Letters

I enjoy receiving each issue of the Review. As a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, I naturally tend to look at the music articles more than the others. However, I was reading the article “Lives in Letters” (March-April 2016), and the achievements of William H. Seward caught my attention. What I especially noted was his involvement in acquiring Alaska (“Seward’s Folly”). As a stamp collector, primarily of Canadian and musical stamps, the Alaska reference rang a very distant bell. After some snooping around the Scott Catalogue of postage stamps, I found what I was looking for. Scott Catalogue #370 and #371 (the imperforate version) honors Mr. Seward. These U.S. stamps were issued in 1909 as the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Issue. I thought Professor Slaughter and company, as well as readers, might be interested. Keep up the good work.

Alan Denike ’74E

Regina, Canada

Top Teams

I just read the great article about the 1989–90 men’s basketball team (“Princes of the Palestra,” March-April). Nice work!

The article prompted me to think about the 1991 men’s cross country team, which also won an NCAA Division III championship. That championship was the pinnacle achievement during the long and successful career of cross country and track coach Timothy Hale. During the late 1980s and 1990s, Coach Hale’s teams were as successful as any team, in any sport, in any era, in UR’s long history. Coach Hale went on to become the athletic director at SUNY Oswego. He is retired now and living in North Carolina.

The runners on the 1991 championship team—Dave Boutillier ’93, Jim Dunlop ’92, Anthony Kerr ’93, Ray Lawson ’92, Joe Mello ’92, Christian Reed ’92, ’94 (MA), and Chris Rizzo ’92, ’93 (MS)—are an outstanding group of men, and they have all achieved success in their careers in business, education, and the military.

Tom Tuori ’87

Rochester

The writer was a six-time All-American member of the men’s cross country and track and field teams.

Engaged in Debate

The picture on page 53 of the March-April issue is from the 1995–96 school year. I was the coach of the Debate Union at the time. That’s me on the end, with the beard. I’m leading some team members in one of my “deep visualization for victory” training exercises. Others in the picture include Randy Pittelli ’95, Louise Vella ’97, Bimal Desai, Alex Helderman ’96, Chetan Gulati ’99, Paul Kerr, Jon Herman, Curtis Sturdivant ’98, David Nowak ’99, Ryan Pitterson ’97, Liz Jarrait ’96, Carrie Rosen ’97, Miranda Chiu ’96, Josh Clinton ’96, and Angela Watterworth Kroboth ’98. This was a wonderful team and included many more amazing debaters not pictured here. All of that year’s debate team members still keep me supplied with fond memories all these 20 years later!

Sam Nelson

Ithaca, New York

Nelson, who coached the Debate Union from 1990 to 2005, is director of forensics at Cornell’s Industrial and Labor Relations School.

I believe that the photo that appeared on page 53 in the March-April issue was from 1995. I was active on the debate team from 1992 to 1996. My partner, Marc Schatten ’95, and I won the Eastern Regionals Junior Varsity Championship in 1993, beating Cornell. Among those I recognized are Sam Nelson (coach), Miranda Chiu ’96, Carrie Rosen ’97, Elizabeth Jarrait ’96, Alex Helderman ’96, and Bimal Desai.

Josh Clinton ’96

Brentwood, Tennessee

Recollections

Frosh Camp was the best experience ever—playing baseball, writing the class song, a big pajama party, meeting upperclassmen on the bus who taught us all the University songs (Ask the Archivist, September-October 2014). We got on the bus as clueless and random individuals, and left the bus as a united group who felt the U of R was where we were supposed to be.

The Class of 1967 was required to pass the swimming test to graduate (Ask the Archivist, January-February 2016). At graduation, one student in my group was stunned to receive a letter to that effect instead of a diploma.

As for “You Say ‘Interpreze,’ I Say ‘Interpress,’ or Maybe ‘Interps,’” (Ask the Archivist, March-April 2016), we pronounced the yearbook “Interps.”

Lauren Conner Taylor ’67

Ocean City, Maryland

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Review welcomes letters and will print them as space permits. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity. Unsigned letters cannot be used. Send letters to Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, P.O. Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; rochrev@rochester.edu.