UNO Alum - Summer 2005

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

Summer 2005

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Days of Wine

Jim Shaw is flying high with Nebraska’s Soaring Wings Vineyard

The Bard in the Yard!

Contents

Summer 2005

Wednesday, July 6

College Pages

Picnic: 6 to 7:15 p.m.

Performance: 8 p.m W.H.Thompson Alumni Center

CPACS Arts & Sciences CBA Education

Cover photo by Eric Francis

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I (we) will attend “Othello” AND the picnic!

Charge my:

q

State

I (we) will only attend the picnic

tickets at $10 each. I have enclosed $

q Visa q MasterCard q Discover.

Exp. Date ___/___ Names for Name Tags

UNO alum Jim Shaw got his head out of the clouds and his hands into the dirt with Nebraska-grown wines.

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A day with President Karzai Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai spends a day at a West Point feedyard and at UNO.

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“Othello” Shakespeare on the Green UNO Alumni Picnic Registration -- Submit by June 30!

Reserve me

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On the cover: Days of Wine

Questions? Call Sheila King at 554-4802 or e-mail sking@mail.unomaha.edu

q

Cover Story Page 24

Features

City

Signature:

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Five graduates receive awards.

Here’s what your $10 gets you!

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

Email

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Four alumni receive awards.

Just $10 per person!

Address

8-11

Focus on female faculty.

Join us for the annual and ever-popular Shakespeare on the Green Picnic at the Alumni Center, followed by a performance of “Othello.”(Picnic rain or shine)

Name

6-7

Spotlight on the School of Social Work.

q I (we) will only attend the play.

Armando Salgado’s big strides in the United States.

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On the Road

Phone

Zip

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Small Steps

Dan Kaercher’s 10,000-mile summer vacation.

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Send to: Shakespeare Picnic UNO Alumni Association 60th & Dodge St. Omaha, NE 68182-0010

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Mind Bender Terry Stickels is a puzzling man. Find out why.

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Change Richard Lee remains an agent of change.

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

Association Departments

Card No.

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Alumni Association in Action

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Class Notes These folks are impressive.

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Future Alums Small, but awfully smart.

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Editor: Anthony Flott Contributors: Sonja Carberry, Tim Fitzgerald, Eric Francis, Tim Kaldahl, John McKenna, Joe Mixan, Nick Schinker, Wendy Townley, Omaha World-Herald.

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

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

The UNO Alum is published quarterly by the UNO Alumni Association, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, UNO, Omaha, NE 681820010, (402) 554-2444, FAX (402) 554-3787 • web address: www.unoalumni.org • Member, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) • Direct all inquiries to Editor, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, (402) 554-2989. Toll-free, UNOMAV-ALUM • email: aflott@mail.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.

Summer 2005 • 3

Letter from the

F

Chancellor

Improving self study

or universities, the accreditation or re-accreditation process can be both a curse and a blessing. On one hand, receiving accreditation or being re-accredited speaks volumes about institutional quality, momentum and prestige. On the other hand, traditional accreditation processes are laborious and time-intensive exercises, requiring the creation of an encyclopedic “self study.”

Unfortunately, this document sits largely unused after the process is over.

All that changed six years ago when the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS—UNO’s overall accrediting agency) adopted AQIP, the Academic Quality Improvement Process. AQIP is an alternative process to accreditation, focusing on performanceimprovement measures and innovative initiatives. Through AQIP, UNO can demonstrate strong linkages between our strategic planning process and the institutional portfolio (a collection of items which reflect and communicate progress toward our goals).

Last month, a UNO team comprised of students, faculty, staff and University of Nebraska Regent Randy Ferlic attended a required AQIP seminar in Chicago. We presented a series of four action plans UNO is undertaking as part of the AQIP initiative. These include: • myMAPP (Mapping Academic Progress with ePortfolios)—displays electronic portfolios for students, faculty/staff, colleges/departments/schools, and the campus to document and assess progress; • Assessment Exchange—allows UNO and Metropolitan Community College to seamlessly transfer general education coursework via electronic portfolios; • The American Democracy Project—a multi-institution project that promotes civic engagement for undergraduate students; and, • Academic Transitions—provides a coordinated approach to enhance freshmen and transfer students’ first year at UNO. First accredited by North Central in 1939, UNO is excited about using the AQIP process for its next re-accreditation.

Unlike the self-studies of the past, our electronic portfolio is a living, breathing, interactive document that evolves over time, and it’s accessible 24 hours a day.

I encourage you to visit the website and learn more about your alma mater.

Until next time,

4 • Summer 2005

Campus SCENE

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Dr. Karzai, I presume: UNO and Chancellor Nancy Belck conferred upon Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai an honorary doctorate of humane letters during a ceremony May 25 in the Strauss Performing Arts Center. Also pictured are University of Nebraska Regent Howard Hawks (background, far left), Dean Tom Gouttierre (green robe), Nebraska Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy and Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey (far right). Karzai visited UNO’s campus and a West Point, Neb., farm and feedyard during his visit. For more information and additional photos, turn to page 20.

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Summer 2005 • 5

School of

Faculty, staff and grad assistants of UNO’s School of Social Work. Seated, from left: Claudette Lee, faculty; Dr. Jane Woody, faculty; Dr. Theresa Barron-McKeagney, director; Patricia Carlson, faculty; Dr. Ann Coyne, faculty. Standing, from left: Dr. Peter Szto, faculty; Sarah Eades, grad assistant; Dr. Deb Anderson, faculty; Rebecca Dartman, grad assistant; Dr. Henry D'Souza, faculty; Paul Sather, faculty; Judy Milner, staff; Dr. Jeanette Harder, faculty; Deb Allwardt, adjunct faculty; Mary Lee Tisdale, staff; Barbara Weitz, faculty; Dr. Amanda Randall, faculty; Dr. Alva Barnett, faculty; Christy Taylor, student worker; Jacque Reiser, faculty.

Social Work receives prestigious NU honor

by Nick Schinker

hen Gwen Howard says she is impressed by UNO’s

WSchool of Social Work, one must consider that her

opinion carries a bit more weight than others.

Howard earned her master of social work (MSW) degree at UNO in 1974. She is an accredited member of the National Association of Social Workers and the Academy of Certified Social Workers. An adoption specialist, she has served as a practicum instructor at the school through the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. And as a Nebraska senator representing District 9 in Omaha, she continues her role as a policymaker for the school and the university system.

Clearly, hers is a voice of experience.

“I feel the School of Social Work is an incredibly valuable institution,” she says. “The MSW program in particular really offers the opportunity for enhancement for those individuals who have obtained their bachelor’s degree and are interested in staying in that field and getting more 6 • Summer 2005

skilled in social work. It’s a wonderful program.”

The school this year earned one of the University of Nebraska’s most prestigious honors—the University-wide Departmental Teaching Award. The award, which comes with $25,000—recognizes a department within the university that has made a unique and significant contribution to teaching. It was presented April 12.

Directed by Dr. Theresa Barron-McKeagney, the School of Social Work focuses on teaching, research and service.

With its student volunteer, service learning and practicum training programs, the school contributes more than 51,000 hours of service to the community each year.

From the skilled and dedicated faculty to its roster of successful alumni, the School of Social Work “is reaching out and creating a better society,” Barron-McKeagney says.

An arm of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service, the school was established in 1908. Degree programs include the bachelor of science in social work (BSSW), the MSW and off-campus MSW at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and the master of social UNOALUM

work/master of public administration. Graduates’ firsttime pass rates on the Association of Social Work board exams are well above the national average.

The school averages approximately 200 graduate students and 100 undergraduate students. They come from Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas and Minnesota.

“As we further develop our programs and our relationships with other institutions, such as the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, I see us gaining a national presence over time,” Barron-McKeagney says.

One example of the school’s positive effect on the community is the recently completed Aguante Project, a family-based mentoring program for at-risk Latino students in the Omaha Public Schools (OPS) system.

The school received a $210,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department for the Aguante (the Spanish equivalent of “persevere”) Project, an expansion of the Family Mentoring Program coordinated by Social Work.

The project provided academic and personal mentoring for 50 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from Omaha’s Field Club and Liberty elementary schools.

Students from UNO’s Goodrich Scholarship Program and community volunteers served as mentors.

“I’d like to see our work with OPS expanded to involve our students not only through mentoring projects, but in different roles at different levels, all to further enhance the service learning aspect of the school,” Barron-McKeagney says.

Placing social workers in the schools would be a smart move, Sen. Howard says. “I think this avenue alone would really enhance education and deal with a lot of the concerns we’re seeing in the public school setting.”

The mission of the school is to produce highly qualified social work professionals, to advance knowledge through scholarship and research, and to engage with diverse communities to promote positive change within society.

Its vision is to convey social work values and ethics, promote social justice and strengthen professional skills and competencies in order to enhance students’ capacities for effecting positive changes.

No one is better suited to help fulfill the mission and vision than Barron-McKeagney, Sen. Howard says. “I can’t sing her praises loudly enough. She is completely committed and dedicated to social work. Everyone associated with the university is grateful she is there.”

The youngest of 11 children born to parents who emigrated from Mexico, Barron-McKeagney brought with her a history rich with life experiences when she became director of the school in January 2004.

“When I think about the last 16 months and what I have seen as a director and leader at the school, I think about the passion we have for our students, our community and the people we serve,” she says. “We have the focus, we have the drive and we have the passion to conw w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

tinue with our mission and vision.”

Graduate student Rushton “Rusty” Gunter says that he and his fellow students share her opinion.

“This program has a way of bringing to the surface what people are really passionate about,” he says. “The program makes students look inside themselves and see where they are strong and where they are not. That helps bring out who we truly are.”

Gunter, who will receive his MSW in August, says he is eager to put his studies to use, perhaps in Omaha, perhaps in San Diego where he served in the military. “I have the confidence that with this degree wherever I go I can compete for jobs and serve the community.”

Giving students that edge requires a strong faculty and the continued support of alumni, Barron-McKeagney says.

Gifts to the master’s program, financial support for internships and donations for scholarships, stipends and living expenses are areas where alumni help is appreciated.

“No one should expect to fix everything that’s wrong with the world,” she says, “but by working together, hand in hand philosophically, our students know that they can make the world a better place.”

By fulfilling its mission and vision, the UNO School of Social Work continues to positively impact society, one life at a time.

Photo by Carrie Howard

Photo by Ann Coyne

Social Work

Celebrating an alum senator’s “first” From left, Nebraska Director of Health and Human Services Nancy Montanez, Nebraska Senator Gwen Howard and UNO School of Social Work Director Dr. Theresa Barron-McKeagney were at the Unicameral to witness the first bill Howard had signed into law, LB 264. The bill, passed 47-0 in March, authorizes child abuse and neglect prevention services and changes child welfare caseload requirements. It would allow the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish prevention programs such as home visitation, screening and education within the state's child welfare system. The bill also would require HHS to consider national standards in establishing child welfare caseloads and to provide annual reports on caseloads and employee retention. Howard in 1974 earned a master’s degree in social work from UNO. Summer 2005 • 7

College of

Arts & Sciences

The Women of Arts & Sciences: Meeting the Challenge From the Dean Finding Safety in Numbers here Are the Women?” is the title of a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education describing the disturbing fact that despite program and policy changes going back to the 1960s, and significant increases in the numbers of women receiving advanced degrees, women still are grossly underrepresented in the highest levels of academia.

UNO’s College of Arts and Sciences is no exception.

For example, while women now are wellrepresented in most of our academic ranks, they constitute only 13 percent of the full professors in the college.

There are many possible reasons as to why such a disparity exists when the majority of students in college are women and when women are rapidly becoming the majority in advanced study in most disciplines. I have a daughter whose mathematical skills and interests vastly exceed those of her brothers, or mine; thus—unlike the president of Harvard University—I don’t have to waste time musing over the possibility of gender differences in interests or ability.

More importantly, there are mundane and addressable issues that likely more significantly contribute to the present situation. Some of these issues are discussed in the following pages. We also highlight some of our successes in attracting and retaining women faculty of exceptional talent.

This is a multifaceted problem that requires careful analysis and reasoned action. Perhaps we are on the right track and the problem will resolve itself with time, but the issue is too important to leave to such chance. Thus, the college is undertaking a study of the way we do business to determine changes that might be implemented to assure that women of high ability will be attracted to the college, want to stay in the college, and will thrive in the college.

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Shelton Hendricks, Dean College of Arts and Sciences 8 • Summer 2005

he experiences of women on a faculty is an issue Dr. Mary Ann Lamanna

Tknows professionally and personally.

A professor emeritus of sociology at UNO (Ph.D., Notre Dame) she specializes in family, gender, law, and policy. She is the author of several books, including “Emile Durkheim on the Family,” winner of the Choice 2002 Outstanding Academic Title. She also is coauthor with Agnes Reidmann on “Marriages and Families: Making Choices in a Diverse Society.”

Lamanna joined UNO in 1977 and was the only woman in the department for about two years. The situation is much difProfessor Emeritus Mary Ann Lamanna ferent today. “In the sociology and anthropology department, we have for a long time had a strong presence of women faculty. Throughout the history of women at UNO, the troubling situations have tended to be where there is only one woman in the department,” Lamanna says. “In our department, if there are common problems, we women faculty talk about them and have a lot of solidarity. I think my easier experience for the times was also partly that sociologists (and anthropologists) were probably ahead of their time in being sensitive to avoiding crude remarks, officially discouraging attitudes toward women, etc.”

Associate Professor of Mathematics Janice Rech likely would agree with Lamanna’s observation about the challenge of being in a distinct minority within an academic department. When Rech earned tenure in the math department, she was the first female to do so in 25 years. “I was the outsider,” Rech says, adding that now that she is tenured, her working relationships are much more comfortable. “It’s like a family. We know our roles now and we get along.”

In the early 1990s when Professor Susan Maher was hired as one of only a few female faculty members in the English department, she had a similar sense of being alone but found support elsewhere. Maher comments, “The women’s studies program proved crucial for me to avoid a sense of isolation in a predominately male department, to receive mentorship from senior women at UNO.” Lamanna suggests that seeking mentors outside one’s own department is a good strategy for all faculty, but especially women. Doing so “gives a faculty member colleagues and a reputational base outside her department. There are just a lot of ways in which newer faculty women could be helped through mentoring to see down the road a bit. For example, I think there will be more and more requirement of outside letters for tenure and promotion. So women need to think about how they are going to acquire the respected professional colleagues elsewhere who will write those letters and perhaps offer other professional opportunities—to do a book chapter, joint research, or whatever.

Conference presentation, obviously, is important and just being professionally active in organizations.

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The Women of Arts & Sciences: The Leaders ot only is it important to have

Nwomen as colleagues, but also to

to their universities than men, but they still form a minority voice on important decision-making committees and are less likely than their male counterparts to chair decisionmaking or policy-formulating committees (Morley 1999; Twale and Shannon 1996).

“As a consequence of women’s under representation in senior academic and administrative positions, the Carnegie Foundation has highlighted the lack of opportunities for women to change educational policy (Morley 1999). Since only seniorlevel administrators make and change

policy, the absence of women at these levels makes equity in policy making a rare consideration.”

Currently, two of the four interdisciplinary programs which offer majors in the College of Arts and Sciences are directed by women.

Beginning next fall, four of 14 departmental chairs will be held by women.

All six of these leaders are listed below. Their brief profiles depict female faculty who lead their colleagues in all areas of academe, including scholarship, teaching, and community service.

Karen Falconer Al-Hindi Associate professor of geography; Director of women’s studies program; Ph.D., University of Kentucky; Recipient, 1998 UNO Alumni Association Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award.

Carolyn Gascoigne Assoc. professor and chair, foreign languages; Ph.D., Florida State University; Recipient, 2005 UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award; 1999 Nebraska Department of Education Star Award; 1998 Edouard Morot-Sir Pedagogical Prize.

Awarded for excellence

have them among the leadership of a college.

This provides a sense of acceptance as well as the promise of being secure and of being in an environment in which women can excel.

An article published in the Winter 2003 issue of Liberal Education (“The Women’s Leadership Program: A Case Study” by Berryman-Fink, LeMaster, and Nelson) posits: “Additional gender disparity exists in the area of university governance.

Women spend more time in service

Loree Bykerk Chair and professor, political science; Ph.D., Columbia University; Faculty advisor for Pi Gamma Mu, the international social science honorary society; Recipient, 1997 UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award.

Lourdes Gouveia Professor of sociology; Director of Latino/Latin American studies; Ph.D., University of Kansas; 2003 City of Omaha Education Award; 2004 Chicano Awareness Center Education Award; Principal investigator of $1 million congressional earmark to expand work of Latino/Latin Amer. studies. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Susan Maher Professor and chairelect of English department; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin; Recipient, 1997 UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award.

Shireen Rajaram Professor and chair-elect, sociology and anthropology department; Ph.D., University of Kentucky; Appointment courtesy Dept. of Preventive and Societal Medicine at University of Nebraska Medical Center; Member, Governor’s Omaha Advisory Council for Lead Safe Neighborhoods.

isa Kelly Vance (top) and Tatyana Novikov (bottom) are outstanding role models for all faculty and students. The two distinguished female faculty members recently were recognized with awards for excellence in teaching and research.

Kelly-Vance (Ph.D., Indiana University), associate professor of psychology and director of the school psychology program, is a 2004 recipient of the University of Nebraska’s Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award. The honor recognizes meritorious and sustained records of excellence in teaching by individual faculty members and is accompanied by a $3,500 grant. A graduate faculty fellow, KellyVance also received a 2002 Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award from the UNO Alumni Association.

Novikov, professor of foreign languages (Ph.D., Florida State University), was named to the Ralph Wardle Professorship. Sponsored by the Alumni Association, the three-year professorship includes a stipend and is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievements in teaching and research. Novikov, a graduate faculty fellow, also received a 2004 Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award and the 2002 Nebraska Department of Education Star Award.

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Summer 2005 • 9

College of

Arts & Sciences

The Women of Arts & Sciences: Family and Career

The Women of Arts & Sciences: Funding the Future

he conflicting demands of family and work challenge women in all professions, but most keenly in academe where, on average, faculty must put in 60 hours a week to earn tenure.

Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden revealed recently in an article in Academe, “Only one in three women who takes a fast-track [tenure-track] university job before having a child ever becomes a mother.” By contrast, 87 percent of women in the general population become parents during their working lives, according to the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) “Statement of Principles on Family Responsibilities and Academic Work.”

UNO does allow faculty to stop their tenure clocks for one year in cases of maternity, disability or family/medical leave. Faculty also may petition for a second year’s interruption.

Portia Cole and John Curtis in AAUP’s “Academic Work and Family Responsibility: A Balancing Act,” caution, “Unfortunately, many faculty members are not aware of such policies, even when they do exist.

Furthermore, research shows that work/family policies are underutilized, as faculty members perceive that they may somehow be seen as ‘not fully dedicated to their profession.’”

The study by Mason and Goulden also shows that female faculty are far less likely than their male counterparts to become parents during the early years of their employment. They suggest that one possible explanation is that while 49 percent of male faculty have a spouse

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who works in the home, only 10 percent of female faculty are in that situation.

Associate Professor of Anthropology Timi Barone is mother to a 2-year-old and a newborn. “Many of my friends in graduate school chose Associate Professor of Anthropology Timi not to go into an Barone and her newborn, Eleanor. academic setting because they felt they would have to choose between getting tenure and having a family,” Barone says.

When asked how she will balance family and career, she responds, “I don’t really have any sense of how I am going to manage the balance with two children.

Previously I felt like I was working hard just to keep my head above water. And honestly, I do think my productivity has taken a hit. I just can’t work 60 hours a week anymore. What I am doing is getting more efficient with my time, and I am trying to work smarter, rather than berating myself for not being able to work the same number of hours.

“Last, and most importantly, having a supportive spouse makes a world of difference.”

Braving the Sciences owever one might define the challenges women in academe face, those challenges loom larger in the physical sciences.

For example, estimates put the average workweek for tenure track faculty in the physical sciences at 80 hours.

Biology Professor Suzanne Moshier says that, “In discussing the controversial remarks about women in science made by Harvard president Lawrence Summers, Professor Virginia Valian of Hunter College (New York) noted that we should be questioning the assumption that it is legitimate to expect 80-hour weeks of anyone, male or female, to succeed in a university science position.

“This observation suggests that issues that are sometimes identified as women’s issues are not necessarily limited in application to women. Institutions may need to reinvent their concept of reasonable per-

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10 • Summer 2005

formance to earn tenure and promotion, not just for women in science, but for everyone.”

UNO’s faculty numbers testify to the size of the challenge: biology—17 men, four women; chemistry—12 men, no women; math—15 men, five women; physics—eight men, one woman.

Nationally, women make up 20 percent of science faculty at four-year institutions.

Associate Professor of Geography Karen Falconer Al-Hindi explains the numbers from a geographer’s point of view: “Each academic discipline has a unique historical geography and culture into which workers with certain backgrounds and characteristics are welcomed and others are not. In my view, the future belongs to those units that address these issues directly to embrace and support the contributions of diverse scholars and teachers.”

UNO’s first female physicist hen Dr. Iulia Podariu was hired in 2004, she became UNO’s first female physicist. Podariu earned her Ph.D. in physics from Kansas State University and her BS in physics from Bucharest University.

Her research is on numerical simulations on macromolecules, but, as a mother of three, she reports she also is interested in “Rugrats” and “Lord of the Rings.”

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he Spanish language honorary society, Omicron Lambda, has changed the name of its annual scholarship to The Angela Valle Sigma Delta Pi Scholarship in order to honor longtime Spanish professor Dr. Angela Valle.

Sigma Delta Pi is the name of UNO’s Omicron Lambda chapter of the National Hispanic Honor Society. The scholarship, established through the University of Nebraska Foundation, is to be awarded to one or more students who are majoring in Spanish, are of high academic standing, and who participate in the activities of the Spanish language honorary society.

Among Professor Valle’s other honors are an Excellence in Teaching Award (Nebraska Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese); Certificate of Merit awarded by the UNO International Student Services; and a Certificate of Appreciation for contributions to International Trade awarded by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

Valle came to UNO in 1969. She founded Sigma Delta Pi in 1983 and served as its faculty advisor for 21 years.

In addition to teaching Spanish and Latin American literature, culture, and language, she is a graduate faculty fellow and a faculty member of international, women’s and Latino/Latin American studies.

Foreign Languages female-friendly esearchers disagree over the “feminization” of the humanities, but women generally are represented in greater proportion in these lower-paying disciplines.

In the College of Arts & Science’s department of foreign languages and literature, women fill 10 of the 13 regular faculty lines. The

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Professor Angela Valle, at UNO since 1969, was honored with an Omicron Lambda scholarship in her name.

English department with eight women (half of its posts) has the second-most women on its faculty among the humanities departments.

The psychology department takes top honors among the social sciences, women filling half of the 18 tenured and tenure track faculty positions.

Alumna funds Martha C. Page Study Abroad Travel Fund wanted to make travel abroad available to UNO students because, “I believe in the power of language. I also believe that travel is the ultimate instructor.”

Speaking for the dean’s office, Professor Bill Blizek says, “Given that universities must now prepare students for participation in a global economy and a global community, more and more of our students will want to travel abroad as part of their language education. The Martha Page Travel Fund will enable us to provide greater global opportunities for our students.”

The first recipient of an award from the Page Fund is Rebecca Photo courtesy Martha Page Morello, a sophomore From left, Martha Page, and two of her daughters, Sandra working on dual majors Bikus and Elizabeth A. Wallace.

he department of foreign languages recently established the Martha C. Page Study Abroad Travel Fund. The Fund, established through the University of Nebraska Foundation, will endow an annual scholarship for a student traveling to France and participating in an accredited study program.

Page, a 2003 UNO graduate,

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in French and creative writing. She will use the scholarship to travel to Paris this summer.

Page, born in Cuba, immigrated to the United States at the age of 12 as one of the 14,000 Cuban children of Operation Peter Pan, an effort organized by the Catholic Welfare Bureau to save Cuban children from Marxist-Leninist indoctrination in the early 1960s.

“I come from a family who lived a lot, lost a lot, and continued on with dreams of prosperity and freedom,” says Page. “I believe in gratitude, and I believe that the United States is a very generous country. And in that spirit, I would like to open the door to someone else.

“I am honored to be a part of your enthusiasm to grow and promote the Study Abroad Program, and to help ‘Break the barriers on a personal level….’”

Summer 2005 • 11

College of

College of

Four honored as CBA Distinguished Alumni

Hollie Bethel awards issued

Business Administration NO’s College of Business Administration honored

Ufour alumni during the college’s 2005 Distinguished

Achievement Award luncheon in May. Of 17,000 CBA alumni, only 61 have been honored as CBA Distinguished Alumni. Those honored in May are: Becki Drahota President, Mills Financial Marketing Becki Drahota is president of Mills Financial Marketing in Storm Lake, Iowa. She received her Executive MBA from UNO in 2003.

At the age of 25 Drahota in 1975 founded Mills Financial Marketing, an integrated marketing resource for financial institutions serving 35 banks in 15 states. She has taught “Incentive Compensation” at the Graduate School of Banking and is a chapter author of the Wise Women Anthology.

Drahota Drahota is a member of the president’s advisory board of Buena Vista University and the EMBA advisory board at UNO. She was appointed by the governor to the Workforce Iowa Board, is a Rotarian and past president of the Storm Lake Chamber of Commerce, and is honorary chair for Iowa, the President’s Small Business Advisory Council. Drahota also is a frequent regional and national speaker and is active in the Republican Party and the Presbyterian Church.

Peg Harriott Executive Director, YWCA of Omaha Peg Harriott is executive director of YWCA Omaha. From UNO she received a master’s degree in social work (1984) and an MBA (1995).

At YWCA Omaha, Harriott addresses career development for women and is devoted to addressing the problems of domestic violence and sexual assault.

The mission of the agency focuses on the empowerment of women and the Harriott elimination of racism. More than 55,000 lives were touched by YWCA Omaha services last year.

Prior to joining YWCA Omaha, Harriott served in various capacities at Uta Halee Girls Village/Cooper Village, including chief operating officer. She has more than 30 years experience in the behavioral health care field; much of that has been with at-risk youth and their families.

Harriott holds many professional memberships and serves on several Omaha-area boards, including the YWCA Heartland Region Board, the Domestic Violence Coordinating Board of Directors, the Nonprofit Associations of the Midlands Board, and the state of 12 • Summer 2005

Education

Nebraska Workforce Investment Board. She has volunteered in numerous other areas, including assisting the Studio of Dance Arts, Keystone Citizen’s Patrol and the Great Plains Girl Scout Council.

Adrian J. Minks Vice President, Omaha Public Power District Adrian Minks earned an MBA from UNO in 1978. In 1988, she joined the Information Services Division of OPPD. She was executive assistant to the president and subsequently became the division manager of customer sales and service.

Minks was promoted to vice president in January 2002. Her current responsibilities include market research and product development, management and business strategy, material procurement and disposal, and facilities management and security.

Prior to joining OPPD, Minks worked in various information technology and strategic planning positions Minks with Northern Natural Gas Company, Northern Border Pipeline Company, and InterNorth, Inc. She serves on the boards of directors of the YWCA Omaha and the Institute for Career Advancement Needs, and on the board of trustees for the Wayne State College Foundation. Minks is 2005 chairman of the board of the UNO Alumni Association. She is a past board member of Family Housing Advisory Services and North American Technician Excellence.

Mark Theisen Executive Vice President Finance/Treasurer, Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society Mark Theisen received his Executive MBA degree from UNO in 2003. He has been employed by Woodman of the World for the past 10 years and currently serves as the executive vice president/finance and treasurer, chief compliance officer and EEO officer. He also serves on Woodmen ’s board of directors.

Prior to joining Woodmen, Theisen was a partner in the Baird, Holm, McEachen, Pedersen, Hamann and Strasheim Law Firm. Theisen holds many professional affiliations and assists with several boards and community groups, including the Boy Scouts Theisen of America, Rotary, the Omaha Symphony Association, and the Salvation Army. He also is a member of the UNO CBA Finance, Banking and Law advisory board, and the Executive MBA advisory board.

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NO’s College of Education on April 6 bestowed its Hollie Bethel Distinguished Alumni award on the following five graduates:

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Ted Esser Ted Esser began his professional career in 1983 working with severely emotionally disturbed children and youth in a residential treatment facility in Omaha. He later taught then became coordinator at the Alpha School in Omaha, responsible for developing programs for students and coordinating school resources and staffing levels. His efforts enabled many students with special behavioral needs to successfully return to their home schools—no longer verbally abusive and physically aggressive. In 1995-96 Esser and Dr. John Hill worked on several studies to determine if the program was having the desired effect on student achievement in academic and social-goal areas.

In fall 1998, Esser was hired by Millard Public Schools for his current post as coordinator of secondary special education.

Esser earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from UNO in 1983 and a master’s degree in special education in 1991. He also completed requirements for and endorsement in school administration from UNO (1997).

H o w a r d H a l p e ri n Howard Halperin has greatly expanded the membership of area businesses in the Wellness Council of the Midlands (WELCOM) since becoming its executive director in 1995, pumping new life into an organization some thought had plateaued. Halperin’s appointment as WELCOM executive director followed a 21-year career with Westside Community Schools, where he taught physical education, coached volleyball and coordinated the staff wellness program. Halperin has spent the past 10 years educating employees at some of Nebraska’s leading companies about the importance of living healthy lifestyles. Presenting locally and nationally, he teaches business professionals how to effectively implement comprehensive wellness programs for their employees at the workplace. His work helped Omaha become only the second city in the United States to be named a “Well City USA” in 1996.

Halperin earned a bachelor of arts degree in K-12 physical education from UNO in 1972.

B a r ba r a J e ss i n g Barbara Jessing began her counseling career as a case management supervisor with the Eastern Nebraska Community Office of Retardation (ENCOR) in 1976. She later served as a resource and training specialist at Meyer Children’s Rehabilitation Institute before joining w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Hollie Bethel Distinguished Alumni award recipients, from left: Linda Placzek, Michelle Miske McCart, Ted Esser, Barbara Jessing, Howard Halperin and Dean John Langan. Photo by Tim Fitzgerald Family Services in 1982 as a therapist. There she later became clinical supervisor, then, in 1997, clinical director. As clinical director, Jessing supervises all agency clinical services, including a staff of 50 master’s-level clinicians.

Jessing has six publications and has written a teaching module and one book. She also has served as a part-time instructor at UNO. Jessing earned a BA in psychology with honors from the University of California at Berkeley (1972) and an MS in counseling and guidance from UNO (1976). She also completed a twoyear certificate program in marriage and family therapy from the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry (1989).

Mi c h e l l e M i s k e Mc C a r t Michelle Miske McCart’s experience ranges from elementary classroom teacher, to middle grades resource teacher, to high school special education teacher, to reading specialist and college professor. This broad range of classroom experience has been the basis for numerous regional and national conference presentations.

McCart’s research interests focus on sources of strain in special education teaching positions and problem-solving teams for students who are difficult to reach. She currently is a faculty member at Columbia College in Chicago. She has taught at Prescott College, Arizona; Aspen High School, Colorado; Millard Public Schools; UNO; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the Fresno Unified School District, California; Metropolitan Community College, Omaha; and West Harrison School District, Mondamin, Iowa.

In recent years, Michelle has battled multiple sclerosis with the same energy she devotes to her teaching and research. She and her husband have become students of the illness and have taken measures that allow her to continue her enthusiastic manner as a teacher.

McCart has a BS in elementary education/

reading (magna cum laude, 1976) and an MS in reading/special education (1978), both from UNO. She also holds a doctorate of philosophy in education/special education from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1985).

L i n d a Pl a c z ek Linda Placzek began her education career as a teacher at Omaha’s Druid Hill Elementary School in 1971. She was named principal of the Franklin Learning Center in 1983. In 1999, she was selected to create a new magnet academy focusing on economics and mathematics at Omaha’s Conestoga School. Partnering with the UNO Center for Economic Education prior to the school’s opening, she learned the new curriculum area by taking courses in economics and teaching strategies. She led the staff in writing curriculum and assessments for each grade level, creating school-wide focus activities, including a partnership with a Wells Fargo bank.

Her newest plans include opening a school postal service with assistance from the Main Omaha U.S. Post Office.

Placzek has presented the model of the economics-themed elementary school at national conferences. Her efforts led directly to the selection of Placzek and the Conestoga staff for the prestigious 2004 Leavey Award given by the Valley Forge Freedom Foundation. She has received numerous other awards during her career. Placzek earned BS (1971) and MS (1975) degrees in elementary education and an elementary principal administrative endorsement (1981), all from UNO.

Happenings schedule ollege of Education alumni can read more about fellow alumni, faculty and current students in Happenings, mailed each June and November.

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Summer 2005 • 13

Educating through Economics

by Tim Kaldahl

NO’s Center for Economic Education keeps rolling up awards and honors while keeping active on a local, regional, national and international level.

The center was created in 1983 with a mission to improve the economic literacy of current and future Nebraska and western Iowa citizens by providing educational and training programs, as well as materials for teachers. It’s a unique shared program that involves two colleges at UNO—the College of Education (COE) and the College of Business Administration (CBA). It is cochaired by Kim Sosin, chair of the economics department in the CBA, and James Dick, a professor of teacher education.

“Our goal is to help people really understand why economics is important,” says Sosin. “Having a good grasp of economics helps people become more informed voters, consumers, employers and employees.”

The center’s programs range from an incredibly popular

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website that has become a vital resource for teachers, to helping revamp an Omaha elementary school’s curriculum to address economics, to hosting educators from the other side of the world. Dick, for instance, has since 2002 traveled to former Soviet republics and hosted guests from there. That includes two visitors from Kazakhstan who stayed in his home last spring while meeting with area business leaders and teachers.

Such efforts are attracting attention to the center far and wide.

“The recognition we’ve received over the past year has been just fantastic,” says Dick. “The work we do has been extremely rewarding, whether it’s working directly with grade school students, with teachers or internationally.”

Last fall, the center received the 2004 Albert Beekhuis Award in recognition of outstanding performance while working with teachers on economic education issues. The Albert Beekhuis Foundation funds the award through a UNOALUM

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Among the Center for Economic Education’s efforts are assistance with the Conestoga Magnet Center, a K-6 elementary school in the Omaha Public Schools that now has a focus on math and economics. The center helped establish a once-a-week branch of Wells Fargo Bank so that students could open their own savings accounts. So far, students have saved more than $8,000. Wells Fargo has been so impressed with the work being done at Conestoga that it featured the school in the bank’s annual shareholder’s report.

gift to the National Council on Economic Education. social studies arena. The center has been working with UNO’s center was singled out from among more than the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) 240 centers across the nation. materials and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas CityOn campus, Chancellor Nancy Belck recognized the Omaha branch to plan a course that will make the ecocenter’s work with the inaugural 2004 Strategic Planning nomics concepts come alive in student-centered activiAward for community engagement. Community engageties. ment is at the heart of the work being done at the The center also will complete work on assisting the Conestoga Magnet Center, a K-6 elementary school in the NCEE’s new publication, “Economics and Mathematics: Omaha Public Schools that now has a focus on math and Connections for life, Grades 3-5,” which is being created economics. with funding from the 3M Foundation.

“The four years we’ve been involved with Conestoga “The work we do has allowed us to experiment with have been exciting, both for us here at UNO and at the how to reach out to the community and how to be a school,” says Mary Lynn Reiser, associate director of the valuable resource for teachers,” Sosin says. “I think our center. “The students have embraced the idea that ecocenter is getting better all the time.” nomics is not only about dollars and cents and saving, Other community outreaches include working with the but it surrounds them in their lives and can be fun.” reopened R.M Marrs Magnet Center this past year.

Conestoga teachers and Center for Economic Education Economics has been added to the math and technology staff wrote a curriculum for the school that brought ecothemes at the middle school. The center has helped the nomics into nearly every subject area. The center also school establish its own branch of Wells Fargo Bank, with helped establish a once-a-week branch of Wells Fargo the new Junior Academy of Finance students in the sevBank so that students could open their own savings enth grade serving as tellers. accounts. So far, students have saved more than $8,000.

The Center will help support the development of the Wells Fargo has been so impressed with the work being economics curriculum for grades 5-8 and create new ecodone at Conestoga that it featured the school in the nomic experiences for the student body and faculty. bank’s annual shareholder’s report. The Freedom For more information, visit the center’s website, Foundation of Valley Forge also recognized Conestoga for http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu, a hub of information that its commitment with the 2004 Leavey Award for Sosin says averages more than 17,000 hits a day. The cenExcellence in Private Enterprise Education. ter also can be contacted by calling (402) 554-2357.

Dick, Sosin and Reiser also took a bow of sorts in front of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents last fall when the center received a “KUDOS” award for their efforts. At another Regents board meeting they demonstrated the website and how teachers could access curriculum materials from home to improve their teaching of economics.

Plans for this coming year include offering three oneweek classes in June for elementary school teachers to help incorporate more economic topics into the social studies curriculum. Many teachers have taken the basic course in economics from the center in the past and this new course will allow teachers to concentrate on the core The UNO Center for Economic Education was awarded the inaugural Strategic Planning Award for community curriculum areas of math and engagement during the university’s fall convocation ceremony in October. The award was presented for each of economics and learn stratethe university’s three overarching goals—focus on students, striving for academic excellence and engaging with gies for infusing economics the community. Pictured, from left, Chancellor Nancy Belck, Center Co-directors Kim Sosin and James Dick, and Center Associate Director Mary Lynn Reiser. into these areas beyond the w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Summer 2005 • 15

Dick Lane “Be Yourself”

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Photo courtesy University Archives

fter my wife and I settled into our new city and the beginning of the fall term was inescapably imminent, I made arrangements to consult with the man then teaching the course. A Medievalist, he was looking to me to “spell” him on alternate semesters from the history of English course. In midAugust, with the heat and humidity of a Midwest summer hanging over each day, I arranged to meet Dick at his house to “go over what he taught” in the course.

As I left for Dick’s house, I grabbed Albert C. Baugh’s History of the English Language and a legal pad on which I desperately hoped to copy an outline of Dick’s course. (He would be Virgil guiding me from my self-arranged Hades.)

Dick certainly was gracious enough to a rookie fifteen years his junior; after all, I was going to save him from the everysemester grind of a course brimming with general education students. I asked him if he taught Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law, and if he used sources like the Oxford English Dictionary to establish etymologies and trace changes in words over time.

Gradually, I began to get more and more desperate because he seemed positively adverse to handing over a blueprint for the course.

Then, panic gave birth to an idea. As part of the minor field for my Ph.D., I had completed several courses in the English Language. One of these, American dialectology, contained interesting material, relevant and familiar in a general way to anyone who had traveled very far in the United States. So, in some desperation, I asked Dick if he taught any dialectology.

A Medievalist to the core, he replied: “No,” he didn’t. But then he went on to add: “If you’re interested in dialectology, go

“Through deepest concentration the master transferred the spirit of his art to his pupils.”

THE ART OF CATCHING M DREAMS

Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

Lessons from Master Teachers

By English Professor John McKenna 16 • Summer 2005

ost good teachers learn the art of teaching by doing. As any first-year teacher knows, however, that’s a difficult path! It’s a calle cobbled with much obsessing over lesson plans, and endless rehashing of the all-too-frequent failure or treasuring of the alltoo-rare success. “Experience keeps a dear school,” as the old saying goes. Indeed it does. Unfortunately, good teaching is not something you can learn by recipe; it’s certainly not painting by the numbers. In most of the arts, an apprentice learns the art best from a master artist, a tested and time-honored process. Learning to teach is like this, for good teaching is an art.

Most of us have learned to teach partly by modeling ourselves after educators we have admired. This can be frustrating, however, because

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ahead and teach it. Teach to your strengths.”

What tremendous advice: Teach to your strengths. So I did—by inserting a three-week section on American dialectology into the course. The kids loved it. Most of them had a relative or two who lived in another part of the country and so “talked funny.” Thus, they could bring their personal experience to our more academic and historical study of language.

They often commented that dialectology was the best part of the class. Giving students part ownership in the learning process by connecting the lesson to their prior knowledge empowered them. My veteran colleague had done that for me, too. He had advised me to bring to the class what I knew, which meant, in part, to be appropriately independent of prior practice. What others had done should not completely rule me. He had given me permission to be myself.

Bruce Baker “Be Attentive and Respectful”

I think we all have a special place in our hearts for the department chairperson who hires us. If we don’t, we ought to—especially in decades of the 70s, 80s and 90s when it was difficult to land a tenure-track job. Luckily, the chair who hired me was also an excellent teacher and mentor.

During those first years of my career, students registered for classes by getting IBM punch cards during a week-long registration process. Registration took place in the field house where each department had a table and long trays of punch cards, one card for each seat in every class. Each department “manned” the punch cards for the hours of registration, handing out the cards to students who often stood anxiously in lines at each department’s table to get a card before the class closed. I never minded this assignment, and, as those early years went along, began to look forward to seeing former students from prior semesters.

That first August, my department chair, Bruce, arranged to have me hand out cards at the same time he assigned himself the duty. I noticed right away that Bruce took pains to individualize a routine thing like handing out an IBM punch card. He greeted each student directly, often calling the student by name, and very frequently did a little ad hoc advisement on the spot. “I think you can often do the best advisement when you’re handing out a card,” he told me during a lull. “Find out the student’s program—Arts and Sciences or Education, or another college—then you’ll know if the class Continued on page 18

Photo by John McKenna

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Affairs

we often lack the experience, or more importantly, the personal traits of the teacher we admire. It is usually a mistake, therefore, to try to be someone you aren’t. I learned this lesson the summer before starting to teach at the university level. My assignment included a course in the history of the English language. To say that I was apprehensive about this impending class is putting it mildly. My principal field was, and remains, contemporary poetry, though I had taken a minor in the English language. Moreover, my purported ability to teach both contemporary literature and the history of English was the principal reason the department had hired me.

Summer 2005 • 17

From previous page

they’re requesting is good for them. Help them avoid making a mistake now and they’ll be happier later,” he assured.

Strikingly, Bruce treated each student like a “customer.”

Many years later, I read Peter Drucker’s great tome, Management. Drucker says the first duty of a business is to have a customer. He’s right, of course. Drucker’s advice, Bruce knew, also applies to education. You need to treat students with the same respect and consideration that businesses extend to customers. Bruce obviously cared for each and every student. He knew the students, many of them personally; he knew the programs and requirements so he could effectively advise students; he knew that genuine care for them and their academic experience was the keystone to a successful program.

Two-thousand five-hundred years before Drucker’s Management appeared, Lao Tzu advised in the Tao Te Ching: “The teacher must be respected and the student cared for or trouble will result, however clever one is.” Most teachers want, indeed insist on, the first half of Lao Tzu’s equation— “respect.” All too many, however, forget about the second half—truly “caring” for the overall well-being of each student.

Somehow Bruce knew that, and, as the years went along, he proved it in innumerable ways. What a great lesson for a beginning teacher: care for each individual student in all things large and small.

Photo by John McKenna

Glen Newkirk “Be a Community Builder”

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ust about every student at a university is finding his or her way and trying to fit in after cutting ties to friends from high school years. Since my school is a metropolitan university with a largely commuter population, the students here feel this need with a particularly keen urgency. Many of those matriculating here are non-traditional students, often the first generation of their family to attend college. Here, it’s hard to feel connected.

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Nearly every time I passed by Glen’s office door, a small gaggle of students was gathered in his office. They seemed to be lounging comfortably, the straps on their book bags shrugged off and their purses nonchalantly stacked against their packs, while they chatted and gossiped and shared confidences about themselves and their studies. For a long time, I really did not pay enough attention to these informal gatherings, much as you are not apt to remark the September flocks of birds that have noticed the shortening days long before you have.

If I thought about Glen’s “groupies” at all, I probably thought, “What a nuisance. Getting nothing done.” In those days, I didn’t know Lao Tzu’s words: “Few understand work without doing and teaching without words.” At that time, I thought that the important academic work involved advancing an abstract literary theory or grappling with a difficult text. I felt that the most worthwhile words were those delivered in a formal lecture and written down in the students’ notebooks for an upcoming exam. Of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Glen was hard at work but on a different agenda from my early notions of academic business. Glen was busy creating a community in which students had nearly automatic membership. All they had to do was show up at Glen’s door and they belonged. Glen’s words, too, were different. He and his students were not discussing literary theory. Rather, they talked comfortably about their everyday lives. Their discourse, therefore, excluded no one and admitted everyone.

For years, Glen led groups of students to England over the Christmas break. These students visited London’s West End and Stratford where they attended several plays. Supposedly they kept journals, wrote a paper, and made the trip into an academic experience. In practice, they did something more important.

Scrounging for the best ticket to West End plays, attending an opening to Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, eating in pubs, and mastering the underground changed them profoundly.

These survivors of jet lag returned to their no longer quotidian lives and jumped into their spring classes with new-found enthusiasm and confidence. They were more worldly, more informed, more secure—traits badly needed by these working class kids from the Midwest. Something grand had happened; you couldn’t help taking notice.

Noticeable, too, was that my best students—those who had been slogging through the mangrove swamps of arcane literary theory in my classes—loved Glen’s classes. He was not a scholar in the traditional sense, and you might expect those best and brightest to be a little disdainful of Glen’s classes.

They weren’t, though.

Universally, they praised them. Glen, with his stories of trips to England, his open office policy, his unpretentious interest in second-level as well as first-level students, created an atmosphere where they felt recognized and welcomed.

Glen helped students feel they belonged. Powerful stuff, that.

The good teacher, the mentor worthy of Lao Tzu’s and Glen’s approval, is the one who knows: It’s the student, dummy, not the material, that matters.

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Sue Maher “Be a Dream Maker”

All students who come to college are pursuing some kind of dream. Students can’t follow their hearts by walking someone else’s path.

Very often, they can’t easily find their life’s path untutored and uninspired. As a result, to inspire students to find the true way, a teacher ought to be a true and passionate believer—in each student’s potential.

“I just think everyone deserves a chance,” Sue defended her decision to admit a hapless knuckle-head to our MA program.

The defenders of “standards” were up in arms. After all, Sue’s unbounded enthusiasm for everyone’s and anyone’s potential now presented them with a dilemma—either flunk “Hapless” or sacrifice their all-important standards in order to pass a clear knuckle-head. Sue couldn’t have cared less. There was no dilemma for her: the student would get a chance; he would do with it whatever his potential enabled; no one would be denied or kept back. Sue knew that educators ought to be dream-makers. They ought not be in the business of bursting balloons. Sue always felt it’s better to be a window than a wall.

Unbounded enthusiasm is an essential ingredient of making dreams. Sue’s enthusiasm for her students’ potential often made her resemble a human tea kettle just ready to boil over.

With her passion for nurturing students, Sue could put Joan D’Arc to shame. Sue often became involved in projects that would make fainter hearts quail. In one relatively short span of years, she accepted leadership positions in two national literary organizations and directly proceeded to leverage her positions to get students involved—in presenting papers, chairing sessions, organizing the yearly conferences, and generally testing their mettle. Sue’s every effort showed she wasn’t a gate keeper, but a path maker.

Sue was like one of those Native American dream catchers.

To some observers, she might have appeared to be composed of nothing more substantial than feathers and string and whimsy. In spite of what more down-to-earth teachers might say, however, she caught the dreams of more students and nurtured more dreams of what-might-be than just about anyone I know. Maybe we who teach in the humanities get a higher percentage of students who are following a dream that

Photo courtesy Sue Maher

Catching Dreams

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is hardly more than a will-of-the-wisp. Maybe Sue’s aspire-tothe-stars mentoring merely fit their temperaments.

Nevertheless, you had to wonder if Sue wasn’t onto something universally applicable. A great teacher ought to fix her sights on what students might be, on possibility. On catching dreams.

Dreaming

Every aspiring teacher dreams of being a truly great teacher. We’d all like to hear a student say, “I just wanted to tell you that your class changed my life!” A sweet dream that.

An achievable dream, too. Many are simply born teachers, of course, born artists in the classroom. But most of us can learn how to be great for our students. The examples, which our colleagues supply, can help.

Still, since these four examples probably seem obvious, you might ask, “What’s to be learned here? Everyone knows this.”

Maybe so. Dick’s exhortation to be yourself is obvious. Bruce’s advice to treat the student with respect is common sense and basic courtesy, if you think about it for even a moment. Glen’s community building ratifies both us and also our students with membership in a community of scholars. Sue’s efforts to support students’ dreams gets to the spiritual heart of our profession.

Why review these obvious truths and describe these master teachers at work? Because, all too often, teachers totally ignore good models. Knowing and doing are two different things.

Lao Tzu said, “My words are easy to understand and easy to perform, yet no person under heaven knows them or practices them.” So, there is a lot of work yet to be done.

Blessedly, many of my colleagues have been truly great teachers. Their teaching models tremendously enriched my own practice. A lot of good thinking, good feeling, and good effort are required to find the true path to great teaching. It took me longer than I would like to admit to learn these lessons. Yet, if I can do it, anyone can. Look around, really look, at the masters of our art. Learn from them.

Then, when that happy day comes and your student says, “Your course changed my life,” remember that your success is also partly your colleagues’ success. Remember, too, that your success is a model and a legacy to hand down to the next generation of teachers, those who, like you, would be among the true artists in our profession.

John McKenna is a professor of English and teaches classes in contemporary American, English and Irish literature, as well as classes in writing and publishing creative nonfiction. His poems and essays have appeared in a wide variety of literary, academic and commercial journals and magazines. He is co-director of the graduate certificate in advanced writing and an associate editor of “Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction,” an academic journal devoted to the pedagogy of teaching short stories. McKenna’s articles on

effective and innovative teaching have appeared in numerous nationally recognized journals in the field of pedagogy. He joined the UNO faculty in 1970. He received the Association’s UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching

Award in 2003. “The Art of Catching Dreams” originally appeared in English Quarterly, Vol. 37, No.1.

Summer 2005 • 19

A day with President Karzai Photos by Tim Fitzgerald University Affairs

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fghanistan President Hamid Karzai visited rural Nebraska and the University of Nebraska at Omaha May 24-25, receiving an honorary doctorate from UNO during a special ceremony.

Karzai arrived at Offutt Air Force Base May 24. The next morning he toured the Harry Knobbe Farm and Feedyards in West Point, Neb. “President Karzai often speaks about the integral role that agricultural development plays in the reconstruction of his country,” said Tom Gouttierre, dean of International Studies and Programs at UNO and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and the director of UNO’s Center for Afghanistan Studies.

Karzai traveled with several of his government ministers, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States and several staff members from the Afghan Embassy. Gouttierre and other representatives from UNO, local community members and others escorted the group.

At UNO, Karzai met with a variety of university and government officials in private. He visited several spots of interest on campus, including: • The Atlas of Afghanistan Project conducted by the UNO Department of Geography/Geology; • The Arthur and Daisy Paul Afghanistan Collection and the Luke Powell Photographic Collection in University Library; • The Center for Afghanistan Studies; and • The W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, where Karzai conducted meetings with different groups.

“UNO’s relationship to Afghanistan goes back to the 1970s,” Gouttierre said.

“This day with President Karzai is Among the gifts President Karzai a celebration of received during his visit to the Harry Knobbe Farm and Feedyards was a how deep, how pair of cowboy boots. strong our ties

20 • Summer 2005

are.”

Karzai and Gouttierre first met each other in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Gouttierre also knew Karzai’s father, the late Abdul Ahad Karzai, an influential tribal leader and respected parliamentarian during Afghanistan’s previous democratic period, a constitutional monarchy led by King Zahir Shah from 1963 to 1973.

The ceremony conferring the honorary doctorate of humane letters to Karzai was conducted in the Strauss Performing Arts Center. UNO Television broadcast the event on three channels. The event also was webcast.

Dignitaries at the event included University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken; UNO Chancellor Nancy Belck; several University of Nebraska regents; Mike Fahey, mayor of Omaha; and selected Nebraskans who have served in the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Association begins ‘Aid to Afghanistan’ T

he UNO Alumni Association through its “Make a World of Difference” Annual Fund campaign and in coordination with UNO’s Center for Afghanistan Studies is providing a total of $5,000 of supplies for students and teachers in Afghanistan schools.

“These funds will significantly complement our education and training activities for Afghans,” says Tom Gouttierre, dean of UNO’s International Studies and Programs.

The Association’s contribution, provided to the Afghan Education Fund, will purchase supplies for children attending schools involved in UNO’s Afghan Teacher Education Program (ATEP). So far, 49 teachers have participated in the Afghan Teacher Exchange Program. That number is expected to reach 84 by the end of 2005.

Supplies, which will include notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, and other identified needs, are expected to be purchased sometime this summer in conjunction with seminars and workshops UNO is conducting.

They will be purchased in Afghanistan, where school supplies typically are less expensive than in the United States. Local purchases also benefit Afghan economies and eliminate shipping costs.

Supplies will bear an imprint in English and Dari stating they are “Provided by Graduates of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.”

“This enables this to be a UNO alum effort on behalf of the schools of their fellow Afghan ‘alums,’” says Gouttierre.

UNO alumni in recognition of this “Aid to Afghanistan” project are asked to donate to the 2005 UNO Annual Fund. Gifts also will support other worthy Alumni efforts, including traditional support of campus via scholarships, professorships, teaching awards, etc.

Gifts can be submitted with the form on page 47.

Annual Fund donations also can be made online at www.unoalumni.org.

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Clockwise, from top: UNO Professor of Geography/Geology Jack Shroder, left of Karzai, shows off UNO’s Atlas of Afghanistan Project; Karzai and UNO Dean Tom Gouttierre fielded questions from various groups throughout the Afghanistan President’s visit; more questions came from an assortment of reporters covering Karzai’s visit to the Harry Knobbe Farm and Feedyards in West Point, Neb.; Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and Ambassador-designee to Iraq, joins Karzai at the Luke Powell Photographic Collection in UNO’s Library, professor Shaista Wahab looking on.

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Summer 2005 • 21

By Wendy Townley

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s a young boy growing up in rural Mexico, Armando Salgado learned quickly the hardships of a life lived in poverty. Salgado and his mother shared a small adobe house in Morelos, a small community five hours south of Mexico City. The one-room dwelling was topped with clay shingles, a dirt floor at their feet “It’s just like you see in the movies,” Salgado says.

His father, a migrant worker, lived in Chicago for much of the boy’s childhood, sending money home to Mexico when he could. When Salgado turned 6, his father moved back to Mexico, where the family planted crops, slash-and-burn style, for money. The three walked 5 miles each day to the fields of Mexico, planting corn and beans.

The seeds the Salgados sowed held the hope of a better life.

They worked to earn money, enough to get the family to, and hopefully over, the United States border.

The first attempt, when Salgado was around 6 years old, was unsuccessful. “We got caught,” Salgado says.

U.S. border patrols apprehended the family, placing Salgado and his mother in one jail cell, his father in another.

They were quickly returned to Mexico, but the money they worked so hard for now was gone. They had $20 to their names, not nearly enough to immediately make the trip a second time.

But the Salgado family persevered. After two more attempts, the family crossed the border and traveled to Washington state, where other family members lived and worked. “That’s when I get emotional,” Salgado says of his border-crossing experiences.

In Washington, Salgado’s parents once again worked on a farm. And, again, their living conditions were awful.

The building, about the size of a conference room, housed not only the Salgado family, but the farm’s tractors and other outdoor equipment. There were cockroaches. And rats. And a water pump below the building’s floor that operated loudly nonstop.

The building didn’t have central air or heat. Salgado recalls his parents creating a makeshift fireplace from a barrel, using a tube attached to the window to serve as a chimney.

“I remember everything,” Salgado recalls. “It was probably the worst times of our lives. It was just horrible.”

That fall, Salgado enrolled in the local public school.

Classmates teased him because he couldn’t speak English. Six

22 • Summer 2005

“It’s all about making small steps,” Salgado says.

Photo by Eric Francis

months later, however, Salgado was fluent in English and advanced to the second grade at mid-year.

After school, Salgado returned to the fields to work next to his parents. The same was true during summer vacations, when Salgado awoke at 4 a.m. to join his parents in the fields each day.

After the Salgado family became settled in a more permaUNOALUM

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son who has values that represent the Boy Scouts well. We are very proud of all he has and continues to accomplish.”

Today, Salgado recalls the rough roads he could have traveled while living in Washington, and realizes that change is made easier when boys are young.

“I know this culture,” Salgado explains. “I’m from this culture.”

Today, Salgado’s parents are living in Mexico. He is engaged to be married and owns a real estate business on the side. Salgado, despite his successes, says he has never forgotten his Mexican roots and the struggles he faced as a young boy. That’s why his work with the Boy Scouts is so important.

“It’s all about making small steps,” Salgado says.

Leahy retires . . . again

By Gary Anderson, UNO Sports Information Director

D

on Leahy, who has spent 21 years as an athletic administrator at UNO, will retire June 30. Leahy has served as the assistant athletic director for the Mavericks since 1997 and spent a total of 13 years as the school’s director of athletics since first joining the university in 1974.

“Don is an icon for the Mavericks and sports in this community,” UNO Athletic Director David Herbster, who began his duties Jan. 1, said. “I have benefited greatly from just being around Don.” Leahy, 76, first became the UNO athletic director in 1974 and served 11 years until leaving in June, 1985, to become the director of athletics at Creighton University. He retired from that post in 1991, but his retirement was short-lived. He once again became UNO’s top athletic administrator in August 1995 and supervised the master plan that added Division I hockey and four women’s sports to the Maverick program.

The Omaha native then stepped down to become assistant athletic director in the summer of 1997 while elevating Bob Danenhauer to the top position.

Leahy’s name has been synonymous with Omaha sports for decades. A graduate of Marquette University, he was one of the top collegiate quarterbacks in the country and played in the Blue-Grey Game in 1951. He then stepped into a 20year career as a coach, teacher and administrator at Omaha’s Creighton Prep High School. During that 1952-72 period he was head football coach for 17 years and led the Bluejays to eight state championships.

He became the director of coliseum activities at Ak-SarBen in Omaha from 1972-74 before replacing Clyde Biggers as the UNO athletic director in June 1974. During his run as athletic director Leahy guided the program into the NCAA Division II and the North Central Conference and helped combine the men’s and women’s athletic departments. The Mavericks climbed into prominence in several sports as the modern framework of the program was developed. The UNO Maverick Club was formed, the Athletic Hall of Fame was started and major capital improvements were made to the Fieldhouse and the football stadium.

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Affairs

Small steps to a better life

nent and suitable housing situation, they returned to Mexico to visit friends and family members. The visits occurred every two years and usually lasted a few months.

Salgado would explain the situation to his teachers, requesting to take the class work he would miss while away.

But while in Mexico, Salgado couldn’t ask his parents for help. His father attended school through the third grade; his mother, fourth grade.

When living in Washington, Salgado slowly was making a transition to a troubled youth. Friends and cousins encouraged him to join a gang and start some trouble. Just as Salgado began this ill-fated downward spiral, however, his family moved to Omaha.

Fast-forward six or seven years, and there is Salgado enrolled as a freshman at Omaha Central High School. His family found better work in Omaha, and Salgado found a more stable lifestyle. High school opened his eyes to a life other than hard labor. He met friends and became involved in school activities.

“I was happier in Omaha,” he says.

Salgado’s parents returned to Mexico during his four years at Central. When graduation day arrived in 1999, Salgado’s parents were happy for their son, but determined to return to Mexico for good. They wanted the best for their son, even if it meant leaving him behind in Omaha.

A disciplined work ethic, however, changed the fate of Salgado’s parents. During the latter years of his high school career, Salgado worked at midtown Omaha’s California Taco and saved enough money to make a down payment on a home near 30th and Cuming streets.

Salgado’s parents were shocked. They decided to stay in Omaha and live with their son while he studied at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. All bills were split in half.

Salgado received UNO’s Goodrich scholarship, which covered his college expenses for the next four years.

Before earning degrees in Spanish and international studies from UNO in 2003, Salgado worked part time at the Boy Scouts of America’s Mid-America Council in Omaha. He also founded a multicultural social fraternity, Sigma Lambda Beta, at UNO (the nine founding members have grown to nearly 30 members today).

Salgado’s passionate purpose of improving the lives of young Latinos continued when his part-time job with the Boy Scouts became a district executive post with the nonprofit organization. Four years later, through the Scoutreach program, Salgado is working with the South Omaha community to create Boy Scout troops for young boys and teens. To date, Salgado has recruited nearly 700 Boy Scout members.

Since joining the Boy Scouts, Salgado has been promoted three times within the organization. As director of the Scoutreach program, Salgado oversees scouting in North, South and East Omaha. He supervises 10 staff members and hundreds of adult leaders.

Lloyd Roitstein, president of the Mid-America Council, says Salgado’s commitment to minorities is superb.

“He is charismatic, hard working, dedicated, intelligent and driven,” Roitstein says. “He is also a fantastic family per-

Summer 2005 • 23

Days of Wine

By Sonja Carberry

I

t probably comes as no surprise to Nita Shaw to witness her son’s rise as an up-and-coming Nebraska vintner.

When her son, Jim, was just 13, the everenterprising teen whipped up a batch of apple wine, buying five one-gallon jugs of apple cider and letting the hooch-to-be ferment in the bedroom of his South Omaha home. “My mom found it in the closet and she busted me,” Jim Shaw recalls with a laugh. His second attempt was more . . . fruitful. Shaw found mulberries in nearby woods then “mashed them down and put them in a Coke bottle with a balloon on top,” It wasn’t exactly vintage vino, but good enough for the “kids at the fort.”

These days, Shaw is producing wines good enough to bring home medals from international competitions.

Continued on page 26

24 • Summer 2005

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Summer 2005 • 25

Days of Wine From page 24

Three years after putting his first grape vines into the ground and coaxing them through Midwestern drought conditions, the 1979 UNO graduate is enjoying the fruits of the high-risk venture that is Soaring Wings Vineyard in Springfield, Neb. The promising winery produced 11 medals the first year its wines were uncorked, eight more in 2004.

“Our Winter White has received a medal in every competition it’s been entered in,” Shaw says. “That’s tough to do.”

On a sunny spring morning, Shaw stepped out of his mudcaked work boots and sock-footed into Soaring Wings’ Tuscanstyle tasting room with his wife, Sharon, to talk about plunging into the wine business.

“I love the winemaking,” he says. “I love working with the people, pouring them wine. “I even like working with the plants.”

Head in the Clouds

All of which is an interesting change of career for someone who once had his head in the clouds, not his hands in the dirt.

Shaw’s previous life centered around planes, a love that blossomed while he was working on his biology degree at UNO and having “a lot of fun” as pledge president for UNO’s Lambda Chi Alpha chapter. Shaw earned his pilot’s license between classes. Later, he became a captain and pilot in the U.S. Air Force, a seven-year career that eventually put him at the helm of the EC-135 (aka Looking Glass) out of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

His next career stop was with Delta Airlines. His 17-year career with Delta included two years in Halifax, Nova Scotia, investigating the 1998 Swissair 111 crash (caused by a fire in the in-flight entertainment system). Shaw became “one of the industry’s foremost experts in electrical issues and in-flight fires,” concurrently serving as a safety expert for the Air Line Pilots Association.

His career, though, took him away too often from home and family, a clan that includes wife, Sharon, and their children, Jeremy, Sara and Teresa. Around 2001, medical issues also cropped up that threatened to ground Shaw’s flying career, so he started considering other options.

Shaw turned to his passion for wine, something he had continued to foster as a hobby wine maker and while sampling wines during his travels around the world. A vineyard/winery, he figured, would offer the benefit of finally working close to home and being with his family.

Sharon Shaw watched as her self-described “extremely super type-A personality” husband tackled the idea in typical fashion. “He gives 110 percent to everything he does,” Sharon says. “He makes a decision and then he just puts everything into it.” Like the time early in their marriage when Jim decided to build a Falco plane in his garage (Sharon watching in dismay as he knocked out a laundry room wall to make way 26 • Summer 2005

There is an old Napa Valley adage:

If you want to make a small fortune, go into the winery and vineyard business and start with a large fortune.

Soon, you will have a small fortune.

vineyard/winery can be a part-time job. If anything, it’s several part-time jobs smashed together. “You’re a farmer. You’re a manufacturer. You’re a food industry person. You’re a retail operator. And you deal with liquor license issues,” he says.

The first year, Shaw says, he worked every hour he wasn’t sleeping. This year, hard spring frosts had Shaw and family members up at 2 a.m. lighting 17 fires to protect the vines from losses. The Shaws fought back the cold with fires on three nights, losing only about 3 percent of their total crop.

It isn’t the long hours that get under Shaw’s skin, though.

“The hardest part for me has been all of the government bureaucracy and paperwork,” he says. “Since 9/11, every gram of material we use has to be recorded.” The detailed paper trail is intended by federal agencies to head off the possibility of agricultural terrorism.

Shaw pointed out that if anything was wrong with his wines, he would be the first to know.

“I’m tasting all the time,” he says. “I’m the pet canary down in the mineshaft.”

The second misconception is that Shaw is sitting on a field of financial fortune. “If you want to make a million in the wine business, start with two million,” Shaw joked. The risk was evident as Shaw went through several banks before finding one willing to back his venture. “We’ve got all of our per-

for the plane’s wing).

“I was always taking apart stuff, tearing down the TV to see how it worked,” says Shaw.

Sharon, whose parents farmed just east of Council Bluffs, had an idea of the struggles they would face beginning a vineyard. “I had been on a farm,” she says. “I knew it would be a lot of work.” The challenge, though, would be especially daunting in a start-up niche agricultural business.

Jim was undaunted. “I’m a pilot, so of course I’m a little bit of a risk taker,” he says. “I jumped off the cliff and Sharon came kicking and screaming.”

High on the Hill

Together, the couple in 2001 bought the 5.5 acres that would become Soaring Wings. The plot is south of Omaha on a high hill overlooking the Platte River valley. “On many a day,” notes their website (www.soaringwingswine.com), “you can sit back and enjoy the soaring hawks that frequently take advantage of our hill, particularly when the wind is from the south.”

Given Soaring Wing’s picturesque view and pleasing product, it’s easy for visitors to romanticize, “This must be the life…”

Not quite.

The first misconception Shaw dispels is that running a UNOALUM

Photo by Eric Francis

“I want to make the best wines possible,” Shaw says. “I want to make wines that compete internationally, not just in Nebraska.”

sonal assets on the line,” Shaw says. “It’s tight. The cash flow is paying our bills, so that’s a good thing.”

There may be few greater gambles than planting a vineyard and opening a winery, according to Paul Read, a professor of horticulture and vitology at UNL. Read fields phone calls almost daily from people interested in entering Nebraska’s budding vineyard and winery industry. He first asks such callers if they are ready to totally change their lives. He then w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

invokes an old Napa Valley adage: “It goes like this: If you want to make a small fortune, start with a large fortune and go into the winery and vineyard business, and soon you will have a small fortune,” Read says.

Shaw was one of those callers.

What Shaw did right, Read says, was to saturate himself with industry information by taking vitology courses, attending industry seminars, networking with other vineyard and winery operators and, finally, writing an extensive business plan.

“I would say of all the people starting wineries in this part of the country, Jim’s done his homework the best,” Read says.

“Knowledge is power, and he’s developed probably one of the better knowledge bases of people in this area. And he’s certainly a risk taker.”

Fruits of the Labor

The much-hailed movie “Sideways” brought regional and national attention to wine after Soaring Wings’ early wines had matured. A curious result, Shaw says, was that the most common question he ended up fielding in Soaring Wings’ tasting room was, “Do you have any Pinots?”

Shaw does not grow the movie’s beloved grape. Nebraska’s climate lends itself best to particular grape varieties, and the Pinot isn’t among them. The French-American hybrid grapes Shaw chose include the Chambourcin, Frontenac, Vignole, DeChaunac and Chardonel.

“They had to survive the winter here,” Shaw says. “They had to have some disease resistance. And I had to have plants that are upright growing so they would work with the trellis system I have, so they had to be compatible with my vineyard.”

They also are compatible with Shaw’s personal taste. He explains that he is a “fruit-forward” vintner who produces wines tasting more fruity than dry.

According to Read, Shaw’s grape selections were another gamble. “The varieties he chose are more difficult to grow but have the potential to raise the bar in terms of wine quality,” he says. “Choosing things that would market well is also something Jim did,” Shaw’s initial hopes are to continue increasing the number of gallons he produces; he’s gone from 4,800 gallons to 9,000 gallons and projects 13,000 gallons in 2005 and 15,000 in 2006 before leveling.

“I want to make the best wines possible,” he says. “I want to make wines that compete internationally, not just in Nebraska.”

The Shaws exhibit none of the pretension they say they’ve both experienced at, for example, some select California wineries. Sharon uses her past managerial experience to handle the tasting area and public events. The couple is happy to serve aficionados and newbies alike.

“You’ve got to welcome them in the door and you’ve got to hit them in the mouth,” Jim Shaw says. “What people don’t realize is that there are thousands of grape varieties in the world. It’s tough to explore them all.”

Including apple cider and mulberry.

Summer 2005 • 27

READING

Photo courtesy Midwest Living

. . . really opened up the world to me. He loved to travel.”

When he was 4, the family “got a fresh start,” moving to Omaha. They lived in Logan Fontenelle Homes, segregated public housing in North Omaha. Edward began a new career, teaching at Iowa School for the Deaf. Their son attended Kellom Grade School at 24th and Paul streets. “The project we lived in was segregated until the mid-’50s,” Kaercher says.

“The school was integrated. The majority of students in my grade school through fourth grade were black, which opened my horizons, too. At the time, I thought it was just normal.”

The family moved to Council Bluffs in 1959, Kaercher attending Hoover Grade School and Abraham Lincoln High School (which has inducted him into its hall of fame). At Hoover in the fifth grade he met his wife-to-be, Julie. The two didn’t begin dating until their senior at A.L., however. They graduated in 1967, Dan heading for the University of Omaha, Julie for Iowa State University.

Kaercher praised several professors from his UNO days, including Hugh Cowdin and Joe McCartney. One professor, though receives a special nod. “I feel so lucky I had Warren Francke as one of my personal mentors,” he says. “He got me my first job in journalism at the Council Bluffs Nonpareil when they were looking for an intern. That just sealed my fate. I got those ink-stained fingertips writing obituaries in the summer.

They sent me on photo assignments to every county fair in the southwest area. My first beat was the library . . . the YMCA. But I couldn’t have gotten better training. Warren Francke doesn’t know what a big favor he did me.”

Halfway through his time at UNO, Kaercher’s father died at 66. About the same time, Julie transferred to UNO. The couple married in 1970 and both graduated a year later–Julie with a degree in education, Dan in journalism while being named that program’s outstanding student.

disabled people then,” Kaercher says. “It’s not easy now.

Employment and things like that were very difficult.”

Kaercher’s father, a Philadelphia native, graduated from Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, Gallaudet College and Lutheran Theological Seminary. He is cited in the book, “Deaf Heritage: A Narrative History of Deaf America,” as being the first deaf Lutheran pastor to be ordained, in 1929. Edward later established “preaching points” in various East Coast cities before illness forced him out of the pulpit in 1942.

Sometime after that he came to Nebraska, ostensibly to visit his sister, Hilda, who in 1943 formed Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bellevue. His real motivation was to meet a woman spoken of by a friend from Gallaudet College—Lillian, a Nebraska School for the Deaf graduate and recent widow.

“There aren’t all that many people to pick from, sometimes, if you have this disability of deafness,” Kaercher says. “At that time, a deaf person almost always married a deaf person.”

Edward and Lillian did just that, then moved to the Finger Lakes region of New York. Kaercher was born there, in Elmira, N.Y. “Despite that blemish,” he jokes, “I can claim safely that I’ve been a Midwesterner for 52 out of my 56 years. I couldn’t have asked for two better parents. Both very loving. My father

Kaercher had dreams of “going to Chicago or Kansas City or New York” and becoming “a real big shot in the publishing world or in advertising.” Instead, he landed a job in 1972 as senior copywriter in the Better Homes and Garden magazine advertising department. The notable magazine was begun in 1922 by Meredith, Corp., today a diversified media company with magazine, book and TV interests.

Kaercher never left, holding a variety of posts at Meredith in the ensuing 33 years. He worked for the company’s public relations department and was editor of Meredith’s employee publication, of Remodeling Ideas magazine and of BHG’s health and education section. He served as managing editor during the startup of WOOD magazine and was involved in other magazine launches. In 1987 he was tabbed to start Midwest Living.”

Debuting at a time when both the farm and rust belts were experiencing rocky economies, the magazine was meant in part to counter the stereotypes of the Midwest as a cultural wasteland and of its residents as hicks. Kaercher fought skeptics within and without the company. After the first issue appeared, some reviews sarcastically wondered if there was anything left to feature in a second issue.

THE SIGNS

By Anthony Flott, Editor

D

an Kaercher has always had a knack for reading signs.

It’s a skill that came in particularly handy last summer when the UNO grad navigated more than 10,000 miles through 12 Midwest states. Signs guided him from the nation’s largest quarter horse ranch in Nebraska’s Arthur to an historic community of German religious dissenters in Ohio’s Zoar—and dozens of places in between.

The four-leg, eight-week journey was conducted under the auspices of Midwest Living magazine, where Kaercher has been editor-in-chief since 1987, with the intent, “To reconnect at the grassroots with my region and to reaffirm our magazine’s overriding mission: to celebrate everything that is the very best of the Midwest.”

Kaercher compiled his travel notes into a chatty book, “Best of the Midwest: Rediscovering America’s Heartland” released this May. His observations and experiences also formed the basis for “Dan On the Road,” a one-hour special airing on Iowa Public TV and other Midwest PBS stations this spring and summer. A series of half-hour programs based on the trip will debut this winter.

It was Kaercher’s ability to read other signs, though, that fostered such storytelling abilities. Kaercher’s parents, Edward and Lillian, both were deaf and mute.

“Some of my verbal skills came from the fact that I was their interpreter many times from an early age,” Kaercher says during a phone conversation from his office in Des Moines.

“They would call on me to talk to the guy at the furniture store, to call my grandmother in Omaha. I had to develop my verbal skills very early.”

It was a unique parent-child bond that came to an end only last summer when Kaercher’s mother died at 95 years old— days before he was to begin the second leg of his journey.

Lillian Kaercher caught a cold, then developed pneumonia.

She spent one day in the hospital before dying. “Somebody who’s 95 dying that mercifully and swiftly, if you will, was a blessing to us,” Kaercher says.

Still, “it was a shock. It was tough. We buried her in Council Bluffs on Monday and then Tuesday afternoon I had to be in Chicago to start the next leg of the trip. I thought, ‘How can I get through this?’ But . . . sometimes parents are helping you along when they’re not physically along.”

Roots

Married later in life, Edward and Lillian Kaercher were “totally not expecting a child” when their son came along in 1949. “Life was hard for my parents because life was hard for 28 • Summer 2005

On the road again . . . Kaercher’s visits last summer took him through 12 states over 10,000 miles.

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Kaercher averaged 12 hours a day, seven days a week making a go of things. “I paid quite a price in terms of personal time, but I have a very patient wife,” says Kaercher, who with Julie has a grown son and daughter.

Some of the early fare focused on stories like nuclear waste or taxation and education. “But our readers just did not spark to that. They wanted the chocolate chip cookie recipe, how to grow a better tomato and ‘What color should we paint the porch this year?’ In magazines in particular, you’re a hostage to the expectations of readership. Part of the reason Midwest Living is successful is we’ve always paid attention to the consumer and what they want from the magazine, and it wasn’t stories about nuclear waste; it was chocolate chip cookie recipes.”

Midwest Living turned a profit after three years and returned the company’s investment two years later. “And that’s just unheard of in today’s publishing world. It just doesn’t happen. It takes such an enormous commitment.”

Today it is one of the country’s largest regional lifestyle and travel publications with a circulation of 925,000 and a total readership of 4.2 million. Kaercher directs an editorial staff of about 20 people.

Somewhere along the way, stereotypes of the Midwest began to change, too. “I think the perception has improved, and I think our magazine has made a difference, which is something I’m very proud of.”

On the Road

More stereotypes should fall with Kaercher’s “Best of the Midwest.” The book presented an opportunity “to put my writing hat back on. I enjoyed it, but it was kind of nervewracking. You’re nervous if you still have the skills or not.”

Typical days began at 5 a.m. when Kaercher would send off his previous day’s notes for transcription. After breakfast, Kaercher, two photographers and an assistant would pack equipment into two cars and hit the road. After “taking notes like mad” during a day jammed with visits, his head wouldn’t hit pillow until around midnight. There were “biblical downpours in Ohio and flood and tornado warnings in Kansas.” He also packed on four pounds during each leg of the trip (the devoted swimmer shed most of it after his travels).

His book covers attractions big (Chicago’s Wrigley Field, St. Louis’ Gateway Arch, Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, etc.) and small (North Dakota’s Fort Mandan, Minnesota’s Twine Ball Museum and Kansas’ Amelia Earhart home).

Nebraska stops included Arthur (Haythorn Ranch), Kearney (Archway monument), Lincoln (Capitol Building/Memorial Stadium), North Platte (Union Pacific Bailey Yards) and the Sandhills. The book mixes Kaercher’s travel accounts with history, shopping, dining and lodging information and, yes, recipes. Beautiful photographs by Bob Stefko run throughout.

“The book is really just a huge, huge thing in my career,” says Kaercher who was “98 percent sure” of another road trip this summer for a book exploring the Midwest’s various food heritages. “If my career ended tomorrow, I couldn’t go out on a better note.”

Fortunately for Kaercher, there’s no sign of that.

Summer 2005 • 29

By Nick Schinker

T

here’s something a bit puzzling about Terry Stickels. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke and says he doesn’t bother much with dating. He works 16 hours a day, five days a week, and at least eight hours a day on the weekends—and says he loves every minute.

All 5,760 of them.

Though uncertain of his precise I.Q., Stickels would fit anyone’s definition of a genius. Quick with numbers since he was a toddler, Stickels makes his living by creating incredibly challenging two-, three- and four-dimensional mathematical, logical and spatial-visual puzzles and word games.

He has authored or co-authored 17 books full of such puzzles, and soon will publish two more. His “FRAME GAMES” column is published in USA Weekend magazine and carried in 600 newspapers read by more than 48 million people. His “STICKELERS” puzzle column is syndicated daily by King Features and appears in many of the largest newspapers in the United States and Canada (though not by his hometown Omaha World-Herald, a situation he’d love to see change).

His puzzles have been featured on Kelloggs cereal boxes and on the Universal Studios website for the movie, “A Beautiful Mind.” His work has filled calendars and been used to illustrate card decks. His own popular website (www.terrystickels.com) offers a sampling of his puzzles for the curious.

All this from a guy who attended UNO on, of all things, a football scholarship. So much for stereotypes.

“Somehow I came out of the womb with a gift,” he says. “I could think dimensionally, and I could do it automatically.

From a very early age, there were very few things done with numbers that I couldn’t understand immediately.”

He recalls that as a child he was constantly asking his parents questions about Earth and about numbers. “They were questions like, ‘If I can say, “1 million,” I can always say one number more. What is that called?’ When I was little I remem-

30 • Summer 2005

Gridiron Genius

Born in Omaha, Stickels attended Rose Hill and Belvedere Elementary Schools before moving with his family to Council Bluffs, where his father had become part owner of an automobile dealership.

He attended Abraham Lincoln High School and was named all-Southwest Iowa and all-state as a quarterback his senior year. He was a walk-on at UNO, telling then-Coach Al Caniglia that he wanted to play football. He earned a spot at quarterback—and a full scholarship. “I enjoyed the whole experience, from football to the classroom,” he says. “I remember how the professors went out of their way to help.”

Stickels completed his course work at UNO while working at Union Pacific, first as a switchman, then for four years in the labor relations department, and finally back to the trains as a conductor. He graduated in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in geography and a minor in natural sciences.

He moved with his second wife to Rochester, N.Y., where he went to work as a salesman for Rand McNally & Co.—perfect for someone with a degree in geography. “It was one of the best jobs I ever had. I loved it.”

When he moved, he took with him an old paper sack. In the sack was a collection of puzzles he had been drawing since he was in elementary school. Stickels created his first puzzle at age 11. He and a friend were looking for something to do after their little league baseball game was rained out. The other boy’s mother handed them a puzzle book and Stickels was hooked.

“He and I started drawing, and one of the things was a pencil and paper game we came up with that we later found out was a very mathematical game. We kept doing it without even knowing there were names for the concepts like ‘spatialvisual.’ We just thought it was hysterically funny and lots of fun.”

Later, while tutoring students in math and physics at UNO, he recognized the advantage of using puzzles to assist them in comprehending particular lessons. Puzzles were a non-intimidating approach to intimidating concepts, and, in the end, the students became better thinkers.

“People who become mathematicians, physicists, they eat this stuff up. They do this every day. But they don’t teach spatial-visual things in school.”

In 1991, Stickels took that worn paper sack full of puzzles to a newspaper office in Rochester. “It was a snowy Friday afternoon, and I remember it like it was yesterday. I spoke with a kid who looked like he was barely old enough to shave, but who was very cordial and attentive. I told him I had an idea for a puzzle column.

“He went away for about five minutes, came back and said, ‘Can you come in and make a presentation?’ Well, I walked in to the middle of some Friday afternoon editorial meeting. I showed them my idea, really winging it as I went along, and they bought it right there on the spot.

“It became a huge hit. There’s like 2 million engineers liv-

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ing in Rochester, plus all kinds of medical types. It went off the charts. I was getting letters from physicists, neurosurgeons, professors. They loved it.”

One day, Stickels received a telephone call from an editor at Sterling Publishing Co. By the end of the conversation, he had agreed to a contract for his first puzzle book. “It was all pure luck,” he says, reflecting on the circumstances. “I mean, nobody goes out to become a full-time puzzle writer.”

Help for the Head

Stickels, 57, hopes his puzzles entertain while simultaneously helping people learn to think differently. “If you can learn to think this way, it will help you a lot in everything you do.”

He is divorced and has three children, ages 27, 25 and 16, from his two marriages. His work—and his thoughts about his work—occupy nearly every waking moment. “It takes all day to do what I do, and yet it’s so much fun for me, I’d do this for free, I love it so much.”

Now making his home in Fort Worth, Texas, he could afford to take a day or two off. But he doesn’t. “Everything I see and do, I see life a little differently. I just play all day long with objects and mathematics. I can do three new word puzzles in the morning and then at 4 o’clock this afternoon come up with the best mathematics puzzle I’ve ever done. I don’t know how I do it. They just keep coming to me.

“I am convinced I have not scratched one-tenth of onethousandth of one-millionth of the puzzles I can do.”

Don’t bother asking him how he creates those fascinating puzzles. “I don’t know. All I can do is offer analogies. If you’re playing baseball and you’re the catcher, you need to know every possible strategic move you can make in a game. As a puzzle writer, it behooves me to look at everything from a slightly skewed way.

“That’s what makes puzzles so compelling.” The challenge draws us in. The solution is our reward. “Coming to that solution is the fun,” Stickels says. “I get between 25 and 50 emails a day from people telling me how much they enjoyed this or how much fun it was to solve that. That’s exactly what I want to do. I want to continue to improve what I do, so people can continue to improve themselves.”

He credits 90-year-old Martin Gardner, widely recognized for his work in recreational mathematics and math games, as being a friend and mentor for more than 25 years. “He is the dean of all puzzle makers, the author of more than 75 books.

He’s brilliant, and he’s really quite an entertaining guy.”

On his website, Stickels is lauded for his originality by Gardner, officials of mathematics groups, and the high-I.Q. society American Mensa. He was cited in the July 2004 issue of the Mensa Bulletin, noting that he “has dedicated his life to the pursuit of improving one’s mental flexibility and creative problem-solving skills . . . and making it fun.”

Life isn’t all work for Stickels. A music and sports fan, he particularly enjoys the Texas Rangers and lives not far from the team’s stadium. “I’m also a big Tower of Power fan. I just saw them perform before 15,000 people, and wow, they knocked them out.”

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

In other words, Stickels is enjoying life. Doing exactly what he does. Challenging people. Entertaining them. And every now and then, teasing them, too.

Like the puzzle (right; answer on page 46) that serves as the logo for his website, his stationary and his business cards. It’s a puzzle involving several different colored squares and rectangles. It can be viewed at his website. The question is, how many squares?

After looking it over, the answer seems obvious. The answer is wrong. “Don’t feel badly,” Stickels says, adding that no one gets it the first first time.” Finally, the final three squares are found. After five hours of staring at the thing. Over a period of three days.

Those are the numbers that for Terry Stickels make all the work worthwhile.

An de r s on e nt e r in g SID Hal l of Fame

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ongtime UNO Sports Information Director Gary Anderson will be inducted into the hall of fame of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) during that organization’s annual convention July 3-6 in Philadelphia.

CoSIDA has inducted 142 members into its hall of fame since 1969. This year’s class includes Anderson, Bo Carter of the Big 12 Conference and Bill Hancock of the NCAA. Anderson has been UNO’s sports information director since 1979. Prior to that he was involved in corporate public relations for eight years and was a sportswriter for the Omaha World-Herald.

A CoSIDA member for 26 years, Anderson also has been president of the Omaha Sportscasters Association and the Elkhorn Baseball Association. He also has served as UNO’s interim athletic director on three occasions and has written a book, “Those Were the Knights: The History of Professional Hockey in Omaha.”

Mike Moran, graduate (’66) and former OU sports information director (1966-68) wrote in praise of Anderson that, “This talented sports publicist has served UNO and its superb athletic program for more than a quarter century and gone about his work in an unselfish and professional manner. Gary has been at his post through the good times and the bad at UNO. “Someday in the future, I would be thrilled to see his name on the superb new football press box at Al Caniglia Field so that his career would be honored for decades.

He is a rich treasure for both the university and the city I grew up in.”

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Affairs

Mind Bender

ber them saying to each other, ‘There’s going to come a day when we’re not going to be able to help him find answers.’”

Summer 2005 • 31

Photo by Joe Mixan

Richard Lee took time on his recent return to Omaha for a visit to Elmwood Park.

Change

By Nick Schinker

R

ichard Lee looks out his office window and sees the beauty of the harbor at Dar Es Salaam, which welcomes the Indian Ocean to the shores of Tanzania in east-central Africa.

But he looks, too, beyond the harbor at the third world nation he has been drawn to serve, and he senses something beside beauty.

Change.

IT’S ONE OF THE SAME FEELINGS LEE HAD WHILE attending then-Omaha University in the late 1960s. Sparked by calls for civil rights, racial equality and an end to the Vietnam War, the campus and nation faced choices that would transform both.

Some fought the efforts that would bring about fundamental changes. Then, as he does today, Lee embraced them.

“It really was a time of change,” recalls Lee, who spent one year at Creighton University before transferring to OU in 1966.

“Change from Omaha University to UNO, and change related to civil rights and freedom for students to challenge the system.”

Not one to sit back and watch, Lee chose to sit in.

Literally. “I was one of the 50 or so black students involved in a sit-in at the chancellor’s office and who were later hauled off to jail,” he says.

Lee refers to events on the UNO campus in November 1969. As the UNO Alumni Newsletter that month noted, members of the Black Liberators for Action on Campus (BLAC) had presented OU President Kirk Naylor with six black student demands, prefaced by claims of “the contemptible attitude exhibited by key administrative personnel” toward black students, and of blatant racial discrimination that had left them, “both personally and as a group, in considerable anguish” because they were not able “to function within the University system.”

Three days after presenting Naylor with their demands the group on Nov. 10 met the OU president in his office.

Dissatisfied with Naylor’s response, BLAC members spread throughout the President’s office, his secretary’s office, and the Regents Room while a crowd of about 250 students in the hall began to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

Naylor directed the Omaha Police Department to be called, and at least 15 of them showed, helmeted and armed with nightsticks. Policemen began leading the BLAC sit-ins away in groups of three, always one female between two males, arms linked and walking quietly. BLAC President Robert Honore

was arrested, as was the reigning Miss Omaha, Cathy Pope, and 52 other black students. Lee among them.

“Sometimes I can’t believe I did that,” Lee says. “I am not a person who would be considered a militant. But sometimes a person has to take a stand.

“It helped that (now Nebraska senator) Ernie Chambers was my brother-in-law, and the right to protest was established as a process, even for Omaha. Plus, we had just gone through the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, so there was a real sense of frustration for minorities on campus. Also, the university had paid for George Wallace to speak at the school, in spite of our protests. So we felt there was no one wanting or willing to discuss our issues.”

OU’s student body then consisted largely of commuters who worked full- or part-time while attending classes, and of a large military contingent attending through the Bootstrap Program.

“We were not in the forefront from a political perspective,” Lee says. “However, things were changing as the university was beginning to find its niche, and students were catching on to the changes that were taking place in our nation.”

Changes ensued not just for Omaha University but for Lee, too. He went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in accounting from UNO in 1970 and, four years later, became the first black certified public accountant in Nebraska. Lee already had joined the U.S. Treasury Department in 1970 as an agent with the Internal Revenue Service, and in the next 32 years steadily rose through that agency’s ranks while serving in offices throughout the country. He held posts as a revenue agent in Omaha; as an appeals officer, audit group manager and regional analyst in Dallas; as examination branch chief in Denver; as chief of the audit division in Wichita; and as assistant district director in the Virginia-West Virginia District. He also recruited for the IRS, making many trips back to UNO’s campus in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lee also served as dean of the IRS School of Taxation, Continued on page 34

Si t- In , 1 9 6 9 From the December 1969 UNO Alumni Newsletter

“There was no violence. They did not sit in my chair or in the secretary’s chair and keep us from carrying on our activities. The disruption, of course, came by virtue of the fact that there were so many people in such a small space. It was a regrettable thing to have happen on campus, but I am happy that there was no physical violence, and that the students went peaceably when the police came to remove them from the Regent’s Room.”

— OU President Kirk Naylor

32 • Summer 2005

UNOALUM

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

Photo from the 1970 Tomahawk yearbook

Summer 2005 • 33

Change

From previous page overseeing the design, development, delivery and evaluation of education and training programs. He also was director of Corporate Examinations, where he was responsible for the execution of all large corporate examinations and related support programs.

He continued his education through the years, obtaining a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University in 1990. Four years later he graduated from the IRS Executive Selection and Development Program.

One of his duties with the IRS was as tax reform project manager for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, where he was principal tax advisor for income tax reform. Lee took onsite responsibility for customs and implemenPhoto courtesy Richard Lee tation of a value-added tax, and he designed “Tanzania has a beautiful coast and the Indian Ocean is awesome,” Lee wrote when submitting photos to include with his Alum profile. and developed the Tax and Financial Crimes Unit for the independent Caribbean nation.

“I always wanted to see other places, espeulation of more than 36.5 million, Tanzania is one of the poorcially where black people live and work,” Lee says. “So when est countries in the world. The economy depends heavily on the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at the chance. I have agriculture, which provides 85 percent of all exports and been intrigued by all parts of the world. I have worked in employs 80 percent of the work force. Ag products include Africa, Turkey and the Caribbean, have traveled to South coffee, tea, cotton, cashew nuts and sisal, which is used to America and Europe, and have found each place exciting and make rope and twine. Topography and climatic conditions, interesting. I love to travel, and the opportunity to actually however, limit cultivated crops to only 4 percent of the land contribute in the field of taxation has been very rewarding.” area. “It’s very fertile ground, but the processes for growing A divorced father of three grown children, Lee left the IRS haven’t changed in a hundred years. It’s still done by hoe and in 2002 and started his own company, International Tax pitchfork.”

Compliance Consulting, LLC. He and his staff have worked Communications and transportation issues abound. Of its with clients in more than a dozen countries on four continents. 123 airports, only 11 have paved runways. “Technology has Currently, he is in Omaha but is scheduled to work in South gone off and left Tanzania behind,” Lee says.

Africa in October.

The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Lee’s duties at the time of interviews for this article found bilateral donors have provided funds to rehabilitate Tanzania’s him living in Tanzania and working with that country’s out-of-date economic infrastructure and to alleviate poverty.

Revenue Authority to design and implement a bank collection “Half the government’s budget comes in the form of foreign system, along with electronic methods to manage and forward aid. The monetary system is unusual because it’s basically a revenue to the Bank of Tanzania. Interviews were conducted cash system. There are few credit cards and very few checks. by telephone and computer link over a period of several days, “The biggest problem is corruption. Bribery is commonenduring frequent interruptions caused by rainstorms and place.” sudden loss of power—all on his end of the conversation.

Lee says he is pleased to be working to help develop the A developing nation, Tanzania was born with the 1964 financial resources and economy in Tanzania. “There are not a merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Situated on the Indian lot of Americans in the tax administration field in this part of Ocean between Kenya and Mozambique, Tanzania is a nation the world.” Or Americans in any field, which contributes to of contrasts. Its elevation ranges from sea level to 19,340-foot another problem, that of perception. “Developing countries Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. The country is see America as the land of opportunity, but our image is slipbordered by three of the largest lakes on the continent: Lake ping as we take what appears to be a heavy-handed approach Victoria, the world’s second-largest freshwater lake; Lake to democracy in other countries. They don’t hate us, but they Tanganyika, the world’s second deepest; and Lake Nyasa. don’t respect us as they did. They have trouble separating “You can go from mountains to rain forest to jungle to bush American people from American policies. They don’t always to desert without leaving the country,” Lee says. see us as we really are.”

One-party rule came to an end in 1995 with the first demoLike he has most of his life, Richard Lee is working to cratic elections held in the country since the 1970s. With a pop- change that.

34 • Summer 2005

UNOALUM

Playing Games

By Josefina Loza

Reprinted with permission from the Omaha World-Herald.

L

ASKED AND ANSWERED ife after college sometimes isn’t so great. Bills pile up. There’s never enough money to pay back student loans.

Worst of all, people expect you to grow up and become an “adult.”

Instead of worrying about all that, recent University of Nebraska at Omaha graduate Juli Logemann packed her bags and headed for California to play video games.

The 22-year-old is serious about working, though.

She’s a professional video game tester for several electronics companies in the San Francisco Bay area. Currently, she works for Double Fine, a video game designing company/studio, and has also done some testing for LucasArts.

Logemann shares how she got her job and what exactly it entails.

Q. Some people have trouble believing that you get paid for playing video games all day. What does a tester do?

A. You’re looking for errors in the game, whether it would be with some of the characters, environment or colors. Then you document the flaws in a database so video game programmers and designers can fix the problem. Then the tester who found the problem goes back to check it.

Q. What’s your official title?

A. Quality assurance representative.

Q. How did you land the job?

A. I’ve always kind of known that video game testing existed. I had no experience in testing, but I’ve played a lot of video games. I knew some people at LucasArts.

They told me to get in for an interview.

Q. When you’re testing, do you play through the entire game?

A. Not always. Sometimes you just look at certain areas or levels. Toward the end of the project, you play from start to finish.

Q. How far in advance do you test games? When can we expect to see them in stores?

A. It depends. The testing process is toward the end of the making of video games. The first video game I reviewed for LucasArts, “Star Wars Republic w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Commando,” came out March 1. That was exciting.

Q. What’s the average pay for testers?

A. Anywhere from $10 an hour and up.

Q. How did you react when LucasArts called to hire you?

A. I was pretty excited. For one, it was like a full-time job that I get to go to every day. I had just moved to Oakland, Calif., and didn’t have anything lined up.

Q. What makes a good game?

A. I think a story line has to be there.

Without a story, it’s, like, “What’s your purpose in finishing the game?”

Q. Is playing video games for eight straight hours a day stressful?

A. Sometimes you have to play the same level over and over. So the redundancy of it is. But it’s your job. If you don’t like it, maybe it’s not the place for you.

Q. What are some of the perks?

A. Typically, you’ll get promotional goodies and a free copy of the game.

Q. What is your work environment like?

A. This is my first 10 a.m. job. It’s really nice. We each have cubicles or desks with 13- or 19-inch televisions.

Q. Is this your dream job?

A. It’s a funny thing. Growing up as someone who has loved video games, I’ve always dreamed of it. I never would have thought you could play video games full time after college. I don’t see myself playing video games the rest of my life, though. I like to think of it as a stepping-

stone to get into the industry.

Q. Is it pretty competitive to get your job?

A. A lot of people want to get into the industry somehow, and the way to do it is through testing, then working your way up.

So it tends to be pretty competitive.

Q. Where do you see the video game industry going?

A. The next generation of consoles is what all the buzz is about now. People can’t wait until the Xbox 2 and PlayStation 3 are released. Video gaming is one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world, especially if you compare it to movies. I don’t think a lot of people in the Midwest realize how big gaming is. When I got out here, I was thrown in the midst of it all.

Q. Where do you see yourself five years from now?

A. Hopefully in the gaming industry, but not testing. I would like to go into production -- be someone who is involved in the whole process.

Juli Logemann: Graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Loves the weather in California and spending time with friends at the movies or a concert. Plays video games at home after working an eight- to 12-hour shift testing other games.

Editor’s Note: In June, Logemann began a new job at Crystal Dynamics as a video game production assistant. She notes in an email that she will be working for the producer on the video game, “Tomb Raider: Legend,” scheduled for fall 2005 release.

Summer 2005 • 35

Association in Action

News & Information

“In Care Of” program underway with 18 U.S. soldiers

Omaha Police Chief Warren receives Alumni Citation

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he UNO Alumni Association bestowed its Citation for Alumnus Achievement upon Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren during the university’s spring commencement ceremony May 6 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

The Citation, instituted in 1949, is presented at each UNO commencement. The Association’s highest honor, it encompasses professional or career achievement, community service, involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to UNO. Adrian Minks, 2005 chairman of the UNO Alumni Association Omaha Chief of Police Thomas Warren Board of Directors, preSr. became the 137th recipient of the sented the award to Citation for Alumnus Achievement.

Warren, a 1989 UNO graduate. He is the 137th recipient of the Citation, first bestowed in 1949.

A 1979 Omaha Technical High School graduate, Warren attended Morningside College, where he also played football as a defensive back. He graduated from Morningside in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology and joined the Omaha Police Department the following year.

Warren served in a variety of departments with OPD, including internal affairs, information services and the investigations bureau. He attended classes at UNO early in his career, earning a master’s degree in criminal justice in 1989.

He was chosen Omaha Police Department Employee of the Year in 1999, the same year he earned promotion to captain.

He was promoted to northeast precinct commander in 2002 and replaced Don Carey as Omaha’s chief of police in December 2003, becoming the first African-American to hold that post.

Under Warren’s watch are four uniform precincts, 14 facilities, nearly 800 officers and 239 non-sworn personnel. OPD has an operating budget of $79 million dollars.

Warren notes that the Omaha Police Department has embraced the community policing philosophy designed to reduce crime and improve police-community relations. For two straight years there has been a decrease in the City of Omaha's overall crime rate. “With an effective strategy and efficient use of personnel, the citizens of the City of Omaha are

36 • Summer 2005

being provided with very professional law enforcement services,” Warren said.

Warren is a member of the Nebraska Crime Commission and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He also serves various community organizations, including the ButlerGast YMCA, Omaha Police Athletic League, National Conference of Community and Justice, Literacy Center for the Midlands and the UNO Alumni Association.

He has received community or volunteer service awards from the Malcolm X Foundation, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Omaha Bar Association, NAACP, Boys and Girls Club of Omaha and UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service.

He received the Boys and Girls Club of Omaha Man and Youth Award in 2002 and two years later was selected to the Boys and Girls Club of America National Hall of Fame. He’s also received honors from Omega Psi Phi Fraternity (Citizen of the Year, 2002), American Red Cross (Heartland Hero Award, 2003) and Omaha Public Schools (A+ Award, 2004).

The 44-year-old Warren and his wife of 19 years, Aileen, have three teenage children.

The Bard in the Yard

J

oin the UNO Alumni Association for the annual Shakespeare on the Green Pre-picnic followed by a performance of “Othello” on Wednesday, July 6.

The picnic will be held rain or shine from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. in the W.H. Thompson Alumni Center.

At the picnic, UNO Professor Cindy Melby

Phaneuf, co-founder/artistic director of Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, will provide a preview of “Othello.”

The picnic buffet ($10 per person) will include chicken, BBQ pork, potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, cookie and beverages.

“Othello” begins at 8 p.m. The Alumni Association has secured a reserved spot for its guests “down front” at the play.

Transportation to or parking near “The Green” also will be available.

Part of the $10 fee will help underwrite a donation to the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival.

To register, complete and return with payment the form on page 2.

UNOALUM

T

hey are in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan, serving with the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines, National Guard and Reserves. One pilots an A-10 Thunderbolt II, aka the Warthog.

Another works in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad while a third is deputy secretary to the Chief of the Joint Staff. Four of them are brothers fighting together in a transportation unit.

They are fellow alumni, or the sons—and a daughter—of fellow grads.

Since the UNO Alumni Association’s In Care Of program began earlier this year, 17 care packages have been sent to UNOaffiliated soldiers currently at war. The care packages include: first aid and grooming kits, phone cards (generously provided by Family Support Center of Offutt Air Force Base), a Nebraska Life Magazine (generously provided by Nebraska Life publishers), a UNO Alum magazine, an LED keychain mini flashlight, waterless hand sanitizer, single-use camera with American flag design, retractable utility knife, sunscreen, lip balm, UNO baseball cap, Life Savers candy and notes from alumni.

They have been well received.

“It’s truly overwhelming to see, hear and feel the support that all of you back home are giving to the soldiers over here,” wrote U.S. Army Major Thomas R. Henderson, a 1990 grad and son of 1957 grad Roger Henderson. “Please believe me when I tell you that the Coalition Forces deployed in Iraq are making a difference, and the citizens of Iraq are also very appreciative of what the United States has done for them.”

U.S. Army 1st Lt. John Regan, a 2003 grad in Iraq since June 2004, writes: “Thanks for the package that you all had sent. I would also like to thank everyone back there for all the support. It is very comforting. Looking back at the past almost year now, I can see how WE (as a nation) are really making a difference in this part of the world.”

The following soldiers each received a care package since the last Alum was published. For more information on the In Care Of program, visit the Association’s website at www.unoalumni.org/incareof.

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

Patrick Behm Rank, Branch: U.S. Army.

Current Assignment: Afghanistan.

UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO grad Michael Behm (BS, 1985) of Malcolm, Neb. Joshua Birkel Rank, Branch: Specialist, U.S. National Guard.

Current Assignment: Transportation Company, Kuwait.

UNO Affiliation: Student; brother of UNO graduate Casey Birkel (BS, 2004) of Columbus, Ohio.

Jason Erb Rank, Branch: Captain, U.S. Air Force.

Current Assignment: Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. Pilot of A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka The Warthog). Third deployment in two years.

UNO Affiliation: Graduate (BS, 2000).

Janet L. Gary Rank, Branch: Sergeant, Army.

Current Assignment: Iraq.

UNO Affiliation: Stepdaughter of UNO grad Major (Ret., Army) Thomas A. Spencer (BGS, 1971) of Arlington, Texas.

Thomas R. Henderson Rank, Branch: Major, Army.

Current Assignment: Iraq.

UNO Affiliation: Graduate (BS, 1990); Son of UNO grad Roger C. Henderson (BS, 1957) of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Nick Hornig Rank, Branch: Sgt., U.S. Army National Guard.

Current Assignment: Al Asad, Iraq.

Medical, convoy support.

UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO grad Bev (Beam, BS, 1975; MS, 2000) Hornig of Omaha.

Shoshone “Mick” Hugues Rank, Branch: 2rd Class, U.S. Navy.

Current Assignment: Baghdad, Iraq.

UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO grad Orlin R. Hugues (BGS, 1969) of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Lance J. Langfeldt Rank, Branch: Captain, U.S. Marine Corps.

Current Assignment: Al Asad, Iraq.

Company Commander of Alpha Co. UNO Affiliation: UNO grad (BGS, 1997) and husband of UNO grad Cristy Langfeldt

(BS, 1990).

Daniel Brendan Murphy Rank, Branch: Corporal, Marine Corps Reserves.

Current Assignment: Iraq-Convoy escort.

UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO grad Susan Herbst-Murphy (BS, 1985) of Lenexa, Kansas, and Michael Murphy (BS, 1976) of Denver.

Matt Nestander Rank, Branch: SPC, Army National Guard.

Current Assignment: Tallil AFB, Iraq.

UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO grads Mark (BS, 1973) and Janet Nestander (MS, 1975) of Omaha.

John Regan Rank, Branch: 1st Lt., U.S. Army.

Current Assignment: Baghdad, Iraq.

UNO Affiliation: Graduate (BGS, 2003).

Brett Scherzberg Rank, Branch: SPC, U.S.Army Reserves.

Justin Scherzberg Rank, Branch: Sergeant, Army Reserves Jeff Scherzberg Rank, Branch: Sergeant, Army Reserves Matthew Scherzberg Rank, Branch: Sergeant, Army Reserves Current Assignments: Iraq, Trans.

UNO Affiliation: Sons of Marty and UNO grad Connie (MS, 1996) Scherzberg of Papillion.

Editor’s Note: Brett, Justin and Matthew Scherzberg returned home in early June.

Their brother Jeff is expected home in August.

Jason Thomas Rank, Branch: Specialist, Army.

Current Assignment: Iraq.

UNO Affiliation: Graduate (BS, 2002).

Patrick A. Turner Rank, Branch: Lt. Col., Army.

Current Assignment: Deputy Secretary to the Chief of the Joint Staff.

UNO Affiliation: Graduate (MBA, 1976).

Gregory J. Wielgus Rank, Branch: Corporal, Marine Corps.

Current Assignment: U.S. Embassy, Baghdad, Iraq.

UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO grad Theresa M. Wielgus Hilton (BS, 1978; MSW, 1980) of Columbus, Neb.

Summer 2005 • 37

Association in Action

Nine receive UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award

T

he UNO Alumni Association presented its ninth annual Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards to nine faculty members at the Faculty Honors Convocation Breakfast April 14.

Adrian Minks, Association chairman of the board, presented the awards, established in 1997 to honor distinguished teaching in the classroom. Peer committees in each college chose award recipients (listed below), each of whom received a $1,000 award. Minks presented each recipient with a commemorative plaque during the convocation breakfast.

Since the program’s founding in 1997 the UNO Alumni Association has issued $77,000 in Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards.

The 2005 UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award recipients: Chris W. Allen, College of Arts & Sciences, School of Communication.

Paul E. Barnes, College of Education, Counseling.

Stuart P. Bernstein, College of Engineering and Technology, Construction Systems.

Christopher S. Decker, Ph.D., College of Business Administration, Economics.

Carolyn Gascoigne, Ph.D. College of

Class Notes

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

1939 Clitus W. Olson, BA, lives in Westminster, Colo., and writes: “My wife, Dorothy (Nord), and I moved from the regular Covenant Village apartment on sixth floor with beautiful view of the mountains to assisted living since Dorothy is not doing too well. We moved into Covenant in 1996 and have enjoyed it ever since. This is definitely a quiet time of life compared to our former work as medical missionaries in the Congo and later as a surgeon in Goodland, Kansas.” Send Olson email at oldole1@aol.com

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award recipients. From left, Harmon D. Maher Jr., Pamela Specht, Julie Masters, Chris Allen, Doug Paterson, Carolyn Gascoigne, Christopher Decker, Stuart Bernstein, Paul Barnes and Association Chairman of the Board Adrian Minks.

Arts & Sciences, Foreign Languages.

Harmon D. Maher Jr., College of Arts & Sciences, Geography and Geology.

Julie L. Masters, Ph.D., College of Public Affairs and Community Service, Gerontology.

Dr. Douglas L. Paterson, College of Fine Arts, Theatre.

Pamela S. Specht, Ph.D., College of Information Science and Technology, Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis.

For bios of each recipient, visit the Alumni Association website at www.unoalumni.org/awards/ alumni_outstanding_teachers

Construction on Alumni Center to begin Aug. 1

E

leven years after it last grew, the W.H. Thompson Alumni Center again is adding more space and updating its look.

The Alumni Center on Aug. 1 will close for five months as it undergoes a major addition and renovations. Located on the UNO campus at 67th and Dodge streets, the Alumni Center is one of Omaha’s most popular rental facilities. Since opening in September 1994 it has hosted 350,000-plus guests and more than 10,000 business, personal and other event functions.

The addition will include a new club room capable of seating up to 144 guests and increasing the facility from 6,868 to 9,854 square feet of event space. Including the existing ball room, the center will be able to accommodate functions of up to 450 people. Additional service, office and restroom space also is being added, and the décor of the entire facility is being updated.

More of the changes can be viewed on the Alumni Association’s website at www.unoalumni.org/alumni_center/center_renovation.

38 • Summer 2005

Stan How and Associates, the architectural firm that led the 1994 Alumni Center renovation/addition, was contracted for the upcoming enhancements. Hawkins Construction will serve as general contractor.

Since 1994 the Alumni Center has generated nearly $1.8 million in gross revenue, aiding the facility’s owner, the UNO Alumni Association, in its mission of supporting the university.

The update will cost $1.8 million, funded through past Alumni Center revenues and a capital fund-raising campaign.

“The changes are expected to generate greater revenues through increased bookings, enabling us to provide more support to the university through increased facilities and increased revenues,” says Greg Trimm, director of alumni facilities.

The Alumni Center will remain open for all functions until Aug. 1. Work on the Alumni Center is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005 and the building to be fully functional by Jan. 1, 2006.

UNOALUM

1944 Ernest Jaul, BA, was featured in the Feb. 17, 2005, issue of the Salt Lake Tribune in an article titled, “The Wild Old Bunch.” The piece focused on a “confederation of retirees” that assembles regularly in Alta, Utah, for lunch at Alf’s Restaurant, followed by skiing.

Jaul moved to Sandy, Utah, in 1991 after retiring as a chemist for Union Carbide.

“This is the happiest time of my retirement,” Jaul told the Tribune. At the time of the article the 84-year-old had skied 35 days this season.

1949 William Gasper, Assoc., lives in Tempe, Ariz., and in January was inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame in Kearney, Neb. Gasper entered the U.S. Air Force in 1953, commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant as a communications officer. After the Air Force, Gasper worked for E.A. Pedersen Co. performing electrical switch-gear design. He joined Westinghouse in 1954 as a test engineer for the J40/J46 jet engines used in Navy fighter aircraft. He then

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Flashback File

Wanted: Wastebaskets

From the Feb. 10, 1932, Gateway student newspaper

“Let's Clean Up” Says Student Who Wants New Waste Baskets

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By a Student ading knee-high through the debris in the halls, gazing at pictures painted in dust on the windows, scraping away inches of dirt and discarded gum on the fountains; that's what visitors note most about Municipal University.

No wonder students flunked so many courses this semester.

They didn't have time to study, they were so busy demonstrating their artistic abilities on windows.

In grade and high school, pupils are forced to keep the building clean. Can it be that Joslyn Hall inspires them to such a degree that they forget all that they ever learned about cleanliness?

If each campus organization would be responsible for getting at least one wastebasket, it would help matters. If the school provided janitor service to keep the drinking fountains, windows, and lavatories clean, that would help a great deal. If the library would take their stack of college catalogues and magazines from the cafeteria, students would feel more like eating there. In other words, if everyone helps, we’d get some place.

Let’s see who can do the most about this clean-up business in the shortest time!

worked for Trans World Airlines (TWA) from 1955 to 1983, focusing on developing electrical specifications for new commercial aircraft. During Gasper’s career he became recognized as a national and international authority in the avionics area of aircraft wiring construction and connector interfaces. He has enhanced both commercial and military aircraft safety by influencing the development and selection of wire constructions that are not vulnerable to catastrophic failure. He has worked directly or indirectly on projects involving commercial aircraft, NASA’s space

Lost Alums -- 1956

Robert C. Alexander Carole Lee Washington Ason John E. Asp Marjorie B. Johnston Baltzer Carolyn Carter Blum Vilma A. Bodnar Dayton F. Brown Rudolph H. Brown Connie Bryan Alfred W. Buckner John Cimino James W. Clark Clyde B. Conrad Willis D. Cramer William R. Cronin William A. Dawson Roland E. Deaton Jeannette Moir Dempsey Angelo L. Dentamaro Don V. Digilio

S U M M E R

George R. Dillon Charles M. Ditch Blanche A. Bell Ditz Tom Dudycha Donald J. Dunn David L. Evans Ralph A. Ewert James B. Felton Audrey B. French Eugene M. Frese Mary Lou Hopper Gallup Robert E. Gibson Clarence E. Giraud Lawrence F. Glynn James D. Gollehon John O. Gregerson Jean Carolyn Haffner Louis E. Henderson Gene C. Hertz Lauren M. Hetland

shuttle and the Longbow Apache helicopter. The latter work was done for Hughes Helicopters, where Gasper worked beginning in 1983. Visit the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame website at www.aero.state.ne.us for more information. Send Gasper emails at billtwaret@juno.com.

1953 Larry Boersma, BA, sends a Class Note via fax that says: “Have finally ‘dragged’ myself into the 21st century.

Having 15 books (the ‘old’ traditional 20th century way), I just completed my

Help us find these “Lost Alums” from the Class of 1956. Send news of their whereabouts to sgerding@mail.unomaha.edu Kenneth C. Heyer Amos W. Hoerger Donald Holmberg Charles E. Honke Elizabeth Tyndale Howard William M. Humphries Esther M. Johnson Alice Jorgensen Karl D. Kelly Marianne Bowley King Sylvester M. Koenigs Richard G. Kotfer Winifred B. Kunkel Leeann Kay Lathrop Grace A. Little Clyde Longmire Shirley R Johnson Lund Dorothy M. Macaulay Carole Lee Washington Mason Richard L. May

Lowell R. Mayne Charles J. McManaman Viola M. Meyers Delbert D. Miller Walter W. Miller Marilyn G. Myers Ernest Nance Bernice E. Benson Neal Michael Pashkevich Dean J. Paulsen Harry P. Pedersen Janet B. Perrett Richard E. Pulley Lewis E. Radcliffe James R. Reynolds Helen E. Rhodes Barbara L. Deloria Sanchez William C. Schade Edward J. Schaffer Robert H. Schuemann

Francis C. Scott Miguel M. Serna Robert E. Sherbondy John M. Smith Robert R. Smith Marilee Miller Smith Walter E. Spindler Wesley A. Swanson August T. Tieman Jacob E. Till Jack L. Tueller Howard D. Turner Betty J. Kudym Vela Vaughna Robb Walter Richard N. Westcott Mary Ellen Renna Whittington Nathan P. Winter John H. Workman Donald L. Worley Dorothy J. Wright

Summer 2005 • 39

Class Notes

S U M M E R Flashback File

Sunday school class of senior citizens at my church and I volunteer one day a week at Tinker Air Force Base. I enjoy reading the UNO Alum but I am now a complete fan of another ‘OU’ (the University of Oklahoma).” Send Payne email at alpayne11@msn.com 1957 Alfred Thomsen, BS, was one of 10 people inducted in April into the Commercial Real Estate Workshop Hall of Fame.

Airplane factory named Shack; dispenses food

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From the Oct. 15, 1958 Golden Gateway

he completion of the new Student Activities Building will herald the fateful demise of the favored student noon-time rendezvous, the “Shack,” the refuge from the reality of classroom turmoil since 1946.

The Shack (its official monicker is “Student Club”) had its beginning as a little-heralded defense factory, of sorts, when it served as an airplane production school during World War II. The building’s floor was made to slope 18 inches to the south to allow easier cleaning after class with a high pressure hose.

Still a paragon of mobilization, the Shack retains its production-line atmosphere if in a somewhat more disorganized fashion while dispensing tomato soup and ranch-burgers instead of propellers.

At the time of its opening, the Gateway sponsored a naming contest, and Snack-Shack, brainstorm of Joseph Dymak and Jack Hall, won first prize. Other names submitted included “Pow Wow Inn,” “The Crib,” “Happy Hogan” and “Sittin’ Bull.’”

A face-lifting operation in the fall of 1955 gave the Shack its present appearance, including the murals depicting students activities painted by Harlan Petersen, class of ’53.

The popular place was mobbed the morning of its opening by students clutching “coffee coupons” clipped form the pages of that day’s Gateway. The Shack’s prolific history has not been all bedlam, however. In a regal setting, reception for King Ak-Sar-Ben LXI, Milo Bail, and his consort was staged by the Monday following the University President’s coronation.

While the band saluted the new monarch, students changed “Long Live the King” and called for a holiday. The wish was granted–by royal decree. In 1959 this “raucous infant of the cafeteria” no longer will see the blurry conglomeration of ivy-league shirts, ivy saddles and pledge beanies looking for lunches, tables, books and dates, as it makes the conversion to storage and maintenance space.

first CD called, ‘Keep Wild Animals in Our Lives!’ it’s a photo essay on the need for the protection and defense of all wild animal species, and the preservation of their habitats. It’s available from www.PreserveOurWildlife.org. It includes 134 of my photographs of 55 species of North American mammals and raptors (my pho-

40 • Summer 2005

tography is published under the name Larry Allan—which is a lot simpler to spell and pronounce than Boersma). We just moved to Sarasota, Fla. During April I spoke to an environmental studies class at New College (the honors college of Florida), the Sierra Club and the Senior Friendship Center, all in Sarasota.

Next, we want to photograph all

sorts of Florida ‘critters.’”

Boersma says he hopes “to hear from my UNO (OU) friends” via email at laboer@comcast.net Albert L. Payne, BGS, is retired from the U.S. Air Force and from Kerr McGee Corporation. He writes from home in Del City, Okla., that he is “’almost’ retired from everything. I teach a

1959 Ben Wiesman, BS, was one of 10 people inducted in April into the Commercial Real Estate Workshop Hall of Fame.

1962 Kenneth C. Hargis, BS, is owner of Search Technology, Inc. He writes: “Opened branch in Bend, Ore. Staffing and consulting in information technology field.

Enjoying the desert and the Cascade Mountains!” Send him email at searchtech@neonramp.com 1965 Ronald Kott, BA, is CFO of DataSafe, Inc., an information management services company in San Francisco. The company’s website notes that he joined DataSafe in 1995 and is responsible for overseeing the company’s financial and accounting initiatives as well as maintaining each of DataSafe's facilities. He previously was CFO for American Hawaiian Cruise Lines and vice president of planning and control for Itel Corporation.

1966 Louis F. Zylka, BGS, lives in Del Rio, Texas. He brings us up to speed on the past nearly 40 years, writing that since graduating he completed eight years in the U.S. Air Force, then returned to Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh. While there he attended Penn State University (Fayette campus) and received an industrial engineering degree. He also earned a certification of

UNOALUM

business administration from Duquesne University and was certified as a private pilot. In a 1985 buyout of Westinghouse by Siemens Energy and Automation, Zylka became manufacturing manager at the company’s Jackson, Miss., plant. He also taught night classes for six years at Mississippi State University, teaching electronics, manufacturing, industrial safety and drafting at the Jackson campus. He retired from Siemens in 1995 and began his own construction business, specializing in engineering rooflines and custom cabinetry. The largest project completed was a 96-foot, 180-passenger party boat. He retired from his business in 2001 and moved with his wife, Mary Ann, to Del Rio. The couple bought and renovated a home built in 1922 in the historical section of town. He also designed and built the Sacred Heart Junior High Academic Center in a former law office, completing the center with volunteer work, youth group members, and a few volunteer adults in less than three months. Zylka now builds custom furniture, assists his son in business specializing in plantation shutters, and volunteers for his church and its school. He has been a member of the Knights of Columbus since 1960, holding offices at local and state levels. He has two children and four grandchildren. He and his wife spend their time writing their autobiographies, traveling and visiting historical USA. Russell P. Moore Jr., MA, is retiring after 40 years of college teaching, the past 31 as a professor of criminal justice at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. “Mentor was Professor G. L. “Pete” Kuchel.”

Moore is moving to Fort Madison, Iowa.

1967 Michael R. Hill, BA, writes from his home in Lincoln, Neb., that he recently edited and wrote an introduction to two books: “Social Ethics: Sociology and the

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Future Society” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; and, “An Independent Woman’s Lake District Writings” by Harriet Martineau. He is a contracted bibliographer for the American Sociological Association, Centennial Bibliography on the History of American Sociology.

His class note indicates that he has no phones: “And the freedom is extraordinary!” Send him email at asahistorybib@yahoo.com Doug Slaughter, BA, in January was named Alumna of the Year in Parish Ministry by The Iliff School of Theology. Slaughter is a senior pastor at Community United Methodist Church (UMC) in Ogden, Utah.

Slaughter received his doctorate from Iliff in 1988 and is president of the 2005 Iliff Alumni Association Board. He has served on the Iliff Board of Trustees Long Range Planning Task Force and was a field education supervisor at the school.

He is presently a 5th Step chaplain for the ACT Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center at the Ogden Regional Medical Center and a mentor for probationary members of the UMC Rocky Mountain Annual Conference (RMC) Board of Ministry. His work with the UMC also includes serving as a conference pastoral evaluation specialist for the RMC and serving as the general chairperson for the first national conference between the UMC and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Slaughter has also served as past president of Interfaith Works and is currently secretary of that organization. He was also chairperson of the fund-raising drive for the Northern Utah Food Cooperative for several years.

He is recipient of “The Friends of Pastoral Care Award” (2001 and 2004) from Ogden’s McKayDee Hospital.

1968 Robert P. Lindseth, BGS, lives in Lorton, Va., and writes that he retired from the U.S. Air Force

after 36 years of honorable service in various positions in overseas locations. He has accepted a position at the Joint Military Intelligence College, Defence Intelligence Agency, as a professor of information sciences. He is “preparing mid-career military intelligence professionals to excel in a non-kinetic world.”

Send him emails at Robert.Lindseth@DIA.Mil 1969 Bob Vandeven, BGS, lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., and writes that he “was teaching elementary grades as substitute for 18 years. Now I’m a volunteer worker for my church. Thanks for your mailings.”

James F. Bard Jr., BGS, lives in Westminster, Md., and writes: “Having been fully retired for five years, I've taken on a new challenge: I’m the secretary of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing Association. The 91st was my first assignment until it deactivated in 1957. Every day, I not only spend hours looking for our old members but also try to connect other Air Force vets with their old units. It’s very rewarding.” Send Bard emails at jimbardjr@adelphia.net Joseph F. Kulick Sr., BGS, lives in New Smyrna, Fla. This January he celebrates his 50-year wedding anniversary.

1970 Agnes Wengert, MS, is retired and lives in Chula Vista. She wrote the following: “Moved to San Diego, Calif., in 1979— retired from teaching due to hearing loss. Worked for psychologist five years. Traveled Europe and U.S. with husband several summers. Cared for ill husband 2001-04. In retirement facility since his death in November 2004. Continue to do volunteer work at libraries and tutoring elementary school children.”

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1971 Max Malikow, BS, writes from his home in Syracuse, N.Y.: “Another book! This fall my most recent book, ‘Class Action: Applying Educational Psychology’ will be available.

The publisher is R & L Education Publishers of Lanham, Md. This is part of my work as a professor of education at Le Moyne College in Syracuse.” Send him email at malikowm@lemoyne.edu Jim Robinson, BGS, lives in Castle Rock, Colo., and writes that he and his wife, Sara, both are back in school. Jim attends the graduate program for community counseling at the University of Phoenix. Sara is attending Bel-Rea Veterinary Institute. Both universities are in Denver. Robinson writes that with both their children grown the couple has decided to invest in new careers. “Home has new academic atmosphere with all the studying going on!” Send him email at ranger6a@hotmail.com 1973 Monica Kirk, BA, lives in Tigard, Ore., and sends a note indicating that she has accepted a temporary appointment with the National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC) at Portland State University’s Hatfield School of Government. “Through conducting applied research and development in the field of collaborative problem-solving, NPCC creates educational training materials and promotes governing models and systems,” she writes. After one year with NPCC Kirk will return to her position as special counsel with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 Portland office. Send her email at monicakirk@mac.com 1973 John Skinner, BGS, is an independent associate and manager for Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., as is his wife, Sharon. Send him email at skinner@surewest.net

Summer 2005 • 41

Class Notes 1975 Rich Eyberg, BS, is senior vice president for Alliance Data Systems, which, according to its website, is “one of the country's largest providers of payment processing, private label credit, billing, customer care, and loyalty and database marketing services to the retail, petroleum, financial services, utility and transportation markets.” Eyberg lives in Plano, Texas, and takes email at eyfour@hotmail.com

Jerry Ryan, MS, is mayor of Bellevue, Neb. He was elected to that post in 1998. Prior to that he retired from the U.S. Army and completed a second career as an educator, serving as principal at several area schools. He holds four degrees, including a doctorate in education from the University of Nebraska. He and his wife, Jan, have three adult children. He is active in the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Retired Officers Association, the National Association of Secondary Principals, the Eagle Scout Advisory Board and the Knights of Columbus.

1975 Charles L. Miller, BM, lives in Omaha and is a musician, educator, author and music arranger.

He grew up in the Rice Quarters section of Prescott, Ark., showing musical promise by age nine when singing for funerals and other church functions, his mother Essie often accompanying him on piano. He eventually took up the trumpet, performing the school fight song after playing it for just a few minutes. In the sixth grade he joined the high school’s band. He later played the cornet, taking it with him to Hawaii when he joined the U.S. Army. After four years he moved to Omaha, landing a job as a draftsman at Offutt Air Force Base. He began attending UNO in the summer of 1969, performing in orchestras, the marching band, opera pit orchestra and stage band. He also was instrumental in getting jazz groups to perform on campus. Miller

42 • Summer 2005

taught for five years as an adjunct professor in UNO’s department of black studies, while there co-authoring a book with Dr. James L. Conyers Jr. and others, “African American Jazz and Rap: Social and Philosophical Examinations of Black Expressive Behavior.” At UNO he also taught a class in jazz improvisation through the black studies department by way of the Soul Gospel Choir under the direction of Alene Carter.

Miller also has a graduate degree from the University of NebraskaLincoln, attended Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year, and later graduated on the same stage with Wynton Marsalis at Mason Gross School Of Music in Rutgers University. On stage, Miller has performed in various kinds of ensembles and performed with/opened for numerous jazz musicians, including legendary organist Jimmy Smith, guitarist Kenny Burrell and saxophonist Grover Washington. He and his band also opened for various pop musical groups, including The New Edition and The Dazz Band. Miller released a

S U M M E R jazz CD in 2003, “Changes For Tena” (available at www.cdbaby.com/chuckmiller). The driving force behind the CD was his wife, Chestene Roberson Miller (aka Tena). In the summer of 2003, Miller was inducted into The McRae High School Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in music. Other recipients of the prestigious award include Anita Pointer of the “Pointer Sisters.”

Miller’s community service today includes teaching, performing and advisory counseling. He even has taught music on street corners, writing on shirttails, handkerchiefs, napkins and any other materials available. He has donated his time to perform at The Nebraska State Penitentiary for inmates, at various church events and at retirement centers. He volunteered and served on the advisory council for The Nebraska Arts Council. Recently, Miller agreed to write and arrange a jazz composition for the North High School Jazz Ensemble, which was scheduled to perform the piece in May. In 2004, Miller received an honorary day at The North

John Dean visits

Omaha Boys and Girls’ Club in celebration of his contributions to the Omaha Community. Miller currently is director of middle school bands for Music In Catholic Schools in Omaha. He frequently conducts two 60-piece bands and one 65-piece honor band. He is the minister of music at the Freestone Baptist Church, where he plays the Hammond organ, performs on his Bach trumpet and directs the mass choir. He is a member of the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association, Music Educator’s National Conference, and The Chicago River Primitive Baptist Association. “Thanks to my education I received from The University of Nebraska at Omaha,” he writes, “it’s a great blessing to still be involved in making music.”

1978 Bruce V. Edwards, BGS, lives in Indianapolis, Ind., and writes, “Hi, all. Just wanted to let everyone know that after over 10 years in the pharmaceutical field, I have moved into the resort industry. Will be moving back to

Flashback File

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From the 1974-75 UNO Yearbook

ohn Dean opened up his lecture on Watergate March 7 in the Civic Auditorium Music Hall, by explaining that it is not his intention to commercialize Watergate by going on a lecture tour.

“This is a golden opportunity to visit students,” said Dean, “I want to share my bad judgements and mistakes with the public.”

“I feel a little awkward speaking about Watergate,” commented Dean, as he spoke of his personal aspects of the Watergate experience. Dean views Watergate as being one of best experiences in respect to his changing perceptions of government. It has also been one of the worst experiences that has happened to him, the worst being family grief, jail, and disgrace. The lecture ended with a question and answer period.

Dean’s Omaha appearance came close to the end of his six week tour, although several other colleges were willing to pay him up to $5,000 to appear. Throughout his tour, Dean talked to approximately 100,000 people.

UNOALUM

Southern California to work in management at several resorts.”

Send him emails at e6324@msn.com 1980 Mary Katherine HamiltonSmith, BA, lives in Libertyville, Ill., and sends this note: “Two updates in my life. Recently promoted to director of cultural resources for the Lake County Forest Preserves in Chicago’s north suburbs, where I am in charge of the Lake County Discovery Museum, the Greenbelt Cultural Center, the Bonner Heritage Farm, and the restoration of the Adlai E. Stevenson Historic Home. I am also the editor for the new book, ‘A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Yards: Sports Photography of Walter Payton,’ published in 2004. I live in Libertyville with my husband, Jess Smith (Westside HS 1975), and sons Jackson and Benton.” Send Hamilton-Smith emails at khamilton-smith@sbcglobal.net Eric (Ric) D. Hines, BS, lives in Omaha and works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste, Center of Expertise (HTRW-CX) in Omaha.

He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Nebraska, a certified tennis instructor with the U.S. Professional Tennis Association and a certified master racquet technician with the U.S. Racquet Stringers Association. He is married and has two children, one attending Baylor Medical School in Dallas and the other at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Ric's hobbies are playing tennis, stringing tennis racquets, and offroading with his recently established local HUMMER club, the Omaha Hummer Owner Group (OMAHOG). He also belongs to the Midwest HUMMER Club. Send him email at Hum2@cox.net 1981 Dennis H. Wenthold, MS, lives in Naples, Fla., and is an assistant principal of curriculum at East Naples Middle School.

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M. Joan Cromer, MSW, is president of Soroptimist International “a world-wide organisation for women in management and the professions working through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women.” It has more than 3,000 clubs in 120-plus countries.

Cromer sent a letter to the Alum telling of a recent encounter with a Soroptimist member in South Africa. “I had the opportunity . . . to participate in a one-year anniversary celebration of the

Vutfhamo’s Children’s Home established by the nine Soroptimist clubs of South Africa,” she notes. “The children’s home project was in response to the AIDS epidemic and incidence of AIDS orphans in South Africa. A member of Soroptimist International of SI Mafikeng, Prof. Lulama Qalinge, introduced herself to me. In speaking to the group assembled I had mentioned that I was from Nebraska, USA. She commented she had been in Omaha. When I

Future Alums Got a picture of your little tyke?

Send it our way as a print or in electronic format and we’ll post it on our website!

Emma Kathryn Vatnsdal, daughter of Tracy and Ted H. (’95) Vatnsdal of Fishers, Ind.

Olivia Page Mossage, daughter of Mike and Page (Lillis, ’98) Mossage of Omaha.

Daniela Valentina Sucha, daughter of Claudia and Bryan (’00) Sucha of Omaha.

Fallon Sophia Hunter, daughter of Matthew and Pamela (Quintero, ’90) Hunter of Colorado Springs, Colo.

Alec Christian Ramaekers, son of Stephen and Keri (Crumley, ’97, ’01, ’04) Ramaekers of Omaha.

Connor Benjamin Sweazy, son of Sarah (Van Zyl, ’02) and Denver, (’01) Sweazy of Omaha.

Ava Marie Schneider, daughter of Susanna (Bede, ’02) and Todd Schneider of Omaha.

Kora Jaide Dykstra, daughter of Tonya and Matthew (’00) Dykstra of Omaha.

Lauren Grace Goebel, daughter of Pam and Doug (’99) Goebel of Omaha.

Kellen Michael Baker, son of Dave and Jodi (Booke’98) Baker of Lakeside, Calif.

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inquired about the occasion for her visit to Omaha, she said she had been a social work student at UNO.” Qalinge graduated from UNO in 1980 with an MSW. She is an associate professor in South African’s North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, department of social work.

1985 Cynthia I. Fitzgerald, BA, lives in Plano, Texas, and writes: “I could have never guessed how far my education from UNO

Sons & Daughters of UNO Alumni

Natalie Jane Haberman, daughter of Amy (Bailey, ’04) and Stephen (’03) Haberman of Omaha.

Henry Douglas Rief and Hadley Ane Rief, twin grandson and granddaughter of Vicki (Jensen, ’74) and Leigh (’77) Freeman of Overland Park, Kansas.

Megan Monica Hacker, daughter of Kristine (Cherek, ’97) and Timothy (’88) Hacker of Omaha.

Andrew Benjamin-Jack Williams, son of Kathy and Ben (’99) Williams of Plainfield, Ill. Lauren Kathleen Carbee and Allison Suzanne Carbee, twin daughters of Jason and Kim (Jiede, ’01) Carbee of Omaha

Alexander Merrill Lee Templeton, son of Bart and Melinda (Burger, ’02) Templeton of Omaha and grandson of Lindamood (Templeton, ’69) of Omaha Aidan John Hill, son of Tricia and Kevin (’96) Hill of Gaithersburg, Md., and grandson of Nancy (’01) Hill of Warrenville, Ill.

Victoria Faith Vaughn, daughter of Denai and Timothy (’99) Vaughn and granddaughter of Stan Vaughn ’79 of Omaha.

Carson James Coleman and Kacie Rose Coleman, twin son and daughter of Frankie (Black/Gibbs ’00) and Garret (’92) Coleman.

Submit a Future Alum on the Web www.unoalumni.org/magazine/sub-

mit_future_alum/

Send us news of your baby—we’ll send a T-shirt and certificate and publish the good news. Include address, baby’s name, date of birth, parents’ names and graduation year(s).

Please send the announcement within one year of the birth at www.unoalumni.org/magazine/submit_future_alum. Or, mail to: Future Alums, UNO Alumni Association, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182. FAX birth announcements to: (402) 554-3787.

Summer 2005 • 43

Class Notes

S U M M E R Flashback File

OU’s first Fulbright Fellow

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From the June 1960 University of Omaha Alumni Newsletter

he scholastic achievements of some 30 Class of 1960 or recent graduates have attracted nationwide merit.

This year OU produced a Fulbright scholar, two Woodrow Wilson Fellowship winners, six National Defense Act scholarships recipients, and 19 others who received graduate assistantships or awards for further study.

Rita Peltz (pictured right) is the first OU student to win a Fulbright Fellowship. She will study French language, literatures and civilization at the University of Montpellier, France.

would take me. Since moving to Dallas in 1996, I started a company, DMSG, Inc., that sells materials to the federal government and the department of defense worldwide. In 2001, after 9-11 and the anthrax crisis, my firm was selected by the U.S. Postal Service to supply respirator masks to all U.S. Post Offices worldwide. In March 2005 I was named "Circle of Excellence Honoree" Woman of the Year by the D/FW African American Chamber of Commerce. In addition, I have begun to give motivational speeches throughout the state of Texas regarding the necessary ingredients for success.”

Send her emails at: cfitzgerald1@comcast.net 1986 Steve Novotny, BGS, was promoted in February to the rank of colonel with a U.S. Army Reserve unit in Des Moines. “I'm an operations officer for a logistics unit,” he writes. “I'm just happy to wear the uniform and contribute to the cause.” His promotion became official while he participated in a computer simulations exercise in Germany.

1988 Merrillyn VanZandt Krider, MS is retired and lives in Martinez, Calif. She retired from Millard Public Schools as a counselor and moved to California’s Bay Area

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“to be near two daughters and two granddaughters.” Send her email at merrkri@juno.com 1989 Tim P. Zuraff, BSBA, lives in Concord, N.C., and is vice president/business risk manager for Wachovia Mortgage Corporation.

He has lived in North Carolina since 1999. Send him email at tim.zuraff@wachovia.com 1990 David Jahr, BGS, lives in Laguna Hills, Calif., and recently formed BizEx Marketing, specializing in planning and executing “business expansion strategies” for newly formed, as well as small to large companies. “Many times little things—a key message, memorable image or news coverage—can make a big difference,” wrote Jahr. “My goal is to provide business expansion strategies that yield a significant return on investment, as well as help people grow professionally.”

Jahr, married with two children, previously was a partner with Ralph Rodheim of the Rodheim Marketing Group in Costa Mesa, Calif., for eight years, serving some of the largest corporations in the world in a variety of industries. He is a board member for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, a member of the Public Relations Society of America, and a volun-

teer at Rock Hills Church. His company’s website, www.bizexmarketing.com, debuts in June.

Send emails to Jahr at jahrapr@cox.net 1992 Anne-Marie C. Evans Lee, BA, lives in Roanoke, Texas, and begins her Class Note with an emphatic, “Wow! It’s been 12 years since I graduated from UNO and 10 years since I moved to Texas. I actually miss the snow—well, miss seeing it, not the scraping of windshields or shoveling. Life for us is full of family activities, church and work. We've truly been blessed.

My husband, Lonnie, works for Verizon and we have two beautiful children: Alexandra, 3-1/2, and Andrew Michael, 2. In addition to raising a family, I’m working for a healthcare organization and am responsible for internal business education and people development. We look forward to our visits to Omaha to see Grandma.” Send emails to Lee at alee@novationco.com 1994 Jeffrey Harder, BS, sends the following note: “I have been living in San Diego for a year and a half. I was married to my wife, Jennifer, in 2001; we met in a biology class at UNO back in 1990. I am currently working in microbiology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.”

Send him email at jharder@scripps.edu 1995 Gerald (Chip) Monahan, BSBA, writes that in June 2004 he began his own business, Monahan Financial Services. Prior to that he had spent nine years as a selfemployed agent at Mutual of Omaha. He lives in Omaha and is married with three kids. Send him email at gfmon3@cox.net 1997 Erin Daugherty, BGS, lives in Medicine Lake, Minn., and is owner and president of The Window Store (see www.the-window-store.com), a multi-million dollar home

improvement company. He also owns HP Mortage (broker loans) and Ackerman and Daugherty Investments (asset holding company). Send him emails at erin@thermalmaxx.com Eric J. Buczkowski, BS, is a middle school physical education/health teacher and coach at The Anglo-American School of Moscow. He writes via email: “After graduation I taught elementary grades for three years in the Omaha Public Schools. I looked into teaching overseas and got a position at The Canadian Academy in Kobe, Japan. I taught and coached four years at the school, where more than 40 countries were represented. I coached a great volleyball team that won a championship for the school. I enjoyed Japan and met people from many different cultures. I decided to look again for a change and was offered a position at a middle school at The Anglo-American School of Moscow in Russia. Our school has students from England, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. At the time of this writing I am awaiting the start of spring sports (so much snow!). I’m thinking of starting an indoor game of softball—but I doubt it will catch on.

We are definitely a winter sports school. Every student is required to have ice skates. I have been fortunate to be able to travel. I have been to many Asian countries and also managed to see Egypt. I hope to visit Europe while at this position and then hope to move on to another challenge in another country. I am single and enjoy the freedom to be able to see the world.”

1999 Dror Lewy, BA, is an attorney with Gulfcoast Legal Services, Inc., and lives in Bradenton, Fla. Lewy writes: “After graduating from UNO I took some time off to ‘find myself.’ A year later, I found myself in law school at U of N college of Law. Three years later I moved to Florida, took and passed the bar, and after surviving two hurricanes, found a

UNOALUM

job at a public interest law firm where I practice elder law.” Send Lewy emails at dlewy2002@yahoo.com 2000 Matthew J. Dykstra, MS, was named a 2004 Nebraska Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year by the Nebraska Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. He lives in Omaha and teaches for Millard Public Schools. Send him email at mdykstra@mpsomaha.org Tanya M. McCann, BA, lives in Omaha and works at Jackson Hewitt tax service. Send her emails at goshawnt@usa.com 2002 Linda Harvey, MPA, lives in Manhattan, Kansas, and faxes the following: “Since August 2004 I have been both a project coordinator and instructor in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University. I teach classes in public relations, and am planning to start a line of research bringing my nonprofit management and PR backgrounds together. I will focus on determining best practices in the teaching of the fund-raising specialization of PR. Secondly, I have started my own publication, called PCOS Today, a newsmagazine devoted to providing up-to-date information about polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Lastly, I am in the process of applying for doctoral study in sociology at K-State. I would begin classes in Fall 2005 or Spring 2006. Send her email at writergirlks@cox.net or at pcostoday@cox.net.

Cynthia M. Vana, BA, sends an email from Omaha that, “Every great city deserves a great library. As a PR professional employed by Omaha Public Library, I love playing a role in the endeavor to transform our community's library from good to great! My involvement with organizations such as PRSSA, as well as teachers like Karen

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

Weber, Hugh Reilly, Nancy Hultquist, and others in UNO’s communications program provided me with the necessary education and experience to transition into a gratifying public relations career. Thank you UNO and the UNO Alumni Association!” Send Vana emails at cmvana@omaha.lib.ne.us Michelle McKeever, MS, began

volunteer work in Tanzania in April, joining Global Service Corps (GSC) as an HIV/AIDS prevention educator. GSC (globalservicecorps.org) is a nonprofit international volunteer organization. McKeever will participate in small, specialized programs and in personalized projects. The AIDS pandemic has reached crisis proportions in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, 1.3 million

Yellow Journalism

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adults and children are infected with HIV, approximately 8 percent of the population.

McKeever has spent more than 10 years working as an elementary school teacher in the United States and abroad. She has volunteered previously in Russia, Korea and Vietnam. Currently, she sells pharmaceuticals by informing physicians about approved medicines.

Flashback File

Y

Monday, Jan. 12, 1920

es, here be the l'il, l'il ol' Yeller Sheet back again. Had you thought it was lost? That's once we fooled you. It's the first appearance of it in 1920 - this famous sheet that has lived for years - since the first class to graduate from the Uni. - the class of 1913 - started it. Lost? NEVER! It is just as much a part of the school as ever. We won't say anything at all about them, but some of them Yellow Sheet Editors hab' shor' been sluffin' on de job!

But maybe they were trying to learn in this last month of school all that they were supposed to since Sept. - like a little Senior we know of - we won't tell her name, but she teaches the Prep. History class and her initials are M.K. First - what did you all think of that perfectly wonderful basketball game last Friday?? Talk about team work - Ernie's basket-tossers just put it all over the Fort's. And any of you (and this means a whole lot of you who should have come - who missed the time of their lives, have our pity of missing such a treat. It was pep from start to finish - so fast that we didn't finish cheering for one basket than the referee was putting the ball in play after another!!!!! Wade Reeves at guarding showed no sympathy for the poor Fort forwards. Phelps at center just naturally took the ball away from the other center. Lorin ran so fast from one end of the floor to the other that he left his man gazing in awe at him! Oh, and Jack Beacom threw in baskets one after the other. Morey Pressly was a wizard at this game. Then our subs - my but they could play. If you missed this one - for goodness' sake - don't cheat yourself again when we play Yankton here on Thursday night!!! OH, BOY! What with Creighton playing them too, we sure have the chance to show Creighton one of two things ----- that is THAT WE CAN PLAY BASKETBALL!!! BETTER HURRY UP AND GET IN LINE FOR A TICKET! OH' LA! LA! You Freshmen! Even tho' we love to call you "Freshie," we must hand it to you about your party. Couldn't have been better. The Sophomores ought to take a hint that they should have had one ages ago. To think that the Freshmen beat them to it. Ask Paul where he got his musical voice??? And Mogge - his wonderful costume. Also Clyde with his rollin' eyes! And last but not least - the "cute little girl?" No wonder that Mogge would "Be so happy when the preacher makes you mine," with such a bashful dimpled girl as Harold.

How can it was Miss Ward calmly announced that the Organic Chem. Class would not be troubled with palpitation of the heart for two whole weeks! How could you deprive Lucille of the pleasant task of marking down zeros, etc.&? Just think - no test for 14 days.

Ask some of the boys - just what they thought of the supper in Miss Ward's room the evening of the game.

Summer 2005 • 45

Class Notes In Memoriam 1932 1934 1937 1939 1940 1942 1944 1945 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1954

1955

1956 1958 1959 1960

C. L. Hollister John “Jay” Planteen Robert R. Anthes Eugene “Gene” Telpner Francis D. Johnson Frank W. Hodak Austin L. Vickery, Jr. Edna A. Fagan Warren C. Larson Marie Tesar Vitu Dorothy M. Solomon Hazen Leopold H. Hoppe George M. Lacey Lyle N. Morse Bruere Lorelle E. “Al” Alford Chester A. Colvin, Jr Donald F. Eastman Warren J. Marquiss Irene Lewis Nelson Robert M. Stryker Ira J. Judy Cecil F. McGee Stuart P. Vincent Dorothy J. Traynor Smith Helen D. Hausner Wyckoff George E. Andrews Georgia L. Scheumann Oliver N. “Bud” Esco, Jr John F. Georger

Class Notes

S U M M E R

1960 Willard K. Kietzer 1961 Paul H. Dacklin Hugh W. Graham Rodney L. Hansen Samuel J. Hooper Gerry Whiting 1964 John W. Coffman Arthur “Robert” Schlesiger 1965 Dolores M. Altermatt Billings Cornelia Cary Field Charles S. McClain Charles M. Murray George B. Parkes John W. Scheneman, Jr. 1966 Sydna “Burt” Allen Donald P. Faur Richard G. “Rich” Ivers Louise M. Adams Senez 1967 Audrey L. Hammann Bedell LeRoy J. Dyer Virginia O. Troutman Nelsen Charles E. Tyler 1968 JoAnn M. Braymen Delon T. Murdock 1969 Catherine L. Griffith Wanda R. Wilson Hoefker Roger L. Jirka 1969 Marjorie E. Gehrk Matzen

1969 Donald L. Merrill William J. O'Keefe Marlene J. Gilbertson Daganaar 1970 George C. Bogan Dorothy L. Calvert Clifton D. Jordan Angelo V. “Tony” Pardi 1971 Leonard B. Desmul Richard F. Dotson Theodore A. Gould Roger A. McCollom Ralph W. Purnell Richard F. Dotson Cynthia M. Kuppig Van Dewalle 1972 Helen “Carol” Feuerstein Earnest M. Mayes 1973 Anne M. Triba Dittrick 1974 Linda M. Byrd Ivory 1975 Shirley A. Cade William M. Cox Richard J. Farley Matthew F. Wickham 1976 Daniel Haley 1976 Jerry R. Huston Otis L. Layne 1977 Miriam Howard Tyler 1979 Jean M. Hays 1980 Marjorie A. Fransiscus Grandfield 1981 Sandra VanderpoolWalenz-Abbott

2 0 0 5

1983 Kim L. Parker Dinges 1985 Shirley V. Bahnsen Lorraine Redwine Borer 1990 Barbara A. Burt 1992 Gregory A. Wilson 1994 Kenneth A. Cahoon 1995 Jane E. Harris Robert J. Kreft 1996 Janet L. Mlotek 1997 Gail L. Stoner

Stickels Puzzle

T

From page 31

here are 17 squares within the puzzle. “And here's the most interesting thing about that puzzle,” Terry Stickels says.

“No one has ever been able to solve it on the first goaround! Isn't that strange? Legendary genius (mathematics/computer science/artist/PhD., Stanford) Scott Kim designed it for me and it turns out it is somewhat of an optical illusion because of the colors. He didn't intend it that way . . . he miscounted the squares himself after creating it! A great puzzle that was an accident.”

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

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_______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ UNOALUM

The UNO Century Club C

entury Club membership consists of individuals who support their alma mater with gifts of $100 or more. Gifts support various alumni association programs and services that make for a stronger, more vibrant university. With their UNRESTRICTED gift, Century Club donors receive one of five personalized mementos (pictured at right), special recognition in an annual report and invitations to select events throughout the year.

Welcome to the Club!

Thanks to these upgraded Century Club donors!

To Diamond ($1,000 +) Jon & Adrian Minks Bernard A. Wieger Jack W. Williams To Gold ($500 +) Gary & Peg Crouch Paul R. Kenney Deborah D. & Michael J. McLarney Susan C. Mehaffey To Silver ($250 +) Susan K. Bizzarri Anne L. Breslow-Davies Christopher Draney Ronald J. Frisse Patrick Gerbus Karen L. Hutchinson John E. Kausn Joseph & Diane Krzemien

Javier & Nancy Mejia David B. Powell Richard & Diane Westin Welcome to these firsttime Century Club donors!

Diamond ($1,000 +) Jolene K. Pace Silver ($250 +) Steven P. Duffield Bill & Vivian Meyer Debra L. Rau Daniel R. Sweetwood Bronze ($100 +) Gerald T. Adamek Dana & Marcia Anderson James D. Bailey Jeremy D. Ball Terrill Bresette Thomas & Carol Buffington John D. Carter

*From donor rolls Jan. 1 thru May 31, 2005.

August Cerillo Steven & Willis Corcoran Mark & Mary Costello Jim F. Crebbin Clifford C. Cunningham Vince Czerwinski Amanda A. Dailey Steven P. Duffield Cynthia K. Duggin Guy O. Duncan Michael W. Erwin Sandra M. Fletcher Kevin Foral Tommy J. Fulcher, Jr. Jenna Fullerton John J. Griffith Myron Gross-Rhode Heather Hain Brent F. Harris James F. Heflinger Jeffrey A. Heisinger John Helbing Jo. T. Hurst

Win UNO Season Hockey Tickets!

Nancy J. Jacobson C. Dale & Pamela Jacobson Cynthia L. Jenkins Sue E. Jones Dennis & Beth Kaiser Jerilyn & James Kamm William Kee Richard C. Kellams James B & Marilyn F. Kesnik Virginia L. Kluska William & Mellanee Kvasnicka Suzanne Larsen Arnold Martin, Jr. William G. Mavity David M. McAlhaney Pam McKeag Michael J. McNally Craig C. McVea Maureen M. Moluf Steve J. Novotny C. Terry Olson

UNO Annual Fund gifts support of an array of programs and services, including the “In Care Of” care package program for UNO-affiliated soldiers (story page 37) and the “Aid to Afghanistan” program (page 21). Gifts also support teaching awards, professorships, communications and various departmental services.

To qualify for the UNO season hockey ticket drawing, return the form below with your tax-deductible gift today!

D

on’t miss your chance to win a pair of UNO season hockey tickets! All donors of $25 or more who have submitted their donations or pledges by June 30 will be entered in a randrom drawing to catch the Mavs in action in the 2005-06 season.

2005 UNO Annual Fund Donation Form

STEP 1—Check level

q

Alumni Card Donor Less than $25

q Calendar Donor $25 or more

q Gold Card Donor $50 or more

q Bronze Century $100 or more

q Silver Century q

$250 or more

Golden Century $500 or more

STEP 2—Mark payment information A.q Check enclosed for $ B.q Bill me for $

q

q

Visa

q

MasterCard

Expiration Date:__________

Card No.:

$1,000 or more

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

in

Name month

.

C.q I authorize the UNO Alumni Association to collect my gift of $ through my:

q Diamond Century Platinum Century $2,500 or more

STEP 3—Complete Name and Address

.

Payable to UNO Annual Fund.

Signature

q

Curtis G. Parker Robert L. Perry Johnny A. Phillips Angella A. Pieper Jerry Prismantas Robert E. Randolph Guy L. Reece II Leroy Roberts Mary A. Ruschl Roger W. Sayers H. Kenneth Seymour Joyce A. Sheridan Don Shipley Ltc. (Ret) Phillip H. Smith Barry T. Stuart Greg G. Swanson Margaret Timmerman Thomas P. Ulrich Regina E. Wolf Kathleen M. Zadina

Discover

As you wish it to appear in our 2005 Annual Report

Address City/State/Zip Phone E-mail Save time and a stamp . . .

Donate online at www.unoalumni.org

Summer 2005 • 47

Make a World of Difference 2005 Annual Fund

Make a World of Difference through a contribution to the 2005 UNO Annual Fund. In addition to traditional support of campus, donations support the following endeavors: Aid to Afghanistan: Through coordination with UNO’s Center for Afghanistan Studies the Association is providing supplies for students and teachers in Afghanistan schools.

In Care Of: In gratitude for the sacrifices being made by U.S. soldiers the Association has established “In Care Of” — military care packages sent to UNO alumni, students or children of UNO alumni/students/faculty/staff who currently are at war.

Donate today at www.unoalumni.org/give_to_uno or fill out the form on page 47 and return it to us today.

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

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