miamian The Magazine of Miami University
Spring/Summer 2015
KICKSTARTING CREATIVITY Missy Sherburne ’93 chalks up revolutionary charity’s success to creative teachers and their innovative ideas.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Oxford Delights in Top Ranking Artisan Cheesemakers Ready for Food Fight My Story: A Tribute to Becca
Kristen Uhl ’13 is an account executive with Rocket Science & Design in Cincinnati. Her sophomore year, she created this 12"x16" woodcut titled “Central Quad” from a photo of Miami’s Oxford campus. With a double concentration in printmaking and painting and a minor in interactive media studies, she has skills in fine arts as well as digital media. Outside of work, she continues to create art, both screenprinting posters and painting. The Fort Thomas, Ky., resident says, “I have a strong passion for music and the influence it has in all artistic terms.”
Staff Editor Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96
Vol. 33, No. 3
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Senior Designers Donna Barnet Belinda Rutherford
Web Developer Suzanne Clark
STORIES
18 A Good Place to Call Home
Copy Editor Beth Weaver
See why Oxford ranks No. 1 as the Best College Town in the U.S.
Issue Design Consultant Lilly Pereira University Advancement 513-529-4029 Vice President for University Advancement Tom Herbert herbertw@MiamiOH.edu
One of many treasures highlighted in Oxford photo spread. (see page 18).
ON THE COVER Missy Sherburne ’93 is chief partnerships officer for DonorsChoose.org, the first charity to make the Top 10 list of Fast Company’s “50 Most Innovative Companies in the World.” Photo by Tea Ho.
Trade relations are curdling over European Union demands that U.S. cheese manufacturers rename their Parmesan products.
From pencils for poetry to microscopes for mitochondria, the public is funding creativity in classrooms through DonorsChoose.org.
IN EACH ISSUE
Office of Development 513-529-1230 Senior Associate Vice President for University Advancement Brad Bundy Hon ’13 brad.bundy@MiamiOH.edu
Send address changes to: Alumni Records Office Advancement Services Miami University 926 Chestnut Lane Oxford, Ohio 45056 alumnirecords@MiamiOH.edu 513-529-5127 Fax: 513-529-1466
22 No Whey!
24 Kickstarting Creativity
Alumni Relations 513-529-5957 Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations Ray Mock ’82 MS ’83 mockrf@MiamiOH.edu
MiamiOH.edu/alumni
Spring/Summer 2015
The Magazine of Miami University
Photographers Jeff Sabo Scott Kissell
2 From the Hub
16 My Story
3 Back & Forth
28 Love & Honor
Cultivating creativity.
To and from the editor. New gardens around campus invite butterflies to return. (see page 10).
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Campus news highlights.
Hockey a model for athletic excellence; Bishop Medalist a model for humanitarianism.
10 Such a Life
32 Class Notes
12 Inquiry + Innovation
46 Farewells
6 Along Slant Walk
A buffet for butterflies.
Ebola protection training.
14 Media Matters Opus Web paper features FSC® certifications and is Lacey Act compliant; 100% of the electricity used to manufacture Opus Web is generated with Green-e® certified renewable energy.
Sharing Becca’s dreams.
New works by alumni.
Notes, news, and weddings.
48 Days of Old
Dusting off a historical gem from the archives.
Miamian is published three times a year by the University Advancement Division of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. Copyright © 2015, Miami University. All rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Miamian is produced by University Communications and Marketing, 108 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, 513-529-7592; Fax: 513-529-1950; Miamian@MiamiOH.edu.
from the hub
That’s the Spirit! By President David Hodge
How might we … help doctors and nurses protect them-
selves while treating Ebola patients? What’s stopping us from … planting milkweed on campus to restore the waning butterfly population? What would happen if … we turned club hockey into a varsity sport? Miami faculty, students, staff, and alumni have worked together diligently to turn these probing questions into positive outcomes, as featured in this Miamian. That positivity is one reason I am so energized by this year’s summer reading book, The 46 Rules of !Genius by Marty Neumeier. We’ve chosen this book, filled with “can do” advice, to help launch 2015–2016 as Miami’s “Year of Creativity and Innovation.” The spirit of We are asking our incoming class — which, by the way, is the most academcreativity and ically accomplished in our history — to innovation is part get a head start on the year by exploring all of Neumeier’s rules, one each of Miami’s DNA. day during the 46 days leading up to Convocation on Aug. 21. Let me encourage you to join us by following along on Twitter at @MiamIdeas or through our website MiamiOH.edu/MiamiOHRules for the daily, thought-provoking question. I hope you will consider responding to each day’s Tweet prompt using Twitter’s reply feature. The most engaging responses will be shared on our homepage, MiamiOH.edu. The spirit of creativity and innovation has been part of the Miami DNA for a long time. We see it in our approach to teaching and learning, we see it in the research and scholarship of our faculty and students, and we see it in our everyday operations. Yet there is so much more we can do to enhance our ability to stimulate ingenuity and make it a signature
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quality — of our students, of our alumni, of our university. That’s why we are so excited about devoting the next 12 months to exploring the possibilities. For great outcomes, creativity and innovation need to be married with determination and persistence. Miami freshman defenseman Louie Belpedio is an amazing example of this. In trying to keep our hockey team in the NCAA tournament, Louie demonstrated a heroic effort in the game against Providence, the eventual tournament champ. Hurling himself at the puck, he tipped it away from the net at the last possible second. He then smashed into the boards, dislocating his shoulder. Still, he struggled to his feet and skated back to the bench, determined to keep the play alive. (To see the play, go to MiamiOH. You are invited to write to edu/Belpedio) President David Hodge at Most determination isn’t so president@MiamiOH.edu. Follow him on Twitter @PresHodge. dramatic, but it is an essential ingredient to success. It is a part of Miami’s culture that I’ve come to admire greatly. When I meet alums, when I talk to current students, that theme comes through again and again. There’s an ambition, a drive, a determination that makes Miami special. I encourage you to become involved in Miami’s Year of "Creativity and Innovation. Read the book, follow the Tweets, and check out the MiamIdeas website at MiamiOH.edu/MiamIdeas for more on the goals and related activities and resources. It promises to be a year of great energy and excitement.
back & forth miamian The Magazi
ne of Miami University
Look for custom-made, Miami-themed crossword inside.
Winter 2015
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Surely if Washington is credited with teaching the world about America, it is Lincoln who taught America about herself. He will forever be my favorite president. —Steve Hinds ’72 Needham, Mass.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Truth Behind Gettysburg Address P.J. O’Rourke’s Boomer-tinted Glasses Art Historian on Shroud of Turin
Gettysburg Address unites What matters least is whether Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope or edited it seven times (“Four Drafts and Seven Edited Versions Ago …,” Winter 2015 Miamian). What matters most is that the speech, the greatest speech in American history, reminds Americans about our past, offers words about our future, and explains the meaning of the here and now (why this land is being dedicated and consecrated). His speech unites us in a manner rare among politicians of our day for he emphasizes we, not me or you. To do hard travel to Gettysburg while still in mourning, with a son ill and a wife in severe pain, is a story in itself, but to write and deliver a speech while suffering from a mild form of smallpox is extraordinary. When I stand on the spot of his speech, I think of the meaning of his words and about the determination and grit of an ill man attending an all-day event, writing a speech with such clarity and delivering a speech so precise in wording.
Other Boomers’ views I was surprised and excited to read Betsa Marsh’s “Boomers’ Ballad” in the Winter 2015 Miamian. I am not only a proud member of Miami’s Class of 1968, but also its senior class president. While not specifically stated in Marsh’s article, 1968 was the year that leading-edge Baby Boomers, born in 1946, started to graduate en masse from colleges and universities throughout America. That year is also the official end of the Baby Boom. The irony of being born at the beginning of the boom and graduating at the end, combined with attending my 50th high school reunion, got me started on writing a book, Baby Boomer Reflections: Eighteen Special Years Between 1946 and 1964, which was published in May. Its tenor is substantially different from the book P.J. O’Rourke ’69 has written in that mine is pure nostalgia about the things we Baby Boomers experienced while growing up and does not attempt to draw any conclusions or speak about what happened after graduation. There are lots of references to historic events during those 18 years, including the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964 that was conducted at Western College long before it became a part of Miami. I lived in Stanton Hall my freshman year and didn’t realize how physically close I was to
an extremely significant part of American history. Miami is a special place. —Fred Arnow ’68 Henderson, Nev. It is always a good feeling to catch up with fellow Miami alum Patrick O’Rourke ’69. A most prolific fellow he has been. One note about his chronology on page 20; I know he wrote while he was at Miami for an underground publication named the Subclavian Artery. Now that I know how he became an English major, perhaps his few articles for the Subclavian Artery were his first semi-pro pieces. One thing I do remember about his contributions was that, back then with Patrick, what you saw was what you got. We were young, and we took on and changed the world for the better. Try as hard as many do to say differently, they can never strip history of that reality. —Marshall Burke ’69 MBA ’05 Oxford, Ohio I am curious about the window of years — 1923–1945 — ascribed to the “Silent Generation” and their characterization as “too young to fight in World War II.” My father was born in 1923 and was 18 years old when he was sent off to the Pacific to experience the shocking brutality and horrors of the war. But I do agree about the “silent” attribute; he discussed his experience only rarely and in general terms until 50 years later as tributes were being made to honor those soldiers. Then he began to open up to us and to interact with other veterans in the local VFW. —Linda Showman ’70 Portland, Ore.
Send letters to: Donna Boen Miamian editor 108 Glos Center Miami University Oxford, Ohio 45056-2480 Miamian@MiamiOH.edu; or fax to 513-529-1950. Include your name, class year, home address, and phone number. Letters are edited for space and clarity.
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An engineer for my roommate’s sports news broadcast on WMUB, I turned the knobs for the microphone and the turntables. Yes, turntables.
WMUB memories How great to read about WMUB in the Winter 2015 Miamian (Days of Old: “On the Air.”). I’d forgotten the frequency was 570 KC. One of my roommates and I worked there our freshman and sophomore years. He would get the latest sports news off the AP “wire,” and I would be the engineer for the broadcast, which meant I turned the knobs for the microphone and the turntables. Yes, turntables. No CD players in the late ’50s. The commercials were on 16" diameter records called “electrical transcriptions” and might contain 20 different tracks, ads for the U.S. Navy or perhaps some brand of cigarettes. Sound proofing in the studios in the old building was provided by wavy, cardboard egg carton inserts stapled to the walls. For one glorious hour I got to be a disc jockey when the regular student DJ failed to show. I grabbed a record that was in the control room and while it was playing, I selected some LP’s for the rest of the hour. However, I never included “DJ for one hour” on my resume! —Lee St. John ’61 Newark, Ohio The delightful story of WMUB compels me to reveal a bit of historical trivia before it is lost to the ages. The antenna was installed on the east tower of Harrison Hall (previously Old Main) with the new FM transmitter directly below in the single tower room. There was a requirement that an operator with an FCC Commercial Radio License keep the transmitter company. Duties were fairly light, consisting of recording meter readings every half hour, making
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infrequent adjustments, and resolving any problems. Otherwise, there was nothing for the operator to do. Being one of the few students possessing the requisite license, I had no trouble accepting the job when offered by Dr. Williams. Oh joy! Where else could I get paid a princely 35 cents an hour to study in a comfortable, extremely quiet room? However, the FCC did require that the transmitter be attended whenever it was operating. This posed a conundrum when life models from a downstairs drawing class wanted to use my space as a “dressing” room. —W.A. Greene ’52 Frederick, Md. The “On the Air” article about WMUB was extremely interesting to me. I spent almost all of my time from 1950 to 1954 in the old, temporary Building D. During my senior year, I served as program director for both WRMU and WMUB-FM. I thank Ms. Hortense Moore for giving me my first assignment ... reading the 15minute UNESCO World Review script every Friday night, date night when no one was listening. The training I received from Ms. Moore, Steve Hathaway, and Bob Wallace propelled me into a career in radio and television. Thank you, Miami. —Samuel Johnson ’54 Phoenix, Ariz. Reading the article on WMUB brought back memories of when I used to go to the rustic station and start the day with “Good Morning, Miami!” The janitor let me in, and the day on the air waves would
begin. Being a morning person, I didn’t mind getting up early. After that, I’d go on to my classes. I hope the music and chatter weren’t too offensive to students just dragging themselves out of bed. Upon graduation, I was offered a job in Benton Harbor, Mich., at WHFB, AM and FM, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This proves that any experience at Miami could have surprising possibilities! —Punky Benson, aka Marilyn Benson Hughes ’49 Walnut Creek, Calif. Studying the shroud Your timing couldn’t have been better. My high school chemistry students are studying isotopes, and we were just discussing the isotope Carbon 14 when the Winter 2015 Miamian arrived. Members of a Jesuit-affiliated school, my Xavier classes asked about the Shroud of Turin and its religious implications. I shared with them Heather Beattey Johnston’s article “Controversial Relic’s Artistic Value.” Our research looked at the scientific studies that raised doubts about the shroud’s authenticity based on “radioactive carbon isotope dating.” As my students discovered, it was possible that the sample tested had hidden in the linen fibers’ pollen grains from more recent times. That might explain why Carbon 14 dated the shroud to hundreds of years later than the crucifixion of Jesus. While we did not come up with any definitive decisions about the shroud, the article helped them better understand the applications of what is taught in a classroom. As I have emphasized for all of my 47
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years as a teacher, the use of information is more important than merely learning facts. As Johnston pointed out in her article, professor Andrew Casper said that the authenticity is “a question of faith, of religion.” I am sure that my students will continue to look at the Shroud of Turin through different lenses. One lens will focus on belief and another on the chemistry of Carbon 14, the radioactive isotope useful in exploring the world around us. —Neil Glazer ’68 Indio, Calif. Dynamic musicians My freshman year, I responded to an ad in The Miami Student for a flute player. Thus began a whirlwind semester with Larry Moore ’68 MA ’70 (“A Song in his Heart,” Winter 2015 Miamian). Larry arranged for and directed a pit combo for theater performances, and I was lucky to be included. Larry’s arrangements were always in flux, so it was handy to be a good sight reader. He would be passing out staff paper with wet ink as we were beginning excerpts from Man of La Mancha. We played in the pit for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at historic Fisher Hall and toured Ohio with The House at Pooh Corner in the summer of 1968. How great to see the dynamic and accomplished Larry on your pages! My music education was also enhanced by the consistently kind and supportive Dr. Adon Foster, whose passing was noted in the Winter 2015 Farewells. Thank you, Dr. Foster. —Jane Smalley Boyer ’71 Upper Arlington, Ohio
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
A Little Bit of All Right Last week a dear friend and I headed Uptown to eat at 45 East, aka Attractions or Al & Larry’s, depending on when you attended Miami. As I savored my sweet potato fries and watched a crew replace blacktop with bricks on High Street, we chatted about living in Oxford, recently named Best College Town in the U.S. We started listing our favorite features … a children’s costume parade at Halloween, white lights strung throughout the trees in winter, colorful baskets of petunias hanging from light poles in spring. Music in the Uptown parks every Thursday evening during summer. Hueston Wood’s apple butter festival. The wine festival. The chocolate festival. The … well, you get the idea. Then there’s the ease of getting around. I can be a real stinker when my friends return Alumni Weekend and start comparing notes on their long commutes. “I know what you mean,” I say, nodding in sympathy. “On a really bad morning (dramatic pause), if all three traffic lights are red, it can take me close to 7 minutes! Even longer when deer are bounding across the road.” That’s what I get for choosing a house on the last street in town on the way to Hueston Woods. Back at 45 East, as we take up our forks to share a piece of brownie cake with whipped cream, my friend asks, “Can you see yourself living anywhere else?” Hmmm … good question. Guess I just assumed I’d always live here and enjoy the lectures and concerts and other events on campus. Not including my undergrad days, I’ve now been in Oxford 30 years. On our way to lunch, we stopped by the bank because restaurants like you better when you pay for your food. While my friend cashed a check in one of the drive-through lanes, Addie, communications guru for the Farmer School, pulled into the drive-through on my right. Since there weren’t any cars behind us, we rolled down our windows and continued a conversation we’d started earlier that morning. After we settled in at the restaurant, a waitress came over and offered a huge hug. Yes, life in a college town is a little bit of all right. Coming in third on Livability’s list for 10 Best College Towns, Oxford was credited for enjoying a low crime rate, a thriving arts and cultural scene, affordable housing, and great schools. The editors also gave high marks for walkability, recreational and cultural activities, and the partnership between Miami and Oxford. Maybe I’m destined to live here. A colleague recently pointed out to me that the square footage for my house is 1,809. How cool is that? —Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96
Town residents and Miamians alike are proud of Oxford’s “No. 1 Best College Town” ranking by online personal finance website WalletHub.
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Worldly Views Claudia Giuffre’s photo of earlymorning yoga at the Island School in Eleuthera, Bahamas, captures what she describes as a “nearly self-sustaining place.” In addition to using rainwater and following an extensive recycling program, “they also have very strong values on not wasting the day, so, when staying there, you rise with the sun,” wrote the senior art major. She and her classmates visited there during a winter term study abroad program. Her photo won first place in a contest sponsored by the Global Initiative’s Study Abroad office.
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Photographs of breathtaking Montserrat in the
Caribbean; dazzling Doha, the capital city of Qatar; and a slightly irreverent “Night at the British Museum” offer glimpses into students’ study abroad experiences. Thirty photos in all were recognized in a recent contest sponsored by Miami’s Global Initiative’s Study Abroad office. The contest gave students a venue to share what they saw and learned on their travels this past academic year. The photos are posted on the new Global Perspective blog (blogs. miamioh.edu/globalperspectives), which provides a forum for students and alumni to share their love of travel and adventure.
Going to various sites to hear guest lecturers, zoology major Tanner Scheetz ’15 made new friends while in Mto wa Mbu, Tanzania, known for its irrigation channeling. “We were in an area less commonly traveled by tourists, which piqued the interest of local kids. They spent the rest of the lecture with us, using our camping chairs and ‘taking notes.’ ” Connor Moriarty, a senior journalism and comparative media studies double major, visited Prizren, Kosovo, hiking up to an ancient castle on a hill overlooking the city for a “view of a lifetime.” More than 1,600 Miami students traveled to over 30 countries through 80+ programs in 2013–2014.
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President Hodge Retiring As David Hodge prepares for his 10th and final year as Miami’s 21st president, a national search begins for his successor
President David Hodge announced at the May 1 trustee meeting that he will retire June 30, 2016. “Valerie and I feel honored to have been able to serve alongside the most committed and talented faculty and staff imaginable. We have enjoyed the energy of our students and the affection and loyalty of our alumni. We look forward to the year ahead,” Hodge told the board. His announcement comes as Miami reports that it has well exceeded the goals for the incoming class, which will be the most diverse and academically accomplished in the school’s history. The university also enjoyed an academic year full of accomplishments and recognition. In late summer, for the fifth year in a row it was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 public university in the nation for its commitment to undergraduate education. By autumn, 97.6 percent of the 2013–2014 graduating class in Oxford and 88.3 percent of the graduating class on the Regionals were either employed or continuing their education. In addition, Miami launched a new $100 million campaign to increase scholarships.
I’M GLAD YOU ASKED At Springfest 2015, we asked students:
What’s your favorite class? It was all about the prof, of course.
Creative fiction writing. Joe Squance MA ’06 is an enchanting person who keeps things fresh and is open to all perspectives. Emily Kaminski ’17, Fort Wayne, Ind., creative writing and English literature major
David Hodge looks out over the 4,101 Class of 2015 graduates in Yager Stadium during a rainy yet jubilant Spring Commencement.
“We are especially looking forward to next year, as we make further progress in achieving the goals of the Miami 2020 plan, and when Miami will explore creativity and innovation as a common theme for advancing the quality of the educational experience,” Hodge said. The trustees will conduct a national search for Miami’s next president.
“Normal is overrated. Aim higher. So, I’m here to challenge you. How will you stretch your talents to their limits when you leave here?” —Bonnie St. John, best-selling author, Paralympic skiing medalist, former White House official, and speaker for Miami’s 2015 Spring Commencement
General engineering class. Very hands on. Dreading end of freshman year. So fast. Kiara Avendano ’18, Columbus, Ohio, mechanical engineering
Intro to project management. Doug Havelka is really bubbly. Lot more interested in field because of his class. Sterling Scruggs ’15, Cleveland, Ohio, information systems & analytics
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NOTEWORTHY
Maeva Metz, a senior microbiology major and molecular biology minor, has received a Goldwater Scholarship. The Brookfield, Conn., native is one of 260 students nationwide to earn the premier undergraduate award in mathematics, natural science, and engineering. Her current project involves characterizing a sensor protein in the inner membrane of the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii that contributes to the bacterium’s antibiotic resistance. She is honing her research skills this summer at the Harvard Medical School Summer Undergraduate Research Program in immunology. A record 4,002 students had committed to attend Miami in the fall as of the May 1 confirmation deadline. Nearly 27,500 applied for fall 2015 firstyear admission, up more than 8.5 percent from the previous year and the highest number in university history. The increase in applications made this one of the most selective years for admission, leading to an increase in the overall academic quality of enrolling students. Jim Oris, associate provost for research and scholarship and dean of the Graduate School, received Miami’s prestigious Benjamin Harrison Medallion during Spring Commencement. Oris is known internationally for his research on the ecological toxicology of organic chemicals in aquatic systems. He was awarded the title of University Distinguished Professor of Biology by Miami’s trustees in 2013.
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#2
RISING RANKS
for study abroad among public doctoral institutions. Institute of International Education 2014
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Miami has been one of Kiplinger’s 100 best values in public colleges every year since 1998.
Good to be Green Miami is in Princeton Review’s Guide to 353 Green Colleges for 2015, earning a score of 90 and being cited for its sustainability goals and commitments that include a phaseout of coal burning for steam heat by 2025. “Miami is amid a major shift to geothermal heating and cooling, beginning with energy efficient retrofits of its two oldest campus buildings built all the way back in 1825 and 1836!” the guide states. “The university’s Long Range Housing Master Plan guarantees it won’t stop there. LEED certification will now be required for all new projects and major renovations on campus, and Miami’s first comprehensive Storm Water Master Plan promotes rain gardens, cisterns, green roofing, and permeable paving.” Colleges were selected based on a survey asking schools about exemplary commitments to sustainability in academics, campus infrastructure, activities, and career preparation. Miami earned points for having a sustainability officer and committee, academics focused on sustainability, 30 percent of its dining budget spent on local/organic food, a bike plan, and more.
“Among nearly 10,000 teens who participated in our 2015 College Hopes & Worries Survey, 61 percent told us that having information about a school’s commitment to the environment would influence their decision to apply to or attend the college,” said Robert Franek, senior vice president and publisher at Princeton Review.
The new Spring Street Bikeway is part of a growing network of paths for getting around campus and town car-free.
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A Grand Practice: Associate music professor Lian Tan’s students performed for the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Miami this spring as part of an outreach program that Tan encourages. She also asks her piano students to organize fund-raising recitals for charities to provide them with leadership opportunities.
‘Greater Autonomy’ for Regionals Trustees have approved committee
recommendations that they believe will “open doors to greater autonomy” and increase growth for Miami’s regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown and its Voice of America Learning Center in West Chester. The underlying goal of the recommendations is to create a more distinct, impactful, and fiscally viable unit that better serves the needs of the students and the region, says President David Hodge.
With the trustees’ vote, the Regionals become a semi-autonomous regional academic affairs division parallel to Oxford’s academic affairs division. It reports to the president and provost, also charged with creating a new name for it. The board is encouraging the Regionals to pursue offering 18–20 bachelor’s programs. Degrees and curriculum will be proposed and developed using the Miami Plan and will be based on a demand analysis of how the programs would serve the region.
TRULY OUTSTANDING Chuck Moul ’94 teaches microeconomics through simple practice. “When I was a student, you either got it or didn’t,” he said. “The biggest change in teaching economics now is that we have figured out more ways to let students practice.” The associate professor of economics is this year’s Outstanding Professor, named by Associated Student Government for his “creativity, enthusiasm, and dedication to students inside and outside of the classroom.” Professors are nominated by graduating seniors.
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HELPING BUTTERFLIES SOAR Delightful perennial flowerbeds blooming around Miami’s Oxford campus are helping to sustain native butterflies, such as this Painted Lady, and Monarchs, whose population is rapidly declining due to herbicide use, roadside mowing, human development, and climate change. Horticulturist Dan Garber and students working with behavioral ecologist Nancy Solomon have been busy since last fall turning over patches of grass to make way for the nectar plants and milkweed, the Monarch’s main source of food. The newly planted beds can be seen near the rec center, on the east side of Upham Arch, behind Pearson Hall, and throughout Western. Miami also hosts a Monarch waystation off Route 73 east of the horse stables. Photo by Bill Garber
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Fighting Ebola Miami faculty part of CDC Ebola Web training team By Claire Wagner and Lisa Broadhead
Faculty and students at Miami University’s Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies (AIMS) recently had to become extremely familiar with the transmission of Ebola. That’s because they worked with medical professionals to create a visual, Web-based training program to assist medical staff learning how to protect themselves while working with patients who may have the deadly virus.
The three training modules they helped create are available for free on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website and to the millions of iOS users on iTunes U. The CDC asked Johns Hopkins Medicine to lead a group to design an interactive program that guides health-care professionals through government-approved protocols as they care for patients who may be at risk of contracting Ebola. Johns Hopkins, in turn, contacted Glenn Platt, AIMS director, C. Michael Armstrong Chair in Interactive Media, and professor of marketing at Miami. The program trains health-care providers in three critical areas: proper donning of personal protective equipment (PPE), the safe removal of gear, and active monitoring skills. Platt contributed to the program’s creation in several different ways: • Coordinating content from experts to develop and edit scripts for modules.
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• Creating the HTML code for the online module with AIMS faculty member Artie Kuhn and Stuart Yamartino, a senior majoring in interactive studies. They used E-pub, which allowed the team to put the training content into an HTML structure that can be shared across different Web platforms. • Developing a template used by three module teams to storyboard the content for each module. Storyboards consisted of three columns including text, timing, and images to direct the video team as to how to conduct each shot for the training. • Coordinating the publication of the three modules. Spearheading the initiative were infection prevention and safety experts from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Over five days, the team worked with experts from across the country in infectious disease, nursing, systems engineering, content development, and visual design to create the interactive learning experience.
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“This program, with videos and being on iTunes U, can also be seen by people in Liberia. Via the videos, health-care providers anywhere can learn to protect themselves,” Platt said. How do you prepare a nationwide training program? Before developing the online tutorial, systems engineers visited the Johns Hopkins Hospital and watched a team of biocontainment experts. They wanted to understand the specific environment and constraints faced by nurses and clinicians caring for patients who may have contracted Ebola. Next, the full team reviewed the CDC guidelines and searched for possible discrepancies between the words written on the page and the actions performed by care providers in the hospital. Elements such as limited space in a hospital room or even the anxiety and exhaustion of the health-care workers can further complicate intensive situations.
Using a variety of human factors and safety engineering methods, the team identified potential failures in the donning and removal of protective gear and risk factors that could lead to contamination. Module scripts highlighted these risks and how to mitigate them to make it easier for clinicians to comply with CDC guidelines. These instructions were tested in a simulation center, where novices and experts replicated the guidelines described. The Miami-Johns Hopkins team used the same format to take on a second project, paid for by a CDC grant, which focused on the preparation and triage of potential Ebola patients at hospitals. That project wrapped up in January. They are planning to go to Uganda this summer to share what they’ve learned through these two projects. “What’s notable about all of this is it’s a fairly unprecedented interdisciplinary group that could ramp up and get something done in one week: doctors, nurses, other health-care providers, engineers, programmers, designers, government agencies, all working together,” Platt said. “Rapid problem solving is what AIMS is built for,” he added. “It’s cross-divisional — there is nothing like it in the world. We’re about bringing technologists, designers, and writers together to solve problems. There couldn’t be a better academic partner because the interdisciplinary nature of AIMS doesn’t exist anywhere. It’s what Miami and Mike [Armstrong ’61] have envisioned from day one.”
Limited space in a hospital room or health-care workers’ anxiety and exhaustion can further complicate intensive situations.
Claire Wagner is director of university news and communications at Miami. Lisa Broadhead is a senior communications specialist in marketing and communications at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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media matters
Java Jivin’ ‘Brew’ master and history professor Bob Thurston talks coffee You can spend $40 for a cup or $300 a pound for civet coffee, the most expensive in the world, if you want to, but you don’t have to break the bank for a decent cup, according to Miami history professor and coffee expert Bob Thurston. He is the senior editor of the book Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry. Gourmand Magazine named it 2013’s best book on coffee and Library Journal cited it as one of the year’s best reference books.
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Coffee is beginning to look like a wonder drug, staving
off Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and various kinds of cancer. At least that’s what research seems to be showing, according to Bob Thurston, Miami professor of history. Bob’s not exactly unbiased. As managing partner of the Oxford Coffee Co., he would like to see more people drink more coffee and suggests the “optimal intake” is four to five 8-ounce cups a day. But, and that but is important to him, those cups need to be quality, filtered coffee. Hold back on creams and sugars, and don’t even think about those massive cans from the grocery store. “That coffee has no redeeming virtues. It’s hot, it’s wet, it’s dark.” Joining Miami’s faculty in 1987 when his focus was on Russian and Soviet history, he started researching and writing about coffee in 2004, the same year he was named the Phillip R. Shriver Professor of History. He
has since traveled to nine coffee-producing countries on four continents. Having taught his last class this spring, he intends to devote more time to his coffee roasting and retail business, which his daughter, Lara ’12, manages. Coffee can have various roasts and different notes, just like wine. In fact, it’s rated on the same scale used for wine. If you find all of this puzzling, Thurston recommends going to a good, independent shop to ask questions and taste test. For a quality cup at home that costs no more than 25 to 30 cents, he stresses buying a $60 grinder and waiting to grind the beans until right before you use them. Keep them in a light-tight, sealed container in a cupboard, and use them within two weeks. “Stay away from the capsule and pod machines. The coffee’s more expensive per cup, 50 cents or more, and the quality is mediocre. Only advantage is convenience.”
media matters
Coming Home: A Guide to Dying at Home With Dignity Deborah Duda ’63 Aurora Press In ever increasing numbers, terminally ill people are choosing to spend their last days at home, in the warmth of familiar surroundings. With skyrocketing hospital and nursing home costs, sometimes there is no choice. Duda outlines how to make the final weeks as comfortable and meaningful as possible, answering questions with sensitivity and knowledge born of her firsthand experience. Diagrams support the techniques described. HOA Wars: What Happens in Vegas Can Happen Anywhere Robert Stern ’70 Tate Publishing There is a good and bad side to homeowner associations. A governing body over specific neighborhoods ensures stability, protects aesthetics and value, and sets a tone for culture in a community. The “darker side” tends to lend itself to overreach, abuse of power, ego, and ugly political battles. Describing himself as one of the 63 million Americans who live under the jurisdiction of a HOA, Stern says, “This book is mostly about power struggles and how damaging they are to homeowners’ interests and how difficult navigating the issues can be.”
Hard Truth: Secret of the Back Row Patricia Adams Bortz ’73 Tate Publishing A pervasive computer shutdown paralyzes the entire world, already devastated by natural catastrophic disasters. Megan, a sassy, budding TV reporter, hungers for an exciting life at the top. Sixtus, president of the New World Order, is obsessed with her beauty. Challenged by Megan’s tenacity, he stalks her, entraps her, and shreds her world. As the spiritual world battles for her soul and monsters within tear her apart, she searches but cannot satisfy her longing for inner peace. Megan needs the Hard Truth. Upstyle Your Furniture Stephanie Johns Jones ’84 Apple Press An instructive how-to book, Upstyle Your Furniture covers everything from which tools and materials to understanding and protecting surfaces. It includes 27 step-by-step illustrated tutorials, accompanied by more than 300 color images. The book also contains extensive information on preparation and resources and details on embellishing projects with paint, paper, fabric, and trims. From faux marble-topped tables to hand-painted fabric, this is a comprehensive guide to various techniques that you can use to customize your furniture.
Muscle Cars Stephen Eoannou MA ’88 Santa Fe Writer’s Project The stories in Muscle Cars explore the unique and sometimes flawed relationships between men, their families, and their friends. Featuring a diverse cast of inarticulate misfits — including a compulsive body builder obsessed by the death of his brother, a former boxer forced to sell his prized 1946 New York Yankees-autographed baseball, and two boyhood friends who plan to steal Ted Williams’ scientifically frozen head — this debut from Pushcart-nominated Eoannou is a powerful journey through the humor, darkness, and neuroses of the modern American everyman. Facing Wayne Gretzky Brian Kennedy PhD ’93 Sports Publishing Facing Wayne Gretzky offers perspectives and testimonials from opponents and teammates. Never has another hockey player achieved what “The Great One” did, and it is unlikely that one will soon, Kennedy says. This book details what it’s like to face the best player who ever skated, illuminating his passing ability, his deceptively effective shot, and his inventiveness both with the puck and without. Gretzky holds some 63 records, including most goals, assists, and points scored in a career.
NOTED EUCLID QUARTET Luis Vargas MM ’99
Bartok String Quartets Nos. 1, 3, & 5 Luis Enrique Vargas MM ’99 is violist in the Euclid Quartet. Taking its name from Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue, this awardwinning group holds the prestigious residency at the South Bend campus of Indiana University. Artek (label)
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my story
Editor’s note: Rebecca Eldemire died Feb. 1, 2015, when her ex-boyfriend shot her and then killed himself in her off-campus Oxford apartment. A junior at Miami, Becca was majoring in geography and geographic information science. Much was written about the murdersuicide and Becca as the victim in the days after the tragedy. Here is Becca, vibrant and vivacious, as remembered by her friends.
MY STORY is a place for you to share reminiscences and observations about everyday happenings. Submit your essay for consideration to: Donna Boen, Miamian editor, “My Story,” 108 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or Miamian@ MiamiOH.edu. Please limit yourself to 900 words and include your name, class year, address, and home phone number.
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Remembering Becca By Alicia Auhagen ’16
My first conversation with Becca Eldemire was supposed to last precisely 2 minutes. That’s all the time allotted members of Miami’s Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity when we’re chatting oneon-one with prospective members at our recruitment event. But as the “Errrrt! Errrrt!” of the timer sounded, Becca and I kept talking over the shuffle of people changing seats.
my story
She had lived my dream of traveling to Africa. She had so much knowledge about the environment. She had unruly dark hair like me. I knew immediately — here was my “little.” There’s an informal tradition in our chapter that when a member claims a new initiate as “little,” the family gathers together for a celebratory outing. We spent an evening in Panera, our favorite restaurant. Over salads, paninis, and bread bowls of soup we talked about our love for Panera. Which, as many conversations with Becca eventually did, turned into a fascinating discussion of cooking locally grown foods, farming, and other environmental topics.
****
The lights were off. The shade was drawn. The day was cruel. And so lay Jacqueline Morgan atop her bed in Peabody Hall. Someone knocked loudly at the door, but she made no move to answer it. “It’s Becca!” said a cheerful voice from the other side of the door. Jacqueline, still in bed, protested. “No, open the door.” She sighed deeply, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and dragged herself across the room. When she opened the door, she came face to face with — no one. She looked down. Becca was bouncing on a giant yellow exercise ball. She hopped her way into Jacqueline’s room, her dark curls bouncing along with her as she explained that replacing a
Becca Eldemire and her “big sister,” Alicia Auhagen, celebrate the induction of Miami’s Phi Sigma Pi’s fall 2014 pledge class.
desk chair with an exercise ball strengthens the core and burns more calories. At least according to an article she’d read. “Becca, none of this makes any sense,” Jacqueline told her, laughing. “You’re not going to use this.” “You’re wrong! I’m gonna stick to this!” Becca said, still bouncing. Suddenly, she soared through the air screaming loudly as the ball flew out from under her. While she flopped to the ground in a heap of laughter, the ball ricocheted off the bed, the desk, and back again. For nearly 20 minutes, Becca giggled uncontrollably on the floor, filling Jacqueline’s room with deep, resonant laughter that makes the heart smile.
****
“Jacqueline, I figured it out.” Becca returned to her friend’s room later that freshman year for a different occasion. She’d been thinking a lot about how to combine her passion for the environment, for people, and for educating people about the environment. “I want to be a farmer.” Jacqueline paused a moment. An image of Becca holding a pitchfork
came to mind. “Absolutely not. We’re going to find something else for you to do because you can’t, Becca. You’re from suburban Columbus, Ohio. You can’t be a farmer.” But as Jacqueline and many of Becca’s friends soon learned, her dreams stretched well beyond the farm. She planned to open a restaurant serving food she would grow herself. She planned to educate others about where their food comes from and how to make the earth more sustainable. As Becca dreamed, Becca did. She spent the summer of 2014 working at That Guy’s Farm in Clarksville, Ohio, caring for plants, animals, and humans alike.
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Sometimes when I’m sitting in a crowded room, I think I can hear her laugh bellowing above the hum of conversation. I close my eyes and relive our dinners at Martin Dining Hall, our Bagel & Deli runs, our adventures with Phi Sigma Pi. Because of her, I show a little more love to the earth. I open my heart to the world. I keep singing Becca’s song.
Becca giggled uncontrollably on the floor, filling Jacqueline’s room with deep, resonant laughter that makes the heart smile.
****
I’d like to offer a very special thankyou to Ashley Gordon ’15, Grace Clements ’16, Allison Hoornbeek ’15, Jacqueline Morgan ’15, and Julianne Ballog ’16 for sharing their memories of Becca with me. The Rebecca C. Eldemire BEEPs Foundation has been created in her honor. BEEPs, her childhood nickname, stands for Betterment for Environmental and Earth Protection.
Alicia Auhagen ’16 is a junior professional writing major and 2-D media minor from Cincinnati.
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good place iA i to call homE
USA Miami’s hometown of Oxford, Ohio, is basking in the national spotlight these days after being touted by several online rankings as an excellent place to live.
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3
OXFORD
came in third on Livability’s list for 10 Best College Towns at the start of this past academic year. The editors said Miami students and Oxford residents “enjoy a low crime rate, a thriving arts and cultural scene, affordable housing, and great schools.” Examining various factors, including walkability, entertainment scenes, and recreational opportunities, they also looked at the partnership between college and town. “Oxford has evolved around the campus of Miami and grown with the school,” the Livability editors said. “Many historic homes, school buildings, and stores, including those in Mile Square, create an almost whimsical link to the past.” Town residents and Miamians alike were especially proud when, at the end of first semester, WalletHub ranked Oxford the No. 1 best college town in the U.S. among 280 cities. WalletHub writer Richie Bernardo said the personal finance website analyzed 23 metrics, including the quality of higher education, crime rates, and the cost of living to find the cities and towns “that promise the best or worst combination of academic, social, and economic atmospheres.” Oxford’s top ranking caught the attention of Forbes staff writer Kathryn Dill, who expounded on it in her article “The 10 Best and Worst College Cities and Towns in the U.S.” “Geography may have a bigger impact on college experience than many students realize,” Dill wrote. “WalletHub also took into
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consideration the average monthly cost of purchases akin to college students, like a fitness center membership or pizza and burgers. Oxford has one of the highest percentages of students per capita, one of the highest percentages of part-time jobs, and among the lowest occurrences of brain drain (the annual change in the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher).” In May the financial services website NerdWallet announced that Oxford sits at No. 3 on its list of top 100 cities with the fastest growing middle class. This study examined census data for 1,946 U.S. cities to find
where average middle-class income increased the most from 2007 to 2013. Its numbers for Oxford were: population — 21,483, middleclass share of aggregate income — 41.97 percent, 20072013 change in middle-class share of aggregate household income — 11.33 percent. NerdWallet reporter Sreekar Jasthi stated, “Nearly all of the places where the middle class is growing stronger are small cities. “In large cities, the average middle-class income of about $52,194 is 16 percent lower than the average household income of $62,150 earned by the middle class in smaller cities,” Jasthi wrote. “These figures reflect a narrative that has long existed — that suburbia is a friendlier place for the
2
middle class than large urban centers and the challenges of those locations, such as cost of living, safety, and quality of schools.” That’s no surprise to the Miami alumni who have called Oxford their home for four years or more, many staying here to raise their families and foster their careers. With all these kudos, this seems like a perfect time to share recent photos of Uptown with its red-bricked streets, charming shops, gorgeous parks, and popular local eateries. Enjoy.
Between the Miami Natural Areas and Hueston Woods State Park, Oxford is surrounded by over 40 miles of recreational trails. Craving Mac & Joe’s steak hoagie or Skipper’s cheese fries? They’re still Uptown [1], along with more than 20 other locally owned restaurants and shops. The Oxford Memorial Park [2] opened in 2000, two years after the water tower was removed. It hosts numerous community and university events, such as the music festival every Thursday evening in the summer and the Latin American and Caribbean UniDiversity Festival in September. Talawanda School District, which is Oxford’s school district, and Miami University enjoy a great partnership with more than 600 university students volunteering [3] in the local schools every semester.
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BY ANDREW FAUGHT
No Whey! European Union
claims U.S. up to no
Gouda, demands new cheese names
This is no ordinary food fight. In one corner is the European Union (EU). Its 28member states are pursuing a free-trade pact with the United States that could ban the sale of American-made cheeses on the continent if manufacturers continue to identify their products by Eurocentric identifiers: Parmesan, Asiago, Gorgonzola, and Feta among them.
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On the other side are opponents who include Jeffrey Schwager ’82, president of the Plymouth, Wis.-based Sartori Co., a 75-year-old, family-owned artisan cheese business. He argues that such names are generic and long-standing. “When the EU was formed in the ’90s, some of the things that were done to create incentives for countries to join were to create geographic indicators, so Parmesan — for Parma — and Asiago could only be made in Italy, or Brie in France, and all of those things were agreed upon,” Schwager says. “But what they’re thinking now is they can get protection for these geographic indicators everywhere else in the world. And it’s not just dairy. They’re looking at Bologna; they’re looking at Bratwurst.” Schwager, who earned a business degree at Miami, has voiced concerns to congressional leaders and to officials in the U.S. Trade Ambassador’s Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He arrived at Sartori in 2006, a time of transition not only for that company, but also for cheese producers around the United States. “U.S. cheese companies have really gotten better over the last 10 to 15 years,” he says, noting that Sartori’s muchlauded Parmesan leads a roster of 30 award-winning varietals manufactured at the plant. “It really is world class.” Schwager joined Sartori after spending more than 19 years as president of Milwaukee-based Rite-Hite Products
Corp., which builds loading dock safety systems. The cheesemaker’s CEO, James Sartori, told the local business journal at the time that Schwager had “successfully built profitable businesses through people development and innovative products.” His newest challenge is a decidedly different kind of trial. A trade pact, which would remove tariffs and ease regulatory burdens, could be hammered out by the end of the year. The Obama administration, meanwhile, has said that it’s not ready to cede to European demands. American grocery conglomerate Kraft, however, already has protected its place in the European market by renaming its Parmesan “Pamesello Italiano.” No matter how you slice it, it’s the potential impact on their bottom line that has American cheesemakers worried. “Europe is looking at having trade protection in three-fourths or more of the world’s economy 15 to 20 years from now,” Schwager says. “It would be a substantial hurt to the specialty cheese producers here in the United States. We actually make more Parmesan and Asiago cheese in the United States than they make in Italy. In a lot of cases, we’ve built the market for these cheeses worldwide.” European demands are eliciting a one-word retort: Baloney. “We’re talking about products that for decades, if not generations, have been produced in many areas of the world, and long ago came to signify a type of cheese or food that could be made anywhere,” says Shawna Morris, senior director of the international Consortium for Common Food Names, a nonprofit alliance fighting to preserve generic food names.
“Efforts to block competitors’ usage of these commonly used food names, in our view, simply amount to trying to limit competition,” Morris adds. “What we’re saying is allow these products to go head-to-head in the marketplace and let the consumer decide.” At Sartori, Schwager has dramatically raised the profile of the company, which traditionally has served the ingredient and food service marketplace. Public support for their products propelled Sartori in 2006 to expand into retail stores with a platter of artisan fare. Under Schwager’s watch, Sartori cheeses, which include Asiago and Gorgonzola, have won more than 200 awards in international competitions. In 2013, Sartori’s Sarvecchio Parmesan beat out Italian competitors and took first place in the Global Cheese Awards, the world’s oldest competition of its kind. (“There’s a real fruity flavor to it, and then you’re going to get a caramelized, nutty finish on the back,” Schwager says of the winning entry). In a fit of pique, the Italians threatened legal action against contest organizers and made them remove results from the competition website. The Parmesan category was eliminated the following year and renamed “open class for hard cheeses.” “Petty is a good word to describe it,” Schwager says. “We think the industry gets better if everybody improves what they’re doing, and there is more world-class cheese out there for the consumer.” If Sartori wants to sell its Parmesan on the continent, Europeans have suggested an alternative name: hard grating cheese. It’s enough to make Schwager wince. “It doesn’t quite sound the same way, does it?” he says. “We’re in an
“ Petty is a good
word to describe it. We think the industry gets
better if everybody improves what they’re doing, and there is
more world-class cheese out there
for the consumer.” —Jeffrey Schwager ’82
interesting time right now, and you just don’t know what is going to come out of a big negotiation like this.” After all, wedge issues abound. Andrew Faught is a freelance writer based in Fresno, Calif.
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K I C K S TA R T I N G
Creativity STORY BY BETSA MARSH / PHOTO BY TEA HO
From books and buttons to goggles and fertile chicken eggs, Missy Sherburne ’93 helps make learning a grand adventure 24 miamian magazine
Missy Sherburne ’93 knows firsthand how the right classroom resources motivate children to learn. And how sadly lacking those resources can be. When she taught in Baltimore, she often spent part of her salary on supplies, buying Skittles and M&Ms to help with counting skills. Her school had no library, so she went to penny sales at public libraries and begged remnants from carpet stores. Now, as the chief partnerships officer for DonorsChoose.org, she’s helping to raise funds for other teachers in public classrooms, teachers such as Mrs. Holamon. Mrs. Holamon’s students clamored to read to therapy dogs — even those students who hated reading — so she signed into the online charity and requested books. In another classroom, Ms. Daley’s 28 second-graders were thinking outside the book. When she asked what they could create to help someone, they envisioned a prosthetic arm. To make that happen, they needed a 3-D printer. The day after Ms. Daley’s request went live, the $1,695 price tag was covered. The next day DonorsChoose bought the printer and shipped it to her classroom. “My kids have been so empowered,” Daley wrote in her thank-you to donors. “They now want to be engineers and see themselves as the agents of change and innovation that will make the world a better place.” As heartening as these successes are to Sherburne, who marvels at those second-graders, one of her favorite projects is at Alexander Elementary. When she visited the Greenville, S.C., school, she saw young gentlemen marching down the hallways heads up, shoulders back, all sharp red bowties and navy blazers. They were Men Who Read.
:
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:
The lads were headed off to meet another gentleman, a grown-up in his own jacket and tie, from their community. He was there to read with these third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders. Their monthly meetings show DonorsChoose.org in action. The charity has revolutionized this elementary school, its teachers having raised more than $118,000 since 2010. Most of the donations have paid for basic supplies, but some went to those navy blazers and bowties. “It was so powerful. To see how proud the boys were of themselves — they looked like a million dollars and felt like it,” says Sherburne, who has two boys in public grade school herself. “Here was a teacher going above and beyond.”
“It was so powerful. To see how proud the boys were of themselves — they looked like a million dollars and felt like it.” “REVOLUTIONARY IDEA”
Immediacy, transparency, and gratitude mark the DonorsChoose experience, philanthropy for the wired world. It’s the first charity in the Top 10 of Fast Company magazine’s list of “50 Most Innovative Companies in the World,” hitting No. 9 among such giants as Google, Bloomberg, and Nike. It supports teachers in America’s high-poverty schools, those with 65 percent or more of their students receiving free and reduced-price lunches. Public school teachers in need of funding post
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their project proposals on the website. Then donors click through their gifts. When donations hit the goal, DonorsChoose buys the materials and ships them off. Teachers write thank-you letters, share action photos of the project, and report how each dollar is spent. Pony up $50 or more, and the students write their own messages to the donors. Founder Charles Best calls it citizen philanthropy. Even if you give as little as $1, “you get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives millions.” Millions weren’t on his horizon when Best created the organization in 2000. Teaching in a Bronx high school, buying his own supplies, he created the website and posted 10 projects suggested by fellow teachers. Uncertain, he secretly funded the requests himself. Thrilled, his colleagues spread the link. The New York-based charity puttered along until 2003, when Oprah featured Best on her show. She called it “a revolutionary idea,” and 15 seconds later DonorsChoose.Org crashed under the clicks, $250,000 richer. That same day, Sherburne’s phone rang. Calling was a board member from her Teach for America days. “I saw this charity on Oprah,” he told her, “and I think you need to bring it to North Carolina.” It may have been the perfect person, perfect time. After years with Teach for America (TFA), a new master’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School, and a new marriage license, Sherburne was in Raleigh planning her next career move. “I knew I wanted an organization that was results-oriented and firm on its mission,” she recalls from her Asheville, N.C., base. “And it had to be risk-friendly because that’s where people and organizations really grow.”
TRANSFORMATIONAL EXPERIENCES
Years earlier, some might have said it was risky for Sherburne to take her new Miami degree in political science and speech communication into a low-income elementary school in Baltimore. “In my junior year at Miami, I saw a poster about Teach for America and something about being able to teach without majoring in education. I knew it was what I should be doing next.” Was it genetic? Her parents met while teaching in public schools in western D.C. “The Baltimore school was very different from my educational experience in Potomac, Md. It was such an amazing experience — I learned so much, my students learned so much, we learned so much together.” After teaching and staff positions with TFA Baltimore, Sherburne took on North Carolina TFA as executive director. It was in startup mode, raising $60,000 a year — barely enough to support itself. Five years later, the figure was $360,000. Sherburne worked with a chemistry teacher with no lab supplies. Another teaching colleague shared frustrations that her students lived only two hours from the coast but had never seen the Atlantic. She wanted to get them to the beach. So when Sherburne heard about this charity for public schools, she flashed back to all those Skittles and bargain books, all the teachers who wanted to create transformational experiences. “When I was teaching, this is what I needed.”
RISK-TAKING ENCOURAGED
In 2004, she signed on as DonorsChoose Employee No. 3 when the organization was raising a million a year — now it’s on track to raise $75 million. Crowdsourcing wasn’t even a word when Best founded the online charity. “We didn’t realize that we would start a movement to deliver materials
Colbert auctioned his studio self-portrait for $26,000 and claimed Fallon had matched the amount. He just didn’t tell Fallon. to more than 414 million students,” she says. Sherburne and her team partner with corporations and foundations to bring in mega-gifts, and often to channel innovation directly into young hands. “We’re changing the educational system. We’re connecting teachers and entrepreneurs. Through us, makers of open-water robots and 3-D printers have put them into classrooms. Teachers have the latest in technology and don’t have to wait for school systems to decide to fund it — who knows when that would be.” Some school administrators turn to the charity to learn what their teachers are requesting. That data can influence budget allocations at the district level. The charity also rewards teachers who bring in new opportunities. The organization has a three-year partnership with Google to start college advance placement classes in low-income communities. Teachers and their students who pass the tests receive donor cards to spend. The cachet of those little pieces of plastic soared when Stephen Colbert began championing DonorsChoose on his show and handing every guest a donor card. The comedian’s now on the board, along with the CEO of LinkedIn and the chief marketing officer of Facebook. “Our board members tell us our work is just as innovative as theirs. We’re 15 years old, but still operating like a startup. Risktaking is encouraged,” Sherburne says. Colbert risked a dare with Jimmy Fallon, making him his BFF for six months and challenging him to raise money for DonorsChoose. Colbert auctioned his studio self-portrait for $26,000 and claimed Fallon had matched the amount. He just didn’t tell Fallon.
On his Tonight Show, Fallon took up the gauntlet and said if the Fallon/Colbert Project raised $26,000 by April 1, Stephen Colbert would sing Rebecca Black's “Friday” accompanied by the Roots. The money came in and Colbert sang. Colbert went on to raffle off his fireplace and desk for more than $313,000, which went straight into DonorsChoose’s bank account. “You know exactly who you’re helping,” he said, “and how you’re helping them.”
LASER-FOCUSED
“For the 2014–2015 school year, we were laser-focused on $75 million,” Sherburne says. “Our goal, in any one year, is for 1 million people to give $100 million to 100 percent of our nation’s high-poverty schools.” She knows the old joke about hoping for the day when schools automatically receive all the funds they need, and the Pentagon holds bake sales to buy tanks. “We’ve raised more than $314 million since 2000,” she counters. “We see the best teachers in the country, and these projects are life-changing for teachers and students. We’re at the intersection of philanthropy, technology, and education, and I have such a sense of optimism and hope.” Betsa Marsh wrote about satirist P.J. O’Rourke ’69 and Baby Boomers in the Winter 2015 Miamian.
Empowering schoolchildren
When First Lady Michelle Obama calls your charity “exactly the kind of social innovation we should be encouraging across this country,” that just about covers it. Still, Missy Sherburne ’93, chief partnerships officer of DonorsChoose.org, has a few favorites among the thousands of teachers’ projects funded by donors. She loves Men Who Read in South Carolina (see main feature) and the Michigan teacher whose grade-schoolers are “ambitious watershed stewards” working to populate artificial reefs with native lake trout. With DonorsChoose donations, they built six underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to place the fish on the reef. The teacher wrote. “Learning should be an adventure.” A high school class in Massachusetts built an underwater ROV in collaboration with the fire department to help divers search and rescue. The teacher reported, “The students are so proud to be able to take on something of such importance.” A teacher in a Tennessee kindergarten posted a challenge: “Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Literature?” She cited a study: “Of 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, just 93 were about Black people.” The books rolled in. The teacher reported, “… clapping, gasps, and big smiles have been a constant reminder of how important books, especially ones featuring Black American characters, are in our classroom.” Sherburne also dotes on The Bulldog Blend Café, a coffee shop in an Illinois high school run by students with such disabilities as Down syndrome, autism, and cerebral palsy. The teacher needed supplies, and donors filled his cart. “I love this program, putting kids into roles that are meaningful and fulfilling,” Sherburne says. “This teacher brought his ingenuity, seeing success and opportunity for his students.”
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love & honor
Eye on the Goal Ice hockey the model as Miami seeks athletic excellence By Vince Frieden
Miami hockey finished eighth nationally this season, catching fire in the postseason and claiming the NCHC Frozen Faceoff and earning its ninth trip to the NCAA Tournament in the past 10 seasons. Dublin, Ohio, senior forward Sean Kuraly, drafted by the San Jose Sharks, is Miami’s captain for 2015–2016.
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A boisterous, sellout crowd packs Steve “Coach” Cady Arena at Goggin Ice Center. Miami’s nationally ranked hockey team is competing on the ice and graduating at rates above the national average. An impressive row of NCAA postseason banners — 10 in the past 12 years — spans the rafters. It is intercollegiate athletics the way it should be. “Not many programs can say they have that many banners in that time frame,”
says Steve Cady, Miami’s first head hockey coach and longtime athletic administrator. “It’s the result of a lot of good people working hard and investing themselves and their trust into building a program you would be proud for your son to be part of.” Athletic Director David Sayler says it’s a model Miami would like to replicate throughout its department of intercollegiate athletics. “We need to be a pillar of how to do college athletics the right way, and we can
love & honor
do that here with the right facilities, resources, and all the other opportunities Miami provides,” he says. In April, Sayler announced the $80 million Graduating Champions Campaign as a commitment to ushering in a new generation of athletic facilities and bolstering scholarship support for the university’s 500-plus student-athletes. PR ECAR I O US STA RT Soaking up the atmosphere on game night in Goggin, one of the nation’s finest ice rink facilities, you might think it’s always been this great for the program. Still fewer than four decades old, varsity ice hockey is a relative newcomer to the university’s storied athletic tradition, but it has emerged as a flagship program. According to Cady, that path to prominence was not easy. “The belief was that we were too far south, and no one here would support hockey,” Cady recalls. “It took commitment and sacrifice from a lot of people — players, coaches, alumni, arena staff, community members, and administrators — to move the program along.” Miami’s original vision for Goggin Ice Arena was to host a club hockey team and an intramural program, but then-President Phillip Shriver saw potential for something more. He asked student and club hockey member Jim Phillips ’78 to present to the board of trustees on the value of varsity hockey. Phillips, who went on to captain Miami’s first varsity team, made an impression. The team was elevated to varsity status in 1978–1979 and admitted into the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) in 1981–1982. Through its first 21 seasons, hockey battled uphill with a young alumni base, limited financial support, and continued doubts about its ability to succeed. It won a single conference championship and
made two NCAA postseason appearances while three times staving off elimination as a varsity sport. Then, three critical pieces fell into place, beginning in spring 1999. An investment from alumni, led by former goaltender Tom Brown ’80, created significant endowed scholarship support and ensured the program’s long-term stability. Momentum built when thenAthletic Director Joel Maturi took a chance on 27-year-old Enrico Blasi ’94, one of the program’s own, and named him head coach. Within two years, plans were being developed for a new Goggin Ice Center, the third crucial step. S OL I D I CE Success followed. In his fifth season, Blasi led the Red and White to the NCAA Tournament. Two years later, in their final season in the old Goggin, the RedHawks captured the CCHA championship and made the first of eight consecutive NCAA postseason appearances. In 2009, Miami ice hockey — now nationally respected as “The Brotherhood” — made its first NCAA Frozen Four appearance and became the only Miami team to play in a national championship game. “A long list of people invested generously of themselves, their time, and their money because they believed in where Miami hockey was going,” Blasi says. “We’ve enjoyed the benefit of that commitment, and it remains important to our future. It’s one thing to get to this level. It’s harder to stay there.” Continued investment recently added a state-of-the-art weight and conditioning room to Goggin, and Miami has secured Blasi, the program’s winningest head coach, to a 10-year contract through 2022–2023. “Our ice hockey program is a case study in what can be achieved here,”
GRADUATING CHAMPIONS
At the April 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new David and Anita Dauch Indoor Sports Center (DISC), Athletic Director David Sayler announced that more than $49 million already has been raised toward the $80 million Graduating Champions Campaign objective. In addition to financing the DISC and the Goggin Ice Center weight and conditioning room, major gifts have led to the start of construction on baseball’s Legacy Project at Hayden Park and the planned construction of football’s Gunlock Family Athletic Performance Center. To learn more about these projects and the campaign, visit MiamiOH.edu/ GraduatingChampions.
Sayler says. “The program is producing graduates and leaders who are learning life skills on the ice, and it is winning. We can have that type of success in all our programs, and the Graduating Champions Campaign is bringing alumni and friends together behind that vision.” According to Blasi, whose team is coming off a National College Hockey Conference tournament title and another NCAA tournament appearance, the most important element to building championship programs at Miami is already in place. “Long before we named it ‘The Brotherhood,’ Miami ice hockey was a family,” Blasi says, “just as I believe Miami is a family.”
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love & honor
Work Still to be Done Journalist and humanitarian Mark Curnutte ’84 honored as Bishop Medalist By Vince Frieden While Mark Curnutte ’84 lay in a hospital bed, chemotherapy pumping through a titanium port in his chest, his mind drifted back 30 years to Miami University and the classroom of literature professor Frank Jordan. The subject was Everyman, a 15th-century English morality play about the fleeting nature of life and that which we take with us in the end. Curnutte, his vitality drained by the hours of cancer treatments and his mortality in full view, suddenly found himself in the lead role. “At only age 51, I started to think about what I had done with my life,” he recalled. “What would I say to my creator about what I’d done with the gifts, talents, and blessings I had received?” Three months cancer-free, he returned to campus in February for the Miami University Alumni Association’s annual awards dinner. One of eight honored, he accepted the prestigious Bishop Medal, awarded to alumni in recognition of distinguished service to others. And by nearly every account, his is a life that has made a difference. A sportswriter turned nationally respected social justice writer, he has a decorated career spanning more than 30 years. He covered seven Super Bowls and devoted nine years to writing about the Cincinnati Bengals before shifting to social justice reporting. He describes his transition as a “natural bridge,” pointing to the historical role that sports and figures like Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali have played in bringing issues of race and inequality to the national forefront. The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists honored him as Ohio Reporter of the Year in 2013 and 2014 for his coverage of issues ranging from race and immigration to poverty and exploitation. A 2013 International Reporting Fellow, he
received a Ford Foundation grant and penned an award-winning article on migrant Haitians in the sugar industry. Curnutte has traveled to Haiti regularly as a volunteer with the nonprofit aid organization Hands Together. His life-altering experiences there became the subject of his heartfelt 2011 book, A Promise in Haiti: A Reporter’s Notes on Families and Daily Lives. He considers his fundraising efforts for clean water wells, sanitation facilities, and farming co-ops in Haiti more important than his contributions as a writer. In accepting the honor, with professor Jordan at his table and Everyman’s challenge in his mind, Curnutte spoke not of a life lived well but of work still to be done. He announced that following his recent retirement from the Cincinnati Enquirer, he is beginning a second career in civil rights. He’ll be working in Cincinnati neighborhoods, “with the desire to use the gifts I’ve been given and that people here at Miami helped me develop as a young man,” Curnutte told the audience. In May he became vice president of marketing, communications, and key initiatives for the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio. “I believe strongly in the mission of the Urban League to positively affect generations by securing living-wage employment that leads to economic self-sufficiency.” Closing his stirring remarks to a standing ovation, he embraced the Bishop Medal as an honor worth living up to. “And that’s what I hope someday I will take before my creator,” he said. “I took the blessings of my family. I took my Miami education. I took the lessons of my professors. And I’ll say I did the best I could with what I was given.”
Vince Frieden is associate director of development communications within Miami’s division of university advancement.
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2015 ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENTS The following individuals were honored at the 2015 Alumni Association Awards Dinner Feb. 21, 2015: Ron Harper ’86 Distinguished Achievement Award Mark Curnutte ’84 Bishop Medal ABOUT THE BISHOP MEDAL Established in 1936, the Bishop Medal is named in honor of Robert Hamilton Bishop, Miami’s first president. It is given to individuals who have distinguished themselves in service to fellow human beings.
He’ll be working in Cincinnati neighborhoods, “with the desire to use the gifts I’ve been given and that people here at Miami helped me develop as a young man.”
<< Near the village of Petite Riviera de l’Artibonite, this girl came up to Mark Curnutte ’84 and asked to hold his hand and have her photo taken. A fellow in a program for international social justice reporting, he was in Haiti and the Dominican Republic on a Ford Foundation grant.
Greg Dunlop ’94 John E. Dolibois Award Tammy Kernodle Effective Educator Award Brandon Beeken ’06 H. Kenneth Gambee Award Jerry Strohmenger Hon ’15 Honorary Alumnus Jessica Loxley A.K. Morris Award Brent Shock ’92 Dave Roberts Award
Pictured l-r: (front row) Brandon Beeken ’06, Jessica Loxley, Jerry Strohmenger Hon ’15; (back row) Mark Curnutte ’84, Greg Dunlop ’94, and Brent Shock ’92.
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photo from Miami University Libraries, Frank Snyder Collection
class notes
Tree Day in 1935 on Western College for Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campus.
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class notes
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George Dales was inducted in the MAC Hall of Fame in May. During his tenure as coach, Western Michigan won back-to-back NCAA cross-country championships and accumulated 12 (out of 13 seasons) MAC titles in track and field and eight in cross-country. His cross-country teams finished in the top 10 nationally 13 times. ¶ Flora Brewer Stewart celebrated her 95th birthday at the Café Sparrow near her home in Aptos, Calif., Jan. 24, 2015. Decked out with an orchid corsage and her Phi Beta Kappa key pin, she enjoyed a beautiful lunch and a lovely tribute by her eldest daughter, Margaret.
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Reunion ¶ Phyllis Thompson
Wing and Linda Wing Blake
’75, mother-daughter Miamians, were
both Spanish majors and Phi Beta Kappa. Linda writes, “Mom took a state scholarship test and was awarded three years of tuition at Miami — a grand total of $240! During her junior year, Mom was the business manager of Recensio, for which she was paid $400.” Phyllis celebrated her 91st birthday in March. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.)
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Edward Clark of Medford,
Mass., made good use of his time inside during the historic snows this winter by completing the trilogy of his autobiography, A Man From Ohio. Volume III: Home in the World begins in 1961 with Ed joining Suffolk University’s English department. It follows him for three decades, from a young associate professor into a beloved mentor and indefatigable champion of African-American literature and belles lettres.
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Ray Lockhart of Salem,
S.C., reports that with many
granddaughters and great-granddaughters, his family has made two wonderful trips to Miami for the graduation of their two “Erins,” one in 2004 and one last year. “It’s great also to have three generations of Miami graduates!”
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Tom Denham of Kalispell, Mont., has written his first book, PIOT (CreateSpace, 2015). The story centers on a private island in the Bahamas and pilot Scott Wilson, hired to fly missions against terrorist groups under the island country’s name, PIOT, which stands for Peace In Our Time. A pilot himself, Tom live in northwest Montana with wife Betty. ¶ Carl Lindbloom ’54 MArch ’56 has retired as an urban design consultant and relocated to Frederick, Md. He and his co-authors have published the fourth edition of The Complete Illustrated Book of Development Definitions (Transaction, 2015), a popular manual for urban planners.
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Albert Dickas ’55 MS ’56 of Blacksburg, Va., has written his second book on interesting and educational geology sites to visit in the U.S. Ohio Rocks: A guide to geologic sites in the Buckeye State (Mountain Press) reviews 50 locations, one of which is Miami Bluffs, the 25,000-year-old exposure of glacial sediments lining the banks of Collins Creek in Peffer Park on the south end of Miami’s Oxford campus. ¶ Ronald Helman ’55 MS ’57 received the Shepardson Award from Beta Theta Pi during the Miami chapter’s 175th anniversary conference. Beta’s top award recognizes exemplary dedication to the general fraternity. He has served as Beta’s administrative secretary, a vice president on the fraternity’s board, a member of the foundation’s board, and a member of the board of the National Interfraternity
Conference. He continues to serve on Beta’s advisory council. Retired from Michigan Technological University where he was executive director of the Michigan Tech Fund and vice president, he coaches three community campaigns. He and Lou Ellyn Alexander Helman ’56 live in Chassell, Mich.
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Reunion ¶ Stuart Bowyer, professor emeritus of astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, was celebrated on his 80th birthday with an all-day colloquium attended by more than 80 people. He was commemorated as the founder of the field of extreme ultraviolet astronomy and for his leadership in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. His contributions in X-ray astronomy and his work in the characterization of the interstellar medium were also noted. Thirty of his former doctoral and postdoctoral students reported on their research. A banquet and recounting of personal reminiscences by the attendees concluded the celebration.
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Bill Hoaglin, Press Bliss, Bill Mallory, Rich Voiers, and Jim
Miller gathered at Bill Mallory’s Naples,
Fla., home for lunch. They celebrated their Miami years working the dining rooms at Reid, Swing, Bishop, and Ogden halls. Bill Mallory was the winner of the annual “Miami Silver Pitcher Award,” named in honor of Mazie Minor, the long-suffering supervisor of working athletes in the dining halls. ¶ Bill Mallory ’57, Ellie Sweeney Mallory ’58, Sandy Stoutt Pont ’55 MEd ’89, Katie Davis Parseghian ’50, and Ara Parseghian ’49 MEd ’54 gathered for their annual luncheon in Naples, Fla. Miami University football was the major topic of conversation. (See both photos in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.)
SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE Please send news of your life to: Donna Boen, Miamian, 108 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or Miamian@MiamiOH.edu. Include your name, class year, address, and phone number. For more class news, go online to MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.
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class notes
Chamber of Commerce. B.T., chair of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, orchestrates the nonprofit’s free business services. He served on the city’s sustainability task force and is a member of the Chico Airport Commission. ¶ Chuck Pettis has published a book of short stories, The Hummingbird and the Hawk (BookLogix). In the 10 stories, Brave Wolf, an elder of the Armaha, tells his granddaughter, Smiling Fawn, tribal legends about her people. Filled with mystery, wonder, and adventure, they help Smiling Fawn understand the beliefs her people guard and treasure. Laura Pawuk ’94 and her brother, Andrew Pawuk ’00, during a party to celebrate Andrew’s wedding, share the clay handprints they made in kindergarten with Susan Carrithers Strauss ’47, their kindergarten teacher in Maumee, Ohio. Like many parents, theirs have kept those handprints in the kitchen since the time Laura and Andrew proudly brought them home.
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Carole Kuhn MEd ’58 Specialist in Education ’82
PhD ’85 of Hamilton has published Mémoires of a Travelholic about her 45 trips abroad. In it, she describes adventures taken with her French and Russian students. After retiring in 1992, she took up biking in Europe. ¶ Margo Phillips McIntyre sent in a photo of the Miami McIntyre Family Christmas 2014. Margo and Roger ’59 are parents to Roger Jr. ’82 and Margaret McIntyre Gallagher ’86. Roger and Barbara Warshauer McIntyre ’82 are parents to Mikayla ’16. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum. org/Miamian.) ¶ John H. White Jr. of Oxford is the 2015 recipient of the Capt. Donald T. Wright Award, presented by the Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library to notable authors and journalists of distinguished riverrelated literature. Jack has written many transportation-related books. He worked for the Smithsonian Institution 1958-1990 as curator and senior historian for transportation in the Museum of History and Technology.
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Reunion ¶ B.T. Chapman was awarded Business Advocate of the Year, 2014 by the Chico, Calif.,
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Tom Fritz, after completing a career in the military, began an orchestra program in Indian River County, Fla. What started as three students in the middle school in 1999 is now more than 400 students in three middle schools and the high school. The orchestra holds the ASTA 2011 National Orchestra Title of the No. 1 High School Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, it was one of four from the U.S. invited to perform in the Kennedy Center for the Capitol Orchestra Festival. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.)
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T.P. Schwartz-Barcott of West Greenwich, R.I., aka Tim Schwartz, has a new book out, Let There Be Light: Five Stories (Mill City Press, 2014). The stories convey opportunities lost and gained and carry readers through one day of encounters with wildlife, life-threatening events, and social conflicts in the lives of diverse characters including teenage arsonists, state troopers, dirt farmers, and Viet Cong, North Vietnamese, and U.S. Army soldiers. A former Marine Corps captain in Vietnam, T.P. is a sociologist and has taught and conducted research at several universities.
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Reunion ¶ Michael Kahn ’66
MA ’69 PhD ’76 of Severna
Park, Md., has published Mastering the CEO’s Greatest Challenge: Strategies for Staying Cool in the Executive Hot Seat. Michael, a clinical and health psychologist and an executive coach, interviewed 62 executives to understand how they think, react, plan, and relax.
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Susan Fleming Morgans ’67, David Pollak ’70, and Marsha
Hardesty Pollak ’71 met for lunch in
Pittsburgh where David, hockey writer for San Jose Mercury Times, was covering a Sharks/Pens game. Susan and David were editors together at The Miami Student and had not seen each other in 40 years. Susan is public information officer for Mount Lebanon, Pa., and editor of award-winning Mount Lebanon Magazine. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.)
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Michael Gmoser, Butler County prosecuting attorney, has been appointed to the executive and legislative committees of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association. ¶ David James of London, England, has begun performing New Burlesque. Last fall, he and disabled actress Liz Carr, of TV drama series Silent Witness, shown on BBC America, gigged at Ducky, a weekly gay cabaret at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, where they sent up the world of classical ballet. He recently performed with “Naked Boys Reading.” (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶ Richard Lieberman, a lawyer and employment law and intellectual property expert, explores how modern technology is leaving no job untouched in Your Job & How Technology Will Change It: Surviving & Succeeding In The New Work World (Management Books). His earlier book, Personal Foul:
class notes
Coach Joe Moore vs. The University of Notre Dame, won the Society of Midland Authors, Honorable Mention Adult Nonfiction. ¶ John Nowacki ’68 MS ’71 of Kennebunk, Maine, is a creative consultant for relaunched Bowtie. com, the first bowtie and suspenders business on the Web in 1994. ¶ Gregory Silver, Indianapolis lawyer and U.S. Justice Department officer, was named Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana’s highest civilian honor, by Gov. Frank O’Bannon previously and just named to Shortridge High School Hall of Fame. Greg has heard more than 30,000 cases in his legal career as a judge and helped provide passage of numerous bills through Congress. ¶ Janet Tremaine has co-authored an ebook, Sports Concussions: What Every Parent & Athlete Should Know (ctpublications. net). Janet is a board-certified medical editor and owner of Tremaine Medical Communications in Dublin, Ohio.
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Ronald Crutcher, president
emeritus of Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where he served for 10 years ending in 2014, became the 10th president of the University of Richmond July 1. During his tenure at Wheaton, he increased enrollment and diversity of the student body and created new interdisciplinary faculty positions and several new programs. He also oversaw the largest capital project in the college’s history, a $46 million science center. Miami’s provost 1999-2004, he will also be a professor of music at Richmond. He began studying the cello at age 14 and performs as a member of the Klemperer Trio. Ron and wife Betty Neal Crutcher PhD ’06 spent their sabbatical year in Berlin, Germany. ¶ Mike DeWine, Ohio attorney general, read to two second grade classes at Devonshire Elementary School in Columbus during Right to
Read Week as part of the I Know I Can initiative that encourages young kids to think about college. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.) ¶ Erica Price Lesesne has reconnected with Diane Perlmutter ’67 after discovering she lives in South Carolina. Erica writes, “I’ve lived in Charleston since 1970, thanks to Professor Jellison’s repeated claim that Charleston was the most civilized city in America. Dan and I live in the heart of town and have both retired from teaching and enjoy ‘babysitting’ our four ‘grands.’ ”
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Reunion ¶ Gary Claytor of Cincinnati recently published A Day in the Life under the pen name Grady Franklin. The novel is based loosely on his 25 years as a U.S. postal inspector and attempts to give a sense of what it is like to be a federal law enforcement officer in today’s environment. ¶ Doris “Annie” Henry was selected to represent New Zealand in the 5th Women’s World Golf Croquet Championship in Cairo, Egypt, in November. There were 10 countries represented in the weeklong event. This was her first time playing at an international, highly competitive level. She was ranked 35th. She lives with husband Mike Milstein in Nelson, New Zealand, where The Lord of the Rings was made. Annie is vice president of Croquet New Zealand. ¶ Anita Schneider Leshner MEd ’71 MS ’81 is on the board of directors of the Butler County (Ohio) Mental Health Board, overseeing the county’s community mental health system. Anita is a nationally certified school psychologist who retired from practice at CDC Mental Health Services in September. ¶ James Reed has completed his first collection of short stories, Just One More Thing (To Go Wrong). Alternating between
humor and pathos, these are stories of ordinary people who react to everyday misery and disappointment in such reckless ways that just one more thing can’t possibly seem to go wrong, but it does. Jim lives near McGonigle, Ohio.
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Richard Abel of Lebanon, N.H., was elected to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives. ¶ Samuel Piper ’72 MA ’77 of Flagstaff, Ariz., has written a book, Elements of Writing for Teachers and Students (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2014), in which he acknowledges Miami professors who influenced him.
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Michael Chaney, at the age
of 62 in 2013, after 30+ years as a criminal defense lawyer, without any planning, became a rock ’n’ roll songwriter and record producer. He’s working with musicians less than half his age. So far two of his songs have been named a “Coolest Song in the World” by Steve Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, The Sopranos) and played extensively internationally on his radio station, Little Steven’s Underground Garage (Sirius XM 21). ¶ Sandra Goldberg Gurvis is thrilled that Insight Productions in Toronto bought TV serial rights to her novel Country Club Wives. Her book Myths and Mysteries of Ohio: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained was released last fall (Globe Pequot/ Rowman & Littlefield). ¶ Michael Wiley of Colorado Springs has retired from dentistry after 41 years.
Those who don’t adapt should plan for early retirement. —Richard Lieberman ’68, author of Your Job & How Technology Will Change It
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Michael Graham is senior
corporate counsel and global director intellectual property for Expedia, one of the world’s largest online travel companies, in Bellevue, Wash. ¶ Mark McCloskey is the author of Learning Leadership in a Changing
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class notes
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Dan Love ’78, an ophthalmologist in Cincinnati, recently spent a week on a medical mission trip in Guatemala with Caring Partners International. He and his family were part of a team that saw 1,000 patients for dental, medical, and eye exams. For more details, see Class of 1978.
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World: Virtue and Effective Leadership in the 21st Century (Palgrave-McMillan, 2014). He is lead faculty in the MA in transformational leadership program at Bethel University in St. Paul.
75
Kathleen Deyer Bolduc was
named a finalist for the 2015 Illumination Awards for her book, The Spiritual Art of Raising Children with Disabilities. Selected as a silver medalist in the spirituality category, her book has been praised nationally by Christian leaders involved in disability ministry. As the mother of an adult son with autism, Kathy understands the challenges. ¶ Debbie Harrington ’75, Joe Shaw ’64 MS ’66, and Nancy Joe Kiblinger Shaw ’66 toured the ruins at Ephesus during a church trip to Turkey in November 2013. They all live in Denver and attend First Plymouth Congregational Church. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶ Susan Rademacher, the nation’s first urban parks curator, was named an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects for her national achievements in the profession. Susan is the parks curator for Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.
Reunion ¶ Sarah Black has written a new book, One Dough, Ten Breads: Making Great Bread by Hand (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, February 2016). Also busy opening a new bakery in Columbus, Sarah says this book is for anyone who’s ever wanted to bake homemade bread but doesn’t know where to begin. Sarah has 25 years of professional baking experience. ¶ Kelley Donnersberger Downing is one of The Enquirer’s 10 Women of the Year, recognized for her contributions to the Cincinnati community. Kelley, the first female president and CEO of Bartlett & Co., is also a founding member of St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy and a board member of Cincinnati Women’s Executive Forum and ArtsWave. ¶ Jay Foran of Cleveland, senior vice president, business attraction for Team NEO, was named one of North America’s Top 50 Economic Developers by Consultant Connect, a consulting agency that bridges the gap between economic developers and site consultants. ¶ Dean Gladden is in his eighth season with the Alley Theatre in Houston, where he is responsible for the administrative, financial, marketing, facilities, and development aspects of the theater. During his career, he has overseen the production of more than 250 plays, including more than 70 world and American premieres. ¶ Wil Haygood, journalist, author, teacher, and movie producer, delivered the keynote address at Ohio Wesleyan University’s 171st commencement May 10, 2015.
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Constance Kluesener
Gorman is the author of The Great Black Hope (Morrow Publications), a true story of an innercity football player in Cincinnati. Tony is an African-American high school student planning to participate in college
football and, possibly, the NFL. But he falls into a life-threatening depression when he realizes his illiteracy may prevent him from graduating high school. Constance is working on her next book, Native Hope.
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Larry Barden is a partner
in the corporate practice group in Sidley Austin’s Chicago office and serves as chairman of the firm’s management committee. His principal areas of practice are mergers and acquisitions, securities/corporate finance, strategic counseling/corporate governance, and private equity/venture capital. ¶ Kevin Fletcher of Santa Rosa, Calif., retires this summer from 30 years of full-time instruction of art studio practices at Santa Rosa Junior College. He has been an exhibiting artist since his time at Miami with works displayed in 15 states and five countries. He also has works in several permanent collections including the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art. ¶ Dan and Becky Andrews Love, daughter Anna ’17, and son Christopher went to Guatemala with Caring Partners International. An ophthalmologist, Dan is vice president of the board of Caring Partners, a Christian medical mission that recycles used medical equipment and equips local churches throughout the third world. In February, he joined Becky’s sister, Jennifer Andrews Nevins ’90, her husband, Bob, and a team from Crestwood Baptist Church for two weeks in India, seeing 800 patients and traveling with 5,000 pairs of glasses from the Lion’s Club. ¶ Ray Swick PhD ’78 is a historian at the Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History in Parkersburg, W.Va. Talking to the Exponent Telegram lifestyle editor about the 7,000-squarefoot mansion and the owners’ famous encounter with treason suspect Aaron
class notes
Burr, Ray said, “It’s got everything that delights the public — political, sexual, military, and dramatic action.”
79
Margaret Ferry ’79 and Mark
Axmacher ’06 unveiled
the Miami crest during an event at the University Club of Washington, D.C., hosted by Miami’s Washington, D.C., Alumni Chapter. One of the first universities to participate in the club’s crest program, Miami now has its crest on display in the University Club. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶ Don Gregory was pleased to be named Construction Lawyer of the Year-2015 by Best Lawyers of America, but even more pleased to take his son Luke to kindergarten. He says he showed good judgment in marrying Diana Heitkamp Gregory ’94. ¶ Suzanne Kunkel MA ’79 received the 2015 Clark Tibbitts Award
from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education for her outstanding contributions to the advancement of gerontology as a field of study. Suzanne has served as director of Miami’s Scripps Gerontology Center since 1998. ¶ Patricia Berkman Rubin, a partner in assurance services at BDO, a global accounting and consulting organization, was a panelist at the Women in Finance event in June at the Cleveland Racquet Club.
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Sabrina Harding Darnowsky
has written Friends Past and Present: The Bicentennial History of Cincinnati Friends Meeting (1815–2015). Her book provides an in-depth look at Cincinnati monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, how it changed over the past two centuries, and how it fits into broader trends in Quaker history, Cincinnati history, and
American history. ¶ David Fletcher lives on the coast of Maine in the town of Warren. He earned an MFA from Cornell University and worked at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., for 13 seasons. He is now an antiques dealer/appraiser. ¶ Mark Mitten was an executive producer and co-producer on Life Itself, the documentary based on Roger Ebert’s memoir. Premiering at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and screening at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, it was theatrically released July 4, 2014, and aired on CNN in January. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶ Roger Nunlist sent in a photo of ’80 graduates Rick Stone, Steve Brown, Brendan Ford, Paul Longville, and Roger Nunlist, who met in Palos Verdes, Calif., for a reunion of Anderson Hall 2 South (1976–1977). (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶
MU2U & THE MIAMI UNIVERSITY A LU MN I ASSOCIATION PR ESEN T
Alumni College Abroad LU XEM BOU RG EXPER I ENCE OCTOBER 30–NOVEMBER 1, 2015 From MU2U, the Miami University Alumni Association's alumni education program, comes Alumni College Abroad—Luxembourg Experience. Following the format of the awardwinning Winter College, the weekend will include faculty presentations and excursions set against the backdrop of Luxembourg City and Miami's Dolibois European Center. Registration and details at MiamiAlum.org/MU2ULux
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class notes
Highlands, N.C. Our younger son, Tyler ’13, was the best man.” That now makes
three generations of Miami graduates in the two families, starting with Ginger Ralston Conard ’56 (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.) ¶ Judy Gilleland retired as city manager of Middletown, Ohio, after 32 years of local government service. Judy and Sam Ashworth ’64 will be married in July in the Mediterranean. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.)
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Mark Curnutte is vice presi-
Kent McKitrick ’78, Bill Weisgarber ’78, Don Moore ’79, and Eric Sepp ’80 reunited in October 2014, all together for the first time since 1978 and their days at Coach House Apartments. For the weekend, they rented Harley Davidsons and road the highways and byways of Colorado Springs.
Carol Fortine Ochoa was nominated by
President Obama for inspector general of the General Services Administration.
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Reunion ¶ Matthew Eisenberg
’81 MA ’82 was honored by
Temple Israel Ner Tamid in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, with a celebration of his 18 years as the Reform temple’s rabbi. He and Pat Roy Eisenberg ’81 live in South Euclid. They are parents to Teddy, 21, and Maya, 16. ¶ James Tweddell has joined Cincinnati Children’s Hospital as professor of surgery and executive co-director of the Heart Institute. At the Medical College of Wisconsin for 20 years, he held the S. Bert Litwin Chair for Cardiothoracic Surgery, served as medical director of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and was professor and chief, division of cardiothoracic surgery.
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Karen Gresham Conard
shares Miami family ties and wedding photos. “Keith ’83 and I met at Miami our freshman year, and we were married in July 1984. Our oldest son, Adam ’11, met his wife, Alison Cundiff ’11, sophomore year. Adam and Alison were married June 7, 2014, in
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dent of marketing, communications and key initiatives for the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio. ¶ John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens head coach, delivered the keynote address at Stevenson University’s commencement May 21, 2015. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
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Reunion ¶ Vicki Coombs ’86
MS ’88 was honored as one
of the top 50 nurses in Maryland by Baltimore Magazine in its May issue. ¶ Rich Graeter, CEO of the Cincinnati family-owned Graeter’s ice cream chain, announced the opening of three more stores this year, including one in Oxford. ¶ Patrick McBriarty ’86 MM ’88 has several new children’s books coming out. Drawbridges Open and Close introduces Bridge Tender Todd and his sidekick, Ponticat, who reveal the behind-thescenes, gears, locks, controls, and steps of operating the Narrows Drawbridge of the busy town populated by fanciful animal characters, vehicles, and watercraft illustrated by Johanna Kim. His other new books are Airplanes Take off and Land and Crosstown Trains Stop and Go. His Chicago River Bridges received an Honorable Mention in the Chicago Writers Association 2014 Book
Awards in the Traditional Non-Fiction category. ¶ Steve McNamee owns Artisan Prosthetics in Phoenix, Ariz. In 2001, he started the company, which serves patients in many parts of rural Arizona, including a number of Indian reservations. ¶ Brett Stover is strategy and insights officer and executive vice president at Saatchi & Saatchi X, shopper marketing agency in Chicago.
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Anayochukwu Ezeigbo
MArch ’87 is assistant vice president for business operations at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. ¶ Todd Lyle has finished his first book on the cloud, Grounding the Cloud: Basics and Brokerages (Duncan, 2014). He describes it as “an easy-to-understand overview that will allow you to harness the power of the cloud to advance your business goals using clearly defined concepts of cloud computing, easy-to-understand definitions, comprehensive checklists, and real-world success stories.” In 2007, he launched Duncan LLC with a business and technology savvy team that created ingenious cloud computing service bundles that focus on providing affordable and customer-centric solutions for the business world. ¶ Beth Mehlberth Whelley of Centerville, Ohio, has been appointed to the Miami Conservancy District board of directors to serve out the term of a retired board member. Beth is a senior vice president at Fahlgren Mortine, an integrated marketing and communications agency.
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Scott and Kelli Cecil Green
’89 hosted Cincinnati Miami
Mergers for a 2015 Valentine’s Day party at Stir in Olde Montgomery. Scott and Kelli, passionate about supporting scholarships, are helping to create a Cincinnati Miami Merger Scholarship. (See photo in online Miamian class
class notes
notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶ Nick Selvaggio, a judge on the Champaign County Court of Common Pleas General Division in Urbana, Ohio, returned to Miami’s Oxford campus in March, joining Miami’s Hazing Prevention Committee in conducting an interactive mock trial event.
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Dave Bouve is the Navy’s director of marketing and advertising. He has been a helicopter pilot for most of his career and is currently assigned to the Navy Recruiting Command Headquarters outside Memphis. He and his family have enjoyed a diverse career. A Kappa Sigma at Miami, he has an MBA from Middle Tennessee State and a doctoral certificate in public administration from Northcentral University.
90
Timothy Capehart, head of youth services in the Beavercreek branch of the Greene County Public Library, is the author of Shadowangel (CreateSpace, 2013). Sixth-grader Josh Cotter never wanted to live in Rock Hollow. As if the weird little town and the school bully weren’t bad enough, Josh discovers something dark and dangerous. Tim has a master’s of library science from University of Kentucky. He has been on the Newbery Committee twice and has written book reviews for nearly every magazine in Library-land. He also blogs at timothycapehart.weebly.com. ¶ Cynthia Smith Cata joined other Miamians at a fundraiser in Chicago in March 2015 to raise money for Skin of Steel — a nonprofit that’s working to build a tissue bank system in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Portland, and northern California to create research opportunities and personalize medicine for those diagnosed with this deadly disease. At the gathering were Colleen Rock Mueller ’90,
Heather McLaughlin Smith ’90, Carlos Cata ’89, Julie Nelson Norvid ’90, Michele Petruccelli ’90, Julie Rydstrom Hudak ’90, Cynthia Smith Cata ’90, Jeff Smith ’88, Mara Russeau ’90, and Doug Balsam ’90. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.) ¶ Kimberly Myers Puckett of Greenville, Ohio, a mathematics instructor in the Tri-Village Local School District, received Women of Color Magazine’s K-12 Promotion of Education award at the 18th Annual Women of Color Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Conference. An Ohio teacher for 25 years, she is developing innovative ways to teach students through effective modeling and simulation.
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Reunion ¶ Vincent Bradley is president and CEO of Banfield Pet Hospital in Portland, Ore. He joined Banfield, the world’s largest veterinary practice, in 2011 as a senior vice president of operations. He also manages Banfield’s partnership with PetSmart. ¶ Robin Hart Ruthenbeck ’91 MS ’93 completed her dissertation for her doctorate in organizational leadership and policy development from the University of Minnesota, which she received May 13, 2015. She is assistant dean of students at Macalester College.
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Scott Swain has joined the
tax planning and preparation group at Skoda Minotti, a national CPA, financial, and business advisory firm in Cleveland. A partner, he works with individual clients, flow-through entities, LLCs, partnerships, and S Corps. ¶ Jane Bertram Watt ( janewatt.org) is a Miami Merger with James Watt ’92. She writes, “Through my volunteer work, I served as the founder and chairperson of Marco Island Academy, a fully accredited, A-rated charter high school
in Marco Island, Fla. I have served on state education committees, worked on a fundraiser for the school with Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee, started JeanMichel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment Summer Camp on Marco Island, and written a book about education, Fighting For Kids. Miami students are making a difference!”
Gary Young ’93 and Jenny Tinch Young ’96 celebrated Gary’s birthday by seeing Dave Letterman before his retirement. Their “high enthusiasm” in the ticket line earned them front-row seats and a preshow Q&A with Dave! They live in Wyoming, Pa.
93
Elizabeth Wiecher Pierce is
the new president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center in historic Union Terminal. An advocate for early childhood education and lifelong learning, she served as volunteer and adviser to CMC for years before joining the staff as vice president of marketing and communications.
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Lauren O’Neil Falcone
has earned the American Institute of Certified Planners Certification. She has been with Poggemeyer Design Group for 20 years. She also has a master’s in public administration from Cleveland State University. She lives in Westlake, Ohio, with her husband, Tony, and their children, Abby, Sam, and Jake. ¶ As part of the national PBS release of Ken Burn’s documentary film The emperor of all
Spring/Summer 2015
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class notes
Falkenberg, Amy Scholl-Vukobrat, Steph Franz Duggan, Erica Gorman Gardner, Bre Robinson Schneider, and Pam Smith DeGeeter. Bre writes, “We
Jeff Peters ’96 of Leonardtown, Md., led the Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Aircraft flight test team that made aviation history April 22 when the X-47B successfully performed an aerial refueling over the Chesapeake Bay from Patuxent River Naval Air Station. This is the first time an unmanned aircraft has refueled in-flight from another tanker aircraft. Jeff is the team’s air vehicle lead engineer and flight test director.
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miamian magazine
maladies, Kansas City Public Television (KCPT) ran a one-hour special, Cancer in KC, which highlighted an innovation by professor Jennifer Stowell Laurence, PhD Professor, Louise Byrd Graduate Educator Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and her team at the University of Kansas. The special, which aired April 2, covered the discovery and development of the claMP Tag technology, the founding of Echogen Inc. to commercialize the invention, and the significance of this technology to improving cancer therapy. The claMP Tag holds extraordinarily tightly to metals and provides a unique approach to enable detection and personalized treatment of diseases, such as cancer. ¶ Avram Mandell is founder and executive director of Tzedek America, the first and only Jewish gap-year program in Los Angeles that focuses on Jewish identity. During its inaugural year in 2015-2016, Avram will oversee social justice internships and adventure programming so that participants see firsthand the challenges facing America today. ¶ Bre Robinson Schneider wrote in about a “fantastic girls’ weekend” in New Buffalo, Mich., Jan. 24, 2015, with Mindy Rezabek Penn, Katie Irvine
all became friends freshman year. Some of us lived in Dodds Hall, and then we met others through our sororities. We all lived together in off-campus housing junior and senior year in a house called Jim Jams.” (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.) ¶ Eric Zediak of Greenville, S.C., took his nephew on a whirlwind trip as a graduation present from high school. Eric writes, “We spent four days in the Peruvian Andes mountains and did the Inca stuff (Cusco, Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley). Then we went to the desert and did dune buggy and sandboarding near Huacachina, flew over the Nazca Lines, and then toured Paracas National Reserve and the Ballestas Islands. We finished up with one day in Lima.” (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.)
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Eric Lange was the com-
mencement speaker for Miami’s College of Creative Arts in May. An actor, Eric has played many large roles in theater, television, and film. Most recently, he originated the role of Elliot in the world premiere of Donald Margulies’ The Country House, opposite Blythe Danner. The play premiered at the Geffen Playhouse and then moved to Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club, marking Eric’s Broadway debut.
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Reunion ¶ Rajiv Joseph’s new play, The Guards at the Taj, about life-shaking events in 1648 India as the sun rises on the just-completed Taj Mahal, received the 2015 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, which provides $50,000 to the winning playwright and an additional
$100,000 to defray production costs for the play’s premiere. The production funds went to Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company, which mounted the play in May, with the award-winning actor Amy Morton directing. Its run was extended to July 12, 2015. ¶ Andy Loughnane is president of business operations for Columbus Crew SC of Major League Soccer. Since arriving with the team in 2014, he has been a driving force behind a brand evolution and multiple groundbreaking business ventures for the club, including the acquisition of stadium naming rights and training facility naming rights.
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Brooke Baumgardner
Desserich is one of The Enquirer’s 10 Women of the Year. For the 47th year, The Enquirer recognized women leaders in April for their contributions to the Cincinnati community. Brooke is CFO of two companies in Cincinnati, an author, and co-founder of The Cure Starts Now Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to finding the cure for pediatric brain cancer. ¶ Jeffrey Kotalik is a sports and entertainment director of the new global sports and entertainment division of Morgan Stanley, created to help address the wealth management needs of actors, musicians, athletes, directors, producers, writers, coaches, and owners. He works out of the Rochester, N.Y., office.
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Stephanie Dawson of New
York City freelances in film and television production. She’s involved in many projects, including co-directing a short film, In-Kind, about a homeless man who is shown kindness by a little girl and he returns the favor. Many of her exploits are in her blog, eclectionmedia.tumblr.com. ¶ Born: to Ryan Garn and Courtney, Henry William, July 28, 2014, joining
A picture’s worth a thousand words … a campus visit is priceless.
Continue the proud tradition you know and love: Encourage high school students to experience “college as college should be” by scheduling a visit to Miami this summer.
class notes
During a campus visit, students will learn about the admission process and scholarship opportunities, chat with current Miamians on a student-guided tour, and imagine themselves joining the Miami family. Spring/Summer 2015
Schedule a visit: MiamiOH.edu/visitƫƫƫđƫƫƫ ! .*ƫ)+.!čƫMiamiOH.edu/admission
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class notes
All art majors, Jon Hand ’97, Corey Jefferson ’98, Mark Williams ’97, and David C. Smith ’98 had not been together on campus since 1997 or 1998. The photo was taken at Nancy Holt’s “Star-Crossed” outside Miami’s art museum.
Grace, George, and Lucy. ¶ Michael McNamara is development administrator for the Butler County (Ohio) Department of Development and executive director of the Butler County Port Authority and the Butler County Land Bank. ¶ Phil Poggi, the 2014 Southwest Ohio District Athletic Director of the Year, is Sycamore High School’s new athletic director. He will head up 42 sports. ¶ Jason Shanks,CEO of Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan, Royal Oak, was recognized in 2014 Crain’s Detroit Business 40 under 40. He told reporter Constance Crump his biggest achievement so far as been “merging independent area agencies into the unified CCSEM group for great donordollar impact and program growth.”
99
Greg Herring, assistant ath-
letics director for marketing and sales at East Carolina University, sent in a photo of Miamians who met by chance at winter meetings of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics in Marco Island, Fla. Sharing stories about their time as Greeks and/or involvement with varsity athletics were Andrzej Czech ’04, Kappa Sig; Greg Herring ’99, DKE; Erin Dengler ’08; and Gordon Kane
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’80, varsity soccer. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.) ¶ Brendan Kiely is now a full-time writer. Simon & Schuster published his first novel last year, The Gospel of Winter. The book is being translated into seven languages, Kirkus magazine highlighted it as one of the best books of 2014, and YALSA of the American Librarian Association has picked it as one of the Top Ten Books for 2015. Brendan, who lives in Florence, Italy, has a second novel due out in 2016. ¶ Chad McQuade, Elmhurst Wealth Management Adviser, was honored by Northwestern Mutual with membership in its 2014 Forum Group, which recognizes individuals for an outstanding year of helping clients achieve financial security. He is with The McTigue Financial Group in Oak Brook, Ill. ¶ Michael Roch is national office furniture vice president of sales for Kimball International.
00
Dan Herchenroether has
been promoted to principal at Northeast Collaborative Architects, based in Newport, R.I. Dan, who has a master’s in architecture from Roger Williams University, was project manager for the Audrain Building and Audrain Auto Museum in Newport. The adaptive reuse project earned the 2014 AIA R.I. awards for Institutional Design and for Commercial Design, and the 2015 American Institute of Steel Construction National Certificate of Recognition. ¶ Bret Anthony Johnston MA ’00 is the author of Remember Me Like This: A Novel (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2015), named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review.
01
Reunion ¶ Matt and Julie
Manuel Barkhurst ’04 of
Columbus became big supporters of
the March of Dimes and its mission to help treat and prevent premature birth after their first child, Mason, was born 12 weeks early, weighing 1lb 10 oz. Mason has done well and is now an energetic 7 year old. This year, they are serving as the Ambassador Family for the Central Ohio March of Dimes and its annual March for Babies. ¶ Ivy Newbit Bayer is the new publisher of Cincinnati Magazine. Ivy, who had been director of advertising, joined the magazine and Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications in 2004. ¶ Craig Brandenburg, who teaches algebra I and video production at YES Prep North Central in Houston, has published a blog about “Teaching for the Cycle” (teachforamerica. org/blog/teaching-cycle), which is when you teach all the siblings in one family. ¶ Leanna Renee Hieber had her seventh novel, The Eterna Files, released. It’s her first hardcover title in a new series with Tor, the Fantasy imprint of Macmillan. Her first novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, is in development as a Broadway musical, with Leanna writing the script. ¶ Born: to Brad and Jessica Finley Krupinski, Evelyn Marie, Jan. 25, 2015. Brad is a high school football coach and middle school math teacher and Jessica is a finance manager for Abbott Laboratories. They live in Libertyville, Ill. ¶ Paul Ranalli is a senior art director at J.R. Thompson in Farmington Hills, Mich. ¶ Reid Hall freshmen roommates Guy Temple, Gene Rubow, and Jay Snyder attended Adam Vary’s wedding to Brian Houtz in Denver in 2013. Adam is senior film writer for BuzzFeed. com. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.)
02
Christopher Cotter, an associate in Roetzel’s Akron
class notes
office, was named a 2015 Ohio Super Lawyer’s Rising Star in transportation/ maritime law by Ohio Super Lawyers magazine. ¶ Married: Kyle Eaton and Kathleen Miller, Sept. 6, 2014, in Radford, Va. Kyle graduated from the University of Berkley School of Optometry in 2006 and began a private practice in North Carolina. They live in Wilmington, N.C. ¶ Rebecca Gale is a reporter and editor at Roll Call and author of the Hill Navigator, Roll Call’s workplace advice column. She has worked as a press secretary and communications director for senators and other members of Congress and on presidential and congressional campaigns. She earned a master’s in political communication at Johns Hopkins University. ¶ Katie McClatchey Hall of Austin, Texas, is founder and chief curator of WynnRuby.com, a new onestop-shop online boutique offering children’s clothing and accessories. Katie says she came up with the idea after she struggled to find brands with products that were unique, high quality, fun, and functional while shopping for her two little girls, whose middle names are Wynn and Ruby. ¶ Sean Lottman hiked the Appalachian Trail’s 2,184 miles through 14 states last year. Completing it was a lifelong dream of his. He used the hike to raise money to support a friend’s niece, diagnosed with a rare mitochondrial disease. Sean found out about the little girl while on a twoyear assignment in Sidney, Australia, with Blackbaud Pacific, developer of fundraising software for nonprofits. His goal was to raise $100,000 to help with her medical expenses. ¶ Omar Siddiq, a career prosecutor, has been hired as a Richland County, Ohio, assistant prosecutor. ¶ Jaclyn Turnwald, English and creative writing teacher at The School for Creative Studies, was a finalist for 2016 Durham Public Schools Teacher of
the Year. She has been the ninth grade team leader and a beginning teacher mentor since 2013. In 2014-2015, she initiated a teacher book study, wrote curriculum for magnet programs, and was on the school improvement team.
03
Breanne McMullen Boyle
has opened the newest office of Collegewise in Mission Viejo, Calif., where she was promoted to director. She works with local high school students to help them find and apply for the best colleges that fit each student. ¶ G. Todd Davis PhD ’03 was named Kentucky State University Distinguished Professor for 2015. This is the highest honor given to one faculty member at KSU every year for “outstanding and meritorious achievement,” and is voted on by the entire faculty. He was honored at the May 2015 graduation, and he will be the keynote speaker at a convocation held in his honor in September. ¶ Lisa Skaredoff Doyle is the author of Milked (Simon & Fig, 2014), her women’s commercial fiction debut. The story follows Amanda on a three-year journey, beginning with her ill-fated romance with an Irish musician, who strands her at the altar in a delicate state. Amanda is desperate to provide for her daughter. Thanks to a well-connected friend, she is hired by a celebrity designer and embarks on a career as an underground wet nurse for the offspring of Chicago’s rich and famous. ¶ James Heinen Jr. is a new partner with Armstrong Teasdale. A member of the law firm’s intellectual property practice group in the St. Louis office, Jim prepares and prosecutes U.S. and foreign patent applications and provides opinion-related work for clients in the chemical and biochemical industries. ¶ Daniel “Chip” James of RE/MAX Victory received the DABR Young Professionals Network Top
Five Award during a recent Dayton Area Board of Realtors Installation dinner. The award is based on community involvement, sales volume, and participation in DABR activities. ¶ Dave Knox of Cold Spring, Ky., chief marketing officer of Rockfish, was recognized by AdAge in its 2015 40 Under 40. He helped launch the Brandery in Cincinnati for marketing-oriented startups. The Brandery was named one of the top 10 seed accelerators in the U.S. last year at SxSW. ¶ Michelle Lee Rakiec, who writes under the pen name Michelle Lee, has released a new cookbook, Living Luxe Gluten Free (Salut Studio, 2014). Her book features 110+ new gluten-free and lactose-free recipes and was inspired by her husband, Stevan Porter Jr., who developed sensitivity to gluten and lactose. She also profiles products, restaurants, and chefs on livingluxeglutenfree.com.
04
Jenny Donnell ’04 MArch
’07, a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, was an invited speaker for Miami’s ARC+ID Lecture Series in April. ¶ Charity Phillips Lander MS ’04 celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary with Lt. Geoffrey Lander (USN), won first place in the University of Kansas/Sigma Xi Research Competition, and successfully defended her dissertation. She is in a postdoctoral research appointment at the University of Oklahoma. ¶ Born: to Troy and Becky Ackford Magaw, Graeme Steven, Jan. 27, 2015, joining big sister Reese in Westerville, Ohio. Troy is a physician assistant. Becky is a marketing manager for the Columbus Blue Jackets. ¶ Married: Kelly Anne Royer and Damian Dolyniuk, Aug. 23, 2014, in Wheeling, W.Va. Kelly is a relationship manager for LinkedIn in Chicago, where they live.
“It’s shocking. You don’t think that it’s possible that a baby that small could survive.” —Matt Barkhurst ’01
Spring/Summer 2015
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class notes
“rise and shine.” Parents set the clock preferences. Meggie and her sister are selling the book and doll on their website, sleeperhero.com. ¶ Eric Long, an associate attorney with McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman in Cleveland, received the Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Service from the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He was nominated for his work on behalf of the plaintiff in a prisoner’s rights lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Hoping to meet new people her freshman year, Jennifer Allen ’11 joined Miami’s Best Buddies Club, an organization that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Jennifer and buddy Amy shared holidays and birthdays for four years. They continue their friendship long distance now as Jennifer is in Best Buddies’ European office in Madrid, Spain, as manager of programs and operations in Europe, Latin America, and MENA. “The Best Buddies chapter at Miami is famous at headquarters.”
05
Mark Huntington is a
logistics specialist and onsite employee in Cincinnati for Allyn International Services, communicating information about shipments, projects, and services. ¶ Andrea Kullberg is on the client relations team at the Columbus investment management and financial advisory firm Hamilton Capital Management. ¶ Born: to Eric and Chandra Valput Verbic, Stella, Jan. 18, 2015, joining big brother Lincoln in Nashville. ¶ Jennifer Wolff of Ann Arbor, Mich., supply chain strategy manager with Masco Cabinetry, was nominated by her boss, Joe Ceccoli ’00, for an award with the Institute of Supply Management and was selected as a 30 under 30 Rising Supply Chain Star.
06
Reunion ¶ Married: Bradley Bailey and Heather Bryant, March 14, 2015, in Pebble Beach, Calif. Brad, who earned a law degree from Georgetown University, is an assistant on policy to the Speaker of the House. ¶ Meggie Schroth Hunley has co-created SleeperHero, an illustrated children’s bedtime storybook and doll, which has a color-changing light on his chest that turns from red to green. Red means “stay in bed” and green means
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at Casteel Schoenborn, an independent investor relations and corporate communications firm in Williamsville, N.Y. ¶ Andrew Dailey MFA ’09, an artist who teaches at Miami and lives in Kettering, Ohio, had his work on display at the Volunteer State Community College Thigpen Library Gallery in February in Gallatin, Ohio. Each drawing in his Genus Machina series derives from the questionable notion that mankind could potentially improve upon nature through technology.
10
Carley Eisenberg, blacksmith
07
Married: Pamela Bottles and Scott Boehm ’06, July 26, 2014, in Perrysburg, Ohio. (See photo of all the Miamians who attended their wedding in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶ Jennifer Baker Sever is one of Adweek’s Media All-Star’s Rising Star for 2015. Known for embracing innovation, the 29-yearold associate media director for Maxus in Chicago has “an innate sense of knowing the next hot thing coming down the pipeline,” according to her boss. ¶ Beth Stelling, stand-up comedian, writer, and actress, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March. ¶ Rebecca Schaffer Wells MM ’07 is director of choirs at Thomas More College in Kentucky.
08
Meriem Hodge earned a
PhD in public administration from the University of Georgia May 8, 2015. This fall she joins the California State University, Fullerton faculty in the master of public administration program. Her primary research interest is in public sector organizations, their theory, and behavior.
09
Katherine Croft is senior
manager of investor relations and director of media relations
and owner of Iron Mountain Forge in North Carolina, participated in the first season of Ellen DeGeneres’ Design Challenge, an HGTV show in which six furniture designers compete for $100,000. ¶ Justin Miller, Cleanlife president and CEO, was honored by the Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club as one of the Top 25 Under 35 Movers and Shakers of 2015. Justin’s Brooklyn, Ohio, company provides commercial, niche, and consumer markets with LED lighting and power solutions.
11
Reunion ¶ Married: Melissa
Brown and Michael Gallagher,
Nov. 15, 2014. They live in Columbus. (See photo in online Miamian class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.) ¶ Adam Eaton, center fielder for the White Sox, was quoted in USA Today when Chicago played the Orioles in 45,971-seat Camden Yards with no fans in attendance after the rioting in Baltimore. “It’s kind of Field of Dreamish.” ¶ Katie Winkler is senior analyst, custom insights, in the Cincinnati office of dunnhumbyUSA.
12
Andy Miele of the Grand
Rapids Griffins was named an American Hockey League FirstTeam All-Star after finishing second
class notes
in the league. ¶ Ben Roethlisberger was inducted into the 2015 MAC Hall of Fame in May. As starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, he has won a pair of Super Bowls and earned three Pro Bowl appearances. ¶ Ashley Whyte ’12 MEd ’13 was recognized as Teacher of the Week in January by Warm 98 and Channel 5 in Cincinnati. She teaches kindergarten at Winton Woods Primary South. While at Miami, she was an Urban Teaching Cohort/ ECE student. ¶ Chris Wideman, with the Binghamton Senators, received the Eddie Shore Award as the American Hockey League’s top defenseman and was voted an AHL First-Team All-Star.
13
Born: to Mike and Tisha
Menchhofer Grote ’00 PhD
’13, their second child, Tyce, Feb. 17,
15
Courtney Collett was awarded
Miami’s Robin Chico Award, given to a senior student-athlete for showing strength and motivation during adversity. The sports leadership and management major from Hilton Head Island, S.C., will attend Ohio State this fall for a master’s in nutrition. ¶ Austin Czarnik, Miami hockey forward and two-year captain from Washington, Mich., signed an entry-level contract with the NHL’s Boston Bruins. He will begin his pro career with the Providence Bruins. ¶ Chrishawn Dupuy (football) and Taylor Wickware (women’s cross country/track and field) are the 2015 recipients of the Spirit of Miami Award. Chrishawn majored in sports management. Taylor majored in zoology and will attend veterinary school at Ohio State. ¶ Shanyn
McIntyre, senior catcher, was named to the 2015 Softball Academic All-MAC squad. She graduated with a degree in health promotion. ¶ Samantha Morrissey starts teaching at St. Ignatius School near Cincinnati this fall. St. Ignatius is her own K-8 school, where she was a top student, played basketball, and was a cheerleader. ¶ Ryan Powers of LaGrange, Ill., wrapping up a four-year career as a right-handed pitcher for the RedHawks, signed a free agent contract with the Chicago White Sox organization. ¶ Jessica Walpole, a biochemistry and zoology double major, received the 2015 Ken ’67 and Joan Frankel Outstanding Premedical Student Award from Miami’s Mallory-Wilson Center for Healthcare Education. She will be attending Ohio State University’s College of Medicine.
2015. They live in Wyoming, Ohio. ¶ Sarah Huffman, who works at the Ohio
Statehouse for a pro-life leader, is president of Young Professionals for Life of Central Ohio, a new subgroup for Ohio Right to Life. ¶ Jeffrey Segrave is an analyst in custom insights in the Cincinnati office of dunnhumbyUSA, a leading customer science company.
14
Bec Detrich MA ’14, education director at Occidental’s Westminster Woods, was named a 2015 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. The fellowships honor excellence in teaching by sponsoring 35 instructors on a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Bec will ship out in October aboard the MS National Geographic Endeavour. ¶ Quinten Rollins was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the second round of the NFL Draft. The Wilmington, Ohio, defensive back played just one year of college football after playing basketball for four, yet he earned MAC Defensive Player of the Year.
One Across Is … Thanks to the 534 solvers who completed and submitted the crossword puzzle from the Winter Miamian for a chance at a Miami sweatshirt. President David Hodge drew the winning name, which turned out to be a couple, Dana and Virginia Brooks of Wooster, Ohio. They are the parents of Dana ’83 and Darl ’86 and grandparents of Tessa, a junior at Miami. And for those of you still scratching your head over a few of the clues, here are the answers.
Spring/Summer 2015
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farewells 1940s Lucille Modarelli Altiero ’40, Niles, Ohio, Sept. 3, 2014.
Shirley Robertson Madigan Wismann ’47, Orlando, Fla., May 3, 2015.
Kenneth D. Finney ’40, Beaver Falls, Pa., Jan. 29, 2015.
Barbara Byrnes Blackburn ’48, Strongsville, Ohio, Oct. 24, 2014.
Sara Lawler Galeese ’40, Monroe, Ohio, Jan. 21, 2015.
Lewis T. Franklin ’48, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 26, 2014.
Adele Lammers McLaren ’41, Oxford, Ohio, Dec. 2, 2014.
Gladyse Brinkman Lutz ’48, Knoxville, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2015.
Herbert B. Wiepking ’41, Oxford, Ohio, May 7, 2015.
Robert M. Martin ’48, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dec. 5, 2014.
Naomi “Jean” Volz Baughman ’42, Arlington Heights, Ill., Jan. 31, 2014.
John R. McNutt ’48, Tequesta, Fla., Oct. 8, 2014.
Max W. Harley ’42, Stratford, Conn., Nov. 18, 2014. Elmer L. Girten ’43, Bowling Green, Ohio, Jan. 20, 2015. Elise Scofield Kniskern ’43, Miami, Fla., Jan. 17, 2015. William F. Zumbrun ’43, Naples, Fla., Dec. 2, 2014. Ira H. Gordon ’44, Pittsburgh, Pa., March 2, 2015. J. Richardson Johnson Jr. ’44, Dayton, Ohio, Dec. 25, 2014. Mary Ann Bohlender Johnson ’44, Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 23, 2015. John M. Osso ’44, Hamilton, Ohio, Dec. 4, 2014. William M. Dixon ’46, Troy, Ohio, Nov. 29, 2014. Mary Lee Bales Keebler ’46, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 13, 2014. Thomas R. Dierker ’47, Erlanger, Ky., Feb. 25, 2015. Tom R. Downs ’47 MA ’49, Alexandria, Va., Jan. 2, 2015. Lewis C. Hill ’47 MS ’49, Auburn, N.Y., Feb. 4, 2015. Ralph R. Huston ’47, Glendale, Ariz., Feb. 27, 2015. Donald L. Miller ’47, North Palm Beach, Fla., Oct. 31, 2014. Mary Ann Craig Smith ’47, Hudson, Ohio, Jan. 14, 2015.
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Margery Meyer Schmidt ’48, Alma, Mich., March 22, 2014. Miriam Gilbart Williams ’48, St. Petersburg, Fla., Dec. 17, 2014. Peter K. Dallo ’49, Hendersonville, N.C., Nov. 1, 2014. William T. Davin ’49, Tryon, N.C., Dec. 16, 2014. Robert Diamant ’49, Sarasota, Fla., Jan. 11, 2015. Douglas W. Hill ’49, Marietta, Ohio, Feb. 21, 2015. Donald C. Kelly ’49, Califon, N.J., Oct. 18, 2014. Dwight E. Morner ’49, Sandusky, Ohio, Jan. 14, 2015. John H. Velzy ’49, Westfield Center, Ohio, Jan. 19, 2015. Howard E. Wilson ’49, Lebanon, Ohio, Jan. 4, 2015. 1950s Thomas W. Bateman ’50, Bermuda Run, N.C., Dec. 30, 2014. Gerard F. Havill Jr. ’50, Wake Forest, N.C., Feb. 27, 2015. Dan S. Humphreys ’50, Middletown, Ohio, March 3, 2015. Robert D. Kistler ’50, North Canton, Ohio, Jan. 10, 2015. Ernest V. Plank ’50, Grove City, Ohio, March 1, 2015. Charles W. Ridgway Jr. ’50, Georgetown, Texas, Jan. 12, 2015.
Clarice Doxtater Brooks ’51, Gig Harbor, Wash., Sept. 1, 2014.
Lawrence E. Day ’55, Peachtree City, Ga., Nov. 23, 2014.
William V. Dovenbarger II ’51, Marshfield, Wis., Nov. 4, 2014.
Joan Donahoe Holliday ’55, Lake Oswego, Ore., Nov. 1, 2014.
Jane Guthals Hawkins ’51, Dayton, Ohio, Dec. 9, 2014.
Robert F. Kern ’55, Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 1, 2015.
Joseph P. Hayden Jr. ’51, Boca Grande, Fla., Nov. 29, 2014.
John S. Evans ’56, Bartlett, Tenn., Jan. 25, 2015.
Betty Roehll Kenrich ’51, Montgomery, Ohio, Nov. 11, 2014.
Henry V. Wood MEd ’56, Centennial, Colo., March 8, 2015.
Gordon R. Bonner ’52, Hilton Head Island, S.C., Jan. 3, 2015.
Robert R. Brown ’57 MAT ’58, North Fort Myers, Fla., Nov. 16, 2014.
Daniel C. Brower ’52, Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 26, 2015.
Dean Porter ’57, Mount Sterling, Ohio, Jan. 19, 2015.
Phil K. Gregory ’52, Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 5, 2015.
Constance Koepke Hardacre ’58, Madison, Wis., Jan. 30, 2015.
Joanne Wallace Harrington ’52, Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 2, 2015.
Martha Merriman Macklin ’58, Columbus, Ohio, April 1, 2015.
Marilyn Knorr Kempke ’52, Sun City Center, Fla., March 9, 2014.
Wellman D. “Bud” Phelps ’58, Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 23, 2014.
James A. Sweeney ’52, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., March 24, 2015.
William G. King ’59, Wyoming, Ohio, Feb. 12, 2015.
Conrad A. Aebker ’53, Lima, Ohio, Feb. 21, 2015.
Ronald H. Wenger ’59, Newark, Del., Jan. 1, 2014.
Daniel P. Heisler MA ’53, Bowling Green, Ohio, Oct. 11, 2014. John J. “Joe” Hess ’53 MBA ’55, Butler, Ohio, Dec. 3, 2014.
1960s James R. Clark ’60, Hamilton, Ohio, Oct. 31, 2014.
Darrell A. Landis ’53, Trotwood, Ohio, Jan. 22, 2015.
Kenneth W. Husband ’60, Paradise Valley, Ariz., Dec. 19, 2014.
John L. Madden ’53 MA ’57, Beavercreek, Ohio, Dec. 31, 2014.
William L. Poulton ’60, Cornelius, N.C., Dec. 16, 2014.
O. Roger Taylor ’53, Archbold, Ohio, Feb. 7, 2015.
Susan Tilbrook Sheap ’60, Pittsburgh, Pa., Feb. 27, 2015.
John C. “Bud” Allison ’54, Alexandria, Va., Jan. 29, 2015.
Dennis A. Delagrange ’61, Derby, Kan., Oct. 24, 2014.
William F. Bishop ’54 MA ’57, Crumpler, N.C., Dec. 4, 2014.
June Salis Long ’61, North Royalton, Ohio, Sept. 17, 2013.
Dawn Kirkham Hoge Connell ’54, Lima, Ohio, Feb. 23, 2015.
John K. White MEd ’61, Eaton, Ohio, Feb. 20, 2015.
James W. Goodrich ’54, Hilliard, Ohio, Jan. 10, 2015.
Robert Hwang MS ’62, Rochester, N.Y., July 1, 2014.
Thomas E. Leight ’54, Punta Gorda, Fla., March 3, 2015.
Charles W. Snyder ’62, Medina, Ohio, Feb. 24, 2015.
Martha Suffron Phelps ’54, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 24, 2015.
Philip H. Holtkamp ’63, Encinitas, Calif., Dec. 25, 2014.
farewells
Jeffry P. Hoogerhyde ’63, Oregon, Ohio, Nov. 27, 2014.
James R. “Ron” Daniel ’75, Middletown, Ohio, June 21, 2014.
Alex R. Posze Jr. ’63, Berea, Ohio, Nov. 27, 2014.
Stephen Zegree ’75, Bloomington, Ind., March 7, 2015.
Patricia Crockett Inman Barnes ’65, Tenants Harbor, Maine, Jan. 22, 2015.
Wendy Blowers Burkitt ’77, Hilliard, Ohio, Feb. 17, 2015.
Leonard H. Friedel ’65, Avon Lake, Ohio, March 20, 2015. Carol Kram Rogat ’65, Beaverton, Ore., April 14, 2015. Jeffrey M. Rubin ’65, New York, N.Y., Jan. 15, 2014. Lawrence J. Koterba ’67, Seven Hills, Ohio, Dec. 11, 2014. Gary L. Beamer ’68, Casa Grande, Ariz., July 7, 2014. Susan Witters Brannen ’68, Ostrander, Ohio, Feb. 19, 2015. Sharon Lovejoy Phifer ’69, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 14, 2015. 1970s Janet King Young ’70, Pittsburgh, Pa., March 6, 2015. Patricia Moody Gamble ’71 MEd ’77, Camarillo, Calif., Dec. 3, 2014. Marilyn Shappie Parin ’71, Mishawaka, Ind., Jan. 24, 2015. Robert R. “Bob” Risher ’71, Monrovia, Calif., Oct. 16, 2014. Christine Worman Lallathin ’73, West Chester, Ohio, Dec. 14, 2014. Roger P. Montgomery ’73, Johnstown, Ohio, April 19, 2014. David M. Arnold ’74 MBA ’76, Pickerington, Ohio, Oct. 30, 2014. Steven T. Collins ’74, Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 23, 2015. Karen Pederzolli Dietrich ’74 MEd ’75, Alliance, Ohio, Dec. 31, 2014. Jeffrey R. Miller ’74, Durham, N.C., Feb. 14, 2015.
Arnold J. Esbin ’77, Carmel, Ind., Jan. 5, 2015. Angela M. Reinbolt ’77, Streator, Ill., Dec. 24, 2014. R. Alan Ward ’77 MA ’87, Fairfield, Ohio, Feb. 21, 2015. Gregory A. Markko ’78 MA ’82, Oskaloosa, Iowa, Feb. 1, 2015. 1980s Douglas E. Gealy ’82, Phoenix, Md., Nov. 29, 2014. Jennifer Eby Fowler ’84 MS ’86, Winslow, Maine, Feb. 10, 2015. Kimberly C. Morris ’84, Jacksonville, Fla., Oct. 28, 2014. Phillip J. Theobald ’84, Pittsburgh, Pa., Feb. 1, 2015. Brian M. Dobson ’85, Oxford, Ohio, Feb. 21, 2015. Stephanie K. Bradford ’86, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 15, 2015. Ronald J. Long ’86, Middletown, Ohio, Feb. 26, 2015. Robert E. Young III ’89, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 4, 2014.
2000s Jason M. Lazor ’02, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 7, 2015. James P. Button ’10 MAT ’12, Hamilton, Ohio, Oct. 23, 2014. Bryan F. Gabbard ’10, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Oct. 25, 2014. William F. Menkol ’10, Dublin, Ohio, March 9, 2015. FACULTY, STAFF, AND FRIENDS Roberta L. Bays, Oxford, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2015. Held several positions at Miami before retiring. Melva S. Brown, Oxford, Ohio, Jan. 17, 2015. Retired, Miami program associate, student activities/organizational leadership. Albert W. Bruno, Fairfield, Ohio, Nov. 1, 2014. Retired, supervisor of student teachers at Miami. Dennis L. Carlson, Oxford, Ohio, April 10, 2015. Miami professor of educational leadership since 1990. Anne R. Carson, West Chester, Ohio, Jan. 25, 2015. Miami associate professor emerita of nursing, 1993-2013. Reo M. Christenson, Beavercreek, Ohio, May 15, 2015. Miami professor emeritus of political science, 1956-1996.
Edward A. Jackson ’50, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 17, 2014. Miami personnel director emeritus, 1954–1981. Lee R. Jessup, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 5, 2015. Retired from Miami. Shacheenatha Jha, Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 12, 2014. Former Miami adjunct professor of physics. Donna Niederauer Klaaren ’64, Sedona, Ariz., Dec. 31, 2014. Miami professor emerita of zoology, 1966–1992. Edward F. Newren, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 11, 2014. Miami professor emeritus of teacher education, 1975–2000. Gerald G. Owen II, Oxford, Ohio, April 4, 2014. With Miami housing, dining, and guest services for many years. Bernard F. Phelps MA ’48, Oxford, Ohio, April 24, 2015. Miami professor emeritus of communication, 1946–1984; founding director of Miami’s Hamilton campus. Helen Gerber Ramsdell WC ’29, Middletown, Ohio, Dec. 23, 2014. Retired voice instructor. Frank B. Robinson, Kalamazoo, Mich., Dec. 1, 2014. Miami professor of speech and hearing, 1951–1966.
Henry H. Cofield Jr., Middletown, Ohio, March 1, 2014.
John L. Thompson, Oxford, Ohio, Dec. 19, 2014. Miami professor emeritus of geography, 1949–1987.
1990s Theodore J. DiMartini III ’90, Lake Elmo, Minn., Dec. 6, 2014.
Wappes Darryl “Doc” Dawson, Union County, Ind., Nov. 22, 2014. Miami maintenance worker.
Thomas C. Van Voorhis, Novi, Mich., Nov. 16, 2014.
Nancy McIlvaine Donovan MA ’90 PhD ’97, Hendersonville, N.C., Feb. 23, 2015.
James E. Gabbard, Camden, Ohio, Feb. 20, 2015.
David M. Wack ’91, London, England, Dec. 28, 2014. Linda Pieper Armentrout ’95, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 18, 2014. Jeffery O. Marriott ’97, Naperville, Ill., March 16, 2015. Mary LaSpina Schreiber Hon ’97, Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 16, 2014.
Sherrie A. Inness, Redwood City, Calif., Aug. 11, 2014. Miami professor emerita of English, 1993–2008.
James R. Woodworth, Oxford, Ohio, Oct. 8, 2014. Miami professor and chair emeritus of political science, 1948–1985. Joseph L. Wright, Oxford, Ohio, Feb. 15, 2015. Retired Miami police officer, 1975–1992.
In Memory of… If you would like to make a contribution in memory of a classmate, friend, or relative, send your gift to Miami University in care of Wendy Mason, Advancement Services Building, Miami University, 926 Chestnut Lane, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or call Wendy at 513-529-3552. More classmates are remembered online at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.
Spring/Summer 2015
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days of old
Eight Sides to McGuffey’s Stories In 1982, when visitors were still allowed to sit at the desk, McGuffey Lab School teacher Sue Jones showed her secondgraders how McGuffey might have tested his pre-published stories with local children.
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Inside the McGuffey Museum on Miami’s Oxford
campus is an eight-sided desk where William Holmes McGuffey is said to have written his Readers. The desk nearly fills the first-floor library of the 1833 two-story brick home, second oldest building on campus today. As the narrative goes, after finishing a lesson, the Miami professor of ancient languages would put it in a drawer, turn the top of the pedestal-based table to the adjacent drawer, and proceed. With nearly 130 million copies published since the first edition in 1836, his six Readers are still in print and still being used. Miami received the desk from Andrew Hepburn, McGuffey’s son-in-law and
Miami president from 1871 until 1873 when the university closed. It’s believed Hepburn gave the desk to Miami after the university reopened in 1885. For many years, students used the desk as a study table in Old Main’s library and later in Alumni Library. The insides of the drawers are filled with students’ pencil signatures, the earliest dating back to 1890. Local historian Elizabeth Johnson has recently raised the “heretical thought” that the desk may have been made for McGuffey after he moved to the University of Virginia in 1845. Its black cherry and tulip poplar are woods native to both Ohio and Virginia. The cut nails and planing marks range from 1830 to 1860. “There is no evidence whatsoever, so far discovered, as to the maker,” Johnson says. “It’s all very squishy.”
DIVING
HOCKEY
MAC Diver of the Year sophomore Pei Lin finished second in the 3-meter at the NCAA Championships, less than a point out of first — best finish in history for Miami women’s swimming and diving. Other 2014–2015 champions included men’s hockey (NCHC
GOLF
Tournament), women’s tennis (MAC regular-season and tournament champs), men’s golf (MAC Champs), and women’s synchronized skating (Collegiate National Champions, its 11th consecutive and 17th overall national title). With its new $80 million Graduating Champions Campaign,
SYNCHRONIZED
SKƒTING
intercollegiate athletics is focused on improving facilities and increasing scholarships support. “The commitment and investment of our alumni and friends have had a direct impact on the national success Miami ice hockey has enjoyed over the past 12 years,” says hockey
TENNIS
head coach Enrico Blasi ’94. “It’s one thing to get to that level. In today’s competitive environment, it’s harder to stay there.” For more about how varsity hockey almost wasn’t and the Graduating Champions Campaign, see page 28. Fall 2013
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Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage
PAID
Burlington, VT 05401 Permit No. 396
A Cheesy Story See page 22.