Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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ECONOMICS The economics department resides, appropri.uely enough, in Whitall, the building to and through which many a greenback flows. We must give the ec scholars credit for discussing dispassionately such emotionally charged subjects as income, taxes, and depressions, and for considering such weighty questions as whether the invisible hand is really invisible and what the chances are of transforming guns into butter. Howard Teaf is a tough customer, especially when he knows you don ' t know what you ' re talking about. His discussion section is one long cataclysmic catechism, in which he demands extreme precision in formulating detinitions and utilizing concepts. Even his lectures ,ire so conducted that most of the information presented is eventually elicited from the students. He character- istically refers to all students by their last names, es- pecially when he becomes angry (no rarity). His classes start in high gear (usually he begins talking as he approaches the doorway), but sometimes he stretches out his long frame m his chair, closes his eyes, and describes dreamily his observations while visiting the Near East. Teaf specializes m business and labor ec, and has served as an advisor to the state of Pennsyl- vania on insurance problems. He frequently visits Harrisburg; his majors wonder if he goes to try to prevent the new belt highway from running through his new house. Holland ( Ho ) Hunter ' 4. , the master of Wood- side Cottage and third floor Whitall, holds the faculty speed record for ascending and descending stairs. He calm;; down in class, however, where, after putting the daily outline on the board and manipulating his course cards to correspond to the students seating arrange- ments, he folds his hands, occasionally scratches his nose, and procedes to criticize an incorrect statement or faulty generalization with the initially innocuous deterent Well, now, wait a minute. He is plagued by books that keep disappearing from the reserve desk, but is pleased by researchers who discuss their topic and outline with him ( Then how can I fail to give you an A? ). Ho ranks as an expert on the Russian transportation systems, and spent a month in the Soviet Union last summer. Will Lyons comes to the ec department this year with ' a background in government service and Wall Street finance. His special field is everyone ' s favorite subject — money — and his pet theory on how to have the same may surprise some: If something goes wrong with a durable good (e.g., auto, TV), throw it away. It ' ll cost less to buy a new one. His students speculate that besides collecting pipes and stamps, Mr. Lyons may also save such memorabilia as GM and RCA stocks. Will dislikes losing at bridge, being interrupted during class by phone calls from the library, and that ob- noxious parable, You can lead a horse to water but you can ' t make him drink. Lyons appears more theo- retical than case-study-oriented Teaf. HOWARD M. TEAF, JR. HOLLAND HUNTER WILL LYONS Twenty-one

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THOMAS E. DRAKE WALLACE T. MacCAFFREY ANNE B. F. SCOTT HISTORY The rationale behind the study of history may be hkened to the tunetion tif an automobiles rear-view mirror — that is, the notion that by looking baek one can guide one ' s future actions more properly. At Haverford, the history department should reflect the humane attitudes which the typical small liberal arts college emphasizes. Presently, its small shifting com- position seems to be the unique mark of this depart- ment, but the powers that be are already plotting a historical strengthening and stabilization. Wallace Trevethic MacCaffrey is every bit as im- pressive and inspiring a professor as his name suggests. His basic course in ancient history has attained, by vir- tue of massive reading assignments and impossible ex- aminations, the fearsome reputation of ranking in diffi- culty with organic chemistry (an indirect way to achieve unity between the physical and behavioral sciences). Possessor of the most disjointed gait on campus, MacCafF frequently encounters organizational difficulties in finding the correct map and has manipu- latory problems in operating a mechanical pencil or Venetian blinds. Though he occasionally seems to be the fictional absent-minded professor ( May I have a pencil, please? ), it is when the discussion begins ( What did you get out of this week ' s readings? ) that true know-ledge and scholarship prevail. While constantly revealing his own overwhelming scholarship — seeming knowledge of everything there is to know about British history. MacCaff alternates in class be- tween relating humorous anecdotes and squelching in- correct or overgeneralized answers. He makes his essen- tial points by requiring students to become more and more explicit ( Well, what exactly do you mean by institutions? ) . An astute cross-examiner, he generally finds few if any volunteers to his questions, but he al- ways manages to allow the class to enlighten itself ( Is everything crystal clear? ) Those wdth a sincere in- terest in histor ' revere him as a god. Anne Scott, sincere and energetic, forms with her spouse Andy the only husband-and-wife teaching team at Haverford. She has the habit of occasionally plug- ging one of his courses ( You may have heard about this in Political Science 57 ) and of overemphasizing the feminist movement. She has a true respect for scholarship, encourages intellectual curiosity, and espe- cially stresses source materials. Thomas Drake, head of the department, is on leave this year. Drake is a self-appointed country gentleman whose class discussions in American history are typically dignified, quiet, and slow-moving, with an expansion by him of minor details. He combines a gentle urging for intellectual prowess with an almost slavish adher- ence to Morison and Commager. His office as curator of the Quaker Collection fits him as though he were destined for the role. A Friend, he specializes in study- ing the history of American social reform movements, and believes that the peace movement has always been a part of U.S. politics. Drake has a passionate love for books ( to appreciate a book you ' ve got to handle it, feel It, smell it . . . become one with the hook. ) He demands voluminous bibliographies, but encourages a cultural, more than intellectual, knowledge of books. Ticentv

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{ rr f- ,. 1 f LOUIS C. GREEN AARON LEMONICK THOMAS A. BENHAM FAY A. SELOVE PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY In the context of d liberal arts atmosphere, physics is a symbol of the outside world where technological advance is the order of the day and emphasis is, with attendant regret, shifting from an artistic to a mecha- nistic culture. To the world-weary physics student, however, its high level of abstraction provides a wel- come relief from the apparently hopeless muddle of social science and the aimless frustnition of modern art. In the microcosm of Haverford. then, the physics department assumes a position of aloofness from the main stream of intellectual activity. Life surges for- ward at its own hurricane pace, oblivious to the idyllic atmosphere elsewhere; Sharpless hums with a dizzy round of new equipment purchases and curriculum changes. Aaron Lemonick, who with his boundless and exuberant energy has almost completely trans- formed the face of the department over the past four years, is a dynamic and convincing teacher, spending much care and thought on the development of new teaching methods and materials. Mrs. Fay Selove com- bines a passion for Turkish cigarettes with an uncanny sense of the importance of a laboratory in modern physics, a valuable and unusual feature for a small department. Thus, except for the peaceful soirees at Tom Benham ' s, where bedraggled Efe?M students come to report long-overdue problem sets and where the world revolves around a cup of Constant Comment, the department lurches ahead, possibly trying to fol- low Sputniks and Explorers in their headlong courses above. Notwithstanding the absence of astronomy majors in the class, the astronomy department is far from idle. In addition to those students of introductory astronomy who always seem to find out that the second semester is much harder than the first, bemused liberal-arts students come to the spacious observatory classroom on Mondays to learn of Kepler, Newton, Faraday, and Einstein, and bemused physics students come on Tues- days to learn of those more recondite deities, Navier- Stokes and Sturm-Liouville. The octagonal library, reminiscent of a polyhedron from Diirer ' s Melencolia, IS filled with a peaceful solemnity, where Louis Green ' s tall benign figure intrudes apologetically from time to time to examine the latest copy of the Astrop iysical Journal, replacing it quickly so as not to nip in the bud the aspirations of any future astronomy major. The bewildering array of courses required of a major in physics takes its toll. After four years, the two physics majors m the Class of 1958, a smaller and perhaps less representative group than most, are es- caping back into the less abstract world of the humani- ties, where life seems more tangible and possibly even more genuine. But on occasion the luckless ones drag themselves back to the gloomy dungeons of Sharpless, to their bubbling vats of liquid nitrogen and to their ghoulishly shrieking 600-cycle square waves. For these tortures are as nothing compared to those which are to come. . . . Twenty-two