CURRENT ISSUE | SUBSCRIBE | ADVERTISE | WRITE TO US | CORNELL AUTHORS | PAST ISSUES

Physicist, Teacher & Humanist  HANS BETHE, 98

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PHYSICS HANS BETHE, A FOUNDing father of the nuclear age and a faculty institution for seventy years, died on March 6. Best known for his participation in the wartime effort to create the atomic bomb, Bethe went on to lead opposition to the development of new nuclear arms during the Cold War, standing in stark opposition to Manhattan Project colleague and hydrogen bomb proponent Edward Teller and gaining a reputation as the scientific world's premier liberal humanist. But Bethe's greatest achievements lay in nuclear astrophysics, the field that he all but originated: in 1938, he calculated the forces responsible for energy generation in stars—a foundation of modern atomic theory.

Born in Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, in 1906, Bethe fled Hitler's Germany in 1933 and accepted a position at Cornell in 1935, where he taught full-time until 1975. His presence attracted a host of luminaries to the University's physics department, and Bethe mentored a generation of prominent scientific minds, including Freeman Dyson, Edwin Salpeter, Robert Wilson, and Richard Feynman. In the decades after his formal retirement, he continued to live and work in Ithaca, producing a steady output of new insights that probed the frontiers of quantum mechanics and theoretical astrophysics. In an eight-decade scientific career, Bethe authored more than 300 papers, the last published when he was well into his nineties. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1967.

Three days after his death, Bethe received one final honor: the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences, given by the American Philosophical Society. In a ceremony at Kendal at Ithaca, the medal was presented to his widow, Rose, by President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes, who lauded the physicist as a "wonderful statesman of science."

CU Third in Contributions  GIFTS TO UNIVERSITY JUMP 22 PERCENT

ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES, CONTRIBUTIONS TO American colleges and universities rose 3.4 percent overall during the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2004, reaching $24.4 billion. Harvard topped the list with $540 million, followed by Stanford at $524 million and Cornell at $386 million—a 22 percent increase over the previous year. Cornell led the pack in alumni giving, collecting $183 million—almost half of its total—from graduates. This support is even more remarkable considering that Cornell's average alumni giving rate is only 34 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges 2005," placing it fifteenth in alumni giving percentage. Princeton is the most successful in encouraging alumni to contribute, posting an average alumni giving rate of 61 percent, followed by Notre Dame and Harvard at 48 percent.

New Alumni Trustees  LERNER, BERG ELECTED TO BOARD

EACH YEAR, CORNELL ALUMNI VOTE TO SELECT TWO OF their own as members of the Board of Trustees. The results from this year's election have been tabulated, and the new alumni trustees are Jill Lerner '75, BArch '76, and Jeffrey Berg '79, MEng '80, MBA '81. Their terms will begin on July 1.

Lerner is a principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects in New York City and has served the University in a variety of capacities, including membership in PCCW, CAAAN, the University Council, and the Art,Architecture, and Planning Advisory Council. In her candidate's statement, she urged Cornell to "broaden opportunities for alumni participation." Lerner is married to William Bintzer '73; they have two children, Laura and Will.

Berg, the chief operating officer at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath Management Consultants, has been a guest lecturer at the College of Engineering and the Johnson School. As a student, he was a member of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and served as a resident advisor. Berg is the current president of the Class of '79 and serves on the University Council and the CACO Board.His spouse is Debra Paget; their children are Samantha '09, Lowell, and Blake.

Lawyer, Diplomat & Trustee  SOL LINOWITZ, 91

SOL LINOWITZ, JD '38, FORMER chairman of Xerox Corporation and a distinguished public servant, died at his home in Washington, D.C., on March 18. Linowitz held a number of important diplomatic posts and counseled a succession of Democratic presidents, beginning with John F. Kennedy. He was ambassador to the Organization of American States from 1966 to 1969. During Jimmy Carter's term, he was co-negotiator of the Panama Canal treaties and served as ambassador-atlarge for Middle East negotiations from 1979 to 1981. In 1998, Bill Clinton presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. A partner in the Coudert Brothers international law firm from 1969 until his retirement in 1994, Linowitz spoke frequently to his fellow attorneys about the need for reform in legal education.

Linowitz served on the Cornell Board of Trustees from 1966 to 1995, when he became a trustee emeritus.He was also a member of the Law School Advisory Council and the University Council. At a 1992 gala honoring his service to the University, then-President Frank H.T. Rhodes praised him as a "loyal and devoted friend of Cornell University, whose leadership, integrity, and genuine concern for humankind have touched the lives of people around the world."He is survived by his wife, Evelyn Zimmerman Linowitz '39, and four daughters, two of whom are also Cornellians: Anne Linowitz Mozersky '65 and Ronni Linowitz Jolles '78.

VP Resigns  REICHENBACH GOING TO YALE

ON APRIL 13, THE UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCED THAT PRESIDENT Jeffrey Lehman had accepted the resignation of Inge Reichenbach, vice president for alumni affairs and development, effective in early May. Reichenbach will become vice president for development at Yale. She came to Cornell in 1979 and worked in several fund-raising positions before accepting a position as director of development at Wesleyan University in 1986. In 1988 Reichenbach returned to Cornell to become director of development; she also served as director of the fiveyear capital campaign that began in 1990. She was appointed vice president in 1996. Laura Toy, alumni affairs and development campaign director, has been named interim VP, and a search is under way for Reichenbach's successor.

Legal Matter  PARKING DECISION HANDED DOWN

THE LENGTHY DISPUTE OVER A PROPOSED CAMPUS PARKING lot may be ending. In March, a unanimous decision by five judges in the state Supreme Court Appellate Division's Third Department upheld a lower-court ruling that gave Cornell the green light to build a new West Campus parking lot on a site known as Redbud Woods. The City of Ithaca had been fighting this proposal for four years, insisting that the site has historical significance and should not be paved for a parking lot. The land was once part of the Treman family estate and is near Llenroc, Ezra Cornell's mansion. The court rejected the city's contention, stating that "the record evidence shows that the proposed parking lot will have little, if any, impact on the surviving original landscape features." Because the ruling was unanimous, the city will have to seek permission from the state Court of Appeals if it wishes to appeal; at press time, such permission had not been sought.

Return to top of page