| Campus memorializes two stand-out emeriti faculty by matt getty AU remembered two revered emeriti faculty members, Anita Alpern and Charles Crowder, in two recent memorial services in the Kay Spiritual Life Center. Filled with music, laughter, and recollections, the services gathered friends, family, and former students to celebrate the contribution each made to the university and the lives of those around them. 
Photo by Jeff Watts
Alpern, who served as a distinguished adjunct in residence during her two decades teaching in SPA, inspired heartfelt remembrances from family members. Her nephew Douglas Letter described her life away from teaching, which included a passion for baseball, shopping trips to Nordstrom’s, and large family gatherings. Other speakers, including SPA professor emeritus Donald Zauderer recalled Alpern’s tireless dedication to her students. Her work helping students prepare for the competitive Presidential Management Fellowship long after retirement, he said, has been instrumental in AU’s repeated standing as a national leader in the program. He also shared an anecdote about two of Alpern’s students, who were so grateful for her help and guidance that they continued to take her out for dinner each Mother’s Day years after they graduated from AU.
Photo courtesy of CAS |
As the founding chair of AU’s Department of Performing Arts and director of the Phillips Collection’s Sunday afternoon chamber and solo recitals, Crowder prompted recollections of his love for art and music. Several speakers delighted in describing his annual Christmas receptions, during which his garden looked stunning even in winter and his home reverberated with carols sung by a veritable who’s who of the Washington arts world. Fittingly, Crowder’s memorial service itself was filled with as much music as memories. DPA professor emeritus Alan Mendel honored his memory with several selections on piano, while DPA professor emerita Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios led the chapel in a hymn and sang two selections from Robert Schumann’s “Woman’s Love and Life.” Those gathered to honor Crowder returned again and again to his strengths as a teacher and a mentor. “Being a student of his was probably the greatest experience of my life,” said former student Valerie Dillon. “He had this little magic key, and he could open up your mind with it.” |
