Reflections
It was a cold, rainy day and I had heard the "old" Heller building was going to be cleaned out before renovations started... I decided to poke my head through the classrooms and discovered that the original chalkboards were still on the walls. Because I knew Professor Chilingerian was ordering fancy chalkboards, I thought Heller would not mind if I unbolted one of these older slate boards. I convinced my boyfriend Jacob to help carry the board down the hill and ALL the way back to my Waltham apartment. It lived in the janitors closet until my graduation. The following year, we placed the chalkboard in a moving truck and it traveled to our new home in Savannah, Georgia where it now serves as our dining room table! Jacob is now my husband and the table has become a wonderful conversation piece, as well as a great place to brainstorm new business ideas...
Miriam (Lipson) Hodesh, MBA '07
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What would be a memory of the Heller School without the Dybwads? Probably my fondest includes both the Dybwads and my parents. I should begin by stating that I am an avid skier as were my parents. They built a ski house in northern New Hampshire and, with few exceptions, we would rive up every weekend in the winter to ski Cannon Mountain. I was not about to stop skiing merely because I was in graduate school. I should also add that my mother was Viennese and enjoyed certain European customs.
In those days (the 70s) Gunnar and Rosemary Dybwad basically lived on the second floor of the Heller School. I think they only went back to their house to shower and change clothes. Every night, including weekends, Rosemary would prepare complete dinner meals in the little kitchen. They would top their meals off with a glass of Port. So it became our little tradition that when my parents came to the Heller School to pick me up on Friday night for a weekend of skiing, Gunnar and Rosemary would pour a glass of Port for them. We would discuss the latest politics, drink our Port, and then Gunnar and Rosemary would send us off. Now on Friday night I often remember those moments and smile.
Gail Robinson, Ph.D. '80
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Completing my Ph.D. was a long, hard struggle, and also very expensive. But it was worthwhile, enabling me to teach sociology with confidence and conviction. It has also enabled me to contribute more to making a better world by opening my students' eyes to the society in which they live.
Bernard Michels, Ph.D. '87
bernardmichels@yahoo.com
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I received a great education at Heller and fondly recall studying with Irv Zola, Janet Giele, David Gil, Norm Kurtz and Shulamit Reinharz, as well as making lifelong friends and colleagues. Thank you, Heller!
Mary E. Gilfus, Ph.D. '80
gilfus@simmons.edu
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To have received my graduate degree from an institution that is renowned not only for its distinguished faculty but also for its commitment to student learning and social justice is more important to me now than I could have anticipated. The world needs more Heller graduates.
Sarah Winawer-Wetzel, M.B.A. '09
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Watching Brandeis grow makes me nostalgic for the little house at the bottom of the hill.
Phyllis Rolfe Silverman, Ph.D. '69
smPR2@brandeis.edu
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I still owe so much to Dr. Stuart Altman, Heller faculty and staff and fellow students for their understanding and patience in helping me overcome the challenges to complete my degree. My Heller preparation proved an invaluable asset to my career in higher education and administration.
Roberta Walsh, Ph.D. '89
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During my twenty-year tenure as an alumna, I have seen remarkable programmatic growth and building expansions, both key contributors to Heller's premier education and research capacities. Known for its dynamic faculty and researchers, Heller sprinted to the forefront nationally, and commands well-deserved attention and respect for rigorous policy research and innovative educational programming. Imagine what the next 50 years will bring!
Diane Feeney Mahoney, Ph.D. '89
dmahoney@mghihp.edu
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I consider myself fortunate to be part of the Heller School family at Brandeis and truly cherish my two years at the school. The staff and faculty were very helpful and motivating. Most of the faculty members not only possessed relevant academic backgrounds but actually got their hands dirty with experience out in the field. The student community was rich and diverse. Each student had unique talents and interesting stories to share. We learned a lot from our interactions and we were bonded by that common desire to do something good. The host family program at Heller was also very special and it made our stay a lot more comfortable. Heller alums are in almost every country in the world, and I am proud to be part of that network. My time at Brandeis and in Boston helped me to re-discover myself and allowed me to pursue a career that I am currently engaged in. Thank you all and I wish the Heller School a very Happy 50th Anniversary!
Lotay Rinchen, MA '08
lotay@bridgetobhutan.com
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I will be ever grateful for Arnold Gurin's welcome in 1972, both to me personally (he had "recruited" me in Jerusalem a year earlier), and to the group of new students in the Lounge, where his first words were, "You're all going to make it here."
Martin Abramowitz, Ph.D. '80
jewishmajorleaguers@rcn.com
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I can remember arriving in Waltham, Massachusetts on a gray, wet morning in the late summer of 1970. Having never left California or the San Francisco Bay Area, I was overwhelmed and intimidated by the newness and strangeness of these surroundings. The weather seemed to always be gloomy and wet and there were no "drive-ins" where I could cruise. I felt I had made the wrong decision--perhaps I should have stayed in San Jose, California-- especially when I realized how much smarter and better-prepared were my fellow students. I managed to survive that first semester, but my next big challenge was enduring my first Boston winter. Imagine, if you will, Gerry Eggert sending me to New Hampshire in the dead of winter to conduct interviews at N.H. nursing homes. Me, a young, disabled Hispanic who had never been in snow and knew nothing of interacting with New England elders. That became another great experience and led me to a career in gerontology. Surviving and prospering through these times were due to many wonderful individuals--persons such as Fran Rosen, Millie Guberman, Arnold Gurin, David Austin, Joe Warren, Rosina Becerra, Robert Binstock and many more--who took me under their wings and guided me through these times. I soon came to appreciate the extraordinary educational and intellectual benefits of the Heller School and Brandeis University, and the friends I made during those years have lasted a lifetime. I can truly say that all I have achieved is in large measure because of the Heller School and the educational, personal and professional benefits it has given me. Waltham, Boston and New England are now like our second home. I met my wife at Brandeis and some 30 years later one of our girls lives in Boston and is considering the Heller School for her graduate work (we keep our fingers crossed). My deepest appreciation for all that Heller and Brandeis have meant to myself and my wife.
Fernando Torres-Gil, MSW '72, Ph.D. '76
torres@spa.ucla.edu
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The friendships I formed at the Heller School are even more valuable than the education I received there--and my education at Heller was worth more than I can say! Thank you.
Anne Howard, Ph.D. '90
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Over the years, what I learned at the Heller School helped me to build the social welfare program here at National Chung Cheng University and to debate with people on various policy issues affecting Taiwan. The true value of Heller School training is, and always has been, that it provides us with the critical thinking to look at things differently from most people, and to have the courage to speak truth to power. I have been in such debates and battles for many years and have never really compromised my major beliefs that I learned at Heller.
I was lucky to be able to invite Professor Gil to Taiwan in 2002 to share his vision with us. He came to give talks at two different universities, National Chung Cheng University and Taighai University. As you can imagine, his talks were very inspirational to audiences here. David's talk at National Chung Cheng University provided the Department of Social Welfare with another perspective to think about policy and justice in a much deeper way. His talk at Taighai University had a major focus on justice and social work in general and policy reform in particular. It was the first time for most of the faculty to think about the justice issues that David always brought to his classes and lectures.
Lisa Wang, Ph.D. '91
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My best recollection of Heller is, of course, the Dybwads. When I told Rosemary to reserve the date for my upcoming wedding, she was concerned that Gunnar was totally unreliable about events like that, so I made him "best man"!
Bob Marcus '65, Ph.D. '70
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I've always been proud of my Heller degree and have fond memories of my student days. Getting a Ph.D. at Heller was one of the best decisions that I made and it has opened many professional opportunities in my life. I applied to the school at the insistence of a statistics professor who had graduated from Heller and who convinced me to apply after I competed my MSW degree. To my great surprise, I was not only admitted to the school but was offered the opportunity to work on a research project focused on the energy crisis experienced during the 1970s and the economic policy implications for the country. Bob Perlman and Roland Warren directed the project and became my mentors and special friends. I was fortunate to get to know their families and share with them special holiday celebrations. Andy Hahn and I shared an office as research assistants and became good friends, supporting one another as we juggled school and work deadlines.
I remember my first school day, walking from the graduate school apartment building by the railroad tracks where I met Nina Melnick (Silverstein), who has been my best friend for the last 35 years. Nina and I shared the anxiety of having limited work experience before coming to Heller, and encountering a group of bright and seasoned classmates, many of whom had a very good idea of their dissertation topics from the very beginning. Their friendship and wonderful insight and contributions to class discussions and group projects made the years at Heller very special and unique.
I have the best memories of Arnie and Helen Gurin's house parties to welcome students, Nita and Jack Goldstein's friendship, Barbara Wakefield, whom we lost too early in her life, the two Frans, David Gil, Wyatt Jones, the Dybwads, Janet Giele, and many other professors and classmates.
When I was asked last year to serve on the Heller Alumni Board, I accepted as a way to stay connected to the school and to the new generation of students who are fortunate to be part of the Heller family.
Cecilia Rivera Casale, Ph.D. '79
cecasa@aol.com
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My years at the Heller School served me as a mid-career learning opportunity to look back on and assess my previous 25 years of work and experience, while gaining the knowledge and spirit needed for the next nearly 30 years of my career.
Baruch Levy, Ph.D. '80
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I remember with fondness the first class of the Heller School and I was proud to be a member of that class - all 17 of us. Our Dean was Charlie Schottland, and I remember him with great fondness. At the conclusion of my first year, and as I was looking forward to the summer, I was in Dean Schottland's office and he asked me what I planned to do during the summer. I had not yet made any determination about summer activities and told him so. "Why don't you go overseas, maybe to South America?" Well, that sounded like a good idea. And the next thing I knew Charlie was on the telephone with a former colleague of his with the federal government in Washington, D.C. By the time I left Charlie's office I had an appointment to meet with his former colleague in Washington. Next I ended up on the plane to Guatemala, billed as an "expert in social work education." It was that fast and it was the beginning of many fine traveling opportunities I had to Latin America.
Bernard J. Coughlin, Ph.D. '63
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My introduction to the Heller School was when five faculty members interviewed me to see if I should be admitted. They seemed rather stunned when I kept insisting that I did not want to learn a lot of academic jargon and that I hoped I would not lose my ability to communicate with people as I expected to go back to the community to work.
I took courses in planning, research and the social and political sciences. Some of the faculty - and even the students - expressed the opinion that there was no such thing as planning, but I gained a great deal from those courses.
As a student I had a good experience. Practically every faculty member was helpful in setting directions and in giving moral support. Dr. Virginia Turner was truly a great advisor and in her presence I felt that I was a mature adult who sometimes needed help with depression, anxieties, and financial problems, but that I could use my own head when it came to academic decisions. Dr. Wyatt Jones made us all feel that we could get through the writing of the dissertation, and Dr. David Gil pumped in us the need for a strong sense of social justice and social change. I can recall the individual support that Drs. Roland Warren, Robert Morris, Norman Kurtz, and Bob Perlman gave me. I had the advantage of having Dean (and later President) Charles Schottland on my dissertation committee. He had me change my dissertation from a purely sociological approach to a very practical one, and what I learned was very helpful to me in my own role as a dean several years later.
I was a field instructor at the Heller School and it is now a pleasure to see some of the names and contributions of students that I supervised.
Ione Vargus, Ph.D. '71
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I am always proud to be associated with the Heller School and its bedrock commitment to social justice. I was one of the few doctoral students in my era to do a dissertation in a developing country, and I was deeply appreciative of the flexibility I had, under the wise guidance of Lorraine Klerman, to choose my topic and my committee according to my own interests and opportunities. I am happy to see Heller move in the direction of educating students for work in the developing world with the Sustainable International Development program, as well as continuing to build on its existing strengths. I was so fortunate to be at Heller at a time when I could take courses from Charles Schottland and other members of the then "senior" faculty before they retired, and I am thrilled with the direction the school is taking under the new leadership of Lisa Lynch. Congratulations to current and past faculty, administrators, and graduates on 50 years of commitment and accomplishment.
Bea Rogers, Ph.D. '78
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Add YOUR reflections to 50 Years of the Heller School.
Email your personal reflections to Alex Rubington for posting HERE! Let us know if we can print your email address so people will be able to get in touch with you! Reflections are welcome on your Heller years or anything Heller related and, of course, on your memories and experience with Professor David Gil, our honoree.
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