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Ursinus Magazine

Cover Story

Leading with Grace

Jill Leauber Marsteller ’78, P’18 has a unique perspective of Ursinus, having been a student, alumna, parent, senior vice president for advancement, and now as the college’s first female president. This is her story, told though the lens of some of the conversations she’s been part of throughout her educational and professional journey … and the people who have influenced her the most.
Jil Cover Horizontal
web book Hemphill
Feature Story

Unfinished Business

In 2014, Professor of History C. Dallett Hemphill (1959-2015) had been more than a dozen years cancer free. Then, in the midst of living an anything-but-ordinary life of teaching classes and writing her third book, she found out the cancer was back. Following a memorial for the late professor, a community of colleagues and former students—all of them scholars, and all of them her biggest fans—rallied to make sure her final book got past the finish line and that her final pages were published. While this piece was intended to be a story primarily about that book, Philadelphia Stories: People and Their Places in Early America, it’s impossible to separate the story of the book from the story of the relationships that Hemphill built.
Leading Lady Joyce Henry
Feature Story

Theater’s Leading Lady

For more than two-and-a-half decades, Joyce Henry (1927-2011) had top billing on Ursinus College Theater’s marquee. She was its leading lady, a fixture of the stage when theater wasn’t even an academic major in Collegeville. Henry was instrumental in bringing theater in a formal way—and an academic way—to the college.
Getting to Know

Alan Morrison

A piano player since age 4, Alan Morrison was a self-described late bloomer on the organ. He did not start serious study of the organ until he was a senior in high school. A graduate of both Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and New York’s Juilliard School of Music, Morrison has been Ursinus’s college organist for nearly 30 years. As we celebrate the 35th anniversary season of the Heefner Memorial Organ, we shine a light on the man who makes the music happen. Get to Know Alan.

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Alan Morrison
burning question
The Burning Question

What keeps women from running for public office?

Abby Peabody ’22 and Annie Karreth, associate professor of politics and international relations, discuss the reasons—including financial barriers and cultural and social obstacles—that keep women from running for public office.

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#Giving2UCday

We’ve Got 24 Hours to Roar!

Our Bears Roar: Giving 2 UC Day 2021

The den is stirring and our Bears are back and ready to roar. On #Giving2UCday we’ll be rallying the pack—on campus and online—to get loud and give back to Ursinus College. It’s your chance to show the Ursinus community what UC means to you and why our Bears ROAR!

Join us on #Giving2UCday. Mark your calendar for Tuesday, November 30, 2021, to make your #Giving2UCday gift at or call the advancement office at 610-409-3585.

Visit the link below to learn more about how you can participate in this year’s #Giving2UCday challenges and win some great prizes!

Details

The Ursinus Big List

Top 10 Reasons I’m Thankful to be a Bear

Abbie Cichowski Kim ’10,
Director of Leadership Annual Gifts

What does it mean to be a Bear? Our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have many reasons to be thankful for their Ursinus experience. Here are just a few reasons identified by one alumna and current staff member.
  1. The friendships I developed while a student at Ursinus continue to enrich my life in so many special ways.

  2. As an employee, I have met so many accomplished, interesting, and caring alumni, parents, and friends who have, in turn, deepened my love of this place and its evolution.

  3. My professors, who once opened my eyes to new worlds, have become lifelong mentors and friends.

  4. As a first-generation college student, I consider our commitment to egalitarianism as a source of great pride.

  5. A walk across campus—regardless of season—is a thing of beauty.

  6. Authenticity and humility have always been at the heart of the Ursinus College community.

  7. If every person spent some time each day pondering the reflective and introspective questions posed in the Common Intellectual Experience, and now, the Ursinus Quest, I feel the world would be a much better place. We’re doing our part.

  8. Ursinus has been cited as one of the nation’s Colleges that Change Lives. It certainly changed mine.

  9. Bear hugs are, hands-down, the best hugs.

  10. Finally, I’m thankful that my list of reasons does not stop here.

Bears' Den

Class Notes & Weddings

Stories, weddings and updates from our Ursinus classmates

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  • Cheryl Wager

    Cheryl L. Wager died September 5, 2023.

  • Ritter Wedding

    Cynthia K. Ritter ’06 and Scott M. Lussier were married June 19, 2022. They welcomed a daughter, Isabelle Anne Lussier, on August 4, 2023.

  • Donald E. Parlee '55

    Donald E. Parlee ’55 died March 21, 2024.

  • Football Reunion

    Gary McAneney ’87 hosted a reunion of 50 football and Alpha Phi Epsilon alumni at the Trappe Tavern in February.

  • Gayle K. Byerly

    Gayle K. Byerly, professor emeritus of English, died January 12, 2024.

  • Holiday Alumni

    Ursinus alumni from the 60s through the 90s attended a holiday reception in conjunction with the Voices of Ursinus holiday concert. Pictured: Chuck Fryer ’68, Jeff Jowett ’77, Rosa Abrahams, Andy Davis, Rickie Lee Sands ’68, Jenn Kitner ’91, Lesley Katz ’87, Holly Hubbs, J. Lawrence Geist ’73, Susan Zeager ’68, Rebecca Stackhouse ’72, and Louis Angelo ’73.

Emily van Mulbregt
Getting into the field is really tricky. It can be a long road, but it’s worth it.
Office Space

The Keeper of Atlanta’s Great Apes

For Emily van Mulbregt ’17, working with the orangutans and gorillas at Georgia’s Zoo Atlanta is a childhood dream fulfilled.

She always knew she wanted to work with animals, and after her first internship, it stuck. “I said, ‘This is what I am meant to do.’”

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News Ticker

  • CIE Expands Its Footprint Through Collaboration with Chinese University of Hong Kong

    Professors Paul Stern and Robert Dawley walk on campus and discuss The Allegory of the Cave.
     

  • The 2020-2021 Lantern Hits Shelves

     

  • Twice in a Generation

    Diana and Andrea Cando
     

  • Ursinus Alumnus Shah Appointed White House Fellow

    Aakash Shah '10, Ursinus College's only Rhodes Scholar and a former member of the board of trustees, was named one of 19 White House Fell...
     

  • Presidential Prospectus is Live

     
Schellhase Family - Commons
Alumni Story

Ursinus Welcoming Gateway Officially Dedicated in Honor of Schellhase

The Schellhase Commons—the welcoming gateway to the Ursinus College campus that sits on the corner of Main Street and Fifth Avenue—was officially dedicated in honor of its namesake during an intimate ceremony on Friday, October 22.

Thanks to the generosity of trustee Will ’61 and Joan Abele, the 17,305-square-foot two story building is named for former assistant professor of religion, wrestling coach, and executive secretary for the alumni association Richard T. Schellhase ’45 and his wife, Kay Kerper Schellhase ’57.

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Life in Pixels: Family Weekend

On Sept. 24-25, we welcomed our Bears families to campus for an in-person Family Weekend event. Check out more photos.

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