Retirement: Not mine

Richard Goedkoop, professor of communication here at La Salle is retiring in May; bad news for me: he's been one of the most quoted professors in my time here. Rich studies/teaches broadcasting and comments about the media. He was recently in The Christian Science Monitor and USA TODAY.

Rich is a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Park. I hope he'll keep his smartphone with him at all times so I can send him media questions.

Obits

One of my harder tasks is writing obits for faculty, staff, etc. In today's Inquirer is an obit about Dr. Howard Hannum, a retired professor of English who would join my lunch crowd every Wednesday until he became too ill to attend.

Dr.Hannum did not talk about himself much, and there weren't too many materials about him in the University archives: if you knew Howard, you would not be surprised at that. What made his obit so compellilng is that his family made a memoir he wrote available to Sally Downey, who wrote the obit. Called "Hannum's War," it is a 20,000 word document about his service in WWII; he went overseas when he was barely 20, and saw action. He also saw many horrors and wrote about them, but he never made any attempt to publish the piece. Again, if you knew Howard, you would not be surprised at that.

Colleagues and students described him as a tough but fair teacher, and John Seydow, a former student and current La Salle English professor, said he prepared students for graduate school better than any other teacher.

I will miss Howard, but thanks to the Inquirer, many people will know about him, and for that I am grateful.

The play's the thing....

On Oct. 28 a film called "Anonymous" opens; it's premise is that someone other than William Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays. This notion has been aorund for three centuries, but scholars, such as retired La Salle professor Robert Fallon, believe it's nonsense. Yet, when he taught classes with older students, "It was the first thing they asked me." I hope to get Dr. Fallon interviewed by the media on this topic around the film's opening. He, of course, wants to see it first.

On a related matter, Actor Ralph Finnes stars in and directs a film based on Shakespeare's play, "Coriolanus." It's considered one of the Bard's lesser works, and is rarely performed. I hope to again get Dr. Fallon interviewed about why this play doesn't rank with Shakespeare's best; also, Shakespeare set his play in ancient Rome; Finnes has set his film in the present day; many productions and film versions of Shakespeare's plays have had their time and location changed; the results are usually mixed. Dr. Fallon doesn't think this is a particularly good idea, and I hope I can get him interviewed about that, too.

Overheard....

On 10/2, at La Salle's honors convocation, we presented an honorary degree to Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Insitute (he gave a great talk) and who does a weekly spot on WHYY. Before the ceremony, I overheard Pitts tell someone, "People tell me I sound shorter on the radio." Pitts is 6/4": I asked him if I could send that quote to Dan Gross, a columnist at the Philadephia Daily News, and he said, OK. Dan's column is pretty much about local celebrities or when famous people are in town, but he also likes the occasional quip or anecdote IF there's a good hook or angle to it. Dan published at item about Derrick's comment and his recieving an honorary degree from La Salle. (Before that, he wrote how a student responded to a tweet and shorter after that a crew from ABC News w/Diane Sawyer filmed her family having dinner.) In these two examples, there was a "name" involved, Derrick and Sawyer.

One a personal note, I was shocked to learn that this was Derrick's first honorary degree! He was really honored by the recognition and had a great time on campus. Following the convocation, there's a reception for the students and their families, and I took Derrick there, thinking we'd spend five minutes: well, a bunch of folks came up to said, I always hear your show on the radio, and my son wants to be a scientist and can we take your picture with him?" Derrick was very gracious and we stayed more than five minutes.

TV is a last-minute medium

Not that long ago a La Salle student, communication major Jodi Gilbert responded to a twitter by ABC Evening News to see if she'd be willing to participate in a story about a study that found that families who spend time together, particuarly at dinner, have children who have fewer problems with drugs an alcohol. Because TV is the medium it is, nothing is ever settled until the last minute. Well, ABC contacted Jodie and asked if they could film her family that night -- in three hours! Well, the cameras showed up and the family was on the air.

Philadephia Daily News columnist Dan Gross reported this in his column today -- I think he was intrigued with the last-minute angle of the story. Here's a link to it:

www.phillycom/philly/columnistsdan_gross/20110929/_Dan_Gross_Karen_Hepp_a_theft_victim.html

Now that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is past...

I was pretty busy with the 10th anniversary of 9/11: some of the results were Social Work professor Janine Mariscotti talking on KYW Newsradio about the "recovery" of 9/11, both as a nation and on an individual basis. Philosophy Professor Robert Dobie wrote an oped for the Philadelphia Inquirer on the cultural differences between west and east that still plauge relations; English professor Kevin Grauke quoted in an Inqurier story on how 9/11 affected literature; and the Philadelphia Daily News ran photos of our students planting more than 2,700 American flags on the quad (one for each victim) and a candlelight vigil held on 9/11.

Some 9/11 stories were done by August.

Now back to the usual business of student achievements, faculty expertise and all things La Salle.

The smartest student they ever had...

I asked a few professors here who was the smartest student they ever had. Two, John Rossi and George Stow of the history dept., said William Burns, Jr. a 1978 grad who went on to do graduate work at Oxford. Burns has been ambassador to Jordan and Russia and on 9/8 wil be named Deputy Secretary of State. He has a helluva resume (fluent in three languages, special envoy on numerous occasions), but I wondered what would attract the Inquirer or Daily News about him. Well, his roots in Philly, for one, but in my emails to the papers I told two stories about Burns and what Rossi and Stow said. Stow recalled how he was lecturing and Burns was in the back of the room with his head bowed and hands folded in his lap. Stow thought Burns was bound for trouble, but after reading the first two pages of his first test Stow was astonished at what Burns wrote: he had absorbed all the lectures and readings.

I was hoping the two contrasts: the seemingly unasuminig but brillliant student who also happens to be a pretty good basketblal player, would intrigue them. I guess it did. Here's a link to the story:


http://www.philly.com/philly/insights/in_education/20110905_Soon_to_be_deputy_secretary_of_state__William_Burns_set_his_course_at_La_Salle.html


I also mentioned to the Inquirer and Daily News that Burns was a pretty good basketball player! On 9/5, the Inquirer ran a longish story about Burns; here's the link