Centralight

Fall 2012

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2012 CMU Alumni Award winners The 2012 Alumni Awards ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, in the Bovee University Center, Mount Pleasant campus. The public is invited. For more information, contact the CMU Alumni office at alumni@ cmich.edu or 989-774-3312. Robert Knapp, the author of "Invisible Romans," had attended the CMU lab school located in what today is Smith Hall. Centralight recently had an opportunity to speak with Knapp about his love of history and of CMU. Harvard University Press published your book "Invisible Romans" toward the end of 2011, nearly five years after you became a professor emeritus. It's been featured in publications including The New Yorker Magazine and the Washington Post. What inspired you to write such a book? At the University of California, Berkeley, I taught a course on Roman civilization. Over time I became more and more dissatisfied with the textbooks' focus on the elite such as Julius Caesar and Augustus. They were the 1 percent, but there was little about the other 99 percent. This 99 percent were the ordinary people, and ordinary people drive any culture. I didn't want it to be a dry, scholarly book. I wanted one that was carefully grounded in the facts, but entertaining as well as informative. Understanding that there wasn't a lot written about the "ordinary people" of ancient Rome, how did you research the men, women and children of those times? Actually I discovered that there were quite a lot of sources for glimpses into the lives of these invisible Romans. There is a lot in the New Testament Gospels and Epistles that provides insight into how they lived. Books of ancient dream interpretations and astrological texts also show what people were afraid of and hoped for, and epigraphy in the grave stones shows how the people wanted to be seen. I was able to knit the strands together enough to tell their stories. You and your wife, Carolyn, live in California, but still are very connected to Michigan and CMU. You regularly visit the area to restore an 1888 log home built by your great- grandfather as well as make extensive use of CMU's Clarke Historical Library to conduct much of your research on Clare, which was your father's hometown. Why such a continued interest? You can't take history away from a historian. I wanted to do research on the logging history of the Clare area, but when I started poking around I became more and more interested in the town itself. I'm currently working on a book about the 1938 murder of Isaiah Leebove, who was linked to the Purple Gang and killed in the bar at the Doherty Hotel. In addition to graduating from CMU, you also attended the lab school here because your dad, Austin, was a political science professor, and your mom, Gail, was a history department secretary. What do you remember about your lab school experiences? I attended through sixth grade in the lab school – now Smith Hall. I remember especially Miss Welch's room. But every year was an incredible learning environment with the wonderful professionals and all the student teachers. Where else would you have seven teachers in each class? I established the website "College Elementary School" (cliophiles.com/collegeel) for telling the story of the "College El" and for tracking down students, teachers and student teachers from the lab school. I just didn't want that part of CMU's history to disappear. This year you became the first CMU graduate to speak at the Friends of the Libraries annual event and are receiving the Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumni Award. What's that like to have your alma mater recognize you? I never would have dreamed it. It was such a surprise and is such an honor. I know my father and grandmother, both CMU grads, would be proud. And I have never lost my affection for Central, Mount Pleasant and Clare. • Here are the honorees. • Distinguished Alumni Award: Robert C. Knapp, '68, of California, author, historian, professor emeritus • Distinguished Young Alumni Award: Kenneth Anderson, M.S.A. '11, of Maryland, U.S. Air Force aerial port flight superintendent; and Basil Lyberg, '99, of North Carolina, entrepreneur/philanthropist. • Alumni Commitment Award: Liz Campbell, '77, of Midland and Gavin Smith, '76 M.A. '85, of Haslett, theater production volunteers and CCFA event organizers. • Chapter/Club Service Award: Dale Wenette, '67, of Arizona, president of the Scottsdale, Ariz., Chapter. • Community Recognition Award: Ronald Farrell, '65 Ed.S. '81, of Blanchard, supporter of scholarships and the education system. • Corporate Partner Award: Rollin Gerstacker Foundation, more than 15 years of partnership with CMU. • Honorary Alumni Award: Robert "Bob" J. Garner of Cadillac, longtime friend of CMU Public Broadcasting. • Additional alumni recognitions: Tasha Candela, '05, Sarah Clark, '99 M.S. '05, Emily Doerr, '07. centralight fall '12 5

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