light spring
rain, he freed me of the excruciating bur-
den of my virginity."
PHILIP HART (Law 1937), U. S. Senator
from Michigan.
JOHN CIARDI (Rackham 1939), poet and
translator of Dante's Divine Comedy:
"The most memorable day was the day
I received the check for my Hopwood award
in 1939. They were 1200 of the biggest dol-
lars I'd ever seen. I was able to pay back
all the loans I had taken out to go to
school. I got a contract for the book almost
at once. I would have stayed to get my
PhD., but I figured that a published poet
should not be spending time writing a
PhD. thesis."
TOM HAYDEN (LSA 1961), anti-war ac?
tivist.
WILLIAM SHAWN (attended LSA 1927-
1929), editor of the New Yorker:
"I left at the beginning of my third year.
I was just restless. I wanted to 'drop out,'
before that term was even known. I still
think of it (Ann Arbor) as a sort of idyllic
place-I remember the serenity of the
place. In those days, it was very pretty,
pleasant, and tranquil. I look back on it as
a very pleasant time and wonder why I
wanted to leave. I went down to New Mexi-
co and got a job on a newspaper. Again,
that was very arbitrary and inexplicable.
I didn't even know that I had the job when
I decided to go there."
JANE HOWARD (LSA 1956), journalist,
former staff writer for Life and author of
two bestsellers, Please Touch and A Dif-
ferent Woman:
"The thing I remember was a mood-it's
unpleasant to recall. It was a mood of com-
placency and paranoia. They were the
years 1952 to 1956: Eisenhower was presi-
dent and McCarthy was holding his hear-
ings. But more than that, it bothered me
that girls had to be home at 10:30 at night.
The rocking of boats was not encouraged at
all. The University was never especially
brave in opposing the kind of red-baiting
that was going on then, either."
JAMES A. McDIVITT (Engineering
1959), former astronaut, now vice-president
of .the Consumers Power Company
ARNOLD GINGRICH, (LSA 1925), Pub-
lisher of Esquire magazine:
"I had a full time job at the library for
$1500 a year-that seemed like a fortune at
the time. We got the same privileges and
same pay as the faculty, and we had to
work 54 hours a week. I did a snowjob on
the lady who did the hiring, Frederica Gil-
lette. I said I had been sick for a year and
had read a thousand books. She fell for it."
REGGIE McKENZIE (Education 1972),
professional football player for the Buffa-
lo Bills.
JACK VAUGHN (LSA 1943, Rackham
1948), former director of the Peace Corps
and president of the National Urban Coa-
l1tion, now president of the Children's Tele-
vision Workshop:
"I saw Rachmaninoff play one of his last
concerts. It was at Hill Auditorium in the
spring of 1940. He was dying of cancer
and it was obvious he was a very sick man.
I'm no connoisseur of piano playing but that
was something so beautiful and moving. He
was pale and drawn and somber and yet
so superb."
TOM HARMON (LSA 1941), former Michi-
gan football star, now sports broadcaster.
PETER LISAGOR (LSA 1939), Washing-
ton bureau chief for the Chicago Daily
News:
"The most memorable thing was that I
graduated, I think . . . In 1938, I wrote
some columns in the Daily about how the
football players were disaffected with their
coach, Harry Kipke. The Detroit papers at-
tacked me fiercely as a smart-ass who
didn't know what heswas talking about,
and the chairman of the Board of Athletics
threatened to have me expelled for being
uppity, for being an upstart. In those days,
if you wrote anything against, the admin-
istration, you were considered a com-
munist or a rebel."
JEROME. WIESNER (Engineering 1937,
Rackham 1938), president of the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology.
G. MENNEN (Soapy) WILLIAMS (Law
1936), former governor of M i c h i g a n
and now Justice of the Michigan Supreme
Court:
"The engineers and lawyers didn't view
each other with a great amount of friendli-
ness here. I remember, the girls had a
good field hockey team and they chal-
lenged the law school to a game. Of course,
we had never played field hockey before.
The men were very gentlemanly; we led
the ladies to their seats when they fell
down. But the ladies were very un-lady-
like: they hooked us in the shins with their
hockey-sticks. Anyway, the engineers
thought that that was the kind of thing
lawyers did: play hockey with women in-
stead of being he-men like them."
Comp iled
by
Howard Brick
TED SOLOTAROFF (LSA 1952), founder
and editor of the New American Review,
now the American Review:
"For the first few years I was in Ann
Arbor (1948-1951), the atmosphere on the
campus was dominated by the veterans of
World War II. The classes had a kind of
maturity and seriousness; they were elec-
tric. Afterwards, the campus became much
less grown up and exciting. By 1952, you
began to sense the return to influence of
the fraternities, and the campus itself be-
gan to seem much more collegiate."
MARTHA GRIFFITHS (Law 1940), U. S.
Congresswoman from Michigan:
"When I went to school, I worked, stud-
ied, and kept house, all at the same time. It
was like being on a treadmill. I remem-
ber after I had taken my evidence exam at
the end of my second year, I walked to U
Hospital to go to work in the business of-
fice. And I saw many young men from my
law class follow me to the hospital and
become patients. It was very disconcert-
ing."
RICHARD C. GERSTENBERG (LSA
1931), chairman of the board of General
Motors:
"My most memorable day on the cam-
pus was December 16, 1973, when they
gave me an honorary degree: a Doctor of
Laws." Gerstenberg, despite his terseness,
is the highest paid executive in the coun-
try, with yearly salary exceeding $850,-
000. He left the University in the heart of
the depression, without a job, and started
working for General Motors in 1932 as a
timekeeper in Dayton, Ohio.
MIKE WALLACE (LSA 1939), CBS News
commentator:
"I had never been drunk when I ar-
rived in Ann Arbor. During my freshman
year, I stayed in Ann Arbor over Easter
vacation, and my aunt (wife of the chair-
man of the Economics Department, I. L.
Sharfman) took pity on me and invited
me to stay at their house for a few days.
Well, while my uncle was off in New York
giving a speech, my aunt decided it was
time for her young nephew to get bloody.
She fed me one Old Fashioned after an-
other, until I was roaring drunk. We never
had dinner that night, and I finally stag-
gered upstairs and passed out."
MICHAEL DANN (LSA 1943), former
vice president and head of programming
for CBS and NBC Television, now vice pres-
ident of the Children's Television Work-
shop (Sesame Street and Electric Com-
pany):
"In 1942, The Daily printed a series of
articles critical of President Ruthven's ad-
ministration for not supporting the war ef-
fort enough. The Board of Student Publi-
cations asked that something be edited
out of the articles, and, as a consequence,
I co-bylined a piece with Mort Mintz (now
a Washington Post reporter) asking for the
dismissal of the chairman of the board.
We waited up all night to see whether the
article would get through and be printed.
We didn't know who would survive: us or
them. It turned out that the University per-
mitted us to run the story, and we all sur-
vived."
WIN SCHULER (attended LSA 1926-1927),
millionaire Michigan restaurant owner:
"One day in 1927, I needed money, so
I went to Ferry Field where Michigan was
entertaining Minnesota, and I scalped my
two tickets for $20. Then I walked down
to Yost Field House. I saw a big bus drive
up with the Minnesota football team and
they were throwing bags off the rack on
top. I picked up one of the bags like a
bellboy, took it to the dressing room, and
walked out to watch the game for free.
Later, when I returned home, I couldn't
find my roommate. It ended up that he
had =been arrested in front of the Union
for scalping tickets. Which just shows that
all that glitters is not gold."
DAVID NEWMAN (LSA 1958, Rackham
1959), co-writer of Bonnie & Clyde, What's
Up Doc?, and There Was a Crooked Man.
KEN KELLEY (attended LSA 1968-1971),
former editor of the Ann Arbor Argus and
freelance writer:
"I started the Ann Arbor Argus in the
summer of 1969. In one of our issues we
had a picture of a robot with an erection
that consisted of something like a monkey
wrench. Then we were attacked in city
council by James Stephenson (now mayor).
He said that 'a typical picture in the Argus
shows a male genital in a discernably tur-
gid state.' We didn't know what he was
talking about, because we couldn't find a
picture of male genitals anywhere in the
paper. So in the next issue, we printed a
picture of Stephenson with an erection in
his hands. The picture showed him with
a huge grin on his face, and the caption
was 'Now you can have your words and
eat them too."'
LYNN TOWNSEND (LSA 1940, Business
1941), chairman of the board of the Chrys-
ler Corporation.
MARGE PIERCY (LSA 1959), poet and
novelist:
"The most memorable moment was the
point at which the Dean of Women said
if I didn't have enough money to go there,
I should take a streetcar to Wayne. I was
from a working class family in Detroit
and I was trying to get out of the dormi-
tories because I couldn't afford it. During
all the time-I was in Ann Arbor I was made
to feel that I was the wrong sex, wrong
size, wrong volume-level, wrong class,
wrong everything. I also remember that
my freshman comp. teacher told me my
poetry was fit for a comic book- 'overly-
emotional,' he said."
CAZZIE RUSSELL (attended Education
school 1962-1966), professional basketball
player for the Golden State Warriors.
FAYETTE DUNN (LSA 1925), president
of the Otis Elevator corporation:
"The most memorable thing was my last
semester. I carried 23 hours because my
father offered me a trip to Europe if I
graduated in January. I went home after
the term thinking everything was alright,
but a month later I got a letter that said
because of excessive absence from classes
I had been docked one hour, and so I had
119 hours instead of 120. I jumped on the
train to Ann Arbor and met with Dean
Flickinger, pounded on the table and fin-
ARTHUR MILLER (LSA, 1938), Pulitizer
prize winning playwright and author
(Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, et al.):
"I have a special affection for this school,
I suppose, because they let me in-and no
other school could make that statement.
"But I was looking for answers and I
soon saw they didn't have any. I was un-
der the impression that, My God, a univer-
sity, they know a lot. And of course a lot
of professors did. The thing was that it
was too slow a process. You can't sit
around waiting for something to happen.
It needn't have taken four years."
WILLIAM SCHILLER (LSA 1932), BusI-
ness 1933), chairman of the board of Her-
shey Foods:
"The years I attended the University
were the years of the great depression
when people all over the world were un-
employed and struggling hard to keep body
and soul together. I got along making my
daily bread by waiting on tables, doing
other kitchen jobs and delivering the Daily
on a nine mile route."
I-
Deceased
I
CLARENCE DARROW
Defense attorney for Leopold and Loeb
(the latter a U of M student) murder trial
and Thomas Scones monkey trial in 1924.
Studied law in 1877.
THOMAS E. DEWEY
Governor of New York and twice Repub-
lican presidential candidate. Graduated
with a B.A. in 1923 and attended law school
here for one year.
GEORGE SUTHERLAND
Supreme Court Justice who led the court
fights against the first New Deal legisla-
tion in the early thirties. Attended law
school here in 1882.
BRANCH RICKEY
General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodg-
ers, brought Jackie Robinson into profes-
sional baseball. Graduate of law school
in 1911
FRANK MURPHY.
Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan,
U. S. Attorney General, and Supreme Court
Justice. Graduated law school 1914.
WILBER BRUCKER
Attorney General of Michigan, General
Counsel for Defense under Eisenhower.
Graduated law school in 1916.
PAPA DOC DUVALIER
Haitian Dictator. Studied the control of
venereal disease in school of Public Health,
but his English was so poor that he could
not be admitted as a degree candidate.
GEORGE HUMPHREY
Secretary of the Treasury 1953, gradu-
ated law school in 1912.
EDWARD WHITE
Astronaut, first man to walk in space,
died on Jan. 27, 1967 in famous Cape Ken-
nedy mishap. Received M.S. degree in
Aerospace Engineering in 1959.
BETTY SMITH
Author of A .Tree Grows in Brooklyn,
studied English in 1930, and won a Hop-
wood award in drama.
FRANK OHARA
Poet and Assistant Curator of the Mu-
seum of Modern Art in New York. Received
an M.A. in 1951.
THEODORE ROETHKE
Poet and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize.
GEORGE ALLEN (LSA 1943),
head coach and general manager
of the Washington Redskins:
"After graduation I went into
see Fritz Crisler who was the
athletic director at that time. I
told him I had been offered the
JAMES EARL JONES (LSA
1953), actor:
"I was a night watchman and
was on duty at West Quad the
night Sergeant Kelly, the legen-
dary ROTC instructor, died. He
was a father, a big brotherfig-
BEN H. WELLS (LSA 1929,
Rackham 1933), president of the
7-Up company:
"I remember there was a roll-
er skating craze that took place
every spring in 1926, '27, and
BILL FLEMMING (LSA 1949),
ABC sports commentator:
"I was taking a rhetoric class
in 1948 and I entered the Campus
Oratorical Contest for a lark. I
gave a speech saying that people
who were having problems could