Oral history of Shale Stiller

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After receiving a B.A. from Hamilton College and an LL.B. from Yale University, Shale Stiller received an M.L.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1977. Stiller spent his entire legal career in Maryland, first as a Maryland Court of Appeals clerk and later with the firms Frank, Bernstein and DLA Piper. He has taught as an adjunct professor for more than 50 years in the University of Maryland Law School. Stiller also served as the president of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and as a trustee of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine. He is also active in a number of philanthropic organizations. In this interview, Stiller recounts his time at Hopkins as a student and a trustee. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.

Oral history of Neil Grauer

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Neil Grauer, born in 1947, is a journalist and editorial cartoonist who grew up in Great Neck, New York. Grauer received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1969 and a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1970. Grauer was a reporter and cartoonist for the Baltimore News- American from 1970 until 1980, after which he served as the public affairs officer in the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Attorney General's Office. In 1984, he published Wits and Sages which profiles twelve contemporary newspaper columnists. In 1988 his Drugs and the Law appeared as part of the Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs. In this oral history, Grauer discusses his student days at Hopkins in the 1960s, including the political unrest of the time, his activities with the student body, and his work cartooning for the News-Letter. This oral history is part of the Mame Warren oral histories series. Due to a technical error with one of the audio cassettes, Grauer's oral history is only partially transcribed, with approximately one-fifth of the content missing from the transcript. The audio file contains the full recording.

The unquiet heart

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Johns Hopkins University president Milton S. Eisenhower briefly summarizes the life of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), a poet and philosopher exiled from his native Florence. He then interviews Dr. Charles Singleton, Johns Hopkins professor of humanistic studies, about Dante's "Divine Comedy." Dr. Singleton explains that the poem is divided into 100 cantos and 3 canticles: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisio, each of which he describes with diagrams. The poem tells the tale of a journey through the afterlife to God and can be read in the literal sense as well as an allegory. Dr. Singleton reads verses from Canto I in Italian and translates. St. Augustine's phrase "the unquiet heart," from "The Confessions," is the basis of Dante's allegory, a notion of the living's journey of mind and heart to God. He describes the image of a flame and how it rises upwards, seeking its proper place. Dr. Eisenhower comments that Dante's poem invites readers on a journey to escape provincialism.

Ten years from today

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Seven Johns Hopkins scholars predict what the audience might expect in 1968 in various fields of science. Dr. Dayton Carritt, assistant director of the Chesapeake Bay Institute, considers the future of earth sciences: rockets will orbit the earth and send back weather information, nuclear power will be developed, and ocean circulation will be studied for possible food production. In the area of life sciences, biology professor William McElroy discusses nutritional requirements to relieve diseases, trapping solar energy, the physiology of space travel, insights on aging, and other possibilities in a "golden age of medicine." Professor of microbiology Thomas B. Turner predicts space medicine, electronic equipment for the handicapped, public protection against radioactivity, better surgical methods for transplants, and the reduction or elimination of heart disease, polio, and cancer. Professor Charles Singleton maintains that the humanities will continue to survive as long as we ask "What is a man?" and "What does it mean to be where we are?" In communications, chemistry professor Donald Hatch predicts the extension of television networks as well as 3-D television programs and programs on demand. Professor of physics Theodore Berlin lists future energy issues such as control of thermonuclear fusion reactions, problems with radioactive wastes, application of atomic energy (but not in homes or vehicles), transformation of devices to control energy, and development of solid fuels and solar energy. According to Francis Clauser, professor of aeronautics, in the realm of space travel, commercial airlines will fly at supersonic speeds; guided missiles and anti-missile devices will be the backbone of defense; the U.S. will enjoy peaceful space travel with the Russians; and a rocket will go to the moon. To reinforce this view, Wernher von Braun, in a taped segment, predicts that the U.S. will launch a man into outer space, he will orbit and return to earth. He says an unmanned rocket will also land on Mars. Milton S. Eisenhower, the president of Johns Hopkins University, sums up their findings by pointing out the importance of education in all these endeavors.