Nighttime in Columbia: Every lighted window and illuminated path carries a story of dreams, friendship and purpose. Adventure lingers in the air.
Page 30
FIRST LOOK
TIGERS 76, JAYHAWKS 67
Mizzou basketball fans flood the court after the Tigers’ victory over No. 1 Kansas — their first win against a top-ranked team since February 4, 1997, and the fifth in program history. The upset also marks Mizzou’s first over Kansas since joining the SEC, with the last win being a 74-71 comeback on February 4, 2012, where Marcus Denmon scored 29 points — the same number Tamar Bates tallied in this game. Notably, the Jayhawks are now 5-5 at Mizzou Arena. The frenzy captured in the photograph offers one reason why.
M I ZZOU
FROM THE EDITOR
The Energy of Achievement
It’s been a busy semester here in Columbia. Parking’s been tougher than usual. Enrollment is at its highest in years. Campus feels more alive than ever, and Tigers are making their presence felt in everything from nuclear science to comedy to sibling research to pickleball. This issue pulls together compelling stories to show how that looks in action.
For example, Julie Seabaugh, BJ ’02, has spent her career documenting the standup comedy scenes in New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Her essay on comedy journalism and her shift to documentary storytelling offers an unvarnished look at the hustle, creativity and determination it takes to make people laugh — and to be a culture reporter during a tumultuous time.
On the science front, we go long on a remarkable project on the horizon: NextGen MURR, which will set yet another bar in innovative approaches to fighting cancer. A high-tech sibling of the longstanding MU Research Reactor, it will be a game-changer in the production of medical isotopes. Writer and editor Chris Blose, MA ’04, explores its life-saving implications for cancer patients and groundbreaking applications in tech. Siblings? Former MIZZOU managing editor Dale Smith, BJ ’88, dives deep on a trio of Mizzou researchers seeking to better understand family relationships. Want a blast of memory and nostalgia? Check out “Beneath a Tiger Moon,” a photo essay that captures the beauty of campus after dark, where every lighted window holds a story and time seems to vanish. Among other alumni, in this issue we also celebrate the life of Joe DeGregorio, BJ ’70, who, in addition to having a decadeslong career as a federal agent, devoted his life to preserving the stories of the Hill, St. Louis’ famed Italian American enclave, where he grew up. We remember Katheryn Louise Paullus, Mizzou’s
In their natural habitat, Tigers tend to roam in packs. Above, one such group, part of giant influx of freshmen, gathers in the Quad.
first female graduate in what was then called the School of Fisheries and Wildlife, who died in April at 100.
A note of reminder: Each issue of MIZZOU is written and edited by journalists who have either graduated from the university or who have walked this campus and lived the Mizzou story. Our goal is to bring you closer to the people, places and ideas that make this university special. Thanks for reading, and for supporting the mission of higher education and research-driven innovation.
RANDALL ROBERTS, BA ’88 Editor
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The Mizzou Alumni Association proudly supports the best interests and traditions of Missouri’s flagship university and its alumni worldwide. Lifelong relationships are the foundation of our support. These relationships are enhanced through advocacy, communication and volunteerism.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, BS HES ’89; BS Ed 90; M Ed ’91
President-elect Kim Utlaut, BS ’89
Immediate Past President Mindy Mazur, BA ’99
Treasurer Kevin Gibbens, BS BA ’81
Secretary Todd McCubbin, M Ed ’95
Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Chair Vanessa Vaughn West, BA ’99
Directors Joanna Russell Bliss, BA ’07, BSEd ’07; Brent Buerck, MPA ’05; Clarissa Cauthorn, BS ’15; Morgan Corder, BA ’18; Renita Duncan, BS Acc, M Acc ’08; Christine Holmes, BS BA ’10, MBA ’17; Chris Hurt, BA ’88; Matt Jenne, BS CiE ’97, MBA ’15; Cheryl Jordan, BA ’84; Col. Pete O’Neill, BA ’00; Daniel Pierce, BA, BJ ’99; Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano, BS BA ’91; Amber Rowson, BS ME ’99; BS ’07; Mark Russell, BJ ’84; Nick Ruthmann, BS ’05, MD ’13; Janet Wheatley, BS HE ’77; Justin Wilson, BS ’07
Student Representative Mathew Kimaku
MIZZOU magazine
Winter 2025, Volume 113, Number 2
Published triannually by the Mizzou Alumni Association
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bugs Rule the Earth The Enns Entomological Museum celebrated its 150th anniversary with an open house on Nov. 2, when it welcomed the community to explore its vast insect collection. Why the interest? Insects are the most plentiful animals on Earth and make up 80 percent of its inhabitants. Watch a video to learn more about this milestone event and the fascinating world of insects: mizzou.us/bugs
CONTRIBUTORS
Mara Reinstein, BJ ’98, is a New York City-based journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Parade. She writes about Night Court co-star Lacretta and co-edits the Alumni Bookshelf this issue. Pages 10 and 57.
Julie Seabaugh, BJ ’02, is a Los Angeles-based comedy journalist and producer. She has written for The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, directed and co-produced the documentary Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 and produced comedy podcasts for SiriusXM. She is currently co-producing a documentary on Mitch Hedberg. For this issue, Seabaugh documents her experiences covering comics and comedy. Page 16.
About the cover
Tony Rehagen, BA, BJ ’01, has written for GQ, The Columbia Journalism Review and Next Wave: America’s New Generation of Great Literary Journalists. For this issue, he writes about the men’s Tiger basketball team and its mission after a difficult past season. Page 44.
Eddie Guy earned an MFA with honors from the School of Visual Arts in 1986. His illustration and animation work has appeared across North America and Europe and earned honors including a Society of Illustrators award and inclusion in the Smithsonian collection. He illustrated Julie Seabaugh’s story, “Punchlines in a Pressure Cooker.” Page 16.
Sam O’Keefe’s 2023 Harvest Supermoon photo earned Best in Show and first place in the Campus Environment category in the University Photographers’ Association of America competitions. O’Keefe, BJ ’09, MA ’24, captured the image from the top of Conley Garage.
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Departments
1 First Look
What a game! As we went to press for this issue, the Tigers beat the Jayhawks to secure bragging rights in this year’s men’s basketball Border War. Needless to say, the crowd at Mizzou Arena was excited.
6 Around the Columns
Mizzou’s forward progress, by the numbers; an M-I-Z sculpture is unveiled; an alumna hits prime time on Night Court; The Enns Entomological Museum celebrates 150 years; and more.
52 Mizzou Alumni News
Briefs on alumni news and remembrances, including a tribute to a proud native of St. Louis’ Italian American enclave, a profile of a CAA Sports agent and news of a Marching Mizzou member’s stem cell donation.
53 Class Notes
Catch up on the life chapters, big breaks and bold steps from Tigers everywhere.
57 Alumni Bookshelf
Recent works by Mizzou authors span from Wright Thompson’s The Barn to Laura McHugh’s gripping Safe and Sound.
72
Semper Mizzou
The Sinquefield Music Center’s monthly old-time music song circle keeps traditional fiddle tunes alive and connects musicians of all ages through the power of shared rhythm and story.
Council for Advancement & Support of Education Awards
2024: District VI Award: General Interest Magazine
2022: Bronze, Periodical/Magazine Design
2021: Gold, Feature Writing (“Who Was I in College?,” Winter 2020)
2020: Bronze, Feature Writing (“Forever Young,” Spring 2019) 2019: Bronze, General Interest Magazine
Society for Publication Designers Awards
2024 merit awards: “Vlad Has Stories,” Winter 2023; “The Cosmochemist’s Guide to the Galaxy” Spring 2023 2023 medal finalist: “A LIFE in Focus,” Spring 2022
2022 merit awards: “The Long Quiet,” Winter 2021; “International Reach,” Spring 2021; Spring 2021 cover 2021 merit awards: “Eli’s Calling,” Fall 2020; “A Third Act,” Spring 2020
Features
Punchlines in a Pressure Cooker
A comedy journalist and producer offers her take on mastering chaos with laughter — and improvisation. story by julie seabaugh, bj ’02
Chain Reaction
NextGen MURR, Mizzou’s bold leap in nuclear science, will be a 20-megawatt reactor set to transform cancer treatment, among other fields. It’s headed by alumnus Michael Hoehn II. story by chris blose, ma ’04
Between Bounce and Boom
Mizzou senior Dylan Frazier’s journey from curious newcomer to top-ranked pro mirrors pickleball’s transformation from a casual pastime to a national sensation. story by joe walljasper, bj ’92
Beneath a Tiger Moon
Remember those late-night walks through the Quad? Campus after dark still has the same vibe: Ellis Library holding secrets, Memorial Union standing guard, everything wrapped in a quiet, electric anticipation. photos by mizzou visual productions
Family Matters
How do siblings influence our lives? Mizzou researchers explore the science behind these powerful lifelong connections. story by dale smith, bj ’88
Return of the All-American
After a year exploring Europe and Asia, Helen Hu decided to rejoin Mizzou gymnastics. With a renewed sense of purpose — and a newfound love of surfing — she’s bringing fresh perspective to the beam. story by alex schiffer, bj ’17
A Fresh Start
Following a historically unsuccessful second basketball season at Mizzou, Coach Dennis Gates has reloaded with 11 new transfers and incoming freshmen looking to rewrite expectations. story by tony rehagen, ba, bj ’01
Standout transfer Mark Mitchell has been key to Mizzou Basketball’s strong start, highlighted by a 76-67 win over top-ranked Kansas.
Climbing Together
U.S. News: Mizzou No. 1 Best Value in SEC, Major Conferences
U.S. News & World Report has named the University of Missouri the No. 1 Best Value university among major conference schools, including the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and PAC-12. The news outlet, which stopped printing its physical magazine in 2010, evaluates universities based on factors including academic quality, affordability and student outcomes, with the goal of helping prospects and families identify schools that offer the best value for their investment. Other highlights from the latest rankings include:
#1
Best Value rank among flagship universities in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and PAC-12 conferences — up 24 spots overall from last year.
#4
Mizzou moved up from No. 7 to No.4 in the Best Value rankings for flagship universities.
Improved in 16 out of 18 Areas: The university saw improvements in 89 percent of evaluated areas, including retention and graduation rates.
Smaller Class Sizes, More Faculty: Investments in faculty have reduced the student-to-faculty ratio, which leads to more personalized interactions with world-class professors.
Mizzou’s Fall 2024 enrollment, rankings and graduation rates see solid growth.
31,543
Total enrollment
7,094
8,511 5,955 1,417 Graduate and professional enrollment Out-of-state enrollment
Female: 17,729 Male: 13,804
Unknown: 10
Enrollment by school or college
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Excellent Achievements
This fall, hundreds of faculty, students and staff gathered in Jesse Auditorium for “Achieving Excellence,” our 2024 State of the University address. I was proud to share Mizzou’s incredible momentum and commend our hard work across campus, Missouri and beyond.
There are so many accomplishments to celebrate, including being named No.4 best value among all U.S. flagships by U.S. News and World Report (see opposite page); historic fall enrollment and strong application numbers for fall 2025; and proven student success, including great rates for retention (93 percent), graduation (75 percent) and career outcomes (95 percent).
Beyond impressive statistics, we also presented the stories of more than 50 students, faculty, staff and supporters who embody our community’s commitment to service. They included John Henry Williams, a 16-year Army veteran and second-year medical student in rural medicine, who additionally gives back as treasurer of the Mizzou Student Veterans Association. We also featured world-class faculty such as Paul de Figueiredo, a NextGen Precision Health researcher whose team is designing game-changing, inexpensive cancer therapeutics using bacteria.
Mizzou’s people are exceptional, and we continue to make bold, strategic investments in their success through MizzouForward. During the State of the University, I showed the latest updates for ten ambitious infrastructure projects, including the Center for Energy Innovation and our new, twice-as-powerful research reactor, NextGen MURR (see Page 22). We also highlighted MizzouForward’s impact on so many important areas, including advising, undergraduate research and staff excellence. I want to thank our alumni and each member of the Mizzou community for your dedication. Your support ensures that we keep delivering even more for those we serve. I’m so excited about the future of Mizzou, and I can’t wait to see what our community achieves next.
MUN Y. CHOI, PHD President, University of Missouri
Purple Grain, Purple Gain
Americans love their corn — canned, fresh off the cob or in breakfast cereal. But what if this staple could be more than starch? What if it could prevent cancer, obesity, diabetes and inflammation while offering protein and fiber? It can, University of Missouri researchers say, and the secret lies in its color.
Assistant Professor Pavel Somavat and his team study dozens of corn varieties and compare the nutritional benefits of blue, red and purple maize to traditional yellow corn. Collaborating with USDA research geneticist Sherry Flint-Garcia, who grows heirloom corn at Mizzou’s South Farm, they aim to identify and breed the healthiest strains.
“We’re identifying the best varieties and providing feedback Sherry uses to decide which to breed next,” Somavat says. “We’re looking at how corn responds to Midwestern climates and developing new uses to add value.”
Among the varieties, Maiz Morado, a dark purple corn from South America, stands out. It’s rich in antioxidants, flavonoids and other compounds, much like the blueberry. However, it doesn’t grow well in Missouri. Flint-Garcia has been crossing Maiz Morado with yellow corn to create hybrids that produce full-sized purple ears. More work is needed to ensure high-yield, profitable crops.
Purple corn shows potential beyond food. Extracts could replace synthetic dyes such as Red Dye 40, which is linked to health issues and now banned in California public schools. Natural dyes from colored corn would make food safer and more nutritious.
Researchers are also finding uses for the biomass of purple corn. Extracted phytochemicals can be converted into waxy, antimicrobial packaging that’s biodegradable and edible. Pigments from the corn may also work as a natural pest deterrent for organic farming.
“The potential of non-yellow corn goes far beyond food,” Somavat says. “With its unique health benefits and applications, it offers a sustainable, high-value alternative for farmers and consumers alike.”
Somavat and collaborators, including Flint-Garcia, recently published their findings in Industrial Crops and Products. — Janese Heavin
Relief for TNBC Patients
Mizzou Researchers have developed a promising new approach to treating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a particularly challenging form of the disease. TNBC makes up about 15% of breast cancer cases and is difficult to treat because it lacks the three common receptors that most breast cancer therapies target. This forces many patients to rely on high doses of chemotherapy, which often leads to severe side effects such as hair loss, nausea and pain. The spread of TNBC cells to vital organs, such as the brain or lungs, is a major cause of death for patients.
Salman Hyder, a professor in Mizzou’s College of Veterinary Medicine, led the study with investigator Yayun Liang. Together, they discovered that targeting cholesterol production in cancer cells could be a gamechanger. A cholesterol biosynthesis inhibitor known as an RO compound blocks a key enzyme involved in the process. Cancer cells rely on the enzyme to grow and multiply. Not only does this compound kill the cancer cells, but it also prevents tumors from forming the blood vessels they need to keep expanding.
“Cancer cells can replicate very rapidly and become a tumor, but they need cholesterol,” Hyder explained. “A lot of energy is required for this process, and mitochondria involved in energy production require cholesterol biosynthesis because both tumor cells and mitochondria need membranes to be reproduced over and over again.”
The discovery offers hope for developing a new treatment and reducing reliance on harsh chemotherapy. “Our ultimate goal is to make life better for those who are suffering from this disease by offering a less toxic alternative to chemotherapy,” Hyder said.
The researchers presented their work at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, and it will be published in the Journal of Endocrine Society, potentially paving the way for human clinical trials.
M-I-Z Goes Big At the Nov. 8 unveiling of the new “M-I-Z” statue — a project funded by the Mizzou Alumni Association and located directly east of the Reynolds Alumni Center — alumni, students and friends gathered to welcome the towering trio of letters to campus. Designed as a photo spot that’s ideal for selfies, the statue celebrates the decades-old “M-I-Z, Z-O-U” chant and gives alumni and students a place to connect with Mizzou’s tradition. Which is to say, “M-I-Z!”
TICKS TAKEN TO TASK
Mizzou researchers are working to tackle bovine anaplasmosis, a tick-borne disease that’s been a costly headache for cattle farmers. Leading the charge: Roman Ganta, McKee Endowed Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Bond Life Sciences Center, who developed a first-of-itskind vaccine by genetically modifying Anaplasma marginale, the pathogen behind the disease, to create an effective immunity booster. With Missouri’s $1.6 billion cattle industry on high alert, farmers eagerly await the vaccine’s rollout, as Ganta teams up with industry partners to make it available. This breakthrough promises healthier herds and a stronger bottom line for Missouri’s cattle community.
HOT CHIP CHALLENGE
As artificial intelligence (AI) technology expands, so does the need for data centers to handle its growing computational demands. The problem? These centers consume vast amounts of energy, especially for cooling their servers. To address this, Mizzou researcher Chanwoo Park is pioneering an advanced cooling system that could significantly reduce energy use while preparing data centers for the next wave of AI computing.
Data centers house servers running websites, apps, and cloud data. Currently, they use fans or liquid-based systems to manage heat. In 2022, U.S. data centers consumed more than 4 percent of the nation’s electricity, with 40 percent of that energy spent on cooling alone. To reduce this burden, Park and his team, supported by a $1.65 million U.S. Department of Energy grant, are creating a two-phase cooling system that uses phase change, such as boiling liquid into vapor, to efficiently dissipate heat.
“The liquid goes in different directions and evaporates on a thin metal surface,” Park recently told Show Me Mizzou. “Using this boiling surface, we’re able to achieve very efficient heat transfer with low thermal resistance.” The system is designed to connect seamlessly within server racks, operate passively without energy in lowdemand situations, and consume negligible power even in active mode.
Park’s system aligns with the mission of the Center for Energy Innovation, a forthcoming campus facility where interdisciplinary teams will tackle energy efficiency challenges. “The center will allow us to explore additional ideas
and innovations around energy-efficient processes,” Park said. He envisions his cooling system being deployed in the next decade, ready to support the future of AI computing with sustainable solutions.
FOOT-LONG FAREWELL Since 1975, generations of Mizzou students relied on Sub Shop foot-longs to fuel their days. In mid-November, the local eatery announced it was closing after 49 years, marking the end of an era. Though the Columbia institution struggled in recent years — its food quality reflecting those challenges — its legacy remains. The original hole-in-the-wall location due south of Jesse Hall was a favorite, as was the E. Walnut spot across from Ernie’s. More recently, Sub Shop operated on 8th Street and Worley Street. In a Facebook announcement, ownership shared plans to auction off everything, including the shop’s distinctive artwork, though specifics were not available at press time.
• The Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, received a $100,000 grant from Press Forward, a national initiative to strengthen local news. More than 900 newsrooms applied, and 205 received funding.
• University of Missouri librarian Paula Roper was named Outstanding Professional Librarian at the 2024 Missouri Library Association Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Established in 2017, this honor recognizes significant contributions to library services.
• The University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) received the 2024 Hawthorn Foundation Project of the Year Award for its contributions to scientific research, innovation and Missouri’s economic development (see Page 22).
• Jann Carl, BJ ’82, a former Entertainment Tonight anchor, joined the Missouri School of Journalism as an assistant professional practice professor. Carl’s four-decade television career includes 14 years at ET and three Emmy awards for her work with KTLA in Los Angeles.
• Mushuang Liu received the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award for her work on reinforcement learning in autonomous systems. She is the first Mizzou faculty member to earn this recognition. Liu is an assistant professor in the MU College of Engineering.
Chanwoo Park
AROUND THE COLUMNS
TWO DECADES OF INNOVATION
In 2004, Bond Life Sciences Center opened with one goal: Bring people together to solve complex problems in health, agriculture and the environment. For two decades, it’s done just that by connecting engineers with cancer biologists, pairing biomedical researchers with plant scientists and uniting experts across fields. With state-of-the-art labs, Bond LSC drives discoveries and inspires future scientists. For its 20th anniversary, in September Bond LSC hosted guest speakers Melissa Mitchum on soybean genetics, Kinjal Majumder on cancer-targeting viral navigation and Sheng Yang He on plant-pathogen interactions.
Gurgs in the
Spotlight
It’s easy to make the case for actor and Mizzou grad Lacretta, BA ’03. Playing short-fused bailiff Donna “Gurgs” Gurganous on the hit reboot of the 1980s sitcom Night Court, she can effortlessly go laugh-for-laugh with John Larroquette’s attorney Dan Fielding. But Lacretta’s moxie extends far beyond that televised Manhattan arraignment courtroom. At Mizzou, where she was known as Lacretta Ross, the Kansas City, Mo., native studied opera in Germany, landed in numerous stage productions (including The Seagull) at the Rhynsburger Theatre and participated in the Mizzou on Broadway showcase in 2002. After graduation, she brought her vocal talents to Broadway (Disaster!) and went on the first national tour of The Book of Mormon. She has also appeared on Law & Order: SVU, 30 Rock, Broad City and Gotham. Night Court is currently in its third season on NBC and Peacock.
— Mara Reinstein, BJ ’98
@SECNetwork
Brady Cook left the game vs. Auburn to go to the hospital, came back and led Mizzou to a 4th quarter-comeback victory
@byEliHoff
#Mizzou has received nearly 1,000 more applications from prospective students so far this fall than at the same point last year — a 38% increase, UM System President and MU Chancellor Mun Choi told the Board of Curators today. He cited MU football’s success as a factor.
@nicekicks
Devin Booker’s father Melvin Booker pulled up to the Suns vs 76ers game rockin’ his own “Mizzou” Nike Book 1 PE
@MizzouResearch
Congrats to the @Mizzou investigators who had external funding awarded in September! Thirteen of these awards were over $1 MILLION!
@MizzouAthletics
Congratulations to former Mizzou Director of Athletics Mike Alden, who was presented the Homer Rice Award, which goes to a retired AD who made significant contributions to college athletics. Mike was joined in DC by several former Mizzou colleagues to celebrate the honor!
@ProfPatMcKelvey
Luther Burden was everything Mizzou fans ever dreamed of and more. #MIZ
Lacretta, bottom right, on the set of Night Court.
A START-UP PARADISE
There’s palpable energy in the air at the MU Student Center when class is in session. The food court, coffee shop and bookstore get hectic. But a particular excitement radiates from the Robert and Shelly Griggs Family Innovators Nexus, a collaborative space in the center where student entrepreneurs from different academic backgrounds learn how to turn their business dreams into reality.
“Our key to success is being housed in the Student Center and not tied to an academic unit,” says Greg Bier, executive director of entrepreneurship programs. “Students don’t need a passport to come to the Nexus if they have a ‘foreign’ nonbusiness major. We’ve worked with students ranging from freshmen to doctoral candidates who represent every school on campus.”
Nexus participants can collaborate with fellow entrepreneurs, get business advice and practice sales pitches. The Nexus contains incubator office spaces for students launching online ventures and four retail storefronts for those interested in a brick-andmortar store. These spaces are awarded annually through a competitive selection process. One of this year’s storefronts is Sips on the Go, a beverage business specializing in all-natural lotus plant energy drinks. Business is booming, and the store makes an average of 300 sales a day.
Reagan Eaves, a senior communications major who owns Sips on the Go, describes the collaboration at Nexus as “incredibly beneficial.” “The Nexus staff has helped me navigate several obstacles, and the retail space owners regularly meet to discuss any issues we’re having,” she says. “They’ve given me so many helpful suggestions.”
The Nexus also hosts a chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization to offer networking opportunities. Through the Entrepreneur Quest (EQ) Student Accelerator program, students receive business education and mentorship. Each year, EQ culminates in a competition in which student entrepreneurs compete for seed money to fund their businesses. The most recent winner, Parker Owens, tripled his business over the course of the EQ program. Owens, a 2024 law school graduate, designs custom Lego builds, including a set of Mizzou’s iconic columns, and is developing a subscription service to send a new
project to subscribers each month.
Parker’s Brick Builds are now sold in 60 stores. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Nexus,” he says. “It was an amazing environment to be in, with a fantastic mentorship program."
—Blaire Leible Garwitz, MA ’06
Reagan Eaves, owner of Sips on the Go, showcases one of her lotus plant energy drinks as part of the Robert and Shelly Griggs Family Innovators Nexus, where students turn ideas into businesses.
The Ozark Insectarium Ozark Clubtail Dragonfly. Six-spotted Tiger Beetle. Red-spotted Purple Butterfly. The Enns Entomological Museum, part of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, has spent a century and a half meticulously collecting, preserving and showcasing these insects and roughly 7 million other specimens from the Ozark Plateau and beyond.
Founded in 1874 by C.V. Riley — an entomologist and artist known as the “father of modern entomology” — the museum began with his donation of a private collection. To celebrate its 150th anniversary, in November the Enns opened to the public for a day to offer a rare look at its historic bugs and fossils. Today, Enns is a premier research hub supporting Missouri’s biodiversity, conservation and ecological education.
beetles can grow up to 7 inches long, including their horn, and are the world’s longest beetle species when measured with jaws or horns.
The museum features this Hercules beetle from the West Indies. Male Hercules
From Tiger Camp to Mizzou Arena
Sophomore guard
Grace Slaughter is averaging a team-high 14.7 points while hitting 52.9 percent of her 3-pointers (as of press time).
A Missouri basketball uniform is a standard piece of polyester athletic wear, distinguishable from countless others only by color, lettering and logo. But that’s not the way Grace Slaughter sees it.
When Slaughter puts on the uniform, she thinks of the fourth-grade version of herself at her first Mizzou basketball camp. She thinks about her grandfather John Cianciolo, a diehard fan who was the first person she called after she committed to Mizzou. She thinks about her mom, Rebecca Slaughter, in the stands at South Carolina last year, a black-and-gold dot in a sea of garnet, because these four years will go by too fast, and she has no intention of missing a single one of her daughter’s games.
“It means so much to me,” says Slaughter, a 6-foot2-inch sophomore guard. “It’s such a huge blessing to be here and be able to wear this uniform.”
When Slaughter was growing up in Grain Valley, her family’s weekends often were loosely arranged around whatever game the Tigers were playing on TV. When she got to step on the Mizzou Arena court for a basketball camp, she started dreaming about being the one in the uniform who other little girls watched.
As Slaughter grew into one of the state’s best
basketball players, she closely followed the careers of homegrown MU stars Sophie Cunningham and Hayley Frank, who both surpassed 2,000 career points. In her first year at Mizzou, Slaughter was named to the SEC’s All-Freshman team after averaging 11.5 points.
“Everyone who’s here has a goal to make a positive impact on the program and the university,” Slaughter says. “I’m playing because I love it, but it would be great to have an impact like they did.”
— Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92
BOUND FOR MUSIC CITY
The Missouri Tigers concluded their regular season with a 9–3 record, earning a No. 19 ranking in the College Football Playoff standings. They’re set to face the Iowa Hawkeyes in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl on December 30 at Nashville's Nissan Stadium. Notably, standout wide receiver Luther Burden III has declared for the NFL Draft and will forgo the contest to prepare for his professional career. The game will be broadcast on ESPN, with kickoff at 1:30 p.m. CST.
The Samurai Jumper
Sterling Scott seems born to triple jump. His mother, Colleen, once represented the Jamaican national team in the event. His father, Andre, was a seven-time All-America triple jumper at Auburn and is currently an assistant coach for the Ole Miss track team.
Still, his parents never pressured him to compete in track, and Scott wanted to do his own thing, so he focused on soccer in his younger years. It wasn’t until he reached high school and realized he wasn’t receiving much college recruiting attention in soccer that he decided to join the track team.
“I tried my hardest to run from it,” Scott says, “but it was my destiny.”
In the triple jump, athletes barrel down a runway and jump twice off one foot and a third time off the other foot. Scott took off in the event when he once mistimed his approach during a meet and leaped right, right, left, rather than the opposite. The happy accident allowed him to soar 6 feet beyond his previous best.
A track star was born.
Scott considered competing in college for his father at Ole Miss but decided leaving his home state would help him grow personally. Mizzou assistant coach Iliyan Chamov, a longtime friend of Andre Scott, was thrilled to get a chance to coach the still raw but explosive athlete.
“I see the long jump as an ax and the triple jump as a samurai sword,” Chamov says. “It takes a little more technique to execute the triple jump perfectly. You cannot just swing it and split wood.”
As a freshman last year, Scott honed his technique and earned All-America honors indoors and outdoors by posting a top leap of nearly 53 feet. In August, he represented the USA in the U20 World Championships in Peru and finished fifth with a leap of 52 feet 9 inches.
Scott has made a name for himself with those results and through a playful social media game that fills a previously untapped market: track humor. His teammates frequently make suggestions for posts and ask to appear in his videos, which routinely draw thousands of likes.
The once reluctant jumper has become an ambassador of track and field.
“His social media channel is very entertaining, and it’s coming from a love of the sport,” Chamov says. “This is not about, ‘Look at me, I want to be
popular on social media.’ It’s the opposite. You do what you enjoy, and everything else falls into place.” Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92
Bigger, Louder, Better
On November 30, Mizzou broke ground on a $250 million renovation of Memorial Stadium, set to be completed in time for its 100th anniversary in 2026.
The project, aimed at enhancing the fan experience and boosting Mizzou’s standing in the SEC, includes a new north concourse, modernized concessions, and premium seating options. “This project will ensure Memorial Stadium remains a source of pride for all Missourians and the Mizzou family,” says Robin Wenneker, Chair of the Board of Curators.
Other highlights include an enhanced videoboard, upgraded sound and lighting and improved Wi-Fi. Coach Eli Drinkwitz calls it “a game-changer” for recruiting and development, with capacity expanding to 65,000.
Scoreboard
3 — Goals scored by Milena Fischer in the Missouri soccer team’s 5-0 victory over Ole Miss on Oct. 10. Fisher is the second player in program history to record a hat trick. Grace Blum accomplished the feat in 1996.
37 — Number of kills by Mychael Vernon in the Mizzou volleyball team’s four-set victory over Arkansas on Oct. 25. That broke the program record of 35 kills set by Paola Ampudia in 2009.
41 — Number of seconds separating the tying and winning touchdowns at the end of the Missouri football team’s 30-23 victory over Oklahoma on Nov. 9. Drew Pyne’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Theo Wease tied the game with 1:03 left. Then Triston Newson caused a fumble that Zion Young returned 17 yards for a TD with 22 seconds remaining.
72 — Margin of victory for the Mizzou men’s basketball team in a 111-39 win over Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 14. That tied the school record for most lopsided victory, previously set in 1976 against MacMurray and 1995 against Chicago State.
2 — Number of consecutive years Brady Cook has been named the Southeastern Conference Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
EVERY dream NEEDS A team
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Punchlines in a Pressure Cooker
LA-based comedy journalist Julie Seabaugh draws on her conversations with legends including George Carlin, Chris Rock and Joan Rivers to explore the vital role of stand-up in the 2020s. As comedy navigates a postpandemic boom, the School of Journalism alumna reflects on how laughter provides a necessary release — and why covering the art form matters more than ever.
Live stand-up comedy may
be the most difficult and important
art
form of the 2020s.
CONSIDER THE PARAMETERS: One person, working with a solo mind and mouth, clinging tightly to only the microphone and a mission to make everyone staring back in the room laugh. Sounds like an utter nightmare to most of us. But for those few artists in their element beneath the club spotlight, stand-up is a calling.
Spontaneous laughter delivers doses of good brain-science things: endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin. It axes the stress hormone cortisol. Dorks would call it a natural high. It contextualizes our small place in the universe and helps us take ourselves less seriously. Over the past few years, it’s become vital for combatting a certain relentless, unapologetically manufactured onslaught of mistrust, fear, hypocrisy, injustice, all of it. There’s just so damn much.
Comedy helps transform negative emotions — from, say, stunned disbelief to gut-churning horror — into something that can be processed, and maybe possibly overcome. There’s a certain optimism found watching a roomful of strangers with different backgrounds and beliefs, reacting in real time and in unison, laughing for a moment that can never be replicated.
It’s a screencap of humanity, and it happens in venues nightly. Those little commonalities are real. Keep piecing them together and something vaguely resembling hope can start to emerge.
Moms Mabley’s astounding bravery. Richard Pryor’s humanity. Phillis Diller’s pioneering feminism. Comics have dragged society kicking and screaming out of minstrel shows and vaudeville, into comedy clubs, through cable TV channels and now onto YouTube and TikTok. The best stand-ups make audiences laugh — then go home and think. They challenge seemingly engrained beliefs and prejudices. Learning from a variety of perspectives fosters empathy. Whether receiving or extending, we could all use more of it.
As someone who has covered comedy for 23 years in outlets including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and dozens of now shuttered alternative-weekly papers, I’ve seen the art and popularity evolve while the difficulties of covering it remain. Admittedly,
when Chris Rock asked me in the Comedy Store parking lot (just a few days before the Oscar slap) whether his daughter should be a journalist as she intended, there was nervous hesitation.
Whether moderating panels at festivals or watching Bob Odenkirk, post-heart attack, light up on an Upright Citizens Brigade greenroom couch as he described learning to embrace life again, the world never stops being revelatory. Joan Rivers and Carl Reiner talked to me about pushing themselves to creative limits. I’ve covered roasts, deaths and recently moderated a PBSsponsored event for Jesus Trejo’s Roots of Comedy series. The journalistic experiences have been validating. The legwork hasn’t gotten any easier.
ACCORDING
TO INDUSTRY REPORTS in May from Bloomberg and Pollstar, live comedy ticket sales have surged, with revenues approaching $1 billion in recent years.
Markets are hungry. Performers typically tied up in TV production seek expression (and paychecks) amid strikes and slowdowns. Barriers to entry are cheap and lax. Outlooks are available for every taste.
It’s also a meritocracy where only the funniest survive.
The industry’s current boom arrived as the world entered strange territory. During the pandemic lockdown, comedy programming (think Bo Burnham’s Inside, Sarah Cooper’s lip-syncing Trump videos, anytime Leslie Jordan took to Instagram live) ruled screens as chaos swirled outside. It quieted frantic interior monologues. What comedy fan didn’t dive deep into unexplored archives, reemerging into public life having found a big-name podcast host, rising up-and-comer or undeniable social-media star to follow?
Once venues reopened, there was much more to discover. An immediacy endures in comedy clubs, where all the machinery and external editing of online videos and other media falls silent. Stand-up goes deeper than crowd work and slick specials. The same reheated tricks don’t work in the trenches, where lifers put in the work during multiple sets, night after night, anywhere there’s a stage and a microphone. Film, visual art, even live music — in my experience, no other form of public expression can do the same. For an increasing number of comedy connoisseurs, laughing among in-the-moment human people beats an evening spent doing literally anything online.
Diehards now flock to comedy festivals — then argue about the philosophical particulars
between sets. There used to be only two gatherings of note: Just for Laughs Montreal and Aspen. Two competitions: San Francisco and Seattle. Only a handful of specials and albums came out annually. Each was an industry-wide event.
Today some 40-plus comedy festivals populate the U.S. and Canada alone. Keeping track of every stand-up special? Impossible. Industry gatekeepers are far less powerful. Social media and podcasts allow comics to interact directly with potential fans. Our postpandemic standup explosion is now the biggest the industry has ever seen.
IN THE 1990S, the comedy world — and my world — was unrecognizable from today.
This reading-obsessed outlier found magazines to be a different kind of stage, one that brought the wider world to a farm in rural Missouri’s Bootheel. As Stanley Tucci’s character, Nigel, in The Devil Wears Prada, says of devouring Runway by flashlight, “This is not just a magazine. It’s a beacon of hope.” Replace Runway with Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, and it makes sense that, as seen from the Bootheel, the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism shone like a beacon.
Principles of American Journalism. News. Library Research. And that was before they even let you into the actual J-School! From there things got serious: History of American Journalism. Reporting. Cross-Cultural Journalism. Communications Law. Also, experiential learning, such as the Mizzou Magazine Club’s annual weeklong trips to New York City, where students met with alumni, toured their fancy high-rise offices and asked them burning journalism questions.
There’s a certain optimism found watching a roomful of strangers with countless backgrounds and beliefs, reacting in real time and in unison, laughing in a moment in space that can never be replicated.
One year, the 9/11 terrorist attacks had destroyed the World Trade Center hotel where the club previously stayed. We’d watched live coverage during Intermediate Writing class the morning of the tragedy. Afternoon ground into evening at the Heidelberg, where we commiserated and shared our shock. When we arrived the following February in New York, some of us hazarded
downtown to stare at the jagged 15-acre hole. The air still smelled burnt.
It would be a couple decades before I understood how the aftermath of 9/11 would change everything I thought I’d learned about media as unbiased truth-tellers. Facilitated by the rise of the internet, it marked the beginning of major
In stand-up comedy, there are no rules. Just get up there and be funny. The freedom of speech is unparalleled.
media outlets earning revenue through unbalanced echo-chambers cherry-picking news surrounding the Iraq War.
Strategic Communication. General Semantics. Magazine Design. Communications Practice. Magazine Editing, followed by Magazine Staff at Vox
As a journalism student obsessed with culture, covering film and music seemed edifying enough until comic Dave Attell, then a national collegiate hero of his Insomniac drunk-travelogue series on Comedy Central, performed at Jesse Auditorium. He’d previously answered my novice questions via phone for a Vox preview story.
Attell’s stand-up set shook Jesse Auditorium. This was something new to me: shockingly dark but wholly unifying. We laughed so hard we gasped for air. Somewhere in me near the gut area, a new level of artistic consciousness ripped open. After the set, Attell was cajoled over to the
Heidelberg. Surrounded in the dark back room by excited journalism students, he was generous with real-world wisdom — and the Jägermeister shots sent over in sugary brown waves from every corner of the bar.
Journalism had come first. Now a second focus was clear: Stand-up felt far more immediate than film or music. At the time, comedy coverage was shoehorned into newspapers’ music and calendar listings. Why wasn’t it covered in any sort of professional manner? Someone really needed to do something about that glaring journalism oversight.
I moved to New York City three weeks after graduating and covered comedy for the then robust, now-defunct New Times Media chain of alt-weekly city papers. (A 200-word blurb netted a sweet $40!) Locking in interviews required hanging out around Caroline’s on Broadway, Gotham, Stand-Up NY and the rest. The Comedy
Cellar didn’t kick you out until 4 a.m. Telling rising comics that you wanted to interview them for a preview of their sets in Miami, Nashville, Houston or wherever often was met with stunned, appreciative disbelief.
There was an early Time Out New York piece on the NY Comedians Coalition, who were fighting for better pay back in 2004. For the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, a 2005 interview with Jon Stewart outlined all the big plans he had for reintroducing the world to a guy named Stephen Colbert. During a few years with Las Vegas Weekly, a young, quiet Zach Galifianakis discussed Visioneers, his trippy indie flick, years before he’d explode with The Hangover. When Don Rickles gave Attell a shout-out from the stage of Caesars Palace, Attell got so emotional he had to duck into a hallway.
Guess who ran immediately after him and stuck a microphone in his face?
Moments like these are often undercut by the realities of navigating the comedy scene. There are the times — hundreds so far, hundreds more no doubt to come — that slack-jawed door guys smirk at you in derision, wrongly assuming you’re some comic’s fangirl or evening hookup. Being a female journalist ensures you start over professionally with every story. Reputation and resumé mean less than ever.
What a weird thing to be true. Didn’t you all see my Mizzou transcript records? Would making a big speech about journalism ethics get me inside where I belong any quicker?
Alt-weeklies are long-gone in most cities. Older content is increasingly scrubbed from digital existence altogether. Between subjectivity, fictional bylines and AI, journalism itself can sometimes feel like it’s on life support, the art and craft of a well-reported story buried deep. A lot of so-called journalism doesn’t even feel like journalism anymore. It’s merely content.
What happened to the upstanding career I envisioned? The ability to make a sustainable, meaningful living? How about the truth we were taught to tell? If all the rules have been broken, what was the point of learning them?
WHEN THERE’S A MEMORIAL for beloved community favorites — a Mitch Hedberg, Bob Saget or Gilbert Gottfried — watching generational titans hunched over sobbing feels like an intrusion on a sacred space. Then they get up, take their turn at the podium and make tasteless cracks about the deceased. They remind each other that’s the entire point of everything they’ve chosen to do.
In stand-up comedy, there are no rules. Just get up there and be funny. The freedom of speech is unparalleled. The hours, once talent reaches a certain level of success, are theirs to set.
The thing about a journalism degree from Mizzou is that, like any good education, the most important rules — ethics and craft — have been highly transferable. Success might sometimes feel elusive, but a Roast Battle cover story for LA Weekly became a book, Ringside at Roast Battle: The First Five Years of L.A.’s Fight Club for Comedians. My 2021 feature documentary, Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11, premiered at the famous TLC Chinese Theatre and aired on Vice TV for two months for the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. (In Australia too!) I originated and produced a yetunnamed documentary about longtime interviewee Marc Maron that will be out sometime in 2025.
All that reporting and writing involved journalistic storytelling about comedy. The final edits have just taken different forms.
Covering Mitch Hedberg inspired me to produce SiriusXM’s Hope on Top: A Mitch Hedberg Oral History. Attell, Doug Stanhope and Todd Barry have already filmed interviews for a Hedberg documentary project I’ve essentially been working on, bit by bit, for nearly 20 years. The Hollywood Reporter recently wrote about it. My recent book, A Tight 20: Two Decades of Comedy Journalism, collects stories and interviews from a host of comedic rulebreakers.
Covering the beat now as a freelancer for the Los Angeles Times offers some opportunity to spread the word about unique talent. Following the local scene and its myriad players onstage and off, exploring a million diverse opinions on religion, politics, accessibility and LGBTQ+ rights, almost makes it worth it. But the Times has less reach and fewer full-time opportunities than ever. The power and prestige of dailies and magazines have been reallocated to personality-driven, flimsily vetted podcasts.
The weight of these changes lingers, shaping what it means to cover comedy and the arts today and raising questions about who gets to tell its stories. It’s a shift that George Carlin would likely have found disappointing, especially given his perspective on society’s broader trajectory. When we spoke in 2005, three years before his death, he emphasized, “Comedy comes from pain.” He believed writing was at the heart of everything, and that some people were content to entertain without really growing or challenging themselves. But others, he said, “keep changing and evolving ... those people are closer to artists.”
Carlin understood: adaptation is the only real rule. M
Carlin believed writing was at the heart of everything, and that some people were content to entertain without really growing or challenging themselves. But others, he said, “keep changing and evolving... those people are closer to artists.”
Chain Reaction
The University of Missouri’s bold leap in nuclear science will be a 20-megawatt reactor set to transform cancer treatment. It will more than triple isotope production to meet growing demand. It will build on MURR’s legacy as the most powerful U.S. university reactor, one that has run nearly nonstop since 1966. It will multiply MURR’s impact as the only source in the Western Hemisphere for four essential cancer-fighting isotopes, responsible for 9.5 million months of extended life annually. That’s in addition to breakthroughs in medicine, archaeology and beyond, and a true crime twist: NextGen MURR will also be a forensics powerhouse.
story by chris blose, ma ’04
What do the following have in common?
WRadioisotopes that treat more than 1.6 million cancer patients per year. Forensic analysis that affects the outcome of criminal trials. Novel medical devices designed to target disease while leaving healthy tissue alone. Research that determines the often-surprising origins of cultural artifacts thousands of years old.
If you guessed, “They all happen at Mizzou,” you get partial credit. More specifically, they all happen at one location at Mizzou: the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR).
Since its first nuclear chain reaction in 1966, MURR has been the home to abundant discoveries in radiopharmacology, archaeometry, trace element epidemiology and materials science. (See “From Atoms for Peace to New Nuclear” below.) At 10 MW, it’s the most powerful research reactor at any university in the country — and has been so since 1974.
But times change, and so does demand. In 2023, the university announced plans for NextGen MURR, a new 20 MW research reactor that, when running in tandem with MURR, could more than triple capacity for producing radioisotopes used in cancer treatment and expand research capabilities in other fields.
“We have a responsibility to look beyond just today and to try to forecast what is going to be needed, and demanded, of us in the future,” says Michael Hoehn II, who became NextGen MURR’s inaugural program director this year. (See “NextGen MURR’s True Son” on page 27.)
For example, today MURR is the sole U.S. producer of four medical radioisotopes used in cancer treatment: Iridium-192 helps treat brain, breast, cervical, head and neck, prostate, skin, lung and gynecological cancers. Lutetium-177 currently is used to treat prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors, with more possible targeted treatments in the future. Sodium
Iodide-131 is used for diagnosing and treating thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism. And Yttrium-90 targets liver cancer.
That’s four as of 2024, but Hoehn notes that there are thousands of clinical trials in process involving other isotopes. The ones that prove effective and reach bedsides will drastically increase demand. In Hoehn’s view, Mizzou has the track record of success and safety to produce them right here.
A New View of Nuclear
Thousands of Columbia residents drive past MURR while commuting on Providence Road every day without realizing they’re passing a nuclear reactor. Hoehn says it’s likely more people know the MURR name internationally than locally.
“When you say MURR in the radioisotope community and the medical community, they understand the importance of it to the supply chain for radioisotopes,” Hoehn says. “But there are people here who don’t know why Reactor Field is named what it is, or the Reactor Bus Loop, and they don’t know there’s a reactor there. We need to change that.”
MURR’s accomplishments are impressive enough to warrant more attention. The most obvious example, given how many cancer patients they affect, are the radioisotopes the reactor produces. On top of making them, MURR researchers also have been part of teams developing novel delivery approaches, such as TheraSphere, a special medical device now owned by Boston Scientific. TheraSphere consists of tiny spheres of glass that deliver Yttrium-90 to the liver — a targeted approach that is designed to destroy cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue as much as possible. Such targeted therapeutics are becoming more common, which is part of why Hoehn sees such an urgent need for NextGen MURR.
MURR and its future counterpart cover a wide range of fields beyond radiopharmaceuticals, notes John Brockman, associate director of research and education for the reactor. Brockman points to the MURR Archaeometry Laboratory, first established in 1988 and continuously funded by the National Science Foundation ever since, a true rarity among labs.
MURR officially comes to life, launching its first sustained chain reaction on Oct. 13, a pivotal milestone in research.
MURR Timeline: From Atoms for Peace to New Nuclear
President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations, in which he covers nuclear disarmament and the positive possibilities of atomic research.
Ardath Emmons becomes MURR’s first director.
MURR researcher George Leddicotte applies neutron activation analysis in courtroom testimony for the first time.
University of Missouri president Elmer Ellis polls faculty and staff about a possible research reactor. The answer is a resounding “Yes.”
Archaeometrists at MURR primarily use a technique called neutron activation analysis to examine archeological artifacts. “They perform what are called provenance studies,” Brockman says, meaning they’re trying to determine everything from age to origins of the objects. Neutron activation analysis and other more recent techniques such as X-ray fluorescence allow them to examine materials without destroying them. By studying the elemental composition of such objects, archaeometry can trace the origins of raw materials, revealing ancient trade routes and pinpointing the original locations of various cultures.
Brockman and other MURR-affiliated researchers use similar techniques in what’s called trace element epidemiology, a field that uses nuclear analysis to study medical issues, among other things. For instance, he has been a part of teams examining various bodily samples — blood, plasma, urine, hair, even toenails — to determine how certain metals in the diet affect health, such as
the connection between selenium and cancer risk.
“Often these samples were collected 20 years, 30 years in the past,” Brockman says. “They’re irreplaceable.” The ability to accurately analyze such samples while maintaining their integrity sets nuclear science apart.
MURR sets itself apart, too, with both the diversity of work and its far-above-average operating capacity. But Hoehn foresees an even higher goal.
“Our vision right now is to be the leader in radioisotope production, nuclear science and technology research in the Western Hemisphere,” Hoehn says. “Once NextGen MURR comes online, there’s no reason why we can’t do it.”
Experiments begin for what will become two new cancer treatments, Quadramet and TheraSphere.
Researchers at the MU Research Reactor (MURR) work in highly controlled environments to support advancements in medicine, science and industry.
MURR upgrades from 5 MW to 10 MW. A half-century later, it remains the highestpower research reactor at a U.S. university.
MURR helps analyze the faulty O-Rings involved in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.
The MURR Archaeometry Laboratory opens. It has received continuous National Science Foundation funding for 36 years.
MURR begins producing Iridium-192, used in high-dose radiation therapy to treat numerous types of cancer.
RESEARCH
The Nuclear Family of Faculty
The vision is for NextGen MURR to be a fully integrated nuclear campus located at Discovery Ridge southeast of town.
“We see this as not just the reactor,” Hoehn says, “but as the ability to partner with the private sector, the radiopharmaceutical companies, maybe the government in various national labs in a research setting — and not just in a traditional partnership sense, but on-site in that integrated ecosystem.”
As the process shakes out over an estimated eight to 10 years, Hoehn will work with a design-and-build partner to ensure that vision comes to life, with spaces not only for faculty labs and the highly specialized equipment that supports them, but also potential startup housing or special labs for future government agency partnerships.
“You can think about interactions that create inspired research in a model like this,” Brockman says. “You can think about on-site partners designing research with our specific researchers and their expertise in mind.” Both Brockman and Hoehn point to the powerful possibility of taking a basic scientific discovery all the way to a patient’s bedside treatment, and doing so all in one place. That’s a more likely outcome when you gather all the right expertise — from nuclear science to the management of clinical trials — in one location.
The vision for NextGen MURR is a fully integrated nuclear campus located at Discovery Ridge, about six miles southeast of the main campus. This cutting-edge facility will expand Mizzou’s leadership in nuclear research and innovation.
If a carefully planned critical mass of talent is one benefit of NextGen MURR, added power is another. A 20 MW reactor on top of its existing 10 MW one would give Mizzou the two most powerful university research reactors in the country. (For reference, the Ameren Callaway nuclear power plant, where Hoehn worked for 18 years, is 3,565 MW. It takes much more power to produce electricity than to perform research.)
That power is not a one-to-one translation, since NextGen MURR will be designed with current best practices in mind. That’s why Hoehn and others say it will “more than” triple Mizzou’s current capacity.
Thousands
of
Columbia residents drive past MURR while commuting on Providence Road every day without realizing they’re passing a nuclear reactor. “There are people here who don’t know why Reactor Field is named what it is, or the Reactor Bus Loop, and they don’t know there’s a reactor there. we need to change that.”
Researchers analyze selenium (and other element) levels in toenail samples to help determine dietary effects on cancer, heart disease and other conditions.
One of the key advantages of this increased power is the boost in neutron flux, which refers to the number of neutrons passing over an area at a given time. At present, MURR can retrieve isotopes from the reactor’s central “flux trap” positions only once a week, when the reactor shuts down on Sundays. NextGen MURR’s design will not only increase the neutron flux and number of isotopes created, but also it will allow researchers to access and remove isotopes safely while the reactor continues to run. The process has major implications for productivity.
So does the range of up-to-date tools and techniques envisioned for NextGen MURR. The goal is to create a hub that will improve and save lives in the state, country and beyond — and recruit and retain even more experts aligned with that goal. “NextGen MURR will attract the best and the brightest from around the world,” Hoehn says. “To be able to have that right here in Columbia, Missouri, is amazing.”
Lutetium-177, a radioisotope produced exclusively at MURR to treat prostate cancer, receives FDA approval.
MURR expands by 6,000 square feet to allow for increased radioisotope production, among other benefits.
MURR receives the Nuclear Historic Landmark Award from the American Nuclear Society.
NextGen MURR announced. Slated to open in eight to 10 years, it has the potential to triple the capacity in nuclear research and isotope production.
NextGen MURR’s True Son
a crisp fall Saturday in Columbia, you’ll find Michael Hoehn II decked out in black and gold in the stands at Faurot Field, where he joins his voice with 60,000-plus other Tiger fans.
On a weekday, you’ll find him not far away at Reactor Field at MURR, where he uses his voice to extol the possibilities of nuclear research for the people of Missouri, the country and the world.
Hoehn is a True Son, born and raised in Saint Charles. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Mizzou and an MBA from Maryville University, then spent 18 years in nuclear energy at Ameren Missouri’s Callaway Energy Center.
“I was helping to provide energy to the public in a clean, reliable manner, so I took that role pretty seriously,” Hoehn says, “and I took a lot of pride in knowing what my job was.” He became director of nuclear engineering design and projects, a role that included everything from managing major changes to juggling project timelines and budgets.
When NextGen MURR was announced in 2023, Hoehn found the perfect fit for his Mizzou pride and nuclear know-how — and it was right there in the town where he was already raising his family. He pursued and was named to the role of inaugural program director for NextGen MURR, reporting to the executive director of MURR, Matt Sanford.
Hoehn is responsible for assembling and leading a team of designers, engineers and other experts. He oversees the process of choosing a long-term design and construction partner for what is envisioned as an integrated nuclear campus. As the project moves forward, he’ll also be responsible for keeping the project on track through approximately eight to 10 years of various reviews and the construction process before it comes online.
Hoehn and team draw on nearly 60 years of learning at MURR, but they’re also taking lessons
from friendly competitors abroad. “We were at a new reactor build site in the Netherlands recently doing benchmarking,” he says. “That site has integrated radiopharmaceutical production capabilities as well as envisioning an integrated medical campus with clinical trial capabilities, and they’re going to have a brand new state-of-the-artreactor.” In other words, it was exactly the sort of model he has in mind for NextGen MURR.
He also owns his role as a cheerleader for NextGen MURR. Having worked in nuclear energy for so long, he’s seen what a lack of education and information can do to public perception. So he works to educate, even evangelize. He’ll tell you about the obvious benefits of radiopharmaceuticals for treating cancer — and how they are improving via better targeting techniques that kill a tumor while saving healthy tissue. He’ll discuss materials research, including improving increasingly critical items such as lithium-based batteries. He’ll mention the value of trace-element epidemiology, and how advanced neutron scattering capabilities will attract the best of the best researchers.
“We should be talking about our ability to improve lives,” he says. “That should be fundamental to our discussion about the power of the neutron and what we’re doing every single day here, and what we envision expanding at NextGen MURR.” M
Radioactive atoms produced at MU Research Reactor are key to advanced medical therapies. Meet the Mizzoumade isotopes improving and saving lives around the world.
Iridium-192
This radioactive isotope is used in high-dose radiation therapies known as brachytherapy.
Used in Treating: brain, breast, cervical, head and neck, prostate, skin, lung and gynecological cancers
Lutetium-177
MURR scientists first identified the potential of this isotope two decades ago. Now, it’s the active ingredient of the targeted cancer therapy Lutathera.
Used in Treating: prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors
Sodium iodide-131
This critical radioisotope was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1951. With its first shipment of I-131 in 2018, MURR became the nation’s first supplier of the medical isotope since the 1980s.
Used in Treating: thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism
Yttrium-90
The radioisotope used in TheraSphere, a novel cancer treatment that uses millions of tiny radioactive glass beads embedded with yttrium-90 to kill liver tumor cells.
Used in Treating: liver cancer
Scan for more details on the four medical isotopes MURR produces for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
BETWEEN BOUNCE AND BOOM
Mizzou senior Dylan Frazier’s journey from curious newcomer to top-ranked pro mirrors pickleball’s transformation from a casual pastime to a national sensation.
Story by Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92 | Photo by Abbie Lankitus
THE MASS APPEAL OF PICKLEBALL, the reason the rapid-fire pops of paddles meeting perforated plastic balls have become the soundtrack of parks and recreation centers nationwide, lies in its accessibility. In just a few minutes, it’s easy to grasp the rules, hit a few warmup shots and play well enough to have fun with partners of almost any age.
That’s what hooked Dylan Frazier on the sport as a 14-yearold boy on a family vacation in Florida.
“It was super easy to learn, and you could just go on the court and play games,” says Frazier, now a senior at Mizzou. “And everyone was excited to have a younger kid in the gym playing. That was definitely not very common back in 2016. I was kind of a unicorn.”
At the time, pickleball was pigeonholed as the last stop on a human’s athletic journey — basically bingo with a net. Frazier’s peers didn’t understand why an athletic teenager who excelled in baseball, basketball and football would devote so much time to pickleball.
“There’s always been that sense about pickleball, that it’s silly or, especially back when I started, that it’s an old person’s sport,” Frazier says.
Not anymore. An estimated 13.6 million Americans played in 2023 — almost five times more than when Frazier first picked up a paddle. You can watch live professional matches on multiple cable sports networks and streaming services. As the sport has exploded in popularity, Frazier has grown right along with it.
Now he’s a contract player in the Professional Pickleball Association, where he ranks in the top five in both singles and doubles. He also plays for the Arizona Drive team in Major League Pickleball. He has endorsement deals with Selkirk equipment and Chicken N Pickle restaurants. The sport has become so lucrative for him that he’s finishing his business administration degree as a parttime online student while he
travels to 30 tournaments a year and splits time between homes in Missouri and Florida.
The roots of Frazier’s success story were planted decades ago at Mizzou, where his mom, Cindy Frazier, BS Ed ’91, discovered pickleball. She played at the student rec center every chance she got with a small group of true believers. But after graduating, she couldn’t find a game in central Missouri. Fast-forward to the mid-2010s, and the sport was starting to get some traction, especially in Florida, with its large population of retirees.
On a trip to visit Cindy’s father in Punta Gorda, the family hopped on their bikes, rode to a park and played. Then they rode to a rec center and played some more. They did it again the next day, and the next.
“We’d plan our whole day around it,” Cindy says. “Dylan immediately loved it.”
When the Fraziers returned to their hometown of Ashland, they discovered a Columbia-based group, the Show-Me Pickleball Club, that played at an elementary school gym and local park. Dylan and Cindy started playing tournaments together. At the time, the youngest age group usually was 19-and-over, so Cindy would have to call the directors ahead of time and ask them to make an exception for her 14-year-old son.
Frazier said he loved to practice pickleball — something he couldn’t say for the other sports he played — and all those hours on the court helped him consistently deliver delicate dinks and powerful passing shots. Unlike a lot of elite players, he doesn’t have a tennis background. He thinks that’s been an advantage because he didn’t have to unlearn a longer swing. With just a flick of his wrist, he can deliver his signature “speed-up” shot in which he takes his opponent’s soft shot off the bounce and whips a topspin winner.
“If you saw a silhouette of someone speeding up, you would know it was me based on the motion of speeding up with my wrist,” Frazier says.
After graduating high school in 2020, Frazier played in his first pro tournament. It was held in the same Florida city — Punta Gorda — where he first played pickleball. To make it a full-circle moment, he even partnered with Cindy in mixed doubles.
At the time, there was minimal prize money, so Frazier treated pickleball as a part-time job while he studied full-time at Mizzou. As the pro leagues matured and Frazier established himself as a top-10 player, pickleball became his full-time job. He expects the game will grow even more popular as it catches on with people of all ages outside the United States.
Turns out, Frazier wasn’t crazy for devoting himself to the so-called silly sport enjoyed by senior citizens. He was just ahead of his time.
“He loved the game and saw the potential in it,” Cindy Frazier says. “Now, he’s surrounded by people his own age playing all over the place.” M
BENEATH A TIGER MOON
Mizzou after sunset hums with a quieter but no less vibrant energy. Under the glow of a rare supermoon, the campus transforms. A student approaches Ellis Library as their night is just beginning.
MIZZOU • WINTER 2025
FOG SOFTENS THE SIDEWALKS between MizzouRec and Hawthorn Hall and lends familiar paths an eerie air. From above, lights and shadows dance. Homecoming banners ripple at the Columns. Students cross Lowry Mall, some hurrying, others lingering. Meanwhile, the glow of a research lab illuminates the Sears Plant Growth Facility, where experiments continue long after twilight.
OFF CAMPUS, THE ENERGY SHIFTS BUT DOESN’T FADE.
Just north of campus, scrums navigate the glow of Sparky’s Ice Cream on 9th Street. Couples walk to dinner. At the Blue Note, a line forms outside, with people chatting as they wait for comic Craig Ferguson to take the stage. Across from the School of Journalism, Shakespeare’s employees roll out pizza dough in preparation for the nightly rush. The stadium lights blaze as the Tigers take the field, the boom-and-brass bang of Marching Mizzou echoing across town.
Even as the roar of the stadium fades or the fluorescent glow of research labs dim in the early hours, the campus never truly rests. The tempo changes, the focus shifts, but the (land-grant) plot stays alive, revealing its stories — and dissertations, theorems and podcasts — as the Tiger Moon crosses the sky.
How do siblings influence our lives?
Mizzou researchers explore the science behind these powerful lifelong connections.
familymatters
Brothers and sisters come into our lives long before friends, sweethearts and spouses, and they typically outlive parents. For eight in 10 Americans, siblings are their longest-lasting relationship in life. But few researchers have investigated how those bedrock bonds work, or break down, and what they mean for adjustment, health and well-being.
Mizzou has a trio of scholars publishing a wealth of studies that break ground on topics including the special roles of sisters, traits characterizing Latino families and the decades-long trajectories of sibling connections.
The researchers sort sibling relations along a continuum that might be best illustrated through relationships in various TV families, ranging from positive (warm and harmonious like The Brady Bunch) to negative (strongly conflicted, as in Succession or Arrested Development) to disengaged. Most fall between the extremes into the “love-hate” category’s alternating stints of closeness and conflict (The Simpsons, Black-ish). At 70 percent, this largest group typifies a “normal” childhood and adolescence.
Story by Dale Smith, BJ ’88 | Illustrations by Blake Dinsdale, BA ’99
Adolescent Angst
Curious about the causes and consequences of sibling conflict, Nicole Campione-Barr, professor of psychology, decided to investigate. When she asked hundreds of young people in grades six through 12 why they argued with their brothers and sisters, a pair of conflict zones emerged: equality and invasion.
“The equality issue is about sharing space and resources with someone you live with — things like sharing the video game system or who does which chores or who gets to sit in the front seat,” Campione-Barr says. “Then there’s the impingement of one’s personal domain — failing to ask before borrowing things or coming into a sibling’s room, hanging around when they have friends over. It’s trampling over their autonomy and sense of self.”
Even though conflict between adolescents is generally more frequent than intense, CampioneBarr says, quarrels in both zones had downsides. Equality conflicts slightly increased depressive symptoms during the one-year study, perhaps when a child felt parents dealt them lesser treat-
Typically, harsh feelings are temporary, with ensuing moments of brotherly and sisterly love. But could the emotional whipsaw damage sibling cohesion over time?
ment than siblings. More serious are the invasionof-personal-domain conflicts, which in the study diminished the quality of sibling relationships.
“Invasion issues led to decreases in trust and communication, as well as higher levels of anxiety,” she says “If you are constantly feeling this sort of threat, you are always alert and on edge.” Typically, harsh feelings are temporary, with ensuing moments of brotherly and sisterly love. But could the emotional whipsaw damage sibling cohesion over time? Campione-Barr and Sarah Killoren, associate professor human development and family science, co-wrote a research review article tallying the ups and downs.
“One of the biggest parenting concerns has always been, ‘My kids just won’t stop fighting. I don’t know how to fix this,’” Campione-Barr says. She and Killoren found some comforting observations in the scientific literature. First, kids safely can learn how to disagree and debate effectively with brothers and sisters because they have roughly the same amount of power (unlike parents and bosses), and they aren’t going anywhere (unlike peers and romantic partners). Second, the
Talent, skill and sibling power have run in the family for the Jackson 5, above, and Serena and Venus Williams, opposite page. Previous pages, clockwise from top left: Orville and Wilbur Wright, Travis and Jason Kelce, Solange and Beyonce Knowles.
amount of conflict matters far less than the presence of warmth and support. Third, as siblings grow into adulthood, the negativity tends to dissipate, and the warmth remains.
(For research-based parenting advice, see “Adolescent Siblings: A Parenting Guide” at right.)
Bigger Emotions
Sisters played an outsized role across studies, with the sister-sister bond excelling in multiple dimensions. In adolescence, sisters have the most emotionally intense relationships, Killoren says. “By middle adolescence, the conflict part diminishes significantly, and primarily the positive is left by late adolescence and young adulthood,” Campione-Barr adds.
That intensity can grow as sisters discuss personal matters. To find out
Adolescent Siblings: A Parenting Guide
Parents can minimize equality tussles by dividing responsibilities evenly and creating family rules and chore lists that prevent daily accusations of unfairness. If one child needs special treatment, such as additional parental help with homework, be clear with siblings about the reasons.
“When they understand why, it doesn’t harm relationships. But, if not, it can lead to feelings of ‘They love me less,’” CampioneBarr says.
When it comes to personal domains, families with adolescents need to respect boundaries, Campione-Barr adds. “Siblings need to knock before entering. Parents should have conversations first before sitting down together to look through phones.”
Although learning to navigate sibling conflict is a valuable developmental stage, how much is too much? Gilligan advises parents to help their children find a sweet spot where conflict can play out as they deal with challenging situations. “But be aware if it becomes too intense, such as yelling and screaming or physical violence. Ask kids about how much tension they are feeling around this.”
Another key to helping children build lifelong bonds, says Campione-Barr: Create situations where they can engage in positive experiences – the stuff of family storytelling. “Maybe they fall in love with the same sport or enjoy family trips where everyone gets to do something they like. Those warm feelings endure.”
how, Killoren asked pairs of sisters to talk about dating and then analyzed the conversations. Sister-sister bonds are “similar to friendships but nonvoluntary because of shared family ties,” she says. “You can have real ‘I hate your boyfriend’ chats with siblings that may end friendships.”
In these conversations, sisters shared dating stories with each other and often agreed on conclusions, but the older, more experienced ones took on the extra role of giving advice. Killoren observed that while younger sisters usually try to stand out by being different from their older siblings, here they wanted to avoid their sibling’s dating mistakes.
Although researchers generally find the sharing positive, the intimacy can come at a cost. It can go wrong when a brother reveals troubling information to a younger sister — body-image concerns or risky behavior such as smoking or reckless driving, Campione-Barr says. “They want to be there for their brothers, but they don’t know what to do with that kind of information. It’s more for parents to deal with,” she says. In the end, the brothers feel better having confided the problems, but the younger sisters feel worse.
Family Front and Center
Killoren’s research focuses on the important role sibling relationships play in the development and emotional well-being of Latino youth. Her studies explore how siblings influence each other’s behavior, values and coping mechanisms, particularly in navigating family dynamics and cultural pressures. Her many studies of Latino families have uncovered clear differences from the white, middle-class subjects of most sibling research. They had the most siblings in the love-hate group (70 percent) and none in the
uninvolved category. This may stem from how Latino families place a higher value on familism — seeking help and advice inside the family — than other demographics, Killoren says. “Eightyfive percent of Latino siblings had moderate to high intimacy, which is higher than other groups.” The positive relationships led not only to fewer depressive symptoms and risky behaviors but also to more caring for others, taking responsibility and concern for social justice.
When adolescent girls in these families begin dating, family remains front and center, with older sisters getting to know dating partners. Many older brothers react in two phases, first intimidating dating partners and later developing relationships with them. Killoren says the brothers’ protective behavior is an aspect of caballerismo, a Latino ideal of honor and chivalry.
Sibling researchers (from left) Megan Gilligan, Nicole CampioneBarr and Sarah Killoren collaborate on studies exploring family dynamics and relationships.
Most sibling researchers have investigated childhood and adolescence, but how do the relationships endure through the decades? Megan Gilligan, associate professor, is publishing some of the first findings from studies that piece together trajectories of sibling ties from teenage years well into middle age.
Coming out of adolescence, age 23 is a turning point, “a time when both conflict and warmth are kind of muted,” Gilligan says. Siblings are less likely to live together as they make transitions to college, careers and romantic relationships. “It’s not that siblings no longer matter, but their salience decreases.”
“When we ask older mothers, they typically specify a ‘favorite’ child. When we ask the children, they say, ‘Yes, she has a favorite,’ and offer a name, but they rarely match.”
— Megan Gilligan
Even so, the “I love my sister, but she drives me crazy” dynamic of adolescence remains part of the picture over time, she says. Old wounds from rivalries, feelings of favoritism and the like are associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms into old age.
The case of favoritism is surprising. “When we ask older mothers, they typically specify a ‘favorite’ child. When we ask the children, they say, ‘Yes, she has a favorite,’ and offer a name, but they rarely match,” Gilligan says. Perceptions of fathers’ favoritism are more strongly associated with sibling conflict, perhaps because fathers’ expressions of affection generally are a scarcer resource. “We carry these often-incorrect beliefs for decades,” she adds. “It’s not the kind of thing that most families talk about at the dinner table.”
(For research-based advice on maintaining long-term relations with siblings, see the sidebar, “Adult Siblings: A User’s Guide” on opposite page.)
Solidarity or Stress?
The death of a parent can either bring children closer to one another or drive a wedge, Gilligan
says. She has observed siblings with strong relationships coming together when parents need care at the end of life. More often, though, she sees brothers overestimating their contribution to such care, the bulk of which sisters deliver. The sisters grow closer to each other and resentful of the brothers as traditional gender roles play out.
“Women tend to be socialized to be more invested in family relationships,” Gilligan says, “to have closer ties with mothers and sisters, as well as more conflict. So they are used to navigating complex relationships.” Men generally are less practiced in dealing with mixed feelings and so may avoid such situations.
“We hope the death of a parent is a moment of clarity and solidarity, and it can be,” Gilligan says. “But families tend to hold on to early patterns of interaction. For those with long-term tensions now dealing with stresses of caregiving, the crisis amplifies it.”
As brothers and sisters turn 60 and beyond, Gilligan says, some conflict may remain over the same old issues, but many older adults report having warm relations with brothers and sisters. As older people leave their careers and deal with problems such as illness or the loss of a spouse, their siblings can be lifelines.
“At this stage of life, siblings can regain their salience,” Gilligan says. “People may be having less contact with their own children, and sibs can fill some of that gap. These ties still matter.” M
Adult Siblings: A Users Guide
By the time brothers and sisters are grown-ups, they’ve got a history that likely includes not only fond memories but also some regrettable behavior toward one another. “Those negative experiences can be hard to let go, and we carry them with us into adulthood,” Gilligan says. “People who acknowledge that history can be in each other’s lives throughout the life course.”
Gilligan counsels conversation in the following areas as well.
Favoritism: Siblings who bring up the “Mom or Dad always liked you best” conversation might uncover some surprising truths that can ease old tensions. It turns out those assumptions about being the favorite are often wrong.
Care of parents: Parents almost certainly will need help during illness and old age, but families often react to these highly charged situations as novel crises, Gilligan notes. She suggests siblings discuss together and with parents how they’d like to handle challenging times. “These can be hard conversations to start, but we should have them and try to normalize responses.”
Irreplaceable roles: Mothers typically take charge of maintaining family relationships by, for instance, planning holiday gatherings. They also keep the peace when emotions run high. When a mother dies, Gilligan counsels against the urge to make new traditions. Instead, the younger generation can help keep the family together by acknowledging what works for them. “Maybe they agree to collaborate on a big Thanksgiving dinner every year. That would be a way to maintain a family legacy.”
Reconnect: New research is clear about the benefits of sibling relationships in later life. They decrease feelings of loneliness. So, Gilligan says, pick up the phone, get together and tell the old family tales.
The Marx Brothers, from left: Groucho, Chico and Harpo.
Return of the All-American
After a year exploring Europe and Asia, gymnast Helen Hu rejoined Mizzou gymnastics for an unexpected final season with a fresh perspective. story by alex schiffer, bj ’17
HEN HELEN HU CAME BACK TO Columbia for a former Mizzou gymnastics teammate’s wedding, she believed her athletics career was behind her. By the time she left town, she was a Tiger once again. Hu had finished her redshirt junior year in 2023, and the All-American and all-SEC allaround performer was thinking as much about her future as she was her achievements. With career highs of 9.975 on the balance beam and 9.950 on bars, she had established herself as one of the program’s top scorers. During Hu’s career, Missouri had also risen as one of the conference’s premier gymnastics programs.
“When I graduated, I felt that I just had these two options of either taking that fifth year right away or being done,” Hu says. “Where I was at the moment, I thought I was done, and I was just going to be content with what I had achieved.”
Instead, former MU gymnast Adalayna HufendiekSchrimpf’s wedding in mid-June 2024 set the stage for Hu to resume her career. While in Columbia, Hu went to see Tiger gymnastics coach Shannon Welker. As they caught up, Hu told him she was thinking about returning to school.
Hu had spent the past year backpacking across Europe and Asia, and the trip gave her a change of heart about her career. She’d graduated with the intent to go into occupational therapy but now wanted to pursue physical therapy. While visiting Columbia, she stepped on the balance beam for old times’ sake to see if she could still do her routine. “Man, that looks good still,” Welker said to himself as he watched Hu.
“You know, you still have that year (of eligibility),” Welker told Hu. “You could come back.” Hu spent the next week lying awake at night pondering a return. Her recent travels had taken her to 15 countries with her sister on a voyage that started
in Japan and ended in Finland. She hiked, learned yoga and how to surf and worked at a hostel during her year abroad. When reflecting on her trip, Hu said surfing was the highlight because it took a while to figure out and required some of her gymnastics skills.
“For four straight weeks, I was just face-planting into the water, getting absolutely wrecked by these waves,” Hu says. “It was really humbling.”
Returning to gymnastics was not on her radar. She already had an apartment lined up in Chicago, her hometown. While abroad, she hadn’t considered returning to the sport. She thought she’d moved on. “I pretty much shocked myself even considering this as a real option,” Hu said. “But I just couldn't let it go. Of course I missed competing, and I missed doing gymnastics, but I kind of fully closed that book in my brain.”
Within a week of her visit to campus, Hu realized she didn’t want to leave her final year of eligibility unused. She told Welker she was back, and the two began discussing the logistics of her return. Despite her prowess on the bars, Welker says Hu will compete primarily on the beam for the 2025 season, which Hu believes is the right call given her hiatus and an injury history with her knee and back.
Hu couldn’t fully join the team and compete until the Fall semester ended in December. Despite being a fifth-year senior with a degree from MU’s School of Health Professions, she has enrolled as an undergraduate to take additional prerequisites for physical therapy school. Hu was able to practice with the team twice a month before December since she’s technically a former student-athlete, in line with NCAA regulations.
Last semester, Hu trained out of her club gym in Chicago with her club coach and remotely with Welker and the team.
While Hufendiek-Schrimpf didn’t plan her wedding with Hu’s comeback in mind, Hu said the two events are forever intertwined.
“If her wedding was another year or even a few months later,” Hu says, “this probably wouldn't have happened.” M
MARK MITCHELL
JUNIOR | G/F KANSAS CITY, KAN.
TONY PERKINS GRAD | G INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
JACOB CREWS GRAD | G/F HILLIARD, FLA.
ANNOR BOATENG
FRESHMAN | G LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
Fresh START A
Following a historically unsuccessful second season at Mizzou, Coach Dennis Gates has reloaded with 11 new transfers and incoming freshmen looking to rewrite expectations.
THERE’S NO OTHER WAY TO PUT IT: Last year was a disappointment for Missouri Tiger men’s basketball. Following a 25-win campaign and return to the NCAA Tournament in Coach Dennis Gate’s first season in Columbia, the Tigers went 8-24 in 2023–24 and 0–18 in Southeastern Conference (SEC) play — in an injurymarred season that everyone is eager to move on from. There’s a strong feeling of optimism at Mizzou Arena as the calendar turns to 2025 and conference play begins again.
This is the era of the transfer portal, which allows student athletes to jump from school to school without having to sit out a year. As a result, coaches are essentially building their teams from the ground up every year. This offseason, Coach Gates and his staff reached into the portal and pulled out one of the country’s top-rated classes of transfers, including former McDonald’s All-American Mark Mitchell from Duke and the top returning scorer in all of college basketball, Marques Warrick from Northern Kentucky.
Coach Gates was not just content to reload with juniors and graduate students to try and win quickly. His staff also managed to recruit a highly touted class of incoming freshman. The class consists of five four-star prospects that he hopes can contribute this year and matriculate through the program to provide a foundation for the future.
Along with seven returning Tigers, including last year’s second-leading scorer, senior guard Tamar Bates, and former Iowa State standout Caleb Grill, who missed most of last season with a wrist injury, 11 new faces will compete on Norm Stewart Court this year. According to Gates, this new crew is not interested in turning the page on last year’s SEC failures. “They are eager and determined to build their own story,” says Gates.
PEYTON MARSHALL FRESHMAN | C ATLANTA, GA. MARQUES
story by tony rehagen, ba, bj ’01
In the Huddle
As the Tigers approach the beginning of league play, Dennis Gates emphasizes depth and flexibility.
WITH COACH GATES
On the transfer portal:
On the returning Tigers shaking off last season’s disappointment:
“I think they’ve been taught to shake things off from an early age. We have resilient guys, guys that have been through things. They weren’t born with a silver spoon. Adversity has faced them in their life at some point. And they’ve been taught by their parents, so I appreciate all our parents out there, because those are also my extension of the coaching staff. They do a great job of talking to their young men, talking to the players when they need to, encouraging them when they need to.”
“We have to continue to change with the times. But retention is essential. You have to return a core of guys that can carry through the identity you want on that court. Gradually we’ve increased our high school class, which decreased our portal class. Hopefully those high school classes continue to matriculate forward within our program and not matriculate out just because it’s more popular to be in the transfer portal than it is to be a four-year student athlete. For me, it’s trying to make sure the right guys stay in the program and that they are able to carry the tradition forward.”
On getting a team with 11 newcomers to gel: “You strip everything down to bare bones. Whenever you have a new program or a new team, a new season, you have new personalities in the locker room. You want to make sure that these guys are connected in a certain way, not just physically when they go out and perform, but emotionally and mentally, and that they have the endurance to stick together and sharpen each other’s blade every day. It takes a team to get better over a period of time, but also through the challenges that they face when they go against each other in practice. And our guys have been competing at a high level.”
On earning the fans’ trust back after last year:
“The fans have done a tremendous job. It is our tradition, that is what this university, what the institution, what our sports grant programs are about. Our fans are third-, second-, firstgeneration fans as it relates to their connection, not only to this institution, but Missouri, right? They wear that with pride. They put on our school colors, sing our fight song with their heads high each and every day. What I would say is I’m impressed with having 10,000, having 11,000, having these fans in this building on our last game. It gives us the momentum, but also the belief and I truly believe they’re the fuel that gives us opportunity. This can be an unbelievable home court advantage.”
Hopefully those high-school classes continue to matriculate forward within our program and not matriculate out just because it’s more popular to be in the transfer portal than it is to be a four-year student athlete.
Playmakers TRANSFER
Every season is a new adventure now that the portal allows would-be stars to find a setting that suits them.
The Tigers targeted Mark Mitchell, a two-year starter for perennial powerhouse Duke University, almost the second he entered the portal. But to land the touted transfer, Coach Gates had some help. “We had the Bates family — Dr. (Tyrone) Bates and Mama (Lajasima) Bates — help us in the recruiting process,” Gates says. “Mark hasn’t looked back since.”
The Bates family includes returning Tiger senior Tamar Bates and his parents. Bates and Mitchell have known each other since fifth grade, and the pair played Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball in Kansas. Both were heavily courted by Mizzou before Gates arrived; both chose other paths (Bates attended Indiana). Now both have ended up in CoMo, where they’ll try to reignite this program. “I’m a little older, more mature,” Mitchell says. “But I’m still the same kid that loves basketball. And I’m still chasing my dream. I think the way Coach Gates runs his system fits me. I think there’s something he can unlock in me.”
Mitchell is referring to Gates’s success with versatile big forwards and the coach’s use of analytics to put players in position to succeed and grow — even an accomplished player like Mitchell, who started 67 of 68 games for the Blue Devils and averaged 11.6 points and 6 rebounds per game last year.
Jacob Crews says that within hours of entering the transfer portal last March, he had fielded calls from no fewer than 20 schools, including blue bloods such as UCLA, Kansas and Gonzaga, coaches all over the country knew about him.
Last year, Crews was the nation’s No. 22 3-point shooter. He hit 41.4 percent from beyond the arc for University of Tennessee-Martin. He also averaged 19.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. But just eight days after he entered the portal, Crews committed to Mizzou. And he did so in large part because Coach Gates acknowledged something about the young man that other coaches apparently didn’t — his growing family.
Crews is married, and at the time, he and his wife, Karmen, were expecting a child. “During that recruiting process with him and his wife, I made it more about his wife,” Gates says. “I guess I’m the only coach that talked about the newborn baby coming soon.”
That’s why Crews’ official visit to Mizzou included a tour of University Hospital, where baby JJ was born in August. “When you have a wife that’s nesting, you look at things from a different perspective. I’ve been there,” says Gates.
In four seasons at Northern Kentucky, Marques Warrick accumulated 2,246 points, a career total that makes him the nation’s leading scorer among active NCAA Division I players. Last year alone, Warrick averaged nearly 20 points a game. Last April, Warrick entered the portal and chose Mizzou for his final year of college eligibility. So, what was Coach Gates’s assessment of the country’s most prolific and consistent scorer?
“For me, he doesn’t shoot enough,” Gates says, deadpan.
What Gates means is that in four years the Horizon League, most of the competition singled Warrick out on defense to limit his opportunities, and he was still able to score consistently. Gates saw this firsthand as coach of conference rival at Cleveland State during Warrick’s freshman and sophomore years. “I knew what I saw when I first saw him play, and that was tremendous player on both sides of the ball,” Gates says. “He’s also a cerebral dude, who plays the right way. And a guy like that does not shoot enough for me. I just want to see him be aggressive at all times, because sometimes a play breaks down, and sometimes the opportunities aren’t there, but if you have guys able to make the extra, unscripted plays, you have guys who can take over games late and make big plays for us.”
MARK MITCHELL Junior | Guard/Forward | Duke
JACOB CREWS Graduate Student | Guard/Forward | UT Martin
MARQUES WARRICK
Rookies READY TO RUN THE COURT
While everyone has been jockeying for playing time from day one, these freshmen understand they are the foundation for the future of Tiger basketball.
This year, Coach Gates is emphasizing defense. To drive that point home, he and his staff tapped into their Florida roots to bring in Miami native Allen, an elite defender with a 6 foot 11 inch wingspan who ranked as high as #39 among national recruits. “Coach C.Y. [Charlton Young] has been recruiting me since the moment he got here,” says Allen. “I’m big on relationships, big on loyalty. So, it feels right coming here. Coach Gates brings a family atmosphere — we’re all brothers.”
Ranked as highly as No. 88 in the country, Barrett brings a winning pedigree to this year’s squad. Last year, he led Edmon North High School to its second consecutive Oklahoma State class 6A championship while averaging 15.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. Although Barrett is confident in his new team’s ability to win games and aware of the pressure that comes with being part of the much-hyped incoming class of reinforcements, he’s grounded and realistic.
“Of course we want to make the fans proud. We want to win as well,” Barrett says. “But we’re not really worried about any expectations. We know who we are, and we know what we’re capable of.”
The final signing of Gates’ prize freshman class, Boateng is also the most highly rated, registering as high as #17 in the nation, the Tigers’ highest-ranked recruit since Michael Porter Jr. in 2017. The program says Boateng is coming directly from Arkansas, where he averaged 15.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game for Little Rock Central. But he has also represented his parents’ homeland of Ghana at the Nike Hoop Summit.
“This program isn’t a system, it’s built like a family,” says Boateng. “Everyone demands something of everyone else. We work together perfectly in unison.”
At No. 65 according to Rivals recruiting website, Burns isn’t the top-rated freshman Tiger — but he’s the tallest. He uses his length to rebound (4.3 boards per game last year for Houston Hoops in AAU), score (6.9 points per game), and blocked shots (1.4 per game). Burns also poses a threat from the perimeter, including beyond the 3-point arc. “Trent fits our system and our five-out offense that we want to run perfectly,” Gates says.
Mizzou’s first signing isn’t quite as tall as Burns, but at 300 pounds, Marshall dominated underneath the hoop in high school. He’s far from all brute force, though. —Marshall is also a highly touted free-throw shooter and, according to Gates, one of the country’s best incoming passers. With his size and athleticism, Marshall has his eyes set on playing in the NBA and believes Missouri will be a crucial step toward that goal. “The style of play we have translates to the next level and puts you ahead of the other bigs in my style of play and position,” he says. “I trust the coaches and feel like they have my best interests at heart.”
MARCUS ALLEN Small Forward Miami, Fla.
T.O. BARRETT Guard Oklahoma City
ANNOR BOATENG Guard Little Rock, Ark.
TRENT BURNS Center Cypress, Texas
PEYTON MARSHALL Center Marietta, Ga.
More choice. More savings.SM
“I wanted to make an investment that lasts forever. An endowment does just that.”
— Allan Bridgford, BS BA ’82
In
As a member of Bridgford Foods Corporation’s leadership team, Allan Bridgford credits his Mizzou education with much of his success. In gratitude, he wanted to ensure future students also had opportunities to thrive.
The result was the Allan L. Bridgford, Jr. Scholarship Endowment in the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business — funded through a combination of philanthropic tactics, including a cash gift to allow for immediate scholarship distribution.
To ensure his support continues far beyond his lifetime, Allan also included the endowment in his estate plan; “and quite simply,” he says, “it is the greatest investment that I have ever made.”
Above: Allan Bridgford, front row center, with the 2024 Mizzou Club Bass Fishing team, sponsored by Bridgford Foods Corporation.
MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS
Tigers Transforming Tomorrow
Established in 2016, the Mizzou Hall of Fame celebrates alumni whose remarkable achievements exemplify excellence in their fields. Each inductee leaves a legacy, whether through groundbreaking innovation, dedicated public service or transformative philanthropy.
This year’s honorees, recognized during Mizzou Homecoming, include a visionary entrepreneur championing sustainable solutions, a trailblazing justice shaping Missouri’s legal landscape and a philanthropic leader whose impact spans investment management and neurodevelopment research. Congratulations to the 2024 inductees.
Hayes Barnard, BS BA ’95 Founder, Chairman and CEO, GoodLeap and GivePower Founder, GoodFinch
Hayes Barnard is the founder, chairman and CEO of GoodLeap, a technology company offering financing and software products for sustainable solutions. GoodLeap has been recognized as a top company by Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company and dozens of others for its innovative platform, which is used by tens of thousands of contractors and has helped more than one million people adopt sustainable solutions.
Barnard also is the founder, chairman and CEO of GivePower, a nonprofit that facilitates solar-powered projects to provide clean water and energy systems to underserved communities. Since GivePower launched in 2013, the organization has affected more than 1,600,000 people across 28 countries by building, installing and maintaining proprietary clean energy solutions.
Prior to GoodLeap, Barnard founded, scaled and sold multiple businesses in the sustainability and finance sectors, including Paramount Solar, which was acquired by SolarCity in 2013. Barnard served as SolarCity’s chief revenue officer from 2013 to 2017 and spearheaded the company’s growth into the U.S. solar industry leader.
Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri
Mary Rhodes Russell is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri. She has served on the state’s Supreme Court since 2004 and served a previous term as chief justice from 2013 to 2015. Prior to her Supreme Court appointment, she served on the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District from 1994 to 2004 and served as chief judge from 1999 to 2000.
Justice Russell has received numerous awards and accolades from her alma mater, including a Citation of Merit in 1997, a Faculty and Alumni Award in 2002 and the role of commencement speaker for the School of Law in 1997 and 2005, in addition to serving on the Law School Foundation Board. She has been both a role model and mentor for countless Tigers and has been a member of the Mizzou Alumni Association since receiving her juris doctor in 1983.
A seventh-generation Missourian, Justice Russell is one of five children raised on a dairy farm in Ralls County, just south of Hannibal, Mo. Her dedication to public service, the longevity of her career and her accomplishments as a respected lawyer and judge reflect her unwavering commitment to the legal profession.
William S. Thompson Jr., BS CiE ’68, LHD ’05
Chairman Emeritus, PIMCO Principal, WST Partners Founder, Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment at Mizzou
Bill Thompson is the retired chief executive officer and chairman emeritus of PIMCO, one of the world’s largest investment management firms. Before joining PIMCO, he worked for 10 years at Salomon Brothers, where he became a partner in 6 years, managed the West Coast region from San Francisco and was named chairman of Salomon Brothers Asia in Tokyo.
As a student, Thompson served as president of Alpha Tau Omega’s Gamma Rho chapter, chair of the Homecoming Steering Committee, and president of the Missouri Student Association. He would go on to be named the youngestever member of the UM System Board of Curators at 27 years old.
He and his wife, Nancy, have made personal philanthropy an important part of their family’s commitment to helping others. In 2005, the Thompson Family Foundation made a transformational gift to Mizzou to establish the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment. This comprehensive regional center incorporates teaching, research and clinical services to treat children and assist families faced with autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions.
Mary Rhodes Russell, JD ’83 Chief
A Year of Tiger Wins
As the calendar year closes, it’s an exciting time to be part of the Mizzou family. This fall, we celebrated a climb in the U.S. News & World Report rankings and record-setting enrollment — both testaments to the hard work of our students, faculty and staff. The influx of students brings energy to campus. It makes Columbia feel more alive than ever.
An early snow added to the charm, blanketing the Columns and Francis Quadrangle in a postcard-worthy scene. It’s a fitting complement to this issue’s photo essay, “Beneath a Tiger Moon,” which captures the spirit of Mizzou after dark — a mix of beauty, camaraderie and determination.
Mizzou continues to innovate in ways that affect lives far beyond campus. In this issue, you’ll read about plans for NextGen MURR, a second research reactor that will expand the production of life-saving medical isotopes. This project not only cements Mizzou’s leadership in nuclear medicine but also brings hope to patients around the world.
This fall also marked the exciting launch of the MizzouMade Business Network, an initiative designed to connect, empower and celebrate alumni in their professional journeys. We will continue our hunt for MizzouMade business owners and founders in the new year.
Mizzou football served as the ultimate connection this fall, uniting alumni and fans with campus and each other. Whether roaring in Memorial Stadium or cheering from afar, your unwavering pride energizes the team and fortifies the Mizzou community.
As we look ahead, let’s celebrate these wins together. From academic achievements to friendships forged on a bustling campus, Mizzou’s momentum shows no sign of slowing down. Thank you for your continued support as alumni. It makes all the difference.
M-I-Z!
TODD MCCUBBIN, M ED ’95
Executive
Director, Mizzou Alumni Association
Email: mccubbint@missouri.edu
X (formerly Twitter): @MizzouTodd
Class Notes
1970
HWilliam “Bill” R. Bay, BA ’74, of St. Louis is president of the American Bar Association.
HHStan Melton, BJ ’74, of Springfield, Mo., was inducted into the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame.
HRobert Frederickson, BA ’75, MD ’81, of Sedalia, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
HHRay Meyer, BJ ’76, of Springfield, Mo., was inducted into the Drury University Athletics Hall of Fame for lifetime service to radio broadcast of men’s and women’s basketball.
Chip Moxley, BS BA ’77, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
HHDave Johnson, BS BA ’78, of Kansas City, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
1980
Charlie Shields, BS BA ’81, MBA ’83, of Kansas City, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
HHJohn Anderson, BJ ’87, of Collinsville, Conn., was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
HHJames Maher, BS Ag ’88, JD ’91, of Caseyville, Ill., received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from Vistage Worldwide, Inc.
HHKim Utlaut, BS Ag ’89, of Leawood, Kan., is chief brand officer for Build-A-Bear Workshop.
1990
DeVon Hankins, BS Ag ’90, MS ’97, of Louisville, Ky., is CEO of Ascension Strategies LLC.
HHRobin Wenneker, BS BA ’91, of Columbia, Mo., was selected by Women We Admire for the Top Women Leaders of 2024 list.
Emily Lampkin, BA ’95, of Washington, D.C. is founder of The Women Leaders Series.
Joseph Pappalardo, BA ’95, of Corpus Christi, Texas, wrote Four Against the West (St. Martin’s Press, 2024).
Adrienne Bain, BS HES ’96, BJ ’99, MA ’03, of Charlotte, N.C., was selected by Women We Admire for the Top Women Leaders of 2024 list.
Joe Sieve, BGS ’96, of Atlanta is chief development and operations officer for Papa Johns.
Jill Barton, BA, BJ ’97, of Miami wrote The Supreme Guide to Writing (Oxford University Press, 2024).
Reachel Jennings Beichley, JD ’97, of Kansas City, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
HHBrendan Cossette, BA ’98, JD ’01, of Columbia, Mo., is senior director, state policy at Centene Corporation.
Meg Fisher, BS BA ’98, of St. Louis is market president for Midland States Bank.
HHGretchen Ivy, BS CiE ’98, of Kansas City, Mo., was named to the Women Who Mean Business Class of 2024 by the Kansas City Business Journal.
A Dozen of Distinction
The annual Faculty and Alumni Awards, established in 1968 by the Mizzou Alumni Association, honor exceptional achievements. Faculty are recognized for accomplishments in their field, excellence in academics and strong student relationships, while alumni are honored for professional
Distinguished Alumni Award
1. David R. Russell, PhD ’08, president, Columbia College
Distinguished Faculty Award
2. Deidre D. WipkeTevis, BSN ’85, associate dean for research, PhD program and postdoctoral affairs director, Sinclair School of Nursing
2024 Faculty and Alumni Awards
success and devoted service to their community and alma mater. These awards celebrate the remarkable contributions of accomplished recipients who exemplify Mizzou’s values and highlight the university’s commitment to excellence in education and leadership.
3. Charles R. Brazeale, BS Ag ’57, president and CEO, retired, TPNB Bank
4. Nicole Campione-Barr, BA ’99, professor of psychological sciences, College of Arts and Science
5. Pat Forde, BJ ’87, senior writer, Sports Illustrated
6. Sarah Geisert, BS Ag ’81, senior director of global food safety and regulatory affairs, retired, General Mills
7. Jung E. Ha-Brookshire, professor and department chair of Textile and Apparel Management, College of Arts and Science
8. Ralph A. Hill, BS BA ’81, MBA ’84, chair and chief executive officer, Trailblazer Energy Resources
9. Brad Prager, Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair of Humanities and professor, College of Arts and Science
10. Randa Rawlins, JD ’82, president and CEO, retired, Shelter Insurance Companies
11. Aaron Thompson, professor and director of the School of Social Work, College of Health Sciences
12. Amy Vogelsmeier, MS ’97, PhD ’08, associate professor, Sinclair School of Nursing
With The Barn, Wright Thompson delivers what The Washington Post praised as “serious history and skillful journalism, but with the nuance and wallop of a finely wrought novel.”
A Barn, a Boy and a Brutal Truth
Wright Thompson confronts the hidden history behind Emmett Till’s death.
On Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett Till was brutally beaten in a barn near Money, Mississippi, before being murdered and discarded in the Tallahatchie River. This horrific crime and its far-reaching aftermath are the focus of The Barn, Wright Thompson’s bestselling new book that uncovers hidden history and explores the culture of erasure that has shaped the South since its inception.
A Mississippi native, Thompson, BJ ’01, grew up not far from the titular barn but, as he reveals in the opening chapter, didn’t learn about Till’s murder until he left Mississippi to attend Mizzou. It wasn’t until the pandemic that he learned the exact location of “the long, narrow cypress barn just off from the white gabled house” where Till’s final moments unfolded.
Thompson’s first book, Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last, became a surprise bestseller in 2020. With The Barn, he builds on that success, delivering what The Washington Post praised as “serious history and skillful journalism, but with the nu-
ance and wallop of a finely wrought novel.”
A senior writer for ESPN.com, Thompson provides a deeply researched account of Till’s life and death, layered with a rich exploration of the society surrounding him. The courtroom scenes during the trial are fraught with tension, even though, as Thompson observes, “It’s well established that this trial was corrupted from the beginning by familial ties stretching from the Hills down to the courthouse in Sumpter.”
Thompson also delves into the Delta’s legacy. He examines how Charley Patton, Willie Brown, Son House and others imprinted their art on the region through early blues music. His exploration of plantation inheritances and ownership reveals hard truths about generational wealth, such as one nearby plantation descendant who became a major investor in Venmo and Buzzfeed. By weaving together these threads, Thompson creates a riveting narrative that challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about history, privilege and the forces that continue to shape the South. — Randall Roberts, BA ’88
Eric Morrison, BA ’98, of Columbia, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
2000
HHRonald Kelley, PhD ’00, of Columbia, Mo., retired after 35 years at the University of Missouri.
Tracy Howren, BS BA ’01, of St. Louis was named to St. Louis Business Journal’s Most Influential Women 2024.
Andy Miedler, BS Acc, M Acc ’01, of St. Louis was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
Matt Gamewell, BA ’04, of Newport Beach, Calif., is vice president, national sales at Learfield.
Brian Johanning, BS ’04, of Riverside, Mo., was named to the Kansas City Business Journal’s 2024 NextGen Leaders.
HHBrent Buerck, MPA ’05, of Perryville, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
Erica Byfield, BJ ’05, of New York is an adjunct assistant professor at NYU Stern School of Business.
Kelly Kener Quinn, BS ’05, of St. Louis is vice president of development for the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Missouri Chapter.
Adam Taylor, BS BA ’06, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
Ben Askren, BA ’07, of Delafield, Wis., was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
Discover the latest from our alumni and faculty, with new books that span genres and showcase their expertise. Are you an alum with a forthcoming or recently published book? To be considered for coverage, please send a digital copy to randallroberts@missouri.edu or mail the book to Randall Roberts, MIZZOU magazine, 302 Reynolds Alumni Center, Columbia, Missouri, 65211.
1 Marvel Super Graphic, by Tim Leong BJ ’03. Leong presents a visual guide to the Marvel Comics Universe, using data points, scatter plots, charts and timelines. (Chronicle Books 2024).
2 Geo Kids, by Emily Schmidt Massey BJ ’96. Massey and her family provide a fact-filled travel companion for families exploring the United States (Sutton Hart Press 2023).
3 Leaping Forward: Finding Your Purpose and Journey as an Entrepreneur, by Patrick J. Phelan BSBA ’94. The Leap Companies founder offers advice
on pursuing dreams and building a business (Advantage Media Group 2023).
4 The Deer Hunter: BFI Film Classics, by Brad Prager, professor of German and film studies. Prager offers a study of the Oscar-winning 1978 war drama and its critical reception (British Film Institute 2023).
5 Safe and Sound, by Laura McHugh BA ’07. Five years after their cousin vanishes from home in the Ozarks, two sisters search for answers despite risking their own safety (Penguin Random House 2024).
6 Cardinal Dreams: The Legacy of Charlie Peete and a Life Cut Short, by Danny Spewak BJ ’13. Spewak tells story of Charlie Peete, a top St. Louis Cardinals prospect who tragically died in a 1956 plane crash (Rowman & Littlefield 2024).
7 21 Ways to Go PlantBased in 30 Days or Less, by Kaaren Douglas MD MSPH ’86. Douglas offers a guide for transitioning from the standard American diet to whole food, plant-based eating (Medicus Publishing 2024).
8 The Flower Sisters, by Michelle Collins Anderson BJ ’87. Inspired by the Missouri Bond Dance Hall explosion in 1928, this story spans decades through multiple points of view (Kensington 2024).
9 Billy from Affton, by William S. Thompson, BS CIE ’68, LHD ’05. Retired CEO Thompson of PIMCO, one of the world’s largest investment management firms, tells his life story, one that includes his founding of the Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment at Mizzou.
10 Miss ‘Nilla’s Library, by Joe Dillsaver MA ’69 PhD ’74. A retired narrator shares stories from the town of Hogshoots, centered around Prunilla “Miss Nilla” Jacobs and the local library (The Paper House 2024).
11 FIERCE: My Fight for Nothing Less, by Vicki L. Friedman MA ’90 and Marian Washington. This memoir comes from Marian Washington, KU’s first female Black head coach in 1973 (Ascend Books 2024).
The Mizzou Alumni Association is grateful for the support of our partners, whose contributions help sustain and enhance our programming and traditions. Please join us in thanking the following 2024 MAA sponsors:
Interested in becoming an MAA sponsor? Visit mizzou.com/sponsorship for ways to boost your business and brand, while Making Mizzou Stronger at the same time.
REMEMBERING
First Woman of Mizzou Wildlife
Katheryn Paullus, BS ’47, Mizzou’s pioneering female graduate in conservation, transformed the field with bobwhite quail research that inspired generations
The “bob-white” call of the Northern bobwhite quail was a familiar sound to trailblazer Katheryn Louise Paullus, who dedicated her early career to studying the bird in Missouri’s fields. Paullus, who died in April at 100, was Mizzou’s first female graduate in what was then called the School of Fisheries and Wildlife, where she completed her degree in 1947 and became one of the university’s earliest scientists to focus on bobwhite quail.
Her research offered early insights that would aid future conservationists and establish avian studies as an important field within wildlife science, a specialty still emerging at the time.
In a recent article for Conservation Federation of Missouri Magazine, Joe G. Dillard and Mary E. Paullus Bangert (Katheryn’s niece) recalled the obstacles she faced. Professors warned her of the limited job openings for women in conservation and noted that wildlife work was “not an easy field for a woman to enter.” The writers added, “When asked about being the only woman in wildlife conservation at Mizzou, she simply said, ‘I guess nobody thought of it back then.’” Paullus’ 1947 study on quail wing length, molt and productivity,
published in Wildlife Review, would still be cited more than 20 years later.
Katheryn Louise Paullus, BS ’47, Mizzou’s first female wildlife conservation graduate, is pictured with classmates.
Growing up on a family farm in Southeast Missouri, Paullus was surrounded by her family’s conservation practices, which involved working closely with MU Extension to protect soil, water and timber resources. This background shaped her conservation philosophy and rooted her interests in practical, hands-on experience that would become a guiding influence in her career and inspire future female conservationists.
Throughout her life, Paullus held teaching positions at institutions including Rhodes College, the University of Tennessee at Martin and the University of Colorado. Her roles often combined fieldwork with mentorship. As a member of Colorado’s Foothills Audubon Club, Paullus actively documented local bird species well into her 90s, tracking black-capped chickadees, common goldeneyes and dozens of other native birds in her area. Her legacy as a conservationist and educator endures across decades of change in wildlife science and environmental awareness.
MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS
Abby Eden, BJ ’07, of Kansas City, Mo., was named Best Local TV News Anchor by Kansas City magazine.
Justin Alferman, BA ’08, of Hermann, Mo., was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2024 class of 40 Under 40.
Ryan Corrigan, BS ME ’08, of St. Louis was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2024 class of 40 Under 40.
Tyne Morgan, BS ’08, of Orrick, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
Christie Yaeger Brinkman, BA, BS BA ’08, of St. Charles, Mo., was named to St. Louis Business Journal’s Most Influential Women 2024.
Chase Daniel, BS BA ’09, of San Diego, Calif., was
inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
Andrew DuCharme, BS ’09, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
Bridget Kozlowski, BJ ’09, MPA ’17, of Chicago is director of communications for ALDI USA.
Diamond Scott, BJ ’09, JD ’13, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
2010
HHMollie Buckler, BA ’10, M Ed ’12, of Sikeston, Mo., was recognized in the 2024 edition of Ingram’s Magazine’s 50 Missourians You Should Know.
Cameron Wies, BS BA ’10, of Defiance, Mo., was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2024
class of 40 Under 40.
Laurence Bowers, BA ’12, M Ed ’13, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
Andrew Lovewell, BA ’12, MS, MHA ’15, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
HAlexandra James, MD ’13, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
Cody LaGrow, BJ ’13, of St. Louis is senior manager, corporate communications and media relations for Hilton.
Zachary Younker, BS ’13, of Milwaukee is premium sales executive for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Kristen Sanocki, JD ’14,
of St. Louis was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2024 class of 40 Under 40.
D’Andre Thompson, BGS ’14, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
Kai Bressler, BJ ’15, of Kansas City, Mo., is vice president, strategy director at Publicis Health.
Kyle Juvers, MPA ’15, of St. Louis was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2024 class of 40 Under 40.
Alex Lindley, BA ’15, of St. Louis was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2024 class of 40 Under 40.
Meredith Mann, BJ ’15, MA ’16, of Chicago is senior associate director, donor relations for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Justin Aldred, BA ’16, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
Reggie Seay, BS BA ’16, of Miami is senior manager, sales planning at Frida.
Casey Adams Jones, MA ’17, of Philadelphia is chief of staff, global corporate affairs for Kenvue.
Sara Humm, MPA ’18, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
Tristan Kuhn, BS ’18, of Kansas City, Mo., is performance marketing manager for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kate Pulio-Deighton, BJ ’18, of Chicago was named to Top Women Leaders of Atlanta for 2024 by Women We Admire.
Mizzou is the home of Homecoming, but that’s always meant more than simply being the first in the nation. It’s a key part of our identity as Tigers; other schools can emulate us, but we’re still the black-and-gold standard they’ve aspired to for over a century.
If you, too, understand the importance of this hallmark tradition, then support it in perpetuity with a gift to the Homecoming Endowment Campaign.
Make your gift online at Mizzou.us/HoCoEndowment or scan the QR code to learn more.
MIZZOU.US/HOCOENDOWMENT
MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS
The Arbitration Ace
When MLB executives see Evan Green (BJ ’14), they are often on opposite sides of the table arguing over a player’s salary.
The Mizzou journalism grad turned sports agent has carved out a niche while working at Creative Arts Agency. He is the giant talent agency’s head of contracts and go-to for baseball arbitration cases. In 2024, CAA represented a record-breaking 12 players at the MLB All-Star Game, including Shohei Ohtani, Trea Turner and Noah Syndergaard.
Green has argued on behalf of more than 100 baseball players, including stars such as Braves ace Max Fried and Astros pitcher Josh Hader. After graduating from Mizzou, Green went to law school at the University of Miami before getting hired by CAA. He started out as an assistant for Brodie Van Wagenen, who was the head of CAA’s baseball division.
A year and a half into the job, Van Wagenen was hired to be the New York Mets general manager. It was October 2018, and baseball’s offseason was about to start. The timing created an opportunity for Green.
“Alright, here's your shot to run it. We don’t have time to hire someone,” Green remembers his bosses telling him.
Green has been in the role ever since. In addition to his journalism degree, he considers his time working as a tutor in Mizzou’s athletic department a key education component for his job. It helped him understand the psyche of athletes, which can’t be taught in a classroom.
“I think it's being able to talk to people [and] knowing your facts,” Green says. “That’s a combo of both J-School and law school. I think being well-spoken and well-written really opens a lot of doors in life — on top of the relationship piece being crucial.”
Green’s first big arbitration case hit close to home. The
St. Louis native was heavily involved in then-Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty’s negotiation in February 2021. The Cardinals submitted a salary of $3 million. Green and his team pushed back.
“The whole town knew what was going on. All my friends and family knew, being from St. Louis,” Green said. “So I thought, ‘I’m either going to have a highly publicized win or loss.’”
Ultimately, Green won the case on behalf of Flaherty, getting him $3.9 million for the year. The outcome typifies Green’s approach, rooted in clear communication and sharp analysis.
— Alex Schiffer, BJ ’17
Left to right: Evan Green, Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth and Matt Ricatto, co-head of CAA Baseball.
MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS
Strengthen Mizzou’s Future
marketing associate for the Chicago Bulls.
Mark your calendars: Mizzou Giving Day 2025 kicks off at noon on March 12 and runs through noon on March 13. This 24-hour event unites the Tiger community — alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends — to support the university’s diverse programs and initiatives. In 2024, the event garnered 2,175 individual gifts, totaling $12,710,667. In 2025, contributions can be directed toward scholarships, research, athletics, or specific colleges and departments. Matching gift opportunities and challenges will be available to amplify the impact of donations. Your participation plays a crucial role in sustaining Mizzou’s mission.
HZachary Girard, BGS ’19, of Columbia, Mo., was named to COMO Business Times Magazine 20 Under 40 Class of 2024.
2020
Hailey Markt, BA ’20, of Washington, D.C. is legal honors attorney for the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Kate Boles, BJ ’23, of Des Moines, Iowa, was nominated for an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy.
Theodore Chen, BJ ’23, of Chicago is integrated
Delaney Ehrhardt, BJ ’23, of Columbia, Mo., co-wrote Prompting Originality: The A.I. Handbook for Humans (Ideapress Publishing, 2024).
Ashley Faber, BJ ’23, of Memphis, Tenn., is a copywriter and community manager at Remember Media.
Veronica Townsend, MA ’23, of Bristol, Conn., is assistant editor, audience engagement for ESPN.
Weddings
HHLillie Heigl, BA, BJ ’18, and Dustin Dorsino of Washington, D.C., Oct. 6, 2024.
HHGretchen Metzger, BS BA ’19, and Dylan Aul of Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 26, 2024.
Stephanie LaChance,
BJ ’20, and Collin Bryan, BS BA ’21, of St. Louis Aug. 31, 2024.
Faculty Deaths
Richard Douty, of Columbia, Mo., Oct. 14, 2024, at 94. He was a professor of civil engineering for 30 years.
William “Bill” Heffernan, of Columbia, Mo., Sept. 11, 2024, at 85. He was a professor emeritus of rural sociology.
Edward Mullen, of Columbia, Mo., Aug. 1, 2024, at 82. He was a professor emeritus of romance languages.
Bob R. Stewart, BS Ag ’63, M Ed ’65, of Columbia, Mo., June 26, 2024, at 84. He was a professor of agricultural education.
Deaths
HHJacquelyn Jones, of Columbia, Mo., Aug. 15, 2024, at 75. She worked
for the University of Missouri for 34 years and retired as vice chancellor of administrative services.
Marietta Jayne, BS Ed ’42, of Kirksville, Mo., Aug. 18, 2024, at 103.
HHKenneth Buchmann, BS Ag ’52, DVM ’58, of New Haven, Mo., Sept. 20, 2024, at 94. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega and served in the U.S. Army.
HHRobert “Bud” Hertzog, BS Ag ’52, DVM ’56, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., July 15, 2024, at 92. He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho and was a veterinarian for 68 years.
HHLorrain Housemann, BS Ed ’52, of St. Louis, Mo., July 24, 2024, at 93.
Irvin Laddin, BJ ’52, of Atlanta Oct. 23, 2024, at 93. He was a member of Zeta Beta Tau and served in the U.S. Air Force.
Whether you’re on the road or at the tailgate, there’s no better way to show off your Tiger pride than with a Mizzou license plate. Add one to your ride for just $25 a year — all proceeds support the Mizzou Alumni Association’s programs and services, including student scholarships.
‘Tall Tiger’ Todd McCubbin, M Ed ’95, has been a proud Mizzou license plate holder since 1995.
Marching Mizzou’s Lifesaving Playlist
Marching Mizzou is famous for energizing football crowds, but behind the scenes, the band is also saving lives.
Marching Mizzou Director Amy Knopps regularly organizes events where band members can sign up to donate blood stem cells through NMDP (formerly known as the National Marrow Donor Program and Be the Match). This effort is crucial because 70% of blood cancer patients lack a family match and depend on the donor registry. At the most recent registration drive, more than 300 Marching Mizzou members signed up.
One of those members, clarinet player Luke Lindberg, BS ’24, ended up making a lifesaving donation. “Luke left our spring band concert a little early this year because he needed to catch a flight to Cincinnati to make his donation,” Knopps says. “It was so exciting that he matched! I’m proud of him and all the students who signed up as donors.”
The decision to sign up for the registry was an easy one for Lindberg. His sister had needed a transplant years earlier and didn’t have a family match. “A donor on the NMDP registry saved her life,” says Lindberg, now a graduate student in math. “I wanted to give back and possibly save a life, too.”
Marching Mizzou isn’t alone in supporting NMDP. Around 15 years ago, a University of South Carolina band member was diagnosed with blood cancer and didn’t have a match. “Band
January
2 Mizzou Women’s Basketball vs. South Carolina Mizzou Arena
3 Beauty & the Beast Meet (Mizzou Gymnastics and Wrestling) Hearnes Center
12 Mizzou Wrestling vs. Stanford Hearnes Center
28 Atmosphere with Sage Francis and Mr. Dibbs The Blue Note
February
6 Mizzou Women’s Basketball vs. LSU Mizzou Arena
Clarinet player Luke Lindberg, BS ’24, made a lifesaving blood stem cell donation after signing up through Marching Mizzou’s donor drive.
directors across the country realized they have an opportunity to make a difference,” says Matt Kroeger, NMDP’s senior manager of programs and partnerships. “It’s an easy lift for them to open their doors and allow our team members to come talk about our donor program.” Kroeger adds that the NMDP’s partnership with the College Band Directors National Association has provided what he calls “tremendous results and hope.”
Signing up for the registry is simple, and a cheek swab is all it takes. Once tested, potential donors are added to the registry to await a possible match.
“From the moment you find out you’re a match, we provide you with emotional support and cover any expenses relating to your donation because you’re a hero to us, our patients, and their families,” says Tracie Howell, an account manager for NMDP who helped run the Mizzou drive.
To sign up, visit nmdp.org. You must be between 18 and 40 because younger donors lead to better survival outcomes.
“You could potentially save a life,” Lindberg says. “Maybe it’s a complete stranger to you, but to someone else it’s a close family member or a best friend.” — Blaire Leible Garwitz, MA ’06
15 Joe Gatto: Let’s Get Into It (University Concert Series) Jesse Auditorium
March
2 Mizzou Women’s Basketball vs. Vanderbilt Mizzou Arena
15-16 Show-Me Opera: Yeomen of the Guard Rhynsburger Theatre
19 Marc Broussard The Blue Note
24-28 Spring Break April
1 Swan Lake (University Concert Series) Jesse Auditorium
MEET A MIZZOUMADE BUSINESS
After graduation, I relocated to Washington, D.C. to continue my education and launched a career in politics and government, including my first stint in recruiting at the White House.
Being a #MizzouMade career coach, leadership coach, and instructor has been incredibly fulfilling, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to help other talented Mizzou alumni thrive in their careers.
Janae (Barker) Gravitz, BJ ’04 Owner, True You Career Coaching Premium Member, MizzouMade Business Network
Visit the MizzouMade Business Network to learn more about our other premium member businesses:
HHMary Ann Dunn Williams, BJ ’53, of Lakeland, Fla., Aug. 18, 2024, at 93. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
HHPatricia Isely, BA ’53, of La Cross, Wis., Aug. 23, 2024, at 93.
HHVenton D. Goodnight, BS Ag, DVM ’54, of Independence, Mo., Sept. 3, 2024, at 101. He served in the
HHAlvin E. McQuinn, BS Ag ’54, of Edina, Minn., Oct. 23, 2024, at 93. He was a member of Farmhouse and served in the U.S. Army.
Robert M. Strickler, BA ’54, BJ ’57, of Kansas City, Mo., May 18, 2024, at 93.
HHMarvin S. Earl, BS Ag ’55, of Fayette, Mo., Oct. 11, 2024, at 90.
Gale Hankins, BS Ag
’55, of Belton, Mo., Sept. 27, 2024, at 91. He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho and served in the U.S. Army.
HHKathryn Hanson, BA ’55, of Mantua, Ohio, Aug. 24, 2024, at 90.
HJ. David Leech, BS Ed ’55, M Ed ’65, of St. Louis Aug. 8, 2024, at 91. He was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon and served in the U.S. Army.
Charlotte Walch, MA ’55, of Dallas Sept. 30, 2024, at 96.
Robert Deskin, BS ChE ’56, of St. Petersburg, Fla., July 22, 2024, at 91. He was a member of Sigma Nu.
Venton Haskins, BS Ag ’56, M Ed ’68, PhD ’71, of Springfield, Mo., Aug. 27, 2024, at 89. He served in the U.S. Army.
Ronald Lauter, BS ChE ’56, of Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug. 12, 2024, at 90. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega.
HJames Skelly, BS BA ’56, of Houston July 30, 2024, at 89. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi and served in the U.S. Army.
Gordon Stewart, BS Ag ’56, MS ’57, PhD ’60, of Wichita Falls, Texas Oct. 11, 2024, at 90.
HHRuby Allen Mead, BS Ed ’58, of Lake Ozark, Mo., June 30, 2024, at 88.
John Fredrickson, BS Ag ’58, of Webb City, Mo., Aug. 22, 2024, at 89. He served in the U.S. Army.
Neil Vacca, BS Ag ’58, of Phoenix Sept. 27, 2024, at 93. He served in the U.S. Marine Corp.
A great move
HHRobert D. Dunnagan, BS Ag ’59, of Livingston, Mont., Oct. 4, 2024, at 87. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta and served in the U.S. Army.
HHJames Fiala, BS BA ’59, of St. Louis May 17, 2024, at 90. He was a member of Kappa Sigma and served in the U.S. Marine Corp.
S. Luella Phipps, M Ed ’59, of El Dorado Springs, Mo., Aug. 13, 2024, at 97.
M. Ann Allman, BA ’60, M Ed ’71, Ed D ’94, of Neosho, Mo., Aug. 28, 2024, at 86.
Robert Wolf, BS Ag ’60, of Mexa, Ariz., Sept. 19, 2024, at 88. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves and worked for the USDA Soil Conservation Service for 25 years.
HHCharles “Bill” Haw
Sr., BA ’61, of Kansas City, Mo., May 30, 202, at 85. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta and served in the U.S. Army.
HMonica Grossheim, BSN ’62, of Farmington, N.M., Oct. 6, 2024, at 84. She worked as a nurse for more than 50 years.
HHRichard Nistendirk, BS Ag ’62, of Hartsburg, Mo., Sept. 17, 2024, at 84. He was a member of Farmhouse. He served in the Missouri and Nebraska National Guard.
Darl Neil Peterie, M Ed ’62, Ed D ’66, of Bowling Green, Ken., Sept. 27, 2024, at 94. He was a professor of art emeritus at Western Kentucky University.
Clarence Siebert, BS ’62, BS Ed ’63, of St. Louis May 17, 2024, at 83.
for Mizzou alumni.
Applicable to all discounts: Residents under a Life Care Agreement are not eligible for the discounts. These discounts do not apply to any room, board or services which are paid for all or in part by any state or federally funded program. Discounts are available to members and their family members, including spouse, adult children, siblings, parents, grandparents, and corresponding in-law or step adult children, siblings, parents, and grandparents through current spouse. Subject to availability. Further restrictions may apply. Cannot be combined with other offers.
*Discount is only applicable to new residents of a Brookdale independent living, assisted living, or memory care community admitting under an executed residency agreement. Discount applies only to the monthly fee/basic service rate, excluding care costs and other fees and is calculated based on the initial monthly fee/basic service rate.
**Discount is only applicable to new clients of personal assistance services by a Brookdale agency under an executed service agreement.
***Discount is only applicable to new residents of a Brookdale assisted living or memory care community admitting under an executed respite agreement. Discount applies to the daily rate.
REMEMBERING
KING OF THE HILL
Within five minutes of meeting Joe DeGregorio, BJ ’70, you’d know about at least three of his life’s passions: his family (Catholic, Italian and large), his alma mater (Mizzou) and his neighborhood (St. Louis’ famed Italian-American enclave, the Hill). Chances were, he’d be wearing a sweatshirt representing one of the above.
The eldest of seven children and the first grandchild in a family that grew to have 24, DeGregorio’s path eventually led him great distances away from St. Louis. He graduated from high school and headed to Mizzou, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and was a proud member of Delta Sigma Phi. After serving in the military as a chaplain’s assistant during the Vietnam War, he pursued a decades-long career as a federal agent, working for the thenDefense Security Service in stations from Kansas City to Long Beach, CA, where he added a master of public administration degree to his accomplishments.
No matter where he lived, DeGregorio — his family and friends knew him as Joey — considered the tight-knit Hill community of neighbors, businesses and St. Ambrose Catholic Church as his home. After his 2005 retirement, he returned and found a new purpose in leading popular tours of the district. His father, Roland, had offered those same tours for 25 years.
On any given day, you’d find Joe strolling among the numerous restaurants (he had eaten at every one), bakeries, coffee shops, stores, bocce courts and other institutions that draw locals and tourists alike. He was always leading a tour or trying to hustle one up. His license plate, “DEHILL,” gave him away on the rare occasions he strayed from the neighborhood. His demeanor was mischievous and irrepressibly fun, and his dance moves — often on display to tour groups — were legendary.
As part of his mission to honor his heritage, DeGregorio contributed to projects documenting the history of the Hill. He was interviewed on-screen for
the film America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill, contributed the introduction to a history book on the area and, in 2022, wrote a full-color walking tour guidebook of his own, The Hill: A Walk Through History. Promoting the book with a media blitz through St. Louis brought his broadcast journalism education back to the fore: “This is a totally different gig and I’m enjoying every minute of it,” he said. A series of short promo videos on YouTube capture “Joey on the Hill!” hamming it up in some of his beloved haunts.
Josh Stevens, whose Reedy Press published DeGregorio’s guidebook, remembers that DeGregorio, grappling with a recent cancer diagnosis, at first “couldn’t guarantee that he would finish the work. But he had too much pride and loved the Hill too much to let the project falter,” Stevens said. “Not only did he complete his work on time, he shared the joy of his accomplishment with everyone he knew.”
— Amanda E. Doyle, BJ ’94
Celebrating the life of Joe DeGregorio, former federal agent and ambassador of St. Louis’ famed Italian-American neighborhood.
MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS
HTerry Turlington, BS Ed ’62, of Dexter, Mo., July 25, 2024, at 84. He was a high school basketball coach and principal.
HGene McArtor, BS Ed ’63, M Ed ’64, PhD ’72, of Indianapolis July 28, 2024, at 83. He was a player, coach and administrator for Mizzou Baseball and is the winningest head baseball coach in Mizzou’s history.
Helen Kay Baird, BS Ed ’64, M Ed ’65, of Fishers, Ind., Oct. 2, 2024, at 82.
James Newbold III, BA ’64, JD ’67, of Cashiers, N.C., May 31, 2024, at 82.
HHRichard Schmidtke, DVM ’65, of Columbia, Mo., May 8, 2024, at 84. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta and served in the U.S. Army.
Sanford Shlyen, BA ’66, of Virginia Beach, Va., Oct. 10,
2024, at 81. He was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi and served in the U.S. Air Force.
Barbara Jean Smith, M Ed ’66, of Springfield, Mo., Aug. 27, 2024, at 80.
Clifford H. Ahrens, BS PA ’67, JD ’69, of Hannibal, Mo., May 22, 2024, at 78. He was a judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals.
Gary Kester, MA ’67, of Springfield, Mo., Sept. 28, 2024, at 81.
Hillis Rice, BS Ag ’67, of Columbia, Mo., April 18, 2024, at 79. He served in the U.S. Army.
HHPaul Schnare, BS F ’67, MS ’69, PhD ’74, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., Aug. 8, 2024, at 79. He was a member of Beta Sigma Psi and served in the U.S. Army.
HSuzie Parker Nichols, BS Ed ’68, of Phoenix Aug.
24, 2024, at 78. She was a member of Delta Delta Delta.
HHCynthia Sterling Zolk, BS Ed ’68, M Ed ’71, of La Grange, Ill., Aug. 1, 2024, at 78.
HHRobert E. Wright, BS BA ’68, of Bowling Green, Mo., Oct. 11, 2024, at 79.
Patricia Jaegers, BSN ’69, of Jefferson City, Mo., Oct. 18, 2024, at 80.
HHBarbara McClure, BS Ed ’69, M Ed ’76, of Columbia, Mo., Oct. 17, 2024, at 77.
HBruce McCurry, BS PA ’69, JD ’72, of Springfield, Mo., Aug. 19, 2024, at 77. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega and served in the U.S. Army Reserves.
Robert J. Bohnert, BS AgE ’70, of Longwood, Fla., Aug. 11, 2024, at 77.
HHGail Radtke Davis, BS Ed ’70, of Branson, Mo., July 16, 2024, at 76. She was a member of Sigma Kappa.
HMichael C. Reid, JD ’71, of Jefferson City, Mo., July 17, 2024, at 77.
HHPatricia Heup, MA ’72, of Montgomery, Texas, Aug. 17, 2024, at 76.
Dwayne Edwards, M Ed ’73, of St. James, Mo., Oct. 7, 2024, at 75.
Philip Leslie, BA, BJ ’73, M Ed ’79, of Columbia, Mo., Aug. 18, 2024, at 73. He served in the U.S. Air Force.
HHMark V. Buehler, BS BA ’78, of St. Louis Oct. 19, 2024, at 69. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Order.
John “Jack” Owen, BS Ag ’80, of Middletown, Ill., Oct. 17, 2024, at 67.
Nick Messina, BS ChE ’81,
of Gladstone, Mo., Sept. 29, 2024, at 65. He was a member of Delta Upsilon.
HJames Eric Ford, BHS ’84, MBA ’90, of Kirksville, Mo., Sept. 12, 2024, at 62.
HHAndrea Fischer, BA ’85, MD ’04, of Columbia, Mo., Aug. 6, 2024, at 60. She was an All-American in track and cross country and was inducted into the University of Missouri Athletic Hall of Fame.
Wini Dyer, BS Ed ’87, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., Oct. 6, 2024, at 96.
Douglas Sanders, BS Ed ’87, of Oct. 14, 2024, at 60. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
HHAnne Schneider, JD ’88, of Jefferson City, Mo., Aug. 24, 2024, at 61. She was an assistant attorney general at the Missouri Attorney General’s office.
John Behring, BS Ag ’90, of Hannibal, Mo., Oct. 13, 2024, at 76.
Joel Putnam, MSW ’99, of Columbia, Mo.,
Sept. 21, 2024, at 77.
Debra Peterson, MSW ’00, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, Oct. 2, 2024, at 50.
DEGREE DESIGNATIONS 101 H
Bachelor’s degrees:
BS Acc, accounting
BS Ag, agriculture
BA, arts
BS BA, business administration
BS Ed, education
BFA, fine arts
BS FW, fisheries and wildlife
BGS, general studies
BHS, health sciences
BS HE, home economics
BS HES, human environmental sciences
BJ, journalism
BS Med, medicine
BSN, nursing
BS, science
BSW, social work
Bachelor’s degrees in engineering:
BS ChE, chemical
BS CiE, civil
BS CoE, computer
BS EE, electrical
BS IE, industrial
BS ME, mechanical
Master’s degrees:
M Acc, accounting
MS Ag Ed, agricultural education
MA, arts
M Ed, education
MS, science
MSW, social work
MPA, public affairs
Sadie Chandler, PhD ’07, of Fayette, Mo., Sept. 23, 2024, at 49. She was associate director of the Center for Applied Theatre and Drama Research at the University of Missouri.
Doctoral degrees:
PhD, doctorate
EdD, education
JD, law
MD, medicine
DVM, veterinary medicine
Did not graduate:
Arts, arts and science
Bus, business
Educ, education
Engr, engineering
Journ, journalism
For a more detailed list of current degrees, visit catalog.missouri.edu/ degreesanddegreeprograms.
SEMPER MIZZOU
M-I-Z, Old-Time Jam!
At the Sinquefield Music Center, monthly sessions bring musicians together to celebrate traditional fiddle tunes and bridge generations through shared rhythms and stories.
Classes for the day have ended at the Sinquefield Music Center, but the sound of fiddle melodies and toe-tapping guitar rhythms still fills the lobby. A group of 20 musicians sit in a circle and play their instruments. On a recent evening, banjo and dulcimer players join in, strumming and picking along with the group. Many of the lively songs they play are centuries old, as is the song-circle structure, but the energy is fresh. This is a Missouri old-time music jam, held on the MU campus at 5:30 p.m., on the first Monday of every month that classes are in session.
Anyone who shows up can participate or listen. Some musicians hold down day jobs in the Columbia area. Others are retired. Several are MU students, and a smattering of them perform in other groups during the week. They range in age from their 20s to their 80s, and in level of musical experience from beginner to well-seasoned. “We are exposing young people to a big part of our heritage that they might not know about,” says Howard Marshall, leader of the jams and an authority on old-time Missouri music. Marshall is a fiddle player, historian, author and professor emeritus of the Department of Art History and Archaeology. In 2023, he published Keep It OldTime: Fiddle Music in Missouri from the 1960s Folk Music Revival to the Present (University of Missouri Press), the final of three crucial volumes devoted to the state’s fiddle music.
Marshall and the School of Music’s Budds Center for American Music Studies co-sponsor the hour-long jam sessions. Megan Murph, director of the Budds Center, shares a commitment with Marshall to preserve and promote Missouri’s musical heritage “These tunes are passed down from generation to generation as part of our living history,” Murph says.
Rooted in the British Isles, the music evolved in the American colonies, eventually migrating west with early settlers. Over time, old-time music absorbed West African rhythms, Appalachian folk traditions, minstrel show elements and Tin Pan Alley song structures. Although thousands of old-time songs have been transcribed into musical notation, traditionally they are learned and played by ear, which explains the absence of music stands and sheet music at jam sessions.
Asher Ferguson and Amanda Arbuckle, both fiddle players and MU undergraduates, try to make it to the old-time jams each month. They encountered traditional music by chance, then fell in love with playing it. Marshall considers the younger generation’s interest as evidence that old-time music not only has a past but also a future. “It’s kind of amazing that so many people want to play the music,” he says. “After all these years, it’s still informal fun and an interesting way to meet people.”
