Troy Grosenick '14 was recently featured in the Times Union newspaper.
The story focused on his professional hockey career – he’s a goaltender with the San Jose Barracuda – and his continuing close-knit friendships with former Union teammates. At Union, Grosenick played hockey, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and participated in Steinmetz Symposium.
John Wold ’38, a devoted son of Union whose generosity has transformed the College, and a pioneering geologist whose vision changed the mining industry, died Feb. 19, 2017, in Casper, Wyo. He was 100.
Wold, also an accomplished politician, was born Aug, 31, 1916, in East Orange, N.J. But he grew up at Union College, a place that sparked his love of geology long before he was ever a student.
“John Wold was a remarkable person and Mrs. Ainlay and I feel so very fortunate to have known him and to have called him friend,” said President Stephen C. Ainlay. “He was the embodiment of what it means to be loyal son or daughter of Union. In John's case, he literally grew up on the Union campus and his commitment to the College knew no bounds.
"John and his wife, Jane, were warm, vibrant, engaging, intellectually curious, and took great interest in all things Union. They both believed in the power of education and the special capacity of Union College to change lives for the better. To say they both will be missed is an understatement.”
A self-described “campus kid,” his father, Peter I. Wold, led Union’s Physics Department from 1920-1945. During that time, the family lived in North College, in the building that is now Wold House (one of the College’s seven
Jane and John Wold '38 at the dedication of the Peter Irving Wold Center in May 2011.
Minerva Houses). On his daily walks home from school, young Wold habitually visited the spot where old geology specimens were discarded.
“I would paw through those samples and eventually built up a pretty nice collection of materials from around the world,” Wold told the Union College alumni magazine in 2003. “That dump was one of the first things that got me interested in geology.”
Wold played hockey at Union, was a St. Andrew’s University Exchange Scholar, and a member of Terrace Council, the Sigma Xi science honor society and Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
Wold’s time on campus helped foster a bond between the man and his alma mater that would last a lifetime, and inspire a generosity that has transformed Union College.
In summer 2016, Wold gave a $5 million gift in memory of his wife, Jane, who died Nov. 18, 2015, at the age of 92. The couple had been married 70 years.
Together, they gave an earlier gift of $20 million, the largest in Union’s history. It made possible the Peter Irving Wold Center, a 35,000-square-foot state-of-the-art research and education center named for John’s father. The gift also established the John and Jane Wold Professorship in Religious Studies, supported Wold House, and established the John and Jane Wold Professorship in Geology.
Wold held a master’s of science in geology from Cornell University and was founder and president of Wold Oil Properties, Inc. A trustee emeritus at Union, he was a former Republican U.S. Congressman (1969-71). He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, first as a consulting physicist and later as a gunnery officer.
A dedicated philanthropist, he supported science and science education at the likes of Casper College, Casey Eye Institute (macular degeneration research), the University of Wyoming and Cornell University.
The Wolds were recognized by the city of Casper, Wyo., in 2014 for their support of the Wold Family Arena, an ice rink at the Casper Events Center. At the dedication ceremony, Athletic Director James McLaughlin and Men’s Ice Hockey Coach Rick Bennett presented Wold with a ring to commemorate Union’s national championship earlier that year.
Wold was also instrumental in the exploration and development of the second largest talc mine in North America, and the production of trona, a source of soda ash widely used in manufacturing, in southeastern Wyoming. His interest in coal gasification in the Powder River Basin unlocked millions of tons of coal that were otherwise too deep to mine economically. He explored business ventures in nearly all extractive industries including coal, oil and gas, soda ash and uranium.
Jane and John Wold '38, with from left, Trustee John E. Kelly III '76, President Stephen C. Ainlay and Trustee Frank L. Messa '73 at the dedication of the Peter Irving Wold Center in May 2011.
In 2015, Wold received the Energy Pioneer Award from the Wyoming Natural Gas Fair Association, just one of numerous recognitions of his career in the energy industry.
Union recognized Wold’s visionary achievements much earlier. In 1999, he received the Eliphalet Nott Medal, which honors the perseverance of distinguished alumni who have attained great distinction in their fields. In 2008, Union bestowed an honorary doctor of science degree on Wold.
Wold visited campus last June for an early 100th birthday party hosted by students in Wold House.
Survivors include his sons Peter and Jack; daughter, Priscilla Longfield; and a number of grandchildren, including Joseph Wold ’10.
Karen Liberman Smith ’87, senior vice president at Olympus Scientific Solutions, will speak on Monday, Feb. 20, during common lunch in the Nott Memorial.
Smith, an electrical engineering major at Union, is in charge of her company’s non-destructive testing and analytical instrument business units.
She also holds an MBA from Clark University.
Her talk is sponsored by the Alumni Speaker Series.
Jillmarie Murphy, associate professor of English, presented a paper at the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association Conference in Charleston, SC. “Memory and Displaced Bodies in Leonora Sansay's Secret History; or, the Horrors of Saint Domingo,” focused on the third chapter of her forthcoming book, Attachment, Place, and Otherness in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: New Materialist Representations.Learn more about it here.
Also, Romantic Mediations: Media Theory and British Romanticism, a book by Andrew Burkett, assistant professor of English, was featured on the Scholar’s Choice table at the conference. Learn more about the book here.
Christine Henseler, professor of Spanish, gave a presentation at the American Association of Colleges & Universities. “On Being Portal: Breaking Us Out of Our Habituated Ways of Thinking” addressed how moving outside disciplinary and cultural boundaries can provide opportunities in higher education.
Brad Karp '81, chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, was recently featured in Bloomberg Law. The profile focused on the course of his law career. Today, Karp's clients include major banks such as Citigroup and the National Football League, and he continues to practice while growing the firm, which was the second most profitable in the U.S. in 2016.
During his time at Union, Karp majored in political science, and was involved with Block U and Golf Club.
Michael Saum '92, a captain in the U.S. Navy’s Construction Force (or Seabees), was recently profiled in the Observer. The story focused on his career. As a member of the a naval construction battalion center located in Port Hueneme, Calif., he builds and fights around the world.
During his time at Union, Saum was a member of Chi Psi.
One of Ireland’s foremost living writers, Colm Tóibín, reads from his work Thursday, Feb. 2, 8 p.m., in the Nott Memorial.
The reading is free and open to the public.
An award-winning fiction writer and journalist, Tóibín is author of the 2009 novel “Brooklyn,” which was adapted into the successful 2015 film of the same name. Brooklyn is about a young Irish immigrant in New York who must choose between two countries and her life in each.
“We invited Colm Tóibín because members of our department admire his writing, as a fiction writer and as an essayist for The New York Review of Books and The London Review of Books,” said Jordan Smith, the Edward Everett Hale Jr. Professor of English.
Smith and Claire Bracken, associate professor of English, helped organize Toibon’s campus visit. Tóibín’s recent study of Elizabeth Bishop and Thom Gunn, On Elizabeth Bishop, aligns with Smith’s new course examining the work of these 20th century poets. Tóibín’s works are examined in Bracken’s Irish Literature and Film course, as well.
In addition, the author will hold a talk and Q-&-A with students in classes taught by Bracken, Smith and Kara Doyle, associate professor of English, during the Common Hour Thursday in Reamer Auditorium.
Tóibin is no stranger to Union. The author has spent time on campus examining the collection of Yeats family material gathered by the late Lamont Professor of English William Murphy and to research material for his novel, The Master, about Henry James.
“He was particularly interested in the portrait of Henry James Sr. that is now hanging in the President’s House,” Smith said. “He will be continuing his work with Professor’s Murphy's collection while on campus.”
The Department of English has a long-standing interest in the study of Irish literature. Among the acclaimed Irish writers who have presented their work at Union are Anne Enright, Paula Meehan, John Montague, Tom Paulin and William Trevor.
Tóibín studied at University College Dublin and began his career as a journalist writing for In Dublin, Hibernia, Sunday Tribune and Dublin Sunday Independent. His experiences while living in Barcelona in the late 1970s influenced his first novel, “The South” (1980), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and won the Irish Times/Aer Lingus First Fiction Award. Since then he has published nine novels and numerous works of nonfiction, many of which have been bestsellers. The Blackwater Lightship (1999) and The Testament of Mary (2012) were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Tóibín was named one of Britain's Top 300 Intellectuals by The Observer and was hailed as a champion of minorities as he collected the 2011 Irish PEN Award. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
His Union reading is co-sponsored by a Mellon “Our Shared Humanities” grant, Minerva Programs, the John and Winifred Smith Literary Activities Fund of the Department of English, and the Internal Education Fund.
Carol Weisse, professor of psychology and director of the Health Professions program, presented at grand rounds at Ellis Hospital. Her talk, “Trends and Local Innovations in End of Life Care,” was given with Dr. George Giokas, regional medical director and palliative care director at the Community Hospice of Schenectady.
Valerie Barr, professor of computer science, gave two talks at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. on Jan. 13. The first talk, “Diversity in Tech: Present and Future,” was primarily for students participating in the New York City Tech Talent Pipeline Program. The second talk, “Changing CS Demographics Through Curriculum,” was for faculty and was followed by a lengthy roundtable discussion.
A new album of choral compositions by Hilary Tann, the John Howard Payne Professor of Music, has been released by Parma Recordings. “Exultet Terra” is named after the five-movement piece for double chorus and double reed woodwind quintet. It was written when Tann was composer-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music in 2011. Other works include “Contemplations,” with words by America's first female poet, Anne Bradstreet, and THE MOOR, to words by contemporary Welsh poet, R.S. Thomas. Amelia LeClaire conducts the choral group, Cappella Clausura, featured on the album. Learn more and listen here.
