Alumni – @BC

Googled: Philip Landrigan, M.D.,’63, getting the lead out

@BC — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:07:26 +0000

Six weeks ago, New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center released findings from medical examinations of 9,500 people who worked at Ground Zero after Sept. 11. Seventy percent of those responders had developed new or worsened respiratory conditions, reported the blue ribbon panel presenting the study. Among the 15 doctors and public health experts on the panel was Dr. Philip Landrigan ’63, who for nearly 40 years has been a leader in protecting children and adults from harmful environmental contaminants. A recent profile of Dr. Landrigan in the British medical journal The Lancet dubs him a “children’s health crusader” and notes, “Most people don’t think of Philip Landrigan when they fill up their car with fuel, but it’s thanks to him that leaded gasoline has become outlawed almost worldwide.”

Landrigan, who grew up in Boston, earned his M.D. at Harvard Medical School, was a resident at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, and earned additional degrees in occupational and industrial health at the University of London. He is married to Marie Magee Landrigan ’64.

Philip Landrigan recalls that when he first went to work for the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) in 1970, ” Environmental health was not a term that really had reached public or medical consciousness.” At the CDC he was a co-founder of the National Center for Environmental Health and later was responsible for the creation of the Office of Children’s Health Protection at the EPA. He has performed groundbreaking work on the health consequences of asbestos, pesticides, lead, PCBs, and many other chemical toxins. Enactment in 1996 of the federal Food Quality Protection Act has been attributed to his report for the National Academy of Sciences, “Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children.” In addition to his current work studying the health impacts of 9/11, he directs the Mt. Sinai Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, where he is planning an epidemiological study that will follow 100,000 American children from conception to age 21 to study factors in the environment that affect health, development, and risk of disease.

Googled: Tyler Jewell ’99, Odd man in

@BC — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:13:59 +0000

On February 22, Tyler Jewell will hit the slopes at the XXth Olympic Winter Games in Italy, representing the United States as the only men’s parallel giant slalom snowboarder. It was not an easy road for Jewell, who just this month faced—and defeated—a challenge to his spot on the team from former Olympic medalist Chris Klug. A native of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Jewell traded in his skis for a snowboard and dedicated himself to the still-new sport at the age of 12. While a student in the Lynch School of Education, he put snowboarding on hold and played varsity lacrosse. With only one corporate sponsor during his training for the Olympic team, he saved money by living in a tent and eating in a local hospital canteen. But in Torino, he will face his biggest challenge yet: the Swiss and Canadian teams.

Googled: Joseph V. Bastianich ’89, Mama’s boy

@BC — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:37:54 +0000

Since graduating from Boston College in 1989 with a degree in political science, Joseph Bastianich has established 10 restaurants, a wine shop, and two Italian wineries. In his first effort, he partnered with his mother, well-known PBS chef and author Lidia Bastianich, to open Becco, an Italian restaurant in New York City’s theater district. It was soon followed by two restaurants called Lidia’s, in Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

In 1998 Joseph Bastianich teamed up with chef Mario Batali, and together the duo—whom the New York Times dubbed the “two men who have defined the way New Yorkers think about Italian food”—have opened Babbo, Lupa, Esca, Otto, Casa Mono and Bar Jamón, Bistro Du Vent, and their latest addition, the 18,000-square-foot Del Posto. Bastianich, who is the proprietor of a wine shop in New York City, was named outstanding wine and spirits professional by the James Beard Foundation in 2005.

Bastianich has coauthored two books with Boston College classmate David Lynch ’89, Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy (2002) and the Vino Italiano Buying Guide (2004). He has begun creating his own wine at two estates in Italy: Azienda Agricola Bastianich, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, and La Mozza s.r.l., in Tuscany.

Googled: Matthew Del Negro ’94, Made man

@BC — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 13:44:49 +0000

Matthew Del Negro ’94 had no expectations of being an actor until he tried out for a Robsham production in his junior year and landed the role. In 1995, he moved to New York City and has since performed in productions that include independent films, an off-Broadway drama Burning Blue, HBO’s The Sopranos, and most recently, in a recurring role on The West Wing as Bram, a campaign aide to actor Jimmy Smits’ character Matt Santos. He also works as a private drama coach in Manhattan, where he currently lives.

Googled: Charles M. Jacobs ’94, Ice man

@BC — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:19:38 +0000

Charlie Jacobs literally grew up on hockey—his father Jeremy has owned the Boston Bruins since 1974. After graduating from Boston College with a major in English, Jacobs began a career in hockey management with the Los Angeles Kings. He later directed a media services firm, but the family business called in 2003, and Jacobs returned to hockey and became the Bruins executive vice president.

Following several seasons of lackluster performance and a year of no play due to a labor dispute and a lockout by owners, Jacobs faces the challenge of rebuilding a franchise that in the late 1960s and early 1970s captured all of Boston’s imagination.

Googled: William H. Russell ’88, cold-weather winemaker

@BC — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 20:04:08 +0000

When Bill Russell graduated from Boston College in 1988 with a degree in philosophy, his plans included a return to the Reuters news bureau in Bangkok, where he had worked for a semester. But what was supposed to be a short time stint in the family business turned into a career and passion. Today, Russell, his brother Robert, and his parents run Massachusetts’ Westport Rivers Winery, which is the largest producer of European-style wines in the Northeast. Russell also helped found Buzzards Bay Brewing, which brews old-world-style beers and ales.

Googled: Gregory W. Kehoe ’76, evidence gatherer

@BC — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 13:38:35 +0000

Greg Kehoe ’76, returned from Iraq in May 2005 after a ten-month assignment as the U.S. Regime Crimes Liaison to the Iraqi Special Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity. His charge—to lead a team of American and international specialists gathering evidence for the tribunal in its efforts to prosecute former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and members of his regime for crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Kehoe and his staff spent seven-day work weeks sifting through stacks of documents and exhuming thousands of bodies—including women and children—who were allegedly murdered by the regime’s execution squads.

This is not Kehoe’s first experience dealing with heinous crime. In 1992, after a career in the U.S. District Court and the Florida office of the U.S. Attorney, Kehoe was named as a counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee. In 1995, Kehoe became a prosecutor for the Balkan War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague.

Kehoe first gained public attention in the late 1980s when he successfully prosecuted 12 members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He is now back at work in Tampa, as a partner and chief of the trial division at the law firm of James, Hoyer, Newcomer and Smiljanich.

Googled: Distinguished guests (2005)

@BC — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 15:29:17 +0000

The University’s 129th Commencement exercises on May 23, 2005, featured six honorary degree awards.

	Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire led the United Nations peacekeeping mission during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He warned the international community of the threat of genocide, but was generally ignored. Some 800,000 people were murdered, and Dallaire himself saved thousands. He is the author of Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (Random House Canada, 2003) and the subject of an award-winning documentary film of the same name. Dallaire will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

	Sister Janet Eisner, SND, M.A.’69, has been president of Emmanuel College, a Catholic, coeducational, liberal arts and sciences college in Boston for 25 years. During her tenure, she helped found the Colleges of the Fenway, a consortium of six institutions that share academic and cultural resources, and urged the admission of men, which resulted in a doubling of enrollments at Emmanuel. Sr. Eisner will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

	Paul Farmer is a medical anthropologist and physician, whose innovative treatments for tuberculosis and AIDS have helped hundreds of thousands of patients in impoverished countries. He is cofounder of Partners In Health, a Boston-based organization, and holds posts at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. Tracy Kidder’s bestselling Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House, 2003) chronicles Farmer’s work in Haiti. Farmer will address the Class of 2005 during the ceremony and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

	Norman C. Francis, since 1968 president of Xavier University of Louisiana—the nation’s only historically black, Catholic university—has overseen growth in enrollment, fundraising, and construction, and has championed academic excellence at his institution. He has been an advisor to five U.S. presidents and is a leader in national civil rights, educational, civic, and religious organizations. Francis will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

	Seán P. O’Malley, OFM, Cap., was born in Ohio in 1944. At 26 he became a Franciscan priest and in 1984 was ordained a bishop—a position he went on to hold in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands; Fall River, Massachusetts; and Palm Beach, Florida. O’Malley, who was known for his sensitive handling of sexual abuse crises in Fall River and Palm Beach, was named archbishop of Boston in 2003 in the wake of its own crisis and the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law. O’Malley oversaw an $85 million settlement agreement with victims and has embarked on a difficult reorganization of parishes and schools dictated by financial constraints and a shortage of priests. O’Malley will receive an honorary Doctor of Sacred Theology degree.

	Sara Martinez Tucker, president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, is a champion of Hispanic education and has set a goal of doubling the number of Latino college graduates by 2006. The fund has awarded $25 million in scholarship support in each of the past three years. The first Hispanic woman to reach an executive-level position at AT&T, she received Hispanic magazine’s Heritage Achievement Award for Education in 1998. Martinez Tucker will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Read more about the honorary degree recipients in the Chronicle.

Googled: James Balog ’74, nature’s photographer

@BC — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 17:04:10 +0000

In an interview with American Photography, James Balog ’74 said that his latest project, photographing 92 of the world’s largest, oldest, and strongest trees, was “a natural progression in the work I’ve been doing for the past 25 years—”trying to see and understand nature in a new way.”

Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest (Barnes & Noble Books, 2004), is on view at the University’s McMullen Museum of Art from April 14 to July 12, 2005. One of the works in the exhibition, measuring more than 7 feet high and comprising 300 images that Balog stitched together on a computer, depicts a 245-foot-high giant sequoia (known as “Stagg”), photographed in Camp Nelson, California.

In addition to Tree, Balog—”who lives in Boulder, Colorado—”has published five books of photography: Animal (Graphis, 1999); James Balog’s Animals A To Z (Chronicle, 1996); Anima (Arts Alternative Press, 1993); Survivors: A New Vision Of Endangered Wildlife (Harry N. Abrams, 1990), which received the Leica Medal of Excellence; and Wildlife Requiem (International Center of Photography, 1984). He is contributing editor of National Geographic Adventure, and his work has been published in Time, Smithsonian, Audubon, Outside, and Stern. Balog is the only photographer ever commissioned to create a series of stamps for the U.S. Postal Service; his commercial work includes ads for American Tourister and British Airways; and he has contributed to films and television commercials.

At Boston College’s seventh annual Arts Festival (April 28-30, 2005), Balog will speak with undergraduates interested in photography, give a public lecture at the opening reception for Tree at the McMullen Museum, and receive the third annual Arts Council Award for Distinguished Achievement.

Googled: David Plante ’61, memoirist

@BC — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:03:45 +0000

In January 2005, David Plante ’61, the author of 14 novels and a professor of creative writing at Columbia University, published American Ghosts: A Memoir (Beacon Press), which recounts his upbringing in Providence, Rhode Island, one of seven sons of immigrant French-Canadian parents, his escape to Boston College, and his further flight to Europe, where he finds personal freedom and his life’s work as a writer. The New York Times praised the book as “a self-scouring undertaken with resolute frankness and considerable stylistic grace,” while the Boston Globe reviewer writes: “This wonderful book takes on what may be the hardest questions by allowing this most observant individual to see and hear in miraculous detail. How, it asks, does any person become American, let alone find a place in the breathing cathedral that is this majestic universe?”

Plante’s novels include the highly acclaimed Francoeur trilogy—The Family (1978), The Country (1981), and The Woods (1982)—and the nonfiction Difficult Women (1983), an account of his relationships with Jean Rhys, Sonia Orwell, and Germaine Greer. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Paris Review and has been nominated for a National Book Award. Plante lives in New York and London.

American Ghosts book reviews, from Commonweal, Boston Globe, New York Times Book Review, and San Francisco Chronicle
American Ghosts website, from Beacon Press
The first chapter, from the New York Times
Read an early version of the opening chapter of Plante’s memoir in the Spring 1995 Boston College Magazine. (PDF)