Nebraska Magazine - Fall 2013

Plus CHASING THE BIG BANG / RODEO REDUX / A LONG LINE OF HUSKERS

NEBRASKA Magazine EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEMBERS OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN

B.F.A. ’06

Trent Claus

Hollywood Innovator

Volume 109 / No. 3 / Fall 2013 huskeralum.org

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INSIDEFALL 5 Alumni Voices 7 University Update 16 Alumni Authors 38 Alumni News 44 Chapters & Affiliates 47 Class Notes & Alumni Profiles Jim Crounse, ’75 Jessie Graff, ’07 Russ Munch, ’79 Brigette Young, ’89

With the East Stadium addition now open, the first football game of the season drew the largest home crowd in Husker history – 91,000+ fans.

18 22

Writing Contest

30 32

Partnering on Math Education

Leta Powell Drake, ’67, remembers her first and only venture into the rodeo arena with hilarity in UNL Rodeo Redux, while Allen Ostdiek, ’67, (the 12th child in his family to attend UNL) recalls his oldest brothers in their graduation “dresses” in A Long Line of Huskers.

Honey, I Shrunk Captain America

As a supervisor and senior visual effects artist for LOLA VFX in Los Angeles, Trent Claus has worked on some blockbuster films for which the studio won visual effects Oscars. But the work can be painstakingly complicated – like the task of painting over individual movie frames to shrink freedom-fighter “Captain America” back into a muscle-deprived shrimp, which took hundreds of hours.

A $5.5 billion grant is enhancing a partnership between Omaha Public Schools and UNL’s Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education. The goal: Supporting a three-year Teacher Leader Academy allowing more than 250 teachers in the Omaha district to take graduate coursework in mathematics education.

Chasing the Big Bang

Opto-mechanical engineer Larry Stepp (B.S. ’73; M.S. ’78) builds giant telescopes for some of the world’s most accomplished astronomers but the one he’s working on now is a doozy. This powerful “eye in the sky” will be capable of collecting photons from light sources billions of miles out in space.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 3

Tradition and Quality Since 1917

Ninety-six years. That kind of tradition does not happen by chance. The Dairy Store at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is extremely proud to serve alumni, family and friends our very best ice creams, cheeses and

confections – always handmade with premium ingredients.

The next time you’re on East Campus, stop by to discover or perhaps rediscover the best way to get a taste of Husker pride.

Department of Food Science and Technology I The Food Processing Center Located at 38th & Holdrege on East Campus I 402.472.2828 I marketplace.unl.edu/dairystore The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is an equal opportunity educator and employer with a comprehensive plan for diversity. ©2013, The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved.

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4 FALL 2013

alumnivoices

Fall 2013 n Vol. 109, No. 3

A Note From Diane NEBRASKA Magazine For alumni and friends of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Diane Mendenhall Executive Director, Nebraska Alumni Association Andrea Wood Cranford, ’71 Editor Jeff Abele, ’98, Move Creative Design Kevin Wright, ’78 Layout and Photography; Class Notes Editor Andrew Washburn, ’00, ’07 Advertising Sales Nebraska Magazine is published quarterly by the Nebraska Alumni Association.

Alumni association dues are $50.00 annually of which $10.00 is for a subscription to Nebraska Magazine. Periodicals postage is pending at Lincoln Nebraska 68508 and at additional mailing offices. Requests for permission to reprint materials and readers comments are welcome.

Send mail to: Nebraska Magazine Wick Alumni Center 1520 R Street Lincoln, NE 68508-1651 Phone: 402-472-2841 Toll-free: 888-353-1874 E-mail: nebmag@huskeralum.org Website: huskeralum.org Views expressed in Nebraska Magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Nebraska Alumni Association. The alumni association does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, race, color, religion, marital status, veteran’s status, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.

Alumni Association Staff Diane Mendenhall, Executive Director Claire Abelbeck, ’09, Director, Digital Comm.

Andrea Cranford, ’71, Sr. Director, Publications Charles Dorse, Custodian Derek Englebart, Director, Alumni Relations Jenny Green, ’07, Director, Alumni Relations Andy Greer, Assoc. Director, Alumni Relations Sarah Haskell, ’09, Assoc. Dir., Alumni Relations Wendy Kempcke, Administrative Assistant Carrie Myers, ’03, ’11, Director, Venues Pam Penner, ’01, Programs Assistant Larry Routh, Alumni Career Specialist Viann Schroeder, Special Projects Assistant Deb Schwab, Associate Director, Venues

Dear alumni and friends,

Once a week, I step outside the office to spend an hour or two with a UNL student. For the past two years, it was Elizabeth. We met routinely to talk about her life – her classes, her friends, her faith, her dreams, her future.

During these meetings, I tried to guide her. Sometimes I encouraged her; sometimes I challenged her.

Each time we met, it was my hope to share something – a personal experience or a lesson learned – that might benefit her. But I benefited, too. Maybe even more than she did.

I’ve long been a believer in the value of volunteering. A donation of time and talent can have an impact just as positive as a monetary gift. In some ways, our time is more valuable. After all, who isn’t time-strapped in today’s “too busy” culture?

Giving up an hour here and there isn’t easy. But the time we give isn’t lost. It’s an investment, and it’s lasting. When we affect positive change – for someone else, for a good cause, for a university – it changes us, too.

At the Nebraska Alumni Association, our mission is to support the achievements and aspirations of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. So we offer volunteer opportunities designed to help advance Nebraska.

1. Postcards of Pride – Through this program, you can encourage prospective students to attend UNL by sharing your favorite campus memories or lessons learned. As a volunteer, you’ll reach out to high school seniors who have applied to UNL, been admitted, and are making their college choice. Your words can make a difference. Last year, approximately 2,500 students attending UNL had received a Postcard of Pride.

2. Huskers for Higher Education – HHE alumni volunteers communicate their support of UNL’s priorities to Nebraska legislators and the governor during the legislative session.

We provide you with clear, concise, results-oriented information on how public policy proposals will impact the university, its students, and the state of Nebraska. If you agree with the university’s position, you may contact your state senator or other appropriate state leaders to voice your support. HHE has contributed to legislative approval for several upgrades to campus buildings, as well as the construction of new ones (most recently, the new Jorgensen Hall, home of the physics program).

3. Cather Circle – Cather Circle is the NAA’s networking and professional development group for female students and alumnae. Members may choose to mentor a student, and there are many examples of alumni who have helped students discover their potential or launch their careers. These mentoring relationships often develop into lifelong friendships.

If you’re already participating in one of these or other opportunities, we thank you! If not, I encourage you to consider volunteering. Whether you have five minutes or five hours a week to give, you can be part of the collective positive impact hundreds of alumni volunteers make on our university. Hopefully, it will make a difference in your life, too.

Shannon Sherman, ’00, ’04, Sr. Dir., Comm.

Sarah Smith, ’11, Asst. Dir., Communications Andy Washburn, ’00, ’07, Sr. Dir., Operations Judy Weaver, Assistant to the Executive Director Katie Williams, ’03, Director, Alumni Relations Kevin Wright, ’78, Director, Design Shelley Zaborowski, ’96, ’00, Assoc. Exec. Dir.

Diane Mendenhall Executive Director

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 5

alumnivoices About the writers in this issue 2013-2014 NEBRASKA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE BOARD Bill Mueller, ’77, ’80, President, Lincoln Eric F. Brown, ’67, Lexington Jennifer Carson, ’98, Kansas City, Mo. Erleen Hatfield, ’91, ’96, New York City, N.Y. Joe Selig, ’80, ’87, NU Foundation Bill Nunez, UNL Steve Toomey, ’85, ’89, Lenexa, Kan.

2013-2014 ALUMNI ADVISORY COUNCIL Cathy Alley, ’88, ’91, Lincoln Graten Beavers, ’71, ’74, Kearney, Chairman

Kathe Andersen was born and raised in Omaha and received her bachelor of science in journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., before she returned home to Nebraska to work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the publications coordinator for the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Tom Nugent has written frequently for Nebraska Magazine during the past 11 years. He is the author of several books of non-fiction, including “Death at Buffalo Creek” (W.W. Norton), a book of investigative journalism about coal mining in Appalachia. He lives in Hastings, Mich.

Stephanie Bolli, ’89, Omaha Mark Carney, UNL student, Lincoln Jennifer Christo, ’97, ’99, Omaha John Clarke, ’74, Mitchell, S.D. Daniel Dawes, ’06, Mableton, Ga. Lynn DiDonato Canavan, ’86, ’90, McKinney, Texas Jisella Dolan, ’98, ’01, Omaha Jessica Erstad, ’96, Lincoln Philip Gosch, ’91, Denver Rick Grady, ’98, ’04, New Albany, Ohio Ted Harris, ’97, Denver Pam Hemann, ’70, Pasadena, Calif.

Troy Heuermann, ’92, St. Paul, Minn.

Jane Hirt, ’89, Chicago Libby Jacobs, ’78, West Des Moines, Iowa Ka’ron Johnson, ’00, Houston

Carroll McKibbin joined the UNL political science faculty in 1967. He served as department chair from 1970-74 before accepting a position of dean in the University of California system. Now retired, he has renewed contacts with UNL via former students, contributed to several scholarship programs, and been appointed as a Foundation Trustee.

Lauren Kintner, ’92, Papillion Jeffrey Kratz, ’03, Washington, D.C. Duane Kristensen, ’76, ’78, Minden Desi Luckey-Rohling, ’81, Edgerton, Wis. Steven Miller, ’81, ’84, Lincoln Bill Mueller, ’77, ’80, Lincoln Bill Munn, ’90, ’94, Denver Gregory Newport, ’76, Lincoln Mike Pate, Omaha Jamie Reimer, ’03, ’08, Papillion Russ Ripa, ’99, Lincoln Kevin Schneider, ’85, ’87, Raymond Paul Schreier, ’00, ’01, Boston Robert Scott, ’94, Lincoln Christine Scudder Kemper, ’87, Kansas City, Mo. L. G. Searcey, ’82, ’91, Lincoln

Carol Munch is a 1983 graduate of UNL with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and human development and the family. After teaching kindergarten and first grade in Texas public schools for 27 years, she has retired and spends time assisting her husband, Russ, in ministry, traveling and bicycling.

Lee Stuart, ’91, Lincoln Dale Tutt, ’88, Wichita, Kan. Mat Weekly, ’84, ’87, 91, Aberdeen, S.D. Renee Wessels, ’82, Omaha

Kelly (Uhl) Riibe, younger brother Brad Uhl (wish kid/cancer survivor) and older brother John Uhl took a wish trip to Disney World in 1987.

Kelly Riibe, graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She currently lives in Dakota Dunes, S.D. with her husband, two daughters (and a third due as the magazine goes to press) and their Jack Russell terrier.

Kelly stays home with her kids and works remotely for a Chicago-based insurance company, on a part-time basis. Make-AWish Foundation of Nebraska, whose CEO Riibe profiled, holds a special place in her heart, as she was a part of a wish family in her early childhood. Riibe’s younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia, at the age of three, and battled the cancer for three years before entering remission. Once her brother was in recovery, he was granted a wish that sent Kelly’s family on a trip to Disney World.

After 27 years, it is still remembered as a joyful and unforgettable experience.

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6 FALL 2013

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UNIVERSITY UPDATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Brian O’Grady, an interlibrary loan borrowing specialist with the University Libraries, stands next to the Vietnam War memorial at Lincoln’s Veterans Memorial Garden. (Troy Fedderson, University Communications)

Project Preserves Nebraska Veterans’ Stories Kathy Berrick grew up knowing her father served in World War II. Beyond that, details were hard to come by.

“He was just one of those veterans who did not want to talk about the war,” Berrick said. “I took pride knowing he served, but really, I knew little else.”

During a function at St. Teresa’s School in Lincoln, Berrick started talking to Brian O’Grady, an interlibrary loan borrowing specialist with the University Libraries. As they talked, O’Grady mentioned that he was recording conversations with veterans to document war experiences. Berrick thought of her father.

“I thought, ‘Gosh, if I could get someone to talk with my dad about the war, that would be great,’” Berrick said.

“I just hoped (Dad) would be willing to talk.”

O’Grady’s veteran recording project grew from a fascination with the Battle of Tarawa. He hoped to write scholarly articles on the obscure, three-day World War II battle over a tiny spit of Pacific Ocean coral and sand. His attention turned after learning the battle had been sufficiently dissected by scholars.

“Those personal stories are what I found most interesting in my Tarawa research,” he said. “I decided to start interviewing veterans to document their own unique stories.”

The first interview was in 2006 with Tarawa veteran Eugene Horst of Halsey, a machine gunner with the Second Division, Sixth Marines.

“We talked for three hours. It included his experiences in Tarawa, Saipan and Guadalcanal,” O’Grady said. “At that point, I decided that the interviews should be about the entire experience of the veterans and not just about one battle.”

O’Grady has recorded the war stories of 20 Nebraska veterans. He focuses on World War II vets, documenting the stories before members of the Greatest Generation are gone. He also has talked to veterans from the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and plans to include more recent conflicts in the Middle East.

“When I talk to these people about their experiences, it reminds me that these events really did happen and they were there,” O’Grady said. “They’re walking history. And these interviews make the event more real to me.”

He provides copies of the interviews to families. O’Grady also plans to publish the stories and possibly donate the recordings to a historical archive.

“The main reason I do this … is to capture a story that otherwise would have been lost,” he said. “This project is all about preserving an oral history

for future generations.”

Berrick’s father, Gerald Bichlmeier, did eventually talk with O’Grady. Berrick said she couldn’t believe her father agreed. Her surprise grew after watching the interview.

“My dad was a very shy, humble man. But, he opened up so much,” Berrick said. “Brian did his research beforehand and that helped. Dad got more comfortable through the interview, and afterward he was glad that he went through with it. It meant a lot to us, too.”

Bichlmeier, who entered the Army on April 9, 1943, served in Europe with the 76th Infantry and was honorably discharged on Nov. 9, 1945, died in March. After the memorial, Berrick gave her brother a copy of their father’s video interview. Though he had farmed with his father for years, Berrick’s brother knew only a little about his father’s service.

“We had lost a father and it meant so much to see him sharing a part of his life that he had not shared with us,” she said. “We wouldn’t have had that without Brian.”

Anyone interested in sharing a veteran story can contact O’Grady at bogrady1@unl.edu or 402-472-7696.

– Troy Fedderson, University Communications NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 7

HIXSON-LIED COLLEGE OF FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS

School of Music Celebrates $8 Million Naming Gift For generations to come, students and faculty members at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music will benefit from an $8 million gift donated by UNL alumnus Glenn Korff to the University of Nebraska Foundation. The gift from the fourthgeneration Nebraskan creates a permanently endowed fund to provide annual support for students, faculty and programs within the school, which is part of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

In honor of Korff’s generosity, the school will be named the Glenn Korff School of Music, pending approval by the NU Board of Regents.

Each year, 25 percent of the expendable income from the endowed

through awards to support teaching initiatives, scholarly research, creative activities, professional travel and more while also creating the Glenn Korff Endowed Chair, the recipient of which will be selected based on national and international accomplishments.

The remaining 50 percent of the fund’s annual support will be directed to the school’s academic and program activities, which may include support for concerts, recitals, tours, competitions, academic conferences and more.

“I don’t think it’s possible yet to fully comprehend the many ways this extraordinary naming gift will transform our School of Music as a teaching institution, as a cultural

A small contingent of Marching Band members serenaded Glenn Korff at his home in Colorado a few days after his gift was made public.

(Photos: Brian Reetz, UNL School of Music)

fund will support undergraduate and graduate students within the school through scholarships, fellowships, international engagement activities and grants for opportunities to hone their skills. Another 25 percent will support the school’s faculty 8 FALL 2013

catalyst, as a center for research in music and as a place of international synergy for music and dance,” said John Richmond, director of the school. “What I can say with absolute confidence is that the impressive growth and transformation we have enjoyed in the last decade – and it has been considerable and nationally recognized – will pale in comparison

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

to the place of international leadership the Glenn Korff School of Music will occupy in the profession 10 years from now.”

Glenn Korff Korff died in Boulder, Colo., just one week after the gift announcement was made. A native of Hebron, he graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1965. He was a chemistry major and a member and former president of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. His passion for performing arts began on the university campus as a member of Kosmet Klub, a male musical and comedy ensemble, in which he was a set designer. He received an MBA in finance from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 and enjoyed a long career in the area of finance and investments, retiring from Goldman Sachs.

Over the years, Korff expressed gratitude for the education he received at the university by giving of his time through various volunteer positions as trustee of the University of Nebraska Foundation. He and his family also generously supported the university through gifts to create the Paul W. and Esther L. Korff Family Fund and the Richard D. Brenning Memorial Scholarship Fund. Korff and his brother, Ken Korff, also recently supported the UNL College of Business Administration’s new building initiative with a gift to name an auditorium in honor of their father, Paul Korff.

– Robb Crouch, University of Nebraska Foundation

COLLEGE OF LAW

First Doctorate in Space Law to be Offered The University of Nebraska College of Law opened a new frontier in space law this fall by launching a doctorate of judicial sciences degree (J.S.D.).

For the past five years, UNL has been the only law college in the nation to offer an LL.M., or master of laws, degree in space, cyber and telecommunications law. Graduates of the one-year program have gone on to careers working for private companies like SpaceX; for civilian agencies like the State Department and NASA Jet Propulsion Lab; and for military operations such as the U.S. Cyber Command and Space Operations at Vandenberg Air Force Base; as well as for think tanks, consultants and law firms.

Going forward, UNL will be the only U.S. law school to offer both an LL.M. and J.S.D. in space law. Its LL.M.

also has been offered online since the 2012-13 academic year.

The J.S.D. program will break new ground as the only doctoral-level space law program in the United States, said Matthew Schaefer, professor of law and director of the college’s Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law program.

“This additional degree offering, much like the launch of the online LL.M., is going to widen opportunities for experienced lawyers and legal scholars to delve into very intricate and complex issues facing the regulation of outer space activities in an in-depth manner,” Schaefer said.

Research-focused and dissertationbased, the J.S.D. program in essence will require students to write a book about an aspect of space law, such as regulation of satellite communications

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or liability issues relating to commerce in space. Students will play a pioneering role in developing the field of space law.

Schaefer said he expects one or two students to join the J.S.D. program each year. It likely will take two to three years to complete the degree.

Professor Frans von der Dunk will supervise the J.S.D. students with support from Schaefer and assistant professor Jack Beard.

The J.S.D. program was unanimously approved Aug. 1 by Nebraska’s Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education. It is one of two new law programs planned – the other, an LL.M. program to train foreign lawyers on the U.S. legal system, is to launch in fall 2014.

– Leslie Reed, University Communications

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UNIVERSITY UPDATE

DEPARTMENT OF ATHLETICS

Varsity Soccer and Tennis Facilities Approved It’s official. Nebraska Athletics will build dedicated, on-campus soccer and tennis practice and competition facilities.

Approved by the NU Board of Regents in July, the $20.4 million Nebraska Soccer and Tennis Complex will be located on 28 acres owned by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The 28 acres, the former site of the State Fair campground, are adjacent to the Nebraska Innovation Campus currently under development. The site has been cleared of the old campground RV support infrastructure as part of the demolition of the old State Fair Park buildings and related structures. The new facility will be built with private donations.

The new soccer facilities will include one outdoor, lighted, fullsized competition field with seating for approximately 2,500 spectators.

Facilities for tennis will include 12 lighted outdoor courts and six indoor courts with a combined total of 1,400 seats for spectators.

With minor renovations, the former campground shower house will be repurposed into mechanical space

10 FALL 2013

and equipment storage for the soccer field maintenance and ticket windows.

Approximately 600 to 800 surface parking spaces will be constructed on the site.

A 73,900-square foot support facility is also planned to serve the programs and will include: • Dressing rooms, showers and

team rooms for men’s and women’s tennis • Office, meeting and dressing

rooms for tennis coaches and staff • Game-day only dressing room,

meeting room and showers for women’s soccer

• Visiting team meeting rooms,

dressing rooms and showers • Officials’ dressing rooms and showers • Satellite sports medicine

treatment area and exam room • Spectator restrooms and

concession stands The Husker women’s soccer team will continue to use office and conference room facilities at the Hawks

Championship Center, adjacent to Memorial Stadium.

Construction will begin in May 2014.

The soccer fields could be completed in time for competition in the fall of 2014. The remaining facilities will be ready for the outdoor tennis season in 2015.

The new soccer and tennis facilities will rank among the best in the Big Ten Conference. Previously, Nebraska soccer practiced and competed on a soccer field located in the interior of Ed Weir Track and Field Stadium.

It was the smallest competition field in the Big Ten Conference at 71 by 115 yards, and the only field in the Big Ten without lights. Nebraska tennis currently competes indoors at the privately owned Nebraska Tennis Center and outdoors at the Varsity Courts on campus. Both lack dedicated locker rooms. The consolidation of the facilities will vastly improve the use of student-athletes’ and coaches’ limited time and will enhance training, competition, recruiting and fan amenities.

“We are certainly grateful for the support of the indoor and outdoor

tennis facilities,” Nebraska Head Women’s Tennis Coach Scott Jacobson said. “Having a facility of this magnitude will enhance the opportunity to recruit top talent throughout the nation to this great institution.”

“It has been a 20-year dream to have our team play in a soccer specific stadium on our own campus,” Head Soccer Coach John Walker said. “The return of ‘night games,’ a closer proximity of fans to the action and

improved fan amenities will greatly enhance the game-day experience for both players and supporters.”

Nebraska Head Men’s Tennis Coach Kerry McDermott concurred. “This is a dream come true for us to be able to conduct practices and host matches indoors and outdoors on our campus in the near future. This will create a better learning environment and will allow for more one-on-one time with our student-athletes. This no doubt will be a huge benefit to Nebraska tennis in the future and we are grateful for this opportunity.”

Similar to other athletic facilities, the Nebraska Soccer and Tennis Complex will not generally be available for public use.

UNIVERSITY UPDATE E.N. THOMPSON FORUM ON WORLD ISSUES

How Does America Stack Up? What is America’s role in the world today?

That question and many more will be addressed during the 2013-14 season of the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Under this year’s theme, “U.S. & Them,” speakers will examine how the United States measures up in terms of international influence, economic competitiveness and social progress. Among topics addressed will be foreign policy, the national and international economy, education, American military policy and the weakening of the middle class.

David Wessel, economics editor of the Wall Street Journal and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, was the first presenter on Sept. 24. His lecture, “On Capital and The Capitol,” was co-sponsored by the College of Business Administration and is the Lewis E. Harris Lecture on Public Policy.

Other forum speakers: Tuesday, Oct. 8 – Susan Glasser, editor of Politico and former editor of Foreign Policy magazine, will speak on “Washington and the World in the Age of Obama.”

Wednesday, Nov. 6 – Hedrick Smith, an Emmy and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and producer, will deliver his lecture, “Who Stole the American Dream?”

Tuesday, Feb. 25 – Andrew Bacevich of Boston University and Derek Chollet of the U.S. Department of Defense will present the Chuck and Linda Wilson Dialogue on “The American Military: War and Peace, Spending and Politics.”

Tuesday, March 18 – Yong Zhao, internationally recognized scholar on education, will deliver his lecture, “Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization.” Zhao’s presentation is cosponsored by the College of Education and Human Sciences.

All lectures begin at 7 p.m. in the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St., with a pre-talk in the Lied’s Steinhart Room CONNECTION BOX at 6:30. The Forum and pre-talks are free and open to the public, but do require a ticket to attend. Tickets can enthompson.unl.edu be reserved by calling the Lied Center at 402-472-4747 or 800-432-3231, requesting in person at the Lied Center box office or ordering online by downloading a form at the forum’s website, enthompson. unl.edu.

Sign language interpreters will be available at each lecture for the deaf and hard of hearing. Forum lectures also will be available live online at http://www.unl.edu as well as on Lincoln cable channels 5 and 80, UNL campus Channel 8 and UNL’s KRNU radio (90.3 FM).

– Deann Gayman, University Communications NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 11

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Research Reveals Impact of Civil War Poetry, Newspapers A little more than 150 years ago, black soldiers took up arms with the Union to fight in the Civil War when the first regiments of AfricanAmerican troops were authorized in the North in 1863.

As they enlisted, words of support poured out from Union-sympathizing newspapers everywhere, and much of the support came in the form of poems. Fanny Jackson, an AfricanAmerican student at Oberlin College, began: “We welcome, we welcome, our brave volunteers, Fling your caps to the breeze, boys, and give them three cheers; They have proven their valor by many a scar, But their god-like endurance has been nobler by far.”

– “The Black Volunteers,” printed May 9, 1863, in The Anglo-African Now, an edition of these and other Civil War-era poems is available online, complete with images from the newspapers in which they appeared and with historical and literary analysis that provides insight into the role of newspapers and poetry during the Civil War.

12 FALL 2013

The edition, co-edited by University of Nebraska-Lincoln English research assistant professor Elizabeth Lorang and Rebecca Weir, supervisor in American literature at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, was published in the 2013 volume of The Journal of Scholarly Editing, an open-access online journal.

Hundreds of thousands of poems appeared in newspapers across the nation during the war. The poems included in the newly published edition were chosen because of the proximity of the two newspapers that published them and for their emphasis on military service, citizenship, race and gender.

The newspapers were written for two distinct audiences: The National Anti-Slavery Standard was published for a white abolitionist audience, while The Anglo-African was for a black audience. The Anglo-African was one of the most important African-American newspapers in the Civil War era, but it has received little attention in the years since.

Weir noticed that the newspapers, neighbors on New York’s Beekman Street for a time during the war, printed many of the same poems.

“One of the great finds we’ve made is that it appears there was a heretofore unacknowledged but remarkable collaboration between the two newspapers,” Lorang said. “What’s unique about this edition is the focus on the relationships between two Civil War publications. It’s the first edition of its kind.”

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

Lorang and Weir identified and researched a selection of 138 poems, about a quarter of the poems published by the two newspapers.

Most were published from May 1863 to May 1864, a period that saw a great number of African-American men enlist in the Union Army and distinguish themselves as soldiers in spite of the War Department’s prejudiced policies. Many of the poems encourage enlistment, praise the soldiers and show authors negotiating the public meaning of African-American military service.

Lorang and Weir were able to identify many of the authors and their historical significance. One poem is

by William Slade, a black assistant to President Lincoln who was featured in the 2012 motion picture, “Lincoln.”

Slade had not previously been acknowledged as a poet, and Lorang and Weir said they were eager to see what else he may have written.

Lorang said the poems and newspapers have CONNECTION BOX parallels to the modern world. http://go.unl.edu/afy She likened the poems and their historical context to the social media outlets citizens use today. Rather than posting to Facebook or Twitter, 19th-century authors of the poems took their ideas to the masses through newsprint.

“How a culture gets through war is very relevant right now; sadly it’s seemingly always relevant,” she said.

“Poetry was and remains one of the ways we process the experience of war on both individual and social levels.”

– Deann Gayman, University Communications

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.com/H r e v o c s ay. Di d o t y l p Ap

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 13

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SCIENCES

Article Leads To UNL Partnership in Pretoria An author always hopes his words have impact. Ted Hamann is seeing firsthand how a 2009 journal article he co-authored led to an educational partnership between the University of Pretoria in South Africa and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Hamann, an associate professor in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences, was in Pretoria this summer for the signing of a memorandum of understanding between UNL and the University of Pretoria.

The partnership will provide mutual benefits for the two institutions, including collaborative research, education abroad opportunities and comparative study of education.

By example, Hamann and UNL assistant professor Theresa Catalano

co-led an education abroad visit with a dozen graduate students in CEHS’s Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education in July. They studied alongside South African peers, visited local schools and heritage sites and were exposed to a cross-section of South African cultures.

“This has been an intense, engaging and sometimes poignant experience,” Hamann said. “It has helped our students think about education in new or additional ways.

It has brought them in proximity with South African peers and raised the very real prospects of tangible collaboration with them.”

Hamann and Catalano taught two weeklong seminars for Pretoria and UNL graduate students. One

Left to right: Theresa Catalano, assistant professor of teaching, learning and teacher education, UNL; Ted Hamann, associate professor of teaching, learning and teacher education, UNL; Stephanie Burton, vice principal, University of Pretoria; and Irma Eloff, dean of the faculty of education, University of Pretoria, took part in signing the memorandum of understanding the between the two schools.

(Photo: University of Pretoria)

14 FALL 2013

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

seminar topic was mixed methods education research and the other language policy and planning. Two UNL doctoral students – Carolina Bustamante and Debra Miller – had the opportunity to co-present with their professors.

That 2009 journal article Hamann co-wrote with a colleague at Mexico’s Universidad de Monterrey was read by Pretoria professor Saloshna Vandeyar.

The article discussed educational issues for transnational school-aged children moving between the United States and Mexico. Vandeyar reached out to Hamann with an invitation to present at a Pretoria conference.

Though Hamann couldn’t attend, his paper did. The connection launched a new relationship and ever since, CEHS has been involved in fostering that relationship with international seed grants and substantial scholarship support for traveling UNL graduate students.

The memorandum of understanding, signed July 19, states that the partnership will “promote international understanding, contribute to the pool of global knowledge, and advance the development of our respective countries and the world.”

Hamann said he hopes study exchanges will occur every two years, alternating which country and university hosts. These trips will continue to involve faculty and students.

– Brad Stauffer, College of Education and Human Sciences

Appointments n Nancy Busch has been named Dean of Libraries, following a 12-month appointment as Nancy Busch interim dean. n Bill Watts has been named director of campus advising and career services. He will oversee both the Explore Center and the Career Services office. He had been serving as assistant dean for student success in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of Campus Advising.

Kudos n Three faculty members with the UNL Department of Animal Science received national awards recently.

Dennis Brink received the American Society of Animal Science’s Fellow Award, Rodger Johnson received the ASAS’s Morrison Award and L. Dale Van Vleck received the American Dairy Science Association’s Fellow Award. n May UNL grad Casey Griffin of Omaha received the $24,000 AMS 21st Century fellowship from the American Meteorological Society to pursue graduate studies at Texas Tech University.

A meteorology and mathematics major at UNL, Griffin worked in the Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Casey Griffin Experiences (UCARE) program where he performed research on precipitation climatology. He also was a member of the Nebraska Storm Chase Team. n Fourteen UNL business students earned 11 national awards, including two first-place wins, at the Future Business Leaders

of America-Phi Beta Lambda National Leadership Conference in June.

Sophomore Amy Chin of Columbus was first in computer applications while the team of Daniel Kistler of Grand Island and Tyler Wellman of Syracuse won the financial services competition. n The University of Nebraska-Lincoln finished fourth in the Overall Intercollegiate Championship in the 53nd annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Three students from the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications were among 29 finalists who competed in the National Championship Round, June 3-7 in San Francisco. Camila Orti of Lincoln took second place in television; Lanny Holstein of Omaha

CAMPUS BRIEFS Grants

n Kids with emotional and behavioral disorders are more likely to miss school, fail classes and drop out than any other group of students with disabilities. With support from a $3.2 million grant, UNL researchers are evaluating a unique new program that uses parent-to-parent support to encourage families to get the help they need to keep kids in school. The four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences enables UNL researchers UNL business students at the Phi Beta Lambda to evaluate the National Leadership Conference.

Parent Connectors Program. The team, won third in radio; and Faiz Siddiqui led by Kristin Duppong Hurley, research of West Chester, Ohio, was a runnerassociate professor of special education up in writing. It is the third year in and communication disorders, will a row that Nebraska has placed in assess the program’s effectiveness and, the top five of the 106 accredited if proven valuable, will help expand the schools eligible to compete, following program. a second-place finish in 2011 and fifth in 2012. n UNL’s Clinical Psychology Training Program has been named as the 2013 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Outstanding Training Program. This recognition is given to only one program every two years. The program is responsible for training graduate students to become clinical psychologists with expertise in behavior therapy. In an average year, eight or nine students are admitted and Kristin Duppong Hurley the same number graduate from the program.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 15

The Life & Poetry of Ted Kooser

The Forgotten Edge of Russia

University of Nebraska Press, 2013, (cloth) $24.95 www.nebraskapress.unl.edu

Mary K. Like a flash of lightning Stillwell it came to him – the ’04

unathletic high school student Ted Kooser saw a future as a famous poet that promised everything: glory, immortality, a bohemian lifestyle (no more doing dishes, no more cleaning his room), and, particularly important to the lonely teenager, girls!

Unlike most kids with a sudden ambition, Kooser, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and thirteenth poet laureate of the United States, made good on his dream.

But glory was a long time coming, and along the way Kooser lived the life that has made his poetry what it is, as deeply grounded in family, work and the natural world as it is attuned to the nuances of language. Combining a fine appreciation of Kooser’s work and life, this book finally provides a fuller and more complex picture of a writer who, perhaps more than any other, has brought the Great Plains and the Midwest, lived large and small, into the poetry of our day.

ALUMNI AUTHORS 16 FALL 2013

Richard Schilling

’57

A Mission to the Ends of the Earth in Words and Watercolors Westbow Press, 2012, (paper) $24.95 westbowpress.com

Richard Schilling is a dentist and artist who left his private practice in 1992 to follow a long-smoldering desire to be a missionary dentist. In 2005, he and two visionaries created Sonrisas Sin Fronteras Foundation, which establishes portable dental clinics in Latin American schools.

His dream of sustainable dentistry is becoming a reality. He has served in Kenya, Honduras, Russia, Nicaragua and Mexico. This book, in words and watercolor paintings, is about a forgotten land and its people who were forgotten by their government and by the church.

Schilling provided dental treatment to the people of Chukotka, Russia, and found his own emotional healing in God’s word, friendships and the joy of painting.

Am I That Man? How heroes, role models and mentors can shape your life Ron Scheidt

Warrier Spirit Books, 2013, (paper) $24.95 www.warrierspiritbooks.com

’85,

and

Brian In every man’s life there Willis are special people who

serve as role models, heroes and mentors. Some of those people you know personally, some are historical figures and others are people you have read about whose philosophies have strongly influenced your life. This book is a compilation of submissions by fathers, sons, brothers, business leaders, military personnel, professional athletes, law enforcement professionals and an Olympic Gold medalist, all who share insights and stories about the importance of heroes, role models and mentors in their lives.

The Journey Home

Health Policy and Ethics

Walking Through and Rising Above Times of Hardship and Pain

Pharmaceutical Press, 2011, (paper), $49.99 www.pharmpress.com

2013, (paper) $14.99 www.readthejourneyhome.com

When Dr. Gene Baillie’s wife, Gini, was

Gene diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer, their Baillie world was forever changed. This book shares the ’67

lessons that Gini and Gene learned as God led them through – and beyond – their darkest valleys on their own journey home.

Everything I Needed to Know to Raise Children, I Learned at the Office iUniverse, 2013, (paper) $11.95 www.amazon.com

Health and health care is a continuing complex and challenging item of importance for patients, families, caregivers and society.

This book examines the role of health policy Jack Fincham in structuring the processes for which care is ’75 delivered in the United States with a significant emphasis on the ethics and ethical framework that needs to be incumbent in the U.S. health care system. When access to care, delivery of services, cultural components and outcomes are examined, it becomes exceedingly crucial to have an ethical backdrop guiding policies and procedures in the delivery and assessment of health care. Jack Fincham is professor of pharmacy practice and administration at the School of Pharmacy, University of MissouriKansas City.

When you are around children, even for a short

Rebecca amount of time, you learn that nearly everything Seline that sits upright is even more interesting when

’78 it is turned upside down. A bowl of Cheerios is tasty and neat sitting on a highchair tray. But how much more interesting it is when the bowl is upside down on your head, the milk dripping down your face, and the mushy Cheerios sticking to everything from your ears to the chair to the floor, where they have been picked up by the dog’s paws and are sticking to the floors throughout the house. The same is true of this book; business words and terms are turned on their heads, used in domestic settings and become really interesting.

Ring Papa Ring!

The Story of an American Family iUniverse 2013, (paper) $16.99 www.amazon.com

Dean A. Thomson

and

Gary A. Thomson

’69, ’72

The grandsons of Blanche Klinefelter and Herbert Thomson have interpreted the story of one particular family (theirs) in the context of unfolding European and American history.

It is easy to confuse family traditions with history. Remembered family stories trail off into forgotten places but they always have some basis in the past. This book is where the recollected stories and history meet.

Show US YOUR TALENT Featured books are not sold or distributed through the Nebraska Alumni Association. Publishing information is provided to help consumers locate the title through local booksellers or online retailers unless otherwise noted.

To be considered for inclusion in Alumni Authors, send a complimentary copy of a recently published book and a description of its contents to: Alumni Authors Editor, 1520 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-1651 Please include the author’s full name, class year, current mailing and e-mail addresses and telephone number.

The author must have attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 17

Nostalgia WINNER, second place 2013 Writing contest Leta Powell Drake received her master of arts degree from UNL in 1967 and has done post-grad work in theater and journalism. She serves on the board of the Hixson-Lied School of Fine and Performing Arts Alumni and chairs the OLLI Arts Committee. With a long career in broadcast television as host, producer, writer, announcer and program director, she is most remembered for her role as Kalamity Kate at KOLN/KGIN-TV. Powell is currently finishing her first book: “The Calamities of Kalamity Kate.” It will cover Nebraska’s early television programs for children, capturing what really happened behind the camera with children on live TV. Kids do say the darndest things!

Rodeo Redux

Leta Powell Drake and Bud Hitz at the 1975 calf scramble.

By Leta Powell Drake, ’67 If you haven’t attended a UNL Rodeo during its 55-year run, you’ve missed one of the best shows in town.

In 1975, I was roped into participating in the annual event at the Nebraska State Fairgrounds.

An agriculture student invited me to take part in the calf scramble. I had no idea what a calf scramble was, but I couldn’t admit my ignorance. After all, I was Kalamity Kate, the West’s Only Lady Sheriff on Cartoon Corral on Channels 10/11 in Lincoln. I had to live up to my reputation as a wrangler.

18 FALL 2013

I peppered the ag student with questions: Who is participating? Are there other women? How big is the cow? Is it dangerous? Do I need insurance? What should I wear?

He made it sound simple. “Oh, it’s just for fun, Kalamity.

The media are invited. Not to worry; it’s not dangerous.

Wear old clothes. Get a partner and a rope. When the calves are released into the arena, all you have to do is lasso the calf and lead her to the target area. The first team to cross the finish line wins!”

That did sound like Adding injury to insult, as fun. “I’ll be there,” I said I wiped off the dung, the cow enthusiastically. shifted her weight to the right, I had cowboy boots. I stepping on my baby toe. Five knew the perfect partner: Bud hundred pounds on my little Hitz was an engineer at the piggy! This little piggy went TV station, and a practical wee, wee, wee, all the way joker. He was in good shape, home. I almost had a cow! accustomed to lugging heavy “This is so stupid,” I muttered TV cameras. After a little to myself, deciding that the convincing, Bud agreed to be UNL Rodeo was not a Sacred my partner.

Cow and I was not going to With a master’s degree in participate in the calf scramble theatre from UNL, I knew I the next day. had to rehearse roping cattle.

My “thank you” to Bob was I called Bob De Voogd of hardly sincere. the Flying D Stables, adjacent However, I knew that I could to Lincoln’s Pioneers Park. Bob not renege on my promise to be The 56th annual UNL Rodeo will be rented horses for five bucks in the rodeo. The next day, with held in Lincoln in spring 2014. an hour to ride horseback along the toe throbbing, I headed for the arena. magnificent, tree-lined trails in the park.

I watched the real UNL rodeo Details will be posted on facebook.

However, this time I didn’t want to team perform tie-down roping, steer ride a horse. I asked Bob if he had calves. wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bareback “I do,” he answered. bronc riding, bull riding and more. The “Could you show me how to rope a daredevil clowns made the audience calf and get it to go in the direction that I need it to go?” laugh as they rushed in to protect both rider and animal.

“Sure, come on out, Kate,” Bob replied.

Cowgirls were barrel racing! It was quite impressive.

I pulled on my Kalamity Kate boots and my old jeans and The calf scramble was up next. moseyed out to the stables. I was ready.

When you stand out in the middle of the dirt arena, things When I saw two gargantuan black cows in the outdoor look quite different. The UNL Rodeo’s mantra reverberated in arena, I froze with fear. They were standing there – nostrils my head: “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up flaring, chewing cud, shifting from one hoof to another, eyelids anyway.” blinking, tails flicking off flies.

I took a deep breath as the heifers were herded into the arena.

I stood in front of one critter, flummoxed as to how I should We urban cowboys started running toward the critters. The begin. She stared at me. I wanted to make sure the animal mavericks scattered, fleeing helter-skelter. The crowd roared with understood that this here buckerette was in charge. laughter.

I looped the rope gently over her neck, pulled it a little tighter Bud and I cornered a big black calf. Bud threw the lasso, so it wouldn’t fall off, then tugged, encouraging her by singing which missed the dogie’s head. But the rope slid downward, “Get Along Little Dogie.” That didn’t work. I then coaxed, catching her right rear hoof. She continued running, dragging “Come on, Bossy!” Isn’t that what you say to cows? Ignoring me, the end of the rope on her hoof, heading in the direction of Bossy didn’t move. the goal. I grabbed the loose end of the dangling rope. The calf Frustrated by getting no response, I asked Bob, “What do I dragged me over the finish line. have to do to get this cow to move?”

Holy Cow! Kalamity and Bud won the first-place trophy!

Bob smiled at his sidekick who was watching, then offered That was 38 years ago. some advice.

Fast-forward to the present. I spoke with the current UNL “Here’s what you do: Go behind her and grab her tail. If you Rodeo coach, “Bump” Kraeger, asking if the calf scramble was want her to go left, crank it left. If you want her to go right, still a part of the rodeo today. crank it right. Go straight? Just yank her tail.”

“I don’t remember a calf scramble,” he said, thinking back.

I didn’t see Bob wink at his cohort while he was giving me “It must have been before my time. But I do remember instructions. I fell for it. Moving to the rear end of the cow, I celebrating my birthday on TV when I was a kid on Kalamity grabbed her tail, commanding, “Let’s go, Bossy!”

Kate’s Cartoon Corral.”

Letting go was exactly what she did. Excrement spewed “Bump” may not remember, but I clearly recall the calf all down the front of me. Seeing me covered with cow plop, the scramble, the clowns, the crowd – and the calamity! v guys couldn’t stop laughing at my gullibility.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 19

Nostalgia WINNER, Third place 2013 Writing contest Allen Ostdiek, a 1967 graduate of the College of Business Administration at UNL, spent four years in the U.S. Air Force following graduation. In 1972, he returned to Nebraska, serving first as editor and printer of The Clay County Leader in Clay Center, Neb., and, from 1977-2009, as editor and printer of The Lawrence Locomotive weekly newspaper in Lawrence, Neb. He and his wife, the former Nancy Johnson, have been married for 45 years and are the parents of seven children (one deceased), five of whom are Nebraska grads. Ostdiek volunteers in many local organizations and will complete 29 years as an Emergency Medical Technician at the end of 2013. He is also a member of the Chancellor’s Club and a supporter of the Hubert C. and Louise C. Ostdiek Memorial Scholarship Fund at the university, started by his brother, Glen, in memory of his parents.

A Long Line of Huskers

By Allen Ostdiek, ’67

I must have reached the age of seven when my mother fussed over my older siblings and me, getting us dressed in our “Sunday best” (on a Saturday, no less) and crammed us into the car for a trip to a placed called Lincoln.

We ended up in a huge building among a huge crowd of people sitting patiently, listening to a stranger speak about things of which I had not a clue. Once outside, I saw my two oldest brothers (Alfred, ’52, and Glen, ’52) wearing what I thought were dresses. That confused me greatly until it was explained to me that they still had pants on under those gowns. (No one ever explained their strange hats.)

As we stood in the crowd in front of the Coliseum, complete strangers stopped and shook their hands and were happy to greet my parents. Somewhere between that point and being helped into my own bed late that night, I figured out that even though I wasn’t sure what had just happened that day, it was very important. For my parents to leave work, drive all that distance and sit through a program of some sort, it had to be important.

I slowly came to understand what a university was, and that the University of Nebraska in Lincoln was “The Best,” and that is why my brothers went there to further their education. They soon disappeared to a place called Chicago, but I was assured I would get to go to Lincoln the following 20 FALL 2013

year because the next brother, Linus would graduate. I remember my sister, Julene, and I being so disappointed the following year when we learned that there would be no trip since Linus had decided to go to school for another year.

Being much older and wiser, Julene and I eventually realized that Linus needed that extra year of study to become our “next Pope.”

The years hurried by and trips to Lincoln for graduation ceremonies for Linus, ’54; Marion, ’54; Bob, ’55; Mary Alice, ’56; and Lee, ’57, became almost a yearly pilgrimage, but one I learned to enjoy and understand. (Sister, Doris, declined to go to the university, choosing a degree from St. Elizabeth’s School of Nursing instead.)

These years imprinted many a memory into my consciousness: • The time I was sent into the women’s residence hall to find Mary Alice and being the shy, timid 11 year old, I just stood in this huge building looking for her. If she had not happened by and found me, I might still be there.

• Watching football games from the knothole section on the south end of the football field.

• While working in the evening in the back shop of our weekly newspaper office, listening to Jimmy Kubacki make a basket with just seconds remaining for the Husker’s

(Photos left to right): A young Allen hid under Bob’s graduation “dress” in 1955. v Allen on graduation day, January 1967, the last of 12 of his parent’s children to earn a degree at NU. v Glen and Alfred donned graduation gowns, or “dresses” as Allen called them in 1952. v Linus and Marion graduated in 1954.

basketball team to defeat the great Kansas Jayhawk team featuring Wilt Chamberlain.

• Hearing of something called ROTC and knowing it was important because it helped pay the way for several brothers.

• Visiting what was called “The Little House” on R Street where five brothers lived. It seemed to be a university adjunct.

Trips to Lincoln continued, and Lou Ann, ’60; Patty, ’61; and Larry, ’62, all left home for the “home-away-from-home.”

Finally, Julene, ’66, left home for the “U” and I was home alone with my parents. Then, 1962 came to put its mark on the history book. That year marks my high school graduation, but probably more people will remember it as the year that Allen Ostdiek and Dave Mazour left Lawrence and enrolled in the University of Nebraska. Oh yes, that was also the year Bob Devaney turned up at NU to be the football coach.

Nostalgia can be a two-edged sword. Early in my years at the university, I remember carrying Bob Brown off the football field after we defeated Oklahoma for the conference championship.

I remember Professor Dein explaining patiently to a group of accounting majors that the difference between bookkeeping and accounting was like the difference between digging a ditch and telling someone where to dig that ditch. Love Library was often a haven between classes although I’m not sure if I spent more time studying or sleeping while in that edifice. I also experienced

that day of infamy when President Kennedy was killed in Dallas.

I was alone in my dorm room. When I discovered my next class was cancelled, I spent time at the Newman Center chapel trying to find a reason for it all.

Finally, graduation day arrived in January 1967, along with a Nebraska snowstorm. The university was gracious in honoring mom and dad as parents of 12 graduates (out of 13 children) from the University of Nebraska. I also received my commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. I was amazed at hearing a stranger talk about the family while exiting the Military and Naval Science Building. “Wow, that most have been a rich family to send 12 children through school,” was the comment. Little did she realize the hours the family spent in numerous businesses throughout Lincoln, and at the university itself, working for the wherewithal to pay for that priceless commodity: a degree from the University of Nebraska.

Nostalgia, maybe, but probably a desire for the best is the reason that five of my six children are graduates from the University of Nebraska. Sentimentality yes, but more the drive to become the best is the reason that many, many nieces and nephews have now walked the halls on the Lincoln campus.

A blessing for the state of Nebraska through the hard work of many: that is “The University of Nebraska.” v

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 21

I Honey, I Shrunk

Captain America A Hollywood Thriller

W

hen the brass at the Academy Awardwinning visual effects studio – famed LOLA VFX in Los Angeles – handed Trent Claus his brand-new assignment back in the fall of 2010, the former UNL fine arts major could hardly believe his eyes.

The assignment: Find a way to shrink a Hollywood superhero, the ironjawed and block-shouldered “Captain America,” into a scrawny, 90-pound weakling.

Amazed, the talented visual effects artist realized that he’d just been presented with a unique challenge. Because the latest cinema blockbuster from Marvel Studios had already been filmed in its entirety, the supremely muscle-bound actor Chris Evans appeared throughout as Steve Rogers (aka “Captain America”).

22 FALL 2013

By Tom Nugent

I

Photo by Daniel Jauregui

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 23

Photo by Daniel Jauregui

I

“

Making sure that even though he [the Steve Rogers character] no longer has any muscles in his chest, you [the moviegoer] still feel that inhale and exhale.”

But during the first third of the movie (and before being transformed into a fighting giant by the “super-serum” that had been developed by the U.S. Army), Steve Rogers was supposed to have been nothing more than a skinny little guy from Brooklyn. That meant that Claus – now a supervisor and senior visual effects artist at LOLA – would have to use his computer magic to morph the freedom-fighter back into the puny, asthmatic, pathetic shrimp he’d been before taking his dose of super-serum.

Could the LOLA movie magician pull it off?

Could Trent Claus (B.F.A. Studio Art ’06) – armed only with his state-of-the-art Autodesk Flame visual effects software – radically change the appearance of the main character in a movie that had already been shot?

He could. He would! Determined as never before, Claus took a deep breath. Then he sat down at his computer in the busy, humming offices of LOLA VFX, then located just a block from the famous Third Street Promenade in downtown Santa Monica, Calif.

24 FALL 2013

A moment later he hit the switch … and the first frames of “Captain America” (produced

by Marvel Studios and later distributed by Paramount) were flashing across his screen.

During the next year or so, the UNL-trained FX guru spent hundreds of hours struggling to metamorphose the mighty Captain into the kind of helpless runt who used to get sand kicked in his face during all those Charles Atlas ads of the 1950s.

‘Movies Are Never Finished – They’re Just Abandoned!’

For the bold-hearted Claus, who’d already faced major visual effects challenges on such recent major Hollywood blockbusters as “Iron Man,” “Star Trek” and “The Social Network,” the task ahead was uniquely problematic. It would also push the Hastings, Neb., native to the very edge of his endurance.

Somehow, the LOLA visual effects wizard had to find a way to transform a giant into a hollowchested wimp unfit for military service … at the

very height of World War II. Make no mistake: it would not be easy.

Relying entirely on Flame, Claus had to paint over hundreds of individual movie frames (the still pictures which run through the projector at the rate of 24 per second, thus creating the illusion of movement). On every one of those frames where the powerfully built actor appeared as the muscle-deprived Steve Rogers, Claus would have to work his electronic alchemy, by shrinking Evans’ mighty build into that of a slump-shouldered, thin-ribbed sad sack who’d been rejected by the U.S. Army as 4-F. One sequence, in particular, presented Claus and his team of visual-effect artists with hugely complex problems.

In that seven-to-eight-second bit of narrative (which occurs during minute 24 of the finished film), the undernourished Steve Rogers sits forlornly on his bunk in an Army barracks.

Depressed and disconsolate, he’s mourning the fact that his performance in boot camp has so far been utterly inadequate.

But then Steve Rogers finally gets a break … when the mysterious Dr. Abraham Erskine (director of the super-soldier project) slips into the barracks and tells him how he’s going to be transformed into the all-powerful Captain America. According to the enigmatic Dr. Erskine, what matters most in a soldier is inner strength – and the scientist is convinced that Steve Rogers has plenty of it. By providing the midget-sized warrior with a massive dose of superserum (along with plenty of super-strength VitaRays), the Army will be able to create both the mental and physical strength that will be required to defeat the Nazis and win WWII. Here’s the dialogue that occurs during the seven or eight seconds of that particular scene, on which Claus worked for more than a hundred hours:

DR. ERSKINE (stepping into the barracks and calling out to Rogers) May I?

ROGERS

(sitting on his bunk in the deserted barracks) Yes.

I

DR. ERSKINE Can’t sleep?

ROGERS

Got the jitters, I guess. Can I ask you a question?

DR. ERSKINE Only one?

ROGERS Why me?

Whatever You Do, Don’t Sneeze!

Jamie and Trent Claus at the VES Awards. Photo by Brian Hajek.

Ask Trent Claus where he developed the careful precision and craftsmanship that have allowed him to enjoy a stellar career as a visual effects artist, and he’ll give a big share of the credit to UNL Department of Art and Art History Associate Professor Sandra Williams.

“Working in the movie industry as a compositor is extremely demanding,” said the award-winning visual effects artist, who often will spend 50 or 60 grueling hours hunched over his Autodesk Flame digital editing system in order to paint exquisitely complex designs onto a single frame of a Hollywood feature film. “To do the job correctly, you have to work at a level of precision that’s a real challenge to maintain.”

As an undergrad student in UNL’s graphic design program about a decade ago, Claus was “fortunate to work with Professor Williams,” who

helped him learn how to master the discipline required for professionally detailed drawings and illustrations.

“I remember this one project where I worked for several months on a series of black-and-white illustrations,” he recalled. “The drawings were built entirely out of lines of black ink, and they required great concentration.

Sandra was really encouraging – but she was also very demanding, when it came to craft and composition. And that really paid off for me later ... because I included those illustrations in the portfolio of work I submitted, and they helped me get the job [as a visual effects artist] I still have today, seven years later.

“That experience in the studio at UNL was very helpful, because everything had to be so precise and perfect. One sneeze while you’re doing it, and the drawing’s lost forever!”

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 25

As he reviewed this seven to eight second snippet of “Captain America,” Trent Claus realized that he faced some truly humongous visual effects problems, if he were to successfully shrink the muscular actor into the Steve Rogers shrimp.

By using his computer-based Flame program, of course, he could easily downsize the actor’s huge shoulders and bulging chest. But as soon as he did that, the actor’s head looked too large for the shrunken corpus on which it rested. (“He’d wind up looking like a Bobble-head doll,” Claus groaned during a recent interview, while describing some of the huge problems he faced while working on “Captain America.”)

Okay … so now it was clear that the FX artist had to shrink Rogers’ head as well.

But that only meant … more problems. Why? Because now the shadows thrown by Rogers’ head and body were out of whack! To get each frame in the scene right, in fact (and there were more than 160 frames in those eight seconds of film), Claus had to dwarf down every one of the shadows, along with the wrinkles in the actor’s face, and even his eyebrows and other facial and bodily features. And what about that window against the back wall? What about the two bunks? What about the bottle of Schnapps that Dr. Erskine

Courtesy of the Visual Effects Society.

carries (his toast to Rogers at the end of the brief scene: “Here’s to the little guys!”)?

A special effects nightmare!

Faced with this enormously detailed and incredibly tedious FX assignment, Claus would need the courage of two Captain Americas, if he hoped to make it to the finish line.

“There’s a famous phrase in Hollywood,” he told Nebraska

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

26 FALL 2013

I

Claus’ Movie Projects

Captain America

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Magazine with a mournful sigh. “Movies are never finished, they’re just abandoned!”

But the tireless artist kept plugging away on his shrink assignment … and eventually wound up winning a prestigious award for Outstanding Compositing from his admiring peers in the Visual Effects Society for the terrific job he did on “Captain America.”

A Cinematic Scene: Lunch at Trastevere

Perched above a steaming bowl of Gnocchi Al Pomodoro at the Trastevere Italian outdoor café in downtown Santa Monica, the 34-year-old Claus recently regaled a reporter with stories – Great Moments in FX! – about some of the film projects (“Star Trek,” “Hugo,” “The Social Network,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) on which he has worked during his seven years at LOLA VFX. It was a warm, blue-sky afternoon in July of 2013, and the veteran “compositor” (his formal title) was explaining “just how tough” things can get during the final stages of producing a major Hollywood epic. The dialogue unfolded like this:

I

REPORTER (amazed, curious): Wow! That does sound pretty stressful. How about the technical side? How hard is it to use all that computer gear effectively, so that you get exactly the special effect you want, every single time?

CLAUS (chuckling, enjoying himself ): Well, I’m what they call a compositor, which means that I take all of the elements of what will become the final movie image seen on screen, and I put them together in such a way that makes it look real to the audience. Generally speaking, this means working on the film frame by frame in a manner that’s similar to painting – except digitally of course.

So on a project like “Captain America” … you’re basically working frame by frame. And on that job, changing his body was only the beginning. Because you’re also painting the shadows as you go. You’re painting the highlights, making sure the smaller neck would still animate correctly when he would turn his head, or speak or swallow. Making sure that even though he [the Steve Rogers character] no longer has any muscles in his chest, you [the moviegoer] still feel that inhale and exhale.

REPORTER: You won a coveted “Outstanding Compositing” award from the Visual Effects Society for your work, and your studio, LOLA, has contributed to films that won four Academy

I

REPORTER: How tough is it to bring a huge project like “Captain America” to completion, when you’re responsible for the visual effects?

CLAUS (thoughtful, reflective): It’s very tough. The film is yours while you’re working on it, as far as the visual effects are concerned … but then there’s the visual effects supervisor for LOLA, and then the VFX supervisor from the studio, and then the director – and then the producers, who will sometimes have different opinions than the director.

And you have to please all of them. And a lot of times, you’re getting opposing notes. You know: “Make him taller;

make him shorter.” And you have to decide: which one am I gonna do?

So on almost every movie, there’s never that moment where you say, “We’re done.” You keep working until the due date and do the best that you can do with the time that you are given. As artists, we can always find things to improve on our work – and we’re always our own worst critics.

Prometheus

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Star Trek

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 27

Courtesy of Paramont Pictures

Awards for Special Effects in recent years. Are you jaded and unimpressed by your accomplishments ... or is winning those kinds of awards still a thrill for you?

CLAUS (smiling, delighted): Well, I love movies and I love being part of making them. You know, I worked on “Star Trek” … and that was a series that I used to enjoy watching with my dad [Terry Claus, a printer and occasional art teacher, now deceased]. In fact, we would often watch “Star Trek” as a family while eating dinner. So getting to take part in the new adventures of Captain Kirk and the Enterprise, knowing how excited my dad would be about that – that was just a great feeling.

And then knowing that I contributed to those Academy Awards … that was very exciting. My wife Jamie [UNL graduate Jamie McConnell] and I came out to Los Angeles from Nebraska in 2007, not long after graduation from UNL, and I was very fortunate to get my first job in the industry at LOLA. And for me that was really a dream come true.

I remember, Jamie and I watched the Academy Awards on the night when LOLA was part of the team that won an Oscar for “Benjamin Button,” which I had worked on … and there were plenty of hugs, and we celebrated and it was just a great feeling. And then I called home to Lincoln, where I’d grown up starting at the age of six, after we moved there from Hastings … and I talked with my mom [a public elementary school art teacher for nearly 40 years], and she knew I had worked on the film, and she was excited about the Oscar as all moms would be.

Photo by Daniel Jauregui

I

REPORTER: That must have been a very thrilling moment. But how difficult is it to keep up with the movie industry? Is it like pro sports, where if you lose half a step, your career may be finished?

CLAUS (meditative, philosophical): Well, you really do have to keep up. I mean, you don’t really have time to do on-the-job training with all the new software and things like that … because you have deadlines. That’s something you have to do on your own.

REPORTER: So how tough is the pressure? Do you worry that you might fall behind, might lose your magic touch and lose your job as a visual effects specialist in Hollywood?

CLAUS (laughing, but a little uneasy, anxious): Well, I think most artists feel that at any moment they’re gonna be caught as a fraud. Somebody’s gonna walk in and say, “We’re onto you; you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re out of here.”

But it hasn’t happened yet! v

Striking it Rich – with the Help of ‘Captain America’

Ever wondered how much dough the Hollywood moguls make when they create a successful summertime blockbuster?

The answer in a single, thrilling word: tons.

“Captain America” – the smash-hit superhero flick of 2011 – provides an exciting case in point.

Launched to mostly positive reviews in July of that year, the Marvel Studios saga of a 90-pound weakling who became a muscle-bound American fighting machine with enough firepower to stop a dreaded Nazi monster (the insanely vicious Red Skull) dead in his tracks, the Paramountdistributed popcorn extravaganza nailed down a cool $68 million on its opening weekend in the U.S. Although the producers had fretted for months that the rest of the world might 28 FALL 2013

not empathize with a character named America, the Chinese and the Indians and the Europeans snapped up tickets to the cinematic potboiler at a frantic pace.

When the smoke cleared a few months later, the numbers showed that the Captain was on course to earn as much as $400 million in toto, worldwide.

The total cost to produce this thrill-aminute swashbuckler, in which “Captain America” wipes out half the German Army by throwing his specially designed “boomerang shield” at them? Only $140 million.

If you do the math, you’ll quickly see that we’re talking about $260 million in potential take-home profit for the Big Dogs who run Tinsel Town.

Not a bad day at the office, right? Is it any surprise to discover that Marvel is already working on a sequel (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) ... and that it’s already scheduled to arrive at your local Cinemaplex in the summer of 2014?

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NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 29

UNL, OPS Partner to Improve Math Education

By Jessica Arriens National Science Foundation It took Paula Jakopovic more than a decade of public education before she experienced her “spark,” before math “came alive,” before she learned to explore and collaborate and discuss the subject oft-maligned by students and teachers alike.

But once that math spark hit, Jakopovic had one thought. “I want to do that. I want to do that for kids.” And even: “I want to do that for teachers someday.”

As an elementary mathematics coach in Omaha Public Schools, Jakopovic now works to trigger similar sparks for her colleagues and students. Her job ‒ and the lessons leading to it – stem from an innovative partnership between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and some of the state’s school districts.

Long funded by the National Science Foundation, the partnership encompasses three projects of NSF’s Math and Science Partnership program and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program: NebraskaMATH, Math in the Middle and NebraskaNOYCE. Together, they have allowed hundreds of Nebraska teachers to earn advanced degrees in mathematics education, supported dozens more as they work in high-need schools and prompted the growth of a cadre of master teachers. The partnership is built on the idea that better math teachers make better math students.

A recent funding boost should help the partnership produce more of both.

In July, Omaha-based The Sherwood Foundation and the Lozier Foundation provided a grant to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support a partnership between Omaha Public Schools and UNL’s Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education.

30 FALL 2013

Jim Lewis, head of UNL’s Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education, teaches “Mathematics as a Second Language” to Omaha Public Schools teachers. They are participating in Math in the Middle courses through the NebraskaMATH Omaha Public Schools Teacher Leader Academy. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln photo)

The $5.5 million grant supports a threeyear NebraskaMATH Omaha Public Schools Teacher Leader Academy. It will allow more than 250 teachers in the Omaha district to take graduate coursework in mathematics education.

Omaha is Nebraska’s largest district. More than 70 percent of the students are ethnic minorities and receive free and reduced lunch.

The grant “gives us a real opportunity to make a big difference,” said Jim Lewis, Aaron Douglas Professor of Mathematics.

Lewis directs UNL’s Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education, which houses NebraskaMATH and the other initiatives.

“I’m just honored that there are

public-minded citizens in Omaha willing to make this major commitment,” he said. “I think that NSF funding made it possible to develop and refine these programs … to do the research that offers reasons to believe that these things make a difference, in the lives of students as well as teachers.”

A mathematician by training, Lewis began working with his education faculty colleagues nearly a decade ago, crafting Math in the Middle, a master’s degree program for middle school mathematics teachers in Lincoln and rural Nebraska districts. Over the years, that project evolved and intertwined with other NSF grants. Now, UNL and partner schools work together on K-12 math teacher

Marni Driessen, a math coach at Mount View Elementary and Wakonda Elementary in Omaha Public Schools, works through a math lesson with a first-grade classroom at Mount View. Driessen completed Primarily Math, a NebraskaMATH program for K-3 teachers, in 2011. She is now an instructor for the Omaha Public Schools Teacher Leader Academy. (Photo by Stephanie Vendetti, University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

development, plus support for science, technology, engineering and math majors and professionals to become secondary math teachers in high-need schools.

“We not only want to provide professional development and graduate education,” Lewis said; “we want to take the very best and give them opportunities to be a part of the instructional faculty,” creating talented teachers who become leaders in their schools and share knowledge with others.

This is the approach Jakopovic now takes in her own school. The Math in the Middle classes she took were intense and sometimes frustrating, she said, but they helped her become a better teacher.

“It gave me a lot of perspective on kids that struggle through math,” explained Jakopovic, who earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and her master’s degree in mathematics for teachers from UNL. Thanks to her experience with UNL’s math education programs, she’s now working on her doctorate in educational studies.

NebraskaMATH and its partner initiatives have crafted a “wonderful partnership,” said Joan Prival, program director for the Math and Science Partnership and Noyce programs at NSF. By linking the university and school districts, as well as new math teachers and seasoned ones, “they are building

this strong and enduring community – mathematics teachers, school administrators, and higher education mathematics and mathematics education faculty – focused on positive experiences and outcomes for students.”

Measuring the effectiveness of the projects is ongoing. But in Lincoln, where multiple teachers have now received advanced degrees, “it’s changing the conversation in elementary schools,” Lewis said.

“I think this has grown in ways that I didn’t anticipate,” said Ruth Heaton, a UNL professor of teaching, learning and teacher education who has worked

with Lewis on these projects since 2004.

Heaton expected the program to focus simply on people becoming better classroom teachers. Instead, she found teachers eager not only to learn but also to work toward a master’s degree or beyond. Half of the original class of Noyce scholars are pursuing doctorates.

Yet what makes Heaton proudest is something far less tangible.

“I think the piece that I feel best about is the way in which we’ve helped teachers ... see what they’re capable of. We’ve helped teachers see that they can reason and think about mathematics. And we’ve done the same thing for children.” v

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 31

Chasing

the B

G

BANG

Opto-mechanical engineer Larry Stepp (B.S. ’73; M.S. ’78) builds giant telescopes for some of the world’s most accomplished astronomers ... and the one he’s working on right now is a real doozy. If he and his colleagues at the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope Project in California are successful, they may soon make it possible for astronomers to look back down the river of cosmic time to the very edge of the “Big Bang” – the titanic explosion that scientists theorize launched our universe 13.8 billion years ago.

By Tom Nugent

F

our hundred years after Galileo first pointed his telescope at the heavens and changed the way human beings perceive the cosmos, an anxious man from Lincoln, Nebraska, found himself struggling with a giant hunk of polished glass on a mountainside in the wilds of northern Chile.

The man’s name was Lawrence (“Larry”) Stepp. The year was 2000, and the glass hunk weighed 23 tons and had cost more than $12 million to build.

It was an enormous mirror ... a glittering, 26-feet-in-diameter crystalline monolith that was about to become the pupil in a great, Cyclopean eye. If all went according to plan, that eye would soon be parked on the summit of Chile’s mighty Cerro Pachon – and then trained on the star-swarming depths of outer space.

Unless Stepp and his team of movers dropped it, that is.

32 FALL 2013

As the former UNL engineering grad student and his daring crew inched along a gravel road at the reckless speed of three miles an hour, Stepp was feeling just a tad nervous. Why was he so concerned? It was quite simple, really: the fragile cargo he was ferrying up the mountain was literally irreplaceable. Cushioned inside a customdesigned and thoroughly tested container mounted on a special 64-wheeled transport vehicle, the jumbo-sized mirror was in fact the culmination of tens of thousands of hours of effort by astronomers, optics experts and mechanical engineers located in half a dozen different countries scattered around the globe.

A veteran opto-mechanical engineer who’d spent several years managing the team that had brought the mirror to Chile, Stepp knew he was participating in a major moment in the history of modern astronomy: the launch of Gemini

Thirteen telescopes are located near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, including the Gemini Northern telescope.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 33

The Gemini South primary mirror approaches the observatory site in Chile.

South, one of the largest and highest-resolution optical infrared telescopes ever to be built by humans.

Was it any wonder, as the strange-looking transporter crept like an enormous, rubber-wheeled spider toward the summit of 8,900-foot-high Cerro Pachon, that the Lincoln native was feeling a whole lot of anxiety?

Built in the United States by a consortium that had included scientists, astronomers and engineers from the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil and Argentina, the

massive Gemini telescope mirror had been polished to an astonishingly smooth luster. (To understand just how smooth the mirror was, imagine enlarging it to the size of the entire United States. Viewed on that titanic scale, even the largest flaws in the mirror’s surface would still be much smaller than the typical speed bump you might find in a leafy suburban neighborhood.)

The precious glass had been treated with exquisite care throughout its long journey from the U.S. to Paris, France (where it had been polished to a glistening sheen). Once the polishing was complete, the great looking glass had traveled via a specially rigged container ship through the Panama Canal and on to the Pacific Coast of Chile.

After disembarkation, the big glass eye had crawled for three days at a lazy snail’s pace toward the great mountain range that flanks the Pacific on the western edge of the South American country.

And now they were on the last leg.

Hour after hour, on that hot summer day in 2000, Stepp watched as the giant mechanical spider nudged its way along the gravel road that ran from the base of Cerro Pachon to the mountain’s majestic summit. It was an unforgettable afternoon.

“That mirror was as wide as the highway,” the gray-bearded, soft-spoken engineer told Nebraska Magazine 13 years later, while remembering the struggle to get the super-expensive glass up the mountain. “To move it down the road, we needed

Look ... Up In the Sky ... It’s Ikeya-Seki!

The name of the comet was hard to pronounce ... but the moment Larry Stepp spotted the shimmering space object in the Nebraska sky, he was hooked on the science of astronomy forever.

For the stargazing future UNL engineering student – who’s currently hard at work managing the construction of what will probably be the largest optical infrared space telescope ever built – that early-morning moment of discovery triggered a lifelong passion for observing celestial bodies.

“I was 15 years old that fall,” Stepp recalled during a recent interview with Nebraska Magazine, while remembering the morning in 1965 when he first laid eyes on the majestic vapor trail that soared above the skies of Lincoln, “and the arrival of Ikeya-Seki was all over the news. So I went outside one morning to take a look.”

One of the brightest comets to have been seen from earth in the previous 1,000 years (and named for its two Japanese discoverers), the zooming space rock was also known popularly as “The Great Comet of 1965.” Lit up by the sun, the long-tailed voyager was easily spotted by observers from America to Australia, as it skimmed past earth on its endless

34 FALL 2013

journey throughout the solar system.

“You didn’t need a telescope to see it,” Stepp remembered, because it was very large in the sky, and especially in the early morning. I was intrigued by it, and I wanted to learn more, so I started looking around ... and I discovered this really remarkable club [the Prairie Astronomy Club] right in Lincoln. I joined right away and I soon began learning everything I could about astronomy and telescopes.”

Describing the excitement he felt as a stargazing 15-yearold sophomore at Lincoln High School, Stepp said his 30year career as a world-renowned builder of giant telescopes actually got its start on the day he watched Ikeya-Seki flash down the morning sky.

“I feel very lucky,” he said during an interview at the headquarters of the $1.4 billion, non-profit Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) Observatory Corporation in Pasadena, Calif., where he currently serves as Telescope Department head. “I’m fortunate because I’ve been able to spend almost my entire career working on the thing I love most – which is designing and building large telescopes.”

Chasing

the B

G

BANG

a special kind of trailer. And then when we finally got to the summit, we needed a special lifting device.”

The precious cargo reached the observatory about noon. The container was opened, and the mirror was inspected to ensure it had survived the trip. Then the representative of the polisher and Stepp actually walked over the surface of the mirror in their stocking feet, after having carefully emptied their pockets of coins, keys and pens. The mirror was in perfect condition! The shipping company managed to produce a bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion – although Stepp would only let his crew sip at the bubbly, because their most demanding job was just beginning.

Using a specially built 28-foot-diameter lifting mechanism, the mirror was lifted, the container removed, and the process of transferring the mirror into the safety of a large stainless steel vacuum coating chamber was begun. Every step was performed slowly, and with extreme care. The hours passed and afternoon turned into evening, but in an environment subject to frequent earthquakes there was no option other than to continue until the mirror was safely stowed inside the container.

“When you’re dealing with a 26-foot primary mirror, you don’t just leave it at the end of the day dangling from a crane,” Stepp said.

In the end, they worked until 4 o’clock the next morning to get the mirror safely settled inside the body of the coating chamber.

“That was the kind of accomplishment that stays with you, as an engineer,” Stepp recalled later.

Mission accomplished! The mirror had been put to bed ... which meant that it would soon begin helping astronomers from all around the world to learn more about everything from black holes and dark energy to supernovas.

All that remained now was to load the team members back into their Chevy Suburban SUV and start back down the mountain.

“I was the only one who was still awake, at that point,” said Stepp, “so I drove.

And I had a Suburban full of people. We’d gotten about halfway down the mountain, when we suddenly

came around a corner – and the road was full of goats. There were at least 50 of them, blocking our path.

“One of the local farmers was in the middle of moving his herd of goats, and he must have figured there would be no people, no traffic on the road. Well, fortunately, I was still awake at the wheel ... and the curve wasn’t so blind that I couldn’t see the goats before I plowed into them.”

For the bemused Larry Stepp, that moment on the goatcrowded road in darkest Chile perfectly captured the spirit of the amazing journey he and his fellow telescope-builders had been on from the beginning.

Recalling the moment when two worlds met on the gravel road to Cerro Pachon, he smiled happily and his 63-year-old eyes glowed with nostalgic memory. “That was the sort of thing – nearly hitting all those goats – that you had to be ready to cope with, if you wanted to build an observatory [in rural Chile].

“A 20-hour day – and then barely missing the goats as you head back down the highway!”

Thank You, Gerald Smith!

Born and raised in Lincoln, where his father (former Education Professor Robert E. Stepp, Jr.) was a highly regarded UNL faculty member for many years, Larry Stepp grew up on and around the campus of the university he would later attend.

A science and math whiz kid who loved to gaze at the stars above

The Gemini South telescope at Cerro Pachon in Chile.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 35

52 Years of Stargazing ...

At Lincoln’s Prairie Astronomy Club

When the renowned telescope-builder Larry Stepp was a boy and living in Lincoln, he joined a remarkable group of sky-watchers whose 52-year-old organization is still going strong today.

Known as the “Prairie Astronomy Club” (http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/), this gung-ho assemblage of stargazers has in recent decades gained a national reputation as a thriving enterprise with a knack for building powerful telescopes. Their meetings are held at the regionally famous Hyde Memorial Observatory, a one-of-a-kind observatory located near Holmes Lake in southeast Lincoln, where visitors can watch nearby planets and distant galaxies every Saturday night year-round, free of charge.

“I joined the club way back in 1965 at the age of 15,” recalled telescope-builder Larry Stepp, “and I’ve kept in touch with them ever since, even though I now live in Pasadena.

A few years ago, they were kind enough to make me a lifetime member. For a city the size of Lincoln, it’s really remarkable to find a group of astronomers as dedicated and as knowledgeable as this group.”

Mark Dahmke, a former UNL computer science major who founded and now operates a well-known software consulting company (Information Analytics) in Lincoln, and who’s been a club member for nearly 20 years, said that Stepp is regarded by most members as a legendary maker of space telescopes.

“The great thing about Larry is that he’s a major international figure in telescope design and fabrication,” added Dahmke, “and yet he’s so soft-spoken and reserved that you’d never know it. He’s obviously a great engineer, and he loves what he does.

“He’s one of the fortunate few who’ve been able to live the dream of working in the field of astronomy,” noted Dahmke, the author of a recent book on the history of the club (“The Prairie Astronomy Club: Fifty Years of Amateur Astronomy”).

“A lot of people in the club are just drooling at the thought of what he’s been able to do during his career.”

36 FALL 2013

his family’s home in eastern Lincoln, he dreamed as a teenager of someday becoming a professional sky-watcher.

“By the time I was ready for college, it seemed quite natural for me to head for UNL,” he said. “I started out as a physics major, but I eventually figured out that I really enjoyed designing and building things. Fortunately, I was able to get into what was then known as the ‘Integrated Studies’ program at UNL – and that allowed me to [create] a major by putting together a program [of studies] called ‘Interdisciplinary Science.’

“I took courses in astronomy, anthropology, chemistry, geology, geography, physics, math, zoology and psychology. Then, after I’d graduated in 1973, I wound up working as an instrument maker for several years for the Engineering Mechanics Department.”

While working every day in the department’s machine shop, Stepp got to know then-chairman Gerald Smith quite well. “He gave me some very good advice and lots of practical help,” remembered Stepp. “I never really expected that I would spend my career as a designer of telescopes for astronomers – but the training I got at UNL [while working on his master’s degree in engineering mechanics], along with some courses in optics I took later at the University of Arizona, was actually very helpful in preparing me to work as a telescope-builder.

“To this day, I’m grateful for the guidance and knowledge I received as a grad student at the University of Nebraska.”

After leaving Lincoln to take a job at Texas Instruments, Stepp became an expert at crafting mechanical parts for a wide variety of high-tech devices related to electronics and optical systems. In 1984, after spotting an “intriguing ad” for engineers at the fast-growing National Observatory in Tucson, Stepp sent in his application ... and wound up working for the next decade or so on some of the world’s most sophisticated telescopes.

That job led directly to his ten-year stint on the Gemini twin-telescope project, after which (in 2001) he was tasked with heading up the AURA New Initiatives Office, founded to study how to build a next-generation 30-meter telescope. Eventually that effort was combined with similar

Attending UNL a ‘Family Affair’ Is it any wonder that telescope builder Larry Stepp regards UNL as his second family? Describing his longtime links to the university, the famed optics expert is quick to point out “both of my parents and all of my brothers and my wife and her brothers all received degrees at UNL.” Here’s the Stepp lineup of UNL grads, with degrees duly noted: Father: Robert Stepp, Ph.D. in educational administration Mother: Nancy Stepp, M.Ed. in educational administration Brother: Robert Stepp, B.A. in physics, M.S. in computer science (received Ph.D. at Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) Brother: John Stepp, B.S. in anthropology and M.A. in museum studies Wife: Vicki (Dean) Stepp, B.S. in education/economics (received M.A. in economics from Columbia) Brother-in-law: Randy Dean, B.S. in electrical engineering Brother-in-law: Dwight Dean, B.S. in business management

Chasing

the B

G

BANG

development projects in California and Canada, resulting in creation of the Thirty Meter Telescope Project. In 2004, Stepp was appointed to his current position as Telescope Department Head at the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Observatory Corporation, headquartered in Pasadena, Calif. There he manages the design and construction of what will almost certainly be the largest optical infrared telescope in the history of astronomy.

A non-profit R&D partnership that includes several American and Canadian universities, along with national observatories and facilities from China, India and Japan, the TMT consortium has been raising more than $1 billion for a project that doesn’t expect to see “first light” until at least 2022. (The huge venture, already more than a decade old, has evolved significantly as new partners have been added – making Stepp’s role extremely challenging and complex, he said.) When it is completed, the giant observatory will be planted near the summit of the mighty Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii.

When that happens, the hugely powerful “eye in the sky” will be capable of collecting photons from light sources billions of miles out in space ... making it perhaps the most sharp-sighted optical infrared telescope in the history of astronomy. Among the scientific goals of the venture, according to the sponsoring Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and other backers of the project, are the following: • Learning more about how the first stars and galaxies were formed in the universe.

• Exploring the structure of dark energy and dark matter ... while also testing the accuracy of the current Standard Model of particle physics.

• Studying how galaxies form in space, and how they have evolved.

• Looking for clues to the hidden connections between super-massive black holes and galaxies in the depths of space.

• Locating and exploring “exoplanets” with potentially life-supporting physical characteristics similar to those found on Earth.

• Searching for life outside our solar system.

‘I Love What I Do.’

For Larry Stepp, who has enjoyed a highly successful, 30-year career as a telescope designer and builder (and who has no plans to retire anytime soon), creating these precision tools for the world’s most accomplished astronomers is hugely satisfying. Married to Cal Poly Pomona Director of Research and Sponsored Programs and UNL grad Vicki (Dean) Stepp and the father of three grown sons, the Pasadena star-gazer said his greatest reward is knowing he’s been able to use his

Image of the “Fireworks Galaxy” NGC 6946 that straddles the borders between the constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus.

Taken at the Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. (Photo courtesy of Gemini Observatory/AURA).

knack for managing projects to help build vitally important astronomical instruments. An optimist by natural inclination, he said he’s convinced that some of those tools will continue to help astronomers study the universe far down into the future.

“If everything goes according to plan, the TMT will be nine times more powerful than the largest optical telescopes in the world today,” he said with a smile, when asked to “speculate a bit” about what’s coming next in the world of astronomy.

“I think we’re on the verge of really gaining a tremendous amount of new knowledge about how the universe works.

“The pace of discovery has increased significantly in the last 10 or 15 years, and these new observatories that have been built in the United States and Chile and elsewhere have contributed greatly to that.

“As a telescope builder who fell in love with astronomy while looking at the stars in my backyard in Lincoln, I feel incredibly lucky to have been part of it all. I love what I do, and although managing a big project such as the TMT can be stressful at times, there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing each day.” v

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 37

NEWS

Nebraska Legends Growing membership in NAA’s Scarlet Guard.

The Nebraska Legends Scholarship Because of the success of the welcomed its largest number of program, the Department of Academic students to campus this fall as Affairs has expanded their resources 391 freshmen entered the program for Legends scholars. The incoming (compared to 142 last fall and 80 scholars will be the first Legends the first year). The size of the group to use UNL’s new resource – Firstmeant that the traditional opening Year Experience and barbecue had to be Transition Programs. held in two shifts. The This office includes a Aug. 19 event at the director, two academic Nebraska Champions success coaches Club gave the scholars and two graduate a chance to meet assistants who serve the other scholars as coaches. and the Nebraska One of the Legends staff, receive latter is also the Nebraska Legends new coordinator welcome packets and Kim Schumacher of the Nebraska learn more about their 38 FALL 2013

Legends Scholarship Program. Kim Schumacher, a 2013 UNL graduate in hospitality, restaurant and tourism management with an emphasis in event planning and public relations, became coordinator Aug. 1 and works from the Wick Alumni Center.

Prior to earning her bachelor’s degree, Schumacher worked with New Student Enrollment as the communications specialist for student staff at UNL. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in educational administration and is a member of the Student Affairs Cohort. Former coordinator Chelsea Heidbrink is now advising at-risk students at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. v

NEWS

Football Friday Fun at the Railyard The Nebraska Alumni Association brought its 2013 edition of Football Fridays to the Railyard, Lincoln’s new entertainment district in the historic Haymarket, on Aug. 30. More than 250 alumni and friends enjoyed a panel discussion featuring Husker alumni Eric Crouch, Tommie Frazier and Matt Davison, sportswriters Steve Sipple and Mike Babcock and broadcaster Kevin Kugler.

Fans enjoyed a special treat when emcee Greg Sharpe interviewed Director of Athletics Shawn Eichorst and Mike Devaney, son of the late Bob Devaney (lower left). Mike Devaney and son, Rob, were in town for the unveiling of a bronze statue of his father in the new East Stadium addition.

Other highlights of Football Friday were appearances by the pep band, yell squad and Herbie Huskers and games and activities for the children. v

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 39

NEWS

Huskers Set Royals Record

A Royals College Night record 5,100 Nebraska alumni and fans showed up for the first-ever Husker Night at Kaufmann Stadium Aug. 10 in Kansas City. Fans showed their support for Nebraska alum and MLB All-Star Alex Gordon as well as Nebraska baseball

coach Darin Erstad, who threw out the first pitch. Erstad later joined the Royals’ broadcast crew as a guest in the FOX Sports television booth, answering questions about his MLB career, Gordon, Nebraska baseball and more.

Nebraska Alumni Association staff members were on hand, along with Athletic Department staff, yell squad members and mascots Lil Red and Herbie Husker. The event was so successful that a repeat is planned for next summer. v

Walk or Ride Down Memory Lane How long has it been since you walked across the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus? The campus is growing in dramatic ways, with more changes on the horizon. Let us show you! The Friday before each home football game (except the last game with Iowa), the NAA will conduct onehour tours of campus.

The tours will start at the Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R Street, at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Reminisce, and look toward the future. To register, call 1-888353-1874 and tell us what you would like to see. v

40 FALL 2013

Alumni Greg and JoAnn Kemist (first and second from left) hosted a Nebraska Legends Scholarship Program reception for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Nebraska Alumni Association on Aug. 13 at their home in Woodside, Calif. Among the guests were UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Lisa Boohar (far right) of San Francisco, a member of the Nebraska Legends Scholarship Campaign Committee.

Denver Meets the Best of Nebraska More than 180 alumni and friends flocked to Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver Aug. 8 to celebrate Nebraska:

NEWS

• Chancellor Harvey Perlman shared

the campus master plan to fulfill

our potential as a premier Big Ten university.

• Director of Athletics Shawn

Eichorst previewed new athletic

facilities and highlighted the outstanding academic

performance of Husker athletes.

• Head Men’s Basketball Coach Tim Miles gave the audience a view

of the new Pinnacle Bank Arena

and Husker basketball prospects

for the upcoming season.

• Director of Admissions Amber

Williams discussed progress

toward the 2017 enrollment goal of 30,000 plus the success

of the Nebraska Legends

Scholarship Program.

• CBA Dean Donde Plowman updated the crowd on plans for

the new CBA building which

will become a community for CBA students, focused on

learning, technology and collaboration.

• Former Husker All-American

Tommie Frazier was honored for his upcoming induction into the

College Football Hall of Fame.

• Nebraska Alumni Association

Executive Director Diane

Mendenhall thanked the gathering for their support through NAA memberships and

scholarship gifts.

In addition, the Coloradans for Nebraska alumni chapter was recognized for its 100th anniversary and for being the chapter that has raised the most in scholarship dollars this year. v NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 41

Thank You Alumni Volunteers!

It has been six months since we asked for volunteers to transcribe (type) the text found in a century of Cornhusker yearbooks at http://

transcribe.unl.edu.

Alumni answered the call and after six months you have transcribed 16,097 pages out of a total of 34,816 pages! Eleven yearbooks have been completely transcribed, including the 1884, 1892, 1898, 1899, 1904 and 1910.

The top volunteers are swarde71 who has transcribed 5,615 pages, luckypenny who has transcribed 2,412 pages and Sandra Benson who has transcribed 1,966 pages.

Benson, a UNL graduate of 1963 and 1977, was attracted to the project because she likes to type and loves the yearbooks. She spends part of her year in her home in Nevada and has enjoyed transcribing pages when she found time to “plug away at it.” She started transcribing the oldest yearbooks left, when UNL was a totally different campus than the one she attended in the early 1960s.

NEWS

New Advisory Council Members Announced

“It has been very interesting to see the progress of the campus in its buildings, the growth of clubs, social activities, and even diversity,” explained Benson on what she found fascinating about transcribing the yearbooks.

Benson plans to continue helping the University Archives transcribe the yearbooks and other UNL historical documents as they are posted.

There are still 18,000 pages to transcribe in the yearbooks. If you would like to help, here’s how to get started:

1. Go to http://transcribe.unl.edu.

2. Click on the Yearbook project.

3. Make an account – this is not required, but we’d love to recognize any volunteers that contribute toward the success of this project.

4. Select a yearbook and page to transcribe.

5. Start typing what you see on the page.

6. Click “Save” when you’re finished.

Once the content of the yearbooks has been transcribed, it will be merged with the online images of the yearbooks, making them searchable. Eventually, other documents will be added to the site for volunteers to continue the work of preserving and sharing UNL history. v

The Nebraska Alumni Association Advisory Council has tapped six new members to start three-year terms this fall. Representing all UNL colleges and a wide range of geographic locations, class years and business professions, the council meets twice annually on campus to learn about university and alumni programs and to provide an alumni perspective.

New council members are:

• Jennifer Christo, ’97, ’99, Omaha • Daniel Dawes, ’06, executive director, government relations, Morehouse School of Medicine, Mableton, Ga. • Rick Grady, ’98, ’04, associate attorney, Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory, New Albany, Ohio • Pam Hemann, ’70, president, Association Management Services Inc., Pasadena, Calif.

• Bill Munn, ’90, ’94, secretary and general counsel, Nelnet Inc., Denver • Kevin Schneider, ’85, ’87, attorney, Cline Williams Wright Johnson and Oldfather LLP, Raymond

42 FALL 2013

Nebraska Alumni Association staff members were on hand to help at the first UNL graduation held in the new Pinnacle Bank Arena Aug. 16 and 17. Among the 775 new alumni was Kayla Abel, past board member of Scarlet Guard and Official Tradition Keeper medallion recipient, who received a bachelor of sciences in education and human sciences with highest distinction – one of only two graduates to earn that honor.

Enter the 2014 Nebraska Magazine Writing Contest and compete for a byline!

The Categories

• Alumni Profiles: Write about a Nebraska grad with an interesting hobby or career.

• Nostalgia Pieces: Tell us about a memorable student activity you participated in at UNL, or write about a favorite professor.

The Prizes Three prizes will be awarded in each category, and the winning articles will be published in Nebraska Magazine.

• 1st Prize: $500

• 2nd Prize: $250

• 3rd Prize: $100

The Details Articles must be 750 to 1,000 words in length, typewritten. Entry deadline is April 15, 2014. Submit entries, along with the author’s name, address and phone number.

• By mail: Magazine Writing Contest, Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-1651.

• By e-mail: nebmag@huskeralum.org • Online: huskeralum.org/

podcasts: Radio On-Demand

A World Beyond the Tuner

From sports to comedy, listen to what you want when you want it. Stay informed anytime anywhere on the Midwest’s hottest topics and trends. Hear your world.

Husker Legend Touchdown Tommie Frazier It’s not where I’ve been, it’s where I’m going...”

Tommie Frazier’s Xs & Os Kicking Off Kicking off the BDP network is Tommie’s Xs & Os. A weekly episodic original that all Husker fans must experience. With in-depth analysis and fast pace debates, this show will leave you amped up for more. ..

pod•cast / pad kast / noun A multimedia digital file made available on the Internet for downloading or streaming to a portable media player, computer, smart tv, etc.

On the world wide web @ www.BestDamn.TV

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 43

ALUMNI

CHAPTERS & AFFILIATES

UNL alumni and Sasaki curators at the “Reinvention in the Urban Midwest” exhibit opening.

Nebraska Alumni in Boston View Campus Plans Nebraska alumni living in the Boston area made their way to the Boston Society of Architects on July 17 to view “Reinvention in the Urban Midwest,” an exhibition at BSA Space, Boston’s leading center for design and architecture. Curated by Sasaki Associates, the exhibition focused on current forms of reinvention in the urban Midwest and explored the drivers for such a recurrent phenomenon:

global competition, cultural shifts, dwindling resources, and the acute need for greater resilience.

“Plan Big: UNL Campus and Landscape Master Plan,” one of five case studies in the show, spoke to the importance of campus identity and “sense of place,” an elusive yet critical emotional connection we make to a physical environment. (As this magazine went to press, the UNL

Northern Nevadans for Nebraska held their 2013 Summerfest picnic on July 20.

44 FALL 2013

Campus and Landscape Master Plan was still pending approval by the NU Board of Regents.)

Other plans in the exhibit included the Chicago Riverwalk; Midtown Detroit TechTown District Plan; The Tomorrow Plan in Des Moines, Iowa; and The Ohio State University Park–Stradley Hall in Columbus, Ohio. The Nebraska alumni were among many Midwestern transplants who attended the event. v

The Inaugural Nebraska vs. Wyoming Alumni Golf Day was held August 25 at the Bayard golf course. Pictured with the traveling trophy is the first-place Nebraska Panhandle Alumni Chapter team of George Schlothauer ’95, Mark Schlothauer ’02, Sonny Marez, and John Schlothauer ’02.

Each year, a group of Washington Cornhuskers go salmon fishing in the Pacific Ocean. On July 19-20, (left to right) Jim Burkhardt, chapter president; Ken Geddes, chapter member; David Knaup, chapter community outreach coordinator; Dennis Brown; and Win Hobbs, chapter membership database manager, caught 31 salmon and 69 sea bass aboard a boat commanded by Erik Krema, program manager for KKNW 1150 AM, Home of the Huskers.

Retired Husker Defensive Coordinator Charlie McBride and former Husker Head Football Coach Bill Glassford (1949-1955) attended the Huskers N Arizona Chili Cook-off and Swap Meet on March 3, five days before Glassford’s 99th birthday.

The Northern Alabamans for Nebraska held a picnic July 13 at the Madison County Nature Trail located atop Green Mountain in southeast Huntsville.

The Birmingham Magic City Huskers also attended along with Nebraska friends, age 2 months to 85 years.

NEBRASKA BOOKSTORE 1300 Q St. neebo.com/unl

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 45

ALUMNI AWARDS Nebraska Alumni Association

// Awards Nominations

Nebraska Alumni Association Awards Program The alumni awards program is designed to recognize outstanding alumni, students and former faculty from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in several categories.

Alumni Awards

Alumni Achievement Award Established in 1974, the Alumni Achievement Award honors alumni who have a record of outstanding achievements in a career and/or civic involvement. The association seeks to recognize alumni at all stages of their lives and careers, including young alumni.

Outstanding International Alumnus Award Established in 2006, this award honors alumni who were non-U.S. citizens during their attendance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and who have attained national/international prominence through their efforts in education, sciences, technology, agriculture, the arts, business, humanities, government or other world endeavors.

Alumni Family Tree Award Established in 1995, the Alumni Family Tree Award honors one family per year that has at least three generations of University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduates and at least two family members with a record of outstanding service to the university, the alumni association, their community and/or their profession.

Distinguished Service Award Established in 1940, the Distinguished Service Award recognizes alumni who have a record of distinguished service to the Nebraska Alumni Association and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Student Awards

Shane Osborn Award Established in 2002, this award recognizes students who share the characteristics of Lieutenant Shane J. Osborn, a 1996 UNL graduate who courageously piloted a U.S. reconnaissance plane to a safe crash landing after it was hit by two Chinese fighters and subsequently endured an aggressive interrogation by the Chinese Government. The Nebraska Alumni Association is pleased to honor Lt. Osborn annually by recognizing a student who demonstrates similar characteristics in his or her daily life including courage, integrity, honesty, humility and faith. The award is not limited to students with ROTC involvement.

The winner of the award will also receive a $500 scholarship stipend.

Rules: 1. Recipients MUST attend the awards ceremony to receive an award. If a recipient is unable to attend during the year in which they were selected, they may defer to the following year.

2. The fact that an individual has previously received an alumni association award in another category does not preclude him/her from receiving another award.

3. The awards committee will accept nominations from any alumnus, friend or alumni affiliate organization of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

4. The awards committee retains and considers nominations for three years or until selected.

5. If a recipient is deceased, a representative of the family may accept the award.

6. The deadline for submitting nominations is November 1 of each year.

Howard and Judy Vann Student Leadership Award Established in 1998, The Howard and Judy Vann Student Leadership Award recognizes undergraduate students who have shown exceptional leadership capabilities through energetic participation in student activities, commendable classroom performance, and the personal integrity, perseverance and sense of honor demonstrated by those who successfully lead their peers. The winner of this award will also receive a $250 scholarship stipend.

Retired Faculty Award

Doc Elliott Award Established in 1986 to honor a retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty or staff member who has exhibited a record of exemplary service, whose caring has made a difference in the lives of students and alumni and who has gone beyon d traditional expectations. Recipients must be former faculty or staff members of UNL who have been retired at least five years.

Instructions: 1. Complete the award nomination form. Be sure to indicate for which award you are placing this nomination.

2. Submit a letter of nomination describing the nominee’s accomplishments and why you believe he/she is deserving of the award.

3. Send the completed form and the letter of nomination to: Alumni Awards, Nebraska Alumni Association, 1520 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-1651.

Nominations may also be placed online at huskeralum.org/ events/awards.

Nominators will be notified of their candidate’s status whether or not they are selected for the award.

This notification generally happens in January. Only nominees who are chosen to receive an award will be notified of their selection/nomination.

46 FALL 2013

CLASSNOTES

News/Weddings/Births/Deaths

n Kenneth and Emogene Spann of Corvallis, Mont., celebrated 70 years of marriage June 5.

1951

Joe and Virginia Hageman, ’50, of Lincoln celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary July 25.

1952 Paul (left) and Benjamin Rehmar on campus.

Class of 1934 Benjamin Rehmar, Santa Monica, Calif., and brother, Paul, ’44, of Columbus, Ohio, visited Lincoln and the campus of their alma mater for the first time in decades, touring UNL with the alumni association serving as their hosts.

1943

■ Robert

Butler, Olathe, Kan., returned to the UNL campus in May for the first time since 1993 and had an enjoyable time visiting sites old and new, including a tour led by Professor Jerry Hudgins of the electrical engineering department in the College of Engineering.

1947

n Wayne and n Joyce Neumann Keim of Fort Collins, Colo., celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary Sept. 6, 2012, and Mr. Keim marked his 90th birthday May 14.

1948

n Albert and Eleanor Mazour

Hamersky of Lincoln celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary June 16. n Richard and n LaRayne Steyer

Wahlstrom, Brookings, S.D., marked 66 years of marriage Aug. 17.

1949

n H. Gale and Lucille Erlewine, ’48, marked their 65th wedding anniversary June 19. They live in Highlands Ranch, Colo.

Wally and Beverly Barnett of Lincoln celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in June.

1957

n Dale Marples, founder of CFO

Omaha Inc., is leading the CFO Systems LLC small business division after its merger with CFO Omaha Inc. The two firms provide financial leadership to small and middle-market entities across the United States.

Con and Carolyn Schneider of Lincoln celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 15.

1964

Dwaine and Donna Mapel of Lincoln marked a half century of marriage June 22.

Marvin and Janice Rohr Scheuler of Hebron celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July with a family dinner at Chances R in York.

1965

Mary Gieseker Pumphrey of Bella Vista, Ark., is an avid quilter and was the senior member of the area group, QUILT (Quilters United in Learning Together) to be chosen to show her work at their show. She has attended quilt shows in Australia and England.

n Ron and Marjorie Nelson Joekel of Lincoln celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary May 24.

■ Edward Donnelly has retired as compliance psychologist for the Boston Public School System and adjunct teaching position at Boston State College, and now lives in Sarasota, Fla.

■ Niel

and ■ Verna Kindig Tubbs of Beatrice celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary June 3.

n Steve and n Carol Sue Schnei-

■ Marvin

and ■ Mary Rhodes, ’53, Lincoln, marked their 60th wedding anniversary July 26.

1960

Bill and Phyllis Story of Lincoln celebrated 60 years of marriage June 23.

Georgianne Mastera is the chair of the board of trustees for the Bryan College of Health Sciences of Lincoln.

n Wayne A. and n Darlene E.

1961

1966

Imig Schild of Austin, Texas, completed two Vantage Travel Riverboat trips in 2013: the Netherlands and Belgium in March and Monaco and the French Waterways in June, with the tour finishing in Paris. The couple attended Schild’s 24th Korean War Veteran’s Reunion in Gettysburg, Pa., as well as the Fourth of July celebration in Seward.

1954

n Wendell Harding was interviewed by Fox News in a segment for Fox Files recounting the infamous Charles Starkweather-Caril Ann Fugate murder spree in 1958. Harding, of Windsor, Colo., was a reporter for the Lincoln Star and covered the crimes that rocked the Capital City area.

1955

n Glenn and Janet Tiekotter Smith of Scottsdale, Ariz., marked their 60th wedding anniversary June 18.

■ Indicates Alumni Association Life Member

■

1959

der Honey, ’63, of Manassas, Va., celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Oct. 6.

Rolando and Karen Long Santos of San Marino, Calif., reached the half-century mark in their marriage May 26.

Dale and Jeanette Stengel of Geneva celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Aug. 10.

1962

Ann E. Lott is the new medical director for MedSpa services at Bryan LifePointe in Lincoln.

Lott is a dermatologist.

■ Mylon and ■ Patricia Filkins, ’65, of Bakersfield, Calif., celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary July 1, 2012.

Milan “Buzz” and JoAnn Murphy of Lincoln celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary Aug. 18.

1963

Gary and Barbara Bell Hoffman of Lincoln celebrated 50 years of marriage June 15. n Ken and n Clarice Pisar

Sabata, ’65, Wahoo, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary July 7.

n Don and Connie Bjerrum Whittemore of Seward marked 50 years of marriage by touring Japan with their family.

1967

1968

■ Stephen Vose of Rockport, Mass., is starting a family business, the Yeat Trading Company, which will focus on buying and selling a variety of commodities.

1969

■ Keith Fickenscher, Lancaster Rehabilitation Center director of operations, received the Bill Harris Friend of Veterans Award. The honor goes to a Lincoln area individual who has gone above and beyond to help veterans.

1970

n William Kathrein, an Omaha dentist, was a recipient of the Academy of General Dentistry’s

Indicates Alumni Association Annual Member NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 47

CLASSNOTES highest honor, the Lifelong Service Recognition Award, presented in Nashville, Tenn., this summer.

Ken and Bonnie Kreshel of Wilber celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Aug. 17. n Roger J. Miller, an attorney

with McGrath North law firm of Omaha, has been elected fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

1971

Ed McPherren has retired from coaching and teaching after 43 years at Lincoln East High School.

1972

n Lois Brehn Kiester retired

after 25 years at Des Moines Area Community College, Continuing Education Department.

In addition, Kiester received the Distinguished Service Emeritus Award from the Iowa Association of Lifelong Learning.

Leslie Peterson, a client development manager with the Omaha engineering firm Lamp, Rynearson & Associates, has been named a principal with the company.

Richard D. Sievers, formerly a judge in the Nebraska Court of Appeals, has joined the Lincoln law firm Perry, Guthery, Haase and Gessford PC, LLO. Linda Splichal has retired after 36 years of teaching in the elementary schools of the Lincoln Public School System.

1973

Sally Butler is the bookkeeper for DesignWorks Interior Design Group of Lincoln.

Bruce Cramer has joined Arbor Bank of Omaha as senior vice president/director of commercial lending.

Karen Hand retired after many years as director of athletics and activities with the Lincoln Public School System.

48 FALL 2013

n Lanny Schmid of Fremont received the 2012 Professional Environmental Excellence Award from the Association of American Railroads. The honor is the highest for environmental professionals in the railroad industry, and Schmid is director of environmental affairs for Union Pacific.

1974

n Dan Dillon has become the media coordinator for District Attorney Marc Bennett in Wichita, Kan., after 34 years as news director for KFDI Radio in Wichita.

Russ and Kay Pearson Hicks of Beatrice celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary July 28.

1976

n Mariliss Erickson of Aurora, Ill., is serving as president of the Illinois Library Association.

1977

n Jerry Tagge, founding partner

of the wealth management company Tagge Rutherford Financial Group, attended the 2013 Cetera Advisors annual awards conference in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.

Mary Wolfe has retired from elementary teaching after 26 years in the Lincoln Public Schools.

1978

Penny Hamilton, Granby, Colo., was noted as a 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient by Columbia College, Columbia, Mo., for her regional and national expertise as an aviation educator.

1979

Jill Benda has retired from the Lincoln Public Schools System after 34 years.

1980

n Bradley D. Belt has joined Orchard Global Capital Group/ Orchard Global Asset Management as vice chairman.

Orchard is an international alternative asset manager who invests in hedge funds, man-

aged accounts and structured investment vehicles on behalf of sovereign wealth funds, public and private pension plans, foundations, endowments and family offices.

Jeff D’Agosta has been appointed chief legal officer and general counsel for MWH Global, an international consulting, engineering, environmental and construction services company headquartered in Broomfield, Colo. n Thomas Geu, North Sioux City, S.D., is the dean of the University of South Dakota School of Law. ■ Ali Hosseini had the e-book version of his novel “The Lemon Grove” chosen by Amazon as one of their 100 Titles of the Month (June). The Hudson, Mass., resident was the subject of the cover story in the Spring 2013 edition of Nebraska Magazine.

n Cynthia Naughton, Pelham, Mass., was honored by the Massachusetts State Cultural Council with a Gold Star Award for her work with the children’s theater group, Pelham Players, which she founded in 2002. At the awards ceremony, Naughton was also presented with Citations of Achievement by the Massachusetts State House of Representatives and Senate. n Michelle Petersen received the John J. Hanigan, MD, Memorial Award from the LincolnLancaster County Health Department in May.

1981

Chip DeBuse, a Lincoln lawyer, has been named vice president for development for the Lincoln Community Foundation.

Pat Lester is part of the sales staff at the Lincoln real estate firm Nebraska Home Sales.

Mark Kisker was named vice president and trust officer for the Lincoln market by Pinnacle Bank.

n Anthony Yip of Singapore writes “Let’s try to bring the Good Life of Nebraska to our community of UNL_FANS in Singapore! Go Big Red!”

1982

n Rich Claussen, an executive vice president with the Lincoln advertising agency Bailey Lauerman, has been recognized by the Lincoln chapter of the American Marketing Association with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to marketing excellence and the Lincoln community. n David Kilgore has been promoted to vice president of City Bank and Trust of Lincoln.

Lisa Lackovic is the architectural representative for Endicott Clay Products Co. of Fairbury, and will serve the Omaha area.

1983

■ Barbara Romo of Albuquerque, N.M., was selected Prosecutor of the Year for the 13th judicial district at the annual district attorney’s conference in Albuquerque in May. The honor recognizes continued dedication to prosecuting and training in child abuse cases.

Phyllis Webb has been named to Waddel & Reed’s Advisor Medalist Program, which honors the firm’s top 250 financial advisers. Webb works in the Lincoln office of the asset management and financial planning company.

1984

Jeffrey W. Clark of Lincoln has qualified as a championship agent by Farmers Insurance for his outstanding overall performance.

Brad Flemmig of Lincoln has retired from Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Allan Wasserman of Ashland is an account manager for distribution with KZ-Valve of Greenwood.

By Carroll McKibbin

Alumni Profile ’75

washington insider Jim Crounse

The White House loomed ahead.

Jim Crounse,’75, paused on a December evening to absorb a beautiful sight: the snow-covered lawn twinkling in the moonlight, the brilliant white columns of the North Portico ascending skyward, the warm lights of the First Family’s residence glowing in the darkness. Crounse thought the scene perfect for the Obamas’ 2009 Christmas card.

The UNL alum recalled a question asked of him as a student: “What can you do with a degree in political science?” If he knew then what would develop later, he could have replied, “You might become a consultant to the president of the United States.”

Crounse wasn’t on official business this time. Instead of going to the West Wing where the Oval Office is located, he was on his way to the White House theater in the East Wing. Jim Messina, the President’s deputy chief of staff, was hosting a television viewing of a championship football game that pitted his alma mater, Montana University, against Villanova.

President Obama had approved of Messina’s party with a smile and a quip, “Okay, Jim, enjoy the game with your friends,” he said. “But don’t ask me to pay for the popcorn.”

The two Jims became acquainted in 1995 when Crounse hired Messina as his deputy chief of staff in Senator Max Baucus’s office. They later worked together in the 2008 campaign of Barack Obama and would team up again in 2012, this time with Messina as the campaign manager, in the president’s successful bid for a second term.

A crowd of Montana fans and Messina friends watched the game that evening, including Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester. The outcome was not to their liking, however, as

Villanova won 23 to 21.

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a long way from Decatur Street in Omaha where Jim Crounse grew up in a family with a long political tradition. Joseph Krantzman, his great-grandfather, immigrated to Omaha from Russia in 1894 and, in a patriotic gesture, assumed the name of Nebraska’s incumbent governor, Lorenzo Crounse.

Joseph’s son, Jacob, served two terms in the Nebraska Legislature during the 1930s. Paul Crounse, Jacob’s son and Jim Crounse’s father, became deeply involved in state and local politics, including attendance at a 1968 event that is indelibly inscribed in the younger Crounse’s memory.

As part of a protest, Paul Crounse took his 15-year-old son to an Omaha political rally held by George Wallace, an arch-segregationist and presidential aspirant. Wallace’s racist message at the Civic Auditorium provoked a chair-throwing, Mace-spraying melee that mushroomed into violent and destructive riots on the Near North Side.

The next morning, a dismayed freshman viewed the continuing mayhem from a Central High classroom window. Sirens screamed; buildings burned. A lifelong sense of public responsibility was born within Jim Crounse on that day, an attitude reinforced when he later enrolled at the University of Nebraska.

Crounse recalls how two UNL classes, both taught by a young political science professor (EDITOR’S

NOTE: That professor was Carroll McKibbin), captured his imagination and spurred his ambitions. The first course, Nebraska Government, featured several state officials as guest speakers, including then-Governor Norbert Tiemann. The participation of those public figures added a human element to the class and gave Crounse thoughts of one day joining their ranks. In the second course, the American Presidency, the instructor illustrated points by referring to his personal Washington experience that included contact with White House officials. Prior to that class, Crounse’s political interests centered on Nebraska. Afterward, he added national politics to his prospects.

Crounse intended one day to run for office. But first, after graduating from UNL, he followed his father’s footsteps to the Creighton University Law School.

When an Omaha vacancy opened in the Nebraska Legislature, the political science student interrupted his studies to enter the primary. He had made a fateful decision, and not because he won – he didn’t – but because he became acquainted with the winner: Peter Hoagland. A life-changing relationship developed

Continued on Page 50 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 49

CLASSNOTES washington insider Continued from Page 49 as Crounse came to regard Hoagland as a mentor, like an older brother.

Hoagland took Crounse to Lincoln as his legislative aide. When an opportunity to work with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee developed in 1987, Crounse moved to Washington and served under Rahm Emanuel, later President Obama’s chief of staff and now mayor of Chicago.

Hoagland also moved to Washington when elected to the House of Representatives in 1990. Crounse became the new congressman’s chief of staff, a position which afforded him experience in all forms of campaigning. He became intrigued with the significance of direct mail techniques and switched from Capitol Hill staffer to a practitioner on reaching voters via written materials. With an interruption in the 1990s to serve as Senator Max Baucus’s chief of staff, Crounse has continued in the direct-mail profession to this day.

His original organization, the Mack/Crounse Group, developed into the largest firm of its type in the United States. Along the way, he assisted in the campaigns of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and a host of other officeholders at all levels of government.

In the spring of 2013, Crounse moved to a senior partnership with AMHC, a national political consulting and direct mail firm.

Crounse has been forever loyal to the University of Nebraska. He listened as a child to Cornhusker games broadcast by the legendary Lyell Bremser. As a devoted alum, he has created the Peter J. Hoagland Lecture series that brings politically significant people from all over the country to the UNL campus, endowed a scholarship in the name of his parents, and contributed to the Forsythe Human Rights program. In turn, UNL has honored Crounse by selecting him as an Alumni Master in 2008 and appointing him to the Board of Trustees of the University of Nebraska Foundation. v

1985

n Alan Bauer has been hired

as manager of accounting and human resources at Best Cob, a processer of agricultural by-products in Independence, Iowa, and headquartered in Rock Falls, Ill. Bauer lives in Sterling, Ill.

1986

Craig Schroeder has been a senior fellow with the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship in Lincoln for 10 years.

Renee Sjulin, vice president of Runza National of Lincoln, has been welcomed to the Bryan Health board of trustees. n Dave Swanson joined ING U.S. as senior vice president of product management for the employee benefits business, headquartered in Minneapolis.

1987

Robb D. Bunde, a founding shareholder and attorney with the law firm Bunde, Gillotti, Mulroy & Schultz PC was recognized as a 2013 Pennsylvania Super Lawyer by Pennsylvania Super Lawyer Magazine, the sixth time he has been honored as such. He lives in Sewickley, Pa. n John Dederman, Redmond,

Wash., has recently become the chief financial officer at the Rairdon Auto Group in the Seattle area.

Cindy Oelke of Omaha has been appointed chief fund development officer for Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska.

1988

n Kevin C. Meyer of Lincoln is the vice president for advancement at Doane College in Crete. Prior to assuming his position at Doane, Meyer was senior vice president and chief administrative officer for the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Melanie Whittamore-Mantzios was installed as the 2013-14 vice president/president-elect

50 FALL 2013

for the Lincoln Rotary #14 Club.

1989

Kristin Holmes has been selected as the new director of membership for the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce.

1990

Michelle Holliday, a financial adviser in the Lincoln office of asset management and financial planning company Waddell & Reed, has been named to the Advisor Medalist Program, which recognizes the firm’s top 250 advisers.

Duane Want, Walton, was named the president of Union Title in Lincoln.

1991

Bryce Bunde of UnitedHealthcare is the new president of the Omaha Association of Health Underwriters.

Steven J. Berryman completed a business school partner development program and received a certificate in executive management in April. Berryman is an attorney with the national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP in Milwaukee.

Robert M. Dana was named manager of the mechanical engineering department of The Schemmer Associates Inc., an architectural/engineering firm based in Omaha.

Lynette Von Minden, senior public relations counsel in the Lincoln office of marketing communications company Swanson Russell, was named to the board of directors for the Construction Writers Association.

1992

Michael Alessandro has been appointed executive vice president of sales for WebEquity Solutions, an on-demand lending software company in Omaha.

Susan Becker has been promoted to director of human resources in the Lincoln office

By Kathe Andersen

Alumni Profile ’07

Stuntwoman Dream Becomes Reality Jessie Graff

Around three years old, Jessie Graff saw a circus and thought she wanted to try something like that. By age 12, she decided she was going to be an action hero on television like she saw on shows like “Xena: Princess Warrior” or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

“My Mom told me I had to learn how to act, so I came here and majored in theatre,” said Graff, who graduated with a bachelor of arts in theater in 2007.

Now, Graff is living out her dream as a stuntwoman in Los Angeles.

She has done stunts or performed as a stunt double on such TV shows as “Leverage,” “Castle,” “Modern Family” and “Southland” and films such as “Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon,” “X-Men: First Class” and “Live Free or Die Hard.”

“I’m absolutely in love with the career of stunts,” she said. “It’s just everything I’ve always wanted to do and done for fun in my free time just combined into one job. As a kid I was always climbing everything, jumping off of everything, faking accidents – my poor parents.”

In high school, Graff was into athletics, rather than acting. She was involved in gymnastics and pole vaulting. She attended Georgia Tech and majored in aerospace engineering before transferring to UNL to study theatre and compete in pole vaulting for the Huskers track and field team.

Her adviser was Associate Professor of Theatre Harris Smith, who is one

Jessie Graff. Photo by Craig Chandler.

of three faculty in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film certified by the Society of American Fight Directors to teach stage combat.

“He was just the perfect fit for me,” Graff said. “I got to help out in his stage combat classes, so I got a good foundation there. He was able to guide me how to be an athlete and how to be a theater student at the same time.”

She also finds her theater training gives her an advantage in auditions.

“If I had gone straight into stunts out of high school, I’m sure I could have been a good stunt double in a lot of ways, but I wouldn’t have thought about how much acting is involved in it,” Graff said. “There are so many parts that are like ‘woman says random statement and then gets bumped into or hit by a car’ or ‘jogger in the park has one line and is murdered.’ At UNL, I got comfortable with dialogue and being in front of the camera.”

Graff said there is a big difference between being in a fight and acting a fight.

“Learning to tell a story, you can take a punch almost in the same direction and be a hero who gets hard and comes back, or you can be the weak person who gets thrown to the ground,” Graff said. “It’s all in how you sell the reaction.”

One of the most important things a stunt person can learn is landing position.

“The important thing is finding that

landing position that is safe, and then drill it over and over,” Graff said. “If you can control your body at like onetenth of normal speed, it learns really well where it needs to go. When I’m at home, I drill these things all the time on trampoline. If you don’t know how to fall, you’re going to smash your face or your neck.”

Graff returned to UNL this spring to teach a couple of workshops at the Lincoln Assassination Stage Combat Workshop.

“It was really exciting being back on campus. I haven’t seen it since I graduated,” she said. “And just hearing about everything that’s going on and how the program is linked with the film school and the projects they are doing” was exciting.

Close collaboration between film and theater is a bonus for students at UNL, Graff said.

“Just so much of what you’re hired on is your experience, not just doing the skills. Everyone trains the skills.

They’re more comfortable with people who have experience with a film crew on a set. It’s set etiquette. The fact that students here are getting that, it just puts them so many steps ahead.”

Graff is excited to be producing some of her own work. One of her ideas involves a parody of the chicken fight from “Family Guy,” and she has lined up several professionals to help with the shoot.

“What I’ve been shocked about is I didn’t realize how easy it is to get

Continued on Page 52 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 51

CLASSNOTES stuntwoman dream becomes reality Continued from Page 51

of Assurity Life Insurance Company.

Gwen Heller is a new customer service team member at SolutionOne, a Lincoln company that provides customized solutions for the printing and document technology needs of business.

1993

n James Bandy of Vermillion, S.D., is the senior associate athletic director for internal operations at the University of South Dakota.

Paul Crist has accepted the position of chief technology officer and vice president of the technology services division at Lincoln Electric System.

Jessie Graff works with a student during the Lincoln Assassination Stage Combat Workshops. Photo by Craig Chandler.

other people in the business to collaborate,” she said. “Everyone is waiting around for someone to present them with an opportunity, and that was me for six years. It just seems like anything is available if you get out there and create the opportunities yourself.”

Graff said stunt work is basically a job that supports her training habit. When she first moved to Los Angeles, she looked for the gyms where people trained.

“There were probably 12 major ones. I signed up at all of them, and I went from one gym to the next and met all of the stunt people,” Graff said.

But her persistence paid off.

“I’d go up to all the stunt people and say, ‘That was an amazing trick, how’d you do that?’” she said. “And they’d teach me. I would just ask everyone, and they would get to know my personality, what my skills are and how quickly I learn, so that’s how I learned to network. In order to succeed in this business, you have to be in sight all the time.”

People interested in stunt work need to have a passion for this kind of work, Graff said.

“If you’re not in love with the idea and know that you would do this for free for the rest of your life, then it’s probably not worth going into it,” she said. Over the course of time, you’re going to get a lot of hard hits. You train all the time. It’s going to be rough and cold, and you’re going to get knocked down and be shivering all night.

“But if you get the same kind of rush as I do from jumping off a bridge or doing a fight scene or faking a huge wipeout where everyone thinks you’ve broken your neck and you’re totally fine – if that sounds like a blast to you, then you can absolutely do it.”v Reprinted from arts magazine/2013, Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

1994

Kirsten Sladovnik is an associate with the sales staff at CBSHome Real Estate in Omaha.

1995

Mary Gilmour, Lincoln, celebrated birthday number 90 on June 3. n Brian Jones, Columbus, Ohio, has been promoted to assistant professor at Ohio Christian University in Circleville, and recently completed a oneyear term as area governor at Toastmasters International in central Ohio.

Mary Martin of Hays, Kan., serves as an at-large member of the board of directors for the Fort Hays State University Alumni Association, and is part of the membership and marketing committee.

Kelly Wieseler has been named senior vice president and chief actuary for Ameritas Life and Ameritas Life of New York in the Lincoln office.

1996

Michael Quinn, a financial adviser in the Omaha office of Ameriprise Financial, qualified for and attended the 2013 Circle of Success Conference.

Donald Stech of Claymont, 52 FALL 2013

CLASSNOTES Del., is the 2013-14 Salem County (N.J.) Teacher of the Year, and wishes to “thank my classmates and great teachers at UNL.”

John L. Decker Jr. has been selected president of Smith Hayes, a financial consulting and investment firm based in Lincoln.

Shawn Wills of Omaha is the director of national sales for Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital of Lincoln.

Will Hays is a senior marketing consultant with Pickering Creative Group, a marketing/ design agency in Lincoln.

1997

1999

Monte Peterson of the Omaha wealth management company Tagge Rutherford Financial Group attended the 2013 Cetera Advisors annual awards conference in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.

Kevin Torczon has been appointed director of the Omaha office of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.

1998

Mark and Jeanene Cordes of Waverly marked a half century of marriage June 8.

Daniel J. Epstein, an attorney with the Omaha law firm Lieben, Whitted, Houghton, Slowiaczek & Cavanaugh PC, LLO, is now a shareholder with that firm.

Rusty Divine has joined Five Nines, a Lincoln provider of managed and IT services, as a senior software engineer.

Kent A. Steen, an architect with Davis Design of Lincoln, has received his professional license to practice architecture in the state of Nebraska.

2000

Philip Crosland has been hired by ScanMed, an MRI firm based in Omaha, as the manager of administration and finance.

n Larissa Johnson, Gretna, has been appointed partner with the Omaha office of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. Johnson has 14 years of experience at the firm working with both privately held companies and SEC registrants.

Melanie Rogge has been hired as the director of development for the YMCA of Greater Omaha.

Adam Stodola has been recognized as the 2013 Engineer of the Year by the Kansas Society of Professional Engineers. Stodola lives in Kansas City, Mo., and is highway engineer with George Butler Associates Inc.

2001

n Robert Bowen is the proprietor/owner of Just a Cigar in Sacramento, Calif. n Candace Cain of Burwell was honored with the title of 2013 National Outstanding Junior Member Runner-Up at the Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress, held in Washington, D.C., this summer.

Sean P. Connolly has been added to the Omaha law firm of Kutak Rock LLP, where he is a registered patent attorney.

2002

n Jennifer Adams has taken a position as an in-house copywriter with AWAI Inc. in Delray Beach, Fla.

Derek Kotschwar, an engineer in the Lincoln office of Engineering Technologies, has been promoted to senior associate.

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2:01 PM NEBRASKA8/24/12 MAGAZINE 53

CLASSNOTES Joe Niedbalski, general manager of the 40th and Yankee Hill location of Runza restaurants in Lincoln, earned the Manager of the Year Award in his sales category.

Adam D. Pavelka has joined Agri Affiliates to establish a branch office in Hastings, where he will provide real estate services of property management and real estate sales.

Ryan Richmond of Lincoln has been hired as president of Eagle State Bank, Eagle, after 10 years of banking in the Grant/Imperial area.

which recognizes the firm’s top 250 advisers.

Timothy Langan has been selected chief operating office for Investors Realty of Omaha.

Chris Loos has been named director of campus safety at Park University, Parkville, Mo. Lindsay Wewel has been promoted to manager of the Lincoln office of the national accounting firm BKD.

2004

Patricia L. Vannoy, an attorney with Mattson Ricketts Law Firm of Lincoln, has been selected a partner with the firm.

2006

Eric A. Gerrard has been added to the legal staff at the Lincoln law firm Bartle & Geier, where will work in the areas of general trial and litigation matters.

Jessica L. Janssen is a private banking officer with Fremont National Bank & Trust of Fremont.

Nick L. Sassaman has been named vice president and relationship manager with Cornhusker Bank in Lincoln.

Adam Mach has been named to Waddell & Reed’s Advisor Medalist Program, which honors the firm’s top 250 financial advisers. Mach works in the Lincoln office of the asset management and financial planning company.

Meg Schwartz has been hired

by CBSHome Real Estate as a sales associate and is based in the Northwest office.

Jamie Otto has rejoined First National Bank of Lincoln as vice president of sales for commercial banking.

Emily Poeschl is the new associate director of marketing for the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Adam Proskovec of Omaha has been promoted to the position of deputy chief compliance officer with Securities America, a La Vista-based independent broker/dealer.

Amber Wolff began her role as the programming vice president of the Lincoln American Marketing Association on July 1. She is an account coordinator in the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell.

2003

Emily Bannick, director of marketing in the Omaha office of Bahr Vermeer Haecker Architects, has been named an associate in the firm.

FWBank of Omaha as vice president in the lending division.

Emily Rea has been promoted to vice president, Greater Nebraska branch manager for Union Bank & Trust of Lincoln.

Michael Hamaker has been promoted to tax manager with the Omaha accounting firm of Seim Johnson LLP.

Keith Station is the executive director of YMCA of Greater Omaha, where he manages the Butler-Gast YMCA.

Shane Hoss, Bellevue, is a senior associate in the Omaha office of Engineering Technologies. He was promoted to that position after previously being an associate.

2005

n Carl Bartholomew has joined

Matt Jenkins, an attorney with the Lincoln law firm of DeMars Gordon Olson Zalewski & Wynner, is now an associate with the firm.

Theodore Kinkaid, a financial advisor in the Lincoln office of asset management and financial planning company Waddell & Reed, has been named to the Advisor Medalist Program, 54 FALL 2013

Leah Gibson of Lincoln has joined Heartland Optical as an optometrist.

Catherine Meier of Duluth, Minn., has received the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Meier is known for her large-scale graphite drawings, woodcuts and animations.

Maggi Thorne, Lincoln, was selected Mrs. Nebraska International for 2013.

Nathan Krug of Bel Aire, Kan., has completed his residency at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita Family Medicine Residency Program at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.

2007

Steve Arens, an engineer with the Lincoln architectural/engineering company Davis Design, has earned a professional license to practice structural engineering in the state of Nebraska.

Justin Fujan is part of the community outreach team at Tabitha, a Lincoln-based elder care services provider.

Dan Huter has been promoted to branch manager of the Northern Lights location of First National Bank in Lincoln.

Michael J. Smith II has been promoted to manager of the Omaha accounting company McFarlin & Brokke.

2008

Sean Burton has been granted tenure status at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa, where he serves as division chair of arts and humanities, The Gilchrist Foundation Director of Choral Activities and associate professor of music.

2009

Cassie W. Kleinsmith, graduated from Creighton University Law School in May 2012 and was admitted to the Colorado Bar Association. Kleinsmith graduated in May 2013 with a master’s from Creighton’s Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution and currently works for the Neighborhood Legal Services Association in Pittsburgh.

Blake R. Loper has joined the Omaha law firm Kutak Rock LLP and is member of the intellectual property and information technology group.

A.J. Ostdiek has been hired by Five Nines Technology Group, a Lincoln provider of managed and IT services, as an account manager.

Trevor Tonniges has passed his professional engineering exam and has been promoted to associate engineer at Olsson Associates, a Lincoln engineering and design company.

2010

■ Amy Forss of La Vista has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Hungary, where she will be teaching American History and American Studies at Kecskemet College in Kecskemet. Her first book, “Black Print With a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star Newspaper, 1938-1989,” will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in January 2014. Forss is working on a nonfiction children’s version of her book and also writing a monograph on media and the modern women’s movement. She is faculty and subject coordinator of the history program at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha.

By Carol Munch, ’83

Alumni Profiles ’79

CrissCrossing the Country Russ Munch

While riding to and from University of Nebraska-Lincoln classes in the late 1970s in rain, snow or on ice, Russ Munch probably was not thinking about the experience as training for his future hobby.

Graduating with a degree in business finance in 1979, Munch pursued the “American Dream” by landing a position as a finance manager for a large grocery supplier in Houston, where he lived with his wife and young family. In the early ’90s, he received a higher calling, changing to a second career as a pastor in the United Methodist church. After attending seminary at Southern Methodist University, he received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Houston Theological Seminary.

In nearly 20 years of ministry, Munch has used his foundational education and experiences at UNL to be a leader in all that he pursues.

In his early 50s, Munch realized the need and desire for more exercise to complement his healthy eating habits.

Although he owned a bicycle, very little time had been spent pedaling as the years passed. The opportunity and enjoyment of riding year round encouraged him to begin riding the roads near his home in rural East Texas. Starting out on a mountain bike, his interest grew as he learned more about the sport. The next purchase was a road bike, and soon Munch was biking 20 miles or more per day and had dropped 60 pounds.

In the summer of 2010, Munch began to dream about riding across America – from north to south and then West Coast to East Coast. He named his adventure

Russ Munch ceremonially dipping his front tire into the Atlantic Ocean at Virginia Beach, Va., on Aug. 4, 2012 after pedaling 3,000 miles across America in 46 days of riding.

(He had dipped his rear tire in the Pacific Ocean when the trek began in June)

“CrossN’America,” with plans to ride a literal “cross” across America.

The purpose of the CrossN’America trip was first to make a witness of the significance of the Cross and secondly to raise funds for missions.

He started a self-motivated training program, logging 2,000 miles by the end of December with a total of 5,000 miles pedaled by June 2011. Time was spent planning and preparing for the north to south portion of the adventure which would take place later that summer.

On Tuesday, July 5, 2011, Munch’s journey began from International Falls, Minn. His wife and father followed in a support vehicle pulling a trailer with extra bikes, spare tires and parts. Somewhat following the Mississippi River Biking Trail, the trio made their way south averaging

around 100 miles per day. Traveling across country on the highways and byways of America at 15-20 miles per hour, one can experience the beauty of our country in a new and unique way. Stopping to visit small towns, hold ministry events and meet people were the highlights of the trip.

Munch made his way through Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. After riding 19 days and 1,750 miles, he reached the coast in New Orleans. He felt a great sense of accomplishment, but soon began plans and training for the next leg of his CrossN’America journey, which would occur the following summer.

After driving from Texas to Huntington Beach, Calif; Munch began the second part of CrossN’America on Tuesday, June

Continued on Page 56 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 55

CLASSNOTES crisscrossing the country Continued from Page 55 12, 2012 as he dipped his back wheel in the Pacific Ocean, then pedaled nearly 100 miles just to get through the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Crossing deserts, mountains and extreme heat through California and Arizona proved challenging but rewarding as the avid cyclist biked to the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Riding on past Four Corners and into Colorado, the extreme challenge was Wolf Creek Pass in the Rocky Mountains. When asked how he could accomplish such a

Grand Canyon National Park, June 2012.

Laura Frantz is a realtor with HOME Real Estate of Lincoln.

■ Tarah Neujahr has accepted a position of managing editor for Health Catalyst in Salt Lake City, Utah.

■ Bryce Willis of New Rochelle, N.Y., joined Rolfs Elert Office, Port Chester, N.Y., as a junior architect.

■ Jenifer Willis of New Rochelle, N.Y., is a marketing coordinator in HDR’s Manhattan office.

2011

Dave Burchell of Lincoln is the Web developer for IdeaBank Marketing, a Hastings-based advertising agency.

Joshua E. Detlefsen is an attorney with Mattson Ricketts Law Firm of Lincoln and was recently made an associate of the firm.

Heidi Kuchta has been hired as an electrical engineer in the Omaha office of Engineering Technologies.

feat, Munch answered calmly, “just one pedal at a time.” Leaving the Rockies behind him, he trekked across Kansas, fighting strong winds. Continuing across Missouri and Tennessee, he encountered many hills but was awestruck once again by the incredible beauty and diversity of the country.

As they traveled east, the trio began to notice an increase in historical sites with some dating from the 17th century. Traveling slowly across the land gives one an appreciation for the first settlers of our country; the strength, bravery and courage they had to make their way without the modern conveniences we take for granted.

On August 4, 2012, after 46 days of riding, Munch pedaled his final miles into Virginia Beach, Va. The CONNECTION BOX trip odometer on his well-worn bike turned to exactly 3,000 miles as he reached his destination, First crossnamerica.blogspot.com Landing State Park, where he dipped the front tire ceremonially into the Atlantic Ocean to complete the trek across the country. The coast-to-coast trip took an average of 75 miles per day, giving the family time daily to explore the countryside and sites along the way, with Sundays off for rest.

Today, Munch can be seen still riding around the piney woods of Texas enjoying the scenery and visiting church members while keeping in shape for that next challenge which may be around the corner. Now that he has pedaled across America, perhaps new trails and adventures – even exploring other countries on a bike – will be in his future. Riding a bicycle has become more than just a way to get across campus or a hobby; for Russ Munch, it is a part of life.v

56 FALL 2013

Kelly Tyrrell is an account manager with marketing communications firm Swanson Russell and works in their Lincoln office.

2012

■ Robert Butler is assistant golf course superintendent at Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Matthew Larson is a financial adviser with the Omaha office of Renaissance Financial.

Thomas Peters of Lincoln has been added to the financial adviser team in the Omaha office of Renaissance Financial.

Kelsey Richard serves as an associate writer/producer for the Lincoln office of the marketing communications firm Swanson Russell.

Erin Schiltz is an audiologist with ENT Nebraska of Lincoln.

CLASSNOTES Jana Schneider has been added to the staff of the Omaha office of the marketing communications firm Swanson Russell.

The Elkhorn resident is an account coordinator.

Jenni Schroeder works as a media coordinator in the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell.

2013

Carly Belz is part of the design team at Paul Daniels Interiors of Lincoln.

Jack Christie is a production artist in the Lincoln office of the marketing communications firm Swanson Russell.

■

Dan Goecker is part of the estimating staff with the Omaha construction company MCL Construction. He will be responsible for creating and maintaining subcontractor relationships, establishing preconstruction budgets and value management.

Anjli Ohs has joined Paul Daniels Interiors of Lincoln as a designer.

Chad Lile and Missy Huenink, ’07, May 4. The couple lives in Lincoln.

Abram Lueders, ’11, and Abigail Powers, ’11, Dec. 29, 2012.

The couple lives in Lincoln.

■ Brian Sunderman has joined the Lincoln office of the financial investment company Smith Hayes, where he is an investment consultant.

Aaron Stitt and Shelly Kubicek, ’07, April 6. The couple lives in Seward.

■ Tim, ’12, and Ellen McKitterick, June 9, 2012. The couple lives in Lincoln.

Anthony M. Watson and Cassie W. Kleinsmith, ’09, Nov. 3, 2012. The couple lives in Pittsburgh and Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

Robert Carraher and Rachel Sydzyik, ’13, June 22. The couple lives in Lincoln.

John Dutton Beecham, ’10, and Jessie Samantha Jenkins, ’05, May 26. The couple lives in Omaha.

Jeff and n Jennifer Carson, ’98, their second child, first son, Hayden Charles, Aug. 2. The family lives in Leawood, Kan.

WEDDINGS

Bob Weyland and ■ Kathy Ashenfelter, ’80, Jan. 19. The couple lives in Denver. n Kevin Nelson, ’98, and Rachel Hahn, April 27. The couple lives in Lincoln.

Rylie Nolan and Kellie Jepson, ’03, April 13. The couple lives in Lincoln.

Dusty Stanczyk, ’10, and Erin Martin, ’10, June 8. The couple lives in Lincoln.

Adam Sabatka and Amy Cooper, ’06, June 29. The couple lives in Taylor.

Bryce Willis, ’10, and Jenifer Calandra, ’10, June 9, 2012. The couple lives in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Talor Wain and Caitlin Bals, ’07, Sept. 28, 2012. The couple lives in Lincoln.

Derek Anderson and Leah Harris, ’11, July 14. The couple lives in Lincoln.

■ ■

BIRTHS

Anthony Mueller and n Grace Lasker, ’98, their second child, a son, Henry, Oct. 24, 2012.

The family lives in Kirkland, Wash.

Robert and n Kelly Penke Abrahams, ’00, their third child, a son, Austin Jase, Jan. 23.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 57

CLASSNOTES Kathryn Donovan Little, ’41, Lincoln, Aug. 9.

Marvin L. Armstrong, ’49, North Platte, June 29.

Kathryn Swanson Druliner, ’51, Lincoln, June 9.

William H. Pfeiff, ’41, Lincoln, June 21.

Ervin R. Blish, ’49, Bloomington, Ind., June 22.

Richard V. Kuska, ’51, Taos, N.M., June 28.

Allen A. Sher, ’42, Asheville, N.C., May 2.

Orval F. Busch, ’49, Colorado Springs, Colo., March 21.

Boyd Linder, ’51, Plattsmouth, May 1.

Dorothy Prusia Sorenson, ’42, Sacramento, Calif., May 8.

Norman T. Harris, ’49, Ooltewah, Tenn., June 3.

Doris Carlson McMurray, ’51, Helena, Mont., July 31.

Gene E. Bradley, ’43, McLean, Va., Sept. 6, 2012.

Daniel D. Jewell, ’49, Norfolk, June 4.

Shirley Allen Selzer, ’51, Scottsbluff, May 6.

Lawrence H. Huwaldt, ’43, Grand Island, July 12.

Marilyn Lyness Nielsen, ’49, Sterling, Va., April 13.

Paul C. Shields, ’51, Columbus, Ohio, April 10.

Marian Hunt Tesar, ’43, Minnetonka, Minn., June 17.

William K. Schenck, ’49, Crown Point, Ind., May 4.

Walter F. Weiland, ’51, Murrysville, Pa., Feb. 27.

Helen Leverton Voigt, ’43, Davenport, July 27.

Wilson B. Smith, ’49, Dallas, Jan. 6.

Charles A. Wilscam, ’51, Elkhorn, June 14.

Amory E. Austin, ’45, Somerset, N.J., July 9.

Norman D. Baumgart, ’50, Overland Park, Kan., June 24.

Yao H. Wu, ’51, Evansville, Ind., July 30.

Ruth Ferguson Young, ’45, Salt Lake City, Jan. 1.

Richard H. Bornemeier, ’50, Hastings, June 1.

Donald J. Pavelka, ’52, Omaha, June 6.

Ellen McFarland Berrier, ’46, Burlingame, Calif., March 29.

Ted A. Cheuvront, ’50, Midland, Texas, Sept. 27, 2012.

Larry D. Rider, ’52, San Antonio, July 18.

Allen E. Ellsworth, ’34, Dallas, July 1.

John D. Cromer, ’46, Gering, July 28.

Marjorie Estes Culp, ’50, Chula Vista, Calif., July 6.

Walt F. Weaver, ’52, Lincoln, June 3.

Imogene Steinmeier Morrison, ’35, Evansville, Ind., July 29.

Betty Huston Forman, ’46, Endicott, N.Y., July 22.

Stuart F. Gottstein, ’50, Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 9.

Marjorie Filley Stover, ’35, Tucson, Ariz., April 24.

William E. Larson, ’46, St. Paul, Minn., July 15.

Loran C. Grubbs, ’50, Raton, N.M., March 12.

Marlene Oehrle Albert, ’53, Arlington Heights, Ill., Aug. 8, 2012.

Erville W. Hughes, ’36, Paradise Valley, Ariz., May 31.

Lloyd L. Downing, ’47, San Angelo, Texas, July 6.

Harry D. Johnson, ’50, Columbia, S.C., Dec. 19, 2012.

Virginia Keim Honstead, ’37, Manhattan, Kan., May 6.

Jimmie J. Jensen, ’47, Scottsdale, Ariz., Feb. 21.

Richard J. Kohan, ’50, Williams Bay, Wis., Feb. 16.

Harold E. Haynes, ’39, Cherry Hill, N.J., Dec. 1, 2012.

Ruth Lebo Johnson, ’47, Whittier, Calif., March 29.

Harry W. Meginnis, ’50, St. George, Utah, June 4.

Everett E. Kasparek, ’39, Grand Island, June 6.

Carol Capek Lampshire, ’47, Lincoln, April 28.

Lloyd E. Romine, ’50, Grand Island, June 21.

Phillys Person Lyons, ’39, McCook, June 14.

Phillip E. Lyness, ’47, Lincoln, July 5.

Dean E. Sandahl, ’50, Lincoln, June 16.

Phyllis Alfred Lytle, ’39, Lincoln, June 26.

Max W. Cherrington, ’48, Lincoln, July 11.

Janet Fairchild Schirmer, ’50, Clackamas, Ore., June 19.

Hyman Polsky, ’40, Cleveland, Ohio, July 22.

Lorraine Zahn Moss, ’48, Lincoln, Aug. 8.

Dale E. Walkenhorst, ’50, Lincoln, July 13.

Janet Lau Sullivan, ’40, Lincoln, May 16.

Patricia Meyer Aksamit, ’49, Clive, Iowa, June 5.

Neil V. Campbell, ’51, Sterling, Va., May 12.

Cody, ’04, and Torrey Gerdes, ’08, their first child, a son, Jack Jay, June 20. The couple lives in Lincoln.

Brett, ’05, and Sarah Kiester Ehlers, ’05, their second child, a daughter, Tessa Jean, March 1. The family lives in Omaha. n Michael, ’06, and n Haley

Armstrong, ’06, their first child, a son, Caleb Howard, May 29.

The family lives in Elkhorn.

Ben, ’06, and Crystal Johnson, their first child, a son, Jacob Terry, June 22. The family lives in Las Vegas.

Sean, ’08, and Shannon Burton, their first child, a son, Samuel Emory, March 15. The family lives in Sioux City, Iowa.

Tyler, ’09, and Jenelle McKitterick, ’09, their first child, a son, Liam Thomas, Jan. 21.

The couple lives in Sioux Falls, S.D.

DEATHS

58 FALL 2013

Gwen Grosshans Allen, ’53, Lincoln, June 30.

Robert L. Barchus, ’53, Omaha, June 16.

Joseph H. Buettner, ’53, Holdrege, May 5.

Irene D. Eden, ’53, Syracuse, May 25.

Alyce Kuehl, ’53, Springfield, Mo., May 24, 2012.

Shirley J. Cellar, ’54, Columbia, Mo., July 8.

Harriet Cook Hanson, ’54, Omaha, June 24.

Dale L. Hulse, ’54, Shalimar, Fla., April 21.

Junee Meek Moore, ’54, Penfield, N.Y., May 21.

By Kelly Riibe, ’03

Alumni Profile

’89

Granting Wishes Is Her Goal Brigette Young

Fairy godmother is not a common job title. However, it is one that University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumna Brigette Young could list on her resume. She has been the CEO for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Nebraska since 2008.

“I always just wanted to do something where I was helping people and at the end of the day I was making a difference,” said the Bellevue native.

Helping people is an understatement. Young heads a dedicated staff of seven in Omaha.

They are responsible for granting around 115 wishes annually.

Make-A-Wish Foundation started in 1980 and Nebraska began its chapter in 1983. Annual meetings have allowed Young to meet famous people, such as professional wrestler John Cena and actor George Lopez. She has also met several Disney princesses and Mickey Mouse.

However, the perks pale in comparison to Young’s ability to help others. She is happy to be a part of an organization that not only assists sick children, but also gives hope to their families.

“Making the entire family a part of that wish is a Make-A-Wish priority,” she emphasized.

Young did not start her career with Make-A-Wish, but was always interested in non-profit work. She majored in marketing at UNL, and remembers the worries of finding a job after graduation. Young, who earned her bachelor’s degree in 1989, recalls applying to anything “that had the word marketing in it.” Her first job was at an insurance firm, and her duties

Brigette Young with Wishes in Flight children.

included checking on sales leads.

Young lasted two weeks in that role, before being called to talk with the boss.

“I was sitting in the president’s office and he was asking what my goals were and what I wanted to do,” said the former Schramm Hall resident.

The president promptly promoted Young and moved her to the marketing department. She began working on national magazine ads and stayed with the company for a year and a half. Young’s next career stop was with the Safety and Health Council. She spent ten years working on projects for groups like the Special Olympics and Quality Living.

“I always wanted to make sure I was with good organizations and good non-profits. Of course everyone knew about Make-A-Wish,” she said.

“When the position (of CEO) became available, I jumped on it.”

Young now oversees two satellite offices, coordinates volunteers and reports to a board of directors. Wish granting and fundraising require Young’s office to work lots of hours.

“We all sleep with phones right by our beds,” she explained, “… but it’s amazing how generous people can be.”

Wish kids are brought to Young’s attention by social workers, the patient’s family or a treating physician.

A child can qualify once the family gives permission and the doctor confirms that the youth has a lifethreatening illness.

Working at Make-A-Wish allows Young to be a volunteer, while also being on staff. She enjoys being a “wish granter,” which is the endearing term used to identify those that donate their time making dreams come true.

Each wish kid is assigned two wish granters, and they present a packet to the family. They work hard researching the child’s personality, in order to give the best possible experience.

“We have very creative wish granters,” Young, who is married to her high school sweetheart, boasted.

She explained how one little boy had a wish to go to the moon. While that dream was not literally possible, Young’s team worked with the family

Continued on Page 60 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 59

CLASSNOTES

Class Notes

granting wishes is her goal Continued from Page 59 and sent them on a special trip to the Kennedy Space Center.

Young remembers another memorable wish, which involved an 11-year-old boy named Cayden.

He had been diagnosed with brain cancer, and wished to be a pop star.

“We probably had over 400-500 people from the community help with his wish,” recalled Young.

“This kid literally had a pop star day from start to finish.”

Cayden’s wish day began with a limousine ride. He had his own motorcade escorting him from Lincoln to Omaha. Local radio stations conducted interviews.

Hundreds of screaming Nebraskans participated as fans. UNL football Brigette Young with Husker Ben Cotton. star Ben Cotton even volunteered to be head of Cayden’s security.

The popular music group, Maroon 5, heard about this wish and wanted to be involved. This allowed for Cayden to have a jam session with the lead singer, Adam Levine, in Los Angeles.

“Literally, Maroon 5’s people called us in Nebraska and said they heard our pop star was going to be out there and they wanted to meet him,” said Young with a smile.

An even bigger duty for Young is fundraising. Two important events that Young oversees are the Blue Jean Ball and the Big Red Dinner with Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini.

“The mission, the vision relies on that fundraising piece,” Young, the mother of two, explained.

The Blue Jean Ball has been happening in Omaha for 15 years. Guests are encouraged to come in comfortable clothes and spend money on the charity, rather than formal wear. In Young’s first year as CEO, the Blue Jean Ball brought in around $65,000. The past two years, it has earned more than $200,000, each year.

“To see that growth in the caliber of the people that know about it and that come and attend, and their level of generosity, it just blows you away,” Young said of the event that 350 donors attend.

The Big Red Dinner is a fundraiser that allows Young to return to Lincoln, and see Husker players and coaches meet wish families. Donors come dressed in signature Nebraska red.

“The UNL athletic department is a huge supporter of Make-A-Wish,” said Young, who has had season tickets, for Husker football, since the age of ten.

Wish granting, fundraising and management are all in a day’s work for Young. Her job is constant, and full of rewards.

“When you get to see the appreciation of families on the receiving end of it and see how much gratitude … and to just hear them talk about their wishes is pretty cool,” she said.v

Martha Clark Powers, ’54, Custer, Mich., July 23.

Hope F. Robb, ’54, Lincoln, Aug. 8.

Norman L. Scott, ’54, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., April 22.

Orrin W. Thomas, ’54, Lake Alfred, Fla., June 21, 2012.

Richard H. Kafonek, ’55, Lincoln, June 6, 2012.

Gordon G. Pejsar, ’55, Lincoln, July 8.

Jack V. Scholz, ’55, Littleton, Colo., Feb. 17.

Elmer D. Straka, ’55, Omaha, May 17.

Harry W. Wallace, ’55, Austin, Texas, May 25.

Frederick E. Allen, ’56, Auburn, April 20.

Mary A. Bartz, ’56, North Loup, May 19.

Eugene P. Welch, ’56, Omaha, May 22.

Gertrude Heikes Wendorff, ’56, Lincoln, June 30.

Allen B. Edee, ’57, Meadows Place, Texas, May 27.

James K. Fager, ’57, Roseburg, Ore., June 29.

Robert A. Hall, ’57, Alliance, June 28.

Dorothy Roubal Harrison, ’57, Tulsa, Okla., May 27.

John E. Kohtz, ’57, Goodyear, Ariz., May 7.

LeRoy D. Marquardt, ’57, Inyokern, Calif., June 10.

Ruben W. Schaffer, ’57, Cape Coral, Fla., May 11.

Jerry C. Stirtz, ’57, Minden, March 16.

Judith Whittaker Holmes, ’58, Omaha, May 7.

60 FALL 2013

CLASSNOTES Richard L. Overholt, ’58, Omaha, July 13.

David R. Weaver, ’60, Shreveport, La., July 20.

Adelbert H. Leavitt, ’64, Cedar Falls, Iowa, March 28.

Arthur C. Toogood, ’66, Hastings, May 24.

Donald R. Sampson, ’58, Central City, May 27.

Robert G. Meier, ’61, Albuquerque, N.M., Aug. 11, 2012.

Sara Goding Smith, ’64, Patterson, Calif., Feb. 8.

Marjorie Williss Borgerding, ’67, Lincoln, Aug. 7.

Doris M. Eby, ’59, West Des Moines, Iowa, July 30.

Benjamin W. Powley, ’61, Norfolk, June 2.

Vale H. Sorensen, ’64, Omaha, June 8.

Donald E. Hampton, ’67, Oakridge, Ore., May 1.

John A. Jones, ’59, Grand Island, July 12.

Alfred E. Waring, ’61, Lincoln, May 26.

Darrell R. Cech, ’65, Omaha, June 1.

Peggy Ellis Huffman, ’67, Glenmoore, Pa., May 21.

Joelissa Snyder Larsen, ’59, St. Louis, Feb. 19.

Glen D. Buller, ’62, Fremont, Calif., Aug. 11, 2012.

Monte C. Nowak, ’65, Phoenix, Dec. 19, 2012.

Eddie M. Dobbins, ’68, East Peoria, Ill., July 10.

Richard L. Lemonds, ’59, Bolton, Conn., Aug. 8.

Richard L. Engler, ’63, Sacramento, Calif., Oct. 8, 2012.

Elizabeth Galasso Carpenter, ’66, Lincoln, May 6.

James W. Pilkington, ’68, Ozark, Mo., March 6.

Jane Ohslund Seagren, ’59, Elgin, Ill., April 30.

Susan Hunt Olson, ’63, Scottsdale, Ariz., May 23.

Otto E. Hoehne, ’66, Stillwater, Okla., April 21.

Dorothy Flagle Portwood, ’68, Beatrice, Aug. 3.

William L. Greenfield, ’60, Lincoln, April 17.

Ronald D. Rapp, ’63, South Sioux City, May 5.

William C. Kinsel, ’66, Richland, Wash., July 20.

Keith K. Turner, ’68, La Vista, June 15.

Duane J. Kantor, ’60, Wahoo, May 27.

Dennis D. Thute, ’63, Roseville, Calif., April 28.

Ronald B. Rosenau, ’66, Spearfish, S.D., March 7.

Robert O. Brand, ’69, La Vista, Feb. 14.

Larry D. Snodgrass, ’60, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, May 2.

Gary R. Fleischmann, ’64, Cedaredge, Colo., July 9.

Robert E. Sward, ’66, Sully, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2012.

James E. Dworak, ’69, Shawnee, Kan., April 22.

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NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 61

CLASSNOTES Alice Dillon Howard, ’69, Omaha, March 28.

John C. Freese, ’74, Minnetonka, Minn., July 11.

Barbara Wharton McCabe, ’84, Lincoln, July 26.

Anne M. Shaughnessy, ’03, Omaha, July 10.

Donald L. Spahn, ’69, Mobile, Ala., July 20.

William J. Hunt, ’74, Lincoln, May 27.

James K. McKay, ’85, Lincoln, Aug. 7.

Joseph S. Schulz, ’04, Lenexa, Kan., April 7.

Mucho B. Balka, ’70, Lincoln, May 19.

Thomas P. Kutschkau, ’74, Grand Island, June 6.

Rodney L. Moore, ’85, Bennet, April 30.

David J. Hamzeh, ’07, Omaha, May 19.

Gerald D. Beck, ’70, Litchfield, June 2.

Mary Mahon Leidy, ’74, Papillion, May 8.

Kenneth R. Tharp, ’85, Lincoln, June 20.

Gloria Enright Carstens, ’70, York, July 12.

Roger A. Baskerville, ’75, Washington, Kan., March 6.

Dorothy Gillispie Barrett, ’86, Syracuse, Aug. 8.

Kenneth C. Fritzler, ’70, Broken Bow, July 9.

Peter H. Claussen, ’75, Omaha, April 20.

Kathleene Linnerson West, ’86, Las Cruces, N.M., July 15.

Hazel Edgerton Smith, ’70, Papillion, Feb. 23.

Raymond C. Eliason, ’75, Yutan, June 4.

Sandra K. Van Osdol, ’87, Lincoln, Nov. 20, 2012.

Blanche Bulin Bandemer, ’71, Geneva, June 20.

John J. Goc, ’75, Lincoln, Aug. 7.

Stacie Heim Olson, ’88, Julesburg, Colo., May 25.

Terry J. Dibble, ’71, Milligan College, Tenn., July 7.

Michael W. Wassinger, ’75, Hastings, May 2.

Dana D. Pratt, ’88, Lincoln, May 13.

John W. Herstead, ’71, Orangevale, Calif., July 1.

Carl A. Blank, ’76, Lincoln, Aug. 8.

Holly Thibault Morgan, ’89, Omaha, Feb. 12.

Cheryl A. Kohout, ’71, Camdenton, Mo., June 18.

Joseph A. Caniglia, ’76, Omaha, May 7.

Jodi M. Paar, ’90, Omaha, May 5.

William G. Behrens, ’72, Spokane Valley, Wash., April 13.

John C. Lund, ’78, Pleasant Dale, July 6.

Jay R. Garroutte, ’91, West Des Moines, Iowa, July 5.

Terry R. Borman, ’72, Springfield, Va., Dec. 1, 2012.

Joseph G. Nye, ’78, Los Angeles, June 20.

Gregory K. Torrey, ’91, Crete, July 3.

Lois Snyder Hansen, ’72, Lincoln, April 13.

Hugh D. Troshynski, ’78, Stamford, Conn., May 13.

Dion L. Higgins, ’92, Nebraska City, July 14.

Joan Bredthauer Marotz, ’72, Gretna, April 28.

LeRoy L. Verschuur, ’78, Whitefish, Mont., June 12.

William D. Stibor, ’92, Lincoln, June 17.

Douglas E. Schrader, ’72, Eagle, May 28.

Vicky Von Ehwegen Princ, ’79, Lincoln, May 10.

William L. Ziegelbein, ’92, Lincoln, Aug. 8.

Jay K. Springman, ’72, Faith, S.D., April 16.

Frank H. Hoppe, ’80, Columbus, April 28.

Richard E. Dittmer, ’93, Phoenix, May 25.

David B. DeBoer, ’73, Omaha, May 30.

Lloyd R. Albers, ’81, La Porte, Texas, Aug. 8.

Deborah A. Kohl, ’93, Lincoln, April 21.

Nancy Whitney Heinemeyer, ’73, Highland Park, Ill., May 19.

Patrick J. Flynn, ’82, Schuyler, May 5.

Richard L. Thorson, ’95, Lincoln, Aug. 5.

Gary L. Gustafson, ’82, Aurora, July 21.

Mark C. Vetter, ’95, Garland, June 8.

Debbie Bernard Aines, ’83, Omaha, June 8.

Richard A. Asche, ’97, Gilbert, Ariz., May 2.

Jacqueline Albritton Crawford, ’84, Plymouth, June 19.

Eric L. Yule, ’98, Lincoln, June 15.

Norma Newsham Richard, ’73, Lincoln, May 28.

Ruth Sadlo Wassinger, ’73, Plattsmouth, May 14.

Harold L. Braue, ’74, Novi, Mich., July 7, 2012.

62 FALL 2013

FACULTY DEATHS

Dennis Bormann, professor emeritus of speech communication, Lincoln, Aug. 3.

James A. McShane, professor emeritus of English, a founder and teacher of the ADAPT Program and two-term Faculty Senate president, Rochester, Minn., July 5.

Nelson Potter, Jr., professor emeritus of philosophy, chair of the department and director of the Centennial Education Program, Lincoln, May 12.

Dick Thien, ’98, professor emeritus of journalism, St. Louis, Aug. 23.

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64 FALL 2013

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