52nd Annual Meeting
Amy Tan |
As has become traditional, the Friends of The Bancroft Library celebrated their annual meeting on Cal Day, April 17, the day that the Berkeley campus throws open its doors to the general public.
By common consent, the day's highlight was the Friends' program— a talk by novelist Amy Tan, held in Wheeler Auditorium. Ms. Tan charmed the SRO crowd of more than 800 with her initial comments about returning to Berkeley after having studied in Dwinelle Hall as a graduate student in linguistics and experiencing the peculiar pleasure of finding herself immortalized in Cliff Notes along with such fellow authors as Bill Shakespeare and Jimmy Joyce.
Best-selling novelist Amy Tan was the keynote speaker at the Friends' 52nd annual meeting April 17. She brought her two Yorkshire terriers—Lily and Bacigalupi—with her in a black bag. |
She left everyone in stitches at the end when her pair of Yorkshire terriers poked their noses out of her oversized handbag. In between she offered a deeply moving reflection on the wellsprings of her writing, rooted in her relationships with her mother and through her, to her grandmother.
Ms. Tan's talk was preceded by a lunch and business meeting, held in the Great Hall of the Faculty Club. Chancellor Robert Berdahl stopped by briefly before lunch, on his way to the airport, to welcome the Friends and to express his appreciation for their support of Bancroft.
Amy Tan congratulates Christina Tran on winning a prize in the Hill-Shumate book collecting competition. |
The highlight of the lunch was the award of the first Hill-Shumate Prizes for Undergraduate Book Collecting, underwritten by long-time Friends Kenneth Hill of Rancho Santa Fe, California, and the late Dr. Albert Shumate of San Francisco. Luba Golburt, a senior in Comparative Literature, won first prize for her poetry collection, especially for the section on modern Russian poetry.
Four new Council members were elected at the meeting: Martha McEnerny Brigham, who brings welcome fundraising experience from her many years as a major gifts officer at Cal and UC San Francisco; investment counselor Peter Frazier, former financial vice president of the California Alumni Association; David Pierpont Gardner, President Emeritus of the University of California; and Katharine Hotchkis Johnson, a distinguished member of an old California family who offers the Council a wealth of experience in working with non-profit organizations.
Mother and son: Doris, '44, and Wally Ransom. |
New University Librarian Jerry Lowell greeted guests in his Cal Day tee-shirt.
Betty Helmholz, left, and Katharine Wallace.
Ann Flinn, Chair of The Council of the Friends of The Bancroft Library, left, with husband David Flinn and Jamie (Mrs. Charles) Faulhaber.
Peggy Cahill chatted with former chancellor Albert Bowker over lunch at the Faculty Club.
Photos by Peg Skorpinski
Volume 115
Fall 1999
Table of Contents
Bancroft's Marvelous Medieval French Manuscripts
From the Director: Biotech at Bancroft
Cataloging the Teatro Español Collection
New (Old) Mark Twain Found in Bancroft Scraps
Eleanor Swent Puts Her Mining Expertise to Work
Russian Emigré Wins First Hill-Shumate Prize
Theresa Salazar Is New Curator for Bancroft Collection
New Oral History Catalog Covers Two Decades
