University of Dayton Magazine, Winter 2019

THANK YOU, DAD

ARENA AT 50

CAPITOL INVESTMENT

FACE S — of —

FA ITH

FLY BY QUINTESSENTIAL FLYER STORIES

Birthday surprise

The tale of a bridge, a cherry bomb and a whole lot of Beers B Y G I TA B A L A K R I S H N A N

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Illustration by DAN ZETTWOCH

T

HE PHONE CONVERSATION BE-

finals of the NIT basketball tournament tween civil engineering major Ryan in New York City,” he said. “They were in Olson ’20 and his grandparents the news, so it caught my eye. And, that went something like this. is why I applied to that “Hi, Grandpa and Grandma. I’m in school — because I liked this bridge building competition and my basketball.” team just won. Before our bridge gets Flyer spirit quickly transported for the next round, it’s disspread through the family. played in the conference room at KetterNearly two dozen meming Labs. Can you come over here next bers have since walked on weekend to see it?” campus.

Ryan’s grandparents — Bill Beer Sr. ’61 Three of the four Beer and Ann Beer — said yes. It was all part of children graduated from a ruse the extended Beer family had come UD and subsequently up with to lure grandpa and grandma to found their spouses at campus. the University. And many With Ryan’s made-up story, the famof their offspring have at ily was able to get Bill Sr. and Ann to camone time visited campus pus without suspecting something out of or graduated from here. the ordinary.

Two relatives are current The family had been searching for the students. perfect way to celebrate the eldest Beer’s “I really can’t rememmilestone 80th birthday. And celebrating ber a time that UD wasn’t on campus was only fitting. a part of my life,” Bill Beer Their Flyer family legacy began with Jr. ’88 said.

Bill Sr., who graduated with a degree in When Bill Sr. walked into the conferchemical engineering. Bill Sr. recalled ence room at the Kettering Labs building he was a student so long ago that women Oct. 5, he could only see the faceless silhad no place to live on campus. They even houettes of many people standing in front needed witten permission from their parof the large window as the sun turned colents to live off campus, somewhere other orful clothing into dark shadows. than home.

It was when he took several steps into He recalls his first residence at Foundthe room that he recognized the shadowy ers Hall. He said he wishes he could have figures as his own family members. stayed longer in the dorm, on the “Surprise!” they all shouted, fifth floor, but some unfortunate as Bill Sr. got the shock of his If you have circumstances made that year lifetime. a Flyer-to-Flyer his last in the dorm. run-in, adventure Confusion set in. “I kept “It was not me,” he said. “But or experience wondering, where in the world that embodies there were some boys who were is this model bridge I came here the strong throwing these little cherry to look at?” Bill Sr. said. community and bombs down the stairwell. And There was no bridge. But, bond shared by well — everyone thought it was there was something else the the Flyer family, coming from the top floor.” He send your story family had in store for the elder ended up moving to 219 Kiefaber to magazine@ Beers. Nearly 40 members of St. the following year. udayton.edu. the Beer family came to campus He loved UD, but it was sheer not only to celebrate their patriluck that Bill Sr. chose the school in the arch’s birthday but also to unveil somefirst place. thing even more special.

“I had not heard of UD before, but that As the family encircled Bill Sr. and year, the basketball team made it to the Ann, Bill Jr. told them that regardless of

whether future Beers chose to become Flyers, many more individuals would soon become part of the Beer family legacy — through the William and Ann Beer Family Scholarship.

Bill Jr. and his wife, Lori Hinnenkamp Beer ’89, had wanted to give back to their alma mater for years. The milestone birthday felt like the best time to present their gift both to his parents and UD. The scholarship helps fund UD’s Flyer Promise program to support student access to and affordability of a UD degree.

“He was stunned, excited, and there were tears,” Bill Jr. said.

The scholarship will be awarded to students pursuing subjects in the STEM field.

“Every time I think about it, I have a very hard time wrapping my mind around it,” Bill Sr. said, “the fact that this will help someone who would otherwise not be able to afford to go to this school. It’s unbelievable to think that even after I’m gone, this scholarship will still be there.”

For Ryan’s part, he’s excited that some high school student is going to be presented with the Beer Scholarship. “I think that is kind of funny,” Ryan said. Grandpa Beer agreed, saying he loved having a last name that could make people smile and laugh.

The family hopes scholarship recipients will take the financial gift and reach their ultimate goals. “UD gave us our start in life,” Bill Jr. said. “The University made us into people who had a good chance after graduation. And that’s exactly what we hope for these students.”

Maybe they will become a future legacy family, like Bill Sr., minus the cherry bombs.

I really can’t remember a time that UD wasn’t part of my life.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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CONTENTS WINTER 2019–20

FEATURES

28

Faces of faith

T he divine flourishes among faculty, staff, students

4

34

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Pointe person

W hen dance was in danger, Anna Glass ’99 stepped in

40

Capitol investment

F lyer farm team grows in Ohio’s statehouse Photograph by BRIGHAM FISHER

1

13

ONLINE EXTRAS

udayton.edu/magazine

Lessons learned

40

46

Alumni wisdom from ’17, ’10, ’09

This is our house Tour UD Arena

1 // Fly By Birthday surprise

6 // Our UD Thank you, Dad

FLIGHT DECK

10 // Family pledges $5M

THE ALUMNI

46 // Spotlight A calling to protect

Meet a campaign co-chair

13 // View Finder Turn it up

A peek inside journals kept by Flyer interns

49 // My Old House 40 Woodland 51 // Letter from home The dollar in the envelope 53 // Class Notes

Berry gifts span three generations

11 // Stories to tell

Summer at the statehouse

61 // Perceptions 64 // Parting Words Two centuries of Marianist education

DAYMAG ON THE GO Read the magazine anytime, anywhere, through the free University of Dayton Magazine app or online at bit.ly/UDM_digital.

Want the mag via mail or email?

Tell us: magazine@udayton.edu.

17 // Flyer Time 11 p.m. Stuart Field

19 // Where Are You Reading?

Iceland, Yellowstone, Zambia

20 // Connections Wash, rinse, dry, repeat ON THE COVER Cadie Mukaneza brought her Roman Catholic faith from Rwanda to Dayton.

Photograph by Larry Burgess.

24 // Sports Arena shines brightly at 50

University of Dayton Magazine (Winter 2019–20, Vol. 12, No. 2, ISSN 2152-3673) is published quarterly by the University of Dayton, University Marketing and Communications, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-1303.

Periodicals postage paid at Dayton, Ohio. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to University of Dayton Magazine, Records Office, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-7051.

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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OUR UD PRESIDENT’S COMMENTARY

Thank you, Dad

I

HAVE OFTEN BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING SENTIMENTAL.

In my defense, Italian Catholics are known to be a bit emotional. My eyes well up watching movies, dropping my kids off at college and thinking about what Karen means to me. I plead guilty, unapologetically.

I also get emotional when I think about how my parents sacrificed, worked so hard and strived to set a good example for me as spouses, parents, Christians and Americans. While I have tried many times to articulate to my parents the profound depth of my gratitude, I always felt like I missed the mark. After all, what can you say when someone has given you everything?

It’s not a secret that part of my job as president is to raise money to support our incredible students, extraordinary faculty and staff, and the mission and identity of our Catholic, Marianist university. The generosity of our alumni, parents and friends has moved me, and it is certainly making a difference for the quality and vitality of UD. In gifts large and small, Karen and I have been inspired by the stories of why people give to UD, what they are trying to accomplish and who they are honoring through their gift.

The University of Dayton is our home, too. So when we decided to make our first major gift, the why (because we love UD) and the what (student support) were obvious.

And then the sentimental Italian Catholic side of me kicked

Santa couldn't have picked a better gift to honor Joseph Spina, left.

in: I wanted to honor my father in a way that reflects his heart, tenacity and his very essence.

Now 94, my dad has had an impact on the lives of countless people, especially me. He was a sickly child of immigrants who grew up dirt poor in the Great Depression, fought bravely in the European theater of World War II, helped to build this country up as a member of the Greatest Generation, and dedicated himself to educating thousands of children as a biology teacher and middle school administrator in Buffalo, New York.

Karen and our children, Kaitlyn and Emery, embraced the idea. After all, they see the extraordinary goodness of my father, the way he has dedicated his life to serving others, his humility and humanity, his love of God, and his care for others.

And we all see his impact in the world around him. How fitting, we all thought, to create a scholarship program at our beloved UD that will ensure — forever — that deserving students who might otherwise struggle to afford UD walk this amazing University as “Joseph P. Spina Scholars.”

How blessed we are to be able to honor our daily inspiration in this way at the University we love.

Thank you, Dad.

ER IC F. SPI NA President, University of Dayton

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

THE BUZZ President Eric F. Spina

My sadness was tempered with a sense of pride for how the campus and community have responded to this tragedy.

L I K E T H E L O OK Congratulations on the awesome new look and solid content of the Autumn 2019 issue.

Wow! I just wish you’d quit moving my year closer to the front of Class Notes ...

—Bob Batz Jr. ’85

Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania

but out of the love that we have for grace that Jesus gives through faith in his atoning work on the cross. Without a personal relationship with Jesus all of our righteous works are as “filthy rags” in God’s sight. That is where “The Lesson from Hell” should be focusing our attention.

—Rod Ross ’86 Piketon, Ohio

F O CUS ON ET E R N A L T H I NG S “The Lesson from Hell” in the Autumn 2019 issue caught my attention. Although the artwork was fantastic, the basic assumption that the doctrine of hell was used to “teach us what it means to be good” and “on care for the other and love of the neighbor” is only secondary. When Jesus was asked, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus answered, “You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The doctrine of hell in the New Testament and early Christian texts is not on “care for the other and love of the neighbor.” It is to get our focus on eternal things.

In Matthew 7 Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven.” What is the father’s will that we are to do? In John 6:28-29, the people asked Jesus, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.”

Yes, we are to do good works not to be a “moral” person or out of fear from eternal damnation

N U R SI NG M EMOR I E S The piece “New Again” [Autumn 2019] failed to include the class from which I graduated at UD, which matriculated in 1953 and graduated in 1957. This class was housed at the St. Elizabeth Hospital dormitory, met for classes there and rode a jitney to the UD camps for academic classes; clinical experience was scheduled at St. Elizabeth Hospital. From this group, eight students received a bachelor’s degree in science with a concentration in nursing. I appreciate my UD education as a very special experience, which served me well over a 30-year employment history.

—Patricia Swetz Staudter ’57

Marco Island, Florida

My classmates and I were aware of the cadet/ collegiate program with St. Elizabeth School of Nursing around the time of war but not the collaboration that extended until 1963, shortly before my class entered. We would have loved that!

Vice President for University Marketing and Communications Molly Wilson Editor Emeritus Thomas M. Columbus Editor Michelle Tedford Managing Editor Gita Balakrishnan Art Director Danielle Johnson Photographer Larry Burgess Production Director Jeaneen Parsons Designer Brother Bob Hughes, S.M. Graduate Assistant Michelle Gregg

Staff Thomas M. Columbus, Michael Dunekacke, Brigham Fisher, Gina Gray, Mike Kurtz, Kim Lally, Shannon Shelton Miller, Brian Mills, Meagan Pant, Teri Rizvi, Shawn Robinson Student Staff Lauren Durham, Kaelin Kelly, Lauren Maier, Emma Mason, Kat Niekamp, Meredith Robinson, Kendra Zonca Contributors Tom Archdeacon ’72, Zachary Ghaderi, Devyn Glista, Maureen Harmon, Kevin M. Johnson, Gia Kourlas, Mary McCarty, Jodi Miller, Adrianne Oliss, Maureen Schlangen, Briana Snyder ’09, Kristen Wicker ’98, Zoey Xia ’15, Dan Zettwoch

Website: udayton.edu/magazine Email: magazine@udayton.edu Send class notes to: classnotes@udayton.edu Records changes only to: records@udayton.edu or 888-253-2383 Twitter: twitter.com/daymag Facebook: facebook.udayton.edu

—Sharon Jones Beavercreek, Ohio

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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California, where four people were injured.

That incident is not listed in Mother Jones’ tally for 2018 or in the FBI report on active shooter incidents in the U.S. in 2018. You have joined the mainstream media in performing not journalism but selling a false narrative, and you need to clean up your act.

—James P. Waltz ’69

West Sacramento, California

I thank the editor for dedicating the cover of the UD Magazine to the nine persons who lost their lives in the Oregon.

—James Wolan ’56

Alexandria, Virginia

A thoughtful and respectful piece on the Oregon tragedy.

—Tammy Broskey Ewin ’88

via Facebook

T I M E L E S S L E S S ONS SUBMIT YOUR LETTERS:

By mail: University of Dayton Magazine 300 College Park Dayton, OH 45469-1303 Via email: magazine-letters@udayton.edu Tweet to: @daymag Please include your city and state.

Indicate whether you wish your email address printed. Letters should not exceed 300 words.

University of Dayton Magazine may edit for clarity and brevity.

Letters printed are representative and not all received are printed.

Opinions expressed are those of the letter writers and not necessarily of this publication nor the University of Dayton.

R E F L E CT IONS ON A SHO O T I NG Yesterday I took the Autumn 2019 edition to a few places in Colorado where senseless killing occurred: STEM School Highland Ranch, Century theater, Columbine High School. Today four people were killed in Kansas City.

Thanks for your “32 Seconds in the Oregon” reporting.

—Joseph McCabe ’82

Littleton, Colorado

I wear my Flyer shirt mostly to see if anyone out here in Oregon has a UD connection.

I’ve never been stopped until today, when someone asked, “Isn’t that where all those people were shot?” I explained that the shooting was not on campus but was about two blocks from where I lived on Fifth Street. She said, “Well, tell everyone back there, ‘God bless you.’”

I thanked her but thought how sad it is that it took a shooting to put my alma mater on the map for some folks. Then I got home and found my copy of University of Dayton Magazine in the mailbox. My sadness was tempered with a sense of pride for how the campus and community have responded to this tragedy.

—Ken Bilderback ’79

via Facebook

The purpose of my letter is to challenge you to be more judicious in quoting sources for information in the magazine, namely the Gun Violence Archive as to the number of mass shootings that have occurred in the U.S. this year [“32 Seconds in the Oregon,” Autumn 2019].

For example, the Gun Violence Archive has a record of 340 mass shootings in 2018, including a November 2018 drive-by shooting in Oakland,

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

I wanted to send a note of thanks for the “Lessons Learned” article [Winter 2018-19].

While I typically do not hold onto magazines (I’m a Marie Kondo convert), I’ve held onto this one to regularly reflect on the life advice from UD grads.

It’s motivating to look at a class five to 10 years ahead and understand how my perspective on life may evolve over time. Please bring this back for the Winter 2019-20 edition. I plan to incorporate this into my yearly goal-setting process.

One small suggestion — is it possible to include the degree? Interesting to see how/if individuals transitioned careers. Thank you so very much.

—Kim Gorsek ’09 Brookline, Massachusetts

Editor’s note: Thank you for hanging on to the sage words of your fellow Flyers. While we’d love to repeat the endeavor, I pledged to give the staff a decade to convalesce after the monumental task.

That said, we do post three new entries online each season.

See the Winter 201920 installments at bit.ly/UDM_ lessonslearnedV.

I L OV E U D ST ICK E R S UD Magazine arrived in the mail. Passing #FlyerPride onto Nate. Thanks for the stickers @universityofdayton #GoFlyers

—@jwilson25325 via Instagram

FLIGHT DECK VIEW FINDER P. 13 // Q&A P. 15 // FLYER TIME P. 17 // WHERE ARE YOU READING? P. 19 // EYE P. 22 // SPORTS P. 24

BIKE ON

Students help propel campus to its first bronze award for bicycling The League of American Bicyclists this fall awarded UD a bronze award as a Bicycle Friendly University.

Selected universities have developed model environments where people can safely bike and contribute to healthier, more sustainable outcomes. On UD’s campus, students check out bikes for free through RecPlex or can rent them at one of six bikesharing stations throughout campus, and the community has access to group rides and workshops on everything from safe riding to bike maintenance to the health benefits of an active lifestyle.

The application, begun in the fall 2018 undergraduate course Sustainability Research, was submitted by master’s student Jen Lumpkin ’19 and UD’s Hanley Sustainability Institute.

Photograph by AMBER DIERKING / CAMPUS RECREATION

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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FLIGHT DECK NEWSWORTHY

Family commitment continues: (from left) John Berry Jr., Shirley Berry and Charles “Chuck” Berry

I M PA C T BEYOND NUMBERS

3

generations of Berry family members have supported UD

53

undergraduate students have completed theses through the Berry Summer Thesis Institute

300

honors students have earned UD diplomas thanks to Berry scholarships

SCHOLARSHIPS

$5M gift recognizes student enthusiasm, success

E

ACH YEAR, SPECIAL GUESTS ARE AMONG

those invited to sit down and learn from students who have spent their summers exploring their passions and advancing their academic interests, from conducting Alzheimer’s research to penning their first novels.

“These students are just committed,” said John Berry Jr., one of those invited. “It’s very moving to hear what they are working on, their enthusiasm. Every time I meet with them it provides an attitude boost and reminds me what the University of Dayton stands for.”

John Berry Jr., his wife, Shirley Berry, and brother Charles “Chuck” Berry are continuing to support student success and access to a UD education through a $5 million commitment to fund scholarships for students in the University of Dayton’s Honors Program.

An additional $250,000 from the Berry Family Foundation will provide operating support for the Berry Summer Thesis Institute, the summer program the Berrys have long supported that introduces students to scholarly research opportunities.

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

The three donors are the sons and daughterin-law of John W. Berry Sr., the late CEO of Dayton-based L.M. Berry & Co. John Sr. was the son of Loren M. Berry, who began mass production and publication of the Yellow Pages throughout the Midwest and beyond when he launched his company in Dayton in 1910. Loren Berry began the family’s philanthropy to UD with a $1 million gift from his estate.

Said University of Dayton President Eric F. Spina, “Their scholarships have attracted talented students who enrich the campus experience for all and help launch students into distinguished academic and professional careers.”

In addition to honors students, Berry family contributions have also supported UD’s law school, athletics, the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The Berry family has given generously to education, health care and the arts in Dayton and throughout the United States.

“It’s just a wonderful feeling to support UD and all that UD and the student body do to make Dayton more vibrant,” said John Berry Jr.

1,400

students are currently pursuing honors diplomas as Berry scholarship recipients

$300k gift in 2012 launched the Berry Summer Thesis Institute Fund

$5

million

new gift will create Berry Family Scholarships for high-achieving students, with preference to those from Ohio and the Midwest

$18

million in total gifts given from the Berry family to UD since 1980

Stories to tell MEET A CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR

Bill Stankey ’80 wants to hear how UD changed your life — and how you will help future Flyers

W

HAT DID UD DO FOR YOU? IT’S A QUESTION BILL STANKEY ’80 COULD

spend an hour answering, but he’d rather hear your story.

Stankey is a volunteer co-chair helping the University prepare for its first comprehensive campaign since Call to Lead generated more than $150 million for the University in the late 1990s.

“University of Dayton absolutely, 100%, changed my life,” said Stankey, founder of a talent management company. “I was the first one in my family to go to college. I made great friends at UD. The sense of community is remarkable. You get a great education both in the classroom and outside. And you build these lifelong relationships.”

He also knows that such magic doesn’t happen by chance, with the Marianists at the heart of that intentional connectivity.

As a co-chair, Stankey said he plans to have conversations about ways people can connect their passions and desire to give back to the campaign’s goals of philanthropy, engagement and participation. Key among fundraising initiatives will be scholarships and tuition accessibility, expanded hands-on learning for all students, and academic innovation.

“As one of our co-chairs, Bill will help lead a cabinet of volunteers whose work on this campaign will ensure the UD experience is available for generations of students,” said Jen Howe, vice president for advancement. “His personal story is remarkable. His belief that UD changed the trajectory of his life and his passion for the unique education available at this special place make Bill the perfect person to ask others to join the conversation around giving back of time, expertise and philanthropy.”

Stankey, who remembers a $700 tuition bill that almost kept him from graduating, has with his wife, Mary Lalli, established the Stankey Family Pay it Forward Scholarship.

It will allow recipients to graduate debt free.

“Good opportunities come as a result of having an education — now more than ever,” Stankey said.

And all students deserve the opportunity to develop their own UD stories to tell.

If you wear the hat, people will stop you and say, ‘Go Flyers.’

FA ST FAC T S

FAVORITE ABODE:

Founders Hall

CAMPUS JOB:

Student Association director of entertainment

BOOKED:

Queen, Earth Wind & Fire, Bob Dylan, Yes, the Ramones and more

PLACE TO BE:

Sunday noon Mass at the chapel. “It was an electric experience.”

PROFESSION:

President and founder of Westport Entertainment Associates

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (right) toured new facilities at the UD Research Institue in June 2019.

FLIGHT DECK

Team approach A two-time UD graduate, Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted ’89 discusses the UD foundations of his political success.

NEWSWORTHY

Did you initially aspire to public service? My goal was to play college football and win a national championship — and I got the opportunity to play college football and got the opportunity to win a national championship. I learned from that experience what the fundamentals of success look like.

UD taught me a lot of character skills that were the foundations for everything that I did successful in life after that.

UDRI tour highlights technical, workforce innovation Lt. Gov. Jon Husted ’89 taps UD as an innovation leader for Ohio

T

HE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF OHIO

traveled to his alma mater this summer for a conversation about how Ohio can grow its economy and develop solutions to effectively serve its citizens.

Jon Husted ’89, who took office in January 2019 alongside Gov. Mike DeWine, toured new facilities of the UD Research Institute. There, he talked with researchers about their technologies to repair, build and evaluate replacement parts required for a variety of industries. He donned a virtual reality headset to view a workforce training simulator and discussed University programs aimed at training a highly skilled and technical workforce.

He also discussed his goal of promoting technology commercialization with universities leading the way.

“Our goal is to create a more entrepreneurial culture, where we invite people in,” Husted said of his plan for Ohio economic growth.

Those conversations became reality this fall with the Ohio IP Promise, a partnership among Ohio’s public universities, the University of Dayton and Case Western Reserve University to use intellectual property developed at those universities to attract new business to the state. It will also help grow local ideas into commercial activities and increase entrepreneurial activities on campus. UD has 17 technologies available for licensing in the ar12

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

eas of corrosion protection, energy, electrical engineering, green technology, life sciences, materials, nanotechnology and software.

In addition to Husted, three other Flyers are part of the governor’s cabinet or serve as liaisons.

Jack Marchbanks ’74 is director of the Ohio Department of Transportation and formerly served as an assistant director and district director for the department. Joe Zeis ’16 MORE ONLINE is military liaison to the govRead about ernor. JP Nauseef ’88 is presimembers of the dent and chief investment officer of JobsOhio, which heads governor’s cabinet at udayton.edu/ up much of the state’s job cremagazine. ation and capital investment.

UD’s growing visibility in Columbus strengthens relationships for our entire region, said Ted Bucaro, UD’s executive director of government and regional relations.

“While our alumni who serve on the governor’s cabinet have a statewide focus, it is encouraging that many of Ohio’s priorities align with the strengths and assets found in the Dayton region, as well as at the University,” Bucaro said. “They enter their new avenues of service with a keen awareness as to how our region and University can help strengthen the great state of Ohio in the areas of education, economic development, and research and development.”

How else did UD influence you? UD was a great environment to help me at that point in my life grow up, and to do it in a supportive environment. There were so many people who helped me, more than I realized at the time. Brother Ray [Fitz], who was the president, is a wonderful champion of the idea of servant-leadership.

Why go into politics? There’s a quote from Gandhi, that if you want to find yourself, lose yourself in service to others.

Those foundational values that UD provided at that time have come full circle in my life and have helped me really be a more selfless person in service to others.

What do you want to accomplish? Working with Gov. Mike DeWine, we want to help everybody in life be a little bit better tomorrow than they are today. I used to have 11 guys who were on my team; now I have 11.6 million — they’re all Ohioans. And so, what can we do every day to build systems and to create opportunities that help those individuals be a little better tomorrow than they were today and achieve their Godgiven potential?

Photograph by DALE JACKSON

TURN IT UP V IE W F IN D E R

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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FLIGHT DECK NEWSWORTHY

HOLY MARY

Full of grace Little books are big on beauty, advice

W

HAT WAS THE BESTSELLING

book in Christendom from 1250 to 1550? It wasn’t the Bible, but the Book of Hours.

More than prayer books, these books were used to keep track of feasts, teach children and spread useful advice such as noting that November was the best time to feed acorns to boars. Books of Hours were produced totally by hand until Gutenberg revolutionized printing in Europe with the

MARIANIST EDUCATION

Equipped to learn

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mechanical use of moveable type.

Pictured here is a 15th-century Book of Hours, hand-lettered and hand-illustrated, from the collection of UD’s Marian Library.

This particular book, though beautiful, is a relatively crude example; it’s both unfinished and small. That it could fit into a pocket reflects attributes of Books of Hours; they were both personal and highly used.

The heart of any Book of Hours is a series of prayers, known as the Little Office

THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEER-

ing has donated more than 50 pieces of lab equipment for students attending Marianist schools in Togo, Africa.

Brother Tchamie Kadja, S.M. ’17, a teacher at the school who is currently on campus pursuing a doctorate in electrical engineering, coordinated the shipment to Robert Mattlé Technical School in Togo. The Marianist brothers had contacted Dean Eddy Rojas, who agreed to provide equipment to the school.

“Due to near constant advances in technology, we have laboratory equipment that is re-

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Hours of the Virgin. The one pictured here is open to the prayer for the canonical hour of Lauds, which is traditionally illustrated with an image of the Visitation.

From Jan. 27 to July 17, the Marian Library Gallery on the seventh floor of Roesch Library will host an exhibit, Mary in Miniature: Books of Hours in the Marian Library’s Collection.

—J I L L I A N E W A L T, UD librarian for visual resources

placed on a regular basis,” Rojas said. “While not up to current U.S. standards, this equipment is a step up for our partners in Togo and really facilitates learning for their STEM students.”

Departments donating equipment included electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, engineering management and UD information technologies. The donation included 16 power supplies, 12 projectors, 19 digital multimeters, eight oscilloscopes and other miscellaneous lab items.

“The school’s administration and I are very grateful for

this kind gesture from UD,” Kadja said.

Kadja traveled back to Togo this past summer and used UD’s donations to complete a physics lab and computer lab for his students. The remaining equipment is being forwarded to two other area schools.

“The brothers are doing quite a good job in education, and we hope our cooperation will continue over time,” Kadja said. “This year, the nation’s top-performing high school student in science came from Mattlé Technical School.”

—HALEY PULEO ’20

Photograph courtesy BROTHER TCHAMIE KADJA, S.M.

Rachel Johnson ’21 5 QUESTIONS WITH

Class, work, research and service — Rachel Johnson has taken it all on. The junior premedicine major is conducting research for her honors thesis in the genetics lab of professor Tom Williams while also serving as a volunteer member of UD EMS, the student rescue squad. But it was a chance encounter with visitors to UD that allowed her to highlight a seldom-used skill on campus: her ability to communicate through American Sign Language.

1

How long have you worked at the Kennedy Union information desk?

Since my freshman year. Last year, a man and a woman approached the desk, and the woman asked me a question about some event happening on campus. I was looking it up when I saw her turn and sign to the man. I just got so excited because I’ve never encountered anybody who’s deaf or uses sign language on campus. And so I stopped typing and I started signing with them. His jaw just dropped. He asked me how I knew sign language, and I said my little sister is deaf.

He complimented me on my sign language, which was huge.

2

Did you learn to sign for your sister? I was 7 and she was 2 when we adopted her from China. She had no language because at the orphanage, when she cried, they just gave her candy. The whole family took classes at St. Rita School for the Deaf in Cincinnati, and we all learned together. One of the first signs we taught Marie was “I love you.”

3

Why did you choose premedicine?

I have always had a passion for helping people. I also have a fascination with the human body and how it works, getting to the root of a problem. From a young age I knew I wanted to be a doctor, and I’ve recently decided to pursue pediatric oncology. Organic chemistry has given me a run for my money, but that’s OK. All of my professors have said to come anytime to ask questions, because they know the material is difficult and they want us to be successful.

4 “I love you,” in American Sign Language

How did you learn about the student EMS squad? My tour guide when I visited UD was an EMT and mentioned the squad. I thought the opportunity to join would be amazing, and it pushed me to attend UD. Before I was part of UD EMS, I did an overnight at the house to observe. We got a call about an older man who needed help. We responded, and I was in awe of their professionalism, the way they handled the issue and helped the patient. I knew I definitely wanted to be part of this.

5

What has been your hardest call?

It was one where I knew the patient.

When you’re on call with EMS, you have to be really professional. I was nervous pulling up, but once there I was able to snap into EMT mode. Honestly, when you’re on calls, you’re so pumped up on adrenaline trying to figure out what you can do to help. I could be an EMT first, friend second. We were able to treat the patient onsite, and it turned out OK.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

15

FLIGHT DECK

Top lab for new fuels

NEWSWORTHY

Clear path to graduation Transparent tuition boosts graduation rate, lowers debt by $10M

T

HE DATA IS IN, AND THE FIRST CLASS

to enroll under UD’s transparent tuition plan has set a record six-year graduation rate of 81.5% and reduced student loan borrowing by $10 million compared to graduates before the plan.

The fixed net-price, no-fees tuition model ensures all students understand the full cost of their four-year degree upfront. There are no hidden expenses; the University eliminated all fees, and students’ scholarships rise to offset any tuition increases so what they pay each year stays the same.

President Eric F. Spina called transparent tuition a moral and ethical obligation to students and their families.

“A college degree is one of the most important investments someone can make in their life, and we believe students deserve clarity about the

price of that investment upfront,” he said.

Compared to the previous graduating class, average student loan debt decreased by 19%. Borrowing decreased for student groups of every race and every socioeconomic background. The sixyear graduation rate of this class also went up 2 percentage points from the previous class. The national benchmark for six-year graduation rates at private four-year universities is 66% based on the latest data available from the National Center for Education Statistics.

“What we have found is that when students know their costs upfront — without worries about hidden fees or unexpected tuition increases — they can focus on the many valuable aspects of their education, from the classroom to hands-on professional experiences to their development as a whole person,” said Jason Reinoehl, vice president for strategic enrollment management.

FACULTY REMEMBERED

Emily Hicks

Associate professor and director of information acquisition and organization, University Libraries 10-7-2019

“Emily Hicks was not only an influential leader in Roesch Library; she was an active and deeply respected academic citizen of the UD community. Emily was widely admired for her commitment to high-quality work, her collaborative spirit, her candor and warm collegiality. Many of us across campus will miss Emily a great deal.”

—Paul Benson, provost and executive

vice president for academic affairs

16

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Norman Hecht

Professor emeritus, materials engineering and UDRI researcher 10-12-2019

“Norman was a great guy. He hired me in 1982 as a student worker on an incinerator project. He took care of his students. When he was teaching, he always brought in food because he knew if the students were hungry, they couldn’t learn. I got a job at UDRI on his Department of Energy project that ran for years.

His programs are responsible for the way the Advanced High-Temperature Materials lab is set up today.”

—Steve Goodrich ’84,

UDRI senior research technician

The Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative has tapped a UD lab as the first in the nation for prescreening of fuels, a way to help manufacturers test the viability of their products before entering a lengthy and costly approval process.

The Heyne Energy and Appropriate Technology Lab at the School of Engineering and the University of Dayton Research Institute can test as little as a half liter of a new fuel, providing results before manufacturers enter the American Society for Testing and Materials testing program.

In the past five years, research by Joshua Heyne ’07, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has focused on streamlining the approval process for alternative jet fuels as part of the National Jet Fuels Combustion Program with more than $2.1 million dollars in federal support.

$5M more for student investors As if a 20-year anniversary wasn’t enough reason to celebrate, UD’s Davis Center for Portfolio Management and its Flyer Investments Fund are receiving another $5 million over the next five semesters to invest from the University’s endowment. The fund’s current value is more than $35 million.

“This is a vote of confidence in our students,” said Dan Kapusta, Davis Center director.

The fund ranks as the second-largest studentmanaged investment portfolio in the nation and the largest run exclusively by undergraduates, according to The Center for Investment Research.

Photograph (top) by BRIANA SNYDER ’09

FLYER TIME

11 p.m.

Stuart Field Photograph by LAUREN MAIER ’23

The air is crisp. The wind whistles. Residents of nearby Stuart Hall and Virginia Kettering Hall are likely curled up in blankets. Outside, Competitive Sports Supervisor Nicholas Rhodes is in the middle of the action. Intramural teams run up and down the field, shouting for the football. Student officials interact with the players and look to Rhodes for guidance. “It’s an awesome job,” says the junior mechanical engineering major. “You never feel like you’re working either. You talk to people, you have fun. We’re always laughing on a shift. It’s good.”

Those waiting on the sidelines beg teammates to sub-out, hoping to end the cold spell with a sprint down the field. “Picked a nice night to come out, huh?” junior Aidan Cotter says.

Someone yells “touchdown” and cheers erupt. Yes, a nice night, indeed. — L A U R E N D U R H A M ’ 2 2

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

17

FLIGHT DECK NEWSWORTHY

Research finds hiring highly attractive service employees might backfire.

FACULTY RESEARCH

Beauty doesn’t always win in the workplace

B

EAUTIFUL PEOPLE TEND TO HAVE

a lot more luck in the work world.

Research has shown people deemed attractive get paid more, receive better job evaluations and are generally more employable. It’s even been shown that good-looking CEOs bring better stock returns for their companies.

In part, this may be because companies believe consumers are more likely to buy things from beautiful employees. There’s some evidence, however, that this worker “beauty premium” may be wearing off — at least when it comes to employees who interact with consumers. In television commercials, for example, retailers and other com18

— C H U N Z H A N G , A S S I S T A N T PROFESSOR OF MARKETING

panies are increasingly using real people — with all their physical flaws — rather than Photoshopped models to give their brands an “authentic” feel.

Research several colleagues and I conducted recently suggests that companies may be wise to take this approach with customers. Our studies show occasions where the beauty premium doesn’t hold — and can even backfire.

In our first study, we wanted to better understand how consumers respond to attractive service employees. We invited 309 college students to read the same description of being served dinner at a restaurant and then look at an image of a person we

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

described as their server.

Participants randomly viewed either a male or female server whose facial features were edited to depict high or low levels of attractiveness, based on prior research defining beauty. Separately, we used similar objective measures of attractiveness to rate participants on the same scale.

We found that how close a consumer felt toward the server correlated with how they rated the quality of service they received.

That is, if they felt distance from the server, they were more likely to give him or her poor marks. Furthermore, we found that people who thought the server was attractive but were themselves not good-looking — using our objective beauty assessment — were more likely to feel distance.

In a second similar study, we found that participants who saw themselves as less good-looking felt more distance from an attractive flight attendant and were also more likely to perceive the service as lower quality. In addition, participants who said there isn’t a connection between beauty and skill also tended to assess attractive employees’ service as low quality.

A third study that surveyed consumers at a shopping mall further confirmed a clear connection between beautiful workers and unpleasant customer experiences for people who are less attractive.

So in a world that admires and hires beautiful people, our research suggests there’s a potential downside, at least in the service sector.

A version of this article was first published in The Conversation.

Our experts are catching the attention of the world on The Conversation UD faculty stories have 1 million+ reads since 2015 TOP STORY History professor Janet Bednarek’s essay on the airports of the future, with 135,000 readers HOT TOPICS World politics, health, immigration, religion MOST PROLIFIC AUTHOR

Julius Amin,

history, with seven articles READ MORE theconversation.com/ institutions/university-of-dayton-1726

Photograph by PATRICK TOMASSO / UNSPLASH

4 1

7

2 5

8

6

3

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WHERE ARE YOU READING U N IVE RS IT Y O F DAY TO N MAGA Z I N E?

1 Megan Shoda Saksa ’07, husband Andy and son Theodore enjoyed the view of Château de Saint-Ulrich, high in the mountains of the French region of Alsace. Megan writes, “The castle was built in the 11th century. Theodore didn’t have much appreciation for the history of the region, but he loved teething on French baguettes.”

2 Kim Smith Ewin ’77 traveled to Cuba in March and visited Iceland in May. During their travels, she and her family enjoyed scuba diving, snorkeling and seeing waterfalls.

3 Jim Francis ’93, Mollie Hynes Francis ’92 and Marshall Francis ’23 visited Michael Francis ’21, who was studying abroad in Granada, Spain. The family enjoyed the country, visiting seven cities and the palace and fortress Alhambra in Granada.

4 Mike Moriarty ’78 writes, “My housemates and I from 460 Lowes St. have been getting together annually for more than 40 years. Now that all our kids are grown, we vacation together every other year to exotic destinations. We hiked the Sierra Nevada mountains a few years back and

biked the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest a couple years ago. Most recently, it was the Brittany Coast of France.

Next up is Greece.”

5 Sisters Lori Coder Barthmuss ’83 and Jill Coder Sestak ’85 met up for a hiking vacation at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Jill writes, “My sister and I have always been close and even went to UD together, so it was great to meet halfway and spend quality time with each other.” They enjoyed their hike along the Hellroaring Creek and Yellowstone River.

6 This past April, Paul Labbe ’81 had the opportunity to present leadership training to the 10 scientific fellows at the 2019 Southern Africa Regional Collaborating Centre.

Here he is with the Pan-African Fellowship Training group at the Public Health Institute in Lusaka, Zambia.

7 Jon Major ’80 brought UD Magazine along for a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania — Africa’s highest point.

8 Eric Hansen ’99, Jayme Welch Hansen ’99 and children

Zack and Caitlyn toured the Grand Circle in June, hiking 10 national parks and monuments in the Southwest.

The family brought UD Magazine to Ooh Aah Point on the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

9 Jessica Mullen ’97 read UD Magazine on Rainbow Mountain, Peru, 17,000 feet above sea level.

Where are you reading University of Dayton Magazine?

Send us your photo to magazine@udayton.edu.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

19

FLIGHT DECK

MISTER CLEAN

CONNECTIONS

D

ALLAS DeBRUIN ’18 IS CLEANING UP ON HIS FIRST

entrepreneurial venture, the Brun Sink 2.0. The customfabricated, no-touch sink has sensors to dispense soap, water and a jet of drying air. He’s successfully quit his day job to focus on selling, building and servicing what he anticipates is his first of many inventions, thanks to both the Flyer Pitch competition out of the School of Business Administration and a fledgling

Recently accepted as an ESP fellow with The Entrepreneurs Center in Dayton, receiving mentoring and funding to complete certification of Sink 2.0.

Majors in entrepreneurship and electronic and computer engineering technology.

“It was the closest thing to an inventing major I could find, and that’s what I always wanted to be.”

—DALLAS DeBRUIN ’18

program out of the School of Engineering: Leonardo Enterprises.

The business incubator and investment program, available to the campus community, just completed its third semester and currently supports 11 teams. “Dallas was always going to be an entrepreneur,” said Emily Fehrman Cory ’07, center director, “but with Leonardo Enterprises, students like Dallas can become entrepreneurs faster and with more certainty of success.”

“Leonardo Enterprises is a technology accelerator, the fuel on the fire that makes things go faster.”

—EMILY FEHRMAN CORY ’07, director

“I see an ecosystem forming in Dayton around Leonardo.”

—DeBRUIN

Supported by more than $20,000 donated to the School of Engineering during One Day One Dayton, giving day 2019.

Working on his parents’ dairy farm taught DeBruin to stay calm when things break — or the cows escape — and be tenacious until the problem is fixed.

Three sinks installed — and a fourth in production — for Dorothy Lane Market in Oakwood, Ohio, in small spaces where notouch washing keeps everything clean.

“Being in food service, we go through a ton of soap, a ton of paper towels. I love his idea, and to have an opportunity to help a young person succeed makes it that much better.”

—JERRY POST, store director

20

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

New teams this year • Smiley Goat Adaptive Board Games, for children with disabilities or restricted motor skills.

• PaddlePro, an all-female team building “training wheels” for a kayak paddle.

• UDust, a smart-controlled, energy-efficient dust collection system for makerspaces.

“I was using all hand tools, but now I have a metal press and brakes. Building a case and lining up all the metal sheets is difficult.” —DeBRUIN

Regina Mundt

MAINSTREAM

What you said Mike Brill

@MikeBrillOH

Inconsiderate drivers always taking up multiple parking spots!! @univofdayton

@reginamundt

Thank you, @univofdayton for making First Year Move-In a super smooth experience for us newbies. from a #FlyerMom Eric Farrell @Airrick__

Tonight my 10-year-old daughter told us she’s going to @univofdayton when she’s ready for college and has her ChromeBook to prove it...

She’ll be a 3rd generation Flyer! #GoFlyers

Kelsey Guanciale @kels_guanciale

#tfw your mom says you’re a legacy, but you don’t even know what college is. #flyerpride

Bobbi Dillon @Bobbi_Dillion

Andy & I were in #SanFrancisco for about 2 whole seconds today before someone yelled out #GoFlyers!

You’re right, @JohnCranley, @univofdayton is a cult. We’re everywhere!

Leah Teutsch

Patti Schaar

@SangriaLeah

@PattiSchaar

Straight up baffled that I moved into @univofdayton 7 years ago, when it feels like yesterday

Marigrace Moses @MarigraceMoses

I am incredibly inspired by everyone that came out to demand climate justice during this state of crisis! Forever grateful to be a Flyer and a part of this mission on campus! #UDClimateStrike #ClimateStrike @univofdayton

Anne Westerheide @momof4chicas

Family Weekend @univofdayton something funny about piling 4 sisters on a dorm bunk or just happy to see each other

Thanks @univofdayton for showing my BFF's daughter why UD is the place for her! I had a blast on tour with her. #learnleadserve #flyers @UDaytonAlumni @daymag

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

21

FLIGHT DECK EYE

More than meets the eye

T

HE SEASON OF GIVING IS UPON US. PEOPLE ACROSS

the world have been crowding shopping malls and department stores or filling up their carts on Amazon, trying to find the perfect gift for their loved ones. But gift giving is a gesture that goes beyond the Christmas season. Throughout the year, we share with loved ones in ways beyond material items.

22

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

L ooking beyond presents in this season of giving Some give donations, volunteer their time, or simply offer their presence to those in need of friendship. These nonmaterial virtues are oftentimes not viewed as gifts. But sometimes such gifts mean much more. Here, University experts reflect on gift giving and what it means to the gifts you give and the gifts you receive.

—GITA BALAKRISHNAN

Photograph by ARTHIMEDES / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Father Bertrand Andrew Buby, S.M. ’55 Professor emeritus, Department of Religious Studies

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the houses they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” This verse from the Bible in Matthew 2:11 speaks to the essence of the idea of gift giving. It relates to us the story of the three Magi visiting the Holy Mother Mary to bestow gifts to the new child.

First, it’s a very good Marianist passage because it shows us to never separate Mother Mary from her child. Her purpose is to be by his side. But, it’s also a very good scene to symbolize what gift giving is all about. Here are these three men, probably coming from the area of Iran, coming to this strange land to bring gifts to this newborn child. They had never been to the land before, and it took them a long time to walk there. But, because of the prophecy, they wanted to bestow gifts as a sign of hope and happiness.

But, I think gift giving is also more important when it’s not material. I think of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son … .” God gave us the ultimate gift by giving us our human nature. God doesn’t work other than through us so it’s important to give of ourselves. It’s important to be of service to others. I am at my best when I give of myself, my talents, my person, my generosity. Giving ourselves helps us develop as a person. These gifts are more precious than material gifts.

Tim Kao

Director, International Student and Scholar Services The idea of giving is universal but it manifests itself differently across cultures. For some of the communities we serve, the symbolism and expectations that come with giving carry more weight. For instance, in East Asian countries, a gift most often should be reciprocated. Who gives what to whom and when can also be complicated depending on status and circumstances.

The meaning of giving gifts is dependent on context, and there is no greater context than culture, both capital ‘C’ and little ‘c’.

We’re taught how to give by our families and it’s reinforced by those around us.

I can share my own experience. My family emigrated here in the 1970s and had very little

money. Giving to strangers was the last thing on their minds, so in that sense the idea of giving to charity was a new idea for them. Giving to friends and acquaintances was a completely different and frankly more important matter.

In their culture, that form of giving is quite elaborate and deliberate. Reciprocity was expected. If you received a gift from someone, it had to be acknowledged in some form or another — either you did something or you gave something to return the favor, or else it was a major insult.

In terms of what giving means to me now, as an adult? I think we as Americans have the best of intentions, but we can also be very reckless. Giving just to give, in my opinion, is not a good use of resources. I want to give to people or organizations that I can be assured of some level of accountability. I want to know that the gift I’m giving is being used productively.

Riley Dugan

Assistant professor, School of Business Administration I recently conducted a research study on what compels individuals to give when purchasing a product; what is commonly referred to as cause related marketing (CRM).

For example, one increasingly common CRM campaign tells customers, if you purchase X item, we will donate that same item to someone in need. That is a great idea. But I had a question: Under what conditions do customers purchase X, and can this campaign ever backfire?

Our results are a bit shocking in terms of when people decide it’s appropriate to donate or not donate, or give or not give. First, it’s important to know that products can be categorized into two groups: utilitarian and hedonic. The utilitarian group consists of things that everyone needs, like book bags, water, pens, pencils and so forth. Hedonic items are the wants: the ice cream, concert tickets, tickets to a ball game, etc. We ran a series of studies where participants were confronted with either a utilitarian or hedonic product. Then, they could a) purchase one item and be on their way, or b) purchase one item and also choose to — at no extra cost — donate that item to someone else.

Our results consistently found that people were willing to donate utilitarian items to others but were not willing to donate hedonic items, even though in both scenarios there was no additional charge for doing so.

On a very basic level, what this shows me is that giving is based on two very different premises: a desire to belong and also a desire to be unique. People are willing to give necessities to others because it satisfies their need to belong, as in being a part of a broader “community.”

However, when it comes to hedonic items — the wants — people do not want to share them because it takes away much of the uniqueness of their own purchase experience, the feeling of being special.

I think pairing products with charitable initiatives is a good thing, but we also need to understand people’s underlying psychological needs.

God gave us the ultimate gift by giving us our human nature.

Peter Titlebaum

Professor, School of Education and Health Sciences I have been teaching a sales and fundraising class for the last 13 years that teaches our students both the skills of sales and the importance of giving back through philanthropy.

I teach our students the importance of storytelling when approaching donors to give. Because you are asking for money, you need your own mask to come off, to open up and tell a personal story that will resonate. That is scary for most people. In our first year, not one student could raise the goal of $1,000. Now, I have a student who has raised $8,540 for charity. It is amazing.

For me as an educator, it is important to mentor our students on the importance of giving back to the community, to charities, to those in need because at some point, someone gave and supported all of us. This is how we all got to where we are today.

Our students will graduate, be on the board of some company or charity, and be faced with the opportunity to influence their communities. If I can teach them now the importance of giving — and not just money but even their time — then maybe down the road it may take root.

At the end of the day, people will give, but it is only for one of two reasons: Either they believe in your cause or they believe in you.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

23

FLIGHT DECK

Ticketholders in the upper Arena on the east side need not go far for drinks and food with addition of the

SPORTS

Bud Light Landing

Every seat in the building was replaced during the threeyear renovation.

Most are 20 or 21 inches wide.

Seating capacity:

13,407.

with its great view of the Great Miami River and campus.

Portals

were added from the stands to the concourses on both sides.

The remodeled UD Arena has

223,350 square feet (an increase of 23%).

UD Arena shines brightly at 50 THE THREE-YEAR, $76 MILLION RENOVATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON ARENA

was the largest construction project in University history. The men’s basketball Flyers topped off festivities celebrating the 50th anniversary of the building on Nov. 9, 2019, with an 86-81 win over Indiana State. The women beat Lipscomb, 82-60, on Nov. 5.

24

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Photograph by DEVYN GLISTA / ST.BLANC.STUDIOS

Sights and sounds:

a new four-sided video board, updated audio, improved Wi-Fi, new broadcast infrastructure.

Illuminating the court and seating areas are

The Boesch Lounge is now

LED lights.

6,175 square feet (45% more than previously).

Premium seating increases include four terraces.

One is available on a game-by-game basis.

Seats compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act have increased from 46 to 78,

a 70% increase.

ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

The remodeled Arena features a new ticket office and a team store.

The Connor Flight Deck grew by 28% to 11,900 square feet.

The four locker rooms used by teams during games for the first time received new restrooms and lockers.

New wells and pumps not only keep the building dry but also provide cold water to keep it cool.

The number of toilets and urinals in men’s restrooms increased by 5% to 77.

The number of toilets in women’s restrooms increased by 80% to 126.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

25

FLIGHT DECK JACK BOESCH ’54

SPORTS

He lost a commission but got great seats JACK BOESCH ’54 CLEAR-

The three-year, $76 million remodeling of the UD Arena increased its square-footage by 23%.

ARENA HISTORY

UD built it, they did come ONCE UPON A TIME, THE NATIONAL INVITA-

tion Tournament was the most prestigious in college basketball. Under the University of Dayton’s first full-time basketball coach, Tom Blackburn, the Flyers in the 1950s and early 1960s achieved considerable success in the NIT. Home for the Flyers then was the UD Fieldhouse (now expanded into the Frericks Center).

When it opened in 1950, the Fieldhouse had a capacity of 5,500, more than twice the size of UD’s student body. But times change. The size of the student body and the quality of the UD men’s basketball team soared. The Fieldhouse routinely sold out at 5,882, substantially more than capacity. (Bleachers don’t have padded seats and arm rests.)

In the 1960s, the NCAA tournament became preeminent, and the need for a new home for the Flyers, apparent. Excitement in Dayton was fueled by the Flyers’ extraordinary success in making it to the 1967 NCAA tournament championship game under coach Don Donoher. As the

Students write Arena’s history 26

University sought a site for an arena, some local people were exploring the possibility of a downtown, multipurpose facility; Dayton at the time had a minor league hockey team. Drawbacks to that plan included parking, cost and UD’s desire for a facility devoted primarily to basketball.

A complex land deal (see sidebar) made it possible to build an arena just across the Great Miami River from campus and next to the Dayton Public Schools-owned Welcome Stadium and its large parking lot.

Initial plans called for a large, circular building similar to some others recently constructed.

But cost, too, was a factor. The design that won out was more frugal because digging down costs less than building up. The result is the distinctive appearance of the University of Dayton Arena with its playing floor approximately 38 feet below ground level.

The fall of 1969 saw the first basketball played there — as construction workers played 3-on-3 games. The men’s Flyers took to the floor Dec. 6, 1969, beating Bowling Green, 72-70. In March of 1970, the UD Arena hosted NCAA tournament firstround Mid-East Regional games, the first of the record 125 NCAA tournament games — and counting — to be held in the University of Dayton Arena.

The men’s basketball Flyers have drawn more than 10 million fans to the UD Arena.

ly remembers how the University of Dayton obtained land on which to build the UD Arena. His father, Horace Boesch ’14, and Cy Grilliot owned land on East River Road. They traded it to the Miami Conservancy District for the site of the new arena.

“I would have sold that land to UD for $350,000,” Jack said. His dad was instead interested in making a gift.

Jack remembers going to a meeting with Tom Frericks, who led the Arena development project. To that meeting came not only Frericks, the athletic director, but also Father Raymond A. Roesch, S.M., UD president.

A friend leaned over to Jack and said, “There goes your commission.”

That wasn’t the last Boesch gift to UD. In 1988, Jack assisted his stepmother, Kathryn Boesch, as she made a $1 million donation to name UD Arena’s Boesch Lounge.

Jack and his wife, Sue Anderson Boesch ’67, continue to follow the Flyers in the same courtside seats they held when the Arena opened 50 years ago.

IN THE SPRING TERM OF 2018, A DOZEN UD STUDENTS IN THEIR HISTORY CAPSTONE CLASS

spent hundreds of hours doing research on a very famous building, the University of Dayton Arena.

The fall 2018 class continued the project. The result of their efforts was more than a chronology of bricks and mortar; it evolved into a social and cultural history of the University and the broader community.

To see what they uncovered, go to daytonarenahistory.org.

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Photograph by DEVYN GLISTA / ST.BLANC.STUDIOS

SPORTS SHORTS

Arena to host A-10 women’s championship

ANNIVERSARY

50 years of UD rugby

A

T FIRST GLANCE, A MASS OF BLACK

and gold jerseys doesn’t exactly scream Flyer pride. Oh, but it does.

In the fall of 1969, more than 50 men sought to bring the sport of rugby to the University. They practiced on empty plots of land (often near Founders Hall or Woodland Cemetery), wore secondhand uniforms and established a club that evolved into an official campus organization. This year, the club sport celebrated a significant anniversary — a golden one — to match one of its first team uniforms.

The UD Rugby Club, comprising players from the last 50 years, holds frequent gatherings, but this milestone welcomed more alumni than usual. The weekend of Oct. 4-6 was a family affair.

“We are 15 years removed, and these are still some of my best friends,” said Shannon VandenHaute Lembach ’05. “We’ve been in each other’s weddings. We go on vacations … . We babysit each other’s children. We are each other’s godparents to our children.”

Lembach was a member of the 2003 team that won the Women’s Collegiate Rugby Division II national championship, the first and only national rugby title in UD history.

Bob Borgerding ’72, referred to as the “found-

ACADEMICS

Graduation success by the numbers ACCORDING TO THIS

fall’s NCAA annual Graduation Success Rate report on Division I studentathletes, the University of Dayton had a score of 95, placing it in the top 10% in the nation. Key numbers for the Flyers:

6

ing father” of the UD Rugby Club, decided to start the club after he was told he could no longer play football. For decades after, teams were coached, funded and organized by students, carrying on the same devotion Borgerding exhibited.

“As the original rugby player here at the University, I just feel so proud of everything that has gone on,” Borgerding said.

Former players share similar sentiments of gratitude and pride for the organization and the sport itself.

“Rugby has that camaraderie around it like no other sport … . There’s a magic about rugby,” said Virgil Renz ’01.

During the weekend, alumni watched the current UD men’s rugby team play. Many in attendance were already familiar with the players, saying they actively follow the team’s stats. Others donate to the University of Dayton Rugby Endowment Fund. The club aims to soon be able to provide scholarships for rugby student-athletes.

Renz said the leadership these alumni are providing in their communities and through the scholarship mirrors the dedication and leadership they showed on the pitch as students. It’s a tradition 50 years and counting.

—LAUREN DUNHAM ’22

FLYER TEAMS with

a perfect GSR of 100 (women’s basketball, men’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, women’s tennis, and volleyball).

7

FLYER TEAMS with

the best score in their respective conferences (women’s basketball, men’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s golf, women’s tennis, and volleyball).

10 12 14

NUMBER OF YEARS

(including the last four) that volleyball has had a perfect GSR. CONSECUTIVE YEARS that men’s

and women’s golf have had a perfect GSR.

CONSECUTIVE YEARS that

women’s basketball and women’s tennis have had a perfect GSR.

The University of Dayton Arena will host the Atlantic 10 Conference’s women’s basketball championship March 6-8, 2020. All-session tickets ($65 for general admission, $75 for reserved seats) can be purchased online at DaytonFlyers.com/Tickets, by phone at 937-229-4433 or at the UD Arena Ticket Office.

Trautman to Senior Bowl Flyer tight end Adam Trautman, who holds the UD record for career receptions, has accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl college all-star game in Mobile, Alabama, on Jan. 25, 2020.

The Flyer co-captain will be the first Flyer at the Senior Bowl in 48 years; running back Gary Kosins played in 1972. Other Flyers who have are Fred Dugan (1958), Emil Karas (1959), Bob DeMarco (1961) and Leo Dillon (1971).

An electrical engineering major, Trautman is a four-time member of the Pioneer Football League Academic Honor Roll.

Men’s soccer finds scoring touch After losing its second overtime game in a row on Oct. 9 (2-1) to Virginia Commonwealth, the Dayton men’s soccer team stood 1-2 in the A-10 and 5-7 overall. The Flyers then reeled off eight straight wins, eventually losing in the A-10 tournament final to VCU, 1-0. Dayton finished the regular season ranking in the top 10 in the nation in assists, goals and points, averaging 2.11 goals per game and holding opposing teams to 1.22 goals. The Flyers played on Baujan Field for the last time this season on Nov. 10, beating La Salle 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament. The Flyers finished their season 13-8, the third highest number of wins in program history.

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Photograph by NAME TK

FA C E S

FAITH

of

People of good faith are found throughout campus.

In their words and actions, they embody the teachings of their religions and contribute to a campus climate — nurtured by the Society of Mary — where diversity is welcomed and the divine flourishes. On these pages, we introduce you to a few of these faces of faith.

P H OT O G R A P H S BY L A R R Y B U R G E S S

MORE ONLINE: For Faces of Faith featuring more than a dozen of our students, please visit bit.ly/UDM_FacesofFaith2 on the UD Magazine website.

Winter 2019 2019–20 –20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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B U D D H I ST

Beth Harrison

Director, Office of Learning Resources

I BEGAN IDENTIFYING AS A BUDDHIST

when I was working on my doctoral thesis in Japan. Buddhism teaches that everything in this world changes all the time. This is just reality. But we as humans suffer because we can’t accept that life is in constant change and so we continuously want something or someone we can’t have.

I try to live my life every day by trying not to hold on to things, to let go of desires, to not take things so personally and be more accepting of the here and now.

The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to let go of samsara, which is a Sanskrit word that refers to the endless cycle of rebirth.

And while the goal of Buddhism is to not be reborn, I want to put that off for me so I can come back and help others in any way I can.

I wear this bracelet, and there’s a quote that sums up how I want to live my life. It reads: As long as space endures, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world.

R O M A N C AT H O L I C

Cadie Mukaneza

Human resources records specialist

I WAS EDUCATED IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FROM

grade school through college. I came in 1997 to Dayton as a refugee from the genocide in Rwanda.

In 1982, I lived close to where the Holy Mother appeared at Kibeho. One of the young girls, the visionaries of the apparitions, walked through the crowd of thousands of people and delivered to me these words from the Holy Mother: “My child, I know that you will be through many tribulations, but I will not leave you alone. I will be always with you to help you.”

During the war, my husband was shot three times. He was about to die. We were alone. There was nothing we could do but pray. I took out the rosary I had with me in Kibeho and hung it around his neck. And at that very moment, a Good Samaritan came and helped us.

My story is too long — it could take days and days. But over and over again, I have found the hand of God and power in prayer. I try to apply the Ten Commandments to my job and my life, especially love your God and your neighbor. God gives us knowledge, and we have to put all our gifts together for other people.

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JEWISH

Scott Segalewitz

Associate dean, School of Engineering

BOTH OF MY PARENTS WERE RAISED JEWISH, AS

were as many people on my family tree who could be identified. They taught us the history and traditions of Judaism.

With a small Jewish population on campus, it is not uncommon for me to encounter people who know little about Judaism.

With my colleagues, I enjoy learning more about their faith traditions while also explaining the observances in Judaism.

One of the teachings in Judaism that I most identify with is Tikun Olam — repair the world. This tenet promotes acts of service and social action. It is a belief that the world is innately good, but there is room for us to make improvements. We espouse connecting learning to leadership and service. In my mind, these are similar to Marianist values.

I believe UD is a place where it is acceptable and encouraged to talk about and practice one’s own faith. But I also believe that the observances of some faith traditions outside of Christianity are not on many people’s radar. I have considered it a personal mission to share my faith traditions and educate others about Judaism while also learning about the faith traditions of others.

MUSLIM

Huthayfa Usman

Sophomore criminal justice major

I DESCRIBE MYSELF AS AN AMERICAN MUSLIM,

since one’s country and culture have a lot to do with your religion.

UD’s Catholic faith is one reason I came here; there’s a level of respect given no matter what religion you come from.

I wanted a place where I was safe to practice and a safe place to talk to other people from different religions. People work hard to make it a supportive environment where we’re able to thrive.

A core belief of Islam is to be kind to other people — similar to other religions. We have a saying that a smile is a kind of charity. You might be poor to the point where you don’t have money to give — like being a college student — but you can still smile and make someone’s day better.

Being a Muslim means you’re always serving, whether you serve God or your community. The career I’m going toward in law enforcement is about serving other people. My role as president of the Muslim Student Association is not necessarily about serving; it’s part of my identity. I’m the first domestic president, so I work to understand what the needs are of international students.

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N O N D E N O M I N AT I O N A L P R OT E STA N T

Verb Washington

Assistant dean, College of Arts and Sciences

IN 2003, WHEN STILL ON ACTIVE DUTY WITH the

Army, I was assigned to UD as a professor of military science. I was told UD is a small, private Catholic university. The Catholic piece wasn’t a challenge — my wife is Catholic; I was raised Apostolic — but getting students to do ROTC at a private school is, so I wasn’t excited about coming. Then I visited campus. The moment I stepped on the property, a celestial symphony erupted. Wow. It was a little bit freaky.

Outside O’Reilly Hall, there is a quote from Father Raymond Roesch. He says the reason ROTC is placed in the College of Arts and Sciences is because students serve the Army as a vocation, and vocations are best explored through the humanities. This is a school dedicated to social justice and community that sees value in serving in the military. Awesome.

As assistant dean for student success, I meet with students who are in trouble, who are struggling. The biggest thing that my faith encompasses is the idea of grace. We all fall short of the glory of God. He accepts we aren’t going to be perfect. He’s made us and given us free will. We make bad choices all the time, but that shouldn’t be the end of our story.

R O M A N C AT H O L I C

Corinne Daprano

Interim dean of the School of Education and Health Sciences ON MY DESK, A CARD TITLED “MARIANIST CORE

Leadership Values” lists consultation and collaboration, discipleship of equals, adaption and change, and community in permanent mission. Those are the values of a different kind of leadership. It’s not about handing down mandates; it’s based on a respect for what others bring to the table. It fits with what I want to be as a person, as a Catholic.

And it resonates with people even if they are not Catholic.

Learning about the faith traditions of others is enriching. There is an openness here about discussing other traditions, a respect, a sharing, a commonality.

Working here allows me to express my faith every day.

At other schools I’ve been, it’s like checking your faith at the door. I could talk about my faith with students, but certainly not in the classroom or in meetings. Here Catholicism is the backdrop for everything we do.

I enjoyed the other places I have taught. But UD has a sense of mission that sets it apart. Community is not just a word here. As a Catholic, Marianist university, we talk about it. But we also do it.

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Photograph by NAME TK

JA I N

Sangita Gosalia

Director of campus engagement, Center for International Programs I GREW UP IN A JAIN FAMILY. JAINISM IS AN OLD

religion with the fundamental principle of nonviolence. It pushes us to strive to limit our harm toward ourselves, others and our environment. So, being mindful of one’s motivations, expressions and behaviors is important.

Many Jains practice vegetarianism and believe in reincarnation and karmic influence, or the idea that our thoughts and actions impact our destiny.

I believe my Jain values have helped me to navigate working in a Marianist institution. UD is unique in that we value relationships and collaboration. I appreciate that we often invite individuals from diverse perspectives to the table to engage with each other and challenge ourselves to think beyond one point of view. In many cases it requires us to accept and understand difference and find ways to work toward common goals. What is truth? It is often a question we are challenged to ask. Recognizing that truth is relative is an important principle of Jainism, and in seeking truth we strive to be compassionate and humble.

These are values that align well with my perception of the Marianist values and what it means to live in community.

C H R I ST I A N , D I S C I P L E S O F C H R I ST

Steve Wilhoit

Professor of English

I’VE TALKED TO STUDENTS ABOUT TEACHING

as an act of faith. Teachers want to have a positive impact on students’ lives. You have to have faith that you are. Sometimes you hear from former students who confirm that you did. Mostly, you don’t. If you lose that faith, you burn out.

My religious affiliation is with the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, for whom Jesus Christ is the center. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper every week, and everyone is welcome.

At UD, I’m comfortable bringing into the classroom subjects such as faith and religious belief. At other places I’ve been, one could talk, for example, about Flannery O’Connor’s religious imagery. But to ask students about how that applies to their lives is another thing. It may not be forbidden, but the atmosphere is not the same as here.

I’m working with other faculty members in bringing a discussion of vocation into the curriculum. Students are learning to ask, “What am I called to do? Who am I called to be?”

We, I believe, are called to love God and neighbor and to use one’s skills to help others and bring meaning to one’s life.

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Pointe person

When dance was in danger, Anna Glass ’99

stepped up to save the historic Dance Theatre of Harlem.

WRITTEN BY Gia Kourlas // PHOTOGRAPHS BY Zoey Xia ’15

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35

Real place

Mitchell, the first African American principal dancer at New York City Ballet, took stock of his life after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Even though he was in his prime, he decided to leave the comforts of City Ballet — where his mentor, George Balanchine, created the groundbreaking 1957 ballet “Agon” for Mitchell and Diana Adams, a white dancer — to start a company of his own. Dance Theatre of Harlem went on to prove to the world that a dancer, regardless of race, could master ballet.

But after decades of robust touring, the company’s financial health was in peril;

I

T WAS AS IF SHE WAS LIVING TWO LIVES. DURING THE DAY, ANNA GLASS ATTEND-

ed law school; at night, she traded her books for a leotard and a barre. With a dazed expression and at a rare loss for words, Glass remembered the days she juggled law school and dance with a mix of awe and stupefaction.

“I don’t even know how I made it through,” she said. “When I look back, I’m like, that was the craziest thing I ever did.”

Glass graduated from the University of Dayton School of Law in 1999, having spent her student days living a dual life as a performing member of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s pre-professional company. While she has never practiced law, her degree, along with her dancing history, have served her well.

Over the years, she has held leadership roles in the arts, including her present and most important one: executive director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, a company inspired by the civil rights movement and formed by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. It’s been called a national treasure, with its message of empowerment through the arts for all.

But even treasures can find themselves in peril.

Because of her education and devotion to dance, Glass found herself in a position to help save it.

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

from 2004 to 2012, it went on hiatus due to financial difficulties, and for its 2013 rebirth, the group was smaller by necessity. Virginia Johnson, a founding member and star ballerina, took over as its artistic director.

Glass entered through more of a side door: In 2014, she received a request from the Ford Foundation, among the largest private American foundations and a major force in influencing American culture, especially in the areas of diversity and equality. It asked her to assess the company amid rumors that it was, once again, on shaky financial ground.

While it was meant to be a temporary job, she never left.

“I think what happened was that she fell

in love,” Johnson said. “She was just like, ‘Okay, I get it. This place has got some problems, but this place is real. This place needs to be.’”

Over the years, but especially now — Dance Theatre remains small, but is stable — Glass has proven herself to be a critical part of the dance world. And while some executive directors have a staid, overly bureaucratic air, Glass is different: She’s real, with a ready smile, dancing eyes and a habit of changing the subject with an endearing “anyhoo.” Small and elegant, she still looks like a dancer; if she were to wear a leotard as she roamed the halls of the company’s Harlem headquarters, you wouldn’t bat an eye.

From dance to law

It’s fitting that she started out as a dancer. Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Glass began training in tap and jazz at a small studio; she was 6 and loved it. Moving on, she studied ballet at the Flint Institute of Music, a 30-minute drive from Saginaw.

“I would do my homework in the car and eat fast food for dinner,” she said. “It was a lot. Finally, my mom told me about Interlochen Arts Academy.”

She attended the fine arts boarding school in northern Michigan for her freshman and sophomore years of high school; when her family relocated to the Detroit area, she went with them and “went to some ridiculous all-girls school,” she said.

“In hindsight, I should have stayed my butt there, but you know when you’re young you’re just like, my family’s leaving — I wanted to go with them.”

But there was something else that made her leave Interlochen: Out of about 50 students in the dance program, only three were black. Glass had an encounter with a woman — she doesn’t recall if she was a ballet teacher or not — who told her that she didn’t have a future in dance.

“Not because of my talent, but because my only options would be to join Ailey” — she said, referring to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, whose dance is rooted in African American tradition — “or Dance

ing?’” she said. “‘What happens if you break your leg? How are you going to live?’”

She made a deal with them: She would pursue her career with Dayton Contemporary Dance Co. and apply to a single law school, the University of Dayton.

“If I didn’t get in, they had to get off my back,” she said.

Not only was she accepted, but she was awarded a full scholarship. “I was like, OK!” she said. “I guess I’ll go to law school.”

It meant scrimping on sleep, reading textbooks in theater wings and as much as she could — because first-year law students aren’t allowed to have jobs on the side — keeping her dancing a secret. But she did

Theatre of Harlem and outside of that, ‘No one is really going to pick you up,’” Glass said. “I remember just thinking, oh, that makes me sad that I only have two options, and all of my friends have a gazillion options. I just believed it. I didn’t even argue against it.”

And that was the end of her dance training — until she got to Oberlin College where, while pursuing a history degree, Glass rediscovered dance. She made it her minor and was, once again, consumed.

“I’d come to New York (city) for the summer and study at Ailey, and when I was getting ready to graduate, my parents — they were a wonderful, old-school black family — were like, ‘You’re going to pursue this danc-

have a study group, which she described as “a bunch of white guys” who in retrospect were a critical part of her success.

“I don’t know what possessed them to support me in the way that they did,” she said. “I’ll have to ask them. But that’s how I stayed on top.”

She also had an integral mentor in Jeraldyne Blunden, DCDC’s founder. Blunden formed the company in 1968 to provide performance opportunities for dancers of color. For Blunden, it was crucial that Glass graduate.

Glass recalled Blunden saying, “You’re a great and beautiful dancer, but you’re going to be more valuable to me as a lawyer. I don’t have anyone like you in my corner.”

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And back again

Glass has a vivid memory of sitting in her employment law class and being sure of one thing: She was not going to join a firm. After graduating in 1999, Glass moved to New York City to pursue a dance career, yet that dream didn’t last long.

“The law school experience impacted me in a weird way because now I had all this knowledge,” she said. “I felt like I couldn’t just be a dancer with all of this information. I couldn’t live in such a narrowly focused existence.”

Glass was making a living through temp work when Blunden asked her to become the booking agent for DCDC. The company found Glass a position at the artist services organization Pentacle; eventually she reached a point where she wanted to learn more.

In 2003, Glass was accepted into a yearlong fellowship program under Michael Kaiser at the Kennedy Center, the nation’s busiest performing arts center, attracting more than 2 million audience members a year to Washington, D.C. Kaiser is revered for turning around arts organizations, including American Ballet Theatre and the Ailey company; he once called Dance Theatre of Harlem “truly a national treasure.” Glass is one of two people in the history of the program to work directly with him; he taught her to understand that the artistic product comes first.

A key moment came when Kaiser asked Glass if she planned to work exclusively with black organizations. “I remember feeling really conflicted about that question, because of course you want the answer to be no,” she said. “But I was starting to really develop some clarity around the things that were important to me, and it was working for arts organizations that, at the time, I would have called ‘culturally specific.’ But if I was really straight about it, it would be black institutions.”

Glass entered the fold of 651 Arts — a Brooklyn organization devoted to contemporary dance, theater and music that comes from the African diaspora — as its managing director. While there, she met Carmen de Lavallade, the actress, dancer and choreographer who is considered to 38

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

be something like dance royalty. A Kennedy Center Honors Award recipient in 2017, de Lavallade was married to the late Geoffrey Holder, a director, choreographer and artist; her cousin was Janet Collins, the first black ballerina to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. And de Lavallade, who started dancing as a teenager in Los Angeles, was the person who introduced the choreographer Alvin Ailey to dance.

When Glass, after eight years, left 651 to have a child and embark on a freelance career creating strategic plans, she got a call: “Carmen was like, ‘I’m not getting any younger: Can we do this show?’”

It turned out to be As I Remember It, a 2014 solo that Glass produced that explored de Lavallade’s rich history in dance. The show was still touring when Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, asked Glass to take a look at what was going on with Dance Theatre of Harlem. She created a report that pointed out some issues concerning the financial management of the organization.

“Basically the budget is a hot mess, the accounting software makes no sense and nothing relates to actually how the organization is operating,” she said. “So it’s impossible to really understand what the current state of the union is because the financial management is crazy.”

She also told him that there was confusion within Dance Theatre of Harlem about where it was headed. “Darren said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought was happening. Now I need you to fix it.’ I’m like, what?”

Survive, thrive

Glass had never run a dance company; she called on Sharon Luckman, the former executive director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, for help, even though they didn’t know each other. As they uncovered information about the institution’s financial state, they became worried. “Sharon and I were really doing our best to figure out how to keep the doors open: Is it a merger?

What do we have to do to make sure this institution survives?”

But something strange happened that year. Instead of ending the year in a deficit, there was a $200,000 surplus. Part of it had to do with the decision to move the company’s New York City season from Jazz at

Lincoln Center to City Center, which is recognized as more of a dance venue. Because of that, Dance Theatre of Harlem didn’t need to seek out audiences; audiences came to them.

“We created a budget that we still use now,” Glass said. “I brought in a new finance team. The truth of the matter is that it became not about what DTH was doing, it was how DTH was doing what it was doing. The [DTH dance] school — it might as well have been 1980. We weren’t doing online tuition payments and so we would have parents who weren’t paying their tuition bills and we wouldn’t have any clue that that wasn’t happening.”

Little things, in other words, add up. Now that Robert Garland, the company’s resident choreographer, is in charge of the school, enrollment has gone up.

“Anna knows how to look at a problem and walk around it and figure out where the point of entry is,” Johnson said. “That’s really valuable, because there are nothing but problems in a ballet company — it’s just nothing but. She’s also creative: What is the way to make that an advantage rather than a disadvantage?”

Apparently Mitchell, who died in 2018, had a sense of that early on. He originally wanted Glass to come on as executive director when he was still running the company.

They first met when she was 30 and about to leave the Kennedy Center program. She insisted she wasn’t ready.

“He was like, ‘Oh, I’ll get you ready,’” she said. “I had heard that it was very challenging to work with Mr. Mitchell, and I didn’t feel like I had enough experience to manage him and to be in a role this big, so I turned him down, but I kept in touch with him.”

When she was at 651, they spent time together, and when she finally did end up at Dance Theatre, he was pleased. And on

her end, Glass delivered, helping to lead a successful fundraising effort in 2019 to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary that also paid homage to Mitchell’s legacy.

And even though Mitchell was no longer involved in running the company, he was — and still is — an influence.

For example, there was an issue in the dance school with a parent who had a grievance against a teacher. “I had not run a school before,” Glass said, “and I remember saying, ‘Mr. Mitchell, how would you have handled this?’ And he said, ‘Well, I would have told them to go to Ailey.’ And he was dead serious.”

She was astonished.

Her aim was to salvage the situation, to make sure that the parent wouldn’t leave the school. “I was like, ‘Really?’” Glass recalled, “He said, ‘Listen here, sweetheart: You’re not going to last very long if you let these people bother you.’ And I have held onto that. When things get crazy or something’s upsetting me, I just remember what Mr. Mitchell said: It’s oOK if the answer to something is that it’s not going to work.”

And the influence of DCDC founder Blunden is still present in Glass’ decision to work to uphold the legacy of black artists and cultural institutions, to treasure both the art and the organization that makes it possible.

When she was dancing for Blunden, Glass was surrounded by choreographers like Eleo Pomare and Donald McKayle. “All of these amazing, legendary artists were hanging out in Dayton, Ohio,” Glass said. “Jeraldyne really instilled this sense of respect for that: To pay attention to history and to revere it and to fight for it. It’s why I gravitated toward Carmen. And it’s why I’m at Dance Theatre of Harlem.”

“When things get crazy or something’s upsetting me, I just remember what Mr. Mitchell said: It’s OK if the answer to something is that it’s not going to work.”

Gia Kourlas is the dance critic of The New York Times.

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Delali Nenonene Senior, political science, Ohio Civil Rights Commission

40

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Capitol Investment How the Statehouse Civic Scholars program is building a University of Dayton network at the highest levels of state government

WRITTEN BY

Maureen Harmon PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Jodi Miller

F

or the longest time, Bryan Borodkin wanted to be a patent attorney. But in his first year at the University of Dayton — with his chemical engineering major and pre-law minor all lined up for his dream job — he realized patent attorneys don’t really work with people. And working with people, says Borodkin, was something he had always wanted to do.

It was one of those first-year realizations that can spin a person, but Borodkin reassessed. He liked government in high school. He was interested in environmental law. So a political science major seemed like a good option. He reached out to former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, distinguished research associate at the University of Dayton, and asked for some time to pick the governor’s brain.

In a quick chat in Taft’s narrow office in Zehler Hall, Borodkin learned about Dayton’s political science major. And in the process, Taft told Borodkin about the Statehouse Civic Scholars program — a chance for any student, in any major, at any time in their college career to intern in positions in state government. In its nine summers, the program has educated students, jumpstarted careers and infused the Statehouse with UD talent, all while raising the profile of the University in the capital.

For a first-year whose plans were in flux, this sounded like a great opportunity. So Borodkin signed on for a new major and tucked the idea of the Statehouse Civic Scholars program into his future plans.

The idea for the Statehouse Civic Scholars program was that of Eileen Austria ’81, the state advocate for the University of Dayton, a position housed in the president’s office and one she has held for more than a decade. In her work with state government early on, she had many conversations with interns working in the state capital of Columbus while awaiting meetings with legislative assistants, legislators and representatives. In small talk that usually accompanies those few minutes in lobbies and outer offices, she asked questions like, “So, where are you from? What school did you go to?”

Ohio State was well represented. So was Ohio University and Miami University. But the University of Dayton mentions were few and far between. That bothered Austria, who was in Columbus to raise the

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41

to the students — it would also raise the visibility of the University itself. It was a win-win to Austria.

She took the idea to the Department of Political Science and its then-chair, Jason Pierce. She took it to the dean. She brought it to the president’s office for government relations. And she brought it to Taft.

Her message: “We need to build ourselves a farm team.”

Bryan Borodkin Senior, political science, Ohio Environmental Council

profile of the University. The UD students she knew should be in these positions, she thought.

So, drawing on her 17 years as district director for U.S. Congressman Dave Hobson and as a marketing professional, she conjured a vision based on the bipartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission Fellowship, a program that has been offering these types of experiences for 50 years. Austria had been a fellow herself and knew firsthand the benefits such a program could offer.

“I loved that program,” she says. “It’s got a great alumni following in the state of Ohio, and, really, that opened doors for me.”

There was no reason, she thought, that the University of Dayton couldn’t develop a similar program — after all, the University was working hard to develop experiential learning opportunities for students at that time.

“What I wanted to do, with a lot of help from other people,” Austria says, “was open those doors for the next generation of public servants in Ohio.”

She imagined a program that would offer University of Dayton students a $1,500 stipend, as well as housing, so they could focus on their work over eight weeks in the summer. “I have a soft spot in my heart for the arts and sciences kids,” Austria says. “They’re very passionate about what they want to do when they graduate, and all they need is an open door.”

Austria knew that if the University of Dayton could place these students in internships in places like the governor’s office or the attorney general’s office or the Ohio Supreme Court, it wouldn’t only be a benefit

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

“ They’re

very passionate about what they want to do when they graduate, and all they need is an open door.”

—EILEEN AUSTRIA

Jonathon Field ’14, a former member of the National Guard, began work at UD for his master’s degree in public administration just three weeks after returning from a deployment in Afghanistan. He will readily admit that he didn’t have a life plan for after he earned his degree. But at 26 years old with deployments under his belt, he wasn’t interested in a traditional paperpushing internship.

“I didn’t want someone to treat me like an intern,” he says today with a laugh.

When a faculty member told him about the Statehouse Civic Scholars program, he knew exactly where he wanted to be placed: “I figured if I go to the Department of Veterans Services, I would be with other veterans, and maybe they would let me do some real work.”

They did. The two-month internship through the program turned into a fellowship position and then a full-time job as the military liaison.

“That was very much a partcommunications, part-outreachtype job,” Field says. “There were about 35,000 active, guard and reserve service members here in the state, and the job was created to network with them and communicate Ohio’s veteran benefits with the military community in Ohio.” It was a good gig for a freshly minted master’s student, and that position had Field climbing the department ladder quickly. Today he is the department’s deputy director of education programs. “Five jobs

later, and I’m still there ... you just can’t get rid of me.”

For Field, the beauty of the program and its impact on his career trajectory had a lot to do with access to high-level offices and the connections he could make as a student before ever applying for his first job.

“It took me a couple years to figure this out from working in state government. But if you look at every large state agency, there are [thousands of ] people who would never interact with the director of the agency,” he says.

“And I think the beauty of the program is that it puts you in the director’s office as an intern.

So the access you get is just incredible.”

Field took that access and ran with it. He asked the department’s chief financial officer if he would be willing to show him the budget and how it worked. He asked the policy director for work and learned how to research legislation from other states. “It was the opportunity to learn on a larger scale what state government does,” he says.

Taft and Austria are responsible for much of that access. Since both had enjoyed prestigious careers in state government, they were able to use their own network to build Dayton’s.

“We could secure really first-rate internship opportunities, virtually anywhere in

Maggie Ward

Senior, political science, Office of the Governor

Photograph by NAME TK

state government or in associations somehow connected with state government,” Taft says. “High-quality placements, high-quality opportunities have definitely been part of the concept since the beginning.”

Not only that, but the pair — along with Jason Pierce, now dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dan Birdsong, political science lecturer — could offer orientations on state government and training so students head to the capital prepared.

The training and connections worked for Veronica Paulson Scherbauer ’11, too. After her eight-week Statehouse Civic Scholars experience, she applied for a position at the attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations working in data collection and management — and she got the job.

“Part of the reason I got that interview is because they had known me as an intern,” says Scherbauer. For six years, she ran the attorney general’s Human Trafficking Commission and is now the anti-human trafficking senior adviser for the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

For eight weeks in the summer of 2019, 12 University of Dayton students woke up in

their apartments in Bexley, Ohio, put on suits and ties and dress shoes, and headed to their internships 8 miles down the road in Columbus. This year’s crop is the ninth farm team.

Maggie Ward, a senior political science major, set off to draft a news synopsis for Gov. Mike DeWine and sent it to him directly, awaiting any questions or further research requests he might have. Delali Nenonene, a senior political science major, climbed to the fifth floor of the Rhodes State Office Tower, which houses the Civil Rights Commission.

Emma Kapp, a senior communication major, answered constituent calls in Rep. Brigid Kelly’s office. And senior Bryan Borodkin, the student who wanted so badly to work with people as a first-year student, headed to an open work space just outside the statehouse to work on environmental legislation with the Ohio Environmental Council. When the day wrapped up, they headed back to their apartments and debriefed.

The cohort mission of the program — sending students to Columbus as a group — is a big bonus for the scholars, Ward says, especially given the fact that some students are working in policy and legislation and others for lobbying groups.

“It’s really helpful, and it’s also exciting to see what they’re doing and how those experiences are helping form their paths, which gives me new ideas for what I would potentially want to do,” Ward says.

For Nenonene, it’s about the bigger picture: “Everybody’s in different agencies and everybody’s doing a different role,” says Nenonene who, like many of his peers, also interned with the University of Dayton D.C. Flyers Program, a similar experiential opportunity that places students in internships at the federal level. “But it’s really interesting to see that everybody’s advocating for the betterment of people in general through state government.”

This group, like the eight Statehouse Civic Scholars groups before them, had to go through a rigorous interview process, during which students are given 30 minutes to respond to a mock constituent inquiry. The process guarantees the University is sending its best students — in smarts and creativity, yes, but also in abilities to think on their feet and make an impact on the office in which they work.

Taft and Austria work with each student in the chosen cohort to place them in areas of interest.

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

43

to go into communities and help educate Ohioans about the work of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission — teaching them about the resources they have on hand to fight discrimination in all forms.

And it’s how Sophia Donati, a senior pre-law major from Indiana interning with the Ohio Supreme Court, walked into a training on human trafficking and learned the presenter was a Flyer. Donati introduced herself to Scherbauer, the anti-human trafficking grant coordinator for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, and got her business card.

Emma Kapp

Senior, communication, Office of Rep. Brigid Kelly

“It’s a very competitive selection process,” Taft says. “Communication skills are very important, both verbal and written. And students need a willingness to learn and to understand that they’re there to contribute to the office, so they have to be flexible and resilient about what they’re being asked to do and be willing to do whatever task is assigned.”

That’s how Ward ended up writing media reports for DeWine’s office and writing press releases when the senior team was pulled away to travel with the governor as he met with Dayton communities affected by tornadoes in May. It’s how Borodkin ended up writing a brief that will make its way to Congress and ask for $5 billion in support funds for Ohio environmental issues. It’s how Kapp learned to study the sports betting bill Rep. Kelly’s office is working on and met NFL representatives who came to the office to support it. And it’s how Nenonene had the opportunity

44

“ We now

have alumni from this program supervising interns from the program.”

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

—BOB TAFT

It’s moments like those that make Austria and Taft the most excited — when alumni of the program reach out and help the current students take their first steps in public service.

“We now have alumni from this program supervising interns from the program,” Taft says. “So we have a support network established with program alumni in Columbus who can help us. A number of our interns in the legislature, for example, are working with the graduates from the program.”

Taft is thinking, too, about the benefits to state government itself.

“We’ve had a number of the graduates from the program who have been hired full time working in Columbus, who came to Dayton from other states,” he says. “So we’re retaining, through this program, University of Dayton talent in the state and contributing to the quality of state government.”

And Austria is still setting the bar higher. “One of the things that we don’t have yet, from the alumni group of Statehouse Civic Scholars, is a duly elected official,” she says. “I know that one of these students is going to run for office, and they’re going to be very successful, and I hope that all of these other UD students will be there to help them in their first campaign.”

Austria knows that moment is coming; in the meantime, she’s just enjoying watching the connections that grow with every new cohort, and she’s excited to see where the program takes them.

Field, who addressed the current cohort during a weekly networking event, puts it in a way only a Statehouse Civic Scholar alumnus with 20/20 hindsight can. “I could have easily walked out after that two months and thought, ‘Oh, that was a cool experience,’” he says. But his work proves it can be bigger than that. “That could be the start of your career.”

EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME During their eight weeks in Ohio’s capital, students shared QWb_McPVRb that allow us a glimpse into their lives as EcMcRV^dbR 4WeWP EPV^ZMab͙ Take a look at their words online in the fW]cRa WbbdR Mc dQMhc^]͙RQdΧ\MUMjW]R͙

THE ALUMNI ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT P. 46 // MY OLD HOUSE P. 49 // READ SEE HEAR P. 51 // MY FLYER STORY P. 52 // CLASS NOTES P. 53 CLASS OF 1962

Can UDentify us?

Do you recognize these friends, horsing around in

the snow in the pages of the 1960 issue of the Daytonian?

If so, email us at magazine@udayton.edu.

IN THE LAST ISSUE

More than a dozen Flyers recognized the 1968 homecoming court. Patricia David Stabile ’68 remembered housemate Cathy Clifford Hahn, far right: “She got all of her 329 Stonemill roomies together for our 30-year reunion at Dayton in 1999. We lost her this past spring while she was attempting to gather us all for our 50-year UD reunion.

She was a kind lady with a very strong personality.” Former Daytonian photographer Jerry Rieman ’69 recognized the photo as one taken by Jim Dvorak ’71, and Phil “Jay” Grassia ’70 knows where he was at the exact moment it was taken — just out of the frame to the left, on field as Yell Leader. The court is, from left: Kathy Flood, Patty Clifford, Mary Alonge, Patty Gambs, Donna Bergeron, Connie Schuck, Maureen Gavin and Cathy Clifford.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

45

THE ALUMNI BACK PORCH

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

A Flyer’s calling: to protect 46

U

NIVERSITY OF DAYTON FIRST-YEAR STUDENT CARSON RHOADES KNOWS

what propelled his father — Stephen Rhoades ’92 — to a distinguished military career culminating in his recent promotion to the rank of brigadier general.

“He has grit,” Carson Rhoades says. “That has pushed him far in his professional and military career and has helped him to accomplish many things people thought weren’t possible.”

Carson Rhoades enrolled at UD on an Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship, just as his father did 31 years earlier. He has become part of a 102-year-old UD tradition, one of the oldest ROTC programs in the country.

“I want to serve,” he says. “My dad has inspired me.”

Stephen Rhoades graduated from UD with a degree in business administration, earning recognition as a distinguished military graduate. “UD provides a very solid liberal

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Photograph courtesy STEPHEN RHOADES

arts foundation that creates well-rounded students, graduates and military officers,” Stephen Rhoades says. “I still run into people who look at degrees as something transactional. But education isn’t about just receiving a degree; it’s about transforming people’s minds.”

He graduated from U.S. Army flight school in 1993, and from 1994 to 2000 served on active duty at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he flew Apache Attack helicopters in the 101st Airborne Division and MH-6 “Little Birds” in the 160th Special Aviation Operations Regiment.

“As a kid I flew model airplanes, and I knew the Dayton Air Force museum inside and out,” Stephen Rhoades says. “I always dreamed of being a pilot.”

In 1994 he married Amy Marsh Rhoades ’91, but that first year of marriage was rough, as they lived together only four months. “I had no idea what I was getting into, marrying a man with a military career,” Amy Rhoades admits. “But love is love, and this is his career.”

It’s a calling to which her husband is well-suited, Amy Rhoades says, despite all the sacrifices the military has required of their family: “Stephen is very serviceoriented. If someone needs help on the side of the road, he is the first one to pull over. That all rolls right into love of nation and of country.”

In 2000, a few years after the birth of their first son, Levi, Stephen Rhoades was asked to deploy to Korea for a year without his family. At that time he and Amy made the tough decision to leave the active Army, and he accepted a full-time job in sales. The family eventually moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, Rhoades’ hometown.

“I made a good go of it in my sales career, but I was missing that sense of identity, that sense of career satisfaction,” Stephen Rhoades recalls. “The military was a bigger part of me than I realized.”

After 9/11, his ambivalence evaporated. “I am going back in,” he told Amy, and he joined a Black Hawk helicopter unit in the Ohio Army National Guard.

In 2003 Stephen Rhoades’ National Guard unit was called up and eventually deployed to Kosovo. There he witnessed the ravages of modern-day genocide on his first local orientation flight. He has never forgotten his initial aerial view over that war-torn area when he was learning all

the local checkpoints. As his Black Hawk flew over the mountains, he carefully followed the navigational map, but failed to find a village he was looking for.

Embarrassed, he told his co-pilot, “I can’t believe we’re lost! The village is right here on the map.”

“You’re not lost,” his fellow pilot informed him. “Look closer at the ground and you’ll see the remains of that village and its burned foundations.”

Stephen Rhoades intentionally had been given a five-year-old map so his copilot could reinforce the sensitivity of this area. “Then we hovered over the graves where all the villagers were buried just a few years earlier,” he recalls. “Chills went down my back. I understood at that moment that our job is to protect those who can’t protect themselves. ‘Safe and secure’ was our mantra in Kosovo.”

Lately his thoughts have been with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the aviators who flew in the special forces who conducted the successful raids against Osama bin Laden in 2011 and against Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.

“I’m very proud of my fellow army aviators, past and present, who served in that unit,” Stephen Rhoades says, singling out his mentor and a former UD ROTC cadet,

uniforms we have citizen soldiers from all walks of life and professions.”

And now his son Carson is following in his footsteps as a UD ROTC cadet. At a football game on Family Weekend, Stephen Rhoades ran into an alumnus who knew him as a cadet and asked, “Who would have thought that you’d still be in and now a brigadier general?”

They were joined that weekend by two other couples, fellow alumni who also have children at UD — Doug Brenneman ’94 and Barb Godsil Brenneman ’94, as well as Sean Orban ’93 and Debra Willson Orban ’93.

“True to form, Steve is very humble,” Sean Orban says. “In private life you would never know he is a general. He always aspires to do the right thing and to do his best, and it’s good to see that recognized.”

Doug Brenneman grew up with Stephen Rhoades and decided to attend UD after visiting campus in 1989. He also met his wife at UD, and the couples live on the same cul-de-sac as the Rhoades family in Mount Vernon. “Stephen always has shown leadership and loyalty to the people who work under him, whether it’s in his full-time job at Siemens or the military folks who report to him,” Doug Brenneman says. “He’s always will-

I understood at that moment that our job is to protect those who can’t protect themselves. ‘Safe and secure’ was our mantra in Kosovo.

Col. Thomas McLeary ’91.

On July 20, Stephen Rhoades took command of the Ohio Army National Guard’s Special Troops Command. In civilian life, he is an environmental health and safety executive for Siemens with global responsibilities.

“I really enjoy the leadership side, and the interaction with the troops,” he says of his new command. “I am amazed by the depth and breadth of talent we have in the National Guard. Behind the Army

ing to help people, but not afraid to take charge and let people know how they can contribute.”

It’s a philosophy that has been absorbed by his sons, including Levi, who recently graduated from Duke University, and Wyatt, who is in eighth grade.

“He has instilled in my brothers and me a respect for those who served our country,” Carson Rhoades says. “A lot of that can be traced back to being a cadet here in Dayton.” — M A R Y M c C A R T Y

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

47

THE ALUMNI BACK PORCH

‘I’m living into the call’

T

O AN OBSERVER, WESTINA MATTHEWS SHATTEEN ’70 HAS MASTERED THE

art of reinvention, but she begs to differ.

“I wouldn’t call it reinvention,” says Matthews, who traded a fast-paced corporate executive life in Manhattan for a quieter one of reflection, prayer and writing along the Wilmington River in Savannah where she lives with her husband, Alan Shatteen ’69.

“I’m living into the call.”

Her life’s journey has wound through an elementary school classroom in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she counts comedian Dave Chappelle among her former students, to the Wall Street boardroom of Merrill Lynch, where she holds the distinction of being the first woman and person of color to be elected as a trustee of the foundation.

Upon “retirement,” she came back for a curtain call — researching women and girls of faith in Burundi as part of a Harvard University fellowship, awarding scholarships to minority youth as the chief program officer at the Jackie Robinson Foundation and hopscotching the country offering inspirational talks and spiritual retreats for the Episcopal Church. For nine years, she served on UD’s board of trustees and is featured in an exhibit of trailblazing women in UD’s Women’s Center.

Through it all, she’s kept a journal — often tapping out her thoughts on her iPhone on a plane — for weekly email reflections she shares like clockwork with friends on Tuesday mornings. Today, her poignant essays have turned into a new book, Dancing from the Inside Out: Grace-Filled Reflections on Growing Older, published by Church Publishing Inc. under her professional name of Westina Matthews. She returned home this fall to share a sneak preview with family, friends, students, faculty and administrators at her alma mater a week before the launch.

48

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

The book’s 80 short essays, told with wit and warmth, run the gamut from discovering God at a Starbucks to appreciating simple, everyday moments during the last days of her 99-year-old great aunt’s life. At a certain age, Matthews observes, some purposely choose to live joyfully in the moment, “dancing to the beat within.”

She urges all she meets to contemplate their lives, too, with an eye toward continually exploring the possibilities on the horizon. “I invite people to ponder questions about God’s call for their lives and learn to simply live into the questions and love them.”

A “preacher’s kid,” Matthews grew up in a deeply religious household. When she enrolled at UD during the tail end of the civil rights movement, she wore the uniform of the day — bell bottoms — while nuns who staffed the Marycrest Hall reception desk and lived among the women wore habits. Even though she wasn’t Catholic, she felt at home spiritually. And while she was one of just 19 black students on campus her first year, she forged her own path, drawing the attention of UD President Father Raymond Roesch, S.M., who relied on her to help build stronger communication between the administration and student body.

Students elected her the first black homecoming queen, and Ellie Kurtz, director of Kennedy Union, quietly arranged to help pay her final semester’s tuition when her funds ran short.

“I felt loving support,” she recalls. “I felt a lot of people were praying for me to go out and do great things.”

After graduating from UD with a bachelor’s and then, in 1974, a master’s degree in education, she headed to Chicago to earn a doctorate from the University of Chicago. She left home with some trepidation and a treasured gift — a simple necklace with a mustard seed — from her mother, who quoted a Bible verse from Matthew: “Remember, so long as you have the faith of a single grain of mustard seed, all things are possible.”

That became her life’s mantra.

On 9/11, she clutched that necklace as she fled down 33 flights of stairs in the World Trade Center and over the Brooklyn Bridge “with the two towers billowing with fire and smoke behind me.” Later, when she saw the now-famous 20-foot cross made of two steel beams on the devastated site, she said she “knew deep within my soul that I needed to begin the process of forgiveness and reconciliation — and that I needed to spread a message of hope, love and faith.”

Her life, then, is not about reinvention.

“It’s always been about service,” she says.

—TERI RIZVI

W E S T I N A M AT T H E W S

On writing (and finding your voice) Besides Dancing from the Inside Out, Westina Matthews has written three books in the Have a Little Faith series. She reflects on the writing process — and finding her writer’s voice: “ I love to read. I love words.

I write best when I’m lonely, angry, hurt or in pain. I don’t read my essays out loud. I email them to myself, read them, then revise.” “ A lot of my writing happens on the plane on my iPhone.

I sit there and thumb away.

I get inspired by a phrase or a moment.”

“Often I feel like I’m channeling when I write, but just as I think a piece is done, I’m up at 1 a.m. rewriting.”

“Write because you want to write. Don’t write because you want to write a book.”

“I write best in the mornings, after meditation and an hour of riding my bike or walking. I may write a piece in 20 minutes, but that’s 30 years of lived experiences.”

MY OLD HOUSE

HOT SPOT

Bonding over a bathroom at 40 Woodland Ave.

N

OTHING UNITES A GROUP OF WOMEN

like a collective sense of fear. For the senior residents of 40 Woodland, the source of discomfort came from their decaying bathroom.

“The floor was soft and squishy. We were pretty sure we might die,” said Emily Selhorst Kremer ’04, who lived in the house in 2003.

Evidently, the University also recognized the apparent danger. The bathroom was completely renovated, and it eventually became a hub for Kremer and her three housemates — Jen Martinez Rataj ’04, Michelle Swift Perry ’04 and Melissa Lovesky Schafer ’04.

Schafer described how the four of them would squeeze into the bathroom just to enjoy the warmth of the small space heater.

“Between two and four of us would crawl into this bathroom, and we would just sit there and talk and be warm,” Schafer said. “I have a lot of memories of sitting on the floor in the bathroom.”

40 Woodland was commonly referred to as the “40 Oz. House.” Previous residents had spelled out the nickname on the frame of the front door in mailbox letters. According to Kremer, most people instantly knew where she lived as soon as she mentioned the student-made marker.

The friends constantly enjoyed time together, and their favorite tradition consisted of family

dinners.

“Emily is the reason why I eat vegetables now,” Rataj admitted.

Kremer put her mother’s cooking lessons to good use, considering she made a majority of the meals. Occasionally, Rataj would take the reins and teach her housemates how to cook Cuban cuisine, while Perry and Schafer gladly accepted cleanup responsibilities.

Fifteen years later, the 40 Woodland women still get together as often as they can. While their growing families make getting together more and more challenging, they still reunite at least once each year. This summer, the friends attended The Great Darke County Fair in Greenville, Ohio, as a belated 15th-year reunion.

The women do not see their friendship fading anytime soon and are already planning for the future.

“We joke how we want to FAST FACTS eventually live together again, ADDRESS: like the Golden Girls. And if our 40 Woodland Ave. husbands are around, they can YEAR BUILT: 1960 just be in the basement. It’s like YEAR BOUGHT our fantasy, and our husbands

BY UD: 1989 all know this,” Rataj said.

As long as their husbands are onboard, we are, too.

—LAUREN DURHAM ’22

TOTAL SQUARE FEET:

2,272

BEDROOMS: 4

SUGGEST YOUR OLD HOUSE: magazine@udayton.edu

Illustration by KEVIN M. JOHNSON

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

49

THE ALUMNI THE FIRST 10 YEARS

BACK PORCH

O

Young alumni eager to stay connected UR NEWEST GRADUATES ARE EAGER TO STAY CON-

nected and support campus initiatives. Recent data reveals high young alumni participation in University giving and attendance at University organized events within their communities. Alumni who have graduated in the last 10 years have committed to remaining a part of campus through attending networking events, volunteering for mentorship programs or donating money. “I’m excited to keep finding ways for young alumni to engage with the University. We’re starting to see how the impact of all of our smaller gifts can provide opportunity to students on campus, showing how much we value and enjoyed the time we recently had on campus,” said day10 executive committee chair Khristian Santiago ’16. Here is a snapshot of what our newest alumni have done in fiscal year 2019.

—GITA BALAKRISHNAN

Average gift size per constituent for recent classes (FY19)

Communities with greatest young alumni participation (FY19) ALUMNI COMMUNITY

% of Flyers living in region who are young alumni

% of event attendance by young alumni

Northwest Ohio

25%

84%

Washington/Baltimore

15%

60%

Louisville

26%

58%

GRAD. YEAR

AVG. GIFT

2008

$239

2009

$139

2010

$263

Pittsburgh

20%

56%

2011

$146

Indianapolis

31%

52%

2012

$77

2013

$64

2014

$56

2015

$59

2016

$72

2017

$50

2018 50

day10 (young alumni) executive committee

$31

We’re starting to see how the impact of all of our smaller gifts can provide opportunity to students on campus.

65%

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

—KHRISTIAN SANTIAGO ’16

SNAPSHOT OF GIFTS GIVEN BY YOUNG ALUMNI

of gifts were unrestricted

Average gift (years since graduation):

$54 $122 (0–4 years)

(5–10 years)

Photograph courtesy COLLEEN OAKES ’15

NOW

READ | SEE | HEAR

THIS LETTER FROM HOME

One single dollar.

A lifetime of gratitude.

W

HEN

CORINE

YEE

’70

WAS

studying as a premedical major in the late 1960s, she would receive one letter a month from an elderly friend she knew from home. The words on the stationery were filled with encouragement, but also enclosed in the folded letter was one single dollar.

“That dollar went a long way for me because I did not have money,” Yee said. That dollar would also solidify her gratitude toward others for years to come.

The present-day radiologist has no shortage of gratitude. Her grandfather and father emigrated to America in the early 1900s — during an era where there were not many Chinese families in America. But, Yee said, her family worked hard to move up.

“My father was a very smart man,” Yee said. “He was accepted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but after his father died he had to go to work to support the family and was not able to finish school for lack of money. Dad was in the Army in North Africa and Italy during World War II. There were few opportunities for Chinese-Americans after the war, but my father never lost faith in education and hard work.”

Even today, Yee remembers her father’s words to his children: “Knowledge is power.

Once you have it, no one can take it away from you.”

From a young age, she knew she would not let her parents’ sacrifice be for nothing.

Her Catholic upbringing prompted her to apply to UD. She was one of what she believes were less than a handful of Chinese-American students on campus at the time. She was

one of a few female premedical majors. And though she has nothing but fond memories of professor Carl Michaelis, she attributes her ultimate success to the stark honesty her adviser gave when she visited him in his office one day.

She recalls: “Dr. Michaelis told me that no women [at that time] ever got into medical school from here. He, I think, gave me the best advice he thought he could at the time and advised me to switch majors.”

She remembers how her adviser’s advice gave her determination to succeed.

“Right after that meeting, I went straight to my dorm and opened my books to start studying. I was definitely going to prove everyone wrong,” she said.

“I think a lot of people’s success is stimulated by other people lighting a fire under them. Dr. Michaelis was a kind and wonderful man. We would become friends later, but I felt that he had given me a challenge and I was going to take it.”

Yee indeed met the challenge and not only graduated from the premedical program but was one of only a dozen women nationwide to be accepted into Rutgers Medical School in New Jersey. She was one of two students of Asian descent in the program.

Her struggles and triumphs are why she recently started the Dollar in the Envelope Scholarship at UD to help other Asian-American students struggling financially.

“A lot of learning is about self-motivation,” Yee said. “I know if you don’t have to worry about money, you can focus and study and ultimately meet all of your goals. I am able to give back now and hope that others can do the same.” — G I T A B A L A K R I S H N A N

I think a lot of people’s success is stimulated by other people lighting a fire under them.

Photograph courtesy CORINE YEE ’70

WHEN BUILDING TIGERS BRANDS, STREAK: THE CREATING MICHAELCULTURES HART STORY

Paul Stacy Taylor Wall’72 Schweikhart ’01 Taylor Stacychronicles Wall Schweikhart the high is no school stranger football to communicareer oftyMichael involvement.

Hart, who Sheiscredits argued much to of be herthe expertise greatest high school runningtoback the lessons in history. sheAslearned a longfrom head time Brother coach Raymond of NewFitz, York’s S.M., Onondaga and mentor Don Vermillion Central High School whilefootball earningteam, her master’s Taylor saw degree inhow firsthand public Hart’s administration. raw ability transformed “In every roleorganization the I’ve held since, andservant-leadership revitalized a city that has been my why,” desperately needed she says it. Ininthis hermemoir, how-to book Taylor titledHart’s tells Building story Brands, while offering Creatingcoaching Cultures. Wall Schweikhart wisdom of hisoutlines own. “Itthe is an interdependency inspirational tale of branding for any young and athlete culture aspiring in the workforce to be the very and how ithecan best or she be achieved. can be,” Taylor said.

DEFIANCEIN READING AVIATION E.J. Law ’09COUNTY AND BERKS

Michael Floriani ’84exam Passing the bar is not easy, and UD “After starting mylaw career graduate Evan J. Law as a charter pilot, I felt I knows this firsthand.and He I needed a challenge oftenled crafted was to seehis thisown goal of stories studying acknowledging those whowhen contributed to for aviathe to help testFloriani material become more tionbar in my local the area,” said.

As a pilot relatable. lawyer, Law with moreNow thanan 25immigration years of experience, Florihelps aspiring lawyersthe prepare in a similar ani said documenting rich aviation history way — through thrillers.

His first novel, associated withlegal Reading and Berks County, Son of a Sleeper Spy, and next book in Pennsylvania, seemed onlythe natural.

Published the series, Defiance, legalhighlights principlesthe

by Arcadia Publishing,weave the book into suspenseful plot lines.

In bothtonovels, region from the mid-19th century present the principles areand isolated in italics and day legal with photographs detailed anecdotes. footnotes, allowing lawonstudents to Floriani stop and After 13 years of work the book, comprehend the terminology.

Published in said he is grateful to see it come to fruition.

2018, Defiance aims to entertain and educate audiences.

MOTHER AND ME:

A COLLECTION OF BLOOD ON FEATURING WRITINGS, THE HUMOROUS CHESAPEAKEESSAYS THE Randy Overbeck ’77 OF ADELE U. KOEHNEN

Elaine Schweller-Snyder After more than 30 ’73 years in education, Two things run init is no surprise that Randy Schweller-Snyder’s family — writing and Overbeck schools as the University of Dayton.

Her uses mother, settings teachers as Adele U. Koehnen ’44, was and a friend of Erma protagonists in ’49 his novels. in April Fiste Bombeck and hadPublished her own set 2019, Blood on the Chesapeake tells the story of humorous columns.

Scheweller-Snyder of a high school teacher who encounters the shares fond memories while showcasing her supernatural when hesaid, moves to Wilshire, mother’s stories.

She “This book is filled Maryland. haunting firstpart of the with thoseThe words, but it isstory onlyisathe small of anticipated trilogy.

When Overbeck is not writher body of work as a columnist and feature ing, heItisisgiving toletter audiences writer. also apresentations memoir, a love to the all over the country or spending time with woman who gave me life … and so much his grandchildren. debut novel, Leave No more.”

Published inHis 2018, Schweller-Snyder’s Child Behind, won the 2011readers Silver Award for book continues to capture with heartThriller of the Year from ReadersFavorite.com. warming sentiments and her mother’s wit.

——LLAAUURREENN DDUUNNHHAAMM ’’2222

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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THE ALUMNI MY FLYER STORY

Chicago career fair

Trips to the dentist EXPERIENCE

The Chicago Alumni Community will be hosting a career fair Jan. 7, 2020.

Alumni living in the area are encouraged to attend to meet with employers interested in hiring UD students and alumni. To learn more, visit udayton.edu/careerservices.

Molly Crabtree ’19 turns a setback into a sale, thanks to her training at UD

W

HEN I GRADUATED IN MAY OF 2019,

I started my first job out of college as a field sales consultant with Henry Schein, the largest distributor of health care products in the world. I work selling all the equipment you would find in a dentist’s office.

I was only two weeks into my new role, and my manager had been accompanying me to sales calls for guidance. I had scheduled with a dentist to pitch our product line, but when I arrived, I learned my manager was running late.

At first, I was nervous. I didn’t want to lose such a large opportunity, but I had just started my job and was still learning.

Walking in with my manager sometimes gives me more credibility, so not having him there made me uneasy.

As the clock ticked away, I came to the conclusion I had no choice but to go in alone. I knew the half hour the dentist had carved out for me was not flexible, so I had to go into the meeting, manager or no manager. I took a deep breath and decided to rely on myself.

I walked into his office and sat down. Amazingly, everything I had learned from the University of Dayton sales program came flooding back

to me. I was comfortable, confident and assured with the knowledge I had learned through UD's Talarico Center for Professional Selling. All I did was trust the consultative selling process I had been taught. In trusting that, I uncovered the practice’s strengths and weaknesses, and I found opportunities to grow top line revenue for my company.

At the end, the dentist agreed to switch his full merchandise business over to me. I was ecstatic. My education and training had come through.

This was a “win” for me because this success was something I was not expecting for months, if not a year into the job. When my manager arrived, he was pretty impressed.

I can say with confidence that if it wasn’t for the education, training and exposure to the sales process I received at Dayton, I don’t think I would have been able to accomplish what I did.

The University of Dayton’s sales program is special. It breeds uncommon success and turns education into results. I am forever indebted to the faculty who took the time to teach me everything I know about the sales process, and I cannot wait to see fellow graduates have these same successes. — M O L L Y C R A B T R E E ’ 1 9

As the clock ticked away, I came to the conclusion I had no choice but to go in alone.

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Stay connected Flyer Connection is the University’s online networking and mentoring platform for students and alumni. The Alumni Mentoring Program is hosted within Flyer Connection. The platform launched to alumni in October and will open to students Jan. 6. Sign up at udayton. edu/advancement/alumni/ volunteers/mentoring.php Ways alumni can stay engaged: • Share advice and foster professional relationships with students.

• Ask and answer in-themoment questions from students and fellow alumni.

• Build a professional network with alumni.

• Participate from any location around the world.

• Join groups focused on industry, affinity and campus organizations.

Illustration by ZACHARY GHADERI / Photograph by MUZAMMIL SOORMA ON UNSPLASH

CLASS NOTES G OL DEN F LY ER S

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BY THE NUMBERS

Flyers visited Ireland

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Jim O’Hora ʼ62 (SOC) and his wife, Diane, live in Vestal, New York. He writes, “The Ohio State University College of Social Work selected me to receive its 2019 Distinguished Career Award for my professional achievements, initiatives and leadership. I earned my master’s degree at OSU because, at the time, UD did not yet have a graduate program in social work. However, I owe my life’s success to UD. The University accepted me on a promise for the future, not on any academic achievements I earned before UD. Thanks, UD, for a chance to go to college. I am one very proud UD Flyer.”

Flyers cruised the Baltic Sea

Best Lawyers in America

Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro

= REUNION WEEKEND, June 12–14, 2020, reunion.udayton.edu

Ed Maloney III ʼ69 (POL) and his wife, Joan, live in Dundee, Michigan. He writes, “I just completed my 50th year of collegiate and high school teaching and coaching. In fall 2019, I began my 11th year as head coach of men’s lacrosse at Siena Heights University.”

1970 3 Dolores “Dee Dee” O’Neil Andrejewski (HEG) and Don Andrejewski ʼ69 (BT) live in Freehold, New Jersey. Dee Dee writes, “Last May, I spent a fun weekend in Europe with my cousins, Carol McDougal Cashman ʼ70 and Mary ‘Peanut’ McDougal Shupe ʼ81.

We enjoyed train rides to Versailles and Normandy and a visit to the Pantheon in Rome.”

Don Bernard (MKT) and Kathy Kinney Bernard ʼ72 (EDE) live in Lake Norman, North Carolina. They write, “Our daughter, U.S. Naval Lt. Commander Julie Bernard Suguitan, was deployed on the U.S. Naval Ship Comfort in June. She served as a pediatric dentist on the medical humanitarian aid ship for five months, providing medical care in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Julie and her husband, Mark, have three children: Max (10-24-12), Beau (1-3-14) and Evan (12-30-17).”

The Rev. Vince Mixie ʼ66 (ECO) and his wife, Kerry, live in Carlsbad, California. He writes, “After serving as a United Methodist pastor for 25 years, I’ve transitioned to teaching an emotions management class at the San Diego County Jail. The program helps inmates discover the unreality of their reality while they forge a new identity and vision for their lives.

Life is unfair, but God is good with His magnificent healing grace. This endeavor has become a soul-enriching way of giving back.” Vince invites former

1 Tim Foley ʼ64 (ACC) and his wife, Ginny, live in Daufuski Island, South

1

Don Andrejewski ʼ69 (BT) and Dolores “Dee Dee” O’Neil Andrejewski ’70 (HEG) live in Freehold, New Jersey.

Jeff Meyer ʼ66 (ENG) and his wife, Lauree, live in Davidson, North Carolina.

He writes, “I earned my doctorate in the history of religions at the University of Chicago in 1973 and taught at the University of North Carolina Charlotte until retiring in 2008. Since then, I’ve been writing fiction. Ingram Elliott published my first novel, A Call to China, in 2017. The novel won the Silver IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for historical fiction, and was named a finalist for a National Indie Excellence Award and a NextGen Indie Book Award. The historically accurate novel is set in the mid-20th century and highlights significant cultural and governmental changes in both the East and West. I’ve always felt a connection to China, and I taught Asian religions with a focus on Buddhism and Daoism. Lauree and I have three grown children. I invite classmates to follow my blog on Goodreads.”

Dan Eifert ʼ58 (EMU) and Joan Wittman Eifert ʼ89 (EDE) live in Dayton.

They write, “We celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary with our seven children and 15 grandchildren on a cruise to Mexico. We met at UD in 1956 while Don was in the marching band and Joan was in the marching coeds. Our son, Craig Eifert ʼ89, met his wife, Carol Kitching Eifert ʼ88, when they lived next door to each other on College Park, and they’ve been married 27 years.”

Years of UD Rugby celebrated

2 Ben Kaple ʼ68 (EDS) and Marilyn Stauffer Kaple ʼ69 (EDS) live in Summerville, South Carolina. They write, “During the first weekend in June, we traveled to Dayton for Marilyn’s Golden Flyers Reunion Weekend. During the last weekend in June, we joined our family in Ohio’s Hocking Hills State Park for a 50th wedding anniversary celebration that included hiking at Old Man’s Cave.

It was a busy month for us in Ohio.”

Carolina. He writes, “I took an ocean cruise to the Baltic Sea with fellow Flyers Michael ‘Jerry’ Folk ʼ61, Annette Dix Casella ʼ64, Mark Callahan ʼ72, Van Nguyen Callahan ʼ76 and Jerry Callahan ʼ63. We visited Denmark, Estonia, Russia and Sweden.”

Dave McHenry ʼ55 (MEE) and his wife, Frances, live in Issaquah, Washington.

He writes, “On June 26, we celebrated our 65th wedding anniversary with our children — John, Carol, Keith, Kevin, Brian, Robert and Amy — along with our 13 grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. It’s been 56 years since I left Dayton. Many thanks go to my classmate Tsu-Teh Soong and his wife for their scholarship donation.”

Miles walked on the West Highland Way in Scotland

classmates to contact him at vince. mixie@gmail.com.

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4 Dan Henry (MGT) and his wife, Roberta, live in Glen Rock, New Jersey.

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Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTE

Class Notes University of Dayton 300 College Park Dayton, OH 45469-1303 Or you may send it to classnotes@udayton.edu Be sure to include your name, year of graduation and major.

For the records office, please include cell phone number.

Please also include email address, indicating whether you wish it to appear in Class Notes.

Include maiden name and spouse’s name (if applicable).

If you’re sending information about your children, please include birth dates rather than ages. The magazine does not publish announcements of engagements or pregnancies.

Photos of alumni are welcomed and published as space permits. Please make sure all photographs are high resolution (at least 300 dpi) or approximately 1.5 megabytes in size in order to be considered.

Notes may take up to two issues to publish. All notes are edited for style, content and length.

He writes, “In May, we cruised on the Danube River with a group of friends, including Beth Donovan Eckenrode ʼ71. We’re still friends after all these years.”

1971 5 Patricia Pier Kretz (EDE) lives in Dayton. She writes, “In August, Linda Carson McCartan ʼ70, Martha Mescher Kimble ʼ72 and I toured England, including a stop at Stonehenge.”

1972 6 Kathy Kinney Bernard (EDE) and

Don Bernard ʼ70 (MKT) live in Lake Norman, North Carolina. They write, “Our daughter, U.S. Naval Lt. Commander Julie Bernard Suguitan, was deployed on the U.S. Naval Ship Comfort in June. She served as a pediatric dentist on the medical humanitarian aid ship for five months, providing medical care in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Julie and her husband, Mark, have three children: Max (10-24-12), Beau (1-3-14) and Evan (12-30-17).”

7 Ray Champa (MBA) and his wife, Joan, live in Mentor, Ohio. He writes, “We had UD on our minds during our summer travels to Wengen, Switzerland, and while on Sicily’s Mount Etna, which stands 10,912 feet above sea level.”

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UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

John Guhde (PSY) lives in Dayton.

He writes, “The weekend of Oct. 4-6, the UD Rugby Alumni Association celebrated the 50th anniversary of rugby at UD and in the city of Dayton. Many former male and female players attended the weekend events, which included a social Friday night, a Saturday afternoon match of the present men’s club and a celebration banquet Saturday evening in Kennedy Union’s Torch Lounge. Founding father of rugby at UD, Bob Borgerding ʼ72, attended, along with many of the women from the team that won the D2 National Championship in 2003.

Everyone had a grand time in true rugby tradition. I urge all former UD rugby players to support the UD Rugby Alumni Association and, if possible, contribute to the UD Rugby Endowment Fund. See everyone at the next reunion.” (See the story on P. 27.)

1974 8 Ed “Woodie” Samsel (COM) and

Peggy Woods Samsel ʼ76 (EDE) live in Brick, New Jersey. They write, “We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a cruise to Alaska.

Our ports of call were Seattle, Washington; Ketchikan, Juneau, Holkham Bay Fjords and Skagway, Alaska; and Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada. Alaska was awesome and is rightly named the Final Frontier.”

1976 8 Peggy Woods Samsel (EDE) and Ed “Woodie” Samsel ʼ74 (COM) live in Brick, New Jersey. They write, “We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a cruise to Alaska. Our ports of call were Seattle, Washington; Ketchikan, Juneau, Holkham Bay Fjords and Skagway, Alaska; and Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada. Alaska was awesome and is rightly named the Final Frontier.”

1977 9 Dan Covey (COM) and Debra Meyer Covey (PSY) live in Springboro, Ohio. They write, “As a 2019 Fulbright Global Teacher, Debra spent four weeks this past summer teaching in Ica and Nazca, Peru. Dan joined her in Arequipa, Peru, for a vacation that included visits to Salinas and Aguada National Reserve.”

10 Jeff Wendling (EDP) and Beth “Boofie” Hughes Wendling (EDE) live in Ballwin, Missouri. Beth writes, “I traveled to Chicago with eight UD friends to laugh and reminisce about the good times we had together more than 40 years ago. We sported our UD T-shirts and consequently met six other alumni during the weekend, immediately sharing a bond and talking about common memories. It was so fun to hear ‘Go Flyers’ from someone passing by. Our group included

= REUNION WEEKEND, June 12–14, 2020, reunion.udayton.edu

IN MEMORIAM

Elizabeth Berkemeier Simurdiak ʼ78, Betsy Donahue ʼ78, Sue Schultz Ryan ʼ78, Maribeth Dollard Frommeyer ʼ78, Patti Fink ʼ78, Gail Yersavich Krivicich ʼ78, Regina Clark Crane ʼ77 and me.”

1978 Louis Isch (ESA) lives in Minerva, Ohio. He writes, “In May, the state of Ohio’s Department of Aging gave me a certificate of appreciation and pin in recognition of five years of volunteer service as an associate ombudsman, advocating for residents in long-term care. I’m a retired minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.”

1979 Teri Trimbach Dean (MTH) and her husband, Jim, live in Liberty Township, Ohio. She writes, “After 38 years, I retired from Procter & Gamble, where I worked as a senior talent manager in human relations analytics and insights — a job that allowed me to use my mathematics major and my computer science and economics minors. Jim and I plan to stay in the Cincinnati area to spend time with our six children and one granddaughter.”

Greg Toman (ACC) and his wife, Rebekah, live in Dayton. He writes, “I left a local CPA firm in 2010 after 31 years. Since then, I’ve been working with attorneys and clients, preparing business valuations and helping with litigation consulting and expert witness services. I’ve been on the board of Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton since 2005, including 12 years as an officer and then board chair. I’ve volunteered for the Vandalia-Butler School District’s finance committee for 35 years, and I’ve served as the district’s levy campaign treasurer and chair of its Visions Fund, a nonprofit that funds unique opportunities for district

12

students. I still play tennis regularly, following on my two UD intramural championships. Rebekah and I live close to her two daughters and five grandchildren. We travel often to hike in national parks, and we cultivate a butterfly and wildflower meadow at home.”

1980 Sue Reddy Bemis (HEG) lives in Delphos, Ohio. She writes, “I’m now the proud grandma of four lovely children: Keith Sigler (5-31-13) and Marie Sigler (3-11-19); Aria Nammour (1-27-16), daughter of Allie Bemis Nammour ʼ08 and Moon Nammour ʼ09; and Ted Bemis Jr. (2-5-19), son of Ted Bemis ʼ10 and his wife, Telisa.”

Jeffrey Ireland (LAW) and his wife, Ellen, live in Dayton. Jeffrey was selected for the 2019 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the categories of advertising law, and bet-the-company, commercial, antitrust and intellectual property litigation. He was also named lawyer of the year in the bet-thecompany litigation category, marking the seventh time during his career that he’s been named a lawyer of the year. Jeffrey is a partner with Faruki+ in Dayton.

11 Peter Sullivan (MGT) and Lori Clune Sullivan (SWK) live in Strongsville, Ohio.

They write, “This past June, we visited Blarney Castle in Ireland.”

1981 12 Andy Harp (EDP) and his wife, Janet, live in Beavercreek, Ohio. He writes, “We recently traveled to England, where we visited London Bridge, and Scotland, where we visited Edinburgh Castle.”

13 Steve Kellett (MEE) and his wife, Lee, live in Seattle. He writes, “We visited Cinque Terre, Italy, in June. We

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were en route to Vincenza, Italy, to visit our daughter, Jillian, who was finishing a semester abroad, studying architecture.”

1982 Mark Dangelo (CPS) and Virginia Moran Dangelo (MKT) live in Grafton, Ohio. Mark writes, “My financial technology book, Beyond the Technology Traps, is available on Amazon. My innovation and culture book, The Ramifications of Innovation $ingularity, was published during the second quarter of 2019. In addition, I’ve been writing a column for the Mortgage Bankers Association for 15 years, and it is also available online.”

14 Mike “Speed” Metz (MKT) and Denyse Denbigh Metz (ACC) live in Clayton, California. Mike writes, “For the 12th year in a row, our group of classmates and longtime friends attended a UD Flyer men’s home basketball game. Although our Flyers lost a close one to Virginia Commonwealth University after putting up a great fight, an awesome time was had by all. We’re looking forward to game No. 13 in 2020, when we’ll again be joined by Rick ‘Moony’ Monnier ʼ82, Kevin ‘Beach’ Beachman ʼ82, Michael ‘Bird’ Stanton ʼ82, Dan ‘Dunk’ Schmatz ʼ82, Kevin ‘Rabbi’ Weber ʼ82, Jeff ‘Fro’ Mickelson ʼ82, Rebecca Uhl ʼ83 and Michael ‘Slim’ Sullivan ʼ81. We can’t wait for the upcoming season to start.

Go Flyers!”

Nancy Gannon Pavlik (MGT) lives in Aurora, Illinois. She writes, “I traveled to the shore in Sea Girt, New Jersey, with Laura Duffy Holsinger ʼ82, Sharon Waldrop Auler ʼ82, Sharon Teschemacher Knightly ʼ82, Lynn McGeehan Costello ʼ82, Karen Kraft Forgus ʼ82, Susan Hall Pohlman ʼ81 and Liz Euler-Howley ʼ82.”

IN MEMORIAM

1940s Joseph “Bob” R. Forsthoff ’40 — July 11, 2019 Nancy I. Boring Hollenkamp ’48 — Aug. 14, 2019 Donald C. Flischel ’49 — Sept. 7, 2019 Trudy M. Reed Fremont ’49 — June 18, 2019 Kevin J. O’Reilly ’49 — June 18, 2019 Fred J. Rehder ’49 — April 17, 2019

1950s Andrew M. Belavic ’50 — July 24, 2019 Bill B. Kenney ’50 — March 12, 2019 Floyd G. “Dude” Norman Sr. ’50 — Aug. 4, 2019 Amelia “Amy” C. Herlihy ’51 — Sept. 9, 2019 Bob G. Stachler ’51 — July 11, 2019 Rawl E. Barriteau ’52 — July 19, 2019 Mary Lou Shively Bowling ’53 — July 8, 2019 John “Jack” M. Byrne ’53 — March 19, 2019 Bill P. Collins ’53 — June 27, 2019 Harold “Hal” J. Eynon ’53 — Aug. 12, 2019 Tom D. O’Connell ’54 — Sept. 5, 2019 Bob J. Brisky ’55 — July 28, 2019 Tom L. Muth ’55 — July 20, 2019 Ben L. Schwegman ’55 — Aug. 2, 2019 Janice M. Boeke O’Malley ’56 — Dec. 20, 2018 Alice A. Molasky Smith Arman ’57 — Aug. 18, 2019 Harley J. Coon ’57 — Aug. 12, 2019 Katie M. Cavanaugh Mekus ’57 — Aug. 29, 2019 Chester W. Russ Jr. ’57 — May 26, 2019 Constance Diane Cross Winter ’57 — Sept. 7, 2019 Hilarius “Larry” F. Vincke ’58 — July 18, 2019 Leo B. Grentz Jr. ’59 — Aug. 11, 2019

1960s Clarence J. Bittner ’60 — Aug. 25, 2019 Sally M. Bringman Eifert ’60 — July 22, 2019 Ted A. Rehage ’60 — June 9, 2019 Robert E. Cyphers ’61 — April 19, 2019 Bill H. Gates ’61 — Aug. 11, 2019 Vincent F. Lombardo ’61 — Aug. 31, 2019 Dean B. Jackson ’62 — Aug. 29, 2019 Carol I. Pavelka Beal ’63 — Aug. 9, 2019 James H. Boeckman ’63 — Aug. 21, 2019 Donald F. Millek ’63 — June 3, 2019 Harry M. Davies II ’65 — Sept. 3, 2019

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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1986 15 Dan Evans (CME) and Christine Brackman Evans ʼ90 (EDE) live in Dayton. They write, “We traveled to Ireland for two weeks in June with a group of friends from UD and St. Albert the Great in Kettering, Ohio: Jerry Spangler ʼ89, Paige Niehaus Spangler ʼ94, Tom Weckesser ʼ90, Helen Staub Weckesser ʼ90, Tim Schlangen ʼ90, Jennifer Holthaus Schlangen ʼ09, John O’Malley ʼ87 and Mia Kerivan O’Malley ʼ86. We brought our University of Dayton Magazine that featured our daughter, Julianne ʼ19, on Page 64 as a ‘taste of success.’ Our group visited Doolin, Ireland, known for its authentic relic and folk music.”

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1983 16 Jayne Kassman Tegge (COM) and her husband, Tim, live in Bowling Green, Ohio. She writes, “We traveled to Maui to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We were sorry it took us so long to visit this paradise. I coordinate membership services for an international association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. In August, I won the prize drawing, a Ford Fusion hybrid car, at a professional development conference.

We have one daughter, Julia, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. God has blessed me in so many ways.”

1984 Angela Imwalle Tirpak (FIN) and Jon Tirpak ʼ85 (MAT) live in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

1985 Jon Tirpak (MAT) and Angela Imwalle Tirpak ʼ84 (FIN) live in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Jon writes, “I’ve joined ValueSelling Associates, where I work with clients in the aerospace, defense, government and industrial sectors to improve their sales results. My client roster includes the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army and the Defense Logistics Agency, as well as such companies as Boenig, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rolls Royce, Honeywell and General Electric. I’m a licensed professional

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

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engineer and fellow and past president of the American Society of Materials International.

1986 17 Thomas Fiegl Jr. (FRN) and Sue Hill Fiegl (SWK) live in Springfield, Ohio. Tom writes, “I enjoyed reading the University of Dayton Magazine article on ‘Port Patio,’ which is just down the road from ‘Veranda Beach.’ They’re two of my favorite warm-weather destinations, where I can enjoy a cigar and listen to the Cincinnati Reds on the radio. Life’s pleasures aren’t always overseas or in some exotic domestic location.”

Susan Callari McEvily (MKT) and her husband, Jerry, live in Penfield, New York. She writes, “We’re excited for our youngest son, Ryan ʼ23, who began his freshman year at UD this August. After making several trips to visit his twin brothers, Mark ʼ16 and Matthew ʼ16, Ryan decided to make UD his home for the next four years.

We look forward to making many more trips to Dayton, reconnecting with old friends and making more memories.”

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19 Peter O’Connell (RTV)(CMM) lives in Cary, North Carolina. Peter writes, “I’ve continued my 37+ year professional voiceover career that began at the University of Dayton’s WVUD-FM radio station in 1982. I’ve

recently voiced commercials and narrations for nationally recognized brands including L.L. Bean, IBM, North Carolina State University, Roc Auto, Metro by T-Mobile, Culligan Water, Western Union and Fox Sports North.

I’m also the volunteer director of programming and production for the new volunteer operated Raleigh Catholic radio station WETC-AM, known on-air as Catholic 540-AM Divine Mercy Radio.”

20 Susan Racey (CRJ) lives in Lagrange, Ohio. Her peers selected her for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for 2020.

1987 21 Dave Humphrey (ACC) and his wife, Vicki, live in Cincinnati. He writes, “Mike Pedoto ʼ87 and I, along with our wives, enjoyed the 2019 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.”

Mike Martini (IET) and Lori Galvin Martini ʼ88 (COM) live in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Mike writes, “All six housemates of 460 Lowes, along with their wives, gathered during Labor Day weekend for a fun reunion in Atlanta, where we took in a Braves game. Tom Doring ʼ87 and Chris Kenna Doring ʼ87, Kurt Bouley ʼ87 and his wife, Noreen, John McDonnell ʼ87 and his wife, Alison, Tony Gasunas ʼ87, Barb Walton Schmitt ʼ89 and Andy Schmitt ʼ87 joined in. We stayed at the Dorings’ house and had plenty of laughs.”

= REUNION WEEKEND, June 12–14, 2020, reunion.udayton.edu

1988

1989

Christopher Graney (PHY) and Christina Knochelmann Graney (PHL) live in Louisville, Kentucky. Christopher writes, “I have recently been appointed an adjunct scholar of the Specola Vaticana (the Vatican's astronomical observatory). Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., director of the Specola, nominated me during the summer, and it was approved in August by the Vatican’s secretariat of state. I think there is only one other American who is an adjunct scholar. This makes me an official member of the Specola, with the rights and privileges of the researchers there with one exception – not being a Jesuit, I am not in full-time residence.”

23 Joan Wittman Eifert (EDE) and Dan Eifert ʼ58 (EMU) live in Dayton.

They write, “We celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary with our seven children and 15 grandchildren on a cruise to Mexico. We met at UD in 1956 while Don was in the marching band and Joan was in the marching coeds.

Our son, Craig Eifert ʼ89, met his wife, Carol Kitching Eifert ʼ88, when they lived next door to each other on College Park, and they’ve been married 27 years. Also pictured are Chuck Eifert ʼ86 and Laura Eifert ʼ86.”

Michael Laiman (MAT) and his wife, Joan, live in Granger, Indiana. He writes, “We took a two-week trip through Italy, where we visited the Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.”

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Lori Galvin Martini (COM) and Mike Martini ʼ87 (IET) live in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Mike writes, “All six housemates of 460 Lowes, along with their wives, gathered during Labor Day weekend for a fun reunion in Atlanta, where we took in a Braves game. Tom Doring ʼ87 and Chris Kenna Doring ʼ87, Kurt Bouley ʼ87 and his wife, Noreen, John McDonnell ʼ87 and his wife, Alison, Tony Gasunas ʼ87, Barb Walton Schmitt ʼ89 and Andy Schmitt ʼ87 joined in. We stayed at the Dorings’ house and had plenty of laughs.”

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1990 Christine Brackman Evans (EDE) and Dan Evans ʼ86 (CME) live in Dayton.

They write, “We traveled to Ireland for two weeks in June with a group of friends from UD and St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in Kettering, Ohio: Jerry Spangler ʼ89, Paige Niehaus Spangler ʼ94, Tom Weckesser ʼ90, Helen Staub Weckesser ʼ90, Tim Schlangen ʼ90, Jennifer Holthaus Schlangen ʼ09, John O’Malley ʼ87 and Mia Kerivan O’Malley ʼ86. We brought our University of Dayton Magazine that featured our daughter, Julianne ʼ19, on Page 64 as a ‘taste of success.’ Our group visited Doolin, Ireland, known for its authentic relic and folk music.”

Steven Sondergaard (LAW) and his wife, Marsha, live in Defiance, Ohio.

He writes, “I’ve been elected to a

second two-year term as chair of the board of trustees at Mercy College of Ohio. I also serve on the Mercy Health Foundation board. I continue a private practice of law and teach in the criminal justice program at Defiance College.”

1991 Jeff Cox (LAW) and his wife, Jenny, live in Oakwood, Ohio. Jeff was selected for the 2019 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the category of commercial litigation. He was also named a lawyer of the year, marking the seventh time during his career that he’s been so named.

1992 Bryan Ahern (MIS) and Ann-Marie Riehle Ahern ʼ94 (ENG) live in Fairview Park, Ohio.

24 Tom Eifert (MEE) and Jill Homan Eifert (CME) live in Indianapolis.

They write, “Tom works at Allison Transmission, and Jill works at Eli Lilly & Co. In 2019, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. All three of our children — Morgan ʼ20, Emma ʼ22 and Grant ʼ23 — are in the Flyer family.

Go Flyers!”

Margie Szaroleta Stapleton (JRN) is marking 25 years as a music correspondent for Associated Press Radio. She lives outside Chicago with her husband, Dave, and their son.

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IN MEMORIAM

Patricia A. McCrate Gibbons ’65 — Aug. 10, 2019 Wolfgang “Muck” W. Strobl ’65 — Oct. 20, 2017 Erwin “Erv” A. Will Jr. ’65 — Aug. 30, 2019 Sister Patricia Will, C.PP.S. ’66 — Aug. 2, 2019 Dave W. Benson ’67 — July 19, 2019 Joe C. Hoehl ’67 — Sept. 8, 2019 Dominic “Dom” J. Maga ’67 — July 31, 2019 Bob A. Melia ’67 — Aug. 18, 2019 Judy Harrington Scott ’67 — Sept. 1, 2019 Joseph W. Smith ’67 — July 7, 2019 David L. Huelsman ’68 — Aug. 16, 2019 David P. Klasnick ’68 — Aug. 20, 2019 Robert E. Mills II ’69 — July 30, 2019 Ed J. Orlett ’69 — Aug. 22, 2019 Neil D. Ostrander ’69 — July 13, 2018 Mary J. Frilling Schmiesing ’69 — June 16, 2019

1970s Anthony G. Giannavola ’70 — March 17, 2019 Ken E. Mangold ’70 — July 2, 2019 Judy E. Browne O’Neill ’70 — Feb. 11, 2019 Alfred K. Satkowski ’70 — Aug. 24, 2019 Lauretta M. Burke ’71 — Sept. 3, 2019 Bill A. Burnell ’71 — Aug. 29, 2019 William “Randy” R. Gaab ’71 — June 28, 2019 Sondra L. Popivchak McFadden ’71 — Aug. 15, 2019 Jean M. Holtz ’72 — Feb. 2, 2019 Sister Margo McCormick, I.H.M. ’73 — July 20, 2019 Warren L. VanGundy ’73 — Aug. 3, 2019 Judith S. Antonelli ’74 — Aug. 7, 2018 Mary A. Power Boyd ’75 — July 5, 2019 Bob E. Jacobs ’75 — July 26, 2019 Jack D. Kinderdine ’75 — July 14, 2019 Stephen L. Moorman ’75 — June 26, 2019 Phil G. Baer ’76 — Aug. 19, 2019 Doris A. Delaney ’76 — June 27, 2019 William P. Hays ’76 — June 24, 2019 Omokere E. Odje ’77 — July 16, 2019 Stephen “Bill” W. Pipoly ’77 — Aug. 27, 2019 Carolyn J. Schwartz Conover ’78 — June 23, 2019 Carl “Butch” W. Eger II ’78 — Sept. 6, 2019 Ron L. McAdams ’78 — July 28, 2019 Nellie A. Finlay Simons ’78 — June 30, 2019

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CL A SS NOTES

25

26

27

29

1997 Mitch Carroll (PSY) and Julie Schindler-Carroll ʼ96 (EDU) live in Encinitas, California. They write, “Three UD alumni families attended the 46th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June.

Joining us were Chris Eggemeier ʼ96; Sara Brochert Eggemeier ʼ96; Mia Rao-Schultz ʼ96 and her husband, Zack; and our progeny. A great time was had by all, bringing the Flyer spirit to the mountains of beautiful Telluride, Colorado.

We sang and we drank, but thankfully, no couches were harmed during the festivities.”

25

1993 Bob Earp III (MEE) and Alexis Whapham Earp ʼ94 (MTA) live in Hudson, Ohio, with their daughters, Megan and Elizabeth. In May 2019, the Federal Executive Board honored Bob with its Wings of Excellence Award for his work obtaining patents and negotiating licenses that disseminate technological advances and generate economic growth. Bob is a patent attorney in the office of chief counsel at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He’s recognized as one of NASA’s leading experts in intellectual property and patent law.

1994 26 Ann-Marie Riehle Ahern (ENG) and Bryan Ahern ʼ92 (MIS) live in Fairview Park, Ohio. The 2020 edition of The Best Lawyers in America has named Ann-Marie Cleveland’s lawyer of the year in the employment law category. She leads the employment practice at the firm McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman and has represented people in employment disputes for the entirety of her career. Ann-Marie is also a certified specialist in labor and employment law.

Alexis Whapham Earp (MTA) and Bob Earp III ʼ93 (MEE) live in Hudson, Ohio, with their daughters, Megan and Elizabeth.

58

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30

31

Eric Houston (EDS) and his wife, Laura, live in Miamisburg, Ohio.

He writes, “This past summer, I participated in Miami (Ohio) University’s Earth expeditions global field course in Guyana. I studied the traditional ecological knowledge of the Makushi people and the potential of local wisdom to guide conservation initiatives in Guyana. I’m an applied physics and STEM teacher at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center in Dayton.”

27 Emily Daniel Kessen (MEE) and her husband, Jeff, live in Plymouth, Michigan. She writes, “This past summer, my daughter, Megan Kessen ʼ22, and I traveled to Vernazza, Italy, and Cinque Terre National Park.”

1995 28 Laurie Latuda Kinkel (ENG) lives in Baltimore. She writes, “In September, the Baltimore Community Foundation hired me as vice president of strategy to lead its community investment, communications and public policy advocacy work, as well as its new grantmaking strategy. I’m thrilled to join the foundation as it launches a new strategic plan. The foundation brings community and donors together to grapple with the challenges of under-resourced schools, disinvested neighborhoods and structural racism. It’s some of the most

important work happening in the Baltimore region, and I’m deeply humbled to work with such committed partners.”

1996 Heidi Chew Osborne (JRN) and her husband, Mark, live in Port Clinton, Ohio, with their four children: William (3-11-09), Susannah (5-13-11), April Claire (6-5-12) and Julia (2-7-15).

Heidi writes, “In August, Our Lady of the Pines Retreat Center in Fremont, Ohio, hired me as its executive director.”

Julie Schindler-Carroll (EDU) and Mitch Carroll ʼ97 (PSY) live in Encinitas, California. They write, “Three UD alumni families attended the 46th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June. Joining us were Chris Eggemeier ʼ96; Sara Brochert Eggemeier ʼ96; Mia Rao-Schultz ʼ96 and her husband, Zack; and our progeny. A great time was had by all, bringing the Flyer spirit to the mountains of beautiful Telluride, Colorado. We sang and we drank, but thankfully, no couches were harmed during the festivities.”

1997 Katie Swiger Lenski (LAW) and Eric Lenski ʼ06 (EDA) live in Miamisburg, Ohio. Katie writes, “In June, the Ohio State Bar Foundation inducted me into

= REUNION WEEKEND, June 12–14, 2020, reunion.udayton.edu

32

34

33

IN MEMORIAM

35

Jean M. Daly Hintz ’79 — July 1, 2019 Matt J. Horvath ’79 — July 12, 2019 Jacob R. Jernigan III ’79 — Aug. 19, 2019

1980s

its honorary fellows program, which includes attorneys who give their time, talent and treasure to advance the foundation’s mission through community service and monetary donations. I’m a magistrate serving on the Montgomery County Juvenile Court, as well as a member of the Ohio Association of Magistrates and of the Ohio State Bar Association and its board of governors.”

1998 Joaquin “Quino” Martinez (LAW) and his wife, Jennifer, live in Orlando.

He writes, “I’ve been appointed to the board of trustees of Lake Highland Preparatory School to provide leadership and governance for the school and ensure it meets its mission.

I’m a member of the real estate transactions, development and finance groups and co-chair of the commercial leasing group at the business law firm of Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed. I’ve also served in leadership roles for the board of governors for the State Bar of Georgia, the city of Orlando Board of Zoning Adjustment, and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Orlando. I have also initiated a community partnership and mentoring program between Lowndes and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law.

2000 29 Erin Dooley (MKT) lives in Alhambra, California. She writes, “In June, I walked 96 miles on the West Highland Way in Scotland. Go Flyers!”

Ed Hinker (MEE) and Allison Helmers Hinker (BIO) live in Cincinnati. Allison writes, “This past summer, I participated in Miami (Ohio) University’s Earth expeditions global field course in Namibia. I studied ongoing research projects, such as radio tracking, cheetah conservation and ecosystem 30

management, as well as the design of school and community programs in Namibia. I’m a biology teacher at Seton High School.”

perfect place to read University of Dayton Magazine, with plenty of dolphins, sea urchins and jellyfish nearby.”

31 Megan Wise Nail (CMT)(SPN) and her husband, Dan, live in Brownsburg, Indiana, with their children: Alex, 12, and Andrew, 9.

She writes, “This past summer, my family and I climbed to the top of Peak 8 in Breckenridge, Colorado, which is more than 12,000 feet in elevation. Flyer family Angie Reinhart Renneker ʼ00, Pete Renneker ʼ00 and Delaney Renneker, 13, joined us. Angie and I were roommates at UD, and Angie and Pete met there as well.”

34 Erin Stefanec Rhinehart (LAW) and Michael Rhinehart ʼ03 (LAW) live in Springboro, Ohio. Erin has again been named as one of the Dayton Business Journal’s Power 50, an award highlighting Dayton’s top female business leaders who’ve had a large impact on the region. Erin has also been named among the Top 100 High Stakes Litigators for several years. She’s a 2013 Dayton Business Journal Forty Under 40 honoree and has been recognized by Super Lawyers and Benchmark Litigation as among the preeminent litigators in Ohio and the country. Erin is a partner at Faruki+, where she leads the firm’s media and communications practice.

2001 32 Liz Haas Poplin (FIN) and her husband, Timothy, live in Lake Forest, Illinois. She writes, “In August, Forbes named me a Top 250 Next-Generation Wealth Advisor for 2019. Advisors are selected on the basis of quantitative and qualitative data, including in-person interviews, industry experience, assets under management, revenue produced and compliance. I’m a wealth management advisor and senior vice president at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management with more than 15 years of experience in financial planning. As a member of the Karras Poplin Schroeder Group, I work exclusively in wealth management and estate planning issues with an emphasis on corporate stock option planning.”

Katie Bailey Shadle (ECE) and her husband, Jonathan, announce the birth of Hayden Bailey (6-12-19), who joins brother Ford (4-16-15) and sister Britton (7-21-16) at home in Springboro, Ohio.

2006 Eric Lenski (EDA) and Katie Swiger Lenski ʼ97 (LAW) live in Miamisburg, Ohio.

2007

Michael Rhinehart (LAW) and Erin Stefanec Rhinehart ʼ04 (LAW) live in Springboro, Ohio.

35 Gina Seiter (EAH) lives in Dayton.

She writes, “I enjoyed a vacation with Thomas Dean ʼ63 and Joseph Gural ʼ69 in June, traveling from Austria through Germany to Amsterdam.

We also visited Regensburg, one of Germany’s largest and best-preserved medieval cities.”

2004

2008

Amanda Smith Glass (CME) lives in Springboro, Ohio. She writes, “A hut on a coral reef in Panama was the

Mike Doyle (MEE) lives in Dayton. He writes, “Laura DeVita ʼ09 and I recently traveled to Sivota, Greece.”

2003

33

Rich A. Ciambrone ’80 — June 15, 2019 Ralph F. Beegan ’82 — Aug. 25, 2019 Mark W. Ladd ’82 — Aug. 23, 2019 Robin R. McCraw ’82 — June 16, 2019 Mary Ann McCarthy Wymer Dufresne ’83 — Aug. 3, 2019 Ernie Grekis ’83 — Sept. 2, 2019 David E. Mizak ’83 — Aug. 6, 2019 Bonnie K. Payton ’85 — June 15, 2019 Steve J. Meyer ’86 — Aug. 8, 2019 Lisa A. Muhic ’87 — July 22, 2019 Glenn R. Walters ’87 — July 11, 2019 Steve J. Caldwell ’88 — June 28, 2019 Mattie Jean Evans Hudson ’88 — Sept. 10, 2019 Linda R. Wiegert Larson ’89 — June 30, 2019 Norma J. Kirschner Werner ’89 — Aug. 12, 2019

1990s Bob E. Ward ’90 — Aug. 14, 2019 Nat M. Kenney III ’91 — June 18, 2019 Mary E. Duer Bartmess ’92 — June 28, 2016 Keith E. Culley ’94 — Aug. 10, 2019 Theresa L. Poling Hafle ’95 — June 26, 2019 G. Mike Miller Jr. ’96 — July 10, 2019

2000s Mark J. Hadley ’00 — July 1, 2019 Curtis A. Shields ’05 — Aug. 3, 2019

2010s Catherine “Cat” A. St. John ’15 — July 23, 2019 Kristina L. Glassl ’16 — June 24, 2019 Lauren A. Przybylski ’16 — July 2, 2019

FRIENDS Nick R. Adair — June 17, 2019; University student.

James A. Williams — Aug. 15, 2019; former adjunct professor of voice.

Prayer intentions are collected through the Marianist Mission at bit.ly/Marianist_Mission.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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CL A SS NOTES

36

37

38

40

Jenny DeMario McCulloch (ENT)(MKT) and her husband, Brad, announce the birth of Jackson Douglas (6-16-19), who joins them at home in Atlanta. Jenny writes, “We are beyond in love with our baby boy.”

Emily Ryan (PUB) lives in Cincinnati.

She writes, “I was named to the Cincinnati Business Courier’s Forty Under 40 honorees for 2019. I’m a director of communications at Luxottica and live in the city’s Hyde Park area.”

Eli Sperry (LAW) lives in Dayton.

He writes, “In June, the Ohio State Bar Foundation inducted me into its honorary fellows program, which includes attorneys who give their time, talent and treasure to advance the foundation’s mission through community service and monetary donations. I’m an attorney at Young & Alexander and participated in the Montgomery County (Ohio) Probate Court’s e-filing pilot project.

I was named one of the Dayton Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 honorees in 2016 and am a graduate of the 2017-18 Leadership Dayton program. I have also given presentations on guardianships at several continuing legal education sessions.”

60

41

2009 36 Laura DeVita (SPN) lives in Cincinnati. She writes, “Mike Doyle ʼ08 and I recently traveled to Sivota, Greece.”

2010 37 Natalie Leonhardt (MTH)(EYA) married Andrew Moster June 1, 2019, in Indianapolis at Saint Elizabeth Seton Church. She writes, “We had a big UD reunion at the wedding. I received my graduate degree in 2012 through UD’s Lalanne master’s program and was placed at Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis for two years of service. I’m still there, in my 10th year teaching math, algebra I and advanced placement calculus.

I’m also the school’s math department chair.” The couple lives in Fishers, Indiana.

2011 38 Maggie Deady (EYA) lives in Chicago. She writes, “Jamieanne Mortimer ʼ23 and I traveled to Italy, where we followed in the footsteps of St. Benedict.”

2013 Philip Socci (CMM) married Taylor White ʼ15 (ECE) April 27, 2019, in

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

39

42

43

Charleston, South Carolina, where the couple lives. They write, “We loved being surrounded by fellow Flyers on our wedding day. Many were part of the wedding party, including Lauren Cachat, Kayla Waitrovich, Nicole Rooney, Nahdi Patterson, Kelly Heinzen Schatzman and Spencer Krumheuer.

We had the best day celebrating with our Flyer family.”

2014 39 Shelly Adams (VAR)(ENG) married Ben Wick Sept. 2, 2019, in Dayton, where the couple lives with their dog, Max. Shelly writes, “We met through a mutual friend during junior year and celebrated our special day with many UD alumni, including Golden Flyer Jim Wick ʼ65, Ben’s grandfather. We spent our honeymoon hiking in Yosemite National Park in California.”

Mitch Porta (ESM) married Kelly Fulkerson ʼ15 (ACC) Aug. 3, 2019.

They write, “Mitch proposed in front of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in April 2018. We met the summer before Kelly’s junior year when she was helping with Reunion Weekend. Nearly 40 UD alumni attended our wedding.”

2015 40

Kelly Fulkerson (ACC) married

Mitch Porta ʼ14 (ESM) Aug. 3, 2019.

They write, “Mitch proposed in front of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in April 2018. We met the summer before Kelly’s junior year when she was helping with Reunion Weekend. Nearly 40 UD alumni attended our wedding.”

41 Matthew Seislove (MEE) and Anna Vitale Seislove (OPS) announce the birth of Melissa Katherine (6-17-19), who joins them at home in Silver Lake, Ohio.

42 Taylor White (ECE) married Philip Socci ʼ13 (CMM) April 27, 2019, in Charleston, South Carolina, where the couple lives. They write, “We loved being surrounded by fellow Flyers on our wedding day. Many were part of the wedding party, including Lauren Cachat, Kayla Waitrovich, Nicole Rooney, Nahdi Patterson, Kelly Heinzen Schatzman and Spencer Krumheuer.

We had the best day celebrating with our Flyer family.”

2016 43 Madison Conroy (ESM) lives in Centerville, Ohio. She writes, “I recently traveled to Italy with my parents, Tom Conroy ʼ87 and Amy Welch Conroy ʼ87; my brothers, Andrew Conroy ʼ16 and Patrick Conroy ʼ20; and my sister, Lauren.”

= REUNION WEEKEND, June 12–14, 2020, reunion.udayton.edu

PERCEPTIONS

The Stories We Tell

BY EDMUND MERRICLE II, adjunct professor, art and design

ONCE I FOUND THE IDEA OF A CAMPFIRE, I BEGAN TO EXPLORE WHAT WOULD BE

happening around and behind it. I emphasized the fire with small marks, a pattern of different colored dots. The fire acts as a gathering point, a meditative and literal place to tell stories. I wanted the fire to introduce all kinds of objects, literal and figurative. As one stares at the fire, images emerge — of army men, of skulls, of an image coming into (or leaving) the scene.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

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PERCEPTIONS

Roger Brown, Dayton Flyer

BY TOM ARCHDEACON ’72

62

L

AST YEAR, BING DAVIS WAS HELP-

ing install an exhibit of work by local African American artists in the University of Dayton’s presidential residence.

Davis, who received an honorary degree from UD in 1994, hesitated when he reached a James Pate charcoal drawing that included images such as Roger Brown in his No. 11 UD jersey, Brown soaring to the hoop as an Indiana Pacer, and the West Dayton house where Brown lived with Azariah and Arlena Smith.

After his freshman year (1960-61), Brown had been banned by the NCAA and the NBA and dismissed from UD.

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

At UD in 1960-61, Brown joined Bill Chmielewski, Gordie Hatton, Chuck Izor and Jim Powers on the freshman team; firstyear players weren’t eligible for the varsity.

The team finished the season national AAU runner-up. The following season — minus Brown — the Flyers won their first NIT. Before college, Brown had been approached by gamblers Jack Molinas and Joe Hacken. Brown was given $200 to introduce Hacken to players on New York City playgrounds, and he was allowed to drive Molinas’ car.

Investigators found Brown had no contact with either man after coming to UD and was not involved in fixing games; neither were any of the players he had introduced to the pair. Brown was never charged with anything.

“Roger was a great guy. He got a raw deal,” Chmielewski once told me.

After UD, the Smiths took Brown in. Azariah got him a job at Inland Manufacturing and a spot on that GM Division’s industrial league team. Azariah said Brown had recurring nightmares and would cry out, “Please, I didn’t do anything. Please! Please!”

Brown lived in Dayton six years before signing with the Indiana Pacers, then of the American Basketball Association. After his playing career, he became a mentor for Pacers’ players as well as a four-term Republican Indianapolis city councilman. Brown is one of four players to have his Pacers’ jersey retired. In 2013 he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Before he died in 1997, I interviewed him. His breathing was labored; his voice, weak. He talked about his love for Azariah and Arlena, and he repeated one thing to me twice: “I love UD. … I still love UD.” Davis hung the piece.

Eric F. Spina had been the UD president for just over two years. Davis told him Brown had been unjustly smeared in a gambling probe of college basketball. The NBA had lifted its ban and paid Brown a settlement.

Davis, at Spina’s home for a dinner party related to the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, gave Wil Haygood (author of Tigerland, a finalist for the 2019 prize) a tour of the ex-

“Black Ball Totem Drawing: Roger ‘The Rajah’ Brown,” artwork by JAMES PATE.

Plastic fast

BY MAUREEN SCHLANGEN

hibit. Spina noticed they had considerable conversation in front of Pate’s Roger Brown work, a piece that had become one of his favorites, too.

“It makes Roger more physical, more real,” Spina said.

Later the three men, Davis said, “were talking sports and other things, and Wil said how some of the things he was hearing about Roger paralleled the stories of some of the players on the 1968-69 Columbus East team he portrays in Tigerland.”

Spina said, “We went from, ‘Well, it’s good for Roger to be visible here in the president’s residence’ to ‘I really think it’s time to make him visible at the institution and in the community.’”

Davis agreed but didn’t get his hopes up. Over the years people — especially in West Dayton where Brown was once a cult hero — had tried to get the University to pay tribute to him.

After Brown’s death, the Smiths led a campaign in local churches, collecting signatures on a petition that was presented to the University but never acted upon.

Davis hoped this would be different.

It was.

This Nov. 5-7, UD hosted the first Roger Brown Residency in Social Justice, Writing and Sport. Wil Haygood was this year’s writer in residence.

“Roger Brown,” Spina said, “was one of the greatest basketball players ever to attend the University of Dayton, and he’s still highly regarded in the Dayton community 22 years after his death. But he has been invisible at the University of Dayton, and that is neither right nor just.”

Pate’s Roger Brown drawing found a temporary home in the UD president’s office. Spina and his wife, Karen, liked it so much they bought it.

“But my wife and I think,” Spina said, “it should be somewhere on campus.

“There are many more lessons here than him just being a good basketball player.”

Tom Archdeacon ’72 is a longtime sports writer for the Dayton Daily News, where a longer version of this story originally appeared.

A

S LENT 2019 APPROACHED, I CON-

sidered what I would do to grow spiritually and practice justice, service and stewardship.

For a few years, I have lamented the state of creation and our role in environmental degradation. While I have always cared for the Earth, I couldn’t deny that as a consumer, I was part of the pollution problem, particularly when it came to plastic.

I’d seen the pictures of giant ocean garbage patches. I’d seen the pictures of dead sea birds, their distended entrails clogged with colorful plastic exposed by decomposition.

And while marveling at nature every time I rowed or ran along the Great Miami River, I’d seen hundreds of bottles, bags, toys and trash, washed, blown or thrown there by accident, chance or utter indifference.

In the era of Silent Spring, the first Earth Days and the “Keep America Beautiful” campaigns in the 1970s, littering was just the tip of the pollution iceberg. It still is.

The bigger problems are demand and production. National Geographic reported that worldwide, we produce almost 500 million tons of plastic every year — and about 40 percent is tossed after one use. According to the nonprofit Plastic Oceans, more than 8 million tons of plastic go into the oceans each year; production of plastic water bottles alone has grown from 3.8 billion in 1996 to more than 500 billion in 2017.

So was born my Lenten fast: single-use plastic.

I was off to a good start, I thought. I had long since given up plastic grocery sacks, having grown exasperated at seeing them whipping in bare branches along roads and rivers. Bags in trees are common enough to have earned their own nickname “witches’ knickers.” Bottled water was easy to quit; so were straws. But what would I put produce and bulk items in at the grocery? How would I cover leftovers or pack sandwiches?

These were easy enough to fix: I bought a set of fine-mesh bags for produce and bulk items; I started storing leftovers the way my grandmother did, in a regular bowl with a plate as a cover; for my lunch, I washed the sandwich bag I’d used on Fat Tuesday and reused it over and over, then bought a set

of nifty beeswax-covered cotton wraps. For leafy vegetables that might wilt in the dry air of the refrigerator, I started rinsing and reusing shopping bags I’d saved.

The first visit to the grocery presented unexpected challenges. My mesh bags eliminated the need for produce bags, but those represented but a tiny fraction of the plastic in the produce section. Why, I asked myself, was it necessary to ship grapes and tomatoes in vented plastic bags? Was it necessary to package traffic signal-colored bell peppers together? And why did they cost less? If marketing could convince people to buy three peppers, I reasoned, couldn’t new marketing messages convince people to buy them without the plastic?

In the meat coolers, I faced miles of plastic film wrapped around hundreds of polystyrene trays. When I went to the meat counter, where items could be wrapped in paper, my heart sank when the meat cutter handed over my salmon in another plasticwrapped polystyrene tray. I would need to make a habit of requesting paper or bringing my own container.

In the cheese case, I encountered a horror I hadn’t foreseen: Beautiful mounds of fragrant, butter-colored wedges, all tightly wrapped in single-use plastic. Curses! A plastic fast is one thing; a cheese fast is quite another. I had to make a concession, but I committed to disposing of the plastic properly and storing the cheese in beeswax wraps, reusable containers or waxed paper.

For all the times I received single-use plastic against my will, I reused it or recycled it as much as I was able. While the recycling bin is not the right place for a lot of single-use plastics, many grocery stores accept used plastic film such as dry-cleaning bags; deflated bubble wrap; plastic shipping envelopes; and the plastic wrapping around toilet paper, napkins and paper towels. See plasticfilmrecycling.org to find a collection point.

During my journey, my environmental lamentations didn’t subside, and the fast continues.

But it seems I’ve become … an evangelist.

Maureen Schlangen works in Roesch Library.

Winter 2019–20 | UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE

63

FROM THE EDITOR PARTING WORDS

Echoes of education

A

S WE WALKED DOWN THE TILED SIDEWALK, THE

sound of our footsteps echoed off the faces of storefronts lining the narrow lane. Rue des Menuts in Bordeaux, France, was not so different from any other street in this storied city. But what made it special was that we were walking in the footsteps of Father William Joseph Chaminade to the very place where Marianist education was founded.

I took this walk 12 years ago while writing about a pilgrimage for lay and vowed Marianists to places important to the founding of the Marianist Family. At No. 51-53 Rue des Menuts, ironworks now cover the windows and decorate the doors from which Marianists welcomed in 1819 their first 12 students. The country was still recovering from the ravages of the French Revolution when the Marianists envisioned a new way to teach. According to Brother Thomas Giardino, S.M. ’65, executive director of the Association of Marianist Universities, these new methods included suppression of corporal punishment, a closer relationship between professors and students, family spirit, and the teaching of more modern languages along with geography, history, accounting and the sciences.

“The University of Dayton started in a not unsimilar way, with a few students,” the then-chair of the religious studies department, Sandra Yocum, reminded us as we looked up at the four-story stone buildings.

Today, there are 97 Marianist educational institutions across the globe, including UD and its sister universities, Chaminade University of Honolulu and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. The Marianists are educating more than 112,000 stu-

dents served by 7,833 lay and vowed religious educators on five continents and in 24 countries.

I am one of those thankful for those brothers and their 12-student cohort. I began my Marianist education in August 1990 during what I am certain was the hottest move-in on record. Student volunteers already covered in sweat grabbed my crates of books and helped haul them uphill and upstairs to my Marycrest 6 South room. Over the next four years — and indeed, throughout my life to this day — I was educated for service, justice and peace in the family spirit.

The excellence of my professors and the curriculum has prepared me for challenges and successes throughout my life. My faith has been broadened and deepened.

And perhaps most importantly to my roles as both editor and foster parent, I have been educated for adaptation and change. I can swap out stories and still get the magazine to press on time. I can also help our 13-year-old learn something no one before had taken the time to teach: how to tie her shoe.

These are all characteristics of a Marianist education. As a student, you’ve embodied them. As a parent of a Flyer, you’ve seen their effect. As a community member, you’ve felt the impact of the University’s calling to do good in partnership.

On this 200th anniversary, we celebrate all those who have brought forward our founders’ teachings and make them alive in our communities today. We say thank you and keep up the good work. Because of you, we are walking in those footsteps first left in Bordeaux that continue to echo through our world.

M ICH EL L E T EDF OR D ’9 4 Editor, University of Dayton Magazine magazine@udayton.edu

64

UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON MAGAZINE | Winter 2019–20

Photograph by MICHELLE TEDFORD

OUR

ET H O S I N ACT I O N

CONCEIVED BY A GROUP OF STUDENTS DETERMINED TO CHANGE THE WORLD, ETHOS COMBINES STUDY ABROAD AND SERVICE LEARNING INTO A LIFE-CHANGING ADVENTURE. Take, for example, mechanical engineering majors Ellen Lucchesi and Michael Fornadel. The pair spent the summer in Bolivia, working with an organization that makes low-cost prosthetics for amputees. There, they learned the process is about more than providing a new leg. It’s about providing hope.

Follow Ellen and Michael’s journey in a three-part video series:

GO.UDAYTON.EDU/ETHOS

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA

University Marketing and Communications 300 College Park Dayton, OH 45469-1303

TIME LAPSE

NEWFALLEN SNOW Not a student is in sight in this undated photo taken from the lawn opposite the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception. For a view of today’s campus in a snowy splendor, see Page 2.