Letters policy
We invite letters of 300 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for clarity, style and space and will be published based on their relevance to issues discussed in Macalester Today. You can send letters by e-mail to: mactoday@macalester.edu.

Mahnaz Kousha

Great story on Professor Mahnaz Kousha ["Women in Iran: Behind the Veil," Winter issue]. Professor Kousha was one of the stars of the Sociology Department. I enjoyed her classes.

Darius Collins '96
Minneapolis

Remember the champions

Good to read your Fall sports review of the women's soccer team and its coach, John Leaney [Winter issue]. It's always great to hear how well the women's soccer team continues to do year after year under Leaney's outstanding coaching.

But it was surprising to see in the box focused on John Leaney's highly successful career that there was no mention his 1998 team won the NCAA Division III National Championship. It was the first (and I think only) national championship in Macalester's sports history. It deserves to be highlighted.

Jane Hirschmann
mother of Nell Hirschmann-Levy '02
New York

Good point. Our February 1999 cover story highlighted Coach Leaney and those amazing women soccer players, but their accomplishments always bear repeating. Although theirs was the first and so far only NCAA national championship for Macalester, the Mac men's swimming team won the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) national championship three times, in 1964, '65 and '66.
--the Editors

Remembering Russ Wigfield '47

So many folks were touched by the compassion of [the late Chaplain] Russ Wigfield [In Memoriam and Letters, Winter issue]. Here is my story.

I was the organist for the chapel from 1978 to 1984. After Russ became the chaplain in 1979, one of our first services together was a wedding. Russ and I went over the service many times and I practiced for hours. The wedding went beautifully. After the service, I waited, seated at the organ, to be paid my $25. After the photos were finished, I approached an older man in the wedding party about payment. He brusquely told me to speak to another person, who did the same thing. A third person said it was "not his problem." I was in tears. I had played my best, I had invested hours in practicing, I really needed the money. Russ was locking up the chapel when he found me in the pews. When he heard what had happened, he immediately went downstairs and returned with $50. (I never knew if he talked to the wedding folks or if the cash was his.) He made a point after that of telling every wedding party that the organist was to be paid before the service started.

Russ was an excellent storyteller (I earn my living as one now: luannadamsstoryteller.com), and I really looked forward to Sunday mornings because every homily he shared was filled with stories of people and their choices. He told about people from all walks of life and wove wisdom, humanity, frailty and humor into his messages of hope, for all of us struggling with our own choices and identity. Other students have shared how he listened for hours to them in his office, With his gentle, non-judgmental encouragement, Russ was the lantern in a dark place, giving us "light" and "possibility." He had faith in us.

I believe wherever he is now, he is comforting and listening to troubled souls, and offering them the amazing balm of his grace and compassion.

LuAnn Adams '82
New York

As was noted at his memorial service, Russ was one of those extraordinary individuals who in a profound fashion touched people who were lucky enough to know, to work with or to struggle with him for the cause of human rights. Much of the discussion has focused on the years that Russ was Macalester's chaplain from 1979 to 1986. However, for those of us who are older, Russ was a gift to us during his years as Mac's assistant chaplain from 1956 to 1964.

My appreciation of the special person that Russ was began when I was assigned to be his student clerk in 1960. Russ never seemed to be fazed by the fact that he had been given as his staff a self-described agnostic who did not type very well. I think Russ saw me, like so many others who came into his sphere, especially students, as a work in progress both spiritually and individually. He was a most gentle, helpful and important guide. It was Russ who taught me that you did not have to be a Christian to be able to have a meaningful spiritual life.

I also learned how important he was to the mental health of students. Students with spiritual confusion, profound depression, and even thoughts and attempted acts of suicide found their way to his office and received the gift of his kind and nurturing nature. I often wonder how many adult Mac alumni are here today, leading productive and meaningful lives, because Russ made himself available to us in times of crisis and need.

Also, I hope that somewhere in its archives Mac has preserved a record of the roles that Russ played in Mac's fledgling civil rights movement (Student Action for Human Rights); the formation and operation of non-traditional spiritual organizations such as Student Religious Liberals; the free speech "fight" that actually allowed a Communist to speak on the campus; and publication of what I believe was the college's first underground newspaper.

In the early '60s, there was a forum at Mac that delved into whether it was possible to have saints if there was no God. Although I still wonder about the existence and nature of divinity (something I was taught to do at Mac), I do know that there are saints, in all the best senses of that word, in this world. I know because I worked for one during my time at Mac. The world is less of a place without Russ.

Don Gemberling '64
St. Paul