Ohio Today Fall 2011

ohiotoday FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF OHIO UNIVERSITY

FALL 2011: Jim Dine, BFA ‘57: Modern at heart • Do-it-yourself degrees • Bold plan for OU-HCOM

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Cover: Jim Dine, BFA ’57. Photo by Gary Kirksey Jim Dine, The Heart and The Wall, 1983 ©Jim Dine /Artists’ Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy Pace Editions Inc.

Features TRULY TRANSFORMATIONAL

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A GARDEN OF ARTISTIC DELIGHTS

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With the biggest gift in Ohio higher Art historian Joseph Becherer, education history, OU-HCOM is BFA ’57, is curator and vice poised to take its place among the president of one of the Midwest’s nation’s finest medical schools. best-kept secrets: the 132-acre Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. But a recent “top 100 most visited” museum MODERN AT HEART ranking is proof of its growing reputation.

Internationally known as a Pop artist, painter and sculptor, alumnus Jim Dine brings his SUGAR AND SPICE celebrated pieces to the Kennedy Museum From Amaretto Petit Fours to for a one-of-a-kind exhibition celebrating Catholic Girl Cookies, Californian the College of Fine Arts’ 75th anniversary.

Jenny Johnson’s recipes meld

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Midwest comfort with West Coast flavors and give her blog, Vintage Sugarcube, a unique twist on “desserts reconstructed.”

UNIQUELY “U”

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Ohio’s specialized studies degrees, administered by the University College, have produced a talented class of alumni as distinct as their self-crafted majors.

Departments 3 Letters 4

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Your Ohio

What celebrity visited while you were in school? What do you remember about it?

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Contributors

Across the College Green 6 In the news Fortune Magazine recognizes College of Business as a best value

9 Ohio athletics: A timeline

From Don Peden to Bobcat pride, everything you need to know about athletics

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11 La vida local

New cookbook highlights local, seasonal eating

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From chemistry to Chaplin Awards support unique research and creative activity

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Calendar Chapter events and campus activities

Bobcat Tracks 35 Homeward bound

Call of fall lures alumni back to campus

37 Your alumni updates

News from fellow alumni, photos and reunion announcements

46 In Memoriam

Remembering alumni, faculty and staff

48 Last Word

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Ohio University graduates, like you, embody the promise of this singular place!

You’re one of 200,000 alumni who have experienced the welcoming academic community, the studentcentered learning, and the nurturing environment that are hallmarks of our university: a university that encourages self-discovery and personal growth on the path to a college degree.

Your connection to this distinctive group, with a shared OHIO experience, continues to make a difference for our university.

You carry forward your legacy and shape your alma mater’s future when you

Make an Annual Gift to Ohio University.

The Ohio University Foundation P.O. Box 869 Athens, OH 45701 800-592-FUND (3863) 2 •

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lives in

giving@ohio.edu secure online giving available at: www.ohio.edu/give

you.

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The promise

LETTERS

to the editor

ohiotoday MNI FOR ALU

SUMMER 2011:

ENDS AND FRI

Green fuels

of the future

UNIVERS OF OHIO

n on a also: Desig

Redesign, indeed!

ITY

(student) dime

ne’s • One Mari

The upgraded and improved Ohio Today caught my attention the moment I pulled it from my mailbox. The new layout, fresh design, eyecatching illustrations and artful photography are superb. I was further impressed after learning that a collaboration with the School of Visual Communication was partly to thank.

Congratulations on a redesign very well done, and please keep the extraordinary stories coming, too! — Stefanie Smith Jones, BSC ’94, Denver, Colo.

mission

Once a Sig …

I read your article, “One home, one gift — many cultures” (Summer 2011), with mixed emotions. To thousands of alumni, that residence will always be the “Sig House.”

For those with a long memory, 15 Park Place was built in the 1920s for the Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Pi, a national fraternity that pre-dated Delta Pi Chapter of Sigma Chi’s usage. My father, Robert H. Shoemaker, BSCOM ’43, was a Sigma Pi and lived in the house and courted my mother, Lois Lane Shoemaker, BSED ’43, on the front porch. My brother, Roger L. Shoemaker, BSED ’70, and I, Richard H. Shoemaker, BSC ’71, resided there as well.

We all had wonderful memories of our lives as Ohio University Sigs on Park Place. So, I was saddened to know that in the event Sigma Chi is ever re-colonized on campus, it will not have the use of this fabulous home.

However, having said that, I commend fellow Sigma Chi Bob Walter and his wife, Peggy, for providing money and commitment to be sure that our fraternity house will face a secure future (as a home for international education programs) and will continue to support Ohio University students. My “hat is off ” to them!

—Rick Shoemaker, BSC ’71 Chicago, Ill.

Like sardines The men from Sargent Hall who were stuffed into triple occupancy rooms in 1969 and again in 1970 won’t be happy to know that “The Two in a Room policy, a plan to eliminate the housing of three students in a room originally designed for two, was

implemented in 1966.” I wasn’t, after reading this on page 29 of your Summer 2011 issue.

The Hocking River was rerouted in a little over a year, but apparently the housing office needed at least five years to stop jamming three persons into dorm rooms obviously designed for two. On the bright side, all those decisions roommates usually deal with (desk and bunk bed selection, room temperature, visitors, timing of study hours, timing of card games, music selection, etc.) made by John Rea and Bob Krochka (1969) and Frank Pietro and Jim Schock (1970) and me were quickly decided by a majority vote!

—Jim Range, BS ’73 New Philadelphia, Ohio

Honoring our vets As an OU grad and a Korean War vet, I was pleased to read your story (“A Hero’s Mission,” Summer 2011) about the good work that Michael Logue is doing for returning vets.

We had a social club in those days, called The Vet’s Club, and most of us were using the GI Bill. You would not believe the stories!

I hope the school administration supports Mike’s work and establishes an Office of Veterans’ Services. To that end, I am sending a check today to further his work. I hope all fellow grads who are vets will join in. Thanks for the timely story.

—Bill Patterson, BFA ’62 Columbus, Ohio For the first time, Ohio University has been designated a military friendly school by GI Jobs thanks in part to Michael Logue’s efforts. To support the new Office of Veterans’ Services, contact 800-592-FUND or giving@ohio.edu.

Two aircraft, one photo Your sidebar, “Also in 1965” (Summer 2011), brought back memories of the plane crash that happened that year in May. I was a member of the Flying Bobcats and was there.

On that day, the staff of Ohio University Airport (then located on East State Street) and the members of the Flying Bobcats were conducting an open house for the community. One of the attractions was giving airplane rides around Athens at the cost of 1 penny a pound per person. I was not available to help the pilot of the crashed aircraft (he was a transient pilot and not part of the activities) because I was airborne with a planeload of sightseers. However, I had to land right next to the crashed aircraft, which certainly added to the adventure.

You correctly referred to the crashed aircraft as a single-engine; however, your accompanying photograph is of a twin-engine turboprop. The plane that crashed was a Ryan Navion, and the speculation at the time was that the pilot lost control due to carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes leaking into the cabin.

—Robert S. Martin, BBA ’65 Hampstead, N.H Imagine my surprise when I saw the picture and read about the airplane that crashed in 1965 at the old OU airport. The aircraft in the picture was actually a university-owned Beechcraft N700U. The plane hydroplaned off the end of the runway, coming to rest on an access road. I know this as my father, Francis Fuller, was the pilot that day. He was the chief transportation pilot for Ohio University and later the chairman of the aviation department.

The president of the university was a passenger, and upon his exit from the plane he said to my father, “Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.” Thanks for the pictures and the memories.

—Francis Brooks Fuller Jr., BBA ’74 Glenn Ellyn, Ill.

WRITE TO US Ohio Today welcomes letters from readers. We reserve the right to edit for grammar, space, clarity and civility. Please include your Ohio University affiliation, address and phone number when you submit your letter by email to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or mail to 112 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701. We regret we cannot publish all letters.

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YOUR OHIO

memories and more

What celebrity visited Ohio while you were in school?

We asked our readers and Facebook friends to comment on the memorable people who have visited campus. Here are some of our favorite responses: In 1976, we came back from spring break to find posters scattered around campus claiming Bruce Springsteen was going to be in concert with the E Street Band at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium on April 1. The posters were 8 1/2” x 11” paper, black-and-white, and looked like photocopies made from album covers. This fooled no one, of course. Springsteen had only a few months before had his extraordinary simultaneous Time and Newsweek cover stories. “Born to Run” was at the top of the charts. Mem Aud? Springsteen could have filled the Convocation Center! Everyone on campus had it pegged for what it obviously was: an early April Fools’ prank. At least, that’s what we thought until we picked up our

Counting Crows at Mem Aud in 2003. I thought they weren’t going to play the song “Round Here,” but at the end of the show, Adam Duritz, the lead singer, came out to a grand piano on the dimmed stage, lights sparkling within a backdrop like stars in the sky. It was just he on the piano singing “Round Here” to all of us, and it was amazing!

—Kristen Norris, BSED ’07 Robert Frost, 1961. Imagine seeing Robert Frost walking across the College Green!

—Merrybelle Dean England, AB ’62 Ted Turner visited for a speech during Communications Week and taped a Q&A session in the WOUB studio. He was interesting, entertaining and engaging as he discussed the state of TV, cable, communications and technology. Years later as a TV reporter, I covered a speech Turner delivered in Norfolk, Va. I mentioned that I had heard him speak at Ohio University. He laughed, said he had a

Future “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno performed my junior year in Mem Aud. This was back when he was doing the Doritos commercials, and I remember people throwing bags of Doritos on stage in homage!

—Charles Bradley II, BMUS ’90

copies of The Post on the day of the concert, with a big photo of Springsteen in Athens above the fold. By the time I went to the bank and got cash, the line for tickets at Mem Aud was halfway across the green. I was lucky to get mine before they sold out; the concert was outstanding. I’ve seen Springsteen perform live a couple of times since, but nothing will ever beat that first time, in Mem Aud — an opportunity almost lost because the date looked like a joke.

—Rick Lippincott, BSJ ’77

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great time visiting campus and remembered that students kept asking him to come to the Frontier Room to have a beer.

—Frank Graff, BSJ ’82, MA ’83

Schwartz came to get Sununu to take them both to the airport, he told Sununu, “James Carville is outside shouting for you to hurry up because Republicans are always behind the times.” Sununu shot back, “And Democrats are always out screaming in the streets.”

—Ron Minto, BSC ’98 Bill Cosby performed, and it is memorable because, though I am a huge fan, I am the dummy who didn’t get the tickets! I missed the show. But I did get to see Rich Eisen, which was fantastic.

—Adam Blaney, BSSPS ’05 I was a senior on campus when Dag Hammarskjöld, secretary general of the United Nations, addressed the student body in the old Memorial Auditorium. I was also a member of Omicron Delta Kappa honorary fraternity, and the ODK members were offered the opportunity to stop by President Baker’s home and personally meet with Secretary General Hammarskjöld. I had toured the United Nations Center shortly after it opened in New York, and I was anxious to take advantage of this opportunity! With much nervousness, I rang the doorbell at 1 Park Place. The housekeeper opened the door and escorted me into a side parlor. I was the only person there! Shortly, Dag Hammarskjöld appeared, extending his hand for a greeting. My mind raced for ideas to open the conversation. What do you talk about with the Secretary General of the United Nations? To my pleasure and ease, he showered me with questions about OU campus life, my major in architectural engineering and future plans for a career.

I cherished this experience for many years afterwards and remember it vividly to this day!

—Robert Portik, BSAE ’58 To read more responses, visit ohio.edu/ ohiotoday/print/yourohio.cfm

Steve Martin. Thirty-three years later, it’s still the best comedy show I’ve ever seen.

—William Ortenberg, BSC ’80 James Carville and John Sununu’s Kennedy Lecture Series debate during the 1996 presidential election. As Professor Marty

NEXT ISSUE’S QUESTION: What was your favorite place to eat on campus or in Athens? Why? Write to us at 112 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, or email us at ohiotoday@ohio.edu. You can also “friend” the Ohio University Alumni Association on Facebook to respond to this and other questions.

ohiotoday Editor Mariel Jungkunz, MS ’07 Designer Sarah McDowell, BFA ’02 Contributing editor Mary Reed, BSJ ’90 Contributors Lindsey Burrows, BSJ ’09 Lynsie Dickerson, BSJ ’12 Elizabeth Dickson, BSJ ’13 Gina Edwards, BSJ ’12 Kaitrin McCoy, BSJ ’13 Tom Nugent Printer The Watkins Printing Co.

Ohio University

President Roderick J. McDavis, BSED ’70 Executive Director of Communications and Marketing Renea Morris Executive Director of Development Jennifer Shutt Bowie, BSJ ’94, MS ’99 Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations Executive Director of the Alumni Association Graham Stewart Director of Marketing and Communication for the Ohio University Alumni Association Janis Miller-Fox, BFA ’77

Ohio University Alumni Association board of directors

CONTRIBUTORS Gina Edwards, who worked as an editorial assistant at Ohio Today two summers in a row, is a senior studying magazine journalism and Spanish. She serves as associate editor of the on-campus magazine Backdrop and works as a student communications editor at the Honors Tutorial College. Her summer adventures included backpacking through Europe while running a travel and humor blog, found at 2girls2europe.wordpress.com.

Arlene Greenfield, BSHE ’71, chair William Hilyard, BSED ’67, executive vice chair David L. Abram, BSC ’89 Melissa Wervey Arnold, BSJ ’99 Robin S. Bowlus, BFA ’98 Todd Calamita, BBA ’93 Cynthia Calhoun, BSEE ’88 Melissa Cardenas, BA ‘96, MBA ‘03 Casey A. Christopher, BS ’02 Charles Crews, BSIS ’93 Jeanne Gokcen, BSHS ’82, MAHS ’84 Dr. Paige Gutheil Henderson, DO ‘02 J.D. Hupp, BSSE ‘99 Brenda J. Dancil-Jones, AB ’70 Julie Mann, BBA ’02 Lyndsay A. Markley, BA ‘02 A. Cita Strauss, BFA ’77, MA ’06 Ronald Teplitzky, AB ’84 Jim Wharton, BBA ’71 Robert “Bob” Wolfinger, AA ’73, BSG ’80 Sarah Burkhart, BBA ’12, Student Alumni Board (SAB) President Ohio Today is published twice a year in fall and spring. Ohio Today Online is published at www. ohiotodayonline.com. The magazine is produced by University Advancement with funding provided by The Ohio University Foundation. Views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or university policies.

Kelley Shaffer, BS ’09, is a freelance designer based in Pittsburgh.

During her time at Ohio University, she worked as The Post design editor and contributed to projects such as Dawn to Dusk and Soul of Athens.

In addition to her work in design, Kelley documents her experiences and travels through photography.

Rebecca Miller is a photojournalist based in southern Ohio. Miller grew up in a small town in Iowa and studied German at the University of Iowa. In 2007, she embraced her love of travel and moved to Germany with the help of a Fulbright grant. There she taught English, did freelance translation work and honed her photography skills in Berlin before returning in 2010 to attend graduate school at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication.

Rick Fatica, MFA ’08, is a portrait and wedding photographer in Key West, Fla. Rick has run his own professional photography business for more than 16 years and has proven the value of his master’s degree in photography as an accomplished and talented artist. The former Ohio University staff photographer, Rick has traveled and lived in many states across the nation in his search for new and interesting photographic subjects.

Copyright 2011 by Ohio University Ohio University is an affirmative action institution.

To contact us

Editorial offices are located at 112 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701-2979. Send story ideas, items for Bobcat Tracks or comments about the magazine to that address, email them to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or call the editor, Mariel Jungkunz, 740-593-1891.

Address changes may be made by visiting www. ohioalumni.org. Address changes and information for In Memoriam also may be sent to Advancement Services, HDL Center 168, Athens, OH 45701-0869 or emailed to ohiotoday@ohio.edu.

To reach the Ohio University switchboard, call 740-593-1000.

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SOUNDS OF SUMMER The Mozart on the Green Festival and Academy hosted renowned musicians from around the continent who taught young musicians and delivered world-class chamber music concerts in Athens this summer. Steven Huang, director of orchestral studies, created the festival and academy with the help of Michael Carrera, associate professor of cello, and the Juniper Music Festival, Carrera’s nonprofit organization that brings classical music to underserved communities. photo by Rebecca F. Miller MA ’12

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In the News OHIO MBA A BEST VALUE Fortune Magazine named Ohio’s professional MBA program one of the top three “best values” in executive MBA programs in the nation. The magazine praised the program’s $29,000 tuition, which has held steady for three years. Edward Yost, director of executive graduate education, said the program is doing something right, adding, “We set out to help provide support for an economic platform in Southeast Ohio and we’ve done just that. We’re always tweaking the program to try to make it better.”

MEANINGFUL PLEDGE Charles Beck, BS ’62, and his wife, Judy, have pledged $1 million to support the school of nursing and Kids on Campus, an academic enrichment and recreation program for area youth. The programs will see a big difference thanks to the gift, said Randy Leite, dean of the College of Health Sciences and Professions. “Their generous gift will help us to tutor and feed our community’s most vulnerable children and put more nurses in a medically

underserved region that has elevated risks for diseases such as diabetes,” Leite said.

GOOD FAITH EFFORT When announcing the Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, President Barack Obama cited Ohio University’s Interfaith Youth Core as an example of outstanding interfaith efforts on college campuses. The challenge calls students to build interfaith cooperation and community service programming among diverse communities and contribute to the common good. During the 201112 academic year, the Ohio University Interfaith Challenge partnership will focus on local food and water security as well as domestic poverty issues.

FIRST CLASS The Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs awarded its first 25 degrees at June’s commencement ceremonies. All students graduated with master’s degrees in public administration, including 14 graduates of the part-time executive MPA program.

WOUB’s ‘Science’ nabs an Emmy

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id you know that a compost pile gets hot enough to cook an egg? That’s one of the facts at-risk science students learned about energy thanks to the award-winning WOUB series “Down and Dirty Science.”

The series, which consists of video-ondemand modules for students in sixth through ninth grades and accompanying teacher modules, received an Emmy recognizing its outstanding host, student Craig Reck, at July’s annual ceremony held by the Ohio Valley Regional Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Student Eric Arvai also won an Emmy in the category of Musical/ Composition-Arrangement for his work on the documentary “David Hostetler: The Last Dance.” Faculty, staff and alumni were recognized at the awards as well, including Ohio Athletics’ director of multimedia marketing Evan Shaw (Editor/ Sports category) and Tom Housley, BSC ’84, who won in the Director category for a “Newswatch” alumni episode. “The Last Dance” — which profiled artist David Hostetler, BFA ’49 — took home a total of four Emmys; professors Casey Hayward, Keith Newman and Andre Gribou were recognized for their contributions.

Photo by Electronic Vision

» A BOON FOR BIOTECH

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Ohio’s Innovation Center opened the Biotechnology Research and Development Facility June 29. Funding from the university and the state of Ohio’s Edison Incubator program established the facility, which will support the growing community of biotechnology researchers at Ohio University and in the southeastern Ohio region.

Currently, the Innovation Center is home to two biotechnology companies, Interthyr and MetalloPharm. The center has one affiliate member, Promiliad Biopharma. Diagnostic Hybrids, a Quidel Company, is a graduate of the program.

GREEN AND WHITE The two hues are selected as Ohio’s official school colors.

PLAY BALL! Ohio fields its first official athletic team, baseball.

fast fact Before 1896, the university’s unofficial colors were blue and white.

ALMA MATER, OHIO A special contest is held in search of an “alma mater song” for Ohio University. Kenneth S. Clark, a graduate of Princeton University, enters “Alma Mater, Ohio” and wins the $150 first prize.

FEMALE ATHLETES

BOBCAT PRIDE After a campuswide contest, the Bobcat is chosen as the school mascot.

today’s bobcat

OU Women’s Athletic Association is formed.

THE BAND

Illustration by Kelley Shaffer MA ’11

Student Homer Baird assembles the university’s first marching band.

fast fact Coach Peden is the Bobcats’ all-time winningest coach.

MAC Ohio becomes charter member of the MidAmerican Conference.

“THE CONVO” The Convocation Center, seating 13,080 people, is built on West Green.

PERFECT SEASON CHAMPIONS Ohio football wins first of five MAC championships.

Ohio football has an 8-0 season, led by All-American tackle Art Lewis. The stadium is named after then-coach Don Peden.

SCHMIDT SERIES FOUNDING MEMBERS Ohio is a founding member of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

PRICE TO PATRIOTS

CELEBRATION

Bobcat football wide receiver Taylor Price is drafted by the New England Patriots.

The Ohio men’s basketball upset victory over Georgetown in the NCAA tournament sparks impromptu party on Court Street.

Future pro Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt leads Ohio University to the College World Series.

GARY TRENT Bobcat Gary Trent, the only three-time MAC Player of the Year for men’s basketball, is a first-round NBA draft pick.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL Ohio women’s volleyball wins an eighth consecutive Mac championship.

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FREEZE FRAME: This image of fall at Conkle’s Hollow in the Hocking Hills is one of 151 in Ian Adams’ newest book, “A Photographer’s Guide to Ohio,” published this summer by Ohio University Press. The book is not just for coffee table enjoyment: It gives the reader guidelines on how to shoot like a pro. photo by Ian Adams

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La vida local

New cookbook highlights regional foods and seasonal eating

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n each issue of Ohio Today, we feature a brief review of an Ohio University Press book, written by a staff or faculty member. “The Locavore’s Kitchen: A Cook’s Guide to Seasonal Eating and Preserving” was published in August and features more than 200 recipes from Marilou Suszko, host of the PBS show “From My Ohio Kitchen to Yours.” To learn more about the book, visit www.ohioswallow.com.

would all think about, but she also provides recipes and ideas for some things that we may overlook, such as honey and grains. Her work will appeal not only to the cooks among us, but to the bakers as well. She has artfully interwoven accessible baking recipes, making this quite a well-rounded tome. Another rewarding addition to this compilation is a section on the re-emerging art of preservation methods and ideas to extend the seasonal harvest well into the long, cool days when we are pining for the vibrant tastes of summer.

All of this, combined with a simple and pleasing graphic layout, makes “The Locavore’s Kitchen” a highly recommended addition to your culinary library or a wonderful gift for the epicurean adventurer.

“The Locavore’s Kitchen: A Cook’s Guide to Seasonal Eating and Preserving,” by Marilou Suszko; Ohio University Press, Ohio University

Our national interest in all things food seems to be at an all-time high, and one of the outcomes of this newfound passion is the desire to eat what is grown in our communities by our friends and neighbors.

While not a new concept, eating locally has taken center stage in our national food reawakening. Enter “The Locavore’s Kitchen”

by Marilou Suszko. On the 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’ landmark restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., and epitome of the local foods movement, comes this thoughtfully organized and user-friendly new kitchen resource. I say “resource” because it is much more than a cookbook. Along with many, many approachable recipes, there is a bounty of beautifully presented information.

With the world’s harvest at our fingertips year-round, many of us have forgotten that all fruits and vegetables are truly seasonal, and Suszko has done a splendid job of removing the mystery of seasonal eating. She exquisitely takes us through the various seasons, while adding well-placed tips and “Alton Brownlike” educational moments.

“The Locavore’s Kitchen” is easy to navigate, something I look for in a cookbook that serves information beyond recipes. Suszko has left no fruit on the vine in her coverage of local foods. She includes the foods we

» MATT RAPPOSELLI, executive chef, Ohio University

Other recent publications

Ohio University’s published authors are many, and alumni across all majors have found inspiration in poetry and prose. This list includes recent publication announcements; authors should send their information to Ohio Today, 112 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701.

Dalí Dreams of Gala by Eddy Barrows, BFA ‘82 · Before the First Snow: Stories from the Revolution

by Walter Brasch, PHD ‘74 · Confronting America: The Cold War Between the United States and the Communists in France and Italy by Alessandro Brogi, MA ‘92, PHD ‘98 · Ghosthunting Ohio: On the Road Again by John Kachuba, MA ‘03 · The Completely Unauthorized Ohio University Coloring Book, created and designed by husband-and-wife team Erik Laursen, BSC ‘96, MA ‘97, and Elizabeth Foreman Laursen, BSJ ‘98 · Something Knows the Moment, a poetry collection on faith and doubt

by Scott Owens, AB ‘84 · The Dark Side of Sports: Exposing the Sexual Culture of Collegiate and Professional Athletes by Nick Pappas, MED ‘96 · Bachelors and Bunnies: The Sexual Politics of Playboy by Carrie Pitzulo, MA ‘01 · Nude Descending a Staircase, a mystery novel by Joyce Williams Richardson, BSED ‘60, MA ‘74 · Ishift, a book of innovative business practices by Jean Drumm Sifleet, BBA ‘69 · I Pray Hardest When I’m Being Shot At, a true story of love and war by Kyle Vanderneut, BA ‘98, MA ‘00, who writes under the pen name Kyle Garret

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photo by Mark Dawson MA ’11

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Now & then: tools of the trade

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ack in the ’60s, the Gilmore tensile strength tester was a state-of-the-art machine that Ohio civil engineers used to test the properties of metal. Today’s MTS brand machine is a far more sophisticated device that can evaluate properties of concrete, metal, plastic and — importantly — a combination of these materials and others, which today’s innovative asphalt mixes often include. “We don’t (test) run-ofthe-mill standard mixture designs. We’re testing innovative designs, things that we think will do better,” says Issam Khoury, research engineer for the Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment. Research grant funds paid for the equipment, which faculty and staff use for projects for the Federal Highway Administration and several state departments of transportation. “We’re collecting field data, and pavement specimens in the field. These mixes are then tested in the lab, and the field results are compared with the lab results,” Khoury says. “We are looking at a future where pavement lasts longer and the public is inconvenienced less in terms of reconstruction, and the cost to the taxpayer is reduced.”

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TOP: A new MTS Systems unit in Stocker Center tests any number of civil engineering materials — concrete, asphalt, steel, aluminum, fiberglass and plastic — for compression and tensile strength. The machine can approximate outdoor environmental conditions, run different programmed scenarios, and provide computer-generated data ready for analysis by researchers in the department of civil engineering and the Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment.

BOTTOM: The Gilmore tensile strength tester, a precursor to the MTS, was used to test tensile properties in metal. The machine would conduct one type of test and plot the results on paper with a pen plotter; researchers then manually interpreted the data.

From chemistry to Chaplin

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his year, Ohio University celebrated the 30th anniversary of The 1804 Fund, an internal grant program that sponsors the research and creative activity of both faculty and students. The fund was created through a bequest from C. Paul Stocker, BSEE ’26 and HON ’74. Since its inception, the fund has awarded more than $15 million to 600-plus research and creative projects. Here are just a few. It’s a university priority to grow the 1804 endowment to $10 million. To make a gift, visit www.ohio.edu/ give or call 800.592.FUND. Email questions to giving@ohio.edu.

101 Journalism R.E. Baker osal 1804 prop

WORD PROCESSING LAB EQUIPMENT 1981

BAR CODE RESEARCH

$52,000 • Robert Baker, journalism The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism went digital with this award.

O H I O

BAKER PEACE STUDIES SEMINAR

1983 • $4,000 • John Gaddis, history Through graduate training, research scholarship and an active series of sponsored events, Ohio University’s Contemporary History Institute provides historically grounded analysis of contemporary world affairs at both the national and international levels. The institute hosts the annual Baker Peace Conference and other seminars as a means of exploring how peace can be established and maintained throughout the world.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY 1993

$8,000 • Donald Borchert, philosophy This 10-volume set covers everything from Aristotle to Zoroastrianism.

OTHER AWARDS INCLUDE: Replacing Worn Band Instruments, 1981 • International Flag Collection, 1983 • Computer-aided Drafting System, 1984 • ALICE database, 1985 • Improvement of Residential Greens Radio Stations, 1987 • Festival of Improvisation, 1990 • Campuswide Facility for Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy, 1991 • Production of “Richard III,” 1992 • Infectious Disease Research Lab in Ecuador, 2001 • Green Chemistry in the Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Lab, 2004 • Acquisition of a High Sensitivity Spectrofluorometer, 2006

1992 • $50,000 James Fales, industrial technology

B O B C ATS Ohio University has had a hand in keeping your grocery shelves stocked; the nation’s first university-based research center devoted to automatic identification and data capture was established here.

PARTICLE SIZE ANALYZER FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY & NANOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH

2001 • $27,000 • Gregory Van Patten, chemistry and biochemistry This research (which continues today) is helping to develop new high-tech optical materials.

CHARLIE IN THE HEARTLAND 2010

$10,000 • Lisa Stein, English The “Thief Catcher,” a Charlie Chaplin short that had been missing since 1914 and was rediscovered at an antiques swap in Michigan, screened during the three-day 2010 Chaplin conference held on the Ohio University-Zanesville campus. The international conference also featured a look-alike contest, musical performances and guest lectures by preservationists, archivists and scholars. Lisa Stein Haven, assistant professor of English at Ohio University-Zanesville, organized the conference and presented the lecture “Charlie Chaplin and His New Beginning in a New World,” featuring remembrances from the artist’s first visit to America in 1910. Photo courtesy of the archives of the Roy Export Company Establishment

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ACROSS THE

college green

Calendar of events for alumni and friends of ohio university | ohioalumni.org/calendar

W

herever you live, Ohio University wants to keep in touch with you. Alumni chapters exist around the globe to help you meet and reconnect with fellow Bobcats. Of course, fall is a lovely time to visit campus — but if you missed Homecoming, consider joining us for Spring Alumni Weekend! For a full schedule of chapter, society and on-campus events, including reunions, visit ohioalumni.org/calendar.

OHIO vs. Miami FOOTBALL

NOV. 22 Stand up and cheer! The Ohio University football team welcomes Miami University to Peden Stadium at 7 p.m. for its final home game. Visit www. ohiobobcats.com for more.

APRIL 13-15, 2012 · The Post 100th Anniversary · College of Fine Arts 75th Anniversary · Honors Tutorial College 40th Anniversary · Class of 1987 25th Anniversary

CoFA 75th Anniversary Celebration

Ohio University Alumni Association

CHARLOTTE CHAPTER A JEWEL IN THE SOUTHEAST The Charlotte Chapter Network’s oldest event, the OU-OSU Lake Norman picnic (above), celebrates more than 20 years of family fun with alumni of all ages each August. The chapter will host Charlotte Networking Week FEB. 23-24, along with many events throughout the year.

Visit ohioalumni.org/charlotte-bobcats for more information.

twitter.com/OHIOAlumni

Connecting alumni with 140 characters or less

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· Alumni Leaders Conference

Join us Saturday, APRIL 14, at 8 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium to honor 75 years of inspiring lives at the College of Fine Arts. The celebration features outstanding performances and presentations by renowned artists in dance, theater, music, film, visual and interdisciplinary arts. Visit www.ohio.edu/ finearts/75 to purchase tickets.

Ohio University Alumni Association Ohio University Alumni Association

END-OF-YEAR AND HOLIDAY GATHERINGS

Follow Us!

· Scripps School of Journalism Society of Alumni and Friends

NOV. 5 Ohio University Women’s Club Annual Brunch and Holiday Auction in Cleveland at 10 a.m. NOV.12 Akron Association of OU Women host their annual Nite at the Races and auction at 6 p.m. DEC. 3 The annual holiday luncheon held at the Field Club in Sarasota, Fla., will start at 11:30 a.m. Visit ohioalumni. org/calendar for more information.

RAISING AWARENESS AND GOOD WILL The young alumni of Central Ohio are proud to raise donations and toys through their fourth-annual Flipping for Toys Flip Cup Tournament on DEC. 10. Visit ohioalumni. org/calendar to register for the event or for more information.

STOMP

The international percussion sensation makes its triumphant return JAN. 30 to the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium!

Match­boxes, wooden poles, garbage cans and hubcaps fill the stage with magnificent rhythms. Visit www. ohio.edu/performingarts for a full calendar of events at Mem Aud.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Memories from past Homecoming parades, such as this one, came alive again in 2011 as the annual weekend (Oct. 14-15) went “Beyond the Bricks” with a host of events for students, community and alumni. From the Rock-the-Block uptown concert to traditional tailgating before the Ohio football game to many charity donation drives, participants celebrated the traditions and experience of Ohio University. photo by Brian Kellogg BSS ’06

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POISED FOR SUCCESS:

Addie Patterson, DO ‘11, meets with a patient while on an intensive care unit rotation at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital last year. Patterson entered a preliminary internal medicine internship this fall at the Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. photos by John Sattler

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Truly transformational

$105 million to help address Ohio’s most pressing health care issues

O

ur country’s need for more primary care physicians is indisputable. Federal health care reform is expected to provide coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans by 2014, yet experts predict a national shortage of 45,000 primary care doctors within the next decade.

And Ohio is hardly immune to these issues. Health care reform will add coverage for 1.3 million uninsured people in this state.

Meanwhile, projections indicate that the number of practicing primary care physicians statewide is markedly inadequate, with certain areas — particularly rural and inner-city areas — forecasting severe shortages.

It’s a full-blown health care crisis, but a $105 million gift announced in April from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation to the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine makes possible a bold plan to address it. “The money is going to Ohio University and its College of Osteopathic Medicine,” says Richard Vincent, Osteopathic Heritage Foundation president and CEO, “but it’s going there because it is, we feel, in the best position to facilitate the impact in the community with regard to service and education.”

What sets OU-HCOM apart? Created in 1975, the college was mandated to educate primary care physicians, especially those who stay in Ohio and those who practice in areas of greatest need.

Without question, the college has met that expectation — more than half of its alumni practice in the primary care fields of family practice, general internal medicine or pediatrics, and 56 percent practice in communities with fewer than 50,000 residents.

In 2009, OU-HCOM embarked on a yearlong strategic planning process and saw that its founding charge is even more imperative given today’s health care challenges. It set forth a rigorous plan to establish itself as a national model for primary care education and service, and to become a leading research institution.

With the Foundation’s support, the college will advance its vision: It will create a regional extension campus in Columbus by 2014 with a curricular focus on primary care and the urban underserved, and it will initiate a related increase in class size. It will build new Athens facilities for the Diabetes/Endocrine Clinical Treatment and Research Center, and the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute.

The plan also includes a major revision of the college’s curriculum, the development of 93 new scholarships, and collaboration with partner hospital systems to offer debt relief as incentives for graduates to train — and eventually practice — in Ohio.

The Columbus-based Osteopathic Heritage Foundation worked closely with the college to develop this new direction, which clearly aligns with its own mission of supporting local health initiatives and enhancements to osteopathic medical education and research. In fact, the Foundation is a longtime OU-HCOM supporter; this gift brings its support to the college to nearly $123 million in just over a decade.

“The Foundation’s foresight, generosity and steadfast commitment to OU-HCOM have been central to many of our greatest successes,” says OU-HCOM Dean Jack Brose, D.O., pointing to 2007 and 2009 gifts that helped build two new Athens-based facilities for teaching, research and community services.

In recognition of this latest gift and its power to transform lives, in June the Ohio University Board of Trustees approved the school’s name change to the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“We believe that the involvement and generosity of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation will profoundly alter the future of OU-HCOM, Ohio University, and the quality of osteopathic medical care and education,” Brose says, “by establishing this medical college as one of the preeminent medical schools in the nation — one worthy of bearing the name of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation.”

Visit www.oucom.ohio.edu for more about the OU-HCOM gift.

SHARED MISSION, SHARED VALUES: The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation’s $105 million gift to the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is the fourth-largest ever given to a U.S. medical school and ranks among the top 50 gifts ever given to a higher education institution in the United States. “We have never considered a grant or an award of this magnitude,” says president and CEO Richard Vincent (pictured right, at a Baker Center reception held in honor of the gift). “Nor have we considered an award which has the potential impact that this one will have.”

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Photo by Gary Kirksey

Modern at heart

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“Jim Dine: Sculpture and Large Prints” opened July 8 and will run through Nov. 27 at the Kennedy Museum of Art. A public interview with Jim Dine, BFA ’57, led by Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park curator Joseph Becherer, BFA ’87 and MFA ’89, will be held Nov. 3 at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. Please call 740-593-1304 or visit www.ohio.edu/museum for museum hours and more information.

Night Fields, Day Fields, 1999 ©Jim Dine /Artists’ Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Photo courtesy Walla Walla Foundry and The Pace Gallery.

A

sk Joseph Becherer to describe his friend Jim Dine (BFA ’57) — the legendary Pop artist and co-inventor of the 1960s “Happenings” that changed American culture — and the art historian and curator won’t hesitate.

“There’s only one word to describe Jim,” says Becherer, “and that word is intense. No matter what he’s working on, he always pushes himself to the max.”

Becherer, BFA ’87 and MFA ’89, ought to know. As the highly regarded curator and vice president of the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Michigan, he earlier this year put together a major exhibition of Dine’s most famous sculptures from the past 50 years.

Now, a dozen of the most interesting sculptures in the Michigan show have traveled to Athens for an exhibition (“Jim Dine: Sculpture and Large Prints”) that will run through Nov. 27 at the university’s Kennedy Museum of Art. The exhibition, which features bronze and enamel on wood sculptures, as well as several of the master’s signature Pop Art offerings, was launched to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the College of Fine Arts.

It should spark high interest in Dine’s work, which has been prominently displayed in venues spanning the globe, including Tokyo, New York and Paris. Both the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York’s Guggenheim Museum have honored Dine with grand retrospectives.

“This is an important exhibition for the Kennedy Museum, the university and the surrounding community,” says Charles McWeeny,

dean of the College of Fine Arts. “To have this caliber of work in southeastern Ohio is very special. Mr. Dine is an important artist who has been an international figure for 50 years.”

Born in Cincinnati, Dine took up residence in New York City in 1959, after receiving his degree at Ohio University, and gained recognition in the art world by pioneering “Happenings,” a series of theatrical events mixing art, performance and audience participation.

In the ’60s, he exhibited his work in the show “New Painting of Common Objects” with Pop Art luminaries such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Unlike these artists, Dine’s style is not defined by a medium but by his iconic subjects, says Petra Kralickova, BFA ’01, the curator at the Kennedy. “It’s iconic in the sense that it’s an image of its own and then he makes it his own,” says Kralickova.

In 1976, Dine joined the Pace Gallery in New York and four years later became an elected member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

This is Dine’s first exhibition in Athens since his 1957 graduation, and according to Becherer, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“There’s no doubt that Jim Dine went on from Athens to become one of the great artists of the modern world,” says Becherer.

“Jim’s sculptures — and I’m thinking especially of the ‘Pinocchio,’ ‘The Heart’ and the ‘Venus de Milo’ pieces — have become icons of modernity. But the really great thing about Jim is that he’s never sat back and rested on his laurels. At the age of 76, he’s still challenging himself harder than ever.” » TOM NUGENT

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Excerpts from a conversation between Becherer and Dine follow. The material is reproduced with permission from “Jim Dine — Night Fields, Day Fields — The Sculpture,” Steidl, Gottingen, Germany, 2011.

J.B.: I would like to start out with this idea: You are an internationally celebrated figure in the art world from paintings and prints, and, more recently, photographs, but arguably your sculptures are a less well known, less studied aspect of your repertoire. What do you see is the relationship between the two-dimensional work and the three-dimensional work, and what do you see as the boundaries?

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J.D.: My sculpture is exactly what my painting is. For me, it is all about the same thing. Many times, my painting has incorporated real objects, so you could say it became a kind of bas-relief and that I’ve always made “sculpture.” … Two early pieces, “Untitled: After Winged Victory” (1959) and “The Green Suit” (1959), are constructed of temporary material — cloth for both of them. That’s all I could do financially in those years. It was difficult because sculpture is expensive — bronze particularly. But, as I am an object maker, it becomes a question of does the object differ in the round from one that exists

on a two-dimensional surface? Physically, they are different, but I do not think they are different in intent, just in perception.

Sculpture’s many-sided physicalness, I’m sure, affects the viewer.

J.B.: Do you approach the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional work, or working in the round, differently?

J.D.: I am a “hands-on” artist in the act of making work. So I approach them both in the same way. No, that’s not exactly true.

With sculpture, I do have assistants, not just because I am an old guy, and am impatient, but as with my printing, I don’t have the

time or the inclination to focus exclusively on the kind of skilled craftsmanship I need to print the etching plates I have made the way I want them. It is also better for me to get someone who can rough out the wood, and then I can come in with saws and chisels and give it the life it deserves.

Working this way allows me the time to concentrate on the concept.

J.B.: I would like to know more about your relationship with the object in space. Can you discuss the difference between these objects and those which are two-dimensional and hang on the wall?

J.D.: This process of making sculpture, like printmaking, is collaborative. Yet, to be an artist, to be a visual artist, is a lonely process.

When I paint, I paint alone. So it is often extremely comforting to be working with others. Also, it is comforting, as it is for a child, to make objects that make you less lonely — like girls with dolls, boys with toy soldiers or vice versa. The objects I make become a hedge against loneliness.

J.B.: Jim, would you be willing to discuss your early sculptural endeavors, for example, “The Green Suit”? [This work utilizes a green corduroy suit that Dine bought in Athens and wore when he moved to New York. In the absence of money, it became his canvas and, in turn, an early metaphorical self-portrait.]

J.D.: In 1959, I was a young man with not much money at all. I was 24 years old and had no commercial success. I was teaching school, grade school, and it forced me to find things to make art with because I couldn’t afford to buy paint. I was growing up artistically and I knew [Swedish sculptor] Claes Oldenburg, for instance, and he was five or six years older than I was, and he was already a formed artist. He lectured me on the art of the insane, on children’s art, on

[painter and sculptor] Jean Dubuffet. It was another point of view of what you could make art with. So I wasn’t just being thrifty, nor was I just exploiting this possibility of something efficacious to use. It was in keeping with what we were excited about — what we saw in the street — literally what we saw in the streets of New York. In the wintertime, it was dead bums. We saw guys with their legs sticking out of snow banks — that kind of thing. On the Bowery, there were a lot of homeless people. We saw newspapers, discarded mattresses and furniture. ... We saw the way paint peeled off a building or the cinders from coal that Dubuffet made beautiful sculpture out of.

So it was in keeping with the moment. The work spoke a lot about that.

J.B.: I would like to … talk about the sculpture in the broadest term — to your major themes. I am wondering if you would discuss these individually and from where each derives. First, tell us about tools and tool imagery in your repertoire.

J.D.: I am a child of shopkeepers who had small hardware and plumbing supplies stores. My grandpa, with whom I lived after my mother died, and my father ran one for a while, too. The earliest memories I have are of being around hand tools. My grandfather thought he could build anything with his hands. He was slightly delusional on this subject because he wasn’t very good with his

I am a child of shopkeepers who had small hardware and plumbing supplies stores. My grandpa, with whom I lived after my mother died, and my father ran one for a while, too. The earliest memories I have are of being around hand tools.

hands, but he was very enthusiastic about building. He always had a workshop, and by the time I was 2 years old, I was allowed to play there. I never stopped being enchanted by these objects. As I said before, these objects are made by anonymous craftsmen, who, through evolution of the needs of the hand, made something. For me it was not about craftsmanship — it is about the object itself. It is a metaphor for “work.”

J.B.: Tell us a little bit about the Heart. [Versions of Dine’s hearts can be seen on the opposite page and the magazine’s Table of Contents.]

J.D.: I saw the heart in a guy’s painting when I was an art student. I saw it at what we called a “downtown show.” This guy made a series of signs. He would have a white background and have a heart, a red heart, on it. He had a white background, and he had a red cross. It really just struck me that you could make a painting about anything.

LEFT: Jim Dine, BFA ’57, visited Athens in June to install the exhibit “Jim Dine: Sculptures and Large Prints” at the Kennedy Museum. Here, he is pictured with “Ex Voto” (2002) and in front of “Red Dancer on the Western Shore” (1987). Photo by Gary Kirksey RIGHT: Jim Dine, Ex Voto, 2002 ©Jim Dine /Artists’ Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy The Pace Gallery.

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“Well, Pinocchio was always with me since I was 6 years old and I saw the Disney film. ... Trying to birth this puppet into life is a great story.

It is the story of how you make art. There are so many, many different emotions in the boy, and the journey he makes is our journey.“

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LEFT: Dine and his studio assistant, Jason Treffrey, install “Pinocchio at Night” (2004) at the Kennedy Museum during his visit to Ohio University this summer.

Photo by Gary Kirksey

Jim Dine, 64 Blocks, 2009 ©Jim Dine / Artists’ Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Photo courtesy Pace Editions Inc.

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I started to use it the first time when I designed the sets for “Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the Actor’s Workshop in San Francisco in 1965 or 1966. I used it just as a big stuffed object, this hanging heart, in the scene with the characters. Not only did Shakespeare talk about it, but I felt it was visually appropriate.

Then I used it every now and again. Then suddenly, it was mine. Visually very mine. When my kids were little, one of them said to somebody at an opening, “You know my Dad’s in love. You know, he makes these hearts.” And it was not so far off because what I was in love with was the fact that I was put here to make these hearts — this art. There is a similar sense of love in this method, this act of making art, trying to make it. There is the passion in it. I hesitate because I do not want to trivialize the religious experience, but it is like a religious experience when it works. When it is great, yes, it is like that. It also has a universality to it. It is a way to shake hands and say, “Come here, you can look at this thing a little closer. Don’t be frightened of it.” The heart is also an image I can hang paint on; I am free to embrace it.

J.B.: In terms of your training, one thing that struck me quite profoundly is that I read that you once said that “Art saved me.” What does that mean?

J.D.: If I had not been born an artist and had the same set of circumstances that happened to me as a child, I would not be sitting here. It gave me purpose. It gave me a way to work it out. It gave me a friend.

J.B.: Share with us, if you would, a little bit about the Venus figure.

J.D.: I have this reverence for the ancient world. I mean Greco-Roman society. This always interested me, and the product of it is interesting to me and the literature is interesting — the historic literature.

I have this need to connect with the past in my way, and also I’m devoted to the ideal of woman, as a figure of enchantment. So that when I went to the art supply store wherever it was, I guess in Paris, and got a Venus de Milo figure, it was not with the idea of celebrating kitsch. I was not responding to it as an object of Pop Art, or popular culture. I saw it as a timeless classical figure, which held the memory of its magnificence even in its reduced size. I bought it with the idea of drawing from it to have my own Glyptothek. I was painting still lifes in the late 1970s, and I would include it, the plaster cast. But then I knocked the head off it and made it mine. I gave it first to the foundry in London, and they pointed it

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When my kids were little, one of them said to somebody at an opening, “You know my Dad’s in love. You know, he makes these hearts.” And it was not so far off because what I was in love with was the fact that I was put here to make these hearts — this art.

up, or enlarged it, for me. Then, as I often do with these icons of mine, like the hearts or the bathrobes or the tools, I claim them as mine. They are part of my vocabulary. It is my glossary of terms. I never get rid of them. I continue to mine the icon, as it were, for what is possibly hidden within it. Each day is something different. Even though at first it is just a few simple notes, I then improvise and run with it. It is an everlasting source of inspiration to me. I cannot paint about nothing. I cannot make work about nothing. I would be lost if all I had was an empty room.

J.B.: At this moment in time, what is the level of accuracy and your level of comfort with the moniker “Pop artist”?

J.D.: I don’t care. You know, if somebody wants to use it, I understand, it is the easy way to see me. I am completely alone in that world. I happened to grow up with them. I happened to use some common objects at the time, so it was easy to lump me in with them, but I never was comfortable with the term nor was anybody else. It was just what the popular press said.

A much more accurate label would be what Sidney Janis called his famous show in 1962, “New Realism.”

It incorporated not just so-called classic Pop artists, but European artists like Yves Klein. It included a lot of Italians like Mario Schifano and Mimmo Rotella. “New Realism” is more accurate, but even that is not accurate.

It’s me. It’s just me.

J.B.: Finally, I think it is important to note that there is a larger, grander feeling to the work. That is a significant element of it. But for me, when I look at the work, I feel that this is something that will hold up through the ages — it is neither ephemeral nor transitory.

J.D.: I have a big ambition for the work. I have a big ambition for the work to live outside of itself. I have no conceit that everything I make is a masterpiece, I don’t think in those terms, but I do want to speak in a big way about big metaphysical themes that are only speakable through making them.

After a day-long installation, Jim Dine walks out of the Kennedy Museum with a telephone in one hand and a hat belonging to his wife, artist Diana Micherer, in the other.

Photo by Gary Kirksey

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A Garden of artistic delights Written by Tom Nugent Photograph by Brian Kelly

Art historian Joseph Becherer, who assembled the exhibition by legendary Pop artist Jim Dine, BFA ’57, that inspired the current display at the Ohio University Kennedy Museum, has also won plaudits for building one of the nation’s most renowned sculpture collections.

P

erched behind the wheel of his battery-powered golf cart, the man in the Panama hat and the stylish sunshades cut loose with a grin of pure delight.

“Is this the perfect day to visit a sculpture garden, or what?” boomed Joseph Becherer, BFA ’87 and MFA ’89. Then, without waiting for an answer, he hit the accelerator ... and the canvas-fringed golf cart began clattering along the winding road that leads to the heart of one of America’s most elegant outdoor museums.

It was a mild, blue-sky morning in July, and the former Ohio University art history major was doing what he loves most: showing a visitor around the 132-acre Frederik Meijer Gardens & Written by: Tom Nugent Sculpture Park, where he’s spent the past 12 years as chief curator Photography by: Gary Kirksey and vice president.

Tucked into a series of rolling, wooded hills on the northeastern edge of Grand Rapids (Michigan’s second-largest city, with a metro

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population of about 770,000), the Meijer used to be one of the nation’s best-kept cultural secrets.

But not any more. During the past few years under Becherer’s savvy leadership, annual attendance has soared past 500,000 as sculpture lovers and garden fanciers alike have lined up to visit a world-class museum that had once been hiding in plain sight, right in the middle of West Michigan.

Make no mistake: As the permanent home (since its opening in 1995) of dozens of compelling works by such major modern sculptors as Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg, Mark di Suvero and Richard Hunt, Meijer Gardens has lately become an increasingly important international art center. Given its growing reputation all across the Midwest, few art aficionados were surprised when the authoritative Art Newspaper ranked it among the “top 100 most visited” art museums in the world.

For Becherer, a nationally recognized art historian who these days After earning a doctorate in art history at Indiana University (his directs a staff of about 40 at the Meijer, tooling around his domain dissertation was on the Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino), Becherer aboard a red-painted golf cart is an exercise in sheer joyfulness. signed on as an art history professor at Grand Rapids Community “Look at those white pines and all those dogwoods!” sang the curator College. It was there, during the mid-1990s — while he was writing during July’s ramble as he steered a reporter toward the leaf-dappled several books and a score of journal articles on contemporary art grove that houses the museum’s most prized possession: a seven-foot — that he met two of the city’s best-known philanthropists, big-box bronze statue of the Biblical Eve crafted in the late 19th century by the retailing legends Frederik and Lena Meijer, who’d recently launched a immensely influential “father of modern sculpture,” Auguste Rodin. small botanical garden in the city where they’d made their fortune.

“Do you see how the foliage out here helps to frame the art “The Meijers are amazing entrepreneurs and art patrons,” says works?” Becherer continued as the Club Becherer today. “As soon as we sat down and Car’s rubber wheels skimmed the asphalt. talked, I could see that they wanted to build a “If you think about it, you realize that the world-class institution for garden-lovers and ‘I can still remember the morning [in intimate relationship between gardens and sculpture fans all across the nation.

2000] when we all gathered around the outdoor sculpture goes all the way back to “They trusted me enough to let me help shipping crate and got our first glimpse antiquity. To get that relationship right, it’s them accomplish that. And if you look at the of Eve. As soon as I looked at her, I knew important to design landscapes that will growing reputation of the Meijer Gardens the museum had taken a major turn.’ blend in seamlessly with the art. today, it seems that we’re well on our way to “And that’s exactly what we’ve tried to realizing their dream.” do here. By carefully spacing a series of Becherer has spent the past decade working waterfalls and ponds and trails among 32 acres of trees and shrubs and tirelessly to enhance the Meijer’s sculpture collection. Among his most wildflowers, we’ve been able to create a backdrop against which your exciting breakthroughs were recent shows featuring works by the great eye can move naturally from one art object to the next.”

20th century sculptors Henry Moore and Alexander Calder, along A moment later, he was piloting the cart into a shady grove with this year’s retrospective showing of works by the legendary Pop where the bronze figure of Eve gleamed gently beneath the morning artist (and Ohio University grad) Jim Dine. [See accompanying story sun. “When it comes to modern sculpture, everything starts with on page 18.]

Rodin,” he adds, “and this statue is really the cornerstone of our As the chief developer of the sculpture program at Meijer Gardens entire collection. We’ve got more than 300 pieces onsite at the Meijer and a professor at Aquinas College, Becherer has won increasing Gardens — but none of them says more about the world of modern accolades from some of America’s most respected art critics. “When I sculpture than this one.” met Joe, he struck me as someone who had the passion and drive to He paused for a moment as two squawking blue jays shot past the develop the Meijer into a world-class collection and art destination,” famous bronze, then began to describe his six-month struggle to land says David Ebony, the influential managing editor of Art in America. the piece. “It was a thrill a minute, for sure, and we had to negotiate “Ten years later, on my second visit last fall, he had definitely with dealers and experts on three different continents,” says the fearless accomplished that. curator. “And I can still remember the morning [in 2000] when we all “The art experience that the Meijer now offers is unique, not only for gathered around the shipping crate and got our first glimpse of Eve. the Midwest but for the entire country. ... Scholarly but definitively not “As soon as I looked at her, I knew the museum had taken a major elitist, Joe has a broad vision that is intellectual as well as approachable turn. Up until then, the possibility of acquiring a Rodin had never — and that’s a rare combination in the contemporary art world.” occurred to us. But now we have two of them ... along with some Understandably enough, Ebony’s praise is music to the ears of an major pieces by such world-class figures as Andy Goldsworthy, art historian and curator who labored for years in obscurity but never Antony Gormley, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Roxy Paine.” stopped believing in his dream of establishing a major-league art center.

Raised by his mother and aunts, Joe Becherer grew up in the “I work a lot of long days, and the pressure can be intense at times,” Canton-Akron area and dreamed of one day becoming a newspaper says Becherer, who lives on a leafy residential street in Grand Rapids reporter. But all that changed in 1983 after he landed in Athens and with his wife, Lisa, an early-childhood educator, and their two teenstarted taking general education courses in the humanities. age sons. “But all of that effort seems very meaningful, each time I take “I wound up in an art history course with [Professor] Marilyn visitors like you to see ‘Eve,’ or maybe one of the Calder mobiles, or a Bradshaw,” he says, “and that experience absolutely changed my life. Henry Moore sculpture, or maybe even Jim Dine’s ‘The Thunder,’ an We were studying medieval art, and Marilyn took a wonderfully extraordinary piece in which he somehow crafted bronze to look as if creative approach by having each of us create a work of medieval it had just been through a driving rainstorm. art ourselves as part of the process.

“When you love what you’re doing, the work is transformed into “For my project, I made a stained-glass window, and that was greatly joy — for me, that love began at Ohio University. The university enriching. I’d entered another kind of space — and I soon forgot about taught me how to think and the School of Art taught me how to see, journalism. Instead, I started exploring the thrilling world of art.” and for that, I am eternally grateful.”

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photo by Katie Auble

WITH SUGAR ON TOP: If you’re the type of baker who dabbles in double boilers or candy thermometers, Jenny Johnson’s food blog Vintage Sugarcube probably isn’t for you. “I try to keep it simple,” she says of her confectionary concoctions. “People are busy. I want to use ingredients that are easily obtainable and affordable.” Baking can be a great way to relax, according to Johnson. “It’s like my meditation.”

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Sugar and spice

Alumna’s blog has everything nice — and a vintage twist From Amaretto Petit Fours to Catholic Girl Cookies, Californian Jenny Johnson’s recipes meld Midwest comfort with West Coast flavors.

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ake one look at Jenny Johnson with her funky wardrobe and towering red beehive, and you might suspect you’ve been spirited back to the swinging ’60s. Take one look at Jenny’s homemade desserts, and you’ll want to spirit yourself straight to her kitchen for a bite.

Johnson, BS ’91, created her dessert blog Vintage Sugarcube a year and a half ago, combining her flair for the creative with a longtime love affair with food. At Ohio University, she majored in food service management and was president of the Home Economics Society, through which she led many a charity bake sale.

Though she decided to pursue a second degree in nursing a few years later, she never stopped baking. Ever the volunteer to whip up a scrumptious birthday cake or bring in sweets to the San Diego hospital where she works, Johnson sees the common thread between baked goods and caring for people.

“It’s similar to nursing in a lot of ways,” she says. “When you make someone something from scratch, it just warms their heart.”

She may be considered a Californian after 15 years of residency, but Johnson is an Ohio girl, born and raised. Hailing from Ironton on the banks of the Ohio River, she says southern Ohio, including Athens, influenced her baking a good deal.

“My cooking is Midwest by stock and southern Cali by flavor,” Johnson says. “I like to combine the two — comfort food with a little bit of a flair.”

She enjoys adding a modern twist to standby recipes, or as she calls it, “desserts reconstructed.” Take, for example, her Asian

Appalachian Fusion piecrust cookies.

Jenny’s spin on this already easy as pie recipe is sinfully simple: Chinese five-spice in place of cinnamon. Of course, these cookies are guaranteed to taste better when cut with an Ohio-shaped cookie cutter, especially if it comes from Athens, like Johnson’s did.

In addition to a recipe or two, Johnson’s vintage-inspired personal style seems to have been passed down from her mother, and it’s no wonder it trickled into the photo shoots for her blog. “That was how I remember her dressing, growing up,” she says. “I think that era really represented a beauty in women that left a little to the imagination.”

Fast-forward to the present, and ogling Johnson’s blog certainly leaves the reader imagining new and exciting possibilities, such as donning an apron and firing up the old oven — beehive optional.

» LINDSEY BURROWS

ASIAN APPALACHIAN FUSION Summer reminds me of these cookies, too.

Every summer my mom would make fruit pies, but I didn’t like fruit pies (still don’t). Anyway, she of course would make the crusts from scratch. She would sprinkle all the leftover pieces of crust with cinnamon and sugar and make them into cookies just for me. Yeah, she was pretty rad like that.

• 2 round pie crusts, chilled (I buy them pre- made in the refrigerated section) • 1/2 cup sugar • 1 tablespoon Chinese five-spice In a small bowl, mix sugar and Chinese five-spice and set aside. Unroll both crusts on a flat surface and sprinkle sugar/spice mixture evenly. Cut out in whatever shapes your heart desires. I prefer Oh-HIGH-OH, but just say’n. Place on cookie sheets and bake for 10-11 minutes. Do not overcook.

Transfer cookie sheet to cooling rack until cookies are cool. They’re especially tasty with gourmet jam from De Nada Limonada.

» VINTAGESUGARCUBE.COM

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Uniquely “U”

University College’s talented alumni are as distinct as their self-directed majors.

In 1970, Ohio University became one of the first universities in the nation to offer an individually designed degree program. Originally named the bachelor’s in general studies (BGS) — now the bachelor’s in specialized studies (BSS) — its purpose has stayed the same: to allow students to design their own interdisciplinary degrees that best suit their career and educational goals. From the first dozen graduates in 1974 to 215 BSS recipients in 2011, the program has drawn students who are open-minded, flexible and independent. “(Employers) want people who are adaptable, people who are broadly educated, people who are self-starters,” says David Descutner, dean of University College, which administers the BSS program. “Every time I read those descriptors, I think, ‘Well, they’re talking about a BSS student.’” Ohio Today spoke with five BGS and BSS alumni whose opportunities, successes and experiences can be traced back to their degrees.

GARY NAKAMOTO, BGS ’81 sales management Photograph by CHAD BARTLETT MA ‘09

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lthough he switched from an elementary education major to the BGS program, Gary Nakamoto never forgot his passion for improving the lives of children. The former chairman of the IT firm Base Technologies, Nakamoto is now the president of Youth for Tomorrow, an organization that helps at-risk children become responsible citizens. “(We) take children who have been sexually and physically abused ... we get them off the streets and in a safe, nurturing environment,” Nakamoto says of YFT, which has nine residential facilities near Washington, D.C. The organization houses and educates more than 100 at-risk students aged 11 through 18. Among their 26 high school graduates in the past two years, 25 earned college scholarships. “We truly save their lives,” he says.

His charitable work and business expertise garnered Nakamoto recognition by Washingtonian Magazine, which named him one of the city’s 150 most influential people in 2007. He says improving his community is one of his passions, and his community extends beyond his current home near Washington to his roots in Meigs County, Ohio, and to his alma mater.

Nakamoto serves on The Ohio University Foundation Board of Trustees.

He established the Nakamoto/Meigs County Scholarship during Ohio University’s Bicentennial Campaign in 2004, which has since been re-established as the Pam Crooks Meigs Alumni Scholarship, in honor of a Meigs High School classmate who passed away. He also invites a handful of Meigs County high school students to the nation’s capital every summer for an introduction to the city and to entrepreneurship. “It would have been a game changer for me had I had that kind of exposure when I was in high school,” Nakamoto says, “so it’s important for me to pass the opportunity on to others.” » KAITRIN MCCOY

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Nakamoto invites a handful of Meigs County high school students to the nation’s capital every summer. “It would have been a game changer for me had I had that kind of exposure in high school.”

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BETSY HAMMER, BGS ’74, BMUS ’78 music, theater, English and art Photograph by DAN KRAUSS BA ‘08

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etsy Hammer is a working artist who has her hand in everything: She acts onstage and in film, records songs for various film projects, and actively draws and paints. In some ways, not much has changed since she was in the BGS program at Ohio University, where she studied music, theater, English and art. “I feel as if the BGS was a great starting point for me,” Hammer says from her home in Los Angeles. “It gave me a very comprehensive, across-the-board taste of the different arts.”

When she came to Ohio in 1970, Hammer’s mother wanted her to get an “MRS” degree because she thought performing was not a practical career choice. Hammer wanted her mother’s approval but she wanted to perform more, so she chose the BGS degree.

After graduating in 1974, Hammer became the music director for

She has released a selftitled album, and this past August she performed in “Come Together,” a cabaret of music by The Beatles.

“I kept always doing the things that I loved to do.”

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the Athens Children’s Theater. The theater’s board of directors loved her work, she recalls, and encouraged her to continue pursuing her studies in music. Hammer returned to Ohio for additional training and graduated in 1978.

Since her time at Ohio, Hammer has found success, most recently as an associate music supervisor for Adam Sandler’s LA-based production company Happy Madison. The company has provided an outlet for her love of acting and music — she has been featured in various films and on Sandler’s music albums. She has released a self-titled album, available on iTunes, and this past August she performed in “Come Together,” a cabaret of music by The Beatles. “I kept always doing the things that I loved to do,” Hammer says, “and BGS started it all.” » KAITRIN MCCOY

JAMES FORREST SCOTT III, BGS ’81 pre-med and business Photograph by DAVID WALTER BANKS

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hen you ask James Forrest Scott III how he’s doing and he replies, “I’m living the dream,” he means it. From working as a physician on overseas medical missions to mentoring students, he champions those who are disadvantaged or simply need help.

For Scott, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine, it all started in Athens. He grew up on the grounds of what was then the state mental hospital, now The Ridges, where he regularly interacted with mentally ill patients in addition to his family (his dad was the resident dentist) and friends. He decided to stay in Athens for college. “Ohio University is a fantastic school,” Scott says, pointing to the large number of international students he counted as classmates. “You could really go around the world without leaving Court Street.”

The combination of “different” people he knew at the mental hospital and at Ohio influenced his way of thinking. “When you have the table set for a diverse environment is when you allow the best minds to sit at the table — and that’s when you get real creativity.”

After toying with a number of possible career choices — kindergarten teacher, creative writer — Scott decided to become the third generation in his family to go into medicine. He earned his BGS in pre-med and business in 1981, then went on to medical school at the University of Cincinnati and then to Emory.

Along the way, he has helped deliver medical care to underserved communities in Ecuador, China and Myanmar (Burma). Scott attributes his interest in international service to his Athens influence. “A lot of people talk about tolerance of different cultures, but really it should be more appreciation and embracing other cultures.” This philosophy is reflected in Scott’s role as co-chair of Emory’s President’s Commission on Race and Ethnicity and in his role as a mentor. “We have undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds who don’t have moms or dads who were doctors or maybe are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Almost every day I have a student shadow me … that is the thing I am most proud about.” In short, he is living the dream. » MARY REED

Scott has helped deliver medical care to underserved communities in Ecuador, China and Myanmar (Burma). He attributes his interest in international service to his Athens influence. “Ohio University is a fantastic school,” he says, pointing to the large number of international students he counted as classmates. “You could really go around the world without leaving Court Street.”

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LAUREN SMITH, BSS ’11 creative entrepreneurship Photograph by BRAD CHAFFIN

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auren Smith’s enthusiasm for her Ohio experience — and more specifically her BSS experience — was so great that she was selected to be one of the “Voices of Ohio” for the university’s 2011 marketing campaign.

“I feel really lucky and honored,” she says of her participation in the campaign, which tens of thousands of would-be Ohio students will see this year. But more important to Smith is her message.

“I’ve always really believed in making your education what you want it to be. ... It was really refreshing to be in an academic institution that encourages (creating) your own path.”

More specifically, Smith says, the BSS is “not just a bunch of classes thrown together” but a facultyapproved plan for an academic and professional career. In her case, this meant a self-directed

degree called creative entrepreneurship. “I’ve taken everything from business management to entrepreneurship classes, marketing, retail, studio art classes, even singing,” she says. Her co-curricular opportunities reinforced the creative and entrepreneurial elements of her degree: She has performed at Baker Center’s open stage, done business consulting in Hungary through Ohio’s Global Consulting Program and she just completed a sales internship in the New York office of Aeffe, a company that represents several Italian and French fashion houses.

Smith is now applying to graduate programs in business, still with her goal in mind of becoming an entrepreneur someday in either the fashion or hospitality business.

She’s not surprised to be on the path she set out when she was just a college sophomore.

“When you’re young and you look at your dreams, hopefully that’s what comes to fruition.”

See Smith in Ohio’s Promise campaign at www. ohio.edu/promise. » MARY REED

PHIL HILTON, BSS ’04 English and history Photograph by RICK FATICA MFA ‘08

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lthough originally part of the class of 1954, Phil Hilton left Ohio University after just two years to take a commission in the U.S. Air Force. “I guess I always had this nagging feeling,” Hilton says about not earning his degree. Almost 50 years later, he decided to finish the education he started.

“It wasn’t until around 2000 that I decided I’d like to get my degree,” Hilton says, recalling the hurdles in the way until then. “I was trying to make a living and support my family, and it just wasn’t possible to take that time and spend that money until I was retired. It was mainly a matter of pride.”

After his military service, Hilton incorporated his love of art — he studied art education at Ohio — into his career in sales management by representing an art studio in Cleveland, selling art to advertising agencies. After retirement, he contacted Ohio University and learned about the BSS program.

The program allowed Hilton to take the remainder of his courses via correspondence so that he could learn from his home in Fort Myers, Fla. He focused on English and history, taking courses from Ohio University and reciprocating schools, and his BSS adviser helped him put the degree together. Hilton jokes about being a better student as a retiree than as a 20-something young man. “When you’re sitting at home, you don’t have all of those distractions: no girls to chase, no beer parties every night,” he says.

Currently, Hilton teaches watercolor painting, his passion for more than 20 years, and sells his work online and at craft shows. He has donated several paintings of Ohio University landmarks over the years, including one of the college gate owned by Alden Library. » KAITRIN MCCOY

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Photos Courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections

BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

LEFT: Students work on floats during the 1961 Homecoming. TOP: Alumni cheerleaders show their spirit at Homecoming 1989, when Ohio beat Kent State. BOTTOM: The 2005 Athena yearbook describes Homecoming as a “deliriously fun weekend” that brings alumni (and their families) back to campus.

One of us

As an alumnus, you are part of an ever-growing circle of Bobcats: There are more than 195,000 Ohio alumni worldwide. The state with the most alumni is Ohio, which more than 101,000 Bobcats call home. Alumni account for about 0.89 percent of Ohio’s population!

STAY INFORMED

KEEP IN TOUCH

As a Bobcat, you should be receiving the monthly OHIO Alumni email, which fills you in on the many events and important updates around campus.

Also arriving to your inbox should be information about alumni events happening in your area and Ohio Today Online, the online equivalent of Ohio Today magazine.

If you’re not receiving your Ohio emails or Ohio Today magazine regularly, please update your information at the Alumni Association website: www.ohioalumni.org.

There you’ll also find useful information about your association, its chapters (find one near you!) and volunteer opportunities that will help you reconnect with Ohio.

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BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

Homeward bound

Also in 1991...

Call of fall lures alumni back to campus

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here was a time I longed for September.

September meant it was time to make that glorious drive from Cleveland through Marietta to Athens to begin another school year. Since graduation, September has meant little to me. It no longer carries with it the anticipation of my return to the campus of Ohio University, already kissed by colors of an impatient autumn.

But after I left OU with my journalism degree, October would replace September on my scale of personal significance. For most of the 20 years since my graduation, October has marked my return to campus for Homecoming. That familiar drive takes me past countless green interstate signs and

always make sure the CD is playing in my car. Incidentally, I wonder if anyone else experiences the same feeling I get at that point on 50 when I finally achieve my first glimpse of the campus. You know exactly when you’re going to see it. But for some reason, it feels so good … every time!

Friday evening usually includes an obligatory stop at WOUB-TV. Most of my game day is spent with Cathymurphy, AliMama, Papa Joe and Eli — at the parade, at the game and at the post-game Marching 110 performance. The parade itself is not complete for me if my favorite flag maven from the Alumni Band doesn’t break ranks just long enough to run over and welcome

For most of the 20 years since my graduation, October has marked my return to campus for Homecoming. That familiar drive takes me past countless green interstate signs and almost as many towns. But as my car moves south and forward, my mind goes back to the first time I made the trip.

From organizing events to organizing protests against the Gulf War, students at Ohio University had a busy year. The women’s cross country team won a fifth consecutive championship, Open Doors inaugurated Coming OUt Week, and everyone enjoyed the yearly festivities that make campus life memorable. Here are more events from 1991:

• The fifth-annual

Athens Criterium bike race featured student contestants as well as famous athletes, including Michael Zanoli, two-time Olympic competitor Marianne Berglund of Sweden and Erika Salumyae, 1988 Olympic gold medalist for the Soviet Union.

• During Winter Break, the library set up

workstations containing CD-ROMS with indexes to periodicals and journals. One CD-ROM, the library boasted, could hold as much information as 15,000 floppy disks.

• A 15-minute street play titled “Desert

Scream” attracted nearly 600 viewers and aimed to get audience members to act on their feelings of towards the gulf crisis.

• The first springtime Palmerfest was

almost as many towns. But as my car moves south and forward, my mind goes back to the first time I made the trip. I was on a bus with a few dozen other minority high-school seniors. Having grown up in Cleveland’s very urban Lee-Harvard neighborhood, the neverending rural scenery that constantly filled the big windows of the bus south of Canton became a tad disconcerting. Where the hell is this place? I began to wonder. Once we finally arrived, I stepped off the bus in front of Scott Quad and fell in love with “this place.”

The love affair continues, because the lady will not let me stay away for long … not that I’ve ever tried! Homecoming at OU has allowed me to create a whole new set of traditions and memories. Tears for Fears’ “The Seeds of Love” album (Whoa!

Did he say “album?”) was popular during my senior year. So when I hit U.S. 50 for the last 25-minute stretch of the trip, I

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me back to campus with a quick kiss! And I must always stop at my own personal Mecca (Scripps Hall) for the perennial post-parade reception. Whatever time remains is spent seeking and finding familiar faces.

As time passes, it becomes more difficult to explain the need to visit campus for no particular reason. But Homecoming gives us aging alums the perfect excuse.

I don’t believe I have missed more than five Homecoming weekends since 1991.

Perhaps it wasn’t September I longed for as a student after all. Maybe I simply wanted to get back to OU. Just as I do now.

Brian McIntyre, BSJ ’91, spent more than 14 years as a TV news reporter for various stations in Ohio. Currently, he writes and produces video features for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District website.

McIntyre and his wife and son live in the Cleveland area.

held, featuring four local bands, a trailer with 15 kegs of beer and about 2,000 attendees.

• The Athens health department threatened to take away The Dugout Lounge’s license after the bar planned to feature a wrestling bear act. The bear still performed the following night as animal rights activists protested outside.

• An Ohio University freshman and his dad

opened South Court Yogurt, a frozen yogurt shop offering a variety of menu items as well as part-time jobs for students.

• Journalism instructors, the mayor and

other visitors attended an ACTV-7 open house in celebration of 10 years of student-produced work in the broadcast journalism class. The first newscast, which aired in October of 1980, was filmed using only one VHS camera and playback unit.

—compiled by Lynsie Dickerson Photos Courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections

SPARKLING WITH PRIDE

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1. Five alumni celebrating the Fourth of July in Westerville, Ohio, light up the night with sparklers: (from left) Lyndsey Shirk Beard, BFA ’05; Clifford McGowen, BA ’06; John Beard, BBA ’05; Matt Annen, BBA ’07; and Kaylea Livingston, BBS ’07. 2. After dating five years, Allison Kligman, BSC ’06, and Daniel Laubenthal, BS ’07, recently traveled to Turkey and Greece. As they toured the Greek city of Athens, Dan got down on one knee and proposed: “We met in Athens; we should get engaged in Athens.”

They plan a 2012 wedding. 3. Christine O’Neill, BSH ’98, always makes sure her niece, Maggie, wears green and white — even though her father is an Ohio State University alumnus! 4. Jennifer Shutt Bowie, BSJ ’94 and MS ’99, and her son, John, hug during the 2010 Homecoming parade. A member of the Marching 110, Jenn has marched in 20 of the last 21 parades — missing only the year she was pregnant with John! 5. Lori Ann Wenner, AB ’90, and Todd Balser wed in Toronto, Ohio, on Feb. 26. They

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reside in Newport, Mich., and Lori Ann jokes, “I had to replace my Ohio University license plates since moving. This was in the pre-nup!” 6. Nancy Whyte, BA ’76 and MA ’79, posted a photo of her cat, Rufus, on the Ohio University Alumni Facebook page. 7. A tribute in memory of Betty Milhendler, AB ’45, was held July 17 in Boston.

Alumni and friends in attendance were asked to dance in her honor. A professor emerita in social work at Boston University, Milhendler devoted her life to dance after retirement, studying with Martha Graham and touring with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. Send your photos to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or Ohio Today, 112 McKee House, 1 Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701.

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BOBCAT TRACKS for alumni and friends

Growing in knowledge, wisdom and love

Volunteers meet in preparation for the university’s most ambitious fundraising effort

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or most Ohio University alumni, cramming for exams is a distant memory.

More than 150 volunteers are sharpening those old study skills for Ohio’s The Promise Lives Campaign, which will raise $450 million in support of students, faculty and programs.

Securing this level of private support is no small task. Volunteers will lead the effort for the 10 academic colleges, five regional campuses, and special units such as Intercollegiate Athletics and scholarships.

“Raising private funds for public higher education has never been more important,” says Larry McHale, volunteer co-chair of the campaign for the College of Business. “In today’s economic environment, state and federal governments are taking less of a role. This puts the onus on students and on the university’s endowment and success in fundraising.”

Volunteer leaders, including McHale, met

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in Athens in September for a Chairs’ Summit.

The goal: cram for the campaign.

McHale and his wife, Sheila, a 1968 sociology graduate and campaign steering committee member, developed an OHIO Trivia board game to help volunteers study university facts, memorize achievements, and learn campaign goals and priorities. The result: a competitive game that’s more fun than flash cards.

From questions about the year of Ohio’s founding to the Russ College of Engineering and Technology’s areas of national renown, the game turns volunteers into champions of the university’s history and its future. (Curious about the answers? Check the end of this story.) ”The primary purpose of the game is to build camaraderie,” says McHale. “Our charter was to come up with something that would do that and that would teach folks about

the campaign. Sheila and I had so much fun finding pictures and writing trivia questions.

We learned so much.”

While the game was being played at the September summit, he said, “It’s terrific to stand here as the game is being played, to listen and to hear everyone engaged. At most meetings, folks are distracted by other things — their phones or their iPads. But now, everyone is doing this activity. It’s really gratifying to bring people together and to give them something meaningful to talk about.”

» JENNIFER SHUTT BOWIE

1. Ohio was founded in 1804, but you knew that. 2. The Russ College’s areas of focus and national prominence are energy transport mediation systems, transportation systems and logistics, ground transportation infrastructure, and national aerospace studies.

To read Class Notes online, visit http://www.ohio.edu/ohiotoday/print/notes.cfm

IN MEMORIAM remembering fellow alumni

1930s

Reba Wolfe Snyder, COED ’30, BSED ’35 William Martindill, ABC ’32 Emmy Keehne Sweeney, BSED ’33 Jessie Adcock Brown, ELED ‘36 Dean Jeffers, COED ‘36, HON ‘76 Mary McCune Black, BSED ’37, MFA ’58 Ruth Kreachbaum Flowers, ELED ‘37 Zelma Bowsher Thatcher, KP ‘37, BSED ‘66

Mildred Stillwagon Gabrielson, BSED ‘38 Walter Kremm, AB ‘38

Jean Harper Locke, ELED ‘38, BSED ‘43, MED ‘63 Esther Cokonougher Reif, BSED ‘38 Gladys Hoover Blake, ELED ’39, BSED ’63 Esther Reed Secrest, ELED ‘39 Mary Stevenson, MA ‘39

1940s

Jean Murphy Davey, BSCOM ‘40 Clement Frak, BSED ‘40 Charles Martindill, BSCOM ’40 Richard Frazier, AB ’41 Monroe Berkowitz, AB ‘42 Ruth Arnold Leachman, ELED ‘42, BSED ‘44 Mabel Charville Reichelt, BSED ‘42 Dorothy Cannell Smith, BSED ‘42 John Balmer, BSCOM ‘43

William Biggs Sr., BS ‘43 Maurice Sheldon, AB ’43 Anthony Silvidi, BS ‘43, MS ‘45 Chester Thompson Jr., BSEE ‘43 Emma Carmichael Hamm, BSHEC ‘44

Joseph McMillan, BS ‘44 Margaret McCallum Harbrecht, BSHEC ’45 Margaret Ashton Smith, AB ‘45 Dorothy McCort Spring, KP ‘45 Louis Andrews, BSED ‘46

Ann Ross Dunn, BSED ‘46

Marian Dane Stretch, BS ‘46

Henrietta Vanfossan Winters, BSED ‘46 Robert Brown, BSAGR ‘47

Shirley Feeney Burns, BSHEC ‘47 David Friedman, BSCOM ‘47

Robert Parr, BSCOM ‘47

Kathleen Lavelle Shamel, BSED ‘47

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Dorothy Kindinger Williams, BS ‘47 James Basilone, BSED ‘48

Andrew Harbelis, BSCOM ‘48

Charles McPherson, BSED ‘48

Gladys Gluck Abes, AB ‘49 Virginia Wavro Armington, BSS ‘49 Bernice Richardson Arnold, BFA ‘49 John Boerger, BSCOM ‘49 Dwain Clark, BSCOM ‘49 James Farrell, BSCOM ‘49 Irene Buganski Gordon, BSED ’49 Houston Hendley, BSEE ‘49 Nancy Troup Purdy, BSHEC ‘49 Shirley Card Simmons, BFA ‘49 Daniel Stright, BSAGR ‘49, MS ‘53

1950s

Edward Belsho, BSJ ‘50 Clifford Duncan, BSCOM ‘50

Richard Hershey, BSCOM ‘50

John Maloy, BSCOM ‘50 Andy Ransom, BSED ’50, MED ’63 Harry Evarts, BSCOM ‘51, MS ‘52 Harold Keller, BS ‘51

Joan Kelly Kules, BSJ ‘51

Frank Modic, BSJ ‘51

Alonzo Paynter, BSCOM ‘51

Joseph Perri, BSIE ‘51

David Wetta, BSED ‘51

Robert Wilging, BSCE ‘51 Zell Anderson Dellinger, BFA ’52 Richard Dunn, BSED ‘52

Edward Hanak, BS ‘52 Marshall Piccin, BSEE ’52, MED ’80 Beverly Brainard Worlock, BFA ‘52 Olive Brubaker, BSED ’53

William Driscoll, AB ‘53

David Ketter, AB ‘53

Roger Pedigo, AB ‘53

Landis Baker, MFA ‘54

Jan Clark Horn, BFA ‘54 John Mierzwa, BS ‘54, MA ‘55

James Schweikert, AB ‘54 Frances Growhosky Bryan, BSCOM ‘55, MA ‘58

Sylvester Davis, AB ‘55

Louis Sawchik, BSED ‘55 Thomas Atkins, BFA ’56 William Foppe, BSCOM ‘56

Jerry Galvin, BSED ‘56

Eugene Huddleston, MA ‘56 Russell Smith, BSEE ‘56, MS ‘62 James Cox, BA ‘57

Nancy Ellis Guseman, BSED ‘57 Keith Krantz, BS ’57, MED ’58, PHD ’75 Thomas Lake, BSCOM ‘57

James Reifenberg, BSCOM ‘57 Joe Smith, BFA ‘57

Day Godwin Trainer, BSED ‘57 Joyce Lucas Dupler, BFA ‘58 Theodore Eckert, BSEE ‘58 Ronald Partridge, BSED ‘58, MED ‘64 Robert Sawyers Jr., BSED ‘58 Herbert Schumacher, BSED ‘58 L. Dale Van Tine, BSED ‘58, MED ‘63 Sara Bohlender Adkins, BSHEC ‘59 Jacob Noble, BSED ‘59

1960s

Andrew Hoge, BSCOM ‘60

Ronald Kennedy, BSCOM ‘60

Della Smith, BSED ‘60 Mary Wallace Baker, BSJ ‘61 Jean Pennington Fannin, BSED ’61 Paul Kimes Jr., BS ’61 Wilbur Lewis, MED ‘61, PHD ‘64 Beverly Jaskulski Mottl, BSED ‘61, MED ‘86 Brian Hayes, AB ‘62

James Nebraska, BSCE ‘62

Donald Meacham, BBA ‘63

Robert Terwillegar, BS ‘63

Edna Cain Wiley, BSED ‘63

Kenneth Dunes, BSIT ‘64 Warren Edwards III, MS ‘64, PHD ‘68 Judith Morrow Richards, BSED ‘64 Charles Shields, BFA ‘64

Herbert Wright, MS ‘64

Carolyn Hawker Clark, BSED ‘65 Peggy Chiles Clemans, BFA ‘65, MFA ‘68 Virginia Cudney, BFA ’65

Carl Goddard, BS ‘65

James Grubb, PHD ‘65 Cleo Newman Ralstin , BSED ’65 Richard Van Bergen, BS ’65 Thomas Wrasman, BSME ‘65

Bruce Barkhurst, BBA ‘66

Martha Haas Hoffman, BSED ‘66 Stephen Lentz, BBA ‘66

Paul Lyons, BSJ ‘66 John Thomas, BBA ’66

Kenneth Thompson, BSED ‘66 Marilyn Roth Cline, BSED ’67, MED ’70 John Iannarelli Jr., BBA ‘67

Kenneth Russell, AB ‘67

Dominic Togno, AB ‘67 James Williams, AB ‘67 William Woellner III, BFA ‘67, MFA ‘86 Walter Worner Jr., BSED ‘67 Robert Bottarini, MBA ‘68 Lillian Edwards, BSHEC ‘68 Robert Ziegler, BBA ‘68 John Kepperley, BFA ‘69 Jack Marook, BBA ‘69 Barbara Nord Marvin, AB ‘69 Gerald Pintaric, BSC ‘69 Terrill Sizemore, BSIT ‘69

1970s

Wilmont Chandler, MA ’70 Gary Clinesmith, AB ’70

Marjorie Staten, BSED ’70 Ralph Anderson, BSED ’71 Hazel Cain, BSED ’71 Greg Rowlance, BS ’71 Bart Ward, BSED ’71 Ann Thieken Berling, BSHEC ’72 James Bostick, BSED ’72

Thomas Cornwell, BSME ’72 Louise Coyle, BSED ’72

Shirley Baesel Garrett, BSED ’72 Dorothy Roth Goldberg, BSED ’72 Joseph Montagano, BBA ’72

Harrell Smith, PHD ’72 Carolynne Lewis Vournazos, BSED ’72, MED ’76 Dorothy Shaw Caton, BSED ’73 James Gahris, BBA ’73, MBA ’76 Dorothy Logonoveach Lollini, BSED ’73 Gary Preston, BSC ’73 Edward Stroh, BSED ’73 Eugene Carinci, BMUS ’74, MM ’75 Craig Copeland, BSED ’74 Terri Norris DuBois, BSED ’74 Raymond Lelli, BBA ’74 Ardith McLafferty, MS ’74 Stephen Thatcher, BSED ’74 Patricia Vecellio, BSED ’74, MED ’81 Timothy Walsh, BSC ’74 John Evans III, BBA ’75 Michael Harron, BFA ’75 Vicki Zeek Lawyer, BSED ’75 Margaret Cowden Merry, BSED ’75 Gary Morris, BBA ’75 Helen Fisher, BSHEC ’76, MSHEC ’76 William Hudgins, BSED ’76 Arthur Jarvinen, BMUS ’78

Betty Plas Shonebarger, MED ’78 Geraldine Dunlap, BSN ’79

1980s

John Reed, DO ’80 Jeanne Morella, BSC ’81 Barbara Williamson, BSC ’82 Rose Wetherill, BSN ’83 Richard Kalapos, DO ’84 Kevin Gibbs, AB ’87 Natalie Shull McCune , BBA ’87 John Whelan, MBA ’88 Sanford Lane, PHD ’89

1990s

Richard Finke, AAB ’91, BBA ’94 Carrie Hatcher Reed, MED ’92 Jon Stoecklin, BSC ’93

Jeffery Marcum, BSEE ’96 Jana Montague, AAS ’96

Stone Parker, MS ’97

Faculty/Staff

Pamela Cork Drake, Athens, Ohio, former associate director of residence services, July 17, 2011 Larry Llewellyn, New Marshfield, Ohio, retired building maintenance specialist, June 13, 2011 Alex Thio, Athens, Ohio, professor emeritus of sociology and anthropology, May 27, 2011 In Memoriam listings were compiled based on information received by the university office of advancement services by Sept. 1.

2000s

Michael Pletcher, AA ’03, BSS ’07 Robert Welch, BSME ’03 Michael Ryan, BSC ’06 Nathan Snider, BBA ’07

BOB AXLINE (1935–2011) Generous donor, successful businessman, Foundation trustee and Ohio University volunteer Bob Axline passed away suddenly July 27, leaving a wide void in the hearts of many who knew him. Axline, BSCOM ’57 and DH ’02, was a well-known member of the OHIO Alumni Massachusetts serving New England Chapter, host of the annual Monomoy Theatre Weekend, and garnered many university awards for his service. He is remembered for giving to Ohio in legendary ways, be it through his time, talent or resources, says President Roderick McDavis. “We are deeply saddened at the passing of Bob Axline,” McDavis says. “He loved Ohio University, cherishing its past, while encouraging and supporting its future.”

RAY WAGNER (1929–2011) Ray Wagner, PHD ’69, professor emeritus of communication studies specializing in interpersonal communication, died July 14.

Wagner, named a University Professor in 1972, taught at Ohio University for more than 30 years.

After his retirement, he pursued a new path as a radio host with Athens-based station 970 WATH. “Ray Wagner was a celebrated teacher, mentor and friend,” says Scott Titsworth, interim dean of the Scripps College of Communication. “Ray’s legacy is already well established in the generations of students welcomed into his life, and his many contributions to the School of Communication Studies and the Scripps College epitomize what we all hope to be as members of a university community.” He is survived by his wife, Tish, and their five children.

Order your print now at

The Bobcat Store online Limited edition prints of the painting titled “Homecoming at Ohio University” by renowned artist Betsy Ross Koller may be ordered now at the Bobcat Store online. Proceeds from the sale of the prints will support the Appalachian Scholars Program, a merit- and need-based scholarship program for high school graduates from Appalachian Ohio. Please visit our website (ohiolegacy.org) to find out more about Betsy Ross Koller and Appalachian Scholars.

Find us on Facebook: “Ohio University Office of Gift Planning”

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LAST WORD

Balancing act Interview with a favorite Ohio prof

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here’s more to a professor’s life than office hours and blue books.

We asked Michael Kushnick, associate professor of exercise physiology for the College of Health Sciences and Professions and a busy father of three, to share a few insights about his life beyond campus — and to explain the 5-gallon sugar bucket in his office.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be an NBA star. Ever seen the movie “Fletch” (with Chevy Chase)?

What’s your favorite household chore?

Least favorite?

My favorite chore is cooking; my least favorite is changing “stinky” diapers.

If you could be a top-notch, world-renowned expert at one thing outside your work, what would it be?

Lead vocalist for a rock group.

What’s your favorite hobby and what do you get out of it?

Gardening; yummy food.

Worst fashion crime you’ve ever committed?

Apparently, and according to my niece (age 10), my current wardrobe. I look like a university professor.

Where’s the most exotic place you’ve ever been?

My wife and I stayed at a resort outside of Cancun, and we took a day trip to visit Tulum (ruins in the Yucatan of Mexico).

What’s your favorite childhood memory?

Little League (draft) tryouts to move from the lower divisions to the upper divisions.

We had a batting and throwing tryout. The coaches draft players to fill their rosters.

For some reason, they used a tee instead of pitching to us. I stepped up to the plate with a bunch of coaches, my dad, brother, and

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a whole horde of potential Little Leaguers and their families watching, set the ball on the tee, took a swing and watched as the tee dislodged from the base and flew over the outfield fence. But the ball lay at my feet. It was a good year for me.

What’s the most unusual object in your office?

A 5-gallon (food grade) bucket of pure white sugar (dextrose monohydrate). It looks like pure white powder). I’ve got

U.S. Department of Agriculture funding to investigate how eating different nutrients impacts control of blood glucose. It serves as a control against fancier carbohydrates. The funniest part is that so many students who come into my office use it as a stool to sit on when we talk.

What book is on your night table right now?

“The Toddler Owner’s Manual: Operating Instructions.” » Photo by DARCY HOLDORF

Celebrating 30 years

Home for Ohio alumni since 1981, the Konneker Alumni Center celebrated its 30th anniversary on Homecoming Weekend 2011 with an open house for alumni and friends.

Originally built as a private family home in 1901, Ohio University first leased the building in the 1960s.

In 1980, alumnus Wilfred R. Konneker, BS ’43, MS ’47 and HON ’80, and his wife, Ann Lee (HON ’80), generously gifted the funds needed for the Ohio University Foundation to purchase the house and create a new alumni center. On Homecoming Day in 1981, the foundation dedicated the building in honor of its benefactor, naming it the Konneker Alumni Center.

Today, the Konneker Alumni Center is home to the Ohio University Alumni Association. Part of the National Register of Historic Places, the center has been renovated and the first floor returned to its original appearance, complete with 19th-century antique furnishings.

All alumni and friends are welcome to visit and tour the center.

For more information, email alumni@ohio.edu or call (740) 593-4300.

NONPROFIT ORG U. S . P O S TAG E

P A I D Advancement Services HDL Center 164 1 Ohio University Athens, Ohio 45701-0869

Hello, fall

O

hio Today has a new publication schedule: Alumni will now receive the magazine in fall and spring (instead of winter and summer). Don’t forget to update your email address at ohioalumni.org to receive Ohio Today Online as well. RIGHT: Art major Jake Swanson shoots a basket near Jefferson Hall on the East Green. photo by Kyle Grillot BA ’12

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