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Title: Macmahon, Edna Cers, 1901-1983 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Griffen, Clyde, Glasse, John, Marshall, Natalie
Description
Date: May 8, 1984
Text: / ,’i y / epRfOgQVg t 5'-0,‘, 9 X‘ \i_ . v48 At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May ninth, nineteen hundred and eighty—four, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted; Edna Cers Macmahon, Professor Emeritus of Economics was born 9 February 27, 1901 in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of John William and V Alvia Julia Lischmann Cers. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child and she grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Edna began her long career of...
Show more/ ,’i y / epRfOgQVg t 5'-0,‘, 9 X‘ \i_ . v48 At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May ninth, nineteen hundred and eighty—four, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted; Edna Cers Macmahon, Professor Emeritus of Economics was born 9 February 27, 1901 in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of John William and V Alvia Julia Lischmann Cers. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child and she grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Edna began her long career of community service by sharing with neighboring farmers helpful information from her careful reading of agricultural bulletins. A favorite teacher persuaded her to change her original plan of going to a normal school; instead, she entered Radcliffe at age l6, working her way through college. A seminar with Frederick Jackson Turner inspired her life-long fascination with the influence of the frontier and of geographic mobility upon American history. At age 20 Edna began graduate work at Bryn Mawr On the Susan B. Anthony scholarship. The next summer, in 1922, she met her d d. . future Vassar colleague, Margaret MYBPS» when they b°th le 1S°“SSl°n ' d t Br Mawr. groups at the School for Women Workers in Industry hel a yn ' Ph'l d l hia when they learned that Y°u"8 "°men °n Strlke at a 1 a e P _ - ' 11 they decided Clothing factcry were being arrested illega Y» . - - ‘ themselves arrested at to provide publicity bY getting -2- the strike site. With support from a young male friend from an Old Philadelphia family, they began interviewing the strikers On the picket line. The police hustled them off to the city jail where they briefly sharéd a Qell next ta a young woman who called out cheerfully: "What are you in for? shoplifting?" The venture ended with a double standard in sentencing which left them furious; their male friend was fined, but the future Vassar economists were let off with nothing but an admonition. In 1923 Columbia University appointed Edna as the first woman to hold its Gilder Research Fellowship. At Columbia she studied under Wesley Clark Mitchell, pioneer institutional economist, whose course on economic theory provided the framework for her thinking about economics. From her studies with Mitchell and with two other famous institutionalists, Thorstein Veblen and John R. Commons, she drew the lesson that economists should be critics and shapers of the societies they study. In 1924 she accepted a fellowship from the newly-founded Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government, an experiment in studying at the intersection of theory and public policy. She received her Ph.D. in 1930 with a doctoral thesis on labor injunctions. While working toward her doctorate, she investigated child labor in Maryland and Delaware canneries for the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. She also worked for the District of Columbia Consumers‘ League in 1926 as it brought pressure for the enforcement of District laws on maximum hours for women. In 1927, while employed by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, she began a study of immigrae tion which continued subsequently for the Council on Foreign Relations. But with teaching her long—term goal, she was glad in 1929 to become an _3_ inst - G ructor of economics at Hunter College. In that Year Edna married Arth P ' ' ur Ihlttler Ma°mah°n» then associate professor and subsequently Eaton pr°feSS°r °f Publi¢ administration a t Columbia University They had two chil ' dreni Gail» now livin ' g in Austria wh h ' ~ ere er husband is a diplomat, and Alan, now a physigigt at the University of Texas. During their childhood, the family lived in Croton where Edna helped run a cooperative school inspired by what remains durable in John Dewey's theories of education. She also ran an annual plant sale for the school notable for the stream of varied advice that accompanied her sales as she visualized each purchaser's plot, its probable disadvantages of soil or shade, and the owner's probable lack of time or knowledge. In later years members of the Vassar community would benefit from Edna's advice on gardening and from the well—developed aesthetic imagination which informed it. That imagination could be seen in the gardens and houses she arranged, and especially in the beloved cottage at Lake Awosting with its wonderful relating of domestic comforts, works of craftsmanship, and the natural beauty of the setting. While still at Croton in the late l93Os, Edna began to travel for research and for consulting assignments. In 1941-42 she served as Director of Research for the Division of Minimum Wage and Women ln h d d Industry of the New York State Department of Labor and also ea 8 . . . O . . . Off‘ f Price the EcQnQmlCS unit in the Consumer Division of the lce 0 Administration. Ed . . d the Vassar fagulty in 19142. At that time the Vassar na ]Oln8 . . - d . t Qf a joint department, economics an economics department was par -u_ sociology, which would shortly become the economics, sociology, and anthropology department-—B.S.A. Edna found the philosophy of the department to her liking. Abstract theory was not for her——she always regarded economic problems in the context of the overall problems facing a society. She described the introductory course in an article for the Alumnae magazine in l9H9: The teaching of economics at Vassar has always been directed, rather deliberately, toward a broad understanding of the economy as a whole, and to analysis and discussion of the major economic issues which confront our society. The introductory course, in particular, frankly aims to equip students to exercise their responsibility as citizens intelligently rather than to provide a mastery of economic principles. This does not mean that theory is neglected, but that it is constantly taught in relation to concrete problems to which it is applicable. The emphasis necessi- tates a continuous search for ways of making theory a more practicable tool in the analysis of current problems. Under Edna's influence the department introduced an introductory interdisciplinary course for the joint department, a course which flouished for a number of years. Economists, sociologists, and anthropologists together prepared the year—long introductory course and a required senior seminar. Students majored in one discipline. _5_ Edna's Special fields -'th' - wi in economics reflected her philosophy- consumer economics ' Amerwo ' ' 0 _ an economic histor ' Y» economic development. Her students were ' - - » ln the Vassar tradition, encoura ged to go to the original sources and th 9 ese sources were often Opepatin ' - - 8 lnstitutions in the community Field tri ‘ - ps to farms and factories were a re gular Part of Economics lO5 and Poughkeepsie residents were surveyed on a variety of topics. In the mid l96Os Edna worked with other faculty in the development of an interdisciplinary course on the river and its impact on those living around it. Her participation in the course was inspired by her long observation of the Hudson and her concern for it before "ecology" became a popular term. A late colleague said he always wanted to follow Edna around with a tape recorder for she was a veritable fountain of ideas. But she was interested primarily in people and in doing. Although she published several journal articles, she never found enough time for her own research, especially for her study of Poughkeepsie shoemakers which was in advance of its time in methodology. Her tracing of craftsmen over time through census and city directories anticipated by more than a decade the historical social mobility studies which became important in the 1960s and 70s. Edna retired from Vassar in 1966, but continued her teaching in the . . . H l d extensive State University of New York for three years er a rea y V _ . . ' sed. She had been activity in the community beyond the College lncrea t t f Dutohess Community College from its founding in 1957, a rus ee o _ _ . - ' d in its formative period. playing 3 ma]OP role in setting policy ur 8 ard for seventeen YEBPS, until 197a‘ She served on the BO ’”!‘\$4'- ~ 161 In government, she served on the Advisory Committee to the Consumer Counsel to the Governor of New York and, in Dutchess County, on its comittees on tax policy and on economic opportunity. Politically, she was an active member of the League of Women Voters and of both the Vassar Democratic Club and the Dutchess County Women's Democratic Club. She delivered countless addresses to community groups, ranging from the Dutchess County Council on World Affairs to the Newcomers’ Home Bueau Club, from the Anti-Defamation League to the YWCA, and from the Poughkeepsie Business and Professional Women's Club to the Dutchess County Grange Tax Comittee. The topics of these talks expressed the range of her concerns: consumer economics, anti-poverty programs, county planning for water and land development, integration and quality in education, and travels with her husband in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Also expressive of her concerns was her membership in the Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting. Bowdoin Park, on Poughkeepsie's bank of the Hudson, is an abiding embodiment of Edna Macmahon's care for the land and for the people of the place where she lived for nearly three decades. There, the Edna Maemahon Trail for the study of nature commemorates her leadership in reclaiming an abandoned waterfront for the use of the community. In 1978 Edna moved to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where she died on July 2%, 1983. \hntHal\h¢dlhnl\Qnin,\inIIl1l|\0@ll0II ‘A hnnbllho. muuuuuwuaumn-nmqgquq. luv-¢a\hnrabltl\y\olnbl1lanIpIo¢u\|uqq_|.@§ wwvh. tiwwbvlcw. mvvollwhaumualnauducn Ilnhattawoodtdltlno. !alt\lnba&—0Q\Qqﬂﬂ|p Dhﬂonlqnn QlI.1t1tohlothoIQ0lIUOl|ﬂOIlOd_l»ﬂﬁ onnnltyocvtoonlactlnnltajohugottnruﬂqnnlcilq honnnounoa Inopocthlly Ulﬂtﬂ, cub tum. Quinn <¥~i':- 3%” *5,
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Title: Marshall, Howard D., 1924-1972 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Johnson, Shirley, Glasse, John, Albers, Henry, Herbst, Lawrence
Description
Date: [After 1972]
Text: Qé HOWARD D. MARSHALL 1924 - 1972 Professor Howard D. Marshall was born on April 9, 1924 in Poughkeepsie, New York. His parents were Smith and Florence Drake Marshall. He grew up in Dutchess County and attended local schools. He served in Japan and Okinawa in the United States Infantry in 1946. Professor Marshall attended Columbia College where he received his B.A. in 1947, his M.A. in l949, and his Ph.D; in 1954 in Economics. He came to Vassar College as an instructor in 1949 and served on...
Show moreQé HOWARD D. MARSHALL 1924 - 1972 Professor Howard D. Marshall was born on April 9, 1924 in Poughkeepsie, New York. His parents were Smith and Florence Drake Marshall. He grew up in Dutchess County and attended local schools. He served in Japan and Okinawa in the United States Infantry in 1946. Professor Marshall attended Columbia College where he received his B.A. in 1947, his M.A. in l949, and his Ph.D; in 1954 in Economics. He came to Vassar College as an instructor in 1949 and served on the faculty continuously from that time until his death in August, l972. During his time at Vassar he took several research leaves and spent the year 1955-56 as a Visit- ing Professor at Wesleyan University. He was promoted to Assistant Professor at Vassar in 1954, to Associate Professor in 1959 and became Professor in 1967. He was Chairman of the Department of Economics a number of times. In fact, there were many who thought of him as almost the permanent chairman because of his leadership of the Department. He taught a wide- ranging number of courses, and was competent in a surprising number of fields including Labor, History of Economic Thought, Money and Banking, Corporate and Government Finance and Economic Theory. His strong sense of independence kept him from ever succumbing to the "fashionable" in the academic marketplace. His high standards for academic excellence were evident in his writings and in his teaching. He provided great balance in the Department through the years, not only through his breadth of interests but also through the sense of continuity he gave even while welcoming change. He published a large number of articles in his fields and, at the time of his death had completed five books: The Mobility of College Faculties; The Great Economists; The History of Economic Thought; Business and Government; and Collective Bargaining. Several were jointly authored with his wife, Natalie Junemann Marshall. He was deeply committed to problems of the labor movement and particularly brought his insight to bear on the problems of education and educators. At the time of his death he was work- ing on a study of the labor market for public school teachers. $7 HOWARD D. MARSHALL - continued He was active at Vassar on a number of committees. And he was not only a staunch member of the AAUP who applied his professional interest in the mobility of college professors to the local situation, but a past president of the Vassar Chapter. Howard Marshall was one of those rare faculty members who grew up in the Vassar area. Throughout his life he chose to maintain close contact with the community from which he came. He was very active in the Dutchess County and Poughkeepsie community, both in a professional capacity and with respect to community organizations. Howard Marshall's interest in and love of the community led him to a variety of undertakings. He was Chairman of the board of directors of the Hudson Valley Council on Economic Education. He was a member of the New York State Council on Economic Education. He gave a course in Business Economics for several groups at IBM and in l955 and 1958 gave a series of lectures for the Cornell Extension Service on "Current Problems in Labor Relations." At the time of his death he was engaged in producing an index of business conditions for the local area. Howard Marshall was actively involved with many of the busi- ness and community leaders and always encouraged the Vassar students to undertake studies of the community and to sup- plement their classroom knowledge with field work in local banking and investment institutions. In addition, he was the director of the Vassar—Wellesley Summer Internship Program in Washington, D. C. in 1961. This program provided an opportu- nity for juniors to learn about various aspects of national government by working in offices in the nation's capital. He was a well known figure in economics, and was listed in a number of directories including "Who's Who in America," "Contemporary Authors," "American Men of Science," and "Who's Who in Education." He was a member of a number of professional organizations including the American Economic Association, Industrial Rela- tions Research Association, and the National Tax Association. Y? HSWARD D. MARSHALL - continued He was a devoted family man who gave much to his wife, Natalie, and two children, Alison and Frederick Smith. His love of congeniality and friends brought many members of the Vassar community to his home, and we will long remember friendly evenings at Howard's. He had many friends from the Poughkeepsie comunity at large and those of us who joined him in gather- ings at his home always knew that our circle of friends would be widened as we met persons from all walks of life outside the academic community. Thus Howard served in many ways to narrow the gap between town and gown. Many of us now cherish friends we first met at Howard's home. But more than that we remember his warmth and friendliness, the good humour, kindly concern and understanding he brought to any situation, and the breadth of his knowledge as he talked with ease on many different subjects. Howard Marshall's home, located for many years across Raymond Avenue from the Main Gate of Vassar College was an important part of the Vassar community in another way. In it, he exempli- fied the role of the devoted teacher-scholar in a residential college. Senior seminars, picnics for majors, parties at gradu- ation, and gatherings after visiting lectureships were often held at the Marshalls. Here, as well as in the classroom, he imparted to generations of Vassar economics majors his values, an inner peace, a strong sense of justice, and a deep respect for life. Perhaps the most remarkable quality which Howard Marshall had was his courage and tenacity which let none of us at Vassar know how hard it must have been for him to carry on a more than full load of teaching, advising, departmental chairman and college activities cheerfully and with no sense of anything but all the time in the world when we came to him as friends and colleagues to discuss professional or other problems. His illness never curtailed his interests, nor his zest for life. There was a heroic quality to the way he refused to come to terms with the restraining demands of his illness. For Howard Marshall insisted upon living fully to the very end of his life -- without compromise. It was a victory he won through struggles that probably few of us know. Respectfully submitted, Shirley Johnson, Chairman John Glasse Henry Albers Lawrence Herbst ./ I r"
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Title: Wood, Jr., Frederic C., 1933-1970 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Glasse, John, Griffen, Clyde, Schalk, David
Description
Date: [After 1970]
Text: 77 FREDERIC C. WOOD, JR. 1933 - 1970 The Reverend Frederic C. Wood, Jr., former chaplain and associate professor of religion at Vassar College, died of acute leukemia on October 16, 1970 in Sanibel, Florida. Mr. Wood was thirty- seven years old. He is survived by his wife, the former Jane Louise Barber, and by three daughters, Jennifer, Elizabeth, and Barbara. Mr. Wood joined the Vassar faculty in 1967 after three years as an assistant professor and chaplain at Goucher College. Born in New...
Show more77 FREDERIC C. WOOD, JR. 1933 - 1970 The Reverend Frederic C. Wood, Jr., former chaplain and associate professor of religion at Vassar College, died of acute leukemia on October 16, 1970 in Sanibel, Florida. Mr. Wood was thirty- seven years old. He is survived by his wife, the former Jane Louise Barber, and by three daughters, Jennifer, Elizabeth, and Barbara. Mr. Wood joined the Vassar faculty in 1967 after three years as an assistant professor and chaplain at Goucher College. Born in New Rochelle, New York, he received a B.A. degree from Cornell University in 1954 after graduation from Deerfield Academy. From 1954 to 1957 he was a Naval intelligence officer and Russian crypto- linguist with the National Security Agency. In 1960, he received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary. In 1961, he received a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and three years later he earned a Doctor of Theology degree from the same institution. Before moving to Goucher College, he served as an assﬁiant chaplain at Cornell and with Episcopal churches in New York and Richmond, Virginia. A specialist on the inter-relationships of psychiatry and religion, Mr. Wood lectured frequently before various civic and professional groups. His articles appeared in numerous jour- nals, including "Theology Today," "The Episcopalian," and "Pastoral Theology." He was the author of two books: Sex and the New Morality (1968) and Living in the Now (1970). I MI. Wood welcomed the contemporary movement toward what he liked to call a religionless Christianity, toward the living of a faith stripped of antiquated dogmas and rituals. In a journal that he kept during the early months of leukemia, he wrote, "I have never been religious. My illness has not changed that. But at the same time, my thoughts and feelings have been profoundly theological. I have been dealing with ultimate things - the meaning of life and death and the question of what is ultimately important (which is the question of God)." He knew that his understanding of biblical faith often was mis- interpreted, that some thought he sacrificed his Judeo-Christian roots in order to be contemporary while others thought he sacri- ficed relevance in order to maintain a particular tradition. He responded that the style of life described in Living in the Now 7'? FREDERIC C. WOOD, JR. - continued "is for me both relevant and traditional. It is the faith delivered to me as I perceive it in my time.... My wife and I often ponder that in over fifteen years of married life we have each radically changed. And yet we also know that we are the same people we were when we married. This is, I think, the same paradox. It illus- trates why flexibility in the forms of religious beliefs (in the name of their Spirit) is such an important dimension of my theology." Mr. Wood chose to live on the periphery of the institutional church because "this is the only position from which I can exercise the ministry I feel called to exercise." The role of college chaplain appealed to him because the student of today is less concerned with "playing church on campus" than with "becoming a fuller person, with discovering his identity in an anonymous society, and with hamering out values which are relevant to the moral dilemmas which he faces." Mr. Wood saw the task of the man of faith anywhere as witnessing to the values to which he is committed. The college chaplain, in particular, must be counted on the side of humanity against all those forces which tend to depersonalize the academic community. He also must "prick (its) social conscience in regard to the larger community which surrounds it." At Goucher and at Vassar, Mr. Wood gave himself early and fully to various civil rights projects and to leadership in the questioning of American policy in Viet Nam. In the fall of 1969 he co-sponsored a faculty caucus which might have become an effective force had he been able to continue his leadership. Because his views often spoke to the prevailing mood among faculty and students, he sometimes was surprised and amused by the contro- versy they aroused beyond the campus. But his response to those who attacked his views was often far more sympathetic than those who supported him realized. He understood the pain and the perils of social change as well as its necessity. In a sermon delivered early in 1968, he welcomed the new mood among students of criticiz— ing our laws and social order. But he added, "at the same time, I welcome it with ambivalent feelings. I suppose that is because I am still essentially a conservative where law and order are con- cerned. As a member of the much-maligned establishment - the same establishment of private secondary schools, WASPish upbringing, and ivy league colleges which has spawned many of you - I have some fundamental instincts of uneasiness at the prospect of any weakening of law and order. And I would think that those instincts are appropriate to others who do not share my background, since it has been my observation that the dissolution of law and order is finally more damaging to the disestablished and powerless than to 7‘? FREDERIC c. WOOD, JR. - continued the established and powerful." Mr. Wood's way with faculty and administrators, from whom he expected more and often discovered less, was equally direct. On October 31st and November 31st, 1969, this faculty debated the demands of the black students‘ sit-in. Already feverish from the leukemia that had not yet been discovered, Mr. Wood defended his unpopular cause, the ideal of integration, with an eloquence and lucidity which continue to haunt some of us. He never abandoned his conviction that only integration could bring about a true equality and meeting of black and white people. He was no utopian, but he had a vision of the way we must go. When he believed we were deviating from it, he could not keep silent. We miss that courage and that candor. We should be worried by his "suspicion that the wise men may not come to the academy any more." In Mr. Wood's words, "Just (like) the Church, so too our educational institutions, in our busy-ness, worldliness, and self-promotion may have no place for the wise men any more. It may be that we need a revolution in both the Church and the academy - revolution, in the best sense of that word, as referring not to violence or naked power-plays, but to change - a fundamental change in our understanding of what we are doing. Then the wise men may once again come, and offer their gifts and do their thing. Then we may teach one another to be more fully human." Respectfully submitted, John Glasse Clyde Griffen David Schalk / ‘ -; . r _.. 8 A» A , ,7 , .' -: ' Y, _. . 1' l ,l .,,, _. .; ,{,, / 7i =;,i,_
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Title: Pfuetze, Paul Eugene, 1904-1985 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Fortna, Robert T., Griffen, Sally, Glasse, John
Description
Date: October 15, 1986
Text: L 1 MEMORIA L MINUTE FOR PAUL EUGENE PFUETZE When Paul Eugene Pfuetze died 1 - t N my over ei8hty years. He was born Ngjembgieggeriggz 28d lived punhattan, K€psa8.bt?e son of Emil C. and Rogen; scott gfuetze Uﬁee 3e“era °“S 9 Ore him his forebears had f . I S ‘ lb f9tai"ed 3" "abiding love for the Kansas farmclgfe hgmhadxlgzed ass boy. [for] ...memories of Grossvater and Grossmutter h f f - . H.§.§ P?¥§0:e wzrgwork done with horses, the prlde of task and t0° Y S are taken from...
Show moreL 1 MEMORIA L MINUTE FOR PAUL EUGENE PFUETZE When Paul Eugene Pfuetze died 1 - t N my over ei8hty years. He was born Ngjembgieggeriggz 28d lived punhattan, K€psa8.bt?e son of Emil C. and Rogen; scott gfuetze Uﬁee 3e“era °“S 9 Ore him his forebears had f . I S ‘ lb f9tai"ed 3" "abiding love for the Kansas farmclgfe hgmhadxlgzed ass boy. [for] ...memories of Grossvater and Grossmutter h f f - . H.§.§ P?¥§0:e wzrgwork done with horses, the prlde of task and t0° Y S are taken from the memorial m'n t f h’ t Um Poughkeepsie Friends' Meeting.) He also embodied Z £:;11;m a commitme“t t9 193Y"i"8» as did his brothers, three of whom became medical specialists and the fourth a judge, In 1928 Paul received the B.S. degree from Kansas State lmiversity, where he had been a varsity wrestler. He was named a Mwdes Scholar and, at Oxford, planned to study physiology with 5n'Charles Sherrington. But that plan shattered upon the discovery that he had umerculosis. Instead of sailing for Oxford, he relinquished his Mmdes and went to an Arizona desert, where he began years of struggle to recover. Long stretches of waiting were punctuated by one experimental treatment after another. One of his lungs was collapsed. With the outlook for his recovery still in doubt, Imuise Gibson and he ventured to marry in 1932. Her supporting ﬂwm by teaching mathematics at Whittier College was only the beginning of their two-career marriage. By the time Paul was able to resume his studies-—at first intermittently, then full-time-—his direction had shifted from Mwsiology to religion and philosophy. He earned an M.A. from the Pacific School of Religion in 1940 and, the following year, a B.D. from Yale Divinity School. Then came doctoral studies at Yale, ﬂﬁch led to his Ph.D. in 1951. While at Yale he was a Kent Fellow of the National Council on Religion in Higher Education. He taught at the University of Connecticut from 1942 to 1947 mm, in 1948, moved to the University of Georgia, where he W88 hofessor of Philosophy and Chairman of that department. It was Umre that the Pfuetzes adopted their three chi1dren——Scott, Karen, and Walter. They also became active in the struggle for huegration in a racially segregated university and community, well before that cause gained the broad suPP°rtti§ 125:5 ﬁitgiﬁed‘ I" time, backlash against their activities moun , UN university. d J. H d This helped Vassar recruit him, in 1959» t° Succeé Reli gzgr lhwson. U til he retired in 1970, he was Professor 0 g and, durinn mos; Qf ghQ5e.years, held the Frederick Weyerhaeuser Chai 8 1 d artment. His teaching responsibilities r and chaired h s ep 1 Si lal in the historY of reli8i°"$» e3Pe¢ia11Y those of A318 hence that material had not been central to his Prev1°“s st“ es’ embarked on a major Project of "re-t001i"8" bY Eiving his first ﬂmigfl to courses at Columbi 8 and the Univ 1 f d in 1955-56’ devoti h ers ty o Wisconsin :;i3ion at Madras UniV:§31:;.18ave to Btudies in history and Several months after r g 9 i unomobile in front of Main G:€:.n8TEotV:ssar, he was struck by an 3 b k rwarly ﬁiiigis ribs. hlg intensive care a€wa3:o5§ 3,222 :3: one u n n , ’ 1 1on8 But he 3 §a¢ reath that he drew inflicted excruciating gzigined. BUFV Ved, and he recovered-—dogged wrestler that he Th t 8 Same tenacity enabled him to make an enduring difference in VﬂSS*"'8 °“"1¢"1""'- at the Point of Jewish 1; <11 Alth 11 8ﬂwf8£1OnS of students had found the Judaic heﬁiga Zst b Dug _ g 0 e a njof Part °f R9118i°" 105, it was Paul who inaugurated a course |@voted entirely to it. Characteristically, he did this by adding Um course to his full teaching load. Then he secured outside mnds to bring visiting lecturers to address further aspects of ﬂw subject. He lived to see his initiative expand to a variety M Jewish studies at Vassar, a number of them taught by a scholar m the field who has tenure. Then there was the personal side of his teaching, which nudents noted and prized. An alumna has recalled how students mterested in continuing a course of his, beyond the semester's um, gathered in his home for discussions that were a high point ofher Vassar experience. As a scholar, Paul published articles and reviews in a dozen journals in philosophy and religion and belonged to as many wofessional societies. His monograph on "Martin Buber and Mrican Pragmatism" appeared in the volume, The Philosophy of Phrtin Buber, published in Chicago in 1967, after having appeared earlier in German. For the heart of his research and his own reflections, though, one must go to his book, The Social Self, mwlished in 1954 and reissued in 1961 under the title, §gl£L &miety, Existence. Convinced that the tragic and catastrophic ume that modern men and women have made of their powers and technics shows that we have for several centuries misinterpreted Mn own nature, he examines an alternative view--the notion that mu selfhood is essentially social. In his words, "it is in meeting, in interaction between persons, in commication with oﬂmrs, variously conceived, that the free, responsible, _ indepgndeng human person is achieved." Central to this origin MM deve1opmeht_;f our selfhood is speech, the active give and take of dialogue. He elucidates this insight by examining the nriking concurrence in it by two thinkers from diverse d traditions--George Herbert Mead, the American PTa8mati$tv 3“ Martin Buber the Continental Jewish existentialist. He concludes by111uStratin8 the fertility of the idea of the social self in a dozen disciplines, ranging from biology to theo 08?- To those who knew him the fit - ' betwe tn‘ Sdwlarship and the rest of his life was §;pre;zi$gllea8ue's Consider his service to the , _ community be Qnd mwwer of the Society of Friends, he was actiy . campus‘ AS 8 Pmghkeepsie meeting and, beyond that . Ye 1“ the , in r 1 ~ ward 0? Maiaiere Of the Oakwood School, thzgéggzndzéeébgiittege fm-Nationa egislation, and the American F . d . - _ rien s Service Cwmlttee. His Quaker way-—both its prinCip1es and their rdlgious root?-found expression in his advocacy of prison reform M5 participation in Quaker worship at nearb r. ' _ -. y p iso , d h‘ 5ﬂW1Ce t0 Pr°Je¢t Gateway. During the Vietnam War?Shea:erve§ as adIa?t C°unSel}°r' Eventually, he reduced his income through aﬁltlonal charltable glvlng and through acceptance of in—ki d _ . . _ n 5gVlC6S in lleu Of rent, 1n order that no federal taxes of his vmﬂd SUPQOY 3 War that he judged to be both illegal and immoral. Aﬁer retiring, he taught at Dutchess Community College. He ran fm Supervisor Of the Town of Poughkeepsie, against an incumbent ﬂw was 5ubSequent1Y indicted and who pleaded guilty. On election mmming, his wife Louise died of a heart attack, brought on in put by the rigors of the campaign. That night, Paul also lost ﬂw election. In his grief, he took up leadership of Tell Care, a hotline for senior citizens that Louise had founded. He won a tam as a county legislator. He served on the boards of Family Suvices and of the Mid-Hudson Memorial Society, among other agencies. But it was through his letters to the Poughkeepsie Journal, mm sometimes to The Miscellany News, that many came to know Pmﬂ Pfuetze best. (For the curious, Vassar Library's Special Cﬂlections has saved over a hundred and thirty of these.) In Umm, he spoke for gun control, Native American rights, cmwervation of natural resources, and affordable housing; for cmwcientious objectors, student demonstrators, amnesty for those Hm refused service in Vietnam and, especially, for the hsmantling of our nuclear arsenal and for peace. He delighted in pmnting out absurdities in our political life: praying f0r Peace wmle paying for war; prosecuting so—called welfare cheats, when "Um real freeloading chiselers and parasites," as he called them, Hue respectable and successful business and pr0feSS10ﬂ81 Pe°P1ei nmnng a Trident missile ‘Corpus Christi’. In these letters, in his classroom, and in the com?un;§i;8h0f b°U1town and gown, Paul Pfuetze lived for the values o #4 C e Swﬁe in a meditation that he wrote on New Year s Eve, 19 - . - t 'humanity'.... We must understand t at , - - ch technics er ' the one real thing in the face of e p son 1S _ , . - - elves have and mechanized institutions which we ours . the seed created, For he (she), by the grace of Gzgéhis Of whatever human life there will be on e - October 15, 1986 ‘Q ; .¢ n a ;@'>.;; | V f L W Hi‘ Respectfully submitted; A Staliy vG‘jiff‘en"5t} John Glasse, Chai : : $9.“-’> 25,66»? Robert f.*Fortna ‘49o»¢<._ . < (/4 1' 1, w 4‘;i,1»‘.~- -~ ‘I "»,/ ~1 , 1 » * -;v >. §,»,.~<x_\»;,, 1 6. 7 @”;?§“*;;,~‘w,;;‘»'§;¢ I @~,\' , , -,,,, _ .2 , $11? 1$§“,,~ -1;». E!» 3 § Mi $'-‘3: ‘ w:,5m:§»_,§;:*‘§‘I@?'%a‘!e#$.‘*:‘ ;
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