Monarch Magazine - Fall 2013 · the next edition of Monarch. In the meantime - GO MONARCHS! Christie Sykes ’74, ’95 Norfolk So Many Pleasant Memories Steve Daniel’s article

4 MONARCH MAGAZINE FALL 2013 WWW.ODU.EDU 5

monarchO L D D O M I N I O N U N I V E R S I T Y M A G A Z I N E | F A L L 2 0 1 3

INSIDE: DINING ON CAMPUS Then & Now 8 M.F.A. POETS Winning Praise 18 BEER RENAISSANCE With ODU Connection 24 SUSTAINABLE Model Home 34 A.H. FOREMAN Led the Way 56

Lighthouse

RETREAT

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries in UniversityVillage on the Old Dominion campus have an ever -revolving selection of shows from curator Ramona Austin,pictured here, as well as space to display pieces from thefacility’s Self-Taught Art Collection. That collection includesthe sculpture on the right, “Carved Burl and Paint,” byAmerican artist Mona McCalmon (born 1926), which wasa gift of the galleries’ namesakes. The Gordons donated375 folk art works to the permanent collection. BehindAustin is a series of paintings from the summer 2013show, “Woman, Image and Art.” The Gordon Galleriesinclude the Changing Gallery, where the work of ODUfaculty and student artists is often shown, and the Self-Taught Gallery. The facility is directed by FredBayersdorfer, assistant dean, College of Arts and Letters.(See Calendar on the back cover for upcoming shows atthe galleries.)

PHOTO: DAVID HOLLINGSWORTH

Full Frame

2 MONARCH MAGAZINE FALL 2013 WWW.ODU.EDU 5

StaffEditorJim Raper

Art DirectorKaren Smallets

Copy EditorJanet Molinaro

Contributing WritersSteve DanielDiane DoughertyJanet MolinaroBrendan O’HallarnRich RadfordLynn Waltz

Contributing Art and PhotographyPaul BurkSteve DanielDavid HollingsworthSam HundleyChuck ThomasRick VoightRoberto Westbrook

AdministrationJohn R. BroderickPresident

Alonzo Brandon ’85Vice President for UniversityAdvancement

Jennifer Mullen Collins (M.P.A. ’04)Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Giovanna GenardDirector of Marketing and Communications

Victoria E. Burke (M.S.Ed. ’94)Director of University Publications

Dana G. Allen Assistant Vice President forAlumni Relations

Debbie White Senior Associate Athletic Director

Member, Council for the Advancement and Support of EducationVol. 3 No.3, Fall 2013Published by the Office of University RelationsOld Dominion UniversityNorfolk, VA 23529-0018

On our CoverAlums Joan and Bob Gonsoulin of Williamsburghave a one-of-a-kind retreat in the middle ofthe Hampton Roads harbor. See story Page 28.

PHOTO: ROBERTO WESTBROOK

Two themes emerge from the pages of this issue. One has todo with sturdy, compact structures that creative alums haveturned into two of the most fascinating dwellings you’ll eversee. The other theme comes from the storybook history ofOld Dominion University.

Our cover story is about the Middle Ground Lighthouse retreat thatJoan and Bob Gonsoulin, both ODU alums, and their family havecreated in the middle of the Hampton Roads harbor. You can see the five-story structure off to the east as you’re crossing the Monitor MerrimacBridge-Tunnel. The Gonsoulins bought the lighthouse at a federal surplusauction in 2005 and then set about reclaiming it from years of birddroppings and rust. Young alum Diane Dougherty had a blast visiting thelighthouse, and it shows in her report.

M.B.A. alum Mark Turner, a residential developer, has built a 1,000-square-foot model home in Northern Virginia that is getting nationalattention for its style, sturdiness and sustainability. You’ll be amazed byhow many features he has incorporated in this house, which he callsOneNest, and is, coincidentally, of a tower design somewhat similar to alighthouse.

Steve Daniel, who writes the very popular Then & Now column, is oneof the keepers of ODU history and his article in this issue about campusdining facilities through the years is a must read. From Bud’s Place toCafé 1201, that’s quite a journey.

Frequent Sports contributor Rich Radford looked into the history of theman for whom Foreman Field is named, A. H. Foreman, and ended updiscovering the interesting story of the political and civic maneuveringsthat led to the creation of the Norfolk Division of William & Mary, whicheventually became ODU.

I hope you enjoy these and other articles in this issue of Monarch. Ifone or more of them strikes your fancy, or you have suggestions aboutfuture magazine content, send me an email at [email protected].

–Jim Raper

From the Editor

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CONTENTS

Features18 Poetic AccoladesCreative writers from ODU’s M.F.A. program ex-press the mystery of life in moving poetic images,earning recognition along the way.

24 Craft Beer Boom Area microbrews and home-brewing culture, andeven the popular Moosehead beer, share anODU alum connection.

34 OneNestMark Turner (M.B.A. ’00) advances the ideals ofsustainable materials, carbon-neutral footprintand energy-efficient housing in his “headquartersfor happiness” model design.

56 The Man Behind Foreman FieldA.H. Foreman was a founding father of ODU,and he helped secure funding to build the sportsfield that bears his name.

Departments4 Letters

8 Then & Now

12 49th & Hampton

14 Today’s Student

16 Books

46 Classnotes

52 Sports

Harbor Retreat BeckonsODU alums Bob and Joan

Gonsoulin always “leave the lighton” at their Middle Ground

lighthouse retreat.Page 28

Keeping up with ODU Sports, see page 52.

4 MONARCH MAGAZINE FALL 2013

‘Taken’ by the BeautyI recently received the Summer 2013

edition of the Monarch and was “taken” bythe beauty of the front cover showingFrench Polynesia. The article entitled“South Seas Expedition” also caught myeye. Why?

My wife and I traveled to French Poly-nesia in November 2011 for a 10-day ad-venture/exploration.

We spent seven of those days on a smallcruise ship that could slip into the lagoonsinside the reefs, which surround all thesegorgeous islands. One of the highlights ofthe cruise occurred the day we were takenon a personal tour of the island of Taha’a.The lady giving the tour took us through-out this island, stopping along a lagoonwhere her family owned and operated apearl oyster farm. The manager gave us atour of the facilities showing us examplesof the entire operation, including some re-cently harvested pearls. ODU's own KentCarpenter should be congratulated on hisinterest and willingness to work within thebiosphere and culture of the French Poly-nesians. They are truly lovely, self-sustain-ing people who just happen to live in whatmy wife and I call “paradise.” Our daugh-ter, Christina Majka, ODU Class of 2007,has now put travel to French Polynesia onher “bucket list.”

Jim Majka ’66Yorktown, Va.

She is a LegendWhat a wonderful article about Ms.

Tucker (“Legend Award for ‘Cee Cee’Tucker,” Summer 2013). She is certainlydeserving of the award, and she is a legendhere at ODU and in the larger commu-nity. She continues to reach out to newMonarchs, whether they are faculty, stu-dents or staff. She always wants to knowwho you are, what are your interests andhow she can help you make the transitionto ODU. She has provided her personaltouch as our ambassador-at-large to ourneighbors and our state. In ways bothlarge and small, she has enriched our uni-versity.

Samuel CoppageODU Associate Professor of Business Analytics

Proud of the StridesAs a longtime supporter of Old Do-

minion University, I look forward to up-dates and publications both online andthrough the mail. I just finished readingthe summer edition of Monarch–cover tocover. All I can say is, “Outstanding!” Asan avid Monarch fan, I keep up-to-date onathletics at ODU. What a pleasure to readabout some of the other diverse activitiesgoing on at my alma mater. I’m proud ofthe strides ODU continues to make in ed-ucation, outreach and research. On mydaily walks through campus, I zigzag themany paths in order to walk across all ofthe bridges and by the beautiful fountains.I crunch across the shells that make up thepathway through Quarantine Lake (whichis what we called it in the early 1970s) andthrough the beautiful crape myrtles on thelawn. I'm proud that our campus was rec-ognized for green initiatives including ac-ceptance into the Arbor Day Foundation’sTree Campus USA program. I walk by thevarious athletic fields and courts wheresummer camps are in full swing. I end mywalk along the Elizabeth River and thebeautiful sailing center with its recently re-stored wetlands area and pier. I am nowcounting the days until I hear the ODUmarching band preparing for another year.Those Monarch drum cadences give mechills!

I thank you and your staff for continu-ing to showcase the many things happen-ing at ODU that are not always apparentwhen walking through campus, driving

along Hampton Boulevard, or attending anathletic event. I look forward to readingthe next edition of Monarch. In themeantime - GO MONARCHS!

Christie Sykes ’74, ’95Norfolk

So Many Pleasant MemoriesSteve Daniel’s article about our Russian

program reunion in the Then & Now col-umn (“Russian Scholars Salute Their Pro-fessor,” Summer 2013), was so great! Iappreciate the time and effort devoted tothe story. It will appear in an appendix inmy latest book, “Passage Prohibited” (dueout later this year). When I taught atODU, many in the ODU communitywere puzzled and curious about my earlyage retirement from the Navy, some think-ing that I may have been forced out or notpromoted to the rank of captain. I neverresponded, but am glad to place in thisbook a clear picture of my performance (asan intelligence officer) before employmentat the university.

Again, many, many thanks for the col-umn, which offered to me and the Russianlanguage alumni an opportunity for somany pleasant memories at the university.

John FaheyCatonsville, Md.

O’Hallarn FanYou have done a great job with this

publication and I look forward to future is-sues. I particularly enjoyed BrendanO’Hallarn’s contributions to the Summer2013 edition. He is a very skilled writer.

Brian C. Citizen ’10Woodbridge, Va.Ed.’s note: O’Hallarn is an ODU Marketingand Communications staffer and a contributingwriter to Monarch magazine.

To send a letter to the editor, you may contactus via email, [email protected]; fax, 757-683-5501;or by regular mail, Editor, Monarch magazine,100 Koch Hall, Old Dominion University,Norfolk, VA 23529.

You may reach us by phone at:Alumni Association and Alumni RelationsOffice: 757-683-3097 or 888-ODU-3435Monarch magazine: 757-683-5585

monarchO L D D O M I N I O N U N I V E R S I T Y M A G A Z I N E | S U M M E R 2 0 1 3

INSIDE: REUNION TRIBUTE for Russian Prof 8 AL ROLLINS Remembered 10 DENTAL HYGIENISTS inNicaragua 26 REDRAWING ASIAN Stereotypes 36 ZELDA LOCKHART Finds Her Voice 40

Assignment: French Polynesia

Letters

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From the President

Counting the Ways We Measure Progress

When I began as president in 2008, we created astrategic plan that was bold, entrepreneurial andambitious, a plan that – when complete –would leave no doubt as to Old DominionUniversity’s transformation into a top-tier na-

tional, research-intensive university. With less than a year left, I cantell you our progress has been remarkable.

To support student success, we are incorporating new advisingprotocols, broadening an innovative math tutoring initiative and in-creasing efforts to connect with students earlier in the semester.We’ve increased our retention rate by more than 7 percent over thepast five years.

We’ve worked to grow our national reputation through key aca-demic programs and scholarship.

ODU launched several new academic programs, including abachelor’s degree in modeling and simulation engineering, the onlyone of its kind in the nation. The graduate program in internationalstudies became the first American program to be accredited byNATO. Publications advocating integrity and value in online edu-cation gave high marks to several of our online programs – in psy-chology, human services, computer science and nursing.

With a goal to spur economic growth, Old Dominion wasawarded its 100th, 101st and 102nd patents and signed five licensingagreements, this year alone. We opened the Center for InnovativeTransportation Solutions, strengthened the Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative, partnered with Dominion VirginiaPower on solar energy, and opened women’s and veterans’ business centers.

The Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics continues to break new ground in malignant tumor treatment, woundhealing and plasma creation for disinfection and treatments. The center’s researchers hold more than 40 U.S. patents and apromising melanoma treatment by the center’s director, Richard Heller, is in clinical trials on the West Coast.

As one of Virginia’s more international institutions, we set forth to expand those connections, too. Our global communityof more than 1,200 international students come from 113 countries. Old Dominion’s Confucius Institute opened in Apriland has already gained approval for the university to become the first on the East Coast sanctioned to train Chinese faculty.

At Old Dominion, we recognize our obligation to the larger community. More than 11,000 students spent some 375,000hours engaged in community service last year. Faculty and staff provided another 54,000 hours of service for more than 800organizations. We were recognized for the second consecutive year by the President’s Higher Education Community ServiceHonor Roll.

As I look back over the past five years, the changing landscape of our campus is a tangible indication of transformation.Since 2008, Old Dominion University has completed or started some $325 million in capital projects.

The greatest harbinger of success, in my opinion, is the support of external constituencies.Since 2009, the Virginia General Assembly has increased its support of Old Dominion University by nearly $30 million.

Private support of Old Dominion has been tremendous as well. We’ve raised close to $100 million in gifts and commitments,including 21 gifts of more than $1 million each, and are committed to pursuing another $200 million-plus in private giftsand public funding over the next four years to support new goals.

One such initiative is to develop an entrepreneurial curriculum geared to students across all disciplines. I am thrilled to announce that our vision is also that of alumnus Mark Strome and his wife, Tammy, who at the time of

publication announced a $10 million gift for entrepreneurism. In addition to creating courses, the gift will help establish anentrepreneurial center and co-curricular programming, and cultivate a culture of entrepreneurism on campus. You can readmore about the Stromes’ visionary gift online at odu.edu and in the next issue of Monarch magazine.

–John R. Broderick, President

Old Dominion University

ODU and Virginia AquariumOpen New Eelgrass Test Facility

When we last checked in on the ocean-acidification eelgrass study of Old DominionUniversity oceanographers Richard Zimmer-man and Victoria Hill (“Unique EelgrassStudy,” Spring 2012), they were doing pre-liminary research in a laboratory on campusand looking forward to a day when theirproject would have its own tank farm on thegrounds of the Virginia Aquarium & MarineScience Center.

That day arrived in June, and already theresearchers are getting results that suggestgood news for coastal waters such as theChesapeake Bay where seagrasses have faredvery poorly over the past five or six decades.

The elaborate research facility is on aquarter-acre plot along the aquarium’s Na-ture Trail on Owls Creek. It includes 20computer-regulated, 3,000-liter tanks, eachholding saltwater and a half-dozen trays filledwith sandy soil planted with eelgrasses. Zim-merman, professor of ocean, earth and atmos-pheric sciences (OEAS), is leading theproject, funded by a National Science Foun-dation grant of $1 million. Hill, an OEAS re-search assistant professor, is co-principalinvestigator along with Mark Swingle (M.S.’80), the aquarium’s director of research and

conservation.The central facet of the study is a test of

how eelgrasses grow in waters with height-ened acidity. The acidification of the oceanscomes from increased amounts of carbondioxide in the atmosphere – much of it putthere by the burning of fossil fuels. Carbondioxide is absorbed by the waters and when itdissolves, it creates carbonic acid.

“Acidifying the oceans is generally con-sidered to be a bad thing,” Zimmerman says.But perhaps not so for eelgrasses, he is quickto add. “The key here is that seagrasses appearto be among the few – the very few – win-ners in an acidified ocean.”

Preliminary work in the ODU labs, aswell as computer models, predicted this win-ner status for eelgrasses, and the testing doneso far at the aquarium site seems to back upthe hypothesis. “The early returns? Eelgrasseslike carbon dioxide,” Zimmerman says.

Not only does the rate of growth increasein step with the amount of carbon dioxidethat the researchers pump into their tanks,but also the extra dose of carbonation seemsto help the eelgrasses withstand warmerwater temperatures, which are predicted withglobal warming. Most of the eelgrasses in thetest are sourced from the Eastern Shore ofVirginia, but, in cooperation with scientists in

Washington state, Zim-merman also has dedi-cated one of the tanksto a test of Puget Soundeelgrasses. “These areplants that had neverbeen in water muchover 50 degrees, and it’sgetting up to 85 de-grees in this tank. Nev-ertheless, we’re findingthat the Puget Soundplants are responding anawful lot like Virginiaplants.”

Murky, pollutedwater has devastated theeelgrasses of the Chesa-peake Bay. This destroyshabitat for creaturessuch as crabs and imma-

ture fishes, and contributes to the bay’s peren-nial “dead zones” in which oxygen levels aretoo low for fish to survive. Eelgrasses, like allphotosynthesis-dependent life forms, take incarbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

Zimmerman points out that no matterwhat steps are taken to reduce carbon dioxideemissions worldwide, the amount is sure torise in the near term and bodies of watersuch as the bay are sure to gain in acidity. Ifthe acidification could help bring a return ofeelgrasses to the waters, a balance could bereached to keep the acidification from be-coming dangerously high.

A Distinguished AlumnaWants to Share ‘The Force’

When writer Zelda Lockhart received herDistinguished Alumni award last year fromthe Old Dominion University Alumni Asso-ciation (Winter 2013, and also see “WritingWhat is Real,” Summer 2013), she made anunusual acceptance speech. Actually, it wasn’ta speech at all. Lockhart sang a song she firstheard when she was a student living in Vir-ginia Beach, “Fed by the Force” by SonjaBird Yancey.

In introducing the song at the awards ban-quet, Lockhart said the lyrics remind her ofthe same focus that many of her mentorshave had “on prosperity as opposed to dispar-ity.” The song ends with these lyrics:

I have considered the lilies growingin the fields,Their garments so perfect, their beautyfull revealed.We are fed by the force that determinesall life.Consider we’re all lilies free from ourown strife.

Now Lockhart wants to share the force bymentoring writers. This summer, she openedLaVenson Press Studios on a rural tract sheowns near Hillsborough, N.C. The mission ofthe facility is “inspiring women to self-definethrough writing and publishing.”

“This combines my efforts as a publisher,and teacher of writing,” Lockhart says. “Ahost of workshops on writing fiction, poetry,memoir, songs, screenplays and plays will befacilitated by me and by guest artists. Twiceeach year the studios will also host a WinterStage and Gallery and a Summer Front PorchStage and Gallery, both open to the public.”

Her first workshop for young womenwriters was held in July.

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PostscriptsFOLLOWING UP ON ARTICLES FROM PAST ISSUES OF MONARCH MAGAZINE

At the Virginia Aquarium research facility: (front from left) research in-tern Miranda Smith, graduate researchers Malee Jinuntuya and ArielDegree, Hill and graduate researcher Billur Celebi; (rear from left)graduate researcher Carmen Zayas, Zimmerman and research associateDavid Ruble. PHOTO: CHUCK THOMAS


From the 1930s to the early’60s, a small, unpretentiouscollege snack bar met thegastronomic needs of OldDominion’s students.Known for most of that pe-riod as Bud’s Emporium,Bud’s Place or simplyBud’s, the eatery was the

social gathering spot for the Norfolk Division’ssmall population, where students as well as fac-ulty members could chow down on burgers and

sandwiches, and linger for conversation or agame of cards. Bud’s, which started out in the oldLarchmont School building, later moved to theAdministration Building (now Rollins Hall) andstill later to a new addition at the back of theScience Building (today’s Spong Hall). With theschool’s transition from a two-year division ofWilliam & Mary to an independent, four-yearinstitution in 1962, followed by the addition ofits first residence hall two years later and theopening of Webb University Center in 1966,

campus dining was one of many services thatevolved to meet the needs of an ever-growingstudent body.

Today, Monarch Dining, the university’s Ara-mark-run dining services, serves close to 100,000meals a week at a dozen or so venues throughoutODU’s 251 acres, from the Legends café inWhitehurst Hall at the west end of campus toRaising Cane’s, a national-chain “chicken fin-gers” restaurant, located a block east of HamptonBoulevard in the University Village. Studentsthese days can even use their meal cards to buysandwiches, pastries and drinks in Perry Libraryand the Batten Arts and Letters Building. In themiddle of all these and other dining options isCafé 1201, the 450-seat venue in Webb Center,ODU’s student union.

With the marked growth in the number ofODU’s resident students (today, nearly 5,000 stu-dents reside on campus and another 2,000 livewithin walking distance), keeping them fed andcoming back for more – as well as offering anextensive catering service – has turned into amajor operation for the Aramark staff. Today,Monarch Dining has 24 managers and 500 em-ployees, including about 140 students who workpart time. It is a far cry from the school’s humbledining origins.

Bud’s PlaceIn its first academic year, 1930-31, and for the

next few years, the Norfolk Division consistedentirely of the old Larchmont School building,situated at the northwest corner of HamptonBoulevard and Bolling Avenue. A small snack barserved the first class of 206 students from thebasement corridor of the facility, later moving itsoperation into Room 1. As one 1931 studentrecalled in the 2000 ODU history book “OldDominion University: From the Great Depres-sion to the New Millennium,” students couldpurchase a tomato sandwich for a nickel – “realthin bread with lettuce and tomato and mayon-naise.” Those who wanted more of a meal couldwalk across the street to the new Larchmont Ele-mentary School to dine in the cafeteria there.

Bud’s would become the watering hole forthe early Norfolk Division crowd, though, andyears later it was still going strong. The late WellsGresham ’42, in a December 1980 Alumnews

Campus Dining Started with Bud’s PlaceBut Tomato Sandwiches Just Wouldn’t Cut It These DaysB Y S T E V E D A N I E L

Then&now

piece, shared this memory of Bud’s: “Classeswere also held in the Old Larchmont Schoolbuilding, where teachers strained to lectureover music rising from Bud’s, the basementsnack bar. When a favorite selection – any-thing by Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman,Tommy Dorsey or Glenn Miller, ‘Song ofIndia,’ ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree withAnyone Else but Me,’ the Andrews Sisters’‘Drinking Rum and Coca-Cola’ – played onthe juke box, students turned up the volumecontrol.”

Audrey T. “Bud” Paul, who had enrolled atthe Norfolk Division in 1933, a year later be-came manager of the snack bar that wouldsoon bear his name. A favorite figure on cam-pus, Bud ran the eatery until his death in1948. Bessie Charity, a longtime support staffmember who had worked at Bud’s in themid-1930s, helped run the lunch counter fora period following his death.

After a decade and a half of catering tostudents and becoming an institution in itsown right, Bud’s Emporium moved in 1945to the Administration Building, where the fol-lowing year its wooden booths becamecrowded “with men for a change” as veteransof World War II spiked enrollment. JamesSweeney, associate professor emeritus of his-tory, noted this development in his 1980 book“Old Dominion University: A Half Centuryof Service,” adding that with its new boothsand counters, “Bud’s remained the most pop-ular student gathering place.”

The snack bar, which at times doubled as abookstore through the years, continued to dis-pense soft drinks, burgers, sandwiches andschool supplies. Following Bud’s death, stu-dents dedicated the yearbook to him. An in-scription in the Voyager recalled the sign heposted biannually: “During Examinations:Blotters, Ink, Aspirin and Sympathy – Free.”

Current Harrisonburg, Va., resident BettyStarr Cootes Downing ’57, in a 1979 tapedinterview with Sweeney for the libraryarchives, recalled her days as an active studentand Bud's patron. The former cheerleader,chorus member and field hockey player calledBud’s Emporium “the best single place in allof college,” and added, “Everyone went therebetween classes. Mostly conversation and/or agood bridge game were its charm. And I spentmany a happy hour in a booth at Bud's withfriends.”

Bud’s moved again, in early 1957, nextdoor to the first floor of a new addition to theScience Building, where the school’s first cafe-teria also opened its doors on the floor above.

Betty Lou Parker Weaver ’63 of Chesapeake,who was editor of the yearbook, patronizedboth dining facilities. She recalled the “won-derful group of ladies” who worked at thecafeteria, and characterized Bud’s as theschool’s “social mecca.”

“What was neat was that in Bud’s and inthe cafeteria, the professors all came as well, soyou got to know your professors in socialways other than just seeing them walk by,” shesaid. “Bill Whitehurst was the most marveloushistory professor there ever was, so you lovedit when you got to sit at his table and chatwith him.”

Students now had the option of eatinghot-plate meals, complete with vegetables andfruit, in the new cafeteria, but Bud’s remainedthe hangout of choice, where they could eatin a casual atmosphere, smoke cigarettes – andeven drink beer. Weaver remembers the frater-nities having their official beer steins sittingon a shelf at the snack bar, and drinking herfirst beer there. “It was a nice place to eat,whether you got breakfast or lunch. That wasour fast food.

“It was just the place to be. If you had abreak between classes, you went to Bud’s andyou sat around and played bridge or talked.We solved all the world’s problems as we satthere – college kids think they can do that –and we talked of the great futures we weregoing to have.” Weaver retired in 2002 after afulfilling 39-year career of teaching govern-ment at Chesapeake’s Indian River HighSchool.

Webb Center DiningThe opening of Old Dominion’s first dor-

mitory, Rogers Hall – with its own cafeteria –the year after Weaver graduated, along withthe subsequent debut of Webb Center in1966, spelled the end of Bud’s and the ScienceBuilding cafeteria, as the once-small, two-yearinstitution continued on a trajectory ofgrowth befitting its recently acquired status asan independent, four-year school.

For nearly five decades now, the WebbCenter cafeteria has provided ODU students,in a very literal sense, food for thought. “It wasa place to work with classmates on homeworkand projects, discuss class lectures, tutor eachother, talk about employment (while in schooland future) and keep up to date with eachother,” recalls Bill LaBelle ’89, of Suffolk. Asfor the food, he remembers meals ranging inquality from “excellent to … ‘This is what?’”

Since the Webb Center expansion in theearly 1990s, the cafeteria has grown in size

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Bud’s Legacy

First there was Bud’s Place, pictured here in dif-ferent years and locations on campus. The popularhangout served Norfolk Division students for threedecades. Students flocked to Bud’s before, betweenand after classes for food, conversation and cards.“It was just the place to be,” says Betty LouParker Weaver ’63 of Chesapeake, who furthernoted: “That was our fast food.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE

UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES


and undergone various renovations. In recentyears, it has upgraded its menu options andeven adopted a trendier name, Café 1201. Es-sentially, though, the dining facility has oper-ated out of the same location since WebbCenter was built.

“It’s not common for a college or univer-sity’s major residential dining facility to bepart of the student center – it’s more the ex-ception than the rule,” said Sue Mitchell,Webb Center director. “It’s not an old model,just a different model, and one that’s part ofour culture. We have 80,000 visitors a week inWebb Center during the academic year. Ican’t tell you how many of them eat here, buthaving a large residential dining complex inWebb Center is the most significant trafficdriver there is.”

Janet McLaughlin is the resident districtmanager for Aramark, which has run ODU’sdining services since 1995. When she arrivedat the university in 1999, the food servicesoperation was feeding, on average, no morethan 5,000 people a week. Today, that numberis approaching 100,000, and a large number of

these meals are being consumed in the WebbCenter’s Café 1201. The café is particularlypacked during activity hour on Tuesday andThursday, and just as they have done for yearsand years, fraternities and sororities have theirtraditional tables staked out, where membersgather to eat and talk.

Today’s ODU students have numerous op-tions for dining, in addition to Café 1201. InWebb Center alone there is also the House ofBlue, a small food court that offers a variety ofeateries, including Pizza Hut. Also located inthe student union are Chick-fil-A, Subwayand Starbucks, all of which do a boomingbusiness.

A forerunner of these establishments wasthe Rathskeller, a student bar that opened in aback corner of the building in 1979. Servinghamburgers, sandwiches and french fries, aswell as beer on tap, “the Rat” was envisionedas a quieter, more relaxing alternative to themore raucous bars on Hampton Boulevard. Itproved to be a relatively short-lived experi-ment, however, doomed chiefly when theU.S. set the legal drinking age at 21 in 1984.

The Rat closed its doors in 1988, and its con-tents were auctioned off.

For staff members of the Mace & Crown,in particular, whose offices were just upstairsin Webb Center, the Rathskeller was a con-venient place to hang out and de-stress aftermeeting their deadlines. “I fondly remembergoing down to the Rat on Friday afternoons,”recalls former sports editor Forrest “Skip”Williams ’83, of Virginia Beach. “I rememberthe Rathskeller being a little more upscalethan the 4400 Club and Friar Tucks. Plus, youdidn’t have to go outside and play in traffic toget to it. It wasn’t as rowdy as the other places.But it was a great place to get a beer.”

As college dining service operations havelearned over the years, trying out new thingsis important when catering to the changingdesires and tastes of students. A few years ago,Café 1201 transitioned to an all-you-care-to-eat facility. The meal cards that students (ortheir parents) now purchase can be used notonly in Café 1201, but also in other Aramarkdining facilities in Webb and across the cam-pus.

“I remember the Rathskeller being a little more upscale than the 4400 Club and

Friar Tucks. Plus, you didn’t have to play in traffic to get to it.”

–Forrest “Skip” Williams, former Mace & Crown sports editor

Students enjoy glasses of beer with their food at the Rathskeller, a student bar that opened in a back corner of Webb Center in 1979. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

The food that’s served in Café 1201,Rogers Café and Legends today is a far cryfrom the often derided, “institutional” cafete-ria fare of yore. Burgers, pizza and fries are stillfavorites among the college crowd, but manyof today’s students are savvier about food andnutrition. The ODU dining facilities have in-creased their vegetarian and vegan options inthe last couple of years, and this fall Café 1201opened a new gluten-free station. Also debut-ing this semester is a pasta machine, wherestudents can watch one of their favorite foodsbeing made. As McLaughlin notes, “It doesn’tget any fresher than that.”

Trying to satisfy all of their customers is anongoing challenge for McLaughlin and herstaff, though.

“If people are coming in to the sameplaces and eating the same food, you’re goingto have a challenge with monotony. So thefocus for us is introducing what we call mo-notony breakers. As an example, we will haveinternational nights, and bring in someone tomake sushi or Thai food – just to make itfun,” McLaughlin said.

Mariam Abdelhamid ’13, who served asstudent body president her senior year atODU, ate most of her meals at the Legendsand Café 1201 facilities. “The food was usu-ally really good and there were many op-tions,” she said. Among her favorite dishes

were the fried chicken, mac and cheese, “MissCookie’s stir fry,” chicken parmesan andlemon-pepper broccoli.

Abdelhamid, who came up with the ideato hold a Dining Staff Appreciation Day,added, “I also think the warm atmosphere –some of the dining staff were like family tomany of the students – made the experienceof eating on campus that much better.”

For legions of ODU students, one suchemployee was Lucy Rowe, who was a cook atthe Webb Center cafeteria for 43 years. Rowe,who died in 2010, was particularly known forher wonderful breakfasts. Her friend and co-worker, Ruby Milteer, shares the followingmemory: “I think the thing they really en-joyed was that she would stand with her backto them, and she would holler ‘Next!’ andthey would call out their orders to her. Andthen she’d get it ready and turn around andgive them their food, and never made a mis-take. That was really amazing. She got so fa-mous they named a burger after her, the LucyBurger.”

Since 1968, Milteer herself has been amajor contributor in providing a warm at-mosphere for the students who dine in WebbCenter. “Miss Ruby,” as she is affectionatelyknown, started as a cashier and later became adining facility supervisor. Just as Bud was a fa-vorite among students in the early days, Mil-

teer has been a fixture on campus for morethan four decades now.

“I really enjoy the students,” she said. “Ilove what I do and I love meeting people, andthis is the people place.

“I talk to a lot of students, and I get hugsfrom a lot of them. If I’m off or whatever, thenext day or two, they’ll say, ‘Where were you?’And that makes me feel good that they thinkenough of me to even ask.”

On Admitted Student Day earlier this year,Milteer remembers talking to two ODUgraduates from years ago who brought theirdaughter to campus. “The mother said, ‘MissRuby, you’re still here!’” Milteer recalled witha laugh. “I said, ‘Yes I am!’ I really enjoyed see-ing them again.”

One of Milteer’s biggest thrills came fol-lowing last year’s student orientation, whenshe learned that one of the visiting parentshad sent ODU President John Broderick aletter, “saying how helpful and everything Iwas when they came through,” Milteer said.“That really made me feel good – that some-one took the time to write him.”

“We have great students and employees onour campus,” said McLaughlin. “This is thestudents’ home away from home, it’s the din-ner table for them. So it is all very social, andthe more we can make that fun and enjoyable,the better for everyone.” l

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Left: Derek Krawiec, a manager for Aramark, dishes up a hot plate in Café 1201. Center: Ruby Milteer, a dining facility supervisor forAramark, has greeted students at Café 1201 since 1968. “I love meeting people, and this is the people place,” she says. Right: Fromraspberry yogurt to the more traditional burgers and pizza, ODU’s dining services strives to meet the ever-changing desires andtastes of students. This fall, it introduced a gluten-free station and added a pasta machine. PHOTOS BY CHUCK THOMAS

“I talk to a lot of students, and I get hugs from a lot of them. If I’m off or whatever,

the next day or two, they’ll say, ‘Where were you?’ And that makes me feel good.”

–Ruby Milteer, dining facility supervisor


49th & Hampton

Michele Darby indental hygieneand her hus-band, DennisDarby inoceanography,have servedwith distinction

on the faculty of Old Dominion since 1974,so it was with great gratitude and no smallamount of sadness that the university ac-cepted their decisions in spring 2013 to re-tire.

But even though their days in the class-room are over, both say they have profes-sional goals they will continue to pursue.

Michele retired as Eminent Scholar, pro-fessor and chair at ODU’s Gene W.Hirschfeld School of Dental Hygiene andsimultaneously learned that she would re-ceive one of the nation’s highest honors inher field. The American Dental Hygienists’Association at its annual meeting in Junepresented her with the 2013 Dimensions ofDental Hygiene’s Esther Wilkins LifetimeAchievement Award.

“When you think of dental hygiene andOld Dominion University, the first namethat comes to mind is Michele Darby,”

wrote Gayle McCombs, Darby’s colleague atODU, in an endorsement that was printedin the Lifetime Achievement Awardbrochure. “She is such a big part of ODUthat you can’t separate them. When youthink of the roles of the dental hygienist andhow these have evolved over the years,Michele has always been at the forefront asan advocate, researcher, educator and admin-istrator.” McCombs is a professor, graduateprogram director and director of the DentalHygiene Research Center at the HirschfeldSchool.

Dennis, who is an expert on the Earth’sancient climate, most notably as revealed bylayers of sediments beneath the Arctic

Ocean, retired as professor of oceanographyand director of ODU’s Sedimentology andElectron Probe Microanalysis Labs. One ofhis research breakthroughs was reported lastyear in the prestigious journal Nature Geo-science. It involves the discovery of a clear,1,500-year cycle in the Arctic Oscillation(atmospheric pressure fluctuations), whichcould be driving extreme weather in recentyears in the Northern Hemisphere.

He can detect climate patterns by analyz-ing grains of iron in core samples taken fromdeep beneath the ocean’s floor. Each layer of

the core sample may have different sedi-ments, reflecting the grains that settled tothe bottom at a particular time in history. Afingerprinting method Dennis developed forlinking these grains to the land mass fromwhich they originated tells him a lot aboutthe climate patterns that moved the grains(typically on ice rafts, sometimes a thousandmiles or more) to where they eventually set-tled to the bottom.

One of the most expensive research in-struments on the ODU campus, a $1.2 mil-lion electron probe microanalyzer thatDennis secured for the university via a Na-tional Science Foundation (NSF) grant, hasenabled him to sift through climate cluesdating back 100,000 years or more. His goalhas been to chart natural climate cycles, andto determine how those cycles may be un-derstood separate from random climatechanges that scientists believe are caused byhuman-made atmospheric pollution.

“Dennis and Michele have each con-tributed enormously to their respective dis-ciplines,” says ODU Provost Carol Simpson.“In addition, Michele led the HirschfeldSchool of Dental Hygiene for many years,helping it become one of the finest schoolsof dental hygiene in the country, even ex-tending its reach internationally. Dennis wasinstrumental in bringing the Department ofOcean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences itsrenowned international stature. Together,they are a formidable team and we willgreatly miss their contributions to Old Do-minion University.”

Michele is known throughout the worldas a textbook writer and an ambassador fororal health education. One of her texts,“Dental Hygiene Theory and Practice,” issoon to be released in its fourth edition, andher “Mosby’s Comprehensive Review ofDental Hygiene” is in its seventh edition.

She started her career training at theUniversity of Pittsburgh before receivingher bachelor’s and master’s degrees in dentalhygiene from Columbia University in NewYork. She joined ODU in 1974.

“Professor Darby was charismatic, drivenand a visionary,” says one of her former stu-dents, Lynne Slim ’77 (M.S.D.H. ’79), whotoday is CEO of Perio C Dent, a dental

A ‘Formidable Team’ We Will Greatly MissDarbys Retire after Four Decades at ODU

The Darbys during a recentvacation n South Africa.

WWW.ODU.EDU 13

practice management company based nearAtlanta.

Slim wrote those words in a tribute toDarby that appeared in July in RDH (Regis-tered Dental Hygienist) magazine.

Greg Cutter, a chemical oceanographeron the ODU faculty who is a longtimefriend of the Darbys, said that at his weddinga few years ago in western Virginia, he chat-ted with a young woman who was studyingdental hygiene at a local college and wasusing one of Michele’s texts. “When she dis-covered that Michele and Dennis were there,she couldn’t wait to meet Michele – sorry,Dennis! I simply cannot say enough aboutMichele’s contributions to our university andthe global community.”

Michele also was known as a tireless pro-moter of dental hygiene globally. She haslectured throughout the Middle East andboth Eastern and Western Europe. In 2010, asa Fulbright Scholar, she spent six months inIrbid, Jordan, at the Jordan University of Sci-ence and Technology to help raise standardsof education and practice.

She received the Outstanding FacultyAward in 1993 from the State Council ofHigher Education for Virginia.

“Our responsibility has been to create op-portunities for those we work with,” Michelesays, and also “to expand dental hygiene re-search and scholarship, and participate in theformation of public policies that facilitate ac-cess to dental hygiene care.”

Her global interests, she adds proudly, havehelped to spur Hirschfeld School’s interna-tional collaborations (Nicaragua, Germanyand Jordan). “Carrying out these responsibili-ties requires a steadfast commitment to thesepartnerships, and this has been one of thehallmarks of the School of Dental Hygiene.”

Dennis also attended University of Pitts-burgh in the late 1960s. That is where he re-ceived bachelor’s and master’s degrees ingeology before earning his doctorate in geol-

ogy and oceanography at the University ofWisconsin, Madison. That is also where hemet Michele. “We met as students at Pitt, ona blind date. Who would have guessed that itwould have resulted in 41 great years of mar-riage and still counting,” he says.

Dennis says he will continue to be activein research projects and as an adviser to grad-uate students. “While I have conducted manyinteresting research projects, there are stillmany fascinating projects beckoning,” he says.

“As I step away from the classroom, I planto spend as much time as possible with cur-rent and new graduate students for the ad-vancement of Arctic paleoclimate and sea iceresearch.”

Richard Zimmerman, a colleague ofDennis’ in oceanography and a former chairof the department, said, “Dennis Darby hashad a tremendous impact on education andresearch in ocean and earth science at ODU.He was conducting cutting-edge climate sci-ence long before it became the focus of pub-lic attention, and has been a leader in the areaof Arctic climate research for more than 30years. We all hope he will continue to serveas an active emeritus member of the OEASfaculty for many years to come.”

Cutter noted that Dennis led one of onlytwo trans-Arctic scientific expeditions everconducted, the HOTRAX cruise using theU.S. icebreaker Healy and the Swedish ice-breaker Oden in 2005. “With his retirementODU is losing a dynamic and innovativeteacher, but the wider oceanographic com-munity is also losing a leader, so we hope thathe’ll continue to study the Arctic at least as ahobby.”

Michele says she has several writing proj-ects ahead of her, but for the near future shewants to spend more time with family. Thecouple has two children, son Blake, who has aPh.D. in engineering, and daughter Devan, aphysician.

Sanderlin Named Human Resources VP

September Sanderlin was named inJune as Old Dominion University’svice president for human resourcesfollowing a national search. As vicepresident, she will lead a 22-persondepartment and serve as a strategicpartner on the President's Cabinet.Sanderlin, who has more than 26years of humanresources experi-ence, has beenat the universitysince 1997 andhas served asacting vice presi-dent since April2011.

Throughouther tenure atODU, Sanderlinhas developedand administered a number of organi-zational initiatives, including depart-mental restructuring, strategicplanning, assessments, conflict reso-lution and team-building workshops.Sanderlin directed the administrationof the Chronicle of Higher Education's“Great Colleges to Work For” survey,which led to ODU's being named to itshonor roll and as a “Great College toWork For” for the second consecutiveyear.

“With her institutional knowledgeand perspective as an alumna, formerclassified employee, administratorand member of the leadership team,September has built and sustainedpositive and collaborative relation-ships throughout every division,” saidDavid F. Harnage, chief operating of-ficer, who announced her appoint-ment. “She is adept at balancing boththe human aspect and business needsof the university to ensure that OldDominion remains a top universityand a great place to work.”

Sanderlin holds a bachelor’s degreein sociology from Mary Baldwin Col-lege, a master's in occupational andtechnical studies from ODU and certi-fication as a Senior Professional inHuman Resources.

Below, Dennis in the Arctic and Michele in Jordan.

Where do big ideas comefrom? Can students betaught to think outsidethe box? Is coming upwith a big idea enough,or is it just as importantto know how to com-municate it? Nikos

Chrisochoides, ODU’s Richard T. Cheng Professor ofcomputer science, decided last year to develop a 100-levelseminar to explore those questions.

He titled the seminar “Computers in Health Care,” ap-propriate enough for a course offered through the Depart-ment of Computer Science in conjunction with the ODUHonors College. But Chrisochoides wanted to attract stu-dents with a variety of interests and career goals, and the sixstudents he recruited for the spring 2013 seminar are fo-cused on biological sciences, psychology, business and physi-cal therapy.

Chrisochoides is an outside-the-box thinker himself,known internationally for his expertise in medical imagingcomputing. Last year, he was elected a Distinguished VisitingFellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UnitedKingdom, which cited his contributions in “exascale meshgeneration and runtime systems for medical imaging.” If acomputer scientist can think up ways to revolutionize brainsurgery, why can’t a freshman biology student at ODU dosome creative thinking along the same lines? As Chrisochoidespoints out, rapid changes over the past half century in comput-ing – how it’s done and what it’s used for – go a long way to-ward defining the “disruptive technologies” that create newproducts and services, and create excitement in the marketplace.

Chrisochoides has nothing against ideas that fine-tune an ex-isting product or service, the so-called “sustaining” innovations.Nevertheless, the real fun, he says, comes from forking off fromthe main road in order to spark ideas that are audacious, yet obvi-ously useful and efficient, and able to overwhelm the technologythat came before it. That is what “disruptive” means.

TODAY’S STUDENT


In Search of Disruptive

Technologies

From Scuba Gear to Stethoscopes

Illustration by Sam Hundley

WWW.ODU.EDU 15

When students veer off the road more traveled, Chrisochoidesbelieves they should be guided by their own interests and back-grounds, not his. He asked the four young men and two youngwomen in the seminar to think of a nonmedical technology thatfascinates them, and then to “cut and paste” that technology onto achallenge currently facing health care. Could the two seemingly un-related sides of the proposition produce a new and disruptive tech-nology?

David Jones, a freshman from Waynesboro, Va., who is studyingmarine biology, is a certified scuba diver, which led to his project,“Diving into Disruption.” He wondered if his background mightsuggest some solutions for the treatment of chronic conditions,which are responsible for close to 75 percent of health care expen-ditures in the United States. These conditions include arthritis,asthma, diabetes and dementia.

Jones says he has long admired the business model for dive cen-ters, which control most of the dive gear sales, scuba training andeven diving tourism in the country. The innovations of the divecenters include 1) standardizing instruction, taking over from theNavy, which trained most of the early scuba divers; 2) focused salesof equipment in a field where knowledge of the sales staff is veryimportant; and 3) group rates to allow for discounted travel to ex-otic diving locales.

“What if we could have a chronic condition center based on thedive center model?” Jones asks. Currently a single medical facilityusually treats a variety of chronic conditions. “What if exams andtreatment for one chronic condition happened under one roof?”Jones believes new efficiencies and therapy solutions could comefrom this model.

To demonstrate, Jones focused on chronic respiratory condi-tions such as asthma and chronic obstructive respiratory disorder(COPD). Just suppose, Jones suggests, that instead of visiting theirphysician’s practice regularly, respiratory patients entered cost-effi-

cient training programs to learn effective self-management tech-niques. Imagine if these patients could patronize compact chroniccondition centers with low-cost personnel and economical toolsand services for managing their unique condition. Consider thebenefits of chronic condition centers organizing group trips to dis-tant hospitals for special operations, mimicking the scuba tourismpackages of dive centers.

Jones and his classmates were required to give a PowerPointpresentation about their projects and write a final project paper. IfChrisochoides seems demanding in the realm of creative thinking,he is also a taskmaster when it comes to the presentation of ideas.“You must be able to sell your idea,” he says. “You must have a pro-

fessional presentation.” “This freshman seminar has been one of the most unconven-

tional, yet invaluable, courses I have taken in my two semesters atOld Dominion,” Jones wrote in an email after the semester hadended. “Dr. Nikos knows that excelling in the worlds of science andbusiness demands more than just good grades. The seminar hasbeen a highly rewarding experience, equipping me with the skills tobe an innovator in my future career.”

Julianne Osborne, a freshman from Yorktown, Va., who is inter-ested in both psychology and biology, wondered if the research paththat Dupont followed in the 1930s to create the synthetic fibernylon might provide tips to scientists today who are creating syn-thetic DNA.

“When the class started, I felt like I had no idea what was goingon,” Osborne admitted. “After a few classes, I became more andmore comfortable. Before this class, my critical-thinking skills werevery subpar, but after this class I definitely feel that my skills havegreatly improved.”

For Shanice McRae, a junior from South Hill, Va., her studies inbiology and physical therapy have led her to believe that computingreally does offer solutions for medical recordkeeping, even thoughelectronic records so far have not necessarily improved the qualityof health care. She suggested in her project that a patient’s healthrecords could be compiled in a fashion similar to the open encyclo-pedia format of Wikipedia. In other words, all of a patient’s care-givers would have access to a single record for the patient, to readwhat’s there or make entries. Wikipedia’s experience with eliminat-ing inappropriate postings or edits would come in handy, she says.

“I really enjoyed Professor Chrisochoides’ course,” McRae wrotein an email. “Not only is this class challenging, but also it gave me agreat sense of involvement with my education. It’s very easy to getused to taking courses where the content, assignments and researchyou complete are already selected for you, but with ProfessorChrisochoides’ course I was able to decide some of the content andresearch, and this made the course exciting and engaging.”

Chrisochoides said he hopes to repeat the seminar at some fu-ture date because he has been encouraged by the positive reactionof the students and the chair in computer science, Desh Ranjan, andassistant chair, Janet Brunelle. He also said the course would nothave been possible without the backing of Chris Platsoucas, dean ofthe College of Sciences, and Carol Simpson, ODU provost.

Said Simpson, “I am delighted that Professor Chrisochoides vol-unteered to offer this seminar. Having students from different disci-plines work in very small groups with an endowed professor is awonderful experience for them.”

David Jones (far left), Shanice McRae and Professor Nikos Chrisochoides


‘Sweet and Difficult’ MemoriesIn Luisa Igloria’s New Collection

Poet Luisa Aguilar Igloria mines life in her nativePhilippines for the poems in her new “The Saintsof Streets.” The collection is described by thepublisher, University of Santo Tomas PublishingHouse, as populated by “hungry ghosts, mullahs,would-be assassins, carnival queens, Hell Girl,

Dante riding Geryon’s back, and a host of other figures (who)guide us through the dioramas and exhibits of personal andcollective memory.”

Since November 2010, Igloria, an Old Dominion Univer-sity professor of English and author of the award-winning col-lection, “Juan Luna's Revolver” (2009), has challenged herselfto compose at least a poem each day as a writing exercise. InAugust, this portfolio reached 1,000, coinciding with the pub-lication of “Saints,” which includes some poems from among

the 1,000. Igloria recently

completed her firstterm as director ofthe M.F.A. creativewriting program(See M.F.A. Poets,page 18) and saysthe pressures ofthat position,coupled withbeing a full-timemom, chal-lenged her abil-ity to writeregularly. “It’shard to squirrelaway time foryour own in-terests,” shesaid. “Betweenthen and now,I’ve been trying to find the dedication, discipline.”

A shift occurred over Thanksgiving break 2010 when Iglo-ria was “stuck” in her writing and inadvertently stumbledupon the work of Dave Bonta, a conservationist and birderwho writes about nature-related topics on his micro blog “TheMorning Porch.” That day, Bonta had written about a wood-pecker, and he used the word "pawl" to describe its ratchetingmotions in a tree. Igloria borrowed the word as a trigger for apoem and then found herself going back to the blog each dayto see what else he had written.

“I began to see some (topics) were really quick ways to getinto a snippet of writing. I used them as prompts and then hestarted noticing,” she said of Bonta. “Part of it, too, is the exer-cise it provides. Working with the voice in your head, the ego,that tells you, ‘what the heck are you doing this for?’ Unself-consciousness is really a great way to flex up writing muscles.It gave me a way to realize that I could actually clear timeevery day and do this.”

“Saints of Streets” wins praise for poems that are at onceengrossing and mysterious. Bino A. Realuylo, the Filipino nov-elist and poet who authored the prizewinning “The Gods WeWorship Live Next Door,” wrote: “In poem after poem, LuisaIgloria deftly reminds us of the relevance of an art form at theshore of irrelevance, where the ‘water writes what it erases,then writes again.’ The erased—hungry ghosts, Pigafetta, theSaints, Yamashita, and Filipino public figures long-forgotten—find their memories re-lived in Igloria’s poetic timeline.”

BOOKS

WWW.ODU.EDU 17

“Do You Think Like a Philosopher?”By D.E. Wittkower

In his teaching and writing, D.E.Wittkower, ODU assistant professorof philosophy, strives to bring philos-ophy back into the public dialogue.To do that, he has given us all home-work.

The assignment does not involvein-depth analysis of the writings ofNietzsche, Kierkegaard or other greatphilosophers. Instead, in his newbook “The Philosopher’s Book ofQuestions and Answers,” Wittkowerencourages readers to think abouteveryday questions – like “Couldyour work life be scheduled to giveyou more freedom?” and “Why isGod telling you how to act?” –through a theoretical philosophyframework.

The book includes worksheetswhere readers can write the answersthat best reflect their thoughts abouteach of the questions posed. Then,referencing the scholarly work ofphilosophers like Epicurus (on thesubject of wealth) and Plato (forwhether religious texts are Godtelling us how to act), Wittkower ex-plains how theories of the famousphilosophers are applicable to every-day dilemmas and entertaining ques-tions.

Wittkower addresses a wide rangeof topics, sometimes pressing andsometimes quirky, including why evilexists, whether we can tell if we’reactually computer simulations, how“intelligent design” is different fromscience and how we are able to heara series of notes as a “melody.”

“Contemporary Latin America:1970 to the Present.”By Robert Holden and Rina Villars

Holden, professor of Latin Ameri-can history at ODU, and his wife,Villars, who has been an ODU lec-turer, paint a broad picture of theepochal political, economic, socialand cultural changes in Latin Amer-ica over the last 40 years. Althoughthey focus on Brazil and 18 countriesformerly in Spanish possession, the

text also provides a valuable compara-tive view of non-Iberian areas of theCaribbean.

“Since the late 1970s,” they write,“the central tendency of Latin Amer-ica’s history may be summed up inone word: ‘liberalization.’ In this re-spect, its history matched the generaltrend of world history during thesame period in favor of openness andpersonal freedom in practically everyrealm of human experience. … Ofcourse, neither on a world scale, norat the regional level of Latin America,nor at the level of individual coun-tries, did liberalization proceed in alinear, consistent, orderly or pre-dictable way. Nor can it be said thatliberalization is irrevocable or in-evitable; indeed, resistance to it in allits forms has been easy to find inLatin America ever since the trendemerged in the 1970s.

The book includes analysis of re-cent developments in Latin Americanmusic, literature and cinema; inwomen’s issues; in the fate of indige-nous peoples; in economic growthand disparities; and in education.

Holden has written extensivelyabout Latin America and constructedand maintains the ODU history de-partment’s Central American PoliticalHistory Database athttp://al.odu.edu/history/central.

‘Crossing Purgatory’ A Strong FirstNovel for Gary Schanbacher

Gary Schanbacher grew up in Norfolk and studiedeconomics at ODU (M.A. ’72) and the Universityof Colorado (Ph.D. ’81) before making a career inindustry and academia. But it has been as a fiction

writer that he has made a name for himself in recent years, firstvia a collection of short stories, “Migration Patterns,” forwhich he won a PEN/Hemingway honorable mention, theColorado Book Award and the High Plains First Book Award.In June, Pegasus Books published his first novel, “Crossing Pur-gatory,” and the critics are betting it won’t be his last.

“Crossing Purga-tory” unfolds in theAmerican West of thelate 1850s and evenhas the shoot’em-upaction that readers ex-pect from a cowboytale. Nevertheless, theauthor’s graceful proseand classical storylinelift this far above pulpfiction. ThompsonGrey, the protagonist,is the son of a pros-perous Kentuckypreacher, and his fateas a young husbandand father rivals thatof the Biblical Job.

The Americanfrontier of this periodis a fertile setting for character studies. Although the folksmoving West are products of a civilization familiar to us, theylive with few, if any, safety nets – no neighborhood cops, noemergency rooms, no soup kitchens. In these circumstances,the Seven Deadly Sins can actually be deadly. Thompson Greymakes some unfortunate decisions, reaps horrible conse-quences, and then sets out running West, wracked with guilt.He eventually gets to the Purgatoire River (aka Purgatory) insouthern Colorado, from which the title comes.

The main character finds some peace in the end, but that’snot giving away much about the plot.

“Schanbacher is a gifted writer whose prose is always ele-gant, whether describing the land, a winter storm, or the innerlife of his characters,” wrote a Booklist reviewer. “This is an in-tense and emotionally stirring saga.”

William Haywood Henderson, author of the novel “Au-gusta Locke,” says of the book, “There is something mythic inthe language, capturing the vast emptiness and ever-loomingdanger of the American West 150 years ago. Schanbacher ef-fortlessly channels history while exploring conflicts of theheart that ring just as true today.”

Schanbacher said via an email that he often visits HamptonRoads and has been struck by how “vibrant and forward look-ing” ODU is today. “I'm so impressed by the evolving campusand by the attractive community growing around it.”


Awards and Recognition Put Program in National Spotlight

M.F.A. Poets Are

‘ BURNING IT UP’

This year, several former and current stu-dents helped to put ODU’s 19-year-oldMaster of Fine Arts in creative writingprogram into the national spotlight. Mostnotably, Natalie Diaz ’00 (M.F.A. ’06)won the 2013 Pushcart Prize, one of themost prestigious awards in the poetryworld. Three other young ODU-edu-cated poets won top awards from presti-gious literary journals.

“At a national level, that’s going togive our program more credibility. Thatputs us on the map. People will take no-tice,” says poetry faculty member TimSeibles, who had a banner year himself.He was one of five poetry finalists for theNational Book Awards, solidifying hisreputation as a foremost American poet.

The awards are just the latest evidenceof the program’s growing reputation.

In fall of 2012, the poetry programwas ranked 50th of 151 full-residencyprograms by AWP, the Association ofWriters and Writing Programs.

“Our poets are burning it up,” saysM.F.A. program director and poet LuisaIgloria, who has won nearly two dozenawards, including the Palanca, the Philip-pines’ highest literary prize and the 2009Ernest Sandeen Prize. Her latest collec-tion, “The Saints of Streets,” was pub-lished this summer. (See Books, page 16)

The new online ODU literary jour-nal Barely South Review – along with itsannual prize – is another sign of the pro-gram’s coming of age. Writers publishedin the journal have been nominated al-ready for the Pushcart, Igloria says.

The accolades promise to attract alarger pool of higher caliber students cre-ating a snowball effect as other talentedwriters follow, Igloria said. Poetry candi-dates are already aware of Diaz’s successesand want to follow in her footsteps. Afterwinning the Pushcart this year, based onher first book of poetry, “When MyBrother Was an Aztec,” Diaz was awardeda 2013 Native Arts and Cultures Founda-tion Artist Fellowship for Literature for

her work in progress, “Native AmericanBerserk.” The latter work was inspired byPhilip Roth’s words “indigenous Ameri-can berserk,” in his novel “American Pas-toral.” In July, she was named one of fivefinalists for the prestigious 2013 PENLiterary Award in the open book cate-gory.

Diaz is the superstar, but over theyears ODU’s poets have won dozens ofawards, published hundreds of poems injuried literary journals, and signed pub-lishing contracts for chapbooks and shortworks of poetry. Rebecca Lauren ’07wrote “The Schwenkfelders,” which wonthe 2009 Keystone Chapbook Prize.Lauren is published regularly in national

journals. Gillian Devereux ’00 has twochapbooks, has been published in numer-ous journals, and was nominated for aPushcart in 2010.

The exceptional writers, Seibles says,share certain characteristics. “They areintellectually intense. They have agile andrestless imaginations. Their minds roamfree and far. They have a passionate inter-est in language.” They also share a recog-nition of the mystery of life and theability to render it in words. “It’s thatimage in a poem that moves you in away you can’t explain,” Seibles adds. “It’sthat aspect of life that can’t be reducedany further. There’s no explaining it.”

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For centuries, we have attempted to define poetry, the

Ars Poetica. Yet, when it comes to recognizing good

poetry – or poets – there is little disagreement. Every

year, ODU graduates about a half-dozen poets with a

Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and each year a

few more receive national recognition.

By Lynn Waltz (M.F.A. ’12)

Poetry faculty member TimSeibles, a National BookAward finalist himself, sayspromising poets have “agileand restless imaginations.”


Natalie Diaz sits inside her MohaveValley, Ariz., home on the Fort MojaveIndian Reservation near where she grewup. Her brindled dog Borges, named forJorge Luis Borges, sits on her feet. Whenshe ignores him, he whistles or chases histail. He’s part of her writing rhythm. “Hehelps me stay on a schedule because heneeds things at certain times,” Diazwrites in an email. “And, he likes to runwith me and lately I write most of mystuff while running.”

Life on the rez, as Diaz calls it, in-cludes a peacock that lives on the corner,a prize cow that gets walked every nightand a turkey that chases her down theroad. In July, a heat wave that peakedover 110 degrees brought hazardousweather warnings from the NationalWeather Service. “I live in a desert,” Diazwrites. “The land, the sky, the movementof the sun, the way the heat tolls againsteverything that tries to live here, are allamazing things that shape my words andrhythms.”

Diaz first came to ODU on a basket-ball scholarship, after learning to play onthe reservation, practicing for hours withher brother, whose addiction to metham-phetamines would later be a topic of herpoetry. She described herself as a “run-and-gun” type player, a very physical de-fensive player. After the Lady Monarchs,Diaz went on to play in Europe and Asia,Austria, Portugal, Spain, Sweden andTurkey. While there, she sent some of herpoems to a former professor, Tim Seibles,and ended up returning to ODU’sM.F.A. program after she injured herknee.

Here, she says, professors encouragedher to find her own style. “There was noprescription or expectation for me towrite like a ‘native writer.’ I was free tofind my voice,” she recalls.

Diaz indeed found her voice, as notedby her numerous awards and recognitionby The New York Times and “PBS NewsHour.”

As for her poetic process, it shifts likethe desert sands. “My life is alwayschanging – family, language, work, writ-ing, my community, the increasinglyeffed up world – how could my writingnot change? I am always relearning howto listen to myself or reveal myself in mywriting,” Diaz says.

And from her Facebook page: “Howstrange to me that we seem to easily for-get the capacity and power of poetry andmusic to say the unsayable, to bridge theunbridgeable, to slow down the mindenough to hear something beyond ourown noise. Poetry belongs in every place.It belongs in every ear. I have many lux-uries, and one of the most important isan Elder who has told me there is noword for right or wrong. There is onlywhat you have in you to say. And all youcan do is say it. And people will still behungry. And people will still cry at night.And the dust will still blow. But maybe,just maybe, it will bring rain. True, itmight do nothing. And if it does nothing,well, say it until it does.”

n Faculty member of the Institute ofAmerican Indian Arts (IAIA),Santa Fe, N.M.

n 2013 “When My Brother Was anAztec” (Copper Canyon Press)

n 2013 Pushcart Prizen 2013 finalist PEN Literary Award in

the Open Book categoryn 2013 Native Arts and Cultures

Foundation (NACF) Artist Fellowshipfor Literature

n 1997 Played in NCAA championshipgame with Lady Monarchsbasketball team

Natalie Diaz ’00, M.F.A. ’06

Natalie Diaz (center at right) studiedin the M.F.A. program with twoprizewinning writers, novelist JanetPeery and poet Luisa Igloria. Igloriais the M.F.A. program director.

WWW.ODU.EDU 21

Why I Hate Raisins

From the book: “When My Brother Was an Aztec” By Natalie Diaz

And is it only the mouth and belly which areinjured by hunger and thirst?Mencius

Love is a pound of sticky raisinspacked tight in black and whitegovernment boxes the day we had nogroceries. I told my mom I was hungry.She gave me the whole bright box.USDA stamped like a fist on the side.I ate them all in ten minutes. Atetoo many too fast. It wasn’t longbefore those old grapes set like blackclay at the bottom of my bellymaking it ache and swell.

I complained, I hate raisins.I just wanted a sandwich like other kids.Well that’s all we’ve got, my mom sighed.And what other kids?Everyone but me, I told her.She said, you mean the white kids.You want to be a white kid?Well too bad ’cause you’re my kid.I cried, at least the white kids get a sandwich.At least the white kids don’t get the shits.

That’s when she slapped me. Left meholding my mouth and stomach—devoured by shame.

I still hate raisins,but not for the crooked commodity lineswe stood in to get them—windingaround and in the tribal gymnasium.Not for the awkward cardboard boxeswe carried them home in. Not for the shitsor how they distended my belly.I hate raisins because now I knowmy mom was hungry that day, too,and I ate all the raisins.

DIAZ PORTRAIT AND BOOK COVER: ROBERTO WESTBROOK

n Nathalia Wright researchassistant for early modernstudies and an English Ph.D.candidate at the University ofTennessee.

n 2014: First book of poetry willbe published, based on ODUM.F.A. thesis.

n 2013: Iron Horse LiteraryReview, Discovered VoicesAward

Christian Gerard holds his new baby, abottle and cell phone as he paces his Lin-coln Park home in Knoxville, Tenn., incut-off jeans trying to quiet his son. He’sin the last year of his Ph.D. program at theUniversity of Tennessee and hopes to get ajob teaching writing.

“I started writing poems when I was inhigh school,” Gerard recalls. That was be-fore his B.A. from Miami University inOhio. “I don’t write because I need to,”Gerard says, dropping into a sarcastic deepvoice to mock the cliché. “I did it becauseI liked it and it was a puzzle. It was fasci-nating.”

Before coming to ODU, Gerard stud-ied under poet James Reiss, and one dayGerard bundled up his poems and tookthem to his mentor. “He crossed his legs; Icrossed mine. I thought writers shouldcross their legs. He went, ‘Hmmm.’

“I thought, ‘This is going to be awe-some. He’s going to get in touch with thePulitzer committee right now.’ After 20minutes of not speaking, Reiss said, ‘Chris-tian, have you read any poems writtenafter 1600?’ I realized pretty quickly theworld of writing was much bigger than Ianticipated.”

Gerard came to ODU and was blownaway. “Luisa (Igloria) helped me under-stand what it means to be a poet. Tim(Seibles) didn’t let me get away with any-thing. He would start a workshop remind-ing us that not everyone has access to apen and paper and we need to tell theirstories. That blew me away. It still gives meshivers to talk about it.”

Wilmot Here, Collect for Stella; orSoliloquy to a Bartender

By Christian Anton Gerard

Salinger’s a recluse who built a vaultfor his first amendment rights. He builta life on absence and doesn’t have my number,but I need the way he reaches inside my chest,massages the hurt sponged heart I didn’t knowwhen the girl with gorgeous elbows walked intomy life and Stella Amtraked to British Columbia.The west is still the heart’s frontier.My Midwest soul is a two bedroomapartment with great neighbors,everyone dreaming of a bigger world, butnobody leaves. We’re scared of big.I’ve set my cell-phone to ring the doorbellsound so incoming calls will feellike someone wanting to come in.Sitting in my skin’s sauna, I forgethow to function on the street. I’ve livedtoo long only looking in the mirror. I’ve lostmy glasses on purpose so there’s no outin sight, just the doorbell and me inchingaround my heart’s chambers for a ghost.


Christian Anton Gerard (M.F.A. ’09)

WWW.ODU.EDU 23

Tara Burke greets her customerswith a big smile at Luna Maya, a LatinAmerican restaurant where she waits ta-bles. “It’s where I get a lot of my mate-rial,” she says. “There’s so much humaninteraction.”

Burke finds material wherever shegoes. She has traveled to South Africaand Senegal with ODU’s Women’sStudies and International Studies to doin-service work. There, Burke gavevoice to a people still struggling to es-cape the legacy of colonialism and racialdivide.

“Usually a subject is calling me –feminist, sexual, cultural,” she says. “Iwrite poems of witness and provoca-tion, using words as activism.”

In the South Norfolk home sheshares with her partner and three dogs,Burke references her journal and thenotes app in her smartphone. She worksfrom snippets, phrases, imagery. She hastried writing longhand, but goes back tothe screen. “I can’t write until I see it onthe blank sheet on my computer. It maysay something about my age or my rela-tionship with technology. Or, it couldbe my awful handwriting.”

It is there she revises, hones thewords, gleans the meanings. “As a stu-dent, I was resistant to revision; now I’mopen. I thought I was amazing when Iapplied to the M.F.A. program and thatI was already a poet. I had not yet beenhumbled.” Her professors challenged herand Burke misses the “petri dish, talkingabout writing every day,” but says it’s aluxury. “It’s not the way the world is.

“Most artists are wrestling with big,untouchable ideas: love, hate, connec-tion, consumerism, nationalism, religion.It’s hard. It’s tough to want to say it outloud and have these conversations in art,without coming across as privileged, orpreachy. Poetry makes me look at some-one’s point of view that I would other-wise dismiss, and makes me realize thatwe all know things that others willnever experience, but we can imagine itthrough language.”

n ODU adjunct professor, teacherat The Muse, yoga instructor,waitress, freelance editor

n 2012 Split This Rock PoetryFestival, second place.

n Four publications in literaryjournals; four accepted for futurepublication.

TestBy Tara Shea Burke

(originally appeared in Switched-on

Gutenberg,

Issue 18)

I’d rather walk on icethan water, and one nightI do. I sleepwalk over deadearth, broken bark and branches,and wake barefoot on a coldmountain pond. I am praying.

I do not believe in God.

The moon is half empty and the air is loud,hard, exactly as it should beafter an ice storm. I do believein this: the quiet answersmy feet give as I walk back,numb now to the sharp earth,

aware only of what this body needs.

Tara Shea Burke ’08 (M.F.A. ’12)


It’s one of those summer afternoons in Norfolk, wherethe rain has pelted down so aggressively that water iscreeping up onto roadways. The commute has been de-molished; traffic has slowed to a crawl. But in groups ofthree or four, a puddle-dodging crowd streams throughthe loading dock doors of O’Connor Brewing Co. a few

blocks from the Old Dominion University campus. It’s 5 o’clockhere, and the beer is pouring.

In a scene reminiscent of Prohibition, the several dozen pa-trons grab pints poured from taps on the wall and plop down atunpretentious picnic tables. Music plays loudly. Conversationsare shouted across the tables.

These late-day socials at O’Connor have become extremelypopular for young professionals in Norfolk. And while the ambi-ence is unmistakable — that is, if you like to sit in the midst of aworking brewery while enjoying your pint — the key attractionis the beer itself.

There has been a craft beer boom in Hampton Roads in thepast decade, and Kevin O’Connor, owner of this brewery, is oneof the leaders. Besides a love of hoppy beverages, many of theselocal beer pioneers share something else in common — a con-nection to Old Dominion University.

O’Connor, an ODU business graduate (’03), tailored hisstudies to include internships at the former Steamship BrewingCo. in Norfolk, then volunteered at St. George Brewing Co. inHampton to learn as much as he could about the craft beer in-dustry.

He delivered his first barrel of Norfolk Canyon Pale Ale tonearby Cogan’s Pizza in April 2010. It’s been breathtakingly hard

work — the brewery at times is staffed for 24 hours straight —but O’Connor is thrilled to be part of the craft beer revolutionin Hampton Roads. “It’s a really exciting time,” he says.

O’Connor Brewing produces five regular ales and four sea-sonal beverages. A deal is being worked out that could triple thebrewing space of what has become a Norfolk institution forbeer enthusiasts. But for now, O’Connor leads impromptu toursof his facility around piles of hops and barley bags, barrels ofyeast and, of course, enthusiastic customers enjoying the rusticvibe. In other words, there are few places that Chris Jones andDiane Catanzaro would rather be.

BIG IN THEBrew

CultureStories by

Brendan O’Hallarn

‘SERIOUS’ BEERS UNITE ALUMS AND FACULTY

Kevin O’Connor (from left) treats Diane Catanzaro, Chris Jones andShana Pribesh to glasses of his beer. Photo by David Hollingsworth

WWW.ODU.EDU 25

You might call the marriedprofessionals, also ODUgraduates, the “first couple”of Hampton Roads beer.Starting with a first date sip-

ping “Miller Lites across the street fromODU” — Jones says this almost a littlesheepishly — Catanzaro (Ph.D. ’91) andJones ’76 (M.S. ’82) have become ringlead-ers of the region’s “serious” beer culture.

They attended their first meeting of theHampton Roads Brewing and Tasting So-ciety two decades ago. Since then the cou-ple has sought out fellow beer enthusiastswith vigor. They’re freelance writers, co-authoring the beer column in Veer maga-zine.

Jones, an industrial hygienist, also playsharmonica in a band known as the EsotericRamblers and points out with more than alittle pride that 10 of 13 songs on the

group’s new CD, “Keg of Love,” are beer-themed.

But Catanzaro might trump her hus-band’s love of beer. A professor of industrialand organizational psychology at Christo-pher Newport University, Catanzaro puther love of beer to the test in 2007, enter-ing the Beerdrinker of the Year competi-tion sponsored by Wynkoop Brewing Co.in Denver.

After making it through an initial, writ-ten screening process, Catanzaro was one ofthree finalists invited to the Colorado brewpub and craft brewery for a showdown.“We had a beer trivia contest, and we hadto try different beers and identify them. Itwas quite a challenge,” Catanzaro says. Shewon the competition.

O’Connor isn’t the only ODU-con-nected brewer in the region. Beach Brew-ing Co. opened its doors in Virginia Beachin fall 2010, the vision of Justin MacDon-ald ’08 (M.B.A. ’10). Beach Brewing’s Bull-head Brown Ale, Hurricane Wheat andTigershark Red have made their way intolocal eateries.

In James City County, Brass CannonBrewing started serving its Oktoberfest-

style beer in mid-2012. Its proprietors —CEO Tony Artrip, president Phil Norfolk,and brewmaster Scott Kennedy — metwhile they studied at Old Dominion Uni-versity, brewing their first batch of home-brew in 2008, while they were stillstudents.

The footprint of ODU brewers extendsfar beyond Hampton Roads as well. O’-Connor’s former head brewer Jimmy Walsh’02 now works in a similar role at theSouthern Tier Brewing Co. in Lakewood,N.Y. and (see sidebar) ODU business grad-uate and former varsity Monarch sailor An-drew Oland is president and CEO ofMoosehead Breweries, the largest breweryin Canada actually owned by Canadians.

The growth of the craft beer and homebrewing culture in Hampton Roads hasbeen so vigorous that Shana Pribesh, a so-ciologist and associate professor at ODU’s

Darden College of Education, says she usesthat fact as a recruiting tool when new fac-ulty are being attracted to come to OldDominion.

Pribesh and husband John Johnson didtheir own “brew” diligence when consider-ing the move to Norfolk from Texas. John-son contacted Catanzaro and Jones forinformation about their home-brew club.

Now eight-year residents of Norfolkwho grow their own hops, Pribesh saidtheir house is the one with the “neighbor-hood beer fridge,” where neighbors helpthemselves to their new home-brew cre-ations.

On the rainy evening, Pribesh, Catan-zaro and Jones pay rapt attention to KevinO’Connor’s detailed explanation of thebrewing process. Pribesh, who did a projecton female brewmasters while in doctoralschool at Ohio State University, said thegender role of brewers has switched.

“It used to be that women were theones who were trusted with the fermentingprocess, which was so important in early so-cieties,” she says. She became interested inthis project after biking across the UnitedStates in the early 1990s visiting different

microbreweries along the way and noticedthat there were no women brewers.

O’Connor points to the stack of 50-pound bags of barley – they need to becarried up narrow steps by hand to thebrewing kettle— as part of the disincentivefor women to enter the business. “Butyou’re seeing it change now,” he says. “Forone thing, a lot of the growth of craft beerhas been because women are more inter-ested in beer now.”

With the brief tour over, O’Connortakes orders for pints for his ODU-con-nected beerophiles. “Spyhop!” Catanzarosays, ordering the white IPA as soon as thewords are out of his mouth. The conversa-tion flows through beer history, industrytrends, and changing personal tastes, as afurious game of beer trivia gets the rapt at-tention of other patrons at the O’Connorpicnic tables.

There’s no question tiny breweries arebecoming big business. Some, like SierraNevada Brewing Co. in California, havebecome multimillion-dollar operationswith multiple breweries, and continent-wide sales staffs.

O’Connor said he’ll support any of hismicrobrew brethren, no matter how bigand popular their brands become, “unlessthey sell to Miller or Anheuser-Busch.”l


“It used to be that women were the ones who were trusted with the fermenting process, which was so important in early societies.”

–ASSISTANT PROFESSOR SHANA PRIBESH

WWW.ODU.EDU 27

Having grown up on Canada’sEast Coast as an aspiring com-petitive sailor, Andrew Olandexperienced one change right

away when he came to Old Dominion. “Iwent from a sailing season of four or fivemonths a year, to being able to sail 10months a year. I liked that,” he said.

Oland ’89, who studied business atOld Dominion while sailing for the pow-erhouse Monarchs, is now president andCEO of Moosehead Breweries, the third-largest brewery in Canada. He is thesixth-generation Oland to lead the com-pany, founded in 1867 in Saint John, NewBrunswick. But despite the family legacyin the business, nothing was handed tohim or his brother Patrick, now the chieffinancial officer of Moosehead.

“We have two rules in our family busi-ness: you have to work outside the fam-ily business first, and you have to earnyour way up,” Andrew said. So for threeyears after graduating from ODU, heworked at a shipyard in Halifax, NovaScotia.

In 1992, Oland took a position as aforeman in the bottle shop with the fam-ily company. “I used to joke that I wouldhave been Laverne and Shirley’s boss,”he said.

Oland moved to Boston with his wifeand three kids to earn an M.B.A. fromHarvard (1997). Since returning toMoosehead Breweries, Oland has held anumber of increasingly senior positions,including sales manager for Nova Scotia,sales director for New Brunswick, AlpineLager marketing director, and presidentof Moosehead Quebec. He was appointedpresident on April 1, 2008.

Oland now heads the largest brewerynorth of the border actually owned byCanadians. “Business is good. There’sbeen a real resurgence in the interest inbeer with the craft beer movement. Andwe’re very, very proud of the beer thatwe make.”

Moosehead Lager, the company’s lead-ing product, is a golden lager with a rep-utation for being light in body, offering abalance between malt sweetness and hopbitterness. Made from an age-old yeastculture, Moosehead Lager is brewedlonger to impart its unique flavor.

You can find Moosehead’s trademark

green-labeled beer in grocery stores onthis side of the border as well. The com-pany made a concerted effort to courtthe U.S. market starting in 1978 becauseit was easier at that time to ship beer tothe United States than it was to transportit across provincial borders in Canada.Besides, Oland said, the company offereda uniquely branded product to an Ameri-can audience.

“We think Moosehead says Canadabetter than any other brand, beer or any-thing else,” he said.

A few years after his family’s productcrossed the border, Oland did himself,and found a Hampton Roads region teem-ing with potential.

“ODU was more of a commuter schoolthen, but you could feel the sense ofcommunity building,” Oland said, addinghe formed especially close bonds with hisfellow sailors like America’s Cup competi-tor Terry Hutchinson and Mitch Brindley,now the coach of the Monarchs sailingteam. Oland said he also learned tremen-dous lessons in leadership from CaseyFulmer, his sailing coach at Old Domin-ion.

While at Old Dominion, Oland avidlyfollowed the men’s and women’s basket-ball teams, and is excited to hear newsabout his alma mater’s football program,which started in 2009. He has a specialreason to keep up: Former ODU quarter-

back Thomas DeMarco plays in the Cana-dian Football League with the British Co-lumbia Lions.

Oland also could feel the first stir-rings of a cultural renaissance in Nor-folk, with the growth of the Ghentdistrict and the Chrysler Museum. “Ithink what I saw in Norfolk was a com-munity that had a whole lot of poten-tial, but at the time it was strugglingto get some momentum,” Oland said.

He said he’s not surprised that themicro and craft brewing business hastaken off in the region. “Especiallywith the concentration of militarythere, people are coming in from allover the country. And Norfolk can behot in the summer, and there’s nothingmore refreshing than a cold beer on ahot day.”

Positioned between Canada-basedbrewing giants Molson and Labatt, andthe regional craft breweries that havesprung up in every province, Moose-head has carved out its own niche inthe beer market for its range of prod-ucts.

Oland said it’s a great time to be inthe brewing business, whether you’re atiny operator or a giant beermaker.“Beer is such a wonderful product.There’s so much potential to be inter-esting and different, and you’re seeingit all the time.”

Andrew Oland ’89 of Moosehead

Brewing Connections Extend into Canada

Andrew Oland in a Moosehead brewery. PHOTO COURTESY OF MOOSEHEAD BREWERIES


To the LIGHT

The editor’s assignment came in a businesslike email, but for me it read

something like this: “You are invited to board a boat, ride out into the

harbor to a lighthouse that ODU alums have rehabilitated and use as a

second home, watch a sailboat race that circles the lighthouse, grill out

on the deck of the lighthouse and socialize with some friendly people.

Then write a story about it.”

I answered in a flash. “When? Where? I’ll do it.” So on a Saturday

morning in May, I arrived at a Newport News boat ramp and met Bob

Gonsoulin, ODU class of ’72, and a health physicist for the Virginia

Department of Health. He’s the mastermind who conceived and

executed the Middle Ground Lighthouse reclamation project. His wife,

Joan ’74, a dental hygienist – the two met as freshmen – was skeptical at

first. “I went along with his idea because I thought we’d never win the

auction,” she said. But once the couple won the lighthouse with a bid

of $31,000 at a federal government auction in 2005, she worked just as

hard as Bob to make the structure a home. (The Gonsoulins’ main

home is in Williamsburg.)

BY DIANE DOUGHERTY

PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBERTO WESTBROOK

NOW THIS IS A UNIQUE RETREAT!

Diane Dougherty ’11 is a formereditor-in-chief of The Mace &Crown student newspaper forODU and currently is the publicrelations and marketing specialistfor the ODU Office of Finance.

WWW.ODU.EDU 29

HOUSE


ob Gonsoulin put me to work right away at theramp, helping to fill the boat’s gas tank. Although Ihad researched the lighthouse on the Internet, I hadabsolutely no idea where it was in relation to theramp. All I knew was that Bob told us it was only a15-minute boat ride out. He pointed to a littlespeck, which to me, looked like a buoy.

As I admired the lighthouse from afar, more carspulled up and I was introduced to Joan, the couple’sdaughter Becky, and several other family friends. Webegan packing the boat with food, drinks and sup-plies to last us through the day.

Ten of us boarded the old fisherman’s boat thathad been a workhorse, hauling supplies and people,during the rehabilitation process. There were a fewseats and handles to hold onto, but the wind and thechoppy water made for a bumpy and wet ride out.

Once we reached the lighthouse, I saw that thelighthouse was not so little. It towers 52 feet abovethe water. I also realized just what a tough task it wasto get inside. The lighthouse’s circular shape madedocking a challenge. One person at the bow of theboat and another at the stern used hooks to pull upropes connected to the bottom of lighthouse. Keep-ing the boat still while they tied up the boat wasnearly impossible. But that wasn’t the worst of it.Once the boat was finally secure, each person had tostep on the edge of the boat and grab a ladder hang-

ing over the water. We climbed up through a trapdoor to reach the first deck.

The sight from that first deck was breathtaking.Imagine a panoramic view of the Monitor Merri-mac Bridge-Tunnel, Newport News Shipbuildingand all the other boat yards, tugs and barges scatteredabout, and miles and miles of water. The view fromthe first deck alone was reason enough to buy thelighthouse.

Bob, Joan and Becky told me about the two yearsit took to make the lighthouse livable, and theamount of help they got from others. The Gonsoulinclan – they have three children other than Becky –are partners in the project with Joan’s sister, JackieBillingsley and her husband Dan, who live in An-napolis, Md. But the volunteer workforce extendedfar outside the owners’ families. The Gonsoulins gaveaway more than 100 Middle Lighthouse T-shirts,which they created to thank anyone who worked atleast eight hours scraping paint and bird poop, ordoing any number of other chores.

The first decision faced by the owners waswhether they wanted to restore the lighthouse,meaning return it to its original state, or if theywanted to rehabilitate, meaning they could make itinto whatever they liked. Becky said the decisionwasn’t difficult. “We wanted to rehabilitate it ratherthan restore it.

B

WWW.ODU.EDU 31

The Gonsoulins on the main deck of their retreat.The original brick wall is attractive in the lighthousebedroom (left).


The curving sofa and portholes (above) were custom-made for the living room, thewinding staircase was restored, a lower floor was equipped to store recreational gear,and the light at the top still is maintained by the Coast Guard.

WWW.ODU.EDU 33

“We wanted to make it our own, something ourfamilies could enjoy together,” she explained. “Therewere requirements we had to abide by from theCoast Guard, like keeping the lighthouse red. It isstill used as a navigational tool, after all.”

Visitors enter the living area through the kitchen,which is actually the second floor of the lighthouse.The room holds a family-sized table, a full-sized re-frigerator, countertops, cabinets and sink. Almost allof the furniture throughout the lighthouse had to becustom-made, to fit the circular shape of the walls.Incredibly enough, most of the benches, tables,couches, shelving and counters were handmade byfamily members, mostly Joan’s father.

Upstairs in the bedroom, another family mem-ber’s talent shines: Jackie painted a mural of a sea-coast village on one of the walls. On the oppositeside, a wall of exposed, original brick completelytransforms the room. “We painted the other roomsand I’m really sorry,” said Joan. “We scraped eachbrick because they had lead-based paint that waskind of falling off. This was the only room that we’dgotten most of the paint off, so we were able to leaveit. The other rooms, we had to just seal the brick.”

A curving stairwell to the fourth floor leads to aliving room or “hangout” spot. A long couch, whichalso acts as a sleeper sofa, lines the farthest wall, alongwith a massive flat-screen TV as well as a table forboard games. Porthole-style windows keep the nau-tical theme and really brighten the room. From thisfloor, the only way to go up is by ladder.

My reward for climbing to the fifth floor was tosee – and contribute to – the “autograph room.” Onthe wall are hundreds of signatures of those peoplewho helped rehabilitate the lighthouse, and of otherswho have merely visited. The idea had its origin inthe names that the new owners found scratched inthe wall, probably by the keepers who lived at thelighthouse before it was automated. I felt fortunatethat my signature would become a part of the light-house’s unique “guest book” and history.

The top tier of the lighthouse holds the old bea-con itself. It is encased in a small space surroundedby windows and I felt claustrophobic. The viewwould have been spectacular if the windows hadbeen clear on the day of my visit.

I asked the family about lightning. “A few yearsago we were struck by lightning during a July 4thparty with about 30 guests on board,” Bob said.“Everything and everyone was fine, as the lighthouseexterior is 1-inch-thick cast iron. This acted as agiant lightning rod, but that doesn’t mean peopleweren’t scared out of their wits. Joan’s sister and herfamily spent the weekend during a tropical storm.The sustained winds were over 60 knots. Outsidethere were impressive 15-foot waves, but inside they

couldn’t really tell there was a storm.”The final stop on the tour was on the first floor,

or “basement,” as the Gonsoulins call it. Joan showedwhere they keep cleaning supplies, life vests, rafts andeven skeet-shooting equipment. One room holds themore than 30 batteries that store solar energy andprovide electricity for the structure.

Joan then knelt down, lifted what looked like asmall, red trap door, and placed a hanging light in-side the hole. I could see the reservoir that holdsmore than 2,000 gallons of rainwater and is thelighthouse’s water source. “This is completely freshwater that collects over time through rain, and if everneeded, could last us for days, maybe even weeks,”she said. Bob added, “But we mostly use the waterfor showers, sinks and the toilet. The Health Depart-ment says the water is safe to drink, but we usuallybring our own liquid refreshments.”

After the tour, we ate lunch on the deck andwatched the sailboat regatta.

Often the lighthouse residents throw lines in thewater to catch croaker or spot for their lunch, butBob grilled burgers and hotdogs on my visit. Thiswas my favorite part of the day because we got to sitdown and get to know each other. Everyone therewas connected to ODU in one way or another, ei-ther as alums, family of alums or possible futureODU students.

From the stories the alums told me from the1970s and 80s, I learned a lot about old traditionsand I was able to talk about new traditions that mygeneration has contributed. Streaking was a big topicof conversation, much to my amusement, althoughI’m rather glad that tradition died out on campus.

What I took away from this experience was themarvelous way ODU brings people together, of allages. No matter if our graduation years were 1972 or2013, we carry the same Monarch pride with uswherever we go. Some alumni own lighthouses;some alumni write for the alumni magazine. We allhave something in common and that’s being anODU Monarch. l

TOY ROOM. PHOTO BY DIANE DOUGHERTY


STYLISH,STURDY and SUSTAINABLE

OneNest Is a HeadPhotography by Paul Burk

WWW.ODU.EDU 35

WHEN HOME DESIGNER ANDBUILDER MARK TURNER (M.B.A. ’00) is askedabout his inspiration for the work he is turning out these days, hedoesn’t cite award-winning architecture, but rather a sentence writtenby Wallace Stegner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer and avidenvironmentalist.

“There it was, there it is, the place where during the best of ourlives friendship had its home and happiness its headquarters.” Thepassage is from Stegner’s final novel, “Crossing to Safety,” which isabout the 40-year friendship of two couples whose seat of mutualhappiness was an understated house on a pond in Vermont.

It was with this goal of creating a headquarters for happiness thatTurner envisioned OneNest, a 1,000-square-foot model home he hasconstructed in Delaplane, Va., on a hillside 60 miles west of Washing-ton, D.C., overlooking the Shenandoah Mountains.

Perhaps never before has a home so small held so many ideas –and ideals – and caused such a stir in the carbon-neutral, sustainable-materials, energy-efficient construction movement. Turner hopes thatbefore the year is out, many others will have tuned in to his message,and that OneNest will help change the way we think about “home.”

Jackson Hole, Wyo., where Turner was born, is a long way fromNorthern Virginia, but to understand his feelings about homes thatmake us happy, you have to consider the ranch out West in the shad-ows of the Tetons where Turner’s ancestors settled five generationsago and where he grew up. Four years in South Bend, Ind., and abachelor’s degree in great books from Notre Dame didn’t separatehim from his roots. Turner was still wearing “those plaid cowboyshirts,” as Dennis Ackerman remembers, when he enrolled in theM.B.A. program at ODU and was granted an assistantship with Ack-erman’s Bank of America Entrepreneurial Center within the Collegeof Business and Public Administration.

“Mark was very pleasant, very bright – intelligence combinedwith common sense,” said Ackerman, who retired from the universityin 2005 but still works as a consultant for business ventures.

Bruce Rubin, the ODU associate professor of finance who washeading up the M.B.A. program when Turner enrolled, remembersgetting the young man’s resume in an envelope postmarked “Jackson

Hole.” “I said, ‘Hey, we need to get this guy. We’ve got to set thehook and reel him in.’” Turner turned out to be even more impres-sive in person, Rubin said. “Very bright, very motivated and very fo-cused.”

Turner says that within his circles his first meeting with Rubin hascome to be legend. The night before he met the professor, Turner gotinto his first – and last – bar fight. “With my face busted up andwearing a Wyoming T-shirt, I happened to stumble into Dr. Rubin.He said, ‘Holy cow, you are a real cowboy.’ He invited me into his of-fice, where I could tell he was a big fan of the West.”

Rubin offered the assistantship, and the rest is history. “I graduatedin 15 months with no debt,” Turner says. “Dr. Rubin provided greattutelage for me while I was there. It was the single-best decision ofmy life. It gave me the tools and confidence to succeed without theprice tag of some of the top 10 programs. I tell my friends that mybar fight had a good ending.”

At Abdo Development in Washington, D.C., Turner worked hisway up to vice president for construction and collected a raft ofawards and honors. He was part of an Abdo team that won theMayor’s Award for Historical Renovation and the Delta AssociatesAward for Most Innovative Condominiums. He also was named oneof the “Top 35 Under 35” by BisNow’s D.C. real estate publication.

In 2008, he started GreenSpur, a design-build firm focusing onquality sustainable developments. The cozy OneNest is a GreenSpurproject, but even before the media began to notice what he wasdoing in Delaplane, GreenSpur had made Turner something of acelebrity in the worlds of residential real estate and environmentalismin the greater D.C. region. His work with dwellings has won himcommendations from politicians in the District and Northern Vir-ginia. GreenSpur joined up with West*Group Development andCharity Works to build a carbon-neutral home in McLean, Va., thathas won a slew of awards, including Project of the Year from the Na-tional Association of Home Builders. (Carbon neutral describes theuse of building materials, transportation of materials, and energy sys-tems that tally net zero new emissions of carbon dioxide into the at-mosphere.)

The OneNest Sustainable House Concept, as Turner calls it, pulls

dquarters for HappinessBy Jim Raper


his vision into sharp focus. “What if,” he asks, “we could reduce thelabor costs for building a home by 50 percent, and the design andmaterials could lower maintenance fees and life-cycle costs? What iftotal building costs were reduced by 45 percent and homes were easierto finance? What if the home could have a build cycle of 100 days?What if development could be profitable again?”

But the “what ifs” that get the most traction with the sustainabilitylobby probably have to do with OneNest’s kinship with the proverbialbrick outhouse. “What if we could build homes to last centuries, notdecades, and we did not need to displace communities after natural dis-asters? We could lower insurance costs,” he says.

With steel in the framing and naturally sourced materials (includingstone from the building site) that won’t rot or decay, Turner has built ahouse that his calculations tell him could withstand a 130-mph windor a major (8.0 Richter scale) earthquake. It is one of the first homes inthe country to employ code-approved magnesium oxide Structural In-sulated Panels (SIPS). The magnesium oxide “is the secret sauce,” asTurner describes it. “It won’t burn, rot or decay.” It can take on waterand is structurally as strong as concrete. In fact, it’s what they used priorto the invention of portland cement. “For a case study look to theGreat Wall of China mortar: magnesium oxide. It’s a win, win, win interms of building science,” Turner says.

For Turner, enduring has other meanings, too, and that takes us backto the Stegner passage, which he thinks of when he is “designing andbuilding place.” And he adds, “We are using radical approaches in de-sign, materials and building science to capture that simple notion thatwe all universally yearn for: a headquarters for happiness.”

So, how do you build place and happiness into a house? OneNest,to Turner, is a nesting place that draws people together. They long to bein the house, and when they’re there, the house doesn’t separate theminto far wings. Beauty and utility are important, too. Turner’s sister,Kathryn Mapes Turner of Jackson Hole, an accomplished painter, hasloaned landscapes and other natural scenes for the OneNest debut(opening day was in May and the model home will be open the rest ofthis year). If you are not looking at one of Kathryn’s paintings on theinterior walls, you’ll probably be looking out one of the many win-dows. Wrote one reviewer, “OneNest’s vaulted ceilings are welcomingand open, leaving one to be baffled by the thought that this space is

1,000 square feet. It could be thousands more; the trompe l’oeil effectof the grand windows to the view beyond pulls the eye out and intothe distance.”

A living room, kitchen and full bath are downstairs, with storagespaces placed ingeniously amongst them. Turner even buried two horsewater troughs in the ground that can be accessed via a door in the floorfor use as a simple, yet elegant, wine cellar. The master bedroom andbath – with a fireplace perched over the soaker tub – are on the secondfloor and a guest bedroom with bath are above that. Decks offer plentyof space for outside dining or lounging, and at one rail’s edge is a mod-ernist cross between a fireplace and a fire pit.

The combination of stone, galvanized and corten steel, concretepavers, magnesium oxide panels, metal roof, and aluminum clad win-dows is the recipe for a virtually maintenance-free home. “The homefor me should be a celebration of life, not a constant honey-do list,” hesays.

In addition, the energy consumption of the home is designed to beminimal. Small heat pump units made by LG, one of the project part-ners, are situated throughout the house and provide all the heating andcooling from one 40-amp breaker. These units have geothermal-likeefficiencies, require no duct work and can be zoned separately. Thekicker, however, is that the system only costs $45 a month to operate.

The overall construction cost for a house such as this, Turner says, isabout $150 per square foot.

Turner would love nothing more than if the basic concepts thatwent into OneNest – if not the more grandiose touches – could in-spire an affordable housing movement in developing countries. In fact,GreenSpur has a sustainability fund that is looking at solutions not onlydomestically, but also in tropical areas in Central America and as faraway as East Asia.

He also wants to expand the basic OneNest notion into communi-ties of sustainable homes in the United States. “We have several projectsin the design phase that are using the technologies and philosophies ofthe OneNest,” he says. “One is in Virginia near the Delaplane area, oneis in Arkansas and one in the preliminary phases for Wyoming.

“I have always loved to build,” Turner adds, summing up. “Perhaps itwas all the fort buildings we used to do growing up on a dude ranch inWyoming. We were always building something.” l

Views of OneNest flank photos of the outdoor fireplace, Turner and his family and the dwelling’s main room.

WWW.ODU.EDU 37


Garrison Keillor, the host ofpublic radio’s “A PrairieHome Companion” and a hu-

morist/storyteller/singer who at 70 isstill attracting full houses for his barn-storming performances, has a specialrelationship with Old Dominion Uni-versity because of a friend since child-hood, Lytton John Musselman, ODU’sMary Payne Hogan Professor ofBotany.

Musselman has served as a botanylecturer and tour guide on summercruise ship voyages sponsored by “APrairie Home Companion,” and Keil-lor has visited with Musselman inNorfolk on several occasions over theyears, most recently last May. Duringthat visit, Keillor attended a receptionin his honor at the home of PresidentJohn R. Broderick, and he conducteda question-and-answer session withODU students, faculty and staff atGoode Theatre.

Keillor’s stay in Norfolk in Maywas an extended one because he camefor rehearsals and the live performanceMay 4 of “A Prairie Home Compan-ion,” which was broadcast from theTed Constant Convocation Center onthe ODU campus. The show was partof the Virginia Arts Festival.

About 4 million listeners tune ineach week to “A Prairie Home Com-panion" and the audience for the May4 show heard favorable references toODU made by Keillor. He noted thatthe show was being broadcast from theConstant Center, “the basketball arenaat Old Dominion University.”

In addition to mentioning Presi-dent Broderick and the university’sstudent population of 25,000, Keillortold his loyal listeners: approximately aquarter of ODU students are affiliatedwith the military; the university hasstrong programs in engineering,

physics and oceanography; and aneffort is under way by faculty re-searchers to study rising sea levels inthe area. Keillor also mentioned thenew Confucius Institute at ODU.

He remarked, as well, about thebeautiful azaleas on campus and“magnolia trees everywhere youlook,” and added the followingaside: “It’s finals week and you seestudents walking around and talkingto themselves – they’re reviewing,that’s what they’re doing.”

To the question-and-answer au-dience, Keillor said he hadn’t in-tended to live to the age of 70. “Myintent was to die young and therebybecome immortal like James Deanand Buddy Holly. Like Janis Joplin.But I didn’t have access to heroinor to charter a plane or drive thesort of sports car James Dean wasdriving.” When 30 rolled around,Keillor said he realized he was “tooold to die young” and instead setout to achieve longevity.

‘Prairie Home’ in NorfolkGarrison Keillor a Longtime Friend of ODU’s Musselman

Garrison Keillor with ODU’s LyttonMusselman (above). PHOTO: DAVID HOLLINGSWORTH

Keillor (below) in question-and -answersession with ODU faculty, students and staffat Goode Theatre. PHOTO: STEVE DANIEL

WWW.ODU.EDU 5

A HISTORY OF GREATS WHO’S NEXT

WHO’STHE NEXT

GREAT?

“ WHERE’D THEY COME FROM?”

The schools of Conference USAbreed great players. Players who show

up on the scene, leaving fans asking,

Turns out they’re ours. And every year we’re churning out more. Might be

a good idea to tune in and track ’em.Stand watch and see all the greats

at ConferenceUSA.com.

State Broadcast

Journalism Award for

Mike Gooding ’82

M ike Gooding ’82, editor-in-chief of The Mace & Crown student newspaper while he wasat Old Dominion, and now a veteran reporter for WVEC Channel 13 in HamptonRoads, received the 2013 George A. Bowles Jr. Broadcast Journalism Award at a meeting

of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters (VAB) in June.But his career may not have reached this pinnacle, he says, had it not been for a dressing-down

he got during his student days from the late ODU faculty member Alf Mapp.“My ODU days play a big role in how I do my job today, perhaps a little more because of my

give-and-take with Mr. Mapp than because of The Mace & Crown,” Gooding says.Mapp, former eminent scholar of English at ODU and a historian known as an authority on

Thomas Jefferson, taught a Southern literature class that Gooding took as a fifth-year senior. Thatwas the year he was the Mace & Crown’s top editor. The newspaper is a weekly now, but it waspublished three times a week in those days. “I was suffering as a student,” Gooding says. “But Mr.Mapp gave me an A on the midterm, an A on my term paper and an A on the final. Then, when thereport card came, I had an F. I asked him what happened and he said, ‘Mr. Gooding, we have rules.’”

Gooding had missed too many of the Southern Lit classes. “I had used the newspaper as an ex-cuse to skip.”

Hard Lesson Led to Career Success


WWW.ODU.EDU 41

It was a hard lesson to swallow, he says.“But Mr. Mapp really taught me some-thing and it sticks with me. Expectationsand deadlines and rules matter. You mightthink you’re special, and I thought I was abig deal at the time. He set me straight,the hard way.”

Years later, as a WVEC reporter prepar-ing a story on Thomas Jefferson, Goodingvisited Mapp at his home in Portsmouth.The old professor clearly remembered theF. “He said, ‘Mr. Gooding, I’m pleased tosay I made a mistake about you. You didmake something of yourself.’ ”

The Bowles Award is given by the VABeach year to a reporter or news directorwho is distinguished in the field of broad-cast news, has longevity in Virginia broad-casting, is respected by peers and exhibitsenthusiasm for his or her work and thecommunity. That is an apt description ofGooding and the work he has done atWVEC since he joined the station in1985.

Among those writing letters recom-mending Gooding for the Bowles Awardwere U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, who is also aformer Virginia governor, and retired RearAdm. Craig Quigley, the former deputyassistant secretary of defense who also hasheld prominent business and public-ser-vice positions in Hampton Roads.

Gooding started out at WVEC withnovice duties, such as weekend assignmenteditor, and he stuck with it even thoughhe was “miserable sitting in the buildingwhile other guys were going out to coverstories.” His break came on a Sunday in1986 with the wreck in Suffolk of the“Old 611,” an antique Norfolk & Western

(which became Norfolk Southern) steamengine. Passenger cars derailed whilebeing pulled by the engine during a spe-cial N&W employee excursion.

Gooding had nobody to send to coverthe story, so he assigned himself. His re-port convinced his bosses at WVEC thathe was “competent to cover wrecks, firesand human misery,” as he remembers it.He graduated to sports, but found hedidn’t like big-time athletics. “Those guysweren’t nice, so I quit sports.” Then hetried his hand at state politics, and endedup covering the General Assembly for 14years. “They took me in up there and Imostly enjoyed my time in Richmond.But I hated the Republicans versus theDemocrats part of the job, all the politicalhandlers and hacks. I found disillusion-ment and was doing too many stories no-body cared about.”

Then, in 1990, WVEC offered him thejob of covering the military, a plum jobfor a news reporter working in HamptonRoads. “My dad was a Navy pilot, and Ifound the military beat was a perfect fitfor me. Unlike athletes and politicians,folks in the military are in it for the rightreasons. And their stories are worth tellingon a daily basis.”

So, as a military reporter, he has beenthe happiest and most productive. He haschased stories in 19 countries, reportingfrom war zones four times, includingKosovo (1999), Afghanistan (2001), andIraq (2003 and 2004).

He won a Regional Emmy from theNational Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapterof the National Academy of Television“BRAC Battle: Target Hampton Roads”

(2006); and Emmy nominations for: Doc-umentary, "Stretched Too Thin" (U.S. AirForce operations in Saudi Arabia-1999);Public Affairs, “The Healing Journey”(U.S. Army search for M.I.A. remains inVietnam-2000); Public Affairs, “20th An-nual Navy Christmas” (2006); and Docu-mentary-Topical, “Navy Christmas atHome and Abroad” (2007).

He won the 2007 Virginia AssociatedPress Meritorious Award for OutstandingEffort by an Individual Reporter at a Tele-vision Station for his half-hour special,“Final Flight of the F-14.” In 2006, Good-ing won the award in that same categoryfor his series “Gitmo: An Inside Look,”which examined how alleged terrorismdetainees are classified and treated atCamp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In addition to all of those General As-sembly sessions he has covered, Goodinghas reported on six Virginia governors, fivenational political conventions, two Presi-dential inaugurations, and the impeach-ment and trial of President Bill Clinton.

A native of Rhode Island and a 1977graduate of Annandale High School inFairfax, Va., Gooding is married to the for-mer Donna Keeton ’82, a fine arts gradu-ate of ODU. They live in Virginia Beachwith their two children, Kate and Erik.

Mike Gooding, in photos at left, is reporting from an aircraft carrier and from Iraq. BradRamsey, the WVEC general manager, is in the photo at right with Gooding, who is holdingthe Virginia Association of Broadcasters' George A. Bowles Jr. Broadcast Journalism Award.

“Mr. Mapp really taught me something and itsticks with me. Expectations, deadlines and rulesmatter. He set me straight the hard way.”

–Mike Gooding


Get Engaged with Fellow AlumnsIt’s Fun and We Can Help ODU Advance

When I first stepped into the role of Alumni Association president in July 2012, I knew thatit would be a duty I could not take lightly, but one that I would approach each day witha smile on my face. I’d served on the Alumni Board for four years prior, and knew howmuch we’d grown and evolved. What I didn’t know was how much I would enjoy therole and just how deep the pride in our alma mater runs among our 120,000 alumni.

So when presented with an opportunity to serve in the role again, I did not hesitate, as serving you, myfellow alums, has truly become my passion.

Over the past year, we’ve seen change and growth at the university, and yourAlumni Association has been there supporting it with our time, talents and treasure.Alumni volunteered at commencement in May and December, welcoming more than4,000 new members to the family. They’ve served on career networking panels tohelp give students tips on how to succeed in numerous career fields, or navigate earn-ing an advanced degree. And thousands of you have donated generously to allareas of the university, supporting the expansion of both athletic and academic en-deavors. It’s truly humbling to serve as president of this organization when I think ofjust how much our members do to help ODU advance.

In the coming year, I am looking forward to seeing how many more alumni we canget engaged in the life of the university. At our annual retreat, the Alumni Board setthis as the top goal of the year, and we are committed to seeing it achieved. I knowthat it can be challenging to find time to get involved; I, too, spent many years as analumna not deeply involved with ODU. However, once I got engaged, I found thatthe enjoyment I felt at helping and connecting with other alumni made the time com-mitment easier. And when I saw the impact my gift could have on students today, Iknew how important philanthropy is to the university.

I hope you will choose to find your own way to engage with ODU and with the Alumni Association.You can visit our website at odualumni.org and see a list of opportunities, both within and outside ofHampton Roads. While you’re there, please make sure to register with the Lion’s Den, our online com-munity for alumni. Knowing the best way to get in touch with you allows us to keep you in the knowabout events, volunteer opportunities and university updates.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you, and I look forward to another exciting year of continuingto be amazed by you all.

–Stephanie Dickens ’94Alumni Association president

ALUMNI

NOMINATIONS SOUGHT–The ODU Alumni Association isaccepting nominations for the Board of Directors for consideration begin-ning January 2014. Ideal candidates will have demonstrated service to theuniversity and be willing to make a strong commitment to Alumni Associ-ation projects. In addition, board members are required to make a financialcommitment. Self-nominations are accepted. For more information,please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at [email protected].

WWW.ODU.EDU 43

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 302 –7 p.m., Sailapalooza, ODU Sailing Center, WhitehurstBeach – ODU sailors and coaches will offer free sailing les-sons and sailboat rides. Donations welcome on behalf of Op-eration Smile.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 8:30 p.m., Planetarium Double Feature, Pretlow Planetarium – Two one-hour programs, each featuring a family-friendly, full–dome movie and a conversation with a faculty member.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 6 p.m., Tree Trail Tour, Kaplan Orchid Conservatory –See 30 varieties of trees on campus with Grounds Manager ChadPeevy ’98 and Master Gardeners Ed ’74 & Linda ’71, ’79 Bradley.

6 p.m., LGBT Welcome Reception, Night of the Iguana.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 36 p.m., Alumni Honors Dinner, Sheraton, Waterside –Honoring the 2013 Distinguished Alumni, Honorary Alumni,Alumni Service Award winners and the Class of 1963.Proceeds support Alumni Association programs including theAdam Thoroughgood Scholarship. Tickets must be purchased. Sponsorship opportunities are available.

7 p.m., Homecoming Step Show, Ted Constant Convoca-tion Center – Fraternities and sororities compete for the2013 Step Show title.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 410:30 a.m., 50th Reunion Art Gallery Tour, Baronand Ellin Gordon Art Galleries – Join Ellin Gordon for a be-hind-the-scenes tour of the Galleries and hear her stories about their collection.

Noon, Homecoming Golf Outing, Lambert’s Point GolfCourse – Nine holes – 1 p.m. Shotgun Start – Best Ball For-mat – BBQ dinner and awards presentation. $30 per person.

Noon, Founders’ Day Luncheon, Ted Constant Convoca-tion Center – ODU and Town-N-Gown will honor individualswho have made a significant impact on the University andHampton Roads. Call 757.683.5759 for tickets.

5 p.m., C-USA Soccer Kickoff, ODU Soccer Complex –The Lady Monarchs will play their first C-USA opponent, EastCarolina. At 7:30 p.m., the Monarchs take on national powerKentucky. Ticket prices TBD.

6 p.m., BAC Social, Baxter’s Lounge.

8 p.m., Homecoming Concert, Ted Constant Convocation Center – Artist TBA.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 510 a.m. – 9 p.m., Open House, Recreation Center –Tour this modern facility and learn more about special pro-grams and services for ODU alumni.

Noon, Hall of Fame Luncheon, Ted Constant ConvocationCenter – Welcome five new inductees into the Hall of Fame;Anna Tunnicliffe ’05, Nataly Cahana ’04, Joe Daley ’83, GraySimons, Ed Fraim ’64 – Tickets are $25 and can be pur-chased after August 1 by calling 757.683.3359.

1:30 p.m., Homecoming Parade – Kick off the day’s cel-ebration with this annual tradition! Prime viewing spots on49th Street and Hampton Boulevard.

3 p.m., Alumni Tailgate Tent, Kaufman Mall –Tailgatewith alumni, fans and students. Advance reservations are preferred.

6 p.m., Football, ODU vs. Liberty, Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium ; check www.odusports.com for more de-tails.

Homecoming Fireworks on Kaufman Mall immediatelyfollowing the football game.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 610 a.m. – 6 p.m., Open House, Recreation Center.

1 p.m., Homecoming 5K, sponsored by the ODU account-ing department. Register with Randall Spurrier, race coordi-nator, at [email protected] or call 757.567.1930.

1 p.m., Women’s Soccer, ODU Soccer Complex – LadyMonarchs host C-USA member UT San Antonio. Ticket pricesTBD.

2 p.m., Field Hockey, L.R. Hill Complex – First-year headcoach Andrew Griffiths and the Lady Monarchs host George-town.

For complete event details visit www.odualumni.org/home-coming. Visit the student Homecoming site athttp://orgs.odu.edu/homecoming.

EVENTS MARKED WITH THIS SYMBOL REQUIRE REGISTRATION AT WWW.ODUALUMNI.ORG/HOMECOMING.

HOMECOMINGB E PA R T O F T H E T R A D I T I O N

Annual Alumni Wine TastingMore than 60 people attended the 2013 ODU Alumni Wine Tasting,including (top left) Rob Reali ’92, Patty Reali, Samantha Brittain ’91and Larry Brittain ’93. The event featured five wines from SouthAmerica, each paired with a dish created by Monarch Dining chefs. A

very popular pairing (above) was of a Montes PinotNoir from Chile served with pepper-encrusted duckbreast and blueberry reduction. ODU emerituschemistry professor and longtime Hampton Roadswine educator Roy Williams (left), together withVirginian-Pilot Humble Steward wine columnistand Monarch magazine editor Jim Raper (bottomleft), provided the food and wine commentary. Thetasting is held each June.


The Caliban get-up that Crosonwore in “The Tempest” is below.At left, the Seven City Spinners(from left), Croson ’11, Sgroi andNorton ’09. (Caliban photo by SamFlint, courtesy Virginia Stage Com-pany production of “The Tempest.”Seven City Spinners photo by Kier-styn Peterson,kikisphotography.zenfo-


STAY CONNECTED The Lion’s Den provides

alums with a free, online connection to the Old

Dominion University Alumni Association.

Membership is exclusive to ODU alumni. Once

you have registered, you can use the Lion’s Den

online community to share information about

yourself through online postings, and to submit

Class Notes and other news to Monarch

Magazine.

Get more information about

The Lion’s Den at odualumni.org

As members, you also can search a secure

online database of other registered alumni;

update your information with the Alumni

Association.

A L U M N I P R O F I L E

Fire, Sweat and Shakespeare for Casey Croson ’11There could be little doubt about it – Casey Croson ’11 likes it hot. During the dog days of summer 2013, the theatre and dance graduate spent a good

part of a weekend on an outdoor stage inside an elaborate, larger-than-life-sized papier-mache and plastic foam costume that trapped heat like the dickens. He was acting therole of Caliban, the beast of a man who is the ugly antagonist in Shakespeare’s “The Tem-pest.” Other actors, such as protagonist Prospero, also wore “big head” masks for this Vir-ginia Stage Company production at Town Point Park, butCroson’s Caliban was the most elaborate, including big clawhands and a hump. And it was the hottest.

This gig followed Croson’s former employment as a per-former at King’s Dominion north of Richmond, where hewore a heavy and hot Scooby Doo costume. More recently,he sweated through his startup in 2012 of a performingtroupe called The Seven City Spinners that performs firejuggling and other “blazing” acts.

“Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have a lot of experiencedoing stuff like this,” Croson told a writer for The Virgin-ian-Pilot who interviewed him about how he was handlingthe hot Caliban get-up. “I’m going to be chugging water(backstage) like there’s no tomorrow.”

For The Seven City Spinners fire act, Croson has per-formed with another ODU theatre and dance graduate,Jon Norton ’09, and a Tidewater Community Col-lege alum, Jeanne Sgroi. Croson toldODU’s Mace & Crown studentnewspaper earlier this year that heand Norton had been offering theirservices as clowns and stilt-walkers atVirginia Beach, but a shortage ofbookings pushed them into the fire, soto speak.

They had never been fire-troupeperformers, so learning the acts was alittle frightening. “A vast majority ofthe practices were spent without fire,”Croson told The Mace & Crown. “Get-ting smacked in the face and singeinghair just came with the territory.”

The troupe’s fire spinning, twirlingand juggling have been the featured en-tertainment at Oceanfront functions, andeven at a wedding.

Landing Hot Roles

CLASSNOTES

WWW.ODU.EDU 47

1960sJack Bellis ’64 (M.A. ’73) was oneof 15,000 participants completing the20th Camp Pendleton, Calif., 10KMud Run, a fundraiser for thefamilies of active duty Marines. Jackis a vice-president with the PollakovFinancial Group, an agency of theMassachusetts Mutual FinancialGroup located in La Jolla, Calif.

Peter King ‘65 and his daughter,Jennifer S. King, are the co-authors of“The Product Wheel Handbook -Achieving Balanced Flow in Multi-product Process Operations”(Productivity Press, 2013). This is afollow-up to his best-selling “Lean forthe Process Industries”(Productivity Press, 2009). Pete endeda 42-year career with the DuPontCompany in 2007 and is now thepresident of Lean Dynamics LLC.

1970sRoger Fuller ’72 received the 2012ODU/Town-N-Gown Rita M.Costello Community Service Awardat the ODU Founders’ Day luncheonOct. 12, 2012. From Tidewater Com-munity College he has received thetitle of librarian emeritus for his 38years of service to the students, fac-ulty, staff and the community at theannual Tidewater Community Col-lege Retiree/Emeritus dinner June 7,2013.

Bill Portlock ’75 is the ChesapeakeBay Foundation’s senior educator andfounder of the organization’s 25-year-old Teachers on the BayProgram. The program offers teachersfrom jurisdictions along the bay andthe rivers that feed it the opportunityto have on-site, multi-dayexperiences learning about wildlife,conservation issues and the history ofthe bay. The work has brought himstate and national awards, including,in 2005, the Thomas Jefferson Medalfor Outstanding Contributions toNatural Science Education by theVirginia Museum of Natural History,in association with the SmithsonianInstitution. Portlock is married andlives in Sparta, Va.

Mary G. Commander ’77, attorneyand mediator with Commander &Carlson in Norfolk, has beenselected to serve as a member of theBoard of Governors of the FamilyLaw Section of the Virginia State Barand has been selected as a Fellow ofthe American Bar Association.

David P. Thompson ’79 was namedsenior vice president andtransportation market leader forCHA in Albany, N.Y. , in May. CHAengineering and constructionmanagement firm serves clientsworldwide and has 51 offices.Thompson is a professional engineerwith 33 years’ experience intransportation engineering, projectmanagement and leadership.Previously, he was senior VP atMichael Baker Jr. Inc. His experienceincludes a long resume of highway,bridge, transit and marine projects.

1980sMarian G. Cole '80 has retiredfrom Fairfax County Public Schoolsafter teaching at several schoolswithin the system. Cole spent thebulk of her career, 20 years, at SouthLakes High School, in Reston, Va.,where she taught psychology,sociology and world history.

Chazaiah “Chaz” Meads '82 (nee Charles Meads Jr.) has beenpromoted to guest servicescoordinator at the PBX Call Centerof the Fontainebleau Hotel in MiamiBeach, Fla. Meads has written abook on Kabbalah, “This IsNumerology,” to be published in2015. He is also a performance artistand musician in South Florida.

Denise Martin ’85, a businessmanager in Newport NewsShipbuilding’s nuclear propulsiondivision, was recognized forachievements in the fields of science,technology, engineering and math(STEM) during the 27th annualBlack Engineer of the Year AwardSTEM Global CompetitivenessConference earlier this year inWashington, D.C. At the shipyard,Martin oversees eight coreengineering areas of responsibilitysupporting all nuclear submarine andcarrier contracts, from design and

engineering through testing. She hasworked for the shipyard since 1985.

Brad Giles ’86 who lives inOrmond Beach, Fla., and is thepresident of Giles Electric Co., wasappointed by Gov. Rick Scott to theDaytona State College District Boardof Trustees. He has served on theElectrical Council of Florida, theDaytona Beach Electrical JointApprenticeship Training Committee,the National Electrical ContractorsAssociation board, the WorkforceDevelopment Board of Flagler andVolusia Counties, the executivecommittee of the Daytona BeachRegional Chamber of Commerce,and Career Connection CADRE.Giles attended Daytona State Collegeas well as ODU.

James Althouse ’87 is looking forall Army ROTC class of 1987 still inthe Hampton Roads area, or at leastwho visit once in a while. “I haveseason passes to the football gamesand would love to coordinate a gamewhen we can get together early andprowl the campus and catch up,” hewrites. “FYI, I'm still in contact withseveral from our class, and severalmore are here at Fort Lee. We missedthe 25-year mark, but maybe we can

try for a 30th reunion. Drop me aline!” [email protected]

John Costanzo ’87 recently ac-cepted a position at Old DominionUniversity’s Tri-Cities Higher Educa-tion Center in Portsmouth. “I haverecently retired from the Army aftercompleting 26 years of service andachieving the rank of lieutenantcolonel,” he wrote. “After almost a30 year absence I am back at ODU,this time as the assistant director forthe Tri-Cities Center. I look forwardto the many new challenges and op-portunities this position will bring.Go Big Blue!”

Tennyson D. Garrett ’88, amechanical engineer at NewportNews Shipbuilding, was recognizedfor achievements in the fields ofscience, technology, engineering andmath (STEM) during the 27thannual Black Engineer of the YearAward STEM Global Competitive-ness Conference earlier this year inWashington, D.C. During his 10years with the shipyard, Garrett hasheld jobs of increasing responsibility,including designing and maintainingpiping systems, and ensuring that allsystems meet U.S. Navyspecifications.

THOMAS D. CAPOZZI ’90 waspromoted to chief commercialofficer of the Virginia Port Authority(VPA) in May 2013, after VPA andVirginia International Terminals Inc.agreed to a merger andrestructuring plan. Capozzipreviously worked as vice presidentof global sales and marketing atVIT.

“I was selected based upon myprevious experience serving in salesand marketing roles for both theVirginia Port Authority and VirginiaInternational Terminals Inc. as well

as my industry experience working for two of our ocean carriercustomers, Evergreen and ‘K’ Line,” said Capozzi.

In this new position, he is charged with integrating all commercialactivity for the Port Authority and its terminal operator, VIT. Thisincludes sales, marketing, branding, advertising, pricing, economicdevelopment, customer service and media relations. The new setupstreamlines the operating structure and eliminates duplication, in itsgoal to establish The Port of Virginia as the leading ocean containerterminal complex on the U.S. East Coast.

Capozzi remains active with ODU’s Zeta Pi chapter of Theta Chifraternity, particularly in promoting the Zeta Pi alumni golftournament, which had 100 players in fall 2012.

1990sRear Adm. Phillip G. Sawyer(M.E. ’90) has been chosen as thenew commander of the Pacific FleetSubmarine Force based at PearlHarbor, Hawaii. He has ledSubmarine Group 7 based inYokosuka, Japan, since June 2011.Sawyer, a native of Phoenix,graduated from the Naval Academyin 1983 and has also commandedthe nuclear submarine USS La Jolla,Submarine Squadron 15 in Guamand Submarine Force Atlantic. Heholds numerous awards includingthe Defense Superior ServiceMedal, Legion of Merit, and Navyand Marine Corps commendationand achievement medals. He nowwill be in charge of 18 nuclearsubmarines based at Pearl Harbor;13 at Bangor, Wash.; six at SanDiego; and three at Guam.

Neil Bailey ’92 has been hired asthe director of athletics forWalsingham Academy in

Williamsburg, Va. A native of SurryCounty, he returns to Virginia afterworking for five years as athleticdirector for East Georgia StateUniversity. Bailey previouslycoached and worked inadministration at TidewaterAcademy, Middlesex High Schooland Oak Hill Academy. He and hiswife, Dr. Carrie Bailey, and theirtwo children – daughter Ellie, 15,who graduated high school earlyand starts this fall at Mary BaldwinCollege, and son Cooper, an 8-year-old who will attend Walsingham –are looking forward to this newchapter in their lives

Jason Cohen ’92 was named SmallBusiness Administration Small-Business Person of the Year forVirginia. He is president of ILMCorp., a document managementand data processing firm based inFredericksburg, Va. ILM scans,processes and digitizes documentsfor offices dealing with heavypaperwork. Cohen balances his day

job with ILM by training forIronman Triathlons — he’s currentlytraining for his third. This year alone,he will run two marathons, at leasttwo half-marathons and two half-Ironmen.

Raymond V. Whelan ’92 reportsthat the stage play he wrote, “SomeWomen See Things As They Are,”which is about the 1968 presidentialelection, was recently selected forthe Houston Fringe Theatre Festival2013. Whelan lives near Austin,Texas.

Tracy Stith-Johnson (M.S. Ed. ’95)was named assistant principal atWalnut Hill Elementary School inPetersburg, Va. She previouslyworked with Richmond City PublicSchools, where she taught fourthand fifth grades.Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Lahiff ’96,assigned to the Navy JAG (legal)staff, expected to be based in SanDiego for two to three years whenhe moved his family there in June2012. Instead, they’re off again, thistime headed to his next duty stationin Singapore. He writes to his ThetaChi fraternity brothers, “I spent thewhole month of April in Korea. …We will be (in Singapore) for threeyears. It is the coolest job in theJAG Corps!”

Robert L. Walker III ’98, anelectrical engineer for NewportNews Shipbuilding since 2009, wasrecognized for achievements in thefields of science, technology,engineering and math (STEM)during the 27th annual BlackEngineer of the Year Award STEMGlobal Competitiveness Conferenceearlier this year in Washington, D.C.Walker designs cabling and testsupport equipment, and he workswith other shipyard engineers andvendors to ensure that all productsmeet the Navy customers’ needs.

2000sJoshua M. Vieira ’05 has lived inNew York City for the past year,working on Wall Street as anaccount manager for GraniteTelecommunications. Monarchpreviously reported that Vieiramarried Allison Willis the weekendof Oct. 6, 2012, as well.

Ross C. Morland ’07 is pleased toannounce that he passed the Virginialicensing exam and is now aProfessional Engineer. He and hisfamily live in Staunton, Va.

Scott Lemley (M.A. ’08) is with theHuntington, W.Va., policedepartment, but is not a badge- andgun-toting officer. He is a civilianemployee who works as a criminalintelligence analyst. He uses GISmapping and reported crimes toanalyze trends in neighborhoods anddetermine when and where aperpetrator might strike next. He’salso in charge of the PoliceDepartment's website anddisseminates information to theappropriate bureaus from theanonymous tipline, social media andinteragency bulletins. Lemley says heuses analytics and statistics he learnedwhile pursuing a master’s degree ininternational studies at ODU.

Navy Lt. Jordon C. Sims (M.E.M.’08) returned in June to PearlHarbor, Hawaii, after completing asuccessful six-month Western Pacificdeployment aboard the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Cheyenne(SSN 773). The Cheyenne and itscrew of approximately 150 sailorsvisited Subic Bay, Republic of thePhilippines; Busan, Republic ofKorea; Yokosuka, Japan; and Guamfor training operations.

2010sSinclair Harris (M.S. Ed. ’10) was named assistant principal ofPeabody Middle School inPetersburg, Va., in July 2013. Hepreviously was an assistant principalfor Essex County Public Schools.Before that, he worked for NorfolkPublic Schools and was chosen asthe system’s Middle School Teacherof the Year.

2nd Lt. Paul W. Neubauer ’12 in April wrote that he was attendingthe U.S. Marine Corps Basic Schoolin Quantico, Va. The intense six-month program follows officercommissioning to developcandidates’ leadership potential intocommand experience. Whileattending ODU, Neubauer was amember of Zeta Pi chapter of ThetaChi fraternity and obtained a degreein criminal justice.

Dara Cattani '00 married Leigh Weiss on June 29 at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History in New York City. The couple’s fathersconducted the ceremony. Cattani is a school counselor at an elementaryschool and Weiss is an assistant athletic trainer and physical therapist for theNew York Giants pro football team.


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WWW.ODU.EDU 49

A L U M N I P R O F I L E

Storybook Character Chuck DuVal (Ph.D. ’12) Is Program Booster

When Chuck DuVal enrolled in the doctoral business adminis-tration program at Old Dominion University three summers ago,he began yet another chapter in a storybook life. He struck outon his own at 16 and went on to build and sell several successfulreal estate-related businesses. He next bought a sailing yacht thathe and a crew chartered around the world for 12 years.

Seven years ago, DuVal decided to enroll in graduate school,getting an M.B.A. from William & Mary. He then moved acrossthe water to Old Dominion to start a doctoral program in busi-ness administration in 2009.

The year he started at ODU, the College of Business andPublic Administration (CBPA) doctoral program was celebrat-ing its 20th year. In helping organize some anniversary events,DuVal formed connections with accomplished ODU businessadministration doctoral grads worldwide. “I was completelyblown away by the level of academic professionalism here,” hesaid.

As the president of the ODU Business AdministrationDoctoral Student Association, DuVal wanted to foster andbolster the connections among the far-flung ODU businessdoctoral graduates. Besides kinship, he noted, the partnershipshave a practical purpose, laying the groundwork for research collabora-tions and providing a network for future academic jobs.

Through an Alumni Association grant, DuVal organized an online meeting of business administra-tion doctoral graduates, hosted by ODU’s Gornto Teletechnet Center.

In the spring of 2012, 32 alumni and current doctoral students participated in that first meeting inreal time, either by attending at the Gornto Center, or through Adobe Connect. Participants were lo-cated as far away as Saudi Arabia and Thailand, and across the United States.

At the 2013 virtual get-together this spring, eight “attendees” beamed in from overseas, and alsopresent were CBPA Dean Gil Yochum and doctoral business management program director JohnFord, a professor of marketing. Yochum, in his 38th year at ODU, said he loves seeing students comethrough the college and then go take on the world. “I have taught 15,000 students. I get to see themhead out in the world and be successful,” he said.

Then Yochum made a surprise announcement that he was donating $3,000 of his own money tocreate a fund for doctoral business administration students to travel for academic opportunities. Hechallenged the alumni in the room and worldwide to join him in making a donation, to help their fu-ture professional colleagues make their mark. Ford immediately took up the challenge, pledging hisown $2,000 donation to the new student travel fund. By the end of the meeting, several thousand dol-lars had been pledged by alumni of the program.

That’s the type of synergy that DuVal was hoping to create when he organized the online session. “Idon’t think that this university gets the attention it deserves. As doctoral graduates, it’s our job to tellour story,” he said.

DuVal, now an assistant professor at the Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise atFlorida Southern College, has realized his dream of teaching at the college level. His first year in theclassroom has confirmed that this latest career change is perfect for him. “I couldn’t be happier. I lovewhat I’m doing.”

–Brendan O’Hallarn

Business Ph.D.s Unite

New Monarchs2 Ross C. Morland ’07 and his

wife announce the birth of their

second child (and future Monarch),

Aiden Lee Morland. He was born

Dec. 1, 2012, in Staunton, Va.

2 Demetria Johnson Williams ’08

and Kenya Williams ’08 are pleased

to announce the birth of their

daughter, Antonia Kenya Williams. She

was born June 19, 2013.

2 Chris Stuart ’93 (M.A. ’94) and

Nicole Maust Stuart ’92 (M.P.A.

’95) join daughter Shelby and sons

Chance, Cooper and Brody in

welcoming their new daughter/sister,

Darby Anne.

2 Tamim Atayee ’87 and Fereshta

Atayee are proud to announce the

birth of a girl, Summar Amani, on

Nov. 13, 2012, in St. Joseph Hospital

Denver. She weighed 8 lb., 3 oz. “My

wife Fereshta and I welcomed our

first-born to our family. She surprised

us with her size; we are grateful that

she is a healthy, happy baby girl.”

Danica J. Royster ’12 in May2013 joined First Genesis ofVirginia as a financial servicesrepresentative in its VirginiaBeach office. First Genesis is anoffice of MetLife, known for itsfinancial and insurance services.Contact her [email protected].

In RemembranceFranklin Ross Jones

Franklin Ross Jones, former deanof what was then the School of Edu-cation of Old Dominion College,died June 29, 2013, in Tampa, Fla.Serving as dean from 1964 to 1969,Jones was dean emeritus and profes-sor emeritus of educational leadershipand counseling at ODU for morethan 40 years.

“He was the one who hired me,”said Katharine Kersey, UniversityProfessor of Early Childhood Educa-tion and a long-time faculty memberof the Darden College. “He lovedODU and stayed around a long timeafter he retired — walking the halls

and talking to people.”Jones came to ODU after heading

the education department at Ran-dolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va.He earned a master’s degree at theUniversity of North Carolina in 1951and his Ed.D. at Duke University in1959.

When he took over as dean fromthe school’s first education dean, RossFink, Jones made it a goal to stresssubject matter expertise in theschool’s education students. “The fun-damental basis of teaching at the sec-ondary level is subject matter,” Jonestold a Virginian-Pilot interviewer. “I’d

like to see a math or English teacher,for example, have nearly as many se-mester hours in his field of concen-tration, as he’d have if he weremajoring in it instead of education.”

Jones was succeeded by RufusTonelson, professor of education, whodied in 2006. In a 1974 interviewwith University Archivist JamesSweeney, Tonelson said replacingJones as dean was a daunting task.“He had done so much to enlarge theschool and make it prestigious,”Tonelson said. “I felt it would be very,very challenging and I really hoped Icould succeed in carrying out the

philosophy and the policies of thecollege at that time.”

Jones is survived by his sonsFranklin Ross Jones Jr. of Reidsville,N.C., and Clarence Morton Jones(Barbara) of Tampa; daughter, SusanJones Richardson (Robert) of Port-land, Ore.; and three grandchildren.

John ‘Jack’ EchternachJohn ‘Jack’ Echternach, founder of

the Old Dominion physical therapyprogram, died July 11, 2013, at hismountain home near Roanoke, Va.

Echternach is survived by his wifeof 56 years, Jeanne, and several other


In MemoriamCAPT. EDWARD C. (BARNEY) OLDFIELD JR., USN (RET) ’38

of Virginia Beach, 4/26/13KATHARINE BYRD MILLER ’42 of Virginia Beach, 4/26/13J. OVID KEENE ’44 of Portsmouth, 4/20/13JANE HELLER FRIEDEN ’45 of Norfolk, 7/6/13WILLIAM D. ROUGHTON ’48 (M.S. ED. ’75) of Virginia Beach, 7/28/13W. CRAWFORD JENKINS JR. ’50 of Norfolk, 5/26/13EDWARD C. BARNES JR. ’51 of Virginia Beach, 6/28/13EDWARD L. HOPPE SR. ’52 of Virginia Beach, 4/4/13ROBERT T. SOPER ’56 of Suffolk, 6/30/13 MARY LOUISE LINEBERGER ZIV ’58 of Portsmouth, 4/11/13EUGENE S. KILLMON JR. ’60 of Chelmsford, Mass., 5/4/13EDWIN L. COX JR. ’62 of Spartanburg, S.C., 6/19/13JEANETTE W. DONOVAN ’62 of Virginia Beach, 6/30/13JOHN S. DUROCHER ’65 of Yorktown, Va., 7/5/13ELIZABETH SCOTT HARPER ’65 of New Bern, N.C., 4/18/13CAROL PAULETTE HOLT ’65 of Norfolk, 6/24/13LINDA PADGETT MILLER ’65 of Macon, Ga., 7/12/13ELIZABETH BLACK TYNCH ’66 of Portsmouth, 4/17/13ANNA-ELISABETH (ANNELIE) FOSTER ’68

of Norfolk and Providence, R.I., 7/14/13ANNE EARNEST PAULIN ’68 (M.S. ED. ’89) of Norfolk, 4/26/13YUKIKO MARITANI CARNES (M.A. ’69) of Annandale, Va., 4/18/13ALICE W. DEAL ’69 of Norfolk, 5/20/13MARJORIE C. MITCHELL ’69 of Virginia Beach, 6/27/13JASPER C. “J.C.” JONES ’70 of Charlottesville, Va., 5/22/13E. JANE SERVONSKY ’70 (PH.D. ’93) of Norfolk, 5/6/13CHARLOTTE CARNEY HAWKS ’71 of Portsmouth, 5/14/13LEWIS E. MITCHELL ’71 of Virginia Beach, 4/13/13DONALD W. WHITESELL (M.B.A. ’71) of Portsmouth, 7/2/13 JANE F. EWELL ’72 of Virginia Beach, 6 /7/13CMDR. ROBERT F. HOGUE JR. USN (RET) ’72 of Virginia Beach, 7/15/13MYRTLE A. LAMBERT ’72 (M.S. ED. ’91) of Chesapeake, 6/16/13 APRIL T. MACDONALD ’72 of Colington Harbour, N.C., 7/2/13THOMAS E. NORWOOD ’72 of Chesapeake, 4/26/13JOHN J. “SHAWN” O’CONNOR ’72 of Norfolk, 4/7/13ROBERT K. ANDER JR. ’73 of Norfolk, 6/28/13SHARON S. CARTER ’73 (M.S. ED. ’79) of Norfolk, 6/11/13

MYRTLE LOMAX FAUNTLEROY (M.S. ED. ’73) of Norfolk, 5/28/13BERNARD A. KOHN ’73 of Augusta, Maine, 4/18/13NORMAN J. KOZAK (M.S. ED. ’73) of Chesapeake, 6/2/13ANTHONY MESSINA III ’73 of Virginia Beach, 4/3/13 ELIZABETH SMITH BLANDIN ’74 of Greensboro, N.C., 6/20/13EDGAR R. JONES (M.B.A. ’74) of Williamsburg, 7/11/13MICHAEL D. WHITAKER ’74 of Hampton, 4/28/13ROBERT G. SMITH SR. ’75 of Williamsburg, 4/14/13MARY (MOLLY) R. BAXTER ’76 of Virginia Beach, 5/29/13WILLIAM E. MILLER III ’76 of Chesapeake, 7/3/13NANCY SAMUELSON YOUNG ’76 of Arlington, Va., 7/28/13ROBIN L. SIEGEL ’77 of Virginia Beach, 5/31/13THOMAS S. SOCHOR SR. ’77 of Norfolk, 6/20/13JUDITH A. SANDERS ’78 of Grapevine, Texas, 7/22/13CHARLES M. ALMOND, III ’79 of Virginia Beach, 5/31/13BILLIE C. FEDYSZYN ’80 (M.S. ED. ’83) of Norfolk, 6/28/13MATTHEW CARLI III ’81 of Hampton, 4/22/13LT. COL. FREDERICK W. HERSTROM USA (RET) (M.S. ED. ’81)

of Hampton, 6/18/13MARK J. SWEENEY SR. ’83 of Virginia Beach, 5/26/13CAPT. JEAN T. SCHERRER, USN (RET) ’84 of Chesapeake, 5/4/13ROBERT C. ALVARADO ’86 of Norfolk, 4/10/13GERALD LEE GAMACHE (PH.D. ’86) of St. Augustine, Fla., 5/16/13EUGENE C. DAVIS ’87 of Chesapeake, 4/1/13CARLTON L. “BUTCH” DUDDING ’88 of Richmond, Va., 7/21/13MARY ANN WARD (C.A.S. ’88) of Chesapeake, 7/4/13ROBERT W. BISHOP JR. ’89 of Norfolk, 6/2/13CAPT. NANCY E. (KELSO) HONEY, USN (RET) (M.E.M. ’91)

of Collinsville, Ill., 6/30/13TALINE DADIAN INFANTE (M.S.D.H. ’91) of San Antonio, Texas, 4/6/13GABRIELLE VAILLANCOURT COTTRELL (M.S. ED. ’97)

of Virginia Beach, 7/24/13ADAM C. DAY ’97 of Virginia Beach, 6/23/13JAYNE M. ASHBY ’00 of Wheaton, Ill., 4/9/13ERIK S. ERVIN ’07 of Virginia Beach, 6/2/13C. CHRISTOPHER DUFFY-LEDBETTER ’08 of South Riding, Va., 6/10/13ARTHUR N. BITTNER ’12 of Newport News, 4/11/13KATHERINE RUTH “KATIE” RAPPOLD of Hampton, 4/19/13

WWW.ODU.EDU 51

family members, including hisdaughter Catherine Lyn.

Echternach, 81, was a professorand Eminent Scholar emeritus atODU, where he served on the fac-ulty from 1978 to 2005 and waschair of the School of CommunityHealth and Physical Therapy. Evenafter his retirement in 2005, Echter-nach remained significantly involvedwith the College of Health Sciences.

Shelley Mishoe, dean of the Col-lege of Health Sciences, said Echter-nach was a leader in physical therapyand allied health education. “Weshare in the school’s and profession’ssadness on his death,” she said.

A memorial service was sched-uled during the School of PhysicalTherapy’s annual alumni weekend,Sept. 21-22.

George Maihafer, associate pro-fessor and graduate program directorof the School of Physical Therapy,said Echternach admitted ODU’sfirst class of 24 students. During histenure, physical therapy grew from abachelor's to a master’s program,eventually transitioning to the cur-rent doctoral program that accepts 45students annually.

“Not only was Jack respected byover 400 physical therapists whograduated from this program (sinceits inception), he was chairman of theSchool of Community Health andPhysical Therapy … and, as an activefaculty member in the Ph.D. inhealth services research degree, wasresponsible for many doctoral candi-dates’ research," Maihafer said. “Jackwill be dearly missed by the Old Do-minion University physical therapycommunity with many of us owing

our careers to his guidance and dedi-cation to excellence.”

Nationally, Echternach receivednumerous awards and recognitionsfrom the American Physical TherapyAssociation. Earlier this year, he re-ceived the first Lifetime Achievementaward from the Virginia PhysicalTherapy Association.

Echternach previously retired,with the rank of captain, from a 24-year career as a staff therapist and ad-ministrator with the U.S. PublicHealth Service. He held a bachelor'sdegree in health and physical educa-tion, a Certificate of Physical Ther-apy, a master's in anatomy and aDoctor of Education in higher edu-cation/administration.

Edgar A. KovnerEdgar A. Kovner, a pioneering en-

gineering technology professor atOld Dominion University, whose en-dowed scholarship has aided hundredsof students, died June 11, 2013, inTamarac, Fla. He was 94.

Kovner, a dean of the school's oldTechnical Institute and later a profes-sor of mechanical engineering tech-nology in the College of Engineeringand Technology, taught 43 years atODU, starting part time in 1943. Heretired with the title of professoremeritus.

He was born in New York City in1919. After earning bachelor's andmaster's degrees, both in chemical en-gineering, Kovner moved to Norfolkin 1941 to become a marine engineerfor the U.S. Navy.

He joined the faculty of the Nor-folk Division of the College ofWilliam & Mary (the forerunner ofODU) full time in 1946. He taughtengineering technology concepts atthe Technical Institute, a professionaltechnology school that grew out ofthe war-training programs offered oncampus during World War II.

The Technical Institute offered as-sociate degrees in fields such as radio(later television) repair, heating andair conditioning and automotivetechnology. Kovner directed the insti-tute from 1959 to 1964, and then be-came dean of Old Dominion'sDivision of Technology from 1964 to1970. He facilitated the division’smerger with the School of Engineer-ing but advocated for colleague BillStanley, an electrical engineering pro-fessor, to become the first department

chair of engineering technology.In 1978, Kovner founded the

Edgar and Kathleen Kovner En-dowed Scholarship Fund, donating$75,000 to aid as many as 20 studentsper year in the School of Engineer-ing.

Kovner remained intensely proudof his more than four decades at theuniversity, keeping up with ODU'sfootball program and other ODUsporting events on his computer athome in Florida.

Kathleen Kovner died in 1992.Kovner is survived by his secondwife, Mildred Kovner, six childrenfrom his two marriages, as well as 13grandchildren and seven great-grand-children.

Oktay Baysal, dean of ODU'sFrank Batten College of Engineeringand Technology, said Kovner left anindelible impact on the university."Ed Kovner's legacy lives here notonly due to his long and significantservice in the formation of this col-lege, but also through his endowedscholarship."

Ransom Baine Harris R. Baine Harris, 85, Eminent

Professor emeritus of philosophy,passed away Feb. 6, 2013. Harris re-tired as chair of the Department ofPhilosophy and Religious Studies in1995.

Harris first came to HamptonRoads in 1960 to help plan the cur-riculum for the new Frederick Col-lege, which later became TidewaterCommunity College. Subsequently,he taught at Clemson University andwas chair of the philosophy depart-ment at Eastern Kentucky Universitybefore returning to Norfolk. Hetaught philosophy for 38 years atODU and was responsible for 13major international conferences onNeoplatonism.

Harris was one of the mainfounders of the International Societyfor Neoplatonic Studies in 1973. Hewas editor of 12 scholarly books andlectured in 26 countries. He receivedbachelor’s and master’s degrees fromthe University of Richmond, a bach-elor’s from Southern Baptist Theo-logical Seminary, a master’s fromEmory University and a Ph.D. fromTemple University. He was ordainedas a Baptist minister as a young man.

Harris is survived by his wife of55 years, Ettie Jeanne; daughters

Nancie Elizabeth Laing (Gregory) ofChesapeake and Lori Ann Harris ofAsheville, N.C.; two grandsons; andhis sister, Betty Williams ofPortsmouth.

Henry SchmoeleHenry H. Schmoele Jr., 90, asso-

ciate professor emeritus of vocationaland technical education at Old Do-minion, died April 8, 2013, in Vir-ginia Beach.

Schmoele taught at ODU from1967 to 1984, and was the assistantdean of the School of Education atthe time of his retirement. He taughtsalesmanship, curriculum and meth-ods for marketing education, and su-pervised student teachers. Beforejoining the ODU faculty, he taughtin Norfolk and Suffolk high schools.

Schmoele served as a pilot in theU.S. Naval Air Force during WorldWar II. He received an A.B. degreefrom the University of Richmondand an M.S. from Richmond Profes-sional Institute (Virginia Common-wealth University).

Schmoele was the widower ofBlanche Baum Schmoele and DorisWiggins Schmoele. Survivors includeseveral nieces and nephews.

Carolyn W. McCollum Carolyn W. McCollum, 66, of

Portsmouth, who had retired after 33years as an academic advisor for OldDominion University, died June 17,2013.

She was a member of St. JohnBaptist Church, and also of AlphaKappa Alpha Sorority, the Delicadosand The Silloettes. She is survived byher husband of 44 years, William T.McCollum Sr.; a daughter, AishaMcCollum; a son, William T.McCollum Jr., (Arienne); and threegrandchildren.

For many of us, the monthof September brings backthoughts of new pencils,book bags, leaving homefor the first time to head to

college and the excitement of a newschool year ahead.

We are experiencing the same won-der and excitement as ODU begins anew chapter in athletics, as the majorityof our teams begin competition this fallas members of Conference USA. Hereis a breakdown of everything that istaking place:

ACADEMICS All our teams scored above the required925 APR (Academic Progress Rate).Women’s Golf led with a perfect 1,000APR for the second straight year andwas recognized as being in the top 10percent academically in the country.Teams earning 990 or higher were FieldHockey (997), Women’s Soccer (995)and Women’s Lacrosse (992).

FOOTBALL Our Monarch football team has alreadyplayed two FBS opponents this year -East Carolina and Maryland - and we arein a four-game home stretch. For thefifth year in a row, we expect to be soldout for all home games.

FOOTBALL WAIT LIST If you are a Football Wait List memberand contribute a minimum of $100, youwill become full members of the OldDominion Athletic Foundation and re-ceive all the benefits and priority pointsassociated with the level of your dona-tion. You will also receive two tickets tothe Big Blue BBQ and spring footballgame, two tickets to a men’s andwomen’s basketball game, and the firstopportunity to purchase home and awayfootball game tickets, if available. Thetotal value of benefits is over $100! Joinnow by going towww.olddominionaf.com.

OYSTER BOWL Our annual Oyster Bowl football gamewill take place Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. againstAlbany.

HOMECOMING Our Homecoming Weekend footballgame will take place Oct. 5 at 6 p.m.against Liberty.

SOCCER Homecoming Friday will feature anODU soccer doubleheader beginning at5 p.m. on Oct. 4, when our Lady Mon-archs host Conference USA opponentEast Carolina. Following our women’sgame, our men’s soccer team will hostC-USA associate member Kentucky at7:30 p.m. Conference USA T-shirts willbe given out and fireworks will be ondisplay.

FIELD HOCKEYHead coach Andrew Griffiths will begina new era for our ODU Field Hockeyprogram this fall as we join the Big EastConference as an associate member. Forthe second year in a row, Old Dominionwill host the NCAA Division I FieldHockey Final Four and Championshipon Nov. 22 and Nov. 24. The title gamesfor NCAA Field Hockey Divisions IIand III will also be featured on that Sun-day, Nov. 24.

BASKETBALLHead men’s basketball coach Jeff Joneswill unveil his first-year ODU squad onNov. 8, at home against Missouri State.Coach Karen Barefoot and our LadyMonarchs will open their season at homethe following night, Nov. 9, againstDelaware State. Please visit www.YNot-tix.com to purchase basketball seasontickets or a single-game package.


SPORTSHere’s Your ScorecardKeep Track of What’s New in ODU Sports

B Y W O O D S E L I G , D I R E C T O R O F A T H L E T I C S

WRESTLING Wrestling head coach Steve Martin hasput together an outstanding schedule thisyear, highlighted by home matchesagainst Iowa State on Nov. 24 and Vir-ginia Tech on Nov. 26. Season ticketcoupon books are on sale now and offeradmission to all home wrestling matches,or the option to bring as many as 10 peo-ple to one match. Our wrestling Mon-archs will compete this year in thenationally recognized Mid-AmericanConference as an associate member.

BASEBALL ODU baseball, led by third-year headcoach Chris Finwood, will soon have anew indoor hitting facility, thanks to thegenerous donations from alumni andfriends of our program. The team im-proved in 2013, with 11 more wins overthe previous year, winning 30 games andfinishing third in the CAA.

WOMEN’S LACROSSEODU Women’s Lacrosse will join the At-lantic Sun Conference as an affiliatemember in 2014-15.

SAILINGOur Old Dominion Sailing team finishedthe spring season ranked ninth nationally.

ODU CONFERENCE ALIGNMENTEffective this past July 1, 12 of our teamsjoined Conference USA. Football be-comes a full member in C-USA in 2014.Our field hockey team begins competi-tion this fall in the Big East, wrestlingjoins the Mid-American as an associatemember this year, and our co-ed andwomen’s sailing programs compete asnon-scholarship members of the Intercol-legiate Sailing Association.

OLD DOMINION ATHLETIC FOUNDATION• For the first time ever, the Old Domin-ion Athletic Foundation has more than3,000 donors.• ODAF has surpassed $4 million in do-nations to the Annual Fund – anotherfirst.• ODAF has raised almost $6 million incash and pledges toward our $8 milliongoal for a new men’s and women’s bas-ketball practice facility, which will be lo-cated behind the Ted ConstantConvocation Center.• ODAF has raised almost $4 million to-ward our $5 million goal to transition toFBS Football and Conference USA,without raising student fees.• ODAF completed fundraising for a$600,000 indoor batting cage for baseball.

Broderick Namedto Conference USAExecutive CommitteeOld Dominion President John Broderickwas named to the executive committee ofConference USA in August during aconference retreat in Irving, Texas. Thefive-man executivecommittee, all ofwhom are collegepresidents, makesrecommendations tothe conferencecommissioner onmajor issues and setspolicy on others.

“They are the true leadership group ofthe conference,” said ODU athletic directorWood Selig, who attended the retreat withBroderick. “They are there to help shapepolicy and affirm decisions that the rest ofthe conference may wish to make.”

ODU joined Conference USA on July1. “John Broderick is a visionary leader,”said Britt Banowsky, the conferencecommissioner, in an interview with TheVirginian-Pilot. “He’s so strategic in histhinking. He’s been a great contributor toour conference.”

Broderick previously has served as theelected chair of the NCAA FootballChampionship Subdivision Presidents andas CAA’s representative on the 18-memberNCAA Board of Directors.

C-USA added eight schools thissummer, including ODU, and WesternKentucky joins in 2014 to compensate forthe loss of seven schools to the AmericanAthletic Conference. C-USA has 16members, but that drops to 14 in 2014when East Carolina, Tulsa and Tulanedepart.

Selig said that the consensus amongconference officials was that 14 is enough.“There’s no huge interest in themembership going back to 16.” But ifcurrent C-USA teams move on, theconference still may be looking for newmembers. Arkansas State, Georgia State andLouisiana-Lafayette from the Sun BeltConference and James Madison from theColonial Athletic Association (CAA) appearto be the most likely expansion candidates.

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Ronnie Cameron, who starred as a defensivetackle for the Monarchs during the 2010and 2011 seasons and who gave theNational Football League a whirl with the

Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns and thePhiladelphia Eagles, is known these days as thecreator of an online news network, BonfireImpact.(bonfireimpact.com)

A Forbes.com story earlier this year featuredCameron and referred to Bonfire Impact as a“website for activism, awareness and good works,which highlights positive news, charity work andgreen initiatives.”

Cameron transferred to ODU when HofstraUniversity eliminated its football program, and bythe time he finished his two remaining years ofeligibility, he had earned an M.B.A. from ODU’sCollege of Business and Public Administration.

A gentle giant off the field, at 6-2 and 295pounds, Cameron was an imposing and fearsomeopponent on the gridiron, earning six differentAll-America distinctions his senior season. He washonored as the 2011 CAA Football DefensivePlayer of the Year. He ranked second on theMonarch squad with 73 tackles (28 solo, 45 assists)to go with a team-leading 17 tackles for loss and6.5 sacks.

Honored by the ODU Alumni Association asMale Athlete of the Year, Cameron also receivedthe Jack Wilkins/James Howard Scholar Athlete ofthe Year award (presented to the male and femalesenior athletes with the highest cumulative GPA).Monarch magazine recently conducted an emailinterview with Cameron, who currently has aconsulting job in Washington, D.C.:

Monarch: What was your motivation for startingand sustaining Bonfire Impact? How manyreaders are you attracting?Cameron: “I wanted to give the world a positiveoutlook on things so that when you go to thewebsite you can feel good about yourself andthe world you live in. The site is averaging 400-500 visitors a day.”

Monarch: So you only report good news?Cameron: I created Bonfire Impact to help makegood news more prevalent in today’s media.We have so many great people out there beingselfless or inspirational, doing amazing things inthe world. Unfortunately, we hardly see thosethings. We are negatively wired to beenamored with bad stories. Our media presentsus with crime, scandal, drama, tragedy, deathand dismay and we it eat it up.

Monarch: Why do you think the media operateslike that? Cameron: News networks make a killing fromratings when controversial stories break,whether it is a mass murder or celebrity scandal.It’s unfortunate when there are stories of youngpeople coming together to rebuild homes forstorm victims or entire communities raising fundsfor someone stricken with cancer. In my belief,there are a lot more good people out there thanbad but those bad people garner all of theattention. This attention creates one of twothings: either fear, where people becomedisheartened and stop believing in the goodnessof people, or a bad example. Bad examplesoften spread fast and make people think thatthese negative things are OK.

Monarch: What specific impacts do you expectof Bonfire Impact?Cameron: At some point we have to stand upand say “no more.” Fight the urge of negativityand create a positive environment for all of us.We are what we surround ourselves with. If wedrown ourselves in negativity of media, weultimately become what we see. I made it apersonal battle to fight against this type ofmedia. Bonfire Impact (has published) storiesthat create that good example and re-instill faithin humanity. Stories of people loving peopleand helping will really begin a conversation thatis much needed. We are often our own biggestenemies by what we expose ourselves to, butwhy can’t we be our own biggest heroes bydoing the same?

Ronnie CameronFrom Sacking Quarterbacks to Founding Bonfire Impact

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This is the fifth year that BoozAllen Hamilton, a strategy andtechnology consulting firm, hasbeen a proud sponsor of

ODU’s Wounded Warrior HonoraryHome Football Team CaptainProgram. The program recognizes thesacrifices and contributions made bymilitary service members injured inthe line of duty, as well as thecontributions of their families.

Department of Defense commands,such as Portsmouth Naval Hospital,nominate veterans to serve as honoraryteam captains. Before each homefootball game, the honored person hasthe opportunity to meet with thepresident of ODU and communitymembers, and then participate in thecoin toss ceremony prior to kickoff.For the honorary captains andimmediate family members, theuniversity provides premium seats aswell as the opportunity to stand on thesideline with the team during thegame’s first quarter.

The program has been praised bycommunity members and veterans,and especially the participatingWounded Warriors. Below are justtwo reactions to the program thathonorary captains sent to sponsors:

“They made me and my family feellike rock stars. (It is a) beautifulcampus and (I) was very touched bythe team. Coach Wilder should be veryproud, not just because he hasproduced an awesome football team,but he molded an outstanding group ofmen. Men that have respect for themilitary and our armed forces and whodemonstrated the kind of characterthat is found in those that believe inmore than just themselves. They mademe feel proud to have served today.Thank you again for the opportunityof a lifetime.”

“I would like to thank you forgiving me and my father the

opportunity to go to the gameyesterday. Being at the VA hospitalseveral times a week, with my fatherdriving and waiting and attending myappointments with me, takes quite atoll on an individual. The game gave usa much-needed opportunity for usboth to decompress and renew ourefforts toward my recoveries. Thankyou for such a wonderful day.”

Booz Allen employees volunteertheir time, expertise and resources to avariety of military veteran initiatives—from the Disabled American Veterans’Winter Sports Clinic to renovatingveteran-owned homes withRebuilding Together. Booz Allen hasbeen ranked No. 1 on G.I. Jobs’ Top100 Military Friendly Employers andhas been recognized in the Top 25Overall Best Employers for Vets byMilitary Times EDGE.

“Booz Allen is proud to supportthis program because it’s not just aboutthe football game,” said ThomasCrabtree ’72, a senior vice presidentwith the company. “Our employees,many of whom are veteransthemselves, are able to help programparticipants as they pursue post-military careers in business or pursuefurther education. This program is awin for all of us – ODU, Booz Allen,and the Honorary Home TeamCaptains.”

If you would like to honor aWounded Warrior as an HonoraryHome Team Captain or would likemore information about the program,send an email to Erwin Sabile ’98 [email protected].

Bob Dove (center, with friends and family members) was the Wounded Warrior who was honoredduring a ceremony led by President John Broderick at a football game last November. PHOTO BY RICK VOIGHT

Saluting Wounded WarriorsHonorary Home Team Captainsat Football Games


The Fo

Illustration by Sam Hundley

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For more than three decades, Foreman had made the labo-rious journey from Norfolk to Williamsburg in the name ofeducation, first as an undergraduate and eventually as a mem-ber of the College of William & Mary’s Board of Visitors. Hewould ride a horse and buggy to Willoughby Spit, ferry acrossto Old Point Comfort in Phoebus, and hop the C&O Rail tohis destination.

With each trip, a most distressing fact boiled his blood: Helived in the largest English-speaking city in the world thatlacked a college. To educate themselves beyond high school,Norfolkians had to leave Norfolk.

The history of A.H. Foreman – son of a Great Bridge lum-berman – has been buried in archives for decades, almost for-gotten as time marches on. Sure, the school’s football fieldbears his name. And on glorious autumn Saturdays, itsclamshells fill with frenzied fans cheering for an ODU footballteam that has become the talk of the town. But ask anyonearound campus “Who was A.H. Foreman?” and you’ll get ablank stare followed by a misguided, off-target guess.

The beginning of a grand planNorfolk’s educational tide began to turn in 1924 when

W&M created an extension program in Norfolk. Foremanjoined W&M’s Board of Visitors that same year. As he would

explain not long later, it would cost a family $600 to send astudent from Norfolk to seek a year’s worth of college educa-tion. To stay in Norfolk and take the same amount of hourswould cost but $180.

For six years, professors were sent to the port city to teachclasses here and there. Then in 1930 came the birth of theNorfolk Division of W&M. It happened with little to no fan-fare on a pleasant April afternoon.

Foreman, by then a senior partner in one of Norfolk’s mostpowerful law firms, happened to be starting a 14-year run aschairman of the Norfolk School Board. One of his first piecesof business was to oversee the completion of construction of anew Larchmont Elementary School, meaning the old school,built in 1913 and outgrown by its neighborhood, would bevacant.

Foreman and fellow W&M alumnus Robert Hughes werejoined by the W&M president J.A.C. “Jack” Chandler as theytoured the old Larchmont building. Blair Middle School prin-cipal Joe Healy, who had been running the extension program,joined them. The old Larchmont School, which stood on theblock now referred to as the Brick Field at the corner ofHampton Boulevard and Bolling Avenue, was somewhat smalland quaint. But Chandler liked what he saw; the old school-house could be resurrected as the seat of the Norfolk Division.

Man Behind oreman Field

ODU Owes Huge Debt to His Savvy Leadership

BBy the time he reached his 55th birthday in 1933, A.H. Foreman could look

back on a long, distinguished career as an educator and a champion of civic

duty. He’d been a principal, a school system superintendent, chairman of a

school board, director of a city’s public library, and was in the midst of

serving 28 years on the board of visitors for his alma mater. It was quite a

resume. But he still had one more great deed, one more big battle, in him.

By Rich Radford

TThen, according to Healy, came themoment that would set Foreman’s placein regional history. As Healy explained ina 1960 interview, Chandler motioned to-ward a five-acre plot of land just south ofthe vacant elementary school and said,“Foreman, see all that property out there?Get an option on that.”

Foreman did, brokering a $14,000deal for what amounted to marshlandthat would need draining, filling andgrading. He also began to hatch a plan fora football stadium. He had long been anavid W&M football fan, traveling far andwide to watch his team play at places likeSyracuse, Harvard, Columbia, Princetonand the Army and Navy academies. Andif the Tribe were playing in Williamsburg,you could count on him being there.

He felt that if the Norfolk Divisionwere to someday offer a complete collegeexperience, it needed football. And play-ing football requires a football stadium.

A New Deal for a newschool

Aware of the quick growth of theNorfolk Division’s student body, W&M’sBoard of Visitors proposed an expansionlate in the fall of 1933 that included lec-ture halls, a gymnasium, a pool and afootball stadium. The board hoped forhelp from the Public Works Administra-

tion (PWA), launched in 1933 as part ofPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt’s NewDeal. But times were tough. W&M itselfwas in debt, and Chandler felt asking fora football field for its satellite school wasasking a bit too much.

In stepped Foreman.“Mr. Foreman reported that he had

several conferences with the Council ofthe City of Norfolk whereby the Citywould aid the College in obtaining theseadditional facilities,” according to theminutes from that Dec. 8 meeting. Fore-man had been moving forward, just incase Chandler balked. His plan was tohave the PWA cover 30 percent of thecost. The City of Norfolk would back theother 70 percent. The city would own thestadium for 30 years, a time period inwhich the local high schools would alsouse it. The deed would then be passed onto the Norfolk Division.

It was a shrewd business deal thatwould also help Foreman’s own NorfolkPublic Schools system. In 1933 alone,Maury High School had paid rent of$1,200 to play football at Bain Field, thelocal minor-league baseball field. The cityneeded a field for its public schools.

In January of 1934 an emergencymeeting of W&M’s Board of Visitors wascalled in the office of John Stewart Bryan,publisher of The Richmond News-

Leader. While Foreman’s plan was creative,Virginia Gov. John Garland Pollarddeemed it illegal: by Virginia law a statecollege could not enter into an agreementwith a municipality. The minutes of theDec. 8 meeting were ordered expunged.To appease Foreman, W&M would applyfor the PWA funding and would includethe football field in the application.

But the ball eventually bounced backinto Foreman’s lap when the PWA ap-proved everything but the football field.

Chandler died unexpectedly in thespring of 1934, four months after themeeting in Bryan’s office. Bryan, a Fore-man supporter, became the new presidentof W&M. George Peery became the firstof what would be a long line of Virginiagovernors who were part of the legendary“Byrd Organization.” And Peery favoredForeman’s plan for a football field.

So how is it that those so-called “ex-punged minutes” still exist? Maybe A.H.Foreman’s ghost had something to dowith it.

“You know, these archives were storedbeneath the Foreman Field stands foryears,” said Sonia Yaco, special collectionslibrarian at ODU’s Perry Library.

Time for an end aroundThe demoralizing meeting in Bryan’s

newspaper office had forced Foreman toregroup. In football terms, he called anaudible. He worked out a deal in whichthe Virginia Emergency Relief Adminis-tration would help fund most of a 5,500-seat stadium. He then reached out to hisW&M classmate Adm. Cary Grayson,chairman of the American Red Cross,personal physician to President WoodrowWilson and a personal friend to PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.

Grayson talked with Roosevelt andthe PWA agreed to extra funding thatwould allow for a 17,500-seat stadium,second in size in the commonwealth onlyto the University of Virginia’s Scott Sta-dium. To cinch the deal, Foreman talkedpowerful friends on Norfolk’s CityCouncil into agreeing to cover any exist-ing balance once the project was com-pleted. The Norfolk councilmen kepttheir word, kicking in $20,000 at the veryend to cap a $300,000 project.

When asked about her grandfatherA.H. Foreman, Peggy Bartlett used a sim-ple word to describe him: “austere,” as inunrelenting, keen or exacting.


The Ghost of Foreman Field

Old Dominion University’s athletic depart-ment has launched “The Ghost of ForemanField” campaign this fall to educate fans aboutthe man for whom the football field is named.

Representing The Ghost on the big screen atfootball games and on social media’s smallerscreens is Jay Lidington, who earned a master’s degreein creative writing from ODU in 2004 and teaches English atIsle of Wight Academy.

Dressed in vintage clothing and sporting a fedora and bow tie, Lid-ington isn’t so much attempting to recreate the character of Alvan Her-bert Foreman as he is trying to create historical buzz. The campaignpromotes the idea of Foreman Field having a ghost that just might belooking out for the football team’s fortunes.

You can follow the campaign on Twitter at @HauntingODU or join theconversation about A.H. Foreman using #odusports.

Peggy Bartlett’s maiden name -- Mar-garette Foreman Hargroves -- had a lot ofher grandfather in it, although not asmuch as her brother Herbert, or “Herb”Foreman Hargroves. And her grandfatherwould have been proud of PeggyBartlett’s educational resume: undergrad-uate at W&M, two postgraduate degreesfrom ODU and a career as an elementaryschool principal in Portsmouth.

In the summer of 1935, with the foot-ball field project under way, The Virgin-ian-Pilot ran an editorial speaking toA.H. Foreman’s power, influence andstubborn – or should that be austere? –will:

“There is rising on Hampton Boule-vard an institution of learning destinedfor an important role in our educationalsystem. It was planted there largely as theresult of Mr. Foreman’s vision, and it isexpanding chiefly for that reason. TheCouncil has had a part in both the found-ing and the later growth, and also thepresident and Board of Visitors of theCollege of William and Mary, but nonewill question the fact that without Mr.Foreman’s early planning and later persist-ence the Norfolk Division of William andMary would not today be so safelylaunched on a career of growing useful-ness.”

By the spring of 1936, high schooltrack meets were being held at what wasbriefly called Norfolk Division Stadium.That summer, “Foreman Field” wasetched into the brickwork on theclamshells.

On Oct. 3, 1936, Foreman’s twoschools squared off as the stadium wasdedicated on a glorious, sunny afternoon.The University of Virginia, where Fore-man had received his law degree, beatW&M 7-0 in front of 15,000 fans. It wasa grand beginning.

Football along Hampton Boulevard,however, had its ups and downs. TheNorfolk Division shuttered its program in1940 and it remained dormant for nearly70 years before restarting in 2009. WhileForeman Field for decades hosted highschool games, the Oyster Bowl, semi-profootball and Norfolk State University’steam, the idea of razing the stadium wasstrongly considered at times. But the oldplace, as it turned out, still had some life.And A.H. Foreman’s dream of a completecollege experience was eventually ful-filled, even if it took almost 80 years.

Norfolk’s First Citizen When Norfolk’s Cosmopolitan Club

honored Foreman as Norfolk’s First Citi-zen in 1935, master of ceremonies Col.James Mann said, “Usually men who ac-complish outstanding community proj-ects are not new in their activities for thepublic good. Mr. Foreman has alwaysbeen interested in movements affectingthe welfare of the community. … And,on the side, he finds time to practicelaw.”

As was often the case, Foreman washumble when he took the podium thatnight. He spread the wealth, stating,“Truly, in concerted and united effortthere is strength.”

He closed his remarks by hammeringhome the fact that Norfolk’s finest stu-dents could more than hold their own inthe world of academia. As Foremanpointed out, 7 percent of W&M’s studentbody in 1935 was made up of studentswho moved on to Williamsburg after twoyears of studying at the Norfolk Divi-sion, and 30 percent of W&M’s Phi BetaKappas that year had begun college at theNorfolk Division.

If anything, Foreman’s focus wasabout educating Norfolk’s people, maybemore than anyone else in the history ofthis port city. Touched that the footballfield still bears Foreman’s name after a$28 million facelift four years ago, hisgrandson Herb Foreman Hargroveswrote a letter to school officials.

“I told them I was very thankful theykept the name Foreman on the com-plex,” said Hargroves, referring to what isnow called S.B. Ballard Stadium at Fore-man Field. “I realize schools have to re-ward those who supply monetaryresources. But the school also stayed trueto its history.”

These days in Riverside MemorialPark in South Norfolk, a headstonewith “FOREMAN” upon it marksthe austere man’s grave. It is ahumble family plot where AlvanHerbert Foreman has rested for55 years.

The grave marker for AlvanHerbert Foreman has but foursimple words as epitaph. Theypretty much say it all, even now:“His deeds yet live.”l

A.H. Foreman At A Glance

Born: March 1, 1878 Died: March 23, 1958Bachelor of Arts, William & Mary, 1899Bachelor of Law, University of Virginia, 1907Superintendent, Norfolk County Public Schools,1909-17Chairman, Norfolk City School Board, 1930-43Director, Norfolk Public Library, 1931-43Board of Visitors for College of William & Mary,1924-52Rector, Board of Visitors for College of William& Mary, 1946-48President, Virginia Society of the Sons of theAmerican RevolutionDirector, Norfolk Perpetual Building and LoanAssociation

Look closely to see the “N” forNorfolk on this 1930s William &Mary monogram sweater.

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MonarchMarket

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MonarchMarket

Save the Date for the Alumni Association’s6th Annual Fall Beer TastingWednesday, November 13, 2013

Local experts Diane Catanzaro ’92 and Christopher Jones ’76 & ’82 will lead a tasting of specialty beers and food pairings

Visit www.odualumni.org for details

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LAST LOOK

Flora and Fauna on CampusA Great Blue Heron takes flight from the Lafayette River inlet behind Old Dominion’s Rogers Hall. Thetidal area attracts a variety of birds, including egrets, night herons, ducks and Black Skimmers. Steve Daniel ofthe university’s marketing and communications staff, who has taken hundreds of nature photographs on campusover the years, shot this one during the summer.

Great photography certainly lifts a magazine, and we at Monarch are eager beneficiaries of your exceptionalimages. For the Last Look page, we accept photographs from anyone in the ODU community. In selectingphotos for the page, we are looking particularly for images that illustrate ODU’s attributes, such as ourbeautiful campus, innovative teaching, exceptional research and arts programs, an engaged and successful alumninetwork, and the international focus of our diverse university community.

Send submissions to [email protected].

Old Dominion UniversityOffice of University Relations

Norfolk, VA 23529-0018

Change Service Requested

PRSRT STDU.S. Postage

Paid Burl., VT 05401Permit No. 196

OctoberContinuing through Nov. 17“Kindred Spirits: ODU ArtFaculty in Collaborationwith the Chrysler Museumof Art,” exhibition of tenured artfaculty works, each paired with aChrysler Museum piece selectedby the faculty artist Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Gal-leries

1-6 “reasons to be pretty,”a play by Neil LaBute, directed bySteve Earle. A romantic look at thehopelessness of romance.University Theatre, Oct. 1-5 at7:30 p.m. and Oct. 6 at 2 p.m.Tickets: $15 students; $20 general

7-11 36th Annual Literary Festival, “Migrations: Wordsin Motion”Various locations andtimes, featuring talks byMadison Smartt Bell, au-thor of 13 novels; Jo-AnneSmetherham, SouthAfrican journalist whowrote the book “The Nev-ergiveups,” and EricMiller, South African pho-tojournalist who docu-mented the struggleagainst apartheid; Presi-dent’s Lecture Seriesspeaker Charles C. Mann,author of “1491” andother books with scientific

themes; David Mura, Japanese-American writer and performanceartist; and Geoff Dyer, Englishjournalist and novelist who wrote“But Beautiful: a Book aboutJazz.” A full schedule is athttp://www.lib.odu.edu/litfest/.

7-11 The Nevergiveups Goode Theatre lobby, photo exhi-bition of photojournalist EricMiller about the extraordinarywork of a group of South Africangrandmothers faced with anHIV/AIDS pandemic. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.,reception Oct. 9, 4-6 p.m.

23-Nov. 2 “The Mystery ofEdwin Drood,” the TonyAward-winning play by RupertHolmes, directed by KatherineHammond, music directed byBrian Nedvin.Goode Theatre, Oct. 23-26, 30-31 and Nov. 1-2, 7:30 p.m. andOct. 27 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $15students; $20 general

24 Waldo Family Lecture onInternational Relations: retiredU.S. diplomat R. Nicholas BurnsTed Constant Convocation Center,7:30 p.m.

28 Agnes and Friends, fac-ulty recital featuring Agnes Fuller,Stephen Doxe and Anibal Acostaperforming Adolphus Hailstork’s“Ventriloquist Acts of God” andother music.Chandler Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

29 F. Ludwig Diehn Concert,“Carmina Burana,” per-formed by The Boston Camerataand ODU students, directed byAnne Azema.Chandler Recital Hall, 8 p.m. Tickets: $10 students; $15 general

30 Access EU Sea Level RiseConference Lecture by RearAdm. (Ret) David Titley, formerOceanographer of the NavyTed Constant Convocation Center,7 p.m.

November5 ODU Collegium Musicumand Madrigal SingersChandler Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

14 President’s Lecture Se-ries: former U.S. Army StaffSgt. Sal Giunta, winner, Medalof HonorTed Constant Convocation Center,7:30 p.m. 18 ODU New Music Ensem-ble, contemporary works di-rected by Andrey Kasparov Chandler Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

20-23 University Dance The-atre Fall ConcertUniversity Theatre Nov. 20-23, 8p.m. and Nov. 23, 2 p.m. Tickets:$12 students; $14 general

25 ODU Percussion Ensem-bleChandler Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

December6 and 7 Annual MadrigalBanquets, “Russia and East-ern Europe”: full meals withperformances by MadrigalSingers and Collegium Musicum.Diehn Center for the PerformingArts Atrium, 6:30 p.m. eachevening Tickets: $20 ODU stu-dents; $33 faculty and non-ODUstudents; $38 general

(See oduartstix.com and al.odu.edu/art/gallery for more information. Unless otherwise noted, events are free and open to the public.)

Fall Campus Events, Attractions and performances

Documents

Monarch Magazine - Fall 2013 · the next edition of Monarch. In the meantime - GO MONARCHS! Christie Sykes ’74, ’95 Norfolk So Many Pleasant Memories Steve Daniel’s article