Class of 1968 Current Class Honoraries

Director of the Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab

Kenneyd0Shelkunoff Professor of Physics

Nexus Track Chair for Engineering 

Katherine Aidala studies the fundamental properties of materials and devices, providing insight that could lead to technological innovation. With expertise in atomic force microscopy, she enjoys collaborating and has studied a wide range of materials and properties, including magnetic nanostructures, mechanical properties of bacterial biofilms, and electrical properties of organic semiconductors, nanocrystal quantum dots, and 2D materials. Her work has earned her recognitions including being named as an APS Fellow, the APS Prize for a Faculty Member for Research at an Undergraduate Institution, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and being named a Cottrell Scholar.
 

Aidala enjoys teaching at all levels of the curriculum, working to engage every student to promote fundamental understanding of the material and appreciation for the relevant applications. She regularly teaches Electronics, providing hands on experience designing and building circuits in the lab. She developed a first year seminar on Gender in Science that attempts to answer the question, "Why aren't there more women in science?" Students read primarily from social science literature, paying careful attention to how the answer changes for different disciplines within the sciences. In her work with Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab, Aidala leads efforts across the entire liberal arts curriculum to decrease the apprehension students feel when encountering unfamiliar technology in their learning and in their lives, while enhancing understanding of what it means to live in a physical, material world and sparking curiosity and creativity along the way. 

condensed matter physics, materials science, atomic force microscopy

Ph.D., M.A., Harvard University

B.S., Yale University

Miller Worley Professor of Environmental Studies

Chair of Environmental Studies

As a political ecologist, Catherine Corson uses ethnography to explore questions of power, knowledge, and justice in case studies from rural villages to international policy arenas. Her research focuses on the rise of market-based environmentalism, popular resistance to it, the turn to technology in conservation, and associated shifts in governance.

Her book, Corridors of Power: The Politics of Environmental Aid to Madagascar, published by Yale University Press, uses the history and politics of U.S. Agency for International Development’s environmental program in Madagascar as a case study of the forty-year transformation of environmental governance under neoliberalism and its relationship to shifting resource rights and access in the Global South.

As part of an international group of researchers, she also uses a method called Collaborative Event Ethnography to adapt “traditional” ethnographic methods to study how environmental conferences precipitate paradigm shifts in global conservation. 

Her new Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-supported research examines access, trust, and governance in the green cryptocurrency revolution.

At Mount Holyoke, Corson teaches courses such as Political Ecology; Environment and Development; Global Environmental Governance; and Qualitative Research Methods. With an interdisciplinary academic training, which has spanned biology, public policy, economics and political ecology, she has a strong commitment to multidisciplinary collaboration in research and teaching, and a decade of prior professional experience in environment and development policy, politics and consulting inspires her focus on teaching students how to translate their academic learning into professional policy skills. Finally, fieldwork on indigenous and local resource rights in the Global North and South, and professional experience in international development, underpins a strong interest in environmental justice and development studies.

A former director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment, she has also been actively involved in advancing the sustainability and campus living lab initiatives, as well as building student opportunities for global/local learning and social entrepreneurship. 

Sustainability & environmentalism

Political ecology, global environmental governance, the politics of foreign aid; conservation, technology, and human rights; multi-sited institutional ethnography and collaborative event ethnography

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

M.S.c., University College London

M.P.A., B.A., Cornell University

Director of the Weissman Center for Leadership

Professor of English on the Emma B. Kennedy Foundation

Amy Martin is the author of Alter-nations: Nationalisms, Terror, and the State in Nineteenth-Century Britain and Ireland (Ohio State University Press, 2012). This book investigates how Victorian cultural production on both sides of the Irish Sea grappled with the complex relationship between British imperial nationalism and Irish anticolonial nationalism. She argues that, at this interface of nationalisms in Anglo-Irish relations, certain formations central to modernity emerge, in particular new narratives of national crisis, the modern idea of 'terrorism,' the modern state form, and forms of anticolonial critique that anticipate postcolonial studies. She has published essays in journals such as Victorian Literature and Culture, the Field Day Review, Victorian Review, and several edited collections including Was Ireland a Colony? and The Black and Green Atlantic. Martin is currently working on a book project that examines internationalism and critiques of empire in nineteenth century Ireland. She has published an article on this subject, “Representing the ‘Indian Revolution’ of 1857: Towards a Genealogy of Irish Internationalist Anticolonialism,” in the Field Day Review (2012), and she has recently lectured on this new project at Princeton University’s Fund for Irish Studies. She has also lectured as a faculty member at the Notre Dame Irish Studies Seminar and at the James Joyce Summer School.

Martin teaches Introduction to the Study of Literature; Gender and Class in the Victorian Novel; Modern Irish Literature; the Irish Gothic; and Victorian Literature and Visual Culture. 

Nineteenth-century British literature; Irish literature and Irish studies; Victorian studies; postcolonial theory and theories of nationalism; gender studies

Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A., Columbia University

B.A., Sarah Lawrence College

Source for current MHC faculty: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/faculty-staff

College Historian, Lycoming College

Dr. Piper taught in the Religion Department at Mount Holyoke College for five years. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Lafayette College, Bachelor of Divinity Degree from Yale Divinity School, and Doctorate from Duke University. 

Following his years at Mount Holyoke, Dr. John Piper served Lycoming College for 38 years, first as a professor in the History Department, which he chaired from 1974-93, and as dean of the College from 1993 until his retirement in 2007. He was promoted to an associate professor in 1974, and to a full professor in 1984.

During his tenure at Lycoming, Dr. Piper served in numerous faculty leadership roles, including in reviews which culminated in the creation of the criminal justice program and the American studies program. He served as a member of the College's Scholars Council and was also a coach for the men's and women's cross country teams. His concern for the individual and for academic rigor exemplifies the spirit of the College. As dean of the College, he led the academic program during a period of significant growth in the College's reputation. Dr. Piper is the author of several books on church history; "Williamsport: Frontier Village to Regional Center," co-authored with Lycoming professors Drs. Richard Morris and Robert Larson; and numerous scholarly articles.

Source: https://www.lycoming.edu/profile/faculty/piperJohn.aspx

Ph.D., Duke University

B.Div., Yale Divinity School

B.A., Lafayette College

We remember these Class Honoraries: Robert Berkey, Elizabeth Boyd, Leonard DeLonga, Virginia Ellis, James Ellis, Valentine Giamatti, Anna Harrison, Bulkeley Smith, and Tadanori Yamashita. Though not one of our class honoraries, Joan Ciruti was special to many in our class.

To read tributes and obituary notices for our deceased Class Honoraries, please read on:

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/berkey.shtml

Robert F. Berkey, professor emeritus of religion, died December 23 at the Loomis Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He was born in Barberton, Ohio, the son of Mildred (Buffington) Berkey and Albert F. Berkey. He graduated from Otterbein College in Ohio, received two advanced degrees from the Graduate School of Theology at Oberlin College, and earned a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.

Dr. Berkey came to South Hadley in 1958 to teach in the College's religion department and retired in 1999, having served as chairman of the department for many of those years. He also taught courses occasionally at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

While the focus of his career was in teaching, as an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Dr. Berkey was a familiar guest preacher in many area churches. He found great joy in the pastoral friendship and fulfilled that calling by serving as interim minister in several local churches: Second Congregational Church and First United Church in Holyoke, as well as churches in Florence, Ludlow, Feeding Hills, Hadley, and Amherst (North and Second Churches) among others.

Because of his commitment to biblical studies, Dr. Berkey had an abiding interest in the countries of the Middle East. As a frequent tour leader/lecturer for Maupintour's "Lands of the Bible" travel program, he led group study-trips to the Middle East and twice cotaught a Smith/Mount Holyoke traveling seminar, In the Steps of St. Paul, that visited New Testament sites in Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Rome. He was co-author of Christological Perspectives and co-editor of Christology in Dialogue.* Sabbatical leaves from teaching also provided opportunities to live and study overseas at Cambridge, Oxford, and Lincoln Cathedral in England, Tuebingen in Germany, and the Ecumenical Institute in Bangalore, India. While attending the World Council of Churches assembly in 1968 in Uppsala, Sweden, he served as press-reporter for the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram. Switzerland, the land of his grandparents' birth, was always a favorite travel destination.

Dr. Berkey is survived by his wife Carolyn Miller Berkey, executive director of the Alumnae Association from 1981 to 1988 and a resident of Loomis Village in South Hadley. In addition to his wife, Dr. Berkey is survived by two sons, Jonathan Berkey of Davidson, North Carolina, and Mark Berkey of Richland, Washington, and their families. Contributions in Dr. Berkey's memory to the First Congregational Church of South Hadley, 1 Church St., South Hadley, MA 01075 would be appreciated.

*corrections by Carolyn Dorais 5/20/23

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bradenton/name/elizabeth-boyd-obituary?id=13666035

Elizabeth ''Bessie'' Margaret Boyd, 97, of Bradenton, Fla., died Jan. 23, 2006. A memorial service will be held Friday, Feb. 3, at 11a.m., at Westminster Bradenton Shores, 1700 Third Avenue West, Bradenton, with Rev. Dan Hagmaier officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Boyd Scholarship Fund, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075. Born in Britain, in 1908, Bessie graduated from Edinburgh University with Bsc. Honours and class medals. She then went to Mount Holyoke College, U.S.A., where she obtained an M.A. Degree, later receiving her Ph.D. at Cornell University. Bessie taught at Edinburgh and McGill Universities and, in 1937, joined the faculty of Mount Holyoke College, eventually becoming Professor of Zoology.

For many years, she was a Director of Mass Audubon Society and a Fellow in Tropical Medicine. She has traveled extensively, including the Galapagos Islands, and has presented many scientific papers in Zoology. She discovered many new species of parasites, including the first ever of a mite residing in the sinus of birds, now raised to genus status-Boydia. She was a teacher devoted to the students, establishing a substantial scholarship fund for students studying biology. 

Bessie retired, in 1973, and later became a resident of Florida. She brought enormous energy and enthusiasm to all her activities, including volunteering at Blake Hospital, for 20 years, being an elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church, and helping to establish the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Club of Southwest Florida. Her involvement and, indeed, her initiation of many activities at the Westminster Bradenton Shores Retirement Home has been very much appreciated. Bessie was a unique and very special person and well loved by her many friends and associates. She was also loved and treasured by her family, which includes two nieces, two nephews, and their offspring, all in Great Britain.

Published by Bradenton Herald on Jan. 31, 2006.

http://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/news/enews/delonga0707.php

DeLonga challenged his students personally as well as artistically.  He and his wife, Sandy, welcomed them into their home and into their hearts.  It is not surprising that many students remained in close touch with DeLonga until his untimely death at age 65 in 1991, and continue to enjoy a relationship with his wife today.

The Class of 1967’s tribute to Professor Leonard DeLonga was set in an exhibit of art by graduating seniors, and featured a digital presentation of alumnae artwork and a book of alumnae memories of DeLonga shared by former students. The Virtual Art Gallery DVD, developed by Laurie Cagnetta ’82, will eventually be able to be viewed online. Contact Laurie directly for more information. Louise Mitsuda Hillman ’67 was responsible for the Book of Memories.  A limited number of copies of the Memories Book remain available from the event chair, Judith Wood Peck ’67. (Those who reserved prior to the event will be ensured copies.)

Shoba Narayan ’88, journalist, award winning author, and former DeLonga student, traveled from India to offer a personal tribute at the event. Speaking directly to DeLonga’s wife, Sandy, and his family, as well as to the many who had come to honor him, she said, “Leonard could not have envisioned the long ranging impact he would have . . . He was a wonderful sculptor and a remarkable human being . . . It would be fair to say there was no one like him.”

Those in attendance clearly resonated with Narayan’s comments.  The atmosphere of love and esteem was palpable.

Note: More information about Shoba and her book can be viewed at http://www.shobanarayan.com. Some autographed copies of Monsoon Diary are also available for discounted purchase through Judith Peck.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/virgina-ellis-obituary?id=8686232

Virginia Ridley Ellis, former member of the English Department faculty at Mount Holyoke College, and longtime resident of Granby, Massachusetts, passed away on the eighteenth of October, 2018. Ms. Ellis taught composition, literary criticism, the Victorian novel and poetry of the Romantic and Victorian periods, serving Mount Holyoke College and its students with intellectual integrity and a passionate commitment to the study of English literature.
 

Virginia was born on August 28th , 1934, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the daughter of Maurice Roy Ridley and Katherine Scott. Mr. Ridley, a Don at Balliol College, was a noted Shakespearean textual scholar and author. Ms. Scott, his student, was one of the first American women to receive a graduate scholarship to Oxford University. World War II separated Virginia's parents in 1939, when she emigrated with her mother and sister, Alison, to Cleveland, Ohio, where she would eventually attend Laurel School, graduating in 1951.
 

Virginia's academic career began in earnest when she matriculated at Wellesley College, graduating summa cum laude with a BA in English, Class of 1956. Following in her mother's footsteps, she was accepted later that year for post-graduate study at St. Anne's college, where she won an inter-college scholarship in a poetry competition and achieved "senior status," enabling her to take final exams for her Oxford integrated MA degree after two years instead of the usual three, in 1958. She achieved a rare Congratulatory First, which the New York Times has described as, "a highly unusual honor" in which the examining professors ask no questions about the candidate's written work but simply stand and applaud." Among those applauding was Virginia's father, M.R. Ridley.
 

Following Oxford, Virginia became Instructor of English at Mount Holyoke College, where she would meet and marry James Ellis, who became a colleague for 3 decades at Mount Holyoke, where they contributed their talents to producing, writing and the Faculty Show for many years. The pair enjoyed photo-safaris to Africa and vacations in Scotland, where they would attend sheepdog trials.
 

In 1969, Virginia earned her PhD at Brandeis University. Her dissertation, "Authentic Cadence: The Sacramental Method of Gerard Manley Hopkins," was supervised by the eminent poet, Howard Nemerov. The substance of this thesis was later published as a book, Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Language of Mystery (University of Missouri Press, 1991), praised by Helen Vendler as "a real advance in the comprehending of Hopkins' mode of composition, of his sensibility and of the unfolding of his career."
 

Generations of students will remember Virginia as one who taught them to love and understand the poetry and prose of the Romantics and Victorians. She is survived by her sister, Alison; her niece, Merian Bylund; and her nephews, Robert and James Evans.

During a long career as Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College, James Ellis wrote on the Victorian stage and the work of Gilbert and Sullivan. A founding member of the Valley Light Opera Company, he was also an actor and director of theatricals in the Pioneer Valley.

The Ellis Collection contains approximately 8,000 published works on the Anglo-American stage, 1750-1915, including individual plays and anthologies of English and American playwrights; biographical works on performers; works on the theatre in London, the provinces, and America; periodicals, playbills, prints, broadsides, and ephemera; and works that provide cultural context for interpreting the stage. Although the collection includes some works from the 18th century, it is deepest for the English stage in the period 1850-1900.

http://scua.library.umass.edu/ellis-james-1935/

Note from Five College Archives: Access to the James Ellis Material is restricted until January 1, 2070.

https://aspace.fivecolleges.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/18118

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/19/obituaries/valentine-giamatti-dies-at-71-taught-italian-at-mt-holyoke.html

Valentine Giamatti, a retired professor of Italian at Mount Holyoke College and the father of Yale University's president, A. Bartlett Giamatti, died Wednesday in Bonita Springs Fla., where he was on vacation. He was 71 years old and lived in South Hadley.

Mr. Giamatti, a scholar on the life and works of Dante Alighieri, was a member of the Dante Society of Florence, Italy, and was a delegate to celebrations in Italy of the 700th anniversary of the birth of Dante.

His publications included ''Panoramic Views of Dante's Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise,'' ''Minimum Italian Grammar,'' a bibliography of his collection of more than 200 illustrated editions in 29 languages of Dante's ''The Divine Comedy,'' and numerous articles for various periodicals.

Mr. Giamatti was born in New Haven. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale in 1932 and received a doctorate in 1940 from Harvard University. He joined the faculty at Mount Holyoke in 1940 and retired in 1973.

In addition to his son A. Bartlett, he leaves his wife, Mary Walton Giamatti; a son, Dino of Scarborough, Me.; a daughter, Elria Ewing of Vienna, Va., and nine grandchildren.

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/16/us/anna-j-harrison-85-led-us-chemical-society.html

Anna Jane Harrison, an emeritus professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College and the first woman to be president of the 150,000-member American Chemical Society, died on Aug. 8 at Holyoke Hospital. She was 85 and lived in nearby South Hadley, Mass.

The cause was a stroke, the college said.

Dr. Harrison was born on a farm in Benton City, Mo. Her early education was in a one-room country school, and she returned to teach there for two years after graduating from the University of Missouri in 1933.

She then earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, also at Missouri, and started her college teaching career at Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1940.

She joined the faculty at Mount Holyoke College as an assistant professor in 1945, rose to professor in 1950 and headed the department of chemistry from 1960 to 1966.

She became the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Chemistry in 1976 and held that post until she retired in 1979.

Dr. Harrison received 20 honorary degrees and won awards from the American Chemical Society in 1977 and 1982 for her contributions as a teacher.

She was active in the society for 62 years and became its president, for a one-year term, in 1978.

Dr. Harrison also served on the National Science Board in the 1970's.

In addition, she was a longtime board member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 1984 became its president.

She has no immediate survivors.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/theday/name/bulkeley-smith-obituary?id=21579868

Mystic - Bulkeley Smith Jr., 89, died June 11, 2010, at Avalon Health Care Center at Stone Ridge.
 

He was born in Worcester, Mass., on March 11, 1921, the son of Bulkeley Smith and Elizabeth Smith.
 

At the onset of World War II, he interrupted his studies at Yale to volunteer for the American Field Service. He drove ambulances in the North African Campaign and subsequently in France and Germany. After the war, he returned to Yale, where he met and married his wife, Helen.
 

Following his graduation, he explored various paths including teaching English at Yale where he later pursued advanced degrees. After acquiring his Doctorate in Sociology, he joined the faculty at Mt. Holyoke College where he rose to chairman of the Sociology Department. He retired from this position in 1983, when he and his wife moved to Noank. They moved to Mystic in 2005.
 

He was a voracious reader and also a small boat enthusiast. He enjoyed sailing, canoeing and other outdoor pursuits. For many years, he was deeply involved in The Noank Historical Society; The Ram Island Yacht Club; The Mystic Seaport; and The Mystic Art Association.
 

He is survived by Helen, his wife of 63 years; his daughter, Abigail Scholl and her husband, Michael Scholl; and his granddaughters, Elizabeth and Nancy Scholl. He is also survived by his brother, William Ellery Smith and his wife, Elizabeth; his nephew, William Ellery Smith Jr. and his wife, Cynthia.
 

Burial will be private at the family's request.
 

Donations, in lieu of flowers, may be made in his memory to The Stonington Land Trust, P.O. Box 812, Stonington, CT 06378 or Hospice Southeastern Connecticut, 227 Dunham Street, Norwich, CT 06360.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/tadanori-yamashita-obituary?id=15739237

Beloved professor Tadanori Yamashita passed away Wednesday, April 5, 2017, at the age of 87 in Hopkinton, following a battle with cancer.
 

Dr. Yamashita was born to Shinae and Shigeru Yamashita December 23, 1929, in Tokyo, Japan. He was the second youngest of four siblings: Eiko, Seiko, and Tadataka. Though a troublemaker in his youth, Tadanori always displayed intellectual curiosity and showed great academic promise, later gaining admission to Japan's prestigious Tokyo University. Following graduation, Tadanori moved to the United States to pursue his Bachelor of Divinity at Yale University, eventually earning his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization in 1963.
 

In 1963, Tadanori joined the faculty of Mount Holyoke College in the department of Religion, where he conducted research on Judaic Law and Zen Buddhism in addition to teaching. Tadanori was very active in the college community, where he helped establish the Asian Studies Program, and co-founded Wa-Shin-An, a traditional Japanese tea house and meditation garden, with his wife, Master of Tea, Nobue Socho Yamashita. Tadanori and Nobue also co-founded a Japanese language school in South Hadley, where they dedicated their time to teaching Japanese language and culture to their community. On May 10, 2000, Tadanori was honored with the Order of the Sacred Treasure by Emperor Akihito of Japan for these accomplishments.
 

Tadanori was an avid golfer, and was often seen playing at the Orchards Golf Club where he was a longtime member. Those who frequented College Street will fondly remember him shuffling to and from his office at Skinner Hall. In his free time, he enjoyed taking in live classical music, and regularly contributed to the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. Though at one time he claimed to despise cats, through years of hard work and dedication his wife and children reshaped this view, and he became an enlightened appreciator of all felines.
 

Survived by his wife Nobue and his two children, Miki Yamashita, Takeshi Yamashita, and his daughter-in-law Elyssa Barrick.
 

A memorial service will be held in his honor Wednesday, April 12, at Center Church, 1 Church Street, South Hadley at 2 p.m. For information regarding the service, call Center Church at (413) 532-2262.
 

For any other information, or to contact the family call Takeshi Yamashita at (617) 314-0184.

Though not one of our Class Honoraries, Joan Ciruti was special to many members of the Class of 1968. Professor Ciruti worked with Craig Sullivan, husband of our deceased classmate Karen Snyder Sullivan, to establish the Karen Snyder Sullivan Memorial Travel Award, established in 1986, to provide an opportunity for young women like Karen to begin their own voyage of discovery. https://offices.mtholyoke.edu/node/44433

Joan Estelle Ciruti of Amherst died on March 26, 2022 at the age of 91. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Joan was the daughter of the late Joseph A. Ciruti and Olga (Jordan) Ciruti. She had one brother, Robert W. Ciruti, who predeceased her in 1998.

After discovering in high school that she enjoyed learning foreign languages, Joan majored in Spanish in college and later pursued a career in higher education. A bachelor's degree from Southeastern Louisiana College in 1950 was followed by an M.A. from the University of Oklahoma and a Ph.D. from Tulane University. Joan returned to the University of Oklahoma as a member of the faculty in the Dept. of Modern Languages in 1957. In 1959-60 she took a leave of absence to work for a year in Washington D.C., on a program of institutes funded under the National Defense Education Act of 1958 that was designed to improve and modernize the way foreign languages were taught in American schools.

She left Oklahoma in 1963 to join the faculty of Mt. Holyoke College, where she was a chair of the Dept. of Spanish and Italian for several terms and also served a three-year term as Dean of Studies. In 1977 she was named Professor of Spanish on the Helen Day Gould Foundation. Toward the end of her career, Joan again worked to modernize the teaching of foreign languages by chairing a committee that planned and helped bring to fruition a new building equipped to employ modern technology such as computers and video. When she retired form Mt. Holyoke in 1992, that building was renamed the Joan E. Ciruti Center for Foreign Languages.

Joan is survived by her adopted family of Melinda C. Watson and David R. Roulston of Greenfield and their children: Marielena, Michael and Matthew Roulston. Beers & Story Funeral Home have been entrusted with the arrangements. A memorial gathering will take place at Mt. Holyoke College at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Mt. Holyoke College.  

(Compiled by Nancy Huttemeyer Davis 2/21/2022; updated 5/9/2023)