Legacy of Don Bolles’50
I would like to share some interesting facts about my brother, the journalist Don Bolles’50. (See “In Search of the Truth,” fall/winter 2006 issue).
Perhaps many of Don’s classmates, as well as those in the classes of ’51 and ’52, are not aware of the Don Bolles Memorial Endowed Scholarship at Beloit College. I send my contributions to Beloit for this scholarship.
People also may be interested to know that a book is being written about Don and his family journalism background by Ken Killibrew, a professor of journalism at the University of South Florida. When Don was killed in 1976, the author was an investigative reporter for a newspaper in Bloomington, Ill. He was quite affected by Don’s death.
Our family background in journalism and law includes our grandfather Stephen W. Bolles, who was a newspaper editor for the
Janesville Daily Gazette, with many impressive assignments, and a congressman from Rock County, Wis. Don’s and my father, Donald Clinton Bolles, was a newsman with the Associated Press (as Don was when he first came home from Korea after graduating from Beloit). Our grandfather, Charles L. Fifield, was a Probate Court Judge in Rock County in the 1920s. He grew up in Janesville, Wis., where a portrait of him is prominently displayed in the Rock County Courthouse.
Ann Bolles Johnson’52
Hainesport, N.J.
ajohn428@pics.com
Editor’s Note: Those wishing to make a gift to the Donald Bolles Memorial Endowed Scholarship fund, which is awarded to Beloit College students with interests in the field of journalism, should contact Denise LaMaster (lamaster@beloit.edu or 608-363-2650) in the Office of External Affairs. The fall/winter 2006 issue of Beloit College Magazine is online at http://www.beloit.edu/belmag/.
As a recipient of the Donald Bolles memorial scholarship, I was delighted to read the story you published in your last issue about Bolles’ extraordinary work (“In Search of the
Truth,” fall/winter 2006).
Last year, Beloit College notified me about a scholarship I was receiving in Bolles’ name. While thrilled to earn some more financial support, I was disappointed because they didn’t give me any information about Bolles. Your article by Shannon Luckey’92 was the first time I had ever come across any information about him.
His story is enthralling, and I feel honored to be associated with an intriguing individual like Bolles. Thank you for publishing the story and allowing me to connect with this man’s life.
Lorenzo Buchanan’07
Tucson, Ariz.
Kudos to Shannon Luckey’92 on her excellent Don Bolles article. I work in the broadcasting department at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. As Luckey mentioned, the Newseum will display Bolles’ car in our “Dateline Danger” exhibit. One of my colleagues has also produced a film on the story.
The Newseum is on schedule to open in the fall of 2007 at our new building on Pennsylvania Avenue, six blocks from the Capitol. Our new Web site went live in January. You can see more about the Bolles exhibit, the building, and all our galleries at www.newseum.org. One of our most popular Web features is the Daily Front Pages. You can see the front pages of more than 500 newspapers from around the world on our Web site every day by 9 a.m. eastern time. Check us out online and in D.C. in the fall.
Ken Crawford’83
Washington, D.C.
RELATED LINK:
"In Search of the Truth" - Beloit College Magazine, fall/winter 2006 issue
Campus Trees
Thank you for the fall/winter 2006 issue of Beloit College Magazine with its refreshing cover and the article about campus trees.
One of my great joys at my 60th reunion in 2006 was simply crossing the campus and watching the trees grow. Then the magazine came with your fine article.
Carol Nieland Baier’46
Martinez, Calif.
I found your article “Our Campus Trees” very interesting. I have walked through the campus many times since 1948, but I never gave individual trees much attention. This past fall during my annual visit to Beloit, I walked through the campus several times. On my last walk, which I took with my brother, we took the time to admire individual trees, especially those adjacent to the path from Middle College to Pleasant Street. The campus is very fortunate to have these beautiful trees, and I was glad to read that efforts are being made to preserve and replace them when necessary.
I was disappointed to see the new asphalt parking lots interspersed between the houses on Church Street. I can’t think of a more harmful surface for the environment than asphalt. In contrast to asphalt, a parking lot surfaced with concrete bricks allows surface water to soak into the ground and provides moisture to the roots of surrounding trees.
Edgar Bergmann’53
Hofheim/Taunus, Germany
RELATED LINK:
"Our Campus Trees" - Beloit College Magazine, fall/winter 2006 issue
Remembering Ruth Peterson’38
On my arrival at Beloit in 1986, I found I had been assigned as my first-year advisor a woman named Ruth Colman Peterson. She was director of Academic Advising but also registrar emeritus and a Beloit College graduate from the class of—yes, really!—1938. Coming from a traditional Asian background and two years at a conservative English boarding school, I couldn’t help but be intimidated by this senior personage’s age and official position. So it came as a bit of a shock when the woman I had been addressing as Ms. Peterson told me, with eyes twinkling, “Please call me Ruth. ‘Ms. Peterson’ sounds old ...”
Ruth taught me to recognize that age has no bearing on whether someone is relevant, or capable of enjoying life, learning new things, and listening to younger people’s discoveries and experiences. She was able to impart nuggets of wisdom in such an understated, modest way that one only truly appreciates it upon thinking back. Ruth also taught me that respect shouldn’t necessarily be given to people just because they’re older but, rather, because they can teach younger, less-experienced folks.
Above all though, Ruth showed me that bonds can form across such generational divides. I often felt that even after she ceased to be my official advisor, she—who came from such a different geographic, cultural, and religious background from my own—remained one of my biggest cheerleaders and a valued mentor and friend.
Ruth Peterson inspired me with her humanity and touched me greatly. It was with great sorrow that I learned she passed away on Oct. 28, 2006.
Yvonne Teh’90
Penang, Malaysia
RELATED LINK:
In Memoriam: Ruth Colman Peterson'38 -
Beloit College Magazine, spring 2007
The fall/winter 2006 issue contained an obvious contradiction regarding climate change/global warming. For those who shun shoddy science, such as selective data citation to support bias, dig out a Chicago Sunday Tribune (circa 1994). Its Parade supplement published an interview with astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas.
I include a sample: “The most sensitive indicators clearly show that there has been a drop in global temperature over the past two decades.” The expert said that dire predictions of global warming are the product of computerized projections which are totally flawed. “The most accurate satellite measurement systems for global temperature refute these findings.”
The number one WMD is “Ignoramusification,” a dumb bomb delivered by a consortium of scientists, reporters, educators, newscasters, editors, and official government newsbriefs (a.k.a. propaganda).
Why the fibbery on climate? Answer: to cover Weather Modification, a “black project” applying the theoretical physics of Lee and Yang (1957 Nobelists) and the Manhattan Project experience of Madame Chien-Shiung Wu, who experimentally verified Lee and Yang’s theory, which posited that lefty and righty photons were not samo-samo. Weather Modification also applies the physics of Nobelist Arthur Compton: The Compton effect, and recoil electrons.
Yea! To Ariel Choinard’06 and Jean Taggart’06 (“Itching to Write”). Their collaboration had to bring a big smile to Don Bolles’50.
John Langley’58
Ruidoso, N.M.
RELATED LINK:
"Itching to Write" - Beloit College Magazine, fall/winter 2006 issue
