UNO Alum - Spring 2009

U N I V E R S I T Y

O F

N E B R A S K A

A T

O M A H A

A L U M N I

A S S O C I A T I O N

www.unoalumni.org

Spring 2009

Deep Thought about Deep Time in an Arctic Archipelago

Harmon Maher studies the staggering geological wonders of the Svalbard Islands near the top of the world

ALSO INSIDE: • Sprinter Pinar Saka Races to Redemption • Otis XII Rocks KVNO • A Haven in Harlem • A 1937 OU student’s Mystical Music Tour

Contents Spring 2009

Deep Thought about Deep Time Page 24 Cover Photo, Page 3 photo by Chris Machian

College News CPACS

30

IS&T

32

COE

34

Arts & Sciences

36

CBA

38

Social Work meeting changing needs.

Bridging the distance gap.

Better than watching soaps all day.

Seeking truth in the Balkans.

EMBA students go worldwide.

UNO Alum Magazine, Spring 2009 Editor: Anthony Flott

14

Contributors: John Fey, Tim Fitzgerald, Warren Francke, Rich Kaipust, Don Kohler, Chris Machian, Eric Olson, Lisa Means Photography, James Poster Studio, Nick Schinker, paparazzibyappointment.com, Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

Features Running to redemption

14

UNO track star and Turkey native Pinar Saka speeds to success after a slow start.

Otis XII at 90.7

16

16

The Mean Farmer is spinning the classics at UNO’s KVNO.

Mystic Music

18

How a world-renowned conductor took a 1937 OU student to the heights of the classical world.

18

Grace taking flight

23

Phil Eggers made his money. Now he makes a difference by providing life-saving flights.

A haven in Harlem Paul winner uses the Bard and the classics to help reach at-risk students.

23

Departments

28

Alumni Association Officers: Chairman of the Board, Mark Grieb; Past Chairman, Rod Oberle; 1st Vice chair, Kevin Munro; 2nd Vice Chair, Laura Kapustka; Secretary, Patricia Lamberty; Treasurer, Dan Koraleski; Legal Counsel, Martha Ridgway Zajicek; President & CEO, Lee Denker.

Alumni Staff: Lee Denker, President & CEO; Sue Gerding, Records; Julie Kaminski, Staff Assistant; Sheila King, Activities Coordinator; Greg Trimm, Alumni Center Manager; Anthony Flott, Editor; Maria Malnack, Business Manager; 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, (402) 554-2989. Toll-free, UNO-MAVALUM • email: aflott@unomaha.edu • 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.

Citation award presented.

28

Community service nets UNO national honor.

Women’s Walk hitting its stride.

Building, bridging, bettering ... .

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

Spring 2009 • 3

Letter from the

Chancellor

Dear Alum:

A

s the centennial recognition continued with February’s Gala event activities, my thoughts turn from how much we have to celebrate, to what new opportunities await in the coming century of service. As today’s chancellor, I’d like to span the next 100 years by reaching out to UNO’s leader of 2109.

If you’ll indulge this bit of fantasy, let me share a letter that I’d like to send to that generation’s UNO Chancellor: Dear Chancellor: If you are reading this, the year is 2109 and you are the administrative leader of the institution we call the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Let me begin by saying “Happy 200th Anniversary, UNO!” and adding my congratulations and best wishes to you and your campus.

Despite the considerable challenges of running a large and growing organization, our job is, I believe, the best that anyone could aspire to, as we have the opportunity to see lives changed, dreams realized, and the future envisioned every day in the eyes of our students. It is an awesome responsibility and privilege, one I am eternally grateful for having been given. I trust and hope you feel the same.

As we celebrate our 100th, and now, UNO’s 200th anniversary, the urge to reflect upon our past is inescapable. From humble beginnings as the small Omaha University holding classes in a former private residence to today’s nearly 200-acre campus situated on three sites on Dodge, Pacific and Center Streets, UNO has always been our city’s university. It was founded with the goal of serving Omaha’s students, and even today is providing opportunity for many first-generation college students.

We are enormously proud of being the institution of first choice for a high percentage of our freshmen — indicative of a growing reputation for academic excellence in our region.

We continue to be ranked highly among the nation’s best programs in a variety of academic disciplines. I’m sure this also is the case as we’ve moved forward.

Likewise, UNO is blessed with a cadre of outstanding faculty scholars, whose pedagogy in the classroom is matched by a growing research agenda, sponsored programs and external funding. While we continue to rely heavily upon a face-to-face classroom experience, we are increasingly exploring the use of online, Internetfacilitated distance education modes of teaching and learning. This may seem archaic to what is surely a more advanced generation of instruction, but I hope the special bonds between teacher and student still are being forged.

4 • Spring 2009

These interactions last a lifetime and are an experience unique to higher education.

Finally, our campus community is deeply committed to its metropolitan university mission, actively creating opportunities for community engagement and partnerships with business, K-12 education, the arts, public policy and social services sectors. Our students are encouraged to take part in what we call “service learning” opportunities, which allow them to apply learning and critical thinking skills to community issues and needs.

Recently elected President Barack Obama has challenged our nation to “be the change we seek in the world.” I believe, as a university, we have the expertise and responsibility to accept that challenge and imbue our students with a strong sense of civic engagement and activism. Long ago, UNO defined its mission to “be of its community, not merely in it.” As the fabric of our community has been woven over the past 100 years, I trust we have remained an integral part of the lives of Omaha’s citizens.

From my vantage point in 2009, I know that the UNO of the future is preparing students for careers we cannot envision. The world as we know it today surely has given way to a new set of challenges both environmental and political as even at the dawn of the 21st century, we seem to be inundated with the rapid pace of global change. At the end of our stewardship of this institution, I hope we have left for you, as was left for us, a strong foundation upon which you have continued to build, guided by solid values and a deep, abiding concern for students, academic discovery, and engagement with our community.

Years ago, in what is today Arts and Science Hall, a plaque dedicated our efforts to help students “earn a living, and live a cultured life, not as two processes, but as one.” Elegant and eloquent in its simplicity, my wish is that these words still ring true for UNO, and reach across time and space to link together your past and our future.

Ours is a shared destiny on a journey enabled by the generosity of benefactors, the confidence of stakeholders, and the achievements of our graduates and alumni.

We leave the future in your capable hands.

Sincerely, John Christensen, Chancellor Until next time. ...

John

UNOALUM

Campus Scene Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

Harvard economist Roland Fryer delivered the keynote address at UNO’s Gala Celebration Feb. 21 at Qwest Center Omaha, speaking on the challenges facing America’s schools. See more Gala pictures on Pages 10 and 11 and a Q&A with Fryer on Page 12.

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

Spring 2009 • 5

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

Alumni Association in Action

Association names Business Manager

M

aria Malnack has been hired as business manager for the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Alumni Association.

Malnack will manage all Alumni Association accounts and fiscal affairs. She began her duties with the Association Jan. 9.

Malnack previously had been director of finance and administration for the Fontenelle Nature Association since 2006. She also has held accounting posts for Loren R. Jorgenson, CPA, Double D Excavating and Taylor Corporation/3M Promotional Markets.

A native of Richmond, Minn., Malnack has a bachelor’s degree in international business from St. Cloud State University (St. Cloud, Minn. ) and pursued a master’s degree in international management from the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minn.). She has additional accounting education from UNO and Metropolitan Community College.

6 • Spring 2009

Chancellor John Christensen, Citation recipient John Jeter and Alumni Association President and CEO Lee Denker.

Citation award issued to John Jeter

T

he UNO Alumni Association bestowed its Citation for Alumnus Achievement upon UNO graduate John A. Jeter during the university’s winter commencement Dec. 19 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

The Citation, inaugurated in 1949, is presented at each UNO commencement. The association’s highest honor, it encompasses career achievement, community service, involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to UNO. Association President Lee Denker presented the award to Jeter, the 148th Citation recipient.

Jeter earned his UNO bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1954. After graduation he joined Arthur Andersen & Co., becoming a partner in that firm in 1967 and being assigned to the Omaha, Dallas and Denver offices. For many years he was in charge of the audit practice in Omaha and had regional utility responsibilities during his assignments in each of the offices.

He has testified as an expert in accounting and utility regulation before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission and 16 state regulatory agencies. He also testified before the National Energy Board of Canada and the Alberta, Canada, utility regulatory agency, and he has testified as an expert before County and Federal District Courts in three states.

He retired in 1991 after more than 37 years with Arthur Andersen. Since retirement he has continued to consult with and supply testimony on behalf of utilities and telecommunications companies.

Jeter’s extensive alumni service began in 1962, when he became a member of the Alumni Association Board of directors. He served six years as treasurer and was president of the board from 1965 to 1966. In 1974 he was presented one of the association’s inaugural Outstanding Service Awards. In 1988 he was presented an inaugural UNO College of Business Administration Alumni Achievement Award.

Jeter in 2006 was instrumental in the expansion and renovation of the Association’s William H. and Dorothy Thompson Alumni Center, spearheading funding for a new event space, the Arthur Andersen Hospitality Room. In 2007 Jeter served as treasurer of the Association’s newly founded Detachment 470 Air Force ROTC Alumni Chapter.

Jeter has served on the boards and been an officer of numerous community organizations.

He currently assists the Douglas County Historical Society, the Ford Conservation Center and his church with financial matters. He and his wife of 37 years, Phyllis, are trustees of the University of Nebraska Foundation and members of the University of Nebraska President’s Club.

UNOALUM

News, Information & Activities Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

2009 events schedule established

UNO Young Alumni continues growth NO Young Alumni were out in force Feb. 6, rooting on the UNO hockey team against two opponents — Western Michigan and cancer.

The Mavs tied the Broncos 1-1 but were much more successful in their Leap For A Cure efforts raising funds for research and education at Omaha's Estabrook Cancer Center. The fundraiser was completed Feb. 7 with more than $34,000 raised. Following that game Mav players and coaches all had their heads shaved in a show of support for cancer patients.

UNO Young Alumni members attending the Feb. 6 game took up a collection for Leap for a Cure during a postgame gathering at Farrells.

The group, formed in 2007 for graduates under the age of 40, also held a Family Holiday Party at the Zoo in December, its most successful event to date with 174 individuals attending.

Based on records of the university's 80,000 living graduates, an estimated 45 percent are 40 years of age or younger.

That includes nearly a third of all graduates who are in their 30s.

The group’s 2009 executive committee includes: Chairman, Ryan Nelson; co-chairman, Cory Butler; social/events chair, Angela Rushing, Young alumni attending the Feb. 6 hockey outing Elizabeth Kraemer; communications included (from left) Jayson Bisbee, Jeff Douglas chair, Jayson Bisbee; treasurer, Brad and Ryan Nelson.

Yoder. Monthly Core-Leadership Team meetings are held the second Wednesday of every month.

Young alumni interested in joining UNO Young Alumni or in taking part in activities should email Alumni Association Director of Activities Sheila King at sking@unomaha.edu. A schedule of upcoming UNO Young Alumni events is listed below. See more event promotions at www.unoyoungalumni.org and on Facebook and Linked In pages.

U

Big alumni turnout for Night on the Ice

M

ore than 350 people attended UNO Alumni Night on the Ice hosted by the UNO Alumni Association, gathering Jan. 24 for the UNO hockey team’s game against nationally ranked University of Miami (Ohio).

The evening began with a pregame buffet reception at Qwest Convention Center, punctuated by visits from UNO’s Power Play band, Coach Mike Kemp and former Mavs David Brisson and Kendall Sidoruk, who staged “Hockey 101.” Special seating was provided at the buffet and at the game for the College of Business Administration, School of Communication and AFROTC alumni.

Children who attended Alumni Night on the Ice received free Mav tattoos, “Go Mavs” fan banners and other gifts.

“Alumni Night on the Ice has been a great event for us because we get so many young families to attend,” said Sheila King, the association’s activities director. “It’s beginning to rival homecoming in terms of our most popular offerings.”

The alumni group watched the game in special lower bowl seating, making up part of a season-high crowd of 10,111 people.

Now in its sixth year, Alumni Night on the Ice is the first of three major family-oriented events the alumni association will host in 2009. The association next hosts Shakespeare on the Green July 1 and UNO Homecoming Oct. 10.

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

2009 UNO Young Alumni events schedule April 30 Reception for May Graduates Sept. 25 Soaring Wings Wine Tour Oct. 10 Homecoming Tailgate Dec. 11 Christmas at the Zoo TBA Young Alumni Business Seminar

29th Scholarship Swing set for Sept. 14

T

he UNO Alumni Association will tee off for scholarships on Monday, Sept. 14, with the 29th annual Chancellor's Scholarship Swing at Tiburon Golf Club.

The UNO Alumni Association’s biggest single fundraiser each year, the Swing last year raised more than $50,000, pushing the total to more than $500,000 raised since the association began hosting the tournament 14 years ago.

The money raised supports various Association-sponsored student scholarships, including four UNO Alumni Association Scholarships, $2,500/year scholarships to graduating high school seniors who have demonstrated leadership and involvement during high school. The scholarships may be renewed for up to four years.

Letters are being sent to business and individuals seeking participation in the tournament as sponsors. To participate, or for more information, contact Sheila King at (402) 554-2989 or email sking@unomaha.edu

Spring 2009 • 7

University News

News & Information

Edick named College of Education dean

N

ancy Edick, acting associate dean for the UNO College of Education, was named dean of the college, effective July 1. The appointment is subject to approval by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.

Edick began her professional career as a classroom teacher in the Omaha Public Schools. She served as project director for

UNO’s Career Advancement and Development for Recruits and Experienced (CADRE) teachers program from 1993-2001. From 2001-2006 she was executive director of the UNO-based Metropolitan Omaha Educational Consortium (MOEC), a collaboration with superintendents, their school districts and learning communities.

Edick holds an Ed.D. in educational administration and supervision from the UNO-UNL joint program, an M.S. in supervision and administration and a B. S. in elementary education, both from UNO. She will succeed David Conway, interim dean of the college since 2008, and Dr. John Langan, dean from 2004-2008.

Community service nets UNO national honor

T

8 • Spring 2009

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

he Corporation for National and Community Service honored UNO with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service learning and civic engagement.

Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of selection factors, including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

As a metropolitan university, UNO is committed to building bridges between the campus and the community. One such bridge is service learning, which brings the talents and energy of UNO students into the service of the Omaha community.

“Students not only address community needs but also enrich their own education by experiencing the real-world application of academic subjects and developing the habit of active citizenship,” said Paul Hundreds of students each year surrender their Spring Break at UNO as Sather, director of UNO’s Service Learning Academy. volunteers with organizations such as Omaha Habitat for Humanity.

Service to others is ingrained in a UNO education.

Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s An average of 1,700 students in 100-plus service learning Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is presented courses each year serve community partners such as the during the annual conference of the American Council on Neighborhood Center for Greater Omaha, Omaha Habitat for Education.

Humanity and the Social Settlement Association.

Recent studies have underlined the importance of serviceThis civic involvement is particularly evident every March learning and volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 when hundreds of students surrender their spring break as million college students gave more than 297 million hours of volunteers for the university’s Seven Days of Service. volunteer service, according to the Corporation’s Volunteering Overall, the Corporation honored six schools with in America 2007 study.

Presidential Awards. In addition, 83 were named as Honor Expanding campus incentives for service is part of a larger Roll With Distinction members and 546 schools as Honor Roll initiative to spur higher levels of volunteering by America’s members. In total, 635 schools were recognized. college students. The Corporation is working with a coalition A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll. of federal agencies, higher education and student associaThe Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation, in collabotions, and nonprofit organizations to achieve this goal. ration with the Department of Education, the Department of For more information, visit www.nationalservice.gov.

Housing and Urban Development, and the President’s

UNOALUM

Maverick Athletics

News & Scores

Women’s Walk steps into 24th year with April 18 stroll L

ocal community advocate Lori Scott is chairperson of the 2009 Diet Pepsi/UNO Women’s Walk, the university’s primary fundraiser for women’s athletics set for April 18.

“We are very fortunate to have someone with Lori Scott’s experience as the chair for the 2009 Women’s Walk,” said Associate Athletic Director Michele Roberts. “We think her energy and experience will make her a great leader of our cause.”

Scott has worked more than 20 years with local community service organizations. Most recently she was program director and director of marketing and development for Quality Living.

She serves as chairman of the board for the Greater Omaha YMCA. She also is a board member for Quality Living and Take Flight Farms. She sits on the United Cerebral Palsy Golf Committee and the QLI Friends Guild Board. She has three children.

From left, soccer player Lindsey Nealon, softball player Missy Negrete, basketball player LaToya Wright and Lori Scott. UNO will hold its 24th Annual Diet Pepsi/UNO Women’s Walk on Saturday, April 18. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Sapp Fieldhouse.

“Connie Clausen, a real visionary, started the Women’s Walk 24 years ago, and it’s evolved to one of the largest fundraisers for women’s athletics in the nation,” said Scott. “Our female athletes are such

hard working women and so deserving of our support. I am very motivated to continue this great event and make sure it hits its goal.”

Now in its 24th year, the Diet Pepsi/UNO Women’s Walk has a long history of

success. The walk boasted more than 1,000 participants and raised more than $300,000 last year and nearly $3.5 million since its inception. The money is used to provide scholarships for female athletes.

Wrestlers win title, eye more

T

he No.1-ranked UNO wrestling team crowned five individual champions en route to the NCAA II Regional tournament championship March 1. All 10 Mav wrestlers notched top-four finishes and advance to the NCAA II Nationals March 13-14 in Houston.

Senior Todd Meneely (pictured) was named co-most outstanding wrestler at the regional, scoring two pins and a technical fall to win the 157-pound championship. Redshirt freshman Esai Dominguez was named freshman of the year after placing second at 149. Head Coach Mike Denney was named co-coach of the year.

Meneely will be seeking his third national title, as will teammate Cody Garcia, who won the regional title at 133 pounds. Garcia won his first two matches with pins and took the championship bout with an 8-4 decision against second-seeded Grant Baker of Central Missouri.

Other Mavs winning titles were Mario Morgan (141 pounds), Ross Taplin (174) and Brent Pankoke (184). Dominguez, Jacob Marrs (197) and Tony Lewis (285) placed second while Matt Rein (125) and Aaron Denson (165) were third.

UNO now shoots for its sixth national championship in school history.

The Mavs won titles in 1970, 1991, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

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

Spring 2009 • 9

Centennial Gala Celebration More than 600 people attended UNO’s Gala Celebration Feb. 21 at Qwest Center Omaha to celebrate the university’s 100-year anniversary. Harvard economist Roland Fryer delivered the keynote, speaking on the challenges facing America's schools (see Q&A page 12). The University of Nebraska Foundation and UNO Alumni Association hosted the event. Proceeds from the Gala go toward establishing two community fellowships at UNO. Students from UNO's Moving Company, Theatre Department and Chamber Choir performed at the Gala.

Photos on Page 10, except where noted, by paparazzibyappointment.com. Photos Page 11 by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

Nine outstanding UNO graduates introduced themselves, telling how UNO made them “ Central to our City.” That included Chancellor John Christensen and three members of his family. Joining him on stage were, from left, son Anders, daughter-in-law Emily and son Erik. The chancellor’s other son and fellow UNO graduate, Dana, was leading his Millard South debate team at a competition.

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

Also in the parade of graduates were Lori Hogan, co-founder and owner of Home Instead Senior Care, and Thomas Warren, Omaha’s first black chief of police and now president of the Urban League of Nebraska.

Warren introduced keynote speaker Roland Fryer.

Upper right ... Union Pacific President and UNO graduate Jim Young, a Centennial Host, gave closing remarks. At right, Chancellor Christensen is flanked by previous UNO Chancellors Ron Roskens and Del Weber.

10 • Spring 2009

UNOALUM

Entertainment included students in UNO’s Moving Company, who provided “ Tableaux Vivants” representing historical photos, and students in the Chamber Choir and Theatre Department.

Top right, 1948 UNO graduate and Centennial host Dick Holland with Allen Greenberg, president of the Buffet Foundation, and Roland Fryer. Below, Jim Young offers a toast. Left, Omaha Mayor and Centennial Host Mike Fahey visits with Roland Fryer and UNO Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Bill Conley.

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

Spring 2009 • 11

Centennial Celebration Q&A with Roland Fryer

Finding creative solutions to educational gaps What are today’s most pressing educational needs, nationally and in metropolitan areas?

In metropolitan areas, the most important problem in our education system today is the gaping disparity in achievement, specifically between the students of our urban centers (who are mostly minority students) and those in suburban areas.

There are children who are graduating without the ability to read at grade-level and many are failing to graduate at all.

Meanwhile, other schools are sending large portions of their students to college.

The right to a good education is not being afforded to millions of children in this country. It is the civil rights issue of today.

Nationally, even our best schools are not measuring up against those in the rest of the world. For the richest country, we are far from the top in terms of education systems and fixing this problem is by far the most pressing need.

What is the greatest misconception in education today?

The greatest misconception in education today is that people place blame on the children for their lack of education. They are the sacred cows of the education system. Our failure to teach them effectively is not their fault.

With a new president comes the potential for educational change. What advice would you give President Obama and/or the Governor of Nebraska?

I would tell them that the same solutions haven’t fixed the problems. We have an unnecessary attachment to programs we feel should work, but don’t. Those programs need to give rise to new ideas that will give us another chance to tackle the problems of education. I would also tell them to focus on children because there are many interest groups around education, but children are, by far, the most important part. And I’d also say that nearly everyone will say they know what works, but they don’t.

What do you see on the educational horizon for the United States? Do Midwestern cities, like Omaha, have a different outlook than mid-sized cities on the East Coast?

For the U.S. as a whole, I see the potential for change. There’s been a concern of increasing proportions that our education system just isn’t working. The fact that this discussion has entered the public arena is encouraging to me. The more people that acknowledge this is a problem, the more likely we are to move in the right direction in search of a solution. Education needs to be treated as a science and we need to work systematically to find that solution. I also see a lot of potential for incorporating technology into the classroom and school districts.

With the ongoing economic downturn, where is the money for education best spent? Are there educational models in other countries to look to?

I think Omaha and similar Midwestern cities are in an advantageous position. As their urban centers grow and they begin to face some of the problems that large urban cities are currently dealing with, they have the benefit of hindsight. They get to see what programs have worked, which haven’t, and will be able to build off of this efficiently. They will be able to effectively commit to the development of human potential in all people.

As Omaha becomes more metropolitan, more urban, are there lessons learned in other parts of the country that our community could benefit from to address today’s educational needs?

My opinion of where money should be spent hasn’t changed much in response to the economic downturn. I think that money should be well spent, that programs should be targeting specific areas of education, and that programs that don’t return results should be dropped. A lot of districts throw money at the problem, hoping something will happen. If the data don’t show returns, I hope that the economic downturn will force people to invest strategically in education and reject programs and investments that don’t work.

Absolutely — I think you can see lessons in every city with a major urban center: It’s important to monitor the achievement gap closely, to try creative and innovative approaches (many of which are happening in other urban cities), and not to be afraid to try new things.

Roland Fryer, far left, with UNO Chancellor John Christensen and James Young, UNO alum and President/COO of Gala Title Sponsor Union Pacific Railroad.

12 •• Spring Spring 2009 2009 12

O AA LL UU M M UU NN O

UNO in history

1959-1983 1959 OU becomes first university in the country to use the “Tele-lecture,” whereby students, by telephone hookup, listen to experts in various fields.

Lineup includes Nobel prize-winning physicist Dr. Glenn Seaborg, anthropologist Margaret Mead and Sir John Neale, Astor Professor Emeritus of English History at the University of London.

1960 Student Center dedicated. Named after President Milo Bail in 1965 following his retirement.

In celebration of UNO’s Centennial the UNO Alum presents the third of four timelines highlighting pivotal moments in the university’s history. Each timeline focuses on 25 years of UNO’s existence, continuing with 1959 to 1983.

1967 OU students Craig Reisser, Wesley Webster, Marcia Cohen and Gary Johnson (today a producer for “Jeopardy!” compete on nationally televised “General Electric College Bowl.” The team loses to the University of Texas.

1975 CBA Building (later Ron and Lois Roskens Hall) dedicated.

1976 University Library opens.

1968 Municipal University of Omaha merges with University of Nebraska July 1. University in 1968 also ends dress codes for library and student center, despite a university official’s previous objection that if women started to wear something such as shorts, they would act like “Daisy Mae.” The codes soon disappear entirely from campus.

Enrollment tops 10,000.

1963 Don Benning hired as wrestling coach. He becomes one of the first blacks in the nation to hold such a post at a primarily white university. He also is the first black assistant professor at the school.

1965 KYNE (Channell 26) goes on the air as OU broadcasts educational programs to community schools.

1969 Start of modern women’s athletic department, under direction of Connie Claussen. Parking meters removed from campus; students now charged annual fee to park.

1971 UNO drops Indian mascot, answering a movement that began with the Omaha Indian Center. Final Ma-ie Day held that spring. Students vote “Mavericks” as new mascot, narrowly defeating “Unicorns.”

1972 Ron Roskens, executive vice president of Kent State University in Ohio, hired as chancellor, replacing Kirk Naylor. He becomes president of the NU system in 1977.

1974 Student enrollment tops 15,000.

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

1977 Del Weber named UNO Chancellor.

He had been dean of the College of Education at Arizona State University.

Former President Gerald Ford tours UNO campus, visiting with the Maverick football team for about 20 minutes.

1980 The $6.9 million HPER building is dedicated.

Since then the 158,000square-foot, multipurpose building has had more than 5 million visitors for academic, research or recreation purposes

Spring 2009 • 13

Racing to redemption UNO track star and Turkey native Pinar Saka speeds to success after a slow start in Lincoln

By Don Kohler

P

14 • Spring 2009

P

im yT ob hot

g Fitz

rsity nive ld/U era

Record assault A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Saka has been proving her critics wrong ever since accepting a partial scholarship to attend UNO in may 2006. In three short seasons, she has made her mark on the UNO record books. As a sophomore, Saka qualified for the NCAA Division II Indoor and Outdoor Track Championships in the 400 meters and 4 x 400-meter relay, while also earning All American honors. Her junior season, Saka captured three Division II All-America awards, finishing eighth in the 200 and 400 meters and 4 x 400 meter relay.

She also set the school’s 400-meter record with a time of 53.61 in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Frank Sevigne Husker Invite.

Her dominance has carried over to this season. Saka ran a winning time of 53.04 seconds in the 400 meters at the Sevigne Husker Invite in February to eclipse her own school record. At the time, it was the fastest 400-meter time run by a Division II sprinter for the year and the 11th-fastest time in the world. It also shattered her home country’s national record previously held by her Turkish Club Coach, Oznur Dursun.

On Feb. 21, Saka shattered the school record in the 200 meters at the Nebraska Tune-Up meet in Lincoln with a time of 23.93, also the fastest Division II time in the nation. Running the 200 for the first time this season, Saka broke the old UNO mark of 24.29 set by former mav All-American

s tion Rela

INAR SAKA HAS GROWN ACCUSTOmED TO THE SUBTLE STARES. At nearly every track meet she enters, the diminutive sprinter can sense the glances from opponents yet to witness her speed and grace in a sport typically dominated by sleeker, taller athletes.

“I feel an attitude from opponents about me,” says the 5foot-5, record-breaking standout of UNO’s track team. “When I was little kid, I was always faster than anyone I knew, even the boys. I love winning. Any time I compete, big or small meet, I like to win.”

UNOALUM

molly Benning. Twice she has been named mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association track athlete of the week.

On march 1 she helped lead the mavericks to the first midAmerica Intercollegiate Athletics Association championship by any UNO team. Saka scored a meet-high 30.5 points to lead all female and male participants at the mIAA’s Indoor Track and Field Championship to help UNO to the title. Saka took first in both the 400-meter dash and the 600-yard run while placing second in the 60-meter dash. She also was a member of UNO’s winning 4 x 440-yard relay team.

Seeing Red Her wins against Division I competition in Lincoln are a surprise only to those who don’t know the Saka saga. “People in Lincoln probably assumed I would win it, but some schools do not know me,” she says. “They were probably disappointed because I am not very big.”

And why would coaches and athletes in the tradition-rich Husker track program concede victory to a Division II athlete on their own turf?

Saka’s journey from Besiktas High School in Turkey to the UNO campus included a one-year interlude — a disappointing, injury-shortened freshman season in Lincoln.

Husker coaches had spotted Saka at the European Junior National Championships in Finland and offered her a full scholarship. “They sent me an invitation and a [plane] ticket for a visit. Then I had to tell my parents, ‘I am leaving for the United States,’” Saka recalls.

Saka, who learned to speak English while attending a private school in Istanbul, said she had little trouble adjusting to the cultural differences upon arriving in Lincoln. “The cultural differences were there, but people were always nice, supporting and helpful. I was homesick, though. my first year, I was either sleeping on the plane home or crying, nothing else.”

An untimely injury added to her freshman-season anguish.

Cartilage damage in her left knee had a major impact on her times, and Husker coaches decided to pull Saka’s scholarship just two days before she was scheduled to return home for the summer. “I had a choice to transfer or go back home,” Saka says. “I thought it was the end of the world.”

It was only the end of Lincoln — and the start of her relationship with UNO and third-year Head Coach Stephen Smith, who spent nine seasons as an assistant for the Husker track team. Smith benefited from UNL’s quick decision to part ways with the Turkish star.

Scraping money, bouncing back “Keep in mind, this was late in the year and I did not have a full scholarship to offer her,” Smith says. He offered Saka a half-scholarship before she boarded her flight home. “I scraped for money all summer to get her back,” he says.

In the meantime, Saka mended quickly from her injury and posted impressive times during competition in her hometown club meets, prompting another call from Husker coaches.

“One month after going home I ran one of my best times ever,” Saka says. “Lincoln called. I was very angry with them.

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

I told them, ‘I am going to UNO.’ In the bad times, they helped me. There are always good things from bad things.

Everything happens for a reason.”

Smith, who has been coaching track and field for more than three decades, said he was happy to find a spot on his roster for Saka. “There is no question that the girl they cut has turned out to be their loss,” he says. “They made a mistake, but you cannot be in athletics and not make mistakes.”

Though Saka returned to UNO at nearly full strength, Smith says he needed to alter workouts to accommodate the quarter-miler. Because of her physical stature, Saka frequently suffers from hamstring problems that result from the intense nature of the long sprint events. “She had, like a lot of athletes do, nagging injuries. We’ve had to be creative with some of the things we do in practice and keep the treatments going on her hamstrings. But when she is healthy and things are clicking, she can do some absolutely grueling training sessions.”

Pinar Saka isn’t the only star shining for the women’s track team. UNO in 2007 claimed its first conference title since 1981 and Stephen Smith was named NCC Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year. This year, sprinter Anja Puc (pictured), a sophomore from Slovenia, has notched the fastest 800-meters time in Division II (UNO-record 2:09.74). The program, cut in 1988 and reestablished in 1991, now boasts 55 individuals with 164 NCAA Division-II All-American honors, including five national champions.

Final lap?

Saka, 23, now is on full scholarship and scheduled to graduate in December with a degree in international business management. She was a 2008 NCAA Division II All-Academic Team member and was named to the 2007-08 North Central Conference Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll. “She is a very determined, very goal-oriented person, not only on the track but in her academics,” Smith says.

She’ll be running toward her final track goals at the Division II Indoor Championships in Houston, Texas, march 13-14 and the Division II Outdoor Championships in San Angelo, Texas, may 21-23.

In between, on April 26, is the Nebraska Open in Lincoln.

Saka, though, says she is not fueled by animosity toward the Huskers. She’s more focused on getting faster, getting good grades and getting home.

“I want to go back to Istanbul and start my graduate degree and work,” she says. That likely will mean an end to her track career.

“I will have to talk to my coach back home, but it pretty much seems that my career is over. I am realistic. There is nothing that I can do if I cannot run 49 seconds. I don’t want to postpone my life. I love the success and applause, but I think I have had enough of them. I have highlights of my life and stories to tell my grandchildren. I cannot be successful worldwide at the Olympic level, so why keep going? I have a life to live.”

Spring 2009 • 15

A

otis rocks Spinning the classics at KVNO

By Rich Kaipust

16 • Spring 2009

t first, it takes some getting used to. As if the voice and the words don’t quite belong together.

“Edvard Grieg with music entitled, ‘From Holberg’s Time.’ The English String Orchestra. William Bouton conducts.

Classical 90.7, KVNO.” Is that .... ? Could it be?

“In the next hour, it’s one of my favorite names in classical music: Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf. It’s just fun to say Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf. Also in just a bit, something for you Alfred Hitchcock fans, the theme song ‘Funeral March of a Marionette.’ And we’re heading to London with Joseph Haydn, his Symphony No. 104 in its entirety.”

Then he says it.

“Otis with you another hour. …”

Otis XII spinning classical music? He was rocking the Omaha airwaves with Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Van Halen before most students walking the UNO

UNOALUM

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

campus around him were born.

“I’ve had a real unique broadcast career,” he says. “I can’t think of anyone who’s spanned the gamut quite like my career.”

Otis XII (aka Doug Vincent Wesselmann, but “Otis” since high school) mans the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. shift at KVNO (90.7 Fm). The member-supported station originating from the CPACS building (formerly Allwine Hall) serves the community while also training and educating UNO students.

The bald, bearded, bespectacled icon of Omaha radio — best known for his run at Z-92 from 1979 through 1991 — vanished from the dial in 2002 after a three-year stint doing talk radio at KKAR. He moved with his wife to Walnut, Iowa, and concentrated on writing fiction and essays. Eight hours a day.

He’s won several awards, and some excerpts of novels were published in Great Britain. Yet … .

“It was H.L. mencken, I think, who said, ‘There are only two forms of writing that pay regularly: Ransom notes and bad checks,’” Wesselmann says.

Otis XII had been out of radio longer than any point in his career. He was looking for a job. Somebody told him about Scott Blankenship leaving at KVNO back in the fall of 2006.

“I really wasn’t anticipating getting back into radio because it was so corporate,” Wesselmann says.

KVNO was different. more dedicated to the programming and without all the strings attached.

“I do my show and that’s it,” he says.

Ah, the show. Bach and mozart and Bernstein. And that Ditters von Dittersdorf character. Wesselmann always had some classical music in his collection, but this was going to be different. It was going to take research — done daily after he arrives around 4 a.m.

It was going to take feedback — he asks listeners to let him know of mistakes.

“It was a great challenge: Can I do that?” he says. “Believe me, I had doubts. And maybe tomorrow there’ll be doubts in the middle of a sentence. I’m just glad I got the chance.”

It’s not as if rock radio was Wesselmann’s only shtick. His has been an eclectic career that, as his Web site

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

notes, included stints “as a trainee Benedictine monk, a stand-up comedian, a radio host, a TV critic, and a concert narrator.” He’s also done some talk radio at KKAR and KFAB. Yet ever since returning to Omaha after launching his career on the West Coast in 1972, Wesselmann has been best known for his work spinning the tunes at Z-92, CD 105.9 (1992-98) and KQKQ (1977-78).

The playlists, though, never included the classicals he now sends out for four hours daily.

Franklin says his morning host comes across “very authoritative and very knowledgeable, but can really talk to the most uninformed radio listener.”

Franklin says that outside the studio Wesselmann is “one of our leaders here,” setting a professional example, making himself available for lectures and offering his time or e-mail address to UNO students wishing to share or discuss their ambitions.

Wesselmann still gets the same satisfaction from a good show. He enjoys

“ Obviously, you don’t do the same show you do on a rock station. It’s pretty radically different, but then you realize music is music. It’s art and all that, but it’s not sacred. The people who created it have all the same foibles as the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.”

Otis XII glides through most shows like an old pro, which he admits to being at 59. Classical music can be mellow and calming. A change for the man who went eclectic with characters such as “Space Commander Wack,” and “The mean Farmer” on Z-92 with partner Diver Dan Doomey. He never considered himself of the “shock jock” variety, though.

“I mean, we were funny, and could be a little outrageous, but we never did the childish behavior,” Wesselmann says. “I had a reputation as an oddball, which is what I wanted. A persona that was a little bit off, a little bit smart. more marx Brothers than Three Stooges.”

Dr. Robert Franklin had barely set foot in Omaha last summer when he came upon his first Otis XII anecdote.

Arriving late from Arkansas, Franklin caught a taxi to where he was staying.

Franklin was talking with the driver when he noticed the radio tuned to KVNO. “I said, ‘You know, that’s the station I’m going to work for,’” Franklin says.

“He said, ‘Really? Do you know Otis?

That’s the reason I listen to the station.’”

Franklin, director of media operations for KVNO radio and UNO TV, describes Wesselmann’s on-air style as down-to-earth and unpretentious.

working with news director and arts reporter Cheril Lee. The money might not be what it’s been before, but Wesselmann says he’ll survive.

“I don’t make the big bucks but I wasn’t looking for the big bucks, either,” he says. “We make every dollar stretch here. We’re hardly flush with cash.

That’s a good thing about it: Nobody’s making a lot of money but everybody loves working here and loves what we’re doing.

“When I started in radio, that’s the way it was.”

And before he signs off for another day, Otis needs to mention the greatest perk — a nice spot waiting every morning in the faculty lot between the CPACS and Engineering buildings.

“I park 10 feet from the door,” Wesselmann says. “Who’s going to be there at 3 or 4 in the morning?”

Just Ditters von Dittersdorf, Otis XII and company.

Learn about Otis at www.otistwelve.com

Listen to Otis at www.kvno.org

8

Spring 2009 • 17

Mystic Music In 1937, world-renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski lifted Omaha University student John Hefti out of obscurity to the heights of the classical world.

By Anthony Flott, editor

18 • Spring 2009

UNOALUM

I

t might not be as toe-tappy or hum-happy as his brother’s “Batman” and “Odd Couple” scores, but John Hefti’s “mystic Pool” also was something of a national sensation — more than 70 years ago.

In November 1937, internationally famous conductor Leopold Stokowski took up his baton for three concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, considered among the finest symphonies in the world. Pieces by the masters Brahms, Bach and Tchaikovsky were offered, positioned around the first-ever composition by Hefti, an unknown Nebraska native … and only a sophomore at Omaha University.

Hefti’s rare achievement made headlines everywhere. The Gateway student newspaper featured his tale and the news spread from there to the Omaha World-Herald, Associated Press, Time, Newsweek, Life, the New York Times and others.

“It was finely performed and received one of the most cordial receptions of any contemporaneous works performed here in a long time,” wrote Samuel Laciar of Philadelphia’s Evening Public Ledger. Critic Linton martin of the morning Inquirer called it the “fledgling work of a young poet of promise.”

Eventually, though, it would be kid brother Neal Hefti, not John, who would make a name for himself. Neal became one of pop music’s great composers, arrangers and conductors in the mid-20th century. He worked with the best — Basie, Sinatra and others — while composing his own unforgettable music, like the Count’s “Li’l Darlin’” and the themes behind “The Odd Couple” and the Grammy-winning “Batman.”

For a few whirlwind weeks in 1937, however, it was John whose music had the country abuzz. That his composition would be performed by one of the world’s greatest conductors and symphonies was a matter of timing, initiative, talent … and a sympathetic hotel clerk.

Clothed in music The Heftis were raised to make music. “my parents’ thought was to have all the boys learn a band instrument,” Neal Hefti told Forrest Patten in an article for the Robert Farnon Society Web site.

“During those days, the high schools were connected with the ROTC, who gave us uniforms. That meant that our cash-strapped family would not have to buy clothes for the boys. Also, if we were drafted into the service, we would be in the band and not the infantry. my mother thought that it might help protect her boys.”

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

Spring 2009 • 19

John was born in Omaha in 1914, the oldest of John “Jack” and Norma marguerite Hefti’s six children. The family followed the work of Jack, a traveling salesman, and moved to various towns in Nebraska, South Dakota and Colorado before settling back in Omaha near Fort Omaha. Youngest child Pat mentions a “shack of a house” with dirt floors and a dump across the street.

Norma, who studied music at Nebraska’s York College, gave John his first piano lesson when he was 11. He moved on to other instruments and would later say that he played “the clarinet seriously, the saxophone to make a living and the piano miserably.” John graduated from Omaha Technical High School then began attending Omaha University (brother Joe and sister Pat followed and also earned OU degrees). He worked his way through school, performing in more than 20 different jazz bands or dance orchestras and often arranging their music for performances at Omaha hotels.

It was at the Fontenelle Hotel where the paths of Hefti and Stokowski fatefully crossed … sort of.

Hot ticket

Omaha was the 22nd city visited by Stokowski — hailed by the WorldHerald as “one of the great conductors of all times” — and his Philadelphia Orchestra during the orchestra’s firstever, 11,000-mile transcontinental tour.

Sponsored by the World-Herald and the Tuesday musical Club, the may 8, 1936, performance at the City Auditorium was much anticipated.

“The most exciting thing that has come to Omaha in years,” OU music Professor martin Bush told the WorldHerald. “No Brahms symphony has been played here for more than a score Stokowski came to Omaha in 1936, leadof years. The program is marvelous.” ing the Philadelphia Orchestra on an The newspaper added that it was doubt- 11,000-mile transcontinental tour.

20 • Spring 2009

Photo: Vandamm/Courtesy The Philadelphia Orchestra Association

Hefti said he played “the clarinet seriously, the saxophone to make a living and the piano miserably.”

ful that Omaha music lovers, “have ever before been stirred to such a state of excitement — certainly not since Toscanini’s Omaha visit many years ago.”

The 103-member orchestra pulled into Omaha’s Union Station on a special 10-car train. They arrived somewhat soggy, having played the previous night in Holdrege, Neb., in an auditorium that leaked rain. Stokowski stepped off the train and gave radio interviews to WOW and KOIL. He told reporters that the station was so beautiful it could only be compared to depots designed by famous architect Eliel Saarinen. He was less enthusiastic about the Civic Auditorium.

A “triumph of ignorance over civilization,” he called it.

Stokowski toured WOW’s new studios, asked if there were any local research laboratories he might visit, and gave his two cents on African jazz (the best of all jazz, he said), Brahms’ “Symphony No. 1 in C minor” (“The greatest modern symphony”) and radio’s influence on music (cities like Omaha soon could expect to see eight or 10 smaller orchestras at one).

As Stokowski held court, 11 orchestra members who also were on the faculty of Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of music gave auditions at the Schmoller & mueller auditorium to Omaha students seeking musical scholarships.

Omaha’s finest disregarded a spring downpour to see the famous conductor and his symphony, the capacity audience of 5,000 people including Nebraska Governor Roy Cochran and his wife.

Stokowski drew rave reviews. “Wave after wave of applause followed each number,” wrote the World-Herald.

They called him back for encores, the second one nearly scrubbed because of an “outdoor symphony” of shouting newsboys, police whistles, fire sirens and traffic that penetrated what the World-Herald referred to as “the old-fashioned city auditorium construction.”

Stokowski told the crowd he would be unable to play Palestrina’s “Adoramus Te” because it required “a background of silence upon which to paint the music picture. Perhaps next time you will have a better hall.” Someone in the audience shouted for the doors to be closed. They were and Stokowski proceeded, though later said he never again would direct in the Auditorium in its current state.

Paging Mr. Stokowski It’s not known whether Hefti attended Stokowski’s concert. It is known, however, that he tried to see the famed conductor prior to the performance.

Failing that, the OU freshman studying music theory and harmony left the piano arrangements for “mystic Pool” and “Poem” with the clerk at the

UNOALUM

Fontenelle Hotel desk and asked that they be delivered to the great maestro. The compositions were dubbed, “Two Impressions for Orchestra.” “mystic Pool,” had been composed just one month before Stokowski’s Omaha appearance. Hefti had tried it on the piano, decided it sounded “sort of mysterious,” and named it accordingly. “Poem” was originally written for jazz orchestra.

Neither composition appeared to draw the interest of Stokowski, who gave Hefti no reply. The London-born PolishIrish conductor moved on to the next night’s engagement, St. Louis, before concluding his tour in New York nine days after playing Omaha.

Nearly a year later, in spring 1937, Hefti received surprise correspondence from back East — a request from Stokowski’s secretary for “mystic Pool’s” score and parts. The sophomore had not prepared orchestration, but he immediately wrote one and sent it to Philadelphia. In October, word again came from the symphony’s offices — Stokowski would play Hefti.

The maestro himself announced his intentions in a Western Union telegram sent to the university in November: “I am conducting the orchestral composition mystic pool of John Hefti on its own merit as music and orchestration and am happy to have found another young American composer of great promise. The young generation of our country is rich in musical talent. Not only composers but singers, pianists, violinists, celloists and players of other orchestral instruments. All that is lacking to them is opportunity. Personally, I am trying in every way I can to give them that opportunity.”

That drew praise from martin Bush, head of OU’s department of music and Hefti’s instructor in music theory.

“It is heartening for youngsters of creative bent,” Bush said in a Gateway article, “that such an orchestra extends the hand of recognition to talent, known or unknown, whether it hails from the prairie states or metropolitan centers of music, without duress of pull or plot by influential friends.”

Move over, Bach Stokowski first led the Philadelphia Orchestra in “mystic Pool” in a Nov. 11 concert that drew favorable comments from Philadelphia critics. “‘mystic Pool’ by John Hefti is spontaneous in expression, natural and direct in its unostentatious scoring, and, despite its brevity, eloquently evocative of the scene suggested by the title …” wrote Linton martin of the morning Inquirer. There was a repeat performance the following afternoon. Samuel Laciar of the Evening Ledger wrote,” In his composition, mr. Hefti showed an encouraging disposition to write coherently and with a definite melodic line, tending somewhat toward that of the French school of feeling and in the delicacy of the instrumentation.”

Former OU student Abram Dansky, a pianist studying at

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

the Curtis Institute of music, took in one of the performances.

“The only thing wrong with last night’s concert was that John Hefti could not be present,” he wrote Bush. “Had he been there he would have experienced one of the thrills of a lifetime to hear his work played as superbly as it was and received as well as it was.”

Hefti, who could not afford a trip to Philadelphia, was hoping at best to hear a performance on radio. No such broadcast aired, though.

In stepped Omaha University faculty and students, who established the Hefti Fund to pay for the sophomore’s trip east. musicians Union Local 107, of which Hefti was a member, kicked in $10. He left by rail Nov. 14, arriving in Philadelphia the next day and staying with Dansky.

He had made it in time for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s final performance of “mystic Pool” on Nov. 16.

Stokowski opened with Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” followed by Brahms’ “Symphony No. 4 in E minor.”

After intermission came Hefti’s “mystic Pool,” and the program closed with “Francesca da Rimini,” by Tchaikovsky.

After the concert, Hefti was ushered backstage to finally meet Stokowski.

It wouldn’t be the last performance of “mystic Pool.” Two months later, in January 1938, Hefti directed the University’s symphony orchestra in his composition during a program at the Joslyn memorial benefiting a group of engineers studying the acoustical properties of the memorial’s auditorium. “The room,” reported the Gateway, “was well filled as the general public arrived to hear the much-publicized composition.” music critic August Borglum wrote of it in the WorldHerald: “The composition was quiet but rhythmic, at times extremely soft, with the ever recurring tones of the harp suggesting something beyond this material world in imagination.

The melodic lines and ingratiating harmonies, in all their stillness and gentleness, held the attention of the audience throughout.”

Hefti, little-quoted in the numerous press accounts that brought him such fame, had penned a letter to the Gateway thanking those who made his trip possible. “I plan to continue composing and in the near future I hope to produce something of greater magnitude than that of ‘mystic Pool,’” he wrote.

Spring 2009 • 21

Career crescendo

aspects during taping of the Supremes at USIA studios in Washington, D.C. “I was invited to sit backstage while the production was being filmed,” she wrote via email.

Hefti also crafted musical scores for motion pictures and television productions and sometimes composed original music for the agency’s productions, said his daughter. He retired in the early 1970s. June Hefti died in 1972 and Hefti remarried, in 1976, to Roberta Rice. A longtime sufferer of emphysema, Hefti died Oct. 29, 1986, while visiting his daughter and her husband in Laredo, Texas.

For all his promise and auspicious start, though, “mystic Pool” would remain Hefti’s career crescendo.

He graduated from Omaha University with a BA in music in 1940, but not without struggles. A letter between OU administrators notes that the balance of the Hefti Fund unused by him two years earlier —$10.11— was placed at his disposal to help meet Postlude unpaid university fees.

Purser wrote that her father’s brief symphonic stardom “He is in real need of funds,” wrote went unknown to her until she was a teenager.

Royce West, assistant to OU President “I came across some concert advertising posters while sortRowland Haynes. ing through boxes in our basement,” she wrote. “I know it was Hefti spent the two years following a very exciting thing to happen to a college student, and it graduation on a fellowship at the sounds a bit like a Hollywood story: aspiring composer from Eastman School of music in Rochester, the ‘provinces’ leaves a musical score at the hotel of a worldN.Y. There he earned a master’s degree in music. He then famous conductor, and lo and behold, his work is accepted served during World War II as a warrant officer with the U.S. and played by the world-famous orchestra. I don’t have a lot Army from 1942 to 1945. In what surely must have brought a of anecdotes about the situation. my father tended to be pretty smile to his mother’s face, he was director of an Army band. modest about such things.”

After the war he settled in New York City, performing and Son John recalls his father taking a photo of the “fraying arranging for big bands during the immediate post-war periand collapsing” poster that might have adorned the outside of od, most notably the Claude Thornhill band. He met June the concert hall. “Although only a child, I remember his wistHickey, a Canadian working at the United Nations, and marfulness and sense of loss as he tried to document this last ried her in 1948. Hefti later joined the Voice of America, reminder of his success,” John wrote. moved to Falls Church, Va., and had two children, Stephanie “Over the years, I have often thought that his early success and John Joseph. was a two-edged sword: it encouraged him to go down a very The career switch was not without hard times. difficult road, which ultimately ended in bitterness about the “I remember hearing a story about my father’s transition whole industry. In his final months he lamented to me that he from musician to government employee which had him bagwished he had pursued science, like I did, instead of music.” ging groceries at a local supermarket in New Jersey as my sisIt was only a few years ago that the son heard “mystic ter played outside and pointed out to the incoming customers Pool” for the first time when an accomplished pianist friend that that was her father working at the checkout stand,” says played a piano reduction of “my father’s most intimate musison John,. “This story goes a long way to explain why he not cal creation.” only did not push music on us as children, but in fact discourmillions, by contrast, would listen to the work of John’s kid aged us from pursuing music as a career. brother. Neal Hefti only recently died, passing away at the age “It must have been incredibly painful for him to have once of 85 on Oct. 11, 2008. That elicited a flurry of long obituaries been a star of the classical music world in the U.S. — albeit celebrating his popular career with Count Basie and others. “If very briefly — and possessing a graduate degree from it wasn’t for Neal Hefti,” miles Davis said in a 1955 interview, Eastman, only to end up bagging groceries at a supermarket.” “the Basie band wouldn’t sound as good as it does.” He tranEventually, though, Hefti became deputy director of the sitioned from big band to big-time jazz to a bigwig in music department at Voice of America. A 1957 Omaha WorldHollywood, writing scores for movies such as “Barefoot in the Herald article noted that Hefti, then 43, was “a musical conPark,” “How to murder Your Wife” and others. sultant for the Voice’s beam to the mexican people” and was Neal, though, gave a nod to John, whose Duke Ellington helping produce a television series on American culture for records, he once said, hooked him on jazz. The lessons didn’t VOA. He worked for the Voice until the early 1960s, at which end there. Early in Neal’s career he was arranging music for time he received a promotion and transfer to the U.S. territorial dance bands. “I didn’t Information Agency. know quite how to do it,” he There he worked additionsaid in a 2004 interview, “but I ally on educational and culturto John Hefti’s “Mystic Pool” learned with the help of my al productions about the as recorded by UNO Professor of older brother, John.”

United States for broadcast in Music James Johnson at: Leopold Stokowski and the foreign countries. Daughter www.unoalumni.org/MysticPool Philadelphia Orchestra wouldStephanie Purser recalls her n’t be a bit surprised. father directing the musical

Listen

8

22 • Spring 2009

UNOALUM

Grace taking flight

By John Fey hil Eggers doesn’t consider himself a hero. There’s a little boy from Abilene, Texas, though, who likely would beg to differ. In 2005, Eggers, a pilot for Grace Flight America, transported the 2-year-old boy from Abilene to Children’s Hospital in Dallas for treatment of a deformed head that was causing him internal problems.

“He sat in the back of the plane with his mom,” Eggers recalls, “and would occasionally fuss a little, until I would turn around and smile at him, which caused him to laugh each time. My neck was sore for a week after that flight. Today, he is doing great with minimal issues. Our organization flew him a dozen times for treatment, and we are proud to have played a small part in his recovery.”

Eggers has been a key player for Grace Flight America, a nonprofit organization that provides free air transportation for medical and humanitarian purposes. He is one of more than 1,700 participating pilots — and president of their high-flying group.

Eggers, a 43-year-old financial adviser with LPL Financial of Boston, was bitten by the aviation bug as a youngster growing up in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “My dad encouraged me to get my pilot’s license when I was a young kid. He was always interested in it. I always thought airplanes were really cool.”

That burning desire to fly never cooled even as Eggers earned a degree in business administration — specializing in banking and finance — from UNO in 1987. He spent most of the next three years as a salesman before moving to Dallas in 1990 for a training position at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. His career blossomed, and he quickly rose to a vice president’s office.

Eight years after moving to Dallas, Eggers joined Boston-based LPL. Today, as head of the Plano, Texas, branch, he manages about $180 million in investments with an average account worth $600,000. Yes, his company has been deeply affected by the crippled economy, but he says his firm prepared his clients by moving them into more defensive positions.

When the economy was more robust, 10 years ago, Eggers took his flying hobby to a higher level by purchasing his own plane. He flew solely for enjoyment, though. That changed six years ago when he discovered Angel Flight South Central, a regional volunteer pilot group that performed medical mercy missions.

On his first mission for Angel Flight South Central, Eggers flew an infant from Amarillo, Texas, for life-saving cancer treatment.

Following that trip, Eggers joined the larger Grace Flight America.

His work with Grace Flight isn’t limited to transporting suffering children for medical care. In 2005, he and current Grace Flight Chairman Butch Smith assisted with evacuation missions after Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area. He got a birds-eye view of the storm’s devastating punch.

Eggers returned to Louisiana two years ago and was amazed at what he saw. “It looked the same as it did in 2005,” he says. “There’s evidently no intention to rebuild that place. Even the high rises downtown still had boards on them.”

Embarking on one of his missions for Grace Flight — he’s completed more than 30 — is a fun responsibility, he says, because it’s a high-reward endeavor. A trip he made from McCook, Neb., in 2006 was especially heartwarming. A 4-yearold girl who suffered an injury that resulted in severe nerve damage needed to get to a specialist in Houston, but her family couldn’t afford the high transportation cost from McCook. Eggers flew the final leg of the mission that got

P

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

the youngster from Dallas to Houston.

As busy as he is with his job and helping Angel Flight, Eggers still has time to work on a Colorado cabin near Pikes Peak that he and wife, Kelly, enjoy with son Tyler.

He credits UNO for laying the foundation for his professional success. “My education at UNO was an excellent springboard for all the licensing requirements I had to earn back in 1990,” he says, “In addition, the investment classes I took at UNO serve as the core of my investment strategies today.”

Just as he climbed in stature in his career, so has Eggers with Grace Flight America. After a couple years of piloting missions, he joined the Board of Directors. In 2006, he became the charity’s president. The organization has merged with Veterans Airlift Command, boosting the participating pilots to more than 1,700 throughout the country.

Due to his duties as Grace Flight’s president, Eggers has cut back his missions to about one a month, but that hasn’t diminished his love for administering to those in need of his services.

“The completion of a mission brings a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment found in few other activities,” he says. “The combination of my enjoyment of flying with the pleasure of serving others provides a highly rewarding experience for me.”

oto Ph

eans Photography isa M

by L

Spring 2009 • 23

Deep Thought about

Deep Time in an Arctic Archipelago

Harmon Maher studies the staggering geological wonders of the Svalbard islands near the top of the world

By Warren Francke

24 • Spring 2009

UNOALUM

S V A L B A R D

A R C H I P E L A G O

H

armon and Alvar are near the top of the world for science, but their Arctic adventures are anything but dull and bookish. Dr. Harmon maher Jr., the UNO geologist, and Alvar Braathes, his Norwegian colleague, must brave polar bears and icy waters to look at rocks.

They study the 300-kilometer West Spitsbergen Fold and Thrust Belt. Spin your globe or Google “Svalbard Archipelago” and you’ll see why it was 23 below zero when Alvar recently called, asking Harmon to come back in the cold of winter. The rocky islands are 3,800 miles from Omaha, but just 700 or so from the North Pole. maher, now interim associate vice chancellor for

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

research and creative activity, usually visits in late July and early August, when the midnight sun lights the night. In mild summer, as daylight lingers, “You go until you drop,” maher says. One long day they got back about midnight, set trip wires to guard the camp, and “just fell asleep when a loud military bang flare went off.”

He saw a polar bear’s shadow on the tent. “But the noise scared it off. I got out with my rifle [and] could see a young bear down in the gully, peeking out and ducking back.” Knowing sleep wouldn’t go well with the predator nearby, he frightened it farther away with flares.

Flares banged again the next night, maher awaking to a reindeer “standing there looking dazed. We were so tired at the end of that week.”

Spring 2009 • 25

All photos courtesy Harmon Maher

Harmon Maher has had nine UNO students join him for research on the Svalbard Islands. “They do fantastic,” Maher says. The students have included Aleece Nanfito, a 2008 UNO alum and now a graduate student at Syracuse University. Compared to the relative warmth of tents, a boat ride on the islands isn’t exactly a pleasure cruise. Nanfito, third from left, shares her ride with Norwegian Geology Professor Alvar Braathen, French Professor Sylvie Schueller, a Norwegian student and an Iranian graduate student.

Actually, encounters aren’t that frequent with what Norwegians call Isbjorn — ice bears. They trudge far north in the summer because they depend on sea ice to catch seals.

Still, their presence requires maher to justify an odd research expense entry: rental of a lightweight rifle.

The geologists always see reindeer, “and the arctic fox are a pain in the butt. They’re so quick and they’re not afraid of humans. They sneak into camp, steal food and chew our cable … real pests, but very, very cute.”

Hazards of arctic research come more from the frigid waters they cross in Zodiacs (yellow rubber boats) and the rocky terrain. On return to Omaha each time, “You appreciate sidewalks, when you do not have to watch each step so carefully.” A misstep might mean a broken ankle five miles from camp.

“And we have food dreams when out in the field for weeks,” maher says. His longest stay lasted nearly two months. A three-day trip with only oatmeal, raisins and powdered milk seemed longer. “That was the worst.” The best?

Perhaps the night on Alvar’s boat when they dined on reindeer steak and wine.

26 • Spring 2009

“He had a haunch hanging with gray-green fuzz on it. It was superb.”

Deep Time, Deep Thought So are the wonders of Svalbard’s geologic history. maher writes that the archipelago is particularly eloquent with regard to time spans. “Deep time,” he calls it. Time for mountains to rise and fall again. “Time so vast that it dwarfs our lives to the point where it frightens some deeply … to the point where some deny that it could be so.”

He philosophizes about the desire to know a creator’s hand in these mysteries, “the desire to know the plan of God as writ in stone.” Sometimes, the thoughts of deep time go even deeper. “During storms in a tent you have time to muse on such thoughts,” he writes, “although I prefer to eat.”

Svalbard, he says, is “an unparalleled geologic classroom” with a “staggering” wealth of earth history on display. He describes mountainside murals thousands of feet high and miles long where, at times, “you can see the answer to a geologic query all at once.” The rock profs call such moments “geo-gasms.”

UNOALUM

A rail to nowhere? Nope, just an abandoned track used by Russian miners, who also hightailed it out of the above settlement once their funding ran out.

The hardships of hiking rugged terrain, battling weather and taking notes on waterproof paper with special pens are forgotten at such “Aha! moments.” maher, whose everyday attire looks suited to outdoor living, his reddish-brown hair tied back in a braid, has hundreds of photographic images of his work, including a sunny view above a clouded fjord.

“You start in the clouds, wet and cold, then climb up into the sunshine and blue sky. Those days are sweet.”

Other days stay sour. July brings 24 hours of daylight, but “one summer we never saw the sun. Another year, I got such bad sunburn my ears were cracked and bleeding. I wear sunglasses, but I’ve had cataract surgery (when barely 50) on both eyes, partly due to the sun on glaciers.”

Over the years, he’s arranged for nine UNO students to join him on the Svalbard islands, and you wonder how they handle the hardships of research on the rocks. “They do fantastic,” says maher.

The first two, Dave Berger and Teresa Reinig, joined him for that three-week stay “with no sun the whole time. It rained, and we were along the coast with a lot of boat work.”

Given the cost of flying them in and other expenses (supported by a grant to the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society), “You have to produce results,” regardless of weather.

No students have been injured, and they’ve had minimal illness. Fortunately, none were present when Harmon and Alvar were sleeping on that cruiser after the evening of reindeer haunch and wine. They awakened at 1 a.m. to “a growling sound.” A storm had pushed a wall of sea ice into the fjord, pushing the boat toward the shore. It was “picked up, tilted and rotated,” caught between two ice floes, then “thankfully released.” They hid behind a large iceberg for hours until the storm abated, then made safely to the open sea.

Another time their motor broke down in rough water, and then the small spare motor began failing as the Zodiac lost some inflation. They headed for shore, glad to hike five miles to camp and retrieve the craft on a nicer day.

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

Heading Home These experiences and others on land, far from camp and farther from civilization, hint why maher feels his heart race when he hears the beat of a helicopter in the distance. Even when back in Omaha. “I love the field,” he explains, “but we’re very dependent on weather,” so the chopper might not come to pull them out. “You sit and wait for that sound.”

The Spitsbergen research that began his doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin dominates his scholarly travels. It serves for fuller understanding of geologic history, which also serves the oil consortium that supports the studies. maher, in his quarter century on the UNO faculty, also has been the lead author of “Roadside Geology of Nebraska,” with UNO colleagues George Engelmann and Robert Shuster.

According to Shuster, maher did more study of the visible rocks along the Husker highways, while Shuster covered the rocks we don’t see. Engelmann dealt with paleontology.

While they credit the home state with geologic diversity, it doesn’t come close to Svalbard. Nebraska is missing most of the Jurassic, Triassic and Permian periods — roughly a 150million-year gap — while the archipelago covers all periods of geologic time and still changes as the ice melts.

In the book’s acknowledgements Harmon thanks his family “for their willingness to travel the roads of Nebraska.” On the other hand, he doesn’t expect wife Lynn Harland, associate dean of the College of Business Administration, or any of his five children to join him in the Arctic. “I’d love to take Lynn and the kids if we won the lottery,” but it isn’t a very appealing landscape for tourists, so “if we wanted to spend several thousand dollars, she’d rather go to a beach in mexico.”

The Harland-mahers stayed in Omaha again in February while Harmon hopped Alvar’s high-powered snowmobile and looked at rocks in the Arctic winter. They’ll study threedimensional Lidar data on computers, report on their findings and add to an atlas maher is compiling on the Svalbard islands.

Adventures notwithstanding.

Spring 2009 • 27

Winner, center, instructs students from every New York borough, some traveling more than two hours each way to get to Cristo Rey High School in East Harlem. Students include (from left) Bryant Bacvilima, Joel Dilone, Grenny Frias and Christian Ramos.

A haven in Harlem Paul Winner uses classic literature to help reach at-risk students

By Eric Olson

H

igh school was pure drudgery to Paul Winner. He didn’t want to be there.

He didn’t care all that much about his grades.

And his idea of good literature was a Peanuts comic strip.

Almost 20 years removed from those days at Gering High in western Nebraska, Winner is now, of all things, an educator. His path has taken him far out of his element to teach English at Cristo Rey High School in the East Harlem section of New York.

Once a hard-to-reach student himself, Winner is teaching kids who, some might say quite by the grace of God, wound up at the small Catholic high school that’s part of a nationwide net-

28 • Spring 2009

work. These low-income students, many of them first-generation Americans and some from unthinkable backgrounds, are only now starting to realize the value of education and how it can change their lives for the better.

And to think, Paul Winner, former class clown, is now Paul Winner, man of education. The irony is delicious. “my students tell me that all the time,” Winner says, laughing.

Twists, turns, tanks His path from Gering to New York City has had many twists and turns, no doubt. UNO was an important, lifechanging stop for the 36-year-old who earned his bachelor’s of fine arts degree in 1996.

Winner says he “tanked” his first year of college at UNL and decided to

start over at UNO in 1992. He matriculated at the Writer’s Workshop, where he studied under Professor Richard Duggin. The kid who once despised reading and writing fell in love with literature and even dabbled in acting.

“That became my home, the Writer’s Workshop,” he says. “I pretty much lived on the second floor of the Fine Arts Building for four years.”

Bitten by the literary bug, Winner went on to Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned his master’s of fine arts in writing and stayed on as an adjunct professor and lecturer for four years.

Restless, and feeling as if he weren’t engaged enough with the world, he headed off to Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University in New York, where he would earn his

UNOALUM

James Poster Studio

master’s of arts in religion and ethics in 2007. Union is a non-denominational seminary known more for scholarship than as a place where people go to become ministers or priests. The education extends beyond book study.

Seminarians are required to get out into the city and deal with the ethical issues they studied by day.

A safe haven As part of his field education regimen, Winner was hired as a part-time English teacher for the 2006-07 school year. He was brought on full-time for 2007-08.

His students come from every New York borough, some traveling more than two hours one-way each day. To Winner, that’s testament that the kids want to be there. The students in some cases are the first in their families to attend high school. many of their parents are menial laborers, if they have jobs at all. Some of the kids live in shelters. Some of their personal stories are harrowing.

“No matter how difficult adolescence is, no child deserves to be in pain,” Winner says. “It’s inspiring to me that they’ve got the willpower to show up every morning. And they’re the reason I do.”

Winner tells of one student — he calls him Alex — whose father is serving a life sentence and whose mother is paralyzed and mute because of a car crash.

For years, Alex has lived in a small apartment with a half-sister, exhausted with her own children and who resents the “strain” Alex puts on her. She tells Alex he’ll never amount to anything.

“But he will,” Winner says. “He is quiet, thoughtful, endlessly calculating.

His computer savvy makes him highly sought-after from students and faculty alike, and he’s been able to develop that skill here. For him, Cristo Rey is a safe haven.”

Winner says that as he heads home at 6 o’clock each evening, he sees Alex crouched at a desk, doing math proofs, relieved to be somewhere that accepts him for what he can do. The teacher encourages the student “to reach all the places he wants to see for himself.”

For the 100 students admitted each year, Cristo Rey is a way out of the bar-

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

rio. The Cristo Rey concept started in Chicago in 1996 and has grown to 22 schools across the nation, including one in Omaha. Students attend classes four days a week and spend a fifth day doing mostly clerical work at businesses that partner with the school. The students’ earnings cover most of their tuition, and benefactors pay the rest if the parents can’t come up with the money.

The students wear business attire to school and work, and standards are in high both places. “The street stops at the door,” Winner says.

The graduation rate is nearly 100 percent. most go on to college, with a few of the highest achievers having been accepted to Ivy League schools.

Common bonds One of Winner’s students — he calls her Krystal — was once homeless, and at age 11 was living in a women’s shelter with her single mother and trying to make it on time to school. Winner says she was accepted out of hundreds of applicants to Cristo Rey mainly because of her evident love of reading.

“She could discuss books. Here was a place that wanted to discuss books with her,” Winner says.

Now a senior, she’s achieved the highest honors in Shakespeare class, and currently is poised to win one of The

New York Times’ premier scholarships — to any college of her choice.

Winner’s background as a student in need of direction has been one of his greatest assets. Strong bonds have formed even though he and his students come from disparate backgrounds. “me being such a dumb student back in high school and such a lost student finally had a use because I can talk to them about what they’re afraid of and what they’re capable of and their frustrations about education,” he says. “It’s so foreign to them. It was to me when I was their age.”

Winner has set no timetable for his stint at Cristo Rey. It would be easy for him to say that teaching underprivileged kids gives him great satisfaction. But he said gratification might not come until he sees his students have made it through college and are well on their way to successful lives.

“I might have to take a break from it, but that’s years in the future,” he says.

“I feel responsible to these kids, as though I made a promise to them.

They’re used to adults breaking promises. That will probably weigh on my head when I look at changing jobs.

When you’re a teacher here, you have responsibilities you didn’t even dream of before.”

They like Bill s soon go kindle fire with snow,” wrote Shakespeare, “as seek to quench the fire of love with words.”

Sometimes, the words Paul Winner hears at East Harlem’s Cristo Rey High School aren’t as poetic as those that flowed from the Bard. Like the curses that come from a 14-year-old Dominican student — merely out of habit.

That same student, though, “understands ‘Richard III’ better than I did at his age,” says Winner.

Winner’s English instruction include a course on the literature of New York — everything from Whitman to Langston Hughes to Tom Wolfe and Junot Diaz. Yet, he says, “the mostly Latino kids seem to really get into Shakespeare. I chalk up my time acting in the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival [1994, 1996] to any ability getting the kids to appreciate this particular literature.

‘My interaction is full-on, daily instruction in Shakespeare and a more classical curriculum than perhaps the city would allow [Ovid, Orwell, Frederick Douglass, Plato] with a staggering amount of one-on-one instruction.”

Words matter — and so does the work at Cristo Rey. “The alternatives to school are grim,” says Winner. “They see their parents suffer those alternatives. The dropouts or dismissals have ended up, in some cases, criminals.

The good ones try hard to persuade the unconvinced that this is a school, in one girl’s words, ‘that can save your life.’”

“A

Spring 2009 • 29

College of

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

Public Affairs & Community Service

School of Social Work Professor and Interim Director Jane Woody with student Ivory Welbourn.

Social Work: meeting changing needs roviding a voice for poor, oppressed and neglected peo-

Pple of all ages – as well as addressing other social needs

Omaha area, outstate Nebraska and the surrounding states.

Graduates work in the administration of social service agencies, private practice, public service, organizational consultation, community organizing, advocacy and socio-political activism.

in our community and worldwide – is a continually evolving process.

The School of Social Work in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service is a reflection of this rapidly changState leadership ing, challenging and rewarding field of study.

Its mission is to produce highly qualified social workers “We offer the only master of social work (MSW) degree in who serve people of all ages and influence the systems that the state,” Woody says. “The professionals we educate return affect them, to advance knowledge through teaching and to their communities to put what they’ve learned to practice research, and to become actively in service of the entire region.” involved in diverse communiThe school, which was forties with the purpose of promally established in 1937 at 12th Gandhi Symposium April 3 moting social justice. the University of Nebraska in he School of Social Work will host the 12th Annual Gandhi In fulfilling its mission, the Lincoln, traces its heritage to Symposium on Friday, April 3 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the School of Social Work (SSW) Grace Abbott (1878–1939), a UNO Thompson Alumni Center. The event will feature Howard has an impact far beyond the native Nebraskan and social Zehr, Ph. D. , professor of restorative justice at Eastern Omaha area, says Professor reformer of the early 20th Mennonite University. During the event’s luncheon, the 2009 Gandhi Award will be presented to Peg Fitzgerald Gallagher, Jane Woody, who teaches in century. Abbott’s writings (see 90, a longtime Omaha peace activist. the graduate program and is sidebar) contributed to the For more information or to register, please contact Ivory the school’s interim director. development of social proWelbourn at iwelbourn@unomaha. edu or 554-3057.

Students come from the grams that safeguarded moth-

T

30 • Spring 2009

UNOALUM

ers and children, protected immigrants from abuse and rescued child laborers.

After Omaha University joined the NU system, the school gradually moved to the Omaha campus in the 1970s.

“Social Work was actually still in the process of becoming entrenched on the Omaha campus when I started here in 1975,” says Woody. “There were still courses being taught in Lincoln, and some faculty meetings were held there, too.”

The school’s statewide focus continues today. There is an off-campus MSW program at the University of NebraskaKearney, from which 16 students have received degrees and another 14 will graduate in December.

Social Work hosts book launch O

n March 24, the School of Social Work hosted a ceremony launching “ The Grace Abbott Reader,” a book of Abbott’s writings edited by John Sorensen. “ This is something the school is proud to promote as part of the rich history of social work in Nebraska,” says Professor Jane Woody, the school’s interim director.

Over the past year, Sorensen has worked with young Sudanese refugees in Abbott’s hometown Grand Island, Neb. , making a story quilt of their “ Dreams and Memories.” A renowned quilter from South Carolina, Peggie Hartwell, has directed the project.

Hartwell and a group of the Sudanese-American girls attended the book launch, as did teachers from Grand Island Public Schools. A New York-based film crew accompanied the refugees and teachers during their day in Omaha as part of a PBS documentary project about the creation of the quilt and its relationship to Abbott’s work.

Degree offerings In addition to the bachelor of science in social work (BSSW) and MSW degrees, the school offers a dual-degree MSW-Master of Public Administration program with the UNO School of Public Administration. SSW also has proposed a dual-degree MSW-Master of Public Health program with the College of Public Health at the University of graduate social work courses this fall at UNO. We’ve also Nebraska Medical Center. had students in our program from Somalia, Liberia, China “And we are planning another distance program that will and South Korea.” be tailored for another area of the state,” Woody says. “Half Field education of the instruction will be delivered online, and half face to face with one of our instructors.”

Field education is a major component in both the BSSW Outside the classroom, the school’s faculty members (17 and MSW degree programs. At any given time, the school full-time and one part-time) have an impact on their students has relationships with more than 200 agencies that can supand the community through service-learning programs and ply supervised practicum placements for students. projects that benefit local social agenStudents serve internships in area cies, often resulting in research and the hospitals, with the Nebraska publication of articles and books.

Department of Health & Human “We have been expanding our role in Services, the Salvation Army, the terms of community engagement,” Nebraska AIDS Project, YWCA, at child Woody says. “We are doing much more welfare, counseling and mental health consulting with community agencies agencies; at schools and at community and program evaluations, and a number centers serving immigrants and of our courses include service-learning refugees. opportunities for the community and SSW and CPACS faculty collaborate our students.” on research into criminal justice and The school has had an international gerontology issues and the evaluation of focus for many years. Since 1994, Ann after-school programs, Woody says.

Coyne, Ph.D., has taken social work stuFaculty members are involved in prodents to Nicaragua for a 10-day immerfessional organizations and serve on sion trip. The past several years, Peter journal editorial boards. Amanda Szto, Ph.D., has tapped a personal interRandall, Ph.D., is president-elect of the est in China by accompanying UNO international licensing standards organistudents to the country. zation, the American Association of “Besides our study trips to Nicaragua Social Work Boards. Woody is a memand China, we have had several of our ber of the Nebraska Legislature’s faculty who have taught at our sister Children in Crisis Task Force. university, the University of Nicaragua “Our accomplishments and endeavJamie Dechant, Tess Larson and Charity Tubbs were among a busload of School of at Leon,” Woody says. “Two faculty ors are very compatible with the mismembers have taught courses at another Social Work students who took part last sion of CPACS,” Woody says. “It’s been September in the Every Child Matters: sister university, the Management a lot of work, but it’s been very rewardChange for Children rally in Lincoln to proInstitute of Innsbruck, Austria, and we ing because you can see the difference mote policies that have a positive impact will have two of their students taking we make.” on child welfare issues.

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

Spring 2009 • 31

College of

Information Science and Technology Internet-delivered program continues to grow

Bridging the distance gap “I can offer all my classes online from North Dakota, if I need to. I can be anywhere in the world, at a conference or on vacation, and still deliver my classes, as long as I have a network connection and access to my portable computer.”

Associate Professor Leah Pietron ot only is distance education a valuable option for

Nstudents who are unwilling or unable to attend regu-

lar classes on campus, it has become an equally valuable tool for faculty members.

Leah Pietron, Ph.D., is associate professor in the Department of Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis (ISQA) at the College of Information Science & Technology. Beyond her teaching and research, Pietron is a primary caregiver for a parent living in North Dakota.

“I can offer all my classes online from North Dakota, if I need to,” she says. “I can be anywhere in the world, at a conference or on vacation, and still deliver my classes, as long as I have a network connection and access to my portable computer.”

In distance education, faculty members record their lectures then stream them online for students to view on their own computers at a time of their choosing. Distance education has evolved to serve the needs of non-traditional students and professionals throughout Nebraska — and is attracting interest from surrounding states and international students.

Dwight Haworth, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of ISQA, says a number of factors combined to trigger the IS&T distance education program in 2006: • The availability of funds from UNO’s Information 32 • Spring 2009

Technology Services for faculty to develop distance courses; • UNO placing the general education curriculum online, providing an online foundation for the majors; • A desire on the part of UNO’s Division of Continuing Studies to make available a degree in management information systems (MIS); • Requests from students, some in the military, who had been relocated but wanted to complete their degree from UNO; and, • A lack of classroom space in the evenings for non-traditional students.

“Internet-delivered courses have filled all of these needs,” Haworth says, “and they’re available 24/7.”

Pietron and Haworth were joined in the initial effort by fellow ISQA faculty members Paul van Vliet, Peter Wolcott and Kerry Ward, with support from ISQA Chair Ilze Zigurs and IS&T Dean Hesham Ali. Today, three degree programs are being made available online: a bachelor of general studies (BGS) degree in MIS; a BGS in information technology (IT), and a BGS in computer science.

“The MIS and IT programs either are or are becoming fully distance-ized,” Pietron says. “Our undergraduate bachelor of science in MIS is one course short of having the whole degree available online. In the graduate area, the Information Assurance (IA) Certificate and IA Concentration is completely available online.”

In addition, faculty are conducting a pilot study that incorporates the versatility of Adobe Connect — a Web communication software tool that allows instructors to combine multimedia content with real-time interactivity for a new level of collaborative teaching and learning — into project-based courses such as ISQA capstone courses for their delivery online.

“I’ve integrated it (Adobe Connect) into all my classes,” Pietron says, “especially those which I previously wouldn’t put online without the option for interaction that Adobe Connect provides.”

The Distance Education Steering Committee at IS&T brings together the chairs of undergraduate and graduate programs, department chairs and representatives of the Nebraska University Consortium for Information Assurance (NUCIA) to keep the program moving forward.

“The people who are engaged in this process care about the quality of the programs we deliver online,” Pietron says. “We are the biggest investors in this, and we are all innovators.”

UNOALUM

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations

Zac Fowler, in green shirt, and other treasures found in The Attic in the College of Information Science & Technology.

Treasure in The Attic any students attend college hoping to one day apply

Mwhat they’ve learned to their chosen careers.

Matthew Wright isn’t waiting.

Wright, a computer science (CS) major who will graduate in 2011, has been part of a special team at the College of Information Science & Technology called The Attic.

Under the direction of Zac Fowler, IT outreach director at IS&T, The Attic is a group of undergraduate and graduate students who have or are learning skills in Web development languages, tools and systems; video editing, audio production and 3D modeling. They put their skills to work designing and developing Web sites and other projects for clients in the community.

Wright joined The Attic in 2007. He has worked on several Web development projects — and is applying his knowledge in a two-semester internship at Mutual of Omaha.

“I would rate my experience at The Attic a 10 out of 10,” Wright says. “Zac is a great leader, mentor and manager, and I’ve learned more than I ever thought possible.”

The Attic was sparked by Web design projects including “Lewis, Clark and Beyond,” funded by the Peter Kiewit Institute and the National Park Service, and several Teaching American History grant projects, including Web sites for Omaha Public Schools and the Metropolitan Omaha Educational Consortium (http://tahg.org).

As the projects were completed, “We found we had this talented group of developers and more requests for service,” Fowler says. “So we formed The Attic, and

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

named it because we are sort of tucked away here on the third floor.”

Other work included designing the Web site documenting the construction of the Sun Pu Gate at Lauritzen Gardens-Omaha’s Botanical Center, a gift from Omaha’s sister city, Shizuoka, Japan.

The Attic recently completed a project for the non-profit Mission Omaha Foundation, which is bringing more than 400 adults and teenage volunteers from across the country to the Omaha area this summer to provide home repairs to needy residents.

Currently, The Attic is in the early stages of a Russian language project resulting from a partnership between UNO’s International Studies and Programs, the College of IS&T and the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia.

Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the project is entitled “U.S.-Russia Partnership for Technology, Language, and Cultural Exchange.”

Fowler credits “the bright and eager students at IS&T” with fueling The Attic’s capability to take on real-world projects that benefit students and the community.

Bishwa Bhattarai is working toward his master’s degree in management information systems (MIS) and is one of several students from Nepal currently at The Attic.

Bhattarai considers The Attic “an amazing opportunity.

You get to learn new things every day, and you have the freedom to be creative.”

Attic Web projects - see more at http://attic.ist.unomaha.edu.

Lewis, Clark and Beyond: www.lewisclarkandbeyond.com Mission Omaha: www.missionomaha.com Sunpu Gate Construction: http://attic.ist.unomaha.edu/sunpu

Spring 2009 • 33

College of

Photos by Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

Education

Better than watching soaps all day Scholarship benefactors Bob and Mary Lykke stay close to classrooms despite retirement

B

ob and Mary Lykke are redefining retirement. The two College of Education alums (Bob, MS 1976; Mary, MS 1983), have set a pace and level of activity that raises the standard for those post-employment days.

But the focus isn’t on themselves.

It’s on others, young and old.

The Lykkes have adopted a school, for instance. Bob mows grass/shovels snow for elderly widows, delivers Meals on Wheels and is a contributing Kiwanis member. Mary has

34 • Spring 2009

sewed nearly three score of mittens for the Assistance League’s Operation School Bell. And both frequently return to the classroom, working as substitute teachers or as supervisors of student teachers.

The seemingly ever-expanding list includes the establishment of scholarships at Millard South and UNO for students who want to follow the Lykkes into education. That’s being done through the Lykke Family Foundation, which especially targets college and high school students

intent on becoming teachers.

Bob was the first principal at Millard’s Anderson Middle School.

The building opened at a time when educators were developing special programs for students in grades six through eight. Lykke gained a reputation as a leader in middle school education and as a principal admired by faculty, staff, students and parents.

Mary Lykke also taught at the middle school level. Now she volunteers at Ezra Millard and Morton Elementary Schools. She tutors with many subjects but most often helps students improve their reading skills.

She also substitute teaches on occasion at the middle and high school

UNOALUM

level.

It’s easy to see their love and passion for adopting Sherman Elementary School where they volunteer on most Wednesday mornings.

“I do whatever they tell me to do,” Bob says. “I work mostly with students on math, reading, and writing skills.”

In addition to helping students, the Lykkes also provide treats to the staff and have sent up to four students to camps. Their contributions come from dollars and time.

Why are they so involved? “You can’t watch soaps all day!” says Mary.

Says her husband: “You must have a purpose in life. The older you get, the more you appreciate what you have and feel you need to help or share with others.

“I read an article in the former Magazine of the Midlands that quot-

ed former Omaha superintendent Owen Knutzen saying people need to plan their retirement as much as they planned their career.” Bob also recalls advice of planning retirement in five-year cycles to meet changing lifestyles and opportunities. “I am now working on my next five-year stage,” he says. A stage, he predicts, that probably will include more leisure time (including several weeks in Arizona).

Plans also will incorporate continued time with their family, which includes three daughters and several grandchildren. They are especially proud that all three daughters are teachers and that their oldest granddaughter is saying, “I might be a teacher.”

It could be said that all this started at 60th and Dodge Streets.

“We have a good feeling about UNO,” says Bob. “There are wonder-

ful people to work with there. We have been fortunate in our lives. We are very grateful to the Millard Public Schools for the many years we spent there. We couldn’t have had nicer people to work with. I can’t think of a career that could have provided us with more. We want to share our good fortune with others.”

He recalls attending a recent award ceremony where a woman being honored said, “Please don’t acknowledge me, because this is what people should do.” Lykke is quick to emphasize that he and his wife also don’t seek recognition or stories about them in alumni magazines; they help others because they feel it is the thing they should do, and they enjoy the involvement.

The Lykkes continue to teach, showing by example that retirement can be a time of great fulfillment that pays lasting rewards.

Scholarship recipient carries on family affair

E

rin Anstey always knew she wanted to be a teacher. “ I come from a long line of educators on both sides of my family,” she says.

So she was especially excited when she was awarded a Lykke Family Student Teaching Scholarship in her final year of college. The scholarship was “ important and needed” because it allowed her to focus on student teaching without worrying about finances.

Erin met scholarship founder Bob Lykke at the annual luncheon during which the College of Education Scholarships are presented. As they were talking about their families they discovered a surprising relationship: Erin’s 84-year-old aunt, Gerry Kommes, had been Bob’s second-grade teacher in Exira, Iowa.

That made the scholarship even more special. “ She was one of my family members whose educational footsteps I was following, ” Anstey says.

Erin graduated in December with a degree in Elementary Education with an endorsement in early childhood.

She now is an associate teacher in an infant and toddler room at Educare of Omaha. She also volunteers for the Nebraska Academic Decathlon and continues her education by taking baby sign language classes.

Erin Anstey is putting her education to use as an associate teacher in Educare of Omaha’s infant and toddler room. Students include 1year-olds Donte and Destiny.

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

Spring 2009 • 35

College of

Arts & Sciences

hilosophy is the search for truth, and Rory Conces, associate professor of philosophy specializing in conflict resolution, is searching for it in the Balkans.

Last fall, Conces traveled to Kosovo and completed his second Fulbright scholarship in the region. He explained his interest in the region through an article in the Bosnia Daily upon the death of Adil Zulfikarpasic, former politician and intellectual.

“The intellectual has for some time played an important role in sustaining well-developed democratic civil societies, like those found in the United States, France and Germany. However, it is within post-conflict societies, such as those found in Bosnia and Kosovo, that there arises an urgent need for an intellectual who is more than simply a social critic, an educator. …”

“Hyperintellectual” is the term Conces has coined for the non-partisan intellectual who rises above the role of ideologue.

“Indeed,” he writes, “the social criticism and political education are conducted in a way such that what is objectionable and defensible within each opposing camp is given voice. The hyperintellectual is not aligned with any one side, and so is portrayed as someone who is sincere about reducing the divisiveness between peoples.”

Conces knows well that the practice of even the soundest of theories can be hard. As he taught two courses for the political science department at Prishtina University, he worked to bring a higher level of understanding to his students. He tells of one of his students asking him, “Why do you hate Albanians?” He responded that he doesn’t hate Albanians but, since there are no Serbs in Prishtina, he can only work toward opening the minds of the Albanian students.

Through his many publications Conces has made ene-

Photo by Colin Conces

Seeking truth in the Balkans

P

A Serbian flag, symbol of nationalism for the Serb minority in Kosovo, flies behind Conces at the ruins of a medieval fortress in the town of Zvecan in the district of Mitrovica in Kosovo.

mies and lost friends in the Balkan states. Two of his more recent articles are “All is Not Normal in Kosovo” (published in the Serbia Observer) and “The International Community and Ethnic Nationalism in an Independent Kosovo” (Bosnia Daily).

“I’m in a good position in my personal life right now to take some risks,” he says. “Most educators are not.”

Conces will travel again to the Balkans this summer, returning to the site of his first Fulbright, Sarajevo to work with one of his graduate students from the fall semester in Prishtina to interview Serbian political leaders.

Writing Center expands space, services

T

he UNO Writing Center at the start of the spring semester opened additional consultation space, dubbed the “ West Wing.”

Occupying room 154 in Arts and Sciences Hall, the West Wing is west of the existing Writing Center facility and brings needed space for center overflow and for workshops.

The Writing Center offers individual consultations and group workshops and serves more than 2,000 students per year.

Dori Richards, director of the Writing Center, says services will expand with the

36 • Spring 2009

increased room capacity. For the first time, plans are being made to keep the Writing Center open during the summer. “ We run writing-intensive courses all yearround, and we have had many requests for our support in the summer,” Richards says. “ The budget is tight, of course, but we have to find a way to provide equal access to services for our summer students.”

Also new is the UNO Writers Series, which offers readings of current works by UNO students and alumni.

The first Writers Series will be Thursday,

March 26, at 6:30 p. m. in the Writing Center, Arts and Sciences Hall, room 150. The presentation will feature three UNO student authors, including Travis Heermann, a graduate teaching assistant in the English department, who will read from his 2009 novel “ Heart of the Ronin.” Publisher’s Weekly calls this first volume of Heermann’s trilogy, “ A fusion of historical fiction and adventure fantasy” and “ a page-turning folkloric narrative of epic proportions.”

All UNO students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend.

UNOALUM

Smith to receive Outstanding Research or Creative Activity Award

C

hemistry Professor Robert Smith has been selected to receive UNO’s highest honor for research, the Award for Outstanding Research or Creative Activity.

Smith was nominated by his colleague in the physics department, Dr. Wai-Ning Mei, who writes, “ Robert’s career at UNO as a scholar and researcher is truly outstanding.”

Mei and Smith have worked together in the Materials Science Research Group for more than a decade, during which time they have co-authored several successful grants

and articles. Mei says that Smith “ is responsible for developing the experimental facilities necessary to fabricate and test the materials that the theoreticians in the group have studied, as well as a great many other materials with physically interesting properties, primarily associated with structural phase transitions. “ Robert’s work has been invaluable to the group and to the discipline in general in that it has allowed the confirmation of physical properties predicted for many materials potentially useful in devices designed as transducers or as detectors of various kinds. ” Douglas Keszler, professor of chemistry at Oregon State University, describes the contributions of Smith and co-workers in his letter of support for Smith’s nomination. Keszler wrote that one of Smith’s papers published in Photo by Katrina Adams

Math, education faculty seek to make UNO national model anice Rech, associate professor of mathematics, and co-investigator Carol JMitchell, professor of teacher education, will receive $65,000 in Nebraska

Photos by Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

Research Initiative funding in support of NU-Teach.

Rech describes the NU-Teach program as an initiative that will “create a two-university (UNO and UNL), five-college partnership among mathematicians, scientists and educators that will establish the University of Nebraska as a national model for the preparation of secondary math and science teachers.” Rech said NU-Teach will examine many freshman-level math and science courses and develop models that incorporate into them inquiry-based instruction. Among the goals is attracting more students to the STEM areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to math and science teaching.

“We will also be utilizing existing successful programs, such as Janice Rech (left) and Carol Mitchell in front of the space CADRE and Aim for the shuttle Maverick, part of the décor in a science educaStars as a means to pro- tion classroom in Kayser Hall. vide support and experiences for K-12 faculty,” says Rech.

The $65,000 in funding complements the $2 million dollar STEM project funded by the National Science Foundation. STEM supports a partnership between UNO and Metropolitan Community College to increase the number of science, technology, engineering, and math majors. UNL and UNO faculty will seek additional grant funding.

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

Physical Review, the premier journal of the physics community, “ has broken through much of the noise to become one of the more highly cited papers in this field. ” He also cited several other papers published in the Chemistry of Materials. “ In these papers, new and unique solutionbased methods are described for the production of high-quality material at relatively low temperatures. These results will have a very substantial impact on the methods that others use to prepare the materials.”

Smith has been conducting research and teaching classes in chemistry and physics at UNO since 1990. He also has been published in some of the most highly regarded journals and has been a partner in grants totaling nearly $4 million dollars.

Witness to history t was the single most significant experience in my life as a person, as a scholar and as a social activist,” says Omawale Akintunde, professor and chair of UNO’s Black Studies Department, regarding his witness to the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Akintunde organized a bus trip to Washington, D.C., to see the inauguration for 50 members of the UNO and Omaha communities. Among the UNO contingent — and the estimated 1.8 million people at the inauguration — were (pictured, from left): Pearl Sams, former Urban League of Nebraska employee; Edwardene Taylor Armstrong, Black Studies instructor, and her husband, Bob Armstrong, former executive director of the Omaha Housing Authority. It was not Bob Armstrong’s first attendance at an historic Washington, D.C. gathering — he also was present 46 years ago for the March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. Akintunde arranged for a cinematographer to chronicle the entire trip and plans to screen the resulting documentary at The Great Escapes Theater in Omaha this spring.

“I

Spring 2009 • 37

College of

Business Administration

EMBA teams helping out at home — and abroad ne of the most unique requirements of UNO’s Executive OMBA program is its international consulting project.

early summer. Client-sponsored Part 2 includes international research and is conducted in late summer. All analyses, recommendations and formal reports are delivered by the end of the year.

Last year, UNO’s EMBA teams researched opportunities for medical tourism in a South American country, expansion into Australia for a national service-based company, and facilitated South Africa’s plans to rework its electrical system and provide electricity for the first time to more than 10 million residents.

For more information about partnering with an EMBA team or enrolling in the EMBA program, contact William Swanson at wswanson@mail.unomaha.edu or 554-2448.

Each student team conducts extensive research and analysis and delivers prescriptive recommendations to its client about a strategic business decision.

More than 60 clients in and beyond Omaha have partnered with EMBA teams. “Many sponsors indicate that the work received is of higher quality than that from consultants charging five times more,” said William Swanson, executive director of the program.

The array of projects includes: • Market entry, expansion or diversification.

• Competitive intelligence.

• Marketing analysis and assessment.

• Financial feasibility.

• Manufacturing site analysis and selection.

• Representation/ market development.

Benefits to client The head of Franchising Operations in the United Kingdom (left) is interviewed by EMBA team members (left to right) Mike Guane, Sundara Chokkara, Mike Swope, and UNO professor Dr. Birud Sindhav. companies include fresh insights and new considerations, unbiased perspectives and anonymity. A Company sponsors client also benefits from a team of professionals investigating Sponsoring companies of EMBA international consulting projects its potential opportunity because in addition to their new include: research and strategic skills, EMBA students bring wisdom of Alegent Health First Data Mid-America Energy experience to the project. These part-time students are fullSystems Resources Monsanto time business professionals, many of whom are on the “fast American Express Greystone OPPD track.” To qualify for the EMBA program, participants must Behlen Mfg. HDR Sloan Company Kiewit The Maids have at least six years of professional and managerial responCalEnergy Lucent Union Pacific sibility; current students average 14.5 years.

ConAgra Technologies Valmont Projects give EMBA teams a real-time business case to work. It is not unusual to interview 30 or more senior offiInternational locations cials across related industries or in government, consumer Countries where EMBA students have conducted research organizations, trade associations or academe. Research may include: include target markets, channels, logistics and competitive and environmental factors. Each team is mentored by a senArgentina Czech Republic Moldova Austria France Poland ior member of UNO’s College of Business Administration Australia Germany Romania graduate faculty.

Brazil Great Britain South Africa Projects typically are conducted in two parts. Part 1 focusChile Italy Thailand es on key financial decisions and assumptions and in-depth China Lithuania The Netherlands analysis of the marketing and legal issues relative to the Costa Rica Mexico United Kingdom client’s opportunity. Part 1 is pro-bono and conducted in

38 • Spring 2009

UNOALUM

SPRING 2009

1948 Dick Holland, BA, received one of Opera America’s 2009 National Opera Trustee Recognition Awards that honor opera company trustees for exemplary leadership, support, and audience building efforts on behalf of their respective opera companies within their communities. Holland has supported Opera Omaha in various roles since the organization’s founding in 1958, including a stint as president of its board from 1966 to 1970.

1953 Clarence G. Avery, BS, lives in Altamonte Springs, Fla., and takes emails to cgrl@iname.com

1958 Dorothy Loring Rasgorshek, BS, lives in Omaha and writes: “After 20-plus years of service, I have stepped down as chair advisor for Chi Omega Fraternity at UNO. I continue on the Omaha Alumnae Panhellenic Board as immediate past president and as cochair of our 60th Founders Day Eleusinia April 4. I also am president of the Omaha Area Chi Omega Alumnae Association and serve on the AFROTC Alumnae Association for UNO. My husband, Bob, and I did a fair share of work for UNO’s 100th, so I offer this advice to senior grads: it is never too late to get involved!” Send her email at momrazz@cox.net

1959 Gertrude Olderog Hufford, BS, turned 100 years old on Nov. 8, 2008. A former elementary teacher, she earned her master’s degree from UNO in 1967.

1961 Lu Mays, BGE, lives in Milford, Ohio, and writes, “Left UNO to attend University of Cincinnati Law School and then on to Montreal, Canada, to do further graduate studies at McGill Law School’s Air & Space Law Institute.

After graduation joined General Electric Aviation in Cincinnati to create a World Wide Aircraft Engine Leasing Operation for GE-powered DC-10, Boeing 747 and French Airbus aircraft. This accidentfree operation contributed to GE’s

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

Class Notes

becoming a leader in the International Commercial Airline Business. Thanks to UNO’s BOOTSTRAP Program.” Send emails to Lumays@fuse.net

1962 Jim Herren, BS, lives in Glassport, Pa., and is retired after 30 years as a school teacher. “This past June I was inducted into the Minor Professional Football Hall of Fame ... affiliated with the American Football Association.” Herren played for the Wheeling Ironmen in the United and Continental Football Leagues.

1963 George Rasula, BGS, lives in Clemson, S.C., and is retired from the U.S. Army after a long career in the armed services. He enlisted in December 1942 and served 32 years and in three wars. He and his wife, former army nurse Lt. Lucy Davis, have been married 59 years and have two sons and two daughters.

A veteran of the Chosin Reservoir action in Korea, he is Chosin Historian for the Changjin Journal. Email him at george@rasula.com

1964 Clifton Hurtt Deringer, BGE, lives in Carlisle, Pa., and writes, “Although November 1962 was a truly sad time for the country, my being at UNO as a Bootstrapper was a joy. Loved Omaha, loved Nebraska, still do. Wish I would have made more of an effort to get addresses and keep in touch. Any classmate who remembers me, please get in touch. I live in the middle of a golf course. Come visit!” Send him email at cderinger@comcast.net Arlene Grossman Gitles, BA, lives in Northbrook, Ill., and writes, “Still working and no retirement in sight or desired! Sell promotional products and love to spend time with our four grandchildren and excited about another baby due in July. Fortunate to be in AZ for Jan and Feb. and not in the Midwest for the terrible winter. I can still remember walking across campus at OU and hearing about something called a ‘wind chill’ factor. Would love to hear from you!”

Send emails to lerlene1@aol.com

1965 Eddie Gray Powers, BGE, lives in Southfield, Mich., and is president and executive director of the Southfield Area Chamber of Commerce there.

“Southfield borders Detroit,” he writes.

SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE ON THE WEB: www.unoalumni.org/magazine/submit_class_notes “My family and I camp and pass through Omaha once a year. When we do we stay at the West Omaha KOA and visit the campus each time. I am proud of the growth of UNO and am proud of the education I received. Keep up the great work.” Send email at eg@hotmail.com Don Bohler, BGS, lives in Monument, Colo., and writes: “Spent 26 years with Federal Aviation Administration, in air traffic. Retired in November 1990, at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kansas. Moved to Monument in April 1993.” Send him email at dbohler@earthlink.net Russell Anderson, BA, lives in Omaha and writes: “After graduating in 1965, I went on to become a Lutheran pastor, serving in Illinois and Nebraska. I have been married 45 years and have two daughters and three grandkids. After retiring, three years ago, I became a Christian clown and started serving as a chaplain for the Omaha Police. I was one of the first chaplains at the tragedy of the VanMaur shooting over a year ago. It was a sobering experience, but I’m glad I could help in some small way. I published three books on preaching for CSS Publishing in the mid-

1990s: ‘Lectionary Preaching Workbook.’ A new book was to be published in January through Integrity Press, ‘Faith Life Cross Sections.’ This is a book of short inspirational stories intended for Christian laypersons and pastors. By the way, the UNO Alumni magazine is excellent! I enjoy the stories about alums who have made a contribution in various fields.” Send emails to Russ25@cox.net

1966 Robert W. Lane, BA, lives in Overland Park, Kansas. He retired in December after 42 years of teaching. “Excited for some leisure time, but also bought two duplicate bridge games and will direct them on Thursdays at the Overland Park Bridge Studio,” he writes. “My son, Adam, who became paraplegic in a motorcycle accident a year ago continues to inspire us with his achievements and good spirits. He lives here in Shawnee Mission. Daughter Sara Ragsdale is a doctor in Newport, Wash., with a husband and three sons.” Send him email at rLconsult@aol.com Joel Snell, BA, is a professor emeritus at Kirkwood College and a research fellow for the Arlington Institute, a

Flashback Getting needled From the Sept. 27, 1957 Gateway

B

eginning Tuesday OU students will have an opportunity to be “needled.”

For convenience to registered day students, Omaha University will administer voluntary Salk polio vaccine shots.

“OU is not trying to compete with doctors, but is working in cooperation with medical authorities,” said Dean Don Pflasterer, Associate Dean of Student Personnel. “Since the student health fee takes in most of the cost, there is a charge of only $1.”

Three shots are necessary — the second, six weeks after the first, and the last seven months later. All three shots are necessary for immunization. A student starting in October may complete the series before the University term ends.

Campus Nurse Mrs. Marcy C. Mapes assures students that the vaccination is safe, painless, and best of all takes only a few minutes of their precious time.

Although this service is purely voluntary, the university hopes that most of the students will cooperate in combatting the paralytic “killer.”

Spring 2009 • 39

Class Notes 1970

A prize for his purpose Jay Davidson (BGS, 1971) in December was among 15 people honored with a 2008 Purpose Prize, a six-year, $17 million program for people older than 60 who are taking on societal challenges.

The Purpose Prize (www.purposeprize.org )is part of the Encore Careers campaign run by Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Davidson, 66 and a resident of Louisville, Ky., received $10,000 with his Purpose Prize.

A release notes that he was “a high-functioning alcoholic with a 20-year career in the military until the day when his commanding officer told him to conquer his addiction — or else.” Finding stability, community and spirituality in a 12-Step program, Davidson eventually retired from the Army with high decorations, returned to school to earn a master’s degree in social work, and turned his life around.

At the Healing Place, a homeless shelter where Davidson talked and lived with clients, he saw firsthand how most people couldn’t break the cycle of homelessness without first breaking their addictions. He created Healing Place, a unique residential treatment program offering men and women a place to live and recover.

Participants live together for nine months and go to AA meetings.

Alumni stay and work as peer mentors.

The program has had 2,400 graduates, is replicated in other states, and has garnered worldwide attention for a recovery rate five times the U.S. average. See more at www.thehealingplace.org.

Washington, D.C., think tank. He recently was one of three editors of the book, “Social Essays on Chaos Theory,” an introduction to one of the major theories of the 20th century. Chaos theory looks at how tiny variables can have a big impact on social phenomena. Snell notes that two UNO alumni, Susan Krogh (1964) and John Povilaitis (1966), made significant contributions to the book. Send Snell email at jsnell@kirkwood.edu.

1967 Maury Pepper, BA, lives in St. Louis. In 2007 he received Wired Magazine’s Rave Award for Medicine for his work with WorldVistA. Along with fellow award recipients K.S. Bhaskar and Joseph Dal Molin, Pepper and open source coders developed software that made it easy for hospitals and doctors

40 • Spring 2009

to digitize medical records. “That efficiency could save thousands of lives — and millions of dollars — every year by eliminating redundant questionnaires, incomplete files, and unnecessary treatments,” wrote Wired’s Thomas Goetz.

The project began with a medicalrecords program called VistA at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It expanded into WorldVistA with hopes of becoming the standard in the United States and, perhaps, the world. See more at www.wired.com/ wired/archive/15.05/feat_raves.html.

WorldVistA organization also was corecipient of the 2007 Linux Medical News Freedom award for its work in getting WorldVistA EHR/VOE 1.0 certified by the Center For Certification of Health Information Technology. Pepper is chairman of WorldVistA.

Leonard Steiner, BGS, lives in Madison, Ala., and writes: “I attended UNO as a Bootstrapper in 1970. I retired from the Air Force in 1973 and in 1976 took a job with Lockheed as a communications electronics maintenance engineering advisor to the Royal Saudi Air Force. I remained with Lockheed for eight years and had promotions to site manager and general manager. I left Saudi Arabia in 1984 but returned in 1986 as a general manager for Grumman Technical Services. I was later hired by a Saudi company owned

by Prince Abdul Aziz and served as program director of the Royal Saudi Air Force Air Defense Program during the First Gulf War. I returned to the USA in 1994 and, since then, I have worked at the USAF Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Ala., and Force Protection in Ladson, S.C. I am now employed at Siemens in Huntsville, Ala., as an application engineer for Siemens PLM Solid Edge Software. I enjoyed my education at UNO and have fond memories of UNO and Omaha.” Send him email at lensteiner@yahoo.com Bill Poindexter, BA, lives in Highlands Ranch, Colo., and writes: “I was a grateful and happy adult student in the U.S. Air Force Bootstrap program and allowed to attend UNO full time. After graduation, I spent the full year of 1971 at Pleiku AFB, Vietnam. Was then transferred to Lowry AFB, Colo. Retired from the Air Force in mid-’71 and have lived in the Denver area since. I enjoyed all my professors at UNO. I particularly remember Dr. Bill Brown, whose marketing theories I have never forgotten, and Dr. Warren Francke, an absolute wizard in journalism and short story composition. My degree from UNO has helped me immeasurably and I am grateful to the institution. Thanks!”

Send emails to Maroon49@aol.com

Maccoby, recognized global expert on leadership. The workbook is based on Maccoby’s most recent book, “The Leaders We Need And What Makes Us Follow.” Meier, who specializes in leadership, innovation, change mastery, team development and sports psychology, was selected by Leadership Excellence magazine to its list of top 100 minds in the personal and professional development field. The list includes other notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Covey, Zig Ziglar and basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Since 2005 Meier also has hosted a weekly Internet radio talk show, “Championship Thinking Coach.” His successes include working with 2006 College World Series champion Oregon State. See more at www.tccomaha.com.

He is married with four children. Emails to meier@tccomaha.com Chuck Sigerson, BGS, lives in Omaha and says that he retired Dec. 31 after 36 years with State Farm Insurance. “I have taken a position with Legacy Design Strategies, LLC, a national wealth protection firm, as vice president, client development. I am also finishing eight years on the Omaha City Council and seeking a third term from the voters in April and May of this year.”

Send him email at cwsigerson@aol.com S. Pete Roberts, BGS, lives in Copperas Cove, Texas, and in November was promoted to 2nd Dan (Second Degree Black Belt) in Okinawa Shorin Ryu Kenshin Kan Karate. Send him email at 2pete2@gmail.com Robert J. Novotny, BS, lives in Washington, D.C., and is retired from the FBI since 2004. His wife currently is assigned to FBI headquarters. Send him email at rjn5954@comcast.net

1971

William Patterson, BGS, lives in Laurens, S.C., and has been retired for 15 years. After graduating he was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where he was with the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command. He retired from the Army in 1976 as a major, then worked 16 years as a telecommunications manager in Omaha.

He was owner and president of Rack Time Sports Bar & Grill in Laurens before retiring in 1994. Send him email at WLP@PRTCNET.COM

Jim Meier, BGS, lives in Omaha, where he is president of The Training and Consulting Connection. He has coauthored a workbook, “Becoming A Leader We Need,” with Michael

Robert Franzese, BA, lives in Norman, Okla., and writes that he recently published a new text, “The Sociology of Deviance: Differences, Tradition, and

John Brady, BS, writes: “Retired as colonel from the U.S. Army in 1992.

Presently resides in Mariposa, CA with wife, Lina. International logistics consultant specializing in port operations and economic enhancement in developing countries.” Send him email at mariposa.john@gmail.com

UNOALUM

S P R I N G Stigma,” published by Charles C. Thomas. “The text covers issues including suicide; crime; drug, alcohol, and gambling addictions; mental disorders and physical disabilities; sexual differences; and elite and power deviance.

The text is unique in that it offers more detail and examples of the empirical tests of deviance theories, and it covers areas such as gambling addiction, a topic normally ignored by sociologists. I am using it in my Sociology of Deviance course this semester. My wife, Patty (BS, 1974), and I wish all Mavs the best.” Send Franzese email at franzese@ou.edu Steve Malone, BS, lives in Marietta, Ga., and writes: “I moved to the Atlanta area in 1994 and am working for First Data Corp. During the past year, my right hip wore out and I recently had right hip replacement surgery. What a difference. After living in pain for a year and feeling my hip bones rubbing together as I tried to walk on my right leg, I only had two days of pain post-op and I am walking around freely on both legs. If your time comes for knee or hip replacement, embrace it quickly. It is truly an amazing procedure. Hope all are weathering the recession.”

Send Malone email at smalone2435@charter.net

1972 Guy Lester Reece II, BGS, lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has been a general jurisdiction state court judge for more than 10 years — since retiring from the U.S. Army as a colonel with 30 years of service. He was selected by fellow judges to serve a second term as the

court’s administrative judge. Send him email at guy_reece_II@fccourts.org Jerome J. Sund, BS, lives in Omaha and has a fellow UNO alum in the family — son, Jerome David Sund graduated from UNO last May with a BS in political science and now works for Omaha mayoral candidate Jim Suttle.” Send Jerome email at sundjj@cox.net Wayne G. Sayles, BGS, lives in Gainesville, Mo., and writes: “I was a Bootstrapper. Following a rewarding career with the U.S. Air Force, I enjoyed a second career in publishing and spend most of my time these days on personal writing projects. My latest book, ‘First To Fall’ is the biography of William Edward Cramsie, a West Point graduate of June 1943 who was killed in action during WWII. The story is presented partly in first person diary form, and partly in my own narrative description of the very spiritually guided search for Bill Cramsie. A brief overview is at http://wgs.cc/FirstToFall” Send Sayles email at wgs@wgs.cc Hugh C. Bryan, associate, lives in Nixa, Mo., and is retired from work in the national defense industry in 1989. He now designs military-style watches. See more at www.airchrono.com.

Diana L. Kelly Couture, BS, lives in Seattle, and writes, “I am semi-retired from a large communications company and trying to get used to life outside of corporate America. Writing has always been a passion and I am working on a series of short stories about the antics of two 80-something women in the Northwest to be published in Seattle

Future Alums

Woman Magazine. My 23-year-old daughter is finishing her undergraduate program at the University of Washington. It all goes by too fast.”

Emails to diana.couture@comcast.net Richard S. Wadleigh, associate, lives in Turnersville, N.J., and recently was named director of Safety & Emergency Medical Services/Emergency Services for Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. (www.rowan.edu). He has been employed by the university, formerly Glassboro State College, for more than 20 years. Send him email at rsw45@hotmail.com

1973 Peter Anderson, BS, lives in Monrovia, Calif., and checks his email at pganderson@sprintmail.com Jeanne Marie O’Donnell Baker, BS, lives in Glendale, Ariz., and writes, “After many years away from teaching I am back teaching special education.

UNO was so far ahead of the rest of the country when I got my degree.” Send emails to jeanneb072004@yahoo.com Daniel Littley, BGS, lives in Lansdale, Pa., and recently was selected to be a Lockheed Martin Fellow in recognition of engineering work and expertise. Send him email at dlittley@msn.com Michael Dean, MA, lives in Martinez, Calif., and writes, “Things are proceeding in my life. I continue to consult on a variety of issues.” He has three children. His son Johnleigh, a high school sophomore, could follow him to his alma mater. “He either makes the Naval

2 0 0 9

Academy or UNO!” Dean writes. “Hi to everyone fortunate enough to attend UNO.” Send emails to mdean@xn1.com

1974 David Lovitt, BSBA, lives in Spring Branch, Texas. “I have retired to the Texas Hill Country,” he writes. Send emails to dlovitt@aol.com Dianne Kammerer Polly, BS, lives in Memphis, Tenn., and is vice president of compliance and community relations at the largest social service agency in Memphis. She also is president of the Community Legal Center board of directors; past president of the TN Dietetic Association; and on the board of directors of many other city charities. Two wonderful daughters and only one husband of 28 years,” she writes.

Leslie S. Kaplan, MS, writes: “I read on page 37 of the Winter 2008 UNO Alumni Magazine that Dr. Robert Butler of the Counseling Department gave remarks at a recent emeritus faculty luncheon. I am delighted that he is still well. Dr. Butler was my faculty adviser and professor during my master’s degree program at UNO in the early 1970s. I was his graduate assistant. I learned more from him as a person and as a counselor than I can accurately put into words. I left Omaha in 1975 when my husband left the Air Force and we moved to Virginia. I completed my doctorate in counseling from the College of William and Mary. To this day, whenever I think of myself as an effective counselor or as a healthy and happy person, I think of Bob Butler and his continuing influence on me.”

Sons & Daughters of UNO Alumni

Nicholas Charles Royal, son of Jeff and Shannon (Holm, ‘04) Royal of Omaha

Sarah Ann Kula , daughter of Melissa (Strnad, ‘99) and John (‘00) Kula of Omaha.

Submit a Future Alum on the Web

Evie Katherine Hytrek, daughter of Chris and Liz (Higgins, ‘01) of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Caleb Lynn Clark, son of Kerry (Baumgart, ‘01) and Timothy (‘01) Clark of Bennington, Neb., and grandson of Roger Baumgart (‘76) of Omaha.

Provide a birth announcement (within 1 year of birth) and we’ll send a T-shirt and certificate, plus publish the good news in an ensuing issue of the UNO Alum. Do so safely and securelyonline at www.unoalumni.org/magazine. Mail announcements to: Future Alums, UNO Alumni Association, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182. FAX info to: (402) 554-3787.

Include address, baby’s name, date of birth, parents’ or grandparents’ names and graduation year(s).

Colt Theodore James Sonnichsen, son of Cade and Denise (Baldwin, ‘03) Sonnichsen of Henderson, Nev. Quinn Elias Hoover, son of Kara (Schweiss, ‘96) and Grant (‘04) Hoover of Bellevue, Neb. Solomon Davis Campbell, son of Robert and April (Davis, ‘96) Campbell of Stillwater, Minn.

Ann Carlson, daughter of Rhonda and Brian (‘92) Carlson of Omaha.

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

Cora Katherine Garrido, daughter of Jennifer (Short, ‘99) and Dante (‘96) Garrido of Summerville, S.C. Kitrik Dawson Lathrum and Katryn Grace Lathrum, son and daughter of Kip and Jennifer (Hennig, ‘94) Lathrum of Omaha and grandchildren of Judy (‘64) and Ron (‘68) Henning of Omaha.

Spring 2009 • 41

Class Notes Brett Van Kettelhut, BS, lives in Omaha and has been a physician in allergy and immunology for nine years. “Moved back to Omaha from Cincinnati in 2000,” he writes. A member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, he and his wife, Valeriya, have two daughters (Erika and Aaren) and one son Vlad.” Send him email at bvk52@aol.com Gerard Sawicki, BGS, has lived in Leandor, Texas, since retiring from Flight Safety Services Corporation as a pilot simulator instructor at Dover Air Force Base. He previously had retired from the U.S. Air Force after 27 years as a navigator and pilot. He and his wife, Bert, live in what’s called “Texas Hill Country” and enjoy their sons and grandchildren, who live nearby.

Rynear (Ray) Huffman, BGS, lives in Chattaroy, Wash., and writes, “I am now 75 years young. Retired from the United States Air Force (1976) and the Washington State Department of Ecology (1994). Anyone remember this old Sergeant from Spokane, Wash.? I have many fond memories of friends and professors at UNO. Thank You!” Send email to safaritravel1@msn.com

1975 Mark Moreno, BS, lives in Omaha and is chief or Clinical Perfusion at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

He and his wife, June, have two children, Leah, a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Christopher, a student at UNL. Send Moreno emails at mmoreno@nebraskamed.com

1976 Tim McMahon, associate, received his Ph.D. from Gonzaga University and is a clinical assistant professor in the master of science in public relations and corporation communications program at New York University. He previously was a senior vice president of corporate marketing and communications at ConAgra Foods and founded and operated his own marketing communications firm for more than a dozen years.

Paul R. Binder, BSBA, lives in Roseville, Minn., and was re-elected in 2008 to the national board of directors of The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, the largest not-forprofit organization in the country providing senior housing and long-term care. Binder previously served on the board for six years, the last two as

42 • Spring 2009

chair. He has worked in the investment division of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Minneapolis, Minn., for the last 17 years and as its director of Loan Administration and Closing is responsible for a $6.5 billion portfolio.

1977 Ellen Carter Thiemann, BS, lives in Papillion, and writes: “I was remarried on June 3, 2008 to Raul Saldivar Jr. He is an alum of UNK.” Email Ellen at nefbfan@cox.net

1978 Douglas Pennington, BS, lives in Overland Park, Kansas, and writes: “It has been a while since attending UNO and being a part of the football team.

One of the key members of that mid’70’s team passed away not too long ago and it sure saddened me to hear the news. Harold Young was not only an outstanding football player but also a very good friend. One of the many I remember from UNO. I truly miss you, Harold.” Send Pennington emails at snappenn@kc.rr.com Chuck Stecker, BGS, lives in Littleton, Colo., and is president/founder of A Chosen Generation, a Christian ministry that equips and trains leaders. Stecker, who retired from the U.S. Army in 1994 after 23 years of service, received a doctorate of ministry in 2004 and authored “Men of Honor Women of Virtue, Raising Kids to Keep the Faith,” which was first published in 2006. He continues to write and speaks at churches and conferences across the nation and in other countries. Send him email at chuck@achosengeneration.org Larry Murry, BS, lives in Bellevue, Neb., and recently completed his doctorate in educational administration. He is an administrator in Bellevue. He has been married 27 years and has four grandchildren. “Very thankful for the education I received at the University of Nebraska at Omaha,” he writes. “Hope to do some writing for professional journals in the future.” Send him email at ldmurry@msn.com James N. Skinner, BS, lives in Golden Beach, Fla.

1979 Kathleen Harmon Ghahramani, BS, lives in Overland Park, Kansas, and writes, “I am working as a professor of

business at Johnson County Community College in Kansas City. I have two grandsons who live in Idaho.”

Send emails to kghahram@jccc.edu Jo Ann Fox Grace, BS, lives in Hamilton, N.J., and has been a certified pre-K through 8th grade teacher for 30 years. She is the assistant director and lead teacher for Tomorrow’s Stars in Hamilton. “I have been blessed to be married to my husband for 30 years and have three wonderful children, the last (youngest) of whom is now going out into the world. I have had the opportunity to travel extensively with my husband and children throughout the world. I particularly enjoy visiting France for extended periods of time when my daughters are living there.”

Send emails at michelney@aol.com Robert A. Myers, BS, was named senior vice president of human resources for Black Hills Corp. He had been the company’s interim human resources executive since June. Myers has been a partner with the human resources consulting firm Strategic Talent Solutions and has been supporting Black Hills with the Aquila integration efforts for nearly 20 months. He has served in key human resources leadership roles for 28 years with organizations such as PepsiCo, Target Corporation, BankBoston, Metromedia, Reebok International and others. He has served as the chief human resources officer for three different companies, including two Fortune 250 organizations.

1980 Paul Strawhecker, MPA, lives in Omaha and recently was awarded the Nebraska Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award. Send him email at paul@pjstraw.com David Slabaugh, BS, lives in Omaha, where his oldest son attends UNO. David writes: “For the past seven years I have owned Sport Court of Nebraska, which sells and installs gym floors to both commercial and residential customers. Most recently I started a second business with a product that I invented called Pawsfurever, which is a

line of paw-shaped products.” Send him email at Slabucks@aol.com Paul Anthony Yochum, MS, lives in Cross Plains, Wis., and recently retired from the State of Wisconsin “to his passion, working part time as executive director of The Arc-Dane County, an advocacy organization in Madison, Wis.” He is an elected trustee official in the Village of Cross Plains and was just elected president of The Capital Times Kids Fund, which provides funding to projects involving youth with and without disabilities in Dane County.

1981 W. Tom Wharff, MS, lives in Peosta, Iowa, was ordained to the priesthood in December. “I took solemn vows as a Trappist-Cistercian monk on Jan. 26, 2006,” he writes. “My name in the monastery is Father Jonah. I am now in charge of the guest program at the abbey.” Email: hobbitmonk@yahoo.com Alan Gomez, BS, lives in Fredericksburg, Va., and recently retired after 21 years of FBI service. He writes: “My duty stations were Roswell, N.M., (1987-1992) [and] San Juan, Puerto Rico, (1992-2002) as a field agent conducting criminal investigations. My last assignment was at the FBI Laboratory as a supervisory special agent in the Hazardous Materials Response Unit (2002-2007). I currently work under a contract to the Department of Defense in nuclear forensics. My wife and I … enjoy the Washington, D.C., area and the great historical Civil War area of Virginia. My wife, Patricia, also is a graduate of UNO.” Email him at ASGomez85@gmail.com

1982 Keley Renee Petersen, BSBA, lives in California, where she returned to 15 years ago after living in Europe. “My career has been spent in the investment world, from Wall Street to London, and in December 2008 I set up an independent wealth advisory firm here in Berkeley. During my time in California I have been married and divorced and had two beautiful girls, ages 12 (yes we are going through the terrible 12s!) and 7. My parents, brother and best friend still live in Nebraska so I get back there at least once a year. Has the campus ever grown since I was there.” Send emails to keley@macpetersen.com Steven Ellington, BS, lives in Atlanta and writes: “I look back on my UNO

UNOALUM

S P R I N G days with bittersweet memories. Sweet memories in that I met a lot of wonderful people. And bitter memories [because] I really wished I would have continued with my Ph.D. studies while I had the energy to do so and when I was much more alert! I want to do it now but there are so many more exciting things to accomplish. OK, I’ll stop regressing … I am still sooo fortunate to be living in exciting times!” Send him email at lovefellowship@msn.com

Where we live — 2009 UNO Alumni Census

2 0 0 9

Total Alumni: 76,668 Includes only those with known addresses

" "

Sherry Bennett Hubbard, BS, lives in Bellevue, Neb., and is owner and director of Great Plains Counseling Center there. Great Plains has seven psychotherapists and has served the community for 19 years, providing counseling to families, couples and individuals.

She serves on the governing boards for the Nebraska Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the Association for Private Practice Therapists.

$

" #

!

1983 Patrick Stibbs, BS, lives in Omaha and is creative services director and integrated marketing manager for Clear Channel Radio, overseeing five Omaha stations. Stibbs garnered six awards last year from the Nebraska Broadcasters Association, including the Best in Show award. He also is president of On the Spot Productions, a local, regional and national radio production company. He also has received several Omaha Federation of Advertising Addy awards. Also a screenwriter, Stibbs’ first script, “The Call,” is in production with Blackwater Entertainment, a Los Angeles production company. He also has written a family film, “Ghost in the Graveyard,” based on a story by his son, Chris. It was optioned by producer Howard Kazanjian (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”). His wife, Monica, also is a UNO graduate (1984). “We met at a UNO party at the now-defunct Carter Lake Warehouse!” Patrick writes. “Have been married for over 22 years and have three children.” Send him email at patrick@onthespotradio.com Kim Lambert Maddox, BS, lives in Arvada, Colo., and is a senior product manager for Intuit in the Intuit real estate solutions division. She is responsible for delivering innovative software solutions to the real estate industry. She and her husband, Jay, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this year.

They are in the process of planning a wedding for their daughter, Morgan.

Send emails to KMaddox@msn.com

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

1984 Scott Gilchrist, BSBA, lives in Evergreen, Colo., where he is founder/president of Cornerstone Customer Solutions (see www.cornerstone-cs.com). Send him email at sgilchrist@cornerstone-cs.com Mike Rzewnicki, BSBA, lives in Overland Park, Kansas, and writes that after a successful 12-year career in management at Charles Schwab & Co. he retired to spend time with his family.

“After a year of travel and youth sports, Mike’s wife strongly suggested he find another outlet for his passions.” He has returned to the financial services industry as a district manager for Waddell & Reed in Overland Park. Send him emails at mikerzewnicki@yahoo.com

1985 James Sanders, MA, lives in Coto De Caza, Calif., and writes that he has been married 17 years and has two children.

“Wrote a book and became a licensed professional counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist. I am the CFO on the board of directors of the 30,000-member California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

(CAMFT). Thanks, UNO!” See more at

www.sanderstherapy.com or email him at james.sanders@cox.net Donald A. Carlson, BS, lives in Minneapolis and in January became dean of business and technology at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minn. Send him email at dac_dakota@yahoo.com

1988 John Doyle, BS, lives in Nyssa, Ore., and writes: “Hope all is going well with everyone.” Send emails to johndoyle32000@yahoo.com

Brian Johnson, BS, lives in Norfolk, Neb., and is publishing his first book, “The Shores of Issyk-Kul” under the pseudonym BJ Lee. The historical fiction novel follows the lives of a displaced German family in the late 1800s through the mid-1900s as it defines its identity in the world. See more at www.createspace.com/3370309. Email Johnson at Author_BJLee@yahoo.com

Mark Manhart, BS, lives in Omaha and writes: “The dental practice of 46 years is now international in scope with nonsurgical calcium methods of periodontal, cystic, root canal and bone therapies. Nearly every week our Calcium Therapy Institute sees patients who come in from other states or other countries. CTI research has resulted in several calcium-zinc products for skin protection and care. This year we will return to Europe for more dental conferences.” Email m@calciumtherapy.com

1986

1989

Edna Brooks Pittman, BS, lives in Omaha, where she returned after working five years in Janesville, Wis., as the city’s housing programs director and 10 years in Toppenish, Wash., as its community development director. She now is executive director of Restored Hope of Omaha, a Christ-centered base of transitional living for women and children. Email: EBPittman@aol.com

David W. White, BA, writes: “I had reported for the UNO Alum Magazine in 2000, 2001 and 2006 that I started up my own Internet radio stations called Whitester Radio via Live365.com. In 2009 I launched a new stream, Whitester Radio — the 80s (http://listen.to/whitester-radio), which is all-’80s music 24/7 and is dedicated to the Omaha Benson High School Class of 1984 (my graduating class) in

Spring 2009 • 43

Class Notes time for our 25-year reunion. I also have the ‘60s, the ‘70s and Smooth Jazz.” Send email to whitester@cox.net

working at Offutt Air Force Base. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2003.

Send him email at TSgtCapt@cox.net

Ken Lim, BA, lives in Elmhurst, N.Y., and notes that he is looking for Steven Wu who graduated in 1988, major in MIS.” Email: kenhl@hotmail.com

1992

Esther Logia Cameron, MBA, writes that she is “single and residing in the Denver metro area in Colorado. I have three children: David, Christopher and Theresa.” She also has a BS in finance from Troy University and an MEd from Regis University. Send email to esthercameron@juno.com Evelyn Young, BGS, lives in Normal, Ill., where she is executive director of the Boys & Girls Club. She also sings in the United Community Gospel Choir, performs in the Community Players and sings with a vocal group, Touch of Soul.

She also serves on the Youth Impact Juvenile Justice Council, Normal Human Relations Commission, NAACP and Soroptimist International B-N. She was named McLean County Mayors Association Person of the Year for 2007 and a YWCA Women of Distinction for Social Services in 2008. She received the Chamber of Commerce Womens’ Division ATHENA Award in 2002. She is a single mother of one son, Jonathan (23). Send emails to eryoung40@yahoo.com

1990 Mike Humpal, MPA, lives in Fairmont, Minn., where he is the city’s assistant city administrator specializing in community and economic development. He is a member of IEDC and has been a certified economic developer since 1994. He also is an executive committee member of Minnesota’s national marketing effort “Positively Minnesota,” a cooperative effort of more than 25 communities, utilities and private business.

Email him at mhumpal@bevcomm.net Gary D. Howard, associate, lives in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and takes email at how780@aol.com

1991 Michael Wangberg, MPA, lives in Papillion, Neb., and is a civil servant

44 • Spring 2009

John L. Morris, MBE, lives in Corvallis, Ore., and writes that after 13 years with Hewlett-Packard as a training manager, “the economy has finally caught up with me and I have been laid off. Am looking for work in training or human resources. Please send a message if you know of openings or have good networking contacts. Thanks!” Send him email at jlmorris.us@gmail.com Stanton Smith Sweeney, BGS, lives in San Antonio with his wife of 20 years, Tanya, and their two children, Sean (6) and Kiersten (3). “Many things have changed since we were in Omaha,” he writes. “After getting out of the military just after graduation my career path has included the running of a technology company, a vertically integrated agribusiness and others. For some 11/2 years I have owned my own company, Guidepost Strategies. It is a business advisory and consulting company specializing in the small and medium business market throughout the US. We just love all there is to do here.” Email StanSweeney@GuidepostStrategies.com

1993 Kevin Lunt, BA, received a diploma from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He recently took a Spanish proficiency exam at the university’s extension campus in Chicago. He is a full-time Spanish Interpreter at the Nebraska Medical Center.

Brian Brunken, BA, lives in Omaha and is owner/operator of Go Physical Therapy in Southwest Omaha. He writes: “Go Mavs!” Send emails to brianbrunken@gophysicaltherapy.net Steven Hill, BS, is a cartoonist in Omaha who publishes “Buns’ (see www.bunscomic.com), named after a character he created in the 1970s. His strip deals with work, parenting, mishaps and friendship. He recently spoke to teens at all five Boys and Girls Clubs of Omaha locations. Hill, a Boys Club member as a youth, talked to teens about having goals and dreams.

1994 John Schleicher, MA, lives in Omaha, and is head of special collections and an assistant professor (history of medi-

cine) at the McGoogan Library of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He also is an adjunct lecturer in UNO’s history department.

He serves as a mayoral appointee on the City of Omaha Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission and is in his second term as an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State Historical Society. Send him email at jschleicher@unmc.edu Thomas Miller, BGS, lives in Raleigh, N.C., and writes: “I left UNO and went to work in a broad field called ‘industrial sales,’ where I worked selling bulk process chemicals. From there I went to a chemical sub-group of ‘Industrial water treatment.” That led to a position in sales with Johnson Controls. Finally, I was hired by Bray Controls USA last year as a sales engineer selling valves and flow control products. However, I had to take a few weeks off last summer to recover from a severe motorcycle accident. Send him email at nebgrad95@yahoo.com

1995 Jason Plourde, BSED, received a 2008 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in recognition of his leadership and ability to motivate both students and colleagues. He is principal of Washington Elementary School in Council Bluffs. He also earned a doctorate in educational administration and supervision from UNO. Matthew Streett, BFA, joined the Chaplain Corps of the U.S. Air Force and was commissioned as an active duty captain after nine years of civilian ministry, An ordained Greek Orthodox priest, he is a chaplain for basic trainees at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Lerlean N. Johnson, BS, lives in Decatur, Ga., and is a high school teacher and administrator. In October she graduated with her doctoral degree in education from Argosy University in Atlanta. Johnson wrote her dissertation about the link between parent-teacher communications and its influence on parental involvement at the high school level. She is one of 14 children of Jesse and Lerlean Johnson. Lerlean says her mother has been a strong advocate in the educational arena and has influenced her to live a life of service by giving back as an educator.

1996 Shawna Mefferd Kelty, BA, lives in Columbia, Mo., and in May will graduate with a Ph.D. in theatre from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she earned her MA in theatre (2000).

Georgia Welch, BSED, was illustrator for a newly launched product, “Hab It: Pelvic Floor,” a physical therapy education and exercise DVD aimed at helping the more than 20 million women who suffer from incontinence, prolapse or pelvic floor pain due to a weakened pelvic floor (often a result of pregnancy or aging). She also has illustrated “Hab It: Low Back,” scheduled to be released this year. You can view some of her illustrations at www.hab-it.com. Welch has served as an adjunct instructor at Bellevue University in graphics. She lives in Fremont and has two children.

1997 Kate Kalamaja Egert, BS, lives in Shoreline, Wash., and writes that she is taking time off from the news-producing world to raise her two children: son Dakota (3) and daughter Delaney (1).

Kate produced at KMTV in Omaha before moving to Orlando, Fla. There she produced several newscasts and specials, and won an Emmy. She currently lives in the Seattle area with her husband, Chris, and their two children.

David Marshall Hughes, BA, lives in LaVista, Neb., and takes email at dmhughes68@cox.net Richard E. Murray, BSBA, lives in Wilmington, N.C., and accepts emails at remurray23@yahoo.com

1998 Beth McManigal Drennen, BA, lives in Saint Charles, Mo., and recently celebrated her first anniversary with her husband, Stephen. In 2008 she moved to St. Louis and became a proposal development coordinator, taking a break from five years as an English instructor/professor. Now she is a stay-athome mom working on several writing projects. That includes a self-help/personal experience book on migraines in the hopes to further educate migraineurs, their family members and co-workers. She also is working on two children’s books for children with migraine. Drennen is the stepmother of three children and enjoys traveling across the country to visit the two oldest, ages 23 and 22. She makes many

UNOALUM

S P R I N G trips back to Omaha, especially during the CWS. Emails gwenyver32@aol.com Beth McIvor Heyen, BGS, lives in Seward, Neb., and notes that in December she and her husband, Eric Heyen, welcomed son Liam. Send her email at bethm03@hotmail.com Daniel Mahrt, BSCE was promoted to associate principal with Braun Intertec. a Minneapolis-based engineering and environmental consulting and testing firm. Mahrt, a geotechnical engineer, provides geotechnical engineering and project management services for a variety of projects, including energy, commercial, retail, government, municipal and residential projects. He is currently working on projects in the energy and wind markets.

Ibrahima Diop, BSBA, lives in Omaha and takes email at diop@creighton.edu Travis Sing, MA, lives in Omaha and in November published his second book, ‘Creighton University Athletics: A History in Photographs.’ In October his band, Black Squirrels, released its second CD, ‘Paying For Your Pleasure.’ In January the band was honored with a 2008 Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award for Best Roots/Folk/Country/ Americana/Bluegrass.”

2001 Jenny Jones Long, BSET, lives in Centerville, Iowa, and is senior embedded engineer for John Deere Intelligent Vehicle Systems in Urbandale, Iowa.

She is married with two children, 3 and 10 months.

John T. James, Ed.D., lives in Webster Groves, Mo., and is a tenured associate professor at Saint Louis University in the department of educational leadership and higher education. He is director of the Catholic Leadership Program there, is president of the National Association of Catholic Leadership Programs, and is a member of the national board for Jesuit schools (JSEA). Send email to jamesjt@slu.edu Earl T. Thornton, BM, lives in Queen Creek, Ariz., and writes: “After graduating my wife and I moved to Chandler, Ariz., where she took a job working for

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

2 0 0 9

the Chandler school district. I worked for a pool cleaning company and eventually managed it for two years. We had our first child, Anja, in 2004. The opportunity to teach music in a school district arose and I accepted it. I had taught privately, but never in a school.

In 2005 I began my teaching career.

The district was a one-school district for almost 50 years and had almost no music program. I have been working toward establishing the orchestra program, which has 200 kids in it to date!

Once the first high school opens next year, things will be developing from K12! It has been a fun and rewarding job!” Send emails to J13Bass@cox.net Brandon Lindsay Steenson, BS, lives in Kansas City where he has been an attorney working in-house for Kansas City Southern Railway since 2005 after graduating from the University of Toledo College of Law. Send him email at blsteenson@hotmail.com Seth Henderson, BGS, lives in Westminster, Colo., and takes email at seth.henderson@colorado.edu

2002 Jonathan Miles Shradar, BS, lives in Washington, D.C., and has switched careers after serving the last four years as a member of the Bush Administration, most recently as press secretary for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Shradar joined the non-profit organization Malaria No More as communications director for its policy center in Washington, D.C. The organization has the goal of ending Malaria deaths in the world and the new policy center will work with lawmakers to reach that goal. Email him at shradar@gmail.com Carol Lee Tschampl-Diesing, MS, lives in Bellevue, Neb., and was named the 2008 High School Teacher of the Year for Nebraska by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Organization. She is in her ninth year of teaching Radio and TV Broadcasting at the Omaha Public Schools Career Center.” Send her email at c.tschampl_diesing@yahoo.com Catherine Hines Johnson, BS, lives in Omaha and is enrolled in the MIS graduate program. Email her at cjomaha8@gmail.com Stephanie Galloway-Maslanik, MSW, lives in Huntingdon, Pa., where she has obtained both of her Pennsylvania

Before & After Terri L. Thompson-Sayler (BS, 1995) lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, and sends the following Class Note: “In 2008 I won the Pineywoods ‘Change Your Life make Over.’ In the process I lost 90 lbs, cut 15 inches off my hair, got in shape and much more. I’ve also been honored at Stephen F. Austin State University with an honorary mentor ring for my work with students. There are two given every year.” See more about Thompson-Sayler’s makeover at www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?s=7846379. Send emails to Thompson-Sayler at tlthompson@sfasu.edu social work licenses by examination, the LSW in May 2003 and the LCSW in May 2007. She began working as the Children’s Partial Clinical Program director/therapist at JC Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntingdon in June 2007.

She and her husband, Scott Maslanik, celebrated their five-year anniversary on Aug. 2, 2008. They have one son, Landon, 2. Send emails to stephieg01@hotmail.com Karen Bostic Frederick, BS, lives in Kearney, Neb., and recently finished her Ph.D. at Louisiana State University in literacy and special education. She now is an assistant professor of education at the University of Nebraska Kearney. “My husband, Leonard, and our six children (Jennifer, 13; Nicholas, 6; Robert, 5; William, 4; James, 3; and Buddy are adjusting to the quiet life. I would love to hear from old friends!” Friends should email chioalum@aol.com

2004 Angie Kritenbrink, MA, lives in Seattle and is a risk financing analyst in the office of risk management at the University of Washington. She is married. Email: akritenbrink@comcast.net

Jennifer Mullins, BS, lives at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, and is the marketing manager/coordinator for the Community & Technical College, the second largest college at the University of Alaska Anchorage. “I am loving life and enjoy bringing the successes of UNO as a model for our future success here.” Send emails to jenn.mullins@gmail.com Jeremy S. Wangler, BS, lives in Omaha and in February returned to the campus of his alma mater as UNO’s associate athletics media relations director.

Christopher Measel, BGS, lives in San Antonio, and is battery commander of the U.S. Army’s A Battery, 2-362 FA Regiment, assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas.

Send him email at christopher_mea78@yahoo.com C. Allen Gorman, MA, lives in San Angelo, Texas, and writes that after completing his UNO studies he went on to earn a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee in 2008. “I am now an assistant professor in the I/O psychology program at Angelo State University in

Spring 2009 • 45

Class Notes San Angelo. My wife, Anne, and I welcomed a new addition, Jackson Liam, to our family on June 14, 2007.” Send emails to cgorman@angelo.edu Kate Zagozda Ostdiek, BS, lives in Omaha and notes that she was married to Don Ostdiek on November 22, 2008, at St. Margaret Mary Church. She is an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton. Don is a physical therapist at Horizon Spine Rehabilitation.

2005 Pete Pirsch, MBA, lives in Omaha and writes that his wife, Lori, had twin boys, Allen and Maxwell, in September. He is a Nebraska state senator representing District 4. “I was elected vice chairman of the Nebraska Legislature’s Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee as well as vice chairman of the Legislature’s Government, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee this month.”

Send email to papirsch@yahoo.com Willa Panzer, MPA, lives in Oregon, Wis. In October 2008 she became associate vice president of the Office of Student Development & Assessment at the Wisconsin Technical College System. The post is in charge of student services, workforce development training and accountability at the system level. She also was appointed state director of adult basic education.

Class Notes

S P R I N G

Winston Leslie, BSBA, lives in Mableton, Ga., and is a senior corporate accountant in Atlanta. “I will begin the MBA program at Georgia Tech in the fall of 2009,” he writes. “I try to visit friends in Omaha at lease twice each year.” Send him email at winstonjr11@aol.com

2006 Nathaniel Warnock, BSBA, lives in Omaha and will graduate from Creighton University School of Law in May. “I will graduate in the top quarter of my law school class,” he writes. “In July of 2009 I will sit for the Nebraska Bar Examination. Upon passage of the exam, I will practice as a corporate and Estate planning attorney. I will be joining the law firm of Abrahams Kaslow & Cassman LLP as an associate upon passage of the bar exam.”

Angela J. Miller, MS, joined the law firm of Lamson, Dugan and Murray as an associate.

2007 Kanthi Reddy Saddi, MS, lives in Omaha and takes emails to kanthi.saddi@gmail.com Tyler Bartruff, MBA, lives in Lincoln, Neb., and is a second-year law student at the University of Nebraska College of Law. “For any students interested in furthering their academic career at a law

school, I would highly recommend Professor Copple’s individual and corporate income tax classes,” he writes.

“They were the most beneficial in terms of legal writing and legal analysis.”

Send him email at tybartruff@yahoo.com Sharon Bell, BS, lives in Omaha and is teaching family & consumer sciences at Omaha Blackburn Senior High, an OPS alternative school. “I enjoy working there,” she writes. “Also, since graduation I became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., a sorority based on sisterhood and service.” Send emails to ms_srbell@yahoo.com

an edge when it came time to find my first post-college job and it prepared me very well for the responsibilities I now face with my clients in government. I am also engaged to be married this coming summer.” Send emails to Crofty98@gmail.com

In Memoriam 1940 1941 1949 1950 1953 1957 1959

2008 Aaron L. Croft, BSBA, lives in Omaha and writes that “Since commencement I have begun working on my new career, currently working inside sales at an established industrial automation and instrumentation supplier and integrator here in Omaha. We are partnered with, and conduct business with, several city and state utilities, such as MUD and OPPD, where we supply critical electrical components and build custom electrical panels and shelters. I work in partnership with several coal power plants all over the nation to help them control and reduce their emissions levels, as well as supporting the Bio-fuel movement that has taken root here in Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. UNO’s College of Business definitely gave me

2 0 0 9

1961 1962 1963

1964

1965 1969 1970 1975 1976 1980 1984

Marjorie Whitted Henrietta L. Brown Roland Wayne Yeaton Phillip Laing Stageman Thomas Jauss Neva B. Deets John L. Armour Jr. Rudy Vlcek Marvin Hout Ruth M. Sheldon Phillips Lee R. Perkins Mez P. Lubischer Harold M. Hedin Col. (Ret) Maxie Trainer Carroll Papajohn Herbert R. Eder Jerry D. Bowline Paul Mars David B. Means Robert E. Naughton Bruce B. Campbell Ruth E. Johnson Picker Denmark C. Jensen Marjorie A. Trrenholm Tatman James R. Ray Sally Haddix William D. “Dan” Reilly Jr. Alvin A. Avant

Submit your class note over the web at www.unoalumni.org/notes 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__________________________________________

Employer ___________________________________

Class Year_______Degree________

Position_____________________________________

Address________________________________________

Career/Personal News__________________________

City ___________________________

Is this a new

_______________________________________________

address?

_______________________________________________

State, Zip______________________

❑ Yes ❑ No

Phone_____________________________ E-mail_________________________________________ may we post your email address in the next Alum?

❑ Yes ❑ No

46 • Spring 2009

may we include your name in our website’s email directory? (Email addresses do not display)

❑ Yes ❑ No

_______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________

UNOALUM

UNO Century Club NO Century Club membership consists of individuals who support UNO with gifts of $100 or more. Century Club gifts help the alumni association impact numerous areas of campus, furthering its academic excellence, supporting students, and fostering dynamic teaching.

U

Thanks to these upgrad- Welcome to these new ed Century Club donors! Century Club donors!

Dec. 1 to Feb. 28

Dec. 1 to Feb. 28

To Diamond

To Platinum

($1,000 or more) Henry L. Clure Darrald B. Harsh James C. Kasperbauer Paul R. Kenney, M.D. Shirley A. Spieker

($2,500 or more) David S. & Teresa A. Lunt

To Gold ($500 or more) Richard T. Burress Lt. Gen. (Ret) Russell C. Davis Phyllis F. Easton Jane H. Gilbert John L. Keiser Michael J. Nolan James K. Perkins Edward L. Powers Leonard M. & Catherine Sommer John A. Stirek

To Silver ($250 or more) Donald O. & Hallie J. Aldridge William G. Arnold Rob Bates Carl S. Bloomer Everett L. Cook Daniel L. Cutler Patricia A. Dwornicki Mary Ellen Freyermuth Charles B. Hall Donald F. Hansen Suzanne Hinderliter Roman L. Hruska, Jr. Kay McElwee LTC (Ret.) Joseph Orlowski, Jr. Raymond E. Rogers Gary P. Smith Robert J. Stutzman Jeffrey L. Wacker Mary W. Wilcox Joseph J. Wojcik Martha K. Zajicek

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

Diamond ($1,000 or more) Colleen Donovan Luckasen Paul Oltman Terry L. Stofferson Gold ($500 or more) Joshua C. Bates Don Nesheim Scott L. Struble Jon C. Gum

Silver ($250 or more) Paul A. & Julie K. Becker Jill Goldstein Mary M. Griffin Michele Highland Hollatz Robert L. Lodes Timothy P. McMahon William D. Murphy Neil R. Barna Patrick & Marilyn Hallroan Rodney L. Roenfeldt Michael J. & Amy Ryan

Bronze ($100 or more) Barbara E. Adrian Alan Neaderhiser Gail Allbery Lt. Col. (Ret) John H. Anderson Andrew Willey Ann B. Mossberg Barbara J. Hoffman Ltc. Kristen C. Barner George J. & Oalga T. Bighia Jon & Peggy Boller R.R. Boppana Robert R. Brown Susan K. & Max J. Burbach Garold W. Burkholder

Robert E. Burns Lee Butkiewicz Jocelyn M. Carley Carolee Roberts Charles Anthony Felton John Michael Chessnoe Col. (Ret) Donald Porter Dwight D. Cooper David B. Craig Karen Daniel Gary E. Darlington Elaine L. DeBoer Duane T. Dier Col. (Ret) C.L. Dodgen Donal Eoin Reilly Dennis L. & Debra A. Duncan Alan A. Dusatko Marci Erlandson Lori A. Fanning Carol Fichter Dr. James C. Forstall, LTC (Ret.) Robert S. Gambrel Gene Gollehon Michael R. Gilmore Dennis J. Guinn Eric R. Hansen Rob W. Heldenbrand Donna L. Holmquist Joseph Byrne Joseph Elrefaie Robert O. Kaiser Clifford D. Kantz William E. Kee Barbara J. Keil Stephen W. Kinzy Bob Knudson Richard & Bonnie Kolowski Barry L. Kricsfeld, M.D. Lesley A. Devries Richard D. Lindauer Walter A. Lucas Sean A. Lynch Ronald J. Mahoney Arnold C. Mallory Maria C. Perez Barbara Evans Markuson Howard A. Martin Martin J. Markey John F. & Martha Jane McAvin, Jr.

Rosemary & Keith McCormick Walter F. McGuire Lawrence A. McIntyre R. Keith & Geraldine McMillan Susan McWilliams James D. Melson Micaela R. Keeton Jesse H. Miller John J. & Ann M. Minarich Willie L. Moise-Mora Russell P. Moore, Jr. Marian G. Pflasterer Tuyen Pham Joyce L. Porter P. Thomas Pratt, Jr. Larry R. Rainwater William A. Ratekin Dr. Edward D. Rice Richard Ciccone Robert L. Berry, Jr. Daniel A. Rowe Frederick M. Rudie John Ruffin, Jr. Gerard F. Sawicki Patrick R. Saylor Jennifer L. Schenck Dawn Schroeder-Smyser Barbara M. Schweiger Judith A. Sedlacek MG (Ret) Harold I. Small Dennis Smyser Stephanie L. Austin Suzanne Melliger Susan E. Tabor Theodore S. Suchoski Vyto Vainiunas George W. & Sheryl L. Wachtler Michael E. Wagner Lynn A. Wegehaupt Linda Ford Wendel John C. Wickstrom Alan W. Wiederholt Hugh W. Williams Gen. (Ret.) Johnnie E. Wilson Kenneth O. Wofford Carol D. Wood Dr. W. Ross Yates James E. Zadina

Spring 2009 • 47

New in 2009: 25% first-time customer business discount!

The Thompson Center at UNO Your corporate event partner

Planning a conference, retreat, seminar or other business event?

Host it at the Thompson Center!

• Convenient, midtown location • Affordable rates • Versatile meeting spaces • State-of-the-art A/V • Free high-speed Wi-Fi • Free parking Also available for Wedding Receptions, Breakfasts, Brunches, Lunches, Dinners and all socials!

67th & Dodge

Ask about our multiple booking discounts! 554-3368 Book your next event online —

www.thethompsoncenter.org

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

University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni Association 6705 Dodge St. Omaha, NE 68182-0010 Address Service Requested