Phoenix reporter Eric Glover ’07 had no intention of investigating his own life when he entered the Parrish Hall office of Myrt Westphal, associate dean of student life, one day his sophomore year. But after Glover interviewed the now-retired dean for a story on residence life, she turned the questions in his direction.
“I remember telling [...]

Anne Bowly Maxfield and Gertrude “Trudy” Bell, graduates of the Class of 1934, have been friends for 80 years. Although understandably less physically fit and nimble than in their college days, their memories are remarkable, their demeanor playful, and their humor infectious. They are both quite beautiful. And they are both 100 years old.
Anne and [...]

Friends, readers, countrypeople, meet one of the greatest alumnae in the American history pantheon. Our own beautiful revolutionary, Alice Paul, Class of 1905, was far ahead of her time—and President Woodrow Wilson—a century ago. Their clash over “Votes for Women,” her thoroughly modern seven-year campaign, was bitter and personal. By the time Paul burnt Wilson’s [...]

When Joseph Swain became Swarthmore’s sixth president in 1891, his vision included the following: “A college … must be so conducted that while best serving each generation in its turn, it will ever adapt itself to the new and larger wants of the rising one.”
During Swain’s tenure, 1902–21, a heating plant, new dormitory, dining facilities, [...]

The word “retirement” is just about retired—or maybe taking proverbial Botox treatments to stay vibrant. The idea of buying a condo in Florida and warming up the putter five times a week is so 20th century. Baby Boomers keep dreaming of goals and don’t believe the one-career life is sufficient. Maybe Swarthmore grads, with their [...]

On a sweltering July night, Jonah Eaton ’02, wiry and nimble, jaunts up and down the homemade ladder leading to the deck of the gargantuan almost-completed wooden schooner he’s built by hand. The Northeast Philadelphia workshop where The Aramingo awaits her maiden voyage, awash with workbenches and shelves piled high with tools, spills light into [...]

Many writers hope their works achieve immortality. James A. Michener ’29 is one writer for whom thatundefined outcome seems assured—through his Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection Tales of the South Pacific, the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical and Oscar-winning film South Pacific.
Through its storyline, South Pacific keeps Michener’s progressive views on racial relations alive and at [...]

Aspiring environmental engineer Hayden Dahmm ’15 is a personable young man with a ready laugh and a clear, melodious voice. Blessed with an enviable memory and ace mental computing skills, he’s hardly different from any other Swarthmore student—except for one thing. Dahmm is blind.
Born more than three months premature, direly underweight and with underdeveloped bodies, [...]

Swarthmore’s Rare Book Room exudes all the mystery of a treasure chamber. It’s really difficult to find,undefined behind a locked wooden door at the end of a short, dark hallway on the top floor of McCabe Library. You need permission to enter. Anne Garrison, the humanities and book-arts librarian and curator of the book-arts collection since 2004, [...]

Breaking through barriers has been a way of life for Ike Schambelan ’61 since his Swarthmore days as a theater-loving student who chose to live in a residence hall peopled by athletes. For the last three decades, he’s continued to break down barriers—shaking up the New York theater status quo by giving actors and stage [...]