winter 2014 | St. Lawrence University Magazine 3
On Campus
2 winter 2014 | St. Lawrence University Magazine
W
hen once the Sunday
morning newspapers
were the sole source
of results from college sports
competition, a St. Lawrence
classmate, many years and miles
away from campus, found a better
way to get the weekend hockey
scores. In the snowbound deeps
of winter, he would phone up the
crew of the central heating plant at
midnight. They faithfully reported
the scores, and the sub-zero wind
chill calculation, too.
On occasion, I stop in the boiler room for a visit,
just to marvel at its clean spaces and complex
machinery. I find powers of efficiency and quiet
there. This is where we produce hot water for
showers and sculleries; it’s the source of steam heat
for all the nearby buildings, both living quarters
and learning spaces.
And yet, most campus pedestrians walk past the
central heating plant giving it little thought; they
see past its prosaic smokestack, the second most
dominant feature on the St. Lawrence skyline.
Standing above it, of course, and also above every
silo and grain elevator in the glacial span of a
wrinkled valley, is the tower and spire of Gunnison
Memorial Chapel. Until there was fire.
For a while, and with peculiar irony, the campus
chimney will be the main vertical reference point
of our day. This temporary fact may serve our
imaginations beyond the passing nostalgia of
hockey nights in Canton or a mere object of utility
mostly ignored. A majority see this unheeded piece
of University architecture as absolutely meaningless,
making no statement at all.
When I meet with students about their hopes for a
better global climate and a sustainable environment,
I gain an appreciation for their command of the
fresh science and how well they grasp the competing
arguments of the public policy debate. So, I listen
closely and then ask, "How do you envision the St.
Lawrence campus looking and functioning in the
years ahead?" Rarely, have I heard them say what I
myself have already dreamed—that someday, the
smokestack over the central heating plant will come
down, because we had found a better way.
As I see it, the irony in recent campus events is that
our stovepipe stands intact while the inflamed and
beloved spire falls. The extra twist in juxtaposition:
In the midst of the bell tower fire, we were
simultaneously drilling geothermal wells for our
new residence hall, a project designed to take yet
one more step toward lowering the smokestack.
Before the sun set upon the storm-worn copper
rooster for the last time, and the spire gave way in
the night and fell to the ground, we
had committed to an unequivocal full
restoration of all the damaged parts
of the chapel. Meanwhile, during an
interlude of rebuilding, we must also
consider the symbolic possibilities of
these readily familiar horizon points
now suddenly touched by unplanned
circumstance.
Henry Adams, grandson and great-
grandson of U.S. presidents, attended
the Great Exposition of Paris in 1900.
He was in France mainly to continue
his study of medieval cathedrals
and to read philosophy, but he was completely,
unexpectedly, captivated by the exposition’s great
hall of dynamos. Adams tried to comprehend, but
could barely grasp, all the implications of immense
power generated by these early turbines. “The year
1900 was not the first to upset schoolmasters,” he
wrote. “Copernicus and Galileo had broken many
professorial necks about 1600.”
Adams eventually translated his “respect of power”
observed in the dynamo into the terms of “a
moral force.” He asserted this larger meaning as
similar to the spiritual expression found in Gothic
architecture as a transcendent motivating force
in intellectual life. Thus, he connected the lines
between forces without making ultimate functional
or value distinctions—the production of high-
voltage energy and the towers of Chartres Cathedral
were morally analogous.
Between his visits to the dynamo and his
ruminations on architectural form, Adams was
reading Thomas Aquinas again, discovering wise
admonitions about making sense of life in the
presence of “force.” A person ought to know
what to believe, what to desire and what to do.
Unconsciously, pleasantly, St. Lawrence students
will walk countless times across the Quad, beneath
spire and stack, between these two same forces that
Adams once confronted. They may not realize it at
the time, but they are thinking their way through
abiding questions: What is important to me, and
why? What is my plan? And what shall I do?
Belief, desire and action are coordinates on all
the campus walks within sight of two structures
towering above an otherwise gentle vale bounding
our college scene. Because oddly coupled symbols
speak to us, we all take away life questions for having
looked out and looked up while at St. Lawrence.
The spire will ascend anew; the rooster shall resemble
a phoenix. The first glimpse will tell the whole story
in an instant. It is the best story architecture will ever
tell, when human ambitions soar.
—
Wi ll iam L . Fox ’ 75
Stovepipe and Spire
a word from the president
Vice President for Communications
Tom Evelyn
Editor-in-Chief
Neal S. Burdick ’72
Assistant Editor
Meg Bernier ’07, M ’09
News Editor
Ryan Deuel
Class Notes Editor
Sharon Henry
Photographer
Tara Freeman
Design & Art Direction
Alex Rhea
St.LawrenceUniversitydoesnotdiscriminateagainststudents,
faculty,stafforotherbeneficiarieson thebasisof race,color,gender,
religion,age,disability,maritalstatus,sexualorientation,ornational
orethnicorigin inadmission to,oraccess to,or treatment,or
employment in itsprogramsandactivities.AA/EEO.For further
information,contact theUniversity’sAgeAct,Title IXandSection504
coordinator,315-229-5584.Acompletepolicy listing isavailableat
PublishedbySt.LawrenceUniversity four timesyearly: January,April,
JulyandOctober. Periodicalpostage ispaidatCanton,NewYork
13617andatadditionalmailingoffices. (ISSN0745-3582) Printed in
U.S.A. Allopinionsexpressed insignedarticlesare thoseof the
authoranddonotnecessarily reflect thoseof theeditorsand/orSt.
LawrenceUniversity. Editorialoffices:OfficeofUniversity
Communications,St.LawrenceUniversity,23RomodaDrive,Canton,
NY13617,phone315-229-5585, fax315-229-7422,e-mailnburdick@
stlawu.edu,Website
.
Addresschanges:
Achange-of-addresscard to
OfficeofAnnualGivingandLaurentianEngagement,St.Lawrence
University,23RomodaDrive,Canton,NY13617(315-229-5904,
willenableyoutoreceiveSt.Lawrenceand
otherUniversitymailpromptly.
Postmaster:
PleasesendPSForm3579to
St.Lawrence
University,23RomodaDrive,OfficeofUniversity
Communications,Canton,NY13617.
ST. LAWRENCE
University Magazine
Vol. LXIII | Number 1 | Winter 2014
Letters
Chapel memories
The following was addressed to President Fox shortly
after the Gunnison Memorial Chapel fire (see page 14).
I was literally moved to tears while reading your
community letter (
-
nison-memorial-chapel-fire-updates), in which
you so eloquently voiced your gratitude to the
region’s firefighters and St. Lawrence University
community members who assisted during Sunday
morning’s chapel fire. I, too, am grateful for all
their efforts and echo your sentiments.
My gratitude may even be more personal because
in 1926, my great-grandfather assisted in the
construction of Gunnison. My grandfather, then
16 years old, contracted scarlet fever and almost
perished while working as a “water boy” for the
crew. My alumna status is testimony he survived!
Fast forward approximately 75 years to find
Geoff Phillips ’88 and me exchanging our marital
vows in that same chapel on an unusually chilly
(even for the North Country!) Independence Day.
Given those factors, you can understand my sor-
row when my daughter, Page ’17, notified me via
text of the fire. Upon our arrival to pick her up
for the day’s Family Weekend events, viewing the
melted spire was painful, but I felt some solace to
see the building was still standing and relatively
intact. Again, my sincere thanks to those who were
involved in keeping the damage to a minimum.
Gunnison Memorial Chapel has long been
considered the heart and soul of the University,
and I am reassured to hear of the administration’s
commitment to (restore) the building to its origi-
nal grandeur. It means a lot to know my daughter
and future alumni will continue to experience the
traditions of Gunnison: Convocation ceremonies,
Candlelight Services, Moving-Up Days and those
beautiful chimes at 5 p.m. daily.
Lynne Ledger ’87 | Feeding Hills, Massachusetts
Getting the timing right
Reading the fall 2013 St. Lawrence, I was delight-
ed to see the picture of the Larriettes. I entered
St. Lawrence in the fall of 1954 and became active
as a cheerleader, among various other activities.
One of the reasons that I picked St. Lawrence was
Appleton Arena, because I loved to skate. So, dur-
ing my freshman year I went to the hockey games
and wondered if they ever had any activities during
the breaks. Nothing happened that I can recall.
In the fall of my sophomore year, 1955, the idea
came to me to have a group do some skating rou-
tines between periods at the men’s hockey games.
We formed and practiced with (a woman on
campus who I think was a professional skater), and
finally “hit the ice.” It was fun. Sometimes we got
the giggles and missed a beat. We called ourselves
the Larriettes. A comparable group might have
been formed in 1951, but when I arrived there was
no mention of any previous “Cheerleaders on Ice.”
Doreen “Dodie” Potts Giltz ’58 | Plattsburgh, New York
The writer correctly points out that 1955-56 marks
the first appearance of the name “Larriettes,” not
1951, as we stated on page 28 of the fall issue. Jane
Fippin Thompson '55 also questioned the date. We
regret the error. The photograph we presented there
may be of the 1957-58 squad.
We have names!
The St. Lawrence students in the “From the
Archives” picture in the summer magazine are, left
to right, Torbjorn “Toby” Arnheim ’80, Carolyn
Pritchard Riordan ’80 and John Mabie ’79.
Roger W. Brandt Jr. '80 | Pittsford, New York
Thanks to all who helped us identify these students.
Roger Brandt wins accolades for being the only one
to know all three. We also heard from Jack McLeod
’81, Mike Moretti ’79, Peg Kelsey Cornwell ’79,
Doug Stockman ’82, Pete Baldwin ’82, Lee Mulry
Dieck ’79, Mark Attarian ’80, Mary Griffin ’80 and
Jeanne Kappler Poehner ’80.
