Homage to Helen Curtis by Paula Hodecker BFA '89.
Mixed media, 32 x 32 x 9 inches. Imagery: Helen Curtis ca. 1945, surrounded by architectural elements from "the Women's Quad" of dormitories, which she championed; flowers, symbolic of her avocation of gardening; and, says Hodecker, "swans, symbolic of UMass."
Invited to produce an artwork on the post-war history of women at UMass, sculptor Paula Hodecker spent some time on the twenty-fifth floor of the Du Bois Library and emerged with the idea of a tribute to Helen Curtis. Thirty-six years old when she became the second woman dean on campus, successor to Edna Skinner as chief and ardent advocate for women students, "Dean Helen" was, Hodecker writes, "a vital link in the chain of accomplishments that formed UMass. I decided to focus on her because of her values and high standards; I came to the conclusion that she is a very tasteful, honest, and proper person with a great deal of character. . . . She is also a living campus legend whom I hope to someday meet."
Happily, that can be arranged. Emeritus Dean of Women Helen Curtis Cole (a single woman throughout her twenty-eight years on campus, the dean married her long-time friend, the late Christopher Cole, in 1980 ) remains, at eighty-eight, a beloved presence in Amherst.
Her photograph with some of her successors is on our centerfold. We only wish Dean Skinner could be there too.
