Life enriched

I read with interest the recent article remembering Martin E. Marty, PhD’56 (“A Light That Stays,” Summer/25). He was my adviser while I was at the Divinity School. His intellectual breadth and curiosity were unparalleled. He had a knack for connecting and articulating disparate historical and social realities in a practical way that created meaningful themes in our lives.

But what I always appreciated was Martin Marty, the person. Being at a dinner party for students in his home often ended up with some question of interest. It was always an evening to remember. Ten years after I graduated, I ran into Marty in a Colorado drugstore while on a family vacation. He greeted me warmly by name—in keeping with his encyclopedic mind. His wit, wisdom, and light will indeed stay. I consider my own life to have been greatly enriched because of having known him.

David Frantz, AM’75, DMin’80
Indianapolis

The Summer/25 issue brought sad news about Martin Marty’s passing but also treasured memories about this truly great scholar.

In late 1966, my senior colleague Edward Schwartz, PhD’55, and I (at the School of Social Service Administration, now the Crown School) were both deeply interested in income maintenance policy. Our interest was increased by the recent work of Chicago colleague Milton Friedman, AM’33, on the negative income tax as a practical alternative to current unpopular approaches.

We consulted with Friedman about our plan to sponsor a symposium on the topic. We envisioned a small group of scholars from various disciplines convening for a serious examination of the basic idea of a guaranteed annual income.

Economists, social workers, politicians, and others were, to say the least, shocked at such a seemingly radical approach by none other than Friedman, at the time one of the world’s best-known conservative economists and the leader of the Chicago school.

We turned next to colleague Martin E. Marty, at that time a young scholar in the Divinity School, for a paper on the topic of the cardinal obligation found in the world’s religions to care for the poor.

The prolific Marty responded quickly with a typewritten carbon copy of a seminal paper on the requested topic. That copy was lost, and the plan for the symposium ended in 1967 when I accepted a position in California and Professor Schwartz retired. The symposium was a good idea then, and perhaps its time may come again. Meanwhile, I hope Martin’s paper turns up in its original form.

I am a year older than Martin Marty but joined the faculty several years later than he did. I had always admired his teaching and writing.

Alan D. Wade, PhD’60
Sacramento, California

Heart and mind

David Tracy trained a generation of theologians (see Deaths). I had done graduate work at the University of Leuven in Belgium before coming to the University of Chicago. I came to Chicago because of David Tracy, whom we were reading in Leuven. In his work I found a breadth and depth matched by only a handful of contemporary theologians.

When I met David, I found in his person a caring, encouraging, and demanding mentor. The range of his knowledge amazed and challenged me. His interest in my work inspired me. David learned from his students as well as taught them. While an original thinker and an internationally renowned scholar, he was without hubris. His unassuming manner invited conversation and exchange of ideas. His insightful criticisms alerted students to pitfalls and dead ends but left their autonomy intact. He knew well the fragile nature of graduate students’ psyches. He also upheld the standards of excellence expected of students at Chicago.

David’s mind was so agile that he moved from the Greeks to postmodern philosophers with aplomb. I never left a lecture without a new idea or a different angle on an age-old problem. My only difficulty was keeping up with him. His lectures regularly forced me to expand my horizons.

In the seminar room, he relished the opportunity to engage students one-on-one and encouraged his students to do the same with each other. It was in this setting that I learned to articulate my own theological ideas. Those ideas were not always accurate, not always refined, not always nuanced, not always universally well received, not always permanent—but they were my ideas, and David Tracy encouraged me to formulate them. David did not uncritically accept his students’ ideas, but he consistently invited them to think creatively.

Finally, David was loyal to Chicago, to the academy, and to his students. He told me that he stayed at Chicago because the conversation there was fruitful. He enjoyed his colleagues, delighted in his students’ progress, and was able to develop many lasting relationships over the years. He made a difference in the academy and in students’ lives.

Chester Gillis, PhD’86
Wilmington, North Carolina

Comiskey Park memory

When William Julius Wilson left for Harvard, he suggested Gary Orfield, AM’65, PhD’68, as his replacement on my dissertation committee (“Civil Rights Scholar,” Alumni News Snapshots, Summer/25). So I had a dissertation committee of Donald Bogue, James Coleman, and Gary Orfield. One day I was in Orfield’s office talking to him about my dissertation research, when he said he had tickets to the White Sox game that night. He asked if I would like to go. I said sure. He said, “You can take my daughter with you.” So I ended up attending the game with his daughter.

Louie Woolbright, PhD’85
Montgomery, Alabama

After the verdict

I read with interest your article “Evolution on Trial” (Spring/25) and want to provide a footnote for John Mark Hansen’s Scopes/Darrow history. The article correctly states that John Thomas Scopes, EX’31, “eventually found a new job as a geologist, working in the oil and gas industry, living in Houston, Texas, and Shreveport, Louisiana.”

My father, John S. Ivy, SB 1922, gave Scopes a job when no one else would. He told me Scopes had been looking for an extended time but could not get a job due to his “notoriety” and the ostracism he was experiencing. This was almost a decade after the trial.

My father was one of the founders of the United Gas Corporation. He was the chief geologist and president of the exploration and production subsidiary Union Producing Company. United Gas was growing in spite of the Depression due to a number of oil and gas discoveries it had made and the rapid expansion of its gas pipeline distribution network. Though my father did not tell me how Scopes came to seek a job at United Gas, my father obviously would have been a key decision-maker in the hiring of a geologist. He did tell me that Scopes wanted to keep a low profile and asked him to try and protect his anonymity.

My father entered the University of Chicago in 1917, received a bachelor of science degree in geology in 1922, and continued his graduate studies until February 1923. One of his professors was Edson S. Bastin, SM 1903, PhD 1909, who became Scopes’s adviser. I believe Bastin conducted a 1918 geological field trip to Oregon and Washington, in which my father participated. This, aside from the coursework, would have allowed them to know each other beyond a casual basis.

My father told me Clarence Darrow called him in the mid- to late-1930s to indicate he was searching for John Scopes and asked if he knew how to get in contact with him. My father arranged a meeting between Darrow and Scopes and met Darrow when he came to Houston.

The timing of the Darrow/Scopes meeting is interesting, as Darrow died of heart issues on March 13, 1938, just before his 81st birthday. Speculating again: It is human nature that as one approaches the end of their time here, a desire arises to seek out and visit again those who have earlier had a significant impact on one’s life. Darrow, at the age of almost 80, seeking to find Scopes after he had completely disappeared into obscurity possibly indicates the importance and depth of the relationship that Darrow and Scopes had developed. Perhaps an appropriate bookend to the relationships developed during the trial?

Conway G. Ivy, MBA’69, AM’72
Beaufort, South Carolina

1970s reflections

In your oral history of Pierce Tower (“Ho-Ho, the University of Chicago Is Funnier Than You Think,” The Core, Spring/25), Donald Bingle, AB’76, JD’79, cites a rumor of someone who rappelled from his window to the cafeteria roof, frightening the Tufts House coeds.

In fall 1971, when I was living in Thompson House, I rappelled twice from my eighth-floor window. The steam radiator made a good anchor. A bemused campus security officer watched the first time. A week later I taught my dormmate David Haimson, EX’74, how to do it, and we took turns descending. This time security gently discouraged me from making it a habit.

Since my window faced University Avenue, we rappelled to the ground, not the cafeteria roof. And I know there were no coeds in Tufts at that time, as I was on the committee later in the year that negotiated which Pierce Tower houses would go coed first (Tufts and Shorey to start) in fall 1971.

Gary Alan Miller, AB’74, SM’74
Yakima, Washington

I appreciated the letter by Steve Froikin, AB’73, taking to task The Core’s coverage of the 1970s at the U of C (Summer/25).

Highlighting the humor of Big Ed, the Marching Kazoo Band, and the Lascivious Costume Ball is really to miss the point of the period.

The shared humor was set amid the context of a dark and difficult time, where the daily news was filled with death and destruction, sharpened by the distasteful rule of Nixon/Agnew nationally and Richard J. Daley locally. No one who lived through that time would describe it as mirthful.

Especially tone-deaf is the inclusion of recollections by Jim Vice, EX’55, AM’54. Those of us who were there recall him as the school’s field enforcer, issuing disciplinary summonses that resulted in the suspension or expulsion of many protesting U of C students.

Michael Brant, AB’70, AM’82

San Francisco

Cold comfort

Refrigeration is critical in places less fortunate than Middle America (“Cold Case,” Spring/25). The International Institute of Refrigeration was created in 1909.

The impoverished world still loses a massive amount of food production due to a lack of refrigeration from field to table. Although still a challenge in 2025, the built environment could be an area of university research to secure a food security cold chain using solar photovoltaic/thermal energy and ad/absorption chillers. A low-cost version could be a righteous applied technology undertaking by the U of C.

Mitchell NewDelman, JD’65
Monaco

Fine dining

I saw the photo of Orly’s in your Spring/25 issue (“Orly’s or …,” Alumni News Snapshots). In 1981 I would have been either a junior or senior at U-High.

While I was growing up in Hyde Park, my parents often bemoaned the lack of “good” restaurants. When Orly’s opened, they decided it was the best Hyde Park offered. I remember thinking, “So this is what a ‘good’ restaurant means!” I’m glad to hear from friends still in the ’hood that there are a few good restaurants to choose from today.

Sophia Gebhard, LAB’82
Minneapolis

Moment of recognition

I was perusing the Spring/25 issue when I happened to see my past self teaching a class outside (“Have Chalk—Will Travel,” Alumni News Snapshots). I did this at least once every spring when I was teaching. I cannot quite make out what is on the board; otherwise I could tell you the course. I still teach in T-shirts and shorts (when it is warm).

I was a PhD student in mathematics at the University of Chicago from 1988 through 1994. I met my (eventual) wife, Sarah Witherspoon, SM’91, PhD’94, on the first day of orientation in the mathematics department. We are currently both professors of mathematics at Texas A&M University.

Frank Sottile, SM’89, PhD’94
College Station, Texas

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