Showing 1611 - 1620 of 4393 Items
Date: 2018-06-02
Creator: Mariya Ilyas
Access: Open access
- In this oral history, Mariya Ilyas (Class of 2013) discusses transitioning to Bowdoin and the effect her identity as a Pakistani Muslim woman had on her transition. She talks about her on-campus job, favorite professors, and most memorable classes. Ilyas also describes how her pre-orientation trip sparked a lasting interest in public service that manifested itself in a White House internship, Fulbright Scholarship, and career in diplomacy. She also speaks of her role in beginning the Muslim Student Association, and the support that the College provided. In addition, she recounts how her racial and cultural identities sometimes created instances of discomfort on campus.
Date: 2019-06-01
Creator: Madelena Rizzo
Access: Open access
- Madelena Rizzo (Class of 2014) talks about moving from Pennsylvania to Maine and the central and important role that Bowdoin’s community, including peers, faculty, and staff, played in her college experience. She describes her decision to join the Cross Country and Track teams, as well as other extracurricular activities like working with Amnesty International and babysitting for faculty and staff. Rizzo speaks about her French immersion study-away experience in Poitiers, France, and the following summer she spent back in Maine interning at Long Creek Youth Development Center. In addition, she reflects on the stress of Bowdoin academics and adjusting to life away from home.
Date: 2019-06-01
Creator: Sally Spencer-Thomas
Access: Open access
- Sally Spencer-Thomas (Class of 1989) describes deciding to apply to Bowdoin after feeling valued during her campus visit. Considering fraternities, she recalls both the benefits of making friends through Delta Kappa Epsilon, but also the challenges of the heavy drinking culture and problematic attitudes about sex and relationships. Spencer-Thomas comments on her study-away experience at the University of Stockholm. She reminisces on studying Art and Psychology and mentions her painting sessions in the old morgue at Adams Hall. She reflects on the support of the Bowdoin community since the death of her brother, also an alumnus. Finally, she comments on her multi-generational view of Bowdoin by sharing her impressions of the College through the eyes of her father and son.
Date: 2019-06-01
Creator: Mara Gandal-Powers
Access: Open access
- Mara Gandal-Powers (Class of 2004) discusses adjusting to life far from her home in Maryland and learning how to structure her time at College. She mentions trying out for the tennis team and how that impacted her first year. She reminisces about spending time with friends at nearby beaches, in Brunswick and Portland, and navigating the new Social House system as part of the first class without fraternities. Talking about her major in Women’s Studies, Gandal-Powers mentions her thesis, organizing Bowdoin’s involvement in the March for Women’s Lives, and her major’s impact on her career. Additionally, she reflects on campus’s atmosphere of activism at the time, specifically in reference to the 2000 Presidential Election and the September 11 Terrorist Attacks.
Date: 2019-06-01
Creator: Bruce Blaisdell
Access: Open access
- Bruce Blaisdell (Class of 1969) talks about finding Bowdoin through the advice of a neighbor who was the daughter of Donovan Lancaster, head of the College’s Dining Services. He discusses living away from home for the first time and acclimating to the boisterousness of fraternity life in Phi Delta Psi. He talks about finding a passion for biology and learning to balance his social life with academics. He touches on his on-campus jobs, including being a steward in the fraternity, and extracurricular activities, like the swim team and the Outing Club. He reminisces about the Senior Center Program. Reflecting on the world outside of Bowdoin, Blaisdell mentions the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement and their impact on campus.
Date: 2009-07-27
Creator: Charles L Kinney
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Charles Ludlow Kinney was born in Parksburg, West Virginia, on May 31, 1952. His father, David Whittemore Kinney, was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and his mother was also a Parksburg native. His parents met in the hospital during World War II; Charles is the third of four children. He grew up in Parksburg and was graduated from Georgetown University with a major in foreign service. He worked for Senator Byrd in the Senate Democratic Cloakroom in January of 1974. He was offered a position as a member of the floor staff for then Majority Leader Senator Byrd after taking the bar exam in 1979. When Senator Byrd left the position of majority leader to become chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee in 1988, Kinney was offered a position on his staff. At the same time, the newly appointed majority leader, George Mitchell, offered him a position as a floor staffer, and he assumed that post until 1993. He eventually joined the Washington, DC, law firm Winston & Strawn.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: the Senate in the 1970s; working for Senator Byrd; George Mitchell’s working as an aide for Muskie; Democratic Policy Committee 1979; George Mitchell’s nomination to Muskie’s seat; Mitchell’s becoming majority leader in 1988; working as a floor staffer for Majority Leaders Robert Byrd and George Mitchell; the Republican Party; bipartisan friendships that Mitchell enjoyed during his Senate career; Bob Dole; the Clean Air Act; and Mitchell’s character.
Date: 2018-06-02
Creator: Whitney Sanford
Access: Open access
- In this oral history, Whitney Sanford (Class of 1983) describes her decision to enroll at Bowdoin and her experience with the different aspects of the College’s social scene. She discusses the impact of the liberal arts on her eventual career as a professor at University of Florida and mentions her involvement in Bowdoin’s first women’s rugby team. Sanford also recounts her affiliation with the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, as well as her activity on the women’s field hockey team. She also discusses the impact of the opening of a campus pub on the College’s social structure.
Date: 2009-03-24
Creator: Frederic 'Fred' C Hof
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Frederic C. Hof was born on July 14, 1947, to Alice and Frederic Hof in Brooklyn, New York. Before he was school-age his family moved to Port Washington, New York, on Long Island. In the summer of 1964, after his junior year of high school, he participated in an exchange program and went to Damascus, Syria. He completed high school in Port Washington and then attended the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. At Georgetown he participated in ROTC and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. He spent 1970 in Vietnam with the 101st Air Mobile Division (now the 101st Airborne), and returned to teach in the Civil Affairs School. He then entered the Foreign Area Officer Program to specialize in the Middle East, and as part of that program he attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and the Foreign Service Institute in Tunis to learn Arabic. He served as the Army attaché in Beirut, Lebanon, and in 1982 he was wounded while crossing the Green Line and was awarded a Purple Heart. He worked in the office of the secretary of defense in the International Security Affairs office. He retired from the Army and took a position at the State Department. He and Richard Armitage opened Armitage Associates, LLC in 1993. In late 2000, he was asked to join the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee and served on that committee from January 2001 until it completed its report the following May.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Hof’s education; Hof’s exchange program experience in Damascus, Syria; relations between Americans and Syrians; Hof’s military career in Vietnam, teaching in the Civil Affairs School, the Foreign Area Officer Program, and Lebanon; the role of the Defense Language Institute; working in the office of the secretary of defense; getting wounded in Lebanon and receiving the Purple Heart; working on the commission to investigate the bombing of the barracks in Beirut; working for the State Department under Secretary Baker and Richard Armitage; the effects of transitioning from the first Bush administration to the Clinton administration, and to the second Bush administration in 2001; opening Armitage Associates, LLC; being asked by Laurence Pope to join the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee; Pope’s reasons for leaving the project; the goals of the fact-finding committee; Hof’s role in the fact-finding committee, the relationship among the members and Mitchell’s role; working with the Israeli government and the change in that relationship when Sharon succeeded Barak; the approach that the working group took to meeting with principal people on both sides; setting up the committee’s visit; Hof’s contact with the Office of the Vice President; security in Gaza; the atmosphere of the visit; writing the Mitchell report; Mitchell’s ability to reconcile different views within the report and achieve a consensus within the group; a sense of a lost opportunity when there was little follow-through on the committee’s recommendations; Mitchell’s appointment to be special envoy to the Middle East; the prospects of a two-state solution and America’s role in it; and Mitchell’s political skill and optimism and how that can be brought to bear in international peacemaking.
Date: 2009-11-19
Creator: Brian J Kilroy
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Brian Joseph Kilroy was born on November 22, 1955, to Robert and Constance Ann (Greaney) Kilroy in Lewiston, Maine, and grew up in Delaware. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree from the University of Maine. His father’s parents were Francis and Jane Kilroy, both from Portland. Francis Kilroy and George Mitchell, Sr. were brothers. Brian’s grandmother, Jane, served as a Democrat in the Maine legislature and on the Democratic National Committee.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Kilroy family background; George Mitchell’s father; Jane Kilroy’s career in Maine state legislature and as a member of the Democratic National Committee; Jane Kilroy’s relationship with Senator Muskie; Jane’s singing; Francis Kilroy; family stories; memories of George Mitchell’s father (George, Sr.) and mother (Mary); working on George Mitchell’s 1982 and 1988 campaigns; the role of family in Mitchell’s campaigns; and Kilroy’s personal relationship with Mitchell as compared to the national perception of Mitchell.
Date: 2008-05-07
Creator: Barbara M Trafton
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Barbara (McKnight) Trafton was born May 22, 1949, in Rumford, Maine. She was graduated from Wellesley College with the class of 1971, then attended the University of Southern Maine and earned an M.Ed., and later went to Northeastern for an M.B.A. She has served in the Maine state House and state Senate for two terms and has been a member of the following committees: Joint Committee, Energy Health and Institutional Services in the House; Joint Committees in the Senate: Judiciary and Public Utilities. She served as the Maine Democratic National Committeewoman, was spokesperson for Maine Turnpike widening in 1991, and is on the Board of the Maine Audubon Society, chairman of the Legislative Policy Committee, the Board of Trustees of the Maine Maritime Academy, and the Review Committee for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). She served on the Board of the Mitchell Institute for several years. She has been deeply involved in Maine politics for decades, hosting many candidate events and serving as one of four campaign co-chairs in George Mitchell’s 1982 U.S. Senate campaign.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: meeting and first impressions of George Mitchell; 1974 gubernatorial campaign; Marty Engstrom story; 1982 U.S. Senate campaign strategy and four campaign chairs; Edmund Muskie; Dave Emery; convention to elect Maine Democratic Committeeperson; stumping for Chip Bull with Edward Kennedy; lollipop story and Sam Trafton; formation of the Mitchell Institute and allocation of scholarships; benefit of the Mitchell Institute’s study on reaching secondary education; and Mitchell’s emphasis on the value of education.