Alumni Gazette

A Trio of Landmarks for Olivia Hooker ’62 (PhD)

Olivia Hooker ’62 (PhD) reached a personal landmark in February, when she turned 100 years old. Two other landmarks, in brick and mortar, were named for her the following month.

As a college student at Ohio State University during World War II, Hooker participated in a campaign to guarantee African-American women the same opportunities in the U.S. military as white women. In early 1945, Hooker became the first African-American woman to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Seventy years later, almost to the day, Hooker appeared at a standing-room-only ceremony at the Coast Guard Sector New York, in Staten Island, to dedicate the Olivia J. Hooker Dining Facility. Shortly afterward, a training facility at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., was named in her honor.

Hooker earned a doctorate in psychology at Rochester, and went on to become a professor of psychology at Fordham University. She has also achieved prominence as the oldest living survivor of the infamous Tulsa, Oklahoma, race riots of 1921, during which white rioters destroyed her father’s store and bombed her school. She has been part of a long-standing campaign for restitution among families of victims.

Canada Honors Chuck Daellenbach ’66E, ’71E (PhD)

Chuck Daellenbach ’66E, ’71E (PhD), cofounder of the Canadian Brass, has won Canada’s highest civilian honor, Member of the Order of Canada.

Daellenbach, who plays tuba, was a professor of music education at the University of Toronto when he cofounded the ensemble with trombonist Gene Watts in 1970. The quintet began touring in 1972 and soon achieved international fame. The Canadian Brass has recorded more than 130 albums, appeared on popular television programs in nations from China to the United States, and performs regularly for the Canadian government to welcome visiting heads of state.

Daellenbach is the only original member still performing with the group.

Carolyn Burr ’78N (MS) a Lifetime Achiever in AIDS Prevention

Carolyn Burr ’78N (MS) has received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. Over the past two decades, she has played a lead role in drastically reducing the rates of mother-to-child HIV transmission. Now the deputy director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center at the Rutgers School of Nursing, Burr spearheaded the development of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. Since 1994, the rate of infant HIV infection has fallen 95 percent, to just 2 percent of births to HIV-infected women.

Leaders in Enterprise

Black Enterprise magazine named Kathy Waller ’80, ’83S (MBA) to its list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Corporate America.

Waller is chief financial officer and executive vice president of the Coca-Cola Co., as well as a University trustee. She began her career at Deloitte, and joined Coca-Cola in 1987 as a senior accountant.

Ursula Burns, a University life trustee and chairman and CEO of Xerox, was also named to the list.

Black Enterprise, published since 1970, compiles the list to celebrate executives who have broken significant racial and gender barriers.

Jazz Musicians Team Up

A faculty-alumna jazz duo is taking music abroad.

Pianist Dariusz Terefenko ’04E (PhD), associate professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music, and alto saxophonist Alexa Tarantino ’14E performed and taught at the Academy of Music in Kraków in Poland in March. They plan to be in Brazil for a week-long tour in June, during which they will perform with pianist Marcelo Pinto ’15E (DMA).

Tarantino took several classes from Terefenko at Eastman, and the pair teamed up as performers during her senior year. Their first recording, Crossing Paths, was released in January on Tarantino’s label, Infinite Records. They have performed in New York City, Dallas, Rochester, and Hartford, Connecticut.