spring 2007 Here We Have
From Slide Rules to Micro-Tools
spring 2007
100 Years of Idaho Engineering
Come home to Moscow and the University of Idaho
University of Idaho Business Technology Incubator “I could have pursued my career in several regions around the country. However, as a native Idahoan, I have always looked for opportunities to stay close to home. The Business Technology Incubator has made this possible by providing a facility and services that attract high-tech startups and research branches of established companies. Thanks go out to the University and the BTI staff for making it possible to live and work in such a unique environment.” — Greg Barnes, Cypress Semiconductor, Inc.
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Contact us to learn more about an ideal location for your business. University of Idaho Business Technology Incubator • 121 West Sweet Avenue • Moscow, Idaho 83843 • (208) 885-3800 www.bti.uidaho.edu • E-mail: edc@moscow.com • “In the Palouse Knowledge Corridor”
idaho Here we have
spring 2007
UI Campus Photographs, 1-224-23, Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho Library.
The clean room of the College of Engineering’s new Microelectronic Packaging Laboratory is the setting as student Greg Contreras examines a part of engineering’s past; a slide rule. Cover photo by Joe Pallen. Above: Engineering at Idaho, 1898.
Departments Campus News Letters to the Editor Quest
4 6 7
Class Notes 26
Vandal Sports 33 Events Upcoming 37
Cover Story 12 College of Engineering Centennial Celebrating 100 years of innovation. 16 The Grand Canyon Skywalk Idaho alumni design and
engineer one of the world’s newest wonders.
Features 8 Totally Psyched The Department of Psychology is an online leader. 18 Tempted to Cheat? Professor Sharon Stoll high-profile researcher
on the ethics and moral reasoning of athletes.
2 Chamber Music Series Celebrates 20 Years 2 Music aficionados sing its praises. 24 An Alabama Chemist Whips an Idaho Potato William Davis ’65 remembers Idaho.
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On the Cover:
From the President The University of Idaho Magazine SPRING 2007 • Volume 24, Number 2 University President Timothy White
Vice President for Advancement Chris Murray
Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Strategic Communications Wendy Shattuck
University of Idaho Alumni Director Steven C. Johnson
Alumni Association President Jim Dickinson
University of Idaho Foundation President William G. Gilbert Jr.
Editor Jeff Olson Magazine Design Julene Ewert
Illustrations Nathan Nielson Class Notes Editor Amber Crowley
Writers and Contributors Leah Andrews Doug Bauer Hugh Cooke Katie Dahlinger Cheryl Dudley Leslie Einhaus Donna Emert Tim Helmke Joni Kirk
Randy Lankford Bill Loftus Sue McMurray Becky Paull Matt Strange Cynthia Taggart Tania Thompson Bruce Woodard Kelly Yenser
Photographs
Joe Pallen Kelly Weaver and as credited
www.uidaho.edu/herewehaveidaho
The University of Idaho is an equal opportunity/ affirmative action employer and educational institution. © 2007, University of Idaho Here We Have Idaho magazine is published three times a year, in January, April and August. The magazine is free to alumni and friends of the university. ❚ Send address changes to: PO Box 443147, Moscow, ID 83844-3147. ❚ Send information, Class Notes and correspondence regarding alumni activities to: Amber Crowley, Alumni Office, PO Box 443232, Moscow, ID 83844-3232 or e-mail: alumni@uidaho.edu. ❚ Send editorial correspondence to: University Communications and Marketing, PO Box 443221, Moscow, ID 838443221; phone (208) 885-6291; fax (208) 885-5841; e-mail: uinews@uidaho.edu.
I
t is with some trepidation that I confide my association with higher education dates back to the days of the slide rule! As I finished graduate school, I recall the great debate on the Cal campus as to whether we as students could use pocket calculators on exams, the then state-of-the-art Commodores and other brands that cost several hundred dollars. Thereafter, along came personal computers that took up most of the desktop. Now, lap-tops, PDAs and even cell phones help us with our calculations and direct us to the answer to our questions. All that new technology was engineered in just a few decades, and similar stories can be described for biomedical devices along with hundreds of other devices, structures and processes generally intended to improve our lives. Indeed, students, faculty and staff in Engineering seek solutions to improve lives throughout society, and in that context it is noteworthy and a point of immense institutional pride that this year marks the College of Engineering’s Centennial. We are celebrating the college’s 100 years, and its 13,000 alumni who have produced innovations that impact society and expand intellectual boundaries–in Idaho, around the globe and into space. The college’s first challenge in 1907 was to address the planning, building and surfacing Idaho’s roads. Today, Idaho engineers are pioneering environmentally friendly biofuels and developing low-power and radiation resistant technologies for spacecraft electronics. We are so very proud of the college’s century of accomplishments, which are featured in this issue of “Here We Have Idaho.” Engineering alumni currently work in nearly 70 countries that span six continents, and the astonishing reach of their efforts is highlighted in a story on one of the world’s newest wonders–the Grand Canyon Skywalk. When I was a student in the ’60s and ’70s, one could work 22 hours a semester and earn enough money, with savings from a summer job, to pay essentially for the entire cost of a public college education. Today, a student would have to work 58 hours a week on average to cover the costs. It just isn’t possible for a fulltime student to cover the costs anymore. Earlier this year, the University introduced the new Go Idaho! Scholarship Program to provide a greater incentive for the state’s best and brightest high school students to stay in Idaho for college. Details on the program are on the next page. I am grateful for the support you provide to our scholarship programs. Your thoughtfulness and generosity are creating opportunity for others to reach their potential.
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Letter Policy
We welcome letters to the editor. Correspondence should include the writer’s full name, address and daytime phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for purposes of clarity or space.
Tim White President
Details
Go Idaho!
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he state’s best and brightest high school students now have greater incentive to stay in Idaho for college: the University’s new Go Idaho! Scholarship Program.
In addition, the University will offer a guaranteed full ride scholarship of up to $45,000 for the state’s National Merit Scholars. The University of Idaho has the highest number of National Merit Scholars in the state, a total of 42 as of fall 2006. Initially, the Go Idaho! program will be funded by existing internal scholarship funds; longterm support of the initiative will come from private funding. The University of Idaho offers more than $80 million dollars each year in scholarships and other financial aid programs that benefit nearly four out of five students.
spring 2007 winter 2007
The four-year scholarship program, provides up to $1,500 a year and is available to all Idaho high school graduates and homeschooled students who meet high-achievement criteria: • a minimum 3.5 cumulative grade point average for high school graduates; • a minimum 25 ACT/1140 SAT score for home-schooled students; and • a minimum 3.0 grade point average once enrolled at Idaho.
News Campus
TODAY@IDAHO
For more on these stories and for daily University of Idaho news, go to www.today.uidaho.edu.
Judith Totman Parrish, dean of the College of Science and professor of geological sciences, will step down from administrative duties and return full time to teaching and research in July. A national search will be conducted to find a new dean for the college. The University of Idaho and North Idaho College will offer joint admissions beginning this summer. Students now may apply simultaneously to both institutions and lock into a set of degree requirements that are not subject to consequent program changes. It allows students in northern Idaho to get an excellent start on their education at NIC and then seamlessly complete their degrees either at the University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene or at the main campus in Moscow.
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Gary Williams, professor of English, is the University’s first Distinguished Humanities Professor, an appointment intended to recognize faculty excellence in humanities teaching and scholarship. The new appointment is an initiative of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences.
Lynn Baird
Mark Edwards
Robert Smith
New Leaders Lynn Baird is the new dean of the library. She previously served as associate dean for library services and as interim dean of the library since September 2006. Baird joined the university’s library staff in 1974 when she took a one-year temporary assignment as a catalog librarian and progressed into administrative roles. Her specialty areas include adult learning, organizational development, intellectual freedom and censorship, and library administration and leadership. Mark A. Edwards joins the University as director for diversity and community. This new leadership position will initiate, adapt and oversee University and community programs to support enrichment of the learning environment through diversity.
Edwards also will serve on the president’s cabinet, and work with the president, provost, deans and other university leadership to facilitate culture and climate change at the University. Biogeochemist Robert W. Smith will lead the University of Idaho’s Center for Higher Education in Idaho Falls as the center’s associate vice president. Smith also will serve as associate director for research at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies. CAES is a partnership between the University of Idaho, the Idaho National Laboratory, Boise State University and Idaho State University. The collaboration addresses critical science, engineering, education and public policy issues associated with providing an appropriate mix of technologies needed to address future U.S. and global energy needs.
Living in a Concept Residence hall living gets updated for a group of students this fall. Eight rooms in the Wallace Residence Center have been renovated to modernize the facility that was constructed in stages from 1963 to 1967. The new concept rooms feature everything from “smart doors” for shared bathrooms that lock on both sides when the restroom is occupied to innovative new architectural room designs with new furniture, carpet, cabinets, vanities and sinks. Students will move into the rooms fall semester and give feedback for future renovations of Wallace, the largest residence hall on campus.
Kris Andrews
Christopher M. Chandler, a junior dietetics major from Absarokee, Mont., was selected to receive the prestigious national Goldwater Scholarship. Goldwater scholars are sophomores or juniors who plan to pursue graduate studies in science, engineering or mathematics. They receive $7,500 a year to complete their undergraduate studies. Chandler is the University’s 10th Goldwater Scholarship recipient in eight years. Maryann K. Watkins, a junior from Idaho Falls studying microbiology, also was recognized with an honorable mention.
Check it out. Wallace Residence Center has eight new concept rooms for students.
Campus News
Gold Medal Performer Flutist Alheli Pimienta, a senior music performance major, received the Gold Medal as the top soloist in the Woodwind and Brass Division at the Crescendo Music Award competition in Tulsa, Okla., in February. She was awarded $4,500. The event featured more than 80 high school and college musicians from across the nation. She performed “Sonatine for Flute and Piano” by Henri Dutilleux in the competition finals. “I’ve done competitions before, and lost a lot of them, so I feel very lucky,” said Pimienta. “Alheli is a true performer,” said music professor Leonard Garrison. “She’s a very accomplished musician and when she gets in front of an audience she is not afraid. She plays better to an audience than she does in the practice room.” Pimienta is from Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, and has been playing flute since she was nine. She came
Alheli Pimienta
to the University of Idaho as a scholarship student. The flutist says she normally practices 30 hours a week but increases rehearsal time to six to eight hours a day in the weeks before a competition.
“I am dedicated to the flute and I love it,” said Pimienta. She will receive her bachelor’s degree in May, and then plans to pursue a master’s degree in performance at Idaho.
Students from the colleges of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Engineering returned to Kenya this spring to refine a process to create clean, safe drinking water and catchment systems for the nomadic Maasai tribes. The continental impact of the research could yield one solution to Africa’s clean water crisis. “I think it’s true–Africa has changed us. There are so many problems our project is just a small step toward making things better,” said Kristina Beaulieu, a senior agricultural and biological engineering student from Eagle River, Alaska. She traveled with a dozen other Idaho students and four faculty and staff members. The team zeroed in on the tiny moringa seed as a component of their innovative solution. “The idea we had at the University of Idaho is how to use local materials to remove hazards in water so that the water is safe for drinking,” said Don Elger, professor of mechanical engineering and project adviser. “The moringa seed is tiny, abundant and works beautifully to filter harmful impurities from collected water.” In Kenya, the students tested more than a year’s worth of research and design focused on water filtration and storage.
Brad Beckman
Safe Water for the World
Idaho student research could impact the availability of clean, safe drinking water for the Maasai tribes in Kenya.
Campus Quote —Martin Luther King III, Feb. 6 at an ASUI Vandal Entertainment presentation.
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“Be ashamed to die until you’ve tried to make a difference in our nation.”
News Campus
Clean Sweep for a Clean Snowmobile
KRC/MTU
The 12 members of the Clean Snowmobile Competition Team earned first place honors in March at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge in Michigan. Idaho engineering students re-engineered a stock snowmobile to reduce emissions and noise while maintaining or enhancing performance. The Idaho team brought home awards for best fuel economy; best handling; best design; best performance; best value; best ride; best oral presentation; and best Idaho’s Clean Snowmobile on paper. The team shared the Endurance Award with the race course. four other outstanding institutions by completing the 100-mile endurance run. There’s more–team captain Nick Harker stopped mid-race to extinguish a fire in a competitor’s vehicle, and the team was honored with the Founders Award for Most Sportsmanlike Conduct.
A Bloom of Information Sometimes, information about the state of Idaho can be hard to find. That’s why there’s INSIDE Idaho. It’s a data engine–the state’s Interactive Numeric and Spatial Information Data Engine. Supported by the University of Idaho Library and housed at the University’s Research Park in Post Falls, INSIDE Idaho provides collection, storage and access to state data, including data that can be mapped, such as digital files of natural resources, demographic and weather data, and aerial imagery for the entire state. The majority of current users are Geographic Information System (GIS) trained professionals. INSIDE Idaho now is being honed to be a resource to the general public. Leading that charge is Bruce Godfrey, a GIS specialist for the University of Idaho Library. Providing free access to information is an important library mission, and Godfrey hopes to increase the resource’s accessibility and interactivity. “In the GIS community, we’re pretty well known,” said Godfrey. “We’re now trying to improve services for everyone and provide access to unique data sets.” Yes, unique data. Like bloom time for lilacs in Idaho. Web site: inside.uidaho.edu
University of Idaho Library
IDAHO
Average Date When Lilacs Start Bloom in Idaho
LETTERs TO THE EDITOR Reunions Are Fun I was unaware of the 30-year Phi Gamma Delta reunion that took place last summer [“I’m Having Trouble Remembering” in Here We Have Idaho, Winter ’07]. The Phi Delta Theta pledge class of 1976 also gathered for a reunion at last fall’s Boise State football game. Unfortunately, the game was just like old times. Months after the fact, it still makes me smile in amazement at how just a brief, weekend contact with my brothers from UI days made all of us think and talk and act like the kids we were 30 years ago! It was great fun, and I highly recommend a 30-year reunion to everyone. Ben Barstow ’80 Palouse, Wash.
POETRY and Idaho I was surprised and delighted to see in my Winter 2007 issue of Idaho magazine the mention of Lucas Howell, who was featured in the November issue of POETRY magazine. I am an alum and the studio manager for Winterhouse, the design firm for the Poetry Foundation. We designed the cover of the magazine Lucas is holding, as we do all the covers and the Web site. I am happy to say there are two Idaho connections to POETRY. We certainly do get around. Geordi Elizabeth Law ’84 Falls Village, Conn.
Quest research news
Wolf Packs on the Move
Leaf-cutting ants avoid coffee when they can, choosing shade trees instead, University of Idaho scientists found during studies in Costa Rica. That’s good news for birds and other wildlife, which favor shadegrown coffee plantations over coffee-only plantings. The study by Edgar H. Varón and colleagues bolstered evidence that shaded coffee plantations provide benefits. Because there are fewer predators, economic damage by leaf-cutting ants is greatest in coffee-only plantations, said Sanford Eigenbrode, an entomology professor who oversaw Varón’s doctoral research. “The ants can be significant pests on citrus, coffee and other crops. They are capable of defoliating small trees overnight,” Eigenbrode said. Individual ants carve a neat arch into a leaf, carrying the piece back to its nest to grow fungus, which feeds the colony. “It’s been called nature’s example of agriculture,” said Nilsa Bosque-Pérez, Idaho entomology professor. Varón, recipient of a College of Agricultural and Life Sciences fellowship, was the first graduate of Idaho’s joint doctoral program with Costa Rica’s Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center.
Tap a Keg for Science Synergy is one thing; zymurgy is another. It turns out science might just thrive on both through the “Science on Tap Coeur d’Alene” program. Synergy, of course, is a combined action that sometimes produces beneficial results. Zymurgy is the science of fermentation, a particularly important aspect of that social lubricant, beer. The University of Idaho Research Park, Northwest Association for Biomedical Research and Idaho TechConnect North will bring their collective expertise in research and education to the public by mixing science and suds. Science on Tap Coeur d’Alene aims to provide a casual forum for dialogue on current issues in science, with the ultimate goal of demystifying the science and technology that impacts our everyday lives. No science background is necessary to attend. The Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company began providing in January a place for the public to meet scientists informally. The program also is sponsored by IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company and Mountain West Bank. spring 2007
Shady Ants
A bacterium that forms “wolf packs” capable of cooperative predation and may yield powerful new cancer drugs appears to move using motors, actually a sophisticated, surface-dependent motility system, University of Idaho microbiologist Patricia Hartzell says. The finding discounts an alternate hypothesis that the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus employed a slime gun to power itself. More important, the discovery may yield new insight into processes that disrupt cellular movement in higher organisms, including humans, and result in developmental defects and disease. Hartzell, the University’s Microbiology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department head, joined co-authors Tam Mignot, Joshua W. Shaevitz and David R. Zusman from the University of California, Berkeley, to report their findings in the Feb. 9 Science Magazine. Myxococcus xanthus, an antibioticproducing soil bacterium, uses molecular-scale motors that connect the inside cytoskeleton of the cell to an outside surface to control its movements.
Illustrations by Nathan Nielson
IDAHO
Totally Psyched Idaho’s Psychology Program is an Online Leader
By Cynthia Taggart
He completed his general education at North Idaho College and is working on upper division requirements online in his Coeur d’Alene home. “It was exciting to find out about the psych degree Idaho offers online,” said Spencer, a 54-year-old husband, father and former painting contractor. “A regular class schedule just wouldn’t have worked at all for me.” Idaho’s Psychology Department offered enough online courses by 2004 that students could earn a degree without sitting in a lecture hall. It was the first University of Idaho degree available through online study. The idea, though, had been in the works for several years. The evolutionary process began in 1998 with Associate Psychology Professor Steven Meier’s recognition that the Web eventually was going to play an important role in instruction. Meier believed computers could carry higher education to a wider audience and reach people in remote areas with no access to university campuses. “We’d be doing our part to increase education about psychology within the state of Idaho and we’d be providing a service in areas where students have limited accessibility to education,” he said.
Online learner: Mike Spencer is earning his degree in psychology from the University of Idaho from his home in Coeur d’Alene. Enrollment in online psychology classes at Idaho has grown to more than 500 students each semester.
The first online courses were in the area of addictions and primarily textbook driven. The classes were convenient. Students could work at their own pace, using the text, Web and other readings for information. But live interaction was absent and apparently a need for many students. “Students liked the classes and gave them good evaluations,” Meier said. “But the main reason people didn’t want to take them was because they weren’t like live classes.” Meier analyzed the problem. What is it students like about live classes? After research and discussion with students, he concluded they like an instructor standing before them presenting information. He wanted to know how to transfer that live presence to the Web. David Schlater had the answer. Schlater is the director of the university’s Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI). He and his staff help Idaho’s instructors learn and benefit from technology. With CTI’s help, colorless presentations turn into lively PowerPoints and the lectures are now heard worldwide. Schlater, Jenine Cordon and Kari Dickinson helped Meier add audio to his online class visuals. And that made courses closer to a live version and more appealing. At that time, the University did not have funds to invest in online course development. Meier recognized that extending higher education to a bigger audience depended on the program supporting itself. But the project needed funding to create courses that would appeal to the numbers of students it needed to survive and grow.
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M
ike Spencer is among a new breed of University of Idaho students who may never set foot on the Moscow campus. Spencer is on the road to finishing his bachelor’s degree in psychology in spring 2008.
IDAHO
Richard Reardon, chair of the Department of Psychology and Communication Studies, offered Meier solid support for his idea to offer a selection of online psychology courses. “Steve is the energy source. He pushes hard,” Reardon said, chuckling. Psychology is one of the University’s biggest departments, with 650 students enrolled in 17,000 credit hours. “Our popularity is an advantage in this case,” Reardon said. “We had a good shot at generating the numbers we needed to support these classes.” Meier, Reardon and instructor Todd Thorsteinson applied for and received a Technology and Incentive Grant from the State Board of Education to develop 10 online psychology courses over two years. In 2003, the Psychology program launched five online courses. The goal eventually was to offer enough courses so a student could complete general education requirements at a community college and then complete Idaho’s psychology degree requirements online. Classes had to generate enough enrollments to cover their costs, but Psychology faculty were interested in the concept.
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“We took some losses to start off,” Reardon said. “There was always the question of whether we’d make it.” It was a lot of work. Schlater wanted the Psychology program to succeed and lead the way for other departments. Meier wanted top academic quality for students. Offering courses on the Web is a skill, not an escape from teaching duties. It is important to hold students’ interest and intrigue them with class material. “A big part of the job is showing people options. What makes their course special? What defines that course?” Schlater asked. “How can we make the experience online comparable to a classroom experience?” Prior to the project, Meier found it took him up to nine months to create online courses in areas such as physiological psychology. Such time demands presented a problem. It was asking a lot to encourage professors to develop online courses while they taught live courses, mentored students and researched, particularly in the early
stages when online courses were losing money. The Board of Education grant enabled Reardon and Meier to offer course buy-outs to faculty that wanted to design a Web course. Under Schlater’s guidance, psychology courses hit the Web with PowerPoint presentations that include an instructor’s narration. Students communicate with each other and faculty through online discussion groups and often can reach a professor more quickly online than in person on campus. Courses include a printable transcript for deaf and hearing impaired students. Pod-cast classes are on the horizon, Schlater said. Spencer started Idaho’s online psychology courses last summer. Physiological Psychology came with a PowerPoint presentation and transcript that Spencer printed out to reinforce what he was learning in the textbook. As in any class, he had a steady stream of assignments. Along with exams, he had to memorize brain structures and use a brain atlas to identify parts. He had to write a five- to seven-page paper. “It was completely interactive,” Spencer said. “I could readily get ahold of the teacher or TA (teaching assistant) within 24 hours. It allowed me to structure my own time.” Students can earn a psychology degree at Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene campus. But the classes didn’t fit into Spencer’s life, which is often the case away from the main campus, says Jack Dawson, director of the University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene.
“We get a lot of working professionals, a lot of people who started their education, got interrupted, got married, had kids and want to go back and finish up,” Dawson said. His campus has an enrollment of 85 psychology majors. “This is very useful to us.” Dawson initially didn’t support the idea of an online degree. He saw little difference between learning alone off a screen or from a textbook. Psychology’s online offerings have changed Dawson’s mind. “With CTI’s help, the online experience is equal to or better in some cases than the live experience,” he says. Students have a semester to complete an online class but can apply for an extension. The time online classes demand of students is equal to on-campus class demands.
Students are told to expect to study an average 45 hours per unit. A student in a three-unit class, which costs about $325, can expect to work about 135 hours. The number of universities offering online courses is growing. Idaho’s programs reach students all over the world. Students whose educations were interrupted for military service can continue their coursework online. Enrollment also is open to non-students. The main requirements are a computer Internet connection and desire for an education. Schlater and Meier have resisted pressing for the highest tech class designs, understanding that many prospective students still use modems. If class technology is too complex for the average home equipment, the class is not meeting its accessibility goal. Knowledge of technology also is limited. “It’s a myth that all students are comfortable with technology,” Schlater said. “They may be great at texting on their phones and interactive role playing. But they may not have a lot of experience in discussion groups.” Online tests can present problems. Many professors give open book tests. Students have a time limit, so if they don’t know the material or where to find it in their texts, they probably won’t perform well on a test. Some instructors use proctors–librarians, teachers–to monitor students as they take a test online.
The Psychology program launched its online courses in 2003 with 83 students. Enrollment grew to 266 in 2004. Now it’s more than 500 per semester. Most students live in Idaho, but others live in Montana, Utah and even Spain and Japan. Psychology now offers 20 courses online. Several other departments–Environmental Science, Sociology, Business– are close to offering online degrees. Their online growth has been slower because they didn’t have start-up grant money. Consequently, each of their courses had to reach a point of stability before new classes were started. This spring semester, students can take analytic geometry and calculus, cognitive psychology, GIS applications, blood and airborne pathogens and more in the comfort of their homes. “I’ve been very pleased,” Meier said. “We were out to serve students and that’s what we’re doing.” Absolutely right, says Spencer. He started his psychology education with no idea how he’d end it. Idaho’s online program was the answer. He plans to continue online with graduate courses after he collects his bachelor’s degree next spring. “For me, online works better. And the quality is the same. It seems more concentrated, the material is right there, I can dig into it,” he said. “This is really an incredible opportunity.” I
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Online quality control: Psychology Professor Steven Meier, David Schlater of the University’s Center for Teaching Innovation, and Psychology and Communication Studies Department Chair Richard Reardon have worked to develop, refine and expand online courses since 1998.
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The next generation of Idaho engineers explore current student projects at Engineering Design Expo.
True Genius of Engineers
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By Donna Emert
he true genius of engineers lies in their ability to relentlessly tweak an abstract concept until it functions in the real world, where unseen forces as diverse as gravity and common sense are at play. Ideas are not subject to these forces. Their implementation decidedly is. Engineers march bravely into that dark, formless place between idea and implementation and emerge with some really useful stuff, including biofuels; hybrid vehicles; clean water; batteries that last; automation of all ilks; nanotechnologies that redefine communications, keep our food safe and allow us to explore deep space; safe car seats for our kids; French fries; asphalt; prosthetics that grow with the children who wear them; even a glimpse at the weather on Saturn’s moon, Titan. In the past 100 years, Idaho engineering alumni, faculty and students have in fact contributed to the creation of all of these innovations, and to hundreds if not thousands more. In 2007, its centennial year, the University of Idaho College of Engineering salutes its more than 13,000 alumni, tips its hat to students and faculty, and recognizes the tenacity it takes to bring ideas to life. A brief look at the college’s history reveals that when you aim to change the world, 100 years represents a pretty good start.
College of Engineering Centennial 100 Years of Innovation In 1907, the University’s College of Engineering was established in cooperation with the College of Mines. In the following decades, administration and faculty forged a strong partnership with the Department of Public Works and began to focus their research on the challenges of planning, building and surfacing Idaho’s roads. “The early research focused on the development of concrete and road surfacing aggregates,” recalls Sheila Janssen-Klages ’53, daughter of then-Idaho student, and later dean of engineering, Allen Janssen ’37. “In the 1930s and ’40s, the University’s materials lab was considered the top laboratory for the state of Idaho.” In 1932, scientists split the atom, changing the world forever. Meanwhile, on the Moscow campus, Idaho coed Grace Fenton also was changing the world, or more aptly, like all good engineers, tweaking it for fuller function: In
1938, Grace (Fenton) Roberts became the first woman graduate of the College of Engineering. That same year, Jesse E. Buchanan–who received his degree from Idaho in 1927 and was the first to graduate with a perfect GPA–was named engineering dean. In 1939, Germany marched on Poland and World War II began with hardly a ripple in the American consciousness, but when bombs fell on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the impact reverberated profoundly in Idaho. Male students, faculty, staff and administrators left in droves to defend the nation. In 1946, many of those who had left almost four years before returned to their University posts. Dean Buchanan, who served with the Army Corps of Engineers, was among them. He soon left the college to take the University’s helm. Allen Janssen, fresh out of the Navy Seabees and a trusted colleague, was named dean. The war’s end released a flood of returning GIs. “After the war, you really had a different student,” said Janssen-Klages. “Older, married and veterans, they were independent thinkers. They were, for example, not very interested in living in dormitories,” she adds with a laugh.
Special Collections 1-224-22
Idaho Engineering: Where We’ve Been
1898. College of Engineering students and faculty with surveying equipment on the old Administration Building steps.
Special Collections 1-224-17
1940s. Women’s Auto Mechanic Course
1950s. The intermediate step between an idea and the actual building construction is putting the plan on blueprint.
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1930s. Students from the engineering motor mechanics class worked on community members’ vehicles in this lab.
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“Ultimately, the college’s legacy is its graduates. Idaho has turned out many leaders in engineering, and continues to do so.”
The ’60s and ’70s brought radical “It was a whole different atmosphere, social and technological change. The and rather exciting.” advent of the calculator and the In the 1950s, the college’s main computer revolutionized research and research focus was still highway curriculum in every field. “We had a materials, “though research in water big jump in the number of computer resources was coming to the forefront,” science students in the 1970s, recalls George Russell ’43, a longtime — Shleia Janssen-Klages and had quite a bunch of women Idaho professor of civil engineering students enrolled,” Russell recalled. and former associate dean of the Russell witnessed many changes college. in curriculum and research focus over six decades. By In the ’50s, the College of Engineering and its research 1985, “There was increased exposure to humanities grew. The Engineering Isotope Laboratory was built, as and social sciences, and a change in computational was a new research and teaching partnership between the usage; computers changed the focus from numerical University and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory methods to graphical methods,” said Russell. (INEL), now Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The One thing did remain consistent across the decades, Kirtley Laboratory, later named the Gauss Building, and the opportunity for talented undergraduates and graduate the Engineering Classroom Building, later renamed the students to perform engineering research was available Janssen Engineering Building, also were constructed during when Russell was an Idaho student and remains a unique Janssen’s tenure. and distinguishing trait of Idaho engineering today. As the post-war economy boomed, the demand for Russell saw the development of a broader range of University of Idaho engineering graduates intensified. research, growing through the 1980s, which included Idaho graduates and faculty were actively sought more emphasis on environmental issues, better use and by Boeing, Morrison Knudsen, Battelle, GE, Dow conservation of natural resources, clean air and water, Chemical and other industry leaders willing to pay high improved food handling, the search for alternative energy salaries the University could not match. Janssen faced sources, and improved construction and building materials. a daunting challenge in his search for new faculty.
1970s. Idaho’s internationally recognized biodiesel research program began in the 1970s.
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1960s. An instructor is explaining to his students the IBM® Key Punch machine for punching program cards.
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1980s. Engineering expands to offer a degree in computer science.
1990s. Engineering/Physics Building is completed; engineering complex grows to five buildings.
In the new millennium, the college’s faculty, in six departments and 10 research programs and institutes, conduct $14 million in research annually and teach a broad range of topics, many of which cross departmental and disciplinary boundaries. Current faculty and student research includes clean running snowmobiles; building a buoyant cement canoe; intelligent control of autonomous systems; ground, surface and waste water issues; transportation systems and infrastructure; sustainable use practices and products, including biological herbicides and fungicides; soil dynamics; thermodynamics and energy; cloning; design and manufacturing; acoustics; bioscience; nanoscience and much more. To effectively achieve its research goals, partnerships have been forged internally, across disciplines, and externally, with industry and government. In 2006, the College of Engineering celebrated yet another milestone by appointing its first female dean, Aicha Elshabini. Along with a lifetime technical achievement award in microelectronic engineering, Elshabini brought a microelectronic packaging laboratory, skilled faculty and students to run it, and several large contracts to fund it. This laboratory, the first in Idaho and one of only two in the Northwest, will provide leading multidisciplinary research opportunities to students from Idaho and around the world. While research is important and keeps Idaho educators and their students on the cutting edge of their fields, it is just one reflection of the college’s evolution and its impact. “Ultimately, the college’s legacy is its graduates,” said Janssen-Klages. “Idaho has turned out many leaders in engineering, and continues to do so.” I
2000s. Idaho researchers at the Center for Advanced Microelectonics Biomolecular Research develop low power solutions for NASA’s orbiting micro-satellites.
Guiding the College’s Second Century College of Engineering Dean Aicha Elshabini has a clear vision for the college as it begins its second century. “The work of our faculty and staff in strategic planning will ensure we preserve the elements that have made our college successful in its first century and set the stage for the next 100 years,” said Elshabini. Prior to coming to Idaho, College of Elshabini focused much of her Engineering Dean Aicha Elshabini research and academic efforts on microelectronic engineering and electronic packaging. She has conducted research with Motorola, HewlettPackard, Texas Instruments, Intel, Xerox, NASA, and various military groups. Still, Elshabini considers academics her greatest achievement. “Creating meaningful curriculum and watching students grow into professional engineers is an amazing and satisfying experience,” she said. Elshabini served 26 years as a department head and faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering departments at the University of Arkansas and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. “The fact that an Idaho graduate can stand tall among Ivy League and internationally recognized students speaks to the quality of an Idaho engineering graduate. Our industry partners consistently tell us our top-notch, highly educated graduates are among the most desirable employees in their organization,” she said. Elshabini recently became the first woman to receive the prestigious Daniel C. Hughes Jr. Memorial Award for lifetime technical achievement in microelectronics, granted by the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society. “Enhancing opportunities for women and underrepresented groups is something very dear to me. This vital group will ensure our future workforce reflects our economic shift to a global society,” she said. Originally from Egypt, Elshabini holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications from Cairo University in Egypt; a master’s degree in microelectronics from the University of Toledo in Ohio; and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. spring 2007
Idaho Engineering: YOU are HERE
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Idaho Alumni Take Design and Engineering Over the Edge
grand Canyon By Kelly Yenser
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IDAHO
earless visitors to the Grand Canyon can now bravely step off solid ground and stand on a glass deck hanging from the canyon rim. Below them, down 4,000 feet, is the Colorado River. The principal engineer and architect on this spectacular project–the Grand Canyon Skywalk–are Idaho alumni. Mark Hedge ’85 is the managing partner in the engineering firm, Lochsa Engineering, and Mark Johnson ’85 is the principal in MJR Architects. Both businesses are headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev. The glass deck may not appeal to those with acrophobia, but engineers, architects and others find the facts and figures fascinating. • The glassed-in walkway extends some 70 feet from the edge of the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, and about 4,000 feet above the bed of the Colorado River. • The walkway is about 9 1/2 feet wide and has a floor made of glass about 4 inches thick. • Skywalk is supported by steel beams that can withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake 50 miles away. • A stone dropped from Skywalk would take about 25 seconds to splash. • The distance between the deck and the river is three times as great as the distance from the tip of the Sears Tower to the concrete of Chicago. The Skywalk project has sparked the public’s imagination and drawn worldwide attention. “We get calls from all over, “ said Bill Carren Jr., Lochsa’s lead engineer on the Skywalk project. And what about special problems with this spectacular walkway?
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The engineers had to calculate carefully the wind factors. The horseshoe-shaped walkway, after all, extends 70 feet into space. Another sort of problem is raised by the maintenance of the glass floor. The very top layer of glass can be replaced, Carren said, and strollers will be given “special booties” which not only will mitigate the effect of scratches, but also interact with a grid-like surface for a solid footing. “There is a fright factor,” said Carren, who is aware that heights and the projection of this structure may present problems for some people. “But there have been studies,” Hedge put in, “that suggest some people will be reassured by walking on the beams they can see below them, under the glass floor.” Skywalk is a change-of-pace project for Lochsa Engineering. The company’s reputation has been built on structural and civil engineering for some of the significant towers on the Las Vegas skyline, such as Circus, Circus; Mandalay Bay; the Palms Resort; the lion habitat at the MGM; and the Wynn Tower. Lochsa Engineering was created by two Idaho alumni, Hedge and Jess Haldeman ’84,’86. Hedge is from Jerome and Haldeman grew up in McCall. They met at the University of Idaho where they played on the golf team and became friends. In 1995, they set up Lochsa Engineering in one room of a residence. The business boomed right along with Las Vegas. Now, Lochsa is one of the most notable engineering firms in a city where building things is a big deal. In less than a dozen years, the firm moved from an early work force of eight people to a company of more than
Lochsa Engineering
Peter Dozal
Lochsa Engineering
Lochsa Engineering in Boise: Lee Harrison, Ryan Carnie ’96 and Riley Mahaffey ’89.
Architect Mark Johnson ’85
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100. Lochsa opened a Boise office in 2003 that is led by another Idaho alumnus, Riley Mahaffey ’89. Hedge paid tribute to his partner and friend for the energy and growth of the company, and pointed out that Haldeman also worked with several magicians in Las Vegas, including Siegfried and Roy. “Jess is one of the few people in the world who knew how they made those lions disappear,” Hedge said. Haldeman passed away in February from cancer. Skyway architect Johnson was born and raised near Jerome, where his family farmed. Johnson graduated from Idaho in 1985 and about three years later, settled in Las Vegas where there were many opportunities. In 1992, Johnson started MRJ Architects, and he decided that the firm should “stay small.” Johnson and two other architects constitute the firm, including associate David Hurlbert ’85. For Johnson, the Skywalk project has been a stimulating experience, both personally and professionally. “I have learned more on this project,” Johnson said, “than I did in the 10 years previous.” He clearly enjoyed his “on the job education.” For instance, Johnson was a prime contact for the person who envisioned Skywalk, developer David Jin, for whom Johnson was designing a private residence. The land itself belongs to the Hualapai Indians, whose elders have been involved in the development of the project. The tribe has no gaming on the reservation, but tourism is a major business and the Skywalk will be the main attraction, along with an Indian Village and visitors’ center. Johnson attended the March grand opening of Skywalk, but fessed up: “Heights are a problem for me.” I
Lochsa Engineering in Las Vegas: Ted Egerton ’90, David Peterson, William Karren, Mark Hedge ’85, Jess Haldeman ’84, ’86, Ken Mize, John Zelinski.
Cliff Rogers
WALK
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Tempted Tempted to to Cheat? Cheat?
IDAHO
Idaho’s Professor Sharon Stoll Challenges and Changes the Ethics and Moral Reasoning of Athletes
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By Cheryl Dudley
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ow much money would it take for you to cheat? Not many people have the opportunity to find out that answer, but step into the world of the elite athlete, and you might be surprised at the ethical challenges they face. Take the issue of performance enhancing drugs and Barry Bonds, for example. In a secretly recorded message with Bonds’ weight trainer Greg Anderson in 2003, Anderson revealed to a San Francisco Chronicle reporter Bonds’ alleged use of undetectable performance-enhancing drugs during the previous baseball season. Although the investigation into Bonds’ use of performance-enhancing drugs continues, and beside the fact that he failed a drug test just last year, the San Francisco Giants just signed a one-year $15.8 million deal with him that includes another $4.2 million in performance bonuses. Which leads to the dilemma at hand. Large cash incentives based on physical performance sets up the perfect cheating scenario. Who wouldn’t be tempted to cheat when the stakes for winning or losing are in the millions? While the general population may never be confronted by such developments, it’s one that elite athletes face on a continual basis, and one of the reasons that performance-enhancing drugs are problematic in the elite athletic world. University of Idaho professor Sharon Stoll may have some answers. Just last year the United States Antidoping Agency came to her for help. Stoll, an expert in ethics and moral reasoning, was asked to write a paper on doping education for the USADA, since very little has been done in the area for elite and college athletes. The paper, which she began six months ago and which is still in progress, will discuss and critique doping education programs and offer alternative suggestions. Stoll knows a lot about how to design programs that work with the cognitive development of moral and ethical reasoning skills in athletes. She was invited to be a partner in the company Winning With Character, which creates and markets ethics curriculums to athletic teams–an invitation based on her years of research in the area. Through her research, Stoll has discovered that the decline in moral reasoning skills in athletes begins long before athletes go pro and big money enters the picture. Long before. Her journey to discovery began 30 years ago.
Stoll, who had been a high school and college coach, an athlete and in sports all her life, automatically responded, “Of course!” “But what do you know about moral development?” Hahm asked. Stoll believed she knew all she needed to know. She had degrees in philosophy and sport ethics, and she knew that sports programs are centered on building character. Nonetheless, she promised to read all the books the student left her and to ponder the question further. “Chung went back to Korea for the summer, and I began to read the books she gave me,” Stoll said. “I kept my promise to her and read them all. When she came back to school in the fall, she asked me the same question again.” “Do you think student-athlete populations are as morally developed as the average student population?” Stoll looked at Hahm and said, “I don’t think so.” “I would like to study that and see if it’s really true,” Hahm responded.
Moral Truth “Moral development is about the application of justice, honesty and beneficence toward other people,” said Stoll. “We in sport push rules to the max. We interpret rules to our best interest. Sports are about gaining advantage, which plays havoc with the notion of moral development.” Research shows the longer athletes are involved in sports, the lower their moral reasoning skills. “There are certain things about the way we play the game that are socialized as acceptable that aren’t acceptable in everyday life,” said Jennifer Beller, a graduate student of Stoll’s in the 1980s, and a continuing member of Stoll’s team. But even though athletes score lower on moral reasoning skills than non-athletes, moral development has continued to drop in the general population overall. This gradual attrition could be attributed to a variety of factors, but one study of 29 million teens conducted by The Barna Group showed that 83 percent believe moral truth depends on circumstances, where only 6 percent believe that absolute moral truths exists. Although moral reasoning skills have declined across all populations, the media focus on athletic behavior makes it seem like they’re the only ones with the problem. One might argue that being in the spotlight carries a higher level of responsibility for athletes to portray moral values than the rest of the population. But to further complicate the issue for elite athletes, the value of their multi-million dollar contracts often hinge on their physical performance, tempting them in ways that the general population rarely– if ever–encounters.
Getting to the Root In 1987, University of Idaho student Chung Hae-Hahm walked into Stoll’s office and asked her a question. “Do you think student-athlete populations are as morally developed as the average student population?”
At left: Professor Sharon Stoll smiles for the camera during a photo shoot for “Sports Illustrated.” Stoll’s research on the development of moral and ethical reasoning skills in athletes has propelled her into the role of a highly respected commentator on sports ethics.
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The Test Instrument Over the two years following Hahm’s question to Stoll, doctoral students Hahm and Beller developed an instrument called the Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory (HBVCI) to measure the “moral ideal” in student populations. “We looked at commonly occurring events happening in sport that are questionable, like retaliation,” said Beller, “and developed the instrument based on these questionable events.” After applying the HBVCI to athlete populations, it seemed apparent that the environment of athletics had not been supportive of teaching and modeling moral knowing, moral valuing and moral action. “Perhaps the reason is there are very limited consequences for immoral behaviors in the sport environment, but larger consequences in the real world,” said Stoll. The HBVCI has now been tested on thousands of people worldwide and proven highly reliable. To date, the instrument has been translated into Greek, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic. “Moral values, like respect, honesty and responsibility, are fairly universal,” Beller said, “while social values are more culturally specific.” Beller, now a statistics professor at Washington State University, continues to work with Stoll by calculating and analyzing the HBVCI rest results.
Other Populations Not long after Stoll’s research began, she was approached by the United States Military Academy and asked to work with them in character development. “I went to the Military Academy at West Point, which opened the door to the world,” Stoll said. She taught sports ethics at the USMA from July 1993 to June 1994, and continued to work with them up to 1996. Elements of her program are still in place there.
Stoll also has worked for the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. She was invited to the American Bar Association to look at the competitive model and the affect of moral reasoning on lawyers. She also has worked with the President’s Commission of the NCAA, the National Youth Sport Coach’s Association, and the National Federation of High School Activities Association. She has been featured on such national programs as “Night Line,” “ESPN Sports Center” and “Fox Sports.” Stoll’s newest work with the United States Antidoping Agency highlights even another venue in need of her expertise.
Developing the Methodology Although Stoll works with other groups to develop character and moral reasoning skills, her passion continues to be sports. “After working at West Point, I came back to Idaho to raise my children and continue my work here. One day I got a call from Georgia, asking me to develop a character education program for high-level sports teams,” Stoll said. “Now we’re contracted with Winning With Character to develop a curriculum that assists in moral reasoning development in athletic teams. Our clients include the Atlanta Braves, the University of Georgia, University of Alabama, Maryland, Iowa State, and 30 high schools across America. We’re just beginning work with the Kansas City Royals.” Bobby Lankford, vice president and director of Winning With Character, Inc., and a member of the football coaching staff for the University of Georgia, is in his fifth year of implementing Stoll’s curriculum in the football team. “We’ve seen a change in the coaches as well as the team,” he said. “There is more leadership and unity within the team, and they really care about each other. The bond between the athletes and the coaches is stronger.”
Participants in the HBVCI inventory read 21 short common sport scenarios and evaluate each situation based on a five-point scale. For example, participants are asked to respond to the following scenarios:
IDAHO
A. Certain basketball teams are coached to run plays that cause the opponents to foul. Players and coaches believe this is a clever strategy because the opponents may foul out of the game, giving their team an advantage. Because the coach orders this type of play, the players should follow his directions. Do you Strongly agree; Agree; Neutral; Disagree; Strongly Disagree.
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One of the biggest reasons the curriculum is successful is the athletes learn from each other, and the leadership and role modeling of the older athletes makes a huge impact on the younger athletes just entering the program. “The curriculum is designed to change the way the athletes think,” said Idaho doctoral student Dave Brunner. “It’s an aggressive curriculum that challenges the students with questions about drinking or drugs or sexual behavior. What’s amazing is that once you put the topics out there for the students, they deal with them in a very comfortable manner. It’s really impressive to see that work,” said Brunner. Brunner is a former high school football coach from South Carolina. He coached for years in Raleigh, and in 2004 took the job as head football coach in Charleston. “When I moved to Charleston, I got the team working, and then we went to a summer camp at Clemson University. It was the first time I saw our kids in a competitive environment. We were in the semi-final game, and as we began to encounter difficulty, the players became unraveled. They began to curse each other and tried to hit each other. I was breaking up fights on the sidelines, and saying to myself, ‘Holy cow, where did this come from?’” Later, Brunner told the team that they had a real problem understanding right from wrong. “My students looked at me and said, ‘what are you talking about? We won!’” Brunner knew he had to take action. “I had heard University of Georgia Coach Richt mention a program they used with their team. We began implementing the program at our high school in Charleston, and slowly saw change. During this time, Brunner was pursuing his doctoral degree online from the University of Idaho. Stoll convinced him to come out to Idaho and finish his studies here. He arrived on campus in January. “If athletes can model extraordinary and exemplary behavior in a competitive spirit,” Brunner said, “that could
have a great impact on people. Whether they believe it or not, athletes are bestowed with an honorable responsibility. I believe in the program. That’s why I’m here.”
The Center for ETHICS* The Center for Ethical Theory and Honor In Competition and Sport (ETHICS*) within the College of Education was created in 1992, and provides the place for Stoll’s curriculum development. She has four graduate assistants who work in her office in the Memorial Gym tower. “We have 47 books in progress at the same time, which have to be edited yearly,” Stoll said. Each contract calls for a book each year of the four-year curriculum, and each sport requires a different curriculum. “The graduate students do most of the work.” Stoll said. “I write the lessons, they edit them and do a lot of the thinking. Then we have collection data. For baseball, the group translates the curriculum into Spanish, because the majority of the developmental teams are Spanish speaking.” Training and ongoing support for the facilitators and staff who use the program is also provided with the curriculum, along with pre- and post-test evaluation instruments. With these tasks at hand, Stoll and her ethics team are making a difference. “I think the morals and ethics class is an excellent way to teach us to become better all-around people, said a Cobb County, Ga., high school student. “The moral and ethics class is definitely something that should be considered throughout the nation in all levels of education.” “It made me realize the importance of integrity,” said another student. “In the late 1970s we talked about building morality and character in sports,” said Brunner “But we didn’t have the methodology to teach it. With this program, we now have it.” I
B. During a volleyball game player A hit the ball over the net. The ball barely grazed off player B’s fingers and landed out of bounds. However, the referee did not see player B touch the ball. Because the referee is responsible for calling rule violations, Player B is not obligated to report the violation. Do you Strongly agree; Agree; Neutral; Disagree; Strongly Disagree. C. Jeremiah, the pitcher from Team A throws a 90 mile per hour fastball that hits Marvin, the batter from Team B in the elbow. Marvin falls to the ground in enormous pain and consequently, must leave the game for X-rays. The following inning, Marvin’s teammates urge Alex, the pitcher from Team B, to throw at Team A’s batter. Alex should take care of his teammates and throw at the batter. Do you Strongly agree; Agree; Neutral; Disagree; Strongly Disagree.
VALUES
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To find out more about the Character Education Program, and to find out the correct answer and explanation for the above questions, visit www.its.uidaho.edu/center_for_ethics
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Member of the British brass ensemble, Onyx Brass, perform a Young People’s Concert in the Administration Auditorium. The Auditorium Chamber Music Series has become a cultural institution on the Palouse by presenting some of the world’s finest chamber ensembles in concert.
Music Aficionados Sing Praises By Leslie Einhaus
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he caliber of performers participating in the Auditorium Chamber Music Series at the University of Idaho rivals Carnegie Hall attractions. From 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in New York City to Hello Walk on the Moscow campus, great musicians from around the world grace the Administration Auditorium stage with exuberance and intensity. The chamber series celebrates its 20th season in 200607. A classical music form, chamber music is played by an ensemble of up to nine members who perform individual parts in a small, intimate setting. Visiting musicians look forward to performing in the “beautiful” Administration Building, according to Mark J. Nielsen, chamber series board member and mathematics professor. “They are impressed with what they see here,” he said. Mary DuPree is the series organizer, who for the past two decades has brought top-notch musicians to the Idaho stage. In those years, the series has featured the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Beaux Arts Trio, Kronos Quartet, Masters of Persian Music and Onyx Brass. The increasingly
popular sextet, eighth blackbird, returned this spring for its third visit. Performing ensembles can attract up to 450 concert-goers. “The University of Idaho and the surrounding community owes a debt of gratitude to Mary,” said Nielsen. Along with the signature evening concerts, visiting musicians bring their love of music to school children in Moscow and nearby communities. They also advise and critique the performances of University of Idaho music students. “The visiting musicians have enriched my college experience,” said Christine Cavanaugh, a junior music student from Boise. In addition to the tips to becoming a better musician, the artists offer advice on the real world, graduate school opportunities and job possibilities. The outreach component of the series is rewarding to DuPree: “It’s been very satisfying to know that not only are some of the world’s finest musicians performing on our stage, but that over a thousand students from grade one to college, and from around the region, are interacting with these musicians each year.”
Pacifica Quartet
Christine Cavanaugh, a music major from Boise, gains insights on performance and technique during a one-on-one session with Brandon Vamos, cellist for The Pacifica Quartet.
of Chamber Series From the Classroom to the Concert Hall The chamber music series offers a world-class opportunity. “The chance of hearing world-renowned musicians and then meeting them is a great opportunity that the ACMS provides to students,” said Cavanaugh. Finding such a high caliber of musicians in a small community like Moscow is a delight. When Nielsen teaches his fall honors course, he always tells students to take advantage of the available opportunity. Even if students aren’t keen on chamber groups, “They should attend anyway because these performers are the best at what they do. Whenever someone has the opportunity to see greatness, they should take advantage of it.” The Auditorium Chamber Music Series, including upcoming concerts and ticket information, may be accessed at: www.auditoriumchambermusic.org. I
American Chamber Players
You can read about eighth blackbird’s recent visit to the University of Idaho at their blog, www.eighthblackbird.com/blog/2007/03/24/ famous-potatoes.
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eighth blackbird Blog
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An Alabama Chemist
Whips an Idaho Potato By Randy Lankford hen William Davis ’65 enrolled at Alabama’s Talladega College in 1952, he had no idea he would eventually study potatoes at the University of Idaho. Growing up in Valdosta, Ga., he was raised on rice. The only potatoes he knew anything about were the sweet orange ones people baked into pies. Now, at age 80 and chairman of the Department of Natural Sciences at St. Philip’s College in San Antonio, Texas, Davis credits two men with his love of science; his father, a self-taught pharmacist and George Washington Carver. Davis was fascinated with what his father was able to do with just a few simple plants and in awe of Carver who had saved southern agriculture with his crop rotation discoveries. That was the kind of applied chemistry he was interested in when he entered college. Once he’d earned his chemistry degree at Talladega, Davis was chosen as one of only three G.W. Carver Fellows to attend the Tuskegee Institute in 1956. “Dr. Carver had passed in 1943 but his foundation was still very active. It was one of the few places a black scientist could work at that time. “The things that Carver had done for farming and the way agriculture was practiced really impressed me. Another part of my thinking was that Dr. Carver had done what he did in a hostile environment. He’d worked his entire life in the Deep South where there was a lot of oppression at the time. He had not only proved his worth, he had proved it under some of the most difficult circumstances possible. I wanted to be able to do that same thing. I wanted very much to follow in his footsteps.” Davis earned his master’s degree in organic chemistry in 1958, a time when African American college students were encouraged to become teachers.
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“When you went to college back then, you’d get a degree in education with an emphasis in chemistry or engineering but you couldn’t go to college just to be a chemist or an engineer. There were lots of colleges willing to accept African American students working on education degrees. You could go to one of those colleges, get your education degree and then go back to the South and teach. I was interested in the practice of chemistry, not teaching it,” Davis explains. While Davis, the younger brother of actor Ossie Davis, applied to several colleges to pursue his Ph.D., Idaho was the only one willing to let him earn his doctorate in biochemistry with no strings attached. “They didn’t require me to take any education courses. That suited me just fine so my wife, Ocia, and I moved to Moscow.” The geography wasn’t the only thing different. Davis felt like he was in a different world. “We moved to Moscow in 1960. It was an entirely different culture. I’m pretty sure I was the first black student in the University of Idaho graduate school and Ocia became a secretary in the Sociology Department at the University. She was the first black secretary at the school. “I love that part of the country because everyone is so warm and welcoming. I never felt like I was treated any differently than anyone else on campus. It was just a normal society. They dealt with me based on my capabilities. I wasn’t treated any better or any worse than anyone else, either on campus or in town. I wasn’t given any favors but I got the same opportunities as anyone else. Coming from Alabama, it was a very different culture than what I was used to.”
The change suited Davis who went to work as a teaching assistant and became involved in research to determine the sloughing rates of different types of potatoes. “Different applications call for potatoes that degenerate at different speeds. For instance, a soup company wants a potato with a long shelf life. When they put a chunk of potato in a can, they want it to still be a chunk when that can is opened perhaps months later. Others want potatoes that fall apart easily and whip up light and fluffy for mashed potatoes. That’s the kind of research we were doing.” Davis also was working on a project to determine what caused potato chips to blister when they were fried. Just across the state line in Pullman, Washington State University’s industrial research department was trying to determine what it was about larch trees that was causing saw blades to gum up at lumber mills around the state. “J.M. Neal was the lumber company involved,” Davis recalls. “They put up the money for the research and were asking for anyone who was interested in working on the project to contact Washington State’s industrial research department.
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William Davis ’65
“Pullman is only eight miles from Moscow and I was interested in learning more about chemistry, so I signed up.” Davis’ research at Washington State determined that saw blades were becoming clogged with a gummy, gluelike substance called arabinogalactans, that are found in plants, fungi and bacteria. They’re a nondigestible soluble dietary fiber. They also are thought to stimulate the colonic growth of such bacteria as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. These bacteria may confer certain health benefits. “We were able to extract the arabinogalactans as a dry, crystalline powder,” Davis said. “But there didn’t seem to be any practical application for them. Rehydrating the powder just created a sticky paste. I didn’t see much value in it.” At the same time, working at Idaho, Davis found that if he removed the compound that was causing potato chips to blister, they disintegrated. He wondered if the desiccated potatoes could be reconstituted. He tried adding water only to end up with a bowl of wet flakes. Davis was frustrated with his results. “I thought both lines of research were failures. The arabinogalactans weren’t good for anything and the potato flakes couldn’t be reconstituted. I was very disappointed.” But, one of the most important lessons Davis learned at the University of Idaho is that any research results are good results, and that led to an unexpected discovery. He combined his two experiments and found that when he added the arabinogalactans to the potato flakes, they absorbed the water and fluffed up into an edible mound. As with most discoveries, Davis didn’t have the classic Hollywood “Eureka” moment. The potatoes he rehydrated weren’t what busy mothers serve their families today. His research was advanced and modified by others until it evolved into today’s familiar staple. While Davis’ discoveries weren’t patented and never made him rich, he’s proud to have been part of the team of scientists that eventually made instant mashed potatoes an appetizing reality. “I never set out to invent instant mashed potatoes, but that’s what we ended up with,” Davis laughs. Many more uses have been found for the arabinogalactans Davis isolated. They are a natural sweetener and their binding qualities are what make nondairy whipped toppings and soft-serve ice cream possible. A man who never intended to be a teacher, Davis has been a professor at St. Philip’s since 1983. “I promised my father that I would spend the last part of my career teaching,” he says. Davis doesn’t have any plans for retirement, nor does he consider himself or his career remarkable. “I’m just an average man who happens to be very curious. It’s a wonderful time to be alive. There are so many new discoveries being made that I want to learn about. They might call me ‘Feet-first Davis,’ because that’s the way they’re going to have to carry me out of here.” I
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Alumni
Class Notes
To be profiled, mail information, including graduation year, to Annis Shea, Alumni Office, PO Box 443232, Moscow, ID 83844-3232 or e-mail information to alumni@uidaho.edu. Photos can be e-mailed in a .jpg format.
1950 George F. Eidam ’56 has retired from Eidam and Associates, a consulting electrical engineering firm founded in 1974 in Boise. Eidam and Associates has worked with the University on significant projects such as the Kibbie Dome, the new Living Learning Community, and the Art and Architecture Building.
1960 Mack Redford ’61, ’67 has been appointed to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission by Governor Butch Otter. William J. Crea ’62, ’64 was presented the Idaho Wheat Commission 2005 Distinguished Service Award. Dale Bosworth ’66, chief of the U.S. Forest Service has retired. Brian Stickney ’67 is a retired senior Foreign Service officer who lives in El Paso, Texas. He resides part of the year in Belgrade, where he works under contract out of the U.S. Embassy managing export control and border security programs for Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Judy Terry Pilcher ’69 and Bridget Flynn Pilcher ’94 have launched www.polkadot.com, an online baby announcement and invitation store.
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Dennis Thompson ’70 is president of BarnettThompson Chevrolet, Inc., an Orofino auto dealership. He received the 2007 TIME Magazine Quality Dealer Award.
Clark W. Elgee Jr. ’73 is a partner in a Juneau, Alaska, CPA firm, Elgee Rehfeld Mertz LLC. Lee Hamilton ’73 has been promoted to associate professor and has received the Donald C. Roush Excellence in Teaching Award from New Mexico State University. Art Kjos ’73 of Clark/Kjos Architects was honored by the Washington State Society for Healthcare Engineering by a nomination for the ASHE Regional Leader Award. This award recognizes his leadership capabilities and significant contributions he has made in healthcare facilities management. Val D. Greenwood ’74 has completed “How Often Would I Have Gathered You,” a collection of 229 stories from the Old Testament for adults and young adults, told in modern English from a Latter-day Saint perspective. Val is retired in Riverton, Utah. Gary Machacek ’74 joined the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. He is the general partner of 16 lowincome housing complexes for families and seniors in Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Wyoming. Sharron Rossman Rewoldt ’74 of Cataldo retired after teaching 31 years in elementary schools of the Kellogg Joint School District. She now is training Australian shepherds and border collies in agility and sheep herding and traveling to trials and shows throughout the United States.
Forrest W. Kneisel ’76 retired after 30 years of service as a U.S. Army Colonel. Most of his career was served as a clinical laboratory officer/ medical technologist managing laboratories in South Carolina, Hawaii, Germany, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. He and his wife, Robin, have settled in Virginia. Karen Rehfeld ’76 is the Alaskan governor’s director of Management and Budget. Donald Ehrich ’77 is a Road Operations manager for Clackamas County in Oregon, and responsible for 1,400 miles of roads that support a population of nearly 400,000. Robert L. Rehfeld ’77 is a partner in a Juneau, Alaska, CPA firm, Elgee Rehfeld Mertz LLC. William B. Seiniger Jr. ’79 was selected for lising in “Best Lawyers in America.” The referral guide to the legal profession announced that Seiniger has been chosen by his fellow attorneys in the category of employee benefits law.
1980 Sally Ann Allen Hess ’80 is a professor of Anthropology at University of California, Riverside, and has been named 2007 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Her research project is entitled “Yosemite Tourism; an Ethnographic Study of Place, Embodiment and Authenticity.” Ed Button ’80, ’89, ’96 represented the National Association of State Fire Marshals at the 2006 International Code Council’s code development hearing in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Ed is assistant fire chief and fire marshal for the Moscow Fire Department.
Barbara Cole Burr ’81 was awarded at the Western Colorado Human Resource Association’s biannual fall conference as their 2006 Human Resource Professional of the Year. She was selected from five finalists who were nominated by their peers for excellence in the human resource profession. Charlie Connolly ’81 is vice president of acquisitions for Park Pointe Development in Boise. Mark Snodgrass ’81 released his first CD, “A Band of Marks.” Tom Farley ’82 retired as a bureau chief from the Idaho State Department of Education. He is adding to a 35-year career in education by working half-time as the director of Secondary Education and Technology for the Middleton School District. Jim Stein ’82 was named Rathdrum Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year. He manages the Stein’s IGA in Rathdrum, one of four stores that he and his brother and two cousins co-own. Jonathan Sven Segal ’84 won the Grand Award for Multifamily Housing in Residential Architect magazine’s eighth annual design competition. He will be honored at the national AIA convention in May, in San Antonio, Texas. Nancy Jean Hake ’84 has been promoted to vice president at Sterling Savings Bank in Spokane, Wash. She has been working in the banking industry since 1998 and has been with Sterling since 2002.
AlUMNI Class Notes
Marriages Crystal Marie Herzog ’03, ’04 to Garrett Drew Pence ’03, ’04
Kendra McCoy ’06 to Mike Kennedy
Samantha Devoe ’04 to Spencer Stott ’05
Judy Sullivan Parry to Richard Lynn Folk ’92
Michelle Hadley ’05 to Stephen Johnson ’05
Lezah J. Becker ’79 to Barney E. Shinkle
Tracy Weeks to Daniel M. Brown ’95
Mandi Staley ’05 to Will Ross ’05
Christopher Raykovich ’03 to Jennifer Pentzer ’04
Colleen Murphy Phillip ’89 has owned and operated Quilt Something! in Moscow for 11 years. Better Homes & Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting magazine recognized the shop as one of the top 10 quilt shops in the U.S. and Canada.
Blaine M. Mioriarty ’97 to Dusty Lee Pence ’99
Courtney Forsmann ’04 to Patrick Hill
Suzanne Sawyer ’04 to Jacob Holling
Miranda S. Windhorst ’04 to Ty J. Windhorst ’04
Clint Gunter ’98 to Margi Hollifield ’02
Ryan Sheridan ’07 to Andrea Holsclaw ’07
Lisa Janine Rankins ’94 to Myron Rankins
Emily Mohr ’96 to Howard Gritton
Misty Hansen ’03 to Cody DuPont
Annie Rose Gannon ’03 to Matthew S. McCoy ’03
Stephanie Warn ’01 to Gary Yarne
Kristine A. Hoskins ’02 to Todd M. Keller
1990
Ellen Nuxell ’00 to Michael Crabtree
Douglas McClure ’02 to Tiffany Pawley
Nicolle C. Marselle ’05 to David N. Sansotta ’05
Bridget Flynn Pilcher ’94 and Judy Terry Pilcher ’69 have launched www.polkadot.com, an online baby announcement and invitation store.
Katie Klein ’01 to Chris Jarstad ’00
Karey L. Zenner ’05 to Michael A. Cannon ’06
Julie R. Crumley ’03 to Sean Jurgensen ’06
Toni L. Sutton ’92 to Andrew Goar
Matthew Cram ’00 to Jennifer German
Henry Johnson ’01 to Midori Nakashima
Julene Ewert ’91 has launched www.presentbydesign. com, an online gift store for life’s celebrations.
Amy Simpson ’96 to Major Joseph Edward Guimond
Karen Litalien ’91 to Michael Snow
Paula J.A. Schirle ’93 to Bob Hempel
Michelle Sellman ’97 to Robert Clifford ’96
Joni Rae Francisco ’01 to Keith Zalewski ’02
Katie Nelson ’02 to Scott Miner
JoAnn Wiggins ’88 received a national teaching award from the accrediting body for the School of Business at Walla Walla College in Walla Walla, Wash.
Becca Terrell ’05 to Jesse Allen ’05
Maxwell M. Ruckdeschel ’02 to Elizabeth A. Patchett
The University of Idaho Alumni Association
will recognize and honor longtime alumni volunteers
Bob and Carol Schreiber of American Falls with the Jim Lyle Award. They are being honored for long-term dedication and service to the University and the Alumni Association through volunteerism at an Alumni Association picnic celebration in American Falls on June 15. spring 2007
Sarah Heath Palin ’87 was elected governor of Alaska in November 2006.
27
Class Notes
Alumni green
Future Vandals
In Memory
Milan R. Bush ’49, Boise, Oct. 19, 2006
Zoe Louise and Zella Marie, daughters of Brian ’96 and Amy Thompson ’97 Jones and granddaughters of B. Craig ’71 and Gail Hunt ’69 Thompson
1930
Majorie Butts ’47, Kennewick, Wash., Dec. 22, 2006
Syranie and Leviathan Kinsey, children of Don ’05 and Athena Kinsey Beck Thomas, son of Pete ’94 and Leeann Thomas ’93 Schneider
Mansisidor
Kinsey
Ryan Dieaz, son of Linnea Herrera ’02 and Michael D. Whittle Travis Lee and Justin Ray, sons of Todd E. ’96 and Genaura K. Lee ’95 Wells Brian, son of Brian ’99 Winn and Amanda Winn
schneider
strobel
Cole Tucker Kelly, son of Kenleigh Kelly ’93 Stine and Erik Stine Makenzie Renee, daughter of Rick and Angela Hill ’01 Baldwin Kiera Marie and Ryan, children of David ’94 and Patrece Mansisidor Caden, Brennan and Alyssa, children of Jeff Green’ 95 and Jenny Gindraux-Green ’95
Thompson
Whittle
wells
CL Adkins ’37, Maricopa, Ariz., Jan. 29, 2006 Gilmore A. Anderson ’35, Moscow, Jan. 26, 2007 Elizabeth G. Beaver ’32, Wenatchee, Wash., Dec. 30, 2005
Fern Hager ’37, Edison, N.J., Jan. 23, 2007
Shirley A. Denman ’48, ’49, Spokane, Wash., Oct. 11, 2006
William J. Hebert ’39, Boise, Nov. 9, 2006
William Deshler ’40, March 1, 2006
Audrey P. Kelly ’38, Albuquerque, N.M., Sept. 21, 2006
Lois L. Dillis ’47, Merritt Island, Fla., Nov. 27, 2006
Katherine A. Kimball ’35, Spokane, Wash., Jan. 21, 2007 Ruth S. Krull ’30, Seattle, Wash., Nov. 20, 2006 Gordon M. Martin ’39, Bethesda, Md., Jan. 4, 2007 Margaret S. Martin ’38, Spokane, Wash., Oct. 16, 2006 Robert McFarland ’39, Coeur d’Alene, Oct. 11, 2006
Emma Isabel, daughter of Nicholas ’02, ’05 and Grace Williams ’02, ’04 Wittman
Helen P. Nissen ’38, Idaho Falls, Dec. 8, 2006 John A. Pierce ’38, Malta, Oct. 17, 2006 H. Myrl Stearns ’37, Greenbrae, Calif., Oct. 9, 2006 Ruth Stearns ’38, Tomales, Calif., June 19, 2006
August 1 is the deadline for nominations for University of Idaho Alumni Association Awards. See www.supportui.uidaho.edu
IDAHO
for details.
28
Honor our Alumni
Shirley R. Clark ’44, Twin Falls, Dec. 8, 2006 Harold J. Dahmen ’40, Moscow, Nov. 9, 2006
Ione Mercer ’36, Spokane, Wash., Dec. 1, 2006
Honor our Alumni
Raymond H. Clark ’40, Jan. 7, 2007
Richard W. Brown ’39, Richland, Wash., July 26, 2006
Paul Ryan, son of Rob ’01 and Gina ’01, ’02 Strobel
winn
Rowena M. Chaney ’45, Boise, Jan. 27, 2007
Clarabelle Stonebraker ’37, Lewiston, Oct. 17, 2006 DeVere Tovey ’37, North Logan, Utah, Nov. 29, 2006 Boyd H. Walter ’39, Manson, Wash., Jan. 2007 Edgar F. Wilson ’39, Sacramento, Calif., Jan. 8, 2007
Carolyn N. Elder ’47, Scottsdale, Ariz., Sept. 13, 2006 Willard F. Emigh ’40, Sacramento, Calif., Oct. 4, 2006 Alton Fairchild ’41, ’54, Albion, Oct. 16, 2006 Helen J. Fankin ’47, The Dalles, Ore., Dec. 25, 2006 John S. Feldhusen Jr. ’49, Kimberly, Jan. 27, 2007 Phyllis Folkins Johnson ’42, Spokane, Wash., Jan. 10, 2007 Francis E. Frost ’47, Boise, Oct. 23, 2006 Fred L. Gardiaol ’42, Santa Clara, Calif., April 14, 2006 Mary J. Hankey ’46, Boise, Oct. 28, 2006 John F. Harvey ’41, Austin, Texas, Jan. 16, 2007 John (Jack) Henricus ’49, Boise, Nov. 1, 2006 Theodore G. Hepper ’49, Dec. 1, 2006 John E. Jones ’40, ’42, Peoria, Ariz., Oct. 29, 2006 Thor H. Kiilsgaard ’42, Spokane, Wash., Oct. 19, 2006
William T. Wood ’34, Coeur d’Alene, Oct. 19, 2006
Miriam Lydia Maier Koester ’42, Gooding, Oct. 3, 2006
1940
William D. Mayes Sr. ’46, Meridian, Jan. 1, 2007
Kent Barber ’44, Meridian, Dec. 2, 2006 Barton A. Brassey ’48, Boise, Oct. 29, 2006
Patrick J. McGauley ’42, Plantation, Fla., Oct. 13, 2006
AlUMNI Class Notes Henry F. McQuade ’40, 43, Boise, Dec. 13, 2006
Anne M. Eggleson ’51, Idaho Falls, Jan. 24, 2007
Gretchen VandenBerg ’50, Portland, Ore., Nov. 22, 2006
Virginia P. Moore ’49, Boise, Oct. 27, 2006
Wayne B. Fagg ’59, Rupert, Nov. 10, 2006
Helen W. Weitz ’56, Caldwell, Feb. 1, 2007
Joan L. Mullins ’45, Fresno, Calif., Oct. 31, 2006
Raymond A. Fife ’59, Vancouver, Wash., Nov. 19, 2006
Billy D. Welch ’54, Boise, Oct. 27, 2006
Jean L. Sherwood ’47, Houston, Texas, Oct. 9, 2006 Robert W. Retherford ’41, Anchorage, Alaska, Oct. 13, 2006 John A. Schodde ’40, Sacramento, Calif., Nov. 20, 2006 Frances R. Swanson ’42, Asheville, N.C., Jan. 18, 2007 Dorothy Holden Taylor ’40, Lake Oswego, Ore., March 19, 2006 Nile N. Taylor ’40, Salt Lake City, Utah, Jan. 22, 2007 C. Maurine Timmerman ’42, Pasadena, Calif., Nov. 14, 2006 Mac Tschanz ’49, Westminster, Colo., July 31, 2006 Billie K. Turner ’45, Juno Beach, Fla., Nov. 11, 2006 Donald O. Requist ’40, Susquehanna, Penn., Oct. 20, 2006 Edward T. Wadsley ’41, Cambria, Calif., Dec. 6, 2006 Madelyn M. Wagner ’47, Grangeville, Nov. 26, 2006 Geraldine F. Yasvac ’49, Boise, Oct. 2, 2006 Elizabeth “Betty” York ’42, Hood River, Ore., Nov. 24, 2006
1950 Florence J. Ashby ’51, Wichita Falls, Texas, Dec. 10, 2006 John O. Asker Jr. ’51, Soap Lake, Wash., Feb. 5, 2007 Aldrich E. Bowler ’52, Boise, Jan. 16, 2007 Elbert C. Cleaveland ’50, Boise, Sept. 27, 2006 Wendell P. Coombs ’54, Sun City, Calif., Jan. 1, 2007 Keith K. Dedrick ’50, Huntsville, Ala., Oct. 25, 2006
Zeph H. Foster ’56, Boise, Nov. 20, 2006 William V. Gary ’57, Tacoma, Wash., Oct. 20, 2006 J.P. Hamilton ’51, Buhl, Jan. 9, 2007 Clifford M. Hansen ’58, Burley, Jan. 9, 2007 James L. Horn ’56, Hayden, Oct. 26, 2006 John W. Jewell ’53, Montpelier, Feb. 6, 2007 Helen M. Knight ’52, Libby, Mont., Aug. 17, 2006 Leo L. Knowlton ’50, ’55, Boise, Oct. 11, 2006 James R. Lex ’57, Kalispell, Mont., May 26, 2006 Roy Mosman ’53, Moscow, Dec. 7, 2006 Raymond F. Norton ’53, Clarkston, Wash., Nov. 16, 2006 Richard D. Parker ’54, Coeur d’Alene, Jan. 13, 2007 Margaret Ruth “Peggy” Pruett ’52, Everett, Wash., Sept. 29, 2006 Eli Rapaich ’53, Lewiston, Oct. 7, 2006 Melvin E. Reynolds ’54, Boise, Nov. 9, 2006 Nicholas P. Roberts ’50, Moscow, Oct. 21, 2006 Wayne L. Robison ’52, ’72, Boise, Oct. 13, 2006 Robert George Seelos ’53, San Diego, Calif., Nov. 11, 2006 Donald H. Schmith ’55, Madras, Ore., June 21, 2006 Byran E. Taylor ’50, Clarkston, Wash., Oct. 9, 2006 Kathleen Thomas ’57, Las Vegas, Nev., Jan. 17, 2006 Nova A. Thomas ’56, Edmonds, Wash., Oct. 16, 2006 Dale E. Tritten ’59, Coeur d’Alene, Jan. 25, 2007
Miles K. Wirth ’50, Twin Falls, Jan. 21, 2007 Eleanor E. Wright ’50, Portland, Ore., Oct. 2, 2006
1960 Lillian M. Anderson ’63, Boise, Dec. 30, 2006 Thomas R. Ensley ’61, Boise, Oct. 11, 2006 David A. Frazier ’63, ’65, Coeur d’Alene, Oct. 29, 2006 Willard M. Huff ’67, Moses Lake, Wash., Dec. 3, 2006 Byron Kasney ’69, Boise, Nov. 5, 2006 Charles W. LaFontaine ’53, ’62, Mountain Home, Nov. 30, 2006 Kenneth Eugene Lyon ’62, Boise, Sept. 22, 2006
Freddie Anne (Kohl) Fuehrer ’73, Filer, Dec. 25, 2006 Tommy W. Gooch ’71, Rigby, Sept. 30, 2006 John C. Hohnhorst ’78, Twin Falls, Feb. 3, 2007 Richard Lewis Jasman ’77, Dec. 15, 2006 Eugene V. Knox ’74, Idaho Falls, Jan. 20, 2007 Andrew Mikkola ’74, Idaho Falls, Jan. 23, 2007 Frank B. Miller ’77, Phoenix, Ariz., Nov. 7, 2006 Patrick J. O’ Connor ’72, Wallowa, Ore., May 21, 2006 James M. Paulson ’79, Phoenix, Ariz., Sept. 29, 2006 Pauline M. Piper ’72, Boise, Dec. 25, 2006 James S. Pullin ’71, Boise, Dec. 7, 2006
1980
Darwin J. Nelson ’64, Tucson, Ariz,, June 20, 2006
Kenneth R. Allen ’84, Jacksonville, Fla., July 7, 2006
William (Bill) A. Nelson ’68, Spanish Fork, Utah, Jan. 19, 2007
Arthur Braden ’81, Spokane Valley, Wash., Oct. 25, 2006
Fredrick I. Proshold ’60, Chico, Calif., Nov. 26, 2006 Gerald J. Rohwein ’60, Albuquerque, N.M., Oct. 17, 2006 Bessie P. Storms ’60, St. Maries, Dec. 1, 2006 Esther Thorpe ’67, Lewiston, Nov. 2, 2006
Debra A Davis ’80, Boulder, Colo., Sept. 28, 2006 Doris C. Johnston ’89, Boise, Jan. 30, 2007 Kelley R. Johnson ’86, Boise, Nov. 10, 2006 Gregory S. Rogers ’82, ’83, Hazelton, Nov. 10, 2006
1990
Alexis Tupyi ’69, Rupert, Nov. 9, 2006
Jacob D. Greenslitt ’95, Spokane, Wash., Nov. 7, 2006
Robert H. Vervaeke ’63, Spokane, Wash., Dec. 4, 2006
Joan M. Leahy ’93, Coeur d’Alene, Nov. 12, 2006
1970
Timothy Perry ’94, Boise, Nov. 18, 2006
Ron Ball ’74, Mount Vernon, Wash., Nov. 25, 2006 Norma Bell ’74, Seattle, Wash., Aug. 28, 2006
2000 Laurie L. Long ’04, Stanwood, Wash., Nov. 5, 2006
Sandra H. Braun ’79, Caldwell, Nov. 11, 2006 Carleen Bates Davidson ’74, Post Falls, Oct. 14, 2006 Albert C. Eason ’74, Boise, Feb. 3, 2007
spring 2007
Rei K. Osaki ’43, Pasadena, Calif., Nov. 15, 2006
Frances T. Fleener ’76 ’84, Pullman, Wash., Sept. 26, 2006
29
Class Notes
Alumni I Want to Shake Your Hand New Alumni Director Is Genuine Idaho Article
Executive Director of Alumni Relations Steve Johnson ’71
By Leslie Einhaus
IDAHO
W
30
ith a strong handshake paired with a friendly voice of enthusiasm, Steve Johnson ’71 makes friends faster than Joe Vandal himself. In a matter of minutes, it’s obvious–Johnson is the genuine article of Idaho. In many striking ways, the newly appointed executive director of Alumni Relations is, simply, Idaho in terms of charm, connectedness and his quest toward excellence. “To me, there is no finer University and set of alumni in the world than the University of Idaho,” Johnson said. “For my wife, Claudia, and me this is the opportunity of a lifetime. To come back to the University of Idaho’s worldwide family and serve the institution that helped mold our lives is a real honor.” Already, Johnson has proved he is a genuine people-person. One of his main goals is to “shake the hand of every living alum.” His love of interacting with others was cultivated during his time at the University of Idaho. “The lessons I learned at Sigma Nu, I use today,” explained Johnson, who noted the social graces he learned have served him well in life.
Johnson graduated from Idaho in 1971. He served on the Alumni Board of Directors from 1996 to 2000. Before arriving as the alumni leader in February of this year, Johnson led the Idaho Grain Producers Association in Boise. He’s also been a teacher and a coach, two roles he hopes to use to some extent at the University of Idaho. “I see a real opportunity here. I want to help develop new leaders,” said Johnson, who oversees organizations like the Student Alumni Relations Board. In terms of alumni, he wants to “enhance the bond” between graduates and their ol’ stomping grounds. The grounds of the University of Idaho evolve, but a familiarity still resides. “Everything is growing, yet things stay the same,” explained Johnson. For this alumnus, the aesthetics of the University is unmatched: “I travel a lot and I think we have the most beautiful University in the country.” The bond is strong between Idaho alums and their University. In fact, “it’s unbreakable. I am excited to be a part of the process.” I
AlUMNI Class Notes
Engineering the Wind By Joni Kirk
Alumni Association Awards 2007
T
he University of Idaho Awards program began in 1962, and serves as the Alumni Association mechanism to directly recognize and reward deserving alumni, volunteers and other individuals. Alumni, faculty and staff are reminded of the August 1 deadline for submission of nomination materials to the Alumni Office. Listings of award recipients and criteria is available at www.idahovandals.com. For information or to nominate someone for an Alumni Association Award, please contact the Alumni Office at (208) 885-5106 or alumni@idahovandals.com. Awards presented include the Silver and Gold Award, Jim Lyle Award and Alumni Hall of Fame. Alumni Hall of Fame “Recognizes living alumni who have achieved national or international distinction by their accomplishments and leadership.” May 2007 inductees include: D. John Thornton ’70, ’73 Kirby Dyess ’68 Sharlene Gage ’64, ’66 Keith Riffle ’62, ’63
spring 2007
E
ngineer by vocation, competitive sailor by advocation–that’s Lester Igo ’98. Igo is a senior developer for InfoBlox, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based network identity applications development company. But when he’s not ensuring network capabilities, he heads for the wind-tossed waves to harness the wind in the sails of his J/24 sailing vessel. He’s sailed in waters from Sydney, Australia to the south of France. His sailing team placed sixth in the 2006 Western U.S. Regional competition, 25th in the 2006 U.S. National competition and first in the 2005 Western U.S. Regional competition. This spring, Igo joined the crew of TMC Racing and finished 34th Lester Igo, second from left, trims the sails on at the 2007 J/24 TMC Racing’s J/24 sailing vessel. World Sailing Championship in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. Igo believes what he learned at Idaho’s College of Engineering fully prepared him for the intricacies of computers that are required on a daily basis at InfoBlox. The skills also come in handy when he’s on the water. “My engineering skills naturally emerge when sailing; they come into play all the time–at home, work and in sailing,” he said. “The practice of having an idea or need, sketching out designs, analyzing designs, planning material and cost, and then building to that design is useful in just about every aspect of life.” James Foster, a bioinformatics and computational biology researcher at Idaho, said Igo’s sailing experiences also draw from problem-solving skills learned in Foster’s evolutionary computation course during Igo’s undergraduate experience. “The idea of evolutionary computation is to solve problems by looking at how nature develops things that meet very strict requirements–such as survive the ocean or die. I suspect Lester has become very good at looking around him to see what his environment is like, and then adapting to it. That’s sailing!” I
31
Class Notes
Alumni
AlUMNI Class Notes
Alumni in the Legislature How do we measure the success of University of Idaho graduates? Perhaps, the best standard lies with the accomplishments of its alumni. The University has a long tradition of preparing students for leadership roles, and the current membership of the Idaho Legislature reflects the success of those efforts. You could call it taking the road from the Kibbie Dome to the Capitol Dome. This year, 24 of the 105 members of the state Legislature are Idaho alumni. They have been recognized as leaders and selected by the citizens in their areas to represent them in Boise. The fact that nearly one-in-four members of the Legislature are University alumni is impressive, as is the number of alumni who are serving in key leadership posts in the Legislature.
Other alumni service in the legislature include: Sen. Tom Gannon ’68, Agricultural Affairs Committee chair Sen. John Andreason ’76, Commerce and Human Resources Committee chair Sen. Gary Schroeder ’72, Resources and Environment Committee chair Rep. Tom Trail ’58, Agricultural Affairs Committee chair Rep. Robert Schaeffer ’67, Commerce and Human Resources Committee chair Rep. Sharon Block ’63, Health and Welfare Committee chair Rep. Jim Clark ’89, Judiciary and Rules Committee chair Sen. Stan Bastain ’96 ’97 Sen. Mike Burkett ’80 Sen. Jeff Siddoway ’71 Rep. Darrell Bolz ’66 Rep. Bert Brackett ’66 Rep. Bill Killen ’76 Rep. Lynn Luker ’80 Rep. Jim Patrick ’68 Rep. Donna Pence ’64 Rep. James Ruchti ’01 Rep. Jerry Shively ’61
Jacky Digital
Senate President and Lt. Governor Jim Risch ’65 ’68 Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis ’81 Assistant Senate Majority Leader Joe Stegner ’01 Senate Majority Caucus Chair Brad Little ’77 Senate Minority Caucus Chair Kate Kelly ’83 Speaker of the House Lawerence Denney ’70 Assistant House Minority Leader George Sayler’77
Front row: Lt. Governor and Senate President Jim Risch; President Tim White; and Rep. Donna Pence. Second row: Speaker of the House Lawerence Denney; Sen. Stan Bastain; and Rep. Jim Patrick. Third row: Sen. Mike Burkett; Sen. Brad Little; Rep. George Sayler; Rep. Bert Brackett; and Rep. Bill Killen. Top Row: Sen. Tom Gannon; Sen. Jeff Siddoway; Sen. Gary Schroeder; Sen. Joe Stegner; and Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis.
IDAHO
The University of Idaho is proud of the role that it plays in developing leadership skills, and there are no better examples than those alumni who now serve in the Idaho Legislature.
32
Idaho Outlook
University of Idaho | Financial and Estate Planning News | SPRING 2007
Dear Friends of Idaho Welcome to Idaho Outlook
T
his issue of Idaho Outlook focuses on ways to build a legacy through gift planning. In the next few pages, you will meet some dedicated Idaho supporters whose planning reflects not only their sense of vision and generosity, but also their love for and loyalty to the University of Idaho. You will find articles on: • Inspired by Nature–Doug ’68 and Kathleen ’68 Whitlock have created an endowment to further education in environmental sciences and preservation of our natural heritage that expresses their appreciation for the cutting-edge work being done in this field at the University of Idaho. • True Vandal Fans–Trevor ’93 and LeeAnn Tarter are giving back now by establishing two endowments: one to support student-athletes from the Twin Falls area, the other to provide educational enhancements for the University Library. Both endowments will receive additional funding through their estate plan. • Unrestricted Generosity–Daniel Whiting ’96 has provided an unrestricted gift to the University of Idaho Foundation through his estate plan to ensure that his alma mater will continue to serve students and the research community well beyond his lifetime. • From Ditch Digging to Diplomacy–Jeff ’64 and Pearl Watts have established a scholarship in memory of their son, Ian, to be funded with proceeds from a life insurance policy. The Ian Jay Watts Memorial Scholarship will provide an opportunity for students from England to study at the University of Idaho. You also will find in this issue some helpful guidelines on IRA Rollover gifts. The IRS answers to the questions raised by donors, advisers and charities will be of interest to those of you over age 70 1/2 who are considering a direct contribution from your IRA to the University of Idaho in the remaining months of 2007. As always, we would love to hear from you. Moreover, we welcome the opportunity to discuss how you, too, can Build a Legacy through Gift Planning!
Ed McBride Gift Planning Services
Heidi Linehan Gift Planning Services
spring 2007
Sincerely,
33
Idaho Outlook Kathy ’68 and Doug ’68 Whitlock
Inspired By Nature
Idaho Outlook • Financial and Estate Planning News IDAHO
D
2 34
oug ’68 and Kathy ’68, ’74 Whitlock are both University of Idaho graduates, he in geography and she in physical education with minors in psychology and zoology. In late 2006, they created The Doug and Kathy Whitlock Environmental Science Endowment at the University, which directs that distributed earnings be awarded to deserving graduate students pursuing an advanced degree in any one or more of the disciplines under the auspices of the Environmental Science Program. Kathleen Brandenburg Whitlock was born and raised in McCall. She grew up by the lake and swam, fished, rode horseback, biked, skied, and most of all, gained a love for and appreciation of our great outdoors and the need to preserve and protect it for future generations. In her growing-up years, she had the distinct pleasure of working for Dr. Herald Nokes in the McCall Medical Clinic, and riding horseback along Little Payette Lake on the very property Dr. and Mrs. Nokes recently gave to the University of Idaho. That gift was an inspiration to Kathy and her husband, Doug, and was a
significant factor in their decision to create their endowment. After graduating from the University of Idaho, Kathy taught junior high PE for four years in Payette, then returned to the University of Idaho in 1973 to earn a master’s degree in education. In 1976, Kathy began a 24-year career with the Bethel School District in Spanaway, Wash., managing its purchasing and construction program to build and equip new schools. George D. (Doug) Whitlock was born in Utah and moved to Idaho in his teens. He spent much of his time exploring the red rock country of Utah where he developed a deep interest in saving this great country. Upon his graduation from the University of Idaho, he went to work for the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. He later transferred to Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Wash., where he became a contract administrator for the Department of Defense. He moved to western Washington to work at McChord Air Force Base as a contracting officer, ultimately becoming director of business operations for McChord, responsible
for all local contracting actions in support of the base. He also was the small business specialist for McChord and especially enjoyed assisting minority-owned businesses in obtaining government contracts. He retired from the DOD in 2002. A lifelong hunter, fisherman and “gentleman farmer,” Doug has long been very interested in the environment. Through volunteering with the Nature Conservancy he began working on native prairie restoration in Puget Sound. After her retirement, Kathy became an active volunteer at a local hospital in pet therapy and also with the Nature Conservancy in native prairie restoration along with Doug. It is this work with the Nature Conservancy that inspired the Whitlocks to create an endowment to further education in environmental sciences and preservation of our natural heritage. They appreciate the cutting-edge work being done at the University of Idaho in this field and the collaborative efforts across numerous disciplines to make this a vital part of the University’s education and research mission.
T
revor ’93 and LeeAnn Tarter of Twin Falls have made provisions for the University of Idaho through their estate plan. “We’ve done so simply because we feel it’s the right thing to do at this point in our lives,” said Trevor. “The University of Idaho is a special place. It is there that the groundwork was laid for who I am today, both personally and professionally. My career as an Edward Jones financial adviser and LeeAnn’s career as the general manager of Westerra Real Estate have been good to us.” Trevor came to the University of Idaho in 1989 and graduated in 1993 with a degree in recreation and tourism. He made some of his best friendships and developed many long-standing relationships as a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
It was also during this time that he became a true “fan” of Vandal athletics and the University of Idaho. “Rather than waiting until later in life to give back, we are doing so now,” said Trevor. The Trevor and LeeAnn Tarter Excellence in Athletics Scholarship Endowment will provide support to student-athletes from the Twin Falls area and will continue to do so long after we are gone. We also want to support other things that are important to us, things like the library, the campus recreation programs, and the Gamma Eta chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. We have been afforded many opportunities. It is our hope that perhaps we can help, in some small way, afford others some of those same opportunities.”
Scholarships Help
“The Vandal athletics scholarship that I am receiving helps my family and me in many ways. It allows me the freedom to concentrate on my studies and sport without the added pressure of a part-time job, that would make school almost impossible for any student-athlete. It also relieves some of the financial burden from my family. I sincerely thank everyone that has contributed to the Vandal Scholarship Fund, and all who give to the University of Idaho. Go Vandals!” —John Hieb, student-athlete from Twin Falls
John Hieb
Idaho Outlook • Financial and Estate Planning News
True Vandal Fans
“Library endowments make it possible to extend our purchasing power. When we order electronic journals and materials, we extend our abilities to serve our faculty and students wherever they are, from office to home, in Idaho or abroad. We offer top quality information to our library users and they respond. Last year, they performed over one million searches on our databases. Our traditional services also are enhanced. Endowments permit us to purchase those things that would be nice to own, not merely the essential purchases. In this way, when our library users walk through the rows of books, they can enjoy the experience of discovering something that they hadn’t expected. University life is complex and increasingly demanding, so electronic access becomes less of a luxury and more of a requirement. By increasing our amount of electronic resources, either through purchase or by creating digital specialized collections, we can extend the University of Idaho Library to be a partner in learning at any time and anywhere. Endowment funds support our growth as we embrace new scholarly communications. —Lynn Baird, Library Dean
spring 2007
Reilly, Trevor ’93, LeeAnn and Jayd Tarter
Idaho Outlook
From the Library Dean
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Idaho Outlook
Unrestricted Generosity
“We are grateful for Dan’s generosity and foresight, which will allow future generations of students the opportunity to have the experiences he cherished at the University. Planned gifts transform lives. Heritage gifts, like Dan’s, allow the University to determine the best application of the funds at the time they are received. It’s just one of the many ways alumni
Idaho Outlook • Financial and Estate Planning News IDAHO
of all ages give back to this
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great institution.” —President Tim White
C
oming to the University of not have been complete without Idaho in 1991, Dan Whiting Idaho’s focus on a residential campus ’96 planned on staying a year experience.” and then transfer to Purdue when his Since graduating, Whiting learned Air Force ROTC scholarship kicked more about all the University of in. “I came to Idaho because it was Idaho does while serving on the staff the school I could afford, Whiting of U.S. Senator Larry Craig. “When I said. “I stayed because it is a solid was at Idaho, I had little knowledge school and one I could afford. I want of the world-class research being to do my part to ensure the University done at my school. Through my of Idaho remains the work, I have had “I encourage all proud the opportunity to institution I know and love for generations Vandals, whether you are see mind-blowing to come.” research at Idaho Whiting claims that still in school or went to each and every when he graduated day–research that from high school in Idaho when the Lewiston is improving lives, Idaho Falls, all he creating jobs, knew about northern grade was much more protecting our Idaho was that it daunting, to include Idaho environment, rained more and the and more.” trees grew above your in your estate planning.” Whiting, who knees. He says, “I have has designated the —Dan Whiting since found out there University of Idaho is one fine University Foundation as a and that you don’t have to dam a river beneficiary in his will, first heard to have a lake.” about the Heritage Society and gift While at Idaho, Whiting fit classes planning in Idaho Outlook. “I want to in between his involvement with the see my alma mater continue to serve community, work, ASUI, and growing students and the research community in his Christian faith. He credits well beyond my lifetime. My estate Idaho’s focus on a residential campus is not large, but I hope that when with fostering an environment where combined with other small gifts, all of that was possible. “It is clear we can make a big difference for that my college experience would future Vandals.”
Idaho Outlook
IRS Gives Guidelines on IRA Rollover Gifts
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The IRA rollover provision of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 has many wonderful tax advantages for people age 70½ who have excess amounts in their IRA accounts. However, one of the provisions that must be kept in mind is that the entire charitable gift made in this fashion must have no benefits returning to the donors other than the great feeling that always accompanies the making of a charitable gift. An example of a benefit flowing back to the donor would be the priority seating rights that go with gifts made to the Vandal Scholarship Fund. The law presumes that a gift made to the VSF automatically carries with it the right to purchase season tickets for seats in the “better” part of the stadium. This presumption attaches even if the donor does not actually buy tickets, unless he or she specifically declines the right. This same provision applies in other places, too–wherever there is a benefit coming back to the donor in return for the gift. If in doubt, call us at the number shown on page 8, or check with your tax adviser.
Idaho Outlook • Financial and Estate Planning News
QUID PRO QUO
spring 2007
n August of last year, President Bush signed into law a bill that became known as the Pension Protection Act of 2006. It covers a variety of issues, but of special importance to the charitably inclined is a provision commonly called the IRA Rollover. Initially, there were some concerns about how to apply this new act, but the IRS has provided favorable answers to questions raised by donors, advisers and charities. The new law allows IRA owners age 70½ and older to authorize direct contributions from their IRA to charity of up to $100,000 in the years 2006 and 2007. These qualified charitable distributions, as they are officially called, while not eligible for deductions, are excluded from the owner’s gross income and satisfy required minimum distributions. The new IRS guidance may assist donors contemplating charitable distributions in 2007. • In addition to traditional and Roth IRAs, owners of SEP and SIMPLE IRAs may authorize charitable distributions, provided these types of IRAs are not “ongoing.” An account is considered ongoing if an employer makes a contribution for the year of the distribution. • Beneficiaries of inherited IRAs are eligible to make these tax-protected distributions, provided they are age 70½ or older. • An IRA owner who made a contribution to charity prior to the August 17, 2006 effective date–possibly by writing a check on the account–may exclude the amount from gross income, provided the owner was age 70½ or older at the time. • IRA owners are not required to have taxes withheld from the distributions. An owner requesting a distribution is deemed to have elected out of withholding. The IRA trustee or custodian may rely upon the IRA owner’s reasonable representations regarding the need for withholding. • A check made payable to a charity will be considered to be a direct payment from the IRA custodian or trustee, even if it is personally delivered by the IRA owner. • Distributions may be made only to organizations described in Code §170(b)(1)(A). The University of Idaho Foundation is such an organization. • If the direct payment from an IRA to charity does not satisfy the requirements of the IRS Code, the amount of the payment will be treated as a distribution from the IRA to the owner, and thus includible in gross income, followed by a contribution from the owner to charity. The contribution can then be deducted as a charitable gift, but there are limits based on one’s adjusted gross income. This is why, if there is any question or doubt, a person contemplating an IRA rollover gift should first consult his or her tax adviser. • We, at Gift Planning Services, are available and willing to discuss your options with you, but keep in mind that we cannot dispense legal or tax advice. See page 8 of this Idaho Outlook for contact information.
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Idaho Outlook
Jeff ’64 and Pearl Watts
Idaho Outlook • Financial and Estate Planning News IDAHO
“Vandals are the kindest folks you’ll ever meet–I know! It is time to return a little to the institution that set me firmly on the right track of life.” —Jeff Watts
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From Ditch Digging to Diplomacy
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daho graduate Jeff Watts ’64 was born and raised in England before leaving for British Columbia, Canada, in 1954 by way of New York. He was awestruck by Times Square and Manhattan, and then traveled west visiting cities like Chicago and Seattle. At the young age of 17, Jeff voyaged north to Kemano, B.C., to work as a boilermaker on a project for the Aluminum Company of Canada. It was there he met Doug Ellis ’49, an assistant business manager for Morrison-Knudsen Company. Doug’s father-in-law was Norman Hindle, chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Idaho. Doug and his wife, Barbara, encouraged Jeff to invest his hard-
earned savings in a college degree at Idaho. When Jeff was ready to leave Canada for Moscow, Doug pressed an envelope into his hand. It was a check for $384 made out to the University of Idaho–enough for one year’s out-ofstate tuition. In August 1956, Jeff flew into the Moscow-Pullman airport in a DC-3. After his first year at Idaho, he was married and worked that summer at the Kaiser Mead Plant in Spokane, Wash., and weekends at the Plantation Tavern. He took three years off from his civil engineering studies to work as a Canadian miner. By the time he was ready to return to Idaho in 1961, he had three sons.
You can turn over a paid-up life insurance policy or merely name the University as beneficiary of an existing one. Regardless of your choice, you are investing in the continued success of the University of Idaho. Tax benefits will vary according to the method you use, but the future gains to the University are virtually incalculable. See our contact information on page 8. We’d love to hear from you!
Sharing Cultural Experiences Helen Jackson, 21, is from the British Isles and was awarded a scholarship for 2006 to attend the University of Idaho. She is a nondegree student at the University of Idaho, studying law and psychology. “I graduated from the University of Leeds in England with a first class LLB law degree in 2006 and decided that it would be wonderful to study law in a different jurisdiction. The scholarship enabled me to do this, providing me with the opportunity to continue my studies in an entirely different continent. “The scholarship paid for my tuition, fees and other college expenses at the University. It is a fantastic opportunity to come to the University of Idaho and meet new people, and live in a completely different community. “My scholarship is for the 2006 school year here at the University of Idaho and in May 2007, I will return to the Isle of Man, bringing with me academic and personal experiences to share with my community. I hope that in the future, scholarships will be available for students from other countries giving them the same opportunity to experience what I did.”
Idaho Outlook • Financial and Estate Planning News
Do you have a policy?
Helen Jackson
spring 2007
Since retiring in 1999, Jeff has completed short-term assignments in Armenia, Republic of Georgia, Azerbyjian, East Timor, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Morocco and Slovakia. Jeff attended the Golden I reunion this past spring and walked away knowing he wanted to give back to the University of Idaho. “Vandals are the kindest folks you’ll ever meet–I know! It is time to return a little to the institution that set me firmly on the right track of life.” “The Watts family is proud to return a little bit by making the University of Idaho the beneficiary of a life insurance policy in memory of our son, Ian Jay Watts, who died in New Zealand 1988 while climbing Mount Cook.” The proceeds from the policy will establish The Ian Jay Watts Memorial Scholarship, and will provide an opportunity for students from England to study at the University of Idaho.
Idaho Outlook
Jeff was proud to prove that after dropping out, some students do come back to finish their education. He returned in full force, and worked part time on the Spring Valley Dam outside of Troy. He was elected president of the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter, and became a member of Sigma Tau honorary. After graduation, Jeff followed a career in heavy foundation construction and rapid transit contracts in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. In 1975, he and Pearl were married. They combined her four children with his three sons and together they now have 21 grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. Jeff became a Foreign Service construction engineer and project director with the U.S. Department of State in Papua, New Guinea; Sri Lanka; Germany; and Kyrgyzstan.
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Idaho Outlook
Ways to Give Through Your Estate Plan
IDAHO Idaho Outlook • Financial and Estate Planning News
There are many ways you can support the University of Idaho in addition to an outright gift. Below is a brief listing of how you can participate in this vital component of the University of Idaho’s mission.
Type
What is it?
What are the tax benefits?
What are some other benefits?
Bequest in Will or Revocable Living Trust
A gift you make by naming the University of Idaho in your will for a certain dollar amount, percentage or the residuary.
Reduces size of taxable estate.
Gives you flexibility in providing for family needs first. You become a member of our Heritage Society.
Charitable Gift Annuity
A contract in which the Foundation agrees to pay you back a percentage of your gift annually for your lifetime.
Immediate income tax deduction for part of gift’s value, capital gains spread out over life expectancy, a portion of the income is tax-exempt.
Gives you and/or another beneficiary a set income for life. Heritage Society membership.
Life Insurance Gift
A gift of an existing or new policy with the Foundation named as beneficiary and owner.
Immediate income tax deduction for gift’s value, plus possible estate tax savings.
Provides a way to make a significant gift with minimal capital outlay. Heritage Society membership.
Retirement Plan Gift
A gift made by naming the Foundation as remainder beneficiary after your death.
Heirs avoid income tax and possible estate tax.
Preserves 100 percent of plan’s value and allows you to leave heirs other, less costly bequests. Heritage Society membership.
Retained Life Estate
A donation of your home or farm, but with the right to remain there.
Immediate income tax deduction for the charitable value of the gift, plus no capital gains tax due.
Allows you to live in your home or farm and still receive charitable deduction; assures immediate passage of title on your death. Heritage Society membership.
Charitable Remainder Trust
A trust that pays a set or variable income to you or those you name before the University receives remainder.
Income tax savings from deduction, no capital gains tax liability, possible estate tax savings.
Provides guaranteed annual income that could increase if trust value increases. Heritage Society membership.
Charitable Lead Trust
A trust that pays the University an income for a period of years before you or heirs receive the trust remainder.
Gift or estate tax savings for value of payments made to a charity.
Allows you to pass assets to heirs intact at reduced or even no estate or gift tax. Heritage Society membership.
When properly established through a trust, the insurance passes to heirs estate-tax free.
Tax savings and cash flow from a life income plan may be enough to pay the premiums. Heritage Society membership.
Life insurance for your Wealth Replacement heirs to replace the asset funding your Trust charitable gift.
Please let us know if you have remembered the University of Idaho in your estate plans.
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Office of Development Gift Planning Services PO Box 443201 Moscow, ID 83844-3201 Phone: (208) 885-7069 Toll Free: (866) 671-7041 Fax: (208) 885-4483
Edward J. McBride E-mail: mcbride@uidaho.edu Cell: (509) 336-9368
Heidi C. Linehan E-mail: hlinehan@uidaho.edu Cell: (208) 310-6425
www.uidaho.edu/givetoidaho
Sports VANDAL
is a professional rugby player, who makes a living out of a passion. He now trains for a spot on the USA Eagles team, who will play in the 2007 World Cup held in France in September. Before graduating with a degree in environmental science in 2004, Van Der Giessen spent a semester in Brisbane, Australia and played for a local men’s rugby club. Upon seeing him play in Australia, the coach of the French Faucigny Mont-Blanc club offered to set Van Der Giessen up with his team. “It was great learning the French style of the game, but proved difficult because my teammates spoke little to no English,” he said. “It was a great culture, many John Van Der Giessen ’04, with ball, sees the world through a scrum. Scandinavians, Italians, British and Aussies, all supporters of rugby together in that small French town.” Then, a retired New Zealand player saw potential in Van Der Giessen and encouraged him to play with the Hawkes Bay Rugby Club in New Zealand. He did, and for eight months trained, listened and learned from his By Katie Dahlinger teammates on the Central Hawkes Bay Rugby Club, where he was voted the 2006 Most Improved Player award. t’s an eye-piercing, sunny Saturday; a perfect rugby “My hard-nosed Kiwi teammates pushed me to another day. University of Idaho ruggers, young and old, line level, their instincts for the game are amazing,” he said. the pitch, wearing their Idaho jerseys, their boots laced, While in New Zealand, he was selected to play in the mouth guards at the ready and heads wrapped. This game coveted New Zealand Provincial Competition trial match is tough, and players tape their ears back so they cannot with the Hawkes Bay Magpies–the province’s premier be pulled or split. They have come to tell stories of the old team. It didn’t take long for the USA Eagles coaches to days, sing the Idaho Rugby song, and above all, play the catch a glimpse of Van Der Giessen’s game. He traveled to game that ties them all together. Southern California to participate in various tournaments, Rugby is an international game where a team of train, develop skills and coach at the University of 15 players pass a ball laterally or backwards to their California-Santa Barbara. teammates who run in stride with the ball holder. Alex Goff, editor-in-chief of Goff on Rugby, recently “To a person who is unaccustomed to the sport, it ranked Van Der Giessen on his list of the top 100 appears to be two teams just running around, hitting American rugby players. anyone with the ball, said John Van Der Giessen ’04. “I As for the future, Van Der Giessen says he just wants to have heard it described as barbaric. But, it is much more– keep playing good sound rugby. He has been applauded for fast, hard and very technical.” his quickness, jumping abilities, dedication and willingness Van Der Giessen, with a six-foot six-inch frame, shed to learn by coaches and spectators alike. his high school football helmet and pads for the fast“I believe rugby to be the toughest, most paced, high-contact, internationally recognized game at the physically demanding, dynamic team sport around,” University of Idaho. said Van Der Giessen. “When he first came out to the pitch, he was all gangly Rugby has been a tradition at the University of Idaho and goofy,” said former Idaho Rugby Coach Conrad since 1976 and every five years former and current players Breitbach. “I’d draw out plays and discuss strategies with gather for the Alumni Tournament to pay tribute to the him for hours. He ate it up.” sport of split eyebrows, broken noses and perfect tackles, In the past 18 months Van Der Giessen has played more and celebrate with a beverage of choice in hand. It’s a than 50 matches, representing teams from four different tradition John Van Der Giessen learned well. I countries: Australia; France; New Zealand; and the U.S. He
Rugby Tough
spring 2007
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Sports VANDAL
Super Bowl Champion Jake Scott ’03 Another Vandal with an Engineering Degree
Indianapolis Colts offensive guard Jake Scott holds a tiny camera during Media Day at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. The Colts defeated the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
By Doug Bauer
IDAHO
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ake Scott ’03 wasted little time becoming a key figure for the Vandal football team. The same can be said of his National Football League career. Scott recently wrapped up his third season with the Indianapolis Colts, who defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4 at Miami. Scott came to Idaho as a walk-on, but secured a spot in the starting lineup during his redshirt freshman season and was a mainstay at offensive tackle from 2000-03. The Colts made him a fifth-round draft pick in 2004, and he worked his way into a starting role during his first season in Indianapolis. He’s been a factor in the Colts’ success ever since, including their recent run to the Super Bowl championship.
VANDAL Sports
What are some of your most memorable experiences from that week? Jake: I would say just the week as a whole, starting with media day ... and the events throughout the week leading up to the game itself, which definitely was the pinnacle. But to see all the pageantry that goes along with that was pretty exciting. What are your plans after your professional career winds down? Do you plan to put your engineering degree to use? Jake: It’s all kind of up in the air right now. It just kind of depends on how long I play. I would like to go back to school eventually and get a master’s degree. That’s been a goal of mine all along, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do that after I’m done playing football. The Colts have one of the most sophisticated offenses in the NFL. Does intelligence play just as big as strength and athletic ability? Jake: It really does. It’s important for everybody in our offense because you have to make all the adjustments on the line. We audible a lot, so it’s important to be able to make the adjustments on the fly and be able to do it quickly. You played alongside former Idaho teammate Rick DeMulling during your first two seasons with the Colts. What did you learn from him, and have you heard from him since winning the Super Bowl? Jake: Yeah, I’ve talked to Rick. I stay in touch with him pretty regularly. He called and congratulated me, and I know he talked to a bunch of other guys on our line. He was very helpful when I first got to the Colts as far as showing me around, introducing me to people and kind of showing me the ropes around here. How about some of your other teammates at Idaho? Jake: I stay in touch with a lot of the guys that I played with that are my age and around my age. I had a few guys –Shawn Mumford, Chad Kodama, Zach Gerstner and Jordan Lampos–come out for the Super Bowl. We try to get together during my off season, and any time I’m back in the Northwest, I try to get together with as many of those guys as I can.
2007 Football
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niversity of Idaho football fans have more chances to see the Vandals at home this fall than they have had since the 1994 season. “We need to provide our teams with a competitive advantage and we need to provide our fans opportunities to see the Vandals at home,” said Athletics Director Rob Spear. Idaho plays six games at the Kibbie Dome in 2007 with the Vandals’ Sept.15 game at Washington State providing a seventh Palouse viewing. “Having six home games is a great deal,” coach Robb Akey said. “It’s great to open WAC play at home (Hawai`i, Sept. 29) and it’s great to have a bye before our rival game (Boise State, Nov. 17). That’s a positive thing and to have that game on rivalry weekend. Now it’s our responsibility to turn that back into a rivalry.” Akey’s head coaching debut is at Southern California Sept. 1 where the Vandals take on the Trojans. eptember S 1 Southern California
Los Angeles, Calif.
8 Cal Poly
Kibbie Dome (Hall of Fame Game)
15 Washington State
Pullman, Wash.
22 Northern Illinois
Kibbie Dome (Dads’ Weekend)
29 Hawai’i* ctober O 6 San Jose State*
Kibbie Dome (Ag Days)
13 Fresno State*
San Jose, Calif.
Kibbie Dome (Homecoming)
20 New Mexico State*
Las Cruces, N.M.
Every kid that plays football dreams of playing in the Super Bowl. Did the experience live up to your expectations? Jake: It probably exceeded my expectations. It was beyond anything that I ever imagined.
27 Nevada*
What do you think of the team’s chances for a repeat? Jake: We should have almost everybody back on our team, so I think our chances are just as good as they were this year. But it’s still hard, especially with as many good teams as there are in the (American Football Conference). It’s not easy for a team just to get to the Super Bowl in the AFC. I
17 Boise State*
Boise
24 Utah State*
Kibbie Dome
ovember N 3 Louisiana Tech*
Reno, Nev.
Kibbie Dome
10 bye
*Western Athletic Conference game spring 2007
Were you prepared for the off-field circus of the Super Bowl? Jake: No. It was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience, that’s for sure.
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Sports VANDAL
Vandal Scholarship Fund Summer Events May 4 All Sports Banquet, Moscow 5 VSF Seattle Cruise, Seattle 18-19 Ada County Vandal Scramble, Eagle
June 2 Chorizo Challenge, Mountain Home 29 Canyon County Golf Tournament, Nampa
July 14 Barbecue and Vandal Cruise, Coeur d’Alene 26 Governor’s Gala, Boise 30 Buhl Pig Out, Buhl
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he names are oh-so-familiar. Herb Carlson. Jerry Kramer. Wayne Walker. Mary Raese. Mindy Rice. John Friesz. Don Monson. The list goes on–long enough to catch up on more than 100 years of University of Idaho athletics history. As much as the achievements of these athletes are etched in the minds of University of Idaho athletics fans, they will be inscribed permanently in the Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame with the first induction ceremony this fall. The inaugural class, which spans the decades, will be honored during the first home football weekend– Sept. 7-8–this fall. The clock winds back before the Idaho athletic teams were known as Vandals. To the competitive days of Hec Edmundson–a Moscow native, world class runner, and legendary basketball coach; to the modern day heroics of swimmer Nancy Bechtholdt, two-sport star Alli Nieman, Olympian Dan O’Brien, and running back Joel Thomas. “We have a rich, proud tradition at the University of Idaho,” Hall of Fame committee chairman Ken Jones said. “This is a fitting way to pay tribute to the men and women who have provided us with so many memorable moments.” The inaugural class was gleaned from hundreds of nominations. They are divided into three eras and four categories. The breakdowns for student-athletes are 1889-1950, 1951-75 and 1976-and-beyond. A student-athlete has to have graduated from Idaho, has to have competed at least two seasons, and has to have been finished with competition for at least five years. The other categories are coaches (with a minimum five years at Idaho), teams, and outstanding contributors or administrators. “Our history itself speaks to the need for a Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame,” director of athletics Rob Spear said. “This is a key element in tying our history to the present as we build our vision of Idaho Vandal athletics.” The Hall of Fame committee would like your input. Any nominations or comments can be directed to idahovandalshalloffame@clearwire.net.
IDAHO
Crane, man, Marilyn irls Lynn Shell ck, Jeanne MacMartin G om -P m Po 1959 Haddo aechea, Carol Dolores Horm ll. ne and Jo O’Don
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1983 Vandal Cheer
leaders add excitem
ent to the air.
S. Spiker
gem of the mountains
August 23 North Idaho Vandal Celebration sponsored by Northwest Dodge dealers Coeur d’Alene 24 Bob White Golf Tournament Lewiston
Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame
Upcoming EVENTS
JULY
MAY
JUNE
Commencement ceremonies
June 13 Vandal Magic Valley Picnic, Twin Falls
June 16 Vandal Picnic, Ann Morrison Park, Boise
June 14 Wood River Alumni Luncheon, Sun Valley
June 21 Vandal Lewiston Picnic, Lewiston
June 14 Idaho Falls Alumni Dinner, Idaho Falls
June 21-July 28 Idaho Repertory Theatre
May 2 Coeur d’Alene May 3 Idaho Falls May 7 Boise May 12 Moscow
June 15 Pocatello Alumni Luncheon, Pocatello June 15 Vandal American Falls Picnic, American Falls
June 22 Idaho Night with Spokane Indians baseball, Spokane, Wash.
July 19 University of Idaho Retirees summer barbecue, Ghormley Park, Moscow July 26 Vandal Scholarship Fund Governor’s Gala, Boise Centre on the Grove, Boise July 28 Vandal Day with the Colorado Rockies, Denver, Colo.
AUGUST Aug. 20 Fall semester begins Plan for: Dads’ Weekend Homecoming
spring 2007
For more information on alumni events, go to www.supportui.uidaho.edu on the Web.
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No Fences. www.uidaho.edu/openspaceopenminds
Inspiration needs its space. It can’t be fenced in. Neither can we. We’re about living and learning and thinking with passion and purpose. It’s what drives us. It’s infectious. It’s empowering. It’s enduring. And it’s a standard of excellence that has set us apart since 1889.
Non-Profit Org.
Moscow, ID 83844-3232
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