Bursting with Energy
Catherine Good Abbott '72 is the new CEO of the nation's second largest gas company.
How does a religion major from Swarthmore become CEO of the second largest natural gas storage company in the U.S.? "Life's a journey," said Catherine Good Abbott '72, "and Swarthmore is a wonderful training ground for searchers." Abbott was appointed CEO of Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. and Columbia Gulf Transmission Co., the two interstate natural gas pipeline subsidiaries of Columbia Gas System in January 1996, putting her in charge of 3,600 employees and 23,000 miles of pipeline.
"Today's college graduates can expect to have four or five different careers-we just did not know that when we started out," said Abbott. "Our concerns coming out of college in the 1970's revolved around making a contribution to society-having an impact in the "real world." I started out college thinking I wanted to be a research chemist, but by my sophomore year, I found myself inexorably drawn to being a religion major. While I contemplated studying for the ministry at that time, I had the feeling I needed to live out my values in the world, and so I turned to public policy."
After getting a degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government, Cathy had the opportunity to work on the first national energy plan for the Carter White House. "Energy was a big issue in the mid-1970's, and I became intrigued with the policy questions about the proper role of regulation vs. market forces. This led to a specialization in natural gas policy, which opened up a whole set of career opportunities I never contemplated at Swarthmore." After six years as a policy analyst for the federal government, Abbott was recruited to start the first policy analysis department at a natural gas pipeline trade association.
In 1985, Abbott and her husband, Ernie (also from the Class of 1972, with a J.D. and M.P.P. from Harvard as well) started thinking about possibilities outside of Washington, D.C. "Both of us had wonderful opportunities in the federal government to affect significant regulatory reform-I in the natural gas industry and Ernie at the Interstate Commerce Commission and at the Environmental Protection Agency, but we began to wonder whether having our entire careers inside the Beltway was really a healthy thing to do." When Abbott received an offer to join the innovative energy company Enron Corp. as a vice president, and Ernie had the opportunity to join Tenneco Energy as an attorney, both agreed to move to Houston. There Abbott had a chance to work with current Columbia Gas Systems Chairman Oliver G. "Rick" Richard, an industry legend who tapped Abbott for her current job soon after he took the reins at Columbia in mid-1995.
And why, did Richard want Cathy Abbott for his top lieutenant at Columbia? "It's simple," he says. "We wanted someone with an extensive background in the energy business-an innovative, dynamic leader. Cathy was the perfect choice."
Now the Abbott family is returning to the Washington area, where Columbia Gas is locating its new headquarters. Ernie is setting up shop as an energy and law consultant-and taking intensive Spanish lessons. "This is a new phase in our lives and careers," reflected Abbott. "The challenge of running a company in an increasingly competitive era draws on all my previous experiences-even the religion major. Swarthmore really taught me to take responsibility for my own ideas and actions-to go out on a limb and risk something. Those are helpful lessons when you are constantly trying out new things."
And what about those 20-year-old visions of having an impact on society? "I believe that there is a way to lead companies that draws out the human potential of the employees. In a sense, my calling today is to bring about significant cultural change in a humane way. It is a challenge I could not resist," Abbott said.
If Music be the Food-
Element or elegy, symbol or symphony, fusion or fugue- for Baird Dodge '90, professional violist, the choice at first was not clear cut.
Now it is the musical experiences of college that Dodge remembers-performances of works such as Copeland's "Appalachian Spring" with the chamber orchestra, or Mozart's "Vespers" together with the chorus. Still, anticipating life as a chemist, toward the end of his senior year Dodge started to send out resumes to pharmaceutical companies, aiming to land an entry-level lab job. Oddly, he never followed through on the applications. Dodge credits Swarthmore with guiding him toward the gradual realization that his "extracurricular" musical activities did indeed involve him in a way that none of his other interests could. Always deterred by the fact that he had never had the desire to practice with the zeal required to be successful, he underwent a change in attitude during his association with Geoffrey Michaels, a violinist/conductor, who as Music Department artist-in-residence from 1983 to 1987 coached the Swarthmore orchestra and chamber music groups.
Dodge says, "For the first time I realized that if I really put time in and concentrated along the lines that he taught me, I could improve dramatically. It became more satisfying, more fun and for the first time my mother wasn't telling me I had to practice. I was doing it myself-seriously and in a dedicated way." Performances became increasingly "wonderful, inspiring, and satisfying experiences," something sessions in a chemistry lab failed to offer. He found himself enjoying it so much that music as a profession "just didn't seem that crazy any more."
After freelancing in the Philadelphia area for two years after graduation, Dodge enrolled in a master's in music program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, then spent a further year freelancing. Simultaneously he had many opportunities to perform his father's work, notably his Concerto Etudes for violin and tape and hisViola Elegy, another composition for viola and tape, which he performed at the Warsaw festival of contemporary music in 1991, and which he has also recorded on CD with Albion Records. He has come to appreciate the high standards set by his father and the chance to perform his pieces. He sees their collaborative efforts as "an opportunity not many people have of seeing what their parents' work really means to them and of really participating in it with them."
Dodge says that he feels lucky to be with the Chicago Symphony and has no plans to move on, although he finds the idea of a full-time position in a string quartet "intriguing." For now the hectic uncertainty of freelancing has given way to a steady rhythm of fixed weekly rehearsals and performances-and occasional tours within the United States and abroad. He is able to practice with more focus, at the same time having freedom to choose outside chamber music projects. He is also quite impressed with the work ethic of the orchestra members. "Sitting in a section, where you don't have an individual voice, nor any input into how a piece is interpreted," he says, "there is a danger of becoming disillusioned, of seeing yourself as just a cog in a great orchestra machine." But his fellow musicians, he says, take the utmost pride in their work, enjoy what they do, and are concerned about the way they sound.
This heightened morale, Dodge feels, is largely due to the orchestra's musical director, Daniel Barenboim, who Dodge describes as an "imaginative and wonderful musician who inspires when he conducts." Dodge and Barenboim have also had a somewhat special relationship since Dodge, in his first weeks with the orchestra, actually managed to miss a Tuesday-evening performance, not realizing that it began a half-hour earlier than on other weekdays. After apologizing to a sympathetic and gracious Barenboim for his mistake, Dodge made sure to be there punctually every evening after that, only to have Barenboim catch his eye and mouth to him after each performance during the applause, "Tomorrow 8 o'clock," or "Tomorrow 7:30-it's Tuesday."
And although the orchestra members maintain exceptionally high standards of musicianship, don't think for a moment that they spend their intermissions and rehearsal breaks practicing music. In fact Dodge emphasizes, "My years at Swarthmore have served me well in another respect too. One very specific transferable skill gained there was my ability to play ping-pong, which I practiced in Tarble-fortunately, as we have a ping-pong table in the dressing room. And the level of play is very high in the Chicago Symphony."
-Carol Brevart
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