Extraordinary Service, Lisa Taylor, Served by Harrison Ford as She Served at Ground Zero
By Greta Petry
By day, Lisa Taylor is secretary to University at Albany Vice President for Strategic Development and Economic Outreach David Gilbert.

By night, specifically from September 26 to October 16, she was a hospital corpsman patrolling Ground Zero in New York City for the Naval Reserves. Working the midnight shift at the Battalion Aid Station in Battery Park, Taylor walked to and from the site of the World Trade Center disaster, up West Street and down the East Side, to make sure that military personnel along the way had proper medical care.

Hospital corpsmen assist with physical examinations, provide patient care, and administer medicine. They perform general laboratory, pharmacy, and other patient support services.

Taylor, 28, a Cohoes native, joined the Naval Reserve 10 years ago. Working in teams of two, the corpsmen were on the lookout for other service people who had respiratory problems from the dust, muscle strain, sprains, or just plain sore feet from working 14-hour shifts in the rubble.

“We had the midnight shift, so we would leave at 11:15 p.m., get to Battery Park by 11:30 p.m., and return to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn by 9 a.m.,” Taylor said. “It was a hard shift. It got pretty chilly at night.”

She was issued a respirator mask as well as a 15-lb. web belt with a canteen, flashlight and medical gear attached. “It got a little warm carrying all of this around,” she said. Taylor and the other corpsmen treated service people from the Air Force, Marines, Army, and Air National Guard, as well as the Navy.

“My first night at Ground Zero was like nothing you could ever imagine,” she said. “It is such a tragedy; you don’t get the full picture even though you see it on television, until you are standing right in front of it. I met firefighters and policemen who lost family members, fathers, sons, coworkers, and friends. They were just all down there together trying to help each other through everything.”

Taylor was called up individually through the state Naval Militia in Latham due to the need for corpsmen. She went down to New York with two other servicemen and one servicewoman that she knows from upstate, but on the second day, her roommate was called to Guam, where she will remain for up to two years.

During the day, Taylor slept at the Fort Hamilton Army base in Brooklyn. That is, she tried to sleep. “It’s hard to sleep during the day. It took a week or two to get used to it,” she said. The enormity of the tragedy “does stay on your mind. These people went to work one day and the next second, they were gone. It makes you thankful for what you have in your life,” Taylor said.

One experience that stood out in Taylor’s mind was meeting a woman who was pregnant, and who had lost her husband in the attacks. “She was always thanking us - what got to me was that she was very strong - and in the midst of her loss she was still trying to help.”

People who had lost loved ones, and other volunteers, would just come up and shake hands, or offer some homemade cookies.

“You get to meet these people and their families and it is hard to comprehend what they have been through,” Taylor said. “And yet they were so encouraging and helpful. It makes you think twice about what is important in your life and how lucky you are to be able to function normally because you still have your loved ones.”

There were perks to the job. When Taylor got in line at the buffet table one day and realized actor Harrison Ford was serving her, she didn’t know what to say at first. “I finally just said, ‘Hi, I’m a big fan.’ He thanked me for being there. Here you see someone you have watched in movies for years, and they are thanking you,” she said.

At different shifts, Taylor also saw other celebrities who were volunteering at or touring the Ground Zero site, including Robert DeNiro, Sigourney Weaver, and two NASCAR drivers, Jeff Burton and Bobby Labonte. “They were handing out water, serving meals, and volunteering to show their support,” said Taylor. A

fter a few weeks, celebrities were banned from the site because of the distraction and the ongoing dangers of unstable buildings, debris, and heavy equipment vehicles at the site.

Taylor’s life was already busy even before she went to New York. She earned an associate’s degree at Hudson Valley Community College, and is wrapping up a bachelor’s degree at Empire State College, SUNY, through independent study in criminal justice. She is also a part-time security supervisor at the Pepsi Arena, where she manages other guards.

Serving her country comes naturally to Taylor, whose father served in the Navy. All but one uncle served in the Navy, too.

“I was the first female in the family to go into the military. There were a lot of educational incentives there for me.”

Speaking of family, Taylor said she received “amazing” support from home, from her friends, as well as from the University.

“My family sent a whole box of shirts for us, as well as thermals and socks,” she said, adding the warm clothing was appreciated on chilly nights on duty. Security staff from the Pepsi Arena were also supportive and donated needed supplies.

“People from the President’s Office were great. They called every week just to see how I was doing. I knew people here were supporting us,” Taylor said.

Now that she is home, Taylor is working on a benefit for WTC victims and their families which will include a raffle and auction.

Research Funded by NYS Museum
By Carol Olechowski

Nan Mullenneaux, B.A. ’92, M.A. ’96 leads a double life. She’s an actress - and a student in the University at Albany’s Ph.D. program in history.

Not surprisingly, Mullenneaux, a Slingerlands native bitten by the acting bug at a very young age, finds a parallel between her two passions: storytelling. The actor, she points out, “focuses on feelings and lives the story” before the audience, while the historian “focuses on finding the story and telling it.” For both actors and historians, “the underlying fascination with people’s lives is very much the same,” she says.

“A wonderful, brand-new collaboration” between the University and the New York State Museum has enabled Mullenneaux to indulge her own “fascination with people’s lives.” As the first graduate researcher funded by an agreement between the two institutions, she’s been delving into church and court records compiled by the City of Albany before 1800, and she’s surprised at some of her discoveries: “a few paternity suits, child abuse and domestic violence cases, and even one marital separation.” In the latter case, which occurred in 1675, “four men were actually able to convince the court that a woman should be granted a separation from her husband because he was delinquent and didn’t come home,” notes Mullenneaux, whose assistantship covers most of her tuition and provides a stipend.

Her 20 hours a week at the museum also afford Mullenneaux an opportunity to help expand the Colonial Albany Social History Project, started years ago by another UAlbany graduate, Stefan Bilinski, M.A. ’86. Now on the Web (http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html), the project, which the actress describes as “a treasure trove for anybody who wants to know anything about Albany before 1800,” permits visitors glimpses into the lives of the people of that time. It tells “who they were, their family history, how they lived and how they died.” Mullenneaux has found particularly interesting her research into six generations of the Bleecker family, whose members’ interests ranged from the fur trade to politics.

“I believe in relevant history,” says Mullenneaux, who did her theatrical training at Trinity Repertory Company in Rhode Island. “I have an interest in connecting what was happening in the 1600s with what’s happening now.” The stage, film, and TV veteran - whose credits include “a tiny role” in the screen adaptation of UAlbany professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy’s Ironweed and a six-month stint as leading lady Meryl Streep’s stand-in - may have a couple of other careers in the offing: legal work and writing. “I really wanted to write, and the history department is one of the best places to learn to write. You have the combination of telling true stories and writing a lot,” says Mullenneaux, who has published some poetry, children’s books, and non-fiction works.

The state museum assistantship fits in nicely with all of her career aspirations. “The reason I came back to the University for graduate study was its support of my interests. The fact that the history department put me together with this assistantship demonstrates that the professors really know their students. I was in the right place at the right time, and I’m very grateful.”

Researching New York Highlights Empire History
By Laurie Kozakiewicz
On Friday, Nov. 16, the third annual Researching New York 2001: Perspectives on Empire State History Conference will take place on the University at Albany campus. In the three years since its inception, the conference has become a key venue for presenting innovative and wide-ranging scholarship on New York State history and archival resources.

This year, conference organizers have announced that Robert Slayton, noted author of Empire Statesman, the well-received new biography of Gov. Alfred E. Smith, will give the conference’s opening keynote address at the luncheon. Slayton will also receive the 2001 Annual Archives Award for Excellence in Research Using the Holdings of the New York State Archives. At the 5 p.m. reception, Slayton will be the guest of honor and will be signing his new book.

A professor of history at Chapman University in California, Slayton has written a substantive biography of the man who, in the decades before the New Deal, pioneered the use of government as a source of social support for all of its citizens. A colorful product of New York City’s early-20th century mean streets and Tammany Hall, Smith was a hero to immigrants and considered by some to be the greatest governor in the history of New York State. Yet perhaps his greatest single achievement was to be the first Catholic to run for the U.S. presidency, three decades before John F. Kennedy. Smith’s loss put incredible pressure on his once-lively spirit; a falling-out with FDR bent it, and the Depression crushed it further still. Slayton chronicles how the Empire State Building, founded by Smith and his friends, became a financial nightmare for him in these later years. The author also recounts Smith’s last peaceful years as an admired elder statesman.

To research his subject, Slayton consulted hundreds of manuscript collections and interviewed Smith’s descendants and associates.

In addition to the keynote address, the day-long program will include panels offering nearly 40 individual presentations of original research. This year’s panel and paper topics speak to New York State’s ongoing centrality in political and cultural affairs, as well as to its historic position as an economic innovator and leader. As in past conferences, the emphasis will be on how researchers find and use primary sources on New York State topics.

The original idea for Researching New York came in 1998, when doctoral students in the University’s history department wanted to showcase their growing body of work on New York State topics. With the support and encouragement of the department and Professor Richard Hamm, the initial concept of a modest graduate student symposium became an academic conference that has drawn more than 150 registrants from across the United States in each of its first two years. Researching New York also remains a valuable showcase for dissertation research. Founding graduate students Susan McCormick, Tod Ottman, and Laurie Kozakiewicz have all presented portions of their New York State-focused research at the conference. Five UAlbany doctoral students and two master’s students are part of the Researching New York 2001 program. Last May, Ottman received a Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award at the University’s 2001 commencement for his work on the influence of war and electoral politics in the growth of New York State government in the World War II era. Ottman and several other UAlbany students have also received Benevolent Association Awards from the University to support their research, and Hackman Fellowships from the New York State Archives. As part of its joint sponsorship, the New York State Archives and Archives Partnership Trust formally invites all of its fellowship recipients to present their work at Researching New York. In addition to support from the Archives, Researching New York also receives funding from the vice president for Research and the College of Arts and Sciences.

The November conference is jointly sponsored by the History Graduate Student Organization, the Department of History, and the New York State Archives and Archives Partnership Trust.

More detailed information on the conference program and how to register can be found at the conference Web site, http://nystatehistory.org/researchny.

Michele Serros
By Jennifer Juste
On October 23, the New York State Writers Institute hosted author Michele Serros, who read from her works, including How to Be a Chicana Role Model, and Chicana Falsa, in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center.

Serros combined her gifts of humor and eloquence to convey the wisdom and insight apparent in her work. The poem “Attention Shoppers” was especially captivating. This is a comical poem about the time Serros and her cousin were shopping in a supermarket where her cousin caused a commotion due to her perceived racism. Serros’s rich, humorous, and elegantly constructed readings explored the collision and exchange between Latino and Anglo cultures.

Serros is an award-winning poet and commentator for National Public Radio.

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