LETTERS
To The Editor

 

Jazz Pioneers
Your “New Rhythm on Redstone” article was well-written and fun to read. It certainly rekindled memories of another time in UVM’s history when jazz was briefly accepted.

In 1960, a small group of us who all loved jazz formed a quintet. We worked locally at some of the clubs, inns, and frat parties. The following year we read about the New England College Jazz Competition, which would be held at the old Boston Garden.

We wrote and rehearsed several arrangements, begged the University, friends, and relatives for money and finally raised enough to buy plane tickets and enter as the University of Vermont Catamount Jazz Band.

The group consisted of Ira Adelman (alto & tenor sax), Frank Coderre (tenor sax, bass clarinet), Dick Austin (leader & guitar), Allan Grout (bass), Ron Kilburn (drums), and myself on piano/arrangements. Our vocalist was Melissa Hetzel, then the current Miss Vermont. It was a bit intimidating walking out to an elevated stage in the center of the arena with a large audience in the stands. We played our arrangements and at the end of the competition were announced as the winning small band.

As the group graduated, the band ceased to exist; but for a very brief moment, jazz was noted and applauded at UVM. It’s great to read that it’s now a full-time offering.

Jeff Kincaid ’63
Wheaton, Illinois

Office Politics
I was troubled to read in your winter issue that President Fogel surrendered his office in Waterman to Dr. Dean and Dan Rather. Does this mean UVM is leaning leftwards to back the Dean campaign? Can Mrs. Clinton and Rev. Sharpton be far behind?

If so, this gives a whole new meaning to “liberal” education.

Peter Robb ’82
Holliston, Massachusetts

Fogel’s got it
I just read President Fogel’s “Perspective” in the Winter 2004 edition of Vermont Quarterly. I couldn’t agree more with the notion that the personal growth which results from the student volunteer experience definitely remains a vivid part of one’s education. The highlight of my four years at UVM was being a Big Brother to a 10-year-old boy from the Old North End of Burlington, and during my senior year coordinating the Big Brother/ Sister Program through the University’s Office of Volunteer Programs. I have carried these experiences and the resulting lively discussions with my professors throughout my life.

As an alumni representative for UVM at three college fairs in Connecticut for many years, I’m delighted when high school juniors and seniors talk about their volunteer activities in the community. I know that if they decide to attend UVM, one of the University’s major strengths is fostering volunteer programs through initiatives such as service-learning.

It is so comforting and makes me proud to be an alumnus, knowing that UVM’s chief visionary experienced service-learning firsthand and strongly supports this activity. I hope the UVM community realizes Daniel Mark Fogel is a special person who has got “it” and supports his initiatives to improve the University.

Mark O. Palladino ’75
Middlebury, Connecticut

Finding Toby
Caleb Daniloff’s essay, “Notes from the Back Row,” in the Fall 2003 issue reminded me that I too had my Toby Fulwiler (in fact two “Tobys”) at UVM. Is that not what college is all about?

Mr. Daniloff's message should be delivered to the UVM students of today and maybe they can find, or recognize, their “Tobys” before it may be too late.

Robert Wolfe ’57
Danbury, Connecticut

Medal’s Irony
The column remembering Al Gutterson’s 1912 Olympic long jump gold medal in the recent edition of VQ was bitterly ironic, appearing in the first academic year since UVM eliminated its men’s track and field program. What a poignant reminder of the University’s, and Vermont’s, loss.

Steve Stebbins ’83
Alexandria, Virginia