Miamian Summer/Fall 2019 – The Magazine of Miami University by David Hummel

miamian The Magazine of Miami University

Summer/Fall 2019

IN THIS ISSUE:

HEART OF STEELE John Steele ’14 thought he lost everything. Instead, he found himself.

Write Here, Write Now An American in Paris Patisserie A Traveler’s Tale

Staff Editor Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 Miamian@MiamiOH.edu

Vol. 38, No. 1

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Senior Designer Belinda Rutherford

The Magazine of Miami University

Photographers Jeff Sabo Scott Kissell

STORIES

Web Developer Nicki Russell ’17

18 Word by Word

Miami wants to be recognized nationally beyond academia as a university that produces top writers. The Howe Center for Writing Excellence is sharpening students’ pencils toward that goal.

Copy Editor Lucy Baker Design Consultant Lilly Pereira www.aldeia.design University Advancement 513-529-4029 Senior Vice President for University Advancement Tom Herbert herbertw@MiamiOH.edu

22 The Sweet Life Right word critical (see page 18)

From football to a 4.0 to foreign service, John Steele ’14 discovers his inner strength.

IN EACH ISSUE

Office of Development 513-529-1230 Senior Associate Vice President for University Advancement Brad Bundy Hon ’13 brad.bundy@MiamiOH.edu

16 My Story

13 Back & Forth

34 Love & Honor

16 Along Slant Walk

36 Class Notes

To and From the Editor

Better diet, better sleep (see page 14)

Campus News Highlights

10 Such a Life

Up to His Knees In Research

12 Inquiry + Innovation After an Overdose

ON THE COVER

He may think of himself as “John from Cleveland,” but John Steele ’14 is now a long way from home as a U.S. State Department representative in Angola. His journey there took many unexpected turns.

12 From the Hub

Best Part of Miami

MiamiOH.edu/alumni

E XPANDI N G HOR I ZON S Ever since the moment Joyce Lutz Howe ’57 began to draw, she’s been fascinated by the world of nature. So, too, is the child in Joyce’s 11" x 14" oil painting, as she gazes at the endless ocean while its foam flows around her feet. “Lively, clear colors, immediacy, and peaceful” describe both Joyce’s watercolor and oil paintings. After working in commercial art studios, Joyce began painting and has exhibited in galleries as well as juried shows. Her work is in private and corporate collections. Joyce and her husband, Roger ’57, divide their time among Ohio, Florida, and northern Michigan. The child in the painting is their granddaughter.

Offering up bright yellow lemon tartelettes and carefully crafted quiches, Jackie Gibson ’96 blends Seattle coffeehouse culture with classic French pastries for “the best tea room in Paris.”

26 Heart of Steele

Alumni Relations 513-529-5957 Executive Director of the Alumni Association Kim Tavares MBA ’12 kim.tavares@MiamiOH.edu

Send address changes to: Alumni Records Office Advancement Services Miami University 926 Chestnut Lane Oxford, Ohio 45056 alumnirecords@MiamiOH.edu 513-529-5127 Fax: 513-529-1466

Summer/Fall 2019

Opus Web paper features FSC® certifications and is Lacey Act compliant; 100% of the electricity used to manufacture Opus Web is generated with Green-e® certified renewable energy.

A Traveler’s Tale

Empathy in Action

Notes, News, and Weddings

46 Farewells 48 Days of Old

Football Bell’s A Pealing Past

14 Media Matters

New Works by Alumni

Miamian is published two times a year by the University Advancement Division of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. Copyright © 2019, Miami University. All rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Miamian is produced by University Communications and Marketing, 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, 513-529-7592; Fax: 513-529-1950; Miamian@MiamiOH.edu.

from the hub

back forth from the & hub

Best Part of Miami By President Greg Crawford

I sometimes find it hard to believe that Renate and I

have been at Miami for three years now. Throughout that time, our favorite part of the job has remained the same — working alongside Miamians. We love the stately red-brick buildings. We love the landscapes, the memorials, and the stone bridges, our campuses with their many places designed for reflection, and the teaching and learning that have always distinguished this stellar institution. But we know it’s the people here who make Miami extra special. This past spring was full of celebrations. In May, we honored several great alumni for their dedication and generosity. A few days later, we graduated more than 4,600 students at commencement. The following day, Renate and I opened Lewis Place, the president’s home, to hundreds of new graduates and their families, giving us the opportunity to applaud their vast achievements. Less than a month later, we welcomed more than 1,600 alumni and their families As different at Alumni Weekend, demonstrating again the power of this loyal Miami community. as more than Whether students, faculty, staff, or 200,000 Miami alumni, Miamians are living out the university’s core values. You achieve with alumni can be, humility, as our motto Prodesse Quam you share a family Conspici declares; you embody our Alma Mater’s “sturdy hearted, pure of soul”; you resemblance. live Love and Honor. To think that in this place, you all lived such a life. Renate and I are privileged and proud to share that life with you. As different as more than 200,000 Miami alumni can be, you share a family resemblance. You engage our students and faculty, you energize our community, and you empower us to advance our mission and realize our vision.

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You are generous with your time and expertise, speaking to classes and leveraging your networks for students’ internships and graduates’ careers. You mentor students and other members of the Miami family on business plans and global trends, and you provide valuable input on books, articles, and other research. You enhance skills that lead to success throughout a lifetime. In this issue of Miamian, you can read about such a success in the story of Jackie Gibson ’96, following her passion in a second career as a top pastry-shop owner in Paris. You make high-impact contributions that keep Miami’s foundation strong. In this Miamian, you can learn more about the You are invited to write to Howe Center for Writing President Greg Crawford Excellence. Founded in at president@MiamiOH.edu. Follow him on Twitter 1996 by Miami Merger @PresGreg. Joyce and Roger Howe, both Class of 1957, the center, with its offices in King Library, has served students during more than 42,000 consultations. The Howes’ generosity makes a difference for students seeking advice on their projects and for faculty members documenting research studies that can impact their discipline. Miami alumni make a powerful and positive impact, both on our campuses and beyond. You are spreading our values across the country and around the world. You show every day why Miamians are the best part of Miami.

Fond farewell Was sad to see that The Pines was going to be torn down, though I haven’t been home (I’m a “townie”) for many years. It’s just one more thing taken away from Miami from my time. As a freshman, I had a friend living in The Pines and was there many times. Loved its character even then. —Barbara Thomson Zimmer ’68 Waukesha, Wis. I want to make an issue with your story on The Pines. As a freshman at Dennison Hall, we ate our meals at The Pines dining room, where we again ate our meals when I roomed in McBride as a junior. Please make a note of this in your next issue. —Stan Priesand ’63 Willoughby, Ohio Big O update The Spring Miamian contains a note from James Tobiason ’60 on page 4 about Wayne Embry and Oscar Robertson, “More ‘Heartfelt Memories.’ ” His memory of events is in error.

The Big O (Oscar Robertson) was an Indiana basketball player who then went to the University of Cincinnati. The Middletown basketball player was Jerry Lucas, who I believe played four years of high school ball without a defeat. Hence, Middletown became the basketball capital. Jerry then went on to Ohio State as a standout player. I grew up in Cincinnati and was well aware of Jerry and Oscar as I attended Miami University, and especially Wayne Embry, whom I saw many times at the old field house. I do agree that that era of local basketball, i.e., Dayton, Middletown, Oxford, and Cincinnati, had some great players to watch. —David Butke ’59 Prospect, Ky. ‘Home’ revisited It’s always fascinating to open each issue of Miamian and discover what stories were selected for inclusion. “Home Again” in Spring 2019 caught my eye. Why? Because there are some Caroline Scott Harrison family items that should be added to the “Days of Old” information. First: Hanging inside the Oxford Community Arts Center is an oil painting of a gown once worn by Caroline Scott Harrison. (The model, Lucile Hodgin, was the wife of the artist, Marston Dean Hodgin, chair of Miami’s art department at the time.) The gown complements the look in the stately new statue overlooking the arts center’s lawn. After visitors sit on the “inviting park bench” to admire the statue, they can go inside and appreciate the portrait of a first lady. Second: After the Scott home on Campus Avenue was razed, the

headquarters for Phi Delta Theta took its place. (Was it a coincidence Benjamin Harrison was a Phi Delt when a student at Miami?) During the Civil War, the Underground Railroad passed through the cellar of the Scott homestead; surely that was lost to rebuilding. However, two items from the home were saved and continue to look out at Miami’s passing scene from their second floor site as dormer windows at 210 Tallawanda Road. —Jean Hodgin ’58 Beverly, Mass. Make that CBS, not CBC In light of the perilous state of American journalism, I would like to bring attention to an error. When introducing Jeff Pegues on page 9 in the Spring Miamian, his title was incorrectly stated as a CBC News correspondent, when in fact, he works for CBS. I have high expectations when it comes to Miamian. Quality reporting is indispensable for an informed citizenry and democracy. I look forward to reading the next — and hopefully errorless — edition. —Andy Switzer MA ’16 Pettisville, Ohio Editor’s note: My sincerest apologies to Mr. Pegues and heartfelt thanks to Mr. Switzer. I despise those elusive typos.

Send letters to: Donna Boen Miamian editor 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 Miamian@MiamiOH.edu; or fax to 513-529-1950. Include your name, class year, home address, and phone number. Letters are edited for space and clarity. Opinions expressed are those of the letter writers and not Miami University or Miamian magazine.

Give people credit In response to the article “Who’s Watching You?” in the Spring Miamian, I continue to be embarrassed that citizens in the United States of America insist that there was “outside” influence that determined the results of the 2016 federal election.

Summer/Fall 2019

back & forth

All of the studies, including this article, show that the dumbest people in the world voted. I hope not. There were numerous daily issues that people considered before voting. Give them credit instead of trashing them. —James Weber Jr. ’61 Palm Desert, Calif.

“During the club’s singing of ‘Ave Maria,’ I saw an Italian man a few rows behind me, simply overcome by the beauty of the singing, tears streaming down his face.”

We’re everywhere I have just had a great alumnae experience. My husband and I were in Freiburg, Germany, recently. We had trouble figuring out how to purchase a parking pass for our car while at a laundromat. I asked the one woman in the laundromat if she spoke English, and she replied that yes, she was from Chicago. She helped us get the parking pass, then helped us figure out the washing machines. Imagine our delight when we figured out we were both Miami grads. Gena Kittel ’90 now lives in the Black Forest and was a German major at Miami who met her husband while studying abroad. She even invited us to her house. The best part is when she took her laundry to her car, she noticed in her mail, that she had brought along, there was her copy of Miamian. Small world. —Jeanie Zoller ’73 Cincinnati, Ohio More to the story In the Fall/Winter 2018 Miamian, there was an article (“Bits and Pieces”) about an anthropology class digging for artifacts on the grounds of the McGuffey Museum. It was quite nostalgic, since my good friend and classmate was Tommy Roudebush, who lived in the house and was the grandson

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of the owner of the house until it was sold to Miami. They had great birthday parties there! The museum is wonderful, and I’m so glad William Holmes McGuffey is honored in his old house. But back to anthropology and artifacts. The house I grew up in was at 110 E. Spring St., which now belongs to the Phi Delts. Many wondered why that house was situated higher than the others on the block. My father, Raymond E. Glos, told me that when McGuffey Hall was built, the dirt from the excavation was piled on that lot. My dad had a wonderful garden in the backyard, and in digging, did find a lot of construction trash, but also arrowheads and a big stone axehead. Thanks again for a way for me to revisit my hometown and Miami though Miamian. —Carol Glos Hinshaw ’59 Birmingham, Ala. Together in song Editor’s note: The following is an essay Liz Mullenix, dean of the College of Creative Arts, wrote after accompanying the Miami Men’s Glee Club on part of their Italian tour in May. My experience with them began in Assisi. Roughly 60 members of the club and their director, Jeremy Jones, together with the Miami Explorers’ 35 alumni, some of them Glee Club alumni, convened most nights for a concert and a dinner. The Glee Club impressed audiences wherever they went. In Assisi, they sang at the Basilica of St. Francis with a Franciscan brother, Friar Alessandro (also a well-known European tenor), among Giotto and Cimabue frescoes.

Community members of the medieval city were in attendance as well as international tourists. The acoustics in this ancient and sacred space were truly amazing, and when I turned to look around during the club’s singing of “Ave Maria,” I saw an Italian man a few rows behind me, simply overcome by the beauty of the singing, tears streaming down his face. I felt so fortunate to be part of this special event. From Assisi, we went to Rome, where the Glee Club performed concerts at St. Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon. When the students were not singing inside these truly aweinspiring, hallowed halls, they were singing on street corners, in restaurants, and in the Roman Forum. Their desire to sing was infectious. One young man would begin a song, and 59 would join in within seconds, harmonizing and filling the space in ways that stopped traffic. When they were singing outside the Pantheon, a German woman grabbed one of the student’s arms and asked where they were from. The student told her that they were a men’s chorus from Miami University in Ohio in the USA. She responded, with tears in her eyes, “Thank you. Thank you so much for this moment, this gift for me and my family as we were just out for a walk.” I love the idea that music is a gift, freely given, and it is able to bring people together for a transformative experience. Some of my favorite moments include seeing them sing while standing in line in St. Peter’s Square waiting to get into the church, and then watching their faces as they sang

for hundreds of tourists and Catholic pilgrims at the Mass in St. Peter’s. As the cardinals from around the world filed in to the cathedral (they meet once a year in Rome), a stream of red caps, I could see the thrill and anticipation of our students as they wondered if Pope Francis would be in attendance. Although the last cardinal in the precession was wearing the pope’s mitre, Francis had unfortunately been called away. The guys lamented this after the Mass, but I told them that to sing for the No. 2 cardinal at the most important church in the world for hundreds of people was still pretty good! Another moment that touched me was at a group dinner with the alumni and the club. We were at a traditional Italian restaurant (for a seven-course meal!), and were serenaded between courses by folk musicians. After they concluded their first number, one of the GC members started to sing the Scottish folk tune, “You take the high road …” and was joined by all 59 of his comrades almost instantaneously. This spontaneous outburst surprised the Italian musicians, who had no idea they were performing for a singing group, and turned it into an evening of sharing music and performing together. It was probably the first time that the Miami Men’s Glee Club has been accompanied by an accordion! They parted that evening with hugs and photos, exchanges of numbers, and goodbyes. The Italians did not speak a good deal of English, and our students had very little Italian, but they acted that night as brothers (and a sister) in song, to the delight of all.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

For the Love of the Game Woody Hayes, Miami’s football coach in 1949 and 1950, always cher-

ished his MU players. He believed their upset of Arizona State in the 1950 Salad Bowl opened the door to his legendary career at Ohio State. Ed Meador enjoys telling how Hayes regularly returned to Oxford for the teams’ reunions, even the one after his difficult surgery. “It wasn’t healing properly,” Ed recalls. “He was in bad shape.” But his Miami players were holding a reunion, and he was going. His doctor finally relented and turned the back seat of his Buick into a bed for his bullheaded patient. Then drove him to The Huddle in Uptown Oxford. Hayes ate, talked to his players, even smiled in the group photo, although clearly in pain. “And they’re saying, ‘Coach, you shouldn’t have come,’ ” Ed says, reporting that Hayes responded, ‘Hey, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now if it wasn’t for you guys.’ ” Ed knows a great deal about Miami football. When he joined the university as a photographer in 1953, he also volunteered to film the basketball and football games and practices for free. Ara Parseghian ’49, a favorite of Ed’s, was in his third year as head coach when Ed arrived. As much as he enjoyed the gig, it offered some challenges. He typically climbed a ladder to reach the top of a 30-foot-high scaffolding, using a rope to pull a 35-pound camera up behind him. Then he’d climb back down for the 20-pound tripod. One spring practice at Cook Field, catty-corner from Miami Field, Ed was on his perch shooting and thinking, “Boy, this doesn’t feel as sturdy as usual.” The next day, he found the platform collapsed in the grass. Then there was the Saturday morning practice with Miami Coach Bo Schembechler ’51. Ed could see the lightning heading his way. Standing on the metal scaffold high above the ground, he debated which would be worse, the storm’s wrath or Bo’s. Fortunately, just as Ed climbed down, Bo ended practice in the face of the oncoming tempest. Ed packed up his football film for good in 1988 when Miami decided to switch to full-time video. He’d already retired from his paying job in 1984, and his wife, Virginia, had convinced him spring and fall were nice times to travel. That doesn’t mean he’s walked away from Miami football. Until last season, he’d attended every home game for 65 years except one. Unfortunately, during a week with no home game, he was in a car accident. Ed intends to be back for every home game this season. You’ll find him at the 50-yard line, top row, of course. “I’m used to sitting up there and looking down,” he says.—Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96

Ed Meador Hon. ’71 filmed his last Miami football game in 1988.

Summer/Fall 2019

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Massimiliano Ventriglia

along slant walk

Joyfully They Sing The organist at the Vatican enjoyed the Glee Club’s singing at St. Peter’s Basilica so much that he attended their concert at the Basilica del Pantheon (above) in Rome. “In planning for this concert, I was told it would need to be an all a cappella concert — a piano or organ would not be available,” said director Jeremy Jones. “To my surprise, an organ was present, and Fabio, (the Vatican organist) was delighted to collaborate with us as our accompanist.”

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Most singers don’t dare dream of performing in

St. Peter’s Basilica, a magnificent edifice that dominates Rome’s skyline and holds over 60,000. That dream became a reality for Alexander Gee ’19 and 59 other members of the Miami Men’s Glee Club during their 15-day performance tour in Italy in May. “The concerts in Rome were absolutely surreal,” said Gee ’19, a Chinese major and entrepreneurship minor from Chicago. “Singing a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica only to perform in the Pantheon the next day, honestly … the Glee Club blew my mind.” Jeremy Jones, the Naus Family Faculty Scholar Associate Professor of Music and the

Glee Club’s director, recalled several cultural, historical, and musical highlights of the tour in some of the world’s most breathtaking venues. He collaborated with the Alumni Association so that alumni, family, and friends could join them. One highlight was in Florence after their formal concert in Chiesa di San Filippo Neri, when they decided to sing outside on the church steps, Jones said. “Little did we know, hundreds would stop to listen to us — the crowd momentarily stopped traffic,” he said. “Nearby residents were dancing and singing along on the streets and on their surrounding balconies. It was an inspirational moment of excitement and joy across cultures.”

Miami Athletes Make History

I’M GLAD YOU ASKED

Women’s and men’s sports earn top MAC trophies in same year

When the Men’s Glee Club returned from their Italy tour, we asked:

For the first time in its history, Miami

What one emotion captures that event for you?

athletics has finished first in the MidAmerican Conference’s Reese and Jacoby standings in the same year. The Reese Trophy for men’s sports and Jacoby Trophy for women’s sports were presented to Miami on May 29. For both trophies, points are awarded based on each school’s league finish in a particular sport, with the overall total divided by the number of sports sponsored by each school. Miami finished with a school-record nine championships in the 2018-2019 school year — field hockey (regular season and tournament champion), tennis (regular season and tournament champion), volleyball (regular season), men’s swimming and diving (MAC championship meet), softball (regular season), synchronized skating (national champion), and men’s cross country (MAC championship meet). Overall, the teams won 192 games this year, their most since 2012. Miami also set a school record with seven Coach of the Year honors, led by Hollie Bonewit-Cron (swimming), Tom Chorny (men’s cross country), Clarisa Crowell (softball), Carolyn Condit (volleyball), KR Li (diving), Iñako Puzo (field hockey), and Ricardo Rosas (tennis).

The emotion of still belonging to a 100-plusyear-old group that unites through song. — Lee Fisher ’68, accounting major, from Oxford, Ohio

“Congratulations to our extraordinary studentathletes and coaches for their commitment to achieving the highest level of excellence in our conference.” —Miami President Greg Crawford

In addition, the RedHawks posted a combined 10 Player/Freshman of the Year award winners, yet another school record. All this occurred while the scholar-athletes were once again strong in the classroom, finishing the spring semester with a 3.2 GPA. Miami scholars have completed each semester with at least a 3.0 GPA for 29 straight semesters.

Knowing full well that my last live performance may have been on this tour, I feel fulfilled. — Alex Gee ’19, Chinese major, entrepreneurship minor, from Chicago

Jeremy Jones directs the Men’s Glee Club during a 15-day performance tour.

“The conventional farmer, no matter how big or small, must comply with agribusiness specifications or lose money — comply or die.” — Author Stephanie Anderson in her book One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture, Miami’s 2019 summer reading selection

Joy and awe at the power of music to unite and move people of all different nations and tribes! Bravo! — Liz Mullenix, dean, College of Creative Arts and professor of theatre

Summer/Fall 2019

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Miami University and the city of Oxford received the 2019 International Town and Gown Association’s Larry Abernathy Award for their shared vision of becoming the healthiest college town in America. The two are working together to support town/gown initiatives in the areas of public health policy and infrastructure planning, mental and physical health, economic and community health, and climate health. Seniors Rachel Ollier (left) and Rosie Ries (below left) have been awarded scholarships from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. They are two of 52 students from 40 universities to receive the award, worth up to $10,000, for the 2019-2020 academic year. The Astronaut Scholarship is among the most significant meritbased monetary scholarships awarded to undergraduate STEM juniors and seniors who intend to pursue research or advance their field. Jason Osborne is Miami’s new provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. He comes from Clemson University, where he was associate provost and dean of the Graduate School and a professor of applied statistics. He has degrees in psychology from the University of Rochester and the State University of New York at Buffalo. He started at Miami on Aug. 1.

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RISING RANKS

96.4 50 percentage of Miami’s humanities graduates between 2015–2017 successfully placed

Miami’s among top 50 most affordable colleges with best return on tuition dollars (AffordableSchools.net)

Memory Keepers Lauded Fifty-five years after three Freedom

Summer volunteers left Oxford, Ohio, and disappeared while investigating an arson at Mount Zion United Methodist Church in Mississippi, Miami University presented the Freedom Summer of ’64 Award to the Mount Zion congregation. The historic church in Philadelphia, Miss., annually marks the anniversary of the disappearance and murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, whose bodies were

found six weeks later, victims of the Ku Klux Klan. Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner and nearly 800 volunteers trained in 1964 at the Western College for Women campus, now part of Miami, then left to register black voters in the South. Ronald Scott, vice president for diversity and inclusion at Miami, and other university representatives attended the annual memorial at Mount Zion on June 16 — the anniversary of the fire — to present the award.

Scholarly Immersion: Academically talented high school juniors and seniors chosen to participate in an intense, two-week Summer Scholars program on the Oxford campus learned alongside Miami faculty. During their preview of college life, they found themselves unraveling the science in neuroscience, taking care of business in the business academy, and examining genetic engineering in a Game of Clones. Gylaine Gilmore, on Miami’s art faculty, introduced the high school students to the inner workings of the fashion world, discussing with them fashion forecasting, fashion/ design language, silk dyeing, garment analysis, and technical illustration.

Scrutinizing Cybersecurity

Chris Jenkins Photography

NOTEWORTHY

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“We honor the Mount Zion United Methodist Church for keeping alive the memory of those who sacrificed to ensure the right to vote, for others’ freedom, and for civil rights for all.” —Ronald Scott, vice president for diversity and inclusion at Miami

Cybersecurity and information professionals from the worlds of banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, IT, and academia met for a Cybersecurity Summit at the Farmer School of Business July 29. Attendees shared the latest in best practices regarding data platforms, risks, and employee exposure. The goal was to determine industry needs, not only in technical but also in the areas of policy, risk assessment, and risk management. “Cybersecurity concerns no longer belong solely to the IT team,” said James

Kiper, chair of computer science and software engineering at Miami. “From business to government to education, to every individual who gets online or uses a cellphone, data security is being challenged from many directions.” Miami is in the midst of a feasibility study for creating a Center for Cybersecurity, with faculty collaborating from computer science and software engineering, information systems and analytics, and political science. It’s funded by Miami’s Boldly Creative initiative.

AMONG NATION’S BEST Miami’s academic, research, and personal growth opportunities make it among the nation’s best, according to the new Fiske Guide to Colleges 2020. This year’s guide highlights more than 300 four-year schools out of 2,200 considered, mostly from the United States, but also from Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland. Miami consistently maintains a spot in this annual guide of the “best and most interesting” schools. The 36th edition emphasizes Miami’s commitment to liberal education.

Summer/Fall 2019

such a life

UP TO HIS KNEES IN RESEARCH Sophomore zoology major Ty Cooley is sampling for macroinvertebrates — organisms that lack a spine and are large enough to be seen with the naked eye — such as crayfish and snails. A member of Associate Biology Professor Michelle Boone’s amphibian lab, Cooley is working with PhD student Jess McQuigg to see how certain macroinvertebrates affect the density of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd or chytrid fungus for short) in a given wetland. Bd is responsible for a significant number of amphibian population declines and extinctions, and many sources are calling it the most devastating pathogen in wildlife history. One of the lab’s goals is to understand how wetlands can be modified to be more naturally resistant to the pathogen. Boone’s lab is one of the first teams to research this.

Summer/Fall 2019

inquiry + innovation

After an Overdose Miami researchers study opioid overdose effects on the brain in ongoing drug crisis

Mitigating Harm “Like we can prevent death with Naloxone, perhaps we can give another medication to prevent the brain damage that users experience,” he said. McMurray acknowledges that the results won’t offer a definitive answer to the issue, but he sees the final report as an opportunity to shed light on what could be happening and provide information on the next steps. The findings have value in determining how to mitigate long-term harm for overdose survivors as part of a broader, comprehensive plan.

By Shavon Anderson

More than 130 people per day die from an opioid overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the current rate, you’re at greater risk of dying from an opioid overdose than you are from dying in a car accident. Even with the continued push to make Naloxone, a medication used to combat an opioid overdose, more accessible nationwide, agencies still struggle to contain the scope of the drug epidemic. Matthew McMurray, Miami University assistant professor of psychology, understands the problem. “The stats we know about Naloxone use by regular people are from the CDC as well and estimate that about 26,000 lives were saved by layperson administration from 1996 to 2014,” he said. Those numbers exclude trained medical personnel and law enforcement, and McMurray believes the figures are likely underestimated. McMurray heads a lab at Miami that researches addiction by using animal models. Inside the lab, his team of undergraduate and graduate students creates specific conditions to pinpoint leading addiction factors such as family history and upbringing. “The age of first use is the single best predictor of who will have a substance-use disorder in their life span,” he said. Looking for Aftereffects In response to the opioid crisis hitting southern Ohio, McMurray’s team decided to look at overdoses through a different lens. They found that most

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App Explores Overdose Deaths

research focuses on prevention and how to keep people from becoming addicted in the first place. It ignores a key question: What happens after someone overdoses and is revived? “We just don’t know what an overdose is actually doing to you,” McMurray said. The lab received grant funding from Miami’s College of Arts and Science to collect preliminary data on whether there are any long-term neurological effects. To increase the success of prevention and treatment efforts, researchers need to understand how surviving an overdose changes the brain. The team intends to reveal if there are potential deficits in decision-making, memory, or motor skills. McMurray points to possible cognitive changes that can cause depression, anxiety, and other disorders. Researchers need to identify what is affected before they can target treatments for those areas. Any

findings could also shed light on reports of increased risk of relapse in survivors, which creates challenges for addiction treatment. Shaping Treatment Right now, there’s no system to track survivor outcomes. Many overdoses happen in the home, and, according to McMurray, witnesses fear the criminal punishment often connected with calling emergency services. The availability of over-the-counter Naloxone (aka Narcan) offers a short-term fix only. “More people survive overdoses, which is wonderful,” McMurray said. “But because users aren’t being treated in a hospital-based setting, there’s no one to provide follow-up care.” His goal is to identify which issues, if any, exist after an overdose. Once those become known, the research can be used to shape treatment.

Using data from the Butler County Coroner’s office, statistics students at Miami developed a web app that documents select details about overdose deaths in the southwest Ohio county where Oxford is located. These details include the types of drugs found in the lab testing of overdose victims, the demographic profiles of victims, and data about where the overdoses and deaths occurred. More than 80 percent of the county’s overdose deaths during the time studied by Miami students were associated with opioids. According to Coroner Lisa Mannix, the app is intended to make it easier for law enforcement agencies, emergency responders, and care providers to access the data they need to target prevention and treatment efforts. “It is my goal to help reduce the number of fatal drug overdoses in Butler County, and this web app can be vital to achieving that goal,” Mannix said. “The more information made readily available, the easier it will be for our partners in the community to target those regions that need the assistance the most.” The Overdose Deaths in Butler County web app is available at dataviz.miamioh.edu/Butler_County_Overdose_ Deaths and is accessible to the public.

To get more information on prevention and treatment, researchers need to understand how surviving an overdose changes the brain.

Shavon Anderson is a staff writer for Miami’s university news and communications.

Summer/Fall 2019

media matters

Recipe for a Better Night’s Sleep

Foundations of Russian Military Flight, 1885-1925 James Libbey ’64 ’67 Naval Institute Press Focusing on the early use of balloons and aircraft by the Russian military, this book discusses the best early Russian aircraft, which included flying boats and large reconnaissance bombers.

Self-help book for the one-third of Americans who suffer from lack of sleep

The 100 Best Stocks to Buy in 2019 Peter Sander ’77 & Scott Bobo ’80 Adams Media Even though the economy is in constant flux, there’s plenty of opportunity for investors to make a profit. The 100 Best Stocks to Buy in 2019 shows how to protect your money with picks that have consistently beaten the S&P average.

If you wake up most mornings feeling like you’ve been

Registered dietitian Karman Meyer ’09 offers a word of caution to anyone who brags about needing almost no sleep. “If you can wake up after four hours and feel energy, that’s great, but sleep can tap into so much more than energy — cognition, immune functions, diabetes prevention, heart disease, fertility, so while energy might be fine, you don’t quite know what that person’s health is otherwise.”

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hit by a Mack truck, you might want to take a look at what you’re eating, says registered dietitian Karman Meyer ’09, author of Eat to Sleep, What to Eat and When to Eat It for a Good Night’s Sleep — Every Night. “People who are sleep deprived don’t make great food choices during the day,” Meyer says. “That can impact inflammation in the body, and inflammation is tied into stress, so then you become more stressed, and you can’t sleep well at night, you’re more sleep deprived, and you keep making poor food choices.” Whew. So, how do we reverse the poor sleep-bad food cycle? Meyer, who typically turns off the lights in her Nashville home by 10 p.m. and rises at 6 a.m., thinks it’s easiest to start with your diet. You don’t have to overhaul your menus all at once either, she advises. It can be as simple as reaching for pumpkin seeds for a snack. She suggests pumpkin seeds and other magnesium rich foods such as avocados and dark green vegetables because they can reduce inflammation, stress, and anxiety. Meyer understands food struggles. She herself can’t eat just one when it comes to potato chips. If eating leafy greens doesn’t fluff your pillow, you might try more water-rich foods, such as watermelon, cucumber, and cauliflower. Contrary to the old adage promoting 64 fluid ounces of water daily, women need close to 95 fluid ounces a day, men about 125. Meyer suspects many of us are walking around chronically dehydrated. That might explain those leg cramps in the middle of the night.

Twist Alan Kolok ’78 Mascot Books

If you’d prefer to turn water into wine, Meyer advises drinking it at dinner with food instead of right before bed and drinking twice as much water as alcohol by the time you crawl under the covers. “There have been plenty of studies where alcohol does not let you reach those deeper stages of sleep where memory consolidation happens.” To follow Karman’s blog and pick up some of her recipes, go to TheNutritionAdventure.com.

When environmental science professor Alex Pendergraf reads about a mass murder, he wonders: Could the killer’s rage be related to Alex’s research on prions, the misformed proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease? As Alex digs into the toxicological mystery, he discovers a new infectious agent that causes unspeakable violence. And it’s spreading.

How to Think Strategically Greg Githens MEn ’82 Maven House This primer for those who want to develop their mental acumen and make strategic impact will help you understand how to craft effective, powerful, and clever strategy. A competent strategic thinker defines the core challenge facing the organization and designs effective responses. The Rise and Fall of the Tea Party — And How It Elected Donald Trump Michael Swartz ’86 Independently published Michael Swartz chronicles the Tea Party’s history, having learned in his research how it grew to elect the 45th president. Rise and Fall goes through the 2018 midterm elections. Brand Currency Steve Susi ’93 Lioncrest Publishing What drives Amazon’s success isn’t cutting-edge. It’s ancient, according to Steve Susi. The former Amazon advertising executive creative director takes you inside the corporate enigma to reveal the currencies that dictate the customer’s and Amazon’s every

move: money, information, loyalty, and time. Steve believes prioritizing these currencies is what your brand needs. Will It (The Gnat & Corky Series Book 3) Courtney Shaughnessy Kotloski ’98 Orange Hat Publishing Will has BardetBiedl syndrome, which causes retinal degeneration and may eventually render him blind. That does not define Will or prevent him from doing anything he dreams. His attitude and outlook on life are unstoppable. A Marshland of His Own Gavin Zastrow ’98 Orange Hat Publishing A year after his friend committed suicide, Gavin Zastrow wrote this book from a high school student’s view. It’s divided into three parts: mourning, mending, and moving on. Hoo Hoo Who? Mary Maier ’09 Building Block Press It’s time for Mouse’s surprise party, but Owl’s glasses are broken. Can you use the clues to help Owl figure out which guest is at the door? This picture book encourages children to take part.

The Herbal Handbook for Homesteaders Abby Schultz Artemisia ’13 Voyageur Press

Abby Schultz Artemisia offers tips on growing and foraging herbs safely and ethically; secrets to preservation and processing; and easy, soothing recipes. She includes bonus sections on creating your own herbal apothecary and starting a foraging journal.

Summer/Fall 2019

my story

MY STORY is a place for you to share reminiscences and observations about everyday happenings. Submit your essay for consideration to: Donna Boen, Miamian editor, “My Story,” 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or Miamian@ MiamiOH.edu. Please limit your essay to 900 words and include your name, class year, address, and phone number.

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A Traveler’s Tale By John Burgman ’04

When I look back on my formative years as an undergraduate, it is clear that traveling was never in my purview. Even though the wide-open world fascinated me at the time, I preferred the sanctuary of classrooms and the down-home comforts of the Midwest. More specifically, I liked that my entire world could exist, self-contained, in a familiar college routine: I could wake up in my dormitory, grab breakfast at the nearby Shriver Center, attend lectures at Upham Hall, squeeze in another meal, jog up High Street, and wrap up the day bleary-eyed in an upper-floor nook at King Library.

I had classmates who were studying abroad in Luxembourg and enrolling in internships in England — truly exotic undertakings in my mind at the time — but I preferred the neat choreography that I could establish within a manageable radius on a given day in Oxford, Ohio. After college, however, I left the Midwest for graduate school in New York City. That move expanded my thinking, and then I started working as an editor at a national magazine. The job entailed eclectic journalistic assignments all around the country, so whether I wanted to or not, suddenly I had to travel. When I was not venturing for my job to wonderfully peculiar places like the “best beach bar in the country” or the “biggest casino in Las Vegas,” I was getting a hefty dose of diverse cultures and subcultures on the bustling streets of Manhattan. My magazine’s editorial offices were located just two blocks from New York City’s Korea Town, so I began to spend some of my free time browsing that district’s Korean music stores and trying hole-in-thewall Korean restaurants. On a whim one evening, I enrolled in a Korean language class. I made Korean friends and started reading captivating books about Asia such as Peter Hessler’s River Town and Pico Iyer’s Video Night in Kathmandu. Best of all, the more I read about Asia, and the more I explored Asia’s cultures through a decidedly New York lens, the more I was intrigued. I was slowly catching the international travel bug. At the same time, my magazine job started to change; editorial budget cuts and ripples of an economic recession increasingly stifled those quirky journalistic trips. Some of my colleagues got laid off. Layered words like “restructuring” and “downsizing” became more common in conversations around the editorial offices. At one point, my magazine’s publisher even started giving glum and foreboding speeches about the sad state of print publications in an increasingly digital world. It all amounted to a pessimistic work environment. I wondered whether I should extricate myself from the New York City magazine scene. In this haze of uncertainty, I applied for a Fulbright research grant in South Korea and dreamed of a fresh start as a backpacking expat in Asia’s far-flung locales.

But I also started to wonder if my best travel years had passed me by. Old acquaintances of mine who had journeyed to global destinations to be English teachers or beach layabouts in their 20s were returning en masse to the United States to face their more straitlaced 30s; they were getting married, buying houses, starting families, and seeming to temper their more adventurous impulses. Was there an unofficial age limit for wanting to be an international vagabond? Steadily I was convincing myself that perhaps there was. And just as I had nearly turned that corner myself and given up my urge for long-term global travel, I received a notice that I had been awarded that yearlong Fulbright research grant. In a whirlwind of emotions, I felt thrilled — like my life finally had new direction — and then suddenly directionless; I would be moving to Asia, but I did not have the slightest clue what that would entail. The next couple of weeks were a blur, and even now they exist in my mind only as snippets of more whims as I prepared to leave the U.S. I donated my furniture to affable apartment neighbors. I bought pizza for my friends and said most of my goodbyes on humming Manhattan street corners. I left my job wondering whether I was being too impulsive. Then I packed a duffel bag of clothes and purchased a one-way plane ticket to South Korea. It was new choreography, that of long-term world travel. The rest of my international journey commenced with highs and lows, but I loved living abroad. While it involved occasional bouts of loneliness, there were also moments of transcendence. I befriended monks and tourists, North Korean defectors, and transient missionaries in South Korea. Most importantly, I realized that there is no age limit for any kind of travel, of course. But I would not have learned that if I had not traveled. In that sense, travel is funny — it answers its own questions. It also prompts new ones. I do not regret being oblivious to all of this as an undergraduate because the appreciation lies in the unpredictable slow reveal. What begins as a manageable radius in Oxford can expand over time to include other countries and cultures. Other continents, too. Sometimes it just takes a whim or two — and a wide-open world.

Was there an unofficial age limit for wanting to be an international vagabond?

All totaled, John Burgman ’04, of Zionsville, Ind., spent five years living in various parts of Asia, including on South Korea’s Jeju Island. His time on that island is chronicled in his book, Island Solitaire. Now back in the United States, he writes for several magazines.

Summer/Fall 2019

d r o W y b d r o W Howe Center for Writing Excellence champions clear, concise, and persuasive writers

Story by DONNA BOEN ’83 MTSC ’96 AND ANGELA GLOTFELTER MA ’17 Opening Illustration by KATRINA TANBI KESSLER ’20

Sitting in her early afternoon journalism class at Columbia University, Mariel Padilla ’17 was listening to her professor discuss email encryption for reporting across borders when she received a text from her friend across the room. “I think you just won a Pulitzer,” it read. “Were you on this story?” “This story” was The Cincinnati Enquirer’s “Seven Days of Heroin.” The summer she graduated from Miami, Padilla interned with the Enquirer at the urging of Patti Newberry, a Miami journalism associate lecturer and a former Enquirer staffer. As part of her internship, Padilla visited the county jail each morning during that designated week to sort through hundreds of arrest slips and flag opioid mentions. She then created a spreadsheet, documenting the time, location, and nature of every opioid-related arrest over those seven days. Now working on a master’s at Columbia nearly a year after her internship, Padilla was so focused on “trying to stay alive in graduate school” that she had no idea the Cincinnati daily was even nominated for the premier award. Responding to her friend’s text, she wrote, “Yeah, I was on that story, but I don’t think I’d be on the Pulitzer.” Her friend texted back, emphatic this time, “I think you Mariel just won a Pulitzer!” Padilla ’17

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offer services and resources to faculty through the Howe Writing Across the Curriculum programs. “There’s no place else in the country that has a $15 million endowment for writing,” said Elizabeth Wardle, director of the HCWE since 2016. “What the Howes have funded is this comprehensive center where we innovate as we see needs arise, and we don’t have to constantly justify the need for the funding.” Wardle is particularly passionate about the Howe Faculty Writing Fellows program, part of the HCWE’s Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives designed to help faculty improve how they assign and support student writing. One such fellow is Jon Trauth, visiting assistant professor of family science and social work. His journey as a social worker began in El Salvador and Nicaragua, where his fire for homeless advocacy was sparked. That led him to graduate school, where he was diagnosed with binocular dysfunction and dyslexia, which MARGARET ATWOOD, Canadian poet and novelist helped to explain his dread of writing. Wanting to assist his students the way his mentors helped him, Trauth taught a first-of-its-kind class last spring, an advanced Padilla learned how much power words can hold while a student writing course for the helping professions. He and other faculty consultant with the Howe Writing Center, part of the Howe Center developed it during the fellows program, blending academic and for Writing Excellence (HCWE) at Miami University. She worked professional genres to show that effective advocacy depends on at the center on the first floor of King Library from her sophomore writing well in everything — from letters to clients’ caregivers to through her senior years. assessments, treatment plans, and case notes. Giving other students feedback on their papers “Writing will help you in your advocacy,” he said, “and and projects made her ultra-conscious of how words hopefully that advocacy will, in turn, give back in a way affect people. that helps your programs be funded better, helps you “The Howe Writing Center and my experience get better grants, or helps you serve populations that there shaped the type of writer I am, and it definitely in the past were never served.” was a huge part of my time and growth at Miami Miami faculty embrace teaching in a way that University,” she said. “It also increased my love Wardle’s never seen before. She considers it serendipifor writing.” tous that the center is at Miami. Miami’s faculty is ranked Graduating from Columbia in 2018, she’s now reportThe Howes No. 3 nationally in undergraduate teaching by U.S. News & ing for The New York Times, having started her yearlong World Report because they care about teaching and learning as fellowship in June on the national breaking news desk. much as research, she said. “The Howes have funded something The Times’ tight deadlines give her few moments to reflect on the that really fits with the Miami identity and value system.” impact of her words. She’s grateful that their power is ingrained in her due to the Howe Center’s weekly workshops. “It made me a better writer and very conscious of what writing means or what writing could mean to people,” said Padilla, who double majored in strategic communication and English. Careful not to disrupt the class, Padilla googled for any details. When she saw that her name was indeed included among the story’s team of writers, she immediately texted her family in Columbus, Ind. But she remained quiet because she didn’t want to bother her professor. “She was so mad at me,” Padilla said. “She was like, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t interrupt me. You should have stopped me from talking. Why didn’t you say something?’ ”

A word after a word after a word is power.

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.

AYN RAND, best-selling Russian-American author and philosopher

Writing is hard. That’s why the Howe Center exists, both to provide support for students through the Howe Writing Center and to

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To write is to think and to write well is to think well. DAVID MCCULLOUGH, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author

So why have Joyce Lutz Howe ’57, a graphic arts major, and Roger Howe ’57, a business major, given more than $15 million to improve student writing? Near the start of Miami’s $100 million campaign in the 1990s, then-Miami President Paul Pearson asked the Howes if they had a particular passion they wanted to support.

“I said that I had consistently heard one criticism from corporate CEOs and employer leaders about the college graduates they were hiring,” said Howe, a CEO himself at the time. “These employers acknowledged that in most respects the graduates were more competent than ever. However, when it came to clear, concise, and persuasive writing, the emphatic common theme was that they were woefully deficient.” President Pearson agreed with the Howes and said, “Let’s do something about it.”

What writing does is to reveal.

RITA DOVE ’73, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate

Joyce demonstrated an aptitude for English during her high school years in her small Ohio town of Ashland, graduating as co-valedictorian. When her mother, who graduated from Miami in the early 1930s, drove her the three hours south to explore the Oxford campus, she knew it would be her alma mater, too. Some 30 miles directly north of Ashland was Roger’s parents’ farm just outside of Birmingham, Ohio, where Roger was also preparing to head to Miami. Once one of his best friends decided on the university, Roger did some investigating of his own. He liked the size of the school and the town. Unfortunately, his academic record wasn’t nearly as stellar as Joyce’s. He was determined to make up for lost time and purchased a handbook on what freshmen needed to know about English, studying it cover to cover while on his last family vacation before college. Sophomore year he came to campus early to meet some of the freshman girls before all the upperclass male competition arrived. At a mixer in Anderson Hall, he was introduced to Joyce Lutz, a freshman dorm counselor. She already had a hometown boyfriend who was a junior at Miami, but Roger “ratcheted up his pursuit” and within three weeks had “successfully displaced him for her affection.” After graduating, Roger was employed for 13 years by the S.D. Warren Co., a Boston-based fine paper manufacturer. In 1970, he purchased U.S. Precision Lens, a small maker of plastic optics in Cincinnati, and built it into a world leader of innovative optical systems for the photographic, instrument, and television industries. In 1986, he sold the company to Corning and remained as board chairman until his retirement in 1997. Through all those busy years, Roger and Joyce have continued to show their commitment to their school. Miami recognized their lasting support this spring, naming them the university’s 2019 Philanthropists of the Year.

The Howe Writing Center, under the umbrella of the HCWE, believes all writers have more to learn; learning to write effectively requires different kinds of practice, time, and effort; revision is central to developing writing; and reflection is critical for a writer’s development.

While accepting the award for “advancing Miami as a force for good in the world,” Roger said, “In a conversation with (then-Provost) Phyllis Callahan during the reception, I mentioned the cost of attending Miami when we were students. She insisted that I relate it to you. All-in cost — room, board, and tuition — was about a $1,000 a year. When we graduated, we thought that was the end of our expenditures to be a part of this university. As it turned out, we were very wrong.” The Howes have committed more than $15 million over the years for vital feedback and support to Miami students and faculty in their quest for effective writing, including a recent $3 million gift designed to integrate the Howe Center’s efforts across campus. In their home’s sitting room in Cincinnati, surrounded by Joyce’s watercolors and oil paintings and pictures of their three children and nine grandchildren, they talk about the importance of their dream. “It is my fervent hope that within our lifetimes, Joyce and I see Miami recognized nationally beyond academia as a university that produces graduates who are excellent writers,” Roger said. “That reputation will resonate loudly with employers and be a meaningful competitive advantage for graduates. It will also mean that our philanthropy will have been truly transformational — nice thoughts for a kid who took remedial English at Miami and his wife who ranked No. 2 in the subject among all Ohio students her senior year of high school.” Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 is editor of Miamian. Angela Glotfelter MA ’17, who is in Miami's composition and rhetoric PhD program, researches the human impact of digital media. At the HCWE, she assists with the Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives.

To learn more about the Roger and Joyce Howe Center for Writing Excellence, go to MiamiOH.edu/HCWE.

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The Sweet LIfe Parisian café owner JA C KIE G IBS O N ’ 96 blends Seattle coffeehouse culture with classic French pastries B Y

D A N

C A R L I N S K Y

P HOTO S CO URT ESY O F JACKI E G I BSO N ’96

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t took Jackie Gibson ’96 a dozen years to make her way from Oxford, Ohio, to Paris, France. After college, her career path sent her to Phoenix, Tampa, Caracas (Venezuela), Dallas, Seattle, Beijing (China), and Huntingdon (England) before she finally settled in Paris in 2008. If there was any question that for her the French capital had become home, the uncertainty disappeared when, shortly before 7 in the evening last April 15, fire broke out at Notre Dame Cathedral.

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of how you never know where life may lead you if you let it. Her post-college plan was to take her Miami anthropology degree to Arizona State University for graduate work in archaeology, but first to spend a gap year or two working to pay off a student loan. In Phoenix, she landed a receptionist’s job with Nokia, the telecom giant. She swiftly moved to logistics work and stayed with the company for 14 years, moving constantly. “I majored in anthropology,” she explains. “What interested me was people. In one project I was involved in — in Venezuela — we had 100 people of 50 nationalities.” By the time she left Nokia, she had lived on four continents (with plenty of travel from each base), met a Frenchman named Arnaud Lacroix, had a son named Sébastien, and settled in Paris. Her LinkedIn résumé boasted experience in “RFQ/RFI response and preparation, profitability analysis, developing teams, cross functional alignment of operations, sales, logistics processes and systems,” but with a young child, she was ready to stay put and do something less corporate, something new. During her Nokia years in Seattle, she became a fan of the local coffeehouses.

LE S R IV E S D E PA RIS

Gibson, who runs a top-tier pastry shop opposite the great French Gothic masterpiece, stood with friends and neighbors on the Left Bank of the river Seine and cried. “We were about to close the shop when I noticed people across the street looking up and pointing,” she recalls. “I went out and saw just a little smoke at first. I assumed it would be handled straight away, but within 15 minutes we could see the beginning of flames on the roof, and we knew it was serious. Just a few minutes later the flames were higher, the crowds larger. We could feel the heat. People were singing hymns and weeping. We stood watching until the police started to clear the street. By then, the steeple had collapsed. The next morning when I saw the walls still standing, I was moved to tears again. I was so relieved.” At Christmas and Easter, she later told a CNN interviewer, “We go to Notre Dame. Because that’s our church.” How it came to be that Gibson calls Notre Dame — the most visited landmark in the most visited city in the world — “our church” is its own story. The Columbus, Ohio, native’s journey to Paris is an example

Customers in Jackie’s cafe now watch the repairs of Notre Dame, seen here before the fire, as they enjoy their croissants.

Although she had no food service experience beyond a job serving at the Oxford restaurant Phan-Shin back in her college days, once or twice she had toyed with the idea of dropping out of the corporate world and opening a coffee shop. “I knew how to do planning and budgeting,” she says. “But I didn’t know how a kitchen works.”

That’s where Lacroix comes in. An experienced pastry chef (“it’s all he’s ever done, since age 14 at trade school”), he comes from a French family of bakers and entrepreneurs; a great-grandfather ran a bakery in the 1800s. Taking the plunge, the two found a location by the Seine with a stunning cathedral view and drew up a plan for a coffee and tea room serving high-quality sweets.

Says Gibson: “Our thinking was, if you want pastry in Paris, you can go to an ordinary pâtisserie and get something ordinary or go to a fancy, stiff tea salon and pay 15 or 18 euros for a piece of cake, which is crazy. We wanted to offer people the best pastry in the world, handmade and priced sensibly, in a comfortable place where they can sit and enjoy it with friends.” First, they had to battle the notoriously complex Paris red tape. “We needed approval for everything,” she says. “The font on our sign, even the kind of bolts. We’re in a special cultural heritage zone because of Notre Dame. We can’t change the color of our door.” With persistence, in August 2016 they opened A.Lacroix Pâtisserie, “where Seattle coffeehouse culture meets classic French pastries.” Classic, yes, but artisanal and often inventive: edible art. Spectacular hand-shaped versions of everyone’s favorites — plump almond croissants, perfect macarons, bright yellow lemon tartelettes — as well as unusual chocolate concoctions and imaginative treats of berries and cream. For a light lunch, mini-pizzas and carefully crafted quiches. Even in Paris, not your usual corner bakery fare. At the start, business was slow. “The first year it was just the two of us,” Gibson says. “We hired nobody. Some days were great, others we didn’t have five customers. I belonged to an expat parenting meetup group and a business owners group, Anglopreneurs. We weren’t that busy, so I let them both host regular meetings here.” The move paid off. Word spread in the expat community. Expatriates Magazine readers voted A.Lacroix Pâtisserie the best tea room in Paris. Food blogs caught on and other locals soon found the place, as did tourists, who had come to see Notre Dame and explore the booksellers’ stalls along the quai.

We wanted to offer people the best pastry in the world, handmade and priced sensibly. In February 2018 the couple’s second son, Archer, was born. “He pretty much lives in the shop,” Gibson says. She keeps a stash of toys and books handy for him and for customers with kids — another move that has proved good for business. Earlier this year, TripAdvisor listed A.Lacroix the No. 1 dessert spot in Paris. Sweet. Dan Carlinsky has written countless articles for major magazines and published many books. He visits France and eats pastry with equal gusto.

Summer/Fall 2019

HEART OF STEELE JOHN STEELE â&#x20AC;&#x2122;1 4 thought he lost everything. Instead, he found himself. STORY BY MARGO KISSELL / PORTRAITS BY JEFF SABO

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Summer/Fall 2019

OHN STEELE ARRIVED at Miami University sporting a Football made me who I am tattoo across his chest and carrying everything he owned in two black garbage bags. The 6-foot-3 Cleveland native came to the Oxford campus with the family of a teammate he didn’t know because he didn’t have a car and couldn’t find anyone else to drive him. On that June move-in day for football camp, another teammate’s mom offered to help bring his belongings into his nearly empty dorm room, not realizing Steele had unpacked two hours earlier. That night, he couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking about walking in with those trash bags and watching others with the latest electronics and suitcases filled with nice clothes. “I told myself, ‘John, although you didn’t come into Miami with many things, you’re going to leave Miami with everything.’ ” He knew how to persevere. He’d been doing it his whole life.

DANGEROUS ‘NO-GO ZONES’

Tattooed on Steele’s left forearm is a guardian angel he got for protection when he was 17, after he and his younger brother, Jordan, were jumped. Heading home from the barber, they knew better than to walk those streets, but they’d blown their return bus fare on McDonald’s burgers. His left shoulder is forever scarred from the knife wound he suffered. Fear ruled his Kinsman neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland. A lot of people don’t make it out of his neighborhood. Steele sometimes wonders how he did. All odds were against him. His father was “missing in action” because of prison and substance abuse. His mother battled her own crack cocaine addiction. She frequently abandoned him, Jordan, and their older sister, Christina, for days and sometimes weeks during drug binges.

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Clockwise: Visiting his childhood home stirred up memories for John Steele ’14. Steel’s official Miami football photo. His high school coach, Anthony Garner, saw Steele’s potential, when no one else did.

“I told myself, ‘John, although you didn’t come into Miami with many things, you’re going to leave Miami with everything.’ ” In sixth grade he started attending a magnet school after passing all parts of the state proficiency tests. His sister made them go to school for the free breakfast and lunch. However, at age 12, with no regular adult supervision at home, Steele dropped out. “It sounds trivial now, but I remember being really, really frustrated not being able to find a clean T-shirt,” he said. That was his breaking point. The lapse made him fall behind and drained his motivation when he returned to school more than a year later. As a result, he found himself in summer school every year.

A LIFE-CHANGING ENCOUNTER

During summer school before his sophomore year, he met Anthony Garner, a Cleveland Metropolitan School District security guard and the football coach at South High School across town. Garner saw him walking down the hall and called him over to ask if he played football. Looking at the ground, Steele shook his head no. His school, focused on academics, didn’t have sports. “When I said, ‘Do you want to play football?’, he kind of perked up,” the coach remembered. He told Steele to join the team at practice behind the Boys & Girls Club at 4 p.m. Although unable to practice or play because of poor grades, Steele showed up all summer, watching teammates run

drills and retrieving water for them. Rainy days, cold days, he was out there. He never missed a day. Steele transferred to South High School and was able to play in the final game of the season, the city championship. “He looked terrible, but he was a big body out there, and he got us through,” Garner said. Although they lost the game, Steele found his passion. “His junior and senior year at South, he took to it like a fish in water,” Garner said. One day, he asked Steele to push a blocking sled in circles to see how much drive and fight he had in him. Steele kept pushing until he threw up. During his senior season, he recorded 69 tackles, 11 quarterback sacks, and two forced fumbles, which earned him all-state and all-district honors. Plus a football scholarship to Miami.

DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT The picturesque campus was four hours away by car but seemed a world away from Steele’s neighborhood of 93rd and Kinsman. Because of his poor high school grades, he wasn’t eligible to play his first year of college. Being sidelined gave him time to focus on classes, tackle a reading deficiency, and improve his grades. Steele began studying with Miami athletics intervention learning specialist Connie Borger McLain ’74 MEd ’02, a retired elementary school teacher. He recalls how patient and committed she was even though he resisted her help at first. “She dealt with all my emotional issues, the issues that stemmed from my upbringing,” he said, remembering how she invited him to family dinners during holidays. A year later after earning a 2.7 GPA, he finally had his chance to show what he could do with a football. But before he could prove himself, he was carried off the practice field with two broken bones and a partially torn ligament in his left knee. Three surgeries later, he received the news: His playing days were over. He never played a down of football in a Miami game.

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“I had a very difficult time trying to figure out who I was or what I was or what I should do afterward,” he said.

NEW DIRECTION

A S S O CI AT E PROFESSOR OF S O CIOLO GY A ND G E R O N TO LO GY OTHEL LO HA RRI S :

Craig Bennett MS ’00, assistant athletic director for academic support services at the time, remembers Steele coming into his office, throwing his hands up, and saying he was done. Bennett assured him his scholarship would remain in place, football or not. That’s something Miami athletics always commits to, said Bennett, now senior director for student success. “It’s not the student’s fault that he got injured. If he holds up his end of the bargain, why wouldn’t we?”

“I’m so proud of him, not even because of his life story and all that — I think that’s important, too; you can’t separate that — but because of the way he took on these classes.” Steele’s teammates, including Brandon Brooks ’11, who now plays guard for the Philadelphia Eagles, encouraged him to pursue his degree. “It took that level of support from people who were actually playing to really encourage me to achieve things off the field that I didn’t even think I could do.” Still, Steele needed time to see himself as more than a defensive tackle. He kept thinking: Without football, who am I?

Harris later asked Steele to stop by his office after class. He expected the conversation to last a few minutes. It lasted several hours. “We talked about everything,” Steele said, “and that day really, really changed my life.” Harris learned about his difficult upbringing, his old neighborhood, the football scholarship, the injury, and Steele’s struggle to find himself. The professor’s advice stuck with him. “He said, ‘Listen. Calm down. You have a lot of options. You go to a great school. Let’s really focus on this education and see what we can do,’ ” Steele recalled. What Harris remembers is Steele, a social justice studies major and political science minor, made a remarkable transformation — from struggling student to stellar undergraduate teaching assistant. “He just dug in,” said Harris, now in his 33rd year of teaching at Miami and the new chief departmental student adviser. “I’m so proud of him, not even because of his life story and all that — I think that’s important, too; you can’t separate that — but because of the way he took on these classes.”

PROMISE FULFILLED

During a conversation in his Upham Hall office, Harris predicted to Steele that someday he would earn a master’s degree. And when he did, Harris promised to be at the commencement ceremony to see him accept it. Steele said Harris was the first person who ever really believed in him academically, giving him the confidence to work harder. Harris also

‘HE JUST DUG IN’

Steele feverishly took notes, trying to keep up as Othello Harris, associate professor of sociology and gerontology, lectured at an overhead projector. Harris flipped to the next slide. “B**ch,” Steele said, blurting out his frustration loud enough for classmates — and Harris — to hear. The professor asked if he needed him to go back. Embarrassed, Steele waved him off.

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John spent the past year learning Portuguese to prepare for his future assignment.

Summer/Fall 2019

fed his voracious appetite for reading by turning him on to books he thought would interest him. Some of those books, Steele later told Harris, saved his life when he returned home to Cleveland over Miami’s monthlong winter break. With nowhere else to stay, Steele had asked his former foster parents if he could live with them for a few weeks. They agreed. But with no car, no cable TV, and no Wi-Fi, he felt trapped. Then a box of books from Harris arrived in the mail. He read every one. He was particularly motivated by autobiographies on Malcolm X and Harry Edwards, an African American sociologist who earned a doctorate at Cornell University. “Both men beat the odds and really inspired me to persevere,” he said. Steele’s grades steadily improved. The sociology faculty chose him as his major’s top student, and he landed on the dean’s list twice. Spring semester of his final year he made the president’s list with a 4.0 GPA. Graduation day in Yager Stadium was made extra special because his mom, sister, and two young nephews attended. “Words really can’t describe it, but it meant that much more knowing my family got to see it up close and personal,” he said.

WHEN THE SWEAT DRIES UP

After graduation, Steele worked as a student support specialist at diverse, high-performing Match Charter Public High School in Boston. He shared his story with the students. He told them how he once played football for Miami, but it didn’t work out so he’s glad he had his education to fall back on. And he stressed something a coach once told him: “When the sweat dries up, you have to be prepared.” He applied for two prestigious awards — a Fulbright to become an English teaching assistant overseas and the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded to only 30 young people in the U.S. each year, allowing them

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to train for careers in the U.S. Foreign Service while covering their graduate school expenses. Miami’s first recipient of the Rangel, he received the congratulatory email while riding the Washington, D.C., Metro. He jumped up and down, let out a holler, and flung his cellphone down the aisle. He was ready.

DISCOVERING THE WORLD

Steele chose George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs to pursue a master’s in security policy studies. He was on familiar turf in fast-paced D.C., where in his senior year at Miami, he participated in its “Inside Washington” internship program. That experience eventually led to positions with the Congressional Research Service, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Through GW’s graduate program, he traveled widely. In Western Europe, he conducted research on homegrown terrorism. In Singapore, he enrolled in an exchange program at Nanyang Technological University, one of Asia’s top institutions. In Malawi, he completed an international internship within the U.S. Embassy’s political section. He met with the African country’s deputy foreign minister and speaker of parliament one day and the vice president the next. It was a heady time. “I transitioned from barely leaving the confines of Cleveland, Ohio, to living in a variety of countries that truly span the cultural, political, and economic spectrum,” he wrote in his Fulbright grant application. He graduated from George Washington in May 2018 and tweeted the news. “What a phenomenal day! The kid from 93rd and Kinsman actually has a master’s degree!” True to his word, Harris was in the audience.

LOOKING AHEAD

It wasn’t the only good news Steele received in May 2018. He also was among Miami’s nine semifinalists to be offered Fulbright

grants, but he had to turn it down because of his five-year foreign service commitment. Karla Schneider Guinigundo ’99, director of global partnerships in Miami’s office of Global Initiatives, got to know Steele well while working with him on his Fulbright applications. She admires his resilience and determination. Many people would have given up at multiple points along the way, she said, but all of those experiences shaped him into the man he is today. “I can think of no one better who I would want to represent the United States abroad than John Steele,” she said. In August 2018, Steele sat in a large ballroom to learn where he would be assigned as a public diplomacy officer for the U.S. Department of State. Steele likened the State Department’s ceremony to NFL draft night when players have no idea where they’re going until their names are called. “Luanda, Angola,” the announcer said as the African country’s flag flashed on the large screen. “John Steele.” The packed ballroom room erupted as he hurried to the front to receive the small flag for the country on the West Coast of southern Africa. It was his No. 1 choice. Steele’s mother, sister, and nephews were there. So were Harris and McLain, his former tutor. They’d all seen him through the low points and now shared his excitement for the future. Before deploying to Angola in June, he returned to Cleveland for a visit with family and friends and talked about how far he has come since arriving on Miami’s campus 10 years ago. It seems surreal to him. “I used to roam these streets back in the day, and here I am going overseas to represent the U.S.,” he said. When he looks in the mirror each morning, he sees that old football tattoo across his chest. He’s still John from Cleveland. “It’s always a reminder of who and what I am, and that is something I never want to lose. Ever.”

Steele is now in Angola as a public diplomacy officer for the U.S. Department of State.

“I used to roam the streets back in the day, and here I am going overseas to represent the U.S.”

Margo Kissell is a news/feature writer in university news and communications.

To watch John Steele tell his story, go to miamioh.edu/news/john-steele/index.html.

Summer/Fall 2019

love & honor

Empathy in Action Miamians immerse themselves in Guatemala’s culture through Project X By Josh Chapin ’02 Alumni participating in Project X brainstormed with their hosts for solutions to community challenges.

miamian magazine

From hiking an active volcano with rocks hot enough to

toast marshmallows to skimming across Lake Atitlan, famous for its natural beauty and colorful Mayan villages, Meghan Miller ’08 experienced once-in-a-lifetime adventures on a recent alumni trip to Guatemala. But perhaps what impacted her the most was her stay with a native Guatemalan and her two children in their home. During her visit, Miller learned how to make a tortilla from scratch, wore traditional Guatemalan clothing to dinner, and received helpful pointers on her Spanish.

“All around the country, the kindness of the people was evident, but I think the homestay really helped cement this even more,” Miller said. “Our homestay family was so generous with their time and their resources and went above and beyond to ensure that I was feeling at home. It was such a unique way to be able to experience the Guatemalan culture.” Cultural immersion is one of the aims of Project X, the professional development program Miller and seven other Miami alumni embarked on this past spring under the guidance of Greg Van Kirk ’91.

Using skills needed to thrive — empathy, collaboration, joy, purpose, and an entrepreneurial mindset — Project X helps participants pursue their potential. Guatemala has been a major aspect of Van Kirk’s life for 18 years. He first encountered the Central American country on Mexico’s southern border after leaving investment banking and joining the Peace Corps as an economic development consultant. Van Kirk has brought his two worlds together — Guatemala and his alma mater — in his work with undergraduates through the university’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship and with Project X, his first partnership with the Miami University Alumni Association. Tapping into their different expertise — their professions ranged from teacher to market researcher — Project X’s participants met with small-business owners, such as beekeepers and candle makers, and nonprofit leaders to learn about their needs and priorities. They then brainstormed with their hosts for solutions to community challenges. At the end of the week, the Miamians presented their ideas, offering widespread suggestions, from branding ideas to ways to gain access to materials. “The kind of work we do, empathy is at the heart of it. This is about putting empathy in action,” said Van Kirk, who was honored as Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum in 2012. The Miamians on the trip quickly bonded as a team, building instant friendships. “We have this automatic empathy trigger because we’ve all shared similar life experiences, which means you can form relationships and trust and come to a mutual understanding very quickly,” Van Kirk said. “You sort of get each other because we all came from the same place when we were younger. “I don’t have that at other places, but I have that at Miami.” After graduating with a bachelor’s in business administration, marketing, and economics, Van Kirk co-founded Community Empowerment Solutions and Social Entrepreneur Corps, implementing advanced responses to long-standing challenges for developing world communities. One of its projects expanded Guatemala’s Centro Explorativo education center from a small library to a local association that serves

several thousand people each year. It is owned and operated by community members. In recognition of his work, Van Kirk received Miami University’s prestigious Bishop Medal in 2016, awarded since 1936 for service to humanity. When Brett Smith started Miami’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship, he was told, “You must know Greg Van Kirk.” Smith and Van Kirk graduated from Miami the same year and shared a number of mutual friends, but they had not yet met. Smith quickly made a phone call. Within a matter of weeks, Van Kirk was on campus in Oxford, and then Smith was on the ground in Guatemala. Over the years, they’ve become close friends, personally and professionally. Together, Van Kirk and staff at the center developed the MicroConsignment Initiative, which helps developing markets become micro-entrepreneurs selling essential products and services to others in their communities. The initiative helped lead to the opening of the Nebaj Innovation Workshop in Guatemala, where stoves and water filters are manufactured and assembled, and has been vital in empowering students and corporate teams as “community consultants” in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. Van Kirk estimates at least 150 Miami undergraduates have joined him in the field during summer and winter terms. Alyssa Hopun ’13, an 18 of the Last 9 honoree in 2016, has worked with Van Kirk for nearly five years. Smith, who calls Van Kirk a world-class social entrepreneur, said his willingness to share his knowledge and partner with Miami has led to incredible student learning about how to change the world. “It is impossible to overstate the impact Greg has had on our Center for Social Entrepreneurship, our students, and our alumni.” That alumni impact will continue in 2020, when Van Kirk and Miami’s alumni association partner once again for a return trip to Guatemala. They’re also considering a similar trip to Puerto Rico. “Seeing these two worlds come together, and seeing people interact together and build these friendships and really get to understand and know each other, it was just a wonderful thing,” Van Kirk said. “It’s great for the communities, great for our team, and great for the participants.”

For more information on upcoming Project X opportunities, please visit MiamiAlum.org/ProjectX.

“The kind of work we do, empathy is at the heart of it.”

Josh Chapin ’02 is manager of editorial services in Miami’s university advancement division.

Summer/Fall 2019

class notes

Ed Reichbach of Saline,

Mich., gave the welcome address at the Hughes Society dinner during Alumni Weekend, honoring the Class of 1959 at its 60th anniversary. He also completed the 5K race on Alumni Weekend with Erin O’Donnell ’96. Ed is an associate professor teaching American history and American foreign policy at Lansing Community College.

Reunion ¶ John Altman was honored in May when Miami named its Institute for Entrepreneurship for him. John, who recently finished his term as a Miami trustee, has been owner, founder, and/ or partner in six businesses.

Doug Barr ’67 MS ’72 of

The 1964 mowing crew. When it comes to its beautiful campuses, Miami owes its bragging rights to the grounds crews, who have always taken great pride in maintaining its lovely lawns.

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Mission Viejo, Calif., was honored as the Saddleback College Scholarship Donor of the Year at a ceremony May 17, 2019. The professor/counselor joined the community college in 1991. ¶ Greg Fess has been elected chair of the Toledo YMCA Camp Storer board of directors in Napoleon, Mich. He also sits on the board of trustees of the Greater Toledo JCC/YMCA. An active Toledo Rotarian since his return to northwest Ohio three years ago, Greg has completed two Rotary missions — a clean water project in Sri Lanka and an educational project in Belize. ¶ David Weekley ’67 MEd ’68 of Miamisburg, Ohio, has retired from public education after serving for 50 years in eight Ohio school districts. He was a junior high school Spanish teacher, assistant high school principal, junior high school principal, assistant superintendent in two different districts, education coordinator for Montgomery County Juvenile Court, personnel director, middle school principal, and finally high school/intermediate school

Spanish teacher. He also has been an adjunct professor for the University of Dayton and Wright State University and an educational consultant specializing in instructional supervision.

After 51 years as a science teacher, principal, and professor, Neil Glazer, PhD, has “temporarily retired” while he and his wife, Pamela, relocate from Indio, Calif., to Williamsburg, Va. He says he will either teach at the College of William and Mary as an adjunct professor or enroll as a student and try out for the Freshman Novice Rowing 8 Man Crew. (He may not be kidding.) Neil has completed 10 full marathons and four triathlons. ¶ David James of London won a 2018 Olwen Wymark Award for the encouragement of new writing from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. He also was asked to present seminars at the 10th STRETCH Festival at The Village, a queer community centre in Berlin, on “Ageing [sic]and Gay Sex” and “Intergenerational Friendship, Kindness, Intimacy, and Sex.”

Reunion ¶ Miami’s media, journalism, and film department honored Rick Ludwin by renaming the Williams Hall studio for him this spring. Rick, a mass communication graduate, was executive vice president for late night and prime time series at NBC Entertainment. He started his career hosting Studio 14, a variety-comedy show in Williams Hall. It aired on WMUB-TV. He returns to campus annually to give a speech, supports the Inside Hollywood Program, and has endowed a scholarship for his mentor, Professor Bill Utter.

Sam Munafo, who had been

CEO/president of Inter National Bank of McAllen, leads San

Antonio-based Vantage Bank Texas after the two merged. ¶ The Indiana Historical Society’s THG: Connections Magazine is publishing Andy Olson’s four-part series on the 1818 St. Marys Treaties for those interested in the plight of Indigenous Peoples in the Midwest during the early 19th century. ¶ Robert K. Smith of Idaho Falls sent in a photo of him standing at the 180th Meridian, aka the International Dateline. “This photo was taken on the island of Taveuni in the Republic of Fiji during the 18-month church service mission my wife and I served there in 2014 to 2016. This is one of the few places in the world where the dateline — not to be confused with 0 degrees longitude, the Prime Meridian that goes through the Greenwich observatory in England — is actually on land.”

Miami ambassador Michele

Black Abrams was profiled in

the April 29, 2019, Mason & Deerfield Lifestyle magazine in a feature on local women making their mark. She works with Think Regional, which includes 15 counties collaborating and creating relationships with leaders throughout southwest Ohio to drive economic growth and community development. ¶ Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate, will receive the North Star Award from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, the foundation’s highest honor for career accomplishment and inspiration to the writing community. She will be recognized in October during the 2019 Legacy Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. She is the Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia and serves as poetry editor of The New York Times Magazine. ¶ Carson Evans sent in a photo of Bruce ’73 and Barb Fogarty Fisher ’76, Dave Whisner ’71

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE Please send news to: Donna Boen, Miamian, 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or Miamian@MiamiOH.edu. Include your name, class year, address, and your phone number. For more class news, go online to MiamiAlum.org/ Classnotes. For online Miamian, go to MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.

Summer/Fall 2019

class notes

and high net worth individuals with substantial interests throughout the country. ¶ Alvan Karlin PhD ’78 has joined Dewberry in its geospatial and technology services group. Based in Tampa, Alvan has more than 20 years of experience in the geospatial and remote sensing industry, recently working as a senior GIS scientist for the Southwest Florida Water Management District. An adjunct professor of biology at the University of Tampa, he is involved in the Florida statewide lidar mapping project, which covers more than 32,000 square miles. These ’78 graduates and SAE brothers celebrated their recent retirements together in northern Wisconsin on a fishing trip: Mike Lintner, Kevin King, and Glen Roberts.

MBA ’73, Les ’73 and Priscilla Batsche Ungers ’77, and his wife, Janet, and

himself at Lake Erie.

Wil Haygood, awardwinning author and visiting distinguished professor in Miami’s department of media, journalism, and film, is among 18 nominees chosen in a juried competition for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation’s Legacy Award. His 2018 book, Tigerland: 1968-1969, A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing, was selected for the nonfiction category. He will be recognized in October during the 2019 Legacy Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. Tigerland also won the 2019 Ohioan Award in the “About Ohio or an Ohioan” category. Another of his books, I, Too, Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100, was a finalist in the nonfiction category.

Alan Brown of Savannah, Ga.,

has joined HunterMaclean in the business law firm’s estates and trusts practice group. Alan has received national recognition for developing innovative estate planning and business strategies for family-owned companies

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John Janoch brings a wealth of experience in the financial services industry to his role on the Laurel Lake board in Hudson, Ohio. He has 33 years of investment expertise, currently serving as senior vice president of investments for Raymond James & Associates in Beachwood.

Reunion ¶ Kathleen Benner

Duble of Boxford, Mass., has

published her 10th novel for children, The Root of Magic (Delacorte Press, June 2019). For more about Kathleen, who has won many writing awards, go to: www.kathleenduble.com.

Jeff Cox, a partner with

Faruki+ Attorneys in Dayton, was named a 2019 Ohio Super Lawyer. He is also listed in the 2019 edition of Best Lawyers of America for commercial litigation and recognized as an America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators by America’s Top 100 LLC for 2019. Jeff has tried cases in state and federal courts and handled numerous arbitrations and mediations. ¶ David Hacker ’82 MS ’85, a professor of geology at Kent State University, where he earned a PhD, teaches at Kent’s field camp in the Black Hills

and has also taught at Miami’s field camp in Dubois, Wyo. For 20 years, he has been conducting field work in Utah’s Pine Valley Mountains and in adjoining regions along the Colorado Plateau, studying gravity slides associated with volcanism. Recipient of several outstanding teaching awards at Kent State, he discovered one of the largest known gravity slides. ¶ Khushwant Sidhu Pittenger MBA ’82,

the Jepson Endowed Chair of Business Management and director of business internships at Ashland University, spoke at Miami libraries’ annual student recognition dinner in April. She and husband Ron MBA ’82 are parents to Aaron ’13. ¶ Chuck Storey, third-generation owner/president of W.C. Storey & Son, is celebrating the company’s 100th anniversary this year. Chuck continues the tradition started by his grandfather in 1919 of selling equipment for the petroleum industry in the Cincinnati area. Also in the business is his sister, Edie Storey ’76. Sons Brandon ’19 and Scott ’21 have helped during their summer breaks.

Ann Taylor sent in a picture

of Miami-Lux alums who graduated in 1983 and 1984. “We got together surrounding the May mayoral inauguration of Lori Lightfoot, whose spouse is our great friend Amy Eshleman ’84/Lux ’82-’83. Amy is now ‘First Lady of Chicago.’ Unfortunately, Amy and Lori are not pictured as they were still off doing official functions while we had a BBQ at my house after the inauguration.”

Al Natelli, a general dentist

in Southington, Conn., is president of the Connecticut State Dental Association. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry and completed

a general practice residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, N.J., and a fellowship in hospital dentistry and oral surgery at The Hospital for Special Surgery in Orange, N.J.

Reunion ¶ Julie White is the new president of Pierce College Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood, Wash., as of July 15. She had been senior vice president of student engagement and learning support at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse. She earned a master’s from Xavier University and a PhD from the University of Rochester.

Friends since their freshman year at Reid Hall in 1982, John Bush, Jamie Hennelly, David Wright, John Glaser, and Brian Peck recently gathered in Vail, Colo., for an overdue reunion. Although spread across two continents and diverse careers, the group stays close and continues to enjoy a shared passion for wine, culture, and travel, inspired by John Dome’s Geography of Wine class at Miami. ¶ Susan Ball Garlinger has served on the pastoral staff at Salem (Ore.) Alliance Church for over 20 years. She is also on the advisory board for Camp Yakety Yak, a social communication day camp for children with special needs, and on the Marion County Intellectual and Developmental Disability advisory committee. She and husband Nick live in Keizer, Ore., with their kids, Sarah, Daniel, and Joshua.

Manoj Dalaya MArch ’87, a principal at KGD Architecture, was elevated to the College of Fellows by The American Institute of Architects (AIA). This is an honor of lifetime achievement, awarded to members who have made significant

contributions to the profession. He was recognized at the 2019 AIA Conference in Las Vegas in June.

Interviewed in Japan Today, writer Amy Chavez has called Japan home for 25 years, writing a “Japan Lite” column for the Japan Times, stories for Huffington Post and RocketNews24 (now SoraNews24), and books. Her latest offering is Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan: Do It Right and Be Polite! She lives on Shiraishi Island off the coast of Okayama, an island of only 500 people in the middle of Japan. Asked to share her most important common sense tips to first-time visitors, she said, “One, lower your voice. Two, speak English slowly. And three — never show your anger.” ¶ John Domino PhD ’88, professor of political science (constitutional law and judicial politics) at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, has a new book, Civil Rights and Liberties in the 21st Century, 4th edition. This up-todate analysis of the Supreme Court’s landmark rulings on civil rights and liberties is a discussion of the facts, legal issues, and constitutional questions surrounding those rulings. John’s book serves as either a core text in courses on civil liberties and civil rights or as a supplementary text in courses on constitutional law and the judiciary.

David Baskind, a professor of psychology at Delta College, sent in a photo of classmates who got together for a 30-year reunion weekend in Angola, Ind. In addition to David, attending were Maher Bahu, Tom Davidson, Erik Stickford, Steve Tucker, Matt Salyer, Greg Ingrassia, Ron Eyink, Mike Honkomp, and Jim Bisenius. David writes, “We golfed and discussed memories of our time at Miami. It was the first time in more than a decade

that so many of us had gotten together. We wanted to get together, not just to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of our graduation, but to also honor the memory of our housemate and friend Peter Byrne. In 1989, Peter died one week before his graduation from Miami.” ¶ Sarah Gardner ’89 MA ’90, a professor at Mercer University, wrote an essay about the fight over Confederate monuments for Origins, published by the Ohio State and Miami history departments. She has since been contacted by a West End theater in London, asking to reprint portions of her essay in their program for the musical Caroline, or Change?

Mark Ross ’87, managing partner at PwC Cleveland, sent in this photo of 90+ PwC colleagues and friends, many of whom are Miamians, who formed Team PwC to race in PwC colleague Seth Kelling’s honor in the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio’s Walk, Rock and Fun in May. They won the Top WorkPlace Award as the corporate team that raised the most money for the Diversity Center at this event. Seth ’12 MAcc ’13 died at age 29 on Feb. 22. An endowed scholarship fund in his name has been established at Miami with donations to date of more than $50,000.

Reunion ¶ Eugene Gloria’s fourth collection of poems, Sightseer in This Killing City, has been published by Penguin Random House. Eugene MA ’90 was appointed the John Rabb Emison Professor of Creative and Performing Arts at DePauw University for 2019-2024. ¶ Danica Hubbard, an English professor at the College of DuPage for 25 years, was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Scholar Award (for faculty) to teach in Croatia this fall semester 2019. She will teach in the language acquisition undergraduate program at

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Summer/Fall 2019

class notes

Jeff Berding ’89 (FC Cincinnati) sent in this photo of three Miamians who lead three of the 27 Major League Soccer franchises. With Jeff are Andy Loughnane ’96 (Austin) and Tom Fox ’85 (San Jose). “More than 10% from one school is pretty strong,” Jeff says.

class notes

the University of Zadar. Her Fulbright proposal, “Students, Service, and Sustainability: Writing for a Purpose,” grew out of a collaboration to build a new composition service-learning curriculum. Students will work together to compose essays, record digital journal reflections, and design multi-modal presentations connected to a servicelearning project to be decided by a needs assessment within the Croatian community. ¶ Lisa Sirkin Vielee has been promoted to president of Well Done Marketing, a full-service advertising agency in Indianapolis that serves clients such as Mailchimp and the Indiana State Museum. Prior, she started and ran her own marketing and communications agency that merged with Well Done in 2015.

Former Dennison Hall resident assistants Paul Hinderegger ’91, Mitch Wilson ’91, Kevin Porath ’92, and John Pascoe ’91 got together in Myrtle Beach in March for some golf, cards, and fun. ¶ Darren and Lucinda Withrow Hurst and their children, Jack, an undergraduate at Indiana University, Andy, 16, and Kate, 15, are the “Ambassador Family” for the first Walk for Envision,

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Sept. 21, 2019, in Cincinnati’s Winton Woods. They are the official “face” of the event, hoping to inspire and motivate participation. Last year, Envision served more than 600 children and adults with developmental disabilities through programs that promote independence, healthy relationships, community inclusion, and life skills. ¶ Kimber Simmons O’Connell of Lunenburg, Mass., is enjoying her third year as founder and director of Horizons Social Coaching in Acton, Mass. Her agency provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services to children, adolescents, and adults with autism and related developmental disorders. Kim has over 12 years of experience providing behavioral consultation services and is writing a book on social tips for kids and teens.

of economics at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., she ran for office because she believes the U.S. needs more economists and teachers in government. Her platform included a focus on environmental conservation, renewable energy, and more transparent and efficient government. She writes, “I would not be where I am today without the outstanding educational experience I received at Miami University. I discovered my passion for economics while studying at the MUDEC campus in Luxembourg. That experience motivated me to become a college economics professor with a focus on globalization and trade.” ¶ In June 2019, Shefali Razdan of San Francisco was appointed as a deputy national finance chair at the Democratic National Committee. There are approximately 20 in the U.S.

Kam Ming Lim PhD ’92 was

elected president of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA) in November 2018. His term is 2018-2020. APERA is an international association of national educational research associations from such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan. ¶ Jeff Schultz and his wealth advisory team moved to Janney, Montgomery, Scott in Buckhead/ Atlanta and rebranded as Schultz Wealth Management of Janney. He celebrated his 25th year as a wealth adviser and planner and was also named to Forbes’ Best in State Wealth Advisors list, published in February 2019. Jeff and his team service M&A transactions, executives, and entrepreneurs with wealth management needs.

Jennifer Mussman Clark was

elected to the Lake County (Ill.) board in the November 2018 elections. An adjunct assistant professor

Matt Betley was on Fox News in June, discussing the federal court’s decision to allow the first-ever class-action lawsuit against the Veterans Administration. Matt, an Iraq war veteran, has permanent lung damage that wasn’t covered in a disability claim. He is the author of the Logan West thrillers. His fourth book, Rules of War, came out in July. It’s set in Venezuela. ¶ Michael Laidhold, a partner at franchise law firm Plave Koch, was named by London-based Who’s Who Legal to the WWL international list for 2019. Michael has over 20 years of experience with a variety of commercial, licensing, franchise, corporate, and business development matters across a diverse range of industries. He has authored and co-authored several articles on branding, licensing, franchising, and distribution issues and regularly speaks on these topics at industry and association events. ¶ Brian Nelson has a new book, The Last Sword Maker, a globe-trotting thriller in the vein of

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Summer/Fall 2019

class notes

Renee Becker Bourbeau ’98 graduated in June from the Harvard Business Analytics Program, an executive graduate program offered through the first-of-its-kind collaboration between Harvard Business School, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Coursework included digital strategy and innovation and programming and data science systems.

class notes

Tom Clancy’s and Michael Crichton’s novels. Set seven years in the future, the book imagines a new arms race between the U.S. and China as they try to weaponize artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology. The Last Sword Maker will be Brian’s first in a trilogy of thrillers for Blackstone Publishing. ¶ Kathleen VignessRaposa, vice president of environmental programs at Marine Acoustics, was awarded the 2019 Distinguished Service Award by the U.S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology at its annual meeting in Fort Collins, Colo., in April. Kathy became a member of the society in 2004 and won best student presentation in 2010. She became co-chair of the foreign travel award in 2011, then chair in 2012, until she stepped down from that role in 2018. In her research on soundscapes, specifically underwater sound, she looks at what factors affect how sound travels in the marine environment and what anthropogenic activities affect marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish.

Matt and Mark Neff, identical twins who both majored in marketing, were in Soapbox

miamian magazine

Cincinnati in a series about “boomerang” residents, people who grew up in Cincinnati, left, and came back. Mark, a Hyde Park luxury salon owner, made one move to San Francisco but returned after Sept. 11. Matt has relocated from Cincinnati to San Francisco, then back to Cincinnati, on to New York, then to Florida, back to Cincinnati, and now once again in Florida. He visits Cincinnati at least once a month. Along

their second ever NCAA Tournament during the 1996-1997 campaign. He was director of Miami’s Goggin Ice Center 1999-2003 and 2005-2010. He also served as the senior director of recreational auxiliaries for the university in 2007. In addition, he was head coach of Miami’s club hockey program, guiding the team to its first-ever national championship in the 1999-2000 season. After leading the club team for two sea-

with their current careers, they have joined a new online startup. Matt is president and Mark is Cincinnati’s ambassador of RoamingTails, which offers smart pet tags that help reunite missing pets with their owners more easily. ¶ Julienne Rutherford has formed a research partnership with Jean Patterson ’75, a renowned expert in infectious disease, especially flaviviruses such as Dengue and Zika. Julienne is an expert in marmoset monkey reproductive biology and the placenta. She writes, “Our paths crossed at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, yielding our teamwork on a newly funded Department of Defense grant to study the effects of Zika infection and vaccination before and during pregnancy on fetal development and outcomes in the marmoset monkey. Dr. Patterson is one of the PIs of this exciting study; I am a co-investigator. We are coming together now to work on a problem of significant global importance.”

sons, Barry took the role of volunteer assistant coach for the varsity hockey team from 2001-2003.

Barry Schutte is the first hire for Miami’s new head hockey coach, Chris Bergeron ’93. Barry is associate head coach, working with Miami’s offense while also spearheading the team’s recruiting efforts. Barry was on Chris’ staff at Bowling Green the past nine years. The Thunder Bay, Ontario, native played four seasons at Miami, helping the Red & White qualify for

Aaron Patrick, who lives in

West Chester, Ohio, with wife

Becca Koehn Patrick ’00, is lead singer

for Green Light Morning, a Cincinnatibased band. He provides the soulful voice and acoustic guitar and pairs with Aaron Bright in tight harmonies.

After serving as a board member and treasurer of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association (www.facebook. com/LIWLegacy) for three years, Laura Goforth of Liberty Township, Ohio, has been selected to co-chair the 2022 conference near Malone, N.Y., the sixth time for the conference. Laura Ingalls Wilder devotees are expected to come from all over the world, including many states in the U.S., for this event.

Reunion ¶ Yvette Simpson, a Democrat who ran in the 2017 race for Cincinnati mayor, has joined ABC News as a political contributor as of June. She made her first official appearance as a commentator on This Week, where she has previously made guest appearances. In January 2019, she was named CEO of Democracy for America, a Vermontbased organizing and fundraising group that has supported progressive

campaigns across the country. An attorney, Yvette was elected to Cincinnati City Council in 2011 and served two terms. She is the first African American woman to win the primary election for Cincinnati mayor.

A.J. Auld, CEO of LockDown Global, raised pre-Series A financing and launched the company’s first product designed to help businesses communicate and share documents privately and securely. He’s in Columbus. ¶ Erin Stefanec Rhinehart, an attorney with Faruki+ Attorneys in Dayton, was named an Ohio Super Lawyers for 2019. She is an experienced trial lawyer with a focus on the resolution of complex business disputes in state and federal courts across the United States. Erin leads Faruki’s media and communications practice, defends class-action litigation, and assists clients as they navigate a variety of contract issues. ¶ Andrew Russ, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, was featured in the article “Conquering Colon Cancer.” Andrew, MD, FACS, FASCRS, is a surgeon at University Colon & Rectal Surgery. He also serves as the director of the Cancer Institute’s multidisciplinary cancer conference and is the director of the rectal cancer program. Along with his duties at the medical center, he is an associate professor and the associate program director of general surgery at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine.

Born: to Jason and Krystle

Marko Burris ’05, Matthew

in October 2018, joining big sister Alexandra, 3. ¶ Born: to Andrea Lucarelli and husband Jake Sand, Noah Douglas Sand in June, joining big sister Ella. Andrea is an architect working on

hospitality projects at the Scottsdale, Ariz., based firm PHX Architecture, where she has been for be past five years. Jake graduated with a BSN from Northern Arizona University in May 2019. ¶ Born: to Cara Neudigate Olson and Matt, Maxwell James, May 10, 2019, joining his big brother, Leo, 5, and his furry brother, Rodgers. They live in Minneapolis. Cara is a senior director at Method Products. Matt is a branch manager for Summit Mortgage.

Springboro Wine & Spirits, owned by GB Bhatara, has relocated to a 6,000-square-foot building at 748 Gardner Road, just off Ohio 741 in Springboro, Ohio. GB started the business in 2010 with his father. In October, he won the Chamber Business of the Year Growth Award following his move to the new location. The company holds weekly wine and beer tastings on the patio and serves tap beer at a sit-down bar inside. He’s also opened Kettering Wine & Spirits. The store is 8,000 square feet and is solely a retail space. ¶ David Crowe, MD, was appointed chair of the dermatology department at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. ¶ Edward Szczepanik assumed command of the 3d Airlift Squadron at Dover Air Force Base, Del., in July 2018 and married Lacey Raymond of Clearwater, Fla., in October 2018. The 3d Airlift Squadron operates the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and consists of 145 aviators. Lacey is a graduate of Boston and Johns Hopkins universities and is a federal consultant for Deloitte. ¶ Sarah Wallace is an associate professor and program director for the adult language and cognition clinic in the speech-language pathology department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. She conducts clinical research aimed at improving quality of life for individuals

with communication impairments following traumatic brain injury and aphasia. ¶ Seth Wamelink has been elected to Tucker Ellis’ partnership. He represents businesses in complex civil litigation throughout the U.S., practicing primarily in the areas of product liability, commercial litigation, and construction litigation. He also serves as national counsel for companies in a variety of litigations.

Thomas Peppard Jr. has been elected to Tucker Ellis’ partnership. Tom is a corporate and transactional business attorney. He advises public and privately held companies — with a particular focus on middle-market clients — in a variety of industries, including manufacturing and distribution, information technologies, marketing, consulting, industrial services, financial and professional services, construction and material handling, transportation and logistics, health care, and consumer goods. ¶ Chad Ziepfel, an attorney at Taft

“What a fun coincidence it was to find three graduates all serving in Kazakhstan representing three different agencies, but all of us representing the United States (and Miami University) overseas,” writes Sean Boda ’04, a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department (red pullover). He is an information officer, more commonly known as the press attaché. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Cassandra Bates ’04 is chief of the security cooperation office for the U.S. Department of Defense at the embassy. Nicholas Carlson ’84 is director of the office of U.S. Department of Energy at the embassy (white sweatshirt).

Stettinius & Hollister, was selected for inclusion on the Ohio Rising Stars 2019 list. Chad is a partner at Taft and member of the firm’s White Collar Criminal Defense group, where he advocates on

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Summer/Fall 2019

class notes

Outside the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Officer Club: Lt. Cmdr. John Pritchett ’05; Lt. Kestutis Aukstuolis ’05, Naval Hospital; Capt. Adam Carlstrom ’95, commodore CVWP; Capt. Kevin Long ’93, commodore, CPRW-10; and Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Salcido ’04, VAQ136.

class notes

behalf of businesses, executives, public officials, and other individuals involved in criminal investigations and prosecutions and assists business clients with internal investigations.

Dustin Abney, co-founder and managing partner of D. Alexander, has launched its hospitality brand to set a new quality and consistency bar for short-term vacation rental homes. Operated like a boutique hotel delivering consistent standards, modern smart home tech, and guest service applications, D. Alexander is a vertically integrated real estate fund that owns and manages a portfolio of single-family vacation homes. ¶ Married: Lauren Bruns and Daniel Kilduff, June 1, 2019, in Cleveland. They met at the Kellogg School of Management, where they both earned their MBA’s in 2014. Lauren is a senior manager at Deloitte Consulting. They live in San Francisco.

Brendan Colantuono is

director of merchandising communications consulting at 84.51° in Cincinnati. He joins 84.51° from SPINS, where he was a vice president of retail development. He earned an MBA

miamian magazine

Michael Kroeger, a former

financial adviser, opened BanaSun Smoothie Bar’s brick-andmortar storefront in Cincinnati’s Findlay Market in July. BanaSun has been operating as a mobile smoothie bike cart for the past four years. “While I had a rewarding career in financial services, I felt a deep calling to take on a new adventure and create a business from scratch,” says Michael, who has a passion for health and fitness. His longterm goal is to help use the proceeds of his storefront to build a school in the developing world. ¶ Born: to Joe and Laura McCann Otte, William Joseph, Feb. 7, 2019. They live in Pittsburgh. ¶ Putting her degree in classical

humanities to good use, Katie Petrole finished her four-year fellowship at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens’ Corinth Excavations in Corinth, Greece, and is now the director of education at the Parthenon museum in Nashville. ¶ Nathaniel Ratcliff has written Into the Mindsai: A Region of Significance Beyond the Veil, a supernatural technothriller novel.

Lindsey still ranks among the Pioneer leaders in a host of single-season categories. She is the director of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-Based Metabolomics Core and assistant professor of pathology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She and her husband, Andrew, are parents to Lily, 7, and Annie, 3.

Kathleen Sullivan, the com-

Married: Megan Donahue and Erik Hermann, July 21, 2018, in Toledo. They live in Chicago. ¶ Mike Gardner is a senior UX designer for 84.51° in Cincinnati. He is responsible for creating engaging digital user experiences for digital products. He joins 84.51° from The Kroger Co.’s digital team. He lives in Milford, Ohio. ¶ Born: Andrew and Lauren Ridenour Shuneson ’11 MEd ’18, Evan Andrew, March 19, 2019. They live in Hilliard, Ohio. ¶ Kathryn Wallrabenstein, an attorney with Taft Stettinius & Hollister, was selected for the Ohio Rising Stars 2019 list. Kathryn represents individuals and entities who are being prosecuted in state and federal courts, as well as individuals and entities who are involved with government and regulatory investigations. She has experience handling a wide range of cases, including white-collar crimes, drug crimes, and health-care fraud.

Rory Billing, global sales and

solutions manager at Tangoe, is a 2019-2020 Fellow with the Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation in Indianapolis. The 20 Fellows were selected using an application process that asked for their ideas and vision to drive change. ¶ Lindsey RomickRosendale PhD ’12 has been inducted into the Marietta (Ohio) River High School and Marietta College’s halls of fame for her brilliant softball career.

munications coordinator for Painesville, Ohio, feels listening to residents’ interests and concerns is critical to her position. One of her first projects on the job was to create a consistent brand and modernized redesign.

Married: Emily Johnson and Jacob Jensen ’15, Oct. 21, 2018. Jacob proposed to Emily, his high school sweetheart, in Miami’s Formal Gardens in October 2016. ¶ As of May 10, 2019, Christina Metcalf ’14 and Joseph McKinney ’15 are officially Dr. Christina Metcalf, MD, and Dr. Joseph McKinney, MD. The two began their residencies in July at the University of Louisville in pediatrics and emergency medicine.

Reunion ¶ Michael Markesbery, co-founder of apparel company OROS, ran across a story about Lily, a 9-year-old girl from Australia, who wants to be an astronaut some day. During a trip to Target, she discovered NASA shirts in the boys clothing, but none in the girls section. Michael knows people at NASA because the clothing produced by OROS uses insulation inspired by NASA’s own aerogel technology used in space suits. With NASA’s approval, OROS made Lily some custom NASA shirts and sent them to her with a letter, saying, “At its core, OROS is a brand that believes in empowering the pathfinders, and those who are pursuing moonshots

— regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or age.” ¶ Married: Samantha Parrish and Nathaniel Gerbus ’16, June 22, 2019. Sam, a four-year varsity soccer letter winner at Miami, is a physician assistant of cardiovascular surgery. Nate played four years of varsity football at Miami and is a catalog manager and sales supervisor at Cintas. They live in Carmel, Ind.

Brent Atkins with Sylvart

at Xavier University. ¶ Collington Life Plan Community’s board of directors selected Ann Gillespie, an aging-services professional with more than 30 years of experience, to lead the senior living community in suburban Prince George’s County, Md., as its CEO beginning July 1. Before accepting the Collington role, she served as a strategic consultant and adviser for clients in the government, private, and not-forprofit sectors in the Washington, D.C., region. Ann is a recipient of Miami’s Scripps Gerontology Center’s Cottrell Distinguished Award for Scholarship, Leadership and Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Aging. ¶ Born: to Ryan and Aubrey Cobb Kuppler, Lyla Grace, in April. She joins brothers Tommy, 5, and Johnny, who will be 3 in September. Ryan is a senior scientist at US Smokeless Tobacco, and Aubrey is staying at home with the little ones. They live in Nashville. ¶ Joshua Mowry has started a brewery outside of Chicago with some Miami friends, Miskatonic Brewing Co. Josh, brewery manager, is the co-founder with John Wyzkiewicz, who is the brewmaster.

David Malone is employed by the Space and Sensors division of L-3 Technologies in Mason. He and his family live in Hamilton, Ohio. ¶ Kelci Weber graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in May 2019.

Jayson Boubin, a graduate student in computer systems and embedded systems at Ohio State University, received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. The fellowship “recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.” ¶ Hannah Devens, studying environmental biology at Duke University, received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. ¶ Picture one of your favorite athletes. Now, imagine that athlete teaching you the ins and outs of the sport, making you a better player. Connor Morris, chief marketing officer; Austin Fenstermaker, chief technology officer; and Marcus Davis, chief executive officer, have created the startup Apex Sports, wanting to make that vision a reality for any amateur athlete, connecting the interested user to professional coaching for a low cost. ¶ Olivia Richter is in the Peace Corps in a small village in Nepal. Her community

is working to implement a rainwater harvest system that would supply the farmers in her village with clean drinking water for the entire year as a means to reduce women’s labor and launch them into positions of leadership, to improve growing conditions of nutritiously diverse crops year round, and to improve livelihoods. ¶ Sydney Scribner, a program development assistant of the Alexander Hamilton Society, was accepted into a yearlong Public Policy Fellowship with The Fund for American Studies, giving her the opportunity to participate in academic discussion sessions in Washington, D.C., with public policy experts, academics, and political leaders on topics fundamental to understanding how to effect change in the political system.

Caroline Grace Williams ’17 was crowned Miss Ohio 2019 at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield in June. She graduated with a double major in theatre and voice and a music theatre minor and credits her education in the arts for providing her with the creative edge she needed to win. An admission counselor at Miami, Caroline is also earning a master’s degree in education.

Former Miami quarterback Gus Ragland is a member of the Notre Dame football coaching staff as an offensive analyst. A 3rd team All-MAC selection, he started 28 career games for Miami, winning 16 of those starts, and led Miami to the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2016, coming just one point short of upsetting Mississippi State. Through his career, he threw for over 6,300 yards and 56 touchdowns.

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Summer/Fall 2019

farewells

farewells 1930s Mary Morris Davis Ittel ’36, Monroe, Ohio, May 10, 2019. Evelyn Pearce Evans ’38, Lexington, Ky., June 11, 2019. 1940s Beatrice “Betty” Wightman ’40, Hudson, Ohio, April 11, 2019. June King Rietzke Hauff ’42, Columbus, Ohio, April 25, 2019. Norman F. Heydinger ’42, Toledo, Ohio, May 4, 2019. Paul V. Smith Jr. ’42, Naples, Fla., April 29, 2019. Christine Rish Pence ’43, Loveland, Ohio, Feb. 13, 2019. Mary Williamson Smith ’43, San Miguel, Calif., Feb. 22, 2019. Betty (B.G.) Moore Jones ’44, Davidson, N.C., March 1, 2019. Dorothy Stanley Belser ’45, Roswell, Ga., May 14, 2019. Myra Detling Gebhart ’46, Lewisburg, Ohio, July 4, 2019. Verna E. Harcourt ’46 MA ’53, Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 1, 2019. Margaret Jean Newcomb Stroh ’46, Pataskala, Ohio, May 18, 2017. Mary “Pat” Peck Heine ’48, Strongsville, Ohio, April 7, 2019. Lester A. Zych ’48, Annandale, Va., May 18, 2019. Alvie S. Cornett ’49, Oxford, Ohio, Jan. 30, 2019. Edward F. Jones ’49, Vandalia, Ohio, March 23, 2019. Garnet “Jean” Barker Penny ’49, Dayton, Ohio, June 2, 2019. Richard G. Waltenbaugh ’49, North Canton, Ohio, June 2, 2019. David Wasmuth ’49, Los Altos, Calif., March 9, 2019. 1950s Edwin S. Brubaker ’50, Eaton, Ohio, April 8, 2019. Frank H. Buhler ’50, Lynchburg, Va., April 6, 2019.

miamian magazine

Orlando E. “Gene” Chandler ’50, Dayton, Ohio, Dec. 6, 2018. Robert H. Kosky ’50, Toledo, Ohio, March 12, 2019. Rosalinda “Linda” Robison Paul ’50, Findlay, Ohio, May 7, 2019. Bruce Beatty ’51 MEd ’53, Tampa, Fla., March 25, 2019. Donald A. Gerber ’51, Oxford, Ohio, March 17, 2019. James I. Bell ’52, Michigan City, Ind., April 8, 2019. Jeanne Benton Middlemass ’52, Bridgeport, Conn., June 16, 2019. Maryann Kohnekamp Phillips ’52, Bend, Ore., April 26, 2019. Joseph A. Carothers ’53, Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2019. Philip S. Cohen ’53, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 3, 2019. Barbara Cooper Coleman ’53 MS ’55, London, Ohio, May 14, 2019. Charles H. Nogle ’53, Champaign, Ill., March 16, 2019. Ann Pritchard Over ’53, Green Valley, Ariz., Jan. 21, 2019. Arlene Walter Parker ’53, Farmington Hills, Mich., March 28, 2019. James H. Foster ’54, Hilliard, Ohio, March 20, 2019. Robert E. Saltmarsh ’54 MEd ’63, Springfield, Ill., April 13, 2019. Catherine Kirk Stauffer ’54, Cumming, Ga., May 29, 2019. Dorothy “Dotty” Taylor Folker ’55, Oxford, Ohio, May 23, 2019. Lynn L. Harshbarger ’55, Fairfield Bay, Ark., Jan. 1, 2019. Barbara Curlett Hart ’55, Indianapolis, Ind., May 23, 2019. Richard E. Vosburgh ’55, Guelph, Ontario, April 19, 2019. Kenneth W. Zarbock Sr. ’55, Beaver, Ohio, Feb. 24, 2019. William T. Gorbett ’56, New Braunfels, Texas, April 9, 2019.

Barbara Bender Howe ’56, Altamonte Springs, Fla., May 2, 2019. Curtis J. Lippincott ’56, Wellfleet, Mass., March 31, 2019. Hannelore “Pepper” Marten Davies ’57, Houston, Texas, May 2, 2019. Lillian Katzman ’57, Youngstown, Ohio, June 3, 2019. James C. Marks Jr. ’57 MBA ’58, Oxford, Ohio, April 1, 2019. Donald R. Toth ’57, Naperville, Ill., April 30, 2019. Sandra Bray Cain ’58, Des Moines, Iowa, March 17, 2019. Patricia Schaeffer Peters ’58, Columbus, Ind., March 20, 2019. Jan E. Schultz ’58, San Diego, Calif., April 26, 2019. Barbara Laird Young ’58, Sarasota, Fla., April 2, 2019. Marion Drotar Bowles ’59, Anchorage, Alaska, April 18, 2019. Janell Jansen Schultz ’59, San Diego, Calif., May 16, 2019. Carolyn A. Stearns ’59, Silver Spring, Md., Nov. 10, 2018. John E. Whitehead ’59, Camas, Wash., May 19, 2019. Reesor G. “Reese” Woodling ’59, Tucson, Ariz., March 23, 2019. 1960s Michael A. Elias Jr. ’60 MEd ’62, Port Clinton, Ohio, April 6, 2019. Richard R. Flanders ’60 MA ’62, Waukegan, Ill., May 3, 2019. Richard B. Kyndberg ’60, Tucson, Ariz., April 28, 2019. Douglas E. Marker ’60, Seneca, S.C., June 5, 2019. Paul P. Bardes ’61, St. Petersburg, Fla., April 9, 2019. Edward M. Johns ’61, Royal Center, Ind., June 2, 2019. Thomas H. Mallory ’61, Loudonville, Ohio, May 1, 2019.

William P. Negron ’61 MEd ’72, Surprise, Ariz., March 18, 2019.

David A. Haller ’69 MS ’70, Lafayette, Ind., Feb. 12, 2019.

John L. Noelcke ’75, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 30, 2019.

Denise Weber Wiley ’89, Indialantic, Fla., March 28, 2019.

Peter R. Vandenberg ’61, Vail, Colo., Feb. 13, 2019.

Jill Sprinkel Larrick ’69, Fairbanks, Alaska, May 15, 2019.

Donald E. Cornelius ’76, Nashville, Tenn., May 3, 2019.

1990s

Doris Lausin Knollman ’62, Liberty, Ind., June 7, 2019.

William E. Leftwich III ’69, Chicago, Ill., April 1, 2019.

Michael P. Kirby ’76, Waterville, Ohio, June 17, 2019.

Stephen H. Langer Sr. ’63, Dayton, Ohio, June 18, 2019.

1970s Patricia Broughan Cohen ’70, Houston, Texas, March 10, 2019.

Bruce A. Luthanen ’78, Perry, Ohio, March 25, 2019.

Armand A. Martino MEd ’63, Dayton, Ohio, May 16, 2019. Charles E. Benson MS ’64, Haddonfield, N.J., Dec. 26, 2018. Jean Bryan Cramer ’64, Elgin, Ill., March 15, 2019. David W. Faulk ’64, Bellevue, Wash., June 3, 2019. Richard H. Tomey MEd ’64 Tucson, Ariz., May 10, 2019. Nancy Lynch Gregg ’65, Amherst, Mass., April 22, 2019. Wilma Taylor Shaw ’65, Tipp City, Ohio, March 3, 2019. John T. Zalokar ’65, St. Charles, Ill., June 5, 2019. Gary A. Fagan ’66, Vandalia, Ohio, March 2, 2019. Pamela Bell Scarola ’66, Gahanna, Ohio, May 8, 2019. Karen Smith Dwyer ’67, Allentown, N.J., May 18, 2019. Michael F. “Micky” Ehman ’67, Erie, Pa., March 27, 2019. Robert Z. Kilpatrick ’67, Miamisburg, Ohio, June 9, 2019. Sharon Heizer Lowe ’68, Kettering, Ohio, March 11, 2019. John W. Robb ’68, Naples, Fla., Feb. 23, 2019. Frederick W. Wallace ’68, Columbus, Ohio, May 8, 2019. Lynda Bennett Combs ’69 MEd ’71, Liberty Township, Ohio, March 3, 2019. Nancy Maxwell Emmons ’69, Cheyenne, Wyo., Jan. 28, 2019.

Robert B. Deuser ’70 MA ’71, Plantation, Fla., March 8, 2019. David B. Elder ’70, Worthington, Ohio, Feb. 23, 2019. Stephen J. Vajda III ’70, Fairfield, Ohio, April 4, 2019.

Rhonda L. Cadwallader ’79, Columbus, Ohio, May 10, 2019. Joseph J. Falter MA ’79, Aurora, Colo., May 13, 2019. Wayne l. Fenner MA ’79, Huron, S.D., March 16, 2019.

Jeffrey B. Cadwallader ’71, Garner, N.C., July 28, 2019.

1980s Pamela Schweikert Cordes ’80, West Chester, Ohio, March 28, 2019.

Lawrence R. Corell ’71, Venice, Fla., May 17, 2019.

Cynthia S. Payne-Meyer ’80, Putney, Vt., March, 14, 2019.

Leslie J. Guttman ’71, Los Angeles, Calif., March 27, 2019.

Karen Cook Hutson ’81, Marana, Ariz., March 29, 2019.

John W. McCarty ’71, Columbus, Ohio, May 10, 2019.

Mark C. Neily ’81, Chase, Wis., March 21, 2019.

Susan Farrell Remy ’71, Moraine, Ohio, Dec. 6, 2016.

Gail Bakie Quan ’81, Oxford, Ohio, Feb. 6, 2019.

John W. Wright ’71, Vandalia, Ohio, June 18, 2019.

Terri Sackl Tripp ’82, Winchester, Va., March 31, 2019.

Charles R. Kern PhD ’72, Charlotte, N.C., March 11, 2019.

Carol Lehmann Reinhard ’83, Sandusky, Ohio, April 16, 2019.

Carol Terry Ramsey ’72, Middletown, Ohio, April 21, 2019.

Eric K. Tudor ’83 MA ’84, Perrysburg, Ohio, April 5, 2019.

John C. Siegman ’72, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 21, 2019.

Jeffrey S. Vice ’83, Lebanon, Ohio, April 20, 2019.

Kaye Schlechty Volk ’72, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 18, 2019.

Rebecca LaShelle Bruce ’84 MAT ’93, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 12, 2019.

Wayne H. Watson ’72, Carefree, Ariz., May 13, 2019. Michael J. Baum MBA ’73, West Palm Beach, Fla., April 22, 2019. Charles D. “Don” Eberwine MEd ’73, Ross, Ohio, March 12, 2019. Martin I. Elzy PhD ’75, Austin, Texas, June 2, 2019. David K. Jones ’75, Jackson, Ohio, March 15, 2019. Eileen Kleismit ’75, Hamilton, Ohio, May 1, 2019.

Linda K. Lord ’85, Worthington, Ohio, May 23, 2019. Jeffrey L. Potter ’85, Greenville, S.C., April 7, 2019. Barbara A. Horsley ’86 MAT ’91, Harrison, Ohio, March 31, 2019. Glenda Sergent Curry ’87, Fairfield Township, Ohio, July 5, 2019. Ellen L. Steffen ’87, Chicago, Ill., April 18, 2019.

Brian R. Frazier Sr. ’90 MS ’92, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 1, 2019. Nancye Baker Graeser ’90, Hamilton, Ohio, March 1, 2019. Mark A. Wozniak ’90, Chantilly, Va., June 8, 2019. Anthony L. Dennis ’91, Middletown, Ohio, March 20, 2019. Kathy L. Morris ’92, Dublin, Ohio, June 3, 2019. David M. Walrod ’92, New York, N.Y., March 14, 2019. Robert H. “Bo” Ollison Jr. ’94, Washington, D.C., March 28, 2019. John A. Trent ’94, Hamilton, Ohio, March 15, 2019. Barbara Lowe Dolph ’95, Middletown, Ohio, Feb. 2, 2019. Robert S. Glassmeyer ’97, Hamilton, Ohio, March 13, 2019. 2000s Rita Walters Holbert ’01, Middletown, Ohio, May 22, 2019. Wendy Techter Schuman ’05, Hoffman Estates, Ill., April 25, 2019. Angalina M. Madaffari ’09, Fairfield, Ohio, March 14, 2019. Sean M. Wilkerson ’09, Anderson Township, Ohio, Aug. 22, 2018. Jonathon D. Hogue ’16, Clyde, Ohio, March 15, 2019. Megan M. Campbell ’18, Torrance, Calif., March 20, 2019. Tyler L. Magill ’18, Chatham, N.J., March 23, 2019. Audrey M. Davis ’19, Hicksville, Ohio, Dec. 26, 2018. FACULTY, STAFF, AND FRIENDS Eleanor M. Barkley, Hamilton, Ohio, April 2, 2019. Retired from Miami after 23 years. Janice G. Barnhart, Oxford, Ohio, March 29, 2019. RN, retired from Miami, 1973-2004.

Warren G. Bisdorf III, Hamilton, Ohio, March 8, 2019. Miami Police dispatcher. Kenton C. Conner Sr., Somerville, Ohio, March 30, 2019. Professor emeritus of physical education, 1976-2003; also university gymnastics coach. Crossan H. Curry, Somerville, Ohio, June 26, 2019. Professor emeritus of art, 1960-1995. Helen L. Farler, Oxford, Ohio, March 6, 2019. Retired from Miami after 35 years. Donald J. Fergle Hon. ’99, Clarkston, Mich., March 20, 2019. Kevin T. Fritsch, Darrtown, Ohio, March 21, 2019. Retired from Miami after 30 years. Wanda R. Hansel, Oxford, Ohio, March 4, 2019. Retired, employed by Miami for 15 years. Fred B. Holl, Oxford, Ohio, June 23, 2019. Professor emeritus of teacher education, 1967-1994. Vernon H. Huber, Hamilton, Ohio, March 2, 2019. Taught a tax course at Miami Hamilton and Middletown 25 years. Verla G. Laird, Oxford, Ohio, April 23, 2019. Retired from Miami in 1980. William H. Newell, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 27, 2019. Professor emeritus of interdisciplinary studies, 1974-2012. Nancy L. Nicholson, Oxford, Ohio, July 1, 2019. Professor emerita of interdisciplinary studies, 1975-2009. Mary H. Reuther, Hamilton, Ohio, May 28, 2019. Former associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, at Miami 10 years. Richard V. Smith ’51, Oxford, Ohio, April 24, 2019. Professor emeritus of geography, 1957-1997. Eleanore H. Vail, Oxford, Ohio, April 17, 2019. Western College music professor, taught one year at Miami after Western closed.

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 Charlotte Fedders, Advancement Services Building, Miami University, 926 Chestnut Lane, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or call Charlotte at 513-529-0815. More classmates are remembered online at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Summer/Fall 2019

days of old

Football Bell’s A Pealing Past

Walter Havighurst Special Collection and Archives

For 100+ years, the stately bell (above) summoned students and faculty to class. It oversaw all on the widow’s walk between the twin towers of Old Main, the university’s first academic building, located where Harrison Hall is today.

miamian magazine

Every time Miami scores a touchdown at home football games, a team of ROTC students maneuvers a melodious bell onto Yager Field and rings it in celebration. Although the tradition started in 2007, the sonorous orator holds a much longer noteworthy past. Dating back to Miami’s earliest years, this hefty timekeeper reigned high above the Oxford campus, summoning students to chapel and to class from its cupola at the top of Old Main, the university’s first classroom building. Truth be told, the 20 students in attendance on opening day in November 1824 were called to class by a trumpet because the new president considered it far more economical, wrote English Professor Walter Havighurst in The Miami Years. The very next day, the trustees ordered a bell.

With time came change. “The unattractive cupola was removed shortly after the Civil War and replaced with a widow’s walk. … The bell stood out in the weather on this open deck, yet seemed to function just as well as when covered,” wrote John White ’58 in his essay “Remembering Old Main, 1816-1958” from Miami University: 1809-2009, Bicentennial Perspectives. The 1959 Recensio editors wrote: “The surrounding village was traditionally notified of each Miami football victory by the clang of this bell rung by freshmen.” The yearbook was paying tribute to the icon, which had lost its lofty perch in the summer of 1958 when Old Main, declared obsolete, was torn down. The bell was saved and exhibited in Murstein Alumni Center’s lobby until it was moved into storage in the late 1990s. Now it rings in good times once again.

One of the most celebrated figures in American poetry, Robert Frost once identified Miami University as “the most beautiful campus that ever there was.” We agree. Summer 2018 49

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