Labor Day has come and gone and now fall activities have begun in earnest. School children are back at their desks, football season is rushing into high gear and the political campaigns are competing with hurricanes for press coverage.
President George Bush visited with Davidson's own Dick Cooke during the Beijing Olympics
Speaking of politics, isn’t Davidson College baseball coach Dick Cooke looking presidential? See below for his Olympic memories of chatting with President Bush and strolling the Great Wall.
Other news this week comes from the Malcolm Campbell family in Africa, as well as a new Manning grandbaby in Clayton, an honor for Lance Stell, Sterling Martin’s “Grandpa Camp” in Elk River, and our own Stacey Simms as a published author.
Olympic Memories
How exciting for Dick and Susan Cooke and their daughters to be part of the Olympic scene last month in China. Dick, in his 19th year as baseball coach at Davidson College, was tapped for the second time to be an assistant coach to the USA Olympic baseball team. No stranger to international competition, Dick was serving for the 7th time on a USA Baseball staff.
His Olympic journey began mid-July at Yankee Stadium coaching at a Futures Game before the coaching staff named the Olympic team on July 20. Late July found Dick in San Jose for Olympic processing/orientation before returning to Cary, NC, for Team USA exhibition games with Team Canada. On August 7 the group left for Beijing and returned on August 24 with bronze medals in hand. Dick noted that memorable moments in Beijing were meeting Larry Gatlin and Jalena Jankovicin (top ranked women’s tennis player) in the airport, visiting with President Bush before an exhibition game against China, hanging out with Bob Costas, bumping into Carl Lewis and teaching his hotel restaurant how to make grilled cheese sandwiches which became a staple of their diet. (See our related story on Dick’s blog through the college website, “‘Cats baseball coach blogs from Beijing.”)
The Cooke family took time from the Olympic festivities to walk along the Great Wall.
Susan Cooke and daughters (Alison, 16; Lindsay, 13; and Erin, 8 ) joined Dick in Beijing August 16. It was the first overseas trip for the girls and the first time on a plane for Erin! Was it a fantastic trip and a wonderful adventure? Just ask any one of the Cookes. Loving the international flavor of the Olympics, Susan and the girls got to talk to Russian boxers, a Canadian rower, a lot of Australian fans, two couples from Cape Town, an assortment of Germans and Brazilians – and a very funny Sri Lankan swimmer who joked about beating Michael Phelps…when he was swimming “all out” and Michael was doing lazy laps in the warm up lane!
They all found the food a bit of a challenge and took frequent refuge under the Golden Arches for meals. Squat toilets were not the favorites of the girls but visits to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, the Silk Market and the Pearl Market were highlights. Susan and her daughters also found time to attend three baseball games, beach volleyball, team handball, weightlifting, synchronized swimming, indoor volleyball and women’s softball.
The family agreed that Beijing was clean, the people almost too helpful, the architecture amazing, the food and language a bit of a challenge and the Olympics spectacular. Memories to last a lifetime for the Cooke family – and kudos especially to Dick for being a part of Team USA in baseball. (Sorry to note that women’s and men’s baseball will not be included in the 2012 games in London. Perhaps 2016 will see it once more on the roster.)
A Postcard from Kenya
Malcolm and Susan Campbell and their daughters, Celeste (11) and Paulina (14), spent August on a trek to England and Kenya. First stopping in London for four days, the family then traveled on to Kenya where they spent over two weeks. They visited with the family of Mur Muchane (executive director of Information Technology at Davidson College) in Kikuyu on the outskirts of Nairobi for three days before renting a car and driving to various destinations in Kenya from the Maasai Mara to the coast.
Promoting DavidsonNews.net this summer in Kenya was Malcolm Campbell, posing here with a Maasai warrior.
A highlight for Susan and Malcolm was visiting A. T. Miller Shikokho Secondary School, founded 25 years ago by Davidson students and the place where the Campbells taught 21 years ago. Located in the Western Province of Kenya, the school has a strong Davidson connection through A.T. Miller, an American and Davidson College graduate, who taught there for six years and was the first headmaster. He started the tradition of Davidson College students teaching for a year at the school as Susan and Malcolm (both Davidson College graduates) did. The Campbells found the school had expanded and now features electricity. They reconnected with some of their former students and learned of their many successes in improving their lives and the local community.
Highlights for Celeste and Paulina, both students at Woodlawn School, were interactions with the native Kenyans, especially the Maasai with their traditional red wrap and jewelry, and of course, the chance to view the wildlife “up close and personal.”
Read more about the girls’ impressions of Kenya in their special post for DavidsonNews.net: — Kenya: As Seen by the Atypical Tourist. Our thanks to Celeste and Paulina for sharing their journal with us.
Cradle Roll
Welcoming their new baby sister, Abby Leigh, are (l-r): Austin, Taylor and Logan Gower, grandchildren of Susan Manning.
Congratulations to Susan and Bob Manning as they welcomed their eighth grandchild. Susan’s oldest daughter, Ashley Gower and her husband, Bobby, are the proud parents of a new baby girl, Abby Leigh Gower, who was born on August 18. Abby weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and stretched to 20 inches. Delighted to have a new baby sister were Austin (20 mos), Logan (4) and Taylor (6). Talk about a busy household! Grandma Susan drove to Clayton to help for ten days and pamper the newest grandbaby. Paternal grandparents are Jean Gower of Angier and Craig and Beth Gower of Raleigh so additional help is not far away.
Lance Stell Named to Thatcher Professorship
Congratulations to Lance Stell who has been named as the Samuel E. and Mary West Thatcher Professor of Philosophy and Medical Humanities at Davidson College.
DNN caught newly-named Thatcher Professor Lance Stell with his dog, Callie.
A college news release explains that this honor is given “in recognition of professional achievements, an impressive record of publications and outstanding leadership in the medical humanities program.” Previous holders of this distinguished professorship were Rosemarie Tong and John Kuykendall.
After 12 of teaching in the Philosophy Department at Davidson, Lance was invited in 1988 to serve on the ethics commitee at Carolinas Medical Center. This invitation evolved into his fascination with ethical issues raised in a hospital setting and patient care. He now has an office at CMC and wears a beeper so that he can be reached at any time concerning time sensitive medical consultations. He currently is most interested in the ethics of transplantation and compensation for organ donors.
In addition to his work at CMC, Lance teaches two classes each semester: one in medical ethics and the other in the philosophy of law. He enjoys urging his students to engage their imaginations and wrestle with real life legal and theoretical issues. An avid outdoorsman, Lance can be found bow hunting, fly fishing or trap shooting during his free time. He also plays tennis regularly and doesn’t mind spending time doting on his granddaughter.
Lance and his family came to Davidson in 1976. His wife, Sue, is assistant director of financial services at The Pines Retirement Community. Their children all live in North Carolina: son, Dean, and his wife, Jen, and daughter, Meg (5) live in Walkertown; daughter, Audrey and her husband, Justin Cervero, live in Lenoir; and daughter, Ginger, is currently living in Davidson.
Grandpa Camp
Now retired as assistant director of athletics at Davidson College, Sterling Martin, Jr., is enjoying having “summers off” for the first time in decades. Always responsible for the college’s lake campus,
Hooray for Grandpa Camp! Happy participants and their family members are: front row (l-r) Luke Smith, Melanie and Beth Hall, Spencer Toomey, Jonas Smith, Max Toomey, middle row (l-r) Jennifer Hall, Grandma Mary Martin, Great grandpa Sterling Martin Sr., Grandpa Sterling Martin Jr., back row (l-r) Tim Hall, Mary Ann Toomey, Sterling Martin III and Allison Smith
Sterling’s assignments ran the gamut from life guarding to baling hay. This summer he put all his expertise to work yet again by having a “Grandpa Summer Camp” for his six grandchildren. Everyone convened on Sterling Martin, Sr.’s property on the Elk River near Charleston, WVa.
Sterling and his wife, Mary, maintained the Mess Hall. Meals were cooked over a campfire. Daughters Jennifer (and husband, Tim Hall from Concord), Allison Smith (from Myrtle Beach) and Mary Ann Toomey (from Suwanee, GA) were there to help as was son, Sterling Martin, III, from Chicago. Everyone was delighted with their t-shirts on which Jennifer had embroidered characters and names with a different “logo” for each family group. They all slept in tents, arose to Reveille and retired to Taps. Each morning the flag was raised to a recorded “To the Colors” and lowered at dusk to “Retreat.” Learning to fold the flag properly was also a coveted assignment.
For a week (with some adult help) the four boys and two girls ranging in age from six to ten learned how to weave baskets, shoot arrows, roast marshmallows and fire b.b. guns. There were lessons in archery, badminton, riflery, boating, canoeing and tree house building. In addition one day was spent seeing the sites in Charleston and touring the capitol. Mary and Sterling remarked how the children’s skills improved daily. It was a wonderful week for the Martin family filled with memories of camp stories, camp songs and time together. Lots of work but lots of satisfaction as well!
Can’t leave “Grandpa Martin” news without mentioning an honor for Sterling. This past May in Hilton Head, he received the Southern Conference Distinguished Service Award representing Davidson College.
Congratulations, Sterling and again, Happy Retirement!
Stacey Simms has her own cookbook
What a delight for DavidsonNews.net to interview Stacey Simms and learn how she became the author of a new cookbook. Stacey and her husband, Slade Goldstein, live in River Run with their children, Lea (almost 7) and Benny (3 1/2). Slade is the co-owner of an Italian family restaurant, “Rotelli,” in South Charlotte and comes from a big family of good cooks. On their first date, Slade prepared a five course meal for Stacey!
Stacey has gladly turned chef duties over to her husband and now pursues her career in television and radio. She started in Charlotte as a reporter and sometime anchor at WBTV but found she loved radio more and switched to WBT 1110 “Charlotte Morning news” with Al Gardner a few years ago. The station loves to talk food and one day Stacey decided that maybe a cookbook with recipes from area chefs would be possible – with all proceeds going to her favorite charity, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Charlotte. (Son Benny was diagnosed with Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes when he was two years old.)
With great response from area chefs and an immediate “yes” from John Fox, Carolinas Panthers’ Coach, to write the foreword, Stacey saw her book soon become a reality. Choosing a name was easy: “I Can’t Cook, But I Know Someone Who Can.” With help from Spark Publications in Matthews, this charming book is due out in time for the Sept. 12-13 “Blues, Brews and BBQ” Festival in downtown Charlotte. Stacey will be on hand all day on September 13 signing copies which sell for $24.99. Twenty-five area chefs have donated recipes and included cooking advice. There are also color photographs of the dishes.
Rising just after 3 A.M., Stacey is on the road to Charlotte by 4 and at her “mike” for NewsTalk from 5-9 a.m. Afternoons she is free to be a mother and then turns in early once the children are in bed. A busy schedule for this energetic mom who laughed when she mentioned that she even included comments about some of her biggest cooking disasters in this book of which she is justly proud. Preordering of Stacey’s “I Can”t Cook” is possible by accessing “goodmorning.wbt.com” and scrolling down to the book cover.
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Have news for Brenda? Write to her at hbarger@bellsouth.net
