Westwind, Summer 2016

MARILYNNE ROBINSON A QUIET GRACE P. 10 2016 ALUMNI OF THE YEAR P. 26

THE JOURNAL OF WALLA WALLA UNIVERSITY SUMMER 2016

WE HAVE A DREAM

The DONALD BLAKE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RACE, ETHNICITY, AND CULTURE

P. 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Stop the madness I spent a full minute this week frantically searching my desk and my purse for my cell phone—until it occurred to me that I was actually talking on it. I was starting to feel old and feeble until one of my colleagues in her 20s said she did the same thing just last week.

At any given point in time, most of us can simultaneously receive an email, a landline call, a cell phone call, a text message, a Facebook message, a tweet, and more. Our opportunities and responsibilities to communicate far outpace our physical and mental abilities to do so. Neuroscience research is showing that we really can’t multitask. The best we can do is switch quickly—very quickly—between tasks, but those quick changes from one task to another take their toll on our efficiency, accuracy, level of energy expended, and mental health.

On the other hand, my cat, Zeke, is blissfully unaware of electronic communication—a tweet is something entirely different to him. Yet he seems quite content with life. Every morning he follows me from room to room until I interrupt whatever I’m doing and

photograph by BRANDON HILL

give him my undivided attention. He insists that I stop the madness, slow down, and pay attention to what’s important—him!

I hope that this issue of Westwind will serve as your call to slow down and stop the madness. I suggest that a good place to start is with Dan Lamberton’s feature on page 10 about Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson and her beautiful unhurried prose.

Robinson will speak on campus in November, and we invite you to join us to listen. This summer might even be a good time to spend a few hours on a beach or patio or mountainside with one of her books, which you’ll find listed on pages 13 and 14.

It’s a comfort to know that our Creator anticipated the heavy demands of life in 2016 and provided a remedy in the Sabbath. When the demands of our electronic-driven lives outpace our ability to keep up, He invites us to find a place of rest in that holy time and to pay attention to what’s important—HIM! Kim Strobel Westwind Editor

Westwind Staff (from left)

Libby Knapp Student staff writer

Chris Drake Senior manager of Media and Design

Zachary White Student staff writer

Terri Dickinson Neil Director for Alumni and Parent Relations

Holley Bryant Director of Marketing and University Relations

Dorita Tessier Director of Gift Planning

Kim Strobel Westwind Editor

Guildhouse Group Design

ALUMNI OF NOTE

Utah engineers recognized for professional contributions Glenn Blackwelder and Lance McBride

p. 36

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the President From The joy and pain in human experience

THE JOURNAL OF WALLA WALLA UNIVERSITY // SUMMER 2016

5 10

MARILYNNE ROBINSON A QUIET GRACE P. 10 2016 ALUMNI OF THE YEAR P. 26

THE JOURNAL OF WALLA WALLA UNIVERSITY SUMMER 2016

About the cover WE HAVE A DREAM

The DONALD BLAKE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RACE, ETHNICITY, AND CULTURE

P. 5

The new WWU Donald Blake Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture was named in honor of Donald Blake, former WWU professor of biology.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRANDON HILL

Westwind Summer 2016, Volume 35, Number 2 / Westwind is published three times a year for alumni and friends of Walla Walla University, a Seventh-day Adventist institution. It is produced by Marketing and Enrollment Services/ University Relations. This issue was printed in July 2016. Third-class postage is paid at College Place, Wash. © 2016 by Walla Walla University. Westwind/University Relations, 204 S. College Ave., College Place, WA 99324.

Telephone (509) 527-2363 Toll-free (800) 541-8900 Email westwind@wallawalla.edu Online westwind.wallawalla.edu Editor Kim Strobel Staff writers Alex Aamodt, Libby Knapp, Zachary White

College Avenue

The latest from across campus

In the Quietest of Towns

Professor of English Dan Lamberton introduces Pulitzer Prize-winner Marilynne Robinson, WWU 2016 Distinguished Scholar Lecturer

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Beauty in Expression

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Alumni Currents

A glimpse of the celebration and memories from 2016 homecoming 26 Alumni of the Year 30 Alumnotes 36 Alumni of Note

FROM THE PRESIDENT

The joy and pain in human experience As I write these words I am basking in the glow of a successful academic year capped by an inspiring graduation weekend at which we celebrated the accomplishments of 430 graduates. The weather was picture perfect. Baccalaureate speaker Kerry Heinrich, Loma Linda University Medical Center CEO and WWU alumnus, and commencement speaker Jeff Charbonneau, high school science teacher from Zillah, Wash., and 2013 United States National Teacher of the Year, inspired our graduates— and us all—with their heartening messages.

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of the shared mission of Walla Walla University and its alumni—to prayerfully ponder the rude apposition of joy and pain in human experience and to make a positive difference in our world as we await the return of Jesus Christ and the ultimate and lasting peace of His everlasting kingdom.

As you read this edition of Westwind, you will gain inspiration for that task. The feature article about distinguished author Marilynne Robinson will help you reflect on the mix of joy and sorrow in human experience. News about the Donald Blake Center, the latest Engineers Without Borders project, the ASWWU Bangka Island Global Services Project, and notes about your fellow alumni will provide motivating examples of making a positive difference in our world.

May God bless you in your calling as alumni of Walla Walla University to confront evil in the world, to interface with its complex and difficult problems, and to minister in the name of Jesus.

Cordially, John McVay President

PHOTO: COLBY KUSCHATKA

Given such good success, why am I experiencing a tumble of mixed emotions as I put pen to paper? The 2016 senior class was not only a large class, but also a stellar one. As I looked out on them from the platform of Centennial Green, I found myself praising God for the good gifts of service and leadership they have brought to our WWU campuses. And I find myself worrying about how we are going to get along without them!

However, there’s a more painful reason for my troubled heart.

As the brass ensemble began playing “Pomp and Circumstance” on Centennial Green this past Sunday morning, they cued a time of great celebration and joy. Meanwhile, a tragedy was drawing to its tormented conclusion in Orlando, Fla., resulting in the death of 50 of God’s children and the injury of many more.

How are we to respond to such an anguished juxtaposition, all too characteristic of human existence? There is an obvious strategy close at hand: Hide. Block it all out. Ignore the news. After all, there’s really not much we can do, is there? And we at WWU are strategically positioned to adopt this strategy, located as we are smack dab between Touchet and Dixie! It’s hard to imagine a better place to bury our collective heads in a sweet onion field and try to forget about a world gone awry. However, our mission, rooted in the work of Jesus, requires a far different response.

The concurrence of WWU commencement 2016 and what is being called the largest mass shooting in modern U.S. history reminds us

College Avenue The latest from across campus

We have a dream

PHOTO: BRANDON HILL

WWU opens center to uplift all races, ethnicities, and cultures WALLA WALLA UNIVERSITY HELD A DEDICATION CEREMONY in April for the newly formed WWU Donald Blake Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture. The mission of the center will be to promote research, to provide educational resources, and to encourage acts of service as they relate to race, ethnicity, and culture.

The center is named in honor of Donald Blake, a member of the WWU biology faculty from 1962 to 1969. When Blake accepted the position at WWU, he was one of the first black tenure-track faculty members to be hired at a predominately white Seventh-day Adventist college or university. Blake taught general biology, anatomy and physiology, ornithology, mammalogy, herpetology, and freshwater ecology.

The Donald Blake Center will promote research through an annual conference featuring a keynote speaker who is a leading scholar on subject matter related to the study of race, ethnicity, and culture. The center will offer workshops on curriculum inclusiveness and multiculturalism, and will encourage student-led involvement in inner-city missions and social justice campaigns.

“We need the Donald Blake Center to foster the campus-wide conversation and pedagogical innovation that are essential in this challenging yet opportunity-laden moment,” said John McVay, WWU president. “If Walla Walla University is to have a robust future— and by God’s grace, it shall—it will be a diverse future. The Donald Blake Center will help us in the pivot toward that future, and will help us thrive in the days to come.”

Timothy Golden, professor of philosophy, has been named director of the center.

Reflecting on the new center named in his honor, Blake said, “My employment at Walla Walla College led to the integration of higher education in the Adventist education system. Whoever thought that a simple phone call on Memorial Day in 1962 would result in this center being named for me or the center being set up? Since Walla Walla College took the initiative to integrate Adventist higher education, this center is a natural follow-up.”

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College Avenue The latest from across campus

BY THE NUMBERS The Associated Students of Walla Walla University (ASWWU) Global Service department is raising money to build a school on Bangka Island in Indonesia. The name of the project, “One of These,” is a reference to the instructions of Jesus to his disciples in Mark 9 to embrace the children of the world.

‘Ideas worth spreading’ TEDxWallaWallaUniversity featured student and faculty speakers

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alla Walla University held its first TEDx event in April.

TEDx is the official independent brand of TED, a global interdisciplinary conference that seeks to propagate “ideas worth spreading.” TED has featured multiple Nobel Prize winners and former U.S. presidents. More than 2,000 TED and TEDx talks can be viewed free online at TED.com. TED speakers have a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas.

TEDxWallaWallaUniversity speakers and their topics were: • Linda Ivy, professor of psychology, “Why We Don’t Appreciate New Information.”

• Timothy Golden, professor of philosophy, “Suffering in Silence: The Emotional Abuse of Men.” • Madeleine Boyson, junior history major, “How the Isolation of Chronic Illness Changed My Perception of the Social Media Community.”

• Acacia Chan, senior biblical languages major, “My Struggle with Authentic Identity Expression on Social Media and How I Solved It.” • Katherine Heinrich, junior history and English double major, “Welcome to Failing Gracefully in a World Content with Mediocrity.”

• Heather Ruiz, junior communication major, “What You Should Know Before Your Next Volunteer Trip.”

• Niqolus Ruud, freshman theology major, “The Art of Alone: Intentional Solitude.”

“One of my favorites was Madeleine Boyson’s talk on how social media can be used to bring communities together,” said Joanna Stephan, junior graphic design major. “I generally have had the view that social media tends to get in the way of relationships, so it was wonderful to hear how it can do the opposite if used responsibly.”

Missy Murdoch, senior art and psychology double major, especially appreciated Niq Ruud’s message about learning to be comfortable with solitude. “Being alone doesn’t mean you have to be lonely,” she said. “It can be an intentional period of relaxation and growth.”

Watch TEDxWallaWallaUniversity talks at wallawalla.edu/TEDxWWU.

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THOUSAND DOLLARS “One of These” fundraising goal

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THOUSAND Amount raised when Westwind went to press

961

THOUSAND Population of Bangka Island

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“One of These” fundraising initiatives organized by ASWWU during the 2015–16 school year

240

THOUSAND Dollars raised by ASWWU over five years for four Global Service projects

Before

The big reveal!

College Avenue and front campus get a makeover It’s been more than a year since demolition began, and construction on College Avenue through the center of campus is now complete. Remodeled areas include widened sidewalks, new lampposts, contoured landscaping, paver walkways, repositioned sidewalks, improved lighting, and underground power lines. Stop by for a look. We would love to see you! Or watch a drone video of paving in progress at wallawalla.edu/CollegeAvenue.

After

Student life

WWU begins offering cocurricular transcript With the recently introduced cocurricular transcript, Walla Walla University students now have a way to obtain an official verified record of their involvement outside the classroom.

“Employers now are looking for more than just a GPA and more than just a degree,” says Emily Muthersbaugh, WWU student life manager. The new transcript is modeled after the academic transcript and lists accomplishments in four areas: awards, such as merit-based scholarships and inclusion on the dean’s list; leadership, such as

club officers and athletics team membership; professional development, including research and internships; and service, such as Service Day participation.

In the workforce today, well-rounded experience, in addition to academics, can prove invaluable for job placement and admission to graduate school or other professional programs.

“I think there are two primary things we want students to get out of it,” Muthersbaugh says. “First, to think more intentionally about how they get involved, not looking to overwork them but thinking

about having a balanced look at the things they want to do while they’re here.

And the second is really a tool for when they leave to remember the things they did and to be able to update their resume or submit it with applications.”

Student involvement will be recorded from fall 2013 onward. For now the transcript, which most often carries a small fee, will be delivered at no cost.

Recent alumni can access their unofficial cocurricular transcript and order an official release at myWWU.wallawalla.edu.

Warm welcome in Montana

Master of social work program in Missoula relocates to new facility

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he Walla Walla University master of social work (MSW) program in Missoula, Mont., relocated during spring quarter to a property purchased by the university. An open house was held in May at the new location, which has a beautiful view of the Clark Fork River.

“Our students, who come from all over the state of Montana and from as far as southern Idaho, will find this new location to be a convenient and comfortable place to study and learn,” said Karen Emerson, visiting assistant professor of social work.

For 10 years prior to the purchase of the Mullan Road property, WWU leased space for the Missoula MSW program in an unused elementary school. The local school district plans to reopen the elementary school this fall and could no longer continue the lease.

The WWU Missoula MSW program was the first MSW program in Montana. The program enrolled its first cohort of 25 students 18 years ago in 1997. WWU also offers MSW programs in Billings, Mont., and on its main campus in College Place.

“The strengths of the WWU MSW program are its clinical focus, agencybased practicum that allows the student to apply what they know by working with

President John McVay spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new social work facility in Missoula, Mont.

real clients, and that it suits the adult student’s lifestyle with classes scheduled on Mondays,” said Susan Smith, professor of social work and sociology and dean of the School of Social Work.

Resilience

Engineering students make lemonade in the Peruvian sun When a small team of WWU Engineers Without Borders boarded a plane for Peru during spring break, they never considered failure as an option. They had done their homework, completed the research, and made solid plans.

The advance team set out in March to take final measurements and work out logistics so a summer team of WWU engineers could construct a microhydropower system to bring electricity to the village of Japura, Peru. Power from a nearby stream would be harnessed and delivered to homes and schools in the village.

They couldn’t have anticipated that friction between local communities would send them looking for an alternate stream or that the elevation difference (head) at the new stream wouldn’t be enough to generate the power needed or that a stream they were told “never goes dry” actually does go dry.

“They had a challenging trip,” says Curt Nelson, EWBWWU cosponsor and professor of engineering. “They worked hard to salvage the project, and in the end they couldn’t.”

“Sometimes it is the best experience when things don’t go how you expect them to go,” says Nelson. Students involved with EWB learn project management, strategic planning, how to write technical reports, organization, and leadership, but this time resilience was an unexpected perk.

“In 30 years of teaching, EWB is by far the best thing I’ve seen for the students,” says Nelson. “These projects are so much more than engineering—if you want to do them right.”

To share what they’ve learned through the challenges of the Japura project, the team is writing a case study titled “How to Ask the Right Questions,” which they will present at an upcoming EWB regional conference. This doesn’t mean they have forgotten about the 75 families in Japura who placed electricity in their village at the top of their list of priorities. No, the engineering students are now considering solar power as an option, which is easier to implement than hydropower, but more expensive per kilowatt. This story isn’t over.

Three students—Lauren Pernu, Stephanie Septembre, and Alex Yanez—will spend the summer in Japura as student missionaries. They will stay in touch with the people in the community, keep talking with them, and find out what they have in mind. Quitting just isn’t an option.

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College Avenue The latest from across campus

Exceptional academic performance Wallenkampf receives Oxford SCIO award

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arl Wallenkampf, senior bioengineering major, has been awarded a de Jager prize from the Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford (SCIO) center in recognition of “exceptional academic performance.” Wallenkampf was one of seven of his fellow SCIO students to receive the award.

SCIO is the United Kingdom subsidiary of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, an international association of intentionally Christ-centered colleges and universities with 119 members in North America and 55 affiliate institutions in 20 countries. Wallenkampf studied at Oxford during fall quarter 2015 and is among the first WWU students to study at Oxford through SCIO. “My experience in Oxford centered around three concepts: precision, force, and beauty,” he said. “These concepts came to mind during my rowing for The Queen’s College, but they embody the academics I completed there.”

While Wallenkampf is pursuing entrance into the medical field, he stressed the communication skills he perfected at Oxford. “The easiest communication is highly generalized, imprecise, and preconceived,” Wallenkampf said.

“Oxford demands that we keep probing so as to find a full yet precise expression of ideas and sentiments. In that, beauty appears. Such is the effect of wonderful music, compelling prose, meaningful verse, and elegant computer code.”

Wallenkampf also spoke of the skills he gained at WWU, which helped him to the place he is now. “Professors of the honors and humanities programs, those I’ve been blessed by in the biology department: they all encouraged the precision and force that I used in Oxford,” he said. “[The de Jager prize] is an in-house prize, so I’m not some amazing Nobel laureate or anything! However, it was the result of a great deal of work, and it meant that the board of tutors at SCIO, in consultation with my research advisor, thought my research essay was one of the best out of the 50-some that were submitted,” said Wallenkampf. “Out of such a pool of excellent individuals, I am truly humbled. I am thankful mostly for the affirmation I received through this reward.”

Distinguished Faculty Lecture Theology professor to present annual scholarly lecture Paul Dybdahl, professor of mission and New Testament, will present the 2016–17 Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017.

His lecture will draw from his interest and research in the area of world religions. Dybdahl graduated from WWU in 1992 with a major in theology and a minor in speech communications.

He has a master’s degree and a doctorate from Andrews University.

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The Collegian Centennial Issue It’s been nearly 100 years since the first issue of The Collegian was published in November 1916. To celebrate, the Associated Students of Walla Walla University and The Collegian staff have published The Collegian Centennial Issue. The Collegian editor Lauren Lewis said, “This is a large publication, which highlights the last 100 years of the publication and its impact at WWC and WWU. It showcases archives, past editors, and writers through the design and journalism talents of this year’s staff. … This is the largest publication The Collegian has printed.”

To receive a copy of The Collegian Centennial Issue, send an email request to westwind@wallawalla.edu.

books sites Reading and browsing recommendations from our experts

True Scientists, True Faith Edited by R. J. Berry (Monarch Books, an imprint of Lion Hudson, 2014)

Popular media often portray science as at war with faith. So it is an encouragement to see these 20 scientists, from fields as varied as genetics and geology, who do not allow their science to diminish their faith.

To the contrary, they see their science as a natural outflow of their religious devotion.

This book is not so much an apologetic as it is testimonial. Contributors include Francis Collins, director of the NIH, Alister McGrath, Oxford biochemist and theologian, and Rosalind Picard, MIT computer scientist.

—Austin C. Archer, professor of psychology and education

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

By Atul Gawande (Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2014)

Atul Gwande’s Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End is an engaging book by a physician about considerations important to end-of-life matters such as the relationship between quality of life and quantity of life. It is an essential book for thinking through conversations with loved ones about what is valuable to the loved one. Gawande is a superb storyteller, experienced physician, and compassionate human being.

—Ron Jolliffe, professor of English

Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence

By Lisa Cron (Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, 2012)

In Lisa Cron’s book Wired for Story, she uses recent breakthroughs in neuroscience to help writers understand what the brain craves in a story. Cron points out that much of what we know and who we are comes as a result of observing and hearing stories. She argues that narratives are much more than entertainment, saying, “A powerful story can have a hand in rewiring the reader’s brain—helping instill empathy, for instance—which is why writers are, and have always been, among the most powerful people in the world.” This book is a fun slant on storytelling for anyone who wants to tell better tales.

—Emily Poole, advancement officer, Alumni and Advancement Services

From the archives / If memory serves

In 1965, following the death of civil rights activist James Reeb in Selma, Ala., Donald Blake, WWU professor of biology (front row, left), helped organize and participated in a silent protest march in downtown Walla Walla. With him on the march was then–WWU history professor John Christian, son of then–WWU president Percy Christian, who was instrumental in bringing Blake to Walla Walla.

CREDIT TK

Soul force

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The Long Bridge over Lake Pend Oreille, not far from Marilynne Robinson’s childhood hometown of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was inspiration for scenes in her first book Housekeeping.

IN THE

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By D A N L A M B E R T O N , professor of English

WWU welcomes award-winning author Marilynne Robinson to Walla Walla for the 2016 Distinguished Scholar Lecture.

CREDIT TK

Photograph by D A N S O R E N S E N

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READ MORE ONLINE: WESTWIND.WALLAWALLA.EDU

CREDIT TK

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Here is the announcement: On Nov. 11 and 12, 2016, Marilynne Robinson will visit our campus. Robinson is a major American writer, and her novels and essays are translated around the world. The London Times has called her the “best prose writer in the English language.”

Robinson won a Pulitzer Prize for Gilead, her 2004 novel of letters from a dying minister to his little boy. Her other novels, Housekeeping (1980), Home (2008), and Lila (2014), are magisterial works as well.

In addition, Robinson has published four books of essays. Frequently these essays are written for her visits to campuses, like ours. Marilynne Robinson’s coming to WWU is something to celebrate.

I know of no living writer whose work is more graceful than Robinson’s. “Grace” is a word many writers use to describe her work. Her sentences ask to be read aloud. They have a coincidence of pitch and pace with substance. Her prose is musical. But graceful parses further.

The Christian gift of grace is tested in Robinson’s novels, against the evil that men do. In her work, carelessness, force, deceit, and all the acts that hurt, play out to meet what Graham Greene calls “the awful mercy of the love of God.” Robinson’s fellow Midwesterner, Wright Morris, describes an old aunt who felt “the appalling facts of this world exist to be forgiven.” And the same could be said of Gilead’s

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PHOTO: ALEC SOTH, MAGNUM PHOTOS

You know the pressure you feel when you like a book or song or an idea so much you need to share it, need to have a convert, need to talk with another person about a thing both of you might love? In my family I felt that way often, especially with music. Our stereo was in our parents’ room (a move they may have made to keep their children’s music somewhat at bay), and if one of us bought a new record we had an adjudication, a run-through, where everyone heard it and decided if it might be fit to play when we were all at home, or only on the rare occasions the record’s owner was alone in that house of nine children. I remember the slight embarrassment of it—the hope my taste would be theirs. It was intense and done with both anxiety and consideration. In time, that act of sharing aesthetics became my profession, and nowadays, when I have a book to teach, I still feel eager for others to love it as I do. And now, I feel that same eagerness for Walla Walla University alumni and friends to read books

by Marilynne Robinson and to look forward to her upcoming visit to our school.

Marilynne Robinson a quiet grace

Robinson’s novels are based upon pain—loss of parents, loss of a spouse, of children, of dear companions. To give grace in the harsh world is a deliberate act, a choice of free will.

Books by

Marilynne Robinson

Reverend Ames, the “beautiful old man” whose ministry is mostly kindness. And Robinson’s grace extends further, to mean the method of thanks we offer at table, or the way some languages say grazie to mean gratitude for what we have been given.

She is no softie. Robinson’s grace is not easy. Her novels are based upon pain—loss of parents, loss of a spouse, of children, of dear companions. To give grace in the harsh world is a deliberate act, a choice of free will. And in the knowledge that we’re going, eventually, to die, we give grace for reconciliation while on earth, we give grace to plea for peace. In Robinson, this thankful grace is magnificent. The beauty of the earth is the focus of sentence after sentence. The least we can do on earth, she says, is to be here to see it.

When I first read Gilead, I felt the memories of childhood, its Sabbaths, its securities, upon me, and though the book is full of trouble, the narrator’s religious life is so systemic, so believably internal, that I experienced in Gilead what Robert Frost says

Housekeeping

WINNER OF THE HEMINGWAY FOUNDATION/ PEN AWARD

Gilead

WINNER OF THE 2005 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION AND THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

the writing of poems can create. “The initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn’t know I knew.” I had forgotten a kind of innocent peace the book brought back to me, and I was, and am still, delighted. I called up friends and read sections over the phone; my wife and I read it aloud to each other. I read it to classes and I read it to my aged parents. Reading Robinson, to quote Frost again, “begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same as for love.”

Robinson’s delightful style has distinguished her.

She says she writes with the rhythm of the sentence in her head, even before the meaning or the exact words come (“Robinson on Writing,” Idaho Statesman, Sept.

9, 2001). To read Robinson is to take in the long-taught rhythms she learned in Latin classes, in Shakespeare, in the King James Bible, and from the American transcendentalists. She is a serious and brainy writer whose ideas keep shining on the reader’s mind, set there by the rhythm and the syntax and the sound of what she says, long after her books are finished.

Reading her work aloud can elevate the reader, as if one is acting in a great play. Indeed, Robinson wrote her first book as respite from her Ph.D. dissertation on Shakespeare, but her respite was in writing prose as solid as Melville’s. In fact, she held Moby–Dick in mind as she wrote Housekeeping, believing that a book so male, yet so universal as Melville’s, might have a counterpart in her book whose characters are all female, though remarkably significant for male readers as well. Yet while Robinson anticipated only academic readers for her dissertation, she anticipated no readers at all for her own fiction. It was private writing, she says, composed as a way of creating prose she might want to read later.

She also says that while writing about Shakespeare, she began a list of her own metaphors which then fed her as she assembled Housekeeping. She let a friend read the manuscript; that friend sent it to an agent, and the book became a sensation.

I, and many others, have favorite Robinson lines.

Imagine that Noah knocked his house apart and used the planks to build an ark, while his neighbors looked on, full of doubt. A house, he must have told them, should be daubed with pitch and built to float cloud high, if need be. A lettuce patch was of no use at all, and a good foundation worse than useless. A house should have a compass and a keel. The neighbors would have put their hands in their pockets and chewed their lips and strolled home to houses they now found wanting in ways they could not understand (Housekeeping, 184).

She is memorizable. In Housekeeping, where Robinson wrote loftily: “Cain murdered Abel and the blood cried out from the earth…. The force behind the movement of time is a mourning that will not be comforted,” there are also dusty, common images. For example, Housekeeping’s narrator has a grandfather who grew up in the Middle West, “in a house dug out of the ground, with windows just at earth level and just at Westwind Summer 2016

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eye level, so that from without, the house was a mere mound, no more a human stronghold than a grave….

So my grandfather began to read what he could find of travel literature….” Small wonder, then, that this novel’s grandfather hops a train to the Idaho mountains, and is dropped off in a place much like Coeur d’Alene, where Robinson herself was raised.

Of her own home, Robinson writes, “When I was a child I read books. My reading was not indiscriminate.

I preferred books that were old and thick and dull and hard. I made vocabulary lists…. There was little here that was relevant to my experience, but the shelves of northern Idaho groaned with just the sort of old dull books I craved, so I cannot have been alone in these enthusiasms.” Her older brother loaned his schoolbooks to her, and she learned as well from the language she heard of the King James Bible at home and in church.

Contemporary issues, she writes, were “precisely not an issue for me. I looked to Galilee for meaning and to Spokane for orthodonture, and beyond that the world where I was I found entirely sufficient.”

It was 24 years between Housekeeping and Gilead, a book whose narrator is an old man. Her subsequent novels, set in the same small town, have vastly different points of view. Robinson is a master of varied perspectives, between genders, ages, and educations. What one wants, after reading Robinson, is to talk about her work—her images, her characters, and her ideas. One would want to talk with the author, of course, but just as much and nearly as satisfying, with other readers.

The feeling that she writes for conversation, for friendly discourse, for serious thinking among serious people, and for delight among jovial people—that feeling overcomes the reader. It is a feeling Robinson encourages as well. “Everything always bears looking into,” she says. In The Death of Adam, her second book of essays, she writes, “I want to overhear passionate arguments about what we are and what we are doing and what we ought to do. I want to feel that art is an utterance made in good faith by one human being to another. I want to believe there are geniuses scheming to astonish the rest of us, just for the pleasure of it. I miss civilization, and I want it back.” And Robinson is holding her end of the stick—astonishing us—and the least we can do is the best we can, and scheme to brightly astonish each other.

This does take time.

An example of that thoughtfulness appeared when Robinson was interviewed by President Obama in November 2015 for the New York Review of Books. Obama, who read Gilead during the 2008 Iowa primaries, asked Robinson, “Tell me a little bit about how your interest in Christianity converges with your concerns about democracy.” And Robinson replied, “Well, I believe that people are images of God. There’s no alternative that is theologically respectable to treating people in terms of that understanding.” Obama then asks, “How do you reconcile the idea of faith being important to you…with the fact that, at least in our democracy and

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Home

WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE AND THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE

Lila

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Robinson’s

nonfiction books include: The Givenness of Things The Death of Adam When I Was a Child I Read Books Absence of Mind Mother Country

NOMINATED FOR A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously sometimes are also those who are suspicious of those not like them?” Robinson replies, “When people are arming themselves against the imagined other, they are not taking their Christianity seriously.

Christianity is profoundly counterintuitive—‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ You’re supposed to run against the grain. It’s supposed to be difficult.” Or, as Lila says when she is surprised by the affections of Reverend Ames, “The old man loves me. I got to figure out what to do about it” (Lila, 231).

Discussions of Robinson’s thought appear frequently in national and international magazines. Any web search for her name will keep you busy reading for a few days. But I suppose it’s more interesting for our alumni to know how her work might touch us, in our place. I think especially of parents who read that the school they’re supporting has such a visitor as Robinson arriving. I believe it’s natural for parents and others to ask what our students are learning. I’m sympathetic with their curiosity. When my own son was in college I pestered him for news. And so it is, day after day, that I think about my privileged life, watching beloved children think aloud, write carefully, and consider the world before them. Many of the books I’ve taught reveal the shifting ground between the adolescent and the adult, the transition that occurs between dependence and independence, between received belief and more personal, mature belief. Few books I’ve taught in my 35 years of teaching have created such clear discussions about change and the onset of adulthood than Marilynne Robinson’s essays and novels. Let me show you. I have asked a number of students and faculty if I may cite from their writing about Marilynne Robinson’s books. Not all their responses are ecstatic, but they are all thoughtful. Here are some: Daniella Silva wrote, “The novel Gilead addresses the idea that there is a kind of beauty in sorrow. Ames’ assertion also implies a kind of meanness in God. Why should it be God’s good pleasure to see those he loves suffer? Reading further into the text reveals that Ames has also recognized this and proceeds to reveal a greater mystery in his assertion ‘that God takes the side of sufferers against those who would afflict them’” (137).

“Ames’ grief comes from the privilege of experience,” wrote Taylor Stanic, who goes on to say, “Who am I that a God who breathed out stars as big as a thousand suns is mindful of me? ‘Calvin says that each of us is an actor on a stage and God is the audience’ (Gilead, 124). Well, God has outdone himself in the staging of my scene. My story is a painting of who He is: pure, untainted, grace.

In the Paris Review, Robinson says, ‘I can only make sense of my unaccountable good fortune by assuming that it means I am under special obligation to make good use of it. I intend to do the same. ‘There are a thousand, thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient’ (243). There is something so special about this book—sacred even. I hope you will read it.”

READ MORE ONLINE: WESTWIND.WALLAWALLA.EDU

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ROBINSON WAS AWARDED THE 2012 NATIONAL HUMANITIES MEDAL

BY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. SHE TEACHES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA WRITERS’ WORKSHOP AND LIVES IN IOWA CITY.

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Marilynne Robinson a quiet grace

Naturally there is some resistance to Robinson’s work. A WWU alumni writes: “I’m sure I’m well out of step with the literary critics. I’m unable to separate my own issues from the novel’s. I have read only Housekeeping (again, really impressed), and Gilead. I think it may be simply a sign of my own status that Ames just didn’t do it for me. I had trouble listening to him, as though he spoke in a language I used to know well, but no longer have any real investment in. I identified more with Jack.”

Any Christianity may be too much Christianity for some who have had to leave a dogmatic system. So it is fair to ask how one can live in faith without imposing self-idolatrous certainty. Robinson clearly believes in informed and examined Christianity, though she is certain of Christianity’s worth. Many readers, believers and non-believers, accept Gilead’s Reverend Ames for what he unabashedly is—a minister—who has found his small church, his small town, enough to live by, though the nation’s large history sometimes eludes him. His town, he says, should be the kind of place where a harmless life “could be lived unmolested.” It is that beautifully realized vision other students respond to.

Another student, Sarah Fandrich, said, “There are ideas and feelings you cannot fully understand, express, and feel until you are grown. Gilead has allowed me to fully appreciate growth. Though I know I still have much growing up to do, I believe I have embraced the adventure and growth of adulthood. Here I have begun to find my true self. I feel it every day as I walk across campus, work a shift at the Atlas, or go for a walk along Whitman Street. I can feel myself becoming the adult I am supposed to be.”

Andrew Fisher wrote, “[Robinson] succeeds at drawing readers to an old, thoughtful, and sometimes rambling minister, who then takes them to a lonely town in Iowa. She makes both subtle and apparent points about God and imperfect man. And through the shortcomings of Jack, of Ames’ father and grandfather, and even Ames himself, she manages to give readers an intimate critique of American history.”

Robinson says she began these Iowa books to consider the history of America’s heartland. In a state so watched and besieged every four years by political visitors, there is also a history of mid-America’s changing values—from once fierce abolitionist debates to the present dominance of corporate farms. We have always roughed the place up some. Our certainties have cost both blood and soil. As innocent as the early 1950s may seem, Gilead, Home, and Lila occur when the Civil Rights Movement is aborning, and the books show how even in the quietest of towns the national life reaches and how the prophecies of Robinson’s novels are still unfolding today.

Robinson’s art is such that the reader trusts it. But it’s important to remember how the reader creates art as well. All the images we see are our own: Robinson’s baptized cats, the shower of water from leaves after

Marilynne Robinson’s

WWU speaking schedule FRIDAY, NOV. 11

1 p.m.

Book reading and presentation for inmates at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary

6 p.m.

Essay reading and questionand-answer session SATURDAY, NOV. 12

10:30 a.m.

Lecture

5:30 p.m.

Reading and question-andanswer session, followed by a book signing

Learn more about Marilynne Robinson and her visit to WWU at WALLAWALLA.EDU/ MARILYNNE-ROBINSON.

a rain, the faces of tiny children and beloved family— these are ours to recreate. How we imagine the words determines our reading, our part of the conversation.

Complicating the characters brings on compassion.

Gilead’s young Jack Boughton is much more complex than Ames assumes he is, more complex than we assume at first. He is not a prodigal son; rather, he is a father himself who needs more understanding than a small town minister may be able to provide.

The richness of Robinson’s images are most easily felt, I think, by readers who have also imagined the world religiously. For example, when Lila, the subject of Robinson’s third Iowa novel, thinks of her old husband’s burial and his resurrection, she says to her unborn son: Maybe your father will have enough years left in him to see you turn into a perfectly fine boy. And maybe not.

Old men are hard to keep. Lila knew what would happen next. One day she and the child would watch them lower John Ames into his grave…a little garden of Ameses, all planted there waiting for the Resurrection. She knew it was ridiculous, but she always imagined them coming up some June day, right through the roses, not breaking a stem or bruising a petal.

Shaking hands, patting backs, too taken up with it all to notice her flowers. Except [the first] Mrs. Ames, who might stoop down to pick one to show that baby.

This is a rose. See how cool it is, how nice it smells.

Holding it away from the baby’s hand because in the world as they left it there had been thorns. That day might come in a thousand years. But soon, before he was half grown, the boy would be standing beside her, and he would ask where their places were, his and hers, because the plots were all taken up. And she would say, It don’t matter. We’ll just wander a while. We’ll be nowhere, and it will be all right. I have friends there (Lila, 251).

To read these character developments and shifts requires the reader to let her guard down. There is such rich complexity in the characters that the reader must allow for complexity in herself as well. Reading, I hold, is submission, not wrestling. It is listening—without forming overly quick responses when the author is mididea. It is submission or sympathy, maybe. When you read Marilynne Robinson, let yourself listen. Although a book may be printed by the millions, you are alone when you read. You have the book in hand. You’ll have your chance to be in conversation with friends, but first, be a listener. Then, realizing we have our eccentricities and that each person’s attributes are different, read the books aloud, read with someone else if you can, discuss the books with your children. Presently, several Walla Walla University reading groups are doing just that. We meet to talk about Robinson’s essays and novels. We encourage anyone to dig into these works with us and to visit our campus this Nov. 11 and 12, when Marilynne Robinson will be here.

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By EMILY

BEAUTY in EXPRESSION S a vo r i ng th e s wee t n e s s o f fel l o ws h i p a n d fa m i l y

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his year more than 900 Walla Walla University alumni gathered back on campus for Homecoming Weekend. Recounting the weekend events—reunions, seminars, concerts, and banquets—might be like merely looking at a menu when what you really want to do is bite into that Yogi Burger or Roger’s Bakery maple bar and really know, “What did it feel like to ‘come home’ to Walla Walla University this year?”

Perhaps the most prominent flavor of the weekend was that of celebration and savoring of this place and these people that grew us. One 92-year-old alumna reported that her classmate ate four ice-cream cones at Saturday night’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Social. She giggled, saying, “I suppose at our age, that’s just what one should do!”

On Saturday night, a reunion choir comprised of more than 170 past and present touring choir members put on a concert to be remembered. Or perhaps it was a concert that helped us remember what it means to be a part of this larger story, this melody, that is WWU. Thank you, alumni, for a wonderful weekend of celebration and memories.

We hope you’ll come back soon and often.

Alumni enjoyed a taste of produce and peaceful farm living at Frog Hollow Farm as Jeff ’96 and ’03 and Amy (Kent) Dietrich ’96 shared the story of their business and photograph by c h r i s d r a k e the evidence of God’s leading.

PHOTOS: CHRIS DRAKE

To see more photos of

HOMECOMING WEEKEND 2016, visit wallawalla.edu/homecoming.

Bruce Rasmussen att. was one of six guest conductors for the reunion performances of the WWU touring choirs.

PHOTO: CHRIS DRAKE

PHOTO: CALEB RISTON

Early risers Sabbath morning joined Joe Galusha ’68 and David Lindsey, professor of biology, for a walk to take in the beauty of the Walla Walla Valley and a few local bird residents.

Alumni gathered after the Reunion Concert for an OldFashioned Ice Cream Social scooped up by WWU faculty and staff.

Randall Jones ’93, David Hutton ’85, Rodd Strobel ’87, and Curtis Kuhlman att. took top awards for style at the alumni golf tournament.

The annual homecoming car show drew a large crowd.

PHOTO: CALEB RISTON

Melvin West delighted guests at the alumni banquet with a moving rendition of “Misty.”

PHOTO: DON HEPKER

PHOTO: CALEB RISTON

Westwind

PHOTO: CHRIS DRAKE Summer 2016

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

Honor class members reconnected with classmates during Alumni Homecoming Weekend in April.

HOMECOMING

Vanguards

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Fred Schnibbe Albert Will Gracie (Burke) Will Verona (Montanye) Schnibbe Orletta (Wilson) Dealy Don Dealy Taffy Johnson Pat (Saxby) Reynolds Ramona (Brown) Sturgill Marion (Spenst) Brown Patricia (Munro) Swisher

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

LaRene (Warren) Spady Jean Garner Huldah (Peterson) Fritz Robert Earl Bolton Frances (Moorman) McRae Fern (Johanson) Piper Dorothy (Kuhn) Holm Helen (Ward) Thompson Zolber Marilee (Hayes) Thomas Gloria (Cox) Oakes Jerry Brass

CLASS PHOTOS

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Carolyn (Boyer) McHan Harold Ochs Ruth Christensen James Stirling Bill Oakes Vera (Wolcott) Young Robert Graham Lorelai (Pierce) Saxby Frank Salt Clarence Chinn

1 Jeanette (Churchman) Sullivan 2 Ed Bryan 3 Marcene (Shaw) Halverson 4 Anelda (Lewis) Derhalli 5 Lloyd Kuhn 6 Betty (Parkhurt) Tym 7 Marvin Robertson 8 Donald Weaver

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Wilton Bunch Del Zopf Carmen (Miller) Graham Richard Graham Howard Gimbel Harvey Heidinger Julianne (Goodman) Krantz Tom Stafford

1 2 3 4 5 6

Class of

17 18 19 20 21

Bill Greenley Gordon Henderson Richard Madson Jerry (Wilson) Stephens Brooke (Huntington) Stafford

Class of

1956

Beverly (Bretsch) Klein Carol (Marsh) Campbell Joe Humble Norman Sossong Dale Lent Joy (Uehlin) Palmer

1961

7 8 9 10 11 12

David Russell Don Mechalke Roger Vanatta Burton Briggs Joan (Vestner) Hilde Melissa (Mathis) Cochran

13 14 15 16 17

Rose (McCallum) Jacobus Terrie (Hiebert) Oldham Marilyn (Humbert) Coughren Laurine (Wright) Kites Roberta (Slaght) Brenton

Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

Class of

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

1966

Kiem-Loan (Lie) Chin Myrna (Dalke) Belyea Ed Klein Ruth (Robinson) Kroschel-Towler Ralph Kneller Judy (Dolinsky) Vliet Phyllis Collins Twyla (Reimche) Gimbel Dale Bartholomew Ralph Johnson Sandra Featherston Sandy (Rifenbark) Schultz Annette (Cornforth) Stanwick Carol (Foss) Minden Halvard Thomsen Donald Wagner Diane (Hilde) Pearson Wendell Wettstein Ted Bohlman Wallace Ingram Richard Hart Jerry Hiner Betty Jean (Skeels) Magnuson Betty (Fritz) Duncan Judy (Littler) Zachrison

26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Donna Becker Jan Elliot Dave G. Heusser Ruth (Christensen) Fenton Jeanette (New) Cordray Sherry (Wiebold) Lemon Lynda (Cook) Hardwick Bill Johnson John Waterbrook Judy (Komen) Farnsworth John Farnsworth Evelyn (Thompson) Grosboll LuWayne Stout John Grosboll Lynn Wheeler Fred Gemechu Ed Boyatt Teri (Cleveland) Boyatt Keith Colburn Edwin A. Karlow Phyllis (Ross) Rehling Ron Rehling Udell Bulgin Fresk Dale Ziegele Jackie (Andersen) Simmons

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75

George Hickok Judy (Lloyd) Storfjell Jeanne Griffin-Fish Eugene Amey John Stedman Gordon Johnson Jack Taylor Jerry Vest Shirley (Canaday) Puckett Chuck Nagele Don Humphreys Fred Troutman Regina Blake Jerry Schoepflin Jim Brackett Les Palinka Roger Cox Carlton Cross Carla (Payne) Dowie Bonnie (Emmerson) Fields Bill Fields Darold Bigger Chuck Scriven Jack Jacobson Larry Lambeth

To download a copy of your class photo, visit wallawalla.edu/homecoming, send an email to alumni@wallawalla.edu, or call (800) 377-2586.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

David Bullock Cheryl (Courser) Schwisow Ed Schwisow Dawn Hainey Loretta (Polishuk) Johnson Toni (McFee) Harbison Nanci (Oberg) Wolske Jan Atkins Donald Fletcher Bonnie (Tym) Corson

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Jim Trude John Trude Nancy (Carpenter) Miller Linda (Surdal) Kincaid Sidney Litchfield Audrey (Letniak) Miller Sandra Orock Lori (Atkins) Gray Dana Reedy Paul Joice

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Heather (Ash) Leiske Ken Leiske Diana (Canty) Pierce Frank Howard Will Stuivenga Cyndee Darby Trudie Comm Ann (Fulton) Larrabee Alice (Elder) Dettwiler

Class of

1976

HOMECOMING CLASS PHOTOS

Class of

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Phil White Lisa (Bissell) Paulson Tereena (Beucler) Gribble Debra (Demaline) Maxted Ted Bogsrud Stan Maxted Twyla Leiske Bechtel Linda (Speak) Shobe Esther (Gren) Bryson Ralph Stirling Reg Maas Kelly (Ingham) McHan Mark Tessier Wafia Kinne Steven McHan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Jim Reinking Steve Davis Ole Oleson Ernie Norhton Melvin Woodruff Eileen (Perrin) Stuart Jeanne Hall Carol (Lawson) Dodge Linda (Hubbard) Kwan Al Lowe Ron Jolliffe

Class of

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

1971

Bev (Petersen) Scott JudyAnn (Ratcliff) Hoerler Les Cunningham Gloria (Apt) Rasmussen Larry Swisher Billie Jean (Spady) Knight Jon Kattenhorn George Fullerton Donna (Monks) Worley Jani (Wiebold) Davidson

1981

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

Class of

1986

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Tiffany Lingenfelter Pierce Andrew DePaula Aldora (Klein) DePaula Leslie (Knapp) Huenergardt Jeff Dietrich Jereld Rice Bob Ulloa Tracy Schwarz Bryan Beardsley Jodi (Rolandson) Beardsley Lauri (Marsh) Larson David Natiuk Aletha (Sharer) Natiuk James Chamberlain Amy (Kent) Dietrich

Class of

Monte Torkelsen Kevin Renshaw Teresa (Graham) Panossian Hilda (Flechas) Riston Michael Riston Laurel Dovich Case Ketting Debra (Stentzel) Pankaskie Gordan Lacey

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

David Boller Jean (Pestes) Boller Leslie (Larson) Villegas Heidi (Anliker) Brenes Dean Kravig Karin Wells-Kilpatrick Larry Masden Mike Aufderhar Mike Lambert

1996

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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READ MORE ONLINE: WESTWIND.WALLAWALLA.EDU

HOMECOMING CLASS PHOTOS

Class of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Myron Iseminger Ken Comeau Kathy (Carman) Comfort Rita (Rice) Wiley Teri (Pifer) Richardson Debbie (Stone) Messinger Morna (Golke) Bahnsen

1991

Michael Robinson Bonnie (Glantz) Brunt Matt Weber Barbara (Spencer) Frohne Jerry Rau Heidi Rau Daniel Elsom Larry Witzel Sherilee (Goerlitz) Coffey Dawn (Schnibbe) Johnson Ty Johnson Suzanne (White) Wein Karin Thompson Kelli (Rizzo) Wheeler

Classmates reconnected and reminisced on Sabbath afternoon during honor class reunions and photos.

2006

1 Tim Cromwell 2 Tristan Varesko 3 Jeremy Jewkes 4 Aric Goe 5 Nicole (Ferguson) Reedy 6 Dallas Reedy 7 Melissa (MacPhee) Rae 8 Brian MacPhee 9 Erin (Meidinger) Denney 10 Eric Denney 11 Leif Andersen 12 Heather (Colburn) Andersen 13 Jonathan Ostojic 14 Terrance Taylor

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Class of

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

Meet four Walla Walla University alumni who were recently honored for service and achievement that embody the spirit of their alma mater.

Fekede Gemechu

class of 1966

Fekede Gemechu was born and raised near schools built by Seventh-day Adventist missionaries in Ethiopia.

This access to Christian education from early childhood changed the course of his life. Not long after graduating from high school, he met two Adventist missionary physicians—Carl Houmann and Robert Rigsby—who gave him a scholarship to Walla Walla University. He left his home in Ethiopia with a promise to Houmann and Rigsby to return one day.

His trip from Ethiopia to Walla Walla in 1962 took five weeks and ended with a four-day trip across the United States on a Greyhound bus that dropped him off in Milton-Freewater. He was amused, but willing, when his fellow students promptly changed his name from Fekede to Fred.

Gemechu completed a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at WWU and graduated from medical school at Loma Linda University. He went on to finish a clinical internship at Kettering Medical Center and a surgical residency at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He worked as a surgeon with Southern California Permanente Medical Group for many years while a series of protracted civil wars raged in Ethiopia.

When he returned in 1992 he was not prepared for the widespread devastation, poverty, and starvation he encountered. His wife, Azeb, encouraged him to choose just one community and to start doing what he could. With the help of the local people, they established Kalala Learning Village a few miles east of Addis Ababa. The village is a community resource center that provides education; infrastructure improvements such as electricity, roads, and bridges; medical care; and work and learning opportunities at small-scale industries. With the help of friends and colleagues, Gemechu has also established the charitable organization International Medical and Academic Alliance, which provides support and guidance for Kalala Learning Village projects.

Today, more than 1,000 children attend kindergarten through grade eight at Kalala Learning Village, and a high school that is currently under construction is scheduled to open this September.

photographs by c h r i s 26

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drake

Laurel Dovich class of 1986

Since graduating from Walla Walla University, Laurel Dovich has worked as a professional civil engineer and—in what she calls her “real calling” of teaching—at Gonzaga University, University of Idaho, Eastern Washington University, and Walla Walla University.

While studying at the University of Michigan—a top 10 engineering school where she earned a doctorate—Dovich was the first woman at the university to conduct experimental research for a doctorate in structural engineering. Within a year of completing her research, her findings were implemented in Southern California to make buildings safer. Her study led to a three-month National Science Foundation appointment in Japan where she worked to discover the cause of building collapse during the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

When Dovich was young, her family moved from Canada to the West Indies, which was an experience that shaped her relationship with God, made the world a smaller place for her, and increased her love of adventure. God has used Dovich’s world-wise adventurous spirit throughout her professional life. She has participated in symposiums to improve concrete in third-world countries and has spent a month in Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010 inspecting buildings and making recommendations. She filled a one-year volunteer teaching position at North Caribbean University and worked for a time in Alaska designing pipeline bridges and bush schools built on permafrost.

Dovich and her husband, Michael Fallon, love spending time in nature where they enjoy mounting biking, backpacking, hiking, climbing mountains, and running rivers. She has turned this love of the outdoors into a lifelong research mission of correlating God’s superior structural designs and materials in nature to concepts she presents in the classroom.

She is an active member of the American Concrete Institute and has served as a peer reviewer for technical publications and for National Science Foundation research awards.

She has spoken for the Biblical Foundations of the Academic Disciplines Conference and the Christian Engineering Conference, and she frequently publishes scholarly articles.

Throughout her career, Dovich has mentored and ministered to countless students and colleagues in their walks with God. She encourages all to hold high standards, to follow their passions rather than money, to use time wisely so they can pack as much as possible into life, to seek rejuvenation and connection with God in nature, and to love the people God puts in their lives.

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

James Christianson class of 1996

CREDIT TK

For James Christianson, the most important aspect of the Christian walk is letting Christ live in you and dying to self. As found in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Christianson graduated from Walla Walla University with a bachelor’s degree in health science and medical school on his mind. After completing a master’s degree in public health and studying epidemiology at Loma Linda University, plans for medical school gave way to his love for young people, and he spent the next five years teaching at Loma Linda Academy.

In 2004 Christianson launched his career as a professional photographer. During the last 12 years, he has built an acclaimed wedding photography business, and he now travels across the United States and beyond capturing the legacy of his clients that include notable venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, and Hollywood producers and celebrities such as Ralph Lauren and the Bush family.

Most recently, he and his business partner, Lief Sorensen, started a new business in the payment services industry. That company, called P3, works across many sectors but focuses primarily on health care payment services. Through P3, Christianson supports Adventist education by donating 50 percent of company profits to the educational system that was so influential in his life. Christianson says that godly mentors throughout his time spent in the Adventist educational system, such as Tim Windemuth, Gary Hamburgh, and Ralph Perrin from the WWU health and physical education department, had a profound effect on his academic and spiritual experience.

When he isn’t working, Christianson, his wife, Charlene, and their three boys can be found biking, hiking, camping, fishing, skiing, and golfing near their Colorado home. He says his future goals are simple: to continue to be an active, helpful member of his community and church, and to further the success and mission of Adventist education through his latest business venture.

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READ MORE ONLINE: WESTWIND.WALLAWALLA.EDU

Charles Scriven class of 1966

CREDIT TK

With the exception of his first year out of the seminary, Charles Scriven has had an editorial role or other direct responsibility for a magazine or journal his entire adult life. As a Walla Walla University student he was editor of the student newspaper, The Collegian; he was founding associate editor of Insight magazine; and he has served on the board of Adventist Forum, publisher of Spectrum magazine, since 2004. Scriven is also a writer who has contributed more than 100 essays and features for religious and devotional magazines.

His influence within the Adventist church, however, extends well beyond the printed page. He taught journalism at WWU from 1974 to 1975 and theology from 1981 to 1986. He was senior pastor at the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church from 1985 to 1992 and president of Washington Adventist University from 1992 to 2000. He retired in 2013 as president of Kettering College where he led a team that renovated college learning and office spaces, oversaw the transition of the college from a two-year to a master’s-degree-granting institution, and saw enrollment increase from 500 students to nearly 1,000.

Scriven has a bachelor’s degree in theology and biblical languages from Walla Walla University, a master of divinity degree from Andrews University, and a doctorate from Graduate Theological Union with concentration in systematic theology and social ethics.

Since retirement, Scriven fills speaking engagements and continues scholarly writing for Adventist publications and others, such as The Christian Century and the Anglican Theological Review. He and his wife, Becky, live near Phoenix where he enjoys playing tennis. He has three adult children that he and Becky enjoy traveling to visit in Ohio, Tennessee, and the south of France.

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

in 1997, Ann took over her husband, Howard’s, company after he tragically lost his battle with cancer. She retired permanently in 2001. Ann’s favorite memories of WWU include great professors, making lifelong friends like Lee Magboo Wofford ’63 and Lety Magboo Santiestevan ’62, and the College Fountain shamburger. Ann is blessed with two children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

AlumNotes

Get up to date with fellow WWU alumni.

Submit your information for AlumNotes at wallawalla.edu/alumnotes.

1950s

Wilton Bunch ’56 has “finally” retired from his position as professor of philosophy at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., where he taught for the past 15 years.

Previous faculty positions include the University of Minnesota, Barnes Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Virginia, and Loyala University of Chicago where he was Scholl Professor and founding chair of orthopedics and rehabilitation. He also served as Dean of Medicine at the University of Chicago and Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of South Florida. Wilton has had two fellowships named in his honor: Visiting Professor of Ethics at Loyola and a fellowship for faculty advancement at Samford.

His wife, Victoria, taught high school mathematics after retiring from a career as a pediatric orthopaedist.

They now enjoy reading, writing, gardening, and traveling together.

Wilton also enjoys researching genealogy. They have a son, Brent, and two grandchildren.

where she taught special education to teachers in training. “I’m so thankful for my training/education at WWU,” she writes. “God has been so faithful renewing my energy daily, giving wisdom/direction in working with these special needs students.”

Joy has two children, Colleen Kerr and Daniel Kerr; two stepchildren, Daniel Cegers and Chester Chastek; and one adopted daughter, Skyler.

Some of Joy’s favorite memories of WWU are of classes with Miss Searle and Mrs. Meckling. “When I graduated I was well prepared to teach and work with behavior students,” she writes.

Keith Colburn ’66 lives in Yucaipa, Calif., and has two children, Jeffrey ’97 and Jonathon ’04. After graduating from WWU, Keith pursued a medical career, specializing in rheumatology. After completing medical school at Loma Linda

Lloyd Kuhn ’56 and his wife, Ida (Looker) att., live in Hayfork, Calif.

They have three children: Becky Creelman, Vicki Gamroth, and Bridgette Fronk.

1960s

Joy (Bratvold) Chastek ’66 lives in Spokane, Wash., with her husband, Michael. For 49 years, Joy has worked in special education. She currently teaches in a “high-poverty, inner-city school of approximately 600 students.” She also taught for six years in Milton-Freewater and was an adjunct faculty member at Eastern Washington University

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University in 1970, Keith left for Thailand to do mission service, where he eventually became vice chief of staff at Bangkok Adventist Hospital. During this time he worked at refugee camps at the Cambodian border, where he returned in 1980 to provide medical care during the Cambodian Genocide. Among his other achievements, Keith has been chief of rheumatology at the Loma Linda Veteran’s Administration Medical Center and the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, president of the Western Federation for Medical Research, and cofounder

of the journal Adventist Today.

Keith is currently vice president of the American Federation for Medical Research and associate editor of the Journal of Investigative Medicine. When recalling the WWU, Keith thinks of his roommate Dean Martinson ’66, taking Philosophy of Religion from Joseph Barnes, participating in intramural sports, and worship in the College Church. Keith counts a 24-year battle with cancer as one of his life-changing experiences. Today, he enjoys wild bird photography, traveling, and golf.

Twyla (Reimche) Gimbel ’66 resides in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, and is enjoying the freedom of retirement. She is far from idle, however. Using her experience as a nurse, Twyla currently volunteers with a number of groups including Okanagan Adventist Academy, Kelowna General Hospital, and Gospel Outreach Canada. Specializing in wound, ostomy, and continence nursing, Twyla has taken her expertise as far as the African nations of Lesotho and Zambia. She also spent more than three years in Afghanistan working on a project affiliated with Loma Linda University.

Twyla’s fondest memories of WWU include dorm worships with Helen Evans, Friday and Sabbath evening vespers, and Evensong.

Ann (Inoue) Hendricsen ’61 hails from Los Altos, Calif. She has lived in California since 1963 and is “still enjoying it.” After originally retiring

Jack Taylor ’66 lives in College Place, Wash., where he has retired after a more than 30-year career as a teacher and school counselor in Washington state, Michigan, and California. Since retirement, he has worked as a substitute teacher in the Walla Walla school district for more than 15 years. Jack has two sons, Zachary and William. From his time as a student at WWU, he fondly remembers taking classes from Dr. Hartbauer and Dr. Dickinson, and his year as a resident assistant on 4th North in Sittner Hall.

1970s

Colleen Bock-Laudenslager ’76 lives in Redlands, Calif., with her husband, Eric, where she is associate director of 24/7 Services at Eisenhower Medical Center. Colleen

writes, “My greatest accomplishment was rearing two boys to young men! God has been so good.” She and Eric’s two sons are Aaron ’09 and Adam att. Colleen says that some of her favorite memories of her time at WWU were of students enjoying extracurricular activities in large groups. “This seems to be a signature of WWU,” she says. “My parents, Lowell ’46 and Merlo Bock ’77, told me it was like that in the 40s. My sons, Aaron and Adam, said it was still in style in the 2000s!”

David Bullock ’76 lives in Walla Walla where he is chair of the

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Department of Communications and Languages at WWU. His book Coal Wars was published in 2014 and recounts a 1930s violent labor conflict in Roslyn, Wash. In 2015 David received the WWU President’s Award for Excellence in Research.

Gertrude “Trudie” Comm ’76 lives in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, where she worked as an intensive care unit nurse until retiring in 2014 to look after her mother.

After graduation, Trudie worked in Portland for two years and then went to Malamulo Mission Hospital in Malawi, Africa, where she taught and worked in administration and as a general nurse for seven years.

Some of Trudie’s favorite memories of her time in college are of vespers, dorm worships, and the camaraderie of early-morning work shifts in the college laundry.

Lorraine (Malott) Craik ’77 and her husband, James ’74, call Kotzebue, Alaska, home. Lorraine is an office administrator for the Alaska State Troopers. She and James have three children: Jeremy att., Jessica Coffee ’03, and Everett att.

Her best memories of WWU are of meeting her husband and singing with Schola Cantorum, directed by Harold Lickey.

Judi (Light) Dear ’71 and her husband, Tom, live in Washington, N.C., and have three children: Dennis Murray, Serena, and Jared. Judi has had a diverse career devoted largely to education and ministry. She has been a teacher and a librarian in addition to holding various pastoral positions. Tom and Judi have a passion for drama and have been involved in writing, directing, and acting in productions. After closing a wedding officiant business, Judi has returned to painting and writing songs. Her favorite WWU memories are of the friends she made. Evensong and Conard Hall worships with Helen Evans were also highlights.

She remembers in particular singing “Softly Now the Light of Day” and reciting “Whatsoever things are beautiful… .” She fondly remembers hiking, bicycling, and visiting Whitman Mission. She enjoyed her professors, especially Dr. Litke, Lucille Knapp, and J. Paul Grove, whom she found to genuinely care about their students.

David Fuller ’76 lives in Vancouver, Wash., where he is president, owner, and director of Hamilton-Mylan Funeral Home. In 1977, David was certified as an eye enucleator and

is a volunteer enucleator at the Lions Eye Bank. He began working in funeral services during college When he looks back at his time at WWU, David remembers playing roller hockey in the old gym and auditorium with Dean Loewen.

Hunting and fishing are among David’s hobbies today.

Gary Garvin ’76 and his wife, Virginia, live in Goldendale, Wash., and have four children: Daniel att., Deborah Brown att., Christopher, and Carin att. Gary is the ranch manager for Project Patch, an organization that specializes in teen recovery. He taught for 27 years in the Oregon Conference. Among his life-changing moments, he counts being diagnosed with chronic leukemia 16 years ago. “Praise God He must have more for me to do,” says Gary. Of his time at WWU, he fondly remembers the “joy of studying and learning new things.” He enjoys backpacking, skiing, photography, and gardening.

David Glenn ’76 and his wife, Tomi, reside in Chehalis, Wash., where he is a pastor at the Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church. He and Tomi have pastored together in Washington, New Mexico, and Michigan, and have gone on a number of Maranatha trips. “We love music and books and travel and family,” he says. When looking back at his time at WWU, David cherishes memories of making great friends, enjoying concerts, singing with the choir, and

taking music classes. “Walla Walla sweet onions are still favorites,” he says. David and Tomi have two children: David and Lisa Scalfani. They are also blessed with five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In May 2015, David finished a master’s degree in pastoral ministry.

Loretta (Polishuk) Johnson ’76 lives in Gwynne, Alberta, Canada, with her husband, Phil. “I thoroughly enjoyed my Social Work studies, especially classes from Dr. Hepker,”

writes Loretta. “I participated in as many sports activities as possible [during college] and have a lot of fond memories of fun gatherings at Foreman Hall.” Loretta retired in 2010 after 33 years of employment with Alberta Health Services. With the support of five consultants, she managed 44 nonprofit agencies, which contracted to deliver addictions services across the province.

“I had the opportunity to lead the development of some specialized addictions services for women, problem gambling programs, and housing support services,” she says.

After retirement, she was executive director of a women’s shelter for families escaping domestic violence.

Loretta and Phil have a daughter, Brittney, and a son, Jay. Bev (Petersen) Scott ’71 and her husband, Martin ’74, live in College Place, Wash. Bev recently retired after working at WWU for more than 25 years, mostly in academic administration. She and Martin have two sons: Rudy ’02 and Jesse ’05.

Bev and Martin ran a home-based computer business for 15 years when their children were young.

Her hobbies include reading, walking, and enjoying time with her grandson. Some of Bev’s favorite memories of her time as a student at WWU were of working for J. Paul Grove in the School of Theology and meeting Martin in one of Dr. Grove’s classes. Bev says, “While we were dating, Elder Grove also hired Marty, stipulating that we were not to both work in his office at the same time!”

1980s

Twyla (Leiske) Bechtel ’81 and her husband Stanley ’84 live College Place where she currently serves the WWU Alumni Association as manager of the Havstad Alumni Center. Previously in her career, Twyla has operated various

private sales businesses. She enjoys spending time with her family and adventuring with them on mission trips. “My joy is in the journey as I navigate with God guiding me,” she says. Twyla’s favorite memories as a university student include aquatics class and “the adventure of learning to canoe, kayak, sail, and surf with teachers Claude Barnett and John Waterbrook.” She also fondly remembers serving as ASWWC president during the 1980–81 school year and working as a student in the offices of the WWU president and the vice president for academic administration.

Doug Iwasa ’86 and his wife, Angela, live in Ontario, Ore., with their son, Seth. After graduating from WWU, Doug began a long career in mental health social work.

He is now an agent in the insurance industry. In addition to outdoor recreation and family activities, Doug has served on the board of directors for the Ontario school district, has worked with the Cub Scouts, and has been a member of the Kiwanis Club for 20 years.

Some of Doug’s favorite memories during his time at WWU are of being a resident assistant in Sittner Hall and sitting on student senate with Jon Fish ’86 and “managing his comments.”

Michelle (Woodbury) Jones ’86 and her husband, Gregory ’86, reside in Milpitas, Calif., with their son, Isaac. Michelle has worked with Lockheed Martin Space Systems since 1989 and is now a senior-ranking software engineer with the company.

Her work allows her to combine astronomy and software, both of which she enjoys very much.

“I never dreamed my electrical engineering degree would lead in that direction,” she said. She and her family love spending time outdoors—especially hiking at Mt. Rainier. “Doing the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainer was a oncein-a-lifetime journey,” she says. She donates many hours to Boy Scouts encouraging STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) studies and future engineers. While a student at WWU, Michelle fondly remembers getting “busted” for programming all night at Kretschmar Hall and the support and encouragement of professors Jon Cole and Carlton Cross. “My favorite memories are of the Saturday night programs.

They had lots of variety and didn’t

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

require either money (cash) or a car,” she says.

Cheryl (Graham) Klym ’80 lives in Kennewick, Wash., with her husband, Art ’74. She began her career at Columbia Basin College in 1994 coordinating volunteer literacy tutor program. After obtaining a master’s degree in education, Cheryl joined the Columbia Basin faculty full-time in 2008 and teaches English as a second language to students from at least 10 different countries every quarter. Her favorite memories of WWU are of serving as ASWWC secretary, coordinating the Foreman desk clerks, and Western Thought classes with Lorne Glaim and Verne Wehtje. “Of course, meeting my husband ranks up there, too,” she adds. These days, Cheryl enjoys gardening, traveling, studying genealogy, and learning from her students. She and Art have three children: Graham, Peter, and Jillian.

Terri Smith-Weller ’81 hails from Seattle, Wash., along with her husband, Rob ’80. After completing a master’s degree at the University of Washington in occupational and environmental health nursing, Terri worked for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department for four years. For the past 25 years, she has managed research projects in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Through the years, she has also volunteered in outreach and nurture at the Green Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Terri says, “My major hobby is family history/genealogy. My greatest success was finding my father’s birth brother and mother for his 70th birthday.” Terri and Rob have two children, Julian ’14 and Sam.

1990s

Barbara (Spencer) Frohne ’91 and her husband, Rob ’83, reside in Walla Walla with their two children, Araya and William. After “retiring from being a homeschool mom,” Barbara is now a mentor at WWU in addition to teaching English as a second language to adults at SonBridge Community Center. Barbara has aimed to learn new things throughout her life. Her current endeavors include watercolor painting and learning to

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play the lever harp. As a student at WWU, Barbara played guitar and led worship music for Afterglow, which she remembers fondly. She also enjoyed serving as a student missionary to Pohnpei. Upon returning to the states, she wanted to encourage others to serve and became the Student Missions director.

Stephen Hyland ’94 is chief of occupational medicine at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia. He holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Armed Forces. Stephen’s service has consisted of 15 months in Iraq, 9 months in Kuwait, and 3 months in Turkey. He was recently selected to serve as the personal physician

for the House of Representatives Armed Forces Committee on a tour to Europe. He enjoyed the experience and was honored to have the opportunity to become acquainted with such influential people. Stephen made lifelong friends at WWU and remembers the personal interest the faculty showed in each student.

Nick Nordby ’91 and his wife, Julia, call Kirkland, Wash., home. They have two children, Lexie curr. att., and Davis. Nick is vice president of business development for Pecos Pit International and the Salty’s Restaurant Group. Julia is the managing broker for Mercer Island John L. Scott Real Estate. They are both very active at Puget Sound Adventist Academy, where Davis is a student, and at the Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church. Looking back at his time at WWU, Nick fondly recalls participating in the annual Village vs. Dorm Onion Bowl flag football game and serving as OPS president.

Heidi (Hess) Rau ’91 lives in Walla Walla with her husband, Jerry ’91; their children, Jennifer and Sarena; and their two Maltese dogs, Prince Charlie and Princess Annie. For 12 years, Heidi ran her own preschool/ daycare in addition to substitute teaching, and for 10 years she homeschooled her daughters. She

is now a stay-at-home mom while also helping her husband operate a cleaning business. At WWU, Heidi made countless friends, including her husband. She remembers singing at Sittner Hall after vespers each Friday night and being one of five couples to graduate as husband and wife. She also recalls the grounds crew trip to Banff, Alberta, Canada, with some really good friends.

Today, Heidi enjoys flower gardens, creating new recipes, reading, and the occasional “tear-jerker” film.

Ron Scott ’96 and his wife, Sharri, hail from Hubbards, Nova Scotia, Canada. Upon graduating from WWU, Ron taught in the state of Washington for a number of years as an adjunct professor at Heritage College and then at WWU. Later, Ron began teaching at Sandy Lake Academy in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he has now taught science for more than 16 years. He enjoys reading, singing, camping, canoeing, and other outdoor pursuits. His best memories at WWU are of hanging out with his cohorts in Rigby Hall, Beach Day in February, miniature golf in Rigby Hall, being a teacher’s assistant for the biology department, and the prank wars with Scott Ligman and Jim Nestler.

Deborah Silva ’96 and her husband, David ’00, live in College Place where they both teach at Walla Walla University. They have four children: Judy att., David att., Samantha ’07, and Devin att. After completing an interdisciplinary doctorate of philosophy at Washington

State University, Deborah was hired to follow in the footsteps of her mentor, Loren Dickinson, teaching speech communication at WWU. She and David love riding their Harley motorcycles, gardening, rescuing animals, and enjoying time with their children and grandchildren. As a student at WWU, Deborah fondly remembers working at KGTS–PLR.

2000s

Michael Lee ’06 lives in Bozeman, Mont., where he is principal at Mt. Ellis Academy. Since graduating from WWU, Michael has lived and worked around the world, including Thailand, Hawaii, and Walla Walla.

He is blessed to have seen many parts of the world and enjoys outdoor adventuring. Michael fondly recalls participating in drama at the University—specifically productions of “The Pirates of Penzance” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He also loved singing with I Cantori, serving as ASWWC spiritual vice president, road tripping with friends, and experiencing the colors and fragrances of spring and autumn.

2010s

Sally Monn ’12 lives in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, where she is in her fourth year as a therapist working with kids in a Comprehensive School and Community Treatment (CSCT) program. She says her professional highlights to this point include “the times when a kiddo finally gets it, a light comes on, and they announce without prompting, something in their life we have been working on that makes sense and helps them move forward!” In 2015, Sally took in a 14-year-old foster daughter. “My clinical social work training at Walla Walla and my work with kiddos in the school has helped tremendously in our successes and my ability to perform as a foster parent; without it, I don’t think it would have been possible.”

Errata: In the Spring 2016 issue of Westwind, we incorrectly listed the name of the husband of Ruth Davis ’61 as Jim. His name is actually Tim. Also, Ruth and Tim have six children—Rae Anne Kinney, Rebecca Howland, Rochelle Moritz-Seet, Rhoda Taylor, Peter Davis, and John Davis—not three as was listed. Ruth and Tim have 11 grandchildren. We also incorrectly indicated that Ruth plays the organ at various churches in her community when, in fact, she now plays only for her own local Adventist church.

In Memory Ashbaugh—Robert Earl ’61 was born March 20, 1933, in Glendale, Calif., and died June 12, 2015, in Olympia, Wash. Surviving: wife Adella ’61 of Shelton, Wash.; daughter Leisa LaDell att. of Olympia, Wash.; and sisters Dawn Kerbs att. of Vancouver, Wash., and Ardis McPherson att. of Florida.

Doward—Jan ’50 was born Oct. 19, 1925, in Seattle, Wash., and died Feb. 7, 2016, in Ferndale, Calif. Surviving: wife Loneva (Thomas) att. of Ferndale, and daughter Melody att. of Ferndale.

Duncan—Mabel Jeanette “Jean” ’43 was born Aug. 31, 1920, in Portland, Ore., and died Dec. 15, 2014, in Portland. Surviving: daughter Gloria Bascetta of Battle Ground, Wash., and son James of Bend, Ore.

Edwards—Norman ’64 was born Feb. 17, 1931, and died in July 28, 2015, in Santa Barbara, Calif. Surviving: wife Rosalind (Eckley) ’81 of Santa Barbara; daughter Diana Lambeth att. of Santa Barbara; sons David of LaPine, Ore., Duane of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Dana of Kenmore, Wash.; and brothers Don of Milton-Freewater, Ore., Oliver of Walla Walla, Ottis of Gresham, Ore., and Bert of Sultan, Wash.

Gibson—Therman Orval att. was born Sept. 12, 1936, in Enterprise, Kan., and died Jan. 2, 2016, in Kalama, Wash. Surviving: daughters Verna Kay of Vancouver, Wash., Ellen R. Beazley of Kansas City, Kan., and Esther L. Michael att. of Hayward, Calif.; son Gregory of Pensacola, Fla.; sisters Orvella Ernst of Lakeport, Calif., and Dee Parker of Hillsboro, Ore.; and brothers

Winston att. of Ione, Ore., and Don ’90 of Keene, Texas.

Graham—Arthur Benjamin ’57 was born Aug. 22, 1932, in Geneva Township, Mich., and died Nov. 22, 2015, in Plano, Texas. Surviving: wife Patricia of Plano; daughters Roberta Rous of McKinney, Texas, and Michele Harkins of Plano; son Paul of Ormand Beach, Fla.; brother Ivan of Days Creek, Ore.; and sister Mamie Bender of Caldwell, Idaho.

Hart—Lewis H. ’42 was born June 25, 1921, in Moscow, Idaho, and died Dec. 18, 2014, in Loma Linda, Calif. Surviving: wife Ruth att. of Yucaipa, Calif.; sons Kenneth ’65 of Loma Linda and Richard ’66 of Loma Linda; and brother Elmer ’48 of Yakima, Wash.

Harvey—Harold ’58 was born Jan. 21, 1935, in Baker City, Ore., and

died May 3, 2015, in Hermiston, Ore. Surviving: daughters Melody Ayers att. of Tillamook, Ore., Theresa Barro ’89 of Saipan, Carmen Chaffey of College Place, and Kim Hays ’92 of Walla Walla.

Hoffman—Ilda Mae ’50 was born Feb. 5, 1926, in Edgeley, N.D., and died Nov. 14, 2015, in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. Surviving: brothers Darrell of Coeur d’ Alene and Marlyn ’60 of John Day, Ore. Johnson—David M. att. was born Oct. 30, 1937, in Boise, Idaho, and died June 12, 2015, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Surviving: ex-wife Elaine Johnson att. of Idaho Falls; daughters Kathleen Walker of Kent, Wash., and Karol Rollins of Atlanta, Ga.; sons Timothy of Star, Idaho, and Mark of Columbus, Tenn.; and brother Donn Johnson of Phoenix, Ariz.

Bill Napier William “Coach” Napier, a pioneer of Seventh-day Adventist physical education, was born Feb. 20, 1921, on a farm in Nebraska. His love of sports began in childhood, and during high school he lettered in basketball and football. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps in London, Paris, and Berlin.

In 1946 Napier enrolled at Union College where he majored in biology. During that time, he also took classes at the University of Nebraska toward a major in physical education. He earned a master’s degree in 1954 from the University of Colorado and a doctorate in 1971 from the University of Southern California.

From 1950 to 1976, Napier taught physical education and was recreation director at La Sierra University (LSU) and also taught physical education at La Sierra Academy. He launched the physical education major at LSU and led the effort for LSU to build their pool and Alumni Pavilion.

From 1976 to 1983, Napier taught physical education at Walla Walla University (WWU) where he helped complete the Winter Educational Complex, home of the WWU pool, gymnasium, and department of health and physical education.

He was assistant dean of students at Loma Linda University (LLU) from 1983 to 1986 and director

of the Student Activities Center at LLU from 1986 to 1994. During his time at LLU, he was a key member of the planning committee for the Drayson Center recreation and wellness complex, which opened in 1995.

Throughout his career, Napier was an energetic and inspiring professional who encouraged his students and colleagues to grow professionally. He was a charter member of the Western Society for Kinesiology and Wellness (WSKW), and in 1980 became that organization’s first Adventist president. In 1981, he helped form the Seventh-day Adventist Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Association and served as president from 1985 to 1987. In 1993 he received the Distinguished Service Award from LLU, and in 2015 he received the Distinguished Service Award from LSU. Napier and his wife, Virginia, retired to their 10acre farm in Walla Walla in 1994 where they were both active in the community and volunteered at WWU athletic events. At the age of 90, he was featured as the E.C. Davis speaker at the 2011 WSKW convention in Reno, Nevada.

On March 21, 2016, Coach Napier passed away at his home in Walla Walla. He is survived by his wife, Virginia; by his two daughters, Vicky and Tammy; and by numerous grandchildren.

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

In Memory Kutzner—Waldemar “Wally” ’60 was born May 31, 1935, in Dabrowa, Poland, and died Jan. 25, 2016, in Ooltewah, Tenn. Surviving: wife Greta (Rossen) att.; daughter Evonne Crook; sons Mickey and Donald; and brother Eric.

Redford—John W. “Bill” ’51 was born Sept. 7, 1924, in Tacoma, Wash., and died Nov. 20, 2015, in McMinnville, Ore. Surviving: wife Angie of McMinnville; son Steven ’73 of Sandy, Ore.; and sister Ruth Martin att. of Tacoma, Wash.

Miller—Ted R. ’60 was born Jan. 25, 1936, in Massachusetts and died Oct. 27, 2013, in Wenatchee, Wash. Surviving: wife Marjorie att. of Wenatchee; daughters Julie of Zephyrhills, Fla., and Jamy att. of Wenatchee; sons Jace of Wenatchee and Jon of Loma Linda, Calif.; and brother Ron ’57.

Rouse—William Leon ’72 was born June 20, 1932, in Grand Junction, Colo., and died Sept. 24, 2015, in Walla Walla. Surviving: wife Charlotte att. of College Place; daughters Charell Pester att. of College Place, and Konnie Mountain of Walla Walla; son Craig of Walla Walla; brothers Dean of Lynden, Wash., and Dennis ’73 of Portland, Ore.; and sisters Shirley Hardy of Everson, Wash., and Bonnie Worden of Walla Walla.

Mowery—Llewellyn “Lew” att. was born May 31, 1932, in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, Canada, and died March 1, 2016, in Loma Linda, Calif.

Surviving: wife Marian of Loma Linda; daughter Lisa Swensen; son Lew Jr. of Loma Linda; and sister Darlene Kivimaa.

Smick—Lorrell Dwight ’58 was born March 22, 1936, in Endicott, Wash., and died Feb. 11, 2016, in Palm Springs, Calif. Surviving: wife Shirley att. of Walla Walla and

Palm Springs; daughters Debbie Muthersbaugh ’80 of College Place, and Tami of Portland, Ore.; and son Jason of Walla Walla.

Stewart—Sydney Elwin ’53 was born March 2, 1927, in St. Helena, Calif., and died Nov. 12, 2015, in Walla Walla. Surviving: wife Florence Mae Stewart att. of Walla Walla; daughters Cindy ’75 of Vancouver Wash., Debbie of Angwin, Calif., and Shari Thompson of Mt. Shasta, Calif.; and brother Edwin ’51 of Hemet, Calif.

Sullenberger—Charlene (Davison) ’68 was born July 8, 1946, in Blodgett, Ore., and died Nov. 14, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. Surviving: husband Jim of Hendersonville, N.C.; daughters Cheryl Rubin of Taylors, S.C., and Karen Roesner of Saluda, S.C.; son John of Hendersonville, N.C.; and sisters Sue Cornelius of St. Louis Park, Minn., and Sara Ort of Canton, N.Y.

Tan—Margaret ’51 was born Aug. 21, 1926, in Singapore, and died Feb. 24, 2015 in Tacoma, Wash.

Surviving: daughter Cheryl TanJacobson ’81 of Black Diamond, Wash.; and sons Darryl ’75 of Gig Harbor, Wash., and Randall ’78 of Loma Linda, Calif.

Travis—Gordon ’51 was born Sept. 2, 1926, in Boise, Idaho, and died Nov. 23, 2015, in Orlando, Fla. Surviving: wife Verna ’51 of Orlando; daughter Ruth Hanson of Orlando; son Jonathan of Fargo, N.D.; and stepsisters Esther Dunton of Grants Pass, Ore., Helen Kissee of Rogue River, Ore., and Aletha Huddleston of Veneta, Ore. Vinnard—Miriam O. ’40 was born Nov. 6, 1917, and died Jan. 13, 2016, in Fresno, Calif. Surviving: sons Gerald D. Vinnard of Fresno, and Arnold E. Vinnard of Portland, Ore.

On Oct. 25, 2015, Walla Walla University lost a giant to the campus and to the surrounding community. Frederick R. Bennett ’55, professor emeritus of engineering, was known by many titles: engineer, public servant, professor, fire chief, humanitarian, father. All reflect his wide-ranging accomplishments and commitment to building with a lasting impact.

Bennett began life in Boston, the only child of Frederick and Viola Bennett, on Feb. 11, 1930.

An Adventist food bank introduced a faith that led him to Greater Boston Academy and Atlantic Union College, where he attended from 1947 to 1950. After two years of working, Bennett hitchhiked to Walla Walla College and in 1955 graduated with a degree in engineering. Days later he married JaneAnn Schlader.

Engineering work took him to the Bremerton Naval Shipyard Civilian Engineering Design Office in 1956. For the next five years, Bennett worked on nautical projects, leading the redesign of aircraft carrier steam catapults and serving an assignment to the Bureau of Ships in Washington D.C., designing destroyers. But, Bennett recalled later, returning to WWC offered a chance for the teaching and service he would embody for years to come.

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1961 marked the beginning of his 40-year teaching career. Contributions to the academic community included founding the nonprofit Adventist Engineers and Architects and a student chapter of the American Society for Civil Engineers. He conducted his postgraduate education at Washington State University, completing a master’s degree in civil engineering and a doctorate. His academic achievements were recognized with a 1990 Honored Faculty Award and the designation of professor emeritus after his retirement in 1999.

Bennett’s numerous accomplishments extend beyond the WWC campus community. For 35 years he served on the College Place Fire Department.

For six terms spanning 24 years he was a Port of Walla Walla Commissioner, spearheading projects such as the Burbank clean water system. For his work on bridge design, he was named Tri City Engineer of the Year in 1984 by the Washington Society of Professional Engineers. Bennett made it his goal to serve in as many ways as possible.

Bennett is survived by wife JaneAnn (Schlader) att. of College Place; children Janna Quaile ’79 of Guam, Fred E. att. of College Place, George att. of Walla Walla, and Carol Bovee ’88 and ’95 of Shawnee, Kan.; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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CREDIT TK

Fred Bennett

AC New officers elected for Alumni Association

Walla Walla University alumni have elected four new officers to serve on the Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Steve Walikonis ’78

Board member

As president-elect, Steve Walikonis will serve one year as presidentelect, one year as president, and one year as Alumni Association board chair. Walikonis has a bachelor’s degree in theology from WWU and a master of divinity degree from Andrews University.

He is an associate pastor at the Village Church in College Place and has been a pastor in the Upper Columbia Conference for 37 years.

He enjoys reading, travel, and music. Steve and his wife, Cindy ’78, have two daughters: Charis ’05 and Christa ’10.

Amy Alderman will serve a three-year term on the Alumni Association board. She is the marketing manager for Adventist Health/Walla Walla General Hospital where she puts to good use her degree from WWU in communications. Alderman previously worked as a digital communication coordinator at San Joaquin Community Hospital. She lives in College Place and enjoys hiking, cooking, and baking.

Heather Schermann ’03 Treasurer

Heather Schermann will serve a two-year term as Alumni Association treasurer. She has a degree from WWU in business administration and works as a wealth investment advisor at Buckley Investment Group. She is also a self-employed bookkeeper and a member of the City Council for the City of College Place. She enjoys reading and travel. Schermann has been Alumni Association treasurer for the past two years.

CREDIT TK

Alumni Sabbath at ROSARIO AUGUST 27, 2016

Amy Alderman ’13

President-elect

Teri (Pifer) Richardson ’86 Board member

Teri Richardson will serve a three-year term on the Alumni Association board. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Richardson has worked in acute care, home infusion services, and in perioperative care at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla.

This summer, she and her husband, Paul ’84, celebrated 30 years of marriage. She says she is happiest when cooking, exploring a new destination, gardening, or quilting.

Join special guest speaker David Thomas, dean of the School of Theology, for a relaxing weekend with fellow friends and alumni. Come for Sabbath or the full weekend. Reservations available beginning June 20, 2016.

wallawalla.edu/rosario-sabbath | (800) 377-2586

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Alumni Currents Staying in touch with our family of graduates

Glenn Blackwelder Alumni of note & Lance McBride Utah engineers recognized for professional contributions

W

alla Walla University graduates Glenn Blackwelder and Lance McBride were both surprised to find a fellow WWU alumnus nominated for the 2016 Utah Engineer of the Year award. They made up two of the ten nominees honored by their respective professional organizations at the Utah Engineering Council banquet last February. To sit among the 10, Blackwelder was nominated by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, Utah Chapter, and McBride was nominated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Utah Section.

Blackwelder graduated in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and describes the beginnings of his career path.

“After graduating I went to UC Berkeley and got a master’s in transportation engineering.

I was looking for something with interesting research opportunities, and transportation seemed like a good field.”

Since then, Blackwelder worked in the private sector before joining the Utah Department of Transportation in 2006 where he has directed groups responsible for traffic signal timing, weather forecasting, freeway operations, and incident management. Whenever a problem arises on the highway, UDOT teams monitor and plan the response.

“It’s a good feeling when you’re doing things that affect people and can make their lives better. [Traffic] operations in particular is great because it’s a lot of instant gratification.”

McBride graduated in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and has since found diverse career opportunities ranging from designing upgrades for the proton accelerator at Loma Linda University Medical

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Westwind Summer 2016

Center to electrical design for the Comanche helicopter program. He also worked on a variety of projects while at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and started his own business franchise.

“It’s been a lot of fun doing everything I have done,” says McBride. “The exposure to the various industries has certainly been helpful. I think when a company hires me or when I work on a project, I bring an out-of-the-box perspective on the problem at hand.”

In their different fields, Blackwelder and McBride have also contributed to education about engineering and science, something Blackwelder finds especially important in transportation.

“We have a saying that everybody is a traffic engineer. We discover that the more people know about traffic engineering, the better the system works,” he says.

McBride coaches Lego robotics teams, which expose kids to opportunities in electrical engineering, and also teaches lessons in the areas of management that he and Blackwelder have both found crucial as professionals.

“It’s not just the science,” says McBride.

“The project side of it really helps kids understand that there’s more to life than just getting paid and doing a job. It opens their eyes to more of the humanitarian and environmental factors their science work can contribute to.”

Although neither left the February banquet as Engineer of the Year, they were honored to be included in such a distinguished group and look forward to continuing their diverse careers. For McBride, this might take him to literal new heights.

“I have aspirations to be an astronaut and I’m hoping to go up. We’ll see what happens.”

photograph by KATIE DUDLEY

“Rosario helped me find my place here. I want others to have the same opportunity to learn and grow.”

Join the Legacy Society J

im and Nancy Nestler made the Walla Walla Valley their home after they fell in love with the family atmosphere at Walla Walla University when they were students. Jim is now a professor in the WWU biology department, a position that allows him to direct the academic program at the university’s Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory on the beautiful Rosario Strait near Anacortes, Wash.

“The Rosario campus, the Rosario experience in general, is an amplification of what I love most about WWU, which is the family atmosphere,” said Jim. “Rosario helped me find my place here. I want others to have the same opportunity to learn and grow here.”

With a desire to continue supporting the program at Rosario after they are gone, the Nestlers chose to make a legacy gift to the university. “We believe in the mission of WWU,” say the Nestlers. “We wish we could do more, but every gift is important.”

The Nestlers emphasize that it is important to follow your heart when choosing to make a financial gift, and with this type of gift to the university they promise you will never look back and regret your decision.

By including a bequest to Walla Walla University in your will or living trust, you are ensuring that WWU can continue its mission for years to come. Your gift also entitles your estate to an unlimited federal estate tax charitable deduction.

Learn more about legacy giving by visiting legacy.wallawalla.edu or by contacting Dorita Tessier ’80, director of gift planning, at (509) 527-2646 or dorita.tessier@wallawalla.edu.

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Upcoming events to note on your calendar

September 14–17

After a quiet summer on campus, WWU faculty and staff gather to gear up for the new academic year. Events include meals and worship together, faculty colloquiums, and introductions of new faculty and staff.

New students and their parents are invited to join WWU President John McVay at 11:30 a.m. for the President’s

Welcome and Luncheon as freshman JumpStart begins. Fall quarter classes begin on Monday, Sept. 26.

October 6–8

Sports fans will enjoy a full schedule of soccer and volleyball games at the annual Fall Classic tournament, which draws more than 20 teams from academies across the country. Watch for the game schedule at wallawalla. edu/fallclassic starting Sept. 29.

October 28–30

Come visit your student on

Family Weekend!

Events include class visits, ice cream at Bright’s Candy Shop in downtown Walla Walla, vespers and the annual Apple Festival Friday evening, and free Sabbath dinner for families of current students with the president’s cabinet. Learn more at wallawalla.edu/familyweekend.

November 5–13

wwudrama will present a musical adaptation of

It’s a Wonderful Life in Village Hall.

Watch for details at drama.wallawalla.edu.

November 11–12

Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer

Prize-winning author of Gilead, will be on the WWU campus for three speaking engagements. Robinson will also speak at the Walla Walla Penitentiary. All events at WWU are free and open to the public. Read more about Robinson on page 10 of this issue of Westwind.

For a full calendar of events, visit wallawalla.edu/calendar.

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PHOTO: BRANDON HILL

September 18