Wingate History Lecture To Explore Slavery And The Making Of Atlantic Trade November 14

Chestertown, MD, October 31, 2002 — The Conrad M. Wingate Memorial Lecture at Washington College presents “SLAVERY IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD,” a lecture by James Walvin, Professor of History at the University of York, U.K., Thursday, November 14, 2002 at 7:30 p.m in the College's Casey Academic Center Forum. A book signing will follow this free public event.
Professor Walvin is a historian of black slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. He received his B.A. from Keele University, an M.A. from McMaster, and his D.Phil. from the University of York, where he now serves as Professor of History. Professor Walvin most recently served as a Gilder Lehrman Fellow in New York City, but is also the recipient of numerous other fellowships, including an Andrew Mellon Fellowship, a grant from the Social Science Research Centre at the Australian National University, and a fellowship in the Royal Historical Society. He is also the editor of the journal Slavery and Abolition. Professor Walvin has authored, co-authored, and edited more than thirty books on the Atlantic slave trade, English social history, and the history of football (“soccer” to Americans). His book Black and White: The Negro and English Society, 1555-1945 was the recipient of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize in 1974, and his work Quakers: Money and Morality was named a “Notable Book” by the New York Times Book Review in 1998. Professor Walvin's latest project is Island Peoples: A History of the Caribbean, which will be published by Random House.
The Conrad M. Wingate Memorial Lecture in History is held in honor of the late Conrad Meade Wingate '23, brother of late Washington College Visitor Emeritus Phillip J. Wingate '33 and the late Carolyn Wingate Todd. He was principal of Henderson (MD) High School at the time of his death at age 27. While a student at Washington College, he was president of the Dramatic Association, president of the Adelphia Literary Society and vice president of the Student Council in 1922-23.

Carville In The Crossfire: College Hosts An Open Political Discussion With James Carville November 20

Chestertown, MD, October 30, 2002 — Washington College's Harwood Lecture Series presents “Carville in the Crossfire,” an open, panel discussion of today's biggest political issues featuring political strategist, author, and CNN CROSSFIRE co-host James Carville squaring off with Washington College faculty and students on the left and on the right side of the political spectrum. Moderated by John Harwood, Washington editor of the Wall Street Journal, the panel discussion will be held Wednesday, November 20, 2002, at 5 p.m. in the Tawes Theatre, Gibson Performing Arts Center. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Called the Ragin' Cajun with a punchy attitude and a spitfire tongue hotter than Tabasco, Carville is America's best-known political consultant and Democratic Party pundit. Making his early reputation by turning underdog campaigns into victories, Carville came into national prominence in 1992 by guiding Bill Clinton to the Presidency and was honored as Campaign Manager of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants for his leadership of Clinton's “War Room” Little Rock campaign headquarters. After the Clinton victory, Carville began to focus on other projects, including foreign campaign consulting, writing, and public speaking. With his wife Mary Matalin, an Assistant to President Bush and Counselor to Vice-President Cheney, he co-wrote the bestselling All's Fair: Love, War, and Running for President.
Carville's next books—We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives; And the Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr—became bestsellers as well. Suck Up, Buck Up…and Come Back When You Foul Up, Carville's latest literary effort, co-written with CROSSFIRE co-host Paul Begala, details strategies for fighting and winning in business, politics, and life.
The Harwood Lecture Series in American Journalism is sponsored by the Richard Harwood Endowment Fund, established to honor the distinguished career of the late Washington Post columnist and ombudsman Richard Harwood, who served as both a trustee of and a lecturer in journalism at the College.

Washington College Unveils New Multimedia And Technology Learning Center

Chestertown, MD, October 28, 2002 — Washington College has unveiled a redesigned and updated multimedia and technology-learning center for the campus. The former Beck Computing Center in William Smith Hall not only has a new look but also a new purpose. Now renamed the Beck Multimedia and Technology Learning Center, the lab will offer technology-training workshops in a multifunctional Windows and Macintosh environment. On Tuesday, October 29 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. the College's Office of Information Technologies held a Technology Showcase to celebrate the Center's grand opening.

New Apple iBooks and Gateway laptop computers have replaced the old Macintoshes. Technologies such as state-of-the-art digital video editing workstations, digital video and digital still cameras, and a DVD/VCR unit are new additions to the Center. The Center also has a networked DeskJet Color printer that any workstation can print to. Scanners and a black-and-white laser jet printer are also available. The software available in the Center includes Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro, Flash, iMovie, PhotoShop, Microsoft Office, and much more.
“It's not just another appealing public computing center,” said Sharon Sledge, the Assistant Director of Academic Computing and IT Support Services. “It's a dedicated Multimedia and Technology Center. The Center's goal is to provide learning opportunities that help the Washington College community make effective use of new technologies.”
The Center is setup to support traditional instructor-led training and strives to provide just-in-time training that is specific to the needs of the learner. There will be instructor-led workshops on everything from how to use MacOS X and Windows XP to creating and editing web pages, digital movies and other multimedia content.

Tracking The Ever-Changing Bird Populations, A Lecture By Conservationist Chandler Robbins, November 5

Chestertown, MD, October 25, 2002 — Washington College's McLain Program in Environmental Studies and the Center for the Environment and Society, IN COLLABORATION WITH THE KENT COUNTY CHAPTER OF THE MARYLAND ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, present “Tracking Our Ever-Changing Bird Populations: What Do We Know, What Can we Do?”, a lecture by Chandler S. Robbins, Research Wildlife Biologist with the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The talk will be held Tuesday, November 5 at 5 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

An ornithologist and biologist with the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center since 1945, Robbins has led the effort to monitor populations of nongame birds, and in 1966 developed the North American Breeding Bird Survey to track population trends of birds across the continent to provide essential data for conservation decisions. After surveys revealed that many migratory songbirds were in decline, Robbins was part of a research team who studied the status of bird habitats in the 1980s, revealing, among other factors, that many bird species require large, unbroken tracts of undeveloped land to breed and rear young. More than a scientist, Robbins is a passionate conservationist who has passed on his enthusiasm to generations of Americans, authoring one of the most popular birdwatching field guides used since the mid-1960s.
“Chandler Robbins is a pioneer in this field, and we plan to honor his contributions to birdwatching and conservation at this talk,” said Wayne Bell, Director of the Center for the Environment and Society and Kent County Coordinator for the Maryland/DC Breeding Bird ATLAS Project. “A recent report from the Audubon Society revealed that urban expansion and loss of open space, including both forests and grasslands, have placed 25 percent of North America's bird species in trouble or decline. Clearly, Robbins' commitment to biodiversity and preserving natural habitat is as critical now as it was 35 years ago when he began the Breeding Bird Survey.”

"Glorious Praises": Washington College Gospel Choir To Hold Annual Holiday Concert

Chestertown, MD, October 25, 2002 — The Washington College Gospel Choir, under the direction of Reverend Eric Scott, will hold their annual holiday concert on Saturday, November 16, 2002. This concert will be held on campus in the Norman James Theatre. The concert begins at 7:00 p.m. Admission for this concert is $2 per person, with children 12 and under FREE. The concert is open to the public.
According to Gospel Choir Advisor, Sara Smith, this concert promises to be a very exciting one. “Since the concert is being held early this year, we plan to encompass not only the Christmas holiday but Thanksgiving as well,” said Smith.
The choir, now in its fifth year at the College, is made up of students from many states, as well as students from other countries. Several students from Japan participate in the choir as well as students from Pennsylvania, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and Alaska. The choir also includes local staff members.
“This is a marvelous way for you and your family to begin the celebration of the holidays,” said Smith. “If you have not had an opportunity to come out and hear this choir, please mark your calendar, and come join us for a wonderful time of praise and celebration. You will be very glad you came!” If you would like more information about the Washington College Gospel Choir, please contact Sara Ann Smith at 410-778-7290, or e-mail ssmith5@washcoll.edu.

Maritime Lecture To Discuss Women And The American Whalefishery, November 7

Chestertown, MD, October 24, 2002 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Sultana Projects, Inc. present “QUAKER WIVES AND CAPE HORN WIDOWS: NEW ENGLAND WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN WHALEFISHERY,” a lecture by Lisa Norling, Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. This free talk will be held Thursday, November 7, 2002, in the College's Hynson Lounge, starting at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
The author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, Prof. Norling will discuss the role of women in the American whaling industry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that sent hundreds of ships and thousands of men to distant seas on voyages lasting up to five years. Through sources such as women's and men's letters and diaries, shipowners' records, Quaker meeting minutes and other church records, newspapers and magazines, and censuses, Prof. Norling explores the often-overlooked side of this industry, reconstructing the lives of the “Cape Horn widows” left behind onshore and the impact that whaling had on these women's lives and gender roles.
Prof. Norling's talk concludes the 2002 Maritime Lecture Series sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in partnership with Sultana Projects, an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th century Schooner Sultana. Contact Kees deMooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, or visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu for a list of upcoming events and lectures.

Townsend Hoopes Appointed Senior Fellow At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, October 24, 2002 — Washington College's Board of Visitors and Governors is pleased to announce the appointment of Townsend Hoopes as Senior Fellow of the College who will be associated with the College's C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. With a long career in government service and consulting, Hoopes is a recognized authority on foreign policy and international security.
“Tim Hoopes will bring a wealth of experience to the C.V. Starr Center, both as an historian and as a former shaper of American foreign policy,” said Ted Widmer, Director of the C. V. Starr Center. “In particular, he will help us to probe a topic of the utmost importance to the American experience—the history of our strategic and diplomatic relationships with the rest of the world.”
At the end of World War II, Hoopes served as Assistant to the Chairman of the Committee on Armed Services in the House of Representatives (1947-48); then as a staff aide to three Secretaries of Defense: James Forrestal, General George Marshall and Robert Lovett (1948-53). For several years thereafter, he was a partner in the international consulting firm of Cresap, McCormick and Paget. He returned to government service as Principal Deputy for International Security Affairs at the Pentagon (1965-67) and as Under Secretary of the Air Force (1967-69). Subsequently, he served as President of the Association of American Publishers, Co-Chairman of Americans for SALT, and Director of the American Committee on U.S.-Soviet Relations.
His book The Limits of Intervention (Vietnam War) won the Overseas Writers Award for Best Book on Foreign Policy in 1970; his biography, The Devil and John Foster Dulles, won the 1973 Bancroft History Prize; and another biography, Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal (coauthored with Douglas Brinkley), won the 1992 Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize. Townsend Hoopes on Arms Control, a collection of his essays and speeches, was published in 1987, and FDR and the Creation of the UN (coauthored with Brinkley) was published in 1997.
Hoopes is a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy, Yale University and the National War College. As a Marine Lieutenant in World War II, he participated in the assault and capture of Iwo Jima and the initial occupation of Japan. He and his wife Ann live in Chestertown.

One Land, Two Peoples: Washington College Hosts Symposium On Middle East Affairs October 24

Chestertown, MD, October 11, 2002 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs will present the symposium “One Land, Two Peoples: Conflict in the Middle East,” on Thursday, October 24, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend this timely and important discussion.
To be moderated by Dr. Tahir Shad, Director of Washington College's International Studies Program, the symposium will feature four panelists immersed in the complexities of the political, strategic, economic, ethnic and religious issues that divide Israel and Palestine, as well as the entire Middle East region. The panel will comprise Nubar Hovsepian, Associate Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania; Scott B. Lasensky, a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Assistant Director of the Council's U.S./Middle East Project, and a foreign policy analyst specializing in international politics, American foreign policy, and the Middle East; Haim Malka, a research analyst specializing in Palestinian-Israeli issues at The Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy; and Janine Zacharia, Washington correspondent since November 1999 for The Jerusalem Post who has covered the Middle East from a U.S. perspective, including the Clinton Administration's efforts to broker peace deals between Israel and her Arab neighbors, and the Bush Administration's evolving policy toward the region.
The symposium is sponsored by Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, a 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy and the media.

Waterkeeper Alliance President Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. To Speak At Washington College October 16

Dedication of Chester Riverkeeper Boat Set for Afternoon

Chestertown, MD, October 9, 2002 — The Chester River Association (CRA) and Waterkeeper Alliance will formally inaugurate the new Chester Riverkeeper Program and dedicate the Riverkeeper's vessel during ceremonies beginning at 1:30 p.m. at the Town Landing in Chestertown, Wednesday, October 16, 2002. Waterkeeper Alliance founder and president, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will join CRA president Andrew McCown to dedicate the 20-foot boat. Newly appointed Chester Riverkeeper Eileen McLellan will use the vessel as part of her work to revive and preserve the health of the Chester River and the living resources it supports. Citizens of the Chester River watershed and the general public are invited to attend the dedication.
Kennedy and McLellan will be the featured speakers at a free public forum, "Riverkeeping: A Vision for the Chester", to be held from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Hynson Lounge at Washington College. McCown and Dr. Wayne Bell, director of Washington College's Center for Environment and Society, will introduce a discussion of the challenges of local stewardship for our waterways and the progress Waterkeeper Alliance member programs have achieved in reversing the decline of impaired rivers. The forum will conclude with a question and answer period.
The Chester River Association has linked citizens of Kent and Queen Anne's Counties in efforts to protect and promote the health of the Chester River for more than 16 years. In 2001, CRA announced its acceptance into Waterkeeper Alliance and its plans to bring a Chester Riverkeeper to the watershed by fall 2002. Through financial support, volunteer efforts and the ongoing commitment of individuals, foundations and businesses throughout the area, CRA met that objective, announcing the appointment of Dr. Eileen McLellan as Chester Riverkeeper in August.
Waterkeeper Alliance is the fastest growing environmental organization in the Americas. With more than 90 Waterkeeper programs spanning North America, Latin America and Europe, and prospective groups in Australia, England and Japan, Waterkeeper Alliance celebrates and actively supports the link between healthy waterways and healthy communities. The Alliance connects and supports local Waterkeeper programs to provide a voice for waterways and their communities worldwide. The Waterkeeper concept started on New York's Hudson River where a coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen mobilized in 1966 to rescue the Hudson from its polluters. In 1983, these local activists launched the first Riverkeeper program, constructed a boat to patrol the River, and hired the first full-time public advocate for the river. As a result of this work, a river that was once dead for large stretches in 1966 is now one of the richest bodies of water in the North Atlantic. The Hudson's miraculous recovery has helped make the Waterkeeper program an international model for ecosystem protection.
In addition to the October 16 dedication, the CRA also will host the second annual "Celebrate the Chester: The Great Pumpkin Party" on Saturday, October 19. The Party kicks off at 1:30 p.m. to welcome McLellan as the Chester Riverkeeper and to celebrate the beauty and bounty of the Chester River with food, prizes and educational programs. A flotilla of vessels will arrive at the Town Landing in Chestertown to deliver its cargo of pumpkins, as well as flowers and other fall produce picked up from landings up and down the Chester River. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.
The celebration of the Chester will continue that evening at 8 p.m., when Chesapeake Scenes, joined by special guest Tom Wisner, will evoke the beauty and magic of the river in music and words in a concert at the Prince Theatre. All proceeds from the concert will benefit the Chester Riverkeeper Program. Tickets are available through the Prince Theatre box office by calling 410-810-2060.

Chester Riverkeeper Takes To The River In September

First Riverkeeper on Major Maryland Tributary of Chesapeake Bay

Chestertown, MD, October 9, 2002 — The Chester River Association (CRA) has named Dr. Eileen McLellan as Chester Riverkeeper. As Chester Riverkeeper, McLellan will serve as a guardian and advocate for the river and its living resources. She will be headquartered with the Center for the Environment and Society in Washington College's 18th century Custom House on the Chester Riverfront. Her primary mission will be to remove the Chester River from the list of Maryland's impaired waterways. Classified as a Category 1 scenic river, the Chester has been rated "impaired" because of degraded water quality from non-point source pollution, primarily in the form of nutrients.
Rapid development in Kent and Queen Anne's Counties, one of the fastest growing corridors in the state, is impacting the rural character and compromising both water quality and biodiversity in the watershed. Through programs and actions designed to promote citizen stewardship of the river, McLellan will seek to halt the decline and begin to revive the river by addressing nutrient pollution and habitat degradation. She will work to empower all citizens in the watershed to hold those in authority accountable for the impact of their decisions on water quality and for the enforcement of environmental policies and laws.
Announcing the appointment, CRA President Andrew McCown stated, "We were fortunate to have a significant number of highly qualified applicants apply for the Riverkeeper position. In the end, we concluded that Eileen was uniquely suited to become an effective guardian and voice for the Chester River."
McLellan earned a doctorate in geology at Cambridge University in England, has conducted fieldwork throughout the U.S., and has many years of experience working with watershed groups. For the past three years, she has helped watershed groups in the Pacific Northwest secure funding and technical assistance for restoration projects. She has an in-depth knowledge of the Clean Water Act and has helped develop the EPA's TMDL (total maximum daily load) standards for impaired waters. With two segments of the Chester River scheduled for TMDL development this year, McLellan plans to work with citizens throughout the watershed to design TMDL plans that will restore the river's health. During her five-year tenure as a professor at the University of Maryland-College Park, McLellan conducted research on wetlands and watershed management and created the College Park Scholars in Environmental Studies program. As Chester Riverkeeper, she will continue to work as an educator, with the public, with local elementary and secondary schools, and with Washington College students through CRA's partnership with the Center for the Environment and Society.
Founded in 1986 by a group of citizens from Kent and Queen Anne's Counties, the Chester River Association is an advocate for the Chester River and the living resources it supports. CRA promotes stewardship of the Chester River watershed-its forests, marshes, fields and streams-as well as an understanding of the river's place in the economic and cultural life of our communities. It seeks to educate the public about a broad spectrum of river-related issues through public forums, recreational and educational activities, and a yearly river journal. CRA's water quality monitoring program, Chester Testers, has established the first long-term measure of water quality at 14 sites along the river. The Chester River Association has sought to articulate the link between actions on the land and the declining health of the river. Its volunteer Board of Directors includes watermen, farmers, educators, elected officials, biologists, architects, artists, writers and photographers.
CRA hopes that the Chester Riverkeeper program will serve as an example for protecting other Maryland waterways, and indeed, that hope is already becoming a reality. Watershed protection groups on the Patapsco, Severn and South Rivers have recently announced initiatives to bring Riverkeepers to their own waters in the near future. McLellan articulates her vision for the Chester River this way: "Ten years from now, I hope other communities will look to us as a model of how to implement the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement at the local level. That would mean that everyone in the watershed is aware of their connection to and dependence on the Chester River-and I say 'dependence' because there is a real connection between a healthy river, vibrant communities and a sustainable economy. More than awareness, I would like to see all of the river's citizens live their daily lives in a way that respects that connection and dependence. We will need everyone whose life touches the Chester River to become 'riverkeepers' who make sound choices that will protect our natural resources and quality of life for future generations."
For more information on the Chester River Association and the Chester Riverkeeper program visit www.chesterriverassociation.org, or call the CRA office 410.810.7445.

One Million Dollar Anonymous Challenge Grant Pushes Washington College Capital Campaign Over $84 Million

Chestertown, MD, October 8, 2002 — A $1 million anonymous challenge grant and a gift of $300,000 from Board Trustee Daryl Swanstrom for the new science center, coupled with fiscal-year-end gifts totaling more than $1.3 million and a bequest of $700,000 from the late William Matthews of Boca Raton, FL, have pushed the total funds raised by the Campaign for Washington's College to more than $84.5 million. Surpassing its original $72 million, five-year goal, the Campaign will continue to raise all it can by its original completion date of December 31, 2003.
Other recent significant gifts include $100,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for the Rural Communities Leadership Program, to be organized and conducted by the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society. This is the first time the College has received support from this distinguished national funding source.
“The College's capital campaign has had tremendous momentum, carrying us well beyond our expected goals,” said Jack Griswold, Chair of the Campaign for Washington's College. “Our newly convened Milestone Council, a distinguished group of 22 alumni, trustees and other College supporters chaired by College trustee Thomas H. Gale, will keep this momentum going and will work hard to push the Campaign forward in the coming year.”

When Bones Talk: Bioarchaeology And The African Diaspora

Chestertown, MD, October 8, 2002 — The Washington College Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Anthropology Club, the Black Student Alliance, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and the Gamma Chapter of Maryland of Lambda Alpha present BIOARCHAEOLOGY AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA, a lecture by Michael L. Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. This free talk will be held Thursday, October 17, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. The public is invited to attend.
With a crossdisciplinary background in human anatomy and anthropology, Dr. Blakey will discuss how archaeology works with such disciplines to discover how humans lived in the past and were affected by their living conditions. An Adjunct Professor in Anatomy at Howard University College of Medicine where he had for many years been Curator of the W. Montague Cobb Human Skeletal Collection, Dr. Blakey currently directs the New York African Burial Ground Project involving interdisciplinary study of 400 skeletons of Africans enslaved in 18th century New York City. In addition to his field work, he has taught at Spelman College, the University of Rome, Columbia University, and Brown University, and has served as a Research Associate in Physical Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He is a past President of the Association of Black Anthropologists, a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Medical Anthropology, United States Representative to the Council of the Fourth World Archaeological Congress in Cape Town, and Permanent Representative to Washington for the African Bureau of Education Sciences in Kinshasa and Geneva. Dr. Blakey earned his B.A. at Howard University and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Father of the Man: Robert Mooney Debuts New Novel October 24

Chestertown, MD, October 3, 2002 — Robert Mooney, Director of the Creative Writing Program at Washington College, will debut his new novel Father of the Man (Pantheon Books, 2002) in a public reading on Thursday, October 24, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. A book signing and reception will follow. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
The October 24 reading begins a seven-city book tour for the release of Father of the Man. For the complete list of times and locations for readings and booksignings, click here. Father of the Man is a multi-layered novel about the love between a father and son, husband and wife, mother and child, and the living and the dead. The novel is set in post-Vietnam America, in a closely-knit community of Irish-Americans in Binghamton, NY. Bus driver Dutch Potter, a proud WWII veteran, who has spent 12 years caught between despair and hope, waiting for news of his son Jom who has been MIA in Vietnam. After a violent argument at home over his role in his son's enlistment, Dutch is driven to a last desperate act, taking hostage the passengers on his bus route in an armed standoff with federal authorities to force an answer from the government about his son's fate. It is during this standoff that the plot brings an unexpected answer to Jom's postwar fate. Father of the Man has been called “an affecting, eccentric, poignantly realistic novel about a lost man's hopeless and tragic attempt to erase or at least recover his past,” by award-winning fiction writer Ron Hansen. Novelist Larry Woiwode observes that “very few novels reach, in the way Mooney's does, for understanding and reconciliation between generations—specifically the gap that widened over the war in Vietnam.”
A nominee for the Pushcart Prize and author of numerous published works of short fiction, Mooney began his writing apprenticeship in 1979, while living in Oregon. Realizing he needed more guidance to develop his writing, he returned to his home state of New York to apprentice with novelist John Gardner who taught creative writing at the State University of New York-Binghamton. He worked a year-and-a-half with Gardner before his death in 1982. After receiving his Master of Arts in 1983, Mooney taught as an adjunct faculty member at SUNY-Binghamton and took workshops with novelist Larry Woiwoode, who succeeded Gardner. After Woiwode left SUNY-Binghamton, Mooney became director of the creative writing program where he continued until 1997, when he moved to Chestertown to direct Washington College's Creative Writing Program.

Miller Library Receives Large Collection Of Books On Medieval And Renaissance Literature And Culture

Chestertown, MD, October 3, 2002 — Washington College's Clifton M. Miller Library is pleased to announce that it has received an extraordinary collection of books on Medieval and Renaissance literature and culture courtesy of Dr. Werner Gundersheimer, former director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The gift represents a significant addition to the Miller Library's collection.
The 985 volumes, from Dr. Gundersheimer's private research library, are now being sorted and cataloged to be added to the library's stacks, said William Tubbs, College Librarian. He credits former Washington College dean Dr. Barbara Mowat, Director of Academic Programs at the Folger Library, and Professor Colin Dickson with helping to secure this collection for the College.
“We are very honored to be the recipient of this gift, and it will greatly add to our resources,” Tubbs said. “Our faculty and students studying history, philosophy, art, sociology and political science will benefit from the depth and breadth of this collection of books.”
As a noted scholar of early modern French and Italian history, Dr. Gundersheimer hopes to pass on his appreciation of Medieval and Renaissance culture to generations of students in the liberal arts and sciences.
“I went to a liberal arts college, and so did my wife and two sons. I chose Washington College to receive this collection because it is one of the historic representatives of liberal education in our region, and because its collecting needs and my books seemed like a good match,” said Dr. Gundersheimer, who directed the Capitol Hill-based Folger Library from 1984 to 2002. A graduate of Amherst College, Dr. Gundersheimer earned his M.A. and Ph.D degrees at Harvard University, and taught at several universities. Before joining the Folger, he was Chairman of the Department of History and Director of the Center for Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I believe in the value of a liberal education, as preparation for a life of personal and intellectual growth, and as the basis of an informed, independent-minded citizenry,” he said. “Early modern Europe, which is the central focus of my library, holds the beginnings of our modern society in almost every area. As an historian, I maintain that you cannot really know who you are without understanding where you came from; and for Americans, that means knowing something about medieval and early modern Europe.”