Overshadowed no more

I enjoyed the article about Edith Rickert, PhD 1899 (“A Storied Life,” Winter/26), which drew on Christina von Nolcken’s impressively researched book about Rickert. It did not surprise me that Rickert’s career as a distinguished Chaucer scholar, code breaker for the US government during World War I, and coauthor of English grammar and composition textbooks was overshadowed by the credit accorded to her male colleague John Manly. As an editor of the biographical dictionary Notable American Women: The Modern Period, which includes the stories of accomplished women who died between 1950 and 1975, I found this story sadly familiar.

What the Magazine article didn’t mention, however, was that one of the women’s residences in Woodward Court (aka New Dorms), which was demolished in 2002, was called Rickert Hall. When I lived in the New Dorms in 1966–67, I knew nothing about the residences’ namesakes. However, when my first-year roommate, the late Leanne Star, EX’70, AM’71 (who was a docent for the Chicago Architecture Center), led me on a tour of the campus in 2012, I was glad to see that the names of Rickert and Wallace (the house where we resided) live on in the Max Palevsky Residential Commons.

It’s pleasing that someone knew enough about the history of the University’s female faculty to honor Edith Rickert and Elizabeth Wallace in the New Dorms, and that the honor lives on.

Ilene Kantrov, AB’70
Lexington, Massachusetts

Thanks for running Shiloh Miller’s (Class of 2026) article about Edith Rickert, one of my scholarly heroes since my MA Chaucer class with Arthur Norman in 1965. I learned a lot about this talented woman from the story, all very much appreciated.

Steve May, AM’64, PhD’68
Tucker, Georgia

Dunes love and lore

As someone who has lived near the Indiana Dunes, whose neighbors were employed by the steel mills in the 1960s, and who has sped past the Calumet Region by train and by car (my brother by bike!), I was interested in reading “The Beauty of Slag” (Winter/26.) I found the cover intriguing and appreciated learning about how the area has responded to the effects of industrialization.

Thank you for summarizing research on urban ecology; the role played by Henry Chandler Cowles, PhD 1898; and the marvelous complexity of this natural area.

Pamm Collebrusco, AB’72, AM’74
Riverton, Illinois

Shoptalk

I became a PhD student in the Department of Biophysics in 1965 and began a rotation in the lab of Humberto Fernandez-Moran in the summer of 1966 (“Cogs in the Machine,” Alumni News Snapshots, Winter/26). He had been funded by NASA to construct a lab that was a Type I clean room—appropriate to study rocks when they were brought back from the moon, years in the future. NASA needed to test the technology and authorized an experiment that would go up on a rocket from Ames Research Lab in California during the Perseid meteor shower.

How to construct a device that would open and close in space? I was told to get help at the Machine Shop, located at one end of the Research Institutes near the accelerator. I boldly went where no biologist had gone before and met John Hanacek and Bud Gibson. I think both had worked on the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, and they were brilliant designers and wonderful craftsmen. I would like to say that I designed the device, but it would be more accurate to say that I gave them an idea of what the device was meant to do, the approximate dimensions, and a crude diagram. They then designed and built a terrific piece of equipment in about three weeks—and it worked flawlessly in space, drawing kudos from NASA personnel. This was one of the first times that uncontaminated material from space had been collected and studied. I later asked them for help building or modifying other equipment, because this was a time when virtually all of our equipment was built in-house. They were terrific staff members, and we developed a great working relationship.

As an aside, this was the same area of the building that housed the IBM 7094, that mysterious machine capable of great feats (I think with 32K of RAM). I learned Fortran and would dutifully take a stack of cards to the high priest, bow appropriately, and some days later wonderful results would be returned.

Lou Sherman, SB’65, PhD’70
West Lafayette, Indiana

Quiz kids

Several days ago I received the latest issue of the Magazine, and like most alums, I suppose, I was flipping through class notes for years I was there. The first thing that caught my eye was a picture where the most prominent face looked like Jim Gillespie, AB’81, whom I knew. That slowed me down. I looked behind him, and to my total surprise, there was me (“Bowled Over,” Alumni News Snapshots, Winter/26).

And an accurate story! Alas, the only person in the picture I kept in touch with was David Rubin, SB’81 (back row, second from right), who passed away in 2024.

As a hobby, I am more involved with quiz games than ever. One of the few benefits of lockdown in 2020 was that all of us quizzers discovered Zoom. Soon we had leagues all over the world. Just keep your hands in view (no cheating) and understand English (questions are inevitably in English; answers provided in many languages).

Lorin Burte, MBA’81
Vernon Hills, Illinois

I first visited the University of Chicago for a tournament hosted and organized by the University of Chicago College Bowl team (ACF Regionals, February 1995). I fell in love with the campus when I first stepped foot on the quad. I was audacious enough to apply to UChicago for graduate school and fortunate enough to get accepted. I later played for the UChicago College Bowl team.

I participated for two seasons (1996 to 1998), during which I played in 10 intercollegiate tournaments, encompassing four tournament wins and three national championship tournament appearances. I also wrote a style guide for quiz questions that punnily combined my surname and a certain Chicago book: “The SZCZicago Manual of Style.”

Among the memorable questions during my playing time: correctly guessing Eugene Debs from the question that began “Born in Terre Haute, Indiana”; correctly getting all six parts of a bonus question to identify the language certain phrases were spoken in, with the last part being in Klingon; and getting 20 points on a 30-point bonus about the philosophy of science after I sat in on Jim McCawley’s (SM’58) class on linguistics and the philosophy of science.

Games of knowledge should raise awareness of new ideas, new facts, new horizons—and be a mini education unto themselves. I am grateful that College Bowl introduced me to the University of Chicago and deepened my love for the life of the mind.

Mitchell Szczepanczyk, AM’98, SM’03
Chicago

Language lessons

I didn’t keep any physical objects from my days at the U of C, but every day I keep and benefit from what I learned from some remarkable teachers (“Coastal Unshelving,” Editor’s Notes, Fall/25). I did a master’s and had many classes with Marshall Sahlins. To this day, whenever I hear someone use a saying or a cliché that has long lost its value and effectiveness, I quote Marshall: “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it bark.” Seems simple, witty, and perhaps unimportant, but it’s still a reminder to me of the need to think about what one articulates.

I had the privilege to work at the Orthogenic School under the leadership of Jacquelyn Sanders, AM’64. Inter alia, I learned so much from her about listening to the language of others if you want to understand them. Two remarkable people and teachers.

David Lerner, AM’76, AM’82
Buckinghamshire, England

From blue …

I very much appreciated “Colorfast” (Fall/25) by Tori Lee, AB’13, and Louise Lerner, AB’09, which honors the work of artist Amanda Williams, LAB’92 (above); chemist Amanda Brewer and her team of student researchers; and scientist and educator George Washington Carver. As a scholar of children’s literature, I learned of Carver’s blue pigment in reading Marilyn Nelson’s poem “Egyptian Blue,” which appears in her wonderful book Carver: A Life in Poems. Like Nelson’s poetry, my scholarship seeks to bring to the fore neglected histories such as this story about Carver. It is a pleasure to see The University of Chicago Magazine doing this kind of work.

Karen Chandler, AB’84
Louisville, Kentucky

… to Green

I worked in Green Hall in 1945 (“Work Studies,” Alumni News Snapshots, Fall/25). I was a graduate student dishwasher there and for the adjacent women’s dormitories. The food was good. The fringe benefits were excellent!

Walter J. Levy, AM’45
Dallas

Heroic aims

Regarding the Aims of Education lectures (“What Are the Aims of Education?” The Core, Fall/25), I was one of the entering freshmen privileged to hear Wayne Booth’s (AM’47, PhD’50) Aims of Education speech in 1970. He challenged the entering class to reiterate to him, in essay form, the substance of his address—and offered a prize of $50, a substantial sum then, to the best such essay.

After several attempts, I found it impossible to organize my thoughts in prose, so I submitted my entry in the form of two sonnets with a heroic couplet as the title. Booth awarded me the prize—and, indeed, he referred to it when delivering his speech at our commencement four years later. He also awarded a second prize of equal value to a more traditional essay but expressed his appreciation to me personally, in a letter, for my unconventional submission.

Daniel Abraham, AB’74
Brooklyn, New York

Seeking reflections

When I think of my undergraduate years, there’s one experience that shaped my career trajectory in a way no academic course or adviser could have: my time in Mrs. Capinegro’s first-grade classroom at Dulles Elementary. I joined the Neighborhood Schools Program (NSP) in October of my first year, long before I’d understand the complexities of terms like turnaround schools, student-based funding, and schools slated for action (i.e., closures). My experience at Dulles is what led me to pursue economics and public policy majors and, much later, a master’s in public policy from Harris Public Policy. For the past 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of guiding thousands of tutors as NSP’s associate director, and in 2026 it’s an absolute honor to be celebrating our program’s 50th anniversary!

If you were part of the Neighborhood Schools Program or any of its special initiatives, I’d be thrilled to hear from you. If you have any photos, videos, or memories you’d like to share, or if you’d like to be involved in our 50th anniversary celebrations, it would be an honor to connect with you. You can reach us via email at nsp50@uchicago.edu. NSP’s impact on and support of our South Side schools is possible because of student efforts like yours, so let’s honor and celebrate all who’ve made the past half century possible.

Mónica Luna, AB’13, AM’20
Oak Lawn, Illinois

The University of Chicago Magazine welcomes letters about its contents or about the life of the University. Letters for publication must be signed and may be edited for space, clarity, civility, and style. To provide a range of views and voices, we ask letter writers to limit themselves to 300 words or fewer. Write: Editor, The University of Chicago Magazine, 5235 South Harper Court, Chicago, IL 60615. Or email: uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.