Marc Schneider ’81
“There were some good vintage clothing stores in Amherst and Northampton. I bought a long wool Harris Tweed overcoat with a velvet collar for $10 that I wore around campus. I was a regular at Mike’s Westview Café [now The Harp], where I would order a pony rock [Rolling Rock beer] and a shot for a buck. They had free food from 5:00 to 7:00. My friends and I would eat, hang out, and play video games. Another hangout for me was the Amherst Cinema, especially for the annual Woody Allen weekend. I’d go with a date if I was fortunate enough to get one.”
At apparel giant Phillips-Van Heusen in New York, the world’s largest shirt and neckwear company, Schneider oversees the wholesale dress shirt and neckwear groups. The company’s brands include Calvin Klein, IZOD, and Bass, and its licensed brands include Geoffrey Beene, Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, and Timberland.
Valerie Martin ’74G
“My favorite Amherst store was and is Hastings. I still go there when I’m in town to buy a special type of notebook. I used to go with a group of grad students to the Episcopal church on the green for Saturday mass at 6 p.m., then directly to a bar. One was the Drake, a very sleazy bar, but wonderful. We also used to drive up to a beautiful wooded area toward Leverett where we’d sit in the water to cool off. Every once in a while we’d see someone run through naked, but we always wore our swimsuits.”
Martin has written 13 critically acclaimed books, including Trespass; Italian Fever; Mary Reilly, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story told from the viewpoint of a housemaid, which was filmed with Julia Roberts; and the Orange Prize–winning Property. Her most recent novel is The Confessions of Edward Day.
Briana Scurry ’95
Amherst spoke to Briana Scurry, a hungry athlete, through her stomach. Two places come immediately to her mind when she thinks of the town: D’Angelo’s subs and Antonio’s Pizza. Although Antonio’s is famed for its creative toppings, Scurry mostly stuck to plain cheese, sausage, or pepperoni. “I kept it pretty lame,” she recalls. She can remember her exact order at D’Angelos: a turkey sub with lettuce, tomato, a little mayo, and a pickle.
Arriving in Amherst from Minnesota, Scurry was entranced by the rolling hills. She also loved the change of seasons, particularly the transition to spring, “when we all had cabin fever and everything was just bursting into green.”
After 37 shutouts in 65 starts for the Minutewomen, Scurry was the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s national soccer team at the 1995 World Cup, 1996 Olympics, 1999 World Cup, 2003 World Cup, and 2004 Olympics. She’s now goalkeeper for the Washington Freedom of the Women’s Professional Soccer league.
Ann C. Noble ’70PhD
“My favorite haunts (outside of the lab) were visiting South Amherst and the family of Reverend Arnold Kenseth, a UMass Amherst lecturer in English, poet, and minister of the South Congregational Church in South Amherst. Christmas Eve service there was extraordinarily special: bells, candles, and people calling ‘Merry Christmas’ as they walked across the village green in falling snow… We used to swim at Puffer’s Pond. Hiking in the Pelham hills was a great way to retreat from University cares.
The friendliness of the people in Amherst and the surrounding towns, as well as the extra dimensions offered to the town and UMass Amherst students by the other colleges made Amherst a great place to be.”
Noble, a sensory chemist and retired professor from the University of California, Davis, created the popular Wine Aroma Wheel, a graphic tool used to learn about wines. She teaches workshops around the world.
Russell Hulse ’72G, ’75PhD
“As a grad student working on my thesis, I kept odd hours. My standard escape was the Gaslight II, an informal café-type place downtown where I’d have maple walnut ice cream and coffee. I also was into nature photography in those days, and I’d drive up to the Summit House on Mount Holyoke and take pictures. My favorite drive was what I called ‘the Shutesbury Chute,’ a hilly, curvy road. I’d make an art of taking my underpowered Mercury Capri up there, not driving fast, but shifting smoothly through the gears.”
Hulse and his UMass Amherst professor Joseph Taylor Jr. won the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of the binary pulsar. He’s now vice president for strategic initiatives at the University of Texas, Dallas, and a research physicist at Princeton University.
John Jacobs ’90
“As a student I wasn’t smart enough to explore the natural beauty of the region and the town. I was more motivated by ten-cent mozzarella sticks and cheap beer at Charlie’s. I didn’t venture off campus too much; I loved pick-up basketball at the Southwest Horseshoe, playing a lot of games with friends.”
While many students have fond memories of the Amherst area, others are more like Jacobs, who stuck closer to campus. With his brother, Bert, Jacobs turned a t-shirt business into the mega-successful company Life is good.
Albin Irzyk ’40
“I was a member of the college Senate and we all got a free pass to the movie theater in Amherst – the same one that’s there today. A great night out for us back then was to walk to town from campus to the movies, then to the drugstore next door, I think it was called Wellington’s, and have a college ice. That was a big glob of vanilla ice cream with crushed pineapple, and it cost 11 cents. Amherst was a lovely, lovely town, with an atmosphere of unhurried simplicity.”
Brigadier General Irzyk commanded a tank battalion in the famed 4th Armored Division, which spearheaded General Patton’s Third Army all across Europe in World War II. Among the many decorations he received during his 31-year military career were two Purple Hearts, four Bronze Stars, two Silver Stars, and the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism.
