Philadelphia Eleven

# Philadelphia Eleven

## Abstract

The Philadelphia Eleven are eleven women who were the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, two years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.

## Background

In the Episcopal Church, a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, no canon law existed prohibiting the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops. However, the custom of ordaining only men was the norm. Women had been admitted to a separate order of "deaconesses". Although they were typically understood by themselves and their bishops to be in holy orders, these were treated differently from men ordained as deacons. By custom they were celibate and wore a blue habit-like garb which was often assumed to be that of nuns. By custom women were denied ordination to the priesthood.

During the first half of the twentieth century, women in the Episcopal Church had begun exploring ways to increase their participation in the life of the church. Many women became church workers or directors of religious education. The movement gained explicit momentum in 1970 when laywomen were seated with voice and vote for the first time in General Convention, the bicameral legislative body of the Episcopal Church, and called for a vote to eliminate the canon law on "Deaconesses" so that male and female deacons would be treated equally. In 1965, James Pike, Bishop of California, recognized Phyllis Edwards as a deacon in his diocese. She had been ordained a year earlier under the old canon law using the term "deaconess".

This increased awareness led to the General Convention of 1970 eliminating canonical distinctions between male deacons and female deaconesses. It made clear that women who had previously been made deaconess and were seeking ordination to the priesthood would be recognized as full and equal deacons. The Episcopal Church was then presented with the issue of whether to ordain women as priests and bishops too.

A resolution was put forward by the women deputies at the 1970 General Convention to approve women’s ordination to the priesthood and episcopate. It failed to pass the House of Deputies, but nonetheless had much positive support. The Anglican Consultative Council met for the first time in 1971 and considered the issue of women’s ordination to the priesthood on a communion-wide level, resolving that women should be allowed to be ordained priests under certain local conditions. Thus in an effort to prepare for the next General Convention in 1973, a group of female professional church workers, deaconesses, female seminarians, and their supporters met in 1971 to form the Episcopal Women’s Caucus, a national coalition to plan future advocacy work for women’s ordination. However, when similar legislation failed to pass at the 1973 General Convention because of a parliamentary technicality, some of the women began to plan new strategies, feeling that they could not wait another three years for women’s priesthood to be legislatively approved. Suzanne Hiatt, a deacon, stated a shared sentiment among these women that their “vocation was not to continue to ask for permission to be a priest, but to be a priest.”

In November 1973, several women who were deacons met with bishops who supported their cause, only to find them unwilling to ordain women to the priesthood until General Convention had settled the issue. On December 15, 1973, when five women ordained as deacons presented themselves at a priestly ordination service in New York, Paul Moore, Jr., Bishop of New York, allowed them to participate but declined to lay hands on their heads at the moment of ordination. The women and a large part of the congregation walked out of the service in protest.

By July 1974, as supporters of women’s ordination to the priesthood grew restless, three retired bishops stepped forward and agreed to ordain a group of qualified women deacons. The bishops were: Daniel Corrigan, retired bishop suffragan of Colorado; Robert L. DeWitt, recently resigned Bishop of Pennsylvania; and Edward R. Welles II, retired Bishop of West Missouri,

Eleven women who were deacons presented themselves as ready for ordination to the priesthood, and plans for the service proceeded. The women who became known as the “Philadelphia Eleven” (or “Philadelphia 11”) were Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig.

## Ordination service

The ordination service was held on Monday, July 29, 1974, the Feast of Saints Mary and Martha, at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, where Suzanne Hiatt served as deacon, and whose rector was civil rights advocate Paul Washington. Beginning at 11 o’clock in the morning, the service lasted for three hours. The eleven women serving as deacons presented themselves to Bishops Corrigan, DeWitt, and Welles, who ordained them as priests.

Harvard University professor Charles V. Willie, who was also the vice president of the House of Deputies at the time, preached a sermon entitled, “The Priesthood of All Believers,” which began, “The hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth,” followed by Dr. Willie’s declaration that “as blacks refused to participate in their own oppression by going to the back of the bus in 1955 in Montgomery, women are refusing to cooperate in their own oppression by remaining on the periphery of full participation in the Church.” The crowd numbered almost two thousand supporters and a few protesters. In the middle of the service when Corrigan said, “If there be any of you who knoweth any impediment or notable crime (in these women), let him come forth in the name of God...” several priests in attendance proceeded to read statements against the ordination. Once these statements had been made, the bishops responded that they were acting in obedience to God, noting that “hearing God's command, we can heed no other. The time for our obedience is now.” And they proceeded with the ordinations.

José Antonio Ramos, Bishop of Costa Rica, was also present at the service but did not participate in the act of ordination due to his young and active episcopate. Barbara C. Harris, who was senior warden at Church of the Advocate and would later become the first woman ordained bishop in the Episcopal Church on February 11, 1989, served as crucifer for the service Patricia Merchant Park, one of the leaders of the Episcopal Women’s Caucus and the second woman to be regularly ordained as a priest in 1977 after General Convention had given its endorsement, served as deacon. An iconic photo of the service was published on July 30 in The Philadelphia Inquirer and picked up worldwide.

## Aftermath

Two weeks after the ordination service had taken place, on August 14–15, Presiding Bishop John Allin convened an emergency meeting of the House of Bishops at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. At first, the House declared the priestly ordinations of the eleven women to be invalid, stating that “we express our conviction that the necessary conditions for ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church were not fulfilled on the occasion in question, since we are convinced that a bishop’s authority to ordain can be effectively exercised only in and for a community which has authorized him to act for them…” Then Arthur A. Vogel, Bishop of West Missouri, raised his objection. He was considered the most theologically astute of the bishops, and told his colleagues that they had no theological grounds for declaring the ordinations invalid because they were performed by bishops in good standing according to the Ordination Rite in the Book of Common Prayer and by laying-on-of-hands within the Apostolic Succession. To declare the ordinations invalid would be to flout hundreds of years of orthodox definition for the criteria of valid ordination. The House of Bishops listened and changed its position, declaring the women irregularly ordained instead. The irregularity involved was one of protocol. The women had completed the normal pre-ordination process of theological education, examinations and meetings with their bishops and diocesan representatives, and most had gained the necessary signed lay and clergy testimonials vouching for their character and preparation, but their local standing committees were timid about aftermath and refused to give their endorsement. This was the detail in every case and the one breach of canon law requirement that could qualify their be regarded as irregularly ordained priests. Through no fault or lack of effort of their own, they were unable to fulfill a canonically required point of protocol. Despite their anger, the bishops listened to Vogel, a highly respected theologian, and they conceded the point. The bishops also admonished Episcopalians not to recognize any of the eleven women as priests until the next General Convention could decide on their ecclesiastical status.

When the House of Bishops met again at its regularly-scheduled meeting in October in Oaxtepec, Mexico, however, the body endorsed “in principle” the ordination of women to the priesthood, which it had assented to as well at its meeting in New Orleans in 1972. This was in no way an overturning of its decision that the priestly ordinations of the Eleven had been irregular, and the body further urged its bishops to refrain from ordaining more women to the priesthood “unless and until such activities have been approved by the General Convention” meeting in 1976.

Meanwhile, three of the first women to become priests took opportunities to celebrate the Eucharist against orders from their bishops. Alison Cheek, Jeannette Piccard and Carter Heyward celebrated communion together at an ecumenical service at Riverside Church in New York City on Reformation Sunday, October 27, 1974. A couple of weeks later on Sunday, November 10, 1974, Alison Cheek celebrated the Eucharist at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. This first public celebration of the Eucharist in the Episcopal Church by a priest who was a woman was permitted by the church’s rector, William Wendt. The following month, Alison Cheek and Carter Heyward were invited to celebrate the Eucharist on Sunday, December 8, at Christ Episcopal Church in Oberlin, Ohio, by the rector, Peter Beebe. These events didn't go unnoticed by the larger church, and in the summer of 1975 both Wendt and Beebe were brought to ecclesiastical trial by their dioceses and convicted of disobeying a “godly admonition” from their bishops against permitting the women to celebrate the Eucharist.

Not all Episcopal Church institutions were against the priestly ordinations or the women, however, and in January 1975 the trustees of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offered faculty appointments with full priestly duties to Suzanne Hiatt and Carter Heyward. Both women began celebrating the Eucharist in the seminary chapel in March 1975.

In February 1975, advocates of women’s ordination to the priesthood and episcopate formed an organization called Women’s Ordination Now (WON) to support the Philadelphia Eleven (and later the Washington Four) women as well as the bishops who had ordained them and William Wendt and Peter Beebe. At the 1976 General Convention, WON worked to see that the irregularly-ordained women were fully recognized as priests and allowed to function as priests without any penalties. A parallel and more moderate group, the National Coalition for the Ordination of Women, worked quietly behind the scenes and may have done more to achieve the new canon.

On June 28, 2024, the 81st General Convention of the Episcopal Church, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia 11, approved July 29 as the date to commemorate the Philadelphia 11.

### Washington Four

As supporters of women’s ordination to the priesthood continued to organize and plan for the 1976 General Convention amid all of this turmoil, the Church was surprised by a second ordination service, this time held in Washington, D.C. On Sunday, September 7, 1975, at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, George W. Barrett, retired Bishop of Rochester, NY, ordained four more women who were deacons to the priesthood. The four women were Lee McGee (Street), Alison Palmer, Betty Rosenberg (Powell), and Diane Tickell. They became known as the “Washington Four” (or “Washington 4”). A fifth woman, Phyllis Edwards, had originally planned on taking part in the ordination but withdrew the week before. Edwards had been recognized as a deacon by James Pike in 1965, potentially changing the status of the many women who for some decades had been ordained or instituted in a revived order of "deaconesses," but who had not consistently been regarded as members of the clergy. Over 1,000 people attended the service including the rector William Wendt, Peter Beebe, several of the Philadelphia Eleven priests, and again retired Pennsylvania bishop Robert L. DeWitt. McGee’s husband, Kyle McGee, an Episcopal priest and chaplain at Georgetown University, preached at the service, stating that “today we are engaged in a prophetic act. I pray that our actions will help enable us who are present and the church universal to reexamine our beliefs and practices of priesthood so that we may include all Christians in the ministry of our Lord.”

Presiding Bishop John Allin again spoke out against this second set of ordinations, declaring that Barrett had defied canon law (without citing what that law might be or where it was prohibited); William Creighton, Bishop of Washington; and “the rights of the entire membership of the Episcopal Church.” While noting that such “destructive and divisive acts may be beyond prevention amid this age of confusion and turmoil,” he added that “the tragedy is that so much done in good conscience for the sake of renewal can so frequently prevent that needed renewal.” While none of the bishops who had participated in the irregular ordinations were called to ecclesiastical trial, they were censured by the House of Bishops and their actions decried.

### Women’s ordination to the priesthood and episcopate approved

The 1976 General Convention met in Minneapolis on September 15–23, 1976. On September 15, the House of Bishops voted 95 to 61 to change or eliminate ambiguous places in canon law that seemed to prevent the ordination of women to the priesthood, and to clarify matters by creating a canon to affirm the ordination of women as priests and bishops. Because of the two-house structure of the General Convention, the House of Deputies had to vote on the matter the following day. After much deliberation in that House, the clerical order voted 60 in favor, 39 opposed, and 15 divided, while the laity voted 64 in favor, 36 opposed, and 13 divided. Women’s ordination to the priesthood and episcopacy was approved, and the vote meant that women who were deacons could be canonically ordained to the priesthood as early as January 1, 1977, by authorization of a specifically affirming canon for that purpose. Later in the week, on September 21, the House of Bishops voted to require a “conditional ordination” for the fifteen women who had been irregularly ordained, much to the disappointment of the women and their supporters. The next day, however, the bishops reversed their decision and instead, in keeping with the status of "irregular" which they had imposed on the women, they voted to allow the individual diocesan bishops of the Philadelphia Eleven and Washington Four priests to “regularize” them in a form of their own discretion, with the option of a “public event” that would allow the people of their dioceses to welcome and celebrate the priestly ministries of the women. These services were held for the priests beginning in January 1977. (The official term for the service was "completion," offered as an alternative to conditional ordination.)

The first woman (already a deacon) canonically ordained to the priesthood on January 1, 1977, was Jacqueline A. Means, ordained by Donald J. Davis, Bishop of Erie, in the Episcopal Church of All Saints in Indianapolis. By the end of January 1977 about forty women had been ordained priests and an additional sixty by the end of the year. By 1979 almost 300 women had been ordained to the priesthood, and the total increased to more than 600 by 1985.

## Women involved

The eleven women (who were already deacons) who were ordained to the Episcopal priesthood at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia on July 29, 1974 and are known as the Philadelphia Eleven are:

1. Merrill Bittner was born in 1946 in Pasadena, California. A graduate of Lake Erie College and Bexley Hall Seminary, she was ordained as a deacon on January 6, 1973, in the Diocese of Rochester, where she served at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Webster, New York. She was 27 when she was ordained to the priesthood in 1974. Like many of the other Philadelphia Eleven women, it was hard for her to find support and employment as a priest in the Episcopal Church following her ordination. Instead she worked in prison ministry and found herself roaming the country in a van working odd jobs before later becoming a career counselor. In 2001 she reentered parish ministry and has served as a priest at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Rumford, Maine.

2. Alla Renée Bozarth (Bozarth-Campbell) was born in Portland, Oregon on May 15, 1947. She earned her B.S.S. (1971) degree at Northwestern University in Interpretation, after which she was ordained deacon and served as staff minister at the Northwestern University congregation of St. Thomas à Becket from 1971 to 1973. She earned her M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1974) degrees at Northwestern University in Interpretation: Hermeneutics, Aesthetics and Performing Arts (School of Speech and Drama).

Bozarth was the first woman to be ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of Oregon on September 8, 1971. Her husband, Philip Ross Campbell (Bozarth-Campbell), was ordained as a deacon in 1973 and as a priest in 1974. In 1975 Bozarth incorporated Wisdom House, an ecumenical spirituality center, as a 501(c)3 non-profit religious corporation of the State of Minnesota (later the State of Oregon). She served at Wisdom House as priest-in-charge. After her husband's death in 1985, she returned to Sandy, Oregon and moved Wisdom House to her home there. She discontinued travel and public speaking in 1994 but was able to attend the 25th anniversary celebrations in Philadelphia in 1999. In 2004 Bozarth retired from her counseling practice and regular celebrations of the Holy Eucharist at Wisdom House, but she continues to write and offer prayers and poems on meditation blogs, celebrate the Eucharist for special occasions and provide pastoral care when asked, mostly by telephone or mail.

Bozarth is a poet and author and has written two books on grief, Life is Goodbye/Life is Hello~ Grieving Well through All Kinds of Loss (1982) and A Journey through Grief (1990) and various meditation and poetry books. Her poem "Transfiguration" was presented to the Mayor of Hiroshima in May, 1980, becoming part of the permanent collection of the Peace Memorial Garden. Bozarth's 10th anniversary poem for the Philadelphia Ordinations, "Passover Remembered," has become an ecumenical touchstone and is broadly used by women and men in leadership in Roman Catholic religious communities and others in various traditions. Bozarth has lectured for the Institute of Women Today in Chicago and several other cities, including Mankato, Minnesota, where she also gave a keynote address with Jean Audrey Powers at the first annual Women and Spirituality Conference in 1981.

3. Alison Mary Cheek was born in 1927 in Adelaide, South Australia, where she graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1947 and married her economics tutor, Bruce Cheek. The couple moved to Boston for his fellowship at Harvard University and then back to Australia two years later. They returned to the United States in 1957 when Bruce was hired by the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Cheek had become active as a lay leader at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Annandale, Virginia, when her rector encouraged her to take some classes at Virginia Theological Seminary because she was increasingly being asked to lead programs at the church. She was admitted into the seminary’s B.D. program in 1963 with no intention of seeking ordination, but suddenly felt a call to become a priest while on a retreat. With four young children at home, her bishop (around that time Robert F. Gibson, Jr. was diocesan Bishop of Virginia and Samuel B. Chilton was the suffragan bishop) dissuaded her from considering ordination, and it took her six years to complete her degree part-time. Following graduation from the seminary, she was hired as a lay minister at Christ Church in Alexandria, where she was in charge of pastoral ministry and allowed to preach a few times She then began training and working with the Pastoral Counseling and Consulting Centers of Greater Washington and the Washington Institute for Pastoral Psychotherapy, returning to St. Alban’s to continue pastoral ministry as a laywoman Eventually, however, her rector encouraged her to enter the ordination process in the Diocese of Virginia, and she was ordained as the first woman ordained deacon in the South on January 29, 1972. When the House of Deputies voted against women’s ordination in 1973, Cheek was motivated to work with other women and supporters to change the church’s mind. After the Philadelphia Ordinations, Cheek accepted a number of invitations to celebrate the Eucharist although her priestly ordination had not been approved by the wider church. She also became active in marginalized groups such as the gay movement, black movement, and women in poverty, sticking to the margins of the church to exercise her ministry. In 1976 Time magazine named her as one of twelve women of the year for her advocacy and action on behalf of women’s ordination. She was hired as an assistant priest at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., and later Trinity Memorial Church in Philadelphia before going back to school at the Episcopal Divinity School, where she was hired as the Director of Feminist Liberation Studies in 1989 and earned her D.Min. degree in 1990. In 1996 she joined the Greenfire Community and Retreat Center in Tenants Harbor, Maine, where she served as a facilitator, teacher, and counselor, and later became active with St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Rockland.

4. Emily Clark Hewitt was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1944. After earning a degree from Cornell University in 1966, she served as an administrator of the Cornell/Hofstra Upward Bound Program at the Union Settlement House in East Harlem from 1967–1969. Called to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, Hewitt was ordained as a deacon on June 3, 1972, in the Diocese of New York, and was supported by St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Manhattanville, New York. Hewitt co-authored the book Women Priests: Yes or No? with fellow Philadelphia Eleven priest Suzanne Hiatt in 1973. While serving as assistant professor of religion and education at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, from 1973–1975, she was ordained to the priesthood in Philadelphia at the age of 30 in 1974, and received her M.Phil. degree from Union Theological Seminary the following year. Finding it hard to practice her priesthood in the Episcopal Church, Hewitt continued her education, earning a J.D. from Harvard University in 1978. That same year she began practicing law at the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow, where she was elected a partner in 1985 and served as chair of the real estate department from 1987–1993. In 1993 she became the General Counsel of the United States General Services Administration, where she served until being commissioned as a judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims by President Clinton in 1998. Hewitt married former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Eleanor D. Acheson in 2004. In 2009, President Obama designated Hewitt to serve as Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

5. Isabel Carter Heyward was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1945. She earned a B.A. from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1967 and then moved to New York to begin a B.D. at Union Theological Seminary. Finding that she wasn't sure where she stood regarding her involvement in the church, she left Union after a year and moved back home to Charlotte to work at her home parish, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, as a lay assistant, doing all the duties except those reserved for priests. In 1971 she returned to New York and pursued an M.A. in the comparative study of religion at Columbia University before completing an M.Div. back at Union in 1973. She later went on to earn a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Union in 1980. Feeling a call to the priesthood, Heyward was ordained a deacon on June 9, 1973, in the Diocese of New York and ordained to the priesthood in Philadelphia at 29 in 1974. Following this ordination, Heyward and fellow priest Suzanne Hiatt were hired as assistant professors at the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in January 1975, where she received tenure in 1981. Heyward’s teaching at EDS focused on 19th century Anglican theology, feminist liberation theology, and the theology of sexuality. She has published numerous books on these topics during her tenure, including A Priest Forever, an autobiographical account of her ordination published in 1976. Heyward retired from teaching in 2005 and moved back to North Carolina.

6. Suzanne Radley Hiatt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1936. As a child she dreamed of entering the ordained ministry of the church, but dismissed the thought as impossible before feeling a call to ordination again in her twenties. She attended high school in Edina, Minnesota, and then one year of college at Wellesley College before transferring to Radcliffe College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in American history in 1958. After graduation she worked for two years as a Girl Scout professional in Hartford, traveled around Europe, and taught high school. Feeling her call to ordination return, she entered the Episcopal Theological School (ETS), where she received her M.Div. in 1964. She completed an M.S.W. from Boston University the following year and moved back to Minnesota where she worked with the Presbyterian Church in “ghetto ministry” for a couple months. She soon moved on to Philadelphia where she helped start the Welfare Rights Organization. After being fired from her job at the Health and Welfare Council, however, she was hired by the Diocese of Pennsylvania as a Suburban Missioner to organize suburban Episcopalians around social issues in the city. She left that position in 1972 to become a consultant for the Episcopal Consortium of Theological Education in the Northeast, where she taught classes in women’s studies. After General Convention failed to approve women’s ordination to the priesthood in 1970, Hiatt became active in working to achieve approval at the 1973 convention, and she was ordained a deacon on June 19, 1971, in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. That same year, she published Women Priests: Yes or No? along with Emily Hewitt. With opposition to women’s ordination growing, Robert DeWitt proposed ordaining Hiatt as a priest at ETS in December 1973 without the church’s blessing. While the ordination was called off and other events were taking place, Hiatt decided to organize separate actions with a few sympathetic bishops and other supporters. On July 10, 1974, Hiatt helped to organize a meeting in Philadelphia to plan an ordination service for women at the Church of the Advocate, where she was serving as a deacon. Because of her role in planning and orchestrating this service, Hiatt has become known as the “Bishop of the Philadelphia Eleven.” After her ordination as a priest, Hiatt was hired along with Carter Heyward as a professor at Episcopal Divinity School, where she received tenure in 1981. Hiatt was the John Seely Stone Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology at the seminary from 1993 until her retirement in 1999, also becoming the Acting Director of the Congregational Studies Program in 1997. Hiatt died of cancer at the age of 65 in 2002.

7. Marie Moorefield Fleischer was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1944. She received a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1966 before attending Union Theological Seminary and Vanderbilt University, where she received her M.Div. in 1970. She was ordained as a deacon on June 9, 1973 in the Diocese of New York. Following her ordination to the priesthood, like many of the other women she found her priesthood rejected by many. For fear of being defrocked she left the Episcopal Church in 1975 and became a minister in the United Methodist Church. She served as the chaplain at the United Methodist Retirement Home in Topeka, Kansas from 1973–1975 and the chaplain supervisor at Richmond Memorial Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, from 1977–1979 Moorefield returned to the Episcopal Church in the 1980s, serving at churches in Maryland and West Virginia. She served as the Canon for Ministry in the Diocese of Western New York from 1992–1996, interim minister for a number of years, and Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of North Carolina from 2001–2006. In 1980 she married astronomer Robert Fleischer, who died in 2001.

8. Jeannette Ridlon Piccard was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1895. At eleven years old she told her mother that she wanted to be a priest when she grew up. She received a B.A. in philosophy and psychology from Bryn Mawr College in 1918 followed by an M.A. in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1919. That same year she married one of her professors, Jean Felix Piccard. The Piccards taught at the University of Lausanne from 1919 to 1926, when they returned to the United States. Jean had invented cluster high-altitude balloons, and together they invented the plastic balloon which would rise into the stratosphere. Because her husband suffered from acrophobia, he remained seated in the gondola from where he advised Jeannette as she piloted their plastic high altitude hot air balloon into the stratosphere in 1934. Together they ascended above Lake Erie to a height of 10.9 miles. Jeannette Piccard became the first woman licensed as a hot air balloon pilot in the United States and the first woman to pilot a stratosphere-capable balloon to that height, and thus she has been called "the first woman in space". After her husband's death, Jeannette worked as consultant to the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center for a number of years. She was posthumously inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1998. In 1942, Piccard earned her Ph.D. in education from the University of Minnesota and began serving as the executive secretary of housing for the Minnesota Office of Civil Defense. Later she would serve as an aeronautical consultant to General Mills and NASA. On June 29, 1971, Piccard was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church. She completed a certificate of study at General Theological Seminary in 1973, and became the first woman ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church at the service in Philadelphia in 1974 when she was 79 years old, and would go on to function as a parish priest for seven years before her death. Piccard served as a priest associate at St. Philip’s Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota and on her death bed was made an honorary canon of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Minneapolis. Piccard died of cancer in Minneapolis in 1981.

9. Betty Bone Schiess was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1923. She earned a B.A. from the University of Cincinnati in 1945 followed by an M.A. from Syracuse University in 1947. She also married her husband William Schiess in 1947. Ordained a deacon on June 25, 1972 in the Diocese of Central New York, Schiess served as curate at Grace Episcopal Church in Baldwinsville, New York, from 1972–1973. She served as executive director of the Mizpah Educational and Cultural Center for the Aging in Syracuse, New York, from 1973–1984. Following her ordination to the priesthood in 1974, she filed a lawsuit with support from assemblywoman Constance Cook against Ned Cole, Bishop of Central New York, charging him with sex discrimination for refusing to recognize her ordination and preventing her from serving as a parish priest in the diocese. The suit was dropped when General Convention approved women’s ordination in 1976. Schiess then served college ministries and churches in Syracuse, Ithaca, and Mexico, New York, retiring in 1990. She was the adviser to Women in Mission and Ministry in the Episcopal Church beginning in 1987. She was the recipient of the Governor’s Award for Women of Merit in Religion in 1984 and of the Ralph E. Kharas Award for Distinguished Service in Civil Liberties of the Central New York Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union in 1986. In 1994 she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame for her efforts in making it possible for girls and women to serve in all levels of the church.

10. Katrina Martha van Alstyne Welles Swanson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1935, the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of Episcopal clergy. She earned her B.A. in sociology from Radcliffe College in 1956 and married Episcopal priest George Swanson in 1958. The family spent a year in Botswana through an exchange program in 1966, where her witness of the inequality between the sexes in the church led her to become a champion for women’s leadership and ordination. She returned to the United States determined to become a priest. Swanson was ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of West Missouri on September 19, 1971. She served as a deacon at her husband’s parish in Kansas City until her ordination to the priesthood in 1974 by her father, when she was suspended by her diocese and her husband was forced to fire her. Then St. Stephen’s, a poor parish in St. Louis, decided to hire her as an assistant for a dollar a year in 1975. In 1978, Swanson became the first female rector in the tri-state New York metro area when she was hired as the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Union City, New Jersey, where she served until retiring in 1995. She died in 2005 from colon cancer.

11. Nancy Constantine Hatch Wittig was born in Takoma Park, Maryland, in 1945. She earned a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1969 followed by an M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1972. She married Methodist minister Richard Wittig in 1971 and was ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Newark on September 8, 1973. She served in parishes in New Jersey until her ordination to the priesthood in 1974 when she resigned because of a lack of confidence in her and the church’s inability to affirm her priesthood. She spent several years raising her family before reentering parish ministry in New Jersey, serving as rector of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Hasbrouck Heights from 1982–1988. She then taught as an adjunct professor of pastoral theology at General Theological Seminary from 1988–1990. From 1992–2006 she served as rector of St. Andrew’s in the Field in Philadelphia, and has been rector of St. Peter’s in Lakewood, Ohio, since 2006.

The four women (previously ordained as deacons) who were ordained to the priesthood at the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 1975 and are known as the Washington Four are:

1. Eleanor Lee McGee-Street was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1943. She earned a B.A. from Maryland State College in 1965 and an M.A. from Yale University in 1969, after which she moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as chaplain at American University. McGee was the first female chaplain and assistant director of campus ministry at American University’s multi-denominational Kay Spiritual Life Center from 1972–1980. She was married to Episcopal priest Kyle McGee in 1968 and ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of Washington on October 27, 1974. While working at American University, she earned an M.S.W. from The Catholic University of America in 1980. The family moved to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1981 where she worked as a priest and social worker with the chronically mentally ill, a private practice psychologist, an associate chaplain at Trinity College, and a part-time professor at Yale Divinity School. In 1987 McGee was hired as rector of St. Paul’s & St. James Episcopal Church in New Haven as well as assistant professor at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. She was remarried in 2000 to Episcopal priest Parke Street. Since retiring from Yale in 1997, she has lectured and led conferences on preaching, discernment, and Christian spirituality.

2. Alison " Tally " Palmer was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1931. She earned her B.A. from Brown University in 1953, after which she worked as a writer for The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times. Palmer began working for the State Department as a clerk typist in 1955 and was appointed as a Foreign Service Officer in 1960, working in Ghana, Congo, Kenya, British Guiana, Ethiopia, Angola, and Vietnam. In 1965 she was refused appointment as an ambassador to Tanzania or Uganda due to being a woman, so she filed a grievance with the State Department for sex discrimination which was found in her favor in 1969. In 1970, Palmer completed an M.A. in African Studies from Boston University. She continued fighting against sex discrimination in the State Department, receiving retroactive pay and a promotion in 1975 and finally winning a class-action lawsuit against the department in 1987. While serving in the Belgian Congo in 1962, Palmer underwent a religious conversion and became a Christian. She later felt a call from the Holy Spirit to become a priest while working in Vietnam in 1969. Palmer did her theological training at Virginia Theological Seminary and was the first woman ordained as deacon in the Diocese of Washington on June 9, 1974, after which she served at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church until being ordained as a priest the following year. Since retiring from the State Department in 1981, Palmer has served as an associate at the Chapel of St. James the Fisherman in Wellfleet, Massachusetts and later at Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans, Massachusetts. Palmer was the first woman to celebrate Holy Communion in the Church of England, in 1977.

3. Elizabeth " Betty " Powell (known as Betty Rosenberg at the time of her priestly ordination) was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1945. She attended Mount Holyoke College and the University of Delaware, where she received a B.A. in 1967. She continued her education at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington where she received an M.S. in 1969 and started to explore a call to ordained ministry. She entered the ordination process and graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary with an M.Div. in 1972. Active in the struggle for women’s ordination, Powell helped form the Episcopal Women’s Caucus. She was ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of Washington on June 22, 1974. After her ordination to the priesthood in 1975, she served as a chaplain at Georgetown University before becoming an assistant at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Laurel, Maryland, followed by Grace Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Powell was the first Episcopal woman to earn a D.Min. from an Episcopal seminary at Bexley Hall in 1975. She left parish ministry to specialize in pastoral counseling and to continue the work of affirming the Feminine Divine. Currently Powell is writing a book with the working title,"In Her Image: Women’s Full Potential/Personhood/Authority Reflected in the Divine."

4. Diane Catherine Baldwin Tickell was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts in 1918. She received a B.A. from Smith College in 1939 and moved to southeast Alaska after marrying Albert Tickell in 1944. She served as a social worker in Juneau before attending seminary at the Episcopal Theological School where she graduated in 1973. Tickell was ordained as a deacon in 1973 in the Diocese of Alaska. She served as an itinerant deacon at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Wrangell, Alaska, until her ordination to the priesthood in 1975. After becoming a priest she continued to serve the church in Alaska for many years. Tickell died at the age of 84 in 2002.

- Phyllis Agnes Edwards had originally planned on being ordained along with the Washington Four in 1975. Edwards was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1917. She earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in education from Black Hills Teachers College in 1951 and 1956 while teaching elementary school and raising four children. After the death of her husband Thomas Edwards she entered Seabury-Western Theological Seminary to become prepare for ordination to the diaconate, having wanted to be a priest as well since the age of 13. She graduated and was ordained to the diaconate in 1964 in the Diocese of Olympia. The following year James Pike, Bishop of California, acknowledged her ordination as a deacon, an action which cast a bold light on the discriminatory and anachronistic word, "deaconess," emphasizing the need to eliminate the segregating and discriminatory canon on women ordained as deacons, all of whom considered themselves to be such, and were so regarded by the bishops who had ordained them, in many cases some decades earlier going back through the twentieth century. Pike also commissioned Edwards to join civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. Edwards later served as the acting vicar of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco from 1969–1970 and as an assistant at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois, a hospital chaplain, and a campus minister at Northern Illinois University. On June 29, 1980, she was ordained as a priest in the Diocese of Newark where she worked as the director of the diocesan summer camping program. Edwards later moved to Washington state where she served as an assistant at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bremerton. She died at the age of 92 in 2009.

## Documentary

A documentary, The Philadelphia Eleven, was released in 2023. It features archival and news footage, and interviews with many of the surviving priests.


Buffer stop

# Buffer stop

## Abstract

A buffer stop, bumper, bumping post, bumper block or stopblock (US), is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a physical section of track.

The design of the buffer stop is dependent, in part, on the kind of couplings that the railway uses, since the coupling gear is the first part of the vehicle that the buffer stop touches. The term "buffer stop" is of British origin, since railways in Great Britain principally use buffer-and-screw couplings between vehicles.

## Types

Several different types of buffer stop have been developed. They differ depending on the type of coupler used and on the intended application.

- Buffer stops with anticlimbers. These are particularly important for passenger railway applications, because the anticlimbers reduce the likelihood of telescoping of the railroad cars during a head-on impact.

- Buffer stops for a knuckle coupler or an SA3 coupler (centrally positioned between the two rails)

- Buffer stops with traditional " buffers " on either side

- Hydraulic buffer stops

- Friction buffer stops (bolted down to the rail)

If there is extra room behind the bumper block, there is usually a sand or ballast drag that is designed to further retard a runaway train. One such accident occurred when a Northern City Line train powered past the bumper block at Moorgate station in 1975 on the London Underground system.

### Energy-absorbing

Largely because of its mass, a train transfers an enormous amount of kinetic energy in a collision with a buffer stop. Rigid buffers can safely cope only with very low-speed impacts. (i.e., nearly stationary). To improve stopping performance, a way of dissipating this energy is needed, through compression or friction. Following a buffer stop accident at Frankfurt am Main in 1902, the Rawie company developed a large range of energy-absorbing buffer stops. Similar hydraulic buffer stops were developed by Ransomes & Rapier in the UK.

#### Examples

- Raja Trains Depot in Tehran Stopping speed: 20 km/h (12 mph) Stopping distance: 20 m (66 ft).

- Stopping speed: 20 km/h (12 mph)

- Stopping distance: 20 m (66 ft).

### Wheel stop

Wheel stops or car stops are used to stop small numbers of light vehicles at the end of level storage tracks or to chock individual railroad cars on shallow grades.

## Examples of accidents

- 22 October 1895 – Gare Montparnasse, Paris, France – An express train overran the buffer stop and fell into the street below.

- 1902 – Frankfurt am Main, Germany – Serious buffer stop collision inspires development of Rawie range of energy-absorbing buffer stops.

- 27 July 1903 – Glasgow, Scotland – A train arriving at the St Enoch terminal station failed to stop in time and collided heavily with the buffer stop, sustaining severe damage. Sixteen people were killed, 13 instantaneously and 3 at a later time due to injuries received. 64 people were injured, of which 17 required hospital treatment.

- 15 January 1953 – Washington, D.C. – A train jumped the platform and plunged through the concourse due to a faulty air break

- 28 February 1975 – Moorgate Underground rail crash – 43 killed, 74 injured – buffer stop collision made far worse by small size "tube" train running into larger dead-end tunnel beyond. The tunnel could accommodate full-size surface stock thus permitting the smaller train to concertina inside the tunnel.

- 13 April 1978 – Budapest, Hungary – commuter train overruns a buffer stop owing to brake failure and crashes into the station building. 16 killed, 25 injured.

- 8 January 1991 – Cannon Street station rail crash, London – 2 killed, 200+ injured – commuter train hits buffer stops.

- 22 February 2012 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – a commuter train collided with buffer stops at a train station in Buenos Aires during the morning rush hour. The accident killed 51 people and injured more than 700 in Argentina's worst rail accident in 30 years. The buffer stops' hydraulic components were found to be disabled and did not absorb the energy of the collision.

- 15 January 2013 – Saltsjöbaden, Sweden – A train parked with the train control lever at "Full throttle" was set in motion when a cleaner closed the door on a four-car EMU commuter train in Neglinge depot. It reached 80 km/h and demolished a buffer stop at Saltsjöbaden station before crashing into a small apartment block beyond the end of the track, badly injuring the cleaning lady.

- 13 August 2014 – Manila, Philippines – A southbound MRTC 3000 class train of the MRT Line 3 lost power while departing Magallanes station, prompting a second train to be sent to push the train to Taft Avenue station. However, the unpowered train suddenly decoupled while in motion and overshot the retarding buffer at Taft Avenue station. As a result, the train derailed onto Taft Avenue, causing multiple injuries. An investigation by the Department of Transportation and Communications showed that standard coupling procedures were not followed and that the runaway train did not use its automatic brakes as it was unpowered, adding that the retarding buffer at the station was only designed to handle a maximum speed of 15 kilometers per hour (9.3 mph).

- 20 March 2015 – Uttar Pradesh, India – The Dehradun - Varanasi Janata Express derailed near Bachhrawan, resulting in at least fifty-eight deaths and 150 people being injured. The driver reported by radio that the brakes on the train had failed, and that he could not stop the train. It was diverted into a siding and crashed through the buffers at Bachhrawan.

- 29 September 2016 – Hoboken, New Jersey – The cab car of a NJ Transit Pascack Valley Line commuter train entering Hoboken Terminal overran the buffer block on track five at 8:45 am. The train continued across the low-level passenger concourse connecting the platforms and slammed into a wall of the terminal building, causing serious structural damage. One person was killed and more than 100 were injured.

- 13 March 2021 – Kirkby, United Kingdom – A Class 507 electric multiple units operated by Merseyrail collided with the buffer stop. The only injury was the driver of the train. The cause was found to be that the driver was using a mobile phone while he was driving. The distraction led him to enter the station at excessive speed. He was fired and prosecuted, pleading guilty to a charge of endangering the safety of people on the railway.


# Malabia - Osvaldo Pugliese (Buenos Aires Underground)

## Abstract

Malabia - Osvaldo Pugliese is a station on Line B of the Buenos Aires Metro. The station was opened on 17 October 1930 as part of the inaugural section of the line between Federico Lacroze and Callao.

## Overview

Malabia Station is located in the Villa Crespo barrio, at the intersection of Avenida Corrientes and Calle Malabia, and named after the latter. The Osvaldo Pugliese part of the name was added in 2010 to commemorate the Argentine tango musician Osvaldo Pugliese.

Before being known as Malabia, the station was called Canning, but when Canning Avenue was renamed Salabrini Ortiz in honour of the poet and journalist Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz, the name Malabia was adopted to avoid confusion with Scalabrini Ortiz station on Line D.

From this station, passengers will be able to transfer to the Corrientes Station on Line I once Line I is built.


Walt Disney Home Video (VHS)

# Walt Disney Home Video (VHS)

## Abstract

Walt Disney Home Video is a discontinued video line launched to release Disney animated features on home video. This was done by a division of the same name under the parent Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company (WDTNT). As an entity, the name Walt Disney Home Video is now known as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The scope of this list is mostly limited to Disney's North American live action movie releases. Cartoon collections were concurrently released as Walt Disney Cartoon Classics which include the "Limited Gold Editions". The initial price for early Disney cassettes at the time was "prohibitory expensive" for many, this changed in the mid-1980s when VCRs became affordable.

## History

Disney started out by establishing its own video distribution operation in 1980 as part of Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company (WDTNT) with Jim Jimirro as its first president. WDTNT Co. also handled marketing of other miscellaneous ancillary items such as short 8 mm films for home movies. When Disney started with video cassettes, "Home video" was not considered to be a major market by them at the time. Their first releases on videotape were 13 titles that were licensed for rental to Fotomat on March 4, 1980. Disney was unusual among the major studios in offering a program for authorized rentals. Most of the other studios involved in the videocassette market at the time were trying to find ways to stop dealers from renting out their movie tapes. Magnetic Video (with titles from 20th Century Fox and others) ceased doing business with Fotomat after Fotomat began renting Magnetic Video cassettes without authorization.

The switchover from rental to sales was a "thorny" issue that was solved by giving dealers an option on the type of outlet they desired. For those who just wanted to rent video cassettes, a title was given (for US$52) on a 13-week cycle. The dealer could then set the price as many times as they wanted in those 13 weeks before purchasing a new title from Disney. Video cassette rentals were more "functionally" packaged with a heavier box and less elaborately detailed illustrations. For those who wanted to sell video cassettes, a "fairly straightforward" program involved 4 color packaging and a suggested retail price. In order to separate the two mediums, the cassette either featured " FOR RENTAL ONLY/Not intended for Sale " or "FOR SALE ONLY/Not intended for Rental". The 13 titles that had been licensed for rental to Fotomat subsequently became available for purchase.

Throughout their release history, "Walt Disney Home Video" cassettes were promoted by Disney. An early example is the 1981 release of "A Walt Disney Christmas" where a "Free Mickey Mouse Plush Toy" was offered as an incentive. Disney later offered a promotion for Summer 1982 called "Disney's American Summer", where they sold some of their cartoon collections on cassettes for a discounted price. At the time this promotion was done in an effort to make video cassettes more affordable, and boosted the video software involved. Marketing included a 7 foot tall gazebo which was set up in stores and a free mug as an incentive. Towards the end of 1984, Disney did a “Wrapped And Ready to Give” christmas promotion which included 7 newly released titles on video cassette. Later promotions include Disney's 1986 "Wonderland Campaign" as a further attempt to bring prices down.

When the Disney Channel was launched on April 18, 1983 it gave the company an opportunity to air made for TV films such as Tiger Town and Gone Are the Dayes, both of which were released to home video in 1984. During that same year Disney also started releasing their animated feature films under the Walt Disney Classics line starting with Robin Hood. On March 8, 1985 Disney released " Love Leads the Way " which became their first title that went straight to Home Video. The Walt Disney Home Video division was legally incorporated as Buena Vista Home Video on February 13, 1987. This name change however, did not stop some VHS releases under the Walt Disney Home Video line from being released throughout the year.

## North American releases

## Worldwide releases

Disney first offered Dumbo, Mary Poppins, Mi Amigo El Dragon (Pete's Dragon), Su Mas Fiel Amigo (Old Yeller), La Montana Embrujada (Escape to Witch Mountain), Los Tres Caballeros (The Three Caballeros), Mickey's Christmas Carol, and 2 cartoon collections in Spanish on November 30, 1985 In the United Kingdom, titles from the "Walt Disney Home Video" product line such as Mary Poppins, Pete's Dragon and Bedknobs and Broomsticks were not released to video cassette until November 26, 1988. Additional VHS releases in other countries under the "Walt Disney Home Video" are possible, but need further sourcing.

## Rarity

In terms of consignment, Heritage Auctions has placed in their "Vintage VHS Tapes Value Guide" that the most desirable VHS tapes released between 1979 and 1990 are still in their original factory shrink wrap. When VCRs were first released in 1977, they were priced between $1,000 to $1,400 which would roughly equal $4,900 to $6,900 in 2023 USD. As this amount was initially unattainable for most homes fewer people were buying VHS tapes, which in turn meant fewer copies being produced. A "likely sum of money for a video cassette at the time was between $80 and $100 or $400+ in 2023 USD. These higher costs lasted until 1985 when VCRs finally began dropping in price. While this meant more tapes were produced, it did not mean that they became any less of a rarity.

In regard to Disney "Only the earliest of Disney VHS cassettes produced prior to 1985 hold any value to most collectors." Titles such as "Tron" which remains "elusive" for early copies have sold for high amounts in mint condition. Things to look for in general include a sealed tape, a studio logo on the shrink-wrap, and if the latest year listed on the back of the cover is prior to 1986.


Stefan Mross

# Stefan Mross

## Abstract

Stefan Mross (born November 26, 1975 in Traunstein, Upper Bavaria) is a German trumpeter, singer,and television presenter. He is one of the most famous German folk musicians.

## Career

Mross completed his secondary education in his hometown. He took the entrance exam to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, but then concentrated on his musical career.

Since 2005, Mross has hosted the ARD (SWR) show Immer wieder sonntags live from Europa-Park in Rust. On August 10, 2014, Mross collapsed during a live broadcast of the show after eating a very hot currywurst and had to stop presenting. He was represented by Guido Cantz for the rest of the broadcast.

## Personal life

Mross was married to Stefanie Hertel from 2006 to 2012 and has a daughter with her in 2001. Three months after the couple announced their separation, Karl Moik claimed on December 6, 2011 on the ZDF show Markus Lanz that the partnership between his former Mross and Hertel had been arranged for the media.

Mross was married to production assistant Susanne Schmidt from 2013 to 2016. The marriage produced a daughter in 2013 and a son in 2015. The couple lived in Unterwössen, a municipality in the Traunstein district of Upper Bavaria, until their separation in autumn 2016.

Since December 2016, he has been in a relationship with singer Anna-Carina Woitschack, whom he met on his show Immer wieder sonntags in the summer of 2016. In the show Das Adventsfest der 100.000 Lichter he proposed to her on November 30, 2019. On June 6, 2020, the two got married live on television in the music show Schlagerlovestory.2020 with presenter Florian Silbereisen as witnesses. The couple lived in Windorf near Passau. In November 2022, they announced their separation. Mross has been in a relationship with Eva Luginger since March 2023.


Martin Bojowald

# Martin Bojowald

## Abstract

Martin Bojowald (born 18 February 1973 in Jülich) is a German physicist who now works on the faculty of the Penn State Physics Department, where he is a member of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos. Prior to joining Penn State he spent several years at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. He works on loop quantum gravity and physical cosmology and is credited with establishing the sub-field of loop quantum cosmology.

## Positions

- Presently: Professor of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos

- January 2006 – June 2009: Assistant Professor of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos

- September 2003 – December 2005: Junior Staff Scientist, Albert-Einstein-Institut

- September 2000 – August 2003: Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, The Pennsylvania State University

## Education

- June 2000 – PhD at RWTH Aachen in Germany (with distinction), supervisor: Prof. Hans A. Kastrup

- July 1998 – August 2000: Fellow of the DFG -Graduate College "Strong and electroweak interactions at high energies"

- June 1998 – Diploma, RWTH Aachen (with distinction), supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hans A. Kastrup

- April 1995 – June 1998: Fellow of the German Merit Foundation

- October 1993 – June 2000: RWTH Aachen

## Prizes and awards

- Faculty Scholar Medal in the Physical Sciences 2011, Penn State University

- Teaching Award 2009, Penn State Society of Physics Students

- NSF CAREER AWARD 2008: "Effective Descriptions in Cosmology"

- Xanthopoulos Prize 2007 of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation

- Selected for a portrait in Nature, January 2005

- First Award, Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition, 2003


Stefan Mross

# Stefan Mross

## Abstract

Stefan Mross (born November 26, 1975 in Traunstein, Upper Bavaria) is a German trumpeter, singer,and television presenter. He is one of the most famous German folk musicians.

## Early life and education

Stefan Mross was born on November 26, 1975 in Traunstein, Upper Bavaria.

Mross completed his secondary education in his hometown. He took the entrance exam to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, but then concentrated on his musical career.

Since 2005, Mross has hosted the ARD (SWR) show Immer wieder sonntags live from Europa-Park in Rust. On August 10, 2014, Mross collapsed during a live broadcast of the show after eating a very hot currywurst and had to stop presenting. He was represented by Guido Cantz for the rest of the broadcast.

## Personal life

Mross was married to Stefanie Hertel from 2006 to 2012 and has a daughter with her in 2001. Three months after the couple announced their separation, Karl Moik claimed on December 6, 2011 on the ZDF show Markus Lanz that the partnership between his former Mross and Hertel had been arranged for the media.

Mross was married to production assistant Susanne Schmidt from 2013 to 2016. The marriage produced a daughter in 2013 and a son in 2015. The couple lived in Unterwössen, a municipality in the Traunstein district of Upper Bavaria, until their separation in autumn 2016.

Since December 2016, he has been in a relationship with singer Anna-Carina Woitschack, whom he met on his show Immer wieder sonntags in the summer of 2016. In the show Das Adventsfest der 100.000 Lichter he proposed to her on November 30, 2019. On June 6, 2020, the two got married live on television in the music show Schlagerlovestory.2020 with presenter Florian Silbereisen as witnesses. The couple lived in Windorf near Passau. In November 2022, they announced their separation. Mross has been in a relationship with Eva Luginger since March 2023.


Stefan Mross

# Stefan Mross

## Abstract

Stefan Mross (born November 26, 1975) is a German trumpeter, singer,and television presenter. He is one of the most famous German folk musicians.

## Early life and education

Stefan Mross was born on November 26, 1975 in Traunstein, Upper Bavaria.

Mross completed his secondary education in his hometown. He took the entrance exam to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, but then concentrated on his musical career.

Since 2005, Mross has hosted the ARD (SWR) show Immer wieder sonntags live from Europa-Park in Rust. On August 10, 2014, Mross collapsed during a live broadcast of the show after eating a very hot currywurst and had to stop presenting. He was represented by Guido Cantz for the rest of the broadcast.

## Personal life

Mross was married to Stefanie Hertel from 2006 to 2012 and has a daughter with her in 2001. Three months after the couple announced their separation, Karl Moik claimed on December 6, 2011 on the ZDF show Markus Lanz that the partnership between his former Mross and Hertel had been arranged for the media.

Mross was married to production assistant Susanne Schmidt from 2013 to 2016. The marriage produced a daughter in 2013 and a son in 2015. The couple lived in Unterwössen, a municipality in the Traunstein district of Upper Bavaria, until their separation in autumn 2016.

Since December 2016, he has been in a relationship with singer Anna-Carina Woitschack, whom he met on his show Immer wieder sonntags in the summer of 2016. In the show Das Adventsfest der 100.000 Lichter he proposed to her on November 30, 2019. On June 6, 2020, the two got married live on television in the music show Schlagerlovestory.2020 with presenter Florian Silbereisen as witnesses. The couple lived in Windorf near Passau. In November 2022, they announced their separation. Mross has been in a relationship with Eva Luginger since March 2023.


Torch

# Torch

## Abstract

A torch is a stick with combustible material at one end which can be used as a light source or to set something on fire. Torches have been used throughout history, and are still used in processions, symbolic and religious events, and in juggling entertainment. In some countries, notably the United Kingdom and Australia, "torch" in modern usage is also the term for a battery-operated portable light.

## Etymology

From the Old French " torche " meaning "twisted thing", hence "torch formed of twisted tow dipped in wax", probably from Vulgar Latin * torca, alteration of Late Latin torqua, variant of classical Latin torques "collar of twisted metal", from torquere "to twist".

## Torch construction

Torch construction has varied through history depending on the torch's purpose. Torches were usually constructed of a wooden stave with one end wrapped in a material which was soaked in a flammable substance. In the United States, black bear bones may have been used. Modern procession torches are made from coarse hessian rolled into a tube and soaked in wax. A wooden handle is usually used, and a cardboard collar is attached to deflect any wax droplets. They are an easy, safe and relatively cheap way to hold a flame aloft in a parade or to provide illumination in any after-dark celebration.

Modern torches suitable for juggling are made of a wooden-and-metal or metal-only stave with one end wrapped in a Kevlar wick. This wick is soaked in a flammable liquid, usually paraffin (kerosene).

## Symbolism

The torch is a common emblem of both enlightenment and hope, thus the Statue of Liberty, formally named Liberty Enlightening the World, lifts her torch. Crossed reversed torches were signs of mourning that appear on Greek and Roman funerary monuments—a torch pointed downwards symbolizes death, while a torch held up symbolizes life, truth and the regenerative power of flame. The torch is also a symbol used by political parties, for instance by both Labour (from 1918 to 1980) and the Conservatives (from 1983 to 2006) in the UK, and by the Malta Labour Party. In the seals of schools in the Philippines, the torch symbolizes the vision of education to provide enlightenment to all the students.

The torch is also associated with the Greek goddess of witchcraft known as Hecate in some works of art.

## Uses

### Olympics

The torch carried in relay by runners is used to light the Olympic flame which burns without interruption until the end of the Games. These torches and the relay tradition were introduced in the 1936 Summer Olympics by Carl Diem, the chairman of the event because during the duration of the Ancient Olympic Games in Olympia, a sacred flame burnt inside of the temple of Hera, kept in custody by her priestess.

### Juggling

Juggling torches are often used as a prop in toss juggling: they can be flipped into the air in an end-over-end motion while being juggled, in the same manner as juggling clubs or juggling knives, but because of their sound and 'trail of flame', they can appear much more impressive to audiences. To a skilled juggler, there is only a slight chance of being burned, but they are still dangerous.

### In Roman Catholic liturgy

In former times, liturgical torches were carried in Eucharistic processions simply to give light. The Church eventually adopted their use for Solemn High Masses.

According to Adrian Fortescue, the more correct form of liturgical torches are non-freestanding (i.e. cannot stand up on their own). However, today, even in the Vatican, freestanding, tall candles in ornate candle-stick holders have replaced the former type. The torches are carried by torchbearers, who enter at the Sanctus and leave after Communion.

Anglicans of the High Church and some Lutherans use torches in some of their liturgical celebrations as well.

### Torchlight march

Torchlight march is a type of illuminated procession which is held after dark so that torches carried by the participants form a spectacle (other types of an illuminated procession involve candles, lanterns etc).

### Underwater diving

Magnesium torches were used commonly in the 1950s and 1960s as a means of underwater illumination. Magnesium burns with a bright white light, and burns underwater also.

## Associations

### Love

The association of a torch with love may date to the Greek and Roman tradition of a wedding torch, lit in the bride's hearth on her wedding night, then used to light the hearth in her new home. Such a torch is associated with the Greek god of marriage Hymen.

The idiom to carry a torch (for someone) means to love or to be romantically infatuated with someone, especially when such feelings are not reciprocated. It is often used to characterize a situation in which a romantic relationship has ended, but where one partner still loves the other. It is considered by some to be dated, but still in wide usage. A torch song is typically a sentimental love song in which a singer laments an unrequited love.


Isaac Perlmutter

# Isaac Perlmutter

## Abstract

Isaac " Ike " Perlmutter (Hebrew: יצחק "אייק" פרלמוטר; born December 1, 1942) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and financier. Through a variety of sometimes unorthodox business deals, he has been an influential investor in a number of corporations, including Revco drug stores, Coleco Entertainment, Remington, and Toy Biz/Marvel Toys. He is the former chairman and CEO of Marvel Entertainment. He has a political relationship with Donald Trump, and acted as an unofficial advisor in his presidential administration, overseeing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

## Early life

Isaac Perlmutter was born to a Jewish family in State of Israel during his childhood. He served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Six-Day War of 1967.

He emigrated to America, arriving in New York City with only $250, and he earned a living standing outside Jewish cemeteries in Brooklyn, leveraging his Hebrew skills to lead funeral services for tips. Later he sold toys and beauty products on the streets of New York City, which eventually evolved into selling surplus stock and end-of-line items at a profit. Although he never attended a university, he taught himself how to read a balance sheet and worked at spotting overlooked value in weak and distressed companies.

## Career

### Revco

With a new partner, Bernard Marden, and leveraging the skills he attained as a wholesaler, he formed a company called Odd Lot Trading, a wholesaler and retailer of closeout items. In May 1984, they sold Odd Lot to Revco Discount Drug Stores in exchange for 12% of Revco stock. He soon challenged Revco management for control of the company but, after initial positive feedback, was rejected. Perlmutter and his partner threatened a hostile takeover but eventually refrained and sold their share back to Revco for $120 million.

### Coleco

Perlmutter had a close relationship with the management of toy manufacturer Coleco Entertainment Corporation as he had been purchasing unsold inventory from them for some time. As is typical in the industry, payment terms were often unusual. With Coleco, Perlmutter would purchase unsold inventory in exchange for 50% cash and 50% in "barter advertising credits" (basically a promise to pay for the future advertising expenses of Coleco). Over a four-year period, Perlmutter had received $144 million in goods and paid $73 million in cash along with providing $71 million in barter advertising credits to be paid in the future.

In 1988, he saw an opportunity as Coleco struggled under its debt due to the advent of the personal computer which impacted the sale of video games. Perlmutter bought all of Coleco's senior debt (with $85 million in face value) for $50 million, a substantial discount, becoming senior to their bondholders in the event of a bankruptcy. Although Perlmutter believed that a Coleco bankruptcy was probable, he also believed that the value of the Coleco's assets should be sufficient to cover the full $85 million in value that he had purchased. In July 1988, Coleco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The bondholders, suspicious over Perlmutter's close relationship with Coleco's management, sued Perlmutter alleging fraudulent conveyance over the barter advertising credits (which made up a very significant item on Coleco's balance sheet). After extensive negotiation, a settlement was reached whereby Coleco would be sold to Hasbro Corporation for $85 million and Perlmutter would accept $64 million for his now $90 million claim (principal plus interest) in exchange for the withdrawal of the lawsuit.

### Remington

In 1994, Victor Kiam sold controlling interest of Remington Products to Isaac Perlmutter. Perlmutter became Vice President of Remington. Kiam and Perlmutter sold Remington to Vestar Capital Partners in 1996.

### Marvel

Isaac Perlmutter was a member of the board of directors of Marvel Comics beginning in April 1993 and was chairman of the board until March 1995.

Isaac Perlmutter was co-owner with Avi Arad of Toy Biz (later Marvel Toys), after purchasing its predecessor company from Charan Industries in January 1990. Toy Biz was reorganized in the Marvel deal, with Perlmutter continuing to own the original Toy Biz as a holding company named Zib, which held its foreign sales affiliate Toy Biz International and Perlmutter's share of the new Toy Biz.

When the Marvel Group went bankrupt in 1996, protracted legal battles over control of the company followed between Perlmutter, Arad, Carl Icahn, and Ronald Perelman. By 1997, Perlmutter and Arad had established control over the company, pushing out Icahn and Perelman. ToyBiz and Marvel were merged into Marvel Enterprises to bring it out of bankruptcy in June 1998, with ToyBiz becoming a division of the new company.

In November 2001, Perlmutter became vice chairman of Marvel. He became the chief executive officer of Marvel Comics in January 2005. He remained CEO of Marvel Entertainment, after its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in December 2009. Although Perlmutter received $800 million in cash and $590 million in Disney stock after the acquisition, he did not take a seat on Disney's board of directors.

In September 2015, Perlmutter stopped overseeing the development of Marvel Studios. Disney felt studio head Kevin Feige should report directly to the chair of The Walt Disney Studios, Alan Horn, so that all cinematic properties of Disney (including Pixar and Lucasfilm) were under one management structure. The restructuring was reportedly due to Feige's "frustration" of working with Perlmutter as well as alleged comments and actions by Perlmutter, such as replacing Terrence Howard – who wanted more money to continue playing James Rhodes – with Don Cheadle, arguing that black people "look the same." Perlmutter's sidelining coincided with a notable increase in Marvel Studios' focus on diversity and inclusiveness. Jeph Loeb, who oversaw Marvel Television and the television properties of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, still reported to Perlmutter up until 2019.

In March 2023, Perlmutter was laid off from his position running Marvel Entertainment, as part of a restructuring to fold the division's operations into Disney proper. Perlmutter retained his shares in Disney, which he used to back Nelson Peltz 's campaign to claim a seat on the Disney board. After losing the proxy fight in April 2024, Perlmutter sold all 25.6 million of his shares in the following months.

## Philanthropy

In 1993, Perlmutter and his wife established the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professorship and chair in Cell Biology at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine (part of the New York University School of Medicine). Perlmutter's wife Laura has served as a trustee on the NYU Medical Center's Board of Trustees since 1993 and Perlmutter has served as a trustee since 2014.

Isaac and Laura Perlmutter are major contributors to NYU Langone Medical Center. In January 2014, the couple made a $50 million gift from their foundation to establish the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone, followed by a $5 million gift from their foundation to establish the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Center at NYU Langone, a $9 million gift to fund cancer research at NYU Langone and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and a $1 million gift to support the medical center's Beatrice W. Welters Breast Health Outreach and Navigation Program.

In the spring of 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Isaac and Laura Perlmutter took part in funding the donation of an estimated 50 tons of food to the Palm Beach County Food Bank. In addition to the food bank, the couple contributed to providing meals to the staff at both Good Samaritan Medical Center and St. Mary's Medical Center, as well as five hospitals in New York City.

Issac and Laura Perlmutter are also supporters and contributors to The Innocence Project which exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

## Political involvement

In 2015, Laura Perlmutter donated $2 million to a super-PAC supporting the presidential candidacy of Sen. Marco Rubio.

In January 2016, according to Donald Trump, Isaac intended to donate $1 million to the presidential candidate 's wounded veterans initiative at Drake University.

On June 30, 2016, Laura Perlmutter donated $449,400 to a PAC supporting Donald Trump, and later was part of Trump's Inauguration committee.

In 2019, Ike and Laura Perlmutter donated roughly $360,000 to the "Trump Victory Joint Fundraising Committee." In total, they contributed $1.9 million to Donald Trump 's 2020 presidential campaign. In 2024, Issac and Linda Perlmutter donated $10 million to the newly formed Right for America super-PAC led by Sergio Gor in support of the Trump campaign.

### Leadership at the Department of Veterans Affairs

In April 2017, Perlmutter was categorized by The New York Times as one of the "Clubgoers" among twenty people whom President Trump consults "outside the White House gates". He "has been informally advising... on veterans issues... has been a presence" at Mar-a-Lago, according to the account.

In August 2018 non-profit news organization ProPublica reported that Trump had informally authorized three members of his Mar-a-Lago club to direct policy at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and issue instructions to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Peter O'Rourke. Perlmutter was named among the three, collective known as the Mar-a-Lago Crowd. The author of the article obtained "hundreds of documents" through the Freedom of Information Act that show the three were in daily contact with the agency, "reviewing all manner of policy and personnel decisions" and that "they prodded the VA to start new programs, and officials travelled to Mar-a-Lago at taxpayer expense to hear their views." VA staffers have claimed that the three men got control over the department as " spoils " to reward them for their support of Trump. Their influence over the VA, including VA staff traveling to Mar-a-Lago to meet with them, carried on into 2019.

## Personal life

Early in his career, Perlmutter met his wife Laura J. Perlmutter at a Catskills resort and they married soon after. They divide their time between homes in Palm Beach, Florida close to Mar-a-Lago, and New York City.

Perlmutter had in the past taken great pride in never having given an interview in his career, despite being in the public eye due to his many court battles and bankruptcy fights. However, in 2023 he gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal upon his dismissal from Disney. He has rarely been spontaneously photographed.

## Companies

- Marvel Entertainment (formerly)

- Marvel Studios (formerly)

- Remington Products Company

- Odd Lot Incorporated, retail discount chain

- REC Sound Incorporated

- Classic Heroes, Inc., majority stockholder, an apparel manufacturing distributor

- Tangible Media

- Westwood Industries, Inc., table and floor lamps manufacturer and distributor

- Zib, Inc.


Philadelphia Liberty Belles

# Philadelphia Liberty Belles

## Abstract

The Philadelphia Liberty Belles are a team of the Women's Football Alliance which began play for its inaugural 2009 season. Home games are played on the campus of Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

The Liberty Belles are named in honor of a team which played in the National Women's Football Association and Independent Women's Football League from 2001 to 2004 (and in fact, won the NWFA's inaugural 2001 championship). Despite the namesake, there is no connection between the two teams and only one person related to this team from the original (Carol Grubb).

## Season-By-Season

* = current standing

## 2009

## 2010

## 2011

## 2012

### Standings

y - clinched division title z - clinched division title