| | Where
in the world are your former professors? Creative
writing Professor Emerita Frances Mayes, now a full-time
resident of Tuscany, Italy, has just come out with a new book, "A
Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveler" (Broadway,
2006). In it, she details her travels to more than a dozen different
countries, but Mayes is not the only "retired" professor staying
busy abroad. Economics
Professor Emeritus Ralph Anspach, who divides his time
between the Bay Area, France and New Zealand, is continuing his work
surrounding "the secret history of Monopoly." "Monopoly
was really invented by a woman who never got credit for it," says
Anspach, who detailed his research findings in "The Billion Dollar
Swindle," a book newly titled " Monopolygate," and available
through Xlibris.com. The book also details the story behind the "Anti-Monopoly"
board game Anspach produced and the legal battles with Parker Brothers
that followed. Recently he and Patricia Gavin (B.A., ’84) wrote
a feature film script based on the battle to distribute the game. Anspach
reports that his game, now licensed to San Francisco-based University
Games, is beginning to sell well in the U.S. and abroad. "The game
is an extension of my economics teaching about imperfect competition,
and I can reach many more people through the game than I ever could
in a classroom," Anspach says. More information: www.antimonopoly.com  Meanwhile,
sociology and urban studies Professor Emerita E. Barbara Phillips
has found a home away from her Bay Area home -- also in France -- and
a way to continue teaching. She wrote to SFSU Magazine about her coup
de foudre (love at first sight) with Pech-Merle’s 20,000-plus- year-old
cave paintings which she first encountered on a vacation to the countryside
of southwest France 15 years ago. "The feeling of reverence inspired
by these caves decorated by nature and our Cro-Magnon ancestors did not
wear off quickly," she explains. Phillips and her partner, Tim, bought
and renovated a small home about 20 minutes from Pech-Merle and later,
a nearby "fairy-tale 14th-century mill" that would become home
to Latitude, "a multicultural, multigenerational retreat with courses,
conferences,
and events."
As the
center’s director, Phillips lives in France four months out of
the year and teaches classes. Although there are few Americans in her
neighborhood, Phillips reports, "I feel rooted here. After all,
my ancestors came from Pech-Merle." More
information: www.latitude.org Back
to Robert Bechtle story. |
