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Mount Holyoke Professor Details Notre Dame's Significance

Wikimedia Commons: LeLaisserPasserA38; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Incendie_Notre_Dame_de_Paris.jpg

Striking images of the burning spire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday have been shared on television screens, newspapers and social media sites worldwide. Now officials are working to determine the extent of the damage and considering how to rebuild the roughly 800-year-old church.

Dr. Michael Davis is a professor of art history and the chair of architectural studies at Mount Holyoke College in western Massachusetts. Davis has published works on numerous cathedrals including Notre Dame and described to WAMC's Ray Graf what has made the Paris landmark so notable.

In a radio career that has spanned nearly 35 years, Ray Graf has done it all. At one time or another he worked as an overnight board operator, a commercial copywriter, a reporter and a voiceover announcer. For several years - a lifetime ago - he was a morning drive disc jockey. Graf has been a member of the WAMC News team for 16 years. These days, he finds himself as The Roundtable's news anchor, panelist- and occasional guest host for Joe Donahue. "Radio news is not always easy," said Graf of his most recent radio vocation, "but it's not nearly as difficult as spinning a Michael Bolton record at 5:45 in the morning and pretending you're happy about it."