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FROM WESTBROOK TO BROADWAY / A BEAUTIFUL FOREST / 2015 ALUMNI AWARDS
NEBRASKA Magazine EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEMBERS OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN
ATTACKING PARASITIC
DISEASES Mary Ann McDowell (’88, ’90) & Michael Ferdig (’87, ’90)
Volume 111 / No. 1 /Spring 2015 huskeralum.org
The Association of Varsity
CORNHOLE PLAYERS
AVCP The existence of the AVCP is doubtful. But there’s no doubt that you and other NAA members could save even more with a special discount on GEICO car insurance!
geico.com/alum/naa | 1-800-368-2734
Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states or all GEICO companies. Discount amount varies in some states. One group discount applicable per policy. Coverage is individual. In New York a premium reduction may be available. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. GEICO Gecko image © 1999-2015. © 2015 GEICO
INSIDESPRING 5 University Update 16 Alumni Authors 42 Alumni News 48 Chapters & Affiliates 50 Class Notes 51 Alumni Profiles Bob Hall, ’67, ’69 JLynn Hausmann, ’04 Linda & Charlie Greene, ’67, ’69 John Levy, ’04
March bids welcome to buds on campus.
18 20 22 28 34
A Beautiful Forest
Writing Contest profile winner Jim Schaffer recounts the remarkable lesson of faith, hate and hope in some family letters alumnus Ken Wald discovered after the deaths of his parents.
From Westbrook to Broadway
Writing Contest nostalgia winner Terry Baughan recalls UNL professor of vocal music Jack Zei who gave her an incredible gift and changed her life.
A Passion in the Desert
For more than 15 years, researcher Mary Ann McDowell, ’88, ’90, has worked on leishmaniasis, a disease now affecting more than 12 million people – many of them in Middle Eastern countries where U.S. combat troops have also been attacked by the illness.
Playing Chess with Malaria
For veteran parasitologist and malaria researcher Michael Ferdig, ’87, ’90, the struggle to neutralize one of the world’s most dreaded killers by deciphering the genetic basis of its ever-changing “resistance” to drugs is a thrilling intellectual challenge.
2015 Alumni Awards
On Thursday evening, May 7, 20 alumni, seven students, a retired faculty member and an alumni family will be recognized during the annual Alumni Awards Banquet, An All-University Celebration.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 3
alumnivoices NEBRASKA Magazine For alumni and friends of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Shelley Zaborowski, ’96, ’00 Interim Executive Director, Nebraska Alumni Association Andrea Wood Cranford, ’71 Editor Move Creative Design Kevin Wright, ’78 Layout and Photography; Class Notes Editor A.T. Greer Advertising Sales Nebraska Magazine (USPS 10970) is published quarterly by the Nebraska Alumni Association, the known office of publication is 1520 R St., Lincoln NE 68508-1651. Alumni association dues are $50.00 annually of which $10.00 is for a subscription to Nebraska Magazine. Periodicals postage is paid at Lincoln Nebraska 68501 and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster send address corrections to: Nebraska Magazine in care of the Nebraska Alumni Association, 1520 R St., Lincoln, NE 68508-1651. Requests for permission to reprint materials and reader comments are welcome.
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Spring 2015 n Vol. 111, No. 1
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 Shelley Zaborowski, ’96, ’00, Interim Exec. Dir. Claire Abelbeck, ’09, Dir., Digital Comm. Brooke Busboom, ’14, Venues Mgmt. Spec. Alex Cerveny, ’13, Alum/Student Relations Coord. Andrea Cranford, ’71, Sr. Dir., Publications Charles Dorse, Custodian Derek Engelbart, Sr. Dir., Alum Relations Paul Goedert, ’14, Venues Coord. A.T. Greer, Director, Alumni Development
Larry Routh, Alum Career Spec.
Daniel Dawes, ’06, Mableton, Ga.
Viann Schroeder, Alum. Campus Tours
Megan Dreyer, ’03, Lincoln
Deb Schwab, Assoc. Dir., Venues
Kendra Eberhart, ’79, Peoria, Ariz.
Sarah Smith, ’11, Assoc. Dir., Brand Comm.
Jessica Erstad, ’96, Lincoln
Ashley Stone, ’14, Asst. Dir., Student/Alum Engagement
Rick Grady, ’98, ’98, ’04, New Albany, Ohio
Andy Washburn, ’00, ’07, Sr. Dir., Oper./Outreach
Troy Heuermann, ’92, Saint Paul, Minn.
Judy Weaver, Projects Asst. Sara Werner, ’14, Exec. Asst. Katie Williams, ’03, Sr. Dir., Marketing Comm. Hilary Winter, ’11, Digital Comm. Spec. Kevin Wright, ’78, Dir., Design
2014-2015 NAA EXECUTIVE BOARD
Pam Hemann, ’70, Pasadena, Calif. Jane Hirt, ’89, Chicago, Ill. Greg Johnson, ’89, ’93, Denver, Colo. Ka’Ron Johnson, ’00, Houston, Texas Lauren Kintner, ’92, Papillion Jeffrey Kratz, ’03, Washington, D.C. Duane Kristensen, ’76, ’78, Minden Desi Luckey-Rohling, ’81, Edgerton, Wis.
Bill Mueller, ’77, ’80, President, Lincoln
Steven Miller, ’81, Lincoln
Erleen Hatfield, ’91, ’96, New York City, N.Y.
Bill Mueller, ’77, ’80, Lincoln
Bill Nunez, UNL
Emily Murtaugh, Current Student, Omaha
L.G. Searcy, ’82, ’91, Lincoln
Gregory Newport, ’76, Lincoln
Joe Selig, ’80, ’87, NU Foundation
Mike Pate, Omaha
Judy Terwilliger, ’95, ’98, Lincoln
Jamie Reimer, ’03, ’08, Papillion
Steve Toomey, ’85, ’89, Lenexa, Kan.
Russ Ripa, ’99, Lincoln Paul Schreier, ’00, ’01, Boston, Mass.
2014-2015 Alumni advisory council
Robert Scott, ’94, Lincoln
Damon Barry, ’00, Westminster, Colo.
Christine Scudder Kemper, ’87, Kansas City, Mo.
Ryan Janousek, Venues Mgmt./Oper. Spec.
Graten D. Beavers, ’71, ’74, Kearney
L.G. Searcey, ’82, ’91, Lincoln
Wendy Kempcke, Admin. Asst.
Stephanie Bolli, ’89, Omaha
Lee Stuart, ’91, Lincoln
Jessica Marshall, ’11, Dir., Written Comm.
Lynn Canavan, ’86, ’90, McKinney, Texas
Judy E. Terwilliger, ’95, ’98, Lincoln
Kim Miller, Projects Asst.
Jennifer Christo, ’97, ’99, Omaha
Dale Tutt, ’88, Wichita, Kan.
Carrie Myers, ’03, ’11, Sr. Dir., Venues/Events
John Clarke, ’74, Mitchell, S.D.
Mat Weekly, ’84, ’87, ’91, Aberdeen, S.D.
Sarah Haskell, ’09, Dir., Alum Engagement/ Outreach
Renee Wessels, ’82, Omaha
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
UNL’s Philip Sapirstein takes digital photos of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. Sapirstein combines digital photography with computer software to generate realistic 3-D models of ancient Greek architecture. (Courtesy Photo)
CENTER FOR DIGITAL RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES
3-D Tech Aids Study of Greek Architecture UNL’s Philip Sapirstein is using modern technologies to advance research into ancient Greek architecture. As part of UNL’s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, the assistant professor of art history has launched the Digital Architecture Project, using digital photography and computer software to generate detailed, 3-D models of Greek temples, beginning with the Temple of Hera, a sixth-century B.C. structure at Olympia. Sapirstein believes the research will overturn a longstanding theory about the temple’s construction while promoting the use of photogrammetry – a new method for creating 3-D models from photographs – in future studies of ancient architecture. “There has been a lot of really revolutionary work in the last 20 to 30
years questioning old paradigms about the origins of Greek architecture,” Sapirstein said. “Researchers have been going back to the basics to reexamine evidence surviving from about a dozen well-preserved early temples in Greece, including Olympia.” Sapirstein has contributed to this shift in research through his fieldwork examining stone architecture and terracotta tiles from sites in Greece, Italy and Turkey, including Corinth, Corfu and Olympia. He started the work in 2000 as a graduate student at Cornell University, first learning how to use computer-aided design software, then by using specialized 3-D scanners in the field. “I wanted to make reconstruction drawings from ancient fragments and show how all this stuff fits together,” Sapirstein said. “I started out using bulky and expensive laser scanning
units to make the 3-D scans. Now, I just use digital cameras and software.” The new technologies have made the process relatively simple, inexpensive and fast. After positioning a network of survey markers across the temple or ruins, Sapirstein shoots a series of photos. Once uploaded to a computer, the photogrammetry software generates 3-D models by comparing photographs from different vantage points. The model of the temple can be viewed in its entirety or zoomed in to see details down to the millimeter. UNL students are getting a preview of the work as Sapirstein incorporated a 3-D modeling project into a fall semester art history course on the history and topography of the ancient city of Jerusalem. – Troy Fedderson, University Communications NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 5
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION
Hank Bounds Named NU President The University of Nebraska Board of Regents has appointed Hank M. Bounds, Ph.D., a lifelong educator with a demonstrated record of expanding opportunities for students, improving higher education outcomes and efficiencies, and building successful partnerships with policymakers, donors and business leaders, as the seventh president of the University of Nebraska. Bounds, a first-generation traditional college student who has spent his entire 25-year career in education – first as a high school teacher, then as a principal, superintendent and state superintendent – currently serves as commissioner of higher education for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. He was selected for the NU presidency among four public finalists following an extensive national search that engaged hundreds of Nebraskans, including nearly three dozen key university constituents who served on a pair of search committees. He begins his tenure as NU president on April 13, 2015. Since 2009, Bounds has served as the chief executive officer of Mississippi’s public university system, which includes four research universities, four regional universities and an academic health science center. Among the universities are two landgrant institutions, three historically black institutions, a law center, a school of veterinary medicine, and 200 institutes and centers. Together, the system enrolls about 85,000 students, employs more than 26,000 faculty and staff, and operates with a combined annual budget of approximately $4.5 billion including an average of more than $500 million in research and development. During every year of Bounds’ tenure as higher education commissioner,
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Hank M. Bounds
student enrollment and degrees awarded by the institutions in the Mississippi system have increased – by a total of 13.3 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively. He has advocated with legislative leadership for increasing faculty compensation and providing greater opportunities for students, and he has provided oversight and direction for private fundraising in excess of $250 million per year. Bounds worked with the Board of Trustees to implement a performancebased allocation model that distributes funds equitably and rewards universities for operating efficiently and achieving attainment outcomes. He designed an efficiencies plan that has saved more than $90 million primarily through consolidated insurance coverage, bond rating, energy conservation, procurement, course redesign, space management and employee benefits consolidation. He established an internal audit function for all campuses and implemented a comprehensive diversity initiative that has led to increased diversity in faculty/ staff, students, and use of minority vendors. Bounds was instrumental in working
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
with the Education Achievement Council to build momentum and integrate strategic plans to increase educational attainment in Mississippi. The Council brings together legislative leaders, business leaders and educational leaders. He led the effort to design and implement a singular, statewide articulation agreement with state community colleges. He secured $20 million in private funding to design the Center for Education Innovation, which focuses on improving learning opportunities for children in communities where poverty, low educational attainment and a lack of infrastructure intersect. He created the Office of Business and University Relations to foster relationships among researchers, business/industry and economic developers. In 2011, Bounds was tapped by the business community to chair Blueprint Mississippi 2011, a major statewide initiative to bring together diverse perspectives and create an action strategy to improve Mississippi’s competitive position. Bounds grew up on a small family farm in rural South Mississippi and his service in the Army National Guard afforded him the opportunity to be the first in his immediate family to earn a college degree. He received a bachelor’s degree in sports administration and secondary education and a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Bounds and his wife, Susie, are the parents of a son, Will, and a daughter, Caroline. – Melissa Lee, NU Communications
UNL CLUB SPORTS
Husker Curling Team Ranked No. 1 Throwing the bones is a well-known Husker tradition. Throwing stones, on the other hand, is less familiar. However, that may be changing now that UNL’s curling team has been ranked number one in the nation. A majority of the 15 students who comprise the team had no curling experience prior to attending the university. Team members hail from
Nebraska, New Jersey, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North and South Dakota. As this magazine went to press in March, the team was competing against the 16 top-ranked colleges in the 2015 USA Curling College Championships in Rochester, New York. The other top teams included the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. The sport of curling dates back to the 16th century Scottish pastime of throwing stones over ice during long, cold winters.
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
Today many competitive events take place indoors where ice conditions are carefully monitored and temperaturecontrolled. Each four-person team has eight granite stones, weighing between 38- and 44-pounds each, which they attempt to sweep into the target, known as the house, at the other end of the sheet of ice. The 150-foot sheets are textured and have houses at each end, which are split into four rings. Players use brooms to smooth the ice and ease the stone’s path or sweep debris in front of the opponent’s moving stone. UNL’s three curling teams practice in Omaha as part of the Aksarben Curling Club. Throughout the season, the teams traveled all over the Midwest to compete against other schools, including Wisconsin and Minnesota. Next year the team will practice and play in the new Breslow Ice Center in Lincoln.
WEB DEVELOPER NETWORK/INTERNET AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA
UNL Website Judged No. 1 UNL’s website has been judged 2014’s “best overall” in higher education by eduStyle, the leading authority on higher-ed web design. eduStyle, based in Alberta, Canada, is an online community of more than 10,000 higher education web professionals. Developed by content creators throughout the university, publishing online within the UNL.edu Web Framework, UNL’s website is now in its 4.0 version. The framework is developed by the UNL Web Developer Network, a community of UNL web professionals, and Internet and Interactive Media, a partnership of University Communications and Information Technology Services. This recognition from eduStyle follows other awards for the first UNL.edu 4.0 site to be released, that of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. HLFPA’s site was honored with awards from the American Marketing Association and the Advertising Federation, and it received the highest national award given this year for an
institutional website by CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education). HLFPA’s site development was a close partnership between the college, University Communications and the Internet and Interactive Media group. A “best overall” award is a recognition of the first-mover advantage UNL has as a large university that has taken a unified approach to branding and has extended that approach to its websites.
CONNECTION BOX go.unl.edu/edustyle_best_14 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 7
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Speech Team Wins Fourth Big Ten Title The UNL speech team earned its fourth-straight Big Ten championship at the Conference Challenge Tournament, Jan. 31 to Feb. 1 at Northwestern University. UNL led the field with a two-day point total of 165 points, ahead of second-place finisher Northwestern’s 101 points. In addition to clinching a fourth team championship, UNL students captured six separate event titles. Senior Josiah BeDunnah of Lexington led the way with individual event wins in Dramatic Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation and Prose Interpretation. BeDunnah also placed first in Duo Interpretation with his partner, fellow senior Toni Karaus of Omaha. Karaus
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
UNL’s speech and debate team collected its fourth-straight Big Ten Conference title. The team will compete in the national tournaments in April. (Courtesy Photo)
had an individual success in Poetry Interpretation. Junior Grace SolemPfeifer of Omaha won the Impromptu Speaking event. The students of the speech and
debate teams have been competing since September and are preparing for national tournaments in April, which will be held in Portland, Oregon, and Athens, Ohio.
LIED CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS
Grumble Project to Address Childhood Hunger The Lied Center for Performing Arts at UNL, in partnership with the Lincoln Community Foundation, has announced The Grumble Project, a communitywide campaign aimed at building awareness and finding a long-term, sustainable solution to end childhood hunger in the greater Lincoln area. Central to The Grumble Project, the Lied Center has commissioned Lincoln playwright Becky Boesen to
Actress Sayyidah Ali played Puddin’ in a trailer shot at The Eatery in Lincoln. (Courtesy Photo)
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develop a new production, “Puddin’ and the Grumble,” a musical about family, love and survival in the face of adversity. The play is scheduled for a public premiere in spring 2016 and will feature the compositions of Nebraska composer David von Kampen, with additional music provided by other American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) composers. Members of the Clinton Creative Club, a weekly after-school club comprised of Clinton Elementary Community Learning Center students, are providing inspiration and lyrics for “Puddin’ and the Grumble.” Through a burgeoning relationship with ASCAP, which began in 2013 with Nebraska’s first ASCAP New Musical Theater Workshop, the Lied Center has partnered with ASCAP writers
who will furnish original compositions to accompany some of the studentinspired lyrics. “Puddin’ and the Grumble” centers on a 10-year-old girl with big dreams and a big problem – she has to move in with her grandmother, a quirky former lounge singer who isn’t expecting a new roommate. Puddin’ misses her mom, is struggling with fifth-grade math, and is starting to feel as empty as her own tummy. To top it off, she’s being followed by an annoying and obnoxious creature, the Grumble. He’s loud, he’s rude, he’s often crude, and he won’t let go of Puddin’. “Puddin’ and the Grumble” is a story for families, as it focuses on positive ways to overcome life’s challenges. – Carrie Christensen, Lied Center for Performing Arts
UNIVERSITY Census Bureau, NSF Fund Regional Partnership UPDATE CENTRAL PLAINS RESEARCH DATA CENTER
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will soon be home to a regional Research Data Center. These highly secure centers provide researchers access to restricted federal data, allowing them to investigate issues in greater detail. The Central Plains Research Data Center, a partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, will join a network of 18 such centers in the U.S. that are jointly funded by the Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation. UNL won a $300,000 NSF grant to launch the center and will partner with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of South Dakota. Slated to open in fall 2015, the facility will be housed in UNL’s Whittier Research Center. A U.S. Census Bureau employee will manage the center. Only researchers who receive government clearance and who agree to protect the sensitive data will have access. This Federal Statistical Research Data Center provides researchers in the social, behavioral, health and life sciences across the region a secure environment that allows access to restricted-use data from the Census Bureau, National Center for Health Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
National Center for Education Statistics, Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal sources. The new center is a cornerstone for UNL’s new Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Initiative. UNL faculty have identified a diverse range of potential projects using the center’s data. For example, John Anderson, Baird Family Professor of Economics and the center’s executive director, plans to tap confidential data to study income inequality, particularly how individuals move up and down the income distribution over time. Other potential projects include merging center and U.S. Department of Agriculture data to study food distribution problems; integrating data from UNL’s National Drought Mitigation Center to explore regional drought experiences; and researching minority health disparities to analyze disease incidence and treatment program effectiveness. Robert Belli, UNL psychologist and director of UNL’s Survey Research and Methodology Program and UNL’s Gallup Research Center, is the center’s external advisory board chair and lead UNL investigator for the NSF grant.
ROBERT B. DAUGHERTY WATER FOR FOOD INSTITUTE
Students Research Reducing Water Use, Increasing Food Production Eight students at UNL are working on projects to contribute to a more water and food secure world, thanks to grants from the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska. In total, the institute awarded nine grants to UNL faculty for student-led projects. The $310,000 grant program, which is in its first year, supports the interdisciplinary research of the institute’s Faculty Fellows while enriching the education of students who will become scientific leaders in the effort to feed the world’s growing population. The funding covers two postdoctoral fellows and nine graduate and undergraduate student research assistantships for the next fiscal year. The projects range from testing the drought tolerance of wheat roots to deploying robots for aerial water sampling. Students and their Faculty Fellows include: • James Higgins, Beatrice, mechanical and materials engineering; Faculty Fellow: Carrick Detweiler, assistant professor, computer science and engineering. • William Avery, Lincoln, School of Natural Resources; Faculty Fellow: Trenton Franz, assistant professor of hydrogeophysics.
• Kate Boone, Lincoln, agronomy and horticulture; Faculty Fellow: Patricio Grassini, assistant professor, agronomy and horticulture. • Joseph W. Arneson, water science major, and Mariah R. Lundgren, environmental studies major, both from Omaha; Faculty Fellow: Michael Farrell, assistant professor of practice, agricultural leadership, education and communication. • Sarah Blecha, Omaha, agronomy and horticulture; Faculty Fellow: Harkamal Walia, assistant professor, agronomy and horticulture. • Lorena Castro García, Zacatecas, Mexico, biological systems engineering; Faculty Fellow: Francisco Muñoz- Arriola, assistant professor, biological systems engineering and School of Natural Resources. • Rachindra Mawalagedara, Kandy, Sri Lanka, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Faculty Fellow: Robert Oglesby, professor, CONNECTION BOX Earth and Atmospheric waterforfood.nebraska.edu/2014-2015 Sciences. student-and-postdoctoral-grantees
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 9
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
Zhigang Shen
A sample of how the software appears for the Interstate 680 bridge, also known as The Mormon Bridge, over the Missouri River near Omaha. (Courtesy Zhigang Shen)
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
UNL Prof Develops Tool to Manage Bridge Crises Nearly one out of every nine bridges in the United States is deemed structurally deficient and potentially dangerous, according to the Federal Highway Administration. It would cost an estimated $70 billion to catch up with the nation’s backlog of nearly 70,000 bridges in need of repair. However, a University of NebraskaLincoln associate professor has developed a data management tool that could help officials monitor deteriorating bridges and prioritize their repair. With a grant from the Nebraska Department of Roads, Zhigang Shen and his student research assistants built a 3-D computer model of the Mormon Bridge, where Interstate 680 crosses the Missouri River near Omaha. The model allows engineers, with a click of a mouse, to identify which parts of a bridge need fixing. “Bridge management, bridge conditions and infrastructure are very big issues,” Shen said. “This represents a paradigm shift in terms of data management.” The tool is based on Building Information Modeling, software used to draft three-dimensional, detailed architectural plans for buildings and their various mechanical, electrical and structural systems. Wayne Jensen, an associate professor of construction management who has worked with the Department of Roads 10 SPRING 2015
for several years, is a co-investigator in this project. Nebraska law requires bridges to be inspected every two years, with inspectors rating and photographing the condition of each component. Analyzing that data to determine the extent and pace of deterioration can be cumbersome and unwieldy. “When you look at their system and you call up a particular bridge or a particular section of road, you end up with a series of numbers in a spreadsheet,” Jensen said. “If you don’t know what you’re looking at, your computer screen is filled with numbers that don’t mean anything. Zhigang and I thought it would be cool to take the information in the spreadsheets and actually do a model of the bridge.” They chose the Mormon Bridge, because the truss bridge is one of the most complicated bridges in Nebraska, with several hundred elements. The model color-codes each component of the bridge according to its inspection – green is in good condition, yellow requires monitoring, red means repairs are needed. Clicking on a particular component brings up inspection reports as well as photos of cracks, corrosion or other damage. Several years can be compared to determine the rate of deterioration. Nebraska’s state bridge engineer, Mark J. Traynowicz, and assistant
bridge engineer Fouad A.H. Jaber said they think roads officials across the country would find the system useful, particularly those who have many big or complicated bridges to manage. “It’s a good product to see how our bridges are aging and how they’re holding up,” Traynowicz said. “If and when we have to make some repairs, it’s a little easier to see what goes with what.” Jaber said Shen’s system is not intended for sophisticated dynamic structural analysis being developed elsewhere in the country. Shen, who said his work was partly inspired by the 2007 collapse of a Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, is proposing to include sensors in his system. Even without sensors, the bridge engineers said Shen’s system may be a cost-effective way for cash-strapped state and local governments to monitor bridge conditions. “When you get sensors, you get data, and you need someone with the training to interpret the data,” Jaber said. “It depends on your resources.” Shen said he is beginning to get inquiries as word spreads about his project. He said he hopes to interest the Federal Highway Administration in his system. – Leslie Reed, University Communications
NEBRASKA INNOVATION CAMPUS
Three New Partners Moving to NIC Three new partners – Hastings HVAC, Echo Canyon Services and Quantified Ag – will move into space on Nebraska Innovation Campus later this year. Hastings HVAC will conduct metallurgical and new product research on heating, ventilating and air handling products, as well as biological engineered pollution remediation compounds and equipment. Echo Canyon Services, a Managed Data Services company, will provide big data services, enterprise resource planning software implementation, business process management services and enterprise resource process. Quantified Ag specializes in improving animal health, focusing on radio frequency ear tag technology and data collection
platforms for the cattle and hog industries. Quantified Ag is a 2014 graduate of the NMotion Accelerator, a 13-week, mentor-driven startup accelerator. NMotion focuses on high-growth software and technologybased businesses in targeted areas of agriculture, education, finance/ insurance, healthcare, human resources and sports technologies. While attending the 2014 NMotion Accelerator Demo Day at NIC, Hastings Mayor Vern Powers, CEO of Hastings HVAC, became interested in the opportunities available on the campus. “Since the inception of the NIC idea eight years ago, I’ve been intrigued about pairing private industry and our University of Nebraska system … and
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
about how this pairing would not only benefit our state, but the world in its entirety,” Powers said. A 1984 UNL graduate, Powers also is president of Echo Canyon Services and is an investor and board member of Quantified Ag. Powers helped Quantified Ag as a mentor to its CEO, Vishal Singh, while the company went through the NMotion accelerator program in 2014. The new partners will join in the ongoing development of the Food Innovation CONNECTION BOX Center, a 178,000 innovate.unl.edu. square-foot complex that houses the UNL Food Science and Technology Department as well as ConAgra Foods Inc.
UNL CENTER FOR NANOHYBRID FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
Discovery Protects Nanostructures Against Heat If it can’t stand the heat, get out the graphene. UNL chemists and electrical engineers have published a new study showing that coats of graphene – a honeycombed sheet of carbon only one atom thick – can protect delicate nanostructures against temperatures that would otherwise melt them. “As you decrease the size of nanoscale objects, their melting point decreases, as well,” said Alexander Sinitskii, an assistant professor of chemistry who co-authored the study. “We have shown that graphene makes nanostructures thermally stable, which means it … gives engineers a few hundred extra degrees of usability with these materials.” Sinitskii and his colleagues
demonstrated that graphene buffers a class of thin-film materials especially susceptible to thermal damage. They further established that graphene protects nanostructures based on cobalt and titanium, metals that feature significantly different physical and chemical properties. Their results suggest that graphene could be employed to protect many other metallic – and possibly even nonmetallic – materials that might be used in nanotechnology, Sinitskii said. The natural elasticity of graphene – the thinnest, strongest and most conductive material yet discovered – allowed the researchers to grow it
on both two-dimensional and threedimensional nanostructures. “Because graphene conforms to surfaces, we can cover any arbitrary shape with it,” Sinitskii said. The team, which conducted its research through UNL’s Center for Nanohybrid Functional Materials and the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, received funding from the National Science Foundation. – Scott Schrage, University Communications
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 11
DEPARTMENT OF ATHLETICS
Riley’s Football Staff Complete When Brian Stewart was introduced as the Huskers’ secondary coach in late February, he filled the final position on Mike Riley’s first football coaching staff at Nebraska. Stewart spent the past three seasons as defensive coordinator and secondary coach at the University of Maryland. He has been a defensive coordinator for seven years, including five in the college ranks and two leading the Dallas Cowboys’ defense. “Brian Stewart brings a record of success and will be a great fit at the University of Nebraska,” Riley said. “He has experience coaching and recruiting in all parts of the country, most recently with experience in the Big Ten Conference. We look forward to Brian getting started with our defensive staff and our secondary.” The opportunity to coach at Nebraska “is awesome,” Stewart said. “My first impression is ‘wow’. From the weight room to walking down the hallway and seeing the national championship trophies, Nebraska is what you think it is – a football powerhouse.” Stewart completes a Nebraska staff that has 246 years of overall coaching
Brian Stewart
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experience among Riley and the nine football assistant coaches he has hired. Eight of Nebraska’s 10 coaches have spent a combined 46 years coaching in the professional ranks, including 30 years in the National Football League. Four coaches on Nebraska’s defensive staff have professional coaching or playing experience. Counting Stewart, the Huskers’ defensive staff has three coaches with coordinator experience. Defensive coordinator Mark Banker followed Riley from Oregon State to Nebraska, and new defensive line
Mark Banker Defensive coordinator
Hank Hughes
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
coach Hank Hughes was a co-defensive coordinator at Cincinnati. Like Stewart, Banker has served as a defensive coordinator in both college and the NFL (San Diego Chargers). Hughes is a 36-year veteran of college coaching, including 27 seasons as a defensive line coach. He spent 13 seasons as defensive line coach at Connecticut. Trent Bray, Nebraska’s new linebacker coach, spent the past three seasons coaching linebackers at Oregon State. The former two-time All-Pac 10 OSU linebacker also followed Riley to Lincoln. “I have great loyalty to Coach Riley, and Nebraska is an unbelievable opportunity,” he said. Danny Langsdorf, Nebraska’s new offensive coordinator/quarterback coach, tutored Eli Manning with the New York Giants last year, helping him make dramatic improvements in touchdowns, interceptions, completion percentage and pass ratings. Before that, Langsdorf served two stints on Coach Riley’s staff at Oregon State, including nine seasons with the same responsibilities he now owns again. From 2006 to 2013, Langsdorf
Trent Bray
Mike Cavanaugh
Danny Langsdorf Offensive coordinator
led the Beaver offenses to six bowl appearances and four bowl wins in eight years. Langsdorf is excited about “the chance to run the offense, call plays and be in charge in a place that has a lot of history and tradition.” Mike Cavanaugh, Nebraska’s new offensive line coach, is good friends with Langsdorf, who graciously provided Cavanaugh’s wife, Laurie, with a successful kidney transplant when the two men coached in Corvallis together. “The tradition of excellence at Nebraska is amazing,” Cavanaugh said. “I’m really honored to work with the offensive line at a program with such a history of success in that area.” Keith Williams is Nebraska’s new wide receiver coach. A sprinter and
receiver at San Diego State, he has made professional playing stops in Washington, Frankfurt (Germany) and Saskatchewan (Canada) and coaching stops at San Jose State, Fresno State and Tulane. He also spent the 2008 season with the San Diego Chargers in a minority internship coaching position. Reggie Davis, another former Riley staff assistant at Oregon State, spent the previous four seasons on the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff, coaching tight ends for the first three seasons. A graduate of Washington, Davis played two seasons with the San Diego Chargers at tight end in 1999 and 2000, the first two of three seasons that Riley was the Chargers’ head coach.
Keith Williams
Bruce Read Special teams’ coordinator
Reggie Davis
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
During that same time, Banker and new Husker special teams’ coordinator Bruce Read were members of the Charger’s staff. Read has spent 14 seasons on Riley-coached staffs in college and the NFL. “I’ve been with Mike a lot of years,” he said. “He provides a great environment for coaches and student-athletes. It’s fun to go to work for him every day of the year.” Another full-time member of Riley’s 2015-16 staff is Mark Philipp, Nebraska’s new head strength and conditioning coach. Philipp was USC’s top assistant strength coach when the Trojans battled Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl last December. Riley said Philipp builds strong relationships with players and is a great motivator in the weight room. Husker fans across the country will get to see all of the new coaches at work when Nebraska’s annual spring game is televised by the Big Ten Network (BTN) on April 11, beginning at 1p.m. CT. – Randy York, Department of Athletics
Mark Philipp
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 13
CAMPUS BRIEFS APPOINTMENTS n Susan M. Foster has been appointed director for Institutional Equity and Compliance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Foster was formerly a senior associate attorney at the law firm Jackson Lewis PC in Omaha. A member of the chancellor’s senior administrative team, Foster will serve as UNL’s chief civil rights officer and Title IX officer.
KUDOS n John Woollam, George Holmes Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at UNL, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Woollam, an internationally known expert in ellipsometry and a member of the UNL faculty since 1979, also is founder and president of the J.A. Woollam Co., a university spin-off that has emerged as a worldwide leader in the production of spectroscopic ellipsometry instrumentation. n Larry Walklin, a longtime professor at the College of
John Woollam
14 SPRING 2015
Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will receive the Omaha Press Club Foundation’s Journalism Educator Award at a dinner April 24. n Jim Alfano, Charles Bessey Professor of plant pathology, has been named a 2015 fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. n UNL student Faiz Siddiqui placed first in the Hearst feature writing competition for his story titled “Saving Sisay.” He won a $2,600 scholarship and the College of Journalism and Mass Communications will receive a matching grant. This is Siddiqui’s fourth top-five Hearst award. The feature writing competition is the most competitive among the Hearst awards with 153 entries. n UNL has awarded professorships to nine faculty
members: Concetta DiRusso, named George W. Holmes University Professor of Biochemistry; Stephen DiMagno, chemistry, and Sebastian Elbaum, computer science and engineering, named Willa Cather/Charles Bessey Professors; Robert Brooke, named John E. Weaver Professor of English; Jinsong Huang, named Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Matthew Jockers, named Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of English; Ming Li, named Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of Psychology; Roland Vegso, named Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of English; and Jun Wang, named Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Wei Qiao (Photo by Craig Chandler, University Communications)
GRANTS AND GIFTS n The University of Nebraska Medical Center and UNL have received $2.8 million from the U.S. Army to continue work on robotic telesurgery research. The funds awarded from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity are being used to produce and test a miniaturized, remotely controlled surgical robot that could enable a surgeon in a remote battlefield area to perform complex, lifesaving surgery with the aid of an expert surgeon potentially thousands of miles away. Dmitry Oleynikov, director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery and the Center for Advanced Surgical Technology at UNMC, is the principal investigator of the grant. Shane Farritor,
UNL professor of mechanical and materials engineering, is co-principal investigator of the grant. n With a new $1.5 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy, UNL electrical engineers are teaming with General Electric Global Research to develop a health monitoring system that will diagnose and prognosticate damage in wind turbines. Project leader is Wei Qiao, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. n A UNL research team has secured a $998,433 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Healthy Schools initiative for a four-year study of indoor environmental factors and their effects on the scholastic achievement of students from kindergarten through high school. n The family of Karen S. Kavanaugh-Miller has established a memorial fellowship for graduate students in the Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences. Miller was a longtime dietician at the University Health Center and Campus Recreation. n A three-year, $350,000 National Science Foundation grant will fund a Research Experience for Undergraduates program at UNL. Each summer, 10 undergraduate students from throughout the United States will be selected to participate in the 10-week program, led by sociology professor Kirk Dombrowski, with mentors from several academic areas.
construction is finished. But the reality is that changes take place as people move in, requirements change, events happen and building materials are subject to wear and tear. She wants architects to see their work as nature. “Architecture is a physical entity, and as a physical entity, it’s part of nature,” she said. “The wood was brought in from a tree. Even if we use plastic, we still make it out of something that is from nature. As such, some aspects of architectural pieces behave like nature – it weathers or it deteriorates.” At the same time, architecture is used by people. “But people’s behavior is part of nature,” Handa said. “Birds make nests,
BOOKS n Rumiko Handa, professor of architecture, has released a new book that urges architects to explore the allure of the incomplete. “Allure of the Incomplete, Imperfect and Impermanent: Designing and Appreciating Architecture as Nature” was released Jan. 15 by Routledge. Handa said architects have long operated based on the assumption that a building is “complete” once
and in the same way, people make buildings.” In the book, she said architects shouldn’t be so decisive in the dichotomy between the natural and the artificial in architecture.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 15
From Little Houses to Little Women Revisiting a Literary Childhood Nancy McCabe ’95
University of Missouri Press, 2014, (cloth), $29.95 upress.missouri.edu
In “From Little Houses to Little Women,” Nancy McCabe revisits the children’s books that have shaped all of our imaginations. She discusses the impact that her favorite writers had on her youth and journeys to tourist sites related to their lives, including the Missouri of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Minnesota of Maud Hart Lovelace, the Massachusetts of Louisa May Alcott and the Canada of Lucy Maud Montgomery. Traveling with McCabe as she rediscovers the books that shaped her, readers will enjoy revisiting their own childhood favorites as well. McCabe is the author of several previous books, including “Meeting Sophie: A Memoir of Adoption” and “Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge: A Journey to My Daughter’s Birthplace.”
ALUMNI AUTHORS 16 SPRING 2015
Roger C. Aden
’84, ’86, ’89
Upon the Ruins of Liberty
Inspiration & Innovation
Slavery, the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park, and Public Memory
Religion in the American West
Temple University Press, 2014, (cloth) $27.50 www.temple.edu/tempress
The 2002 revelation at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park that George Washington kept slaves in his executive mansion in the 1790s prompted an eight-year controversy about the role of slavery in America’s commemorative landscape. When the President’s House installation opened in 2010, it became the first federal property to feature a slave memorial. Roger Aden offers a compelling account that explores the development of this important historic site and the intersection of contemporary racial politics with history, space and public memory.
Wiley Blackwell, 2015, (paper), $26.95
Todd M. www.wiley.com Kerstetter Unique in scope and ’92, ’97
comprehensive in coverage, “Inspiration and Innovation” is the first textbook to place religion at the center of an examination of the history of the American West. Covering more than 200 years of history to the present, it details the relationship between the region and religion and the influence they had on one another. The narrative weaves together stories of diverse groups of people, places and events that played an important historical role, from organized religions and easily recognized denominations to unorganized religions and cults.
More Than Football
Children’s books:
George Flippin’s Stromsburg Years
Muddy Madeleine meets an Arach-A-Doo
2014, (paper), $19.95 www.drgeorgeflippin.com
Kathy Nelson
George Flippin was the first African American to play football for the University of Nebraska in the 1890s. His breakthroughs continued as the Flippins became the only black family in the small, mostly Swedish town of Stromsburg, Neb., where he was a physician. In the early 1900s, Flippin’s story was not hidden. Interracial marriages, divorces, abortions and civil rights cases became the fodder for newspapers across the state.
Rising Phoenix Press, 2014, (paper), $7.99 Amazon.com
Muddy oozes with curiosity so her friends aren’t surprised when she’s smitten with the Amanda scariest-looking spider any of them have ever Stone seen. Together, they investigate the creature’s Norton zigzagging zipper and blood-thirsty diet and ’98 search for her when she goes missing.
Warren the Honking Cat Saves the Day
Planning is Funny! Zucker System’s Cartoon Contest Book
Tate Publishing, 2014, (paper), $10.99 www.tatepublishing.com
West Coast Publishers, 2013, (paper), $39.95
Paul Zucker ’57
www.zuckersystems.com
From animals to zoning uses, Paul Zucker, aka the management doctor, offers a cartoon and caption for every office topic, event and job imaginable in corporate America. Cartoons by Dean Vietor and captions by 260 creative and silly planners make this a very entertaining resource.
Virginia K. White
’70
Warren doesn’t look quite like his Seal Point parents and siblings, and he certainly doesn’t sound like them. His siblings laugh at him and run away, until Warren’s honk saves them all from an unwanted visitor. Author Virginia White is working on a sequel about Warren’s musical talents.
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 book published in the last year 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
PROFILE WINNER, First Place 2014 Writing Contest Jim Schaffer is a journalism professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He and his wife, Mary Lynn, also a UNL graduate, have two daughters and a son who have scattered – to Minnesota, Chile and California. Luckily, Daisy the dachshund still lives at home.
Long-Lost Letters Restore Family’s Memory
A Beautiful Forest “
Excuse me, aren’t you Stephen Spielberg? Could we take a selfie together?” Nebraska grad and Florida political science professor Ken Wald did not direct “Schindler’s List,” but he gets that reaction all the time. “I’ve been stalked in Wrigley Field and begged for autographs all over the world,” Wald said. “Last fall I was stopped for pictures by two airline employees who were certain I was Spielberg. In Shanghai, both American tourists and Chinese natives begged me to pose for them. I’m still trying to figure out a way to capitalize on it.” A global citizen, Wald is an expert on religion and politics. He lectures widely at academic institutions in the United States and abroad, and has written numerous books and articles. More recently, however, he came to know his paternal grandparents for the first time.
GHOSTS Wald returned to Lincoln in 2014 to attend a performance of “Ghosts on the Wall,” a dramatic reading given at the Ted Sorensen Theatre at Lincoln High. The reading was created and directed by drama teacher Chris Maly who found a remarkable lesson of faith, hate and hope in some letters that Wald discovered after the deaths of his parents. “For me it’s not just something that was sent to mailboxes in Lincoln,” Maly said, “but the fact that those voices are growing more and more silent as time goes on.” The voices belonged to Wald’s grandparents. When he would ask his mother about them as a child, she would simply say, “They died in the war.” “I thought that they had meekly gone to meet their fate at the 18 SPRING 2015
By Jim Schaffer, ’71
Schönwald Memorial in Grossröhrsdorf.
hands of the Gestapo,” Wald said. “I couldn’t imagine them as members of the resistance, firing rifles at the Nazis from behind a barricade.” But, as Wald would learn, his mother was wrong – they died fighting the war, doing everything in their power to become Americans while still in Germany, hoping against hope they could emigrate and be reunited with their son. Curt and Regina Schönwald’s story gradually emerged thanks to a manila folder full of some 200 letters they had sent to Wald’s father, Henry, from Berlin during a three-year period from 1939-1941. Wald found the letters while cleaning his mother’s apartment after her death, carefully stored in a hassock, a place normally used to keep clean linen. Wald later learned that his grandparents owned a textile store in a small German village, Grossröhrsdorf, near Dresden. Loyal
Germans (Curt served in the German Air Force), the Schönwalds were among the most prominent citizens in town, extending credit when needed to the many local seamstresses. Curt was a major contributor to the public baths, which, as a Jew, he was not allowed to use.
KRISTALLNACHT On the night of Nov. 9, 1938, a date the world remembers as “Kristallnacht,” a gang of Nazis vandalized and looted the Schönwald’s business. Curt himself was marched to the Town Hall and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. He returned six weeks later, shattered and fearful for his family. By 1939 the Schönwalds had been able to send their two children abroad to safety – Henry (then Heinz) to New York and Suse to South Africa – and relocated to Berlin where they began a long wait for emigration. Their letters to Heinz, the ones Ken and his brother, Steve (also a UNL grad), found in the hassock, recount their efforts to learn American English, to become familiar with American customs, and to struggle against an implacable bureaucracy in an effort to leave Berlin. Those efforts were never rewarded. Henry received their last letter, postmarked Nov. 22, 1941. He later learned that his parents had been sent to a Polish work camp and then, somehow, somewhere, perished. Miraculously, though, the Schönwalds’ story doesn’t end with silence. Sixty years later, a Lutheran minister in their German village, began a quest to reconcile past and present. The minister eventually persuaded his town council to convene a weeklong commemoration that would climax with the unveiling of a memorial to the Schönwalds. In 2008 Wald made a pilgrimage to Grossröhrsdorf to attend the dedication of that memorial. He spoke at the unveiling of a monument that stands across the street from the old textile store, displaying a photograph of his grandparents and a description of their life. “We never had a grave for my grandparents,” Wald said, “so the monument became our memorial – the Germans brought flowers and my family brought stones, according to Jewish custom – to place at the foot of the monument.” As a result, “Curt and Regina have become my grandparents, not just my father’s parents.”
RELIGION AND POLITICS Wald’s incredible experience seems oddly appropriate for someone who helped the subject of religion and politics become a matter for serious study. When he was a graduate student, his political science adviser tried to discourage him from writing a dissertation on religion. “He gave me three reasons why I shouldn’t write about religion,” Wald said. “He said it was no longer relevant, important or consequential.” But Wald forged ahead, traveling to England for
research and making contact with a few other scholars of religion. Then, the world changed. When the Islamic Revolution turned Iran upside down and the Christian Right became a political force in American electoral politics, no one could ignore the important role of religion. Wald says, jokingly, that he owes his career to the Ayatollah Khomeini and Jerry Falwell. Today, religion and politics has become a major topic in political science. Wald’s book, “Religion and Politics in the United States,” the essential guide to the subject, is now in its 7th edition. Wald’s academic interests were Dr. Ken Wald sparked by a fiery professor who taught at the University of Nebraska – Ivan Volyges. “He was a crazy Hungarian who was very passionate,” Wald said. “We would sometimes meet at his home and try to match wits with his graduate students. He gave me the idea of a community of people seriously devoted to scholarship.” Another important influence was Prof. David Levine who taught a Psychology of Race class. “He believed that you should never divorce your personal commitments from your scholarship. The things you study should resonate with your personal ethos.” Sometime after Wald graduated in 1971, his father and mother endowed an annual lectureship on the Holocaust, funded through the Harris Center for Judaic Studies. College in Nebraska was also a time for Wald to get to know his future wife, Robin Lea West, who is herself a major scholar in the field of memory loss. Together they have two daughters, each happily married. Wald and Robin are now grandparents themselves.
A BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER As the dramatic performance at Lincoln High reached its poignant conclusion, the audience may have wondered how Heinz Schönwald, son of German shopkeepers, became Henry Wald, Lincoln accountant. “When my father became an American citizen in 1943,” Wald said, “he changed his name. When I later asked him why, he said that World War II was not a good time to have a German name in America. “It never occurred to me to ask him why he chose to drop the first part of the family name – schön, or beautiful in German – and keep the second, wald, the German word for dark forest. I think my father could not bear a name that associated beauty with Germany.” That name has now been reclaimed – by Wald’s brother who named his daughter Sarah Schön Wald – and by Wald in Grossröhrsdorf. “By your actions this week,” he told the German villagers, “you have done your part to reconnect our German name with beauty. Please let that spirit guide your actions as we entrust you with the Schönwald legacy.” v
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 19
NOSTALGIA WINNER, First Place 2014 Writing Contest After 25 years as a professional actress/singer, Terry Baughan now works at Columbia University in New York City. The path to the present day included a lot of interesting side trips as actress, graphic artist, cartoonist, waitress, world traveler and writer. In 1994 she returned to Omaha to perform in the musical “Annie” in the role of Grace Farrell, and counts that tour to be one of her best adventures. Also life-changing was a visit to Bali, Indonesia, in the late 1980s. In addition to her job at Columbia, Terry is a professional graphic designer and works for renowned puzzle creator and author Terry Stickels, creating graphics for his nationally syndicated newspaper column “Stickelers” (King Features).
Baughan and Zei in 2014
From Westbrook T to Broadway By Terry Baughan, ’74
20 SPRING 2015
his is a story about a teacher who gave me an incredible gift and changed my life. His name was Dr. John (Jack) Zei, professor of vocal music at UNL. At about the age of eight, I told my parents and just about anybody who would listen, that I was going to live in New York City some day and be an actress. As time moved on and I progressed from putting on playlets in the neighbor’s garage to actually getting cast in the high school senior musical (role of Mama Brice in “Funny Girl”), I discovered how much fun it was to act AND sing. So, I had an OK voice, but not a big belt like my high school friend Dede, who played Fanny Brice, and I wasn’t a soprano. I had a pleasant enough voice, excellent pitch, and a love of being on that stage, creating a persona that would make people laugh. But I knew if I wanted to sing, I needed to learn how to sing better. Fast forward to the University of Nebraska. My freshman year, I started off as a speech major, with a music minor, specializing in voice. Since music was my minor, I studied voice with various
graduate assistants – all good, all qualified. Somehow, I knew I needed more; I needed a teacher with the right tools to teach me what I needed to learn. But I was not sure where to go or who could help. During the first couple of years of college, I got involved in opera and sang in various productions, mostly in the chorus. Professor Zei was the director of all the operas, and always welcomed performers, even if they weren’t music majors. Away from school, I was singing another kind of music, working weekends and sometimes five nights a week in a rock and roll band. This was fun, and my friends were more than happy to come hang out at “Der Loaf und Stein” or “Little Bo’s,” have a few drinks and watch our six-piece band, “The Market,” sing all the current rock and roll music. My opera friends were concerned that I would hurt my voice with this type of singing. Then I started to worry. I was belting, but not singing “properly,” and I still needed the right teacher. Because I had been singing in his operas, I knew Professor Zei and I went to him for advice. We met one afternoon in his office, and I asked him if I could study with him. Students all improved under his watchful care and tutelage, and I was very much aware of this. My desire to study with him was strong. “So, Terry, you sing in a rock band, correct? And you are afraid of hurting your voice?” he asked. I nodded, and then said to him, meekly, “But I still want to sing show tunes and rock and roll and jazz. I don’t want to sound like an opera singer…” My voice trailed off. Zei must have smiled to himself, but in all sincerity said to me, “Terry, when I teach you to sing correctly, you will be able to sing any style of music you like. And it won’t affect your rock and roll career. But if you are accepted into my studio, you will have to declare a music major. Are you willing to take on this course of study and stay in school an extra year?” Adding a music major in the beginning of my senior year of college was strenuous. A lot more music theory, summer school, music history, sight-singing, learning another instrument (viola). But my parents agreed that if I was going to New York, I needed to be able to compete in the singing category. Bless them. And bless Jack Zei. Within two months of studying voice with Zei, my voice changed. I remember the day vividly when I finally GOT IT, and heard and felt the difference in my body and my voice. He kept saying, “Yes! Do you feel it? That’s it…feel it? Do it again. Again. That’s it!” It was exciting. What was even more
encouraging … he offered me an actual lead role in one of his operas the next summer. That’s when I knew. I had grown vocally and learned enough to be able to sing opera! Zei and I worked together for a year and a half, until I graduated in June of 1974, and it was a momentous day when I stood in front of my fellow classmates and professors, and sang my senior recital. I think I only did one aria (from “Carmen”), a couple of German and Italian art songs, and an Irish folk tune (my personal favorite). The following autumn, Zei was asked to be the head of the Opera Department at the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, and I left to play the role of Tzeitel in “Fiddler on the Roof ” at the Westroads Dinner Theatre in Omaha. And there, I got my Actor’s Equity Card, something that was very useful when I moved to New York. It made me a bonafide professional actress. In 1982, I made my Broadway debut in the musical, “Annie”, with my parents in the audience. Zei wasn’t there in person, but every time I sing, and sing well, I think of him. In my 25-year career as a professional actress/singer, I am grateful to this amazing friend and teacher. I could never have done any of it without him. What a gift it was to be his student. I am forever grateful. v
Zei in his teaching days at UNL
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 21
PASSION IN THE DESERT Mary Ann McDowell Decodes the Secrets of the Sand Fly In an Effort to Help Find a Vaccine for Parasitic Disease
22 SPRING 2015
F
By Tom Nugent
or more than 15 years, Notre Dame University parasitology researcher Dr. Mary Ann McDowell (BS ’88; MS ’90) has been working on a little-known disease that currently affects more than 12 million people – many of them living in Middle Eastern countries where U.S. combat troops have also been under siege from the illness in recent decades. Leishmaniasis. With major funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and the whole-hearted support of U.S. allies in the politically troubled region, McDowell has helped lead a continuing and highly complex scientific effort aimed at better understanding how several different species of sand flies operate as the “vectors” for the disease, which kills up to 50,000 people a year. Remarkably intense and single-minded, McDowell – a former UNL biology major who became fascinated by the complex relationships between parasites and their hosts during long summers spent at the university’s Cedar Point Biological Station in western Nebraska – has also impressed her colleagues by so far raising nearly $10 million in research grants for her ongoing leishmaniasis studies and other projects. “Parasites have really complex life cycles, and that’s part of why they’re so fascinating,” said the sand fly sleuth when asked why she devotes so much of her professional life to chasing insects and their one-celled protozoan hitchhikers across both desert landscapes and her humming laboratory in South Bend. “Like malaria, leishmaniasis is a puzzle that’s very difficult to figure out – which is probably why I’ve been motivated to work on it for so long.”
Photo by N.J. Spicer
NORTH SINAI DESERT, EGYPT, SUMMER 2004 For several hours, the gray-painted U.S. Navy van had clattered east from El Arish, en route to the vast, sun-baked wastes that dominate the northern regions of the Sinai Desert. Seated beside the uniformed driver and occasionally fanning herself in the sweltering heat, the American disease researcher watched the jagged, reddish-brown cliffs and gorges of this arid sector pass slowly by on the other side of the windshield. McDowell was chasing sand flies again today – tiny, stinging insects, ubiquitous in the Middle East, which feed on the blood of humans and also carry a hideous disease parasite that often lurks in their saliva. Leishmania. The American troops who fought in the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan and came down
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 23
McDowell was chasing sand flies again today – tiny, stinging insects, ubiquitous in the Middle East, which feed on the blood of humans and also carry a hideous disease parasite that often lurks in their saliva.
with this disfiguring (and sometimes disabling or even lethal) ailment have a special name for it: “Baghdad boil.” There’s no easy way to describe the boil, or what it does to your skin. Imagine an invisible parasite that multiplies in an open, blood-streaked sore. As a dedicated parasitology researcher, McDowell had already spent several years working on a series of projects investigating the Leishmania parasite that causes this devastating disease, but her work now is aimed at exploiting a distinctive feature of the pathogens life-cycle, the sand fly. “When a blood-feeding sand fly bites, it spits into you,” McDowell explained. The sand fly’s saliva is a unique. Her overriding goal: find a way to exploit that vulnerability ... by creating a vaccine against the saliva and thus change the environment in which the boil-causing protozoan parasite enters the humans. Although the genetics involved were mind-bendingly complex, the overall concept was fairly simple. Alter the immune response in human skin when a sand fly spits, and the blood-thirsty parasite will no longer be able to leap successfully from the sand flies to the humans. So far, so good. But there was a problem. Although Dr. M had been able to use laboratory-grown sand flies in her early research, those “domesticated” versions of the insect carried certain genetic permutations that were the inevitable result of laboratory “inbreeding.” And those permutations were now getting in the way of the molecular tinkering required to put a hex on the salivary glands. What McDowell needed now were some live sand flies taken from their natural habitat in the desert regions of the Middle East. Energized and excited by the prospect of getting them for herself, she had earlier spent several months on the telephone ... while gradually lining up the funding and the logistical, on-theground support that would be required to collar the sand flies and bring them back to her lab in Indiana. It didn’t take her long to secure the help of the U.S. military and the federal government in setting up her foray into the depths of the Sinai Desert. 24 SPRING 2015
“I just reached out,” she said with a smile the other day, during an interview at her office at Notre Dame. “I had some connections. Plus, I’m fearless about calling people for a project I really care about. I just want to get the job done – and I’m not embarrassed to tell people that I don’t know something.” Less than a year after she started making those phone calls about sand flies, McDowell found herself in the beat-up Navy van, rattling into a tiny desert village in Egypt. It was twilight now, and a little cooler, as she stepped from the van onto the rock-strewn sand. “The U.S. military had already set up a field site there,” she later recalled. “All I had to do was bait some sand fly traps with dry ice,” which gives off CO2, making the sand flies think it is [being produced] by an animal [via respiration]. Also equipped with fly-attracting lights, the traps are usually effective at catching the particular type of sand fly – Phlebotomus papatasi – that McDowell wanted for her lab. Once the traps were all baited, the researcher could retire to a nearby military outpost for the night. But she was back at dawn ... to find that several of the traps now contained sand flies which had made a wrong turn in their insatiable hunger for animal or human blood. Voila! After dunking the flies in ethanol and then securing them safely in air-travel containers, she was ready to begin the long journey back to her lab in the Galvin Life Sciences Building at Notre Dame. There she spent the next year or so struggling to assemble the biochemical pieces in a monstrously complex jigsaw puzzle ... by using the bugs to construct some of the key elements in a genebased vaccine designed to protect all of us from Baghdad boil and other ailments triggered by the sand fly parasites. “If you ask me to define my work as a biologist, I’d say that I’m a jack of all trades,” said the 48-year-old scientist. “I’m interested in several areas of parasitology, and my lab has done a lot of work on the mosquitoes that transmit malaria and dengue fever ... along with immunology, population studies and genetics in recent years.” Still, there’s no doubt that the battle against leishmaniasis
her at work with a microscope in her lab, she talks about the effort to protect U.S. soldiers and their allies from the scourge of the parasite on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan – along with protecting civilian populations in countries around the world. “Many of the soldiers fighting in Iraq lose their limbs, their minds and sometimes their lives,” said Professor McDowell in the video (https://www. nd.edu/fighting-for/2008/fightingdisease/). “I want to do more than just applaud these soldiers. I’m committed to doing everything I can to support them... . “The diseases I’ve chosen to work on cause substantial suffering throughout the world. Hopefully, my research will be able to help relieve some of that suffering.”
Rolling around her office on an exercise ball She was born in rural South Dakota and raised there among farmers, until her father died when she was in elementary school. When her mother remarried a few years later, Mary Ann McDowell and her five siblings joined a new family in Kearney, where her stepfather – the late Dr. Gerald (“Jerry”) Morris (also a UNL graduate) – spent 21 years as a pathologist, running a busy diagnostics lab at the city’s Good Samaritan Hospital. Morris, a decorated U.S. Army physician who served with the famed “First Cav” Division combat troops in the Vietnam War before becoming one of Kearney’s most prominent physicians, I want to do more than just applaud these soldiers. I’m had a powerful influence on McDowell ... whose now-extensive research links to committed to doing everything I can to support them.” the U.S. Department of Defense seem to Photo by Matt Cashore, ©University of Notre Dame reflect that early influence. A 1984 graduate of Kearney High (pronunciation: Leash-man-EYE-ah-sis) has been a major School, McDowell thrived as a biology student preoccupation for McDowell and the dozen or so grad students at UNL – especially after she began studying parasites and and technicians who typically work with her in the lab. For their biological hosts under the inspiring academic leadership more than 15 years now, and funded in part by a $2 million of parasitology professor John Janovy, Jr., now an emeritus Department of Defense grant, she’s been working steadily to professor at UNL. invent some of the gene-based weapons that will help knock the “Janovy was a remarkable mentor,” said McDowell in her sand fly parasite down for the count. office at Notre Dame. “I worked on several projects with him, Her passion for that battle can be seen vividly in a 2008 and I soon discovered that I really liked the complexity involved University of Notre Dame promotional video (part of a “What in parasite research ... especially when you look at how these Would You Fight For?” series of spots built around the school’s organisms migrate through the human host. It’s a puzzle that’s “Fighting Irish” nickname). As the video unfolds and we watch difficult to figure out, and I really enjoy that.”
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NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 25
Frequently encouraged by Janovy, McDowell said she also learned a great deal from now retired biology professor and parasite specialist Brent B. Nickol (whose son Dr. Devin Nickol these days teaches internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha). Describing some “very helpful advice” she received from the older Dr. Nickol before she decided to become a scientist, McDowell recalled how he “warned” her that “it would be difficult. “He told me: ‘If you can do anything else, do it – but if you can’t help yourself, okay, you should study for the Ph.D.’” She laughed ... and then rolled a few feet across her office on the black “exercise ball” that serves as her desk chair. When the visiting reporter wondered why she sits on a big inflated ball rather than on a chair, she laughed again. “I paid 600 bucks for that thing,” she said while pointing at the chair, “and it just makes my back hurt!”
TRYING TO MEET HER ‘RESPONSIBILITY TO SOCIETY’ Along with her husband of 24 years – Notre Dame biology professor and malaria specialist Dr. Michael Ferdig – and several other faculty members, McDowell played a key role a few years ago in launching Notre Dame’s high-profile Eck Institute for Global Health, a center that supports numerous research projects aimed at improving healthcare for the poor in low-resource countries all across the globe. Established in 2009, the Eck Institute has already gained a growing international reputation for the excellence of its research programs in diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and leishmaniasis ... along with numerous healthcare support and education programs now taking place in several low-resource countries in both Africa and Asia. While pursuing the Eck agenda as hard as she can, McDowell also teaches both graduate and undergraduate students the basics of immunology and parasitology each year. “This past semester I taught 20 undergrads immunology,” she recalled, “and as always, I tried to let them know that just memorizing and regurgitating [scientific information] isn’t good enough. What they really need is to understand how things work, and to be able to critically evaluate research. “Many of them want to become doctors, and if they’re going to make good decisions later, they need to be able to evaluate information.” Describing what she sees as her “responsibility to society,” McDowell hammered hard at her “primary goal in teaching,” which is to “try and make sure our students graduate with the ability to think critically. And I think that in my case, that approach to teaching really is a product of the environment that Janovy and the other UNL professors set up.” Then, after another quick, energizing ride on the exercise ball: “As a scientist, I sometimes work on the molecular stuff, the genetics. But I also spend a lot of time doing things like looking at cells under a microscope, or collecting specimens out in the field, or maybe working on an insecticide problem involving vectors for parasites. “As we all know, [rapidly evolving] computer science is having a major impact on biology these days, and this powerful tool [informatics] is greatly affecting many of the approaches we take to our work. “But I still think that when all is said and done, good science is about being able to think critically and knowing how to ask good questions.” v 26 SPRING 2015
McDowell’s Idea of a Really Good Time:
Bashing Heads in the Middle of a Scrum When Mary Ann McDowell was working on her master’s degree in parasitology at UNL back in the late 1980s, she realized that she needed to find a recreational activity that could provide her with lots of exercise and also some excitement now and then. No problem! Along with another grad student, McDowell quickly organized a women’s rugby team that soon became locally famous for “bashing heads in the scrum.” (Translation of “scrum” for the non-rugbyfamiliar reader: Including McDowell, who was known to be a hard-hitting “prop,” or interior lineman, about half a dozen players from each rugby team quickly form two opposing units. Crouching way down low, the two opposed groups of scrimmagers glare ferociously at each other for a moment. Then they crash together with frightening intensity. What follows is a snarling, head-banging dogfight – often conducted in ankle-deep mud – during which the players try to gain possession of the ball by pushing over the opposing team.) “It’s just a great sport!” McDowell enthused the other day, after being asked why a person might enjoy bashing heads in a bog-like mass of churning mud. “I was probably too small to play prop, but I didn’t let that stop me. I like a challenge... and you can’t beat the challenge you face when you’re battling through the scrum.” Not content to give up the head bashing after moving on to the University of Wisconsin to work on her doctorate, McDowell promptly joined another women’s rugby club and then “played” the sport for several more years. Now 48, she readily admitted that she’s had to pay a high price for all those bone-jarring scrums of yesteryear. “I’m starting to feel it [her age] for sure,” she said with a wince of remembered pain. “Looking back, I’d say that doing contact sports like rugby does take a toll on your body.”
How Many Parasitic Worms Can Fit On the Gills of a Nebraska Minnow?
F
or biologist Mary Ann McDowell, an internationally recognized expert on a littleunderstood disease (leishmaniasis) that attacks 2 million human beings each year and kills tens of thousands of them, the long journey toward an awardwinning career in science began at UNL ... during an unforgettable summer in which she spent endless hours eyeballing the twitching gills of a “fathead minnow.” The year was 1989, and the fathead was part of McDowell’s course work for a UNL master’s degree (1990) in parasitology. It was also part of an invaluable experience, she said, that taught her how to “think critically” and ask “good questions” – whether she was studying a live animal out in the field or a specimen under a microscope in the lab. Looking back from her current position as an associate professor of biology at the University of Notre Dame, McDowell said she was “extremely fortunate” to have spent that long-ago summer at UNL’s famed Cedar Point Biological Station ... where her graduate field study on native fish parasites showed her the importance of “challenging every assumption and thinking for yourself.” Located near the south shore of bucolic Lake Ogallala in the sandhills region of western Nebraska, Cedar Point has served as an off-campus “living laboratory” for several generations of UNL biology students. And it was there that McDowell wound up working closely for two years with the “hugely influential” Professor John Janovy, Jr., on projects that allowed her to study a wide range of “truly fascinating” fish parasites at close range. Armed with a net, a sun hat and a pair of muddy boots, the youthful parasitologist often joined her professor and her classmates on specimen-gathering forays along the South Platte River and several nearby lakes. After one such mission, she brought home a gaggle of thrashing fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and immediately went to work identifying and cataloguing the tiny parasitic worms (“helminths”) that were hiding out among their gills. “That was an exciting summer, and it was quite thrilling to work with Professor Janovy on projects that taught you the meaning and the value of doing good science,” she recalled. “Janovy had that fire within. He’s a force of nature, and he’s also an old-time classical parasitologist who tries to look at biology from all angles. “He’s always trying to focus on the big picture – and
McDowell and her family with Dr. John Janovy at Cedar Point Biological Station in 2002.
I think we need to go back to that approach – because we’ve all become so molecular, so specialized, that we’re often not seeing what’s right there under our noses.” Along with studying and writing about the fathead minnow at Cedar Point, McDowell spent several weeks working with Janovy and another gung-ho master’s degree biologist on parasitism in the life cycle of the plains killifish (Fundulus zebrinus). Later the three of them published a paper in the Journal of Parasitology that described how several different parasitic worms compete for space inside the crowded gills of this common Nebraska fish. Based on the microscopic scrutiny of 298 plains killifish “collected from the South Platte River 5 km west of Roscoe, Nebraska,” the targeted parasitic worm Salsuginus thalkeni was found to be thriving in the gills of the swimmers themselves in spite of vigorous competition from half a dozen other types of worms that were determined to join the underwater party. “Cedar Point changed a lot of lives,” said the highly accomplished researcher and laboratory director, and for good reason. Not long after that summer at Cedar Point, Mary Ann McDowell married the other student who’d co-authored the paper on the killifish with her. His name was Michael Ferdig, and today he’s an accomplished malaria researcher at Notre Dame ... with a laboratory of his own located only a few doors down the hallway from her lab.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 27
PLAYING CHESS WITH
Malaria By Tom Nugent
28 SPRING 2015
How do you fight a lethal adversary that knows how to quickly change its genetic makeup – along with many of the biochemical markers that allow the human immune system to identify and kill it? For veteran parasitologist and malaria researcher Dr. Michael Ferdig (BS ’87; MS ’90), the struggle to neutralize one of the world’s most dreaded killers by figuring out the genetic basis of its ever-changing “resistance” to drugs is a thrilling intellectual challenge. Armed with an ever-increasing array of cyber-tools and the staggeringly complex “libraries” of genetic information now available to biology researchers, Ferdig spends long days in his laboratory at the University of Notre Dame ... where he and a dozen assistants endlessly match wits with a cunning and resourceful enemy. Said the former Nebraska state high school wrestling champ, who also put in two grueling years as a UNL varsity grappler: “When I’m working on malaria research, I sometimes feel like I’m playing chess with the disease. “But there’s a difference. Imagine a game of chess in which your opponent can change the rules all the time. That’s what ‘mutation’ is. And just when you [think you] know how to get it [the malaria parasite] cornered, then boop! ... it’s gone.” Instead of a game-ending checkmate, the battle starts again. “It’s a bit of a race,” said Ferdig, while also pointing out that the stakes in this particular game are actually quite high. “If we can’t kill it, then it can kill us.”
Associate Professor of Biology Michael Ferdig talks with a grad student in his lab. Photo by Matt Cashore, ©University of Notre Dame.
T
he struggle took place in Building No. 4. It was there, in a high-tech infectious-disease laboratory at the National Institutes of Health campus outside Washington, D.C., that Mike Ferdig confronted one of the most challenging scientific mysteries to emerge during his 24-year career as a parasitologist. The mystery centered on a key question about the genetics of malaria, a one-celled animal parasite that kills about a million human beings a year, many of them children in equatorial Africa. Ferdig, who’d just recently earned a doctorate in parasitology at the University of Wisconsin, was studying “drug resistance” in the most virulent form of malaria (P. falciparum), under a post-doc research fellowship at NIH. After arriving at Building No. 4 in the summer of 1998, the former UNL biology student was determined to tackle a key question that might help explain malaria’s rapidly increasing ability to spontaneously mutate into more drugresistant forms. Specifically, Ferdig wanted to better understand the process by which the disease – once thought to have been “essentially eradicated” by the drug chloroquine and other therapies – had during the 1980s and 1990s quickly developed the
genetic mutations that now made the powerful compound increasingly ineffective. Ferdig went to work immediately. First he collected several million live malaria cells and hauled them into his lab. Then he fed them human blood, in order to set the stage for a series of paradigm-challenging experiments. Once the ravenous protozoa had begun to attack the blood cells, Ferdig applied chloroquine ... but in amounts that differed by only tiny increments. “At the beginning of my work on malaria,” the tireless researcher explained to Nebraska Magazine during a recent interview in his lab office at Notre Dame, “I had been told that the parasite had only two basic [genetically controlled] responses to the drug. Based on [genetic signaling], the malaria cells survive at one level of drug application, but at a certain higher level, most of them begin to die.” That idea – the cells all live until “Level X” of the drug is reached, and then a single genetic signal prompts them to die – sounded perfectly logical, of course. But Ferdig nonetheless decided to question it. Instead of simply accepting the standard genetic explanation, he began applying the chloroquine in slightly differing amounts. And he soon saw a different pattern emerging.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 29
At each new slightly higher level of drug application, a Deadly Malaria Pathogen small new group of malaria cells began to die. Uses Stealth, Deception Ferdig scratched his head, frowned deeply, and kept on testing the malaria cells with meticulous, painstaking To Trick Germ Killers in applications of the drug. It took him six months, during Human Bloodstream which he worked 12-hour days almost without letup. And then very gradually, the precise data began to tell a How effective is the malaria parasite at getting past the human body’s disease-fighting weapons, in order to different story. feed on the nutrients in human blood? What he was observing in Building No. 4 was a The answer is: very. “quantitative range of responses” to the chloroquine. According to Professor Michael Ferdig and other In other words: the malaria’s reaction to the drug wasn’t malaria researchers, the wily protozoan employs a being controlled by a single genetic signal that controlled wide variety of sophisticated techniques to avoid being a “live or die” response to the attacking drug. Instead, wiped out by human white blood cells and antibodies he realized, “There were lots of genes contributing to the as it makes its way through the cardiovascular system. overall range of responses.” Once such technique is sequestration – a clever Ferdig was encouraged. Apparently, things were not as method the bug uses to avoid traveling through simple as the research establishment thought. the blood-rich spleen, where disease-killing white If his findings were accurate, it meant that the genetic blood cells lurk in enormous numbers and scan the neighborhood relentlessly for invaders. response to the drug applications wasn’t “plus or minus” ... The parasite’s biochemical solution is truly ingenious. but involved an astonishingly complex set of interactions First the malaria cell manufactures a special kind of among many different genes. He said that insight changed “sticky protein.” Then, as it travels through a bend in his entire approach to studying malaria genetics: “Once the body where blood vessels are bunched together you’ve accepted that idea [genetic interactions as a key (an elbow or knee joint, let’s say), the parasite quickly aspect of malaria drug resistance], then you begin to attaches the sticky substance to the nearest vessel understand that you’ll have to change the way you go wall. after this bug. Because you’re no longer looking for the Next step: with the help of its hastily manufactured ‘silver bullet’ – the single gene you can target in order to biochemical “lasso,” the invader can “hang” safely try and prevent drug resistance. Now you’re going to have against the wall ... without ever having to travel through to measure that genetic response at such fine increments the dangerous spleen. Another nifty – and deadly – gambit calls for the [of drug application] that it will make the job of bug to keep rapidly changing understanding the genetics the structure of the proteins on behind the resistance vastly its outer cell membrane. Then, more complicated and when a platoon of diseasecomplex.” fighting antibodies arrives for For Ferdig, that 1998 a search-and-destroy mission, discovery eventually became the fighters can’t “find” the “the basic foundation identifying protein-structure they of what my whole lab is were instructed to look for ... built on today. And this and zoom harmlessly on by the [studying gene activity at quick-change artist. Duped again! such a minute level] is what A third weapon in the tells you how resistance invader’s arsenal is rapid actually happens and how mutation – malaria’s ability to things work. And if you alter its genetic structure and don’t have an understanding functioning, thus rendering antiof all the [gene] interactions malaria drugs ineffective and and take them into account, over time, virtually useless. it’s like you’re going at the “In my lab at Notre Dame, we whole problem with one study the genetics and genomics hand tied behind your back of malaria on a daily basis,” said and your eyes closed... . Mike Ferdig, “and I can tell you for a fact that this bug is elusive. “Which means you’ll Colorized scanning electron micrograph of red “It’s just very good at never get ahead of the blood cell infected with malaria parasites, which escaping, no matter how are colorized in blue. To the left are uninfected parasite. You’ll never stop powerful the weapons you try to cells with a smooth red surface. Credit: NIAID it from changing the chess bring against it.” game rules and jumping 30 SPRING 2015
sport. Because, really, there are times when you have to fight with reviewers to get them to When itWhen comes to thetotragic business of attacking inAfrica Africa and it comes the tragic business of attackingand andkilling killing people people in accept your work and Asia, it and would beit difficult find atomore than than Plasmodium falciparum, Asia, would beto difficult find alethal more marauder lethal marauder Plasmodium put it in their [scientific aka “malaria.” Transmitted by blood-feeding kills malaria nearly 1 million falciparum, aka “malaria.” Transmitted by mosquitoes, blood-feedingmalaria mosquitoes, people kills a year ... many of them in low-resource nearly 1 million peoplechildren a year ...who manylive of them children whocountries live in in Subresearch] journals.” low-resource countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Saharan Africa. He paused for a “There’s no doubt that malaria the malaria a resourcefuland andskillful skillful adversary,” said “There’s no doubt that the bugbug is aisresourceful said veteran malaria researcher Ferdig at Notre “Everyyou’ve veteranadversary,” malaria researcher Mike Ferdig at NotreMike Dame. “Every timeDame. you think moment, and there was time you you’ve gotita manages handle onto theescape parasite, it manages to escape again. got a handle onthink the parasite, again. time to take a quick is a spectacular organism a clever escape artistthat thatknows knows how how to “This is“This a spectacular organism – a –clever escape artist to use a a variety of techniques to outwit our besttoefforts to eradicate variety use of techniques to outwit our best efforts eradicate it.” it.” look at the work table To better understand that number “1 million” actually means, it To better understand whatwhat “1 million” deaths actuallydeaths means, it might be helpful in front of him ... at the might be helpful to make a few comparisons: to make a few comparisons: center of which loomed Auto World Auto Accidents Accidents World War War II a huge volume on one of About About About1.2 1.2million millionpeople people About 10 10 million million soldiers soldiers the most complex and are were arekilled killedin inautomobile automobile were killed killed in in World World War War I; accidents One; malaria causes the accidentsworldwide worldwideeach each malaria causes the same difficult-to-understand year. same approximate year. approximate deathdeath toll fields in all of modern million once each decade. million once each decade. million toll science: “The Gene Wars: Science, Politics, and the Human Genome” (by World Airplane World War War II II Airplane Crashes Crashes Robert Cook-Deegan, The Thetotal totalmilitary militarydeaths deaths The The malaria malaria death death rate rate in in W.W. Norton). in were inWorld WorldWar WarTwo II were Africa Africa alone alone isis the the approxapproxabout about55million million––aafigure figure imate “And then you also have imate equivalent equivalent of of the the approximately approximatelyequaled equaledby by deaths deaths that that would would result result to fight with the grant million malaria twice each a day from million malaria twice each from seven seven jumbo-jet jumbo-jet decade. airplane decade. airplane crashes crashes on on the the reviewers,” said Ferdig continent continent during during each each and and with a thoughtful squint, every every single single day. day. “in order to even get [your Heart HIV/AIDS Heart Disease Disease HIV/AIDS research] funded. And all During The During2013, 2013,the thetotal total The world’s world’s biggest biggest killer killer of this can be very difficult global deaths from the isis coronary global deaths from the coronary heart heart disease, disease, retrovirus with retroviruswere wereabout about1.5 1.5 with more more than than 7.4 7.4 million million at times, believe me ... million dying million––but butthe thedeath death dying from from CHD CHD in in 2012, 2012, which means you just have million rate is declining steadily million according to statisticians million rate is declining steadily million according to statisticians as at asnew newdrugs drugsbecome become at the the World World Health Health OrgaOrgato keep fighting if you increasingly nization. increasinglyeffective effectiveatat nization. want to keep everything slowing slowingdown downthe thepanpandemic. demic. moving forward and get the job done. “And so you keep going, SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: ‘A BLOOD SPORT’? that’s all. You have to keep going, because when it comes to malaria – which has historically been one of the great tormentors of the human race – the stakes are too high to quit.” For Mike Ferdig, who grew up in a middle-class Omaha suburb and won the 1982 Nebraska state championship as a 185-pound-class wrestler for the Bennington High ‘TRAIPSING THROUGH THE MUD’ AT UNL School Badgers (“Go Big Blue!”), running a major university parasitology lab is a lot like trying to pin a hard-nosed and The oldest of four kids raised by a hard-working Omaha powerfully built opponent to the wrestling mat. accountant (Ronald W. Ferdig) and a Ph.D. human resources “I guess I’ve always been a sports guy, doing the rough-anddirector at a major Midwestern utility company (Mary A. tumble kinds of sports,” said the broad-shouldered scientist Ferdig), the now-50-year-old malaria expert arrived on the with a rueful laugh, as he reflected on the grueling world of Big campus of UNL back in the fall of 1983. Science in the America of 2015. “But you know,” he went on, Within a year or so, he had fallen under the spell of a now “I really do think there’s a connection that can be made between legendary UNL parasitology professor ... John Janovy. Today sports and scientific research ... and especially research on a the author of 17 books on science (and even a couple of recent formidable and resourceful adversary like malaria. novels), Janovy had an uncanny ability to help students “learn “Quite often, to be candid about it, doing science is a fight. how to think critically, and how to look at things open-mindedly I mean, trying to get your lab to the point where it’s recognized ... and then to ask questions about what they were seeing,” for its excellent work, and going to conferences where you have according to Ferdig. to demonstrate the excellence of your research ... and then During his first couple of years at UNL, Ferdig dreamed battling for research grants – in some ways, it’s almost a blood over here [mutating], and jumping over there [mutating again] and eventually becoming resistant to every new drug you create.” Nothing to it, right? Ask Ferdig where he learned to challenge the obvious and think for himself in this very interesting fashion, and the burly former wrestler won’t take long to come up with an answer. “For me it all got started in the parasitology courses I took and the field work I did with Professor [John] Janovy at UNL,” he said with a smile of nostalgia. “Janovy was amazing, that’s all. He had the ability to grab a fish, put his gills under a microscope and start asking questions about the parasites he found there. “He taught us that the key to doing good science is simply the determination to keep asking good questions.”
A A ‘Spectacular’ ‘Spectacular’ Protozoan Protozoan Parasite, Parasite, Malaria Malaria Kills Kills Nearly Nearly 11 Million Million a a Year Year
10
1.2
07
05
7.4
1.5
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of becoming a medical doctor. But then he spent a couple of summers doing field work at Janovy’s Cedar Point Biological Station, located in western Nebraska about four hours from campus – where he wound up falling in love with the complexities and challenges of doing pure research. Along with his classmates, Ferdig enjoyed long summer afternoons galumphing around in creek beds while wearing rubber waders and carrying a net that helped him catch local fish species so he could study their gill parasites under the microscope. “Thanks to Janovy, I got bitten by the bug of doing science and thinking like a scientist,” said Ferdig. “I was having lots of fun traipsing through the mud, and it wasn’t long before I was asking myself: ‘Why am I going to medical school – that seems crazy!’ “You don’t know how special Janovy is until you’ve been all the way through [grad school and many years of teaching], and you’re now a professor yourself ... and then you look back and say: ‘Oh my goodness.’” For his part, Janovy (now a UNL emeritus professor of biology) said that as a student, Ferdig “had a very powerful mind at work behind his easygoing demeanor and his obvious athletic prowess as a champion wrestler. “I haven’t been surprised to see how well Mike has done as a malaria researcher, in particular,” added Janovy. “If you want to understand how good his lab really is, just add up all the research grants he’s been awarded in recent years.” To be sure, Ferdig’s glittering track record as a malaria lab research director and member of the highly regarded Notre Dame-based Eck Institute for Global Health (dedicated to providing better healthcare for the poor) bears out Janovy’s depiction of him as a super-smart researcher and skilled academic administrator. So does Ferdig’s recent breakthrough in helping to develop a “gene chip” molecular tool that allows malaria researchers to quickly analyze thousands of molecular interactions in the bug’s
genome in real time ... thus giving them a powerful new weapon in the struggle to keep up with their endlessly mutating adversary’s skill at finding new ways to achieve drug resistance. With an extensive publishing record that includes major recent studies in such Michael Ferdig in his Galvin Hall lab at Notre Dame. Photo by Matt Cashore, blockbuster ©University of Notre Dame. journals as Science and Nature, and with a growing national reputation as a savvy administrator who keeps landing more than his share of hard-to-get research grants, Ferdig seems well positioned to help lead the Next Great Assault on one of humanity’s most lethal scourges. “As a parasitologist, I’m very interested in how the malaria bug lives inside its host,” he said with the smile of a man who seems to be fully enjoying himself. “This is definitely a formidable organism, and it’s obviously very, very good at drug resistance. “But if we can keep learning more and more about the genetics of that resistance, then I do think we can perhaps aspire to ridding the word of malaria someday ... or at least to getting it safely under control, so it will do far less harm to people all across the globe.” v
Grunting and Yowling With Each Toss of the Discus A Nebraska state-champion wrestler in high school who spent two years on the varsity wrestling team at UNL, Mike Ferdig also excelled at the lesser-known track and field sport of throwing the discus. “Oh my goodness, I just loved it,” said the 6-foot-2inch sports fiend, while describing his glory days as an accomplished high school discus hurler. “Get up every day and grab your discus ... then peddle down to the track and throw it a hundred times. “I did that for two years. And I would make a giant grunting noise on every throw. It would be, like, Sunday morning real early ... and people would be having their breakfast and looking at you from their back patios
32 SPRING 2015
near the track. “Uuugggghhhhh!” Describing that unforgettable “Uuugggghhhhh!” moment, the Notre Dame malaria researcher beamed joyfully. “See, when you throw the discus, you make a big yowl.” Ferdig said he had a terrific time as a passionate discus tosser – but he was sadly disappointed when he tried to pass the skill on to his youthful daughter, many years later. “She wouldn’t do it,” he said with a mournful sigh, as he remembered his failed efforts to coach the balky teen. “She didn’t want to yowl and grunt!”
2015
Alumni Awards
Emily Murtaugh
Mary Marsolek
Ashley McAndrew
Mari Lane Gewecke
Howard and Judy Vann Student Leadership Award
Shane Osborn Student Leadership Award
NWLN Collegian of the Year
NWLN Alumna of the Year
A senior majoring in textiles, merchandising and fashion design/communications, Emily Murtaugh is president of Scarlet Guard, the NAA’s 1,400-member student group, after serving as the group’s public relations director. She currently is also a creative intern for The Minnow Project Advertising Agency, a social media intern for the UNL fashion department and a promotions intern for Blush Bridal Boutique. Last spring Murtaugh received the alumni association’s Jack Miller Scholarship.
Lincoln native Mary Marsolek is a nursing student at University of Nebraska Medical Center – Lincoln and works as a nursing assistant at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. She is also a midshipman at the UNL Navy Reserve Officer Training Program, on track to commission in May 2016 into the Navy Nurse Corps. Marsolek has spent multiple semesters as the NROTC academic officer, community service officer and supply officer and has earned the five NROTC Academic Stars.
A senior from Lincoln majoring in Spanish, Latin American Studies, history and global studies, Ashley McAndrew volunteers as a Spanish interpreter at two clinics in Lincoln and serves as co-president of Zeta Nu chapter of the National History Honor Society at UNL. She also is an intern at El Centro de las Americas in Lincoln and a student tutor at the UNL Athletic Department. After graduation, McAndrew hopes to obtain a position that serves the Hispanic community in Nebraska.
1980
A 1980 cum laude graduate of UNL, Mari Lane Gewecke holds degrees in political science and history as well as a graduate certificate of specialization in gerontology from UNO. In 1991, she founded Lane Gewecke Consulting. The firm specializes in qualitative research. As a volunteer, Gewecke has served on the boards of Lincoln Children’s Zoo, Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Leadership Lincoln, Capital Humane Society, Family Service Association and American Red Cross – Cornhusker Chapter. She is currently on the advisory committee of NAA’s Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network, chairs Rotary Club #14’s project and grant evaluation committee and serves on the board of Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center. In 1996, Gewecke received the John F. “Rick” Akin Award from the Capital Humane Society.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 35 33
James Carr
Richard Tempero
Michael Harpster
Zachary Hunnicutt
Doc Elliott Award
Distinguished Service Award
Early Achiever Award
Early Achiever Award
Retired attorney Dick Tempero is busier than ever as he lends his time, treasure and talents to many activities, including notable efforts on behalf of his alma mater. A Nebraska Alumni Association life member, he was president of the Washington, D.C., alumni chapter when they were named NAA Chapter of the Year and he has been a member of the Iowa chapter and, now, the Hoosiers for Huskers. Tempero and his wife, Sue Carkoski Tempero, host annual “Taste of Nebraska” events for the Indianapolis chapter and have established and maintained UNL scholarships named for their parents as well as supporting the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network Endowment Fund. They have three children and eight grandchildren. Tempero earned his bachelor’s degree in 1959 and his law degree in 1962 from NU.
An intern architect with BVH Architects in Lincoln, Michael Harpster received his bachelor’s degree in English with high distinction in 2010 and his master of architecture in 2013, both from UNL. As a grad student, he received the Architectural Research Centers Consortium King Student Medal, the W. Cecil Steward FAIA Architectural Excellence Award, the College of Architecture Alumni Association Outstanding Student Award, the Harry F. Cunningham Bronze Medal and the Henry Adams Medal. Harpster is a LEED Green Associate and a member of the American Institute of Architects.
Faculty since 1966
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Jim Carr continues his research into analytical chemistry of trace substances in water as well as remedial treatment of contaminated water. He joined the UNL faculty in 1966 and has touched the lives of 10,000 undergraduate students and 15-20 graduate students. In 1996, Carr won the University of Nebraska Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award for his work, and he is also a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He put on an entertaining Big Red Road Show chemistry exhibition for several years and served as freshman coordinator for the Department of Chemistry for 18 years. Carr was active as an officer and board member of the East Campus Neighborhood Association and continues to sing in the First Plymouth Church Choir.
34 SPRING 2015 36
1959, 1962
2010, 2013
2004
Zach Hunnicutt, a 2004 graduate of the UNL College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, farms with his dad and brother near Giltner, raising corn, popcorn and soybeans. He is a member and past chair of the American Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors, president of the Hamilton County Farm Bureau, treasurer of the AgChat Foundation and member of the Aurora Technology Center Board of Directors. Hunnicutt has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Ag Committee regarding the Farm Bill and spoke at the South by Southwest conference about ag and social media. He and his wife, Anna, have three children.
2015
Alumni Awards
Paul & Stephanie Jarrett
Adam Morfeld
Derek Mosloff
Jack O’Holleran
Early Achiever Award
Early Achiever Award
Early Achiever Award
Early Achiever Award
After crossing the finish line at the San Francisco half marathon in 2012, Paul and Stephanie Jarrett, 2009 and 2005 graduates of the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications, were hit with health product samples and the idea for an ecommerce business. In June 2012, the couple launched Bulu Box in Lincoln with Paul as CEO and Stephanie as CMO. Bulu Box subscribers pay $10 a month to receive a monthly box bearing four to five health-related product samples. From the start, the business has attracted national attention from investors and shout-outs from Inc. Magazine, Visa Small Business and others.
Adam Morfeld founded Nebraskans for Civic Reform in 2008 while a UNL undergraduate to protect voting rights, create more accessible elections and strengthen K-12 civic education. The group now employs employs 30 full and part-time staff. Morfeld graduated from the University of NebraskaLincoln with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2009 and, in 2012, from the Nebraska College of Law, where he was a member of the Nebraska Law Review, Robert Van Pelt Inn of Court and the American Constitution Society. In 2014, Morfeld was elected state senator for the 46th District of the Nebraska Legislature.
Derek Mosloff is an avid solo and chamber musician and was an active performer in the Boston area, serving as the principal viola of the Orchestra of Indian Hill, as well as a violist in the Discovery Ensemble, among others. In 2008, he was awarded a fellowship to Tanglewood Music Center, and he was invited to return for the 2009 and 2010 seasons and as a New Fromm player for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In September 2012, he landed a coveted spot in the New World Symphony in Miami. Mosloff completed his master’s degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston in 2013. He and his wife live in Miami.
2009 & 2005
2009, 2012
2010
2005
Jack O’Holleran is cofounder and global vice president of sales and business development for Aktana, a software analytics company headquartered in San Francisco. He helped grow the company from a four-person startup to global leader in the Sales and Marketing Analytics space. O’Holleran also advises numerous startups and is a mentor for the Alchemist Accelerator, a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley. A 2005 graduate of the UNL College of Business Administration, he lettered in football at Nebraska and was first-team Academic AllBig 12. O’Holleran recently completed his first triathlon, a full-distance Ironman, in Hokkaido, Japan.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 37 35
Nathan Schemm
Tracy Sweeny
Natalie Wagner
Hal Daub
Early Achiever Award
Early Achiever Award
Early Achiever Award
Alumni Achievement Award
A 2004 graduate of the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences, Tracy Sweeny is owner and operator of Elan Studio, a child photography studio in Bristol, R.I., and winner of the 2014 International Child Photography Image Competition. Her work is featured at all Babies R’ Us stores in the United States. She also serves on the education faculty at the University of Concordia, where she is a member of the transformative online teaching team. Sweeny taught high school English from 2004 to 2012, and served as adviser for Inklings Literary Magazine. She received Education Foundation Grants in 2007 and 2008.
Natalie Wagner is a vice president at State Street Global Advisors, the second largest institutional asset manager in the world. She joined SSGA in November 2013 from Bank of America where she spent nearly seven years supporting its Private Bank and Trust Companies. Wagner has served as board treasurer of New England’s largest domestic violence shelter and on a Massachusetts Taskforce and Boston level Taskforce on developing public policy initiatives to retain top talent in the community. Natalie earned her bachelor’s degree from the UNL College of Arts and Sciences and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Across more than four decades of public service, dedication to the community and professional achievements, Hal Daub is one of the most highly regarded attorneys in Nebraska. Before completing two terms as the mayor of Omaha, he served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, with positions on the House Ways and Means, Public Works and Transportation, Government Operations, and Small Business committees. He also was a board member for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and Omaha’s Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority. In November 2012, he was elected to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A partner in the Omaha law firm of Husch Blackwell, he received a law degree from the University of Nebraska in 1966.
2006, 2010
Nathan Schemm earned two degrees in electrical engineering from UNL – a B.S. in 2006 and a Ph.D. in 2010. He then accepted a job in the research labs of National Semiconductor in Santa Clara, Calif. When Texas Instruments bought National Semiconductor in 2011, Schemm carried on his work with the new company in California, until late 2012 when he moved to Dallas and continued to work in the Texas Instruments’ research labs. He was responsible for architecting a low-power voice recognition chip that will soon be shipped in millions of smartphones globally. Nathan and his wife, Sarah, have one daughter and live in Rowlett, Texas.
36 SPRING 2015 38
2004
2002
1966
2015
Alumni Awards
Robert Dermann
Ken Geddes
Alumni Achievement Award
Alumni Achievement Award
Alumni Achievement Award
Bob Dermann enrolled at UNL in the fall of 1973 concentrating in business management. He enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard in 1977. After completing Army Officer Candidate School in 1983, Dermann was commissioned as a second lieutenant, promoted to first lieutenant, and attained the rank of captain in 1990, major in 1997, lieutenant colonel in 2002 and colonel in 2010. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2012. Dermann also has been heavily involved in the Washington Cornhuskers. Serving as chapter president in 2008, he helped raise significant funds for the chapter’s scholarship program and initiated “Operation Battle in Seattle” when Nebraska played the Washington Huskies in 2010. Dermann and his wife, Donna, live in Tacoma, Wash., where he has a small property management company.
An All-Big 8 linebacker and nose guard under Coach Bob Devaney, Ken Geddes played for the Cornhuskers from 1966-1969, graduating from UNL in 1971 in elementary education. He went on to play pro football with the Los Angeles Rams (1971-75) and the Seattle Seahawks (1976-1978). Geddes then worked as a sales rep for General Electric and Campbell’s Soup Co., before returning to school to earn a master’s degree and work for the Seattle School District as a drug and alcohol intervention specialist and middle school counselor from 1989-2011. Among his honors are induction into the Nebraska Football, Nebraska High School Sports, Boys Town Sports and Omaha Sports halls of fame. Geddes and his wife, Carole, are active in the Washington Cornhuskers. They have two children and one grandson.
Penny Hamilton holds two graduate degrees (1978, 1981) from the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences. Her 40+ years work experience includes university teaching, leading business and conference workshops, and print/broadcast media. Hamilton also is a private pilot and aviation educator, and co-holds with her husband, Bill, a World Aviation Speed Record, set in 1991 from Lincoln to New Orleans. She was inducted into the Colorado Aviation and Colorado Women’s halls of fame and is director of both the Colorado Airport History Preservation and Teaching Women to Fly Research Project. Hamilton earned the Greater Granby Area Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement, the Grand County Realtor of the Year and the Colorado Association of Realtors Good Neighbor awards.
Attended 1973-1975
1971
Penny Rafferty Hamilton William Alexander Hamilton 1978, 1981
1978
Alumni Achievement Award
A 1978 Ph.D. graduate of UNL, Bill Hamilton enjoyed four careers: military, aviation, business and journalism. A distinguished 20-year military career was capped by induction to the Army R.O.T.C. Hall of Fame at the University of Oklahoma. Following a quarter century as an aviation consultant to the General Aviation industry, Hamilton was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame and was recognized by North Dakota with its first-ever Outstanding Service to Aviation Award. During their 17 years in Lincoln, Hamilton and his wife, Penny, created and operated Advanced Research Institute Inc. and, in their first year of operation, received the Lincoln Independent Business Association Gamblers Award. A continuing career in journalism resulted in his induction into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 39 37
Jane Hirt
Eugene Tatsuru Kimura
Ronald Ng
Alumni Achievement Award
Alumni Achievement Award
Outstanding International Alumnus Award
Jane Hirt is a 25-year veteran of the news media industry, most of it spent as a journalist at the Chicago Tribune. At the Tribune, she was managing editor/ vice president from 2008 – 2014 and before that served in various editing roles on the national, foreign and sports desks. Hirt also was founding editor of RedEye, an innovative commuter news and lifestyle brand for Millennials in Chicago. While at UNL, Hirt was active in Chi Omega, the Daily Nebraskan and Mortar Board. Since graduating in 1989, she’s continued her UNL involvement through the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network (chair), the Nebraska Alumni Association Advisory Board, the Daily Nebraskan Alumni board and the journalism college’s advisory board. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Michael Lenzi.
Eugene Kimura’s college education was interrupted by World War II and President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, removing 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from their homes, professions and friends in Washington, Oregon and California. In 1942, Kimura relocated to the Midwest where he resumed his pharmacology studies at the University of Nebraska, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1944 and a master’s degree in 1946. He applied his education to his research at Nepera Chemical Co. in Yonkers, N.Y., and then at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, where he celebrated 35 years as a pharmacologist/ toxicologist. Kimura is coauthor of numerous patents for experimental drugs in the field of pharmacology. He and his wife, Grace, have three children and four grandchildren.
Ronald Ng earned a bachelor of journalism degree from UNL in 1993. After doing his agency rounds, he joined the BBDO & Proximity network in 2004 and served in their Malaysia, New York and Singapore offices for more than a decade. Under his leadership, these offices earned global recognition in the Big Won, and Gunn Report, including three No.1 ranked campaigns, and Ng was ranked No. 4 (2009) and No. 6 (2014) most-awarded Chief Creative Officer globally. Inspired by the integration of data, technology and storytelling at DigitasLBi, Ng joined the agency in January 2015. As Chief Creative Officer of North America, he leads the creative charge for their six offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York and San Francisco. All things considered, his proudest achievements are his two boys, Jonah and Noah.
1989
38 SPRING 2015 40
1944, 1946
1993
2015
Alumni Awards
Beall Family 84 Years of Huskers Family Tree Award
Over the last 84 years, three generations and 24 family members of the Hugh and Elma Crawford Beall family have earned degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln while giving back to the school. All six of the couple’s children went on to college, including five at the University of Nebraska. Daughter Oma, the first to graduate, served in World War II and the Korean Conflict and later was postmaster in Roca, Neb., for many years. Son John C. graduated in engineering and started three successful construction companies in Nebraska. Son Robert and daughter Elizabeth also graduated and son Hugh attended. Hugh’s wife was a communications professor at the university for many years, and his daughter Constance graduated. All six of John C.’s children also attended UNL, and have given back to the university and the alumni association. Son-in-law Don Bell served as president of the Californians for Nebraska in the late 1980s; and his four children attended UNL. Sons John D. and Stephen Beall graduated as did John D.’s two daughters. Son Richard Beall and daughter Mary Jean Beall Hinds attended UNL, and daughter Julie Ann Beall Fay graduated. Fay moved to Colorado after graduation, became very involved with the Coloradans for Nebraska and served as an alumni volunteer high school recruiter. After moving to Nashville, she worked with the Nashville Huskers, making a significant impact on fundraising for the chapter’s Legends Scholarship. The Nashville chapter was founded by her daughter, Emily, who serves as president and led the chapter to the 2014 Chapter of the Year Award.
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 41 39
Introducing Our Newest Staff Members The Nebraska Alumni Association has added new employees to the venues, communications and administrative teams over the past few months. After serving as the NAA’s venues intern from March 2013 to December 2014, Brooke Busboom was hired full time as the venue management and event specialist. As a member of the venues team, Busboom assists in planning and managing a variety of events at the Wick Alumni Center, Nebraska Champions Club and Nebraska Innovation Campus, from UNL events to weddings. Prior to interning with the alumni association, she served as the special events assistant at the Sheldon Museum of Art. Busboom holds a degree in hospitality, restaurant and tourism management from UNL. The Hastings native is also involved in the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network and is an executive committee member for
NEWS
EventLNK. Paul Goedert was recently hired as the NAA’s full-time venues coordinator after serving as a part-time venues employee for more than a year. In this role, Goedert assists with facility maintenance and event management, logistics, setup and teardown at the NAA’s venues, including the Nebraska Champions Club and Wick Alumni Center. He also assists with all facets of football game days. Prior to joining the NAA, Goedert, a Hastings native, worked in the shipping yard at Centennial Plastics in Hastings. He graduated in May 2014 with a degree in criminology and criminal justice from UNO. Jessica Marshall joined the NAA team as the director of written communications. In her role, Marshall writes for all of the NAA’s programs and assists with the association’s strategic communications messaging and implementation. Before joining the alumni association, she spent nearly four years at Swanson Russell,
an advertising agency in Lincoln, as a public relations writer and associate. An Omaha native, Marshall graduated from UNL with a degree in advertising and public relations. She is an active member of the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network and a Sheridan Lutheran Church council member. Lincoln native Sara Werner is the NAA’s executive assistant. In addition to assisting the alumni association’s president and CEO, Werner assists with the Alumni Master’s Program and is the Huskers for Higher Education program coordinator. She also manages a variety of other office tasks and assists the administrative assistant. Prior to joining the NAA, Werner interned at the University of Nebraska Foundation in the donor relations department. She also supervised the phonathon program at the Foundation. Werner graduated in August 2014 from UNL with a degree in global studies and minors in political science, history, Spanish and ethnic studies. v
From left: Jessica Marshall, Paul Goedert, Brooke Busboom, Sara Werner
40 SPRING 2015 42
Legends Scholarships
Scarlet Guard Officers Elected for 2015-16
The “Legend” continues to grow as the Nebraska Legends Scholarship Program, a collaborative effort among the NU Foundation, the NAA and the UNL Office of Admissions, enters its fifth year of recruiting and retaining top students. Currently, 426 scholarships are available for the entering class of 2015-2016. Of those, 53 are sponsored by 28 different alumni chapters and affiliates, 21 are individually named funds and 352 come from general fund gifts from
alumni, fans and friends of UNL. This compares to the aggregate amount for the four previous classes of 578 general fund and individually named donations and 106 alumni chapter and affiliate scholarships. Alumni and friends interested in contributing to the program should contact A.T. Greer (agreer@ huskeralum.org or 402-472-8915) for more information. v
NEWS
Scarlet Guard, the NAA student group, has announced officers for the academic year 2015-16. They include: • President – Betsy Hardin, junior family science major from McCook • Vice President Records – Chyann Smith, sophomore ag business major from Storm Lake, Iowa • Vice President External Relations – Elizabeth Simoneau, junior biological sciences major from Burrton, Kan. • Vice President Internal Relations – Katelyn Dickes, sophomore nutrition science major from Fordyce, Neb. • Vice President Alumni Relations – Dillon Thoman, sophomore finance major from Old Monroe, Mo. • Vice President Communications – Kelsey Koski, freshman business administration major from Elkhorn • Vice President Social Media – Taylor Gehring, freshman accounting major from Urbandale, Iowa v
Join NWLN Alumna applications for the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network (formerly Cather Circle) are now open year-round. The annual programming cycle begins in the fall, and while we encourage all applications be turned in by May of each year, we will accept applications at any time. Alumna members must be graduates of UNL or have another significant affiliation with the university, and must be annual or life members of the Nebraska Alumni Association. Members must also have achieved
significant success in their careers and/or civic activities. They are expected to attend at least one of the two biannual meetings. Alumnae may be matched with students and are asked to serve as mentors by providing support and advice. Additional opportunities are available CONNECTION BOX to participate on NWLN huskeralum.org/nwln-apply committees and the Advisory Council. To join, visit huskeralum.org v NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 43 41
NEWS Take a Campus Tour
conGRADuation Party is May 9 Join the NAA for our second annual conGRADuation party, following UNL undergraduate commencement on Saturday, May 9. From noon to 2 p.m., we’ll be at the Rail Yard, adjacent to Pinnacle Bank Arena where commencement is held. Meet your family, friends and graduates here. Get your photos taken in full-size cutouts of famous alumni, university dignitaries and coaches. Enjoy the Husker atmosphere and celebrate your graduation. v
Career Networking Gets Social Learn more about our alumni career networking efforts through Twitter, LinkedIn and online webinar offerings. The NAA’s new Twitter account, Huskers at Work, is filled with articles, tips and insights on professional development and career advancement. Our Official CONNECTION BOX Nebraska Alumni alumnicareerservices.org/ nebraska/Events#tabs1 Association @HuskersatWork LinkedIn huskeralum.org/linkedin Group now connects more than 13,000 Husker alumni. Develop connections, participate in discussions 42 SPRING 2015 44
and browse job postings from employers seeking Nebraska alumni. If you’re new to LinkedIn or need a tutorial, Ashley Stone, NAA career advancement team member, can help you get started and show you how to maximize this powerful social network. And don’t forget to explore career advancement from the comfort of your home or office by viewing live and recorded webinars. Spanning a variety of topics from professional development experts, authors and coaches, webinars take place the first Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. CST. Online registration is required. v
The University of NebraskaLincoln campus is always changing – new academic buildings, new residence halls, new green spaces and more. Yet much of the campus remains the same – a place where you created memories and can relive them today. Whether you’re coming back for the spring football game, graduation, a reunion or something else this spring, the NAA invites you to tour the campus CONNECTION BOX with us. Take huskeralum.org/campus-tours a walking tour with an NAA host, or better yet, take a riding tour in our red golf cart. A tour can be tailored to your specific areas of interest or generalized so you can see the bigger picture. If you have an hour, we have an hour. To take a walk or ride down memory lane with us, sign up at huskeralum.org. v
Backpacks & Briefcases In February more than 300 students, staff and alumni participated in Scarlet Guard’s annual professional development event, Backpacks & Briefcases, held at Nebraska Innovation Campus. This year’s event featured two conference tracks: “Backpacks,” helping underclassmen maximize their college experience, and “Briefcases,” helping upperclassmen launch their careers. Students were able to participate in a networking reception before the event and had the opportunity to get their résumés reviewed and professional headshots taken during the event. In addition, students attended student/career success panels and wellness, finance and networking breakout sessions led by UNL faculty,
NEWS
staff and prominent alumni. Diane Mendenhall, former NAA executive director and current associate athletic director for ticketing and development, was a favorite among participants. Speaking to positive thoughts leading to positive
results by utilizing the language of desired performance, students left the session empowered, inspired and equipped to challenge the way things are with the way things can be. v
Husker Baseball Alumni Tailgates Warm, sunny weather and hundreds of Husker fans made for a successful Husker baseball tailgate in Peoria, Ariz., Feb. 21. The event, hosted by the Nebraska Alumni Association, was held at the Peoria Sports Complex and included special guests Senior Associate Athletic Director and CFO for Nebraska Athletics, John Jentz
and Associate Athletic Director for Development and Ticket Operations, Diane Mendenhall. Nearly 800 Husker fans attended the tailgate event to show their support for the baseball team, and nearly 2,000 Husker fans attended the afternoon game. The Huskers took the four-game series against the Cougars with three wins.
A similar event was held in Houston, March 7, when the Huskers defeated Hawaii, 4-3 in the Houston College Classic. John Jentz, senior associate athletic director and CFO, and Shelley Zaborowski, interim executive director of the Nebraska Alumni Association, attended that event, which drew 80 Husker fans.v
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 45 43
NEWS
30 Yearbooks Searchable Online; More Alumni Volunteers Needed
Thanks to the efforts of alumni volunteers, 30 Cornhusker Yearbooks are now searchable on the Internet, with 46 more partially transcribed. That means our volunteers have transcribed 65 percent of the yearbook pages over the past two years. Now Love Library needs your help to complete the project. Once the yearbooks have been transcribed, other types of documents will be added to the site for volunteers to continue the work of preserving and sharing UNL history. Anyone in the world with a computer and Internet access can help:
• Go to http://transcribe.unl.edu • Click on the Yearbook project. • Make an account – this is not required, but we’d love to recognize any volunteers who contribute toward the success of this project • Select a yearbook and page to transcribe • Start typing what you see on the page • Click “Save” when you’re finished The transcriptions are then merged with digital images, making them searchable. Check out the latest CONNECTION BOX transcribed uploads: the yearbooks.unl.edu Cornhusker Yearbooks of 1924, 1925 and 1931. v
Scarlet Guard had a rewarding weekend at the CASE ASAP D6 Conference in March at Iowa State, bringing home the most hardware: Outstanding President, Outstanding External Program (Alumni Masters Week Welcome Reception and Success Panel) and Outstanding Organization.
44 SPRING 2015 46
PROCEDURE AND DEADLINES Please complete and return the form below by May 1, 2015 to be included in the football ticket lottery. Tickets are limited to one game and two tickets per household, with priority going to life members with donations, then life members, then annual members of the Nebraska Alumni Association. Involvement and service moves you to the top of your group. Completion and submission of this form constitutes an application for tickets. Members agree to purchase tickets for a single game for any game ranked below. TICKET REQUESTS Mark your preferences for home and away games on the form below. If your name is drawn to receive tickets, your credit card will be charged and you will receive mail or e-mail confirmation by July 1. The actual per ticket price will match university single-game tickets prices plus a $10 handling fee per order. Home tickets will be available for pickup at the Wick Alumni Center, the week of the game, or at the stadium will-call window on game day beginning three hours prior to kickoff. Away game tickets will be shipped via FedEx for a $25 charge, sent 7 to 10 days before each away game.
2015 FOOTBALL TICKET REQUEST FORM Name___________________________________________________________________
Enroll me in the Husker Hot List (must be a life member)
Address__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Preferred phone #__________________________________ Member ID # (See your magazine mailing label – directly across from your name)__________________ E-mail Address ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Please charge my credit card: AmEx Discover
MasterCard
VISA (No checks please)
Credit card #________________________________________________ Exp. date___________________________________________________
OPTIONAL - I’m attending with the following group (if applicable): Chapter Migration (chapter name)_____________________________ College / Campus event_____________________________________ Mark the group’s designated game as #1 priority.
Membership/Giving Status: (You must be a member) Life Member + Donor Life Member Paying Life Member Annual Member
*Additional Tax-Deductible Donation to Elevate Priority $__________________________
If I am awarded tickets in the lottery process, I agree to purchase tickets for a single game as ranked below. I understand my card will be charged on or around July 1, and tickets are non-refundable. (Signature)____________________________________________________________________________________________________
2015 NEBRASKA FOOTBALL TICKET REQUEST FORM Indicate quantity (maximum of two tickets) and rank your game preferences with 1 being your top choice: Home games in boldface. Quantity Price Game Date
Rank _____
1 or
2
$75
BYU
Sat., Sept. 5
_____
1 or
2
$50
South Alabama
Sat., Sept. 12
_____
1 or
2
TBD
@ Miami, Fla.
Sat., Sept. 19
_____
1 or
2
$50
Southern Miss
Sat., Sept. 26
_____
1 or
2
$80 Wisconsin
Sat., Oct. 10
_____
1 or
2
TBD
@ Minnesota
Sat., Oct. 17
1 or
2
$80
Northwestern
Sat., Oct. 24
_____ _____
1 or
2
$80
Michigan State
Sat., Nov. 7
_____
1 or
2
TBD
@ Rutgers
Sat., Nov. 14
1 or
2
$80
Iowa
Fri., Nov. 27
_____
*Additional gifts to elevate ticket priority are 80% tax-deductible
INVOLVEMENT and SERVICE (if any) Postcards of Pride Volunteer Huskers for Higher Education Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network Alumni Awards Committee Alumni Advisory Council Travel Program Participant Former Board Member (Chapter, Affiliate or Association) Affiliate/Chapter Member___________________________ Reunion Attendee_________________________________ Other__________________________________________ Other__________________________________________ Other__________________________________________ Other__________________________________________ Send form with credit card info (no checks please) postmarked by May 1, to: Nebraska Alumni Association, ATTN.: Football Tickets, 1520 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-1651 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 47 45 4NAA15•FMO
ALUMNI
CHAPTERS & AFFILIATES
ROTC Spring Event The Nebraska Alumni Association’s ROTC and Military Affiliate will hold their annual spring banquet in conjunction with the 2015 ROTC Joint Service Chancellor’s Review on April 16. The Review takes place at 3:30 p.m. in Cook Pavilion, adjacent to the Pershing M & N Building. In addition the ROTC and Military Affiliate will award scholarships to a cadet and midshipman from each of the three
CONNECTION BOX huskeralum.org/rotc-sp2015
The Pennsylvanians for Nebraska came out to root for the Husker wrestling team in a 41-3 victory over Drexel on Feb. 21, and were greeted by head coach Mark Manning, winningest wrestling coach in Husker history, and Husker assistant and Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs (shown to the right).
46 SPRING 2015 48
service branches represented at UNL. The event will culminate with a dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R St. The featured speaker will be a senior enlisted service member from the U.S. Strategic Command. Admission to the dinner is $35 for members and $40 for nonmembers, and the reservation deadline is April 10. Register online at huskeralum.org/ rotc-sp2015 or by calling Alex at 888353-1874 or 402-472-2841. There is no cost to attend the Joint Service Chancellor’s Review only. v
Love Memorial Hall Reunion The Love Memorial Hall Alumnae Association is planning their annual All-Class Reunion on April 18 in Lincoln. Special recognition will be given to the honor classes of 1945, 1950, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. The reunion will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the East Campus Union, and will include lunch, reminiscing and a business meeting. Please RSVP to Sharon Smith at sharon@soyroy.com by April 11. The cost is $15, payable at the door on the 18th. Alumnae unable to attend may send greetings to Smith at (402) 298-8570 or sharon@soyroy.com. These will be read during the gathering.
Enter the 2015 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, 2015. 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 By FAX: (402) 472-9289 Online: huskeralum.org/writing-submission
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 47
CLASSNOTES 1941
n Darrel D. Rippeteau of Delray
Beach, Fla., celebrated his 98th birthday Jan. 14.
1947
n Anna M. “Hink” Sahs of Lincoln turns 90 April 28. Sahs was initiated into Chi Omega in 1944 and was a member of the first group of female cheerleaders at UNL. The wife of the late Dr. Warren W. Sahs, ’43, she lives at The Landing.
1949
n Frances Buell celebrated birthday No. 90 Jan. 13. Buell was a math teacher at Lincoln High School from 1954 to 1987 and lives in Lincoln.
1950 ■ Dale
N. Anderson of Topeka, Kan., celebrated his 90th birthday Jan. 6. Anderson was recently identified as the oldest living drum major of the NU marching band, where he was a member from 1947-49. A World War II veteran, he was one of three drum majors during his stint with the band, which was led by Prof. Don Lentz, the much beloved director. Anderson retired in 1998 from the communications department of Washburn University in Topeka as general manager of KTWU-PBS, and writes he “would love to hear from one and all.” Robert Kudlacek of Lincoln celebrated his 94th birthday Feb. 10. Jim Tische of Elmwood marked 90 years in December 2014.
1953
n Ruth Raymond Thone, author, freelance writer, community activist and former first lady of Nebraska, received the 2014 Nebraska Press Women Communicator of Achievement Award. Thone is a resident of Lincoln.
1954
Barbara Shaw and her husband, Tom, were subjects of a recent San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News
News/Weddings/Births/Deaths
feature that dealt with how couples cope when one spouse has Alzheimer’s. The Shaws live in the Grove, which is the memory support unit at the Terraces of Los Gatos, a retirement community.
1956
n Dave Madigan has “retired in Florida where the weather is always warm to hot!” Madigan lives in Boynton Beach.
Barbara Hill, Grand Junction, Colo., has been instrumental in bringing opera, ballet and art to the screens of the local cinema complex, an effort that exposes this western Colorado community to far-off cultural events. Arven and Barbara Reynolds of Lincoln noted their 65th wedding anniversary Dec. 27, 2014. Don Tilley of Lincoln celebrated his 80th birthday Dec. 23, 2014.
1957
n John E. Nelson, Omaha, was
presented a 2014 Nebraska Legislator of the Year Award by the Nebraska Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The honor recognizes outstanding legislative contributions to the profession and practice of architecture. Nelson represented District 6 from 2006-2014, and briefly served as lieutenant governor in late 2014. Ed Penas of Lincoln celebrated his 80th birthday Jan. 16. Wayne Ruliffson of Lincoln turned 80 on Dec. 3, 2014.
1958
n Duane A. Eversoll, retired research geologist and professor emeritus in the Nebraska Geological Survey, School of Natural Resources, IANR, at UNL, was elected president of the University of Nebraska’s Emeriti Association for 2015. The Survey published his “Educational Circular on Nebraska Landslides” in 2013.
■ Indicates Alumni Association Life Member 48 SPRING 2015
■
Robert and Edith Halvorsen of Lincoln observed 60 years of marriage Dec. 26, 2014.
1959
n William Sapp, CEO of Sapp Bros. Truck Stops Inc., has been elected to the Omaha Business Hall of Fame.
1960
n Charles Wilson, a retired
Lincoln physician, has been selected as a member of the board of directors for the Bryan Foundation.
1961
George Holdren, Lincoln, celebrated his 90th birthday Nov. 23, 2014.
n Marian Dunlap Forsythe recently received an award for 20 years volunteer service with Melbourne (Australia) City Tourism.
1967
Jim and Barb Farber of Lincoln marked a half century of marriage Nov. 21, 2014. n George and n Kathie (’69)
Pool of Moreno Valley, Calif., marked their 50th wedding anniversary in December 2014.
1968
Stew and Sharon Jordal of Lincoln celebrated 50 years of marriage Dec. 5, 2014.
1969
n Barbara Epley Shuck of
n Dick Campbell, president and owner of Campbell’s Nurseries and Garden Centers of Lincoln, was elected chair of the board of directors for the Bryan Foundation.
1963
Randall Rehmeier, a retired district court judge in Nebraska City, has been tabbed to serve on the Nebraska Board of Parole.
Whitesboro, N.Y., was one of the women profiled in the recently published “Remarkable Women in New York State History.”
Tom Laging, professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is a recipient of the Harry F. Cunningham Gold Medal for Architectural Excellence in the State of Nebraska. The 2014 awards were presented by the Nebraska Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. n John Nolon of Tarrytown, N.Y., has been designated as a Distinguished Professor at Pace University, White Plains, N.Y. Nolon is a law professor at Pace Law School. n Ronald and n Camilla (’65)
Svoboda of Lincoln observed their 50th wedding anniversary Nov. 28, 2014.
1964
n Nancy Standley of Lincoln noted her 75th birthday Dec. 17, 2014.
1965
■ Darrell
and Mary Buss of Lincoln celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Nov. 22, 2014.
Indicates Alumni Association Annual Member
■ Brian
K. Ridenour has been added to the staff of Lincoln law firm Kinsey Rowe Becker & Kistler LLP as an of counsel attorney.
1970 ■ Don
Hutchens, Lincoln, retired from the Nebraska Corn Board as executive director in November 2014. Since then Hutchens has had these honors bestowed on him: Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Meat Export Federation, the Rural Radio Association Service to Agriculture Award and the Farm and Ranch Management Association Service to Agriculture Award. Tom Kumke of Lincoln is co-owner of Paramount Gas Products, which provides gas detection and cryogenic storage solutions, and has offices in both Lincoln and Kansas City.
BY KURT ANTHONY KRUG
Alumni Profile ’67, ’69
The Best of Two Worlds Bob Hall
Working in theater and comic books has been the best of both worlds for Bob Hall because both honed his skills as a storyteller. “I had the advantage of all my theater training because I knew how to tell a story. I was able to break things down into a story. There were other artists who drew better than me but just couldn’t (tell a story visually)… Eventually, I think, I got to be pretty good at drawing. It was an earn-what-you-learn proposition… If you were a storyteller, you kept working,” explained Hall, 70, of Lincoln. Hall – who graduated with undergraduate and graduate degrees in theater in 1967 and 1969, respectively, and is enrolled in the MFA program with an expected 2017 graduation date – broke into comics in 1974. His credits include Marvel’s various Avengers and Spider-Man titles, Incredible Hulk, et al. He came to New York City in 1972 to pursue a career as a playwright and theater director. However, he needed to supplement his income. “At first it was a need for a marketable skill... I always wanted to be a theater director and had some success … but it didn’t come close to covering my expenses. I knew you had to do something else, especially (starting out). So many of my friends would get office jobs and – eventually – it was exhausting. You’re working 9-5 and trying to get started in the theater industry at night. Sometimes, you weren’t always free to take a (theater) job … but you probably couldn’t get
Bob Hall
another theater job for months and you couldn’t afford to give up your day job.” Hall’s best known for his work on two Avengers stories. The first is 1981’s Avengers No. 217 – written by then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter – where a mentally unhinged Yellowjacket slaps the Wasp, his wife/fellow hero. The controversy over this scene rages on today. “I remember wrestling with it. I don’t remember what the script said,” recalled Hall. “I know that Jim has said that the book was late and we didn’t have time to revise it. I would guess that’s his way of saying, ‘Boy, I didn’t realize it was gonna cause such a stink or I would’ve revised it.’ Because he certainly could have; he was the editor-in-chief.” Despite the scuttlebutt, this story was one of the first that took the psychological problems of a superhero into a whole different realm. Yellowjacket was the right character to do this to since he wasn’t well-known. “Iron Man may have been a drunk, but he was still Iron Man; he could come back to being who he was. This was a game-changer … where the character came out the other side and had to be a different character and
deal with the results of (his actions). I think what Jim did was strong,” explained Hall. “I think it became something that people imitated so much, that it became … almost a Marvel signature for some writers.” Hall also drew the thought-provoking, well-received Emperor Doom, where arch-villain Dr. Doom rules the world via mind control and turns it into a utopia. This story was adapted into an episode of the cartoon, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. He’s amazed how mainstream comic book characters have become, given the success of many movie adaptations, most notably 2012’s top-grossing Marvel’s The Avengers. He credits that to Marvel founding father Stan Lee, who for decades had false starts and mixed success getting these characters launched in different media. “To me, Stan always wanted to be the Walt Disney of the super-hero world. (I’m) pleased he succeeded in doing that,” said Hall. “It was just such a quest for him and that made a big difference. I know there are a lot of other people involved at this point, but it was Stan’s quest. He was so sure that this could work. And why shouldn’t he be? He created a base for a certain kind of entertainment.” Nonetheless, Hall realized he couldn’t do comics full-time. “The competition is (fierce),” he said. They were really pleased to have
Continued on Page 52 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 51 49
CLASSNOTES the best of two worlds Continued from Page 51 me coming and going because it meant that I was one of the guys available for many series… Eventually, I realized that I didn’t want to do regular books; I wanted to do story arcs. I would do a run for a certain length of time and – slowly – the books would get less and less on time because it just took me a while.” Still, comics allowed Hall to work in theater. “From the time I was 12, I wanted to get into film but that pathway was not nearly as clear living in Lincoln as it might be today... (Film) seemed more of a mystery, whereas theater was how you could get started. I had a knack for it. I had an ear for Shakespeare – that’s where it started,” recalled Hall. In the late 1970s, Hall co-wrote and designed sets for CONNECTION BOX the play “The Passion of Dracula,” bobhall.com based on Bram Stoker’s 1898 novel “Dracula.” It ran for two years offBroadway and in London. Additionally, it was screened on Showtime. From 1987-92, Hall divided his time between New York and his native Lincoln, taking a hiatus from comics
1972
n Kevin Cooksley of Weissert
was elected to membership in Ag Builders of Nebraska in January. He is a fifth-generation rancher on the Cooksley family operation in Custer County. The Nebraska Alumni Association Family Tree Award was presented to the Cooksleys in 2005. Olga Prendes, Lincoln, noted her 90th birthday on Jan. 8.
1973
Michael Beattie is the director of the Jackson Choral Society in Jackson, Miss. n Margaret M. Holman, the owner of Holman Consulting Inc. in New York City, has been
50 SPRING 2015 52
for a couple years. However, the industry collapsed in the mid-1990s, leaving many creators out of work, forcing them to move on to other things out of necessity. Fortunately for Hall, he had the theater to fall back on and remained in Lincoln, becoming artistic director of the Nebraska Repertory Theater. He founded the Flatwater Shakespeare Company of Lincoln, located by the Civil War Cemetery of Nebraska. “I’d been looking for something to do and thought I could start a theater project. There were some wonderful actors around. The theater itself seemed to be the missing ingredient, so we put that together and the cemetery supported it. It let us use the space. We got a few grants and started it up. So that became my occupation,” he said. “I’m determined to pass it on in the next two years. I’ve done all the Shake-
spearean plays, so I feel they should be seeing the work of another director. Fifteen years is a long time to be associated with a theater company, especially a small one where you’re doing the majority of the directing. It’s about the right time for me to leave it and make sure I find a good successor. We’re working on that right now.” Currently in the first year of his MFA program, Hall has been drawing and painting, as well as teaching life-drawing classes. Next year, he’ll teach a comic book art class. “I’ve enjoyed working with artists in both media. Personally, I think the two have influenced each other,” said Hall. “The comic book really influenced the visual aspect of my theater work. The theater work really influenced the storytelling in the comic books, especially as I got more mature in both situations.” v
elected to the University of Nebraska Foundation Board of Directors.
John Hyland has joined Hampton Enterprises of Lincoln as business development manager.
Marilyn J. Sorensen is a member of the 2014 edition of Bristol Who’s Who Registry of Executives and Professionals. Sorensen, of Tigard, Ore., received the honor for her work on selfesteem, including the Sorensen Self-Esteem Recovery Program and her first book “Breaking the Chain of Low Self-Esteem.”
1975
1974
n Emilie Ellingson, Lincoln, was
the recipient of the 2014 Junior League of Lincoln Distinguished Sustainer Award.
n Sid Dinsdale, chairman of Pinnacle Bancorp, has been chosen for inclusion in the Omaha Business Hall of Fame. n Nick Lammers of Wood River is the U.S. moisture probe manager for CropMetrics, a company based in North Bend that develops and supplies precision water management technology. n JoAnn Martin, Ameritas Life President and CEO, has been inducted into the Nebraska Business Hall of Fame.
1976
Steven A. Brewster, a partner in the O’Neill law firm Krotter Hoffman, has been elected to the Nebraska Community Foundation. n Mark Rinne was re-elected to the Cheyenne (Wyo.) City Council for a fifth four-year term in November 2014. A dentist, Rinne also was selected to serve as City Council president for the seventh time.
Dick and Anita Schott of Walton celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary Dec. 26, 2014. n John Varvel is an anesthesiologist with the Lincoln Anesthesiology Group.
BY AVERI MELCHER, ’14
Alumni Profiles ’04
Adding Nebraska Pride to American Tradition JLynn Hausmann
For JLynn Hausmann, jeans aren’t just a fashion statement. They are an expression of her identity and a connection to her Nebraska roots. She’s more than you would expect from a small town girl. The cowboy boots and work jeans have been traded in for heels and sleek skinny denim … denim she made herself. She lives in Los Angeles, where she oversees her own designer denim company, JHaus Brand. Hausmann has come a long way since growing up near Butte on her family’s ranch in western Nebraska. After high school, she studied fashion design at the University of NebraskaLincoln. It was there that she fell in love with design and learned the ins and outs of the fashion business. She was able to get internships because of her well-faceted background, and ultimately got to realize her dreams. Strong American roots and comfortable style were the inspiration for JHaus Brand, she said. “It’s a city meets country vibe.” Hausmann chose L.A. because it was more laidback than the East Coast, and it fit her personality. “Start up costs are a little more reasonable in California,” she said. “And I can manufacture every part of the jeans right in L.A. In New York you can’t do that.” The Inspiration Hausmann has poured her heart and soul into the designs she makes. The idea of strong roots is more than just her inspiration; it is a physical part of her jeans. The JHaus Brand logo that accompanies each pair is actually the
brand that her father uses on his ranch back home in Nebraska, Hausmann said. In fact, it is on her family’s ranch where most of the design process is done. The designer visits home often and finds inspiration in the Nebraska colors, laid-back attitude and her father’s quintessential farmer wardrobe. “I take jeans from my dad’s closet,” she said. “I try to recreate the authentic wear patterns.” Hausmann spends weeks on each design, making sure it is just right. She has a team of designers and and less pressure to make the latest trend. Denim is always in season.” The Nebraska Connection Hausmann is continually looking for the best fabrics to create her designs. She is particularly interested in sustainable textiles that are made right here in the United States and – you guessed it – in Nebraska. Think soybeans, milkweeds and cornhusks. She has been in contact with a former professor at UNL to discuss new textile options. “She just wants to do things new and different; that’s why she’s in L.A.,” Professor Yiqi Yang said. Yang, a textiles engineering and sciences professor in the UNL Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design, specializes in new textile development and believes that designers like Hausmann are the key to getting new fabrics on the market.
JLynn Hausmann
“She has a farming background, and she really wants to relate her textile business to the agriculture industry,” Yang said. “She has a strong support system that can help her do this.” Current technology hasn’t made mass production of cornhusks a viable option yet, but JHaus Brand plans to be at the forefront of the trend when it is. The passion Hausmann exhibits for evolving technology and the textiles industry is not one that can be feigned. “I believe she will be the type of entrepreneur that will push these new fibers onto the market,” Yang said. Hausmann makes a continuous connection to Nebraska and agricultural roots in her designs. It is visible right down to the smallest stitch. Each pair of JHaus Brand jeans is finished with a five-sided bolt design and a back pocket design that mimics the button. There are five small stitches on both pockets – one in each corner. “When choosing a bolt, the fivesided one always has the most strength,” she said.
Continued on Page 54
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 53 51
CLASSNOTES addING nebraska pride Continued from Page 53 Continuing the tradition Hausmann often finds herself pulled back to her Nebraska roots when looking for a new line inspiration, or to promote her designs at trunk shows and local boutiques. In 2013, she designed the outfits worn by Jack Hoffman and his family when he accepted the ESPN ESPY trophy for moment of the year. (The Team Jack Foundation is a charity started by the Hoffman family to raise awareness for pediatric brain cancer. It received national attention after Hoffman scored the longest touchdown in Nebraska spring game history.) Earlier this year, Hausmann returned to UNL’s campus as guest judge for the
1977
David L. Bomberger of Pinnacol Assurance in Omaha has been recognized by the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Nebraska for 10 years of professional development in the CFA Institute continuing education program.
1978 ■ Penny
Hamilton, Granby, Colo., was the national winner of the Black Gold premium dog food contest that asked contestants to describe in 50 words or less why pet doors are important. In addition to a certificate, Hamilton received 1,000 pounds of Black Gold premium dog food, which was donated to Grand County Animal Shelter, Max’s Full Belly Deli and Grand County Pet Pals.
1980
n Jim Fowler is the director of strategic alliances in the marketing department of Right at Home, an international in-home care and assistance franchising company based in Omaha.
Barb Gay, Nebraska Public Power District, Columbus, is president-elect of the board of 52 SPRING 2015 54
Biennial Student Runway Show. Having designs in the runway show when she was a student, Hausmann understood how the student designers were feeling. She even took the time to chat with students after the show. “It is her personality,” Yang said. “She has very good communication skills with people. You can’t usually train people for that; she just has it.” Looking ahead, Hausmann has big plans for JHaus Brand. “The company is growing every day and will slowly move into the realm of shirts and accessories,” she said. But the emphasis will always be on the denim – an American classic.
Hausmann recently revealed on Facebook that a costume designer for a well-known upcoming movie stopped by her studio to pick up some of her jeans. Husker Nation will have to pay special attention to the silver screen to find out which one. “As a professor, I want to see a student have a success story,” Yang said. “That is my objective. Every time I see JLynn, I am proud of what she is doing.” v
directors for the American Institute of Architects, Nebraska chapter.
law firm Krotter Hoffman, was recognized for her exceptional service as a charitable adviser.
Chris Raun has been appointed executive director of the board of directors for The Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Lincoln.
n Donald Graul has been appointed executive vice president of design-build construction for Parsons, an international engineering and construction firm. He manages all design-build functions for the company’s North American group, and works from the New York City office.
n Bill Schilling is celebrating his 20th year as executive director of Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity and its Leadership Foundation, headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. He also serves as a trustee of the Oxford Community Foundation. n Sherry Wells Schilling, a benefits generalist at Miami (Ohio) University, is serving as president-elect of the Oxford United Way.
Lyle Woerth is an anesthesiologist with the Lincoln Anesthesiology Group.
1981 ■ Jan
L. Krotter Chvala was the recipient of the 2014 Community Sower Award, presented by Nebraska Partnership Philanthropic Planning. Chvala, an attorney with the O’Neill
n Ann Henderson, Mesa, Ariz., is the Desert Southwest regional representative for Allflex USA, a livestock identification products company.
Robert T. Maher of Woodmen of the World Life Insurance in Omaha has been recognized by the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Nebraska for 15 years of professional development in the CFA Institute continuing education program.
1982
n Lisa Eley is a Realtor in the Pine Lake office of HOME Real Estate in Lincoln.
n Mark E. Ford, Fort Smith, Ark., has been appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Arkansas, Fort Smith Division.
1983
Randy Huebert has been hired as a PE teacher and head football coach for Papillion-La Vista High School. Steve Knapp of Woodland, Calif., was selected to head the University of California, Davis, Strawberry Breeding Program. Alan Korth of Valencia, Calif., is a justice practice segment leader with Dewberry, a nationwide architectural, engineering and consulting firm. He is responsible for developing and growing justice services in California and will focus on detention, corrections, courts and public safety projects. n Douglas J. Law, senior corporate counsel in the Papillion office of Black Hills Energy, was published in the January/February issue of Nebraska Lawyer. The article was titled “Nebraska Energy Law 101 — How Can Nebraska Lawyers Fit In.”
BY RUTH RAYMOND THONE, ’53
Alumni Profile ’67, ’69
Champion Athlete and Wife Run Tougher Race Charlie and Linda Greene
They were both 24 when they met through a mutual friend in Mexico City at the 1968 summer Olympic Games where he was a gold medal winner in the 400-meter relay and a bronze medal winner in the 100-meter dash. Charlie Greene met this female reporter, Linda Arnone, from The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her friend was interviewing Greene and asked Linda to come along. That meeting began a 46-year relationship, the anniversary of which Charlie and Linda Greene celebrated Jan. 18 this year. “Our deciding to get married was more sensible than impulsive,” Linda remembered. Both knew they’d be together from then on and simply decided it would be easier for them to manage as a married couple. At the time Charlie was living in Lincoln as a University of Nebraska graduate student; Linda in Philadelphia working for the newspaper. After they married, Linda got a job at the Nebraska State Historical Society, working for director Marvin Kivett as the editor of Nebraska History. Following graduate school and his athletic career, Charlie was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army, and served 20 years with assignments as far and wide as West Point, N.Y., and West Berlin, Germany. During his military duty he also served as head coach of the All-Army Track team. After retiring from the Army in 1989, he became a director for Summer Sports, Special Olympics
Charlie and Linda Greene
International in Washington, D.C., for several years and then spent six more years at the University of Nebraska in student affairs before retiring. While living in West Berlin, West Point, the nation’s capital and other military posts, the Greenes had two daughters: Mercedes, 43, a project manager for the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force in the Pentagon, and Sybil, 40, an immigration officer living in Lincoln. When asked how she managed any difficulties of an inter-racial family – Charlie Greene was raised by his mother in an African-American family in Seattle and Linda hails from a close-knit Italian family in Philadelphia – Linda noted that their postings and Charlie’s occupations were accustomed to such unions. “My kids saw themselves everywhere they went,” she reminds the uninitiated, including in the military, in Europe, and at international Olympic gatherings and postings. Ill health has plagued this worldclass athlete the past few years. In addition to being diabetic, Charlie had a kidney transplant after two years on dialysis, underwent two spinal surgeries and, with the help of NU athletes, worked hard to recover. In 2010, sports writer Randy York wrote: “The powerful legs that carried Charlie Greene to six individual NCAA
championships at Nebraska, four world sprint records, plus Olympic gold and bronze medals at Mexico City” are carrying him to recovery and to approach the second half of his amazing life. “I have always been the caretaker,” Linda explained. “Charlie’s job as an Army officer required him to be gone for long periods of time, so I was always in charge and taking care of all Greene family interests.” Linda described her job as caretaker with her ever-present strong spirit: “Nothing has changed. He relies on me for everything. “It’s what I signed up for,” this smart, thoughtful woman declared. That has included a longstanding relationship with the athletic department at NU. “When we moved back in 1997, it was like coming home for Charlie,” Linda remembered, thinking of Charlie’s friendships with Frank Solich, Tom Osborne, the late Don Bryant, George Sullivan and Boyd Epley. “Solich and Charlie are longtime friends having lived in Selleck together, so he reached out to Charlie in 1997 to help with quickness training as well as mentoring and counseling football players. “Charlie also has a close relationship with Keith Zimmer who heads the life skills department within the
Continued on Page 56 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 55 53
CLASSNOTES champion athlete and wife run tougher race Continued from Page 55 athletic department, which is one of Tom’s initiatives,” Linda said. “So it is just part of what he does as a former Husker with three master’s degrees, one in guidance and counseling. “He loves this university and has nothing but fond memories of his time here,” she continued. “He even convinced my sister’s daughter to come here all the way from Philadelphia, which she did, and [she] graduated from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, starting her career in Philadelphia with NBC, thanks to her good training at Nebraska.” When Charlie counsels university athletes, he reminds them that “Being on a Nebraska scholarship is a privilege, not a right, and your short time at Nebraska will be the best time of your life, so take full advantage of your support system. Make your college degree your No. l goal. Go to class every day and study every night. Do what your
Karen Svehla is a senior private banker with the Omaha office of Wells Fargo Private Bank.
1984
Sally Brittan has joined the AkSar-Ben Foundation of Omaha as director of fundraising events and member relations. Judy Farmer of Lincoln was elected chair of the Nebraska Abstracters Board of Examiners. Kevin Kock, Lincoln, is the executive director of Ak-Sar-Ben Agriculture Initiatives. Marilyn McNabb was elected vice chair of the 2015 Lincoln Electric System Administrative Board. Lee Terry has joined the Washington, D.C., office of national law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. The former Nebraska congressman serves as a senior adviser in the government rela54 SPRING 2015 56
coaches ask and expect you to do. Never break a promise. Always keep a commitment. Do all of that and you will achieve the Nebraska version of the triple crown – success in athletics, success in academics and success in life.” Linda’s other family job will culminate this summer when she and Charlie take ownership of a house on the water at South Bethany Beach, Del. Growing up, Linda and her family spent entire summers at the Jersey Shore. Today that seems like a good fit with living through Nebraska winters. As she describes it, she has “one house for football, and one at the beach to meet my needs of family, beach, sun and surf.” The fully furnished house has, she promised, “lots of room for family, friends and all those Huskers who want to see the Atlantic Ocean, up close and personal.” After their daughters were grown, Linda put her communication skills to work in the field of public affairs; today
tions and public policy practice group.
1985
Dan Harshman was elected secretary for the 2015 Lincoln Electric System Administrative Board. Todd Hesson, Encompass Architects of Lincoln, has been elected president of the board of directors for the 2015 American Institute of Architects, Nebraska Chapter. Chris Kline was promoted to senior vice president and director of human resources at Security National Bank of Omaha. Jan Madsen has been hired as the chief financial officer and treasurer for West Corp., an Omaha-based communications company. n John O’Connor is a business development leader for the energy market sector of Olsson
the U.S. Department of Agriculture is the main customer for whom she takes on a variety of projects. Limiting her official working time to 20 hours a week, Linda’s current venture is generating awareness and promoting the importance of natural resources and soil science. Now that Charlie is stronger and generally recovered from his health crises, Linda is ready to load up her red SUV, and drive across the country, taking her beloved partner to a summer at the beach. Gently and wisely accepting life as she sees it, Linda continues as a loving caregiver to her famous husband. Those 46 years have taught them how to manage both fame and hardship, and to continue nurturing their deep ties to one another and to the Nebraska athletic department. v
Associates, a regional engineering design firm based in Lincoln. Kyle Poppe is the senior vice president/chief financial officer for West Gate Bank of Lincoln.
1986
n Pat Edwards is vice president and officer in the Phoenix office of Burns & McDonnell as the result of a recent promotion.
Cory O’Brien is the vice president of engineering and construction as the result of a recent promotion at Metropolitan Utilities District in Omaha. n Joe Schuele has been named vice president of communications for the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), headquartered in Denver. Schuele joined USMEF in 2008.
1988
n David Campagna has joined
the Omaha office of the in-
ternational in-home care and assistance franchising company Right at Home as director of franchise development.
1989
n Roger Doehling, LYNC Architecture of Omaha, is the past president for the 2015 board of directors of the American Institute of Architects, Nebraska chapter. n Greg and n Susan Morris
Keuter of Gilbert, Ariz., are celebrating 25 years of marriage in 2015.
Scott Moore, vice president brokerage services in the Omaha office of World Group Commercial Real Estate, received the 2014 Chairman’s Circle Award for outstanding sales production among the company’s highest-tier brokers. Beth Townsend, former director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, was appointed director
CLASSNOTES of Iowa Workforce Development by Gov. Terry Branstad. Townsend lives in Granger, Iowa.
1990
Kelly Hillman is vice presidentmortgage loans at Union Bank & Trust of Lincoln, where he also is responsible for the development of new mortgage staff in Lincoln and Omaha. Brad Simons, Littleton, Colo., has been added to the water/ wastewater services team in the Lakewood office of TZA Water Engineers.
1991
Craig Casey of Overland Park, Kan., was promoted to vice president and manufacturing director for Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, Mo. Brian Dunnigan has been hired by the regional engineering and design firm Olsson Associates as team leader of the Nebraska
Water Resources team, in the Lincoln office. Richard Lapidus was named the 11th president of Fitchburg State University, in Fitchburg, Mass., in December 2014. James Lenners is a loan officer and insurance specialist at the Beatrice and Pickrell locations of First State Bank Nebraska. Kelly Lenners has joined First State Bank Nebraska, where she is the branch manager and loan officer in the Pickrell location. â– Bridget
Sims Lewis has been named assistant director of media relations for the University of Texas at Arlington.
1992
Felix Davidson, Omaha, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer for the Office of Governor of Nebraska by Gov. Pete Ricketts. Jeff Monzu of Leo A. Daly of
Omaha was elected treasurer of the 2015 board of directors for the American Institute of Architects, Nebraska chapter. Connie Peterson has joined the Lincoln office of INSPRO Insurance as a human resources manager.
1993
Ann Blaser has joined the Lincoln office of INSPRO Insurance as a benefits specialist. Bob Bryant, Katt & Associates, was elected treasurer of the board of directors for the 2015 Home Builders Association of Lincoln. n Rob Nickolaus, Lincoln, is the
director of IT for the Arbor Day Foundation in Nebraska City.
1994
Jennifer Ann Amend of Lincoln was honored by the National Association of Professional
Woman of the Year. n Tim Fink, Lincoln, is co-owner of Paramount Gas Products, which provides gas detection and cryogenic storage solutions, and has offices in both Lincoln and Kansas City.
Amie C. Martinez, a shareholder in the Lincoln law firm Anderson, Creager & Wittstruck PC LLO, was elected president of the 2015 Nebraska State Bar Association. Matt Nannen, Waukee, Iowa, has been promoted to group vice president of advertising at Hy-Vee Inc. David J. Petrocchi has joined the Council Bluffs, Iowa, office of national architecture, engineering and planning company Schemmer Associates Inc., where he leads the water and wastewater engineering group.
Women as a 2014 Professional
NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 57 55
CLASSNOTES Colleen Potratz has joined the staff at the Pine Lake office of HOME Real Estate, where she is a Realtor. Jeffery Swanson is an anesthesiologist with the Lincoln Anesthesiology Group.
1995
Brandon Burns, Gretna, has been hired as a wealth adviser in the Omaha branch of Great Western Bank. n Andrew Loudon, a Lincoln
attorney with Baylor Evnen, has been selected as a member of the board of directors for the Bryan Foundation. Matthew Shaw is an anesthesiologist with the Lincoln Anesthesiology Group.
1996
Brian Clanton is the director of operations for UNICO-Midlands Financial Benefits, Inc., the largest locally owned insurance agency in Lincoln. ■ Melissa
Griswold has been named the dean of the John E. Simon School of Business at Maryville University in St. Louis, Mo.
n Daniel Torrens has joined Nearhood Law Offices in Scottsdale, Ariz., as a partner. He will practice in the areas of real estate, civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution.
1997
Perry Haralson, Cornhusker Bank, was elected second vice president of the board of directors for the 2015 Home Builders Association of Lincoln. Ginger R. Massey is an anesthesiologist with the Lincoln Anesthesiology Group. Andy Melville has been promoted to superintendent of construction and transportation for the Metropolitan Utilities District in Omaha.
1998
Benjamin Vetter has joined the Omaha office of INSPRO Insur56 SPRING 2015 58
ance as an account executive.
1999
Michael Strand, head of the visual arts department at North Dakota State University in Fargo, was selected Ceramic Artist of the Year by Ceramics Monthly. Aaron Tredway has been added to the staff in the Lincoln office of Five Nines, where he is the service manager of field engineering. Five Nines is a provider of IT services, projects and procurement.
2000
Allen Forkner was promoted to senior public relations counsel in the Lincoln office of the marketing communications firm Swanson Russell. Jason Grams was named a partner in the Omaha law firm Lamson, Dugan & Murray LLP.
2001
Nathan Adams has joined the Omaha office of architecture, design and engineering firm RDG Planning & Design as an architect. Sandun Fernando of the Texas A&M University System’s biological and agricultural engineering department in College Station has been presented a 2014 Vice Chancellor’s Award of Excellence in teaching. Justin Johnson of Hoppe Homes was named president-elect of the board of directors for the 2015 Home Builders Association of Lincoln. Lucas Schulte recently signed a contract to publish his first book, “My Shepherd, Though You Do not Know Me: The Persian Royal Propaganda Model in the Nehemiah Memoir” as volume 78 in the series Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology, published by Peeters Publishers in Leuven, Belgium. This book is a revised version of his doctoral dissertation; Lucas completed his Ph.D. in religion with emphasis in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament
and Second Temple Judaism in May 2013 at Claremont Graduate University. In the midst of applying for full-time professorships, Lucas has been teaching part-time at schools such as Pomona College, Claremont School of Theology, California Lutheran University and the University of La Verne. Dan Swan has been admitted to the partnership at the Omaha accounting firm Seim Johnson LLP. Trey Pittenger, vice president/ principal of Pittenger & Anderson Inc., has been selected as a member of the board of directors for the Bryan Foundation of Lincoln. Wesley Woodward has been promoted to healthcare project executive at the Kiewit Building Group Inc. in Omaha.
2002
Jess Baker of Wilderness Construction Inc. was elected to the board of directors for the 2015 Home Builders Association of Lincoln. Todd Mattox is a development officer with the University of Nebraska Foundation and works with the College of Business Administration.
2003
Daniel R. Carnahan is an attorney in the Omaha office of the law firm Woods & Aitken LLP, where he focuses on real estate planning and administration and business transactions. Jill D. Fiddler was named a partner in the Lincoln law firm Woods & Aitken, where she focuses on real estate and business planning. Lisa McCallan is a connections strategist/associate media director in the Omaha office of advertising agency Bailey Lauerman. Tom Pryor has been promoted to area leader/pipe fabrication for Lincoln Industries, a supplier of products requiring highperformance metal finishing
located in Lincoln. Jeremy Raridon, a construction administrator at Davis Design, a Lincoln-based architectural, engineering and design company, has been named an associate at the firm. Meghan Sonderegger has been promoted to electronic banking officer at Union Bank & Trust of Lincoln. Doug Sutko has been hired as vice president, commercial lending, in the Omaha office of Arbor Bank. Katie Thompson is the vice president of private banking and commercial lending at Union Bank & Trust in Lincoln. Ryan Welder has been promoted to branch manager of the main location at Capital Credit Union in Bismarck-Mandan, N.D.
2004
Taylor Ashburn, Union Bank & Trust Co., was elected to the board of directors for the 2015 Home Builders Association of Lincoln. Greg Beach has been promoted to vice president of the residential construction lending team at Core Bank of Omaha. Amanda Fanning has been named the chief financial officer at Adams Bank and Trust in Ogallala. Jamie Otto, Elkhorn, is vice president of the commercial banking group at Enterprise Bank in Omaha. Justin Pekarek of Tonganoxie, Kan., was appointed to the position of regional marketing manager for Federated Insurance Co. in Kansas City. Dave Pool was promoted to vice president of commercial banking, assistant chief credit officer for the Nebraska Bank of Commerce in Lincoln. Dan Sitorius is a construction engineer in the field services department for Kirkham
BY ANTHONY FLOTT
Alumni Profile ’05
Showing Heart John Levy
Back when he was a real estate attorney overseeing multi-million-dollar transactions, John Levy didn’t have to slip quietly away from his wife and family for runs at 2 in the morning. But that was a career ago. These days, Levy sometimes just has to hit the pavement to clear his mind and calm his soul. There will be plenty of work to do when the sun rises. His clients today aren’t wealthy. Most of them, in fact, have nothing. They come through the doors of north Omaha’s Heart Ministry Center, the poorest of Omaha’s poor. Nowhere in the country is there a higher rate of destitution among black children. The pressure of high-stakes transactions is nothing compared to this. “This is more stressful,” said Levy, the center’s executive director. “The people I’m dealing with … if we can’t provide them with food or we can’t
John Levy (center) with colleagues from Heart Ministry Center: (From left) Mattice Mayo, Cathy Weaver, Brianna Hayes, and Jessie Schnieder.
“A lot of times when people make this career shift, they do so because they’re trying to escape a bad situation,” Levy said. “I really liked practicing law and I really liked the people I worked with.” The feeling was mutual. “He was a really good lawyer,” said Chris Hedican, a Baird Holm partner. “We were really happy to get him. He was really well-liked and a good part of our culture – exactly the kind of guy anyone would want to employ as a lawyer.” One day, though, Levy decided he was needed elsewhere. He wasn’t leaving a bad situation – he was running to help a bunch of them. “I was blown away by what he did,” Hedican said.
“The more involved I got, I was just kind of shocked it was also in our own backyard. It never made sense to me why kids couldn’t have the same opportunities I had yet grew up just 15 minutes from where I did.” give them money to help with rent or we can’t work with them on leaving a domestic violence situation … then they’re in a really bad position. “Every single day there’s complete meaning to everything I do.” That wasn’t always so for the 2005 University of Nebraska College of Law graduate when he was an attorney for Baird Holm, Omaha’s oldest law firm. That’s not to say Levy was some lawyer-bashing malcontent sulking over his career choice.
Founded in 1982, Heart Ministry Center at 24th and Binney Streets is smack-dab in the middle of abject poverty. “The more involved I got, I was just kind of shocked it was also in our own backyard,” Levy said. “It never made sense to me why kids couldn’t have the same opportunities I had yet grew up just 15 minutes from where I did.” More than 30 percent of the people around Heart Ministry live below the poverty line and unemployment is
nearly eight times the state level. The center provides assistance to more than 67,000 people annually – more than one-third of them children. That includes food (up to 100,000 pounds each month), clothing, medical and dental assistance, household and toiletry items, self-sufficiency programs for young mothers, mentorship and other services. Levy first became aware of Heart Ministry through Father Tom Fangman, then pastor at nearby Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Fangman had married Levy and his wife, Beth, and later recruited the young attorney to the center’s board as legal counsel. Such service was right in Levy’s wheelhouse. As a student at Elkhorn Mount Michael High School, then at the University of Kansas and UNL, Levy had been extensively involved in community service. He has volunteered for organizations including Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Anti-Defamation League, done service trips abroad, coached inner city soccer teams, mentored grade schoolers, and more. A lot more. Still, he said, “I didn’t know I would make a career out of it.” That happened, ironically, thanks to Baird Holm. The firm had sponsored Levy’s participation in the 33rd Leadership Omaha class in 2010. At one of the program’s breakfasts, he was approached about becoming Heart Ministry’s executive director. It was the same day he was asked about becoming a Baird Holm partner. He went with his heart. “Things
Continued on Page 60 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 59 57
CLASSNOTES showing heart Continued from Page 59 changed drastically fairly quickly for me,” he said. The first day was “total chaos,” Levy said. “You’re so overwhelmed by all the things. I was completely babied as an attorney. The first day I realized I’m the one who has to do payroll and the one who’s supposed to be doing our budget, overseeing all of our operations. I went from having everybody being able to help you with something to having to do essentially everything on your own.” The administrative tasks, though, often have to wait as Levy takes on whatever crisis comes through the door. That might mean finding a place to live for a family living in a car or helping a man whose severe health problems forced him into bankruptcy start a mowing business. Hedican cites several instances that
Michael, an Omaha-based regional engineering firm. Abbie Stanton has been hired as a brand strategist in the Omaha office of advertising agency Bailey Lauerman. Katie Underwood was promoted to team leader for the Omaha/ Des Moines land development team at Olsson Associates, a regional engineering and design firm. Jared Wills is an account executive in the Omaha office of INSPRO Insurance.
2005
John Diebel is an accounting assistant in the Omaha office of advertising agency Bailey Lauerman. Brad Hodson was named executive vice president of Missouri Southern and executive director of the Missouri Southern Foundation in Joplin. Justin D. Nabity of Omaha, founder and wealth adviser of 58 SPRING 2015 60
Levy took on personally. Like providing undergarments for a woman who couldn’t afford them. It’s one reason she wore nothing but sweatshirts and so was too embarrassed to go on job interviews. Levy can be found helping kids any day and any time of day, finding them a place to crash or just chilling with them over pizza, at a haunted house or at a farm owned by board member Andy Arkfeld. “He has done unbelievable work,” said Hedican, who joined the center’s board after Levy took over. Now he’s its president. “The financial position it’s in now compared to what it was is just remarkable. “He’s a special guy. Really a great person.” Levy’s not making the kind of money he would as a lawyer. People ask him about that occasionally, especially now
Physicians Advisors LLC, was listed as one of the Best Financial Advisors for Doctors by Medical Economics magazine, the leading business resource for physicians. Daniel Siedhoff, an architect with the DLR Group in Omaha, was recognized at the company’s regional annual meeting. He was lauded for commitment to the firm and a willingness to accept and excel in a leadership role. Andy Widman has been added to the Lincoln office of Tetrad Property Group as a design and project manager.
2006
Jason Ball, president and CEO of the Hutchinson/Reno County (Kan.) Chamber of Commerce, was selected a winner in the economic development profession’s 40 Under 40 awards, the only award of its kind recognizing young talent in the economic development profession.
that he and Beth, a physician assistant at OneWorld Community Health Centers, have three sons. And ever since his career change, friends jokingly tell the 33-year-old he’s looking old. “I get it all the time that I’m aging poorly,” Levy said, laughing. “I didn’t have any gray hair. Now I have gray hair. I’ve lost 25 pounds, and I was already a skinnier person.” Even his wife has mentioned it. “She can see I’m stressed and I think that she’s just worried a little for me sometimes.” But stressed doesn’t mean he’s not content. “She knows I’m really happy,” Levy said. So are the clients at Heart Ministry, where every day there’s complete meaning. v
Dirk Bargen, Columbus, was a recipient of a 2014 Securities Leader Award, presented by Central Financial Services, an independent Lincoln-based firm that offers comprehensive planning services, life insurance and annuities. Ryan Cameron, an architect with the DLR Group in Omaha, was recognized at the company’s regional annual meeting. He was lauded for commitment to the firm and a willingness to accept and excel in a leadership role. Jason M. Caskey, an attorney in the Omaha office of national law firm Kutak Rock LLP, has been elected a partner in that company. n Casey Mills is a public rela-
tions associate in the Lincoln office of marketing communications company Swanson Russell.
Randy Preuss, Kansas City, Mo., is co-owner of Paramount Gas Products, which provides gas detection and cryogenic storage
solutions, and has offices in both Lincoln and Kansas City. Alberto Sanchez, architectural designer at Davis Design, a Lincoln-based architectural, engineering and design company, has been named an associate at the firm. Rachel Swim has joined the Women’s Clinic of Lincoln PC, where she is an obstetrician/ gynecologist. Bruce Yoder is an intern architect in the Omaha office of architecture, design and engineering firm RDG Planning & Design.
2007
David Belieu is a development officer with the University of Nebraska Foundation and works with the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Nolan Day is an account executive in the Lincoln office of INSPRO Insurance.
CLASSNOTES Brian Koerwitz has become part of the civil litigation/construction law team at the Lincoln law firm Endacott, Peetz & Timmer PC LLO. n Chad Kruse is an architectural
intern with Sinclair Hille Architects in Lincoln. Jenny Tricker, a Lincoln attorney, has been selected as a member of the board of directors for the Bryan Foundation.
Cassie Kohl was promoted to commercial loan officer in the Omaha branch of Union Bank & Trust.
n John Coburn is an assistant engineer in the Lincoln office of engineering firm Olsson Associates.
■ Winston Ostergard has taken a marketing position with Crete Carrier Corp. in their Lincoln headquarters.
Dan Larson is a partner in Lost River Livestock, a cattle farm near Clearbrook, Minn., along with his brothers Matt and David and their parents Sharon and Mark Larson.
Cortney Denker has been hired by HomeServices of Nebraska as education manager of the Larabee School of Real Estate in Lincoln.
Craig Rothluebber is a member of the water resources team in the Lincoln office of regional engineering and design firm Olsson Associates. He recently passed the professional engineering exam and was promoted to associate engineer.
Jessica Lightner has returned to the Omaha office of market-
Michael Harpster, Bahr Vermeer Haecker Architects of Lincoln, has been elected associate
2008
Cameron Andreesen is a development officer with the University of Nebraska Foundation and works with the College of Business Administration.
Dayton Spomer was recently welcomed to the Cotner office of HOME Real Estate in Lincoln, where he is a Realtor.
Ashley Byars is an intern architect in the Omaha office of architecture, design and engineering firm RDG Planning & Design.
James Wilson, associate professor of music at Wesley College, Dover, Del., performed the Franz Schubert song cycle “Winterreise” in January at the Wesley College Chapel in Dover.
Krista M. Carlson is a partner in the Lincoln law firm Wolfe, Snowden, Hurd, Luers & Ahl LLP.
Belinda Wright has joined the Lincoln office of marketing communications agency Swanson Russell as an account manager.
■ Amy
Kloefkorn is a development officer with the University of Nebraska Foundation and works with the College of Arts and Sciences. Angie Kubicek is a connections strategist in the Omaha office of advertising agency Bailey Lauerman. Jay Weingarten is an architect in the Omaha office of architecture, design and engineering firm RDG Planning & Design. Adrian Whitsett is the weekend evening anchor for television station WESH in Orlando, Fla.
Emily Yoble has been added to the Lincoln office of Swanson Russell as a graphic designer. Second graders at Jack Frost Elementary in Georgetown, Texas, thanked the NAA for supplying them with Nebraska gear for their College of the Day festivities.
ing communications company Swanson Russell as a project manager. Lightner had previously been an account coordinator in both the Lincoln and Omaha locations.
Nate Wieting has been promoted to assistant trust officer in the personal trust and wealth management department of Union Bank & Trust in Lincoln.
Jeffrey McGuire is an attorney in the corporate group in the Omaha office of the national law firm Kutak Rock.
2009
2010
Jill Fredrickson is senior finance manager in the Lincoln office at Collaborative Industries Inc. as the result of a recent promotion.
Douglas Searcy has been elected the 12th president of Barton College in Wilson, N.C., and will take office on July 1.
Amanda Byleen is a development officer with the University of Nebraska Foundation and works with the College of Education and Human Sciences.
director for the 2015 board of directors for the American Institute of Architects, Nebraska chapter. Jordan Kaiser has been promoted to associate interactive designer in the Lincoln office of marketing communications company Swanson Russell. Brandi Kruse has joined KCPQ, the Seattle/Tacoma FOX Network television affiliate as an in-depth news correspondent. Sara McCue is an associate with Baird Holm, a regional law firm headquartered in Omaha.
2011
Megan Bollish is a project manager in the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell. Caitlin Cedfeldt has joined the Omaha office of the national law firm Kutak Rock, and is a member of the tax credits group. Diana Farrell has joined the Omaha office of architecture, design and engineering firm RDG Planning & Design. Elizabeth Henthorn is an attorney in the finance and restructuring group in the Omaha office of the national law firm Kutak Rock. Zachory Klebba of Leo A. Daly of Omaha was elected an asNEBRASKA MAGAZINE 61 59
CLASSNOTES sociate director of the 2015 board of directors for the American Institute of Architects, Nebraska chapter. Wade Hilligoss has joined the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell as a public relations writer. Amanda Andersen Ostergard has accepted a position with Lebenz & Associates of Lincoln as a tax season associate. Ann Parfitt is the business development and marketing assistant at Kumar and Associates Inc., a Denver-based engineering company.
2012
Laura Hirschman is a public relations coordinator in the Lincoln office of the marketing communications firm Swanson Russell. ■ Becca
Hurst of Lincoln has been added to the HoriSun Hospice team as the provider relations coordinator. ■ Haley
Juma is senior account executive in the Omaha office of Five Nines Technology Group, a provider of managed IT services. Tyler Klusaw, a civil engineer in the Omaha office of Lamp, Rynearson & Associates, has become a certified playground safety inspector. Nick Thielen has joined the Omaha office of the national law firm Kutak Rock, and is a member of the litigation department.
2013
Ronnie Buggs was hired by Two Men and a Truck, where he will be the sales and marketing manager for both the Lincoln and Omaha franchises. Brittany Freeman is a project manager in the account service department of the Lincoln office of marketing communications company Swanson Russell.
62 60 SPRING 2015
Erin Prohaska serves as a project manager in the Lincoln office of Swanson Russell.
Jon McQuistan, ’08, and Paige Goeken, ’12, June 7, 2014. The couple lives in Wayne.
first child, a son, Ellis Clay, Nov. 8, 2014. The family lives in Madison, Wis.
Nick Thielen has joined the Omaha office of the national law firm Kutak Rock, and is a member of the real estate group.
Nick Soper and Erin Carr, ’10, Oct. 11, 2014. The couple lives in Lincoln.
n John, ’10, and n Melissa
2014
■ Lauren Andrews has joined the Connections Strategy team in the Omaha office of advertising agency Bailey Lauerman, where she will serve as a media coordinator.
Rose Edzie, Omaha, is the director of development for the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska Foundation.
Sam Clayton, ’12, and Britt Stoos, July 19, 2014. The couple lives in Minneapolis. Alex Daniel Fehringer, ’12, and ■ Jenna Leigh Busboom, ’11, June 14, 2014. The couple lives in Plymouth. Taylor Stelk, ’12, and Brynn Kunhart, Nov. 14, 2014. The couple lives in Omaha. John Wojtasek, ’12, and Caitlin Marmie, ’13, Nov. 8, 2014. The couple lives in Lincoln.
T.J. Gibbons is a member of the sales team in the Cotner office of HOME Real Estate in Lincoln, where is a Realtor.
Colton Hahn, ’13, and Nicole Retzlaff, ’12, Oct. 11, 2014. The couple lives in Orchard.
Wesley A. Goranson has joined the Lincoln law firm Harding & Schultz.
Jared Froehlich, ’13, and Sarah Plambeck, June 21, 2014. The couple lives in Lincoln.
Autumn Hunt has been added to the sales support/customer service team for SolutionOne, a Lincoln-based IT equipment and services company. Ellen Kreifels is an associate attorney with Blankenau Wilmoth Jarecke LLP, a Lincoln-based law firm. n Halley Ostergard Kruse is a judicial clerk for Judge C. Arlen Beam of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Lincoln.
Dan Leddy is an attorney in the tax credits group in the Omaha office of the national law firm Kutak Rock.
WEDDINGS
John Zach, ’06 and Katie Tasler, May 31, 2014. The couple lives in Lincoln. n Chad Kruse, ’07, and n Halley
Ostergard, ’14, Aug. 16, 2014. The couple lives in Lincoln.
BIRTHS
n David, ’96, and Jennifer Vincent, their second child, first son, Matthew David, Dec. 16, 2014. The family lives in Fort Mill, S.C. n John, ’98, and Katie Olenberger, their second child, first daughter, Emma, Dec. 17, 2014. The family lives in Denver.
Jake and n Molly Wickham Steinkemper, ’00, their third child, second daughter, Samantha Kelle, Dec. 4, 2014. n Alan, ’03, and n Nicole
Schneider Bonifas, ’04, their third child, a son, Grady Anthony, Nov. 24, 2014. The family lives in Roseland.
n Brett, ’03, and n Katie Has-
sler Williams, ’03, their second child, first son, Brooks Marlowe, Feb. 3. The family lives in Lincoln.
n Clay Stevens, ’06, and n Shannon Cummins, ’05, their
Coburn, ’10, their first child, a son, Evan Christopher, Nov. 12, 2014.
■ Winston, ’10, and ■ Amanda Andersen Ostergard, ’11, their second child, a son, William Winston, Sept. 30, 2014. The family lives in Lincoln.
DEATHS
Alma Petersen Hanson, ’35, Austin, Texas, Jan. 16. Jane Van Sickle Clemons, ’37, Leawood, Kan., Nov. 10, 2014. Gretchen Meyer Yeager, ’38, Wichita Falls, Texas, Dec. 4, 2014. Curtis A. Johnson, ’40 Medford, N.J., Oct. 31, 2014. Irvin Yaffe, ’40, Austin, Texas, Jan. 5. Henry W. Berry, ’41, Roseville, Minn., March 26, 2014. Leo E. Butler, ’41, Sacramento, Calif., Dec. 23, 2014. Donald W. Dobbins, ’41, Fort Morgan, Colo., Jan. 21. Sylvia Zocholl Kielian, ’41, Bloomington, Ind., Jan. 18. Harold L. Schudel, ’41, Corvallis, Ore., June 2, 2014. Marion White Fickes, ’42, Aguilar, Colo., Nov. 17, 2014. Louis E. Knoflicek, ’42, Alliance, Jan. 24. Marjorie Walgren Lehr, ’42, Lincoln, Jan. 8. Lois Riggs Watts, ’42, Bismarck, N.D., March 11, 2014. Dora Von Bargen, ’43, Cudahy, Wis., Oct. 17, 2014. Grace Gadeken Drake, ’44, Payette, Idaho, Nov. 22, 2014.
CLASSNOTES Samuel S. Kamino, ’44, North Eugene O. Ingram, ’48, Saline, Robert O. Vesper, ’49, Burnet, Joe H. Hageman, ’51, Lincoln, Platte, Feb. 3. Mich., Oct. 17, 2014. Texas, Dec. 18, 2014. Feb. 5. Marylouise Goodwin Bookstrom, Jack R. Killian, ’48, Salinas, Hubert E. Webber, ’49, Oshkosh, John E. Olsson, ’51, Lincoln, ’45, Lincoln, Jan. 30. Calif., Dec. 31, 2014. Wis., Jan. 4. Jan. 28. Aneta B. Murray, ’45, Franklin, Robert E. Larson, ’48, UrbanClarice Freye Brown, ’50, LinMeredyth Speir Peters, ’51, Feb. 9. dale, Iowa, Jan. 9. coln, Dec. 9, 2014. Omaha, Jan. 20. Jean York Wiedman, ’45, LinWalter A. Bergstraesser, ’49, Roy S. Brown, ’50, Boulder, Mary Lannan Piccolo, ’51, coln, Jan. 4. Syracuse, N.Y., Nov. 8, 2014. Colo., Nov. 9, 2014. Scottsdale, Ariz., Jan. 23. Janet Mason Holbrook, ’46, Weston D. Birdsall, ’49, Floyd, Thomas E. Brusnahan, ’50, Jane M. Rockwell, ’51, Roxbury, Conn., Nov. 25, 2014. Sequim, Wash., Jan. 17, 2014. Iowa, Dec. 5, 2014. Omaha, Jan. 14. Paul E. Dinnis, ’47, Brandon, Mary Haseloh Ewing, ’49, HarMarion E. Engel, ’50, Ajo, Ariz., Lela M. Steinkruger, ’51, Linvard, Dec. 28, 2014. July 24, 2014. coln, Nov. 19, 2014. Fla., Aug. 7, 2014. Ivan E. Stratton, ’51, Saint Donald E. Monson, ’47, Norfolk, James R. Ganz, ’49, Kearney, Harold H. Schroeder, ’50, Grand Jan. 3. Island, Dec. 14, 2014. Marys, Ga., Dec. 10, 2014. Jan. 15. David A. Sander, ’47, Boise, Clay W. Kennedy, ’49, BrownAlbert J. Van Lund, ’50, Covina, Robbie Powell Bean, ’52, DenIdaho, Jan. 9. ville, Dec. 11, 2014. Calif., Nov. 11, 2014. ver, Jan. 1. Frederick E. Bruening, ’52, Earl D. Elwonger,’48, Lincoln, Robert J. Reinsch, ’49, Fremont, M. Patricia Seibold Denker, ’51, Omaha, Aug. 27, 2014. Nov. 22, 2014. Jan. 19. Mason, Ohio, Nov. 28, 2014. Dewaine R. Erickson, ’48, WilBobby O. Schulz, ’49, Papillion, Lyle C. Emery, ’51, Lincoln, Jan. Joan M. Bruening, ’52, Omaha, Nov. 9, 2014. cox, Nov. 25, 2014. Jan. 23. 22.
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CLASSNOTES Howard G. Duncan, ’52, ScottsEllen Chapman Rezabek, ’54, Duane L. Nelson, ’58, Lincoln, James T. Keller, ’64, Leawood, bluff, Dec. 20, 2014. Crete, Nov. 20, 2014. Dec. 6, 2014. Kan., Jan. 26. Bernard J. Kvidera, ’52, SerJohn S. Schaper, ’54, Phoenix, Robert L. Ray, ’58, Davenport, James D. Nutter, ’64, Manchesgeant Bluff, Iowa, March 8, Dec. 26, 2014. Iowa, Nov. 29, 2014. ter, Mo., Nov. 15, 2014. 2014. Vernon L. Souders, ’58, McMin Margery DeLamatre Sorenson, Robert E. Elwood, ’65, Lincoln, nville, Ore., Nov. 30, 2014. ’54, Macomb, Ill., Nov. 8, Dec. 31, 2014. Joan Rasmussen Peters, ’52, Omaha, Nov. 14, 2014. 2014. John M. Andrews, ’59, Lincoln, Fred A. Norstadt, ’66, Fort Collins, Colo., Jan. 10. Luella Cooney Reynolds, ’52, Robert L. Beckenhauer, ’55, Jan. 22. Grand Island, Jan. 8. Omaha, Feb. 8. Robert E. Arterburn, ’59, Blair, Vera Farrington Olson, ’66, Kansas City, Nov. 4, 2014. William J. Schneider, ’52, CoJohn F. Futcher, ’55, Littleton, Jan. 14. lumbus, Nov. 15, 2014. Colo., Nov. 19, 2014. Glenn H. Blomendahl, ’59, William E. Shelly, ’66, Dakota Hooper, Feb. 10. City, May 4, 2014. Vern A. Welch, ’52, Fremont, Philip H. Miller, ’55, Wahoo, Jan. 30. Jan. 17. Robert L. Haag, ’59, Lincoln, Sandra S. Stork, ’66, Blair, Dec. 26, 2014. Sept. 26, 2014. Gertrude Carey Beatty, ’53, Richard W. Sala, ’55, LongKearney, Dec. 10, 2014. mont, Colo., Jan. 23, 2014. Bernard J. Ach, ’60, Friend, Ann Gleysteen Summers, ’66, Feb. 11. Fort Myers, Fla., Dec. 8, 2014. Anna Lammers Campbell, ’53, Richard M. Alden, ’56, Auburn, Sunriver, Ore., Jan. 29. Jan. 1. Ronald D. Bossung, ’60, LexingRichard B. Voss, ’66, ColchesRobert G. Brown, ’56, Cententon, Nov. 22, 2014. ter, Ill., Jan. 20. Earle J. Haggart, ’53, Grand nial, Colo., Dec. 19, 2014. Island, Jan. 10. Jimmie R. Laird, ’60, Clewiston, Ethel Porter Mueting, ’67, LinFla., Dec. 22, 2014. coln, Nov. 16, 2014. Frances Anderson Leeper, ’53, Earl H. Hietbrink, ’56, Fairfield Trophy Club, Texas, Nov. 24, Bay, Ark., Oct. 2, 2014. 2014. Diane Brettmann Bartling, ’61, Thomas R. Tibbels, ’67, West Deshler, Dec. 15, 2014. Point, Jan. 25. Darlene Hubka March, ’56, Wymore, Dec. 3, 2014. Frederick A. Lohmann, ’53, Kearney, Jan. 26. Donald E. Gable, ’61, Galena, Ora F. Lindau, ’68, Kearney, Ill., Dec. 29, 2014. Nov. 29, 2014. Don E. Peters, ’56, WilliamsMarilyn P. Paulson, ’53, Lincoln, burg, Va., Dec. 19, 2014. May 15, 2014. Donald B. Hanson, ’61, Yellow Jerome L. Mahloch, ’68, VicksSprings, Ohio, Sept. 28, 2014. burg, Miss., Jan. 3, 2014. Glen E. Schukei, ’56, JeffersonSheldon S. Reese, ’53, Sioux ville, Vt., Dec. 3, 2014. City, Iowa, Nov. 23, 2014. Florence K. Landon, ’61, Loup Samuel G. Benson, ’69, Pleasant City, Jan. 14. Hill, Calif., Jan. 10. Bernard D. Staab, ’56, Kearney, Nov. 30, 2014. Philip L. Reiland, ’53, Bossier City, La., Nov. 11, 2014. Francis D. Podraza, ’61, LinVirginia Holden Harrifeld, ’69, Lincoln, Jan. 7. Marion L. Iversen, ’57, Fremont, coln, Dec. 29, 2014. Nov. 27, 2014. Walter E. Witt, ’53, Lincoln, Dec. 3, 2014. Leonard P. Vyhnalek, ’61, North Gladys Spencer Hogg, ’69, OverPlatte, Jan. 1. land Park, Kan., Jan. 29. Keith R. Leech, ’57, Plymouth, Minn., Jan. 01. Howard F. Yost, ’53, Prairie Vil Jackie Dodendorf McCabe, ’69, lage, Kan., Jan. 12. Bill R. Benson, ’62, Omaha, Omaha, Feb. 8. Nov. 24, 2014. Cecil P. Means, ’57, Washington, D.C., Dec. 28, 2014. Don M. Bylund, ’54, Spartan burg, S.C., Aug. 19, 2014. Eddie P. Hill, ’62, Saint Paul, Daryl O. Olsen, ’69, Castle Minn., Sept. 10, 2014. Pines, Colo., Oct. 1, 2014. David L. Patrick, ’57, Lincoln, Jan. 9. Dean E. Ekberg, ’54, Benning ton, Jan. 23. Michael D. Koehler, ’63, ChiRichard D. Kutlas, ’70, Lincoln, cago, Jan. 21. Dec. 12, 2014. Arza J. Snyder, ’57, Lincoln, Milton D. Evans, ’54, Allentown, Dec. 2, 2014. Pa., Jan. 15. Amelia Kufeldt Nicks, ’63, DenCallie J. Ward, ’70, Lincoln, Dec. 14, 2014. Mary Fritts Bednar, ’58, Grand ver, Nov. 8, 2014. Blanc, Mich., Jan. 29. Robert L. Foote, ’54, Hastings, March 30, 2014. Charles E. Skov, ’63, MonMichael Wynn, ’70, Tampa, Fla., Dec. 10, 2014. Carl H. Graber, ’58, Grand mouth, Ill., July 5, 2014. James W. Knisely, ’54, Lincoln, Island, Jan. 18. Dec. 30, 2014. David H. Bliss, ’64, Cedar RapSheldon L. Brown, ’71, Mankato, ids, Iowa, June 16, 2014. Minn., Nov. 26, 2014. Bruce K. Lindley, ’58, Ontario, Ore., May 21, 2014. Barbara Hemphill Mark, ’54, Omaha, Nov. 27, 2014. 64 62 SPRING 2015
CLASSNOTES Evelyn Traulsen Christensen, Dennis M. Benker, ’77, Lincoln, Timothy E. Myers, ’94, Bellevue, Kay Francis King, associate professor emeritus of human ’71, Lincoln, Nov. 16, 2014. Dec. 13, 2014. Dec. 10, 2014. development and the family, Lincoln, Jan. 21. Robert P. McBride, ’71, Omaha, Patrick A. Muhle, ’77, Elkhorn, Christopher A. Keetle, ’99, LinDec. 22, 2014. coln, Jan. 8. Feb. 1. Mordecai Marcus, professor emeritus of English, Lincoln, Keith W. Richardson, ’71, Walter J. Gary, ’78, Walla Walla, Brian L. Jasnoch, ’03, GreenNov. 18, 2014. Omaha, Jan. 6. Wash., Jan. 2. wood Village, Colo., Dec. 15, 2014. James W. Merchant, professor of Ann Loomis Burns, ’72, Denver, Michael L. Offner, ’78, Red geography and former director Dec. 12, 2014. Cloud, Dec. 27, 2014. Brian C. Funk, ’08, University of UNL’s Center for Advanced Heights, Ohio, Feb. 4. Land Management Information Robert L. Kracke, ’72, Wilber, Larry E. Wegener, ’78, Omaha, Technologies, Lincoln, Feb. 27. Jan. 6. Dec. 10, 2014. FACULTY DEATHS Monte M. Page, professor emeriFrancis E. Masat, ’72, Key West, Diana Merz Kottich, ’79, Falls Mark Awakuni-Swetland, ’94, tus of psychology, Dearborn Fla., Dec. 30, 2014. City, Dec. 14, 2014. associate professor of anthroHeights, Mich., Jan. 20. pology, Lincoln, Feb. 23. Lynda J. Parson, ’72, Valentine, Bernard W. Reznicek, ’79, M. Eugene Rudd Jr., professor Dec. 31, 2014. Omaha, Dec. 14, 2014. Robert D. Brown, Carl A. Hapemeritus of physics, Lincoln, pold Distinguished Professor Nov. 23, 2014. Robert W. Rogers, ’72, York, Timothy J. Binder, ’81, VancouEmeritus of Educational PsyFeb. 6. ver, Wash., Dec. 5, 2014. chology, Lincoln, Dec. 7, 2014. Jack Snider, director of bands/ marching band and profesDavid C. Wooster, ’72, Elkhorn, Robert J. Posvar, ’81, Lincoln, Don Bryant, ’73, UNL Sports sor emeritus of French horn, Dec. 16, 2014. Dec. 15, 2014. Information director, assistant Lincoln, Feb. 23. and associate athletic director, Wayne B. Anderson, ’73, Roger D. Keebler, ’82, Omaha, and associate professor of jourArvada, Colo., May 31, 2014. Dec. 5, 2014. nalism, Lincoln, Dec. 5, 2014. Helen Conley Sulek, ’49, associate professor emeritus of human development and the Gerald D. Decker, ’73, Lincoln, Janet Weiss Prochaska, ’82, Philip Corkill, professor emerifamily, Lincoln, Dec. 7, 2014. Dec. 29, 2014. Wahoo, Jan. 20. tus of architecture, Lincoln, Jan. 3. B. Lynn Alexander, ’74, Lincoln, Michael J. Knott, ’83, Hyannis, Nov. 24, 2014. Jan. 29. Leslie Ptacek Moran, ’74, DenJohn J. Weihe,’83, Lincoln, Nov. ver, Feb. 2. 24, 2014. Donald Osborn, ’74, Land O’ Pamela S. Brakhage, ’85, Jacksonville, Fla., Dec. 24, 2014. Lakes, Fla., Jan. 5. Tell us what’s happening! Send news about yourself or Donald B. Ozanne, ’74, PapilYi-Hsin Liu, ’86, Omaha, Jan. 7, fellow Nebraska alumni to: lion, Nov. 15, 2014. 2014. Mail: Class Notes Editor, Nebraska Magazine, Wick Alumni Center,1520 R Street, Warren G. Sanger, ’74, Ashland, Thomas F. Funke, ’89 Feb. 5. Lincoln, Aug. 4, 2014. Lincoln, NE 68508-1651 E-mail: kwright@huskeralum.org Ralph D. Burbey, ’75, Dallas, Martha W. Hopkins, ’89, Omaha, Sept. 25, 2014. Nov. 12, 2014. Online: huskeralum.org All notes received will be considered for publication Royal W. Eckert, ’75, Auburn, Barbara Linnerson Imig, ’89, according to the following schedule: Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 30. Jan. 23. Summer Issue: April 15 Spring Issue: January 15 Langdon P. Green, ’75, Seward, Robert E. Peterson, ’89, Lincoln, Fall Issue: July 15 Winter Issue: October 15 Dec. 1, 2014. Feb. 12. Items submitted after these dates will be published in later issues. Barry D. Schultz, ’75, Grand Michele L. Deaton, ’90, Lincoln, Island, Dec. 25, 2014. Nov. 16, 2014. Vern P. Lafleur, ’76, Madison, Jane Copley Holveck, ’92, MadiNov. 26, 2014. son, Wis., Feb. 8. David W. Snodgrass, ’76, LinLeeann C. Roth, ’93, Lincoln, coln, Jan. 13. Feb. 12.
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NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 63
N E B R A S K A
A lu m n i A s s o c i at i o n
Wick Alumni Center 1520 R Street Lincoln, NE 68508-1651
Congratulations … you’ve survived winter! Now start planning your winter escape for 2016. Here’s a sneak peek at adventures the Nebraska Alumni Association is offering. Book now and take advantage of early bird discounts!
• Pagodas & Palaces (Hong Kong – Singapore) – January 6-24, 2016 • The Galapagos Islands – January 13-20, 2016
• Tanzania Migration Safari – January 20-31, 2016
• Alluring Andes & Majestic Fjords (South America) – February 6-28, 2016
• Caribbean & the Panama Canal - March 5-15, 2016
• Colorful Caribbean (Key West, Belize, Honduras, Cozumel) – March 13-20, 2016
Visit huskeralum.org today for more details on these trips and many others!
Hong Kong
Galapagos
Tanzania
Andes
Panama Canal
Caribbean
64 SPRING 2015