UNO Alum - Summer 2003

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June 2003

IN THIS ISSUE:

No Bounds: Ryan Kuper is rockin’ LA ALSO: • CHARLIE PARKER REMAINS A STREET COP AT HEART • EX-MAV MARK MARTINEZ IS STILL PLAYING BALL • REALITY CHECK FOR DICK NOONAN WWW.UNOALUMNI.ORG WWW.UNOALUMNI.ORG

Call us toll-free at UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586)

The UNO Century Club W

$2,500 or more

hen the UNO Alumni Association started the first Century Club in 1973, the group of UNO supporters of $100 or more consisted of just 44 charter members. Membership since has grown to more than 3,600 individuals, all of whom share a common bond — their commitment to UNO. Through their generosity, Century Club members 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. More than 70 percent of all UNO Annual Fund donations come from Century Club members.

With their UNRESTRICTED gift, Century Club donors receive one of five personalized mementos (right), special recognition in an annual report and invitations to select events throughout the year.

Platinum

Golden $500-$999

Diamond $1,000-$2,499

Silver

Bronze

$250-$499

$100-$249

Join the UNO Century Club today — just fill out the form below and mail it to the UNO Alumni Association!

Welcome to the Club!

Thanks to these upgraded Century Club donors!*

Welcome and thanks to these first-time Century Club donors!* Bronze Tracy Abdouch Steven J. Berg Robert D. Black Bradley C. Boers Douglas J. Buchanan John J. Cepuran Christopher K. Corbit Larry R. De Roin Parsla V. Dineen Pamela Fischer Bobby L. Fisher Kathy R. Fliehler Susan & John Floerchinger

Xinglai Ge Paula K. Glissman Kimberly A. Hall Larry and Deanne Hammer Lyle O. Halstead Thomas S. Halterman Kenneth L. Hansen Ltc (Ret.) William A. Haskins Robert D. Hicks Terri J. Howell Margaret (Peg) N. Huss Earlynn Kolbo Randal Korth

Michael Jeanneret Robert H. Jeltema Howard M. Johnson Robin E. Johnston David & Mardene J. Kroeger Dan Lacy Barbara J. Larsen Bruce E. Lockwood Thomas L. Miles John R. Miller Daniel R. Morris Luanne M. Nelson Marta Nieves Paul G. Saathoff U.B. Stinson

Cheryl A. Straub Chad T. Wallace Diane Watkins Linda Ford Wendel Alan Wiederholt Thomas C. Wilson Silver Len G. De Barros Gold Chunghau Liu Qunfang Jiany

To Gold Stephanie & Brad Elting Michael J. Glaser Cherrianne Jacquart

To Silver Kristopher M. Kauss Kenneth E. Krawczyk Patti Matson Nancy C. Noack Patrick & Clare Prince Raymond E. Rogers Lloyd E. Roitstein Mark E. Ward

To Platinum Richard R. Fletcher Mark C. Jaksich

*From donor rolls March 1, 2003, through May 31, 2003

Save time and a stamp . . .Donate online at www.unoalumni.org

Return form to: UNO Century Club, UNO Alumni Association, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182-0010

Name

Yes, I want to Join the Club!

As you wish it to appear in our Annual Report

STEP 3—Mark payment information

STEP 1—Complete Name and Address

Address

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❑ Check enclosed for $ ❑ Bill me for $

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STEP 2—Check donor level

❑ Bronze Century

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Diamond Century $1,000 or more

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Platinum Century $2,500 or more

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Golden Century $500 or more

(Mark one )

. Payable to UNO Annual Fund. in

. month

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through my: Expiration Date:__________

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Get Bullishon Homecoming 2003!

Join us Saturday, Oct. 4 oin us for food, fun and freebies at UNO Homecoming 2003 Saturday, Oct. 4. Kids 12 & under of alumni attend FREE!!! Here’s the lineup:

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11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Pre-game picnic/ tailgate party at W.H. Thompson Alumni Center

• Free games and prizes for the kids • A pep talk from Coach Pat Behrns • Free face painting • UNO Mascot Durango • Amazing Arthur and his magic, juggling and balloon animals.

1 p.m.

UNO vs. So. Dakota St. Al F. Caniglia Field

• The Mavs commence their whipping!!!

All that for just $10 for adults. Kids 12 & under (of alumni) free!!!! Price includes ticket to the game, food & beverages. Sign up now!

RETURN FORM BY SEPT 28!!

To attend, fill out the form below, detach and mail with your 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

Sign us up for UNO Homecoming 2003!!!

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children’s tickets at no cost!. I have enclosed $

for the tickets.

Make checks payable to UNO Alumni Association

(please include children’s names and ages)

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June 2003 • 3

Contents

June 2003

Departments

Features

FROM THE CHANCELLOR 5

on the NO BOUNDS 10 cover

UNO alum Ryan Kuper rocks out in Los Angeles.

Meeting the budget challenges.

ASSOCIATION IN ACTION 6 Citations issued to pair of alumni.

PASSION FOR HER PROFESSION 12 Ginny Burns returns to UNO 35 years after becoming the first female grad of the criminal justice program.

AROUND CAMPUS 9 New grads added to alumni roll.

FUTURE ALUMS 24 Small, but awfully smart.

STREET COP 16 Former police officer Charlie Parker heads security for Omaha’s mayor.

CLASS NOTES 25 These folks know some stuff.

PLAYING BALL 20 Ex-Mav baseball player Mark Martinez is in the game on the streets and in the board room.

REALITY CHECK 22 What was alum Dick Noonan doing on a date with the Phyllis Diller?

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Contributors: Sonja Carbery, Tim Fitzgerald, Eric Francis, Warren Francke, Don Kohler, Nick Schinker Shelly Steig, Wendy Townley, Niles Harrison.

Alumni Association Officers: Chairman of the Board, Kevin Naylor; Past Chairman, Don Winters; Chairman-elect Steve Bodner; Vice Chairmen, Cookie Katskee, Adrian Minks, Rod Oberle, John Wilson; Secretary, Kevin Warneke; Treasurer, Dan Koraleski; Legal Counsel, Deb McLarney; President & CEO, Jim Leslie.

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Alumni Staff: Jim Leslie, President and CEO; Roxanne Miller, Executive Secretary; Sue Gerding, Kay Denney, Kathy Johnson, Records/Alumni Cards; Sheila King, Activities Coordinator; Greg Trimm, Alumni Center Manager; Joan Miller, Accountant; Anthony Flott, Editor; Loretta Wirth, Receptionist.

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4 • June 2003

Editor: Anthony Flott

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.

UNOALUM

Letter

From the Chancellor

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Meeting the challenges of budget reductions

s this edition of the UNO Alum goes to press, the Nebraska Unicameral has completed work on the state’s biennial budget. Overriding Governor Johanns’ veto of appropriations and revenue bills, legislators reinstated a 4.7 percent ($24.9 million) reduction to NU’s state general fund appropriation. This will amount to a $3.8 million reduction at UNO. Had the Governor’s veto been sustained and his original budget implemented, NU would have faced a 10 percent reduction, or a loss of more than $41 million in the first year of the biennium. Under this scenario, UNO’s budget would have been reduced $6.2 million.

While budget reductions are always difficult, we are grateful to the legislature for its stand in support of higher education. In particular, members of the Appropriations and Revenue Committees are commended for working together diligently to find solutions and compromises during this challenging budget situation.

In the March issue of the Alum, I outlined UNO’s response to the pending reduction, which included cutting administrative costs by more than $750,000, reorganizing, consolidating and creating savings wherever possible, and, most importantly, preserving academic quality. Throughout the process, we remained committed to achieving the goals established through Strategic Planning and academic prioritization.

Seven task forces, made up of students, faculty and staff, were established to review administrative structures for increased efficiency and effectiveness, possible consolidation, and potential savings. Task force progress, recommendations, and potential savings (where identified) follow.

Continuing Studies, Distance Education $150,000 and Public Affairs and Community Service Noting the large minority enrollment in CCS, and CPACS’ traditional commitment to serving minority communities—plus its overall public service mission—the task force recommended the restructuring of CCS as a division within CPACS. The Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree will be preserved with few if any changes; as will the Offutt program, a subset of the BGS program. Synergies in program development, delivery and administration will be achieved by combining the existing strengths of CCS and CPACS. First Year Experience (FYE) and Student Advising $200,000 This task force identified several possible consolidations to benefit students. It recommended US 1010 be incorporated into a four-credit hour FYE course. This recommendation would be implemented over the next biennium. The task force also recommended additional study of forming a First Year Center, to offer orientation, and advising to all first year students. The report supported reducing the number of at-risk students admitted by review.

Faculty Development, Service Learning and Social Work $200,000 The elimination of current funding was recommended for the University Committee on Research (UCR), University Committee for the Advancement of Teaching (UCAT), Teaching Circles and Research Triangles to help meet budget cuts. However, UCR and UCAT activities will be maintained by faculty committee oversight. Teaching Circle and Research Triangle members are encouraged to continue meeting, organized by faculty associates, who will have workload adjustments to support each activity. Similarly, a faculty associate will be assigned to oversee core programs within Faculty Development, including Teaching Analysis By

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Students (TABS) and the Annual Faculty Development Workshop.

Sponsored Programs and Research, and the Graduate Office will provide operational support for UCR. The Service Learning Academy, which has attracted external donor support, will continue to operate.

Business Administration and Information Science and Technology This task force continues to explore areas of present and future collaboration and intersection. Economic development activities, UNO/UNMC partnerships, certificate programs, executive training, curriculum and joint degree programs are under consideration. Long term, increased effectiveness and efficiencies in serving students and the community are expected.

Fine Arts, Communications and Radio/Television The committee recommends the formation of work groups to consider the complex set of governance issues and potential benefits, resulting from the formation of a new college. Potential savings will be realized from increased coordination and economies of scale in operations.

Student Internships, Outreach Activities $100,000 Disabilities & Career Services This group recommends that the consolidation of external contacts related to internships, career services, and other outreach activities be coordinated through a centralized ‘one-stop shop.’ Under this scenario, content and evaluation for credit-bearing internships will remain in academic units. The internship application process will be automated, and students better served by expanding existing college systems.

All ADA regulatory and compliance matters for students, faculty and staff, will be consolidated under the Assistant to the Chancellor for Diversity and Equal Opportunity. Human Resources would be responsible for the processing of student workers. Multiple points of contact will be eliminated and efficiencies realized.

University Affairs and Support Functions $200,000 of the Chancellor’s Office Savings will be achieved through reduction or reassignment of staff and responsibilities, thereby maximizing resources and improving operations.

To date, the task forces have identified $850,000 in savings, and additional economies are expected, to ultimately increase UNO’s efficient use of limited resources. Students, faculty and staff worked diligently in a very short time frame, to identify and discuss the issues and develop these recommendations. The reports reflect vision, insight and a true willingness to ‘think outside the box,’ across college and administrative functions.

Alumni and Association board members’ encouragement is appreciated as we work through the reduction process. Our campus has shown true leadership and I am very proud of our accomplishments. UNO will continue its forward momentum with your continued support.

Until next time

Nancy Belck Chancellor

June 2003 • 5

Association in Action Citations for Alumnus Achievement Issued

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he UNO Alumni Association bestowed its Citation for Alumnus Achievement on Leonard de Barros and Steven S. Martin during the university’s spring commencement May 9 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

The citation, instituted in 1949, is presented each year at UNO’s spring, summer and winter commencements. The highest honor presented by the association, the Citation encompasses professional or career achievement, community service, involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to UNO. Kevin Naylor (’78), chairman of the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors, presented the awards.

Leonard de Barros Leonard de Barros is senior vice president for Motorola, Inc., serving as general manager of Motorola Professional Services, Americas Region. He received his bachelor’s degree from UNO in 1971.

De Barros has more than 30 years experience in the telecommunication and service industry. He has an extensive background in business, research and development, engineering, manufacturing and logistics, marketing, and sales.

De Barros joined Motorola in 1972 and has held positions of increasing responsibility in the company's communications, microelectronics and paging and messaging businesses.

Following two successful assignments in the Far East, de Barros in 1986 joined the Paging Division as manager of Technical Operations. He was appointed Project “Bandit” operations manager in 1988, where his technical contribution to the industry has been featured in several books.

In 1993, de Barros was promoted to general manager of the newly formed Global Paging Infrastructure Division. He became general manager of the Advanced Messaging Systems Division later that year with the task of developing the twoway messaging business/markets for paging. That same year the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference recognized him as Hispanic Engineer of the Year for Professional Achievement.

De Barros was promoted to corporate vice president of Motorola in 1995 then became general manager of the Advanced Messaging Group, overseeing the worldwide operations of Motorola’s Advanced Messaging Businesses, including research, development, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and support for paging and messaging infrastructure technologies and two-way personal communications devices.

In June 1997 de Barros joined the Motorola corporate office in the Americas Region as corporate vice president and president of the Latin America and Caribbean Countries. He was

6 • June 2003

Spring 2003 Citation for Alumnus Achievement recipients de Barros, left, and Martin.

responsible for Motorola’s overall business in the region and was Motorola’s representative with the government in each of the countries in the region.

In November 1999, de Barros was promoted to senior vice president of Motorola. He is the second senior officer in Motorola Latin America.

De Barros has attended several management and professional programs over his tenure. In 2001 he graduated from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Executive Program. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the American Society of Quality Control. He has five United States patents and has received several awards for his inventions and contributions.

Steven S. Martin Steven S. Martin is president and chief executive officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska and is a member of the board of directors. He earned his master of arts degree in gerontology from UNO in 1992.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, provides health care coverage or benefit administration to more than 640,000 (one in three) Nebraskans. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska is a not-for-profit mutual insurance company.

Martin also serves as president and CEO of Omaha Life Insurance Co., Corporate Diversified Services, Inc. (CDSI), and ProPar Services. All are wholly owned subsidiaries of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska. In addition, he serves on continued on next page

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UNO Alumni Association News & Information

Citations, cont. the board of directors for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in Chicago, Illinois; TriWest Healthcare Alliance in Phoenix, Arizona; and Prime Therapeutics, Inc. in Eagan, Minn. Martin also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education.

Prior to joining Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska in March 2002, Martin was president, CEO and a board member for Prime Therapeutics, a comprehensive pharmacy benefits solutions company owned by five Midwestern Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. It integrates pharmacy claim processing, drug manufacturer contracting, drug utilization analysis, clinical programs, and consulting services into Blue Cross Blue Shield plans and other regionally oriented health plans, HMOs, and specialty pharmacy benefit organizations.

Martin spent more than 10 years with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska prior to joining Prime Therapeutics. His previous positions included vice president of Health Services Research & Reimbursement and Senior Vice President for ProPar Services.

Other professional experience includes: founding executive director for American HomeCare, Inc., a comprehensive home health care company specializing in “high tech” services (model for the book “High Tech Home Care,” Aspen Publishers, 1985); regional manager of Product Development for the HealthCare Services division of the Upjohn Company; co-founder and vice president for HealthCheck, Inc., a regional occupational and employee health services company; and clinical coordinator for adult inpatient care at the Menninger Foundation of Topeka, Kansas.

Martin earned his bachelor of science degree from Washburn University.

He is a certified professional in the Academy of HealthCare Management.

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Koraleski presented Horizon Award aniel F. Koraleski received the second annual UNO Alumni Horizon Award.

The award was insituted in 2002, to be conferred annually to graduates 40 years of age or younger who have distinguished themselves in their chosen career, and/or shown exceptional Koraleski, ’86 service to the university through volunteer effort,

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and/or demonstrated active involvement in their community.

Chairman of the Board Kevin Naylor presented Koraleski with the award during the Alumni Association’s Founders’ Day Luncheon June 6. The event marked the Association’s founding June 6, 1913, by the university first graduating class, composed of 11 alumni.

Koraleski, a 1986 UNO graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, is a partner at KPMG. He also has an extensive background volunteering for various organizations.

He is treasurer of the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Nine receive alumni teaching awards

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he UNO Alumni Association presented its seventh annual Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards to nine faculty members at the Faculty Honors Convocation Breakfast April 10. The awards were established in 1997 to honor distinguished teaching in the classroom.

“Through their leadership and expertise, these faculty members inspire students to important academic achievements,” said Kevin Naylor, the association’s chairman of the board. “Through their instruction they can make life-long impacts on students. In this period of cutbacks and budget struggles, we are fortunate to have them on our faculty.”

Committees of peers in each college chose award recipients, each of whom receives a $1,000 award. Naylor announced the awards and presented certificates to the recipients during the Faculty Honors and Awards Convocation Breakfast.

Association President and CEO Jim Leslie presented them with commemorative plaques during the UNO Alumni Association’s June 6 Founders’ Day Luncheon.

The 2003 UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award recipients: Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, College of Arts & Sciences; Political Science; Dr. Bahador Ghahramani, College of Information Science and Technology, Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis; Dr. Valentin Matache, Arts & Sciences, Mathematics; Dr. John J. McKenna, Arts & Sciences, English; Dr. Rebecca Morris, Business Administration, Marketing and Management; Bonnie Pratt O’Connell, College of Fine Arts, Art and Art History; Dr. Rebecca Pasco, College of Education, Teacher Education; Amanda Duffy Randall, College of Public Affairs and Community Service, Social Work; Dr. Clarence Waters, College of Engineering and Technology, Architectural Engineering.

June 2003 • 7

Association in Action Association Honors Surf’s Up Leslie for 30 years New look at

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NO Alumni Association Chairman of the Board Kevin Naylor presented an Outstanding Service Award to Association Executive Director, Jim Leslie, in recognition of Leslie’s 30 years of service to the organization.

The award was presented during the Association’s Founders’ Day Luncheon June 6.

Leslie, ’63 A 1963 Omaha University graduate, Leslie was hired in 1973. More than 52,000 graduates have been added to the Association since then while the UNO campus has undergone radical change. More than a dozen buildings have been dedicated and colleges and campuses have been added.

Much of this has been made possible through fund raising. Since 1973, the Association’s UNO Century Club has raised more than $10 million for the university. The Association, meanwhile, has moved into what is now the W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, expanded and renovated in 1994.

The Association also has instituted an aggressive awards campaign under Leslie’s watch. Nearly 100 Citations for Alumnus Achievement have been issued since 1973, while the UNO Hall of Fame, the Outstanding Service Award and the UNO Alumni Horizon award all were begun. Under Leslie the Association also has begun more than 150 scholarships and 11 professorships.

“Jim Leslie's strong connection with our alumni is an indelible link to this institution's past, present and future,” UNO Chancellor Nancy Belck said. “His 30-year tenure at the helm of the Alumni Association is invaluable as UNO has transformed into a modern metropolitan university of distinction.”

8 • June 2003

Alumni Website

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he UNO Alumni Association has given a new look and added functionality to its website, www.unoalumni.org Among the features of the site: • A visually enhanced home page offering links to more stories and departments; • Capability to download electronic files, such as PDFs; • Expanded pages with historical data, such as a Flashbacks archive; • Hidden e-mail addresses for graduates registered on the UNO Alumni Email page; and • A site-wide search function.

Additional changes will be made later in 2003, including online event registration with online payment options. The Association also will debut an electronic newsletter sometime soon.

Visit www.unoalumni.org today and let us know what you think! Vote on the new changes in our UNO Alumni Survey. You also can write us a note about the changes by sending an e-mail to Director of Communications Anthony Flott at aflott@mail.unomaha.edu See you online!

W. H . T h o m p s o n A l u m n i C e n t e r

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ost your next event at the Alumni Center!

• Available to the Public • Weddings and receptions for up to 300 guests • Meeting space for business and corporate functions • Holiday parties, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations Bar Mitvahs, retreats • Sophisticated catering with a full, varied menu and event-planning assistance • Friendly and professional staff • Patio and Landscaped Grounds and free parking!

SW Corner 67th & Dodge University of Nebraska at Omaha (402) 554-3368

Seminars Conferences Workshops Meetings

Retreats Receptions Parties AV Rental

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Around Campus

More than 1,100 students receive degrees at Spring Commencement

John Christensen tabbed interim vice chancelor

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Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Student Speaker Eric O’Brien.

degree at age 58, then began work on his master’s degree in gerontology at UNO, which he earned at age 65. A recent gift from Haney and his wife, Judy, to the UNO Department of Gerontology has established an endowed faculty position and three funds supporting faculty members and eventually student scholarships. The Order of the Tower is bestowed upon community leaders whose service and/or financial support has made it possible for the university to address the academic, cultural and economic needs of Omahans and Nebraskans.

Rita Henry, assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs at UNO, received the Chancellor’s Medal. Since her arrival at UNO in 1982, Henry has taken an active role in improving the campus atmosphere for UNO’s diverse student population. The Chancellor’s Medal at UNO was established to recognize the contribution of faculty and administrative staff who embody the institution’s mission and values. It is bestowed only to those within the university community who have demonstrated unusual excellence.

Leonard de Barros and Steven S. Martin received the Citation for Alumnus Achievement (see page 6).

ohn Christensen, dean of UNO’s College of Education, was named interim vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, effective Aug. 15.

Derek Hodgson, who currently holds the Christensen post, in May was named president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

“This is an important time in UNO’s history, and I’m confident that John Christensen will serve the campus and community well in his interim role as vice chancellor for academic and student affairs,” said UNO Chancellor Nancy Belck.

“UNO has made great strides in becoming a metropolitan university of distinction, and Dr. Christensen can help us carry this momentum forward.”

Chancellor Belck in February announced the reorganization of UNO’s administrative structure in conjunction with the December 2003 retirements of the current vice chancellor for student affairs and vice chancellor for business and finance. The new structure includes two vice chancellors—one for academic and student affairs, and one for administrative affairs.

Christensen began his tenure at UNO in 1978 as a faculty member in the College of Education’s Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders. He then chaired that department for 12 years and has been the college’s dean for the past five years.

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ormer U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley imparted his wisdom to the newest crop of UNO graduates May 9 at the spring commencement ceremony. The event was held at the Omahaa Civic Auditorium with more than 1,100 students receiving degrees.

Riley served as U.S. Secretary of Education from 1993 to 2001. He currently is a senior partner in the law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, L.L.P. He counsels clients and works with partners to develop strategy on complex business, governance, financial and legal matters for local, national and international clients.

Riley remains an ambassador for improving education in the United States and abroad. He has visited Omaha on a number of occasions, including the dedication of the University of Nebraska Peter Kiewit Institute on UNO’s south campus. In 1998, he recognized the UNO College of Education’s CADRE Project as an exemplary program in “Promising Practices: New Ways to Improve Teacher Quality.”

In addition to delivering the commencement address, Riley received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

The May 9 commencement ceremony also featured: Eric O’Brien delivering the student commencement address. O’Brien received his bachelor of arts degree in English with a concentration in British literature. His address was titled “The Poetics of Childbirth.”

J. Terrence Haney received the Order of the Tower, UNO’s highest non-academic award. Haney, who served as president and chief executive officer of Insurance Consultants Inc., entered the UNO College of Continuing Studies at age 49. He received his undergraduate

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Events & Happenings on the UNO Campus

June 2003 • 9

Niles Harrison

No Bounds

By Don Kohler Eight years after graduating from UNO, Ryan Kuper is making waves on the independent record scene via Redemption Records and Boundless Entertainment.

artists on his own record label.

Busy times for a music-crazed teenager who thrived on promoting the area’s burgeoning indie scene.

Only 17, the Council Bluffs “On average we had about 250 native was already well on his way to a successful career in the music kids that would go to all the industry before ever taking his first shows,” the 1995 UNO graduate notes in a class at UNO in 1990. By says. “Because the indie scene was so small, I knew all of the bands then, Kuper was performing in a and who to market them to. They popular punk rock band, writing and producing a music magazine, were great times. In some ways, I was much more productive in “Shut Out!” and promoting local

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yan Kuper was not your typical incoming freshman.

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those days because the music scene was so engrossing.”

Many of Kuper’s current clients, though, believe the 30-year-old owner of Los Angeles-based Boundless Entertainment and Redemption Records hasn’t missed a beat. Up-and-coming bands like Trew Dat, Zen Darlings, the All American Darlings and Omaha’s Race for Titles all have benefited from Kuper’s management savvy. So, too, has comedian Andy Dick, star of ABC’s current sitcom “Less Than Perfect,” MTV’s “The Andy Dick Show” and NBC’s “News Radio” (1995-99). The eccentric comedian hired Kuper to manage his band, “Andy Dick and the B-----s of the Century,” and to provide music and managerial support for the entertainer’s television productions.

“Ryan Kuper is one of the hardest working people I have ever met,” Dick says from his home in Los Angeles. “He is so meticulous and his attention to detail is inspiring. He has integrity that is not matched anywhere, and his knowledge of the music industry is incredible. To me, he seems to know everything there is to know about the music industry.”

Kuper was uncertain where his interest in music would lead him upon graduating from Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs. He decided to enroll at UNO in the criminal justice program with the hopes of pursuing a career as a federal agent.

“UNO was considered one of the best criminal justice programs in the country, and I was in a band at the time and wanted to stay close to home,” he says.

“I was so hellbent on getting a criminal justice degree that I completely overlooked the fact that UNO had a music marketing major.”

That didn’t stop Kuper from pursuing music, though. He kept busy promoting concerts throughout the Midwest, but the number of indie groupies began to dwindle and Kuper started looking for a new place to keep the music alive.

“The scene in Omaha lost so many kids because everyone was going off to various colleges across the country,” he says. “By the spring of 1992, I was looking to move and to follow that music

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energy somewhere else.”

Kuper took his new record label, Redemption Records, to Philadelphia in the fall of 1992 and signed a band called Encounter. Several misfortunes, including a serious automobile accident, ended his stay in the City of Brotherly Love after just six months. “The Philly trip was kind of a catharsis for me,” he admits. “I had a rough time there. I got really sick after the accident and, upon my father’s encouragement, I moved back to Council Bluffs. When I came back I had two goals: I was going to finish my degree and make my record company a functioning business.”

Kuper graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general studies-psychology in 1995 and at the same time was able to jumpstart Redemption Records by auditioning band after band in his loft apartment in Council Bluffs. His label gained enough notoriety that Kuper soon found himself traveling via private jets to both coasts to meet with top record executives about a merger. Unfortunately, the ride ended when one of Kuper’s most popular bands was struck by tragedy following the death of its lead singer.

The record executives backed off from merger talks. “That really took the wind out of my sails,” Kuper says. “It was a tragic event, yet one of the labels didn’t even bother to call me back. I knew then that I wanted to stay independent and stay on my terms.”

In 1997, Kuper met another independent thinker when a friend in the entertainment industry introduced him to an offbeat comedian named Andy Dick. The comedian, who at the time was receiving rave reviews on “News Radio,” was also receiving unwanted press for his bouts with substance abuse.

“I met Andy in January 1997,” Kuper recalls. “I didn’t know much about him because he was in the first year of ‘News Radio.’ He wanted to get his own record label going, but sadly nothing ever materialized because his substance abuse had deteriorated to the point where he couldn’t dedicate himself to the label.”

Kuper stayed in Los Angeles for a year before returning home to temporarily operate his businesses in Omaha. He extended his stay in order to remain

close to his father, Dr. David Kuper, his sister and other family following the sudden death of his mother, Jane. “My mother was an amazing person and very supportive of me,” Kuper says.

“She was always encouraging me to be involved with theater and the arts. My parents were very supportive of me following this music thing around the country. A year after my mother’s passing, I analyzed what I wanted to do in music, and I decided to go back to LA.” Kuper hit the ground running once back on the Coast. He formed Boundless Entertainment, a management company that secures recording contracts and oversees such details as finances, travel arrangements and sponsorships for musicians and bands.

He also revived Redemption Records with the debut CD from Race for Titles, as well as the Redemption Versus Series, a “battle-of-the-bands” of double-disc compilations that started with a release documenting indie groups from Nebraska and North Carolina. “It’s really hard to sell a compilation, but this thing has gotten amazing press,” Kuper says, adding that plans are under way for round two of the Redemption Versus Series featuring Washington and Illinois bands.

Kuper also was executive producer of Dick’s first CD release, a dark musical comedy on Milan Records. Kuper, who rents a duplex from Dick in Los Angeles, also has become a confidant to the popular entertainer. “He told me once that I was the only person that he really trusted in the world,” Kuper says. “Andy struggles with his substance addictions, but he’s working on it. Things can get kind of crazy around the house, though.”

Things are just as hectic in the music world, but just like his teenage years Kuper is still doing business on his terms.

“Running two companies simultaneously can be pretty overwhelming, but I feel like only now, in 2002, do I really know that I am doing the right things with my companies. When I was playing in a band a friend of mine once told me that I was better at the business side of things than on the performance end. I guess he was right.”

J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 11

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Thirty-five years after becoming UNO’s first female graduate of the criminal justice program, Ginny Hronek returned to the campus to receive one of nine alumni awards presented by the College of Public Affairs and Community Service. She was presented her award by Criminal Justice Chair Robert Meier

Passion for her Profession

by Wendy Townley

A

s an undergraduate studying at UNO in the late 1960s, Ginny Hronek was certain about her passion, but not her

perception.

12 • June 2003

Hronek wasn’t just another student— she became the school’s first female to graduate from the criminal justice program, then called law enforcement and corrections. Thanks mostly to a scheduling whim.

Hronek enrolled in a criminal justice class her sophomore year simply to fulfill an elective. She found that she “just loved it,” Hronek says from her home in Rochester, N.Y. “I found that I was spending more time worrying about

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my criminal justice class than anything else.” Much of the program’s draw for Hronek, 54, rested in her curiosity of human behavior and its interactions with criminal behavior. “It was probably my young and naïve drive to change the world,” she says with a chuckle.

Change it she did, and in honor of her career, the College of Public Affairs and Community Service awarded Hronek one of nine alumni awards during a luncheon in April.

The award came 35 years after Hronek in her junior year officially declared her major as criminal justice, becoming UNO’s first female student to do so. She was surrounded by men, and it made a difference. “There was clear differential treatment,” Hronek says of her last years studying in the undergraduate program.

One such instance remains in Hronek’s mind, as well as in the archives of the Omaha World-Herald.

While taking a class on criminal investigation, a week’s topic involved the investigation of sex crimes. Hronek was dismissed from the next three classes. “Our teacher felt my presence would make the men feel uncomfortable,” Hronek says. “Looking back, it seems very archaic.”

For the next two years, Hronek worked for an hourly wage of $2.25 as an intern with the Omaha Police Department. She, with two other male college students, were the department’s first interns. While the two male interns wore police uniforms, Hronek wasn’t given that option. She always wore skirts. (In fact, UNO’s dress code for women didn’t begin to crumble until 1968). Hronek says she was peppered with questions by officers and those in the UNO community about her choice of study and, eventually, her career. “They thought I should be teaching or working as a nurse,” she says.

Hronek admits that such questions, which followed her between the police department and campus, snowballed into forms of harassment. “Of course, back then, they didn’t have a name for harassment. If I did complain, what was I going to call it? And being called a kid, I didn’t really have the guts. That was, for me, the worst of times.”

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“What’s your passion? If you don’t love [what you’re doing], you’re not going to enjoy it or be as productive,” Hronek says. “If that means you’re working as a social worker and making less than your buddies in the corporate world, stick with that if that’s what your passion is.”

Ginny Burns, ’73

Hronek faced a dilemma: She loved her work, had a passion for criminal justice and law enforcement, yet she had no recourse for such emotional roadblocks. Hronek forged ahead.

During her internship, she often worked with the department’s juvenile unit. She would be sent into Omaha’s downtown bus depot looking for missing youth.

When women were arrested and brought into the station, Hronek’s job would be to find temporary homes for the children. Other times, Hronek would be present as physically abused girls disrobed for police officers taking photographs for evidence.

Hronek later graduated with her criminal justice degree in 1971. She eventually joined the Nebraska Department of Corrections, in January 1975. One of her posts was to manage the first work release center in Nebraska for women. The center, then housed in a former YWCA building across from the Creighton University Law School, placed female inmates in their last three to six months of incarceration in jobs of education programs in the community.

During her three years with the Nebraska Department of Corrections, Hronek earned her master’s degree from UNO in 1979 and changed her professional focus to teaching.

She says her second time around at UNO revealed a more mature and

female-friendly experience. “Times really had changed,” she says. “The name had changed. It was much more professional and more focused on professionals, rather than guns and bullets. I felt that I was taken a lot more seriously by that time.”

She moved with her then-husband to Rochester, N.Y., a year before graduating with her master’s. She finished her study long distance and returned to UNO the following fall to defend her thesis focusing on the children of inmate mothers. “I realized there really wasn’t any structure or plan in place for all these children. A woman would be arrested, and if no one in the family could pick up the kids, they would be put in temporary foster homes on the spot. Somebody had to take those kids.”

A few months after earning her master’s degree, Hronek began teaching criminal justice at State University of New York-Brockport. During her 10 years at the school, Hronek began a Women in Criminal Justice class. “Now, they’re a dime a dozen,” she says with a laugh. “They’re everywhere.” The course discussed sensitivity in the workplace; anything, Hronek says, that broached harassment.

Hronek also pioneered and administered the school’s Center for Excellence in Instruction, a faculty development program. “It was great,” Hronek says. “We created dialogue that wouldn’t be there otherwise.”

Today, Hronek offers leadership training with police agencies, businesses, schools and organizations.

She also researches information relative to police models of training and coaching. Her interest with that sector, she says, remains strong.Hronek said her two UNO degrees, time spent at the Omaha Police Department and experience teaching have taught her to achieve balance, which Hronek advises all college students to do.

“What’s your passion? If you don’t love [what you’re doing], you’re not going to enjoy it or be as productive,” Hronek says. “If that means you’re working as a social worker and making less than your buddies in the corporate world, stick with that if that’s what your passion is.”

J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 13

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

The program that Glenn Built

By Nick Schinker

M

ike Kohler was working in a grocery warehouse when he heard about a relatively new and extremely experimental program at UNO. It sounded perfect for someone like him: a high school grad from Omaha’s racially-diverse “near North side,” out of school for a few years, with little money to spare but a desire to be the first from his family to attend college.

Today, Kohler is vice president of public and government affairs for Cox Communications in Omaha, a company he joined 21 years ago. He received his bachelor’s degree from UNO in 1981 and his MBA in 1992.

Kohler says he owes it all to the Goodrich Scholarship Program.

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Learning.

“It’s hard to imagine where I would “It’s hard to imagine Goodrich program enrollment averbe without the Goodrich program,” he ages 320, with 76 freshmen accepted says. “What I’ve gained is more than just where I would be without each year. Typically, the student body is a shot at a great job. My work as a tele35 percent white, 35 percent Africancom executive is no more productive or the Goodrich program. My American, 20 percent Latino, with the important to the community than my value as a citizen, armed rest a mix of Asian and a small number work in the warehouse. But my value as of American Indian students. a citizen, armed with the real truth about with the real truth about “We don’t recruit by quotas, but we people and how society should function, are after a mix,” Cederblom says. is much greater, all because of the people and how society Goodrich scholarships cover tuition Goodrich program.” should function, is much and fees for a maximum of 10 semesters Goodrich Chairman Dr. Jerry or 145 credit hours, or until graduation, Cederblom says Kohler’s sentiments greater.” whichever comes first. That averages to exemplify a vital program that has proabout $3,600 per student per year. duced many successes. “I think the proMike Kohler, ’81; ’92 Admission is based on application inforgram has a positive impact on not only mation, financial analysis, a personal the students and the graduates, but also interview, references and estimates of on the university and the community.” motivation and potential.

The Goodrich Scholarship Program Success is evident in a blossoming was founded in 1972 with funds from the graduation rate, which has climbed from 34 percent between Nebraska Legislature as a result of a bill authored by State 1978 and 1982, to 52 percent between 1998 and 2002; and in Sen. Glenn Goodrich of Omaha. Goodrich died earlier this the program’s retention rate of 80 percent between the freshyear. man and sophomore years–better than UNO’s overall retenThe son of a packinghouse worker, Goodrich understood tion rate of 70 percent. Both are above the national average. the benefits of a college education and worked hard to get “Those are incredible numbers,” Cederblom says. “It’s realhimself one, says his son, Greg Goodrich of Houston. “He got ly in the stratosphere.” into college on the G.I. Bill, and he worked his way through.”

As of May, the Goodrich program has graduated 890 The elder Goodrich was a great believer in providing peostudents. As important as that number is the positive influence ple a way to overcome their economic means, his son says. those graduates, many of whom might not have attended col“The Goodrich program was important to him, and I know he lege, have had on the Omaha community. was proud of it.”

“Just as an example, imagine every year that 18 or 20 Though the efforts of Sen. Goodrich provided the spark, Latino students enter UNO, and of those, at least eight or nine Cederblom credits Hubert Locke, the founding dean of the will earn their degrees,” Cederblom says. “Now, considering College of Public Affairs, which includes the Goodrich promost of our grads stay in the Omaha area, imagine that hapgram, with fanning the flames. pening year after year after year since the late ’70s. What a “Glenn Goodrich authored the legislation but Dean Locke wonderful success that is.” authored the program, then brought in the faculty to fine tune Alumni are among the program’s strongest supporters. it,” says Cederblom, who has been a part of Goodrich since its “In the political arena, time and again you hear debate start. “He (Locke) was very willing to experiment, and that’s about the effectiveness of education at all levels,” says precisely what we did. We weren’t copying anyone. We were Goodrich grad Kohler. “Everybody wants to know if we, the pioneers.” taxpayers, are getting our money’s worth. An examination of Today, the innovations of the Goodrich program—from its the Goodrich program’s amazing graduation statistics and multi-cultural focus, to its broad, general core curriculum, to alumni rolls tells a tremendously positive story.” inclusion of critical reasoning and intensive writing across the It’s a story that has ensured the program’s continued fundcurriculum—are mirrored across the campus. ing despite state budget shortfalls. Only once has it been “It’s had a great influence extending multicultural educathreatened. tion to the rest of the university,” Cederblom says, “and the “We needed Glenn Goodrich early on, when we were put course in critical reasoning now enjoys one of the highest on a ‘hit list’ of university programs targeted for funding enrollments in the College of Philosophy.” cuts,” Cederblom says. “We called him at home and he said, Funded by the state, the Goodrich program offers scholar‘You tell them if they take one nickel from the Goodrich proships and an intensive multi-cultural curriculum coupled with gram they won’t get one nickel for anything they want.’ support services that yield the confidence to succeed.

“We never had to play that card,” he says. “We earned our The program employs six instructors and a director, plus way then on our own merit, and we earn our way today on graduate assistants. The teaching staff has won numerous our own merit.” awards. In 2001 the program earned the national Theodore M. And, perhaps, a little help from the memory of one generHesburgh Award Certificate of Excellence for Faculty ous, caring state senator.

Development to Enhance Undergraduate Teaching and

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N O V E M B E R / D E C E MJBuEnRe 2 0 0 23 • 1155

Street Cop

By Warren Francke

T

hey call Charlie Parker a Street Cop. “You'd love to be a street cop all your life," he says, but he moved up the ranks to deputy chief before retiring from the Omaha Police Department. He shrugs at his current title, Head of Security for Mayor Mike Fahey, and insists, “I'm his

driver.”

He’s also the inspiration for Charlie Becker, a police investigator in Richard Dooling’s novel, “Bet Your Life.” Of Becker, Dooling writes, “His face seemed to have settled long ago into a single, impassive expression that gave no clue to his feelings or thoughts.

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Photo by Eric Francis

coach,” Parker recalled, “so I became an education major at He had to be sixty at least, with thin hair past gray and on the way to white, but he looked like he could still knock me Omaha U.” A few hours short of graduation, he joined the down if he had to.”

Army’s Military Police and served as an MP in the Reserves.

There’s more, of course, and it’s friendly but not all flatter“That’s where I first met him,” Al Pattavina said, “at suming. Is Charlie Becker a clone of Charlie Parker? “I hope not.” mer camp at Fort Riley. You wanted anything, you had to see Terse replies, though, fit the author’s idea of a face that Sgt. Parker, clear it with him. He was organized.” hides feelings. At 68, Parker admits he’s known fear, but “you Pattavina, Omaha U.’s first criminal justice graduate, turn it off.” When a shot was fired at his chest from a foot whose police career climaxed as public safety director for four away, he recoiled and returned fire. mayors, explains why “we call him a Street Cop. He knows He also feels emotions, but “you turn them off,” too. He the ins and outs, how to get information from anybody, a did that while hearing “Walkin’” Willie Otey confess to the brutal murder of Jane McManus. That time his racetrack savvy drunk or a bank president. You give him an assignment, he helped solve the case. takes it to a successful conclusion.”

Charlie wears a stone face as the boot-tough Street Cop. But Parker had other goals before they met. Charlie felt the But, when he’s not the mayor’s security chief, he wears a call of Kansas farm days, when he grew up around horses, white cowboy hat and the western boots of a former bull rider and tried his hand at bull riding. He donned a black hat and and present racehorse owner. took his first ride at a Tekamah rodeo, his last when he got “I try to tell him to dress down on weekends,” Mayor hurt in Wisconsin.

Fahey said. “He’s all business, tough but fair. You don’t want “You’re only scared after the ride. You draw, say bull 171, someone who comes off as a gendarme.” There’s more to his Wild Again, and ask the guys who’ve rode it. You know he duties, though, than driving the Ford Explorer. Parker hired “a goes left, then if he bucks true to from, you grip for it. If he good crew,” three others that complete the security team, and surprises you, that’s how you get hung up.” considers it “my job to keep him out of the limelight.”

That last bull “screwed up my back. I got trampled a little And get the Mayor to the next stop. On time. “I told him, bit.” (He blames the back only for the lighter ball he uses in you’re never going to be late. I tap on my watch, he gets up two bowling leagues—averages 182 and 164.) and goes.”

He gave up “a lot of traveling and very little money” and Parker emphasizes, “It’s not at all like the Secret Service.” was working at a hardware store when Tech buddy Jack The closest he came to line-of-duty action on behalf of his boss Swanson came in and announced, “I’m going to be a cop. was classic low-key Charlie. The Mayor’s version of the inciTook the test and came out No. 2.” Sounded good. dent at a Town Hall meeting: In 1962, he joined a force “totally different than today.”

“This disgruntled employee who was fired wouldn’t leave Cops rode in two-man squad cars, and “those old-timers were it alone. Charlie very deftly got a chair between us and said, phenomenal to work with. I wish I had a little bit of all those ‘It’s done. He’s through talking to you.’” guys.”

Parker simply pushed the chair in his path, creating a But they stuck him inside. “Don’t ask me why, but I took a longer route to the Mayor. The ex-employee home-ec typing course, so I could type.” told police his knee was injured, but one Disappointed—he wanted to be out on the observer said the chair didn’t touch him. street—he still “learned a lot in booking, There was not enough evidence, the Omaha you met more criminals and cops than you “We call him a Street World-Herald reported, to file charges. would elsewhere.”

Cop. He knows the ins Parker’s path to the mayor’s office startHe didn’t make headlines until years ed at a Fahey campaign party. He told Mike, later: “Officer’s Vest Stops Bullet.” Then a and outs, how to get “You get to be mayor, I’m gonna be your sergeant who “made all my guys wear driver.” The longer path to 37 years on the vests,” he stopped a black Jeep with license information from anypolice force began on a farm in Kansas, matching a fugitive warrant. There’s a flat body, a drunk or a bank where Charlie and his brother gathered Joe Friday tone to the report: eggs.

“Sgt. Parker said he was shot in the area president. You give him The men in blue don’t see him hunting of the right shirt pocket by what he believed eggs and aren’t likely to call him Junior. Or to be a .38 caliber revolver.” The bullet didan assignment, he takes imagine him taking a home-ec class. Here’s n’t penetrate, so he suffered only a bruised it to a successful concluhow the farm boy got to Omaha: chest. “I approached the Jeep, which had a His dad, Lt. Col. Charlie Parker, served white male in it, and I asked the driver for sion.”

32 years in the military, so they left Kansas identification. for Germany and other posts, including a “He said, ‘Sure, and shot me once in the Al Pattavina Fifth Army assignment in Omaha. Junior chest.’ I stepped backwards.”

UNO’s first criminal played baseball and football for two legA witness had him “staggering” from the endary Tech High coaches. Neal Mosser shot fired from just a foot away. Charlie justice graduate; later coached him as an infielder on the Legion returned fire as the driver fled. He was later baseball team and Dutch White placed him captured. public safety director for at pulling guard in the old single wing.

“The only time I ever thought about it four mayors.

“I was going to be a teacher and a after the shooting,” he admitted, came w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 17

when he stopped a car on Leavenworth. The driver kept going slowly around the corner, and parked under a tree, “darker than shit. But the guy turned out to be real nice. He’d never been pulled over, and he was scared, too. I let ’im go.”

Then and later, “I never once asked for press.” Sometimes he got it anyway, such as the time when Chief Robert Wadman cracked down on poker-playing at the union hall. Then the headline had “Officer Fired, 2 Suspended After Gun Pulled at Club.” Parker wasn’t involved in the gun-pulling, but the Chief asked, “What did you see?”

Parker: “Nothing.”

Photo by Eric Francis Wadman: “You were Parker is out front whenever it comes to protecting Omaha’s Mayor Fahey. “I try to tell him right there and didn’t see to dress down on weekends,” Mayor Fahey said. “He’s all business, tough but fair. You anything?” don’t want someone who comes off as a gendarme.”

Parker: “Nothing.”

“We were throwing in beeper went off.” quarters,” he recalled, the sort of game approved by Richard Charlie was a Street Cop, “But you take written tests, go Anderson, the chief he most admired. “Anderson was no nonback to college, go for higher pay.” He’s divorced with a son, sense. A hell of an administrator. Wadman had people skills Kevin, now a retired policeman. that didn’t relate to police work; he lacked skills with cops.”

The last time Parker made the news as a police officer came Parker never lost his love of horses, and that devotion in 1998 at age 63. He’d long been a deputy chief when forced helped him catch Willie Otey. “As a rookie cop, I worked difto retire as head of the criminal investigation bureau. Rules ferent jobs on nights off, and I started parking cars at Ak-Sarsaid “virtually all” must retire at 62, but exceptions had been Ben. I loved the lifestyle, the people, the community—breakmade. fast at the track kitchen.”

“Mayor Daub and I didn’t get along,” when he was briefly Walkin’ Willie, so-called for walking horses, was suspected acting chief. As Parker saw it, Daub would summon him to as Charlie investigated the murder of Jane McManus. “We sent the office, keep him cooling his heels, then bring up a friend’s a flyer with his picture to every race track in the country. A minor complaint. “Treated police like a bunch of lackeys.” trainer from Omaha spotted him in Florida.” When deputies That’s in the past as he works for a different mayor and caught up with him, Otey denied his identity, then fled looks forward to the first rodeo in the new arena. He serves on through a window. the River City Roundup rodeo committee, and keeps tab as co“The deputy jumped in a cab and got him 200 years from owner of a thoroughbred, Idahadit, grandson of Seattle Slew. the track entrance.” Parker and a colleague flew to Florida Claimed for $10,000, his horse has been running at Fonner and brought Otey back. “It’s not a pleasant trip. He can’t be Park and should be racing at Prairie Meadows in June. handcuffed when the plane is in motion. Even after confessHe recently stopped in at the Holiday Lounge for a miding, he still wanted to talk.” afternoon Diet Pepsi on his day off—“at 5:30 it would be a Parker had grown close to the victim’s family. So it was beer.” Regulars ribbed him: “Some horse you gave us a tip on, even uglier listening to Otey’s account of the murder. Again, cost us $700.” He brushed them off with, “If I had a good “You turn your emotions off.” horse, I’d bet it myself.”

Such experiences weren’t flaunted when he returned to the Parker misses the good old days at Ak-Sar-Ben, but likes UNO classroom and completed his criminal justice degree in Horseman’s Park, “even if it’s only for three days.” He shows 1980. “He was conscientious about calling if work interfered up in cowboy hat and boots. “We’re all there for one common with class,” Dr. Bill Wakefield noted, “and apologized if his cause, to take care of horses.”

18 • June 2003

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By Sonja Carberry

R

ain, snow, sleet, hail. The time-honored creed is mail delivery no matter the conditions. For postal service executive and 1978 UNO alum David Failor, inclement work weather has been punctuated with days of glorious sunshine.

For one long stretch, Failor helped tame the media frenzy following the anthrax attacks. A more pleasant event ended with Failor eating late-night pancakes with Nancy Sinatra.

While the mid-1990s meant coping with workplace shootings, one particularly memorable assignment landed Failor at Beatle Fest in Liverpool, England.

Failor never imagined a career like this when he was a 1978 UNO grad sorting mail at Omaha’s downtown post office. The third-generation postal employee was just making a decent living while wondering where his broadcasting degree could take him.

Farther than he ever imaged, it turns out.

As Executive Director of Stamp Services, Failor is responsible for a $185 million budget and 35 billion stamps a year. “It’s my job to make sure every post office in America has stamps,” Failor said. He also has the enviable responsibility of directing what images end up on postage stamps.

Failor’s professional journey started in the early 1980s when the postal service started to focus more on communications. Failor had the education so the organization gave him new responsibilities. “As I moved up, I developed a bit of a reputation for handling crisis management situations,” he said.

And there were plenty. In November 1991, the first postal shooting occurred in Royal Oak, Michigan. A colleague called Failor in obvious distress. “’Dave, the media is all over us,’ he said. So I went up there for four months,” Failor said. “I felt like I had really made a difference there. I guess that’s something we all strive for.”

More shooting meant coping with internal strife while fighting the external joke of “going postal.” “We got that label, so it’s taken a lot of work to let people know it’s not just a postal problem. It’s a societal problem,” said Failor.

September 11th, 2001, started with Failor watching smoke rise from the direction of the Pentagon and ended at a temporary command center across the Potomac River enacting a continuity of operations plan to “keep the mail moving.”

Next came anthrax and Dan Rather calling Failor for an interview with the Postmaster General. The work is a blur–20 hour days for nearly three weeks straight. “It showed the resiliency of postal employees—how we were able to get beyond it and move on,” said Failor.

Crises are memorable, but they aren’t every day.

“The one constant through it all was I was always working with the stamps,” said Failor. “Stamps not only get mail from point A to point B, they also deliver a very powerful message.” Failor knows too well that everybody has an opinion.

“We get 50,000 suggestions every year from the American public,” he said. Failor brings together a Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee, including actor Karl Malden, four times

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a year to pare suggestions down to 25 to 30 recommendations.

It’s a highly political process. Colleague Gary Thuro, USPS Director of Community Services, said, “You have a lot of people internally and externally pulling at you.

Dave’s the right guy for that job. He’s pretty methodical. He doesn’t rush to judgment. He doesn’t panic or overreact to anything.”

Certainly not to celebrities.

A peace symbol stamp unveiling brought Failor to Hollywood’s notorious Whiskey a Go-Go. Nancy Sinatra sang three songs at the event. Afterward, Failor was standing on Sunset Boulevard at 11 pm. “Would you guys like to go somewhere to have dinner?” Sinatra asked.

“I was thinking Spago, somewhere like that,” Failor remembered. “She says, ‘You know, there’s an IHOP down there, let’s just have pancakes.’ So I had a midnight breakfast with Nancy Sinatra.”

In 1999, Failor flew to Liverpool, England to help unveil the Yellow Submarine to thousands of screaming Beatle fans.

Other celebrity moments have included Dave Thomas of Wendy’s fame, CNN’s Larry King, and more notoriously, comedienne Paula Poundstone.

Failor’s rise through USPS ranks also required family resilience. The first move was from Omaha to St Louis when his daughter and son were in grade school. “We took the kids out to Grandmother’s on 132nd and Center because that was their favorite restaurant,” he said. Failor and wife Ruth announced the news over appetizers. “Both kids broke into tears. We didn’t eat anything,” Failor said.

After seven years in St Louis, Failor was tapped for an executive position in Washington, DC, requiring his son to become a senior at a new school. “We didn’t go to dinner. We learned our lesson the last time,” Failor said.

Extended family and academic memories remain in Omaha. “Originally I was going to be a botanist, but I couldn’t survive Organic Chemistry,” he laughed. The movie “All the President’s Men” was hot, Failor said, “So I started taking journalism classes.” One of his first was News Writing and Reporting with Warren Francke, Ph.D., “I wrote a story about the Boston Red Sox. I thought I did a great job.” Dr. Francke scribbled in the top margin: “Great article, Dave, but I wanted you to know that the Red Sox played the Angels not the Angles.”

“I learned you better have it right,” he said. Two years as UNO Gateway sports editor proved as invaluable and an informal fraternity of friends self-dubbed “Re Cappa Tire.”

Failor said, “I have good long-lasting relationships from UNO that I really value.”

J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 19

Courtesy United States Postal Service

Stamp of Approval

Photo by Eric Francis

Still Playing Ball

By Nick Schinker

F

or police officers everywhere, the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift is one of the most brutal. It’s a dangerous shift; a dark time when bars close and drunks get behind the wheel to drive home.

When couples argue and fight. When angry foes turn guns on each other,

20 • June 2003

often catching the innocent in crossfire.

Each desperate call for help affords police officers a close-up look at a side of the city most people only see on the next day’s television news.

After working that shift, their day ending when other citizens’ workdays are just beginning, you could under-

stand if those tired officers would prefer to go home, lock the door, unplug the phone, close the drapes and sleep until dusk.

Not Omaha Police Lt. Mark Martinez.

Martinez works Omaha’s midnight shift out of the southeast precinct, 25th Street and Deer Park Boulevard. When

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he heads home, rather than close out the rest of the world and its growing list of daytime concerns, Martinez gets involved.

Last fall, Martinez threw his uniform cap into the political ring, winning election to the Omaha school board to become its first Latino board member.

Some days, Martinez needs to take his rest in the form of two- and threehour naps sandwiched around school board meetings and planning sessions.

He says it’s all worth it.

“A big part of the foundation of this country is its strong commitment to the education process,” Martinez says.

“That’s why I ran. Latinos in Omaha have not been involved in politics as much as we could and should be. If we’re going to have a voice in the decisions that affect our community, we need to do that.

“As for me, I thought the time was right. I had a chance, I took it, and I won.”

Being part of a team is nothing new for Martinez, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice from UNO. He played baseball for the UNO Mavs from 1977 through 1981, and was a second baseman on the 1979 North Central Conference championship team.

His former coach, Bob Herold, remembers Martinez as a player the whole team could count on.

“Mark was a real easy-going guy, real likeable, yet, in the game, he was very competitive,” Herold says. “Coaches like guys who make them look good. Mark was that kind of player.”

Herold says he isn’t surprised Martinez has taken such an interest in serving his community, both as a police officer and now as a school board member. Martinez’s positive attitude and accomplishments prompted Herold to invite him to speak at the UNO baseball banquet last year.

“He has always been a real caring person. He’s always been ambitious, but ambitious in a good way. He wants to give something back to the community, and that’s rare nowadays.”

Martinez says he enjoyed his time at UNO, both on the diamond and off.

“Thanks to the Goodrich scholarship

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“As for me, I thought the time was right. I had a chance, I took it, and I won.”

Mark Martinez, ’82; ’93

program, I had the opportunity to enter college by way of a warm and welcoming process,” he says. “The Goodrich program and the people involved instilled a lot of confidence in the participants. They made you believe you fit in and helped build the confidence you needed to succeed.

“By being involved in the baseball program, I was able to strike a balance between athletics and academics. It was a terrific experience, one where I made lifelong friendships.”

A 1977 graduate of South High School, Martinez has a sister and three brothers, two of whom also serve on the Omaha Police Department. His father, Al Martinez Sr. was one of the first Latinos to become an Omaha police officer.

“Dad had such a fantastic handle on the job,” says Mark. “He had a positive outlook, and he was well-respected by his peers. I saw that, and I saw the public service he provided and thought, ‘What a wonderful way to spend your life.’”

His father retired in 1990. He also has four cousins and two brothers-in-law with OPD. Mark started in law enforcement as a crime lab technician with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, putting in a year that he says afforded a “hands-on introduction” to police work.

“The law enforcement field is a tough field,” he says. “The shift work, working the holidays, and the nature of some of the things we have to see and deal with don’t make it easy. And, there’s the folks who aren’t so happy to see you show up.”

Still, he wouldn’t do anything else.

“I always knew I wanted to be a sworn officer, and to be a sworn officer with the Omaha Police Department,”

Martinez says.

Martinez and his wife, Cyndi, have four children: Maria, Grace, Rebecca and Andrew. All play baseball, Martinez says with pride.

“I co-coached Andrew in Grover Little League,” he says. “And Maria hit .400 and played shortstop on the alldivision team. She’s turning into a pretty good little player.”

As a lieutenant, Martinez is the highest-ranking Latino on the Omaha police force. Even before running for the school board Martinez had been active beyond the job, organizing Police Athletic Leagues for children and serving as president of the Latino Peace Officers Association, a group that represents more than three dozen Latino officers in the city.

He taught a Survey of Criminal Justice Class as part of UNO’s College of Continuing Studies off-campus offerings, and has served as a guest speaker for some criminal justice classes.

Joining the school board will be a learning process, Martinez says.

“When I got in the police academy in 1984, I had to learn about things I never knew, everything from arrest tactics to state statutes. It was a whole new world for me.

“It’s the same thing with the school board, a whole new world. It’s interesting and it’s challenging, but it’s also refreshing. I want to be a contributor, but first I have to listen and learn.”

He says he doesn’t mind if so much attention is focused on him because of his heritage. He hopes others see him as an example, not an exception.

“Being referred to as ‘the first Latino this’ or ‘the first Latino that’ doesn’t bother me at all,” he says. “I’m quite proud of it. If it’s a first, and if that helps encourage other Latinos to know that it can be done, that they can have a voice in politics or the community or the education of our kids, that they can be professionals and be successful, well, I’m all for that.

“I think that’s fantastic.”

Like his father before him, Mark Martinez is a positive role model for the community.

Not because of what he is, but because of what he is willing to be.

J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 21

Photo by Shelly Steig

Noonan poses with some of the awards he’s won since his second career in Hollywood.

Reality Check

By Shelly Steig

S

tudio City, Calif., resident Dick Noonan (UNO ’67) has had plenty of experience behind the camera as a producer and technical advisor for Presidio Pictures and 44 Blue Productions. He’s also had his share of practice in front of the camera as a war commentator for

22 • June 2003

Fox News Network.

However, ask him about his appearance on E! Entertainment television’s new reality show, “Star Date,” and he gets a bit sheepish. “I’d have to call it a lapse of good judgment on my part,” Noonan explained. “The producer from E! called me out of the blue. He said,

‘We take ordinary people and set them up on a blind date with a celebrity. I have it on good word that you’re not going to be intimidated by a celebrity.’ I had nothing else to do, so I went for an audition. He called that afternoon and said, ‘Oh man, we want you to do this.’ I thought, ‘I can get out of this. I’ll ask

UNOALUM

According to the format of said, “A five-foot, eight-inch, 140-pound him when and say I’ve got other plans.’ female in a hydraulic or fly-by-wire He said, ‘Tomorrow.’ I was totally the show, Noonan, age cockpit is as strong as any man on the trapped.” planet. And if she has the aptitude to fly According to the format of the show, 68, didn’t know the blind high-performance attack aircraft, hang Noonan, age 68, didn’t know the blind date was Phyllis Diller until ordinance on the wing and kill target, date was Phyllis Diller until the limouthat’s where she belongs.” sine driver knocked on the door. Even the limousine driver With his military and political experithough a camera was in his face the ence, the transition to Presidio and 44 entire evening, Noonan’s ease was knocked on the door. Even Blue (owned by son-in-law Rasha apparent. A reviewer for “People” magathough a camera was in Drachkivotch) was a natural. Noonan zine’s “Pics and Pans” said that during said, “In many ways it’s like the armed the date Noonan was, “self possessed his face the entire forces. There’s a lot of backward planand interesting.” A friend later joked, “I ning. If you’ve got to have something swear, Noonan, you go on a reality datevening, Noonan’s ease produced by date-X, then you back up ing show which is tantamount to stepwas apparent. A reviewer from there and on date-X minus this has ping into a bucket of feces and you come to be done. On date-X minus, minus this out smelling like a rose.” for People magazine’s has to be done. It’s like delivering bombs Regardless of his “Star Date” success, on target.”

Noonan assures he won’t be doing any “Pics and Pans” said that Noonan knows how to deliver. more reality shows. Instead, he’ll concenduring the date Noonan Several of the projects he has advised for trate on upcoming productions for or produced have won accolades.

Presidio and 44 Blue. These include the was, “self possessed and History Channel’s “The True Story of “Best Pubs in Ireland,” for which Black Hawk Down,” Travel Channel’s Noonan recently spent 19 days on the interesting.” A friend later “Journeys to Remember,” A&E’s green isle filming 47 pubs. Laughing, he joked, “I swear, Noonan, “Cadets: Life of a Student Recruit” and said, “I haven’t consumed that much Discovery Channel’s “Elite Choppers: beer since I was an undergraduate.” you go on a reality dating Birds of Prey” all won Telly and Aurora Pre-Hollywood, Noonan had a long awards, both of which are judged and successful career in the army, which show which is tantamount against a standard instead of competiincluded tours in Vietnam, Cold War to stepping into a bucket tion with other productions.

Berlin, Heidelberg and Korea. About Paving the way for his productions halfway through his 20-year career, of feces and you come out by interfacing with foreign governments, Noonan bootstrapped at UNO, majoring Noonan has traveled all over the world. in political science and business. About smelling like a rose.”

While in Ireland, land of his paternal his experience attending UNO Noonan ancestors, Noonan walked into a pub said, “I really loved being with a handful wearing his army flight jacket. A weathered and worn of military types from all services, but in particular the underIrishman read his nametag, then said, “Noonan? You know we graduate students.” chased the Noonans out of County Kerry 50 years ago for In 1974, Noonan retired as a highly-decorated lieutenant stealing the sheep. So why are you here, lad?” colonel, with honors including Combat Infantry and Master A card-carrying member of the Cherokee nation (on his Parachutist badges. Even though he chose to parlay his milimother’s side) Noonan also is a staunch republican—which in tary skills into the private sector, those preceding military Hollywood could be akin to an elephant in a china shop. He years impacted his entire life, as evidenced by his vanity said with a touch of sarcasm, “We have [Republicans] here in plates, printed, “HOOUUH”—the rally cry for army paraHollywood,” then added, “For some it can be problematic.” troopers.

For Noonan, maintaining his conservatism in liberal-leanFor his first civilian job, Noonan returned to Nebraska, ing Hollywood hasn’t slowed him down. Neither has being a where he spearheaded the human resources department in the devoted family man to grown children Rick, Burke and university system. Two years later he made a lateral move to Stephanie, and his seven grandchildren. Besides wrapping up Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., then partnered an insurance firm in the same city. After his wife lost an 18-month the “Best Pubs” story, Noonan also is producing a film for the USA network about the CIA-orchestrated rescue of hostages in struggle with cancer in 1987, Noonan joined the Oregon 1980 titled, “Escape From Tehran.” Other exciting projects are Republican Party as chief operating officer. President George constantly in the works. Noonan said with a grin, “How many Bush then appointed Noonan to the Department of Labor and to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. guys my age get to have this kind of fun? I’m probably breaking a law.”

About the contentious subject of female combatants Noonan

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

J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 23

Future Alums

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.

SUBMIT A FUTURE ALUM ON THE WEB: www.unoalumni.org/communications/submitfa.asp

A New Generation of UNO Mavericks Josephine Frances Kazor, daughter of Jeff and Jen (’02) of Omaha.

Jonathan Albert Munger, grandson of Kay Krohn (’93) of Fremont, Neb.

Alexander Nicholas Goff, son of Teresa (Adams, ’01) and Kevin (’98) Goff of Gretna, Neb.

Kylie Barbara Malsam, daughter of Ann and Craig (’93) Malsam of Davenport, Iowa

Chenoa Corrine Bowman, daughter of William and Darlene (’02) Bowman of Little Sioux, Iowa Preston James Welch, son of Julia (Severin, ’98) and Patrick (’94) Welch of Omaha Brianna Sarah Liu, daughter of Jiang (’99) Qunfang and Chunghua (’95) Liu of Omaha.

Fletcher Quinn Aude, son of Dena and Justin (’99) Aude of Deshler, Neb.

McKenna Kathryn Haney, daughter of Hope and Matt (’98) Haney of Omaha Easton Joseph York, son of Michael and Lydia (Eberle, ’02) York of Bellevue, Neb. Peter Michael Rastrelli, son of Peter and Candice (Thiele, ’97) Rastrelli of Mundelein, Ill. Daniel Paul Meng, son of Louis and Amy (’01) Meng of Silver Spring, Md

Alexandra Michelle Lee, daughter of Candace and Oudious (’90) Lee of Omaha

Erin Hillary Weidenhamer, daughter of Vickie (Pettit, ’90, ’94) and Wayne (’90, ’97) Weidenhamer of Omaha

Kenden Jerekiah Christopher Ahl, son of Katrina (Hess, ’90) and Chris (’90) Ahl of Omaha

David Thomas Merryweather, son of Thomas and Diane (Timmerberg, ’85) Merryweather of Waterloo, Neb.

Anthony Joseph Donahoe, son of Tiffany and Steve (’94) Donahoe of Omaha

Zachary Emerson Ostrander, son of Rick and Linda (Dappen, ‘86, ’90) Ostrander of Omaha

Cade Joseph Merante, son of Stacy (Stewart, ’99) and Cory (’00) Merante of Ypsilanti, Mich.

Dominique Kaleece Hawkins, daughter of Eric and Ernestine (Peak, ’99) Hawkins of Omaha

Owen Anthony Hochstein, son of Greg and Stephanie (Dixon, ’96) Hochstein of LaVista, Neb.

Sarah Helen Birkel, daughter of Stacey and Tim (’92) Birkel of Tigard, Ore.

Parker Jeffrey Cook, son of Darcy and Jeff (’93) Cook of Rapid City, S.D.

Carter Daniel Meister, son of Loyce and Ron (’97) Meister of LaVista, Neb.

Thaddeus Fabrizio Sucha, son of Claudia and Bryan (’00) Sucha of Omaha

Maressa Noel Jones, great granddaughter of Jose A. Inclan (’59) of Las Vegas and Virginia French de Inclan (’69) of Omaha.

Genevieve Kathleen Coate, daughter of Kathleen (Bagby, ’99) and Paul (’00) Coate of Omaha

Jamison Ann Twomey, daughter of Jay and Linda (Staack, ’02) Twomey of Weeping Water, Neb.

Anna Alaine Renard, daughter of Scott and Elizabeth (’97) Renard of Lincoln, Neb.

Elin Damia, daughter of Norhanani Muhamad (’87) and Ali Shastry Haslan Husain (’89) of Terengganu, Malaysia

Luclie Pearl Watkins, daughter of Judith Ann and Steven C. (’87) Watkins of Papillion, Neb. Adam Joseph Kort, grandson of Carl A. Johnson (’59) of Omaha.

Evynn Megan-Estella Mejia, daughter of Joe and Heather (Wetzel, ’02) Mejia of Omaha Landon Joseph Reichmuth, son of Kevin and Tracy (’95) Reichmuth of Madison, Wisc.

24 • June 2003

Justin William Remar, son of Diane and Jim (’86) Remar of Ralston, Neb.

Natalie Elyse Brandt and Andrew Raymond Brandt, twin daughter and son of Lisa and David (’86) Brandt of Hastings, Neb. Trinity Lanee’ Wilson, daughter of Valencia (Blanks ’01) Wilson and Eric (’00) Wilson of Great Falls, Mont.

Avner David Lee Lyons, son of Jonathan and Barbara (Forbes, ’86) Lyons of Tallahassee, Fla. Madison Marie Stark, daughter of Paul and Mandy (Messner, ’01) Stark of Council Bluffs, Iowa Alejandro Alvarez, son of Sherri and Adrian M. (’95) Alvarez of Omaha.

Mathew Jacob-Aidan Hood, son of Kevin and Tamara (Carlyle, ’98) Hood of Papillion, Neb., and grandson of Hoyt Waldrop Jr. (’75).

Christopher James Nubel, son of Anna and James (’92) Nubel of Omaha and grandson of Patricia Taylor (’83, ’96) of Omaha.

Grace Elizabeth Carey, daughter of Jennifer (Mandolfo, ’00) and Doug (’93) Carey of Bellevue, Neb., and granddaughter of Sam Mandolfo (’76) of Ralston.

Bailey Faye Freye, daughter of Jeremy and Jaymie (’96) Freye of Lauderedale, Minn., and granddaughter of Douglas Hughes (’94) of Omaha.

Kyler Michael Randazzo, grandson of Joseph (’76) Randazzo Jr. of Elkhorn, Neb. Troy Jon Schuppan, son of Travis and Sarah (Shelsta, ’98) Schuppan of Blair, Neb., and grandson of Terry Shelsta (’80) of Omaha.

Addison Leigh Nano, daughter of Anthony and Heather (McKown, ’00) Nano of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and granddaughter of Loren McKown (’85) of Omaha

Dylan Gregory Sash, son of Greg and Julie (Jackson, ’01) Sash of Omaha.

Kirsten Elizabeth Rankin, daughter of Andrew and Wendy (Lodes, ’98) Rankin of Fort Collins, Colo., and granddaughter of Stephen Tyler (’93).

Jonathan Patrick Carlson, son of Tracy (Glass, ’94) and Ed (’94) Carlson of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and grandson of UNO Communication Professor Robert Carlson

Taylor Marie Hensley, daughter of Laura (Jacobsen, ’96) and Dave (’98) Hensley of Omaha and granddaughter of Maria (’73) and Dean (’74) Jacobsen of Omaha.

UNOALUM

Class Notes

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

J U N E

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Flashback File

Eppley’s Gifts Material taken from A History of the University of Nebraska at Omaha by UNO History Professor Tommy Thompson. ugene C. Eppley must have liked books.

How else can you explain his gift to Omaha University?

In the early 1950s, Eppley, a hotel owner and philanthropist, gave OU a whopping $850,000, easily the largest gift the university had ever received. The donation covered the entire cost of construction of the library OU had begun work on in June 1954 (16 years to the day the university moved to its present site).

Completed in early 1956 and dedicated Feb. 5 of that year, the two-story structure was christened the Eugene C. Eppley Library. A one-story addition to the library also was built for the College of Adult Education.

Eppley’s gift set the stage for accelerated growth at Omaha U. Since 1951 the university had been adding $200,000 annually to its Building Fund with the intention of applying it toward the library. But with that money still in the bank officials began to plan for a Music Annex, an applied arts building, student center and dormitories.

While plans for dorms were scrapped, construction on a student center and the applied arts building (engineering) did begin in 1958.

As for the Eppley Library, it became the Eppley Administration Building after construction of a new library in the mid-1970s.

E

1938 Dale Wolf, BA, writes from Omaha (he says he’s “too ‘old school’” for e-mail) the following Class Note: “I enjoyed the article on Bob Herold, the baseball coach. I was a teammate of his father, Rich, who was one tough competitor. UNO is fortunate to have Bob, who, it would seem, has inherited some of his father’s genes. Hello Jane Cook, I remember you. Strong persuasion from my grandchildren that I put into writing some of the tall tales I related to them when they were growing up (that’s a grandpa privilege), prompted me to write my memoirs, w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

which I have just completed (well-seasoned with memories from O.U.) Here are the final two paragraphs – ‘I supposed there will be those who will say, that because he doesn’t own a yacht or live in a large mansion, or hasn’t acquired a large fortune, he isn’t much of a success. What is success? I have this short definition that I like: success is the achievement of desire. If one desires to be rich, and becomes rich, they are a success. If one desires to be famous and becomes famous, they are a success. What most people do not acknowledge is the fact that a

person who desires to travel the middle road, can also be a success.

Each year the UNO Alumni Association presents an award for outstanding achievement by a former student. I never came close to receiving this award. However, I firmly believe that with sixty six years of a happy and successful marriage behind me, and by helping to raise three children, who produced eight grandchildren, who produced six great grandchildren (two more on the way), perhaps my life’s achievement is worthy to be favorably compared to the achievements of many who have

received the award.”

1951 Fred Abboud, BS was inducted into the Omaha Baseball Hall of Fame in May. A four-sport star at Omaha University, Abboud was a member of OU’s first baseball team in 1948. Prior to that he starred in the sport in midget play, at Central High School and while with the U.S. Army. After he graduated from OU, Abboud played professionally in the West Texas League and semi-professionally in the Pioneer Night League in Iowa and Nebraska. He also was a coach and was a scout J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 25

Class Notes for both Cincinnati and St. Louis. Abboud in 1985 was inducted into Nebraska’s Football Hall of Fame.

1955 J. Paul Cherling, BS, lives in Jamestown, Calif., and is owner and editor of Quill and Scroll, a public relations agency. Cherling was an information officer with the U.S. Air Force in Europe. He also was with Lockheed’s submarine-launched ballistic missile programs. He says he now lives “above the smog and below the snow.”

1956 William W. Kratville, BGE, writes from Omaha that he’s “still working in executive department at Union Pacific.”

1960 Gary Sallquist, BA, has written, “Classroom Classics,” which recounts the lectures of Dr. Gardner Taylor of Princeton Theological Seminary.” Sallquist is headmaster of Miami Valley Christian Academy and founding president of the Wellspring School of Theology in Cincinnati.

1961 Brig. Gen. James Leach, BGE, lives in Beaufort, S.C., where in February the “Brigadier General James H. Leach Readiness Center was dedicated by the Special Operations and Advisory Group of the South Carolina Military Department. The building is an armory. Leach wrote that “UNO has helped much along the way.”

David L. Belden, BGE, was appointed executive director of the United Engineering Foundation in New York. The group, chartered by the New York State Legislature in 1904, provides grants for the furtherance of the engineer-

26 • June 2003

ing profession. Belden was executive director of the 125,000-member American Society of Mechanical Engineers from 1987 to 2002.

Prior to joining ASME he was executive director of the Institute of Industrial Engineers in Atlanta, Ga. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1976 as a colonel after a 22-year career, including a combat tour of duty in Southeast Asia. His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal and Air Medal.

He is currently serving as chair of the New York Society of Association Executives. A past president of the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives, Belden has served on a number of boards in the not-for-profit sector.

1963 Thomas E. Conley, BGE, has been busy traveling from his home in Waco, Texas, to destinations including England and other European spots, Mexico, Alaska, Canada, “and all contiguous states.”

Conley retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1968 as commander of 32nd Communications Squadron at Scribner Air Force Base in Nebraska. “A few years ago,” he writes, “ attended a reunion of my World War II unit in Omaha. While there visited the UNO campus. A very impressive enlargement of the campus facilities.”

Norman Jensen, 1964, retired in December 2002 after 37 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an auditor. He lives in Bedford, Texas.

1966 Dwight E. Johnson, BS, sends the following note via Fax from Omaha: “After 26 years of self-employment as a

subcontractor and construction manager, I accepted the position of project director with Brown Church Development Group, a design-build firm specializing in church construction from the Front Range in Colorado to Chicago and from Wichita to Bismark.

Thanks for including Class Notes . . . I appreciate catching up with other graduates.”

Send Johnson e-mail at johnsond@churchdevelopment.net 1969 Marlin Briscoe, BS, lives in Long Beach, Calif., and writes: “I have written a wellreceived autobiography entitled, ‘The First Black Quarterback.’” He is the assistant project manager for the Watts/Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club.

Reggie Williams, BS, is a media specialist with BOE Englewood School District.

He was inducted into the New Jersey Region II Wrestling Hall of Fame in April. He wrestled at Hackensack High School. As a junior he became Hackensack’s first County and Regional champion and placed fourth at the state tournament. As a senior he placed second at state. At UNO Williams was team captain for three years and set the record for career wins. He earned All-American honors as a senior. Williams was named to the Bergen County All-Decade Wrestling Team of the 1960s. He is wrestling and track coach at Dwight Morrow High School. He twice has been named Bergen County Coach of the year and is a member of the New Jersey Coaches Hall of Fame.

Virginia R. French Inclan, BGS, lives in Omaha and sends this e-mail: Virginia

returned from Baghdad Iraq on May 23rd. She and 10 other members of the Omaha Rapid Response disaster relief team spent 11 days in Baghdad. There they held medical clinics and conducted food distributions. While there they also greeted and hugged many, many GIs. Omaha’s Rapid Response Team is made up of volunteers from various Omaha churches. They vounteer to respond to disasters all over the world. Informaion regarding Rapid Response can be had by contacting Pastor Ray Mayhew at (402) 56-9579 1970 Douglas Hobel, MS, was named to “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2002.” He lives in Leigh, Neb. Eduardo Canas, BGS, is managing partner at Canas & Flores, Attorneys. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce selected him as Hispanic Businessman of the Year. The nomination was submitted by the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, where Canas is one of the directors.

Bernard J. Little, BGS, is “living in northwest Pa., and enjoying the freedom to come and go as one pleases.” He retired from the state of Pennsylvania in 2001. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1980.

Larry F. Frum, BS, lives in Carlsbad, Calif., and sends the following e-mail: “Larry Frum has recently been appointed the Southern California Regional Director for California's Junior Miss Scholarship Program. In this volunteer position he oversees 10 local Junior Miss Scholarship Programs from

UNOALUM

J U N E Flashback File

How Charming Compiled by University Library Archives Source: The Gateway Date: march 17-20, 1936 he University of Omaha (OU) Women’s Athletic Association organized a four-day charm school March 17-20, 1936.

For OU coeds only, the first three days of the event included a series of lectures and a question-and-answer session.

Topics included the proper application of makeup, hairstyling, poise, posture, the art of being a hostess and a discussion of women in the field of business. On the fourth day, charm school attendees presented a style show to the He was speaking on “Get Your university community.

Man” . . . Dr. Wilfred Payne For an admission fee of 10 cents, the audias pictured in the 1936 ence enjoyed talent demonstrations, musical perTomahawk yearbook. formances and modeling of the latest styles in clothing.

A second annual charm school was held in 1937. Dr. Paul Tipton spoke on “Diet and Figure.” Dr. Wilfred Payne on “Get Your Man,” and a representative of the Brandeis Store on “Individual Make-up and Hairdess.”

T

Santa Barbara south to San Diego. California's Junior Miss is headquartered in Rohnert Park, Calif., and is affiliated with America's Junior Miss, the oldest scholarship program for high school girls in the country.

Since 1958, Junior Miss programs in all fifty states have been providing cash scholarships for college bound high school girls while developing leadership, self esteem and confidence in its participants. In his spare time Larry is the Manager of Contracts and Procurement for the North San Diego County Transit Development Board, a transit agency providing bus, paratransit, commuter and light rail services throughout an 1,100-squaremile area of San Diego County. Send Larry e-mails at LFrum@dslextreme

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

James S. Neal, BGS, lives in Nokesville, Va., and takes email at neal023@attglobal.net 1971 Cheryl Eby Miller, is director of Corporate Services Professional Veterinary Products in Omaha.

“Thanks, UNO, for preparing me for my life of teaching non-profit and non-corporate executive responsibilities. Great professors, great classmates!”

Linda M. Lewis, MA published “Germaine de Stael, George Sand, and the Victorian Woman Artist” with the University of Missouri Press. From a news release: “By examining literary portraits of the woman as artist, Linda M. Lewis traces the matrilineal inheritance of four Victorian novelists and poets: George Eliot,

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Geraldine Jewsbury, and Mrs. Humphry Ward. She argues that while the male Romantic artist saw himself as god and hero, the woman of genius lacked a guiding myth until Germaine de Stael and George Sand created one. The protagonists of Sta_l's Corinne and Sand's Consuelo combine attributes of the goddess Athena, the Virgin Mary, Virgil's Sibyl, and Dante's Beatrice. Lewis illustrates how the resulting Corinne/Consuelo effect is exhibited in scores of English artist-as-heroine narratives, particularly in the works of these four prominent writers who most consciously and elaborately allude to the French literary matriarchs.”

1972 Chuck Neumann, BS, is a fuel compliance officer for

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the Internal Revenue Service.

He recently received a 2002 performance award from IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti. His daughter, Laura, is a senior at UNO. He lives in LaVista, Neb. 1977 Todd C. Dawson, BS, is president of Management Recruiters of Omaha, where he’s been for 18 years. “With 18 recruiters we specialize in placing white collar professionals nationally in the healthcare, food, insurance and financial services industries. Married Geri Beal, my UNO classmate, in 1979, and have three sons. The oldest, Matt, graduated from UNO in the class of ’02.” Send him e-mail at tdawson@mromaha.com 1980 Jeanette Lewis, BSBA, recently became controller at Pettit Oil Company, an oil and gas distribution company in Hoquiam, Wash. She lives in Shelton, Wash. She takes e-mail at JL98584@netscape.net RoseAnn (Wiskus) Duschanek, BS, writes from her home in Council Bluffs, Iowa, that “I belonged to Kappa Si Delta in college. I understand it is a different sorority now. Could you inform me of the name now?

I am retired and have been since 1990. Was a legal secretary for almost 41 years, beginning with shorthand and a manual typewriter.

Thank you.”

Kathleen Crowell Sliffe, BS, writes from Papillion, Neb., that “After graduation I worked for the Department of Defense as a Designer with the Strategic Air Command which incorporated several bases around the U.S. I currently own my own

J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 27

Class Notes Interior Design business and have been successful in my career goals. My latest design job was the remodel of Omaha's own Gorat's Steak House.”

1981 Richard H. Parker, BGS, is a counselor and teacher at the Westwood Community Day School in Westwood, Calif.

He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1983 and obtained a master’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, in 1986.

Send him e-mail at rheraldp@onemain.com 1982 Alice Meilman, MSW, writes from Ithaca, N.Y., that “I wanted to share what a wonderful time I had attending the Gandhi Award Luncheon and Symposium in March, sponsored by the School of Social Work. Three other alums from my class were there—Lee Arietta (from Massachusetts), Greg Howard (South Dakota) and Gayle Strickler (Iowa). It was great to reunite in Omaha, renew friendships with professors, colleagues, and each other. Send her e-mail at ameilman@ithaca.edu 1983 Patrick Stibbs, BA, lives in Omaha and is an advertising executive/writer and producer with KEFM/Mix 96 Radio.

He also is owner of Professional Music Ltd., an advertising and consulting business. He writes: “Celebrating my 21st year in radio! I recently completed my first screenplay, “The Call,” now in production with Michael Meltzer (“Wes Craven’s Carnival of Souls.”).

I’ve been married to my beautiful wife, Monica (an ’84 UNO grad) since 1986 and we have three great kids.

John A. Gajewski, BS, was

28 • June 2003

promoted to senior vice president of Customer Group with Physicians Mutual Insurance Company. A Chicago native, Gajewski joined Physicians Mutual in 1996. He will lead the customer group division, comprised of claims, policyowner services and underwriting.

Prior to his current position, Gajewski worked in the company’s corporate services division as vice president of human resources.

1984 Michelle M. Hill Carter, BGS, lives in Carlsbad, Calif, and sends the following e-mail: “Daughter, Sarah, born in 1984, year of my graduation, is now a freshman at the University of Arizona, Tucson. I am currently employed by United Airlines as a Captain on the Boeing 737. I will soon be going to school on the Boeing 777.

Have recently moved to Carlsbad (north San Diego county) and feel at home as I was born in Los Angeles.

Please assist me and the other 80,000 United employees in wishing the best future for our company and industry as things are looking rather bleak.” Send her e–mail at Michelle118817@aol.com 1985 Michael A.P. Julian, BGS, lives in Omaha and is health care coordinator for Brighton Gardens. Send him e-mail at: shiloh2000@hotmail.com 1988 Jerrine McCaffrey, MA, is an English professor at Des Moines Area Community College. Her dissertation covered the works of Nebraska writer and photographer Wright Morris. “I’ve recently published an article in “Eureka Studies for Teaching Short Fiction,” titled “The Wonder and Enrichment of

Teaching Wright Morris’s ‘A Fight Between a White Boy and a Black Boy in the Dusk of a Fall Afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.’ In May, I have an essay coming out in ‘Teaching Cather,’ a journal published by Northwest Missouri State University. My article is titled, “Two Contrasting Views of the West in Willa Cather’s ‘Two Friends’ and Mari Sandoz’s ‘Old Jules.’” Send McCaffrey e-mail at jerrie@opencomin.com Perry Mitchell, BGS, writes from Omaha: “After completing my BGS degree in 1988, I was able to obtain a job with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as a postal inspector. I have been a postal inspector since 1991.” Send him e-mail at pmitchell@tconl.com 1990 Jerome F. Onik, BA, lives in Omaha and is sales manager at Heartland Scenic Studio, Inc. Send him e-mail at: jerryonik@hotmail.com 1991 Debbie J. Meinershagen Andersen, BA, lives in Omaha and sends the following e-mail: “I am a Technical Documentation Writer with CSG Systems, Inc. I have been married to Scott for 10 years and have two young sons. We still live in Omaha and round out the family with two Labradors.”

Emily A. Sharpe Venteicher, BA, lives in Shawnee, Kansas, and sends this e-mail: “I'm a full-time mom and part-time Emergency Medicine doctor living in Kansas City.

Married Garrick Venteicher in 1998. Two children: Frankie, 4, and Katie, 18 months. Received medical degree in 1996 (UNMC).

Completed Emergency Medicine residency in 1999

(Indiana University School of Medicine).” Send Sharpe Venteicher e-mail at: dremily@att.net Mark Healy, BS, and his wife, Stephanie (’93), were honored by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce with an award for the fastestgrowing business. The Healys, as the Midlands Business Journal noted in a recent issue, own Vente Inc., “one of the largest compilers of self-reported consumer data, which utilizes its database to make online and offline marketing campaigns more effective.” Mark Healy is a member of the UNO Alumni Association board of directors.

1993 Stephanie Healy, BS, see Mark Healy, ’91.

1994 Kirk J. Hulett, MS, lives in Omaha and writes this email: “Kirk J. Hulett has been promoted to senior vice president of Strategy and Practice Management. Kirk is leader and consultant for Securities America's Practice Management Group, which provides consultation to investment professionals on strategic planning, human resources and productivity.

He also leads the firm’s Human Resources functions including employee selection and compensation, employee and representative training, conference planning, and strategic business planning.

He has been a featured speaker at the 2000 and 2002 Financial Planning Association Success Forum.”

Kathy Kreifels, MS, was one of the recipients of the 2002 Nebraska Teacher Achievement Awards issued by the Peter Kiewit Foundation. Twenty teachers

UNOALUM

J U N E Flashback File

Peace Corps Pioneer From the February 1962 University of Omaha Alumni Newsletter he first Omahan to join the Peace Corps left Omaha in January for final preparations for a two-year assignment in Thailand.

William H. Chamberlain, BS ’59, expects to teach mathematics in Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

Prior to beginning his Peace Corps training at the University of Michigan in October, he had been a graduate teaching instructor at the University of Arizona in Tucson for three years.

T

or teams of teachers are selected annually and each receives a cash prize package totaling $7,000. She teaches seventh grade science, language arts, reading and technology at Platteview Central Junior High School in Springfield, Neb. Judy Epstein, BSED, sends an e-mail from Las Vegas noting: “I was awarded the Fulbright Memorial Fund study trip to Japan last November. The assignment was to study the educational system of Japan and learn first hand about the Japanese culture. To top off this wonderful opportunity, it was being paid by the country of Japan. The Japanese government wants to foster close relations with American educators and to infuse more of our teaching methods into their schools because of the changing Japanese economy.

Two hundred United States educators accompanied me on the trip—librarians, principals, superintendents, art, special education, dance, geography teachers like myself, etc. Teachers are honored and respected more than I ever could explain.

However, as it was explained to us, Japanese students are in a “pressure cooker” with

test scores meaning success or failure to their future.

Japanese businesses and government want students that can do more than take tests and memorize answers.

They are looking at the way American teachers teach to help the students learn to be problem solvers and critical thinkers. I think we can all be proud that we have this reputation abroad. I wrote this piece because I owe a lot of my success to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I went through the Teacher’s CADRE project from the College of Education from 1995-1996.

The CADRE Project was the most intense year of my life, teaching full time, a full time graduate student, and full time wife and mother. Nancy Edick and her associates put together the program and classes. I am also endorsed in Geography. The department of Geography was the best during the years I attended. Thank you, Dr. Charles Gildersleeve.

Because of the UNO College of Education, I am the best trained teacher I can be.”

Send Epstein e-mail at judyjaben@aol.com

1995 w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Chamberlain as pictured in the 1959 Tomahawk yearbook.

Debra Regehr (Hesson), BS, was one of the recipients of the 2002 Nebraska Teacher Achievement Awards issued by the Peter Kiewit Foundation. Twenty teachers or teams of teachers are selected annually and each receives a cash prize package totaling $7,000.She teaches seventh grade sciences, language arts, reading and technology at Platteview Central Junior High School in Springfield, Neb. Adrian M. Alvarez, MBE, sends an e-mail from Omaha noting that he “continues to work for AT&T, 14 years, and is currently the client business director with AT&T supporting global accounts.”

He was previously the business development director building B2B relationships.

Outside of work he “plays a lot of softball and is very active as the director of Drama Ministries for St. Andrews Methodist Church.” Send him e-mail at adrianalaverez@att.net 1998 Trent Jacobs, MS, and Tony Vincent, BSED, were among the recipients of the 2002 Nebraska Teacher Achievement Awards issued by the Peter Kiewit

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Foundation. Twenty teachers or teams of teachers are selected annually and each receives a cash prize package totaling $7,000. Jacobs is a sixth-grade math and technology teacher at Yutan Elementary School in Yutan, Neb. Vincent is a fifth-grade teacher at Willowdale Elmentary School in Omaha.

Tugba Kalafatoglu, BA, writes that “after graduating from Georgetown with her master’s degree returned to home country, Turkey, to be involved actively in politics.

She wrote the election program 2002 for the Democratic Party and became the youngest advisor to the president. She is planning to run for office in the next election when she reaches the parliamentarian age in Turkey.”

2000 Frank J. Novotny, BS, was promoted to 1st Lt. with the U.S. Marine Corps while serving with Marine Air Control Squadron One, Yuma, Ariz.

Laree Daniel, was promoted to senior vice president, customer operations, with Fortis Benefits Insurance Company.

Crystalle M. Cotton, BSMIS, sends this e-mail from Omaha: ”Received the opportunity for life membership in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).” Send her e-mail at Cmc695@aol.com Richard A. Buchanan, MBE, is vice president of Integrated Undersea Systems with Raytheon. He lives in Newport, Rhode Island Daniel E. Flanigan, BS, lives in Omaha and e-mails this note: “I am the Public Relations and Promotions Coordinator for the Child J u n e 2 0 0 3 • 29

Class Notes Saving Institute. I recently started my own part-time commercial stock photography, and graphic design website at advertisingvisions.com. I also promote an independent song tribute dedicated to our military troops. “For God & Country” written and performed by Brian Eckleberry.”

Send Flanigan e-mail at: dflanigan@cox.net 2002 Lam C. Thichuong, BS, recently completed the Electrical Equipment Repair Specialist Course with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

During the classroom instruction and practical application at marine Corps Engineer School, Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, N.C., Thichuong received training on the operation, maintenance and repair of field power generating equipment.

Thichuong also studied electrical theory, operating principles of alternating and direct current generators and control devices.

Flashback File

Municipal U of O’s first graduate, 1931 From the March 1984 University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni News hings Change. . . and yet, they stay the same.

Kenneth McDermott was the first graduate of the Municipal University of Omaha in 1931. UNO changed from Omaha University, a private school, to the Municipal University of Omaha, a public school, in the fall of 1930. McDermott was the only student to complete the requirements for a degree under the municipal university plan at the close of the mid-year semester.

McDermott was not very different from the student of today. He was 24 years old, compared to today’s average age on campus of 26. He was employed while attending the university as are 50 percent of today’s Dr. W. Gilbert James, acting students. He was also married, not uncommon for the president of OU, right, conUNO student today. gratulates Kenneth Louise McDermott, his widow, said that McDermott McDermott. Drawing from Jan. 26, 1931, issue of Omaha took the streetcar every day from South Omaha to the World-Herald.

OU campus at 24th and Pratt Street. He also attended classes at Creighton University and worked full-time at the Blackstone Pharmacy.

Mrs. McDermott went on to say that OU was “pretty shaky” at that time and there were some “diehards” who kept it on the map.

Dr. McDermott taught chemistry at South High School for a semester after his mid-term graduation. He then enrolled at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

After graduation, he served his medical internship at Douglas County Hospital. He practiced medicine in Fullerton, Neb., before moving to Glendale, Calif., in 1939.

Enlisting in the Navy after Pearl Harbor, he served two tours of duty in the South Pacific. After his discharge in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant commander, he returned to his home town of Grand Island, Neb., to practice medicine until his death in 1972.

T

IN MEMORIAM 1941

Carolyn A. Wentzel

1959

Thomas L. Hicks

1942

Margaret Brown Yale Richards

1960

Raymond S. Webster

1961 1943

Milton H. Anderson Jr.

1950

Robert O. Pfeiffer

Willard D. Preston Major (Ret.) Roy G. Fellers Tom Winsor

1962

Lawrence Howard Brandon Dorothy E. Doran Robert L. Lowell

1954

Dewey Crouch

1955

Marion D. Everhart James T. Seybold

1956

Alice M. Russ

1963

Col. (Ret.) Robert H. Luck

1957

Mary Flannigan William C. Harrison Jr.

1964

Arlene L. Kohout Edward B. Cash William C. Money Philip D. Shade Mabel Meisinger

1958

Henry Giles Jud L. Miller

30 • June 2003

1965

Edward S. Cymbar Mary Haynie Heyer Fred C. Heider

1971

Richard D. Maus Joseph C. Sutter Cleve E. Matthews

1966

Horton Dahlquist John A. McClung Jack G. Emerson

1972

Ruth E. Long Donald E. Haag

1973

Susan J. Thornburg

1967

Edward James Wigg Jr.

1974

Harry J. Viator Jr.

1979

Ian Breslow Richard A. Shramek

1980

Robert D. Hansen Gloria McNutt

1988

Gregory Schleisman

1991

Ryan L. Swanson

1992

Archie Brown

1969

1970

1971

William T. Ashley John Bishop William S. Hornbake Frederick L. Bird Theodore Bess Gene L. Peterson Charles Brumit Richard L. Biffle Katherine Welsh

UNOALUM

J U LY

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WIN MAVERICK SEASON HOCKEY TICKETS! Drawing deadline June 30!

The UNO hockey team this year moves into its new home, the Omaha Convention Center and Arena, and we want you there!

All UNO Annual Fund donors of $25 or more who submit their donations by June 30 will be entered in a random drawing for one pair of 2003-04 UNO season hockey tickets (Friday night games only).

Qualify today by making an online donation at www.unoalumni.org Or, print a contribution form and mail it. Either way, make sure your donation reaches us by June 30 so that you qualify for the drawing!

Class Notes

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 web site. Send the news to Class Notes Editor, UNO Alum, 67th & Dodge, Omaha, Neb. 681820010, or Fax to (402) 554-3787.

Name__________________________

News__________________________

Address________________________

_______________________________

City ___________________________

_______________________________

State, Zip______________________

_______________________________

Is this a New Address?

❑ Yes ❑ No

Phone_____________________________ E-mail_________________________ May we post your name and e-mail address on our web site?

❑ Yes ❑ No May the Alumni Association periodically share info with you via e-mail?

❑ Yes ❑ No Class Year_______Degree________ Employer ______________________ Position________________________

_______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________

Spend a Night with the Bard Shakespeare on the Green Pre-picnic “Twelfth-Night” performance Wednesday, July 2 Picnic: 6 to 7:15 p.m.

Performance: 8 p.m W.H.Thompson Alumni Center (rain or shine) Just $10 per person!

Here’s what your $10 gets you!

• Picnic Buffet (Chicken, BBQ pork, potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, cookie, beverages) • Reserved spot “down front” at the play • Transportation to or parking near “The Green” • “Twelfth-Night” preview by UNO Professor Cindy Melby Phaneuf, co-founder/artistic director of Nebraska Shakespeare Festival • Satisfaction knowing part of your fee helps underwrite a donation to the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival.

Questions? Call Sheila King at 554-4802, or e-mail sking@mail.unomaha.edu To register, send a check (payable to UNO Alumni Association) for $10 per person with the form below to: Shakespeare Picnic, UNO Alumni Association, 6001 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68182-0010

Shakespeare on the Green/“Twelfth-Night” UNO Alumni Picnic Registration Name_________________________________ Guest_________________________________ _______ I (we) will attend “Twelfth-Night” _______ I (we) will only attend the picnic.

AND join you for the picnic! _______ I (we) will only attend the play.

E-mail or phone No. (for confirmation notice)______________________________

University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni Association W.H. Thompson Alumni Center Omaha, NE 68182-0010 Address Service Requested

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