U.S. ARMY PHOTO/STAFF SGT. RUSSELL LEE KLIKA

June 28, 2006, Iraq. As the Humvee passed through the streets, Command Sgt. Maj. David Allard spotted the Taliban in their distinctive cloaks. Nothing unusual about that--yet something told Allard to look back. He shifted his weight forward and turned his head just in time to see the Taliban aim
the improvised explosive device. "Punch it!" David urged the driver. Seconds later the IED exploded right behind Allard, narrowly missing his spine.

April 24, 2008, Nashville. Command Sgt. Maj. David Allard rounds his ninth lap on Peabody College's tranquil green campus. Physical therapist Lisa Haack stops him mid-jog to check his vitals. Heart rate 140. Headache and dizziness at level 4. Cause for concern.

Same war, different fight.

An hour's drive northwest of Nashville, the sprawling Fort Campbell U.S. Army installation, which straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky line, is home to the 101st Airborne Division. Most of the division's 26,000 enlisted men and women are infantry. They are front-line soldiers, prime candidates for the signature injury of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and Iraq: traumatic brain injury as a result of improvised explosive devices.

An estimated 11 percent to 20 percent of returning U.S. combat troops suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Soldiers on a tour of duty in Iraq may have experienced dozens of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and although not every blast injury is fatal, the residual damage is real.

It has been just more than one year since the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center's Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute saw its first patient with TBI as a result of an improvised explosive device detonated in Iraq. Vanderbilt is one among only a handful of civilian agencies across the country treating soldiers, and Fort Campbell has quickly come to depend on the expertise of Pi Beta Phi, which provides rehabilitation for neurological impairment with a special emphasis on traumatic brain injuries.

Fort Campbell has its own hospital, Blanchfield Army Community Hospital--but the 66-bed facility can offer nothing like the wealth of resources down the road at Vanderbilt. According to Sandra Schneider, director of the Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute (PBPRI), Fort Campbell initiated the partnership when it asked the Brain Injury Association of Tennessee what programs were available. The PBPRI is known for its strong brain injury program, which works with an array of specialty clinics like the Vanderbilt Sleep Disorders Center and the Vanderbilt Headache Clinic. In addition, PBPRI has on-campus resources in the Vanderbilt departments of neurology, trauma and internal medicine.

Now entering its third decade, the PBPRI has a long history of treating mild to severe brain injuries. But last year, in taking on this new group of patients with injuries unlike anything its therapists had seen before, the PBPRI was navigating uncharted territory.

"In April 2007 we started to receive our first referrals because there was nothing in place to treat them at Fort Campbell," says Schneider, who is also an associate professor of hearing and speech sciences. "Families and friends of the soldiers would say that their soldier just didn't seem the same. The soldiers themselves would complain of sleeplessness, headaches and dizziness. We knew we were seeing a new phenomenon."

What made the brain injuries so distinct from other "traditional" TBIs was the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The combination of TBI and PTSD created a treatment conundrum.

"Most all the soldiers sent to us who have been in a combat zone have PTSD," says Schneider. "In treating most patients with mild traumatic brain injuries, we work on memory deficits. Sometimes, however, as the soldiers share their stories with the therapist, their memories are just too painful--and those memories triggered PTSD. These are, after all, individuals who were almost killed by blasts and sometimes watched soldiers in the same vehicle lose their lives."



The uniqueness of these soldier patients--their injuries and their road to recovery--has prompted the Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute to customize treatment regimens. PBPRI staffers found that even some of the tools often used to treat traumatic brain injuries might dredge up disturbing recollections. Personal digital assistants like PalmPilots help TBI patients compensate for memory loss by using the electronic devices to make lists, record directions and take notes. But for some soldiers, PalmPilots are too much like the devices used to detonate an IED. Even seeing the PalmPilot can send them into combat mode.

"Many aspects of ordinary daily life can be extremely stressful to a returning soldier," says Jenny Owens, PBPRI occupational therapist. "More than one soldier has told us of being somewhere like a mall with his family, hearing a loud noise like a balloon popping, and diving to the floor with his family to take cover. The experiences of war are so fresh that they see potential threats everywhere."

For Kristin Hatcher, speech pathologist, the soldiers' unpredictable behavior makes treatment challenging. "These individuals are hyper-vigilant to everything going on. You never know what's going to disrupt," she says. "We've learned to watch for fire drills, audiovisual speaker noise--anything that's going to send them into combat mode."

"Every single one of these guys wants to go back," says PBPRI Director Sandra Schneider. "They feel an obligation to their units."
Photo by Neil Brake.

Counseling is therapeutic and has become a critical part of the soldiers' treatment, yet PBPRI therapists have learned that the emotions counseling unearths can cause agitation.

"Sometimes, particularly after their vestibular/PT treatment, the soldiers may be dizzy or have headaches, and are unsafe to drive back to Fort Campbell. We have learned to schedule that therapy first or give them breaks to avoid putting them in an unsafe situation," says Dominique Herrington, clinic coordinator. "The traffic and distance they travel to our facility already provide a level of stress that we don't normally see in civilian patients with brain injuries.

"Think of the typical personality of a soldier: aggressive, adventurous. They may be off the battlefield, but they're still engaging in risky behaviors like extreme sports."

Some of the anxiety stems from the soldiers' frustration at being back home, points out Anita Zelek, social worker and case manager with Pi Beta Phi. "Anyone with PTSD experiences anger, but for these soldiers there isn't one specific event that is now emotionally over--like a car wreck, for instance. These soldier patients are still living the war. They know the war is continuing without them and that their buddies are still in Iraq. It's so difficult to move on.

"The soldiers experience great anxiety because they define themselves as soldiers," adds Zelek. "So they think, 'If I'm not a soldier, then what do I do?'"

The Soldier Mentality

One would think that a soldier narrowly escaping death would never want to return to war. Ironically, though, the desire to go back to Iraq is a prime motivation. The soldiers feel an obligation to their unit, making them some of the most committed, driven patients Vanderbilt has ever seen.

Case in point: One of Hatcher's patients had witnessed 32 IED blasts and wanted to get better so he could redeploy. "How do you prepare someone to return, with such deficits?" she asks.

David Allard works out as part of his therapy with therapist Lisa Haack at Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute. Therapy can run as high as $50,000 per soldier, and insurance usually pays only part of the cost.
Photo by Neil Brake.

This is not a rhetorical question. PBPRI staff must prepare soldier patients not only for ordinary daily activities, but for a return to the frontline. In occupational therapy, for instance, Owens works with patients to maximize independence in daily activities. Previously, she had never rehabilitated anyone to return to a dangerous situation. Now she prepares soldiers to continue being scouts.

"Scouts are the first soldiers to enter a building and clear it, so they must be watchful for any signs of IEDs or other dangers," Hatcher explains. "For these soldiers I tailor occupational therapy to their duties--giving them maps to identify the best routes.

"We go on 'missions' where we follow a route, making sure the soldier is attending to landmarks, signs, etc. Even counting the
number of trash cans can simulate the type of attention to detail that is needed in war."

In the arena of physical therapy, Lisa Haack is not just rehabilitating a patient back to normal conditions. She is rehabilitating soldiers to return to 100-degree heat with 90-pound packs--an enormous hurdle for patients like David Allard with constant headaches.

Warriors in Transition

Although he's working on building endurance, David Allard is not returning to Iraq. Through the course of his therapy at Pi Beta Phi, he not only improved physically, but made an enormous psychological leap. A 24-year veteran of the Army, David realized his injuries could make him a liability for men in his command. Rather than redeploy, David answered the military's call to set up a Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) at Fort Campbell.

Established in August 2007, the WTU is Fort Campbell's response to the TBI phenomenon in soldiers returning from duty. Currently, more than 700 soldiers are in the WTU. The partnership among the Department of Defense, PBPRI and Fort Campbell has grown as the three work together to rehabilitate injured patients.

"We know anecdotally that there are Vietnam vets who are homeless because they are still dealing with PTSD," says Schneider. "Currently, data shows there are 1,600 homeless individuals who served in the Iraq war. The Army has recognized the significance of doing something now to help returning soldiers. No one can wait 15 years to figure out what's needed."

In addition to the jobs for which they're trained, each PBPRI therapist finds herself in the unfamiliar role of advocate. The number of case managers at Fort Campbell has increased from three to 28, but more are needed. At Vanderbilt the therapists must work within the system to get the treatment the soldiers need through Tricare, the insurance plan for the U.S. Department of Defense. Although
Vanderbilt commends both the Department of Defense and Tricare for funding most of the soldiers' needs, there are still gaps.

Take Spc. Juan Zapata, for instance. He was patrolling the streets for insurgent activity when he suffered a blast injury. He served another six months before leaving Iraq in November 2006. He returned home shell-shocked and suffering from multiple vision problems due to his concussion.

Post-trauma vision syndrome caused photophobia, or light sensitivity. Driving at night has been compromised for Zapata, and headaches are relentless. In addition, he has an accommodative dysfunction--meaning it's difficult for his eyes to shift focus. Arguably one of Zapata's greatest challenges, though, is his difficulty in orienting.

"Because of visual-spatial deficits related to post-traumatic vision syndrome, he has navigational problems," says Owens. "This is a tough blow for an individual with such a talent for navigation. He had built a career in the Army around those skills."

Fighting the System

In November 2007--more than a year after sustaining his TBI--Zapata saw a Fort Campbell doctor who referred him to Vanderbilt for speech and occupational therapies. Applying a team approach to patient care, Vanderbilt recognized that Zapata also needed a physical therapy consultation because he suffered from vestibular/balance dysfunction. With his extensive vision issues, Zapata also needed to see a behavioral ophthalmologist. Because he didn't have a case manager, the PBPRI team had to navigate the bureaucracy themselves to get Zapata the treatment he needed.

"The Tricare worker said Juan needed to see someone on base--but those specialized services don't yet exist," explains Anita Zelek. "It took several months of making calls before we got the insurance company to agree to cover the other services for Juan."

Vanderbilt also was able to refer Zapata locally to obtain eyeglasses with special prisms in them.

Although Zelek and others at Vanderbilt often are able to help soldiers like Zapata get the services they need, they sometimes hit roadblocks. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, for instance, does not recognize cognitive therapy as a service, although the company does in other states. All payers will, however, cover medications. That's why over-medication is a real problem. When Pi Beta Phi therapists told one soldier to bring in his medications, he brought a tackle box--full of his more than 35 pills a day.

"With TBI patients, memory's an issue, so often these patients can't remember which medications they've taken," notes Schneider. "This can lead to accidental overdoses."

When the War Becomes Personal

Soldiers come to Vanderbilt only after they've fought their own private war--a war in which they deny their symptoms, deny anything is wrong.

"In the Army the soldiers have learned that 'pain is weakness leaving the body,'" says Andrea Ondera, PBPRI physical therapist. "It is ingrained in them that 'pain reminds you you're alive,' so it's very hard for them to admit they need help.

"We validate for them that what they feel is real--and that physical reasons are behind those feelings."

As demand for its services has increased, PBPRI is growing accordingly. And staffers have traveled to Alabama, Illinois, Nevada and North Carolina to share what they've learned with medical and rehabilitation professionals elsewhere.

Juan Zapata performs an eye test with therapist Jenny Owens. Post-trauma vision syndrome has caused Zapata to experience light sensitivity and relentless headaches.
Photo by Neil Brake.

"Training others is the best thing we can do," Schneider says. "We owe these soldiers the best of the best. I could spend every waking hour dealing with our military obligations--and I would do anything in the world for them."

For the dedicated professionals at PBPRI, this war has become intensely personal. In the face of each soldier, the therapists see their brothers. Sons. Friends. Soldiers come to depend on the Pi Beta Phi team as therapists, advocates, confidants and friends. The therapists receive e-mails from soldiers who have redeployed. The younger therapists, all contemporaries with soldiers, share a common generational bond. And each of the team members at Vanderbilt feels rewarded beyond measure.

"I feel I'm serving my country," says Haack, age 33. "Some people may build up a tolerance to what's going on over there, but not us. Our soldiers show us the shrapnel that came out of their heads; we hear the stories and relive those experiences with them."

David Allard, conscientiously pursuing his treatment, leads by example. He has even adapted a war tradition for the Warrior Transition Unit and Pi Beta Phi. "In the Army you get a coin for excellence, and you have to carry it on you at all times," he explains. "I've given coins to my therapists. They've earned them. They'd best not forget them."

On the coin is this inscription: I am a warrior in transition. My job is to heal as I transition back to duty or continue serving the nation as a veteran in my community. This is not a status but a mission, because I am a warrior and I am Army strong.

The therapists at Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute are not likely to forget--or to leave their coins behind. Like the soldiers they treat, their work is a mission.

While many organizations, both military and civilian, provide help for soldiers, too many are not getting the services they need. They may live too far away from facilities that could help them. They may not recognize the symptoms of PTSD and TBI. And sometimes professionals are not trained to recognize the signs, either.

Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center is an interdisciplinary outpatient rehabilitation clinic serving persons with acquired brain injury. Services of the Institute are geared toward older teens and adults who have an acquired neurological impairment, with a primary emphasis on those who are recovering from traumatic head injury and stroke. An individualized, structured program is designed for each patient.

To learn more, call Sandra Schneider, director of the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center's Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute, at 615/936-5044. Or visit www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/vumc.php?site=pibetaphi.

For information about traumatic brain injury or to locate TBI resources across the country, visit the National Brain Injury Association Web site at www.biausa.org.

Rebuilding a Life, One Step at a Time

Spc. Juan Zapata will never forget April 8, 2006.

"I remember thinking it was a beautiful day--nice and sunny. That's the last thing I remember before waking up. Up until then I felt almost invincible. I had raided so many houses, been shot at so many times, but I felt like nothing could happen to me."

The IED that blew the front end off Zapata's vehicle, however, changed all that.

"At first I felt unsafe when I wasn't with my battalion," he says. "I've had a lot of anxiety and feel distant from everyone. There's no joy anymore. All the things I used to take pleasure in are gone now."

Through the therapy Zapata is getting at the Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute, his orientation is improving, as is his vision. He's making plans to return to school--perhaps to become a career counselor or benefits counselor. He wants a role in which he'll help other soldiers.

"He has already given so much to his country, but he has tremendous gifts yet to use," says Jenny Owens, Pi Beta Phi physical therapist.

As with so many returning soldiers, it's a slow recovery--emotionally and physically--and a large part of Zapata's heart is still in Iraq.

"I was with the First Battalion, 506th infantry regiment, and they're still in Ar-Ramadi, Iraq," says Zapata. "I'm proud of what we did over there. I wish everyone understood how much good is being done."

--Melissa Norton Carro, BA'85

Photo by Neil Brake.

Photo by Daniel DuBois.

"There were no rules, there was no hierarchy, there was no management. "

--Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, on how his firm rallied after 658 of 970 employees perished in the World Trade Center. Lutnick spoke at Commencement for the Owen Graduate School of Management on May 9.

www.vanderbilthealth.com/clinicaltrials

Asthma? Sleep apnea? A spare tire around your waist? Whatever the malady, chances are Vanderbilt is studying it in a clinical research trial. This new Web site aims to at least triple the number of volunteers for clinical trials of new vaccines, cancer treatments, and a multitude of other areas. The beefed-up recruitment is an initiative of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, established last fall with a $46 million award from the National Institutes of Health--the largest single government grant ever received by Vanderbilt.

Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers Band performs at Rites of Spring, an annual student-produced music festival to celebrate the end of the academic year. Headline acts for the April 18-19 event were Spoon and Lil Jon.

Photo by Daniel DuBois.

RNA Interference Heals Growth Deficiency Disorder

Vanderbilt researchers have demonstrated for the first time that a new type of gene therapy called "RNA interference" can heal a genetic disorder in a live animal.

Their study, published last fall by the journal Endocrinology, shows that RNA interference can "rescue" a strain of mouse that has been genetically engineered to express a defective human hormone that interferes with normal growth. When the gene that produces the defective human growth hormone is inserted into the mouse's genome, it also stunts the mouse's growth. But when a small snippet of RNA that interferes with the hormone's production is also added, the mouse is restored to normal.

Find out more: www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/stories/sirna.html

Liver Allocation System Lowers Death Rates

Vanderbilt researchers have found that the United Network for Organ Sharing's (UNOS) adoption of an objective-only method of allocating donated livers has lowered the number of deaths among patients on the waiting list. In 2002, UNOS adopted a system using laboratory-based values to characterize a patient's need for liver transplantation.

Previously, patients who spent the longest time on the waiting list for a liver were often given priority. After the change, wait times became less of an issue while severity of condition was prioritized.

The change was the subject of great debate and prompted Vanderbilt researchers to examine the outcomes associated with the new liver allocation policy. Results of the study were released last fall in the Archives of Surgery.

Find out more: www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=6002

Melatonin Study Could Help Children with Autism

Vanderbilt sleep researchers are reporting a relationship between good sleep and how much melatonin the body produces--the first in a series of research studies intended to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) sleep through the night.

"This suggests that children with ASD who have decreased melatonin levels have decreased levels of deep sleep," says lead author Dr. Beth Malow, director of the Vanderbilt Sleep Disorders Center. "We didn't actually give the supplement; we measured natural levels of melatonin in the body. One could infer, based on what we found, that a supplement might be good."

More research is needed before recommending that children begin taking melatonin supplements to benefit their sleep.

Find out more: www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=5973

Photo by Steve Green

Coach Johnson Honored for Suicide Prevention Work

Head Football Coach Bobby Johnson was recognized during a ceremony in March for his efforts toward youth suicide prevention when The Jason Foundation presented him with its Grant Teaff "Breaking the Silence" Award.

The award is given annually by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and The Jason Foundation to the college coach who has done the most to promote youth suicide prevention. Johnson was first told about the honor in front of nearly 2,000 college coaches at the American Football Coaches Association convention in January.

Since its inception a decade ago, The Jason Foundation has worked with the American Football Coaches Association membership after data surfaced that youth most often turn to an educator--and specifically a coach--in times of crisis.

Checkered Past

"It's a pretty cute bug," Lamar Alexander, BA'62, said last November at an event in Gatlinburg, Tenn., announcing the discovery of a new species of insect to be named after the former Tennessee governor, former U.S. secretary of education, former Republican presidential candidate and current U.S. senator.

Like the trademark plaid shirts Alexander has worn in political campaigns, Cosberella lamaralexanderi, or "Lamar Alexander springtail," sports a checkerboard coloration. The insect was first discovered in the Great Smoky Mountains. Alexander grew up in nearby Maryville, Tenn.

Police Chief to Lead 2,000 Peers

Marlon C. Lynch, Vanderbilt chief of police, is the 2008-2009 president-elect for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators Inc. (IACLEA). Lynch joined Vanderbilt in 2005 as assistant chief of police after serving as chief of police and director of public safety at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He became chief of police at Vanderbilt in January 2007.

Lynch earned a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and a master's degree from Boston University, both in criminal justice. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command.

The office will be led by Nora Spencer, who leaves a similar job at the University of Florida. There she oversaw support services, programming, strategic planning, marketing and fundraising for GLBT affairs and served as a resource and advocate regarding GLBT issues.

Nora Spencer

The new office "not only will provide support and encouragement, but also the type of visibility and advocacy needed in the Vanderbilt community," says Shay Malone, assistant director of the Office of Leadership Development and Intercultural Affairs. "It is my hope that with a fully staffed GLBT office, we can begin to address some of the unique challenges GLBT students face here at Vanderbilt and the need to educate students about awareness and understanding in a way we were not able to do before."

The university also has established a committee to advise the administration on issues that affect GLBT life on campus. David Boyd, associate professor of medicine, health and society, who led the task force that recommended creation of the GLBT center, has been appointed chair of the committee.

Richard McCarty
Photo by Daniel DuBois.

Richard McCarty, a distinguished psychologist who has led the largest school at Vanderbilt University for the past seven years, has been named provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

"Richard embodies Vanderbilt's values of excellence and fairness," said Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos in announcing the appointment in May. "He is a scholar who is committed to every aspect of our education mission."

McCarty received his bachelor's degree in biology and master's degree in zoology from Old Dominion University before earning a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He is an authority on the physiological and behavioral aspects of stress. A native of Portsmouth, Va., he spent two years as a research associate in pharmacology with the National Institute of Mental Health before joining the University of Virginia in 1978 as an assistant professor of psychology. He then rose to department chair before taking a leave of absence to join the American Psychological Association as executive director for science. He has served as editor of American Psychologist and as founding editor-in-chief of Stress.

Under McCarty's direction Vanderbilt embarked on a significant faculty recruitment initiative; undergraduate student quality, diversity and selectivity were ranked among the highest in the country; and graduate student enrollment and diversity increased dramatically.

As provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, McCarty will have responsibility for academic programs of the Blair School of Music, College of Arts and Science, Divinity School, School of Engineering, Graduate School, Law School, Owen Graduate School of Management and Peabody College, and also will oversee student affairs, housing, admissions and financial aid, and research.

Carolyn Dever, executive dean of the College of Arts and Science and professor of English, is serving as interim dean of the College of Arts and Science until a new dean is named.

Illustration by Normand Cousineau

Although manufacturers are responsible for much of the greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States, individuals largely contribute to the problem of climate change, too. So what can be done about it?

A diverse group of experts at Vanderbilt University has created the Climate Change Research Network, which combines researchers from the areas of earth and environmental sciences, political science, law, engineering, business, management, economics and nursing to investigate one of the most important and most widely overlooked sources of greenhouse gases: individual behavior.

"The Climate Change Research Network is an interdisciplinary team conducting research to understand the magnitude of the contribution from individuals and households," says Michael Vandenbergh, professor of environmental law. "Our goal is to identify the legal, economic and social responses that can generate effective, low-cost emissions reductions by those individuals and their families in their everyday lives."

Network participants are examining questions such as: Which individual behaviors release the greatest amounts of greenhouse-gas emissions? How do people perceive and value climate-change risks, particularly when they are remote? What changes in the administration and staffing of government agencies will be required if climate-change laws and policies are adopted?

The Climate Change Research Network is in the early stages of establishing a national and international network of researchers to help answer questions that policymakers and other individuals may have regarding what they can do in their day-to-day lives to shrink their carbon footprint.

Find out more by clicking here.

Monroe Carell Jr. during one of his frequent visits to the hospital that bears his name
Photo by Dana Johnson.

­­­Monroe J. Carell Jr., BE'59, a Nashville executive admired as much for his philanthropy as for his business acumen, died June 20 after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 76.

The former chairman and chief executive officer of Central Parking Corp. provided strong volunteer leadership for Vander-bilt initiatives and numerous other causes.

"I cannot overstate the impact he has had on Vanderbilt's past, present and future," said Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. "Through his leadership on the Board of Trust and enormous philanthropic generosity, Monroe established one of the finest children's hospitals in the country and created scholarships that changed the lives of students.

"He led Vanderbilt's Shape the Future campaign with a vigor and passion that only he could possess, and he challenged all of us to reach higher in our goals for this great university."

A member of Vanderbilt University's Board of Trust since 1991, Carell and his wife, Ann, have long supported various segments of the university, including undergraduate education, the children's hospital that now bears his name, the School of Medicine and athletics. At the time of his death, he was leading the comprehensive, university-wide Shape the Future campaign, which has experienced unprecedented success.

Carell also served on the Vanderbilt Medical Center Board and the board of overseers for the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and was an honorary lifetime member of the board of directors of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital.

The Shape the Future campaign was publicly launched in 2003 with a goal of $1.25 billion. In late 2006 the Board of Trust voted to increase the goal to $1.75 billion in anticipation of reaching the original goal two years ahead of schedule.

A secondary goal of $100 million in bequests was reached in 2007, and the Board of Trust, at Carell's request, raised the bequest goal to $150 million. The campaign is scheduled to close Dec. 31, 2010.

When the Shape the Future campaign reached its $1 billion milestone in September 2004, an editorial in The Tennessean newspaper stated, "It is Vanderbilt's spending of the money--not its raising of it--that should most impress this city," noting that the campaign priorities included need-based scholarships, faculty chairs and residential colleges.

Carell's gifts to Vanderbilt included the Ann and Monroe Carell Jr. Family Chair in Pediatric Cardiology and the Carell Scholarship Fund. Perhaps his most significant commitment to Vanderbilt was leadership of the campaign to raise $50 million to help establish a new children's hospital, which previously had been housed within Vanderbilt University Hospital. Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, which opened in 2004, is recognized as one of the nation's top pediatric teaching, research and treatment institutions.

In all, some $79 million has been committed to the Children's Hospital as a result of the Carells' generosity as well as Monroe Carell's personal fundraising efforts and leadership.

"His legacy will live on in the lives of the countless children he helped to improve through the hospital that bears his name," said Dr. Harry R. Jacobson, vice chancellor for health affairs.

A 1959 cum laude graduate of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering, Carell received the school's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2001. The native Nashvillian served in the Navy before enrolling at Vanderbilt, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Carell was chief engineer with the Duck River Electrical Membership Cooperative before going to work for his father and a business partner at Central Parking in 1967.

Central Parking, which had 10 parking lots in Nashville and Atlanta when Carell began work there, is now the world's largest parking services provider with more than 4,000 parking facilities. Carell sold Central Parking to a group of private equity firms in 2007. He resigned as executive chairman and, with his family, formed Carell LLC, a real-estate investment company.

In 1998 Carell established a fund to provide a total of eight full-tuition scholarships to excellent, hard-working students engaged in their community and committed to the broadening experience of working while in college. In 2006 the Carell Scholarship Fund was expanded to include a baseball scholarship. There are now 20 Carell Scholars and two Monroe J. Carell Jr. Baseball Scholars; 14 have graduated, and eight are still students. A new Carell Scholar will enter Vanderbilt this fall.

Carell is survived by his wife, the former Julia Ann Scott, who graduated from Peabody College in 1957, and by three children, six grandchildren and a brother.

It took 5,000 pounds of sweet, ripe Driscoll strawberries to feed the masses at Vanderbilt's Commencement on May 9. More than 3,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students received their degrees, and thousands more family and friends joined them at the Strawberries and Champagne Celebration following graduation exercises.
Photo by John Russell.

Pamela King Ginsburg's first day as a law school student turned out to be even tougher than she expected. It was almost as if she had "PICK ME" stamped on her forehead. In class after class that day, professors singled her out as the very first student they called on.

By the time her Civil Procedure class rolled around in mid-afternoon, Ginsburg's nerves were frazzled--but sure enough, the young professor with the wild, curly black hair called on her, too, asking her to state the facts of Pennoyer v. Neff.

"Some people gasped and others snickered," Ginsberg remembers. "I threw up my hands, told him I did not understand the case, and suggested he call on somebody else. He was visibly stunned by the impertinence of the first student he ever called on."

That August day in 1987 was not only Ginsburg's first day as a law student--it was also Nicholas Zeppos' first day as an assis-tant professor. And neither could have known that, because her name just happened to appear at the top of the second column on the student roll, every professor had zeroed in on her as the first victim.

Ginsburg's law school career could have been off to a rocky start, but Zeppos, she remembers, "did not hold it against me. Months later, we had a good laugh when he told me he had learned of my plight that day and was sympathetic."

Ginsburg, JD'90, is now an attorney with the Cincinnati firm Ulmer & Berne. "I think his gifts as a professor," she says, "were his ability to accept students as humans with both strengths and foibles, his genuine interest in our development as lawyers, and his sense of humor and knack of never taking himself too seriously."

Zeppos, age 2, with older brothers Evan (left) and Jon (right). Their grandfather immigrated to Wisconsin from Greece around the time of World War I.

Zeppos at center with his brothers and cousin Joel.

Zeppos in his early days as a lawyer

Eloping with Lydia Howarth at age 31.

Story time with sons Benjamin (right) and Nicholas.

Zeppos, with Benjamin (left) and Nicholas, says he likes Nashville both for its creative vibe and its long golf season.

Zeppos and Lydia Howarth attend the Symphony Ball in Nashville.

Howarth is flanked by sons Benjamin and Nicholas.

"I always tell students, work for something bigger and more important than you," says Zeppos, shown here at a Vanderbilt Visions event.

With Vanderbilt students volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

Leading a freshman Vanderbilt Visions seminar.

At a fundraising event with Monroe Carell Jr., chair of Vanderbilt's Shape the Future campaign.

Nicholas Zeppos has matured and evolved during his 21 years at Vanderbilt, but he has not lost the attributes that characterized him that first day teaching law school. He has climbed the academic ladder from assistant professor to associate dean for research and faculty development at the Law School, to associate provost to provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. He has served as Vanderbilt's first vice chancellor for institutional planning and advancement, as interim chancellor and now chancellor.

That's just the condensed version. He has written widely about legislation, administrative law and professional responsibility; earned national renown as a scholar; won multiple teaching awards; and shaken the trees for scholarship money.

Universities like Vanderbilt do not often choose their top leader from within their own ranks. Vanderbilt has done it only once before: 71 years ago, when Oliver Carmichael ascended from dean of the graduate school to chancellor.

Yet Zeppos has been so much at the center of every major initiative at Vanderbilt in the last decade, it's difficult to imagine Vanderbilt having made any other choice. He has spearheaded innovative efforts in undergraduate admissions and financial aid, the planning process for The Commons and College Halls of Vanderbilt, the Strategic Academic Planning Group, and development of new programs in neuroscience, law and economics; Jewish studies; and medicine, health and society. He has overseen the university's Shape the Future fundraising campaign, helping raise more than $1.5 billion more than two years ahead of schedule. New plans are on the drawing board for initiatives in the environment, religion, health care, and life sciences and engineering.

"In my time at Vanderbilt, I've known professors who are brilliant intellectuals. And I've known administrators who possess a gift for making complex institutions run well," says John C.P. Goldberg, now associate dean for research at Vanderbilt Law School and one of the faculty members to whom Zeppos has been both a mentor and friend.

"What makes Nick almost unique is that he is exceptionally able on both scores. He is a first-class academic and a masterful leader."

Zeppos peppers his conversations with phrases like "wouldn't it be great if ... ." He pounds the table frequently as he talks, in a way that reveals enthusiasm rather than anger. His natural exuberance masks a Midwesterner's ingrained modesty, a deftness for turning any conversation around to focus on the other person or on the institution.

"I think I'm a pretty good lawyer, a pretty good professor, and I hope to be a pretty good chancellor," he allows. "But I don't like being the center of attention. I love doing all the work that comes with being chancellor. But there's nothing inherently important about me. Vanderbilt is so much more than the chancellor."

"Anyone who meets Nick will immediately observe two things about him," says Goldberg. "First is his love of knowledge. I've spent my life around academics and have never met anyone who is more widely read and more intellectually curious. Second, there is his love of humanity. Most of us like to tell the people we meet about ourselves. Nick is more interested in learning what is going on in others' lives and minds. Really, these two qualities are the same one--he is insatiably interested in the world around him."

A Lawyer Called to Teach

Now a youthful 53, Zeppos grew up in Milwaukee, the youngest of three brothers in a family just one generation removed from its Greek origins. His grandfather, who was born in Athens, left for America with his four brothers and never returned.

"He and others in our family came through Ellis Island. There was a big migration west to Detroit and Chicago among Greeks," Zeppos says. "I'm sure they knew somebody in Milwaukee and went where the jobs were."

The area was Green Bay Packers and Chicago Cubs country by the time Nicholas Zeppos came on the scene. He developed an early interest in both sports and history. "I love history, and I love the history of civilization," he says. "I thought I would teach history."

At the University of Wisconsin, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1976, with a history major and a growing interest in the law. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Law School, served as editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Law Review, and was outstanding graduate of his class. He thought he would be the kind of lawyer who helps people who most need it.

Zeppos met his future wife, Lydia Howarth, in Madison, where she developed her skills as an academic editor. They married in Washington, D.C., when Zeppos was practicing law and Howarth was working at National Geographic. 

"We lived in Dupont Circle, and I would walk Lydia to work and then get on the subway and head down to the Justice Department," Zeppos remembers. "One of our regular 'romantic dates' was meeting after work at the Washington Monument and then running home together along the mall and through Rock Creek."

Busy with their careers, they decided to elope. "Eloping was one of the best things I've ever done," Zeppos says cheerfully, "especially since it was with Lydia. I got married relatively late. I was 31. By then we had both lived away from our families for some time and were working all the time. We thought, why spend a lot of money and a lot of time?" Zeppos remembers filing a brief in the Second Circuit that day and meeting Lydia and her "bridesmaids" at the Gallery Place Metro station. They headed off to get married and were back at work the next day.

Zeppos discusses the practice of law with passion, crediting great mentors along the way. He first practiced in Washington, D.C., at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, and then worked for more than five years at the Justice Department, taking a substantial cut in pay to go from private practice to the government. "I was in court all the time. Each case was like a challenging law school exam, and when I stood up to argue I was privileged to say, 'I represent the United States of America.' That was an honor and well worth the cut in pay. I learned so much and am grateful for being able to represent our nation in court."

Among his law career highlights: "Arguing before then-Judge Antonin Scalia was an intense and demanding experience. Judge Richard Posner taught a cerebral seminar, and then-Judge Stephen Breyer was the consummate and reflective professor but cared deeply about the real world.

"I'm intellectually drawn to the law and its intersection with politics, history, philosophy, psychology, biology, sociology," he adds. "It is the ultimate multidisciplinary area, yet it has a practical side."

But he still felt called to teach, and in 1987 he headed south to Vanderbilt with Lydia and their 8-month-old son, Benjamin. "I had never been in Nashville. I found that Vanderbilt mirrored the wonderful things about the region: community, civility and warmth. There's something very special about this region of the country and its sense of being nice to each other as opposed to everything being zero-sum and dog-eat-dog.

"People want to be here. Vanderbilt bears a lot of the qualities and characteristics of this region, and I like that. It distinguishes us," he says, speaking like someone who has just gone on the local chamber of commerce board. 

"It's one of the most entrepreneurial, creative cities, and it's a lot more interesting than cities where other universities are located. Faculty love it."

His first year at Vanderbilt, Zeppos claims, his students gave him teaching evaluations that were "brutal." But, he adds, "Student evaluations are pretty reliable indicators. There's a myth that they're not good predictors, or that you can inflate grades and get your evaluations up. That doesn't work. Where you really get evaluated is when you read your students' examinations. The ultimate feedback is when you read a great set of examinations."

By the time John Goldberg joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 1995 as an entry-level professor, he says, "Nick was already one of the school's leading lights. Although he was incredibly busy with his own work and with the life of the law school, he was a generous, constructive and inspiring mentor. I have vivid and fond memories of the hours I spent as Nick listened patiently to my half-baked ideas, then steered me--sometimes gently, sometimes not so gently--toward a better way of thinking through a problem."

Zeppos is proud to have raised his children in Nashville. "This is a wonderful community for families. My only disappointment was that our second son, Nicholas, could not be born at Vanderbilt. They were on diversion and had no room for us."

Now, he says, "We'll have at least two freshmen beginning at Vanderbilt this fall who were with my younger son at Vanderbilt's preschool since age 1."

What Happens Next

What can those students expect with Zeppos as their chancellor? Student debt is clearly a top priority, and the university is stepping up efforts to make Vanderbilt accessible.
What parents care about for their college-bound children, Zeppos believes, is not only the intellectual and academic challenge of academia, but the kind of adults they will become--ethically, emotionally and socially. "That's what Vanderbilt has always cared about, and that's what our strategy and mission are."

Beginning this fall all first-year students will live in The Commons, Vanderbilt's first step in making residential life at the heart of the Vanderbilt experience. "We have small classes and great teachers who are committed to the undergraduate experience," Zeppos says. "Why not build on that? 

"My hope is that all these great youngsters in America--rich, poor, black, white, north, south, east, west--will say, 'I've been blessed with the ability to achieve in school. I want to be a leader. I'm a hard worker. I should look at that place called Vanderbilt.' And we work with them to develop their human potential."

He believes the university needs to examine its role in educating the next generation of scholars, scientists and researchers and how Vanderbilt's undergraduate, graduate and professional schools can feed into each other, and that graduate studies deserve more emphasis and more resources.

"It goes back to our core mission and aspirations: research, discovery, teaching and healing," he says. "We are a research university, and we want to take a more prominent place in training the future leaders in research, policy, and at the great educational institutions of the world."

Ever the optimist, Zeppos publicly tells audiences that Vanderbilt will go to a bowl game this year "absolutely. I don't make predictions--I make promises."

He embraces wholeheartedly the integration of athletics into student life begun under his predecessor, Gordon Gee. "An important part of leadership in America is athletics," he says. "Some years a third of our freshmen are athletic-team captains. Part of what distinguishes Vanderbilt is our sense of balance. The kids have multiple interests--they are interesting intellectually and also service-oriented community leaders. Athletics is a critical part of our culture and our balance."

His ability to step out of a scholar's comfort zone and look at the university's needs as a whole is part of what has elevated the former professor to the halls of Kirkland. In 2001, Gordon Gee appointed Zeppos as Vanderbilt's first vice chancellor for institutional planning and advancement. Up to that point, Zeppos says, "I had not been involved with fundraising at all. I think the reason some provosts don't become president is that they don't enjoy it.

"I always emphasize that the word philanthropy doesn't mean 'give me money.' It means 'love of humanity.' I've had wonderful training, from the most junior development officers at Vanderbilt to our most senior people. 

"I've worked with Martha Ingram and Monroe Carell Jr. and other fabulous philanthropists. What I've learned is that people who have been blessed with resources want to make a difference in somebody else's life and in society."

Ingram is chairman of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust, which unanimously elected Zeppos as Vanderbilt's eighth chancellor in March. "Chancellor Zeppos is both a visionary and a pragmatist," she says. "He is a deeply ethical person whose guiding principle is, 'What's the right thing to do?'"

The University as Utopia

Zeppos refers to universities as a kind of utopia "of intellectuals who don't think it has to be a race to the bottom." His speeches often draw on his love of the ancient classics and of history. "I like to refer to things that I know about, that are important to me, because I think my only value as a speaker is to talk about things that are in my heart and in my mind."
He has a richly textured voice and a sincerity that makes you believe Vanderbilt really can and does change the world. This is important business, he is saying, even though he seems to be incapable of taking himself too seriously.

Vanderbilt is in the final 30 months of its university-wide Shape the Future campaign, stretching toward a goal of $1.75 billion. During a recent address, his first since being named chancellor to a crowd of development and alumni relations staffers at Vanderbilt, the room is hushed as Zeppos outlines the university's ambitious goals and lofty mission.

"There are challenges ahead," he says. "I think we'll meet them, just like my predecessors met them. We're one of the greatest universities in the world, part of a very small group of Research 1 universities that educates undergraduates. It allows us to focus on leadership and educating the whole person. I believe very deeply that it really matters for Vanderbilt to be here, to thrive, and to have the resources to heal and teach and discover."

Somewhere in the crowd a cell phone shatters the quiet with a jaunty tinkle. A crimson-faced staffer scrambles for her purse.

"Is that the ice cream truck?" Zeppos asks gleefully.

In the face of a weak stock market, a housing industry in crisis, and a long list of other economic woes making headlines every day, Vanderbilt is about to bite off a very big obligation in scholarship assistance. The Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital is undertaking a $203 million expansion. The athletics department has just announced a planned $50 million in facilities upgrades. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"I graduated from law school in 1979," Zeppos says. "I have lived through stagflation and hyperinflation. I've lived through probably the highest unemployment since the Great Depression. I've lived through recession, stock market crash, the insolvency of the American banking system. I've seen the Internet bubble, I've seen 9/11. I've seen wars--popular and unpopular. I've seen the subprime crisis. And I think of Chancellor Kirkland and Chancellor Carmichael dealing with wars and depression and plagues and epidemics. I think of Chancellor Heard during the Civil Rights Era and the Vietnam war, the oil embargo, hyperinflation, the Peabody merger. These great institutions endure and lead."

Nicholas Zeppos is clearly enjoying the challenge. 

"I plan on finishing my career here," he says. One of the perks of being chancellor, he adds, is the option of being buried on the Vanderbilt campus. 

"I'm thinking 50-yard line." 

Editor
GayNelle Doll

Art Director and Designer
Donna DeVore Pritchett

Editorial

Associate Editor and Advertising Manager
Phillip Tucker

Arts and Culture Editor
Bonnie Arant Ertelt, BS'81

Class Notes and Sports Editor
Nelson Bryan, BA'73

Production and Design

Assistant Director, Photography Services
Daniel Dubois

Photographers
Steve Green
John Russell

Designers
Chris Collins
Renata Moore
Jenni Ohnstad

Color Correction and Retouching
Julie Luckett Turner

Web Edition Design and Development
Lacy Tite

Please send address corrections to Gift Records Office, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B #357727, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37235-7703. Vanderbilt Magazine is printed by Lane Press in Burlington, Vt.

Opinions expressed in Vanderbilt Magazine are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or the university administration. Vanderbilt University is committed to the principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

Copyright 2008 Vanderbilt University

I especially appreciated "In the Face of Destruction" by Lisa Robbins [Spring 2008 issue]. Harry Kahn, his wife Hannah Westfield, Erich Westfield, Ernest Freudenthal and others were classmates and friends of mine. Through them I learned about a world far beyond my small town--and I've been trying to learn more ever since. Knowing them changed my life. I am grateful to Vanderbilt administrators, who knew how to take good advantage of great human resources made unexpectedly available to them.

Betty Goldiamond, BA'44
Chicago

Thank you for your wonderful article, "In the Face of Destruction." The stories of those who survived the Holocaust and ultimately thrived never cease to be an incredibly compelling tribute to the human spirit's triumph against all odds.

One of the individuals you featured was Inge Smith. Battle Ground Academy did a profile about Inge in the Spring 2007 issue of BGA Today. As you noted in your article, she was the founding head of Harpeth Academy, which is today BGA's Lower School. The new lower school has been named for Inge.

Thank you for the commendable work you do to ensure the quality of Vanderbilt Magazine.

William R. Mott, MLS'78, PhD'80
Franklin, Tenn.

I particularly enjoyed the last issue regarding the Holocaust and World War II. I was in the European Theater and served in three campaigns as a paratrooper. What an experience that was!

Dr. Jack E. Keefe III, BA'39, MD'43
Pawleys Island, S.C.

The Zibarts Remembered

I am just short of tears as I have read and re-read and even marked up your editor's column [Spring 2008 issue, "Age of Consent"]. Grace Zibart touched me and changed my life.
When I was a law and divinity student at Vanderbilt in about 1978, somehow I wound up catching a ride with Grace from the airport to the Vanderbilt area. I don't recall how we wound up with her kindly letting me hitchhike into town. But in some grace-filled (and Grace-filled) way, we came together. As we rode we talked about what I'd been doing. If I recall correctly, I was returning from a summer of doing ministry in the Hell's Kitchen (now gentrified and called "Clinton," but not after the president) neighborhood of New York City. It had been an extraordinary experience for a youngster from a rural West Tennessee town whose population did not reach 2,500. I'd gone there to work with brothers from a French religious community called Taizé and lived in a Catholic church and then a Presbyterian church. I'd worked with street people and children, and I doubt I accomplished much in terms of helping others, but those people sure blessed me. And it was clear to me even then that the experience had changed my life--though I did not yet know how or how much.

Grace told me I ought to write about the experience for your magazine's predecessor, The Vanderbilt Alumnus. And with her help and editing, I did. (Actually, it wound up being an article not only about that summer, but also the one before when I'd been a law clerk on a case trying to keep five innocent African American teenagers from being executed.)
That article was the first time I'd ever published anything outside of my native Weakley County. And it led directly to me wanting to do a Divinity School field placement on writing. That led to an unpublished book, and eventually the path twisted and turned until three other book manuscripts were published.

All because of Grace Zibart. I truly doubt that any of those books would have been written, and I know for a fact that the article would not have been written, if not for Grace. So when you wrote about Grace and Carl, you touched me. And I thank you.

Sen. Roy B. Herron, MDiv'80, JD'80
Dresden, Tenn.

I was interested in reading, in your piece about when to give up on [reading] a book, that you also were obliged to set aside Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote. This makes me feel better somehow. I also remember fondly the Zibarts. I did not know them intimately but thought they were wonderful.

Dr. Bill Doak, '53
Nashville

A belated note (I am nearly as behind on magazines as books) to say what a chuckle I got from the Carl Zibart anecdote. Daddy [Carl's brother, Alan], unfortunately, was either more dogged or had a higher guilt level--he nearly always finished [reading] everything. But I too am beginning to think along the Sherlock Holmes lines: My brain has only so much space, and whatever in the attic doesn't need to be there is going out.

Eve Zibart, '74
Washington Grove, Md.

Before Inclusion Was Cool

Your S.P.O.V. article "Leveling the Playing Field" by Kelly Finan, Class of 2009 [Spring 2008 issue], is of great interest to me. I was fortunate to work my way through George Peabody College during the World War II years, and had a fellowship in the Peabody Demonstration School Preschool under the direction of Irma Finker. I received this position through Dr. Maycie Southall, who was my major professor. Peabody was years ahead of the times in work being done in its nursery school and in the Early Childhood Department. I took several courses from Dr. Leavell, who was beginning to work with students with special needs.

I'm now an 84-year-old retired educator who has taught hundreds of children and countless teachers and teenage counselors that working with special children is equally rewarding and pleasing as working with any child. The parents and children never forget the opportunity they had because the teacher and school cared enough to make a difference. I have had special children in preschool classrooms for many years, and now I see these young adults working in society, able to live good lives through a local independent-living program. The last 35 years of my teaching career were with the Atlanta Jewish Community Center where I was a teacher, camp director, and director of early childhood services. My interest in working with the developmentally disabled students is still a major part of my volunteer life.

When I entered college in 1941, only three schools in the United States offered a degree in preschool education, including Peabody. The other two were Bank Street in New York and the University of California. We helped by beginning a beautiful thing.

Sylvia Glustrom Schwartz, BS'45
Atlanta

"Best Laid Plans" Not Best-Liked Article

I always anticipate and enjoy every issue, but just finished Spring 2008 disappointed and embarrassed. [In the Southern Journal piece titled "Best Laid Plans"], based not on research but his own musings while driving by on Harding Road, Richard Blackett characterizes Montgomery Bell Academy as "Bell's plan gone awry" and as inaccessible to "poor indigent lads." That portrayal is completely unfounded and unfair to MBA.

As a graduate and loyal supporter of both MBA and Vanderbilt, I found that article to be unfair to the former and unworthy of the latter. Frankly, I feel certain that Bell would find that today's MBA is truer to his vision than the Commodore and the Bishop would find that Vanderbilt is to theirs.

The Rev. M. Dean Anderson, BA'81
Trenton, Ky.

It was with a degree of disappointment that I completed reading your otherwise interesting article on Montgomery Bell. You contend that "something went awry" with his plan to fund what became Montgomery Bell Academy, my other alma mater. Given the number of civic, business, academic, medical, military, legal, philanthropic, etc., leaders from all sorts of economic backgrounds that MBA has produced, my guess is that the Pennsylvania Yankee Bell would be proud.

My family experienced financial difficulties in the 1980s and sacrificed significantly to send me to MBA and Vanderbilt. Grants, need- and academic-based scholarships, and student loans paid for much of my college tab. I generated further cash flow by working jobs during the school year and during summer, spring and Christmas vacations. Citing Professor Blackett's area of historical expertise, I hope you recognize the fallacy of stereotypes, at least as they apply to me in this instance.

It puzzles me that an otherwise fine publication would openly insult a sizeable loyal constituency of the university. I hope it isn't a not-so-subtle hint that Vanderbilt has limited or no desire to continue a long and mutually beneficial relationship with a fine preparatory school and citizens of its host city.

Jim Gardner, BA'90
Nashville

I am a 1976 graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy. Professor Blackett's thoughtful historical piece about the life of Montgomery Bell got my attention when it went beyond academic research and writing and expressed an unfounded opinion about my alma mater that portrayed MBA as a school with "iron gates and manicured lawns" inaccessible to the indigent.

In truth, more than 20 percent of the boys attending MBA receive financial aid, and the school's financial aid budget is significant and growing because of generous gifts. Like Vanderbilt, MBA must rely on donations to increase the availability of financial aid because tuition only covers a portion of the cost of educating a boy.

There is much more to Montgomery Bell Academy than iron gates and manicured lawns. The values I learned there have been the guiding principles of my life. Those values include compassion for the indigent, which I learned through MBA's commitment to community service.

Please know that I love Vanderbilt. It has become one of this nation's finest universities, and there is much to admire about the school, including its remarkable history department.
In the end, I guess I found it ironic that the Andrew Jackson Professor of History would indict MBA from his office behind the iron gates and manicured lawns of the Vanderbilt campus. Perhaps, like Vanderbilt, it would be a mistake to judge a school based on its landscaping or the biography of its founder.

Steven M. Zager, BA'79, JD'83
Houston

The Spring 2008 issue carries comments that require a response from someone who knows a great deal more about Montgomery Bell Academy than does Professor Blackett.
In 1912 my father, truly a "poor indigent lad" from Cheatham County, actually did cross Harding Road and enroll in Montgomery Bell Academy on a financial aid scholarship. After graduating at the top of his class, he began a very successful banking career here in Nashville.

Professor Blackett should also be aware that financial aid has continued to play a major role for the student body at Montgomery Bell Academy without regard to race, religion or ethnicity. Further, many grateful alumni have made sure that nothing "went awry with Montgomery Bell's plan" to aid "indigent boys" by funding financial aid scholarships well into the future.

Professor Blackett's research about Montgomery Bell, the individual, may be accurate, but his comments about Montgomery Bell Academy are far off the mark.

James R. Kellam III, BA'60, Montgomery Bell Academy Class of 1956
Nashville

MBA and Vanderbilt University have enjoyed a long and great relationship. I hope that bond grows stronger over time, and I also hope that both Vanderbilt Magazine and Dr. Blackett will work harder to understand MBA's commitment to Nashville students and the larger community. We value our associations with people from many different backgrounds in Nashville, and our school celebrates these connections--as does Vanderbilt--with the larger worlds beyond our "hill" at 4001 Harding Road. We were proud to be mentioned in your magazine, but were disappointed that our school was not portrayed accurately.

Bradford Gioia, Headmaster, Montgomery Bell Academy
Nashville

New Directions in Education

I've been so impressed with recent editions. The writing has always been top-notch, but what has inspired me is the depth and breadth of content. I particularly enjoyed the focus on nonprofits/social initiatives with respect to education [Spring 2008 issue, "Lost in America"], including new models for urban schools and the Posse Foundation. I kept the edition to refer back to because I'm considering a career change after 17 years in affordable housing. Thank you, and keep it up!

Katherine Vanderpool, Provost, BA'87
Wayland, Mass.

Rockefellers at Vanderbilt

Your "Collective Memory" article "Silent Partner" [Spring 2008 issue], about the Rockefeller family's contributions to Vanderbilt, reminded me of other Rockefeller contributions.
In the early 1960s, John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV, now a U.S. senator from West Virginia, spoke to my American Foreign Policy class at Vanderbilt about the newly formed Peace Corps. He was on a recruiting mission.

On another occasion I hosted his uncle, Winthrop Rockefeller, who gave a political science lecture on state and local government. He had been governor of Arkansas. And in 1964-65 I was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation grant enabling a research year in London.

Harry Howe Ransom, BA'43, Professor of political science, emeritus
Nashville

The Magazine Goes to Class

I really dig the magazine and thank you for making such a great effort. Logan Ward's article [Fall 2007 issue, "American Rustic"] was especially funny; I read it to my students, and they erupted in laughter at the scene of Logan's beheading of the hapless chickens. I also enjoyed seeing the photo of professors Sherburne and Lachs [Spring 2008 issue, "Long Day's Journey into Night"].

George Lawton Bevington, BA'90
Atlanta

Where Are the Vanderbilt Artists?

I remember when I first saw Vanderbilt Magazine--it was one step up from being a mimeographed "zine." It has been great to watch the design and content get better and better each year. Now it is actually fun to read. I would think Vanderbilt artists should be the ones to illustrate the magazine instead of unknown commercial artists.

Donald H. Evans, Professor of art and art history, emeritus
Joelton, Tenn.

More Sports, Please

Your Spring 2008 issue was like--wow! Great job! I'm hoping for more of these kinds of fascinating articles. Please do an article in each issue regarding a former student-athlete and the impact Vanderbilt had on them. We lifelong Vandy fans eat those up.

Sheila M. Watts, BA'74
Greenbrier, Tenn.

Ah--there is nothing more beautiful than seeing the written word in print and not on some computer screen! Great work, Vanderbilt Magazine. You're appreciated!

Kari Elizabeth Reeves, BSN'78, MSN'98
Columbia, Tenn.

I like old-fashioned magazines and don't want my options limited to electronic reading only. Thanks! Keep up the great work.

Lt. Col. Nina Wray Page, MSN'87
Jackson, Miss.

I still like the feel of paper in my hands. The quality of your magazine is outstanding, and I read each issue with care.

The Rev. Palmer C. Temple, BA'57
Atlanta

Your product is the best reading material I receive. (Still, if eventually forced to accept it online only, I shall de-subscribe. That's just not literature--or fun.)

Michael B. Sonnen, BE'62
Redlands, Calif.

Aw, Shucks

Vanderbilt Magazine is very, very special. I devour it the minute it gets here--it has a remarkable range of information that resonates with all sorts of folks. It brings our Vandy experience roaring back to us.

Dr. Ensor R. Dunsford Jr., MD'48
Orange Park, Fla.

I usually put down whatever else I am doing when a new issue arrives to read at least some of it because it always includes some of the best writing I read.

James Edward French, BA'59
Frederick, Md.

Vanderbilt Magazine is first-rate. I especially enjoy articles about the Fugitives--I know that is territory you have covered, but it is always interesting to some of us who are older. You've also hit home with me writing about Al Gore, the health-care crisis, Southern politics and culture--and Africa; I have a Uganda connection. One of the best things about the magazine is its capacity to surprise. Thanks.

John P. Booth, '72
Tallahassee, Fla.

This is one of the best magazines of any type, anywhere. Keep it up!

Cmdr. Samuel D. Johnson, BE'75
Frederick, Md.

I enjoy the magazine so much. As a 1950 graduate it is about the only way I have to know what is going on with the "cutting edge." As Arlo in the comics says, "People have already retired from the professions we studied."

Susan B. Ridley, BA'50
Murfreesboro, Tenn.

I trust you are on the right track now. Early on, Vanderbilt Magazine did not think much of tradition or anything else old--including old alums, teachers, writers, etc.

Jesse M.O. Colton, BA'50, JD'52
Nashville

The magazine is a real treat. I enjoy it immensely--it has improved 100 percent in recent years.

Marcella Faulkner Mountjoy, BA'45
Williamsburg, Ky.

The Blue Star: A Novel

(2008, Little, Brown and Company) by Tony Earley, Samuel Milton Fleming, Associate Professor of English

It's been eight years since readers met the character of 10-year-old Jim Glass, the anchor of Earley's acclaimed debut novel, Jim the Boy. In The Blue Star, Jim, now 17, faces the life-altering decisions of young adulthood in 1941, as America inches closer to war. The New York Times' Janet Maslin calls Earley's prose "beguilingly crisp and unfettered" in this sequel that chronicles childhood's end.

Co. "Aytch": First Tennessee Regiment or a Side Show of the Big Show

(2007, Providence House Publishers) by Sam R. Watkins; edited by Ruth Hill Fulton McAllister, BA'68

When Ken Burns' The Civil War debuted on PBS in 1990, its viewers were treated to the authentic voice of Sam R. Watkins, chronicler of the "Maury Greys," whose memoir of his war experience was first published in 1882. This new edition incorporates images of Watkins' recently found handwritten manuscript, with his own proposed edits and additions overseen by his great-granddaughter, alumna McAllister.

Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs

(2008, Vanderbilt University Press) by Milt Hinton, David G. Berger and Holly Maxson

Bassist Milt Hinton is legendary as a musician whose career spanned seven decades of jazz history, but he also knew how to wield a camera. His photos document life on the road with Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday's last recording session, and jazz icons Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, among others. Many of his stories are included with his music on an enclosed CD.