Terry Rockefeller

— 5th — (1977) Jimmy Carter

Worked at WGBH-TV, Boston, till 1975, as a caption writer for programs for the hearing-impaired, and then as an associate producer on "Nova," a science film-documentary series. Started graduate school in American history in 1975, and am pursuing a Ph.D.

— 10th — (1982) Ronald Reagan

Friends and work have given me great personal joy these last ten years, but I feel sadness, anger, and often fear about our world. Seven years ago I left my job with "NOVA" (the public television science series) to begin graduate studies in U.S. history at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. It was a new city for me and though, like most American cities it has its problems, Baltimore was open and people mixed in a way which contrasted starkly with Boston's racial tensions in 1975. My graduate work progressed smoothly. Teaching undergraduates was fun. Learning history, often difficult (it requires such introspection) had its many rewards. But I found I did not really want to spend my life in a university setting and after four years, I returned to Boston and to filmmaking (My Ph.D. thesis — a study of the national political issues surrounding the development of electric light and power in the 1920's — nears completion, but slowly and painfully. A real albatross!) Bill, who had been a fellow graduate student in history, made the move with me and we were married in the spring of 1980: a wonderful wedding with many of our friends. Bill has been teaching and we hope will end up with a relatively permanent job around Boston — living apart does not appeal. I produced three documentary films for public TV's anthropology series, "Odyssey." Presently I'm researching a new series on biology and nature.

Since leaving Radcliffe, I've been able to travel a great deal around our world. It's full of fine people and beautiful places. My greatest hope is that we can learn to respect the diversity and dignity of life and that this will prevent us from destroying the planet through greed or aggression.

— 50th — (2022) Joseph Biden

Where to start? What to include? First and foremost, I am so glad to be able to host a reunion of those David S. has called “my dormies.” Jordan J was what made Radcliffe and Harvard a true learning and affirming experience for me, whose lessons I hope I have respected, honored, and passed on.

When H-R became “coed” (which indeed took several more decades), of course all the R dorms became coed, but shockingly there weren’t enough females to populate the H houses. I have always thought that the men who chose to move up to the R quad (foregoing private rooms and choosing to live in doubles with bathrooms down the hall) were true trailblazers and helped advance all the consciousness-raising that had been going on in the R dorms. AMAZINGLY Jordan J in 1971 had a basically equal number of men and women. And joy of joys, some of the men were cheerleaders.

I have many, many treasured memories – bedtime stories in the living room (Charlotte’s Web, Winnie the Pooh, Trumpet of the Swan). Baking oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, M&M cookies (we hadn’t heard of excess) for Halloween trick-or-treaters. An all-Jordan dinner when I cooked four gallons of tomato sauce and put it on the ledge outside Nancy M’s and my room to stay cold overnight and the H police came to investigate if I was breaking in. The ferret—perhaps enough said.

The washer and dryer in the basement that somehow didn’t require quarters. Also, yoga in the basement.

The Seder when the door blew open just as we invited Elijah in.

Andy making me Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie for my 21st Birthday.

Those of us who all took J.B. Jackson’s course on the American landscape together, and when we invited him to dinner, he arrived at Jordan J on his motorcycle and brought us a dish of nasturtium bulbs to watch grow and bloom over the next weeks.

Of course, Peter and Wick and Gay’s photos remind me of so much more – square dancing, laughing, reading the morning paper, going to “New Hampster.”

I left Jordan J and H-R, wanting to become a documentary filmmaker (frustrated that Vis-Stud classes had been largely closed to me) and astonishingly I had a really good run at that. Chose to be a small fish in a big pond. Got a job at WGBH captioning the Julia Child Show for the hearing impaired (OMG what an amazing person Julia was). Timing is everything and I became the first production assistant on the NOVA science series; finally learned a bit about film production and connected with the person who has been my life-long mentor, Michael Ambrosino. But I wanted to make films about history, not science, so I headed off to grad school at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore – where I met Bill, my husband.

In 1979, the two of us moved to Boston. I was ABD (and have remained so) but I had a job producing shows about anthropology and archaeology (moving closer to history) where I acquired some of the best professional colleagues ever. Then I went to work at Blackside, Inc. – an African-American-owned production company – where I had the supreme honor of being part of producing “Eyes on the Prize,” a history of the civil rights and black power movements, and many other public-TV series on history.

Bill and I were blessed with two wonderful daughters, Logan and Hannah. They both lived in coops as undergrads. Is it hereditary? Bill’s daughter from a previous marriage, Kate, has a daughter, Erin, who is now attending BU, which is great fun for us (although she has had a tough time being a COVID-era student).

All this happy chronology sadly includes a tragedy. In 2001 my sister was killed in the 9/11 attacks. She was an actor and singer with a “day job” that took her to Windows on the World in the World Trade Center where she was the emcee at a seminar for finance industry types. I searched for and found people who would help me do what was necessary in response – not be a victim, not support violence, war, or torture, and try to learn more about the world and how the U.S. makes its policies and chooses its impacts. https://peacefultomorrows.org/ Our current focus is to close Guantanamo and get the U.S. military to own up to the extraordinary number of innocent civilians they routinely kill.

I am happy to talk to anyone who wants to learn more; it is not difficult or painful for me. (Though Bill often tells me it can rapidly become boring for the listener.) This journey has allowed me to work with some of the most inspirational Constitutional lawyers, human rights, peace, nonviolence, and international law activists. It’s been a second career (albeit unpaid) and I am hoping to continue to be active as long as I can.

Many of you played no small part in helping me develop values during those dark days of war in Vietnam that continue to guide me now. Love you all!

P.S. Here’s a Jordan J story from past our time. While Bill was finishing his Ph.D., he had a job as a tutor in History and Lit and a wonderful tutee named Mira. I learned she lived in Jordan J and after reminiscing a bit with her, she invited us to dinner. We arrived to find many of the young women in smart dresses and heels, and the men wearing jackets and ties. “Wow!” I said, “Times have changed.” “Oh, don’t get the wrong idea,” replied Mira. “We’ve all been advocating with the university administration to divest from South Africa. We call it ‘dressing for protest.’” They returned shortly in jeans and t-shirts and a great meal was shared by all.