Impresario for Innovators

As the director of South by Southwest Interactive, Hugh Forrest '84 presides over one of the world's most buzzworthy celebrations of all things entrepreneurial, creative and tech.

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Lifeline for Survivors

Kenyon alumni create a pioneering online library to help breast cancer patients cope with changed lives after treatment.

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Etiquette Everlasting

We examine the state of good manners, on our idiosyncratic Hill and in the wider world.

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Also In This Edition

Middle Path awaits the return of students in the fall.

The Lords took top honors for their third straight and thirty-fourth overall NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship in March in Shenandoah, Texas. A total of 468 points put them 85 points ahead of runner-up Denison.

Kenyon in the World

After Class

Indefatigable volunteer Phoebe Roe '16 sparks Kenyon efforts to aid an underfunded local school.

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Student Life

Fresh Faces

President Sean Decatur introduces new leaders in admissions and student affairs.

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Alumni News

On a Mission

Richard Dickey '59 uses his retirement years to help Haitians with medical care.

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Kenyon in Quotes

"Plundering continues despite the resulting loss of vital, contextual history."
—Associate Professor of Classics Zoe Kontes, promoting repatriation of classical antiquities.

Novel Approach to Romance

The Kenyon College Bookstore pitched a "Blind Date with a Bookseller" by wrapping staff-selected favorites in plain brown paper with a few words of description to capture each book’s essence and seduce a reader into a good read. With about 12,000 trade books in the store, there is plenty of love to go around.

Snapshots of Kenyon Life

A Treasure from Kenyon's Archives

Founded in 1969 as a way of making Kenyon less elitist and more "relevant," the Gambier Experimental College drew on the talents of students, faculty and staff. Until it petered out in 1993, the school offered courses such as Consciousness Raising, Ethnic Militancy, Folk Guitar, Needlepoint, Tightrope Walking and Scottish Sword Dancing.

The teachers included Kenyon luminaries including Peter Woytuk ’80, who would become a noted sculptor (he did the crows on Ransom Hall), Harry Clor of the political science faculty and Joyce Klein and Peggy Turgeon of Friday Café fame.

The Highest Level

Scott Thielke has accumulated twenty-two years of experience in two stints as coach of the Lords and Ladies tennis programs. His career includes a dozen North Coast Athletic Conference coach of the year awards (six with the men, six with the women), two Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region coach of the year honors, and the distinction of being named the 2012 ITA national coach of the year. He counts more than 600 match victories with the two programs, and his teams consistently rank among the best in the country.

Visions

"The Pain," acrylic and paper on wood by Klara Auerbach '18.

The artist writes, "'The Pain' is the physical expression of my ongoing emotional progression in coping with chronic pain, a process not unlike the stages of grief. It is the process of having an unwanted spike intrude into your life and the stubborn, entirely human response of not wanting to accept its existence." 

Class Notes

Recent Class Notes
’55

Edward T. Rhodes Sr. updates, “I recently married Dorothy Bondurant. We are snowbirds who reside in a condo at Lakewood National Country Club in Bradenton, Florida, from December until the first of May. Home for us is Leisure World in Silver Spring, Maryland. We would love to meet or dine with any classmates who are interested in Florida or Maryland (edrhodes900@gmail. com).” Ed celebrated his 90th birthday on March 20.

’16

Jordan W. Rucci married Dirk Hamel ’17 on Oct. 7. “Dirk and I bought a house outside of Lexington after eight years, three apartments and one cat together. I’m exhausted and being held together by hopes, dreams, and feminist affect theory. Working toward a Ph.D. in English at the University of Kentucky, where I’m also an instructor in the composition program.”

’53

“While I am sure that most of our class has passed on, some of us continue. I still live in Oregon but am not able to travel or drive. I am 92 and feel it most of the time. I live in a retirement home and am planning my 100th birthday. I’ll never forget my days at Kenyon.”

— Donald B. Thomas

Past Editions