SPRING 2019 • VOL. 4 • NO. 1 [ ] GETTING TO THE STAGE Distinguished alum brings acclaimed novel to life Opening Doors Swimming with Sharks Hats Off to Our Grads Welcome Home Sacred Heart Cultural Center Photo by Phil Jones IN [ PLACE ] AUGUSTA’S SECULAR HOLY PLACE hen Sacred Heart Catholic Church was officially dedicated on December 2, 1900, it was called “the Whandsomest new church in Georgia,” and for good reason. The twin-spired Victorian Romanesque church was immediately recognized as an architectural treasure, with 15 distinctive styles of brickwork, 94 stained glass windows and intricately carved Italian marble. Home to Sacred Heart Academy, a primary and secondary school established by the Sisters of Mercy in 1876 at the request of the Richmond County Board of Education, as well as the short-lived Sacred Heart College, the church was a cornerstone of the entire community before closing in 1971 when the downtown Catholic parishes (Sacred Heart, St. Patrick’s and Immaculate Conception) were amalgamated into the Church of the Most Holy Trinity. Everything of value was abandoned except the pews and the marble sculpture of the Last Supper, both of which went to the Most Holy Trinity. After years of neglect, the Knox family, led by Peter Knox Jr., bought the property with the vision of turning it into a cultural center, transitioning the deconsecrated church into Augusta’s secular holy place. Opening in 1987, Sacred Heart Cultural Center has become home to several of the city’s arts organizations and a sought after venue for weddings and other events, including Silent Movie Night and the Sacred Heart Garden Festival, two of Sacred Heart’s three main fundraisers. The third, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, was brought to Sacred Heart by Bill Toole, an Augusta University music professor who not only directed it for 28 years, but also served on Sacred Heart’s original board of directors. Toole, who died in 2018, was honored at the December concert. Now, as those who remember the space as a church are starting to age, the hard work of promoting the building to a new generation is even more important. “I’d like to invite those long term Augustans who have seen this as a backdrop to come in and see it and help preserve it for future generations,” says Executive Director Mille Huff. PHOTO GALLERY Visit magazines.augusta.edu to see photos of Sacred Heart and to learn more about the largess of the Knox family. magazines.augusta.edu | 1 CONTENTS Welcome Home IN PLACE ............................................................................................ 1 ON THE CALENDAR ......................................................................... 4 3 QS ................................................................................................... 5 DISPATCH FROM............................................................................... 6 16 FROM THE WIRE ............................................................................... 8 ANSWERS ALONG THE WAY ........................................................ 11 EYE ON CAMPUS ............................................................................ 12 On Our Way SECRET LIVES .................................................................................. 36 THROUGH THE LENS ..................................................................... 38 CLASS NOTES ................................................................................. 41 HISTORY & HERITAGE .................................................................... 44 VALUE ADDED................................................................................. 47 IN THE FIELD ................................................................................... 48 29 A. [Augusta University’s Alumni Magazine] Vice President for Development Debbie Vaughn Vice President, Division of Communications and Marketing Jack Evans Associate Vice President, News and Communications Christen Engel Publications Editor Eric Johnson Art Director and Assistant Editor Tricia Perea Senior Photographer Phil Jones Publications Coordinator John Jenkins © 2019 AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY 2 | SPRING 2019 A. [Augusta University’s Alumni Magazine] Closer Look ‘MELODY IS THE ENGINE THAT MAKES IT GO’ ......................... 16 Six months to write and produce a musical? When composer and Distinguished Alum Mark Swanson accepted the challenge to write a full musical based on former writer in residence Louise Shiver’s acclaimed novel Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail, he knew the clock 24 was ticking. But boy did the time fly by. OPENING DOORS .......................................................................... 24 There comes a moment during every honors student’s thesis sequence when the student realizes he or she has become the expert. It’s a hard-won moment that yields any number of valuable rewards, and at Augusta University, that knowledge and experience is passed down from class to class. SWIMMING WITH SHARKS ............................................................ 29 Anyone who’s watched Shark Tank knows the moment when the preparation ends and the presenting begins. For physical therapy students in the Shark Tank-styled management class, surviving the sharks often means a fast track to employment and professional success. HATS OFF TO OUR GRADS ........................................................... 34 34 Over the last few years, graduates have developed a new tradition — turning their mortarboards into message boards. Sometimes funny, often touching, always radiating the satisfaction and excitement that comes from a job well done, these hats are a colorful reminder that while graduation garb might be basic black, dreams are painted with ALUMNI AFFAIRS OFFICE all the colors of the rainbow. Associate Vice President of Alumni Affairs Scott Henson Executive Administrative Assistant Kesha Stephens Director of Alumni Affairs Kim Koss Alumni Affairs Coordinators Callie Hagler Cosper, Catherine Hardy 706-737-1759 [email protected] A., Augusta University’s alumni magazine, is published twice a year by the Office of Advancement and the Division of Communications and Marketing to connect the university with alumni, friends, the state and the world. magazines.augusta.edu | 3 ON THE [ CALENDAR ] ARCHIVE APRIL25-28 ALUMNI WEEKEND Seek outAPRIL your fellow 26 alumni during a fun- ARCHIVE filled weekend that brings you back to MAY campus. Activities include the President’s 10 SPRING Cookout, Art Hardy Golf Tournament, COMMENCEMENT tours, parties and more. Visit augusta.edu/ Celebrate the alumniweekend for the latest information. achievements of Augusta University’s Class of APRIL 26 2019 at the James Brown Arena. Check augusta. 50 YEARS OF BUILDING SMILES edu/students/graduation The Dental College of Georgia celebrates for details. its 50th anniversary with a reception and recognition dinner. Learn more at augusta. edu/dentalmedicine/50. For more information: 706-737-1759 or [email protected] • augusta.edu/alumni 4 | SPRING 2019 A. [Augusta University’s Alumni Magazine] Qs [ 3 ] PHIL JONES DR. PAM GAUDRY AFTER A LONG CAREER in obstetrics and gynecology, Savannah-based Dr. Pam Gaudry (MD `89) opened the Georgia Center for Menopausal Medicine and Direct Primary Care last year as a way to deliver a new kind of care to menopausal women. Along the way, she also produced Love, Sweat and Tears, a documentary film now airing on Netflix. The film, which deals frankly and humorously with the intimacy issues that accompany menopause, features comic legend Joan Rivers, who met with Gaudry a month before her death. “It’s very difficult to get an independent film made,” Gaudry says. “I tell doctors around the country to use the film with their patients so they don’t feel so alone.” How did you know you wanted How did you wind up making Love, Joan Rivers appeared in the film. to focus on menopause? Sweat and Tears? What was that like? 1 I realized I didn’t know how to take 2 The whole movie was completely 3 She was going to give us 30 minutes, great care of menopausal women, divinely inspired. I set out to have a but she ended up talking to me for so I got a menopause certification series of professional looking lectures an hour and a half. And then she and a sex therapy certification, and it on YouTube or iTunes and so many told us jokes for another two hours, has been as rewarding as delivering people offered to help that we started building on what we’d talked about. babies, which is the best thing in the going all over the country to film. She was amazing. world to me. Eventually, the producer said ‘We need to make this a documentary.’ magazines.augusta.edu | 5 [ DISPATCH FROM ] BIGSTOCK Let’s Celebrate!PRI 22 2019 The Shanghai skyline at night Yr iends, BIOGRAPHY SHANGHAI, CHINA After earning a business fter eight years as an expatriate, first accounts are in the name of one person only, degree with a major in yr class, in Switzerland and then in Taipei, and to further complicate things, women in accounting, Kathy van ATaiwan (with a stint in Chicago along China don’t take their husband’s last name. Wilgenburg went on to the way), Kathy van Wilgenburg (BBA ’87) In the end, they chose two different banks receive her CPA license found the transition to Shanghai, China to serve their different needs — one account and spent the bulk of her three years ago fairly easy. All subway signs with a local Chinese bank to take care of the career at DSM before yr univsity! and many signs in the heart of the city are low-dollar requirements and one