common good

In her short time with Zander — a leader in the fields of family therapy, leadership development, and personal growth; an artist; and a staunch advocate for sustainability — Drake felt Zander’s commitment to the College and sustainability.

“It was clear that she cared deeply about the environment and the opportunity for us all to rise to the challenges of these times,” says Drake.

“We are deeply saddened by Roz’s passing,” says Swarthmore President Valerie Smith. “Her passion and enthusiasm for a wide range of subjects — including art, environmental sustainability, and human development — were inspiring and contagious.

“I am profoundly grateful to Elizabeth for agreeing to deliver this year’s McCabe Lecture, particularly under these difficult circumstances,” Smith adds. “I was fortunate to be with Roz and Elizabeth when they last met, and it was remarkable to see how quickly and easily they connected around their shared belief in the value of living purposefully and their commitment to environmental sustainability.”

Drake wanted to “honor Zander’s legacy and dedication to the environment by connecting her teachings about possibility to my own philosophy for living in this era of climate crisis.” She touched upon Zander’s two books, The Art of Possibility (co-written with her former husband, Ben Zander) and Pathways to Possibility, based on Zander’s experiences as a family therapist and executive coach. She will connect them to her own approach to sustainability work, “framing possibility as a powerful tool for living and acting in this era of climate crisis.”

Zander, who graduated from Swarthmore with a degree in English literature, coached people to create a life of vision, passion, and contribution — values she lived by and embodied herself. In 2021, she made a $5 million gift to Swarthmore to help fund a geoexchange plant, an essential element of Swarthmore’s To Zero by Thirty-Five effort toward carbon neutrality.

In addition to the outright gift, Zander issued a fundraising challenge to the College community: Raise $1.5 million for the geoexchange plant by June 30, 2022, and she would match the sum to fully fund the $8 million project. Her leadership motivated fellow Swarthmoreans, who met the challenge ahead of the deadline.

“What we have done to our environment since the Industrial Revolution stands out as the most critical issue of our time,” Zander said when announcing her fundraising challenge. “I’m thrilled to support this amazing project, having experienced that Swarthmore’s commitment to reducing carbon in the air, and sustainability overall, runs very deep indeed.” Zander supported the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship, which Drake views as central to the work of her office. “We’re incredibly grateful for her generosity in helping us to fulfill our goals of becoming carbon neutral and educating the next generation of sustainability leaders,” she says.

—RYAN DOUGHERTY

That theme ran throughout a panel on community organizing in Philadelphia’s Chinatown held at Swarthmore by the Tri-College Asian American Studies Program in September. It was organized by Assistant Professor of History Vivian Truong, and presented two generations of mothers and daughters working to preserve Chinatown’s history and location.

The panel featured Wei and former Philadelphia City Council Member Helen Gym, alongside their daughters — Kaia Chau, a senior at Bryn Mawr College, and Taryn Flaherty, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, who are also the co-leaders of Students for the Preservation of Chinatown.

Philadelphia’s Chinatown is at the center of a contentious proposal to build a basketball arena for the Philadelphia 76ers in Center City. Truong discussed this and the community’s history.

“Chinatown is not a stranger to projects that have threatened to displace a large portion of its population,” she said. “It actually began with displacement; Chinatown was first established in the 1870s as a haven for immigrants fleeing from anti-Chinese violence in the West.”

—MAHIKA SHERGILL ’26

An ordained American Baptist minister, Darryl earned a Bachelor of Science degree in music education from Delaware State University, master’s degrees in divinity and theology from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, and master’s and doctoral degrees in education from Harvard University.

Darryl was a mentor to students and colleagues alike who remember him as a pastor who served the community, lived as a drum major for justice, and always saw the sacred and worthy in everyone he encountered. He died on Dec. 4, 2023 at 80 years old.

David grew up in Norman, Okla., and graduated with a B.A. (1948) and M.A. (1950) from the University of Oklahoma. He then earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and, following a postdoctoral fellowship at the London School of Economics, joined Swarthmore’s faculty as a political science instructor in 1953.

A prolific scholar, Smith wrote four books about Medicare and Medicaid reform, including Medicaid Politics and Policy (2015) with Judith Moore, the definitive history of this vital program, now in its second edition. Early in his career, he wrote two books on political science and constitutional law, including one with longtime political science professor J. Roland Pennock ’27.

When Smith retired in 1992, friends, colleagues and former students established the David G. Smith Internship in Health and Social Policy, a merit-based research grant awarded annually to one student conducting an internship in social policy. He died on Sept. 28, 2023 at age 96.