Letters

Town and Gown
With the picture of retired biology professor Bob Engel at “seniors’ lunch” (Potash Hill, Winter 2013), there was a missed opportunity to give a bit of ink to the wider population in which the college is a much-appreciated island. Seniors’ lunch takes place at the campus center in coordination with Marlboro Cares, a town community nonprofit that helps seniors and those in need. The natives thank you.

Some of the other benefits shared by both the college and the town include the Rice-Aron Library, the Marlboro Mixer, cross-country ski trails, the volunteer fire company, Marlboro Historical Society, Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, the Marlboro Community Fair, and the January Book Swap. I’ve shared a complete list of these shared benefits with Ellen and other college folk, including the kor group, who’s updating the college’s marketing materials, hoping that the deep town-gown relationship can be featured as a strength of the college. The many interweavings of the town and college need to be celebrated, but only after they’re understood. It might be an interesting item for a Potash Hill article sometime. Many thanks.

—Michelle Holzapfel ’74

The Gorton Connection
I was delighted to receive the two latest editions of Potash Hill, which I shall study with pleasure. Marlboro has meant a great deal to my American family, and it will be good to continue to keep in touch with its admirable progress.

My first visit to Marlboro was in 1963, during my time at the Harvard Business School and when Audrey Gorton and Halsey Hicks were both on the faculty. Skiing that winter with Halsey, my admiration for his intrepid behavior on the slopes, with a broken leg in plaster and improvised ski bindings using plywood and nails, can be easily imagined. Both Audrey and Halsey were true “characters.”

It was kind of you to include an in memoriam notice about Gay Gorton Fullick (Potash Hill, Winter 2013), but, for the record, she was never a student at Marlboro. However, she was an active helper in a number of ways, particularly so during Paul Nelsen’s early group visits to the London theater. My best wishes to Marlboro and its future.

—Roy Fullick