In Memoriam: Nat Boxer
The Kirkland College community mourns the Dec. 3, 2009 passing of former film professor Nathan Boxer, who distinguished himself through teaching, as well as an illustrious career as a boom operator and sound mixer in Hollywood.
His film credits include The Rain People (1969), I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Bananas (1971), They Might Be Giants (1971), and The Godfather, Part II (1974). Other notable work includes Apocalypse Now (1979), for which he received an Academy Award, and The Conversation, for which he earned his first British Academy of Film and Television Arts nomination for best soundtrack in 1975, subsequently working with director Francis Ford Coppola on five films. Boxer’s work also includes My Bodyguard (1980), Four Friends (1981), The Cotton Club (1983), The Money Pit (1986) and his final film, The Glass Menagerie (1987). His devotion to his craft earned him a significant, memorial nod at the Mar. 7, 2010 Academy Awards, capturing the attention of those whose lives he touched.
Nat taught students at both Kirkland and Hamilton Colleges, as well as dozens of workshops around the country. He is remembered for his fine sense of humor, devotion to his students and his craft, and his extraordinary ability to hear the silence.
First Family
During the 2007 All-Kirkland Reunion, Natalie Babbitt read from her latest book, Jack Plank Tells Tales, and took questions from the audience. Click on the triangle below to hear a brief sample of her responses:
As a couple, Samuel F. and Natalie Babbitt may have modeled an ideal marriage in the view of Kirkland students, many of whom went on to struggle with issues of work/life balance. Sam had been Assistant Dean at Yale Graduate School before becoming President (at age 40) at Kirkland College. Natalie’s career as a children’s book author was just beginning, and her most celebrated works (including Kneeknock Rise, The Search for Delicious, and Tuck Everlasting) were written during their tenure at Kirkland. Her fame (104,000 Google search results!) ultimately surpassed that of the College.
Both Babbitts also taught at the College; Sam’s specialty was American Studies, and Natalie held popular seminars in book illustration and children’s literature.
Affection for the Babbitts, if not universal, is certainly widespread among the Kirkland community. These lyrics (author unknown) for a special event illustrate the general sentiment:
WORDS FOR OFFICIAL SONG AT KIRKLAND PRESIDENTIAL BANQUET
| Samuel Fisher Babbitt President of Kirkland Early in our College life we know We’ve got it made As long as you’re our Prexy Naught can ever faze us. Hail to our Chief, to whom all laud be paid. |
DID YOU KNOW?
Natalie Babbitt’s papers now reside with the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at University of Connecticut |
| Now that we’re all legal Let’s not get too sober, let’s keep up our jolly ways, our mud, our Saga* lines. Let ad hoc be glorified By vote of the Assembly and our dorms be fixed before our Joe resigns. Samuel Fisher Babbitt |
 “The 49th Magician” title page ©1966 Natalie Babbitt |
* Saga provided campus food services during the period.
NOTE: These lyrics were found on a single sheet in my collection, with no date or author. Any intelligence on their origin, melody or the occasion would be most welcome.
Remembering Ben Thompson
At the time architect Ben Thompson was selected to design the campus for Kirkland College, he was Dean of the Harvard School of Architecture and a member of The Architects Collaborative, known as TAC. Other members of TAC included modernist Walter Gropius, a Bauhaus leader.
Shortly after being chosen by the Kirkland Trustees, Thompson went out on his own to form Benjamin Thompson Associates, or BTA in Cambridge, MA (Limited Engagement, p.90-91). Thus, the Kirkland campus was one of this distinguished firm’s first projects.
A Kirkland Charter Class member, Daphne Petri’72, contributed this memory:
Throughout my time at Kirkland I served on the Trustee Committee for Physical Plant. … that committee really did launch my life. On the Physical Plant committee we worked through issues of campus design, construction scheduling and details and programming for spaces. Benjamin Thompson would occasionally attend these meetings.
I think it is fair to say that Ben Thompson was vague, inspired, infuriating, exciting and a genius. He would show us slides of some far off place where people were interacting and would make connections to this campus with young women learning and growing. He would get excited about some new idea that the educational program was presenting that had big implications for the Architecture. He was engaging and excited about our campus. He respected my opinion as one of the members of the committee. He valued the process of design and the people who were engaged in it. He made us see the site as as important for the buildings as the buildings. He loved to talk to the Trustees about the flowers that were growing when they wanted to talk about costs.
We worked through many issues about how big the buildings were going to be and how the dorms would be arranged and what kind of furniture there would be. We interviewed students about how the first dorms were working for them. We debated all issues of size and configuration. Sam would have met with them many times in between, so much was left to be brought up to speed.
Two summers during my time at Kirkland I worked at Ben Thompson’s office in Cambridge. He would give me things to do that were related to Kirkland or to similar projects. I worked on teams in the office and really learned how the whole process of Architecture was completed. Each fall I would return to campus to see how things had progressed. I am sure that all the hours I logged at BTA enriched my whole college experience immeasurably.
For many people the buildings may seem stark and harsh. It was Ben’s attitude that the people and the colors and movement of life activated the spaces and the architecture. He believed in making the buildings have a sense of simplicity and sustainability. I dont particularly like the aesthetic of the campus, but I got the intent and appreciated the full picture he was creating.
…
There were moments years later when Sam and I talked about Ben and what it was like to work with him. I went on to work in his office for 8 years during and after architecture school. There was so much to accomplish and sometimes he was so much of the artist and so little of the type of person to get things done. But I also learned the strength of the office that he had built where everyone was valued and the team studio collaborative model was used in his office well before that became the norm.
More on Thompson’s career can be found at these sites:
Other Thompson buildings can be viewed at:
Slogans
Living Together is Better Than Marriage
A Woman without a Man is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle
Anyone recall other slogans either from the merger protests or anytime during the first decade?
We could use imagery of your T-shirts, scanned versions of posters…Please help us build our archive.
Kirkland College 