MIAMIAN Winter 2012
Vol. 30, No. 1
Our Miami
The arts expand the soul W
hile in high school, I played clarinet in the band and orchestra – first chair, in fact. More than anything, I wanted to really play, but I didn’t have the gift. Although I could play the notes, I could never make true music. I imagine that’s why one particular episode of the TV show “M*A*S*H” resonates so much with me. Visiting his patient in recovery, Charles Emerson Winchester anticipates that the young soldier will be grateful to the skilled surgeon for saving his left leg. Instead, the soldier is devastated because shrapnel has caused permanent nerve damage in his right hand. A concert pianist, the man believes his life is over. But Winchester implores, “Don’t you see? Your hand may be stilled, but your gift cannot be silenced if you refuse to let it be. The gift does not lie in your hands. I have hands, David. Hands that can make a scalpel sing. More than anything in my life I wanted to play, but I do not have the gift. I can play the notes, but I cannot make the music. You’ve performed Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin. Even if you never do so again, you’ve already known a joy that I will never know as long as I live. Because the true gift is in your head and in your heart and in your soul.” Perhaps as a result of my own experience, I have a great appreciation for music and for all the other arts as well. That is why I am so excited that 2011-2012 is the Year of the Arts at Miami. Putting a spotlight on the arts encourages all of us to re-examine and re-emphasize the role that they play in our lives. This is incredibly important, especially now when there has been such a reduction in the arts programs in grades K-12. Declaring this the Year of the Arts at Miami gives us a chance to showcase the vast talent on our campuses, and by talent I mean our students, faculty, and staff; they all participate in various roles here. This also gives the arts at Miami heightened visibility and us more opportunity to share our talents and connect with surrounding communities. We have first-class talent among our fine arts majors and our faculty. Yet – as those of you who have participated in our marching band, glee club, dance theatre, and numerous other groups know – many of our musicians and actors are not music and theatre majors. They perform solely because they have a gift and a passion, and they revel in being together with others to create something special. Our orchestra this year, according to conductor Ricardo Averbach, is truly exceptional. Our marching band once again earned the coveted spot as the Santa Band in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. And Miami
Judged through blind submissions of major university productions across the country, Miami Opera’s production of Cendrillon was awarded second prize in the National Opera Association’s 2011 Opera Production Competition. Associate music professor Mari Opatz-Muni directs Miami’s opera program.
Opera just won second place in the National Opera Association’s 2011 Opera Production Competition for last year’s production of Jules Massenet’s Cinderella fairy tale Cendrillon. The best way to appreciate art is to experience art. Attend a live concert or a three-act play and allow the music or the words to make you feel high, low, sad, happy. Stand in front of a piece of art and permit it to provoke your thoughts about society and humanity. I am a big fan of Van Gogh and will never forget the time I stood in an Amsterdam museum studying one of his self-portraits. I was not prepared for the experience. There was a vibrancy to the painting that cannot be captured in prints. It was quite moving. Art expands the human soul. It’s aesthetic. It’s emotional. It reaches in and touches us in very different ways from person to person. And the artists? What they create is their gift to us. Of course, what we hope is that during this Year of the Arts, you can experience even more of the arts at Miami. Go to more Miami concerts. Attend more exhibits. Participate more fully. If you are unable to visit us, follow along at arts.muohio.edu/ yearofthearts or through the QR code at right while you support the arts in your own communities.
You are invited to write to President David Hodge at president@muohio.edu. Follow him on Twitter @PresHodge.
Contents
MIAMIAN
Winter 2012
Vol. 30, No. 1
Features 6 Marching Band’s Noteworthy Season
Come heat or high water, the Miami University Marching Band plays on. Whether they’re tickling a flute or hefting a tuba, “bandos” love creating new music every marching season and friendships that last forever.
10 The Power of Art
One paints. Another sings. A third produces “reality” from imagination. A fourth imagines edifices that, when constructed, pay homage to masterpieces on canvas. All – painter Sabre Smith Esler ’87, opera bass-baritone Robert Honeysucker MM ’71, movie and TV production designer Bill Brzeski ’75, and architect James Glymph ’73 – are tops in their fields because of a passion for art.
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14 Adjusting the Lens
In the early 20th century, Oxford photographer Frank R. Snyder captured town-and-gown life on film. Four generations later photo/journalism double major Scott Allison ’11 re-creates those scenes with his digital camera for an independent study project. What develops are fascinating similarities and contrasts between now and then.
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Departments On the Web www.MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian • More letters to editor • Web links to Scott Allison’s photography project, “From the Archives: Miami University and Oxford, Ohio, Then and Now” and Frank Snyder’s thousands of campus and town photos in Miami University Libraries’ archives
Web exclusive: • First editions: books written by alumni
On the cover With 2011-2012 being the Year of the Arts at Miami, this Miamian pays tribute to the more creative ones among us.
2 In your words 4 Along Slant Walk 20 Class notes 2 9 Obituaries 33 One more thing … Staff Editor, Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 Art Director, Michael Mattingly Senior Designer, Donna Barnet Web Developer, Suzanne Clark Copy Editor, Beth Weaver
University Advancement, 513-529-4029 Vice President for University Advancement Jayne Whitehead/whitehje@muohio.edu
Alumni Relations, 513-529-5957 Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations Ray Mock ’82 MS ’83/mockrf@muohio.edu
Office of Development, 513-529-1230 Associate Vice President Brad Bundy/bundybm@muohio.edu
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www.muohio.edu/alumni/ Address changes may be sent to: Alumni Records Office, Advancement Services Building, Miami University, 926 Chestnut Lane, Oxford, Ohio 45056; alumnirecords@muohio.edu; 513-529-5127, Fax: 513-529-1466 Miamian is published four times a year by the University Advancement Division of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. Copyright © 2011, Miami University. All rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Contact Miamian at 102 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, 513-5297592; Fax: 513-529-1950. Miami University is committed to providing equal opportunity and an educational and work environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, or veteran status. Miami shall adhere to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity/ affirmative action statutes and regulations. The university is dedicated to ensuring access and equal opportunity in its educational programs, related activities, and employment. Retaliation against an individual who has raised claims of illegal discrimination or cooperated with an investigation of such claims is prohibited. Students and employees should bring questions or concerns to the attention of the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity, Hanna House, 529-7157 (V/TTY) and 529-7158 (fax). Students and employees with disabilities may contact the Office of Disability Resources, 19 Campus Avenue Building, 529-1541 (V/TTY) and 529-8595 (fax).
In your words Pirates steal my heart
Swords and sabers drawn, pirates from the time of Queen Victoria’s reign invaded Miami’s Hall Auditorium last month. By boat, no less. Fear not. No blood was spilled. These were gentle pirates, many of them freshmen, all of them music aficionados participating in Miami Opera’s frolicking production of The Pirates of Penzance. Miami’s sweetly singing pirates Amazingly enough, this is not the first pirate invasion I’ve observed. Indeed, I am the very model of a modern major ticket-holder. But this was the first time I’ve watched soft-hearted scoundrels and knocked-kneed cops duke it out while I sat next to a freshman new to Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical slapstick. My armrest-sharing neighbor was laughing so much at her friends on stage that at one point I couldn’t stop myself from whispering to her, “You’ll really enjoy this next part.” Forgive me for violating the Golden Rule of theater etiquette. If I don’t quit whispering during performances, I might find myself being ushered to a seat beside a post during the next overture. Actually, I did sit behind a post a few weeks later. That was the only option left after the crowd filled the pews to see the Chamber Singers and then the Choraliers in their annual presentation of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. As the women’s hauntingly beautiful and final alleluia faded into silence, they blew out their candles, leaving the church in darkness and the audience in awe. At that moment, I realized I’ve missed out not attending these performances in the past. With 2011-2012 being the Year of the Arts at Miami, I’m rectifying that. So far this semester, I’ve sampled theatre’s A Glass Menagerie, a cappella singing with the Misfitz, two talks at the art museum, a little opera, and a lot of marching band, which shared a rousing rendition of its entire season with friends and family before heading to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan. Unlike my evening with the Penzance pirates, when I sang along with the familiar old friends (Not out loud, I swear!), I suspect I don’t always fully appreciate what is being staged before me. I was clueless during the a cappella rapping. (What’d they say?) Still, I hum on. Just like when we were in college, there’s so much new to experience, both through student and faculty artists and with the top-notch soloists and ensembles that the Performing Arts Series brings in. It’s kind of like when my niece tried watermelon for the first time. As she rolled the fruit around inside her mouth, juice dribbling down her chin, she showed surprise, then uncertainty, and finally complete and utter delight. I’m willing to take a little taste and possibly experience uncertainty knowing that the finale could very well lead to utter delight.
Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96, Editor
Wonderful tribute
What a wonderful issue of Miamian! The tributes to Dr. Shriver (“To Dr. Shriver, with Love,” Summer 2011 Miamian) were lovely to read, and it was great to honor teachers in the same issue, since he clearly loved teaching so much. Sarah Pechan ’02 Columbus, Ohio
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hen I opened the mailbox and saw Miamian – “Uncle Phil’s issue” – I gasped. Reading about it on Facebook last month made me wish for the days when I sat in rapt attention listening to Dr. Shriver’s stories about Ohio’s history. Some of my favorite Miami moments include the Shrivers: • Their welcoming open house – that’s the kind of place I wanted to have (all those bookshelves!). • Walking by his office (door open) when I was interviewing administrators for The Miami Student and seeing him poring over papers on his desk. Back then, I was afraid of my own shadow, and when the editor gave me a list to follow, I didn’t ask to interview Dr. Shriver. What a mistake! • Having him lead the songs and cheers at the games. • Knowing their daughter Darcy was in my classes and wondering how she felt about the double meaning, in her case, of in loco parentis. Thanks for the memories and the wonderful tribute to a fine man and the great woman at his side. This inspirational issue will be cherished. Kay Loyd McCullough ’75 Ocala, Fla.
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recall President Shriver’s presence when the curfew of Oxford was over. While walking by the president’s residence to go Uptown, there was our president in his front yard. He was casually viewing the pedestrians, maybe the campus, or just looking up at the large trees. We glanced in acknowledgement at
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In your words
MIAMIAN Vol. 29, No.
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Summer 2011
each other, and I realized that he was simply making himself available to anyone who might pass by. Regarding his stand to Gov. Rhodes and National Guard at Hueston Woods, I met with an alumnus who stated the National Guard was just a rumored scare tactic. Now I know better, perhaps; regardless, his stature continues to rise, as time goes by. Larry McFeeters ’71 Milford, Ohio
Another tip
Terrific “tips” from the various teachers (“These Teachers Know How to Cut Through the School Daze,” Summer 2011 Miamian). One of them, Sharon Draper MAT ’73, did her teaching and writing at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, where she earned The National Teacher of the Year Award. We are most proud of the legacy she left behind at Walnut! We’re a little disappointed there is not one reference to Walnut in the article – especially given the amount of hard work a lot of Miami faculty, admissions, and Walnut folks are doing to build stronger relationships between Walnut and Miami. Incidentally, Walnut’s principal, Jeff Brokamp, is Class of 1982! Bill ’58 and Pat Killoran Kern ’59 Cincinnati, Ohio
A little horn-blowing
Ohio State may have the “Best Damn Band in the Land,” but they are No. 2 in Ohio! Dick Huntley ’59
Cincinnati, Ohio
Give ‘Ides’ credit
After reading about the filming of segments of George Clooney’s “The Ides of March” at Miami in the Spring 2011 Miamian, I rushed to see the movie. Despite Miami’s on-staff PR people and oft-touted Winter 2012
outside marketing consultants, in return for allowing Clooney to turn the campus A tribute er, into a mini to Dr. Shriv d us. circus over who inspire the course of filming, what did Miami get out of it? In the film, the school was identified as “Miami University of Ohio” (couldn’t they even get the name right?) and though the credits were long enough to reference the crew catering service, there was no acknowledgement thanking Miami for its cooperation. So much for effective promotion. Job well done, guys. John Miller ’68 Los Gatos, Calif. Claire Wagner, associate director for university communications, responds: I watched the movie in a theater full of Cincinnatians who’d contributed to the production. Imagine our collective gasp when the credits arrived at “Filmed on location in Michigan,” without mention of Ohio or several contractually arranged credit listings. I spoke up immediately. Days later I received an apologetic call from an executive producer who promised our credits would be on the DVD and home-theater versions. What else did we get out of it? Many students and community members were paid extras who were able to observe Hollywood actors and producers in action; the Farmer School of Business sign shows twice, beautifully; the entire community enjoyed the experience; and Kristen Erwin ’96, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Film Commission, who persuaded George Clooney to include Miami in this terrific movie, said the crew was impressed enough with the people here that other movie producers may be influenced to come.
Miss you, Mama Jazz
Mama Jazz changed my life. My friends and I were saddened to hear about the passing of WMUB host Phyllis Campbell, fondly known as Mama Jazz. [Phyllis died Nov. 26.] In 1996 and 1997, we spent every Thursday night in Bishop Hall listening to her show. When we called in to the radio station, she dubbed us “The Bishop Belles.” We visited her at the studio, and she put us on-air during a holiday show. Over jazz and tea, we forged lifelong friendships. Fifteen years later the 10 of us are still a tightknit group, and although we are scattered across the country, we have reunions every other summer. We will always remember Mama Jazz, with her smoky voice and her giant heart, who was our muse. Michelle Feige ’99 Columbus, Ohio
Mama Jazz and The Bishop Belles at WMUB in 1997: (front) Mama Jazz, Megan Siebenhar, and Michelle Feige; (back) Virginia Howell, Kate Barker, Stephanie Perles, Laura Beth David, Rebecca Wanzo, Lori Palmer, Emilee Thompson, and Erica Brandenburg.
Send letters to: Donna Boen, Miamian editor 102 Glos Center Miami University Oxford, Ohio 45056-2480; Miamian@muohio.edu; or fax to 513-529-1950. Include your name, class year, home address, and phone number. Letters are edited for space and clarity. To read more letters, visit Miamian’s website at www.MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.
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Along Slant Walk Along Slant Walk
Totally hooked This year’s Effective Educator, Charlotte Newman Goldy, has learned a lot herself since her first time in Charlotte Newman Goldy, 2011 Alumni Association Effective Educator
front of students. “I was finishing
my master’s, given a subject, and told to lecture. I did everything wrong. Absolutely wrong. I researched a graduate paper and wrote it out and had to be pushed into the classroom because I was so scared.” When she finally looked up from her paper, 39 of the 40 students were staring at her with open mouths. But that one … “She gave me this great sympathetic smile. In the last 10 minutes left, I was teaching to her, and I decided it was fun. I was hooked.” The associate professor of history and director of Jewish studies joined Miami in 1984. She also is an affiliate faculty member with women’s studies, was longtime coordinator of the medieval studies program, and served two stints chairing the history department. 4
Rave reviews The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012 includes Miami among the 300+ “best and most interesting institutions in the nation.” In addition, Miami is named among 20 public universities strong in architecture, 36 public universities strong in business, and 25 major universities strong in music. Accountancy, music, chemistry, botany, microbiology, international studies, and architecture are listed as Miami’s strongest programs. The Fiske Guide is one of several national rankings in recent months to cite Miami’s high-quality education, high retention and graduation rates, caliber of teaching, strong value, and success of its alumni. •U.S. News & World Report’s 2012 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” ranks Miami third among national universities, after Dartmouth and Princeton, for best undergraduate teaching. •Princeton Review’s 2012 edition of “The Best 376 Colleges” also includes Miami. Only some 15 percent of 2,500 four-year U.S. colleges and three colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the Princeton Review’s flagship college guide. •Washington Monthly’s 2011 national university college rankings for social mobility – recruiting and graduating low-income students – places Miami 13th.
B.E.S.T. Library ever University Libraries has opened its new Business, Engineering, Science, and Technology Library (B.E.S.T.). The remodeled facility in Laws Hall replaces the Brill Science Library formerly in Hughes Laboratories. In addition to open-floor design with seating areas for individual
as well as group study, the library has a 36-seat instruction room with all-digital technology for hands-on training and a simulated boardroom with videoconferencing capabilities. During the renovation, about 75 percent of the demolished materials from Laws was diverted from landfills.
Patrons entering B.E.S.T. Library are greeted by “The Screens of Afflatus,” created by Ohio artist Giancarlo Calicchia. The 6-foot, stainedglass partition, representing a divine creative impulse or inspiration, depicts all five of the library’s specialty areas – the natural sciences, including psychology and physical geography, as well as the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Farmer Business School.
Excellent! Miami’s Institute for Entrepreneurship has been named an Ohio Center of Excellence in Cultural and Societal Transformation, the first entrepreneurship program in Ohio so designated. The institute, in the Farmer School of Business, emphasizes teaching excellence, real-world learning opportunities, and social entrepreneurship. “Miami University is to be commended for developing and maintaining a cutting-edge program that encourages students to think and act like entrepreneurs,” says Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro. “Students who learn how to start businesses, and actually do start and run businesses while still attending classes, are exactly
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Along Slant Walk
the type of students this state needs to grow our economy.” Ranked 15th in the U.S. for undergraduate programs by The Princeton Review/Entrepreneur magazine, the institute includes the Thomas C. Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Center for Social Entrepreneurship.
Perfect pass Miami University and Boise State University will share the American Football Coaches Association’s 2011 Academic Achievement Award, to be presented by the Touchdown Club of Memphis in January. Each school recorded a 100 percent graduation rate for its freshman football studentathlete class of 2004. “We thank the American Football Coaches Association for this prestigious recognition,” says Miami athletic director Brad Bates. “This award represents not only the academic performance of our football students but is symbolic of the culture Miami’s faculty creates, the quality of students all our coaches recruit to Oxford, and the cognitive inquiry by our students while they compete athletically at the highest level of the NCAA.”
Presidential award Carole Dabney-Smith, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Miami, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the U.S. government’s highest honor for outstanding scientists and engineers early in their independent research careers. “It is inspiring to see the innovative work being done by these scientists and engineers as they ramp up their careers – careers that I know will be not only personally rewarding but also invaluable to the nation,” President Barack Obama said. Among 94 researchers honored, Dabney-Smith was recognized for “imaginative research on the unique pathway that transports Carole Dabney-Smith folded and receives highest honor. assembled proteins across lipid membranes in plants to form the energy-harvesting complexes of photosynthesis and for excellent mentorship of developing scientists.”
The Choraliers perform Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.
Bravo Miami’s music ensembles will take to the stage in Carnegie Hall next fall when at least 350 students from Chamber Singers, Choraliers, Collegiate Chorale, glee club, the symphony orchestra, and the wind ensemble are expected to perform at the prestigious venue. The all-Miami University concert will begin at 2 p.m. Oct. 7 in Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium. Ticket availability and other details will be announced as plans develop. “This is a wonderful opportunity for a celebration that includes the whole university, and we are crafting plans to make this a major event for all Miami
The art center, moved from Rowan Hall due to construction of the Armstrong Student Center, is now in the south section of Phillips Hall. Newly renovated and dedicated this fall as part of the Year of the Arts celebration at Miami, the site includes a ceramics/pottery studio, a digital photo lab, woodshop, and metals/jewelry/glass studio and offers classes and studios.
University alumni and friends,” says James Lentini, dean of the School of Fine Arts.
Winter 2012 5
arching Band’s N
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s Noteworthy Season By Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96
Thanksgiving morning in 2003 dawned exceedingly early for Stephanie Neumann. Visiting New York City to watch the Miami University Marching Band play in the Macy’s Parade, she and her family rolled out of bed at 4 a.m. to catch the subway. They were determined to stake out a front-line location as close to the performers as possible. As the Fairfield, Ohio, seventhgrader fervently watched Miami’s red-and-white corps pass by her, she longed to join them. Quick-time march eight years into the future, and Neumann is more than joining the band. She’s leading it. In November 2011, Neumann, now a senior at Miami and one of the band’s three drum majors, helped parade its 257 members through Manhattan during the 85th edition of the grand old Thanksgiving Day tradition. Of the 10 bands selected from the more than 150 that applied, Miami’s was the only college band and earned the coveted spot as the Santa band, heralding the arrival of the big elf himself with a jazzy rendition of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
PHOTO BY GROUPPHOTOS.COM
Sunburned nose to frozen toes New York in November seemed like a long way off in August when band members – nearly half of them new to the group – lined up on the practice field south of the Center for Performing Arts (CPA). It was the week before classes started, and those 12-hour marching marathons in shirtdrenching humidity tested the tenor of every sax. Yet, no 95-degree drill was going to make Cincinnati sophomore Richard
Werden swap his baritone for a cool ice tea in the shade. For him, camaraderie keeps practices and performances upbeat, no matter how hot or rainy or muddy. “I love it,” says Werden, a business major. “Your first week of band camp, you already know 200 people as a freshman. You have contacts everywhere.” Many of those friendships last all four years of college and beyond. “The band is much more than what you see on the field. It really is almost like a 300-person family,” says Kent Covert ’90, assistant director of the band as well as assistant director of application services for Miami’s IT Services. “For most people in the band, their best friends are also in the band. They often end up rooming together. You’ve got the famous Miami Mergers, too; a huge number of Miami Mergers come out of the marching band. It’s a very social activity because you’re spending so much time with these people.” A trombone player and systems analysis major during his undergraduate days, Covert knows the band’s family culture as well as anyone, having played and worked with the group for 26 years. Even band director Stephen Lytle, a much more recent member, arriving
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PHOTO BY GROUPPHOTOS.COM
in 2009, has attended two “band” weddings already and knows of at least two, possibly three, engagements. As for all the dating going on, he can’t begin to keep track. That really wasn’t what he had in mind, though, when he included a sultry version of “When a Man Loves a Woman” in this season’s shows.
Seeing red For the season opener, one of three programs this year, Lytle played off Miami’s school colors. “Seeing Red” blended three moods, stepping off with high drama and “a little grit behind the teeth” in Medea’s “Dance of Vengeance” and then high-stepping into Stravinsky’s Firebird and “Mars” from The Planets. There’s a moment in the opener, perhaps 20 seconds into the show, when the band forms all these X’s across the field. “Then the horns go up, and they just blow,” Lytle says. “The chord they play peels paint. Every time I hear it, it still gives me chills. “That’s one thing about marching bands that you just can’t re-create in another instrument ensemble – brute force. It can bowl you over.” Bowl you over. Blow you away. Those are the moments that make conducting the band in Yager Stadium worthwhile for Neumann, a music composition major whose official title is field commander. “I love the feeling when I’m conducting a piece and I get to that big movement and the whole band is watching me. It’s a musical high,” she says. “I’m in front of the whole band and they’re all playing at me.”
No-drop policy While Neumann conducts, Jasmine Parks, another senior, captains the twirlers, the six women in sparkly uniforms who toss multiple batons while tumbling and spinning throughout the musical ranks. In the parades, they march immediately behind the field commanders. During the shows, they, along with the Shakerettes and the color guard, add to the band’s visual appeal. That visual appeal can take a toll. When it’s windy and chilly, the twirlers’ uniforms are a little on the thin side. Heaven forbid they get wet too. Parks will never forget their exhibition performance in St. Louis last
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year when co-captain Morgan Ricketts’ clothes became soaked while stored under the bus. “We were trying to blow-dry them, and we blew a fuse in the hotel. It was definitely one of the funniest moments” for Parks throughout her three years with the band. From Fremont, Ohio, with an international studies major and French minor, Parks was unable to participate her freshman year because of a fractured back, one of the hazards of her avocation. A twirler since age 5, she still feels mixed emotions when marching onto the field. “Excitement. Deathly nervous because what if I drop the baton in front of all these people. Anxious because I want to remember the routine.” Drops do happen occasionally, of course. It’s not easy to catch a baton behind your back while cartwheeling through the clarinets. That’s something the auxiliary corps would like to see Mike Neubert try since he’s always announcing during practice, “There’s a no-drop policy, ladies.” In his 12th year as the band’s visual coordinator and drill designer, Mike, a member of the band in the ’90s, is the man behind those fancy moves.
Taking it all in stride Although known these days by its drum corps style, with step sizes constantly changing to allow for different formations on the field, the band didn’t start out that way. According to Lytle, the band’s earliest formation was as a sub-unit within the Men’s Glee Club in the early 20th century. By the mid-’30s, the university wanted something more formal and appointed the first director, A.D. Lekvold. Around 1953, the 96-member band was practicing where Reid Hall was and the Farmer Business School stands today and music faculty member Nicholas Poccia started volunteering with the group. A couple of years later the Shakerettes, the drill team, and majorettes came into play. Poccia became director in 1960, moving everything into Hall Auditorium and enlarging the band to 144 students. After the CPA went up in 1968, the group started marching at its current practice location. (Next August the practice field switches to Western Campus east of Tappan as a
new dining hall takes some of the CPA field.) The band went through another major change when Jack Liles became director in 1978 and adopted the drum corps style. David Shaffer MM ’80, assistant director and chief composer/ arranger under Liles, became director in 1999 and continued to develop that style. Lytle likes that Miami has its own identity among colleges around Ohio, preventing anyone from playing in another’s shadow. Ohio State’s band, for example, is tied to the Big Ten format. Ohio University’s is known for its dancing, started by black colleges in the South. A trumpet player himself, Lytle instructs the casual observer to take note of the highly involved musical arrangements Miami performs and pay attention to the complexity of its drill (aka marching formations). He knows what he’s talking about. Previously acting assistant director of bands at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was music director of the 300-member Marching Tar Heels, Lytle is an active music arranger. Many of his pieces are played by high schools and universities across the country. Flipping through a notebook on his desk, Lytle stops and studies a page. “This is the closer for our ‘Seeing Red’ show and that number 75 right there … that means, at this point of the show, we’ve completed 75 separate sets for the drill, and that’s for about a nineminute show. In comparison, many college bands struggle to break 20 sets on a seven-minute show. “In other words, we’re constantly moving … constantly moving. And our students, part of the reason they come and join the Miami band, is for that experience. One of the first things I asked the students when I got here was, ‘Tell me what you want changed and tell me what I should leave alone.’ They said, ‘We like hard drill. Don’t dilute the challenge.’ “You don’t have to do college marching band to check off any requirement for your degree,” Lytle points out, “so anybody and everybody in it just absolutely loves it.” Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96, editor of Miamian, didn’t march much while playing viola in the orchestra.
And the Beat Goes On By Vince Frieden
When Dylan Digel’s first big movie shoot yielded a check for $94, the possibilities were endless for the soon-to-be college graduate. “I thought about using it to help pay off my student loans or maybe for something trivial like a new Xbox game,” said Digel ’11, who received the check for his work as an extra in The Ides of March, the George Clooney political thriller that filmed scenes on Miami’s campus last spring. Instead, he combined $94 with his tax refund and scrounged $6 out of his own pocket to come up with the $200 needed to sponsor a member of the Miami University Marching Band in November’s performance at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “It just felt natural,” said Digel, who graduated in May. “Marching band has a very special place in my heart, and I’m not sure how my life would have turned out without it. The people I met through marching band really turned my life around, and I knew there was going to be at least one band member who was going to really struggle coming up with $200.” The theatre major also wanted to share the experience of Manhattan with another Miamian. “I’ve had the good fortune of visiting Manhattan three times, and each time the experience has been as magical as the last. For people involved in the arts, it’s so rich with opportunities. Even if you’re not involved in the arts, you should visit Manhattan at least once.” Now living in Manhattan, he recently was cast in a production of Joelle Arqueros’ Sex, Relationships and Sometimes … Love at The Producer’s Club in New York City. Digel followed his mother, Marisa Stock Digel ’83, grandfather Robert Stock ’66, and a host of other family members, including great-uncle and football letterwinner Larry Hawkins ’54, to Miami. “I was looking for a good theatre program, and, because I play saxophone, I wanted a marching band that included woodwinds. It wasn’t until I enrolled at Miami that I realized what a family tradition it was.” Vince Frieden is associate director of development communication at Miami.
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The Power of Art Capturing that ‘Shining Elusive Element’ By Betsa Marsh “What was any art,” author Willa Cather wondered, “but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself – life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.” For more than two centuries, Miamians have been snatching handfuls of life as it darts past, capturing elusive moments in measures of music, stanzas of poetry, strokes of paint. Miami has helped launch scores of world-class artists and performers, and with President David Hodge designating 2011-2012 the Year of the Arts, it seems a perfect time to salute them. Artist-illustrator C.F. Payne ’76 has created covers for Time magazine, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic Monthly, der Spiegel – and MAD Magazine. Abstract metal sculptor and painter Fletcher Benton ’56 has his kinetic sculptures in collections around the globe. In music, trumpeter Jono Gasparro ’08, special projects manager to musician/composer Wynton Marsalis, played with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for Wynton’s 50th birthday concert on PBS in October. Steven Reineke ’93 is music director of the New York Pops and principal pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra. Actor Eric Lange ’95 has been moving between TV and film, with recent roles as mad scientist Stuart Radzinsky in “Lost,” distraught Coach Stupak in “Modern Family,” and horse race betting expert Andy Beyer in the Disney film “Secretariat.” Whatever the medium, each artist reaches out for Cather’s shining elusive element, calling on a creativity that lies deep within each psyche. A quartet of Miami artists reveals a bit about their process and work.
Colors speak to her The little blue skiff nudges into the shoreline as plumes of amber and scarlet shoot off the banks like solar flares. The water is still, the boat is empty. There’s an air of aloneness, if not outright loneliness, about the little blue boat. Yet Sabre Smith Esler ’87 sees nothing like desolation, calling the piece “Higher Ground” and saying, “Boats mean possibilities. They can take you somewhere.” It’s all in the perception, of course, and that split second of awareness is what Esler tries to freeze-frame in every scene she paints. “I try to capture the energy in that certain moment,” she says from her Atlanta studio. “It’s a spark: It’s there and
it’s gone. Light is an energy force field – an artist friend calls this the ‘perceptual moment.’ You can overpaint and lose it.” So Esler attacks her canvas quickly with a palette knife in an economy of line, striving for “the mastery of the eye to see it right the first time.” Whether it’s a drifting little rowboat, obscure figures huddled under beach umbrellas, or abstract pedestrians angling across a courtyard. And of her captivating boatscapes, with jewel tones no sailor has seen, she focuses on “their quiet, their stillness. They’re kind of dreamy. The boat is a vehicle to a different time, place, and emotion.” One critic has said her works “transport the viewer from the harsh
Boatscapes, such as this one, which artist Sabre Smith Esler ’87 titled “Higher Ground,” are among her favorites to paint. She is drawn to the fierce energy of Abstract Expressionist painters.
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contemporary world … to the idealized world of memory.” The critic went on to say, “With her expanding audience of collectors, Sabre stands on the cusp of much larger influence. … Consequently, her previous regional appeal has expanded beyond St. Simons and Atlanta to collectors aggressively seeking her work in Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.” “Where do we find our clarity?” Esler muses. “I think we find it in quiet places. Maturity brings that. Most creative people when they do their art are looking for that child-like joy you have to have, to capture that certain emotion.” While she looks for that frisson of emotion in cityscapes, landscapes, and still lifes, her favorites are her boatscapes and figurative pieces. “The figurative is so much more challenging, to make it look like that figure could be walking down the street.” She’s drawn to the fierce energy of Abstract Expressionist painters such as de Kooning, Rothko, and Pollock. “They said, ‘I can manipulate what I see depending upon how I feel about it.’ For me, that’s joyful, happy energy.” When Esler meets people at galleries and they ask that old bromide, “What do you paint?” she says, “I paint everything I love – and that’s everything.” Look closely and you may find words painted behind the images. “I love to read, especially poetry, and I wish I could have been a writer. We studied a lot of philosophy in interdisciplinary studies at Miami, which I combined with art, and I’ll think about philosophy. And I’ll listen to music, and maybe the lyrics I’m pondering will come out in the painting. “The words are my little exclamation point I paint – what I was thinking about at the time. “Sometimes I do find I’m awake but I’m dreaming – I get into a transcendental place listening to my music and the colors are speaking to me. It does happen, and I love when I can capture that certain moment of energy.”
In his three-sided world In a seedy bathroom, a monkey pounces from the ceiling onto Ed Helms’ shoulders and Wolfpack screeches in “The Hangover Part II.” Little Crystal leaps up to the shower rod and Zach Galifianakis coos, “Ah, it’s a monkey.” It looks like any grimy bathroom in any dodgy Thai hotel, but no, each inch of the room has been meticulously envisioned, drawn, and built so that Crystal the monkey has places to land and the camera has places to shoot – up, down, around. All thanks to Bill Brzeski ’75. Brzeski was production designer for “The Hangover Part II” as well as the original film, the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time. “The Hangover” earned Brzeski an Art Director’s Guild Award nomination for Excellence in Production Design. “None of the bathroom is real,” Brzeski says from his office outside Los Angeles. “The whole world’s scripted.” After 30 years of theatre, TV, and film work, Brzeski can be forgiven for always looking behind the curtain. Even his two daughters, who grew up playing on sets he created for TV’s “Growing Pains,” came to think of three-sided rooms as normal.
As production designer for “The Hangover Part II,” Bill Brzeski ’75 is the creative genius behind the seedy Thai hotel scene. The interior, built on a Warner Bros.’ sound stage in Burbank, Calif., is based on multiple research trips to Thailand where Brzeski and his team took thousands of photos.
Currently working on “Ironman III” with Robert Downey Jr., Brzeski (below) is enjoying blowing up half of the U.S. for the film.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF OPERA BOSTON AND CLIVE GRAINGER
“I get to travel and build crazy sets all over the world. I work with interesting, extreme kinds of people.” As production designer, he has supervised the visual look of such films as “The Bucket List,” “Stuart Little,” “As Good As It Gets,” and “The Forbidden Kingdom.” He’s currently working on “Ironman III” with Robert Downey Jr. “I’m blowing up half of the U.S., and it’s like being a little kid all over again.” His parents encouraged him to build and explode models and forts, his engineer father handing him tools at an early age. “I liked to draw. I could look at a square on a piece of paper and visualize that room.” Drawn to music, too, Brzeski arrived at Miami from Bedford, Mass., as a music major, playing saxophone and clarinet. “I found out I was pretty mediocre, and ultimately got into theatre. I didn’t want to act, sing, or dance, but I saw pretty quickly that you needed scenery.” He walked into Michael Griffith’s theatre design class and Brzeski “saw the person that I could become. He gave me the foundation for the work and was also a role model. He was instrumental in forming who I am as a professional designer.” First, Griffith taught, every artist needs a point of view. Then, imagination. “Once you have a point of view, you come up with a concept, a term you hear all the time in the film industry. Then I let my imagination fly. I have a particularly fertile imagination, and I combine that with a certain technical expertise.” In the collaborative world of film, Brzeski presents his concept to the director. “The movie business works very much like the military. To successfully do our job, we have to have blind devotion to the director. The best movies are when a director has the strongest concept. “When you know what type of party it’s going to be, it’s much easier to buy the party favors.”
Robert Honeysucker MM ’71 (right) as Don Pedro in dress rehearsal for Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict with David McFerrin (left) as Claudio and Sean Panikkar (center) as Benedict.
Smitten by Aida Sometimes the universe taps us on the shoulder, pointing toward a new path in life. The taps can be firm, they can be gentle. And in Robert Honeysucker’s case, they can be incredibly persistent. Fate rapped out a tattoo on the singer’s shoulder for 25 years, from the time he first sang in kindergarten, through solos at his father’s Methodist church and into high-school productions and college operas. But he was nearly 30 when he finally heeded the nudge. “It was during rehearsal for Aida in Jackson, Miss., and it was almost like a thunderbolt,” Honeysucker MM ’71 recalls from his home in Cambridge, Mass. “It became crystal clear to me this was what I wanted to do. I was knocked to the ground and smitten – this was what I was put on the Earth to do.” So the bass-baritone packed up his family, garnered a two-year grant, and headed to Boston to study voice. “I had to determine if I had talent enough to compete in the field.”
The verdict is in, with Honeysucker performing all over the world in between his teaching commitments at the Boston Conservatory and Longy School of Music. Surely leaving a secure teaching job and striking out for Boston was one of the bravest leaps of a young man’s life? “No,” he says, recalling even earlier days in his career. “Going to Miami was the most courageous thing I ever did.” After earning a bachelor’s in music from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Honeysucker took the advice of a Miami alum teaching chemistry at the college. “Give Miami a try, it’s a nice small town,” his friend said. A network of RedHawks helped Honeysucker find a place to stay and make an audition tape. “It was awful,” he remembers with a groan. “So I arrived in June 1965 with a suitcase, $25 in my pocket, and a letter of acceptance. I was planning to get a job for the summer and make enough to enroll in September.
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Edges torn open The building, of course, would have footers, girders, and beams, as any selfrespecting building would. But what of the roofline, the architect mused. He looked up at a painting on his client’s wall. How about capturing the light just as Vermeer did in this “Girl with a Pearl Earring”? And the design for Maggie’s Centre for cancer care in Dundee, Scotland, was born. Today, coastal sunbeams glint off its undulating stainless steel roof. The inspirational process is vintage Frank Gehry, recalled by the architect’s partner of 17 years, James Glymph ’73. They collaborated on some of the most iconoclastic buildings of the modern age: the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. “Of any of the projects I was connected with in my lifetime, Bilbao was the best example of how powerful art can be in an urban context,” Glymph says from his Los
Angeles home. “That building paid for itself in one year and transformed a city. They knighted Frank, and treat him like a god. It’s the power of art. “When I was at Miami, I could not have imagined or even hoped for the opportunities I’ve had. I’ve worked with Frank in 14 countries.” After 19 years with Gehry, Glymph is now an independent consultant, redoing an old house in Malibu. A native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, he’s especially proud of the three Gehry buildings in the state: at Toledo Arts School, Case Western, and University of Cincinnati. For Glymph, the wellspring of the creative process is always the client and the context. “The expression of design is from the client first, then keyed off the environment or a specific painting. If it wasn’t art, we’d push the clients for other strong feelings.” Team Gehry became famous for breaking through the 2-D wall of traditional architectural drawings to true 3-D. They adapted an aerospace modeling program that was tied to fabrication equipment, a process that created the parts “to keep a building possible and affordable.” Once a client signed off on the building’s functionality, Glymph and his team
would address its style. Enter the enormous stainless steel curves that seem to nearly lift the Guggenheim and Disney off the ground. “It’s all about sails. The curves and clashing planes put a stationary object in motion. “Even at Miami, I was playing with the idea that something static like a building could have a sense of movement. We studied the frieze on the Parthenon, and how the soldiers pushing into the stone with their shields turned it into something other than stone. “In our buildings, we have edges going around corners, edges torn open. They make the eye move and see the building in different ways. “A building needs to be a little bit off, a little bit spontaneous, a little bit thrown together. It’s visually richer and the impact on you lasts longer. That’s our creative philosophy. “And if it’s not fun, you’re doing everything wrong.”
Cincinnati freelancer Betsa Marsh shared top teachers’ tips in the Summer 2011 Miamian.
When he collaborated with architecture partner Frank Gehry on the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, James Glymph ’73 focused on creating curves and clashing planes to put it in motion.
PHOTO BY CAROL M. HIGHSMITH
“I was hanging around the music building one day when I met the dean of the School of Fine Arts, George Barron. I introduced myself and he said, ‘Your tape was awful – come over to my office.’ He gave me a voice lesson, then arranged for a scholarship and had me meet the chair of the alumni association so I could get vouchers for books and a work/study job. “Miami had a full-fledged opera department, on stage and in costume. The whole thing started to crystallize, combining theatre and music.” Yet once again, Honeysucker turned away from performance to teach for six years at Tougaloo. Then, Aida sent him on his quest. “I come from a minister’s home, where the emphasis is always on the word and the message – making sure you’re reaching people. I work with the goal of trying to reach someone. I say a prayer before I go on stage: ‘Help me touch somebody and make a difference in someone’s life.’ ”
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Adjusting the Lens For an independent study project this summer, photography and journalism double major Scott Allison ’11 took his Canon 7D camera and set out to recreate campus and town scenes shot by wellknown Oxford photographer Frank R. Snyder (1875-1958), some nearly 100 years ago. First, Allison studied the Snyder photos housed in Miami University Libraries’ archives. He then selected several to reproduce, being careful to shoot at the same time of day, at the same angle, and with lighting as similar to Snyder’s as possible. The following are a few of the many photos comprising Allison’s project, titled “From the Archives: Miami University and Oxford, Ohio, Then and Now.” The accompanying text comes primarily from Miami University, 1809-2009: Bicentennial Perspectives; Phillip Shriver’s Miami University: A Personal History; and Walter Havighurst’s The Miami Years.
Construction crew in front of Elliott Hall In 1913 Officially named
Washington and Clinton Hall when students moved into the newly completed dormitory in 1829, the dorm was commonly called Northeast Building, later shortened to North Hall. Miami’s first residence hall is now the oldest building on the Oxford campus. Built for $7,000, it was “plain but strong,” with a wood-burning stove in each room, which students used to heat their rooms and cook their meals. Patterned after Yale’s oldest building, Connecticut Hall, it was renovated into neo-Georgian style in 1937. It was renamed after Charles Elliott, Miami professor of Greek and logic 1849-1863, who was the hall’s proctor.
1913
In 2011 During the summer of
2011, Elliott was renovated once again, as was Stoddard, with a more efficient utility system, additional electrical outlets, energy-efficient windows, and new plumbing and bathroom fixtures. Geothermal heating and cooling also were installed and low-flow plumbing fixtures added. Today’s students now enter their rooms with electronic ID cards. They simply tap the card to the key plate to unlock the door.
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Entrance to Miami University – in 1900, 1909, and 2011
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The entrance to the northwest side of the Oxford campus is at the corner of Campus Avenue and High Street. It is also where Slant Walk begins, a walk that thousands of students have traveled for nearly 200 years. On that corner in 1909, the new Centennial Memorial Gate was erected in honor of the 100th anniversary of the university’s founding. That gate came down in 1973 when the Phi Delta Theta Gate went up to mark the fraternity’s 125th anniversary. The left side of the new structure retained one of the tablets from its predecessor. Of the walkway, now as sacred to Miami tradition as red brick, Walter Havighurst writes in The Miami Years: “Oxford’s oldest and most enduring thoroughfare was never planned, marked, or designated. “First known as the Slanting Path, it was the students’ bee-line from the old college to the High Street taverns and the Church Street sanctums. Muddy, dusty, leaf-strewn and ice-crusted, it was trodden in all seasons. “The first improvement was a surface of sand and a grilled crossing to keep livestock out of the hedged campus. “The first gateway was a pair of iron posts at the portal. As years passed, the Slant Walk landmark kept changing. In 1902 the college well was boarded over and its tilted sweep removed. A 1909 Centennial Gate gave way to a Williamsburg-style entrance in 1973. “Old Main itself was replaced by the new Harrison Hall in sesquicentennial 1959. After 40 years of bubbling in the shade of huge old elms, Thobe’s fieldstone fountain was supplanted by the stone circle bench of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. “College fads and fashions, modes and manners go on changing as in generations past.”
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Alumni Library then, Alumni Hall now 1910 (inside) Guy Potter Benton, president of Miami
1902-1911, “recognized that an institution of higher learning was only as good as its library.” (Miami University, 1809-2009: Bicentennial Perspectives) In 1906 he approached steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, well known for helping to finance the building of public libraries and inspired to do so by John Shaw Billings, director of the New York Public Library and Miami Class of 1857. For Miami’s Alumni Library, Carnegie agreed to fund half of the $80,000 cost, with the stipulation that Oxford residents also be allowed to use the library. Benton spent the next three years raising money from alumni and private donors. The central portion, with its stacks, reading rooms, and 70-foot-high rotunda, opened its doors in March 1910.
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2011 (inside) The statue of George Washington in the
foreground is courtesy of Samuel Spahr Laws, an 1848 Miami graduate, who in 1920 presented to the university one of the five existing bronze duplicate castings of Jean-Antoine Houdon’s life-size marble statue of Washington, installed in the rotunda of Virginia’s Capitol in 1796. (Miami’s CELTUA Web page)
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1910 (outside) Conceived as the most lavish building
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on campus, one of its many notable features is a Rookwood tile interpretation of the university seal on the north exterior gable, as visible today as when it was new. The library’s initial 28,000 volumes were moved from old Harrison Hall/Old Main. In 1924 an east wing was added containing a main reference and reading room and a reserve book room. Additional stacks were added in 1930, 1949, and 1958, and a west wing was built in 1952. Marion Boyd Havighurst, daughter of a Western College president, wife of English professor Walter Havighurst, and a Miami English professor in her own right, wrote the first modern mystery novel set in a college library, Murder in the Stacks. “She began the book in her study carrel in old Alumni Library until she frightened herself so badly that she continued writing at home.” (Frances McClure, assistant to the curator, Special Collections 1985-94, in Miami University, 1809-2009: Bicentennial Perspectives)
2011 (outside) Alumni remained Miami’s main
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library until the construction of King Library in the 1960s and ’70s. Then it became a depository for seldom-used book materials and was converted into a building for the architecture department, including the art and architecture library. It was extensively renovated in the early 1990s and the old glass-floored stack areas were removed. The latest addition, the south wing, was added in 1997.
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2011 When the Shrivers
Lewis Place 1904 Although Lewis Place on High
Street became Miami’s presidential home in 1903, it was actually built in 1839 by Romeo Lewis, Connecticut merchant and a founder of Tallahassee, for his young wife, Jane. “He built a large home in anticipation of a large family. Though Romeo and Jane Lewis did have children, sadly not one of them survived infancy.” (Miami University: A Personal History) Two months after their fourth son, Marcus, died, Romeo died as well. (Ophia Smith, Old Oxford Houses) Widowed in 1843, for the second time, Jane Lewis remained in the home for 40 years, inviting various family members for long visits, including nephew Philip North Moore, who stayed there while attending Miami. Moore inherited the house and eventually asked university trustees if they would be interested in making it a home for Miami presidents. “While extensive remodeling was going on, Moore heard that some of the old mantels were being replaced by new ones. That changed his mind about selling the house. He decided to hold the deed and lease the house to the university.” After he died in 1929, his heirs sold the house to Miami for $25,000. (Old Oxford Houses)
arrived in 1965, Lewis Place was being renovated, so they stayed in Grey Gables, built as Western President Boyd’s retirement home and later 19O4 purchased by Miami for a guest house. The Hodges also spent their first year in 2006 in another house while the university modernized Lewis Place once again. “When Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps the preeminent 20th century American architect, visited Oxford, he was asked which building in Oxford appealed 2O11 to him the most, and he replied at once, ‘Lewis Place.’ He thought it singularly beautiful.” (Miami University: A Personal History)
McGuffey Memorial 1941 The National Federation
of McGuffey Societies dedicated the McGuffey statue, sculpted by Ernest Haswell (on left in photo), at McGuffey Hall in 1941. It was the “consummation of a
1941
determined campaign” by Harvey Minnich (on right in photo), a McGuffey Scholar and dean emeritus of the School of Education (dean 1903-1931). The hall and statue are a tribute to William Holmes McGuffey, Miami professor of ancient languages 1826-1836, who wrote the McGuffey Eclectic Readers.
2011 Although Miami’s School of
Education opened Sept. 10, 1902, as the Ohio State Normal College, McGuffey Hall wasn’t built yet. It emerged in three stages between 1909 and 1925. Normal College made Miami truly coeducational and also attracted older professional students and the university’s first African-American students. The McGuffey Laboratory School, founded in 1910, was the training site for 100 student-teachers each year. The lab school eventually occupied McGuffey’s entire south wing where, in the 1930s, the office of its head football coach, Weeb Ewbank ’28, was located. While modernizing the program, Dean Minnich changed the name in 1915 to Teachers College. It was renamed the School of Education in 1928, added “and Allied Professions” in 1977, and became the School of Education, Health, and Society in 2008.
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Oxford parade 1919 “In 1810, when the town of Oxford was
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surveyed, no roads led to Oxford, and mail took two weeks to arrive from the established town of Lebanon, 37 miles away.” (Miami University, 18092009: Bicentennial Perspectives) Ralph J. McGinnis, Miami’s alumni editor in the 1930s, shares many tidbits about the growing village in Oxford Town 1830-1930, published July 4, 1930: “With the re-opening of the University in 1885, the modern era starts. From then to the present [1930], Oxford has enjoyed a slow growth and modern life has brought the usual improvements of paved streets, electric lights, and fast transportation. The phenomenal growth of Miami, with a student body approximating the population of the Village, has for the second time in history materially affected its prosperity and life. “The first electric lights were installed in 1889, the saloons went out in 1904, preceded by the Temperance Crusade. The first streets were paved in 1916, and the water system installed in 1894. The tower was erected on the Public Square in 1923.” [The water tower was a gathering place for decades of Miami students until it was torn down in 1998.]
2011 “In 1803, a college township was set aside
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in the almost uninhabited woodlands of northwestern Butler County. In 1810, a year after Miami University was chartered, the Village of Oxford was laid out and the first lots were sold. In the following year, the first school was built and by 1830, with a population of more than 700, the Village of Oxford was incorporated. A charter form of government was adopted in 1960 and a decade later population growth had turned the village into a full-fledged city. The original boundaries of the City consisted of the Mile Square. A number of annexations during recent decades increased the size, resulting in the City currently consisting of approximately six square miles.” (City of Oxford website)
Dr. H.M. Moore’s house 1909 and 2011 On the southwest corner
of West Walnut Street and South Beech, the 103 W. Walnut St. home of Dr. H.M. Moore later served as medical offices. In more recent times, it is one of the many houses in the original Mile Square turned into student rental homes.
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Snyder’s store 1936 Opened in 1895, Snyder’s Art
Store was a well-established business on High Street by the time these Miami students gathered by its front windows in 1936. Describing owner Frank R. Snyder in Oxford Town 1830-1930, Ralph J. McGinnis wrote in 1930, “Mr. Snyder has been in Oxford for 35 years. He came here with his father in 1891 and in 1895 purchased the photographic business, adding the gifts and art shop a short time after. The photographic business was started by E.B. Rogers. “Mr. Snyder has been a popular photographer in the community for more than a generation. In addition to his regular studio work, he has a large business in finishing amateur work and commercial photography. The gift shop carries a large variety of merchandise and includes school supplies, kodaks, toys, picture frames, and magazines.”
1936
2011 Frank R. Snyder eventually
passed down the store to his son, Frank K. Snyder ’41. It later became Snyder’s Hallmark, owned and operated by Frank R.’s granddaughter, Gretchen Snyder McLaughlin ’69, and her husband, Jerry. When Snyder’s closed in the spring of 2006, it was Oxford’s oldest business. Now filling the spot is Wild Bistro, an Asian cuisine restaurant. Although his business is gone, many of Frank R. Snyder’s photos remain. The Snyder Collection, housed in archives, includes some 4,000 photos of Oxford and Miami life spanning 1897-1955 and can be found online at http://digital.lib.muohio.edu/snyder. To view more of Scott Allison’s “From the Archives: Miami University and Oxford, Ohio, Then and Now,” go to http://sma-photo.com/snyder.
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Class notes Class notes
1946 grads forever friends The three Miami freshmen pictured in the black and white photo from 1942 (right) still keep in touch. Here is their story: Peggy Butler Newton ’46, a girl from Chicago, spent one year at Miami and then joined the Marines. However, she returned each year to visit the Peggy, Curly, and Moe in other two while they were 1942 in Minnis Alley (l-r) in school, and later came back to Miami reunions with them. Dorothy “Curly” Curlett Bachman ’46, a girl from Dayton, met and married Bill Bachman ’48, who transferred from Wisconsin. They met on a blind date arranged by Dorothy’s roommate, Mary Ann “Moe” Morrison Osgood ’46, a girl from Cleveland, and Moe’s then fiancé, Bill Osgood. Curly and Moe then, they remain Curly and Moe to each other to this day. The couples went their separate ways after college, as couples do, but through the decades, they enjoyed a number of Miami reunions together. Some 60 years later … with all the children grown and married, Peggy, Moe, Curly, and their two Bills began traveling together, including two canal trips through France with their own rented boat. Now, the two Bills are gone, and Peggy and Curly live in apartments at Fairwinds Desert Point in Tucson. Although Moe lives in an apartment at Plymouth Place in La Grange, Ill., they still visit back and forth and talk on the phone a lot, often recalling those “super memories” of their beginnings at Miami.
Peggy, Moe, and Curly in 2010 (l-r)
1949 Ronald Kern MA ’49 of Elizabeth, Ind., who taught and directed plays at Miami for years, has written a book of poems, Echoes in the Mind.
Weiss Hosfield, Barbara Teckemeyer Jones ’51 ’85, and Jane Diehl Crawford.
1953
1951
These classmates, who have kept a round robin letter going around the country for 60 years, came to Oxford from New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon to share campus memories during Alumni Weekend 2011: (front, l-r) Mary Alice Potts Love, Betsy Dodd Pittman, Donna Weiss Hosfield, Eileen Springmyer Garrabrant, Caroline Brigner McGrew; (back) Betty Barnes Heintzelman, Shirley Groom Klueter, Joan Maddux Harr, and Nancy Cool Grimm.
Sigma Chi brothers and their wives met in Avalon, N.J., in September: (l-r) Bob Mitrione ’54, Don Wieche ’53, Marg Wieche, Bernie Griesinger ’53, Martha Griesinger, Marilyn Miller Munneke ’55, Jim Munneke ’53, Beth Novak Mitrione ’55.
Peggy Hopper Pearson, hosting an alumni lunch in Kettering, Ohio, took this photo of Acacia fraternity brothers: (l-r) Jonathan Saunders ’53, Raymond Strohminger ’53, Marquis Witt ’54, Edward Watkins ’52, and Robert Archer ’53.
1955 Class of 1951 Mortar Board members: (front, l-r) Joan Foster-Koenig, Joyce Eldridge Brown, Margaret Dennison Kenney, Rachel Nordberg Burris, Nancy Loeb Jacobs, Carolyn Freed Peterson, Sue Rolfes Johnsen, Dorothy Holloway Westhafer ’51 MA ’53, and Esther Kneisley Arn Gribschaw ’52; (back) Gloria Malphrus Ohnmeis, Donna
(l-r) David Marshall ’54, Susan Briggs Marshall ’54, and Albert Dickas ’55 MA ’56 spent four weeks together in March traversing 70 degrees of latitude
Submit your own class notes online and see longer versions of these entries with more photos at www.MiamiAlum.org/Miamian. 20
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Class notes in the South Atlantic Ocean on National Geographic Explorer.
1956
These Miami Theta Chi’s meet in Tampa each spring for lunch and fellowship at the Columbia Restaurant: (l-r) Tom Weaver ’56, Mitch Pedroff ’55 PhD ’73, Earl Grimes ’56, Don Benbow ’55.
1957 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Oxford campus to celebrate with family and friends. Seen here in June 2011 on the steps of Sesquicentennial Chapel, where the couple was married, are: (front) George Van Lieu; (second row, l-r) Emily Bernstein, Nick Van Lieu, and Cate Van Lieu; (back ) David Van Lieu, George, Carole, Scott Van Lieu, and Kara Van Lieu.
1960
1958
Classic China & Yangtze River Oct. 9-22, 2011: (front, l-r) host Jerry Wright and guide Jackie; (back) Terry Pendleton ’65, Nora Eyre Moushey ’71, Michael Moushey ’72, Mary Robets, Robert Marks, Sara Perdriau Pendleton ’65, Jennifer Wolf Evans ’76, Kathleen Todaro Dahm ’71, Bill Bair, Bruce Dahm, Karen Knick Shaffer ’64, Robert Rowen, Melissa Walker, Rich Walker ’60, Kathyrn Belsley, Ann Mack, David Shaffer, Martha Bair, George Mack ’51, Judith Luhn Sneed ’66, and Brian Nemenoff ’70.
Enjoying the Hughes Society/ Class of ’61 induction luncheon during Alumni Weekend 2011: (lr) Margie Mayer Meyer, Berta Wiggins Pettis, Linda Barger Weisflog, Sue Brant Wagner, and Sally Reed Southard.
1962 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
On their 50th wedding anniversary, George ’58 and Carole Merridew Van Lieu ’61 of Cincinnati returned to Miami’s
Toasting the Pedal, Paddle, and Pinot trip Sept. 18-23, 2011: Christopher Elliott ’81, Tylene Johnson Elliott ’81, Walter Frank ’59, Charles Henning ’64, Martha Baxter Henning ’64, Joe Klunk ’78, Laura Lehman Klunk ’78, Sandra Walling Kroll ’80, Martin Kroll, Douglas Metz ’61, Ann Metz, Jacqueline Raisch Parish ’64, and Lee Parish.
James ’60 MEd ’65 and Karen Earhart Martino ’63 MEd ’68 paused for a picture while walking on the Great Wall of China.
1961
Coach Bill Mallory ’57 and Ellie Sweeney Mallory ’58 with Austin Brown, senior defensive end, first recipient of the William G. Mallory Scholarship, at the third annual Mallory Scholarship Golf Outing.
Miami Explorers
Calvin Harper has retired as senior pastor from Morning Star Baptist Church in Cincinnati after 35 years, according to The Cincinnati Herald.
River Life along the Rhine, Main, and Mosel Oct. 15-23, 2011: (Row 1, l-r) Bill Greene ’72 MFA ’78, Cathy Miller Greene ’72, Amy Johnson Clay ’64, Phillip Clay; (Row 2) Phyllis Meinke Budinger MS ’64, Ann Traughber Lucas, Martha Sue Traughber Chalk ’60, John Allen Chalk; (Row 3) Bruce Budinger, Sally Sohngen Henderson ’54, Sara Traughber Goodpasture, David Henry, Nancy Arndt Henry ’59; (Row 4) Tom Henderson, Richard Palmer ’68 MAT ’72 PhD ’85, Luanne Campbell Hazelrigg ’55, Charles Hazelrigg ’55, Linda Fording LaPlante ’61, and John LaPlante.
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Class notes
1966
1965
1968 Stephen Banks has written Doing My Duty: Corporal Elmer Dewey – One National Guard Doughboy’s Experience During The Pancho Villa Punitive Campaign and World War I.
The ’61 Kappa Alpha Theta pledge class met in August at Karen Berner Little’s Frisco, Colo., home to celebrate 50 years of friendship and sisterhood: (front, l-r) Arlene DeBoer Goodman, Jeni Wren Wiggers, Joan Doolittle, and Pat Plummer Pickett; (back) Char Dallas Bonsack, Susan Weiss Kasle ’65 MA ’66, Mary Ellen Campbell, Karen Berner Little, Alice Polly League, and Linda Diest Stanley.
At their Evangelical Community Church’s family camp in Cedarville, Mich.: (front, l-r) Kevin Grim ’08, Sarah Tedford ’07, and Mandy Stegman ’07; (back) Richard ’89 and Christy Roof Lanning ’90, Chris ’95 and Kerry Williams Marsh ’96, Howard Dirksen ’66, Brad Mueller ’75, Chip ’74 MA ’75 and Gay Rueckel Wagner ’77, Gary Kindell ’74, David ’03 and Mary Crosset Rudolph ’04.
David Chacko’s latest book is The Byzantium Stone. Jeffrey Keiner, a GrayRobinson attorney practicing in construction litigation in Orlando, has been recognized as a Florida Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers magazine.
1969 Gary Fincke’s 12th book of poems, The History of Permanence, published in September, won the
Stephen F. Austin U. Press Poetry Prize. An earlier collection, Writing Letters for the Blind, won the Ohio State U. Press Poetry Prize.
1970 John Sponcia has written Voiceover … Sanity in the Age of Madness: ‘A Baby Boomer’s look at today’s culture.’ In his book, he comments on current events and pop culture, hoping to entertain, provoke, and trigger readers to consider America’s condition.
1971 Nora Eyre Moushey, chief actuary for Western & Southern Financial Group, was chosen from 171,000 U.S. volunteers by Junior Achievement USA
end Alumni Week
2012
See YourSelf Here MiaMi University • OxfOrd, Oh
June 14-17
Visit www.MiamiAlum.org/AlumniWeekend for the most up-to-date information on reunions, group events and weekend highlights. registration Opens spring 2012.
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Class notes
1976
to receive its highest award for volunteerism, the Gold Leadership Award.
1972 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Bud Mayfield ’72 MA ’74 retired as head football coach and English teacher at Coronado (Calif.) H.S. after 23 years. Freddy Worthington was in The Dayton Daily News for his running abilities, finishing fifth in the 100-meter dash for the 60-64 age group in the World Masters Athletic championships. He also won two relay golds at the USA Masters National championships.
1973 Debra Hust Allison ’73 MS ’82, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Miami, wrote an EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) research bulletin, “The Future CIO: Critical Skills and Competencies.” Released to ECAR members in 2010, it is now publicly available.
Alpha Omicron Pi graduates celebrated their 60th birthdays together in Sedona, Ariz., in June: (l-r) Barb Yost Dodd, Barbie Ohlinger Hirsch, Laurie Young Young, Judy Copenhaver Buchholtz, and Sharon Lowry Lang.
Deborah Morris Wakefield retired from Strongsville (Ohio) School District after 35 years of teaching.
Dennis Smith ’73 MA ’75 took a 3,000-mile solo motorcycle trip from his home in Bowling Green, Ohio, to the Badlands, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, and Crazy Horse Memorial. Steve Snyder ’73 MA ’75, secretary to Miami’s board of trustees and executive assistant to President David Hodge, retired in December 2011.
1974
1977 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Steve Wenger was profiled in The Post and Courier for his work as CEO of Duvall Catering and Event Design in Charleston, S.C., for the past 20 years. The article says he now runs three campus cafes and caters Trident Technical College events.
1978
Lloyd Douglas MS ’74 was elected first vice president of the Mathematical Association of America. He begins his two-year term in February 2012.
1975 Donna Fisher Cummins ’75 MA ’87 is a recently retired, award-winning visual arts educator and a former graduate teaching assistant and adjunct instructor. In 1993 she received the National Art Education Association’s coveted award of Southeast Regional Elementary Art Educator of the Year. Betsy Baumhardt Wacker has been hired by Yale U.’s Council on Archaeological Studies to process and inventory prehistoric and historic artifacts in its collection. Tony Wendeln was appointed by Ohio Gov. Kasich to a six-year term as a trustee of Edison Community College in Piqua. Tony is a CPA and CEO of Murray Wells Wendeln & Robinson CPAs.
Council’s Project Excellence, according to The Community Press. She retired in June.
1980 Hank Daviero MA ’80, an administrative dean with Orange County Schools in Orlando, and wife Judy celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary at their beachside home in New Smyrna Beach. Their children are Julie, Spanky, Tony, and Jeffy. They went to Disney World with their grandchildren, Reilly, Jack, Jaden, and Jacob. Joan Steffes Franks, principal of Armatage Montessori School in Minneapolis Public Schools, is Minnesota’s 2011 National Distinguished Principal.
1981
Kath Gardner Wissinger received the 2011 ASCAP Plus Award, a special stipend for notable artists whose main performance venues are not in mainline broadcast media. Kath has more than 60 compositions for English handbells published and travels widely teaching at and directing ringing events. She and husband Skip, both former National Park Service rangers, live in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where she teaches music in a private school and leads MOSAIC Handbell Ensemble.
1979 Teresa Collins, a culinary instructor who taught 32 years, was named 2011 Excellent Educator for the Warren County Career Center through Area Progress
The Luxembourg class of 1981 enjoying a 30th anniversary reunion in Toronto: (from top row to bottom, l-r) Bryan Barber ’81 and Cari Breitinger ’82; Rich Pluta ’82, Bari Lewis ’83, and Rich Wallace ’84, John Mekus ’82, Lisa Farnsworth ’84, Amy Ettinger ’84, Marie Wood ’82; Jim Vescovi ’82, Bill Stout ’81, Mary McElvain ’82; Julie Gibson ’82, Mary Jo Wilson ’92, Jenny Millson ’82, Jeff Underhill ’82; Rob O’Neill ’82, Pete Miller ’82, Sue Marie Brasier ’82; Greg Cohen ’79, Karen Blackwell, Liz Jensen ’82, and Lisa Bannon ’82; Bill West ’81, Pam Archer ’82, and
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Class notes John Toth ’82; Crystal Panos ’82 and Joe Frankhauser ’82; Cathy Eisel ’82, Kathy Bailey ’82, and Jim Masur ’81. Ron Kravitz, a partner at Liner Grode Stein et al. in San Francisco and Los Angeles, was elected chairman of Integrated Advisory Group, an international alliance of attorneys and accountants. He also is a Super Lawyer on the 2011 Northern California Super Lawyers list, his seventh consecutive year. William Soffel is on the national board of trustees of the ALS Association, the leading nonprofit organization fighting Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Bill is president/CEO of ERA Team VP Real Estate and lives in Bemus Point, N.Y., with wife Kari and their five children.
1982 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Mark Engle, principal of Association Management Center and CEO of the Metal Construction Association, has received the Samuel B. Shapiro Award for CEO Excellence from the Association Forum of Chicagoland. It is the forum’s highest honor. Marsha Guenzler-Stevens MA ’82, director of Adele H. Stamp Student Union at U. of Maryland, received a Women of Distinction Award at the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. Boland Jones talked about his ups and downs in business in a column titled “That Family Work Ethic” for The New York Times June 25, 2011. Mark Ridenour, executive vice president and CFO for Heidtman
Steel Products in Toledo, was named by Ohio Gov. Kasich to Miami’s board of trustees.
1983 Dave Keltner ’83 and Kevin Murphy ’92 are senior executives at Ferguson, an $8 billion wholesale-distributor known for bath, kitchen, and lighting galleries in Newport News, Va. Dave is CFO and Kevin is COO. Gail Kist-Kline ’83 MS ’88 PhD ’95 is superintendent of Mason (Ohio) City School District.
2010 Woman of the Year for her work with CancerFree KIDS. Ellen and husband Sam founded the organization to fund pediatric cancer research. Mark Metzendorf ’84 MA ’86 is vice president of sales for North America at Bucyrus, a global manufacturer of mining equipment and solutions for surface and underground mining operations. He lives with wife Donna and their four children in Mequon, Wis.
1986 Christopher Che MA ’86, president and CEO, Hooven Dayton Corp., is a member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Ron Hunter ’86 MA ’87 is head basketball coach at Georgia State U. in Atlanta. Mary Schmidt Lamb, a Lakota East H.S. calculus teacher, was featured in The Pulse Journal for sending 150 care packages during the past decade to her former students in college.
1987 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Dave Koletic ’83 and daughter Jordan ’12 climbed Mount Kilimanjaro while adventuring in Africa. Dave is managing director for CRES, a capital markets advisory firm in Charlotte, N.C. Randy Nelson received the 2011 Admiral Sidney Souers Award from Miami. He devoted years to military service before becoming an entrepreneur.
1984 David Budig, executive vice president and COO for Budco Group of Cincinnati, was appointed by Ohio Gov. Kasich to Miami’s board of trustees. Ed Feick is the Parker Aerospace group vice president of marketing, responsible for marketing and business development. Ellen Rasch Flannery was selected as a Cincinnati Enquirer
(l-r): Miami friends Scott Oxley ’84, Maggie MacDonald, Steve MacDonald ’85, and Rob Loeb ’85 all completed the 2011 Kewpee Triathlon in Lima, Ohio. Rob won first place in his age division. Andrew Sokol of North Olmsted, Ohio, founder and CEO of Protech Polymer Products, presented “Radical Concepts in UV Photopolymer Technology,” one of two talks he gave on the Oxford campus this fall for the chemistry and biochemistry seminar series.
1985 Dan Bush was in The Plain Dealer for buying Creative Studios in Cleveland and transforming it into a space of artistic incubation, commerce, and creativity. Kathleen Powell is director of career exploration and development at Denison U. in Granville.
Jerry Pattengale ’87 PhD ’93 and Scott Carroll PhD ’89 headed the Green Scholars Initiative at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art this summer. Mary Schell is senior vice president of government relations and corporate affairs for Wendy’s/ Arby’s Group. Under her leadership, the company’s Political Action Committee is third largest in the foodservice industry.
1988 Adopted: by Gregg Boulton and Bonnie, a daughter from China, Nov. 8, 2010. She joins brothers Christian, 10, and Jonathan, 3, in Simpsonville, S.C. Mary Brennan PhD ’88 wrote Pat Nixon: Embattled First Lady. Amy Chavez writes a Japan Lite column for The Japan Times and blogs for the Huffington Post. Andy Stefanovich has written the book Look at More: A Proven
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MIAMIAN
Class notes Approach to Innovation, Growth, and Change.
Denny Young (center) accepts an Emmy for entertainment: program/specials for his company, the Cleveland-based Elevation Group, for producing “Music of Ireland – Welcome Home.”
1989 Leigh-Ann Patterson Durant, associate general counsel of clinical trials and medical affairs,
EMD Serono, was named to Pharmaceutical Executive magazine’s 2011 list of Emerging Leaders. Kevin Fix, a CPA, has launched Newhaven Capital Advisors in Columbus, providing financial advisory services to closely held businesses in technology, communications, and health-care sectors. He lives in Upper Arlington with wife Amy Wittenberg Fix ’88 and their three children. Susan Thompson Hingle, associate professor of internal medicine at Southern Illinois U. School of Medicine, received the 2010 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award for her commitment to her patients and the encouragement she gives to everyone – residents and students.
and strength to northeast Ohio. Marcia Wexberg ’75, partner, Calfee, Halter & Griswold, was a finalist for the honor.
1991 Capt. Scott Kraverath, as of May 26, 2011, is commander of U.S. Naval Activities, Spain/U.S. Naval Station Rota, Spain, strategically located near the Strait of Gilbraltar and at the halfway point between the United States and southwest Asia. Mary Ann Vogel, founding principal of Saint Martin de Porres H.S., received Crain’s Cleveland Women of Note award, which recognizes female business leaders who bring passion, dedication,
Jeffrey Dafler is director of international government affairs at the Timken Co.
Chuck Knepfle ’91 MBA ’00, wife Cari Brooks ’92 MA ’96, and their kids, Jalen, Charlie, and Anna, moved to South Carolina
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Class notes in 2010 for Chuck to be director of financial aid at Clemson U.
principal pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra.
1994
1992 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Nicholas Canitano ’92 MA ’95 is a managing director at KPMG, the U.S. audit, tax, and advisory firm, leading its federal tax practice in Cleveland.
Shannon Bohle won second place in the 2011 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge, a White House challenge for artificial intelligence, and was awarded a full scholarship by the Cambridge Overseas Trust to earn a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science at the U. of Cambridge. Nicole Fleetwood has written Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness.
Robin Pfeiffer Handal’s son, Ben (left), and Joseph, the son of John Fricker ’89, wore the same outfit to a July 4th celebration in Milwaukee. Doug Ray is president of Carat USA, a global communications and media agency in New York City. David Sabgir, a doctor, was featured in The Columbus Dispatch for his idea, “Walk With a Doc,” in which he walks with groups of his patients to encourage exercise and make himself more accessible to their health questions. Brent Shock is Miami’s director of student financial assistance. Flavia Zappa competed in the 24-mile Tampa Bay Marathon Swim April 23, 2011. A member of the St. Pete Masters swim team, she covered the length of Tampa Bay in 15 hours, 10 minutes.
1993 Steven Reineke, music director of the New York Pops, is also now
1996 Born: to Steve and Heather Mastin Chamberlain ’97, Emily Rae, March 4, 2011, joining Andrew, 7, in Needham, Mass. Kendra Smith Dodds joined her husband on the American Heart Association’s Washtenaw County Heart Ball Leadership Team. Its goal was to raise $250,000 for cardiovascular research and education and donate 10,000 Nerf-style footballs to the new U. of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Children’s wing.
Born: to Mark and Sara McCormick Oliphant, Mary Grace, Nov. 5, 2010, joining Lizzie, 5, and Abby, 3, in Columbus.
Sanya Kushak is a new Web designer for HIP Advertising in Springfield, Ill.
Vanessa Sorensen has published her second and third books, Zen Birds and Birding Journal: Through the Seasons.
1997
1995 W. Scott Croft is an associate at Greenebaum Doll & McDonald in its litigation and dispute resolution group. Eric Rogers wrote an episode of the show “Futurama,” which aired in July on Comedy Central. According to The Oxford Press, this was his first solo episode for the cartoon comedy set in the 31st century. Jenny Groninger Rough’s essay, “The Lost Coast,” was published in the book He Said What?: Women Write About Moments When Everything Changed. The book features 26 women writers who share profoundly personal moments in which a man in their life said something – good or bad – that changed them irrevocably.
Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Born: to Amy Gaertner Kall and Daniel, Emily Ruth, March 10, 2011, joining brothers Logan and Mason, 2. Amy is an academic adviser at the U. of Toledo, where Dan is the law school registrar. They live in Sylvania, Ohio.
1998 Born: to Tracy Murdolo Darby and Gerard, Alexander Joseph, May 27, 2011, in San Francisco. Keith Summerville MEn ’98 PhD ’02, associate professor of environmental science and policy and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Drake U., received the university’s highest faculty honor, the Madelyn Levitt Teacher of the Year Award.
1999 Anthony Barker graduated from Northwestern U.’s Kellogg School
of Management in June. He is an assistant manager with SEA Limited’s Chicago office. Married: Greg Herring and Meredith Cothern, May 29, 2011, in York, Pa. Born: to Jamie and Allison Zipko Wilcox, Ryan Matthew, Feb. 21, 2011, joining James, 4, and Lucy, 2, in Chicago.
2000 Born: to Zachary and Jennifer Jazowski Becker ’01, Brendan Matthew, June 3, 2011, joining sister, Ava, 4. Born: to Tyler and Katie Beusch Reed, Madeline James, May 9, 2011, joining brother Jack, 3, in Denver. Born: to Mike and Kristin Burkle Scherman, Brynleigh Anne, April 14, 2011, joining Tyler, 4, in Cincinnati. Mike is a computer programmer. Kristin teaches high-school science. Born: to Nathan and Jessica Davis Studeny ’01, Theodore and Andrew, June 1, 2011. Nathan is an attorney at Roetzel & Andress in Akron. Jessica is assistant director of the office of communications at Case Western Reserve U. School of Medicine.
2001
Will and Lindsay Tomkinson Bloom ’00 are proud to show off the products of a Miami Merger.
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Class notes Born: to Chandra Huff Fredrick and Jonathan, Charles Dashiell, Nov. 11, 2010, in Los Angeles.
The American Veterans Center’s Miami triad: (l-r) Tim Holbert, executive director; Jim Roberts ’68, founder and president; Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli, and Wes Smith ’03, program director. The AVC sponsors a wide variety of programs, including recordings of veterans’ oral histories, radio programs, and scholarships. Nathan Hunter, a senior landscape architect for Carol R Johnson Associates in Knoxville, passed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design test, accrediting him as a LEED associated professional in building design and construction. He graduated from Louisiana State U. in 2006 with a master’s in landscape architecture and the Dean’s Award. Keith Maginn has written Turning This Thing Around, a memoir about overcoming struggles.
Navy Chaplain James Ragain, serving with Marine Air Wing at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, met Marine Officer Eric Grenert, after he checked into James’ squadron at Cherry Point.
As they got to know each other, they discovered that they both graduated from Miami Aug. 17, 2001. In August, when they took this photo to show their support of Miami on the other side of the world, James was about to return to the States after nearly seven months in Afghanistan and Eric had just arrived to start his sixmonth deployment.
Edward Williams, J.J. Rodeheffer ’02, and Andrew Lynch ’02 are partners of Zipline Logistics in Columbus, named to Inc. 500/5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing companies for 220 percent growth in three years.
2004 Born: to Emily Russo Kuhn ’04 MA ’09 and Matthew, Jacob Matthew, June 10, 2011.
2002
2005
Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Born: to Josh and Kristy Tamaska Betts, Kane Thomas, March 13, 2011, in Columbus. They were married March 29, 2008, in Dayton.
Born: to Kristopher “Grant” and Rebecca DeFilippo Allen, Landon Kristopher, May 1, 2009, in Wheeling, W.Va. They live in Columbus where Grant is vice president of Best Transport and Rebecca teaches math in the Olentangy Local School District. Born: to Evan Margelefsky and Stephanie, Maya Gabrielle, April 14, 2011. Evan is a senior solution developer at Vizion Solutions. Stephanie is an elementary teacher for Solon Schools. They live in Twinsburg, Ohio. Born: to Bradley ’02 MA ’03 and Jennifer Leonard Boak Mascho, Georgeanne Grace, June 29, 2011.
2003 Breanne McMullen Boyle has earned her certificate for college admissions counseling from U. of California at San Diego and is a college counselor at Collegewise, an independent college counseling company in Irvine, Calif. Born: to Paul and Heidi Klein Shade, Lillian Elizabeth, July 13, 2011. Paul works for Huron Consulting Group. Heidi is a stay-at-home mom in Chicago.
Born: to Joshua and Katharine Hall Erb ’04, Brayden Alexander, March 11, 2011. Josh is an intervention specialist at Fairfield (Ohio) Freshman School. Katie is a health teacher for Butler Tech at Middletown (Ohio) H.S. They live in Monroe, Ohio. Austin Kleon has written Newspaper Blackout, in which he explains how he blacks out words in newspapers to compose poems. Robert Siegel, who creates vases and tableware by hand and has traveled to China to complete two artistic residencies, is helping to raise money for breast cancer awareness with his pinkand-white Baba berry bowl. He donates 20 percent of the sale of each bowl to the Pink Agenda, a New York-based nonprofit that funds research for breast cancer. Married: Katie Stader and John Feighery, June 18, 2011. Katie works at Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities. John is a sales manager for Frito-Lay. They live in West Chester, Ohio.
Reynold Toepfer, who lives in Australia and works as a financial analyst for Moraitis Pty, the largest fruit and vegetable wholesaler in Australia, brought his Australian girlfriend with him for a visit in Oxford. Finding this miniature cheerleading outfit, they mailed it to her niece, whose mom is a cheerleading instructor in Oz. She is perhaps the youngest aspiring Miami cheerleader in training, certainly the youngest hailing from Brisbane, Australia.
2006 Married: Sarah Barnaby and Hunter Whyte, June 11, 2011. They live in Washington, D.C. Hunter is an attorney and Sarah is a speech-language pathologist. Sally-Anne Kaminski joined Morgan & Myers, a full-service agricultural communications agency, in February 2011 as a senior associate in digital and social media engagement. Married: Elizabeth Reuss and Jeff Baiocchi ’05, June 11, 2011, in Columbus. They have moved from D.C. to St. Louis for Elizabeth to pursue a master’s of social work at Washington U. in St. Louis. Jeff is a senior consultant at IBM. Maria Citino Sfreddo, an attorney, Equal Justice Works Fellow, and creator of the Head Start Legal Clinic in Chicago, was featured in the Huffington Post for
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Class notes helping Latina women who are experiencing domestic violence. Rachel Shearer, Mason Early Childhood Center teacher, was honored with the Celebrate Excellence Award from the Hamilton County Education Foundation.
2007 Next reunion: June 14-17, 2012
Emily Bearse earned a master’s in public health in international health from Boston U. She has volunteered and worked in several African countries and recently completed a one-year Global Health Corps Fellowship. Married: Amanda Fried and Ross Owen, Sept. 4, 2011, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The two met in an honors microeconomics class when the professor divided the class into semester-long groups by handing out playing cards. They say their love was “in the cards.” Amanda is an attorney at ReliabilityFirst in Akron. Ross is a mechanical engineer at LuK USA in Wooster. Karah Jennings of Summerfield, N.C., is the operations manager for the Greensboro Sports Commission. Laura Ashley Lossing was profiled in The Newark Advocate for traveling with the Ohio State U. College of Optometry to Latin America and Africa to administer eye exams and provide glasses to those who have never had these resources. She started a residency at a VA hospital in Vermont in July. Married: Caitlin McElligott and Ethan Jones, May 14, 2011, in Miami’s Kumler Chapel. Caitlin
is in marketing. Ethan is finishing graduate school at Wright State U. They live in Centerville, Ohio.
2008 Becci Burchett works for PEACE (protection, education, animals, culture, environment), a nonprofit in Mexico. PEACE works with the community to provide holistic education combined with programs that enable people to improve their quality of life and their financial stability.
Lash Chapel ’08, David Frost ’09, Bryan Stainfield ’08, and Adam Young ’08 came in third in the Ohio State 2011 Business Plan Competition. Their plan was for their company, HOIA Health, to provide ScieroCare, a proprietary device that would eliminate painful breast cysts and lymphatic malformations and prevent recurrence. At the presentation: (l-r) A. Michael Camp, OSU Center for Entrepreneurship; John McEwan, Deloitte and Touche USA; Adam; Bryan; Eddie George, former NFL player and Heisman winner; William Shiels, DO, chief of radiology department at Nationwide Children’s Hospital; and Lash. Chris Clark ’08 and James Muruthi ’10 gave the keynote address to incoming freshmen at Miami’s 2011 convocation. Venia Papanikolou, a fourthgrade teacher at Donovan Elementary School in Lebanon,
Ohio, received the top award in the Hixson Teacher of the Year program. Camille Stewart of Washington, D.C., earned a JD from American U.’s Washington College of Law May 22, 2011.
2009 Marisa Evans works for Illume Software, whose flagship product is a mobile software technology called iZUP (“eyes up”) that aims to prevent texting while driving. Brian Kaufman, according to an article on MURedHawks. com, was a former RedHawk hockey captain who is returning to Miami hockey as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2011-2012 season. He was captain of the 2008-2009 team that became the first team in school history to make the NCAA National Championship game and the first team in program history to reach the NCAA’s Frozen Four. He’s also earning an MBA. Guy Litt was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. His proposed research was a hydrological study in the Panama Canal watershed. He is planning to study water resources engineering at Colorado State U. Benjamin Menker started law school at Columbia U. this fall.
Going to Pentwater, Mich., in June for a reunion, these classmates “had a blast” reminiscing about their Miami times: (front, l-r) Victor Smith, Sarah Brown, Alex Divito, Kelly Peoples; (back) Greg Ter-Arutyunov, Pablo Bonnin, Kyle Dunnington, Mike Lowder, Emily Milliman, and Ashley Gresla.
2010 Geoff Reinhardt is an account specialist with Facebook, working with some of the site’s biggest advertisers, providing customized and consultative sales support and maximizing overall Facebook ad strategy.
2011 Nicole Adams, a master’s student in zoology at Miami, won Best Presentation Emphasizing Methodology at the 2011 North American Benthological Society meeting. Her co-authored presentation, “DNA barcoding reveals two diversifications of Gammarus amphipods in Chihuahuan Desert springs,” was chosen from 235 student presentations.
Send your news to: Donna Boen, Miamian, 102 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056-2480; miamian@muohio.edu; or fax it to 513-529-1950. Miamian does not run engagement or pregnancy announcements. Limited space prevents including wedding photos in the print Miamian, but they are included in the Web version. Please send in details after your event.
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MIAMIAN
Obituaries James E. Gunckel ’38, Jamesburg, N.J., Sept. 19, 2011. Retired, botany professor, Rutgers University. Husband of R. Jean Longworth Gunckel ’39. Martha Giffin Seger ’38, Willoughby, Ohio, Aug. 9, 2011. Mary “Betty” Mellen Chrissinger ’39, Columbus, Ohio, July 21, 2011. Retired, co-owner, Chrissinger Co. Henry A. Born ’40, Sarasota, Fla., Aug. 4, 2011. Retired, stockbroker, Advest. Edward R. Heydinger ’40, Findlay, Ohio, July 20, 2011. Retired, economist, Marathon Oil. Sylvia Schauer Shively ’40, Dayton, Ohio, June 16, 2011. John A. Silander Sr. ’40, Hamlin Lake, Mich., Oct. 3, 2010. Retired, president of Fabricators International. Si Wachsberger ’40, Beachwood, Ohio, July 5, 2011. Former owner, Oxford Shop; former executive director, Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple. Robert H. Arnholt ’41, Tyler, Texas, June 19, 2011. Retired, head of aviation, chief pilot, Cooper Industries; retired, lieutenant commander, Navy Reserve. Walter K. Bayley Jr. ’42, Oakwood, Ohio, March 31, 2011. Retired, sales rep, Summergrade and Concord mills. Jack M. Chase ’42, Akron, Ohio, June 20, 2011. Retired, manager, industrial engineering international, Firestone Tire. Jack W. Gompf ’42, Wooster, Ohio, July 23, 2011. Retired, career agent, Paul Revere Insurance. Husband of Jane Rider Gompf ’41. Marilyn Martin Albers ’43, Lynchburg, Va., March 26, 2011. Douglas H. Birch ’43, Elyria, Ohio, Aug. 5, 2011. Retired, field service manager, Bendix Heavy Vehicle Systems Group. Ruth MacNab Kennedy ’43, Scottsdale, Ariz., April 21, 2011. Janet Bolender Willien ’43, Phoenix, Ariz., June 21, 2011. Retired, educator, Hilliard City Schools. William E. Alderman Jr. ’44, Marysville, Ohio, Aug. 29, 2011. Former corporate director, training and recruitment, Kroger; former personnel director, Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati. Margaret M. Carroll ’44, Davenport, Iowa, July 28, 2011. A Catholic sister; former professor at Marycrest College and Winter 2012
University of Oregon; former chaplain, Mercy Hospital in Davenport. Calvin W. Hutchins ’44, Ashtabula, Ohio, June 9, 2011. Retired, probate and juvenile court judge. Bernard R. Josif ’45 MA ’46, Charlotte, N.C., Dec. 27, 2010. Retired, professor, Ball State; in business management, Consolidated Book Publishing. Elisabeth E. Vail ’46, Bradenton, Fla., June 10, 2011. Retired, accountant, Leaseway Transportation. Benny R. Cole ’47, Troy, Ohio, Aug. 12, 2011. Retired, head basketball coach and teacher, Dayton-area schools. Husband of Priscilla Hall Cole ’47 MA ’66. Richard J. Crusey ’47, Sidney, Ohio, June 25, 2011. Retired, sales, Copeland. James M. Cutright ’49, Chillicothe, Ohio, Aug. 8, 2011. Lawyer; retired, lieutenant commander, Navy Reserve. Wilbur G. Evans ’49 MS ’51, Hamilton, Ohio, Oct. 3, 2011. Retired, research chemist, Champion International Papers. Husband of Marna Iber Evans MS ’51 ’82 ’84. Marvin R. Friedman ’49, Highland Park, Ill., June 27, 2011. Husband of Carol Wertheimer Friedman ’49.
Maralyn Laver Hendrickson ’50, Berkey, Ohio, June 19, 2011. Retired, teacher, Ottawa Hills Elementary. Paul R. Johnson Sr. ’50, Tucker, Ga., June 5, 2011. Former executive, Armour Pharmaceutical, Milupa; in real estate. Husband of Barbara Gaver Johnson ’50. Louis J. Kaczmarek ’50, Franklin, Ohio, Sept. 4, 2011. Retired, teacher, football coach, AD, Franklin Schools. R. Webster MacKenzie ’50, Harbor Springs, Mich., May 19, 2011. Retired, contractor/partner, Woodland Builders. John D. Parsons ’50, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., July 2, 2011. Retired, mathematics teacher, administrative assistant. Eugene F. Peddle ’50, Stow, Ohio, July 17, 2011. Architect. Husband of Cecelia McCormish Peddle ’50. Gerald E. Peterson ’50 MA ’52, Hamilton, Ohio, July 22, 2011. Retired, geologist, Shell Oil, later at Fernald. Darrell K. Root ’50, Miamisburg, Ohio, Aug. 10, 2011. Retired, educator; deputy director, OSU Evaluation Center. Lewis E. Stanley ’50, Destin, Fla., Aug. 2, 2011. Retired, U.S. Treasury. Marcia McLean Sweeney ’50, Louisville, Ky., Aug. 11, 2011.
Michael P. Gallitte ’49, Mayfield Village, Ohio, Aug. 22, 2011.
Marvin W. Tiefermann ’50, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 20, 2011.
Thomas L. Maxwell ’49, Vero Beach, Fla., June 12, 2011.
Donald W. Kyle Jr. ’51, Mansfield, Ohio, July 24, 2011. Retired, McKinsey & Co.
James H. Pearson ’49, Hendersonville, N.C., July 24, 2011. Retired, vice president and director of securities research, American Securities.
John D. Rogers ’51, Warren, Ohio, Aug. 20, 2011. Retired, teacher, coach.
Lowell E. Reid ’49, Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 3, 2011. Retired, district sales manager, Allstate Insurance. Husband of Margaret Pugh Reid ’49. Paul A. Shoults ’49 MEd ’55, South Bend, Ind., Aug. 21, 2011. Retired, athletic director, Eastern Michigan University. John G. Smale ’49, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 19, 2011. Retired, CEO and chairman, Procter & Gamble, 1981-1990; former chairman, General Motors Co.
Jeannette Mertz Arnold ’52, Virginia Beach, Va., July 21, 2011. Retired, teacher, Northwestern Lehigh Schools. Paul C. Dahm ’52 MEd ’54, Newport, Ore., Aug. 23, 2011. Retired, teacher, Chicago Public Schools. Donald W. Rost ’52, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 16, 2011. Willard R. Watson ’52, Myrtle Beach, S.C., March 26, 2011. G. Edward Winslow ’52, Bridgeport, Conn., July 2, 2011. Advertising exec.
Robert F. Black ’50, Sun City, Ariz., June 26, 2011. Retired, treasurer, Mitchell Energy and Development.
Robert A. Hyde ’53, Anderson, Ind., Aug. 31, 2011. Retired, safety suggestions and personnel, Guide Lamp.
Edward S. Crider ’50, Medina, Ohio, Sept. 2, 2011. Retired, architect. Husband of Marian Schneider Crider ’47.
Edwin M. Goldstein ’54, South Hackensack, N.J., June 20, 2011. Retired, furniture manufacturer, wholesaler. 29
Obituaries
Rollin G. Reynolds Jr. ’54, Rembert, S.C., May 26, 2011. Retired, Air Force, deputy accounting and finance officer, Shaw Air Force Base. Helm B. Roberts ’54 MArch ’59, Lexington, Ky., Aug. 26, 2011. Architect and urban designer. Husband of Jacqueline Warnick Roberts ’60. Kenneth E. Black ’55, Centerville, Ohio, April 6, 2011. Retired, civilian employee, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Henry Gest Jr. ’55, Pittsboro, N.C., July 8, 2011. Retired, Nationwide Papers. Robert W. Gilmore ’55, College Corner, Ohio, Aug. 16, 2011. Retired, executive director, United Way. Husband of Sara McIntosh Gilmore ’55. James E. Poth ’55 MA ’60, Oxford, Ohio, Sept. 12, 2011. Miami professor emeritus of physics, 1966-2004; a founding director, Miami’s Teaching Science with Toys. Robert C. Reed ’55, Spirit Lake, Iowa, Jan. 25, 2011. Retired, president, Stylecraft Furniture; co-owner, Okoboji Wines. Husband of Genie Elliott Reed ’56. David L. Ritchie ’55 MEd ’62, Fredericksburg, Ohio, Aug. 31, 2011. Retired, teacher, coach, principal.
David C. Spriggs ’57, Pasco, Fla., Aug. 16, 2011. Owner, Flowers By Gru. William R. Stone ’57, Centerville, Ohio, Oct. 24, 2011. Industrial arts teacher; labor relations consultant, Ohio Education Association. Husband of June Werner Stone ’59 MAT ’61. George E. Whitesel ’57, Jacksonville, Ala., June 18, 2011. Retired, professor and librarian, Jacksonville State University. Kenneth A. Larson MS ’58, Pahrump, Nev., May 14, 2011. Retired, executive of Larson-Becker Co. of Batavia. Jerrie Bascome McGill ’58, Dayton, Ohio, July 28, 2011. Retired, first woman superintendent, Dayton Public Schools. Philip K. Oldham ’58, Troy, Ohio, June 20, 2011. Architect. Larry L. Crist ’60, St. Joseph, Mich., Sept. 13, 2011. Supervisor, Pinkerton and Coloma Frozen Foods. Husband of Donna Kaufman Crist ’58.
Janet Crowmer Lerner Raymond ’56, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 3, 2011. Lois Oyler Duncan ’57, Lancaster, Ohio, Aug. 4, 2011. Wife of Larry ’57. Robert A. Robertson ’57, Bakersfield, Calif., July 29, 2011. Retired, general manager, New York Life Insurance.
Jeffrey S. Sawtelle ’65, Burke, Va., July 18, 2011. Attorney. Crystal Young Sherron ’65, Hamilton, Ohio, July 1, 2011. Retired, University of Cincinnati. Hilda McIntyre Pate ’66, Hamilton, Ohio, June 26, 2011. Master teacher, Elda Elementary, Ross Local Schools.
Lillian Trop Bennett ’67, Kettering, Ohio, July 7, 2011. Former teacher, Miamisburg Schools.
Karl A. Stein II ’62, Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 10, 2011. Founder, Facial Sensation Products. Husband of Diana Headley Stein ’64.
Diann Pence Miller ’56, Venice, Fla., Aug. 16, 2011. Teacher, preschool director.
James A. Smallenberger ’64, Rockport, Texas, March 11, 2011. Retired, senior vice president and corporate secretary, AmerUs Group. Husband of Patricia Parker Smallenberger ’65.
G. George Kiss ’60, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 25, 2011.
Jack A. Acus ’56, Sharonville, Ohio, Aug. 1, 2011. Retired, teacher, football coach, track coach, Sycamore High.
Nancy Slaymaker Hyde ’56, Anderson, Ind., May 22, 2011. Retired, home health care registered nurse. Wife of Robert ’53.
R. Eugene Plunkett MEd ’64, Eaton, Ohio, July 21, 2011. Retired, Dayton teacher; co-owner, Plunkett Plumbing.
William S. Sargent MBA ’66, The Woodlands, Texas, June 16, 2011. Retired, professor of marketing, University of St. Thomas.
Juliet Jeffrey Jacobs ’61, Chapel Hill, N.C., May 21, 2010. Wife of Walter ’62.
Marlene Milar Hutton ’56, St. Augustine, Fla., July 25, 2011. Former director of nursing, The Mather Foundation.
Nancy Kirkbride Klopp ’64, Findlay, Ohio, Aug. 17, 2011. English teacher, Fostoria and Findlay Public schools.
Gordon Foster MEd ’60, Cutler Bay, Fla., June 7, 2011. Former director, Southeastern Desegregation Assistance Center, University of Miami.
Timothy L. Thomas ’55, Wichita Falls, Texas, Aug. 2, 2011. Retired, lieutenant colonel, Air Force; director, Small Business Development Center, Midwestern State University. Husband of Ann Marie Dillenbeck Thomas WC ’56.
William C. Burcham ’56, Cleveland, Ohio, July 17, 2011. Former administrator, South Euclid-Lyndhurst Schools.
Michael A. Dubuc ’64, Centerville, Ohio, July 29, 2011. Marine; employee, Rike’s Department Stores.
V. Arthur Whitmire Jr. ’61, Byron, Ill., July 4, 2011. Retired, national battery buyer, Sears, Roebuck & Co.
Susan I. Cochran ’67, San Bruno, Calif., June 2, 2011. Teacher. Kathryn Fegley Litzelfelner ’67 MS ’72, Hamilton, Ohio, July 8, 2011. Retired, dean of students, Hamilton High School. Lillian McCoun Nantz ’67, Dayton, Ohio, July 16, 2011. Retired, teacher, Dayton Public Schools.
Raymond W. Flodin MEd ’63, Oxford, Ohio, Aug. 12, 2011. Retired, elementary principal, Buchanan and Grant schools.
Clarke P. “Bud” Paxton ’67 MS ’69, Santa Barbara, Calif., Dec. 7, 2010. Retired, from Morgan Stanley.
Richard K. Hart MEd ’63, Chillicothe, Ohio, June 20, 2011. Retired, educator and superintendent.
Vera Antis Perry ’67, Port Richey, Fla., July 23, 2011. Former teacher, Dayton’s Van Cleve Elementary School.
Dorothy “Dottie” Wilson Marek ’63, Ottawa Hills, Ohio, Aug. 25, 2011. Wife of Thomas ’63.
Rosella Reeve Toft ’67, Williamsburg, Ohio, Jan. 28, 2011. Teacher.
Dennis M. Sampson ’63, St. Augustine, Fla., June 21, 2011. Retired, general manager, ADT Security. Carole Frazier Stivers ’63, Leesburg, Va., April 15, 2011. Robert E. Bagby MEd ’64 PhD ’76, Richmond, Ky., Aug. 17, 2011. Professor emeritus, Eastern Kentucky University. Husband of Kathryn Kuertz Bagby ’54.
Janis Siegelman Esty ’68, Lakewood, Colo., Aug. 21, 2011. Teacher. Douglas R. Hanks ’68, Park City, Utah, Aug. 31, 2011. Former bank marketer. Husband of Vicki Voris Hanks ’68. Virginia B. “Bonnie” Severs ’68, Naples, Fla., July 22, 2011. Human resources. Dennis K. Benson ’69, Worthington, Ohio, March 17, 2011.
30 MIAMIAN
Obituaries
Barbara Wright Neisley ’70, Ludlow Falls, Ohio, July 19, 2011. Retired, teacher, Piqua City Schools. Nathan G. Philpott ’70, Tryon, N.C., Aug. 24, 2011. Business owner. Thomas L. Orlow MAT ’71, Douglas Lake, Mich., July 21, 2011. Retired, social studies teacher, Talawanda High. Husband of Linda Garmhausen Orlow ’64. Timothy M. Davis ’72, Lake Forest Park, Wash., March 26, 2011. Retired, businessman; co-founder, Bison Creek Pizza. Patricia Now Keenan ’72 MEd ’74, Fernandina Beach, Fla., June 4, 2011. Retired, special education coordinator, Camden County Schools. James E. McCarty ’72, Hilliard, Ohio, Aug. 9, 2011. Career at Berger Hospital. Juanita Combs Hoskins ’73, Hamilton, Ohio, May 14, 2011. Dennis M. Travis PhD ’74, Edinboro, Pa., Sept. 26, 2011. Miami’s assistant dean, College of Arts and Science, 1974-1978; retired, vice president, academic affairs, University of Arkansas-Monticello. Husband of Kathryn Brickner Travis MA ’76.
Thomas V. Toffoli ’80, Arlington Heights, Ill., July 31, 2011.
Del., Aug. 27, 2011. Speech therapist, Meadowood School.
Mark G. Fenner ’82 MBA ’84, Acworth, Ga., June 19, 2011. Owner, Fennco.
Daniel E. Folmar ’10, West Chester, Ohio, Aug. 12, 2011. In Air Force.
Robert T. Bowhers ’83, Rochester, N.Y., July 15, 2011. In insurance.
Eric T. Shick ’12, Belle Center, Ohio, Aug. 5, 2011. A senior at Miami majoring in engineering management.
Brenda Callahan Cawley ’85, Brecksville, Ohio, Aug. 26, 2011. Wife of Patrick ’86. George M. Kacic ’85, Canton, Mich., July 11, 2011. Roseann Simons Williams MEd ’85, Brookville, Ohio, July 28, 2011. Retired, teacher, Twin Valley. Barton T. Blackman ’87, Alpharetta, Ga., Aug. 19, 2011. Heidi Burkett Dolan ’87, Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 2, 2011. Employee, LuptonRausch Architecture. Wife of Tim ’87. Jeffrey P. Mejia ’87, Ormond Beach, Fla., Sept. 7, 2011. Former manager, information systems, patient accounting, Halifax Medical Center. George E. Stowe II ’87, Columbus, Ohio, May 1, 2011. Design engineer, paper industry.
Judith France Chapman ’75, New Zealand, Aug. 6, 2011. Business owner.
Timothy P. Scanlon ’88, Twinsburg, Ohio, July 27, 2011.
Mary Kolibob Cox ’75, Fairfield, Ohio, July 19, 2011. Nurse.
Carolyn Anne Longley ’89, Sanford, Fla., June 19, 2011. In career services, Yale University and Rollins College.
Barbara Kern Haney ’75, Cypress, Texas, July 24, 2011. Accountant, O’Brien Response Management. Jack L. Emsuer MEd ’76, Loveland, Ohio, Aug. 19, 2011. Retired, phys ed teacher, Preble-Shawnee High School. Aaron B. Hyman ’76, Anderson, S.C., Aug. 17, 2011. ICU nurse. Richard C. Kline ’76, Lebanon, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2011. Wendy J. Olver ’76, Highwood, Ill., Nov. 16, 2010. Director, volunteerism & connections, Willowcreek Community Church; director of hospice volunteers. Eve Shafter Adalsteinsson MA ’78, Kennett Square, Pa., Aug. 21, 2011. Writer. Mark F. “Mickey” Green ’78, Toledo, Ohio, July 3, 2011. Barbara Conklin Worthen ’78, Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 8, 2011. Susan Barchet Dick MEd ’80, Estero, Fla., Aug. 29, 2011. Retired, teacher, Washington (Court House) City Schools. Winter 2012
Glen A. Huffman Sr. ’90, Indianapolis, Ind., June 19, 2011. Barber. Richard S. Simkow ’90, Hamilton, Ohio, July 7, 2011. Personal trainer. Timothy L. Davish ’91, Fort Scott, Kan., June 29, 2011. Pastor, First Baptist Church. Terry L. Diver MA ’91, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 5, 2011. Retired, art teacher, Hamilton Schools. James B. Dobbs II ’92, Dublin, Ohio, Jan. 16, 2011. David M. Morano ’92, Dillon, Colo., Sept. 10, 2011. Husband of Adele VanMeter Morano ’91. Kimberly L. Kessenger ’93, Broomfield, Colo., July 17, 2011. Nicholas A. Hiltunen ’01, Mount Olive, N.C., June 14, 2011. Owner, Candle Web Design; reporter, Goldsboro News Argus. Amanda R. Wien ’07, Beachwood, Ohio, Aug. 8, 2011.
Faculty, Staff, Friends Teresa M. Abrams, Oxford, Ohio, Aug. 27, 2011. Retired, Miami housing, dining, recreation, business services. Mary M. Buhi, Hamilton, Ohio, Aug. 25, 2011. Retired, Miami cook, 17 years. Phyllis A. Campbell, Eaton, Ohio, Nov. 26, 2011. Mama Jazz on WMUB 88.5 FM nearly 30 years; also on staff at Miami, 1967-1994, retiring as secretary to graduate school dean. John F. Collins, Fairfield, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2011. Retired, metallurgical engineer, General Electric. Dick L. Deonier, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 8, 2011. Retired, Miami professor of zoology. John C. Jahnke, Portland, Ore., Aug. 3, 2011. Miami professor emeritus and department chair of psychology, 19571998. Husband of Melissa Bergmann Jahnke ’62 MEd ’64. Russell C. McLaughlin Hon. ’79, Oxford, Ohio, Aug. 15, 2011. Assistant director, Miami residence halls, 28 years. James E. Poth (see ’55). Carl C. Schiefer, Oxford, Ohio, Aug. 5, 2011. Retired, building and special services, 1997-2006. Christine B. Shera, Normal, Ill., Oct. 14, 2011. Retired, manager, Miami’s Martin Dining Hall, 1962-1976. Dennis M. Travis (see ’74). Hermann K. Vargason, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 15, 2011. Retired, Miami manager of technical systems, 22 years.
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.
Kristin A. Auble ’08, Wilmington, 31
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One more thing …
Music scoring for Star Trek heavenly By David Bell ’77
Editor’s note: David Bell ’77, who majored in music performance at Miami, has composed numerous film and TV scores since his big break on the TV series “Murder, She Wrote.” This excerpt is from a 2004 essay of his.
I
’ve composed the dramatic background music for some 60 episodes of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” and “Enterprise.” For me, little in life can compare to the thrill of standing on the podium of a large Hollywood recording stage and conducting a full orchestra of some of the best musicians in the world who are playing music I’ve written. It’s an incredible rush. Star Trek music is of high quality because composers are given a reasonable amount of time to write (usually three weeks) and because there is a budget for 45 musicians. On many TV shows, composers are given only three to five days, and the scores are done electronically with synthesizers and samplers. As the film nears its final editing stages, I receive a videotape and begin to zero in on musical concepts and start sketching themes. A couple of days later I receive the final cut. As I view it, I list choices for musical underscore, termed a music cue. The producers and music editor do the same. Then we meet in a screening room to view the film together and make the final determination of where music cues will begin and end. The choices we make are important because the use of music can have a great impact on the film. The computer-generated visual effects are still being created the same weeks I’m composing, so when there is, say, a 5.5-second exterior shot of Enterprise firing at an alien vessel, I only see a 5.5-second black piece of film with white text saying, “Enterprise fires at alien vessel.” After so many episodes, I have a good idea of what the scene is going to look like.
I view a scene several times on my computer and begin to lock in to a certain “tempo” created by the writers, actors, director, cinematographer, visual effects creators, and film editors. I also start making choices about harmonic, melodic, counterpoint vocabulary, and orchestration. I’m able to compose and orchestrate about two minutes of music a day. Star Trek averages 20 to 25 minutes of music per episode. The Star Trek “sound” has its roots in Gustav Holst’s symphonic work “The Planets.” Although Star Trek has one of the largest music budgets of any TV series, we still can’t afford a 90-piece orchestra used for a performance of “The Planets.” However, we’re able to get a rich sound with only 40-plus musicians by using certain orchestration techniques and great musicians, mixers, and recording studios. The day of the recording session I enter the studio early to review my scores and chat with the recording crew and the musicians. Although these pros do this every day, there is still an excitement in the air, for each session means something new and unique is about to be created. I’ve always been amazed that the musicians are sight-reading at each recording session; they’ve never seen the music until they sit down to play. We rehearse each cue once before recording and, usually on the second or third take, it’s a keeper. For a studio musician, there can be quite a lot of sitting around between takes. Then they must play two or three minutes of music perfectly. A 25minute score will take a little over six hours to record. This is a fast pace. In a high-budget feature film, recording 25 minutes of finished music might take two or three days. Usually changes are minor and only require I add or delete a few instruments. In these cases, I verbally dictate changes. (“Trombones and trumpets, don’t play bars 9 through 21.”)
However, sometimes the changes are major, and we must take a 10-minute break so I can rewrite. The adrenaline gets pumping pretty furiously! A copyist stands by while I figure out the revision and write it onto score paper. The copyist then races around the room copying the changes into the musicians’ individual parts or, in extreme cases, gathers up all the parts and dashes down the hall to the copying room so multiple copyists can work on it. By the fifth hour, we’re all sagging, but we “reach deep down” for the concentration. Most episodes of Star Trek have a happy ending, so we usually finish with a rich, soaring cue that sends our heroes off to continue their journey through space. I leave on an emotional “high.” Each recording session has glorious moments of music that I enjoy replaying in my head as I walk to the parking lot. David Bell ’77 lives in Los Angeles where he thoroughly enjoys the weather, the arts, and the food. Since arriving in 1981, he has composed music for more than 200 hours of TV series, miniseries, and films including “In the Heat of the Night” and Showtime’s “Sandy Bottom Orchestra.” He received a primetime Emmy nomination for his score on Larry McMurtry’s miniseries “Dead Man’s Walk.”
“One more thing” is a place for you to share your own reminiscences and observations about everyday happenings. Submit essays for consideration to: Donna Boen, Miamian editor, “One more thing,” 102 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or e-mail to Miamian@muohio. edu. Please limit yourself to 700 words and include your name, class year, address, and home phone number.
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Alicia Starc ’13 and Shawn Hartle ’13 fill ceremonial groundbreaking buckets with soil.
uring a picture-perfect autumn afternoon, representatives of 150 student groups D paraded along Slant Walk. Each carried a gleaming silver bucket filled with soil to deposit at a ceremonial site south of Upham Hall where faculty, staff, and alumni waited. All were participating in the Armstrong Student Center groundbreaking Oct. 6. Among those sharing reflections were: (in photo at right, l-r) Don Crain ’70, chairman of Miami’s Board of Trustees; Anne Gossett Armstrong ’61 and Mike Armstrong ’61, whose $15 million naming gift helped make the vision a reality; and President David Hodge. Associated Student Government President Nick Huber said, “Today marks the groundbreaking of the Armstrong Student Center, but more importantly, it marks the celebration of all that was and all that is to be, Old Miami, New Miami, and Miami to come.” The first phase is expected to open in January 2014.