Welcome to the Globe’s SLCC Talks. A new column where the Globe staff answers questions that our readers send in.
Subjects, questions and responses are found online via our Facebook page, Twitter, or even our own website at GlobeSLCC.com.
In this edition of SLCC Talks we talk about our personal heroes that inspire us.
“Sept. 25 is considered National Comic Book day, who do you consider a hero in your professional life?”
Rachael Folland (Assistant Editor)
Someone I admire and look up to is my office manager, Debbie. I have learned so much from her since she started working at the veterinary clinic last year. She is caring, humble and understanding. Her advice and wisdom are priceless.
When I make a mistake, she is there to help me learn from it. She takes me under her wing and is always willing to help me out when things get busy at the reception desk. Both she and I have meaningful conversations on a daily basis, and we really understand each other.
I appreciate that she works with me and my hectic school schedule. When I need to take time off, she gets someone to cover for me or fills in herself.
She is a special person and I’m happy to call her my heroine.
Julie Hirschi (Editor in Chief)
My professional heroine is Loretta Tofani, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who wrote a series of investigative articles about the horrible conditions experienced by Chinese factory workers making products for Americans.
With her husband, she started a company in Utah which sold Chinese ethnic furniture. She traveled to China to purchase merchandise for her store and visit the factories where the products were manufactured.
When she viewed the poor working conditions and toxic environment to which the workers were exposed, she closed her store and began investigating and writing a series piece for the Salt Lake Tribune entitled, “American Imports, Chinese Deaths.”
I am amazed and inspired by her courage and tenacity to gather information and to tell the story of suffering and injustice. I hope one day to be the kind of journalist who changes the world like she has.
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Also, be sure to let us know who a hero in your life is.
I can name a few heroes, some of whom I have never met in person. One is Alden B. Dow (1904-1983), an exceptionally creative architect who was based in Midland, Michigan. He was a son of Herbert Dow, the founder of Dow Chemical, and didn’t follow his father’s footsteps per se, but rather envisioned his own path to follow.
Alden spent 1933 with the Taliesin Fellowship, studying with the world famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, but chose to not stay in the Fellowship long, and returned to his hometown for his settlement. Midland is a small town, away from the centers of Detroit, or Chicago, and away from the design limelight of the coasts. Alden chose a path where his ego was secondary to the values of a quality of life.
I admire Dow for being creative of course, but also for being an astute philosopher of life, for understanding the importance of beauty in our built environments, and for the manner in which he led his professional and family life. He received innumerable accolades and his work stands testament to the contribution he made to our world, but he did it quietly. Look up Alden Dow Home & Studio for yourself as an example. Each of my visits there left me weeping (in joy), as its repose and beauty is unmatched–even Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece southeast of Pittsburgh, Penna., struggles to compare in my book.
He was ahead of his time as well, thinking about the impact we exert on the natural world. For example, Alden built his own home out of concrete blocks (a unique modular design he patented) made from the residual ash created by Dow’s chemical plants heating systems, thus recycling a by-product material. Alden did this with plastic by-products too, incorporating them into his architecture. But the mere use of recycled materials paled in compare to his use of daylight and integration of home to garden. Thinking about sustainable and energy efficient practices was decades in the future.
Alden understood the notion that each individual can be creative and give something to a project or endeavor, that each person has a unique way of looking at something. These ideas, when based on principles–not styles–can become enduring. He valued education, travel, and culture, and imbued that into his family’s life.
Though I may never attain the achievements of Mr. Dow, I am forever inspired by him and his architecture.
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