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INSIDE
Emotional triage for Syrians
Being Roscoe changed my life
John Lennon and who?
M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2 0 1 7
TRENTON
MAKES MUSIC
A project recognizing the city’s serious
musical chops is hitting its groove.
Sarah Dash of the
groundbreaking trio LaBelle
UP FRONT
This is what
they had to say …
Who meant everything to you at TCNJ?
We heard from a slew of got-your-back friends, spouses, and grateful students in response to
this utterly personal question. More stories, page 44.
“Biology professor Steve Klug took a bunch
of us unsophisticated, working-class,
first-generation college kids with mush for brains
and sent us out thinking like scientists.”
—DAVID ECKER ’76
“I was a regular at Student Health Services.
Rita Ma knew my name and would always say hello
with a big smile and ask how I was doing. It would
brighten my day no matter how bad I was feeling.”
[Ma passed away in 2013.]
—LARISSA RICHELLE DILLON ’15
FACING PAGE: IZHAR COHEN. THIS PAGE: KATHRYN RATHKE
WANT
TO PLAY
ALONG?
“My floormate in Cromwell and husband of 22 years,
The well-traveled Nancy Mink Check out the back cover
Doug Mattoon ’94 is the best thing that happened to me
to see the question
Junior year, I needed a roommate. Trouble was, most of my friends had plans other than Decker, the all-girls’ dorm. I thought, “How about for the next issue, at TCNJ. We’re also the proud parents of two college
an exchange student?” So my exchange student arrived — Nancy Mink, a sophomore from Idaho. [Insert potato joke here.] Nancy may not then send your story to students — one a freshman at TCNJ!”
have been from an exotic land, but I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate the year she was here. Thanks to her, I’ve traveled not only magazine@tcnj.edu.
—BETH SCHAEFER-MATTOON ’91
to Idaho, but also to Portugal, a country I probably never would have visited otherwise, but now love. I never made it to Alaska or Japan,
two other places she has lived, but knowing I had an invite meant so much. —VAL SHESTAKOW ’90 Cont. on page 44
1
IN THIS
ISSUE TCNJ Magazine
VOLUME 21
NO. 1
Talk Up John P. Donohue
David W. Muha
Publishers
WE’RE BLUSHING INSTANT REPLAY Renée Olson
Editor
The magazine is beautiful and a great image- There was an article (“Ahead of the Game,”
booster for a college I dearly love. December 2012) in TCNJ Magazine Kelly Andrews
Art director
Congratulations. regarding the date the women’s athletics
WADE CURRY program was established. The information Kara Pothier MAT ’08
DEAN EMERITUS, ARTS AND SCIENCES Assistant editor
in that article was incorrect. Please have
someone check the archives for an interview Kevin Coyne
I did with the A/V department during my Mark Gola
BUILDING ON SUCCESS
Christopher Hann
A video companion to our photo gallery on tenure at TCNJ, which has the correct
Ted Johnsen
new campus construction is live. Watch at information. I feel it is important that the Ryan Jones
www.tcnj.edu/tcnjnow3 and sample the article be corrected. Your attention to this Melissa Kvidahl
reaction below: would be greatly appreciated. Dan Morrell
LILYAN B. WRIGHT Contributors
• TCNJ Chemistry, finally! PROFESSOR EMERITA,
Lauren Adams
• so much is happening!!! PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Bill Cardoni
• Love love love what they’ve done Dustin Fenstermacher
Editor’s note
with campus Matt Furman
The article stated that women’s sports
Inspiration station • OMG we have to go see all the changes Peter Murphy
transitioned from intramural to varsity Photographers
Sarah Dash at Trenton’s • Quimby’s Prairie forever
Sprout University School of the programs in the 1961–62 academic year.
• Don’t even recognize the college Izhar Cohen
Arts, where students gravitate We also went to the tape, but didn’t find
to her like bees on honey. anymore Julie McLaughlin
anything that challenged the reporting in Eric Nyquist
14 20 28
• Wow!
the story. We’d love to hear from readers Kathryn Rathke
• I think they also filled in one of the lakes Edel Rodriguez
who can provide more information,
Editor’s note including images, about this significant Illustrators
THIS IS ABRAR EBADY. TRENTON MAKES MUSIC WRITTEN ON THE BONES No worries. Both lakes are still intact. milestone in the college’s history. TCNJ Magazine is published three
When the world fails to stop bombs from times per year (fall, winter, and spring)
Punk. Funk. Itchi gitchi ya ya da da. Human remains found in the desert
by The College of New Jersey,
raining on Syrians, shelter may be found Hard bop. Martial music. If we could under the punishing Arizona sun help Division of College Advancement,
in the unexpected. Abrar Ebady goes WELCOME, CLASS OF 2021!!!!!
package the sounds inside these pages, professor Jared Beatrice and his wife PO Box 7718, Ewing, NJ, 08628-0718.
close to the border to help a people heal. When Early Decision acceptance letters go out each December, the college feels a warm The opinions expressed in these
they’d be bouncing. unlock the reasons migrants risk
glow when Twitter lights up with our newest Lions tweeting the good news. pages are those of the contributing
By Abrar Ebady ’17, By Christopher Hann everything to cross the border. writers and not necessarily those
as told to Dan Morrell of The College of New Jersey.
By Kevin Coyne
SUPER EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT I WILL POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to
BE ATTENDING MY TOP SCHOOL, TCNJ!!! Office of Alumni Affairs
The College of New Jersey
PO Box 7718, Ewing, NJ
Just got accepted for mechanical engineering!!! #yesTCNJ 08628-0718.
if you’re a #tcnj21 nursing major hmu* www.tcnjmagazine.com
i wanna meet people!
12 14 04 20 I GOT INTO TCNJ #DREAMSCHOOL #YES Letters from our readers are
important to us. Send email
So excited to be accepted to the Lion family to magazine@tcnj.edu or write to
Editor, TCNJ Magazine
Cover photo: Peter Murphy I still can’t believe I’m going to my number one Office of Communications
school @TCNJ PO Box 7718
Ewing, NJ 08628-0718.
01 UP FRONT 04 PRAIRIE 39 CLASS NOTES
departments Ranked up! #yestcnj All letters are subject to editing for
clarity and length and must include the
03 TALK UP 34 CAMPAIGN NEWS 48 TCNJ X 10 name and address of the writer, as well
*Hit me up, contact me as a phone number for confirmation.
“There was so much great talent. I don’t know why we didn’t get the break that Asbury got.” RANDY “NOW” ELLIS, page 20
2 WINTER 2017 3
4
PRAIRIE
WINTER 2017
WINTER 2 0 17
5
6 WINTER 2017
Without each other’s knowledge, two sharp English majors conducted research on ideas
around the mental health of these very notable but worlds-apart world figures.
We found their work in TCNJ’s Journal of Student Scholarship — and got a little twisted ourselves.
“Exposing the Voice of Truth: “Western (Mis)perceptions
A Psychological Profile of John Lennon” of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the ‘Terrible’”
Was Russia’s Ivan insane, or are historians throwing
Did Lennon have him shade while giving a pass to Western European
borderline personality disorder? contemporaries committing the same state violence?
“Deborah Fade’s essay is brilliant. None of
“Albert’s essay represents Prized
The inaugural 2016
TCNJ undergraduate research
Lennon’s biographers consider the BPD diagnosis.” Adeline Hoffman Prize for
at its best.” stellar research goes to
Cavallaro, along with a
—Niccolò Machiavelli, espousing thinking contemporary to Ivan
sweet $1,500 check.
what’s real inside you and what isn’t."—John Lennon
In 1964, Lennon met Daily Express reporter Ivor Davis
None. Ivan met his maker in 1584.
and promptly nicknamed him Ivan the Terrible.
“Fear of alienation … pours from his psyche in songs In 1570, Ivan sacked Novgorod over alleged treason by
such as ‘If I Fell,’ ‘I’m a Loser,’ ‘Nowhere Man,’ residents: “The tortures and executions were brutal …
and, of course, in his lyrical plea for ‘Help.’” with both immolations and drownings occurring.”
“On the night of Nixon’s reelection, at a
Ivan’s black-clad Oprichnina, or secret
party thrown by Jerry Rubin’s campaign
police, massacred 2,000 to 3,000 residents,
supporters,” Lennon “cheated on Yoko with
and possibly more, in this city of 30,000.
another woman in the very next room.”
Lennon yelled at his four-year-old son Sean Enraged at Ivan,
for not using his fork and knife properly. his son and heir apparent,
“Sean recalls: ‘He [yelled] at me very, very loudly. Ivan the father reportedly hit him
He damaged my ear, and I had to go to the doctor.’” with his staff, killing him.
Commissioning St. Basil’s Cathedral,
Primal scream therapy
Moscow’s fanciful, onion-domed icon.
Likely No substantive evidence
“Eyewitness reports of John’s erratic behavior”
suggest a BPD diagnosis, with DSM-5 matches for Cavallaro doesn’t mince words about how modern historians’
eight of the nine criteria. Only five are necessary. failure to take a critical approach to Ivan’s reign aids in
“setting up a model of an ‘evil’ Russian ruler” in perpetuity.
"It’s easier to shout ‘revolution’ and ‘power to the people’ than it is to look at yourself and try and find out
After nearly half a millennium, the first-ever statue of Ivan
was erected outside of Moscow in October 2016.
"Whoever becomes the master of a city accustomed to freedom, and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed himself."
Strawberry Fields in NYC’s Central Park TripAdvisor page? Nyet.
TripAdvisor page? Yes.
7
Read these articles and others at joss.tcnj.edu.
Eating Required reading
like mad
The Class of 2020’s first college assignment?
A book by a farmer who won the MacArthur “genius” grant.
Can rehashing angry IT WAS NOT A TITLE that Alyssa Joyce, a self-described
S
Urban farmer
fan of young adult fiction, would have chosen. Ditto for
thoughts trigger binge Brian Peng, who typically gravitates to historical fiction
Will Allen came to campus
to speak about his book.
eating? This psych major and fantasy.
went to Yale to explore But, to be fair, The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy
Food, People, and Communities isn’t a book that author Will
that question. hirley Wang ’17 earned her a spot on Yale’s research
Allen probably ever imagined he’d write.
was out for a walk team last summer, grant funding,
The son of a sharecropper, Allen wanted to escape the small
with a woman and the opportunity to study the
family farm where he grew up. He found his ticket out, first in
being treated for effects of rumination on binge
collegiate and professional basketball and later in corporate
an eating disorder when the latter eating disorder and obesity.
America. But, as he describes in his book, his roots pulled him
shared that she was addressing her What she found only
back. Allen began to long for the “rhythms of agriculture”
deep-seated anger with her strengthened her theory. First,
and the self-worth he gained from a successful harvest.
Way to go therapist. rumination led patients to
Yale gave Wang a spot on a team So at a time when he could have settled into mid-life comfort,
“Eating disorders are so often internalize stigmas surrounding
and grant money last summer to he took a risk.
pursue her own research interests. tied to depression,” says Wang, who obesity, which researchers know
He cashed in his retirement savings to purchase a plot of
at the time was a clinical intern at contributes to poorer mental and
land and a run-down greenhouse, five blocks from Milwaukee’s
the Center for Eating Disorders physical health. Plus, experts now
largest public housing project and right in the middle of a
Care in Plainsboro, New Jersey. believe that a central component of
food desert. He set up a farmer’s market to sell crops he grew
“Her struggle was really different eating disorder psychopathology is
on family land and later transformed the lot into a thriving
than that. She felt angry a lot, the overvaluation of shape and
garden cultivated by local youth. Today, he is the CEO of
towards herself and others.” weight, or placing an overwhelming
Growing Power, an urban agriculture initiative that harnesses
But when Wang looked into the emphasis on physical attributes.
the power of farming and gardening to provide jobs, help
literature, she found nothing on Wang found that rumination
youth, improve health, and empower communities.
the relationship between eating actually influenced eating
If the goal of TCNJ’s annual summer reading program is
disorders and angry rumination disorders above and beyond the
to unify the incoming class and college community under a
— the mental rehashing of problems effects of overvaluation.
common academic theme — this year’s is sustainable and
that keeps anger alive. So she put it She submitted her preliminary
just communities — this book has done it.
at the center of her honors thesis. findings to European Eating
For Lindsey Harris, who grew up in a rural part of South
Her research, using TCNJ students Disorders Review, and the paper
Jersey and was raised on community-grown vegetables, the
as subjects, found that such a link
does exist. Just like that, the door
— with her as first author — has
been accepted. She’s also applied to
book and the fall semester discussions it inspired opened her Summer Reading Redux
eyes to the challenges faced by residents of urban food deserts.
was opened. doctoral programs in clinical Every year, faculty and staff join together in the complex process
What resonated for Joyce, an aspiring teacher, was Allen’s
“I knew I wanted to expand my psychology to further her work. of choosing a summer reading book. The chosen text must fit
willingness to take a financial risk for the good of the
research into the patient popula- Ultimately, Wang hopes her within the college’s current academic theme, tell a compelling
community. And Peng, the historical fiction fan, came away
tion next,” says Wang, who had research can help patients like the story, and provide a call to action. Here are previous picks:
with a lesson on changemaking not often found in history
chosen a target group. “I knew woman she met as an intern.
books: “My reaction was, wow, you don’t have to be a
MATT FURMAN. FACING PAGE: JENNIFER PICCOLO
from reading through literature “These findings can have signi- 2015 The Nature of College, James J. Farrell
policymaker or someone with immense wealth to make a
that binge eating was the most ficant implications for clinicians in
difference. It was incredibly inspiring.” 2014 The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, Wes Moore
prevalent eating disorder.” the field,” she says, “since we now
—Melissa Kvidahl ’07
Wang took her thesis findings to know how important it can be to 2013 The Big Truck That Went By, Jonathan M. Katz
researchers at Yale University’s reduce rumination among eating
2012 Revolution 2.0, Wael Ghonim
Program for Obesity, Weight, and disorder patients.”
Eating Research. Her new angle —Melissa Kvidahl ’07 2011 The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage
8 WINTER 2017 9
PRAIRIE BRAG BOARD
15 things that make us happy
08. The National Science Foundation ranks TCNJ
01. PhD powerhouse third among the top 10 schools in New Jersey for
the number of undergraduate alumni earning
doctorates in the past decade.
A 300-lb gain
The Bonner Institute’s
holiday food drive tipped the 09.
scales at 309 pounds for the
Mercer Street Friends Food
Bank and the Trenton
Meal mashups
Even with the abundance of dining choices on campus, students
Area Soup Kitchen. sometimes have to take matters into their own hands.
04. 14.
12.
A duel fit for Hamilton
06. Bowie is
In response to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Instagram
Happy & healthy
TCNJ ranks No. 6 in the nation for
To lead a nation
MacDella Cooper ’01, who once
back!
post last summer of a predominantly white class of fled from Liberia’s civil war, is He’s scored five Grammy
overall student satisfaction, No. 13 nominations for 2017 — and a
House Republican interns, House Democrats posted back home and running for
for happiest students, and No. 15 for best First-Year Seminar course
a far more diverse photo of their own interns. Among president. If she is successful,
health services, says Princeton Review’s called “Loving the Alien:
those pictured are Bunyad Bhatti ’17, one of only five she will follow Liberia’s first
The Best 381 Colleges: 2017 Edition.
02. Muslim interns on Capitol Hill at the time.
This news comes as New Jersey’s
female leader, current President The Music and Art of David
Bowie.” It’s only a matter of
Shameless
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Elections
Department of Health named TCNJ
time now for one on Prince.
10. are in October 2017.
1+1=2 awards
Emergency Medical Services Best
adoration 05. Volunteer EMS Agency 2016.
Look who’s talking
Alumna Shelia Callaghan’s The American Mathematical Society has named math
Shout out to some familiar names lighting up campus this fall:
dark but funny writing professor Nancy Hingston a 2017 Fellow, acknowl-
style has scored her a 2017 edging her contributions to the field. She is the first Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry’s dished out business tips and 13.
free ice cream. New York Times bestselling author Gretchen
Writer’s Guild Award
nomination for an
TCNJ faculty member to receive this distinction.
Associate Professor of Mathematics Jana Gevertz Rubin (The Happiness Project) and NPR host Maria Hinojosa got How’d the
episode of Shameless, a
won the 2016 Henry L. Adler Award for Distinguished 07. personal and urged students to write their own narratives.
Finally, an all-alumni panel talked the business of sports, Mannequin
Showtime drama starring
Teaching from the Mathematical Association of
America. The national award is given to beginning
The Oscars with Al Guido ’03, 49ers president; Luis Perez ’86, formerly
Challenge
William H. Macy. faculty whose influence goes beyond the class- of teaching with the Lions and Pistons of Detroit; and Phillies announcer
Callaghan ’95 has to room. Gevertz was one of three award recipients At a surprise assembly last fall at Van Tom McCarthy ’90. even happen?
quietly bite her nails until in 2016. Derveer Elementary School in Somerville,
the awards are announced
In The Power of Networks:
15.
MACDELLA COOPER COURTESY MUI DAILY NEWS
New Jersey, second-grade teacher Six Principles That Connect
on February 19. Lindsay Frevert ’05 accepted the highly
coveted Milken Award. Frevert was one
11. Our Lives (Princeton, 2016),
co-author Christopher
The shoe fits
When our cover model, Sarah
of 35 teachers nationwide, and the only Cultural appropriation: T or F? Brinton ’11 explains how social Dash, wants to get comfortable
one from New Jersey, to be honored in
Jet set
networks function, making it during a TCNJ Magazine photo
MILKEN FAMILY FOUNDATION
Are white writers “allowed” to write about people of color,
03. 2016. With the win comes a $25,000
check — and lots of congratulatory hugs or anyone different from themselves? And “who is doing the
easy to answer questions such
as, “Is everyone on Facebook
shoot, this is how she goes
allowing?” Those are questions English professor and novelist glam. More, page 20.
For business major Ali McKeever ’17, fall semester looked like the work of from her students. really connected in six steps or
a mad travel agent: 15 flights—all to finish college as a TCNJ student and spend time Jess Row raises in “What Are White Writers For?” in The New
less?” or “How do cat memes
with her husband, who had moved to Florida for a job. She can now add finding cheap Republic (September 30, 2016).
— or anything — go viral?”
flights to her résumé. The best fare? $29 one way.
10 WINTER 2017 11
PRAIRIE
SPORTS >
How I Got Here >
BRITTANY REEDMAN ’18
The Microsoft engineering intern
and singles player listens to her mom.
What to Watch | Early 2017
> I started playing tennis at the end of > My mom was a computer
seventh grade. I had played every sport. science major. Without my BASEBALL
I figured I’d give it a try for fun. I ended up mother, I would have stayed with A SPECTACULAR LIONS SEASON in 2016 culminated with a bid to the NCAA
loving it and dropped all the others. math. A lot of women don’t have Regional Championships. Watch: Junior shortstop Zachary Schindler and junior
that influence in their life, and right-hander Joe Cirillo (left), both Mid-Atlantic All-Region selections in 2016.
> This fall, the TCNJ team won the they don’t find out about the field.
New Jersey Athletic Conference for the SOFTBALL
34th year in a row. In our conference, > She told me to try one computer LAST SPRING, TCNJ was one game away from a trip to the NCAA Super
science course — if I didn’t like it, Regionals. Six starters return to the lineup, led by ace hurler Samantha Platt ’18.
we’ve won 171 straight matches. We do
I could drop it. A week later, I loved it. Watch: Platt, along with Gaby Bennett and Jess Santelli, both named to the
very well in the fall. In the spring, we play
I told her, “I’m going to be a computer All-NJAC First Team in 2016, their rookie year.
nationally ranked teams, and they’re more
science major.” She was very excited.
competitive. LACROSSE
> I spent the summer interning at THE LION LAXERS SEEK their seventh straight NJAC
> I try to get my work done as efficiently championship and 31st consecutive appearance in the NCAA
Microsoft. There were 1,600 interns from
as possible. The second you start realizing championship tournament under the incomparable coach
all around the world. I’m interested in
how much stuff you have to do, you’ll get Sharon Pfluger ’82. Watch: Junior Elizabeth Morrison
software development. I worked on a
overwhelmed. So I just keep calm. (right), 2016 UWLCA Division III National Player of the Year.
machine-learning application that is
going to be launched soon. It simplifies the
> I love being involved on campus. I’m the MEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD
process of making predictions about data.
president of Women in Computer A BLOWOUT EVENT EACH YEAR, the Lions Invitational rocks campus on April 29, with more
Science; secretary of the Association for than 1,000 athletes lacing up for the meet. Watch: Junior Andrew McNutt, who finished one
> I lived in Seattle for three months. On
place shy of All-American status at the NCAA championships last spring.
Computing Machinery; secretary of Pi Mu weekends, they would take us all hiking.
Epsilon, the mathematics honor society; We even had a private Ellie Goulding WOMEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD
and treasurer of Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the concert. WITH 29 NJAC TITLES EARNED since 1983, the Lions are determined to wrestle the
computer science honors society. championship back from Rowan’s Profs — five-time winners — at the conference championships
> The Microsoft campus is like a May 6–7. Watch: Long-distance runner Erin Holzbaur ’19, an NCAA qualifier her rookie season,
> I’m very involved in getting more playground. There were rock-climbing and sprinter Danielle Celestin ’18.
women into technical fields like computer walls in my office. It was very cool.
science. My classes are primarily male. —as told to Christopher Hann —Mark Gola
MATT FURMAN
How does she do it?
Reedman maintains a stellar GPA
on top of going 10–2 this past fall.
12 WINTER 2017 13
ABRAR EBADY,
This is
the psych major who listened to Syria’s refugees.
words Abrar Ebady ’17, as told to Dan Morrell images Matt Furman
Compassion
With more than an estimated
400,000 Syrians dead in the war,
Ebady, fluent in Arabic,
could no longer stand by.
14 WINTER 2017 15
I REMEMBER THIS
WOMAN LAUGHING
about the futility of her situation in Syria. “There’s
nowhere to hide,” she would say. When the bombs
would drop, she and her two children would huddle
underneath a staircase. But there wasn’t enough space
for her husband to fit, so he would just have to throw
himself on top of them. I don’t know if you can imagine
living like that. But she was laughing about it. After a
minute, she’d return to the reality of the situation.
This is Syria. They laugh about hiding from bombs.
It was a 11/2- to 2-hour commute north every morning from
Amman, Jordan’s capital, to the psychosocial clinic at the Syrian-
American Medical Society where I worked last summer in Irbid,
Jordan. Syria’s right across the border from Irbid, a couple of miles
further north. Over the span of a month, I would say I worked with
more than 200 people at the clinic.
I attended group therapy sessions for children on my first day at
SAMS. In the first session, the kids were ages 5 to 10. The session
focused on helping the kids combat fear, sleeplessness, and temper
problems. The therapist told the kids a story and really emphasized
certain emotions, and then later she asked the kids what stood
out to them. They would always recognize fear. They’ll always
recognize the scary things, because that’s what’s so familiar to
them. This is what they know best.
Then the kids were asked what reminded them of sadness
or happiness. What really stood out to me — what was so
heartbreaking — was there were so many examples of death. A lot of
these kids will say, “When my brother died I was sad.” Or, “When my
dad died …” Then, when asked to describe fear, one of the kids said,
“A fear of being slaughtered.” It’s such a heavy word for someone
that age. For me to just have a reference point, I’d think, “What’s a
Next-gen rage
Ebady observed this young boy 5- to 10-year-old in America thinking in terms of fear?” They
threaten to kill Bashar al-Assad probably think of ghosts under their bed or Disney movies.
by name. He lost his father in
the attack employing the nerve The first week, I spent a lot of time shadowing. After that, I would
agent sarin in Ghouta, Syria. help my coworkers with the group sessions for the kids. I attended
some sessions with mothers and contributed to those therapies.
16 WINTER 2017 17One day, after a session, one of the me?” He looked at me and he said, “No, I control over. You see that a lot in people I was born and raised in New Jersey. Later, on my drive back to Amman, Jordanian friends. They discovered that
mothers told me, “You know, Abrar, wouldn’t.” I think it was in that moment with PTSD. We talked for a little bit, My dad actually grew up in Brooklyn. I asked my coworker, “What’s his I’m doing work with refugees, and this
my second-eldest son died in the war. that he realized how emotional and and he started to see our perspective. My mom grew up in Egypt, but then story?” She shared with me that he and one lady had the audacity to say, “These
He died June 2012. Abrar, that day, irrational this notion of going to Syria That family really had an impact on she married my dad and moved to the his brother and his mom were survivors refugees are taking our money, they’re
my heart died.” You just have to take a and fighting was. It was his attempt at me. He’s still getting therapy and hasn’t United States. of one of the acid attacks on Ghouta, taking our jobs. My son can’t find a job.”
second and swallow that phrase: “My coping. It was his attempt at getting gone back to fight, which is a relief for I was raised by a single mom for most Syria. His father died in the attack. I said, “What do you want them to do?
heart died the day that my son died.” control over something he had no all of us. of my life. She’s always been a strong Their balcony overlooked a Stay in Syria and have it rain bombs on
Apparently a bomb went off and cut person. Growing up, I thought that’s government hospital. One day he told them until they die? Is it because they
off both his legs. They sent the body to what the female was supposed to be his mom, “Mom, you’re lying to me. You live across a certain border, they’re less
his village. Then this woman says, “Now like: an independent, strong-willed, said that the ambulances save people. worthy of life?” I really felt so helpless
my youngest son wants to go back and goes-after-what-she-wants type of They kill people.” Later, they realized and frustrated because, from nine to
fight in the war.” person. that the government was actually taking five, I was dealing with people who have
I’m sitting there, thinking, “What can We were always taught, “You have people from protests to government faced horrible, horrible experiences
I do?” I told her, “Okay, give me your to get an education. You have to stand hospitals and killing them there. The — things beyond our imagination.
phone number. I’m going to ask you to up for injustice.” Those were the core young boy would see them get shot on Then there I was at night, when it was
invite him to the clinic for a therapy values that my family instilled in me. a daily basis. He once saw a tank run peaceful and beautiful. I could afford to
session.” The following week, I asked, I went to Islamic school and learned over an injured protestor. Nobody had go out and have dinner, while some of
“Did you tell your son to come?” She the teachings of my religion and the noticed that he was seeing this. the refugees were struggling to put food
says, “Abrar, I tried speaking to him.
teachings of the Quran. The Quran on their table. I thought to myself that
He won’t listen. I can’t afford to lose
teaches justice, peace, equality, and this woman could afford to do all these
another son.” I said, “Where do you live
humanity. These beautiful aspects of nice things — and she was complaining
AT THE
— we’re going to come over.” “
the religion that I try to implement about a population the entire world has
So we’re sitting at his mother’s house
every day of my life really took a hit closed its doors on?
and talking to her 19-year-old son. My
BEGINNING
when the Syrian refugee crisis started.
coworker asks, “What’s this I hear that
I think we underestimate how much
you want to go back and fight in the
of our upbringing has an impact on us
war?” They’re talking and eventually, of the war, it was
until there comes a time when you have Honestly, I don’t know how on earth
he says, “You know, sometimes when
I get really, really angry, there’s this
to practice your beliefs. just the Assad regime and I coped for a month. I really don’t know.
intrusive thought that I want to go back At TCNJ, I was in the library taking a the rebels. Now it’s My journal really helped me. I think, too,
and fight in Syria.” break from studying. Scrolling through Hezbollah, the Russians, that it helps to know that I’m making a
my Facebook feed, I saw this picture difference by spreading the word.
I said to him, “So, you find it who knows, ISIS even.”
courageous that you’re going to run of this little Syrian boy holding a dead I want to emphasize to people that
away from your problems and you’re body that I believe was his baby sister it’s not a crime to be ignorant. I think
going to run away from your family and or brother. it’s a crime to be ignorant and remain in
break your mother’s heart and probably I’m actually not a very emotional Flash forward a couple of years, and ignorance and not do anything about it.
die? Do you recognize that there’s person. But just seeing that picture, that boy is at the clinic, where I attended Once you learn about something, I think
a lot more involved now than at the I felt physical heartbreak. Seeing this one of his therapy sessions, where it’s on all of us to take action. Just trying
beginning of the war?” going on in the world today — and here we put him in the room with toys. He to spread the word and channeling my
At the beginning of the war, it was I am in a peaceful environment — brought down this car, and there was sadness and frustration into action is
just the Assad regime and the rebels. I wanted to do something. paint in the room, and he said, “I’m going really my main coping mechanism.
Now it’s Hezbollah, the Russians, who to paint this car black because that way I think I’m more rational than I was
knows, ISIS even. Patients would tell I’m going to recognize that it’s Bashar before. Now, when I look at something,
me, “We don’t even know who’s hitting al-Assad’s car so I could kill him.” it’s no longer the end of the world.
us anymore.” I asked him that and he I remember peeking outside the I’m thinking to yourself, “Did I even I think we live in a society where
said, “Yes, but if I have this mentality [clinic] door one day, and I see this know who the president was at five everything’s such a drama — literally.
and we all have this mentality, all the four-year-old kid who doesn’t want to years old?” I knew George Washington, Everything’s such a big deal. You get
Syrian people are going to die, and come into the therapy session. I tried to but I didn’t know any of the things into a disagreement with someone,
nobody is going to help them.” get to know him. I introduced myself, that this five-year-old knew. He kept and it’s the end of the world. I think
I said, “We appreciate your courage, On campus and he’s just not having it. I’m like, on mentioning Assad throughout the people need to start getting over their
but if the Prophet Mohammed was Photos from around the globe “Okay, okay, fine.” I was like, “Worry session, I’d say, 15 times in half an hour. differences. I think that’s what this has
dot Ebady’s dorm room wall.
sitting right in front of you, would you not, I have a month here, we will get to While I was in Jordan, I was out to taught me the most — that the world
give him the argument you just gave know each other.” a dinner with a family friend and her needs us. We are the generation.
18 WINTER 2017 19TRENTON
MAKES MUSIC
Giving the city’s sounds their due takes
two passionate professors, some inquisitive students —
and hometown R&B queen Sarah Dash.
words Christopher Hann
images Peter Murphy
Back home again
Dash in Trenton’s Thomas
Grice Academy of Music.
20 WINTER 2017 21W
EN SARAH DASH
H cover the full symphonic range of
Trenton Makes Timberlake
decided nearly a decade rhythms and melodies ever to emerge Trenton’s own Adam Blackstone
ago to return to Trenton from New Jersey’s capital city, from the (on bass) directed Justin Timberlake’s
— the city in which she fifes and drums that provided the 20/20 Experience Tour.
and her dozen brothers and sisters were soundtrack of the American Revolution
raised, where she sang in her pastor to the emergence of the nightclub City
father’s Pentecostal church choir, and
Gardens as one of America’s most
where she got her start on a singing
revered temples of punk rock.
career now in its sixth decade — she
moved into her childhood home in a
West Trenton neighborhood that she “Trenton is, in its own
describes, with all the tender mercy of a
devoted native daughter, as “challenged.” way, every bit as much
Recalling her return to the city
over lunch at South Rio, a downtown
of a music city as
Trenton restaurant, Dash says it took cities like Nashville.”
almost a year before she settled on
restoring the three-story, five-bedroom
brick house. “I had to decide whether
I wanted to keep money in the bank or
The encyclopedic approach would be
continue the legacy of my parents,”
she says. “I chose the latter.” necessary because Trenton — unlike
At the time of her return, Dash had Nashville, a country town, or New
not lived in her hometown for more Orleans, a jazz town — has produced
than three decades, yet for Trentonians musicians across the sonic spectrum.
of a certain vintage, she remains Pearson and Nakra’s students would use
something of a cultural touchstone. podcasts, written and oral histories,
Passersby still approach her on the even live performances to document a
street, often with an embrace. After wide range of musical styles, from
lunch, a parking garage attendant fusses gospel and klezmer to the blues and
over her when he realizes he’s talking
funk. They would also survey a wide
to that Sarah Dash. At 71 years old and
range of musicians, among them
with a lifetime spent in show business,
Dash still carries herself like a diva. The Thomas Grice, a legendary music
nail polish is crimson. The sunglasses teacher in Trenton public schools who,
are oversized. And one ring in particular in the late 1950s at Junior High 5, taught
seems to bear the approximate heft of, Sarah Dash to play the violin. “Trenton
say, Mount Rushmore.
Never let it be said that Sarah Dash
does anything halfway.
is, in its own way, every bit as much of a
music city as cities like Nashville,”
Pearson says, “except nobody knows it
By and by, Pearson heard about Sarah
Dash, who had found fame as a member
of LaBelle, the groundbreaking pop-rock-
her career. “She expressed an interest in
being more involved, using her contacts
in the community, giving us guidance
T HE PENTACOSTAL DOCTRINE
enforced at the Trenton Church
of Christ provided a rigid frame-
All the while she continued to
sing. At Trenton Central High
School, Dash and her classmate
except the people who were part of it.” soul-funk-disco vocal group of the 1960s about who the important people are,” work for Dash’s girlhood. Her Nona Hendryx teamed with Cindy
D
Born in Camden and raised in and 70s, and who had recently returned Pearson says. “You can’t buy that parents —Elizabeth, a nurse, and the Birdsong, who was from Camden,
ASH’S HOMECOMING came Philadelphia, Pearson had cultivated an home. expertise.” Elder Abraham Dash — did not permit and Patti LaBelle, from Philadelphia.
full circle five years after she incremental appreciation of Trenton’s So it was in the fall of 2014, in the Dash would become the public face of young Sarah to roam the streets
By 1962, Patti LaBelle and the Blue
returned to Trenton, when she contribution to American song. She project’s earliest days, that Pearson Trenton Makes Music. She would record unaccompanied or hang out with friends
Belles had a Top 20 hit with
responded to a Twitter post from knew about the city’s jazz clubs from her invited Dash to campus to sit for an oral the audio introduction on the project’s after school. Under her parents’ strict
“I Sold My Heart to the Junkman.”
Kim Pearson, a professor of journalism. days as an undergraduate at Princeton, history interview. But Dash sought a website, and she would serve as master supervision, she would attend classes, do
Pearson and her music faculty colleague, where she was a classmate of the jazz larger voice in the project — she felt of ceremonies for the project’s public her homework, take violin lessons, sing in Dash was 16 years old. “I’m all
Teresa Marrin Nakra, were planning an guitarist Stanley Jordan. Later, she obligated to contribute, she says, given events. She would also write the the church choir, and worship the underage, and I got these adults,
church people, fighting over whether
BRIAN KILLIAN/WIREIMAGE
ambitious digital campaign to document learned of Clifford Adams, a Trenton her long ties to Trenton’s musical eponymous theme song, which she Almighty. Recalling the regimen of her
Trenton’s rich but often overlooked native and longtime trombonist for Kool community — and she wound up debuted last October at a Trenton Makes early years, Dash quotes an old friend: I’m going to sing or not,” Dash
musical history. They called the project and the Gang, when their sons attended delivering a public lecture on the role of Music program at Mayo Concert Hall. “We would go to church on a Sunday,” she recalls. “And I’m sure my father had
Trenton Makes Music, and it would elementary school together in Ewing. the city’s musical culture in launching Dash wasn’t just in, she was all in. says, “and come home on a Wednesday.” pressures from his church members:
Cont. on page 26
22 WINTER 2017 23TAKING NOTES
“He was one of the baddest trombone players in all the planet.” —
Trenton Makes Music is writing the city’s musical history measure by measure.
THOMAS GRICE
joins staff of Junior
Lyric tenor and High 5; teaches
Metropolitan Opera star LaBelle’s Sarah Dash
RICHARD CROOKS is and Nona Hendryx;
HEINER FALLAS
born in Trenton in 1900 gives Kool and the
CLIFFORD ADAMS, who
and sings as boy soprano Gang’s Clifford Adams Nona Hendryx (left) and Sarah Dash (right)
studied music theory at TCNJ,
in local church. his first trombone. top the Billboard chart in 1975 with
reaches national acclaim as
1900–1910s 1950s
LaBelle’s hit “LADY MARMALADE.”
trombonist for hit group
1970s Kool and the Gang.
1770s 1860s WILLIAMS AND
WALKER perform
1920s 1960s
FIFE AND DRUM CORPS TAYLOR OPERA HOUSE — BIG BAND COMES TO CAPITOL RKO MOVIE Jazz pianist ORRIN EVANS
their minstrel hit
helps direct 2nd New Jersey named for the founder of the TRENTON Duke Ellington, THEATER (formerly Taylor is born in Trenton in 1975.
“In Dahomey” in
Regiment troops on the Taylor Ham company — Cab Calloway, and Fats Waller Opera House) brings in names The New York Times calls him
1902 at the Taylor
JOHN ABBOTT
battlefield and in Trenton’s opens and hosts Yankee Doodle (above) each perform at the like James Brown, Diana Ross a “pugnacious and resourceful
Opera House before
Old Barracks during the Dandy’s George M. Cohan. Carver Center. TRENTONIANA COLLECTION, and the Supremes. postbop pianist.” TCNJ’s Don
moving to Broadway. TRENTON FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Revolution. Evans Black Box Theater is named
for his father, a longtime faculty member who
created the college’s History of Jazz course.
2000–present 1990s 1980s
MATT ROBERTSON, LAKEWOOD CREATIVE CO./
DJ and promoter RANDY “NOW” ELLIS
BASSIC BLACK ENTERTAINMENT, 2016
Michael Ray, trumpet, Kool and the Gang
turns City Gardens into a CBGB for disaffected
suburban youth in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
WWW.DAVIDSIMCHOCK.COM
in the 1980s and early 1990s. Comedian Jon Stewart
tends bar from 1984–1987.
KENNETH SALERNO
“It was just an incredible and
Songwriter and producer In 2009 JACQUI AND STERICK IVEY open DAVID ORBAN vibrant scene, and there was
TRENTON MAKES MUSIC begins documenting in Conservatory Mansion in the same building
2014 what makes Trenton a hidden treasure of the
ADAM BLACKSTONE works
with Janet Jackson, Justin that once housed the Trenton Conservatory of
Arm & Hammer Park hosts
nothing else like it.” —Jon Stewart
music world. Music. It’s now home to the Thomas Grice
Timberlake, and Kanye West. TRENTON JAZZ FESTIVAL
Academy of Music.
with headliners Tito Puente, In 1981 Trenton native JOSEPH PUCCIATTI ’76
Patti Austin, Oleta Adams, and wife, SANDRA MILSTEIN-PUCCIATTI MA ’80,
“I would say music is coming back to Trenton.” —Thomas Grice Al Jarreau, and Roberta Flack. found Boheme Opera NJ, now based at TCNJ.
24 WINTER 2017 25Cont. from page 23 as Asbury Park. “There was so much
great unrecognized talent,” he says.
‘What is this child doing singing rock ’n’ “I don’t know why we didn’t get the
roll, the devil’s music? And you’re break that Asbury got.”
supposed to be a preacher?’” Salazar’s classmate Christopher
In 1971, after Birdsong had departed Hingston Tenev, a sophomore
for the Supremes, the group changed
electrical engineering major from
its name to LaBelle and traded in its
Princeton Junction, spent last
prim stage presence for the flamboyant
space-age costumes that would come summer recording and editing
to define LaBelle’s live performance. interviews with Trenton musicians.
Three years later, the group released In October, he co-produced the
“Lady Marmalade,” featuring one of Trenton Makes Music theme song
the most enduring lyrics in the history with its author. “I think it’s a good
of American popular music: Voulez-
Big band leaders Middle of nowhere project geared toward generating
vous coucher avec moi ce soir? (Do you In the 1980s and early 90s,
Professors Kim Pearson (left) awareness about something people
want to sleep with me tonight?) For and Teresa Nakra head up this this beat-up former car dealership
one glorious week in the spring of 1975, complex project. was home to a punk zeitgeist. ought to be aware of,” Tenev says.
“Lady Marmalade” held the number- “People’s awareness of music,
one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. and people’s investment in music,
LaBelle broke cultural ground with after nugget of rich material. As Pearson Dash presented a plaque to her education,” Pearson says, “than what Undergraduate Summer Experience really have an effect on the way
routine. In July 1975, the trio became communities operate.”
says, they “followed the breadcrumb 87-year-old mentor: “Honoring Thomas these artists have said about their program. He wrote scripts for podcasts,
the first all-black musical group to Sarah Dash appreciates that
trail.” One day, taking a bus into Trenton Grice in appreciation and recognition to teachers.” and last fall he enrolled in Pearson’s
grace the cover of Rolling Stone. A
from campus, Pearson struck up a your many contributions to Trenton Jacqui Ivey has watched the Trenton Makes Music course, in which effect as much as anyone. As a young
year earlier, LaBelle delivered the first
performance by an all-black group conversation about Trenton Makes and to music education.” evolution of Trenton Makes Music with he researched Jewish music in Trenton. girl growing up in Trenton, she
at the Metropolitan Opera House in Music with the bus driver. Turns out the particular interest. She was born and “I never realized the Jewish community witnessed the profound impact of
New York City, an event that carried
such historical weight even the Elder
driver, Vance Holland, was a former
session musician with Salsoul, the New
“People’s awareness raised in the city, and in 2009 she and
her husband, Sterick, opened the
had such an in-depth and complex
musical history,” Salazar says. “This
music within her own communities.
She saw it when she sang in her
Abraham Dash made sure to attend. York City record label. Holland told of music, and people’s Conservatory Mansion on East State project really opened my eyes to a lot church choir and later when she and
“I think I made my father very proud of
me,” Dash says. “Because he never had
Pearson about his sister, Diane Jones, a
investment in music, Street. For Ivey, Trenton Makes Music of musical genres that I found really Hendryx would rehearse with their
former backup singer for Guns N’ Roses represents an unprecedented effort to interesting.” earliest vocal group, the Del Capris,
to get me out of jail or rehab, and that’s and Taylor Dayne. Pearson reached out really have an effect on document a long and rich chapter in the Salazar also worked on a podcast in the basement of Junior High 5
important today, you know. That is very
important.”
to Jones, who soon became one of the the way communities city’s cultural life. “I don’t know if about Trenton’s punk music scene in (under the eye of Thomas Grice,
first musicians to provide an oral anyone, to date, has captured the signifi- which Randy “Now” Ellis played such
One sunny morning last October,
Dash came to campus to record the history for Trenton Makes Music. operate.” cance and the contribution to the music an outsize role. A former bar band
their appointed chaperone). Upon
her return to Trenton, she’s seen it
Trenton Makes Music theme song. And so it went along the breadcrumb industry from the Trenton area in a way drummer (and WTSR deejay) who quit
yet again, in the celebration of a
During a break, she suddenly reached trail. Through a former Princeton that this project has done,” Ivey says. his job as a mailman to become a
musical community that aspired to
for her cell phone. “It’s Sam’s birthday classmate, Pearson was introduced to At the core of Trenton Makes Music full-time promoter at City Gardens,
greatness beyond the borders of her
today,” she said with urgency. “Sam” was Clifford Adams. Before his death in Pearson says one of the highlights of is a pair of podcasting courses that Ellis booked the Ramones, Parliament
hometown, and in the work of a pair
Sam Moore, one half of Sam and Dave, 2015, Adams provided valuable her work on Trenton Makes Music has Pearson and Nakra began teaching in Funkadelic, Kurtis Blow, Nirvana,
the seminal soul duo of the 1960s and of committed professors and their
assistance to Pearson’s early efforts to been hearing so many musicians recall the fall of 2014; Pearson’s focused on Sinead O’Connor, Black Flag, the Dead
70s, who was turning 81. Dash dialed students who are recording that
wrap her head around Trenton’s music the influence of the city’s music content and storytelling, Nakra’s on Kennedys, and a thousand other bands
Moore’s number, and when he didn’t scene. They shared many telephone teachers. At the November pop program, production and technology. The two during City Gardens’ heyday in the greatness for all the world to see
pick up, she left a voicemail — “Hi, and hear.
conversations, Pearson says, “with him the singer/songwriter/producer dozen students in their classes work 1980s and early 90s. He’s also the
Sam. It’s Sarah.” — that ended with her
telling me stories and pointing me to Showtyme Brooks gave a shout-out to together to produce podcasts about central figure in director Steve Tozzi’s
crooning “Happy Birthday.”
people.” Adams told Pearson about his Trenton Central High School music Trenton musicians that will become 2014 documentary about the club,
influential music educators in Trenton, teachers Joseph Pucciatti ’76 and Ted part of the Trenton Makes Music Riot on the Dance Floor. These days he’s
A
such as Thomas Passarella and Thomas Plunkett. The same program featured a website, www.trentonmakesmusic.org. the proprietor of Randy Now’s Man Christopher Hann is a freelance writer
S PEARSON AND NAKRA Grice. In October 2014, Trenton Makes performance by the high school’s Gabe Salazar, a junior interactive Cave, a record store in Bordentown, and a former senior editor at New Jersey
and their students began to Music presented a concert featuring orchestra, under the direction of multimedia major from Hillsborough, New Jersey, where he grew up. As far Monthly. He wrote the cover story
Grice, a saxophonist, and the TCNJ Jazz Pucciatti. “There is no greater evidence New Jersey, secured a research role back as the 1960s, Ellis says, Trenton
MATT FURMAN
research Trenton’s musical about 49ers President Al Guido ’03 in
legacy, they unearthed nugget Band. At another program last October, of the transformative power of last summer under the Mentored was every bit as much of a music town TCNJ Magazine’s Fall 2016 issue.
26 WINTER 2017 27Written Bones
on the
HUMAN REMAINS FOUND ALONG OUR
SOUTHERN BORDER GIVE VOICE TO WHAT DRIVES
SOME MIGRANTS TO TAKE THE ULTIMATE RISK.
Words Art
Kevin Coyne Edel Rodriguez
28 WINTER 2017 29All that remained of the man
when he was found was the skeleton
that had once held him upright and had
porotic hyperostosis: The outer layer of
bone had thinned as the inner layer of
spongy tissue had thickened. Read
that the things that we were finding to
identify them … ”
“ … we had seen before … ,” Beatrice
Medical Examiner, and Beatrice came
to TCNJ as an assistant professor of
anthropology in 2015 — but what they
Michigan State he did fieldwork in
Albania and Greece.
“I’ve always wanted to explore
carried him to the place where he died. together, the skull and the teeth told a says. They met on the first day of learned there launched them on an what life was like in the past,” he says.
Time and nature had reclaimed story of a man whose boyhood had been graduate school in 2004, married ongoing research project that has “I was really interested in how we
anything else that might have revealed marked by deprivation: poor nutrition, in 2014, and often finish each other’s helped illuminate a hidden side of a can reconstruct living conditions
more about him. He had no flesh, no anemia, and persistent bouts of other sentences. volatile issue. and lifeways.”
clothes, no personal effects, no name. illness. Beatrice had read the same story “ … and were telling us that they were Soler’s high school in Rockville,
But his bones told a story that Jared before in many other sets of bones he coming across the border for specific Beatrice left his hometown of Maryland, offered a class in biological
Beatrice could read. had studied as an anthropologist — from reasons, that it was because their Youngstown, Ohio, for Ohio University anthropology that made it easy for her
The two long bones in the man’s right 5th-century Greece, 8th-century Italy, childhoods and their livelihoods south with a guitar that he played in a rock to later choose a major at George
forearm — the radius and the and 12th-century Albania. of the border weren’t sustaining them or band but little idea about what he would Washington University. “I went to
ulna — had been fractured when he But the man with the broken right their families,” Soler finished. major in, or what anthropology was. college pretty certain I wanted to be an
was a boy and had not healed properly. arm was from 21st-century Arizona, They left Arizona at the end of 2013 A class with a professor, a biological anthropologist,” she says. She did
The first molar in his lower left jaw had found in the desert outside Arivaca, not — Soler is now a forensic anthropologist anthropologist, quickly answered those fieldwork in Albania in graduate school,
an untreated abscess. The enamel on his far from the Mexican border, in October for New York City’s Office of Chief questions. In graduate school at too, deciphering juvenile scurvy rates in
front teeth was thinner than it should 2012. Beatrice had come to the Pima
have been. The back of his skull was County Office of the Medical Examiner
speckled with small holes, giving it an in Tucson on a research grant to join his
oddly porous look. fellow Michigan State University PhD
“Normal bone looks smooth,” says candidate, and future wife, Angela Soler,
anthropology professor Jared Beatrice, who had arrived at the office a few
pointing to a photograph on his office months earlier as a postdoctoral fellow.
wall of the skull and showing where the Their job was to try to learn more about
bone was not smooth. “All that pitting the hundreds of bodies that had been
that you can see almost everywhere? found in the Southern Arizona desert
That shouldn’t be there.” whose identities were still unknown.
He points to another photograph, of Most were presumed to be
the eye socket, which was similarly undocumented immigrants, part of the
pitted. “That should be flat dense bone,” grim tally of 2,465 known or presumed
he says. “Those pores you see shouldn’t border crossers whose remains have
be there.” ended up since 2001 in the medical
Beatrice has been studying bones for examiner’s office, which also covers
15 years, and he knew immediately that most of the other counties along
he was looking at another case of Arizona’s border with Mexico. The
office tries to identify each body found
in its wide jurisdiction — from DNA,
dental records, the things they carried
and wore, and whatever other clues
AS FAST AS THE DESERT CAN KILL YOU, their remains may hold — and then
return them to their families. Soler’s
IT CAN ALSO REDUCE YOU TO A SKELETON, MAKING THE specialty was the recent dead; Beatrice’s
MEDICAL EXAMINER’S JOB — TO IDENTIFY A BODY those who had died centuries before.
The job, to their surprise, drew on both
AND A CAUSE OF DEATH — ESPECIALLY DIFFICULT. their specialties. Data behind death
Says Soler, “The purpose was to Beatrice and his wife, Angela Soler,
together here at TCNJ, are giving
identify people, and it just so happened the dead a way to describe the
deprivation they fled.
BILL CARDONI
30 WINTER 2017 31You can also read
