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.”

Lelia Hynson Pavilion Suffers Extensive Damage After Fire

Chestertown, MD, September 30, 2002 — The Lelia Hynson Pavilion, part of the College's waterfront facilities, suffered extensive damage in a fire early Sunday morning, September 29th. At approximately 3 a.m. a passing motorist reported seeing flames. The Chestertown Fire Department arrived on the scene at 3:10 and battled the blaze until it was extinguished at approximately 4:30 a.m. The damage to the facility is very significant.
Washington College Public Safety officers had been on the scene earlier at 11 p.m. Saturday evening after the conclusion of a student gathering. The officers returned to the Pavilion at 1:20 a.m. making routine rounds, and did not observe anything out of the ordinary during those visits. Preliminary reports suggest the fire may have been electrical in origin but investigation is ongoing. The Pavilion will be closed for the foreseeable future.
No one was injured as a result of the fire.

The Race To Save The Monitor: A Maritime History Lecture At Washington College October 10th

Chestertown, MD, September 27, 2002 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Sultana Projects, Inc., present THE RACE TO SAVE THE MONITOR, a maritime history lecture by John Broadwater, Ph.D., Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The lecture will be held Thursday, October 10, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The Civil War brought many advances in weaponry, including naval technology, and the U.S.S. Monitor represented a radical departure from traditional warship design. Powered by steam alone and constructed almost exclusively of iron, the ship's novel low-profile design, heavy armor and revolving gun turret set the stage for modern naval warfare. With the exception of her famous engagement with the Confederate ironclad Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Monitor's brief career was uneventful, and shortly after midnight on December 31, 1862, the Monitor sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras, lost at sea less than a year after her launch. But the Monitor did not fail to impress ship designers and naval personnel around the world: the U.S. Navy built more than 60 Monitor-type vessels during the Civil War, and similar ships were built in other countries.

Dr. Broadwater is the Chief Scientist of the Monitor Expedition 2002 and has been the Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary since 1992. A diver since 1969, Dr. Broadwater has participated in shipwreck dives and investigations throughout the United States and in more than a dozen countries. He also volunteered his services as an archaeologist for expeditions to the Monitor in 1974, 1979 and 1983. Between 1978 and 1989, as Senior Underwater Archaeologist of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, he directed the Yorktown Shipwreck Archaeological Project, which culminated with the complete excavation of a British ship sunk during the last major battle of the American Revolution. A well-known author and lecturer, Dr. Broadwater wrote “Secrets of a Yorktown Shipwreck” for the June 1988 issue of National Geographic, and the book Kwajalein, Lagoon of Found Ships, which chronicles shipwreck investigations in the Marshall Islands. On August 5 of this year, under his direction, the Monitor Expedition successfully raised the ship's unique 160-ton turret from 240 feet of water off of Cape Hatteras. The turret is now submerged in a special tank at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA, in order to slow its decay and to allow special research and preservation measures. Dr. Broadwater's lecture will describe the efforts being taken and what remains to be done to save and to preserve the historic Monitor.

Dr. Broadwater's lecture is the third in a four-part 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. The series will conclude November 7, 2002, with a lecture by Lisa Norling, author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, discussing the role of women in the American whaling industry. Look for coming announcements or contact Kees deMooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, or visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu for a complete program of events.