Campus & Community

Reginald Henry Phelps ’30, Ph.D. ’47, former associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), director of University Extension, and lecturer on German, died Sept. 28 in a nursing home in Westfield, Mass. He was 97.

Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the Kennedy School of Government, recently announced that Michael Gerson, former speechwriter and adviser to President George W. Bush, and Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will serve as IOP Visiting Fellows in October and December, respectively. The weeklong fellowships will begin Oct. 16 for Gerson and Dec. 4 for Whitman.

Fourteen tribal governments were recently honored and celebrated as examples of excellence by Harvard’s Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations (Honoring Nations) awards program. Based at the Kennedy School of Government, Honoring Nations is administered by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. The project’s goal is to understand the conditions under which self-determined social and economic development is achieved among American Indian nations.

Tozzer Library reached a milestone in its 140-year history last month with the acquisition of the quarter-millionth volume to its collection of anthropology, archaeology, and ethnology materials. To mark the occasion, the library is hosting “Codices, Chimpanzees, and Curanderas: From the Field to the Shelf,” an exhibition to celebrate the literature of anthropology and to display Tozzer’s newest book.

In the 1930s, years before man landed on the moon or even orbited the Earth, a very young Frederick I. Ordway III ’49 took an interest in space travel. One day Ordway returned home from school to find a copy of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories left by the family maid on a dining room chair. He raced to his room and read it cover to cover. Young Frederick wrote his parents a letter requesting the science fiction book “Lost on the Moon” for his 11th birthday. By the time he turned 12 he had joined the American Rocket Society as a student member. Before long, Ordway was a serious collector of science fiction, with a particular focus on the then-unmet dream of space travel. So intrigued was he that he joined pulp magazine fan clubs, actively acquiring duplicates and trading with other collectors.

William Robert Hutchison, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America, Emeritus, died on December 16, 2005, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in the presence of his immediate family. He was 75.

Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan, who finds joy in “discovering the sublime in the mundane,” has been awarded the George Ledlie Prize by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Initiated in the 1960s, the Harvard-Yenching Institute’s Doctoral Scholars Program (DSP) now consists of two branches – Harvard-DSP and Non-Harvard DSP. Each year the institute invites Harvard departments of the humanities and social sciences to nominate candidates for Harvard-DSP scholarships. Although the candidates do not have to be faculty members or researchers, they must be from Asia.

With a record 800 Allston-Brighton residents turning out for Saturday’s (Oct. 7) Harvard vs. Cornell game, it’s clear that Harvard’s Allston-Brighton Family Football Day has become a great local tradition. For 17 years, Harvard has welcomed its neighbors to enjoy a hearty lunch, impromptu entertainment by the Harvard Band, and a spirited football game – usually won by Harvard, of course (and this day was no exception as the Crimson made the faces of the Big Red scarlet with a 33-23 victory).

When questioned closely by psychologists from Harvard University about their feelings, victims of childhood sexual abuse revealed some surprising impressions.

With fewer than one in 10 doctors making full use of electronic health records and as few as 5 percent of hospitals using one form of them, the U.S. health…

From graceful ballerinas to clumsy-looking birds, everyone occasionally loses their footing. New Harvard University research suggests that it could literally be the spring, or damper, in your step that helps…

Free flu shots are now available for high-risk adults every Monday and Tuesday from noon to 3 p.m. at Harvard University Health Services at Holyoke Center.

Oct. 7, 1944 – The “Harvard Alumni Bulletin” tally of Harvard men known to have served in World War II reaches 23,400. Oct. 21, 1949 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal…

Memorial celebration for Omeljan Pritsak announced A memorial service of the life and career of Professor Omeljan Pritsak will be held Oct. 20 at 2 p.m. in Appleton Chapel, Memorial…

Interim President Derek Bok will hold office hours for students in his Massachusetts Hall office from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Oct. 24 and Dec. 11. Sign-up begins at 2:30…

Folkman to deliver Eva Neer Memorial Lecture M. Judah Folkman, professor at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston, will deliver the annual Eva Neer Memorial Lecture at the M.D.-Ph.D.…

Galebach paces Crimson effort at New England Champs Senior cross country runner Tim Galebach placed third in the varsity race at the New England Championships Oct. 7 at Franklin Park…

The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard recently announced that it has awarded 16 fellowships for the 2006-07 academic year.

There is a health care revolution under way affecting more than a third of humanity.

A howling electric guitar echoed off the stately, wood-paneled walls of the Barker Center’s Thompson Room last week as London School of Economics (LSE) professor Paul Gilroy wrapped up the W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures with an exploration of African-American identity and culture as seen through the life and influential music of Jimi Hendrix.

Joseph Harrington, professor of environmental health engineering in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, passed away Oct. 9. He was 69 years old.

A three-year campaign to finance a new scholarship for a student from an underrepresented background in the name of Senior Admissions Officer David L. Evans has raised four times its $250,000 target and is already helping three Harvard College students.

Among Harvard Medical School’s researchers and clinicians, nothing is in shorter supply than time – and time is money.

Oct. 6, 1862 – The Overseers confirm the Rev. Thomas Hill, Class of 1843, AM 1846, as Harvard’s 20th President. His brief tenure brings higher admissions standards, a series of…

Memorial celebration for Omeljan Pritsak announced A memorial service of the life and career of Professor Omeljan Pritsak will be held Oct. 20 at 2 p.m. in Appleton Chapel, Memorial…

The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures on Poetry have from the beginning taken a broad definition of “poetry.” Those appointed to deliver them have included musicians – Igor Stravinsky and John Cage, for example – and visual artists such as Frank Stella, as well as poets in the more usual sense, such as T.S. Eliot.

Kenneth Olden, former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), has been appointed to the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) as a Yerby Visiting Professor in Environmental Health. Olden is a nationally recognized figure in the field of environmental health, having led NIEHS from 1991 to 2005. During that period, he also headed the National Toxicology Program based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

A University of California, Berkeley, professor questioned the widespread opposition to paying women for the eggs needed to conduct embryonic stem cell research Tuesday (Oct. 3) and said there are many unanswered questions such research raises for society.

The goal of political engagement continues to drive Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP).