For those of you who recently retired or will be retiring soon, we heartily welcome you to join the ISU Retirees Association. Lifetime member-ship is FREE for all who retire from ISU and for their spouses and partners. Deceased mem-bers’ spouses and partners are also eligible and encouraged to belong.

You soon will receive – or already may have re-ceived – a letter asking that you join our group. If you’ve lost the letter or haven’t received it yet, email our Director Jerilyn Logue at jlogue@iastate.edu or leave a message at (515) 294-3192. Current members who have moved or changed email addresses also should update their contact information in this manner.

We are expanding our reach. Even though you may not live in Ames or Iowa, our switch to using the Zoom format for programs has allowed ISU retirees from all over the world to attend our events. We hope to offer electronic access to many events even after the pandemic subsides.

Members may participate in a cornucopia of interesting events! During most years we schedule:

• six informative speaker programs/lectures,• five newsletters, • our “Rock On in Retirement” seminar

featuring free lunch and several presenters with sponsoring organizations and busi-nesses present for in-person conversation,

• a Memorial Day celebration to honor re-tired and concurrent ISU staff, faculty and spouses who have died (the program will be online this year), and

• a spring social event in the Ames area (unfortunately, this year we may need to cancel the in-person event).

Check out our page in the ISU Alumni Associa-tion website under the “Connect” menu, or go directly to it at: www.isualum.org/isuretirees. We also have a page on Facebook, search for ISURetirees.

Do keep in touch and join us when you can!

Mary Lynn Damhorst

Newsletter

Visit us online at: www.isualum.org/isuretirees & Like us on Facebook: ISURetirees

From the Chair: WELCOME, new members!

MARCH-APRIL 2021

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Just as our programs last fall focused on infectious disease amid a worldwide pandem-ic, this year’s speakers are addressing another enormous concern: diversity and social justice. In February, ISU political science professor Dave Petersen spoke about his studies on U.S. voting rights, and specifically on the impact of racism and hostility toward Latino/Latinx people.

Coming up March 25, Barbara Pleasants, re-tired professor of biology, will discuss the dis-criminating impacts of the eugenics movement on immigration. Eugenics had racist undertones and agendas that affected how Americans thought about diverse people and how they fit in this country.

ISU communications retiree Steve Jones will discuss ISU’s first Black football player, Jack Trice, on April 22. Jones has written a chil-dren’s book about Trice, who battled discrimi-nation during his shortened life.

All programs are open to the public and offered online via Zoom. You do not need to pre-regis-ter, and 30 minutes prior to the program is set aside for social time. Get the Zoom link on our Events page: www.isualum.org/isuretirees/events.

Eugenics and ImmigrationThursday, March 253:30-4:30 p.m. CT, with a time to visit begin-ning at 3:00 p.m. CT.Speaker: Barbara Pleasants, retired ISU professor of biology

Barbara Pleasants is retired from Iowa State, where she taught introduc-tory and advanced biology courses. For more than 25 years, Pleasants taught an undergraduate course

on the Holocaust, and included eugenics in that class. Since retiring, she has taught OLLI classes on Eugenics and the Holocaust, most recently in fall of 2020.

The topic also has personal relevance as a first-generation American in her mother’s family and second-generation American in her father’s family. Her mother’s family certainly would have perished in the Holocaust had they not come to the United States.

An Iowa Hero: Jack TriceThursday, April 223:30-4:30 p.m. CT, with a time to visit begin-ning at 3:00 p.m. CT.Speaker: Steve L. Jones, retired ISU communications manager

Steve Jones of Ames will tell the story of Jack Trice, the only Cyclone athlete to die from injuries suffered in intercollegiate compe-tition. He will explain how Trice came to be an Iowa Stater, how it is believed

he was injured, and what his enduringlegacy means today.

Jones is the author of two children’s books: Football’s Fallen Hero: The Jack Trice Story (2000) and The Red Tails—World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen (2001). He is now writing a book-length history of his family’s experiences leading up to and during World War II. Jones retired in 2018 after 35 years in educational communication and public affairs, including 21 years at Iowa State University.

Barbara Pleasants

Speaker programs tackle diversity, social justice

Steve Jones

Help preserve the arts!During this unprecedented intermission of

the performing arts, we could use your help.

Support the Stephens Performing Arts Fund! Give at center.iastate.edu/makeagift or Call Tammy Koolbeck at (515) 294-8809.

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Mark your calendars for 9 a.m., Monday, May 31 for our annual Memorial Day ceremony. It will be held as a live, online event this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This event is open to anyone who would like to join us via Zoom. Sponsored by the ISU Retirees Association, the traditional Memorial Day program remembers and honors the lives of retired and current faculty, staff members, or their spouses or partners who have died within the past year.

Because we were not able to hold an in-per-son or virtual event last year due to the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we prepared a written document about the life and contribu-

tions to Iowa State University of each person who had died, so that family and friends could view them on the ISU Retirees Association website. However, as we promised last year, this year we are honoring all who have passed away over the past two years, since May 1, 2019. If you know of retired and current staff, faculty, or their spouses or partners who have died, please submit their names to Jerilyn Logue, (515) 294-3192 or jlogue@iastate.edu. Sometime after May 1, we will contact one family member of each of the individuals to be honored to provide specific details about this event, in particular, making sure your other family members know about this event and

how to access it online. The 2021 virtual program will include most of the elements of the in-person traditional event, including an opening and closing prayer by a local clergy; a short welcome by Jeff Johnson, the Talbot endowed president and CEO of the ISU Alumni Association; a PowerPoint pre-sentation of pictures and obituaries displayed for each person who has died; and those in attendance are able to share short stories by family members to help us all get to know their loved one better.

We hope many of you will plan to be a part of this program as we remember your friend or family member.

Spring, wow! Can it be spring already? It is, and it’s time to register for Spring OLLI classes that begin on March 22 and continue through May 11. Even though some

of you may have received your COVID vaccine, we will continue to offer all spring classes via Zoom so you can register to attend from every-where or anywhere. Classes for Spring include a mix of one-day classes and classes that run from two to six weeks in length.

The committee is hoping you can leave your comfort zone and consider classes like “How to Speak Civilly to Reds and Blues – Building a United America,” “Racism: Then and Now,” and “Human Trafficking: YES! It is in Iowa.”

Another group relates to the environment: “Bi-omes and Ecosystems: What makes our Home Planet Earth,” “Iowa’s Tall Grass Prairie: Seed the Diversity of Wonder,” and “Iowa’s Wild Weather Year and Climatological Impacts.”

Another avenue might take you to food safety for seniors or gut health. A four-week course challenges you to visit or revisit eight literary classics in European languages. Additional options include a six-week class on writing a memoir, and a four-week class introducing the radio homemakers of old and their modern compatriots.

Your annual OLLI dues also will bring you four member-only lectures and four virtual “road”

trips in April and May. In other words, we have something for everyone. Check out our online catalog at: olli.iastate.edu.

Submitted by Diana D. Shonrock, OLLI at ISU Representative

This lifelong learning program was previ-ously known as College for Seniors and was developed by the ISU Retirees Association in 1993. OLLI at SU is one of 123 programs at colleges and universities from Maine to Alaska to Hawaii that are partially sponsored by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Memorial Day ceremony to be virtual this year

UPDATE!

The ISU Alumni Association is looking for a few good stories -- Cyclone sto-ries. In fact, CYCLONE STORIES is the title of an innovative project that will publish a new coffee table book and digital oral history available in early October from the Association.

Every four years, the Association (the parent organization of the ISU Retirees Association) formally updates contact information for its members through the creation of a printed alumni directory. This time, however, alumni are asked to share stories of their campus experiences through the years. Some of those accounts will be included in the book, and all will be part of a digital archive also made available to members.

“I hope that you take time to share your story in our CYCLONE STORIES project that is being carried out for us by Publishing Concepts, Inc.,” said Jeff Johnson, the Talbot endowed president and CEO of the ISU Alumni Association. “We hope the book that these stories will help create can go a long way toward connecting generations of Iowa Staters for years to come.”

So far, more than 19,000 stories have been collected, but time is running out. Publishing Concepts Inc. will continue collecting stories via mail, email, and phone through March 11. If you have not yet participated, please call 1-877-229-5985 (toll-free). A portion of the sales from the project support the ISU Alumni Association.

More than 273,000 Iowa State alumni live in more than 150 countries and nearly 43,000 are members of the ISU Alumni Association. The organization also has more than 4,400 student members and 5,700 non-alumni members, including former students, spouses, parents, and ISU faculty and staff.If you have questions about the project, call the Alumni Association at 515-294-6525 or email alumni@iastate.edu.

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Cyclone Stories headline New alumni project

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UPCOMING EVENTS

All events are being held online via Zoom. To get the Zoom link to partic-ipate, go to our Events page: www.isualum.org/isuretirees/events.

Meetings of the ISU Retirees Associ-ation Board are being held electroni-cally as needed

Thursday, March 25

Eugenics and Immigration, with a time to visit beginning at 3:00 p.m. and the program at 3:30-4:30 p.m. CT. Join us via Zoom.

Thursday, April 22

An Iowa Hero: Jack Trice, with a time to visit beginning at 3:00 p.m. and the program at 3:30-4:30 p.m. CT. Join us via Zoom.

Monday, May 31

ISU Retiree Association’s Annual Memorial Day Program, 9 a.m. CT. Join us live via Zoom.

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Welcome, new retirees!Elizabeth Amdahl

Don BehningDorene Buckingham

Timothy CareyBarbara ChingSilvia Cianzio

Jane ClarkLucinda Clark

Christine ConnellyAmy DavisKerry DixonKathy DobbsLouann Doyle

Susan FinesteadDuane FjellandDuane FlandersJennifer Froyd

Edward GoedekenJulia Graden

Donald HackmannRenee Harris

Tammy HartmannVicki Hubby

Paula ImermanSteven JohnsonElgin Johnston

Theodore JonesGloria Jones-Johnson

Mark JudgeBetty KepleyBrian Lang

Suzanne LesarDebbie Lettow

Jill LitwillerGreg Luecke

Julee LundMary Madsen

Barbara McBreenRoy McKay

Marlene MillerRobert MillsFrank Minion

Kathleen MullinJay NissenEllen Olson

Sue PhilbrookAragula Rao

Angela RasmussonRebecca Riordan

James RogersWilliam RogersJohn Sawyer

Debra SchmidtJames SchraderDaniel Schultz

Mark ShourKelle SickersonCynthia SmalleyJennifer SmithMarjorie SmithCindy Sparks

Kathleen TimmonsSusan Tourtellott

Jessica Van WinkleJane VogelzangMimi Wagner

Janelle WallerichDeanna WardLester WilsonCarol Yanda

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My name is Kira Bliss. I am a junior at Iowa State University studying graphic design with an emphasis in digital media. I am the new Lora and Russ Talbot ISUAA Graphic Designer Intern at the Alumni Association and will be preparing the ISU Retirees Association newsletter.

I have a passion for design and illustration and I love solving problems and trying new mediums for my work. I strive to make meaningful and colorful designs and put my heart into my work. My dream is to become a children’s book illustrator along with my graphic design work.

When I’m not working or studying, I enjoy drinking coffee and tea, playing games, read-ing, hiking, sketching, pressing flowers, and reading books to my younger brother.

I am from Sergeant Bluff, a small Iowa town near Sioux City. I’ve always loved art and de-sign, and have known it’s what I wanted to do since I was a kid. I was on a First Lego League robotics team from 3rd to 11th grade, and every year we went to state competitions held at ISU. We got a glimpse of campus every winter, and I felt like such a grown-up walking in the sky walk with my robot.

I also attended a summer camp with the ISU College of Design my freshman year of high school, where I worked with professors and students on design projects. It was my birthday that week and they even got me a cake to celebrate. These wonderful experienc-es and connections I made as a kid solidified my choice to attend ISU, and I’ve loved every second here.

Introducing … Kira Bliss

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2021 Board of Directors Mary Lynn Damhorst (Human Sciences), ChairVice Chair (vacant)Kathy Jones (P&S), SecretarySedahlia Crase (University Benefits liaison), Past ChairLaura Miller, Newsletter Editor

Jan Breitman (P&S)Scott Elston (Business)Lee Fletcher (LAS)Lesley Hawkins (Merit)Jim Kliebenstein (AGLS)Ambar Mitra (Engineering)Janet Padgitt (University Benefits liaison)Pat Pendry (Merit)

Bev Peters (Extension)Max Porter (Faculty Senate liaison)Diana Shonrock (Library)Jim Thompson (Vet Med)

Ex OfficioJerilyn Logue, ISU Retirees Director

Join us on Facebook!If you try to keep up with your friends and family on Facebook, you might want to add Iowa State University Retirees to the groups you follow. We have more than 120 people who “follow” our page, and we’d love to add more!

You’ll find the most up-to-date news on this page, including informa-tion about our thought-provoking speaker programs, advance notice about new course signups at OLLI, and news and tidbits about what’s happening on campus. If any program or activity needs last-minute adjustments, we promise to post an announcement on our Facebook page.

You are not alone. Iowa State has nearly 5,000 retirees, and nearly 1,000 receive our newsletter by email or, if requested, a printed copy in USPS.

To find us on Facebook, use ISURetirees in your search bar. You’ll find our page, see a list of upcoming programs and activities, and connect virtually with other retirees around the country. So please join us – wherever you are!

olli.iastate.edu

OLLI delivers educationalopportunites for people age 50 and over. Visit our website to see just how fun and enriching becoming a member can be.

ISU Alumni Center, 429 Alumni Lane, Ames, IA 50011-1403

Help us keep up-to-date!

Please be sure to send us your new address when you move, and your new name if you marry. Or if you would like to have the name of your spouse/partner added or removed from the mailing list, please complete this form.

Name of retiree

Department at time of retirement

Retirement date

Name of spouse

Address

Phone number

Email address

Please check if this is a new name or address: ❑ New name ❑ New address

Please return to: ISU Retirees Association ISU Alumni Association 429 Alumni Lane Ames, IA 50011-1430