UNO Alum - Spring 2004

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March 2004

THE STORIES of Alumni Authors

DON’T MISS ALUMNI NIGHT AT THE THEATER APRIL 15. DETAILS NEXT PAGE!

ALUMNI

NIGHT

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Into the Woods THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2004 Wine and Cheese Tasting Reception at Alumni Center

Curtain call, Into the Woods

6:15 - 7:15 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

Join us at the first-ever Alumni Night at the Theater Presents Into the Woods Staged by UNO Theater Department Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim / Book by James Lapine Directed by D. Scott Glasser

Into the Woods brings to musical life Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Ridinghood and other well-known fairytale characters. Join us at 6:15 p.m. April 15 for a wine and cheese tasting reception at the Alumni Center featuring Director D. Scott Glasser’s backstage insights. After that we’ll head to the nearby Del and Lou Ann Weber Fine Arts Building for that evening’s performance.

Cost for the evening, including the reception, is $15 per person. To attend, complete the registration form below Return Form by April 1, 2004—Tickets must be paid for by cash or check at time of registration. Theater tickets will be distributed at the reception. Registrations can be submitted by completing the form below and submitting with payment (check or credit card) to: UNO Alumni Association, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182. For more information, call Sheila King at (402) 5544802 or toll-free at 866-628-2586. She can be reached via e-mail at sking@mail.unomaha.edu.

Sign us up for UNO Alumni Night at the Theater April 15!

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Address

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City Reserve me Charge my:

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for the tickets (Make checks payable to UNO Alumni Association).

Signature: Exp. Date ___/___

Contents

March 2004

Departments AROUND CAMPUS 5 Winter Commencement. Christensen, Pol named to vacant posts.

ASSOCIATION IN ACTION 6 Alum David Abboud wins Hawaii trip; Association selects new Board of Directors.

FUTURE ALUMS 26 New shirts—send us your pics!

CLASS NOTES 27 See what your buds have been up to!

Features ALUMNI AUTHORS

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We asked for ’em, and we got ’em—alumni who have written books. This Alum tells the stories of eight of these story tellers, listed below.

Maynard Allington Out of the Shadows

Nathan Mitchell The Leaves of Autumn

Patricia Sabine Books that Made the Difference

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Steve Langan Freezing

Kirby Moss The Color of Class

Ward Schumaker In My Garden

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MAYNARD ALLINGTON

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STEVE LANGAN

12

NATHAN MITCHELL

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KIRBY MOSS

16

PATRICIA SABINE

18

WARD SCHUMAKER

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MARY EVANS SEELEY

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ALAN VORDA

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Mary Evans Seeley Christmas at the Whitehouse

Allan Vorda Psychedelic Psounds

Editor: Anthony Flott Contributors: Linda Abalos, Jason Behnken, Sonja Carberry, Casey A. Cass (University of Colorado), John Fey, Tim Fitzgerald, Eric Francis, Pat Jarrell, Don Kohler, Tom McMahon, Bill Olive, Tim Ostermeyer, Nick Schinker, Kara Schweiss, Shelly Steig, Tom Story, Richard Swann, Wendy Townley.

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

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

The UNO Alum is published quarterly by the UNO Alumni Association, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, UNO, Omaha, NE 68182-0010, (402) 554-2444, FAX (402) 554-3787 • web address: www.unoalumni.org. • Member, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) • Direct all inquiries to Editor, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, (402) 554-2989. Toll-free, UNO-MAV-ALUM • Send all changes of address to attention of Records • Views expressed through various articles within the magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha or the UNO Alumni Association.

March 2004 • 3

Letter

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From the Chancellor

In Bloom on UNO’s Campus

he spring semester is in full swing, and before we know it, the campus once again will be green and beautiful, with flowers blooming as students study beside fountains and gardens. Springtime on the UNO campus is truly a wonderful season.

And, as thoughts turn to spring, we know that graduation is right around the corner. Each year, 2,300 candidates receive degrees during UNO’s three commencement ceremonies. Throughout their college careers, our goal is to provide our students with the highest possible academic excellence and service. To see if we’re meeting these goals, each student is surveyed on a variety of topics before graduation.

This month, I’d like to share the latest survey results from the class of December 2003. Including the opinions of baccalaureate graduates, it reveals some very interesting responses: • 91% are satisfied with their critical reasoning skills as a result of attending UNO; • 86% believe their writing skills are adequate; • 84% say their math skills will meet their needs; • 89% have learned needed communication skills, such as critical listening, oral presentation, and data collection, analysis and evaluation; • 78% were satisfied with the exposure they had to the humanities and social sciences, and • 74% with the natural sciences; • 75% are more aware of, and sensitive to, issues of diversity and culture; • 50% are politically middle-of-the-road, 21% are liberal, 25% are conservative; • 87% say they have the knowledge and skills to compete successfully for jobs; and • 79% would recommend UNO to other college-bound students.

When asked to name one aspect of UNO that could be improved, you can probably guess the No. 1 answer— parking! This can be expected on a metropolitan, land-locked campus.

The most gratifying answers were given to the question: “Name one aspect of UNO that you liked.” Among the top answers:

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Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

• Friendliness of faculty and staff; • Excellence of teaching and advising in many departments; • Faculty as experts in their fields; and • The campus is pretty, well-designed and a good size.

This brings us back to my observation about the beauty of the campus in springtime. As we watch our entering freshmen grow in knowledge, revealing their strengths, developing skills, and then graduating and becoming alumni—the analogy is unmistakable. We are witnessing lives in transformation and dreams in bloom, which is the reason metro universities like UNO exist.

Until next time,

Nancy Belck Chancellor

UNOALUM

Around Campus

Nearly 800 students receive degrees at UNO Winter Commencement

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Christensen, Pol fill empty posts

UNO Professor named to NIH Study Section

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Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

dmiral Richard W. Mies, former commander in chief of U.S. Strategic Command, presented the commencement address to UNO graduates Dec. 19 and also received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Close to 800 students received degrees at the ceremony in the Civic Auditorium.

Mies is a senior vice president and head of the Strategies and Security Sector in Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the nation’s largest employee-owned high-technology research and engineering company. He joined SAIC after retiring from the U.S. Navy in February 2002. As commander in chief of USSTRATCOM, Mies was responsible for the command and control of all U.S. strategic nuclear Student Speaker Allison Knox forces supporting the national security objective of strategic deterrence.

The Dec. 19 commencement ceremony also featured the following: Allison B. Knox, who received a bachelor’s degree in community health education, delivered the student commencement address. Her address was titled “The Value of Education.” Following commencement Knox plans to continue to teach group exercise at UNO and work toward a master’s degree in public health.

Several awards also were presented at commencement, including: Becky B. Schnabel, coordinator of student services in the College of Education at UNO, received the Chancellor’s Medal, established to recognize the contribution of faculty and administrative staff who embody the institution’s mission and values.

Schnabel coordinates scholarship activities, supervises teacher preparation recruitment/retention activities, assists with program development in areas of licensure, and monitors college policies and student progress. She also acts as a liaison to the Nebraska Department of Education in all areas of teacher certification and approval processes.

effrey French, UNO’s Varner Professor of Psychology and Biology, has been invited to serve on the Neuroendocrinology, Neuroimmunology and Behavior Study Section within the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Scientific Review.

Study sections review research grant applications submitted for consideration to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each study section typically reviews 60 to 100 applications that it receives on the basis of their scientific focus.

The study section to which French has been appointed reviews grant proposals exploring the complex ways that hormones can influence behavior and immune function, and the ways in which behavior and social context can affect hormonal and immune states. There is a growing recognition of the intricate links between the brain, hormones and health, and NIH is funding many research projects in this area.

French has developed techniques for monitoring physiological stress responses by using noninvasive sample collection methodologies. Since 1991, his lab at UNO has focused on the black tufted-ear marmoset, one of South America’s endangered species. Recent research efforts have centered on a suite of family behavior characteristics that resemble those of traditional human families – in particular, the way the male closely interacts with rearing infants of the species.

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wo administrative posts were filled at UNO in early 2004, John Christensen promoted to vice chancellor for academic and student affairs and Louis Pol to dean of the College of Business Administration. Both John Christensen men had held the posts on an interim basis.

UNO had reorganized its administrative structure in conjunction with the March 2004 retirements of the vice chancellors for student affairs and for business and finance. The new structure includes two vice chancellors—one for academic and student affairs and one for administration.

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 subsequently served as chair of that department for 12 years, then as dean of the College of Education until his interim appointment as vice chancellor in May 2003.

Christensen received his bachelor’s degree in speech and communication from Dana College, his master’s degree in speech-language pathology from UNO and his Ph.D. in speech-language pathology from the University of Kansas.

Pol began his career at UNO in 1984 as an associate professor of marketing ,three years later becoming a full professor. After two years at the Roy E. Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, Pol returned to UNO and served as marketing department chair. He has been one of the university’s Peter Kiewit Distinguished Professors since 1993.

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Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Events & Happenings on the UNO Campus

March 2004 • 5

Association in Action Hawaii trip winner once again “strikes it rich”

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ou might say that David Abboud “struck it rich” soon after graduating from the University of Omaha in 1967, earning a job in the oil industry.

Twenty-seven years later, he’s struck riches again.

This time, though, it’s Oahu, not oil, as Abboud won a trip for two to Hawaii through a random drawing conducted to promote the 2003 UNO Annual Fund.

Abboud’s name was selected in January after the UNO Alumni Association recorded all donations of $50 or more.

The trip, set for May, was arranged by AAA Travel Agency, Inc., through Pleasant Holidays. It will include: round-trip air David Abboud from Omaha to Hawaii; three nights in Oahu and four nights in Maui; accommodations at deluxe beachfront properties; and airport transfers and all taxes.

A regular UNO Century Club member, Abboud has crafted a successful career ever since receiving his diploma in civil engineering. His first job after graduation was for Mobil Oil Corporation as a field engineer. He spent five years with the company, climbing the ranks until becoming vice president of Mobil Centers in New York City.

His UNO education played a vital role in his rise with

Welcome Aboard ew members and a new executive committee were among the changes made to the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors during the organization’s annual meeting December 16. The board of directors sets policy and oversees the management of the UNO Alumni Association.

Stephen Bodner, a 1975 UNO graduate, was named the association’s Chairman of the Board for 2004. He is Senior Vice President, of the Board Commercial Banking, for U.S. Bank. Chairman Steve Bodner Don Winters, the Association’s outgoing Past Chairman, received a UNO Captain’s Chair in recognition of his service on the board from 1998-2003.

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2004 UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors Executive Committee: Chairman of the Board, Stephen Bodner (U.S. Bank); Past Chairman, Kevin Naylor (Union Pacific Railroad); Chairman-elect, Adrian Minks (OPPD); Vice Chairmen, Cookie Katskee (Friedel Jewish Academy), Rodney Oberle

6 • March 2004

Mobil, he says. “I attended UNO off and on for eight years before graduating,” he says. “I could not have graduated without the cooperation of the school offering night classes and accommodating those students who were working full time. Professor Jim Hossack in the engineering college was a mentor and a friend without whom I might still be in school.”

Abboud left Mobil in 1974, returning to Omaha “in time for the tornado and the blizzard” of the following year. “Upon returning, I operated an engineering and real estate development office, which I do to this day.”

He’s also given generously to his alma mater. “My initial rationale for giving to UNO was that of appreciation for my education,” he says. “Though that reasoning still exists, I also feel that there is less and less money going from the public sector to support our university, and that those who can afford to, should supplement its operating budget for the benefit of our community. UNO is a phenomenal asset to Omaha and to the state and should be treated as such.”

The Hawaii trip will not be Abboud’s first there. He and his wife, Nancy, have been there twice—on their honeymoon in 1964 and again in 1994.

The UNO Alumni Association is conducting a similar drawing to promote its 2004 UNO Annual Fund campaign—a Caribbean Cruise for two.

(UNO), John Wilson (Durham Resources), Kevin Warneke (Ronald McDonald House Charities Inc. of Omaha); Secretary, Angelo Passarelli (Millard Public Schools); Treasurer, Dan Koraleski (KPMG Peat Marwick); Legal Counsel, Deb McLarney (First National Bank); President & CEO, Jim Leslie (UNO Alumni Association).

Directors Term Expires 2004: Jim Czyz (Cummins Great Plains), Karen Lastovica (Northern Plains Gas Co), Adrian Minks (OPPD), Patricia Taylor (Qwest Corp), John Wilson (Durham Resources), Martha Ridgway Zajicek (Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company).

Term Expires 2005: Jacquie Estee (Westside Community Schools), Mark Grieb (AAA Nebraska), Mark Healy (wfsDirect, Inc.), Maggie Lehning (Business System Architects), Rodrigo Lopez (AmeriSphere Multifamily Finance, L.L.C), Shirley Spieker (First Data Resources) and Kevin Warneke (Ronald McDonald House Charities Inc. of Omaha).

Term Expires 2006: Gary Domet (Omaha World-Herald), Jim Garbina (Harry Koch Co.), Michael Kudlacz (Federal Security Director, Eppley Airfield), Patricia Lamberty (Nebraska District Court Judge), Luanne Nelson (Omaha Public Schools), Angelo Passarelli (Millard Public Schools), Kelli Sears (Union Pacific Railroad).

Ex-Officio Directors: Chancellor Nancy Belck; Faculty Senate Rep. Ann Fruhling; Student Regent Jono Croskey.

UNOALUM

UNO Alumni Association News & Information

Century Club Survey

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he UNO Alumni Association conducted its first-ever online survey of Century Club members, polling them on attitudes related to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Among the highlights are 99 percent of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement that “UNO provides students with an excellent education.”

The UNO Century Club is composed of donors of $100 or more. All Century Club members received letters asking them to log onto an Association website containing 11 survey questions. Results are below.

UNO Century Club Survey November 2003 UNO provides students with an excellent education.

Strongly agree 49% Agree 50% No opinion 0% Disagree 1% Strongly disagree 0% Don’t know 0% UNO is very affordable compared to other colleges and universities.

Strongly agree 47.5% Agree 42.5% No opinion 4% Disagree 1% Strongly disagree 0% Don’t know 5% UNO does a good job of recruiting top students from Nebraska high schools.

Strongly agree 1% Agree 21% No opinion 26% Disagree 16 % Strongly disagree 3% Don’t know 33% UNO graduates are well prepared for the workforce.

Strongly agree 40% Agree 52% No opinion 3% Disagree 3% Strongly disagree 0% Don’t know 2% Research conducted at UNO is beneficial to people throughout Nebraska.

Strongly agree 25% Agree 45% No opinion 13% Disagree 0% Strongly disagree 0% Don’t know 17% w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

UNO plays an important role in the state’s economic growth and stability.

Strongly agree 43% Agree 44% No opinion 6% Disagree 1% Strongly disagree 0% Don’t know 6% UNO provides a good return on my tax dollars.

Strongly agree 30% Agree 47% No opinion 19% Disagree 0% Strongly disagree 0% Don’t know 4% Should UNO strive to be one of the best metropolitan universities in the Midwest?

Yes 98% No 1% No opinion 1% I am proud of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Strongly agree Agree No opinion Disagree Strongly disagree Don’t know

64% 33% 3% 0% 0% 0%

How has your opinion of UNO changed in the past year?

Become more negative 4% Become more positive 29% Remain unchanged 65% No opinion 2% On a scale of 1 to 5, with five being the highest, how would you rank the overall quality of UNO? 1 Lowest 4% 2 6% 3 11% 4 49% 5 Highest 30%

Alumni Night at the Theater set for April 15

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oin fellow graduates April 15 at the Alumni Association’s first-ever Alumni Night at the Theater presenting “Into the Woods” as staged by the UNO Theater Department.

Into the Woods (music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim/ based on book by James Lapine) brings to musical life Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Ridinghood and other wellknown fairytale characters.

Prior to the show, the Association will meet in the W.H. Thompson Alumni Center from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. for a wine and cheese tasting reception where Director D. Scott Glasser will offer backstage insights.

Alumni then will head to the nearby Del and Lou Ann Weber Fine Arts Building for the performance.

Cost for the evening, including reception, is $15 per person. To attend, complete the registration form on Page 2; tickets will be distributed at the reception.

For more information, call Sheila King, (402) 554-4802 (tollfree at UNO-MAV-ALUM) or email sking@mail.unomaha.edu.

Still calling

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he UNO Alumni Association is in the midst of its annual calling campaign. Please remember that the “Do-NotCall” list does not ban calls made by nonprofit organizations such as the UNO alumni Association.

The Association depends in large part on graduate contributions. Please respond generously.

March 2004 • 7

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lumni

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uthors

“TO BE A WELL-FAVORED MAN IS THE GIFT OF fortune,” Shakespeare wrote in Much Ado About Nothing. “But to write and read comes by nature.”

To read, perhaps. But to write? For most of us, setting words to paper — these days to our desktop – is akin to pulling our own teeth sans novocain.

Not so, however, for many of our fellow graduates. Last fall, the UNO Alum put out the call for authors in the alumni crowd to show themselves. Responses came from all over the country with books on subjects ranging from Assassinations to “Zoogeomorphology.” There were history books, textbooks and poetry books, mysteries and romances, true-crime stories and biographies.

Maynard Allington Page 10

Steve Langan Page 12

Nathan Mitchell Page 14

Kirby Moss Page 16

Patricia Sabine Page 18

Ward Schumaker Page 20

Mary Evans Seeley Page 22

Allan Vorda Page 24

From this long list we selected eight graduates to feature in this issue of the Alum. In short, we’re telling the stories of the story tellers.

Maynard Allington writes of art, while Ward Schumaker puts art to writing. Steve Langan shares his insights into the challenges of poetry, Nathan Mitchell into those of selfpublishing. Kirby Moss takes on color and class, Mary Evans Seeley Christmases at the White House.

Patricia Sabine talks about books that made a difference in lives, Allan Vorda on the different lives of psychedelic rockers. Their stories — and their stories — begin on Page 10.

Read on . . . it’s your nature.

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UNOALUM

Alumni Authors

PS: Presents complete, current overview of bankruptcy law. Numerous sample forms and pleadings show students exactly what they’ll see and do as paralegals. Sample projects within the book ask students to apply the text material.

measurement, female gangs, ethnicity and gangs, gangs in history, gangs throughout the world, theories of gangs, and gang intervention strategies. Dr. Scott Menard and fellow UNO graduate Robert Franzese (’71; ’74) co-authored this book.

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A. Author: Marlin Briscoe. ’69 Book: The First Black Quarterback

A. Author: Mort Crim, ’61 Book: Second Thoughts: One Hundred Upbeat Message for Beat-Up Americans; The Joy of Good News A. Author: Connie S. Crow, ’84 Book: Daughter of the Dragon; Moonlight Fire (eBook) PS: Former is historical romance in which a kidnapped baby, a secret society and a trade more precious than gold bring a couple together for passion and adventure in the Idaho gold rush of 1867.

n addition to the authors featured on Pages 10-25 of the Alum, we’ve listed other graduates who who have written books. The list will be available and updated regulary on our web site at unoalumni.org/alumniauthors.

Alumni Author: Susan Acuff Adams, ’69 Books: On family and marital compatibility Postscript: The Family Compatibility Test; The Marital Compatibility Test PS: Latter book asks hundreds of questions to help predict a couple’s chance of living together in harmony.

Chapters include “Rude Food: Twinkies or Tofu?” “Bathroom Etiquette: The Toilet Seat Dilemma”; “Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?” and “Housecleaning: Fetish or Foolish?” Author has given more than 500 radio and television interviews in support of her titles. She also has been national spokesperson for Mattel game, Compatibility.

Alum Author: Philip J. Adelman, ’71 Book: Entrepreneurial Finances: Finances for Small Business

A. Author: Kathy Lee DiMauro Barth, ’70 Book: Traveling Bolivia through the Wonders of Weaving PS: About the wonderful textiles of Bolivia.

From the author: “I am a weaver and I wanted to tell about the lives of the native weavers, their beliefs and importance of weaving in their everyday lives. I lived in Bolivia for four years, traveled to weavers homes, talked to weavers, vendors, spiritual leaders and collectors in order to share information with fellow weavers and people traveling to Bolivia. It is written in English and Spanish, 100 pages long with over 180 color photos of textiles, weavers, equipment and communities.”

A. Author: Erin Belieu, ’89 Book(s): Poetry.

PS: Works include The Extraordinary Tide and Infanta and One Above, One Below.

A. Author: Steven F. Barrett, ’79 Book: 68HC12 Microcontroller: Theory and Applications Postscript: Written with Daniel Pack.

Textbook used by approximately 35 schools in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Second textbook on microprocessors due out this Spring from Prentice-Hall. Third technical textbook begun on real time operating systems.

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A. Author: Frank Bundy, ’64, ’66 Book: The Administration of the Illyrian Provinces, 1809-1813 PS: The applications of Napoleon’s bureaucratic structure to the Balkan Peninsula, supposed reforms applied to Eastern European peoples and Slovenes, Croatians.

A. Author: David R. Butler, ’74; ’76 Book: Zoogeomorphology: Animals as Geomorphic Agents PS: First and only book of its kind to examine the role animals play in sculpting the Earth’s surface, thus integrating the ideas and literature from the fields of geomorphology and wildlife ecology. Butler describes how animals of all kinds—from small insects to large mammals such as elephants—can act as agents of erosion, transportation, and deposition of sediment.

Book received Association of American Geographers’ G.K. Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphological Research in 1998.

A. Author: Bill Byrne, ’67 Book: Habits of Wealth

A. Author: Mary E. Benecke, ’56 Book: Jake’s Ladder

A. Author: Robert H. Cain, ’50; ’59 Book: Luke’s Gospel as Poetry

A. Author: Evelyn Hamilton Boatright, ’75 Book: For Love: Poems and Drawings

A. Author: Melanie Morrissey Clark ’89 Book: The Fertility Handbook

Alum Author: Michael Arkfeld, ’73 Books: Electronic Discovery and Evidence; The Digital Practice of Law Postscript: Former book pertains to discovery and admittance of electronic evidence, addressing every aspect of this process including electronic information storage, outside expert assistance, the inherent benefits of electronic formats, as well as the laws and procedures for admitting evidence in your case. Latter book discusses case management, billing, interrogatories, documents, transcripts, graphics, Internet applications, in-court presentation, etc.

A. Author: R. J. Baken, ’65 Book: Measurement of Speech and Voice Postscript: Standard reference work on acoustic and physiologic methods for characterizing and evaluating speech and voice production.

A. Author: Margueritte Harmon Bro ’x13 Books: Urban Scene; Thursday at Ten; When Children Ask; Every Day a Prayer; Let’s Talk About You; Why Church; More Than We Are; Sarah.

A. Author: Korrie A. Conners, ’02 Book: Dolores the Horse and Her Parents’ Divorce PS: From the author: “What began as a self-created tool for family recovery turned into my first children’s book. It is a piece that will open communication and provide a path for healing.”

A. Author: Philip Boatright, ’61 Book: Black Tents: Poems 1960-2000 A. Author: Larry Allan Boersma, ’53; ’55 Books: Numerous works of photography PS: Has written and/or illustrated 18 books about animals, mostly for children. Most recent, Creative Canine Photography (by Larry Allan, his author name) is a “How-to” book about photographing dogs. Author says, “I actually found a way to combine my two majors, general science and writing, in a meaningful way.”

A. Author: Richard E. Boyer, co-author, ’69 Book: Practical Bankruptcy Law for Paralegals

A. Author: Rita J. Corbett, ’71 Book: Toothpicks To Treetops: The Quantity And Space Of Mathematics PS: Resource for K-8 teachers to understand the mathematics that they are to be presenting. Not a text but an explanation, including visual modeling of the mathematics topics presented in elementary and middle school mathematics.

A. Author: Herbert C. Covey, ’74 Books: Several sociological works PS: Social Perceptions of People with Disabilities in History: Author uses art, literature, and historical documents to uncover the history of disability in Western civilizations; Images of Older People in Western Art and Society: Art from several museums and social historical documents used to reveal how older people lived and were perceived in their respective historical contexts; Juvenile Gangs: Reviews most of the social scientific research on youth street gangs, covering street gang violence,

A. Author: Rudolph G. Decker-Boznak aka Rudolph G Boznak, ’71 Book: Competitive Product Development PS: Ideas and suggestions for the survival of the manufacturing industry.

A. Author: Julie Edell, ’75 Book: Emotion in Advertising PS: Explores complex relationship between emotion and advertising. Includes both theoretical and empirical chapters, including the effects of mood on advertising effectiveness and the interaction of the message and the emotional makeup of the recipient A. Author: Robert L. Erickson, ’55 Book: Introduction to Speech Pathology and Audiology A. Author: Kenneth C. Flint, ’70; ’72 Books: Several on Celtic history and legend.

PS: Storm Upon Ulster, Riders of the Sidhe, Masters of the Sidhe, Champions of the Sidhe, Challenge of the Clans, Isle of Destiny, Cromm, Legends Reborn, The Dark Druid, The Enchanted Isle, Otherworld, Darkening Flood, others. Several are based on Celtic history and legend. Some are suspense or horror.

A. Author: Jack R. Fraenkel, ’53 Books: How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education PS: Textbook used in more than 150 graduate programs in education throughout the United States.

A. Author: Robert Franzese Books: Juvenile Gangs PS: See previous entry for Herbert C. Covey.

A. Author: Micaela Gilchrist ’84 Book: The Good Journey A. Author: Lowell Greunke, ’72 Book: Football Rankings: College Teams of the Associated Press Poll, 1936-1984; Husker Trivia PS: Former is a compilation; latter book a collection of trivia questions and answers about the University of Nebraska Cornhusker football team.

A. Author: Teri Grimm, ’97 Book: Dirt Eaters A. Author: Julianne Crotty Guile, ’92 Book: Love From the Inside Out, Not From the Outside In Continued on Page 10

March 2004 • 9

Alumni Author: Maynard Allington Degree: BS, 1968

Alumni Authors A. Author: Wendi Hahn ’78/Shari Hofschire ’65; ’93 Book: What’s in This Place?

A. Author: Mary Hartman, ’73 Book: Bald Knobbers: Vigilantes on the Ozarks Frontier; Texas Granite: The Story of a World War II Hero; Cooking with Herbs Dictionary PS: Written with Elmo Ingenthron. A historical account of the 900-member clan of vigilantes that roared through the Ozarks in the 1880s, one of the largest and longest-acting vigilante groups of that period. Until the publication of this book, the people who lived in the Ozarks Mountains of southwestern Missouri deified the Bald Knobbers and their dynamic leader, Nathaniel Kinney, for decades as “saviors”. This book . . . defuses that reputation..

A. Author: Bruce H. Heimark, ’90 Book: The O.S.S. Norwegian Special Operations Group in World War II A. Author: Robert W. Hemenway, ’63 Book: Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography A. Author: Michael R. Hill, ’67 Book: Archival Strategies and Techniques A. Author: Michael Homan, ’93 Books: The Bible for Dummies; To Your Tents, O Israel PS: Former explores the Bible, Biblical Studies, and Bible’s influence on civilization as part of popularly titled series. Latter examines function, form of symbolism of ancient tents, specifically in the Hebrew Bible, but also in the greater context of ancient Near East.

A. Author: Gunnar Horn ’34 Book(s): Gunnar Horn Slept Here; Murder on Maple Street; Murder in the Museum; Murder in the Churchyard; Murder in the Old Mill A. Author: Dr. Martin M. Jacobsen, ’94 Author graduated: 1994 Book: Transformations of Literacy in Computer-Mediated Communication: Orality, Literacy, Cyberdiscursivity A. Author: Robert Kreitner, Ph.D., ’70; ’71 Books: Several college textbooks PS: Has authored or co-authored college textbooks that collectively have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. Includes Organizational Behavior Modification and Beyond: An Operant and Social Learning Approach (with Fred Luthans), which won the 1975 Book of the Year Award from the American Society for Personnel Administration and which was translated into Spanish. Other works: Management; Foundations of Management; Business (with Barry L. Reece, James P. O’Grady); Organizational Behavior (with Angelo Kinicki); Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills, & Best Practices (with Kinicki).

10 • March 2004

Out of the Shadows

By Tom McMahon

M

aynard Allington picked up the receiver, wondering if yet another credit card deal was awaiting him. It wasn’t. Instead, there ensued a 45-minute conversation that would change his life.

At the other end of the line was not a telemarketing hawk, but a publisher. Allington was just as leery, though; previous experiences with such book lords had not been pleasant. “They treat you like dirt,” Allington says bluntly.

Not this publisher, though. Like sun pouring into his Florida home, the voice on the other end was balm for the would-be novelist’s soul. “I loved your novel,” came the woman’s voice.

“She read passages to me that she liked,” Allington recalls. “It was incredible.”

That was in 1986, the aspiring writer’s breakthrough year. The novel was “The Grey Wolf.”

Allington’s had two others published since, “The Fox in the Field” in 1994 and his self-proclaimed-best “The Court of Blue Shadows” in 1995. The latter is a thriller centering on a half-Jewish German trying to find his twin brother and mentally retarded sister after his release from a concentration camp.

A 72-year-old Santa Cruz, Calif., native, Allington began his writing career in 1977 after retiring from the U. S. Air Force.

One rung of his post-service career ladder is marked UNO, where Allington in 1968 received a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and corrections. He spent less than a year on campus as part of the Bootstrapper Program for military personnel. The impact, though, was long-lasting. Allington cites a class he took with helping give birth to his best work. “I came to UNO with a strong background in 20th Century literature, as well as 20th Century music,” Allington explains. “But in the world of art I was a dud.” He recalls attending a London cocktail party where art was a main topic of conversation. “I felt stupid.”

Art Plays its Part Wanting to learn, though, he enrolled in Professor Peter Hill's History of Modern Art class. “No class ever brought me more pleasure after the fact,” Allington says. “Now I could visit art galleries or browse sidewalk shows and know what was good and what was mediocre.”

It also inspired “The Court of Blue Shadows,” at the heart of which is an elaborate scheme of art forgery. “I used all the knowledge acquired from Peter’s class and knowledge accumulated afterward thanks to his inspired teaching,” Allington says.

Though the seeds for the novel were sown in that 1968 art class, it took nine years before Allington pursued a writing career and 17 years until “Court of Blue Shadows” was published.

After graduating from UNO, Allington returned to active duty and served two Vietnam tours, in 1969 and 1971. He retired from the Air Force in 1976, moving to Melbourne, Fla., with his wife, Savanah, and their two daughters. “I retired as a lieutenant colonel, which gave me just enough money to try full-time writing,” he says. “Savanah and I discussed it and agreed I would try it for five years. If I didn't make it, I’d get a job.”

He made it. “Novels are what I do,” says Allington, who just finished his latest project, a mystery. He sees his career, though, more as art than as business.

“There is a lot of mediocrity in that field,” he says. Allington turns passionate when discussing his craft, bemoaning its business aspects and the need to make a buck at the expense of art. He doubts, for instance, that William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the UNOALUM

Photo by Pat Jarrell

Fury” would make it to bookstore shelves if it had been written today. “Faulkner's first two novels were bad, but someone saw potential in him. They saw his genius,” he says.

In today's book business, says Allington, no sales equals no publication. And great American literature suffers. “Steinbeck, Hemingway, Faulkner, Dos Passos—they made major contributions. I just don't see it happening like that today.”

While he rails against the business of writing, Allington has made peace with his craft. He’s written a couple novels since “Blue Shadows” but says they were not mainstream enough for today’s marketplace. “I don't care about that,” he says. “I think any writer has to come to that place. It’s important to keep your game up to a certain level and do what you want to do. They threw vegetables at Igor Stravinsky during his first performance of ‘Rite of Spring.’ Van Gogh only sold one painting in his life. Think what we’d have lost if he would have pandered to popular culture.”

If he had to do it over again, Allington says, he’d seek out great writers to help perfect his craft. “My ego got in the way,” he said.

“I taught myself, but it took so long.”

His first five years Allington concentrated on realistic dialogue and clear narrative prose. “One day out of the blue, I got a lightning flash, discovering another dimension of the writing process I knew nothing about.” Allington turns to the architecture of a novel and its choreography. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Still Writing Today he writes 10 hours a day, letting the Florida sun warm his creative juices. Sitting over his computer, Allington types his imagination onto the blank screen. He has experienced writer's block, even written about it. “Usually it means you haven’t done something right,” he said. “There is probably something in the characters or plot structure that is not going to work.”

He says it typically takes him about a year to finish a book. “It took me three or four months for one lousy chapter in ‘The Grey Wolf.’” Needing to flesh out his characters he spent the time researching Lenin and the Russian Civil War. For “Blue Shadows,” Allington became an expert on Nazi Germany and Hitler’s euthanasia program, pouring over histories and medical experiments.

He also put to use his own military experience and travels to foreign lands. Even knowledge gained in Peter Hill’s art class became part of “Blue Shadows,” art on the cover jacket taken from a Chirico oil painting.

Today, Allington can discuss his own art with informed dialogue rising above idle cocktail party chatter. And there’s no need for a publisher’s call to validate his success, that coming when, he says, his characters invade his dreams.

“Then I know they are real people. Like friends, people you know.”

Real people, not shadows.

March 2004 • 11

Chilling Words

Alumni Author: Steve Langan Degree: BA, 1989

By Nick Schinker

Nebraska Transplant The author originally came from Milwaukee, where his father worked as an air freight handler for United Airlines.

When Langan was 2 years old, his father was transferred to Omaha, his father’s original home.

12 • March 2004

Photo by Eric Francis

I

n “Freezing,” Steven Langan’s first published book of poems, truly chilling images jump from stark words—a bloody packinghouse floor; shards of glass; lilies settling onto a coffin; fist fights, torture, murder and rage.

Then there is the seven-part series, one poem for each day, pondering the odd appearance and equally sudden disappearance of a pair of black pants discarded in a roadway.

Difficult to categorize, it is poetry that can make the reader at one moment wince and the next moment nod recognition. Its attraction is similar to that of a NASCAR race: the compelling threat of witnessing some horrible catastrophe, tempered by the promise of cheering the ultimate victory.

Or, as Langan puts it, poetry that is intense yet “not without hope.”

“I think it’s a particularly violent world,” he says, “and I think it’s something deep inside us that we’re alternately terrified of and intrigued by at the same time.”

Langan’s first book has garnered a good share of critical praise, from write-ups in “Indiana Review” to “American Book Review.”

In the October 2002 issue of “Jacket Magazine,” reviewer Dave Gunton speaks highly of the debut. “Langan’s desolate Midwest landscapes and off-the-chart emotional IQ inevitably bring (Richard) Hugo to mind,” Gunton writes.

“Far from the helpless victim of these prairie vagrancies, as Hugo often portrays himself, Langan remains firmly in control of the universe of his poems, absorbing their images and creating his own peculiar mythology.”

The 38-year-old poet says he is flattered, and sometimes surprised, by the reviews “Freezing” has received. “Each review showed me different facets of my own work, facets I wasn’t completely aware of myself.”

Poetry yielding multiple meanings to multiple readers is poetry that succeeds, Langan says. “I would hope my work would be open to self-interpretation, in each poem as a whole and in the book as a whole. I think a lot of it depends where the reader is coming from.”

Langan attended North High School, where under the direction of Jim Coulter he became interested in language, word play, and the ability to tell stories. A 1984 graduate of North, it delighted him to return to the school last year as a featured presenter in the school’s annual poetry festival.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from UNO in 1989 and enrolled in the prestigious University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where he received the Paul Engle Postgraduate Fellowship from the James Michener Foundation.

“I got to poetry through prose after finding it was not necessarily a good fit for me, yet still seeing I had fallen under the spell of the poem.”

He received a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1993.

His first published poem came upon his graduation from UNOALUM

Freezing 1 This room like a home frightens me, Even the dusty tomes are liver-spotted.

A faint odor, like menhaden blended at sea, riding high tide’s spumes, on their clothes, under their arms. I’m young, afraid to mention things I’ve seen – not horrors, just things only I have seen. Inept at storytelling, unable to instruct the old who bother me, silently, for answers to questions certain to outlive my children’s children.

Excerpt from “Genealogy Room, Omaha Public Library” Copyright 2001 by Steve Langan, New Issues Press

UNO, in the New Mexico State University publication, “Puerto Del Sol.” “It was a poem that I had worked on for some time and presented to different teachers and faculty members at UNO,” he recalls. “I put a lot of labor into those 25 lines.”

Langan credits Michael Skau, chairman of the Department of English at UNO, with fueling his aspirations through honest encouragement.

“He and I met to read through a variety of poems I had written. I thought how wonderful it was that he devoted his time to going through my juvenile work, pointing to things that were slowly establishing themselves, providing good, hard, objective review.”

In the years since, Langan’s voice has gained power.

“Writing is obsessive. I think by finding one’s obsessions, one begins to find one’s voice and style.

They always say to write what you know, but by trying to write what you don’t know, you make a lot of discoveries.”

Langan’s work does not rhyme but speaks in harmony. “Whatever musicality it has, even though it’s free verse, I hope it comes across as a type of jazz. Or blues. Or both.”

Modified Experience His poetry is based in “modified experience.” “Driving into the Unbeautiful City,” “Barkeep,” and “Omaha,” for example, clearly are peppered with self-truths. “It begins with a personal experience that later takes on a whole fictional redevelopment,” he says.

Langan and his wife, Elizabeth, and their son, William, live not far from UNO. He has an office in his basement but finds himself working just about anywhere at anytime. “That’s the lucky thing about writing, it’s a portable art.”

He says he writes for himself, for his wife and for his audience.

“The best work, not just of my own but for poets I admire, is work written for self. Not to indulge in it, but to make discoveries from it and about it.”

He admits his audience is limited. “To entertain notions of having ‘readers’ is foolhardy. But to have several key into the work can be victory enough with poetry.”

Elizabeth, to whom he dedicated “Freezing,” is very supportive. “She’s a good reader of my work.

She’s the first reader of a lot of my poems, and she’s a tremendous editor, knowing what to strike, what doesn’t work.”

Despite the fact his poems are drenched in dark, sometimes disturbing images, Langan assures that he doesn’t travel about in sackcloth and ashes, loathing each step he takes.

“I’m no cliché,” he says, chuckling. “In my spare time I’m coaching my son’s sixth-grade basketball team. Believe me, I’m extremely full of joy each time the hapless Nuggets score.

“My disposition may not be overly joyful, but I’ve invested in a lot of elements of life that wiser people would ignore.”

Langan recently completed another manuscript, a collection of 45 poems titled “Hex.” While he shops for a publisher, he looks for other work, employment that actually pays on a regular basis. He has in the past worked as an estate seller in his wife’s business, “Once Upon a Time Sales,” and as a house painter in Cliff Island, Maine, where they have a summer home.

His literary goal is a simple one, he says.

“It’s really one poem at a time. It’s the hope of publishing one collection after the next, and of having a few attentive readers whose lives might be altered for the better by having their experience validated.”

From the positive press he’s received, it appears Langan is nearer his goal than he might allow himself to imagine. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Alumni Authors A. Author: (Earle) Ione Jenson, ’64 Book: Women Alone: Creating a Joyous and Fulfilling Life A. Author: Joel Jorgensen, ’97 and Roger Sharpe, Ph.D., ’63 Book: The Birds of Nebraska: Their Distribution and Temporal Occurrence A. Author: Edward C. King ’60 Book: The Death of the Army A. Author: David Krajicek, ’79 Book: Scooped!

A. Author: Ward Kischer, ’53 Book: The Human Development Hoax: Time to tell the truth PS: Written with Dianne N. Irving; Book is an anthology and compendium of misrepresentations of Human Embryology within the socio-legal issues of abortion, human embryo research, fetal tissue research, partial birth abortion, cloning and stem cell research.

A. Author: Linda M. Lewis, ’71 Books: The Promethean Politics of Milton, Blake, and Shelley; Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Spiritual Progress; Germaine de Stael, George Sand, and the Victorian Woman Artist PS: Author was to be in Europe in March presenting lectures on influence of French women authors upon British counterparts.

A. Author: Galen Lillethorup, ’56 Book: Can Your Cat Do That?; A Whimsical Aid to Expanding a Child’s Imagination A. Author: George R. Lindquist, ’77 Book: Car Buying Secrets A. Author: Max Malikow, ’71 Book: Living When a Young Friend Commits Suicide A. Author: Manuel Martinez-Pons, ’73; ’75 Books: Several on Education PS: The Continuum Guide To Successful Teaching In Higher Education; The Psychology Of Teaching And Learning: A Three-Step Approach; Statistics In Modern Research: Applications In The Social Sciences And Education; Research In The Social Sciences And Education: Principles And Process.

A. Author: Orville Menard, ’55 Books: Rulo to Lynch with Lewis and Clark; The Army of the Fifth Republic; Political Bossissm in Mid-America PS: First book a guide and narrative regarding the Lewis and Clark expedition in Nebraska and Iowa.

A. Author: Curtis L. Messex, ’64 Book: Combat Pay (audio book); Combat Support

March 2004 • 13

Alumni Author: Nathan Mitchell Degree: BGS, 1969

Alumni Authors A. Author: Daniel A. Morris, ’76 Book: Federal Tort Claims; Nebraska Trials PS: First book on lawsuits against federal government for personal injuries and property damage caused by federal employees. More than 1,000 pages, it is supplemented annually by the author.

A. Author: Ruth Herman Nielsen ’42 Book: Leaves and Acorns from Oaks A. Author: Marjorie O’Reilly ’80 Book: Never Eighteen (with Rob O’Reilly) A. Author: John Palinski, ’81 Books: Several on Oracle.

PS: Includes Oracle9i Developer: Developing Web Applications with Forms Builder, book geared for educational market, describing how to use Oracle’s Forms Developer. Also has written Oracle SQL and PL/SQL Handbook: A Guide for Data Administrators, Developers, and Business Analysts; and Oracle Database Construction Kit.

A. Author: Gail A. Olson, Ph.D., ’90 Book: Scars and Stripes: Healing the Wounds of War PS: Ending the silence surrounding the effects of war on veterans and their families. Deals with healing from the aftereffects of trauma.

A. Author: Robert L Pelshaw, ’91 Book: Raising Up the Champion Within You PS: Examination and interpretation of the early life of King David with solid, creative and inspiring modern principles of conflict strategy, leadership, and personal character development. First in a three-part series about David’s life.

14 • March 2004

Doing it on His Own

By Shelly Steig

F

or some people, life is easy. They are born into wealth and privilege, and seem to have more than their fair share of luck. Others have to make their own fortune through pluck and determination. Such is the case with Nathan Mitchell. Mitchell, 68, was born a black man in the Deep South when racial discrimination was rampant and the Ku Klux Klan wreaked havoc.

Prejudice. Segregation. Limited opportunities. Yet Mitchell overcome it all and succeeded, a self-made man.

No wonder, then, that he’s also a self-made author, chronicling many aspects of his journey through life in his novel, “The Leaves of Autumn.”

“Leaves” follows main character Norman from his childhood in post-depression Oakfield, Ga., where he is raised by an abusive grandfather and a grandmother who retreats into alcoholism, until his death.

Norman forms a friendship with a neighboring white boy that endures despite disapproval from other prejudiced residents. Even though the two begin to veer on separate paths, they are miraculously reunited while fighting in Vietnam. It's a book that celebrates the power of determination and the redeeming value of a friendship that knows no boundaries.

“Consider the book’s contents 100-percent true up until I—Norman in the book—entered the Air Force,” Mitchell says. “My grandparents were farmers; one of a handful of blacks who owned their land in the middle of stereotypically poor, uneducated white people who practiced ‘Jim Crowism’ religiously—mainly out of ignorance and habit. As I stress in the book, my family was lucky enough to live just up the road from a white family that was atypically different. Because of this family’s friendship and tolerance, we coexisted considerably well in what could have been a hostile environment.”

While Mitchell’s immediate environment was one of peaceful co-existence, other white southerners were not as tolerant. Many exhibited an attitude of superiority that had been fed by stereotypical images such as Jim Crow. The character was introduced before the Civil War when a white minstrel performer painted his face black and did an absurd jig while singing, “Weel about and turn about and do jis so, eb’ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow." Even after nearly 100 years, the image persisted and acts of discrimination were termed Jim Crow laws and practices.

Escape Through Education Mitchell escaped through education after spending his elementary years in a one-room segregated school. He attended grades eight through 12 at the Gillespie-Selden Institute in Cordele, Ga. Then, when he was only 16 years old, the Ford Foundation offered him a two-year scholarship to Savannah State College. When the scholarship ran out, he did odd jobs for three years before enlisting in the Air Force. The military Bootstrap Program brought him to UNO where he graduated after one year, in 1969, with a degree in business and a minor in journalism. He attributes “much of what I achieved as a freelance writer” to a Critical Writing for the Mass Media course he took.

Following graduation from UNO, Mitchell received an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

As an Air Force officer, he then worked in military intelligence and for one tour was attached to the United Nations Command headquarters in Seoul where he flew throughout the Southeast Asia Theater, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. In 1980, he retired from more than 20 years of service in the Air Force with decorations including the Meritorious Service Medal.

Mitchell traded his flight suit for a three-piece suit and became an executive for a defense contractor. After five years he had worked his way up the corporate ladder, attaining a vice president’s post.

Over the next several years he gathered experience with jobs that included deputy managing director UNOALUM

for the Naval Warfare Assessment Center and project director for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before starting his own business, Systems Integration and Consulting Company. He then sold SICC and formed the Mitchell Consulting Group, which included clients Raytheon, Value Systems Engineering and Martin-Marietta.

Through it all, Mitchell fostered his love of writing. While in the Air Force he won the George Washington Honor Medal for an essay titled, “I Am An American,” which Mitchell says was “cogently patriotic and gung-ho. I whipped out about a thousand words in less than an hour and sent it in. When I arrived at my next duty station my new commanding officer called me in and gave me the good news. I experienced my first 15 minutes of fame. It also came with a $500 cash prize, which back in 1965 was a lot of money.”

The success spurred Mitchell on to other projects.

He steeled himself against rejection slips while submitting articles and short stories.

“During my marathon freelance writing years I received enough rejection slips to wallpaper my den,” he says laughingly. Eventually he was published in newspapers and magazines such as “Essence,” “Saturday Evening Post” and “Good Housekeeping.”

Eventually, Mitchell decided to ditch the three-piece suit and pick up his pen full time. “I woke up one day and decided enough was enough,” he says. “Besides, I had several books I wanted to write. I cranked out six books in two years and Leaves of Autumn followed three others to the iUniverse.com publishers.”

Universal Appeal In 2000, iUniverse, a print-on-demand publishing company, issued all four of Mitchell’s books: “The Procon Conspiracy,” a “what-if” conjecture exploring a U.S. president making illegal weapons sales to Iran in exchange for the hostages being held in Beirut; “The Pro Patria Project,” a sequel to “Procon” where a dozen powerful men hatch a plot to assassinate 12 of the nation’s most prominent citizens; “The Bane of Cinco de Mayo,” a spy thriller about a CIA agent who shifts loyalty; and “Leaves.”

“It wasn’t self-publishing in the traditional sense where a writer pays on outfit to publish a certain number of books for an exorbitant fee, and months later several hundred or thousand books arrive by UPS or FedEx,” Mitchell says. “Usually w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

the majority of these will remain in the writer’s garage until he or she swallows their pride and puts them in a dumpster.

In my case, I simply uploaded the manuscript in the prescribed format, waited for the proofs and last-minute changes, and watched the finished books become available via more than a dozen online booksellers. Considering it only cost $99 to get each book in print, I am satisfied with the results.”

While print-on-demand publishing has its benefits compared to self-publishing, there are drawbacks to the traditional route. “The main problem was the lack of good editing. Writers cannot edit their own work objectively. There are tons of typos and missing words in every book.”

That hasn’t deterred Mitchell, though. He has two books in the works: “Three Heartbeats Away,” a thriller about a league of Arab leaders who hatch a plot to assassinate both the president and vice president of the United States so the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives— who happens to be ArabAmerican—can rise to power; and “How Smart Are You? Probably Not as Much as You Thought,” a trivia book that has garnered interest from trade publishers. Mitchell, Photo by Tim Ostermeyer though, plans to stay with print-on-demand publishing. “I’m not sure I want to go through the drill that will consume one to two years before the manuscript is in print.”

Some might consider Mitchell lucky. After all, he has written what he wanted and published how he wanted. He’s the father of eight and the grandfather of 13.

He can say he succeeded in two careers, and now he has the time to write when he wants and spend the rest of his time with his family or doing volunteer work for The Cancer Federation, the Animal Rescue Club and the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center.

But Mitchell doesn’t really believe in luck.

“The Almighty instills in each person the will and talents, which when judiciously applied and not abused will allow them to dictate their own fate. Lucky people are those who prepare themselves, remain alert for the right opportunity and exploit it. This works for the derelict who spends his last dollar on a lottery ticket and wins millions or the corporate executive who provides the leadership that makes him a millionaire.”

Or the writer who puts words to paper.

March 2004 • 15

Alumni Author: Kirby Moss Degree: BS, 1986

Watching, listening, writing

By Don Kohler

D

r. Kirby Moss recalls having a memo pad full of questions for his UNO professors, standard procedure for an aspiring reporter pursuing a career in journalism. But while others in his class were struggling for answers on how to write the perfect lead or attention-grabbing headline, Moss found himself digging a little deeper into the assignments.

“I was always trying to figure out a way to make things impractical,” the 1986 graduate says. “I had all these questions about society that I wanted answers to.”

Moss, now an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado, is doing his part to challenge a new era of fledgling writers to “dig deeper” into news stories.

An avid researcher who has earned a master’s degree and doctorate in cultural anthropology, Moss recently authored his first book, “The Color of Class: Poor Whites and the Paradox of Privilege,” published in 2003 by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

The book, which took Moss months to research, takes an intriguing look into race, culture and class in Midwestern cities. Moss believes his background in cultural anthropology enables him bring a unique perspective into the field of journalism.

“I am still telling my students that journalism is a wonderful career path. I am just encouraging them to expand the practice of journalism,” he says. “I try to infuse a more holistic approach into journalism, asking them to go deeper than the stereotypes portrayed in the media regarding society and culture.”

Moss credited two long-standing professors in UNO’s College of Journalism, Dr. Bruce Johansen and retired profes16 • March 2004

Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado

sor Dr. Warren Francke, with “getting him involved” in journalism and writing in college. During his senior year at UNO, Moss began an internship with the Omaha World-Herald, working nights on the sports desk before moving to a full-time position in the newsroom. “I enjoyed playing sports, but not covering them,” he says.

UNOALUM

Lone Star Moss left the World-Herald in 1990 for the Austin American Statesman, where he was assigned the higher education beat on the sprawling University of Texas at Austin campus. After less than one year on the beat, Moss realized he wanted a career change.

“I was always on the UT campus hanging out with students and professors, and that really changed my idea of what I wanted to do with my career,” he says. “I developed a real interest in anthropology because I was interested in the way they study. You truly become immersed in culture, and not just from an armchair approach.”

Moss returned to the Midwest in 1991 and began working on a master’s degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Two years later he became the first African American student to graduate with a degree in cultural anthropology from UNL. He then enrolled in the doctoral program at UT-Austin and began thinking earnestly about putting pen to paper on his first book.

“The University of Texas had a nice, diverse anthropology program and I knew I had more writing to do,” Moss says. “During my studies I began thinking extensively about class and culture in America. In my background as a reporter, I had a lot of exposure to different cultural groups in Nebraska. I always needed more time and space to write about those experiences, which is something you don’t get in newspaper reporting.

“There was this message out there from my perspective as a young person growing up in North Omaha and from my travels across the world about poverty and the association with color. ‘Why didn’t we associate white poverty with poverty?’ I told myself that I needed to figure out a way to complicate this subject.”

Moss took the time he needed, a full year of first-hand reporting in neighborhoods throughout the Midwest (including Omaha), to produce what he considers an in-depth look at white poverty and the privilege of class. Three days a week for six months, Moss roamed the halls of high schools and hung out with young people. He went to everyday places such as the grocery store and doctor’s office to “watch and listen” as white families interacted, all the time collecting pertinent research for his book.

Moss says his journalism background helped him break down barriers and gather the necessary information for his groundbreaking book.

Social Spaces “They say in journalism that you go where the story is,” he says. “I just started to participate in people’s social spaces. There were some strange reactions from people because here was a black person researching this subject, and as a scholar and reporter I was the privileged one. I just got out into the field and watched how people reacted.”

With his research and doctorate in hand, Moss said goodbye to the Longhorn state in 1998, distinguished as the first African American at the UT-Austin to earn a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology. Moss then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he began putting the finishing touches on his book. Knowing that his work would end up in the hands of students and colleagues, Moss says he incorporated his training as a journalist to make the book reader-friendly.

“I was trying to write this book as a journalist, but for an academic and more general audience,” he says. “I really thought about my audience, and I wanted to write this book to be read. I wanted to create a dialogue about this subject, and I believe it has. It’s selling quite well, and, more importantly, people are reading and dialoguing about this book and the topic.”

After completing his book and postdoctoral studies, Moss traveled to Italy with his wife, Andrea Juarez, an attorney and University of Wisconsin graduate whom he met in Lincoln. When they returned, she accepted a job in Colorado and Moss was hired at Colorado University, where he has been working on several articles and another book proposal. “I have a book idea, but for now I am concentrating on my students,” he says. “My journalism training as an undergrad has helped me so much in academia to be able to write and communicate with people. One of my goals now is to bring more students of color into the journalism field.” w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Alumni Authors A. Author: Irene Pence, ’57 Book: Several true-crime books PS: Triangle; No Daddy Don’t, A Father’s Murderous Act of Revenge; A Clue from the Grave; Buried Memories.

From the author: “They are true crime based 100 percent on reality. I do massive research, including attending trials, visiting prisons and interviewing murderers. One was optioned for a movie and all have been reprinted multiple times.”

A. Author: Gary Penisten ’53 Book: Pentagon Appointment A. Author: Debra Wesselmann Perseus, ’79; ’89 Book(s): The Whole Parent: How to Become a Terrific Parent Even if You Didn’t Have One A. Author: Carol Jean Miles Petersen, ’52; ’82 Books: Bess Streeter Aldrich, The Dreams Are All Real PS: Biography of Nebraska and Iowa author.

A. Author: Steven J. Ramold, ’92 Book: Slaves, Sailors, Citizens: African Americans in the Union Navy PS: Detailed study of the political, social, and military ramifications of recruiting African Americans for the Union Navy during Civil War. A. Author: Gary Sallquist ’60 Book: A Seminary Journey: Reflections of a Second Career Student; The Counsel of Many; Classroom Classics A. Author: Elizabeth J. Ridlon ’84 Book: Creation or Evolution?

Does It matter?

PS: Alum wrote book with husband Robert W. Ridlon Jr. A. Author: Frederick and Edward Schapsmeier, ’52 Books: Political biographies PS: Henry A. Wallace of Iowa: the Agrarian Years; Prophet in Politics: Henry A. Wallace and the War Years.

Two-volume biography was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and chosen by Library of Congress to be placed in the permanent library collection in the official vice president’s house. Twin brothers, the Schapsmeiers have coauthored 10 books, including Dirksen of Illinois, Senatorial Statesman; Encyclopedia of American Agricultural History; Political Parties and Civic Action Groups.

March 2004 • 17

Alumni Author: Patricia Sabine Degree: BA, 1969; MA 1971

Alumni Authors A. Author: Catherine Schuett, ’96 Book: The Ultimate Test PS: “Kyle Irons refused to rest knowing that, by his own hands, the lives of three innocent people lay in the vengeful grip of an underworld leader, Antonio Cartillone, Jr. Fueled by guilt and anger, Kyle set out to rescue the three he betrayed to Cartillone.”

A. Author: Janet A. Seaman, ’64 Book: Making Connections: From theory to practice in adapted physical education PS: Textbook for students majoring in physical education; creates an inclusive developmental physical education model for working with individuals with disabilities.

A. Author: Jeanette Braxton Secret, ’73 Books: Guide To Tracing Your African Ameripean Civil War Ancestor; Iverson Granderson First Class “Colored” Boy, Union Navy (1863-1865) PS: Guide, by an experienced African Ameripean Family Historian and Military Researcher who traced her great-grandfather, Iverson Granderson, in the Union Navy (1863-1865).

A. Author: Joseph F. Seng, ’55 Books: Several historical works.

PS: Includes Our Family History, covering author’s ancestors and Land of Promise, a brief History of Monrovia, Md. Author now working on a history of New Market, Md, a small town founded in 1793 and known as “The Antiques Capital of Maryland.”

A. Author: Phillip M. Seuberling, ’68 Book: Treasurers of the Spanish Main PS: Adventure story set in the year 1622 against a background of Spanish conquest in the New World.

A. Author: H. Kenneth Seymour, ’72 Book: A Young American Hero PS: Biography of Hammett Lee Bowen Jr., a sergeant in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry Division who was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor after being killed in action.

18 • March 2004

Making a Difference

By Kara Schweiss

C

an printed words on a page really make a difference in people’s lives? UNO alumna Patricia Sabine thinks so. Twenty years ago, Sabine co-authored a book that presented testimony on how books influenced individuals in ways from providing inspiration to make positive lifestyle changes and influencing career choices to teaching people how to become more loving human beings and helping them find beauty in the world.

Patricia Sabine and her late husband, Gordon, wrote “Books That Made the Difference: What People Told Us,” published in 1983 as a project for the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book. The book was conceived in 1980 and coordinated by Ann Heidbreder Eastman, a colleague of Gordon Sabine’s at Virginia Tech. The Sabines did the rest. From July 1980 to March 1981, the two educators and former newspaper reporters interviewed people across the country, asking two questions: What book made the greatest difference in your life? What difference did it make?

“Our project showed that books can be very uplifting and guiding, and it is not always the kind of book you think,” Sabine says. “Some big publisher in New York told us it was ‘Raggedy Ann’ and a newspaper editor in Phoenix told us, ‘You know, there are some good editorials in the Bible.’”

By the end of the project, the Sabines had conducted 1,382 interviews—about 1,000 of them face-toface—in more than 50 American communities. Respondents embodied a wide range of generations, occupations and points of view. Some were celebrities, like Walter Matthau, Alan Alda, Studs Terkel, Woody Hayes and Maria VonTrapp. Most, though, were ordinary citizens. Some were involved in careers related to reading—librarians, publishers and educators—while others were barely literate.

Some were colorful characters, like the Irish cop on a New York City street corner or the adult bookstore manager who claimed the Bible as the book that “teaches you right from wrong” before throwing Gordon out of the store (the only place Patricia refused to accompany her husband during the project).

Some remained anonymous.

Dickens, Twain and the Sabines The list included classics from Dickens, Twain and others, self-help works, including Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and Emily Post’s “Etiquette,” how-tos like “Boatbuilding in Your Own Backyard,” biographies, children’s books and even a dictionary. The Sabines selected 200 responses for the final book, presenting some readers’ choices as stories and others as simple declarations.

To launch the interview portion of their project, the couple contacted librarians in selected cities and asked for names of some of their most prolific customers. A National Public Radio project produced 300 letters. “Then it became sort of random,” Sabine says.

The couple together conducted five to 30 interviews a day, many spontaneous, with Patricia photographing the subjects while Gordon operated an enormous tape recorder. “It was a big old thing that hung over his shoulder,” she recalls. “Gordon did most of the talking, he really loved to talk. He would do a rough draft and I would go over his notes, then we would argue about punctuation.

“We never-ever agreed on the use of the comma.”

The project also served as an opportunity for the then-newlyweds to become better acquainted, Sabine says. Twenty years of marriage followed until Gordon’s death in the summer of 2003.

“The project was wonderfully successful and a great deal of fun to do,” she says. “We certainly got to know each other extremely well. We had a lot of fun together and some really great memories which are especially dear to me now.”

The Sabines, both former newspaper reporters, were teaching college journalism and writing when UNOALUM

they met at a conference in Huntington, W.Va. Gordon had come from Virginia Tech, Patricia from Ohio State University.

Gordon was in his 60s, Patricia was in her 50s and widowed.

Each had four grown children from their previous marriages.

“We tell people we met by accident but kept meeting by design,” Sabine says. “About six months later, we got married and I moved to Virginia with him.” After completing “Books That Made the Difference,” Patricia taught freshman English for a year at Virginia Tech before retiring from teaching.

“Books” ended up being her first and only book. “I gradually worked out of the writing,” she says.

Gordon never retired, though, taking on his last academic position within days of their move to a retirement community in Arizona.

The couple has a combined 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, “stretched from California to New Jersey.”

That includes family in Nebraska, where Patricia first came in the 1960s after her first husband, Paul Williams, was offered a job with the Omaha World-Herald.

Prior to that the couple worked as journalists for their hometown paper, the Topeka Capital in Kansas. During the family’s time in Nebraska, Williams became editor of the now-defunct Omaha Sun newspaper. The family left Nebraska when Williams was offered a teaching position at Ohio State. Sabine, whose mother was a teacher and father a lawyer, became interested in journalism early. She served as editor of her high school newspaper and yearbook and also worked after school at a local weekly newspaper. After high school graduation, she began working as a reporter.

“It was in the midst of the Depression and there was no money for college. So they hired me full-time for $7.50 a week,” Sabine says.

Late Start She didn’t start college until after her youngest entered elementary school. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in English in 1969 and a master’s degree in English in 1971, both from UNO. “I took one course a semester for about ten years before I got my bachelor’s,” she says. Sabine, who was in her mid-40s when she received her first degree, says she firmly believes no w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

one is too old to get an education. Now 80, she currently takes painting classes at a community college near her home in Tempe. “They’re very nice to me,” Sabine says. “They never make me feel like an old lady.”

One of the lasting effects of her involvement with the “Books That Made the Difference” project, Sabine says, is a revitalized belief in freedom of choice where reading is concerned.

“We were strongly, strongly against censorship. I don’t think anyone should be denied,” Sabine says. “I live in a retirement community and I at one time was head of the Friends of the Library here and we had a good little library going. Some people were complaining about dirty words in the books. These people were average age 80 or 85, and I just said, ‘You know, if those words can disrupt your morals at this age, that’s pretty bad.’ We don’t really need to be a mama and papa and withhold the books.”

Sabine says she also appreciated the opportunity to choose her own reading material beginning at a young age.

“There were some books that my mother didn’t really want me to read. They were really not good literature and were very sexy. She would hide them under her mattress, but I soon discovered that and would read the books and put them carefully back under the mattress,” Sabine says, laughing at the memory.

Photo by Tom Story “Books That Made the Difference” was the first project of its kind, spawned many local imitators and helped to create and stimulate local Centers for the Book, Sabine says.

The book in 1985 also was published in an abridged edition for Book-of-the-Month Club. The Sabines eventually created a slide show of the project for presentation to librarians at conferences throughout the country. “We met a lot of really nice, really neat librarians,” Sabine says. “And they can really party.” The presentation now resides with clippings, manuscript drafts and other audio-visual materials from the project in the special collections department at the library at Virginia Tech. Sabine says she would like to see an updated “Books That Made the Difference” for today’s readers.

“It would still be interesting to see about today. Bookstores are booming and book publishing is a huge enterprise,” she says. “People are still reading and buying, obviously.”

March 2004 • 19

Alumni Author: Ward Schumaker Degree: BFA, 1966

Dancing to his own beat

By Sonja Carberry

A

uthor and award-winning artist Ward Schumaker dances to the beat of his own drum. And a lot of very different people dance with him.

In his latest children’s book, “In My Garden,” Schumaker tickles toddlers’ funny bones while they count for fun. In “Paris France,” Schumaker’s illustrations complement Gertrude Stein’s rambling memoir of life in early 20th-century France.

In New York City, seemingly everyone recognizes the Columbus Bakery logotype Schumaker created. “I’m known as the guy who did the walking toast,” he says. In San Francisco, the first thing people see through the fog coming down Van Nuys is the blue neon moose Schumaker drew for Moose’s, a tony restaurant frequented by politicos.

“People laugh when they see it, and that makes me happy,” he says.

More than 100 magazines worldwide—from The New Yorker to Nick Jr. Magazine, Le Monde to Ms. Magazine—have carried Schumaker’s illustrations within their pages.

Style and Whimsy Whether for the eyes of kids or intellectuals, Schumaker’s style is poised and self-confident, according to author and design critic Veronique Vienne. “It’s very stylish, but not in a trendy way.

It is playful, whimsical, yes. But it doesn’t talk down to the viewer or the reader. You have to reach up a little bit, and yet it’s never condescending,” she says.

Schumaker’s largest-selling work (to the tune of 100,000 copies) is the address book “All My Friends are Animals,” which invites users to alphabetize their friends and colleagues by the animals they most take after—dogs, night owls or vultures, for example.

But his proudest works are the limited-edition letterpress books that fuse art and literature.

“Paris France,” for which he received a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, and “Two Kitchens in Provence” by M.F.K. Fisher, were published by Yolla Bolly Press. The small California publisher is known for making fine press limitededition books in quantities of 100 to 400 and selling them for $300 to 600. In short, they are serious books.

“That’s why I wanted to do the stuff for Yolla Bolly, so I could prove I didn’t have to do whimsical,” Schumaker says.

20 • March 2004

Photo by Richard Swann / Vela Piena Fotografia

When Schumaker steps back to describe how he’s found himself at 61 once again doing fine art, he starts with: “Well, of course it was a different time then.”

He grew up in Omaha’s Florence neighborhood in the early 1950s, a not exactly “different” but “separate” kid. He clearly remembers his Union Pacific-employed father bringing home a huge stack of one-side-used paper. “It seemed like it was three-feet tall. I don’t know how big it really was, but it must have been a ream—like 500 sheets. I thought it was the best UNOALUM

gift ever.”

The young Schumaker filled the blank sides with three-head-lighted cars, musing over how a swiveling middle spotlight would better illuminate the car’s path.

Schumaker recalls walking along Dodge Street as a teenager and stumbling into an outdoor UNO art exhibit. He was particularly struck by a Peter Hill painting. “I thought, ‘Oh, I want to paint like that.

There were all of these little events, drips and splots that were almost like characters.” He enrolled where Hill taught—Omaha University. In 1965, having nearly completed his fine arts degree, the 22year-old Hill won first place in the annual Governor’s Art Show with a piece he described as a pop-art take-off on Michelangelo’s creation of Adam. The exhibit was held at Crossroads Mall. After that, the painting was destined for the Governor’s permanent collection.

It never made it. A Crossroads employee saw something objectionable in the painting. Incredibly objectionable. “She said it was the dirtiest thing she had ever seen.” Schumaker recalls. The irony of another critical comment stuck with Schumaker for nearly 40 years: “If you don’t see what’s dirty about this painting, then you don’t have a dirty mind.” Men in suits called a meeting and all but accused of Schumaker of pornography. The wanted Schumaker to take $25 over and above the grand prize ($400) to remove his work from the show.

Several UNO artists withdrew their entries in a show of support for Schumaker who, with art department head J.V. Blackwell, remained puzzled over the difference in perceptions. While Schumaker painted—and saw—one dominate figure, people were seeing three figures and perceiving them to be engaging in highly suspect behavior. “Here I am just a nice Presbyterian boy and I just didn’t see it,” he says.

To Haight-Ashbury Schumaker took the money, withdrew his painting and completed his last semester. After graduation he packed off to California and, quite accidentally, moved one block from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. The hippie ’60s were in full swing, but Schumaker hated rock and roll. “It’s the music of followers,” he says. While his friends did hard drugs, Schumaker cut his hair “as short as possible” and became a paper salesman. “I still thought of myself as an artist. But I didn’t produce anything. I moved to San Francisco instead of New York. I couldn’t believe it.”

One day he called on famous designer Marget Larson. “She said, ‘I don’t think you’re just a paper salesman. You do something else, don’t you?’” Schumaker copped to his other side and rather reluctantly showed Larson his work. “She said, ‘Go quit your job. You have more than enough talent.’”

Schumaker did just that and promptly . . . went broke. He and his first wife were raising their baby son, Matthew. Out of necessity he found work as a designer for a corporate magazine, later creating Snoopy sheets and calendars. It continued like that until he turned 35, when Schumaker says he got his “act together” and started getting illustrating work.

Vienne, author of “The Art of Doing Nothing,” among other books, first met Schumaker in the 1980s when she was an art director for a San Francisco city magazine. She describes Schumaker’s work, saying, “Instantly the magazine looks like it knows what it’s doing. His work always smarts up the page. It looks very casual but it’s very edgy in many ways. I saw him evolve from more of a commercial artist to someone who had much more of his own voice. I am a great fan of Ward’s work.”

Schumaker built relationships with publishers and started illustrating books like “Baking with Julia”

by Julia Childs and “Let’s Do It” by Cole Porter.

The elegant lightness and casual smartness permeating Schumaker’s work makes it appear so easily perfect as to be nearly happenstance. If only it were that easy. Schumaker said it’s hard for people to believe that the handful of lines that make up Moose’s logotype, for example, took him weeks to perfect.

“People don’t realize that you lie awake at night trying to make it work right. It’s painful sometimes.”

A coincidental sidestep took Schumaker back to 1965. He’d never really written but took an empty spot in a writer’s group because his artist wife, Vivienne Flesher, didn’t want it. His thoughts spilled out, particularly the almost surreal finale of his UNO education.

“I wrote 650 pages and it culminated in that thing that happened and I realized I hadn’t painted since then.” He started painting almost immediately and the result has been more serious work, which Schumaker put on exhibit for the first time at Zietgeist Gallery in Nashville in January 2004.

“It’s very tenuous,” he said. “But it makes me feel very good. Here I am at 61 and I’m painting again.” w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Alumni Authors A. Author: James Shebl, ’69 Book(s): WEBER! The American Adventure of Charles M. Weber; In This Wild Water (the story of some unpublished poems by Robinson Jeffers); King, Of the Mountains A. Author: Travis Sing, ’98 Book: Omaha’s Easter Tornado of 1913 PS: Details the events of the worst tornado disaster in Nebraska history through nearly 200 photographs.

A. Author: Beverly Bush Smith, ’49 Books: Several spiritual works PS: Includes: Wings of a Dove; Evidence of Things Unseen; Caught in the Middle (Living a fulfilled life with an unbelieving husband); Change for the Better (dispels negative feelings and fallacies surrounding “The change,” or menopause); Uniquely You. A. Author: Marcia Ann Speth, ’57 Book: One Drop: History of an American Family PS: From book cover: “. . . More than just a populist history, the book traces the history of our country through the eyes of one family, a family composed of some people who think they are black and others who are sure they are white..”

A. Author: Janet (Voelte) Staiger, ’68 Books: On film and television PS: Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production; Interpreting Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of Bad Women: Regulating Sexuality in Early American Cinema; Blockbuster TV: Must-See Sitcoms in the Network Era; Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception.

A. Author: Shelly Steig, ’94 Books: Finding the Right Church, a Guide to Denomination Beliefs; Newspaper Markets for Travel Writers PS: Former renamed, updated and reprinted. Now called, The 60 Second Guide to Denominations and will be updated every few years.

A. Author: Robert R. Trumbauer, ’58; ’69 Book: Irma: The Legend Who Touched So Many Lives PS: Life story of Irma Trumbauer, who spent 40 years working at Creighton University and who was an ardent sports fan at Omaha University when her son (author Bob Trumbauer) played sports from 1954 to 1958. Offers insights into those events in her life that helped shape her character and perspective.

March 2004 • 21

Alumni Author: Mary Evans Seeley Degree: BA, 1963; MA, 1969

Alumni Authors A. Author: Terry Stickels, ’76 Books: 17 on puzzles PS: Works include Are You as Smart as You Think? and Cunning Mind-Bending Puzzles.

A. Author: Carl E. Ulrich, ’72 Book: Years of Wandering, Years of Wondering A. Author: Thomas C. Utts, ’63 Book: Korea Blue PS: Military thriller set in 1969. Air Force fighter pilot recovering from wounds after being shot down on a combat mission in Vietnam learns that the friend who saved his life has died in an unexplained accident in Korea.

His search for reasons leads to corruption and murder “at the highest levels.”

A. Author: Sally J. Walker, ’85 Book: Letting Go of Sacred Things PS: A literary novel of life stages in the 20th century and one of Walker’s 12 completed novels and 19 scripts. She notes she’s currently working on a novel script “for a well-known actress.”

A. Author: Florence “Peg” Tuomisto, ’60 Books: How Did We Get Here From There?; Recliner Logic PS: Former tells about how life was in the early ’20s on a farm in Nebraska, before electricity and other conveniences.

Continues to author’s time in Tallahassee.

Latter book is a lighthearted look at “those reclining years0” A. Author: Samuel Walker, ’70 Books: Various works on policing, criminal justice history, etc.

PS: Has authored 11 books. Most recent works include: Police Accountability: The Role of Citizen Oversight; Sense and Nonsense About Crime; The Police in America: An Introduction (co-authored with Charles M. Katz); The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America (coauthored with Cassia Spohn and Miriam DeLone).

A. Author: Andrea Warren, ’71 Book(s): Several nonfiction works PS: Include: Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story; We Rode the Orphan Trains; Pioneer Girl: Growing Up on the Prairie; Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps; and, due this fall, Escape From Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy. A. Author: Lt. Col. James C. Warren, ’64 Book: The Tuskegee Airmen Mutiny at Freeman Field PS: Story of 104 Tuskegee Airmen Fight against discrimination and segregation.

22 • March 2004

White House Hostess

By Wendy Townley

I

t wasn’t so much the facts as it was the finds that launched Mary Evans Seeley’s love affair with history. Paging through textbooks and taking exams at Omaha University had its rewards, but it was in the tactile experience of document discovery that made Seeley swoon and, ultimately, publish her first book.

The journey from pupil to publishing took some time, though.

A Wisconsin native, Seeley began attending OU after moving to Omaha with her husband, Ron, in 1961. Two years later she earned a bachelor’s degree with a double major in speech and history.

“I knew that [history] was going to be my goal,” says Seeley from her home in Tampa, Fla. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I loved history.”

She went to the head of the classroom, teaching American history at Omaha’s now-closed Valley View Junior High School near 108th Street and West Center Road. She would preach with a passion.

“That was how I was going to impart American history,” Seeley says. “”American history gets a bad rap, like it’s so boring. I like to make history come alive.”

That zeal led her back to OU in pursuit of a master’s degree in history. Her husband, meanwhile, was studying ophthalmology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. With a child at home and a second on the way, Seeley says she wasn’t considered a traditional student in the school’s history department. Many of her classes, she recalls, were filled with retired military personnel, all male, and current officers from Offutt Air Force Base.

“We were serious,” she says. “(Graduate school) wasn’t a joke. You were there because you wanted to be in it, and that’s a goal that I wanted to accomplish. The fact that I had two children didn’t stop me from getting my degree.”

Seeley received her master’s degree in 1969, shortly after giving birth to twins. Now a mother of four, Seeley decided to focus on the family. “OK, I thought, I have my degree. I’ll put it aside for a while,” she says.

“A while” turned into more than 20 years.

Spiritual Growth In 1971, after a year living in Lincoln (Neb.), Seeley and her family moved to Florida, where Ron took a job as an ophthalmologist. She raised her family and became active in Bible Study Fellowship, a Christian Bible study organization. She assumed the role of teacher yet again, this time with adults as her students. This time she was making biblical history come alive.

She and Ron remained active in religious life. Seeley joined a Christian women’s group and, later, Campus Crusade for Christ. Later, she became involved in a Christian organization with ties to Washington, D.C. The group often hosted Bible studies for political figures and federal employees in the nation’s capital.

“Our world had expanded, and we became really interested in the political area,” Seeley says. “We looked at what we could do as an individual in our community and in our nation, as to how we could make a difference.”

Little did Seeley know that her husband’s search one day for an afternoon snack along the streets of Washington, D.C., would lead to her first published book. Instead of a bite to eat, Ron wandered into a political memorabilia shop where he purchased a Christmas card former President UNOALUM

Richard Nixon had given to staffers in 1969. The Seeleys often hosted holiday parties at their Tampa home, which was white, often designing them around a White House theme.

The Nixon card was among the first of numerous other pieces of holiday memorabilia.

Whenever they traveled the couple scoured around for similar holiday items given from the president or first lady to staffers.

They toured presidential libraries, comparing notes of their treasures.

By 1992 Seeley was given the green light by White House Curator Rex Scouten to research Christmas seasons as celebrated by past presidents. That opened the door to social secretaries, presidential libraries and, eventually, first ladies. One of Seeley’s first interviews was with former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Seeley was nervous, but she knew Reagan could provide information never printed in a book or greeting card.

Next on her list: Barbara Bush. Seeley made several attempts at contacting Bush, all of which proved unsuccessful.

Then Seeley’s phone rang one day with Bush on the other end of the line. Seeley also interviewed Roslyn Carter and Betty Ford and, later, Laura Bush.

First Printing More than a quarter of a century after receiving her master’s degree, Seeley had published her first book, “Seasons Greetings from the White House: The Collection of Presidential Christmas Cards, Messages and Gifts.” A first edition was published in the fall of 1996 at 192 pages. Over the next few years Seeley discovered more information and revised the book. “Seasons Greetings” now is in its fourth edition, boasts 256 pages and has sold more than 50,000 copies.

The book goes into 80 years of history and features the following: • Jacqueline Kennedy’s sleigh ride that became a 1962 Christmas card.

• The paintings by Dwight Eisenhower for his Christmas gift prints to White House staffers.

• The Christmas party for members of Congress from Lyndon Johnson, organized in just under five hours.

• Ronald Reagan’s request to have the National Christmas Tree lit on his Inauguration Day. Since the book’s first publishing, Seeley has visited the w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Photo by Jason Behnken

White House 18 times. She also has visited all but a few of the presidential libraries throughout the United States, has attended the lighting ceremony of the National Christmas Tree, and has met Laura Bush, who, Seeley says, has four copies of the book.

In 2000, Seeley wrote “Grandmother Remembers, Christmas at the White House.” The book weaves together true stories from White House Christmas celebrations, designed for young readers.

Seeley says she never envisioned seeing her name on the cover of a book, but her impact with regard to White House history has proven beneficial.

“The older you get, the more nostalgic you get about this book,” she says. “It’s not a political book. It’s a history book. If you’re interested in America, and what makes America great, this is a good book.”

Seeley, with a chuckle, says she is certain her book doesn’t favor one political party. Her coverage is about equal Democrat, equal Republican. “There’s nothing I could have done to control that,” she says with a smile. “It’s not necessarily a political statement.”

March 2004 • 23

Alumni Author: Allan Vorda Degree: MA, 1976

Psychedelic, baby!

By John Fey

A

llan Vorda grew up in Omaha a child of the 1960s. Like many teens of that era, he enjoyed cruising Dodge Street, stopping at Todd’s Drive-in and making the scene at the city’s most popular hangout—Sandy’s Escape.

“Growing up in Omaha was a wonderful experience,” says Vorda, a 1966 graduate of Creighton Prep. “We lived on 94th and Capitol. In 1954, we were at the edge of the city.”

It was a great time to be a teenager. And for Vorda, a great time for music.

Eventually, Vorda’s love for music inspired him to compile interviews he conducted with some of the biggest names in music from the 1960s—stars such as Ted Nugent, Eric Burdon and Roky Erickson of the legendary psychedelic band the 13th Floor Elevators.

Vorda, 55, packaged the interviews in a book titled “Psychedelic Psounds: Interviews from A to Z with 60s Psychedelic and Garage Bands” published in 1994 by Borderline Productions/U.K. The 258-page book contains interviews with musicians from 17 bands, including Big Brother & the Holding Company, Turtles and the Kingsmen, but also lesser known ones such as Love, Seeds, Zephyr and Lincoln’s own Coachmen.

Vorda, who earned his master’s degree from UNO in 1976 after getting a BS from Creighton University, credits UNO professor Michael Skau for lighting his literary fire.

“He introduced me to writers that just blew me away,” Vorda says, “But my favorite was John Barth. I was looking for a writer to research for an independent study class, and Skau recommended Barth. I still consider ‘The Sot-Weed Factor’ my favorite novel.”

Vorda also interviewed writers and in 1993 published “Face to Face: Interviews with Contemporary Novelists” by Rice University Press.

Consumed by Music Years before his interest in literature was ignited, however, Vorda was consumed by music. Nationally, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Animals captured the fancy of Vorda and his high school buds. Locally, though, you couldn’t beat a visit to Sandy’s Escape in Omaha’s Benson area.

“It was a neat format in that one band was downstairs and the other was on the main floor,” says Vorda, who now lives in 24 • March 2004

Photo by Bill Olive

Sugar Land, Texas, with wife Le-My. “You could see the Rumbles, Coachmen, Chevrons, Fortunes, Fay Hogan Experiment, Impacts with the go-go girl Teresa Olivo, Noblemen, Nomads, Wonders and many others I can’t remember.

“There were good-looking girls in short skirts and tight sweaters. And there were the occasional fights. It was just a cool scene and cool to be part of it.”

But it was still all about the music. And music never left Vorda’s heart—even after he left Omaha to join his family in Houston soon after graduating from Prep. He returned to Omaha to complete his education, then eventually returned to UNOALUM

the Houston area.

During the 1980s, Vorda was motivated to make interview attempts with the idols of rock and roll he listened to during the ’60s. Amazingly, he gained access to the mega-stars without media credentials.

“I have to admit, there were times when I faked it in order to get some of the interviews,” Vorda says.

“The first one I vividly recall was interviewing Eric Burdon of the Animals, who was playing at a club in Houston in 1981. I just went to the ticket counter and said I was with a local underground newspaper called Public News—I had no credentials—and they let me go backstage.

“It was a gas interviewing Eric Burdon, who was one of my favorite musicians with the Animals when I grew up in Omaha.”

The first interview in Vorda’s book is with Ted Nugent, who still makes concert appearances, including stops in Omaha. Like many of those Vorda interviewed, Nugent was remarkably up-front in his remarks.

Asked about his thoughts on Michael Jackson and Boy George, Nugent told Vorda: “As much as I hate Michael Jackson, he is an incredible talent. I just think as a human being he is a waste! . . . Boy George, on the other hand, I would like to pistol-whip for about an hour. He’s just a bad human being.”

And those are the tamer words Nugent used during the interview, which takes up 13 pages of Vorda’s book. “Ted Nugent was a complete blast to interview,” Vorda says. “It was one of the best interviews I ever did due to Ted being so candid.”

Nugent makes it clear that he has no tolerance for drugs and those who use drugs. “I have never smoked a joint,” Nugent said in the interview. “I have never done a drug in my life. I’m the only human being who can make that statement.” As strong as Nugent’s anti-drug stance was, other rockers casually answered Vorda’s questions about their drug use. “The use of drugs spread with the beat movement in the ’50s and later with the hippies,” Vorda says. “There were a lot of groups who sang or indulged in the ’60s, but it was groups like the Beatles and Rolling Stones who were at the forefront of making young people aware of it in their music.

“Unfortunately, many of these musicians died or suffer today from their drug use. Most of the bands I have interviewed have suffered at least one casualty due to drugs.”

Local Flavor Vorda devotes 12 pages of his book to the popular 1960s Lincoln band, the Coachmen. The best place to hear the group, Vorda noted in his book, was Sandy’s Escape, where the Coachmen became the house band. The band, along with the Rumbles (who still play today), enjoyed immense popularity in 1965-66.

The Coachmen’s top hit was “Mr. Moon,” the No. 1 seller in Omaha, San Francisco and Minneapolis. “‘Mr. Moon’ was an incredible song that should have been Top 10 nationally if it had had a national distributor,” Vorda says. “I think it would be a major hit today if someone were to release it, since hardly anyone in the U.S. remembers it.”

Vorda remembers “Mr. Moon” and all the music choices kids had in the 1960s. “I think the reason ’60s music is so timeless is because there was so much competition,” he said. “It seems as if everybody in an Omaha high school wanted to be in a band because of the British Invasion with groups like the Beatles, Stones, Animals, Dave Clark Five, Yardbirds, Zombies and many more.”

The music times certainly have changed since then, Vorda said. “Nowadays,” he said, “there are only a few bands in every major city who get a chance to perform locally. But without the competition and the venues, there is no way the quality of music will ever equal the time period of the ’60s.”

There also was an abundance of national groups kids could listen to. Many groups, Vorda said, never received their due. “A band from L.A. called Love made an LP called “Forever Changes” that in my opinion—as well as many rock critics—s the greatest LP of all time,” Vorda says. “The music and word play are absolutely brilliant. Two other classic LPs include the first rock opera called ‘S. F. Sorrow’ by the Pretty Things and the first psychedelic LP, ‘Psychedelic Sounds’ by the 13th Floor Elevators.

Vorda says he still listens to music from the ’60s. While working from his home—his company supplies environmental rooms for universities and biotech companies—he listens to older German electronic bands like Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream.

Like many of today’s Baby Boomers, Vorda finds his own children getting into ’60s music.

“What is somewhat strange is that my son, Shawn (19), spends a lot of time listening to the bands I turned him onto,” Vorda says. “Before he left for college, he burned CDs of Love, Fever Tree, Cat Stevens, T. Rex, the Elevators and many more. Now he is turning on his friends to these great bands.”

The Psychedelic ’60s live on. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Alumni Authors A. Author: Robert F. Wayman, ’67 Book: Please Remind Me I am the Presence of Love; Real Feelings; Pregnant Angels Can’t Fly A. Author: William Benton Whisenhunt, Ph.D., ’92 Book: In Search of Legality: Mikhail M. Speranskii and the Codification of Russian Law PS: Study of noted Russian bureaucrat Mikhail M. Speranskii’s organization and codification of Russian law during reign of Nicholas I. A. Author: Kim Louise Whiteside, ’97 Books: Several romance novels PS: True Devotion; Season of Love; Falling for You; Destiny’s Song. BET promoting Whiteside’s most recent release in their “At Your Service” series of romance stories set on military bases.

A. Author: Lionel Youst, ’71 Book(s): Several historical works PS: Above the Falls, She’s Tricky Like Coyote and Coquelle Thompson, Athabaskan Witness.

Author notes regarding Above the Falls: “Above the 375-foothigh Golden Falls of Coos County, Ore., is a lovely valley that once was home to subsistence homesteaders. The land is now a part of the Weyerheauser Timber Company properties and is closed to public access. Book contains scores of verbatim interviews from among the survivors and descendants of the original homesteaders, including 160 photographs and exhaustive research into original documents.

March 2004 • 25

Future Alums

Sons & Daughters of UNO Alumni

A New Generation of UNO Mavericks 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 Simon Christopher Grimm Johnson, son of Jen (Grimm ’94) and Erik (’01) Johnson of Omaha Tyler Jameson Sandoval, son of Jameson and Tonya (Granholm, ’00) Sandoval of Omaha Adam Mathew O’Donnell, son of Suzanne and Patrick (’92) O’Donnell of Omaha Adam Walter Gamerl, son of Katherine and Erik (’95) Gamerl of Norfolk, Neb. Peyton Venell Zeterman, son of Jolene Wickwire, (’02) and Corey Zetterman (’02) of Omaha Charles Stephen Steimer, son of Scott and Melissa (Klekotka, ’96) Steimer of Omaha Kirby Lynn Williams, daughter of Billy and Ginger (Henry, ’90) Williams of Sugar Land, Texas Micah James Vasek, son of Barbara (Baratta, ’85) and Brett (’92; ’96) Vasek of Omaha.

Hannah Neura, daughter of Cristy Neura (’97) of Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

Jon (Jack) Aaron Giitter, son of Tamara (Latimer, ’92) and Michael (’87) Giitter of Omaha.

Read Newton Booth, son of Andrew and Meggan (Elske, ’03) Booth of Barrington, R.I. Gillian Sue Ferguson, daughter of Patricia and Michael L. (’70) Vodicka of Omaha ot a picture of your little tyke? Send it our way as a print or in electronic format and we’ll post it on our website!

Emerson Caroline Peters, daughter of Jeff Peters and Aimee (’98) Leigh Peters of Bettendorf, Iowa

Ava Rae Konwinski, daughter of Amie and Roger (’91) Konwinski of Omaha

Jackson Thomas Gayer, son of Eric and Sheree (Anderson, ’97) Gayer of Omaha.

Emily Jo Lusso, daughter of John and Trisha (’00) Lusso of New Franken, Wisc.

Kennedy Marie Schreck, daughter of Ryan and Michele (Muhlbauer, ’01) Schreck of

Walker Stephen Roddy Goebel, son of Pam and Doug (’99) Goebel of Omaha.

Carroll, Iowa, and granddaughter of Richard Muhlbauer (’74) of Carroll, Iowa.

Trae Dean Greve, son of Teresa and Troy (’88) Greve of Papillion, Neb.

Valeria Evelyn Welk, daughter of Jennifer and Benjamin (’96) Welk of Omaha and granddaughter of Robert Welk, interim dean of the UNO College of Fine Arts.

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Kallie Lynn Smith, daughter of Andrew and Karen (Wordekemper, ’00) Smith of Omaha and granddaughter Michael Wordekemper (’79) of Omaha.

26 • March 2004

Jonathan Angel Linares, son of Ismael and Athena (Ramos, ’02) Linares of Bellevue, Neb.

Jalen Charles Vaughn, son of Kirby and (Bourgeois ’99) Vaughn of Omaha UNOALUM

Class Notes

SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE ON THE WEB www.unoalumni.org/communications/submitcn.asp 1951 Fred Abboud, BS was featured in a January issue of The Ralston Recorder as coach of a midget football team that featured fellow Omaha University grad Roger Sayers and his brother, Gale Sayers. The article was prompted by news of Gale Sayers being honored with a caricature of his face painted on the barroom floor at the Omaha Press Club. Gale Sayers, of course, would become the “Kansas Comet” and become one of the NFL’s greatest players ever during his career with the Chicago Bears. Roger “The Rocket” Sayers, many do not know, was a track star at OU who once beat future Olympic champion Bob Hayes. While the Sayers brothers attended different colleges, Abboud had them together on the Roberts Dairy midget football team. The team won state championships in 1955 and 1956. “All we had to do was pitch the ball out and they would just run away from them,” Abboud told Recorder reporter Zachary Baehr. “No one ever got close to us score-wise.”

1965 Roy Katskee, BS, is retired from Omaha Public Schools. He was inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Send him e-mail at Rkatsi@cox.net 1968 Ray Weinberg, BGS keeps rolling along. Last August he was inducted into the Alabama Bowlers Hall of Fame, an honor noted by The Redstone Rocket newspaper in Redstone Arsenal, Ala. No wonder,

Lost Alums -- 1950 Jean M. Allison Raold R. Amundson Barbara Ashby Marjorie A. Barnes Arthur L. Belknap Newell D. Breyfogle Ethlyn A. Bruce Robert Brunken John C. Bryan John T. Buchanan Bessie Buck Doris Buffet Margaret Carnett Pauline Carrithers Norman Cave Phyllis J. Clark Francis W. Cronin Doris L. Dell

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M A R C H

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Flashback File Help in Afghanistan . . . 1974 From the 1974 Fall Edition of the University of Nebraska at Omaha UNO Alumni News $1.5 million contract with the U.S. State Department’s Agency for International Development has been signed by UNO to improve the education of engineers, agriculturalists and teachers in Afghanistan.

The contract, a two-year one, is the largest UNO has received from the federal government and involves one of the largest federal grants awarded in the University of Nebraska system.

Since November 1972, UNO has had the only Afghanistan studies and research program in existence.

Afghanistan, with a population of 12 million, borders on Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and Kashmir. It’s largest city, Kabul, is about the size of Omaha. U.S. aid has centered on farming, particularly irrigation.

Nine faculty members from the Omaha and Lincoln campuses will go to Afghanistan this fall on two year assignments. They will advise the faculty and teach at the only Afghan university at Kabul. Several other teachers will receive short assignments to Kabul. Ten teachers from Kabul will spend a year at UNO. A private collection of 700 books on Afghan history, economy, literature and government will arrive on the UNO campus this fall. Arthur Paul, a Philadelphia businessman and former economic adviser to the Afghan government, gave the collection to UNO. Interest in Afghanistan was initiated by the late Christin L. Jung who lived three years in Pakistan and Afghanistan before he joined the UNO faculty.

At his suggestion, the UNO Afghan studies and research program was established din 1972 and he was named its director. Shortly before his death in October 1973, he persuaded the Agency for International Development to select UNO as the training site for five Afghan government officials. Kabul University and UNO exchanged several teachers last year.

A

either, considering how long he’s been knocking down pins. Weinberg, as the article notes, began his bowling career while stationed with the service in Italy in 1958. He later moved to Redstone where he coached his sport

and competed. Two years ago he won the national title for the over-70 senior age division. He has a 178 average.

Continued next page

Help us find these “Lost Alums” from the Class of 1950. Send news of their wherabouts to sgerding@mail.unomaha.edu

Jeannette M. Dempsey Angelo L. Dentamaro Margaret A. Ett Franke H. Finck Donald P. Fisher Maulfrey S. Fisher Harold G. Fletemeyer Jean P. Gillespie Roma Gray Herman C. Haeger Clayton Hartley Joseph M. Hefti Howard D. Herrick Arlene F. Hershorn Lloyd O. Hoffman Mary M. Homan Mary C. Houghton Jerone J. Jefferson

Lloyd F. Jelinek Mary F. Johns Jacqueline Johnson Richard W. Johnson Sam Kais Allen R. Kirby Norman L. Knudsen Kathryn G. Koons Stanley H. Kroll Mary S. Kuhr Vernon F. Luke M. Michaelita Maher Janet D. Marlott Junior J. Matz Truth McManus Dale M. Mielke William J. Moran Owen W. Morgan

Robert D. Morris Patricia J. Morrissey Dale D. Nash Timothy H. Nelson Haruko Ohara Lynnwood Parker John C. Peace Dale A. Peterson Muriel Reep Averno M. Rempel Richard Rossiter Kenneth Scheusener Harriet O. Schneider Harold V. Schoultz Wayne G. Scott Elaine R. Shlensky Ann Shu Clarence M. Smelser

Ruth H. Smith William P. Spellman Wesley F. Springer Dorothy H. Stefacek Robert W. Steiger Leon L. Stewart Wilbur Street Edgar S. Syckoff Clementine F. Thompson James W. Triplett Gloria S. Triplett Merrill D. Van Patten Clifton W. Westin Douglas White Robert C. White Roberta Wilber Donald R. Wood Robert E. Woods

March 2004 • 27

Class Notes 1971 Gail “Bud” Bowen, BGS lives in Jonesboro, Ga. Bowen retired from the U.S. Army as an aviator, serving tours in Vietnam, Japan, Germany and the Pentagon. He also served concurrently as an adjunct professor for Embry Riddle Aeronautical University teaching courses related to aviation management and operations.

After retiring he worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, then became deputy director of the HIV Research facility in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, West Africa. “We drove all over the country and into Ghana, the adjacent country,” he writes, “During this time in Africa, we visited Paris, Amsterdam, Morocco and South Africa.”

After two years in Africa Bowen returned to Atlanta. He now works extensively in CDC headquarters, traveling extensively to African countries and India to deal with the AIDS epidemic. Send him e-mail at budbowen@attbi.com 1969 William B. Sellen, BGS, lives in Cape San Blas, Fla., and is retired after a career as a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army. Send email to WBS0811@prodigy.net Bob Vandeven, BGS, notes from Colorado Springs, Colo., that “I’m fully retired but perform volunteer work for my church. Thanks for the mailings received from you.”

1970 Douglas Hobel, MS, notes that he is retired from PapillionLaVista High School. In September 2003 he received the Woodward Award, the outstanding citizen award for community service given to residents of Leigh, Neb. Robert J. Quinn, BGS, is retired from the U.S. Air Force and lives in Stuart, Fla. He also

28 • March 2004

Flashback File

Indira Gandhi visits Omaha U. ndira Gandhi, daughter of India Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru, and her son Rajiv, take in a view of the Omaha University campus south of Eppley Library on April 13, 1962.

Mrs. Gandhi was in Omaha to speak at the University Nights Lecture Series in the Eppley Conference Center Auditorium that evening.

The title of her lecture was "Security Through Peace."

I

From This Week in Campus History, compiled by Les Valentine of University Library Archives.

is retired from the Visiting Nurse Association of Florida, effective Jan. 1, 2004. Ensuing plans were to sail aboard a 1983, 37-foot Tartan sailboat, visit sites across the United States by car and visiting friends. Send him email at rjquinn@bellsouth.net 1972 Robert Blunt Jr., BS, writes from home in Golden, Colo., a founder of which was one of his ancestors. “Recently hosted our former Blair landlord’s – 80 years young. Followed law enforcement career with one in remodel contracting. If I knew more about HVAC then, Nebraska, here I come – again!” Send Blunt email at niwenterprises@yahoo.com 1978 Heidi J. Siegfried, MSW, notes that she has accepted a position as supervising attorney at Partnership for the Homeless in New York City.

Connie Keeran-Brady, BS,

writes from home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., that “I returned to complete an MSW at California State University at Long Beach, graduating in 1993. My work history is in a new book, “Dream It, Do It” by author Sharon Cook and Graciela Sholander. My story is on page 172. I am attending numerous book signings.”

Send Kerran-Brady email at CJBartist@msn.com 1979 Bruce Arant, BSBA is editor for several magazines published

by Design Basics, Inc., and sold around the country via newsstands/subscriptions. The company touts itself as the nation’s leader in home plan design.

Arant was integral to the recent launch of Her Home, a magazine geared specifically for women in the process of building their own homes. This was prompted after research showing that women make more than 80 percent of the decisions when a home is being built.

1981 Dennis L. Wilson, BS, joined Blackwell Sanders, a commercial-based law firm recognized nationally for its transactional and litigation practices. Wilson joined the firm’s Omaha office as governmental affairs manager. Prior to joining Blackwell Sanders, Wilson was program manager for URS Corporation from 2001 to 2003. He served as economic development Director for the City of Omaha from 2000 to 2001 and design division manager for the City of Omaha's Public Works Department from 1988 to 2000.

He was a project manager with various engineering firms from 1981 to 1988. Wilson is currently an adjunct professor for Bellevue University in the area of marketing management, as well as an economic development columnist for B2B Magazine. He was an adjunct professor for two years (1999 and 2002) with the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the area of marketing research

UNOALUM

M A R C H methods. Wilson earned his EMBA from UNO in 1999 and was noted as Distinguished Student of the Year.

1982 Jeff Payne, BSBA, notes in an e-mail that he has relocated to Seattle and will continue working for ConocoPhillips as Real Estate Supervisor for the NW Region. He soon will celebrate his 30th year with the company. Send him email at jeff.payne@conocophillips.com 1983 Monica Gill, BA, writes this note from home in Brooklyn, N.Y.: “Loved UNO. Learned wonderful things. Was surprised to find Professor Francke’s picture in this month’s magazine. Doing well in real estate.” Gill is a real estate agent for Caldwell Banker. Send her email at mgill410@aol.com Jerry Seitz, MS, is completing a degree is Ed. Spec. at Drake University. He was appointed superintendent at Grand Island Central Catholic Schools.

1984 Carroll Allbery, BS, has moved from Muskogge, Okla.,

to Fort Gibson, Okla.

1986 Edna Brooks Pittman, BS, who has been the Community Development Director for the City of Toppenish (Wash.) since 1995, was awarded the 2003 City of Toppenish Employee of the Year award at the 76th Annual Ranch Party (Celebration of the Harvest) held in November. Send her email at ebpittman@aol.com 1987 Michael M. Berman, BGS, lives in Pittsburg, Pa., and is finishing a master’s degree in leadership from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in July. A sales representative for Nursefinders, he will be pursuing a teaching career in academia. Send him e-mail at berman7777@peoplepc.com 1989 Xinglai Ge, MA, lives in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and writes that he is “now a U.S. citizen named Robert Ge. After more than 10 years working in private sector IT industry, Xinglai is now a civil servant of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as an application developer supervisor. His wife, Lizhu Zhong, also is a

civil servant of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Ge accepts email at rge@state.pa.us 1991 Shelley Spencer Fast, BSBA, pens this note in an email from Omaha: “After 11 years of various opportunities in corporate America, from selling and marketing to teaching, training and writing, I have finally realized my dream of owning my own business. I opened a custom jewelry and bead store in west Omaha in October 2002, Bead & Design Gallerie. I love it!! It’s a great opportunity and fulfilling work. It gives me a chance to do something I love and have the flexibility I need to spend time with my husband and two children. I have 11 wonderful employees and a store full of beautiful and wonderful items along with fun and creative things to do!” Send her e-mail at BeadDesignGallerie@cox.net 1992 Julien R. Fielding, BA, updates grads via email from Omaha. Following graduation from UNO, Fielding went to the University of Kansas and received a master's degree in religious studies. In 1999 she

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became a freelance writer for various Omaha-based magazines, then got a job at the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil as a business, then entertainment editor. Still a freelancer, she also is editor-in-chief of www.performanceomaha.com, a publication that covers the local arts. She has been published in Scr(i)pt magazine, A&U magazine and UNO's Journal of Religion and Film.

She also has an upcoming feature in Wines and Vines. She also teaches noncredit classes at Metropolitan Community College. Send email to editor@performanceomaha.com William E. Conley, MBA, lives in Omaha and sends a note via email that he was named director of administrative services at the Omaha WorldHerald Company and was elected to the company’s board of directors. He is a vice president of the company and is president of World Investments, Inc., a subsidiary.

He and his wife, Silvia, have two children, Alia (8th grade) and Drew (5th grade). Send him email at bill.conley@owh.com

NO’s commencement exercises this May will bring yet another smile to Linda Abalos’ face. Already, the single mother has had two sons graduate with honors.

This time, though, it will be a smile of self-satisfaction as Abalos receives her BGS degree—with honors—from the College of Public Affairs and Community Service.

That’s no surprise, really. In October 2001 the Omaha World Herald’s Rainbow Rowell wrote of Abalos and her two sons, Jeff and Les Kimmel, simultaneously earning induction into the Golden Key International Honor Society.

The boys, though, may have had an easier route to graduation day.

Jeff received the Regent’s Scholarship and the Walter Scott Scholarship to the Institute of Science and Technology. He graduated summa cum laude in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems. Les also received a Walter Scott Scholarship, to the College of Engineering, and an IS&T Honor’s Scholarship as a sophomore. He graduated magna cum laude in 2003 with a BS in electronics engineering.

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Family Affair U

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

From left, Les and Jeff Kimmel with their mother, Linda Abalos.

There was no full ride for Mom, but the end result was no different. Abalos in May will graduate with honors from CPACs after emphasizing her study in gerontology, religion and psychology.

March 2004 • 29

Class Notes 1994 Sally J. Torpy, BS, lives in Sacramento, Calif., and sends this e-mail: “I received a master’s degree in public history from the California State University at Sacramento in December 2003. I am employed as assistant coordinator for the North Central Information Center (NCIC), an affiliate of the Office of Historic Preservation. I love my work, which involves cultural resource management and conducting record searches for the private and public sector. I also work as a consultant for an environmental firm in Sacramento, writing histories of properties for National Register eligibility. Life is good—and much warmer in Sacramento!” Send Torpy email at sallyjtorpy@hotmail.com 1997 Michaela L. Kubat, BA, lives in Lincoln, Neb., and writes this via e-mail that she is the project attorney for the Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition. Prior to her work at the Coalition, Michaela worked in the Nebraska Legislature as the legislative aide to Senator Synowiecki.

She also is on the Board of Directors for the Nebraska Association for the Education of Young Children and has been a Court Appointed Special Advocate (C.A.S.A.) since 2001.

1998 Travis Sing, MA, of Omaha, notes in an e-mail that his book, “Omaha's Easter Tornado of 1913," was released Oct. 1 by Arcadia Publishing for their “Images of America” series. It is available at most local bookstores. Send him e-mail at miloreno@cox.net.

2001 Wendy S. Morris, MS, writes in an email that “after teaching fifth grade for Concordia Middle School in Concordia, 30 • March 2004

Kansas, I am now in my first year as a Media Specialist for Roosevelt Elementary in McPherson, Kansas.” Send her email at wmorris6@cox.net

In Memoriam 1929 1934 1935 1938 1939 1941 1946 1947 1949

Warner F. Bowers Clarence W. McManamy Glenn C. Cunningham Ruth Linder Miller Philip Berns Wilma L. Upchurch Adele C. Donovan Robert A. Slabaugh Richard G. Bunten Harold E. Larsen 1950 Pauline F. Benning Charles A. Essex John R. Duncan Jr. Charles Essex William L. Little 1951 Wayne L. Browning Helen Wilson Berger Grace E. Zipf Lindberg Richard L. Buttery Ronald L. Pullen 1952 Paul J. Steffen 1953 Adah J. Hood Harold B. Novak James R. Townsend 1954 George W. Fleischman, Jr. Harold B. Knowlton Edwin L. Marsh Ramona A. McCurry Marian Tyndale Carter Donald F. Nelson 1955 Richard L. Edgerton Francis L. Johnson Donald C. Bucknam 1956 Robert S. Knicely Elizabeth Smith Savidge Horn 1957 Ernest J. Barta Arthur L. Boismier John L. Clark Eleanor F. Irlbeck Wiskus 1958 Ruth F. Anderson Nicholas G. Burke 1959 Charles M. Belt Robert W. Benoit Ernest G. Britton Donna M. Cejka Eurich Henry T. "Hank" Gurley, Jr. 1960 Ernest F. Barrett William H. Bream Rosemary Corn Kozak Alexander K. Johnson Alta Lucilla Young 1961 Arthur R. Albright Gerald C. Burch Jessie M. Vithen

1962 Arlene S. Hanson Brauer Howard O. Brown Harry Burday Fabbian Dufoe, Jr. Charles D. Lovejoy Donald E. Wendling Robert M. Wheeler Lt. Col. (Ret.) George D. Carlson Donald L. Prusha Sr. 1963 Lois L. Clites Veto C. Turrin Kenneth Whelan 1964 Annabelle Beerman Abbott Velma E. Busch Vonfecht Thomas B. Burttschell, Sr. Ross Pilkington Eugene J. Willig 1965 Louis E. Bond Donald R. Booker Joan K. Cotter John R. Donor David L. Myers James R. Roth Frank B. Winn, Jr. Barry S. Eakens 1966 Bessie Bailen Hornstein Lois B. Boe Fred L. Tracy James Ralph White Richard D. Williams 1967 Joseph V. Blaylock Charlie E. Harris Nathan E. Perry, Jr. Rosemary J. Tufly Delmar A. Pugh 1968 Sidney J. Holder Sandra Holmberg Hahn William "Bill" D. Kully Paul H. May Forrest R. Whatley Richard C. Wickiser Robert L. Winters 1969 Mary R. Burdge Edward E. Warren Gerald T. Watson Serge T. Winkler Lea A. Wright Maj. (Ret.) James A. Coats 1970 Harold E Ayres, Jr Cynthia A. Moline Sorensen Theron G. Wardle J. William Warkentien Shirley K. Williams 1971 Earl H. Jenkinson Carlos "C.R." Scott Robert F. Walton Shirley A. Waskel Richard C. Weisshappel Janet Wright Barker James M. Wright Lucille Getscher

1972 Ruth Ann Davis Barbara J. Brown McIntosh Boyd Donald F. Hockett Catherine E. Hughes Dawson Bobby R. McCallister Marla J. West McKain Ralph W. Murphey Jeannette Wilder Sinnott Elvira Ormes Williams Leaders Frankie C. Williams Keith C. Wofford Robert E. McCabe Cleo Carter Ruth Ann Davis 1973 Robert R. Delong Jerry D. Hill John F. Ramos Thomas L. Suminski Robert K. Welke Daryll L. Wold Dean L. Parker 1974 David J. Dahlbeck Irma J. Doornkamp Michael E. Horne Gary L. White Philip D. Wimsatt Richard W. Witzig Mary A. Wrzesinski Michael D. Mendenhall Henry K. Donnell 1975 Melvin W. Clark, Jr. Steven C. Thornton Lowell E. Wann Pamela L. Watne 1976 Delpaneaux V. Walakafra-Wills 1977 Cheryl K. Raven Mitchell Richard L. Swircek John F. Wheeler William J. Wiley Carroll E. Young 1978 Max E. Bowman George H. Williams 1979 Kathleen A. Hengen Jodi Yechout-Alba 1980 Beverly P. Barnett 1984 Kathleen C. Shade Jerry L. Watkins 1985 Ruth A. Williams 1986 Rebecca Flora Wheeler 1987 Gary L. Reding 1988 Randy J. Wesely 1992 Gary R. Norris 1993 Teresa M. Cronican Elizabeth A. Nimmo 1994 Damien S. Turner 1997 Reginald Cade 1998 Elsa Friendt 2001 Timothy S. Lidstrand 2002 Ann F. Billau

UNOALUM

The UNO Century Club entury Club membership today consists of more than 3,600 individuals who support their alma mater with gifts of $100 or more.

Gifts support various alumni association programs and services that make for a stronger, more vibrant university. These include the Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards, UNO Alumni Legacy Scholarships, Alumni Outreaches and more. With their UNRESTRICTED gift, Century Club donors receive one of five personalized mementos, special recognition in an annual report and invitations to select events throughout the year.

C

$2,500 or more

Platinum

Golden $500-$999

Diamond $1,000-$2,499

Welcome to the Club!* Upgaded Century Club Members To Diamond Steven S. Martin To Gold Capt. (Ret.) David Clark Richard A. Elkowitz Margaret E. Fitch Richard H. Stein Margareta Kopnik Maj. (Ret.) Walter L. Lee Mary J. Lickteig Joe & Juanita McCartney Nancy C. Noack Raymond E. Rogers To Silver Cynthia L. Bordhagen Wallace A. Burkett Lloyd A. Coates Carl A. Gordon Yinghua Huang David M. Juenemann Kenneth J. Koehler

Class Notes

Gerald L. Liibbe Susan Mehaffey Leon & Deirdre Milobar John & Nancy Morey Carolyn S. Mouttet William D. Murphy Michael J. Nolan Audrey A. Paulman David B. Powell Ron Rosberg

Silver

Bronze

$250-$499

$100-$249

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

Nancy J. Barna Colleen T. Barry John H. Besancon Justine Brown Jon L. & Ellen G. Burgeson Carol & Brad Chapman Davin W. Drittler Barba J. Edwards Steven E. Erb Peggy J. Evans Anne B. Gee Norman L. Girdler James M. Gould Mike & Joanne Greenwood William E. Gresham

New Century Club Members Platinum Russell E. Peterson Gold David E. Funk Diamond Richard S. Healy Bronze Pascal Adamo Susan Aschinger Brian & Carla Asmus

Charles B. Gruenig Robert J. Hearron R. Paul Hoff Mary S. Hrabovsky Shane T. Johnson Patricia & Dean Joy Larry C. Juul Kurtis K. & Cynthia K. Kammerer John & Betty Kampschnieder George W. Kane Thomas D. Knox Predrag S. Kopun Warren S. McClure Stanford L. McDonald Kathy L. Menke

David D. Moore Kunsoon Park Kristae M. Peterson Mark & Lisa Scherer Karen L. Schwartz William J. Stevens Laurel K. Stuehm Cynthia M. Vana George Vasjuta Craig D. Walter John A. Woolwine David P. Worden Jamie J. Zabrocki * From donor rolls Sept. 1, 2003, through December 31, 2003

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

Name__________________________________________

Class Year_______Degree________

Address________________________________________

Employer ______________________

City ___________________________

Position________________________

State, Zip______________________ Phone_____________________________

Is this a new

q

q

address?

Yes

No

E-mail_________________________________________

News__________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________

May we post your name and

May the Alumni Association

_______________________________________________

your e-mail address on our

periodically share info with you

_______________________________________________

q

website?

Yes

q

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

q

via e-mail?

No

Yes

q

No

_______________________________________________

March 2004 • 31

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All Aboard The UNO Alumni Association wants all graduates on board for the 2004 UNO Annual Fund.

Donate today and you could win a 7-night Caribbean cruise!

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

Details on enclosed envelope

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