TODAY — Spring 2011

S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 , VO L . 1 0 N O. 4

university of central missouri

A Jackpot with a Small-Town Twist

Your Coins Impact UCM’s Future People make gifts and impact Central Missouri in unlimited ways: AUDREY WALTON’S GIFT

is constructing a new golf clubhouse at Pertle Springs.

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is funding a professorship and guest artist series in theatre.

WAYNE THOMASON’S GIFT

is creating new scholarships for aviation students.

STATE FARM’S GIFT

is funding a national marketing and sales competition.

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is refurbishing the Alumni Chapel.

GIFTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE to the lives of UCM students whether they are cash, credit card, electronic transfer, property, life insurance, securities, charitable gift annuity or a bequest. PLUS it just feels good knowing that you helped someone achieve a college education.

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Editor

Dalene Abner ’09 Design

Erin Livengood Annakje Vanlandingham ’12 Photographer

Bryan Tebbenkamp ’03 Class Notes

Jody Ritter Today (USPS 019-888) is published quarterly by the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO 64093. Printed in USA. Periodicals postage paid at Warrensburg, MO, and additional offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Today, Smiser Alumni Center, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO 64093.

A Jackpot with a Small-Town Twist

In the billion-dollar gambling industry, known for its glitz and high stakes, two University of Central Missouri graduates hit a jackpot, not at a poker table or slot machine but in their careers. In becoming successful executives with Ameristar Casinos, they discovered a common bond to a small-town high school teacher, who despite the odds, happens also to be a UCM grad and, incredibly enough, also found inspiration from another alumna who had taught her at the same school.

SPRING 2011, VOL. 10 NO. 4

Published by the Office of Alumni Relations and Development. © 2011 by University of Central Missouri.

All rights reserved. Contact the editor at today@ucmo.edu or 660-543-4545.

Send your address updates to alumni@ucmo.edu or telephone, 660-543-8000 or toll-free, 1-866-752-7257.

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FEATURES

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A True Crime Junkie

Meisberger Finds Niche in Jackson County Cold Case Unit

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Thrill of the Chase

Ryan Brown and His Inseparable Companion

14 New

17 The

REcreation Center Mixes old with new

Facility Receives University’s First LEED Rating for Energy Efficiency Big Bear Hunt

Alumnus Unearths Ancient Biggest, Baddest Bear

22 Future

Thinking Now

Eugenia Crain Funds Accounting Scholarship through Annuity

SECTIONS

12 Campus Currents 16 Central Yesterday 20 Philanthropy 24 Class Notes 27 Awards & Honors 28 In Memoriam

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“I couldn’t have been who I was without her.

There is always someone who influences somebody.”

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When the conversation turned to mentors, the two Ameristar executives realized the same teacher, Mrs. E., had shaped their young academic lives.

A Jackpot with a Small-Town T w i s t Grads Share High School Mentor, Career Success

By Matt Bird-Meyer ’97

In the billion-dollar gambling industry, known for its glitz and high stakes, two University of Central Missouri graduates hit a jackpot, not at a poker table or slot machine but in their careers. In becoming successful executives with Ameristar Casinos, they discovered a common bond to a small-town high school teacher, who despite the odds, happens also to be a UCM grad and, incredibly enough, also found inspiration from another alumna who had taught her at the same school.

This story begins with two Central Missouri alumnae separated by hundreds of miles. Roxann Kinkade is director of communications for Ameristar and works from the Kansas City casino. Cynthia Mercer was chief human resources officer and operated from Las Vegas. The high school teacher they both credit for influencing their success is Frances Engelbrecht, or “Mrs. E.” as her former students know her.

“It’s like something that’s so personal to you, something you hold in your heart, but then you realize someone else has that,” says Kinkade, drawing laughter from all three women who reunited at the Kansas City casino.

Kinkade graduated from UCM in 1981 with a degree in public relations. She has worked at Ameristar for six years, moving up the corporate ladder from public relations manager at the Kansas City casino to managing all communications for the corporation. With eight properties in seven markets and annual revenues around $1.2 billion, Ameristar is a major player in the casino industry. Kinkade monitors its public image, including what other organizations are saying or writing about it, coordinating interviews with newspapers, television and other media, and finding the right people to speak for the company. (continued next page)

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These historic photos of Erna Raithel ’45, Frances Engelbrecht ’58, Roxann Kinkade ’81 and Cynthia Mercer ’88 come From a variety of sources, including the russellville bicentennial book, high school yearbook and UCM rhetor.

(continued from previous page) Mercer graduated from UCM in 1988 with a degree in broadcasting and film. After school, she worked in commercial real estate, which triggered her passion for business. At the Koll Company, a real estate firm in southern California, Mercer moved through the ranks until she held the top HR position. Next came The Cheesecake Factory, then Ameristar. As Ameristar’s chief human resources officer, she oversaw hiring, training and “succession planning,” where she helped position the right people to move up the corporate ladder.

Business is in Mercer’s blood. She believes people are the catalyst to making a business successful. She recently started a new position with even greater responsibility for the Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis. As senior vice president of human resources, she is responsible for a substantially larger workforce, going from some 7,000 at Ameristar to 35,000 co-workers and 4,000 physicians. The health system has hospitals, acute care and assisted living facilities in seven states.

Yet, it was as Ameristar executives that Mercer and Kinkade discovered a common bond. Four years ago, when Mercer was

in Kansas City for a banquet honoring the team member of the year, the two began talking about their UCM experiences.

When the conversation turned to mentors, they realized the same teacher, Mrs. E., had shaped their young academic lives.

The pieces fell firmly in place when they connected Mrs. E. to a high school in Russellville, MO, where Kinkade graduated in 1978 and Mercer in 1985. Their classes were certainly small enough for them to know everyone with 78 in Kinkade’s and 43 in Mercer’s. Yet, time separated the two until they met as Ameristar co-workers.

Kinkade says her surprise was great because she couldn’t imagine the cosmopolitan Mercer mingling in the small farming town of Russellville, population 758.

“She seemed very sophisticated and from a big city,” she adds. “I see myself as a farm kid.” Her impression wasn’t too far off the mark. Mercer was a southern California transplant in the seventh grade while Kinkade’s family had deep roots in the community. Several of her aunts and uncles, as well as her husband, Mark, and other family members, attended school in Russellville through the years, and many of them had Mrs. E. as a teacher.

Roxann Kinkade, left, and cynthia mercer, right, reminisce with Mrs. E.

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Engelbrecht inspired Kinkade to go to college and break out from a future that seemed inevitable in farming or factory work. Only three of her classmates went to college after high school, Kinkade notes.

“I don’t think Mrs. E. realizes the impact she had on so many of us farm kids. I was driven, but I didn’t see [academic awards] as a path to a career. I couldn’t see beyond high school.”

Mrs. E. had that foresight. She helped Kinkade apply for and earn a college scholarship. “I didn’t really see a path to that,” says Kinkade. “Mrs. E. saw something in me that I don’t think I could see.”

Kinkade says Mrs. E. helped her realize the power people have in influencing others.

“It’s a huge power. I try to live my life mindful of that power,” she says, tearing up as she looked toward a fourth woman who organized the reunion, Celeste Burks, another UCM graduate. Kinkade recommended the 2005 alumna be hired as her successor at Kansas City Ameristar and became Burks’ mentor in the process.

So continues the influence of Mrs. E., who has lived in Eugene, MO, just south of Russellville, since 1959, one year after her graduation from UCM. She retired after spending 30 of her 37 years teaching at Russellville High School.

Teaching the classics and requiring her students to read pivotal authors were natural for Engelbrecht. That’s what she was taught by Erna Raithel, who taught English when she attended and graduated from Russellville High School. Kinkade notes that Miss Raithel, a 1945 Central Missouri alumna, was her mother’s English teacher as well as the town’s historian. She taught language arts for 31 years, mostly in Jefferson City, before she retired in 1985.

She died in 2008.

Engelbrecht inspired Kinkade to go to college and break out from a future that seemed inevitable in farming or factory work.

Mercer remembers she was tough, never giving away easy grades.

cynthia mercer, center in pink, led the ameristar team serving As Spokeswoman for the Kansas City Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

“I couldn’t have been who I was without her,” says Mrs. E. “There is always someone who influences somebody.”

Kinkade and Mercer took Mrs. E.’s drama class, had lead roles in plays and worked on the yearbook and school newspaper. That’s about the extent of their similarities as students. Mercer was more sports-oriented, and Kinkade, who described herself as “painfully uncoordinated,” focused more on academics, band and choir.

Kinkade won numerous speech awards and a trip to Washington, D.C., in an essay contest. “I remember I hated speech and [Mrs. E.] was like, ‘You can do this,’” she says. Now part of her job involves preparing others to speak in public.

Mercer remembers Engelbrecht was tough, never giving away easy grades. She recalls her excitement after earning a B+ on a report she wrote on George Bernard Shaw.

“Truly, I think Mrs. E. just held me to a higher standard,” she says. “I think she was tough in a caring and compassionate way.

She inspired you to reach your potential.”

Mercer carried over her experiences with Mrs. E. to her corporate life, specifically, to a leadership class she taught at Ameristar.

One exercise involved writing your “Life’s Board of Directors” and sharing that with the people on your list. Mrs. E. was on Mercer’s.

“I taught the class and decided to take my own advice,” she says. She wrote to Engelbrecht. That letter started a penpal relationship between the two, which solidified into the reunion in Kansas City.

Engelbrecht was thrilled to see her former students. Mercer was in town for another purpose; she was spokeswoman for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Mercer is in her second cancer-free year and, as spokeswoman, gave interviews on television about her battle with breast cancer. She addressed a crowd of 27,000 participants to kick off the race. Ameristar had some 370 team members, including workers and their family members, participate in the race.

“It’s a huge honor. Thank goodness I had good training,” Mercer says, grabbing Mrs. E.’s hand. Mercer notes that early detection saved her life. “You can definitely fight it and win if you learn about it early enough.

I was very fortunate I worked throughout my battle and maintained as much normalcy as possible.”

Engelbrecht says Kinkade and Mercer haven’t changed much; they still have the bubbling, energetic and enthusiastic personalities she remembers. She didn’t have much trouble recognizing them.

“They’re who they were pretty much… very much, in fact,” Mrs. E. says. “I am so proud of them. I just rejoice at their success as I do for all of my students.”

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A true crime junkie Meisberger Finds Niche in Jackson County Cold Case Unit

By Matt Bird-Meyer ’97

At the center of operations for a DNA Cold Case Unit in Jackson County, MO, is a University of Central Missouri graduate who is helping to snare sex offenders from as far back as 1979.

The work is right up Jennifer Meisberger’s alley. Criminal justice runs in the family as both her father, John B. Boyd, and brother, John R. Boyd, are attorneys.

She got her first taste of the justice system as a volunteer for the Court Appointed Special Advocates program in Jackson County prior to starting her master’s degree at UCM. She volunteered two years with CASA, helping to support children who were victims of abuse and other crimes as they navigated the court system.

“Every day when I get notice there’s been a new [DNA] hit, just knowing we’re going to be able to do something about a case where the offender thinks they’ve gotten away with it after all these years and saying, ‘Nope, we got ya.’”

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Her taste for the justice system runs even deeper. She calls it a “lifelong obsession.”

Meisberger says she remembers when Kansas City serial killer Bob Berdella was arrested when she was 4 or 5 years old. She recalls when she asked at the breakfast table what a serial killer was, her brother’s response. “He kills by choking someone with cereal, of course.”

Serious about pursuing a career in criminal justice, she finished a two-year master’s degree in about a year, graduating in 2008. Four months later she was hired as a paralegal with the newly formed unit.

“When this job came up, I said, ‘Wow, this is made for me to do,’” she says. “It’s exciting.

Every day when I get notice there’s been a new [DNA] hit, just knowing we’re going to be able to do something about a case where the offender thinks they’ve gotten away with it after all these years and saying, ‘Nope, we got ya.’”

Her work touches every aspect of the unit.

During its startup, she worked with three others for a month in the Kansas City Crime Lab to catalog the evidence they saved from 1972 to 1992. Next, they plowed through the handwritten notebooks from trace analysts and requested the corresponding reports from the Kansas City Police Department.

“It was very tedious work,” she says. But it was compelling work for the crime junkie.

“You’re holding physical evidence – you’re touching history of true crime.”

In that month, they identified more than 2,000 cases from 1979 to 1992 that fell within the statute of limitations and had sufficient evidence. Meisberger notes a case becomes “cold” if all leads are exhausted, no offender is identified or the investigating detective leaves for another unit.

Meisberger maintains the unit’s databases and keeps track of the charges they’ve filed.

She assigns cases to analysts and notifies the

lab if a case is approved for DNA testing.

If a sample comes back with a positive DNA hit, she helps with investigative activities, such as tracking down suspects, victims, witnesses, investigative officers and hospital personnel. She notes that it can be frustrating to work on a case only to have the DNA return with no matches or if the DNA was too degraded to test.

“But there are those certain ones that just stand out to you for certain reasons, like when there’s a child victim,” she says. “It kind of brings you down, but there are those that give you satisfaction. There’s a lot of resolution and you feel really good when you get those hits.”

“It was very tedious work.” But it was compelling work for the crime junkie. “You’re holding physical evidence — you’re touching history of true crime.”

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T hrill of the

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Chase

As a bald eagle soars overhead and swoops down for a fish, Ryan Brown forgets about tying a fly on his line.

More important is the camera in his car’s backseat and the picture unfolding 30 yards away. Luckily the bird drops the fish and when it snatches the fish again in its claws, Brown is ready, firing 10 frames per second.

“That’s kind of the thrill of the chase, like hunting, only with a camera,” he says. That’s also why he always carries a camera, even if it’s just his cell phone. (continued next page)

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(continued from previous page) Life is a delicate balancing act for this 2003 UCM graduate. The award-winning photographer juggles new fatherhood, a freelance business in Lee’s Summit, MO, and a full-time job managing the design and lab department of a high-end wedding album maker in Santa Ana, CA. Wedding photography pays the bills, but Brown has a passion for all photography. He’s endured cold to capture the sun rising over the Grand Tetons on a crisp morning and traveled south for the rich scenery around the Gulf of Mexico. He describes his distinct style as romantic. He says others call it pure, classic or timeless because it relies on ambient light.

“I like to show the emotion in the relationship. I don’t go with the trends. I try to keep my own style.”

As an artist, Brown likes to try different things. “My style is always changing. You have to keep up with the times and do your own thing.”

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Whatever Brown is doing, it’s paying off in terms of recognition.

photos provided & reprinted by permission of ryan brown

In 2010, he pulled down several prestigious awards while staying active in six professional organizations. He was named the 2010 Heart of America Regional Master Photographer of the Year, Missouri Master Photographer of the Year and International Photographer of the Year. He won a Golden Bellows Award from the Professional Photographers Association of Greater Kansas City and Fuji Masterpiece and Kodak Gallery awards.

He also earned the 2010 Canon Par Excellence Award, which came with an extra bonus in addition to the sparkling crystal trophy – a $3,500 lens.

“Canon is the largest camera manufacturer in the world,” he notes, “and my work was considered worthy of winning this honor? What it meant for me is that I did something correct this year, and next year I need to do something different.”

Brown says UCM gave him the dedication, motivation and perseverance to pursue success.

“I wanted to be the best and insisted on doing whatever I had to do to make it. The university gave me the intangible education to keep going.”

— By Matt Bird-Meyer ’97 University of Central Missouri | today

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campus currents

Track and Field Add More National Titles Two more national athletic titles entered the University of Central Missouri record book this spring when pentathlete Lindsay Lettow was named the U.S. Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association’s Women’s National Field Athlete of the Year, and heptathlete Shane Boss was selected for the NCAA Elite 88 Award.

Lettow of Urbandale, IA, smashed track and field records all season long. Not only did the junior repeat as MIAA champion in the 60-meter hurdles, 600-yard run and pentathlon, she also broke two building, three meet and four school records. Her point total of 39.5 was also a meethigh for the second straight year.

At the NCAA national championships in Albuquerque, NM, she stood on three podiums, adding a fourth-place long jump (19’00”) and sixth-place 60-meter hurdles to go with her first-place pentathlon finish. The 4,064 points she totaled were an NCAA championship’s meet high and the most ever scored by a Division II pentathlete. In 2011, across all divisions, she was only bested by nine others in the country for the event.

Boss of Oak Grove, MO, is a computer information systems major with a 4.0 grade point average.

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He competed nationally this spring in the heptathlon, finishing in third place. The Elite 88 embodies the true spirit of the student-athlete. It is given to a male and female participant at each of the 88 national championships recognized by the NCAA. The national titles capped off a great spring season for the Mules and Jennies. The Jennies bowling team made its eighth consecutive appearance at the national championship. Player Natalie Jimenez was tabbed the Division II/III Player of the Year while teammate Kara Richard was named the D-II/III Rookie of the Year.

The Mules golf team reached the NCAA Tournament as the automatic bid from the MIAA. They made a perfect run through conference competition winning the MIAA tournament title by 29 shots. Honors included Matt Miller as MIAA Player of the Year and Tim Poe as Coach of the Year. It is their second straight MIAA title and national appearance. It is their third consecutive regular season crown.

Not just with current players did athletics make a splash this spring. Central Missouri is sending four individuals and two teams to the 2011 MIAA Hall of Fame. Inductees include Jorja Hoehn, Jennies basketball coach from 1980-85; Carla Eades, Jennies basketball player from 1980-84; Lynn Nance, Mules basketball coach from 1980-85; and Ron Nunnelly, Mules basketball player from 1981-85. The four will be inducted, along with UCM’s 1984 national championship men’s and women’s basketball teams, at the annual MIAA Awards Dinner June 9 in Kansas City.

Ambrose Participates in National Security Discussion

University Recognized for Alcohol Prevention Efforts

Central Missouri President Charles Ambrose participated in two special events this spring at the invitation of the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense. He was selected to observe and engage with the military and exchange ideas related to national security at the DoD’s Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 81 in Washington, D.C. and the USAF’s Annual National Security Forum at Maxwell Air Force Base, AL.

Central Missouri received the top award for its student-directed alcohol prevention initiatives at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators annual meeting. The 2011 Prevention Excellence Awards were announced by Outside the Classroom; UCM received the Highest Honors of Distinction and a $5,000 prize for the quality of its prevention programming.

“It’s an honor to be selected to participate in these events, particularly as UCM continues building strong relationships with the men and women who serve at Whiteman Air Force Base,” Ambrose says.

“These were unique opportunities that gave me an insider’s look at what it means to serve our country and to learn more about issues affecting the safety and well being of all U.S. citizens.”

Bhattarai, Stallmann Named 2011 Charno Recipients Jackie Bhattarai, a psychology and Spanish major from Warrensburg, and Andrew Stallmann, an actuarial science and mathematics major from Washington, MO, received the 2011 Charno Award.

The honor for Central Missouri’s top male and female senior students is named for George Charno Sr., who established the award in 1940 to recognize the outstanding male member of the graduating class. The award for the outstanding female was created one year later.

Grab a Bike, Save on Gas Parking the car and jumping on a bicycle to navigate campus became easier this spring with a program that gives “recycling” new meaning.

The Re-Cycles Program for students and staff continues to expand UCM’s commitment to sustainability. The program started out with bikes rescued from UCM surplus, rebuilt by a local bike shop owner and painted emerald green by a local body shop.

“We recycled 15 bicycles that had been discarded as useless,” says Manny Abarca, the graduate student coordinating the campus’ sustainability efforts. “We’re encouraging people to look to alternatives for fossil fuels for local transportation while reducing each individual’s carbon footprint.”

Popular Aviation Professor Receives National Honor Jack Horine, professor emeritus of aviation, received the 2010 President’s Award from the University Aviation Association, a nonprofit organization representing high schools and universities that offer aviation degrees.

Horine started with Central Missouri’s aviation program in 1961 and became department chair in 1990. Although he retired a few years ago, he continues to teach as an adjunct faculty member and advise students in the aviation safety graduate program.

In the UAA, he is widely respected for his support of the group’s DC Seminar on Establishing Aviation Policy, to which he has recruited one of the largest student contingents for the past 20 years.

One campus program contributing to the national recognition is Encouraging Positive Interventions in Chapters, which aims to reduce high-risk drinking and negative consequences among Greekaffiliated students. The program was implemented at UCM in spring 2010.

Top UCM Faculty Honor Goes to McKee Rhonda McKee, a professor whose work includes dedication to helping young women pursue mathematics careers, has earned the University of Central Missouri’s highest faculty honor as recipient of the 2011 Byler Award.

Colleagues in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science note that McKee exemplifies the type of individual for whom the award is intended. They describe her as exemplary, passionate and professional.

Terry Goodman, professor of mathematics education, called McKee an “enthusiastic and gifted teacher.

Students consistently ‘sing her praises,’” he said in his letter of support. “While her courses are demanding and push students to excel, she works hard to create a learning environment that is challenging, yet safe and supportive.”

The award is named for William H. Byler, an inventor, author and teacher who graduated from UCM in 1927 with a major in chemistry and physics.

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Bits of the old — like the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair mirror, tiles from the 1939 swimming pool, even the original gymnasium hardwood floors — combined with state-ofthe-art green technology and fitness equipment that rivals an NFL team make us proud to show off the campus’ first LEED-certified building. Plus it’s available for alumni to use.

The new Student Recreation and Wellness Center is open, completing a $36-million project that included renovation of both Morrow and Garrison gymnasiums. It is the largest construction project on campus since Kirkpatrick Library was built in 2000.

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Covering 69,000 square feet, the center houses six basketball/volleyball courts, three fitness rooms, three cardio-fitness areas, indoor walking track, weight room, climbing tower, bouldering area, conference room and an Einstein Brothers Bagels.

It’s the university’s first LEED-certified building, earning a gold rating for its environmentally friendly design. Features include automatic sinks and hand driers, recycled carpet, energy-efficient light bulbs and motion sensor lighting.

There are elements of the original Morrow and Garrison buildings that make the center historically unique, such as the gyms’ hardwood floors in the ceiling and the swimming pool tiles that surround the Einstein eating area.

The original swimming pool sits underneath Einstein’s. It’s being used to collect rain water to irrigate the grounds.

Garrison’s original stone walls are again exposed. The old wrestling room was converted into the athletic training area.

Also impressive is the 36-foot-tall climbing wall. The university hired a professional climber to set routes on the climbing and bouldering wall. Each path is marked by different colors of tape to indicate the degrees of difficulty.

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central yesterday

Remember the Dolphins and Their 1939 Debut Green-tiled swimming depths stretch across the front entry to Einstein Brothers Bagels and continue around the restaurant, symbolizing much more than a retro recycle from one of the campus’ oldest buildings. When Central Missouri students finally got a swimming pool in 1939, it was big news.

showers, classrooms and special purpose rooms; offices, laundry and other special facilities. Its Gothic design was considered modern.

The day was Dec. 13, 1939, when the university celebrated the dedication of the Walter E. Morrow Physical Education and Health Building. At that point, the campus had 15 buildings and 1,631 students. Its largest annual enrollment had been the previous year at 2,590.

There were 96 faculty members, and so far, 100,000 students had attended with some 20,000 earning certificates or diplomas.

Call it a carnival or circus, for the building’s dedication, the teams presented their first public show March 28, 1940 — 16 water skits for the 250 people lucky enough to get tickets, since seating in the balcony above the pool was limited. Think what the evening was like by the titles of some of the acts alone: Fish Antics, Snake Charmer, Water Pyramids, Trained Seals.

The Student reported, “The girls have obtained new suits of velvet, lastex, scarlet in color, with a black dolphin on the front. A red ‘W’ is on the dolphin which has a red eye.”

Students had waited quite awhile to get a pool.

It didn’t happen when Dockery Gymnasium was constructed in 1904. It happened in 1939, thanks to the Works Projects Administration.

The Depression era, New-Deal program provided $90,000 toward the $270,000 used to build the 36,000-square-foot facility. It featured two gymnasiums, one for men and another for women; a basketball arena with seating for 2,000 spectators; a health center; locker rooms;

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The swimming pool held center stage in the new building and became home for a new athletics and entertainment tradition, men’s and women’s swim teams. Reading about the Dolphins swim team and its high school companion, the Dolphinettes, and seeing their old photos bring back some colorful moments.

The teams continued to perform and compete until around 1980, garnering collective and individual titles at conference, state and national levels. Other than swim records of wins and losses, history, though, is somewhat sketchy about the teams and how they ended, but in the new recreation center, their legacy lives on.

The Big Bear Hunt Alumnus Unearths Ancient Biggest, Baddest Bear

By Dalene Abner ’09

Most people try to avoid bears, especially big ones with bad attitudes, but not Blaine Schubert. It’s his lifetime work. It helps that the bears he tracks are not alive but millions of years old. The paleontologist’s discovery of the largest known bear species made the Journal of Paleontology and some of the nation’s most renowned media, including National (continued next page)

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(continued from previous page) Geographic, Discovery, CBS and others.

“During its time, this bear was the largest and most powerful meat-eater in the world,” Schubert notes. “It’s always extremely exciting to find something that’s the largest of its class and not just a little bit larger, but quite a bit larger.”

Schubert, a 1994 Central Missouri alumnus, is a professor at East Tennessee State University, director of its Center of Excellence in Paleontology and curator of its Natural History Museum. He has published more than 20 articles on paleontology and has appeared multiple times on national television to talk about short-faced prehistoric bears, his specialty.

For more than 14 years, Schubert and Leopoldo Soibelzon, a researcher in Argentina, have studied fossil collections for prehistoric South American, North American and European mammals.

Schubert is only one of a handful of people who specialize in bear fossils in North America; Soibelzon is the only such specialist in South America.

They recently analyzed the fossil remains of a bear unearthed during a hospital construction project in 1935 at La Plata City in the Buenos Aires Province and donated to the La Plata Museum. They describe the remains of this gigantic extinct creature called Artotherium angustidens in the January issue of the Journal of Paleontology.

The bear stood at least 11 feet tall on its hind legs and weighed about 3,500 pounds.

“It just blew my mind how big it was,” Schubert says, adding that as meat-eaters go, “nothing else even comes close.” He explains that, in comparison, “the largest record for a living bear is a male polar bear that weighed about 2,200 pounds.”

The scientists calculated the giant bear’s size using bone measurements along with equations for estimating body mass. Most

telling was its elephant-size humerus or upper arm bone, which had once been injured and infected. “This would have been a very large bear that probably had a bad attitude,” Schubert says.

The researchers aren’t certain what caused the bear’s physical damage, but speculated it could have been from male-to-male fighting, from hunting giant ground sloths or other megafauna, or from getting into disputes with other carnivores, such as a saber-toothed cat, over food.

“We think that these bears were omnivores, which means that they ate both plants and animals, but they probably ate a lot of meat,” Schubert says. “Based on their size, they were probably dominating carcasses and scaring other animals away from carcasses, even if they weren’t doing a lot of their own hunting.”

He says that scientists don’t really know why South American bears became so large, but some attribute it to both a glut in prey and a lack of competition. The bears prospered after their ancestors traveled over the land bridge that developed between North and South America about 2.6 million years ago. Even the sabertoothed cat was much smaller than the giant South American short-faced bear.

Over time more carnivores appeared on the South American landscape, and the giant bears became extinct. Other related large bears lived on though; some survived up until the end of the last Ice Age. The closest living relative of the extinct short-faced bears is the South American spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), a relatively small species.

The giant bear isn’t Schubert’s only recent discovery. He is part of an ETSU team that confirmed a venomous lizard called Heloderma, today found only in the hot deserts of Arizona and the tropical forests of western Mexico, roamed North America some five to seven million years ago from

Working as a paleontologist has been all that Blaine Schubert hoped it would be. His work has taken him around the world, from his first excavation of a buffalo skull in Warrensburg in 1993 to a trip for his Ph.D. dissertation that took him to some of the most important sites of human ancestry in Africa.

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The bear stood at least 11 feet tall on its hind legs and weighed about 3,500 pounds. “It just blew my mind how big it was.”

Florida to Tennessee. Their findings are discussed in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, a leading paleontology journal.

Finding the remains of such extinct monster lizards and bears continues to affirm what Schubert realized almost 20 years ago when he was a student at UCM — that digging around in the dirt could become an exciting career.

Schubert and his two brothers grew up between Lowry City and Osceola, MO, on a farm owned since the mid-1800s by his mother’s family. “The country living provided the perfect environment for my brothers and me to explore nature,” he says. Both of his brothers became scientists, and when Schubert came to Central Missouri in 1989, he wanted to do the same.

“At first I was undecided. I originally was leaning toward biology, but I took Dr. [John] Sheets’ class, and I became hooked on the fossil record instead.”

Schubert attributes his career success to Sheets, professor emeritus of anthropology and history, and three other faculty members: John Emerson and John Nold, both in earth science, and Oz Hawksley, a retired biology professor.

“They all served as my mentors and to this day, they are the best teachers I had ever had — and that’s after 11 years of college courses,” he says. “In fact, when I teach, I emulate their methods.”

He says that Sheets and Emerson helped him discover his true interests. “They continually encouraged my research and helped set me on the path to graduate school.” Sheets introduced Schubert to Hawksley, who took him on a dig in an

Ozark cave. “I first realized in Dr. Sheet’s and Dr. Emerson’s classes that you could do paleontology as an actual job,” says Schubert. “Before that, it was just sort of a hobby. Then Dr. Hawksley took me under his wing, and I developed a passion for bears and cave paleontology.”

After he graduated from UCM in 1994, Schubert went to Northern Arizona to pursue a master’s degree. Next he went to the Illinois State Museum for three years, worked on fossil from Ozark caves, and completed a book titled Ice Age Cave Faunas in North America. He then pursued a Ph.D at the University of Arkansas on vertebrate paleoecology. He began working at East Tennessee State in 2004 and two years later, joined the faculty.

Working as a paleontologist has been all that Schubert hoped it would be. “I love teaching and going on digs,” he says. His work has taken him around the world, from his first excavation of a buffalo skull in Warrensburg in 1993 to a trip for his Ph.D. dissertation that took him to some of the most important sites of human ancestry in Africa.

He’s written articles published in academic journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Zoology.

He’s also appeared on two of The History Channel’s most popular shows, “Monster Quest” and “Jurassic Fight Club,” because of his expertise.

“I get to travel a lot,” he says. “Last year I went to England to talk about the bear specimens that I’ve researched, and before that, I went to Argentina to investigate a wide variety of fossil bears. The traveling is definitely one of the best parts of the job.”

As much as he likes the exploration and teaching part, he also has responsibility for getting external funding and supervising a university department. While Schubert loves digs and traveling, he also is content writing articles.

“I really do love what I do,” he says.

“Teaching students is one of the most fulfilling parts.” The challenges of being a

paleontologist are balanced by the rewards.

With his colleague Steven Wallace, Schubert recently received a $320,000 grant to excavate and study fossils at the Gray Fossil Site, a massive fossil site in the Appalachians of eastern Tennessee.

“This site is one of the most remarkable fossil collections in the world,” he says. “It represents one of the only Miocene and early Pliocene forested ecosystems in the Americas and preserves a multitude of species and biological communities new to science. It’s a massive site with less than one percent sampled.”

Schubert says his job comes close to being perfect. “I just want to keep doing what I am doing,” he says. “This is what I love to do.” He adds that Central Missouri helped him on his way to his career and passion.

“The university was great, my teachers were great, and they helped me pick this as something that I would love to do.”

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philanthropy

A New Clubhouse for Pertle As Central Missouri’s golf team earned its way to a second consecutive national NCAA tournament, the university started construction of a new clubhouse for their home course at Pertle Springs, thanks to a $1.5 million gift from philanthropist, Audrey Walton.

“We’re very grateful to Mrs. Walton for making this new facility possible,” says UCM President Charles Ambrose during a groundbreaking March 30. “Our golf course has undergone many renovations since 2008, and we’re excited about what a new clubhouse can mean for this outstanding facility.

We expect it to become a focal point for Pertle Springs and a hub for golfing events and many other activities not necessarily related to the sport.”

Participating in the groundbreaking were President Charles Ambrose; philanthropist Audrey Walton, her daughter, Ann Kroenke and grandson, Josh Kroenke; and Athletic Director Jerry Hughes.

The UCM golf team attended the ceremony and helped Walton officially break the ground where the facility will stand. Afterward Ambrose and Hughes presented Walton with a shadow box, which held a UCM golf ball and artist renderings of the clubhouse, in recognition of her generosity.

Walton is one of UCM’s largest individual donors.

She contributed funds to help build the football stadium that bears her name and annually gives major items, such as her suite at the St. Louis Rams stadium, to the UCM Athletic Auction.

Keth Memorial Golf Course has held a unique place in UCM history since it opened in 1964. Earl Keth, the first UCM basketball player to make AllAmerican, was its original architect. After serving as head basketball coach from 1946 through 1961, he coached the golf team until he died in 1972.

Construction of the 5,000-square-foot clubhouse began in April. It will feature men’s and women’s locker rooms, a banquet room that can seat up to 150 people, professional kitchen facilities, a pro shop, staff offices and a patio that overlooks the 18th green and that can seat about 60 people.

“The clubhouse will meet many university needs, but we also look forward to finding new ways to share it with the community,” says Athletic Director Jerry Hughes. He adds that the facility will become a great venue for such special events as weddings, family reunions and fundraisers.

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Since its start as a nine-hole sand course, the facility has been continually improved. It was expanded to 18 holes and coverted to grass greens in 1972, the same year that the university also named the course in honor of Keth. Improvements since then have included cart paths, an automatic irrigation system and even its designation as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary preserving the ecology of its wildlife setting.

In 2008, the university opened a new 300+ yard driving range with multiple tees and target greens, an all-weather turf tee, a four-bay indoor hitting facility and two short game practice areas.

Principal Trumpet Chair Thanks Padget for Scholarship Alex Caselman loves to play the trumpet.

He’s been interested in music his entire life but something happened as a high school junior. He realized music could be a career.

“I always knew that Central Missouri was a fantastic educational school, and the music department was attractive,” he says. His family also had strong UCM ties.

Both his parents have music degrees from UCM, and his brother, Adam, is currently a photography major.

For Caselman, the choice to attend UCM happened as a high school senior when he heard performances by the Marching Band and the Wind Ensemble. “I decided then that I wanted to be part of that,” he adds.

He’s now a senior music education major and for two years, has been principal trumpet chair for the Wind Ensemble. As such, he receives the Douglas E. Padget Principal Trumpet Chair Scholarship.

“This scholarship has made many things possible for me,” he says. “For starters, I was able to purchase numerous recordings of famous trumpeters and

buy sheet music to add to my music library. I was able to get things like valve oil, mutes and other items that are essential for trumpet players. The scholarship has made a tremendous impact on my education.”

That was the intent of Padget when he established the scholarship in 1993 when he graduated with a bachelor of music in education and signed his first teaching contract. He saw his gift as an opportunity to give back to help other deserving students.

As a student, Padget participated in University Concert Band for five years, and he received scholarships, often to his surprise. He since has finished a master of arts in music and is teaching at a middle school in Blue Springs, married to another UCM music alum, Robin Rolf.

Caselman is grateful for his UCM education. “My favorite experience to date has to be performing with the Wind Ensemble in New York last year at the world-famous Carnegie Hall. We were in New York five days. We had a very successful performance and received a standing ovation. It was amazing.”

Estate gift enhances scholarship honoring sister A gift from the estate of Hazel Nance of Lakewood, WA, will increase a scholarship originally established by her husband, the late Lt. Col. E. James Nance, in honor of his sister, Corinna.

The Corinna Harte Nance Memorial

Scholarship helps students who graduate from Osceola High School or are from St. Clair County, MO. They must be a full-time student at UCM pursuing a degree in teacher education; have a minimum 3.0 grade point average; and show good character, leadership and service.

When he established the scholarship in 1999, Nance praised his sister’s intelligence and her penmanship, which he described as “a thing of beauty.”

She was a graduate of Osceola and was Nance’s first-grade teacher. While attending UCM in 1927, she became ill and died two years later at age 22.

Nance attended UCM from 1938 through 1940, when he volunteered for flight training in the Army Air Corps upon the outbreak of World War II. During his military career, he and Hazel lived in Iran, Germany and the Canary Islands. They built La Florida Tennis Club on the island of Tenerife and operated it for 17 years before returning to Tacoma, WA. They were married 44 years. He passed away in 2007; Hazel died in 2010.

New Scholarship for Odessa High School Graduates Most people got to know Martha Johnson as a grade school teacher in the Odessa R-VII school district in Missouri.

She taught for 33 years, primarily in the second and fourth grades. So respected were her abilities as a teacher that she was inducted into the Odessa R-VII Public Foundation Hall of Fame.

Johnson received a bachelor’s degree in education from UCM in 1957, followed by a master’s in 1972.

When she died in 2010, her family wanted to do something special to remember her so they created a scholarship they knew Johnson had talked about doing herself.

AT THE SPRING CAREER EXPO, BLACK AND VEATCH PRESENTED A $2,500 CHECK TO THE UCM SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT ITS COMPUTER-AIDED DRAFTING AND DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AND ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY AREAS. WITH UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS ALICE GREIFE, DEAN; KYLE PALMER, PROFESSOR, AND JOHN SUTTON, SCHOOL CHAIR, ARE BLACK AND VEATCH EMPLOYEES, FROM RIGHT: MIKE WAGGONER, STEVE ROBINSON, TERRA GARDEN, TREY BUIST AND MELISSA ALLCORN. ALLCORN, BUIST AND WAGGONER ARE UCM GRADUATES.

The Martha L. Johnson Education Scholarship will help a graduating senior from Odessa High School planning to pursue a degree in teacher education at UCM. They must rank in the upper 25 percent of their high school graduating class; be actively involved in school, church or community activities; and show financial need.

University of Central Missouri | today

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Future Thinking Now

By Mike Greife ’74

Eugenia Crain’s career as an educator provided her with opportunities to meet interesting people who encouraged her to explore new challenges. Now retired, the professor emeritus of accounting has made those same opportunities available to new generations of University of Central Missouri students by establishing a charitable gift annuity that eventually will provide a $100,000 gift through the UCM Foundation for scholarships.

Eugenia Crain established a scholarship through a charitable annuity with the UCM Foundation.

Dale Carder, interim executive director, notes that annuities are a venue that friends and alumni should consider. “For people tired of getting a one percent return on their investments, a charitable gift annuity pays five percent or better guaranteed. And you help more students become UCM graduates,” he says.

A charitable gift annuity works simply, starting with a minimum gift of $25,000. “Based on the ages of you and your spouse, a return rate is locked in for the remainder of both of your lives. You draw a guaranteed quarterly payment,” Carder says. “Upon death, you can have predetermined what the remainder of your annuity funds, such as an academic program or scholarship.

Depending on your tax bracket, about 50% of your donation is tax deductible and in some cases, even the first two or three years of your quarterly payments are tax free.”

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A native of Sturgeon, MO, Crain graduated from Northeast Missouri State Teachers College in 1942. After working for the state family services agency, she began teaching high school business classes in 1946 in New Franklin, MO. She soon moved across the river to Boonville, where she and her first husband, the late Aven Roberts, taught at Kemper Military Academy. While teaching at Kemper, she obtained her master’s and specialist’s degrees from the University of Missouri.

Following Roberts’ death in 1969, Crain taught briefly at Northeast Missouri State before accepting an opportunity to come to UCM as an accountant in the financial affairs office working with sponsored programs. She had remarried, and she and her husband, Stanley Crain, took advantage of the opportunity to move to Warrensburg in 1972.

“Dr. Wyss was the vice president for financial affairs at the time, and I had known him when he lived Boonville,” Crain says. “I saw him one day when I was visiting in Boonville, and he asked me if I would consider coming to CMSU. It sounded like a wonderful opportunity.

It seems so many of the wonderful experiences in my life have come from generous offers from people I know.”

While serving as an accountant in financial affairs, she also taught a class in accounting. Wyss encouraged her to begin teaching accounting courses in the College of Business. That opportunity turned into a career preparing UCM students for the business world.

Following Mr. Crain’s death in 2000, she retired in 2001, but not before making the decision to establish the Stanley and Eugenia R. Crain Scholarship for undergraduate students in accounting through the UCM Foundation.

Crain is enjoying her retirement, where she remains active in the Columbia community. She recalls her years at UCM and in the Warrensburg community with fondness.

“My years at UCM were filled with wonderful friendships on campus and in Warrensburg,” she says. “I wanted to enable future students to share the same benefits I received at UCM. Those benefits included the counsel of fellow teachers and administrators who worked hard to provide the leadership and service that produced the quality education enjoyed by UCM students.”

She still finds time to interact with young people, maintaining her season tickets for the University of Missouri women’s basketball games. She stays in touch with friends in Warrensburg and still hears from former students.

“Education is important,” she says. “It’s important to support the schools that educate the American public. The success of our democracy depends on an educated public.”

“Education is important. It’s important to support the schools that educate the American public. The success of our democracy depends on an educated public.”

University of Central Missouri | today

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Martha Groner-Fennewald ’33 turned 100 years old Aug. 24, 2010.

She attended UCM from 1929-1933 and received a Regents certificate, which gave her the required credentials to teach. Her 30-year teaching career began in one-room schoolhouses in Westphalia, Folk and St. Elizabeth. She remembers walking four miles one way to reach the schools, lighting the stoves and sweeping the floors.

She had five children and when they were older, she taught at Immaculate Conception School in Jefferson City and St. Joseph School in Westphalia. After she retired from teaching, she sold insurance for 25 years, retiring at age 90.

Her daughter, Joyce FennewaldSpringer, was her student for six out of eight years in grade school.

1960 – 1969 Paul Collier ’61 is retired as a high school principal in Ohio. He began teaching and coaching in 1961 at John Adams High School, then became head track and field coach, winning several invitationals and league championships. In 1973, he joined Heath High School as assistant principal and served as principal from 1961-1992. In 2003-05 he served as interim principal for Utica High School. He has served 38 years as a registered track and field official, volunteers as a Red Cross board member, is a lay delegate to the annual conference for his church, and is active in the Licking County Retired Teachers Organization where he served as president for two terms. He and his wife, Nancy, reside in Heath, OH. Larry Bossaller ’65 is a broker and sales executive for RE/MAX Boone Reality in Columbia. He won Opportunity and Persistence awards from RE/MAX and has been involved in more than $163 million of real estate sales. He is on the board of directors of the Columbia Kiwanis Club.

Marilyn (Fajen) Stafford ’65 and husband, Robert, have sold their home in Sedona, AZ, and moved to Nixa, MO. Chris “Moon Dog” Dautreuil ’69 is an investigator with the 24

SPRING 2011

Louisiana Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General. He has served in military intelligence in Vietnam and as a special agent with Southern Pacific Railroad and Diamond Offshore. He and his wife, Linda, have one son, Christopher, who is attending the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.

Bill Hays ’69 is raising Black Angus cattle after he retired from General Motors. His wife, Karlyn, is raising registered miniature horses. They reside in Tipton, MO.

married 30 years and have three grown children. He has started flying again after 30 years.

Toni Clark-Moulthrop ’73 and husband, Mike, have retired to Treasure Lake in west central Pennsylvania to golf, fish and boat.

Craig Lowe ’74, ’75 has been appointed chief appellate review judge for the Washington Department of Social and Health Services Board of Appeals.

Jerry Hogan ’71 read his story, “Ozark Beats,” originally published in the Dead Mule journal for the Tales from the South NPR radio program on KUAR-FM in Little Rock, AR.

John Zey ’75, ’76 completed his doctorate of education from the University of Missouri in Columbia in December. He and his wife, Alice Greife, who retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1996, have been with the University of Central Missouri since 1996. They have two daughters, Sarah and Kat.

Daniel Huggins ’71 is a branch manager with the Scotts Company.

He and his wife, Mary, have been

Larry Perry ’77 retired as captain after 30 years with the Shawnee Kansas Police Department last

1970-1979

Solving Eating Disorders

class notes

1920-1929

June. He served as patrol officer, detective, patrol sergeant, lieutenant, patrol commander and retired as investigations commander. He and his wife, Beverly, reside in Shawnee.

Brig. Gen. Arnold N. GordonBray ’78 has been named deputy director of operations for U.S. Africa Command.

Alfred Lomax ’78 has been nominated by President Barack Obama as U.S. marshal for the western district of Missouri. Lomax began his law enforcement career with the Kansas City Missouri Police Department and after almost 30 years, became chief of airport safety and security at Kansas City International Airport.

1980-1989 Richard Palmer ’80 is vice president of business development of Integrity Management

One of the top national and international researchers in eating disorders traces her scholarly roots back to the University of Central Missouri. Dr. Denise E. Wilfley has the distinction of holding four appointments at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis – professor of psychiatry, medicine, pediatrics and psychology. She is also director of the university’s Weight Management and Eating Disorders Program.

“She really is quite a Renaissance woman,” says research assistant Brooke Genkin.

Wilfley frequently speaks about eating disorders and obesity at national and international scholarly events. She also keeps busy on multiple research studies and has nailed down about $25 million in funding throughout her career.

Wilfley graduated from UCM with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1982.

She and her husband, Robinson Welch, live in Clayton, MO, with their children, 10-year-old Wil and four-year-old twins, Emma and Ella.

Not only has Wilfley led groundbreaking research into childhood obesity, treatments for anorexia nervosa and family therapy, she’s also a strong mentor to her junior researchers. “She’s an excellent role model, especially as she entered the field when there weren’t a lot of females doing this research,” Genkin says.

“She’s the best mentor I’ve ever had.”

Photo courtesy Robert Boston, Washington University in St. Louis

Consulting, a provider of full lifecycle acquisition, contracting and program management consulting services for federal sector customers in McLean, VA. Christopher Gentile ’81 is president of Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, which manages and operates the Kansas City nuclear weapons parts plant for the federal government.

He was previously vice president for national security programs at the Kansas City plant and vice president for the Honeywell operation at the Savannah River Nuclear Solutions facility in South Carolina.

John Luetkemeyer ’81 was appointed director of state audits for Missouri. He has been with the state auditor’s office for 30 years.

Mark Magers ’82 has written a book, Strategies of a Fantasy Baseball Champ, based on his experience participating in and winning fantasy baseball leagues since the 1980s. In the past five years, he annually has won at least one fantasy league, and often he has won multiple leagues.

John Healy ’83 retired from the Lenexa Fire Department after 27 years of service and 30 years as a firefighter.

Jerry Harmison, Jr. ’84 was recently elected chair of the board of the Springfield Missouri Chamber of Commerce. A former Mules wrestler, he is a lawyer in Springfield.

Steve Gorman ’85, ’96 was featured in a solo exhibit at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College. He retired from North Kansas City and Centerview school districts after teaching 25 years. He also studied at the Philadelphia University of the Arts. His works are included in the Waterloo Museum of Art in Waterloo, IA, and University Art Museum at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Tal Moore ’87 has been named chief performance improvement officer for the Ft. Defiance Indian Hospital at Navajo Nation and

has been elected president of the National Native American Human Resources Association. Tal, his partner, Darin, and their son, Sean, reside in Placitas, NM and Palm Springs, CA. Jennifer (Deardorff) Malcolm ’88 completed a teacher certification and master of education program.

Her specialty is general special education-learning disabilities.

Timothy Stewart ’88 has been promoted to warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Morgantown, WV, after 22 years with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

1990-1999 Joe Harlan ’93 has been appointed dean of physical education and athletic director at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, CA. He was previously athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Tackling Solutions to Nuclear Threats How do you become a respected scientist in the field of nuclear threat reduction? You heed your professor’s advice to apply for a summer internship.

That’s what Doug Berning attributes as the start of his career at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He credits John Hess, retired professor of biology, for encouraging him to apply for the internship at the University of Missouri in radiopharmaceuticals, which, in turn, led to his pursuit of a graduate degree in chemistry.

“Radiopharmaceutical chemistry turned out to be good for me because it allowed me to use what I had learned from both my

Michael McAfee ’93 has been named inaugural director of the Promise Neighborhoods Institute in Oakland, CA. He has spent more than 20 years in the government, philanthropic and humanservice sectors, collaborating with government, civic, business, nonprofit and faith leaders to connect families and children to economic and social opportunities.

Prior to PNI, McAfee was senior community planning and development representative in the Chicago regional office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

undergraduate degrees in biology and chemistry,” he says.

Justin Page ’94 was promoted to assistant warden at the Boonville Correctional Center for the State of Missouri.

including biomedical, renewable energy, environmental

Aaron Barth ’97 has moved to Ft. Leavenworth, KS, for a yearlong military school after being redeployed from Iraq this winter. It was his third deployment with the U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division.

received at both UCM and UMC.”

Kelly Melies ’98, ’02 works for the Department of Health at the Marshall Habilitation Center in Marshall, MO. She is taking online classes at Full Sail University pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

The 1991 graduate says his experiences had more hands-on opportunities than most universities offer. “UCM provided a very solid knowledge basis for my education. Because of the low teacher-to-student ratio, the professors can challenge their students in ways logistically impossible at large universities.”

Berning explains that he works on a variety of threatreduction and threat-assessment projects, including chemical, radiological and explosives.

“I am proud to work with people and at an institution that has such a rich history and impact on national and international decisions,” he says. “From a personal standpoint, I am proud and feel privileged to have worked in a wide range of fields remediation, forensics, emergency response, and global security. I believe my ability to quickly adapt to each of these areas is a strong testament to the broad education that I — By Matt Bird-Meyer ’97

WE WANT YOUR Have you moved? Been married? Changed jobs? Retired?

Gotten a new email? Received an award? We want your news! cmo.edu/alumni Go online to www.u ucmo.edu i@ mn alu at Email us mni Association, Alu M Write us at UC al Missouri, University of Centr

r, nte Ce Smiser Alumni

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University of Central Missouri | today

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2000-2010 Andy Ball ’02, ’04 has joined the athletic staff at Truman State University as defensive line coach and co-recruiting coordinator. He spent three seasons at CulverStockton College in Canton, MO. He also was at Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he was in charge of the offensive line, strength and conditioning, special teams and recruiting.

You Probably Wear Their Stuff

Stephanie (Benedict) Coulter ’03 received a master of art from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is working as a freelance photographer and as an adjunct

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instructor for the Art Institutes International Kansas City.

Erin vanVoorst ’04 married Nick Purifoy in June 2010. They reside in Lawrence, KS. Laura Faust ’05 is assisting with sales and marketing for Pyro Novelties, Inc. in Lenexa, KS. She will be attending trade shows, developing product and editing artwork. Pyro Novelties is a family-owned business that creates customized products.

David Cook ’06 is releasing a second album this year with some songs available March 3. The 2008

American Idol winner recorded Simple Minds’ 1985 hit, Don’t You Forget About Me, which aired this season during the elimination segments.

marketing and communications plan, including public relations, advertising, promotions publications, digital media, photography and outreach.

Sam Flower fs ’06 graduated from Moberly Area Community College with an associate of arts degree and is now a history major at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Patrick Nurse ’06 received his master of business administration degree from Mississippi State University and works as a project manager for the Nucor Corp. He resides in Starkville, MS.

Kelly Hemmingsen ’06 is marketing manager for the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City. Kelly will help the museum create and implement a strategic

Bryson LeBlanc ’06, ’09 has been named an assistant coach with the University of Oregon Ducks baseball program. He coaches first base and works with the outfielders. He has been with the Ducks for three years and was previously camp coordinator.

Luke Oyster ’06, ’08 is a tax associate for the firm of Eide Bailly LLP, one of the top 25 certified public accounting firms in the nation. He is working from its offices in Norman, OK. Alicia Givens ’08, ’10 is a staff probation officer for the city and county of Denver.

Check the label on apparel at college bookstores throughout the country, and more than likely, you will see the name, GEAR. In addition to universities, their clients include major sports leagues, military bases, golf courses and resorts.

Behind that label, and the apparel designs, are several Central Missouri alumni.

Three UCM graduates are managers in the art production and support departments at this custom-decorated sportswear company based in Lenexa, KS. Stu Lantz ’91 is the screen print art support manager. He was recruited to the company by his co-worker of 19 years, Pete Leodler, a 1986 art graduate, who manages the screen print graphic artists in GEAR’s art production department.

John Foulke graduated in 1992 from UCM with a degree in graphic arts technology management. He is a manager in the embroidery design department.

The company prints and embroiders its designs on GEAR for Sports apparel as well as garments with the Champion and Under Armour labels. Leodler says the company ships 60,000 to 100,000 garments each day. Their design teams produce a raft of custom art designs, churning out 88,000 designs last year.

“Our biggest thing here is the culture and the environment,” Leodler says. “The people are the best. We hire the most qualified.”

The GEAR design studio has 65 artists, and 12 claim UCM as their alma mater.

Lantz credits the university’s art faculty for preparing students for a profession in commercial art. “One of the things they continually emphasize today is to ensure the student’s portfolio is ready and just to make sure you’re ready for that interview when it comes,” Lantz says.

He adds, “Artists are perfectionists, and we want to make sure that portfolio is perfect front to back, not just the stuff inside but the presentation as well.”

— By Matt Bird-Meyer ‘97

SPRING 2011

Brett Cavanah ’09 is playing arena league football with the Nebraska Danger. The four-year letterman for the Mules will play offensive guard. The Danger, based in Grand Island, NE, is one of 22 teams in the IFL, created in 2009 through a merger of the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football League. The team began its schedule in March and will play throughout the U.S. April Hayes ’09 is working for The Steritech Group, the largest hospitality brand protection service provider in the U.S. She received her certified professional in food safety credential in November.

Laylan Hecker ’09 is volunteer and outreach events coordinator at West Central Independent Living Solutions in Warrensburg.

2010 – 2019 Scott Roddy ’10 is in his 30th year in education, teaching in Ohio. He is a certified firefighter, nationally certified in para-medicine and tactical medic, and a certified medical death investigator with the coroner’s office.

Kathy Humphrey believes she can improve the world — one student at a time. As the vice provost and dean of students for one of the nation’s largest universities, she acts on that philosophy every day.

“I am a leader who believes that everything can be made better,” she says. “Making the world better by positively impacting the lives of students is my life’s mission.” She does that at the University of Pittsburgh, more commonly known as Pitt, with 27,000 students at its main campus and another 32,000 at four regional locations.

The 1984 Central Missouri graduate got her career start as a resident assistant in Houts-Hosey Hall. “I always loved working with young people,” she says. “I feel like my life’s mission is to make a difference in their lives.

Higher education is a launch pad for young people to be what they want to become.”

Humphrey returned to UCM to become associate director of university housing from 1991 to 1994. She continued to advance her career at St. Louis University as director of residence life, associate vice provost for student development and then vice president for student development before arriving at the University of Pittsburgh in 2005.

There, she developed outside classroom curriculum to provide a well-rounded education for students. The curriculum has students preparing for their careers early through building resumes, visiting job fairs, earning credit for leadership positions and public speaking experiences.

— By Matt Bird-Meyer ‘97

Dick Schromm ’57 received Sacramento’s Lasalle Club Coaches Hall of Fame award. He was honored for his 20+ years of major college basketball officiating and for serving 12 years as Northern California Commissioner of Officials, assigning officials for all sports for more than 100 high schools. He is president of the

Sacramento Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.

Morris Collins ’69 has been named a 2011 Icon of Education

by Ingram’s magazine. The Kansas City business publication chose nine people for the annual award based on their contributions to

Jane (Luehrman) Hillhouse ’77 is owner and president of Hillhouse Graphic Design in Kingsport, TN. The firm won five local Addy Awards at the 2011 annual celebration of the Northeast Tennessee Chapter of the America Advertising Federation. They received best of show overall for a campaign produced for the Silent Heroes Foundation, which raises funds to help veterinarians, rangers and conservationists to protect animals in Africa as well as a gold for the campaign and a silver for its stationery. They also won silver awards for author Barbara Kingsolver’s web site and for Eastman Corporation’s history and vision wall mural. Hill, a 1973 graduate of University High, started Hillhouse Graphic Design in 1984.

Steven Larson ’80, ’02 is teaching and coaching at Warsaw High School. His Warsaw Lady Wildcats won the 2010-2011 Class 2 State Championship in softball, finishing the season 25-4 with a 4-0 win over Palmyra in the championship game.

Meryl Lin McKean ’80 received the Achoth Award at the 2010 National Delta Zeta Convention in recognition of service to the Epsilon Gamma chapter. She also won a Mid-America Emmy for health science news. She is the health and medical reporter for Kansas City’s Fox 4 News and produces the nightly segment, “Fox 4 Health.”

Kenneth Ervin ’88 received second and third places in the Iowa Newspaper Association Better Newspaper contest in the Breaking

awards & honors

59,000 Students, Her Daily Mission

the success of their grade schools or universities. Collins, a retired K-12 educator, was the first black teacher in the Warrensburg school district as well as the district’s first black school board president. He currently is an adjunct professor for the UCM Department of Art, which is chaired by one of his former students, Mick Luehrman.

He notes that five of the eight art instructors in the Warrensburg district were his student teachers or he was their university supervisor.

News Photo category for weeklies under 1,399. His winning entries were for his coverage of the floods in 2010 and a picture of a fivevehicle accident that closed I-35.

He also received second place in the best agricultural advertisement for an ad thanking Ag Partners for helping DFS after a fire at its feed mill. Ervin is editor of the South Hamilton Record-News in Jewell, IA.

Thomas Turner ’90 has been promoted to executive director for American Bonanza Society Air Safety Foundation, which publishes Flying Lessons Weekly, a free aviation safety eNewsletter. He was honored in 2010 as National FAA Safety Representative of the Year. In 2008, he was named FAA Central Region Flight Instructor of the Year.

Amanda Duffy ’99 was awarded the UCM theatre department’s Ed See Outstanding Alumnus Award.

She completed the professional internship program in the wig program at The Julliard School and a master of fine arts degree from Case Western Reserve University’s Cleveland Play House after completing her degree in design technology from UCM. She has done professional wig work on Broadway and has worked regionally and in New York as an actress in professional productions.

Jesse Zeugin ’06 won his first headlining mixed martial arts event. He defeated Chris McDaniel for the 155-pound pro title belt Feb. 5 at the XCF 14 Super Brawl in Springfield, MO. This was McDaniel’s 28th career fight and Zeugin’s sixth. Zeugin teaches and coaches at Logan-Rogersville Middle School in Rogersville, MO. Eric Czerniewski ’10, former Mules quarterback from Montgomery City, MO, was honored at the state capitol in Jefferson City by the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate with a proclamation, recognizing his achievement as the 2010 Harlon Hill winner.

Czerniewski was the first Missouri native to win this award.

University of Central Missouri | today

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in memoriam

1910-1919 Mary E. Letz ’12 1930-1939 Edith B. Lehman ’37 1940-1949 Walter A. LePage ’40 Grace Ferrier ’43 1950-1959 Mozelle M. Booth ’50 Patricia R. Briggs ’51 Ralph C. Theiss ’52 Virginia Atwell ’54, ’63 Elizabeth Mae Irle ’54, College High ’57 1960-1969 Calvin D. Delozier ’60 Juanita M. Wood ’60

Marshall E. Smithpeters ’61 Dora May Craven ’63 Lois R. Spurgun ’63, ’88 Verle E. Cornish ’64 Eugene W. Pike ’65 Jack A. Roberts ’65 Rodney P. Dierking ’66 Linda A. Lewis ’66, ’77 Christina M. Porter ’66 Hazel V. Tickemyer ’68 Leon E. Eppright ’69 Lanny K. Grosland ’69 Leon Morris ’69 1970-1979 Paul L. Erickson Jr. ’70 James A. Hardinger ’70 William C. Hunt ’70 Christine E. Keefer ’71 Jack Milton Moore ’71 John M. Sandy ’72

Raymond Grossmann

Raymond Grossmann, 80, a 1952 Central Missouri alumnus who organized a construction labormanagement group that became a national model, died Jan. 9, 2011.

For nearly four decades, he headed his family-owned Grossmann Contracting. It was one of the first sheet metal companies in St. Louis to automate, and the business grew. Customers included Famous-Barr, Dillard’s, General Motors, Chrysler and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In 1986, a larger contractor, Murphy Company bought out the firm. Grossmann worked for Murphy until he retired in the mid-1990s. After retiring, he was active in the Lake St. Louis Sailing Club, where he twice served as commodore. He was co-chair of the Peruque Creek Watershed Alliance.

He is most known for starting Pride of St. Louis Inc., the nation’s first and oldest voluntary construction labor-management organization. In 1972, he also was chair of the local Council of Construction Employers.

Thomas Hollyman

Thomas Benton Hollyman, 89, a nationally published photojournalist who was honored in 1988 as UCM Distinguished Alumnus, died Nov. 14, 2009.

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SPRING 2011

Deborah E. Brewer ’73 Judith A. Collins ’73 Linda A. Good ’74 Stuart E. Gressley ’74 Joe K. McNay Jr. ’74 Gary L. Paul ’74 Gary L. Havrum ’78 Virgil V. Underwood ’78 1980-1989 Robert K. Dempski ’81 Peggy A. Leibrand ’81 Marilyn S. Skipper ’83 Matthew P. Wilson ’83 William L. Chambers ’84

2000-2009 Rosina L. Hicks ’04 2010-2019 Lindsey Marie Morris ’10 College High Ethel Hile ’30 Former Students Maxine W. Henty Samuel B. Merryman Jr.

Friends Marvin L. Case Bob Coffman Vernon D. Croy 1990-1999 Dale Emery Ek Nyong George Ibok ’90, ’92 Carl E. Elliott Rose A. Crawford ’91, ’98 Jim Foster Steven R. Wallen ’92

He was a 1940 Central Missouri graduate who got his start as a photojournalist at the The Daily-Star Journal in Warrensburg.

Central Missouri photography students. A frequent lecturer, he inspired students to see beyond the fundamentals.

Serving in the Air Force during World War II, he helped to establish a photography intelligence program. He was the official photographer at the funeral service of President Franklin Roosevelt. While a student, one of his pictures was published by Life magazine. Hollyman later worked for The Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Acme Newspapers, the forerunner of the wire service photography division of the Associated Press, in Chicago.

With gifts to the UCM Foundation, he also maintained a fund, named for his favorite food of popcorn, to help students pay for photo supplies. He was an emeriti member of the UCM Foundation Board of Directors. In 2001, he received an honorary degree from the Board of Governors.

For many years, he specialized in travel photography, shooting for Holiday and Town and Country magazines. In the 1960s, he moved into television, producing educational films, a travel documentary and commercials.

In 1963, British director Peter Brook tapped him as director of photography for the movie adaptation of Lord of the Flies.

Before retiring, he had produced documentaries, short films, photo essays, educational television series, and a commemorative book. He served as president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (now the American Society of Media Photographers) from 1969 to 1971. He was a favorite visitor to campus, especially with

Avis Tucker

Avis Green Tucker, 95, former owner and publisher of The Daily-Star Journal in Warrensburg, a philanthropist and pioneer for women in the newspaper business, died Dec. 17, 2010.

She was a University of Missouri graduate but a tremendous friend also to the University of Central Missouri. She and her late husband, William, both loved the newspaper business and enjoyed life on their farm near Centerview, MO. She succeeded her husband in 1966 as publisher of the Warrensburg newspaper and became involved with the Missouri Press Association, Missouri Associated Dailies and the National Press Association.

She served not only as one of the state’s rare female publishers but in other leadership roles.

Frank F. Haston Josephine Henry Albert Kreisel Merrill Leutung John C. Lippincott Billie McReynolds Donald L. Quibell Floyd E. Smith Donald R. Stewart Herbert R. Stockton Julian F. Upton James M. Weyer Leroy H. Woerner Gervase A. Wolf

She became the first female president of Missouri Associated Dailies in 1973 and received the Missouri School of Journalism’s Honor Medal in 1976.

In 1982, she served as the Missouri Press Association’s first female president and received the National Newspaper Association’s McKinney Award, given to a woman who “exhibited distinguished service to the community press.”

She became the first woman inducted into the Missouri Newspaper Hall of Fame in 1992.

She also was the first woman president of the University of Missouri Board of Curators. She was chair emerita of the Missouri Press Association’s Foundation Board, which she helped to establish and fund.

She served as chair of UtiliCorp United and was a member of the board of United Telecom, as well as the nonprofit board of Children’s Mercy Hospital and a trustee of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

She was appointed to serve on the first Missouri Gaming Commission and was active in the State Historical Society. In her selection to be honored among Show Me Missouri Women, it was noted that she enriched people and community with her character, scholarship and presence.

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