Showing 151 - 200 of 434 Items
Date: 2009-09-24
Creator: Najeeb 'Naj' S Lotfey
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Najeeb S. Lotfey was born in July, 1942, in Portland, Maine, to Elias and Lillian Lotfey, both from Lebanon. He attended the Northeastern School of Accounting in Portland, Maine, served in the Army for two years, and later joined MacDonald Page where he became a managing partner and stayed for more than thirty years. He has served many of Senator Mitchell’s financial management needs over the years. Former Governor Joe Brennan appointed him to the Finance Authority of Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; Portland, Maine community; the Depression era; career with MacDonald Page and George Mitchell as a client; keeping in touch with the Mitchells regularly; Joe Brennan; description of Joe Angelone and his political interests and pizza shops; Lebanese food; and George Mitchell’s qualities.
Date: 2010-01-25
Creator: Carl M Levin
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Carl Milton Levin was born June 28, 1934, in Detroit, Michigan. He was graduated from Swarthmore College in 1956 and Harvard Law School in 1959. He practiced law in Detroit and was state assistant police officer and general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1964-1967. He has been in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat representing Michigan since 1978 and has served on the Armed Services Committee, the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the Committee on Intelligence, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Levin’s interactions with Mitchell; comparison of Mitchell and Byrd as majority leaders; Mitchell’s traits as a leader; Mitchell’s public persona versus one-on-one; NAFTA; Mitchell on the Cold War; Tower Commission; how the Senate has changed during Levin’s career; changes in the Senate in 1994; and Edward “Ted” Kennedy’s legacy.
Date: 2008-10-07
Creator: Sanford 'Sonny' Miller
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Sanford “Sonny” Miller was born in Bangor, Maine, on January 18, 1927, to Myer and Rena Miller. He grew up in Bangor and completed a commercial course of study at Bangor High School, graduating in 1944. He enlisted in the Navy V-6 program at the age of seventeen and served in the Pacific theater of World War II, working as a storekeeper in the Philippines. He was discharged in 1946 and spent a year studying at Bentley University in Boston, and he was a bookkeeper for Hammond Motors for two years. He worked in the jukebox and pinball machine business for a time, eventually returning to Bangor to enter the restaurant business with his family. For many years he owned Miller’s Restaurant in Bangor; he died November 26, 2009.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; his father’s prediction of developments in international relations; the Jewish community in Bangor; an anecdote about how Miller started school too early; Miller’s experience in the Navy; stories about how the storekeeper in the Philippines got better food supplies; how Miller’s mother got him into college; attending Bentley University on the GI Bill; the jukebox and pinball business; opening Miller’s Luncheonette; opening the newer Miller’s Restaurant locations; meeting John Glenn; Marshall Stern; an anecdote about delivering milk for George Mitchell and joking about drinking milk in their shorts in the Blaine House if Mitchell won the governor’s race; going to Augusta for Mitchell’s swearing-in as a federal judge; traveling to Washington, D.C. to see Muskie’s swearing-in as secretary of state and going to the White House; Mitchell’s saying he’d prefer to spend time with Miller than go to the White House for dinner; keeping his word not to bother Mitchell with political favors; Miller’s involvement in the University of Maine; and talking with Mitchell about establishing scholarships.
Date: 2008-06-12
Creator: Clyde MacDonald
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Clyde MacDonald, Jr. was born in 1929 in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, to Nellie MacDonald and Clyde MacDonald, Sr., who were both of Canadian descent. The oldest of four children, Clyde enlisted in the Army and served in Germany during the Korean War. After his military discharge, he became interested in politics at the local level. He attended Portland Junior College for two years and then Bates College for two years. He later earned a doctorate at the University of Maine while teaching undergraduate classes there. During that period, he became active in local Democratic politics and found himself in more regular contact with Senator Muskie. He eventually went to work for Muskie, becoming an aide and close personal adviser. He subsequently transitioned to Senator Mitchell’s office, where he was the field representative in Bangor throughout Mitchell’s Senate career, hiring many Maine field office staff.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: the scope of his role as a field rep for Senator Mitchell in Bangor; the different kinds of issues he dealt with; opening the office in Presque Isle; hiring Julia Nault, Mary LeBlanc, Ida McDonald and Tom Bertocci and the important qualities to look for when hiring people for political jobs; Mitchell’s intellectual and physical energy; the aspects of traveling in the state that Mitchell did and did not enjoy; the food irradiation issue and Mitchell’s solution; Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA) and the work they did to designate Bangor as one; the relationship that Mitchell’s office and MacDonald personally had with the Bangor Daily News and Maine press in general; and the difference between print press and TV coverage.
Date: 2009-09-03
Creator: Leonard C Mulligan
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Leonard C. Mulligan was born in North Andover, Massachusetts, in 1932. His family moved to Brunswick, Maine, in 1939, where he lived until he was graduated from Bowdoin College; he and George Mitchell were classmates (class of 1954). After graduation he entered the Army. He attended graduate school in Springfield, Massachusetts, and worked at Mass Mutual. He later returned to Maine, where he worked in Bath on housing development.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Bowdoin in the 1950s; Bowdoin Latin professor Nate Dane; Mulligan’s memories of George Mitchell while both were Bowdoin students; Mulligan working on a housing project in Bath with George Mitchell; Gayle Cory; purchasing the Hyde School in Bath, Maine; and Mulligan’s daughter Annie’s summer internship for Mitchell.
Date: 2014-12-17
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-03-27
Creator: Tyneshia Wright
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-09-09
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-02-10
Creator: Madelaine Dominguez Miller
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-10-16
Creator: Sarah DeWitt
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-08-28
Creator: Tyneshia Wright
Access: Open access
Date: 2008-09-27
Creator: G. Arnold Roach
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
George “Arnold” Roach was born in Rockland, Maine, on July 28th, 1929, to Nora Nelson Roach and Herbert Ezio Roach. He grew up in Houlton and summered in Rockland. His father, Herbert Roach, was a potato farmer, buyer, and machinery dealer. Arnold attended the University of Maine and in 1951 joined the National Guard. While farming potatoes in Aroostook County, he served on the National Potato Promotion Board as board president and acted as an adviser to Mitchell on Maine’s agricultural issues. He was a part of the Clinton-Gore transition team for the Department of Agriculture and worked for the Clinton administration for eight years. At the time of this interview, he was retired and living in southern Aroostook County.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: background in potato politics; working on the Clinton-Gore transition team; involvement with the Department of Agriculture; the National Guard Army Reserve program; Mitchell's campaign for governor 1974; interactions with Mitchell, photographs; topics in potato politics; potato farming and the organic food movement; Mitchell's potato advisors and involvement in the trade; Roach's daughter Elizabeth's position as the director of the U.S Senate Page Program; and general thoughts about Mitchell.
Date: 2010-07-24
Creator: Harry M Reid
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Harry Mason Reid was born on December 2, 1939, in Searchlight, Nevada. He attended Utah State University and George Washington University Law School. He is a Democratic U.S. Senator from Nevada, first elected in 1986, and, at the time of this interview, had served as Senate majority leader since 2007. Previously, he represented Nevada’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, was a city attorney, a state legislator, Nevada’s lieutenant governor, and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: majority leader; the Budget Committee vote and Bob Kerrey; 1986 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Mitchell’s role; Budget Committee issues; and description of Mitchell as senator.
Date: 2009-08-12
Creator: Christian 'Chris' P Potholm
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Christian P. Potholm holds a chair in government and legal studies at Bowdoin College. He took his graduate work at Tufts University and specializes in Maine politics, warfare, African politics, and international conflict. He previously taught at Vassar, Dartmouth, and the College of the Virgin Islands. He worked on Harry Richardson’s staff and was Bill Cohen’s campaign manager in 1972; he continued to work for Cohen while also teaching at Bowdoin. He is the author of fourteen books on politics and founded Command Research, a national polling firm, and the Potholm Group, a consulting group that specializes in ballot measure initiatives.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell’s 1974 run for governor of Maine; Potholm’s role working for Harry Richardson in the 1974 campaign; Mitchell’s being appointed to Ed Muskie’s Senate seat in 1980; Mitchell’s reelection campaign against Dave Emery in 1982; the changes Mitchell made in his 1982 campaign from his 1974 campaign; Mitchell’s partisanship compared to Margaret Chase Smith, Ed Muskie, and Bill Cohen; Ed Muskie’s partisanship; Potholm’s position on Bill Cohen’s staff; Mitchell’s and Cohen’s relationship; Mitchell’s 1988 campaign against Jasper Wyman; Mitchell and PAC money; Mitchell’s TV interviewing style; Public Utilities Commission investigation; Potholm’s continuing relationship with Bill Cohen; Bill Cohen’s current projects; and the placement of Cohen’s papers at the University of Maine, Orono.
Date: 2009-11-30
Creator: Martha Pope, David R Pozorski
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Martha Pope was born in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Connecticut. She attended the University of Connecticut, majoring in sociology with minors in psychology and statistics and in art. She earned a master’s degree in art education at Southern Connecticut University. She taught art for five years in elementary and junior high school, and then she moved to Washington, D.C. and started work on Capitol Hill. She worked for Senator John Culver, and when Culver lost his bid for reelection, Senator Mitchell kept her on as Environment and Public Works Committee staff focusing on fish and wildlife issues. She became his administrative assistant, and when he became majority leader she was chief of staff to the majority leader. In 1990 she was nominated to be sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, and in 1994 she became secretary of the Senate; she retired from that office in January 1995. She joined the State Department to work with Senator Mitchell on Northern Ireland issues, which eventually led to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998. David Roman Pozorski was born on June 26, 1947, to Betty Graham and Roman Leonard Pozorski. He attended Thornridge High School in Dolton, Illinois, and took his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1969, majoring in history. In 1973, he began his career as a Foreign Service officer; he was deputy director of the German desk when he accepted the assignment to serve as Department of State liaison to Senator George Mitchell, from 1996-1998, during the peace process negotiations in Northern Ireland. Since 2002, he has served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of State.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: the position of sergeant-at-arms for the U.S. Senate, and various other Senate positions held by Pope; Mitchell’s retirement from the Senate; Pope’s transitioning from secretary of the Senate to working with Mitchell on Northern Ireland, Pozorski’s assignment to those negotiations at the State Department, and the administrative organization of Mitchell’s Northern Ireland mission; relocating Northern Ireland commission activities to Belfast; President Clinton’s involvement in the peace process; separation of the commission from the State Department; the decommissioning process; events and protracted talks leading up to the Good Friday Agreement; Mitchell’s negotiating abilities; Canary Wharf and Sinn Fein’s participation in the talks; the effect of Tony Blair’s election on effecting the Good Friday Agreement; results of the Agreement; living conditions in Northern Ireland for Mitchell’s staff; comparisons between Mitchell’s negotiating skills in Northern Ireland and as Senate majority leader; animosity between loyalists and unionists; assessment of David Ervine; media coverage; Pope’s “Gerry Kelly” incident; comparisons between negotiating peace in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East.
Date: 2010-04-27
Creator: James 'Jim' R Sasser
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
James R. “Jim” Sasser was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 30, 1936. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he was awarded a law degree in 1961, admitted to the Tennessee bar, and became active in the Democratic Party; he managed Albert Gore Sr.’s unsuccessful 1970 campaign. In 1976 he sought election and won a seat in the U.S. Senate; he was reelected to two further terms, serving until 1995. He first met George Mitchell in 1972 when they were both working on Ed Muskie’s presidential primary campaign. He worked with Senator Mitchell on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Senate Budget Committee, which Sasser chaired. In 1995, President Clinton appointed him ambassador to China, where he served until 1999.
Summary
The interview includes discussion of: Budget Committee work; 1990 budget summit; DSCC 1986 (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee); Democratic National Committee; and the 1972 Muskie presidential primary campaign.
Date: 2009-04-24
Creator: Jay Davis
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Jay Davis was born May 4, 1943, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Frank and Helen Davis. His father worked for a company that made piano keys, and his mother was a homemaker, raising five children. His great-great-great uncle, Morgan G. Bulkeley, was governor of Connecticut, U.S. Senator, and the first president of baseball’s National League. Jay grew up in Ivoryton, Connecticut, and went to Holderness School in New Hampshire during his high school years. He attended Williams College and, after engaging briefly in journalism and community organizing in Hartford, he attended Harvard University, where he earned a master’s in education. He taught for two years at the Oak Grove-Coburn School in Vassalboro, Maine, then moved to Belfast, Maine, and was elected to serve as a selectman. He began writing a newspaper column for The Republican Journal and later became editor. He has written for Down East, started The Waldo Independent, and was an editor of the Maine Times. At the time of this interview, he worked for Village Soup in Waldo County out of the Belfast office.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: growing up in Ivoryton, Connecticut; visiting New York City as a child; working for The Berkshire Eagle and bringing in the newspaper guild; Davis’s principles; the Oak Grove-Coburn School; working for The Republican Journal; working for the North End Community Action Project (NECAP) in Hartford and forfeiting his scholarship at The Hartford Times; starting The Waldo Independent; Village Soup; local journalism; an anecdote about Senator Cohen’s coming into their Republican Journal office to discuss his build-down theory; meeting George Mitchell; an anecdote about having a beer with Mitchell and asking him about Dave Emery; MBNA’s effect on Belfast, Maine; the University of Maine satellite campus in Belfast; the political bent of Belfast and Waldo County; the role of the city council; speculation about Mitchell’s becoming commissioner of baseball; and Davis’s connection to baseball.
Date: 2010-04-09
Creator: Kenneth 'Ken' M Curtis
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Kenneth Merwin “Ken” Curtis was born on February 8, 1931, in Leeds (Curtis Corner), Maine. He was graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the Maine Maritime Academy and rose to the rank of lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. In 1959, he earned a law degree from the Portland University School of Law (now the University of Maine School of Law) and opened a private practice. A life-long Democrat, he served as Maine’s secretary of state from 1965-1966 before being elected govern in 1967, an office he held until 1975. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1977-1978 and ambassador to Canada from 1979-1981. From 1986 to 1994 he was president of the Maine Maritime Academy. At the time of this interview, he was senior counsel in the law firm of Curtis Thaxter.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Curtis’s early life and education; running for governor of the state of Maine; the political climate in Maine in the ‘70s; friendships with Ed Muskie and Jimmy Carter; early impressions of George Mitchell; sugar beets as economic development in Maine; working with Mitchell on the Maine Action Plan; ‘big box’ voting in Maine; Curtis’s posture in Brennan’s decision to fill Muskie’s vacated U.S. Senate seat; how little Maine has changed over time.
Date: 2009-09-11
Creator: Eliot R Cutler
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Eliot Raphael Cutler was born in 1946 in Bangor, Maine. His mother was an economist and his father, a physician, was responsible for the reorganization of the Maine university system; the Cutler Health Center in Orono, Maine, is named in his honor. As a sophomore in high school, Eliot transferred from Bangor High School to Deerfield Academy. He attended Harvard University and Georgetown Law School. While at Harvard he was involved with the Harvard Lampoon. He worked as a legislative assistant and clerk for Senator Muskie from 1967 to 1972 and was a senior staff person at the OMB during the Carter administration. He has served on the Board of Visitors of the Muskie School for Public Service at University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine. At the time of this Interview, he was a member of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Cutler’s candidacy for governor; campaigns Cutler has worked on, including those for Muskie, Carter, and Mondale; Cutler’s connection to China; Cutler’s role as chairman of the Board of Visitors at the Muskie School; political attention to energy issues under Carter and today; Cutler's meeting George Mitchell as an intern in Muskie’s office; how Mitchell’s operating style differed from Muskie’s; Cutler’s role as press secretary in 1968 and contact with the media; Mitchell’s role in Muskie’s fund-raising in 1968 and 1972; the 1972 campaign; Muskie as a negotiator; Mitchell’s role in Ireland and the Middle East; and Marshall Stern.
Date: 2015-01-12
Creator: Wendy Newell Dyer
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-08-21
Creator: Andrew Mead
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-09-11
Creator: Melinda Kane
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-10-15
Creator: Sarah LeClaire
Access: Open access
Date: 2015-01-20
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-11-18
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-12-15
Creator: John Hawkes
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-03-27
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-11-03
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-10-30
Access: Open access
Date: 2013-11-21
Access: Open access
- Between 2008 and 2011, the Bowdoin College Library conducted an oral history project to create a collection of spoken recollections and personal impressions from individuals who have known George J. Mitchell in a variety of ways. These oral histories document his life and career from early childhood onward, with particular emphasis on his public service to Maine and to the nation, and they complement his personal papers, which are also held by Bowdoin College. Interviewees include Senator Mitchell's Waterville (Maine) friends and acquaintances; family members; college classmates; Maine legislators; political associates and competitors; campaign supporters; U.S. Senate colleagues and staff members; public agency officials; foreign policy specialists; law practice associates; public policy advocates; board members of various affiliations; and friends. Because oral history recordings are intrinsically informal, spontaneous, and candid, they characterize events and personalities in ways that are otherwise silent in the historical record. In particular, they capture personal knowledge and institutional memory about people, occasions, and processes that are rarely documented elsewhere. Thus, these oral histories provide an invaluable resource in understanding both the recent past and how individuals have played essential roles in shaping the present. TRANSCRIPT GUIDELINES Every attempt has been made to create transcripts that reflect the recorded interviews accurately. Interviewees were given the opportunity to edit their transcripts to correct errors of transcription and fact (often, for example, a recollection might have included a misremembered date or place), or to enhance clarity of expression. Additions and minor deletions or changes are indicated in the transcript by closed brackets ([ ]); more substantive omissions are noted as: [p/o] (i.e. “[phrase omitted]”). ATTRIBUTION These recordings and transcripts are provided for educational use, private study, and research. Brief quotations for academic purposes and other uses that fall within “fair use” (Title 17, United States Code) require proper attribution customary to the discipline or community. All other uses not protected by “fair use,” including derivation, publication, and reproduction, require written permission from Bowdoin College. In citing these interviews, specify the interviewee, interviewer, and interview date following the style found in the example below: George J. Mitchell, interview by Andrea L’Hommedieu, 10 May 2011, George J. Mitchell Oral History Project, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine.
Date: 2009-09-29
Creator: Paul Sarbanes
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Paul Sarbanes was born on February 3, 1933 in Salisbury, Maryland. He attended Princeton University and continued his studies at Balliol College of the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then attended Harvard Law School. He served as a Democrat from Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2007. He was the first Greek American senator and notably co-sponsored the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which strengthened corporate governance and created a federal oversight board for the accounting industry.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell’s personality; winning back the Senate majority in 1986; the Senate Majority Leader race of 1989; George Mitchell’s departure from the Senate; partisanship; and an anecdote about George Mitchell and Senator John Warner during an “old-style” filibuster.
Date: 2014-06-27
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-12-18
Access: Open access
Date: 2019-11-09
Creator: Joseph Adu, Shawn Stewart, Michel Bamani
Access: Open access
- Shawn Stewart '08, Michel Bamani '08, and Joseph Adu '07 reflect on their different paths that led them to Bowdoin: Stewart, who grew up in Harlem, working at and being a student of the Harlem Children's Zone, Bamani, a child of Congolese immigrants, and Adu, a child of Ghanaian immigrants. They talk about the challenge of transitioning to Bowdoin academically and socially, getting used to the high academic demands and also learning how to utilize resources. Adu tells a funny story of applying to college during his junior year of high school because he did not realize you had to wait until your senior year in America! Additionally, the three ask each other questions about their own experiences, highlighting the importance of understanding how to prioritize what's most important to them and reflecting on how Bowdoin aided them in that endeavor. They also talk about the expereinces of men of color at PWIs and how to better retain students of color.
Date: 2019-11-09
Creator: Judy (Mike) Reinhold-Tucker
Access: Open access
- Judy Mike Reinhold Tucker reflects on her one year at Bowdoin, during which she was a member of the first class of women at Bowdoin. She also talks about the transition, both in weather and academics, as she moved from Trinidad to the United States when she finished high school in 1969 in Washington D.C. and then came to Bowdoin on a full scholarship in 1970. Despite only attending Bowdoin for one year, Tucker talks about how Bowdoin shaped her path to be pre med, her passion for education, and the AfAm community at Bowdoin that made her feel at home for the short time that she was here.
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Annabel Winterberg
Access: Open access
- This is a response to the Documenting Bowdoin & COVID-19 Reflections Questionnaire. The questionnaire was created in March 2021 by staff of Bowdoin's George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives. Author is class of 2021.
Date: 2019-11-10
Creator: Terranicia Holmes
Access: Open access
- Terranicia Holmes ‘13 talks about moving to New England from Atlanta, Georgia, and navigating the subtle cultural shock of living among tremendous wealth at Bowdoin, and recognizing the covert way that racism behaves in the Northeast in comparison to the South. She shares stories about encouraging and participating in conversations about race on campus, and how time change her perspective on how difficult and meaningful her experiences were. She details some of her most important relationships, like with Professor Tess Chakkalakal, and the importance of leaning into those who championed her and who thought highly of her. She also talks about Shelley Roseboro, who introduced her to loving kindness and helped her to process and grow emotionally during her time at Bowdoin. Finally, Homes reflects on how Bowdoin shaped her into who she is today, helped her develop direction, and how even now when she arrives in Maine, she feels like she is home.
Date: 2019-11-10
Creator: Richard Adams
Access: Open access
- Richard Adams ‘73 talks about lobbying during his senior year of high school in Pittsburgh to make Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday a national holiday, shortly after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. He chose Bowdoin for its liberal proclivities, believing it would be place for him, an avid activist by the time he graduated high school. Adams’s activism followed him to Bowdoin, where he was active in the African-American Society, finding a home in the black community at Bowdoin and in Maine at large, and how his passion for activism defined his time at Bowdoin and beyond.
Date: 2019-11-10
Creator: Janelle Charles, Dudney Sylla
Access: Open access
- Janelle Charles ‘06 and Dudney Sylla ‘08 talk about their differing paths to Bowdoin. Sylla grew up in Boston, attending a Jesuit high school, and being a recipient of the Posse Scholarship. Charles talks about growing up in San Francisco, California and finding out about Bowdoin through fly-in programs. Both talk about the difficulty of transitioning to Bowdoin’s academic rigor, particularly as first-generation college students, and the freedom and independence that came with having an open college schedule. They also detail what it was like to leave their home communities and craft new communities at Bowdoin. Charles and Sylla both talk about the resources at Bowdoin and the leaders and professors that encouraged them and helped them feel seen at Bowdoin, particularly Shelley Roseboro, and reflect on their favorite memories and their own enduring friendship.
Date: 2019-11-09
Creator: Osakhare Fasehun
Access: Open access
- Osakhare Fasehun '18 recounts his first introduction to Bowdoin through the ‘Bowdoin Experience’ weekend, and the ways that this both excited him, but ultimately led to disappointment in realizing the lacking diversity on campus. Fasehun goes on to share how his passion for academics landed him at Bowdoin, and how ultimately he was able to fully nurture his intellectual engagement during his four years. Beyond academics, he shares how the Gangster Party influenced his time at Bowdoin, and how this act of virtual blackface pushed him to interact more heavily with AfAm. He described the difficulties he found in navigating campus as one of very few men of color in his class. Finally, Fasehun shares the biggest lessons he learned from Bowdoin, largely being the necessity to advocate for oneself amidst a system that may not always advocate for you.
Date: 2019-11-09
Creator: Carroy Ferguson
Access: Open access
- Carroy Cuf Ferguson ‘68 talks about being offered a free ride to Bowdoin and deciding between Bowdoin and Morehouse College. He shares stories about growing up in the segregated South and having near zero contact with whites, having to be bussed across town to attend high school despite living a block away from an all-white high school. He talks about being the first student of color to be admitted into the fraternity Sigma Nu, which had a discriminatory clause in it forbidding students of color from joining, and what it was like to fight that clause with his fraternity brothers. Ferguson shares stories about how it felt to have the “weight of [his] race on his shoulders), navigating Bowdoin in the mid- to late- sixties, and the pressures that came with that.
Date: 2019-11-09
Creator: David Dickson
Access: Open access
- David Dickson '76 shares some remarks on his father, David W. D. Dickson, who graduated from Bowdoin in 1941, and his uncle who graduated in 1935. He talks about how the Bowdoin of their era had segregated fraternities that did not allow black students or Jewish students, and details his father’s experience with the emotional tax that such a reality posed. Dickson also talks about the importance of having the safe space of the African-American society that behaved as an “island on a lily-white campus.” He also talks about the former student organization, All Races United (ARU) and how students of marginalized backgrounds as well as “independent mainstream” students could come together in activism. Finally, Dickson shares how his experiences at Bowdoin affected the development of his racial identity.
Date: 2016-01-01
Creator: Hugh Cipparone
Access: Open access
Date: 2019-11-10
Creator: Sandra Martinez
Access: Open access
- Sandra Martinez ('13) recounts life at Bowdoin as a Latina woman. She describes Bowdoin as a space where she came more into her cultural identity, while also being where she felt the limitations and challenges of being a minority on campus. Additionally, Martinez discusses the simultaneous division and alliance between the African American Society and the Latin American Student Organization, and the various means students went to in bridging or instating this distance. As a math major, Martinez confronted the realities of a faculty lacking in diversity, and explored how this impacted her academic career and confidence in the classroom. Finally she speaks to the way that she learned to command her opinions, against at times people’s wishes, and gives advice to future Bowdoin women of color for how they can make space for themselves.
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Maddie Hikida
Access: Open access
- A day in the life of a Bowdoin student (class of 2022) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Date: 2016-01-01
Creator: Zachary Watson, Ivette Pala
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-11-19
Creator: James Tierney
Access: Audio recording permanently restricted
Date: 2019-05-31
Creator: Noah Gavil, Marta Misiulaityte, Shannon Grimes
Access: Open access
- Noah Gavil (Class of 2014), Marta Misiulaityte (Class of 2014), and Shannon Grimes (Class of 2014) reflect together on the way their different paths led to Bowdoin and to friendship with one another. They speak about the trials and triumphs of trying to find one’s place as well as the difficulty of learning to manage the pressures and expectations that they felt as Bowdoin students. Additionally, they comment in depth on their study-away experiences and describe the passions and interests their abroad experiences sparked in them. The three touch on a wide range of extracurricular activities, on-campus jobs, and areas of study, and reminisce fondly on the relationships they built with peers, faculty, and staff.
Date: 2009-12-04
Creator: Daniel 'Bob' Robert Graham
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Daniel Robert “Bob” Graham was born November 9, 1936, in Florida. In 1959 he received a degree in political science from the University of Florida, and he earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1962. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966 and to the Florida State Senate in 1970. He served as governor of Florida from 1979-1987 and as U.S. senator from 1987-2005. While in the Senate, he served as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic presidential primary race. Since 2005, he has taught at Harvard University, the University of Florida, and the University of Miami.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Mitchell’s participation in Florida as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1986 when Graham was elected; commonalities among the senators who were elected in 1986; Mitchell as a colleague from 1987-1994; Mitchell’s election as majority leader; Mitchell and Graham on environmental issues; Exxon Valdez in 1989; the Clean Air Act; base closings in Florida and Maine; Mitchell’s leadership qualities; the importance of Democratic cohesion to Mitchell; Kennedy and Mitchell; Mitchell and Clinton’s health care plan; the Democratic Steering Committee versus the Democratic Policy Committee; Mitchell’s presidential potential in 1992; and Mitchell’s legacy.