Bill Rawn talks down to you as an equal. Almost 6 feet 8, he glides through a room like an elegant giraffe. You learn when you engage him that he is a listener, not a talker. He absorbs far more than he emits.

It is this listening skill, along with great talent, that has helped make him a stunning success as an architect.

“Listening is a problem for architects,” Rawn says. “In architecture school, we do our own projects. There is no client, no budget. You’re doing it all by yourself. You find your own voice, which is good, but you don’t learn to listen to other people.”

Unlike architects with defiant signature styles, he does not design Statements.

“He is modern and contemporary, but not Frank Gehry off-the-wall,” says Winthrop Wassenar, former director of facilities at Williams College and project manager for Rawn’s ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance which opened in Williamstown in 2005.[...]

No one quite knows how to describe Rawn the architect. You hear the words “elegant” and “understated” a lot. Some call him conservative, but compared to what? He is no hidebound proponent of red brick. He prefers the word “contemporary,” and that sounds right.[...]

Today, Rawn is the go-to architect by elite colleges and universities for performance centers and dormitories. What he is most proud of are his repeat clients, such as Dartmouth, Williams, Swarthmore, and MIT.

His buildings are easy on the eye, and they wear well. He incorporates natural light whenever he can with extensive use of glass. Many of his buildings are LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for environmental sustainability. In renovating an ancient swimming pool building at Bowdoin into a recital hall, he used a geothermal system to heat and cool the place.[...]

[H]e garnered high praise for his theater at Williams [Ed: from whom?] and for The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Md. the second home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that opened in 2005. But his range extends to a horticultural center at Mount Auburn Cemetery, a synagogue in Wellesley, a federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a luminous little fire station in Columbus, Ind.

What do they have in common? Rawn is a design democrat with a small “d’’ who likes to put people from all walks of life close together, “rubbing shoulders,’’ as he puts it. Things can get tight, as in the Williams theater lobby, which is fine with him. He believes in density.[...]

And now, a retrospective of Dick Swart’s interpretation of the theatre Rawn designed:

To recap a bit, PTC made a comment on this post. The comment was a criticism of Karl Rove, the author of the article to which Dave linked. There were no disparaging remarks made about the subjects of the post, the Krissof family. In fact,  I would go so far as to say that if there is any one subject on this blog site on which all agree, it is that the Krissof family commands all of our deepest respect and admiration. 

To continue: PTC’s comment was deleted. No note appeared in it’s place stating why and by whom. PTC then made a statement on “Speak Up” that his comment had been deleted and that is where the discussion (below) begins.

As a board member, I encourage the discussion to continue in a positive way, with the goal being more clarity on the EphBlog policy regarding the rules on editing, deletion, and censorship.

Did you know you can subscribe to Faculty Notes?

(No comments allowed for this post while we resolve the comment editing/ownership issue — see the Speak Up posts that sophmom is working on moving to a separate post where we can debate the issues and how to proceed.)

In my opinion, compactness is the most important concept in mathematics. Here’s an article, recently published in Pro Mathematica, that tracks compactness from the one-dimensional real line in calculus to infinite dimensional spaces of functions and surfaces.

Those are fighting words! Remember when Dan Drezner ‘90 used to post pictures of Salma Hayek? Making claims about the most “important concept in mathematics” is the link-generating equivalent among my mathematical friends.

What do you think is the most important concept in mathematics? Being a statistician, I would go with the Central Limit Theorem.

Some have wondered if my old roommate had been successful in helping define new classifications for the Hungarian Philatelic Society regarding items issued under various provisional governments in the aftermath of WWI. I am happy to report he was completely successful!

In celebration of his work and to recognize my modest efforts as his secretary, we spent a day in Vac, Hungary, particulary to visit the wonderful post-Baroque Cathedral of Mary’s Ascension designed by the Viennese court architect Isidore Canevale.

It was a hot day on first of June. Rechtal was ready for a cocktail by 5:30. And a Negroni was the order of the day. I was dispatched to make this happen. The picture illustrates my efforts at making a breakthrough . I supervised at the bar and personally cut the orange zest.

I write to extol the restorative powers of the Negroni, to say as an aside that flexibility is needed to be a successful secretary, and that the production of Handel’s Xerxes (1738) at the State Opera was amazing in the setting in today’s Iran replete with a freeway interchange, Xerxes singing in a small plane flying around the stage, hoodies, ipods, breakdances, a tank, walls of air conditioners and the felling of Xerxes’ beloved tree (Platanus orientalis) by a sports car!

Rechtal joins me in wishing a Glorious Fourth to one and all.

The known addresses for the currently deployed Ephs are:

Evan BICK ‘06

1LT Evan Bick

B Co 1-18 INF

2HBCT, 1 ID

APO AE  09344

Galen THORP ‘04

DLTJG Thorp

VFA-146

Unit 25440

FPO AP  96601-6232

Felipe PEREZ ‘99

Felipe Perez

PRT Parwan & Kapisa

APO AE  09354

Ron ALCALA ‘97

Ronald  Alcala

HHC 10^th MTN  (SJA)

APO AE  09342

Bill Couch ‘79

CAPT WS Couch

MNSTC-I / JHAATT

APO AE  09348

Birthday – July 9th

Austin Krissoff  – Middlebury 2005 (Brother of Nate ‘03 – see post below)

Austin KRISSOFF

RCT-8, TCE-8

UNIT 73915

APO AE  09509-3915

Thank again,

Stewart Menking ‘79

Williams College Adopt An Eph Program

Previous EphBlog usage here, which, by the way, led to a fairly heated discussion. (Like any Obama voter, I continue to follow the debate over Palin’s veracity closely at sites like this. Forgive me for my sins against Republican orthodoxy!) I also wrote about the continuing relevance of Come on, Eileen.

xkcd is every geek’s favorite comic, but this seems wrong to me. Would you really describe Fountains of Wayne (founded by Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood, both ‘89) as a one-hit wonder?

The bank [Goldman Sachs] might be taking all these hideous, completely irresponsible mortgages from beneath-gangster-status firms like Countrywide and selling them off to municipalities and pensioners – old people, for God’s sake – pretending the whole time that it wasn’t grade-D horseshit. But even as it was doing so, it was taking short positions in the same market, in essence betting against the same crap it was selling. Even worse, Goldman bragged about it in public. “The mortgage sector continues to be challenged,” David Viniar, the bank’s chief financial officer, boasted in 2007. “As a result, we took significant markdowns on our long inventory positions …. However, our risk bias in that market was to be short, and that net short position was profitable.” In other words, the mortgages it was selling were for chumps. The real money was in betting against those same mortgages.

“That’s how audacious these assholes are,” says one hedge-fund manager. “At least with other banks, you could say that they were just dumb – they believed what they were selling, and it blew them up. Goldman knew what it was doing.” I ask the manager how it could be that selling something to customers that you’re actually betting against – particularly when you know more about the weaknesses of those products than the customer – doesn’t amount to securities fraud.

“It’s exactly securities fraud,” he says. “It’s the heart of securities fraud.”

Who was the Goldman Sachers in charge of those short positions? Michael Swenson ‘89. You go, Swenny!

Taibbi, although a good writer, is fundamentally clueless on this topic. In any large institution, there will be different departments doing/selling different products, often with no knowledge of each other. My local supermarket sells both low-fat yogurt and Ben & Jerry’s Brownie Batter Ice Cream. The former makes health claims that the latter implicitly denies. Yet, there is no “fraud.”

The same applies to Goldman. The Goldman folks selling ABS securities to idiots pension funds and municipalities probably believed (more or less) in what they were selling. It is hard to be a good salesman if you can’t even convince yourself. And — Look at history! — housing prices had never fallen nationwide. Isn’t part of a liberal arts education learning from history?

Swensen, and the other proprietary traders at Goldman, probably had little if any interaction with the people selling to ABS securities. They drew their own conclusions and made their own bets. They did what they were supposed to do: forecast future prices more accurately than the market and position their capital accordingly. No fraud here.

A Family’s Valor, a Nation’s Freedom
Why would a 61-year-old civilian surgeon volunteer for Iraq?

At a dinner last week in California, I was reminded of the debt we owe to those who have, for 233 years, sustained our freedom and independence. One remarkable family in particular exemplifies the best in the American spirit of courage and sacrifice.

Sitting at my table was a friend, Christine Krissoff, wife of Dr. Bill Krissoff and mother of Nathan and Austin Krissoff. One of her sons, Marine First Lt. Nathan Krissoff, was killed in Al Anbar Province in December 2006. A Williams College grad, athlete and musician, he’d left for Iraq on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was 25.

Initial report of Krissoff’s death here. Update here. I cry almost every time I read about Krissoff. Do you?

I met his parents and brother in Nevada in August 2007 while accompanying President George W. Bush to Reno, Nev. The president was there to address the American Legion before meeting with local families who’d lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan. Mr. Bush has met with about 550 families in private visits like this.

Say what you will about Bush, but he deserves credit for these meetings. I can’t even begin to imagine how emotionally draining it must be. Does President Obama do the same? I hope so.

Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Times. The caption:

Dr. Bill Krissoff, far right, is seen in a family photo with, from left, his son Austin, who is a Marine Corps officer; his wife, Christine; and his son Nathan, a Marine who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2006. To honor Nathan, Krissoff closed up his orthopedic practice in Truckee, Calif., and, at age 60, joined the Navy medical corps in hopes of being assigned to Iraq to treat wounded troops. It took presidential intervention to get Krissoff a waiver from the military’s age limits on enlistees, but now he is on the verge of deploying to Iraq with a Marine unit.

Can anyone place the photo? My guess would be either a graduation ceremony at Quantico or a pre-deployment good-bye from Camp Lejeune. Back to Rove:

At those meetings, he would have a senior staff member close by in case there was something that needed to be followed up on, such as getting a flag to a family member.

We entered a small room in the back of the convention center to find the Krissoffs waiting — the father in a black suit with his arms crossed and the mother in a plain dark outfit. Their dress contrasted with their son Austin’s Marine dress uniform. Like his older brother, Austin had volunteered for service after college. He was to be deployed to Iraq in March 2008.

During my White House years, I saw few people with the quiet power, intelligence and poise of Chris Krissoff. She talked about her sons, the pain of her loss, her concern for her youngest when he went into harm’s way, and the stakes in the War on Terror. The entire time, her husband was quiet.

The bravery of Christine Krissoff humbles me. To lose a son and then watch another son and husband go off to war is more than any woman should have to bare. Kipling’s The Female of the Species includes these stanzas:

She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity—must not swerve for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions—not in these her honour dwells—
She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.

She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate.
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.

She is wedded to convictions—in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies!—
He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

Christine Krissoff will never have the chance to face death in the place of the father and son that she loves, but her war is no less real for that distance.

Back to Rove:

When stories had been told, tears wept, and grief expressed, Mr. Bush asked if he could do anything. At that, Bill Krissoff spoke.

“Yes,” he said. “I’m a pretty good orthopedic surgeon. When my younger son is deployed to Iraq next March, I would like to be working as a Navy medical officer, but they won’t let me because I am 61 years old. Will you give me an age waiver, Mr. President?” Mr. Bush pointed to me. Dr. Krissoff and I exchanged business cards and he promised to fax me his application.

Krissoff received his waiver and is now serving in Iraq. Here is a photo from his training at Camp Pendleton.

Rove, after wasting some time telling us about his dove hunting schedule, concludes with:

Bill emailed me this April about his duties as a combat surgeon in Iraq. He sent photos of himself with Austin, who is now on his second tour there. This is how father, mother and brother are honoring the sacrifice of Nathan. While sharing this story with the audience last week, I found myself unable to look at Christine until I finished and the crowd rose to applaud her.

Watching the smoke rise from the Battle of Bunker Hill, Abigail Adams wrote her husband John, who was away at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. While she and others lived “in continual Expectation of Hostility,” Abigail wrote, “like good Nehemiah, having made our prayer with God, and set the people with their Swords, their Spears, and their bows, we will say unto them, Be not affraid of them.”

Christine Krissoff’s husband and sons, wrapped in prayers and armed with swords and scalpels, have served our nation with valor. So has she. So long as our nation produces families like the Krissoffs, America will remain not only the greatest nation on earth, but also the most noble in history.

Indeed.

(photo credit iBerkshires.com)

Looking for inexpensive, basic food in North Adams? Try Big Shirl’s Kitchen on Massachusetts Avenue, which has just opened in the old bus company building.

If you go, let us know how it is. It sounds like a great place to take a car filled with current Ephs. More here.

Anatolia, founded in the Ottoman Empire by Boston Congregationalist missionaries in 1886 and uprooted in 1924 to Greece, today comprises the U.S. and European-accredited American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) and its graduate school of business, the Anatolia College preparatory school (an International Baccalaureate World School), and Anatolia Elementary. Almost 2500 students pursue their studies on its 45-acre campus overlooking the northern port city of Thessaloniki and the lofty peaks of Mt. Olympus.

 More here.

There are two other Williams connections in this story. 

Like Anatolia’s first President, Charles Tracy, Giesecke is a graduate of Williams College….

“For me it is no small coincidence that Anatolia still treasures its founding connection to the Haystack Movement, which was begun at Williams College in the early 19th Century. I hope to continue building on that special spirit of connectivity between North America and Greece during my service as Anatolia’s President,” says Giesecke.

1) Smith ‘87 will be leaving the Board. I think that his three year term was as a replacement for Mike Reed ‘75, who was a Trustee when he joined Williams, but who left that position once he became an employee of the College. (I think that Smith got the job because either a) He is a good guy who lives in the area and has been heavily involved in various Williams activities or b) Because he came in second in the voting behind Reed in the Alumni Trustee election in 2004. (Is there some easy place to look up the history of Trustee elections?)

2) Joey Horn ‘87 will be replacing Smith. She won the Alumni Trustee election. (Full disclosure: I voted for Horn.) Her victory was announced at reunion but I can’t find an official news release from the College.

3) Scott ‘68 will stay on the Board. His term will be extended out to 2014. Scott has been a generous donor to Williams for many years. and has generated some classic EphBlog posts — who can forget Scott being called “limp-wristed” by Senator Orrin Hatch? Although Scott’s wealth may have been significantly impacted by the financial crisis, he was still placed in the picture (pdf) with all the key donors during the recent dedication of Schapiro Hall.

Donors and friends gathered on April 17 to celebrate the naming of the new south academic building in honor of President Morty Schapiro. Pictured are (left to right): Ray Henze ’74, Bob ’60 and Martha Lipp, Jack ’61 and Susy Wadsworth, Greg Avis ’80 and Anne Ricketson Avis ’81, Morty and Mimi Schapiro, Karen and Bob Scott ’68, Paul Neely ’68, Franci Rice, Richard Hollander P’10, and Joe Rice ’54.

I think that every Trustee in this photo served on the Board for longer than five years. Indeed, Henze, Lipp, Avis and Rice all served as chairs of the executive committee. If Scott is still giving enough money that he gets in this photo and/or invited to this event, then he probably has more time on the Board.

4) Austell and Harty will not be re-appointed. Again, I could be totally wrong about this, but neither seem to be major players on the Williams scene nor to provide the sort of specialized knowledge (unlike, say, Keating and Spencer) that the Board values. I have also heard rumors that Greg Avis ‘80 (chair of the executive committee) wants to get more people involved in the board, and the only way to do that is to have more people serve just five year terms. (That seems like a good idea to me, and Avis is certainly in a better position than I to make these sorts of judgments.)

Does anyone have better information than my guesses?

Also, does anyone have better information about the exact structure of the Board, say in terms of governance, committee assignments and so on. I tried to provide an overview here, but that seems quite dated.

Request: The College should update the Trustee web page with a) Trustee designations, at least which ones are the Alumni Trustees and b) Committee assignments. If I have a concern about, say, admissions policies, I should be able to figure out which trustees serve on the relevant committee.

1) Morty told us at reunion that the endowment was worth $1.4 billion. Given that the S&P 500 was at 946 at that point and then fell 2.4% to finish the (fiscal year) at 923, we might adjust Morty’s estimate of a down 17%-18% result for the year to around 20%. So, if the endowment started the year at $1.8 billion and we lost 20%, then we should now be at $1.44 billion. But the College also spent $90 million from the endowment. (Most current gifts would have gone directly into spending as well.) It matters a bit whether or not you subtract that $90 million from the start of the year or the end of the year value, but, round numbers, the value of the endowment for Jun 30, 2009, when the final report reaches us next fall, will be somewhere around $1.35 billion. You read it here first.

2) At some point, I hope to do a much more formal analysis, like last year’s. Perhaps someone will save me the trouble and do it now.

3) The big unknown is the valuation of the hundreds of millions that the College has invested in private equity and venture capital. If the College had invested $50 million in a private equity fund in June, 2008, what is that money worth now? Hint: It is much less than $50 million? But, in some respects, the “true” valuation is beside the point. What valuation with the managers of the fund report to the College? I don’t know but I am highly suspicious. And the fact that these amounts are “audited” by auditors paid for by the private equity manager gives me about as much comfort as a AAA rating from Moody’s.

4) But, I suspect that Morty might have already have had some early information about these valuations, so I suspect that his $1.4 billion number is “accurate,” or at least consistent with what the College will report in the fall. A smart Record reporter, however, would check to see if this claim is consistent with Morty’s talk in October 2008 and the market movements since then. Another item on the to-do list.

UPDATE: Thanks to eyetoldyouso for noting this July 1 letter from President Bill Wagner.

As you know, the June 30 endowment figure plays an important role in the College’s financial planning. While it will be months before we have a final audited figure, it is likely that our investment return will be better than the -35% that we conservatively used in our planning model. If that proves to be true and if our return for the next two years comes close to the zero that we have been modeling, that would reduce to some degree the extreme pressure that we had projected the College facing a couple of years from now. We still, however, continue to face significant challenges and will need to follow through on the cost-saving measures we have put in place.

Well, -20% would be “better” than -35%, but I don’t see many clues beyond that. I find it vaguely annoying that Wagner would throw around such an absurd estimate when he knows (he was there) that Morty provided the -18% estimate two weeks ago. Thoughts:

1) Perhaps Wagner is just low-balling the numbers — like any good corporate CEO — so that the the College can provide an upside surprise in the fall.

2) Perhaps I misunderstood Morty and the -18% number was just for the College’s liquid securities (those that Chilton would have good estimates for), without factoring in the performance of things like private equity and venture capital. I really don’t think that this is what Morty meant.

3) Perhaps further news as come out in between Morty’s talk at reunion and this letter. It could be that Chilton thought on June 1 — either guessed for herself or was told by her managers — that the losses on illiquid securities were X. Then, around June 30, she figured out that the losses were Y, with Y being much greater than X. So, the College might actually report a loss between 25% and 30% in the fall. This seems unlikely but not impossible.

I was a pilot in the USAF and now fly internationally for World Airways – carrying troops mostly too and from the sand box. Some of the spots I’ve visited and written about are:

Hiroshima – met the pilot of the Enola Gay at a hunting lodge – then flew over Hiroshima on the 50th anniversary – and happened to be there for the 63rd anniversary – where by I took a picture of a ‘crane’ on top of the gratings of the old industrial building – the only building left standing after the blast – The crane is the symbol of peace in some Asian cultures.

American Cemetery at Normandy – drove all night from Ramstein AB in Germany where I was flying C-141’s to pay tribute to our troops on the first day of 2000 – figured of all the places I’d like to be to ring in that particular New Year it was that cemetery. Without really planning on it I became the first visitor for the next 1000 years when a Marine Major tapped on my window to wake me up as I was sleeping in my rental car in the parking lot. Once he found out I was an American Service member he ushered me in as the first visitor so I’d be number one in the book. I played my penny whistle in the fog and as I walked out of one of the tombs a hundred or so p eople had gathered all around me without me knowing until I came out – I had been playing amazing grace and some old celtic sad songs – they were all crying which made me start to cry – a very personal and powerful day.

Visited the first “church” in Christendom – the cave church of St. Peter in the old Turkish city of Antioch – past the area where Alexander the Great had chased the Persians back over the mountains – walked a Templer Fort – and then visited the cave on Christmas night – The place was totally locked up and I sat on the cold limestone looking out at the smoky night sky of a very old city – while listening to the Muslim call to prayer – alone – at a place where Saint Peter had preached a few years after the death of Christ. Even as an agnostic it was a very powerful night.

Spelunking in a Saudi Cave while deployed after the first Gulf War in Riyad – almost getting my big ex full back butt stuck about two miles down – finding some old prehistoric sharks teeth and gypsum crystals – and then getting stopped by Saudi Security guards because my navigator of all things had turned the wrong way on the freeway while heading back to our hootch. We had gotten to close to the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina as non-believers – not a good thing.

Anyway just thought it might be fun for people to read not only about where I’ve been but how those places have impacted my thoughts on the world as a whole and our place in it as Americans.

Agreed. We are always interested to read about the experiences and thoughts of our fellow Ephs. Many paths lead from the Purple Valley. Tell us about the one you are walking.

Amidst your daily take on all things Williams I’m hoping you might be willing to insert a reference to a summer event nearby. Southshire Community School in nearby North Bennington, VT is hosting a benefit concert by Grace Potter who leads the Vermont based band “Grace Potter and the Nocturnals”. I’ve included the mini-blurb below as well as the event press release and show poster.

I’d be grateful if you would consider running a quick story on the event. The Williams connection? A few professors every year choose to send their students to Southshire. Last year the school population had two students who were the children of current professors and two who were the children of a former professor – that was 10% of the total student body in our very small 40 child school.

A stretch? Maybe – but for any Williams folks in town this summer this will be a fantastic event.

Indeed. More details below:

Join us for a very special solo performance by Vermont musical sensation Grace Potter of “Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.” on July 10th at 8:00 PM.

Tickets are available exclusively online at http://gracepotter.eventbrite.com/

This is a rare chance to see Grace up close and personal in the intimate setting of the beautiful Deane Carriage Barn on the campus of Bennington College in Bennington, VT.

In addition, we’ll be hosting a “Meet and Greet” with the artist for an additional fee. This event will take place from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM at a nearby location to be determined.

All concert proceeds will benefit Southshire Community School of North Bennington, Vermont

For more on Grace visit http://www.gracepotter.com/

If I had to single out the most important aspect of Morty’s presidency for me, it would be the way that he was always so open, honest and thoughtful in his public discussions of Williams policies. (Great collection of examples here and here.) I am unaware of any elite college/university president who has maintained such high standards of transparency. Say what you will about the substance of his decisions, but Morty always called them like he saw them. For that, and many other accomplishments, I will always be a fan.

What Morty accomplishment is your favorite? (Only good things today, please! Criticisms come tomorrow).

Here’s an article from Valley News highlighting Ben Grass ‘07, a (former and future) Dartmouth Medical School student who is undertaking a century ride to raise funds for a cancer research center, after recently having cancer surgery there himself.

Grass …  said he’s received “incredible support” from the Williams College cycling team, many of whose members will join Grass for his Prouty trek. (Look for the folks in the purple, cow-spotted uniforms.)

Go Ephs!

[h/t Williams Cycling]

photo credit Jekyll Island Museum

A Jekyll Island website gives a glimpse into the life of Charles Steward Maurice, Class of 1861, who went on to become an engineer. He trained at RPI, accelerating his studies and joining the U.S. Navy in 1862. After the war, he went into private practice, building a number of impressive bridges. For many years, Maurice summered in Georgia with his very large family, and he seems to have been actively involved in the life on Jekyll Island despite being a Yankee.

When I saw the blurb for the link, I thought of the powerful changes Maurice’s generation, both North and South, lived through.  The books are about to close on the fiscal year for the endowment, the belt will have to be tightened further, and things will still be very difficult for many Ephs, but Williams survives and her sons (and daughters) continue to excel. I pause for a moment and am grateful to all who have made that possible.