August 2024: Theme: The Founding of the University
1. How many faculty members were on the staff the first fall the University of Maryland opened? a. one; b. three; c. ten.
Answer: b. George C. Schaeffer, professor of the science of agriculture, including chemistry and its application to the arts, geology, and mineralogy. H. Dorsey Gough, professor of the exact sciences, including mathematics, pure and mixed; surveying, mensuration, engineering and construction, mechanics and astronomy. And Battista Lorino, professor of ancient and modern languages, including Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish and Italian.
2. Who was the first president, and how long did he remain in that position. a. Charles Benedict Calvert, one year; b. Benjamin Hallowell, one month; c. John M. Colby, less than one year.
Answer: b. Benjamin Hallowell. The Quaker schoolmaster, noted scientist, and farmer from Montgomery County had been in close consultation with the board of trustees about the college’s initial curriculum and operations, but was not aware that he had been appointed president until his name was announced at the opening ceremonies. He resigned 30 days later due to illness.
3. Who was the first student to register in the initial class? a. William B. Sands; b. Thomas Franklin; c. George H. Calvert.
Answer: c. George H. Calvert, the 17-year-old son of Maryland Agricultural College founder Charles Benedict Calvert, was the first student to register in the initial MAC class in 1859. His brothers Charles, William, and Eugene joined him in the first class to enter the college
4. Which United States cabinet member spoke at the college’s opening ceremonies? a. Jacob Thompson; b. Joseph Henry; c. James Moore Wayne.
Answer: a. Jacob Thompson, who was the Secretary of the Interior from 1857 to 1861. James Moore Wayne was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from January 14, 1835 to July 5, 1867, and Joseph Henry was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, serving from 1846 to 1878.
5. How many official names has the University of Maryland had since its founding? a. one; b. two; c. three.
Answer: c. Maryland Agricultural College (1856-1916), Maryland State College of Agriculture (1916-1920), University of Maryland (1920-present).
Answers September 2024 – THEME—FACULTY
6. Who was the first female member of the faculty? a. Agnes Saunders; b. Adele Stamp; c. M. Marie Mount
Answer: a. Agnes Saunders. Saunders was professor of home economics and acting dean of the School of Home Economics for the 1919-1920 academic year. She is pictured on page 14 of the 1919 Reveille yearbook and listed on page 17. Adele Stamp is best known for her service as dean of women from 1922 to 1960, but she was also an instructor in physical education through the 1929-1930 academic year. M. (Myrl) Marie Mount came to campus in 1919 as the head of the Department of Home and Institution Management and served as the dean of the College of Home Economics from 1927 until her death in 1957.
7. Who was UMD’s first African American faculty member? a. Raymond Johnson; b. M. Lucia James; c. Sylvester James Gates, Jr.
Answer: M. Lucia James. Dr. James, a member of the faculty of the College of Education from 1965 until her death on October 18, 1977, was the first African American full professor at the university. Raymond Johnson was another early African American faculty member, teaching mathematics, conducting research, and mentoring minority students at UMD from 1969 to 2009 before returning to his alma mater, Rice University, to conclude his teaching career. S. James Gates, a recipient of the National Medal of Science, taught at Maryland from 1988 to 2017 and returned to campus in 2002 as a Distinguished University Professor. He is the first African American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major U.S. research university.
8. Who is the only faculty member ever featured on a U.S. postage stamp? a. Mary Shorb; b. Catherine Fenselau; c. Eugenie Clark
Answer: Eugenie Clark. The commemorative stamp honoring Dr. Clark, known around the world as the “Shark Lady,” was issued by the U.S. Postal Service on May 4, 2022, on what would have been her 100th birthday. Mary Shorb was part of the research team that designed protocols that led to the commercial production of Vitamin B12. Catherine Fenselau is credited with developing techniques to help track the origins of anthrax spores in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
9. Which faculty member is considered to be the first professor of entomology in the United States? a. Willis Johnson; b. Townend Glover; c. Thomas Say
Answer: Townend Glover. Glover, a professor of Natural History, Botany, and Pomology, was one of the earliest faculty members to join the staff of the Maryland Agricultural College, arriving on campus for the 1860-1861 school year. He was also the first entomologist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Willis Johnson was appointed the first state entomologist of Maryland in 1896 while he was still on the faculty at the Maryland Agricultural College. Thomas Say is considered to be the father of American entomology.
10. How many buildings on campus are named for faculty members, including deans? a. five; b. twelve; c. thirteen
The Benjamin Building, home to the College of Education since 1966, is named for Harold R.W. Benjamin, who served as dean of the college from 1939 to 1942 and again from 1947 to 1951, following his service as a lieutenant captain in the Intelligence Division of the Army Air Corps during World War II.
The university’s second largest library, constructed in 1972, bears the name of R. Lee Hornbake, who came to UMD as an associate professor in industrial education in September 1945 and later served as department chair, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs for the College Park campus and the entire University System of Maryland.
Jiménez Hall, constructed ten years earlier, is named for Spanish poet Juan Ramόn Jiménez, a member of the faculty from 1948 to 1951. Friends and colleagues in College Park nominated him for the Nobel Prize for Literature, which he won in 1956. While at the university, Jiménez conducted seminars in Spanish literature and taught advanced Spanish composition.
Jull Hall dates from 1953. It is named for Morley A. Jull, who was the chair of the Poultry Department from 1936 to 1956. Dr. Jull was known around the world for his work towards the production of better and cheaper eggs and fowl, in particular the smaller size turkey with which we are familiar today.
The Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building was dedicated on September 19, 2005, and contains classrooms, offices, laboratories, and meeting spaces designed to support research and teaching in nanotechnology, information technology, biotechnology, microelectronics and micro-electro mechanical systems, sensors and actuators, transportation systems, and space systems. The building was named in honor of Jeong H. Kim (Ph.D. 1991), a Clark School of Engineering faculty member and the president of Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs.
William E. Kirwan Hall, formerly known as the Math Building, was re-named in 2015 in honor of former UMD President and USM Chancellor William E. “Brit” Kirwan. Kirwan came to the University of Maryland in 1964 as an assistant professor of math and rose through the administrative ranks to serve as president of the university from 1989 to 1998 and as chancellor of the University Systems of Maryland from 2002 to 2015. The building was constructed in 1952-1953 and was designed by the architectural firm Hall, Borden & Donaldson.
Marie Mount Hall, named for the aforementioned dean of the College of Home Economics, was originally named Margaret Brent Hall, after the colonial Marylander who was the first American woman to request the right to vote. when it opened in 1940. The Board of Regents voted to rename the building in honor of Dean Mount in 1967.
The university named the Engineering Laboratory Building, home to such hubs as the Advanced Propulsion Research Laboratory and Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering, in honor of former UMD president C.D. “Dan” Mote, Jr. in October 2021. Mote was named a Regents Professor upon his retirement from the presidency in 2010.
H.J. Patterson Hall, named for Harry Jacob Patterson, president of the Maryland Agricultural College from 1913 to 1917, director of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, and dean of the College of Agriculture, is one of the earliest buildings to grace McKeldin Mall. It is also one of the 14 stops on the UMD ghost tour.
The Adele H. Stamp Student Union, commonly known as The Stamp, is named for Maryland’s first Dean of Women, Adele Hagner Stamp. Miss Stamp served as Dean of Women from 1922 to 1960, but as noted in question 6, she was also an instructor in physical education through the 1929-1930 academic year. The original section of the Student Union opened in 1955, but it has been added onto several times and extensively renovated, most recently in 2002. The university named the Union for Miss Stamp in 1983 in a ceremony in which astronaut and UMD alumna Judith Resnik participated.
Symons Hall, constructed in 1940, is named for Thomas Baddeley Symons, a 1902 graduate of the Maryland Agricultural College who later served as dean of the College of Agriculture (1937 to 1950), acting president of the University of Maryland (1954), and director of the Cooperative Extension Service (1914 to 1950).
The oldest building named for a faculty member is Taliaferro Hall, constructed between 1894 and 1896 and witness to the Great Fire of 1912 in that section of the campus. It was named for Thomas Hardy Taliaferro, dean of the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. The name is pronounced “Tolliver,” the common regional pronunciation.
John S. Toll is the fourth of the four former UMD presidents and faculty members to have a building named for him. Appointed chair of the UMD Department of Physics and Astronomy at the age of 29, Toll left the university after 12 years to become the president of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He returned to Maryland as president for 10 years (1978–1988), followed by 11 years as chancellor of the University of System of Maryland (1988–1989). The John S. Toll Physics Building, constructed in 1953, the same year Toll became chair of Physics and Astronomy, was named in his honor in 2001.
ANSWERS OCTOBER 2024 – THEME—Testudo
11. How much did the original statue of Testudo weigh? a. 300 pounds; b. 400 pounds; c. 550 pounds
Answer: a. 300 pounds, not including the pedestal on which the statue was perched.
12. Where was the original statue of Testudo first located? a. McKeldin Library; b. Ritchie Coliseum; c. Byrd Stadium, now known as SECU Stadium
Answer: b. Ritchie Coliseum. The statue originally resided on a pedestal adjacent to the semi-circular driveway in front of Ritchie. The gym, opened in 1932, was designed by Howard W. Cutler and named for Albert Cabell Ritchie, governor of Maryland, 1921-1935. After several relocations, Testudo landed in front of McKeldin Library in 1965, where it remains to this day. The Testudo statues now located in SECU Stadium are copies of the original piece.
13. The bronze and fiberglass forms of Testudo are familiar sights on campus. What other shape has Testudo taken? a. motorized vehicle; b. green “space alien”; c. enormous inflatable; d. all of these
Answer: d. All of these. The mobile version of Testudo, Testudo II, was constructed using a Triumph TR-3 roadster as a base. It appeared at football games and in parades in the 1960s and 1970s. You can find more about the story of this amazing creature on the UMD Archives’ blog, Terrapin Tales. The green space alien Testudo did not last very long, and when you check out the photo of this crazy iteration on the sidelines at a 1978 football game, you can easily see why. The 20-foot tall, 16-foot wide inflatable Testudo debuted at the September 1, 2001, football game vs. North Carolina and has become a fixture in SECU Stadium; he may also be frequently found at women’s basketball games in the Xfinity Center.
14. Which campus tradition is most commonly associated with Testudo? a. leaving offerings at the original statue of Testudo in front of McKeldin Library; b. rubbing Testudo’s nose for good luck; c. getting a golden lapel pin from the UMD president
Answer: b. Rubbing Testudo’s nose for good luck. According to alumnus Don Wirth, Class of 1964, the tradition of rubbing Testudo’s nose for good luck began in 1965 when the statue was moved to the front of McKeldin Library. After nearly 60 years and millions of affectionate rubs, the original terrapin does indeed have a very shiny nose. Students began leaving all sorts of offerings, including food, poems, cans of beer, a piano, stolen traffic cones, and even a life-size cutout of Pope Francis, during final exams in the 1990s. Former UMD President C.D. “Dan” Mote, Jr., began the tradition of handing out turtle pins to VIPs and other outstanding Terps to foster Maryland pride. His successors, Wallace Loh and Darryll Pines, have tweaked the original design and delightedly continued the distribution of the prized pins.
15. The statue of testudo was often kidnapped in the early years after its dedication. What is the most distant location to which Testudo is known to have been taken? a. Johns Hopkins University; b. George Washington University; c. Florida
Answer: c. Florida. The article “Testudo Again Takes Leave of Home in Front of Colly” in the October 28, 1949, issue of The Diamondback included an account of the various travels of Testudo, including a rumored jaunt to Jacksonville, FL, where the statue was allegedly seen “floating up the St. John’s River with a school of porpoises.” Testudo’s capture and transport to Johns Hopkins University on the eve of the national championship men’s lacrosse game in 1947 is one of the more famous kidnapping incidents, due to the melee that ensued, resulting in 11 arrests, when the Terps invaded the Homewood campus to recover their beloved mascot. The statue’s trek to GW sparked an impassioned plea in a letter to the editor for its safe return in the October 5, 1948, issue of The Hatchet, their student newspaper, and Testudo’s alleged misdeeds while imprisoned there were featured in later issues of the paper and the school’s yearbook, the Cherry Tree, for 1949.
NOVEMBER 2024—THEME: TERPS IN POLITICS
16. How many Terps have served as governor of Maryland? a. two; b. three; c. five.
Answer: b. three. Marvin Mandel, Class of 1939, served as governor from 1969 to 1979. He was succeeded by Harry Hughes, who finished his two terms in 1987. Faculty member Parris Glendenning held the office from 1995 to 2003.
17. Who was the first female reporter to cover a national political convention from the floor? a. Catherine (Cassie) Mackin; b. Andrea Mitchell; c. Dorothy Fuldheim.
Answer: a. Catherine (Cassie) Mackin. Mackin, Class of 1960, a national news correspondent, television news anchor, and Emmy Award winner; was the first woman floor reporter for a national network at the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1972. Andrea Mitchell joined NBC News as a general correspondent in 1978 and has had an extensive career reporting on U.S. foreign policy and international diplomacy in addition to her service as NBC’s chief congressional and White House correspondents. Dorothy Fuldheim is considered to be the first female television news anchor, taking her seat in front of the camera for WEWS-TV in Cleveland, OH, on December 17, 1947.
18. How many Terps have served as U.S. Senators? a. one; b. three; c. five.
Answer: b. three. Millard Tydings, Class of 1910 and namesake of Tydings Hall, represented Maryland in the U.S. Senate from 1927 to 1951. His adopted son Joseph Tydings, Class of 1951, also represented Maryland, serving for one term, 1965 to 1871. Gordon Humphrey, Class of 1962, was a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1979 to 1990.
19. How many sitting U.S Presidents have visited campus? a. one; b. five; c. six.
Answer: b. five. The first president to visit campus was Dwight D. Eisenhower; he delivered an address opening the White House Conference on Children and Youth on March 27, 1960, in Jones-Hill House, then known as the Cole Student Activities Building.
Six years later, Lyndon Johnson paid a surprise visit to campus when he decided at the last moment to address the Conference of State Committees on Criminal Administration meeting in the Center for Adult Education (now known as the Marriott Inn and Conference Center) on October 15, 1966.
William J. Clinton visited campus on August 31, 1993, to celebrate the accomplishments of the Summer of Service program, attending a conference in the Stamp Student Union’s Colony Ballroom, and again in 1999, when he encouraged an audience in Ritchie Coliseum to advocate for more support for the AmeriCorps program. Clinton originally visited the university as a young delegate to the American Legion-sponsored Boys Nation, housed in the dorms at UMD, in 1963; it was during this trip that he had the opportunity to meet John F. Kennedy in the Rose Garden at the White House, an experience that inspired his desire to make a difference in people’s lives by becoming president of the United States.
Jimmy Carter gave the Second Annual Sadat Lecture for Peace on October 25, 1998, in the Stamp Student Union’s Grand Ballroom.
Barack Obama has visited the campus five times. Most recently he and his family attended the men’s basketball game vs. Oregon State University on November 17, 2013. As a U.S. Senator, he visited campus twice, first to campaign for senatorial candidate Ben Cardin in 2006 and again during his own 2008 presidential campaign. In 2009, President Obama spoke to a rally in support of his health care reform proposal on September 17, 2009, in the Xfinity Center, and he participated in a Town Hall meeting in Ritchie Coliseum on July 22, 2011.
President John F. Kennedy also visited campus twice, but only as a U.S. Senator.
20. Only one Terp who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives has been both a Rhodes Scholar and a presidential appointee. Who is he? a. Esteban Torres; b. Tom McMillen; c. Steny Hoyer
Answer: b. Tom McMillen. McMillen, Class of 1974, was UMD’s first Rhodes Scholar, an outstanding member of the men’s basketball team, an Olympian, and a professional basketball player. He represented the 4th District of Maryland for three terms, from 1987 to 1993, and was appointed to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness by President Clinton on June 22, 1993. Steny Hoyer, Class of 1963, the Representative from Maryland’s 5th District since 1981, became the highest-ranking Terrapin to ever have served in the U.S. House on November 16, 2006, when he was elected as the House Majority Leader under Speaker Nancy Pelosi; he served in this position until 2011 and again from 2013 to 2019. Esteban Torres, Class of 1965, represented California’s 34th District from 1983 to 1999. You can find a full list of Terps who have served in the U.S. House and Senate here.
DECEMBER 2024, THEME: The Big Show
21. Former professor of English Jack Salamanca had an association with which famous singer? a. Darius Rucker; b. Bruce Springsteen; c. Elvis Presley.
Answer: c. Elvis Presley. Jack R. Salamanca, professor of English, wrote the novel The Lost Country, which served as the basis for Elvis’ film Wild in the Country, which debuted in 1961. Elvis also had another association with UMD, performing two sold-out shows in Cole Field House on September 27 and 28, 1974. Darius Rucker and his band Hootie and the Blow Fish filmed a portion of the video for their hit “Only Wanna Be With You” on the floor of Reckord Armory. Bruce Springsteen was part of a triple bill with Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis in Cole on April 28, 1973, only a few months after his first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., was released January 5, 1973, by Columbia Records. The UMD Archives holds an extensive collection of documentation generated by SEE (Student Entertainment Events) capturing details of the performances on campus of many famous figures.
22. How many movies contain scenes filmed on campus? a. one; b. three; c. five.
Answer: b. three. Portions of the movie St. Elmo’s Fire, directed by Joel Schumacher, were filmed on campus on Fraternity Row in October 1984; UMD was substituted for Georgetown University when Georgetown officials refused to give permission for the shoot. Alumnus Redge Mahaffey used the campus as a setting in his 1995 production Life 101. The 2007 feature film National Treasure: Book of Secrets, directed by Jon Turteltaub, used McKeldin Mall and the Special Events Room in McKeldin Library as filming locations.
23. The Diamondback has been the springboard for several cartoonists who have hit it big on the international performing arts scene. Which one is a Tony Award-winner? a. Aaron McGruder; b. Jeff Kinney; c. Ken Waissman.
Answer: c. Ken Waissman. Waissman, Class of 1962, who was also a reporter for the paper, the editor-in-chief for the Old Line student humor and features magazine, and a business manager for University Theater, has received multiple Tony nominations, winning the award in 1983 as a producer of Torch Song Trilogy. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Musical based on Jeff Kinney’s highly successful book series by the same name, has never made it to Broadway, but can be licensed for local productions. Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks TV series, won a 2011 Image Award from the NAACP for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series.
24. With the presidential inauguration coming up, the Mighty Sound of Maryland marching band will be anxiously waiting to see if they are invited to march in the inaugural parade as they have on five occasions. In which inaugural parade did the band first appear? a. Woodrow Wilson’s on March 5, 1917; b.Dwight Eisenhower’s on January 20, 1953; c. John F. Kennedy’s on January 20, 1961.
Answer: a. Woodrow Wilson’s on March 5, 1917. In addition to the three parades listed, the Mighty Sound of Maryland was also featured in the inaugural parades for Ronald Reagan, (January 21, 1985), and Barack Obama (January 21, 2013).
25. Alumnus Munro Leaf, Class of 1927, authored which children’s book made into an Academy Award-winning film? a. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; b. The Story of Ferdinand; c. The Yearling.
Answer: b. The Story of Ferdinand. Leaf’s charming story, better known as Ferdinand the Bull, about a bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight, was made into a seven-minute animated film which won the Oscar in the Best Short Subject (Cartoon) category in 1938. The tale, which took Leaf less than an hour to write, was a favorite of Mahatma Gandhi. While at Maryland, Leaf played lacrosse and was active in R.O.T.C., served as class treasurer, chaired the committee that organized the 1927 Military Ball, and was a member of the Kappa Alpha social fraternity and the Scabbard and Blade honorary military fraternity.
JANUARY 2025: THEME: Honored Terps
26. Who was the first Terp to win a Nobel Prize? a. Herbert Hauptman; b. William Phillips; c. Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Answer: c. Juan Ramón Jiménez. Jiménez, who was best known for his lyrical poetry, was a professor of modern languages at UMD from 1948 to 1951; he received the 1956 prize in literature. Herbert A. Hauptman, who earned his Ph.D. from Maryland in 1955 with a dissertation entitled “An n-Dimensional Euclidean Algorithm,” was a co-recipient in chemistry in 1985. William D. Phillips, a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of his work on the development of “methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light,” is the first Nobel Laureate to be appointed to a full faculty position in the history of the University of Maryland.
27. Who was the first African American to receive an honorary degree from the university? a. Ralph Waldo Ellison; b. John Hope Franklin; c. Marian Wright Edelman.
Answer: b. John Hope Franklin. Mr. Franklin received a Doctor of Letters/Literature at the June 1970 commencement ceremony. Mr. Ellison received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree and served as the commencement speaker at commencement in May 1974. Ms. Edelman also served as a commencement speaker, at the December 1989 ceremony, where she was awarded her honorary Doctor of Public Service degree. Other distinguished African American honorary degree recipients include Eubie Blake (D.F.A., 1978), Nelson Mandela (D.P.S., 2001), and Dorothy Irene Height (D.P.S., 2002). You can find a full list of honorary degree recipients on the UMD Archives’ website MAC to Millennium: The University of Maryland A to Z.
28. Hundreds of Terps have proudly served their country in the armed forces. How many have received the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor? a. one; b. two; c. three.
Answer: b. two. Tom Norris, Class of 1967, received the Medal of Honor on March 6, 1976, from President Gerald Ford. He was recognized for his role in an “unprecedented ground rescue of two downed pilots deep within heavily controlled enemy territory in Quang Tri Province” in April 1972 during the Vietnam War. The story of his heroism is chronicled in two books, Saving Bravo by Stephan Talty and By Honor Bound: two Navy SEALs, the Medal of Honor, and a story of extraordinary courage which Norris co-wrote with Mike Thornton and Dick Couch.
Florent Groberg, Class of 2006, was cited for his “acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Personal Security Detachment Commander for Task Force Mountain Warrior, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, during combat operations against an armed enemy Asadbad, Kunar Province, Afghanistan on August 8, 2012.” He received his Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama on November 12. 2015. Groberg has also written an autobiography, with author Tom Sileo, entitled 8 Seconds of Courage: A Soldier’s Story from Immigrant to the Medal of Honor.
Both Norris and Groberg have been inducted into the UMD Alumni Hall of Fame.
29. To date, more than 20 UMD faculty members and alumni have won Pulitzer Prizes in a variety of categories. In what year did a Terp first win a Pulitzer? a. 1959; b. 1971; c. 1973.
Answer: a. 1959. Mary Lou Werner (Forbes), who attended the university briefly as a math major before being forced to drop out due to financial constraints, won a 1959 Pulitzer for local reporting-edition time for her year-long coverage of the integration crisis in Virginia in the Washington, DC, Evening Star. Her award citation noted her “admirable qualities of accuracy, speed and the ability to interpret the news under deadline pressure in the course of a difficult and taxing assignment.” Faculty member James MacGregor Burns won the1971 Pulitzer Prize for History of the United States for his book Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom. Alumnus Carl Bernstein was a key member of the team at the Washington Post that won the 1973 Pulitzer for Public Service for their coverage of the Watergate scandal. Find the full list of UMD Pulitzer winners here.
30. Of the 13 Terps, both alumni and faculty, who have received MacArthur Fellowships, how many are also in the UMD Alumni Hall of Fame? a. two; b. four; c. six.
Answer: a. two. Of the 11 UMD alumni and 2 faculty members who have received these prestigious awards, only Liz Lerman and David Simon are in the Alumni Hall of Fame. Lerman, Class of 1970, is the founder of the Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD, and a talented dancer, choreographer, and teacher of dance. She received her Fellowship in 2002 for “demonstrating that dance can build upon people’s experience to recreate their connections across ages and communities.” Simon, Class of 1983, an author, screenwriter, and producer best known for his contributions to the HBO show, The Wire, was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010 for his television project, Treme, based in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
There are three criteria an individual must meet to be nominated as a MacArthur Fellow: exceptional creativity; promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments; and potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. Fellows receive $800,000 no-strings-attached grants to further their creative pursuits.
FEBRUARY 2025 –THEME: International Terps
31. When did the Maryland Agricultural College admit its first international students? a. 1871; b. 1877; c. 1915.
Answer: a. 1871.The first international student admitted was Pastor A. Cooke of Panama (1871-72). followed by A. P. Menocal (1875-76) and Ernesto J. Balbin (1877-78) of Cuba, and Chunjen Constant Chen, the first Chinese student at MAC, in 1915. Cooke enrolled in the college’s preparatory department at the age of 14 and appears to have only attended for 1 year. Menocal enrolled on July 5, 1876, at the age of 17. He was the son of Aniceto G. Menocal, a naval engineer at the Washington Navy Yard. Balbin enrolled at age 16, but like Cooke, only appears to have attended for 1 year. Chen, who came to Maryland from Shanghai, entered in 1915 and completed three years of study in College Park before transferring to Cornell, where he received his B.A. degree. He returned to College Park where he received his M.S. in Agriculture in 1920. After a hiatus of more than 40 years, he returned to the University of Maryland, where he taught Chinese from 1956 to 1967. He died in 1978. All four of his sons attended the University of Maryland.
32. Who was the first Korean student to graduate from the University of Maryland? a. Min Chow Ho; b. Jeong H. Kim; c. Pyon Su.
Answer: c. Pyon Su. Pyon Su (or Penn Su), who received his B.S. degree in agriculture in 1891, was the first Korean student to graduate from any American college or university, not just the University of Maryland. He was born in Korea in 1861 and entered the Maryland Agricultural College in the fall of 1887. Pyon Su had come to the United States as part of a diplomatic mission and was unable to return to Korea due to a change in the political situation during his absence. Sadly, he was killed in College Park in a tragic train accident on October 22, 1891, only 4 months after graduation. He is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery at Ammendale in Beltsville, Maryland.
Min Chow Ho entered the same year as Pyon Su, but remained only one year.
Jeong H. Kim received his Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering from UMD in 1991, the first doctorate the university awarded in this discipline. He has had a distinguished career as an entrepreneur, businessman, and educator, joining the UMD faculty in 2002 as a Professor of Practice in Reliability Engineering. President Joe Biden awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation on October 14, 2023, and he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. The Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building is named for him.
Pyon-Chen Hall, one of UMD’s newest dormitories, is named in honor of international student pioneers Pyon Su and Chunjen Constant Chen.
33. How many Terps have served as Ambassadors? a. 10; b. 15; c. 18.
Answer: b. 15. Alumni Joseph B. Gildenhorn, John Berry, Robin Raphel, Prudence Bushnell, Peter Bodde, Robert W. Jordan, Roscoe Suddarth, David Satterfield, and Dean Thompson have represented the United States as ambassadors, Gildenhorn to Switzerland (1989-1993); Berry to Australia (2013-2016); Raphel to Tunisia (1997-2000); Bushnell to Kenya (1996-1999) and Guatemala (1999-2002); Bodde to Malawi (2008-2010), Nepal (2012-2015), and Libya (2015-2018); Jordan to Saudi Arabia (2001-2003); Suddarth to Jordan (1987-1990); Satterfield to Lebanon (1998-2001) and Turkey (2019-2021); and Thompson to Nepal (beginning on October 21, 2022) . Faculty member Ivo Daalder, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy, served as the U.S. Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from May 2009 to July 2013. Alumna Diana Lady Dougan was awarded the permanent title of ambassador for her role in International Communications and Information Policy negotiations in the 1980s; she oversaw international telecom, broadcast, and IT policy interests including coordinating treaty negotiations involving over a dozen U.S. federal agencies. Alumnus Esteban Edward Torres served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, from 1977 to 1979.
Three Terps have served as International Ambassadors. Galo Plaza Lasso, Class of 1929, was selected as Ecuador’s Ambassador to the United States in 1944. Jesus Tambunting, Class of 1960, served as the Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1993 to 1998. Kwesi Ahwoi, who undertook graduate studies at UMD from 1985 to 1986, became the first Ambassador for Ghana to the Comoros and has also served as the Ghanaian ambassador to Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Swaziland.
34. Alumnus Galo Plaza Lasso served as president of which South American country from 1948 to 1952? a. Ecuador; b. Peru; c. Chile.
Answer: a. Ecuador.In addition to his term as president of Ecuador, Plaza was selected as Ecuador’s Ambassador to the United States in 1944 and served as part of the Ecuadorian delegation at the Inter-American Conference on War and Peace, Chapultepec, Mexico, and at the United Nations Conference on International Organization, San Francisco, until his election as president in 1948.After leaving the presidency, he held several diplomatic posts for the United Nations, including as a mediator in conflicts in Lebanon (1958), the Congo (1960), and Cyprus (1964–1965). He later served as the secretary-general of the Organization of American States from 1968 to 1975.
While a student at Maryland from 1926 to 1929, Plaza took the usual general education courses and numerous classes relating to dairy production, his chosen curriculum. He also served as vice president of the Latin-American Club and pledged as a member of Delta Sigma Phi. He did not complete his undergraduate studies. UMD awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws at the June 8, 1946, commencement, noting that Plaza was “an earnest worker for sound and permanent friendship between his country and the United States.”
35. Which Terp alumnus was the serviceman most hated by Reischsmarshal Hermann Goering during World War II? a. Robert Sinclair Booth; b. Richard Durkee; c. Don Gentile.
Answer: c. Don Gentile.Flying ace Don Gentile, whom General Eisenhower called the “one man Air Force,” entered the university in 1949 after his service with the RAF and the U.S. Air Force in World War II. The highly decorated flier was credited with 30 air and ground kills, breaking legendary pilot Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker’s World War record. Gentile was tragically killed in a jet plane crash while on a training run near Andrews Air Force Base two years later.
Robert Sinclair Booth, Class of 1936, was the first University of Maryland student killed in World War II. He was aboard the USS Arizona when it was attacked and sunk at Pearl Harbor. The Navy honored Ensign Booth by naming the USS Booth, a destroyer escort vessel, in his memory.
Richard Durkee, Class of 1959, was a highly decorated veteran of Army service in World War II and Korea. One of the few survivors of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, he also was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor, for heroism during an attack near Uijongbu, Korea. You can find more about his military accomplishments in his obituary from the Washington Post.