Volume 32 Issue 1
A Newsletter by and for the Residents of The Forest at Duke
October 2026
Quotes That Resonate by Sanford Berg My little notebooks are full of pithy sayings and inspirational quotes. I sometimes think that jotting them down is a “cheap” way to accumulate wisdom: I know that until the words are actually incorporated into my life and put into practice that they ARE just words. Still, writing down motivational and inspirational ideas is a starting point. I can use the words of others to help me reflect on ideas that resonate with me. Here are a few quotes and sayings that have meant a lot to me over the years.
Anon: “When I start to worry about the things I don’t have that I want, I should remember to rejoice in the things I don’t want that I don’t have.” I have always been one of the glass-halffull” type of person—looking on the bright side of things. I once considered myself a “militant optimist” and have transitioned into a “hopeful” optimist. That seems like a much more reasonable stance towards life during this stage of life. Anon: “Moderation in everything…even moderation.” I often say this modified maxim in jest, but it does seem that sometimes going over the top is called for! Politically, I have tended to be a “mainstream moderate,” as a social liberal and an economic conservative. Of course, “Foolish
consistency is the Hobgoblin of little minds” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Octavia E. Butler: “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.” At this stage of life, I am certainly more aware of the need to listen to others, not to better time my own interruption in the conversation but to truly understand what others are saying. Being a witness to their stories and concerns changes me. When I was younger, I would jump into “solving” a problem before I had really listened to the backstory. Many people hear. Not everyone listens. Mea culpa. Anon: “We say that ‘Seeing is Believing.’ It is just as true that ‘Believing is Seeing.’” We know that preconceptions affect what we perceive. Confirmation bias is always at work! Psychologists have shown that people are more likely to reject an observation or “fact” that is inconsistent with their world view. We accept information that confirms our preconceptions. Today, I am much more aware of the “bubble” in which I live…the limited experiences I have had and the types of people with whom I interact. I am certainly more aware of the gaps in my knowledge and the possibility (actually, likelihood) that my viewpoint misses the mark. So I try to avoid pronouncing “certainties.” Anon: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” TINSTAAFL has been called the core idea from Economics. I wrote the acronym on the board at the start of every semester when I was teacher—whether introductory economics or MBA level Economics. I then would point out that TINSTAAFL runs counter to TBTILAF (“The Best Things in life are Free”). I proceeded to note that the “Best Things in Life are Non-monetary” and, in fact, “The Best Things in Life are not Things.” Students understood that love, trust, courage, (continued on Page 6)
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October 2026
The Forester The newsletter of the Residents’ Association of The Forest at Duke, Inc., 2701 Pickett Rd., Durham NC 27705. Published monthly except July, August, and September by and for the residents. Lisa Camel, Managing Editor Beth Timson, Copy Editor Dave Sloan, Layout Editor Linda Cushman & Louise Scribner, New-Resident Biographers Elodie Bentley & Ken Parker, Proofreaders Sanford Berg & Barbara Narcisco, Photographers Catherine & Sanford Berg, Couriers
You may be familiar with Former First Lady Rosalyn Carter’s famous quote about caregiving: “There are only four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.” Caregiver coach Katrina Love Prescott is the producer of a highly successful web series, “Things Not To Say To A Caregiver,” that’s had over a million views on YouTube in Season One. Season Two of Things Not To Say To A Caregiver has just been released, and anyone who’s been a caregiver or who supports a caregiver will want to watch for free the new episodes of this series. ⸙
In Memoriam Pearl Levine G.W. "Pete" Stewart Craig Casey Ana Rosa Muschkin David Kraines Lois Oliver Charles Cushman Victor Moore Rose Boyarsky
June 2, 2026 June 9, 2026 June 9, 2026 June 15, 2026 July 31, 2026 August 9, 2026 August 12, 2026 August 15, 2026 August 31, 2026
The Forester
How Things Work at The Forest By Irwin Abrams Whether you’re a new resident or have been here for years, do you really know how things work at The Forest? For example, how solid the Forest’s financials are, how do events get planned, how events get planned, how the kitchen works, what services does the Health Center offers? If you don’t know or used-to-know (but it’s been some time), you ought to attend at least several of the Life At The Forest series. Seven sessions will be held in the Forest Room from 10:30-12:00 beginning Wednesday, September 30, and continue through November 18. A detailed schedule will be published in the Forest Forward, but here are highlights of each session, although the sequence may vary. Just show up – no registration required. �� How the Forest Works – Greg Garrett, the CEO of TFAD, and Elizabeth Gillis, the president of the Residents’ Association, will describe how the Board and Leadership Team manage TFAD and how the residents have a voice through the RA. �� All About Activities – Emma Quick, Director of Community Life, will tell you about her department and the many activities they organize. Lynda Carlson will discuss the Activities Committee of the RA and its role. �� General Services and Information Technology – Nathan Summers, Director of Community Services, will provide an overview of the many things that he’s responsible for and introduce you to the managers. Rashad Wilson, Director of Information Technology, will describe the functions of the IT Department and how it can help you. �� All About Dining (with Kitchen Tour) – Nathan Summers, Director of Community Services, will summarize TFAD’s Dining Services, and introduce you to our chefs who will guide the kitchen tour. (continued on Page 3)
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Our Library: An Open Book (And More!) What’s Late, What’s Not By Diane Strauss
Late We’re in a bind! The deadline for submission of contributions to the October issue of The Forester is late August, with its distribution likely in late September, so it’s too late to publicize our next book sale, scheduled to take place on Friday, September 18th. Here’s hoping you’ll have enjoyed it and helped make it a rousing success. We’ll share more about that in The Forester’s November issue. Not Late This issue is timely, however, for the annual celebration of Banned Books Week, held this year from October 4th-10th. Its theme: “Let Books Be: Protect the Freedom to Read.” Although adult books—think 1984, The Autobiography of Malcom X, Portnoy’s Complaint, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings have been banned—more recently children’s and young adults’ books have been targeted. To my knowledge, no federal or state legislation currently promotes banning or censorship. Instead, it occurs in much smaller units, such as school districts or in some instances, as in North Carolina, certain prisons. (If you’re curious and have time, take a gander at NC’s list of prison-banned books. Some may surprise you.) (https://prisonbooks.info/bannedbooks) I’ve been lucky to have worked in libraries where no censorship was practiced, although I did work for a bit in a smallish North Carolina library system where the head librarian used a locked closet, accessible only to library staff, requiring library users to ask staff to retrieve certain books requested. I often dealt with people who were shy or embarrassed to ask for items the head librarian deemed “unsuitable.” That’s not right. Fortunately that librarian and her closet have long since retired.
When I think of Banned Books Week, I remember one of my favorite activities, practiced across the country. It features faculty, students, librarians and other staff, government officials, and volunteers all reading excerpts from banned books they’ve personally selected. It’s amazing. So, what about our library at TFAD? Do we practice censorship? A resounding no! Do we have any books that have been banned? You betcha. We’ve got a bunch, including To Kill A Mockingbird, Nickel and Dimed, Beloved, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Too many to list here, but I take pride in each. We’re letting books be. ⸙
How Things Work (continued from Page 2)
�� Finance and Human Resources – Karen Henry, CFO and Director of Finance, will present current information on matters of finance. Christina Davis, Human Resources Manager, will address hiring issues and what we are doing to attract and keep high quality staff. �� VIPs Behind the Scenes – Important people whose work is vital but not always visible: Social Workers Carissa Campbell and Jennifer King; and Forest at Home/Home Care Administrative Manager, Tiketha Collins. Find out how they can help you. �� The Clinic and Health Care Finance – The health care services offered by TFAD can be confusing: what specialties are available and paid for? To provide information and answer questions, Lee Ann Bailey Clayton, Director of Health Services, and Karen Henry, CFO and Director of Finance will provide answers to those questions. ⸙
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October 2026
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The EV Battery that Won’t Catch on Fire By Howard Goldsweig At a battery-testing facility in Japan, engineers routinely do what is called a "nail penetration test": they drive a steel spike through a fully charged lithium-ion cell and wait to see whether it detonates. For decades, the honest answer has often been yes—a small, furious combustion occurs, electrolyte boiling into flame, cascading into neighboring cells until the whole battery pack is a torch. This is the risk that has quietly hovered over the EV revolution, the asterisk beneath every range estimate and every commercial about a family gliding past a gas station with a smug, silent electric motor. Batteries store an enormous amount of energy in a small space, and every so often, spectacularly, that energy remembers it does not want to be contained. The fix under way in labs from Yokohama to San Jose to Shenzhen is fundamentally a plumbing problem. Conventional lithium-ion batteries move ions between electrodes through a liquid electrolyte (ethylene carbonate)—a flammable organic solvent, essentially a fancier lighter fluid. Solid-state batteries replace that liquid with a solid: a thin ceramic or sulfide wafer, inert enough to shrug off a nail. Remove the liquid, and you remove the fire. But the engineers chasing this technology are after something more than safety. A solid electrolyte allows the anode—the negative terminal—to be made of pure lithium metal instead of the graphite scaffolding batteries have relied on for thirty years. Pure lithium is a much denser way to store charge, and denser storage means, at last, an EV that can go five hundred miles on a charge no bigger than the ones that get you three hundred miles today and can recharge in the time it takes to buy a coffee and complain about the taste.
This spring, a China-based venture backed by the automaker GAC announced early cell samples achieving energy densities nearly double what today's best EV packs deliver. Toyota, which has spent a generation on sulfidebased solid electrolytes with the patience of a company that still believes in twenty-year product cycles, has committed to solid-state EVs by 2028. Samsung SDI is aiming for 2027. Volkswagen has partnered with the American startup QuantumScape, whose factory near San Jose recently switched on automated production equipment built to satisfy exactly this demand.
None of this means the technology arrives fully formed. Manufacturing a hair-thin ceramic sheet at scale, without cracks, without defects, cheaply enough to compete with a chemistry that has had thirty years and a trillion dollars of head start, remains the unglamorous, unresolved center of the story. Industry veterans are inclined to bet on 2030 for anything resembling volume. But the direction is no longer in question, only the pace. What is coming is a battery that behaves less like a controlled explosion and more like a rock—inert, stable, unbothered by punctures—and that, improbably, holds more power than the thing it replaces. It is not a flashy kind of progress. It is the progress of an argument slowly winning, cell by cell, nail test by nail test. ⸙
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October 2026
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The Abbie Chronicles: Ringo By Vikram Rao Ringo was adopted about a year ago. Being named after a lesser light in the Beatles was a bit of a window to the owners’ thinking. At any rate, he was returned to our farm, and the label that came back was “untrainable.” This shook the breeders to the core. A border collie untrainable. Unbelievable, they said. As a breed we have a deserved reputation for intelligence. Sure, possibly, any single one of us could be the intellectual runt of the litter. But even then, compared to the lesser mortal breeds, even an intellectual laggard would not fall to the untrainable classification. We had our theories. The most credible centered on the primary characteristic that makes us invaluable on the sheep farm, Down Under and elsewhere. We can round up a mob of sheep in no time flat and have them troop through the gate. The few recalcitrant ones get barked at from close to the back heel. Sometimes a light nip helps. The word spreads in the flock, and conformance is assured. Anybody who has been witness to a shearing operation in the spring knows that a bit of blood from a nip is small potatoes. Very small potatoes. If you are a sheep. There may have been some rub. Kids may have been involved. And I don’t refer to juvenile goats. Pieced together from hearsay is the following story. The Trent family (until recently the owners of Ringo) celebrated a child’s birthday in their home. Being around a large number of children and associated parents placed a huge herding burden on Ringo, who was still inexperienced in technique. He was generally patient and, except for some barking, the situation was under control, with all of them on the balloon-festooned back deck. Then one small kid, three-year-old Thomas, suddenly took off, down two steps to the lawn. A startled Ringo rushed after him to herd the lost sheep back. The barking Ringo was followed by the ten-year-old big sister Sarah. Within moments, using standard border collie technique, Thomas was being herded back with Ringo close on his heels, and Sarah
behind him. Then Thomas tripped and fell. Sarah tripped over his ankle and Ringo dexterously avoided the pile up. The mother rushed over to disentangle them, seeking explanation. “The dog bit Thomas,” testified Sarah imperiously. “On his foot,” she added. Feet were examined and a bruised ankle was discovered. Signs of blood on the back of the ankle were not sought. An unfazed Thomas Colfax VI wandered off, and Ringo, now leashed, was unable to secure his return. Mrs. Trent apologized profusely to Mrs. Thomas Colfax V, wife of the majority shareholder in the Trent’s firm, who wondered rather loudly whether Ringo would be “put down.” Mrs. Trent assured her that firm action would be taken. Expensive experts assured the Trent family that Ringo was acting in character, and it was unlikely that he had bitten Thomas. Nipped perhaps (and even that would be rare) but not bitten. Training was unlikely to reverse this innate behavior. Keeping him in the face of Colfax family ire was untenable. Hence the return to the breeder with the label “untrainable.” We believe that the breeder, in addition to not refunding any money, charged the Trents for unspecified costs involved in taking Ringo back. He was subsequently sold for a price higher than his puppy price because of the extensive obedience training he had received at the hands of the Trents. His new owners, more versed in 1960s rock and roll royalty than the Trents, renamed him “John,” neatly evoking Lennon, the more famous Beatle, as well as John Fogarty (Credence Clearwater Revival), John Phillips (The Mamas and The Papas), and John Sebastian (Lovin’ Spoonful). ⸙
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Quotes (continued from Page 1) honesty, community, and family are, indeed, the “best”—most valuable and important—aspects of life. And they recognized that maintaining those values could also be costly—they were not “free.” Anon: “Make good decisions. Then make those decisions good.” I used these words often with MBA students. Every difficult decision involves having limited information—about the situation, policy options, and potential impacts of options. The lesson: once the choice is made, work to achieve positive outcomes. And be prepared to reverse course if the outcomes are unacceptable. We never know what would have happened if the “other option” had been taken, or if a decision should have been delayed in order to gain more information. In my opinion, it is not something worth worrying about. Alfred North Whitehead: “What is more important, facts or ideas? Ideas about facts.” In this era of “truthiness” and “alternative facts,” it is hard to overemphasize evidence-based decision-making—bringing ideas about facts to those responsible for addressing tough policy issues. Anon: “Make good decisions from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” Perhaps this maxim is a favorite because I like the play on words. The point of the quote is true: we learn from our mistakes. Even better, we learn from the mistakes of others…if we are observant. One could even define a mistake as “information-gathering,” as in Thomas Edison’s search for a good filament for his light bulb. Of course, viewing mistakes as experimental outcomes might make us a little cavalier about decision-making. Still, it is a sweet play on words. Picasso: “What good is a computer? It can only answer questions.” I like maxims that capture deep insights. With artificial intelligence looming as a major societal concern, we have one of last century’s greatest artists suggesting that AI has not yet achieved the level of creativity and curiosity required for asking questions. Maybe that step is nearly ready to be
taken by computers. Still, the quote underscores the unique value of asking “Why?” Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require, but to Do Justice, Love Kindness, and Walk Humbly with your God.” This verse captures the essence of the spiritual tasks set before me. I love its simplicity and the challenges it highlights. I conclude that this prophet is pro-poor, demands love, and asks for humility with respect to our personal response to the Great Mystery. Anon: “Not all storms come to disrupt your life. Some come to clear your path.” In our case, it took Hurricane Irma to flood us out of our home into an apartment. The resulting downsizing made our move to North Carolina much, much easier. David Whyte: “The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self. The ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.” (from Consolations: the Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.). I have spent hours listening to David Whyte’s audio version of his book and re-reading chapters that have proven to be especially meaningful. As Whyte notes, “A friend knows our difficulties and shadows, and remains in sight, a companion to our vulnerabilities more than our triumphs, when we are under the strange illusion that we do not need them…All friendships of any length are based on continued, mutual forgiveness. Without tolerance and mercy, all friendships die.” Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” These words just ring true. How could it be otherwise? Helen Keller: “The best and most beautiful things are not seen, but are felt in the heart.” Amen. ⸙
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October 2026
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An April A�ernoon to Remember (or Forget) By Ellen Baer Can you name a place of beauty and solace that is 2480 miles from the equator and only three miles from TFAD? It comprises fifty-five acres that include five miles of walkways and it’s open to visitors free of charge 365 days a year. If you’ve answered Duke Gardens or Sarah P. Duke Gardens, you’re right! If you’ve wondered if there’s a downside to this extraordinary destination, you may have guessed “parking” and you’re right again. The parking system challenges almost e v e r y o n e , especially people like me and Phil who lack both the skills and the temperament for dealing with mysterious apps. Fortunately, Community Life sometimes provides transportation to Duke Gardens, and we were among the first to sign up for a trip offered in mid-May. It was very soon after the official reopening after a whole year of construction and renovation, and the trip was already filled. So, we found ourselves on a wait-list for Trip #2 only a week later. Unfortunately, the second trip was on a sunny afternoon that can only be described as BLAZING HOT (95 degrees). As we waited in the lobby for a few others to arrive, I asked our driver if it was a good idea to go on an o u t d o o r adventure in such heat. He replied, “Well, it’s up to you,” implying that we didn’t have to go. But we didn’t even consider backing
out, because we were up for anything! Soon we found ourselves strolling through the Native Plants Garden, savoring the shade and grateful to be caught occasionally in the spray of a sprinkler. We tested every single bench and enjoyed a rare sense of spaciousness resulting from the lack of other people. Indeed, we could count on one hand the number of other people we saw on that hot breezeless day, and they were mostly seeking shelter in or close to the brand-new Welcome Center and nearby Gardens Café. They were praising Locopops and moaning, “Aargh, how can it be THIS hot in the middle of May?” As for us, we were sinking fast, no longer “up for anything”; and, although we are certainly looking forward to returning to Duke Gardens, we may wait until Fall. ⸙
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Welcome New Residents Donna and Dallas Stallings
Kathryn “Kate” Berenson
Apartment #5112 Donna: dstallings@gmail.com Dallas: dallasst@gmail.com
Apartment #3042 202-550-0881 kwberenson@gmail.com
Donna and Dallas describe themselves as “old geezers” who have lived most recently in Durham and are now in the Terraces, up on the top floor facing the street, and spying on all of you from above. They love their new home and all the fascinating friends they have made in the dining room and about. Please come by and visit.
Formerly they were a “reformed Baptist minister” and his English teacher wife. They have one accomplished son, Trip, who lives in Raleigh, and a few relatives around NC. Old friends, the NC beach, extensive travel abroad, reading biographies and book-club novels, and flowers fill their interests. Their best pal is their Cavapoo, Fezziwig. ⸙
New resident Kate Berenson describes her life in three phases. In her early life in Minnesota, she was raised to acknowledge the importance of participating in one’s community in a meaningful way. That ethic influenced subsequent endeavors in her life.
With a BA in English from the University of Washington, she settled in Bloomington IN with her young daughter and her graduate student husband who was enrolled at Indiana University. She supported the family by writing about women’s issues at the Courier Tribune newspaper. When that paper went broke, she covered women’s sports for the other local paper, the Herald Tribune. Kate stayed in Bloomington when her husband left, his PhD in hand. At public television station WTIU, Kate produced and hosted two weekly local news shows. She also produced a documentary, “Doc: The Oldest Man in the Sea,” which aired nationally. Her next job, in Harrisburg PA, was bureau chief for The People’s Business, a weekly coverage of state (continued on Page 9)
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David Test
Berenson
Apartment #3108 dwtest@charlotte.edu
(continued from Page 8)
David W. Test was a Professor of Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for thirty-six years where he taught courses in single subject research and professional writing. Most of his publications focused on self-determination, transition, community-based training, and supported employment. He received over $35 million in federal and state grants and published over 160 journal articles.
He also served as Co-Director of the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition, Co-Director of the UNC Charlotte Doctoral Leadership Personnel Preparation Program, and Co-Editor of Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals. Apparently, he could not do anything by himself. He fully retired in 2019 and currently enjoys playing pickleball, golf, and table tennis; taking exercise classes; kayaking, reading fiction, and puzzling. He met his wife Nancy (Cooke) in graduate school at The Ohio State University in 1978. Over the Labor Day weekend in 1983,
government (much like WUNC’s Statelines), aired by Pennsylvania’s seven public TV stations. That led to a stint as press secretary to Allan Ertel when he challenged Richard Thornburgh’s second gubernatorial campaign. When Ertel lost, Kate covered local news (she calls it mayhem) for three years at KYW, the Philadelphia NBC affiliate. Kate’s remarriage entailed a move to Washington DC, where the third phase of her life began. Kate continued working and writing as a volunteer media specialist for non-profit agencies focused on liberal issues. Also, while in DC, Kate refurbished a house the couple bought near Harpers Ferry, taking care to maintain its1820 style. In the process, she indulged in her lifelong interest in textiles and dealt in a small way, in antique patchwork quilts. When invited to give annual American quilt shows in Paris, France, she learned about the Provençal method of quilting and wrote two books on that subject. Later, during the ten years Kate lived in Paris, she published papers tracing fifteenth-century origins of Provençal quilting to Naples in Italy. Always curious, she is currently fascinated by studying word play within Parisian graffiti. Kate’s daughter, Elizabeth Dicker, resides with her husband in Hillsborough. They have two children who live in Durham. ⸙
they graduated with their PhDs, loaded the UHaul truck, got married, drove to Charlotte, moved into their apartment, and then started jobs in the same department at UNC Charlotte. The next year, after they moved into a new house (a 1920s Craftsman bungalow), their daughter Katie was born. Katie is now married (to Dan), and they live and work remotely in New York City, with David and Nancy’s two grandcats. Katie runs her own educational consulting company (Forthright Advising) and Dan is an IT wizard. They moved into The Forest at Duke on Halloween 2025 and are loving it. ⸙
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John and Lucy Grant Apartment #5107 grant003@mc.duke.edu John and Lucy both grew up in Columbia City IN, and for a short time were even neighbors. Later in high school, they became sweethearts. They became debate partners and won the 1960 Indiana State debate Championship and participated in the National Debate Contest in California. Based on their successful speaking experience, they both were selected to attend the “International School of America” from 19601961, a school of eighteen precollege students who traveled around the world for a year visiting multiple countries and staying with local families. Back in the US, John attended the University of Michigan majoring in Chemistry, while Lucy went to Michigan State University majoring in American History and Art History. After graduation, John and Lucy married and headed to the University of Chicago where John attended medical school at the University of Chicago, and Lucy did further studies in American History and taught art and history for two years in junior high school in suburban Park Forest. John then completed a surgical residency at Duke University Medical Center; after residency, he joined the faculty at Duke in 1978. His surgical career focused on abdominal surgery. He also maintained an association with the Durham VA Medical Center while at Duke and assumed the role of Chief of Surgery from 1984-1989. With support from the Surgery and Pharmacy Departments at Duke he formed the Nutritional Support Service and was one of the early national investigators providing nutrients to patients solely via the intravenous route. Later he turned to the management of morbidly obese patients and organized a Surgical Weight Loss Surgery Program, drawing together Duke experts from Nutrition, Nursing, Psychology, and Medicine to form one of the first multidisciplinary Surgical Obesity Programs in NC.
While John worked at Duke, Lucy did child rearing and community service. She was a Duke Art Museum docent for twenty years and was active with the Durham Arts Council, serving on the board for years, as its president twice. Her main focus was bringing creative arts to public and private schools. In that service art was brought to the public schools along with residencies and art fairs. In the 1970s with the opening of the National Museum for Women in the Arts, she and a partner developed programs and classes teaching the history of women artists. John and Lucy have lived in Durham since 1969, just a few blocks from The Forest at Duke. But when John held a position at the National Institutes of Health in Washington DC, their two children were born in the Naval Hospital. With children grown Lucy joined the marketing team for The Forest at Duke. It sold out in two years, after which she became the Activities Director. That team consisted of Robin Williams, who now teaches jewelry repair here, and Glenn Arrington as a bus driver. Like today's community life members, Lucy says they worked together to create interesting programming in a community full of wonderful people and rich resources. She retired after fifteen years, and John and Lucy feel like they have returned home as happy residents. ⸙
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John and Nada Staddon Apartment #2120 John jers@duke.edu Nada nada.ballator@gmail.com John E. R. Staddon and Nada Staddon arrived at TFAD on November 3, 2025. John grew up in London, arriving, post-BSc (University College) in the US at Hollins College where he almost completed an MA degree in psychology and met future wife Nada. Next, he went on to the B. F. Skinner lab at Harvard and, after passing the PhD exam, to three years teaching at the University of Toronto. Then to Duke, where he remained until retirement in 2007. John has worked in many universities around the world and has done experimental research on learning and adaptive behavior, mostly with animals: pigeons, rats, fish, parakeets, and has published more than two hundred research papers. Nada grew up on the campus of Hollins College in Virginia, where her father was head of the Art Department and her mother was an OT. She and her sisters roamed the woods and played with minnows, salamanders, and crayfish or investigated the Science Building to learn from the professors about crystals, the periodic table, fossils and much more. It was an idyllic childhood, including the "work" in a Victory Garden for the WW2 effort. In 1959, Nada spent a year in Paris, with a tour of Europe, including Moscow and Leningrad in the USSR. In 1995, after finishing her Masters at UNC-CH she joined the National Assessment of Educational Progress at Educational Testing Service in New Jersey; she stayed with NAEP through various contractors for nearly twenty years. John and Nada met at Hollins; they married in 1961 and lived in Cambridge MA and then Toronto, before finally moving to Durham in 1967. They divorced in 1987 when both their children were nearly grown—and remarried 30 years later Since retirement, John has strayed from experimental work to write on economics and financial markets and social issues such as traffic control (“Distracting Miss Daisy,” The
Atlantic, 2008) and smoking (Unlucky Strike, Private Health and the Science, Law and Politics of Smoking, with illustrations by David Hockney, 2022). However, a second edition of his Adaptive Behavior and Learning (Cambridge UP) was published in 2016. John and NadaI remarried in 2017 and lived in Dunbarton in Durham. Nada says they feel lucky to have found a place at The Forest in November, 2025. Their two children have given them three grandchildren who have become devoted travelers, so they see them when they’re on their way somewhere. Both John and Nada are glad that RDU airport is not far from their home in TFAD. ⸙
Cognitive Aging Maybe we need to reframe what cognitive aging means. Yes, I occasionally forget a name. But perhaps I've gotten better at remembering what matters. Our culture tends to measure the aging brain by what it loses: speed, recall, processing power. What if we also measured what it gains? Perspective. Pattern Recognition. Emotional equilibrium. Empathy. Knowledge. Wisdom. -Chip Conley
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The Forester
Cold Case by Joan Seiffert I was about fifty when I learned about the grandfather that I had never known. I had seen my mother’s father, an old man with a thatch of auburn hair like mine; he was in bed. I recall standing by the door, looking in. I had been told that my father’s father was dead. So much for grandfathers. But that was not the end of the story as I learned decades later. There was always something that seemed a little spooky, I recall. When I would ask about our family history, there was this odd scene in which my mother and father would quickly look at each other before I got an answer. I would usually ask when dad’s name was in the paper again. I did learn later that my father kept hoping that his father would surface. How could that be? Now that is a gruesome picture. Turns out that he was never certain that his father had died. And why couldn’t I know about this? Was there shame involved? I knew that my uncle, my mother’s older brother, had spent her share of the inheritance on educating his four children. That was my first learning about the skullduggery in our family history. What else was there to know about? I was interested. My father finally told me: it turns out that my paternal grandfather had been the Chief of Police in Hazleton PA and, as such, had impounded twenty-nine illegal slot machines in the local jail. The night before the court hearing on this issue, my grandfather and the slot machines had both disappeared. The rumor went around town that he had run off with a local woman. My father never believed that this could have happened; neither did his mother, my grandmother Susan. My uncle was thirteen at the time and believed the story; my father was eight and had only good memories of his father. It seems that Dad kept waiting for his father to turn up. My dad was a political activist who rode with Harry Truman on the campaign trail, the “whistle stops” where the presidential candidate would speak from the caboose and the local crowds would come to the railroad
station to see and hear them. This would reach the newspapers, probably even The New York Times, and, since he was also an Episcopal bishop in northwestern Pennsylvania Dad thought his father would turn up or maybe contact him. He would get contacted, all right, but by the local press which criticized him for mixing church and state from the pulpit, especially when it was Truman. As I write this now, I feel deep sorrow for my dad; all the years and all the fame and all the hope and longing that drove him. I never knew. My own curiosity led me to do a little digging: Hazleton PA was a mining town producing precious black anthracite “hard” coal from deep within the ground under the Pocono Mountains. My grandfather had been the manager of the Company Store as well as police chief. (You may remember the dirge describing the miners’ dilemma in Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “I owe my soul to the Company Store.”) Miners were paid in scrip in those days, redeemable only at the company store which would run a credit as necessary. There had been an era of strife previous to 1908, Dad’s birth year, when union organizers sought to protect miners. It turns out there is little actual data about this period, although family lore is that my father as a boy first went to work stocking shoes at a local store, then later, as a teen-ager, driving a mule up the long tracks with heavy loads of coal which miners had dug deep out of the ground. Apparently the mule was not interested in doing this, so Dad had developed many persuasive skills which have served him well. The summer after his college freshman year he was working in the mine, and there was a cave-in. The superintendent came to him and said, “You must go and tell the widow.” My dad was seventeen, and he remembers asking “Why me?” The reply: “You’ve been to college; you’ve got the words.” (continued on Page 13)
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Clarence Maxie “Max” Templeton Apartment #3050 Fra24itcs@toast2.net A naturally friendly person and a native North Carolinian, Max Templeton likes living at The Forest because the residents are still active and living well in spite of ongoing concerns related to aging. Max earned a bachelor’s degree at Duke, an MBA as a Consortium fellow at UNC KenanFlagler Business School, and a MS in Library and Information Science at the University of Texas.
After serving 20 years in the Navy, both duty and reserve, Max continued his affiliation with the Navy as a member of the Fleet Reserve Association, serving as president of the largest branch in 2014, and he continues as an honorary member. He indicated that his life is based on the principles noted in the motto of the Fleet Reserve: loyalty, protection, and service. Max’s life work has been in information technology. He has served in roles across the IRS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service. In addition, he has worked at companies ranging from IBM to Duke Energy to Bank of America.
One thing that has shaped Max’s life more than anything else is an injury he received in 1991 while playing basketball. He was misdiagnosed until 2013, when it was learned that he had a spinal cord injury. Since then, he has been evaluated, treated, and is followed on a regular basis by a team of doctors at the VA. Retired for three years, Max stays busy training and competing in the NC Senior Games and the National Veterans Golden Age Games. He proudly displays twenty medals most of which are gold or silver. Currently, he competes in races riding his recumbent tricycle which fulfills his competitive nature and also serves as therapy for his difficulty with balance, a result of his injury. When Max no longer desires to compete in the games, he has other interests and skills on which to rely, such as, being a master bridge player. Of note, Max’s support of Duke University since graduation has earned him membership in the Tower Society and the Cornerstone Society. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Duke Annual Fund from 1987 to 1993. And, not surprisingly, he is a season ticket holder to Duke basketball! ⸙
Cold Case (continued from Page 12)
As I sit with my research about those times, I feel the sorrow deep inside, now mixed with the dawning realization that the story about my grandfather, whom I had sanctified in some way as a courageous crime fighter, was complex. He was that. The knowledge that he also ran the company store, which kept the miners in debt, struck me hard. Sometimes here at The Forest I have responded to the question “Where did you grow up” with “I’m still working on that,” and this is true. Perhaps I have grown up enough to accept the history of my grandfather…and my own history. ⸙
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Tom and Win Farin Apartment #5120 Tom tomefarin@gmail.com Win WinFarin@gmail.com Tom was born in Detroit, while Win hails from suburban New York City, but they finally met in San Francisco. They spent a good part of their working lives living in different cities in the US. Tom attended Oakland University in Rochester MI and Wesleyan University in Middleton CT; he received a PhD from the University of Maryland. Win attended Elmira College for a degree in International Studies, then moved to NYC for work in a the non-profit that administered Fulbright Scholarships. Tom taught high school physics for a number of years, was a private school administrator for several years, and then became an entrepreneur by founding a lighting distributorship, Pegasus Lighting, which sold lighting products on the internet, starting in 1999, only months after Google was founded and when Amazon sold only books. At one point, Pegasus had sold lighting products to fortyeight states and thirteen foreign countries. After their marriage in 1972, Win and Tom moved to Washington DC where Win worked as a legislative aide to California Senator Alan Cranston. Their two children were born there before the family moved to Charleston SC where Tom was an independentschool headmaster and Win stayed home to raise the children. Two moves later, the family was in Pittsburgh PA where Win worked as the Director of Communications for an independent school for twenty years. A move to Raleigh (Brier Creek) in 2005 brought Win and Tom close to daughter Johanna and son-in-law Chris, just in time for the birth of their first grandchild later that year.
Their son Mark Farin lives in Collegeville PA (near Philadelphia); together they have blessed the Farins with four grandchildren. Along the way, Win rediscovered her childhood love of tennis and continues to play with her Raleigh teammates. Occasional pickleball has more recently been added to her routine. Tom says that he “likes Motown, the Blues, Jazz, Folk, Pop, and Rock. I am an active member of the ‘Steeler Nation’ and I also enjoy playing Euchre and watching and discussing films.” ⸙
Yes, There Is a Climate Crisis By Tom Farin (This article is the last The Forester will publish on this topic.) This article is written in response to an article in the June 2026 edition of The Forester, “Climate Crisis: Three Graphs that Might Make You Skeptical.’” With all due respect to the authoras-person and the author-as-academic, I want to mention the following in rebuttal to his statement, “So, relax, there is no ‘climate crisis.’” Virtually every major scientific organization worldwide agrees that the climate crisis is real, driven primarily by human activities, and poses severe risks. The consensus is supported by over two hundred scientific bodies globally, including the following key groups: International & Global Bodies ��
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (https://www.ipcc.ch/): Established by the UN and the World Meteorological Organization, this body of thousands of scientists evaluates climate science to inform policy. (continued on Page 15)
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Harry Shaw and Judy Jensvold Apartment #4014 Harry: hes3@cornell.edu 1-607-592-5194 Judy: jmj5@cornell.edu 1-607-221-5071 We welcome Harry Shaw and Judy Jensvold who come to us from Ithaca NY where they lived for forty-eight years. Harry taught English literature at Cornell, and Judy was a pre-med advisor in the Career Center at Cornell. Harry’s brother Bob Shaw, a resident at The Forest, influenced their choice of The Forest as a place to retire.
Judy grew up in Roundup MT and Richland WA. She graduated from the University of Washington Seattle in 1969 with a major in history and went on to teach high school history in Oregon, Utah, and California. The couple met in 1968 in Seattle at a political rally for Eugene McCarthy, and though they went their separate ways then, they kept in touch until their marriage in 1972. Originally from Pennsylvania, Harry attended Harvard for a BA in History and Literature of England and taught at a Quaker School on Long Island for three years before returning to school at the University of California Berkley for a PhD in English in 1978. Now married, the couple moved to Ithaca where Harry joined the faculty at Cornell. In addition to teaching, he was a Department Chair and Senior Associate Dean. The couple lived in Edinburgh Scotland from 1976-1977 on a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Research Abroad
Scholarship at the University of Edinburgh, leading to Harry’s PhD in English. Also, they lived in Cambridge England from 1989-1990, a sabbatical year. Harry has written two books of literary criticism on the nineteenth-century British novel and co-authored Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel, a book for general readers. In addition to her work as a pre-med advisor at Cornell, Judy was active working with community organizations, primarily women’s organizations, in a variety of positions. Of special note was her work with the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation and with the Women’s Rights National Historical Park as a commissioner, lobbying and fund-raising for the park. Judy began painting as a hobby after retirement. One of her paintings was selected for the Annual Juried State of the Art Gallery Exhibition in Ithaca NY. Harry and Judy share a common interest in old movies, art galleries, and travel. The couple have two children: their son Christopher Shaw lives in Berkley CA and works as a writer, historian, and policy analyst; and their daughter, Katharine Shaw lives with her husband and two children in Ireland. She is employed as a migrant services coordinator. ⸙
Climate Crisis (continued from Page 14) ��
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (https://www. nationalacademies.org/): These prestigious U.S. institutions independently advise the nation on scientific matters, fully endorsing the scientific reality of the climate crisis.
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American Association for the Advancement of Science (https://www. aaas.org/): The world’s largest general (continued on Page 16)
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October 2026
Enriching Lives in Durham: TFAD’s Community Giving
Climate Crisis (continued from Page 15)
by Alice Anne Alexander As we considered CCRCs, one reason my husband and I chose The Forest at Duke is the commitment to social responsibility and community philanthropy. Each year, TFAD provides grants to community service organizations and education programs. Granting 5% of resident revenues allows TFAD to receive an exemption from property taxes. More importantly, our relationship with these organizations “fosters growth, diversity, compassion, and progress,” enriching lives in Durham. From The Forest at Duke website notes that, “For 34 years, The Forest at Duke has been a leader in social responsibility and outreach….[and has] distributed millions of dollars in funding to area non-profit organizations….By providing important funds to schools, libraries, family and senior centers, and other important services, we bolster our community relationships and help strengthen the beautiful city we call home. As TFAD shares, making a difference in our community is a cornerstone of who we are. Something to be proud of! Following are 2026 Grantee Program participants, with website links: BennieGirl Healthy Lifestyle Boys & Girls Club of Durham and Orange Counties Brogden Middle School Caring House CASA Center for Child & Family Health Community Health Coalition Durham Public Schools Dress for Success Durham Center for Senior Life Durham Library Foundation Durham Literacy Center Durham Nativity School Durham School of Technology Exchange Family Center of Durham Families Moving Forward Four Corners Foundation Growing Thru Grief Hayti Heritage Film Festival Housing for New Hope
The Forester
scientific society has issued formal statements concluding that climate change is occurring, is human-driven, and demands urgent action. ��
American Geophysical Union (https:// www.agu.org/): A massive community of Earth and space scientists that holds an unequivocal position that climate change is supported by overwhelming evidence.
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American Meteorological Society (https:// www.ametsoc.org/): The premier U.S. organization for atmospheric and related sciences, which clearly states that global warming is occurring due to greenhouse gases.
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The Geological Society of America (https://www.geosociety.org/): The major professional society for geoscientists, which supports the consensus that human activity drives global warming.
A coalition of thirty-one leading US scientific societies has also issued an open letter reinforcing that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the primary driver of the crisis. Furthermore, federal agencies like NASA Science and NOAA consistently validate this global consensus. In short, I am more inclined to believe a large number of international scientific bodies than a single academic, no matter the center of his/her lifetime of study. ⸙ iAmMe Girls Kate’s Korner Learning Center Lakewood Elementary School Lincoln Community Health Center Local Start Dental Lyons Farm Elementary School Meals on Wheels Durham Museum of Durham History North Carolina Reading Service Riverside High School Band Rogers-Herr Middle School Senior PharmAssist StepUp Durham Urban Ministries of Durham ⸙
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