Saving the Best for Last
I attended the University for my senior year. Having been born and raised in Coral Gables, I felt the need to get away! However, I can truly say my experience at the “U” was the best year of my college and academic life.
I enjoy the magazine, especially the article (Spring 2008) about the purchase of University of Miami Hospital near Jackson Memorial Hospital, which is quite familiar to me, as my parents worked and met there. They married in 1925. My mother was a nurse anesthetist and my father was a physician, later to have a private practice in the Gables and even later to specialize in dermatology.
Nancy Lefholz Rowell, A.B. ’49
Panama City, Florida
School During Wartime
When I received your magazine, I was totally knocked out. How did you find me? I attended the University of Miami during World War II. Most of the students were navigation cadets. There may have been 500 students the year I graduated. Elaine Planick Miller, A.B. ’46, and I were the “stars” of Mrs. Motter’s drama class. Eventually I became president of Theta Alpha Phi, the drama club.
In 1968, I taught at Ida M. Fisher Junior High in Miami Beach. In the 1970s my husband and I moved to Germany. I spent almost the next 30 years teaching at U.S. military schools in Frankfurt and in Hanau, Germany.
I thank UM for finding me and sending me the magazine. I remember my three years at the University with a good deal of joy. I received a great education.
Anita Eastman Wander, A.B. ’46
Prescott, Arizona
For the Record
On page 11 of the Spring 2008 issue, the “Go Figure” column states that it would take Michael Johnson 2.4 minutes to run 0.91 miles. I think that figure should be 3.4 minutes. One thing I learned at my wonderful years at UM was long division! Besides, the world record for the mile as of December 2007 is 3:43:13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco. By the way, I am an ultramarathon runner who placed 14th in the 100-mile USA Ultramarathon Championship at Shea Stadium in 1987. I ran 100 miles without stopping and finished in 21 hours, 3 minutes. The winning time was about 14 hours, and the world record is about 12 hours. Between 1986 and 1997 I ran more than 50 ultramarathons (more than 31 miles) and 25 marathons. My best marathon time was in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 3 hours, 25 minutes. I don’t run anymore but do a lot of walking and hiking in upstate New York, where I live, and I am still part of the New York City ultra- marathon community.
Jerry Grabel, B.B.A. ’67
Fleischmanns, New York
Correction
“A Slice of the Orange,” the Spring 2008 Miami magazine story about a former UM football player’s efforts to document the Hurricanes’ last season at the Orange Bowl, incorrectly reported that UM quarterback Steve Walsh’s 73-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown pass to receiver Michael Irvin occurred in a 1987 game in the Orange Bowl. The game was in Tallahassee. The reported final score, however, was accurate: UM 26, FSU 25. |
It pleased me greatly to read in the Spring 2008 issue about University of Miami students celebrating James Michener’s life. In my book, he also was an extraordinarily down-to-earth human being with a surprisingly lighthearted side. In 1988 I was doing a story on him for a Swedish newspaper, and during my visit to his Coral Gables home, I shared my grandiose visions as a 7-year-old in Finland of being a “world-famous authoress,” as I described myself on the homemade covers of my first “book.” His laugh was genuine and instant. Then, as I was leaving his house, he turned to me and said, “You know, this threshold has never been crossed by a world-famous authoress before!” And he almost went into convulsions from laughter. I don’t think this was a side that his adoring readers saw very often.