Editor's Notes
Wish You Were Here
On vintage postcards, the Logan Center, and the departure of Core adviser Michael Jones.
FROM HER MICHIGAN ANTIQUE SHOP, my aunt sent the picture postcard above, guessing that “Chicago” might mean the University of Chicago. On the flip side, the card is addressed to the Stoecker family in Detroit and signed “Best regards, Ernest.” At first we suspected the sender might be an alumnus, but if he was a Stoecker, none of the University records concur. Then staff writer and transit obsessive Benjamin Recchie, AB’03, looked up the ship name on the life preserver.
The J. F. Dunston, he discovered, was an ore freighter built in Wisconsin in 1908. She sailed the Great Lakes until 1961, when she was scrapped in Germany. Based on these facts and the September 1913 postmark, we reached a wistful conjecture that Ernest and friend are crewmen who made a port of call in Chicago and saw a football game during what was a championship season for the Maroons. We can’t know if that’s the real story, of course. But we like the looks of these guys (including the cause emblazoned on their other pennant, “Votes for Women”) and are happy to count them as UChicago fans.
SINCE THE REVA AND DAVID LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS opened its doors on March 26, I’ve visited eight times for five disparate purposes. Even though my office isn’t on campus, or even in Hyde Park, my mental map of both is forever altered.
In April, there was a staff tour, as well as a gathering of the College visiting committee. In May, a half-day meeting for communications staff was held in the handsome first-floor performance hall. Also that month, professors David Schutter and Heidi Coleman graciously allowed me to shadow their classes to research “Logan Revealed”; I visited four times in six days. Finally, during Alumni Weekend, I helped out at the reunion dinner where John Morris, AB’37, regaled fellow alumni emeriti with stories from his career as a photo editor for Life.
Already, it almost feels as if we’ve always had Logan. Has it really been only three months? Here’s to trying to preserve the sense of its newness—at least until its official opening on 10/11/12, which I hope you’ll attend and enjoy the shift in your own personal geography.
MANY OF YOU WHO GRADUATED during the past two decades know Michael R. Jones, AM’83, PhD’88, AM’12, in his capacity as associate dean of the College. In that position, he taught in the Core curriculum, worked with Dean Boyer to ensure that the academic side of the College thrived, and acted as chief liaison with alumni relations and development.
It’s less well known that, since 2007, Michael has been the trusted adviser of this magazine: the man behind the masthead. Eleven issues, including the one you’re holding, began life in a story ideas meeting with Michael and went into print with his stamp of approval. Every time we had a question—Which students are doing amazing research? Is there a story behind this news item? How did this program evolve?—we counted on him to explain it all to us.
Michael earned his PhD in philosophy and taught philosophy at Marquette University before returning to UChicago in 1991. He recently earned a master’s degree in clinical social work from the School of Social Service Administration. Michael resigned his position at the end of June to join a private psychotherapy practice in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. We wish him another brilliant career and thank him for everything, which was a lot.
—Laura Demanski, AM’94
