The Faculty Club Newsletter

November 2003

           Thanks to everyone who attended October’s Winemaker’s dinner, the Oktoberfest, and the gala opening of the Berkeley School gallery in the O’Neill Room. We are now busy planning our members’ Christmas party and other holiday events. With the Events Committee under Jack Coons, we trying to plan new and different events and to increase attendance at some of our established events. Please drop me or Jack a note if you have any special suggestions for new ways we can add to your enjoyment of the Club. On November 13th we have planned a family evening when parents can bring their children for fun at the Club (see below). As always, I am available at the Club to serve your needs, so if you want to discuss a private event or hold a special meal, be sure to get in touch with me. Thank you.

        Our regular November Winemaker’s dinner will be held on November 7th, with a presentation of the wines of the Edmunds St. John winery by owner Steve Edmunds. A vintner on a mission, Steve makes 4,000 cases a year of brilliant Rhone style wines at his Audubon Cellars, where Edmunds crushes his grapes and stores his barrels. It’s an iron warehouse on Addison at Fourth street, near the railroad tracks in the Berkeley flats, about as uncharming as a winery can be, but his wines have received rave reviews. Join us for a fine meal and some unusual wines. Reception at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. $60 per person.

        Sally Mack has been a photographer for over 30 years, and switched to color just five years ago. She uses natural lighting, preferring its subtlety, and takes her pictures with a 35 mm Nikon with a 50 mm fixed lens. The Guadalcanal Village National Wildlife Refuge is a 53-acre wetlands restoration site on the Napa River, just off Highway 37, near Mare Island.

        The last of our Football Saturdays will be on November 15th. Avoid the crowds by coming into the Club for lunch on game days. Then join your friends on a friendly glass in the bar when it’s over and cal has won (or even if, sob, we lose). Salad bar, sandwiches and burgers available, with seating in the Great Hall and bar, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

       Celebrate the birthday of a long time Club president and great servant to the University! A group of friends are planning a Club celebration of the 90th birthday of Sandy Elberg on November 24th. All admirers of Club are welcome to attend. Reception at 6 p.m., dinner at 7. The cost: $25 per person. Make your reservation by calling extension 224.

       It’s official! By the time of the parties the Monks’ CD should be hear in all its shrink-wrapped glory! Prior Milt Williams leads the Monks Chorus and the Solisti Brass in a varied program of musical highlights from past Christmas parties, including “ Gaudeamus Lgitur,” “ Hail to California,” and the “ Faculty Hymn,” along with more classical musical offerings and Christmas carols. The cost for Christmas with the Monks will be only $15.

       Members are encouraged to join those who continue to discover and enjoy the biggest dining bargain in Berkeley. Come to the Kerr Dining Room any weekday evening before 6:30 and enjoy a three-course dinner for the remarkable price of $11.95. Always at least two choices of entrée, a choice of soup or salad, and a sinful dessert. These dinners are a great idea for evenings when you’re going to a basketball game or an event at Zellerbach Hall or the Playhouse. The October menu is enclosed with this Newsletter. Reserve to be sure of a table.

       On October 23rd the Faculty Club joined with the Art Department to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the department and the opening of our new collection of paintings by faculty members who formed part of the group of artists known as the Berkeley School in the years 1930-1950, under the leadership of Worth Ryder. Karl Kasten, a member of the group, arranged for the donation of several paintings, to be housed as a permanent collection in the O’Neill Room. This room was chosen because it already houses works by Eugen Neuhaus (first chair of the Art Department) and Raymond Boynton.

        By now you will have received your invitation to this year’s Christmas party, to be held on December 10th, 11th, and 12th. Our annual party is the high point of the Club’s social year and is eagerly awaited by all who have experienced it. This year’s dramatic presentation, Parodies Lost or Get Thee to a Punnery, promises to be as witty, entertaining, and social insignificant as any of those in the past! Members are limited in the number of guests they may bring so as to permit as many members as possible to attend. But do make your reservations quickly. No phone, e-mail, or fax reservations accepted. So get those envelopes back to the Club fast! The waiting list is not the end of the line-in the past almost everyone who has tried to reserve a place has eventually been able to.

       More and more people are discovering the convenience of the Club’s morning breakfast special. From 7 to 10 a.m. you can come by the Kerr Room and for $2.99 enjoy juice, eggs, coffee, and toast. Pick up a newspaper on the way to campus and relax after that commute or uphill bike ride.

       Members of this group will receive in a couple of weeks an invitation to the December 9th meeting. The group is open to all widows of members. For more information, call Phyllis Schafer at 510-704-9951.