Cold War Wizards - Kansas Alumni Magazinekansasalumnimagazine.org/.../kansasalumni/complete/kansasalumni_2008_04.pdfVolume 106, No. 4, 2008 Cold War Wizards As head of the CIA’s

Volume 106, No. 4, 2008

Cold War WizardsAs head of the CIA’s spytech shop, Bob Wallace learnedthe secrets behind some of the Cold War’s most cloak-and-dagger devices. His new book tells all.

BY CHRIS LAZZARINO

Stop and Sip the CoffeeOn more than a dozen trips to Cuba, photojournalistRichard Gwin has discovered a very different countrythan most Americans find on their TV screens. Thanks tohis photographs, you can see what he sees.

BY CHRIS LAZZARINO

Contents E s t a b l i s h e d i n 1 9 0 2 a s T h e G r a d u a t e M a g a z i n e

36

22 Platinum GreenWhen is a building more than merely abuilding? When it’s the first step in anambitious plan to create the greenesttown in America.

BY STEVEN HILL

Cover photograph courtesy Studio 804

F E A T U R E S

C O V E R

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36

32

Lift the Chorus

True blue

B.J. Pattee [“First Word,” issue No. 3]was about as close to a second mom as Iever had at KU. She (and Dick Winter-mote) gave me the best “real” job a stu-dent could want at the AlumniAssociation while attending school (ifyou can call what I did “attendance”).Working with B.J., Dick, Mildred Clodfel-ter, David Ambler, Archie Dykes andmany others was a real privilege. B.J.always cut us slack when we needed itand showed us a part of KU very fewpeople can appreciate—the importance oftaking care of our alumni.

One of the best memories I have ofB.J. was when she asked a fraternitybrother and me to wear the Jayhawk cos-tume at the Kansas City Royals KUAlumni Night one sweltering Julyevening. We both lost about 15 poundsdue to the heat. You had to be on her A-list to draw that assignment.

B.J. was the epitome of what KUmeans to many of us—a one-to-one soulwho cared about every student and thereputation of the University of Kansas.We will miss her.

J. Greg Schnacke, c’80, j’80Centennial, Colo.

Jayhawk pride, Memphis-style

I was happy, asalways, to see the lat-est edition of KansasAlumni [issue No. 3]arrive safely in mymailbox, especiallysince it surely passedthrough the hands ofnumerous MemphisTiger fans.

As a Jayhawk liv-ing in Memphis, I feltlike one crying in the wilderness this sea-

son, especially the day before the cham-pionship game and the days following.Being a good sport, I did not shout KU’swin from the rooftops, but graciouslyaccepted congratulations when it wasgiven—which in some cases took weeksto materialize.

My oldest daughter, on the otherhand, proudly wore her KU hoodie tohigh school the day following KU’s win,and endured more than a few unkindcomments. She has thankfully adoptedher mother’s University with enthusiasmand pride.

A friend and Memphis fan asked myhusband, a KSU alumni, when I wasgoing to stop wearing my KU apparel,and he responded, “Never.” He under-stands how thankful I am for my time onthe Hill, and the pride with which I callmyself a Jayhawk. Thank you for provid-ing such outstanding coverage on KUand all that it offers to the world.

Janet Schulenburg Wiens, s’81Memphis, Tenn.

Alumni voices heard

On behalf of a grateful School of Phar-macy and our alumni and friends, I wishto extend a big thank you to the KUAlumni Association and those great Jay-hawks for Higher Education alumni who

helped us assure the Kansas legisla-ture that expansion of KU’s phar-macy program was the right thing todo this year for Kansas!

The timely appearance of the arti-cle on the state’s pharmacy crisis,“Dire Diagnosis,” in the “OrangeBowl” edition of Kansas Alumni[issue No. 1], was also extremelyimportant in educating Jayhawksabout the critical status of healthcare and the role of pharmacists inthe state.

KU alumni rising up and speaking on

behalf of the School ofPharmacy from all over

the state ultimatelyproved to be the difference

during the legislative session.The only way this accomplishment hap-pens is by a team effort, and we areproud and thankful to have the Jayhawksfor Higher Education alumni on ourteam.

Please pass along our sincere thankyou to everyone. As a school we look forward to continuing our support of the KU Alumni Association. Rock Chalk,Jayhawk!

Kenneth L. Audus, PhD’84Professor and DeanSchool of Pharmacy

Lawrence

Reptile research recalled

Jamie James’ article on Joe Slowinski’spassion for snakes [“King of the Kaw,”issue No. 3] pointed out that Kansas hasa noble tradition of herpetology, begin-ning with Edward Drinker Cope andEdward Harrison Taylor.

When I was a senior at KU, I worked afew hours a week for Dr. Taylor. My jobwas to remove reptiles he had collectedand preserved in formaldehyde fromlarge jars and hold the specimen whilehe made notes required for systematicclassification. To protect my skin fromthe formaldehyde, I was required to rollup my sleeves and grease my hands andarms with Vaseline. He often told mewhen and where he collected the speci-men and how he happened to find it. Healso told me about collecting in thePhilippines and some of his work inWorld War II.

Undergraduate research was rare atthe time, so this experience was my firstexposure to a working scientist, albeitremote from what I have done since. Iwill always be grateful to KU for thisexperience and for launching me into my career.

Robert L. Hill, c’49, PhD’54James B. Duke Professor

Department of BiochemistryDuke University Medical Center

Durham, N.C.

2 | K A N S A S A L U M N I

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 3

July 2008

PublisherKevin J. Corbett, c’88

EditorJennifer Jackson Sanner, j’81

Creative DirectorSusan Younger, f ’91

Associate EditorsChris Lazzarino, j’86

Steven Hill

Staff WriterKatie Moyer, j’06

Editorial AssistantsKaren Goodell

Erika Bentson, j’07

PhotographerSteve Puppe, j’98

Graphic DesignerValerie Spicher, j’94

Advertising Sales RepresentativeWhitney Eriksen, c’08, j’08

Editorial and Advertising OfficeKU Alumni Association

1266 Oread Ave., Lawrence, KS 66045-3169785-864-4760 • 800-584-2957

www.kualumni.orge-mail: [email protected]

KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN 0745-3345) is published bythe KU Alumni Association six times a year in January, March,May, July, September and November. $55 annual subscriptionincludes membership in the Alumni Association. Office of Publication: 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169.Periodicals postage paid at Lawrence, KS.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KansasAlumni Magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS66045-3169 © 2008 by Kansas Alumni Magazine. Non-

member issue price: $10

2 LIFT THE CHORUSLetters from readers

5 FIRST WORDThe editor’s turn

6 ON THE BOULEVARDKU & Alumni Association events

8 JAYHAWK WALKA speedy read, a woman warrior, a dodgeball dustup and more

10 HILLTOPICSNews and notes: History professors hit high schools; tuition rates set.

18 SPORTSFootball unveils impressive Memorial Stadiumcomplex.

44 ASSOCIATION NEWSAlderdice leads new legacy recruitment effort.

52 CLASS NOTESProfiles of a TV producer, a peace advocate, a movie theatre executive and more

68 IN MEMORYDeaths in the KU family

72 ROCK CHALK REVIEWDrug researcher touts value of prevention; poet celebrates mother’s life-and-death example.

76 OREAD ENCOREA walk worth waiting for

D E P A R T M E N T S

18

A thank-you gift for writing! If we publish your letter, we’ll send you a KU cap ($15 value).Kansas Alumni welcomes letters to

the editor—let us know what you think! Ouraddress is Kansas Alumni magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue,Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. E-mail responses may besent to [email protected] may be editedfor space and clarity.

First WordB Y J E N N I F E R J A C K S O N S A N N E R

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 5

First WordB Y J E N N I F E R J A C K S O N S A N N E R

In 1966, only one of the nearly iden-tical ranch-style homes along the4700 and 4800 blocks of 18th Streetin Topeka boasted a basement. So,

when the sirens blew on the evening ofJune 8, Mom and Dad rushed their twokids (I was 6; my brother, 3) to theneighbors’ house. Sam, our Labradorretriever, had to stay in his doghouse inthe backyard, because the neighbors’basement could accommodate onlymothers and children. No pets—or dads—allowed. All the dads, including mine,stood outside in the driveway, gawking atthe sky. (Since then, I’ve learned that tor-nadoes, at least for some Midwesternmen, can be a spectator sport.)

Safe in a place where all my neighborshad gathered, I remained blissfullyunaware of danger. It was not until thenext day that I became frightened, as wedrove past the ravaged campus of Wash-burn University, patrolled by NationalGuardsmen, and the apartment complexwhere my parents had lived as newly-weds. The winds had ripped the front off the building, leaving a shell that tomy young eyes resembled a grotesquedollhouse.

Most of us who’ve grown up inKansas and neighboring states carrymemories of The Tornado, the biggest

storm to slam our town. Certain yearsremain mournful milestones in our localhistories. Topeka’s is 1966. Andoverremembers 1991; Hoisington, 2001.Greensburg’s is 2007. Chapman andManhattan will not forget 2008.

Thankfully, Greensburg on May 4marked the one-year anniversary of itsmonstrous storm by fixing its gaze onthe future. Greensburg opened the 5.4.7Arts Center, an ambitious project thatgrew from the shared vision of local lead-ers and KU students and faculty.Designed and con-structed by Studio804, the acclaimedprogram of the KUSchool of Architectureand Urban Planning,the arts centerembodies the town’ssense of community—and its commitmentto building environ-mentally sustainablestructures that live upto Greensburg’sname. Steven Hill’scover story describesthe imaginative proj-ect, created in recordtime by graduate stu-

dents with the guidance of Professor Dan Rockhill. The KU group made themost of recycled materials and foundways for Greensburg’s first new publicbuilding to harness the state’s abundantsun and wind.

The arts center is the first structure inKansas to earn a top national rating as a“green” building; this summer Rockhilllearned that Studio 804’s latest innova-tion also has won international attention:a coveted invitation to the La BiennaleArchitecture’s 11th annual internationalexhibition, “Out There: ArchitectureBeyond Building,” Sept. 14-Nov. 23 inVenice, Italy. Architects from 51 countrieswere asked to participate, and Studio 804 is one of only 15 U.S. groups to beinvited.

La Biennale’s Web site(labiennale.org) includes the commentsof exhibition curator Aaron Betsky, whopromises the event will “collect andencourage experimentation in architec-ture. Such experimentation can take theform of momentary constructions,visions of other worlds, or the buildingblocks of a better world.” Architecture, he says, is not merely about structures:

“In a concrete sense, architec-ture is that which allows us to be at home in the world.”

The 5.4.7 Arts Center, apact between the citizens of ahopeful Kansas town and anenergetic group of KU stu-dents, helps affirm a sense ofhome, even amid destruction.And, as visitors from far andwide will learn in Venice,Kansans can show the worlda thing or two.�

■ Ironwork on a downtown street

lamp in Hoisington commemorates

two local twisters.

On the Boulevard


■ Exhibitions“Dreams & Portals,” through Sept. 7,Spencer Museum of Art

“Quilts: Flora Botanica,” through Oct. 12, Spencer Museum of Art

“Time/Frame,” Aug. 23-Dec. 14,Spencer Museum of Art

■ Lied Center events

AUGUST

22 Peter Ostroushko & The Heartland Band

■ Special events

AUGUST

18 Student Alumni Association IceCream Social, Adams Alumni Center

SEPTEMBER

19-20 Family Weekend

20 Jayhawk Generations Breakfast,Adams Alumni Center

20 Band Day

■ Lectures

AUGUST

25 Geoff Halber,Hallmark Symposium, 3140 Wescoe Hall

SEPTEMBER

8 Xavier Toubes, Hallmark Sympo-sium, 3140 Wescoe Hall

■ Academic calendar

JULY

25 Summer classes end

AUGUST

21 Fallclasses begin

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 7

■ Jayhawk Generations Picnics

JULY

22 Manhattan

24 Leavenworth

24 Pittsburg

26 Albuquerque

27 Chicago

28 Lawrence

29 Topeka

AUGUST

2 Austin

2 Twin Cities

■ Alumni events

JULY

21 Pittsburg: Tri-State Chapter GolfTournament and Banquet

24 Manhattan: Flint Hills Receptionwith Chancellor Hemenway

25 New York City: Jayhawks RooftopHappy Hour

29 Oakland: San Francisco AlumniNight, Oakland A’s vs. Kansas CityRoyals

AUGUST

1 McPherson: Santa Fe Trail ChapterGolf Tournament and Dinner

6 Winfield: South Kansas ChapterAlumni Banquet

9 Chicago: Big 12 Boat Cruise

9 Denver: Big 12 Alumni Night with the Colorado Rockies

24 Chicago: Alumni Day with the Cubs

30 Game Day at the Adams tailgateparty, KU vs. Florida International

SEPTEMBER

5-6 Volunteer Leaders’ Weekend,Adams Alumni Center

6 Game Day at the Adams tailgateparty, KU vs. Louisiana Tech

Lied Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .864-ARTSUniversity Theatre tickets . . . . . . . . .864-3982Spencer Museum of Art . . . . . . . . . . .864-4710Natural History Museum . . . . . . . . .864-4540Hall Center for Humanities . . . . . . .864-4798Kansas Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .864-4596KU Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .864-3506Adams Alumni Center . . . . . . . . . . . .864-4760KU main number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .864-2700Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-800-34-HAWKSBooth Hall of Athletics . . . . . . . . .864-7050Dole Institute of Politics . . . . . . . .864-4900

For more information about Association events, call 800-584-2957 or visit the Association’s Web site,

www.kualumni.org.

P H O T O G R A P H S B Y S T E V E P U P P E

■ Greeted by a gorgeous spring afternoon,

jubilant Jayhawks on May 18 put the cap on

their championship year at the University’s

136th Commencement.

Jayhawk Walk


A second chance to dance

Five years ago, when a friend of SarahMinshull’s reported that she was the

only girl at her senior prom who couldafford a gown, Minshull decided somethingwasn’t right. She and her friends had promdresses hanging in their closets; why notdonate the barely used gowns to girls who

could take them for another twirlaround the dance floor?

Minshull, now an OverlandPark junior, turned to hergrandmother, Mary Min-shull, who for years hasvolunteered at Cross-Lines Community Out-reach, a non-profit reliefagency in Kansas City, Kan.

They started a promattire program that gaveaway 20 prom dressesthat first year, mostlyfrom Sarah and herfriends. This year Cross-Lines distributed morethan 550 dresses andclose to 100 suits andtuxes to students atthree Kansas City, Kan.,high schools. Theagency starts gatheringdonations in January(call 913-281-3388) andhosts a free shoppingday at each school inthe spring.

“Prom is such anevent for kids, onethey’ll remember for-

ever,” says Mary, who,at 70, still recalls her prom gown. “It shouldbe special. And there are all these dressesjust hanging in closets; people bring them inby the armful.”

All thanks to her granddaughter, a fairygodmother at 21.

Net return

Most of us earn our last class credit for playing dodgeball long beforewe get to college, but LaChrystal Ricke’s students figured out a way

to wring one final A out of the red rubber ball. They organized a dodge-ball tournament to raise money for charity as part of the GTA’s “Prob-lem-solving in Groups and Teams” class.

Students signed up 120 players on 20 teams for the April tournament.The dodgeball and related activities—including an after-party at Abe andJake’s Landing—raised $4,400 for Nothing But Nets, a group that bringsinsecticide-treated bed nets to malaria-prone parts of Africa. An eBayauction of signed football jerseys from James McClinton, who refereedthe games, and Aqib Talib should add to that total—which already blowsaway the communications studies majors’ $500 goal.

“The students learned they could do something small but also have areally big impact while having fun,” says Ricke, who completed her PhDin communications studies this spring. “They were doing something for aclass, but there was a higher purpose.”

The dodgeball dollars will buy more than 400 of the $10 nets, each ofwhich protects four or five sleepers from mosquitoes that spreadmalaria, the leading cause of death for African children.

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Questions authority

KU Info opened in 1970, at the heightof student unrest, as the nerve center

for rumor control. But it wasn’t longbefore it slid into moonlighting duty astrivia central, and over the decades, onequestion has remained constant: Howmany trees are on campus?

Just as constant was the answer:17,900.

WRONG.“Last fall a Global Informations Sys-

tems class took up the challenge and usedsatellite imagery to conduct a tree densitystudy,” says Program Director CurtisMarsh, j’92. “We found out that 17,900wasn’t even close.”

Even more thrilling is that the truecount—29,525—virtually mirrors KUenrollment, so there’s one tree for everystudent. And those students no longerhave to call 864-3506 to get the scoop.

With its data now stored on comput-ers rather than leaning towers of refer-ence manuals, KU Info finally offers awalk-up service, on the main floor of theKansas Union, and plans call for a fallreopening of the abandoned booth onJayhawk Boulevard. KUInfo.KU.edu isanother happenin’ outlet, and a text mes-sage system might be up and runningsoon.

“We do want to still have fun. Rightnow on our Web site we have a questionposted, ‘Did you know Ward Cleaver wasborn in Lawrence?’ Well, holy cow, hewas,” Marsh says. “But we have to acceptthe fact that Google does a lot of thattype of stuff pretty well. So we’re hereprimarily to helpwith informationabout KU life.”

A missionthat’s any-thing buttrivial.

Rocket man

Mike Wilson insists his new book, Thruin 2, doesn’t encourage freshmen to

zoom through frantic college careers. Whatthe young author does hope to teach, how-ever, is how (and why) high school studentsshould detail their plans for college.

“When you factor in everything it takesto go a great school like KU, I figure it’sroughly $20,000 a year, which means a lotof unnecessary student debt if you messaround for that extra year or two,” saysWilson, b’05. “My book is really for the per-son who wants to finish in four, maybethree and a half, years. The key is, just make

sure you finish in four, which nowadays is a feat.”

When his parents told him they couldhelp him with four years of college, butnothing more, Wilson decided he needed aplan. He met with counselors and closelyconsulted School of Business enrollmentguides, loaded up on junior-college courseswhile still at Shawnee Mission South HighSchool and arrived on the Hill with 50 credits, none of which came from AdvancedPlacement high-school courses.

“It was tough,” Wilson says of his two-year KU career, which included online andsummer courses. “When people told me itcouldn’t be done, that’s what fueled me.”

While his KU classmates are only nowarriving back in KC, Wilson, 24, has alreadywritten a book, earned an MBA fromUMKC, shares his insights as a motivationalspeaker, and is thrilled with his new job asmarketing manager for Power Soak, a manu-facturer of automated restaurant sinks.

“I went into college knowing I’d only bethere for two years, so I had a good time,”Wilson says. “I met a lot of people, I had ablast, I was in the Phog Phanatics, everythinglike that. I definitely have no regrets.”

Better yet, no student debt.

One tough Jayhawk

When Jennifer Widerstrom celebrated Halloween bydressing up as her favorite alter ego—an American

Gladiator—the former KU track and field star neverdreamed her customary costume would become her workplace attire.

Last fall, Widerstrom, d’05, a fitness model for a nutritional supplement company, made a connection withNBC’s “American Gladiators” through a friend who knewsomebody in the casting office; after watching the videoWiderstrom submitted, producers flew her to Los Angelesand, two days into filming, offered her a contract to become“Phoenix,” one of eight new gladiators on the popular Mondaynight show.

Taping wrapped in May, and Widerstrom returned to her Naperville, Ill., home. Excited to promote the show after its May 12 premiere, she kept her pink hair and teamed up with fellow Gladiator “Venom,” also from the Chicago area, for promotionalevents. Even hanging out with friends is an opportunity to publicize the show.

“I get asked to arm wrestle every time I go out,” Widerstrom says. Instead of showing anyone up, however, she simply replies, “You have to be on Gladiators to wrestle with Phoenix.”

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Hilltopics B Y S T E V E N H I L L

Ten years ago, when Dr. Jeanne Driskoarrived at KU Medical Center to launch aprogram in integrative medicine, she raninto opposition straight away.

The chair of the department to which Driskohad been assigned wanted nothing to do with herbrand of health care—even though she came to39th and Rainbow at the invitation of DeborahPowell, then executive dean of the School of Medicine.

Drisko, m’79, was fresh off a yearlong fellow-ship in what is often called alternative or comple-mentary medicine, a discipline that uses andstudies methods traditionally considered outsidethe realm of conventional Western medicine.

“The pejorative definition is anything that’s

not taught in conventional medicalschool,” says Drisko, Riordan EndowedProfessor of Orthomolecular Medicineand director of the Program in Integra-tive Medicine. “It’s a different approachto patient care that looks at threedomains: physical, spiritual and mind-body.”

A wide range of therapies fall underthe “big umbrella” of integrative medi-cine, Drisko says. Acupuncture. Chiro-practic. Massage. Yoga. Chinese herbalmedicine.

Because many of these therapies tra-ditionally have not been subjected tothe rigorous scientific testing conven-tional medicine undergoes, many doc-tors have been suspicious of the field.After her initial assignment fell through,Drisko received an invitation from Ster-ling Williams, then chair of the depart-ment of obstetrics and gynecology,who’d seen similar work at ColumbiaUniversity in New York City. But resist-

ance from other doctors was so greatthat she was not allowed to see patients.Instead, Drisko devoted her time toteaching and research.

“It was very difficult at first,” sherecalls. “There wasn’t any money, andthere were a lot of restrictions.”

Slowly, attitudes began to change. In2003, Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellorat the medical center and dean of the School ofMedicine, urged her to add aclinic to the program.Drisko hired a naturo-pathic physician, DeenaKhosh, and they beganseeing patients in spaceshared withobstetrics andgynecology.

This summer,the IntegrativeMedicine Clinicfinally moved into itsown space in the

Hilltopics

■ Jeanne Drisko

heads the Program in

Integrative Medicine,

which this summer marks

its 10th anniversary

with new services and

a new home on the

Medical Center campus.

A time to healAfter years in the wilderness,

alternative medicine is making its way into the academy

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I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 11

Sudler Building. The new quarters will allow theclinic to begin offering meditation, acupunctureand cooking classes and accommodate the grow-ing number of patients wanting to try integrativemedicine.

Drisko now finds more acceptance from herconventional medicine colleagues as well.

“It has really been a very wonderful growth,with a lot of collaboration and interest,” she says.“We use the term ‘integrative medicine’ becausewe are inside an academic setting, and we are try-ing to work hand in hand with our conventionalmedical partners. We aren’t trying to be alterna-tive to or separate from conventional medicine;we’re trying to integrate into it.”

That means adopting much of the same med-ical technology and applying the same rigorousstandards that conventional medicine applies.

“We are being very responsible in looking atour patients globally, using lab work, X-rays, CTscans, any conventional techniques that need tobe done, yet combining that with integrativeapproaches like nutritional therapy.”

For example, cancer patients who visit theclinic for vitamin C infusion often bring withthem the various supplements they are taking.“They have a big bag of different things recom-mended by anybody and everybody, and oftenthey don’t know what they are,” Drisko says. Notonly does she advise patients on what may ormay not be an appropriate supplement, but shealso backs that up with lab tests that measurevitamins and minerals in the blood, pinpointingwhich levels are too high or too low.

KUMC and 38 other academic med centersform the Consortium of Academic Health Centersfor Integrative Medicine. They arecurrently putting many alterna-tive practices to the test in peer-reviewed research studies. Drisko now has KUMC researchpartners in oncology, gastroen-terology and neurology, amongother fields. The clinic is study-ing intravenous vitamin C treat-ments for cancer and isparticipating in a nationalresearch trial on the use of chelation therapy (which injectsa man-made molecule thought to cleanse the body of heavymetal and mineral toxins whileadding antioxidants that mayhelp reduce inflammation in

blood vessels) to reverse cardiovascular disease.The goal, Drisko says, is to build a body of

research that can help physicians advise patientson alternative therapies while also providing hardevidence, beyond anecdotal case studies, onwhether these therapies work.

“Doctors are frustrated because there’s not alot of literature to advise them on how to usethese therapies with their conventional care,” shesays. “We’re at a very difficult point because thereare a lot of people using it but not a lot ofresearch to drive that use.”

But that, too, is changing.�◆ ◆ ◆

Back to schoolA new federal grant teams

KU profs and high school faculty to improve students’ grasp of history

The best way to help high school stu-dents improve their knowledge of American history is to help high schoolteachers improve their knowledge of

American history.That’s the idea behind a $600,000 grant from

the U.S. Department of Education that will sendKU history professors to Garden City next year to offer history lessons to the city’s high schooleducators.

“Some of the research that’s been done showsthat a major determining factor in getting kidsturned on to history is the content knowledge of

“Doctors arefrustratedbecause there’snot a lot of literature toadvise them onhow to usethese therapieswith their conventionalcare.”

—Jeanne Drisko

■ The College and the School of Education will team up on a project that

sends history professors into Garden City high schools. KU participants

include (from l to r) Marcela Quintana-Lara, Rita Napier, Ray Hiner, Allan

Miller and Becky Eason.

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teachers,” says Allan Miller, EdD ’72, projectdirector at the Institute for Educational Researchand Public Service in the School of Education.“There will be some emphasis on teaching strate-gies and techniques, but the main focus of thisgrant is going to be American history content.”

The Teaching American History grant programwas started by Congress to address what manysee as a poor grasp of American history in youngpeople. The concern is that high school studentsare too often ill-prepared to fulfill their roles ascitizens in a participatory democracy.

KU history professors Ray Hiner, Rita Napierand Dale Nimz, PhD’04, will conduct two-weeksummer workshops in Garden City from 2009 to2012. Twenty five high school teachers can signup for each session. In all, the workshops willcover eight historical eras, from the explorers tomodern times. While the focus is American his-tory, Kansas’ role in shaping the country will beemphasized. Field trips are planned to local his-torical sites, including the northernmost knownPueblo Indian settlement, El Quartelejo, just out-side Garden City.

The sessions will target not only high schoolhistory teachers, but also teachers in other gradesand subjects, Miller says.

“The goal is to infuse history into the entirecurriculum. We’re hoping for some crossoverfrom English teachers, music teachers, really allteachers from kindergarten through 12th grade.”

Teachers will use what they learn to developmultimedia lesson plans, which they can shareonline with their colleagues in Garden City andteachers in other states who are participating inthe TAH program. About 150 grants wereawarded from more than 500 applications.

In addition to the summer workshops, teach-ers will also be invited to KU to participate in anannual oral history workshop at the Hall Centerfor the Humanities, and they’ll have access to lec-tures by noted historians at the Dole Institute andelsewhere on campus.

Miller, who worked on a similar grant projectin Liberal, says teachers appreciate the chance tohone their historical knowledge and learn newtechniques for making history more compellingfor their students. The $1,000 scholarships theyreceive sweeten the deal.

“They’re getting paid to do professional devel-opment, and that’s unusual,” Miller says. “Teach-ers usually have to do a master’s degree on theirown time, and they don’t get a lot of rewards.This is a neat reward for them.”�


◆ ◆ ◆

Tuition takes a hikeLike most things these days,

the cost of a KU degree is going up

This fall’s class of entering freshmen willpay 7.6 percent more per credit hourthan last year’s freshmen under a newtuition compact approved in June by the

Kansas Board of Regents.The four-year tuition compact for the Class of

2012 features a per-credit hour rate of $229.25 forKansas residents, which is $16.25 higher than thefour-year rate paid by the Class of 2011. The com-pact rate for nonresidents rose from $560 to$602.05.

In a year when prices for gas and grocerieshave soared, the increases could have been moredramatic. KU trimmed its original rate proposalby $2.20 per credit hour in response to concernsabout the economy.

“We are concerned about the financial outlookfor the state, especially in light of known costincreases we face in technology, energy, securitysystems, supplies and salaries,” Chancellor

Hilltopics

Taste the season

Music fans can add to

their music library and

preview the Lied Center

season with a free

iTunes card available at

the Lied box office.

The card allows users

to download 20 songs

by Laurie Anderson,

Philip Glass, the Turtle

Island String Quartet and

others scheduled to

perform on campus

in 2008-’09. “It’s a great

taste of what’s coming

to the Lied,” says

Executive Director

Tim Van Leer.

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Hail to the Chief

John Roberts Jr., chief jus-tice of the United States, delivered the

School of Business’ VickersMemorial Lecture and met with business and law students.

WHEN: April 30-May 1

WHERE: The LiedCenter, Summerfield andGreen halls

BACKGROUND:Roberts became the country’s 17th chief justiceSept. 29, 2005. His Vickers Lecture focused onbusiness and management aspects of theLouisiana Purchase, as well as later SupremeCourt decisions that upheld President Jeffer-son’s huge land deal with France.

ANECDOTE: After his lecture, a studentasked Roberts about Justice Antonin Scalia’srecent comment during a “60 Minutes” inter-view that the Constitution is “dead.” Robertsgrinned and replied, “Justice Scalia gets all thegood air time.” He added, “Legal documentsdon’t live or die. It’s a piece of paper. It’s themost important piece of paper in our nation’shistory, but it’s not helpful to think of it as livingor dead.”

QUOTE: Roberts says he tries to avoidhalting arguments when allotted time expires,unlike past chief justices who would not hesi-tate, he recalled, to cut off an attorney in themiddle of the word “I’m.” Of the 39 cases heargued before the court as a private attorneyand deputy solicitor general, Roberts advisedlaw students, “The best argument I ever gavewas in a case I lost, and the worst argument Iever gave was in a case I won.”

—Chris Lazzarino

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“There are parts of the Constitution thatdon’t come up alot, but I resist thenotion that thereare parts of theConstitution thatno longer havemeaning.”

—Chief Justice John Roberts

Robert E. Hemenway said. “But we want to doour part in holding the line on expenses. Ourtuition plan shows we are ensuring to the peopleof Kansas that a first-rate college education willremain affordable.”

This year’s freshman class is the second to par-ticipate in KU’s four-year tuition compact, whichfixes the credit hour rate for incoming freshmenfor four years. The tuition rate will not rise unlessstudents take longer than four years to graduate.In that scenario, fifth-year students would pay thestandard tuition rate.

The Board of Regents approved a 6 percentincrease in the standard tuition rate, which is alsopaid by transfer students and undergraduateupperclassmen not covered by the tuition com-pact. That credit hour rate now stands at $206.50for Kansas residents and $542.50 for out-of-statestudents.

Graduate tuition rose from $240.65 to $255.10per hour for residents and from $575.05 to$609.55 for nonresidents.

Resident medical school students will pay$11,861.40 per semester, and nonresident medstudents will pay $21,035.10—an increase, in bothcases, of 5.5 percent.

Required campus fees, which apply to all stu-dents on the Lawrence campus and are set in col-laboration with Student Senate, are estimated at$846.70, up from $755.50.

Course fees, which are set by individualschools, also will post mostly modest increasesthis fall. Exceptions are the School of Architectureand the School of Law, which raised course feessharply to accommodate student requests foradditional fees to fund initiatives. The School ofSocial Welfare also will levy course fees for thefirst time.

For incoming freshmen who take a full load of15 credit hours, tuition and campus fees will run$3,862 per semester for Kansas students, and$9,454 for nonresidents under the four-year plan.

According to the Board of Regents, KU’sincrease was in line with those at the other fivestate universities the board oversees. Thoseincreases ranged from 4.9 percent to 6 percent.

In addition, a recent Board of Regents surveycompared tuition and fees at the six Kansas uni-versities with similar schools in neighboringstates. The survey found that Kansans who attendthe state’s three research universities—KU, KansasState and Wichita State—pay 14 percent less thanresidents in neighboring states pay to attend com-parable schools.�

ENGINEERING

Three engineeringalumni win school’s

top honor

The School of Engineering rec-ognized three alumni with its Dis-tinguished Engineering ServiceAward during a ceremony in May.

Stanley Englund, e’50, Mid-land Mich.; Charles Salanski,e’57, St. Joseph, Mo.; and MichaelShinn, e’66, Shaker Heights,Ohio, each received a bronzesculpture acknowledging thehonor, the highest given by the school.

“These three engineers have doneamazing things within their spheres ofinfluence,” says Stuart Bell, dean of theSchool of Engineering. “Not only havethey had highly successful careers inengineering, but they’ve shown resource-fulness and compassion to help othersaround them.”

Bell saluted Englund for his role as “akey player” in ensuring the safety ofchemical-based product manufacturing.He noted that Salanski “led the WireRope Corporation of America to new

heights and is unrivaled in his contribu-tions to his community,” and praisedShinn as “a stalwart KU supporter whohas championed the support and devel-opment of minority engineers across thenation.”

RESEARCH

Tech transfer offices inLawrence, KC combine

Increased efficiency and a more hos-pitable climate for businesses and inven-

tors looking to help the University bringresearch discoveries to the marketplaceare the goals of the new KU Center forTechnology Commercialization.

The July startup consolidates separatetechnology transfer offices on theLawrence and medical center campuses.Jim Baxendale, who formerly headed theLawrence campus tech transfer office,will direct the center, which has a staff of six.

“Faculty throughout the University—from education and social welfare topharmaceutical chemistry, medicine andengineering—come up with new ideasand treatments that may have commer-cial value,” says Chancellor Robert E.Hemenway. “It only makes sense toincrease our efficiency by combiningoffices. This also makes it easier for busi-nesses and inventors to work with theUniversity.”

Kansas currently has 17 active compa-nies that originated with KU research,including KC Biomedix, Cadstone,CritiTech, CyDex, eLearning Creations,Flint Hills Scientific and XenoTech.

KU also has 91 licensing agreementswith companies that use KU patents,about two thirds of them out of state. Infiscal 2007, the revenue from theselicenses—which can fluctuate greatlyfrom year to year—totaled $573,000 onthe Lawrence and med school campuses.

The extra licensing revenue is used tosupport more research, and while thefunding boost is welcome, it’s not the

Adepth survey of Potter Lake conducted by theKansas Biological Survey May 14 found the lake

to be more than 12 feet deep at the maximum depthmeasured. The 3 feet maximum depth attributed toKBS in “Once More to the Lake” (Hilltopics, issue No.3) was an estimate from the Kansas Department ofHealth and Environment and was also in the biologicalsurvey’s “KBS Survey of Kansas Lakes.”

Sediment samples gathered from the lake bottomMay 14 detected lead, chromium, MTBE (a gasolineadditive) and waste oil, but no PCBs or pesticides, according to John Kenny, Leaven-worth senior and co-founder, along with Independence junior England Porter, of thePotter Lake Project. “What the survey showed us is really good news,” Porter says. “Itmeans the restoration project will cost less and the work we do should last longer.”

Porter and Kenny are still estimating costs, but in June donors Pat, e’74, and Brenda Austin Oenbring, f ’75, of Houston established the Potter Lake Restoration Fund to help pay for the project. To contribute, call KU Endowment Association at 888-653-6111 or visit kuendowment.org.

Update


Hilltopics

Englund Salanski Shinn

Continued on p. 17

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Your official GAME DAYtailgate headquarters for

HOME AND AWAY!

2008FOOTBALL:

8/30 vs. Florida Intn’l9/06 vs. Louisiana Tech9/12 at South Florida9/20 vs. Sam Houston

State (Band Day)10/04 at Iowa State10/11 vs. Colorado10/18 at Oklahoma10/25 vs. Texas Tech

(Homecoming)11/01 vs. Kansas State

11/08 at Nebraska11/15 vs. Texas

11/29 vs. Missouriat Arrowhead

Check game times atwww.kualumni.org

Don’t miss the 2008 FedEx® Orange BowlChampions and National

Coach of the Year in action! www.kualumni.org or 800-KU Hawks.

Join alumni, friends and fans at “Game Day Headquarters”—tailgate parties

at the Adams Alumni Center for home games, and on-site tailgates at all away games!

Information on all football tailgate activities can be found by visiting www.kualumni.org

or by calling 800-KU-HAWKS.

Members of the KU Alumni Association receive discounts at all home and away game tailgate parties,

so don’t forget to carry your membership cards!

main point of technology transfer.“Very few universities reap a windfall

from technology transfer,” says Baxen-dale. “We provide this service becauseit’s part of KU’s mission, and we wantour research to benefit others.”

JOURNALISM

Indianapolis Star editor takes Knight chair at KU

Veteran journalist Pamela Fine joinsthe William Allen White School of Jour-nalism and Mass Communications thissummer as the Knight Chair in News,Leadership and Community.

Fine comes to KU from the Indianapo-lis Star, where she has been managingeditor since 2004. She also held leader-ship positions at the Minneapolis StarTribune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitu-tion, and in the American Society ofNewspaper Editors and the AssociatedPress Managing Editors. Fine has servedas a Pulitzer Prize juror four times.

In 1990 KU was one of the first three universities to receive a KnightChair, which focuses on teaching com-munity journalism. The John S. andJames L. Knight Foundation now endows 24 chairs at 22 public universi-ties. Fine, who succeeds Peggy Kuhr, is the third journalist to hold the KnightChair at KU.

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 17

■ A $10 MILLION GRANT fromthe U.S. Department of Education willallow the Juniper Gardens Children’sProject to open a literacy center on itsKansas City, Kan., campus. The Centerfor Response to Intervention in EarlyChildhood will develop and study meth-ods for helping children with readingproblems in the pre-kindergarten years.The five-year grant will enlist help fromscholars at Ohio State University, theUniversity of Minnesota and DynamicMeasurement, a company in Oregon. The project will involve about a dozen classrooms inthe Kansas City area, and 50 classrooms nationwide, according to KU professors CharlesGreenwood and Judith Carta, PhD’83, principal investigators on the project.

■ THE SIMONS PUBLIC HUMANITIES FELLOWS at the Hall Center for Humanities in 2008-’09 are composer andmusician David Balakrishnan and author and journalist AnnHagedorn, ’81. The two will serve campus residencies as part ofthe fellowship program, which was founded by the Simons familyof Lawrence to bring citizens with promise or accomplishmentin fields such as journalism, business, health care, law, politics andthe arts to participate in the intellectual life of the University.

■ FULBRIGHT GRANTS were awarded to three facultymembers and five graduate students this summer. The grantsfund research and study abroad during the 2008-’09 academicyear. Since the program started in 1946, 406 KU students havereceived Fulbrights.

■ A $7.5 MILLION NIH GRANT will fund another five years of a research study onaging at the Higuchi Biosciences Center. It is the second NIH extension for the project,“Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in Aging,” which is searching for a treatment that reducesthe rate of oxidation in muscles and the brain that occurs as people age. Project head EliasMichaelis, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, says large interdiscipli-nary research projects such as his often run 5 to 10 years, “so the NIH extending fundingthrough year 15 is very significant.”

■ ROBERT ROHRSCHNEIDER has been appointed the first Sir Robert Worcester Dis-tinguished Professor in Public Opinion and Survey Research. Rohrschneider, an internation-ally acclaimed scholar with special expertise in the European Union, will come to KU fromIndiana University in 2008-’09 but will spend that year on a research fellowship in theNetherlands. The professorship is funded by a $2 million gift from Sir Robert Worcester,b’55, founder of Market Opinion and Research International in London.

■ NANCY HARDIN ROGERS, s’69, became acting attorney general of Ohio in June.Rogers, who stepped down as dean of law at Ohio State University to take the job, wasappointed by the governor of Ohio after the former attorney general resigned. She plans toreturn to Ohio State’s law faculty after the November general election.

Milestones, money and other matters

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As final touches were added in June tocustom cabinetry for 110 deluxe, over-sized player lockers, sounds and smellsof heavy construction filled the Ander-

son Family Football Complex. But when the lastcarpenter is gone and players swarm through,smells of sawdust will be replaced by sweat,power tools exchanged for Power Lifts, and KUfootball will finally have a long-sought home of itsown, adjacent to Memorial Stadium.

The dream proved elusive for decades, as thefootball Jayhawks conducted all of their business,except for games and occasional practices, in theathletics hub surrounding Allen Field House.Now, fresh off a 12-1 season, the reigning OrangeBowl champs are working, studying and sweatingin splendor.

“This is definitely going to put our program ina much more competitive situation within theconference and nationally,” says Brad Nachtigal,associate athletics director for capital projects.

When news surfaced that the athletics depart-ment was planning a football complex next to the

Sports B Y C H R I S L A Z Z A R I N O


stadium, fears arose that it would mar KU’s hal-lowed Hill. Tentative plans for placing it at thebase of the Hill, directly behind the scoreboard,were scrapped, and alternate configurations, withthe building and practice fields flanking eitherside of the stadium, were considered.

The final layout placed an 80,000-square-foot,

■ The new football

headquarters’ low profile

is particularly evident in

the photo at top right; the

weight room (r, below)

accounts for a third of the

building’s length, yet

is entirely underground,

the Hill’s grass extending

over its roof.

Football scoresNew building, practice fields prove good neighbors

for Memorial Stadium, Campanile

Continued on p. 20

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two-story building into the hillsidebetween the stadium’s west stands andPotter Lake, and two artificial-turf prac-tice fields in what had been a parking lotsouth of the stadium’s east stands. Nowthat the $31 million project is complete,the resulting view from the bottom of theHill is almost too good to believe.

When standing near the scoreboardand looking up toward the Campanile,neither the tan building nor the practicefields interfere with the view. In fact,thanks to the removal of the grubbysand pit, concrete retaining wall, long-abandoned concrete tennis courts, andadjacent parking lots (they were closerthan you probably remember, especiallyon the west side), the lower third of theHill looks better than ever.

“I think it looks great,” says UniversityArchitect Warren Corman, e’50. “The factthat the building angles off to the south-west helps a lot, and the grass roof [cov-ering the football complex’sunderground weight room] means theHill runs right over that part of the build-ing. The driveways and sidewalks are alot better than they were, and the prac-tice fields turned out well, too. I thinkeverybody will be happy with it.”

Corman says he had a lot of incentive:“The chancellor said if it didn’t lookgood he was going to bury me on it.”

Corman also notes that the projectincluded $2 million worth of under-

Sports


ground storm pipes and holding tanks,meaning less flooding around the sta-dium and a steadier release of stormwa-ter into city sewers.

With a roofline that’s below the top ofthe west stands’ lower seating level andthousands of square feet built into theHill (with the help of 30-inch concretewalls), the building conceals its wealth ofinterior space. The top floor holdscoaches offices (coach Mark Mangino’sglass-walled corner office overlooks boththe Campanile and Memorial Stadium),meeting rooms, a team auditorium, staffoffices, and a reception room that fea-tures a long balcony facing the stadium.

Downstairs is for the sweaty work:Strength and conditioning director Chris Dawson worked with Power Lift todesign innovative weight racks, stationswhere players can complete all of theirstrength training. The players’ NFL-quality locker room adjoins a lounge,nutrition area, equipment storage and,most important, various spaces for thetraining staff and doctors to tape anklesbefore practice, rehab injuries or eventake X-rays.

Also close by are computer and studyrooms, and a custom-designed video sys-tem can deliver practice and game filmthroughout the building.

“It’s all about efficiency for the guys’time,” Dawson says, “and how much eas-ier ... I say easier—nothing about it iseasy—but there’s no wasted time.”

With football now enjoying a home ofits own, the Anderson Family Strength &Conditioning Center, next to AnschutzSports Pavilion, can readily accommo-date the hundreds of varsity athletescompeting on KU’s other 15 teams, andwith football’s grass practice fields southof Allen Field House vacated, plans arebeing considered for use by other teamsthat sorely need the space for practice orcompetition.

Call it a win-win.“I get to be a part of the new facilities

and everything else that’s changing,”says wide receiver Rod Harris, a junior-college transfer. “It is a great atmosphereand a great environment to be coming to,and I’m glad to be here.”�

Updates

Junior sprinter Nickesha Anderson, whoset a school record in the 100-meter dash

at the Kansas Relays, was named to Jamaica’strack and field team for the Beijing Olympics.Anderson is from Hanover, Jamaica. Ander-son (100- and 200-meter dashes) and seniorCrystal Manning (long jump and triplejump) were both named All-Americans intwo events at the NCAA Outdoor Champi-onships. Also named All-American was juniorStephanie Horton, who set the schoolrecord in the shot put. ... Senior Egor Aga-fonov won his third consecutive Big 12 andNCAA Regional hammer throw titles; theonly meet he did not win was the NCAAChampionships, where he finished third. ...

Volleyball player Katie Martincich wasnamed Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year. Shehas been active in Special Olympics, Habitatfor Humanity, the Susan G. Komen Founda-tion and National Girls and Women in SportsField Day. KU golfer Amanda Costnerwon the honor in 2007. ...

Paul Pierce, ’99, capped KU’s champi-onship year when he was named Most Valu-able Player of the NBA Finals. Also winningchampionship rings with the Boston Celticswere Scot Pollard, d’97, and former FinalsMVP Jo Jo White, ’69, director of specialprojects. ... The NBA Draft held plenty of sur-prises for the Jayhawks, both during and afterdraft night. Brandon Rush (traded to Indi-ana) and Darrell Arthur (traded to Mem-phis) were both first-round picks; taken inthe second round were Mario Chalmers(traded to Miami), Darnell Jackson (tradedto Cleveland) and Sasha Kaun (rightstraded to Cleveland). Kaun already is signedto play professionally in his native Russia. ...

Emily Powers, a sophomore fromQuincy, Ill., played her way into the presti-gious U.S. Open Golf Championship via aqualifying tournament. Powers, who led KUwith a scoring average of 75.53, missed theOpen’s cut by shooting 81-84. ... Varsity ath-letes posted a combined 3.03 GPA for thespring semester, led by 58 with a perfect 4.0.

■ Handsome in their own right, Orange

Bowl championship rings recently given to

players and coaches also serve as incentive

for more booty: Won’t Big 12 bling look

even better?

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Platinum GreenAn ambitious project from KU’s Studio 804 helps tornado-stricken

Greensburg embrace its new role as America’s greenest town

The architec-

ture students

of Studio 804

have encoun-

tered plenty

of obstacles during the

10 building projects that

Professor Dan Rockhill

has overseen as part of his

innovative design-and-

build class. Rain delays, equipment mal-

functions and botched deliveries, all part

of the mix on professional job sites, are

par for the course on 804 projects, too.

That’s part of what makes this hands-on

experience so valuable and so

in demand for the graduate

students who sign up for the

most intensive studio the

School of Architecture and

Urban Planning offers. The

plan for Rockhill’s class is

simple: Learn by doing, from

successes and from mistakes,

what it takes to design and

construct a building from scratch, all in

the course of a few months. Execution of

that plan, of course, is far from simple.

Overcoming obstacles becomes an

important part of the learning process.

BY STEVEN HILL

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So perhaps a Kansas windstormtwo days before the May 2008opening of their most dauntingproject yet seems insignificant.

Except this wind is mighty enough toimpress the survivors of last year’sGreensburg tornado, one of the mostdevastating storms in Kansas history.

Just before 10 p.m. on May 4, 2007,a massive EF5 twister roared throughGreensburg, killing 11 people anddestroying 95 percent of the town’shomes and businesses. Before the storm,this western Kansas community of 1,500,located 110 miles west of Wichita and 45miles east of Dodge City, already facedchallenges that are all too familiar tomany rural towns: Businesses struggledas the average age of the populace roseand population numbers fell. A dearth ofeconomic opportunities meant fewer andfewer of Greensburg’s young people weresticking around to lend energy to a townbadly in need of it.

After the storm, some wondered ifGreensburg might cease to exist. Whenpeople began to talk of returning to theplace many had called home their entirelives, the question became, “What willthere be to return to?”

City leaders and architects began towonder if in the rubble of Greensburg’stragedy might be the seeds of a newbeginning. With a unique opportunity torebuild an entire city from scratch, theyadopted an ambitious plan to seek thehighest standard of eco-friendly design—adesignation of LEED platinum from theU.S. Green Building Council—for all cityand county buildings. Their bright idea:make Greensburg the first truly greencity in America.

Meanwhile, 22 KU students and theirprofessor decided they, too, would seekLEED certification in building the townan arts center (see “The Highest Hurdle,”p. 28), and they’d do it on a timetablethat would make their student projectthe first platinum building in the state.

◆ ◆ ◆

Rockhill says he started Studio804 in the 1990s because architecture students “never got dirty.”

“Architecture education has neverreally had any hands-on experience what-soever,” Rockhill told me during a 2003interview on the construction site of a

low-income, single-family home he andhis students were building on AthertonCourt in Lawrence. “The thing that reallytroubled me for a long time is that we’dteach design studio, and then a lot of thestudents would come back and say, ‘Whydidn’t you tell me?’ The way we teach isso different from the way practice is actu-ally conducted. They were just shocked.”

The house on Atherton went on towin first place in the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts “HOME”House Project Design Award, one ofmany accolades that Rockhill’s gospel ofinnovative design and eco-friendly con-struction has won for 804 students andtheir professor. Studio 804 projects twicebeat out professional architects to takeArchitecture Magazine’s prestigiousHome of the Year award. House and Gar-den magazine has listed Rockhill amongseven architects most likely to influencethe way we live in the 21st century, andin 2007 KU named the long-time facultymember the J.L. Constant DistinguishedProfessor of Architecture.

All of 804’s award-winning homeswere created on a schedule that wouldmake big-firm architects swoon: Studentstypically spend part of winter break

■ Studio 804 scavenged Douglas Fir boards

from an abandoned Sunflower Ammunition

magazine in early January to form the exterior

siding of the 5.4.7 Arts Center.

■ By February, work moved inside, as students

framed walls in a warehouse at the former

Farmland Industries plant in east Lawrence.

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mountain of documents to meet LEED’sstringent certification standards.

Windstorms be damned.“In some ways, my time frame, my

schedule, could be seen as a liability,”Rockhill says, explaining how he and hisstudents thought they could accomplishall this before ground was broken on asingle city-owned building. “But in someways it becomes an asset. We just blowright by people.”

◆ ◆ ◆

On this, their first non-residen-tial project, 804 students have gotten plenty dirty, andthe people of Greensburg

have noticed.“I’m just terribly impressed with the

students,” says Helen Todd, arts centerboard member and a lifelong resident ofKiowa County. As the sideways windsthat hampered phone service andknocked out a bank’s computer systemsandblasted the site at Sycamore andWisconsin, Todd notes, students workedon. “I’ve driven past many days and boysand girls both have been up on laddersand in the wind and eating sand with no

grumbling and no complaining. Theyjust work their hearts out to make thisgo. We’re proud of the building andwe’re proud of them.”

The people of Greensburg “eat a lot ofsand,” Todd says with a chuckle. “That’snothing new to us.”

But just maybe seeing these studentswilling to do the same has won over afew doubters who were skeptical of thetown’s ambitious new green agenda.

Kathy White, who has two childrencurrently studying at KU, was one of thelucky few whose home survived thestorm intact. She says many in town ini-tially balked when community leadersdecided that all city and county build-ings in Greensburg will be built to LEEDplatinum standards. Their concern wasunderstandable: This is hardscrabble, no-frills country, where homes are modest and property values low com-pared with eastern Kansas.

“I think people were a little resistantat first,” White says. “They just wanted torebuild. Quickly. They didn’t want to gothrough all the extra expense and paperwork to do LEED.”

When talk began circulating of sus-tainable materials, eco-friendly design

getting a head start on design, with con-struction beginning while snow is on theground. In the past few years, studentshave tackled early stages of constructionin a warehouse, then trucked pieces oftheir modular structures to Kansas Cityfor assembly on site. In every case, thedeadline has been Commencement inmid-May.

This year, the finish line has moved upa couple of weeks; the May 4 openhouse, like the 5.4.7 Arts Center’s nameitself, commemorates the date of thestorm. The goal—to design and build thegreenest building in the state—is themost complex Studio 804 has taken on.Distance is another complicating factor:Students constructed the seven modulesthat will make up the finished buildingat a Farmland Industries warehouse inLawrence and on March 17 trucked them270 miles to Greensburg.

To pull this off, they must raise dona-tions, come up with a design, select asite, secure necessary permits andapprovals, salvage building materials andsolve the myriad complications thatinevitably occur when putting together abuilding bristling with state-of-the-artmechanical systems—all while piling up a

■ Dan Rockhill, right, helps Tim Overstreet,

Wichita, and Krissy Buck, St. Louis, work through

a problem early in the construction process.

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and green construction, the associationsthat leapt to some minds were easy, predictable.

“Tree-huggers,” White chucklesat the reactions she heard from neighbors.“Hippies.”

But as people learnedmore, attitudes began to change. And it wasn’talways the young wholed.

Jim and Joyce Keithhave embraced theirtown joining the greenmovement, and they sayconcern for the welfare oftheir 22 grandchildrenand four great-grandchil-dren is a big reason why.

“I don’t think manypeople in Greensburgunderstood green whenit first started,” Jim Keithsays. “I think everybodyin town understands itnow. And it’s not weird.It’s not East Coast or

West Coast. What it means is these kidsin the future are going to have a betterlife. They’re going to have houses thatdon’t have mold in them, cleaner air. It’s going to help kids with asthma. Thishas got to happen, for the world, not just for us.”

Says Joyce, “We think about our kids and grandkids. If people keep using energy the way they are now, theymay not have any. We worry for them,but when we see things like this weworry less.”

Since the tornado, Greensburg hascaught the world’s attention as fewtowns of its size ever can. President Bushvisited soon after the storm to offer com-fort and promises of prompt federal aid;he returned May 4 to deliver the com-mencement address to high school seniors and mark the first anniversary ofthe storm. The Discovery Channel filmeda documentary on the town’s rebuildingeffort, which began airing in June onPlanet Green. Environmental groups andChristian charities have set up shop tohelp the town get back on its feet. Thepeople of Greensburg clearly appreciatethe help: The destruction was too muchfor one town to overcome on its own.

And as they learned more about plansto make Greensburg a leader in construc-tion that is energy efficient and uses sus-tainable building techniques andeco-friendly materials, they learned thatthe goals of environmentalists are not sodifferent from those of folks who’vedescended from pioneer stock, who’vegrown accustomed to conserving, tousing what nature gives them as they tryto carve out a life on the tough Kansasplains. For people with a long history ofusing sun and wind to heat homes andpower mills and wells, for folks who takepride in their ability to keep tractors running with elbow grease and balingwire, the high-tech wind turbines andphotovoltaic solar panels that are part ofStudio 804’s design aren’t so far out after all.

“When you think about it, farmershave always been self-reliant,” says JoyceKeith. “Back when I was a kid we raisedour eggs, we milked our cows—we came

■ On March 17, students trucked seven modules from Lawrence to Greensburg, where the city’s

water tower and some private homes (opposite page) were also under construction.

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to town once a week and bought flourand sugar but pretty much depended onourselves for everything else. This greenstuff is not much different.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The night of the storm, ChrisChristenson’s wife did what shealways does when tornado warn-ings are issued anywhere near

Greensburg: She calmly walked aroundtheir house taking family photographsoff the wall and carried these keepsakesto the basement. Christenson teased her,said she was wasting her time, that she’djust have to put it all back. He grabbed alawn chair and headed outside with hisdog. The southern sky looked angry. Ashort while later his wife came out to tell

him that media reports warned of a tornado spotted south of town. Togetherthey retreated to the basement to checkthe bulletins on TV.

“They said the weather service haddeclared a tornado emergency forGreensburg, that this was important,they don’t just do this, so if you’re inGreensburg get to shelter. Ten secondslater the power went out.”

The couple ducked into the furnaceroom with their dog. For five minutesthey heard only silence. Then came a distant roar.

“I’ll never forget, you could hear it getlouder and louder, and pretty soon theold house started to shake,” Christensonsays. “Our ears popped. It felt like yourhead was in a vise.”

Their house on the edge of town was

damaged but still standing. (A structuralengineer later declared the home soundenough to repair, and the Christensonswere among the first to return to townwhen water service was restored in July.They camped in their basement with agas-powered generator until power couldbe restored.)

Most of Greensburg was not as fortu-nate. The streets were dark, but betweenflashes of lightning Christenson began toget a glimpse of the destruction wroughtby the massive storm, estimated at morethan a mile and a half wide when it boredown on the town with winds in excessof 200 mph.

“It was chaos,” he recalls. “Houseswere collapsed; people were trapped intheir basements. We helped dig them outand did what we could. But the whole

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town was basically gone. It was surreal.”In fact, even after the sun came up on

May 5, lifelong residents found it hard tonavigate the streets, because all of thetown’s landmarks—including the centralwater tower—had been obliterated.

“My husband grew up here and was amailman for 34 years,” says Ruth Hiss.“He knew where everyone lived. But nowhe loses his bearings. He can’t put it alltogether.”

Even now, a year after the storm, it’seasy to see why some wondered whetherGreensburg would ever be put backtogether. Despite an extensive clean-upeffort, debris still litters much of thetown. Houses not flattened by the stormlean precariously. In other spots, gapingfoundation holes and pocked concretedriveways are the only signs that homesonce stood here.

But there are signs of rebirth, too. A new water tower stands near the BigWell, where a new museum is planned.An eco-friendly playground a block from the arts center offers welcome distraction—and one of the town’s onlypublic green spaces—to kids and adults.As of May, city officials reported 150 newhomes under construction. Some arealready occupied. Here and there newhomes stand proudly on islands of greengrass, little oases amid the dust and rubble. At one a sprinkler douses newlyplanted sod in the front yard while kidsbounce on a trampoline out back. Toeither side stand ravaged homes markedfor demolition.

The city government, the policedepartment, the local banks are still runout of temporary trailers, and the town’sonly grocery store stands in ruins. Given

Studio 804’s design and construction ofthe 5.4.7 Arts Center building earned a

platinum rating for sustainable green buildingand development. Platinum is the top ratingfrom the Leadership in Energy and Environ-mental Design, a rating system developed bythe U.S. Green Building Council that pro-motes energy efficient design and construc-tion. 5.4.7 is the first platinum building inKansas and the only one of 67 U.S. platinumbuildings designed and built by students.

The LEED rating system awards points ina wide range of categories, from mitigationof environmental damage as the construc-tion site is prepared to how efficiently thebuilding operates after completion. High-lights of 804’s project include:

Design: Broad southern exposure takesadvantage of passive solar energy. Louversfixed at a precise angle block sun during hotmonths and let in warming rays during coldmonths. A retractable awning provides shadefor outdoor events in summer. Abundantskylights and sliding glass doors capture nat-ural light and reduce the need for indoorlighting.

Materials: The exterior is clad in

50-year-old Douglas fir boards salvaged froman abandoned magazine at the SunflowerArmy Ammunition Plant near De Soto. Two-hundred-sixty panels of 3/8th-inch temperedgreen glass form a shell that protects thewood from sun damage and helps cool thebuilding. New wood is Forest StewardshipCouncil certified lumber.

Inside, eco-friendly paint, carpet,adhesives, sealers and coatingsreduce indoor air contaminants.Renewable cork walls line a down-stairs classroom. Even the plumbingis green: Pipes are made of P.E.X., arecyclable polyethelene.

Energy systems: Three 600-watt Kestrel e150 wind turbines aremounted on poles 35 feet above theground. Eight 175-watt photovoltaicpanels are mounted on the roof.Together, these green energy systemsproduce roughly 570 Kilowatt hoursa month, nearly 7,000 Kilowatt hoursa year–enough to handle all of 5.4.7’senergy needs, with the exception ofheating and cooling during particu-larly hot or cold spells. A charger/

inverter converts DC current produced by the wind turbines and solar panels intoAC current that is stored in batteries orpumped back into the electrical grid whenthe batteries are full. Compact fluorescentfixtures and bulbs and smart lighting controls (fixtures are connected to motion

and light sensors) further reducelighting needs.

Other green features: Sedumplants cover the roof, (which ismade of a white single-ply mem-brane that reflects sunlight), provid-ing shade and blocking sunlight andreducing stormwater water runoff. A lawn of native buffalo grassrequires minimal water or chemicalfertilizers, and earns LEED credit forhabitat restoration. If the grass doesdry out, a water reclamation systemcombines a cistern that storesstormwater runoff and a pump forirrigation. The bathroom, whichincludes a shower for bicycle commuters, is fitted with low-flowappliances.�

—S.H.

The highest hurdle

■ The prefab modules hauled out of the ware-

house in Lawrence (above) were hoisted onto

the Greensburg foundation by crane and then

scooted into place by Rockhill and his students

(opposite page).

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all that, an arts center might not be at the top of everyone’s wish list. No matter,says Kathy White. There’s great value in actually having a LEED platinumbuilding completed.

“People now have something concretewe can see, something to look at and say,‘Oh, this is what they’re talking about,with the turbines and the solar panelsand all that. I think it’s important to havesomething to latch on to instead of just aconcept.”

Sarah Boedeker, an 804 student fromEdwardsville, Ill., echoed that idea dur-ing the open house, as she watched thecitizens of Greensburg take their firstlook at the building.

“We want to lead by example, andhopefully that’s what we’re doing here,”Boedeker says. “Greensburg’s first LEEDplatinum building is done, and it wasdone quickly. We’ve built to that stan-dard, and I think it’s great that they getto walk around and ask questions andwitness it and realize that if 22 studentsand a professor can do it, they can followand do the same thing on a larger scale.”

So what does completion of the 5.4.7Arts Center do for Greensburg? Dependson whom you ask. Amid flowers and jazz

students and their parents.“He thanked us, but beyond that, he

told us a story about planning yourdeath, what you want out of that, and inthe end you really just want people toremember you,” says 804 student JennyKivett, of Victoria. “He kind of comparedthat to this experience. He said he’llalways remember us and what we’vedone for their community.

“To me, that’s really the most impor-tant part of this, that we’ve had such animpact on the community that they’llnever forget we were here.”

Says Ballard of his message to the 804 students: “They didn’t just build a beautiful building; by their presence theyhelped us rebuild our lives.”

and wine at the open house, peopletalked of how hard the students workedduring their two months in town, notingwith pride that their efforts stand as anexample of the positive power of youngpeople bent on a mission. Others tookheart that the building proves Greens-burg’s platinum dreams are doable. Others rejoiced that their town has, forthe first time, a cultural center where thearts will be celebrated.

“The 5.4.7 Arts Center is a huge boostfor showing people that not only can webuild back, but we can build back betterthan before,” says Chris Ballard, d’74, alocal banker who serves on the center’sboard. Earlier in the day, Ballard gave anemotional speech during a meeting with

■ At the May 4 open house, a crowd enjoys the plinth, a raised plaza in front of the arts center

designed to be a gathering place for the Greensburg community.

“The 5.4.7 Arts Center is a huge boost for showing people that not only can we build back, but we can buildback better than before.” – Chris Ballard, d’74

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◆ ◆ ◆

Amonth later, Rockhill and his804 crew hear from the U.S.Green Building Council: The5.4.7 Arts Center earned 55

points on the LEED rating system, threepoints more than needed to secure a platinum rating.

“We didn’t just scrape by,” Rockhillsays. “We hit it out of the ball park. I’lltake a home run, whether it’s 400 feet or 500 feet. Either way we hit it over the wall.”

Shortly after, the council sent a repre-sentative to Greensburg to present artscenter president Stacy Barnes a plaquerecognizing 5.4.7 as the first LEED platinum building in Kansas.

Barnes was in Lawrence completing aceramics residency at the Lawrence ArtsCenter when her parents’ home wasdestroyed by the storm. She moved backto Greensburg as soon as she could finda job and a place to live. Since Studio804 cleared out, 5.4.7 has begun hostinga summer movie series on the lawn.Ceramics classes are underway, and anexhibition of art by Justin Marable, f’05,inspired by Greensburg before and afterthe storm, now hangs in the gallery.

“I think it’s really important to ourcommunity, the fact that it’s a publicspace, a community building,” Barnes

■ 5.4.7’s gallery space has also become a place

for town meetings (above), and the high-tech

bathroom (below), with its automated, low-flow

fixtures, has become the talk of the county.

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says. “In our time of rebuilding I thinkwe need that community and strengthmore than ever. The arts, especially, willhelp us provide that, by giving people anopportunity to create, to be together. Ithink this building will help facilitatethat.”

Adds Barnes, “We are blessed withsuch an opportunity here right now, andthe world is watching us to see whatwe’ll do. There’s a lot of pressure withthat, but it’s also very exciting.”

◆ ◆ ◆

It will take time, but the debris thatlitters Greensburg’s streets andvacant lots will be cleaned up.Shards of twisted metal and ribbons

of fiberglass insulation, scattered bricks

and splintered 2-by-4s, kitchen pots andchildren’s toys and a muddied Christ ona broken cross—all will be carted away.Down will come the signs in shatteredwindows that proclaim, “RebuildingGreensburg With Pride.” Homes andbusinesses and ambitious new city build-ings will rise. Someday the snowbirdswho drive through town on U.S. High-way 400 on their way to Arizona will notbe able to stand on Main Street, onlydestruction as far as the eye can see, andgape in wonder at the terrible force of awind capable of flattening an entiretown.

Long after that day, Greensburg’sstunted trees will remain. Stately elmsand oaks that once shaded homes looknow like ragged bottle brushes. Theseoddly haunting specters are one of the

first things you notice when you comeinto town. Jagged branches importunethe sky. Bark is scoured from the southside of trunks, leaving the heartwoodexposed. Long after the other signs ofMay 4, 2007, have been erased, Greensburg’s trees will stand as gnarledmonuments to nature’s fury.

And its resilience. On the one-yearanniversary of the tornado, bottle-brushlimbs are putting out new leaves. Along-side their scars, redbuds bear pink blossoms.

Slowly, surely, Greensburg is blooming again.�

■ When raised, the retractable hydroswing

awning keeps sun out of the interior and

provides a shady spot for outdoor events.


Roy—not his real name—hadspent his first decade at theCIA as a “document authenti-cator” in the secretive Officeof Technical Services. He

insured that travel and identity docu-ments produced for CIA officers andoverseas agents were as flawless as dia-monds fit for a queen. Lives dependedon his work. After years as a hands-onexpert in the shop, Roy was asked by hisboss to bring a new guy up to speed.

OK, so Robert Wallace wasn’t exactlya new guy. He’d been in the CentralIntelligence Agency for nearly 25 years,but as an operations officer, completingthree tours as a chief of station—we don’tknow where. In 1991 he’d been trans-ferred back to Washington to serve as, inhis words, a “budget weenie.” Perhaps bythe romantic standards of globetrottingspies, budget managers are weenies; inreality, within a highly compartmental-ized organization like the CIA, budgetoversight means unique access to otherpeople’s business.

So it’s almost certain that Bob Wal-lace, g’68, knew a lot more about the CIAthan Roy did. What he did not know wasthe technical side of the intelligencetrade, and he had to learn fast.

In August 1994, a new deputy directorfor operations, David Cohen, had askedWallace to apply for a vacant job asdeputy director of the Office of TechnicalServices. As Wallace reveals in histhrilling new book, Spycraft: The SecretHistory of the CIA’s Spytechs from Commu-nism to Al-Qaeda, he privately worriedthat he might as well have applied forNASA’s astronaut corps.

“I’m an analog guy in a digital world,”Wallace told Cohen. “I don’t even changethe oil in my car.”

Cohen insisted, citing both Wallace’sfield and management experience and,after two years poring over budgets, hisrare familiarity with the agency’s diversepersonnel and missions. In short, Wal-lace could talk the talk with the trench-coat crowd that didn’t mingle much withthe tech guys, and he could do so on afirst-name basis.

Six weeks later, the transfer approved,

IN HIS NEW HISTORY OF CIA GADGETRY,RETIRED OFFICER REVEALS SECRET

TECHNOLOGIES THAT ARMED AMERICA’S SPIES

Cold WarWizards

B Y C H R I S L A Z Z A R I N O

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 33

Wallace joined the CIA’s insular world oftechnical marvels, and, in that initialcram session, Roy exposed elements oftradecraft that Wallace had overlookedand underappreciated for his entirecareer. Starting at the same pop-culturereference point that Wallace now uses tointroduce Spycraft to neophytes, Royexplained that OTS is akin to the fic-tional “Q,” the gadget guru who outfitsJames Bond.

Except that the real-world American“Q” is more than one brilliant fussbud-get. OTS, Roy told Wallace, comprisesdiscreet teams of engineers, scientists,technicians, craftsmen, artists and socialscientists, working all over the worldwith operations officers and even theirsecret agents. They do not stand aroundin lab coats, handing over the keys totricked-out Aston Martins or unveilinggadgets that go boom and bang. Instead,they fret over how to gather and deliverinformation.

Batteries utterly thrill them. The chasefor more power with longer durationfrom a smaller source keeps them up atnight. Subminiature cameras that operatequietly and efficiently enough to allow aSoviet agent to risk his life while photo-graphing purloined documents in anoffice toilet stall can, and did, change thecourse of Cold War destinies.

They are a tight tribe renowned, atleast among themselves, for good humor:A crest from 1966 features a MAD maga-zine spy buffoon over the motto, “StandBy To Bug.” After each new episode of“Mission: Impossible” aired the nightbefore on TV, techs were ready the nextmorning to patiently field phone callsfrom case officers asking, “Can OTS do that?”

In the mid-1970s CIA spytechs cre-ated what was essentially the first textmessaging system—newly detailed in Spycraft—so the invaluable Soviet agentDemitry Polyakov could send bursts of information, and receive a confirma-tion of receipt, while strolling Moscowstreets. Executed by the KGB in 1986,Gen. Polyakov was betrayed not by technology, but by the now-infamousmoles Robert Hanssen, of the FBI,

and the CIA’s Aldrich Ames.Some spytechs are out in the field half

the year, and they take pride in patroniz-ing seedy hotels the world over so theycan pile up per diem profits. They worryabout things like paint. Microphones hid-den in tiny holes drilled in walls, base-boards or ceilings must be perfectlyconcealed, and a random jarof paint from a D.C. hardwarestore won’t do the trick ontelltale scars left on amildewed wall in anotherhemisphere.

Their institutional historyreaches back to the CIA’sformative years, in World WarII; their ingenuity played criti-cal roles in every successenjoyed by American intelli-gence services ever since, mostnotably in the high-stakesCold War with the SovietUnion. And, like the case offi-cers celebrated by spy novel-ists and A-list movie stars,they put their lives and free-dom on the line.

Among the countlessthrillers Wallace reveals—withthe hard-won blessing of theCIA’s Publications ReviewBoard—is the saga of threeOTS officers captured in Sep-tember 1960 while attemptingto plant bugs in the ceiling ofthe New China News Agency’sHavana bureau. They hadentered Cuba with false identi-ties as American businessmen,and hoped to plant listeningdevices within “the futureembassy of a critical hard-target country.” (With theexception of Moscow operations, Wallaceidentifies few foreign locales by name;along with a few pseudonyms, all listedin endnotes, these vague geographicalreferences are among the few factualdetails the book overtly obscures.)

But the rare intelligence opportunityfizzled when a property manager work-ing on their behalf backed out, meaningthe CIA tech team could not gain entry.

They instead turned to a second target,the Chinese news office, and were dis-covered and arrested during a long, tenseweekend of around-the-clock work. Stillmaintaining their cover identities despitecountless interrogations, the three wereconvicted in December 1960 and sen-tenced to 10 years in prison.

“When you came back from your trial,you either went to the left or the right,”engineer Thornton “Andy” Anderson toldWallace and his co-author, intelligencehistorian H. Keith Melton. “If you went tothe right, you went into a copiea, a littlechapel-like room, and you knew youwere going to be shot the next morning.... I realized that by making the left turnwe weren’t going to be shot.”

■ Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs

from Communism to Al-Qaeda

By Robert Wallace (above) and H. Keith Melton,

with Henry Robert Schlesinger

Dutton, $29.95

ILLUSTRATION BY LARRY LEROY PEARSON | PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE PUPPE


Instead, they were transferred to theIsle of Pines, a few miles off the coast anddescribed by Wallace as “perhaps themost dreaded of all Cuban prisons.” Andthere they remained, in squalid condi-tions, as relations between the UnitedStates and Cuba sank into the abyss.After 949 days of captivity, the Americanswere flown to Miami as part of a prisonerexchange, their cover identities stillintact.

In 1979, 16 years after their return,Anderson, Dave Christ and Walter Szu-minski were awarded the DistinguishedIntelligence Cross, the agency’s highesthonor and a commendation granted, upto that time, only seven times in theCIA’s 33-year history.

“Unlike the movies,” Roy told Wallace,as recounted in Spycraft, “if one of ourvisas doesn’t pass muster at an immigra-tion checkpoint, or one of our conceal-ments accidentally opens and spills itscontents, we can’t reshoot the scene. Ifpeople are arrested or get killed becauseof our mistakes, they stay in jail for along time or they really die.”

Roy continued: “Usually we are rightthere with the case officer or the agent, atthe user’s side of the operation. We trainagents, install equipment, test systems,and repair stuff that breaks. We take thesame risks as case officers—share thesame emotion of accomplishment or otherwise.”

Wallace, a career operations officer,soon came to identify with the techni-cians’ sense of tradition, purpose andduty. Late in 1998, four years after resist-ing the request to become deputy direc-tor of OTS, he happily accepted apromotion to director. Soon thereafterWallace passed a pleasant afternoon witha trusted colleague, retired case officerJohn Aalto, who had joined the CIA in1950 and spent the next five decadesimmersed in the agency’s most classifiedmission, Soviet operations.

Wallace was surprised to hear the seri-ousness in Aalto’s voice when Aalto toldhim, “It is because of the techs ... that wein Soviet operations eventually won theintelligence war against the KGB inMoscow. ... You should do something to

get this story recorded before all of uswho were involved are gone and theinevitable organizational changes at CIAobscure this history.”

And so he did.

◆ ◆ ◆

Bob Wallace grew up on a farmnear Barnard, in north-centralKansas. His father was a farmer,his grandfather was a farmer,

his great-grandfather was a home-steader, and his brother still runs thefamily farm.

Wallace enrolled at Ottawa Universityin 1962. After earning his undergraduatedegree in history in 1966 he came to KUfor a master’s in political science.

“He was one of those ideal students:gentlemanly, nice, hard working, verypleasant,” recalls his adviser, ProfessorEmeritus Earl Nehring.

Immediately after completing his mas-ter’s degree, Wallace was drafted into thearmy. He was an Army Ranger in Viet-nam from January 1969 to January 1970,specializing in harrowing, long-rangereconnaissance patrols, about which heoffers few details.

“They decided that with a master’sdegree, he had way too much educationto be a company clerk,” says his formerKU roommate and lifelong friend BillHall, g’66, PhD’69, professor of politicalscience at Bradley University in Peoria,Ill. “So they stuck a rifle in his hands.”

Stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, whileawaiting his army discharge, Wallacefound in the post library a book listingcareer opportunities. Working his waystraight down the alphabet, he appliedwith Abbott Labs, Burlington Northern,the CIA, Data General ...

“I’d like to give you a romantic story,”Wallace says from his home in Virginia,“but there isn’t one. I wrote a couple ofdozen letters, and the CIA responded.That was my initial contact.”

But it went nowhere, and he insteadtook a job with a U.S. Congressman fromOhio. While there he one day met withan office visitor from the CIA; Wallacestruck up a conversation, his interest

was renewed, “and from then on that’show I got associated.”

And that’s where his story goes cold.Wallace does not reveal his duties orpostings, except that he worked as a caseofficer and as chief of three CIA stationsbefore transferring back to Washingtonin 1991. Hall says Wallace’s childrenwere told their dad worked as a civilianemployee for the army, and Hall himselfknew little more.

Soon after his 2003 retirement from the CIA, Wallace had dinner withhistorian Keith Melton, with whom he’d worked on a CIA exhibition of arti-facts from Melton’s private collection ofespionage equipment. Melton askedwhether Wallace had thought about writing a book; recalling John Aalto’s

earlier suggestion, Wallace knew thenhow he’d spend his retirement.

“When all you have is the officialthings that are written down,” Wallacesays, “you don’t capture the flavor ofexcitement, the intensity of the time, likepeople will do if they tell you stories.”

In July 2004, the CIA’s PublicationsReview Board approved a detailed out-line of the co-authors’ proposal, as wellas two sample chapters. Dutton agreed topublish the book, and in September2005 Wallace, Melton and science writer

SPY GADGETS

A

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 35

Henry Robert Schlesinger, who assistedwith the narrative structure, delivered a774-page manuscript to CIA reviewers.

Six months later, the board respondedthat, except for 34 pages on the early his-tory of CIA spytechs, none of the mate-rial could be published. Appeals andfurther delays continued until July 2007,when the CIA signed off on virtually allof the original manuscript. Former CIAdirector George Tenet even wrote theforeword.

The result is nothing short of breath-taking. Accounts of derring-do and bril-liant innovation, as well as startling KGBsurveillance photographs from Melton’scollection, are too numerous to detail,but among the most remarkable is thestory, told publicly for the first time, ofhow the CIA cracked a network of lead-shielded, gas-filled cables, buriedbeneath Moscow streets to deliver data

streams from a weapons laboratory tothe Soviet Ministry of Defense.

Five years in the making, OperationCKTAW culminated in 1981 with a suc-cessful infiltration by an American tech-nical officer, who narrates the story atlength in Spycraft. Even his wife andyoung children played roles in the opera-tion, as the officer ducked away from aseemingly innocent family day trip(hence the need for rucksacks, stuffednot with picnic supplies, but tools and achange of clothes) to complete the job.

The tap, planted in a supposedlyimpenetrable cable underneath a streetin the heart of our feared enemy’sguarded capital, delivered Soviet secretsuntil spring 1985. Its unexpected demisewas later attributed to a disgruntled former CIA officer named Edward Lee Howard.

Many of Spycraft’s tales of technicalwizardry and creative bravado jerk to astop with similar treasons, and CKTAW’scompromise was the only such betrayalthat did not lead to an agent’s execution.

“That’s what makes traitors so venal,”Wallace says. “They’re not just givingaway the operation, they give away peo-ple’s lives.”

Spycraft illuminates espionage’s darkchills; even more powerfully, it patientlyportrays the spytechs’ technical thrills.

We know what to expect when read-ing John le Carré or watching the latest

Bourne thriller. Risking his life for themission, a dashing spy will kill a bunchof bad guys, including traitors who try toserve him up to the enemy, and, in theend, the world will be a safer place. Evenmemoirs and histories written by formerCIA officers and outside experts skip the techs.

“Suddenly this agent has this sub-miniature camera, suddenly the case offi-cer is communicating with the agent,suddenly the case officer is in disguise,suddenly the case officer has an alias and

is traveling across borders in a differentidentity. So all this magically appears?No,” Wallace says. “There was nothingoutside the scope of these technical offi-cers’ imaginations, and nothing outsidethe scope of their capabilities, when itcame to applying technology.

“How they were able to adapt, inno-vate and put together these devices thatwere absolutely critical, fundamental, torunning clandestine operations was justamazing to me.”

Melton says even spytechs themselveswill discover within Spycraft secrets towhich they were never privy: “Some ofthem will be reading for the very firsttime about how their gadgets were uti-lized. This will be amazing even to thosewho spent their entire careers there.”

For Wallace, the best part about writ-ing Spycraft was interviewing retired tech-nicians and officers finally freed to tell

the story of their life’s work, and often aspouse or adult children who’d neverheard the stories asked to sit in on theconversation.

“I had three reasons to write thisbook,” Wallace says. “I wanted to honorthe techs, make a contribution to intelli-gence literature and, most important,instill confidence in the American publicfor their intelligence service.”

A sentiment with which even grumpyold Q would agree. Even if the Astoncomes back a little worse for wear.�

A. A brick-and-mortar concealment for passingmoney, equipment and instructions would be inconspicuous near any construction site. The brick had a pressure-locking mechanism inside the false mortar.

B. “Acoustic Kitty” was an attempt to implant a clandestine listening device in a cat, mid-1960s.The critter was fitted with a microphone in the ear canal and an antenna wire along the spine.

C. The “Insectothopter,” also illustrated on p.32, was an early attempt to build a miniature,unmanned aerial vehicle, disguised as a dragonfly,for intelligence operations, circa 1980.

B

C


P H O T O G R A P H S B Y R I C H A R D G W I N

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 37

LAWRENCE PHOTOJOURNALIST REVEALS SERENITY OF CUBAN LIFE

Making good time on Cuba’s backroads is tough, photographerRichard Gwin says, but that’s by go-go Western standards for time andtravel. The point in Cuba is not so

much about getting from one place to another asquickly as possible; it’s more about finding peoplealong the way, sharing coffee and stories.

Always the stories.“Every time you turn the corner and go down

another road, the stories are there,” says Gwin, ’75,a veteran photographer for the Lawrence Journal-World who has made more than a dozen trips toCuba since 1991. “I’ve found a great passion forthis place, a place everybody thinks is such a badplace. But nobody sees what the real Cuba is like.”

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union andimmense changes brought by global communica-tions and commerce, it sometimes seems our onlyforeign-policy constant has been the unblinkingtest of wills between Caribbean David and conti-nental Goliath.

But the revolutionary icon and communist dicta-tor Fidel Castro is no longer Cuba’s El Presidente.Slowed by illness, Castro first handed power to hisbrother, Raul, two years ago, and made the transi-tion official in February. The European Union inJune lifted five years of political sanctions, imposedas condemnation for human rights abuses, andeven the broad U.S. economic sanctions, thoughofficially intact, are far from comprehensive: Kansasin 2005 negotiated a $3.5 million trade deal for25,000 metric tons of wheat, paid for in cash, andNebraska sells to Cuba wheat, soybeans, beans,pork, turkey and beef.

Uncertain, too, is Cuba’s national destiny, as theworld anxiously awaits clues as to how Raul Castrowill rule, and, perhaps more important, what roleVenezuela’s Hugo Chavez, an avowed enemy of theUnited States and close friend of Cuba, will fashionfor himself and his country’s immense oil and gaswealth.

All of which is of only marginal interest to Gwin,who first traveled to Cuba in the early 1990s, lured


by inexpensive flights he saw advertisedwhile touring his first Caribbean love,Jamaica.

Sanctions barring travel to Cuba rarelyapply to American journalists (or educa-tors and health professionals), so Gwinhas happily visited Cuba, via Jamaica,nearly every year since his initial visit. “Ifeel very fortunate to be as free as I amand do what I’m doing,” he says. “I’mpretty much out in the open. I’m not try-ing to do anything secretive.”

A tour of the island, courtesy ofGwin’s memorable photography—muchof which he shares here publicly for thefirst time—offers an insider’s vision ofsimple people who cultivate the wealthof life despite their poverty.

“¿Café mi casa?” Coffee in my house?A weather-worn tobacco planter will

roll for his visitor one of the world’sfinest cigars, and send him off with a boxof 25 more. There is the old man withthe delightful old truck who cranks upingenious mechanical puppets he’s fash-ioned for half a century. City children fly-ing homemade kites, a country familyheating bathwater with the exhaust fromtheir kitchen stove.

Horse-powered carts and buggiesenforcing their own pace on roads fromone end of the island to another; thehumming metropolis of Havana and its 2million residents, who welcome swarmsof sun-worshipping tourists from everyWestern country but one; a quiet old rev-olutionary who cultivates medicinalplants while keeping to himself on hissmall parcel of land in the middle of theisland; a modest patriarch of old Havanawho shares with Gwin his home andfamily as well as stories of playing chesswith Che Guevera and the taste of revo-lution in the air the night of Jan. 8, 1959,when Castro’s army rolled into powerand the men of Havana celebrated by rip-ping parking meters from sidewalks.

Children love education, and everyonewants to speak English. When he travelsto Cuba, Gwin brings dictionaries andHarry Potter books for the children of hishost families, whom he has seen growfrom toddlers to college students.

The old men still play chess and

1. Beekeepers Alaberto Gonzalez and Santiago Rodriguez (opening spread) inspect newborn queen bees that will be used to launch new colonies in agricultural areas acrossthe island. Gwin met them when he stopped to ask about beehouses visible from the road,and he now returns for a visit, and a gift of honey, every year. “Once you make a friend in Cuba,” he says, “you’ve made a friend.”

2. A student writes in one of the cool and serene study rooms in the tower of CanteroPalace, a landmark in the colonial city of Trinidad. The image of Che Guevara is kept safe under a glass tabletop.

[ 2 ]

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 39

3. Gwin says Fidel Castro first allowed Easter processions after the1998 visit by Pope John Paul II, but they are still limited to Trinidad,where Gwin saw these girls commemorating the holy day in a candle-light ceremony that also incorporated Caribbean deities.

4. The mojitos in Havana’s La Bodeguita del Medio were ErnestHemingway’s favorite. Today, visitors sign their names—and leaveother mementos—on the walls.

[ 3 ]

[ 4 ]


[ 6 ]

[ 5 ]

5. Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón is ahuge Havana landmark famous for itswealth of Italian marble. The numerousreligions and nationalities represented onmausoleums and headstones vividly illustrate Cuba’s heritage as a worldwidecrossroads for international commerce.

6. Eider Santana builds mechanical pup-pets that he hauls in a 1928 Model A Fordtruck for shows in neighboring towns. Santana also owns an old Victrola recordplayer, for which Gwin finds replacementparts before returning for another visit.

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 41

dominoes and pass rum and opinionsaround outdoor tables on easy after-noons. Women tend tidy homes, cre-atively conquer fluctuating food rations,and remain the beloved anchors of fami-lies that might now spread from Torontoto Los Angeles.

Gwin recalls sipping coffee on his bal-cony one morning in Trinidad, a 500-year-old city in central Cuba, when thestillness was shattered by loud moaningcoming from a house next door. He thenwatched a fashionable young schoolgirl,a light sweater draped across her shoul-ders, step onto the sidewalk, knock onthe house’s door, and escort a polio-rav-aged man on his morning walk. So shebegan her day. With a smile, no less.

“I grew up in the ’50s in westernKansas, where people sat on their porchat 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock, and drank icedtea, drank coffee, and talked to eachother,” Gwin says. “Do you see that now?

[ 7 ]

[ 8 ]

7. Rita Sanchez, matriarch of a once-wealthyfamily, passes an afternoon on the patio of herancestral home in Trinidad. When asked whatshe was thinking, Sanchez replied that she wasremembering her childhood, playing in the yardwith children of their plantation’s slaves. “Iwant to stay in Cuba,” she told Gwin, explain-ing why she did not join family in California. “I grew up here; I want to stay here.”

8. “Richard is very personable, and that putshis subjects at ease,” says Sam Harrel, j’85,who made three trips to Cuba with Gwin and isnow photo editor at the Fairbanks, Alaska,Daily News-Miner. “People will see in Richard’sCuba photographs that great skill he has inmaking his subjects relax and drop their guarda little.” This portrait of Gwin, taken in thenorthern coastal town of Gibara, is by theDutch photographer Henk van der Leeden, who has made four trips to Cuba with Gwin.


No. Everybody goes home, goes in theirgarage, pulls their blinds, and that’s thelast you see of them. Neighborly things,hospitality things, are not part of thatexistence. We have lost our neighbor-hood communication. We don’t trust.

“Down there you sit on the porch, andthere’s neighbors talking to neighbors,neighbors sharing coffee, neighborswatching the children, neighbors watch-ing each other’s homes, neighbors livingtheir lives together.”

Yes, politics sometimes intervene.Gwin must register with local policewherever he visits, and he was oncebriefly detained by small-town cops whowanted to prove their authority. Heknows not to photograph military instal-lations and sugar-cane refineries, but,then again, Cubans harbor many of thesame fears of foreign terrorism sharedthe world over.

He has photographed anti-Americanrallies, but insists they are far less fre-

10. Trinidad, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the island’s south-central coast, isfamous for its beautiful morning light, colonial-era streetscapes and tranquil pace of life.Shown above is the 18th-century Casa en Amargura, which was restored in 1999.

11. Also in Trinidad, a woman folds cloth for sale, under the protective gaze of two of the country’s iconic revolutionary martyrs, Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara.

[ 1 0 ]

[ 1 1 ]

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 43

quent that most Americans probablyimagine, because the news we get isinevitably biased.

Gwin offers as an example the factthat Cubans have for the past eight years operated their own businesses,most notably family-run hotels fortourists in towns and villages with fewaccommodations. Such ventures are hob-bled by a flat tax that does not vary,regardless of profits, but they do exist.And yet when Raul Castro recentlyannounced that he was “relaxing restric-tions” and would allow Cubans to ownbusinesses, the news was faithfullyreported, even by Western correspon-dents who live there and know better.

“How many times you have seen anything about Cuba except these badthings you see on TV?” Gwin asks. “I go as a journalist, but I don’t get anycredentials. Usually I can get in placeswithout a problem, and if there is a problem, that means it’s a political thing

and you just stay away.“That’s not why I’m there. I’m more

about the people and places of Cuba.¿Café mi casa? That’s what it’s about,when you are invited into somebody’shome and you end up drinking coffeeand talking all morning or all afternoonor into the middle of the night. Whenthese people open their homes to you,they are sharing themselves, too.”

Havana hosts globe-trotting business-men at international trade shows andglamorous visitors in ritzy resorts. FlashyEuropean and Japanese cars are com-monplace, and a new Peugot dealershipjust opened. Fiber-optic cable has beenlaid throughout the country. Canada isdrilling for oil in Cuban waters. Cubansare pragmatic, not political, in preparingfor the inevitable day when the Americanembargo ends and their whole worldchanges.

“Money talks, just like everywhereelse,” Gwin says. “It has been a real inter-

esting thing to see such a change overthe years I’ve been going there. We knownothing of Cuba. We only hear these badthings. And until you go down and expe-rience something for yourself, you can-not make a decision.”

When the embargo ends and capital-ism inevitably swarms into Cuban life,Gwin, for one, hopes that old ways willstill have their place.

He shares the story of one lazy Sun-day afternoon, traveling a highway out-side of Havana. He watched a farmerbump along atop a cart, on which theyoung man had painted his philosophyof life: “I do not know my destiny, but Ido not fear it.”

And so it goes in Cuba. Slowly.Patiently. Inevitably. Travel with thesephotographs and see for yourself.�

—Chris Lazzarino

12. No conozco mi destino pero no letemo. He does not know his destiny, but hedoes not fear it. Such is the attitude, Gwinsays, that Cubans hold for themselves aswell as their country. “It’s a beautiful placewith beautiful people,” photographer SamHarrel says. “There is this political darkcloud that hangs over them, but other thanthat, it is a real inviting place. It’s rich withpeople and their stories, no doubt about it.”

[ 1 2 ]

Association


Jennifer Mueller Alderdice, g’99, knows howto keep students involved and excited aboutKU. Since joining the staff in 1996, she has led the Alumni Association’s student

programs for much of her career. She overseesthe Homecoming Steering Committee and hashelped strengthen Tradition Keepers, the Associa-tion’s student member program, as well as the Student Alumni Association (SAA), which beganin 1987.

Now she has the chance to build a brand newprogram.

Alderdice was promoted to assistant vice presi-dent for student programs last December. In hernew role, she has helped create and launch theJayhawk Generations Recruitment Program, thenewest component of five under the JayhawkGenerations title. The program provides special

attention to prospective students whose parent,grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle or cousin earneda KU degree and is a current member of the KUAlumni Association. Students who note theirlegacy status when requesting information orapplying to KU are added to a list of prospectivelegacy students, along with children in the sixthgrade and older who belong to the Association’schildren’s membership program (also known asJayhawk Generations).

From sixth grade through high-school gradua-tion, the Association will send eligible studentsinformation that ideally will boost their interest inKU. As the students progress through highschool, the Association will host special eventsand encourage prospects to apply to KU. Thecommunications and events will be Alderdice’sresponsibility.

“Because I have already had a hand in differentstudent programs, I can talk about these aspectsof student life and attract students with programsand events that complement the recruitmenteffort, such as Jayhawk Generations Picnics,” shesays.

In addition to contacting students, Alderdice

“There is not a better personfor this position

than Jen Alderdice.Those who know

Jen know that her passion andenthusiasm areunparalleled—all prospective

Jayhawk legacieswill benefit from

her tireless effortsto promote KU.”

—Heidi Simon

All in the familyAssociation to help KU recruitstudents with Jayhawk lineage

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will work closely with the Office ofAdmissions and Scholarships (OAS) toshare information about students whoshow interest in KU. She is eager to workwith her longtime colleague HeidiSimon, g’00, associate director of admis-sions. Their partnership is the latestimprovement in a growing collaborationbetween the Association and the OAS.

“There is not a better person for thisposition than Jen Alderdice,” Simon says.“Those who know Jen as I do know thather passion and enthusiasm are unparal-leled—have you ever seen her do her RickSpringfield air guitar? It takes energy likeJen’s to be a great recruiter, and allprospective Jayhawk legacies will benefitfrom her tireless efforts to promote KU.

“Legacies are a big part of the KU tra-dition, and the addition of this positionallows our office to continue to focus onrecruiting the best and the brightest,while collaborating with Jen on giving

information and attention to generationsof Jayhawks.”

Although Alderdice is enthusiasticabout her new responsibilities, sayinggoodbye to her role as SAA adviser is noteasy. She will continue to oversee studentprograms and lead the HomecomingSteering Committee and Tradition Keep-ers. The new student programs coordina-tor, Stefani Gerson, will become adviserto the Student Alumni Association. (Seestory; p.47.)

“Giving up the Student Alumni Associ-ation is bittersweet. I’ve loved workingwith SAA and all the students,” Alderdicesays, “but this way I have more time tofocus on student recruitment and, inturn, help expand the student programshere as well. I will still be involved in stu-dent life.”

The Association’s new emphasis onstudent recruitment grows from a long-time interest of the national Board ofDirectors and the results of a fall 2006survey of KU alumni. The survey of morethan 6,000 Association members andnon-members revealed that studentrecruitment is a significant concern forall KU alumni as well. Alumni in manyparts of the nation have unofficially sup-ported recruitment in their areas; thenew program formalizes their efforts.

“KU has long had one of the proudesttraditions nationally in terms of multi-generations of graduates,” says KevinCorbett, c’88, Association president. “Asa result of the recent graduate survey, the

Alumni Association was encouraged tostrengthen recruitment programs aimedat Jayhawk legacies. We look forward toinitiating additional programs in thefuture for members of the Jayhawk fam-ily who have helped make KU a world-class university.”

As Alderdice adds, “The Jayhawk Gen-erations programs try to create the ‘oncea Jayhawk, always a Jayhawk’ feelingamong current and potential students.”

And what better place to start than inJayhawk families.�

If you would like to refer a prospectivelegacy student for the Jayhawk GenerationsRecruitment Program, please visitwww.kualumni.org/recruitment.

◆ ◆ ◆

New year, new leaders

Association names chair, chair-elect and 4 directors

The Association’s national Boardof Directors elected new officersand approved the nominationsof four directors at its May 16

meeting. Tedde Tasheff, c’78, New York, N.Y.,

will chair the Board during the 2008-’09fiscal year. She succeeds Joe Morris, b’61,

■ Alderdice (above) for years has helped theStudent Alumni Association host campus events.Now she’ll extend her hospitality to prospec-tive students from KU families as part of theAssociation’s new venture with the Office ofAdmissions and Scholarships.

Four KU freshmen from the Colby area gath-ered with local alumni and Association staffJune 16 for a Jayhawk Generations picnic, oneof 23 welcome parties for freshmen in Kansasand 17 around the nation this summer.


Association

of Leawood. Sue Shields Watson, d’75, ofWichita, is chair-elect. Tasheff is seniorattorney with the National Center forLaw and Economic Justice. Morris chairsan investment firm, The Capital Corp.Watson is a longtime leader of theWichita KU alumni chapter and a com-munity volunteer.

The new directors, who began theirfive-year terms July 1, are:

Sheri Welter Hauck, b’81, ArroyoGrande, Calif. She is the retired con-troller of Enterprise Rent-a-Car. For theKU Endowment Association, she serveson the advisory board of Women Philanthropists for KU, and she previ-ously chaired the Chancellors Club advisory board. She also has served as the alumni representative to the KU Athletics board. She is a life and Jayhawk Society member of the Alumni Association.

Jeff Kennedy, j’81, Wichita. A graduateof Washburn University Law School, he is managing partner of Martin,Pringle, Oliver, Wallace & Bauer. As alongtime KU volunteer and president of the Wichita alumni chapter, Kennedylast year received the Mildred ClodfelterAlumni Award. He is a life and JayhawkSociety member of the Alumni Associa-tion and a member of the PresidentsClub.

Henry Menghini, c’87, Pittsburg. He isan attorney with Menghini, Menghini &Mazurek. Last fall, Menghini, who leadsthe Tri-State alumni chapter, was amongthe first to receive the new Dick Winter-

mote Chapter Volunteer of the Yearaward. He is an Alumni Association lifemember.

Ben Palen Jr., c’75, Denver. He is gen-eral manager of Pull Pans, a national con-tractor. He earned a law degree fromNorthwestern University and serves onthe advisory board for the KU HonorsProgram. For the Alumni Association, heis a Jayhawk Society and Presidents Clubmember.

The four were chosen in April by theNominating Committee from a field ofalumni nominated by Association mem-bers. The committee then presented theslate to the Board May 16. Nominationsfor directors to join the Board in 2009will be accepted until March 1, 2009.

The Board also chose Jeff Briley, d’74,Overland Park, as an at-large member ofthe Executive Committee. Briley is anexecutive with CBIZ.

Retiring in May were Immediate PastChair, Marvin Motley, c’77, l’80, g’81, ofLeawood. Including an earlier term onthe Board from 1989 to 1994, Motleyhad served the Association for 16 years.Other retiring Board members are CarolAnn Adams Brown, c’72, Alexandria, Va.,and Tom Collinson, c’64, Pittsburg.

The Board also named two alumnae toserve on campus committees. Lori Ander-son Piening, b’92, Austin, Texas, willserve three years on the Chancellor’sAdvisory Committee to Athletics, andJacklynn Roth Grimwood, c’95, St.Joseph, Mo., will serve five years on theKU Memorial Union Corp. board.�

Tasheff

Watson

Hauck Kennedy Menghini Palen

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 47

◆ ◆ ◆

Chapter champsAlumni earn honors

for banner years as volunteers

Four alumni chapter leaders willreceive the Dick WintermoteChapter Volunteer of the Yearaward. The Association created

the award in 2007 to honor Wintermote,c’51, who served as executive director ofthe Alumni Association from 1963 to1983. Wintermote dedicated his careerto building relationships with KUalumni, and his renowned personal let-ters earned him admiration and a lastinglegacy. He and his wife, Barbara FletcherWintermote, f’51, still live in Lawrence;he led the Association’s Gold Medal Clubas president this past year.

The 2008 class of Wintermote win-ners includes Luke Bobo, Ballwin, Mo.;Larry Chaney, McPherson; Scott Lund-gren, Portland, Ore.; and StephanieRawe, Prairie Village. The alumni will behonored Sept. 5 during the Association’sVolunteer Leaders’ Weekend inLawrence.

The award is given each year to twoKansas chapter volunteers and twonational chapter volunteers who have

helped increase membership and provideinnovative leadership. The network ofalumni groups currently includes 22Kansas chapters, 24 national chaptersand 35 alumni clubs.

“Wintermote valued volunteersbecause they make the Association tick,”says Mike Davis, d’84, g’91, senior vicepresident for alumni, student and mem-bership programs. “We are recognizing atruly awesome group that really showswhat we set out to do in creating theaward. These four individuals work sohard for KU, only because they love it.That justifies the award.”

The Wintermote distinction is exclu-sively for chapter volunteers and comple-ments the Mildred Clodfelter AlumniAward, which is for sustained volunteerservice over the years and is open to allKU volunteers.

Bobo, e’82, now in his second year aspresident of the Black Alumni Chapter,helped his chapter win the large chapterdivision of the 2008 Jayhawk NationChapter Challenge membership competi-tion. Bobo, an Association annual mem-ber, directed the chapter’s leadershipteam in hosting social and career net-working events on campus, around thestate and across the nation as part of thechapter’s effort to recruit and retainblack students at KU and raise money forthe Black Alumni Endowment fund at

Gerson to lead students

Stefani Gerson, c’06, g’08, joined theAssociation in early June as the new

coordinator of student programs. Ger-son will advise the Student Alumni Asso-ciation (SAA) and work closely with JenAlderdice, assistant vice president forstudent programs.

As SAA adviser, Gerson will leadbiweekly meetings and help the groupplan events such as Celebrate KU andthe annual Ice Cream Social during’Hawk Week. In late July, she will take theexecutive officers to the national con-vention of the Association of StudentAdvancement Programs in Salt Lake City.Throughout the school year, she willfocus on engaging other campus groupsand encouraging more student activity atthe Adams Alumni Center.

Gerson, an Overland Park native,earned her bachelor’s degree from KUin communications studies and in Maycompleted a master’s degree in highereducation administration. As a graduatestudent, she worked at the StudentInvolvement and Leadership Center,assisting the Emily Taylor Women’sResource Center. �

■ Alumni chapters in Kansas are announcing their presence through billboards. The Tri-Statebillboard stands along Highway 400 west of Pittsburg, and the Great Plains version is alongHighway 83 south of Garden City. Other billboards can be found along Highway 56 north ofHugoton and Interstate 70 near Topeka. Four are in the works near McPherson, Liberal, Prattand Garden City. To learn how you can make a KU statement near your Kansas town, contactHeath Peterson at [email protected].

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Association

the KU Endowment Association. Thechapter also works with ChancellorRobert E. Hemenway, Provost RichardLariviere and the Office of MulticulturalAffairs to implement educational pro-grams for black students. Bobo is cur-rently completing his doctorate in adulteducation at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and is assistant professor ofChristian ministry studies at Linden-wood University in St. Charles, Mo.

As president of the Santa Fe TrailChapter, Chaney, c’88, gathered area Jay-hawks for their first chapter meeting andhas continued working tirelessly toincrease membership and event atten-dance. He organized the 2008 JayhawkGenerations Picnic in McPherson, andhis personal calls to area students andalumni helped double the attendancefrom 2007. He also called more than 100alumni in McPherson County to encour-age attendance at the first alumni ban-

quet. Before he began calling, there were15 reservations; 60 ultimately attendedthe event. During the 2008 ChapterChallenge competition, the Santa Fe TrailChapter garnered 18 new Associationmembers. Chaney is an annual member.

Lundgren, e’94, has overseen alumniin the Portland area since 2001 and thisyear helped local Jayhawks make thetransition from an alumni club to analumni chapter. He organized a chapterkick-off party that drew 65 people andhelped host the chapter’s first JayhawkGenerations Picnic. He organized anannual event with the Portland Trailblaz-ers that has drawn more than 150 peoplethe past two years. He is now recruitingboard members to help increase chaptermembership. Lundgren is a stationdesign engineer for NW Natural, a natu-ral gas distribution company based inPortland that serves more than 600,000customers in Oregon and southwest

Washington. He lives in Portland and isan annual member of the Association.

Rawe, b’96, has served on the KansasCity Chapter board since 2006, and thisyear took on the role of vice president ofthe Rock Chalk Ball committee. As auc-tion chair, she found innovative auctionitems and organized volunteers. Sheattends many chapter events and, as aJayhawk Society member, avidly pro-motes Association membership to herfamily and friends. Rawe began heraccounting career at Ernst & Young LLPin Seattle before moving to Kansas City.She is currently employed in the Finan-cial Reporting Division of AssurantEmployee Benefits.�

◆ ◆ ◆

New life members

The following Jayhawks havecommitted to the KU AlumniAssociation as new life membersbeginning May 1 through June

30. For more information, please visitwww.kualumni.org or call 800-584-2957.

We’re sold

Whitney Eriksen, c’08, j’08, who since Januaryhas worked part time as the advertising

sales representative for Kansas Alumni, became afull-time staff member July 1. As sales and commu-nications coordinator, she will continue to overseeadvertising for the magazine and assist with writ-ing and production for a variety of print andonline communications. A Hutchinson native andformer Kansas Honor Scholar, Eriksen completedher liberal arts degree in English and her journal-ism degree in strategic communications. �

Bobo Chaney Lundgren Rawe

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Joseph W. AlgaierEmily C. BannwarthElizabeth K. BarnertDavid N. Borys

and Diane M. BasorePatricia A. BellLaura C. BerryJenna M. BleeckerAshley E. Bloom

Karalyn E. BostonChelsea M. BradenTiffany A. BradleyElyse N. BriskoKristen S. BuckDanelle S. CarterC. David ClarkWhitney P. ClarkeKristen D. Collins

Continued on p. 50

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 49

Legends, links and laughter

■ Former KU student-athletes were among the 148 alumni and friends who played in

the KC Legends Golf Tournament June 23 at the Falcon Ridge Golf Course in Lenexa.

The tournament, hosted by the Greater Kansas City Alumni Chapter, included former

basketball players Bud Stallworth, s’78 (left), along with Mark Randall, j’03, (above, l to r)

and Mike Maddox, b’92, l’94. Tim Fritzel, ’80, (below, l to r) and Todd Sutherland, assoc.,

of the Oread Inn, a new Lawrence hotel under construction at the corner of 12th

Street and Oread Avenue, were among the tournament’s sponsors. They golfed with

Kevin Corbett, c’88, Association president.

P H OTO G R A P H S B Y S T E V E P U P P E

Board of Directors

CHAIR

Tedde Tasheff, c’78, New York, New York

CHAIR-ELECT

Sue Shields Watson, d’75, Wichita

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Jeffrey P. Briley, d’74, Overland Park

Jay Howard, b’79, Austin, Texas

Joe C. Morris, b’61, Leawood

Walter F. Riker III, c’70, j’78, Aurora, Illinois

Tedde Tasheff, c’78, New York, New York

Becky VanWyhe Thomas, e’86, Baldwin City

Sue Shields Watson, d’75, Wichita

DIRECTORS TO JULY 2009

Robert T. Stephan, ’54, Lenexa

Becky VanWyhe Thomas, e’86, Baldwin City

Sue Shields Watson,d’75, Wichita


E. Grant Larkin, c’78, Garden City

Melissa Rodgers Padgett, c’83, Lawrence

Walter F. Riker III, c’70, j’78, Aurora, Illinois

DIRECTORS UNTIL 2011

Jeffrey P. Briley, d’74, Overland Park

Howard E. Cohen, b’79, Leawood

Jay Howard, b’79, Austin, Texas

Bradley G. Korell, l’97, Austin, Texas

Curtis R. McClinton Jr., d’62, Kansas City, Missouri

Winifred S. Pinet, c’80, g’82, Plymouth, Michigan


Paul “Bud” Burke, b’56, Lawrence

Ray D. Evans, b’82, g’84, Prairie Village

Karen M. Humphreys, c’70, l’73, Wichita

James A. Trower, b’76, Salina


Sheri Welter Hauck, b’81, Arroyo Grande, California

Jeff Kennedy, j’81, WichitaHenry Menghini, c’87,

PittsburgBen Palen Jr. c’75,

Denver

HONORARY MEMBERS

Gene A. Budig, EdD, Princeton, New Jersey

E. Laurence Chalmers Jr., PhD, San Antonio, Texas

Archie R. Dykes, EdD, Leawood

Delbert M. Shankel, PhD, Lawrence

Administrative Staff

Kevin J. Corbett, c’88,President

ALUMNI CENTER

Timothy E. Brandt, b’74, Director of Adams Alumni Center

ALUMNI, STUDENT & MEMBERSHIP PROGRAMS

Jennifer Alderdice, g’99,Assistant Vice President for Student Programs

Michael W. Davis, d’84, g’91, Sr VP for Alumni, Student and Membership Programs

Nikki EpleyDirector of Reunion Programs

Heath Peterson, d’04,Director of Kansas Programs

Jill Simpson Miller, d’01,Director of Kansas CityPrograms

COMMUNICATIONS

David Johnston, j’94, g’06, Director of Internet Services and Marketing

Chris Lazzarino, j’86,Associate Editor, Kansas Alumni magazine

Jennifer Sanner, j’81,Sr VP for Communications and Corporate Secretary

Susan Younger, f ’91,Creative Director

DONOR RELATIONSAND SPECIAL EVENTS

Lora StoppelVice President for Donor Relations and Special Events

FINANCE

Jodi Nachtigal Controller

Dwight ParmanSr VP for Finance and Human Resources and Treasurer

HOSPITALITY SERVICES

Bryan GreveSr VP for Hospitality

RECORDS

Bill GreenSr VP for Information Services

Stefanie ShackelfordVice President for Alumni Records

The KU Alumni Association exists to strengthen the University of Kansas by informing, engaging and mobilizing the KU community.

Your membership in the Association is the single mostpowerful way to make all of KU stronger, including thevalue of your own degree.

Laura Comeau ConleyTyler W. CookElizabeth A. CopelandCasey E. CornwellBlake E. CrippsJohn F. CrossAllison J. DietrichMeghan M. and

Tyler P. DoyleKelly I. DraffenStephen M. DurickRobert L. ElderGavin R. Englund Mark A. FilipiSam R. FunkCurtis B. GlessnerJErin L. GoodmanRylind A. GriffinMilford E.

and Julie A. GrindolShannon B. GriswoldSharon K. HaertlingClark W. HamiltonLexi D. HammondChristian O. HansenDiana Thomas HansenJohn R. HansenTracy A. HansonHoward T. I. HaryantoJoseph H. Hawkins,

and Brandi Mishler Hawkins

Alexander K. HaynesTimothy J. HealeyCindy R. HeilmanSamuel H. HemphillMarc T. HessRyan R. HultgrenScott C. JacksonAdam G. JenkinsDavid A. JenkinsBrittani L. JohnsonAmanda E. JonesFrancis A. KieneLT Jessica L. KobeMaxx A. KruegerZachary A. LernerHaili A. LeutholdMegan E. LewisMatthew E. LindbergRichard E. LittrellHannah B. LoveLance H. MallTyler J. ManiezDavid J. McBrideWilliam R. McCulloughGary P. MeirKleber C. Miller

Nicolas V. Jaumard and Emily Grace Moisan

Bradley J. NewellRyan M. NorthupMary K. NoullesScott D. OswaltMark C. PahlsStephen N. Paige

and Jacolin L. Montfoort-Paige

Callie PenzlerCraig Robert

and Michelle Waters Phelan

Elizabeth M. PiperKathleen C. PommerenkeEric M. PosnerDaniel G.

and Loretta Hayne Quackenbush

Stephanie L. QuanteMark R. Best

and April N. RainboltBrian M. ReasonerJon A. & Martha M. RicheyMary K. RiegOswaldo Bravo De Los

RiosKatherine L. RoessleinRyan C. RowanJames R. & Eileen M. SauerMaj. Stanton P. SchneiderWilliam R. Sellers IIIBen L. ShortEric L. SimmonsEric J. SnowdenStephanie L. SowersSarah E. StokowskiEllen C. StolleAndrew C. Struble IIMichele R. SturgeonLaura E. SuttonKari A. TalbottJulie Fern ThatcherCarol J. TolandRyan A. TownleyLindsey E. UrbatchkaPaula K. WaldropBrandon L.

and Amanda Hurley Walker

Jared W. WalkerStephanie L. WebsterElizabeth A. WeismanKristen N. WescheJohn A. WickershamJohn C. WickeyAlexander C. WiebelKatherine L. WiegeleBradley J. Wuggazer


Association


for Flagship Yachts of Texas. He lives inBellaire.

1960Klaus Hass, p’60, directs the pharmacy

at Mercy Health Center. He lives in Man-hattan.

1961Dennis Park, b’61, is treasurer of

Industrial Vehicles International in Tulsa,Okla.

1962Jerry Johnson, g’62, serves as principal

of Topeka Mediation and Stress Consult-ants.

Stanley Welli, b’62, recently com-pleted a biographical novel, Play ‘RedWing’! A Family’s Odyssey Through Europeand the Old West. He lives in Aurora, Ill.

1964Donald Hatton, c’64, m’68, recently

became chair of the board of governorsfor the American College of Physicians.He practices medicine with Reed MedicalGroup in Lawrence, where he and CarolJones Hatton, d’66, make their home.She’s a project coordinator in KU’sSchool of Education.

1966Carol Weber DeFore, d’66, is a senior

leasing agent with Douglas Emmett Man-agement in Sherman Oaks, Calif. She andher husband, David, live in Encino.

1967Melvin Ehrlich, d’67, l’74, has a law

practice in Bakersfield, Calif., where heand Yvette Leerskov Ehrlich, l’90, maketheir home.

Courtney Worley, d’67, works as amanager with Gregory S. Simpson &Associates. He and Nancy ComstockWorley, d’69, live in North RichlandHills, Texas.

Class Notes B Y K A R E N G O O D E L L


1931Thelma Hart Brueck, ’31, will cele-

brate her 100th birthday July 29 with herfriends at the Good Samaritan Center inOlathe, where she lives. She enjoys listen-ing to music, eating good food, dressingup and chatting about the old days.

1948

MARRIEDRobert Malott, c’48, to Sue Thorson

Keene, April 12 in Evanston, Ill. They livein Wilmette.

1949Wallace Limbrick, e’49, makes his

home in Peoria, Ariz., with his wife, Dottie.

1950Leland Nelson, b’50, g’52, recently

was honored when a fountain at the Uni-versity Park City Hall was dedicated tohim. Lee was city manager of UniversityPark, Texas, for 21 years.

1955Maria Griffith DeLongy, c’55, recently

spent 10 days in Afghanistan with a mis-sion team from Paradise Valley UnitedMethodist Church. She lives in Scotts-dale, Ariz.

John Richards, c’55, is dean emeritusof education at Texas A&M University.He makes his home in Fredericksburg.

1958Phillip Moyer, d’58, works as a broker

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1968Patricia Mills Petersen, d’68, is

deputy director of the area health educa-tion centers at Oregon Health and Sci-ence University in Portland.

1969Russell Bromby, f’69, does freelance

editing and proofreading in Lakewood,Colo., where he and Barbara DeetjenBromby, f’71, make their home.

William Coates, c’69, l’72, a partnerwith Coates & Logan and a KU adjunctprofessor of trial advocacy, recentlybecame central region vice president of the National Association of RailroadTrial Counsel. He and Kathryn HillyardCoates, d’72, live in Prairie Village.

Anthony Harris, s’69, directs planningfor United Way of the Midlands inOmaha, Neb.

Ronald Reece, c’69, and his partner,Eric Mayo, recently moved from Londonto San Ramon, Calif., where Ron is anorganizational consultant and an execu-tive and sales coach.

Nancy Hardin Rogers, s’69, dean oflaw at Ohio State University, recentlyreceived the Ohio State Bar Association’sBar Medal Award for meritorious service.She and her husband, Douglas, live inColumbus.

1970Franklin Dunn, c’70, is vice president

of administration at Tidewater Commu-nity College in Norfolk, Va.

Gregory Gruber, b’70, lives in Hous-ton. He’s retired senior vice presidentand chief financial officer of El PasoPipeline Group.

1971Russell Daniels, b’71, is senior vice

president of administration at DunbarArmored in Hunt Valley, Md.

Thomas Handley, c’71, recentlybecame vice president and principal atLewis & Ellis in Overland Park.

1972Philip Basler, d’72, is project

director at Unifocus. He lives in Lee’sSummit, Mo.

Richard Bowers, b’72, works as a real-estate agent for Prudential Financialin Overland Park.

Joseph Evans, g’72, PhD’74, directspsychology at the University of NebraskaMedical Center in Omaha.

Marty Paulson Pope, c’72, g’76, ownsPaulson Senior Services in Wichita.

1973Roger Berger, c’73, chairs

math sciences and applied computing at Arizona State University in Phoenix.

Don Beville, b’73, g’74, manages the virtual loaner program for IBM inDallas. He lives in Colleyville.

Theodore, c’73, and Barbara TruskettGradolf, n’77, g’83, make their home inRoswell, Ga.

Jay Hern, g’73, PhD’73, is a seniorassociate at Burdeshaw Associates inBethesda, Md. He and his wife, Nancy,live in Falls Church, Va.

1974Randell Phelps, p’74, g’76, works at

Gunnison Valley Hospital in Gunnison,Colo.

Glen Taylor, g’74, PhD’77, is a seniorsales and technical consultant at AvayaInc. in Columbus, Ohio.

Kathleen Turner, c’74, recently washonored at the Southern States Commu-nication Association convention for herresearch, teaching and service. She’s aprofessor of communications studies atDavidson College, and she lives in Cor-nelius, N.C.

John Ziegelmeyer, c’74, is senior vicepresident at Pennington & Company inLawrence.

1975Diana White Kornfeld, c’75, teaches at

Olathe Northwest High School. She andher husband, Steve, ’84, live in Lee’sSummit, Mo.

Steven Minton, a’75, is senior vice


Class Notes

Catholic Archdiocese of Denver.

1978Ruth Severson Haug, g’78, is an asso-

ciate research professor at MississippiState University in Starkville.

1979LaDonna Hale Curzon, j’79, works as

a producer for the Hughes SullivanShow. She lives in Alexandria, Va.

Pamela Ekey, j’79, serves as pastor ofTheodosia United Methodist Church inTheodosia, Mo.

Richard Young, b’79, g’80, is a partnerin IBM in Independence, Ohio.

1980Fredric Prater, c’80, practices medi-

cine with DePaul Medical Group in St.Louis.

1981John Calys, b’81, g’82, is vice president

and corporate controller for XO Commu-nications in Herndon, Va.

John Christensen, PhD’81, chancellorof the University of Nebraska at Omaha,recently received the university AlumniAssociation’s Citation for AlumnusAchievement.

Sheila Conboy, c’81, recently becameprovost and vice president of academicaffairs at Stonehill College in North Eas-ton, Mass.

Curtis Rosebraugh, p’81, m’86, directsthe office of drug evaluation for the U.S.Food and Drug Administration. He livesin Ashton, Md.

John Sherman, e’81, manages logicdesign for LSI Corp. in Wichita.

1982Suzanne Ryse Collins, ’82, had one of

her photographs featured on the cover ofthe April issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist.She and her husband, Joseph, ’72, live inLawrence.

Suzanne Lemen, c’82, was namedSmall Business Leader of the Year by theJacksonville, Fla., Regional Chamber ofCommerce. She’s CEO of Dynamic Cor-porate Solutions in Orange Park.

Bonnie Stewart Rockwood, c’82, is a

School Codes Letters that follownames indicate the school from which alumniearned degrees. Numbers show their class years.

a School of Architecture and Urban Design

b School of Businessc College of Liberal Arts and

Sciencesd School of Educatione School of Engineeringf School of Fine Artsg Master’s Degreeh School of Allied Healthj School of Journalisml School of Lawm School of Medicinen School of Nursingp School of PharmacyPharmD School of Pharmacys School of Social WelfareDE Doctor of EngineeringDMA Doctor of Musical ArtsEdD Doctor of EducationPhD Doctor of Philosophy(no letter) Former studentassoc. Associate member of the

Alumni Association

president of architecture and construc-tion at John Q. Hammons Hotel &Resorts in Springfield, Mo.

1976Teodoro Cillero, b’76, is a partner in

Suanfarma Biotech. He lives in Madrid,Spain.

Sheree Johnson, j’76, works as manag-ing director of Nicholson Kovac inKansas City. She lives in Leawood.

Gregory Mathis, c’76, works on thestaff of the chief of naval operations atthe Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Helives in Fort Washington, Md.

Chip Miller, c’76, g’80, g’86, is a pro-fessor of marketing at Drake Universityin Des Moines, Iowa.

Garold Minns, m’76, chairs academicand student affairs at the KU School ofMedicine in Wichita.

1977James Conley, c’77, recently was

appointed auxiliary bishop for the

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 57

senior consultant at Buck Consultantsin Phoenix.

George Saleh, m’82, practices gyne-cology at Creekwood Women’s Care inKansas City.

1984Mark Bossi, b’84, practices law with

Thompson Coburn in St. Louis. Herecently was inducted into the AmericanCollege of Bankruptcy, an honorary association of bankruptcy and insolvencyprofessionals.

Sherlyn Wyatt Manson, d’84, man-ages corporate communications for Per-ceptive Software in Shawnee.

Daniel Young, c’84, is a senior IT ana-lyst for American Identity in OverlandPark.

1985Scott Roulier, d’85, is vice president

of business development for PrudentialBaja. He lives in Ramona, Calif.

Mark Voth, c’85, commutes fromEdmond, Okla., to Oklahoma City, where he’s vice president of the BeardCompany.


1987John Clever, l’87, is assistant dean of

athletics for compliance at the Universityof Oregon, in Eugene.

Penny Barenklau Cook, p’87, works asa staff pharmacist at Tara Pharmacy inBirmingham, Ala.

Peter Greig, b’87, is co-chief invest-ment officer for Financial CounselorsInc. in Kansas City.

Maureen Sheehan, m’87, practices

hematology and oncology at the KansasCity Cancer Center. She lives in OverlandPark with her husband, Teak Kelley.

Lorie Walker Worner, j’87, is seniordevelopment director at the KU Endow-ment Association. She and her husband,Rick, d’75, live in Fairway.

1988Kemal Ataman, e’88, manages IT and

the credit card center for Cyprus Turkish

Cooperative Central Bank in Lefkosa,Cyprus.

Robert Pieper, e’88, is project man-ager for CH2M Hill in Englewood, Colo.

Christopher Powell, c’88, works forZurich, where he’s vice president of oper-ations. He lives in Overland Park.

BORN TO:Tracy Treps-Huff, c’88, and Steven,

’90, daughter, Tatum Ace, Nov. 3 in Mid-west City, Okla., where she joins abrother, Jeff, 4. Tracy and Steven aredonor fund administrators for the Okla-homa City Community Foundation.

1989Patrick McCurdy, a’89, is vice presi-

dent of healthcare with RTKL Associatesin Dallas.

Glenn Trammel, c’89, works for Sun-gard, where he’s Southern general man-ager. He lives in Canton, Miss.

1990Greg Dowell, ’90, manages pipeline

control for First Horizon Home Loans inIrving, Texas.

BORN TO:Maria Galli Stampino, g’90, and

Robert Strain, PhD’93, daughter, Beat-rice June Strain, Jan. 27 in Miami, whereshe joins a brother, Lawrence, 4.

1991Brian Devlin, c’91, is senior vice presi-

dent of Fidelity Bank in Wichita, wherehe and Julie Schmitt Devlin, d’89, maketheir home.

Jennifer Fisher, d’91, works as a spe-cial-events officer for the St. Joseph Med-ical Center Foundation in Kansas City.

Maj. Jon Mohatt, b’91, g’97, directshealth plans for the U.S. Air Force atLuke AFB, Ariz.

Chadwick Waetzig, b’91, is vice presi-dent of marketing strategy and planningfor parks and resorts at the Walt DisneyCo. in Burbank, Calif. He lives inPasadena.

BORN TO:Lawrence Ching Tsen, m’91, and

Class Notes

with Merck, and John is a media salesrepresentative with Time Warner Cable.

1993Christy Arterburn, d’93, teaches in

the Miami-Dade County public schoolsystem. She lives in Pembroke Pines.

Michael Karellas, p’93, m’01, is a uro-logic oncology fellow at the MemorialSloan Kettering Cancer Center in NewYork City.

Michelle Mahaffey, b’93, l’96, directsinternational benefits for Cummins in

Paulita, son, Hamilton Ching, March 27in Boston, where they live. Lawrence isassociate professor of anesthesia at Har-vard Medical School.

1992Mike Gabrawy, c’92, an independent

film producer in Pasadena, Calif., won anaward earlier this year at the Zurich FilmFestival for his documentary, “Runningwith Arnold.”

Laura Russell, j’92, c’92, is an applica-tions specialist at the Golf Course Super-

intendents Association of America inLawrence.

BORN TO:Alisa Nickel Ehrlich, j’92, l’95, and

Scott, daughter, Sinclair Elizabeth, April22 in Andover, where she joins a sister,Ridgely, 3. Alisa is of counsel with thelaw firm of Stinson Morrison Hecker.

Hunter Johnson Haggart, j’92, andJohn, c’93, daughter, Hayden Marie, Sept.17 in Lewisville, Texas. Hunter is a seniorexecutive hospital sales representative

Networking alumna landsjob with longtime hero

In an editing room at Channel Thir-teen, New York City’s PBS TV sta-tion, producer Betsy Rate discussesa problem with colleagues at “Bill

Moyers Journal.” They planned torebroadcast Rate’s piece on a paralyzedIraqi war veteran from Kansas City,Tomas Young, but earlier that day Ratediscovered that Young was in a coma, theresult of a blood clot in his lung.

Along with executive producer JudyDoctoroff O’Neill and editor Lewis Erskine, Rate must decide how to handlethis. Should the program update Young’scondition? And if so, how? Should theybook a studio—along with the necessarycamera and lighting crew—or will a voice-over suffice? It’s nearly 4 p.m., andthey have until the end of the day to sortit out.

Rate, j’96, c’97, smiles and shakes herhead. “Nothing is ever easy. I thoughtthis week would be a walk in the park,but it never is.

With her short red ponytail, jeansskirt and silver flats, the 35-year-oldLeavenworth native looks like she couldstill be walking Jayhawk Boulevard witha backpack slung over her shoulder.Despite the pressure, she’s calm andcheerful as she hammers the script for

B Y S A R A E C K E LProfile

her boss and longtime hero, Bill Moyers.“What would Bill say?” she wondersaloud. “He’s such a great writer, so this isa tough exercise.”

Rate met Moyers the summer beforegraduation, while working a food-servicegig for his program “Genesis.” “One day,Bill walked up and said, ‘Who are you?’ I said, ‘I’m Betsy Rate from the Universityof Kansas, and I’m really excited to meetyou.’” Moyers brightened—he’d spenttime in Lawrence in the 1960s, whilewriting a travel book about the UnitedStates. “The next day he gave me theLawrence chapter photocopied from hisbook. Isn’t that amazing?”

After graduating, Rate returned toNew York and worked for several net-work news programs, including “60 Minutes Wednesday” and “DatelineNBC/Rivera Reports.” When O’Neillcalled in 2001 asking if she wanted tojoin “Now With Bill Moyers,” she jumpedat the chance. “It was a no-brainer,” she says.

The show evolved into “Bill MoyersJournal,” where Rate has produced seg-ments about the Christian Zionist move-ment, Scooter Libby’s pardon and theweakening of government whistleblowerprotections. She loves the studio andediting room, but her favorite job isshooting field pieces, as she recently didfor a story on shortages gripping the

■ Betsy Rate met TV journalist Bill Moyerswhile working a food-service gig on his show.Now she works alongside him as a producer on “Bill Moyers Journal.”

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 59

nation’s food banks. “There’s somethingso exciting about entering a world youwouldn’t have access to otherwise,” she says.

“I always wanted a job that resembledgrad school, where you’re learningthings on a regular basis and talking topeople about their experiences,” Rateadds. “This is it.”�

—Eckel is a Brooklyn freelance writer.

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Indianapolis.John Mullies, b’93, h’97, is a senior

design architect for the Cerner Corp. Helives in Olathe.

MARRIEDDiane Krapf, e’93, to Thomas Grims-

ley, Sept. 4 in Banff, Alberta, Canada.They make their home in Greenville,N.C.

BORN TO:Richard, b’93, e’96, and Gayle Gerritz

Boyd, b’00, daughter, Georgia Brooke,Dec. 27 in Westwood Hills.

1994Brennan Burger, j’94, recently joined

Hickerson Wahaus Advertising and Mar-keting in Kansas City.

Clyde Hall, b’94, directs sales opera-tions for Cigna Healthcare. He lives inBasehor.

Renee Wessel Jaenicke, b’94, g’95, isdirector of internal audits at RenownHealth. She lives in Sparks, Nev.

Brook Moody, ’94, directs nationalaccounts for Hyatt Hotel Co. in Shawnee.

Rebecca Rourk, j’94, directs publicrelations and writes copy for X-nth Inc.in Maitland, Fla. She lives in Orlando.

Erich Starrett, j’94, received an MBAin international business last year fromGeorgia Tech. He lives in Roswell.

Katherin Steinbacher, e’94, is president of KSPE Consultants inLawrence.

Curtis Taylor, b’94, lives in Portland,Ore., where he’s senior director at

Movie-house mogul leadsAMC to big success

Afew years out of college, PeterBrown left his hometown ofKansas City for a career in thefinancial district of New York

City. He credits his Kansas roots withhelping him succeed in a global eco-nomic hub.

“I worked with a lot of peers who hadcome out of big-name schools withimpressive degrees,” he says. “As a youngperson, you tend to feel inferior at pointsin your life based on where you’ve comefrom. I realized slowly but surely that KUhad given me what I needed to succeed,and if I took that to heart I could accom-plish anything.”

This and other lessons early in hiscareer helped Brown, b’79, rise to CEO,president and chairman of the board forAMC Entertainment Inc., one of the topmovie theater chains in the UnitedStates. Since his start in 1991, he hashelped grow the company from a $400million entity into a $2.4 billion corpora-tion. While he says this is his proudestaccomplishment, he’s quick to point outthat the growth was a team effort.

Brown is not someone who seeks thespotlight. So he was both honored andhumbled this spring when the KUSchool of Business gave him its Distin-

guished Alumni Award. Recipients arechosen for their leadership, businesscontributions and involvement with thecommunity and the school. Brown is aformer member of the school’s board ofadvisers and has been active in a $50million building campaign to replaceSummerfield Hall.

Brown lives by the motto “think big.”Appreciation for the big idea is one rea-son he was hired by AMC. During aseries of conversations in 1990 with for-mer CEO Stan Durwood, the two dis-cussed Durwood’s vision for movingAMC into the international realm. Brownimmediately understood the importanceof this vision and ultimately helped Dur-wood see it to fruition. Pioneering thecinema megaplex (development of thegiant multiscreen theatres has been oneof Brown’s pet projects) was another“think big” idea. In 1991, AMC had 261theatres with 1,622 screens. Today, 359AMC theatres offer 5,138 screens.

Vision has been a defining factor inBrown’s success, but so has plain oldhard work.

“There’s no substitute for hard work,”he says. “There’s a lot of preparation thatgoes into anything successful.”

His biggest career challenge today,Brown says, is keeping the AMC guestexperience fresh and exciting. One wayhe checks this out is by going to the

movies weekly with his family. A big fanof science fiction and fantasy, his favoritemovie is the 1963 film “Jason and theArgonauts”—the mythic tale of a manwho leaves home and returns years laterto fulfill his destiny.�

—Dodderidge, j’83, is a Lenexa freelance writer.

Profile B Y T A M M Y D O D D E R I D G E

■ To monitor the moviegoing experience atAMC Entertainment, the Kansas City-based theatre chain with 5,000 screens nationwide,CEO Peter Brown makes weekly trips to the movies with his family. His preferred concession-stand treat: peanut M&Ms.


Class Notes

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Alvarez and Marsal. He and Laura Culbertson Taylor, b’93, have twodaughters.

1995William, c’95, and Susan Mayden

Geiger, f’98, live in Tonganoxie withtheir children, William, 5; Mayden, 3;and Mark, 1. William is a productionmanager with Geiger Ready-Mix inKansas City.

Laurie Boyer Thompson, b’95, is vicepresident and account director at BarkleyAdvertising in Kansas City. She and herhusband, Timothy, b’95, l’99, live in Lea-wood.

1996John Blair, c’96, is a principal at the

Payroll Co. in Albuquerque, N.M.Leslie Brown, g’96, works as a tourna-

ment consultant with the American Jun-ior Golf Association in Tampa, Fla.

Elizabeth Drummond Dahl, c’96, andher husband, Terry, make their home inOverland Park. She’s a paraprofessionalwith the Blue Valley School District, andhe’s a regional financial controller withHulsing Hotels.

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 61

Class Notes


Robert Dunne, b’96, is president ofDunne Investments in Wichita.

Heather Stuchlik Ehlert, c’96, directsdevelopment at the Barstow School inKansas City.

Thomas Erickson, j’96, is a Web con-tent specialist with Texas HealthResources. He lives in Dallas.

Jason Fauss, d’96, has a law practice inBridgeton, Mo.

Randy Rodriquez, s’96, is a programmanager for the state of Idaho. He livesin Idaho Falls.

Christopher Ronan, j’96, managescommunications for the Crown CenterRedevelopment Corporation. He lives inLenexa.

Megan Younger, s’96, recently became a mental-health clinician at the Johnson County Health Center. She lives in Lenexa.

BORN TO:Shawn Schwartz Wesner, c’96, and

Patrick, son, Preston Joaquin, July 4 inDulles, Va., where he joins a sister, Addi-son, 3. Shawn is a community liasionofficer for the U.S. Department of State.

1997Crystal Phillips Hill, c’97, m’02, prac-

tices medicine at the Medical Center inHutchinson.

Micah Laaker, f’97, directs user experi-ence for Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Joel Rotert, c’97, is an explorationgeologist at Metallica Resources. He livesin Portland, Ore.

Brian Tamasi, b’97, president of BTAFinancial Group, makes his home inOlathe with Kathleen Konen Tamasi,j’99, and their son, Anthony, 2.

Brian Williams, d’97, g’03, teachesspecial education at Shawnee HeightsSenior High School in Tecumseh. He andKristen Koplik Williams, c’97, g’00, livein Lawrence. She’s a psychologist for theAuburn-Washburn School District.

David Wood, g’98, is a senior scientistat Cabot Corp. He lives in Santa Fe andreceived a doctorate in chemical engi-neering last year from the University ofNew Mexico.

BORN TO:Jeni Miller Prenger, h’98, and Nathan,

c’99, son, Carsten John, Sept. 7 in Lea-wood. Jeni is a senior CRA with ScheringPlough Corp., and Nathan is a music promoter for Wakarusa and PipelineProductions.

BORN TO:Lewis Galloway, c’97, and Jamie, son,

John William, Dec. 12 in Kansas City,where Lewis practices law with SpencerFane Britt and Browne.

Blake, j’97, and Megan NorrisHodges, j’99, daughter, Charlotte, March 14 in Prairie Village, where shejoins a brother, Oliver, 2. Blake is aninteractive marketing strategist withGlynn Devins Advertising & Marketing,and Megan is an account executive with Katz Media Group.

1998Benjamin Rayome, d’98, is dean

of students for the Waupaca School District. He lives in Waupaca, Wis.

Jennifer Pownall Schwaller, c’98,works as an environmental planner forSTV/Ralph Whitehead Associates inCharlotte, N.C.

Rachel Schwartz, c’98, practices law with Steuve Siegel Hanson in Kansas City. She and her husband,Anthony Gasper, e’98, live in ShawneeMission.

B Y P O L L Y S U M M A RProfile

Until then, Cook says,she had led a rather tradi-tional life, with sparks ofher creativity occasionallybursting forth. After gradu-ating with a bachelor’sdegree in fine arts and mar-rying fellow Jayhawk SamCook, ’40, in 1940, shereared three children andfollowed her husband fromKansas to Wisconsin, Iowaand New Mexico.

During those years, sheactively promoted the artsand the cause of peace,working for the PeaceCorps in Iowa. “I gave talksat every Rotary Club, everyschool that would haveme,” she says.

After her husband died in 1981, hercommunity involvement soared. In 1984,she cofounded a program called LivingTreasures that honors elders; she wasnamed a Living Treasure herself whenshe reached the required age of 70. Shehas advised hundreds of communitiesthat want to start similar programs.

In the late ’80s, Cook was ordained asa minister in the Eternal Life Churchafter two friends asked her to performtheir marriage. She went on to performhundreds of weddings.

Her love of calligraphy found a placeto flourish on wedding licenses, andCook became the official calligrapher ofthe City of Santa Fe. Her lettering gracesthe city seal, which hangs in City Councilchambers.

Cook prides herself on going with theflow, no surprise for someone born onthe move—literally—in a Chicago elevator.“I don’t think about the future,” she says,“except to keep my datebook. I just enjoyevery day as it comes.”�

—Summar is a lifestyles writer for the Albuquerque Journal in Santa Fe.

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 63

Cook keeps moving afterhitting creative stride late

How many people invite anentire town to a birthdayparty? When you’re Mary LouBorders Cook, the unofficial

peace ambassador of Santa Fe, N.M., itseems only natural.

Mayor David Coss declared April 27Mary Lou Cook Day, setting the stage fora communitywide 90th birthday party atthe renowned Museum of InternationalFolk Art. Nearly a thousand of her neigh-bors celebrated Cook’s indomitablespirit and contributions to Santa Fe.

Called by Coss “the conscience of thecity,” Cook has spent the past 39 years inher adopted hometown promoting thecause of peace, helping found the NewMexico Department of Peace in 2004.

Reflecting on her life, however, Cook,f’39, says it wasn’t always one of peaceand joy. “The first half of my life I wasabsolutely miserable,” she says. “Com-pletely full of fear.”

And then came a diagnosis ofleukemia when Cook was 57. “Thatchanged everything,” she says. A weeklater, a friend told her of a new bookcalled A Course in Miracles. It was thedirection she needed.

“I found a spirit path that madesense.”

■ “Creativity is the most important thing in our lives,” saysMary Lou Cook, at 90 a pillar in the civic life of Santa Fe, N.M.She and friends are planning the launch of the Mary Lou CookCreativity Center, a place for community and civic events.

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Wayne, Jan. 4 in Minneapolis, Minn.,where he joins a brother, Brennan, 3.Scott is a physician at the University ofMinnesota Medical Center.

Kevan, c’99, and Sarah Miller Meiner-shagen, b’01, daughter, Violet, March 9in Lawrence, where they live.

2000Jennifer Land Carter, b’00, g’02, is a

tax analyst for Embarq Logistics in Over-land Park.

Eden Detrixhe Sivits, c’00, and Kevin,

1999Gina Damico, j’99, coordinates special

events for the University of Missouri, inColumbia.

Douglas Reed, g’99, manages home-land security grants for the Kansas High-way Patrol in Topeka. He lives in Olathe.

Ward Strahan, d’99, g’01, is a physicaltherapist at the Athletic and Rehabilita-tion Center in Kansas City.

MARRIEDBrett Flachsbarth, c’99, to Anastasia

Patterson, April 19 in Topeka, where theylive. Brett is an attorney with the KansasDepartment of Labor, where Annie is apublications writer.

Jennifer Wilson, c’99, to Ted Conrad,Nov. 10 in Carmel, Calif. They live inLenexa, and Jennifer is a lead clinicalresearch associate with PRA Interna-tional.

BORN TO:Scott, c’99, m’03, and Erika Nutt

Donner, s’99, l’03, s’03, son, Davis

Journalist tells his story of conquering meningitis

As a journalism student about tograduate, Andy Marso had hiswhole life ahead of him. Alreadyreporting sports for the Basehor

Sentinel, Marso, j’04, had gained a headstart on his career.

But, on April 28, 2004, just weeksbefore he would walk down the Hill, sud-den illness altered Marso’s plans. Doctorsdiagnosed him with bacterial meningi-tis—a disease he knew nothing about.After four months in the hospital andeight surgeries, he was left with only athumb on his right hand, only part ofeach foot and a future full of theunknown.

Today, four years and eight additionalsurgeries later, Marso lives in Olathe withcollege friends, works full time as asports reporter at The Olathe News anduses his experience to regain the controlthe disease tried to claim.

“When I got out of the hospital, Iknew my life was not going to be thesame,” he says. “My new purpose was toget the word out about meningitis,because no one had told me about itbefore I got it.”

In late 2006, Marso sent e-mails tohigh school health teachers in the Olathearea, offering to talk to classes about

meningitis. In Novem-ber of that year, he toldhis story to an OlatheSouth health class and,since then, two out ofthe four area highschools regularly invitehim back. Often, Marsodevotes two or threedays a week to talk toclasses of 20 to 30 stu-dents, invoking shockeach time.

“I show them photosof what I was goingthrough in the hospi-tal—pretty graphic stuff.The students say, ‘I hadno idea that diseasecould do that. I’mgonna get that shot,’”Marso says.

If he has time left after a day of speak-ing and covering sports events, Marsoworks to put his story on paper.

“It’s something that’s been kickingaround in my head for a while. As I leftthe hospital, everyone was saying, ‘Youshould write a book,’” Marso says.“Hopefully, this is a way that I won’thave to tell the story over and over.”

He speaks modestly of his progress,explaining that the book is merely anoutline and a few chapters so far. When

he began writing last January, he wantedto have it done by April 2009, the five-year anniversary of his diagnosis. But, Marso says, “that’s looking too ambitious.”

“One thing this experience has taughtme is to enjoy things as they are, not looktoo far into the future or make too manybig plans. Who knows what could hap-pen tomorrow? I like where I am now. Idon’t know what I’ll be doing in 10 years,but I’m enjoying where I am rightnow.”�

Profile B Y W H I T N E Y E R I K S E N


Class Notes

■ Four years ago, Andy Marso was hospitalized, battling bacterial

meningitis. Now he uses his experience to spread awareness

among high school students about the deadly disease he overcame,

all while maintaining his full-time job reporting sports. Sometimes,

he says, “it makes for a long day.”

STEV

E PU

PPE

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 65

e’02, live in Lawrence with their daugh-ter, Adelaide, 1.

Elaine Vrooman, a’00, works as assis-tant manager of design and constructionfor the Peterson Companies. She lives inBethesda, Md.

BORN TO:Carol Shaffer Birnbaum, d’00, and

Brian, son, Andrew Fredrick, Jan. 2 inColumbus, Ohio. Carol teaches high-school computer science classes.

Michael, ’00, and Kimberly CarlinStanley, c’02, daughter, Taylor Grace,Nov. 3 in Olathe.

Brian, c’00, and Anne McCoy Wilson,j’01, son, Michael Brian, Feb. 27 inKansas City.

2001Summer Brown Araque, c’01, is a sen-

ior environmental specialist for CollierCounty Government EnvironmentalServices in Naples, Fla.

Laci McLain, c’01, is a real-estate sys-tem administrator for the Zale Corp. inIrving, Texas.

Valerie Renegar, PhD’01, works as an

associate professor of communications atSan Diego State University.

BORN TO:Erika Haverkamp Buessing, c’01,

g’03, and Dale, daughter, Avery Lynn,April 28 in Beattie, where she joins twobrothers, Grant, 3, and Mitchell, 5.

Michael Gaughan, c’01, and JuliaGilmore, c’02, son, Kiernan David, Jan.12 in Lawrence, where Julia is a third-year law student at KU. Mike is executivedirector of the Kansas Democratic Partyin Topeka.

2002Erik Roesh, c’02, is an area supervisor

for Papa John’s in Richmond, Va.Laura Veazey, c’02, works as an

audiologist at the University of Texas-Dallas.

BORN TO:Katherine McClure Coleman, b’02,

g’03, and Chris, son, James Logan, Nov.28 in Lake in the Hills, Ill.

Stephen, a’02, and Lindsay Faust,h’02, g’04, daughter, Natalie, March 20 in

Yuma, Ariz., where she joins a brother,Aaron, 2. Stephen is an assistant projectmanager with EMC2 Architects, andLindsay is an occupational therapist withSouthwest Rehabilitation.

2003Marcellus Jones, j’03, is a pharmaceuti-

cal drug representative for BoehringerIngelheim Pharmaceuticals. He lives inEudora with his wife, Sherre-KhanBlackmon Jones, c’02.

Karla Weems Morrow, g’03, works asa nurse practitioner for the U.S. Army atFort Leavenworth. She lives in KansasCity.

2004Joseph Clausing, e’04, is an HVAC

design engineer for Flack & Kurtz. Helives in Las Vegas.

Ryan DaMetz, e’04, works as a civilengineer for Level-4 Engineering inLenexa.

Sara Funke Dean, n’04, is a women’shealthcare nurse practitioner at theWomen’s Specialist of Houston.

Zachary Hunter, j’04, works as a


Class Notes

Rock and roll: A portable radio and acool set of wheels were all this stu-

dent needed to enjoy a sunny roll acrosscampus. Skating was a popular form ofexercise in the 1970s.

THEN AGAIN

1979

JA

YH

AW

KER

truckload broker for Freightquote inLenexa.

Patrick McCarty, f’04, is assistantdirector of bands at Lawrence HighSchool.

Ryan Reed, e’04, g’06, works as a sys-tems analyst at Jacobs Engineering inHouston.

Thomas Reid, c’04, is an adviser forthe IE Business School in Madrid, Spain.

Julie Stoner, b’04, is an associate withJones Lang LaSalle in Denver.

BORN TO:Sara Gillispie Miller, d’04, and Jason,

e’05, son, Hunter Matthew, Feb. 18 inLawrence. They live in Valley Falls. Sarateaches math and Spanish in Oskaloosa,and Jason is an engineer at ICL Perform-ance Products in Lawrence.

2005Lauren Brownrigg, d’05, is assistant

director of compliance and student services at the University of Portland

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 67

athletics department. She lives in Portland, Ore.

Shawn Gallegos, l’05, practices lawwith Wabeke Brummet Johnson & Chris-tiansen in Loveland, Colo.

Samantha Horner, c’05, j’05, is anexecutive recruiter with Stephen JamesAssociates in Overland Park.

Rachael Opdyke Nickerson, s’05,s’06, coordinates projects for KU’sSchool of Social Welfare. She lives inShawnee.

James Troha, PhD’05, is interim presi-dent of Heidelberg College in Tiffin,Ohio.

Jennifer Widerstrom, d’05, appears as“Phoenix” on the second season of theNBC televison show “American Gladia-tors.” She makes her home in Lisle, Ill.

Chungkam Yeung, c’05, j’05, works asa management trainee for Asia TelevisionLimited in Hong Kong.

MARRIEDCourtney Grimwood, j’05, and Peter

Krsnich, d’06, April 19 in Emporia. Shecoordinates special events for Pembroke

Hill School, and he’s a producer for IMAof Kansas. They live in Prairie Village.

Anna Hornbeck, s’05, and JeremyGiles, c’05, May 9 in Kansas City. She’s ahomeless-outreach specialist for Wyan-dot Center Inc., and he works for FirstNational Bank in Overland Park. Theylive in Shawnee.

Danny Lewis, d’05, to Laura Lesko,May 31 in Cleveland. Danny is assistantdirector of national and athletic pro-grams for the KU Alumni Association.

Leasha Liston, s’05, to KaryRutschman, Nov. 23 in Wichita, wherethey live. Leasha directs development forHopeNet Inc.

2006Katherine Bushouse, j’06, is a busi-

ness development services associate withBDO Seidman in Chicago.

Miles Farmer, c’06, works as a casemanager with Big Brothers Big Sisters ofGreater Kansas City.

David Harden, b’06, g’06, is an auditsenior assistant with Deloitte & Touche.He lives in Olathe.

Lacey Morris, b’06, works as a statisti-cal analyst for Armed Forces Insurance inLeavenworth.

MARRIEDAndrew Coleman, b’06, g’08, and

Kati Lepajoe, ’08, Feb. 23 in Tartu, Esto-nia. They live in Wichita, where Andrewworks for Ernst & Young, and Kati is atranslator.

Arthur Jones, c’06, to Erin Collins,c’06, Aug. 11, 2007, in Garden City. Theylive in Durham, N.C., where Arthur is agraduate student at Duke University andErin works as a development officer forDuke.

Ann Leiker, c’06, to Andy Wright,April 5 in Lawrence, where they live. Annstudies graphic design at JohnsonCounty Community College in OverlandPark, and Andy works for Bartlett &West Engineering in Topeka.

2007Jose Quiros, e’07, is an engineer

with Horizons International in San Jose,Costa Rica.


1930sMargaret Wilson Bangs, c’39, 89,

March 5 in Tucson, Ariz. She had lived in Wichita and was former president ofthe Kansas Corporation Commission’sConsumer Information Board. She is survived by a son, Frank Jr., c’65, l’70; a daughter, Ruth Bangs Lancaster, c’68;six grandchildren; and five great-grand-children.

Claude Burns, e’39, 92, April 17 inOverland Park, where he was retiredfrom a career with Westinghouse inCleveland and with the AmericanNational Standards Institute in New YorkCity. He is survived by his wife, Margaret;a daughter; and a sister, Ethelyne BurnsRichardson, f’40.

Melvin Coiner, g’35, 98, March 12 inTulsa, Okla., where he was retired gasmeasurements manager with AmeradaPetroleum. Two daughters, a grandsonand two great-grandchildren survive.

Joseph Guisinger Jr., b’37, 92, April 3in Lenexa, where he was a retired custom-home builder. Surviving are hiswife, Martha, two sons, two daughters, asister, seven grandchildren and threegreat-grandchildren.

Frederic Gustafson, e’36, g’38, 94,May 13 in Philadelphia. He was a retiredstaff scientist with NASA. A memorial hasbeen established with the KU Endow-ment Association. A son survives.

Charles Kimball, c’38, l’40, 91, Nov. 17in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where he was aretired lawyer. Three sons, eight grand-children and three great-grandchildrensurvive.

Henry Parker, d’37, e’39, 94, Feb. 3 inColumbia, Md. He is survived by adaughter; three sons, two of whom areCraig, j’71, and Stephen, ’70; and ninegrandchildren.

Janavie Fink Sheldon, d’38, 90, March20 in Hillsboro, Ore., where she taughtkindergarten. She is survived by a daugh-ter; a son; a sister, Dorothy Fink Von-derau, c’37; and a grandson.

from a career with Phillips Petroleum. He is survived by two daughters, LydiaCostello Dreher, c’73, and Mary, j’75,d’76, g’81; two sons, Richard, b’76, andMark, c’80; three brothers, two of whomare John, b’50, and Mark, e’44; two sisters; 12 grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

Ann Wiszneauckas Detlor, c’45, 89,Dec. 21 in Millsboro, Del., where she was a retired teacher. She is survived by a son; three daughters, one of whom isSuzanne Detlor Lemons, d’65; sevengrandchildren; and three great-grand-children.

Donald Elliott, b’49, 85, April 24 inWarrensburg, Mo. He was retired creditmanager at Feld Chevrolet. Surviving arehis wife, Pauline, three sons, a daughter,three stepdaughters, 15 grandchildrenand 16 great-grandchildren.

Luther Fowler Jr., c’41, 89, March 15in Overland Park. Survivors include hiswife, Carol; two sons, one of whom isLuther III, ’67; a daughter; a sister; sixgrandchildren; and three great-grand-children.

Erna Carl Gilliam, f ’42, 87, May 2 in Green Bay, Wis. She is survived by ason; a daughter, Elsa Gilliam Major, f’71;a stepson; a brother, Rudolf, ’47; a sister, Rita Carl Orr, ’52; and five grandchildren.

Lynn Greeley, b’49, 82, Jan. 17 in Marietta, Ga. He was former associatedean of science and technology at West-ern Kentucky University and is survivedby his wife, Ruth; a daughter; two sons,one of whom is Brooks, ’83; a sister; and two grandchildren.

Robert Johnson, e’48, g’52, 85, April 7in Wichita, where he was a retiredresearch engineer at Boeing. His wife,Karen, and a son survive.

Ajas Kiaer, b’49, 85, Dec. 12 in Rendalen, Norway. He is survived by hiswife, Anne Scott Kiaer, c’48; three sons;and a daughter.

Ross Ley, c’42, 86, Jan. 10 in Dallas,

Loreen Cosandier Thomas, b’37, 92,April 17 in Winchester. She lived inBelvue, where she had helped her latehusband farm for many years. She is survived by a son; a daughter, Lou Ann,j’74, d’77; a sister, Lucile CosandierBerges, ’39; a grandson; and two great-grandsons.

1940sRalph Adams, e’41, 87, April 23 in Sun

City West, Ariz., where he was a retiredchemical engineer with Mobil Oil. Surviv-ing are his wife, Neva; two daughters; twosisters, one of whom is Leora AdamsDeFord, f’43; three brothers, Dwight,c’53, m’56, Roger, e’50, g’60, and Nolan,’53; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Donald Amend, ’44, 86, April 5 inSalina, where he had a dental practice.He is survived by his wife, Evelyn Hodg-son Amend, c’44, c’46; two daughters,one of whom is Janet Amend Fisher,d’75; a son, Douglas, b’83; a sister; andnine grandchildren.

Virginia Carmouche Blaylock, ’44, 86,April 2 in Wichita. She is survived by ason, Stephen, c’68, l’71; a daughter, MaryBlaylock Varnell, s’72; and three grand-children.

Barbara Craven Breisford, n’46, 83,Sept. 11 in Sun City, Ariz., where she wasa retired nurse. She is survived by herhusband, Clifford, two daughters, twograndchildren and two great-grandsons.

John Bremyer, c’41, l’46, 88, April 17in McPherson. He is survived by his wife,Jayne Williamson Bremyer, ’46; two sons,Jay, l’74, and Jeff, ’73; a daughter, Jill Bremyer-Archer, ’75; nine grandchildren;and a great-granddaughter.

James Bull, c’41, 88, Feb. 29 inCarmichael, Calif., where he was a retiredlawyer. He is survived by two sons, astepson, a stepdaughter, five grandchil-dren and two great-grandchildren.

Victor Costello, e’44, 85, April 15 inOklahoma City, where he was retired

In Memory

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 69

where he was retired manager of produc-tion geology for Sun Oil. Surviving arehis wife, Doris Davison Ley, f’43; a son; adaughter; and four grandchildren.

Marian Montgomery Lund, b’45, 84,April 13 in Sarasota, Fla. She lived inWilliamsburg, Va., where she was retiredfrom the Smithsonian Institution. Amemorial has been established with theKU Endowment Association. Two daugh-ters, three stepdaughters and six grand-children survive.

Emily Fincham Nelson, n’45, 84, April5 in Balboa Island, Calif. She was a for-mer nurse and had lived in Garden Cityand in Wichita. A memorial has beenestablished with the KU EndowmentAssociation. She is survived by twodaughters, Signe Nelson Hanson, b’73,and Anna Nelson Hecker, b’86; a son,Gust, b’75, g’77; a sister; and eightgrandchildren.

Glen Paden, e’42, 91, April 12 inLawrence, where he was a retired engi-neer. He is survived by his wife, LucileYork Paden, c’43, g’65, PhD’73; two sons, Philip, c’70, and David, d’70; two daughters, one of whom is RebeccaPaden Lipnick, h’80; a sister, Alice PadenRobb, d’39; and a brother, Carl, ’51;seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Eugene Siler, c’49, m’52, 84, April 13in Lawrence. He had been an ophthal-mologist in Hays before retiring. Surviv-ing are his wife, Jeanie; a son, Thomas,c’77, m’81; two daughters, one of whomis Sue Siler Sager, n’78; two stepdaugh-ters, Cheryl Boomhower Commerford,c’85, l’88, and Kristi Boomhower Mills,j’89, s’00; a sister; six grandchildren; andfour stepgrandchildren.

Jess Van Ert, c’49, l’50, 86, Dec. 11 inPanorama Village, Texas, where he was aretired chief environmental and laborattorney for Exxon USA. Surviving arehis wife, Carol, a daughter, a son and fivegrandchildren.

Helen Pepperell Williams, f ’45, 83,Jan. 26 in San Angelo, Texas, where she headed the graphic arts departmentat Goodfellow Air Force Base. She is survived by her husband, Robert; adaughter; a son, Robert Fairchild, l’73;

land Park, where he was a retired bankerand stockbroker. A memorial has beenestablished with the KU EndowmentAssociation. He is survived by his wife,Marsha, a stepdaughter, two stepgrand-daughters and a great-grandson.

Marjorie Brooks Kernick, b’50, 83,April 21 in Kansas City, where she was aretired public accountant. She is survivedby her husband, Andress, e’46, e’47; anda sister, Mildred Brooks Moody, f’49.

Mildred “Micky” Schild L’Ecuyer,g’57, 96, April 18 in Lawrence, where she was a retired teacher. Surviving arethree sons, one of whom is Donald, f’74;two daughters, one of whom is Sally L’Ecuyer Smith, d’61; two brothers; a sister; 29 grandchildren; and 28 great-grandchildren.

John Mardock, m’59, 74, March 6 inPhoenix, where he was a retired psychia-trist. Two daughters, a sister and abrother survive.

Gloria Horn Miller, c’50, 78, March 2in Jackson, Miss. She is survived by herhusband, Dean, c’49; two sons, one ofwhom is Stephen, c’78; two daughters,Christina Miller Browning, b’93, and Jullie Miller Westermann, g’97.

Paul Mordy, c’59, 70, April 27 in High-land, Calif., where he was a retired attor-ney. He is survived by a son; a daughter,Mary Mordy Punch, b’98; and two broth-ers, James, c’47, and David, c’52.

Alberta Bean Perry, g’59, 103, March11 in Kansas City, where she taught ele-mentary grades and art education in jun-ior high for more than 40 years. She issurvived by two stepsons, one of whomis James, e’60; two grandchildren; andtwo great-grandchildren.

Charles Schmidt, b’50, 80, March 9 inBlue Springs, Mo., where he was retiredfrom a career with IBM. He is survived byhis wife, Ruth; a son; a daughter, KarenSchmidt Dickerson, ’98; a brother,Edward, e’50; and six grandchildren.

Robert Siefkin, l’51, 82, March 5in Tucson, Ariz., where he was retiredfrom a 35-year career practicing law inWichita with Foulston and Siefkin. He is survived by his wife, Yvonne; threesons; a daughter; a sister, Shirley SiefkinApt, ’52; six grandchildren and three

nine grandchildren; and 14 great-grand-children.

1950sThe Rev. R. Lane Andrist, c’58, 71, Oct.

15 in Galesburg, Ill., where he was aretired Presbyterian minister. Fourdaughters, two sons and eight grandsonssurvive.

Walter Ash, c’55, l’57, 75, April 29 inAurora, Colo., where was a retired attor-ney. He is survived by his wife, Fern, twodaughters, a son and a sister.

Walter Cole Jr., c’53, 76, March 10 inTopeka, where he was a partner in theinvestment firm of Beecroft-Cole. He issurvived by his wife, Nancy, assoc.; a son,David, c’85; a daughter; and five grand-children.

Justin Copple, e’52, 79, Oct. 30 inLakeland, Fla. He had been an electricalengineer at the Pentagon for 30 yearsbefore retiring. Survivors include hiswife, Evelyn, and two brothers, one ofwho is William, ’56.

Helen Lahey Fulton, g’58, 88, Feb. 20in Bodega Bay, Calif. She had been a pro-fessor of special education at the Univer-sity of Minnesota and at Ohio StateUniversity, where she taught teachers ofthe deaf. She is survived by a daughter,four sons, a sister, a brother, five grand-children and three great-grandchildren.

John Handley, b’56, 74, March 31 inTucson, Ariz. He had a 35-year careerwith Moore Business Forms in ColoradoSprings. He is survived by his wife, Lois,assoc.; a son; a daughter; a sister; and fivegrandchildren.

Everett Hill, c’50, 81, May 14 in Over-land Park, where he was retired from a32-year career as a salary administrator atBendix/Allied Signal. He is survived byhis wife, Audrey Spring Hill, ’52; twosons; a sister, Arlene Hill Dieker, d’51;and a grandson.

Elizabeth Saffell Hollis, d’52, 77, April18 in Overland Park, where she was aretired teacher. Survivors include twodaughters, Anne Hollis Tramposh, h’76,g’89; and Laura; ’83; three sons, one ofwhom is John, ’89; a brother; and eightgrandchildren.

Paul Hunt Jr., c’56, 73, May 6 in Over-


In Memory

great-grandchildren.Barbara Slough, f ’54, 75, Oct. 6 in

Orlando, Fla. She owned The SilverThimble fabric Shop in Winter Park andis survived by a sister and a brother.

Frances Geyer Smyth, c’55, 75, March17 in Whitefish Bay, Wis. Survivorsinclude her husband, Jim; two daughters;a brother, Mac Geyer, c’48, m’51; a sister,Shirley Geyer Legg, f’52; and a grand-daughter.

Martha Truman Swoyer, l’52, 89, April30 in Oskaloosa, where she was a retiredteacher and attorney. A son, two broth-ers, four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter survive.

Daniel Young, b’54, l’60, 76, May 19 inLawrence, where he was former DouglasCounty attorney and an attorney withthe Kansas Department of Insurance. He is survived by his wife, Ann, assoc.; a stepdaughter; four stepsons; a sister,Mary Young Meyer, c’47, c’49; 13 step-grandchildren; and 4 stepgreat-grand-children.

John Wagy, b’51, 79, April 16 in BocaRaton, Fla., where he was retired from acareer with IBM. He is survived by hiswife, Ruth Hurwitz Wagy, c’51, g’58; two sons; two stepsons; and three grandchildren.

Claude Wilson, e’50, 82, Jan. 17 inOverland Park, where he had owned Fal-coner’s Carriage House Furniture. Sur-viving are his wife, Elaine FalconerWilson, c’46; a son, Thomas, b’77; adaughter, Jane Wilson Gottschalk, f’79,g’82; and five grandchildren.

Bruce Zuercher, b’52, l’54, 77, April 1in Wichita, where he was a retired seniorpartner at Klenda, Mitchell, Austermanand Zuercher. Surviving are his wife,Rosemary; four sons, two of whom areMark, b’78, and Paul, m’93; four daugh-ters, one of whom is Lynn, c’84; and 14grandchildren.

1960sRaymond Buck, g’60, PhD’67, 83, Feb.

29 in Robbinsdale, Minn., where he wasa retired pastor and professor of missionsat Central Baptist Theological Seminary.He is survived by his wife, CatherineBerrey Buck, ’61; two sons; two daugh-

ters; a sister; 11 grandchildren; and threegreat-grandchildren.

John Dickinson, d’60, g’63, 76, May 7 in Oskaloosa. He had been an elemen-tary-school principal in Leavenworth. Sur-vivors include his wife, Rita; three sons,one of whom is John, ’81; two daughters;two brothers; three sisters; 14 grandchil-dren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

Thomas Edmunds, EdD’64, 73, March27 in Warrensburg, Mo., where he was anadministrator and teacher at the Univer-sity of Central Missouri. He is survived byhis wife, Judy, a son, a daughter, a brotherand three grandchildren.

William Gaither, e’68, g’77, 62, March12 in Lancaster, Texas. He had a longcareer in city management and is survivedby his wife, Kathy Hattrup Gaither, s’76; ason, Christopher, j’00; two daughters; hismother; two brothers; and a grandson.

Madonna “Donna” ObermuellerHead, d’64, 65, Dec. 3 in Monument,Colo. She was chief of family member pro-grams at the Air Force Academy and atKirtland AFB. Survivors include her hus-band, Jim, e’64, PhD’68; two daughters;her mother; a brother, Gary Obermueller,b’68; and five grandchildren.

Paul Heider, e’60, 75, March 2 in Carson City, Nev., where he was retiredfrom a career with Standard Oil/Chevron. He is survived by his wife, Ruth,a daughter, two sons, a sister, two broth-ers, two grandchildren and three great-grand-children.

Thomas Hutton, c’60, 81, June 6 inKansas City, where he worked more than30 years in the banking industry. He hadalso been a court bailiff and probationofficer for the Municipal Court of KansasCity. He is survived by his wife, Jean, d’50; two sons, William, c’75, l’79, andThomas, j’83; a daughter; and six grand-children.

Gene Muller, g’69, PhD’82, 65, April 1in Grand Island, Neb. He taught history at El Paso Community College in El Paso,Texas, where he lived. Survivors includehis wife, Diana Currey Muller, c’74; three daughters, one of whom is MichelleMuller Mehta, c’98; a son; and two grandchildren.

Leon Nuell, g’67, EdD’71, 68, March 12

in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he was aprofessor of art education at Middle Ten-nessee State University. He is survived byhis wife, Christie, three sons and abrother.

Ernest Park, g’66, 78, Jan. 23 inRaleigh, N.C. Surviving are his wife,Anne, a daughter, three sons, a brother,three sisters and 10 grandchildren.

Frank Pischke, m’62, 71, Nov. 11 inKansas City. He lived in Holiday Island,Ark., where he was a retired physician.He is survived by his wife, Elsa; a son,Mark, ’90; a daughter; a sister; and agrandson.

Roger Sellers, e’61, 74, April 2 inShawnee. He worked for Shafer, Klineand Warren Engineers and was city engi-neer for De Soto, Shawnee, Fairway andWestwood. Surviving are his wife, Anita,five sons and seven grandchildren.

Anna Tingler Short, g’67, 98, March 8in Lenexa, where she was a retiredteacher and principal. Two daughters,a grandson and a great-granddaughtersurvive.

Von Stelljes, c’62, g’64, 71, April 15 inGreeley, Colo., where he was a retiredgeophysicist with Chevron. A memorialhas been established with the KUEndowment Association. He is survivedby his wife, Connie Stewart Stelljes, d’64;a son; a daughter; a sister; and a grand-daughter.

Robert Sundblad, c’66, l’69, 63, April1 in Kansas City, where he was an attor-ney. He is survived by his wife, Colleen, ason and a daughter.

James Vise, b’60, 70, March 9 in Tulsa,Okla., where he had a career in business.He is survived by his wife, Mary McKimVise, ’61; a daughter; a son; and fivegrandchildren.

Ronald Wild, c’64, 65, April 3 in Gladstone, Mo., where he was an engi-neer with Marley. A son, a daughter,three stepsons and three grandchildrensurvive.

1970sBill Brooks, g’70, g’76, 71, Oct. 29 in

Kansas City, where he was a teacher andan administrator. He is survived by hiswife, two sons, a daughter, a brother and

I S S U E 4 , 2 0 0 8 | 71

three grandchildren.Alan Cosner, b’75, 54, March 7 in

Overland Park, where he was formerpresident and co-chairman of Lady Balti-more Foods. He is survived by his wife,Kerry; two sons; his parents; and threesisters, two of whom are Nancy CosnerKohn, c’77, and Beth, f’94.

Maj. Richard Goldfarb, g’71, 68,March 23 in Fairfax Station, Va., wherehe was a retired U.S. Army officer and amanagement consultant. He is survivedby his wife, Jeanne Glennon Goldfarb,g’71; two sons, one of whom is Jeffrey,’83; two brothers; and six grandchildren.

Ruby Betty Kirk, d’70, 60, April 11 inWichita. She is survived by her husband,Tom, b’71; three sons, one of whom isDaniel, student; a sister, Mary BettyAbrams, ’75; and a brother.

Lee Kirwan Jr., g’78, 58, April 1 in Lea-wood, where he was an engineer withBlack & Veatch for 30 years. He is sur-vived by his wife, Margaret; two daugh-ters, one of who is Christel KirwanParsons, ’95; his parents; two sisters; andseven grandchildren.

Warren Lesh, ’79, 93, May 6 inLawrence, where was a retired partner inthe accounting firm of Lesh, Barrand andSchehrer. He is survived by his wife,Roberta Works Lesh, ’33; and a son,Robert, c’69.

William Phillips, PhD’73, 74, March11 in Emporia. He is survived by his wife,Marylee, a daughter, a son, a sister, fivegrandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Fred Ray, m’70, 64, Aug. 18 in Miami,Okla., where he practiced medicine. He issurvived by his wife, Flo, assoc.; a daugh-ter; a son; two brothers; two sisters; andthree grandchildren.

John Schilling, j’75, 56, April 6 inLawrence. He is survived by his wife,Pamela Hischke Schilling, assoc.; twosons, one of whom is James, ’95; two sis-ters; and two grandsons.

Sandra Stewart, s’72, 59, April 6 inSanta Monica, Calif. She lived in LosAngeles, where she was a project man-ager for the Los Angeles Times and aresearch support manager for the RandCorp. Surviving are her parents, Clarkand Jean Stewart; two sisters, one of

whom is Belinda Stewart Lower, ’75; and a brother.

Ronald Turner, PhD’71, 69, May 4 inOlathe. He had been an agent for Ameri-can Family Insurance and was an insur-ance investigator for the KansasInsurance Commission. He is survivedby his wife, Lynn, three sons, a daughter,two brothers, four sisters, seven grand-children and a great-grandchild.

Margaret King Zimmerman, g’76, 88,April 21 in Lenexa. She taught Englishfor more than 25 years at Olathe Northand Olathe South high schools. She issurvived by her husband, Jacob; twodaughters, one of whom is Frances Zim-merman Anderson, n’67, g’79; a son; andtwo grandchildren.

1980sKevin Crockett, c’80, 54, April 25 in

Kansas City, where he worked in thecommunications field. He is survived byhis wife, Kimberly; a son; a daughter; hisparents, James, m’49, and Marti Crockett;a brother; and a sister, CaraBeth CrockettSpachman, n’87.

Mike Holmes, PhD’81, 61, March 31 inParker, Colo., where he directed the TitleIV Indian Education Program for theParker school district and served as thefirst director of the Arizona Western Col-lege La Paz Center. He is survived by hiswife, Judy; a daughter; a sister, Kathy JoHolmes Dexter, c’75; a brother; a step-brother; and two grandchildren.

Constance Libbey Menninger, g’85,76, April 13 in Topeka, where she wasthe Menninger Foundation archivist andthe initial project archivist for the SantaFe Railway Records collection. A memo-rial has been established with the KUEndowment Association. She is survivedby her husband, Walter, assoc.; four sons, two of whom are John, ’79, andFrederick, ’99; two daughters, one ofwhom is Eliza Wright Menninger, ’79;and eight grandchildren.

1990sBlanche Larson Clark, g’92, 85, March

4 in Paola, where she was a retiredteacher. She is survived by her husband,Marvin; a son, John, ’73; three daughters,

one of whom is Elizabeth Clark Murray,d’73; a sister; 10 grandchildren; andseven great-grandchildren.

Phi Van, c’97, 33, April 26 in GardenCity, where he was a podiatrist. He is sur-vived by his father; two brothers; andfour sisters, two of whom are Tram, p’95,and Oanh, p’96.

2000sRebecca Salter Arnold, c’04, 27, April

21 in Eudora, where she lived. She was a client care administrator at PrintingSolutions in Lawrence. Surviving are herhusband, Adam, c’03; her parents; twobrothers; and her grandmother.

Christopher Wempe, student, 20,May 12 in Lincoln, Neb. He lived inLawrence, where he was a KU sopho-more majoring in chemical engineering.Surviving are his parents; three brothers,Scott, c’02, and Brian, ’04; and hisgrandparents.

The University CommunityLewis Bass Jr., m’45, 86, April 7. He

had directed KU’s pediatric clinic forsickle cell anemia and taught pediatricsand hematology at the KU Medical Cen-ter. Surviving are a daughter, a son, a sister and a grandson.

George “Ned” Burket Jr., m’37, 95,March 28 in Wichita, where he was afamily physician and co-founder of theAmerican Board of Family Practice. Hewas a former associate professor of fam-ily medicine at the KU Medical Centerand was a recipient of the Fred EllsworthMedallion for his service to the Univer-sity. He is survived by his wife, Sue Wal-lace Burket, assoc; a son, George III, c’65;two daughters; five grandchildren; and agreat-grandchild.

Alfonso Verdu, 82, March 30 inLawrence, where he was a retired profes-sor of philosophy and East Asian studies.A daughter, two sisters and a grand-daughter survive.

Wesley Unruh, g’59, PhD’62, 74, May17 in Lawrence, where he had been aprofessor and researcher in KU’s physicsdepartment. He is survived by his wife,Ellie; three daughters; a brother; and twograndsons.

Rock Chalk Reviewand ever more powerful antibiotics, but recentlythe message has grown more urgent as antibi-otics, once hailed as medical miracles, have takena hit. More and more new strains of bacteria areproving resistant to the one-time wonder drugs.

Case in point is Methacillin-resistant Staphylo-coccus aureus. The so-called “superbug” hasmade headlines for the problems it has causedhospital patients. Approximately 18,650 peopledied in 2005 after becoming infected by MRSA,according to the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention.

“The bottom line is we need to return to thepreventive mode rather than considering infec-tions trivial and easily treated,” Mitscher says.“The best thing for patients is not to get sick inthe first place, and doctors should use antibioticsnot as a first resort, but as a late resort.”

Mitscher would like to see a return to stricterpublic health standards of 50 years ago, whensuch standards were practically all the medicalcommunity had to fight the spread of infectiousdiseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis.

“For example, it was a fineable offense to spitin public,” he says. “Now you can watch a base-ball game and the first thing a player does is spit.Not only is it disgusting, but it’s also unhealthy.”

Mitscher calls on doctors to do their part byprescribing antibiotics less.

“Historically, many people—medical authori-ties, even—had the impression that antibioticswere rapidly effective and harmless,” he says.“Unfortunately, that’s not true: They are nolonger routinely efficacious.”

While news reports of MRSA and other resist-ant bacteria may give the impression that drugresistance is a new phenomenon, Mitscher saysit’s not. The discovery of penicillin in 1929marked the beginning of a 70-year arms racebetween humans and the bacteria that live on us,in us and around us.

Penicillin first saw widespread use duringWWII, helping save thousands of lives. “Peoplewho were losing loved ones left and right frominfectious diseases finally had something theycould do besides pray,” Mitscher says. “The worldgot euphoric, and people won Nobel prizes forparticularly notable discoveries in the field. But

■ Researcher Les Mitscher,

who has spent 50 years

discovering new drugs to

arm humans in the battle

with bacteria, says preven-

tion is a powerful weapon

too often overlooked.


Last year when Les Mitscher received thehighest award given by his peers, the Uni-versity Distinguished Professor delivereda simple message to his fellow medicinal

chemists: An ounce of prevention is worth apound of cure.

As he accepted the 2007 Norman R.Farnsworth Research Achievement Award fromthe American Society of Pharmocognosy,Mitscher called for more attention to disease pre-vention rather than reliance on antibiotics to stopinfections. It has been a constant refrain through-out his 50-year career devoted to discovering new

Germ warfareIn the battle between man and bacteria, prevention is

the prescription for better health

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almost unnoticed at the time was theincidence of resistance of bacteria toantibiotics.”

As we discovered more powerfulantibiotics to knock out the bugs, thebugs found ways to adapt. In addition,Mitscher notes, about half of antibioticsproduced today are fed to farm animalsto increase production. Bacteria that sur-vive those dosings make their way intothe human environment, already battle-hardened. Through natural selection,drug-resistant bacteria evolve.

“As a result, many infections that weretreatable with almost homeopathic doses50 years ago today have hardly any treat-ments,” says Mitscher.

Fixing that problem, he believes, willrequire a return to prevention. Don’t spitin public. Cover your mouth when youcough. Wash your hands often.

That doesn’t mean giving up onantibiotics. The drugs can still providerelief, if their use is more targeted andmore restrained.

“Prevention is better than prescrip-tion, but prescription is still an option ifprevention fails,” Mitscher says. Thatapproach has another benefit. “The lesswe’re using antibiotics, the less we’re elic-iting resistance. If we go back to a greateremphasis on preventive medicine thenwe’re far better off.”�

—Steven Hill

◆ ◆ ◆

As she lay dyingPoems illuminate last days of a mother’s vibrant life

It was no surprise that ElizabethSchultz, professor emerita of Englishand one of the world’s foremostMelville scholars, found comfort in

words while enduring her mother’sdecline and death. But rather than lookto the great works, Schultz made a bookof her own.

Her Voice is a collection of poemsSchultz wrote as she watched hermother, a lifelong lover of the outdoors,endure physical and mental deteriorationthat eventually landed her in a nursinghome devoid of the natural delights—sun,wind, water, land—that she had devouredfor very nearly a century.

“Literature did not come to my aid,”Schultz says. “I am a Quaker, and reli-gion did not come to my aid. What cameto my aid were my friends, with theirconstant safe ports, and my brother, with his unstinting love for our mother.Also coming to my aid were my questions, and using words to answer my questions. Thus, the habit of writingpoetry helped me.”

While the book is certainly a tribute toa remarkable woman, it is not the sort oftribute poetry that tends to slip intomawkish drama.

Schultz, who retired in 2001 as Chan-cellors Club teaching professor, says shewrote poetry only to fashion order out ofthe chaos of her mother’s troubled days.As the poems began to accumulate, shefound an order for those, too, presentingthem within sections labeled for seasons

K.C. gets its bling

Kansas City’s Municipal Art Commission selected KU master’s student Sarah Kephart as one of six winners in its annual Avenue of the Arts

Project. The School of Fine Arts last semester offered a public art course, andJohn Hachmeister, associate professor of sculpture, required students to enterthe commission’s project as an assignment. Kephart looked to Kansas City’surban culture for inspiration when she developed her necklace sculpture, whichmeasures 8 feet wide, 6 feet long and hangs from a 50-foot chain. On the face ofits pendant, Kephart constructed a vinyl skyline of Kansas City.

“I wanted to design something that showed my admiration for Kansas City,”Kephart says. “I was trying to find something that everyone could relate to.”

She unveiled the temporary installation, “It Blingz,” May 10 in downtownKansas City, Mo., in front of the Centennial Building at the corner of 10th andCentral streets, where it will remain throughout the summer.

Kephart, originally from Salina, also teaches Drawing I and II classes at KU.�—Erika Bentson

Schultz

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Rock Chalk Review

of transition, including “Summer,” withmemories of the family’s Michigan cabin,and “Winter,” about assisted living.

As with all fine poetry, details tell:“Her Tools” tackles the transition fromindependence, as Schultz forces hermother to leave her Mix-Master behind.“I still might make,” her mother pleads,“another little cake.” While tending tothe “sprouting bristles” on her mother’schin, Schultz writes in “Rare Bird,” “shetrusted me / to trim her feathers into acrown / ... while she grasped me / withthe blue talons / of her eyes.” In “A His-tory of Swimming,” Schultz recalls watch-ing her mother gleefully dive into theirsummer lake: “She is liquid / glidingwithin liquid.”

Schultz never falters in offering forinspection the most painful, intimate

details. She shares the disorientation shefelt when she found her mother, “a per-son of consummate dignity and correct-ness,” smearing her face with chocolateicing; the sorrows of hair loss and wigs;and the melancholy of forcing her out-doorsy mother to live amid “beeps andbuzzers” of an old-folks’ home, where“plastic flowers were beauty’s measure.”

By giving so much honest considera-tion to the fatal plight, Schultz discov-ered that her mother had taught her aremarkable lesson: how to die.

“One of the things that literature hashelped me understand is the reality ofdeath,” she says. “But death is not thesame as dying, and I was not prepared inany way for my mother’s dying.

“I think the dying days do provide usa legacy. Truly her last, great gift to mewas the understanding that dying is liv-

ing, and that dying is about an intimacythat is more profound than anyone hasknown before.”�

—Chris Lazzarino◆ ◆ ◆

A big hitPhysicists, students ready

detectors for massive collider

When the largest scientificenterprise in human his-tory is finally powered upin Europe sometime this

year, KU physics faculty, postdoctoralresearchers, and undergraduate andgraduate students will play huge roles inits potentially breakthrough findings.

The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mileconcrete tunnel buried beneath Franceand Switzerland, is expected to be opera-tional this year after repeated delays. Thecollider, the total cost of which is pro-jected at more than $5 billion, is spon-sored by the European Organization forNuclear Research (CERN).

Teams of KU faculty and students arein France and Switzerland this summer,readying two particle detectors.

Their research is madepossible by a $2.5 millionNational Science Founda-tion award allowing twoor three KU students tostudy at the Paul ScherrerInstitute and attendclasses at a technical insti-tute in Zurich each year.

“We’re really excited tostart taking data,” saysAlice Bean, professor ofphysics and astronomy.“The idea that our stu-dents can go and help isparticularly exciting. It’sthe place to be, in terms ofphysics.”

Two detectors critical tothe collider’s success werecreated with KU involve-ment. Scientists hope thedevices will help them

learn what happens when particles,accelerated to near the speed of light, col-lide, essentially replicating, at a sub-atomic level, the Big Bang.

The KU students are participating inthe latest and greatest scientific enter-prise—and they are doing so at a culturalcrossroads where scientists are gatheringfrom all over the world.

“It’s a crash course in cultural diver-sity,” says Michael Murray, assistant pro-fessor of physics and astronomy whospent six years in Switzerland beforecoming to Lawrence five years ago. “Thatmight be the biggest thing the studentslearn, as they end up working in verydiverse, international groups.”

Also taking part is Laura Stiles, anengineering physics major, whose seniorproject was the design of a concrete andlead sarcophagus, into which the KU-designed particle detectors, which will beblasted with radiation, can be safelystored when the tunnel is shut down formaintenance.

The 1,200-pound box will be built inSwitzerland, where Stiles already spenttwo weeks during winter break and iscurrently helping Murray and othersready their detectors.

“I feel so lucky,” says Stiles, of Prairie

Her Voice

By Elizabeth Schultz

Woodley Press

$10

■ Working out of a Learned Hall lab, engineering physics senior

Laura Stiles designed the massive, concrete-and-lead boxes in

which radiation-saturated particle detectors will be safely stored

when CERN’s particle accelerator is shut down for maintenance.

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Village. “All the scientists I talk to when I am over there are just ecstatic that therecould be new discoveries in physics, thebig discoveries that don’t happen veryoften. To be able to contribute is amazingfor an undergraduate.”�

—Chris Lazzarino

◆ ◆ ◆

All stories are trueAcclaimed novelist blurs fact,

fiction to focus on the healing power of homecoming

What is Truth? What isBeauty? The eternal ques-tions have troubled writerssince the days of stone

tablets and cave paintings, and many asyrupy sonnet has been written in reply.But Scott Heim, in his masterful thirdnovel, We Disappear, addresses thesequestions in intimate prose that isrefreshingly free of the quotidian andshockingly gorgeous to boot.

Purposely blurring the murky idea oftruth, that often-elusive line between fic-tion and memoir, Heim, c’89, g’92, cre-ates a troubled main character, “Scott,” amethamphetamine addict and strugglingwriter who lives in New York City. Scott’smother, “Donna,” has terminal cancer.

Donna desperately wants her son tocome home to Kansas: The body of amissing boy has been discovered, spark-ing her obsession with the stories of kid-napped children. Donna was kidnappedas a child and shared her basement cap-tivity with a boy named Warren. It’s hersearch for this lost boy that, ostensibly,fuels her last days.

Initially, Scott is troubled by hismother’s requests: “On the phone, mymother’s enthusiasms began to worryme,” he says. “It was excitement, after all,over a murdered boy.” But he is pleasedthat Donna has found respite from thelonely dolor of cancer treatments, frozendinners and TV. He warms to the idea ashe ponders, “… how the two of us might

outdistance the detectives as we discov-ered the secrets they’d missed. How,together, we might fill the fading paren-theses of our days.”

Scott’s trip home mirrors a real jour-ney for Heim, who has struggled withaddiction, and who, in 2003, left NewYork City for his Kansas hometown tocare for his mother, Donna, at the end ofher cancer fight. The overlap between fic-tion and real life is disturbing andintriguing in equal parts, leaving thereader with a sometimes uncomfortablevoyeuristic desire to know which parts ofthe story are true.

The fictional Scott and his mother fallinto a relationship of touching candorwhen he returns: They nickname them-selves Tired and Wired in jokey homageto her fatigue-inducing cancer drugs andhis jangled meth high. Days of doctor’sappointments and drug cravings are bro-ken by bursts of adventure. His motherdrags him along to interview the grandfa-ther of a kidnapped child under the rusethat they’re writing a book on the disap-peared. Driving through little Kansastowns looking for evidence of the long-lost Warren, they meet a boy named Otiswhom Donna believes is a link to herchildhood comrade.

But what was her childhood captivityreally like? Donna tells different versionsof the kidnapping to her son, to herdaughter, Alice, and to her best friend,the crusty though ultimately loyalDelores. Which story is true? Trou-blingly, the narratives diverge wildly buteach is confoundingly plausible.

Throughout We Disappear, Heimmixes a sharply controlled plot with asublime, druggy Kansas dreamscape thatallows for the book’s mysteries. In thedoomed world of the disappeared, realityand fiction blur and we come to theauthor’s wistful home truth: All storiesare both true and false—and ultimatelyunknowable. As Scott reflects, “Ourmother’s stories were a series of knots,each so ornamented and individuallycomplex, impossible to fully unravel.”When Donna dies, Scott realizes he wasnot merely indulging his mother by help-ing her unravel the mysteries of her kid-

napping; Donna, in her final maternalact, was also helping Scott by creating aworld for her son so mesmerizing itmight save him from crystal meth.

In Donna’s death scene, Heim deci-sively confronts the age-old questionabout the nature of beauty: “My mother,”he writes. “My junk-shop bargainer, myfield trespasser. The Tired to my Wired.My sponsor and cook and chauffeur, myconfidante, my prison guard. My morn-ing alarm and bedtime story. Magnet andtape; scrapbook and scissors. My icedtea, my Tennessee whiskey. My farm-house on the hill. My quiet Haven houseat the end of the street. My vitamins and

steroids, my Neupogen and Anzemet,disease and remission. Doll and rabbitand carousel horse. My yellow leaf, fallenin her hair.”

Heim’s first novel, Mysterious Skin,published in 1995, earned him acclaimas a hot new voice of Generation X. TheNew York Times Magazine named himone of the “30 Artists Under 30 MostLikely To Change Our Culture in theNext 30 Years.” His second novel, In Awe, didn’t receive the accolades ofMysterious Skin.

After the fictional Scott loses hismother, he returns home to New Yorkand goes back to work writing textbooks.The real Scott published a beautifulnovel, dedicated to his mother, that shedid not live to see. The book proves hima bewildered and elegiac chronicler ofheartbreak and bittersweet triumphs.�

—Mary O’ConnellO’Connell, c’94, is the author of the short

story collection Living With Saints.

We Disappear

By Scott Heim

Harper Perennial

$13.95

When he returned from the Army AirCorps in 1945, Jim Ross, like somany other World War II veterans,depended on the G.I. Bill to get

through school. By the time of his 1949 gradua-tion, Ross didn’t have a spare nickel, so a cap andgown—and Commencement—were out.

Even so, Ross, e’49, left Mount Oread a proudJayhawk, and, as he rose through the ranks atBlack & Veatch, he and his wife, Sylvia, assoc.,raised their family in the true-blue tradition,

proudly watching their daughter and threesons graduate from KU.

GranddaughterSuzanne Billam wasthe first to strike herown course, studyingpre-nursing at KansasState before transfer-ring to KU’s School ofNursing. Because shenever took a course onthe Lawrence campus, Billam was certain herschool’s ceremony inKansas City would suffice.

Then she struck onan idea: If Grandpawould join her, she’dwalk down the Hill atCommencement May18. He agreed, butthought she was onlyteasing; Ross didn’trealize his grand-daughter was seriousuntil he learned shehad bought them bothcaps and gowns.

Special attention wasrightly paid to the spe-cial graduate, especially

by a doting Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway andDean Stuart Bell, but once the walk began, Rosswas just another young-at-heart Jayhawk takinghis rightful stroll through the Campanile, hand-in-hand with his beaming granddaughter.

“Walking down the Hill together was some-thing special we could share,” says Billam, n’08, alabor and delivery nurse at Shawnee MissionMedical Center. “It was something he’ll take tothe grave. And so will I.”

Says Ross: “As a KU alumnus, I can tell youthat traditions are very special to me, and particularly when they’re that personal. I thinkone of the things I like most about being part ofthe KU family is that it’s so rewarding.

“It was a wonderful weekend. More than I hadhoped.”�

Walk of agesNearly 60 years after missing his own ceremony,

grandpa grad joins granddaughter on the Hill

■ Suzanne Billam and her

grandfather, Jim Ross, at

their shared Commence-

ment, May 18. “He never

got his day,” Billam says.

“So it wasn’t for me.

It was his day.”

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Cold War Wizards - Kansas Alumni Magazinekansasalumnimagazine.org/.../kansasalumni/complete/kansasalumni_2008_04.pdfVolume 106, No. 4, 2008 Cold War Wizards As head of the CIA’s