Today
Letters & Science
university of wisconsin–madison
MacArthur “Genius”
Award Recipients
Number 2
S P RIN G 2 0 1 0
Giving Meaning to Giving
LOYOLA HIGH SCHOOL, LOS ANGELES, CA
Lynsey Marie Addario (BA ’95, international relations and Italian), a New Yorkbased international photojournalist, has
been honored with a 2009 MacArthur Fellowship (also called the “genius grant”).
Her photographs expose the tragic
consequences of human conflict, and
have been published on the front pages of
newspapers throughout the world.
Addario, 35, is one of 24 grant recipients this year, and will receive $500,000
over five years. The MacArthur Fellows
Program awards unrestricted fellowships
to “talented individuals who have shown
extraordinary originality and dedication
in their creative pursuits and a marked
capacity for self-direction.” She joins the
following members of the Letters &
Science community who have been so
honored in the past.
Volume 15
Errol Morris
(BA ’69, history), Filmmaker
Mari Jo Buhle
(PhD ’74, history), American Historian
William Cronon
(BA ’76, English and history),
Environmental Historian
Paul Schervish is a consultant to financial and development professionals and to wealth holders on the patterns and motivations of charitable
giving, on the moral biography of financial life, and discernment as a spiritual process of conscientious decision-making around wealth and
philanthropy. Schervish is the author of Gospels of Wealth: How the Rich Portray Their Lives. He has been selected five times to
the Non-Profit Times “Power and Influence Top 50.”
Ramón Gutiérrez
(MA ’76, PhD ’80, history), Historian
Jacqueline Jones
(MA ’72, PhD ’76, history), Historian
T
Thomas G. Palaima
(MA ’74, PhD ’80, classics), Classicist
Philip D. Curtin,
Professor of African History
Margaret W. Rossiter
(MS ’67, history of science),
Historian of Science
Thomas L. Daniel
(BS ’76, anthropology, MS
’78, zoology), Biologist
Laura L. Kiessling,
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Jillian Banfield,
Professor of Geology
Matthew Rabin
(BA ’84, economics), Economist
Joel Rogers,
Professor of Sociology, Law,
and Political Science
INSIDE
Giving Meaning to Giving
1
Father of Philippines
Internet Honored
2
Pursuing Core Research
Questions
3
When Blue Stragglers Collide 3
By The Book
4
Our Latest Marshall Scholar
4
Jane Brody Tackles the Final
Frontier
5
In Memoriam: Faculty/Staff
6
In Memoriam: Alumni
6
Alumni News
7
The Way We Were
8
Send YOUR news and updates to:
mathiak@ls.admin.wisc.edu.
he end of the year brings
reflections on the past and
future, family gatherings, and lots
of mail. Holiday greeting cards
are part of the tradition of greeting each other on the dawn of the
New Year. So are end-of-the-year
appeals for money to support one
cause or another.
While the arrival of holiday
cards can bring smiles and fond
memories, the appeals for contributions can be perplexing. The
numerous causes can be hard to
evaluate, and the volume of need
is staggering even when obvious
frauds are found out and discarded. In times of scarcity, the level
of need has become more urgent
at a time when many people have
fewer resources to share with
others.
People who may want to make
a difference but feel overwhelmed
by the range and volume of need,
might find it helpful to take a
deep breath and consider the
insights that Paul Schervish (PhD
’80, sociology) has to offer.
With his colleagues at
the Center on Wealth and
Philanthropy at Boston College,
Schervish studies the relationship
between wealth and philanthropy,
and philanthropic behavior ranging from formal grants awarded
by family foundations to informal
compassionate acts to meet the
needs of another. His most recent
project is the Study on Wealth,
Values, and Philanthropy, a survey
of households with a net worth of
$25 million or more.
Using social science survey and
statistical methods to learn about
the dynamics of giving seems
cold or detached from the human
relationships at the heart of philanthropy at first. For Schervish,
however, philanthropy is a much
deeper concept that embodies
psychological, social and spiritual
elements of daily life.
“It’s my great joy to bring
the statistical sophistication that
was pounded into me during my
PhD studies at Wisconsin, with
my spiritual training, to produce
a psycho-social analysis of how
people carry out their lives,”
Schervish says.
He has used his training as
a sociologist to challenge the
methods used to create a “generosity index” using IRS data alone,
and that consistently ranked
Massachusetts residents last—or
close to last—compared to other
states when it comes to giving to
others. Other work has a much
more philosophical focus, such
as “The Sense and Sensibility
of Philanthropy as a Moral
Citizenship of Care.”
At the heart of Schervish’s
work is the idea of “philanthropy”
as something much deeper than
tax-deductible donations or structured volunteer work for formal
organizations, and other activities
that we usually associate with the
word. He notes that typical studies of giving and volunteering miss
informal but significant personal
philanthropy, such as providing
family care for a child or elderly
person, or sharing a home with
adult children during hard economic times.
Taking a larger view of philanthropy, Schervish and his colleagues have given us intriguing
insights into the hows and whys of
giving in the 21st century:
• People who feel that their material needs have been satisfied
tend to give more than people of
the same socio-economic status
who do not feel financially
secure.
• Resource sharing, as opposed
to financial gifts, becomes an
increasingly important form of
philanthropy during hard times.
• Giving circles are becoming
much more common as donors
pool resources to achieve a bigcontinued on next page
Re. Gifting
Letters & Science Today
Volume 15, Number 2
Letters & Science Today is published
twice yearly by the College of Letters
& Science for alumni and friends of the
college. It is distributed in partnership
with the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
Please address all correspondence and
suggestions to:
Editor, Letters & Science Today
309 South Hall, 1055 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53706-1394
608–265–8287
608–265–3565 fax
e-mail: mathiak@ls.admin.wisc.edu
www.ls.wisc.edu/newsletters.htm
Gary Sandefur, Dean
Lucy Mathiak, PhD ’00, history, Editor
Nancy Rinehart, Designer;
Eileen Fitzgerald, BA ’79, Production
Editor, University Communications
To change your address or other alumni
listings, go to www.uwalumni.com.
Board of Visitors
Barbara Arnold (BA ’73, sociology and
social work, JD ’76) Vice President, Toyota
Motor Sales USA, Los Angeles, CA
Stephen Bablitch (BA ’76, English and
history, JD ’79) Senior Vice President,
Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI
Herman Baumann III (BA ’75, journalism)
Founder and Owner, Green Line Strategies
LLC, Inverness, IL
John “Jack” Bolz (BS ’50, economics)
Retired Vice President Corporate Affairs,
Oscar Mayer Co., Madison, WI
Nancy Taylor Borghesi (BA ’69, economics) Retired Senior Vice President, CCC
Information Services, Chicago, IL
James Burgess (BA ’58, journalism)
Retired Publisher, Wisconsin State Journal,
Madison, WI
Carol Carmichael (BS ’85, chemistry
course) Senior Counselor for External Relations, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA
Kenneth Ciriacks (BS ’58, geology) Retired Vice President Technology, BP Amoco,
Chicago, IL
Jerry Frautschi (BS ’56, economics)
Retired Vice Chairman of the Board, Webcrafters, Inc. Madison, WI
Mary Clare Freeman (BA ’48, speech)
Retired Speech and Language Clinician,
Wausau, WI
Terry Haller (MA ’71, mathematics) Retired Senior Vice President and Co-Founder,
Exel Inns of America, Madison, WI
George Hamel Jr. (BA ’80, communication arts) Managing Partner, ValueAct
Capital, San Francisco, CA
Carlton Highsmith (BA ’73, economics)
President, Specialized Packaging Group,
Inc., Middlebury, CT
John Jartz (BA ’75, history) Retired Vice
President – General Counsel and Business
Development, Quaker Oats Co., Barrington, IL
Mike Jones (BA ’81, history and philosophy) Vice President Corporate Affairs,
MillerCoors Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI
Kay Koplovitz (BS ’67, radio & television
& film) Founder, Koplovitz & Co., New
York, NY
continued from page 1
ger impact through their giving.
• Individuals increasingly view a
charitable organization as an
instrument for implementing
their care instead of just viewing themselves as instruments
for the charities to do good.
One of the most unexpected
findings is the satisfaction and
pleasure that donors experience
when they carry out philanthropy
that draws on Aristotle’s notion of
philia, or friendship love in which
“a friend is another myself,” and is
involved with me in a relationship
of mutual nourishment. In this
view, philanthropy that is embodied in caring acts is a relationship of connection, and enriches
and enhances the life of both the
receiver and giver.
This line of inquiry grew
out of Schervish’s contacts with
donors who talked about the joy
that they received from their gift.
“I didn’t believe it at first,” he
says. “Then I started to ask deeper
questions and found the existence
of a bond so joyful that people
want to do more of it.”
This is a radically different
way of thinking about giving
than most people are used to.
Indeed, Schervish believes that too
often the approach comes from
a “scolding” model that tells us
that “You’re not giving enough to
the right causes in the right way,
so shape up!” And this message is
compounded by moments when
people work to trump each other’s
generosity with statements that
convey that “my cause is important and yours is not.” All of this
comes together when, as donors,
“we tear ourselves apart with guilt
over whether we are doing enough,
or our efforts are good enough.”
The scolding model is not the
only one out there. It’s just the
model with which we are most
familiar, and it is the model that
David Kurrasch (BA ’73, radio & television
& film) President, Global Payment Advisors,
San Francisco, CA
Walter Mirisch (BA ’42, history) President
& Motion Picture Producer, The Mirisch
Corporation, Los Angeles, CA
Alice Mortenson (BS ’62, history) Director,
M.A. Mortenson Co., Minneapolis, MN
Joy Picus (BA ’51, political science) Former
City Council member, Los Angeles, CA
Steven Pogorzelski (BA ’83, journalism)
CEO, Clickfuel, Boston, MA
Irving Shain, Chancellor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Stanley Sher (BS ’56, history) Partner, Sher
& Blackwell, Washington, DC
John Torphy (BS ’62, history) Vice Chancellor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin–
Madison
Patricia Wright (BSE ’74, communication
arts) President, Donavan Wright Advisors
LLC, Katy, TX
2 Letters & Science Today
William “Bill” Torres (MS ’68, PhD
’71, computer sciences), dubbed
the “Father of the Philippine
Internet,” was honored on Dec. 17,
2009, with a Lifetime Achievement
Award presented by the country’s
technology journalists. The award
recognizes his significant contributions to the Philippine information
technology (IT) industry.
Torres came to Madison on
a Fulbright-Hays grant and was
the first Filipino to acquire a PhD
degree in computer science. Since
returning to the Philippines, he has
devoted his time and knowledge to
developing the country’s IT sector.
The defining point of his career
came in 1992 when he spearheaded the negotiations to connect
produces despair when we face a
pile of compelling, conflicting,
pleas for support from organizations and individuals.
In reality, philanthropy begins
with a personal connection or
identification with a need. “It’s not
just about what the organization
is doing, but what the organization is doing for those with whom
I identify as if they were myself
or members of my family,” says
Schervish. It is not an accident,
he says, that the largest areas of
giving remain those where there is
a strong and common connection:
churches that are the center of
religious community; educational
institutions where the donor went,
where their children go, or where
they hope their children will go;
and health care research programs
and facilities that have helped the
donor or a family member.
Schervish’s recent work has involved training fundraising and financial professionals to help people
discern what inspires them, asking
“is there anything that you want to
do, that you are able to do now or
in the future, that enables you to
the Philippines to the Internet. This
pioneering effort opened tremendous opportunities for Filipinos,
particularly in the area of business
process outsourcing.
As co-founder and former chief
executive of Mosaic Communications (Mozcom), the country’s first
commercial ISP (Internet service
provider), Torres introduced and
pushed for cutting-edge innovations in the field of information
and communications technologies
(ICT) that have greatly benefited
the Philippines.
He also was director-general of
the National Computer Center during the Aquino administration, and
has been an active leader in several
industry associations.
meet the true needs of others.”
This process is not reserved
for the wealthy, nor is it restricted
to financial giving. Regardless of
the resources, the process can help
each person to find their philanthropic vocation by identifying
what acts of caring will—and will
not—nourish and enrich their
soul. “Needs are infinite,” says
Schervish, “and all acts of care are
important. But for us as individuals, the key is to discover that
golden point where the needs to be
met is something that we can do
well and that we are inspired to do.
“It’s not about the wealth you’ve
accumulated, but about how you
live your life. True philanthropy is
part of the person, and the person
who gives receives nourishment
as happiness, effectiveness, and
significance. The most satisfying
thing we can do is to meet the true
needs of others, not because they
can pay us to provide them. The
most satisfying relationship, and
therefore one we are inclined to
freely choose, is to meet the needs
of others simply because they are
human beings in need.”
In Memoriam
Mary Claire Phipps Changed her Communities
Mary Claire (Aschenbrener)
Phipps, 1929–2009 (BA ’51,
economics) called Texas home, but
she never forgot her roots in her
beloved Racine and the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. As a member
of the Letters & Science Board of
Visitors since 2002, Mary Claire gave
generously of her time and insight
into challenges facing the college.
She also served as a charter member of the advisory board that was
recently created for the Department
of Economics.
Mary Claire was at the heart of
generations of students who have
benefited from the scholarship
programs that her father started and
that she continued in partnership
with her husband, Charles. Mary
Claire and Charles also created
UW FOUNDATION
Cora Marrett (MA ’65, PhD ’68, sociology) Acting Deputy Director, National
Science Foundation, Arlington, VA
Torres Honored as Father
of the Philippine Internet
the Mary Claire Phipps Economics
Research Fund to help her home
department nurture future greatness
among its faculty.
In the early 1950s, Willard
Aschenbrener endowed scholarships for outstanding students from
Racine and Park Falls to attend UW–
Madison. After her father’s death,
Mary Claire and Charles began to
receive the thank you notes from
students who had received the
awards. They also discovered that
her father had started a tradition of
taking the scholarship recipients out
to dinner once a year. “We liked
the idea, so Charlie and I decided to
continue the tradition. Meeting the
students is fabulous, and those annual dinners are the highlight of my
year,” she said in a 2006 interview.
Mary Claire also maintained a
sizeable correspondence with the
scholarship recipients and saved
all of their letters and mementos
of their visits. In many cases, the
students stayed in touch long after
graduation. (10/09)