Vermont Quarterly Spring 2016

Vermont UNIVERSITY OF

Q U A R T E R LY

WIRED for SUCCESS UVM, Burlington, and Vermont connect on innovation & entrepreneurship

SPRING 2016

DEPARTMENTS

2 President’s Perspective 4 The Green 18 Catamount Sports 20 On Course 44 Class Notes 64 Extra Credit FEATURES

22

Beyond the Buffet

Local, organic, ethnic, nutritious and delicious, campus dining options evolve with the times. | BY SARAH TUFF DUNN

28

Wired for Success

UVM, Burlington, and Vermont are pushing a ripe environment for innovation and entrepreneurship to the next level. | BY JEFFREY WAKEFIELD

36

UVM PEOPLE: Kelly Swanson ’81

Boxing may be largely “a man’s world,” but alumna Kelly Swanson is the sport’s top publicist. | BY THOMAS WEAVER

38

Curious Nature

At home with naturalist Bernd Heinrich, retired as a professor but going strong as a researcher, writer, thinker, and runner. | BY JOSHUA BROWN

COVER: College Street, Downtown Burlington PHOTO: Thomas Weaver

Vermont Quarterly

SPRING 2016 At age eight, Bernd Heinrich discovered that he was “partly arboreal,” he says, climbing trees to escape imaginary wild boars or to look in the nests of real birds. Nearly seventy years later, the famed UVM scientist still climbs—and loves—trees on his land in western Maine. His off-trail rambles, in “blizzards, bugs, or leaves,” he says, yield scientific discoveries and new books, including his forthcoming One Wild Bird at a Time.

Read more about Heinrich on page 38. | PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSHUA BROWN

| PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

Our Land-Grant Mission for the Twenty-First Century As Vermont’s premier research

institution and land-grant university, our public responsibilities are clear: to advance the economic and social well-being of our nation and our state by discovering new knowledge, bringing innovations into the world that advance the quality of life for all, and educating critical thinkers for leadership roles. Our land-grant mission to cultivate “thinkers and doers,” in Vermont Senator Justin Morrill’s words, develops the intellectual rigor and applied understanding that sustain communities, economies, and ecological well-being.

When Senator Morrill proposed the land-grant bill to Congress in 1857, his overarching intention was to create opportunities for advancing knowledge in the primary economic arenas of the day by opening the halls of higher learning to students of all socioeconomic backgrounds and moving scientific discoveries and new knowledge to the broader public. With agriculture being the predominant industry at the time, and with engineering and technology growing rapidly, the early land-grant curricula focused on the science and “mechanical arts” related to farming and innovation as the means of sustaining communities and economic development.

A century and a half later, in the context of vastly more complex social systems and needs, our mission calls us to put our teaching, research, and development energies into improving the health of the commons and advancing ideas and projects that build and sustain vibrant economies and communities.

The compelling challenges of our day— improving air and water quality, developing renewable energies, advancing health care and food security, maintaining the well-being of our ecosystems—these challenges give focus to our research here at UVM. The complex and interwoven nature

2|

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

of these issues invites scholars and students to interact across disciplines, developing rich perspectives and out-of-the-box thinking about solutions.

This sharing of information, contemplation, and discovery is the undergirding of our interdisciplinary curriculum at the University.

But creating new potentials for sustaining our ecology, economies, and communities is only one-half of the land-grant mission—new possibilities don’t advance society if the information stays within the University. Implementing potential solutions is the spark that gives life to our land-grant purpose—like the successful Extension agencies that for more than 100 years have exported new applied research and ideas to communities across the nation daily.

UVM has a long history of public engagement based on cutting-edge research at the University. Consider, for instance, the discovery of acid rain’s deleterious effects on Green Mountain forests and the public advocacy spearheaded by the late UVM scientist Hub Vogelmann that led to national legislation controlling pollutants that cause acid rain.

Professor Vogelmann, a renowned conservationist, along with the UVM Botany Department engaged in a long-term study of high-elevation ecosystems in the Green Mountains. When the data helped determine without a doubt that acid and heavy metals in rain were killing trees and creating stressing effects on the Green Mountain forests, Professor Vogelmann published his research in prestigious journals and shared his findings with policy makers and the public.

One of the most comprehensive interdis-

ciplinary and regional projects currently under way at the University focuses on the dynamic processes affecting the Lake Champlain Basin, to build resilience in the face of our changing climate.

Vermont EPSCoR (Experiemental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research), a $3 million per year program directed by UVM Distinguished Professor of Biology Judith Van Houten and supported by the National Science Foundation, pairs scientists and researchers at UVM with colleagues at other Vermont colleges and with state agencies and organizations throughout Vermont and New York.

Vermont EPSCoR teams continually gather and analyze data focused on understanding the biological, chemical, physical, and geological process in the Lake Champlain Basin in the wake of climate shifts. A cutting-edge, overarching modeling platform that will inform policy and land-use decisions throughout a variety of scenarios is under development, with the purpose of ensuring that the Lake Champlain Basin remains healthy into the future. This collaboration with partners across the region is our mission in action, advancing the public good through applied interagency and citizen-involved research, discovery, and action.

Moving from discovery to the formulation of a big idea is the exciting edge where research becomes real, where potential solutions become implemented. Dynamic partnerships across the University are translating ideas that form intellectual property into commercial possibilities for advancing the public good.

Exciting recent examples include a digital printer that translates conventional graphics to raised-line versions for the blind; a “priming medium” for enhancing SALLY MCCAY

the success of cardiac stem cell grafts; and a tiny vibration energy scavenging device that converts mechanical energy into electricity to power wireless sensors of all kinds. Resources and programs across the University support these endeavors: for example, the UVM Fab Lab makes rapid-prototyping tools available to students and faculty; SPARK-VT sponsors Universitywide pitch sessions with experts and awards seed grants for moving innovations to next-stage development; and the UVM Office of Technology Commercialization provides programs and services that facilitate the translation of discoveries into accessible technologies, products, and services.

Finally, in supporting the development of a twenty-first century economy, the University is actively engaged in creating an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem

with the city of Burlington, launching the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies business incubator, promoting BTV Ignite to leverage Burlington’s powerful gigabit infrastructure to accelerate economic growth in the region, and supporting Burlington’s “maker space,” Generator. (Read more about these efforts on page 28.)

The great needs of our time, from ensuring the health of our commons to creating a robust and sustainable twenty-first century economy, call for innovation, imagination, and collaboration. As Vermont’s land-grant university, it is both our responsibility and our imperative to foster these partnerships across the nation, the state, our city, and the University that will translate promising ideas into next-generation potentials for advancing the public good.

—Tom Sullivan

IT’S AN EXPERIENCE Celebrate local & fresh in a whole new way.

Experience Basin Harbor Club & Resort, perfect for any occasion. www.basinharbor.com

800-622-4000

info@basinharbor.com

VQ

EDITOR Thomas Weaver ART DIRECTOR Elise Whittemore CLASS NOTES EDITOR Kathleen Laramee ’00 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joshua Brown, Sarah Tuff Dunn, Jay Goyette, Kathleen Laramee ’00, Jon Reidel G’06, Amanda Waite’02 G’04, Jeff Wakefield PHOTOGRAPHY Joshua Brown, Bobby Bruderle ’11, Julia Campanella ’18, Andy Duback, Sabin Gratz ’98, Zachary James ’15, Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist ’09, Brian Jenkins, John Lok, Sally McCay, Ian McHale ’17, Mario Morgado, Bronwyn Morissette ’19, Arthur Pollock, Fraser Query ’18, Cody Silfies, Theo Stroomer, Scott Van Keuren, Thomas Weaver ADVERTISING SALES Vermont Quarterly 86 South Williams Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-7996, tweaver@uvm.edu ADDRESS CHANGES UVM Foundation 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-9662, alumni@uvm.edu CLASS NOTES Derrick Dubois ’13 (802) 656-0802, classnote@uvm.edu CORRESPONDENCE Editor, Vermont Quarterly 86 South Williams Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-2005, thomas.weaver@uvm.edu VERMONT QUARTERLY publishes March 1, July 1, November 1.

PRINTED IN VERMONT Issue No. 74, March 2016 VERMONT QUARTERLY The University of Vermont 86 South Williams Street Burlington, VT 05401 VERMONT QUARTERLY ONLINE uvm.edu/vq VERMONT QUARTERLY BLOG vermontquarterly.wordpress.com

instagram.com/universityofvermont twitter.com/uvmvermont facebook.com/universityofvermont youtube.com/universityofvermont

SPRING 2016 |

3

YOU SHOULD KNOW

Greene is one of the most prominent “ Ms. women in the technology business and

moves in the industry’s most elite circles.”

The New York Times on the appointment of Diane Greene ’76 as senior vice president in charge of Google’s Cloud business. go.uvm.edu/greene

GALLONS

1K

of maple syrup from UVM’s Proctor Maple Research Center are served in campus dining facilities annually.

Read more about local food and other new initiatives on page 22.

6

CROWNS

The Catamounts have notched NCAA Ski Championships in 1980, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, and 2012. This year’s meet takes place March 9-12 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

HONORARY DOUBLE. Wolfgang Mieder, professor in German and Russian and widely regarded as the world’s foremost proverb scholar, has received two international honorary degrees in the past year—from the universities of Athens and Bucharest.

1

For the third straight year, the state of Vermont has the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita.

LIDA MASON, class of 1875 ALISA HOLM, class of 2016

P E ACE CORP S

7

UVM, ranked no. 7 nationally among highest volunteer producing colleges, helps nurture that ethos.

New sisters in the ranks of UVM’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter, which was the first to admit women (Mason and Ellen Hamilton in 1875) and African Americans (George Washington Henderson in 1877). See page 10.

Skylar Anderson, UVM junior, recently became the first woman certified as a National Guard combat engineer. Read more about Anderson in the next issue of VQ.

4|

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

900

Approximately 900 alumni have served in the Corps.

5

#

The Kauffman Foundation has ranked UVM’s home state of Vermont #5 in the country for business startups. Read about the university, city, and state’s rich ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship on page 28.

RIGHT: SALLY MCCAY

THE GREEN CHANGE IS GOOD, SWEET PEA As thirty-three cows in UVM’s teaching herd slowly filed into the brand new barn on Spear Street, Sweet Pea stopped in her tracks. The bright, spacious, state-of-the-art digs were a bit too much for a creature of habit. But with some cajoling from students in UVM’s CREAM Program, reluctant Pea pulled herself together and ambled on.

The herd’s new home boasts features such as an intelligent heating and cooling system that keeps temperatures between 40 and 60 degrees, a bovine comfort zone that leads to better eating, higher milk yields, increased fertility, and a decreased risk of mastitis.

The new barn will be good for student learning, too, acquainting them, for one thing, with dairy farming’s high-tech future.

Each milking machine in the parlor is connected to a scanner and computer that will recognize the cow and display her entire milking and health history.

The CREAM program, which puts students in charge of every aspect of a dairy operation, from caring for cows to managing finances, is already a much-admired program nationally, with a 95 percent-plus acceptance rate of its graduates to vet school. The teaching barn will also be used by the roughly 250 animal and veterinary sciences majors in UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The teaching barn is one part of a $4.1 million overhaul at the Paul R. Miller Agricultural Research Farm. A research barn is nearing completion.

“These new facilities will be a great teaching laboratory that really immerses students in their learning and substantially increases our research capacity,” says Tom Vogelmann ’74, dean of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “With record-high student enrollments and the highest level of extramural funding ever, we couldn’t be happier to see this project come to fruition.”

S P R I N G

2 0 1 6

News & Views

| THE GREEN

SAD: Let’s Talk

PSYCHIATRY | A new study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry casts a shadow on light therapy’s status as the gold standard for treating seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

While the treatment is effective at addressing acute episodes of SAD, a SAD-tailored version of cognitive behavioral therapy is significantly better at preventing relapse in future winters, the study found. Led by UVM psychology professor Kelly Rohan and funded with a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, it is the first large-scale study to examine light therapy’s effectiveness over time.

More than 14 million Americans suffer from SAD, a mood disorder associated with depression and related to seasonal variations of light, ranging from 1.5 percent of the population in southern states like Florida to more than nine percent in the northern regions of the country. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of all cases of recurrent depression follow a seasonal pattern.

6|

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

In the study, 177 research subjects were treated with six weeks of either light therapy—timed, daily exposure to bright artificial light of specific wavelengths using a light box—or a special form of CBT that taught them to challenge negative thoughts about dark winter months and resist behaviors, like social isolation, that affect mood.

“Light therapy is a palliative treatment, like blood pressure medication, that requires you to keep using the treatment for it to be effective,” Rohan says. “Adhering to the light therapy prescription upon waking for thirty minutes to an hour every day for up to five months in dark states can be burdensome.”

The study showed that, by the second winter, only 30 percent of light therapy subjects were still using the equipment.

Cognitive-behavior therapy, by contrast, is a preventive treatment, Rohan says. Once SAD sufferers learn its basic skills it has enduring impact, giving the person a sense of control over their symptoms.

ANDY DUBACK

On Instagram With a campus and setting as beautiful as UVM’s, it’s no wonder our community is tearing it up on Instagram. Even alumni, feeling nostalgic for the place, are still sharing the photos they took as students. That snowy photo of Billings to the right? Zachary James ’15 posted it from Nebraska one year after finishing his studies at UVM. Want to see more photos like the ones on this page? Search the #instauvm hashtag and follow @universityofvermont.

instagram.com/universityofvermont

LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP: @JULIAFCAMPANELLA, @DISCLONER; CENTER: @IANMCHALE, @ZACHMORA; BOTTOM: @UNIVERSITYOFVERMONT, @FRAZHUR, @BRONWYNMORISSETTE

SPRING 2016 |

7

| THE GREEN

STUDENT FOCUS |

But seriously, folks...

Seth Rogen’s supporting cast

John, Griffen, and Ryan Fox

8|

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Two visits from actor Seth Rogen in two years sounds like a fraternity brother’s dream. But earning that reward has been serious business for Pi Kappa Alpha brothers as they’ve topped the national competition two years running in a fundraising event sponsored

by Rogen’s Hilarity for Charity foundation, which raises money to combat Alzheimer’s Disease.

The Pikes raised $27,000 in 2014. In 2015, joined in the effort by Alpha Chi Omega sorority, they topped it with $30,000. Now, for the third year, they’re on the leader board again with more than $5,000 raised as the 2016 competition, which wraps in April, begins.

Why is Rogen rewarding college students for raising money for Alzheimer’s research and patient care?

It’s personal for the comedian, who began the organization with his wife, actress Lauren Miller. Her mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at just fifty-five years old.

It’s personal, too, for UVM fraternity brothers—and triplets—John, Ryan and Griffen Fox. They lost their grandfather to the disease two years ago. This is their way to help honor his memory and connect with others who have been affected by the disease.

“Everyone I’ve met has a personal connection,” senior economics major John Fox says. “As soon as I open up, someone feels more comfortable to open up, too. Realizing you’re not alone can be so helpful for families facing such a difficult diagnosis, one with no cure.”

And that’s the real prize he looks forward to, Fox says. Yes, getting to meet Seth Rogen is great, but even better, he says, is raising more than $60,000 in two years to fight Alzheimer’s.

“Winning,” he says, “is helping to find an end to the disease—that’s the message we’re trying to share.”

To support the effort: go.uvm.edu/uvmpike

ANDY DUBACK

(Nano) Wrench in the Works CHEMISTRY | Hold up your two hands.

They are identical in structure, but mirror opposites. No matter how hard you try, they can’t be superimposed onto each other. Or, as chemists would say, they have “chirality,” from the Greek word for hand.

A molecule that is chiral comes in two identical, but opposite, forms—just like a left and right hand.

UVM chemist Severin Schneebeli has invented a new way to use chirality to make a wrench. A nanoscale wrench. His team’s discovery allows them to precisely control nanoscale shapes and holds promise as a highly accurate and fast method of creating customized molecules.

This use of “chirality-assisted synthesis” is a fundamentally new approach to controlling the shape of large molecules—one of the foundational needs for making a new generation of complex synthetic materials, including polymers and medicines.

Experimenting with anthracene, a substance found in coal, Schneebeli and his team assembled C-shaped strips of molecules that, because of their chirality, are able to join each other in only one direction. “They’re like Legos,” Schneebeli explains. These molecular strips form a JOSHUA BROWN

rigid structure that’s able to hold rings of other chemicals “in a manner similar to how a five-sided bolt head fits into a pentagonal wrench,” the team writes in Angewandte Chemie, one of chemistry’s leading academic journals.

The C-shaped strips can join to each other, with two bonds, in only one geometric orientation. So, unlike many chemical structures—which have the same general formula but are flexible and can twist and rotate into many different possible shapes—“this has only one shape,” Schneebeli says. “It’s like a real wrench,” he says— with an opening a hundred-thousandtimes smaller than the width of human hair: 1.7 nanometers.

This wrench, the new study shows, can reliably bind to a family of well-known large molecules called “pillarene macrocycles.” These rings of pillarene have, themselves, often been used as the “host,” in chemistry-speak, to surround and modify other “guest” chemicals in their middle— and they have many possible applications from controlled drug delivery to organic light-emitting substances.

In essence, the chemists can use their new wrench to remotely adjust the chemi-

cal environment inside the pillarene in the same way a mechanic can turn an exterior bolt to adjust the performance inside an engine.

UVM theoretical chemist Jianing Li was co-author of the study, joined by post-doctoral researcher and lead author Xiaoxi Liu, undergraduate Zackariah Weinert ’16, and other team members.

Sir Fraser Stoddart, a world-leading chemist at Northwestern University, described the new study as, “Brilliant and elegant! Creative and simple.”

On the heels of those rave reviews, the UVM team aims to modify the C-shaped pieces to create other shapes. “We’re making a special kind of spiral which is going

A nanoscale wrench developed at UVM in a project led by chemist Severin Schneebeli has promising applications. Read more about UVM innovation moving beyond the laboratory on page 28.

to be flexible like a real spring,” Schneebeli explains, but will hold its shape even under great stress. “This helical shape could be super-strong and flexible. It could create new materials, perhaps for safer helmets or materials for space. In the big picture, this work points us toward synthetic materials with properties that, today, no material has.”

SPRING 2016 |

9

| THE GREEN

As the steel framework of UVM STEM future rises next door, a window into UVM STEM past is

Best & brightest at Billings STUDENTS | Among UVM campus institutions, few can rival the Phi Beta Kappa chapter for reflecting the university’s intellectual core and as a leader of progressive thought. Originally founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary, Phi Beta Kappa recognizes outstanding performance in the liberal arts and sciences.

UVM’s chapter—the Alpha of Vermont—was chartered in 1848, making it the eleventh chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. It was the first chapter in the nation to induct women and African Americans, which it did in the 1870s. Since 1848, approximately 4,100 UVM students have been inducted.

In December, the UVM chapter convened for the 168th time, fifteen new students joining the ranks of UVM’s brightest at the Billings Library ceremony. Tradition includes signing a weathered ledger that has the signatures of the pioneering women, Lida Mason and Ellen Hamilton, and African-American, George Washington Hender-

10 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

son. Other luminaries who have scrawled their names on the pages include the great John Dewey, Class of 1879, and Pulitzer-winning novelist Annie Proulx, Class of 1969.

This year’s inductees are: Amelia Fontein, environmental studies; Andrew Gambardella, anthropology; Jason Garland, Chinese and Asian studies; Brendan Hennessey, geography; Alisa Holm, Japanese and studio art; Laura Hoyt, biology; Allison Kurpiel, political science; John Marchinkoski, history and English; Sara McGee, linguistics; Anders Newbury, biology; Matias Page, neuroscience; Jacob Pelland, Russian and political science; Leah Rogstad, global studies; Allie VanSickle, political science; and Jessica Wohlfahrt, biochemistry.

Sophomore Emma Tait, a geography major, was also honored at the ceremony. She was presented with the Bogorad Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the liberal arts based on the academic record through the end of the sophomore year.

found in the Physics Museum tucked away on the Cook Building’s fourth floor. Physics staff member Dave Hammond is longtime curator and champion of the eclectic assortment of scientific equipment. State-ofthe-art not so long ago, many of the pieces now suggest a steam-punk aesthetic. While function has passed them by, there’s still beauty in the forms, all that business of brass tubing and gnurled knobs.

Pictured: A spectrometer, ca. 1925, made by W. Wilson, London. The item (without prism and prism grating) sold for $275. “This instrument was designed to meet the demand for a high class spectrometer for use in university and technical laboratories,” the Central Scientific Co. catalog advised.

LEFT: SALLY MCCAY; RIGHT: SABIN GRATZ ’98

FAV O R I T E T H I N G |

| THE GREEN

ALUM TO ALUM Amelia Gulkis ’01, who earned her UVM bachelor’s in history, is the chief operating officer of EnSave, an agricultural energy-efficiency company that reaches clients nationwide from their Richmond, Vermont, headquarters. Gulkis recently shared advice on employment searches in one of a series of career-focused interviews with alumni featured on the UVM Continuing and Distance Education website. Here’s a glimpse of what she had to say: What do you look for in a candidate?

At the end of the day, someone’s attitude is more important than skills. You can always learn skills, but I look for a good attitude— someone who is committed to growing themselves and the company. How engaged is this person? Is the candidate interested in what he or she is doing and enthusiastic?

How important is a cover letter?

A cover letter is more important to me than someone’s résumé. A cover letter is the creative side of the process and the person’s opportunity to tell me a story about why he or she should work with us, while a résumé is just the facts. I think people overlook the power of the cover letter.

Read more from Gulkis and other alumni, such as Kate Manciocchi ’02, Bill Bright ’91, and Brigid Donovan ’98, who have been featured recently: go.uvm.edu/alumniadvice.

12 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Blue eyes & the bottle

What’s in your water?

ENVIRONMENT, MEDICINE | For ten days, in May 2014—while UVM and Champlain College students were leaving town for the summer—professor Christine Vatovec and some colleagues collected cleaned water as it poured out of the Burlington sewage treatment plant into Lake Champlain. Then they shipped the samples to the National Water Quality Laboratory in Colorado, where the water was screened for 100 prescription drugs.

“I was surprised at what we found,” says Vatovec, an interdisciplinary scientist who has appointments in both the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the UVM College of Medicine: fifty-four pharmaceutical chemicals—from antibiotics to antidepressants.

Vatovec also wanted to see if the team could find any sign of the departing students in the water samples. They could.

Over the student move-out period, the concentration of ulcer medications in the outflow went up, while the concentration of antiviral drugs, which are often used to treat sexually transmitted diseases, went down. Ulcers are most prevalent among people over sixty-five, so with students no longer flushing their share of water, the relative amount of these meds spiked; in

contrast, STD viruses tend to be more common among the student-age population.

The treatment plant was doing a good job removing what it was designed to remove—fecal matter and bacteria—but today “there are 70,000 to 100,000 new chemicals in our environment that were not invented when wastewater treatment plants were designed a hundred years ago,” she says.

Now the question is: “so what?” says Vatovec. With some of the drugs being detected in parts per trillion, “does it matter if they’re in the lake?” she asks. “Maybe they don’t mean anything to the ecosystem,” Vatovec says. But the few studies done in other lakes and rivers have shown that some pharmaceuticals in the environment have extremely potent effects— including reproductive failure in mollusks and fish.

“It’s impossible to know yet what these chemicals mean for Lake Champlain—so were trying to figure that out,” Vatovec says. Her research program is following the circular path in both directions—out into the ecosystem and back to human medical care. “The part I’m most passionate about,” she says, “how do we prevent overprescribing?”

ANDY DUBACK

THE C AMPAIGN F O R T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F V E R M ON T

A gift for a better world

PHILANTHROPY | Move Mountains: The Campaign for The University of Vermont was publicly launched on the first weekend of October 2015. To build awareness and excitement for the campaign, the University and the UVM Foundation hosted a two-day celebration titled “A Crescendo of Giving.” During the weekend, fifteen major gifts totaling more than $40 million, a UVM record, were announced. These gifts brought the total raised for the campaign at that date to nearly $248 million. The campaign’s goal is an unprecedented $500 million, the largest in the University’s history.

The first of fifteen announcements was a gift from the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the University of Vermont Foundation, John Hilton, UVM Class of 1968, and his wife, Julia. The Hiltons’ gift establishes a Faculty Research Endowment designed to accelerate UVM’s broad and diverse research portfolio and permanently endows the Janus Forum, a lecture series

celebrating the role of the University in fostering civil discourse addressing controversial issues.

In announcing the gift, UVM President Tom Sullivan stressed the importance of both activities to the University’s mission and future.

“Never has our role as a public research university been as important as it is today,” Sullivan said.

“Our faculty, staff, and students are engaged—as a community of scholars—in research and discovery that will help ensure a safe, sustainable, and prosperous tomorrow.”

Richard Galbraith, vice president for research, spoke on the impact of “a gift that will benefit generations of our finest faculty.” He spoke of the leveraging effect of philanthropy and referenced an earlier gift from the Hiltons. During the University’s 2001-2007 capital campaign, the Hiltons established the Hilton Faculty Development Fund with a gift of $250,000. A small portion of that gift provided grant-writing assistance that helped land $15 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health. “Now, that is a return on investment that I should very much like to see again before I retire,” Galbraith offered.

That same leveraging effect comes into play with the Hiltons’ gift to the Janus Forum. Established in 2007 by UVM faculty members, the Janus Forum’s goal is to present vigorous arguments on both sides of important and controversial policy issues.

Tom Sullivan said the Janus Forum is a vital contributor to the academic excellence that

the Hiltons want to advance with their gift.

He stressed that the gift will leverage matching funds from the Pizzagalli family and the Grossman Family Foundation.

When asked why they made their gift, John Hilton responded, “Julia and I have always been passionate about the importance of education. It is the vehicle for advancing society and building a more stable global environment. We want a better world for our children, grandchildren, and their descendants. Both of us look to UVM to be a major contributor to the fulfillment of our dreams.”

In making their gift, John referred to this quote from former U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson.

“The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”

“We hope our gift and this thought will encourage others to join us in moving mountains and building a brighter tomorrow,” Hilton said.

—Jay Goyette

Campaign Progress CAMPAIGN GOAL $500M

CURRENT GIFTS $269M

JOIN THE EFFORT | MOVEMOUNTAINS.UVM.EDU SALLY MCCAY

SPRING 2016 |

13

| THE GREEN BREW BIZ UVM Continuing and Distance Education recently unveiled a new “Business of Craft Beer” certificate program, which will focus on sales, digital marketing, and business operations.

Industry leaders from Vermont and around the country will lead the seminars.

“Time and time again, the most common reason for failure is a lack of business knowledge. In many cases, craft start-ups are well-stocked with passionate home brewers with a strong product-based skillset,” says UVM Business of Beer faculty member Joel Hueston of First Key Consulting, a Vancouver firm that works with craft brewers around the world. “However, running a craft brewery is a business: books have to be balanced, and strategies and tactics have to be developed and executed with an ultimate goal of profitability.”

The twelve-week online program will be followed by an optional, three-month internship with a brewery or distributor. In addition, participants will complete a final project that addresses a real craft brewery business challenge.

The Business of Craft Beer offers three entry dates per year in February, May, and September.

More information: learn. uvm.edu/ craftbeer.

14 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Home at the heart of campus STUDENT HOUSING | The center of UVM’s campus is astir these days with towering construction cranes, backhoes, cement trucks, and scores of construction workers laying the groundwork and raising the roof-beams on a new era for the university. While the structural skeleton for the first building of the STEM complex is taking shape behind Williams Hall, work on a new residence hall is under way behind Bailey/Howe Library.

The first step of the new residence hall work was this summer’s razing of the old Chittenden-Buckham-Wills complex, “fondly” known as “The Shoeboxes” to generations of UVM students. “The best thing about CBW was that you could roll out of bed and get to class in just a few minutes,” says Annie Stevens, vice provost for student affairs. But, beyond enabling snooze-button abuse, there will be little similarity between the hall-in-progress and the spartan digs of CBW. Stevens lists some of the amenities of the new residential complex, which will provide nearly seven hundred beds in two connected buildings when it opens in August 2017. Large,

light-filled lounges on each floor will provide space for working on group projects for classes or just hanging out, and the complex will be connected to Bailey/Howe via an enclosed bridge. The hall will have a fitness center. And a five-hundred seat dining hall will be integrated with food systems teaching spaces. (See page 22 to read about new campus dining initiatives at the university.)

The new residence hall will be home to firstyear students. Stevens emphasizes that reflects UVM’s housing master plan, which strives to put new students at the center of campus, close to their academic lives and services that will help them make the transition to college.

Whether it’s via that fitness center and a bevvy of nutritious dining options or floor plans that create small communities within the large complex, the new hall is all about helping new students start on the right foot.

“We’re being very intentional in the design for the building and what it provides students,” Stevens says. “We don’t want to miss an opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles as our undergrads begin their years here.”

LEFT: THOMAS WEAVER

I N T E RV I E W

|

law are at times shaped by culture, by habits of belief, fashion, and shifting values—by “soft” things. Markets, property, and corporations are now infused with variants of romantic ways of thinking, alongside more traditional ways of thinking. Capitalism has gotten Byronic.

Thomas Streeter, professor of sociology, turns his attention to an American cultural and business icon in his recent paper, “Steve Jobs, Romantic Individualism, and the Desire for Good Capitalism,” in the International Journal of Communication. As books about Jobs top the bestseller lists and biopics fill theater seats, we spoke with Streeter about the widespread obsession with Apple’s co-founder.

Our Steve Jobs fascination What do you mean when you say that recent stories focusing on Steve Jobs “tell us more about the culture than the man?”

STREETER: Jobs is an interesting character, but if we were choosing whose story to tell based on the importance of their inventions or business innovations, we’d be telling stories about many other people alongside Jobs. There has to be another reason that the Steve Jobs story has been told over and over again since the 1980s. And I think the reason is in our culture: we love the story of Jobs because we love the story of the guy who bucked convention, pursued his passions, and got rich doing so.

How does your article fit into some of the cultural themes you write about and why do Americans seem so consumed with his story?

STREETER: Culture is not just on our screens, but also in the circuitry and institutions that make those screens work. I’ve long been interested in what I call the soft side of hard issues, the way that things we think of as fixed and “hard” like technology or money or

ANDY DUBACK

You say that the romanticized rebel-hero version of Jobs makes it easier for people to imagine capitalism as being humane. Could you speak to that?

STREETER: Reality is hard to grasp even in the best of circumstances. Most of us know that “Steve Jobs made my iPhone” is at best an oversimplification, but at least there’s a “thing” there that you can hold in your hand, which is more than you can say about mortgage-backed securities.

Since Jobs died, Republicans and Democrats have lectured us about what we should do to create the next Steve Jobs and the next iPhone, but not what we should do to create the next CEO of Morgan Stanley or the next version of credit default swaps. The iPhone at least looks like something we’d want capitalism to be, where hard working people take risks and invent useful things and are rewarded for their efforts. Hard to say that about credit default swaps.

For me, the kicker is that your iPhone is actually just as abstract as credit default swaps. Your iPhone wouldn’t exist without all the young women in southern China working for low wages who assembled it; without international agreements and government policies that organize all that labor; without the millions of lines of computer code written over decades by programmers scattered all over the planet; without the work of many thousands of engineers tinkering and experimenting both inside and outside Apple; or without complicated systems of international finance, shipping containers and so forth. It’s just plain weird to think that the policies of the Chinese Communist Party are in a sense inside your iPhone. It’s hard to talk about on a popular level.

But I think we should.

SPRING 2016 |

15

| THE GREEN

VIVE LAFAYETTE! Bill Lipke, professor emeritus of art history, and Bill Mares, a Burlington writer and teacher, joined forces to write the recently published Grafting Memory: Essays on War and Commemoration. Deeply researched and richly illustrated, the survey of war memorials includes a visit to the UVM Green, where the sculpture of Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette originally stood in front of Old Mill before a move north to make way for Ira Allen’s statue in the 1920s.

Lipke and Mares describe Lafayette’s July 1825 visit to Burlington and the impact it had on John Purple Howard, a young local who would one day become a major supporter of the university, funding an extensive renovation of Old Mill and commissioning the Lafayette statue by John Quincy Adams Ward in 1881.

The authors write: “After a celebratory welcome and dinner, the triumphant Lafayette was led up the hill in a lengthy procession, accompanied by students of the university and by the citizens of Burlington—among them young John Purple Howard—to the University Green, where he laid the cornerstone to the building now known as Old Mill. The students sang ‘La Marseillaise,’ and later that evening, the Marquis was led by torchlight to the Burlington waterfront where he embarked on the Phoenix for Whitehall, New York.”

16 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

M E D I A

Family Heirloom All families have their iconic stories. Celeste León ’87 and her sisters knew their singular tale, a true episode from their father’s childhood, well.

Growing up in the small village of Maunabo, Puerto Rico, one of fifteen children in his family, young Ramon León had a vision one day that he must buy a lottery ticket. The number—14,167—came to him in startling clarity. It carried the promise of realizing fantastic dreams for himself, his family, and his community.

Beyond saying that vision had unlikely consequences and many twists and turns before its full realization, let’s not spoil the story.

While Ramon León handed this tale down to his children, his daughter Celeste has put it in print with the publication of Luck is Just the Beginning, Floricanto Press. Though the actual roots of the story itself seem the stuff of myth or magical realism, León has begun from that point and taken a deeper leap into fiction with her novel.

Celeste León studied physical therapy at UVM, where she also excelled as a distance runner, earning New England titles and a place in the Catamount Sports Hall of Fame. Her path as a writer began more than ten years ago when she read James McBride’s memoir The Color of Water.

Inspired to dig into her own rich vein of family history, she resolved, “I’m going to write a book about Dad.” Online writing courses, conferences, and the support of a circle of writers near her home in Truckee, California helped her develop. She gained traction when she sold a short story to the Chicken Soup series and won some awards for oth-

ers. “I’m not naturally good at writing, so I diligently studied the craft,” she says. “It’s been life altering.”

León balances two eleven-hour days a week as a physical therapist with her writing. She credits her husband for his support of her literary life and her middle-school daughter for helping her negotiate technology.

“It’s a wonderful balance of family, creativity, and career,” she says.

León’s original intent was to write a memoir of her father’s experience. Bolstering her own childhood memories of the story, she filled notebooks and cassette tapes with her father’s recollections. She traveled to Maunabo, absorbing the setting and interviewing cousins. And she read deeply in Puerto Rican history and fiction

by Puerto Rican and other Latino authors.

Five years ago, León’s manuscript morphed from memoir into fiction with its roots in the true story. “It gave me the liberty to embellish,” León says. “And that’s where the fun and my imagination came in, adding some characters and villains.”

She broke the news to her father that the work had turned into fiction and that “as the protagonist, he does things he may not like,” León says. “I explained that in good fiction, characters are layered, vulnerable, and not ‘perfect.’” She assured her father, who recently turned ninety, that she would give the protagonist a different name if he wished.

No, Ramon León told his daughter, keep my name in the story.

Life experience or work of art, it’s a tale worthy of pride. As the daughter who helped share it with the world sums it up, “It’s a story of one man’s struggle to do the right thing.”

|

BRIEFS | Alexandra Taketa ’95 is co-author, together with Jon F. White, of What You Don’t Know About Listening Could Fill a Book.

Taketa draws on more than twenty years of experience creating award-winning leadership, talent development, and coaching programs in the business world—from Fortune 500 companies to non-profits.

What You Don’t Know promises to build better listeners through key tips backed up by practical skill-building exercises. “Most of us have experienced the results of poor listening. It’s the number one complaint of employees about their bosses and it impacts our relationships inside and outside of work every day,” Taketa says. “Listening is one of the key ingredients to create more genuine authentic connection.”

Samantha Hunt ’93 recently published Mr. Splitfoot, her third novel. The alumna’s gothic tale, a “subversive ghost story,” is set in a landscape familiar to UVMers, the Adirondack Mountains. “I wrote Mr. Splitfoot as an argument between the faithful and the profane,” Hunt says. “I don’t want mysteries to be solved, I want to confirm that mystery never ends, like outer space.

So while the dead don’t talk to me in a traditional haunted sense, they still affect my daily life. The dead are dead but they’re not silent.” She adds, “And I love a ghost story.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released the book in January.

John Norris G’92 is the author of Mary McGrory: The First Queen of Journalism, published by Viking in September 2015. His biography captures the life of the trailblazing Washington columnist, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Norris, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, knew McGrory personally, and his book draws on her work and interviews with friends and colleagues.

The result is a compelling portrait of both the journalist and the political and cultural changes on which she reported.

SPRING 2016 |

17

| C ATA M O U N T S P O R T S

It’s a little more than twenty-

All in a Day BY | JON REIDEL G’06 PHOTOGRAPH BY | BRIAN JENKINS

18 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

four hours before the Catamount men’s basketball team welcomes Siena for an early-season home game. Head Coach John Becker stares at a video screen as Kyle Cieplicki ’08, associate head coach, delivers a detailed scouting report on tomorrow’s opponent. Becker, who listens quietly as his three assistants offer insights, clearly appreciates the input.

“I encourage my guys to have a voice and articulate their ideas,” says Becker.

“The jobs I had in the computer industry and coaching taught me that top-down

leadership models with one person making all the decisions don’t work. I prefer a horizontal culture where everyone has ownership.”

Not so long ago, Becker, called “J.B.” by players and coaches, was on the other side of the desk making $10,000 a year as part-time director of basketball operations.

Since taking over in 2011 from his longtime college friend Mike Lonergan, Becker has became the first coach in America East history to win twenty games in each of his first four seasons—a feat not accomplished

by Hall of Famers Rick Pitino or Jim Cal-

UVM.ATHLETICS.COM | THE LATEST NEWS

houn when today’s AE was the ECAC North Conference.

Becker’s formula for success starts with the aforementioned daily meeting, followed by a players meeting and practice at 11:15 a.m. On this snowy December day, former coach Tom Brennan, who led the Catamounts to three straight NCAA appearances from 2003-2005, strolls into the office wearing jeans, a long black coat, and a fedora. He gives Becker a bear hug.

“I love this guy,” says Brennan. “I told him when he first got the job to relax a little—that I barely won any games my first three seasons. He turns to me and says, ‘Coach, I’m not gonna be measured by your first three seasons, I’m gonna be measured by your last three (America East Championships).’ That’s when I knew we were buds. But seriously, no one cares more about his players than J.B.” One of those players, notes Brennan, is 2014 recruit Josh Speidel of Columbus, Indiana, who, during his senior year in high school, sustained traumatic brain and physical injuries in a car accident that almost took his life. Whether Speidel, who Brennan asserts is the most talented recruit ever signed by UVM, plays basketball again seems inconsequential. Regardless, Becker is firm that a scholarship still awaits the young man. “A lot of coaches wouldn’t do that, but that’s the kind of guy Becker is,” says Brennan, who writes Speidel a letter every Monday. “J.B. is all heart.”

PRACTICING PERFECTION On the surface, Becker projects quiet intensity. In practice—depending on the effort and performance of his players— that intensity can get loud. Today, Becker is clearly frustrated by his team’s lack of energy and understanding of his defensive scheme. He lets it be known with a few strategically placed expletives weaved into a series of pleading questions.

“Do you have any idea what you are

doing out there? When is this gonna change? We are not going to win like this; so, if you are good with that, then we’ll just go through the motions and won’t win any games. You gotta play harder with more attitude. You gotta be nastier, make people uncomfortable on defense. You are too smart and too good to play like this.”

Play continues, but so do the mistakes.

“Why do I even bother? I can’t watch anymore,” the coach laments. But then things take a turn for the better. The intensity picks up and so does the defensive help.

Becker dishes the praise. “Good job! That’s what I’ve been talking about!” Nice work!”

Tough love.

The team’s lone senior, Ethan O’Day, has seen Becker’s full psychological/motivational arsenal. “He’s an intense guy, but he also likes to joke with us and have us over for dinner,” says O’Day at the team’s pregame breakfast at the Windjammer Restaurant. “He really cares about his players, so when he gets on us we understand that it’s because he wants us to succeed while we’re here and after we leave the university.”

GAME TIME It’s fewer than twenty minutes before tipoff, and Becker, natty in a gray pinstripe suit, enters the locker room from a side door. His players perk up as he points to the keys of the game on a whiteboard: get back on defense, rebound, be physical. “I’ve been hard on you, because I know what we can be and it’s frustrating when we aren’t. I

believe we have the guys in this room to win the rest of our games. I truly believe that, so let’s go out there and do that today.

Play hard, play smart, play together.”

Becker’s speech appears to have fallen on deaf ears as the Catamounts quickly fall behind 12-5. But just like in practice, they respond to some constructive feedback and go on a 19-5 run to keep within 36-33 at the half. The remainder of the game is close with UVM taking a 44-43 lead off a Kurt Steidl three-pointer. But Siena won’t go away until Trae Bell-Haynes, scoring eleven of his game-high nineteen points in the final five-and-a-half minutes, helps seal a 73-64 victory.

At the post-game press conference, Becker is relaxed and pleased. “I’ve been on the kids pretty hard this week,” he says.

“But it’s awesome when they do what they are capable of doing, and it’s what makes this job really, really cool.”

Moment’s later, Becker’s players surround him in the middle of the locker room celebrating the victory. Brennan and former players Jeff Brown ’82, a UVM Hall of Famer and current coach at Middlebury, and Clancy Rugg ’14, on a break from his pro career in Luxembourg, join the celebration. Cieplicki cues some hip-hop on the sound system, smiles all around. But, no doubt, Becker and his staff are already starting to think about the coming weekend’s match-up with Harvard and the conference opener just days after. It’s a long road to March.

VQ

WATC H T H E C ATA M O U N T S O N L I N E

CATAMOUNTV.COM FOR HOCKEY AMERICAEAST.TV FOR ALL OTHER SPORTS

SPRING 2016 |

19

| ON COURSE

Road to Ruins

‘Archaeology of us’ explored in seminar for first-year students

Soot-blackened brick and BY | THOMAS WEAVER PHOTOGRAPH BY | SCOTT VAN KEUREN

20 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

rusted girders, a cavernous industrial space that for decades has been appealing only to damp pigeons and brazen graffiti artists, Burlington’s defunct Moran Power Plant still endures along the city’s revitalized waterfront.

For a course focused on contemporary ruins, it would be hard to invent a better field trip. Fortunate for Scott Van Keuren, associate professor of anthropology, and the nineteen students in his TeacherAdvisor Program Seminar, that Moran sits little more than a mile from campus. Even better that a pair of young UVM alumni, Tad Cooke and Erick Crockenberg, lead an ambitious effort to creatively re-purpose Moran in a way that would preserve the vibe of post-industrial funk but fill it with twenty-first century Vermont virtues such

as local food, sustainable energy, public recreation, and the arts.

In the thick of fundraising efforts to make their vision reality, Cooke and Crockenberg were happy to take Van Keuren and his students on a tour, showing off the building that intrigued them and inspired their Moran endeavor when they were undergrads themselves.

The field trip was followed by a writing assignment, crafting an op-ed piece arguing for the plant’s preservation or tearing it down, that helped the students begin to develop and articulate their thoughts on the place of modern ruins in our society.

ALLURE OF DECAY

For Van Keuren, the youthful ruins of Moran and the like are a departure from his career focus as an archaeologist studying

MORANPLANT.ORG | MORE ON THE MORAN PLANT

ancient Pueblo societies in the American Southwest. But contemporary archaeology, AKA “the archaeology of us,” has long been an interest in the back of his mind. As he came to see connections between this direction of study and UVM’s broad institutional focus on sustainability, the class seemed like a natural.

The Teacher-Advisor Program, seminar-style courses for first-year students in which the professor doubles as their academic advisor, is proving to be a good fit.

Activities such as field trips and occasional dinners downtown together as a class narrow the gulf between teacher and student, Van Keuren says.

Students Kelsey Crocco and Colin Serra have high praise for how the teacheradvisor model has played out in the “Ruins” course. They cite the small class size, chance to develop a closer relationship with their advisor, and guest speakers who help them navigate college life. “If I’m going to TAP class at least two times a

week, that’s two more times I can talk to my advisor,” Serra says.

Growing up at the edge of an abandoned industrial district in Dallas, Texas, first fed Van Keuren’s interest in archaeology. As a teenager, he would explore the darkness-on-the-edge-of-town landscape of weedy railroad tracks and derelict warehouses. “The decay—sort of watching this place fall apart—drew me in. But it was also the silence, thinking about the things that had happened in those places, wondering about the experience people had there,” Van Keuren says. “It was really that first exploration of being around these abandoned places that got me interested in ruins, so this is coming full circle.”

Circle completed, as Van Keuren and his students study modern ruins this semester, they are part of a well-established trend that did not exist when the professor was a teen kicking around his dying Dallas neighborhood. There is now a vocabulary around this —“Detroitism” and “ruin

porn”—that gets at what draws many to these spaces that are at once frightening and familiar.

“It’s a fascination with failure. It’s a fascination with this collapse of industries and visions of apocalypse,” Van Keuren says. “Old ruins are often referred to as ‘beautiful, quaint, authentic.’ New ruins are ‘jagged, offensive, dangerous.’ People have a very different sense of them.”

The “Ruins” course syllabus spans thick academic articles to popular films. Van Keuren added another dimension with the computer game “Elegy for a Dead World,” in which gamers walk through a ruinous landscape and write a script for what they’re experiencing. “It’s almost like an archaeologist writing a narrative during exploration,” the professor says. (Nineteen complimentary licenses from the game’s developer gave each student a free ticket to the apocalypse.)

While some modern ruins, like the Moran Plant, are obvious, others are more subtle. Van Keuren mentions one of his local favorites, the never-used/abandoned section of the Southern Connector highway, or the way a walk through Burlington’s Intervale reveals scraps of the past— farm machinery to refrigerators, cars to homeless encampments—poking from the bottomland.

“We’re surrounded with all this stuff,” Van Keuren says. “That’s what the class is about. I want the students to see these objects and places. I want them to think about what ruins do to us and what we do VQ to ruins.”

SPRING 2016 |

21

BEYOND by sarah tuff dunn

THE photography by sally mccay

BUFFET

22 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

The Changing Plates of Campus Dining

C

rab cakes with remoulade are on the morning menu one Wednesday, but not at Leunig’s on Church Street—at Harris Millis, one of three University of Vermont resident dining halls that offer, perhaps, the most traditional of college cuisine. On one side of the cafeteria are plates of ham, Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes under a heat lamp, not far from a burger & fries station and a salad bar. But on the other side, first-year student Kayla Irwin is learning how to cook in MyKitchen.

“She’s doing great,” says chef Chris Reynolds with a nod before turning back to Irwin and her crab cakes. “Flatten it out, and add a little oil.”

On the other side of campus in Cook Commons, Ian Moore ’19, a UVM cross-country ski team member from Waitsfield, is slathering butter on toast as he surveys a row of Froot Loops and Cheerios; hash browns, bacon, and other standards are also at the ready for the line of sleepy-eyed students.

“Nordic skiers have a really high carbohydrate intake,” says Moore, who estimates he burns up to 3,000 calories a day, “and UVM helps meet those needs.”

But it’s not just about carbohydrates, or protein, or fat. Today, UVM is meeting the increasingly discerning needs of students who have sophisticated palates with a near dizzying array of dining options, from August First Bakery brioche to zucchini from the Intervale. A new deal with food service company Sodexo means new foods for first-years to seniors, and a fresh focus on locally produced food from Vermont farmers.

Above, DAVID ZHENG ’19, MyKitchen at Harris Millis.

“Sometimes they have ingredients so that I can make Chinese food.”

Enjoying his work: friends David Cloud BuXiong ’18 and Annie Wu ’18.

SPRING 2016 |

23

A la carte? Try a la carte blanche. All you can eat?

Try all you can meet.

“Twenty years ago, it was just food on the plate,” says Annie Stevens, vice provost for student affairs, sitting in the hip new Skinny Pancake location in Living/Learning. “It’s now individual meal planning—who are you and what do you believe in, and how can we offer you a full extent so that you are happy and healthy?”

NIKKI HUBBARD, graduate post-bac student, potato leek soup, the Marketplace. “I always pick the soups, probably three times a week.”

SOPHIE LEFF ’18, The Williams sandwich, Green Roof Deli, the Marketplace. “Eating on campus can get monotonous, it’s nice to try something new.”

24 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

At Harris Millis, student Irwin and supervisor Reynolds work like chefs in symphony—not unlike the current relationship between UVM and Sodexo, which has been bringing food to campus for fiftynine years. But as the localvore movement took a firm grip on the Green Mountains and beyond, it was time for a change. “We wrote them a really difficult RFP,” says Stevens of the contract (driven partly by students) proposed to Sodexo, to bring in more local vendors, go for zero waste, and zero in more on wellness and education. After eighteen months of negotiation, the deal was sealed.

“We really understand UVM, and we’ve been refining that in the last five years,” says Melissa Zelazny ’84, the general manager of Sodexo, before providing a tour of Redstone Unlimited, where M&M-topped Candy Pies complement a cheese bar with Cabot cheddar and Boggy Meadow Swiss— adjacent to the special Vermont Kosher kitchen that’s cooking up Green Goddess couscous salads and Israeli chicken breast sandwiches. “It’s complex, feeding 10,000 kids a day.”

A Simple Servings station serves food free of milk, eggs, and other allergens. Then there’s MyZone, a cordoned-off area (common to each UVM Unlimited hall) that caters to those with special dietary needs—about 10 to 12 percent of students come in with some sort of intolerance, according to Zelazny; many of them meet with Sodexo’s registered dietitian, Mary Righton Brown, to navigate the choices. “A lot of students are gluten-free,” she says. “I don’t know if that’s need or preference-based, but that’s the No. 1 request. The No. 1 need is nut allergies.”

Lunchtime at the Living/Learning Center sees Chef Robby ladling out Thai bone broth and tending to a steaming pot of pork and cabbage dumplings at the much buzzed-about Wao Bao, which shares the same Marché space as Vermont Bean Crafters— which concocts such vegetarian and vegan products as curried caraway kraut—and SoYo, dishing out samples of pumpkin frozen yogurt.

GREGORY GAUSE, Med’ 19, Hamburger and salad, Brennan’s Pub. “Leave out the milkshake.”

At the same table, EMIL TSAU, coordinates the hybrid master’s program in the Rubenstein School.

“I’ve been eating a lot of beef lately and just saw the movie Cowspiracy, so I got the chicken tenders.” Brennan’s Pub.

PACE PATTERSON ’16, Chicken Pad Thai at the International station in the Marketplace. “It’s nice to get a big meal and have it be healthy.”

TENGXIAOYU YAN, ’19, Beef Noodle, Harris Millis Dining Hall. “Looks good, and the cook speaks Chinese.”

SPRING 2016 |

25

“I came in the first few days, and they showed me how to do it.

Now I’m here

“It’s like kitchen nirvana!” says UVM Executive Chef Kate Hays of the machinations behind all these meals and of forty-plus partnerships with Black River Produce, Champlain Orchards, Thomas Dairy and beyond. “To see just-picked produce—an unpeeled onion, an unpeeled carrot—in an industrial space? It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Bred partially at Burlington’s Daily Planet restaurant, Hays came aboard in 2013 and now oversees the $23 million universe of UVM’s food services.

“I’d been working with the Intervale since 1986, and when I discovered that Sodexo was willing to tweak the mold for fresh, local food,” she says, “I said, ‘Let me get this straight—we’re going to get food grown literally right down the hill?’”

Not just right down the hill, but right atop the hill, too, at myriad UVM enterprises including Proctor Maple Research Center (serving 1,000 gallons of syrup per year to students) and UVM Catamount Educational Farm (proving 3,000 pounds of produce per year). Growing in the GreenHouse Residential Learning Community, meanwhile, are a crop of new classes dedicated to merging student interests with lifelong cooking skills—a recent “Centennial Woods” course teaches how to use Whisperlight camping stoves for backpacking trips.

“We don’t have all the answers,” admits Zelazny.

“But we have a vision, and we want to make sure students, faculty, and staff collaborate on that vision.”

almost every day, you get to eat as much as you like, it’s definitely better food.”

BRETT TOWLE ’19 Grilled Thai beef salad that he cooked at MyKitchen, Harris Millis dining hall

26 |

It’s 5 p.m. on a Friday evening at the Davis Center, where Julia Wood ’18 has popped in for a burrito from New World Tortilla before her Tri Delt sorority meeting. Across the hallway, Green Roof Deli manager Nolan Parker is closing shop, having served up Stonewood Farms turkey and North Country bacon on sandwiches dubbed “The Kalkin,” which don’t always fly like hotcakes. “Students don’t always appreciate,” he admits, “what buying local means.”

Wander downstairs to FeelGood’s grilled cheese enterprise or to the packed Brennan’s Pub, and understand that at the end of the day, the challenge of a twenty-first century university is keeping up with nationwide eating trends (goodbye gluten) and locally-sourced food (hello, arugula) while meeting the cravings of hungry, sometimes homesick kids for anything from a spicy African stew to chicken fingers. Sure, FeelGood raises money for the Hunger Project, and Brennan’s Pub serves sustainable foods, but damn, this stuff is just tasty, too.

“We just can’t get enough potatoes!” says Zelazny of the fact that French fries still fly.

Enter the Real Food Challenge, which “leverages the power of youth and universities to create

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

a healthy, fair, and green food system,” according to the vision of the California-sparked movement that began in 2007 and caught on quickly at UVM. With the mission of mobilizing students to shift $1 billion of school budgets toward real food by 2020, it has galvanized people like Olivia Peña ’17.

The New Jersey native grew up in the Garden State and always had fresh food growing in the backyard, but didn’t see the power of produce until arriving in Burlington. “As soon as I got to UVM, I was really engaged by the localvore, real-food movement,” says Peña over a plate of quinoa salad and the sound of Fitz and the Tantrums playing at Brennan’s. “I’ve totally changed the way I eat since coming here.”

After experimenting with vegetarianism, suffering from a lack of protein and shifting back to meat, Peña now consumes fish, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, the scientifically proven formula for longevity and good health as outlined in such books as Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones and promoted by the Yale Prevention Center’s Dr. David Katz as a way to reduce any chronic disease by 80 percent. As a halfmarathon runner, Peña now has more energy and clarity on her career ahead. “I wanted to be a vet,” she says. “But there’s so much possibility for change in food systems, and I want to be involved.”

Look beyond the local labels at Brennan’s, or at any other UVM dining hall, food truck, or Fruit Loops dispenser, and note that all this talk about what goes into our mouths is fostering something else that keeps us alive, whether that be for a cold winter or a couple of decades: basic human connection. When Peña looks back on her most memorable meals at UVM, she touches not on tofu scrambles or spinach panini, but on the Wednesday family dinners she enjoyed as a first-year. “All my friends and I would sit down and have a meal together,” she says of the Harris-Millis gatherings. “We’d call the dining hall a trap, because once we were sitting there, we’d never want to leave.”

Once darkness falls, however, it’s time to digest.

Pam’s Deli, which began the day as the lone food truck along the reserved vendor spaces on University Heights—a bright yellow beacon offering even more choices for hungry UVM community members—has rolled home. The Intervale farmers are already asleep, the Given Bistro has gone to bed for the night, and chefs across campus are dreaming of the next meal.

“Food is visceral—it offers a sense of comfort, a sense of community, a sense of home,” says Hays.

“Our job is to bond with students, to make sure they are fed and happy so that they have the energy and VQ brainpower to succeed at this school.”

MATTHEW SEGIL, ’18, the Noah’s Ark, Skinny Pancake.

“Because it has cinnamon and the eggs are tasty.”

LINDSEY BURKEY ’18, Kale salad, pickled vegetables, and hummish, Vermont Bean Crafters in the Marché.

“I usually come here because it’s probably the healthiest option.”

LIBBY MOREHOUSE ’18, spicy peanut noodles and two baos at Wao Bao in the Marché. “I run around a lot and it’s reliable.”

JEMAL NEAL ’19, Healthy roast chicken and pineapple pizza, Harris Millis. “I usually eat things that aren’t saucy so I can take it to my work without it sloshing around.”

Works at the UHeights South front desk.

SPRING 2016 |

27

28 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

UVM and BTV start it up one afternoon in early

December, a rowdy manifestation of the University of Vermont’s growing commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship was in full swing in the lobby of Kalkin Hall, home to the Grossman School of Business.

Clustered around tables, trade-show style, teams of graduate students in Erik Monsen’s Technology Commercialization class were hawking products and services UVM faculty had created in their research labs, from a molecular additive that could improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for deadly brain cancers to a “big data” app that uses social media posts for real-time analysis of market trends.

Guided by Monsen, the Steven Grossman Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Grossman School, students had spent the last three months developing commercialization

WIR

ED

for

SUCCESS During a business course trade show exercise, Spencer Fenn, doctoral student in bioengineering, makes his pitch for the promise of taking recent cancer research from UVM labs to market.

plans for the products, whose creators they had met in September and worked with all semester.

Now, as part of their final project, they were giving their marketing spiels a road test.

Asking students to help faculty researchers navigate the unfamiliar terrain of intellectual property rights, patent and licensing issues, market and customer analyses, and commercialization strategy is uncommon in higher education.

It’s also emblematic of a new spirit sweeping the university.

by jeffrey wakefield photograph by ian thomas jansen-lonnquist ’09 SPRING 2016 |

29

BEYOND THE LAB Mercedes Rincon, a faculty member in the College of Medicine’s Department of Medicine, has a keen interest in commercializing her research, focused on the immune system, chemotherapy resistance, and fatty liver disease.

But not for the reason you’d think.

“The only way you can get from the lab to the patient is through commercialization,” she says. “That’s my main motivation.

It’s not to make money but to see whether what we are doing can be useful for a disease and contribute to making a difference.”

To that end, Rincon has six patents based on nineteen years of work in her College of Medicine lab, supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, and has co-founded a company, Mitotherapeutix, whose product line is based on her research.

She’s also worked hard to bring her altruistic message to the campus as a whole by helping launch UVM’s most ambitious program for commercializing faculty research, SPARK-VT, a Shark Tank-like competition among faculty with innovative ideas that awards $50,000 to four proposals annually with the strongest commercial potential.

Rincon’s boss, Polly Parsons, chair of the Department of Medicine, learned of the SPARK program from a colleague at Stanford, where it was developed.

But Parsons encountered resistance among her colleagues when she suggested transplanting it to UVM. “People were skeptical because at Stanford, unlike UVM, you have all these companies nearby” whose talent was needed for the consultative panel, a team of experts who spend hours with faculty competitors, providing free advice and feedback before ultimately picking the winners.

Rincon shared some of those reservations but volunteered to roll up her sleeves anyway and begin cold-calling. To her relief, she had great success, recruiting a first-rate, fourteen-member panel, half of whose members came from Vermont.

“It has really helped the overall environment in entrepreneurship,” she says, “because there are more people thinking about commercialization as a way of bringing their ideas, their products, to people who need them.”

30 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Across UVM, administrative leadership, faculty, and students are embracing a new ethos: that innovative research and entrepreneurship —resulting in products and services that benefit society, promote economic development, forge meaningful connections with the community and, potentially, earn revenue for the institution—are included among the most important functions of the modern university.

“It’s a huge transformation,” says John Evans, senior advisor to the president and provost, who has served the university for more than forty years in a range of roles, from College of Medicine dean to vice president for research. “Today we see entrepreneurship and commercialization as adding value.”

In the past, Evans says—referring to higher ed generally, as well as UVM—untainted pure research was the exclusive coin of the realm.

In the view of Provost David Rosowsky, the contemporary UVM is serving a twenty-first century version of its nineteenth-century land grant mission. “One of the many pillars of that vision is the idea of the land grant as an economic driver or an economic engine,” he says.

One faculty beneficiary of Monsen’s class exemplifies UVM’s evolution: Dryver Huston, a mechanical engineering professor and serial inventor in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, who could be seen mingling with his student advisors in the Kalkin Hall lobby.

Not long ago, Huston was on his own with his legion of ideas for useful innovations, few of which saw the commercial light of day. Today, an entire infrastructure supports his creativity.

The student team in Monsen’s

class, for instance, created a lengthy report full of recommendations for commercializing Huston’s latest innovation, co-developed with electrical engineering colleague Tian Xia: a ground penetrating radar system that can be driven over bridges at highway speeds to detect structural defects.

Huston and Xia also benefited from UVM’s most ambitious new program supporting the commercialization of faculty research: SPARK VT, a Shark Tank-like competition among faculty with innovative ideas that awards $50,000 to each of four winning proposals a year.

Polly Parsons, chair of the Department of Medicine in the College of Medicine, played a lead role in bringing SPARK to UVM after learning of a similar program at Stanford University.

“It provides opportunities for people to take ideas out of the lab and across what’s called ‘The Valley of Death,’” she says. “Sometimes faculty innovation never really becomes new drugs or devices because there’s this big hurdle to get past.”

The SPARK model helps faculty cross that arid stretch with a series of practical, expert-led workshops on topics like venture capital funding, patent law, and business planning that help them prepare their proposals. After a winnowing process, five faculty teams pitch their ideas to an eighteen-person “consultative panel” packed with more experts, who further push faculty to grapple with business realities, and then, ultimately, pick the four winners.

After debuting within the College of Medicine in 2012, the program went university-wide in 2014. Ten projects have been funded, resulting in twenty-one invention disclosures or patent filings, nine start-up companies in development, and $500,000 in federal research funding.

MARIO MORGADO

‘PENCIL & PAPER’ FOR THE BLIND

SPARK-VT and Erik Monsen’s courses are just two signs of the entrepreneurially nimble UVM. Another is easy to spot: the rising steel beam of UVM’s $100 million STEM complex, across the way from Kalkin Hall, whose cuttingedge teaching and research labs will promote faculty interaction and creativity when the project comes online in 2017.

Others aren’t so obvious. Richard Galbraith, vice president for research, has launched an alphabet soup of programs that incentivize faculty to do the kind of crossdisciplinary research that wins federal grants and often has commercialization potential. The Grossman School’s new Sustainable Entrepreneurship MBA gives students the tools to launch start-up companies that match Vermont’s sustainability culture. The Community Entrepreneurship major in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics remains one of UVM’s most popular. An annual UVM-sponsored conference, Invention 2 Venture, draws more participants each year. And the College of Arts & Sciences has begun offering courses at the graduate and undergraduate level in “design thinking” SALLY MCCAY

taught by a former instructor at the Stanford School of Design— the nation’s epicenter of creative entrepreneurship.

All the entrepreneurial ferment is yielding results. The Office of Technology Commercialization had logged thirty-three invention disclosures barely halfway through the 2016 fiscal year. Not only was the number high, says OTC director Corine Farewell—in the past, forty disclosures for a full year were the norm—but “the quality and the nature of work being presented” is unusually good, she says.

While Farewell and her colleagues are confident that faculty innovation can continue to grow as a revenue generator for the university, they stress that a windfall like the one Gatorade has bestowed on the University of Florida is the rare exception. UVM is becoming more entrepreneurial for additional good reasons: to connect the university to its home state and hometown, according to Galbraith, and to be competitive in attracting talented students and young faculty to it campus, Rosowsky adds.

Michael Rosen has produced research related to people with disabilities for the past four decades, the last ten as a research associate professor in UVM’s School of Engineering. It wasn’t until he co-founded Engineering to Assist and Support You (E.A.S.Y), LLC, with a colleague and a former student, however, that he felt like his research truly impacted lives.

“My research has resulted in refereed papers, conference presentations, and about eight patents, none of which led to things actually being in the hands of people with disabilities,” he says. “It’s a kind of closure towards the end of my career, but also represents a new beginning.”

Since the launch of E.A.S.Y in 2012, Rosen, Michael Coleman, senior lecturer in the School of Engineering, and engineering alumnus Joshua Coffee ‘11 have developed highly innovative tactile graphics products that are expected to dramatically improve the way the blind and visually impaired learn and communicate.

The roots of E.A.S.Y grow from a project in the “Senior Experience in Engineering Design” capstone course taught by Rosen. Initial capital was secured from the National Federation for the Blind, which led to UVM’s Office of Technology Commercialization providing a low-interest loan from the UVM Ventures Innovation Fund, and residency at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies. Significant funding has followed from the National Institutes of Health.

One of their products, the inTACT Eraser, is expected to fundamentally change the way blind students approach schoolwork by giving them the ability to change, correct, and update tactile graphics as they sketch. “There are a lot of high-tech solutions that people are trying to come up with in the blindness realm, but they’re almost irrelevant to our idea, which is that we need pencil and paper for blind people,” says Coleman.

“We often hear things like, ‘I could have been an architect,’ or, ‘Where were you when I was in high school?’ and that’s when we understand the significance of what we’re trying to accomplish,” says Coffee.

continued on page 34 SPRING 2016 |

31

A PLACE FOR IDEAS, CONNECTION, WORK VCET@BTV, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technology’s downtown Burlington location, looks like something imported from the West Coast, an open expanse with a ping-pong table, an army of easy chairs, glass-walled conference rooms, a King Kong poster, and a vivid color scheme.

The new facility—a “co-worker space”— is home to a fluid tribe of about one hundred members, some working remotely for large companies like Twitter and Google, others in the early phases of company formation, still others solo practitioners who enjoy the creative atmosphere and stimulation of like-minded people.

The original VCET, launched in 2005 with space provided by UVM on its Trinity campus, provides office space and

32 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

services for early phase entrepreneurs, many of them UVM faculty. In its decade of existence, VCET has assisted some 1,250 startups with mentoring and business advice, and its forty-five portfolio companies have attracted more than $113 million in investment capital and earned over $93 million in revenues.

But the new facility has really gotten the ball rolling, helping VCET support three hundred startups in the last year alone.

“We had a college student wander in this summer,” says David Bradbury ’88, president of VCET. “He was like, ‘My god, I didn’t realize this was here. I’ve dreamt of working in Silicon Valley and it’s right here on Main Street.’”

WIRED for SUCCESS IAN THOMAS JANSEN-LONNQUIST ’09

SPRING 2016 |

33

SEEDING SUCCESS One of the best ideas ever conceived for an entrepreneurship course came to Kathleen Liang at the last stressful moment— the day before classes in the fall of 2005.

Liang had long wanted to add a hands-on component to her Intro to Community Entrepreneurship course, which she’d taught for three years.

But where would she get funding to seed the small enterprises she envisioned student teams creating, putting into practice the lessons they were learning?

With no benefactors in sight, Liang decided to become a banker as well as a teacher. On the first day of class she told her forty-eight students she would give each of them one dollar—an amount she could handle herself—and tasked them with launching profitable micro-businesses during an intense few weeks mid-semester. They could ask for donations— of goods, not money—in the first week, but then had to cover expenses from sales.

“I had no idea how they’d react,” she says. When they responded enthusiastically, “I was terrified; I actually had to do this,” she says.

The class was a hit. “Dollar Enterprise” quickly became one of UVM’s most popular. In 2014 Inc. magazine named it one of the best entrepreneurship classes in America. In 2015 the Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship gave Liang the National Entrepreneur Educator Award.

Every student team but one has turned a profit— selling everything from tie-dyed t-shirts to flower seeds. At semester’s end, proceeds are donated to local non-profits.

Of the course’s many successful alumni, Jeremy Baras stands out, creator of PopUp Republic, a consulting firm that helps clients create pop-ups, companies that come out of nowhere, set up shop on a street corner and sell their goods with little overhead, a $50 billion industry in 2014.

If that sounds like a certain hands-on UVM course, that’s no accident. “I want my students to be able to apply what they’ve learned in class,” the professor says, “that you don’t need millions to be a successful entrepreneur and contribute to the community.”

34 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

COULDN’T HAPPEN TO A NICER PLACE While UVM has been busy reimagining itself in recent years, something similar has been going on in its home state and, especially, its hometown.

To the long list of accolades Burlington is accustomed to receiving—best college town, best place to raise a family, best outdoor recreation— a new kind of tribute has cropped up: top tech town.

Atlantic Monthly called Burlington a Silicon Valley of the East, citing Dealer.com, a Burlington startup that was recently acquired for $4.5 billion, as evidence of its mojo.

Burlington ranked #9, just behind Austin and ahead of Boston, on a recent Forbes.com list of America’s ten most innovative tech hubs. Inc. magazine, using data compiled by the Brookings Institution on patents per capita, featured Burlington as an underrated tech hub. As for the state as a whole, the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation, which promotes and finances entrepreneurship, ranked Vermont fifth in the nation for start-ups.

For jaded Vermont veterans or those who haven’t visited the city in recent years, Burlington as a Palo Alto of the East might seem like a stretch.

But experts see things differently. Burlington has all the perks young tech entrepreneurs look for in a city, says Cairn Cross, a principle at the Vermont-based venture firm Fresh Tracks Capital and member of the faculty at the Grossman School.

“Entrepreneurs say they want to live in a community where they know their neighbors, where they can walk and bike, where outdoor sports, and farm to plate food are

part of the culture and where it’s a good place to raise kids,” he says.

Burlington has all that and more, courtesy of a far-sighted investment made by the city in the early 2000s at a fraction of what it would cost today: a highspeed fiber optic network on par with those Google is installing to great fanfare in places like Kansas City and Atlanta, and which only a dozen other cities in the country boast.

Burlington’s natural charms, combined with its “gig” network— capable of delivering information one hundred times faster than ordinary internet providers—give it the potential to be a major staging area for the next phase of the information and communications revolution, says Bill Wallace, director of U.S. Ignite, a National Science Foundation-sponsored partnership funded by America’s leading technology companies. Burlington was named one of the first U.S. Ignite cities in 2013.

“You have a place where people want to be, where they want to congregate on the lake and on Church Street,” he says. “That’s huge. But you also have a fiber infrastructure that is extremely well-suited for the coming revolution. Burlington has a huge advantage over other places.”

A hyper-fast network can be as much a catalyst for twenty-first century economic development as industrial age technologies were in the past, Wallace says, citing another U.S. Ignite city, Chattanooga, subject of a recent New York Times story headlined, “Fast Internet Is Chattanooga’s New Locomotive.”

The still skeptical should visit Burlington in the summer and fall, when the city hosts two computer coding conferences, Ruby Burlington and UX Burlington, each of which bring hundreds of coders to

town from around the country.

The conferences “bring a lot of programmers together and introduce them to Burlington and the Burlington tech scene,” says Kerry Swift, technology licensing officer in UVM’s Office of Technology Commercialization. While the city’s vibe and famous microbrews are an attraction, Swift says, it’s the people already in town who are the real draw.

“The first thing they do is check out the meet-up culture,” Swift says, referring to the online communities that form around every conceivable topic, including every form of tech, and hold regular faceto-face meetings.

“There are quite a lot of them, and they’re active,” she says. “The coder ones are meeting at least every month, if not every few weeks. It shows the strength of the city’s tech scene.”

The quality of the local talent pool is bolstered by alumni of Burlington’s legacy companies, like IBM and IDX, and by the growing number of UVM faculty entrepreneurs.

Evans likens this emergent Burlington to a small Austin. “Every time you turn around, you meet companies with six people,” he says. “You could really envision an explosion in this area.”

UVM’s and Burlington’s growing success are more than loosely connected. Along with institutions like Champlain College and BTV Ignite, UVM and Burlington form an entrepreneurship ecosystem of interdependent parts, one that de-emphasizes the name on the front door.

“We’re all talking about it as an ecosystem,” the Vermont Center for Emerging Technology’s David Bradbury ’88 says. (See pages 3233.) “It’s not my college does this, or my VCET does that. We will succeed or fail together. That reflects how people work today; SALLY MCCAY (2)

we’re a mobile workforce that highlights collaboration.”

Vermont’s egalitarian culture helps support that interdependence and offers entrepreneurs unique opportunity, says Swift.

“The word on the street is, if someone came to me and said, I’m really interested in doing this, and I go OK, you should talk to so-and-so, they could just reach out to each one of those people and be talking to them within the next week,” she says. “It’s very different than Kendall Square, very different from Cambridge. There you have to have a very specific introduction to meet people who can help you move along the pathway.”

UVM could play a special role in helping the ecosystem thrive, says Rosowsky.

“If you look at any great innovation ecosystem anywhere in the country, at its core is a great research university,” he says, “whether it’s Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, University of Texas, Duke and UNC, or all the universities in Boston.

“We’re not as big as some of these other schools, but what we do have is heft in the areas that have resonance with how things are bubbling up in Burlington and Vermont. We’re very strong in health; we’re very strong in environmental systems; we’re very strong in data science and complex systems. We’re not only strong but particularly innovative in areas like sustainable entrepreneurship, in areas like food systems. You put these all together and I think if there’s going to be a truly innovative ecosystem in Vermont, we’re the exact right institution to help make it happen.”

VQ

CONNECTING THE COALITION The plan for Michael Schirling ’92 G ’05 following his retirement as chief of the Burlington Police Department in June 2015 was to take a little time off, do some consulting, and plot his next career move. That lasted two months.

A call from local officials looking to hire Burlington’s first executive director of BTV Ignite, an organization that encourages public, private, and academic institutions to capitalize on the city’s massive high-speed gigabit infrastructure and to grow the tech economy, was too good to pass up.

“I saw it as a really unique opportunity to help advance the community in a new and potentially powerful way,” says Schirling, who started working part-time for the Burlington Police as an undergraduate majoring in political science.

On the surface, Schirling’s hiring seemed an unconventional choice. But the self-described computer geek had built a national reputation as a tech chief for constructing his own online records management system, helping build internet investigations and computer forensic capacity for the State of Vermont, and co-founding the Digital Forensics program at Champlain College.

“What I told them at the interview was that if they were looking for someone to build the technical network that’s not me,” says Schirling, a Burlington native.

“But for the intersection of operations and technology and blending them together to simplify people’s lives, that’s the lens I can bring to the conversation.”

Schirling is also known as a coalition builder—a skill that has proven critical to the success of some of the other twenty-five US Ignite cities. “I’m just one little piece of this broad and talented coalition trying to help leverage the capacity we already have, which includes phenomenal bandwidth and a fiber optic infrastructure that is unparalleled,” he says. “There are a lot of vacant tech jobs in Vermont, so we plan to help prepare Vermont’s workforce to meet the needs of a twenty-first century economy, which has technology woven through every component of it.”

SPRING 2016 |

35

36 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

UVM PEOPLE Kelly Swanson ’81

by Thomas Weaver photograph by Bobby Bruderle ’11

CENTER RING

Kelly Swanson is founder and president of Swanson Communications, a public relations firm that counts boxers Floyd Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins among its clients. In 2013, Swanson was the only woman to be named one of Yahoo! Sports’ “25 Most Powerful People in Boxing.” In 2015, she led the public relations effort for the marquee fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, which drew a record pay-per-view audience of more than four million, placing boxing in the cultural spotlight to an extent the sport has not seen in decades.

Swanson calls boxing the “six degrees of separation sport.”

Rarely does she meet someone who doesn’t have some personal connection—an uncle who boxed Golden Gloves, a grandfather who loved to watch fights on his black-and-white TV. She’s also drawn to and inspired by the personal stories of hardship that typify a boxer’s life. “By helping tell their stories to the press, I can help them become as famous as possible, and then they become as successful as possible” she says. “For many, it’s their only way out.”

TOUGH ENOUGH

“Face it, boxing’s a man’s world, on all sides,” middleweight Bernard Hopkins told Washington City Paper. “Her job is to get the reporters and fighters together, and in this sport, that’s all men. But you got to go through her, and Kelly doesn’t take nothing from anybody. She puts reporters in their place when they need it, and she keeps fighters in line. Is everybody in a man-dominated business gonna love a woman as tough as Kelly Swanson? No. But everybody respects her.”

For her part, Swanson laughs and sighs a bit when asked if she ever tires of the “tough woman in a man’s world” characterization. “I like to call it ‘firm.’ But other people like to say, ‘Oh, she’s really tough.’”

Swanson started running during her UVM years, and it has remained a constant in her life, often joining fighters when they headed out for roadwork at camp. Over the past three years, she’s put the gloves on herself, working out at the legendary Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. She raves about the fullbody workout. “You walk out of there and you are drenched. It’s not just going to the gym and getting a good sweat up. No, you’re sopping wet.”

BEYOND BOXING

With offices in both New York City and Washington, D.C., Swanson Communications is a full-service public relations and marketing firm, one of the few womanowned businesses in the top tier of the profession. Though her roots are in boxing, Swanson and colleagues represent professional athletes in other sports, players in the NFL and NBA. Non-profits, Gallaudet University, and a recent music festival on the Mall in D.C., are also among their clients.

“It’s not all glitz and glamour,” she says.

“The story you are selling has to be more compelling and newsworthy than the other one hundred stories that might also be relevant that day.”

LOVE OF THE GAME

Growing up with three brothers in Buffalo, New York, nurtured Swanson’s affinity for sports—“ football, baseball, kickball, you name it, we were our own little team”— and hone a competitive edge. A political science major at UVM, she tried out for varsity field hockey but didn’t make the cut. Her Catamount sports glory would be as an avid hockey fan in the Gutterson bleachers.

SPRING 2016 |

37

CURIOUS

NATURE At home with naturalist Bernd Heinrich

I

story & photographs by joshua brown

t’s night in the Maine woods, and Bernd Heinrich is considering what to do tomorrow. “I’d like to go check on my spiders,” he says. Then he stands up and steps over to a large wood-burning stove in the middle of his cabin. He eases open one of the cast-iron burners and pushes a log down into the fire. A mol-

ten light plays across his face, making him look, for a moment, like a boy, and then casts black shadows on his deeply lined skin.

“I don’t think we’ll see any,” he says, almost to himself.

“I had about thirty spiders located. The last time I checked was last week, and I still found three,” he says with his distinctive hint of a lisp mixed with the trace of a German accent. It’s now mid-October and the nights are getting cold. “They’re going into hibernation,” he adds.

38 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Heinrich’s potent brew of headlong animal tracking, unflagging and even bizarre experimentation, rigorous quantitative note-taking, and meticulous follow-up work in the lab led to discoveries that reshaped the scientific understanding of both insect behavior and flower evolution.

40 |

The windows in front of his desk reflect the room: hand-peeled log beams, wide-plank floor, oriental rug, comfy couch, ladder ascending to a loft, one wooden chair. A whole tree trunk, perhaps two feet in diameter, rises through the center of the room, holding up the ceiling. On its branches hang a towel, binoculars, hawk feathers, a corkscrew. A stripped balsam fir makes a coat rack by the door.

Heinrich sits back down at his desk. Here are a stack of his field notes and letters, a well-worn box of watercolor paints, the journals of John James Audubon, The Sibley Guide to Birds, a book called Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Moles, and a laptop computer. “Yep, we have wi-fi,” Heinrich says. But to get here I took the only path: a ten-minute uphill walk on a steep rocky trail through the forest.

This is Heinrich’s home. There is no plumbing.

He and his partner, Lynn, haul blue buckets from a nearby well for washing and drinking. The shower is a watering can, filled with hot water from the stove, hanging on a tree outside. A double-hole, open-air outhouse affords fine views of his potato patch and maple woods that stretch toward Mount Blue.

Bernd Heinrich is seventy-five years old, a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, an emeritus professor of biology at UVM—and he lives in this cabin year-round. His retirement home does not feature shuffleboard, golf course, or community rec center.

He spends his time comparing the colors of beetles, watching the coordinated movements of maggots, sketching flocks of redpolls washing in the snow, listening to the drumming of grouse, waiting for the explosive moment when iris flowers open, turning their petals down “in less than a second,” he tells me.

Heinrich stands up again, pours us each a second glass of wine, and reaches for a book. Above his desk, a rough pine shelf holds two small rows of books. Heinrich wrote eighteen of them, including his 1979 classic, Bumblebee Economics, that describes his fieldwork following these wondrous creatures. He wanted to understand how an animal weighing about as much as a baby aspirin could forage and fly in near-freezing air, regulating its body temperature at ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. “I had, in the beginning, no grand model or design in my mind,” he writes, “I pursued only small questions that seemed interesting in light of previously collected data.” But, in the end, Heinrich’s potent brew of headlong animal tracking, unflagging and even bizarre experimentation, rigorous quantitative note-taking, and meticulous followup work in the lab led to discoveries that reshaped

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

the scientific understanding of both insect behavior and flower evolution.

It’s a brew that he often drinks to good effect. He spent one winter getting up every day before sunrise to climb to the tops of spruce trees. “Aside from the pure enjoyment of climbing snowy trees in the dark at subzero temperatures, I did it to count birds,” he writes in The Mind of the Raven, a 1999 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He hauled a dead cow up into a tree to see how it affected the birds’ foraging behavior and wore a Halloween mask to see how his pet ravens would react. Over more than a decade of home-grown study, he established himself as a world-leading authority on raven behavior, plunging into their quizzical minds—and solving the evolutionary mystery of why unrelated ravens would share food bonanzas.

I

n the blue gloom of dawn, Heinrich sits writing at his desk. Then the morning sunshine threads through the forest and lands on his face. He looks up and out at a landscape poised between fall and winter. Most of the red maples have dropped their leaves, but one bravely holds on, shining crimson on the far side of a meadow covered with frost. It’s the coldest day Heinrich has seen this season. “I can’t believe it. Fifteen degrees!” he says, “Holy-moly.” It’s a fine morning for what he calls a “walkabout,” he’s got spiders to visit, and our first stop will be right outside the door.

“I want to check on my one spider, that was up here, on the gable,” he says, stepping outside in a blue wool sweater and peering up toward the peak of the roof with binoculars. The cold night will have been a tough test for any spiders still brooding on their eggs. Heinrich stares for an implacable moment, and then laughs. “She’s still up there,” he calls to Lynn, stepping back inside. “Hasn’t laid eggs yet,” he tells her. “I’m pretty sure that’s the same spider that I brought into the house last year. I wanted it to spin its web in front of the window, like Charlotte.”

Yes, Heinrich brings spiders into his house and names some of them. And, yes, Heinrich’s Charlotte was named in honor of the famed spider imagined

by E.B. White. Both Charlottes were common barn spiders, Araneus cavaticus, a species of orb weaver.

Charlotte II became Heinrich’s housemate in July 2010 and became the subject of a chapter of Heinrich’s most recent book, The Homing Instinct: Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration. He spent months

SPRING 2016 |

41

These woods are Heinrich’s home. He left his first home, also a little cabin in the woods, in northern Germany, and came to Maine in 1951 at age ten.

“My first real home here was just a few miles down the road. I was imprinted on the land.”

42 |

watching her, tossing bumblebees, blowflies, and grasshoppers into her web, taking careful note of the carcasses she dropped on his desk and how she managed the exquisite architecture of her web.

Then, in the late fall, Heinrich made a remarkable discovery. Charlotte, unlike her namesake in Charlotte’s Web, hadn’t laid eggs and died. Instead, she had molted. “All of the spider lore that I had read about, and heard from three spider experts,” he writes, “is that orb weaver spiders lay eggs in late summer that they ensconce in a fluffy silk cocoon, then die in ‘late autumn.’” But the next spring, Heinrich’s Charlotte was back. By carefully observing this individual spider and measuring the abdomens of twenty-three other barn spiders he found nearby, Heinrich concluded that Charlotte was at least five years old. “The duration of the orb web spider life cycle has been hugely underestimated,” Heinrich writes.

If only Wilbur had known.

Heinrich meanders off-road through a yellow wood, leading me downhill into a middle-aged stand of sugar maple and ash. He stops and holds the trunk of a sapling, leaning to one side like a monkey about to ascend. “Hear that?” he says. A sweet birdcall faintly rises up the slope. “Pine grosbeak,” he says. “That’s the first one I’ve heard this year.

They’re migrants from the north. They come here for the seeds.”

Our course takes us past a row of nailed boards that rise into a double-trunked maple. They make a ladder useful for bird-watching and deer hunting.

Then he stops at a dead snag, stripped of bark and snapped off at about fifteen feet. He politely knocks on the wood at the bottom and looks up toward a fist-sized hole at the top. Nothing happens. He knocks again. Nothing. He’s making a neighborly call on some flying squirrels, but they’re not answering today.

These woods are Heinrich’s home. He left his first home, also a little cabin in the woods, in northern Germany, and came to Maine in 1951 at age ten. He was a refugee and had been living with his family in the Hahnheide Forest “as semi-hunter gatherers for five years,” he writes. (The tale of Heinrich’s family journey, including an escape from the Red Army, his tumultuous relationship with his peculiar and talented entomologist father, two of his three marriages, and his thoughts on a century of biological science are recounted in another of his best-sellers, a cinematic book called The Snoring Bird.) “My first real home here was just a few miles down the road,” he tells me. “I was imprinted on the land.”

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Heinrich hunts deer in these hills—but nowhere else. “Going hunting anywhere else is just shooting,” he says. “Hunting here is being part of the land.” And along the way he “double- or triple-tasks,” he says— watching chickadees, poking under bark, and taking a master class in hunting by following the tracks of the red fox. “Animals give more than just clues to the why and how of homing. They show what is possible, what has been tested, and what has worked over millions of years of evolution,” he writes. “To understand the meaning of home, it helps to step back and see from another’s world.”

We circle back, past a stand of thriving American chestnut trees Heinrich planted about thirty years ago, to check for spiders on his first cabin, one he built by hand after he bought 300 acres here in 1974.

The old cabin stands not far away from his current one. It’s been turned into a bunkhouse for the UVM graduate students (and a few determined undergrads) who have been coming here for decades, for a week in January, to take his legendary winter ecology course.

Heinrich is again surprised and delighted to see another spider, sitting motionless under the eaves.

“I begin by looking, getting more and more and more observations,” he says. “And you start to see what kind of pattern there is. And you always see things that you don’t expect. And then you really learn something.”

B

ack inside, Heinrich peels and cuts raw slices of chestnut for us to eat, cooks eggs and potatoes on the wood stove, brews some ferocious coffee, and then laces up his running shoes. On the way out the door, I stop to photograph three items on the window ledge: a pair of desiccated spiders pinned to a block of foam; a pile of animal poop which includes a bird’s claw; and an embossed circular medal. “Those barn spiders had just laid their egg clutches,” he tells me later, and the scat was probably deposited by a coyote who had eaten a grouse.

“I saved it to quiz the winter ecology students,” he explains. “They should be able to tell me the season too—because a piece of toe skin has fringes.” Heinrich makes no mention of the medal sitting next to the poop: it’s the John Burroughs Medal, the highest honor in American natural history writing.

A half hour later, we’re running up a steep logging road. We stride along in silence, and I wonder what he’s thinking about. Last night, I asked him an over-earnest question about whether he thought

animals had free will. He looked at me for a very long time. So long that I wondered if he was going to reply at all. His face was like a mask. Finally, he broke into a grin with a friendly laugh and said, “Well, I don’t know how I’d get any data on that.”

The road starts to get steeper and Heinrich turns to look at me. “Running is kind of like yoga,” he says, and then there is another long pause. “Only the scenery is much better.”

An hour and forty minutes later, we’re still running through the woods. I look down at my Garmin watch: we’re doing a leisurely 9:30 mile pace. We’ve been down his path, up a logging road called Moose Alley, seen Mount Blue and its foothills in orange fall glory, and we’re heading home again.

Heinrich accelerates a bit and then slows down again. We start heading downhill and now he’s running faster for sure. The watch reads 8:05 pace. And we go faster. Are we racing? I think we’re racing. If not each other, then perhaps we’re racing the ghost of some Pleistocene critter, tailing after the imaginary prey that, Heinrich thinks, our evolution has built us to pursue. “Our ability and passion to run represent our ancient heritage and residual capacities as endurance predators,” he writes in his 2001 book Why We Run that tells the story of both Heinrich’s own world-record-setting running career and laid out his case for the origin of humans as persistence hunters long before Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run gave birth to the barefoot running craze.

We go yet faster—7:30 pace, then, a few seconds later, 7:00, 6:40, 6:30. Now we’re ripping along at 6:24 per mile, both breathing hard, and I realize that this is the same pace that Heinrich, on October 4, 1981, was able to maintain—for sixty-two miles.

His time of 6 hours 38 minutes and 21 seconds that day, in the one hundred kilometer national championship race, set a new American record for both track and road racing—and was the fastest time anyone in the world over age forty had ever run for that distance. The time still stands as the U.S. master’s record today, thirty-five years later.

We see the path for his house and go yet faster.

Heinrich is an old man, but as I look over at him, I see the knee lift and heel snap of a younger champion, and for a glorious moment, my Garmin reads 6:05 per mile. We get to the trail and stop, out of breath. High-five. Then we start walking back up the hill toward his home, passing another old cabin, half-hidden in woods. “Gotta check on a few spiders up here,” he says, and turns off the trail to see who’s living over there.

VQ SPRING 2016 |

43

CLASS NOTES Life beyond graduation Janice Burke reports that her “ granddaughter Mackenzie, a first-year student at UVM, has joined Kappa Alpha Theta.

‘Now I am not only her grandmother, but also her sister!’ ” ­—Class of ’57

Matthew Mues ’08, Anu Yadav ’96 and Nicole Stata ’91 at the first annual Executive Night in Boston co-hosted

by Jeff Newton ’79, Nicole Stata ’91, Mark Verdi ’88, and the UVM Foundation.

33-64

Green & Gold Reunion September 23–25, 2016

If you are interested in planning your upcoming reunion, email alumni@uvm.edu.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

43

Send your news to— June Hoffman Dorion Maples Apt.114, 3 General Wing Road Rutland, VT 05701 junedorion@gmail.com

44

Burlington resident Kathleen J. Keenan ’71 has published a book about her mother, entitled On Tuesdays We Iron: Memoirs of Ione Lacy Keenan. Ione Lacy Keenan ’44, was born in 1921 and grew up in Windsor, Vermont. Immediately following her graduation, she married fellow UVM grad and newly-commissioned Army Lieutenant Edward A. Keenan, Jr. ’42 MD ’44. In 1947 they opened a medical practice in Brandon and in 1951 moved to Essex Junction, which they were proud to call home for the rest of their nearly 67 years together.

At a very young age Ione developed a love for reading and writing, both poetry and prose. But, it was her lifelong passion for storytelling and sharing her unique experiences with others that eventually led to the creation of this book following her death in 2013. To purchase this book please visit

44 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

ARTHUR POLLOCK

Amazon.com or other online retailers. Also available—What God Has Done With Me: The Faith of Ione Lacy Keenan.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

45

Irene Varga Schreck, long-time resident of Rochester, New York, passed away in Mount Holly, North Carolina at 91 years old.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

46

Three old ladies managed to get to the Green & Gold Brunch on campus in October, thanks to Peggy Miller Logan who drove over from Maine and picked up Mary Green Lighthouse and me.

The brunch no longer features class speakers, entertainment by a university musical group, or our voices raised to the strains of Champlain. A report was given on the financial state of the university and the future. The three old ladies had to ask directions to get out of the building. Fortunately we had a ride back to the car by a helpful young man that had to run back in to get my coat I had left behind. A five-minute trip for him, would have been a 25-minute trip for me.

Nobody left their cane behind. Hope you can all join us next year for our 70th Reunion! I am waiting to hear good news from the rest of you.

Send your news to— Mrs. Harriet Bristol Saville 468 Church Road, #118, Colchester, VT 05446 hattiesaville@comcast.net

47

Send your news to— Louise Jordan Harper 15 Ward Avenue South Deerfield, MA 01373 louisejordanharper@gmail.com

48

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

49

Nancy Jones ’86 writes that her father, Warren L. Jones, passed away on August 25, 2015. She says, “He was a wonderful father to me. He founded Tuffy Mufflers, Inc, based out of Detroit and spent most of his post-Harvard MBA in that city until he returned to his hometown area of North Bennington/Shaftsbury, Vermont in 1987. His final resting place was Sun City, Florida.” Alexander W. Bennett passed away on October 15, 2015. He leaves his wife, Janet Killary Bennett ’49, five children, four of whom are UVM graduates, and six grandchildren. Al worked for Town Credit Banks of Massachusetts for many years. Lucianna Stermer

writes, “My sister, Mary J. Thornton ‘46, former editor of the Cynic, at 92, resides in Togue Valley Manor in Medford, Oregon. She enjoys the drama, opera, and concerts offered there. My brother, Leonard H. Thornton ‘51, retired attorney, lives in Naples, Florida, with wife Joyce. Thank you for the Quarterly, it’s a reminder of a lovely time in my life.” Malcolm Severance has finished writing his book, A Pursuit of Excellence-A History of the UVM Business School. It covers the time period between when John Converse gave $50,000 to start the program in 1861, through 2015 when Steven Grossman ’61 gave $20,000,000 and the school was named in his honor. For more information on the book, you may call Malcolm at 802-878-2067.

Malcolm and I continue to live in Colchester, Vermont. Our three children, Lyn Severance, Mark Severance ’77, and Dawn Severance ’85 live nearby. Dear ‘49-ers, it is sad to hear of our classmates leaving us, but at 66 years after graduation, it is happening all too fast. But it is great to hear from you all who are still out there, remembering the days we had together. Please send us a note.

Send your news to— Gladys Clark Severance 2179 Roosevelt Highway, Colchester, VT 05446 severance@bsad.uvm.edu

50

Thelma Cole Perkins, 87, recently of Rutland, Vermont, died on October 10, 2015. Thelma was born on Christmas Day, 1927, in Quincy, Massachusetts. When her father Albert’s contracting business failed, the family moved to the small dairy farm of two bachelor relatives on Stowe Hill in the outskirts of Wilmington, Vermont. Thelma fondly recalled her experiences growing up as a farm girl: going after the cows, haying with a team of horses, boiling maple sap and especially, hosting her city cousins who often spent their summers on the farm. School in Wilmington meant all 12 grades in the same building. Thelma played basketball and field hockey and edited her class yearbook. She graduated from Wilmington High School in 1945. Aspiring for a career as an airline hostess, Thelma got a summer job as waitress at the Belmont Hotel on Cape Cod where she recalled waiting on the Kennedys, and enrolled in Mount Ida, then an all-girls junior college in Newton, Massachusetts. She soon became disillusioned with Mount Ida and the faculty there convinced her that she was over-qualified and should aim higher.

They helped her, after her freshman year, to transfer to UVM as a math major. It was in an algebra class at UVM that Thelma met Bob Perkins, an engineering student from Rutland, who was to become her husband of 66 years. They later shared a college Physics Lab and hiked together with the UVM Outing Club. With a common aversion to the fraternitysorority philosophy, they joined the Vermont Independents, a non-exclusive, co-ed social group. In the summer after their junior year, on 2 July 1949, Thelma and Bob were married in the Ira Allen Chapel at UVM and set up housekeeping in a tiny nobedroom apartment in Burlington. To read Thelma’s entire obituary, visit uvm.edu/vq.

UVM ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

GREEN

&

GOLD

Connecting alumni ages 60+ alumni.uvm.edu/ getinvolved/affinity

Send your news to— Hedi Stoehr Ballantyne 20 Kent Street, Montpelier, VT 05602 hedi.ballantyne@gmail.com

51

Marilyn Fairman Burns writes, “My husband, Robert E. Burns, passed away on September 10, 2015 after a long battle with COPD. We had wonderful help from Cleveland Clinic Hospice at home and from family members here and from New England. A 1950 Dartmouth graduate with an MBA from Northeastern, he was a senior engineer with AT&T Technologies in North Andover, Massachusetts, for many years. Our son, daughter, two grandsons and I share happy memories.” Barb Jones Coussement writes, “I’m really sorry that I haven’t been able to get back to the annual reunions—age plays a big part in it all—also the weakened knees! But I still love my alma mater and all it has done for me!”

Send your news to— Valerie Meyer Chamberlain 52 Crabapple Drive, Shelburne, VT 05482 valchamber@aol.com

52

Marilyn Pratt Woodworth died on October 17, 2015, with her husband of 63 years, Robert C. Woodworth ‘53 by her side. She had suffered with ALS for nearly three years. Besides Bob, she leaves three children Natalie W. Billings ‘82 and Charles L. Woodworth of White River Junction and Hope E. Woodworth of Chicago, Illinois. Marilyn majored in foods and nutrition at UVM and received a master’s in home management from Penn State in 1956. She worked at the USDA Laboratories in Beltsville, Maryland, while Bob served in the USPHS Commissioned Corps at the National Institutes of Health. She also was an instructor in the Home Economics Department at UVM from 1952-53 and in the mid-60s when Bob joined UVM’s Biochemistry Department. Marilyn Murdock Schten shares, “There are many happy memories of the four years I spent at UVM. Barbara Hayden and I lived in Allen House. This was a convenient location. We were close to the Waterman Building, the library, our classes and sororities.

I have attended several reunions and enjoyed seeing former classmates.”

SPRING 2016 |

45

| CLASS NOTES Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

53

Ann Schuster Dix writes, “My husband, Gene Dix, and I have been living here at Sun City Hilton Head in Bluffton, South Carolina since 2001. We enjoy the lifestyle here very much and the weather is usually favorable. We did have a hot, humid summer this year though! Hello to you all!” Phyllis Parody writes, “Tait McSparran ’54 and I are still here.

Our daughter, Kim, will celebrate her 60th birthday in Augsburg, Germany, where she was born.

Our family will celebrate it with her. We now live in Alpharetta, Georgia, and Delray Beach, Florida.”

Send your news to— Nancy Hoyt Burnett 729 Stendhal Lane, Cupertino, CA 95014

54

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

55

Lawrence (Larry) Tyrell Sullivan writes, “I spend six to seven months a year in a lovely, gated community in Port Charlotte, Florida. I spend summer and early fall in Poultney, Vermont, where my nearest neighbor is a mile away. In Florida they’re 60 feet away.

I do a lot of walking and exercise using resistance machines three days a week. Trying to ward off the forces of evil who tend to prey on octogenarians. I do volunteer work in both Vermont and Florida. I try to keep an active social life and maintain a positive outlook on life.” Kathryn Carangelo Fetten is pleased to announce that her granddaughter Margaret Dougherty ’18 from Chatham, New Jersey, is attending UVM and is in her sophomore year. She is very happy there—loves the school and Vermont.

Send your news to— Jane Morrison Battles Apt. 125A, 500 East Lancaster Avenue Wayne, PA 19087 janebattles@yahoo.com Hal Lee Greenfader Apt. 1, 805 South Le Doux Road Los Angeles, CA 90035 halisco@att.net

56

Robert Gauthier tells us that the Gauthier family has purchased the T-bird Motor Inn in Shelburne, Vermont, (802) 985-3663. Barry Stone writes that he and his UVM basketball teammate, Rollie Massimino, enjoyed a two-day reunion in October when Rollie brought his Keiser University team to Burlington to play UVM in a pre-season exhibition.

Very prominently included in the festivities was former UVM Head Basketball Coach and Hall of Famer Tom Brennan who served as a young assistant to Rollie at Villanova University. Rollie and Vil-

46 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

lanova went on to win the NCAA National Championship in 1985, one of the greatest upsets in NCAA history. Nancy McGoughran Blanchet shares, “Another year, another Tri-Delta get-together at Jane Battles’ beautiful home on the Connecticut shoreline. In spite of the fact that our numbers are getting smaller and smaller, we manage to fill the weekend with good conversation, many laughs and plans for future get-togethers! (So there, Father Time!) This year’s attendees included: Jane Carlough Cleary, Carol Coen Dan and husband Lew Dan ’55 MD’59; Lorrie Buehler Farwell and Bill Farwell ’57; Sandy Geer Willey and Bob Willey ’54; Betsy King Beasley, hostess Jane Battles ’55 and me!” Richard (Dick) Towne writes, “My wife, Charleen, and I attended the 90th birthday party for my cousin, Ida Mae Anderson Towne ‘48, with 75 friends, family, and former students of Ida Mae. She recently retired after more than 60 years of teaching. Out-of-town attendees also included her sister, Mary Towne Cronin ’57, and husband Jim Cronin ‘55, Cronin nephews Mark Cronin ‘79 and Tim Cronin ‘83, and niece Laurie Cronin ‘80. It was agreed by all attendees that we will all gather again in 10 years to enjoy Ida Mae’s reaching the century mark.”

Send your news to— Jane K. Stickney 32 Hickory Hill Road, Williston, VT 05495 stickneyjanek@gmail.com

57

Janice Burke shares, “Douglas and I moved into The Cypress on Hilton Head Island two years ago. We love it and all it offers. This fall our granddaughter rushed and joined Kappa Alpha Theta. Now I am not only her grandmother, but also her sister! Mackenzie is now wearing Kay Beebe’s Theta pin and Julie Dempsey had also volunteered hers. We continue to enjoy part of our summers on Birch Island in Maine.” Sandy Waugh Lutz tells us, “I’m enjoying a busy year as chair of the Board of Trustees of The Methodist Theological School in Ohio and serving on the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church.” Jacob Zwynenburg writes, “This past September Joan Zwynenburg and I were married 60 years. Now that is 50 plus 10. We were both students at UVM and we had our wedding reception at the Sigma Phi house at 420 College Street.

I was a veteran discharged in June of 1953 and started as a freshman in September 1953. At our last class reunion I was deemed the oldest member of the Class of 1957. Looking forward to another ski season.” Martin A. Danoff celebrated his 80th birthday with a party at the New York City restaurant Eleven Madison. The party was thrown by his wife, Judge Susan Danoff. There were over 100 family and friends that attended. Martin is still practicing law on Madison Avenue and 50th Street. He is still in touch with fraternity brothers Mark Bernstein ’56, Bob Corshen and Steve Ifshin ’58. Marty’s secret to a healthy life is playing golf three times a week and working out daily at New York Sports Gym, where he boxes three times a week.

UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

58

Clare Louise Dyer enjoyed 10 wonderful days in May visiting family and attending UVM graduation ceremonies for two granddaughters, Danielle Allendorf ’15 and Catherine (Katie) Alexander ’15. Her son, Grant Allendorf ‘83, and Susan Spence Allendorf ‘83 of Underhill are Danielle’s parents and her daughter, Jeanne Allendorf Alexander ‘85, and Peter Alexander ‘84 of Derby are Katie’s parents.

Counting Clare’s father, Daniel B.Dyer ‘24, that makes four generations of UVMers! Richard Turrone writes, “Tish and I are still enjoying the Sierra Foothills. We grow grapes and make wine and do our fair share drinking some of what we make.”

Steve Rozen writes, “I guess I am finally retired although the doctor who bought my practice has left the door open until May for my possible return.

I am also old enough to have a grandson applying to UVM. I hopefully will still attend the Oral Surgery clinic at Yale. My wife and I will in the spring do a UConn Dental school mission to Honduras. We will instruct the students and treat the unserved. In October we had a pleasant dinner with Evan Salmore and Natalie Salmore. Not much changed there, except we are all older. Wintering in Naples, Florida, as usual and hopefully catching a lot of fish.

I am volunteering at Rookery Bay Nature Preserve in Naples. Always must be busy. The deadly New England work ethic bites again. Stu Zeitzer still hitting them out, straight down the middle. Most of the time.”

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

59

Jerry Heller writes, “Anne Beaudin Heller ‘72 and I had dinner in New York with a few of our former UVM classmates and their wives: Jim Baum, Ira Effron ’60, and Stew Kolbert. All of us were residents in Wills Hall freshman year and became members of Phi Sigma Delta fraternity. Jim lives in the city, Ira lives in the Poughkeepsie area, and Stew lives in Westchester. They are all retired, look great, and are active with skiing and tennis. I saw Ira at our 25th Reunion, but I had not seen Jim or Stew since graduation. We had a great time at the Island Restaurant in the Upper East Side. We plan to remain in touch.” During Elliott A. Brown’s long and distinguished career in Washington, D.C., he worked for the United States Department of Justice as a staff director of a Congressional Committee.

Send your news to— Henry Shaw, Jr. 112 Pebble Creek Road, Columbia, SC 29223 hshaw@sc.rr.com

60

William Leighton Wheeler shares, “On May 1, 2015, when I walked out of Room 201 in Joyce Hall, I closed the door on a wonderful second career—fifteen years as an adjunct professor of advertising and

marketing in the Stiller School of Business at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. It topped off six years of college, four years in the service and, a 50-year career as an international advertising executive, creative director, and chief copy writer. I officially retired at the end of this spring semester.”

Grant Corson writes, “I am pleased to announce that my most recent book, The World According to Nub, a collection of short stories based on all of the quirky Vermont characters I have known over the years, is now available through Amazon.com or at your local bookstore. Now that it is in print I can get back to restoring my 1910 antique boat.

Can’t wait for summer.” Brian Harwood ‘60 and Janet Harwood ‘77, G’88 have moved from Waterbury to South Burlington. They downsized to a new planned community (not retirement village) off Spear Street and are pleased to be closer to UVM. Pat Doherty Denmead ’58 and Bob Denmead would be delighted to hear from any “old” friends who might remember them. They are located in Venice, Florida, just 30 miles south of Sarasota on the west coast.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

61

Adele M. Kahwajy writes, “I love UVM! I am retired and living in San Antonio, Texas. And, yes—I love Texas!” Carole Demas reports: “I’m still singing (a lot!) and in pretty good health. A quick look at my

website will tell you, better than I can recap here, what I’ve been up to. On Saturday, I sang as special guest star in Steve Ross’s brilliant show for the Ziegfeld Society. The next day, at the crack of dawn, my Magic Garden friend and co-star, Paula Janis, and I hauled our Carole & Paula/Magic Garden Family Concert (with our original puppeteer, Cary Antebi, and my sound designer husband, Stuart Allyn) out to Westhampton Beach PAC. In this show, we are on stage singing and racing around live, with onscreen clips of ourselves on The Magic Garden TV show 43 years ago. We must be crazy, sharing the stage with ourselves as we were in 1972. It was a great day, with three generations of happy fans. Our one-hour holiday special, A Magic Garden Christmas, made in 1981, was broadcast on WPIX-TV, New York, in December. Also in December, I gueststarred in shows in New York City at The Metropolitan Room and The Triad. And I may make it to our Reunion in September.” John Chiu reported: “I am still working two days a week but taking at least eight weeks of vacation each year. Since we have twelve grandchildren between my wife and me, plus many more family members, we have been kept quite busy. I have finally resigned my clinical professor of medicine appointment at the University of California at Irvine this past May after having been on the faculty for 45 years.” John also said he and his wife are planning a trip to Cuba in the spring. Karen Kellers Marino Donovan sends her best to the class of 1961 and says: “Wow! 55 years!

Where has the time gone? Remember when we thought the 55th Reunion class was all old people

and now we are those old alums! Life has been so good to me. I have two successful daughters and they have given me beautiful grandchildren. Isn’t being a grandparent the best thing ever?! I still have such great memories of UVM and Pi Phi. We lived during such an innocent time. I would not trade a minute of it—10:30 curfews, imagine that today? I live six months in Naples, Florida, and six months in Wellesley, Massachusetts. I feel so lucky to still play golf and tennis and have my health and my great memories.” Roy Kelley emailed that he had stepped down as founder/artistic director of the Charles River Chorale, based in Millis, Massachusetts, after 30 years. He also retired as organist/ choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Duxbury, Massachusetts, after 20 years, but he is still the artistic director of the Snug Harbor Community Chorus in Duxbury, going on 15 years. And finally, he is the new organist/choirmaster at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Holliston, Massachusetts as of May 2015. As you know, 2016 will be our 55th Reunion year. UVM is planning our Reunion during Alumni Weekend over the last weekend of September. There is no way we can beat the 50th celebration we that we had five years ago, with the Champlain boat cruise and entertainment by classmate Carole Demas, but plan on attending to see just what we do come up with!

Send your news to— Steve Berry 8 Oakmount Circle, Lexington, MA 02420 steveberrydhs@gmail.com

Green Living At Wake Robin, residents have designed and built three miles of walking trails. Each spring, we make maple syrup in the community sugarhouse and each fall, we harvest honey from our beehives. We compost, plant gardens, and work with staff to follow earth-friendly practices, conserve energy and use locally grown foods.

Live the life you choose—in a vibrant lifecare community that practices “green” ideals. We’re happy to tell you more.

Visit our website or give us a call today to schedule a tour.

802.264.5100 / wakerobin.com

2 0 0 WA K E R O B I N D R I V E , S H E L B U R N E , V E R M O N T

| CLASS NOTES

62

Patricia Hoskiewicz Allen shares the death of Linda A. Borgos Hirst, who died on October 13, 2015. She was a member of Gamma Phi Beta and was retired from the State of California. She is survived by husband Ellis, son Charles, daughter-in-law Charyl, and granddaughters, Victoria and Evelyn. Jules Older has published his third e-book. The first was Skiing the Edge; next, Death by Tartar Sauce; this one is entitled Take Me Home: How to Rent or Buy in a Hot Home Market. All three are on Amazon and all other platforms.

Send your news to— Patricia Hoskiewicz Allen 14 Stony Brook Drive, Rexford, NY 12148 traileka@aol.com

63

Unfortunately, I have some sad news.

As memories of our fiftieth reunion fade and we are moving closer to our fifty-fifth, we lost two hugely popular classmates; Jeffrey Falk, our class president, passed in May and Elaine Stauber, our Greek Week Queen, passed this November. Jeff was an active and encouraging class president all these many years. He always initiated the planning for our reunions, and ensured that we worked closely with the UVM Alumni office.

He had an easy way about him and was friendly to everyone around him. At our fiftieth reunion, he marveled how no one seemed to age! He wished for us to stay well, happy, and to keep in touch. He was already planning for our fifty-fifth. Elaine Stauber, “Lainie” to many of us, shared many interesting articles and seminar opportunities for those of us who wished to continue to be vibrant and fulfilled women and citizens. During her recent years in Arizona, she re-united several of her classmates via e-mails, sharing stories, photos and especially her energies and passions for a life of enlightenment.

That is how Sandra Timmermann and I reunited, as well as Lola de Girolomo Lawrence, Melissa Hetzel McKay, Julie Hersey Chapman and Grace Waters Young. As the feelings of the loss of many of our friends and family linger, life avails other opportunities to reach out, make that effort, to re-connect with those who are often in our thoughts. Classmates, we lost two remarkable, generous, spirited friends whom we will hold in our hearts and memories. Bob Pasco also shared that Anthony R. Russo Jr. of Pompano Beach, Florida, died on September 29, 2015. Tony was a member of SAE fraternity and was one of the goalies on the first UVM hockey team when the team was formed in 1963. He was originally from Somerville, Massachusetts. Miles Heller tells us that he, Ken Lewis and Jack Carterson got together for a weekend at Jack’s home in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The three Sigma Nus, friends for 56 years, went to a University of Michigan football game at the “Big House” and they all agreed that between them, nothing had changed in more than half a century. Rosalyn Diane Lipman Lifshin (Lyn) has published over 130 books and chapbooks including three from Black Sparrow For a complete listing, visit her website at www.lynlifshin.com.Send your news to— Toni Citarella Mullins

48 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

UVM

EXPERI

210 Conover Lane, Red Bank, NJ 07701 tonicmullins@verizon.net

64

Send yor news to— Susan Griesenbeck Barber 1 Oak Hill Road, P.O. Box 63 Harvard, MA 01451 suebarber@verizon.net

65

Steven C. Pell writes, “In 2011, after 36 years running an ad agency, I merged my company, Timely Advertising, with another ad agency, BOC Partners. At the same time, my wife, Marcy, and I moved from New Jersey to the Boston area (my hometown) for the ease of city living. I continue to work, part time, for BOC. The “R” word is not in my vocabulary. My family and I still ski in Vermont, at Mount Snow, not far from our weekend home in Wilmington. Our love for the state of Vermont continues to grow. We have two beautiful grandchildren and are awaiting the birth of our third.” David Kauder tells us, “I have been retired for the past year and a half after 36 years practicing urology in Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts. I experienced rewarding medical missions to Haiti, Honduras, and Belize before retirement.

Susan and I celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary. Susan, an artist, accompanied me on our medical missions teaching art to the children in schools and the hospitals. We have two boys, one a pharmaceutical researcher in cancer immunology and the other a computer engineer for a large law firm.

We have one grandchild....so far.” Gail Marie Perlee writes, “I’m retired for 16 years from the Phoenix Public Library and still living on my desert acre in Phoenix. I no longer have my Morgan horses but am active in researching and writing Morgan history. I visit family in Vermont every spring.”

Send your news to— Colleen Denny Hertel 14 Graystone Circle, Winchester, MA 01890 colleenhertel@hotmail.com

66

50th Reunion September 23–25, 2016

If you are interested in planning your upcoming reunion, email alumni@uvm.edu. Luella Foster writes, “I just reached 40 years of service in the United States Government! This included Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa, then National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. and now V.A. Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Life is still fun!” Stephan Schulte recently got married to Jane Nicolette Rossiter-Smith in a small ceremony in New York City attended by, among others, two UVM alumni and their wives: Roy Zuckerman ’67 and Daniel Goldberg ’67. Now retired after a long, successful career in the television business (ABC and Showtime Entertainment), Stephan and Jane will continue to live between Beaulieu-sur-Mer, in the South of France, London, and New York. Living in Europe for the past 25 years, Stephan has enjoyed visits by a number of UVM classmates: Bob Mirman ’67, Jeff Shapiro ’67, Daniel Goldberg ’67, Roy Zuckerman ’67, Jean Halpern, Gordon Joseph-

MENTAL PROGRAM REUNION

September 23–25, 2016

Gather with classmates and faculty who participated in the 60s and 70s.

alumni.uvm.edu/ experimental

son ’67, Nadine Glasband and Dennis Baum, Aaron Schildhaus ’65 and Cheryl Gadoci ’69.

Stephan and Jane continue to look forward to visits from old friends. Peter Mulford retired, for the second and “probably” final time, on December 31, 2015. He writes, “Looking forward to traveling to warmer climates during the winter, some parttime volunteer callings, and spending more time in the Adirondacks this summer. Light is always on for UVM friends traveling through eastern West Virginia. Still miss the Kakewalk festivities of long ago!

Great memories of a great university life and times.”

Our 50th Reunion is just around the corner, and it promises to be a special time for us to celebrate with classmates. We are hoping for a large turnout for the September 23-25 weekend in beautiful Vermont, and you are encouraged to gather friends and make your reservations. Looking forward to seeing you and to sharing this milestone.

Send your news to— Kathleen Nunan McGuckin 416 San Nicolas Way, St Augustine, FL 32080 kkmcguckin@prodigy.net

67

Peter Finamore retired from John Deere after a career of 47 years at Chrysler, Textron, and John Deere in engineering, operations, energy technology, and sustainability. His interests include energy, sustainability, gardening, hiking/cycling, and model railroading. During his career at Deere, Peter authored and co-authored 10 U.S. patents in hybrid and advanced fuels technology. Peter and Elene, his wife of 46 years, will continue to reside in Weddington, North Carolina, where they will pursue recreational, personal, and business interests. Jane Taylor Vincent writes, “I live in Nashua, New Hampshire, with my husband, Peter Vincent ’71. I have two adult sons and their families who also live in Nashua.

After retiring a few years ago as a high school mathematics teacher, I now tutor high school students in mathematics and thoroughly enjoy this contact. I visit the Burlington area often since my siblings and their families live in Stowe and South Burlington.” Barbara Smith Cedarfield writes, “Still doing system and programming for FIS. After graduation I worked at UVM in academic computing for nine years. I wonder who else is still working. I guess

the math, engineering, economics, and accounting classes paid off but ceramics with George Scatchard was the best. Would love to hear from anyone who was on the UVM ski team with me. Our team actually won one event. I have a friend living in Hawaii and this has brought back memories of classmates from there. Life goes on with three kids, three grandkids, and five draft horses (Percherons).” Ronald Allbee writes that since graduating from UVM, he and his twin brother, Roger Allbee, took separate paths that often led to the same place. Rog was commissioned in the Army and trained in missiles.

Ron was commissioned in the Navy and trained in nuclear weapons. Rog served as a nuclear weapons officer in Germany, while Ron served as a missile officer on an aircraft carrier. Ron served in Vermont government as director of energy and agricultural secretary; Rog would later serve as Vermont agricultural secretary. At the federal level, Ron served as director of the Vermont Farm Service Agency under President Clinton and Rog served as director under President Bush. Ron would later help start medical practices in Florida and Rog would serve as CEO of Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend, Vermont.

On their separate journeys they often met people who confused them for the other, even when on separate continents! They both look forward to our 50th Reunion. Here’s hoping they wear name tags!

Dwight Ovitt writes, “I am celebrating 50 years of Peace Corps in Micronesia this coming year by returning and visiting my Micronesian son, Juan Babauta, who attended high school in Bakersfield, Vermont, while living with my Vermont family. He lives on Saipan with his wife, Charlene Tudela. I will then venture to Pohnpei to visit former classmates from the University of Hawaii ’70-’72. Before returning home to Hawaii, I plan to spend two weeks on Kosrae where I taught agriculture to Kosrean high school boys. This area is nearly on the opposite side of the earth from Vermont and the weather is much different. Just north of the equator, it never goes below 65 degrees. I promised myself warmer climates after nearly freezing in Vermont in the winter of 1966. I continue to work with limited English speaking disabled folks here in Hawaii, specializing in new arrivals from Micronesia. I’m writing a book about the Ovitt family that has been in Vermont since 1800 and get back to Vermont almost every summer to see relatives, three of whom are students at UVM!” Send your news to— Jane Kleinberg Carroll 44 Halsey Street, Apt. 3, Providence, RI 02906 jane.carroll@cox.net

68

Betsy Rowe Waters says, “I am continuing to learn and be creative. I published my first book, Testify to the Light: The Spiritual Biography of Andy Gustafson, part murder mystery, part inspiring true story of resilience.

I am remarried, living in a co-housing community, and in active ministry in the United Church of Christ.”

Rich Tinervin writes, “As usual the Tinervin Family has much going on. Youngest son, Tom, who lives in Munich, Germany and owns a software business, has become a proud father of our first grandchild,

THEO STROOMER

MARTHA VINCENT GULBENKIAN ’67

‘UVM invested in me’

W

hen Martha Vincent Gulbenkian retired in 2000 after a long and successful career as an administrator at the University of Colorado, she wanted to do something that would express her appreciation for the financial support she received as a student at the University of Vermont.

So she put the university in her will as the beneficiary of the bulk of her estate, a gift with an estimated value of $600,000.

She only recently decided to let the university know she had done so, hoping that her emergence from anonymity might inspire others to document their own estate commitments.

Born in Burlington and raised in Rutland, Martha Vincent Gulbenkian came from a family of modest means and was the first in her immediate family to earn a college degree. It was an accomplishment, she says, that wouldn’t have been possible without scholarship support from the Wilbur Fund.

“They paid everything—all my room and board and my tuition for the entire time, and I wouldn’t have been able to go to college without that,” she says. Martha graduated with honors in 1967 with a B.A. in English, magna cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Martha worked at various jobs throughout college. One of those was as a caretaker for UVM alumnus, artist, raconteur, and professor Francis Colburn, who had recently suffered a stroke. It’s still somewhat of a

mystery, and she can’t be sure of it, she says, but she believes Colburn and his family were responsible for her receiving a Corse Fellowship that year, which she says made it possible for her to go on to graduate school at Brandeis University, where she earned a Ph.D. in English.

Martha has specified that 80 percent of her gift be applied to the Wilbur Fund and 20 percent to the Corse Fellowship. “If there’s anything I’d want to stress, it is just how important that financial support was to me in my entire life, in terms of improving my chances for a very successful life,” she says.

Today, Martha, who retired as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado, leads an active, outdoor life. “I think it took me ten minutes to get used to retirement,” she laughs. In addition to hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter, she maintains a “huge garden,” and was recently named Colorado’s top senior female tennis player for 2015.

It’s a rich and rewarding retirement for a UVM alumna who decided when it comes to giving, it may not be just the thought that counts.

“The University of Vermont made an investment in me a half a century ago,” she says today. “I am so happy that I am able to pay back the university’s investment and pay forward UVM’s good deed.”

For information on including the University of Vermont in your estate plan, contact — Donna Burke Office of Gift Planning, The University of Vermont Foundation 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401-3411 PHONE: 802-656-3402 FAX: 802-656-8678 E-MAIL: donna.burke@uvm.edu SPRING 2016 |

49

| CLASS NOTES Milo. Daughter, Mary Elizabeth, is attending New York University to get her master’s degree in ballet pedagogy with the intent of teaching ballet at the college level. Oldest son, Joe, lives in San Francisco and is CEO of a hospital. Gail and I continue to split our time between our apartment in New York City and Hilton Head, with Rich very busy being the CEO of two software companies.” Dr. Melvin Hebel, of Mount Arlington, New Jersey, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his loving family on November 17, 2015. Born in Burlington, Vermont, Dr. Hebel grew up in Union, New Jersey and resided in Rockaway, New Jersey, before moving to Mount Arlington, New Jersey in 1986. Dr. Hebel graduated from Union High School in 1964. He earned a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of Vermont, where he was a member of the Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity, and his Doctoral of Dental Medicine degree in 1972 and certificate in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in 1975 from The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where he was a member of the Alpha Omega Fraternity. In his spare time, Dr. Hebel enjoyed gardening, skiing, wind-surfing, sailing, golf, tennis, softball, and playing the French horn in many orchestras with his late father, William Hebel. To read his entire obituary, visit uvm. edu/vq. Visitors to Bethesda’s Washington Metropolitan OASIS Art Gallery were recently treated to a tour around the world via Jack Rosenberg’s photographic exhibit, capturing stories through his portraits of the gritty faces of people, the high waves and horrific winds of a hurricane, and one-of-akind scenic images. Fifty of Jack’s photos were displayed, a variety of pieces that include doors, windows, landscapes, flowers, abstract images and faces from numerous foreign countries as well as from the United States and his home in Potomac, Maryland. To see the world through Jack’s eyes, go to his website at: www.my-2nd-life.com.

Send your news to— Diane Duley Glew 23 Franklin Street 2 Wheeler Farm, Westerly, RI 02891 ddglew@gmail.com

69

Send your news to— Mary Moninger-Elia 1 Templeton Street West Haven, CT 06516 Melia1112@comcast.net

70

Bruce Davis retired from a financial planning career in 2007. Today, Bruce is the director of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program in Racine County (Wisconsin). Bruce’s son, Tyler, graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2014 and is working as a benefits consultant with A. J. Gallagher Co. in Chicago. Cathy Davis, Bruce’s wife, is in her 23rd year at InSinkerator, a division of Emerson Electric Company, where she works in sales and marketing. Bruce is active in ham radio and holds the Amateur Extra Class license (N9BBL). Bob Warner writes, “After 40 years of practicing law, I retired and moved with my wife to Woodford, a small town outside of Bennington. Our daughter is a sophomore

50 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

at Marlboro College and having a great time with college life.” Lorraine Parent Racusen ’70, MD’75 has semi-retired as emerita professor from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine after 35 years. She joins her husband Richard Racusen ’70, MD’75 in retirement, for traveling, home projects, etc. Sons, Chris Racusen and Darren Racusen ’11, are in California, so mom and dad plan to visit them more often! Lorraine still travels nationally and internationally as lecturer in kidney and transplantation pathology. Staying in the Baltimore area, but visiting Vermont several times a year; Richard’s father, David, is a UVM retired professor and biochemist and musician living in Shelburne.

Jane Ellen Juchnicki Bonner tells us, “I’m enjoying retirement in this lovely Myrtle Beach community with lots of activities and charity events. Roger and I moved here three years ago with our two dogs and have joined the northern transplants; the lower cost of living and low taxes are real benefits.

The weather is lovely and so are the miles of sandy beaches. Come visit!”

Send your news to— Douglas Arnold 11608 Quail Village Way, Naples, FL 34119 darnold@arnold-co.com

71

Robert A. McCready ’71, MD’75 shares, “After 34 years of surgical practice, I have retired and I am trying to figure out my next career!” I’d like to begin with a sad note about Nina Joy Nadworny’s passing in late November. Nina’s sister shared the news with Marc Milowsky and she wanted Nina’s friends and classmates to know. As I reported in an early column, Nina was working to get back East, the Boston or Burlington areas in the next few months. According to her sister, she was conceptualizing a website for blogging and podcasting and looked forward to being in touch with friends on the East Coast. We will all miss her spirit, talent, and energy. On October 21, Wally Johnson, director of athletic media relations at St. Lawrence University, announced his retirement effective June 1, 2016, ending a fourdecade career at St. Lawrence. The 1995 winner of the ECAC’s Irving T. Marsh Award, 2001 CoSIDA Warren Berg Award recipient, 2012 ECAC Pete Nevins Award winner and 2013 inductee into the College Sports Information Directors’ Association Hall of Fame, he has seen the St. Lawrence athletic program grow from 13 teams on his arrival in 1975 to its current 32-program offering. In addition to day-to-day coverage of St. Lawrence’s athletic program, Johnson designed and built the university’s first athletic website and has been the color commentator on broadcasts of the Saints men’s Division I hockey program since 1975. He also helped establish the St. Lawrence Athletic Hall of Fame and has been a member of its selection committee since its inception in 1978. He has been host SID for two NCAA Division I Skiing Championships, a NCAA Division I ice hockey championship, two NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships and NCAA Division III finals in men’s soccer in addition to a number of NCAA tournament games in a variety of sports. Robert A. McCready ’71, MD’75 shares,

“After 34 years of surgical practice, I have retired and I am trying to figure out my next career!” I had a nice visit with Doug Wells in Greenwich mid-November. He’d just been in Vermont with the opening of hunting season, and mentioned the loss of a Delta Psi brother, Doug Moore ‘70. We all send our condolences to Claudia Clifton Moore ‘72.

Send your news to— Sarah Wilbur Sprayregen 145 Cliff Street, Burlington, VT 05401 sarah.sprayregen@uvm.edu

72

Cheryl Delbeck Albrechcinski writes, “After 41 years in education, I retired in the fall of 2015. Clark County School District (Las Vegas, Nevada) recognized me as a Distinguished Educator in 2010. My daughter has followed my path in education and is a ninth grade science teacher.” Ken Brown and Barb Brown were pleased to attend the wedding of their granddaughter, Bethany Brown ‘13 to Michael Strand ‘12 at Ira Allen Chapel on November 7, 2015. Bethany’s parents are Scott Brown and Lisa Brown ‘85.

Mike’s parents are Eric and Barbara Strand. The reception was held at the Sheraton. The couple honeymooned on a Caribbean cruise. Patty Quinn Thomas ‘72, G’76 enjoyed a fantastic 11-day trip to California with Pat Hunt Vana ‘71 in May and June.

The trip was sponsored by the Community National Bank’s Community Circle. She writes, “We traveled with 30+ people from the Northeast Kingdom to San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma Valleys, Sacramento, Sausalito, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks with our last two nights in Monterey/Carmel. Eating dinner in the Wuksachi Lodge at Yosemite I spied two familiar people coming into the dining room. Turns out they were Brian Reed ‘74 and Holly Reed whom I recognized from my days hanging out at Phi Gamma Delta and my three semesters in nursing before I switched to education. There is definitely some truth in the saying, ‘It’s a small world’.” As for your class secretary, I retired from UVM after 22 years. I am still teaching at the Community College of Vermont in Winooski and manning a computer help desk one night a week from home, so I still have a hand in the working world. Teaching continues to be very rewarding, but it also feels really good to be able to do whatever I want each day. I don’t think that will ever get old!

Send your news to— Debbie Koslow Stern 198 Bluebird Drive, Colchester, VT 05446 debra.stern@uvm.edu

73

Charlotte Charli Cohen Sheer asks all UVMers to save their cancelled postage stamps for the Holocaust Stamps Project which she began in 2009 while teaching fifth grade at Foxborough (Massachusetts) Regional Charter School. Now retired, she continues to be involved with the project which has evolved into a community service learning initiative for the entire kindergarten to grade 12 school, serving as a springboard for lessons about tolerance, acceptance, and respect for differences.

UVM

EXPERI

tation and Luncheon. Wilder is an internationally at the Green and Gold banquet. After many years, recognized expert in the human body’s response I was finally able to have dinner with Tom Munto whole body vibration. His work on spine bioschauer ’75 along with Diane Batt Smith and mechanics and ergonomics has been recognized Sally Cummings ’72. We had such a good time with several prestigious awards including the 1996 reminiscing of our days of yore at UVM! Kappa Delta Award (jokingly known as the “Nobel Send your news to— Prize” of Orthopaedics) and the 1998 Borelli Award Emily Schnaper Manders of the American Society of Biomechanics, among 104 Walnut Street, Framingham, MA 01702 others. To read more about his career, check classesmanders@gmail.com notes online at uvm.edu/vq. Linda Rough Probst shares, “I am still teaching at University of North Bruce Ellison writes, “It’s been 40 Carolina, Charlotte in the Kinesiology Department. years since I’ve seen most of you. I’ve We have over 200 students in our exercise science moved to the West Coast’s version program and about 50 students in our athletic of Burlington: Portland, Oregon. I look forward to training program. I teach a number of classes and swapping stories with you all.” Fred “Chico” Lager I also supervise and mentor our graduate teachtook a photo of the “Men of Chikago” on Saturday, ing assistants. My son and his wife and my daughSeptember 19 at the train station in Frankfurt, Gerter live in Boston and my step-daughter, husband many, 40 years, almost to the day, from when they and 4-year-old grandson live in Alexandria, Virginia. arrived in Europe for a three-month post-graduaMy husband I spend our leisure time traveling to tion tour of the continent. The photo can be seen hear our favorite musicians and singer-songwriton the Alumni Association’s Flickr gallery at alumni. ers!” Paul Kenny & Matt Bogue Commercial Real uvm.edu. Pictured, left to right, are Hans Puck G’80 Estate in Sun Valley, Idaho is busy as the market has (Saga Foods), Fred “Chico” Lager, Jim Thomas, improved significantly. Call anytime for market info.

Alan Dimick, Scott Baldwin ’76, Bert Anderson, Donna McVetty Wark shares, “I was an older stuBob Musser (Continuing Ed), Fred Bussone, Bill dent in the nursing program having completed the Dillon and Dennis Canedy. This marked the sixth Mary Fletcher School of Nursing program in 1961. time the group has returned together to Europe What a great program, thank you UVM for acceptsince the original trip, and the third time they suring an older student. My two daughters also went vived the celebration at Octoberfest. Jane MacAlla on for post-graduate degrees and now have pracLivingston shares, “I will retire from Carthage Coltices of their own. One of my grandchildren is now lege in May 2016 after serving on the music faculty considering UVM next year. Yippee!” I had a wonfor 22 years. I have been the director of keyboard derful time at Reunion in October. I enjoyed seeing studies since 2004. Prior to that I was a part-time old friends at thePillsbury_SouthOpenHouse_Sept_4.5x4.45.pdf Delta Delta Delta open house and member of the piano faculty3:33 of Northwestern Uni1 9/22/15 PM

MENTAL PROGRAM REUNION

September 23–25, 2016

75

Gather with classmates and faculty who participated in the 60s and 70s.

alumni.uvm.edu/ experimental

The goal is to amass 11 million stamps, one for every victim of the Holocaust, with more than 6.5 million stamps having been donated already. Students are using thousands of the stamps to create a series of eighteen, one-of-a-kind 18 x 24 inch, stamps collage artworks depicting what they are learning about the events and effects of the Holocaust. To see the website, photos, and contact info for donating stamps, enter Holocaust Stamps Project on Google or Bing. Karen Blakney shares, “After ending my federal career serving as the national climate change coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management in D.C., I have retired to the Land of Enchantment. I maintain Vermont ties by regularly visiting Jeanne Lamoy Hullett, at her lovely home in Warren. Here’s to a Vermonter in the White House!” Paul Gordon writes, “My son Levi is in Veterinary Medicine School in Saint Kitts and my daughter Kiowa is in the Peace Corps in Mongolia.” Douglas J. Wolinsky writes, “I am a shareholder/director at Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer PC, a regional law firm, resident in the Burlington, Vermont, office. I live close to Redstone with my wife and son, and often jog through the campus with my dog. It’s great to see so many alums in my business who either stayed here after school, or returned to make Burlington home.”

Send your news to— Deborah Layne Mesce 2227 Observatory Place N.W. Washington, DC 20007 dmesce@prb.org

74

Pam Knights writes, “2015 marks 15 years in business for Pam Knights Communications. PKC offers full service marketing communications for small businesses, specializing in culinary, hospitality, and agritourism marketing. Check us out at www.PamKnights.com. I also have a daughter, Ashley Heaney ’18, who is a UVM sophomore!” David Wilder ’74, G’78, MD’85; (UVM Orthopaedics faculty member 1985-1994), University of Iowa professor of biomedical engineering, was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health at the May 4 University of Iowa College of Public Health Annual Awards Presen-

Independence with the Support You Need in a Warm Residential Setting

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

Offering a High Level of Assisted Care Services that include: Offering a High Level of Assisted Care Services that include: · Integrated Early-Stage Dementia Supports · Respite Stays · Integrated Early-Stage Dementia Supports · Hospice · Respite Stays · Diabetic Care Program for · Hospice Insulin-Dependent Diabetics ·· Diabetic CareCare Program for 24/7 Nursing Insulin-Dependent Diabetics · Three Home-Cooked Meals Daily · 24/7 Nursing Care · Exercise Classes, Outings, Social Events, · Three Home-Cooked Meals Daily and More! · Exercise Classes, Outings, Social Events, and More!

CMY

K

Call to schedule a personal visit:

802-861-3750

Visit our web site: pillsburyseniorcommunities.com Visit our Independent Living at Allenwood and Harborview!

20 Harborview Road, South Burlington

SPRING 2016 |

51

| CLASS NOTES versity from 1982 –1996. My husband, Ralph, and I celebrated our 31st anniversary this year. We have two wonderful daughters and three very young and amazing grandchildren! Best wishes to all.”

Gail Bigwood Werrbach writes, “My husband Jim and I were proud to watch our son, Matthew Werrbach ’15 graduate from UVM this past May. Matt is now the fifth generation to graduate from UVM. I am on sabbatical this year from the University of Maine School of Social Work and recently enjoyed a six-week road trip through France. We always enjoy our trips to visit our son in Burlington. The campus and the city sure have changed!” Patti Porter Struna and her husband, Mike Struna, have joined Bonita Bay Country Club in Bonita Springs, Florida.

Serendipitously, Patti and I were paired to play golf together and were able to reconnect after 40 years!

Small world indeed! Patti and Mike continue to run Advantage Commercial Realty, Inc. in Danbury, Connecticut but hope to spend more time in Florida in coming years. Patti’s step-daughter, Michelle Struna, lives and works in Tampa, Florida, and this will be one step closer to her. Patti also spent part of October in Virginia Beach with her parents celebrating their 92nd and 93rd birthdays. Congratulations Betty and John Porter!

Send your news to— Dina Dwyer Child 1263 Spear Street, South Burlington, VT 05403 dinachild@aol.com

76

40th Reunion September 23–25, 2016

Don Nelinson shares, after 30 years in academic medicine and medical communications, he is changing it up and has accepted the position as chief science and education officer with the American College of Osteopathic Internists. Still living in New Jersey, Don enjoys summer hikes and winter skiing while based at his house in Wilmington, Vermont. Andrea Mastrocinque Martone writes, “Since we graduated nearly 40 years ago from UVM, our tight-knit group of friends (men and women) have stayed together over the years, attending all the Reunions, and a few gatherings in between.

Our friendship and ties to peers were so central to our lives during that time and remain so today.

Our last women’s weekend in Stowe, Vermont (a yearly event since graduating), we were determined to reach out to a few women with whom we had lost contact, but who were a large part of our UVM experience. Happy to say we found them and reunited at Tish Beitzel Vredenburg’s home in Connecticut in October. There are now 38 of us attending our 40th Reunion next year at UVM!” Suzanne Gebo, Andrea Mastrocinque, Tish Beitzel, Jan Sherman, Amy Jacobs, and Susan Edson are pictured in a photo on the Alumni Association’s Flickr photo gallery at alumni.uvm.edu. MaryAnn Holak writes, “I took a walk down memory lane this summer and visited UVM with my daughter, Kayla, who is now a senior in high school. Just celebrated my 10th anniversary as the executive director of the Beverly Council on Aging and am teaching an introduction to gerontology class at North Shore Com-

52 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

munity College. I keep telling myself if I continue to work in the field, I will always be younger than my clients, not! Had a nice visit with Joan Carey this fall and attended two weddings for the children of Susy Ritter Young.” Michael J. Cote earned his doctorate in law and policy over the summer, and completed his thesis on Public Sector Leadership. His research uncovered seven core leadership behaviors for effective and ineffective leadership styles, and the countermajoritarian principle of leadership. Diane Greene has been hired to head Google cloud business. Her new title will be senior vice president for Google’s enterprise businesses, and she will remain on the Google board.

Linda Boardman writes, “Members of the class of ‘76 have started the planning for the 40th Reunion Weekend on September 23-25, 2016. We will kick off the planning by asking classmates to submit photos from their UVM years and past Reunions to the alumni office at alumni@uvm.edu. Be sure to include your name, class year, and a description for the photo caption. A planning committee is in the works and we encourage classmates to visit the UVM Alumni Weekend website at alumni.uvm.edu.

Information on places to stay, weekend activities, and much more will be on the website for the class of ‘76 to check out.

Send your news to— Pete Beekman 2 Elm Street, Canton, NY 13617 pbeekman19@gmail.com

77

Rob Waxman writes, “I am still teaching at the Fairfield-Suisun Adult School. Since 2010, I’ve been teaching high school diploma classes. Adults with Disabilities is making a comeback, so I’ve got one class of AWD now. I’m still playing in an Allman Brothers tribute band, and am looking for another project. I bought a beautiful handmade bass from Scotland this year. Our daughter is applying for colleges and wants to be a neonatal nurse. I turned 60 this year, or at least that’s what I’m told. I’d love to hear from classmates from UVM. Sorry to hear of Buckham’s demise this year.” Patricia Boera shares, “As associate director of Career Services for Champlain College, I am a cheerleader for volunteerism. I enjoy connecting our students with the community organizations with which I have maintained a long volunteer affiliation: Lyric Theatre Company, presenting Mary Poppins April 1–10 on the Flynn Main Stage; the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts; and the Middlebury Summer Festival-on-the-Green, celebrating its 38th season during the week of July 10-16. To my alumni colleagues, I encourage you to support these great organizations and to consider volunteering!” Adolfo Richard DeSandre writes, “I enjoyed a quiet Christmas with my family in North Carolina. No snow, but I’m fine with that. However, the urge to ski still hits me periodically. Jerry and Hank, if you’re out there, drop me a line sometime.”

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

UVM

EXPERI

MENTAL PROGRAM REUNION

September 23–25, 2016

Gather with classmates and faculty who participated in the 60s and 70s.

alumni.uvm.edu/ experimental

78

Michael Bachman has been with Towson University in Maryland for 27 years and serves as director of IT client services. He also teaches in the Computer Sciences Department. In his free times, he flies planes, SCUBA dives, works out, and enjoys sport shooting. Stan Przybylinski jetted down to Orlando just before Christmas to see Chris Henningsen for some fun and sun as winter descended on his Boston home. Debra Welsh writes, “I spent two weeks in Uganda in October as a dentist on a medical/ dental mission trip. It was an incredibly rewarding trip working with a great team to help improve the lives of a beautiful and loving group of people. I hope to return!”

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

79

Judy Cookson writes, “I live in Barre Town, Vermont, and have been working for the past 20 years at Washington County Mental Health. Currently, I work in the Supported Apartment Program. I work with adults with developmental disabilities who have their own apartments. I am heading towards retirement and look forward to that. I sing in The VSO Chorus, The Mad River Chorale, and my church choir.

My longtime partner, Rick Theken, and I enjoy being active in the community and spending time with our grandchildren and their parents. My closest grandson, Declan, was two in August and is so much fun. My older granddaughter, Abby, graduates from high school in Katy, Texas in June. She is part of the winning Katy Football team dance team called “The Brigade.” I am fortunate to have family in Connecticut. It is great to be near Burlington with all its cultural events, restaurants, and of course, the waterfront. I recently attended a meeting at Main Street Landing: what a magnificent space!”

Send your news to— Beth Gamache 58 Grey Meadow Drive, Burlington, VT 05401 bethgamache@burlingtontelecom.net

80

Mike Heffernan recently passed away in Jakarata, Indonesia. Mike was one of the early members of the UVM rescue team which has now operated for over 35 years. From early on, he loved reading and hunting; guns were utilitarian tools that instinctively appealed to the practical side of him. Weapons were one great interest, while ironically saving lives was another. His romance with search and rescue began in high school, when Mike volunteered as a ski patroller on Suicide Six Mountain in Vermont. It evolved through college, until, eventually, he was leading and training Vermont’s emergency rescue service. To read his complete obituary, visit classnotes online at uvm.edu/vq.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

81

Nan Dickovick Barnes shares, “Love the second time around was found through Match.com for two alumni from the class of 1981, Nan Dickovick Barnes (APEX ) and Henry Gillert (Civil Engineering). We enjoy living in Yarmouth, Maine, and our children, travels and careers. It was fun to walk around campus recently and realize how both of us started life in New York, received excellent educations from UVM, and wound up living in Maine. It was meant to be!” Matt Dustin writes, “I am starting a new career as a full-time paramedic for Gorham

EMS in Gorham, New Hampshire. I also work part time for the Mount Washington Auto Road as a stage driver/tour guide. It is quite a change from the agricultural career path I started on at UVM. My wife, Amanda, and I moved to northern New Hampshire three years ago as she started a new job as an APRN for the Coos County Family Health Service in Berlin. We have been keeping our legs in shape by cross country skiing and hiking with our Labs and Bernese Mountain dog, and cycling. Stop by if you visit the area!”

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

82

Tim Goddette writes, “Thirty-three years! Settled in Alexandria, Virginia, since 2010, a stone’s throw from Tom Bilodeau, Jeff Fitzgerald, and Joe Villemaire. Not uncommon to also run into Pete Fuller and Steve Stebbins from ROTC days. Celebrating 30th anniversary this year with my charming wife, Sarah (Sutton Coldfield, England). Our daughter Ashley has graduated from Virginia Tech. Gabby is a senior at University of Rochester, so you can see Sarah and me in the stands watching her play her final year of soccer this fall. Personal thanks to Jack Leggett, UVM baseball coach ’77-’82.” Sarah Hunt Hobart (Sally) Hobart was recognized by the Consortium of Vermont Colleges with the Jerry E. Flanagan Service Award at their annual meeting. It is given to

a member who has shown exemplary leadership within the field of college admissions counseling in Vermont and has gone above and beyond in service to the consortium. John Bartlett tells us, “SoCal is still treating the Bartlett Family very well. My wife Cynthia’s travel business is growing, our boys are doing well, and we are grateful for good health and good fortune. As always we welcome all Cats to look us up if you are in Los Angeles area. We wish everyone well and look forward to the return of varsity baseball and varsity softball to UVM in 2016.

Why not? It would be a great gift to the students and club players who are keeping the dream alive.

Bring It Back! Go Cats Go!” Send your news to— John Peter Scambos pteron@verizon.net

83

Gary D. Russell is senior legal counsel and Burlington site counsel at Global Foundries Fab 9 in Essex Junction, Vermont. Gary is married to Mary Jane Beane Russell ‘84. Bob Johnston writes, “I recently opened an office in New York for Herald Investment Management. I am working on an event for alumni living in Darien early in 2016.”

Beauport Financial Services, LLC., an independent, locally owned, client-centered advisory firm based Gloucester, with a proprietary, custom, partnering approach to client services, and an innovative community service program involving their

UVM & The Penn Club Socialize in

the Franklin

Alumni Benefits Worldwide – Access to 150+ Reciprocal Private Clubs A NYC Historic Landmark Home Base in Midtown Manhattan for UVM & You

m

Living Roo

Stay or Put Guests

Up in Guests Room

s

Become a Member Today!

Connect at www.pennclub.org Work out

ess Center

at the F itn

Attend Lectures & Host in Even

t Spaces

Indulge in Gourmet

Cuisine

| CLASS NOTES clients, announces a milestone event, their 30th anniversary, founded in 1985 by managing partner David McKechnie, CLU. Send your news to— Lisa Greenwood Crozier lcrozier@triad.rr.com

84

Lynn Tarbutton Cummings writes, “I retired from the Training & Development Department at UVM eight years ago, and have been teaching painting and collage classes and entering art shows for about 10 years.

My husband and I travel more since my retirement, especially to warm places when it’s cold in Vermont!

This winter we will be in Cuba and in previous years have been to many parts of Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, various Caribbean islands, several European countries and the southwestern United States. Travel inspires many of my paintings, so I come home with hundreds of reference photos for my paintings and those of my students. My son John W. Hutchins ’12 works at UVM and lives in South Burlington. Son Kyle Hutchins recently moved back to South Burlington from Medellin, Colombia, where he spent three-and-a-half years teaching English as a foreign language at a university. Retirement is great! Busy, but in a very good way.” Sanne KureJensen has been hired as the recycling coordinator for the Town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Susan Podell Mason is so grateful to be living a happy life in Waterbury, Vermont. She shares, “I work at Vermont Medicaid and put the physical therapy skills I learned at UVM to work every day. My son Seth Mason ’17 attends UVM. My daughter has married and moved to Santa Fe. She attended grad school at UVM with me regularly as an infant, interrupting many classes!” Kim Krandall just reunited with classmates for a weekend in Grand Isle Vermont.

“Thirty years and over half of us are still actively practicing dental hygiene! Our weekend was full of past memories as we hiked Camel’s Hump, had cocktails at The Daily Planet, shopped downtown, and enjoyed the hospitality of local classmates: Bea Shumway and Claudette Bouffard and Liz Wark. We may not see each other often enough but as soon as we do it’s like old times! Fun, fun, fun!”

There is a photo of the group on the Flickr photo gallery at alumni.uvm.edu. Susan Marchand Higgins ’85 writes, Chris Higgins and I had a great time at the wedding of Bill Wallace to Toni Cole along with Doug Keefe, Peter Long, John Stamatov and MaryJane Lightsey Stamatov ’82, Rob Churchill and Sheryl Pietroski Churchill ’87, Don Connors ’81, Jim Ahern ’83, Mark Denney ’83, Chris and Margo Anderson Connors ’85, Dale and Wendy Murdock Spaulding ’85 and Mike Vagnoni ‘91.

Send your news to— Abby Goldberg Kelley saragrant2001@yahoo.com Kelly McDonald jasna-vt@hotmail.com Shelley Carpenter Spillane scspillane@aol.com

54 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

85

Jonathan Henry ‘85, G’91 and Sara Arnett Henry ‘87, G’91 celebrated 28 years of marriage in August, only one day after their son, Andrew, got married. Jon is the vice president of enrollment management at Husson University in Bangor, Maine, and Sara is the director of Disability Services at The University of Maine. Their younger son, Jordan is a senior at the University of Southern Maine. They reside in Hampden, Maine. Sherri Steinfeld Maxman writes, “After careers in publishing and pastry, I have started a new business called College Maven, in which I advise families on the college application process, with a specialty in working with students with learning disabilities. I am always excited to recommend UVM to students! I have been living in Manhattan for the past 25 years but still love to visit Burlington, where my brother, Gene, and his wife, Kim Steinfeld ‘87, reside.” Craig John Mabie and his husband, Douglas Sutherland, completed their move up into the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Living in the town of Cle Elum, they are enjoying all the outdoor activities that small town mountain life affords. Cathy Irish Tremblay writes, “The Class of 1985 celebrated its 30th Reunion on campus in October. It was great to see so many classmates as we gathered at Waterman Manor to enjoy the sunset and reminisce about our days at UVM while listening to some wonderful music.”

Send your news to— Barbara Roth roth_barb@yahoo.com

86

Maria Heck Swanson writes, “I resigned from my physical therapy job working with children with developmental disabilities just in time to help my eldest son move to Alaska to begin grad school in Fairbanks, while my youngest takes a semester abroad in Scotland. Our drive along the Al-Can highway was stunning! Volunteering a lot with local library and soccer club while contemplating my next career move, working in my garden, and doing some more knitting. Life is indeed good!” Howard Solomon shares, “I’m living in Belvidere, New Jersey, with my partner Carlos. I am a branch manager and investment advisor representative with Next Financial Group, Inc. in Fairfield, New Jersey. I hang out frequently with Andrew Pearl and his family. The dogs consume much of our time as I breed, course, and show Bedlington Terriers and Salukis. We spent 10 days this spring in Colombia which was amazing.

Would love to hear from old classmates.” Lori DeRosa Centerbar is currently in her 11th year at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington, teaching English. She continues to love what she does and is forever grateful to have chosen teaching as her career. She remains connected to UVM by opening her classroom to many education majors as interns. She also delights in watching her son, Zachary, navigate his way through his undergraduate work, majoring in mechanical engineering.

Mike Patterson shared that he and his wife Noelle celebrated their 25th anniversary in August, 2015.

Their eldest daughter, Rachel, is a junior at the Uni-

versity of Maryland. Their middle daughter, Caroline, is a freshman at Mount Saint Mary’s University, in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and their youngest, Abigail, is a junior in high school. Mike has served on the Board of Directors for the Metro D.C. chapter of NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry) for several years, and in July he began serving a one-year term as president. He has also written two articles for Fine Homebuilding Magazine; the most recent of which appears in the January 2016 issue. As for me, I’d love to hear from any old classmates, particularly denizens of 4th floor, Wright Hall, where I lived for three years!

Send your news to— Lawrence Gorkun vtlfg@msn.com

87

Patty Hession Watson reports, “On Cape Cod with my husband Peter (St. Mike’s) and my two ski-buddies: Charlie, 11; Sally, 10. Love working for Barnstable County improving quality of life for year-round Cape Codders. Fond memories of Billings Rotunda, Monty R’s burritos, Joe Schall’s environmental biology and finishing organic chemistry lab on way back from Mad River.” Celeste Leon writes, “I’m delighted to announce my novel inspired by a true story. Luck is Just the Beginning, was just released by Floricanto Press. Some of you may remember the story of my father winning the lottery and changing his life. Visit www.celesteleon. com for more information and feel free to contact me as I love hearing from my fellow UVMers!”

Send your news to— Sarah Reynolds ssrey2@verizon.net

88 89

Send your news to— Cathy Selinka Levison crlevison@comcast.net

Brockett Muir lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. He continues to move forward with his mobile technology invention. Brock’s creation includes the mobile notifications you see, hear, and feel on your devices.

For example, when you receive a SMS or MMS, you might hear an audio notification. That is part of Brock’s patent portfolio. Jeff Barron and his family just visited Brock and it was great to reconnect!

Dee Barbic writes, “Finishing up my 24th year with the Vermont State Police as a lieutenant currently assigned as the professional standards commander out of headquarters in Waterbury, Vermont. I regularly see classmate and fellow Harris Millis RA, Tracy Fay Stolese. I am living in the area with my husband, Allen, and step-children, Harry and Harper.

We are all huge UVM hockey fans and support the team at the home games.” Karen Spiller shares, “I met my husband Jason Loughman in 2011 while we were both living in the Republic of Palau (where my classmate and college roommate Rachel Dimitruk has been living since 2001), and we just moved to Sydney, Australia. Fellow UVM classmates at our 2013 wedding included Jill Bernstein Shinnick, Luisa Zauli, and Laura Schaefer Wild-

Stepping forward In my time at UVM, I have climbed mountains, literally and figuratively. I have had four internships and travelled abroad three times. Scholarship support has given me the privilege to experience adventures I could never have fathomed at the beginning of my time at UVM—like going on safari in Africa and spending an entire semester doing field work while camping throughout Vermont as a LANDS intern.

Scholarship support has allowed me to take the first steps towards accomplishing my dreams.

Now I am looking forward to the mountains ahead—and I feel prepared to start climbing.

Flore Costumé ’16

ONLINE: movemountains.uvm.edu

BY MAIL: 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401

BY PHONE: 888-458-8691 (toll free)

C ATAMOUNT NATION

| CLASS NOTES man. After a 15-year career in international marketing I became an ESL teacher in 2009 and have never looked back. I’m thrilled to be back in Sydney after a six-year absence and hope to get lots of visitors.” Jeffrey Paradysz shares, “I’m about to go into post-production on my latest documentary on the Sci-Fi/Comic Conventions cosplayers and their craft.” Philip Mandel, CPA, CFP, the regional managing partner – New York / New Jersey and the cooffice managing partner of the Roseland, New Jersey office of CohnReznick LLP, one of the leading accounting, tax, and advisory firms in the United States, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

Send your news to— Maureen Kelly Gonsalves moe.dave@verizon.net

90

Elizabeth Rosin shares with us that Rosin Preservation, one of the most prominent historic preservation firms in the region, has moved into its own building, the newest old building in Kansas City’s East Crossroads, as its firm becomes its own client. Rosin, whom the American Institute of Architects Kansas City chapter named Preservationist of the Year in 2014, writes about the restoration experience —“Walking Our Talk”—on the Rosin Preservation blog. Rosin Preservation plays a key role in Kansas City’s major preservation projects, such as the Kansas City Public Schools’ repurposing initiative and the rehabilitation of Commerce Tower; Kansas City Power and Light Building; Pickwick Plaza and the Bancroft School Apartments. For more information visit rosinpreservation.com. Mark Bove wanted his fellow alumni to know that their favorite Italian eatery in Burlington, Bove’s Restaurant, closed Dec 23, 2015 after serving thousands of UVM students and thousands of pounds of pasta for the past 75 years.

For those able to visit during the last few months, he hoped it brought back memories of the “good ole days.” Ruth Henry writes, “Many thanks to everyone who made it back to Burlington to celebrate our 25th Reunion! What a blast! A very special thank you to Mike Cohen, Jeff Perez, Dave Bartlett, Ron Tarsy and Jane Tarsy, Meg Smith, Lisa Palvino, Julie Vincent and Erin Murphy who helped to make sure we had the perfect venue for sunset cocktails and after-hours! You’re the best!”

Allison Connolly just returned from living abroad for a few years. After many years of working at the state health department in North Carolina, she decided to switch her focus to global public health.

Allison worked in immunization in Nepal and Ethiopia and on case investigation during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Raleigh, North Carolina is once again her home base, and she looks forward to hearing from any local UVMers.

Send your news to— Tessa Donohoe Fontaine tfontaine@brandywine.org

91

25th Reunion September 23–25, 2016

If you are interested in planning your upcoming

56 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Lindsey Kittredge ’99 WORK: Co-founder and executive director of Shooting Touch—a global sports

non-profit that uses the power of basketball to inspire and educate under-resourced youth around the world.

HOME: Medfield, Massachusetts.

UVM DAYS: Played varsity lacrosse; loved her child development and nutrition courses; spent a year abroad in Italy; went to Guatemala with Habitat for Humanity; and enjoyed skiing and the outdoors.

IN HER WORDS: “When I look back, I really do believe that none of this would be happening without my experience at UVM and the pathways that have led me to this creation. There’s something about what UVM teaches to its students about the outside world and giving back to it that’s pretty amazing.”

Read more: go.uvm.edu/kittredge

reunion, email alumni@uvm.edu. Douglas Lewis writes, “After a great summer in Vermont with Eliteam Camps, we are back in Park City and covering the Alpine World Cup for NBC. Hoping for a great snow year here in Utah!” Dr. Don Stenta MD ’91 is the co-editor of an issue in the New Directions in Student Leadership series titled “Student Leadership Development Through Recreation and Athletics.” The nine-chapter book, co-edited with Dr. Cara McFadden from Elon University, outlines leadership models and frameworks for students in collegiate recreation and intercollegiate athletics. Looking forward to seeing everyone for our 25th Reunion on September 23-25! Make your plans now to join me, Brian Acrish, Suzanne Cabot, Beth Eberl, Noreen Feldmann, Nini Avila Fenton, Phil Gonzalez, Grant Gund, Leigh Husband, Neil Jensen, Bill Luderman, Liza MacKinnon, Aimee Marti, Chip Mason, Pam Quinn, and Geoff Sweitzer in Burlington.

Send news to— Karen Heller Lightman khlightman@gmail.com

92

Ambari Prakash Pinto writes, “I am married to John Pinto, graduate of the University of Virginia, and we are planning to celebrate our 10th anniversary in 2016. We have one daughter and are teaching her to enjoy winter activities. Would love to connect with UVM alumni in area interested in family ski trips.” In 2015 Jessica Jacob accepted the position of theatre manager at University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Kennedy Theatre after five seasons as artistic and executive director of Alaska Theatre of Youth and 14 years working with University of Alaska’s Theatre and Dance program.

Send your news to— Lisa Kanter jslbk@mac.com

93

Victor Rivero, Integrated Humanities Program alum, is editor in chief of EdTech Digest, a leading source of cool tools, in-depth interviews, and notable trends in the education and technology (edtech) sector. He oversees the annual EdTech Digest Awards Recognition Program featuring Cool Tool, Leadership and Trendsetter Awards, now in its sixth year. “We’re telling the story of 21st-century education transforma-

tion,” he writes. “A lot has changed since the time we used to have to send emails from the basement of Waterman back in the early 90s!” Visit www.edtechdigest.com to learn more.

Send your news to— Gretchen Haffermehl Brainard gretchenbrainard@gmail.com

focuses on household poverty reduction strategies and food security issues and is currently working on a project examining links between conservation, food security, and hunting practices in Tanzania.

Send your news to— Elizabeth Carstensen Genung leegenung@me.com

selling real estate I am usually on the water of Long Island Sound. It was great meeting some alumni at a Summer Southport gathering this past summer.”

Send your news to— Jennifer Khouri Godin jenniferkhouri@yahoo.com

94

98

03

95

99 00

Jackie Levin writes, “I’ve been growing my nurse entrepreneur self with my new seven-week online mindfulness program, ‘Room to Breathe: Rewiring for Ease.‘ So excited to share my passion with other nurses showing that we can really take good care of ourselves while taking care good of others. I’m also bringing creative arts based facilitation to educational trainings at hospitals. So much fun. Loving my life in the Pacific Northwest with my husbandlove, Randy.” Narric Rome writes, “My wife, Megan, my son Will (8) and I have moved to downtown Annapolis, Maryland, and my wife is expecting a baby girl in April.”

Send your news to— Cynthia Bohlin Abbott cyndiabbott@hotmail.com Jill Stoddard writes, “I was promoted to associate professor of psychology; own my own business, The Center for Stress and Anxiety Management; published my first book, The Big Book of ACT Metaphors: A Clinician’s Guide to Experiential Exercises and Metaphors in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (New Harbinger Publications).”

Send your news to— Valeri Susan Pappas vpappas@davisandceriani.com

96

Bizia Greene writes that she and her husband, Clinton Huling, were married at Shelburne Farms on a rainy July 27, 2014. Many alums were in attendance including bridal party members Kristina Pisanelli ‘97 and Danielle Ragonese Browne. Although they make their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the bride and groom wanted to host a destination wedding to showcase her home state. Guests flew in from Mozambique, Belgium, England, Canada, and the groom’s home state of California.

For many, it was their first time seeing the Green Mountain State and festivities kicked off with a lake cruise aboard the Northern Lights. Bizia is an etiquette consultant for children and professionals and writes a column for the Santa Fe New Mexican called “Etiquette Rules.”

Send your news to— Jill Cohen Gent jcgent@roadrunner.com Michelle Richards Peters mpeters@eagleeyes.biz

97

Amy Damon has received tenure at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Amy teaches in the Economics and Latin American Studies departments. She

Brian Byrnes shares that after living twelve years working as a foreign correspondent in Argentina, he returned to the United States and now lives in Miami with his wife, Macarena, and sons Bautista (8) and Bastian (5). He owns and operates Agency Byrnes Communications, a boutique public relations consultancy working with technology companies and artists in the United States and Latin America.

Send news to— Ben Stockman bestockman@gmail.com Send your news to— Sarah Pitlak Tiber spitlak@hotmail.com

Seth Mobley shared the sad news that William W. Warrick IV, “Boomer” to his Dad and “Will” to his many friends, died of a heart attack while exercising August 3, 2015. Courageous EMT professionals and Stamford Hospital emergency staff did their best to revive him but were not successful. He will be greatly missed by his parents, sister Kelly, wife Catalina, his daughters Lola (6) and Isabel (4), many nieces, nephews and cousins as well as everyone who ever had the privilege to meet him and stand in his light for a while. A named account manager at Optiv, Inc., he was passionate about providing his clients with tailored cyber security solutions. He was a mountain of a man who loved intensely. A gifted guitar player, lover of nature, talented chef and bourbon aficionado, he was most proud of his sweet girls whom he loved more than anything. Born in Pittsburgh with a congenital heart issue he survived several lifesaving surgeries and led a full and active life but was taken from us way too soon.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

01

Sarah Laidlaw Wilde shares, “Tove Sloan was born at the end of September. She joins her big sister, Malin, as one of the Catamounts’ biggest fans.”

Send your news to— Erin Wilson ewilson41@gmail.com

02

John Bainton writes, “My wife and I completed our second ‘fixer upper’ purchase in Darien, Connecticut.

Renovated and moved in three days before the arrival of our second son, Theodore Edward Bainton (Tad). We are enjoying our new home and life as a family of four plus our dog, Maple. When not

Alissa Thompson Chiasson married Jeremy Chiasson in October of this year. They also welcomed a baby girl in April. Genevieve Abedon writes, “I have been living in California for the last 10 years. I was prevet, finally applied to vet school, and completed my first year at University of California, Davis. I am currently taking a year off to work on plastic pollution policy in California’s capital. I’m so happy that my brother, also a UVM alum, still lives in Burlington so I have an excuse to come visit annually.” Amanda Reade Sturgeon shares that after working for 12 years in the wine industry in Napa Valley and New York City, she has joined the family business. In October she accepted the position of controller at Reade Advanced Materials, representing the sixth generation along with her sister.

Amanda, her husband David, and daughter, Elise, are living in Newport, Rhode Island. On September 26, Bryan Carnahan climbed Killington Peak in Vermont to complete his journey to the summits of all 111 4,000-foot peaks in the Northeast United States. Several UVM alumni (2001-2013) were a part of this journey, including two who made the trip to Killington. The overall experience actually encompassed numerous different stages of his life and involved quite a diverse array of characters from various peer groups and time periods. This journey represents a sort of continuity that ties it all together. As for your class secretary, I’m happy to share that I was married on September 18, 2015 on a beautiful fall day in Vermont. My husband, Dan, and I were joined by several good friends and fellow UVM alumni: Kimberly Quirk, Rebekah Stuwe Baril, Molly Betzhold Kusek, Janine White, Heather Pearson, Jenny Casartello Eddy ‘04, Jimmy Eddy ‘04, Kara Egasti Dooley ‘04, Kelly Kisiday ‘04, Jessie Rosenfeld Vicente ‘04, Cailin Rarey Judge ‘04, and my sister Callie Moore ‘10! It was a wonderful celebration and we were so happy to bring everyone together in our beloved Vermont for an amazing weekend.

Send your news to— Korinne Moore Berenson korinne.d.moore@gmail.com

04

Ryan Kuja ‘04 recently completed a Master of Arts in Theology and Culture at the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, which culminated in a capstone research project on the intersection of spirituality, psychology and cross-cultural service work— which he is currently turning into a book. Craig Waugh, a business litigation attorney in the Phoenix, Arizona, office of Polsinelli PC, a national law firm, was recently appointed to the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Valley Young Professionals Board of Directors. Craig focuses his legal pracSPRING 2016 |

57

| CLASS NOTES tice on prosecuting and defending claims in federal and state courts alleging violations of securities laws, and represents clients before the SEC, Arizona Securities Division and FINRA. Ingrid Herrera-Yee writes, “I was named National Guard Spouse of the Year last year, have accepted a position as the director of Military and Veterans Policy at NAMI in Washington, D.C. and founded an organization for military spouse clinicians that supports them in their educational and employment pursuits, all while working towards developing solutions to our military’s mental health crisis. http://www.msbhc.org.”

Send your news to— Kelly Kisiday kellykisiday@hotmail.com

05

Chelsea Ransom currently works for the Environmental Protection Agency in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and recently obtained her professional engineering license in the State of Michigan. Lydia Guild St. Onge writes, “This summer, Melissa Nepomiachi, Erin Roche, Laurel Bourret, Hillary Hess, Kathryn Wrigley, Rose Pfiffer, Lindsay Blumenfeld Cox, Lydia Guild St. Onge, Laurel Bourret, and Kathryn Wrigley gathered in Burlington to celebrate 14 years of friendship and our class of 2005 10-year Reunion. The farmers’ market, brunch at Penny Cluse, a night out on Church Street, swimming at the Bolton Pot Holes, and chatting into the wee hours while looking at college photos was the perfect way to relive and celebrate four great years at UVM.” Zachary Carson, writes, “I am living in Berkeley, California, and I recently launched a new business called Nature Partners, an online match-making service created to connect business, events and recreation with appropriate land assets. Our goal is to use business as a tool to strengthen and preserve nature-based land assets for communities to utilize and for future generations to experience. (www.naturepartners.com)” Send your news to— Kristin Dobbs kristin.dobbs@gmail.com

06

10th Reunion September 23–25, 2016

If you are interested in planning your upcoming reunion, email alumni@uvm.edu. Jameson duPont Collingham shared this exciting news, “Tom Collingham ‘07 and I welcomed our second child, Clara duPont Collingham, on July 9, 2015.

Big brother Campbell is thrilled to have a new sister!” Betsy Benton writes, happy to announce that I’m getting married in September to a handsome southern gentleman, Zachary Warner. There will be many UVMers in attendance, and we’re thrilled to get married in the gorgeous state of Vermont. Can’t wait to see all of my Groovy UV friends back in Vermont!”

Send your news to— Katherine Murphy kateandbri@gmail.com

58 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

07

Amy Allen writes, “I completed a Master’s in Accounting program at SNHU in May, and onto the dream of completing the CPA Exam certification. Already passed Part 1! (AUD, 85%), next will be REG, wish me luck!” Alaina Dickason Roberts shares, “Jonathan Roberts ‘08 and I are excited to introduce Jonas John Roberts, born on September 1, 2015.”

Andrew Pandolph and Heather Greenberg Pandolph, are expecting their first baby in March 2016. The baby Catamount gifts have already started rolling in. Andrew and Heather were married at the New England Aquarium in Boston, June 2014. UVMers in attendance were Pete Spartos, Josh Malczyk, Nick Donahue, Andrew Menke, Beth Ross, Donia Shirley, Brian Noonan, Hillary Birch, Heidi Considine ‘13, Eric John ‘08, Brian Kenney ‘08, Neil Connors ‘08, Ben Perkins ‘07, Greg Swank ‘10, Laura Caughey ‘09, and Jackie Mazur ‘08. Andrew and Heather bought a house several years ago in Woburn, Massachusetts, and get up to Vermont quite often.

Send your news to— Elizabeth Bitterman ekolodner@gmail.com

08

Ashley Michelle Fowler writes, “On September 26, 2015, Hannah Richman Rizzo, celebrated her marriage to Danny Rizzo with a reception in Weed, California. Ian Prieto and I were among the guests. The couple had been married in a private ceremony on August 18, 2015. Both Hannah and Danny are employed as California State Park Rangers and reside in Arroyo Grande, California.” Madison Ginnett shares, “After meeting in San Francisco in June 2013, Erin McElaney and JT Fisher became engaged in July of this year. They will marry next fall in Napa. They currently reside in San Francisco where they both work as account managers, Erin for EMC and JT for One Login.”

Send your news to— Elizabeth Bearese ebearese@gmail.com Emma Grady gradyemma@gmail.com

09

Janelle Dawson Aimi and Steven Aimi welcomed a daughter in May 2015 in Buffalo, New York. Jamie Stone Feingold got married on September 26, 2015. There were many UVMers in attendance! The following people are pictured in the photo posted on the Alumni Association Flickr photo gallery at alumni.uvm.edu: Lauren Honrath, Jen Brine ’11, Jamie Stone Feingold, Paige Leenstra Georgiadis, Ali Saslafsky, Jane Greaves, Melissa Ross, Panos Georgiadis ’08, Chris Beck ’10, Halley Ross, and Mike Stone G’86.

Send your news to— David Volai david.volain@gmail.com

10

Anne Angarola recently returned to Tanzania to take up a position as director of programs with Jifundishe, a small NGO located outside of Arusha. She had been working at IREX in Washington, D.C. on a team implementing the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. She is excited to return to East Africa, and hopes to see some fellow UVMers there! Christine Elliott and Addison Minott got engaged on November 7 while hiking up Mount Mansfield during a weekend getaway in Stowe, Vermont. Christine and Addison met when they lived on the same floor in Millis freshman year and shared a friend group throughout college.

They have been living together in Boston, Massachusetts, since 2011. They look forward to planning a fall 2016 wedding in Manchester, Vermont!

Grayson Savoie and Gail Savoie ‘09 recently welcomed a new addition to their family. Norah Leigh Savoie was born on September 19, 2015 weighing 7lbs., 6oz. Finn Chappell and Caitlyn Rinaldi met their junior year at UVM and got married this past fall. Caitlyn writes, “We thought of UVM at the wedding as we took a great picture holding a University of Vermont sign with all of our fellow UVM classmates in the background.” Thomas Stirling was recently elected as the new president for the Woburn Business Association. After graduating from UVM, Thomas founded Stirling Technologies, a full-service web design and development firm located in Winchester, Massachusetts. The company provides businesses and nonprofit organizations with custom websites, web and mobile applications and marketing strategies. Stirling Technologies has partnered with and launched engaging sites for Woburn Public Library, Boys and Girls Club and Woburn Community Ed Foundation.

Send your news to— Daron Raleigh raleighdaron@gmail.com

11

5th Reunion September 23–25, 2016

If you are interested in planning your upcoming reunion, email alumni@uvm.edu. Caroline Shepard Leary married Forrest Leary at her parent’s home in Roswell, Georgia on October 3, 2015. Classmates, Tom Finan, Lisa Finan and Kara Caliri were in attendance. Caroline met Forrest while the two were in law school at the University of Mississippi School of Law. They now live in Atlanta with their yellow lab, Mr. Battle. Bob Just shares, “Since graduation, I have completed my master’s in College Student Personnel at Western Illinois University in 2013 and have been working and living in the Bay Area of California. I first started working at San Jose State University as a residential life coordinator and have recently accepted a new position at the University of San Francisco as the assistant director of Leadership Programs.” Samantha Du and Keegan J. Brown would like to announce their engagement. The couple met during their first year at UVM in 2007 and are looking forward to becoming the DuBrowns in 2016.

C ATAMOUNT NATION Arianna Jones ’09 WORK: Deputy communica-

tions director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.

After quickly working her way up within the NBC organization, Jones was a producer on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” prior to signing on with the Vermont senator’s campaign.

HOME: Burlington.

UVM DAYS: She credits history classes with Professor Harvey Amani Whitfield as a major influence in shaping her political perspective and path.

IN HER WORDS: “When this opportunity came up it was one of the easiest decisions I ever made. I got into politics because Bernie as a candidate gave me the opportunity to work for someone I 100 percent believed in, and that I have found to be genuine in every way. I’m not sure what comes next, because honestly my vision doesn’t go beyond the next hour or the next week of this election.”

Read more: go.uvm.edu/jones

ANDY DUBACK

SPRING 2016 |

59

| CLASS NOTES

C ATAMOUNT NATION

Send your news to— Troy McNamara Troy.mcnamara4@gmail.com

12

Meagan DiVito Phelan shares the news about her marriage to Daniel T. Phelan. Dan and Meagan met their freshman year as neighbors in the Honors College. They were married in Meagan’s home town of Alton, New Hampshire, on September 13.

They now live in Washington, D.C. with their dog, Ellie. Matt Buder Shapiro writes, “This past year I co-founded the healthcare tech startup MedPilot Inc, and serve as the chief marketing officer. MedPilot helps patients understand and pay their medical bills with ease. I am responsible for all marketing, branding, digital strategy initiatives, and government relations. I also have the pleasure to help advise the nation’s largest chapter-based military family organization. Their mission is to create a platform where military family members can join with civilian communities and leaders to address the challenges of military life. Lastly, I’ve been working as the political and tech advisor for a Bad Boy/Interscope rapper and actor on how to create the most impact on both local and national issues.” Natalie Jones is currently living in Albany, New York, and working as the marketing and communications associate at The Albany Academies, an independent K-12 school. She has connected with two UVM alumni also working at the school: Jen Rosen ‘08 and Melanie Greene ‘10. She is also coaching lacrosse at Albany Academy for Girls and working toward her MBA at SUNY Albany.

Send your news to— Patrick Dowd patrickdowd2012@gmail.com

13

Renick Lalancette writes, “I was born and raised in Williston, Vermont, attended the University of Vermont from 2009-2013, and am now proudly serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I have been living in El Salvador since March and started to work officially as a Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer in May. I live in the community of Carasque, Nueva Trinidad and will be living and working here for the next two years. Carasque is a small community in rural El Salvador that was severely affected during the 1980s civil war. Today the majority of people live in adobe houses, have no indoor plumbing, and survive on subsistence farming. Almost all older adults have less than a second-grade education and cannot read or write. I have started a scholarship fund for the youth of Carasque in hopes of sending some of my kids to high school, who in turn will be able to better support their families and community. Thanks to Aid El Salvador, an American NGO founded by former Peace Corps volunteers, I am able to collect tax-deductible donations for this fund from the United States. Every donation made to this organization and specified “Renick Lalancette, Carasque” will go directly to my students.” To read more about Renick’s experience and to donate, visit uvm.edu/vq. Katharine Longfel-

60 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Ben Weigher ’13 WORK: Founder and CEO of Art on Board, a growing community-based organization

that engages and brings young people together through action sports and the arts.

HOME: New York City.

UVM DAYS: Art on Board’s roots are in an Entrepreneurial Leadership course Weigher took as a senior together with Tim Andreasen ’13, co-founder and COO with the organization. The framework they created in the class would blossom into a venture that has sponsored events from Burlington to Seattle to NYC over the past two years.

IN HIS WORDS: “Burlington is a scenic town, so it draws many different types of minds together. But what makes it special is the power it has to nurture the curiosities and abilities of all of us who choose to make it our home for four years.”

Read more: go.uvm.edu/weigher

low and Trevon Noiva ‘14 are happy to announce another Catamount Couple engagement. They will be married in October of 2016 at Okemo Resort in Ludlow, Vermont. Kristen Vogel is writing to you today from Ghana, where she has been serving as a Peace Corps volunteer for 15 months. She writes, “I am a JHS teacher in the Upper West of Ghana, teaching Integrated Science and Information and Communications Technologies. In my first year at my site, I conducted several needs assessments with the five sub-communities and the school to determine the most pressing education need. The winner of the needs assessments was a project that had been started before I even arrived: a computer lab/library for the community. After several meetings and much time spent working on plans and budgeting, we have finally completed our grant!

The community has already contributed more than 60 percent of the project cost (much more than the required 25 percent!), but we have a long way to go raising more than $9,000! To support this project contact Kristen directly at kmvogel91@gmail.com.

Send your news to— Katharine Hawes katharine.hawes2@gmail.com

Madelaine White mswhite1991@gmail.com

14

Meghan Reilly shares, “After UVM (major in film and television studies and minor in theater) I moved to Charleston, South Carolina, with my boyfriend, Pearson King. I got a job at HBO in association with Danger Boys Productions as a makeup artist on Danny McBride’s upcoming show ‘Vice Principals’. In addition to working with the amazing cast and crew, I got to work with Bill Murray and Walton Goggins from ‘Justified’.” Kelly Nguyen writes, “I can’t believe a year and a half ago, we graduated from UVM! Time really flies by. I’m currently serving at MA Campus Compact based in Boston, Massachusetts. One of my jobs is to build a community within a corps of VISTAs. I can’t help but think about the strong community UVM builds every day. I especially thank the ALANA Center, Residential Life, and the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics for helping me feel like I belonged in the UVM community.” Shae Rowlandson is currently attending Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for a Mas-

ter of Health Science (and will possibly continue to perform an extra year to matriculate to Master of Science) in biochemistry and molecular biology.

He is doing graduate laboratory research and volunteers as a medical assistant at the nearby Baltimore Rescue Mission. He hopes to continue onto med school at Johns Hopkins or another med school.

Send your news to— Grace Buckles glbuckles@gmail.com

15

Ryan Britch, who first served his country overseas as a military veteran, is currently serving in the Peace Corps as a youth development volunteer in Swaziland.

Britch lives and works in a community empowering Swazi youth to fight for causes like gender equality and participating in secondary projects to help meet community development needs. Britch served as a Mountain Infantryman in the Vermont Army National Guard from 2008 to 2014. In 2010, Britch was deployed to Eastern Afghanistan where

he later became a sergeant and assumed the role of an Infantry Team Leader. To read more about Ryan, visit classnotes online at uvm.edu/vq. Casey Ann Short accepted a position as an associate corporate compliance specialist with CT Corporation in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also a foster mom through Northern California Sled Dog Rescue. Jordan Munger shared the following poem: “Keep on keepin’/The winds may be blowin’,/in the hills, maybe snowin’/the cat may be missin’,/and the dog may be moanin’./The world’s just spinnin’,/And that’s okay./Keep on keepin’/and you’ll be okay.”

Emily Heath tells us, I am in Phetchabun, Thailand for a year teaching math and English.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

CLASSIFIEDS RENTALS & SALES GRAND ISLE, VT Rustic elegance with a sunset view.

5BR year round retreat on 520’ of private lakefront. Call Becky Moore ’74.

802-318-3164 or ramoore708@aol.com.

HARWICHPORT, CAPE COD 2-4 person apt – $650/wk, June-Sept, end-road-beach: DVD/WIFI, CC Bike Trail nearby; National Seashore 15 miles. klarson93@comcast.net, 508-432-0713.

MARTHA’S VINEYARD, MA Let me help you find the perfect vacation home to buy or rent. Visit our website at <www.light housemv.com>. Call Trish Lyman ’89. 508-627-4424 or email trish@lighthousemv.com.

SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN, ME On mountain 4season 1BR condo, pool/tennis/ski-in/out skisugarloaf@yahoo.com

PA I D A D V E R T I S E M E N T

SAVE GREEK LIFE @UVM

In 2014, the Vermont Legislature singled out and targeted the 10 remaining GREEK Fraternities and Sororities Properties and passed legislation that repeals the “Property Tax Exemption” for these Non-Profit Organizations.

Please support Greek Life and help pass H.725.

Get Involved:

www.savegreeklifeatuvm.com SPRING 2016 |

61

| IN MEMORIAM Jane Riddell Gay ‘39, of Alexander City, Alabama, August 30, 2015.

Wilma Reed Howard ‘39, of Enosburg Falls, Vermont, August 25, 2015.

Milton Rosenthal ‘39, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, March 19, 2015.

Kenneth J. Estey ‘41, of Essex Junction, Vermont, August 20, 2015.

Dawn Nichols Hazelett ‘41, of Colchester, Vermont, October 14, 2015.

Harriet Woods Rice ‘42, of South Windsor, Connecticut, September 26, 2015.

Stanley D. Feldman ‘44, of White Plains, New York, August 25, 2015.

Betsy Roberts ‘44, of Freeland, Washington, August 21, 2015.

Margaret Durfee West ‘44, of Charlotte, Vermont, September 13, 2015.

Richard Whitcomb Ellis ‘45, of South Royalton, Vermont, September 28, 2015.

Irene Varga Schreck ‘45, of Mount Holly, North Carolina, October 28, 2015.

Herbert Ashley Durfee, Jr. ‘46, MD’48, of Burlington, Vermont, September 21, 2015.

Marylee Russell Rose ‘46, of Essex Junction, Vermont, October 06, 2015.

Ann Pearsons Neal ‘47, of Ludlow, Vermont, September 24, 2015.

Most John H. Perry-Hooker ‘47, MD’47, of Newbury, Vermont, August 07, 2015.

Irwin W. Becker ‘48, MD’52, of Tustin, California, September 30, 2015.

Rosemary Bristol Bryden ‘48, of Cambridge, Vermont, September 11, 2015.

Joan Barrett Hay ‘48, of Boylston, Massachusetts, August 14, 2015.

Donald J. MacPherson MD’48, of Livingston, New Jersey, September 28, 2015.

Marjorie Clark Page ‘48, of Waterbury, Vermont, November 09, 2015.

Edward E. Barber ‘49, of Green Valley, Arizona, November 07, 2015.

Ruth Thompson Clairmont ‘49, of Burlington, Vermont, September 07, 2015.

Emmett L. Fagan, Jr. ‘49, MD’53, of Rutland, Vermont, October 07, 2015.

John R. Milligan ‘49, of Palos Park, Illinois, April 29, 2015.

Albert Stephen Redway ‘49, of Hamden, Connecticut, September 26, 2015.

Norma Carmichael Wilson ‘49, of Pompton Plains, New Jersey, October 27, 2015.

B. William Bigwood ‘50, of Stratham, New Hampshire, September 01, 2015.

John C. Page ‘50, of Waterbury, Vermont, September 07, 2015.

Thelma Cole Perkins ‘50, of Rutland, Vermont, October 10, 2015.

George Counos ‘51, of Springfield, Massachusetts, October 19, 2015.

Donald Franklin Green, Jr. ‘51, of Chazy, New York, October 24, 2015.

Donald Weston Guidoboni ‘51, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, November 11, 2015.

62 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Robert Edgar Morrison, Sr. ‘51, of Riverview, Florida, November 12, 2015.

Frederick Smith Briggs ‘52, of South Burlington, Vermont, October 06, 2015.

Nancy Cantor Eddy G’52, of Framingham, Massachusetts, October 05, 2015.

Marvin Garrell MD’52, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, August 18, 2015.

Donald Francis Hebsch ‘52, of Seabrook, New Hampshire, October 01, 2015.

Philip D. Jewett ‘52, of Keene, New Hampshire, November 04, 2015.

Arthur Jason Perelman MD’52, of Summit, New Jersey, September 23, 2015.

George S. Wood, Jr. ‘52, of Indianapolis, Indiana, October 24, 2015.

Marilyn Pratt Woodworth ‘52, of Shelburne, Vermont, October 17, 2015.

Janet Waggoner Buckley ‘53, of Cary, North Carolina, October 10, 2015.

Neville Cecil King ‘53, of Los Angeles, California, October 15, 2015.

Catherine Pete ‘53, G’58, of Poughkeepsie, New York, November 01, 2015.

Herbert L. Ross ‘54, of Branford, Connecticut, September 29, 2015.

Jane Martin Thomson ‘54, of Naples, Florida, October 07, 2015.

Nancy McMann Dandrea ‘55, of Pine City, New York, October 08, 2015.

Theodore Joseph Goodman MD’55, of Walpole, Massachusetts, October 21, 2015.

Eugene Donald Jacobson MD’55, of San Francisco, California, August 14, 2015.

Robert Lee Pratt MD’55, of Bethesda, Maryland, June 30, 2015.

Mark Rosenblatt ‘55, of Los Angeles, California, July 15, 2015.

Richard L. Russell ‘55, of Beverly, Massachusetts, August 02, 2015.

George H. Brown ‘56, of South Hadley, Massachusetts, October 26, 2015.

Clifton Bernard Hersey ‘56, of Groton, Vermont, August 18, 2015.

Donald Long Kjelleren G’56, of Shelburne, Vermont, August 30, 2015.

Philip M. Kuhn ‘56, of Severna Park, Maryland, September 10, 2015.

Aubrey Walter Akin ‘57, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, October 07, 2015.

Jerome Thomas Duffy ‘57, of Swanton, Vermont, November 17, 2015.

Benjamin L. Antonellis, Jr. ‘58, of Mashpee, Massachusetts, September 28, 2015.

Robert N. Morehouse ’58, G ‘60, of Georgetown, Massachusetts, October 14, 2015.

Robert H. Tafrate ‘58, of East White Plains, New York, October 09, 2015.

Richard E. White ‘58, of Lincoln, Rhode Island, October 09, 2015.

John D. Brewster ‘59, of Grayslake, Illinois, May 28, 2015.

William F. Cirmo MD’59, of Wallingford, Connecticut, October 09, 2015.

Thomas L. Kiehl ‘59, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, November 14, 2015.

Maurice E. Mongeon MD’59, of Lady Lake, Florida, June 07, 2015.

Henry J. Ramini MD’59, of Danvers, Massachusetts, October 26, 2015.

Patrick W. Luck ‘60, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, October 14, 2015.

Francis Bushnell Mather ‘60, of West Newbury, Massachusetts, September 27, 2015.

James N. Showstack ‘60, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, September 16, 2015.

Alan B. Shute ‘60, of Morrisville, Vermont, October 31, 2015.

Robert E. Desorcie ‘61, of Apalachin, New York, September 06, 2015.

Joan Curtis Osgood ‘61, of Nashua, New Hampshire, April 18, 2015.

Sten E. Fersing ‘62, of Grand Isle, Vermont, August 22, 2015.

Marsha A. Gunther ‘62, of Manchester, Connecticut, November 11, 2015.

Linda Borgos Hirst ‘62, of Sacramento, California, October 13, 2015.

Mary Masterson Lewis G’62, of Birmingham, Alabama, October 03, 2015.

George William Starbuck ‘63, of Grand Isle, Vermont, November 17, 2015.

Jane Perlis Ambrose G’63, of Jericho, Vermont, November 01, 2015.

Robert L. Jennings MD’63, of Bismarck, North Dakota, November 06, 2015.

Anthony R. Russo ‘63, of Pompano Beach, Florida, September 29, 2015.

Cameron C. Bangs MD’64, of Mulino, Oregon, September 10, 2015.

John Samuel Gould MD’64, of Birmingham, Alabama, September 29, 2015.

Ralph P. D’Altilia ‘65, of Coral Springs, Florida, June 24, 2015.

Suzanne Boudreau Bacon G’66, of Colchester, Vermont, October 22, 2015.

William H. Bosworth ‘66, of Surprise, Arizona, October 25, 2015.

Ellen Mansell MD’66, of Keene, New Hampshire, August 28, 2015.

Duncan G. Hannah ‘68, of Bomoseen, Vermont, August 24, 2015.

Norman W. Merrill ‘69, of Woodstock, Vermont, October 01, 2015.

Judith Bailey Gilman ‘70, of Concord, New Hampshire, October 02, 2015.

Kay E. Charron ‘71, of Hardwick, Vermont, September 16, 2015.

F. Clifton Miller, Jr. MD’71, of Scio, New York, October 26, 2015.

Joan Crawford Poser G’72, of Boston, Massachusetts, August 25, 2015.

Anita Piro Toppin ‘72, of West Rutland, Vermont, August 16, 2015.

Mia Talbott Callahan ‘73, of Burlington, Vermont, September 16, 2015.

Richard Emmanuel Dehais G’75, of Wappingers Falls, New York, September 21, 2015.

| UVM COMMUNITY Ellen Gilman ‘75, of Burlington, Vermont, November 10, 2015.

Philip C. Greene, Jr. ‘76, of Mystic, Connecticut, August 28, 2015.

Joanna Houbolt Hayes ‘76, of St. Albans, Vermont, August 30, 2015.

Denise Doris Pieratti G’76, of Rochester, New York, August 29, 2015.

Wayne David Davies G’77, of Waitsfield, Vermont, November 12, 2015.

Charles Martin Frattini ‘77, of Gainesville, Florida, September 25, 2015.

Dee Michael VanHorn G’77, of Culpeper, Virginia, November 14, 2015.

Jonathan Milne ‘78, of Williston, Vermont, November 09, 2015.

Robert A. Lechner G’79, of Mantorville, Minnesota, April 03, 2015.

Robert Louis Wanner, II G’79, of Aurora, New York, November 07, 2015.

Paul A. Cook G’81, of Lexington, Kentucky, September 29, 2015.

Kelly Ober Gray ‘82, of Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, September 27, 2015.

Patricia Chase Allen G’83, of Green Valley, Arizona, August 23, 2015.

Erin Shea Parmenter ‘84, of Essex Junction, Vermont, November 16, 2015.

Fr. Colin John McKenna ‘86, of Wilton, Connecticut, September 09, 2015.

Terence Michael O’Donnell ‘89, of Hyattsville, Maryland, October 01, 2015.

William W. Brislin, III ‘91, of Williston, Vermont, October 22, 2015.

Charles Leo Houton ‘94, G ‘96, ‘02, of Burlington, Vermont, November 06, 2015.

Sondra Elice Solomon G’94, of Colchester, Vermont, September 13, 2015.

George Louis Jennings MD’96, of Hermantown, Minnesota, November 05, 2015.

Gordon Ryerson Williams ‘98, of Burlington, Vermont, August 15, 2015.

Aimee L. Falcon ‘03, of Scotia, New York, September 14, 2015.

Marie Olsen Indahl ‘03, of Belmar, New Jersey, September 19, 2015.

Melanie Campbell Menagh G’06, of Calais, Vermont, October 08, 2015.

Matthew John Tavares ‘07, of Winooski, Vermont, August 17, 2015.

Lucas Ryan Richardson ‘13, of Barre, Vermont, September 12, 2015.

Jane Ambrose, professor emerita of

music and longtime director of the UVM Lane Series, passed away on November 1, 2015. She joined the Music Department as a part-time instructor in 1968. Through the course of her career, she would become a full professor, department chair, and guided the Lane Series for twentythree years. Ambrose was a passionate and inspiring teacher of music history, with specialties in early music and J.S. Bach. Her teaching was recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences in 1991 when she was given one of the first Dean’s Lecture Awards, awarded to faculty who have “consistently demonstrated the ability to translate their professional knowledge and skill into exciting classroom experiences for their students.”

Judy Cohen, professor emerita of

nursing, passed away on December 30, 2015. A native of Burlington, Cohen received her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont in 1975.

Returning to her alma mater as a professor, she was known as the consummate teacher and mentor, winning the Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Teaching Excellence, the Jackie Gribbons Leadership Award for Vermont Women in Higher Education, the Service Award from the Vermont Nurses Association and the Excellence in Education Award from the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society.

She was also active as a leader among her colleagues university-wide through her UVM Faculty Senate work.

Larry Kost, senior lecturer in mathe-

matics, passed away on December 26, 2015.

After joining the UVM faculty in 1973, Kost would teach at the university for the next forty-two years, reaching more than 7,000 UVM students through his classes.

He was the co-creator of two courses for the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and co-authored a textbook for one of the courses. Kost was a past recipient of UVM’s Kroepsch-Maurice Teaching Excellence Award. His service to the university and Vermont communities include chair-

ing the Math High School Prize Committee for twenty-eight years.

Dolores Sandoval, associate

professor emerita of education, passed away on December 30, 2015. Professor Sandoval joined the UVM faculty in 1971 and served the university for twenty-eight years as a much loved teacher and scholar.

She served UVM in numerous leadership roles, including co-chair of the Middle East Studies Program and director of the Race and Culture Course Program. She also served as chair of the Faculty Senate and as Faculty President in the College of Education and Social Services. Sandoval was also instrumental in the Black and Third World Educators organization, which is now known as the ALANA Coalition.

Alfred “Tuna” Snider, UVM’s

beloved debate team director and an international legend in the arena of academic argument, died on December 11, 2015.

Snider, who was the Edwin W. Lawrence Professor of Forensics, led the university’s Lawrence Debate Union for more than three decades and took the student team to international acclaim. Since 1984, he served as director of the World Debate Institute. A consummate wordsmith in every format, Snider also loved music and served as the faculty advisor for the campus radio station, WRUV. In addition to his many debate and persuasion courses at UVM, he taught the popular course “The Rhetoric of Reggae Music.”

Read more about Professor Snider and his work with debate in this recent Vermont Quarterly article: go.uvm.edu/tuna.

Ruth Elizabeth Peaper-Fillyaw,

director and clinical supervisor at the E.M. Luse Center for Communication Disorders from 1984 to 1991, passed away on October 31, 2015. After her years at UVM, she was a faculty member and director of clinical programs with the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of New Hampshire from 1997 until her retirement in May 2015.

SPRING 2016 |

63

| EXTRA CREDIT

“ Part of my job is helping students realize that when you stand up and speak up, you can make a difference.

You can become a powerful agent for social change. ” alfred ‘tuna’ snider Edwin W. Lawrence Professor of Forensics, Director of the World Debate Institute and the Lawrence Debate Union.

The university lost a legendary professor with Snider’s death in December. Read more on page 63 and in a recent VQ article on Vermont Debate, go.uvm.edu/tuna.

64 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

SALLY MCCAY

Fall in Vermont is just as beautiful as you remember. See for yourself at Alumni Weekend 2016. Exciting events for everyone and special reunion celebrations for the classes of 1966, 1976, 1991, 2006, 2011 and 2016.

alumni.uvm.edu/alumniweekend

alumni association

NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID BURLINGTON VT 05401 PERMIT NO. 143

VERMONT QUARTERLY

86 South Williams Street Burlington VT 05401

Working Together for a Better Community The University of Vermont and the Residence at Shelburne Bay are successfully collaborating to bring unique benefits to the University, our residents, their families, and the community at large.

UVM Nursing Student Program The UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences program brings current nursing students to The Residence at Shelburne Bay to provide a supervised service learning opportunity focusing on reminiscence therapy activities.

The Residence Lecture Series The Residence Lecture Series brings leaders from the University of Vermont to share presentations on a variety of topics with our residents and the greater community.

185 Pine Haven Shores Road â&#x20AC;˘ Shelburne, VT 05482 802-923-2513 â&#x20AC;˘ residenceshelburnebay.com