UNO Alum - Fall 2004 by UNO Magazine

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N E B R A S K A

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O M A H A

A L U M N I

A S S O C I A T I O N

www.unoalumni.org

FALL 2004

Free food and tickets for the kids at UNO Homecoming 2004! See next page

m e m o O o H c UN ing

1928

Homecoming first observed by thenOmaha University with a five-block-long downtown parade. OU then located at 24th and Pratt Streets; footballers known as “Cardinals.”

2004

1929-35

First homecoming queen probably crowned sometime during these years.

1939

SATURDAY, OCT.

$10 adults, Kids 12 & under of alumni attend FREE!!! (Includes ticket to game, food & beverages)

Join us for food, fun and freebies at UNO Homecoming 2004. Here’s the lineup:

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

OU loses 7-6 to South Dakota State in first homecoming game as Indians.

1949

OU downs Colorado Mines 47-7 in first homecoming game at now-Caniglia Field.

1950

1952

UNO vs. Minnesota-Duluth. Al F. Caniglia Field

OU whips Doane 27-0 in a homecoming game televised by WOW-TV as the “NCAA Game of the Week” in the area. Also, tradition begun in 1950 comes to end when game officials complain halftime lasting too long.

1954

Indians defeat St. Ambrose 35-14. OU went on to post the university’s first and only undefeated season (10-0), capped by 7-6 win over Eastern Kentucky in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla.

1962

1 p.m.

OU defeats Emporia State 33-7, part of an 8-11 season topped by a 34-21 win over East Central Oklahoma in the All Sports Bowl.

To attend: RETURN FORM BY OCT 1! Complete form at right, detach and mail with check to: UNO Alumni Association 60th & Dodge Omaha, NE 68182. For more info call toll-free UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586) or e-mail sking@mail.unomaha.edu

Fall 2004

Departments

Indians out, Mavericks in after student election for a new nickname. “Mavericks” edge “Unicorns” 566 votes to 515. Newly named UNO loses to Northern Colorado 22-17. Comedian George Carlin performs at Homecoming Concert.

Arts & Sciences Graduate plays key role in Parkinson’s vaccine. CPACS Celebrating 30 years.

1973

Education New campaign launching. Association in Action Citation issued.

1980

UNO beats South Dakota State 40-17, then is voted the nation’s No. 1 team.

Cover Story

2003

22 20

From the Chiefs to the Chief

22 28

Steve Novotny earns commendation for his command of an Iraqi POW camp.

Assessing the Threat

Dean Olson strives to become the first Nebraskan to graduate from the Homeland Security Leadership Development program.

for the tickets.

Man of Letters

Del Weber is retired, but he hasn’t slowed down. Find out what the former UNO chancellor is up to.

(Please include children’s names and ages)

Gambling on Gambling

38 Mail registration form to: UNO Alumni Association Homecoming, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182-0010

Thomas Warren is Omaha’s top cop.

36 In Command

Make checks payable to UNO Alumni Association

Names for Name Tags

18-19

Future Alums Welcome, Class of 2026.

Class Notes Mavericks in Motion.

Anadelia Lamas digs in as South Omaha’s Weed & Seed Coordinator.

Name Phone City State Zip Reserve adult tickets at $10 each and free children’s tickets! I have enclosed $

UNO Professor of Gerontology Karl Kosloski explores Alzheimer’s caregiving issues.

Planting Roots

Sign us up for UNO Homecoming 2004!

12-13

Features On the cover: Alzheimer’s Care

UNO defeats South Dakota State 34-17, its seventh win the last eight homecoming games while improving to 3917 overall at homecoming.

8-11

Fine Arts 14-16 Art Gallery’s fall season.

Homecoming isn’t at home. The Mavs beat Northern Colordo 14-7 at Rosenblatt Stadium while artificial turf is installed in UNO’s stadium.

• Pre-game picnic at Alumni Center • Games, prizes and Mav Tattoos for kids • Pep talk from Coach Pat Behrns • UNO Mascot Durango • Bouncin’ fun in the “Whopper Hopper” • Amazing Arthur with magic, juggling and balloon art • Open House events in Student Center (8 a.m.-1 p.m.)

New tradition begun— three young men, emulating an Indian chief and two braves, rode around the track on horseback, stopped at 50-yard line to lead fans in a chant.

1971

Contents

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David Hawk is making the bet that a cable TV station devoted to gaming will come up aces.

Editor: Anthony Flott Contributors: Sonja Carberry, John Martin Fey, Tim Fitzgerald, Eric Francis, Joe Mixan, Karrie Rowan, Wendy Townley, Nick Schinker, Ward Schumaker, Shelly Steig, Bill Stiztman, Les Valentine, UNO Sports Information Alumni Association Officers: Chairman of the Board, Stephen Bodner; Past Chairman, Kevin Naylor; Chairman-elect Adrian Minks; Vice Chairmen, Cookie Katskee, Rod Oberle, Kevin Warneke, John Wilson; Secretary, Angelo Passerelli; Treasurer, Dan Koraleski; Legal Counsel, Deb McLarney; President & CEO, Jim Leslie. Alumni Staff: Jim Leslie, President and CEO; Roxanne Miller, Executive Secretary; Sue Gerding, Diane Osborne, Kathy Johnson, Records/Alumni Cards; Sheila King, Activities Coordinator; Greg Trimm, Alumni Center Manager; Joan Miller, Accountant; Anthony Flott, Editor; Loretta Wirth, Receptionist. The UNO Alum is published quarterly by the UNO Alumni Association, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, UNO, Omaha, NE 68182-0010, (402) 554-2444, FAX (402) 554-3787 • web address: www.unoalumni.org. • Member, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) • Direct all inquiries to Editor, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, (402) 554-2989. Toll-free, UNO-MAV-ALUM • Send all changes of address to attention of Records • Views expressed through various articles within the magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha or the UNO Alumni Association.

Fall 2004 • 3

Campus

Letter from the

SCENE

Chancellor

Our Reason for Being

s the summer wanes and the fall semester begins, UNO’s campus comes alive with the sights and sounds of a new and exciting academic year: • Students scouring the bookstore for supplies; • Residence halls teeming with students moving in; • Football players and marching band members practicing; • The eclectic mix of Welcome Week’s music and food. It’s one of my favorite times of the year, reaffirming UNO’s reason for being—our students. Every faculty and staff member is committed to UNO’s first strategic goal: focusing everything we do on our students! This commitment is met in a host of ways, including: New academic opportunities, a list that includes a doctorate in information technology, a joint master’s degree in creative writing with UNK, an accelerated master’s degree in MIS, bachelor’s degree programs in Latino/Latin American studies, sociology and bioinformatics, plus, a new School of Communication; Digital portfolios that encourage students to document their academic progress and skills in preparation for professional careers beyond UNO; Expanded research participation, i.e., IS&T undergrads taking part in funded research programs; Surveys assessing student satisfaction and learning outcomes; Web-based and wireless computing services which allow students to get information anywhere, any time; and Activities and events celebrating cultural heritage and inclusion, such as Diversity Week, the Black Executives in Education Program (BEEP), and the Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez celebrations. These and many more “student-focused” initiatives are creating an environment at UNO which has improved retention of freshmen students to a record high of 73 percent and increased graduation rates to more than 36 percent, on par with our peers nationally. It’s no wonder, then, that 94 percent of undergrads select UNO as their first or second choice or that 92 percent would recommend UNO to other college-bound students. Taken together, these accomplishments reflect a campus that places priority on its students, helping them fulfill their dreams and aspirations. Here’s to another great academic year!

Caniglia Field Makeover: For those who formed the all-time record crowd of 13,000 for the Maverick football opener against Nebraska-Kearney Aug. 28, and for thousands more who watched the game on statewide television, Caniglia Field looked noticeably different. That was due to a $300,000 makeover this summer in the form of a new artificial field covering. The FieldTurf surface installed closely resembles natural grass playing conditions in both its dark-green appearance and lush feel. A fill composed of sand and recycled ground tire supports the grass-like fibers. The new field is the fourth artificial surface for Caniglia Field since 1973. It was made possible through donations by Dave and Peggy Sokol, Rod and Kathy Kush and UNO students. The UNO Physical Plant assisted with the new drainage system. Also new is a large red, white and black Maverick logo in the center of the field as well as red end zones with “Mavericks” in large, white block letters. The end result—significant enhancement to what remains one of the most attractive small college football stadiums in the country.

Until next time,

— Gary Anderson, UNO Sports Information Director

4 • Fall 2004

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Fall 2004 • 5

Letter from the

Editor

Packing on the pages (and pounds)

hough I usually keep my New Year’s resolutions self-focused (self-centered rang a bit too true), this year I decided to nose into my father’s self and make a resolution for him, too. Concerned with the weight I had noticed him gaining and, supposedly, concerned with my own portliness, I suggested that we both go on a low-carb diet. Mutual support in the quest for our slim selves. It is a bold thing to point out another person’s flaws, but it worked. My dad agreed to the plan and at last report had shed 50 pounds. As for myself . . . the scale now registers 20 pounds heavier than it did in January. No wonder that my wife recently posted a sign in my bathroom mirror that says, “Objects may be fatter than they appear.” Publication Expansion

Fortunately, I’m not the only one gaining weight. As you might have noticed, this edition of the quarterly UNO Alum magazine is a bit heftier than previous issues, the result of 16 additional pages. The extra editorial space is the fruit of yet another collaboration between the UNO Alumni Association and UNO’s colleges. To be honest, it’s a relationship that should have been forged long ago. The Alumni Association began offering graduates a regular publication in 1940 with the monthly Alumni Gateway. Over the years our publication efforts have taken on various names and formats, including the UNO Alum in 1990. The Alum in 1998 underwent significant changes, most notably an upgrade to full-color printing on glossy paper. In order to better relate the success stories associated with UNO’s continued rise as a metropolitan university of distinction, we since then have explored ways to expand the amount and/or frequency of publication. That means additional expenses, though. Our initial attempt to offset the costs associated with more pages was to implement a paid advertising program. Sales were sluggish, though, and our postage increased by going from a non-profit to a for-profit rate. We scrapped the advertising program and reverted to 32 pages, four times a year.

6 • Fall 2004

Fortunate Failure

In retrospect, it was a fortunate failure. Around the same time, some of UNO’s colleges were scaling back their own longtime communications efforts with alumni. Most of those consisted of infrequent newsletters. But pricey printing and postage were weighing down college budgets, too. There also were concerns with design, assigning and editing stories, obtaining quality photos and art, etc. A unique approach in the Kansas State University alumni magazine then caught our attention: pages were sold to a different college in each issue, affording them the opportunity to publicize their efforts, teachers, students and alumni to a wide, influential audience of graduates. And so the Alumni Association approached each college and proposed that they purchase space in the Alum magazine. The response was positive, resulting in a win-win-win for the Alumni Association, the colleges and graduates. The Alumni Association wins because it can offer readers a magazine of greater substance and breadth. It is our hope that this increases alumni and public awareness of the university, its colleges and departments, faculty, staff, students and alumni. The colleges win via exposure to a much larger audience. The Alum now boasts a circulation of almost 70,000 readers. And by “piggybacking” on the Alum, a college’s expenses are far less than if they had produced a similar product on their own. Finally, alumni win by receiving expanded and more diverse news from their alma mater. Our first such collaboration offers news from the colleges of Arts & Sciences, Fine Arts, Public Affairs and Community Service, Business Administration and Education. Other colleges are scheduled to publish material in future issues Thus is enhanced two long-standing Association traditions: support for the campus and communication with its graduates. To paraphrase what I’ve been telling my wife: “We’re bigger, but there’s more of us to love.” Until next issue, Anthony Flott, Editor

Through the years A look at a few of the UNO Alumni Association’s publication efforts from the early 1940s to the present.

Alumni Gateway 1940 to 1950

UNO 1971 to 1973

UNO Alum 1990 to present

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College of

Arts & Sciences

From the Dean he College of Arts and Sciences has struggled for many years to provide its alumni and friends with a quality newsletter that would keep them apprised of the activities of the college. Given our thinly stretched budgets and staff, this has been a challenging task. We often have failed. With this current incarnation of a newsletter, however, we hope for a long and fruitful relationship with the UNO Alumni Association and its publication, the UNO Alum. Currently, we plan for Arts and Sciences information to be presented twice a year in the Alum. We hope our many friends and alumni will find this to

be an effective way of remaining informed about the college. An additional benefit from this relationship is that Arts & Sciences news will go to all 65,000 UNO graduates. We also will print separate copies of the Arts and Sciences portion of the magazine for use by the college and its departments. In general, I could not be more pleased with the present state of our college. Our faculty continue to excel in scholarship and teaching, and we are attracting talented and enthusiastic students. I am always happy to discuss the college with anyone who will listen, so if you plan to visit campus please consider making an appointment to speak with me. I can be reached at (402) 554-2338 and would be glad to talk to you on the phone or by appointment. Also, feel free to send me an email at shendricks@mail.unomaha.edu.

Taking STEP forward with scholarships

Sincerely, Dean Shelton Hendricks

A&S graduate plays key research role in Parkinson’s vaccine ric Benner has found himself at the center of scientific discovery. The 1996 Arts and Sciences graduate took part in a June press conference when the University of Nebraska Medical Center announced that researchers had discovered a new vaccine approach that successfully prevents the death of brain cells in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. “It’s a significant conceptual advance for Parkinson’s disease therapy,” said Howard Gendelman, M.D., director of the Center for Neurovirology and Neurodegenerative Disorders at UNMC. Gendelman credited Benner, an M.D./Ph.D student at UNMC, for playing a principal role in developing and testing the Parkinson’s vaccine approach over the past four years. “I’m passionate about research,” Benner said. “I can’t wait to get up and go do what I’m going to do that day in the lab.” William Tapprich, associate professor of biology at UNO and Benner’s adviser, said, “Eric knew what he wanted in the biotechnology program right away. He came here knowing he wanted to pursue research in

8 • Fall 2004

cellular and molecular biology.” The Parkinson’s vaccine Benner has been working with is in a new field of investigation called neuroprotective medicine. The vaccine protects the dopamine nerve cells damaged in Parkinson’s disease while increasing the local expression of nerve cell growth-promoting factors in the brain. Vaccine trials in humans are set to start next year. Benner got his start working in labs at UNMC even before he graduated from UNO. Tapprich says Benner always went above and beyond in class to learn more, an attribute that is great for a student . . . or scientist. “When I see students who are very motivated, I try to get them started in research as early as possible,” Tapprich said. “Eric was one of the first examples of someone in the biotech program who showed the kind of interest that enabled me to get him started earlier than other students in the research track.” Benner is scheduled to finish his M.D./Ph.D. in two years. His medical residency on the horizon, Benner says he would like to work more on the vaccine at Columbia Medical Center in New York. The vaccine also may be useful with other neurodegener-

ative diseases, including ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). “Eric has all the elements that make for a successful scientist,” Tapprich said. “You

have to have dedication, motivation. You certainly have to be academically talented, but most of it is enthusiasm and motivation.” Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

By Tim Kaldahl

Eric Benner (left) got his start in science at UNO. Among his mentors was UNO Professor William Tapprich, associate professor of biology.

UNOALUM

eginning this fall semester, qualified under-represented and non-traditional students with financial need at UNO will have access to $40,000 in Science Talent Expansion Program (STEP) scholarships via a National Science Foundation grant. The scholarships are part of a $2 million, five-year grant designed to increase the number of students studying and majoring in the STEM areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at UNO and Metropolitan Community College. The scholarship program will support 20 to 25 qualified students per year. Professor Jack Heidel, chair of the math department at UNO, is the principal investigator among five investigators who put together the grant proposal and developed the program. Other UNO faculty on the investigative team include Hesham Ali, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of IS&T, and Dana L. RichterEgger, assistant professor of chemistry. Bradley Morrison and Michele O’Connor represent Metro. STEP scholars will be provided with a structured mentoring system and a common course experience. Students will take a specific set of courses together, including a special four-credit section of critical reasoning during which one hour per week will be devoted to exploring academic majors and employment opportunities in STEM areas. Guest lectures by UNO faculty members in the UNO STEM departments of biology, chemistry, computer science, geology, mathematics and physics will be part of the one-hour experience. As part of the grant, Metro will develop degree programs in the STEM areas. Once students complete their two-year degrees at Metro, it is anticipated that more of them will transfer to UNO to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

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Department News OLLAS he Office of Latino and Latin

TAmerican Studies of the Great Plains

has been established due to efforts by the UNO Chicano/Latino Studies Program, the Omaha community, and a federal appropriation of roughly $ 1 million made possible by U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel. “The program seeks to enhance the academic curriculum for the positive and democratic incorporation of Latinos and Latinas into local communities and to increase institu- Lourdes Gouveia, tional efforts aimed at UNO Director of OLLAS and the training of stuProfessor of dents, faculty and Sociology practitioners to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities posed by the rapid increase of the Latino population on the Great Plains,” explains Lourdes Gouveia, director of OLLAS and UNO professor of sociology. In addition to launching a new major in Latino/Latin American Studies this fall, OLLAS faculty and staff are busy with numerous research and service projects. Among these projects is a study of more than 800 Omaha Public School students designed to determine the effects of cultural and socio-economic factors on student success. “We can use these data to help meet the educational aspirations of all children, regardless of race, ethnicity, or socio-economic background,” says Gouveia. OLLAS also is the editorial home of the “Journal of Latino and Latin American Studies” (JOLLAS). For further information on the program and the journal http:// avalon.unomaha.edu/ollas.

Foreign Languages NO’s Department of Foreign

ULanguages and the College of

Business Administration have collaborated to create a new dual-major program. Students now are able to earn a major in French, German or Spanish and a

degree in business administration within a regular four-year period. UNO students began pursuing the dual major in fall 2004. In addition to the coursework currently available, new and revised courses also are being developed. Eventually, the dual major program also will include an overseas internship experience.

History f Professor Steven Bullock has his way,

Ihistory students not only will be

engaged by the past, but will remember it, too. “We’re trying to change the way we teach American history in schools,” explains Bullock, interim director of the Program for Comparative Studies in History and the author of two U.S. Department of Education grants of nearly $2 million dollars. Working with Omaha Public Schools and Millard Public Schools, Bullock is coordinating efforts to improve teachers’ knowledge of American history and improve elementary and secondary students’ retention of that history. The program involves educating teachers in the comparative method, the theory that by contextualizing American history within the scope of world history, teachers can provide students a deeper understanding of the importance of events and ideas and, ultimately, greater retention. “A series of seminars, workshops, presentations, consultations and the creation of a vast electronic lesson plan library will be organized to better educate primary and secondary school teachers in American history content and also to explore new methods in which to convey that content knowledge to students,” Bullock says. The project also will involve the cooperation of the Nebraska Department of Education, the University of NebraskaLincoln, Creighton University, the Library of Congress, the Nebraska State Historical Society, and the Strategic Air and Space Museum. Fall 2004 • 9

College of

Photo by Eric Francis

Arts & Sciences

Preserving the Past at Allwine Prairie

Psychology professor receives NU Regents teaching award

ebraska was part of what Spanish explorers in the

N16th century called a “sea of grass,” a vastness that,

the National Park Service notes, “once covered more land in what is now the United States than any other kind of vegetation.” The grass towered so high in some places that a traveler had to stand on his horse’s back to find his way. Today, visitors can experience that primitive fertile prairie only in rare places. That includes the UNO-run Allwine Prairie Preserve. Spreading north and west from 144th and State streets in Omaha, the virgin prairie hosts more than 109 species of birds, 12 species of amphibians and reptiles, 24 species of mammals and more than 250 species of woody and herbaceous plants. Charged with the care of these precious 160 acres is UNO Professor of Biology Tom Bragg. For 30 years he has nur“The Prairie’s tured and studied its life, but with a wary eye on the urban preservation is sprawl encroaching upon its borders. Bragg, however, isn’t important for in favor of the status quo. In generations to come. fact, he’s hoping Allwine Prairie can spark something much bigIt provides green ger—a 760-acre watershed space, a link to our known as the Glacier Creek Prairie Project. heritage and the “The Prairie’s preservation is important for generations to ability to study the come,” Bragg says. “It provides green space, a link to our hernative prairie.” itage and the ability to study UNO Biology the native prairie. It is important for research in that it proProfessor Tom Bragg vides the maintenance of existing native gene pools and comparison with grasslands maintained for other purposes, such as cattle grazing or haying.” Today, the preserve’s 65 hectares host three major plant communities: Grasslands, Lowland woodlands, and Ponds and marshes. Various fauna completing the environmental picture include bobwhite, mourning doe and meadowlark. Marsh hawk and blue-winged teal can be spied, as can white-tailed deer, beaver, coyotes, red foxes, corn snakes, painted turtles and tiger salamander. A wide variety of research is conducted at the preserve. Scientists and students don’t just look at the plants and animals that inhabit the expanse, but they also study 10 • Fall 2004

or the second year in a row, an Arts and Sciences faculty member has been awarded the Outstanding Teaching and Creative Activity Award by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. This year’s recipient, Lisa Kelly-Vance, associate professor

Lisa Kelly-Vance

In Memoriam Robert Harper uring the 10 years that Dr. Robert Harper was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the college grew from 54 to more than 200 fulltime faculty. Harper’s vision and leadership helped shape not just the college, but also the lives and careers of thousands of students. Retiring as a professor of American literature in 1976, Harper continued his passions for literature and service to his community through involvement in the local theater and library in Estes Park, Colo. In 2003, Estes Park Library board room was named in honor of Harper and his wife of 53 years, Rhoda. Harper also remained active in the larger community of American literature scholars well into his 80s. In 1995, he presented a paper at the Western Literature Association Conference on Weldon Kees, a poet and jazz musician born in Nebraska. Harper passed away on Oct. 15, 2003, at the age of 90. Colleagues and friends remember Harper as the traditional gentleman and scholar: a gracious and generous host, conversant in all types and ages of literature, and a man of great heart and intellect.

Tom Bragg, caretaker of Allwine Prairie since 1974, hopes to expand the current 160 acres to a 760-acre watershed known as the Glacier Creek Prairie Project. He is seeking donations for the project.

drainage, temperature and other environmental topics that affect the area’s flora and fauna. In addition to research, the area also serves as an educational resource for Omaha-area educators. Preservation, management and research, however, is challenged by urban development, one reason Bragg is proposing development of the larger Glacier Creek Prairie Project. The Glacier Project would encompass an entire watershed, thereby isolating Allwine Prairie from the effects of urban development. Such isolation would provide a site of diverse native habitats not as isolated patches, but as a single, integrated and continuous gradient from upland prairies to lowland springs, wetlands and aquatic habitats. Accomplishing such an ambitious goal, of course, requires purchase of surrounding land, an expense estimated at $5 million to $6 million during the next several years. Toward this goal, Bragg is working with the city of Omaha and seeking donations. UNOALUM

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of psychology and director of the school psychology program at UNO, has been recognized for her “meritorious and sustained record of excellence in teaching, including the use of innovative instructional methods and techniques,” according to the Board of Regent minutes.

Robert T. Reilly tale that is not told dies. That’s what the old Irish storytellers like to say as they light their clay pipes from the turf fire and launch into a fanciful report on the legendary ghosts of their region or the ‘little folk’ that do be bothering the lonesome traveler. But sometimes their story is true—as this one is . . . So begins Robert T. Reilly in the foreword to his “Red Hugh, Prince of Donegal.” Reilly himself would make a merry legend. His sparkling wit and great love of life endeared him to all, and his time here was not lacking in grand adventure. As a young man, he was a soldier and POW during World War II, awarded both the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Nor was he stranger to romance. In speaking of Jean, his wife of nearly 60 years, mother to their 10 children, and Alzheimer’s patient, he wrote, “I have a certain conviction that we will be together again and as we used to be. I have had dreams about that final reunion. I’ve seen it in my mind a hundred times. We’re both dressed in white and we’re dancing in front of patio doors open to a sea.” Certainly, some portion of fame is his already. “Prince of Donegal” was made into a Disney movie in 1966. He also published more than 1,000 articles and short stories in more than 100 national and regional publications. Six of his documentary film scripts and several of his articles won national awards and six of his books

Kelly-Vance’s record in recent years includes both the University Excellence in Teaching Award and the Alumni Oustanding Teaching award. Last year’s recipient of the system-wide OTICA award was Bill Blizek, Professor of Philosophy at UNO.

appeared in multiple editions. Reilly taught communication at UNO for 15 years. He passed away April 15, 2004, but in the hearts of his students, colleagues, family and friends, he remains a cherished tale. Roger Sharpe oger Sharpe was a professor of biology for 32 years and founded and directed the Environmental Studies Program at UNO. Through the publication of “Nebraska Birds,” a book he co-authored with W. Ross Silcock and Joel G. Jorgensen, he established himself as one of the region’s foremost experts on the 450 species of birds that make Nebraska either permanent or seasonal home. Sharpe understood the importance of birds as particularly sensitive indicators of environmental health. Explains friend and colleague, physics professor Ray Guenther, Sharpe had “an eye for things of value, things of beauty.” Sharpe did not limit his passion for the environment to Nebraska. He also was one of the environmental specialists consulted in the clean up of his ancestral home, Czechoslovakia, in the early 1990s. Sharpe passed away at the age of 62 in June 2003 after a six-month battle with lymphoma. His family has established the Roger Sharpe Environmental Studies Memorial Fund through the Omaha office of the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Fall 2004 • 11

College of

Public Affairs & Community Service

30 Years of Engaging, Creating, Serving By Nick Schinker hey are non-profit executives, police chiefs, airport executives, human and social service professionals, and officials of city, county and state government. They are community-minded. They are dedicated. They are successful. They are graduates of UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS). As the college this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, its alumni perhaps are the best reminder of the college’s statewide teaching, research and outreach mission and its rich history of “Engaging Citizens, Creating Solutions and Serving the Community.” The college’s establishment stems in part from the social and racial turbulence of the 1960s—a time that triggered riots and protests from the streets of North Omaha to Memorial Park and UNO’s front door. Nebraskans responded in one way by assembling the blue-ribbon Regents’ Commission on the Urban University of the ’70s. The commission in 1970 recommended that UNO “play a major role in identifying community problems and contributing to their solutions.” Its 140 members that fall issued a 32-page report listing 20 recommendations that would assist UNO in becoming “even more a quality urban university.” Recommendation No. 2 was for “a massive expansion

in the role of the university in the community through the establishment of an Institute for Public and Community Affairs.” “The college started as an agent of change,” says CPACS Dean B.J. Reed. Now it has evolved into a vital component of the University of Nebraska system. “Through the years,” Reed adds, “it has added a tremendous amount of academic quality. Our faculty and staff have received almost 30 per-

cent of all campus-wide teaching and research awards in “Our challenge is to continue to grow without substanthe past 10 years.” tive increases in state support,” Reed says. “I think we Today, CPACS (http://cpacs.unomaha.edu) boasts an have done a good job, but we need to do more.” enrollment of nearly 3,000 students with That means reaching beyond the colnine academic and outreach programs lege’s own graduates, many of whom have (see sidebar below). chosen public service rather than higher“The college started “Each of these units brings regional and paying careers. national reputations for excellence,” Reed as an agent of “We need to make our case to the numsays. “Criminal Justice, Social Work, and change. Through the ber of individuals who may not be graduPublic Administration are among the top ates of our college but who share the programs of their kind in the nation. vision and ideals of what our college repyears it has added a Public Administration, for example, ranks resents,” Reed adds. above such institutions as Yale, Princeton, tremendous amount The accomplishments of the past three the University of Texas, the University of of academic quality.” decades are part of the pitch. California-Berkeley and Rutgers.” Assistant Dean Sara Woods says the This despite funding that likely doesn’t diversity of the college’s faculty, its comapproach that of such big-name universiCPACS Dean B.J. Reed mitment to excellence in teaching and ties. Funding today is among the college’s research, and its outreach to the commumost critical issues. The rate of increase nity and the state are testament to the in state funding has slowed dramatically, foresight of that 140-member commission now amounting to only $7 million of an and the people who put the commission’s overall budget of nearly $10 million. This recommendation in place. has required CPACS to develop and “The college has done some really broaden external funding sources, from remarkable things in its first 30 years,” grants to donor support, and it is sucWoods says. “We have a statewide misceeding in many ways. Faculty and staff in sion that takes us from Omaha to the past year have generated nearly $3 Scottsbluff. With the proper and necessary million in external grants with another support, we hope to continue to be a benalmost $5 million in proposals currently efit to the entire state and improve the in development. quality of life for all its citizens.”

CPACS programs at a glance Ine academic and outreach programs constitute the College of Public Affairs and Community Service. They include:

Hubert Locke, CPACS dean from 1972 to 1975.

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Aviation Institute

Continuing Studies

Criminal Justice

Gerontology

Goodrich Program

Public Administration

Social Work

Brennan Institute

Public Affairs

• The Aviation Institute. Part of the School of Public Administration, it ranks among the top aviation programs in the nation. Its faculty members administer the NASA Nebraska Space Grant Consortium, which provides student fellowships, research support and curriculum assistance to K-12 and higher education throughout the state. Each year, more than 50 million people via network news broadcasts view the institute’s research on the national Airline Quality Rating.

• The Division of Continuing Studies. Source for the bachelor of general studies degree, the division joined CPACS in 2003. The BGS is one of the nation’s oldest baccalaureate degree programs designed especially for adults, and the only one of its kind in the NU system. More than 22,000 UNO alumni have BGS degrees.

• The Department of Criminal Justice. Peers continually rank it among the finest such programs in the United States. It boasts a national reputation for the quality of its faculty research endeavors into policing practices, sentencing decisions and criminal justice trends.

• The Department of Gerontology. Also among the most influential departments of its kind in the country, it offers undergraduate and graduate certificate programs and a master’s degree in social gerontology. The department also houses the Program for Women and Successful Aging.

• The Goodrich Scholarship Program. Established in 1972, it offers full scholarships to economically disadvantaged students of diverse backgrounds, providing them the structure and curriculum necessary to develop successful writing and studying skills. It is a recipient of the university-wide departmental teaching award, the Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Noel Levitz Student Retention Award.

• The School of Public Administration. Ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 30 public management programs in the nation. It and the Department of Criminal Justice offer the only two freestanding doctoral programs at UNO.

• The School of Social Work. Also ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best graduate programs of its kind. It leads the university in service-learning opportunities through which students put into practice theories learned in the classroom.

• The William Brennan Institute for Labor Studies. The institute works statewide to foster creative and critical thinking among labor leaders and union members. In one year, the institute’s two staff members conducted 58 programs in seven Nebraska cities with more than 1,200 participants.

• The Center for Public Affairs Research. Along with the State Data Center it utilizes U.S. Census data to track trends, provide assistance to faculty research endeavors, and assist community agencies in programs, research and evaluation.

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Fall 2004 • 13

College of

Fine Arts

A Painting for Over the Sofa UNO Art Gallery’s Fall Season Opens with National Exhibition hat’s above your sofa? Does it match the carpet and drapes, the fabric on your loveseat or the palette of your walls? Does it matter? These questions and related issues are explored in “A Painting for Over the Sofa (that’s not necessarily a painting),” a national traveling exhibition that opens the UNO Art Gallery’s fall season. In most American homes, the sofa often is the first piece of living room furniture selected. All other questions about décor evolve around it, says Gallery Director Deborah-Eve Lombard. “The sofa—and the painting, drawing, print, photograph or even sculpture placed over it—conveys important information about the inhabitants.” “A Painting for Over the Sofa” considers the couch as crux for American domestic design and, more specifically, how wrongheaded a notion that can be. The exhibition, organized by the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery (Miami) features 18 inflatable sofas and works of art that play with

A Painting for Over the Sofa Sept. 12-Oct. 8 • Admission free • UNO Art Gallery, 1st floor Fine Arts Building • Mon.-Wed., Friday: 10 a.m.4:30 p.m. Thu., noon-8 p.m. Sundays Sept. 12-Oct. 3. from 2 to 5 p.m. • Parking free on Sundays excluding reserved stalls.

the idea of art versus home decoration. “These are not knick-knacks for the den. Rather, they are humorous, insightful and thought-provoking tableaux that invite visitors to sit down and think,” says Lombard. Featured artists include Mario Algaze, Ida Applebroog, Ken Aptekar, Louise Bourgeois, Edouard Duval Carrié, Tim Curtis, Rico Gatson, Bruce Helander, Komar and Melamid, Hung Liu, Pepón Osorio, Karen Rifas, Miriam Schapiro, Jaune Quick-to-see Smith, Federico Uribe, Joe Walters, Deborah Willis and Wendy Wischer.

Ecoutez! 2004-05 ot music? If not, take in the annual Ecoutez! season beginning GSunday, Oct. 3, with free admission to the U.S. Army Brass

Quintet concert! Ecoutez! season tickets are $45 per person if ordered before Oct. 1, $55 after that. Season ticket holders receive reserved parking adjacent to the Strauss Performing Arts Center and preferred seating for the Army Brass Quintet. General admission is $15 per event. Doors open 30 minutes prior to each concert, which begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Strauss recital hall. For additional information, or to order tickets, please call 554-3427.

Vilnius String Quartet Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004

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Bobby Shew, jazz trumpet Saturday, Feb. 19, 2005

U.S. Army Brass Quintet, Sunday, Oct. 3. Free admission!

Robert Belinic, guitar Sunday, Jan. 23, 2005

Faculty in First Person I n examining my body of work since 1984, one can perceive a gradual shift in focus from the male to the female, from the outer world to the inner. To an overt involvement with Madonna and spiritual imagery. A nod, no doubt, to the experiences of my childhood as colored by the ethnicity of my grandparents. Until I was about 10 years old I thought all elderly people spoke in Eastern European broken English. My father’s parents hail from Bialystok in Poland and from a town near Minsk in what is now Belarus. My mother’s parents both are from the same village in northern Croatia, near Rijeka. Woven into the lives and culture of many such Eastern Europeans is Catholicism, another strong influence on me growing up. This culture and religion are inextricably bound together in my memory, in particular the symbolism, imagery and devotion to the Madonna. In 1996 I began integrating such aspects of my identity into my artwork. Change came gradually, piece by piece, as I explored ways of dealing with imagery in a more metaphorical manner without direct and overt symbolism. I wasn’t then and am not now

Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet Tuesday, April 5, 2005

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“Aritone,” w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

interested in an insipid spirituality; I am interested in making works that deal with the tougher, more difficult aspects of spirituality and in developing pictorial ideas that pose for the audience scenarios that may not be immediately understood and that are quietly unsettling; much like the literal darkness of the Black Madonna or Virgin, an image type that existed in European painting and sculpture for many centuries alongside more conventional and better-known Marian representations. The Black Madonna archetype very likely is a vestige from ancient world imagery of fertility earth goddesses and directly connects to the idea of the Christian Mother of God as manifestation of the feminine aspect of the divine. The original symbolism behind the darkness of the images may correspond to the darkness of the earth and the need for perennial agricultural fertility. On a spiritual level, it can be metaphorical of the need to enter into darkness in order to be transformed. This is a powerful and very old idea, but one that probably does not have a lot of currency in our contemporary culture. Nonetheless, it is the central idea that preoccupies me as an artist. Around the same time in the mid-1990s that my work began to change, I also became intrigued with the idea of applying for a Fulbright Scholarship to study in my ancestral home. When that

By Barbara Simcoe intrigue evolved into serious consideration, I decided to experience the land firsthand before committing long-term, and in May 2002 joined UNO’s music department on its two-week Baltic Concert Choir tour. That included a visit to one of the university’s sister schools, Siauliai University in Lithuania, the southernmost Baltic country. This provided the opportunity to meet the places and people I would be around during an extended Fulbright stay, and I loved it. I returned to Omaha and immediately began working on my Fulbright application. The process was long and tedious and I did not receive official word of my acceptance until April 2003. Less than a year later, in January 2004, I left again for Lithuania, this time for a fivemonth stay. Nothing really prepares you for the shock of leaving your family, home and everything you’re familiar with to live in a small city in a small Eastern European country for almost half a year. My solution to that was to get to work almost immediately after arriving in Siauliai University, where I was to teach a class in Photoshop. That started a wonderful period of four months of nearly uninterrupted work on paintings, drawings and digital pieces. Some of these works I displayed during a show at the American Center in Vilnius toward the end of my stay. “Arrival,” “Dievas” and “Passageway” were grouped together, relating my experience at the Ausros Vartu shrine in Vilnius, a major pilgrimage site that houses a 16th-century Black Madonna painting. “Aritone,” “Annunciation” and “Latvian Madonna” incorporated folk and winter imagery from Siauliai, as well as portraits of a Siauliain friend, Aritone, and my cousin, Arina, a medical student in Riga, Latvia. “Annunciation” also has the blurred, distant figure of a woman working by a window. All three suggest a Baltic manifestation of the Madonna. The tree imagery in each refers to the ancient Lithuanian belief system that held all trees and forests to

“Dievas.” be revered, some even sacred. The trees also are a personal reference to my mid-winter arrival in Lithuania, the light and bare trees of those first months remaining prominent in memory. I also spent a total of about four weeks traveling. Visits were made to relatives and sites in Vilnius, Latvia, Poland and the Czech Republic. My husband, Lee Murray, joined me toward the end of my stay and we flew to Croatia, spending a week visiting relatives in Kukuljanavo, about 15 kilometers southeast of Rijeka. My heritage played a large part in deciding to pursue a Fulbright and the experience, I feel, has brought me closer to making the kind of art I want to make. Symbolism has become more integrated into my thinking, more meaningful and authentic. What I realized in the mid1990s was that I felt I was missing something. Perhaps it was really an acknowledgment of a need to look for or look at something that was there my entire life. Whether or not one can see direct evidence of my heritage in my work is not the most important thing, however. The importance, I think, is having achieved greater clarity and acceptance— about myself as a person, artist and teacher and about how I want to spend the rest of my life as an artist. Returning to the places where my grandparents and their parents lived was like a homecoming. Having experienced that made the clarity possible. Fall 2004 • 15

College of

Fine Arts

Education

College of Fine Arts Calendar of Events

Scholarships, endowed chairs focus of campaign

Building a Legacy of Excellence

Art & Art History Shows held in UNO Art Gallery, 1st Floor, Weber Fine Arts Building. Opening receptions begin 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12-Oct. 8 A Painting for Over the Sofa (that’s not necessarily a painting). Opening Reception Sept. 10. Oct. 20-Nov. 5 Racing Towards Perfect Order. Opening Reception Oct. 15 Nov. 14-23 Fall 2004 UNO Art Student Exhibition. Opening Reception Nov. 12 Dec. 6-22 Fall BFA Thesis Exhibition. Opening Reception, Dec. 3 Barbara Wilson Memorial Lecture Series Lectures held in UNO Art Gallery Oct. 6—7 p.m. Funding the Arts, Panel Discussion, 7 p.m. Oct. 20—Noon Bethany Springer, Installation Artist, Noon Nov. 4—7 p.m. Sandy Winters, Visiting Artist Sculptor and Painter Nov. 10—7 p.m. Barbara Simcoe, UNO Associate Professor of Art, ‘Pilgrimage.’ Nov. 17—Noon Gerit Grimm, Bemis Artist in Residence Dec. 6 & 8—Noon Thesis Talks, Graduating UNO BFA Students

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Masters & Music Series *Sunday evenings at 5 p.m. in the UNO Art Gallery, 1st Floor, Weber Fine Arts Building. Reception with artists follow lectures/performances. Call 554-2402 for ticket information. Oct. 3 The Harpsichord in Music and Art, Professor James Johnson, Piano & Harpsichord Artist; Professor James Czarnecki, Art Historian, Professor

Music Performances start at 7:30 p.m. in Strauss Performing Arts Center Recital Hall unless otherwise noted. Call 554-2335 for Resonate tickets. Sept. 26 Resonate: Faculty Artist Kara Hulsey, Bassoon Sept. 28 UNO SPO presents Althea Rene, Jazz Flutist Oct. 3—3 p.m. Resonate: Faculty Artist Wayne Kallastrom, Organ Oct. 10 Resonate: Faculty Artist Wendy Eaton, Mezzo-soprano Oct. 22 UNO Chamber Orchestra Oct. 31 Symphonic Wind Ensemble

Dec. 4—4 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. UNO Concert Choir and University Chorus Holiday Concert Dec. 7 Vocal Studio Recital, Students of Dr. Z. Randall Stroope Dec. 8 Flute Studio Recital, Students of Dr. Christine Beard Dec. 9 UNO Chamber Orchestra Dec. 11 NMTA Variety Show

Theatre Performances start at 7:30 p.m. in UNO Theatre, Weber Fine Arts Building, unless otherwise noted. For tickets, call UNO Theatre Box Office, 554-2335. Oct. 7-9, 13-16 Metamorphoses Oct. 28-30, Nov. 3-6—6 p.m. UNO Student Showcase, The Rimers of Eldritch, WFAB 006 Nov. 18-20, Dec. 1-4 The Playboy of the Western World

Writer’s Workshop Readings start at 7:30 p.m. in UNO Art Gallery, 1st Floor, Weber Fine Arts Building, unless otherwise noted.

Nov. 2 Faculty Showcase

Missouri Valley Reading Series Sept. 22 Michelle Boisseau

Nov 16 Studium Chorus of Lithuania

Oct. 13 Bill Holm

Dec. 1 UNO Percussion Ensemble Concert

Nov. 3 John Price

Dec. 3 Prevailing Winds IV–Symphonic Wind Ensemble, University Concert Band, & UNO Jazz Ensemble

Dec. 8 Mary Helen Stefaniak

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id you know that more than 50 percent of the professional educators in the Omaha-metropolitan area have one or more degrees from UNO’s College of Education? Measuring the overall impact these professionals have had on the lives of students—and subsequently on the community itself—would be impossible. “It certainly highlights the challenge for us in the College of Education to continue to prepare outstanding educators” says Dr. John Langan, who in late August was named dean of the college pending approval by the NU Board of Regents. “The college is taking this challenge seriously, and that’s why we’re beginning a 10-year campaign to muster the needed support to continue this legacy of

excellence for our community.” The campaign, designated as “Building a Legacy of Excellence,” will be officially launched at a dinner and silent auction on Oct. 1, 2004, and will have two primary objectives: • Funding student scholarships; and • Establishing endowed chairs. “Both of these goals help the college attract diverse students and faculty members who demonstrate outstanding academic quality and who are able to maintain and

even strengthen the excellence of our programs,” says Dr. Nancy Edick, the campaign’s coordinator. Scholarship possibilities place students at the very center of the campaign, and the potential to establish endowed chairs continues the college’s focus on academic excellence. These goals, combined with the ongoing partnerships the college has with the metropolitan community, establish objectives for the College of Education that are parallel to the three major objectives of the university: student focus; academic excellence; and community engagement. Such coordination of mission and effort will create a positive educational environment for the university, the college and the metropolitan Omaha community. For more information regarding the

College’s Career Services undergoing changes tarting in the fall of 2004, alumni and students from the College of Education will have the opportunity to personally manage the content, format and presentation of their employment documents. In July, the college announced that it was transitioning from a centralized credential storage and distribution system to one that promotes the creation of a professional employment portfolio and aligns with trends across the nation. “With this change, we’re really putting students and alumni, rather than the college, at the center of the employment process,” said Dr. David Conway, associate dean of the College of Education.

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“Not only does this reflect the overall mission of UNO and the College of Education, it has the potential to save money and time for our alumni.” The college is encouraging alumni to begin building their professional portfolios immediately, but will continue to send existing files until September 2005. Alumni with questions should contact the Career Services Office, now located in Kayser Hall 233. Additional information and guidance in establishing an employment portfolio is available by contacting Ginger Hansen at (402) 554-3482 or visiting the website at www.careers.unomaha.edu/teacher

campaign, contact the Dean’s Office at (402) 554-2719 or email crewert@mail.unomaha.edu Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

September through December

Dr. Neal Grandgenett, professor in Teacher Education and current recipient of the Peter Kiewit Distinguished Professorship. An increased number of endowed professorships is among the goals of the College of Education’s “Building a Legacy of Excellence” campaign.

Hollie Bethel Awards Issued he College of Education congratulates these 2004 Hollie Bethel Distinguished Alumni Award recipients:

Hollie Bethel

Stephen Abraham Robert Danenhauer Sandra Hodges Ann Luther Joye McLeod Tony Vincent Charlotte Wetzel

Fall 2004 • 17

Association in Action

News & Information

Homecoming 2004 Scholarship Swing nets UNO Saturday, Oct. 9 $50,000 for students J

he UNO Chancellor’s Scholarship Swing was held Sept. 13 at Tiburon Golf Club, and once again the event scored a hole-in-one for student scholarships. Held for the 24th consecutive year, the Swing raised $50,000 for student scholarships. The UNO Alumni Association began hosting the tournament nine years ago. Since then, more than $250,000 has been raised for scholarships. “This is one of the biggest single fund raisers for the UNO campus each year,” said Sheila King, director of Alumni Programming and Activities. “And though it is held on just one day, it wouldn’t be a success without the efforts of many people working hard behind the scenes for a considerable part of the past nine months. “Most of the heavy lifting in preparation for the tournament is done by UNO graduates who, valuing their own UNO education, want to provide the same opportunity to current students through scholarships.” King singled out the efforts of two student groups, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and the UNO Ambassadors, for help on the day of the tournament. The money raised help supports various Associationsponsored student scholarships, including UNO Alumni Legacy Scholarships, $1,000 grants instituted in 2000 and are awarded only to

18 • Fall 2004

children of UNO graduates. UNO graduates John Wilson (’78) and Jim Czyz (’71) chaired the committee that oversaw the tournament’s organization. Other committee members include UNO graduates: Jim Garbina (’87), Mark Grieb (’81), Mike Jones (’66), Cookie Katskee (’80), Dan Koraleski (’86) and Don Winters (’69). Earl Leinart also served on the committee. Nearly 200 golfers played in the tournament. Numerous businesses also contributed financial support via hole sponsorships and prize donations. All were recognized after play during a buffet dinner at Tiburon. Chancellor Scholarship Swing Sponsors Hole –in-One Sponsor Mercedes Benz of Omaha Lunch Sponsors Mike and Marji Jones Dinner Sponsors Superior Honda of Omaha and Acura of Omaha Beverage Sponsor Pepsi Bottling Group Prize Sponsors Brandeis Catering Cummins Great Plains First National Bank - Omaha Great Western Bank/Harlan Falk Mark & Frances Grieb Hilton Garden Inn Hilton Omaha Harry A. Koch, Co. Rod Kush’s Furniture Earl & Grace Leinart The Market Basket Metro Marketing Mutual of Omaha

oin fellow alumni at the W.H. Thompson Alumni Center (rain or shine) for food, fun and freebies at UNO Homecoming 2004 Saturday, Oct. 9. Kids 12 & under of alumni attend FREE!!! Here’s the lineup: 11 a.m.–1 p.m: Pre-game picnic/tailgate party at W.H. Thompson Alumni Center • Games, prizes and Mav Tattoos for kids • Pep talk from Coach Pat Behrns / UNO Mascot Durango • Bouncin’ fun in the “Whopper Hopper” • Amazing Arthur with magic, juggling and balloon art • Open House events in Student Center (8 a.m.-1 p.m.) 1 p.m: UNO vs. Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs • Check out UNO’s new FieldTurf and watch the Mavs kick the Bulldogs into the doghouse!!! All that for just $10 for adults. Price includes ticket to the game, food and beverages. Again, kids 12 and under of alumni attend free!!!! To attend, call Sheila King toll-free at UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586) or e-mail sking@mail.unomaha.edu

Nick & Tony’s Italian Chop House Omaha World-Herald Park Inn Regency Lodge Tiburon Golf Club Union Pacific Railroad UNO Athletics U. S. Bank Kevin & Diane Warneke John & Mary Wilson Sponsors Bill Hargens Course Sponsors AAA Nebraska Alegent Health America First Companies, LLC Bank of Nebraska Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska Brandeis Catering Children’s Hospital Cox Communications Cummins Great Plains Deloitte & Touche DLR Group Duncan Aviation Farmers National Co. First Data Resources First National Bank–Omaha First National Bank–Valentine Grandmother’s Restaurants Hancock & Dana HDR (i) Structure Kiewit Construction Co.

Harry A. Koch, Co. KPMG LLC Jim Mancuso/Interstate Printing MarketSphere Consulting, LLC Mercer Human Resource Consulting MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. Millard Lumber Millard Public Schools The MSR Group Nebraska State Bank of Omaha NEXADENTAL NWW, Inc. O’Donnell, Ficenec, Wills & Ferdig Pepsi Bottling Group Pinnacle Bank TAC Air Travel & Transport UMB Bank Omaha Union Pacific Railroad United Nebraska Bank University of Nebraska Foundation University of Nebraska Medical Center UNO Athletics UNO College of Business U.S. Bank Valmont Industries Werner Enterprises Westside Community Schools/Fraser, Styker Law Firm John & Mary Wilson Woodmen of the World

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Iowa educator Christie receives UNO Citation

he UNO Alumni Association bestowed its Citation for Alumnus Achievement upon Richard H. Christie during the University’s summer commencement ceremony Aug. 13 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. Christie is superintendent of schools for the Council Bluffs Community School District. The Citation, instituted in 1949, is presented at each UNO commencement. The Association’s highest honor, it encompasses professional or career achievement, community service, involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to UNO. Stephen G. Bodner, 2004 chairman of the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors, Dick Christie, 135th recipipresented the award to Christie, ent of the UNO Citation for the 135th recipient of the Citation. Alumnus Achievement. Christie also is the first Citation recipient to have earned a doctorate from UNO, (Ed.D., 2003). He has been the CBCSD superintendent since 1988, five years after he joined the district as executive director of human resources and staff development. Previous to that he was a principal at two Iowa high schools for nine years. His 38-year career as an Iowa educator also includes stints as an assistant high school principal, teacher and coach. He earned an MA from the University of South

Dakota at Vermillion (1972) and a BA from the University of South Dakota at Springfield (1967). During his tenure as CBCSD superintendent, Christie developed a systems approach to school improvement by aligning employee selection, induction and evaluation, as well as board and policy development, with budget, curriculum, professional and leadership development. In 2001 he played a key role in the passing of a countywide, 1-cent local option sales tax that will raise $60 million in 10 years for facilities improvements. In 2002 he helped secure significant grant funding for universal preschool in all Pottawattamie County public school districts. His peers recognized him as the Area Education Agency 13 Superintendent of the Year in 1998. The following year he was selected as the Iowa Superintendent of the Year. Christie, married with four grown children, maintains an active schedule apart from his CBCSD duties. He is an adjunct professor in UNO’s Department of Educational Administration and Supervision, works as an associate with two national consulting firms in the areas of executive and teacher selection, and gives presentations at numerous state and national workshops, meetings and conferences. Christie also has served on boards and committees of numerous organizations, including the Greater Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce, Christian Home Association/Children’s Square USA, United Way of the Midlands, Iowa West Foundation, Horace Mann League, Iowa High School Athletic Association, and Urban Education Network of Iowa.

The UNO Century Club Century Club membership today consists of more than 3,600 individuals who support their alma mater with gifts of $100 or more. Gifts support various alumni association programs and services that make for a stronger, more vibrant university. These include the Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards, UNO Alumni Legacy Scholarships, Alumni Outreaches and more. With their UNRESTRICTED gift, Century Club donors receive one of five personalized mementos (pictured at right), special recognition in an annual report and invitations to select events throughout the year.

Welcome to the Club! Thanks to these upgraded Century Club donors!* To Silver Gerald F. McDonald To Gold Dr. William C. Jacobson

Welcome and thanks to these first-time Century Club donors!* Silver Patricia A. Buser Judy L. Sieman Diamond Ronald P. Meister

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*From donor rolls April 2, 2004, through Aug. 6, 2004 Bronze Angelo L. Amato Tracy L. Benning James G. Bitzes Marvin L. Borgman David & Lois Carlsen Steven R. Caswell Robert W. Citta David J. Coalton Michael G. Cook James M. Dellaripa, Sr.

Paul N. Hall Robert L. & Doris J. Hansen Theodore W. Heise James E. Herren Gerald S. Hunacek, Jr. Ruta R. Jaudegis Mark R. Lampe Scott A. Linder John A. & Cheryl A. Mascarello Robert T. Mazur Terry Moore, LCSW

Lee A. Noack Judith W. Pratt Michaela M. Rielly Muhammad S. Shahid Jeffrey C. Sill Paul J. Strawhecker Ltc. (Ret.) B.G. Vinson W. Ross Yates Pamela T. Ziebarth

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es, Thomas Warren is a UNO graduate. And, yes, he deserves recognition for his career achievement, recently becoming Omaha’s first-ever African-American police chief. Really, though, should precious ink and paper be wasted on a man who, nearly a quarter of a century ago, aided and abetted a robbery on the UNO campus? The scene of the crime was Al Caniglia Field, September 1981. And there were plenty of witnesses. A record-12,500 fans crammed the

backs. He graduated from Morningside in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice (major in sociology; minor in psychology) and joined the Omaha Police Department the following year. “Early on, as a young police officer, I had aspirations of becoming a sergeant,” he says. “That was my goal. That was my objective.” And so he turned to UNO and one of the nation’s top criminal justice programs. “In order to become a supervisor, I wanted to acquire management skills, and I felt it was very important to obtain formal education, as far as management

ing our operating budget. Had I not gone to graduate school and had a course in public budgeting, I wouldn’t have been familiar with the various budgeting techniques that we employed. And so that enabled me to function in that capacity.” Warren, who received his master’s from UNO in 1989, spent time in a variety of OPD departments, including internal affairs, information services and the investigations bureau. His rewards have come rapidly in the past five years. He was promoted to captain in 1999 and to the northeast precinct commander in

From the Chiefs to the Chief

Photo by Bill Stitzman

By Anthony Flott, Editor

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stands that day to watch the UNO football team take on hapless Morningside. The Chiefs were the laughingstock of the NCC, last winning a conference game in 1977. Fourth-year Coach Sandy Buda, meanwhile, had a once-limping UNO running full stride, getting the Mavericks into the national playoffs in 1978 and holding the No. 1 ranking for three weeks in 1980. Things looked just as rosy when the Mavs, sporting a new wishbone offense dubbed the ‘Buda Bone,’ began 1981 with two wins. But the Chiefs and the future chief— broke the bone and UNO hearts, stunning UNO with a 3-0 upset. Warren, a junior defensive back for Morningside, was key to the Chiefs’ win, stripping the ball from UNO fullback Dave Soto to set up what would become the game-winning drive capped by the day’s only score, a 29-yard field goal. It was one of 10 UNO fumbles that day, four of which Morningside recovered. Warren finished with five tackles, two for losses, and broke up a pass. “I remember it vividly because all my buddies were there, and my family was here to watch,” says a smiling Warren, a 1979 Omaha Technical High School graduate. “I had one of my better games.” The next time he was on campus, Warren was tackling books, not full-

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and supervisory areas. I felt it was important to go outside the department to acquire the training and to acquire the skills.” Warren pursued a master’s degree in criminal justice, also taking various publication administration courses that would prove key to his eventual move up the OPD chain of command. “When I was promoted to the rank of captain,” he recalls, “I was assigned to what was then the information services section where we were responsible for monitor-

“Early on, as a young police officer, I had aspirations of becoming a sergeant. That was my goal. That was my objective.” Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren

2002. And, after scoring highest on tests, interviews and other criteria among nine candidates for the job, Warren on Dec. 3, 2003, was sworn in as Omaha’s chief of police. “It’s been a learning experience,” says Warren, who replaced former Chief Don Carey. “It’s obviously a very demanding job. Even though I have some familiarity with the agency, just the demands of the office of the chief of police are so intense that it’s taken me time to get accustomed to the work load and to the pace of the work load.” That includes making time for his family, comprised of his wife, Aileen, and their three children, ages 12, 14 and 16. It’s also included some time in the spotlight, though Warren prefers it be somewhat dimmed. “He’s a very modest individual,” says his sister, noted Omaha lawyer and former mayoral candidate Brenda Council. Council in May accompanied her brother to San Antonio for Warren’s induction into the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Alumni Hall of Fame. Among his fellow inductees were former athletes such as NBA star Sean Elliott and Seattle Mariner-turned ESPN baseball analyst Harold Reynolds. Warren had his own glory days on the field, of course. Just don’t expect the UNO Hall of Fame to come calling.

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chapter of the Latina sorority Lambda Theta Nu. Lamas admits UNO wasn’t lacking sorority opportunities for female students. She and other Latinas, however, were seeking a greater focus on community service beyond UNO’s borders. Also, she adds, “I felt that there wasn’t much representation or leadership of Latinas at our university,” Lamas says. UNO’s Lambda Theta Nu chapter, founded with 10 memt was supposed to be a time of joy and anticipation—high bers, was the first of its kind in Nebraska and one of about 25 school commencement closing one chapter of life, another such sororities around the country. “We’re setting the foundajust beginning. tion for Latina sororities at the university level and across For Anadelia Lamas, though, it was a time of heartache. In Nebraska,” Lamas says. 1997, not long before graduating from Bridgeport High School Rather than hosting “rush” events in the fall or pie-eating in the Nebraska panhandle, Lamas was dealt a crushing blow: contests during homecoming week, the sorority began its first the death of her father, Nicolas. She describes the passing of year blitzing the Omaha community with a handful of volunher 41-year-old father as “an unexpected and tragic death in teer projects and fund-raising events. They spent time at the relation to alcoholism,” understandably unwilling to say much Latina Resource Center and Juan Diego Center. They volunmore. teered at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church and donatThe tragedy, however, would help shape Lamas into the ed money to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “When we strong woman she is today. She was inspired to carry on her started it, there was so much energy between the group.” father’s legacy as a proud Mexican, and she learned that life Lamas says. “It enhanced their (members’) leadership skills as doesn’t always deal you the best hand. we went through our educational process. That was our goal. “It brought our family closer in many ways because we We wanted to have a group to show the energy and leadership dealt with it together,” says the 25-year-old Lamas, who today of Latina women on our campus.” directs a federally funded City of Omaha program that beneThe sorority was another way Lamas honored her late fits the community’s Spanish speakers. “It was difficult, but father’s legacy. “He was respectful of people and taught us the what doesn’t kill us just makes us stronger. Life is full of lesimportance of that,” Lamas says. “He encouraged our indesons, and we all grew from that experipendence, yet reminded us to keep our ence.” traditional values. He was very proud Hispanic Heritage Month Nicolas and Consuelo Lamas, both of being Mexican.” born in Mexico, were migrant workLamas spent only a year tending to NO will host a variety of events— ers who moved from Texas to western the roots of the young sorority before including dance, music and art Nebraska in 1991. They wanted more she graduated in 2002 with a bachelor’s exhibits—during the annual Hispanic for their four children and encourdegree. Her experience, though, providHeritage Month Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. All activities are free and open to the pubaged them to seek opportunities ed a springboard for further community lic. Schedule of events follows below: beyond western Nebraska’s borders. involvement. For more ino, call 554-2711. Anadelia did just that in 1997, movLamas became a paraprofessional at ing to Lincoln after her father’s death Spring Lake Elementary School in • Wed., Sept. 22: Latin Art Exhibit—Milo to attend the University of NebraskaSouth Omaha. She worked as a Bail Student Center, Nebraska Room Lincoln to study speech pathology. teacher’s assistant in a second grade (10 a.m.-1 p.m.) Her heart didn’t make the move, classroom, primarily with Spanishthough. Rather than work toward a speaking students learning English. She • Wed., Sept. 29: Chomari Dance Company—MBSC Nebraska Room career in speech pathology, Lamas also worked with troubled youth at the (Noon) longed to honor her culture and her United Methodist Community Center’s heritage, and to help other SpanishWesley House in north Omaha. The • Thu., Sept. 30: Qui Calli, Latin Dance speaking families carve out a better facility is for teenagers 14 through 17 and Music Variety—MBSC Nebraska life. who were referred to it by the Juvenile Room (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.) And so Lamas transferred to UNO Court of Douglas County. the following year, changing her Work at the Wesley House was tax• Tues., Oct. 12: Charla Series Kickoff, major to Spanish with a minor in ing on Lamas, who says it was hard to “Latino Hip-Hop: Origins & CrossChicano/Latino Studies. She also leave the day’s struggles behind. Some Border Trends”—MBSC Fireplace Lounge (11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.) joined the Association of Latino of the youth came from troubled backAmerican Students, an organization grounds and had problems with the • Thu., Oct. 14: Ronald Fernandez: designed to unite Latino students at law. “I learned a lot of patience, and it “None of the Above: Emancipating the university level. Lamas found reiterated a lot of things, as far as famiYourself from the White/Black inspiration and a sense of community ly and how things affect youth later in Dichotomy”—MBSC Nebraska Room in the ALAS, and, spurred by a UNO their lives,” Lamas says. (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.) advisor, in 2002 helped form a UNO She continued to juggle both posi-

Planting Roots By Wendy Townley

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tions for about a year and considered returning to school to earn her teaching certificate. But in late 2002, at a friend’s suggestion, Lamas applied for an opening as coordinator of the Weed and Seed program in south Omaha. The organization’s goal is “weeding out criminal activity, seeding in neighborhood opportunity,” and fostering a better relationship between residents and local police officials. For another time in her young life, Lamas changed directions. She was hired as South Omaha’s Weed and Seed coordinator in February 2003, occupying an office in the LaFern Williams Center. The City of Omaha employs Lamas, using federal grant dollars earmarked for the Weed and Seed program. She’s the program’s only employee, but reports to the mayor’s and U.S. Attorney’s offices. “I have a lot of bosses, but no bosses,” Lamas jokes. Of South Omaha’s Weed and Seed jurisdiction, 43.5 percent of the residents are of Hispanic origin. The average per capita income is $12,659 (2003 figures issued by the national Weed and Seed office). It’s a part of the city, Lamas says, that continually needs community support. She points to a recent South Omaha education program offered in conjunction with the Omaha Police Department, where 22 members of the South Omaha community graduated “with such pride” from high school. “I felt a sense of accomplishment to see them feel more confident and knowledgeable of their surroundings and their community. It’s exciting to see that more people in the community are familiar with the Weed and Seed strategy.” Lamas works closely with the Omaha Police Department’s community relations Among her responsibilities as South Omaha Weed & Seed coordinator is interaction with the Omaha Police Department. group and crime prevention specialist. She uses her dual-language skills to interpret documents from English to Spanish. But community help remains her modus operandi. She conShe writes grants, plans events and works tinues to work with Lambda Theta Nu members, serving as a extensively with the public. go-between for the sorority with South Omaha. She’s also “I am not in the least surprised to see her grow in her prohelping her Greek sisters plan the National Executive Board fessional life as she has,” says Lourdes Gouveia, director of Leadership Conference, held this fall at UNO. More than 100 UNO’s Latino/Latina America Studies program. Gouveia women from Lambda Theta Nu chapters in California, Texas worked extensively with Lamas at UNO, hiring her to work in and Colorado will attend. the Chicano-Latino Studies department. “Every experience has been memorable,” Lamas says. “I The ever-busy Lamas does manage to find time for herself. am passionate about it. I enjoy problem solving and things we She previously performed with an all-female mariachi group can do for our community.” known as Mariachi Las Palomas and recently began exploring Nicolas Lamas would be proud. a solo music career as a singer.

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do to make this better for caregivers? What can we do to ensure their success?’” Masters says. Copiously published in academic journals, Kosloski is a frequent presenter and consultant on aging and Alzheimer’s issues. In 2001-02 he received the UNO Award for Distinguished Researcher. Not bad for a one-time fence installer. Kosloski was raised in a working-class section of north Minneapolis, one of five children. All five pursued higher education, though Karl took the longest journey, sometimes to his blue-collar factory worker father’s consternation. “He didn’t really understand why it took so long, but he thought no harm could come from being in school.” Kosloski says he was an unfocused, casual student who was tossed in good directions like a fortunate cork in the Seven years before Ronald Reagan’s death, Nancy Reagan ocean. He points to gentle nudges that brought him to this called her husband’s descent into Alzheimer’s, “worse than point, starting as an undergraduate at the University of the assassination.” Family friend Nancy Reynolds commented Minnesota. that at the end stages, Mrs. Reagan had “I was about to graduate and I went taken “responsibility for what was left” to see my advisor,” Kosloski recalls. “He of the former president. said, ‘If you want to graduate this year, Ronald Reagan’s death in June cast you’ll have to major in English or psymedia floodlights on Alzheimer’s dischology,’ because that’s what most of my ease. And Nancy Reagan’s graceful hancourses were in. It turns out that if you dling of the coast-to-coast presidential want to be an engineer—which is what I funeral tossed a new wave of attention thought wanted to be—you have to take onto caregiving. those classes.” An estimated 4.5 million Americans He graduated from Minnesota in 1973 today are afflicted with Alzheimer’s, with a degree in psychology. Shortly suffering through an average of eight thereafter winter came and he was laid years as the disease runs its course. off from his job installing chain-link Sometimes it can take up to 20 years. fences on Interstate 94 between Common to the experience are depresMinneapolis and Fargo, N.D. sion, worsening illness and, for the careHe headed to Middle Tennessee State giver, financial devastation. Some University to pursue a master’s degree, describe feeling that that the very permostly because that’s where he got the son they are trying to support is uninbest financial ride. He graduated from tentionally pulling them under. They MTSU in 1975 then headed to the send distress signals, but does anybody University of Nevada (Reno). There he hear? conducted research on role transitions, choosing retirement planning because, Tearing Down Fences “Those people are available,” he says. Karl Kosloski does. In a charming UNO Professor of “They’ve quit working, so you can talk old house that is Annex 24 on the UNO to them.” He presented some of that Gerontology Karl Kosloski campus, the gerontology professor conwork at a NATO symposium at the ducts research aimed at getting under University of Wisconsin. “It was a big the surface of Alzheimer’s caregiving deal for me at the time. Based on that issues. “There isn’t much you can do work, I applied for my post-doc.” That right now for Alzheimer’s,” Kosloski says, “but there is a lot was carried out at the University of Washington. we can do for families.” Sitting in his second-story office, “All of a sudden,” he says, “I was a gerontologist.” Kosloski navigates several topics into as many different direcKosloski landed at Washington thanks to one phone call by tions, pausing when his audience appears in danger of being a faculty member. “I’d like to think it was my own personal lost in the wake of academic speak. At that point, Kosloski he jokes, “but everybody brilliance and sterling personality,” reels in the listener with concise to-the-pointers. Two favorites: gets to where they are because somebody else helped them.” “Planning is often done as a byproduct of the circumstances He put in stints at the College of St. Scholastica, Wayne you’re in,” and, “Truth is a negotiated process.” the University of Kansas and the University State University, UNO gerontology department colleague Dr. Julie Masters of Kansas Medical Center before coming to UNO. He’s been calls Kosloski’s ability to hone in on his audience “a gift” and here 10 years, the longest he and his wife, Donna, and daughsays his work is well known and often cited in the academic ter, Lisa, have lived anywhere. gerontology community. “His work is asking, ‘What can we

ALZHEIMER’S:

Caring for the Caregivers By Sonja Carberry

hey who bear the disease are not the only sufferers, though. Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s can become a seemingly endless day-intonight effort to stay afloat on increasingly turbulent waters.

“There isn’t much you can do right

now for Alzheimer’s, but there is a lot we

t starts gradually with simple confusion and advances slowly, at times imperceptibly. Alzheimer’s is a destructive but patient disease, often taking years to progressively decimate a person’s most basic abilities—dressing and eating become arduous tasks while washing away all semblance of the sufferer’s personality.

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can do for families.”

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Caregiver Distress As Kosloski describes the scope of his work, it’s easy to see he’s anything but underutilized. He admits to working “like an ant” and says, “Everything we do is interesting, and so I tend to get involved in a lot of stuff. I’m here every day. I work whenever I can.” In a recent project, Kosloski and colleagues cited a “theory of caregiver distress,” finding that it is not just the physical and financial demands of caregiving, but the emotional slant that takes its toll. Specifically, it’s being thrust into a role that is quite new to an old relationship— someone who’s never been much of a swimmer would naturally be quite distressed to be suddenly responsible for keeping their loved one afloat. Conversely, finding a oncevital loved one unable to tread water is disconcerting. “We believe it has to do with this incongruity and the role relationship you have with this person,” he says. “That incongruity appears to produce distress.” An underlying current, Kosloski says, is the lack of targeted education for caregivers on Alzheimer’s disease, meaning the right information at the right time. “Timing and dosage matter a lot,” he says. In a managed care study in five states done for Kaiser Permanente and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Kosloski and his cohorts found that providing good doses of education at the right stages in the disease process helped caregivers avoid, for example, rushing to the ER with new symptoms. “They become more comfortable because they realize these changes in fact were a predictable progression of the disease. These people improve their commitment, dedication and resolve to remain as caregivers.” Keeping the loved one at home is a huge issue for reasons personal and financial. “Caregivers don’t want to institutionalize their loved ones, even if they are demented,” Kosloski adds. Caring for an Alzheimer’s sufferer at home can cost around $12,500 a year. A nursing home price tag for Alzheimer’s care averages $42,000 and runs as high as $70,000 or more a year, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. “The government is very interested in that because if families don’t do it then society has to do it,” Kosloski says. “The

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government spends a lot of money on programs designed to keep people in the community. Only recently did they get interested in if they did any good. He talks of day respite care specifically established for Alzheimer’s patients. “We make these programs one-size-fitsall, but that’s not true. The federal government would support these programs but people wouldn’t use them because it was just too hard,” he says. “About one-third of the people would use the program once and never come back.” In response, Kosloski and his team developed a statistical model of “brief users.” “What we tried to do is understand the conditions under which people use these programs.” They found lack of transportation or difficulty getting the Alzheimer’s sufferer ready for a day at respite care often was more stressful than just staying home. Kosloski’s statistically backed data will help the government make real improvements to inefficient programs. “This university has been so supportive,” he says. “I’ve had jobs in the past that you had to do it [research] on top of everything else if you wanted to do it at all. I think it’s everybody’s responsibility to contribute to the knowledge in their field. I’m not sure it’s possible to be a good teacher if you’re not involved in a lot of these things.”

Karl Kosloski

Alzheimer’s in America

• Education: - BA, University of Minnesota, 1973 - MA, Middle Tennessee State University, 1975 - Ph.D., University of Nevada, Reno, 1984 • Postdoctoral Training, Institute on Aging, University of Washington, 1984-86 NIMH-sponsored training program in Mental Health and Aging. • UNO Award for Distinquished Research or Creative Activity, 2002 • UNO Reynolds Professor of Public Affairs and Community Service, 2001-06

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• $42,000 per year is the average cost for nursing home care for an Alzheimer’s sufferer.

er recent pleas for the acceleration of Alzheimer’s research have made Nancy Reagan the unintentional poster woman for the disease. As a caregiver, her resources were admittedly plentiful. But her experience, as described in “I Love You, Ronnie,” seems to speak across income and status lines. “You know that it’s a progressive disease and that there’s no place to go but down, no light at the end of the tunnel. You get tired and frustrated because you have no control and you feel helpless,” she wrote. “We’ve had an extraordinary life . . . but the other side of the coin is that it makes it much harder. There are so many memories that I can no longer share, which makes it very difficult. When it comes right down to it you’re alone.” Such a feeling of isolation may be common to millions of Americans, according to Alzheimer Association statistics like these: • 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. • 1 in 10 Americans told a Gallup poll they had a family member with Alzheimer’s and one in three knew someone with the disease.

UNO Professor of Gerontology

• 7 out of 10 Alzheimer’s sufferers are cared for in the home by family and friends, who provide 75 percent of the patient’s direct care. Paying for the other 25 percent costs an average of $12,500 a year, most often coming out the family member’s pockets.

• 11.3 to 16 million people are projected to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease by the year 2050. Since 1980, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s has more than doubled. • $174,000 is the average lifetime cost of caring for an Alzheimer’s sufferer. • $100 billion is the national direct and indirect annual cost of caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, as estimated by the Alzheimer Association and the National Institute on Aging.

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• $150 million in research grants has been award by the Alzheimer’s Association since 1982. • $650 million was spent on Alzheimer’s disease research in fiscal 2003 according to a federal government estimate. In his last letter to the country, Ronald Reagan seemed to foretell the ultimate outcome of his illness. “Unfortunately, as Alzheimer’s disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with courage.” Statistics taken from sources including: www.alz.org/aboutAD/statistics.asp; and “Nancy Reagan: An ‘extraordinary life with ‘Ronnie’” 09/07/2000, www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/09/07/reagan.letters.asp

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ne gets the feeling after spending only a short time with Steve Novotny that this is a guy John Wayne probably would have liked. He’s a police officer and second-generation war veteran. A deadeye rifleman who competes in shoots across the country. At home, a United States flag hangs on one corner of his garage, a U.S. Army flag on the other. The art on his bedroom wall includes a map of Iraq with the hostile Sunni Triangle neatly delineated in red. On other walls hang a sword and its scabbard and photos of military buddies. On a cluttered table rests a thick book of military quotations.

In Command

By Anthony Flott, Editor Photo by Joe Mixan

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Novotny himself doesn’t say much. The 48-year-old UNO graduate’s look, though, speaks volumes. His military-issue flattop is gray but cropped as high and tight as a fresh recruit’s. His mug is stone granite and as likely to crack a smile as any of the faces on Mt. Rushmore. Certainly there was nothing to smile about this past May when Novotny, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, testified before a Congressional committee on Reserve readiness in the fight against terrorism. As could be expected, questions and testimony gravitated the infamous Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Sadism was nothing new in Abu Ghraib, Saddam Hussein’s house of horrors where criminals and opponents were executed and tortured. When Operation Iraqi Freedom forces tightened their grip on the country, Saddam’s goons abandoned Abu Ghraib to its occupants, who promptly torched the place. Four months later it opened under U.S. management for detaining Iraqi war prisoners. Novotny was in Abu Ghraib prior to the transfer of any Iraqi POWs there, conducting reconnaissance should his battalion be assigned responsibility for it. The place was being cleaned then when Novotny came across a pair of sheepishlooking Iraqis sweeping the execution chamber. They recounted stories of how prisoners during the Saddam regime would be told, “Today is your day; you’re going to be executed,” then would be left alone, moved to another cell, or executed as said. How, just for kicks, jolts of electricity would current through a copper cable that ran down the hangman’s noose before the floor eventually dropped. How executioners who would hang one man after another, two at the same time when they grew bored. “If these people pissed off a guard or something,” Novotny says, “Boom, ‘We’re going to execute you.’”

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Abuse in Abu Novotny’s battalion was assigned elsewhere; command of Abu Ghraib fell to the watch of the Army’s 372nd Military Police Company. Saddam’s evils, though, do not absolve what happened in Abu Ghraib when the U.S. flag flew there: prisoners punched, slapped and kicked; detainees photographed and videotaped in sexually explicit positions or arranged naked in a pile on which U.S. soldiers jumped; detainees masked with a sandbag while wires were attached to their fingers, toes and penis to simulate electric torture. And so on. Criminal charges were filed against seven soldiers said to have committed the abuses between October and December of 2003. All seven were reservists in the 372nd, one of eight battalions within the 800th Military Police Brigade that operated 12 U.S. prisons and detention camps across Iraq. The brigade included the Omaha-based 530th MP Battalion commanded by Novotny. An investigative Army report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba faulted Brig. General Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th, for “the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles.” Taguba recommended she be relieved of command and officially reprimanded. Her subordinates at Abu also were censured and recommendations were made that brigade, battalion and company commanders be relieved and reprimanded. Taguba’s findings were echoed in late August in two other reports. One, an independent report commissioned by the U.S. Defense Department, said direct responsibility for the scandal was with soldiers and commanders in the field (rather than in Washington). An Army report issued a day later linked abuses to 46 soldiers and referred one commander at Abu Ghraib to Army authorities for possible disciplinary action, which could prompt criminal charges. While there has been plenty of blame to go around, none of it has fallen on Novotny’s shoulders. In fact, Novotny not only escaped fault but was praised for his command at one of the detention facilities, Camp Ashraf. He was one of the few bright spots in Taguba’s investigation, earning commendation Continued on Page 30

Drive in the desert: Novotny takes command of an antiaircraft gun during downtime in the war.

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Continued from Page 29

and executions of that group’s members. Soon, the PMOI was expelled from Iran. It found refuge first in France, then Iraq. PMOI leader Massoud Rajavi eventunear the end of the general’s 51-page report. “His soldiers ally established his Mujahedin forces in about a dozen camps were proficient in their individual tasks and adapted well to in Iraq. Saddam Hussein provided financing and weapons as this highly unique and non-doctrinal operation,” Taguba the PMOI fought against fellow countrymen during the Iraqwrote. Iran war. Known by numerous other aliases (i.e., the Taguba presented his report to the Senate May 11, the same Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization, the National Liberation day an Islamic militant website showed the beheading of Army of Iran, etc.) the PMOI was listed by the U.S. State Nicholas Berg. Novotny and a handful of others, Taguba Department in 1997 as a terrorist wrote, “Overcame significant group. obstacles, persevered in extremely “They're a very, very bad poor conditions, and upheld the bunch,” an official with the antiArmy Values.” Novotny testified Saddam Iraqi National Congress that same day before the said in a March 2002 National Subcommittee on National Review article. Security, Emerging Threats, and But today, as the Iran-Interlink International Relations. After website notes, the Mujahedin “has Novotny’s testimony Virginia become more cult-like . . . more Congressman Ed Schrock singled closed and insular.” By many the Nebraskan out for praise as, accounts it is has become a cult of “One battalion commander who personality centering on Rajavi and did his job very well in the detenhis wife, Maryam. The former, tion business, better than anyone whereabouts and welfare else, I would imagine. I think we unknown, is the self-proclaimed ought to hank him for that.” ideological leader of the resistance Military officers, lawmakers and movement; the Paris-based aides broke into applause. Novotny prior to a predawn raid on PMOI quarNational Council of Resistance of Novotny deflects the praise. “I ters that separated a group of PMOI defectors from the main group. Iran named the latter as presidentfelt that all the soldiers that came elect for the future Iran. under my command, active duty French police in Paris arrested Maryam Rajavi on terrorist and reserve and National Guard, did a tremendous job,” he charges in June 2003. She was released while remaining under says. “I was proud of them all no matter where they came investigation, but not before followers staged hunger strikes from. I felt this [Congressional testimony] was an opportunity and 10 PMOI members had set themselves on fire, two of to represent the entire military, the Army, and also my comthem dying. mand, and get the word out about what actually happened Maryam Rajavi’s election culminated the organization’s where we were at.” astonishing feminization as women assumed many of the organization’s top leadership positions. New York Times writer Elizabeth Rubin visited the camp and talked of “a fic‘A Bad Bunch’ The 530th’s “highly unique and non-doctrinal operation” of tional world of female worker bees. Of course, there are men around; about 50 percent of the soldiers are male. But everywhich Taguba wrote is one of the prisoner of war successes— where I turned, I saw women dressed in khaki uniforms and and there are plenty of them—overshadowed by Abu Ghraib. mud-colored head scarves, driving back and forth along the Novotny’s battalion operated Camp Ashraf, about 45 miles avenues in white pickups or army-green trucks, staring ahead, northeast of Baghdad and housed not with Iraqis, but with slightly dazed, or walking purposefully, a slight march to their Iranians. Specifically, the People's Mujahedin Of Iran (PMOI), gaits as at a factory in Maoist China.” a militant, Marxist-Islamist organization founded in the 1960s. Still, it likely came as a surprise to U.S. soldiers encircling Iran-Interlink, an anti-Mujahedin organization, notes on its Camp Ashraf in the spring of 2003 when they encountered website that the PMOI was founded “based on revolutionary female tank commanders. armed struggle to free Iran from capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism.” That armed struggle began in the 1970s when it killed U.S. military personnel and A Bloom in the Desert U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran. Camp Ashraf, as the National Post (Canada) newspaper The PMOI later participated in the 1979 revolution deposnoted, is not really a camp at all. “Blooming out of the Iraqi ing the Shah and is suspected to have supported the American desert, near the border with Iran, it has a convention centre, embassy takeover in November later that year. As the two museums, a pool, park, garden, hospital and university. It Ayatollah Khomeini grew in power he saw the PMOI as an covers about 50 square kilometres, and has its own electrical increasing threat. A crackdown on a Mujahedin march on parsubstation.” liament in 1981 killed more than 30 PMOI and began arrests It is no oasis, though. The camp sits on the fringe of the

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hostile “Sunni Triangle” near the city of Baqubah, today Tea and Cookies known as the IED capital (improvised explosive device) of The group’s cultish aspects manifested themselves during Iraq. discussions between Novotny and Mujahedin leaders. “The American troops bombed a PMOI camp near the Iran-Iraq leaders were very well dressed, very well behaved,” Novotny border in April 2003. A cease-fire was signed shortly thereafter, recalls. “Manners impeccable. They were very much on forfollowed by PMOI surrender in May. By one count, noted the mality, as far as protocol, how people interacted with each Christian Science Monitor in December, the PMOI surrendered other, how the discussions and meetings would progress.” to U.S. troops 300 tanks, 250 armored personnel carriers, 250 A request Novotny might have of the Mujahedin that, with artillery pieces and 10,000 small arms. cooperation, should have taken no more than five minutes Novotny and the 530th arrived in Iraq about the same time could drag on for hours. Meetings began with tea and cookies U.S. airpower was pummeling the PMOI. The battalion’s first then lengthy, informal discussions that had little to do with the assignment was 24-hour patrols around the perimeter of matter at hand. Novotny, for instance, would be asked to Camp Bucca (Named for Ron Bucca, a New York fire marshal express sympathy for the recent earthquake in Bam, Iran, that and Army special forces reservist who died in the Sept. 11 had killed tens of thousands of Iranians. World Trade Center attacks) near the Persian Gulf port of “They’re our prisoners, and they would refuse to talk if we Umm Qasr in Southern Iraq. The 530th also maintained traffic didn’t go through this formality every time,” Novotny says. control points, secured a water purification unit and guarded a “Just like the North Koreans; very regimented in what they tanker and its crew caught trying to smuggle oil. “Those are do. If you throw them a curveball, they’ll sit there and look things you don’t think about and aren’t in the rulebook,” and they won’t know what to do because you’ve thrown them Novotny says of the last assignment. In June, Novotny something different than what they’re used to. I would say assumed command of the entire facility, which at one point that they are so far along that they actually set down as a staff held about 8,000 Iraqi prisoners of war. or as a committee and came up with different proposals, like, It was not Novotny’s first service in Iraq. He also served six ‘If the Americans do A, months during Desert we’re going to do B.’ And Storm as a captain with they would develop a the 403rd military police position paper on it.” camp, a unit he had The meetings grew joined less than half a agonizing when Novotny year earlier following a began processing the 12-year active duty group’s members. career. His Desert Storm “Somebody would say, ‘I duties as an assistant think I shouldn’t have to operations officer and do the DNA because only enclosure commander criminals have to do included ID processing DNA, as in your country, of 12,000 refugees and and I don’t believe that is the construction and right. So I refuse to do manning of a POW comanything because you’re pound that at times held making me do the DNA up to 4,000 prisoners. swab.’” That’s about how More discussions many Mujahedin memwould follow. “Then you bers the 530th secured would see . . . handlers. when in October they Novotny rests a spell in an ornate throne in one of Saddam Just like a dog handler were transferred from Hussein’s palaces. you’d see snap his finCamp Bucca to Camp gers, you would actually Ashraf. There Novotny oversaw up to 800 reserve, active duty see a handler nod his head, that person would get up and go and national guard troops who processed PMOI members into through the line. Then the next person would go: ‘I do not a terrorist database via fingerprinting, palm printing, DNA believe that you have shown enough sympathy toward my collection and retinal scans. group. My group has only one goal, and that is to free our It was perhaps the oddest of assignments in the nearly country of Iran from the total regime situation that it is and to dozen prisoner of war camps. The Mujahedin, notes Novotny, get rid of the regime that’s oppressive towards all people. I were allowed to procure their own food, get their own water feel the United States and the PMOI have the same goals and and fuel and sign contracts. “They were pretty much taking objectives and I do not understand why you’re holding us in care of themselves.” In fact, he adds, “their attitude towards this facility.’” us was that we were their guests at the facility. They never More discussions. “Then you would see one of the handlers acknowledged that we were detaining them or they were our prisoners.” Continued on Page 30 w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

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Effective November 1

Danenhauer resigns as athletic director B

Novotny took part in a sandbreaking ceremony marking the start of a new school being built for a nearby village. Continued from Page 29 nod his head, the guy would get up and go. After they did five or six people like that, then the majority would get up and go through a line. Then the next group would come in. Same thing. “You’re repeating the same thing over and over. Finally, I put one of our captains in charge and let him suffer through that.” At the extreme, the group’s leaders would make innuendos that its members might commit suicide or that they could not guarantee the PMOI wouldn’t take action against U.S. soldiers. The 530th also had to deal with a group of about 150 defectors from the main PMOI body, some of whom were causing dissension in the camp. Novotny responded with a predawn raid on PMOI quarters during which about 40 of the defectors were bagged and separated from the main group. Novotny’s command of Camp Ashraf lasted from November until February 2004 when the 530th got orders to go home. They returned to the United States in early April. In July the Mujahedin was granted “protected status” under the Fourth Geneva Convention, though it remains listed as a terrorist entity. The new Iraqi government wants it expelled and Iran would love nothing better to get its hands on the PMOI, but as of September 2004 the group’s fate was undecided. Novotny, meanwhile, has returned to his Papillion home and duties as an Omaha policeman and school resource officer at Omaha Burke High School. A 1974 Omaha Bryan High School grad who also earned degrees from Kemper Military School and College in Boonville, Mo., and from UNO (BGS, 1986), Novotny had to get clearance to discuss his experiences and still was hesitant to do so after receiving the green light. Part of that is due to the negative publicity surrounding Abu Ghraib. “It was terrible,” Novotny says of the scandal. “Terrible.” Because of it, all military police are tainted in the eyes of some. “I guess that’s one thing that kind of irks me is that, again, we’re focused on six people, and there were thousands who worked there honorably to take care of these prisoners.” 32 • Fall 2004

Soldiers who, as Novotny saw, played with the children of a woman whose husband had abandoned her, asking their families back home to send clothes and toys. Or medics who provided care to wounded Iraqi soldiers. Or hungry prisoners who were fed. Weekly coordinated visits between families and POWs despite the extensive planning and efforts required to do so by U.S. troops. “That’s one thing that the press never puts out is the number of soldiers in the story,” he says. “The stories behind those folks who were killed protecting those prisoners in that compound. And there have been other people, other MPs who were patrolling and protecting that prison, and also those persons inside who have been killed since the end of hostilities. Then there are the efforts of Novotny that earned General Taguba’s and Congressional praise. How was he able to maintain control when commanders at Abu Ghraib, apparently, failed to do so? Novotny addressed that at the Congressional hearing in May. The first step, he says, was providing his troops proper training and instruction at Fort Riley, Kansas, prior to the battalion’s deployment. “Prior to the mobilization, I read every word of the Geneva Convention that applies to taking care of prisoners to establish my basis,” Novotny said before the Congressional committee. Whenever situations arose, says Novotny, training or guidance would be developed and made public for the soldiers to adhere to. Follow-ups were made to ensure standards were being enforced. At the end of his panel’s testimony, Rep. Schrock offered Novotny praise, but it’s something the UNO graduated today still deflects. “They key was flexibility and having trained people who were qualified to do their job,” he says. “We were successful because of the quality of people that we had. It just wasn’t one person; I’ve said over and over and over, it wasn’t me. It was the total group, the total spectrum that we had, the good people that we had from the Omaha area, from Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas. That’s what got us through. That’s the reason why we were successful.” Hey, even John Wayne needed help every now and then. UNOALUM

ob Danenhauer, the University of Nebraska at Omaha athletic director for the past seven years, resignedAug. 18. Danenhauer’s resignation is effective November 1. He will become the coordinator of athletics and supervisor of physical education for the Omaha Public Schools system. “I will always love my alma mater,” Danenhauer said in a news release. “But you can never pick and choose when opportunities come up. I am looking to downsize my life and do what’s best for me and my family.” UNO Chancellor Nancy Belck named William Wakefield as interim director of athletics. Wakefield, a professor of criminal justice at UNO, has served as the NCAA Division II Faculty Academic Representative for the past five years. He also is a current member and past chair of the Athletic Committee, which serves as an advisory group to UNO Athletics. Danenhauer became the UNO director of athletics In July 1997 after nearly two years as the assistant athletic director. Under his leadership, the UNO athletic program has undergone a major facelift. Not only have programs been added which have increased the number of sports and participating student-athletes, but the facilities have undergone significant changes, too. The Mavericks added Division I ice hockey, which began play in October 1997 and has been one of the national leaders in attendance each season. Danenhauer was instrumental in helping the Mavericks attain membership in the prestigious

Central Collegiate Hockey Association, which boasts such national powers as Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State. “As UNO's athletic director, Bob Danenhauer guided the program's renaissance,” UNO Chancellor Nancy Belck said. “He leaves the program strong, vital and well-prepared for future success.” Danenhauer played an integral role in the $6.6 million Danenhauer Years Sapp Fieldhouse • Men’s Division I Hockey expansion/renovation project, team added, 1997 which began in July 1997 and

was completed in September • 15 North 1998. The project added more Central than 40,000 square feet and Conferrenovated the existing 71,664 ence champisquare feet of space in the onships Fieldhouse. • Two national champiDanenhauer was an allonships—Softball 2001, North Central Conference Wrestling 2004 defensive lineman with the Mavericks in 1980 and later • Top 15 national rankings went on to play for Seattle and in nine sports Buffalo in the National • $6.6 million Sapp FieldFootball League. After earning house expansion/renohis degree at UNO in 1982, he vation project completwas head wrestling coach at ed September 1998. Millard North in 1985-88 and twice was named district coach of the year. He went on to become the head coach at Hays, Kansas, High School from 1989-92 and earned a master’s degree from Fort Hays State in 1993. He was the athletic director and assistant principal at Omaha’s Millard South High School in 1994-95. Danenhauer was one of the founders of the Maverick Beef Club in 1994 and served as the group’s president until his appointment to UNO.

New faces in Fieldhouse spaces

everal new faces are pacing the Sapp Fieldhouse halls with three sports recently adding new assistants. Maurtice Ivy Former All-American Maurtice Ivy joined the staff of head women’s basketball coach Patty Patton Shearer as a part-time assistant. Ivy, an Omaha Central High School graduate, was the Big Eight Player of the Year for Maurtice Ivy Nebraska in 1988

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while leading the team to the conference championship. She was a twotime Kodak second-team All-American for the Cornhuskers and later played profesionally in the Women’s Basketball Association for five seasons. She is a 1998 inductee into the Nebraska Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

Todd Jones Todd Jones, an assistant hockey coach at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for the past three seasons, joined UNO hockey as an assistant. Jones began his coaching career in 1995 at North Dakota as an undergrad-

uate assistant and goaltender coach. He served as assistant coach/general manager for Sioux City in the United States Hockey League for three seasons, was head coach and general manager for Thunder Bay in the USHL, then head coach and general manager for Fernie in the America West Hockey League. Guy Fish Guy Fish was named second assistant to UNO head volleyball coach Rose Shires. He has more than 10 years of coaching experience at the collegiate, junior club and high school levels.

Fall 2004 • 33

Assessing the Threat I

n a post-9/11 world, the United States faces a nagging question—how do we stop terrorists from ever striking again? UNO alum Dean Olson is discovering the answers as he pursues a master’s degree from the Homeland Security Leadership Development Program headquartered at the Naval Postgraduate School. The distance-learning program seeks to win the war against terrorism by developing future leaders from local, state and federal organizations responsible for homeland security. Students from across the United States were chosen from among hundreds of applicants based on their previous homeland security achievements and demonstrated leadership abilities. As part of the 18-month program, Olson travels to Monterey, Calif., where he engages in classroom training the first two weeks during each of the six quarters required for graduation. The rest of the coursework is completed through interactive web-based learning and includes topics such as: Critical Infrastructure: Vulnerability Analysis and Protection; Law Enforcement and Judicial System Issues in Homeland Security; and, Psychology of Fear Management and Terrorism. When he finishes in September 2005, Olson will be the first Nebraskan to graduate from the highly competitive program.

Law and Order Pursuing the lawless has been a passion for the 53-year-old Olson since he played cops and robbers as a child with his three brothers while growing up in Minneapolis. But life has a way of taking detours. After he married, Olson accepted a job with Firestone, Inc., with plans of becoming a tire center regional manager. A transfer brought him to Omaha, where he saw an intriguing newspaper ad for positions with the police and sheriff’s departments and state patrol. Olson knew he had found his calling. “I passed the tests for all three,” he says. “The sheriff’s department was the first to hire so I took that job and I’ve never regretted it.” A 26-year veteran of the department, Olson obtained a bachelor’s degree criminal justice from UNO in 1985, then followed with a master’s degree in public administration in 2000. He also completed the FBI National Academy graduate course in Quantico, Va., with an emphasis in Clinical Forensic Psychology. The case he profiled for his degree involved a serial rapist who had multiple sexual obsessions and had violated at least two women in the Omaha area. Olson tracked the perpetrator for nearly three years before arresting him in Massachusetts and extraditing him to Nebraska—where the convicted rapist was sentenced to 16-plus years. Through his years in Douglas County law enforcement, Olson served as bureau commander for vice-narcotics and crime scene investigation. He is quick to point out, though, that doing CSI was not nearly as sexy as the popular TV show portrays. Olson called the CBS drama with its high-tech gadg-

34 • Fall 2004

By Shelly Steig

ets and neatly-solved mysteries “typical Hollywood glamorization.” Never Forget On 9/11 Olson was in charge of security at Omaha’s Hall of Justice and Civic Center. He first found out about the attacks while filling up the sheriff’s department company car at an OPPD service station. As he gassed up the Dodge Stratus, Olson nodded in recognition at another employee topping off his tank. It was around 8:30 a.m. central time and his coworker, who was listening to a radio, said, “You know a plane just crashed into the world trade center.” Olson responded, “Oh, really. Well just a few years ago I was on top of the World Trade Center on a tour. Which tower was hit?” The other guy shrugged and said, “I don’t know. The story is still unfolding.” As TV and radio stations broadcast the news that another plane had struck a second tower, Olson realized this was not a random tragedy, but a full-fledged attack. “I didn’t feel anything like anger or frustration because I was responsible for a lot of people in the building,” he recalls. “I kind of went into auto mode. The anger and the frustration came later when I had time to sit back and reflect on things.” Olson decided to positively direct that anger when he saw information for the Homeland Security program in an online catalog. Because he felt that bringing homeland security to the local level was vital since previous defense strategies—where homeland security was regarded as a vague, rare threat and law enforcement agencies treated terrorism as a criminal act that happened overseas, not inside the U.S.—were passé, Olson applied, wrote multiple essays and provided numerous recommendations. “Because of the way the federal and state systems are structured it was highly fragmented, and law enforcement, especially at the local level, didn't have a lot of homeland security duties per se. I thought it would be nice to develop a leadership capability that could more effectively protect the citizens of this area.” He was accepted and since has completed three courses and is enrolled in three more. Although he still works full time at the sheriff’s department heading the criminal investigations bureau, the department has been fully supportive and allows him to study at work. It’s a worthwhile trade-off, since Olson, whose wife and two grown children also graduated from UNO, plans to stay in Omaha. Because Olson believes homegrown terrorists who seek alliances with international groups are an overlooked menace, he has focused his graduate thesis on creating an early warning and threat assessment procedure (called the Terrorism Potential Index) that will identify violence-prone splinter factions from domestic extremist protest groups. It’s a frightening scenario, but one that with his education and experience, Olson is determined will never play out.

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Fall 2004 • 35

Man of Letters

By Les Valentine

el Weber likes to keep busy. So even though he “retired” after 20 fast-forwarding years as UNO chancellor, that doesn’t mean he’s remained in neutral. The 72-year-old Weber left UNO in 1997, but soon after became president of the Omaha Community Foundation, a post he held until his second retirement, in July 2003. In recent months he has remained active in the community by serving on local boards, by cochairing Omaha By Design (an effort to develop urban design standards for the city), and by chairing the committee charged with selecting a new director for the Omaha Symphony Orchestra. Combined with speaking engagements, family and travel, he has kept busy and remained content. Naturally, then, he took on more. Early in 2003, UNO alumna Betty Davis (’56), executive president of the Historical Society of Douglas County, asked Weber for help preparing for publication the letters of Joseph Barker Jr. Among a collection donated to the historical society several years ago by Charles and Mary Martin, the letters were penned from Omaha by Englishman Joseph Barker Jr. between 1866 and 1871, a time when the community was very much part of the American frontier. Weber was intrigued by the suggestion that he become involved with the Barker correspondence. Given his love of Omaha and his long-time interest in the past (he has an undergraduate degree in history) the project seemed

36 • Fall 2004

like a natural fit. Weber eventually agreed to help, but admits now that he at first did not have a complete understanding of the immense amount of time and effort the project would require. “Betty Davis misled me,” Weber says with a teasing smile. The Barker correspondence is a gold mine for Omaha history buffs. Joseph Barker Sr., a Methodist clergyman, moved his family, including wife

Frances, daughter Mary Jane and sons George and Joseph Jr., to Ohio from England in 1849. Seven years later, the Barkers relocated to a homestead near Omaha, Nebraska Territory, where the elder Barker and his two sons began the family real estate business. In 1860, Rev. Barker moved back to England and his family followed shortly thereafter, leaving their considerable financial interests in the hands of agents and friends. Six years later, 35-year-old Joseph Jr. returned to Omaha to oversee his family’s holdings.

He remained in touch with his family through a voluminous correspondence including 221 letters written from 1866 through 1871. Unfortunately, the letters from England in response have been lost. What survives from Barker are discussions of various business matters, including the construction and sale of buildings, the levels of taxation required for city improvements, and the Union Pacific railroad. As Weber relates, Barker had an “obsession” about the future location of the Union Pacific railway bridge spanning the Missouri River. Construction of the transcontinental railroad west from Omaha began in earnest after the Civil War and continued until its completion in 1869. A bridge over the Missouri River was needed to connect the railway with the East. There was intense interest in the location of this bridge: if it crossed the river at Omaha, property values within the city would raise considerably. Weber describes Barker’s reaction as one of “eternal joy and relief” when the Union Pacific announced in March 1868 that the bridge would be built between Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa. The structure was completed and in use by March 1873. But Barker also provided wonderful details about daily life in frontier Omaha. Weber imagines this “astute social observer” traveling around the city with a notebook, meticulously recording his observations. When this “young man about town” discussed late 1860s Omaha, he described a bustling settlement full of beauty and potential. Though Omaha had a long way to go before it could be compared to cities in England, it was an optimistic community where the sounds of hammers and breathtaking sunsets were commonplace.

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The challenge that Weber and fellow editors Don Snoddy and Barry Combs accepted in September 2003 was to create and publish exact transcriptions of each letter in the Joseph Barker Jr. collection. The editors hoped that the first of a two-volume set of correspondence (more than 120 letters) would be published during the fall of 2004. The project turned out to be much more challenging than Weber expected. Since the objective was an “exact” duplicate, the editors needed to transcribe every page of correspondence precisely, including quirky “old English” spellings (Weber claims that Barker “never seems to spell a word the same way twice.”) as well as errors in grammar and punctuation. This was not an easy task. The nearly 150-year-old words of Barker were written in mid-19th century longhand on extremely thin paper and included many unfamiliar names and places. Progress was slow and frustrating early on (some of the transcriptions reached 15 typed pages) and Weber admits that he wondered more than once how he had ever gotten involved in this project. Eventually, the speed and efficiency of the work increased as the editors became more familiar with each other and with Barker’s handwriting The first volume, including transcriptions, footnotes, maps, photographs and a glossary of names mentioned by Barker, should be to the printer by early October and published sometime in November. Work then will begin on Volume 2. Weber is convinced that when the entire project is finished, the letters of Joseph Barker Jr. will be a unique and important “first-person history” of very early Omaha; a resource of interest both to scholars and the general public. The combination of retirement and activity suits Del Weber quite well. Although he misses UNO (“That’s really where my heart is”), he keeps aware of issues related to the university and he generously continues to offer the community his time and expertise. Asked how his retirement years are progressing, Weber quickly responds that his life is just right. “I can’t imagine a better existence than I’ve got. I’m involved, I’m excited about it; but yet I’m not overwhelmed.”

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Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Fall 2004 • 37

Gambling is just one of his passions, though. The 1996 UNO graduate also loves the links. “I love golf,” he says. “I’ve played since I was 7 or 8 years old.” Like many avid duffers, Hawk became a big fan of the Golf Channel, “from the beginning.” Eventually, Hawk’s two passions bore an idea—a cable television network devoted to gambling—that wouldn’t go away. “It’s getting more and more popular,” he thought. “Why isn’t there a channel devoted to it?” Now, after nearly two years of research and capital-raising, Hawk and his partner, Robert Carlsson, are about to take an $82 million roll of the dice that their Casino and Gaming Television channel will pay off. With a launch expected by the end of 2004, it appears they will at least be at the table.

Council Bluffs native (St. Albert High School Class of 1990), the 32-year-old Hawk began his venture with no experience in the cable TV network industry, but with plenty of expertise in the key to starting one—a background in finance. While attending UNO, Hawk worked with the Jim Hawk Group, a Council Bluffs company that his grandfather founded 40 years ago. He became head of finance for the company, the largest distributor of Great Dane truck trailers in the country. Later, Hawk founded Global Financial Group, one of the largest cashreceivable financing companies in the Midwest. He and Carlsson, an investment banker from Chicago, were friends long before Hawk pitched his cable TV dream. David “He just absolutely loved it,” Hawk remembers. Initial research gave the partners hope that the dream could become a reality. “There are 25 million Americans who play golf, and of those 25 million Americans, there are 10 to 12 million who play more than twice a year,” Hawk says. “I saw that there were 53 million Americans who went to a casino last year, and they made 300 million visits.” That compares to 106.5 million visits to major and minor league baseball games in the same span. According to an American Gaming Association poll, Americans in 2002 legally wagered more than $63 billion. “That opened my eyes a little bit,” Hawk says of such numbers. Hawk and Carlsson started their journey toward becoming cable TV executives with baby steps. Hawk chuckles at their early inquiries. “We spent about a month (January 2003) just surfing the Net on how you start a cable network. Obviously, we had no clue. We saw a lot of junk. There was one guy out there called the Cable Maven. For $159 bucks you got a starter kit on how to start a cable network.” The partners eventually went to such leading cable providers as Comcast and Time Warner for help. They were directed to Vanguard Media, which was interested enough to sign a contract to take the concept to the next level. Market research proved to Vanguard that the idea wasn’t an insur-

mountable game. The $82 million Hawk and Carlsson raised showed that the entrepreneurs were willing to back their bravado with bank. Now it was time to hire the experts who could make the network a success. “I don’t care what business it is,” Hawk says, “it’s all about people, the right people. We needed to bring on people who really understand this, understand the idea, like the idea and have major experience and have done this before.” The first hire, as president and CEO, was Nickolas J. Rhodes, part of the team that built Speed Channel and the Outdoor Life Network. Next on board as chief financial and chief operating officer was William Keenan, previously senior vice president and chief financial officer of E! Entertainment for more than a decade. Hawk says it wasn’t money that lured Rhodes and Keenan to the venture. “These guys were very successful guys,” Hawk says. “Been there, done that, made a lot of money. Getting involved in a startup was exciting to them.” Steven A. Cheskin, former executive vice president and general manager of The Travel Channel, was hired to advise in the development and direction of Las Vegas and gaming-related programming. Cheskin was instrumental in nurturing the The Travel Channel’s highly popular World Poker Tournament, the first cable show of its kind. “Poker right now is going crazy,” Hawk says. “The Travel Channel started it with the World Poker Tournament. ESPN carries the World Series of Poker.” Hawk With the key players on board, a programming strategy for CGTV then was formulated, broken into five main categories: casino games; recreation; tournaments and events; sports; and entertainment (additional details can be found at the network’s website, www.cgtv.com). Though gaming instruction will be part of programming, it will be a small overall percentage. “I tell people it’s not an actual gambling channel. It’s more of a lifestyle channel in the industry with entertainment and information.” Since the network will be shown on digital cable systems, “there will be plans to make it interactive,” Hawk says, “but viewers won’t be winning money, but trips. The legal part of that is so unclear right now.” Hawk understands there will be naysayers who think his channel would feed a gambler’s addiction. CGTV will run occasional public service announcements directed at those needing help. “There is some addiction there,” Hawk acknowledges. “Some people have a problem with it. That’s true about everything. Of everyone who walks through a door in a casino, less than 2 percent of them have a problem. It’s a lot less percentage-wise than the problem with alcohol or anything else. It’s like anything else; you have to do it in moderation.” With $82 million at risk, though, there’s nothing moderate about Hawk’s gamble on gambling.

“It’s getting more

and more popular.

All In By John Martin Fey

avid Hawk was fascinated with the gambling industry before he was old enough to legally participate. He was pursuing his degree in finance at UNO when he made his first trip to Las Vegas and has made other trips to the entertainment capital of the world since. “I started going out there just for fun and everything else. I realized right away, I wasn’t going to make a living being a gambler. You have to do it for recreation. You learn that the hard way.”

38 • Fall 2004

UNOALUM

Why isn’t

there a channel devoted to it?”

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Fall 2004 • 39

Sons & Daughters of UNO Alumni

Send us news of your baby—we’ll send a T-shirt and certificate and publish the good news. Include address, baby’s name, date of birth, parents’ names and graduation year(s). Please send the announcement within one year of the birth to: Future Alums, UNO Alumni Association, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182. FAX (402) 554-3787. ot a picture of your little tyke? Send it our way as a print or in electronic format and we’ll post it on our website!

SUBMIT A FUTURE ALUM ON THE WEB www.unoalumni.org/communications/submitfa.asp Emma Elizabeth Harris, daughter of Bonny and Jim (’92) Harris of Tucson, Ariz. Eluria Benedicta Ahl, daughter of Katrina (Hess, ’90) and Chris (’90) Ahl of Omaha Jacob Jeffrey Richmond, son of Jeff and Jill (Dau, ’90) Richmond of Elkhorn, Neb. Brendan Michael Helms, son of Allen and Jennifer (Heeren, ’01) Helms of New York Thomas LeRoy Clark, son of Trent and Emily (’94; ’97) Clark of St. Paul, Minn.

Sophia Dawn Kohler, daughter of Alyssa and Don (’1984) Kohler of Council Bluffs, Iowa Joel H. Petersen, son of Clayton and Michelle (’01) Petersen of Omaha Anna Elizabeth Heldt, daughter of Jeff and Amy (Coffman, ’94, ’96) Heldt of Omaha

Brooke Taylor Deisley, daughter of Jason and Rebecca (Wetjen, ’99) Deisley of Lincoln, Neb. Braeden Lee Harris, son of Amberly and David (’95) Harris of Omaha Adelaide Nikole Martinsen, daughter of Aaron and Sara (Hoefer, ’98) Martinsen of Gahanna, Ohio

Asher Elwood Wilkinson, son of Eric and Jlynn (Asher, ’97) Wilkinson of Omaha

Aaron James Hazelwood, son of Leitha and Michael, ’98;’00) Hazelwood of Sandy, Utah

Kazuya Forest Jackson, son of Maki and Frank (’89) Jackson of Frederick, Md.

Ava Rose Pugliese, daughter of Tara (Buzzell, ’99; ’01) and Billy (’01) Pugliese of Muskegon, Mich.

Luke James Weberg, son of Tricia and James F. (’98) Weberg of Omaha Audrey Mae Daubendiek, daughter of Jim and Kay (Mausbach, ’97) Daubendiek of Omaha

Brooklyn Eve Samuel, daughter of Jaclyn (Anderson, ’00) and Terrence (’01) Samuel of Omaha

Luke Thomas Broderick, son of Thomas and Tracy (Palmtag, ’97) Broderick of Lawrence, Kansas

Celestine Grace Pileri, daughter of Carl and Veronique (Greeley, ’99) Pileri of Silver Spring, Md.

Emily Jean Arens, daughter of Wendy and Greg (’00) Arens of Wabasha, Minn.

Benjamin Chad Hanson, son of Julie and Chad (’99) Hanson of Irving, Texas

Andrew Steven Thomsen, son of Shawna and Douglas (’01) Thomsen of Omaha

Aleczander John Kelsey and Rachel Marie Kelsey, twin son and daughter of Timothy and Michelle (Pearson, ’97) Kelsey of Omaha and grandchildren of Timothy (’75) and Madeline (Royce, ’90) Pearson of Russellville, Ark.

40 • Fall 2004

Alexander Edward Rose and Benjamin Richard Rose, twin sons of Nathan and Michelle (Molander, ’97) Rose of O’Fallon, Mo.

Breann Rachelle Bell, daughter of Dedrick and April (Anderson, ’94; ’96) Bell of Omaha

Peyton Edward Wallace, son of Paul and Jeanette (Anderson, ’00) Wallace of Lakeland, Fla.

Andrew Nathan Carlson, son of Rhonda and Brian (’92) Carlson of Omaha

Sara Elizabeth Hensley, daughter of Laura (Jacobsen, ’96) and David (’98) Hensley and granddaughter of Maria Rotella-Jacobsen, (’73) and Dean Jacobsen (’74), all of Omaha

Karlee Marie Payne, daughter of Debbie and Jeff (’82) Payne of Snohomish, Wash. Madelyn Coleen Knight, daughter of Wayne and Amy (Gilroy, ’01) Knight and granddaughter of Cindy (Hollins ’71) and John (’70) Gilroy of Waterloo, Neb. Alison Witt DeSordi, daughter of Jodie and Jim (’92) DeSordi of Omaha and granddaughter of Ron Witt (’62) of Omaha Nathan Michael Sheehy, son of Amy and Jim (’93) Sheehy of Plano, Texas Jake Ryan Daneff, son of Rachel (Bowley, ’95) and Joseph (’96) Daneff of Kansas City

UNOALUM

Class Notes

Future Alums

SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE ON THE WEB www.unoalumni.org/communications/submitcn.asp

1953 Larry A. Boersma, BA, is moving east, “to be closer to children and grandchildren.” Effective Oct. 1 he’ll be in Sarasota, Fla. He continues to publish books of animal photography and art. His latest,

Lost Alums -- 1953 C. Gordon Anderson Roberta M. Ayars Mark E. Barber Joseph F. Beck Dorothy S. Bell Wayne M. Boand Henry P. Bolek Henry P. Boskman Roscoe H. Brady Phyllis M. Meissner Brisby Doris Wilkerson Watters Brooks Howard Y. Bryan Patricia A. Smith Carlson Verna Jean Pruehs Chapman James R. Clark Wentworth Clarke Cecil W. Comstock William C. Corbin

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2 0 0 4

Flashback File

1938 Dale Wolf, BA, writes the following from his home in Omaha: “It is generally acknowledged that envy is not a virtue. Please allow me an exception. When I drive on Dodge Street past the UNO campus, I can’t help but envy all the facilities and accommodations that were only a far-off dream at the old campus at 24th and Pratt Streets. No stadium, no fieldhouse, no auditorium, no parking lots (few students had cars). Everything old, nothing new. The facilities that were available were wholly inadequate. The school officials had to rent outside facilities, e.g., home games in athletics and commencement. But one thing has not changed: the students then were as eager to learn and earn a degree as the students are today. They just had a few more handicaps, without the benefits provided by modern technology, viz. computers. 1952 Shirley H. Anderson, BA, writes from Wichita, Kansas: “My life is pretty much what it’s been for 30 years or so—I teach fitness classes in the water and on land as a certified instructor for YMCA and Park Board. I am a race walker. Also sing in symphony chorus, choir, a trio and as a soloist. Will have a great-grandbaby in August.

FA L L

Scary Steer E

ver wonder why small children—and, ahem, some adults—are afraid of mascots? The picture at right of an early UNO mascot goes some way toward an explanation. The photo was found at home by Joan Miller, the UNO Alumni Association’s director of fiscal affairs. She believes it was taken by her parents while they attended a UNO wrestling match in 1979. Miller’s brother, Dan Oliverius, was a Mav grappler at the time (he earned his BS in English in 1982). Keep in mind that the UNO mascot was just 8 years old since students in 1971 voted for the new Maverick moniker, replacing “Indians” as the school name (just 51 votes ahead of “Unicorns”). Fortunately for the kids, UNO since has had a “mascot makeover.”

“Creative Canine Photography,” was published in February. “Is selling well, we’re told,” he writes. 1960 David and Lois Carlsen, both BFA, both graduated with music degrees and now live in Blair, Neb. Both taught public school music throughout their careers. Their daughters, Janet and Barbara, also graduated from UNO with music degrees. Their son, Douglas, graduated from Arizona State University as a trumpet major and now plays in

the Minnesota Orchestra. 1961 Paul Raisig Jr., BGS, recently had published his book, “Letters From a Distant War: Vietnam from a Soldier’s Perspective.” Describing his two tours of duty during the Vietnam War in articulate detail, Raisig brings the Vietnam War to life in his historical memoir, allowing readers to walk in the proverbial combat boots of a man who trained South Vietnamese soldiers and commanded 600 paratroopers against the North Vietnamese. “Yet within these

Help us find these “Lost Alums” from the Class of 1952. Send news of their whereabouts to sgerding@mail.unomaha.edu

Jack R. Cotton Norris C. Crook Ruth A. Drawbridge Paul A. Duich John A. Dunlevy Carl L. Eby Douglas D. Epperson H. F. Etzel J. L. Evans Thomas B. Faris Ava Snyder Snyder Giles Anna C. M. Goecker Elton G. Greenwall D. A. Grey Ruthe L. Griffith Richard L. Haggard Mildred Hall Robert E. Heins Thomas Hickey Hope M. Howard

Victor P. Jennings Arden R. Jewett Robert G. Johnson Lewis Irvin Jones Bonnie Jean Coleman Kelly Richard Khangraw Mary Winter Winter Kocian Georgeanna Arline Walton Koutsky Kenneth D. Kremers Francis L. Kroll Tomas M. Lara Donald Edward Larson Charles P. Martin Tom G. Meyer Dana E. Moseley Joseph W. Nalty Malcom Nicholson Edward E. Nissen Cleventine L. Peevy

Charles L. Phillips Patricia Johannsen Pierce Patrick J. Pomphrey Anthony Quesada Conrad W. Rasmussen Roy E. Reeves Robert E. Reins Marie Meriwether Roberts Robert E. Rose Wendell F. Rosse Robert Rubenstein Myrtle Saf George M. Scott Keil B. Scott Donald Shanley Clarence E. Shillings Earl G. Skogman Claudius E. Smith William E. Snead John H. Solomon

Chester R. Steffey John L. Swanson Lilas L. Teller Greta Thomas Lowell R. Thompson Robert E. Tierney Earl C. True Alice Johanna Winther Trullinger A. Winston Turnbow Iola U. Vogt Margery Jones Jones Wolverton W. Dale Womer Marianne Yates Robert D. Young Delyle Roy Youngman

Fall 2004 • 41

Class Notes dark tales of war,” notes a press release, “Raisig has incorporated the love story between himself and the ones he left behind in America, exploring the foundations of love amidst gunfire and death.” To see what other alumni authors have written, visit the Association’s website at www.unoalumni.org/ alumniauthors/ 1963 Doug Primmer, BSBA, still lives in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but has a new email address: dprimmer@qwest.net 1965 Staryl C. Braisted, BGE, is retired after a career as a pilot for the U.S. Air Force and Pan American Airline. He now lives “in a golf com-

munity and trying my best to improve my game.” Send him email at snsb@pinehurst.net Raymond G. Branine, BGE, is twice retired: from the U.S. Air Force in November 1983 then from Westec Communications in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1998. “We enjoy summer vacations in Montana and Spokane, Wash.,” writes Branine, who lives in Mesa, Ariz. “The last two years I have been driving a school bus for Gilbert Public Schools.” Send him email at rbranine@earthlink.net Patricia McNamara, MS, in April received a second- and third-place award at the Santa Barbara County Fair for her watercolor paintings

More memorabilia ackie Davis, Jim Herren and Betty Laughlin Justice have been doing some spring-cleaning lately, and UNO Archivist Les Valentine is glad they have. All three responded to a Summer 2004 UNO Alum article requesting university memorabilia, submitting their treasures for inclusion in the UNO Library Archives collection. Davis, who lives in Bellevue, Neb., donated a handmade uniform worn by her as a member of the Indiannes drill team. The squad was formed in 1957, but the uniforms didn’t debut until the following year, when Davis joined the squad. Davis left OU but returned nearly three decades later, earning a BGS in 1985 and a master’s degree in urban studies in 1987. Herren, a 1960 graduate who now lives in Somerset, Pa., also provided a uniform—the No. 75 football jersey he’s wearing in the photo at right (from the 1960 Tomahawk yearbook). Herren also contributed a basketball warm-up and a physical-education shirt he and other P.E. majors wore. Herren graduated in 1960. Justice contributed sheet music to the University of Omaha School Song (above, right) composed in 1922 by David C. Robel, her uncle. Justice attended OU in the early 1950s and her husband, George B. Justice, graduated from OU in 1960. She lives in Raleigh, N.C. Jim Herren

42 • Fall 2004

FA L L “Fall” and “Spring,” respectively. 1966 Mike Moran, BS, was featured in the The Daily Camera of Boulder, Colo., for his role in spearheading New York City’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Moran, who headed communications for the U.S. Olympic Committee for 25 years, now is employed by NYC 2012. He previously was a sports information director at the University of Colorado, a post he also held at the University of Omaha. 1967 Clarice Krepela, BS, has finished her 12th year teaching pre-kindergarten for Omaha Public Schools, where she has worked for nearly 29

years. She has one granddaughter and another grandchild due in late October. 1968 Ree Schonlau, BFA, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. She created the center in 1985 and since has served as executive director. 1970 Carolyn B. Weber, lives in Oneida, Ill., and writes via email that she recently completed her doctorate of ministry in spirituality degree and graduated from the San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) in May. Her 250-page dissertation describes the retreat process she developed: “Sacred Journey of Healing: Helping

School Song U. of O. we’re here to boost you While our colors fly. Always true in all you do We’ll hold your banners high. We will always stand behind you Backing up that line—FIGHT. O-ma-ha we praise forever David C. Robel U. of O.

Her uncle graduated in 1924. The 1923 Gateway yearbook notes that “Very fortunate indeed has been the University in the way of music this year. A real school song has been written, officially adopted and published. David C. Robel is the composer of both the words and music, and the whole school has been benefited thereby. It is a stirring, melodious march tune, easy to sing, and easy to remember. At every mass meeting or school assembly it has been of great value in boosting school spirit and instilling the spirit of victory into our teams. It will continue forever, we hope, to create, to unify, and to magnify school spirit as it has already done during its brief existence.” If you have university memorabilia on hand, consider sending them our way. Your UNO-related memories from any era—yearbooks, t-shirts, pictures, publication clippings, etc.—will be passed on to UNO Archives. For more information contact Anthony Flott at aflott@mail.unomaha.edu or toll-free at UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-6282586). Items can be sent to: UNO Alumni Association, Memorabilia Request, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182-0010.

UNOALUM

Adult Female Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Grieve their Losses through Embodied Ritual and Reflection.” The retreats utilize the 11-circuit Chartresstyle labyrinth and creative reflection through art. The Rev. Dr. Weber is a Presbyterian pastor serving the United Church of Oneida, a federated Presbyterian Church (USA) and U. Methodist congregation. She is a Certified Labyrinth Facilitator through Veriditas: The World-Wide Labyrinth Project, and previously earned a master’s of divinity degree (1989) and a diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction (1997) from SFTS. She plans to continue offering the retreats to interested persons. Carolyn is the mother of another UNO alum, Christopher S. Kiper (’93). Email her at cbellew@winco.net. 1971 Wayne Henry, BSBA, joined the Omaha office of Stinson Morrison Hecker, LLP, in the general business division. His emphasis is on federal regulator rules, including tax-exempt status for hospital systems, Stark and Anti-kickback issues. He served for eight years with the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, where he tried federal tax cases. He currently represents hospital systems with respect to their tax-exempt status, including the new IRS enforcement initiative regarding “excess benefit transactions” and state challenges to property and sales use exemptions. He also represents non-profit taxexempt organizations involved in a variety of charitable activities and represents hospitals and nonprofit organizations in various tax matters. He lectures frequently and has authored articles concerning federal and state issues affecting w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

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Flashback File

A-Bomb Assistance in Ames From the Oct. 24, 1945, The Alumni Gateway

O.U. chemist had part in history-making A-bomb work on Iowa State campus

rom associate professor of chemistry to just plain “laborer” — and all within the twinkling of an eye. That’s the war experience of Omaha University’s Dr. Wm. K. Noyce. But it’s not really as bad as it sounds for the Chemistry Department professor, who spent the past year on the Iowa State campus helping to perfect the war’s greatest project—the atomic bomb. Being listed as a laborer in the 1944-45 Iowa State employee bulletin, says Dr. Noyce, was all a part of the difficult and necessary job of camouflaging A-bomb research centers from Jap and Nazi spies. If the Iowa publication had shown the sudden assemblage of some seventy scientists on the Ames campus, Nazi agents would have made every effort to see what was under way. Illustrative of the intense nervous strain under which the researchers labored at Iowa State is the habit of smoking four cigars a day, picked up by Dr. F.H. Spedding, director of the project, who had never smoked cigars before. Strict censorship by the F.B.I and army authorities made entrance to the least imposing looking building on the campus, reminiscent of prohibition days. Notices and posters placed at strategic positions warned against overconfidence, carelessness and neglect. They urged aggressive cooperation in maintaining the wall of security around the project. The situation became amusing at times, Dr. Noyce said. One poster in particular, which thundered, “Think!” Are you authorized to talk?” was mysteriously cut and pieced to read, “Are you authorized to think?” When the news of the atomic bomb was released and it finally was revealed there had been experimentation on the Iowa State campus, citizens of Ames wanted to know if there had been danger of the city being destroyed. Project Director Spedding said that, “at no time was the city or the surrounding territory in any real danger of being blown off the face of the earth, although there was personal danger to many individuals working on the project.” When asked about the nature of his work on the project, Dr. Noyce pointed out that what he did cannot be revealed at this time, if ever. “I can say, however, that I was engaged in laboratory work in metallurgy and physical chemistry,” he stated. “Even though the war is over, the district engineer still sends Dr. Noyce occasional reminders, warning him that any loose talk and speculation concerning the “Manhattan District” work, a pseudonym for the project, might “jeopardize the future of the nation and must be controlled.” Drew Pearson, radio commentator, has recently predicted that within two years atomic power will be used for automobiles. Asked for his opinion on this statement, Dr. Noyce seemed skeptical. He doubts very much if atomic power-driven cars will be common in the next two years, but, he says, “It may be that an experimental model will be developed by then.” Relaxing now for the first time in more than a year and a half, Dr. Noyce can’t help but think how close the Germans were to winning the war. Not until after final victory did the general public realize how important it was that American scientists win the race in the development of the powerful A-bomb.

tax-exempt status for healthcare providers. Lois M. Smith, MS, lives in Wahoo, Neb., and writes: “Retired in spring of 1990 after teaching eight years in Iowa and 27 years in Nebraska. Twenty-one of those years were in Wahoo.” Wayne D. Hanson, lives in Omaha and is retired again. He first retired from the U.S. Air Force, then from U.S. West (after 24 years

there). He spends his time playing trumpet and the drums with the Tangier Shrine Band, trumpet with the Iowa Western Community College band and taps for 100 to 200 military funerals each year for all veterans organizations. He also has an amateur radio operators license and is a private pilot. 1972 Ed Sullivan, lives in Granbury, Texas, and recent-

ly published “Shadow on the Sand” a spy novel exploring what happens when an unholy alliance of Mid Eastern terrorists and U.S. drug lords combine their resources to develop and deploy a small lightweight nuclear device that threatens the security of the entire world. A retired Air Force Colonel, Sullivan is a former navigator/bombardier with Strategic Air Command who held several command and staff posiFall 2004 • 43

Class Notes tions during his 28-year Air Force career. He flew combat missions on reconnaissance aircraft operating out of Thailand during the Vietnam war. A native of Quincy, Fla., he also holds a master’s degree in management from Troy State University. He and his wife, Linda, have two children and two grandchildren. “Shadow on the Sand” is available at major bookstores and online at PublishAmerica.com. Albert F. Hodapp, MA, lives in Mason City, Iowa. For his outstanding service to students, Hodapp, a school psychologist, was presented the Above and Beyond Award by Iowa's Governor Tom Vilsack and Lt. Governor Sally Pederson in June. 1973 Newell M. Swartz, BS, lives in Phoenix and is retired. He had attended UNO as a Bootstrapper, completing 27 hours in the spring and summer of 1973 while active duty as an Army Warrant Officer. He retired from the military after 20 years, in October 1976. He then joined the Arizona Highway Patrol, from which he retired in January 2002 after 25 years, at age 62. “Current hobbies . . . gold prospecting and raising dogs.” Send him email at roaddog2007@yahoo.com Francis Albert Dynan, BGS, lives in Deerfield Beach, Fla. He notes that he graduated when he was 32 while on the Bootstrapper program. “It seems like another time. It was in the previous century, and the memories are still there — but they seem as though they are from another life. I lost track of a single mother attending school, and I lost my naval friend when he passed away some time ago. I have seen much of the world. But the one thing that people need most — love and friendship — seems to have in a way decreased in the present world. Power, money, greed 44 • Fall 2004

has been replacing friendship and love. The principles of the foundation of this country, and others, are eroding. The universe is speeding up and man has lost his purpose unless he can negotiate from the principles of humanity rather than power and subjection. Thank you for the education UNO, U.S. Army, mankind.” 1974 Timothy A. Sestak, BGS, lives in Mukilteo, Wash., and recently was appointed as military program manager for Boundary Layer Research, Inc. BLR is an aerospace research and development firm in Everett, Wash. Sestak will coordinate ongoing activities for current programs and will increase their market in all the armed services. His goal is to make BLR Military Solutions the first choice worldwide for innovative aerodynamics solutions for legacy military aircraft. He spent 20 years with the U.S. Navy as a naval aviator. He also worked for The Research Triangle Institute, Boeing and TAS Engineering. Send him email at tim@blrvgs.com 1975 Kristena L. Limberg Kline, Assoc., lives in Tampa, Fla., and, with her husband, recently wrote a book. The couple wrote the novel “Estados Unidos/United States” based on the theme of an ambitious union between the United States and Mexico. Constructed for the novel by an actual sitting U.S. Senator, an act known as the Dow Amendment prescribes proposed conditions outlining changes to U.S.Mexican immigration laws. Kline also wrote, with coauthor Dr. Stephen Pew, a book on divorced parenting, “For the Sake of the Children.” Send her email at klinekris@aol.com 1976 Muhammad Shoaib Shahid, MS, lives in Lahore,

FA L L Pakistan, where he teaches in the department of allied psychology at Punjab University. He previously was a bilingual school psychologist for 10 years for the New York City Department of Education to take the post, which is through the Government of Pakistan’s Commission on Higher Education. Shahid, who earned his Ed.D in 1979 from the University of South Dakota, has written 16 clinical/professional books and 24 research articles on clinical practices. Send him email at drshoaibshahid@ hotmail.com 1977 Carol Ellis, MS, recently retired as principal of Omaha’s Belvedere Elementary School after eight years in that capacity. She didn’t go out quietly, though. The Massachusetts native won the Norbert & Charlette Schuerman Outstanding Principal Award for 2003-04, presented by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Norbert Schuerman, a former OPS superintendent, and his wife matched the $2,000 award presented to Ellis. 1978 Terry Rehmeier, BS, is in his 18th year as a sales representative for Retail Data Systems in Omaha. He is married to fellow UNO alum Sally Vrbanac (BS, ’83) 1980 Maria-Jose “M.J.” HumeresHubert, BA, is the European advertising manager for Wanadoo.com, an Internet service provider. She lives in Versailles, France, and since graduating has worked for Time magazine, TimeWarner and France Telecom Groupe, of which Wanadoo is a division. She is married with three boys. Send emails to mj.Hubert@wanadoo.fr 1982 Lorie Lewis, BSBA, is a senior vice president at

American National Bank in Omaha. She also is on the board of directors at Peoples National Bank, the Stephen Center and the Stephen Center Guild. Jeff L. Payne, BS, lives in Seattle, where he recently relocated to assume the real estate duties for the NW Region for ConocoPhillips and will celebrate his 30th year with the company in January. He and his wife, Debbie, have three children, including newborn Karlee Marie. Send him email at jpayne66@verizon.net 1983 Sally Vrbanac-Rehmeier, BS, is in her 21st year teaching for Omaha Public Schools. She currently teaches second grade at Fullerton Elementary Magnet Center in Omaha. She is married to fellow UNO alum Terry Rehmeier (BS, ’78). Send her email at sally-rehmeier@ops.org 1984 Ed Lehman, BSBA, writes from Omaha that “after 20 years in the corp. world (more or less) I’ve taken the leap and gone into business for myself as a realtor. Associated with Prudential Ambassador in Omaha. Send him email at ed_zepplin@msn.com Annie Bowersox, MSW, has worked for the Lawrence, Kansas, school district since 1994. “Have served children and families of preschool age through elementary. Have had social work interns from both KU and Washburn. Grandmother of two preschoolers! Hard to believe left UNO 20 years ago.”

Flashback File

Graduate No. 2, 1912 From the June 3, 1912, Omaha World-Herald POO BAH HAS NOTHING AT ALL ON MR. JEROME HE IS OMAHA UNI.’S GRADUATING CLASS, FROM PRESIDENT TO SERGEANT-AT-ARMS IN MODEST CAP AND GOWN, HE WILL RECEIVE DIPLOMA—HEARS BACCALAUREATE.

here is a grand old song somewhere in the files concerning the gent who devoured everybody else on the ship, and thus became the whole crew, from captain to the bos’n tight and the mid-shipmate. Although Harry Jerome is no cannibal, his position might well be likened to that of this famous starving sailor. Mr. Jerome is the graduating class of the University of Omaha, ’12. He is the president, first, second and third vice presidents, secretary, treasurer, attorney general, advisory board, committee on arrangements, committee on refreshments, committee on ways and means, valedictorian, class prophet, class historian, class poet, sergeant-at-arms and leader of dear old ’12 in every branch of intellectuality and sports. Although but three years old, Omaha University will hold its second graduation services Tuesday evening at the varsity gymnasium, twenty-fourth and Pratt streets, when Governor Aldrich will deliver the principal address. Last year Miss Claudia Galloway was the only graduate, so Mr. Jerome’s plight is not a new one. Next year at least twenty will graduate. There was some argument in the class of 1912 as to whether a cap and gown should be worn. As committee on arrangements, Mr. Jerome recommended they be used, but was later forced, as president, to voice his opinion against

1985 Laura Casolini-Kleinkort, BS, lives in Greenacres, Fla., and writes: “After obtaining my master’s in exercise physiology at UT-Austin, I moved to Florida in 1989. I am now an RN, working in a surgical/trauma ICU. I am married with a 5-year-old, Ryan. I would love to hear from any of my classmates who may remember me.” If you remember, send her email at Patrick_kleinkort@msn.net James J. Sanders, MA, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and lives in Coto De Caza, Calif. He writes: “After my master’s degree from UNO I wrote a self-help book, “I Already am What I Want.” I married

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w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Kathy Barnes and we now have children Jill (11) and Matt (10). I now am in private practice.” Send Sanders email at james.sanders@cox.net Clif Banner, MPA, lives in Nashua, N.H., and is lead engineer with JEFX. His son, Ben, is graduating from St. Anselm College while his other son, Aleks, completed a pre-college artistsin-residence at Rhode Island School of design. Clif completed his fifth U.S. Air Force experiment in command and control at Nellis Air Force Base this summer. He led an engineering effort for more than 2,500 engineers and participants. “Moved U.S. Command and Control ahead by 24

this. He then called himself in as advisory board, and a heated discussion ensued. It was found necessary to summon himself as attorney general, and, in this capacity, he decided in favor of the move, but then, as treasurer, he had to bring up the matter of expense. Being secretary, he then suggested the case be brought to a vote of the entire class, and it was settled that the cap and gown should be worn. The minority was greatly incensed, and Treasurer Jerome told President Jerome he couldn’t see where the money was coming from. Whereupon President Jerome referred the matter to the committee on ways and means, consisting of Mr. Jerome. It now is understood, from Secretary Jerome, that the cap and gown will be worn. The sergeant-at-arms, Mr. Jerome, finally had to eject the entire kit-and-boodle of ’em from the assembly room, so warm did the talk become, and Mr. Jerome had to lead “himselves” out of the place by the nap of the neck. Besides holding down these weighty offices, Mr. Jerome is one of the most popular men in the university. He has been a member on the debating team both years there has been a team, and was president of the debating society in 1911. Jerome is a tennis player, at present holding the school championship, and, with Neal Parsons, holds the doubles championship. He played center on the basketball team for the past two years, and always was complimented on his accuracy in making throws. Republished with permission of Omaha World-Herald.

months,” he writes. Send him email at clif.banner@baesystems.com 1987 Janet Fidler, MS, was named one of two recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Award as established by the Phillip and Terri Schrager Foundation to honor Omaha’s District 66 teachers. Fidler is a guidance counselor at Hillside Elementary School. She has worked for Westside Community Schools for 17 years. She received her award May 27, along with $10,000. Scott C. Roberts, BSBA, recently became vice president of finance and administration for the Omaha

Performing Arts Society (OPAS). OPAS is responsible for: management and operations of the Orpheum Theater and the new Omaha Performing Arts Center; presentation of a variety of performing arts events; and providing educational efforts to support, enhance and expand appreciation for the arts. He lives in Omaha with his wife and two daughters. Send him email at sroberts@ omahaperformingarts.org 1989 Barbara A. Ferguson, BSBA, has become a partner, along with Margaret Mark, in the firm of Mark & Ferguson, LLP. Thomas J. Wik (BGS, ’88) is of counsel to the organization. The firm proFall 2004 • 45

Class Notes vides comprehensive legal service to clients in a variety of areas. 1993 Carl L. Knight, BS, lives in Seattle and is CEO of a new start-up company, Knightngale Enterprises. The company manufactures Carl’s Best Bodacious Sauce, “that comes in mild, medium-hot, hot and 5-star hot,” he notes. “Knightngale Enterprises goal is to capture 1 to 3 percent of the sauce market in the Northwest.” Send him email at knightngale@ bwwonline.com Jim Sheehy, BSBA, lives in Plano, Texas. Send him email at teetwogreen@aol.com 1995 Jerel Geren, BS, is an activity specialist at the Grand Island Veterans Home. She and her husband, Pat, still live in Central City, Neb. “I am participating in gerontology and reimbursement treatment teams with the American Therapeutic Recreation Association.” 1996 Mike Jensik, BS, will take command of the 230th Military Police Company on Sept. 14 in Baghdad, Iraq. Jensik, who contributed an article on his Iraq experiences in the Summer 2004 Alum, will send additional pictures and an article related to work the 230th will be doing with the Iraqi Police and Iraqi Highway patrol. He anticipates the company redeploying to Kaiserslautern, Germany, in March 2005. Upon his return from Iraq, Jensik plans on pursuing an MBA. 1996 April M. Davis, MPA, graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary with a master’s of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary at the school’s 192nd commencement exercises. The master of divinity 46 • Fall 2004

FA L L Flashback File

NCAA Game of the Week, 1952

1937 1938 1939

is a three-year graduate degree that is the basic professional degree for ministry. Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812 as the first theological school of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. It is the largest Presbyterian seminary in the country. 2000 Jocelyn Mann, BSBA, lives in West Des Moines, Iowa, and takes email at jocelyn72077@msn.com Crystalle M. Cotton, BSMIS, lives in Omaha and notes that, “In June of 2004, I was accepted to the University of Phoenix as an online student. I am pursuing the bachelor of science in busi-

1933 1934 1935 1936

From the December 1952 Injun alumni newsletter his year’s homecoming was one of the most outstanding in the history of Omaha University. All events were well attended by alums who made their annual excursion to the Alma Mater November 14 and 15. Alums kicked off homecoming activities as early as November 7 by starting the relay race to Doane. Purpose of the race, which was carried out by University alums and students who each ran one mile, was to deliver complimentary football tickets to the mayor of Crete where Doane College is located. Alumni President Charles Ammons made the presentation to the mayor there. On Friday, former grads participated in the student parade and pep rally in downtown Omaha. Alumni headquarters were opened at the “Tepee” in the Fontenelle Hotel and activities got into full swing. Saturday’s (Nov. 15) events began at 9:30 a.m. with alums and students greeting the Doane team, which arrived via bus at the University. The team was escorted to the Fontenelle where they ate an early lunch in preparation to meeting the Omaha Indians. In a spirited gridiron battle, the Indians scalped Doane by 27-0. The pigskin battle was carried on WOW-TV as “NCAA Game of the Week” in this area. Sponsored by General Motors Corporation, the telecast got underway at 1:45 in the afternoon and the Omaha-Doane game was enjoyed by a huge audience of football fans in this area.

In Memoriam

1940

1941 1942

1943 1944 1945 1946 1948 1949

1950

1951

Kenneth L. Hubler Claris M. Wisner Elsa A. Volker Alden C. Thornton Elaine L. Coulter Nygaard Lucille Larson Jones Elinor M. Johnson Thornton Ferne M. Box Edgar W. Kersenbrock Elizabeth A. Pederson Paul J. Stageman Jane E. Cook Cawthon H. Craig Christiansen Sara Persson Ralya Salvatore J. Veneziano George H. Neill Grace M. Walker Ruth M. Thorup Herman-Nielsen Mary A. Kay Grace I. Pfeiffer Denelda D. Petersen Inez M. Roesky Brainerd R. Stocks, Jr. Ruby Farr Thorndike Mamie N. Hoffman Viner Clarence J. McDermott Jane H. Harkert Muchemore Rex V. Phinney Frances H. Thompson Shirley M. Mitchell Bendorf Edgar L. Burham Marilyn J. Duffy Schoneck Frances L. McDermott Tolliver Ernest C. Vrana Norma Carlisle Muth Al J. Wittmer Donald L. Zern Jack D. Rogers Al J. Wittmer Francis W. "Bill" Cronin

1954

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1957 1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

Christina A. Jensen Hedelund

From the Fall 1951 Injun newsletter: Warren Cook, president of the 500-member Quarterback Club, visits with 1952 OU Football Coach Lloyd “Wild Hoss” Cardwell.

ness/management.” Send her email at cmc6954@hotmail.com Brian Cain, BS, was awarded a doctor of optometry degree during the 88th commencement of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. The college has graduated 20 percent of practicing optometrists nationwide.

in-depth study in the areas of damage control administration and training, systems, Damage Control Petty Officer Program requirements, equipment, maintenance, procedures, battle damage evaluation and containment techniques, firefighting, and chemical, biological, radiological defense procedures.

2002 John T. Walker, BS, recently graduated from the Damage Control Assistant course at Surface Warfare Officer School in Newport, R.I. Walker is an ensign with the U.S. Navy. The course is designed to provide prospective shipboard DCAs with training that includes

1952

1953

Phyllis J. Clark Kopecky M. Muriel Reep Abbie M. Schulze William A. Wynn William D. Brodbeck Donald E. Newman Mason S. Zerbe Gloria J. Lush Marilyn Groff Larsen Robert L. Womacque

Class Notes

1963

Jack R. Irwin Alfred C. Kummer Hildegard M. Dorn Podrebarac Kent J. Richens James A. Tesarek Harry "Fitz" Johnson Edward J. Pokropus Jacqueline L. Gaskill Peterson Lorene L. Shannon Arizona Bortic Wells Guy M. Blakey Mina Turnbull Preston Julia A. Badenhoop Simcoe Marie L. Strenger Tesarek Ronald A. "Jack" Bethke Raymond F. Jensen Kenneth Kloppenburg Mary T. Noyce Edward N. Palmer Robert R. Reid, Jr. Keith K. Surface Susie L. Fletcher Dickerson Patricia E. Drake Frank J. "Grubby" Hahn James A. Payne Jr. Mathew E. Pelzer Henry C. Sampers Casper Berger John A. Howard Leland E. Strecker Helen E. Peterson Walther Harold I. Wright Kenneth G. McGrew Gladys I. Kinaman Seachord James E. Schmitz Robert S. Stephan Selmer A. Sundby Merrill L. Shepard Ann Pence Glassco Robert Monty Campbell Robert J. Young John F. Gerrity Edward H. Higgins, Jr. Jackson B. Preston Arthur N. Ratner Virginia L. Sears Howard W. Whipple Ruth P. Nuckols Robert D. Peffley James K. Schumaker, Jr. John C. Thygerson Don A. Tippin

1965

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Betty J. Burgess Haas Richard H. Morley Henry L. Rauch Georgia McMahon Rogers George J. Schneider Joseph E. Chase James R. Frye Wilma C. Moore Charles R. Nolter Cecile S. Peltier Thomas W. Stringfellow Howard A. Thornhill Essie M. Wilson Mark S. Hallgren Helen M. Kostka Lester P. Lanelli Dewey T. Pfeiffer James C. Semerad Pauline B. Allen George E. McClain Raymond B. Sherman Frank J. Vidlak George R. Weaver Norman W. Hammes Donald F. Prochaska Harry Peter "H. P." Psomas Francis H. Quist Henry N. Schladt Robert A. Shankman Gilbert L. Berry Jerry M. Diggle Robert G. Campbell John D. Shaw Herbert L. Sklar Dennis D. Solko Joseph J. Coniglio David R. Reichert Eugene D. Hawkins Kathleen K. Heckenlively Oas Dorothy J. Young Parkins Robert E. Schroeder Herbert T. Sink Richard K. Thompson Lyle W. VandeVenter Woodrow W. Barbee, Jr. Raymond G. Bennett Beverly J. Anderson Kesting Willis J. "Bill" Strauss Michael C. Swift Coy L. Wells Theodora Meadows Thaddeus E. Pinkney Gary L. Robinson Joseph D. Strosnider

1973

1974 1975 1976 1978

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1983 1985 1986 1987 1988

1989 1990 1992 1994 1997 1998 2002

Willard E. Bailey Gene L. Baird David J. Bell George L. Benfer David J. Bissell Charlie E. Rodriguez Daniel S. Thiemann James J. Watkins Marvin L. Reynolds Lynn E. Misle Weiner Louie F. King Dorothy M. French Smith Brian T. Dunne Nicholas C. Syslo Virginia L. Carlisle Vicki A. Borst Gary L. Bowman Nancy Easley Uhl James D. Williams Larry E. Bernardini David E. Vencalek Juliette L. Shellander Cowdin Jeffrey L. Frolio Delores A. Morford Charles M. Wilhelmj James L. Dietz James E. Oberwetter Donald E. Robinson Eva Ann "Kay" Grabia Rex I. Ekleberry Donna L. Kearney Svehla Charles J. Blighton Paula Christensen Boroff Richard V. O'Neill Catherine A. Faulkner Patterson John E. Dickerson Linda J. Britson Miles Madeline E. Royce Pearson Susan A. Schmidt Scott R. Svehla Thomas D. McGuire Donald M. Holstein John F. Merkel Steven J. Kolvek Lawrence C. Young Eric R. Barnes

Submit your class note over the web at www.unoalumni.org What have you been doing since graduating from UNO? Your fellow alumni would like to know! Give us an update by filling out the form below. We’ll publish the news in a future issue of the UNO Alum and on our website. Send the news to Class Notes Editor, UNO Alum, 67th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182-0010, or Fax to (402) 554-3787.

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City ___________________________

Position________________________

State, Zip______________________

Is this a new

q Yes q No address?

News__________________________________________

Phone_____________________________

_______________________________________________

E-mail_________________________________________

_______________________________________________

May we post your name and

May the Alumni Association

_______________________________________________

your e-mail address on our

periodically share info with you

_______________________________________________

q Yes q No

website?

UNOALUM

1964

2 0 0 4

w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

q Yes q No

via e-mail?

_______________________________________________

Fall 2004 • 47

'image100 Ltd

All Aboard The UNO Alumni Association wants all graduates on board for the 2004 UNO Annual Fund. Donate today and you could win a 7-night Caribbean cruise! University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni Association W.H. Thompson Alumni Center Omaha, NE 68182-0010 Address Service Requested

Details on enclosed envelope

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #301 OMAHA, NE