ROHNERT PARK - There will be a memorial service for Dr. Paul Benko, Sonoma State University professor emeritus of biology on December 10, 1998 at 4 p.m. SSU's Warren Auditorium. On October 31, long-time SSU professor and Holocaust survivor Paul V. Benko died of a stroke in his home in Santa Rosa. He was 69. Funeral services were held November 1. He is survived by his son, Peter Benko, daughter, Eleanor Ilus Benko, and his wife, Sandra Robbins Benko.
Benko, born in 1929 in Cluj, Romania, was deported with his family in 1944 to Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau, losing both his parents by the war's end. After barely being rescued by Allied forces from his execution, he was hired as a translator due to his multilingual skills. An American couple who entertained Allied troops adopted him and brought him to New York where he graduated from high school.
Earning his bachelor's degree in 1954 from UC Berkeley, Benko went on to earn a doctorate in comparative biochemistry at UC Davis in 1968. He served on the staff of the California Department of Public Health before coming to Sonoma State in 1970. Benko continued to teach for 22 years until his retirement in 1992. He continued in education as an adjunct instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Throughout his life, Benko was dedicated to educating and helping others. As well as speaking in classrooms about his wartime experiences, Benko helped form the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust, and SSU's Holocaust Lecture Series and Center for the Study of the Holocaust. He was an active participant in the Sonoma County Survivor Project and Northern California's Holocaust Oral History Project.
Contributions in Dr. Paul Benko's memory can be sent to the Holocaust Study Center, Sonoma State University, M. Goodman, Director, 1801 E. Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park, CA 9492-3609. Make checks payable to: Holocaust Alliance/SSU Foundation. For information, call 664-4296.
ROHNERT PARK - "A Day of the Dead Altar for Children Victims of AIDS" will be exhibited on the second floor of the Ruben Salazar Library at SSU from November 20 to December 10. This altar is the realization of SSU Hutchins School of Liberal Studies students who participated in a workshop given by SSU Professor Alexa Armenta, entitled "Masks, Culture & You.'
The altar includes traditional artifacts as well as the masks which Armenta's students created in her class. Each of these masks is dedicated to the theme of AIDS and its prevention. At 4:30 p.m. on the final day of the exhibit, December 10, the mask workshop students will discuss the significance of Day of the Dead celebrations and AIDS-related issues and prevention.
A parking fee of $1.50 (six quarters) is required in all lots , Monday-Thursday, until 10 p.m., Friday until 5 p.m.
For more information, contact the Hutchins School at (707) 664-2491.
Since 1964, Lebanese-American poet and painter Etel Adnan has been making "artist's books:" folding rolls of Japanese paper onto which she brings together poems and paintings with inks, pastels, and/or watercolors. On these folded "books," poetry becomes handwriting and drawing, and the accompanying paintings create a visual reading of the poems. The Sonoma State University Friends of the Library are sponsoring a display of Etel Adnan's "Artist's Books" in SSU's Ruben Salazar Library beginning November 23. The exhibit runs through January. The title of the exhibit is "When Poetry and Painting Meet."
Adnan writes in both French and English. She has published an enormous range of works including the internationally recognized novel about the Lebanese Civil War, Sitt Marie Rose.
Adnan's collection of "Artist's Books" was displayed earlier this fall in London. A reception for the exhibit is scheduled for Tuesday, December 1st from 4-6 p.m. in the Special Collections Room of the Sonoma State University library. The public is invited to attend.
A parking fee of $1.50 (six quarters) is required in all lots, Monday - Thursday, until 10 p.m. and Friday until 5 p.m.
The SSU library is open Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. - midnight, Friday 8 a.m. -5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 9 p.m. It will be closed at specific times during the holiday season. For the library's holiday schedule, call (707) 664-2595.
For more information, contact Barbara Lesch McCaffry at (707) 664-2664.
On Nov. 19 at noon, the SSU Intercultural Center presents Ann Weinstock who will speak on her life experiences as a Holocaust survivor. In addition, Ms. Evvy Eisen, a Bay Area photographer, will speak about her photo exhibit Legacy: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors which will be on display in the Intercultural Center. Several Holocaust survivors will be on hand and will talk about their lives as they relate to the exhibit.
The photo exhibit is on display through the month of November in SSU's Intercultural Center. It includes 25 photographs of Bay Area survivors combined with autobiographical text describing their experiences during the Nazi era. Portraits of individual survivors, couples, and family groups were made in and around each survivor's home.
Legacy is a continuing photographic project founded and directed by Ms. Eisen in 1992. She has completed more than 80 portraits and intends to continue her work both in California and Europe. All photographs and autobiographies have been accepted into the permanent collections of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles, and the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris, France. The portraits were first shown at Judah L. Magnes Museum in 1995.
The public is invited to attend the Nov. 19 presentation. Parking on campus is $1.50 (quarters). Lot G is recommended.
The Children's School at SSU has recently been awarded a $60,000 grant from the S.H. Cowell Foundation for construction of a new Infant/Toddler Center. An additional $67,500 gift made by individual donor Peggy Schaefer and $11,500 in funding provided by the Associated Students provided the final costs of construction. A yearly operational funding increase of $57,000 provided by the State Department of Education completes the package.
The current Child Care Center provides care for children, aged 2-5, of SSU students, faculty and staff. In 1997, the State Department of Education requested proposals for infant child-care programs that could provide care for younger children, ages 1 to 2 years, and last December the Children's Center responded with its proposal for the Infant/Toddler Center. The proposal was accepted this past March.
"The development of the Infant/Toddler Center has been a marvelous collaboration between the Children's School, Associated Students, the Student Union, Peggy Schaefer, the S.H. Cowell Foundation and various departments at the University," according to Vice President of Student Affairs Rand Link.
In addition to providing needed care for the infants and toddlers of SSU students, faculty and staff, the new Center will also provide SSU students with valuable educational opportunities through interning at the center.
The program itself will provide care for no more than 12 infants and toddlers on any given day and will be staffed by one new teacher and three student assistants, resulting in a three-to-one ratio of child to adult. Fifteen families are already registered for the new program and a total of 20 families are expected to participate.
The new 24 x 40 ft. facility has been built along the west side of the current Child Care Center and was custom-designed specifically for its younger children. It includes an observation area for parents and interns to observe the children from behind a one-way mirror, a nap area, a potty-training area, and a central play area.
