Showing 3881 - 3890 of 4389 Items
Date: 2019-05-31
Creator: Eric Luft
Access: Open access
- Eric Luft (Class of 1974) recounts a feeling of liberation upon arriving at Bowdoin. Luft describes becoming a double major in Philosophy and Religion, and building relationships with professors both in and outside the classroom. Luft mentions participating in Masque and Gown and the rifle team and also reflects on Bowdoin’s social environment as it related to fraternities and the College's transition to coeducation. Additionally, Luft speaks about student activism and protesting the Vietnam War off-campus. Finally, Luft reminisces about finding community at Bowdoin and emphasizes that while the academics were difficult there was a palpable sense of support.
Date: 2019-05-31
Creator: Todd Caulfield
Access: Open access
- Todd Caulfield (Class of 1989) talks about the insecurities he felt coming to Bowdoin, in terms of both his academic preparedness and the College’s lack of socio-economic diversity. He describes how he found his social footing through the fraternity system, the sailing team, and the theater department. Reflecting further on fraternities, Caulfield remembers a tension between the independent and initiated members of campus and discusses his own choice to remain independent rather than initiate fully into Zeta Psi. Additionally, he speaks about how he spent his time and how he came to major in Biochemistry. Finally, Caulfield speaks about the ethics and implicit lessons he feels he absorbed through his time at Bowdoin and their lasting impact on his life.
Date: 2019-05-31
Creator: Joan Britt
Access: Open access
- Joan Britt (Class of 1979) talks about falling in love with Bowdoin while visiting her older brother when he was a student. After matriculating, she joined Chi Psi fraternity as a social member, was a student representative for the Economics department, and spent time as a volunteer Sunday school teacher. She speaks about her studies as an Economics major and the relationships she built with her professors and mentors. Britt also reflects on being a member of one of the early coeducated classes and the slight feeling of “second class citizenship” she sensed on campus, especially in the fraternities. Additionally, she talks about her year abroad in Vienna and reintegrating back into the Bowdoin community afterward.
Date: 2019-06-01
Creator: Melissa Hudson Howard, John Howard
Access: Open access
- Melissa Hudson Howard (Class of 2005) and John Howard (Class of 2009) describe what brought them each to Bowdoin. The first few weeks of Hudson Howard’s first year were marked by the September 11 Terrorist Attacks and Howard’s by Hurricane Katrina, and both speak about the atmosphere of campus during those times. The pair reminisce about their engagement in Theater and Dance, the Bowdoin Outing Club, Obvious hip hop group, African American Society, and Residential Life. Both Hudson Howard and Howard studied abroad, in London and Paris, respectively, and they reflect on the lasting impacts of those experiences. They comment on student activism on campus and mention the Iraq War and the 2008 Presidential Election in particular.
Date: 2019-07-26
Creator: Nessa Reifsnyder
Access: Open access
- Nessa Reifsnyder (Class of 1986) describes feeling “a little out of step” while transitioning from urban life in New York City to Brunswick, despite the summers she had spent in Northern Maine. She talks about finding a strong support system in the fraternity Alpha Delta Phi, whose culture felt “evolved” compared to the rest of campus. She discusses feeling “disaffected” from the College’s academic life. She reminisces about the important life lessons she learned during her time in the fraternity, especially about interpersonal skills and feminism. Reifsnyder speaks about finding a grounding comfort in the “working class element” of Brunswick. Finally, she discusses her role in the negotiations between Bowdoin and ADP when the College decided to phase out fraternities.
Date: 2009-02-17
Creator: Anita Jensen
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Anita Holst-Jensen was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), East Germany, on March 16, 1945, to Rasma Rasmanis and Arvids Lusis. Her mother emigrated from Latvia in September of 1944, and Jensen was born in a displaced persons camp, where she lived until she was four years old. Her family eventually emigrated to Australia in 1949, settling in Victoria. Jensen received all of her schooling in Australia and went to university in Melbourne. She married Henning Holst-Jensen, and in 1966 they moved to Perth. When immigration into the United States became possible in 1968, they relocated to the Washington, D.C. area, and Jensen took a job with Investors Overseas Services, later Equity Funding. In 1970, she went to work in Senator Ed Muskie’s office, where she continued until he became secretary of state. She transitioned to George Mitchell’s staff when he was appointed to Muskie’s vacated Senate seat and remained for his fourteen years of Senate service, becoming increasingly involved with speech writing and research.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: writing newsletters and doing other tasks while working for Mitchell; handling the Judiciary Committee work; working for Mitchell; Mitchell’s self-made success in his campaigns and career; Mitchell’s achievements in the Senate and Judicial Committee; Mitchell’s work on the Civil Rights Bill of 1991 and tax bill in 1986; what went wrong with health care reform and the Harry and Louise ads; Mitchell’s environmental work; Mitchell’s involvement on the Iran-Contra issue; the 1988 Senate race; first meeting Mitchell; Mitchell’s Clean Air Act success; the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland; not defending Muskie’s “veterans” votes in 1982, and other early-day stories about Mitchell.
Date: 2009-03-27
Creator: Harold M Ickes
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Harold M. Ickes was born on September 4, 1939, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Harold L. Ickes and Jane Dahlman. His father served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of the interior. He attended high school at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., was graduated from Stanford University in 1964 with a degree in economics, and earned his law degree from Columbia Law School in 1967. He was a civil rights activist during his student years in the ‘60s, spending the summers of 1964 and 1965 registering African American voters in Louisiana and Mississippi. In 1966, he became involved in the Vietnam anti-war movement. He later practiced labor law, joining the law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein in New York in 1977. He served as White House deputy chief of staff under Leon Panetta for three years during the Clinton administration; he was substantially involved in the Clinton administration’s push for health care reform. He has worked on several presidential campaigns, including those of Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Ted Kennedy, and Bill Clinton; for President Clinton’s campaign he was the New York State campaign chair. He also worked on Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign in New York and later as the assistant to the campaign manager for her presidential primary bid in 2008. At the time of this interview, he was a registered lobbyist with the Ickes and Enright Group, a member of the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee, and president of Catalist, a progressive voter file organization.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Muskie presidential campaign 1972 and Ickes’ first encounter with Mitchell; being assigned to the health care brief and Whitewater damage control; why health care reform drafted by the Clinton administration failed to pass; Senator Mitchell’s attempt to get the health care legislation through; the White House’s relationship with key members of the Senate and House; the errors committed by the White House in not getting the input of Congress; the view the White House took of Mitchell and the belief that if he could not get the legislation passed, then no one could; Senator Moynihan’s role as chair of the Finance Committee; the Republicans’ effective strategy and how that differs from typical Democratic strategy through repetition and better focus; and Ickes’ impressions of Senator Mitchell.
Date: 2009-01-13
Creator: Joanne A Hoffmann
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Joanne Amnott Hoffmann was born April 23, 1936, in Lewiston, Maine. Her father was the chief of police in Lewiston, and her mother was a housewife. Joanne graduated from Lewiston High School and continued her education at the Auburn School of Commerce, learning shorthand and typing. She became a legal secretary, first working for Harris Isaacson and then for the firm of Clifford & Clifford under William Clifford. In 1959, she moved to Washington, DC, as Senator Muskie’s personal secretary. She stayed in the Senate office until 1965, when she married Frank “Nordy” Hoffmann, a Washington lobbyist and sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 1981. The Hoffmanns and the Muskies maintained personal friendships in later years.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: going to Washington D.C. in 1959; the early days of Muskie’s office; Kennedy’s election and assassination; working as Muskie’s personal secretary; meeting and working with George Mitchell when he was Muskie’s administrative assistant; Muskie’s temper; Mitchell’s courtship; Mitchell in Muskie’s office and his decision to return to Maine to practice law; involvement on the Muskie ’68 vice-presidential campaign; leaving Muskie’s office; comparing senators Muskie and Mitchell; Mitchell’s people skills; political wives and Jane Muskie; and connections to Maine and the environment.
Date: 2009-03-12
Creator: Robert 'Bob' S Tyrer
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Robert Stanley “Bob” Tyrer was born on April 30, 1957, in Hamilton, Ohio, to James and Margaret Tyrer. He grew up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. In 1974 he became interested in the Watergate hearings and went to listen to then Congressman Cohen give a talk in Birmingham, Michigan. In 1975 he began college at George Washington University and volunteered in Cohen’s congressional office. He worked on Cohen’s 1978 Senate campaign and stayed in Maine to manage the Bangor office, completing his last year of college at the University of Maine. He returned to Washington, D.C. as Senator Cohen’s press secretary in 1981. He became chief of staff in 1986 and remained in that position for the rest of Cohen’s tenure in the Senate. He was Susan Collins’s campaign manager for her 1996 Senate campaign. He went with Cohen to the Department of Defense in 1997 as chief of staff. At the time of this interview he was with the Cohen Group.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: first encounter with Cohen; interning in Cohen’s congressional office; working in Maine and for Maine interests without being a Mainer; a story about his confusion about a road called “the airline”; his job as press secretary; transitioning to the chief of staff role; Senator Cohen’s detachment from partisan politics; the division of labor in the Senate office; different management styles of Senators Cohen and Mitchell; partisanship; lessons learned from the 1974 gubernatorial race; Mitchell’s U.S. Senate appointment in 1980; the Iran-Contra affair; working together as the Maine delegation; the similarities between Mitchell and Cohen; the joint approach of the Mitchell and Cohen offices and the staff interaction between their offices; the change when Mitchell became majority leader and how he and Cohen would joke about it; the evolution of the leader’s job and the increased importance of fund-raising; Mitchell and Cohen’s respective decisions to retire; Cohen’s career after the Senate; the similarities and differences in Cohen and Mitchell’s voting records; the behind the scenes role of Senate staff; Cohen’s philosophy of letting the merits dictate his point of view; Mitchell’s legacy; Mitchell’s accomplishment in Ireland; an anecdote about the first time Tyrer and Mitchell met and Mitchell wanting to know how he could get The New York Times delivered early in the morning; Mitchell’s ability to always be the first to get in touch with constituents who were ill or had a death in the family; and Mitchell’s drive and detail-oriented approach.
Date: 2009-11-09
Creator: Deborah 'Deb' Cotter
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Deborah “Deb” Cotter was born on November 7, 1967, in New York City. She grew up in Waterville, Maine, where her father was president of Colby College and her mother worked in the Career Development Office. She attended Wells College and received a degree in Russian studies. After graduating, Cotter worked in George Mitchell’s personal office in Washington, D.C., for four years as receptionist, legislative correspondent, and legislative aide on agricultural, fisheries, and environmental issues. After Mitchell retired, she moved to the Senate Historical Office as a research assistant and earned her master’s degree in history from George Mason University. She worked at the American Psychological Association on public policy for mental health issues for eight years. More recently, she worked for the nonprofit National Council on Independent Living. At the time of this interview, she was a management and program analyst in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services of the U.S. Department of Education.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: growing up in Waterville, Maine; being hired by Mitchell’s Senate office in 1990; the support of Mitchell’s staff when Cotter had a health emergency; the transition from receptionist to legislative correspondent and legislative aide; Mitchell’s investment in Maine issues; working with lobbyists as a legislative aide; the ambience of Mitchell’s personal office; the pecking order in Mitchell’s office; staff meetings; Cotter’s work after Mitchell announced his retirement; Mitchell’s influence on Cotter’s career; how the office changed after Mitchell announced his retirement; and Mitchell’s respect for opposing views.