UWFA Blog

In March the German Interest Group met in the home of Tina Schiess.  After enjoying delicious treats, the group discussed Fasching, very similar to Mardi Gras and celebrated in some European countries with music, elaborate costumes and masks.  Who is behind the beautiful mask?  (Magdalena Tobe)

It’s been really fun at this new interest group. We have seen some great Oscar winning performances and films in different genres: black comedy, affliction movie, fairy tale musical, a couple biopics, and historical films, with conversations afterwards.

Year 2014-15

November:     Birdman– Oscar winning black comedy

December:      In the Woods– musical by Stephen Sondheim

January:          Selma-the story of Martin Luther King and the march for voting rights

February:        Imitation Game-historical thriller about solving the Enigma Code

March:            Still Alice– with Julianne Moore as a University Professor who has Alzheimer’s.

April:              Woman in Gold-with Helen Mirren

May:               The Age of Adaline with Blake Lively as a woman who doesn’t age

 

Year 2015-16

October           The Martian Matt Damon as an astronaut left on Mars

November       Spectre 007 filmed in the

December       Brooklyn an Irish immigrant girl arrives in Brooklyn

January           Spotlight reports investigate systemic sexual abuse by priest in Boston

February         Hail, Caesar a farce of the movie industry with George Clooney

March             The Big Short a hedge fund manager predicts the financial crisis

April               Eye in the Sky Helen Murrin commands a drone in Kenya

May                 The Jungle Book live action adventures of Mogli

 

Year 2016-17

October           Queen of Katwe a chess club from the slums wins tournaments 

November       —

Dcember       Arrival Amy Adams as a linguist communicates with aliens

January           Hidden Figures Story of African American women mathematicians at NASA

February:        La La Land an actress and musician break into show business in LA

 March             Moonlight chronicles of the childhood, adolescence, and young adult African American

 

 

 

FA Events Calendar

Many of us were able to attend the Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner and Lecture in November and were so pleased to meet and hear from this year’s three UW student recipients. They each received $4000 toward tuition and graciously thanked the UWFA for their awards. I’d like to thank our Scholarship Committee for their diligent work on choosing such fine scholarship winners. The Committee was chaired by Anni Fuller, and the other members were Joan Burton and Esther Neeser.

I recently began to think about the sources of funds for our Scholarships. Most of the money has come from the generous donations of our members, usually at the time of membership renewal or end of year giving, but also from our donation cards (available at our activities) designed as gifts for memorials, thank yous, birthdays, and any other occasion where you want to honor someone. Another source of funds is from donations made to the Visiting Faculty Housing Service. This service, established in 1985, connects homeowners with those visiting faculty, staff, and scholars looking for housing in Seattle. I knew that donations to the VFHS from persons listing their properties had contributed substantially through the years to the Scholarship Fund, but I was curious as to how much. I asked Carol Hol to go through the VFHS Treasurer’s Reports, prepared by Barbara Archbold, and let me know the amounts transferred to the Scholarship Fund just in the years since 2011 when I became associated with the Scholarship Committee and then UWFA Board. In these six years, over $17,000 has been donated to the Scholarship Fund! I would like to take this opportunity to thank VFHS Chair, Gail Butterfield, and her group of volunteers for their service to the UWFA and for helping fund student scholarships through these donations. I know that Gail would be pleased to add more volunteers to her group. They find it a very rewarding place to volunteer their time. Please contact Gail if you are interested.

We enjoyed a festive gathering on December 5, when we held our Holiday Tea at Hill Crest, the home of our UW President Ana Mari Cauce and our Honorary UWFA President, Professor Susan Joslyn. They graciously visited with our members during the afternoon and spoke to us about the valued presence of the UWFA over the years. We were entertained by the Matthews Beach Quartet – Martha Nester, Patty Osterholm, Laurie Skandalis, Gwen Kunde – and we enjoyed their holiday music. I would like to thank Dagmar Shannon for chairing the Holiday Tea, Mary Albrecht for organizing the tasty refreshments, and Mimi Wagar for collecting donations for our FIUTS students. A highlight of the afternoon was recognizing four UWFA members who attended this year’s Tea and also attended the first Silver Tea in 1960, 56 years ago. These ladies are Barbara Garlid, Lydia Nunke, Mamie Bolender, and Eva Hanzeli.

I hope to see many of you on Thursday, February 9, 11:30 a.m., at the UW Club for our next Lunch/Lecture. Our speaker will be Dr. Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Curator of Northwest Native Art at The Burke Museum. I hope you have noted the change of date from February 8 to February 9. Details are in this newsletter and in your directory.

Nancy Kenagy
UWFA President

Yesterday, Professor Emeritus David J. Thouless received the Nobel Prize in physics for exploring exotic state of matters.

University of Washington Faculty Auxiliary joins UW President Ana Mari Cauce and the entire UW community in congratulating Professor Emeritus David J. Thouless on his award of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Dr. Thouless and his wife, Dr. Margaret Thouless are longtime UWFA members, active in the hiking group, Gallery Goers, as well as other interest groups.

We wish them all the best as they celebrate this well deserved recognition of scholarly accomplishment.

Nancy Kenagy
UWFA President

For those of you who attended, you will admit, that the Holiday Tea this year couldn’t have been nicer.

Hill Crest House, the UW President’s Residence, was all newly decorated with traditional furniture and a beautiful big Christmas tree in the living room. Everything looked so festive and ready to receive us, who in turn were also beautiful in our finery. From the moment you entered the house the sweet sounds of holiday music could be heard from the stairwell landing and put us in the right mood, and we have Martha Nester and her orchestra to thank for that.

President Ana Mari Cauce and our own Honorary President Susan Joslyn were present from the start to mingle and talk with us. They were great hosts and talking with them was easy and charming.

 

Mary Albrecht as Courtesy and House Chair and her crew of volunteers presented us again with a delicious array of cookies and savory snacks and the silver, stored in the great vault named “Hill Crest”, made the whole table sparkle.

Mimi Wagar, the champion of the Silver Basket, asked for donations for our FIUTS students, and with her charm she was able to collect $325 for them. Well done, Mimi, and thank you to the generous donors.

A great thank you also goes to our greeters who welcomed our members as they arrived and helped them to find the coat rack, and in the library the name tags and the guest book.

In the dining room our tea and coffee pourers made sure no one went without and we thank them for that. I know for myself how much I depend on having a good cup of tea from their hands. Thank you to all.

And of course a great thank you to Nancy, our President, who so graciously and harmoniously guided us through the formal part of the Tea and who introduced our Honorary President and who then in turn introduced her spouse the UW President. We are so grateful to them for making time to be with us at this special event.

I don’t know about you, but for me this is the start of the Holiday Season. And Peter Schiess, our Webmaster took lots of pictures, so check out our website to see them.

All that is left for me to say now is THANK YOU to all who helped from Peta and the staff of Hill Crest House and all our volunteers who make being the Holiday Tea Chair the best and easiest job within our organization.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year

Dagmar Shannon
Holiday Tea Chair

UWFA member Eva Bor passed away in Prague, Czech Republic, on May 28, 2016. She was born in October 17, 1927, in Czechoslovakia. After World War II she entered Charles University Medical School where she met her Imrich Bor. They were married in 1952. Eva became a pediatrician, and practiced in Eastern Slovakia, where her pediatric duties included traveling to small villages and rural (Roma) colonies.

In 1966, Imrich and their two sons, Andrew and Daniel, sought asylum in Austria and a permanent visa for the United States. Eva joined them in Seattle the following year. Eva worked at University of Washington of Public Health and later joined Imrich’s pediatric practice. Eva was an enthusiastic participant  in Auxiliary events and was chair of the Daytime Gourmet interest group.

A celebration of her life will be held at 6 pm on Wednesday, August 31, at the Center for Urban Horticulture.

We now have permanent links to our website and to the VFHS on the UW Academic Human Resources website.  We also have a permanent link on The Whole U website.  The UWRA has a link to our interest groups on their website.

 

Enter:  “UW Academic Human Resources”, click on “Working at UW”, click on “New Hire Info”, click on “Additional New Employee Information”, and UW Faculty Auxiliary is on that link.

 

Enter:  “UW Academic Human Resources”, click on “Working at UW”, click on “New Hire Information”, click on “Community Resources”, and VFHS is on that link.

 

Enter:  “The Whole U”, click on “Activities”, click on “Social Groups”, scroll down to “Engaging Interests” and find the UWFA there.

 

Enter: “UWRA”, click on “UWRA Members”, click on “Interest Groups”, and UWFA Interest Groups  is on that link.

On June 14 a dozen or so Tuesday Trekkers devoted their regular hiking day to giving back to the WTA by volunteering to work on the White Chuck Bench Trail on the Mountain Loop Highway near Darrington. A favorite trail through some beautiful woods next to a wonderful river, Tuesday Trekkers last hiked here in January of 2016, so was a delight to return. We worked with crew leader Zach McBride, who also led last year’s work party.  We cleared brush, built a new section of trail, and got a tutorial on the art of trail building. Because it is a long drive to the work site, some of us took advantage of staying at the Darrington Bunkhouse, which WTA has available for volunteers.

It was a great day. We all came away with a sense of accomplishment and new trail-building skills.

2016-06-05 Marmot Pass and Glacier Basin, Mt. Rainier N. P.

Wow!  What a hike we had yesterday.  Eleven of us headed to the Olympic Peninsula to hike to Marmot Pass, near Quilcene.  We had light rain as we drove from Kingston to Quilcene but by the time we got to the trailhead, the rain had stopped.

We hiked 11.2 miles with an elevation gain of almost 3600 feet.  Seems like a lot but with all the distractions – flowers, wildlife, conversations – it did not seem so daunting.

The trail is a steady upward traverse along the Big Quilcene River then does a few switchbacks, goes across some rocky slopes and comes to a plateau at Mystery Camp.  We took advantage of a nice big log to sit and have our lunch before continuing up to the Pass.

In the alpine meadow, we came upon a family of mountain goats just 20 feet off the trail.  They did not seem to mind us as they were busy nibbling.  Seeing these beautiful creatures was definitely a high point for us.  On the way down from the Pass, we were being watched by a large marmot atop a rock.  Some of us also saw a beautiful young buck at Mystery Camp.

We had wildflowers the entire way, starting with forest flowers then progressing to sub-alpine and alpine flowers.  What a treat!  It was especially nice to see our beloved Washington State flower – the rhododendrons, in bloom.

We said “au revoir“, not “good-bye”, to Ivona and Tom who will be returning to South Africa soon.  At least we are sending them off with some good hiking memories and hope they will one day join us again.

Thanks to Sandy for leading & planning the hike, to Barbara who organized carpools and to our three drivers – Sandy, Ronda and Alice.

Kathleen Nelson put together another hike for those wanting to stay on this side of the Sound.

..and on the other side of Puget Sound, more boots kissing the trail.  Ten of us explored Glacier Basin in Mt. Rainier N.P. on a sunny lovely cool day.  Nice trail, wonderful company, many more views along the way than I expected, and a lovely basin up at the top, which serves as a base camp for climbers heading to Camp Sherman.

Up on top we saw no mammals, but we disturbed a raven who then perched up on the tallest nearby tree, and listened with admiration to Barbara Holmes and me recite Edgar Allen Poe’s raven poem, “While I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a-tapping……”

The snow on the last half mile of trail was challenging; it was enjoyed much more by handfuls of young hikers and climbers we encountered who were not thinking about knees and hips as they slid happily down the steep parts.  Early flowers were out.  Some remnants of last century’s mining near the trail.  A great Medium-sized hike, six and a half or seven miles, 1600′.  A wonderful day.