Turning Points

HONORED With the 2010 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, theThomas Sowell Professor of Economics James Hughes. “No gimmicks, no fanfare, yet Hughes is able to make the material interesting and relevant to students,” says Jamil Zraikat ’05, who double majored in political science and economics.

SELECTED To receive honorary degrees at Commencement, on May 31:
Rennie Harris, choreographer and Bates Dance Festival regular; James McCarthy, Harvard climate-change expert; Jane Pauley, groundbreaking television journalist; Elizabeth Strout ’77, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer for fiction; and Teresa Woodruff, a researcher focused on care for women who lose their fertility due to cancer treatment.

APPOINTED Nancy J. Cable as vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs, overseeing Bates’ offices of admissions, financial aid, communications and media relations, and career services. Cable most recently served at the University of Virginia.

William Hiss ’66 as executive director of international advancement. Vice president for external affairs from 2003 through 2009, Hiss will seek to enhance Bates’ international relations. He led the Admissions and Financial Aid offices from 1978 to 2000, during which time the College made all standardized testing optional, and Hiss is a nationally known expert in this area. He’ll continue teaching in the Asian studies program.

AWARDED To the Bates College Museum of Art, a $6,000 NEH grant to support the preservation of the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection of art, writings, and personal effects relating to the modernist painter and Lewiston native; and to Cynthia Baker, associate professor of religious studies, a $50,400 NEH grant for research into one of history’s most fraught identity terms: “Jew.”

RECOVERING Joe Woodhead, longtime track and field throwing coach, from a fractured femur sustained when he and a non-Bates sprinter collided during a Feb. 13 meet at MIT.

DECEASED Professor Emeritus Robert Hatch, on Feb. 13, at age 85. This icon of Bobcat athletics served at various times as golf, baseball, and football coach — the last for 20 years — and was director of athletics from 1974 until 1991. Hatch was known for a genuine brand of sportsmanship that included his early and effective advocacy for women’s athletics. “Aside from wins and losses, there’s a social conscience and education-centered philosophy” in Bates sports, says athletics director Kevin McHugh. “That came down from Bob.”

Ursula Pettengill, whose $5 million gift in 1999 named Pettengill Hall for her and her late husband, Pat ’31, on Feb. 14, at 97.

John Annett, assistant to the president from 1946 until 1969, on Nov. 9, 2009, at 93; Marion Berry, assistant to the College librarian from 1969 through 1989, on Jan. 10, at 91; Aime Gagne, painter and groundskeeper for Facility Services from 1973 until 1988, on Jan. 5, at 84; Yvon Lebel, Facility Services custodian from 1985 until 1990, on Oct. 23, 2009, at 83; Andre Lepage, painter for Facility Services from 1981 until 1989, on Jan. 11, at 83; and Alice Sanborn, member of the Office of Career Services staff from 1981 until 2003, on Nov. 11, 2009, at 76.