Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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PHILOSOPHY DOUGLAS VAN STEERE MARTIN FOSS We can see the three heads of Haverford ' s philosophy department groping through the forest. The hght is so dim that not even the forms of the objects are visible to the searchers, but they do manage a random walk. In their search, sometimes one finds another going the same way for a short distance, but neither knows where he is, so this is not much help. Several times one or another has even stumbled into the agora, but none has ever seen it. Henry Veatch stayed in our section of the wood only for the first semester. He strolled briskly as if it were a bright summer day, slashing right and left with a rubber sword labeled Intentionality. It was very amusing to watch the sword bouncing harmlessly from the trees, while Its user never noticed. Intentional Veatch was particularly renowned for his lecture seminar on St. Thomas, a logical man. The rubber sword was welcome as a change and it succeeded in making a few dents, but It is fortunate that these dents faded so quickly. Douglas Steere drives into the woods in his Volkswagen, mystically missing the trees. After having run in tight circles around some of the more visible ones, he managed to erect a sign on top of the jalopy advertising a patent panacea, Reverence for Life. Unfortunately, the sign was engulfed by smoke and moonbeams, and no bottles were sold. In public, he is the well-known largest smile on campus, prized for its pure genuineness. His Volkswagen is likely to circle trees for some time, lecturing, and the sign will grow still mistier, but the smile shows clearly through the darkness. Frank Parker resembles a bloodhound in the woods. He has no strong direction of his own, but keeps his nose glued to the realistic ground, following the trail and passing judgment over every tree he FRANCIS H. PARKER HENRY J. CADBURY Eighteen

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W.r ARIEL G. LOEWY MELVIN SANTER IRVING FINGER ROBERT L. CONNER BIOLOGY Second floor Sharpless, principal home of the biology department, has undergone a major face-lifting in the last few years, the lift being supplied by our new, aggressive bio profs. The principal change has been an academic shift from classical biology (botany, zool- ogy, vertebrate morphology, etc.) to the modern fron- tiers of biology (bio-chemistry, cellular physiology, genetics, etc.). Through grants of money from several foundations, the academic shift has resulted in a labor- atory ' shift from dissection kits and microscopes to Warburg respirometers, walk-in freezers, sterilizing tanks, and spectrophotometers. The initiation of the Senior Research Tutorial has given bio majors excellent experience in original research. A major part of the credit for the modernization of subject material and laboratory equipment goes to Ariel Loewy, the big bird of the biology department. Loewy has shed much blood for Haverford, especially in 195 7, when he did research on the disulfide bond in blood. Once, students really wanted to see blood flow when he told one class that he had lost their exams on the train. Often seen dashing around campus on an English bicycle with a rumble-seat, Loewy has plenty of time to converse with his majors on subjects ranging from politics to art. It has been rumored that when he obtains sabbatic leave he will spend most of the time cleaning up his hopelessly disorganized office desk. Melvin Santer is a microbiologist who grows bugs (bacteria) by the bottlcful. His 1957-58 research grant ( magnificent, just magnificent ) involved thiobacilli, and for the research Santer preferred mud imported from New Haven ( it ' s got good ' bugs ' . ) Almost daily he can be seen in his white lab smock, slapping and rubbing his hands together and vowing to his senior majors: All right, boys, today we gotta clean up the lab. Besides capably teaching complex biochemistry ' , Mel Santer leads his students to be aware and critical of the non-science world, especially the A.M. A. Perhaps the toughest teacher in the department, he maintains high standards by driving his students hard. The third member of the department that had such an excellent Philips Lecture Series for 1957-58 is Irving Finger, who ended 1957 by winning a research grant in his special field, genetics. An alumnus of Swarthmore College, Finger lost a Coca-cola bet to his genetics class that the Garnet would beat the Fords in their latest football clash. He often produces a big stink in Sharpless when he boils lettuce for his Paramecium. The zoology assignments are held down by Robert Conner. Each second semester slim, suave, smiling Conner drives over from Bryn Mawr to spend morn- ings lecturing on the weird, multicolored, anatomical cross-sections which cover his blackboards, and after- noons requiring his students to do lab dissections ( I think the instructions are fairly simple. ) He is in- trigued with the problem of whether protozoans are smarter than men. Seventeen

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passes. In his noble endeavor, man ' s best friend be- eomes the selfless advisor of budding philosophers. He performs the necessary function of leadint; the swarms behind him to the main trees, introducnii, ' them to all so they may better plant their own. Critical realism plays a necessary role, but it seems a shame that it has become une.xpressivc of itself. The opposite trend occurs in Martin Foss, a cultured owl flitting from bough to hough in the tree-tops uttering Germanic compound words. He is the most sincere and spirited in his philosophy at Havcrford, but also the most fixed in his ways. The one-sentence lectures given in one breath from notes written on well-used wrapping paper will be missed badly next year. We only hope that he can be replaced with a man as sincere in his view-s. But we must all follov. ' through wisdom to Nirvana, for such are the terms of the world. JOHN W. FLIGHT BIBLICAL LITERATURE A precisely clipped mustache and trimmed white hair are of a piece with John W. Flight ' s snappy walk, careful but unobtrusive dress and a quiet passion for Biblical schc larship. Flight ' s scholarly activities have not decreased during his close of a thirty-year stay at Haverford. He is a good friend of the ancient tongues, and keeps up his acquaintance with modern languages by reading from the French and German Bibles daily. He has done much literal as well as abstract digging from which his devotion to the Archaelogical Collection on Sharpless ' top floor has sprung. The studies, activities, and ideas of his students are of a lively concern to Flight. As he lectures from behind an ebony-topped Sharpless desk and particularly in discussions and conversations. Flight ' s wry grin and suppressed chuckle punctuate his interest in his students. RICHARD M. BERNHEIMER HISTORY OF ART In a society as fast-moving and as pragmatic as our ow ' ii, a man like Richard Max Bernheimer can exert a w-elcome and beneficent influence. This chubby, jovial man teaches history of art, not simply as so many old pictures and decaying buildings, but as an ever- continuing human struggle for beauty, truth, freedom of expression, and other spiritual values. Bernheimer attempts to invoke in his students a certain depth of feeling, and simultaneously he exposes them to a depth of knowl- edge that is truly amaring. He lectures coherently and continuously without ever referring to any notes, and he seems to know- the con- tents of every museum in the world. Bcrnheimcr ' s Cjerman accent, tapped shoes, and black slide case make him an individual personality, both here and on his home grounds of Brsm Mav.T. T ineteen