Amherst Voices

“I don't recall much that happened. We spent most of our time hanging onto Mother Earth.” 1st Lieutenant Wallace Minot Leonard Jr., Class of 1916, recalling how he and his men crawled 1,000 yards across a field in northern France, under merciless enemy fire, to reach and take out an enemy gun emplacement in World War I. For his heroism, Leonard was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre. He is one of 33 World War I servicemen honored on Amherst's War Memorial. The war ended 100 years ago this November 11th.

“Gregor. Charles. Nettie. Maud. Carl.”  Caroline Goutte, biology professor.

NOTE: These are the names for the state-of-the-art freezers in Amherst’s new Science Center.  They honor geneticist Gregor Mendel; naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin; Nettie Stevens, who discovered sex chromosomes; biochemist Maud Menten; and microbiologist Carl R. Woese ‘50. 

“The sand disappeared under the restless sea, in some cases permanently. By-the-shore establishments, which profited off the sea, were now swallowed by it.” Hugo Ríos Cordero. From Cordero's essay in the most recent issue of The Common literary magazine, which explores Puerto Rico a year after Hurricane Maria.

“She was an artificer as much as an observer, imagining dramatic new ways to express the world's beauty and, as she saw it, its sacred order.” Hitchcock was one of the premier scientific illustrators of her time and the wife of Amherst’s third president. She is featured in the new Amherst magazine.

“You know the truth better.” Amherst’s oldest living graduate, Gardner Watts ‘35, on growing older and wiser.

“It made me think of the long chain of generations we all belong to and the ways past, present and future interact.” Professor  Ilan Stavans, offering a paean to his favorite building on campus. His essay appears in the new Amherst magazine.

“This is a place that now can be seen as a center—as a place to go to learn about Native history, culture, tradition, from Native peoples themselves.” Assistant Professor Kiara Vigil, speaking of the 2,600 volumes that brought scholars from around the country to study at Amherst this summer.

NOTE: The College’s Kim-Wait Eisenberg Native American Literature Collection is among the most comprehensive of its kind. 

“The story of beavers is the story of early American history, in all of its grandeur and destructiveness.” Ben Goldfarb was interviewed by Geoffrey Giller ’10 for the cover story of the newest issue of Amherst magazine. 

“Putting your team first is like putting your audience first.” Chelsea Cutler ’19, in “Songs Not Papers. Cutler's debut single, “You Make Me,” hit the Billboard viral chart last year. An Amherst soccer player, Cutler intentionally dresses like an athlete onstage, refusing to buy into the sexist stereotype of female performers in high heels and tight clothes.

“We can suck the fish into the robot without killing it.” Orin Hoffman ’01 in “Send in the Robots.” Hoffman is the chief roboticist for the Lionfish Project, which helps fisherman by deploying robots to reach lionfish in deeper waters. Lionfish have no natural predators and are throwing off the ecological balance of coral reefs.