Conway's Classes

“Boys Be Ambitious!” This famous line was delivered(maybe?) by professor Clark as he left Sapporo Japan for good, months after founding what would become one of Japan’s premier universities. You can find that motto and statues of Clark all over the city. What you won’t find are statues of this guy, William Wheeler, one of two twenty something’s that came with Clark and actually stayed years doing the work. A professor and an Engineer, Wheeler served as president of the University while designing some of Sapporo’s most famous landmarks and surveying rail lines and roads that are still in use. Humble to the end, more interested in results than legacies. We need more Wheelers than Clarks.

I used her graphic novel in the classroom for years. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and get a copy into your hands and her story into your head.

Marjane Satrapi, French-Iranian artist and author behind ‘Persepolis,’ dies at 56 | CNN French-Iranian artist, author and women’s rights activist Marjane Satrapi, the illustrator behind the graphic novel memoir “Persepolis,” has died at 56.