Kenyon College - CASE

class nOTES
Kodiak Moments
’91
Peter S. Austin, Hingham,
Massachusetts, was hired to lead
T. Rowe Price’s newly created Fixed
Income Solutions Group. Peter
says he hopes to be in Gambier for
his thirtieth reunion and that he
has gotten one child through college
and has four more to go.
’83 Reid W. Click
Washington, D.C.
rclick@gwu.edu
Gregg O. Courtad
Canton, Ohio
courtago@mountunion.edu
David F. Stone
Birmingham, Michigan
dstone1@us.ibm.com
William S. Spann, Tallahassee,
Florida, reports that The
International Premium Cigar &
Pipe Retailer Association, based
in Columbus, Georgia, has named
him its new chief executive officer.
Bill was introduced to the association
at its 79th Annual Convention
and International Trade Show held
this past July in Las Vegas, Nevada.
’84 Beverly Sutley
Tyrone, Pennsylvania
bxb35@psu.edu
Susan Opatrny Althans, Pepper Pike,
Ohio, reports that her son Arthur J.
Althans III ’13, known as “Trace,” is
currently a junior at Kenyon.
’85 Laura A. Plummer
Bloomington, Indiana
lplummer@indiana.edu
Harvey M. Stephens
Springfield, Illinois
hmstephens@bhslaw.com
Susan Berger
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
sberger@pepcleve.org
Mary Marolf Bosworth, Dublin,
Ohio, reports that she is working
part-time, going to two different
nursing homes in Columbus, Ohio,
to provide individual counseling
for the residents. Mary keeps very
busy with her three active children,
Rachel (fifteen), Ryan (twelve), and
Anna (nine).
’86 John Keady
Oakland, California
jkeads@aol.com
’87 Stephen McCoy
Riverdale, New York
steve@alumni.kenyon.edu
’88 Patricia Rossman Skrha
Cleveland, Ohio
pskrha@bw.edu
Leland A. Alper, Hardwick, Vermont,
tells us he continues to labor as a
gardener in the wilds of Vermont.
He is also finding time to paint
and sculpt. Everyone is welcome
to contact him. Christopher E.
Schmidt-Nowara has accepted a new
position as a professor of history
and Prince of Asturias Chair in
Spanish Culture and Civilization at
Tufts University and will be living
right by the campus, in Somerville,
Massachusetts. Chris has also
published a new book, Slavery,
Freedom, and Abolition in Latin
America and the Atlantic World
(University of New Mexico Press).
Details are available on the publisher’s
Web site, www.unmpress.com.
’89 Andrea L. Bucey-Tikkanen
Hudson, Ohio
andreabucey@roadrunner.com
Joan O’Hanlon Curry
Ossining, New York
gijoan9@aol.com
When John Dunlop ’91 was a student DJ at Kenyon in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, Nirvana was touring behind
their debut album Bleach and Kurt Cobain was still very
much alive. But the dark music didn’t lead him toward
punk nihilism.
Twenty years after graduation, he lives on Kodiak Island, Alaska, and is the
Very Reverend John Dunlop, dean of the Saint Herman Theological Seminary,
and instructor of liturgics and theology. He
doesn’t dismiss punk, though.
“Punk music expressed dissatisfaction
with ‘normal’ life. It peered beneath the
plastic veneer of middle class life to expose
hidden truths,” Dunlop said.
“Many ‘punks’ have a great desire to
lay down their life for a higher cause and
to serve God and their fellow man. They
truly and deeply hunger and thirst for the
transcendent. Sadly, some never find
transcendent truth but end in nihilism and
self-destruction. They are thirsty souls
which never found water.”
Dunlop’s own quest for truth began at
Kenyon, where he majored in English, writing a senior thesis on T.S. Eliot’s
spiritual journey from nihilism to highly traditional Christianity. “My path,” said
Dunlop, “is not so unusual if we look at the lives of people like the bohemian
Dorothy Day of the Roman Catholic Church or the great Russian Orthodox
novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, who was once a political nihilist facing a Tsarist
firing squad.”
As an Orthodox priest, Dunlop feels he’s still living the “counter-cultural”
life expressed in the punk aesthetic. He’s certainly not located in the
mainstream.
“Kodiak Island is a beautiful place,” he said. “There are bears, eagles, sea
lions, salmon, and whales in abundance. There are huge snow-capped peaks.
“My work here,” he continued, “is primarily with Native Alaskans who
joined the Orthodox Church in the late 1700s. Kodiak was the capital of
Russian America. Russian monks traveled here from Siberia in 1794. Most of
my seminary students are either Yupik Eskimos, Aleuts, Tlingits, or Kodiak
Alutiiqs.”
Dunlop still writes—lectures, homilies, and talks. He says mass, teaches,
and attends to his Alaskan flock. “I have enjoyed serving the Alaskan people,
whether it’s baptizing babies or burying venerable elders.”
But his job isn’t all spiritual reward. “The biggest challenge is probably
dealing with the bureaucratic side of the church, whether it’s paying the light
bill or writing reports. Also, it is difficult to deal with tragedies in the villages
such as suicide or alcoholism or their loss of their culture.”
Almost all of Dunlop’s experiences in Alaska have fallen outside of the
ordinary, though some are more memorable than others. And, not surprisingly,
music is at the center of one of them. “During Russian Christmas time
in the villages, we go from house to house caroling, following a star, a large
wooden pinwheel which is spun. We follow the Christmas star and sing
traditional Russian and Ukrainian carols,” Dunlop said.
“This is always done in the deepest, darkest part of winter, but it is a
joyful time.”
—Bill Eichenberger